Chapter 705: Planning Hedong
Lu Songli thought for a moment and said, "Dad, we have a chance to take Hedong without a single soldier."
Lu Desheng took a deep breath for Song Mo, "If we take over Hedong, Song Mo will probably have trouble sleeping or eating, right?" You know, Hedong is not far from Chang'an.
Lu Songli smiled softly, "What God gives, we must take."
Lu Desheng nodded, "If you don't take what God gives you, you will suffer the consequences."
Lu Songli was very satisfied with the results of the all-out attack in Pingzhou this time.
The Dali army retreated to the Hedong, Henei and Chenliu areas, obviously to defend Chang'an behind them.
So she had no intention of attacking Chang'an at this time.
Firstly, the war has lasted for so long that the inventory of military equipment and supplies has reached the bottom.
Secondly, it is not the time to attack Chang'an.
If the Pingzhou army attacked Chang'an, Dali would surely fight to the death, continuously dispatching troops to support the king. If the war escalated, it would become uncontrollable. This was something Lü Songli did not want to see.
But now, she has the opportunity to take Hedong without any effort, so of course she has to work hard.
Chang'an, Imperial Palace
Song Mo has been very upset recently. He wants to protect Xie Zhan, but almost everyone opposes it.
Song Mo felt that people outside did not understand his painstaking efforts to protect Xie Zhan, and instead portrayed him as a tyrant ruler who had been bewitched by his subjects.
As cities were lost one after another, Song Mo felt more and more pressure.
But it would be a joke if a dignified emperor couldn't even protect Xie Zhan.
But he hasn't found a way to protect it yet.
It was obvious that Pingzhou wanted him to execute Xie Zhan, as this was the only way to satisfy Pingzhou. This was the primary condition, and there might be other conditions besides.
This goes against his original intention.
Upset!
Song Mo stood up and walked out.
Liang An quickly signaled the young eunuchs to follow him. Recently, the emperor would go to the queen's palace every afternoon to see the eldest prince, and he was used to it.
In the five years since the Emperor ascended the throne, his harem has given birth to two sons and two daughters, those who survived. The Emperor would occasionally visit them, but recently, his visits to the eldest prince have become more and more frequent.
When Song Mo arrived at the Queen's palace, he learned that the Queen was hosting a banquet.
Song Mo discovered that he had no idea what the queen was talking about with the people inside. The queen had even driven out her personal maid.
For a moment, he became curious and stopped the palace maids and eunuchs from reporting. He stood outside the door and listened in the corner for a while.
As the chief eunuch in the Queen's Palace, Li Jieying glanced at the emperor who was standing at the door, and carefully moved his feet to Liang An to greet him.
"What's going on?" Liang An asked him.
"The Queen is talking to Old Madam Xie."
Inside the palace, Old Lady Xie was asking the Queen to help talk to the Emperor and ask him to transfer her youngest son, Xie Wei, back.
Then Song Mo learned that Xie Zhan actually had a twin brother serving in the military?
Suddenly, Song Mo came up with an idea.
Then I heard that Mrs. Xie inside actually wanted to transfer Xie Wei back to Chang'an to be the head of the family.
Is this abandoning the big to protect the small?
madness!
Song Mo flicked his sleeves and left without going in to see the eldest prince.
Liang An hurriedly followed with a group of palace servants.
Li Jieying's eyes flashed, and he felt it was necessary to write down what happened today and send a letter to Pingzhou.
Bingzhou, Taiyuan
Inside the Xianbei king's tent, Tuoba Khan, trapped in the besieged city, was puzzled.
How could this happen?
From the moment he sent his troops south, he intended to take control of the Central Plains.
At that time, he saw that the Dali court was corrupt, the administration was corrupt, and there was no strong army. The Central Plains was in decline, so it was a good time to take control of it.
But after the battle started, he found that the war was not going smoothly, which was seriously inconsistent with his original expectations.
How to say it, the fighting power of Dali was indeed as the Xianbei had expected, vulnerable to a single blow.
But he didn't expect that a new force in Pingzhou would shatter his dream of ruling the Central Plains.
Because of Pingzhou, they achieved almost no results.
Most of the cities captured from Dali were taken back by Pingzhou before they could even warm up to the present day.
Only the northern border and Liang Province were still in their hands, but they also lost two large territories of Fuyu and Sushen tribes.
In other words, the years they'd fought south had been in vain. Not to mention the fact that he'd lost his eldest son and had his second son crippled. In all seriousness, this deal was a loss.
Yuchi Rui also felt that "this really shouldn't be the case."
"The internal strife between Dali and Pingzhou should benefit us Xianbei."
"There's a saying in the Central Plains: to resist foreign aggression, one must maintain internal stability. The Dali court certainly did so."
Tuoba Lian said quietly, "But that's not how it's done in Pingzhou."
Everyone present looked at him expressionlessly.
Tuoba Lian was unaware, still racking his brains for a way to describe it. "Pingzhou is the kind of place where, how should I put it, they punch us Xianbei twice before slapping Dali once. They clearly distinguish between inside and outside."
