"Lord Assassin Shi, Huaiyou has no intention of using troops against Shuzhou, and we have no reason to use troops against Shuzhou, please rest assured, Huaiyou is resolutely obedient to the orders of the imperial court, and it is impossible to exceed his own authority. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

Hou Chen's words were full of words, and his words were passionate.

Duan Nian looked at this guy with some disgust, the meaning of the robber was hidden in the gushing words, why should it be like this?

Do you really think that Shuzhou people are stupid?

But under the eaves, he had to bow his head, knowing that the other party was coming, and his appetite was probably not small, but Duan Nian still had to deal with the other party.

The lord can't come forward for the time being, otherwise there will be no room for maneuver in the event of a showdown, and he, the marching horse, can only come forward to mediate.

After talking for so long, he could already hear the hidden meaning of the other party's words.

It is a bit far-fetched to put the excuse on the ant thief, although it is true that there is still a part of the ant thief who has not crossed the river in the Zongyang area, but what has the Huaiyou Army, that is, the former Huzhou Army, been doing in the past few months?

At this time, they suddenly jumped out and wanted to send troops to clean up these ant thieves, and to recover their looting gains in Shouzhou, which was obviously to record the loss on Shuzhou.

Thinking of this, I feel disgusted for a long time, these people from the Huaiyou Army really don't care about their appearance, and they are almost blatant extortion.

keeps saying that they want to use Shuzhou to clear up, the problem is that it is easy to invite God and difficult to send God, these people have swallowed Shouzhou now, who dares to let them set foot in Shuzhou, maybe it will become a fake Dao.

It's just that this guy has always held on to the ant thief, saying that the ant thief has been staying in Shuzhou for several months, but the Shuzhou army has always stayed on the front line of Anhui water, unable to drive the ant thief south, and the Huaiyou army is willing to take the road to help suppress this fang, and recover part of the losses by the way.

The question is, does the other party have such good intentions? I'm afraid that the goal is to find an opportunity to make up for the loss, right?

A hint of melancholy flashed across Duan Nian's fair round face, but soon he controlled his emotions, and in front of these people, he couldn't reveal his emotions.

He also needs to find out the other party's true intentions, even if he can roughly know the other party's intentions, but he still has to test the other party's bottom line.

"Hehe, Lord Hou is serious, we don't have such thoughts in Shuzhou, Lord Jiang is the defense and capture envoy of Guanghushou, and our Shuzhou is also a close neighbor, if there is any need, we will ask the imperial court and the defense and capture envoy to support, but for now, the situation in our Shuzhou is stable, and there is no place that needs help. ”

Duan Nian tried his best to restrain the disgust on his face and make himself appear more calm and peaceful.

He doesn't have much experience in dealing with this kind of evil neighbor, and Shuzhou has always maintained neutrality and does not get involved in changes in the surrounding situation.

Whether it was the annexation of Qihuang by the Du family, or the war in Jiangzhou across the river, or the changes in Xuanzhou in the southeast, Shuzhou was so impartial and neutral, of course, it was able to maintain this leisure, and it also had a lot to do with the fact that the same branch of the Zhou family was quite influential in the Wu dynasty.

But now this situation has been gradually broken, at present, the tension in Wu is imminent, and the civil strife is imminent, it is difficult to say whether the Jiangdu Zhou clan can protect itself, where is there still the energy to ask Shuzhou, the same branch.

In this case, Duan Nian had to think about how to make the Shuzhou Zhou family survive the upcoming waves as much as possible.

The neighbor to the north looks aggressive, but Duan Nian is still not very optimistic about the other party.

Nominally, it is the land of the three states, but in fact there are only two states, and Shouzhou is said to have been attacked by it.

Although Shuzhou's military strength is weak, it does not rely on the other party, and it is not appropriate to easily tie its own fate to it.

It's just that the posture that the other party is showing now makes it a little difficult for Shuzhou to shirk, Duan Nian is not sure whether the other party is really picking quarrels and provoking trouble, or just wants to fight an autumn breeze?

Duan Nian felt that the latter was the most likely, which was acceptable, but it was just a matter of how much.

But if it's the former, Duan Nian needs to think about how to deal with it.

"However, the Zhuang Lame Division under the command of the ant thief Han Ba is still entrenched in the area of Tong'an Zongyang, and the Zhuang Lame Department formed a blood feud with our Huaiyou Army when they attacked us last year, including our defense and capture of the adults have been injured in the hands of their three brothers, and some time ago, when two merchants from our Huzhou crossed the river from Xuanzhou to return to Huzhou, they were also sacked by the ant thieves of the Zhuang Lame Department in the Zongyang area, and they also reported to the Tong'an County Ya, but there is still no news. ”

Hou Chen smiled like a fox, and his squinted eyes flickered even more.

"Since Shuzhou is unable to solve the ant thief rebellion in the state, then we think that the Huaiyou Army has the obligation to help the neighbors to deal with this kind of bandits who bring harm to the neighbors, Lord Duan, what do you think?"

