Li Sheng was sleeping soundly in the hill behind the camp, but he didn't know that his men were making the whole camp a little noisy because they couldn't find it after the banquet was over. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"It's better that nothing happens to you." Everyone's hearts were worried, and the feeling of not being able to go up or down made them all have a suppressed heartache. Of course, they understood why they were like this - the incident that Huang Jing's son-in-law said inadvertently at the banquet made them take Li Sheng's safety more seriously than anything else in an instant.

"Sun Ce is dead." Huang Jing said with a smile at the time: "So Zhou Yu dissolved the pressure on Jiang Xia. The fight will not be able to be fought at least this year. ”

"How did he die?" Li Sheng himself knew about this matter through Luo Zhao, but he hadn't announced it to Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, and Shi Tao yet, so everyone who participated in the banquet was shocked by this: "He's still young, just a young man!" They were surprised to come up with something similar to Zhang Wu and Chen Sun, which may be a coincidence.

"Assassinated." Huang Jing seemed very satisfied with the shock on everyone's faces, and he smiled and spat out the final answer to this question: "He was killed by the doormen of Wu County's Taishou Xu Gong, who were killed by him, and when Sun Ce was on a trip to Huiji, they shot Sun Ce with a cold arrow, causing Sun Ce to be seriously injured, and he died not long after returning to the city. ”

"I see!" When everyone in the tent was still stunned by this shocking news, Shi Tao did quickly regain his composure and calmly said such a sentence. He was originally surprised with everyone, but in addition to being surprised, he remembered something, which made him quickly calm down his excitement.

For Shi Tao's rapid recovery, Huang Jing was a little unimaginable: "What? Aren't you surprised that Sun Ce was assassinated? ”

"Yes!" Shi Tao nodded affirmatively.

"Why?" Everyone's eyes turned to look at Shi Tao in unison, although this "why" was asked by Huang Jing, his question undoubtedly represented everyone's voice.

"I remembered that when I was with the lord and Kong Ming, the lord mentioned something." Shi Tao said with a smile.

"What's the matter?" The crowd asked again.

"The lord once talked about this Sun Ce, and said that this Sun Ce's personality is too hot, I am afraid that it will not last long, and its ending may be like what Cao Cao's number one strategist Guo Jia said: 'Walking among thousands of people, like one sitting alone!'" If someone has intentions, then Sun Ce's enemy is just one. He must have died at the hands of the villain. Shi Tao said this with a straight expression.

"Huh?" Hearing Shi Tao say this, everyone couldn't help but admire. This admiration is not only for Guo Jia, who has already become famous all over the world, but also for Li Sheng, who recognized Guo Jia's words: "It is really good to be able to guess Sun Ce's ending before it happens." ”

"It's really a blessing for me to be so smart!" Several people who recognized Li Sheng as the main person looked at each other for a moment, and saw joy in each other's eyes.

The rest of the feast passed in a staggered mix of cups and bowls, but figures came out of the tent where the banquet was held, and the slightly flushed smiles on their faces were displayed in the moonlight. This meal, they ate well.

It was already close to the end of the banquet, and Huang Jing, as everyone, was naturally led to the tent on the side to rest, while Shi Tao, Huang Zhong and others, as the hosts, planned to go to Li Sheng's tent to report to Li Sheng all the information they had obtained from Huang Jing tonight. They were not afraid to disturb Li Sheng's rest because of this, because they all knew that Li Sheng had a habit - he would not fall asleep when he did not have a child.

However, they went around Li Sheng's tent and did not find Li Sheng's figure, and they suddenly became strange.

"Have you seen the lord?" Huang Zhong whispered to the two soldiers standing at the door of the tent.

"The lord has not returned to the tent." One of the soldiers replied.

"Do you know where he went?" Huang Zhong asked again, his face was already slightly anxious.

"I don't know." The soldier shook his head affirmatively.

"Don't know? Then mobilize everyone to find it! Huang Zhong roared loudly and broke out unexpectedly.

Shi Tao, Luo Zhao, Xu Ding, and Peng Ling, who came with Huang Zhong, couldn't help but be a little stunned when they saw that Huang Zhong suddenly became so violent after he couldn't see Li Sheng. They stared at Huang Zhong tightly and asked in surprise, "What's the matter?" ”

"Guangyuan, haven't you noticed that we have been ignoring a little bit all along?" For everyone's questioning, Huang Zhong looked very bitter.

