Unparalleled Concubine

"General, the Ningzhou army has basically arrived, and there are still some to follow. It is expected that they will all arrive in Luzhou tomorrow afternoon."

At this moment Li Xin was reading in the study, when he heard this, he looked up at Li Shuo, and said, "Sit down and talk."

Li Shuo bowed his head respectfully, found a chair in Li Xin's study, and sat down.

General Li still stared at the old book in his hand, and said lightly: "In the past few months, the Ningzhou Army has followed Mu Ying to recruit new troops. I have not asked about the process. Now Luzhou City has been attacked by Mu Ying. Excuse me, how many people are there in your Ningzhou Army now?"

"Back to the general."

Li Shuo lowered his head and clasped his fists, and said in a deep voice: "The last general led 5000 Ningzhou troops out of Xiangyang, and now the main battle force is about [-], and there are another [-] to [-] available, but some of these people are local Xiang troops. , Some are ordinary people, and some refugees, most of them have never fought or served in the army, and their combat power is worrying. The last general means some unimportant things, and they can be done."

Speaking of this, Li Shuo paused, and said silently: "These people, if they die, they will die."

Only then did Li Xin put down the scroll in his hand, looked at Li Shuo carefully, and said with a smile, "You are very different from ten years ago."

In the second year of Taikang, Li Xin led troops to the west to attack Jincheng. At that time, it was Li Shuo who was in front of him. He was afraid that Jincheng would be destroyed, and that the Southwest Army would be wiped out. In order to take care of the overall situation, he gave the deposed prince Ji Ku to Li Xin. sent out.

If it wasn't for him, Li Xin's expedition to the west would never have gone so smoothly.

At that time, Li Xinxin felt that his cheap younger brother was somewhat of a virgin. Now that more than ten years have passed, Li Shuo has been in charge of his own affairs for many years. His mind is very different from that young man back then. Some unimportant subordinates were treated as cannon fodder.

Li Shuo lowered his head slightly, and said, "Everyone grows up, besides, my little brother is not much different from ten years ago. If there was a [-]-[-]% chance for the Pingnan Army more than ten years ago, I would also stand On the side of the Pingnan Army, I fought to the death with my brother, but more than ten years ago, the Pingnan Army really didn't have the slightest chance..."

Li Shuo was silent for a while, his voice a little low.

"More than ten years ago, my brother's journey to the west was like a broken bamboo, and Mianzhu City was quickly captured by my brother. At that time, I really thought that my brother had a real person from Chunyang to help me out. I didn't realize it until a few years ago..."

Speaking of this, he looked up at Li Xin, and said meaningfully: "It turns out that when my brother was still a teenager more than ten years ago, he already had a firearm..."

The matter of the Chunyang Immortal was well known in the world. Later, the Emperor Taikang made the Chunyang Immortal a god, and there are still many shrines of the Chunyang Immortal among the people, from high-ranking officials and nobles to ordinary people. , Most of them believed in the existence of such a real person.

After the thunder in the southwest was exposed to everyone, some people wanted to understand what happened when the city gate of Mianzhu exploded inexplicably.

Some people would feel chills down their spines when they thought of this, feeling that the Marquis of Jing'an, who was only eighteen or nineteen years old at that time, was so deep in the city.

Regarding this matter, Li Xin was too lazy to explain to others. After all, he told others at this time that his idea at that time was to bring gunpowder into the coffin, and no one would believe it.

So he laughed at himself, and said, "Whatever you think, just take it as my plan for more than ten years."

The two brothers skipped this topic, Li Xin's face became serious, and he said in a deep voice: "The Hanzhou Army has been marching eastward all the way, and it is already exhausted. I have communicated with Mu Ying. From today onwards, the Hanzhou Army will start to rest. The Ningzhou army will attack."

"any questions?"

Li Shuo stood up from the chair, half-kneeled in front of Li Xin, and said in a deep voice, "Young general, follow the general's order!"

Li Xin nodded, and said: "The remaining sky thunders, firecrackers and some firearms of the Hanzhou Army, I will ask Muying to hand them over to you, and the firearm battalion of the Hanzhou Army can also be lent to you, but you The Ningzhou Army must fight beautifully, otherwise some people in the Hanzhou Army will not be convinced."

"Brother Mu doesn't say anything, and he will feel unhappy in his heart."

"You have to let them have nothing to say."

Li Shuo looked solemn, and said in a deep voice: "The general hopes so sincerely, how can the last general live up to it?"

Chapter 1068

In order for a power group to operate smoothly, it must not be dominated by one family. This is true for the imperial court and the Southwest.

Mu Ying is certainly credible, Li Xin has never doubted his brother who has been with him for more than ten years, but the Mu family behind Mu Ying may not be credible. His Royal Highness Wang was able to escape from Jincheng because of the rescue of the Mu family, so that later the Mu family replaced Li Xing and became the real talker in Southwest China.

Li Xin has not been in the southwest for a long time, and the southwest is Mu Ying, or the Mu family has the final say.

Later, when the imperial court conferred the title of King of Shu, Li Xin also generously gave up the position to Mu Ying's son. For various reasons, the Mu family became increasingly arrogant in the southwest.

