Li Yu hesitated again and again, but finally decided to believe Xu Wen's sincerity, ordered Kaicheng to surrender, and prepared to meet Xu Wen and forget their grudges.
He underestimated Xu Wen's ambition and the cruelty he had developed in order to achieve this ambition. Facing the disarmed Li Yu in Kaicheng, Xu Wen ordered: Kill his whole family!
Li Yu in Xuanzhou was massacred. At this time, the generals in Huainan looked at Xu Wen with new eyes. This "honest man" who was once submissive and cowardly no longer pretended, and he showed his cards.
In fact, Li Yu took the bullet for Liu Wei out of a sudden enthusiasm. The "chicken" Xu Wen really wanted to kill was Liu Wei.
Liu Wei's reputation in the Huainan army was so high that there were voices calling for Liu Wei to succeed Yang Xingmi. A long time ago, Xu Wen's staff suggested that Liu Wei should be operated on first. Only by successfully killing Liu Wei could he secure his position in Huainan. And Xu Wen was indeed seriously deploying joint military and political operations against Liu Wei.
Various gossips and rumors are spreading all over the city, saying that Xu Wen is going to have Liu Wei operated on.
Liu Wei's staff also gave him advice. Some suggested that he take a preemptive strike, "Qingjun side", "Qinwang", "Soldiers"; others advised him to go to Yangzhou alone, meet Yang Wei in person, and prove his innocence...
Li Yu's tragic experience made Liu Wei accept the last suggestion and decided to go to Yangzhou alone to express his true feelings.
Affected by Li Yu, Tao Ya was also frightened, so she went to Yangzhou hand in hand with Liu Wei to express her loyalty to her lord.
Dark clouds are gathering over the city of Yangzhou. This meeting will determine the rise and fall of the Huainan Group, and will even influence the direction of Chinese history:
If Xu Wen accepts the two, then the Huainan Group will officially establish Comrade Xu Wen's dominance, and from then on, the Huainan forces will officially enter the Xu Wen period;
Once the armies meet, the Huainan Group will inevitably fall apart, and the former Huainan power will fall apart, which will have a major impact on the entire Central Plains.
Xu Wen showed amazing sincerity to his two old colleagues and entrepreneurial veterans, showing them his broad mind. According to records, Xu Wen treated the two of them with great respect, humility and courtesy, just like he treated his late master Yang Xingmi. He also gave them positions and titles and generous rewards.
Liu Wei and Tao Ya were flattered, and they were respectful to Xu Wen. They accepted his leadership with sincerity and expressed their willingness to obey his command and dispatch, just like they were loyal to Yang Xingmi.
At Xu Wen's suggestion, the three of them led the civil and military officials to meet with Li Yan, the imperial envoy of the Tang Dynasty (son of Zhang Jun, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty), who represented the Tang Dynasty. Then Li Yan responded to the people and conferred the imperial title on Yang Weijia on behalf of the Tang Dynasty. Master, granted the title of King of Wu.
In fact, Li Yan was just a mascot-like existence. At this time, the Tang Dynasty had been dead for several years.
Later, Xu Wen released Liu Wei and Tao Yage back to their own territory. This move won the unanimous favor of the generals.
During this period, although the power in Huainan was nominally controlled by Yang Wei, the actual controller was Xu Wen. Under Xu Wen's management, a large-scale armed conflict broke out between Huainan and Hangzhou Qianliu. Its influence spread to today's Fujian, Jiangxi, Lianghu and other regions. It can be regarded as a regional hegemony between the Jianghuai duo. The dominance of Jianghuai's first brother.
In the first year of Kaiping (907), Zhu Wen proclaimed himself emperor, Huainan refused to recognize the Later Liang, and Hangzhou Qian Liu became a vassal of the Later Liang. So Zhu Wen consecrated Qian Liu as the King of Wuyue and gave him a lot of rewards, including "concurrently the military envoy to Huainan, the governor of Yangzhou, and the envoy to Huainan from all sides." The meaning is obvious, give Huainan to Qian Liu, but "make him take it for himself" and provoke a fight between the Jianghuai heroes.
