Jiang Qing

Zhao Zhen stabilized his mind, and after listening to the news from all over the south of the Yangtze River, the hall fell into silence for a while.

Because these messages were all searched from the people who escaped from Benzhou, some of them were true and false, and there was everything in a mess, but one thing was certain, Benzhou was indeed fallen.

According to the people who fled, it was one night after Ling Che put down the chaos, the city suddenly burst into flames, and the four gates of the city were filled with the sound of fighting horses' hooves. They were trapped in the city and could not go out. After a few days, the city could not resist, Ling Che Abandoning the city and retreating to the border of Pingdong, the gates of the Sifang city were opened wide, and the people fled desperately. Those who survived went to the neighboring state capital, and the news spread in this way.

After listening to trivial matters for half a day, Bai Bingchen managed to piece together the current situation in the south of the Yangtze River. Ling Che should have retreated to the fiefdom of Pingdong, where he and his wife were together. After the rebel army occupied Benzhou, they continued to go east. Pingdong three states compete.

Although the Pingdong area is not as rich as Nanyang, the food and grass in the city is enough to support it for a period of time, and with the help of Sun Zhe and Jiang Xiyue, the situation is not too bad.

Besides... Bai Bingchen glanced at Zhao Zhen, and the two looked at each other, knowing what the other was thinking.

In the past of Pingdong Sanzhou, Wuduli, the most eastern part of Li country facing the sea, also has Zhao Zhen's biggest hole card - Wudu Governor Tong Can, in the name of shipping, travels between Wudu and a small island in the East China Sea all year round Above, there is the 20 iron armor that Zhao Zhen has raised for the past three years. It can even be said that all the people in Wudu are soldiers. It is Zhao Zhen's most secret chess piece, and it will not be easily exposed until the last moment.

In the past three years, Wu Du's private maintenance of armaments and payment of money have not gone through the household department, and they have all been taken in secret ways.In the entire country of Li, apart from Zhao Zhen, only Bai Bingchen knew what kind of place Wudu was and what was hidden inside.

"Fortunately, Pingdong's background is good. General Ling and Pingdonghou can survive for two or three months if they can't defend the city. The insurgents are scattered soldiers and don't have enough backup supplies. It won't take so long. They will definitely rush to attack the city. Zhao Zhen sorted out the situation, took stock of the available candidates, set his sights on Mei Shao, and continued: "The most urgent thing is to lead the army to cut off the food and grass of the rebel army, and find a way to contact General Ling , and then two flanking attacks, resetting the rebellion."

Bai Bingchen frowned slightly, and said: "There is no emergency situation in the garrisons, so they can't be transferred. This time, General Ling took away most of the troops in the state capital along the way, and he must not allow the rebel army to attack the Pingdong land and stab them in the back. It is best to keep this war in Pingdong, so as not to spill over and cause more troubles. It's just...the only army that can be used now is the Jinxi Army, and General Ling is not in Pingdu. Even if Master Mei is willing to lead the Western Jin army to aid, there is no guarantee that he will be able to mobilize the Western Jin army."

The reason why the four major military lords are openly ministers, but Zhao Zhen dare not use their soldiers and horses too much is because the soldier talismans in these four places are all held in their own hands. Now even if Ling Che surrenders, the military talisman of Jinxi Nor will it be handed over.

Without a soldier talisman, it is unknown whether Mei Shao can be successfully transferred to the Western Jin army based on Zhao Zhen's edict. What's more, Ling Che thought of the old Jin Xihou's kindness, after inheriting the position of Jinxi Marquis, He didn't suppress his son too much. Knowing that something happened to Ling Che this time, they might do something to get angry behind their backs.

Zhao Jinghe, who was silent for a long while, suddenly said: "The soldier talisman is here with me. It is not a problem to transfer troops, but I want a definite answer. When can Master Mei leave?"

Zhao Zhen raised his eyebrows when he heard the words, and gave Bai Bingchen a look.

"If there is a soldier talisman, it is not difficult to send troops. I can set off in a few days, but please trouble Your Royal Highness to get the soldier talisman now, is that okay?" Mei Shao responded to her words.

Zhao Jinghe glanced at Zhao Zhen with a questioning look in his eyes.

"Jing and you go, Zhen and Mei Qing will take a look at the marching route."

Zhao Jinghe heard that they were trying to distract her, and she didn't intend to know about any important political affairs, as long as she got Zhao Zhen's promise to send troops, it was enough.

After Zhao Jinghe left, Zhao Zhen opened his mouth and said, "If the issue of the military talisman can be resolved, how sure is Mei Qing going to Pingdong?"

Mei Shao frowned tightly, stared deeply at Zhao Zhen, and said in a deep voice: "The most difficult thing to deal with now is probably not the issue of sending troops.