"What was overlooked?" Shi Tao's mind obviously hadn't completely turned the corner.

"The safety of the lord." Huang Zhong said with a serious face: "It has been not a short time since we led this army. But we never thought of helping the Lord organize a guard of his own. If it was thought that it was not necessary before. Now there is absolutely a need for this. Sun Ce died under the assassination, and it was still in his own territory. This is a wake-up call for us. If we don't pay attention to it, then we are afraid that the next misfortune will be ......"

Huang Zhong said this and did not continue, but the people around him all understood what he didn't finish talking about next.

That's a serious problem. They were all worried. After all, Li Sheng is their lord.

So what are you waiting for? Look for me all over the mountains!

With the orders of several army bosses, the small soldiers below quickly looked for it. Although Cai was ordered to get up as soon as he lay down, and then he had to do things like running all over the world, a small soldier is a small soldier, and he can't express his inner dissatisfaction in the army no matter what. Although they were helpless, they could only accept their fate. Because that's an order from above.

The search for the camp has not given up even a dim corner. Except for Wei Yan's department, who was still in charge of the defense of the camp on the wooden wall of the camp, he did not join, and Huang Zhong can be said to have mobilized the strength of the whole army to find Li Sheng. However, the outcome of the matter was always so disappointing, and after nearly an hour of searching, the news they received was still depressing - they found no trace of Li Sheng.

"What's going on?" Huang Zhong became uneasy: "Why haven't you found the lord?" Well! Does anyone know where the lord has gone? For such no result, Huang Zhong is dissatisfied and worried. After all, this Xiyang is not entirely its own territory. Although a peace agreement had been reached with the enemy on the other side, this agreement had not been fully implemented. Whether it's on his own side or the other party's side, if he has the opportunity, he is afraid that he is thinking about how to eat the other party - Huang Zhong understands this very well. So he was worried. Because he knows it's not a safe place.

"I didn't see anything in the camp." In the face of the general's anger, the soldier who came to report had to be careful and aggrieved. They have done their best.

"If there is no one in the camp, let me go out of the camp to find it. Even if I dig up all the surrounding hills, I must find the whereabouts of the lord. Huang Zhong still said angrily, he had already given the order to die.

"Yes!" In the face of Huang Zhong's anger, the soldier who came to report coldly gave a spirit and quickly ran away to give the order.

The soldiers quickly drove out of the camp and ran to the hillside around the camp with torches. They were all over the mountains and fields, and they were carefully searching for something in the vast mountains all around. As Huang Zhong had ordered, they were really searching for the past one by one. After working like this for half a night, they saw Li Sheng who was already sleeping in the grass on the slope of the back mountain.

Seeing that Li Sheng was sleeping soundly, the soldiers he found couldn't help but widen his bloodshot eyes. It would be impossible to say that they did not have the slightest opinion on this. After all, the facts in front of them are such a stark contrast that even if you are hard-hearted, you will feel wronged and unfair.

However, they are a group of qualified soldiers after all. In the face of such injustice, they forced the dissatisfaction in their hearts, on the one hand, they asked people to stay and take care of the lord, and on the other hand, they sent people to quickly report the news.

Soon, the figures of Huang Zhong and others appeared on the hillside. They arrived as soon as they received the news. Because of the hurried walk, some people fell down on the hillside, and their bodies looked a little messy and dirty. However, no one dares to laugh at them because of their abilities, and their status has been recognized by everyone. As generals who have grown up step by step from low-ranking officers, their influence among ordinary soldiers is absolutely unparalleled. Seeing them coming, the soldiers who arrived first couldn't help but give them a way, so that they could quickly walk to Li Sheng's side.

However, Huang Zhong and the others did not stop, they stood fifty steps away from Li Sheng, and no longer moved forward, just staring at Li Sheng's peaceful sleeping face in a daze.

"What a boy." Huang Zhong's tense face slowed down suddenly, and he sighed softly, with a little regret and even a little love in his tone. He looked at Li Sheng like a father looking at his son. He didn't wake up Li Sheng, just looked at it quietly for a while, nodded lightly, shook his head gently, and said to Xu Ding, Peng Ling and the others who were accompanying him without a head: "Let the lord have a good rest." He's tired, so let's not scratch him. ”

"Hmm." Xu Ding, Peng Ling and Shi Tao nodded yes together.

