The next time, the invitation letter written by Xie An was delivered by an assassin from Dongling to the hands of Niu Zhuqu Shuai Sheep of the Taiping Army.

[Southern Expedition against the Zhou Division, Commander of the Eastern Route Army, Shangshu Xie An of the Criminal Department. ]

Glancing at the big thorny payment on the cover of the invitation, the withered sheep casually handed it to his confidant Wang Jian, and then paced back and forth in the handsome tent with his hands behind his back.

After receiving the letter, Wang Jian glanced at the withered sheep with some doubts, opened the letter, and read word by word, "Ming, the boat in the river has a drink......

"......" stopped, and the withered sheep glanced back at the letter in Wang Jian's hand, frowning slightly.

And the young general Wang Jian didn't notice the strange expression of his boss, checked the envelope repeatedly, and muttered with a puzzled face, "It's strange, this Xie An led reinforcements to arrive here, and he was not in a hurry to use troops to save the disadvantage for that Li Xian, but he was close to ...... with the big commander for no reason" As he said, he raised his head, shook his head and said, "The big marshal, the last general thinks that there must be fraud in this matter!" ――Then Xie An obviously wants to make a big handsome man! ”

"Earn me?" The withered sheep seemed to be worried, and said perfunctorily.

"Isn't it?" With a light snort, Wang Jian said coldly, "The marshal and that Xie An are not only not related, but also in the enemy, but this person sent a letter to my military camp, asking the marshal to drink in a boat on the river, which is obviously to set a trap to harm the marshal!" - The handsome man is not allowed to go to the banquet! ”

Hearing this, the withered sheep smiled bitterly and sighed, "You are too worried, I don't believe that he will harm me......"

"This ...... Why is that? Wang Jian asked in surprise.

Shaking his head, the withered sheep did not answer the general's words, and continued to himself, "The problem is that I really don't know how to meet him......

"......" Wang Jian opened his mouth slightly, obviously seeing something from it, after all, the withered sheep had spoken so thoroughly.

"Da Shuai ......" seemed to see something, Wang Jian licked his lips and asked cautiously, "Are you with that Xie An...... Old? ”

Glancing at the surprise on Wang Jian's face, the withered sheep did not hide it, looked at the top of the tent with his hands behind his back, and said softly, "Wang Jian, have you heard of my origin?" ”

"That's nature!" Wang Jianyan's face showed a little reverence when he heard this, and he clenched his fists and said, "Dashuai is the only bloodline of the Jinling Ram family...... The relatives of the marshal are the loyal men of my Southern Tang Dynasty and my Taiping Army! ”

"In fact, I'm not the only bloodline in the Ram family, I also have a sister...... Pro-sister. Back then, she was just an ignorant baby girl, but she escaped by luck, was never killed by the army of the Great Zhou, was adopted, changed her name and surname, and lived to this day......"

"When...... Seriously? Seeing Wen Yan's face was overjoyed, he rubbed his hands and said repeatedly, "This is really ...... What a joy! - Congratulations, congratulations! I don't know where Sister Ling lives now? Why didn't Dashuai mention it before? Why don't you send someone to bring Sister Ling back, so that Dashuai can reunite with her sister? ”

"Oh, no need...... waving his hand, the withered sheep sighed, "I was lucky enough to meet my sister three years ago, and at that time, my sister was already married to a woman......

"This ......" Wang Jian nodded with a sudden realization, and then asked curiously with a little smile, "But I don't know that it was the family that kindly adopted Sister Ling back then?" Now which lucky guy is lucky enough to be favored by the handsome sister......"

"The family who adopted my sister?" After a pause, the withered sheep said with a complicated expression, "One of the Great Thursday Towns, the Liangqiu family of the Donggong Mansion ......"

"Oh, oh, oh, it turned out to be Liangqiu ...... Donggong Mansion" Wang Jian subconsciously nodded along with the withered sheep's words, and immediately vaguely felt that something was wrong.

However, the withered sheep didn't seem to have the strange look on Wang Jian's face, and still said to herself, "The sister adopted by the Liangqiu family in the Donggong Mansion was named Yiyi, and asked her to accompany the only daughter in the family, that is, [Yanhu Ji] Liangqiu Dance...... Three years ago, Liang Qiu Wu married a Guangling man, and his sister, as a concubine, also married a ...... for that man."

