A year later, Du Fuwei died violently in Chang'an, and the cause of death is unknown. It is said that Du Fuwei is a good elixir, and he died of mica poisoning by mistake, but he is afraid that there is poisoning, but it is difficult to say how to poison.

After Xiao Mo in the south of the Yangtze River became emperor, he set up hundreds of officials, all in accordance with the old practice of the Liang Dynasty. He followed his father Xiao Cong as Emperor Xiaojing, his grandfather Xiao Yan as the King of Hejian Zhonglie, and his father Xiao Xuan as King Wenxian. Feng Dong Jingzhen was the king of Jin, Lei Shimeng was the king of Qin, Zheng Wenxiu was the king of Chu, Xu Xuanche was the king of Yan, Wan Zan was the king of Lu, Zhang Xiu was the king of Qi, and Yang Daosheng was the king of Song.

The generals of the Sui Dynasty, Zhang Zhenzhou and Wang Renshou, attacked Xiao Milling and could not win. Later, when he learned of the fall of the Sui Dynasty, he and Ning Changzhen and others led Lingnan Prefecture to surrender to Xiao Milling. At that time, Lin Shihong possessed Jiangnan, and Xiao Mo sent Su Huer to attack Yuzhang County, sent Yang Daosheng to capture Nanjun, and Zhang Xiu slightly fixed the Lingbiao. To the Three Gorges in the west, to Jiaozhi in the south, and to the Hanshui in the north, all belong to Xiao Milling, with a force of 400,000.

Xiao Miao's strength already has the right to rule with Li Tang; However, Xiao Mo is narrow-minded and jealous of people who are stronger than him. He was just a county commander before the incident, and it was only because he was a member of the Xiliang royal family that he was elected as the leader.

After he became emperor, these elders were also named kings of the word and held the military power in their hands. Moreover, at that time, the generals were good at military violence, and Xiao Mo was afraid that he would not be able to control it in the future, so he came up with a strange attention and threatened to suspend the army in order to farm in order to remove the generals from military power.

If it was a time of peace, it would be fine, but now is the time when the world is in chaos, and everyone in the world thinks that he has few soldiers and horses, so this King of Liang dares to take such a break from the army and return to the peasants.

The younger brother of the great Sima Dong Jingzhen is a general, he is disgruntled, plotting to cause chaos, and was killed by Xiao Mo because of the incident. Dong Jingzhen was guarding Changsha at that time, and Xiao Mo wrote a letter to pardon him and return him to Jiangling.

Dong Jingzhen was afraid of being implicated, so he sent an envoy to Jianghuai Li Xiaogong to surrender to the Tang Dynasty.

Xiao Mo sent Zhang Xiu to attack Dong Jingzhen, and Dong Jingzhen wrote to Zhang Xiu saying: "Peng Yue the year before last, killed Han Xin in previous years. 'Haven't you heard?' Why fight each other? ”

How do you know that Zhang Xiu didn't answer at all, and marched into the siege. Dong Jingzhen was not an opponent who broke through and was killed by his subordinates.

Xiao Mo promoted Zhang Xiu to Shang Shuling. Zhang Xiu has always been unpopular, and at this time he is even more arrogant, and when he meets people, he says that if there was no one, the Liang Dynasty would have existed a long time ago.

Xiao Mo was angry and jealous, so he took advantage of the court meeting to suddenly kill Zhang Xiu. Xiao Mill has a generous temperament on the outside but suspicious on the inside, and is jealous of those who win over himself, so the ministers and old generals are suspicious and afraid, and often rebel; Xiao Milling can't be banned. After such a series of tosses, Liang Chao became weaker and weaker.

The Liang Dynasty was in such a mess, and two forces were engaged with him. One is Li Xiaogong, who accepted Dong Jingzhen's surrender, but Dong Jingzhen was eliminated before he could make a move; The other is Li Jing and Li Yaoshi, who occupied Nanyang.

Li Xiaogong and Li Shiji returned to Chang'an, stated this time to Emperor Li Yuan in person, and strongly demanded that troops be raised to attack the Liang Dynasty.

