On April 25, 786, the Governor of the Town Office of the Elders of the River Hill.

"Lieutenant Colonel Ma Ning, please come in. The Zong family is waiting for you inside. ”

Lieutenant Colonel Ma Ning stood up from the bench in the waiting room, his uniform was straight, his figure was straight, his eyes were sharp, his face was stern and slightly melancholy, and he had the demeanor of an exemplary soldier.

Following the guards, Ma Ning walked through the corridor of the waiting room and entered the meeting room.

The guard bowed down and reported: "Zong family, Lieutenant Colonel Ma Ning has arrived. ”

Ma Ning stood up and said: "Your Highness, Ma Ning of the Special Operations Department has come to report!"

Hearing the report, the person in front of the window turned around: "Hmm." You go out. Lieutenant Colonel Ma Ning, you may be seated. ”

"Your Highness. Ma Ning sat down in a chair, his upper body straight, and his eyes did not squint.

"Lieutenant Colonel, I'm really sorry to call you over late at night and disturb your rest. The man in front of the window walked over, his face haggard, but he was still handsome and extraordinary. Lin Rui sat down at the table, and his body sank deep into the weak sofa: "It's just that the country is in a critical juncture, I believe you can also understand our hardships." ”

Lieutenant Colonel Ma Ning bowed slightly, and said, "Your Highness is serious." Wechen is ready to serve His Highness at any time!"

"Lieutenant Colonel Ma has been coming to our side for more than a year, right?"

"Yes. ”

"How are you doing here? The people below aren't slacking off, are they?"

"His Royal Highness Lao has asked. The chief of the special department treated us very well and took very good care of us, and we were not dissatisfied. ”

"Lieutenant Colonel, have you paid attention to the battle situation in the past two days?"

"Xia Guan knows a little bit about it. ”

Lin Xingsheng was defeated. The 60,000 Praetorian guards were defeated by less than half of the gendarmes, and it was a joke to say it. Lin Rui raised his head and smiled, but there was no smile in his eyes: "Di Lin is worthy of his name, no wonder he can be ranked among the three heroes of Zichuan." ”

Hearing the "Three Heroes of Zichuan", a cold light of hatred flashed in Ma Ning's eyes. He comforted: "Your Highness, the empire is strong, you don't have to worry too much about a slight setback." ”

"Hehe, I'm not afraid of Dilin. Things are a little tricky, though. Di Lin did not fight with our army, but frequently attacked our civilian targets, making us unable to defend ourselves, and the civilian losses were very heavy, and I was under great pressure!"

Lin Rui sighed: "Originally, we still pinned our hopes on Lin Xingsheng, he has mastered 60,000 jīng rui, at least he can annihilate one or two soldiers and horses of the enemy, save a little face for the empire, and boost the morale of the army and the people...... Unexpectedly, he was so unbearable that he was destroyed by Di Lin in a battle. It's a shame that he usually boasts of being a talented man in the country, and threatens to raise 100,000 troops into the country!"

Ma Ning knew that Lin Xingsheng's failure was not only because of the strength of the Dilin army, but also because of last year's inexplicable purge. The loss of a large number of skilled and experienced young Zhuang generals was a huge damage to the Heqiu army. Otherwise, if Lin Yunfei and the others were here, when would it be the turn of Lin Xingsheng to lead the troops-but he didn't intend to defend Lin Xingsheng, he just kept nodding in agreement.

"Di Lin is quick and fast in his troops, especially Jīng is good at running around, and it is difficult for our army to catch their movements. Elder Lin Kang approached them and demanded an end to the attacks on the civilians, but was refused. It is clear that conventional tactics are no longer able to deal with them, and we have to resort to extraordinary means to save the situation. ”

Lin Rui paused and said softly, "Your Excellency Ma Wei, can you understand what I mean?"

was suddenly called out by his old name, and Ma Wei did not recall the warmth of the past. On the contrary, a piercing cold pierced his whole body like lightning, and the cold hairs on his body stood up! He knew the person in front of him too well, and under his polite and gentle face was a cruelty as cold as snow.

