Li Gongdu persuaded: "The imperial court has been reluctant to surrender to Ziqing, and the festival marshal just took advantage of this matter to give the imperial court a warning. Li Shi said: "Tell me about it." ”

Li Gongdu said: "Li Mao dared to cross the river to attack and occupy Caozhou, firstly, he had Wei Bo behind him, and secondly, he held himself in the imperial court and someone could rely on it. Now he is like a rat in the bellows, as long as we close the door of the box and shout and kill, his backer in the court will inevitably show something, or he can persuade the Son of Heaven to officially descend to Ziqing. ”

Li Shi Daoxi said: "How sure is this matter?" ”

Li Gongdu said with a smile: "Whether the thing can be done depends on whether our posture of beating rats is enough, whether the people in Chang'an can see it, and whether they are willing to sit down and talk to us." ”

Li Shidao nodded, that is, Huang Xiaoluan, the envoy of the Duzhi soldiers and horses, was the envoy of Yi, Cao, and Pu, and Fang Yangxian, the envoy of the Yaqian Jiedu, and Li Yingtan, the envoy of the soldiers and horses of the Inner Courtyard, were the deputy envoys, and 5,000 people of the Ya Army were mobilized to go to the three states of Yi, Cao, and Pu to suppress bandits.

As soon as the military order was given, Fang Yangxian and Li Yingtan marched to Caozhou in two ways.

Li Mao entered Caozhou City with his front foot, and heard the news that Fang Yangxian had sent troops to Chengwu County with his back foot, because he asked Wei Boya, who was fighting with the army, how to deal with it. Tian Lu is the son of Tian Hua, and he is Tian Ji'an's cousin in terms of seniority, this person is proficient in military strategy, and he is a person who can be trusted by both Tian Ji'an and Tian Xing.

This time, Wei Bo's army crossed the river to the south and went south to have both Tian Ji'an's cronies and Tian Xing's old department.

Tian Lu said: "First be arrogant, and then lure him out of the mighty city, I will volley him with the superior cavalry in half a way, and give him a blow to the head, so that he does not dare to look at my Caozhou City." ”

Li Mao said: "I am now occupying Caozhou in the name of suppressing bandits, and he is also here in the name of suppressing bandits, so he should have a name after all." Tian Lu said: "This is your business, I only know how to fight." ”

Tian Lu gave Li Mao a problem, which made Li Mao think about it a lot, and one day he was thinking hard about it, and suddenly reported that the former Chengwu County Judicial Zuo Fengbu asked to see him outside the door, and Li Mao hurriedly invited him in.

Feng Bu came here to ask Li Mao for help, and the day before yesterday he was tricked into opening the village by a gang of bandits pretending to be officials and soldiers and robbed the village. Feng Bu asked Li Mao to send troops into his hometown to help suppress the bandits.

Li Mao readily agreed, Mao Chengfei retreated to Chengwu County, no food and no salary, in order to stabilize the morale of the army, Mao Chengfei ordered to loot everywhere, making a lot of trouble, and the elders of the townships sent people to Caozhou to ask Li Mao to send troops to take over.

During the conversation, Feng Bu saw Li Mao's sad face, so he asked the reason, Li Mao told the truth, Feng Bu smiled: "What's so difficult about this, every year of great disasters, there are always some Diao people who pretend to be officials and soldiers to infringe on the people, appease the people of the present generation, and severely punish those who commit adultery and criminals. ”

Li Mao was overjoyed when he heard this, and under his personal planning, Zhang Qi personally led a team of Andong Army to disguise themselves as bandits, and attacked the post station outside the city in the name of bandits.

Li Mao immediately issued a circular in the name of the pacification envoy, warning the troops to beware of bandits pretending to be officials and soldiers to attack and seize the walled city.

As soon as the homework was done, Fang Yangxian personally led 1,500 people from his department out of Chengwu County and forced towards Caozhou City. Li Mao's Andong Army had only 1,200 people, leaving both of them to garrison Shuilong Village, 500 troops to be stationed in Gushan Town, and hundreds of people to be stationed in the countryside to suppress bandits and people, and only 3,400 people remained in Caozhou City, of which a considerable part of the wounded soldiers were still a considerable part.

Fang Yangxian's plan was to besiege the city with five times the number of troops, and if there was no opportunity, he would take the city and disarm the Andong army, and if there was no opportunity, he would surround the city and induce the Gushan garrison to return for reinforcements, and come to a siege point to send reinforcements.

