"This, this, this...... This is the East Thief!? ”

Zhao Huan, an official of the Great Song Dynasty, looked at the soldiers and horses of the Republican Army from a distance, and when he passed on the official road more than ten miles outside the Nanxun Gate, he looked frightened and muttered to himself.

He is Zhao Ji's own son! Naturally, there is also an incurable disease of hereditary timidity. When I was bewitched by the retro party before, my mind was full of the Holy Lord of the Ming Monarch, trying to turn the tide or something, and I forgot to be afraid for a while......

Of course, the ability of the Great Zhou Republican Army to scare the old Zhao family cannot be compared with the Jurchen brothers.

Wu Yijiu and Wu Yiyong are both Zhao Huan's brothers-in-law - people are not detaining his sister-in-law as a concubine, but the eldest wife of Ming Media is marrying. And he has a very good relationship with the two brothers of the martial family, both of them are rare beauties, noble birth, many marriages, good upbringing, virtuous and virtuous, not to mention, and it doesn't matter if the two brothers of the martial arts family engage in the third and the fourth. So where to find a good wife?

Therefore, the relationship between Wu Yijiu, Wu Yiyong and the two emperors is excellent.

With the protection of two emperors, Zhao Huan doesn't have to worry about being arrested and going to the Five Kingdoms City to see the snow.

But now that he saw the invincible republican army in the world arriving at the city of Kaifeng Mansion, Zhao Huan's legs and stomach were still weak for a while. If it weren't for the two little yellow doors around him trying to support him, he would definitely be sitting on the ground.

"Your Majesty," Zhang Jun, who had been promoted to the rank of Zhongshu Sheren and the squire of the military department, said in a loud voice, "The Eastern Thief is just like this, only 20,000 or 30,000 people, how can he be the opponent of the 100,000 Heavenly Soldiers of Kaifeng Mansion?" Moreover, the soldiers of the Quartet King are already on the way, and they will come soon, and they will be able to gather and annihilate them when the time comes! ”

"Yes!" Li Guangye, the right secretary, said, "The hearts of the people in Hebei and Hedong are available, and there are still many cities that are desperately resisting, and there are still 200,000 elite soldiers under the command of Han Xiaoxuan, Zong Ze, and Du Chong. Although the Eastern Thief has many soldiers and horses, it is already a tired army, there is not enough food and grass, the offensive has slowed down, and it is already the end of the crossbow. ”

Hanlin Scholar Cheng Qin Hui also said: "The East Thief Chen Bing Kaifeng Mansion is just a bluff to intimidate the imperial court. The purpose is still to ask and! If you want to ask for the New Year's coin, you might as well go with it, and the land can never be ceded. ”

Several retro party members are cheering up Zhao Huan, and they also know about the hypochondria of the Zhao family. However, Zhao Huan responded softly when Qin Hui mentioned the peace, and said as if to himself: "Even if you cut a little land, it's not impossible to ......."

That's a shame, isn't it?

The retro party members present were all deflated for a while. Although everyone knows that they can't defeat the East Thief, most of Hebei, Hedong, and Jingdong East Road can't be saved, and most of Kaifeng Mansion will be lost, but as long as Kaifeng Mansion doesn't lose it for a while, their big words can continue.

Even if you lose Kaifeng Mansion, you don't have to be soft in your mouth...... As long as you can run to Guanzhong, you can still hold high the banner of "return my rivers and mountains"!

Zhao Huan sighed lightly: "I've seen the East Thief today...... I'm also a little tired, so I'll go back to the palace to rest first, and then we'll talk about the battle tomorrow. ”

The matter of war defense has been discussed for a long time, I don't know how many times!

On the day when Wu Yiyong's army crossed the river, Zhao Huan issued an order to set up the "Four Walls Guarding the Imperial Division" to unify the command of Kaifeng to defend the city. and appointed Geng Nanzhong, a member of the Privy Council, to concurrently serve as the imperial envoy of the four walls, and Yang Keshi as the deputy envoy of the four walls. He also transferred seven of the nine generals originally deployed in Mutuogang to Kaifeng Prefecture (the other two will go to Xingyang and Xuzhou respectively).