He bowed and said: "The lord humiliated the ministers to death, when the wechen came to the end of the road, His Royal Highness ignored the past suspicions, and accommodated us with a generous heart, and the wechen and his subordinates are deeply grateful for the kindness of His Highness, and I hope to serve His Highness at night to repay His Highness's deep kindness." Now, the thieves in the Imperial Forest are rampant, and the first battle of the king division is unfavorable, which makes His Royal Highness worry about this, which is the incompetence of the ministers. I beg His Highness to send a minister to war. Wei Chen thinks that he is also a little familiar with military strategy, and his martial arts are also good at battle, so he will definitely not disappoint Your Highness. ”

"What are you going to do if you were sent to war?"

"Please forgive your Highness for being arrogant. Weichen felt that although Wang Shi was brave, he was too gentlemanly and not resolute enough to the enemy. If the subordinate officials go to war, they will definitely not be merciful. War is not a woman's kindness, not to mention, Di Lin has set a precedent, so it is no wonder that we imitate it. A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye is common sense. ”

Listening to Ma Wei's words, Lin Rui's expression was indifferent, and he couldn't tell whether he was in favor or against.

He said slowly: "It has been two hundred years since the peace of Heqiu, because we are a big civilized country, so we are very good-looking, there are many constraints and rules, and there are many people who do things. There are some things, although I am a clan, but it is not easy to be arbitrary. Moreover, these matters are not easy to discuss with the Council of Elders. ”

Wechen understood. ”

"Do you really understand?" Lin Rui looked at Ma Wei with a smile, but his gaze was cold and calm.

Ma Weiyan said: "Wechen understands! Everything is done by Wechen himself, and he has nothing to do with the Imperial Council of Elders and His Highness. ”

"Very good, Major General Ma Ning, return to your profession, come on!"

The war that broke out between the Zichuan family and the Lin family at the turn of the summer in 786 had a nice name in later generations, "Southwest War". From the beginning of April to the end of April, the first phase of the war, the soldiers of the Supervision Office roamed the rich Lin family land with impunity, killing people, setting fires, and plundering Jiānyín, while the outnumbered Lin family defense army and the Janissaries were unable to defend his people. Later literati described the catastrophe: "The army of the Inspectorate passed, and every footprint on the road was soaked in black and red blood. ”

From May, the second phase of the war began, and the Lin family began to fight back.

On the morning of May 1, an army of more than 20,000 people of the Lin family set out from Heqiu, and they crossed the border between the Zichuan family and the Lin family, and went straight to the Warin Province. By dusk, they had arrived and surrounded the provincial capital, Valin.

Looking at the red-glowing city of Wallin in the sunset, Major General Mavi shed sentimental tears. This city was originally the base of the Ma family, and it was also the cradle of their own growth, and every grass and tree in the city was loaded with their childhood memories, but it was also in this city that nearly a thousand children of the Ma family were killed by Zichuan Xiu, and the Ma family, which had been entrenched in the southwest for decades, was wiped out.

"Zichuan Xiu, Di Lin, what you put on the Ma clan back then, I will definitely repay it a thousand times!"

Warin City had already discovered the Lin family's army, and the city quickly closed its gates. But in the face of nearly 20,000 Heqiu troops, the resistance of only a few hundred city garrisons was really limited, and the city gates were breached before dark - in fact, the garrisons did not resist much at all. Because the city had been occupied by the Riverhill Army before, it turned out to be fine.

But when the Governor and the Provincial Governor who had surrendered were brought before Mavi, their faces turned pale and they were all blue with regret: they knew that it was him, and they would not have surrendered even if they were all killed.

At this time, Ma Wei did not ramble with them, and took them directly to the cemetery where the Ma family was slaughtered. The governor was so frightened that his face turned pale, and he was so trembling that he couldn't stand steadily, and he was dripping and urinating. The governor still had a bit of a soldier's toughness, and he stiffened his neck and shouted: "Ma Wei, Lao Tzu also had a share in killing your Ma family back then, and it is not unjust for you to come to take revenge! But the people are innocent, you raise your noble hand and don't implicate the innocent, you should also accumulate some virtue for yourself!"

Ma Wei sneered: "Innocent, Lord Governor, the whole city started to round up our Ma family back then, who didn't do it? You can rest assured that you will go first, and the whole city will soon come down to accompany you!"

