Qiu Yizhi turned to Zheng Chao again and said, "Your Majesty, since this is the case, the matter of the imperial conquest is decided. Mr. Lin is drafting a war book, and when the war book is sent to Zheng Xin, the decisive battle time will be agreed, and the emperor will set off to fight the traitor Zheng Xin. ”

Qiu Yizhi's words were almost orderly, and there was no doubt and disregard for the supreme emperor and imperial power. But now this emperor Zheng Qi has neither the strength to resist nor the strength to refuse, so he can only bow his head and mutter: "I ...... I know ......"

Whether the emperor is willing or not is really an unimportant matter for Qiu Yizhi, he laughed and made a gesture to the emperor: "In this case, the minister will go down to prepare for the final decisive battle." These days, please also ask the emperor to be careful to raise the dragon body, in case the emperor's dragon body is not safe, and he has to work hard to recruit in person, and the minister is also reluctant. ”

Qiu Yizhi's words are equivalent to blocking the way that the emperor can't push in the name of serious illness, making the emperor and the empress dowager even more unsure of how to respond.

So Qiu Yizhi laughed "ha", and arched his hand to the two nominal worlds, and as soon as he turned around, he led Zhao Chengxiao, Wei Chi Jiming and eleven personal soldiers to leave the "Lizheng Palace".

The war book drafted by Lin Shuhan was sent to Zheng Xin within a few days.

The war letter was written in the name of the prison state, not the emperor, and it began with Qiu Yizhi's text listing Zheng Xin's crimes—some of them were confirmed, some were added to the vinegar, and some were forced on him. Zheng Xin also has a lot of courage, knowing that it is quite necessary for the two armies to be brave before the battle, and if he sends troops to fight against Qiu Yizhi, it is the same rhetoric, so he has seen it and didn't take it to heart.

After a few cruel words, Qiu Yizhi agreed to fight a decisive battle with Zheng Xin, and the victory or defeat of this battle will determine the general trend of the world.

The decisive battle must be a decisive battle, but the schedule, place, and troops are very particular, especially between Zheng Xin and Qiu Yi, and there is also a surging Yangtze River.

Among them, the most important is the location of the decisive battle - if it is placed in the south of the Yangtze River, how should Qiu Yizhi's military forces in the north of the Yangtze River be crossed; If it is placed in Jiangbei, how will Zheng Xin's army in Jiangnan cross the moat? What's more, even if these horses can be transported across the Yangtze River along with grain and grass baggage, they will have to face an opponent who is waiting for work, and the opponent is very likely to take advantage of his unstable foothold to "attack the enemy half-crossing", so that he can occupy a great advantage from the beginning of the battle.

With such suspicions, Zheng Xin continued to read, and sure enough, he saw that Qiu Yizhi agreed in the war book that he would fight a decisive battle at the boundary of Xuzhou Mansion in Shandong Province on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Seeing this, Zheng Xin couldn't help but scold: "It's really a tricky Qiu Yizhi, knowing that the troops are less and weaker than me, so he came up with such a way to lure me into being fooled, how can I let you be happy?" ”

He continued to look down, but it was Qiu Yi's willingness to give up the land along the river in Xuzhou, so that Zheng Xin could land calmly and set up a position before the decisive battle. If Zheng Xin doesn't believe it, he can first send a small force to reconnoiter and investigate, and if there is the slightest breach of promise, he would rather give up Luoyang City.

"Give up Luoyang City", Zheng Xin will not believe it, but it is a good choice to send someone to Jiangbei to take a look - if Qiu Yizhi can really keep his promise, then he can lead the army to cross the river and fight a decisive battle with him; If it was Qiu Yizhi's strategy, the loss would only be a few scattered soldiers and horses.

Later in the war book, it is written: The world has been fighting for a long time, the people are not allowed to rest, right and wrong have their own destiny, those who do the way of heaven will be helped by heaven, and those who have no humanity will be tired of it.

These few words really spoke to Zheng Xin's heart.

Zheng Xin was originally instigated by Wen Honghui, the leader of the Tianzun Sect, and did the ugly thing of killing the king and killing the teacher on the spot, knowing that what he did was a bad thing against the sky, and he was already very weak-hearted. And his killing of Lingnan King Zheng Gui and his son, and the imprisonment of Heluo King Zheng Hua, his second brother Zheng Sen, and Zuo General Wei Hu are actually all manifestations of this mentality. But Qiu Yizhi's words clearly reversed the logic - as long as the person who can win in this decisive battle is the one who "walks the way of heaven", and he has become an undoubted orthodox defender - as long as he can defeat Qiu Yizhi on the battlefield, the filth on his body can be washed clean.

This is too much temptation for Zheng Xin, who wants to inherit the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty, so he stirred the cinnabar in the inkstone vigorously, licked the even cinnabar that could no longer be even, and filled a new pen, and commented on the war book under Qiu Yizhi: "Quasi, a decisive battle at the boundary of Xuzhou, Shandong Province, and the betrayal will be destroyed." ”

Having said that, Zheng Xin has always known Qiu Yizhi's temperament, and he has seen his tricks when leading the army to fight many times, and he is really afraid that he will temporarily break the contract and kill himself by surprise.

Therefore, when Zheng Xin sent someone to return this war letter to Jiangbei, he really chose a Zhonglang general named Tang Jianlong, led 3,000 elite soldiers, and went to Jiangbei together.

This Tang Jianlong was recruited by Zheng Xin in Shanxi Road, seeing that in addition to the recklessness of the Northwest man, he is also a rare bit of intelligence and cleverness, and his appearance is also very righteous and heroic, so he was introduced as a confidant, and today he was finally able to come in handy, and he went to Jiangbei to investigate the situation first.

