On November 22, the eleventh year of Kang Mazi in the Qing Dynasty, Wang Xu and his entourage, the second wave of negotiation envoys sent by the Qing Imperial Court, finally arrived at the Wuchang River. According to Kang Mazi's instructions, Wang Xu and the others did not directly enter Wuchang City to contact the Wu army, but came to Hanyang City, Hanyang Prefecture, which was facing Wu Jun across the river.

There is no drum music, some are just full of devastation, there is no laughter, some are just a gloomy mist, worried, even Kang Mazi's cousin Yue Le and Kang Mazi's cousin Chani, are all up and down in their hearts, I don't know what kind of punishment Kang Mazi will give themselves - so many defeats in one breath and loss of so many state capitals, lands and troops in one breath, and finally Wuchang City, which has heavy guards and impregnable fortifications, is also lost with the city and the army, Tu Hai, Yue Le and the others said that they didn't dare to dream that Kang Mazi would spare them.

Sure enough, after Wang Xu landed on the shore, he immediately unfolded the holy decree on the dock and read it out in public, scolding Tu Hai and Yue Le and others for losing their city and land, losing their teachers and humiliating the country. However, when the decision on the handling of Tuhai and others was finally announced, Kang Mazi's holy decree suddenly changed its tone, and gave Tuhai, Chani and Cai Yurong a very light punishment - exempt from all official titles, suspend the crime, and still retain the original post to make meritorious service!

Although Kang Mazi's decision was unexpected, it was also among the several possible consequences expected by Tuhai and Cai Yurong and other officialdom veterans - at present, the elite of the Qing army has been completely lost, and the outstanding generals have been swept away by the Wu army, all relying on the Yangtze River natural danger and superior sailors to survive, in this case, it is almost impossible for Xiao Mazi to cut off the heads of Tuhai and Cai Yurong and others, but it is not so easy to find a suitable person to replace, Therefore, we can only temporarily keep Tuhai and Cai Yurong and other lackeys who can still fight some battles and are familiar with the enemy's situation, stabilize the Yangtze River defense line for the time being, and then find a way to slowly replace them.

The only thing that surprised people was Kang Mazi's treatment of Yue Le, for Yue Le, the only commander in the Qing army who had the ability to compete with Aobai, Kang Mazi not only did not consider reuse, entrusted the Yangtze River defense line to him, and even did not treat Tuhai, Chani and Cai Yurong lightly, but was exempted from all official positions on the spot, and sent back to the capital for trial with the mission of the Zongren Mansion! As for the excuse, it is natural that Yue Le escaped from the battle of Wuchang, causing the soldiers and civilians of the city to surrender to the Wu army together.

After listening to Kang Mazi's holy decree, Tuhai, Chani, Cai Yurong and others naturally received amnesty, and kowtowed again and again to thank him, but Yue Le was tearful, his forehead was on the ground, his whole body trembled, and he couldn't say a word for a long time. At this time, among the Qing troops lined up on the dock to greet Qincha, an earth-shaking voice suddenly erupted, "Wronged! Wronged! ”

"Lord Qincha, Lord An, he has been wronged! He didn't escape, he was the last one in our Qing army to withdraw across the Yangtze River, he didn't escape! ”

"Lord Chincha, the minions can testify! When Prince An withdrew across the Yangtze River, the servants were by Prince An's side, and it was the old man who couldn't find Tu Zhongtang and couldn't take over the command of the whole army, and then ordered Prince An to retreat, and Prince An did not escape! The slave just arrived in the lobby of the Criminal Department, and when he arrived at the Dali Temple and went to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, it was also this sentence! Lord An, he is good! ”

"The last general can also testify that Prince An was the last to withdraw, and he didn't escape from the battle!"

Hearing the indignant roars of the Qing army soldiers, Yue Le couldn't help but burst into tears, Tuhai, Chani and Cai Yurong and others felt ashamed, and they didn't even dare to take a breath when they lowered their heads, and Wang Xu, who read out the holy decree, also had a gloomy expression, and said to Yue Le in a low voice: "Lord An, for your own sake, you'd better come forward to stop it." The rumors about you spread by Wu Sangui's old thief have now spread to the capital, and the more the army shouts for you, the more unfavorable it will be to you. ”

Yue Lehu's body was shocked, and he finally understood why his cousin was so anxious to collect his military power, and why his cousin was so anxious to recall himself to the capital. In desperation, Yue Le had no choice but to stand up, waved his hand with tears in his eyes to stop the army from shouting grievances, and shouted loudly: "Brothers, your favor for Xiao Wang, Xiao Wang has received it, but the holy decree is like a mountain, and Xiao Wang has to obey the edict. You can rest assured, the current Kangxi Emperor is a saint and a martial artist, and Xiao Wang has come to the capital to explain the truth to him, and the saint will naturally return Xiao Wang an innocent ....... ”

After a long time of bitter persuasion, the voices of the Qing soldiers finally calmed down, and were replaced by low sobs and choked voices. Yue Le, Tuhai and others were afraid of another accident, so they had to quickly welcome Wang Xu, Xiong Cilu and others into Hanyang City, set up a banquet to entertain Wang Xu and his party, and secretly agreed to escort Yue Le to the capital for trial when it was dark the next day, so as not to provoke a mutiny in public.

