After listening to Yang Yuanze's words, Huang Wenze pretended to suddenly realize it, turned around and bowed to Gao Zongchang, who was sitting on the commander's seat, and said apologetically:
"I am judging a gentleman with a villain's heart. Please forgive me..."
When Gao Zongchang heard this, he snorted coldly and feigned anger:
"Who does Mr. Huang think of me? Brother Zhao and I have had a stormy relationship for decades. How could I just sit back and watch him be so humiliated by this stupid boy Ye Mingsheng?"
Regarding Gao Zongchang's rebuke, Huang Wenze was respectful on the surface, but in fact he was full of contempt in his heart. Everyone knew each other, and they had been friends for decades, and they had been fighting each other for decades, hoping to kill each other.
After angrily scolding Huang Wenze for nearly having a cup of tea, Gao Zongchang, who was a little tired, picked up the teacup and took a sip, then looked at Huang Wenze and said:
"Brother Zhao, do you have any ideas on how to deal with Ye Mingsheng?"
Gao Zongchang finally asked him about the business, and Huang Wenze, who was sprayed with blood by him, immediately cheered up and said:
"Please Sir Gao, please choose a good general and lead an elite army to Zhuoxian County! My general is now collecting the defeated troops in Zhuoxian County and preparing his troops for another battle with the Fengwu Army!"
Huang Wenze's answer did not surprise Gao Zongchang. He coughed slightly. Yang Yuanze, who was standing aside, immediately asked Huang Wenze as if he had been instructed:
"Mr. Huang, your army has just been defeated by the Fengwu Army. It would be a little anxious to talk about counterattack now..."
Faced with Yang Yuanze’s doubts, Huang Wenze explained:
"Although our army was defeated by the Fengwu Army, our commander-in-chief Cong Yun brought back 50,000 troops. These are the elite main force of our army, plus the remnants of the various ministries in Huilong and the newly recruited young and strong villagers. It’s possible to assemble an army of 80,000 men and horses, and with Lord Gao’s troops and horses, we can definitely assemble an army of 100,000 men!”
"Although the Fengwu Army is strong, it has just captured the northern part of Youyan, and my general has been operating in Youyan for decades and has won the hearts of the people. I think that as long as our army can regain its strength, then wherever our army goes, the people will definitely Yes, let’s prepare a pot of jelly to welcome the King’s Master!”
Although Huang Wenze said this with full confidence, Gao Zongchang was doubtful about what he said. According to the information he received, Zhao Fuqu did bring back 40 to 50 thousand people from Yunhe. This is indeed Zhao Fuqu's most powerful asset now.
But this 80,000 troops is indeed a serious exaggeration. In order to rush to aid Yijing, Zhao Yong had already recruited a wave of young men in the south of Youyan. With Zhao Yong's destruction in Guangzong County, tens of thousands of troops under his command Most of them died or surrendered, and only a few thousand people fled back to Zhuoxian County. As for Yi Jing's defeated army, only Zhao Jian'an and several hundred others escaped, while the others all became prisoners of Fengwu's army.
Therefore, if Zhao Fuqu wants to go to the south of Youyan again, it will undoubtedly be very difficult to recruit young people. He may even have to recruit the old, weak, sick and disabled. Even so, don't forget that spring plowing is about to begin, so many laborers have been recruited. If you go to be a soldier, then who will farm the land?
If spring plowing is delayed, the autumn harvest will be dumbfounded, and famine the following year will be inevitable...
And the most important thing is that if Zhao Fuqu was as popular as Huang Wenze said, he wouldn't have been beaten to pieces by the Fengwu Army so quickly!
Therefore, as long as Zhao Fuqu is not crazy about gains and losses, it is absolutely impossible to assemble an army to launch a counterattack against Yi Jing in such a hurry at this time!
Thinking of this, Gao Zongchang immediately shook his head and said:
"Although I am willing to help Brother Zhao, it is the day of spring plowing right now, and the bandits and bandits are most rampant at this time. Therefore, our Henan Army has to stay in the local area to protect the country and the people, so we should plan the day before sending troops to counterattack!"
Huang Wenze was not surprised by the excuse given by Gao Zongchang. He had already known the current situation in Jiyu, and he also knew that Gao Zongchang would never send troops easily.