"Big ...... The handsome ......" Wang Jian's eyes had a faint look of horror.

"Not bad!" Glancing at Wang Jian, the withered sheep lowered his voice and said in a deep voice, "Xie An, who led 60,000 Jizhou soldiers to aid the Eight Sages King Li Xian this time, is my withered sheep's own brother-in-law!" ”

"Hiss......" Wang Jian gasped in surprise when he heard this, stared at the withered sheep in disbelief, and stopped talking a few times.

Probably seeing the vigilance that flashed in Wang Jian's eyes, the withered sheep smiled and said, "What are you going to do, Wang Jian?" ”

"......" I don't know if I heard the deep meaning of the withered sheep's words, Wang Jian was shocked, stared at the withered sheep for a while, suddenly let out a long breath, and said, "The last general was just a small hundred generals at first, and he was promoted by the big handsome!" The marshal has the grace of knowing the last general, and the last general will never dare to have the slightest idea! With that, he quietly walked to the tent, looked out a few times, and saw that no one outside the tent paid attention to this side, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

Wang Jian's move, the withered sheep obviously saw it.

In fact, it was precisely because Wang Jian was his confidant that he revealed such a secret thing. Just like when Wu Heng recruited the younger generation of generals such as Withered Sheep and Wei Xuan, Withered Sheep has gradually built his own team in the past few years. It's not for any ulterior purpose, it's just that sometimes things can get very tricky if you don't have a confidant to help you share some of the burdens.

After branching out the soldiers guarding outside the tent, Wang Jian walked back to the withered sheep, lowered his voice and said, "Thanks to the great marshal's trust for this, the last general will be grateful!" ――But I don't know, what is the plan of the marshal? ”

"What do you think?"

Wang Jian hesitated for a moment when he heard this, and then lowered his voice and said, "There are some things that I really didn't dare to say before, but now...... In fact, the marshal also knew in his heart that the reason why our army was able to control the entire Jiangdong in just half a year was not because of how fierce our army's combat strength was, but because the two Zhou divisions that were fighting against the south were attracted to Jingzhou...... To put it mildly, then Li Shen, the king of Qin, became a substitute for the dead ghost! ”

The withered sheep was silent when he heard this.

In all fairness, how was it unclear in his mind?

His Taiping army captured Jiangdong almost effortlessly, is it really about the combat strength of their Taiping army? As Wang Jian said, it is nothing more than that the two Zhou armies that fought against the south were attracted to Jingzhou.

The southern expedition against the Western Route Army of the Zhou Division, that is, the Jizhou Army led by the Eight Sages King at that time......

and the Eastern Route Army of the Southern Expedition against the Zhou Division, that is, the Great Liang Army led by Xie An, Marquis of Anping at that time......

If there were no three kings such as Li Shen, the king of Qin, to share the threat of encirclement and suppression of soldiers and horses from the Great Zhou Dynasty for the Taiping army, with the 100,000 Taiping army led by Liu Qing and Wu Heng at that time, an army that was only good at small-scale fighting and had no experience in large-scale warfare, how could the enemy defeat the Jizhou soldiers and the Great Liang army, who had experienced a hundred battles?

Why did the withered sheep defeat Li Xian, the king of the Eight Sages, in the waters of the Hengjiang River, but he himself did not feel the slightest excitement? It's very simple, because at that time, Li Xian's command was just a group of Jiangnan Green Forest heroes who had no military combat experience at all and only knew how to kill arrogantly.

Maybe in terms of one-on-one, even a Jizhou soldier will not be the opponent of a green forest hero, but if it is 10,000 against 10,000 people, the Jizhou soldier can definitely defeat the latter without much effort, after all, army combat is completely different from fighting with one's own brute force.

Because of this, even if they drew the Eight Sages King Li Xian in the previous few battles, the withered sheep did not feel that there was anything to be happy about, and the worst thing was that what they had to face now was no longer the group of green forest heroes under the command of the Eight Sages King Li Xian, but the Gyeonggi regular army of the Great Zhou Army, the Jizhou soldiers.

