Chapter 206
The palace was in turmoil, and the imperial physician hurried in, along with the regent. Yes, the Third Prince had been appointed regent the same day the Crown Prince ascended the throne. The new emperor was well aware of his own health, and he had no children. To prevent his unexpected death from causing his brothers to scramble for the throne and further damage the foundations of the Daliang Dynasty, it would be wise to determine his successor from the outset. This was a precautionary measure, and it was also his original promise.
The imperial physician examined the new emperor with a serious expression.
After a series of examinations, the imperial physician told the regent that the new emperor had less than three months to live.
The regent was shocked when he heard this. The last time the emperor vomited blood, the imperial physician said he had five years to live. How come it has suddenly become less than three months?
The imperial physician explained, "The emperor has exerted himself too much, and his pulse is showing signs of exhaustion."
The Regent listened and remained silent.
The new emperor was still in a coma, but the regent asked the imperial physician to wake him up as soon as possible.
The imperial physician said, "If the emperor is forced to wake up, it will be detrimental to his health."
"You just give the acupuncture, I will take care of everything else." The Regent knew that given the current situation, the new emperor had to wake up before he could control the direction. He was still a little lacking in this aspect.
When the new emperor awoke, he didn't blame the regent or the imperial physician. Instead, he instructed the regent, "Ahem, send an envoy to contact Yichun. Tell them that our court is willing to divide the states with Yichun. Give them Youzhou, Bingzhou, Liangzhou, and Jizhou. The condition is that both sides agree to enter a truce and refrain from war for three years."
The regent was stunned. "Has the situation deteriorated to this point?" Directly ceding Jizhou and Bingzhou, as well as part of Liangzhou, was too...
"With the few troops we have in these few places, Jizhou will be lost, and Bingzhou will be undefendable," the new emperor said, his face as pale as gold, and his voice sickly. Wang Lang's 300,000-man army was also responsible for defending Jizhou. Now that these 300,000 troops were gone, how could they stop the Youzhou army?
The situation is changing too quickly, the Regent thought. Of the thirteen prefectures of Daliang, only Yizhou, Sili, Jingzhou, and Yangzhou remain. However, the combined area of these four prefectures is only half of the original area of Daliang.
"Ahem, send someone quickly. If we cede it now, we still have the capital to negotiate. But once they come to take it, we won't even have the capital to negotiate."
After the Regent had done this, he returned to the new royal palace, where he was drinking medicine.
"Royal brother, prepare to move the capital. Negotiations and relocation will proceed simultaneously."
Moving the capital? The regent was horrified. Since the founding of Daliang, there had never been a mention of moving the capital. If they really did move the capital, it would be a disgrace to the Yang royal family.
The new emperor ignored the change in his brother's expression. He didn't want to move the capital, but how could he allow others to sleep soundly beside his bed? Sili was adjacent to Jizhou, and it was not safe for them to have their capital in Sili.
"Why is it so? We still have an army of over 600,000."
The new emperor smiled bitterly, "At the beginning, our court had an army of 1.2 to 1.3 million, and Yichun had only a few, less than 100,000. Now Yichun has more than 600,000 soldiers and horses." Originally, there were about 400,000 to 500,000, but now after annexing half of the court army they sent, the number of troops directly exceeded 600,000. Even if there were not 600,000, there were at least 500,000.
In reality, the new emperor had misjudged the Yichun Legion. While it was true that they had absorbed half of the imperial army, they had carefully selected and recruited only a little over 20,000 soldiers into the reserve army. The rest were dismissed. They were already in their forties and fifties. Why would they still go to war? In the Yichun Legion, there were very few soldiers over thirty-five, and none over thirty-eight. Those in their forties and fifties should just stay and work in the rear.
The Regent also fell silent, sighing in his heart. Why did he let the other party become so powerful in the first place?
The new emperor said to him, "And you must remember, there is no absolutely loyal army in the world. When they see no hope, they will change their minds." The new emperor emphasized this latter point very seriously.