Tang Jianlong was full of reluctance, but Zheng Xin had no choice but to know him, so he could only bite the bullet and take his 3,000 men and horses, divided into five newly built big ships, and came to Jiangbei.

In fact, compared to Tang Jianlong, who did not know the terrain of the south of the Yangtze River and was not familiar with the style of Shandong, there was another person under Zheng Xin who was more suitable for the task of going north to investigate the situation.

This person is none other than Zhang Long, a general who has been highly regarded as early as the Daxing Emperor Zheng Rong, who was in charge of the southward movement of the army when he quelled the rebellion of the Lingnan Palace, and has a very close relationship with Zheng Xin - this time Zheng Xin broke with Qiu Yizhi completely, and Zhang Long was also on Zheng Xin's side.

However, after all, Zhang Long's official position is too high and his authority is too heavy, and Zheng Xin himself is a little weak-even Wei Hu, the left general who came to question him, was ruthlessly imprisoned-General Zhang Long, who is only slightly inferior to Wei Hu, is not completely sure that he can be subdued, let alone send him to Jiangbei alone to carry out such a major task.

Therefore, Tang Jianlong, who had no knowledge of the two banks of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, could only come to the north bank of the Yangtze River with a worried heart and a black eye.

However, to Tang Jianlong's surprise, it was not the ubiquitous murderous eyes of the Northern Army that greeted him, but the hospitality that was so warm that people even felt a little embarrassed-

As soon as he led the army down from the ferry, he was greeted by a special person from the Northern Army, who sent him to the well-established camp to settle down, and another general, who described himself as quite imposing, was responsible for contacting him.

This military general is none other than Zhao Chengxiao, who was sent by Qiu Yizhi in advance.

Zhao Chengxiao came here, and received Qiu Yizhi's military order, in addition to loosening the outside and tightening the defense along the river, he also secretly had other important responsibilities, so he was very polite to this Tang Jianlong, and after saying a few good words when they met, he asked: "General Tang, it is said that you sent Zheng Xin's war book here, I don't know if you stay by your side?" ”

Tang Jianlong had already heard of Zhao Chengxiao's prestige, and when he saw him come to greet him in person, he was a little flattered, and hurriedly replied: "Such an important object, the last general will naturally stay by his side, and he is about to hand it over to General Zhao and bring it into the imperial court and send it to Lord Jian Guoqiu." ”

"That's good, that's good." Zhao Chengxiao said, "It's just that this thing is too important, and the last general will not dare to accept it, so it should be handed over to Lord Qiu by General Tang himself, and then the Lord will enter the saint." ”

Tang Jianlong was shocked when he heard this, thinking that Zhao Chengxiao wanted to go to Beijing with the war book to meet Qiu Yizhi, but he heard Zhao Chengxiao say again: "The last general heard the news from the rear before, saying that Lord Qiu was rushing to the Yangtze River, and he would arrive in about two or three days. Why don't you stay here for a few days now, wait for the adults to come, and then hand it over to him personally? ”

Tang Jianlong was entrusted with the task of inquiring about Qiu Yizhi's side of the information, and he couldn't be more satisfied with this arrangement, so he hurriedly agreed: "It's easy to say, it's easy to say." It's all up to General Zhao's arrangement. He said on the one hand, and on the other hand, he was afraid that Zhao Chengxiao would regret and break his promise.

After sending Zhao Chengxiao away, Tang Jianlong did not dare to relax at all, and hurriedly ordered the troops to withdraw from the camp, and inspected the camp provided by the northern army over and over again, and after making sure that there was nothing abnormal in it, he ordered people to be stationed in it again. He also ordered the whole army to be divided into three classes, and the three classes of men and horses took turns to rest and sleep, and even the grain, rice, vegetables and meat used in the diet were brought from the south.

After a peaceful night, Zhao Chengxiao came to visit again, but he came to invite Tang Jianlong to check the location of the decisive battle.

This is also an important task for Tang Jianlong to go north, and he can't refuse Zhao Chengxiao's invitation because of reason, public and private. However, now that it was on the opponent's territory after all, Tang Jianlong was afraid of any accidents, so he ordered a thousand military horses and acted with him.

Zhao Chengxiao was very confident here, except for himself, he only brought seven or eight followers, and led Tang Jianlong to the north.

The group was not moving slowly, but for nearly an hour, it was all plains and wastelands with little undulation.

Tang Jianlong was a little puzzled and asked, "General Zhao, you also know that I am from the northwest, and it is the first time I have come to the east of the Great Han Dynasty. It is said that the east is full of fish and rice, why didn't you expect it to be as desolate as the Loess Plateau in the northwest? Not even a single family? ”

Zhao Chengxiao replied: "Lord Qiu has made an agreement with Zheng Xin to retreat and think that it is a battlefield. The nearby residents and farmers here have been ordered to move out temporarily and be properly resettled. After the war, return to your hometown. ”

Tang Jianlong frowned and said, "The last general is also from a peasant, so isn't this going to ruin the land?" If you miss the agricultural time for a while, you will miss it for a whole year! ”

Zhao Chengxiao said with a smile: "General Tang was born as a peasant, and the last general was also a peasant. Lord Qiu had already thought of this, and there were only more than 3,000 peasant households relocated here, less than 15,000 people, all of whom were raised by the government at the expense of the government. After the winter of this year, the seeds and grains will be distributed and they will be exempted from taxes for three years, so it is estimated that they will be able to recover. General Tang, do you know whether this is appropriate or not? ”