On the way back to the camp, Luo Tianchu asked Cui Xing: "Why did Cui Taishou let me accept this 10,000 taels of silver tickets?" Cui Xing smiled: "This is the rule of officialdom, and the castle lord is slowly getting used to it." Luo Tianchuqi said: "I have promised them that their official position will remain unchanged, they don't ask me, why do they need to give me money?" Cui Xing smiled: "They are buying peace of mind." Luo Tianchu smiled and said, "Peace of mind? What are they worried about? I am not the kind of person who does not believe in his words." Cui Xing said: "What do the castle owners think, they don't know, they only admit that the wealth is eliminated, this 10,000 taels is just a small head, used to test the castle owner, if the castle owner accepts, they can rest assured that they can continue to send silver tickets boldly in the future." Luo Tianchu exclaimed: "Then I shouldn't take it anymore, this kind of thing is okay at the beginning." Cui Xing said: "If the water is clear, there is no fish, if the castle owner wants to let his subordinates do things with peace of mind, they must abide by the rules of officialdom, if the castle owner does not accept it, they will be panicked, suspicious, and think that the castle owner is dissatisfied with them." Luo Tianchu shook his head and sighed: "What kind of bullshit rule is this." Cui Xing said: "These deep-rooted habits in officialdom are not formed overnight, let alone can be changed overnight. If the castle owner insists on changing it, it will only backfire. Luo Tianchu remembered Wu Jie's comments on Yue Fei, Yue Fei must also dislike officialdom, so he made great achievements, but he was squeezed out by his colleagues. If Luo Tianchu wants to take root in Guanzhong for a long time, he must get the support of those officials and wealthy businessmen. sighed at the moment and said, "I understand, in the future, I will ask Cui Taishou to give me a lot of advice." ”

With Xianyang as a precedent, the army of Blood Knife Fort took most of the city passes in Guanzhong almost bloodlessly. Only a few counties and towns did not listen to persuasion and insisted on not surrendering, Luo Tianchu sent troops to attack the city, and it only took half a day to capture the city. Two months later, only Baoji is still in a stalemate. Baoji is located in Chencang Road, adjacent to the Great Song Dynasty, is the military town of the Jin State, stationed 8,000 Jin soldiers, the guard was originally Wanyan Lou room, after his death was taken over by his younger brother Wanyan Zhiji. Wanyan Zhiji learned that Luo Tianchu swept all the way through Guanzhong, and hurriedly asked for help from the Jin State, but he didn't know that the elite of the Jin State led by Wanyan Wushu was defeated by Yue Fei again, and the Jin State was empty, so he couldn't transfer troops to rescue Guanzhong, and the aid Guanzhong had to pass through Tongguan, Lu Fei was stationed there, and the Jin soldiers could fly over.

Luo Tianchu challenged Baoji City for three consecutive days, the golden soldiers did not dare to attack, Luo Tianchu only had 10,000 troops, and the forced siege of the city would suffer heavy casualties, so he adopted the strategy of exhausting the soldiers, and let the drummer beat the drum under Baoji City every night, so that the army of the city was startled and could not sleep at night. Luo Tianchu found dozens of gentlemen who were good at cutting knives and pens from nearby towns, and copied the "Surrender Letter" drawn up by Cui Xing over and over again, and then the archers shot into the city from all directions. The general content of the letter is that Wan Yan Zhiji disregarded the safety of the army and the people, resisted stubbornly, and was extremely stupid. No matter who can capture Yan Zhiji and open the city gate, the bounty is five hundred taels, and the Baoji is too guarded.

There must be a brave man under the heavy reward, stalemate until the evening of the seventh day, suddenly heard someone shouting on the city tower, it turned out that the two deputy generals captured Yan Zhiji, and controlled the army in the city, opened the city gate and invited Luo Tianchu to enter the city. Luo Tianchu was overjoyed, just in case, he first led 500 cavalry into the city, and when he saw that the situation was true, he ordered the army to follow. Luo Tianchu spoke and counted, and appointed one of the two lieutenant generals as a taishou on the spot, and the other went to other cities to be a taishou. Luo Tianchu interrogated Yan Zhiji on the city tower, although Yan Zhiji was tied up with five flowers, his expression was arrogant, and he only wanted to die quickly. Although his strategy and martial arts are far inferior to his brother Wanyan Lou's room, he is just as bold, Luo Tianchu respects him as a good man, but he still beheads him.