Li Yuan thought so, so he ordered Li Xiaogong to be the head of the Jingxiang Road march, and led the twelve armies of water and land to attack Xiao Milling from Yiling. However, Li Yuan appointed Li Shiji as the chief historian, and thought that Li Xiaogong was not very proficient in military affairs, "the appointment of the three armies, one is entrusted with performance." Li Shiji has actually become the commander-in-chief of the three armed services.

When they were about to send troops, Li Jing also discovered Xiao Miao's weakness, and hurriedly wrote to Cheng Zhijie to make ten strategies for leveling Liang, asking to send a large army south to attack Liang.

Cheng Zhijie received the report, and immediately summoned all the civil and military forces to discuss countermeasures, and the generals screamed and asked for orders to fight, and Cen Wenwen also said that the current Great Demon Country has enough food and grass, which is enough to support a big war.

So Cheng Zhijie ordered Li Jing to be the chief manager, Niu Tong, Xiong Kuohai; Zhou Shaoji, the general of the naval army who had been stationed in Donglai, was also transferred, and they sent a total of 50,000 troops to attack Xiao Miao.

In September, Li Yuan took the lead in completing the preparations, sent the Bashu soldiers, and led the 12 commanders of Li Xiaogong and Li Shiji from Kuizhou (now Fengjiedong, Sichuan) down the river to the east, and took Li Ming, the king of Lujiang, out of Xiangzhou (now Xiangyang, Hubei), and Shitian Shikang from Qianzhou (now Yuanling, Hunan), to attack Xiao Milling.

However, there was an accident when they came to Kuizhou, and Li Ming, the king of Lujiang, failed to come to meet in time. Li Xiaogong was furious and wanted to send someone to bring Li Ying to justice. Li Shiji stepped forward to defend Li Ming, and personally went to Li Ying to find out the situation.

When Li Shiji arrived in Jinzhou, he learned that he met the barbarian Deng Shiluo who led tens of thousands of people to live in the valley, refusing to accept the indoctrination, and Li Ming, the king of Lujiang, entered the bargain and was defeated one after another. Li Shiji, the king of Lujiang, gave advice and defeated the barbarians in one fell swoop, and captured many prisoners. So he successfully passed through Jinzhou and arrived in Kuizhou.

Only then did Li Xiaogong gather all his men and horses and launch an attack on the Liang Dynasty; But at this time, because Xiao Mo controlled the danger block, he was blocked again and could not move forward.

At the same time, Xiao Mo asked people to buy off the barbarian leader Ran Zhao of Xichuan to rebel against the Tang Dynasty and lead the crowd to invade Kuizhou; Li Xiaogong did not dare to suffer the enemy on his back, and hurriedly led the Tang army back to the division to fight. As a result, these barbarians galloped across the mountains and forests, defeating the advancing Tang army.

Li Shiji led 800 soldiers to attack his camp and break the barbarians. Ran Zhao had just won the Tang army and was complacent, when he suddenly heard that his hometown was occupied by the enemy, so he hurried home without saying a word. Li Shiji set up an ambush at a dangerous place, killed Zhao Ze in a battle, and captured more than 5,000 people.

At the same time, Xu Shiji saw that the land of Ba and Shu was attached to the Tang Dynasty not long ago, and the tribes were not very stable, in order to relieve his worries, he persuaded Li Xiaogong to summon the sons and daughters of the chiefs of the tribes to Kuizhou, and awarded official positions according to the merits of their talents, and placed them on the left and right. Soon stabilized the political situation in Ba and Shu.

When the Tang army was unable to advance or retreat in Kuizhou, Li Jing led the army to the south suddenly, and Zhou Shaoji, the general of the navy, suddenly appeared in Xiakou and asked to see his own uncle Zhou Faming, the head of Xiakou.

At the beginning, Zhou Fashang was seriously ill and was dispatched by Emperor Yang of Sui to conquer Goguryeo three times; As a result, he spurted blood and died before he could set off. The eldest son, Zhou Shaoji, went on an expedition on behalf of his father, and finally persuaded the whole group to surrender to the Great Demon Kingdom.

The second son, Zhou Shaofan, and his uncle Zhou Faming helped Ling to return to his hometown. Later, Zhou Faming ordered his son to attack the land of Sanzhou, surrendered Xiao Miao, and was ordered to garrison in Xiakou.

