"Are you threatening me?" Situ Lei moved his body slightly, leaned forward slightly, stared at Deng Zhongyao and said coldly, with a chilling look coming out slowly.
Deng Zhongyao didn't care at all about Situ Lei's anger. He just shook his head and said, "No, I'm just stating the facts. As the prince can only think about it, he clearly understands the comparison between the strengths and weaknesses of you and me, and also knows the truth and falsehood of what I said. ¡±
Lin Shiwen suddenly said: "Really? Your and other armies are still fighting in Bingzhou, attacking the Turkic cavalry, the Bingzhou Northern Army and the Bingzhou Army. Not to mention the fatigue of the sergeants and the heavy logistics pressure. Just to appease the place, it is also in a hurry Yes. Our army is led by the fourth prince to resist in the southern part of Bingzhou. There are 100,000 troops in the south and the Liangzhou army. As long as our lord orders an internal and external attack, our army will be able to wait for Zhao. Is the king really confident that he will fight a life-and-death battle with our army in Bingzhou? Although the Turks do not dare to leave lightly because of their defeat at your hands, they will not sit back and watch if they see us fighting in a stalemate with your army. ¡±
Deng Zhongyao said with a sneer on his face: "The Governor of Bingzhou? Is he still resisting? King Yong must have known that the Governor of Bingzhou was short of troops and his retreat was cut off. Now he has withdrawn to Fenzhou Prefecture to the west. But wherever our army went, everyone surrendered. Especially in the south, wherever our army went, it was like a deserted place. Most of the areas in Taiyuan Prefecture and Changping Prefecture have been attacked by our army from the north and south and have fallen into the hands of our army. As for the places under control, His Royal Highness King Zhao, who rescued more than 200,000 people from the grasslands, is now in Bingzhou. No one in the land is dissatisfied, and no one dares to disobey. It can be said that taking over the place cannot be smoother. "
"If His Highness King Yong is determined to take Yongzhou as a bet and fight to the death with our army, then I have nothing to say. At that time, I am afraid that the Yong army will face the attacks of two major princes and several small princes at the same time, and it will be exhausted. To deal with it. By the way, if His Highness King Yong is willing to use the dividing line between Yongzhou and Bingzhou as the boundary, then our Lord can ask the Governor of Bingzhou to withdraw to Yongzhou with the Bingzhou army who is willing to leave with him. At that time, His Highness King Yong will take control of Yongzhou. But there is one more general who can conquer and fight, and there are tens of thousands more elite men, so why not do it?"
"In addition, our lord also promised that he will not take the initiative to cooperate with Murong Cheng to attack Yongzhou. Therefore, His Highness King Yong can turn his army to the east and fight with Murong Cheng. Of course, after our lord takes control of Bingzhou, northern merchants will also Enter Yongzhou and bring all kinds of rare things to His Highness King Yong."
After looking at Situ Lei, Deng Zhongyao added: "His Royal Highness Yong, there is no need to worry that my lord will take action against Yongzhou. After all, there are still a group of wild wolves in the north. The main purpose of my lord is to tame these wild wolves and let them You know, Han territory should not be violated lightly.¡±
"Of course" Then Deng Zhongyao's face turned cold, and he said stiffly and coldly: "If King Yong insists on fighting with my lord regardless of the great cause, then my lord will never be afraid. His Highness King Yong, my lord of the grassland Turkic army Even if we can win in one battle, let alone your army which is now weak."
"Whether we make peace with my lord or fight with each other, whether we want to preserve King Yong's great cause or be defeated at the hands of my lord and Murong Cheng, it all depends on His Highness King Yong's wishes."
Situ Lei¡¯s already pale face turned even paler, and several staff and military advisors in the room stopped talking at this moment. Deng Zhongyao has made the matter clear. It is no longer possible to fight. The decision-making power lies entirely in Situ Lei's hands. Although Lin Shiwen and others knew in their hearts that at this moment, they had to give up Bingzhou, which had been almost completely lost, form a good relationship with Zhao Xun, and use all their strength to deal with the current enemy Murong Chengye. However, this kind of forced agreement only allowed Situ Lei to speak on his own.
