Sun He's death did not play any role, and on September 13, Liu Shouguang, the king of Yan, proclaimed himself emperor in Youzhou, and the country name was Dayan, and the yuan was changed to Yingtian.

Wang Tong, who was previously imprisoned by Liu Shouguang, was appointed as the left minister, Qi Xi as the right minister, and Shi Yanqun as the imperial envoy.

However, on the day when he ascended the throne and became emperor, the Khitan people entered the Kou in a big way, broke through Pingzhou on the same day, and plundered them on a large scale.

As the news of Liu Shouguang's proclamation as emperor spread, the situation in the north changed rapidly.

After learning the news, Li Cunmiao, the king of Jin, laughed loudly and said: "I'm afraid that when Liu Shouguang asks people to divinate the number of years of his reign, Gu will already take his place!" ”

However, Li Cunmiao did not rush to send troops, but at the suggestion of Zhang Chengye, he first sent Taiyuan Shaoyin Li Chengxun to Youzhou to congratulate Liu Shouguang and further indulge his heart; At the same time, Li Cunqiao ordered all units to be ready and could send troops at any time.

At the same time, Zhu Wen also led a large army to Xiangzhou, ready to send troops to block the Jin army's attack on Yan at any time.

Since the Battle of Luzhou, the Liang army and the Jin army have been defeated one after another in the past few years, and if you add the defeat suffered in the previous battle with the Huainan army, it can be said that the Liang army has not achieved a major victory for a long time.

This led to a low morale among the Liang soldiers, and many soldiers were fearful of the Jin army.

This time, Zhu Wen's "royal expedition" was to fight a big victory, so as to sweep away the decline and boost the morale of the soldiers.

However, what Zhu Wen didn't expect was that this time the Jin army did not send troops as quickly as Zhu Wen expected, but all kinds of rumors that the Jin army was moving south, which frightened the Liang army, and many soldiers chose to flee, even with strict military laws It is difficult to stop.

Zhu Wen's temperament was already impatient and irritable, and the battle situation in the past few years has been unfavorable, and his mood has been even more depressed, and some heroes and veterans will be punished most severely because of a small mistake, or even lose their heads, which makes the already somewhat unstable Liang Jun even more panicked.

Before the Jin army could fight, the morale was already so low; If the Jin army came over, wouldn't the Liang army be directly defeated?

Although Zhu Wen is old and faint, he is not stupid.

Of course, the morale of the Liang army until now is so low that it is difficult to fight the Jin army at all; So after getting the exact news that the Jin army did not go south, Zhu Wen had no choice but to withdraw his troops and go back to rest.

A planned "big win" ended in a hurry before it even began.

After all, the changes in the situation in the north are far away from the state of Wu and have little impact.

At this time in Jinling City, this year's imperial examination has just ended, and the next thing is the time to mark the papers.

According to the regulations, the imperial examination is divided into four levels: the state examination of each state, the provincial examination of each province, and the general examination and the palace examination.

Among them, the state examination is held by each state, and the people who mark the papers are generally officials such as the assassin or long history of each state.

This year's state examination in Jinling Prefecture is much higher than that of previous candidates because there are many outstanding students from the north participating, and it is even more difficult to choose when the state test ranking is finally agreed.

At this time, the two examiners of the Jinling Prefecture Examination were arguing over the final ranking.

What caused this controversy was three candidates, one was a candidate from Hongzhou, Jiangxi, named Liu Shaoyan, who was considered to be a good learner; The other two candidates are both scholars from the north, one is named Zhang Yanhan and the other is Chang Mengxi.

If these three people talk about talent, Zhang Yanhan and Chang Mengxi's talent should be stronger than Liu Shaoyan's, and Chang Mengxi's answer sheet is the best among the three.

As for the other candidates, their scores are even worse than these three.

Therefore, Jinling Changshi Wang Taifu believes that Chang Mengxi should be the first, Zhang Yanhan second, and Liu Shaoyan third.

However, Song Qiqiu's initial plan was to take Liu Shaoyan first, followed by Chang Mengxi and Zhang Yanhan.

The reason why Song Qiqiu made this arrangement was because he felt that the top two in the Jinling Prefecture test could not be given by the northern scholars; On the other hand, Liu Shaoyan is a native of Hongzhou after all, and he is a fellow villager with Song Qiqiu.

The regional concept of people in this era is extremely serious, and the people of the same country support each other, so it is normal for Song Qiqiu to want to put his fellow villager Liu Shaoyan in the first place.

