Chapter 4175 Opportunity for reversal
After hearing the words, everyone was shaken up, and even their moods seemed to be swayed by the river wind. Yuchi Gong even strode forward, snatched the battle report from the soldiers' hands, and unfolded it, looking at ten lines, his surprise was beyond words. , laughed twice, turned around and handed his defeated hands to Li Zhi, and said loudly: "God is helping your highness!"
The destruction of the private armies in the south of the Yangtze River cast a heavy haze over the King of Jin's family. Regardless of the turbulent crisis in the south of the Yangtze River, the navy launched a brazen raid and its powerful combat power caused all the reinforcements in the south of the Yangtze River to die before they could go north, causing the King of Jin to seize the throne. The great cause of the great emperor suffered a major setback.
How can we counterattack Chang'an and defeat the East Palace with only tens of thousands of Youhou guards and horses?
For the current plan, the only way to have a chance of winning is to wait for the Shandong private army to arrive as soon as possible and join forces together. However, the strength and decisiveness of the Navy put the Shandong Private Army under great threat. If the Navy controlled the Yellow River, I am afraid that the Shandong Private Army would have no choice but to follow in the footsteps of the Jiangnan Private Army.
By that time, Tongguan will be isolated and helpless. Apart from surrendering, I don’t know if there is any possibility of turning defeat into victory...
But now that Shandong's private army has arrived, they only need to cross the Mengjin Ferry to reach Luoyang. Then, whether they go from the Xiaohan Ancient Road to reinforce Tongguan and join forces, or they go straight into the pass along the Shangyu Ancient Road to attack the Tongguan army from both sides, they have a good chance of winning. increase.
The Sixteenth Guards Army in Guanzhong, which is still standing by and watching the success or failure, is very likely to defect when King Jin shows his superiority. Coupled with Cheng Yaojin, the left-wing guard who is leaning towards King Jin, they will crush the East Palace. With such momentum, the autumn wind sweeps across Chang'an like fallen leaves, determining the overall situation...
The situation suddenly reversed.
Li Zhi's hands holding the battle report were trembling slightly. He read the contents at a glance and handed it to Xiao Yu, who was beside him. He breathed out fiercely, clenched his fists, and praised: "The Shandong family is loyal to the country, and it is worth it." If you can stand up when the country is in danger and the country is in danger, you should be a model for the world! ”
With his words now, if he ascends the throne in the future, the status of the Shandong family will be self-evident.
Xiao Yu no longer cared about suppressing the Shandong family, and said excitedly: "Hurry back to the city gate to convene everyone to discuss matters, and coordinate the Shandong private army to cross the Yellow River as soon as possible."
"That's exactly what it should be!"
Li Zhi's eyes burned brightly, and he turned around and left.
Everyone quickly followed him and returned to the barracks under the city gate to hold an emergency meeting.
Cui Xin, Chu Suiliang and others who had already received Xin'er hurried over and joined Li Zhi, Xiao Yu, Yu Chigong and others. The waiter served the fragrant tea and then left. Everyone in the room was in high spirits.
Xiao Yu took a sip of tea and said: "Shandong reinforcements will arrive on the north bank of the Yellow River in the near future. Your Highness should send an army to Mengjin Ferry to clear the tidal flats on the south bank so that the army can quickly cross the river to avoid accidents caused by the long crossing time."< br>
Mengjin Ferry is not a single ferry, but a group of seven or eight ferry crossings along the Yellow River north of Luoyang. But even so, there has never been any experience of crossing a river with more than 10,000 people. The tidal flats are narrow, the roads are not smooth, and the ferry groups are somewhat scattered. If there is no overall planning in advance, it is easy to cause riots when crossing the river and affect the speed of crossing the river.
The navy was heading north from the Tongji Canal into the Yellow River and coming upstream. If the Shandong reinforcements were not all across the river but were blocked by the fleet of navy, they would suffer huge losses.
This is still a good thing. Once the navy arrives too quickly and blocks most of the Shandong private troops to the north of the Yellow River, making them unable to cross the river, it will be a tragedy...
Cui Xin glanced at Xiao Yu, nodded and said: "The Duke of Song Dynasty is right."
This time the Shandong reinforcements came to help, which changed the current situation in one fell swoop. The Shandong Aristocratic Family had an indispensable contribution. Logically, he should be the one to arrange the crossing of the river. However, he also saw that Xiao Yu couldn't wait to speak, obviously intending to strive for dominance, and after thinking about it for a while, he did not fight with him.
The nobles from Shandong and Jiangnan jointly entered the court, originally intending to support the prince together, but later found that the king of Jin had "unusual things to live in". The risks were high, but the benefits gained after successfully supporting the king of Jin after he ascended the throne were different. , so they decided privately to change their tune and support King Jin.
Now that the private army in the south of the Yangtze River was defeated by the navy, the losses in terms of soldiers, civilians, food, supplies, etc. were incalculable, which severely damaged the foundations of various families in the south of the Yangtze River. At this time, if the Shandong aristocratic family suppressed the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, they would certainly be able to completely dominate. But there will inevitably be trouble between the two powerful factions.
At this critical moment, we should focus on the overall situation and let Xiao Yu take the lead, while the Shandong family can gain real merits.
When the great event was accomplished and King Jin ascended the throne, how could the Jiangnan gentry, which had suffered heavy losses, compete with the Shandong aristocratic family with deep foundation and powerful power?
Let him take a step first...