He spread out the letters brought by Zhao Jinghe again, put them one by one on the agarwood table in front of Zhao Zhen, and said: "I suspect that the people in the city of Benzhou are not ordinary people, and those who escaped don't know what they are... ...It is very likely that Benzhou City fell before Ling Che left."

Zhao Zhen was shocked and said, "What did you say?"

"The eldest princess was here just now, so I can't go into details. There is something wrong with these family letters."

"Master Mei means that these letters were not written by General Ling?" Bai Bingchen took a closer look, frowned and said, "I am not an expert in handwriting recognition. If you want to identify them carefully, I'm afraid I should invite Dr. Yushi to come."

"It's not about the handwriting, it's about the content." Mei Shao turned his head and glanced at Bai Bingchen, pointing to a part of the letter and said, "Here, General Ling wrote that at the request of Princess Chang, I bought some unique Jiangnan products in the city. The incense candle 'Spring Mountain Festival', the body of the candle is engraved with the cloud pattern of the word 'Fu', this is wrong."

"'Chunshan Festival' has three kinds of cloud patterns, the appearance is the same, but the Buddha characters on the bends of the cloud patterns are different, divided into three types: 'Shou', 'Xiang', and 'Fu'. The elders use longevity, Brothers and sisters use auspiciousness, and future generations use blessings for nephews. Such trivial things are taboos for local people, and it is reasonable for outsiders not to know, but how could the peddler who sold the paper candles to General Ling get this wrong?"

"Could it be that you were in a hurry and sold the wrong things?" Zhao Zhen asked hesitantly.

"Not to mention how much business there is in a city that has just gone through the war, there is no room for error in the sacrifice. Therefore, although there are three types of 'Spring Mountain Festival', they are never put together, and they are separated by obvious outsourcing paper." Open. For someone with General Ling's status, the owner of the store is even more frightened, wishing to check it several times, how could such a mistake be made?"

Bai Bingchen was silent for a while, and his expression became solemn, "If it's true as you said, then Benzhou has long been a trap for inviting you into the urn. General Ling's going there is like throwing himself into the trap. This is definitely not an ordinary peasant uprising. Even if there are bandits who stand in the way, Marquis Pingdong, Marquis Nanyang, and General Ling, these three teams should not be underestimated, and it will never be the turn of a rebel army who has become a monk halfway to push them to this point."

"It's impossible to know exactly what happened in the city, but to do such a thing, either the leader of the rebel army is extraordinary, or there are other driving forces behind the rebel army." Mei Shao's eyes focused on the things they sorted out just now On the marching route of the rebel army, after looking at it for a long time, the eyebrows moved slightly, and he said to himself: "Why didn't you turn back west, south, or north after taking down Benzhou, but continued to go east?"

"What did you say!" Bai Bingchen seemed to be awakened suddenly, and asked eagerly again, "What did you just say?"

Mei Shao was taken aback by him, and stammered: "I said...why did the rebel army go east instead of other places..."

Bai Bingchen's complexion changed, and his whole body exuded an indescribably gloomy air. Zhao Zhen also frowned, and the air pressure around him suddenly dropped.

why!There is something in the east that they are so bound to attack and fight for!

Bai Bingchen gritted his teeth, his thoughts were terribly chaotic, if it was really for Wu Du...

He looked at Zhao Zhen with a complex expression, and quickly rejected the answer in his heart, or rather, he dared not admit the answer.

Wu Du...except for him, Zhao Zhen, Tong Shen, and...Mei Shao, who would know what's in Wu Du, even if it was Mei Shao, he only knew that there was Zhao Zhen there He doesn't know anything about private soldiers, the specific number of people in the military system, and the location of weapons.

Then who else would know the situation of Wu Du, and would try every means to find out, or, it was because they didn't know what was hidden above, that they would go to great lengths to find out.

"Has Your Majesty contacted Tong Shen recently?"

"Never..." Zhao Zhen was also taken aback for a moment, and when he realized it, his pupils opened slightly, "Are they going for Wudu? They know Wuduli..."

"Mr. Mei's words just now woke me up. General Ling led his troops away from west to east. Several cities west of Benzhou were in a state of defenselessness. The Marquis of Nanyang was seriously injured, and the south side was too busy to take care of itself. status, but they chose the hardest bone to attack Pingdong. With sufficient food and grass, two generals, and the Jiang family's mechanism to protect the city, this is not an easy place to win, but they still Going without hesitation, there is only one possibility, their original goal was Wudu, and the purpose of the uprising was for Wudu."