In view of the current political and military decline of the Qing Dynasty, at the banquet for Wang Xu and others, there was no laughter or laughter, even the number one courtesan in the Qing Dynasty Kong Sizhen had no interest in showing off her charm and mobilizing emotions, wearing a guard uniform, honestly sitting next to Xiong Cixu and tasting wine and food, acting like a puppet, so that Cai Yurong and his son, Chani and Yang Jie, who had long heard of her fame, were very disappointed.

After three rounds of drinking, the topic naturally turned to the purpose of Wang Xu and others' trip, and when Wang Xu briefly introduced his plans to envoy Wu Jun on this trip, Tu Hai was the first to say: "Wang Tangguan, forgive your official for bluntly speaking, I am afraid that your mission will not be easy to handle, Wu Sangui is an old thief who is deceitful and greedy, and the possible surname that can agree to Wang Tangguan's two requests is probably very small." ”

"The lower officials also know that this mission is difficult to do, but there is no way, the emperor's order is difficult to disobey, and the lower officials can only do their best." Wang Xu said with a sad face: "The greatest wish of the lower officials now is to impress Wu Fan with words, ask him to understand the difficulties of the imperial court, and to extend the payment period of the general's salary, grain and grass and ransom for a period of time, and not to force the emperor and the imperial court to smash the pot and sell iron, and be overstretched." As for whether Wu Fan could be persuaded to agree to release our prisoners of war ahead of schedule, to be honest, Xia Guan was not at all sure. ”

"If it's just to persuade Wu Sangui to give grace to the old thief, this is a bit hopeful." Tu Hai nodded and analyzed: "Wu Sangui's old thief is now at the end of his crossbow, and he urgently needs time to recuperate, as long as Wang Tangguan speaks properly and explains the reason, I believe that Wu Sangui's old thief will still make appropriate concessions." ”

"Not necessarily!" A discordant voice sounded, and he said categorically: "According to what I have seen, it is very likely that the old thief Wu Sangui will not even agree to this request, and will only ask our army to fulfill it under the pretext that my Qing Dynasty has signed a peace treaty!" Everyone looked for a sound, but saw that it was Kong Sizhen who said these words and brought back to the front line from the capital this time, preparing to return Tuhai's staff - Zhou Changzi Peigong!

"Pei Gong, how can you talk like that?" Tu Hai said quite unhappily: "The situation of the imperial court is here, and the situation that Wu Sangui's old thief urgently needs time to recuperate is also placed here, and a little grace of one or two years will be of great benefit to both parties, why didn't Wu Sangui's old thief agree?" ”

"As a matter of common sense, it should be." Zhou Peigong said gloomily: "But if Wu Sangui old thief thinks deeper, he will definitely not agree to this request." ”

Although he didn't like Zhou Peigong and Kong Sizhen and others to be embarrassed to do things for the fly camp dogs, they basically didn't talk to Zhou Peigong much on the way south, but when it came to his own mission, Wang Xu still rarely used a good tone to Zhou Peigong, and asked: "Mr. Peigong, please tell me more." ”

"Back to Wang Tangguan, in fact, this matter can be summed up in one sentence - the longer the salary, grain and grass and ransom promised by our army are paid, the more unfavorable it will be to Wu Sangui's old thief!" Zhou Peigong said in a dark voice: "Wu Sangui's old thief got the help of Lu Yifeng's thief, and killed my Qing Dynasty by surprise with a new firearm made by KitKat silver skills, severely damaged the main force of my Qing Dynasty's elite, and occupied a strategic advantage in a short period of time. But even so, the manpower and material resources that Wu Sangui's old thief can control are still far from being the opponents of my Qing court. ”

"In this case, if Wu Sangui old thief agrees to the grace period, even if it is one more year of grace, my Qing Dynasty can also get one more year of preparation time, train and equip a million more troops, and re-reverse the advantage of strength. However, if Wu Sangui's old thief refuses to give grace, then our Qing court will have to pay compensation for such a huge amount of silver and food within a year, and when forming and training a new army, it will be overstretched and unable to quickly rebuild the army, while Wu Sangui's old thief can use this money and grain to quickly form and equip more thief armies, expand the military superiority, and suddenly make a difficulty, and continue to grasp the strategic initiative, which is as easy as a finger! ”

"Wang Tang Guan, Tu Zhongtang, my lords, you say, if Wu Sangui old thief takes this into account, is it possible to make concessions in terms of payment deadlines?"