Facts have proved that His Excellency Ma Wei is a man of his word. That night, the soldiers and horses of the river hill blocked the gates of Valin, and from the west of the city, the cries and screams gradually sounded, and the clamor became more and more huge, reaching a high level at midnight, and the cries and screams swept through the city, and the sound of breaking doors, shouting and killing, and shouting continued for seven hours, until it subsided at dawn.

That night, the Lin family's army slaughtered more than 70,000 soldiers and civilians of the Zichuan family. In the end, the reason why they stopped was not out of compassion, but because the streets of the city were clogged with blood and corpses, and the soldiers were so tired that the army withdrew from the city.

The Warin incident spread quickly and shook the entire continent. For a long time, the Lin family has always faced the mainland countries with a peaceful and civilized image, and this seemingly harmless country can actually do such a thing, and the mainland countries are in an uproar.

At the news conference on the war in Heqiu, Lieutenant General Lin Wen, chief of the General Staff who presided over the meeting, was repeatedly questioned by domestic and foreign reporters. Everyone is eager to know if the Warin incident is the beginning of a planned revenge for the Dilin army, and if Riverhill intends to have a more brutal match with the invasion of Dilin?

Lieutenant General Hayashi Van insisted: "The Valin incident was by no means a plan of the Presbyterian Council and the General Staff, it was a private act of the front-line commanders, and not at the behest of the Hagawa Hon. ”

"Lieutenant General, which general commanded the Varin massacre, and why did he do this?"

"The field commander is Major General Manin. The general had a personal vendetta with the inhabitants of Valin, so he declared a personal vendetta during his mission. Of course, this kind of brutal behavior is against the discipline of our emperor and is absolutely not allowed. Now we have sent officers from the political department to severely admonish Major General Ma Ning. ”

Slaughtering a city and killing 70,000 people, the punishment is just a "severe admonition", such a punishment is too light, right?

The reporters muttered in their hearts, but continued to ask: "May I ask the Chief of Staff, what grievances does Major General Manin have with the residents of Wallin, so that he wants to commit such a murderous attack?"

"Major General Ma had a rather complicated experience before joining our Heqiu Army. He himself is a high-ranking officer of the Zichuan family, because he was unjustly persecuted in the Zichuan army, and the whole family was murdered by the magnates of the Zichuan family. As far as we know, he has a deep personal vendetta with Valin - oh, of course, I don't mean anything to approve of his actions, and in any case, the military should not act against civilians, we can't be like wild beasts - I just mean that there are deep historical reasons why things happened......"

The curiosity of the reporters was aroused and was about to explode, and Chief of Staff Lin Wen casually threw out a sentence: "Before joining the emperor, the major general had a former name, called Ma Wei. ”

The audience was in an uproar. Ma Wei! This wanted criminal, a notorious gang leader and a traitor to mankind, is actually in the Riverhill Army?

"It's complicated, it's not as simple as you think. His Excellency Ma Wei's experience is closely related to the grievances of several powerful people in the Zichuan family. Among them, Zi Chuanxiu, Di Lin, Sterling, Zi Chuanning and others were involved, and there were quite grievances in this matter. It's just that because it's about confidentiality and others, it's not convenient for us to disclose too much here, and you can ask Major General Ma Wei for the specific situation later......"

Chief of Staff Lin Wen blocked all the questions with a fluttering Tai Chi pusher, and left everyone with a tail for infinite reverie: it involved the grievances of heavyweights such as Zi Chuan Xiu, Sterling, Di Lin, Zi Chuan Ning, and Ma Wei.

Knowledgeable reporters have recalled that Ma Wei was the governor of Valin back then, and the Ma family was single-handedly annihilated in Valin...... In this way, the focus of public opinion turned to the causal analysis of the Ma Wei incident, and the newspapers and periodicals in Heqiu began to talk about how Zichuan Xiu and Di Lin joined forces to suppress the Ma family with great violent, and the gossip magazine described how Ma Wei met and fell in love with Zichuan Ning back then, but was obstructed by Zichuan Xiu and Di Lin and other warlords, and Zi Chuanxiu was angry and killed the Ma family because of the failure of the competition.

