Zhu Nao

At this time, in the imperial city of Yedu, Tao Bei was hosting a banquet in honor of Chen Guolai's envoy.

Tao Bei secretly observed Liu Jiangping on the side, seeing that he only ate some food after the banquet started, but had very little wine, so he couldn't help asking: "Mr. Liu, but today's food and drink are not to your liking?"

Liu Jiangping hurriedly said: "How could it be? Mr. Tao took great pains to prepare, the food and drink are all excellent, especially the wine has a very sweet aftertaste. If I'm not afraid of getting drunk, I really want to drink a few more cups!"

Tao Bei said with a smile: "Then just drink to your heart's content, so what if you get drunk? If Mr. Liu likes it, I'll have someone load some cars for Mr. Liu and send them back to Jiangning."

Liu Jiangping half-jokingly said: "Isn't it because I'm afraid of getting drunk, Tao Gong will pour me the ecstasy soup? Haha, I don't like the feeling of being drunk."

Tao Bei's smile froze.He really had this idea, wishing to confuse Liu Jiangping, maybe he could get some benefits.However, he would not admit it, and soon he laughed and said, "What did Mr. Liu say! Didn't I want to treat Mr. Liu as a landlord? If Mr. Liu didn't eat and drink well with me Alright, if it gets out, others will think it's me, Tao Bei!"

Liu Jiangping said: "How come? I am very satisfied, thank you Mr. Tao for your kindness!"

The two looked at each other and smiled, on the surface they were friendly, but in their hearts they were slandering each other.

When Liu Jiangping came to Yedu this time, he was ordered to go to Liang State to discuss with Tao Bei how to jointly resist Shu.Although it is a joint fight against Shu, Chen Guo does not plan to send troops, but only plans to send money.And the money is not given for nothing, the people brought by Liu Jiangping will negotiate some policies and business conditions with Tao Bei, so that they will have the opportunity to earn money back from other places in the future.

However, Chen Guo didn't know how big the gap in Liang Guo's military expenditure was, so Liu Jiangping wanted to probe Tao Bei's tone first to see how much money they needed, so as to decide how to negotiate this condition.

At the moment, in the side hall, there are many Duzhi officials who are rushing to calculate the accounts in order to give Tao Bei and Liu Jiangping an accurate answer as soon as possible.

The sound of abacus counting and page turning is endless...

After two more pieces of music were played in the main hall, the dancers bowed and retreated. A Duzhi official quietly went up to the hall, came to Tao Bei's side, and whispered a few words with Tao Bei.After hearing this, Tao Bei turned bitter, nodded, shook his head again, and sighed repeatedly.

Liu Jiangping noticed this scene and asked, "Mr. Tao, is there any result?"

Tao Bei licked his lips and said with an apologetic smile: "Young Master Liu, our national treasury is now empty, and it is really a time of crisis. Your country's willingness to help is really a timely help! Such kindness..."

Liu Jiangping interrupted with a smile: "There is no need to say compliments, let's hurry up and get down to business. The sooner this matter is settled, the better, isn't it?"

Tao Bei was silent for a moment, and said, "I hope that your country can generously donate to help our country with fifteen thousand stone valleys."

"Pfft!!" Liu Jiangping choked on his own saliva when he heard this number.Even though he was well prepared, he never thought it would be so outrageous!

"Ahem, ahem..." Liu Jiangping couldn't help coughing, and his attendant rushed forward to pat him on the back.Tao Bei sat aside with an embarrassed expression.

After finally stopping his cough, Liu Jiangping was both angry and funny: "Mr. Tao, food is harvested from the ground, not from the sky for nothing. We can only help you when you are in urgent need. You can't count on us, Chen Guo Will I feed your Liang army for you?"

15 stones of grain and grass, [-] buckets of grain and grass! !This is an extremely huge number. Even in the rich Jiangnan, the annual income of the treasury is nothing more than that!How could Liu Jiangping not be surprised and angry?

Tao Bei was very helpless: "Don't lie to Young Master Liu, this is an urgent matter. Tao has absolutely no intention of lying."

Liu Jiangping's eyes widened with disbelief.

Tao Beidao: "Young Master Liu should know that Liang State has an army of more than 30 people, and the military expenditure is huge. Tao has tried his best to raise military expenditure, but the income cannot cover the expenditure. It is really difficult to maintain!"

In fact, Tao Bei was really a lion this time, and deliberately raised the price, because he also knew that Chen Guo took the initiative to come to him to join forces, because Chen Guo was afraid that Liang Guo would be wiped out by the Shu army, and their Chen Guo would also die. , so it will definitely help.But his complaints are sincere.

Among the three kingdoms that dominate the world today, Liang Guo has the most soldiers and horses, with nearly 30 soldiers.Ordinarily, the strength of Liang Guo should also be the strongest, but it is not the case.