Therefore, asking Gao Zongchang to send troops to assist him now is nothing more than asking for high prices and paying back the money. Even so, it is still a trick, so he hugged Zhao Fuqu and said sincerely:
"Master Gao, our army is short of food and clothing in Zhuoxian County, and tens of thousands of troops need to rest and reorganize. If we can't counterattack quickly, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold on... ····”
As soon as these words came out, Gao Zongchang immediately understood Huang Wenze's hint. Although he was a little disgusted with Huang Wenze's face, in order to keep Zhao Fuqu, the watchdog, in the south of Youyan, he blocked himself from the very cruel wolf and tiger. Feng Wujun, he hesitated and said:
"I am also very aware of Brother Zhao's difficulties in Yujing! Let's do this! I will support you with one hundred thousand taels of silver, two hundred thousand stones of food, and fifty thousand cloth for you!"
Huang Wenze was of course dissatisfied after listening to Gao Zongchang's words. This was not just a way of sending beggars away, so he immediately continued to speak righteously:
"Sir Gao, my commander-in-chief sent me here to ask for help because of our mutual sympathy, not to ask for alms. We, the Yan army, naturally have the duty to protect our homeland, but the enemy army is fierce after all. Sir, please make preparations in advance!"
Feeling the threat in Huang Wenze's words, Gao Zongchang was a little angry and wanted to walk away, but when he thought that without Zhao Fuqu blocking him in front, the Fengwu Army could march straight into the Central Plains to attack him, so he had no choice but to Restraining his impulse, he was so agitated that he ignored the etiquette and said directly:
"Isn't two hundred thousand taels of silver, three hundred thousand stones of grain, and one hundred thousand bolts of cloth enough?"
Looking at Gao Zongchang who was a little bit off guard, Huang Wenze still argued with reason and said:
"Our army wants to turn the entire southern counties of Youyan into huge fortresses. The strong walls and clear fields will consume the strength of the Fengwu Army. Therefore, the consumption of food is very large. Three hundred thousand dan of food is far from enough... ·············”
Looking at Huang Wenze who still said he was not here to ask for implementation, but now he said it was not enough, Gao Zongchang was also very helpless and could only add more words:
"We can only give you 50,000 more shi of food, and we in Hebei Province don't have enough. As for cloth, we can give you 50,000 more pieces!"
Huang Wenze, who knew something about the situation in Hebei and Yu, also understood that the 300,000 shi of food he could get from Gao Zongchang was probably the limit. Gao Zongchang would definitely not give it to him no matter how much he asked for, so he gave up on it. After a while, he turned to argue on the cloth and said:
"Our soldiers have been fighting for years and need good clothes, so Sir Gao, please add some more to this cloth!"
Gao Zongchang was really impatient with Huang Wenze. In addition, there were still some cloths accumulated over the years in the treasury, so he was too lazy to argue with Huang Wenze and said directly:
"One price! Two hundred thousand taels of silver, three hundred thousand stones of grain, two hundred thousand bolts of cloth! You won't want any more."
Although he was still a little dissatisfied, seeing Gao Zongchang say this, Huang Wenze could only recognize it and bowed to Gao Zongchang and said:
"Wenze would like to thank Mr. Gao for your support on behalf of my commander-in-chief. With this batch of food and grass, we will surely clear the country and cut off the Fengwu Army from the Central Plains..." "
Although it was a bit painful to spill so many things in one go, Gao Zongchang's expression softened a little and he nodded and said after hearing Huang Wenze's promise:
"This is the best!"
After discussing important matters, Huang Wenze didn't stay long and quickly left. Gao Zongchang and Yang Yuanze were the only two people left in the room.
After thinking for a while, Gao Zongchang asked Yang Yuanze:
"Do you think Zhao Fuqu will really withdraw from Youyan and flee to Yunbin?"
Facing Gao Zongchang's inquiry, Yang Yuanze shook his head and said:
"Sir, Huang Wenze is trying to scare us. As long as Zhao Fuqu is not an old fool, he will never do this. Although the Yan army has captured Jinzhong and half of Yunbin territory, as long as Youyan is occupied by Fengwu's army, They are just rootless duckweeds, and the Yan army will be distracted. Feng Han will be able to destroy them without Ye Mingsheng taking action!"
"But sir, we should really pull Zhao Fuqu's hand now and let him be our moat in Hebei and Henan to stop the scourge of the Fengwu Army. In the past, Zhao Fuqu was very ambitious and had always been eyeing us in Hebei and Henan!"
"If Ye Mingsheng hadn't been born, there's no guarantee that Zhao Fuqu wouldn't have attacked our Jiyu after he captured Yunbin. Now that Ye Mingsheng has wiped out his hometown, Zhao Fuqu, this tiger, has become toothless. cat!"
"It can be said that the current situation in Youyan is the most beneficial to our army! Let Zhao Fuqu, the sick cat, and Ye Mingsheng, the wolf cub, bite each other and consume each other. We can reap the benefits by sitting in Hebei Province. The only thing we need to pay attention to is , we can’t feed Zhao Fuqu too much, otherwise Zhao Fuqu will eat his master..."
