After listening to Sima Changren's words, Liu Ji couldn't help frowning secretly, and at the same time gasped.

According to Sima Changren, as long as he has military power in his hands, he can dominate the world and be invincible. But if one day he has the intention of rebelling and wants to be the king himself, then who in the entire wood country can stop him?

Thinking of this, Liu Ji couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

Between monarchs and ministers, one thing is crucial, that is, both sides must trust each other, and now Liu Ji, after listening to Sima Changren's bold words, almost instinctively became suspicious.

I thought so in my heart, but Liu Ji's face didn't show the slightest expression, he nodded with a smile, and exclaimed: "Aiqing is worthy of being a talent jointly recommended by the ministers of civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, this time to recover the lost territory of the Jin State, please ask the general!"

Sima Changren hurriedly stood up, saluted Liu Ji deeply, and said with a straight face: "The king kills the last general! It is the duty of the last general to drive away thieves for the country!"

At this time, Liu Ji's eyes rolled, and then he personally stepped forward to help Sima Changren up, and said with a smile: "Aiqing alone is fighting the enemy, this king is really a little relieved! How about this king arrange another deputy general for the general?"

When Sima Changren heard this, he asked, "I don't know who the king wants to send?"

Liu Ji said word by word: "Zhou Fang!"

Zhou Fang is the head of the guards in the palace, as early as when Liu Ji was still the prince, the former was his disciple, and later Liu Ji ascended the throne as the king, and Zhou Fang also followed the chicken dog to heaven and came to the palace. He became the leader of the guards. It can be said that Zhou Fang is almost useless, but he has today's status because of his loyalty to Liu Ji.

"Huh?" Hearing the name Zhou Fang, Sima Changren secretly frowned, and his heart was disgusted, and he didn't answer for a long time.

"What?" Liu Ji asked with a casual smile: "Aiqing thinks that Zhou Fang is incompetent and unworthy of being the general's lieutenant?"

When he said this, it was tantamount to not giving Sima Changren room to maneuver, and the latter's heart trembled. Hurriedly intervened to give a salute. He said: "No, no, no! The last general has no such intention, and he will obey the king's orders!"

"En!" Seeing that Sima Changren agreed, Liu Ji nodded with satisfaction and inserted Zhou Fang into the army. Put it next to Sima Changren. He could feel a little more relieved.

Long story short. After receiving Liu Ji's appointment, Sima Changren led the army north only two days later. Go straight to the border of the Kingdom of Jin. Along with him, there was also Zhou Fang, who was appointed by Liu Ji, as well as 100,000 infantry and five cavalry, a total of 150,000 troops.

The 150,000 army came straight to the border of the Jin Kingdom, and naturally they also hid it from the ears and eyes of the Jin army spies, and they transmitted the news back to Lin Haotian as soon as possible.

After receiving the report, Lin Haotian also learned in detail from the intelligence officer that there was such a person as Sima Changren in Mu Country, he smiled leisurely and said casually: "It's better to come, I also want to know what is so powerful about this general of Mu Country for a while!"

Lin Haotian said it easily, but his nerves began to tense.

The two cities of Jian'an and Hengyang, which are located in the southernmost part of the country, are naturally the first targets of the attack after the enemy comes. If you want to be safe, you can only give up a city and concentrate your forces to hold on to one place, but Lin Haotian is still unwilling to surrender the city that was finally defeated to the enemy.

Ding Feng, Bi Wu and other generals also had similar thoughts to Lin Haotian, and everyone thought that holding on to the second city was not impossible to fight.

There is only a three-day journey between Jian'an and Hengyang, as long as the city attacked by the wooden army can hold on for three days, their own reinforcements can rush over from another city, and then the two armies will attack the attacking wooden army inside and outside, and there is a great hope of victory.

Lin Haotian felt that what the generals under his command said was reasonable, and immediately adopted it, and did not move the division of troops into the two cities, but only strengthened the city defense of the two cities, and prepared to fight a tough battle with the wooden army.

He handed over the defense of Jian'an to the First Army led by Ding Feng, and he himself commanded the Second Army led by Bi Wu to guard Hengyang.

In the evening, Lin Haotian went to Xicheng to check his own defense, and he was accompanied by Ling Wuya, Gu Liangyun, Shao Lin and others.

At present, the Jin army occupies Hengyang and the empty city is no different, in the battle with the wooden army, the people in the city died, fled and fled, there are not a few left, there is no strong man in the city, the defense of the whole city can only be completed by the Jin army soldiers themselves.

