(a)

Your letter to Liu Yan reached Tongcheng along with the news of Yantangguan's mutiny and self-reliance.

The government and the opposition were shocked.

After reading the letter you wrote, Liu Yan was frightened in his heart on the one hand, and smoked on the other hand. He now remembered Lei Shicheng's foresight to speak for you three times, and wanted to summon Lei Shicheng into the city again to consult his opinion, but Lei Shicheng reported that Lei Shicheng was drenched in heavy rain on the way back to the army, and he was now sick and could not be a director.

Liu Yan knew that Lei Shicheng was dissatisfied with his early treatment and didn't care about his illness, but he couldn't turn his face with Lei Shicheng because of this, so he could only comfort Lei Shicheng, quickly convened the courtiers to deal with it, and made up his own mind.

He doesn't want to go to war with you. In terms of saving his life, Liu Yan's mind is still not confused at all. He saw that the Khan King and the many relatives and daughters of Dasuo were far away in the depths of the grassland, and between them and you, thousands of miles apart, and hundreds of thousands of elite cavalry were in between, you had the ability to run thousands of miles to complete the raid and robbery, and the city was closer to you, that is, a distance of one or two days.

However, if he doesn't fight at all, he will let you support the army and stand on your own, and he also feels really unwilling.

Therefore, he decided to make the garrison of Huaizhou fight a small battle with you, let you suffer some losses, save a little face for yourself, and then be magnanimous and acquiesce in your self-reliance with dignity on the grounds of the overall situation of the northern front.

(b)

Xue Yunfei, the general of Huaizhou, and Yan Fangchengyuan are all the way, relying on the hereditary lord and the good management relationship in the court on weekdays, he has won the important position of Huaizhou Jiedu envoy who guards the fertile land, the local wealth, and the important status, and greatly scrapes the land. Over the years, he had a good relationship with Yan Fangcheng, and later the two families formed a family of sons and daughters, forming a force entrenched in the local area.

Since you killed Yan Fangcheng and captured Yantang Pass, he has been very nervous, for fear that you and Sun Zhanming will be out of control and attack Huaizhou again. But after you captured Yantang Pass, there was no further action, which made him greatly relieved.

He guessed that there were four reasons why you didn't move: first, you had not recovered from your injuries and had low energy; Second, you have recently incorporated a number of people, and you need to integrate internally; Third, you don't want to make a big splash too early, and you don't want to break with the Southern Han Dynasty immediately and start a full-scale war; Fourth, during the garrison of Qingfeng Village, Xue Yunfei took care of you a lot and connived at you, treated him with respect and preferential treatment, and you were willing to give Xue Yunfei a little face and let him go for the time being.

When Xue Yunfei was rejoicing that he could escape for the time being, Liu Shen's secret decree arrived. As soon as he saw that Liu Shen ordered him to lead his troops to attack Yantang Pass, Xue Yunfei's mind buzzed, and the luck in his heart suddenly turned into worry.

Xue Yunfei is your direct boss, he has been observing you for a long time, has a correct assessment of your skills, and knows that when he starts fighting, don't say one himself, ten himself is also given in vain. What's more, Sun Zhanming, the strongest general in the Huaizhou War Zone, also took refuge in you! Except for Sun Zhanming, most of these generals under him are mediocre, and even Sun Zhanming may not be able to beat him, let alone add one more to you.

Where is he willing to take the initiative to provoke you and set yourself on fire! But the king's order has to be obeyed, and it cannot be openly disobeyed, what should I do?

However, Xue Yunfei is cunning and scheming, and after a night of contemplation, he feels that Huaizhou is no longer a good place now, and thirty-six plans are the best. He came up with a way to get out.

(c)

The next day, he came to the Yamen of the Jiedu Envoy, pretended to begin to arrange all kinds of military affairs to crusade against Yantang Pass, denounced the various crimes of the rebels, and ordered the Huaizhou soldiers and horses to concentrate, or to attack according to the order, or to follow the order to deploy.

He deliberately selected the garrisons of Wuxian and Jinxian, where Sun Zhanming's old troops were more, and ordered them to be the vanguard, poured out of the nest, crusaded against Yantang, and took the lead in the battle, but at the same time, he secretly sent people to instigate and lobby Sun Zhanming's old troops, secretly passed the news to Sun Zhanming, and persuaded them to mutiny in front of the battle to join Sun Zhanming.

After the vanguard troops of the two counties set off, Xue Yunfei personally went to inspect the defense of Huaizhou City, made a diligent and heroic appearance, went to the city gates to comfort and encourage the defenders, inspected the deployment situation, organized the dispatch of materials, and prepared for offensive and defensive battles. At the same time, he secretly ordered his henchmen to pretend to be an assassin from Yantang Pass, and ambushed himself on the way back to the mansion from the barracks at night, staging a good scene of fake assassination.

