"Brother Wei Xian, you have seen the current situation, Zhang Xun is dead, Chen Fen ran in the direction of the Lujiang River with the water division, there are only five or six thousand troops in Liyang City, but there are more than 50,000 troops of Xuzhou Tao Envoy Jun outside the city, and about 10,000 Qu'a Water Division, how much hope do you have to hold Liyang City? How did I fight the battle to defend the city, Brother Wei Xian, have you seen it once or twice, I can't stop Tao Yuanjun's siege army, Brother Wei Xian, do you have this certainty? ”

"Reinforcements? Brother Wei Xian, you still use the words of reinforcements to deceive those village and field puppets who don't understand anything, what kind of temper Yuan Shu is, you know, I know, with his greedy and selfish surname, how could the army that protected him and protect his wife, beautiful concubines, gold, silver and jewelry send Liyang to reinforce you? Take 10,000 steps back and say, even if Yuan Shu's conscience finds out that he really sent you a reinforcement army, how can the reinforcements he sent arrive under Liyang City? Brother Zhang Xun can be regarded as capable of fighting, but what will happen to them on the battlefield in the field? Do you think that there are generals in Lujiang who are more capable than the Zhang Xun brothers, who can break through the blockade of the Xuzhou army and reach Liyang? ”

"As for the treatment and safety of the surrendered brothers, you can put a hundred hearts on this Wei Xian brothers, the foolish brother is stubborn, he has offended Tao Yuanjun many times before, and has formed a big enmity with countless Xuzhou soldiers, but after the foolish brother was captured in front of Tao Yuanjun, Tao Yuanjun not only personally loosened the ties to the foolish brother, but also gave the foolish brother a high-ranking official and a generous lord, entrusted with the heavy responsibility of military power, and none of the Xuzhou soldiers cared about the various offenses of the foolish brother before, and the foolish brother was like a brother, giving all kinds of preferential treatment - Wei Xian brother, you can think about it, You have no grievances with the Xuzhou army, if you bring the whole city of Liyang to surrender to Tao Envoy, Tao Envoy will treat you like this? ”

"Brother Wei Xianxian, don't miss the opportunity, you won't come again! Tao Envoy Jun sent the foolish brother to the city of Liyang, because he heard that the foolish brother and the virtuous brother have always befriended, and wanted to give the virtuous brother a chance to abandon the darkness and turn to the light. That's all the foolish brother says, please decide yourself!! ”

Qiao Rui was ordered to persuade the surrender under the city of Liyang, and said dry for a long time, the suspension bridge of the west gate of Liyang was finally slowly lowered by the defenders, and the city gate that had been closed for a long time was slowly opened, and the Yuan Shujun who took over Zhang Xun commanded the defenders in the city rode the captain Wei Xian with a white belt to tie his arms, and led the defenders of the city who had laid down their weapons out of the city, and knelt down on both knees in front of Qiao Rui, expressing his willingness to accept Qiao Rui's persuasion. Qiao Rui was overjoyed, and quickly led Wei Xian to the rear of the Xuzhou flag array to surrender to Tao Ying, Tao Ying, who rarely succeeded in surrendering once, was also overjoyed, not only personally removed the binding white belt for Wei Xian, but also took off the bright silver scale armor he was wearing, and personally draped it on Wei Xian as a reward, and ordered a heavy reward for the surrendered soldiers, Wei Xian and the Liyang defenders were overjoyed, and repeatedly thanked the deputy director Tao, and the people in the city also burned incense on both sides of the streets in the city to welcome the Xuzhou army to take over the city, Liyang finally became the first important town in Huainan that the Xuzhou army directly took without a single soldier. ――As far as Deputy Director Tao's bad character is concerned, this kind of thing is really not easy.

