"Great King, reaching a peace agreement can stabilize the situation of the Liang State, which is conducive to allowing them to compete with the Jin State; If the conditions put forward by our side are too high, it will not be conducive to the conclusion of peace talks, and second, it will deepen Liang's vigilance against our country; Anyway, our country does not lack that little benefit, so why put forward too many strict requirements? Feng Dao carefully explained his opinion.

Yang Wu suddenly groaned after hearing this.

Feng Dao's opinion actually has a certain amount of truth, the current Wu State really doesn't plan to get too many benefits from Liang Guo, and even if he puts forward too strict conditions, I'm afraid that Zhu Youzhen will not agree.

It is better to set the conditions lower so that peace talks can be reached as soon as possible.

However, although this is the truth, Yang Wu still does not intend to follow Feng Dao's conditions, at least he will put forward strict conditions at the beginning, and then slowly lower the conditions to ensure that peace talks can be reached in the end.

"Asking for a price first, and then letting them pay back the money on the ground, this is the right reason for negotiation. Otherwise, if you put forward the bottom-line conditions from the beginning, even if the peace talks are successful, I am afraid that Zhu Youzhen will think that we are afraid of him and dare not make excessive demands. I'm afraid that there will be something wrong with it. Yang Wu said.

"This ......," Feng Dao was stunned.

Yang Wu continued: "Only by putting forward strict conditions at the beginning, and then gradually giving in, and finally reaching a peace talk, will Zhu Youzhen know that the peace talks are not easy to come by, and will he cherish this peace agreement." ”

Feng Dao bowed his hand and said: "What the king said is very true, and the minister has been taught. ”

"Well, if there's nothing to do, let's go down and revise it first."

"Yes, the minister will retire first."

Feng Dao saluted Yang Wu and then prepared to leave.

At this time, Yang Wu suddenly remembered an important matter, and hurriedly said, "Wait." ”

"What else does the king have to command?"

Yang Wu said: "Back then, Zhu Wen usurped the throne and stood on his own, claiming to be the emperor, even if Zhu Youzhen inherited the throne of Liang State, it could not change the fact that Liang State was a puppet dynasty. Therefore, even if Lone reaches a peace agreement with him, he will not recognize his throne. At most, Lone allowed him to come to the peace talks as the king of Liang. ”

"This ......" Feng Dao was a little surprised, he didn't expect Yang Wu to make such a request.

"King, if you really make such a request, I'm afraid that Zhu Youzhen won't agree, right?"

It's strange that he would agree, let Zhu Youzhen come to the peace talks as the king of Liang, doesn't this make him admit that Zhu Wen's usurpation is illegal? In this way, the ruling foundation of the Liang State will have problems, what else to talk about?

Yang Wu smiled and said: "Lone doesn't expect Zhu Youzhen to agree, but if he doesn't agree, then although the peace talks will still be reached in the end, but only verbally, it is impossible for Lone to leave any written peace agreement." ”

No written documents can be left, which is the premise of Yang Wu's peace talks with Liang Guo.

Nowadays, although the foundation of Wu is becoming more and more solid, and the people in China have basically forgotten the glory of the Tang Dynasty, there are still many people who sympathize with and miss the Tang Dynasty in the whole world.

Therefore, at present, Yang Wu does not plan to give up the banner of reviving the Tang Dynasty, at least until the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains in the future and officially proclaimed emperor.

And after he becomes emperor in the future, if he wants Wu to get the name of orthodoxy and not be criticized, the best way is to wait until he destroys the "pseudo-Liang" and avenges the Tang Dynasty.

Didn't you see the group of Tartars of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in history? After they entered the customs, they all fought for the world in the name of avenging the Ming Dynasty, how could Yang Wu not even be as good as a group of Tartars now?

Therefore, it is impossible for him to give up the banner of "crusading against Liang and reviving the Tang Dynasty", and it is even more impossible to reach peace talks with him on the surface, at most, as when Zhu Wen was still there, the two sides reached a tacit understanding, and then the two families temporarily quit the army.

And in this way, when you turn your face in the future, you can be less restrained, so as not to find any excuses, which will naturally save you much more trouble.

……

Over the next few days, Yang Wu continued to return to Jinling, and at the same time, the great battle of the northern Jin army to the south finally began.

The original plan of Li Cunmiao, the king of Jin, was to take advantage of the war between Wu and Liang in Xuzhou to send troops to rob while the fire was burning, but he was still a little late.

At the beginning, the Jin army had just finished the war to destroy the Yan State, and the army needed to rest; By the time the army had rested and was ready to send troops, the battle in Xuzhou was over, and the Wu army had won the final victory through a surprise battle.

However, Li Cunmiao did not give up the battle plan because of this, he still led the army to Zhaozhou according to the original plan, and met with Wang Rong, the king of Zhao, the king of Beiping, and Zhou Dewei, the newly appointed envoy of Lu Longjiedu, and after some discussion, it was finally decided to jointly send troops south to attack Xingzhou.

At the same time, Zhaoyi Jiedu made Li Sizhao lead the garrison of Luzhou to converge.

In addition to the 50,000 troops of the Jin army itself, Wang Rong and Wang Chuzhi provided 20,000 and 10,000 respectively, making the total strength of the Jin army reach 80,000.

