"Third brother, everything in Lingnan will be handed over to you, and you don't need to worry about other things, there is only one thing that you can't rest assured!"

"I don't know if the eldest brother has anything else that he can't rest assured about, and please say it bluntly, as long as the younger brother can do it, he will definitely not refuse."

In front of the hospital bed, Liu Yin and Liu Yan talked softly, and now Liu Yin has reached the last moment, and at this time he is just explaining the aftermath.

"What you can't rest assured about is that you once persuaded Brother Wei that if Wu can successfully eliminate other hostile forces in the south, then we in Lingnan will not be fearless in resisting and surrender directly to Wu State!"

"To be honest, people who don't belong to their families are always much more relaxed and atmospheric."

"You were able to see this and persuade you to be a brother; Although he was extremely reluctant in his heart, if he really got to that point, he would be able to surrender to Wu Guona. ”

"But now, this Lingnan is already yours, can you still surrender to Wu Guonatu happily when you saw that there was no hope, as you said at the beginning?" Liu Yin's thinking at this time was very clear, and the speed of his speech was also very fast, and he expressed his worries in a few words.

"This ......" Liu Yan looked stunned, obviously asked by Liu Yin.

Before this, Liu Yin was the lord of Lingnan, and Liu Yan was just a courtier, although everything in Lingnan was nominally owned by the Liu family, but in fact it was only his brother Liu Yin's.

So at that time, even if Lingnan was completely dedicated to Wu Guo, it was Liu Yin who was distressed, not Liu Yan.

But now that Liu Yan has become the new lord of Lingnan and wants to dedicate his territory completely to Wu Guo, can he still be as happy as he said before?

If not, Wu will inevitably move troops south.

And Liu Yan may be under the domination of ambition, relying on the advantages of Lingnan's remoteness, and stubbornly resisting.

However, it is obvious that even if you resist stubbornly, you will not be able to escape the defeat of the army in the end.

However, it is the interests of the entire Liu family that has been damaged because of this, and it is difficult to say whether the Liu family can continue to continue.

So the key is whether Liu Yan can restrain his ambitions and think more about the continuation of his family.

At this time, seeing Liu Yan's speech, Liu Yin suddenly became anxious.

This is not a matter of Liu Yan alone, but of the entire Liu family.

It has been nearly thirty years since Liu Yin's father established himself in Fengzhou, and the Liu family has also developed into a large family with a large population.

Liu Yin is unwilling to bury the entire family because of Liu Yan's ambition alone.

"Third brother, because my brother is about to pass away, it is useless to say anything more. However, the third brother has to think about it, not to mention confronting Wu Guo, even in Lingnan today, there are many forces that do not obey our Liu family. ”

"Ye Guangluo of Yongzhou, Pang Juzhao of Rongzhou, Liu Changlu of Gaozhou, Quhao of Jiaozhou, these forces have all occupied the local area for many years."

"Third brother, it's hard to say whether you can eliminate them or become the real lord of Lingnan, why do you want to ignore the safety of the entire Liu family for a small profit?" Liu Yin said excitedly.

Indeed, although Liu Yin was the envoy of the Qinghai Festival canonized by the imperial court, there was more than their domain town in Lingnan.

Like Ye Guangluo, the envoy of the Lingnan West Dao Festival, Pang Juzhao the envoy of the Ningyuan Festival, Liu Changlu of the Gaozhou Thorn History, and Qu Hao the envoy of the Jinghai Festival, etc., were also canonized by the imperial court, and they were the same as Liu Yin in terms of status.

Of course, the most core area of Lingnan, which is also the most populous, earliest developed, and most economically prosperous area, is Guangzhou and other places occupied by Liu Yin today.

It is precisely because of this that among the major forces in Lingnan, Liu Yin's power is the strongest, and it is also the most valued by the countries of the Central Plains, and even Liu Yin now has the title of county king.

The strength of the other feudal towns is much worse, and even if they add up, they can barely compete with Liu Yin, and they are basically not famous in the Central Plains.

Therefore, when most people mention Lingnan, they will only mention Liu Yin, and basically do not mention these smaller forces.

But it was also difficult for Liu Yin to eliminate these forces.

After listening to Liu Yin's words, Liu Yan smiled bitterly: "What the eldest brother said is extremely true, just now the younger brother was greedy in vain. We can't even completely flatten Lingnan, so how can we talk about confrontation with Wu State? ”

He looked bitter, obviously still a little unwilling in his heart, after all, to make a decision to surrender, this is not something that anyone is willing to do.