Originally, Yang Wu had secretly warned Song Qiqiu before, asking him not to make too ugly trouble with Wang Taifu; But after that, because he was busy with affairs, he forgot to send someone to warn Wang Taifu again.

As a result, Song Qiqiu's side was much more restrained because of Yang Wu's warning, but Wang Taifu's side still regarded Song Qiqiu as an enemy.

Although the quarrel between the two sides has decreased a lot because of Song Qiqiu's forbearance, the anger between the two is getting more and more.

This time, if Wang Taifu told Song Qiqiu well, maybe Song Qiqiu would not insist on his own proposition, after all, Chang Mengxi's talent and learning are indeed above Liu Shaoyan, even if he wants to take care of his fellow villagers, he doesn't want to do too much.

It's a pity that Wang Taifu is an impatient temper, he saw that Song Qiqiu wanted to arrange his fellow villagers to be the first, even if he laughed, accusing Song Qiqiu of ignoring justice, bent on personal gain, and suspected of forming a party for personal gain.

What's more, Wang Taifu still accused him like this in front of other subordinates, how could Song Qiqiu's face be put down?

Although Song Qiqiu is only in his twenties now, he is already the Yin of Jinling Mansion, and he is highly valued by Yang Wu, so he was able to listen to some decisions of the cabinet.

A person who is so highly valued naturally has some arrogance in his heart, plus his original personality is very impatient, and he is full of anger at this time, where can he take Yang Wu's warning?

Even as his chief examiner, he forcibly set Liu Shaoyan as the first place.

This anger came out, but after returning to his mansion, Song Qiqiu's heart was a little uneasy.

"That Wang Taifu's temperament has always been a person who does not admit defeat, I'm afraid that this time the matter will not end so easily, maybe he will make a big fuss."

"If it's an ordinary thing, it's not a big deal if it gets big, but this time, if you really want to say it, I'm afraid I may not be able to take care of it!" He thought with some concern in his heart.

Indeed, he can explain to others that the reason why Liu Shaoyan was set as the first place is that he doesn't want outsiders from the north to take the top two in it, but the question is, will other people see it that way?

What others saw was that Liu Shaoyan was a native of Hongzhou, Jiangxi, and was a fellow villager with him; But he insisted on setting his fellow villagers as the first place, and even ignored the fact that Chang Mengxi and Zhang Yanhan's test scores were indeed above Liu Shaoyan.

Even if he himself can't deny that he has selfish intentions, will others believe that he is acting out of public intentions?

"Alas, this matter is a little ill-conceived!" Recalling the silent warning given to him by Yang Wu at the beginning, Song Qiqiu suddenly regretted it in his heart.

"That's it, after all, the final ranking of this state test has not been submitted to the final level, and it is too late to change it. I'm going to change it early tomorrow morning, so what's the point of making Chang Mengxi the first place? He made the final decision in his heart.

After making up his mind, Song Qiqiu relaxed instead.

"I don't know why, since the king himself warned me, it is impossible not to send someone to warn the Wang Tai Fu. Could it be that the king forgot to do so in his busyness, or did Wang Taifu ignore the king's warning? ”

"Well, it should be the king who forgot!" Song Qiqiu speculated in his heart.

At this moment, the servant of the Wang Mansion hurriedly came in and reported: "Master, someone came over just now to deliver a letter, saying that it was for you, Master. ”

"A letter to me? Who wrote it? Song Qiqiu asked a little strangely.

"The man just gave the letter to the porter and left."

"Bring me the letter!" Song Qiqiu commanded.

He took a letter from the servant's hand, and when he opened it, he saw only a few words on it.

However, Song Qiqiu's face was extremely difficult to look at after reading the letter.

"Wang Taifu, you deceive people too much!" Song Qiqiu said angrily.

No wonder he was so angry, in the letter, Wang Taifu specially said something like this: "Hearing the foot of the first saint to establish a name, super Yasheng to call the word ......."

This sentence simply scolded Song Qiqiu to death!

The name of the sage Confucius is Kongqiu, but the name of Song Qiqiu is "Qiqiu", is this to be the same name as the Sage Confucius?

There is also Song Qiqiu's word "Chaohui", doesn't this mean that he wants to "surpass Yashengyan Hui"!

So Wang Taifu's words were too mean, where could Song Qiqiu stand this kind of insult, and he dropped the cup on the spot.

The name is taken by one's father, which cannot be changed, otherwise it is unfilial; But the word was taken by Song Qiqiu himself, so it can naturally be changed.

