The Huan Wen Northern Expedition can be said to have attracted worldwide attention, but not many people hoped that he would win, including most of the monarchs and ministers of the Jin Kingdom.

When the coalition army was like a bamboo, all the way to Fangtou, only a few dozen kilometers away from Yecheng, the monarchs and ministers of the Jin State panicked.

What can I do?

Yan is also a powerful country in the world, why is it so cowardly? Many people began to cheer for Murong Trai deep in their hearts, you must hold on.

However, the next development was completely beyond everyone's expectations, and Huaibei changed overnight.

The monarchs and ministers of the Jin Kingdom began to pray for Huan Wen in turn, but they must hold on, if you don't have us, why can you continue to talk about the Tao.

They desperately searched for information.

The Huai River is more than 2,000 miles long, and it is impossible to lock it completely. The so-called blockade of the Tang State is to prevent the passage of a large number of people and goods, and the smuggling of sporadic people cannot be taken care of at all.

So there is still information passed back.

But this information plunged the entire Jin kingdom into turmoil.

The land of Huaibei has all fallen into the hands of the Tang State, and the Huan Wen army is surrounded by the Tang, Yan, and Qin Kingdoms.

This news was like having wings, and it quickly flew all over the capital and even the whole country, and the whole country was shaken.

For a while, people were panicked, thinking that the destruction of the country was just around the corner, and the Queen Mother Chu Garlic hurriedly convened the ministers to discuss countermeasures.

"Nanjun Gong's 200,000 army is the elite of my Jin Kingdom, if we lose them, the instability of the country will endanger the community, can the secretaries have a good way to break the siege?"

Everyone, you look at me, I look at you, no one dares to speak.

Chu Lianzi was very anxious, but she didn't dare to provoke these people.

She knows the temperament of these people too well for so long, and she is really anxious to dare to pick a son directly, it's a big deal to change the emperor to be a minister, and they continue to be scholars.

He could only look at Xie An for help: "Xie Shizhong, I don't know if you have a good plan?" ”

At this point in the previous life, because of Xie Yi's death and Xie Wan's indisputability, Xie An officially went out of the mountain to take on the gateway of the Xie family, and his official position was to be the secretary of the ministry and the central protector.

In this life, Xie Yi has been alive and well, and Xie Wan, the king of mouth cannons, died of illness before he had time to show his eyes, and the door of the Xie family does not need him to support him.

That's why he was only a servant, and he didn't serve as a secretary or a protector of the army, and he rarely spoke in the court, which seemed very low-key.

At this time, when he heard Chu Garlic call his name, he sighed in his heart. The Empress Dowager of Jin is his cousin niece, and the Empress of Tang is also his niece, which is difficult to do.

However, although they are all nieces, he is more inclined to Xie Daoyun in terms of personal feelings, after all, he is his niece or he brought it up.

The key is that the Tang royal family has a monopoly on power, Xie Daoyun is a veritable queen, and the Jin royal family is just half a puppet.

Besides, Chu Lianzi's son has died, and the blood relationship between the Jin family and the Xie family has been severed. And Xie Daoyun has many heirs, and the eldest son was also named the crown prince.

Investing in Tang Guo helped the Xie family even more.

But from a practical point of view, he knew that he had to think about the Jin State, and at least it would be in the best interest of the Xie family to be a Jin minister until the Tang State completely gained a foothold.

"Queen Mother, according to the information obtained, Tang Guo has mastered a weapon, killing people several miles away, and there is no one who can stop the city......"

"Lies." Sima Yu interrupted him and said, "A naked lie, how can there be such a weapon in the world, it must be a lie made up by the people below in order to shirk responsibility." ”

Others are also whispering, and most remain skeptical. There are also many people who have the same idea as Sima Yu and directly believe that it is a lie.

Xie An's tone was calm, and he said, "If only one or two people say this, there can be a fake, and everyone says this, we have to be cautious." ”

"And, do you remember the naval battle between Baekje and Tang back then? I'm sure many people have sent people to inquire about the details. ”

"I also inquired, and the information I got was that Tang Guo had a weapon that sounded like thunder and could destroy enemy ships several miles away."

"At the time, I didn't believe it, thinking that Baekje was deliberately spreading rumors to excuse his failure. But now that I think about it, it should be true. ”

Only then did everyone remember the naval battle of that year, when tens of thousands of land and water coalition troops in Baekje were defeated in one day and almost all the troops were captured, which caused a lot of shock at that time.

Indeed, as Xie An said, many people have sent people to inquire about the situation, and all they got were 'rumors' such as the power of thunder.

No one believed the, and the matter was slowly forgotten.

At this time, after Xie An's reminder, he remembered that he couldn't help but be secretly surprised when he combined the two ones, could it be that Tang Guo really mastered the secret weapon?