Duan Nian's mouth was bitter.

The number of ant thieves entrenched in the vicinity of Zongyang is not large, only three or four thousand people, but on the one hand, these ant thieves rely on the special geographical environment near Zongyang to build a complex and solid dock fort, and at the same time, they are closely connected with the water bandits on the river through the Zongyang wharf, which has become Shuzhou's heart disease.

The Shuzhou army attacked twice, but the ant thieves resisted stubbornly through the dock fort system on the one hand, and transferred to their rear through the waterway on the other side to sneak attack, resulting in heavy losses for the Shuzhou army, so the Shuzhou army had to rely on the first line of Anhui water to station.

Now the Shuzhou army only hopes that these ant thieves can leave Shuzhou as soon as possible, after all, their main force has entered Xuanzhou, which has a wider area, and their purpose will not stay in Xuanzhou, but should be more prosperous Runzhou, Changzhou and Huzhou.

Taking a deep breath, Duan Nian shook his head: "I'm sorry, Lord Hou, I need to remind you that your family's defense and capture envoy is only Guanghushou defense and capture, his defense area only includes Guanghushou Sanzhou, not including our Shuzhou, we Shuzhou have the strength to solve our own problems by ourselves, no need for others to dictate, in addition, our Shuzhou also signed an alliance with Wu State, if we really need help, we believe that Wu State can also send troops to assist us." ”

This is the toughest response in the past few years, but in Hou Chen's ears, he can hear the hidden weakness of this Shuzhou Sima Neili.

The other party has actually admitted that the Shuzhou army alone cannot expel the ant thieves, and this is an opportunity.

In fact, Hou Chen, well, including the Huaiyou Army represented by Hou Chen, had no intention of expelling the ant thieves for the Shuzhou Army, and he did not get this authorization, the reason why he was like this was just to intimidate before the conditions were issued.

"Lord Duan, it's serious, it's serious, we are just asking for the opinion of the Shuzhou side, without the consent of the Shuzhou side, of course it is impossible for our army in Huoshan to cross the state border, and the defense and capture envoy of my family is also appointed by the imperial court, and it is impossible for us to exceed the order of the imperial court. Hou Chen said: "However, Lord Duan, we don't think that the current Wu State still has the energy to ask such trivial matters, the current situation of the Wu State must be better known than us, how big is the covenant with the Wu State now, I'm afraid that Lord Duan and Lord Thorn Shi both know it, I even want to remind you, maybe Wu Di is in chaos, and Shuzhou may not be able to avoid being involved." ”

Duan Nian's face became even more ugly, of course he knew what the dependence of the lord's family was, once Wu Di was in chaos, the danger would be much greater than that of a few thousand ant thieves, he looked at the other party: "Lord Hou, just say it, what do you want to do?"

"It's very simple, we Huaiyou have no other intentions, we hope to form an alliance with Shuzhou. Hou Chen said word by word: "Our Huaiyou can replace Wu as the most reliable ally of Shuzhou!"

When Hou Chen and Zhang Ji returned to Huzhou, it was already ten days later.

The Lord of Defense and Capture and the Lord of Changshi are not in Huzhou, but it is not important to Hou Chen, they only need to march to Sima Cui Shang to their direct boss.

After the showdown with Duan Nian, he was fiercely opposed by Duan Nian, but Hou Chen methodically introduced the information held by Wuwentang to Duan Nian, which made Duan Nian and the Zhou family behind Duan Nian feel terrified.

The bad situation in the Wu Kingdom was beyond their expectations, this was not Hou Chen's alarmism, in fact, the Zhou family had their fine work and eyeliner in Wu Land, and even had their connections in the Wu Dynasty, they could easily verify what Hou Chen said.

The fierce confrontation of tongues, swords, lips and guns, and the entanglement of interests, but for Hou Chen, these are all trivialities.

The key is that Shuzhou was instigated and agreed to sign an alliance with Huaiyou in accordance with the covenant signed with Wu, and Huaiyou replaced Wu as Shuzhou's protector, and as a protector, he would naturally obtain a series of privileges and benefits.

For example, Shuzhou has basically agreed to donate money and grain to Huaiyou, and will also provide some Shuzhou specialties, and under special circumstances, Shuzhou is also willing to provide some support, including the people and the army, but in terms of army support, no more than one army.

Of course, as an ally, Huaiyou will do his best to protect Shuzhou's safety from any outsiders, and at the same time, Huaiyou will not send troops into Shuzhou without Shuzhou's consent, but Shuzhou requires to ensure compliance.

It should be said that this covenant is still relatively equal, after all, Huaiyou's current military strength has far surpassed Shuzhou, especially in the face of changes in Wudi, Shuzhou is very likely to be involved, and with Huaiyou's guarantee, Shuzhou's security can be greatly guaranteed.

At the same time, this is also an excellent result for Huaiyou, not only has an additional income, but also gets the best reason to intervene in the situation of Wudi.