Take the Pingzhou campaign for example, when dealing with the Xianbei, they used explosives frequently, aiming to kill as many of them as possible. When attacking Dali, they were much more cautious in using explosives.
"Okay, stop talking," Tuoba Khan said. "In short, because of Pingzhou, we Xianbei haven't made any progress in the past few years."
Upon hearing this, the generals present also felt deeply exhausted.
"From the current situation, it is clear that Pingzhou is committed to driving us out of the Central Plains."
Everyone in the tent nodded. Yes, they were occupying Taiyuan and were struggling to hold on.
"Everyone, this Khan will unite with Dali to contain Pingzhou."
"That's absolutely possible. I'm sure Dali is also extremely troubled by Pingzhou right now."
"Khan, before that, let's seize Hedong first, shall we?"
At this time, the autumn harvest had been completed and grain had been stored in warehouses. It was a good time for them to go south and rob.
"But Dali has deployed a large number of troops in Hedong?"
"What are you afraid of? It's not like we haven't fought against the Dali army before." If Pingzhou is the one that deploys heavy troops, then the Xianbei people will need to be cautious.
More than half of the members present agreed to seize Hedong.
This year, because Pingzhou unexpectedly sent troops, the Xianbei people were unable to receive much of the grain they were expected to harvest. For example, Changshan, Zhaojun, Xinxing, Leping and other places were all where they were planning to harvest the autumn grain.
Unfortunately, all of this land had been taken away from them by Pingzhou, and the expected autumn grain harvest was naturally nowhere to be found. Especially in Yanmen, the Xianbei people were still responsible for farming, so this year's autumn grain was wasted on Pingzhou.
Only in Taiyuan and Hexi did they harvest the autumn crops as they wished.
We only harvested autumn crops from two places, which was not enough.
If they don't store more food, they will be seriously short of food in the winter.
At this time, the princes and generals in the Xianbei royal tent who were ready to fight did not know that Pei Ji from the Pei family had returned from Pingzhou.
When he left, he took dozens of family guards with him, and when he returned, he still had a group of guards, but these guards seemed to have a more bloody aura.
"The Third Young Master is back!"
The people of Hedong were very happy to see Pei Ji.
Recently, the people of Hedong have been very worried. The imperial court has sent heavy troops to garrison their Hedong, but there are Xianbei in the north and Pingzhou in the south. They don't know when the Xianbei army or the Pingzhou army will attack.
The Pingzhou army had a good reputation, never taking anything from the people, and never stealing food or money. Their biggest fear was not knowing when the Xianbei army would attack.
During this period, they were busy with the autumn harvest while keeping a close eye on the movements of the major families in Hedong. Because if these major families left Hele, it would mean that they could no longer stay in Hedong.
But now, the Pei family hasn't left, the Xue family hasn't left, and the Liu family, the three major families in Hedong, haven't left. Does this mean that Hedong is still safe?
Chang'an, Imperial Palace
There were only Song Mo and Xie Zhan in the entire hall. Even Liang An had retreated to guard the gate.
Song Mo looked at His Highness's men and said coldly, "Xie Zhan, I saved your life. How do you plan to repay me?"
Xie Zhan showed just the right amount of doubt, "My humble ambition is to emulate Zhuge Liang of Shu Han and serve the Emperor and the Great Li with all my heart and soul until my death."
Hearing this, Song Mo remained silent.
Xie Zhan smiled bitterly and said, "Unfortunately, I may not have this opportunity. Your Majesty, Pingzhou is now powerful, and the power of the aristocratic families must be used. It is better to agree to their requests first and overcome this difficulty first."
"Among the noble families who are now pledging their loyalty to me, are there any who have secretly defected to Pingzhou?"
"Probably not."
"And you?"
"Anyone in this world, in this court, could defect to Pingzhou, but I, a humble minister, cannot. I cannot. There is a deep hatred between me and Lu Songli."
Song Mo knew what he meant. It was precisely because of this that he valued him that he tried his best to protect him.
"I want you to swear and promise that you will not attempt to usurp the throne during your lifetime. Otherwise, you will not die a peaceful death, and your entire Xie family will be wiped out."
Xie Zhan swore without hesitation, "I, Xie Zhan, swear to heaven that I will never attempt to usurp the throne while I am still alive. Otherwise, I will not die a good death, and my entire Xie family will be wiped out."
After Xie Zhan finished his oath, he asked a question at the right moment, "Your Majesty, I dare to ask, how are you going to protect me?"
"Don't worry about that!"
The next day, Song Mo issued an imperial decree and a secret decree.
The imperial edict ordered the Minister of the Ministry of Rites to go to Pingzhou to negotiate peace.
The Minister of the Ministry of Rites requested that the emperor allow the Imperial Censor Zhou Chengzhong to go with him, on the pretext that he had worked with Lu Desheng before and had some respect for him.
Zhou Chengzhong's mouth twitched. Why him? There were so many ministers in the court who had worked with Lu Desheng!
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