"Haha" Situ Lei suddenly laughed loudly, and the corners of his wrinkled eyes twitched slightly, and said: "Okay! No one has ever forced me like this. Zhao Xun, I am not as good as me! Bingzhou, I can give you, However, you go back and tell Zhao Xun that you must not send troops southward after taking the Bingzhou from me. Otherwise, I will fight to the death with Yongzhou even if I don't want it." After saying this, Situ Lei thought in his heart. A burst of sadness, but also full of helplessness about the current situation. More often than not, he sighed at the gap between his son and Zhao Xun.
"If any of my sons could compare with Zhao Xun, how could I have been humiliated today" Situ Lei couldn't help but sigh in his heart, and at the same time, he deeply regretted not eliminating this scourge earlier.
Then, Deng Zhongyao started detailed negotiations with Situ Lei. Situ Lei agreed to give up Bingzhou and hand it over to Zhao Xun. In fact, it is no longer important whether Situ Lei agrees or not. Except for the two prefectures in the south and west of Bingzhou, which are still in the hands of Situ Tai, the governor of Bingzhou, the rest of Bingzhou has been conquered or surrounded by the Zhao army. But what Zhao Xun needs is that after he takes Bingzhou, Situ Lei will not treat himself as the number one enemy and attack all the way to the north. Instead, he will let Murong Cheng take advantage. After all, Situ Lei now wants to?Murong Cheng is far behind, and a large part of Situ Lei's sphere of influence is connected with Zhao Jun, so he can attack the opponent at any time. However, the more powerful Murong Cheng, also known as Qi Jun, was in trouble with Zhao Xun. There are other princes separated by him, so Zhao Xun naturally does not want to eliminate one enemy, but strengthen another enemy.
Deng Zhongyao left with a satisfactory result. In addition to agreeing with Situ Lei not to continue the southern attack so that Situ Lei's army could deal with Murong Cheng's Qi army, he also reached some secret cooperation agreements. Among them, many of the contents are Zhao Xun's compensation for Situ Lei for attacking the southern part of Bingzhou.
Deng Zhongyao made an agreement with Mu Situ Lei on behalf of Zhao Jun, selling some grain and grass, cattle and sheep livestock, and some war horses to Situ Lei's forces, in addition to some weapons and equipment. It can be said that these conditions gave Situ Lei, who was under great logistical pressure, a lot of relief. Of course, Zhao Xun also put forward some conditions, the most important of which was to ask Situ Lei to agree to allow the refugees from Yongzhou and Liangzhou to migrate to the northern part of Bingzhou to balance the proportion of Han and Yi. This move was also considered as a request to Situ Lei. He said that the focus of Zhao's army was the Hu barbarians in the north, not the land of Yongzhou.
"Your Majesty, Zhao Xun's actions are definitely not well-intentioned!" Lin Shucheng said thoughtfully, letting the quiet discussion place once again turn its attention to this rather helpless discussion.
Situ Hao said with hatred: "Not only does he have no good intentions, he has clearly taken advantage of us and wants us to be a knife in front of him. This will not only make us continue to weaken, but also make it difficult for his allies to get up."
"We have no choice now!" Lin Shucheng's face was deep, "We could barely occupy half of the land of Bingzhou. With the cooperation of Cao Gang and the Turks, the land of Bingzhou not only failed to bring us any benefits, but also To become our fetter, it is not bad to be captured by Zhao Xun. However, Zhao Xun was too quick. He transferred almost all the mobile troops of Zhao army to Bingzhou, defeated the Turkic soldiers, and then defeated the Turks. The overwhelming force of Mount Tai quickly defeated the unpopular Cao Gang and the Northern Army of Bingzhou, making them unstoppable in Bingzhou. Especially the Zhao army of Jizhou passed through the Taihang Mountains, and suddenly the southern part of Bingzhou became his target. . Now, no matter whether we transfer manpower or not, BingzhouBingzhou cannot be taken back. Your Majesty, the policies implemented by Zhao Jun are very popular among the people who live in distress, and Bingzhou is like this."
Situ Lei was silent, he naturally understood what Lin Shucheng meant. The people of Bingzhou have been making contributions to the northern frontier army. In recent years, Bingzhou has been divided into two parts, and internal fighting has continued. At the same time, Turks have also frequently harassed them. The lives of the people throughout Bingzhou have been in embarrassment. However, Zhao Xun's policy was beneficial to the people, and naturally received heartfelt support from these people. In the land of Bingzhou, due to the internal and external wars in the past ten years or so, the large and powerful families, especially those that dominate one area, have almost disappeared. Therefore, for the people here, what Zhao Xun can give, the current power of the Yong army But it doesn't work. Then, the possibility of regaining the land of Bingzhou from Zhao Xun is not high, at least, it is not high now.