Thinking that it took almost less than ten days for the Tang State to take the entire Huaibei and cut off the back road of the Huan Wen army, everyone panicked even more.

This is the Huan Wen army, the most capable army in the Jin State at this time. None of them was able to cause any delay in the actions of the Tang army, which was too abnormal.

Could that weapon be real?

Even Sima Yu's eyes flickered, and he didn't dare to insist on what he had just said.

Chu Lianzi didn't expect the matter to be so serious, so he barely controlled his emotions and asked, "Xie Shizhong, you go on." ”

Xie An said: "We know too little about the Tang Army, and it is not a wise choice to rush to the rescue. ”

"The minister thinks that the top priority is to send troops to guard the Yangtze River and defend the Beijing Division to prevent the Tang army from continuing to move south."

"At the same time, more troops will be recruited and training will be stepped up to deal with the dangers that may come."

Sima Yu subconsciously asked, "What about the 200,000 troops in Huaibei?" ”

Xie An was silent for a long time before he said in a heavy tone: "When it is broken, it is broken." ”

"Wow." The court was suddenly in chaos, it was 200,000 elites, if you don't want it, you don't want it?

Although they also wished that Huan Wen would fail before, but now the situation is different, and the Jin Kingdom cannot afford such a big loss.

But there is another reason why everyone reacted so violently: Xie Yi was also in the encirclement, and Xie An didn't even want his own brother to do this.

It is precisely because of this that the courtiers, who were not taking it seriously, finally felt the pressure from the shop.

In the past, the northern countries also marched south, but they were all blocked back. Guarding the Huaishui and the Yangtze River, they dare to eat, drink and have fun with confidence.

Originally, they thought that the situation this time was no different from before, at most it was a dead person, and everyone sang and danced when it was over.

But Xie An didn't even dare to save his own brother, which showed that the danger was unprecedented, and it was likely to involve a change of dynasty.

How can they not panic.

Although it is a big deal to change the emperor's allegiance, there will always be some unlucky people in the process of changing their faces.

They don't want to gamble no matter how likely it is, and the best thing to do is to maintain the status quo.

So these people also cheered up and began to make suggestions.

Under the pressure of life and death, this group of ministers who were intriguing all day long burst out with amazing efficiency and quickly came up with countermeasures.

The few remaining troops in the country were transferred to defend the Yangtze River Gongwei Beijing Division, and even most of the troops in Lingnan were withdrawn.

At the same time, people were sent to Jingkou to reorganize the Beifu soldiers.

The Beifu soldiers were first because of the rebellion of Su Junzu, and the imperial court ordered Xi Jian to build an army in the Jingkou area to guard the Yangtze River and defend the Beijing Division.

Later, the Eastern Jin Dynasty regime gradually stabilized, coupled with the death of Xi Jian, it gradually collapsed, but the foundation is still there.

It is much faster to reorganize the Beifu army than to recruit new soldiers and retrain an army.

Well, Xi Jian is Xi Chao's own grandfather.

In the matter of appointing the new commander of the Beifu army, the nature of this group of scholars to compete for power and profit was once again exposed, and they did not discuss the reason for half a day.

Chu Lianzi still believed in his uncle Xie An more, so he asked, "What does Xie Shizhong think?" ”

Xie An's expression flashed with a hint of struggle, and finally turned helpless: "Queen Mother, the prince of Nanchang County is still here, why don't you ask his opinion." ”

The Duke of Nanchang County was Xi Chao's father, Xi Su, and Jingkou was nominally the territory of the Xi family, and asking for his opinion was an unspoken rule of the Jin State at that time.

But when is it? Life and death are at stake, how can you take care of this, hurry up and determine the candidate. When Xie An said this, he was actually shirking.

Chu Lianzi didn't understand why he did this, you even gave up when your brother said to give up, why did you shirk it at this juncture?

In everyone's opinion, Xie Yi is more than lucky, and her plan is to take this opportunity to promote Xie An, and give the Xie family a handicap for them to develop quickly.

This is obviously a good thing, she believes that Xie An can also understand what she means, but why did he back down?

There are many old foxes in the court who can see this, and they are also very strange, Xie An, what's wrong? The benefits of door-to-door delivery are not wanted.

But then they didn't bother to pay attention to it, and once again threw themselves into the scramble. You Xie An don't want it, we want it.

Whoever controls the Beifu soldiers in Jingkou will be able to rise to a higher level.

Xie An also had a hard time and couldn't say it, how could he not see what the Queen Mother meant.

Under normal circumstances, he would definitely take the initiative to show the value of the Xie family and recommend his younger brother Xie Shi or nephew Xie Xuan to take over the Beifu soldiers.

But if they really did this, the Xie family would only have two choices. Either stand on the front line of the anti-Tang dynasty, or become a traitor.

