"I don't think so, Prime Minister, what is the relationship between you and Your Majesty, when Your Majesty was still the prince, you were the prince and the prince. Now that he is the prime minister of the dynasty, even if His Majesty really wants to kill people to appease the anger of the general, he will only kill me, not you. Gao Yi still calmly comforted.

"Ouch, Captain Gao, don't comfort me, the general can say the two of us by name, Your Majesty will either kill either of them, if you want to kill them, you must kill both of them together, you better hurry up and think of a way." Yuan Chengce was in a hurry.

"The prime minister doesn't need to worry, this matter is also very easy to solve, we will enter the palace now and take the initiative to ask to die to appease the general's grievances."

Gao Yi's words almost didn't make Yuan Chengce angry, but seeing that his face was serious and not like a joke, he asked suspiciously: "Taiwei, aren't you joking, are we really going to die?" ”

Gao Yi smiled slightly, and stopped selling Guanzi: "Of course it's not true, what I'm saying is just fake death." From the death row camp, find two people who are similar to us, and then put makeup on them, how can the general who is far away in Jingzhou distinguish the real from the fake? ”

Yuan Chengce secretly calculated in his heart, lowered his head and pondered for a while, then patted his thigh and praised: "Sure enough, it's a good way, let's go into the palace to find Your Majesty." After speaking, he pulled Gao Yi and went straight to the palace gate.

Xiao Yangang's expression changed greatly when he heard Deng Yuanjue's rebellion, and after listening to the plan of the two, he gradually calmed down, and asked a little unwillingly: "If you don't fight a battle, I will kill you and make amends to the general, will this make the people feel that I am too weak?" ”

"Of course, you can't let Your Majesty personally make an order, but the ministers are willing to make a decision for the stability of the Great Song Kingdom, so that the people of the world have nothing to say." Gao Yi had expected that Xiao Yan would be reckless, so he thought of countermeasures in advance.

Although Xiao Yan is young, he also knows how many catties he has. If he really wants to start a war with Deng Yuanjue, he will never be his opponent, so he had to sigh and ask again, "Although the Taiwei's method is feasible, if the general really has the heart to rebel, this alone can't stop him?" ”

"Your Majesty is right, this method treats the symptoms but not the root cause, and can only have the effect of delaying time, and if we want to turn the tables, we must make good use of this time."

"So the captain already has a complete plan?"

Gao Yi nodded: "The way to deal with it is nothing more than two aspects, the first is the military aspect, my Great Song can only compete with the Great General, and the top priority is to find a way to recall the Great Sima back to consolidate the military strength." On the other hand, relying on diplomacy, we need to take the initiative to seek allies. ”

"Confederates? The three kingdoms of Qin, Yan, and Chu have all perished, and now only we and Qi are left in the world, and Qi is bent on unifying the five countries, so how can they form an alliance with us? Xiao Yan shook his head slightly disappointed.

"If we take the country as a unit, it is true that only we and the Qi country are left, but if we take the local forces as a unit, it will be more than us."

Yuan Chengce's eyes lit up, and he understood Gao Yi's intentions: "Taiwei is talking about Tianluo Sect, Jiang Huan Chu, Xiang Chu and Tian Wuji?" ”

"The prime minister is right, although the Tianluo Sect is just a gang of rivers and lakes, but in terms of strength, he is no longer inferior to the Qin State back then. And Jiang Huan Chu and Emperor Qi are not in agreement, and it is only a matter of time before the Qi State splits, he can also be regarded as a separate force, Xiang Chu naturally does not need to say much, as for Tian Wuji, he is sandwiched between the Jiang brothers, and his current attitude is that the two do not help each other, and they can also exist as a separate force. Fortunately, the relationship between these forces and the general is not very harmonious. Gao Yi analyzed the situation of several forces one by one.

"What Taiwei said is indeed right, but these forces have their own problems, although Jiang Huan Chu has an army of 100,000, he also has to guard against the attack of Emperor Qi, Tian Wuji's situation is similar to him. As for Xiang Chu, his strength was too weak to pose a powerful threat to the general. In the end, there was only one Tianluo Sect left, and although they had strength, they did not have much conflict with the Great General, and they might not agree to form an alliance with us. Yuan Chengce also talked about the problems existing in several major forces.

Xiao Yan felt that what the two said made sense, and looked at Gao Yi again.

"The Prime Minister's worries are indeed justified, but the role of our alliance with Jiang Huan Chu, Xiang Chu, and Tian Wuji is only to deter the general and let him know that the environment he is in is surrounded by enemies on all sides, so that even if he wants to march into Jianye, he will have to leave heavy troops to defend the rear."

"Aside from their tripartite forces, the Tianluo Sect is the true ally we want to befriend. Judging from the development of the Tianluo Sect in the past few years, their ambition to aspire to the world has been exposed. And the general is famous all over the world, and he is an opponent that they can't bypass, so it's better to fight him now than to fight after the general destroys us, right? ”

Although Gao Yi's words made Xiao Yan a little uncomfortable, he had to admit that what he said made some sense, after Deng Yuanjue's rebellion, the military strength of the Great Song Dynasty plummeted, if Yan Chixing's 150,000 troops in Yanzhou and Wei Zhongxing's 80,000 troops in Danyang were removed, then Xiao Yan could now call no more than 100,000 troops, and it was even inferior to Jiang Huan and Chu.

