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The Qingchuan calendar, the grass is green, and it is early summer.

Bathing in the scorching sun, riding lightly on horseback, a team of 1,000 cavalry rushed into the county seat of Shangdang.

In front of the county guard's mansion, the civil and military forces of Bingzhou led by Assassin Shi Cui Yan and Zhenbei General Teng Xiao greeted each other, and there were also generals such as Ju Yi and Xu Huang, the governor of Jizhou.

Obviously, the war in Jizhou has ended, and the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses led by Ju Yi and Xu Huang failed to hold Changshan State after all, and were forced to retreat to Merge Prefecture. If it weren't for the defeat and his arrogant temperament, he would definitely not stand behind Teng Xiao, let alone hang his head for fear that Li Li would see it.

"Wechen (the last general) and others will meet the lord!"

As the sound of the horse's hooves got closer and closer, Cui Yan and Teng Xiao led all the civil and military forces to hurry up and salute in unison.

"That's it." Waving his hand to signal everyone to be exempted, Li Li turned over and dismounted, casually threw the reins to Teng Xiao, who bowed forward and led the horse, looked at him coldly, and then strode towards the gate of the mansion: "The county guards and Zhonglang generals will follow me into the palace to speak, and the rest of the civil and military officers will perform their duties, so go back." ”

Seeing that the lord looked displeased, Teng Xiao hurriedly handed over the reins of the horse to the soldiers, and took three steps and two steps to catch up with Li Zhi, the commander of the guards, and said in a low voice: "Teng made a big mistake this time, Zicheng must help the elder brother." Later, if the lord wants to behead his brother, the virtuous brother must intercede for the elder brother, otherwise, your sister-in-law and nephew will become orphans and widows. This is the demeanor of the famous Zhenbei general Teng Xiao, as soon as he saw that the shape was not good, he immediately walked through the back door, and directly found the cold face Li Zhi. He obviously wanted to probe Li Zhi's tone. But he pretended to be pitiful by knocking on the side, which made Li Zhi's heart sad. It seems that it is not Teng Xiao who makes the mistake but Li Zhi himself, or that if Teng Xiao is punished, it will be his Li Zhi's sin.

"Brother Yunlong is serious. It doesn't matter what mistakes you make. As long as you don't betray your lord, you won't be beheaded. It is a brother who can rest assured that the lord will not kill you, at most it is a small punishment and a big commandment, and it is just a pain of flesh and skin. Li Zhi stopped and whispered to Teng Xiao.

Li Zhi has always been taciturn, except for Li Li and a few colleagues, he does not pretend to be a color to anyone, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is ruthless. Therefore who wants to put a mouth out of his mouth. It is undoubtedly wishful thinking, purely self-deprecating, and does not get any useful information at all. But Teng Xiao is an exception. The reason why Li Zhi looked at him differently, or treated him differently, was because Teng Xiao was definitely one of the oldest generals under Li Li, and he had been kind to him.

I think that at the beginning, when Teng Xiao was a lieutenant under Li Li, Li Zhi was still feeding the horses in the stable of Han Sui's mansion in Jincheng. At that time, Li Zhi did not have a name, and he was locked up with Han Sui's mount Hua Horse all the year round. was called a "slave" by Han Sui, alluding to Li Zhi being a useless bedbug. Teng Xiao was not, he defected to Li Li on the way to Wuwei County to take office, and was the first batch of generals with the oldest seniority and the highest official rank under Li Li so far. He has always won the trust of Li Li and has been entrusted with important tasks repeatedly. When Li Zhi first came to the Xiliang Army, except for Li Li. There are only three people who have the best friendship with him, one of whom is Dian Wei. The other two are the two brothers Teng Xiao and Teng Yu.