No one mentioned how the Ma family had accumulated a lot of wealth by pretending to be a widow and plundering the Lin family.

No one mentioned that Mavi's rebellion brought great disasters to mankind, and millions of soldiers and civilians were killed.

Without the acquiescence and connivance of the Lin family's top brass, how could Ma Wei lead a regular army of up to 20,000 to Warin to massacre and take revenge?

Under the overwhelming coverage of the Heqiu media, Ma Wei's image has become brighter than ever: a young, upright senior military officer who is brutally persecuted for love. He endured humiliation and fled to the end of the world with his family feud on his back. After a hard struggle, he has achieved a career in a foreign country, and he is finally able to return to his hometown to take revenge with a high eyebrow - what a touching prince's revenge!

Riverhill officials shouted loudly, saying that Ma Wei was completely on his own, but this matter could not deceive anyone with a discerning eye - in fact, Riverhill did not intend to hide from anyone, they just needed a fig leaf.

On the order of the Council of Elders, Lin Kang made an appointment with Jinxi again, wanting to probe the tone of the Zichuan family: "What? This trick of indiscriminately killing civilians is not only used by your Supervision Department, but also our Heqiu." ”

But the reply he got almost made Lin Kang half angry: "It doesn't matter, please take care of your country." The southwest has always been the center of the Senate, and they are not of the same heart to us. The Lin family can help us clean it first, so that we don't have to do it ourselves later. ”

Jinxi smiled at Mimi: "Elder Lin, there is one thing that you may not have received the news yet. Yesterday, our army broke through the city of Xinga in your country, and the battle was quite fruitful, beheading 100,000 people!"

Lin Kang stood up suddenly, his face pale. The city of Singa is a small town, but it is located southwest of the hills. This shows that Di Lin's army has bypassed the Lin family's capital Heqiu and penetrated deep into the inner hinterland of the Lin family.

"Elder Lin," said Jinxi slowly, "your country has a population of 80 million, and it is said that there are 10 million or 20 million people in the southwest of our country. There are a lot of people, so we might as well have a competition to see who can kill faster and more. Prizes, hehe, no. ”

The news of the failure of the second negotiation was soon reported to Heqiu, and Lin Kang did not add a word of comment, but just recorded the words of the "Massacre Match" in the west and handed it to Danya. Seeing this report, the elders all felt a chill in their hearts. It was not surprising that the Imperial Army refused to negotiate, but what chilled them was the attitude of the people in the conversation of the West, the indifference and cruelty that treated human life as a mustard.

Although the banner of the Zichuan family is still hung, the enemy is completely different from the former Zichuan family. They are vicious, cruel in their methods, disregard for shame, and have no need for life and death, even better than the demons. This is a real gang of outlaws, a gang of bandits in the truest sense of the word. The terrible thing is that it is this gang of outlaws who control the Zichuan family and control the lifeblood of this huge empire. They don't even care about their own lives, so how can they care about the lives of the people in the southwest?

Thinking of the joy of the Elder of the River Hill cheering long live when they learned that there had been a mutiny in Dìdū, everyone regretted that their faces turned green. Compared to this group of wolf-like outlaws, Zichuan Shenxing and Zichuan Ning are an old man and a girl, they are simply angelic characters.

The city of Singa is located more than 100 miles southwest of Heqiu, near the passage connecting Heqiu with the interior of the Lin family.

In the hands of the Lin family, Xinga City is not a big place, and there are not many troops to defend it. But when the city reached Dirin's hands, it was like a fishbone stuck in his throat, making the river hill extremely uncomfortable. With Singa as the center, the cavalry of the Supervision Department attacked everywhere, specifically attacking the Lin family's grain and grass supply team, and sometimes spreading out a large army to fight a few battles with reinforcements from all over the hill. Poor garrisons from all over the country, after receiving King Qin's mobilization order, they hurried over, but they were unexpectedly stopped by the Di Lin army on the way -- the Lin family has been peaceful for a long time, the border troops are still slightly better, and the garrisons in the interior are miserable. Originally, it was useful for these troops to gather in the river hills to rest and recuperate, but unexpectedly, they encountered one of the strongest troops on the mainland in the middle of the road, and they were crushed at the slightest contact.

