When Li Fangwei arrived at Sima's place, he found a sense of belonging like a fallen leaf returning to his roots, but he was still a little uneasy in the next two days, for fear that the will from Jinling City would be unfavorable to him. But then Empress Xiao Zhan secretly sent a decree over, asking Li Fangwei to stay in Yangzhou with Sima Yi, and he was relieved, an envoy to the Northern Dynasty, in the end, he didn't have to go back to Jinling to resume his life, and he himself felt a little lucky.

"Sir, I'm afraid this Yangzhou city is not very stable, I came all the way from the north, Yuzhou and Jiangdu and other places are in chaos, there are often soldiers and horses dispatched, it seems that the Northern Dynasty has the intention of advancing south from multiple directions at the same time."

After Li Fangwei settled down, he began to exercise his duties as an assistant and spoke to Sima. Because he had been to the Northern Dynasty and knew something about some areas along the Southern and Northern Dynasties that might cause war, his news was also considered to be the first-line news, which may be more useful than the scout information he got from the Yangzhou Taishou Mansion.

"Then you will follow the information you heard along the way, according to the defense map along the river, and tell me in detail."

Sima asked Li Fangwei to look at the map and said, although the map is not detailed, but in the end many cities are marked on it, and more importantly, now Sima Yi is very clear about the distribution of troops in the Southern Dynasty, but where Li Fangwei can describe the deployment characteristics of the northern cities, compared with the corresponding regions and cities of the Southern Dynasty, he can feel the corresponding pertinence of the Northern Dynasty.

Li Fangwei just said what he saw and heard along the way for two hours, and there were some things that he saw but didn't pay attention to, and when he was questioned by Sima Yi, he could also think of a rough idea. After telling almost everything he knew, Sima Yi was surprised to find that the Northern Dynasty could be said to be very average in terms of troop deployment, and it was impossible to see which side was the focus or which side was the main attack and main defense.

"You can investigate so clearly on the way back. In the end, it is a great achievement. Sima Yi finally nodded approvingly.

Li Fangwei smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty doesn't hold me accountable for my disadvantage, I am already missing Gao Xiang, and I don't dare to ask for anything else, I just want to be able to temporarily attach myself to Mr. here, and wait for the next day to redeem my merits." ”

When Li Fangwei went back to rest, Sima Yi looked at the topographic map for half the night.

If he had only guessed based on topographical maps. Now that he has the information that Li Fangwei got back from the front line in the north, he has a certain pertinence in looking at this topographic map.

The forces of Yuzhou and Jiangdu are evenly distributed, coupled with the vanguard assault of Su Tingxia's department, in terms of strategic offensive, the Northern Dynasty seems to want to fight fast with slow, if it is at the speed of Su Tingxia's army, there is no river barrier, at least it can advance more than 100 miles a day, this is the prerequisite for Su Tingxia's department to run rampant on the grassland. But now Han Jian surprisingly let Su Tingxia stay on the defensive, which is a bit strange. The troops and horses along the other roads have also been in the process of scheduling, and although there is no large-scale attack, there are frequent changes of defense in some areas.

At this time, Sima Yi could determine that the soldiers and horses of the Northern Dynasty as the main force of the attack were the soldiers and horses stationed in Jiangdu, and this part of the soldiers and horses was mainly based on the former Beiguan garrison, and although Su Tingxia's troops were in front, they were more like bait. It forced a certain amount of turmoil within the Southern Dynasties. After the outbreak of the real war, it mainly depends on the momentum of the soldiers and horses personally recruited by Han Jian in Jiangdu. Or Lin Zhan, the general of the expedition to the north, may also be transferred back, because Sima Yi can't think of Han Jian, besides Lin Zhan and Su Tingxia, who else is suitable to be the general who will lead the troops and move south.

Including Han Jian's previous expression that he wanted Ning Yuan as the general of the unified army, it can be seen that Han Jian has soldiers and no generals in his hands, and there are few who can really be of great use, or this is also the reason why the Northern Dynasty has been holding its troops still.

The next few days. The ground in Yangzhou was still calm, and there was no more news even from Jiangling. Zhu Tongjing, the king of Linjiang, was ordered to bring his main army and horses to prepare to cross the river, but he only traveled thirty or forty miles a day, which was completely perfunctory to the imperial court, because Zhu Tongjing's soldiers and horses were moving slowly. The soldiers and horses transferred from all over the Southern Dynasties to receive the Jiangjiang region did not dare to act rashly, because Zhu Tongjing could kill a horse gun at any time.

On June 26, it was already the middle of summer, and it was rainy in Yangzhou for many days, which was not a good weather for the war.

