The reason why Wang Jian and others didn't think that Li Maozhen might take the initiative to start a war with him was mainly because they subconsciously looked down on Li Maozhen.

After all, for so many years, Li Maozhen's foreign wars have basically been defeated; If it weren't for the fact that Zhu Wen was restrained by other parties with too many troops, I am afraid that Li Maozhen would have been destroyed by Zhu Wen a long time ago.

Even so, Li Maozhen's power has been greatly reduced, and now the total number of troops may not be 100,000. This amount of strength is naturally nothing in front of Shu.

Therefore, Wang Jian and others will subconsciously feel that Li Maozhen should no longer be an enemy of Shu while being an enemy of Zhu Wen.

However, Li Maozhen was already extremely unruly, even Zhu Wen couldn't tame him when he was at his strongest, and the other feudal towns were naturally not looked down upon by him.

Now that Zhu Wen's strength has been greatly reduced, not only has the pressure felt by Shu has decreased, but the pressure on Li Maozhen has naturally been reduced, coupled with Liu Zhijun's surrender, Li Maozhen has become a famous commander of the army.

In short, after receiving Zhang Ge's reminder, Wang Jian finally made up his mind to expand to Guanzhong.

Of course, it is impossible for Jingxiang Wang Jian to give up completely.

Even if he didn't plan to march into Jingxiang, he would not refuse Gao Jichang's initiative to vote for him, and even if Wu took the initiative to attack Jingnan in the future, he would send troops to rescue.

In his plan, Gao Jichang would be used by him as a barrier to stop the expansion of Wu; All this is just like the previous alliance with Li Maozhen.

Soon after making up his mind, Wang Jian sent someone to tell Princess Puci that she asked to return to Chengdu to visit her on the grounds that her mother was seriously ill.

Li Jichong really did not suspect it, and immediately allowed Princess Puci to return to Chengdu.

After she returned, Wang Jiandang immediately left her in Chengdu.

And after Li Maozhen learned the news, it was as Wang Jian expected, and the angry King Qi immediately ordered to send troops to besiege Xingyuan Mansion.

The two enemies of Qi and Shu went to war again, plunging the border between the two countries, which had just been calm for less than five years, into war again.

Of course, all this is an afterthought, even if the two families want to go to war, it is not just a fight, and some necessary preparations still need time to complete.

In the city of Shouzhou.

Although Yang Wu and Zhu Wen secretly reached a tacit understanding and began to strike and truce, the confrontation between the two families did not decrease at all.

After all, this tacit understanding is only a tacit understanding, not to mention that there is no formal document, even if there is, if there is really a war, this so-called tacit understanding will not work at all.

What's more, the tacit understanding of this truce is only limited to Zhu Wen and Yang Wu, which means that neither of them will take the initiative to send troops to attack each other; However, if the people below want to cause friction, it is not something that the two of them can manage.

Therefore, at this time, the vigilance in Shouzhou City was still not relaxed, and the soldiers of the Xiang Army who were in charge of patrolling were still lining up in a neat queue to patrol back and forth on the streets.

Vendors and other vendors in the past are still under strict surveillance to prevent the infiltration of enemy countries.

The only difference is that the city is more prosperous than before, with many shops on both sides of the street, more pedestrians on the road, and finally a little bit of peacetime atmosphere in the whole city.

Of course, the fact that this place can be governed so well is not the merit of Li Jian, the governor of the Zuotianwu Army stationed in Shouzhou, but the credit of Jiang Mengsun, the assassin of Shouzhou.

As the champion of the first imperial examination in Huainan, Jiang Mengsun has mixed very well in Wu over the years.

In just a few years, he has achieved the position of the assassin in Shouzhou, an important town in the north, which is naturally not the most prominent one in his session.

But you must know that he used to be a scholar without any background, and he was not as famous in history as Song Qiqiu, which could make Yang Wu look at him differently.

Jiang Mengsun's promotion is entirely based on his personal ability, which is highly valued by Gao Miao, Chen Yanqian and others.

Of course, although it is easy to make political achievements in Shouzhou, it is also necessary to be constrained by Li Jian, who is also in Shouzhou City.

At this time, in the Assassin's Mansion, Jiang Mengsun was arguing with Li Jian over a case involving several forbidden soldiers.

Zuo Tianwu's 20,000 forbidden troops naturally cannot all be stationed in Shouzhou City, and some troops are also stationed in Gwangju and Haozhou, but even so, there are as many as 10,000 soldiers of the forbidden army stationed in Shouzhou.

With so many soldiers, although they spend most of their time in the barracks on weekdays, they will still be more or less entangled with the people in the city.