"That's it that's all deploy troops outside the northern defense of Yongzhou. There is no need to send troops to Bingzhou. In addition, send an order to Tai'er and ask him to gather his troops immediately, conserve his strength, and withdraw to Yongzhou!" Situ Lei sighed He took a breath and ordered in a stern voice, his tone full of desolation.
Situ Hao said in a deep voice: "Even so, we can't just watch the land of Bingzhou fall into the hands of Zhao Xun. How can Zhao Xun get the land of Bingzhou in vain and let us become the others?" A knife that weakened the thief Murong Cheng, soso"
"Grand Governor, otherwise, what else can we do? After all, as the other party's envoy said before, Murong Cheng is my biggest enemy, and he is also the enemy who wants us all to die. It seems that we have indeed been defeated. However, we are also indirectly equivalent to defeating all the princes. "Lin Shiwen said slowly, "Grand Governor, you are the person in charge of Yongzhou. You should be very aware of the power of the Qi army in the east and its coalition forces. Now, the other force is comparable. , the more powerful army is to our north, do you think it would be better to anger him, or give him a bone that we can¡¯t eat and make him stop?¡±
"Although we lost Bingzhou, which was not under our control, it also allowed Zhao Xun to temporarily stop attacking us. Instead, it allowed us to weaken Murong Cheng. For this reason, we also agreed to trade in grain and grass supplies. This is for For us, it¡¯s still beneficial.¡±
Immediately, Lin Shiwen bowed to Situ Lei and said: "Your Majesty, now, what we ultimately want is to defend the land of Yongzhou and wait for the arrival of the cold winter. Most of the Qi army are from the south of the Yangtze River. I am afraid that they will not be able to carry out winter operations here yet. Fighting in the snow. Therefore, the top priority is to hold on to Zhao Xun and buy a large amount of food and cotton clothes for winter use. After all, our army has a lot of troops, and we cannot mobilize a large number of manpower to make enough at this moment.Military winter clothes and winter shoes are coming. My lord, a momentary humiliation is nothing. Since ancient times, not only have there been many heroes, but they have also experienced failure and persecution"
Situ Lei laughed, shook his body, and said: "Do you think I will be knocked down just like this? Do you think I will be afraid of Zhao Xun? Sooner or later, I will take Bingzhou back from Zhao Xun's defense. Okay, Now that it has become a foregone conclusion, let's not continue the discussion. Next, let's follow the contract and send people to buy food and grass supplies!" As he said that, the corners of Situ Lei's eyes twitched, as if all the food and grass supplies for the war needed to be purchased from outside. , even though Situ Lei was a tried and tested person, he couldn't help but feel an inexplicable panic in his heart.
Lin Shiwen continued with worry: "Actually, the most harmful thing to us now is allowing refugees to move freely to the areas under Zhao Jun's jurisdiction. What are refugees and what are common people? We can't distinguish them in self-study, but Zhao The policies of the land under Xun's rule were well-known for being good to the people. In the past, it would have been nothing. However, last year's snowstorm, this year's continuous wars, hard battles, and internal and external oppression caused the people under our army to flee. Under the rule of Zhao Xun in the northeast, if it hadn't been for the army to stop them, I'm afraid hundreds of thousands of people would have fled in half a year. They all fled to the rule of Zhao Xun."
At this time, Yang Lin, who was in charge of the civil affairs of various places and was responsible for the army's food, grass and soldiers recruitment and the guard of the soldiers, said: "Mr. Lin, although I have said this, there are so many refugees in various places due to wars, because There have been continuous battles for three or four consecutive years, and young men and women have been recruited from all over the country to serve as soldiers. Due to the needs of the war, the taxes on the people have been heavy and the labor force has been insufficient. Now, there are no less than one million people and refugees in various places in urgent need of relief. If it is not arranged, I am afraid it will cause"
Although Yang Lin did not finish speaking, Lin Shiwen and others did not continue to say more. This is because refugees have started revolts in order to survive, not just once or twice. Besides, within the Yong army's sphere of influence, except for Yongzhou and Yizhou, the rest of Bingzhou, Liangzhou, and Ningzhou were all poor places, or were harassed by other places. Coupled with the Yong army's recruitment from various places, many people had nothing and became refugees.
