After fleeing back to Yunzhou in a hurry, Li Shidao sat alone in the study for a long time. Liu Wu, Li Gongdu, Lin Ying, Wang Zaisheng and others waited at the door for a long time, and Li Shidao walked out of the room with a tired face and blank eyes, and asked dumbly:

"How many soldiers have returned?"

Liu Wu said miserably:

"Back to the King of Qi, more than 3,000 of the tooth army came back, most of them were wounded. Less than 30,000 other armies returned from the battlefield. ”

Li Gongdu lost no time in saying:

"Together with the soldiers left behind, our army still has more than 70,000 people, and if you plan carefully, you can still make a difference."

Li Gongdu's original intention was to use this to boost Li Shidao's morale, but unexpectedly, Lin Yingdao:

"Lord Li is embarrassed to say, if it weren't for King Qi mishearing your slander, how could he have lost more than 20,000 soldiers in vain?"

Li Gongdu was furious and said:

"Lin Ying, you villain, if you hadn't provoked it, how could our army delay the fighter? It is clear that you killed General Wang and 20,000 soldiers, but you are spewing blood here! ”

It is clear that Li Shidao was indecisive to delay the fighter, but how dare Li Gongdu say it at this time? Lin Ying was surveying and surveying:

"It is the decision of the king of Qi to defend the fortified city, are you saying that the decision of the king of Qi is wrong? If it was the king of Yiqi, how could there be such consequences? It's clear that you are bent on surrendering to the imperial court, so you deliberately did this! ”

Li Gongdu didn't expect Lin Ying to be so despicable, pointed at Lin Ying, and said tremblingly:

"You ······"

Li Shidao suddenly shouted and said:

"Enough! The widow uses you, not for you to quarrel here! ”

Lin Ying immediately stopped and said to Master Li:

"The subordinates are also worried about the king, so they can't help but quarrel with this guy! The subordinates are only wrong, please forgive the king. ”

After speaking, he gave Li Gongdu a fierce look, and Li Shidao saw that Li Gongdu was about to have another seizure, and said:

"You two are both thinking about the widow, and Hugh is going to attack each other again. Let's think about what to do. ”

Li Gongdu had to hold back his words hatefully. Lin Ying said to Master Li:

"Thanks to the wisdom of the king, our army still has more than 70,000 people. The subordinates have also raised enough grain and grass for the king these days, the soldiers are good and the food is sufficient, the city is high and the pond is high, and our army is enough to hold Yunzhou for several years. The subordinates thought that our army should shrink its forces at the moment and make every effort to defend Yunzhou. ”

Li Shidao looked at the other three, and Li Gongdu puffed up and didn't speak. Liu Wu and Wang Zaisheng also bowed their heads and remained silent. obviously disagrees with Lin Ying's opinion. Li Shidao urged:

"What do you think about the three of you?"

Liu Wu and Wang Zaisheng still did not express their opinions, and only said, "Only the king is the first to look forward." Master Li said:

"Then give an order, shrink your forces, and prepare to resist the enemy under the city of Yunzhou."

Li Gongdu said busily:

"The king can't - our army has been defeated in successive battles, and its morale is low, how can we defend it? These 70,000 horses are a lot, but there are a lot of miscellaneous soldiers, at most 50,000 soldiers who can fight, and only 30,000 elite soldiers. The only way to do this is to surrender, to protect yourself, and never to fight again! ”

Lin Ying was in a mood when she heard this, and just wanted to say something sarcastic, but she was frightened by Liu Wu's eyes. I had to listen to what Li Shidao had to say. Master Li said:

"So in your opinion, can surrendering now keep the land of the Twelve States?"

Li Gongdu shook his head and said:

"Yihai, Yanmi, Caopu, and all the prefectures are all obtained by the imperial court, how can the imperial court return them to you?"

Li Shidao's face changed, and he said:

"Has Michigan fallen?"

Then he asked:

"Then these states don't want to be widowed, as long as Yunzhou, Qizhou, Qingzhou, Zizhou, Dengzhou, and Laizhou are six states, can the imperial court agree?"

Li Gongdu was stunned and said:

"Doesn't the king know that Dengzhou, Laizhou, and Zizhou have fallen? I only have Yun and Qi Erzhou in Ziqing, and Qingzhou is still in the hands of Wei Bo. ”

These news were written by Lin Ying, Wang Zaisheng and Liu Wu, who did everything possible to hide it from Li Shidao, afraid that Li Shidao would collapse if he knew it—but this made Li Shidao still think that he had most of the land in Ziqing, otherwise where would Li Shidao have the courage to fight? Seeing that Li Gongdu said it all in one go, Liu Wu and Wang Zaisheng were too late to stop it. Li Shidao shook twice when he heard this, looked at Lin Ying and Wang Zaisheng, and said:

"The shaft mistook me!"

After saying a word, he vomited blood and fell to the ground. Lin Ying and they didn't care about blaming Li Gongdu, so they hurriedly rushed up, shouting to the doctor and stroking their chests, and Li Shidao woke up quietly after a long time, and wept:

"Pity my grandfather's foundation in the twelve states, and all of them have been buried in the hands of the master."

Li Gongdu cried with Li Shidao. Liu Wu persuaded:

"King, we still have King Wei to rely on."