Bai Bingchen thought along this line of thought, and suddenly he had a flash of inspiration, and finally understood what he had always felt was wrong before Ling Che left, and said eagerly: "At the beginning, we all felt that the invasion of the land came from Ben. It started in Benzhou, so it is reasonable to have such turmoil in Benzhou, and I have never doubted the rationality of the uprising site, but Benzhou, a place surrounded by two military lords, is a place where it is difficult to successfully uprising .Even if they managed to mobilize people in Benzhou and disrupt the situation in the state, they should retreat bravely and withdraw to a safer state capital, so as to gain more land and seek the future. Why are they still staying where they are? Do you want to take down the entire Benzhou?"

"Unless it is true as Chongjin said, there was a real peasant uprising in Benzhou, but it was suppressed long ago. Some people took over the magpie's nest, took the title, and quietly made things big, calling us I thought it was just an ordinary rebellion, so I hurriedly sent General Ling to put it down... If their goal is Wudu, the next thing they have to do is to break through the Pingdong three states before they can touch Wudu. The door. To have the troops and food to conquer the three states, Ping Donghou is in a really difficult situation." Bai Bingchen felt a little remorse for his mistakes because of his own hindsight, and even his words carried some guilt .

Zhao Zhen heard his self-blame, and said calmly: "The current conclusions are all conjectures, and we have to send out real people to know the situation. Pingdong must not be lost, and Wudu must not be exposed."

Mei Shao took a deep breath and said, "Now the situation in Pingdong is unknown, I'd better lead the troops there as soon as possible to save the emergency."

With the lesson learned from not being thorough last time when he was in a hurry, Bai Bingchen tried his best to calm himself down, sorted it out carefully, and said: "Chongjin will go to Jinxi to transfer troops first. With the military talisman in hand, there should be nothing wrong with it." The problem is that you have to be careful of the two sons of the old Jin Xihou. It is best not to take them with you, lest there will be any tricks in the middle. In addition, I have to think about the worst situation. Zhongzhong ministers have colluded with each other, His Majesty decreed today, news of Zhongjin leading the army will reach the ears of the rebel army tomorrow, we are already at a disadvantage, we must firmly grasp the initiative in sending troops."

"Bai Qing can speak directly if you have any request."

"Your Majesty said directly to the outside world that since the fall of Benzhou, it is necessary to select generals in the court to support Benzhou, and then to send generals to Pingdong as normal in the court. You can be as anxious as you want, and the selected generals will also be sent to the east as usual." Bai Bingchen paused for a moment, and said: "In the case of Liang Guo's prince before, His Majesty dismissed Min Qiuping in order to block Liang Guo's mouth, and it will come in handy at this time. Your Majesty can use Li An's escape as an excuse to issue an edict ordering Chongjin to go to the North to consolidate the border. On the bright side, Chongjin had a reason not to be in Pingdu. Afterwards, Chongjin and Min Qiuping headed west, and Min Qiuping diverted to the north. , turning back to the east. Now the east has become a mess, and the influence of the disconnection between the states is mutual. Since we cannot know the real situation in Benzhou through the states along the way, they will not be able to know our movements. In this way, only It is necessary to hide people's eyes and ears on the road, and wait for the army to press down on the city of Benzhou, the deal is done, and the rebel army can't make any temporary decisions."

"Will it be too complicated?" Zhao Zhen hesitated a little. Min Qiuping can at least be regarded as one of Mei Shao's powerful generals. At this juncture, he will be sent to the Northland, and he will not be able to return in two or three months. If something happened to him, he wouldn't even be able to come back in time.

"Originally there was no matter in Benzhou, and I also wanted His Majesty to send someone to go to Beidi." Bai Bingchen sighed, and said: "After Li An left the customs, Prince Sheng's calm temper was a little bit uncontrollable. His Majesty sent troops to Jiang Guo several times, and the court always sent some people to appease him. Moreover, there was a domestic turmoil in Li, and Qin Chengtao said that he was not allowed to be eyeing it. At this time, it is necessary to send someone to give Ming a position. Don't call him Look down on me as having no generals in the Li Kingdom."

"It's just..." Bai Bingchen smiled wryly, "I have little talent and little knowledge, and the incident happened suddenly, and I've been thinking about scheduling over and over again, and this is the only way I can plan."

Zhao Zhen's eyes were slightly moved. He didn't know that Bai Bingchen had achieved the ultimate. In the final analysis, Li Guo's accumulated evils were too deep, and it was difficult to get rid of them overnight. Even a king like himself had to sneak around to raise soldiers. It was really useless. .

But he is still so young, and so are his courtiers, and they can always get through.

Zhao Zhen's eyes were soft, and he fell on Bai Bingchen and Mei Shao, comforting him: "Spring is not far away, if we endure it, it will pass."

Such comforting words were spoken to them as well as to himself.