Regent: In other words, their army of more than 600,000 soldiers may not be reliable?
"Your Majesty, can we get the Northern Rong to take action?" the Regent asked. If there's no hope, then create some. After all, this kind of thing is familiar the first time, and having already done it once, there's no need to worry about it happening again.
The new emperor shook his head. "The Khan of the Northern Rong is an old fox. He won't release his eagle until he sees the rabbit. He is not as easy to fool as the Southern Barbarian A'geli."
What the new emperor didn't say was that he had another worry.
******
After Yao Chunnuan dealt with Wang Lang and reunited with the subsequent large force, he learned that the new emperor had sent an envoy, and that the envoy was one of theirs who had been detained.
Upon hearing the enemy's intentions, the generals were excited. Divide the states and govern them separately? They had actually managed to convince the imperial court to yield and propose a division of the states to end the war. Furthermore, the imperial court had ceded two states and three counties in Liangzhou at once, which was quite generous. If this could be accomplished, they would all share in the credit.
Everyone looked at Yao Chunnuan with admiration. There was no other way. Under the premise of the general's disappearance, the court's concession was largely because of her, this extraordinary woman in front of them, who led them to build this foundation.
While everyone was excited, Yao Chunnuan was filled with sighs in her heart. She understood the new emperor's intention.
The new emperor excelled at understanding the larger picture and maintaining balance. In their numerous encounters with the imperial court, he had consistently made accurate predictions and decisive decisions, even making several truly heartbreaking decisions. Looking back now, they were all incredibly accurate. If successful, they could have stopped the deterioration of the situation at a relatively low cost.
Judging from these, the new emperor is indeed a qualified emperor. No wonder in the original novel, the Daliang Dynasty was able to stand firm for a hundred years under his rule. It was all his credit.
Unfortunately, in Yichun, Yao Chunnuan is as good at the overall situation as he is.
The new emperor's proposal to divide the country into states and then stop the war was also very bold. The new emperor directly ceded two states and three counties.
However, a rebellion was never half-hearted, and half-hearted rebellions were short-lived. Therefore, even if the new emperor made great concessions, Yao Chunnuan was not prepared to agree. This was because the other party's promised concessions of Jizhou, Bingzhou, and Liangzhou were not difficult for them to obtain.
The building is about to collapse. This is the trend of the times and he cannot stop it.
In addition, Yao Chunnuan also received a piece of news that the new emperor's dragon body was really not good and he would not live long.
Yao Chunnuan wasn't surprised by this. The new emperor's health hadn't improved since he was still the crown prince. As the saying goes, health is the capital of revolution. Governing a country is laborious, requiring a great deal of energy and strength, especially when the country is in tatters. The new emperor was truly burning his life to save the Daliang Dynasty.
"Lord Yao, should we agree to peace talks?" One of the generals present couldn't help but ask.
Many people felt that peace talks were possible on the premise of ceding two states and three counties.
Yao Chunnuan saw that many were interested. They held in awe the Daliang Dynasty, which had ruled China for two hundred years. Well, let's put it this way: while the Daliang Dynasty was decaying, its influence still lingered. These generals were all native Daliang people. Despite their rebellious ambitions, they still unconsciously yearned for the emperor's approval. The new emperor represented the entire nation, and his approval was bound to elevate them.
But Yao Chunnuan would not, "No, I am not going to agree to it."
Wu Zongguan, Pan Buyi, Zhou Yushu, Qi Yingshan, and the others couldn't help but look at her. Faced with such a great temptation, how could she refuse so abruptly? It was as if she hadn't been tempted at all.
Yao Chunnuan arrogantly asked, "We can take the three counties of Jizhou, Bingzhou, and Liangzhou ourselves. Why should we ask them to give them to us?"
From the very beginning, she had her sights set on conquering the world. How could she stop halfway through a rebellion? Comparing Daliang to a cake, they already had the qualifications and the ability to devour the entire pie; it just took time. But now, the other side had given them half, and they were expecting them to halt their plans. How could that be possible?