In fact, Liu Yan in history was not small, only a few years later, he saw that the power of the Liang State in the Central Plains was declining, and the north fell into chaos; And the countries of the South are fighting each other, and no one can help the other.

In this case, Liu Yan dared to brazenly claim the emperor and establish the country, and at that time, except for the Liang State and the Shu State as the emperor, no other forces in the world dared to call the emperor.

Even the state of Wu and the state of Jin were only kings, and the consequences of Liu Shouguang, the king of Yan, brazenly claiming the emperor, were even more rapidly destroyed.

Such an ambitious person, he only relied on the chaotic situation in the world and the advantages of Lingnan's remoteness.

But today, these advantages are there, but obviously not as many as they were in the past.

Internally, forces such as Pang Juzhao and Ye Guangluo are still separating; Externally, Wu is now powerful, and has gradually eliminated many forces in the south, and the trend of unifying the south has been extremely obvious.

How could Liu Yan still have such great ambitions in history, at most, he was a little reluctant in his heart.

Liu Yin saw that his younger brother saw the situation clearly again, and he was immediately relieved, but he still said solemnly:

"Third brother, it's not that my brother can't trust you, but this matter is extremely important and related to the survival of my Liu family. Therefore, I hope that you can swear to heaven that in the future, if Wu State destroys other forces in the south and begins to attack my Lingnan, the third brother will definitely recognize the situation and ask Wu State to surrender in order to preserve the family inheritance! ”

The look in his eyes was already a little cloudy, and it was obvious that he had reached the last moment, and at this time he was just holding on.

Seeing this situation, Liu Yan didn't care about anything else, and immediately made an oath in front of Liu Yin.

After getting his assurance, Liu Yin finally couldn't hold on, a smile appeared on his face, and then his eyes were confined, and his body gradually slid weakly.

"Big brother! Eldest brother! Liu Yan shouted a little choked.

In any case, this elder brother did not hand over Lingnan to his son before his death, but chose to hand over the inheritance to himself, which is also a kindness.

Of course, while accepting this kindness, he also had to accept the responsibility that came with it.

This responsibility is obviously not something that ordinary people can bear.

If one step is not taken, the Liu family may really be destroyed in the future.

Of course, these are all things that need to be considered in the future, and at this time, what Liu Yan has to do is to arrange Liu Yin's funeral, and succeed to the throne as soon as possible to ensure that there is no chaos in Lingnan.

Finally, and crucially, it was necessary to quickly gain the recognition of Wu, and it was best to have Yang Wu, the king of Wu, issue an edict appointing him as the new envoy of the Qinghai Festival, and to avoid the impact of Liu Yin's death on Lingnan.

If it can't be recognized by Yang Wu, maybe there will be people in Lingnan who have ambitions, and in the future, Wu may also use this as an excuse to launch an invasion.

Of course, Liu Yan felt that for the current Wu State, they should not have made the decision to do anything to Lingnan, and now that Hunan has not been defeated, Ma Yin has not succumbed,! Even Qianzhou has not been completely wiped out, and it is obviously too early to attack Lingnan.

Therefore, Yang Wu will most likely choose to maintain the status quo of Lingnan, that is, to recognize Liu Yan's inheritance of Lingnan in exchange for Lingnan's continued nominal allegiance to Wu.

After being silent in front of Liu Yin's sickbed for a long time, he got up and walked out.

"Someone, the king has ......"

……

In March of the fourth year of Wuyi, when Liu Yin, the king of Pengcheng County and Qinghai Jiedu, died of illness, in Luoyang City, although he heard that the Jin army had been repulsed, the officials and people in the market were still not very optimistic about the situation.

Luoyang City has always been a big city in the Central Plains, and it is the most suitable place to build a capital, and its importance has not been under Chang'an since ancient times.

Now, with the demolition of Chang'an by Zhu Wen, the once extremely prosperous city has long been in ruins; But Luoyang is still prosperous.

At the beginning, Zhu Wen was in the founding of the feudal state, and the country was called Daliang; However, Kaifeng is not a good place to build a capital after all.

So last year, Zhu Wen moved the capital to Luoyang; As for Kaifeng, it is called the Eastern Capital, which is guarded by Zhu Youwen, the king of Bo.

The sun was about to set, and as twilight approached, the surrounding light dimmed.

Some of the wealthy families in the city have begun to light candles in their rooms.

In a small house in the west of the city, an old man wearing a cloth coat but quite a bearing beard with a gray beard was sitting in front of the bookcase, looking at his second son in front of him, silent.