They turned around and left, but before leaving, they did not forget to leave a small team of men to protect Li Sheng's safety. After all, this is outside the camp, after all, this is still a place where the enemy can appear.

Three hours later, the eastern sky was slightly brighter, and there were faint signs of whitening. The sky will open and the sun will rise. At this time, Li Sheng, who had rested on the hillside grass for the night, felt a little conscious.

"My head hurts!" This is the first point that Li Sheng feels. Although he slept quickly and deeply last night, he couldn't help moaning in discomfort at this moment after waking up. He was sad and wanted to stand up. However, before he could exert his strength, he felt a gust of mountain wind blow over his body, and immediately became as cold as water.

"It's cold!" Li Sheng couldn't help but shiver. He wanted to exert force, he wanted to turn in a direction and make himself face east. However, the feeling of not being able to move even a finger made me give up in the end.

He couldn't, so he could only lie quietly on the dew-covered hillside, letting his clothes, which had been soaked in cold dewdrops, cling to his body weakly, and let himself feel the chill in the gusts of cold wind. The cold and pain made him almost cry - he had never tasted it before.

"You must never drink again." Li Sheng secretly made up his mind. It's not that he hasn't drunk before, and it's not that he hasn't been drunk, but he didn't suffer so much because he had his wife serving him in the past. If he hadn't suffered such a great sin today, he wouldn't have known how uncomfortable it is to be drunk.

In desperation, Li Sheng could only lie down like this and slowly regain his strength. I don't know how long it took, maybe it was a moment, maybe it was half an hour, in short, when the golden morning light representing the sun shone through the elegant clouds like a light veil, Li Sheng finally woke up from the nightmare that seemed to be hundreds of years old, and supported himself hard.

Such an obvious move undoubtedly represented his sobriety, so the soldiers left behind by Huang Zhong quickly surrounded him and surrounded Li Sheng tightly.

"My lord, General Huang Zhong asked us to protect you." The soldier lowered his head and said respectfully.

"Oh!" Li Sheng replied in understanding, but secretly felt strange in his heart: "Protect me? What's going on? I've never seen them so tight before. ”

He thought about it for a long time, but he couldn't come up with a reason, so he shook his head, which was still a little drowsy, and motioned for the soldiers to follow him down the mountain. As he walked, he chatted with the soldiers beside him. He tried to understand the events of last night from their mouths. This was very important to him - in fact, he really learned a little bit from them: "General Huang Zhong, they seem to have something very important to look for the lord. ”

"Something very important? So what is it? With this doubt, Li Sheng returned to the barracks with the soldiers and returned to his big tent.

Inside the big tent, Li Sheng's subordinates are all there. They didn't sit there in a daze, but gathered around to discuss the problem, and when they saw Li Sheng coming in, they all saluted according to the military salute that Li Sheng had set last time, which was not so in line with etiquette, and then retreated to the Tuanpu on both sides of the big tent with a solemn face and sat down.

"I heard you have something very important? I don't know what that's all about? After Li Sheng returned the salute to them, he strode to his handsome seat and sat down, and asked.

"Sun Ce is dead. He was assassinated on the outskirts of his capital. This incident has a great impact on us and for Koto. Therefore, we would like to discuss the next steps with the lord. Huang Zhong opened his mouth in a deep voice.

"Oh? Sun Ce is dead? Li Sheng pretended to be surprised and stood up.

Although the expression on his face was very exciting, the people in the tent understood from his unexcited words-"The lord has long known about today's matter. ”

They did not ask Li Sheng where he got the news. In their opinion, it is normal for the lord to know this more than himself, and as for why he knows but does not tell himself, it must be a reason why he does not tell himself. And what is this reason, they do not want to know.

"So do you guys have any thoughts on this?" Seeing that everyone was just looking at him calmly, Li Sheng was still a little foggy before he woke up. He still needed some time to wake up, so he opened his mouth and pushed the problem to Huang Zhong and them.