When Li Zhi first served as the deputy general of the guard battalion, the brothers Teng Xiao and Teng Yu helped him a lot. Every time the personal guard battalion replenished the soldiers and horses, the brothers supported them with full support, and gave priority to sending the best sergeants under their tent to Li Zhi's account. Since then, he has had a close relationship with the Teng brothers and is like a brother. It is because Li Zhi can not give face to others, or even ignore it, but in the face of Teng Xiao, he can't prevaricate, he must tell the truth what he should say, and he will never hide it.

"Flesh and skin?" Teng Xiao groaned, shook his head with a bitter face, and said in a low voice: "Zicheng don't want to hide it from me, this time Ju Yi returned from defeat, and he will inevitably put the blame on the foolish brother, and the foolish brother will not be able to escape the blame, at least he will have to bear the charge of unfavorable reinforcements." Since then, most of the responsibility for Ju Yi's defeat has fallen on the foolish brother, even if he doesn't die, he has to peel off his skin! This is Teng Xiao's excuse. In fact, what he wants to express means: He is a general of Zhenbei, a position greater than the third duke, commanding more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in the state, if he is scolded in public, wouldn't it be a big loss of face, and what face will he have in the army in the future. Therefore, he said it very tactfully, and his purpose was to ask Li Zhi to say a few kind words in front of Li Li for him, so as to strive for the big things to be small and the small things to nothing, and finally be exempted from punishment and save him from losing face.

Although Li Zhi rarely speaks, this does not mean that he is dull and does not understand Teng Xiao's meaning. So Teng Xiao's voice fell, and he shook his head lightly, and said, "If Brother Yunlong wants to be exempted from punishment, it is difficult for the little brother." This time, Ju Yi was defeated, and only more than 30,000 soldiers and soldiers were left under the account of 70,000 soldiers and horses, and someone must bear this responsibility; Otherwise, wouldn't it be tantamount to saying that the 40,000 soldiers died in vain? If the lord turns a blind eye to this and does not pursue it, as soon as this case is opened, who will die for the lord in the future, and who will fight to the death? Therefore, it is impossible for Brother Yunlong to exonerate them all, at least half of the responsibility will be borne by him, and the other half of the responsibility will fall on Ju Yi. This is the lightest punishment, what the younger brother can do for his brother is to make a slight move when the cane is scolded, and order the soldiers who execute the soldiers to show mercy, that's all, and the rest is powerless. ”

After finishing speaking, Li Zhi walked away, but as soon as he took two steps, he stopped again, turned his head and told Teng Xiao: "You and my brother have known each other for many years, and if there is one thing, if the younger brother doesn't remind his brother, it will be really uncomfortable. ”

Teng Xiao quickly approached Li Zhi and said urgently: "Brother, say quickly, the foolish brother is full of hospitality." ”

"Later, when the lord asks about the war, the elder brother must remember not to argue, and must take the initiative to admit his mistake and ask for punishment according to the truth. With the lord's always lenient and benevolent style, as long as Brother Yunlong admits his mistakes frankly, the lord will definitely remember the old feelings and fall lightly; However, if the elder brother prevaricates a lot and flatly denies the fact that the rescue is not effective, it will backfire and will inevitably anger the lord. Once the lord is angry, the consequences are unimaginable, and it is not impossible to behead his brother in anger. In addition, the younger brother also wanted to remind the elder brother that no one could hide anything that happened in the army, as long as the lord wanted to know. That's all I say, my brother is so self-cherishing. After finishing speaking, Li Zhi didn't stop any longer, quickly followed Li Li, and walked into the hall of the county government.

Teng Xiao's expression changed greatly after hearing this, and he was stunned in place, stunned. At this time, Guo Jia walked up to him and said softly: "General Yunlong has good skills, and he is so familiar with General Zicheng. As far as I know, the only general in our army who can make Zicheng mention a little bit is Yunlong. I heard Zicheng's words just now, and he was right. Yunlong is indeed suspected of taking revenge for personal gain this time, and he inevitably ignores the overall situation, and the 40,000 army is all in one battle, and Yunlong cannot escape the blame. Therefore, punishment is inevitable, otherwise how can we comfort the 40,000 dead souls who have died. For today's plan, what Yunlong has to do is to take the initiative to admit his mistake and ask for guilt, only in this way can he save some face. After speaking, Guo Jia also left.

