Chen Xiaomu had been taking a bath for an hour. There was a special room in the inn for guests to take a bath with a tall wooden bucket. One of the two brothers, He Jian and He Quan, was responsible for boiling the water and the other was responsible for delivering the water. The two almost filled the wooden bucket. After filling up the water, Chen Xiaomu climbed out after washing. He looked back at the water in the bucket, and he found that the large bucket of water had been washed into dark gray by him.
Chen Xiaomu wiped the water stains on his body with a piece of dry linen cloth, and then with the help of He Quan, he put on the new clothes bought by Li Gui. He felt so comfortable that it was beyond words. After nearly two months of growth, Chen Xiaomu's face Her hair has grown long, but it is not long enough to be tied into a bun, but it looks very much like the middle-parted hair of later generations.
After a long flight for nearly a day and night, a homing pigeon finally fluttered its wings and flew into the Prime Minister's Mansion in Xijing, the capital of the Qin State, in the evening. Then it fell headlong and died in the courtyard of the Prime Minister's Mansion. Ye Xin, the housekeeper of the Prime Minister's Mansion, hurriedly He ran over and picked up the carrier pigeon, whose wings were still trembling slightly, and sent it to Gao Jianli, who was discussing something with someone in the Prime Minister's study.
After taking the carrier pigeon from Ye Xin's hand, Gao Jianli suddenly felt an ominous premonition in his heart. Under normal circumstances, there was nothing urgent. Intelligence spies outside would not be willing to feed the carrier pigeons such deadly drugs as Xuli Powder. You know In ancient times, it was very difficult to train a carrier pigeon that could deliver messages. After the carrier pigeon was fed with Sulili Powder, it would fly non-stop in the sky without even a chance to land for food. It would fly until it was exhausted, of course. To ensure that the letter can be delivered, at least five carrier pigeons must be fed at a time. In the end, one carrier pigeon with super endurance must fly back. However, to prevent leaks, the letters carried by these carrier pigeons are usually in the agreed currency. It is composed of unrelated words. What unrelated people see is just a chat note. But once the note gets into the hands of people like Gao Jianli, he can read the real content of the note from the agreed words and can transmit it. The identity of the person who wrote this top-secret code note was at least a prominent figure placed by the Qin State in this country. In fact, he was the intelligence leader of the Qin State in this country.
Gao Jianli quickly untied the note from the still warm corpse of the pigeon. After reading the note, he frowned into a Sichuan shape and began to pace slowly in the study. At this time, he was called by the Ministry of Industry of the State of Qin to discuss the matter. Shangshu Ge Chuan stood up from his chair, cupped his hands to him and said, "I guess Master Zaifu has something important to attend to. Why don't you come and visit me another day?"
Gao Jianli nodded and warned, "I would also like to ask Lord Shangshu to pay more attention to this item called explosives. In the future, this item may be the key reason why the country can complete the great cause of unification!"
"Please rest assured, Mr. Zaifu. Tomorrow morning I will stop all the affairs of the weapons supervisor and let them concentrate on learning about this object called explosives."
After sending Ge Chuan away, Gao Jianli thought about it for a while and decided to go to the palace to meet Qin Emperor Martial Arts. He must discuss in advance a strategy to deal with Chen Xiaomu, a person who would most likely hinder their unification in the future.
When Gao Jianli rushed to the palace, it was already dark. Qinhuang Wu Dao was playing chess with Queen Lu Yan in the Chunming Palace of Queen Lu Yan. After hearing the deacon and eunuch coming to report, the game between Wu Dao and Lu Yan was in full swing. At the same time, he was too lazy to go to the Imperial Study Room, so he asked the deacon and eunuch to take Gao Jianli directly to the Chunming Palace of Queen Lu Yan.
Seeing Gao Jianli come in with the deacon and eunuch, Wu Dao smiled at Lu Yan and said, "Zitong, do you think Mr. Zaifu came here so late, does he bring good news or bad news?"
Lu Yan opened her red lips lightly and smiled softly: "Whether it's good news or bad news, I congratulate the emperor on getting a capable minister who can take away your worries!"
Gao Jianli heard this and hurriedly made an explanation to Lu Yan, "The Queen is really overrated. I just want to do my duty for the Emperor!"
Wu Dao waved his hand and asked Gao Jianli with a smile, "Master Zaifu, look at how hurried you are! Is it that Chen Xiaomu has led his troops to capture Xinyang Pass in Chu State?"
