September 18, Fangcheng, Xi Wangfu. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Fangcheng is located in the lower and lower plains of Suotou Shui, which used to be the capital of Anzhou, and is now the base camp of the Xi people.

Ah Huizheng, the king of Xi, was self-proclaimed, and was not recognized by the small suzerain, the Turkic Khanate, and the great suzerain, the Great Sui. In the Turkic Khanate, all the leaders of the powerful other tribes are Tong Lifa, and Ah Hui is the Xi nationality Qi Lifa, as for the Great Sui of Middle Earth, they are disdainful of the Xi people, because the Turkic khanates are all vassals of Middle Earth, and the Turkic khans have to claim to be subordinates, so the Xi people are just a larger part of the Turkic Khanate for Middle Earth, and of course they are not taken seriously.

In contrast, Middle-earth looked at Goguryeo, the overlord of the Far East, Tuyuhun in the West, and the states of the Western Regions, and reluctantly made it difficult for them to make their leaders a "king", which could be regarded as recognition of their vassal status.

From the perspective of Middle Earth, the treatment of those with vassal status and those without vassal status is completely different in political, military, and economic aspects. Taking the tributary every year as an example, the vassal states and the foreign tribes have to go to the eastern capital to pay tribute, and the vassal states are received by a very high standard, if the vassal lord comes to the eastern capital in person, the emperor of Middle-earth will also give a grand welcome, while the ordinary foreign tribes sometimes can't even enter the gate of the imperial city. To put it bluntly, it is strength, if you don't have strength, you won't be recognized by Middle-earth, you won't be able to win the respect of Middle-earth, and of course, you won't be able to enjoy the preferential treatment given by Middle-earth in all aspects.

Middle-earth did not recognize the vassal status of the Xi, Xi, and Khitan northeastern tribes, and the lack of strength was one of the reasons, as well as complex political reasons. These three tribes are nominally vassals of the Turkic Khanate, and the Turkic Khanate is a vassal of Middle-earth, so of course these three tribes are not qualified to become vassals of Middle-earth, if Middle-earth has to accept them, it is tantamount to taking food from the mouth of the Turkic Khanate, which is both a loss of face and a loss of righteousness, and it is meaningless. But these are all high-sounding reasons, in fact, the people of Middle-earth have coveted the Northeast for a long time, and they will only be in the pocket when the time is right, so why should they be recognized as vassals? Moreover, after Middle-earth put on the trend of encroaching on the Northeast, the Turks and Goguryeo felt threatened and increased their control over the Northeast, which also played a role in containing the Turks and Goguryeo to a certain extent.

The Xi people are surrounded by foreign powers and are in danger, of course, they try their best to break through the encirclement and do their best to strengthen themselves, and the most direct and convenient way is to take refuge in a powerful "boss", and this "boss" is of course the Middle Earth next to it. How can the speculative heart of the Xi people be hidden from the eyes of Middle-earth? How can you be toyed with by a small alien race? Therefore, Ah Huizheng went to the eastern capital three times and twice to pay tribute, show his loyalty to the holy lord of Middle-earth, and implore Middle-earth to recognize the vassal status of the Xi people and recognize him as the king of Xi, but they were all politely refused.

Ah Huizheng had no choice but to play hooligan, preaching everywhere that Middle-earth recognized his status as the king of Xi, but in order to avoid irritating the Turks, he did not dare to say that Middle-earth recognized the vassal status of the Xi people. Everyone understands that as long as Ah Hui Zheng does not harm the interests of others, he will let Ah Hui Zheng use this boring means to satisfy his vanity. Zhongtu smiled and said nothing, and the Turks were also happy to watch the excitement, so Ah Huizheng became a veritable king of the Xi people. In fact, Ah Hui is dying to save face and suffer crimes, I will be the king of the Xi clan, what can you do? What do I have to do with you, the Middle-earthers and the Turks?

However, Ah Hui Zheng not only wants to save face, but also to expand the territory and develop strength.

The situation in the Far East was largely clear this autumn, Goguryeo was on the verge of collapse under two consecutive years of attacks on Middle-earth, and the Khitans lost strong support. In addition, the internal contradictions within the desert tooth tent were fierce, and the Buli set Ashina Commander, who was in charge of the three tribes in the northeast, and the Qiji set Ashina who was in charge of the southeast tooth banner, in order to exert pressure on political opponents, also intended to confuse the situation in the northeast in order to blackmail the tooth tent, so the two acquiesced and even instigated Ah Hui to attack the Khitan. It just so happened that Middle-earth was also caught in internal and external troubles, and it was too busy to take care of itself. And these favorable conditions gave the Xi people a rare opportunity for development, so Ah Hui was decisively sending troops and exerting all the strength of the Xi people to attack the Khitan, trying to change the pattern of the three-legged support in the northeast.

However, the power of the Xi nationality is limited after all, it can only survive in the cracks of the great powers, and it is too difficult to seek development, and the five tribes of the Xi nationality cannot develop, and the control of the territory that originally belongs to the Middle Earth and the Han and the two surnames living in this territory is weak, and the local forces of Anzhou and the local forces of Youyan in the Middle Earth are originally a family, and this kind of intimate relationship connected by blood and interests cannot be cut off even if there is a Great Wall, so the Xi people are also internal and external troubles, and they are very serious.

The reason why Ah Huizheng, the strong man of the Xi tribe, rose rapidly and became dominant in the five tribes of the Xi tribe was due to the fact that he took the right approach and handled it better? Internal crisis, and the way is to compromise and compromise, on the basis of common interests, unite all the forces that can be united, to alleviate the contradictions between the Xi and the local forces to the greatest extent, and join hands to form an alliance with the outside world, so the Xi people use the local forces of Anzhou to obtain a lot of resources from the Middle Earth to develop rapidly, and the local forces of Anzhou have won the maximization of their own interests with the help of the force of the five tribes of the Xi people and the stable internal environment, and the interests of foreign forces and local forces have been satisfied.

