Liang Jun was walking forward, and suddenly a spy came back in a hurry to report: "Your Highness, for some reason, the gate of Qizhou City was opened wide, a white flag was raised on the city, and Du Shaojie, dressed in plain clothes and white clothes, tied himself outside the city gate. Let the last general carry this letter of surrender."
"Surrender?" Before Xiao Yunyan could speak, the people around him were already muttering.
"We haven't attacked the city yet, why did we surrender?"
"Isn't this a ploy to lure troops? Your Highness, should we retreat?"
Xiao Yunyan finished reading the surrender letter and said: "Go forward."
A famous young general immediately stopped him: "No, Your Highness, this must be a deceitful plan. Your Highness cannot believe it easily."
"I believe it when I say it."
The young general had no choice but to let him have his way. The team walked a few more miles, and suddenly a Pegasus galloped towards them. The person on the horse shouted: "Your Highness."
When Xiao Yunyan heard it, it was Luo Hu's voice, and he hurried forward to greet him. When he got close, Luo Hu said: "Your Highness, I believe it. Your Highness just needs to move forward."
"Understood." As he said this, Xiao Yunyan ordered the soldiers behind him, "Move forward quickly."
When we were almost approaching the city gate, we saw a white flag hanging high, and a man in plain clothes and white clothes outside the city gate, shouting: "General Du Shaojie greets His Royal Highness King Ji."
People around Xiao Yunyan whispered again: "It's really Du Shaojie." "It's really not a fake surrender."
Du Shaojie shouted to Xiao Yunyan: "General Du Shaojie has seen His Highness King Ji and came to welcome His Highness into the city."
Xiao Yunyan said to the people around him: "Hurry and help General Du up."
Everyone went up to help Du Shaojie up, surrounded by a group of people in front and on the left and right. Xiao Yunyan said: "General Lao Du will lead the way." After that, the group entered the city.
...
Everything was surprisingly smooth, there was no fighting or fighting, and the big banners on the city wall had been replaced with the words "Xiao" and "Liang" which caught the people off guard.
There were sounds of joy in the city, as He Lianyi and Shen Liuxiang stood on the top of the city, their backs swaying. The master and servant never communicated about this matter. Chen Liuxiang finally couldn't help asking what she had been thinking about for many days: "Princess, is it right or wrong for us to do this?"
He Lianyi knew what she was thinking, and she said resolutely: "Only by doing this can Xiao Yunyan completely trust me."
Shen Liuxiang couldn't hold back the tears in her eyes, "But, this was originally our city, could it really be handed over to others like this?"
Helianyi's voice was still cold: "You have forgotten that there is not an inch of land in the world that can accommodate us."
"But the people here, the people here..."
He Lianyi interrupted Chen Liuxiang's words, and there was a hint of gentleness in his voice, "Only by doing this can we protect all the people and all the people. I will give away more cities in the future. But one day, I will give up more cities." I’ll get back everything I lost.”
While He Lianyi was talking, Chen Liuxiang caught a glimpse of Xiao Yunyan arriving at the top of the city at some point, standing far away, looking at He Lianyi who was looking eastward. Chen Liuxiang reminded in a low voice: "Princess, Prince Ji is here."
He Lianyi looked at Xiao Yunyan and told Chen Liuxiang: "Go down first."
"Yes." When Chen Liuxiang left in a hurry, Xiao Yunyan walked to her side.
Helianyi asked: "Your Highness, aren't you afraid that it's my trick?"
Xiao Yunyan smiled and said: "I only have two thousand soldiers and horses. If you really want to deal with me, you don't have to use such a formation, so of course I believe you."
"This time I am just trying my best, just to show my sincerity in cooperating with His Highness."
"So what do you want to do next?"
"I want to get more troops for His Highness."
Xiao Yunyan looked at her in disbelief.
He Lianyi asked: "Your Highness, do you think I am talking nonsense?"
