Chapter 309 Jingxiang Night Talk

Over the years, Zhu Jin has been living in Mizhou, which is close to Dengzhou, the first shipbuilding base in the north, and borders Laizhou, an important shipbuilding town in the north. I know that there is a difference between the sea and Hanoi, the sea has big waves, so the sea warships have always been larger, but they do not need too many people, because they are all powered by sails. The ship loads bed crossbows, small trebuchets, and most importantly, resistance to wind and waves.

On the contrary, it is not alarmist that the river warship cannot go to sea for too long, otherwise it will capsize without waiting for the enemy to come, and even disintegration at sea is not an alarmist thing. What's more, inland rivers use more manpower, and at most only half of the manpower for sails. When I arrived at this rough sea, a big battle came down, and I was really tired enough to choke.

The most important thing is that the river warships and sea ships fought like infantry against cavalry. If the sea ships are not in good hands, they can retreat to the sea, but the river warships cannot chase too far, otherwise the wind and waves will overturn them. Coupled with the fact that this coastline is so long, it is really impossible to guard against, and I am afraid that Yang Xingmi will only be a relatively shining existence on Li Cunhuan's record in the future.

Zhu Jin also figured it out, knowing that Yang Xingmi might not be Li Cunhuan's opponent in the end. On the same day, he sent someone to detain Dai Yougui and said that he would not go to Yang Xingmi to show his loyalty to Li Cunhuan. Then send someone to prepare a gift and write a cantata. It was not until August that this fold was sent to Yanjing Mansion with three carts of gifts.

Li Cunhuan brought this matter to the early court to discuss, and finally after discussion, he sent the privy envoy Jiang Xuanhui as an angel. (Well, this angel is the abbreviation of the messenger of the Son of Heaven, not a mistake.) ）

Canonized Zhu Jin as the general of the Imperial Forest Army, the Duke of Miguo, Zhu Jin naturally accepted it happily, and Jiang Xuanhui secretly conveyed Li Cunhuan's words, promising that Zhu Wen would definitely take Zhu Jin with him after the conquest, and capture Zhu Wen would let Zhu Jin do it himself. Once again, Zhu Jin's revenge was strengthened.

Immediately afterwards, Li Cunhuan once again rebuilt the strong army Jin Wuwei in the forbidden army, and seemed to want to rebuild all the strong forces of the Tang Dynasty, first the Shence Army, then the Imperial Forest Army, and then the current Jin Wuwei. For the commander of Jin Wuwei, Li Cunhuan surprisingly did not appoint any famous generals in the world, Li Cunhuan was transferred to Sha Yuke, who served in Anton, back to serve as the general of Jin Wuwei. And the Shence Army was placed in the east of Yanjing City, also known as the Eastern Army. The Imperial Forest Army was placed in the west, and it was called the Western Army. Jin Wuwei was stationed in Youzhou, and the Youzhou City Defense Army guarded the inner city, the outer city, and the imperial city respectively.

Li Cunhuan's purpose in doing this is to make the Shence Army and the Royal Forest Army become pure soldiers. Imagine when China's military was placed in the middle of the city? Because of the bustling downtown area, soldiers can involuntarily relax their minds, and they will learn a lot of ruffian and hooligan methods, and slowly become a bunch of people who fall into money [***]. Jin Wuwei, on the other hand, will become an army similar to the armed police.

So this time, Li Cunhuan selected Zhu Jin and Gao Siji for the two of them, all of whom were selected from Hedong, but the number was not too many, but there were 5,000 people each. In addition, with the 5,000 old troops brought by Zhu Jin and Gao Siji, the first army was 10,000 people. The difference is that the Shence Army is a mixed foot and cavalry, while the Royal Forest Army is composed of pure cavalry, and even the infantry can learn to ride horses. When you arrive at the battlefield, dismount and line up. Of course, the horses equipped with the infantry do not need to charge, and the horses will not be much better, just be able to run.

In addition, the financial injection into the army was increased, and the army of the Hedong domain was 80,000 people, and the number of troops in Zhenwu and Shan Yu was 40,000, although the other feudal towns remained.

Li Cunhuan's expansion of the army aroused the fear of the nearby feudal towns, and Hedong was originally only about 70,000 people, not to mention that only 10,000 people had been added. Coupled with Zhenwu's original establishment of about 20,000 soldiers and horses, this time the army was increased by 20,000. The new establishment of the Metropolitan Protectorate alone directly increased by 40,000. 10,000 each for the Shence Army and the Imperial Forest Army. Jin Wuwei is also a staff of 15,000 people. In other words, the number of troops expanded this time reached 105,000, which made Zhu Wen, Yang Xingmi, Li Sijian and other envoys who bordered Li Cunhuan involuntarily feel frightened.