Gao Jianli pondered for a moment, then bowed his hand to Martial Arts and said: "Your Majesty, this Chen Xiaomu did not attack Xinyang Pass as we expected, but directly used a trick to easily capture Xinjing, the capital of the Zheng Kingdom!"
"What?" Wu Dao was startled and stood up from his chair. "Tell me clearly, what plan did Chen Xiaomu use to take over Xinjing City?"
"He first used a force of thousands of troops to pretend to be in front of most of his troops, pretending to attack Chu's Xinyang Pass, and attracted the Chu army's defenders in Xinjing City to come out and pursue them. Then he set up an ambush not far from Xinjing, and wiped out the Chu army that was chasing out of Xinjing city in one fell swoop. Then he put on the Chu army’s armor, pretended to be a Chu army, and pretended to open the gate of Xinjing city, and occupied Xinjing city!”
Wu Dao pondered for a moment, then suddenly laughed and said: "This Chen Xiaomu looks smart, but in reality he is a mediocre man without strategic vision. He is just a general with combat capabilities but no long-term strategic plan. If it were me, I would rather not have a new The capital also wants to capture Xinyang Pass!
After seizing Xinyang Pass, it was equivalent to closing the door to Zheng State. The Chu army remaining in Zheng State was wiped out. In addition, the strategic location of Xinyang Pass was also occupied. Chu State wanted to attack Zheng State there in the future. Stationing troops? Wusheng Pass behind Xinyang Festival is only a small pass, and it does not have the high walls and deep trenches like Xinyang Pass. It can hold 100,000 troops at the top of the sky. If an attack on Wusheng Pass is launched at Xinyang Pass, within one day Just solve the problem! "
"My emperor is wise! But this Chen Xiaomu really can't be looked at with conventional eyes. After he seizes Xinjing, he may not be interested in Xinyang Pass again." Gao Jianli reminded Wu Dao.
"Lord Zaifu, are you worrying too much?" Wu Dao sneered at Gao Jianli's reminder, "How many troops does Chen Xiaomu still have? After capturing Xinjing, he can't just leave an empty city, right? Don't forget the territory of Zheng State. There are still at least twenty cities with troops garrisoned by the Chu State. If these military forces are united, what if he takes the new capital? He will still be defeated!"
"But it is said that most of the people who are staying in Zheng State are the auxiliary troops of Chu Emperor Xiong Ze from the E State that he annexed before. Because of Xiong Ze's previous suppression of E, these people cannot pay for his life. !" Gao Jianli was still arguing.
"It is impossible for the Auxiliary Army of Chu State to pay for its life. Does Chen Xiaomu know about this? He just knows it, how can he not defend it? How dare he turn a capital city of Zheng State that he took painstakingly into an undefended capital city? If he does this If he does, he won't capture the new capital first, but wouldn't it be better to attack Xinyang Pass?" Martial Arts looked at Gao Jianli with burning eyes.
Gao Jianli was speechless for a moment.
In Tianquan County, since it was flooded by the Daling River, this small town on the border of Zheng State has become even colder. Some low-lying areas in the city still have accumulated water from a few days ago. The Chu troops outside the city were drowned. Apart from freezing to death, there was not much left. After Lu Jun and Su Xingran led the city's defenders out of the city several times to encircle and suppress them, they were basically wiped out. Tianquan County ushered in a rare period of peace.
Chen Xiaomu led his army to leave Tianquan County for nearly ten days. During this time, he stayed in the small court of Zheng State in Tianquan City. The main fighting faction and the main defensive faction had a huge quarrel. Almost every time Su Chengxuan summoned them together. In the end, both groups broke up in a quarrel. Since Chen Xiaomu had no reports of the battle except for the two scouts who were sent back to observe the situation when the Daling River Embankment was bombed, Chen Xiaomu advocated staying in Tianquan County. Zheng Guo's Prime Minister Wei Wen who escaped with Su Chengxuan from Xinjing City and the Minister of War Lu Qian both believed that the troops led by Chen Xiaomu had been destroyed by the Chu army outside, and they advocated that Su Chengxuan continue to guard Tianquan County. Gradually develop their own strength, and the main war faction headed by Lu Jun, the commander of the Royal Forest Army, believes that after the two battles in Tianquan County, the Chu State has very few troops stationed in Zheng State. Instead of being trapped in Tianquan County, there is no There is only a small hope of national rejuvenation. It is better to fight to the death and maybe see the dawn of national rejuvenation.
