Among the kings of Gao Cheng and Southern Liang, the first to learn that Xiao Yan died of illness was Xiao Yi, the king of Xiangdong, who guarded Jiangzhou and was the closest.

The crown prince Xiao Gang is the emperor, and the will not allow the vassal king to enter Beijing to hang filial piety came one after another, Xiao Yi had the heart to go down the river to the east, and won the title, but across the river, Hou Jing, who was sitting in Yingzhou, was eyeing him, so he didn't dare to act, so he had to pat the bar and sigh.

After Hou Jing was awarded the title of prince as he wished, he is now dedicated to the Gao family.

The Liang people sent the secret letter he contacted in the early years to Luoyang, wanting to separate Gao Cheng and Hou Jing, the two monarchs and ministers, but Gao Cheng didn't look at it, burned it all, and wrote to appease Hou Jing, thinking that it was his negligence that made Hou Jing afraid of a little thing back then, and said that he was in Hou Jing's position at that time, thinking that he would grudge the prince and would also consider retreating.

This performance also completely made Hou Jing return to his heart, and he no longer had those messy thoughts, and now he was exercising soldiers and horses under Anlu City all day long, looking forward to the day when the army went south, and he was the king's precursor.

The envoys of the Jiankang court passed through Jiangzhou and soon arrived in Xiangzhou, where Gao Cheng's half-brother, Xiao Lun, the king of Shaoling County, was located.

Xiao Lun was furious when he learned that his third brother Xiao Gang did not allow him to enter Beijing for mourning, he was really sad.

When he was young, whenever he was scolded by Xiao Yan, Xiao Lun went to be a filial son, cried and mourned, and even found an old man of the same age as Xiao Yan to cos paly, and let people wear the robe of the Son of Heaven and be beaten by himself.

Xiao Lun is a violent temper, if it weren't for the poor relationship with the seventh brother Xiao Yi and the eighth brother Xiao Ji, he really wanted to contact the two younger brothers to lead the troops to Jiankang to ask the newly enthroned Xiao Gang, why they were not allowed to mourn for their father.

The festival between Xiao Yi and Xiao Yi originated from a poem written by Xiao Lun when he was young, called "Poems of the King of Xiangdong":

'There is a disease in Xiangdong, and he is neither dumb nor deaf. Acacia only tears, hope straight to have full merit. ’

As we all know, what Xiao Yi hates most in his life is that others talk about him with one eye, but Xiao Lun also writes poems and ridicules, how can these two brothers get together.

And the contradiction with the eighth brother Xiao Ji, is purely out of jealousy, before Yuwentai went south, Xiao Ji was in charge of Shu, alleviating the contradiction between the Han bureaucracy, so that the economy of Shuzhong could be restored, and there were many political achievements, and then compared with Xiao Lun's absurd deeds of wearing linen and wearing filial piety, carrying the coffin and crying and mourning, Xiao Yan always talked about his brother Xiao Ji when he scolded Xiao Lun.

Xiao Lun was indignant about this, and often complained:

'What credit does King Wuling (Xiao Ji) have, that his official position is above me? The court is stunned, where do you know how to use people! ’

The words reached Xiao Yan's ears, and he was scolded again:

'King Wuling has the merit of sympathizing with the people and opening up the territory, what ability do you Xiao Lun have to fight for merit?' ’

How can the relationship between Xiao Lun and Xiao Ji be good.

Sitting in the palace, Xiao Lun thought about it and found that he had a deeper grudge with his third brother Xiao Gang, who had just become the emperor.

That's right, with Xiao Yi and Xiao Ji, it can only be said that it is a contradiction and a holiday, but it is indeed a grudge with Xiao Gang.

The eldest brother Xiao Tong was the prince, and Xiao Lun was 10,000 convinced, but unfortunately Xiao Tong fell into the water and died.

For Xiao Gang, who was canonized as the crown prince after Xiao Tong, Xiao Lun couldn't see it horizontally and vertically, and personally led troops to ambush on the road, preparing to intercept and kill Xiao Gang, but the matter was revealed.

Xiao Bodhisattva, no one really thinks that Xiao Yan is willing to kill his son.