After being teased by Wang Taifu so meanly, although Song Qiqiu was furious in his heart, he had to change his character to "Zi Song".

But since then, Song Qiqiu has also completely fallen out with Wang Taifu, and the relationship between the two has completely become like water.

As for the next day, after going to Yamen, he did not change the final ranking of the state examination, but set Liu Shaoyan as the first place.

After all, Song Qiqiu is the "red man" that Yang Wu values, although the other subordinate officials have some complaints about the ranking he finally decides, but no one openly makes trouble, after all, this is just a state test, and the importance is far less important than the meeting test and the palace test.

Even if Song Qiqiu is a little selfish, the harm caused to those candidates is not great, so no one wants to have trouble with him for this matter.

Gangneung Castle.

After Gao Jichang's painstaking management in the past few years, this thousand-year-old city has finally recovered some of its former prosperity.

Although the world is in turmoil and the forces of all parties are fighting each other, there is no prohibition on business travel.

Not only did the various forces allow normal trade and trade, but some even organized government-run caravans to trade with other forces.

Jiangling is located in the north-south and east-west transportation arteries, and is naturally a prosperous place of commerce and trade, whether it is a merchant from Liang to the south, or a Shu merchant to Wu State, etc., will choose to settle here.

So many business contacts not only promoted the prosperity of Gangneung, but also made it much easier to find out the news.

In the Liu family tavern, it was full of merchants from all over the world at this time.

"I heard that the king of Qi recently sent the general Liu Zhijun to fight with the Shu army in Qingniling, and the Shu army was defeated, and the loss of tens of thousands of soldiers was lost, and even the general of the Shu army, Wang Zonghao, was drowned in the Jialing River, and Tang Dao attacked all the way to Xingyuan Mansion!" A businessman with a Shu accent whispered to a friend next to him.

"This Liu Zhijun really deserves to be a world-famous general, when he was in the Liang State, he often won more with less, and defeated the Qi army one after another; Now that he has arrived in Qi country, I didn't expect him to be able to win more with less and defeat the Shu army, which is really worthy of his reputation! The other sighed with some admiration after hearing this.

Since March this year, 120,000 Shu troops went out of Xingyuan Mansion to fight with the Qi army, the Shu army has won victories one after another, seizing a lot of territory in the Qi country.

After all, the Qi State has been fighting with the Liang State for many years, and the soldiers are few and tired, so it is normal to not be able to defeat the Shu army, which has been recuperating for many years.

However, what people didn't expect was that this time King Qi sent Liu Zhijun to lead his troops to attack the Shu army, and won a big victory, which turned the tide of the battle in one fell swoop and forced the Shu army to switch from offensive to defensive.

Of course, although Liu Zhijun won a victory, this big victory alone could not change the situation of Shu being strong and Qi weak, and the strength of the Shu army was also far above the Qi army.

The most important thing is that after so many years of war, the financial, material, and human resources are about to be exhausted.

However, Shu is rich in products, rich and strong, and has a relatively sufficient population, so its overall national strength is far above that of Qi.

In other words, if Qi loses 10,000 troops, it may only be able to replenish 1,000 men in a short time; And the Shu State can replenish three or four thousand people, or even more.

This led to the fact that the Qi State could not last, while the Shu State was able to fight for a long time.

Therefore, in the long run, Shu can still win the final victory; It's just that because of Liu Zhijun's big victory this time, the time for the Shu army to win will be delayed even longer.

In the corner of the tavern, a middle-aged man in brocade and an old man in a black robe were sitting and drinking opposite each other, and many tall guards on the side were carefully guarding, obviously the identities of these two people were not ordinary.

Although the two were sitting opposite each other and drinking, they looked up and listened from time to time, obviously paying attention to the battle between Shu and Qi.

"Senior, now the main force of the Shu army has been used to deal with the King of Qi, and Ma Yin, the king of Chu, is so incompetent, he was defeated and surrendered so quickly. What about the current situation? The middle-aged man in brocade asked softly with a worried face.

"Alas, that Ma Yin is not our person after all, if he wants to surrender, who can control it! It's a pity that I originally thought that he could hold on for a few more years, but now it seems that ......" The face of the old man in the black robe was also a little unsightly.

These two people are none other than Gao Jichang, the envoy of Jingnan Jiedu, and his advisor Liang Zhen.

This time Ma Yin's sudden surrender not only greatly shocked Zhu Wen, but also bore the brunt of Gao Jichang, the lord of Jiangling.

After all, fools know that after the forced landing of Ma Yin, the next target of Wu must be Jiangling.