The Council of Elders has given a death order that this thorn must be removed!

In mid-June, the Heqiu General Staff transferred 80,000 infantry from Danya and 40,000 infantry from Heqiu, and combined 120,000 troops to counterattack the city of Singa.

For this battle, the Lin family has high hopes. Lin Wen, chief of the general staff, personally commanded the campaign, and the troops participating in the battle were all selected by the Lin family, and their morale was high. The Lin family is determined to use a crisp victory to redeem the decline of the Lin family since the beginning of the war. Especially when they learned that Di Lin himself was in the city of Singa, the officers of the river hill who participated in the battle were even more excited, and they kept urging Lin Wen: "My lord, hurry up! Don't let him run!"

There were serious officers who asked yì to find out the situation before attacking, but everyone, including Lin Wen, did not think that it was necessary, because it was confirmed that Singa's Imperial army really had only more than 30,000 men and horses, and the order of the Council of Elders was as eager as fire, and the absolute superiority of 120,000 to 30,000 troops also made everyone full of confidence. At this time, who is still in the mood to slowly inquire about intelligence?

Everyone is very worried, if Di Lin sees that the situation is bad and escapes, what can he do?

If Lin Wen could be patient and slowly scout the number of Singa's defenders, perhaps he would have been more cautious in formulating tactics, but the constant urging of the elders and the impatience of the officers also infected him, and he ordered: "Attack with all your might!"

The chief of the general staff of the Lin family, who was known for his steadiness, made the biggest mistake in his life, and he did not know that in addition to two infantry divisions and one cavalry division, the Xinga garrison also had one unit -- the secret meritorious unit of the Zichuan family, the "Special 101st Division".

Many Lin family soldiers didn't figure out what was going on until they died. They only heard the rapid whistle, and the sky above them suddenly darkened, and many people looked up at the sky, and they saw a terrifying scene: the entire blue sky was covered by a huge "blanket", and this "blanket" with an anti-metallic glow swept across the sky and swooped down on them.

It's not a rain of arrows, it's a metal wall!

A terrifying metal storm swept through the entire team, that kind of slaughter was unheard of, and the bodies of the hundreds of attacking soldiers who rushed to the forefront were shèdged to pieces, and many of them were even shè into the air, like a leaf flying in a storm, and the dense metal storm tore their bodies apart. There was no gap in the continuous rain of arrows, and the joint shè of more than 500 crossbow machines was like a violent metal storm, where the storm blew, there was a wailing and screaming, and the crowd was swept down one by one, just like a wheat field that was blown down by a storm, a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

During this attack, the strongbow unit of the ace army of Heqiu was attacked by the destruction of mièxìng. When the storm of crossbow arrows hit, the strongbow regiment suffered numerous casualties on the spot. The famous archers opened their eyes wide and died. Until they died, they couldn't believe that they would be killed by their opponents at this distance.

The massive offensive collapsed in an instant. The city of Singa became a huge Shura field, 50,000 soldiers dropped their weapons, wailed and cried for help, and the rout wave was so turbulent that it overwhelmed its own Chinese army and rear team, and finally led to a great rout. Di Lin took the opportunity to cover up from the city of Singa and pursued all the way, killing countless people.

Less than 70,000 of the 120,000-strong army were able to return to Riverhill City, and Chief of General Staff Lin Wen disappeared in the chaos and his whereabouts are unknown.

When the bad news came, the Elders of the River Hill would be as still as frozen ice, and the atmosphere was cold and cold. The elders were silent, their faces pale. They could not accept the fact that in order to deal with the 30,000-strong Dilin army, Heqiu sent 120,000 men, but in the end they were defeated.

"Could it be that there is no one in the world who can deal with Di Lin?"

The highest level of emergency deliberation was held from late at night until dawn. When the first rays of morning light in the east shone into the conference room, the elders of the river hill looked tired and haggard after a night of intense discussion.

The topic of the meeting of elders was a review of the new strategy of the River Hill Staff. Although Lin Wen disappeared, the Heqiu General Staff did not stop working - on the contrary, for fear of being held accountable, the staff officers worked harder than before. They came up with a new battle plan. The Heqiu Staff estimated that Di Lin had no more than 200,000 combatable soldiers, and they either gathered around Danya to confront the Heqiu army, or they were brought into the territory of Heqiu by Di Lin, including Dìdū, and the Zichuan family had no strong troops except for the northwest and the Far East. The General Staff Department was built and sent a partial division from the Danya battalion to go up the river and go straight to the dìdū.