In order to celebrate the peaceful liberation of the important town of Liyang, in the afternoon of the same day, Deputy Director Tao, who has always been stingy and stingy, was also rare and generous, ordering the slaughter of pigs and sheep to reward the officers and men of the three armies and the surrendered army, and also held a banquet in the camp of the Chinese army to celebrate the victory with the subordinate Wenwu and the newly surrendered generals, and also sent an envoy to the Liyang Wharf to invite Liu Miao and his cronies to a banquet in the camp to celebrate the great victory on land and water, and also to contact the feelings of the two armies by the way, so as to facilitate friendly coexistence in the future -- at least for the time being.

At least Xue Li, the old Pengcheng minister of Xuzhou, was deeply suspicious of Deputy Director Tao's true intentions, and strongly opposed Liu Xian's personal camp to meet with Tao Ying, and reminded him worriedly: "Lord, please don't forget the matter of Xuzhou annihilating the thief Zhenrong, when Zhenrong attacked and killed Guangling Taishou Zhao Yu during the banquet to seize the city and plunder the land, and now Tao Ying's army is facing the Yangtze River, which has formed a direct threat to the land in Jiangdong. If Tao Ying followed the example of the thief and attacked and killed the lord during the banquet and took advantage of the situation to seize the land in Jiangdong, what could he do? ”

Xue Li's worries are not unreasonable, at least killing the other party's boss at the banquet and grabbing the opponent's territory is a precedent for Tao Ying's cheap fellow to melt away in the Three Kingdoms era, so Liu Miao was inevitably a little shaken after listening to Xue Li's words, and once planned to send a messenger to the banquet on his behalf, making an excuse to refuse to go to Tao Ying to take risks. But fortunately, there are still a few people under Liu Xuan's command who understand, the strategist Xu Shao Xu Zijiang and Shiyi is Ziyu are very opposed to Xue Li's statement, Xu Shao also analyzed for Liu Xuan: "Don't worry, the lord and Tao Xiangjun have never met, but I have heard for a long time that he cherishes his reputation the most, and every time he says it, he often prides himself on being a gentleman. The lord can rest assured that he will drink and feast, and I expect that Tao should make the king have no intention of harming the lord. ”

"My lord, Mr. Zijiang is right." Shi Yi also persuaded: "Our army and Tao Envoy Jun formed an alliance to destroy Yuan, Tao Envoy Jun invited each other with good intentions, if the lord is suspicious, Tao Envoy Jun must also suspect that the lord has no intention of alliance, the two are suspicious, how can it be a big thing?" Besides, Tao Envoy Jun had just recruited the defenders of Liyang, if he killed the lord during the banquet, wouldn't it be dangerous for everyone to surrender? ”

"The words of Mr. Zijiang and Mr. Ziyu are ...... and reasonable, and I should go to the banquet to show the sincerity of the alliance." After hesitating for a long time, Liu Miao finally made up his mind to accept the invitation. At the moment, Liu Miao thought about it for a while, and decided to let the civil officials Xue Li, Xu Shao and the military generals Chen Heng and Yu Lu go to the banquet with him, and leave the general Zhang Ying and the strategist Shiyi Town to guard the water army camp, and be ready to send troops to meet at any time, so that they can rest assured that they will go to the camp for the banquet. For Liu Xuan's personnel arrangement, Xu Shao, who is good at getting along, is of course overjoyed, and is glad that he finally has the opportunity to meet the famous Tao Yingtao envoy; In fact, I also wanted to pay tribute to Deputy Director Tao's ugly face to face, and Yi was silent and silently accepted Liu Xuan's arrangement; Mr. Xue Li, who had a deep grudge with the Xuzhou Assassin Mansion, was worried, for fear that the Xuzhou army would make trouble at the banquet and find himself to settle the old and new accounts, and almost wanted to follow Yang Changshi and escape.