Moreover, there is no free lunch in the world. They seem to have gained a lot, but in fact they have also lost a lot, such as the opportunity to become a strong army and a king's army. Without war, there is no way to stimulate potential.
It can be said that the immediate benefits are exchanged for the opportunities to stimulate potential in the future and the opportunities to seize the entire territory.
This is just like what happened in the future when a certain country planned to research high-tech such as chips, and the other party would give them technology patents that were two or three generations behind for free. It is similar in nature.
Yao Chunnuan's domineering question caused the whole audience to be silent for a moment, and then burst into waves of enthusiastic responses.
"Take it yourself! Take it yourself! Take it yourself!"
"Western Expedition! Western Expedition! Western Expedition!"
"Master Yao, let's go to war!"
Everyone is eager to go on the expedition.
During the time when Yao Chunnuan was dealing with Wang Lang, 100,000 soldiers from Yichun had already assembled.
Yao Chunnuan will lead the army in this expedition and will take away 100,000 soldiers.
Before setting off, Yao Chunnuan held a simple oath-taking ceremony, and then the entire Western Expedition Army set off with the farewell of the people of Youzhou.
The flags covered the sun, and on the leading flag, the big word "Yao" fluttered in the wind. There were also flags with other words on them, which made people feel excited.
Just as Yao Chunnuan and his men had anticipated, the route from Youzhou to Jizhou and Bingzhou was a vast expanse of plains, and no imperial army could withstand them. The imperial army practically fled at the sight of the enemy. They captured city after city.
At this time, after learning that Wang Lang and his 300,000 troops were defeated, King Ruyin took the opportunity to occupy the two counties adjacent to Jizhou and Qingzhou.
This made the Youzhou soldiers very angry. Jizhou was originally their spoils of war, but now the two county cities were secretly occupied by the Ruyin King of Xuzhou. What a hateful thief!
In response, Yao Chunnuan just smiled.
Sima Xian was talking about his lord. He didn't know why he had done such a thing without even noticing. He didn't understand why his lord had provoked the Yichun faction. These two counties were the spoils of war. This was like snatching food from a tiger's mouth! Especially when Yao Chunnuan was leading the troops, this was clearly a slap in her face. Was she such an easy person to deal with?
The King of Ruyin looked embarrassed by what he said, but if he didn't take what God gave him, he would suffer the consequences. He could get two counties with just a wave of his hand, so he couldn't help it.
He was feeling proud before, having gained two counties without any effort. But now, after hearing what the military advisor said, he realized the seriousness of the matter and felt a little panicked.
"My lord, haven't you seen clearly? Yichun is so powerful that even the imperial court is no match for them, and now they dare not challenge them. If you provoke them, you will definitely get into trouble." I had already warned you not to provoke Yichun, but you did it in one wrong turn.
"Not really?" Ruyin King said unconvincedly. Everyone's troops were about the same, and compared to Yichun's scattered troops, his troops were all concentrated in Xu Qingyan.
Sima Xian shook his head and thought to himself, let's wait and see.
At this moment, good news came from Jiaozhou. General Xing Changfeng killed the leader Agili!
Yao Chunnuan clapped her hands and laughed. She knew that when she was studying the information about the general's disappearance, she had some guesses in her heart. His disappearance was more like showing weakness to the enemy, attacking the enemy directly, and then cutting off the enemy's supply of funds!
The situation in Jiaozhou has been settled.
"Lord Yao, what should we do now? Continue to march towards Sili?" This was their previous plan.
It was a different time now, so Yao Chunnuan paused and said, "Wait a minute, there's no rush."
While waiting for their general to deal with the southern barbarians, they can also govern the newly acquired territory and do some small jobs to earn some extra money.
This fat sheep was none other than the King of Ruyin. Taking advantage of their unpreparedness, the other side seized the two counties of Jizhou. As the saying goes, it's impolite not to reciprocate.
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