At this time, even in the middle of the night, the city wall is still full of lamp balls, torches, and bright pine trees, illuminating the long city wall as bright as day, and countless Jin soldiers are up and down, constantly carrying the weapons and instruments needed for city defense to the city wall.

Lin Haotian went to Xicheng, where the enemy was most likely to attack, and when he arrived in Xicheng, he didn't see Bi Wu, and the soldiers on the Xiangxia side inquired, and it turned out that Bi Wu had gone to Beicheng to supervise the defense of Beicheng.

Lin Haotian and Ling Wuya and the others went up to the city wall, and the soldiers of the Jin Army, who were busy, saw Lin Haotian coming, hurriedly put down the work at hand, and knelt down on one knee to salute.

Lin Haotian waved his hand and said, "Everyone get up, don't worry about me, you guys are busy with yours!"

"Yes, sir!"

The soldiers of the Jin Army got up one after another and began to be nervous again.

The walls of Hengyang City are not high, and once the enemy storms over, they can only rely on perfect city defenses to defend.

On the city wall, almost every gap between the arrow stacks is full of arrows, every two or three steps there is a pile of neatly placed rolling wood, stones, every ten steps you can see the big oil pot that is supported, in addition to the trebuchet has also been moved to the city a lot, the back of the trebuchet is lifted high, so that the throwing direction can be aimed at the city, and there are many door panels standing horizontally below the arrow stack, Lin Haotian understands, it is used to defend against the opponent's arrows.

Lin Haotian looked as he walked, and at the same time nodded secretly, if the city defense of the other three city walls could be as strong as Xicheng, even if there were 300,000 or more enemy troops to attack, it would not be a problem for his side to hold on for three or five days.

Lin Haotian walked forward for a while, and at this time, several veterans who were sitting on the ground to rest stood up one after another, these veterans were all soldiers who had followed Lin Haotian for a long time to fight in the south and north, although they respected Lin Haotian very much, but they were not as good as other soldiers.

The veterans bowed their hands one after another and said in unison, "Hello, my lord!"

Lin Haotian nodded with a smile at a few people, and waved his hand at the same time, indicating that they didn't need to be polite.

A veteran in the crowd asked with a little worry, "Great King, I heard that the enemy who came this time is Sima Changren, the general of the Mu Kingdom. ”

Lin Haotian was slightly stunned for a moment, then laughed silently, and asked rhetorically, "What's the matter?"

Of course, the veterans would not admit that they were afraid of the enemy in front of their commanders, and the people shook their heads in unison and said in unison: "With adults here, we are not afraid of anything!"

"Okay!" Lin Haotian said with a smile: "Sima Changren is just an ordinary general of Mu Guo, how can he be enough? If he dares to attack my Hengyang, I will go out of the city to meet him and take his head!"

Hearing Lin Haotian say this, the veterans all smiled with peace of mind, and arched their hands and said: "My lord is heroic and powerful, this time I will be able to kill the wooden army without leaving a single piece of armor!"

"Haha-" Lin Haotian looked on his back, didn't say anything more, put his hands behind his back, took a leisurely square step, and slowly walked away.

Although Lin Haotian was not satisfied with the certainty in his heart, Lin Haotian was still very much looking forward to the arrival of Sima Changren, and he also wanted to try what was so good about this general who was unanimously recommended by the Minister of Culture and Military Affairs of Mu State.

The Jin army was in full swing in the two cities of Jian'an and Hengyang, and the days passed in the blink of an eye.

During this time, the two counties of Changyu and Shangpu were still in calm for the time being, in addition, in order to win the hearts of the people, Lin Haotian also deliberately went to Zhao Yu and asked Zhao Yu to reduce the taxes of the people of the two counties for three years.

Not only that, Lin Haotian's move also greatly encouraged the people's enthusiasm for resisting the enemy, and many people of Jin spontaneously climbed the city wall to move the city defense equipment for the Jin army.

The vast land of the two counties is stable and calm on the surface, but in fact there is a turbulent undercurrent in the undercurrent.

Ten days later, the 150,000 led by Sima Changren finally arrived at the border of the Jin State, but Sima Changren ignored the two cities of Jian'an and Hengyang, which were close at hand, and instead led the army directly between the two cities, heading straight to Liaodong, the central hinterland of Changyu County and Shangpu County. (To be continued......)