Mr. Xue Li obviously thinks a little highly of himself, in fact, because all the old people in Xuzhou are left behind, in fact, Deputy Director Tao doesn't know that there are still some festivals between the cheap father Tao Qian and Mr. Xue Li, and he doesn't think about settling accounts with Mr. Xue Li for the cheap father - and even if he knows this situation, with Deputy Director Tao's snobbish virtue above the top, he will definitely not take Mr. Xue Li in his eyes, let alone take revenge at the party banquet with allies on his back. Therefore, when Liu Miao led four civil and military ministers to arrive at the Xuzhou camp, Deputy Director Tao not only personally led the Xuzhou civil and military ministers out of the camp to greet him, but also gave a very polite Mr. Xue Li, and then did not pay attention to Xue Li.

Mr. Xue Li, who made the mediocre people disturb himself, was even more confused and still behind, after meeting Liu Xuan, Deputy Director Tao's pair of thief eyes always swirled around Chen Heng and Yu Elk, and his face was full of friendly smiles, and he was so affectionate to Chen Heng and Yu Elk that the two martial artists were like meeting relatives, which flattered Chen Heng and Yu Elk. And when it was time to introduce each other's identities, Liu Miao first introduced Xu Shao, the most famous man in the world under his command, Xu Shao and Xu Zijiang, which provoked the scribes and Confucians in the Xuzhou team to exclaim, and rushed to greet Xu Shao, but Deputy Director Tao didn't even blink his eyelids, but just said a few nonsense words to Xu Shao such as a long admiration for a long time, and then simply skipped Xue Li, who was behind Xu Shao, and directly pointed to Chen Heng and Yu Lu and asked Liu Xiang: "Dare to ask Zhengli Gong, how do these two generals be called?" ”

"The troublesome envoy asked, the last general Chen Heng, now lives in the position of the lieutenant general of the Qu'a Army." Chen Heng introduced himself flatteredly, and pointed to Yu Elk next to him and introduced: "This is General Yu Luyu, who is currently serving as the cavalry captain of the Qu'a Army, and has the courage of ten thousand people, and is one of the few famous generals in Jiangdong. ”

Hearing the great names of the two generals, Chen Heng and Yu Elk, the affectionate smile on the face of the realist Deputy Director Tao suddenly froze for a moment, and then regained his smile and said: "It turned out to be General Chen and General Yu, and I have admired the names of the two generals for a long time. ”

After the extremely hypocritical politeness was finished, before the flattered Chen Heng and Yu Lu finished the salute, Deputy Director Tao had already turned to Liu Xuan and said: "Zhengli Gong, it is inconvenient to speak outside the camp, we should enter the camp as soon as possible, we have already prepared a banquet in the Chinese military camp, just wait for the Zhengli Gong to enter the table, if the Zhengli Gong has no other instructions, please do it." ”

"Very good, Tao Envoy Jun, please." Liu Miao smiled and agreed, and Tao Ying joined hands in the Xuzhou camp, completely forgetting to introduce Xue Li to Tao Ying, Mr. Xue Li also said that Tao Ying deliberately neglected himself, and in addition to being angry in his heart, it was inevitable that he was a little worried, and said that this should not be really a Hongmen banquet, right?

In fact, Mr. Xue Li is not the only one who is puzzled, seeing Deputy Director Tao's various hypocritical performances in front of the camp, Lu Su, Jia Xu, Chen Ying and Yang Hong, who are familiar with Deputy Director Tao's surname, and Mr. Liu Ye and Liu Ziyang, who have recently become an accomplice to Deputy Director Tao, are all confused, and secretly said together: "What's wrong with the lord?" Xu Shao Xu Zi is so famous, why is the lord so dismissive of him, but he is so affectionate to Chen Heng and Yu Elk? Also, after learning the names of Chen Heng and Yu Elk, why did the lord quickly snub the two of them? ”

