At the same time that the Huangfu was conducting a secret discussion on whether the merchants of Tanzhou should commit treason, a secret discussion was also being held in the Nine Dragons Hall of the King of Chu in Tanzhou. However, the focus of their argument was how to save the endangered state of Chu.

The current Chu Wangfu is the Tiance Mansion of the former Chu King Ma Xifan.

During his reign, Ma Xifan indulged in sensuality and extravagance. Tiance Mansion is the first grand project ordered by Ma Xifan, there are 16 buildings such as Tiance and Guangzheng in the mansion, and five halls such as Tiance and Qinzheng, covering an area of more than 100 acres, extremely magnificent and luxurious, even its gate and railing are decorated with gold and jade, and the walls are painted with the very precious dansha at this time.

Take the Nine Dragons Hall that Ma Xiguang and their current military discussions are talking about, it covers an area of more than five acres, and there are eight huge dragon pillars in the hall, and each pillar has to be surrounded by two people holding hands. At the beginning, Ma Xifan arranged his seat in the middle of the eight dragons, plus his own self-styled dragon, and finally named the main hall "Nine Dragon Palace".

"King Chu, you can't sit still any longer! Because Li Tang strongly intervened in our country's civil war, now, the morale of the army in the city is floating, and the people's mood is floating, if the passive situation cannot be quickly changed, the state of Chu is in danger! A bearded general shouted. This person is burly, his hands are dancing when he speaks, and spit is splashing in front of his face, it is Peng Shixuan, the commander of the Tanzhou strong crossbow.

Peng Shiwei is a native of the Tujia family, and his father is Peng Shichou, the assassin of Xizhou. Peng Shiwei was actually a hostage sent to Tanzhou by Xizhou.

After Ma Xifan ascended the throne, he often imposed harsh taxes on Xizhou and other places, which caused the dissatisfaction of the assassin Shi Peng. In August of the fourth year of Tianfu of the Later Jin Dynasty (939 AD), Peng Shichou led tens of thousands of barbarians from Jin, Prize, and Xi to attack Chen and Lizhou (now Yuanling and Li County, Hunan) of Chu State. In September, the king of Chu sent Liu Qing and Liao Kuangqi to lead 5,000 men to counterattack, and the famous Battle of Xizhou broke out.

In the first month of the fifth year of Tianfu (940 AD), Peng Shichou, who had been defeated in successive battles, sent his second son Peng Shigao to lead the barbarian chieftains Tian Hongbin, Qin Xingfang, Xiang Cunku, and Luo Junfu, with brocade, awards, Xizhou seals, and maps, to ask for surrender to the Chu State. After the two sides negotiated, they concluded an alliance to cast the Xizhou copper pillar in Yongshun Huixiping, Peng Shichou and Chu crossed the river and ruled, the south of Youshui returned to Chu, and the north of Youshui returned to Peng Shichou. Since then, a small number of tribes in the ten prefectures of Sichuan and Guizhou have successively attached themselves to the king of Chu, and the territory has remained stable.

After this incident, Peng Shihui stayed in Tanzhou City as a hostage, and was appointed by Ma Xifan as the commander of the strong army, and falsely took the post of Chenzhou Assassin Shi, and it has been ten years now.

may have been stimulated by the words "sit and wait to die", Ma Xiguang on the front seat frowned, and said a little unhappily: "What is Commander Peng's plan?" ”

Peng Shiwei took two steps forward and said loudly: "The scale of my Tanzhou Navy is huge, and its strength far exceeds that of the Langzhou Navy Army, while the Langzhou Tribal Barbarian Army, which is commanded by Han Lihan across Yangliuqiao and confronts the 3,000 infantry army, is only 7,000 people, which is the key to solving the crisis in the Chu State. Therefore, the minister suggested: Please ask the commander of Zhan Yi to allow Qiong to lead the fleet forward, and press the Langzhou fleet to stop on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River without moving. At the same time, 3,000 naval troops and some ships were divided to the south to threaten the Langzhou tribal army from the water.

After that, the minister led 5,000 foot soldiers to cross the river, sneaked to the Langzhou tribal army, and in the middle of the night, combined with the 3,000 infantry and 3,000 naval troops commanded by Han, and at the same time raided the tribal army camp from the west, south, and east, and the Langzhou tribal barbarian army was defeated; Then, our army will advance by land and water, and flank the Langzhou fleet in front and rear, and will surely defeat the enemy. The enemy army has gone by land and water, and the enemy who threatens the southwest camel mouth will inevitably retreat after hearing the news, and at this point, the siege of Tanzhou will be solved! ”

"Good strategy! It is worthy of being my Tanzhou fierce general, his courage is commendable, and his clever plan is feasible! "Even if Ma Xiguang is an out-and-out pustule, he can still hear that this strategy is indeed feasible.

"Wait!" A break sounded, interrupting Ma Xiguang's words and attracting everyone's attention.

The speaker was a veteran, with a red and black complexion, a tall figure, but a slight hunched back, and it was the commander of the war who rushed back to participate in the military meeting.