Four years ago, Xiao Lun offered a hundred jars of poisoned wine, intending to poison his father and brother together, Xiao Yan also noticed it to some extent, and asked the palace people to drink it first, and the palace people drank the wine and died of poison, which scared Xiao Yan to increase the palace guards overnight, just like that, Xiao Lun was still not punished.

Xiao Yan's connivance again and again has cultivated Xiao Lun's lawless temperament, and now he feels that Xiao Gang cannot let himself hold the Jingnan states such as Hunan, Yi, and Ning, and sooner or later he will seize his power, and he must be the first to attack.

But Jiangzhou under the rule of the seventh brother Xiao Yi blocked the way, and wanted to attack Jiankang, either destroy Xiao Yi, or unite with him and go to Jiankang together.

Xiao Lun wrote on the spot, solemnly apologized to Xiao Yi for writing poems and ridicule back then, and encouraged Xiao Yi to raise troops with him.

Of course, the original words can't be like this, it is said that one person is the son of heaven and the other is the prime minister.

Xiao Lun didn't forget his eighth brother Xiao Ji, although he was far away in Lingnan, isolated from the Jiankang landscape, and he couldn't catch up with the hot food, but he was also afraid that this little brother would stab him in the back.

So he wrote another letter, promising that after the matter was completed, he would give the land of Fujian to Xiao Ji, and his descendants Yongzhen together with Lingnan.

It's one thing to just make a promise, and it's two things to say whether you keep it afterwards or not.

What! I gave you a promise, and you still want me to keep it? It's too greedy.

At the same time, Gao Cheng, who was in Luoyang, finally learned the news, he was angry that Xiao Zhengde was incompetent, and he was blind to the money, food, and weapons he supported, and he was actually vulnerable.

Even if you support it for two more days and hold the Vermilion Bird Hang, Duan Shao and the others can cross the river to the south to support and enter Jiankang in one fell swoop.

But everyone is dead, no matter how much he scolds, it won't help, he and Xiao Zhengde are just using the relationship, he doesn't regret this person's death at all, and he even can't wait to give Xiao Zhengde a knife with his own hands.

Gao Cheng was glad that Xiao Yuanming slaughtered that guy for him, otherwise he would have to pinch his nose and condescend to disgust himself.

Gao Cheng was full of sympathy for what happened to Princess Changle, and planned to wait for their mother and daughter to arrive in Luoyang, ask their hearts clearly, and then make arrangements.

What is now imminent is the mobilization of military forces in the south.

On the day Gao Cheng received the news, he immediately summoned the free riders to discuss, and immediately sent three messengers to the south, all the way to Jiankang to mourn Xiao Yan, how to say that Xiao Gao Wang is also his grandson-in-law.

The other two roads went to Jiangzhou and Xiangzhou respectively to contact Xiao Yi and Xiao Lun.

In order to show sincerity, Gao Cheng specially issued an edict ordering the soldiers of Jing, Hubei and Yingzhou on the western front to be led by Jingzhou Thorn Shi Hu Luguang and move to Xiangyang to station, and at the same time transfer all the Jingzhou and Yangzhou sailors to Hanshui, preparing to advance by land and water, and go up through the two counties of Shangyong and Xincheng to exchange views with Yuwentai's defenders in Hanzhong.

The soldiers of Shou, Yang, and Hezhou in the Huainan region of the eastern front were also commanded by Hezhou Assassin Shi Di Gan and retreated to Henan.

The land of Jianghan and the land of Huainan only left the state and county soldiers to garrison.

If you don't let the Xiao family brothers rest assured, how can they fight for the throne.

Gao Cheng is not afraid of the emptiness of the two places, the Liang people will take the opportunity to go north, even if there are only state and county soldiers in Huainan, will Xiao Gang dare to ignore Xiao Yi and Xiao Lun, and the northern expedition will not succeed.

Xiao Yi and Xiao Lun did not dare to ignore Xiao Gang and attack the Jianghan Plain, every penny of capital in their hands was to be used to fight for the throne.

In the fourth year of Zhaode (551), on February 23, the first Qi envoy arrived in Xiangzhou and was warmly greeted by Xiao Lun, who relayed Gao Cheng's condolences to Xiao Lun, and proposed to let Qi and Liang marry the daughter of the Northern Qi clan to Xiao Lun's second son, Xiao Qu.