Wang Xu, Tu Hai and the others changed color on their faces together, Wang Xu was surprised, and inevitably looked at Zhou Peigong a little impressed. After pondering for a while, Wang Xu said slowly: "In this way, the envoy of this official to Wu Fan may be even more difficult than imagined. The only hope, that is, the hope that everyone in the Wu Clan did not see this. ”

"Among Wu Sangui's old thief shogunate, maybe other people can't see it, but there is one person who can definitely see this!" Zhou Peigong replied categorically: "If Wang Tangguan doesn't want to live up to the emperor's order and make Wu Sangui's old thief agree to the grace period, he must pass this level first!" ”

"Who?" Wang Xu raised his eyebrows.

"Wang Tangguan, your friend." Zhou Peigong replied with a wry smile: "Lu Yifeng." ”

"Three good? How can it be? Wang Xu was taken aback. Over there, Tuhai, Chani, Cai Yurong and others also laughed out loud together, "Is Mr. Pei Gong too exaggerated, just with Lu Yifeng's sesame mung bean-sized thief prefect, can he have such a vision?" ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you continue to despise Lu Yifeng, a thief, then you are ready to continue to suffer." Zhou Peigong said gloomily: "Lu Yifeng's dog thief's attainments in learning firearms in the West, let's not talk about him, let's just talk about his ability in military strategy - please think about it carefully, in the decisive battle of Guizhou, who was the divine soldier who descended from heaven and suddenly blocked the retreat of my Qing army?" In the Great War of Guangxi, who was it who surrounded the coalition forces of the three provinces by surprise, and at the end of the war, he skillfully used his tongue to surrender the coalition forces of the three provinces? Later, who was the weak enemy and the strong, and captured the prince of Pingnan with shameless tricks? Who proposed to attack the east and the south to help Wu Sangui's old thief break through the impregnable Wuchang town in one fell swoop? ”

"One may be a coincidence, two times may be said to be luck, three times may be said to be a miracle, but four times in a row, Lu Yifeng's dog thief has grasped the right time and place under impossible circumstances, grasped everything that can be used, and completed miracles that others dare not imagine - such a traitor, everyone, do you dare to underestimate him?"

Tuhai, Chani and the others had nothing to say, but Xiong Cixu, the deputy envoy of the Qincha, who had never seen Lu Fatzi's face, but had always been extremely hostile and hostile to Lu Fatzi, sneered and said, "Even so, what? Why did Mr. Zhou conclude that Lu Yifeng, the traitor, must be able to see this and think so far? What evidence does Mr. Chow have? ”

"I really don't have any proof." Zhou Peigong shook his head and said in a deep voice: "But I have an intuition that this dog thief must be able to do this." Judging from the fact that he gave up the pursuit of our army's defeated soldiers and Xiaolu attacked Bajiang City, this dog thief has a terrible long-term vision! ”

"Huh......." Xiong Cilu laughed, and was about to refute when Yue Le, who was about to be escorted to the capital for trial the next day, suddenly spoke, "I agree with Mr. Zhou's opinion, and I also think that Lu Yifeng's dog thief can see this!" ”

"And what else I can tell everybody is." Yue Le glanced around at everyone and said slowly: "In fact, whether it is Ao Bai or Ji Bi Long and Zhong Tang, they have already issued a warning to Xiao Wang, thinking that this Lu Yifeng is both civil and military, and has far-reaching ideas, if he can't be used by the Qing Dynasty, he will definitely be my number one rival in the Qing Dynasty in the future!" The harm may even be above Wu Sangui's old thief! Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think of the eyes of Ao Bai and Ji Zhongtang compared to you? ”

"I also agree with Wang Ye An and Mr. Zhou." Kong Sizhen said timidly: "In fact, the emperor is also very vigilant about this Lu Yifeng, thinking that if this Lu Yifeng cannot be used by my Qing Dynasty, he will become a huge trouble for my Qing Dynasty in the future." ”

Kong Sizhen also moved out Kang Mazi's words, and the generals of the Qing army present didn't dare to say anything contemptuous of Lu Fatzi, and Xiong Cixu didn't dare to refute either, but just glanced at Kong Sizhen, and the vinegar in his chest surged. And Wang Xu was both shocked and faintly proud, secretly praising his eyes, his only confidant Lu Fatzi is indeed a pillar of the material - it's just that the annihilation of the DPRK and China is rampant, and Kang Mazi deliberately shielded and connived at the annihilation of his only confidant, so he forced his good friend to Wu Sangui's side.