Yangzhou is still like this, the situation along the river is not much better, in this season, after the soldiers and horses of the Northern Dynasty cross the river, they may be dragged down in the absence of logistical supplies, unless the soldiers and horses of the Northern Dynasty can directly attack Jinling from Yangzhou to the south, and solve all the problems in the shortest time, but now it seems that Han Jian does not intend to develop this war in this most direct and risky way.

That night, Sima compiled all the news from the front line, and finally returned to Yangzhou City after leaving Li Shanye for many days.

Li Shanye came back very suddenly, when he appeared in the yard, there was still a lot of standing water in the yard, Sima asked Huan'er to send the umbrella out, but Li Shanye did not receive the umbrella, but went inside.

"Seeing me come back, Brother Sima came out to deliver an umbrella, this is to let me brave the wind and rain again?" Li Shanye seemed to be joking, but this joke was not funny.

Li Fangwei was not in the living room, Sima waved his hand to let Huan'er go inside first, invited Li Fangwei to sit down, and asked, "But do you need to prepare a change of clothes for Mr. Li?" ”

"No, in fact, I will leave without sending an umbrella, I just want to tell Brother Sima what I have seen in the Northern Dynasty these days, and see what you have good insights." Li Shanye seemed to sigh with some emotion.

Sima Yi hesitated for a moment before asking, "That gentleman has arrived in Jiangdu on this trip north?" ”

"I went to go, but unfortunately Jiangdu City is very strict in checking the merchants from the south, and it is not easy to enter the city, but the letter of the Sima brothers, I still sent it into the city through the channel, and I originally wanted to wait a few days outside the city to see if the emperor of the Northern Dynasty would come out to meet, but later I had to leave because of some trivial matters." Li Shanye's face is actually very unsightly, perhaps because he was in a hurry in the rain.

Sima Yi thought about it, and finally told him that a woman with strong martial arts came to him that day.

Li Shanye said with a smile: "I Li has a lot of people who offend on weekdays, and there are also women among them, just listening to Brother Sima describe it like this, I really don't know who it is." Or wait until you know who it is, and then explain the situation to Brother Sima in detail, here is the distribution of soldiers and horses that I summarized in the north, you can take a look, it has a great reference. ”

said. Li Shanye taught Sima a topographic map wrapped in oiled paper. Sima Qi opened it and saw that the distribution of troops listed above was somewhat different from the news brought back by Li Fangwei, among the soldiers and horses in the Jiangdu part, Li Fangwei described that there were frequent troop movements of troops and horses, but Li Shanye described that there was no contact between the cities. but they stationed the soldiers and horses in the cities and did not come out.

Sima Yu got two completely different pieces of information, and he was a little puzzled in his heart, and he didn't react for a while.

Li Shanye noticed a little sign and couldn't help asking, "But Brother Sima thinks something is wrong?" ”

"I did get some news in the next place, saying that it was a first-line city in the northern Jiangdu, and there were frequent dispatches of troops and horses between each other, but for some reason it was completely different from the news brought by Mr."

Li Shanye was a little surprised: "How is this possible, the soldiers and horses are about to go south, and they need to be transferred internally?" This is clearly out of line with common sense. Or maybe Brother Sima was deceived. ”

Sima Yi deliberately didn't say that it was Li Fangwei who gave him the news, because he didn't want Li Fangwei and Li Shanye to have any head-on conflict, or mutual suspicion. Sima Yi also trusts Li Fangwei, if one of Li Shanye and Li Fangwei is not clear about the investigation, if he chooses to believe it, he would rather detail Li Shanye, because Li Shanye has a vast number of supernatural powers and has more channels to get information.

But from the perspective of psychological factors, Sima Yi felt that Li Shanye had hidden evil intentions. Not entirely trustworthy. This is a paradox, especially after receiving contradictory information.

Sima said, "The news I have received. It is not known whether it was more than a month ago or two months ago, or whether it was the frequent dispatch of troops and horses between the northern cities. ”

Li Shanye nodded and said, "Or so." Since the news from the north has been sent to Brother Sima, then I will also take my leave. ”

"Where is the gentleman going? It's late at night, so let's wait for tomorrow if you want to leave. ”

Li Shanye smiled and said: "Being in the rivers and lakes, I have Wei Que in my heart, and I will go to Jinling on this trip, but I can't delay it." Sima Brothers. The green mountains do not change the green water, I believe you and I still have a chance to meet. ”

Sima Yi thought that Li Shanye's trip to Jinling was just a trivial matter, and he might go back as soon as he went. But listen to the meaning of Li Shanye's words, after this is gone. It is impossible for the two to meet again in a short period of time, that is to say, Li Shanye either goes back to plan his own major affairs, or he wants to do something that is incompatible with him, and the two should not meet again.