With so many troops in his hands, Li Cunqiao was naturally full of confidence, feeling that he would definitely be able to defeat the Liang army this time, seize Xingzhou, and even seize other territories in Hebei.

It's a pity that he still overestimated his strength, or rather, he underestimated Yang Shihou's ability.

In early May, when Li Cunqiao led his army to Xingzhou, Yang Shihou also led his troops from Weizhou to Xingzhou to rescue, and the two armies confronted each other across the Zhanghe River.

Although the Jin army has won successive victories in recent years, its morale is extremely high, coupled with the superiority of cavalry, the Jin army looks much stronger than the Liang army; But Yang Shihou is also a god-of-war figure in the Liang Kingdom.

Even relying only on Yang Shihou's personal prestige was enough to make the morale of the Liang army equally high, and it was not inferior to the Jin army.

Coupled with Yang Shihou's personal ability to command troops, and the fact that his army originally concentrated the most elite soldiers of the Liang State, the strength of the Liang army was actually not worse than that of the Jin army.

The armies of the two countries confronted each other along the Zhang River for a long time, and although the Jin army tried to cross the river several times to attack, each time they were easily repelled by the Liang army; Then, the Jin army tried to make a detour from other places, but instead fell into Yang Shihou's ambush and suffered a lot of losses.

At the end of May, one of the Jin generals was dissatisfied with being punished by his superiors for his mistakes, so he led his troops to surrender to the Liang side.

Although this incident did not have a major impact on the Jin army, Li Cunqiao still realized that the time was not yet ripe to attack the Liang State.

"Yang Shihou, as long as this person does not die for a day, it will be difficult for our army to go south for a day." Li Cunmiao sighed in his heart.

A famous general can block a country, and there is no shortage of current situations in history, such as before the Qin State destroyed the Zhao State, for the famous general Li Mu of the Zhao State, even Wang Jian and other famous generals were helpless against him.

Another example is Hu Luguang, a famous general of the Northern Qi Dynasty, who also shocked the enemy country, which made many generals of the Northern Zhou Dynasty fearful.

However, whether it was Li Mu or Hu Luguang, they all died under slander in the end; But what about Yang Shihou? This trick obviously didn't work.

Now the relationship between Yang Shihou and the Liang court does not even need to be provoked, and the relationship between the two families is a little tense.

However, Yang Shihou is different from Li Muhu, Luguang and others in that this person has a heavy army and controls the land of Weibo Six Prefectures, so he is completely the only one who supports the army and respects himself. Establish forces, these forces are enough to make Zhu Youzhen jealous, but they have to rely on him, and even crown him as King Ye.

"Maybe we can only wait for Yang Shihou to die, and our army can go south more smoothly."

Li Cunmiao was a little helpless, he also attacked Liang State, but the enemy army he faced was very different.

Not only is the number of enemy troops faced by Wu State in the Northern Expedition relatively small, but the leading generals are only second-class famous generals such as Kou Yanqing and Niu Cunjie, but they have never fought against Yang Shihou.

If the Jin army goes south, it will not only have to face the most elite soldiers of the Liang State, but also the best generals in the world, which is naturally much more difficult.

But this is also something that can't be helped, who made the hatred between the Jin State and the Liang State so great? Moreover, after the Jin State eliminated the Yan State, there is no other way out now except to expand southward.

And the Liang State was obviously more wary of the Jin State than the Wu State, so all the elites of the Liang State were concentrated in the north.

In this way, even if Li Cunmiao knew that Yang Shihou was not easy to deal with, he had to go south to confront him.

……

At the beginning of June, Li Cunqiao saw that the Liang army was heavily defended and unprofitable, so he had to lead his army to retreat.

When the news came, the government and the opposition of Liang State immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

In Kaifeng City, in the palace, after repelling the Jin army, Zhu Youzhen's confidence hardened again.

"I heard that the progress of the peace talks in Jinling is extremely unsmooth, and the conditions offered by the people of Wu are completely as if our country is a prisoner of the mermaids. What he relied on was nothing more than the pressure on our country caused by the Jin army's southward movement, and now that the Jin army had retreated, what other means could he use? In my opinion, it is better to stop the peace talks for the time being. ”

Jing Xiang and the others looked worried, and hurriedly stood up and said, "Your Majesty, have you forgotten the embarrassment when the news of the defeat in Xuzhou came? Now, if the peace talks are stopped, it will be easy, but what if the Jin army goes south again one day? ”

"Hmph, do you just let the people of Wu ask for a price? If they want more, let them send troops to attack. Zhu Youzhen said coldly.

In fact, it is not that he is completely blind to the future situation, but he attaches more importance to the present in his heart and does not care much about the long-term situation.

So at the beginning, even though many people said that the battle of Xuzhou could not be fought, he still insisted on fighting; This time, as soon as the Jin army retreated, he healed his scars and forgot the pain, wanted to temporarily stop peace talks with Wu, and even wanted to start a war with Wu again to avenge the defeat of Xuzhou.

This may seem incredible, but in reality, how many people can really take a long-term view and see the future clearly? Most people are just mediocre people.

For example, the faint monarch who killed Li Mu, Hu Luguang and others, obviously the enemy army has been overwhelmed, but they still have to do something to destroy the Great Wall, which seems a little incredible and unbelievable, but in fact, their vision is so short-sighted.

Although Zhu Youzhen can be regarded as diligent in government, on the whole, he is still a little stupid.