Listening to Yang Yuanze's analysis, Gao Zongchang nodded and said:
"How is the situation with Cao Changping? Huang Wenze will go to him next."
Yang Yuanze shook his head when he heard this and said:
"Cao Changping should not pay attention to Huang Wenze. Our internal reports in Qilu say that Cao Changping is preparing to go south to fight Feng Keqin in Huainan. In addition, he seems to be conspiring with Xu Zhaojie, the Marquis of Zhenyuan who has just been appointed as the patrol envoy to Anqing. It seems that he is preparing Trick Feng Keqin!"
As soon as these words came out, Gao Zongchang suddenly became interested and asked:
"Oh? Is there anything else like this?"
Seeing Gao Zongchang's high interest, Yang Yuanze introduced carefully:
"Well! Xu Zhaojie relied on Feng Keqin's power to get rid of Chen Chongshan who had defected to Cao Changping, and secured his position as the patrol envoy in Anqing. However, Xu Zhaojie was not a good person. He killed him as soon as he secured his position as the patrol envoy in Anqing. Li Sandao, Feng Keqin’s chess piece in Anqing!”
"Not only that, Xu Zhaojie also tricked Feng Keqin into defeating Cao Changping on his back. In my opinion, this person wanted to make Feng Keqin and Cao Changping fight each other, so that he could benefit from it and expand his territory... ········”
After the words fell, Gao Zongchang squinted his eyes and instinctively thought about what benefits he could get from this matter. He and Cao Changping did not have a good relationship and they were constantly quarreling with each other. Although no large-scale war had broken out so far, the people under his command There are often some frictions between soldiers and soldiers on the border.
Therefore, adhering to the concept that the enemy of his enemy is his friend, it seems that he should tell Feng Keqin about Cao Changping's conspiracy. But the problem is that there are also some problems in the relationship between him and Feng Keqin. This is not to say that Gao Zongchang is more than 20 years younger than him. What happened to the 20-year-old Feng Keqin was because of the previous generation.
Gao Zongchang was once a colleague of Feng Keqin's father, Feng Debiao, and they worked together in the same horse spoon. The relationship was good at first, but later there was a vacancy in the position of the commander-in-chief, and Gao Zongchang and Feng Debiao had to work together. To choose one of them, because the relationship between the two was okay at that time, Gao Zongchang took the initiative to propose to Feng Debiao that neither of them should play any tricks and compete fairly.
Feng Debiao was also very happy that Gao Zongchang had this idea. He felt that Gao Zongchang's brother could get along because he had done more credit than Gao Zongchang, had more soldiers and horses than Gao Zongchang, and had more seniority than Gao Zongchang, so as long as it was fair, He will undoubtedly win the competition...
Therefore, with this agreement, Feng Debiao thought that he was sure of victory, and he really did not play any tricks in the competition. After all, tricks cost money. It was already certain that things were certain, so why spend money?
Therefore, in order to thank Gao Zongchang for his "martial ethics", he even promised Gao Zongchang that when he became the commander-in-chief, he would make Gao Zongchang the deputy commander-in-chief.
Just when Feng Debiao was so proud that he thought that the position of commander-in-chief belonged to him, a shocking scene happened. Gao Zongchang counterattacked Feng Debiao and made Gao Zongchang the new commander-in-chief!
It turned out that all this was Gao Zongchang's plan. Gao Zongchang was a dishonest villain. He took advantage of the friendship between him and Feng Debiao to make Feng Debiao think he was sure of victory and did not spend any money to smoothen the relationship!
Then Gao Zongchang, who knew he was at a disadvantage, lavished gold and silver on a few big bosses who had the right to decide and speak on the position of the commander-in-chief. In this way, although Gao Zongchang did not have as much credit as Feng Debiao, he had more seniority and more soldiers. , but successfully counterattacked Feng Debiao.
Feng Debiao, who realized that he had been tricked by Gao Zongchang and had been tricked by his good brother, was so angry that he fell seriously ill. Although he was rescued, he was still bedridden and had no choice but to give up his hand. After gaining military power, he returned to his hometown in Huainan to recuperate and support and train his eldest son Feng Keqin. However, even so, Feng Debiao still passed away a few years later with full of resentment.
Therefore, with this grudge of "killing his father", Gao Zongchang knew that even if he told Feng Keqin what happened, Feng Keqin would never think of him well. He might even kill Xu Zhaojie and Cao Changping. Conveniently, he took Gao Zongchang with him to clean up...