"Father, whether you are going south or north, what does your father say?" The young scholar, seeing that his father was silent for a long time, suddenly asked.

Perhaps seeing that his son was already a little anxious, the old man replied: "Yanhan, as a father, I don't know which side to go to, how can I tell you?" ”

Seeing the young scholar's somewhat dissatisfied look, the old man continued: "But one thing you are right, now that the situation in the Central Plains is turbulent, my father is an official in Liang, and I am afraid that he may not be able to get good Guo in the future." So you want to leave the Liang Kingdom for protection, this is the best policy! ”

It turned out that this old man was the former Caizhou assassin Zhang Shensi, and the reason why Liu Xingcong, Wang Cun and others had chaos in Caizhou not long ago was because this person was summoned to Luoyang by Zhu Wen, so that Caizhou had no one to guard for a long time.

The young man in front of Zhang Shensi is his second son Zhang Yanhan, who is honest and honest, good at reading, talented, and long-term, and is Zhang Shensi's favorite son.

In recent years, with the successive defeats of the Liang army, whether it is against the Wu army or the Jin army, it is difficult for the Liang army to gain the upper hand.

At this time, some knowledgeable people could sense the decline of the Liang State and knew that it was not a good thing to continue to stay in the Central Plains.

In particular, the recent defeat of the Liang army in the Battle of Gaoyi and the ensuing change in Caizhou made Zhang Shensi realize that the Central Plains could not stay for a long time.

It's a pity that Zhang Shensi himself has been an official in the Liang State for many years, and now that he is old, it is not so easy to betray.

Therefore, he can only pin the task of preserving the family and even carrying forward the family on his son.

It just so happened that today's second son Zhang Yanhan took the initiative to look for him and mentioned to him that Liang Guo could not stay for a long time and must quickly find another way out, Zhang Shensi naturally agreed.

However, it is difficult to decide whether to go north to join the Jin State or to go south to the Wu State.

"Father, I heard that the Jin Kingdom is also planning to open the imperial examination recently, I wonder if this is true?" At this time, Zhang Yanhan turned to inquire about the news.

"Yes, at this time, my father also heard some rumors, which should be true. What, do you want to go to Jin Kingdom to give it a try? ”

"No, the child just asked, and he hasn't thought about it yet." Zhang Yanhan shook his head and said.

Although he is a son of a eunuch family, Zhang Shensi is only an official in Liang State after all, and he has no influence in other countries.

Therefore, if Zhang Yanhan decides to leave Liang Guo and find another way, then he can only rely on his own efforts to find a way out.

Participating in the imperial examination is naturally a good choice.

This year is not the year of the imperial examination of Wu State, but the states will hold court examinations to prepare for the big competition.

Therefore, if he goes south to Wu, it will be just in time to participate in the imperial examination.

It's a pity that the content of Wu's imperial examination is different from today's Liang's imperial examination after all; Second, even if you pass the Jinshi examination, unless you can get excellent results and be ranked in the top few, you can only be awarded an official position of eight or even nine grades when you are awarded an official.

This obviously greatly weakened the appeal of Wu's imperial examination.

On the other hand, the Jin State, although he does not know what kind of system the Jin State will implement if it wants to conduct the imperial examination, but Zhang Yanhan feels that it is more likely to continue the Tang Dynasty system, after all, Li Cunqiao has always advertised that he wants to revive the Tang Dynasty.

If the two are compared, Wu Guo's imperial examination is easier to pass because of the large number of admissions, but the general future is also lower; If the Jin imperial examination inherits the Tang Dynasty system, the number of admissions will definitely be smaller, but as long as it is admitted, there will generally be better arrangements.

Of course, whether it should go north or south, naturally we can't just consider the imperial examination, there are many more things to consider, and the imperial examination is only one aspect.

So Zhang Yanhan then asked: "I don't know what my father thinks, which one has a greater future in the Jin Kingdom or the Wu Kingdom?" ”

"Which one has a bigger future?" Zhang Shensi laughed: "It seems that my son's ambition is not small!" If you don't have great ambitions and just want to mess around, then you don't need to think about the future of the country. ”

After making fun of his son for a few words, Zhang Shensi said with a solemn expression: "To be honest, as a father, I don't know which country has a better future; The Jin state has the advantage of the Jin state, and the Wu state has the advantage of the Wu state, and it is difficult to say which country is stronger. ”

"But the old man thinks that it should be okay for Wu to unify the south."

"And once the south is unified, then it is very likely that there will be a situation of the north and the south in the world!"