After a while, Deputy Director Tao politely invited Liu Miao and his entourage to the camp of the Chinese army, and sat down on the open ground of the big tent, and the Xuzhou soldiers also quickly sent the quality of the wine and meat meals, and the ceremonial music team also played the victory music, Tao Ying and Liu Miao took the lead together, and the civil and military forces of the two armies also began to eat and drink, chatting and farting to make beautiful men. Seeing that Tao Ying was polite and affectionate, and saw that the Xuzhou soldiers on both sides were standing far away, and they were very polite and stood with their hands down, without pressing the hilt of the sword and the handle of the sword to pose ready to do it at any time, Liu Miao and Xue Li, who were always worried, also let go of some hearts, and Tao Ying just enjoyed drinking and talking, contacting feelings, and saying some polite nonsense that wasted ink words. But............ But after the wine was half-drunk, Deputy Director Tao, who had always been thinking about ghost ideas in his stomach, rolled his eyes a few times, and suddenly raised his glass and said something that made Liu Xiangjun Wenwu and Xuzhou Wenwu both shocked-our Deputy Director Tao suddenly raised his glass to Chen Zhi, the hardcore lackey, and smiled: "Uncle Zhi, there is no joy in the feast, is Uncle Zhi willing to cheer everyone with a sword dance?" ”

"Sword dancing for fun?!" Liu Xian and Xue Li and the other Qu Ajun almost didn't jump up and fled, and Chen Heng and Yu El, the two generals, simply subconsciously pressed the hilt of the sword. Mr. Xu Shao, who had been persuading Liu Miao to go to the banquet before, also changed his face greatly, and screamed in his heart: "Won't it? Could it be that Tao Ying made Jun really have the intention of assassinating my lord during the banquet? Even if he really has the intention of annexing Jiangdong, but if he does this, it will be too ugly, right? ”

"Sword dancing for fun?!" Jia Xu, Lu Su, Chen Ying, Liu Ye and others also had their hearts beating, and said together: "What is the lord doing?" Do you want to directly kill Liu Miao during the banquet and annex Jiangdong by the wayside? How could I have known nothing about such a big thing beforehand? ”

"Sword dancing for fun?!" The most shocked was Chen Dao, the general of Xuzhou who was named by Tao Ying to dance the sword, and after finally reacting and agreeing, Chen Zhi pondered in his heart: "Why didn't the lord explain it beforehand, is it a cup drop?" Or do you flip the table as a signal? Do you want to kill Liu Xuan, or kill all of Liu Xuan's people? ”

With a head full of fog, the dizzy General Chen Zhi got up and danced the sword to the banquet to cheer everyone up, but unfortunately it backfired, seeing General Chen Zhi dancing in the banquet with a sharp sword in his hand, making a stabbing attack, not only Liu Xiang and Xue Li and other five people were frightened, and they couldn't eat unsweetly, the civil and military officials in Xuzhou were also unintentional to eat, all of them quietly pressed the hilt of the sword to prepare for a shot, Yang Hong, who was famous for caring for his life, Yang Changshi, was also simply ready to run away at any time, so as not to be accidentally injured by his own sergeant in the melee- Only our deputy director Tao shook his head and pretended to be elegant, and frequently raised his glass to invite everyone to drink, which fulfilled the host's hospitality.

Halfway through the song, General Chen Zhi gradually approached Liu Ying in the sword dance, and kept peeking at the wine glass in Tao Ying's hand, poor Liu Xiang made Jun is forehead with cold sweat rolling, and wanted to pull out his feet and run away several times, Chen Heng and Yu Elk's second general pressed the hilt of the sword, ready to pounce on Tao Ying desperately at any time, but unfortunately Xu Chu, another loyal lackey of Deputy Director Tao, had already found that the situation was not good, and stood on Tao Ying's side under the pretense of toasting, and also quietly touched the hilt of the sword, ready to protect Tao Ying at any time.