Compared with Xiao Lun's eldest son Xiao Jian, who acted absurdly, Gao Cheng admired Xiao Qu, the second son who was both civil and military, ambitious and calligraphy.

The reason why it is only the daughter of the clan, according to the Qi envoy, is that among the daughters of Gao Cheng, the older ones have been promised, and the rest are too young, although this time they are married to the daughter of the clan, but Gao Cheng will accept her as a righteous daughter and marry under the name of the princess.

Regardless of Gao Cheng marrying Xiao Gang's daughter and accepting his righteous daughter to marry Xiao Lun's son, whether this relationship is chaotic or not, at least Xiao Lun is very satisfied, especially the withdrawal of front-line soldiers from the Northern Qi Dynasty made him see the sincerity.

Xiao Lun agreed with Gao Cheng's idea of seizing Hanzhong, and he also believed that Northern Qi should have sovereignty over Hanzhong.

In fact, of course Xiao Lun knew what Gao Cheng was planning, but he felt that there was a natural danger in the Yangtze River, and when he entered Jiankang, with this big river, Qi people could only look at the river and sigh.

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On February 25, the second Qi envoy arrived in Jiangzhou, Xiao Yi didn't care about Gao Cheng's condolences, but he cared about his son Xiao Fangzhi, who was taken captive to Luoyang.

When he was in Jiangling, Xiao Fangzhi's mother Xia was favored by Gao Cheng, and on the return trip, Gao Cheng asked Xiao Yi to redeem Xiao Fangju, Xiao Fangluo, and Xiao Fanggui, and took Xiao Fangzhi to Luoyang alone.

The envoy didn't hide it, and told Xiao Fangzhi the truth, although Xiao Fangzhi, who was only eight years old this year, was not accepted as a righteous son by Gao Cheng, but as a fake son in the actual sense, Xiao Gao Wang still took care of him, and now he temporarily lives in Jinling Pavilion, and Xiao Gang's daughter Xiao Miaochun, the princess of Liyang, is a companion.

Gao Cheng personally acted as a matchmaker and made a marriage contract for him to be the daughter of his brother Gao Sizong, the king of Shangluo County.

After Xiao Yi heard about Xiao Fangzhi's situation, his attitude towards the Qi envoy was even closer, he had received a secret letter from his sixth brother Xiao Lun, and he was already moved, but it was only because of the threat of Northern Qi that he did not take action for a long time.

Now that Gao Cheng sent an envoy to the south, Xiao Yi, like Xiao Lun, also took the opportunity to conclude an alliance with Northern Qi in private, agreeing not to attack each other, and wishing Gao Cheng a satisfactory result in the battle of Hanzhong.

On February 29th, the third road Qi envoy arrived in Jiankang, Qi envoy to the funeral, once again relayed Gao Cheng's condolences to Xiao Gang at the same time, but also announced to the people of Jiangnan, Qi lord Gao Cheng is still the princess of Liyang, Qi Liang is the country of in-laws, now Jiangnan is in the national mourning, Qi will never take advantage of the difficulty to raise troops, in order to show sincerity, Qi country to Jianghan, Huainan soldiers.

The reason why Gao Cheng made this promise was that it was expected that the sons of Nanliang would compete for the throne, and it would not be possible to distinguish the winner in a short time, even if Xiao Lun and Xiao Yi entered Jiankang, they would fight with each other, and Xiao Ji of Lingnan would not watch it.

Let's fight, make a pot of porridge, brothers and brothers, and then it will be him Gao Cheng at the invitation of the loser, hang the people and cut down the crime, and cross the river to the south.

Gao Cheng sent a three-way envoy and left Xiao Ji alone, not just because he was in Lingnan and did not border with Northern Qi, but because he felt that the snipe and clam were competing for the benefit of the fisherman, perhaps Xiao Ji, who was sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight, was most likely to have the last laugh, and there was also a Chen Baxian under Xiao Ji's command.

Now, the reason why the battle for the throne of Nanliang has not started for a long time is waiting for Gao Cheng to send troops to Hanzhong and Yuwentai to continue the frontier, once the two sides hand over and confirm that he has no time to look south, it will also be the time when Jiangnan is once again plunged into large-scale war after fifty years.