Although Li Jian is cruel and easy to kill, and the requirements for military discipline are not strict, he is extremely protective of his soldiers.

Sometimes there are soldiers who have conflicts with the people, even if his people are wronged and severely punished by the government, he will come to assassinate the Shifu and make a big fuss.

In this regard, Jiang Mengsun was also helpless.

Just when the two were arguing a little unhappy, suddenly an officer of the box army hurriedly came in.

"Qiqi Jiang envoy, Li Dudu, there is a trader from Caizhou, who claims to be sent by Liu Xingcong, the commander of Caizhou's right wing, saying that this commander intends to submit to our country and specially sent him to contact!"

"What? Take the initiative to return to obedience! Li Jian and Jiang Mengsun were stunned.

Although the state of Wu has been powerful in recent years, even Wang Shenzhi of Fujian had to choose to surrender under the pressure of the Wu army; But on the border of Wu and Liang, some of those ordinary scholars may have taken the initiative to vote, but none of the local generals took the initiative to submit.

If the news brought by this messenger who claimed to be Liu Xingcong was true, it would set a precedent for the officials and generals of the Liang State to take the initiative to surrender to the south, which was naturally a big deal.

The two of them could not quarrel any longer, and hurriedly ordered the messenger to be brought for questioning.

It turned out that Zhu Wen summoned Zhang Shensi, the assassin of Caizhou, to Luoyang last year, but he never let him return to Caizhou, and did not send a new Caizhou assassin to take over.

After a long time, the generals below who had mastered the military power naturally began to think carefully.

However, Liang Guosheng was especially powerful before, and even if those generals had any ambitions, they didn't dare to show it easily.

But now, with the news of Gaoyi's defeat, especially Li Cunmiao, who then led the Jin army south to storm Hebei, the entire Liang government and the opposition were shaken.

In this case, Liu Xingcong, the commander of Caizhou's right wing, had no worries and began to plan to launch a mutiny and become an assassin himself.

However, Liu Xingcong also knew that even if the Liang army was weakened and its strength was greatly reduced, it was obviously looking for death to confront the Liang State with the strength in his own hands, so Liu Xingcong decided to take refuge in the Wu State and lead the Wu army to fight against the Liang army.

After listening to the purpose of the envoy, Jiang Mengsun was still secretly pondering, but Li Jian was already overjoyed.

There are no major wars in Shouzhou today, and compared with the fierce war in the south, it is not easy to make meritorious contributions here, so Li Jian naturally attaches great importance to this opportunity.

"Governor Li, this official feels that Liu Xingcong suddenly came to surrender, the truth of this matter is unknown, and it is also possible that the enemy deliberately designed to lure our army, and then secretly set up an ambush. So please be cautious in the next step! ”

Seeing Li Jian's expression, Jiang Mengsun hurriedly persuaded.

Although it is said that the civil and military forces of Wu State are now separated, and the generals no longer talk about rank, only about military rank, most people will still subconsciously compare the two.

Generally speaking, the rank of the assassin is roughly the same as that of the commander, and the position of the governor is comparable to that of the governor.

Therefore, Jiang Mengsun's position should be a little lower than Li Jian's, and his qualifications and prestige are far inferior, so he is naturally extremely polite to Li Jian when he speaks.

"Proceed with caution? Jiang Envoy Jun doesn't know soldiers, so don't mix it into military affairs! Li Jian said unhappily.

"Governor, although he is only a scholar, he has also read some military books, and he understands the principle that marching and fighting requires caution."

Li Jian shook his head and said: "The affairs of the soldiers, sometimes we need to be cautious, but more often we have to act decisively, if you are blindly cautious, no matter how good the fighter is, you will lose, so do you still expect to win the battle?" ”

Jiang Mengsun was helpless, after all, he was only a civilian official, and he could manage the Xiang army at most, but he couldn't interfere with the actions of the forbidden army, not to mention that Li Jian's status in Wu was still above him.

"So what does the Governor want to do?"

"What else, send troops to Caizhou directly, if there is Liu Xingcong's help, our army can easily control Caizhou! At that time, even if you want to give Liu Xingcong some benefits, it will not be a big deal to even appoint him as the assassin of Caizhou. Li Jian said.

"Isn't the governor going to ask the king for advice?"

"It's too late to ask for instructions, you have to act quickly, the situation in Caizhou is very complicated, Liu Xingcong is not the only one who is ambitious, if you don't send troops as soon as possible, who knows what Caizhou will become in the end?" Li Jian said solemnly.