Xiao Yunyan shook his head, "No, I completely believe in your ability, but how can you fight for me?"
"Your Highness must have heard of the name Lu Zhongjian, right?"
"Of course I have. He was your father's favorite when he was still alive. He had the talents of Guan Zhong and Le Yi, the ambition of a sleeping dragon and a phoenix. He was also upright and a man of integrity. Helian Dingbang usurped your father's power. When the emperor took the throne, he was patrolling outside. Fortunately, he escaped. After the Great Xia coup, he disappeared. Why, he is now..."
"He is also in Qizhou City now. The noble person I told His Highness that day was him."
"I see. So what do you want to do..."
"I want His Highness to introduce him to your father."
"Recommendation?" Xiao Yunyan looked surprised, "Recommendation is not difficult, but why do you need to introduce me?"
"Lord Lu said: Your father's biggest headache right now is the matter of establishing a heir apparent, so I want to help you solve your problems."
"Oh? I'd like to hear the details."
"Your Majesty has been reluctant to establish a new crown prince. It can be seen that the reason why he favored the Liang family's party in the first place was just to suppress the prince. Now that the prince has passed away, Xiao Yunhao and the Liang family's party behind him are no longer of use, so they He became an abandoned son. But a few years ago, the Liang brothers had too many troops. Now Liang Yong and Liang Wen are holding heavy troops, forcing your Majesty to re-establish him as soon as possible. I wonder if Your Highness has heard of this?"
"I heard about it occasionally."
"I asked Lu Zhongjian to go and lobby your father for restructuring."
"Reform? What kind of system should we reform?"
"Your Highness thinks it is good, but your father may not think so. What he wants most now is to try his best to disperse the forces and power of all parties. I heard that Miss Sun of the Zhongshu Ling family in Daliang was originally selected by the Queen Mother I gave it to His Highness as the Princess, but in the end the wrong mandarin duck was given to King Yi, has Your Highness ever thought about it?"
"I don't know, I never thought about it."
He Lianyi didn't believe it, "Your Highness, you really haven't thought about it?"
"After the prince passed away, I had no time to think about that, but I would like to hear your opinion."
"That's because your Majesty has long planned to give up on the Liang family, and also hopes that the forces of all parties will be balanced. If one day His Highness really marries Miss Xu, then the head of the civil servants, Xu Zhengrong, and His Highness's grandfather, Mr. Yang, will strongly recommend it. Your Highness is the successor to the crown prince. For your father, this is undoubtedly another former prince. Naturally, the Liang family will not be your opponent. Therefore, your father cannot let you stand out in any way, but you must find someone to compete with you. .With the death of your crown prince, His Highness and King Yi have become the candidates for the heir apparent."
"But I don't want to be anyone's pawn, even if he is my father." Xiao Yunyan's eyes were full of disdain and resentment.
"But this does not conflict with Your Highness getting more troops. Does Your Highness also want to refuse?"
"Even if it succeeds, why do I get those soldiers instead of giving them to Sixth Brother?"
"It's still what I said: Your Majesty is in his prime, and he has no plans to establish a throne again for the time being, so he must not be able to tolerate the situation where any prince excels. He will definitely give you this army."
After thinking for a long time, Xiao Yunyan asked: "Then why do you have to help me?"
"Your Highness still refuses to let me go, so your Highness is the only choice I have. I also said that this is the most convenient way for me."
Xiao Yunyan shook his head and looked at her with burning eyes, "That's wrong."
"What's wrong?"
"I have seen your intelligence. If you really want to escape from me, you will definitely be able to escape."
"So what if I escaped. The world is huge, but there is no place for me, Helianyi, anywhere. I was born in Changning Palace in Yong'an City, but now it has become a place in my dreams that is out of reach."
Xiao Yunyan looked at the longing for her homeland in her eyes, and couldn't help but feel pity. For a moment, her heart turned softly, and she said: "If you believe me, this unreachable thing can be made within your reach."