60,000 Jizhou soldiers......

With only 30,000 troops in his hands, no matter how conceited he is, the withered sheep will not say anything that can stop the enemy from Jiangbei.

Hard to win!

Thinking of this, the withered sheep said in a deep voice, "Wang Jian, Ming ** will go to the banquet with me......"

"The last general understands!" Arching his hand and hugging his fist, Wang Jian said in a low voice, "Da Shuai means ......" When he spoke, he made a gesture very vaguely, a gesture to express his sincerity.

The withered sheep frowned at this, but didn't say anything. Perhaps, in Wang Jian's opinion, he has such a good way to surrender to the Great Zhou court, why not do it? But for the withered sheep, he actually had no intention of surrendering.

After all, putting aside his brother-in-law Xie An and his sister Yiyi, the whole family of his ram family died in the hands of the Great Zhou army, and it is even said that his biological father Ram Pei was killed by Liang Qiugong's youngest son Liang Qiujing with an arrow when he was holding the Jinling City Tower.

Although he thought about the kindness of the Liang Qiu family in raising his sister Yiyi to grow up, the withered sheep deliberately thought about putting aside this grievance, but how could such a blood feud be easily resolved?

Fall?

Hey! If he really thought about defecting to the Great Zhou court, as early as three years ago, he could use the power of his brother-in-law Xie An to get rid of the Taiping Army and join the Great Zhou military, so why wait until now?

"Although I can roughly guess the intention of my brother-in-law to invite me to the banquet this time, I would like to go to the meeting! By the way, don't reveal this matter to anyone, especially Wei Hu in Jinling! ”

"Lord Wei Hu...... The end will understand! Wang Jian nodded understandingly. After all, everyone in the Taiping Army knows that Wei Hu, the second-generation Tianquan God General, is a loyal and fierce general under the fourth-generation commander Wu Heng. If the relationship between Withered Sheep and Xie An is exposed, don't look at the good relationship between Wei Hu and Withered Sheep Pingli, they will still meet Withered Sheep and soldiers.

At noon the next day, the withered sheep led his confidant Wang Jian and several other guards to leave Niuzhu's camp and came to the riverside.

In the distance, the withered sheep saw a flat boat floating in the river.

Perhaps noticing the dead sheep, the boat slowly sailed to the shore and stopped in front of the dead sheep.

The ferryman was a strong man with a strong and powerful horse, and the withered sheep knew at a glance that this person was by no means an ordinary person, hugged his fists, and said, "Taiping Army, withered sheep!" ”

The strong man who seemed to be difficult to get along with also returned the salute with his fists, and said in a deep voice, "The warden of the Great Prison Temple, Di Bu! ”

[Di Bu, the warden of the Great Prison Temple under the jurisdiction of the Criminal Department, the head of the Four Heavenly Kings of Dongling......]

Squinting his eyes, the withered sheep was slightly shocked in his heart, but he didn't say anything on his face, and asked calmly, "Is Xie Shangshu in this boat?" ”

A hint of discoloration flashed in Di Bu's eyes, and his tone softened a lot for some reason, and he raised his hand and said, "My lord has been waiting in the boat for a long time, please!" ”

"There is labor!"

Hugging his fist towards Di Bu, the withered sheep took Wang Jian and several guards to bend down into the boat and came to the cabin, only to find that Xie An was sitting on the seat in the boat, quietly waiting for his arrival.

"Xie Shangshu ......" Dry Sheep took the initiative to greet with his fists, after all, Xie An is his brother-in-law, although Dry Sheep is embarrassed to call his brother-in-law in this case, but according to etiquette, he really needs to take the initiative to say hello to Xie An, not to mention, his impression of his brother-in-law Xie An is really not bad.

Xie Shangshu ...... Hehehe! Hearing the name of the withered sheep, Xie An chuckled and shook his head, but he didn't say much, raised his hand, and said in a relaxed tone, "Withered sheep, you and I haven't seen each other for more than three years, right?" ”

At the same time as Xie An spoke, a handsome man like a noble son stood up on the side of the seat, snapped the delicate little golden fan in his hand, and said with a smile, "Little uncle, please!" ”

“…… Thank you Gou Shaoqing! A hint of discoloration flashed in the withered sheep's eyes.