"Doesn't Di Lin like to wander around? Then let's just smash his roots and let them be rogues!" The new Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant General Lin Shan, waved his fist and looked full of confidence.

Lin Rui stared at the lines of his palm, and a sarcastic sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth. The Xinjia fiasco was the last straw that broke down the Lin family's psychological defense, maybe Lin Shan himself didn't notice it, but this plan of the Heqiu Staff Department was undoubtedly tantamount to declaring: The Lin family's military, which had 500,000 troops, had lost the confidence and courage to defeat Di Lin on the frontal battlefield.

The mention of the Heqiu Staff was vetoed by Lin Rui at the Council of Elders. The Danya army was closely monitored by Dilin's southwest battalion, not to mention whether the Heqiu army had the ability to complete the feat of dividing troops to expedition thousands of miles in front of the enemy, nor whether the Danya battalion, whose strength was weakened after the division of troops, could still maintain a confrontation with the Dilin army, even if the Heqiu army could really succeed in the expedition and capture Dìdū in one fell swoop, the political consequences brought about by this would be unpredictable.

"The Zichuan family is a big country. Capturing the capital is the best way to completely anger a great power. So far, it has only been the Zichuan family's Dilin rebel group that has fought with us, and the real power figures of the Zichuan military such as Zichuan Xiu, Minghui and others are still standing by and watching. But if we occupy the dìdū...... It is impossible to imagine how the Far Eastern and North-Western military blocs will react. The Far Eastern Commander of the Zichuan family once threatened that outsiders could not interfere in the affairs of the Zichuan family. The Northwest Commander also said that he supported Dilin. I am worried that this will arouse the hatred of the people of the Shikawa family, and that the local war will turn into a full-scale war that will never stop until one side is completely defeated. ”

This was Lin Rui's speech at the Council of Elders, and all the elders thought it was true. Di Lin was so arrogant, but he didn't dare to attack the capital of Heqiu. The Southwestern War was caused by a territorial dispute, and even if there were many killings, it was only a local war. However, if the capital of the Zichuan family is occupied, the xìng quality of the war will escalate into a war of annihilation.

"There is only one question to face, and that is whether to continue this war?"

No one spoke, and the elders who controlled the fate of the Lin family were solemn.

Lin Rui set his eyes on Lieutenant General Lin Shan at the conference table: "What does the military say?"

Among the attendees, Lin Shan was the only one wearing a military uniform. He replied: "Your Highness, the opinion of the General Staff is the same: we can win!"

"What's going on with the 201st Boundary Monument Battle, and what's going on with the Xinga Offensive and Defensive Battle?"

"In a national war, the victory or defeat of one or two local battles does not mean anything. It can't shake our strengths. ”

Lin Rui leaned back on the back of the chair, his eyes narrowed slightly: "Your Excellency Chief of Staff, let me ask you simply: If you are given two months with the current 300,000 troops, can you win?"

Lin Shan shook his head resolutely: "Can't!"

"So, three months?"

"No, you can't. ”

"Three months, or four months? ”

After hesitating for a long time, Lin Shan said hesitantly: "Your Highness, elders, Di Lin's use of troops is unpredictable, especially good at running and scorched earth warfare, we must press it with the absolute advantage of Mount Tai on the top, and we can't give him room to exert it." The front-line troops must be maintained at least 400,000, and the rear must prepare 300,000 strong reserves to defend the country!"

No one spoke up. The elders' eyes were as cold as ice.

"Thank you, Your Excellency Chief of Staff. You can go out and rest. ”

Lin Rui rubbed his red eyes, and the tiredness and haggard on his well-defined face were revealed. He said calmly: "Ladies and gentlemen, everyone is clear about the military report. I can tell everyone: the empire is very strong! 700,000 troops, we can organize and support the materials for half a year's war, we can prepare them, and even from the dissatisfaction of the people and the United Chamber of Commerce, we are also capable of suppressing them! Yes, as long as we are willing to pay the price, we can defeat or even completely destroy the Dilin Legion! But is this necessary?

