The arrival of Wei Shuo certainly changed the original fate of some people, but it did not have a great impact on the general trend. The situation in the north is still evolving along the inherent path, and after Gou Xi left Luoyang because Emperor Huai of Jin refused to move the capital to Cangyuan, he led his troops to retire to Shansang County.

Soon, the Xiongnu army broke through Luoyang, captured Emperor Huai of Jin, and Sima Duan, the king of Yuzhang, and Heyu and other parts escaped from Luoyang to Gou Xi. Gou Xi was originally from a humble background, but now he suddenly got the opportunity to serve the Son of Heaven like Wei Wu Cao Cao at the beginning. Suddenly succeeded, Gou Xi couldn't help but be a little proud and complacent.

Gou Xi not only followed Wang Jun's example and privately established Sima Duan as the crown prince, but also coerced Sima Duan to appoint him as the crown prince, the governor of the Chinese and foreign military, and the official positions of Lu Shang Shushi, and established a platform in Shansang County to compete for power and profit with the three small courts in Guanzhong and Youzhou. In addition, Gou Xi gradually indulged in pleasure after his defeat at Cao Wei, and now his perverse behavior has aroused the opposition of many family officials.

At this critical moment, Shi Le suddenly sent troops to capture Chen Liu, and destroyed Wang Zan, Wang Zan was the history of Jin Chen Liu, and was one of Gou Xi's most important allies, but he was unexpectedly destroyed by Shi Le. After Shi Le eliminated Wang Zan, he did not stop the pace of expansion, and at the suggestion of Zhang Bin, he rushed to Baili to break through the city of Mengcheng in one fell swoop, and captured Gou Xi under his horse.

Shile wiped out the two Jin separatist forces in the first battle, and his prestige was suddenly shaken, and he also expanded his power to most of Yanzhou, and then threatened Wang Mi, who lived in Sizhou Ji County in the west.

After Gou Xi was captured by Shi Le, he did not kill the other party, but appointed him as Zuo Sima. It's just that Shi Le didn't expect that more than a month later, Gou Xi was ambitious and conspired with Wang Zan, vainly trying to kill Shi Le and then annex his tribe, but he was killed by Shi Le instead.

Since then, he has been rampant in the Central Plains for many years, and Gou Xi, a famous Jin general who has killed Jisang, Shile and other ghosts crying wolves, has completely withdrawn from the historical stage.

After the destruction of Gou Xi, there was no longer any force to resist Shi Le in Yanyu and Yu Prefecture, and Shi Le finally freed up his hands to concentrate on dealing with Wang Mi in Sizhou. Moreover, at this time, Shi Le, with the assistance of Zhang Bin, had already broken away from ordinary banditry and began to know how to appease the displaced people and resume production.

Because it was too easy to attack all parts of Yanzhou, the generals, including Shi Le himself, were suspicious of the strategy of gaining a foothold in the north that Zhang Bin had mentioned earlier. Kui An, Diao Ying and other henchmen, on the contrary, persuaded him to give up Xiangguo, based on the two states of Yanyu, and defeated Wang Mi, Li Ju and other Sizhou separatist forces, he could get the land of the three states of Yanyu Division in the Central Plains, not much worse than Jizhou in Hebei.

Shi Le also hesitated because of this, and at the critical moment, Zhang Bin pointed out the weakness of the southward strategy, "The general captured the imperial capital, imprisoned the Son of Heaven, killed the prince, and killed the wife and concubine, which is really the great enemy of Jin, and not killing is not enough to atone for the general's sin!" Yanyu is close to Jianghan, Jianghuai, Sizhou is adjacent to Guanzhong in the west, and the vassal kings of Jin are all around! ”

"If the general is based on this place, will he not be able to fight with a large army! In addition, the Jianghan waterways are dense, which is not conducive to the cavalry, and the climate is hot and rainy, which has many encroachments on our northern soldiers, so it is not suitable to build a foundation here. Ye has three solids, west of Pingyang, four mountains and rivers, there is a tendency of throat, it is advisable to migrate to the north. Defeat the rebellion, the river is established, and there is no place for the right of the general. ”

When Shi Le heard the words, he strengthened his determination to stand in Xiangguo and Yecheng. It is said that since Shi Le captured Gou Xi, Wang Mi became more and more frightened, for fear that Shi Le would aim his troops at him, so he had no choice but to decide to strike first. But Wang Mi did not have the confidence to defeat Shi Le head-on, so he decided to write a letter to congratulate Shi Le first to paralyze the other party.

Wang Mi wrote to Shi Le, saying: "It is amazing that Ming Gong captured Gou Xi but pardoned him! Let Gou Xi and I work around Ming Gong, and the world is not worried. ”

Shi Leduo was smart, he could see at a glance that Wang Mi's intention was to paralyze himself, so he handed the letter to Zhang Bin to read. Zhang Bin smiled contemptuously after seeing it: "The prince's position is heavy and humble, and he intends to be a general!" ”

"Why did Mengsun teach me?" Since appointing Zhang Bin as his mastermind, Shi Le has relied more and more on him, and any major matter must be discussed with Zhang Bin before it is implemented, and this time is no exception.