Maybe Wang Jian and the others didn't know who the man who seemed to be accompanying the wine was, but the withered sheep was very clear in his heart.

A guy who is good at using poison and can easily defeat a strong team if he catches a loophole......

It seems to be polite, but in fact it is very threatening!

Shaoqing of the Great Prison Temple under the jurisdiction of the Criminal Department and the second of the Four Heavenly Kings of Dongling, Gou Gong......

[Did the Four Heavenly Kings of the Dongling Crowd come with two?] ]

Just when the withered sheep was secretly frightened, he suddenly heard the sound of a sharp blade unsheathed, and the withered sheep was stunned, after all, he really didn't expect Xie An to turn his face at such a time.

And when he saw it clearly, his face suddenly turned slightly red, because he found that it was Wang Jian beside him who drew the blade.

I saw Wang Jian at this time with a frightened look on his face, staring at the depths of the cabin with a sharp blade in his hand, and cold sweat broke out on his head.

[What's going on?] ]

The withered sheep was stunned, and subconsciously looked at Wang Jian's line of sight, and immediately, his eyes narrowed slightly. Because he saw that in the corner of the cabin, there was a man who looked like twenty-five or sixteen, although his appearance was not as handsome as that of Gou Gong, but he could also be called good-looking, but it was a pity that the expression between his eyebrows was indifferent, and at a glance, he knew that he would not be a good person.

[Directly under the emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the commander of the Fusi Division of Beizhen, the third of the four heavenly kings of Dongling, Mo Fei...... The most fearsome assassin in the East Ridge crowd! ]

The withered sheep subconsciously squinted his eyes, and his right hand buckled the hilt of the sword, and at this moment, Gou Gong reached out and pressed his wrist, and said apologetically, "Little uncle, don't blame, Gou Mou, the third brother, has always been introverted and perverse, although something happened a while ago, so that he finally dared to take off the mask on his face, but he still didn't like to speak...... Uncle is not strange! - Please! ”

Hearing this, the withered sheep looked at Mo Fei, but saw Mo Fei glancing at them coldly, and then closed his eyes and closed his eyes to recuperate. Obviously, people don't have the intention of doing anything at all.

"Ahem!" Coughing a little embarrassedly, the withered sheep sat down opposite Xie An, and behind him, his confidant Wang Jian also seemed to notice his gaffe, his face was red, and he hurriedly put the blade in his hand back into the scabbard.

And from beginning to end, Xie An didn't say anything at all, and even when Wang Jian drew his sword, he didn't even blink his eyes. But think about it, although Xie An only brought Di Bu, Gou Gong, and Mo Fei as escorts on this trip, you must know that with these three people, looking at the world, unless Liang Qiu Hao, Liang Qiu Wu, Zhen Lei, Li Mao and other big heroes in the world are in person, otherwise, how many people can hurt Xie An?

Comparatively speaking, don't look at the superiority in the number of guards brought by the withered sheep on this trip, but if you really want to fight, I am afraid that you will be put down in a face, after all, the strength of the two sides is too far apart.

"Niu Zhu is not far from here, but it is not too close...... Anyway, let's have a drink first! Please! Probably noticing that the withered sheep was a little embarrassed, Xie An took the initiative to open his mouth to relieve him.

"Don't dare to be a ......" raised the cup, and the withered sheep drank it all in one gulp, without doubting whether there was poison in this cup of wine, you must know that Gou Gong, who accompanied him and Xie Anxie, was a famous man who was extremely good at using poison.

may be feeling that the withered sheep doesn't care about whether he will poison the cup, Gou Gong's eyes flashed with a hint of approval and admiration, and said with a smile, "It's worthy of the little uncle, it's really heroic!" As he spoke, he filled the wine cup for Xie An and the withered sheep.