The plan was also seamless, but it didn't count that the cavalry of the 800 Tianxiong Army had already been eyeing from the sidelines, these 800 cavalry were the elite soldiers in Yanei, and they rarely encountered opponents in Hebei, even if Fang Yangxian's troops went all out, they might not be opponents, let alone be attacked in the middle of the road?

Fang Yangxian's troops were ambushed at the boundary bridge between Chengwu County and Jiyin County, and the Pinglu Front Army, which was dominated by infantry, was unprepared and encountered the impact of Wei Bo's superior cavalry, and was immediately defeated, and Fang Yangxian himself was also captured.

When Li Mao heard that Fang Yangxian was captured, he hurriedly went out of the city to visit him and personally untied him.

Fang Yangxian said hatefully: "Zhongcheng, when I was a three-year-old child, you set up a heavy ambush, and you actually said that you hit the wrong person." ”

Li Mao said: "This is indeed a misunderstanding, recently there have been many thieves pretending to be officials and soldiers to invade the walled city, a few days ago I actually frantically started the idea of Caozhou, for which I also deliberately made an example to show that all places are careful and vigilant." By the way, I also copied one to your army, didn't the general receive it? ”

Fang Yangxian was speechless in one sentence, the first two **** had indeed received such a notice, saying that bandits were rampant in Caozhou, pretending to be officials and soldiers to infringe on the people, and hoped that all departments of the garrison would be strictly vigilant.

Fang Yangxian abandoned it after reading it, every time he used soldiers to suppress bandits, there were always some outlaws who pretended to be officials and took advantage of the fire to rob, do you still need you Li Mao to remind me of this kind of well-known thing?

Now that I have seen that this is a pit set up by Li Mao in advance, the person has already fallen, what else is there to say?

Li Mao ordered the release of all the captured Yangxian troops of the Pinglu Army, allocated them to the barracks, erected a banner, and only said that they were friendly troops coming to help. Fang Yangxian had no choice but to be cheeky and start a "friendly army".

Hearing that Fang Yangxian's army was defeated, Li Shidao's face turned blue, but he was helpless, what he didn't expect was that Wei Bo would send elite cavalry to participate in the battle.

Since Tian Ji'an has invested such a large amount of money, Caozhou, I am afraid it will not be so easy to take it back.

Li Shidao drooped his head and asked Li Gongdu: "Wei Bo is involved, Cao Zhou is afraid that he will not be able to recover it for a while, what should we do next?" ”

Li Gongdu said: "Although Fang Yangxian was defeated, he also entered Caozhou City. We are not defeated. ”

Li Shidao snorted and said: "Let people disarm, he is embarrassed to call himself a friend, if I am him, he will draw his sword and kill himself." ”

Li Gongdu said: "The bureau in Caozhou can't be in a hurry, if it's urgent, it will change, and if you drag it out, it will always have an effect." ”

On the side, Yang Qingguo suddenly interjected: "I'm afraid that Li Mao will be able to look at Shu, and his appetite will become bigger and bigger." Occupy Caozhou today, occupy another state tomorrow, and if it continues to encroach like this, how can I still have Ningri in Ziqing? ”

Li Gongdu said: "Li Mao is just pulling the tiger skin to make a big banner, and his Anton Army is just a rabble." Although Wei Bo's cavalry was elite, it was impossible for them to stay in Caozhou for a long time. ”

"Wait, how long will it take, if the Tianxiong Army doesn't leave, won't this Caozhou be wanted?"

"Don't want it? Caozhou is the territory of Ziqing, how can it be handed over to others, if you want it, you just can't rush it. At present, the most important thing is to ask the imperial court to lower the festival and let the festival marshal justifiably lead the twelve states of Ziqing. ”

"If you go to Caozhou, there are still twelve states." Mao Xiong, who was standing on the stairs, suddenly floated out.

Li Shidao was furious and shouted: "What kind of place is this, when will it be your turn to interject?" Mao Xiong was shocked and pleaded guilty, Li Shigu was still angry, and scolded again: "Look at the people you recommend, you lost Gushan Town in less than a day, and I haven't settled accounts with you yet." ”

Mao Xiong was terrified when he heard this, and he kowtowed to the ground to ask for guilt, and his head was bleeding on the blue brick ground, and Li Shidao waved his hand and drove out.

Seeing this, Yang Qingguo also closed his mouth in amusement.

Li Shidao asked Li Gongdu: "Earlier, you said that you were going to knock Li Mao's backer in the court, but now it is a complete defeat, how to move next in this move, you should always have an explanation." ”

Li Gongdu twisted his beard and smiled: "Follow the set steps." (Dissertation College)