After a quick fierce battle, Xue Yunfei deliberately let his henchmen stab himself, causing blood to flow all over the ground, and after being rescued and carried back to the mansion, he lay on the bed "unconscious" and could not be controlled.

The battle in Huaizhou suddenly lost the command of the main general, and the deputy general had to report to Liu Yan according to the truth, just when Xue Yunfei had not yet "woken up", the front line had already reported that the Yantang Xinhan Army took advantage of the air defense of the two counties to capture the two counties in one fell swoop, and flanked the vanguard of Huaizhou before and after, defeated the two armies with superior forces, part of the army fled back to Huaizhou, and part of the army surrendered to Yantang Pass after defeat.

(iv)

The battle of Huaizhou had an unfavorable start, Lei Shicheng continued to be "sick", Xue Yunfei was always "unconscious", and Liu Yan was even less confident in this battle.

Xue Yunfei was stabbed in the Huaizhou city wall with deep ditches, which made him even more frightened. He remembered your Qingliu Sect background. As a great disciple of the Qingliu Sect, you are likely to get the full support of the master, the Qingliu Sect is a mysterious century-old sect on the rivers and lakes, with many masters and unfathomable, your assassin can enter Huaizhou without knowing it, but you know that you can't sneak into the palace city of Dongcheng in the same way? With your own skills, it is not impossible to enter the royal city to capture the thief and capture the king.

Liu Yan's heart went up and down, and at night he ordered Miyagi to strengthen his vigilance, and in the midst of the heavy guards of many armor soldiers, he still tossed and turned, unable to sleep deeply, and immediately woke up as soon as there was a sound of wind and footsteps.

His favorite retainer Wuyang Hou looked at Liu Yan's frightened bird, speculated on Liu Yan's thoughts, and felt that he should not want to fight with you at this time, and should send him a step down in time.

Therefore, the Marquis of Wuyang united some courtiers to write to him, advising him, the king of Beji Khan is in front of the tiger, Liu Shen of the Northern Han Dynasty is coveting in the back, and the Rong ancestors are bent on taking advantage of the fire to rob, at this time it is really not appropriate for our dynasty to make new enemies. If the persecution is too much, you fall to Liu Shen, the situation will be difficult to manage, this time you and Sun Zhanming's mutiny, also for a reason, Yan Fangcheng is indeed a little bullied the two of you, a little offended the anger of the border soldiers, it can't be said that you are rebelling, the main thing is to seek justice from the royal court, it is not unforgivable, it is better to temporarily acquiesce to your self-reliance, let you first help the royal court in the north for a while to block the fierceness of the Beji cavalry and the capriciousness of the Rong ancestors, after all, your strength is still relatively weak, and it is difficult to become a big trouble for a while, When you kill the Northern Han and free up your hands, it's not too late to clean you up again.

Liu Yan had this step, and he also got off the donkey down the slope. So, the battle of Huaizhou, at the beginning, ended hastily.

(5)

Liu Yan replied to you in a letter, explaining the conflict in Huaizhou as a misunderstanding between the two armies caused by Xue Yunfei's subordinates who had close personal relations with Yan Fangcheng and wanted to seek an explanation for Yan Fangcheng's death. He will transfer Xue Yunfei to show the punishment of lax control, and at the same time punish Yan Fangcheng's infighting, and affirm that you will clean up the battlefield discipline for the royal court.

In order to appease the morale of the troops on the northern front, he also increased the reward and appeasement of your troops again. This time, he allowed you to inherit your father's title of Duke of Dingguo, received all of your father's original fiefdoms, conferred the rank of general of the protectorate, and authorized you to control the political and military affairs of Yantang Pass, Linshui Town, and Lingnan Towns Defense Zone; Sun Zhanming was named a first-class marquis and took over Yan Fangcheng's position as the chief soldier of Yantang Pass. Ding Youren was promoted to Duke of the Second Class. The generals of the various divisions accompanying the war also received rewards.

Since then, your support for the army in Lingnan has been tacitly accepted by the Southern Han court.

When the first yellow leaves of autumn fall, the various reorganization work in your fiefdom has been completed, your own military and political teams have been established, the situation has become stable, and your physical condition has further improved. So, you sent someone to take my uncle's family and me from Linshui to Yantangguan to live, so that the whole family could be reunited.

In this way, when I turned 16, I finally returned to the place where my father had been guarded during his lifetime.