There are more than 100,000 troops all of a sudden, although Li Cunhuan's jurisdiction has also increased a lot, but it still can't be faced indifferently.

…… Luoyang...... the western capital

Zhu Wen paced in the study with a gloomy face, and under the dim light, Zhu Wen looked particularly gloomy.

"Karma! Karma! There was a knock on the door, which was like a fuse, igniting the evil fire in Zhu Wen's heart.

"What for! Didn't the Lone King tell you not to bother the Lone King? Pull it down, beat it to death with a stick! Zhu Wen only felt that the evil fire in his heart was rushing upward, and his eyes shot a cannibalistic gaze in the dim light.

"Chitose, it's me!" A generally indifferent voice came from outside, and he was not intimidated by Zhu Wen's tone.

When Zhu Wen heard this, he was stunned for a moment, and then his face showed a look of surprise, and he hurriedly rushed to the carved wooden door with an arrow step, and opened the carved wooden door, only to see Jing Xiang's tall and thin figure standing outside the door, and there were several soldiers walking behind Jing Xiang, but they were very slow, and when they saw Zhu Wen, they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The leader asked, "Chitose!" Isn't it pulling down ......?"

"Get out! Didn't you see that it was a military advisor? Can this command be taken seriously? Seeing Jingxiang Zhu Wen, he only felt in a good mood, waved his hand, and scolded. When a group of soldiers heard this, they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, they were also afraid that after catching Jing Xiang, Zhu Wen would turn his face again, and their group of soldiers would be miserable, they would simply become rats in the bellows, and they would be angry at both ends.

Zhu Wen also ignored those soldiers, and took Jing Xiang's hand with an excited face and sighed: "The military advisor is gone, and the lonely king is really like a dragon that has left the water." Fortunately, you are here, right! Strategist, how did you get here? Did the military advisor know the news from Hebei, so he rushed over? ”

"Yes!" Jing Xiang nodded, his face unusually solemn. "The lower officials learned about it in Kaifeng, so they rushed over non-stop."

Zhu Wen gritted his teeth and said: "I knew this was the case, of course, I would kill Li Cunhuan if I said anything!" Right now! Hate! ”

Jing Xiang shook his head and sighed: "Xia Guan also underestimated Li Cunhuan, otherwise he would have persuaded Chitose to deal with Li Cunhuan at the beginning." What is frightening is that there are now many talents under Li Cunhuan. And Li Cunhuan is famous, only the talent is used! Xia Guan heard that many unborn hermits went out of the mountains to join Li Cunhuan. For example, Cui Ziyu, who is known as Hedong Confucianism, and Zhong Kuang, a master of miscellaneous studies. ”

Zhu Wen obviously didn't know the news and couldn't help but be stunned, and asked, "When did this happen?" ”

Jing Xiang sighed and said, "Xiaguan has just received the news, so he hurried over and didn't bother them to run more. But what a pity! That Hedong madman is just that, although he is brilliantly written, at most he is just a Li Taibai! But Zhong Kuang is proficient in miscellaneous science, and is good at institutions and water conservancy! At the beginning, Chitose sent people to ask for it, but they avoided it. It's a pity that it's cheaper, Li Cunhuan! ”

Zhu Wen couldn't help but be even more depressed when he heard this, and waved his hand and said, "Don't talk about it, military advisor!" The more you talk about the lonely king, the more uncomfortable it becomes, do you think the lonely king should make a truce with Liu Zhijun's traitor? ”

Jing Xiang couldn't help but secretly admire when he heard this, Zhu Wen is really a hero-like character, who can bend and stretch. When Zhu Wen first became the envoy of the Xuanwu Festival, he was attacked by the Huangchao rebel army, and borrowed Li Ke's soldiers to defeat the Huangchao together, and finally forced the Huangchao to die in the Wolf and Tiger Valley. Even if Zhu Wenxuan turned his face and didn't recognize people because of the matter of Shangyuanyi, it was a pity that he couldn't kill Li Keyong.

Then Zhu Wen was oppressed by Qin Zongquan, and Zhu Wen thought that he and Zhu Jin's brothers were both surnamed Zhu, and they became friends and called each other brothers. After defeating Qin Zongquan with the help of the Zhu Jin brothers' soldiers and horses, he immediately turned his gun to deal with the Zhu Jin brothers. Now because of Li Cunhuan's strong relationship, he does not hesitate to unite with the traitor Liu Zhijun, which is not something that ordinary people can do.

However, Jing Xiang shook his head and said: "Liu Zhijun is familiar with Chitose, I'm afraid he won't unite Chitose!" Besides, the reason why Liu Zhijun defected was not because Li Cunhuan added fuel to the fire, he and Li Cunhuan have a good relationship, I'm afraid it will not be easy to win over! ”

In fact, Jing Xiang knew in his heart that the most important, and even the only reason, was that the first reason Jing Xiang just said was that Liu Zhijun was familiar with Zhu Wen.