When Zhou Faming heard that a man named Zhou Shaoji came to visit, he couldn't help but exclaim. I heard that this nephew of mine joined the Great Demon Country, and he is still the head of the Jiaolong General of the Great Demon Country. Although his reputation was not obvious later, the development and construction of the Great Demon Country's water army had a lot to do with him.

It seems that in the past, he and his brother underestimated him too much. However, Da Liang has nothing to do with the Great Demon Kingdom, how could he come to Xiakou for no reason?

Zhou Faming's three sons, Zhou Shaode, Zhou Xiaojie, and Zhou Shao, entered the house, saw their father in a daze, and hurriedly asked, "Daddy, why are you stunned?" What's the bother? ”

Zhou Faming shook his head and said, "It's not a worry, it's a good thing to talk about it; Your eldest brother Zhou Shaoji is here to see me. ”

"Big brother?" The three brothers were stunned, they had been separated from Zhou Shaoji for too long, and they had already forgotten the eldest brother who was always a little no.

"Since the eldest brother is here, why didn't my father invite him in quickly?"

Zhou Faming laughed and said, "Yes! Right! Then I lost my mind. My nephew is here, how can I, who is an uncle, avoid it? Someone, go and invite him in! ”

After a short time, there was the sound of footsteps outside, and the soldiers brought in a burly man with a face line like a knife, a resolute face, and radiant eyes. The man strode and clanged, revealing an irresistible majesty.

"Big ......" Zhou Faming almost thought that his eldest brother had been reborn, he rubbed his eyes vigorously and finally determined that this was his nephew Zhou Shaoji. As the saying goes, don't be impressed for three days, what has happened to make this cowardly nephew of his own change as great.

"Nephew Shaoji, see uncle!" Zhou Shaoji came to Zhou Faming's front and bowed down.

Zhou Faming came to his senses at this time, and hurriedly stepped forward to help Zhou Shaoji up and said, "Virtuous nephew, please get up, virtuous nephew, please get up!" ”

Zhou Shaoji got up and greeted the three brothers next to him, Zhou Shaode, Zhou Xiaojie, and Zhou Shaoze. The three of them were also very surprised by Zhou Shaoji's changes, the current eldest brother is no longer the cowardly eldest brother he used to be, but more like his eldest uncle Zhou Fashang.

Everyone sat down, and Zhou Faming asked with a smile: "Shaoji, I heard that you have been in the Great Demon Kingdom all these years, and you are still the head of their Jiaolong Generals, how are you?" It's going well. ”

Zhou Shaoji nodded and said: "The Demon King Chitose has far-reaching vision, which is by no means comparable to ordinary people, and he appoints people on the basis of merit; Most of the talents under his command have entered the carp that has crossed the river. Shao Ji did not manage the navy under his men; It can be regarded as a small achievement. ”

Zhou Faming nodded and said, "Oh, can Shaoji reveal to me how many warships there are in your Great Demon Kingdom, and how many big ships like Xiang Huanglong and Qingque are there?" ”

Zhou Shaoji smiled slightly: "It's not a secret, there's nothing you can't say." However, the ships of our Great Demon Kingdom are divided into landing transport ships and warships; It's different from the previous grading. The largest is the Dragon-class landing transport ship, it is 148 steps long, 60 steps wide, the ship has four layers, the nine masts on the ship can hang twelve sails, the anchor weight is several thousand catties, and it takes two or three hundred people to set sail. It can transport 5000 troops and horses at a time. We don't have many of these big ships, about 10 of them. ”

Zhou Faming and his three sons were stunned and said, "How is this possible? How can such a big ship move? ”

"Our boat uses a stiff sail structure with struts on the canopy surface. Although this type of sail is heavier and more laborious to lift, it has a very high wind efficiency and increases the speed of the boat. And the mast is not set up with a fixed crosswder, which adapts to the sudden change of wind and clouds at sea, and the adjustment and turning of the foot are flexible, and can effectively use the multi-faceted wind.

Zhou Faming said: "If there is no wind at sea, or the wind and waves are too strong, it is possible to destroy the sails, so what? ”