After Li Zhi heard Xiao Yu's suggestion, he immediately looked at Cui Xin, fearing that the head of the Cui family in Qinghe, who had lived in Shandong for a long time, would be angry and lead to internal instability. When he saw Cui Xin understand the big picture like this, he would not argue about the short and long of the moment. , deeply gratified.
Yuchi said respectfully: "This matter is easy to handle. I will order Su Jia to lead a team of elites to Mengjin Ferry to help the reinforcements cross the river."
Everyone has no objection.
Li Zhi also warned: "Send more scouts to explore the position of the navy along the Yellow River downstream, and be sure to grasp its whereabouts to avoid any complications."
Nearly 100,000 private troops in the south of the Yangtze River were beaten by the navy across the river with a barrage of artillery bombardment, and were completely defeated. The navy's tyrannical combat power was evident. How could they dare to be careless now?
Yuchi Gong immediately accepted the order and walked out of the barracks quickly. He summoned the generals to arrange the tasks. Soon after, a group of more than a thousand riders roared out of the camp. The defenders opened the Tongguan city gate and galloped towards Luoyang.
After everyone dispersed, Xiao Yu invited Chu Suiliang to his residence and asked his servants to serve him tea. Then he dismissed him and sat with Chu Suiliang in front of the window to drink tea.
Seeing Chu Suiliang's gloomy expression, he sighed and asked, "But are you worried about home?"
Chu Suiliang paused briefly and nodded.
Although their family has been an official in Guanzhong since the Sui Dynasty, their foundation is in Qiantang, their ancestral temple is also in the old house, and they own tens of thousands of acres of fertile land. They are one of the top wealthy families in the area. This time the private army in the south of the Yangtze River was defeated and the navy was bound to investigate afterwards. Others were fine with it, but Qiantang, where the Chu family was located, was a place where the navy was rampant. It only needed to send a team of soldiers to land and destroy the Chu family without any effort.
Because he was forced to seek refuge with the King of Jin, which led to the destruction of his family, how could Chu Suiliang feel at ease?
If he really attached himself to the King of Jin, that would be it. The winner would be the king or the loser, but he was forced to do so!
Where can I go to reason...
Xiao Yu sighed, his face also full of sorrow: "This time the Jiangnan incident failed, I am afraid that there are countless people who will be implicated, and your family will bear the brunt. Fortunately, Fang Xuanling is in Huating Town now and will not let the navy do anything. , otherwise, under Fang Jun’s order, the Navy would not know how to wreak havoc in the south of the Yangtze River with its gang of arrogant soldiers.”
Chu Sui's conscience moved, and he nodded without showing his face and said, "That's right. Fang Jun is arrogant, domineering, greedy, and exploiting people in the south of the Yangtze River, which makes every family in the south of the Yangtze River dare to be angry and dare not speak out. Now he will take the opportunity to say We may have to peel off a layer of skin from every family in Jiangnan.”
He was wary of Xiao Yu's words. It is said that the leaders of the Xiao family who raised private armies in Jiangnan families were both the initiators and organizers. Now that the matter failed, it was natural for him to be sanctioned by the Navy. It is natural to say "bear the brunt", but even if he defected to the Jin King's camp to report the prince for "poisoning the late emperor", how could he deserve the same status as the Xiao family?
Even if the Navy followed Fang Jun's order to punish various families in the south of the Yangtze River, the Chu family in Qiantang would just go along and never deserve the position of "bearing the brunt".
Xiao Yu looked up at him, snorted and said, "Do you think I am deliberately exaggerating here to deceive you?"
Chu Suiliang naturally refused to admit it: "How dare you submit to a lower official position? Duke Guogong of Song Dynasty, you are mature, prudent and wise. You must be able to see what I can't see. I will lower you to the official position and listen to my teachings."
I'd rather hear your explanation.
Xiao Yu drank the teacup in the cup and raised his hand to get the teapot. Chu Suiliang had already stood up and held the pot to pour him tea. Xiao Yu thanked him, picked up the teacup and took a sip, and then said: "This time His Highness the King of Jin has launched an army. The most important thing is not actually him Do you have the edict in your hand? In the face of real strength, or in the face of life and death, how many loyal and courageous people are willing to risk their lives to protect the late emperor's edict? They are just a group of gamblers, hoping that they can get something by following the King of Jin? unprecedented That's all for your own interests. What's really important is that you accused the prince of "poisoning the late emperor" and "persecuting his brothers", turning the prince into an unfaithful, unfilial and unkind person. This is no longer a question of who will be the emperor, but so The ruthless traitor will be punished by everyone, so the result of this mutiny is that if the prince wins, the King of Jin may live, if the King of Jin wins, the prince will die, and no matter who wins, you have no reason to survive..."
Although he had already realized his fate, when Xiao Yu said it so bluntly at this moment, Chu Suiliang was still shocked and bitter.
Ever since Changsun Wuji forced him to deliver medicine to His Majesty Li Er, he had fallen into this bottomless pit and could not extricate himself. Even if he risked his life and property to confess everything to His Majesty Li Er, it would not matter. No help.
In the end, he became a pawn in the struggle between all parties.
And it must be the discarded chess piece...
But at this time, what did Xiao Yu mean by saying this?
Is it to drive a wedge between me and Prince Jin? In fact, King Jin and I are not close at all, let alone trust or reuse. I am just a tool to slander the prince. What does it matter about my image and status in front of King Jin?
It’s just a matter of death...
Xiao Yu obviously didn't have the energy to go around in circles with him, and said bluntly: "Don't make blind guesses. The reason why I said this today is to tell you that although death is inevitable, there is still a big difference in whether one person dies or both die. ."(End of this chapter)