Liang Jun was walking forward, and suddenly a spy came back in a hurry to report: "Your Highness, for some reason, the gate of Liaozhou 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, and also 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 must not believe it easily."
"I believe it when I say it."
The young general had no choice but to let him have his own 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."
"I understand." As he said this, Xiao Yunyan ordered the soldiers behind him: "Move forward quickly."
As they were approaching the city gate, they saw white flags hanging high, and several people in plain clothes and white clothes kneeling outside the city gate. The leader shouted: "General Du Shaojie welcomes His Royal Highness King Ji."
The people around Xiao Yunyan whispered again: "It is really Du Shaojie." "It seems that it is not a false 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 and others up, and surrounded 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, your father's favorite ministers when he was still alive were known to have the talents of Guan Zhong and Le Yi, the ambition of a sleeping dragon and a phoenix young, and they were upright and upright. They were people who were strict. When Helian Dingbang usurped your father's throne, He was out on patrol, but fortunately he escaped, but after the Great Xia coup, he disappeared."
"Your Highness doesn't know, but he is also in Liaozhou City now. I want Your Highness to introduce him to your father."
"It's not difficult to introduce, but why do you need to introduce?"
"He said that your father's biggest headache right now is the matter of establishing a heir apparent, so he wanted to help your father solve the problem."
"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 and forcing your Majesty to re-establish the throne 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."
"Okay, then let me say: That is because your Majesty has long planned to give up the Liang family, and also hopes that the forces of all parties will be balanced. If one day His Highness really marries Miss Xu as his wife, then Xu Zhengrong, the head of the civil servants, and His Highness's Grandpa Yang will all strongly recommend His Highness as the successor prince. For your father, this is undoubtedly another former prince. The Liang family will naturally not be your opponents. Therefore, he cannot let you stand out in any way, but You need to find someone to compete with you. Therefore, 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."
"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."
"Then why do you have to help me?"
"Your Highness still refuses to let me go, so your Highness is my only choice."
Xiao Yunyan shook his head and said: "That's wrong."
"What's wrong?"
"I have seen your intelligence in the past few days. With your intelligence, if you really want to escape from me, you will definitely be able to escape."
"I have already agreed. If I rely on His Highness's power, I will definitely be able to eradicate Helian Dingbang faster. If Your Highness is willing to trust me, I am also confident that I can help Your Highness capture Yanling faster, so that you and I can each get what we need. . Once the struggle is successful, I will follow His Highness all the way, and I will be able to see Helian Dingbang as soon as possible. Then I would like to ask Your Highness to leave Helian Dingbang to me."
Xiao Yunyan looked at her suspiciously, "Do you have any other requests?"
"Yes, I have one more request."
"you say."
"I want Your Highness to promise to treat my people well."
Xiao Yunyan said: "Of course, they are not only your people, they are also my people from now on, the people of my Daliang."
"In this case, I hope your Highness can persuade your father to exempt them from taxes for one year and open a market for mutual trade between Liaozhou and Dingzhou. Also, Liaozhou is rich in tea, but Daning now does not allow people to sell it privately. Tea and the sale of tea are all under the control of the government. So I ask His 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 this year and also provide the people with sufficient benefits. Then Your Highness In the future, people will naturally decide what they want, and maybe Liangcheng, Weizhou... will follow suit and surrender to His Highness in the future. If you can expand your territory without spending a single soldier, why wouldn't you do it?"
Xiao Yunyan was a little hesitant, but after thinking about He Lianyi's words carefully, he felt that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages, so he readily agreed, "Okay, I'll give it a try."
"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 this time, I have a request. I wonder if your highness can agree to it?"
"That depends on what the requirements are."
"On the day they surrender, Your Highness will also invite King Yi to come to the 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 and answered after a long time: "Okay."
"What about repairing books?"
"I will go back to repair my book now."
...
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 Liaozhou, are there any ambush along the way?"
"yes."