Luo Tianchu's acquisition of Guanzhong was soon learned by the Jin and Song Kingdoms, and the Jin Kingdom was hit hard and was unable to fight back, so it could only strengthen the defense outside the Guanzhong and recuperate. The Song court was both happy and worried, happy that the Blood Knife Fort had become a barrier for the Great Song Dynasty in the West, and worried that the Blood Knife Fort would become the second cave court to oppose the Great Song Dynasty. Wu Jie personally took a letter of guarantee, guaranteeing that Luo Tianchu would never defect. Song Gaozong replied to Wu Jie, asking him to take full authority to deal with the affairs of Sichuan and Shaanxi, always pay attention to the movements of the Blood Knife Castle, and increase vigilance.

Luo Tianchu led the army back to Chang'an, and the first thing he did was to transfer most of the Guanzhong soldiers to Chang'an, leaving 500 soldiers in each city to maintain law and order. He also summoned all the guards and soldiers in Guanzhong, selected those who had the ability and responsibility, trained them, and sent them to the border to garrison, but left their families in Chang'an as a containment. At the suggestion of Gongsun Mingyue, he prepared two generous gifts and sent them to Tubo and Western Xia to bring the relationship closer to the neighboring countries. Gongsun Mingyue also complied with Luo Tianchu's proposal, Guanzhong was exempt from tax for one year, and only collected money from large households. Those big households, led by Jin Daguan, could only endure the pain of cutting meat and donate money.

During this period, Luo Tianchu received several letters, one was from Wu Jie, praising him for his courage and resourcefulness, and he recovered Guanzhong in only a few months. The second letter came from Chu, who came as a national teacher from Tubo, hoping that the two families would live in peace and strengthen business cooperation. And a gift was included. The third letter came from Huxiang Yang Tai, praising the great achievements of the Blood Knife Castle and revealing the willingness to fight the world together. The last letter was from Yue Fei, who had just recovered the six counties of Xiangyang, although he was a world-famous general, but the tone of the letter was very polite and modest, mostly greetings, hoping to meet and talk freely in the future. Gongsun Mingyue replied to Luo Tianchu for all of them.

In the following year, the Blood Knife Fort worked hard to develop and grow, and the whole army expanded to 80,000 people. Several major events happened during this period, first of all, Zhu Yushi and He Yuelian, Jiang Nuer tied the knot, He Yuelian was the main room, Jiang Nuer was the side room, and the little three were happy, needless to say. You Jingyao gave birth to a baby boy, named Bao'er, because she didn't like to be lively, she was depressed, so she left Chang'an with the child and went into seclusion. Ling Xue'er cried and didn't let her go, but You Jingyao smiled and said You have grown up and can't be with your mother for the rest of your life, so let Luo Tianchu take good care of you in the future. Ling Xue'er tearfully agreed. Also going to seclusion were Jia Yinyang and his wife, who were not used to living in the city, so they disappeared. Du Kill went to Qiao's house to explain the reason, and personally apologized to Qiao Lao, the matter was resolved satisfactorily, and Cai Lianhua hugged the beauty. A few months later, they rushed back to Tongguan together to help Lu Fei defend the city. Lu Fei fulfilled his duties in Tongguan, and built the copper wall of Tongguan, and saw through three small-scale sneak attacks by the Jin soldiers within a year, so that the Jin soldiers returned with a feather.

The day was sunny and sunny. Luo Tianchu accompanied Ling Xue'er to lunch and planned to go horseback riding outside the city. Just as I ran into a soldier, I told the Dongting Gang that there was a visitor, and asked Luo Tianchu to go back to discuss the matter. Luo Tianchu thought that it could be Mrs. Yang who came, so he said goodbye to Ling Xue'er and returned to the mansion alone. In the second hall of the mansion, Gongsun Mingyue was entertaining a middle-aged scribe.

The scribe was forty years old, and he was heroic in his writings, and he was a little similar to Gongsun Mingyue. Seeing Luo Tianchu coming, the two got up at the same time, and the scribe bowed down and saluted: "Help Xia Cheng in the Lower Dongting, and I have seen Lord Luobao." Luo Tianchu hurriedly returned the salute and said: "Mr. Xia is a distinguished guest, please be polite, please take a seat." After the guest and host sat down, Xia Cheng said: "Zhong Ziyi, the leader of our gang, and the military advisor Yang Taiwen heard that Guibao was in the main Guanzhong, and he wanted to come to the door to congratulate him in person, but the affairs of the gang were heavy and he couldn't get away, so he sent a representative to come down." Luo Tianchu said with a smile: "I really don't want to go with Mr. Lao on a personal trip." Xia Cheng said: "In the past, the lord of the castle and the commander of the Yang army were brothers, and he was very happy when he learned that the castle had entered the customs, and he specially prepared a thin gift, and the lord of the castle smiled. Gongsun Mingyue said with a smile: "The subordinate love of the gift list has already seen it, if it is also a thin gift, we really don't know how to return the gift." Luo Tianchu took the gift list and looked at it, took a deep breath and said, "I don't dare to accept such a generous gift." ”