He didn't want either option, he just wanted to stand aside and wait for the result.

Before everyone could discuss the reason, another piece of news came that Jingzhou Assassin Shi Huan Huo was ready to lead the army north to rescue his brother.

In recent years, the power of the Huan family has reached the peak of the people's ministers, Huan Chong served as the assassin of Jiangzhou, and Huan Wen himself served as the assassin of Jingzhou, Yangzhou, Xuzhou, Yanzhou and other states, and the governor of the three states of Hebei.

Later, for the convenience of the Northern Expedition, he transferred his travel to ochre.

Then let his other younger brother Huan Huo serve as the assassin of Jingzhou, guarding the Jingzhou defense line and defending against the attack of Qin.

At this time, Xie Xuan was also in the Huan Huo Army, serving as Sima.

In the case of the default loss of Huan Wen's 200,000 army, the army in Huan Huo's hands was already one of the few strong armies in the Jin State.

Moreover, he also has to prevent the southern invasion of Qin, which is very important and cannot be moved.

So after hearing the news that he was going to send troops to rescue, the court had a headache again. At this time, Xie An stood up and took the initiative to persuade Huan Huo to consider the overall situation.

Everyone thought that he was indeed the most suitable lobbyist. The reason is very simple, Xie Yi is also in the encirclement.

If Huan Huo uses 'it's my brother in there, not your brother' to scare people, Xie An can go back, and my brother is also in it.

Moreover, the relationship between the Xie family and the Huan family is close, and what he says is more effective. So the imperial court hurriedly issued an edict and asked Xie An to hurry up and dissuade him.

Walking out of the gate of the Jingshi, Xie An let out a sigh of relief, he could finally avoid this whirlpool - the real purpose of his visit to Huan Huo was to avoid this strife.

Not only did he leave by himself, but he also let his family leave Jiankang and go to live at home in Huiji County.

After that, he left without looking back.

rushed all the way to Xinye Huanhuo's line to block him, and persuaded him with just one sentence:

Huan Wen and Huan Chong are both in the encirclement, you are the last hope of the Huan family, if you are damaged there again, what will the Huan family do?

Huan Huo is also a great talent, but the news was too sudden and out of his mind before. After Xie An's reminder, I knew that my blind dispatch of troops would only completely bury the Huan family.

He had endured hardships, and his father had died young, leaving behind their mother and brothers, and life was quite hard.

What if his mother is sick and needs to eat meat, and she can't afford it? Huan Wen pledged the young Huan Chong to the sheep keeper and returned with a sheep.

Fortunately, the sheep farmer liked Huan Chong very much, regarded him as his own and even wanted him to pass on to him, but Huan Wen refused.

After the rise of the Huan family, Huan Chong thanked the sheep keepers for their kindness.

He suffered hardships when he was young, and it was not easy to revitalize the family, Huan Huo naturally didn't want the family to decline again, and he didn't want the children of the Huan family to experience their hardships again.

Therefore, although he really wanted to save his brother, he endured it under Xie An's persuasion.

After that, Xie An went to see Xie Xuan.

At this time, Xie Xuan was already twenty-six or seventeen years old, married Huan Wen's niece, and his sons were in their early years.

He knew the relationship between his family and Tang Guo, and he was not very worried when he learned that his father was besieged. What he was worried about was how the Xie family should face the current situation.

When he saw his uncle coming, he hurriedly retreated and asked for advice.

Xie An said: "Sandwiched between the two countries, the more we do, the more wrong we are, just sit back and watch the situation develop." ”

Xie Xuan said: "This is too passive, right?" ”

Xie An sighed heavily: "It's better to be passive than to shoot blindly, Emperor Tang is not a soft-hearted person." If we rush into it, I'm afraid it won't end well. ”

Xie Xuan said: "No, he can't ignore his eldest sister's feelings, right?" ”

Xie An said: "The emperor is selfless, if your eldest sister dares to stop it, she may not even be able to protect herself." ”

"And accepting Daoqing (Xie Jing) into the Tang Dynasty is his compensation for your eldest sister, and then the survival of my Xie family can only depend on my own choice."

Xie Xuan said with a big head: "It's really troublesome, I'd rather face an army of 100,000 than face this kind of thing." ”

Xie An said: "Compared to other families, our situation is already very good. At least we still have a choice, they ......"

He didn't say the rest of the words, but the meaning was clear.

"Okay, that's all, you must be steady so as not to be seen."

Xie An took refuge here, Jiankang was not idle, and after a fierce battle, he finally determined the candidate for the commander of the Beifu army.

The situation is urgent, so hurry up and take office.

Armies from other places also moved to the Yangtze River crossings to defend them.

However, before they could complete the dispatch, Tang's fleet appeared at the mouth of the Yangtze River.