Teng Xiao hurriedly thanked: "Thank you for the reminder, the last general knows what to do." Then he quickly followed, and followed Guo Jia into the main hall.

Not long after, the military and political deliberations officially began, and the first thing that was put in front of everyone was the defeat of Ju Yi's army in Changshan and the retreat to the state. Li Li asked this question straight to the point, directly attributing the blame to the unfavorable reinforcements of the garrison in Bingzhou, and questioned Teng Xiao in the court.

"Within half a month, Ju Yi sent five groups of personal soldiers to ask for help, but the defenders of all counties in the state did not move and turned a deaf ear, what is the reason for this move? Teng Xiao, you are the general of Zhenbei, and all the soldiers of the state and county governments are under your control, why did you come to sue me? ”

After Li Zhi and Guo Jia raised the point, Teng Xiao immediately bowed his head and pleaded guilty, and simply admitted that he had missed the fighter plane, miscalculated the battle situation in Changshan, and the reinforcements were unfavorable, and then led the 70,000 troops under Juyi's account to suffer heavy losses. For this reason, he is willing to bear full responsibility for his guilt and is willing to accept punishment. However, Teng Xiao was by no means a person who was blindly beaten, and in addition to admitting his guilt, he also explained the reason for the delay in the defense of Jizhou: "In the two and a half years since General Ju Yi served as the governor of Jizhou, except for the first batch of grain and grass, the remaining two years of grain, grass, ordnance and baggage were all supplied by the last general.

For the first time, the last general was fully supplied with 70,000 troops, and sent three months' worth of grain and grass to General Juyi. Only two months later, General Ju Yi once again urged for grain and grass, and asked the last general to supply the grain and grass needed by the 100,000 army, and strictly ordered the last general to send half a year's supply at one time. In desperation, the last general could only transfer the grain and grass of the defenders of each county to ensure the supply of grain and grass for the 70,000 troops under General Juyi's account.

In the past two years, all the baggage has been given priority to supply the Juyi army, but the grain and grass of the defenders in the counties of our prefecture are in short supply, the weapons are damaged, and the old ordnance of the city cannot be replenished. For this reason, the soldiers of the counties were filled with indignation and complained. Now that General Ju Yi has been defeated, the last general does not deny that it is unfavorable to reinforce the state army, no matter how the lord punishes the last general, the last general has no complaints. But the last general wanted to know, where is the grain and grass that is enough to supply 120,000 soldiers and horses for a year? In the face of Teng Xiao's questioning, Ju Yi was speechless, obviously these grains and grasses were squandered by Ju Yi or greedy for ink, and now they are all in Cao Ren's hands. In the final analysis, the culprit is still Ju Yi, who has always eaten more and occupied more, which caused the Bingzhou army to hold a grudge against him, and finally caused today's evil consequences.

Li Li already knew this, but because of Juyi's new surrender and fighting alone in Jizhou, he kept turning a blind eye and pretending not to know. It is because of the defeat of Ju Yi that there is also his shadow of Li Li behind this defeat.

At this time, the truth was made public, and Li Li did not tolerate it, so he ordered Teng Xiao to be punished by 60 canes, fined 500 food towns, and demoted the generals of the prefecture by two levels, dismissed Juyi from the post of governor of Jizhou, and transferred to the deputy general of Jin Yiwei, and demoted from the position of the third prince to the miscellaneous general. Subsequently, Li Li ordered the requisition of 100,000 and the state army to go to the Hanoi camp and garrison the front line of Sili to confront the Cao army in Hebei.

?????? Just as Li Li was purging military discipline in the state, on the other side of Taihang Mountain, Cao Cao of Hebei ascended the throne and became the emperor, with the country name "Wei", and the capital was Yecheng, that is, the Northern Wei Dynasty.

―――――― To be Continued ―――――――――――――― (To be Continued......

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