In addition, when Zhao Ji ran away, he only took one of Yue He's generals, and later Gao Yaofu and Zhou Yunqing took away two battalions, escorting Zhao Ji's women and some of his belongings to Xiangyang.

Therefore, there are still about 35,000 new troops who have withdrawn into Kaifeng Mansion, plus more than 10,000 old forbidden troops, there are less than 50,000 reliable troops in total.

"Recruiting soldiers with houses" has also been carried out, but it is not a soldier who divides the house. Instead, you have to have merit and behead a thief to reward a "real estate certificate" - this threshold is much lower than that that Gao Yu gave to the house slave soldiers back then.

However, because the number of eastern thieves is much higher than that of the western thieves back then, there are about 1 million. Therefore, we can only adopt the method of "first cut, first served" and the cut-off of 50,000 yuan...... After cutting enough 50,000, there will be no more.

Of course, the real estate in Kaifeng Mansion is now the head of 888. Since the beginning of the Song and Zhou wars, the price has been declining, falling by a quarter in a few months, and the market outlook is not optimistic!

However, the policy of "recruiting soldiers by housing" still has some effect, and Kaifeng idlers who have no house and no wife still fool themselves into joining the army. The number of Zhao Huan's "book army" reached 100,000.

An army of 100,000 looks like a lot. It is several times more than the martial arts and brave troops who show off their martial arts outside the city. However, none of the generals of the new army dared to ask for orders to go out of the city to compete with Wu Yiyong.

Even the retro party who advocates the high pitch of the door only dares to defend the city, and does not dare to go out of the city to fight.

But now if Wu Yiyong is not defeated, and the "million eastern thieves" in Hebei come south, the 100,000 troops in Kaifeng Mansion are still waiting to be killed?

If you don't want to be killed, then you can only go as the best policy, or negotiate peace and beg for mercy......

Go, now is not the time. Zhao Kai's East China Sea Kingdom was not removed, and Xuzhou's gold and silver mountains were not removed. How could he run away from Guanzhong?

Without Jinshan Yinshan, how can Zhao Huan go to Guanzhong to engage in retro? Will the gang of bully landlords in Guanzhong give him the land? When the time comes, don't surrender to the Great Zhou Republic.

And to delay the time in Kaifeng Mansion until the completion of the two major tasks of withdrawing from the East China Sea and transporting gold from Xuzhou, Zhao Huan will have to use some delaying tactics.

Not long after Zhao Huan returned to the Chongzheng Hall dejectedly, his teacher Geng Nanzhong brought good news.

"Your Majesty, Zheng Yinian, the nephew of the Queen Mother, was put back to Kaifeng Mansion by Wu Yiyong."

"Oh." Zhao Huan responded, "He and Wu Yiyong have a little kin, and it's not strange that Wu Yiyong doesn't kill him." ”

"Your Majesty," Geng Nanzhong suppressed his voice, "He returned to Kaifeng Mansion with Wu Yiyong's entrustment!" ”

"Entrusted?" Zhao Huan was stunned, and immediately raised his head from a policy and looked at Geng Nanzhong - the strategy he was looking at was written by Shen Huiyuan, and Zhao Huan had no heart to preside over the palace examination. So I wanted to let Huiyuan be the champion directly, so I asked people to send Shen Hui's article to see.

"Your Majesty," Geng Nanzhong said, "Zheng Yinian has been entrusted by Wu Yiyong to explore the conditions of our peace talks. ”

"What?" Zhao Huan looked at Geng Nanzhong, "Wu Yiyong wants to make peace?" ”

"Yes!" Geng Nanzhong nodded, "Your Majesty, this opportunity is rare!" ”

"No, no......" Zhao Huan shook his head, "There are still millions of Eastern Thieves on the north bank of the Yellow River, why should Eastern Thieves rush to negotiate peace?" ”

"It's not that the thief is in a hurry to negotiate peace," Geng Nanzhong said, "but Wu Yiyong wants to negotiate peace." ”

"What is Wu Yiyong anxious about?" Zhao Huan asked.