Sima Yu didn't ask in detail, but just saluted and sent Li Shanye away. Even in the rain, Sima Yi was also sent to the yamen, and after seeing Li Shanye go away, he turned around, and at this time Huan'er was already waiting under the porch with an umbrella, waiting for the umbrella to be given to him to enter together.

Sima Yi was about to go inside, suddenly there was the sound of horses' hooves outside, but there was a light from the direction of Taishou Mansion, a group of soldiers rode horses, and when they got closer, there was finally a carriage, and a person got down from the carriage, it was Yangzhou Taishou Suihua.

"The right minister hasn't rested yet, that's really a coincidence, the lower officials have something to come to Sima Right to discuss." Sui Hua's face seemed to be very enthusiastic, but in fact, he had not been to this yamen for more than a month or nearly two months.

Sima made a gesture of invitation, "You might as well go inside and talk." ”

"You don't have to, just say it here. Just received an order from the imperial court, and ordered the official to lead 16,000 soldiers and horses in the city along the river, and the lower official came to inquire about the meaning of Sima Youxiang, can he use the tense military affairs of Yangzhou as an excuse to postpone the dispatch of troops to the imperial court? ”

Sima Yi nodded slightly, he finally knew why Sui Hua would come to the door, he really had nothing to do but go to the Three Treasures Palace, as soon as the imperial court issued an edict asking him to lead the troops, he immediately ran to tell him, and asked him to go to the imperial court to withdraw his fate.

"This matter is determined by the imperial court, and I am afraid that I will not be able to help him. Moreover, serving the imperial court is already the duty of Sui Taishou, and leading the troops to go out on the expedition is not just the right way to fulfill the merits of the husband? ”

Sui Hua smiled and said: "What Sima Xiangguo said is not right, in the final analysis, he is just a civilian official, and this matter of leading troops to fight naturally has to be done by the generals." Isn't it Sima Xiangguo who made a statement to the imperial court and asked the subordinate officials to lead the troops to the battle? ”

Sima Yi understood that Sui Hua was wary of him and had been wrestling with him secretly, but now that the imperial court has an order, Sui Hua spent the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain, and the first thing he thought of was to be put on a table by him.

"Sui Taishou don't speculate on himself, he has no intention of letting Sui Taishou lead the troops out of Yangzhou. If Sui is too trustworthy, you can write to ask Your Majesty or King Hui, if Sui is too stubborn, please go back. ”

The relationship that was originally quite harmonious became very tense when he arrived. Sui Hua's face also had a gloomy atmosphere, when the imperial court appointed Sima Yi as the commander-in-chief of Jiangbei military affairs at the beginning of the year, he had a lot of complaints in his heart, thinking that this was the shackles that the imperial court put on his head, and now he was in conflict with Sima Yi, and the power of the soldiers and horses in the city was in his hands, and he even moved to kill.

"Since Sima Xiangguo said so, then I'll go back first. However, for the time being, it is necessary to postpone the matter of leading the troops to the expedition, and the next official will naturally come to disturb him again tomorrow. ”

After speaking, Sui Hua hurriedly left with people.

Come in a hurry, go even more urgently.

Sima felt that things were too unusual. This Li Fangwei just came back, and then Li Shanye also came back, but one person was left alone and left in a hurry, and immediately the imperial court issued an edict to let Yangzhou Taishou Suihua lead the troops to the expedition, so it is easy to be thought that this is the imperial court helping him Sima to seize the military power of Jiangbei, and it is no wonder that Sui Hua will be so wary and wary of him.

Returning to the hall with Huan'er, Sima Yi's body was still wet with rain, and Huan'er was a little distressed: "Childe, let's go inside and change into dry clothes." Otherwise, it is easy to catch a cold. ”

Sima Yu shook his head and said: "In the middle of summer, it is rainy and rainy, and I am soaked by the rain, but I can also think about some things calmly. ”

There was a sound of footsteps at the door while speaking, and it was Li Fangwei who came over. Li Fangwei also saw that Sima Yi was still with the light on, and wanted to come over to see what was going on, he didn't know that Li Shanye had been here.

"Sir, it's so late, you should rest early." Li Fangwei came in, and Huan'er naturally had to go out. This has almost become a habit, at the beginning, Sima Yi still needed to send Huan'er away, and now there is no need for Sima Yi to say it, Huan'er will also retreat, because there was a master-servant relationship gap between Li Fangwei and her, Huan'er is now Sima Yu's woman, and it will be more embarrassing to stay.

As soon as Sima said that Sui Hua had come to ask him to speak to the imperial court, Li Fangwei's face was nervous.

"Sir, it seems that Sui Taishou has signs of doing something to Mr., Mr. might as well leave Yangzhou earlier. Back in Jinling, in the end, there is also the support of His Majesty and King Hui? (To be continued.) )