The above deeds have shown one thing, that is, Zhu Wen crossed the river and demolished the bridge, which was unparalleled in the world, and Zhu Wen still waited for you to reach the center of the river before demolishing the bridge, so that you died in the river. Where does Liu Zhijun, who is familiar with Zhu Wen's person, dare to believe Zhu Wen's words, who knows when he will be calculated by Zhu Wen. The reason behind it is just that Jing Xiang was afraid that Zhu Wen would be embarrassed, and deliberately downplayed Zhu Wen's own factors!

Zhu Wen is not a fool, just now he was in a hurry to go to the doctor, and naturally thought of the current enemy Liu Zhijun, and now he was secretly awakened by Jing Xiang's words, and Zhu Wen also knew that his idea was unreliable. Zhu Wen no longer mentioned the matter of uniting Liu Zhijun, hesitated for a while, and asked: "Then according to what the military advisor said, who can be united now?" ”

"Li Maozhen, Yang Xingmi!" Jing Xiang slowly spit out two names.

Zhu Wen couldn't help frowning when he heard this, especially when he heard Yang Xingmi's name, he shook his head lightly and said, "I'm afraid the two of them won't!" Li Maozhen is better, it was several years ago when the Lone King sent troops to Guanzhong. But in April of this year, Yang Xingmi sent a caravan. The Lone King sent someone to detain it, which is no less than a slap in the face of Yang Xingmi, I am afraid that it will greatly offend Yang Xingmi, and Yang Xingmi is likely to even kill the messenger sent by the Lone King! ”

When Jing Xiang heard this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly. Because of the years of conquest, especially last year's war, Zhu Wen's current treasury has so much money left, and he has to rely on him to pay his military salary. And Yang Xingmi sent a caravan with a semi-official surname to Kaifeng to sell goods. This has been a practice for seven or eight years, and there is not much defense, so this time there is a lot of cargo.

Naturally, it aroused Zhu Wen's greed, not to mention that Zhu Wen can almost be described as a family with four walls. He was born to the side of the guts and sent troops to hack Yang Xingmi's caravan. Moreover, Yang Xingmi has a lot of oil and water, because the south has been recuperated by Yang Xingmi, and the hinterland has not suffered any war. Therefore, the goods carried by this caravan were worth a lot, and they were also necessary for Zhu Wen.

First of all, there was sea salt for a thousand stones, which was very expensive at that time. During the Dezong period, the price rose sharply twice, and the official price was already 370 yuan per bucket of salt. In the later period, the price of salt became even higher, which led to Huang Chao and other salt dealers taking the lead in the uprising. After the Yellow Nest, the Tang Dynasty fell into an even more chaotic state.

In addition, seawater is very corrosive to iron, and it is just a time of peace. It's just that it's still a troubled time, and a kitchen knife in the Central Plains has to be shared by five or six households. One can imagine the price of ironware.

As a result, the price of salt in the Central Plains has reached 730 yuan. Of course, this has something to do with Zhu Wen's life, the largest salt pond in the north is in Hebei, needless to say before Hebei, Li Keyong is afraid that he would rather pour salt into the dung pit than give it to Zhu Wen. Li Cunhuan and Zhu Wen have never been on the right path, not to mention the rebellion of Liu Zhijun in Guanzhong, which once again cut off Zhu Wen's salt road. And if people don't eat salt, they don't have the strength, so how can Zhu Wen not turn his heart sideways?

And the price of this salt is quite a lot, ten buckets are equal to one stone, one stone of salt is equivalent to eight guan money, and one thousand stone is equal to eight thousand guan money. You must know that the most expensive weapon, the Mo knife, is only about three dollars. The cost is only nearly two dollars. A piece of iron-studded armor is nothing more than four pieces of money.

In addition, there are 2,000 pieces of cloth, and the transaction price of a perennial Turkic horse in Guanzhong is generally 20 pieces of cloth. It is estimated that Yang Xingmi also knew that Zhu Wen was short of grain now, and he also transported 10,000 stone of grain. Zhu Wen naturally made a move.

The price of these things is quite a lot, 800 yuan for a horse of cloth, about 200 yuan for a stone of grain, and the most important thing is sea salt. Combined, the market price of these things is 11,600 yuan. They also used wagons, mules, and horses to transport goods, some change to carry, armor and weapons for guards, and so on. Anyway, Zhu Wen offended Yang Xingmi badly.

