Fanwu, Zhao Jun's camp.

Li Mu looked at the sand table in front of him, at this moment, even if it was his wisdom, he only felt a deep sense of powerlessness, the so-called powerlessness of the heart, probably this feeling.

Wang Jian defended the front line of Fanwu according to the momentum of mountains and rivers, and the flawless defense line made Zhao Jun unable to find a chance to break through, and during this time, Li Mu's discomfort can be imagined.

He was one of the best offensive generals in the world, but Wang Jian was the most stable general in the world, if the two attacked, Li Mu and Wang Jian were stronger or weaker, it was still unknown, but now Wang Jian was on the defensive, Li Mu was on the offensive, between one defense and one attack, but the advantage of the war was tilted towards the situation in favor of Wang Qian.

In particular, Wang Jian did not seek victory at all, and only wanted to drag down the Zhao army, which made Li Mu and the army under his command even more unable to start.

In Li Mu's helplessness, an envoy from the State of Zhao appeared in the military camp.

Looking at Yan Ju, who came with the edict, there was a faint feeling of bad premonition in his heart, Li Mu opened his mouth and asked, "Is there an accident on the southern line?" ”

"On the side of the Great Wall in the south, the offensive of the Qin army has become more and more fierce, and the king and the queen mother intend to ask the general to lead the troops back to the south." Yan Judao.

"What about the North?" Li Mu was shocked, the thing he didn't want to see really happened, and the northern realm was going to become something that those people in Zhao Du thought could give up.

"The northern border has been completely blocked by the Qin army, and the general you are blocked by the Qin army under Wang Qian, there is no rescue value, but the southern border is different, once the Qin army breaks through the Great Wall in the south, it can be under the capital of Zhao in three days, general, you should know what it means for Zhao to happen in such a situation." Yan Ju said his reasons, and it was also the reason that Guo Kai and those people told him.

"What you said is not unreasonable, but the northern border is also very important to the Zhao State, with a population of one million and two hundred thousand soldiers, if it falls into the hands of the Qin State, the consequences will be unimaginable." Li Mu said, if it is possible, the northern realm must not give up, besides, the last reason, Li Mu still couldn't say it after all.

"General, if you may be offended, the three counties in the north are lost, and the Zhao State still exists, but if Zhao is captured by the Qin army, will the Zhao State still be the Zhao State?" Yan Ju lowered his voice.

"You?" Li Mu couldn't help but glared at Yan Ju angrily when he heard this, what kind of bastard words were he talking about.

"General, at this time, it is an indisputable fact that Qin's national strength is stronger than ours, Zhao really can't support a war with Qin's third front, what we can do now is to exchange territory for time, use the time in exchange for recuperation, and shrink the defensive line, so that we can protect Zhao in the next offensive of the Qin army." Yan Judao.

"The stakes are high to give up the three counties of this realm, and it cannot be decided lightly, let me think about it, let me think about it." Li Mu groaned, and for a while he only felt in a dilemma.

In the current situation, of course Li Mu knew that the three northern counties were irretrievable, but the three northern counties were not only the three northern counties of Zhao State, but also the three northern counties of the 100,000 border horses under his command, and the families and clansmen of the border knights were mostly in the three northern counties, and those people in Zhao Capital could easily decide to give up the three northern counties, but what about those soldiers?

The existence of such a military heart, once it collapses, an army will be finished, if this matter cannot be handled well, Zhao Guobian will be finished riding this strong army.

"Is the general worried about the morale of the army?" Yan Ju asked, although he was not a famous general, he was still a qualified general, and he could see the most difficult problem to solve in the matter of giving up the three counties in the north.

"How can you not be worried." Mu Li sighed, there is a limit to manpower, but under the general trend of Huanghuang, the strength of one person is so small.

"The queen mother and the king did not hesitate to reward, and then the general came forward to appease, and the soldiers who wanted to come to the side to ride could understand the country's difficulties." Yan Judao.

"But who can understand their difficulties?" Li Mudao.

"General, there's news from the north." Just when Yan Ju wanted to say something, Sima Shang, who had been Li Mu's deputy general, walked into the big tent with a roll of bamboo slips.

"I'm afraid it's not good news, is it?" Li Mu said with interest, it is really difficult to hope for any good news about the intelligence of the three counties in the north.

"It's hard to define." Sima Shang also smiled bitterly.

The Qin army intends to make a truce in the north, such a thing seems to be good, giving Zhao Jun a chance, but that is only the surface, who would really regard this move of the Qin army as only kindness?

Looking at the bamboo slips handed over by Sima Shang, a wry smile also appeared in Li Mu's expression, and finally all his thoughts turned into a sigh and said: "The three counties in the north are no longer owned by Zhao Guo. ”

In the city of Yanmen County's good governance, Li Qi, who was the county guard, still called his subordinates and representatives of Yanmen counties to the county guard mansion a few days later.

"The Qin army intends to make a truce, and you should already know about the agricultural harvest in the three counties in the northern border, right?" Li Qi, who sat on the main seat, got straight to the point.

"Yes, I heard it." Li Qi's voice fell, and Shi Meng, the county lieutenant from Shuo County, responded.

"Yes, I have heard of it," the rest of the people, such as the county lieutenant of Yanmen County, and the chief secretary of Ma Yi also responded.

"Do you think we should accept the kindness of the Qin army and accept the truce?" Li Qi looked at the crowd.

"My lord, this is definitely a conspiracy of the Qin army, once the army is dispersed, it will be troublesome to raise it again, if the Qin army takes advantage of the situation to attack, how can we resist?" As soon as Li Qi's words fell, Shi Meng, who led the Shuo County soldiers from the city of Good Governance and Defense, as the county lieutenant of Shuo County, spoke out against it.