"If Your Highness is willing to believe me, I am also confident that I can help Your Highness capture Yong'an City and break through Changning Palace faster. However, I would also like to ask Your Highness to hand over Helian Dingbang to me."
Xiao Yunyan looked at her suspiciously, "Do you - do you have any other requests?"
"Yes, I have two more requests."
"Say it." Xiao Yunyan's face turned cold again, as expected.
"I want Your Highness to promise to treat my people well."
Xiao Yunyan glanced at her: "Of course, from now on they are my subjects of Daliang."
"In this case, I hope that your highness can persuade your father to exempt them from taxes for one year and open a market for mutual trade between Qizhou and Xuanzhou. Also, Qizhou is rich in tea, but Helian Dingbang does not allow people to privately The sale and purchase of tea are all under the control of the imperial court. Therefore, I ask Your Highness to make a request to give the people the right to sell tea on their own."
"Opening markets for mutual trade is a matter of course. Allowing people to sell tea independently can also be considered, but without taxation, I'm afraid this won't go so smoothly."
"In order to prepare for war, Helian Dingbang has imposed a large increase in grain taxes. The people have already been resentful and complaining. I just hope that His Highness can persuade your Majesty to waive the taxes for the past two or three years and also provide sufficient benefits to the people. Then Your Highness will naturally understand what people want in the future, and perhaps the Liangcheng, Weizhou, etc. in front of you will follow suit and surrender to Your Highness in the future. If you can expand your territory without spending a single soldier, why wouldn't you do it?"
Xiao Yunyan thought carefully about He Lianyi's words and felt that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages, so he readily agreed, "Okay, I can give it a try in front of my father. What else?"
"One more thing. The prefects and generals in Liangcheng are loyal to my father. I will go to Liangcheng tomorrow to persuade them to surrender. But I hope that on the day they surrender, Your Highness will also invite King Yi to come. Attend a banquet.”
Xiao Yunyan looked at her for a while and asked, "What do you want him to do?"
"Your Highness should try to be equal to King Yi."
"Being on equal terms? Is this the reason?"
"Of course, let everyone in Daliang know that His Highness is not inferior to King Yi in any aspect."
Xiao Yunyan looked at her, his eyes gradually turned cold.
Helianyi saw his expression and asked, "Your Highness, don't you believe what I said?"
Xiao Yunyan seemed to have finally come to his senses. Although there was still doubt and vigilance on his face, he responded readily: "Okay."
"What about repairing books?"
"I will go back to repair my books now." After saying that, he turned and left.
...
On the school grounds, the soldiers were practicing. Luo Hu handed a letter to Xiao Yunyan and said, "Your Highness, this is a letter from Mr. He."
Xiao Yunyan took a quick look and went back to his barracks. Luo Hu followed him all the way and saw that he never said a word. Although he looked unhappy, he still decided to break the casserole and ask the truth. He asked cautiously: "Your Highness, is there anything bad?"
Xiao Yunyan looked a little indifferent, but said: "Good thing, Liangcheng has decided to surrender."
"Surrender?" Luo Hu couldn't help but clapped his hands: "Surrender again without fighting? This Mr. He is really powerful!"
Xiao Yunyan sneered coldly, but said no more. Luo Hu asked strangely: "Your Highness, is there any problem?"
"She insists on inviting King Yi. What do you think she is worried about?"
"King Yi?" Luo Hu thought for a moment and said, "The reason why Helian Dingbang rebelled in the first place was because she listened to the instigation of the intermediaries sent by King Yi. Could she be seeking to assassinate King Yi? Opportunity?"
"It's not easy to assassinate her. But she has soldiers and horses in her hands now. Maybe it's not difficult to assassinate her." Xiao Yunyan thought for a while and then said to Luo Hu: "Luo Hu, send some people to investigate secretly. , from Kangyuan to Qizhou, are there any ambush along the way?"
"yes."