Population is the most important resource in wartime. Although they all understood that the people could not be allowed to migrate to Zhao Xun's territory. However, the refugees in various places who are unable to settle down are also a big problem. You know, Situ Lei fought for three or four years with Murong Cheng for the land of Jiaozhou and Yanzhou. He did not know how many times he mobilized young men and women as soldiers. In the war, he naturally needed food and supplies, and these naturally came from the people. As a result, people everywhere are miserable. The people under King Yong's rule were no better than those under Zhao Xun. They did not have as much land as the wealthy gentry, but they had to bear extremely heavy taxes. In addition, most of the young people in the family were soldiers, and the family had little labor, making it difficult to pay more and more taxes.
"Father, we must not allow people to flow into the territory ruled by Zhao Xun on a large scale. Otherwise, we will be helping Zhao Xun grow in power. It will not do us any good, but will make Zhao Xun even stronger." Situ Hao said coldly. said.
Yang Lin frowned and said: "Your Majesty, my subordinates suggest that we first let the refugees enter the territory governed by Zhao Jun. First, we and Zhao Xun have completed the agreement. Putting aside the annexation of the state, we still need to obtain food and grass supplies from Zhao Xun. If we throw aside the agreement from the beginning, I'm afraid Secondly, these refugees not only bring no benefits to our territory, but also bring us a lot of pressure. If we let them stay, no one will be affected. Well, if some people are instigated, we will gather troops in our rear at our most urgent moment. By then, the harm will be even more serious. If we move them under the rule of Zhao Xun, it will be possible. Let Zhao Xun see what we mean so that we can purchase supplies from them."
"Third, what does Zhao Xun need from the people? In order to increase the proportion of Han people in the north, we have reached a better stable place. Now Zhao Xun's goal is Bingzhou and the grassland in the north of Liangzhou. The number of people in these places is increasing, Then, my subordinates dare to say that this traitor Zhao Xun will definitely fight against the Turks and Qiang Hu, which will also be beneficial to us. In addition, this will save the lives of countless people, which will turn a disadvantage into a disadvantage for us. It¡¯s beneficial and can save countless lives, so it¡¯s worth doing.¡±
Lin Shiwen also said: "I also agree with Master Yang. Countless refugees will only bring us endless harm. However, what I want is for people to organize these refugees or common people who are willing to move. We must exchange people for supplies with Zhao Xun. If Zhao Xun doesn¡¯t agree, we will tell the refugees in our territory that King Zhao in the north will not be far away to help them.¡±
Situ Lei nodded and said: "This is reasonable. So, let the envoy who went to Zhao Jun's territory to buy it go talk to Zhao Xun, a cunning boy."
When Situ Hao returned to his mansion, he immediately summoned several of his cronies and told several of his cronies what had happened in Prince Yong's Mansion.
Zuo Sima Hanlin said: "Grand Governor, this matter has become a foregone conclusion and cannot be changed. However, from the perspective of my subordinates, this matter is currently beneficial to us. If Zhao Xun's pressure can be resolved, then Yongzhou's military strength will not be They will be transferred to Bingzhou, and the troops guarded by the Governor will not be weakened. Now, the Fourth Young Master closest to us has been defeated, and there is no big threat to the Governor. Now, we should focus on the eastern Qi. In addition to the army, you also need to contact Zhao Xun privately to purchase food, supplies, and armor. Only the things in your hands are considered your own."
Situ Hao nodded slightly. Although Han Lin did not give the answer to the question he wanted, what Han Lin said in the end made sense. Although Yongzhou has more than 300,000 soldiers, less than 80,000 are his subordinates, Situ Hao, and the rest belong to his father, His Highness King Yong. Even those reinforcements came under Situ Lei's Prince Yong Mansion after arriving in Yongzhou. The only teams that can be directly deployed are less than 80,000. Of course, if he ordered these 80,000 men to go against his father, King Yong, he would probably only listen to 20,000 men. These were the cronies he had tried so hard to support.