Although Wu attaches great importance to military law nowadays and should seek instructions from the Privy Council before taking military action, some emergencies naturally need to be decided on the spot.

"Since Governor Li has decided, then this official is here to wish Governor all the best!" Jiang Mengsun said.

Li Jian nodded: "It's still too slow to send troops from Shouzhou, and the general is going to issue a military order, so that Wang An, who is stationed in Gwangju, will directly lead the troops to Caizhou and seek an opportunity to seize Caizhou!" ”

……

Caizhou is located in Huaixi, which is an important transportation point connecting Jianghuai and Heluo.

However, the people here are fierce, and the local festival envoys are even more unruly and rebellious, which is a great disaster for the court in the Middle and Tang dynasties; For the fierce disaster, it is above the three towns of Heshuo.

In that year, the famous Tang general Li Yuxue attacked Caizhou at night and captured Wu Yuanji, which took place here.

In the late Tang Dynasty, the famous cannibal king Qin Zongquan also took Caizhou as his lair, causing disasters to all parties, causing the Central Plains, Jianghuai and other places to suffer greatly, and greatly affected the development of the overall situation in the world at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

With Zhu Wen defeating Qin Zongquan and completely occupying Caizhou, this place can be regarded as a lot calmer.

However, perhaps because of Caizhou's bad feng shui, the generals stationed in Caizhou still inherited the tradition of their "ancestors" rebelling.

Now Zhu Wen's power has only declined slightly, and those generals with great ambitions have begun to have their own ghosts.

After the former assassin Zhang Shensi went to Luoyang to meet Zhu Wen, the army in Caizhou City is now mainly in the hands of Liu Xingcong, the commander of the right wing, and Wang Cun, the commander of the Hue army.

However, compared to Liu Xingcong, who is a rough man and only thinks about fighting and killing, Wang Cun is much more scheming.

"Is it confirmed? So did Liu Xingcong secretly send someone to contact Wu Jun? "Hue army station, Wang Cun asked his lieutenant general.

"Yes, General, it can be confirmed that Liu Xingcong has sent someone to Shouzhou. If the Wu army sent troops immediately after getting the news, they would be able to reach Caizhou in a few days! The adjutant said.

Wang Cun nodded, frowned and pondered for a moment, then asked, "Liu Xingcong didn't find anything, right?" The strength of this general is not as good as that Liu Xingcong, and if you want to defeat him, you must be cautious! ”

"Shouldn't have found out! Our people have been by Liu Xingcong's side for a long time and are deeply trusted by him. With Liu Xingcong's elm head, how could he see through it? The adjutant general said with some disdain.

In terms of official position, Liu Xingcong's official position is even higher than Wang Cun, and the strength he holds in Caizhou City is also Liu Xingcong's advantage.

However, compared with Liu Xingcong, Wang Cun's advantage is that he is more calm-headed and scheming, and even unknowingly bought Liu Xingcong's henchmen.

It can be said that Liu Xingcong looks invincible, but Wang Cun is confident that if he wants to take his life, it will only be an easy matter.

However, although Wang Cun had this kind of self-confidence, he did not launch it easily.

He knew that although Liang Guo's prestige had diminished now, it was far from the time to let other forces bully.

Now that Zhu Wen is still there after all, he has decades of prestige, even if someone rebels, he will not get too many responses.

Therefore, in Wang Cun's view, the first person to rebel may not get any benefits, but may become the target of public criticism.

In addition, Wang Cun was not very satisfied with the system of Wu, even if he killed Liu Xingcong and then defected to Wu, he might be marginalized in Wu in the future.

But on the other hand, if Liu Xingcong rebelled first and colluded with the Wu army, then if he killed Liu Xingcong again, he would not be a sinner at that time, but a hero who put down the rebellion.

Zhu Wen is now facing the pressure of Li Cunqing's attack, and there must be no other way than to appoint him as the assassin of Caizhou.

The gloomy Wang Cun thought about it carefully, and after finding that there was nothing missing in his plan, he stood up and said:

"Send an order to Wang Xing, telling him to try to get Liu Xingcong to launch in advance, and not wait for the arrival of the Wu army."

"As for the reason, let Wang Xing tell Liu Xingcong that if they wait until the Wu army arrives in Caizhou before launching, they will not have time to grab things. You must know that Wu Jun's military discipline is very strict! ”

Wang Xing is the henchman next to Liu Xingcong whom he bought, and has great influence on Liu Xingcong.

After listening to Wang Cun's plan, the adjutant general's eyes lit up, and he praised: "The general's plan is very good!" That Liu Xingcong has always been greedy, and he will definitely not let go of this opportunity to rob! ”