Although Li Xin had beaten the Mu family with Zhao Jia before, these were not enough. The reason for the Mu family's arrogance was because of the Mu family's position in the Southwest Army. Li Xin never thought of breaking his own arm, but You can't let Mu Ying take all the credit for the Eastern Expedition by herself, otherwise, if you really broke into the capital, the Mu family would jump out and say that it was their Mu family who took the capital. Why should your surname Li jump out and talk about it?

Li Shuo is the one who checks and balances the Mu family.

In the early years of the reorganization of the Southwest Army, if Li Xin had a darker belly, he could directly annex the Pingnan Army. There was no need to give Shuo 5% of the troops and let him station in Ningzhou, but at that time Li Xin was very kind and let Li Shuo lead 20 So much so that Li Shuo, who was only in his early [-]s at the time, became one of the Big Three in Southwest China on an equal footing with Mu Ying and Zhao Jiaping.

This was picked up by Li Xin abruptly.

Li Shuo is not the same as Mu Ying. There used to be a force behind him, that was the remnants of the Pingnan Army, but later the Southwest Army was reorganized, and these remnants of the Pingnan Army were also incorporated into the Southwest Army. In the past few years, there are still many thorns in these old units of the Pingnan Army, but after a few years, most of them have been fully integrated into the Southwest Army.

In other words, Li Shuo didn't have much support behind him now. Apart from the [-] Ningzhou Army he could rely on in the southwest, Li Xin, his cheap brother, was left.

Therefore, even though the personal relationship between Li Shuo and Li Xin is not as good as the other two among the three giants in the Southwest, his loyal minister to Li Xin is undoubtedly the purest. The reason is very simple, and he has no other way out.

This is exactly the reason why the Southwest Army will change generals after the soldiers approach the capital.

This is a big taboo in the army, but it is not particularly taboo for the Southwest Army, because the Southwest Army mainly relies on firearms instead of the chief general. If you change the chief general, as long as this person is not too stupid, the effect will not be much different.

After the Ningzhou Army prepared in Luzhou for three or four days, Li Shuo led 5 people from Luzhou to the capital. Obviously, these 5 people were not the entire force of the Ningzhou Army, but only the vanguard.

As for Li Xin and Mu Ying, they were sitting leisurely on the tower in Luzhou, watching Li Shuo's troops walk away slowly.

Mu Ying, who had been covered in armor from the southwest to Luzhou, also took off her armor at this time, and put on a blue robe. Standing behind Li Xin, after seeing Li Shuo walking away, he smiled and said: "Look!" The Lai Ningzhou Army made a fortune following my troops, and brought out a total of 5 people, and the Ningzhou Army on the side of Luzhou has only half left."

Li Xin chuckled: "Don't worry, Brother Mu, it's just a temporary establishment. When we enter the capital, the Southwest Army will have to be reorganized. There is no reason to double the number of Ningzhou Army."

Mu Ying grinned: "The last general didn't mean that, just a sigh."

He looked out of the city with his head, then turned to look at Li Xin, and asked, "The general...seems to be very confident that we will definitely be able to enter the capital."

Li Xin glanced back at Mu Ying, and asked back, "Brother Mu, don't you have confidence?"

Mu Ying gave a wry smile, and said, "Of course there were. My Southwest Army was invincible all the way from Xiangyang to Luzhou. At that time, the general would dream at night that we took down the capital in three days. General, what do you do?" I became the emperor, but after arriving in Luzhou, the last general didn't think so..."

After he said the three words "be the emperor", he secretly glanced at Li Xin's reaction. After seeing Li Xin's expressionless face, the dark-faced man sighed and continued: "The battle of Luzhou City, what happened It was not smooth, and it was time-consuming and labor-intensive to fight three times, and it also consumed countless firearms, and even our soldiers suffered a lot of damage."

"I will calculate carefully afterward. If calculated according to the casualty ratio of Luzhou City, we can barely take the capital. However, the capital city is different from Luzhou. Whether it is the city wall or the guards, as well as the determination of the court, They are far better than Luzhou."

Li Xin was noncommittal, but narrowed his eyes slightly, and said, "Then Brother Mu, let's see, what if we can't take down the capital this time?"

"Then go back to the southwest for now."

Mu Ying's answer was very straightforward, obviously he had thought about it many times in his heart.

"As long as we retreat to the southwest, the imperial court will do nothing to us. Besides, even if we are unable to capture the capital, the imperial court will have no way of chasing us. We can retreat calmly. We can take away a lot of money and food from the prefectures, prefectures and counties along the way. After a year, we have accumulated enough strength, and we can easily make a comeback."

Li Xin gave Mu Ying a serious look, then shook his head slowly.

"Brother Mu is thinking about it. This is the first time we have attacked the capital, and it is also the last time. If we can't fight this time, it will be very difficult for us to have another chance in this life. In the future, we can only stick to the southwest and wait for the court to come out." An extremely stupid and foolish king, Southwest may have another chance to leave Shu."

Speaking of this, Li Xin pointed to his nose, and said calmly: "The emperor in the capital is only in his early 20s this year, much younger than you and me. Although he is not as good as his father and grandfather, he is far from being a fool. If we can't defeat the capital this time, we can only wait for him to die to have a chance, and what's worse, the next emperor after him may be even stronger than him."

"This time is our last chance."

Li Xin looked calm, and said: "If the matter fails, we will retreat to the southwest. The Shu Palace officially established the country in the southwest, and the southwest will be taken care of by you. I will take my wife and children to hide in the mountains and become a rural village. Husband, An An lived a lifetime."