In the tense and tense atmosphere, our deputy director Tao suddenly put down the wine glass in his hand - frightened everyone quietly held the sword together, and smiled at Liu Xuan, who was already pale: "Zhengli Gong, the solo dance is a little boring, the sword dance must be right, under the Zhengli Gong, I don't know if there is a general and General Shuzhi dancing together?" ”

"Bang!" Before Deputy Director Tao's words fell, Chen Zhi, who was ready to assassinate Liu Xuan, fell to the ground with a stumbling position, and the Xuzhou generals and Liu Xuan, who had already pulled out the sword on their waists, were also speechless, resourceful as Jia Xu, Liu Ye and others were dumbfounded, and Yang Hong, who had already gotten up to run, also sat back on the mat, his head was dizzy, "What is the lord doing?" Preparing to assassinate Liu Xuan, and inviting Liu Xuan's generals to leave the table and dance the sword together? In the Hongmen banquet, there doesn't seem to be such a story? ”

After being dizzy for a long time, poor Liu Xuan finally reacted, wiped the sweat on his face, and quickly nodded and said: "What Tao Yuanjun said is extremely true, there must be a right sword dance, Chen ......." ”

"Wait." Deputy Director Tao interrupted Liu Xuan's order to let Chen Heng leave the table, and then picked up the wine glass in his hand and turned it with a smile and said: "Zhengli Gong, I have long heard that there is a young general under your account whose surname is Taishi, and his single name is a Ci character, and the word Ziyi is Yi, I heard that he is the best at sword dancing, I don't know if he can be among the retinue of Zhengli Gong at this moment?" If so, the righteous prince might as well invite General Tai Shici to dance with General Shuzhi and let me wait for an eye-opener? ”

"Tai Shi Ci?" Liu Miao paused, turned to Xu Shao next to him and asked, "Mr. Zijiang, is there such a person under my account?" ”

"Yes." Xu Shao nodded and replied: "The lord is busy with affairs, he must have forgotten it, Taishi Ziyi is your fellow countryman, or the lord you sent him a book, called him to Qu'a to join the army, and is currently serving as a qu general in our army." ”

"Qu Jiang? A Qu general with only 500 soldiers?! Finally, it was Deputy Director Tao's turn to change color, and he couldn't wait to jump up and kick the tyrannical Liu Miao over, and then pointed at Liu Xuan's nose and scolded - you won't fucking use such a fierce general, then give it to Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu can exchange it with you in Liyang City!

"I remember." Liu Miao slapped his forehead, then turned to Tao Ying and said with a smile: "I didn't expect Tao Envoy Jun to know the name of a pawn under Tao Ying, there is such a person, but I'm sorry, Tai Shici stayed in Niuzhu with the dog and the general Fan Neng this time, and he couldn't cross the river with the army, and he couldn't pass the sword dance for the envoy, and the rudeness was there, please also make Jun Haihan." ”

Deputy Director Tao, who has always been a bad general, was helpless, and was about to be casually polite, but Jia Xu suddenly said: "General Taishi Ziyi sent a book before, isn't it ......?" ”

Before he finished speaking, Jia Xu had already stopped violently, and quickly closed his mouth, his face was still full of embarrassment, but Liu Xuan, Xue Li and others suddenly stood up in their ears, but our Deputy Director Tao was first stunned, and then quickly came to his senses, knowing that Jia Lao Poison must have seen his intention to recruit Tai Shici, and seeing that Liu Xuan was so ignorant of employing people, he took the opportunity to set up a discord, making Liu Xuan more contemptuous and suspicious of Tai Shici, and even more afraid to use it, so that he could recruit Tai Shici in the future. After understanding this, our Deputy Director Tao hurriedly raised his glass to Liu Miao and smiled: "Zhengli Gong, it's okay, let's continue to drink, continue to drink." ”

"Taishi Ziyi sent a book before? Who is this kid writing to, and what does it say? With a stomach full of questions, Liu Miao was very reluctant to raise a glass with Tao Ying to drink, and then sent Chen Heng to leave the table and dance the sword with Chen Zhi, and this time Liu Xiang and the others no longer paid attention, and after enjoying the sword dance with Deputy Director Tao, they drank together until it was close to the evening.

