Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

"The thief wants peace and a ceasefire?"

After hearing this, Li Tai couldn't believe his ears for a while. This situation was really beyond his expectations.

Although the two countries had a short period of peace before, the background at that time was different from the current one. And because of the experience of the previous alliance that was in name only, it also proved that it was nonsense for the East and the West to want to stop the war, unless one side was completely defeated.

Now the Northern Qi has suffered real losses in territory and population. Unlike before, it is not expected to exchange the lost city and the troops blocked in Yiyang through peace talks. This time, the only way to recover the losses is through fighting.

To regain the ground through negotiations is not in line with the intelligence level of normal people, nor is it in line with the Northern Qi's usual rebellious style. Unless starting negotiations and stopping the war is a goal that the Northern Qi needs to achieve, it can even willingly admit the losses that have been caused now.

The signal of seeking peace was sent by the scouts of the Northern Qi, indicating that if the Western Wei was willing to negotiate peace, then the Northern Qi would send envoys to negotiate the details of the peace talks in the near future.

For this rather abnormal situation, Li Tai guessed that there were two possibilities.

The first was that the Northern Qi deliberately tried to test and delay, to test whether the Western Wei still had the determination to continue to advance to expand the results of the war, and to delay the rhythm of the Wei army's subsequent military operations through negotiations, so as to gain more time to raise forces and prepare for counterattacks. For example, the Qi army, which had already entered the Qinshui River Valley, could strengthen the blockade of the Qinshui River Valley while the negotiations were ongoing.

The second possibility was that some important personnel changes might have occurred or were about to occur in the Northern Qi country, and it was necessary to ensure relative stability outside, so as to concentrate on dealing with internal contradictions and problems. Could it be that the Qi Lord Gao Yang was dead?

Both possibilities were not low, and in the absence of more information for more accurate guesses and judgments, Li Tai could not be sure which one it was.

Therefore, his approach was to simply ignore it. No matter what the situation and intentions of the Qi army were, they always needed feedback from the Wei army before they could make any moves. The more the enemy wanted, the more they should do the opposite.

Therefore, Li Tai simply pretended that there was no such thing. The troops rested and sent more scouts as usual, without making any other adjustments.

The Wei army did not give feedback, and Duan Shao was a little uneasy. On the one hand, he really needed to reach a certain tacit agreement with the Western Wei as soon as possible to free up the troops under his command. On the other hand, this peace request was his own initiative, not the emperor or anyone else's.

Although Duan Shao made such a decision based on the overall situation, after all, the current Northern Qi could not withstand the double tossing of internal and external troubles, it could not be said to be completely selfless.

From Duan Shao's own consideration, his intention to do so was about 70% public and 30% private. Overall, of course, he hopes that the fate of the country can be stable and improve. In the face of some personnel turmoil in the country, he hopes to strive to put himself in a relatively safe and stable position.

However, if this peacemaking fails, Duan Shao will have to bear the strong pressure of the Western Wei army to continue to attack, and he may also face the emperor and some ministers' investigation and questioning. The situation will become difficult.

Originally, in Duan Shao's view, the Wei army's rear was harassed by Huluguang's troops, and they should have retreated. Moreover, the long period of no progress after the battle of Tongdishui also reflects the weakness of the Wei army. In such a situation, it is normal for one side to take the initiative to show weakness, and the other side will accept it and then negotiate the details of the conditions.

But now the enemy army looks fearless, and they don't fight or retreat, and they don't respond to the olive branch thrown by themselves, which can't help but make Duan Shao feel a headache.

After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to send another 3,000 troops to Hulugu to increase the pressure on the Wei army in the Qinshui River Valley. At the same time, he continued to send his trusted scouts to send a signal of peace to the Western Wei, hoping that the Western Wei would respond as soon as possible.

He was not worried that his overly eager expression might reveal the current unstable situation of Qi. The biggest unstable factor in Qi today was the Qi Lord Gao Yang, whose mental and physical condition was very worrying.

But this was also a highly confidential matter in Qi, and only a few people knew it. Others only knew that the emperor was a bit absurd and tyrannical, and they would not easily associate the emperor, who was in his prime, with illness. Li Boshan, the leader of the enemy country, certainly could not know the emperor's health condition well. As his consumption gradually increased, there was not much room for advancement, and he would eventually agree to negotiate peace.

However, Duan Shao's thinking was only valid for normal people, but not for some cheaters. Li Tai not only knew that Gao Yang was in poor health, but he even listed it as an important reason and possibility for the Qi army to be eager to seek peace and stop fighting.

As Duan Shao became more anxious, Li Tai became more and more sure that there must be a big thunder in Northern Qi that was about to explode. Because if it was just a test, the previous one could have tested a lot of information, and there was no need to do it again and again.