"Oh, what does Commander Xu have to say?" Ma Xiguang asked politely. Xu Qiong has old qualifications and high prestige in the Tanzhou army, and now he commands the most popular water army, Ma Xiguang will naturally not be easily offended.

Xu Qiong respectfully bowed his hand to Ma Xiguang, turned to Peng Shiwei, and asked loudly: "Commander Peng's strategy sounds very feasible at first glance, but Xu has two questions that he wants to ask General Peng.

First, the opponent's strength that General Peng said seems to have missed the most terrible opponent: Li Tang's army!

When the strength of the two sides is almost the same, why did Ma Xicao so arrogantly besiege the fortified city of Tanzhou? The people it relied on were nothing more than tribal barbarian armies, and the most important one was the Li Tang army. Our army suffered two consecutive defeats in Meizhou and Yiyang, both of which were defeated by the surprise attack of Li Tang's elite troops. What if Li Tang's army had already arrived and was ambushed in the Yuelu Mountains to the west? ”

"Impossible! There are only twenty or thirty people who have appeared in Li Tang's army so far, and I have never heard of Li Tang's army arriving! The military information sent by Wang Zan of Yuezhou did not mention the transit of Li Tang's army. Peng Shihui retorted loudly.

"Snort", Xu Qiong chuckled, and said with disdain: "Li Tang's elite didn't notify us of the arrival of the elite?" Besides, will the army of other people only come from Yuezhou? What if they came in in batches disguised on merchant ships? What if they make a detour north to Jingnan? ”

"This-" Peng Shihui had no words to retort, both of which were very likely to happen.

Jingnan is also known as Nanping, North Chu, built by Gao Jixing, the king of Jingnan in 924 A.D., and the territory governs Jing, Gui (now Zigui, Hubei) and Xiaxia (now Yichang, Hubei). Because it is at the key point of north-south transportation, Jingnan has never served Chu since Gao Jixing's "Gao Laizi" wantonly robbed the Chu State of its tribute to the Northern Liang, and then to the successor Gao Congzhi, and then to the current Gao Baorong, Jingnan's superiors have never served the Chu State, let alone worked together with the Ma brothers. If Li Tang's army really wants to borrow Jingnan, I am afraid that Gao Baorong will not dare to refuse!

"Both, Xu wants to ask, General Peng wants to lead 5,000 soldiers to attack, where are he going to transfer so many soldiers?" Permission Joan asked.

"Of course, it is drawn from the defenders of Tanzhou City!" Peng Shihui was a little annoyed and shouted loudly.

Xu Qiong shook his head and said coldly: "There are currently less than 8,000 people left in the defenders of my Tanzhou City, if General Peng draws away 5,000 people, there are less than 3,000 people left to defend the city of Tanzhou, which will inevitably lead to a very weak defense." What if the enemy army is like Yiyang City, raiding inside and outside at the same time and breaking through one of the city gates?! ”

"Impossible! Our army was under martial law early on the whole city, and it was impossible for the enemy to mix in. Peng Shihui shouted loudly.

"Before Yiyang City was broken, the defenders didn't expect anyone to be able to sneak into the city! In the past ten days, how many refugees have flocked to Tanzhou City, and how many defeated soldiers have returned, can you ensure that every soldier and refugee is not pretended to be an enemy? Xu Qiong asked sharply.

"This ......" Peng Shihui was speechless again, of course he couldn't guarantee this.

"In addition, what if the enemy doesn't raid the city gate and concentrates on a sneak attack on the Chu Palace?" Xu Qiong did not let go of Peng Shiwei and continued to ask.

"This is also nonsense! With such a large Chu Palace, can a few people succeed in a surprise attack? General Xu, don't be alarmist! Peng Shihui was about to go crazy and shouted loudly.

Xu Qiong shook his head slightly, but his voice was lowered, and said: "Isn't Lord Liu Yingyu and Lord Liu almost lost his life by a sneak attack under the protection of one hundred and fifty warships and thousands of sailors? ”

Hearing this, Ma Xiguang couldn't sit still anymore, looked around at the dark places behind every dragon around the pillar in the Nine Dragons Hall, and then heard the rustling sound of the autumn wind sweeping across the roof, and the hairs on his body stood on end, as if there were masters who were ready to kill themselves hidden in every dark place, and immediately shouted loudly: "Someone!" Immediately transfer 500 people from the East City Gate to clear out all the personnel within 500 meters of the outer part of the palace! From now on, the government will be on heightened vigilance, day and night, and no strangers will be allowed to enter! ”

After some commotion, the military discussion continued.

vetoed Peng Shiwei's raid strategy, and allowed Qiong's strategy to be offered in one word: defend. Relying on the wide water and strong city, the army defending Langzhou will naturally retreat if the army loses troops and the army food is not continued.

Many of the generals below were silent, staring straight at Ma Xiguang.

Ma Xiguang was angry, slapped the table hard, got up and left.

Just when the military discussion in Tanzhou City ended without a problem and broke up unhappily, two mysterious figures walked into the Langzhou tribal army camp at the foot of Yuelu Mountain.