Cui Shang is indeed facing an extremely difficult choice now. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

No one could help him.

According to the principle established when Jiang Feng left Huzhou, as the Sima of the Huzhou Assassin Mansion, he did not ask about the daily government affairs, and handed over the full authority to Chen Wei, the chief historian, and Du Tuo, who joined the army, to be responsible, and his main work was daily military affairs.

But this is also limited to daily military affairs, Cui Shang understands his scope of power, and also knows his strengths and weaknesses, no one can compare to himself in daily planning and planning, but if it is a decisive battle, it is definitely not his own strength.

Therefore, when Jiang Feng left, he also made it clear that if he made a decision in the event of a war, Yang Kan's opinion should be the main one, supplemented by Qin Zaidao, Zhang Yue, Xu Ziqing, Ding Man and others.

With Yang Kan as the mainstay, not all of them have to listen to Yang Kan and them, and in order for Yang Kan to make a decision, it is also necessary to provide Yang Kan with enough intelligence information.

This incident did come too suddenly.

Although he had already been planning for Shouzhou, when such an opportunity suddenly came to him, Cui Shang was still a little caught off guard.

"The Shouzhou Army currently has five armies, plus the tooth soldiers, about 14,000 to 15,000 people, due to the special geographical location of Shouzhou and the complex power structure in the state, two of the five armies are water armies, the two Umeda families are each in charge of an army, and the remaining three armies are infantry troops, and the three families of Umeda Zheng are each in charge of an army, and the Tooth Army is in the hands of the Mei family, and there is no cavalry army in Shouzhou. ”

Zhang Wanshan's report was orderly.

Intelligence collection in Shouzhou has always been the top priority of Wuwentang, so Zhang Wanshan is also well aware of the internal situation in Shouzhou.

"How is the combat effectiveness of the Shouzhou Army?" Cui Shang asked further.

"According to careful observation, the combat effectiveness of the two naval armies in the five armies is proficient in Xi Zhouji, and they are quite good at fighting, but the infantry army of the three armies is lackluster, compared to the combat effectiveness of the first army controlled by the Zheng clan is slightly stronger, well, probably with the second army of our Huzhou army in the middle of the middle, slightly stronger than the third army, but far from the first army and the tooth army, but it has been buried in the hands of ant thieves. ”

Zhang Wanshan's answer was also in line with Cui Shang's expectations.

Han Baling's ant thieves crisscrossed Shouzhou, but the Shouzhou army was always timid in a battle, which led to the loss of the two granary counties of Huoqiu and Anfeng, and the army led by the Zheng family was also wiped out by the ant thieves in the Huoqiu attack, which was probably the main reason why the Zheng family felt that the balance was broken, and it was difficult for the Zheng family to gain a foothold in Shouzhou and wanted to find a new backer.

"So the Zheng family's current situation in Shouzhou is very difficult?" Cui Shang rubbed his cheeks and frowned.

"The pattern of Shouzhou itself is dominated by the three families of Umeda Zheng, but the two families of Umeda are based on Shouchun and Anfeng, although they are also regarded as big grain merchants in Shouzhou, but there is still a large distance compared with the Zheng family who dominates Huoqiu, and the Zheng family still has a large scale of blacksmith shops in Shouzhou. The two Meitian monopolized the Huaishui waterway transportation, down to the three states of Hao, Si and Chu, and even Yangzhou and Suzhou, up to Yingzhou and Caizhou, and the entire Huaishui, Whirlpool, Yingshui and canals, all of which had the fleet of the two Meitian families passing through it, of which Sizhou and above were mainly Meijia, and Sizhou was mainly Tianjia until Yangsu Erzhou, plus Meijia was the largest salt merchant in Shouzhou, and Tian was the largest cloth merchant in Shouzhou. The tea merchant monopolized the brewing industry, the Mei family and the Shi family were sons and daughters, and the daughter of the Tian family married the younger brother of Yang Pu, the king of Wu, as his wife, so the power of the two Mei Tian families was far better than that of the Zheng family, and the Zheng family was also struggling to maintain the situation in Shouzhou. ”

Zhang Wanshan's words also made Cui Shang relax a little, which shows that there is a reason and motive for the Zheng family to move closer to Huzhou, and the Huoqiu that the Zheng family relies on is destroyed by ant thieves and cannot be recovered in the short term, while in Shouchun, the Umeda family has their own backers, intending to squeeze the Zheng family out of Shouzhou, which is bound to cause a backlash from the Zheng family.

The competition between the gentry and wealthy families is also extremely fierce, once the Zheng family loses power, the Zheng family knows very well that everything in the Zheng family will be completely divided under the joint attack of the two Umeda families, and the army on which the Zheng family lives has been destroyed, and the grain business and iron smelting business are also coveted by the two Umeda families, and there is not much time left for them, without a strong backer, the Zheng family will undoubtedly perish.

Zheng Hong, who was lying on the bed in the post house, tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Of course, he knew that this trip to Huzhou was an adventure, and once the Umeda family knew that he had a connection with Huzhou, he was afraid that the two families would no longer quarrel over how to divide the Zheng family's business, and they would no longer be afraid of the ant thieves who were still raging in the three states of Yingbosi in Huaibei, and they would soon be ruthless to the Zheng family.