After more speculations, Li Tai also became a little interested in peace talks. So for the first time, he sent a signal to the other side through the scouts in front that peace could be negotiated, but the Qi army that had entered the Qinshui Valley needed to evacuate Qinshui and return the bodies of Guo Yan, Shi Yunbao and other soldiers who died in the battle. Only if these two points are achieved first will the Wei army consider starting negotiations with each other.

Duan Shao felt mixed after receiving the response from Wei Jun. Although Wei Jun responded, the conditions offered were not very easy to fulfill, especially the withdrawal of Hu Luguang's troops, which was really difficult to handle.

Although Hu Luguang is Duan Shao's subordinate now, he has a strong and stubborn personality and usually sticks to what he believes in. This time he finally took advantage of the opportunity and inserted himself into the enemy's retreat, hoping to make him retreat obediently. It is undoubtedly difficult, and the person really dares to disobey orders. If Duan Shao persists, they may fall out, making it difficult to continue the peace talks before they even begin.

Moreover, Hu Luguang is currently in one of the few situations where the Qi army can counterattack the Wei army. It is difficult for Duan Shao to accept that he gave up his biggest trump card before the peace talks began.

But Duan Shao was not willing to end the conversation that had finally started without touching any substantive issues. So he avoided the difficult problems first, did the easy ones first, established a tacit understanding of dialogue, and proposed that the bodies of the Wei army's dead soldiers could be returned, but the Wei army would need to exchange prisoners such as Wei Can.

Even if Li Tai agreed after receiving this condition, he really had no idea of ​​wasting food to continue feeding someone like Wei Can. Returning to Northern Qi might worsen the situation of Northern Qi nobles interfering in politics and corrupt officials.

After the two parties reached this consensus, they quickly agreed on the location of the exchange and successfully completed this round of transactions shortly thereafter. After receiving the bones of the soldiers who died in the battle, Li Tai immediately ordered them to be temporarily buried and transported back to Guanzhong for burial when the army returned in triumph.

The Northern Qi Dynasty exchanged dead bodies for living people, which at least seemed to make a lot of money. When Wei Can arrived at the Xiahu Ju camp and saw Duan Shao, he hugged Duan Shao's arm and cried loudly: "This time the Qiang was killed. I was kidnapped by thieves, and I thought that I would have to live in a foreign country from now on, never to return until my death...Thanks to my dear brother, I will be so kind and kind that I will never forget it...It’s just that when the city was destroyed, most of my family property was taken by the Qiang thieves. , Brother Xiaoxian, can you..."

Duan Shao couldn't help but snorted after hearing this. If Sima Xiaonan's surrender to the enemy was the trigger of this war, then Wei Can's dereliction of duty as the governor of Jinzhou was the first big thunder, which triggered the subsequent events. The situation in the series takes a turn for the worse.

Exchanging this guy back was just a gimmick, but he didn't expect that he would still remain stubborn after experiencing this disaster. The huge Jinzhou surrendered to thieves didn't make him feel ashamed. Even after he was out of danger, he still couldn't forget his family assets. Floating money is really disgusting!

After completing the first exchange, although the two sides still had not reached an agreement to stop fighting, the atmosphere between them was no longer as tense as before. But when the Western Wei Dynasty brought up the old matter again and urged Duan Shao to continue to fulfill another condition, Duan Shao couldn't help but have a headache.

He hadn't yet figured out how to properly deal with this matter. Another news came from the country, adding another fire to his already anxious mood: After arriving in Liaoyang, the emperor sent another message to Ye In the capital, Gao Yan, the king of Changshan, and Gao Zhan, the king of Changguang, were summoned to Liaoyang to meet him.

After hearing the news, Duan Shaodang couldn't help but feel a cold sweat pouring down his back even as he thought of asking himself questions about heirs before.

Originally, the emperor announced that he would return to Jinyang to take charge, but he diverted directly to Liaoyang on the way. After arriving in Liaoyang, he summoned two direct brothers to meet in Liaoyang. This series of connections is really difficult to make people feel good about it. The association always gives people a sense of danger that a storm is coming.

Duan Shao couldn't guess what the emperor wanted to do, or he didn't dare to guess. But he knew that if even his direct siblings like the Second King were in trouble, then his current position could not be said to be absolutely safe either.

Therefore, whether it is for the country or for oneself, it is most important to have enough emergency response power at the moment. This incident has further strengthened Duan Shao's idea of ​​​​stopping the war with the Western Wei Dynasty, and the sooner the better, if the country is in chaos Once the clues are gradually revealed and known to the enemy, the situation will become even more difficult to handle.

So Duan Shao immediately sent his eldest son Duan Yi to the Qinshui Valley, handed his handwritten letter to Hu Luguang and called him back to discuss matters. As for the division and brigade in the Qinshui Valley, his son was temporarily in charge.