Xia Cheng said with a smile: "Lord Luobao is already the king of Guanzhong, how dare my lord slack off, and a mere courtesy is not a respect." "Gongsun Mingyue's expression moved slightly when he heard the 'King of Guanzhong', and he expected that he would have the following. Xia Cheng continued: "Now there are many rebel armies, but most of them are not in the climate, only Guibao and our army are the bull's ears in the world, and they are dominant. What's more, our two families have a close relationship, why don't we join hands to discuss the world together?" Luo Tianchu said: "What Mr. Xia said is extremely true, but your army is in Huxiang and our army is in Shaanxi, which is too far apart, how can we join forces." Xia Cheng said with a smile: "Between you and my armies, the Southern Song Dynasty is only, as long as there is no Southern Song Dynasty, won't you and my two armies join forces? Gongsun Mingyue said: "Sir's intention is to attack the Song Dynasty first and then cut down the gold?" Xia Cheng said: "Our army is based in Dongting, surrounded by the Southern Song Dynasty, although it is invincible with 800 miles of water, it is difficult to develop. Your army is also in the land of four battles, and it is not easy to fight out of the pass. I don't know if the two of you agree?" Luo Tianchu and Gongsun Mingyue both nodded and said, "That's true." Xia Cheng continued: "The traitors of the Southern Dynasty are in charge, dim and incompetent, afraid of the Jin State like a tiger, seeking peace and not daring to fight, sooner or later will be destroyed by the Jin State. At that time, you and my army will no longer have a chance to win the world, only when the Jin country is weak, your army will attack Chengdu, our army will attack Lin'an, destroy the Southern Song Dynasty with lightning speed, and form a north-south confrontation against the Jin country, so that is our way of survival. What do you two think?"

Luo Tianchu and Gongsun Mingyue glanced at each other, thinking that Xia Cheng's words were indeed very incendiary, but he couldn't oppose the Song Dynasty no matter what, Luo Tianchu explained: "It's not that I didn't agree, but last year I exempted Guanzhong from paying taxes, and almost all of our army's grain and grass were supplied by Wu Jie." If our army strikes back again, it will be too unrighteous. When we revolted, we were under the banner of the Song Dynasty's righteous army, and if the order of the dynasty was changed overnight, it would inevitably be greatly disappointed. Moreover, the Southern Song Dynasty was not vulnerable, Xiangyang Yue Fei and Zhenjiang Han Shizhong were all famous generals in a hundred battles, and it was not easy to defeat them. Wu Jie is in charge of the military affairs of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and I am not confident in taking Chengdu. If we are defeated, your army can still retreat to Dongting to protect itself. Our army is really embattled. Xia Cheng thought for a while and said: "In the next scholar, he can only talk on paper, and it is caused by the temperament of the right talent. ”

Luo Tianchu said a few words modestly, Xia Cheng turned his head, and didn't mention the alliance again, just talked about the world and talked about it. During the chat, it was found that he had excellent insight, unique insights, and the talent of Zaifu, if it weren't for the fact that he had already worked for Dongting, Luo Tianchu really wanted to draw him into his own camp.

The three of them chatted for two hours, and then Xia Cheng got up to say goodbye. Luo Tianchu and Gongsun Mingyue sent him out of twenty miles. Xia Cheng hugged his fists and said: "Castle master, the military advisor stays, there is no need to send it again." Luo Tianchu said: "Today, I don't know when I can listen to Mr.'s teachings again, you might as well send another ten miles." Xia Cheng was moved: "Yes." After walking out for ten miles, the sun had sunk in the west, Xia Cheng persuaded again: "How can Xia be able to accept such courtesy from the castle master and military advisor." I hope the two will return quickly, and I really can't send it anymore. Luo Tianchu and Gongsun Mingyue stopped, and Gongsun Mingyue said: "Talking to Mr. is like drinking alcohol, but unfortunately the meeting is too short, and I will ask Mr. for advice in the future." Xia Cheng bowed to the end and said, "Thank you for your appreciation, Xia Cheng said goodbye." The three of them parted. (To be continued.) )