Hearing this, Li Shidao's spirits lifted up a little, and he wanted to blame Lin Ying and Wang Zaisheng - he didn't expect Liu Wu to be among them - but he had more than enough strength to do so, so he had to hold Li Gongdu's hand and said:

"I regret that I shouldn't have listened to the judge's words in the first place, which led to today's situation. Weibo only has the land of six states, and he can't be relied on to think about it, so I ask the judge to plan for my family, please surrender on the table, and keep the current land of three states! ”

Li Shidao is counting back the Qingzhou assigned to Wei Bo. Li Gongdu couldn't help but feel a little funny, and just wanted to say something, but was stopped by Li Shidao and said:

"I also know that this matter is very difficult, but now after all, Wei Bo is still rebelling, I think as long as the above table claims that he was instigated by Tian Ji'an to raise troops, he is willing to go to the king and sacrifice the land of Kyushu (Li Recitation: Do you still want you to sacrifice this Kyushu?). is willing to fight against Wei Bo for the Son of Heaven, and the court will not agree if he has not tasted it. There are many jewels in my treasury, and the judge can take them all for activities. ”

I can't help but say that Li Shidao still has a vision, and he also thought of the trick of bribing the ministers. It's a pity that Li Shidao forgot that he had planned to wash Luoyang in blood and burn the mausoleum? Have you forgotten that the court counted his mortal sins? Li Gongdu wanted to persuade Li Shidao to give up his unrealistic ideas and show some sincerity to keep the current land of Erzhou, but seeing that Li Shidao had closed his eyes sluggishly, he had to swallow the words that came to his lips again, and just nodded heavily towards Li Shidao, saying:

"Gongdu will do his best!"

Even later historians praised it:

"Having a subordinate like Li Gongdu is really a blessing for Li Shidao!"

It is a pity that the blessed often do not hesitate to be blessed. Li Gongdu drafted dozens of letters and sent them to Ziqing Xingying, Luoyang, and Chang'an, but the offensive of the official army did not stop at all. After receiving the letter sent by Li Gongdu in the name of Li Shidao, Pei Du, the marshal of the camp, smiled at Li Guangyan, Li Yu and Wang Pei, who came to discuss the matter:

"The frog at the bottom of the well, he doesn't think he can do anything, and he still thinks that the court can forgive his sins."

Naturally, Pei Du ignored the ceasefire agreement proposed in the letter. And Li Yu, as the son of today and the king of a country, is obviously a little bigger. Li Yu commanded:

"Someone framed the seal of Li Shidao and sent it to the National History Museum for future generations to see, which can be regarded as a strange article!"

Although it was rainy and rainy since the beginning of summer, the offensive of the various armies of the official army did not stop, but became more and more rapid, which was forced by the complicated international and domestic situation. After Li Yu won the Battle of Dong'a, although he suffered heavy casualties, his morale was like a rainbow, and he won seven consecutive battles and besieged Qizhou. Li Guangyan's army advanced to a distance of just over forty miles from Yunzhou, Wang Pei captured Liangshan, and Cheng Quan also took Laizhou after a bloody battle. In less than a month, Li Ting and Wang Zhixing pacified Zizhou and took Dengzhou. Clear-eyed people are worth it at a glance now, Ziqing Li Shidao is like a rabbit's tail, it can't grow.

"It's a pity!"

Li Yu stood in front of the hall and looked at the poisonous sun and said:

"It would be nice if the weather could be cooler for another month. Could it be that the pacification of Ziqing can only be left until autumn? ”

The weather was too hot for combat. There are still 70,000 in the Ziqing Army, plus the newly drawn strong men, who have been trained into an army for a long time, and it is estimated that there will be nearly 100,000. There are 180,000 officers and soldiers, and if there are too many dead people, it will lead to another result:

Pestilence!

In this era, the lethality of the plague was extremely terrifying. Li Xuan's head was already covered with beads of sweat on his head standing behind Li Xuan, and when he heard Li Xuan say this, he thought that Li Xuan was worried about the war in the west, and said with a smile:

"Your Majesty has been thinking a lot, now the west is very stable, first, Your Majesty has a proper strategy, although our army has suffered many small setbacks, but it has stabilized the situation, and secondly, the internal situation in Tibet is unstable, and the religion and Buddhism are fighting fiercely. The minister estimates that Henan, Huainan, Xuanwu, Wuning, Yicheng, Heyang, Zhongwu, and Xuanxi will reduce their summer harvest by at least two to four percent, and the autumn harvest will be reduced by at least two to four percent, but the country has been rich in storage over the years, and several large granaries have been newly built near Luoyang alone, and the rice from Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangxi, and Lingnan will be continuously transported in energy, and Liuqiu can also collect taxes there. The tax collector will not talk about it. In short, the money and food are enough to support it for three or five years. ”

Li Yu knew that Li Jiang was comforting him, and when he turned around, he saw that Li Jiang's head was covered with beads of sweat, and said:

"Go back to the temple."

As he walked, he said:

"I'm not worried about the west, I'm not worried about money. Later, Aiqing personally drafted the edict, and Pei Du strictly ordered the three armies not to use raw water, and the soldiers were not allowed to solve the problem in the barracks, and the latrine should be repaired far away, and it should be far away from the house. The wounded soldiers should also be kept away. Well, besides, the barracks should not be close to the battlefield, and the barracks should be sprinkled with lime powder. Every time after the war, the corpse must be buried quickly, deeply! ”

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