For Gou Gong's deliberate compliment, the withered sheep smiled faintly. In fact, compared to Gou Gong, Mo Fei, who was still sitting in the corner, put more pressure on him. After all, when he withered sheep walked into the cabin, Mo Fei had been sitting in the corner, motionless, but when the withered sheep and Wang Jian and his party came in, they didn't notice it at all, so it was no wonder that Wang Jian inadvertently saw Mo Fei and mistakenly thought that there was suddenly one more person in the cabin, so he suddenly drew his sword to defend himself.

Wine, obviously something that can get along, but in this Ye Bian Zhou, Xie An and Dry Yang became more and more embarrassed the more they drank, and after chatting a few words about Yiyi, the two of them were unconsciously silent.

Finally, the withered sheep couldn't help it, stared at Xie An and said in a deep voice, "Brother-in-law invited me here for a drink this time, isn't it just for a drink?" ”

In fact, the withered sheep did not expect that Xie An would take the initiative to invite him to the banquet, and even he knew clearly what Xie An was about to express, it was nothing more than wanting to use family affection to win him over, hoping to turn against him withered sheep.

"......" Xie An was silent for a moment when he heard this, and suddenly said with a chuckle, "Dry sheep, to be honest, I am very pleased that you can come this time, a while ago in Jiangling, I also set up a drink to invite my brother-in-law, but unfortunately, he did not appreciate his face......"

The withered sheep's face suddenly darkened, of course he knew who the wife and brother Xie An was referring to, it was none other than Liang Qiuhao, the third-generation commander of his Taiping Army. In a sense, Liang Qiuhao and his withered sheep not only have the kindness of teaching martial arts, but also can be called relatives.

"Is my brother-in-law trying to persuade me?" After three rounds of drinking, the withered sheep suddenly looked up and asked.

Staring at the somewhat complicated eyes of the dead sheep, Xie An licked his lips, nodded and said, "Not bad!" - I don't think you have any reason to rebel with that Wu Heng! ”

"No reason?" The withered sheep snorted lightly, looked up at Xie An, shook his head and said, "My ram family has a blood feud with Da Zhou, and my brother-in-law doesn't know ......"

"Isn't it more important to continue the Ram family than revenge?"

"Oh?" As if hearing something deep from Xie An's words, the withered sheep chuckled and said, "It seems that my brother-in-law is really winning...... Is that self-confidence? Give it a try! - Will Heaven allow my ram family to avenge this blood feud......" He stood up and walked to the exit of the cabin.

"Hey!" Xie An smiled faintly, but he didn't say anything to stop him. Perhaps, he heard the meaning of the withered sheep's words.

When he walked to the hatch, the withered sheep seemed to suddenly think of something, turned his head and said lightly, "By the way, although my side is no match for the Jizhou soldiers under my brother-in-law, but ...... My brother-in-law was a few days late after all! ”

"How late are you?" Xie An frowned when he heard this, and asked puzzledly, "What do you mean?" ”

It's no wonder that Xie An was puzzled, after all, he came to help this time earlier than Li Xian, the Eight Sages King, imagined, and it would be about a month earlier.

As if noticing the confusion in Xie An's eyes, the corner of the withered sheep's mouth raised a little inexplicable smile, and he lowered his voice and said, "Just yesterday, I received good news, Guangling...... It's fallen! ”

"......" Xie An's eyes tightened when he heard this, and he subconsciously squeezed the wine cup.

Of course, he knew what the fall of Guangling meant. Guangling fell, which means that the power of the Taiping Army has set foot in Yang and Xu Erzhou, and the Yangtze River can no longer stop the footsteps of the Taiping Army.

[How is that possible...... Then how could Wu Heng conquer Guangling in such a short period of time?! ]

Looking at the back of the withered sheep and his party leaving, Xie Anxin was like a stormy wave.

At the same time, the withered sheep and his party had already gotten off the boat.

Glancing back at Xiaozhou, Wang Jian asked suspiciously, "Guangling's victory?" Why didn't the last general know anything? ”

"Hey!" The corners of the withered sheep's mouth raised a little inexplicable smile, and he muttered, "Ah, who knows! ”

"Huh?"

ps: I can't justify the loopholes found by the book friend [Bei'er], it's been too long, and I forgot what I wrote before...... Woowoo......

cough, everyone raise your noble hands, just let Li Xian forget about it~ cover your face and leave. (To be continued.) )