There are many soldiers and horses in the Liang Kingdom. That is because when the world was in chaos, the Central Plains were in chaos first, and people from all walks of life rose up one after another, fighting until the sky was dark.The hegemony of the Central Plains has changed hands several times in just a few years, but the change of power is not always fought to the end.In these years, people from all walks of life have merged, surrendered, absorbed, and checked and balanced... Finally, the Central Plains were temporarily pacified, and Liang Guo was born.

When Tao Bei ascended to the position of overlord, he also took over a large number of soldiers and horses left by his predecessor Liu Ping.And these soldiers and horses were taken over by Liu Ping from his predecessor... In short, good and evil are mixed, how can they be a mess?

And such a huge army, although nominally under the jurisdiction of him, General Liang Guo, in fact, there are not many troops that he can really dispatch.It is said that when Shangguanxian was trapped in Puzhou earlier, Tao Bei gave orders to several armies to go to Puzhou to relieve the siege, but those armies either shirked and delayed, avoided the war, or took the opportunity to complain and cry for poverty, insisting that Tao Bei should first issue a large amount of money Come to send troops.As a result, the army of the direct line was restrained and could not be dispatched, and the troops of the non-direct line could not be dispatched. This led to the capture of Shangguan Xian, who was fighting alone, by the Shu army four months later.

As for why Tao Bei didn't dismiss those disobedient troops?He does have such thoughts, but he has not been in office for a long time, how dare he act rashly in order to secure his position?He originally thought that he would slowly get rid of these dissidents after he had secured his position, but the enemy didn't give him time and opportunity!

Moreover, since the army could not be dismantled, in order to strengthen his power, he had to continue recruiting and expanding the army to strengthen the power of his direct line, which made Liang Guo's army too big to lose.

Tao Bei has already tried his best to raise military rations, garrison land, tax increases, borrowing... Even the matter of cutting off Shangguan Xiandang earlier, he deliberately implicated many people into the water, and he also took the opportunity to seize the properties of some wealthy and powerful households to make up for it. For military funds.In this way, he is still extremely difficult to maintain.

Now that Henan is lost, the army that defected to the enemy is a minor matter, but the loss of Liang Guo's most fertile land is a major matter.The turnover of the Liang court has become more and more difficult...

Since ancient times, some people have called the army "Pixiu", saying that it has the ability to guard peace, luck and avoid evil.But Pixiu is also a terrible gold-swallowing beast, which feeds on wealth from all directions and swallows everything without diarrhea.This point, Tao Bei really has a deep understanding.

Liu Jiangping was extremely dissatisfied with Tao Bei's lion's mouth, but now Chen Guo really couldn't let Liang Guo fall into chaos, so he could only bargain with Tao Bei in order to negotiate a result acceptable to both parties.

After a lot of confrontation, the two sides finally reached an agreement that Chen Guo can assist Liang Guo with [-] shi of grain.For this reason, Liang Guo needs to give Chen Guo corresponding benefits in a number of national policies.However, the details of these national policies need to be negotiated slowly by the officials of both sides, and they cannot be negotiated between Liu Jiangping and Tao Bei during the banquet.

In addition to those national policies, there is another more important condition for Chen Guo to subsidize food and grass for Liang Guo——

General Liu Jiangping asked suspiciously: "Mr. Tao, are you really sure to repel the Shu army and regain Henan?"

Tao Bei's face was as frosty as frost, and he said loudly, "Recovering Henan is related to the fate of our Daliang Kingdom. You don't need Mr. Liu to say, our Liang Kingdom will do everything we can!"

Seeing his firm tone, Liu Jiangping seemed to have a plan in mind, so he couldn't help but feel relieved.

The most important reason why Chen Guo subsidized Liang Guo's military expenditure was because Tao Bei promised that after receiving the military expenditure, Liang Guo's army would immediately repel the Shu army and conquer Henan!

It must be known that the rich and powerful of Chen State panicked precisely because the Shu army was victorious, taking Changsha first and then Henan, and they were about to attack Jiangnan soon. Can they not be panicked?And Tao Bei can only continue to be evenly matched with the Shu army if he regains Henan, and can Chen Guo continue to maintain the current situation.That's why Chen Guo was willing to pay Liang Guo to regain their territory.

But even though Tao Bei made the promise, is he really sure of regaining Henan? ——Liu Jiangping didn't know, although Tao Bei certainly had this intention, but he couldn't be sure of it.

The reason why Tao Bei made such a solemn promise was because he had to get funding from Chen Guo, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to survive this year; secondly, he had a lot to do about recovering Henan.

Liang Guo's huge, chaotic, and non-directed troops were not only of no benefit to him, but also became a burden that would drag him to death at any time.He had wanted to get rid of these troops a long time ago, but if the tens of thousands of troops were dismissed simply and rudely, then these soldiers would definitely rebel.And if you want to exterminate these people by yourself, firstly, it will be difficult to do so, and secondly, there is still the possibility of forcing them back.So the best way to deal with these armies is to let them die on the battlefield.