"The prince has the heart of Qingzhou, Sangzi is in this state, and he is happy to fix people's feelings, and Ming Gong has no thoughts of merging with the state? The prince is late and has not sent it, and he is afraid that the prince will follow, and he has the ambition of the prince, but he has not been granted. If you don't want to do it now, I'm afraid that Cao Wei will return, and he will be winged, although he wants to regret it, what can he do! Xu Miao is gone, the army is slightly weaker, and the arms of his control are still strong, and he can be lured to destroy! ”

Zhang Bin advised Shi Le that Wang Mi must be eliminated quickly, and that he could be lured first and then eliminated. Schler accepted his advice.

At that time, Wang Mijun and Liu Rui, the leader of the Sizhou Beggar Army, were at a standstill, and the situation was quite critical. However, at this time, Shi Le was not easy, and he was making every effort to eliminate Chen Wu, the marshal of Chen Liu's begging army. At this critical moment, Wang Mi actually wrote a letter to Shi Le asking for help, but Shi Le didn't want to agree.

But Zhang Bin rolled his eyes and persuaded: "Ming Gong is often worried that he has no chance to calculate Wang Mi, and now is a godsend!" This is Wang Mi personally handing over the opportunity to us. Chen Wu is a thief, what is the threat? Wang Mi is a brilliant man, and he will definitely become our scourge! ”

Shi Le gladly followed Zhang Bin's advice and personally led an army to support Wang Mi, defeating the Sizhou beggar army and beheading Liu Rui. Wang Mi was very happy to learn that Shile had come to help, and even thought that Shile was a reliable ally, and no longer doubted him.

A few days later, Shi Le invited Wang Mi to the banquet in the name of celebration, and Wang Mi went rashly despite the dissuasion of his subordinates. During the banquet, Shi Le suddenly sent an ambush to kill Wang Mi, and then annexed his subordinates.

Afterwards, Shi Le played Liu Cong, the emperor of the Han State, saying that Wang Mi was killed for rebellion. Although Liu Cong was angry, he was helpless to take the full-fledged Shile, so he had to issue an edict to reprimand a few words, and then he had to add Shile as the general of Zhendong, supervise and merge the military affairs of Youerzhou, and lead the state to assassinate the history.

When Shi Le saw the edict, his heart was a little calm, in fact, he didn't want to fall out with Liu Cong now, but fortunately, everything was as Zhang Bin expected. After receiving the edict, he immediately sent someone to thank him, and also expressed Liu Cong's feelings about Wang Mi's book and Cao Wei's book with himself, and Liu Cong had nothing to say now.

After sweeping away Wang Mi, Shi Le completely began to raid the nearby counties of Yuzhou, and even threatened Jingzhou and Yangzhou to the south. Forced by Shi Le's military might, the Jin army in the two places did not dare to confront it, and Jiangdong Sima Rui was also shocked three times a day.

Since the elimination of Wang Mi, although Shi Le was nominally a minister of the Xiongnu Han State, in fact he had acted independently and gained a firm foothold in the Central Plains.

No one expected that in just over a month, Shi Le successively eliminated the last force of the Western Jin Dynasty in the Central Plains, Gou Xibu, and then eliminated the main opponent of the Han army in the Central Plains, Wang Mibu, and then took advantage of the victory to go south, and led the troops to attack and plunder the counties of Jinyu Prefecture in October.

After pacifying Yuzhou, Shi Le, according to Zhang Bin's strategy, immediately retreated his troops to the north, leaving only his nephew Shi Hu to lead a small number of troops to deter Jiangdong. At that time, all parts of the Central Plains caused disasters and natural disasters, and they had already become bareland for thousands of miles, and the population was barren. In order to hesitate the army with food, Zhang Bin suggested that Shi Le exterminate the Haoqiang Dock Fort encountered along the way, and collect the men and horses of the dock owners from all over the country, as well as grain and grass.

On the way back from the north, Shi Le led the army to break through a large number of dock forts along the way, and as Zhang Bin said, he got the much-needed grain and grass. Now Shi Le can be said to be complacent, not only exterminated the troubles of his henchmen, but also received a large amount of food, but unfortunately Yecheng was occupied by Liu Yan, the nephew sent by Liu Kun.

So Shi Le led a large army to Ye, attacked Beizhonglang and played Liu in Santai. Liu Yan lost the first battle, and the generals Lin Shen and Mu Mu led tens of thousands of people to surrender to Yule. Fortunately, Yecheng was still firmly guarded, and Liu Yan retreated in time. Shi Le saw that it was difficult for the army to capture Yecheng for a while, so he could only waste his troops in vain, so he had to follow Zhang Bin's advice to go north to Xiangguo.

Shi Lejin entered the country of Xiang and thought it was a stronghold. Zhang Bin said: "I am here today, Liu Yueshi and Wang Pengzu are also jealous, I am afraid that my city is not solidified, the reserves are not wide, and I will die." Hearing that the autumn crops in the counties of Guangping are complete, they can dispatch the generals to plunder the wild valley. Sending Pingyang, Chen Yizhen means this. ”

Shi Le was overjoyed when he heard this, and ordered his generals to attack the nearby Jizhou county barriers, collect food and materials, and send them to Xiangguo. And on the table in the Han Emperor Liu Cong, Liu Cong was reported to the title of Shile Du Governor of Ji, You, and, Camp Four Prefectures of the military, Jizhou Mu, Shangdang County Gong.

From then on, Shile became the dominant Xiangguo, changed the previous mobile combat methods, and began to establish his own base areas, laying the cornerstone for the struggle for world hegemony and the establishment of the Later Zhao regime.