Proud, each is his own master, Wang Xu, who is loyal to Kang Mazi, did not dare to take it lightly, and hurriedly asked: "Mr. Peigong, since you have expected that Wu Fan's side will definitely not agree to the grace time, then in your opinion, how should this official act, so that he can move Wu Fan to make concessions at the negotiation table and agree to the grace period?" ”

"Of course there is." Zhou Peigong replied confidently: "But we must not expect to achieve the goal at the negotiation table, we must talk to the old thief Wu Sangui face to face, make demands face to face, and make the old thief Wu Sangui understand the righteousness, understand the reason, induce him to benefit, and make him accept." Wu Sangui's old thief's surname is indecisive and his ears are extremely soft, and he has the greatest chance of success in negotiating with him in person, and he can avoid Wu thief's lackeys from interfering arbitrarily and destroying our army's plans. ”

"Then how should we negotiate directly with Wu Fan?" Wang Xu asked.

"It's very simple, take advantage of Wu Sangui's greedy psychology of the old thief." Zhou Peigong said with a sneer: "Although the old thief Wu Sangui has the upper hand now, he still has two weaknesses, one is that he urgently needs a truce now and doesn't want to fight anymore; The second is his greed, fearing that the Qing court will tear up the covenant and refuse to pay the military salaries and food promised by Kupilon. Lord Wang only needs to grasp these two points, make a big fuss about the situation, and point out that when Wu thief's lackey opposes the grace period, he is just deliberately sabotaging the armistice and peace treaty for his own selfish interests, and it is not difficult to shake Wu Sangui's old thief's determination. ”

"This ......." Wang Xu was embarrassed and said, "This old man is the worst at it. ”

"Lord Wang, why don't you take Mr. Zhou across the river and ask him to help you persuade Wu Sangui to be an old thief?" Yue Le proposed: "Mr. Xiao Wang Guanzhou is a scholar, resourceful, and eloquent, and can speak well, and his ability to argue is unparalleled, take him across the river to help negotiate, I believe it will be successful." ”

"Take Mr. Zhou Peigong across the river?" Wang Xu was a little tempted.

"If Lord Wang does not give up, he is willing to serve." Zhou Peigong couldn't wait to say: "I have been good at tongue arguments since I was a child, and I have never met an opponent so far, so I am willing to cross the river to debate with the many lackeys of Wu thieves, and help Lord Wang achieve his goal, serve the country, and be loyal to the saint." ”

"Pei Gong, how sure are you?" Tu Hai also hoped that his henchmen and lackeys who he had personally selected would fight for him, and he couldn't wait to ask.

"I dare not say that I am ten percent sure, but I am still seven or eight percent sure." Zhou Peigong said with great confidence: "And there is another advantage of lowly positions, that is, even if the Wu thief lackeys extend the payment time of military salaries and food is not good for them, they do not dare to say it in public, otherwise, they do not want to abide by the armistice and the treaty, and are ready to tear up the armistice and restart the war at any time, so that Wu Sangui's old thief will lose credibility in the world." Wu thief's lackey throws a mouse bogey, Wu Sangui's old thief is indecisive, and students can naturally show their strengths. ”

"Since this is the case, let's bother Mr. Lao Peigong to talk to Xia Guan Guojiang." Wang Xu was finally tempted and sincerely invited: "Mr. Wanwang Peigong is planning for the country, don't care about Wang Xu's sin of underestimating Mr. on the way." After Mr. Pei Gong is finished, the official will play my emperor and ask for merit for Mr. ”

"Dare to disobey your orders?" Zhou Peigong agreed.

Seeing the smug look on Zhou Peigong's handsome face, Kong Sizhen, who knew that Zhou Peigong was eloquent, first had a little hope, and suddenly had a little expectation, and said secretly in his heart: "Zhou Chang's mouth is really good, Wu Gou's side is probably invincible, but if Wu Sangui's old thief moves out Lu Yifeng, who is also eloquent, and sings against Zhou Chang in public, then there will be a good show." ”

"Three good." Wang Xu also secretly said in his heart: "We can finally meet again, but this time, we meet as opponents, will you show mercy to my subordinates, follow my advice, and return anyway?" ”

(To be continued)