The rest of the people subconsciously fished their eyes back on Li Qi and Shi Meng, they were all from the three counties in the north, and they naturally knew the relationship between each other.

Shuo County, is the real big county of Yanmen County, household registration is enough for 10,000 households, is 10,000 households, not 10,000 people, without considering the military value of the northern wolf clan, Shuo County in Yanmen County is more important than the good governance of the county, it can be said that among the three counties in the north, Shuo County is second only to Dai County Dai County, although Shi Meng is only a county lieutenant, but because of the relationship between Shuo County, its status in Yanmen County is not to be underestimated.

And in Shi Meng's body, there is another layer of relationship, which makes his status in Yanmen County quite high, he is the real henchman of the county guard Li Qi, Li Qi after he came out, the first official position was the county magistrate of Shuo County, and Shi Meng was the first small group of people to follow Li Qi.

Shi Meng said such words at this time, but the rest of the people had to consider whether those words were said by Shi Meng, or behind his back, with Li Qi's instructions.

Whether or not to accept Qin's proposal for a truce involved the survival of the entire three northern counties, and they did not dare to express their position lightly.

"But the proposal of the Qin army for a truce is also what we need, if we delay this year's harvest, so that the people of the three northern counties suffer from food shortage in the coming year, how should we face the people of the three northern counties?" Just when everyone was speculating about Li Qi's true thoughts, Li Qi had already spoken.

What's going on here? Could it be that Lord Commander intended to accept the Qin army's proposal for a truce? It's just that, if that's the case, then what's the matter with Shi Meng's words?

"I really can't bear to see the people of the three northern counties suffer bad luck because of this." Li Qi said compassionately.

"Your Excellency?" Shi Meng looked at Li Qi with a look of emotion in his expression, as if he was really moved by Li Qi's words.

"My lord, I have also met Yang Ming, this person does not seem to be a sinister and cunning person, at this time he proposed a truce, maybe it was really just out of benevolence." From the conversation between Li Qi and Shi Meng, Ma Yi, who had gradually understood, spoke.

The three northern counties are within the Zhao State, and they have a bureaucratic operation system that is semi-independent of the Zhao capital, and because they are border counties, the vast majority of the officials in the three northern counties, even if they are civilian, are from the military.

And now most of the officials of the three counties in the north participated in the battle of the Yanmen Broken Wolf Clan ten years ago, although the Zhao army at that time had 100,000 people, but Yang Ming's existence was too dazzling, so at this time, most of the officials of the three counties in the north had seen Yang Ming, even if Yang Ming did not know them.

Therefore, when Li Qi showed some kind of intention, these officials were not willing to believe in Yang Ming's sincerity in the truce.

"Since you have no objections, then this matter is decided, and we accept the proposal of the Qin army for a truce." Li Qi finally made a final decision.

"No." In the midst of a voice, the matter was finally settled.

Qin State, in the Xianyang Palace, Qin Wangzheng looked at the information sent by Zhao Gao through the net, and his eyes showed a curious look, the truce and the agricultural harvest, these two things are really mysterious.

"Zhao Gao, what do you think is the real intention of the Captain of the Protector Army?" Qin Wangzheng asked Zhao Gao.

"Back to the king, the villain thinks that Yang Hujun wants to use this method to let the Zhao army disperse on its own, and then take advantage of the capture of Yanmen Zhucheng." Faced with Qin Wangzheng's question, Zhao Gao replied cautiously.

"Han Qing, what do you think?" Regarding Zhao Gao's answer, Qin Wangzheng did not express his position, but threw the question to Han Fei, who was summoned to the palace by him today.

"As the so-called soldiers are not tired of deceit, Yang Hujun is a person who is proficient in the art of war, obviously his real purpose should be as Zhao Zhongche's government order said." Han Fei, who had a deep opinion of Yang Ming because of the Red Lotus incident, was naturally reluctant to say good things about Yang Ming.

"What do you think, sir?" Qin Wangzheng still didn't say anything, but asked Gai Nie again.

"Yang Hujun's move should only be for the livelihood of the three counties in the north of Zhao State, with his ability, if he wants to capture Yanmen and Yunzhong, he doesn't need to use such a conspiracy with endless troubles, if the credit of Qin State collapses in the three counties in the north, it will be very troublesome to erect it again, Yang Hujun should be very clear about this." In Gai Nie's mouth, he said an answer that was different from Zhao Gao and Han Fei.

"Zhao Gao, you are good at conspiracies, and the same is true for others, Han Qing, you slandered the widowed Protector Captain because of private matters, this is not a gentleman's doing, or Mr. knows the Protector Lieutenant better." Qin Wangzheng finally judged the answers of the three people.

"Speaking of which, the move of the Commander of the Protector is a bit of a surprise even to the widow, the widow has always thought that the Captain of the Protector will only practice the domineering art of the soldier, but he never thought that he would be good at the Confucian royal way." Qin Wangzheng did not hesitate to praise.

When Han Fei heard this, he felt a little more worried in his heart, although he was very dissatisfied with Yang Ming, the person who obviously couldn't marry Honglian, but had to hook up with Honglian, because of his sister, but that was just out of the mind of a 'big brother', before Honglian had already recognized Yang Ming's fact, even though Han Fei had a lot of dissatisfaction, it was because Yang Ming was able to live better, not because there was any accident, so that Honglian was sad.

Therefore, although his words were due to malicious intentions towards Yang Ming, they were also to protect Yang Ming in a deeper way.

The art of the royal road is not something that anyone can use, a general who can win battles and win the hearts of the people may not be a perfect general for a king.

(End of chapter)