After leading Xuzhou Wenwu to personally send Liu Miao out of the camp, looking at the back of Liu Miao and his party leaving, Deputy Director Tao, who had long wanted to dig into Liu Xiang's corner, inevitably sighed again and again, hating that he didn't have the opportunity to recruit Tai Shici directly this time, but Lu Su, Yang Hong and others next to him complained one by one, "Lord, do you know how badly you scared us today?" When you asked General Shuzhi to dance the sword during the banquet, we all thought that you were going to smash the cup as a sign and let General Shuzhi kill Liu Xiang on the spot, but we never dreamed that your real purpose was just to lure out a general under Liu Xuan's command. ”

"Kill Liu Xuan on the spot?" Deputy Director Tao rolled his eyes and said, "Am I crazy? If such a thing happens, who will dare to form an alliance with our Xuzhou army in the future? ”

"But my lord, your posture at that time was too much like a Hongmen banquet, so we can't misunderstand." Chen Ying said with sweat in his hands. After wiping a handful of sweat again, Chen Ying suddenly remembered a big event, slapped his thigh and said regretfully: "Oh no! I was frightened by the fact that the lord asked General Shu Zhi to dance the sword at the table, how could I forget a big thing? ”

"What did Mr. Yuanfang forget?" Everyone asked in surprise.

"Please Mr. Xu Zijiang to judge the characters." Chen Ying said with annoyance: "Xu Zijiang is good at getting along with people, and in a word, there is no mistake, when Cao Ying was in a humble position, Xu Zijiang once gave Cao Mengde a comment of 'the capable minister who governs the world, and the annihilation of the hero in the troubled times', which once made the world laugh, but now, who dares to raise half an objection to Xu Zijiang's comment back then?" Wouldn't it be a pity that such a strange person finally met by chance during the banquet, but he couldn't be asked to evaluate himself? ”

Reminded by Chen Ying's words, everyone in Xuzhou, including an honest person like Lu Su, was inevitably a little remorseful, regretting that he had forgotten that he had not been able to ask Qishi Xu Zijiang to evaluate himself, and our deputy director Tao said sullenly: "I haven't forgotten this, I originally wanted to ask Xu Zijiang to evaluate me, but then I thought about it, so I didn't open this mouth." ”

"The lord decided to forget it after thinking about it? Why? Everyone asked in surprise again.

"This ......." Deputy Director Tao hesitated for a moment, smiled bitterly and said a rare honesty, and said: "I guess Xu Zi will not give me any good comments, rather than embarrassing him, or forcing him to say something that makes me uncomfortable, it is better to just forget it and not listen." ”

………………

At the same time, Liu Xiang and his entourage were in the team, Liu Miao also said to Xu Shao curiously: "Mr. Zijiang, you have always been known for knowing people, and the comment on Cao Mengde's ability to govern the world and the annihilation of the troubled times is even more well-known to the world. ”

"Do you really want to hear it?" Xu Zijiang hesitated and asked.

"Of course." Liu Miao nodded in anticipation.

Xu Shao hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Then I would be presumptuous, according to a certain opinion, if you want to give Tao Envoy Jun a word, then he, like Cao Mengde, can use ten words to give away, and five words are exactly the same - they are all worthy of the five words 'Annihilation of the Heroes of the Troubled Times'." ”

"What about the other five words?" Liu Miao asked.

"The Annihilator of the World!" Xu Shao replied categorically: "I look at Tao Envoy, if he was born in a peaceful world and became an official, then he must be a corrupt official who deceives his superiors and subordinates, is greedy and lustful, fishes and fleshes the people, cheats and abducts, sloshes his beard and slaps horses, and has all five poisons!" Stolen officials! The annihilation of the world who will do whatever it takes to get promoted and make a fortune! ”

(To be continued)