Similarly, if Huaibei or Huainan knew that they were colluding with Huzhou, no matter what the result was, whether Huaibei or Huainan, they would never allow the Zheng family to survive in Shouzhou.

In front of these giants in Huaibei and Huainan, the Zheng family's strength is not enough to even fill in the gaps, this is not counting the two Umeda families, before this, the Zheng family never thought of going against Huaibei and Huainan's minds, but now, does the Zheng family still have a choice?

With the fall of Huoqiu, the Zheng clan, including Zheng Hong, knew that a catastrophe was coming.

The Zheng family lost not only Huoqiu, the foundation of the Zheng family, but also the Fifth Army of Shouzhou with the Zheng family's children as the core.

At this time, Zheng realized the danger of not having a big tree next to him in troubled times.

For example, even if the two Umeda families lost their army for a while, as long as Huaibei or Huainan can provide them with moral support, the Zheng family does not dare to covet the business industry of the two Umeda families, but the Zheng family does not have a big enough backer behind them, although they have a close relationship with some important people in Huaibei and Huainan, but in the face of such a big thing, it is nothing at all, no one will stick a knife in your ribs, and the two Umeda families can unscrupulously divide the business industry of the Zheng family.

Coming to Huzhou was a gamble, but Zheng Hong had no choice.

The eldest brother is not in good health, his energy is low, and he is already a little messy, so he only knows that he blindly shows favor and begs for mercy to the Umeda family, but in this case, how can the Umeda family let go of such a good opportunity?

Zheng's business in grain and iron smelting has long been coveted, and when he encounters such a good opportunity, how can he let it go?

It is impossible to stop if you change yourself, if you don't swallow the Zheng family cleanly, the Umeda family has been based in Shouzhou for so many years.

Now that I came to Shanghuzhou, it can be regarded as a desperate and helpless move, looking around, who can help the Zheng family in a desperate situation?

In fact, before going to Huoqiu, Zheng Hong didn't think about finding Huzhou, the impression given to him by Guy Huzhou was too vague, even if Jiang Feng took away the two counties of Shengtang and Huoshan from Shouzhou, but the two counties of Shengtang and Huoshan were never hit by the three surnames in Shouchun City, in the eyes of the three families, Shengtang and Huoshan were more like wild places, and they had nothing to worry about.

But after seeing Huo Qiu's current situation with his own eyes, Zheng Hong gave up the remaining luck.

With Huoqiu's current situation, it is not at all possible for the Zheng family to rebuild Huoqiu, how can the dilapidated county town, the suburbs of a white land, and the people who are not one in ten rebuild Huoqiu?

It is impossible for the Umeda family to support the rebuilding of Huoqiu, and what they are thinking about now is how to divide up the Zheng family's property and business.

In such a situation, how to survive from death?

Looking at it, it seems that there is only one less reliable option in Huzhou.

Saying that Huzhou is unreliable, it is not that Huzhou's strength is not strong enough, in fact, the combat effectiveness of the Huzhou army has proved its strength, Han Baling's department fled in Gushi, but it broke Huoqiu and swept the entire Shouzhou, which is enough to show the strength of the Huzhou army, but the Huzhou army has just expanded from a county to a state, and has just taken over the two counties of Shengtang and Huoshan, do they still have the strength to interfere in Shouzhou?

Zheng Hong did not doubt the interest of Jiang Feng, the helmsman of Huzhou, in Shouzhou, and no one could be indifferent to Shouzhou.

Although Huzhou has four counties, but compared with the three counties of Shouzhou, it is not at the same level at all, whether it is the amount of land and fertility, or the degree of commercial development, Huzhou can not be compared.

Perhaps the only thing that Huzhou is stronger than Shouzhou is that it has a strong enough army, which is not necessarily a good thing for Shouzhou under the control of the Umeda family, but it is a blessing for the Zheng family.

Zheng Hong still came to Huzhou with apprehension, and the importance of Huzhou to him also gave him a glimmer of hope.

But then after Huzhou entered into substantive negotiations after receiving and understanding, the ambiguous attitude made Zheng Hong's heart hang again.

The most important thing is that Jiang Feng was not there and went to Chang'an, which disappointed Zheng Hong.

Sima Cui of Huzhou did not conceal the purpose of Jiang Feng's trip to Chang'an, and discussed the ownership of Gwangju and the division of power, so frankness also made Zheng Hong quite moved, especially after learning that the original Gushi County Commander Chen Wei had already served as the governor of Huzhou, he was even more moved.

This shows that Jiang Feng, who was born in the Shu clan, is willing to share power with the local gentry and wang clans, which also means that if the Zheng family can reach an agreement with Jiang Feng, Jiang Feng may not mind that the Zheng family will get some power in Shouzhou like the Chen family in the future.

If you can reach this step, it will not be in vain that you have taken such pains to go to Huzhou.

Tossing and turning, Zheng Hong got up and paced in the room.

Zheng Hui, who was in the adjacent room, also heard the movement of the second brother in the next room, and also got up and knocked on the door, "Second brother, haven't rested yet?"

"Gorou, can you sleep? I don't know if I'm here right? I haven't told my eldest brother before, but I think I did nothing wrong, and if I didn't come, I might regret it for the rest of my life. Zheng Hong put his hands behind his back, walked to the window, looked at the dark sky outside the window, and said in a deep voice. (To be continued.) )