"Has the Tai Lieutenant ever thought of a possibility, that is, the Tianluo Sect in turn and the Great General will form an alliance and jointly attack us?" Yuan Chengce raised a new question.

"It's because I thought about it that I thought I had to form an alliance with the Tianluo Sect. This diplomatic relationship is related to the life and death of our Great Song Dynasty, and we must make this alliance successful at any cost. Gao Yi looked firm at the two of them.

Xiao Yan was silent, still thinking about the fact that just two years ago, the Tianluo Sect sent an envoy to Jianye to ask for an alliance with him to attack the Qin State. At that time, he still regarded himself as a big country, and some looked down on others. I didn't expect feng shui to take turns, and so soon it was my turn to send someone to ask for an alliance with others.

After thinking about it for a long time in his heart, he said: "The Taiwei's analysis is very thorough, I have decided to adopt your opinion, as for who to send the envoy, do you have a candidate in mind?" ”

Yuan Chengce glanced at Gao Yi and saw that he didn't speak, so he roughly guessed his mind, so he said to Xiao Yan: "The most suitable candidate is, of course, Gao Taiwei himself." There are two reasons, one is that we are going to cheat to death after today, and it is inconvenient for us to appear in public for a period of time in the future, so it is just convenient for Taiwei to go to Tianluo Sect. Second, the current person in charge of the Tianluo Sect in Qindi is Gao Kegong, Gao Taiwei's nephew, and if he is sent as an envoy, the probability of success will be greater than that of others. ”

Xiao Yan was overjoyed when he heard this: "Is that Taiwei willing to send an envoy to the Tianluo Sect?" ”

"To serve the country, of course, it is the duty of the minister. But the minister wants to ask His Majesty what price he is willing to pay for this alliance? "Gao Yi is a veteran in the political arena, so he naturally knows that the Tianluo Sect can't easily agree to form an alliance just because he is Gao Kegong's uncle.

Xiao Yan frowned slightly: "Let's talk about it first, what price do I have to pay?" ”

Gao Yi still didn't speak, his eyes staring at Yuan Chengce in advance. The latter had no choice but to speak first: "Of course, it is best to solve it with gold and silver, except for money, our Great Song really can't come up with anything else." ”

Gao Yi shook his head: "I heard that the strength of the Tianluo Sect's naval army is no less than that of the Qi State, and their trading caravans are also all over Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, how can such a sect be able to do it with money?" ”

Yuan Chengce scratched his head: "What does the Taiwei plan to pay?" ”

Gao Yi turned to Xiao Yan and said, "The Tianluo Sect is the most powerful sea power, but they don't have a port on the mainland, if Your Majesty is willing to agree to cede Jeju County to them, Nachen is confident that this alliance will be successful." ”

"There are currently four developed port cities on the mainland, namely Xianghu, Penglai, Beihai and Jiaozhou, and now there are three in the hands of the Qi State, and the Tianluo Sect will not start a war with the Qi State for the time being, to grab their port, then the Xianghu Lake has become the only target."

Although Gao Yi's words were not finished, both of them knew that the husband was not guilty and was guilty, and Xianghu was the jade for the current Song Kingdom.

Xiao Yan was embarrassed when he heard this, in the history of the Song Kingdom, even in the most difficult period, there was no such thing as ceding land and seeking peace, which made it difficult for him to accept.

"Your Majesty, the Taishou Guo Xu of Jeju County is the general's man, once we go to war with the general, will he stand on his side?" Gao Yi reminded in a low voice.

Xiao Yan was stunned when he heard this, and already understood the meaning of his words, since Guo Xu may take the whole county of Jeju to surrender to Deng Yuanjue, it is better to do his own favor and cede Jeju to the Tianluo Sect, which can also be more in line with his own interests.

"I understand, I can promise to cede Jeju to the Tianluo Sect, but they must also promise to give us substantial help when the general sends troops." Xiao Yan finally made up his mind.

"Da Sima, Your Majesty has issued an order to summon us back again, how should we deal with it this time?" Xiao Yan's envoy came to Handan, and as soon as he finished reading the holy decree, Yan Chixing gathered all the generals together to discuss countermeasures.

"I didn't expect the general to choose to rebel at this time, this time Your Majesty really has no choice, you see his tone in the holy decree is almost pleading." Wu Changchen remembered the low-voiced attitude of the envoy just now, and couldn't help but feel a little proud.

"Compared with the general's rebellion, I didn't expect Prime Minister Yuan and Gao Taiwei to be so tough, the two of them would choose to commit suicide, and now the banner of the general Qingjun's side will not be sounded, and then see how he ends." While Ji Yun admired Yuan Chengce and the others, he also wanted to see Deng Yuanjue lively.

The two of them talked for a long time, and seeing that Yan Chixing didn't say a word, he asked a little strangely: "Da Sima, you don't want to take the troops back to save Your Majesty, do you?" ”

Yan Chixing came to his senses at this time, shook his head, and said in a somewhat sad tone: "Deng Yuanjue has just defeated Wei Zhongxing and taken Jizhou County, and now the 300,000 troops are under Yuzhou City, even if I go back, I can't change the fate of the Great Song Dynasty's imminent demise." ”