This morning, it was also the morning court time before the Zheng Kingdom was destroyed. Su Chengxuan once again summoned them to come to Tianquan County Government to discuss matters. As soon as everyone sat down in the county government hall, Lu Qian took out a copy of the previous court meeting. The memorial he used said: "This is the military report sent back by the scouting horses I sent out. It said that more than 10,000 horses from our Zheng Kingdom led by the sixth prince of Chen Kingdom disappeared near Xinhe County. I and I Lord Zaifu discussed it before he came over. It is very likely that our army did not go to Xinjing, but changed its route to Chen State, because Chen State is currently at war with Wu and Zhou, and its size is about the same as ours. Needless to say, everyone knows that the war situation in Chen State is not much better than ours. We asked them repeatedly to send troops to aid Zheng, but what happened? We only sent a sixth prince, or a princess from our country. We are married, now that the Chen State is short of troops and it is time to recruit men, this sixth prince of the Chen State has taken our Zheng army to support his country!"
"Without any real evidence, I think Lord Shangshu's statement is just a slander!" As soon as Lu Qian finished speaking, the commander of the Royal Forest Army, Lu Jun, stood up and said angrily.
"Haha, Mr. Lu, you want real evidence, right? Then let me tell you, I have sent out several groups of exploration horses every day these days. They came back and said that the current situation is that the banner of the Chu army is still hanging on the top of the city of Xinhe County. , there are no traces of fighting outside the city, and an army of more than 10,000 people disappeared without any reason. What evidence does Mr. Lu need?" Lu Qian asked Lu Jun.
"Perhaps they are afraid of losing troops and bypassing Xinhe County, so it is not impossible to attack Xinjing directly!" Lu Jun defended with his eyes widened. In fact, Lu Jun has always been grateful to the sixth prince of Chen Guo who avenged his son's murder. When Chen Xiaomu wanted to divide his troops and leave the city, he didn't agree with it, but after Chen Xiaomu's repeated persuasion, he finally agreed. Agreeing, Lu Jun did not deny that this was also a disguised form of repayment for Chen Xiaomu.
"Mr. Lu, you and I are both soldiers. You don't understand. With more than 10,000 soldiers and horses led by Chen Xiaomu to attack Xinjing City, do you believe it? Although we who have survived the Zheng Kingdom now Most of the troops are the Imperial Guards you brought from New Capital City, and they are very powerful. But you should also know very well what the situation is in New Capital City. Without more than 150,000 troops participating in the siege, you can't even think about capturing New Capital City. Don’t even think about it!”
Su Chengxuan, who was sitting in the main seat, listened to the argument between the two, and his face became more and more gloomy. He secretly regretted in his heart that he listened to Lu Jun's advice and agreed to let Chen Xiaomu divide his troops and leave the city, but now he made a wedding dress for her. Originally, he only had this few troops left, but now that Chen Xiaomu has taken away nearly half of his troops. It seems that the hope of restoring the country has now become a mirror in the mirror! Thinking of this made him depressed.
Su Chengxuan turned to look at Su Muyang, who was sitting next to him with a pale face, and whispered: "I'm feeling a little unwell, let them disperse first!"
Su Muyang nodded, and was about to stand up and announce the adjournment of the meeting, when a guard outside hurriedly walked in with a letter in his hand, knelt in front of Su Chengxuan, and reported: "Your Majesty, a man named Du Fengxian came from outside the city. The man said that he is the special envoy of the Chu army stationed in Xinhe County and has urgent matters to see you. This is the letter he shot in with an arrow." The guard raised the letter above his head with both hands as he spoke and presented it to Su Chengxuan .
"Slow down." Seeing Su Chengxuan reaching out to take the letter from the guard, Prime Minister Wei Wen immediately stood up and shouted to stop him. Su Chengxuan's hand stopped in mid-air, and he looked up in shock at Wei Wen, who had stood up from his chair.
Wei Wen bowed to Su Chengxuan and said, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid this letter is poisonous, and I don't think the Chu people who suddenly came to see you would be so kind-hearted!"
"Then burn this poisonous letter quickly?" Lu Qian quickly stood up from his chair and said.
"Your Majesty, I am not afraid of death. I would like to see for Your Majesty what this Chu man wrote in this letter to Your Majesty!" Lu Jun heard this and came over.