Jing Xiang couldn't help but smile bitterly, gritted his teeth, and said, "Chitose! Now there is no way, Chitose can only send Li Zhen to envoy Yang Xingmi. and promised to sell 2,000 horses to Yang Xingmi, and then cede Sizhou to Yang Xingmi as compensation for the seizure of Yang Xingmi's goods! I believe that with Li Zhen's eloquence, he will definitely be able to convince Yang Xingmi this time. ”

When Zhu Wen heard this, he couldn't help but show a painful look: "Sizhou doesn't matter, now the lonely king of Sizhou occupies the north, Yang Xingmi occupies the south, and it is only half a state to give it to him." But two thousand horses! Now that there is no more Guanzhong, the war horses in the army are already beyond their means, and Yang Xingmi will be given another 2,000 horses! Ay! ”

Looking at Zhu Wen's expression, people who didn't know said that Zhu Wen was cut by someone.

Jing Xiang smiled bitterly when he heard this, and said: "Chitose, you don't have heartache, if it weren't for that, I'm afraid it would not be easy to move Yang Xingmi's heart." Yang Xingmi Chitose, don't look at it as a hero, but the lower officials estimate that Yang Xingmi is just a person on the side of security. If Chitose doesn't make a heavy bet, I'm afraid Yang Xingmi won't send troops, and then these things will just be cheap Li Cunhuan! ”

When Zhu Wen heard this, he gritted his teeth and said, "That's it!" Instead of cheap Li Cunhuan, it's better to cheap Yang Xingmi! ”

When Jing Xiang heard this, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, he was most afraid that Zhu Wen would not agree. "Chitose, Li Maozhen's subordinate officials will personally send an envoy! There should be no problem with this trip. When Li Maozhen killed Li Cunhuan's confidant Chen Changfeng, Li Cunhuan vowed to kill Li Maozhen in his lifetime, and everyone in the world knew about it at this time. In the past, it was just a joke. But Li Cunhuan is now powerful and has the possibility of dominating the world. Li Maozhen will definitely agree to unite Chitose, otherwise Li Maozhen is also afraid that Li Cunhuan will settle accounts after the autumn. With Li Maozhen's support, I'm afraid Chitose can easily pacify Guanzhong, but I'm afraid I have to cede a few states in the north before I can say that Li Maozhen can be moved, but that's okay, Li Maozhen borders Li Cunhuan, and he naturally stands by Chitose's side more firmly! ”

When Zhu Wen heard this, he nodded and said, "What the military advisor said is very true! Just give up those states! Occupy Hebei, where do you care about the payment of several states! And Li Cunhuan probably doesn't know that he helped the lonely king this time when he expanded the army! It is estimated that Li Cunhuan will be depressed to death if he knows about it! Ha! Ha! When Zhu Wen said this, he couldn't help but laugh proudly.

Jing Xiang smiled and did not speak.

After half a ring, Zhu Wen slapped his head suddenly, and asked, "Why didn't the military advisor unite Li Sijian and Wang Rong?" Although the power of the two is not strong, no matter how small the mosquito legs are, they are still meat! ”

When Jing Xiang heard this, he smiled bitterly: "Then the two of them have to have guts!" Wang Rong had already presented a table to Li Cunhuan, and gave Li Cunhuan a tribute of 200,000 yuan and 10,000 pieces of cloth every year. Li Sijian had just accepted Li Keyong's son Li Cunmiao, but he was afraid that Li Cunhuan would come to question him, so he quickly borrowed a thousand soldiers and horses from Li Cunmiao and sent Li Cunmiao away as if he were sending a plague god. Do you say that such a person has the courage to blatantly provoke Li Cunhuan? At most, Li Sijian dared to secretly support it. As for Wang Rong, it is estimated that he is desperate to follow Li Cunhuan. Who told him that his territory was almost surrounded by Li Cunhuan, what else did he dare to do? Li Cunhuan turned his hand and destroyed him, Wang Rong. ”

When Zhu Wen heard this, he sighed and said, "It's a pity! But I wonder if I can use the power of the northern barbarians? ”

"If only I could!" The wry smile on Jing Xiang's face added a bit of bitterness. "It came from Lu Long's inner room that this time Li Cunhuan was canonized as the emperor's younger brother, and the small tribes of Bohai, Murowei, Xi, and Khitan all sent people to congratulate him. Bohai even hinted at marrying a princess to Li Cunhuan to sit in the side room, and even the small country called Yuben, which did not send envoys to Tang, also sent envoys. They were also blackmailed by Li Cunhuan to pay an annual tribute of 50,000 taels of silver. At first, they dared to refute, but Li Cunhuan took them back from a walk around the barracks, but they didn't dare to let go of the farts and agreed to this harsh condition. As for the Tatar tribes, they are either conquered by Li Cunhuan now, or they have fled to Mobei to survive, where are the troops to compete with Li Cunhuan? ”

Zhu Wen couldn't help but sigh, he now regretted more and more why he didn't kill Li Cunhuan when Li Cunhuan was weak. No matter how big the damage is, I'm afraid it won't get to this point today. It's a pity that there is no regret medicine in this world.

(To be continued)