"Of course, I'm in a hurry to get the first credit!" Geng Nanzhong analyzed, "Wu Yiyong is the eldest son of Wu Haogu, it is said that he joined the army at the age of thirteen to kill people, and it has been more than ten years of military career, and he has made great contributions repeatedly, which is much stronger than today's head of state Wu Yijiu......"

"He wants to compete with Wu Yijiu for the throne?" Zhao Huan took a breath, as if he saw some big opportunity, "Will there be a fight?" ”

The good thing of the two martial arts cannibalism, Zhao Song has already looked forward to it, but Zhao Huan is still not giving up.

"Your Majesty," Geng Nanzhong shook his head, "Wu Haogu is not dead......

"It's a pity!" Zhao Huan sighed, "Then what chance is there?" ”

"Your Majesty, the head of the East Thief has a term...... Wu Yijiu came to power in a by-election, and the remaining two years of Wu Haogu's second term as head of state remained. In other words, at the end of this year, the East Thief will elect the head of state again. If Wu Yiyong can make a great contribution, it is very likely that he will be elected as the head of state! ”

In fact, the Senate and the election of the head of state of Zhou do not talk about meritorious deeds - Wu Yiyong's merits can win him the rank of general and the highest rank of the founding father, and perhaps he can also get a large piece of land as a reward (private land), but it has nothing to do with being a veteran or head of state.

And Wu Yiyong is still young, and he will not choose to retire from the army to elect a veteran at all - the active soldiers of the Zhou State cannot run for the patriarch and the head of state!

For Wu Yiyong, the dean of the Knight Academy and the military envoy are the positions he will seek next. Then he will be elected as a veteran step by step, and then serve one or two terms as the secretary of the military department. After that, he will challenge for the position of chief patriarch...... It's all ten years from now.

By that time, Wu Yijiu also had two and a half terms last night, and it was time for the head of state to be replaced.

Therefore, Wu Yiyong is not in a hurry to negotiate peace at all now, and he does not have the authority to formally negotiate peace with the Great Song Dynasty. He was nothing more than a legion overseer, not a secretary of the republican government.

However, he has the right to negotiate with the enemy for military purposes – such as persuasion to surrender and deceiving the enemy under the pretext of negotiation are "military purposes".

The negotiation with the Kaifeng Imperial Court was actually a deceptive tactic.

Wu Yiyong needs to use this means to create conditions for the capture and consolidation of Chen Liu!

He only had more than 27,000 people on hand, although it was enough to break through Chenliu, but it was not easy to be attacked by the Kaifeng defenders during the siege.

Therefore, using peace talks to deceive Zhao Huan and make him stand still is the best strategy.

And after breaking through Chenliu, Wu Yiyong also had to make long-term preparations in Chenliu. It was quite time-consuming, including repairing the city and collecting military rations.

In this process, it is ideal that the Song army in Kaifeng Mansion can remain unmoved.

"Geng Qing," Zhao Huan asked after thinking, "What benefits should we give to the East Thief?" ”

"I'm afraid Hebei is going to be cut out!" Geng Nanzhong said, "Dengzhou, Laizhou, Weizhou, Qingzhou and the eastern part of Mizhou on Jingdong East Road are afraid that they can't be saved...... However, the territory in the east of the river should be preserved as much as possible. Even if you give a few more coins, otherwise Guanzhong will lose its barrier. ”

"How much land to mow?" Zhao Huan's face ached, "It's too much, right?" ”

Geng Nanzhong shook his head and said, "Then just mention Hebei...... In fact, this is also our strategy to delay the army, and it can be delayed for a while. ”