However, this win-win situation is finally limited by the constraints of the harsh external environment, and it will soon be unsustainable, whether it is the Xi people or the local forces in Anzhou, they urgently need to break through the encirclement of the foreign powers, otherwise they will suffocate to death sooner or later under the siege of the foreign powers on all sides.

Under the double pressure of a serious existential crisis and intensifying internal contradictions, the Arab Association has no choice but to take risks, but the risks can be imagined. Externally, there are Middle-earth and Turkic people, and the strength of the Xi and Khitan people is not weak, they stand out among the Donghu species, occupy the weak Luoshui and stand on both sides of the Xi people, which is enough to show that they have the strength to compete with the Xi people head-on; There are internal contradictions between the Xi people and the local forces, and there are also conflicts between the five tribes of the Xi people, and what is more serious is that the rise of the Ah Hui is too short, and it has been repeatedly attacked by opponents due to different political views at home, and has not achieved impressive results in external expansion, resulting in its lack of authority, and there are not many people who have conspired to replace him within the Xi people.

Under the internal and external crises, Ah Hui is this time to the north to entrust the water of the people, trying to take the fat food from the mouth of the Khitans, the risk actually exceeds the opportunity, once the opportunity is not seized, the risk will expand indefinitely, the most serious is the internal and external crisis broke out together, then the Xi people will be in danger, there is a disaster of destruction.

Ah Huizheng and his supporters certainly have a full understanding of this crisis, and must have made various deductions and come up with various countermeasures before making the decision to go north, not afraid of 10,000, just in case, once the situation is critical and the risk is out of control, the first thing to protect is the overall interests of the Xi people, that is, the survival of the Xi people, and the specific goal is to put it bluntly, do everything possible to keep the Xi land, keep the Xi people's homeland, as long as the homeland is there, hope is there, and the future is there.

If you want to keep your homeland, you must first defend against the invasion of foreign enemies, and secondly, you must guard against internal rebellions, and for Ah Huizheng, the biggest enemy is not the Turks and the Middle Earth, but the internal enemy, those who conspire to overthrow him, those local forces in Anzhou, who plotted to kill him, especially the remnants of the old ministers of Gaoqi who were betrayed by him back then, have been hiding in the shadows waiting for the opportunity to take revenge, so before Ah Huizheng set out on the expedition, he left a heavy army in the Xi Wangfu, He handed over the responsibility of garrisoning Fangcheng to his most trusted son, Ah Changsheng, and his most relied on auxiliary minister Feng Hong.

Feng Hong is from the Feng family in Liaoxi. Liaoxi Feng about two hundred years ago dominated Shandong, the establishment of the Yan State (known as the Northern Yan), although the dynasty is only 30 years, but the Liaoxi Feng family has become famous, become the descendants of the royal family of the previous dynasty, whether in the Tuoba Wei (Northern Wei) or Gaoqi era, the Feng family is the main marriage object of the royal family and the wealthy family in Shandong, the Feng family has become one of the powerful giants, the Feng family has also been active in the Shandong political arena from generation to generation, the most famous of which is the Empress Dowager Feng of the Northern Wei Dynasty who led the reform of the Sinicization of the surname.

After the beginning of the Great War of Unification of China and Earth, the first to perish was the Qi State of the Gao clan in Shandong, when many old ministers of the Northern Qi Dynasty fled to the border to resist stubbornly, and Feng Hong was one of them, but he was young, low in official position, and inconspicuous, so when the Xi people betrayed the old ministers of Gao Qi to Middle Earth and carried out a great purge, he escaped by luck. After that, he took refuge in Ah Huizheng, emerged with his outstanding strategy, planned for Ah Huizheng, helped Ah Huizheng stabilize Anzhou, enhanced his strength, and surpassed the five ministries, sat on the throne of King Xi, and won the trust of Ah Huizheng, and became the long history of King Xi's mansion and the chief staff of Ah Huizheng.

In the early morning of September 18, the worried Ah Changsheng and Feng Hong received an urgent letter from the ghost.

Although the Beacon Fire transmission was fast before, and he also knew that the ghost side had encountered a strong enemy, and the situation was extremely critical, but because there was no specific information, he could only make a rough guess, and quickly gathered troops, prepared for defense and support, and sent scouts to the north to investigate, as for how to deal with it next, it depends on the situation of the ghost side.

Fortunately, the ghost guard's general insulted Wang Yun sent a specific message in time to solve the urgent need of the Xi Wangfu, otherwise after dawn, Ah Changsheng and Feng Hong, who were black-eyed, would have to make a decision based on the estimated military situation of the ghost side, and the risk would be great.

"The Turks attacked after all." After reading the emergency report, President A Sheng shook his head and sighed, "The situation has become clear, and chaos in the Northeast is not allowed at all on the side of the tent." Now that the Turks have surrounded the ghost party and cut off the king's food and grass, the king can only withdraw his army, otherwise he will be destroyed. ”

Feng Hong also sighed bitterly, "Under the current situation, Goguryeo is dying, the people of Middle-earth will have to deal with the Turks next, and the Great War between the North and the South is approaching day by day. ”

"What's going to happen?" Ah Changsheng asked, "Do you want to support the ghost side in case of accidents?" ”

Feng Hong shook his hand, "It's just a matter of encircling Wei to save Zhao, so there's no need to worry." ”

＝