"Taking advantage of the weakness of the Zichuan family to seize the southwest, this is our planned plan, but now, I have to say, this plan is too optimistic. We underestimated Dillin's determination to strike a desperate blow, and we underestimated his fortitude. Although he rebelled against the Zichuan family, he did not betray the country. Even if we die together with the Lin family, even if we fight for the strength in our hands and end up defeated, we will not allow the southwest to be divided. It was a big mistake for us to provoke such an iron-blooded maniac.

"We also miscalculated the reaction of the Far Eastern Commander of the Zichuan family. Dìdū and the entire Zichuan family were put in front of him, and he was able to get it at his fingertips, and he was unmoved. A young man in his twenties who has such vision and patience -- the Far Eastern Commander already has the aura of a continental hegemon, and this person will be our greatest threat.

"Even if we defeat Dilin, we still can't keep the southwest. As soon as the news of the defeat of the Emperor Lin broke, Zichuan Xiu's army would immediately enter the dìdū. Moreover, unlike Di Lin, who was a rebel, he will be able to fully support the Northwest Warlord Minghui and the noble forces of the Senate as the orthodox and important retainer of the Zichuan family, and at that time, the new Zichuan family government will inevitably aim to recover the entire territory, and we will still have to fight with all our might.

"The Far Eastern Commander has collected hundreds of thousands of demon soldiers and horses, and his command is known as Jīng Rui million. After the bloody battle with Di Lin, we were greatly injured, can we still resist the combined forces of the demons and the orcs? Without the loss of Jīng Rui's army, what can we rely on to gain a foothold on the mainland? At that time, we may not only lose the southwest, but the foundation of the Lin family for three hundred years.

"Elders, I know that someone will have to pay for provoking this wrong war. But now that the mistake has been corrected, it's just a mistake. If we hold on to our mistakes to the end - then we will only be left with ruin. Elders, take your choice. ”

In the early morning of June 25, the Heqiu Presbyterian Council finally made a resolution and gave an order to Lin Kang, the military elder of Danya, to contact the southwest camp of the Zichuan family on the opposite side and start armistice negotiations as soon as possible.

On July 2, 786, after three days of negotiations, the representative of the Zichuan family, the commander of the Imanishi Praetorian Guard, and the representative of the river hill, Elder Lin Kang, signed the agreement on the end of the war, and the Southwest War, which lasted for more than three months, finally ended in the form of peace negotiations. The Lin family will withdraw all troops from the territory of the Zichuan family, and promise that they will not invade the territory of the Zichuan family again—of course, no one takes this assurance seriously—and the Zichuan family's army that invaded the Lin family will also be withdrawn from the Lin family. In addition, because of the ravages of the Emperor Lin Army, the Lin family suffered considerable losses, so the Zichuan family had to pay a certain amount of compensation to the Lin family.

Regarding the amount of this indemnity, this is a state secret, and the outside world is secretive, but insiders are rumored to say that Lin Kang begged bitterly: "Your Excellency Jinxi, how much money is good, you have to be careful, otherwise I really can't explain it when I go back!"

Jinxi thought for a while, took out a copper coin from his pocket, and solemnly handed it to Lin Kang: "Elder Lin, although the money is less, it is also a heart, don't dislike it!"

Of course, Lin Kang will not dislike it. With this copper coin, the Lin Elders Association can proudly and confidently announce to the people: "After more than three months of hard fighting, we have finally won the final victory and forced the proud Zichuan family to pay reparations for their defeat!" This can prove that the sacrifices and blood of countless civilians and soldiers are not meaningless -- at least they are worth one copper coin.

After the agreement was signed, Lin Kang was relaxed. He said sincerely: "Your Excellency Imanishi, I think that this war is a mistake that should not be made. As far as the mainland's geopolitical pattern is concerned, China and your country are natural allies. Together, we fight against the demons and the Windswept cavalry. Thankfully, the mistake was corrected and the war is finally over!"

"Elder Lin, for you, the war is over, but for us," Jin Xi said in a heavy voice, looking at the eastern sky, "the terrible war of destruction has just begun. ”