"I don't think they will launch another large-scale attack on Jiangxia and Jingzhou in the next two years. Sun Ce is newly dead, Sun Quan is newly succeeded, and generally speaking, the regime in Jiangdong is now in a stage of alternating between the old and the new. This stage may be several years long, and during this period it is impossible for Koto to have large-scale military operations. Shi Tao thought about it and first expressed his opinion on this matter: "I think this matter is very useful for us. After all, now that the battle in Xiyang is over, the next thing is basically how to redevelop Xiyang. We are not worried that Xiyang will not develop, all we need is time. As long as Jiangxia can stabilize, then the development of our Xiyang will also be guaranteed. ”

"Then you think Sun Ce's death is a good thing for us?" Li Sheng looked at Shi Tao with a smile.

"Yes!" Shi Tao nodded vigorously: "I think in the next year or two, we should make every effort to develop Xiyang itself in terms of maintaining the scale of the existing army." ”

"That's not going to work." As soon as Shi Tao's words fell, Li Sheng opened his mouth and denied it: "You can't just develop internal affairs. It is necessary to develop our military power in parallel with the development of internal affairs. At present, these are troubled times, and armament is the first element in preserving one's own life and development, and it is absolutely indispensable. After taking Xiyang, we must more than double the size of the army as it is now. Because only in this way can future development be guaranteed. I am now a county commander, and I was able to have an army because of the chaos in Xiyang, and if I was promoted to Taishou in the future, I might not have the conditions I have now. So, we have to have our 'hidden' forces – that's one of them. ”

Li Sheng couldn't help but stretch out a finger on a whim when he said this, and seeing that everyone was listening carefully, he paused slightly, and then continued: "Second, I don't think it will take more than a year for Jiangdong to complete the replacement of the old and the new. Sun Ce is not a fool, nor is Sun Quan, and those people in Jiangdong can be regarded as outstanding people if they are not well-known. Based on my understanding of Sun Quan, he will definitely quickly deploy Jiangxia soon after he ascends the throne. There is not enough time this year, so he will definitely do it next year. Maybe he also knows that it is impossible to have a result in attacking Jiangxia next year, but he will still put on such a posture to let people know that he Jiangdong is not easy to bully. For such a bluff, we may be able to clearly see the inappropriateness, but people like Huang Zu in Jiangxia can't understand this. Therefore, we must prevent the vacancy that will be created on our side of Xiyang after they transfer all our current forces in the direction of Jiangxia. After all, even if we solve the problem of banditry in Xiyang now, there is no way to deal with the remnants of the Yellow Turban in Runan to the north of Xiyang. ”

"I see." Everyone nodded in understanding. They now understand Li Sheng's general vision for the development of Xiyang in the coming period.

"Actually, that's not the most important thing." Suddenly, Huang Zhong opened his mouth, and immediately attracted everyone's attention.

"So what's the most important thing?" Li Sheng was stunned: "Is there anything else I haven't thought of?" ”

"What is really important is that we have to learn a little bit from the assassination of Sun Ce." Saying that, Huang Zhong looked at Li Sheng with his blazing eyes: "Lord, I think you should equip a force that directly belongs to you." After all, your safety is also related to the success or failure of our business. ”

"This ......," Li Sheng suddenly heard this, and muttered slightly, and quickly agreed-he wanted to use this opportunity to train a special army for himself.

The rest was quite boring for Li Sheng. After sending Huang Jing into Xiyang City, everything was carried out in hypocritical politeness. Of course, such hypocritical politeness can only be carried out with the backing of corresponding strength. In order to prevent possible disadvantages on the Xiyang side, Li Sheng directly ordered his army to be brought to Xiyang City, putting on an appearance that was ready to attack the city at any time.

Under such a threat, Huang Jing's talks with Zhang Wu and Chen Sun went very quickly and smoothly. In just three days, a basic plan for the negotiation of peace was reached.

On October 20, the fifth year of Jian'an, Huang Jing sent the basic peace plan to the Jiangxia Taishou Office for review. Five days later, the plan was personally sent to Xiangyang by Jiangxia Taishou Huang Zu, and handed over to Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao for final confirmation. Fifteen days later, the envoy sent by Lord Liu Biao arrived in Xiyang and officially announced the final decision on this matter to Li Sheng, Zhang Wu, Chen Sun and others: "...... Zhang Wu is hereby ordered to be the cavalry captain of Jiangxia and the commander of Exian County, and Chen Sun is the county lieutenant of Exian County, and to guard Exian County with his headquarters of soldiers and horses; Li Sheng was promoted to Sima of other departments, and the military and political affairs of Xiyang, Yuguo, Pingchun, and Yinxian were all in the capital. ……”

Everything is happy!