Of course Qian Liu gladly accepted the appointment, but he did not send troops to conquer Huainan for a long time. He was waiting for the right moment.
The opportunity came. Four months later, Huainan attacked the brothers Wei Quanxi and Xinzhou Wei Zaichang of Fuzhou. Xinzhou Wei Zaichang asked Qian Liu of Hangzhou for help. Therefore, Qian Liu sent troops to attack Ganlu Town under the control of Huainan, surrounded Wei to rescue Zhao, and supported Xinzhou.
Zhu Wen was very pleased to hear that dogs bit dogs, so he ordered Lin'an County in Hangzhou to be renamed Anguo County, and Guangxi Township to be Yijin Township. He was promoted to the governor's office in Hangzhou and Yuezhou, and because he heard that Qian Liu liked jade belts, he presented him with a box of jade belts and ten playing horses.
"Take him!" Zhu Wen's joy was beyond words.
Qian Liu also sent envoys to Bianzhou and made an appointment with Zhu Wen to jointly send troops to attack Huainan.
At that time, Huainan was fighting on the western front with Gao Jichang of Jingnan and Ma Yin of Tanzhou. It was facing the threat of Qian Liu in the east, and it had to beware of Zhu Wen's flanking attacks in the north. The situation was very critical.
However, Zhu Wen was caught in the "Battle of Luzhou" at that time, and was inextricably linked with Li Cunxu of Hedong; Gao Jichang of Jingnan and Ma Yin of Tanzhou were defeated by Huainan.
God bless Huainan, Huainan immediately transferred its main troops from the western front to the eastern front to fully deal with Qian Liu in Hangzhou.
Isn't it just to surround Wei and rescue Zhao? Huainan targeted Suzhou under Qian Liu's rule, and it was necessary to attack the enemy and save it. The "Battle of Suzhou" began.
When Huainan troops came to Suzhou City, they used a "cave house" to attack the city, which is a siege device often seen in strategy games. Simply put, it is a small mobile house that can withstand the defenders' arrows and the soldiers hide inside. Push it forward to the city walls and destroy the city walls or gates.
The Suzhou defenders tied long bamboo poles to large iron hooks and uncovered the roof of the cave house.
The Huainan soldiers then used catapults to launch catapults from a long distance, while the Suzhou defenders opened giant nets to contain them.
The offensive battle was extremely fierce, and the Huainan soldiers failed to make any progress.
Qian Liu sent his younger brother Qian Biao, general Du Jianhui and others to support him; at the same time, he sent troops to attack Changzhou under Huainan.
In Suzhou, the defenders and reinforcements cooperated with each other and attacked from both inside and outside. They defeated the Huainan soldiers, captured more than 3,000 Huainan generals and 300,000 soldiers alive, and captured more than 200 warships. Huainan generals Zhou Ben and Lu Shizao escaped at night, but were overtaken by the Hangzhou pursuers at Huangtiandang and suffered heavy losses;
In Changzhou, the Hangzhou soldiers won first and then lost, but they also failed to capture Changzhou.
Although the territory of both sides has not changed, it is obvious that Huainan has suffered more heavy losses.
At the same time, Fuzhou Wei Zichang obtained the support of Tanzhou Ma Yin and launched a massive counterattack on Huainan. He assembled a large number of troops, claiming that he had a hundred thousand troops to attack Hongzhou. However, Hongzhou's Huainan garrison only had a thousand people.
It's almost a 100:1 strength comparison. The Hongzhou soldiers were terrified, but the coach was calm and confident. Because the coach’s name is Liu Wei.
Liu Wei secretly sent people to Yangzhou to ask for help. At the same time, he held a banquet every day and drank as much as he wanted with his subordinates and his staff. After drinking, he ran to the city gate tower to play the piano to pay tribute to Zhuge Liang who planned to empty the city. Calm and calm, as if there is no one else around.