Before Tao Bei tried to mobilize these troops to fight again and again, but those troops who were greedy for life and fear of death always refused to fight on the grounds of insufficient food and wages.Now that they have food and pay, and have an alliance with Chen Guo, it will be difficult for these troops to resist the war.In order to receive food and salaries, they must march to Henan.

Tao Bei also knew that although these troops were large in number, their combat effectiveness was not strong, so it was difficult for them to repel the Shu army.Tao Bei was not confident.But it doesn't matter, no matter who wins in the end, it will be a good thing for Tao Bei.The victory of the Shu army is because he used the hands of the Shu army to get rid of dissidents, and at the same time caused a certain amount of consumption to the Shu army; if these mobs repelled the Shu army and helped him regain Henan, that would be even better. They saved Liang Guo's national destiny!

Of course, Tao Bei couldn't miss out on such a guaranteed profit-free transaction.

The two reached an agreement, and it was getting late, and the rest of the details would be discussed by the officials of both sides, so Tao Bei ordered Liu Jiangping to be sent back to rest.

……

……

The darkness is all together, and the night wind gradually rises.

On the first watch, the evening drums sounded, the city gates were closed, and the people in the city returned to their residences, closed their doors, and began a curfew; All places are already invisible; at the third watch, the clouds and mists cleared, the stars and rivers shone, and everything was silent; at the fourth watch, the moon sank to the west, and the stars in the sky dimmed;

Some houses have opened their doors and windows, but the streets in the city are still empty before the time of lifting the ban.

The defenders who had stood on guard all night on the city tower breathed heavily, counting how long it would take before changing guard. Suddenly, the sound of horseshoes sounded on the plain that had been quiet all night.

The guards were alarmed by the sound of hooves, and they all looked down the tower.I saw a person riding a horse against the morning light, a black silhouette in the red light, no one could see who it was.

"Who's here?"

"I don't know...it's not time to lift the curfew, so first detain him and then talk."

Not long after, the single rider galloped closer and stopped under the tower.

"Who is coming?! Get off your horse quickly!" the soldiers guarding the city asked loudly.They were afraid that the comer would be unkind, so the archers even set up their bows and were ready to shoot arrows at any time.

The people below the city tower didn't say a word, they didn't get off their horses, they just stared blankly at the tall city gate in a daze.

The officer in charge of guarding the city stood above and observed for a while, seeing that the man did not look like he had a weapon on him, nor did he look like a spy who came to spy on the intelligence, so he ordered: "Go out of the city and detain him."

Soon, the side door of the tower opened, and a group of soldiers with knives rushed out, surrounding the man on horseback.

"Who are you? Is there an ultimatum? Why are you traveling in the middle of the night? Don't get off your horse quickly!" A soldier asked loudly again.

It wasn't until everyone got closer that they realized that the person riding the horse was a thin man.His cheeks and eye sockets were deeply sunken, as if he had fled from a disaster.But he is tall and straight, like a martial artist.What's more, horses are rare things. If ordinary people, where can they get such a good horse?

Facing the soldier's questioning, the man just slowly looked around and moved his lips, as if he wanted to say something, but he still didn't speak.

The two sides stalemate for a while, the soldiers lost their patience and were about to step forward to take him down forcibly, when someone suddenly said incredulously, "Are you... Shangguan... General?"

Everyone was stunned.

Except for Shangguan Xian, there is no second Shangguan general in Liang Guo.And Shangguanxian also stayed in Yedu for a period of time before he was stationed in Henan, and presided over some important military affairs, so quite a few soldiers had seen him.It's just that some people only thought this person was familiar, but couldn't remember who he was. After being reminded by others, more people recognized him.

Everyone was in an uproar!

——It’s really Shangguanxian! !He used to be strong and burly, but now he is as skinny as a stick, and his previous energy seems to have been emptied, which made people not recognize him immediately.

All the soldiers guarding the city were dumbfounded.Didn't it mean that Shangguan Xian had already been captured by the Shu army?Why did you come back again? !And how did he become like this?Now how to do? ?

Ordinarily, he violated the curfew and was a general who had surrendered to the enemy. The soldiers should arrest him immediately.But Shangguan Xian's reputation was still there, the soldiers hesitated, and no one dared to step forward and drag him off his horse.

The officer guarding the city didn't know what to do, so he hurriedly ordered to a small soldier beside him: "Quick, hurry up and inform the general that General Shangguan is back!"

The pawn nodded repeatedly and rushed towards the inner city.

Shangguan Xian was still standing under the city tower, more and more people surrounded him, and more and more heads were protruding from the city wall. People rushed to observe him and talk about him.

And he didn't say a word, lowered his eyes and looked at the ground, waiting quietly...