Although the mission was not completed and he rested for a night in Shouchun, Sun Sheng still made a request to return to Jinling to return to Li Jing, but Liu Chengyou refused. Then, Sun Sheng found out that he was under house arrest. However, on the surface, he became a guest of the Han Emperor and traveled south to Hefei with his emperor.
As for the reply from Jinling, one of the accompanying officials was released and asked to go back and report back to Li Jing. So, two days later, Li Jing learned in Jinling that Sun Sheng was angry as a scholar and made rude remarks in front of the Han Emperor, which offended the Han Emperor and made him angry, and he went south completely.
In the past two days, the areas along the river in the Southern Tang Dynasty were full of warnings. There was no place in Yang, Tai, Chu, He, Shu, and Huang where the Han army was not conquering. Not to mention other places for now, Yang, Chu, and the three states almost point directly to Jinling. Especially after the Han army increased its troops and went south, many of the Jiangfang garrison and military towns in the Southern Tang Dynasty were lost.
"I was not kind to my staff and sent Sun Sheng to the north to negotiate peace. I never thought that his strong temper would offend the Han Emperor and lead his army to go south." In the main hall of the Tang Palace, Li Jing sighed sadly and looked at the officials in the palace: "Only Murong Murong Yanzhao and other generals have put up defenses along the river, and everything is in danger. Now that the Northern Han army is moving south, how can we stop it? How should I respond?"
There were not many people in the palace at this time, but the current political demands were the same, Lord and Peace. In the past few days, Han Xizai and others had been clamoring and asking Li Jing for orders, hoping that he would be determined to resist the Han, persist to the end, and not make peace with him. Li Jing was so annoyed that he just kept silent.
"Your Majesty, based on my opinion, for the current plan, we can only send envoys north to pay homage to the Han Emperor to express his anger and respect my sincerity in making peace." Wei Cen, the admonishing doctor, stood up and replied.
After he finished speaking, Feng Yansi stood up and said cautiously: "Your Majesty, as I see it, I am afraid that the anger of the Han Emperor was not all caused by Duke Sun. The Han Emperor was ambitious and greedy. If he could not satisfy his gluttonous heart, , I am afraid that it will be difficult for them to withdraw their troops. If we want to negotiate peace, we must think carefully about the price we have to pay before we can move the Han Emperor's heart!"
Feng Yansi's words were straightforward but also cryptic. There were some things that could only be done by Li Jing herself. Li Jing obviously understood what he meant. He glanced at Feng Yansi and his face became serious.
After a long time, he sighed sadly and said: "I sent another envoy north with generous gifts. I told the Emperor of Han that I was willing to become a minister and pay tribute, and to secede the six states of Guang, Shou, Hao, Si, Chu, and Hai from the Han Dynasty. I hope to see them I can stop the troops!"
After saying this imperial edict, not only Li Jing, but also the ministers and ministers present subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. Feng Yansi and others actually had the same idea. As the weaker party, if they took the initiative to initiate peace, they would of course have to pay a heavy price, but the specific price had to be considered by the emperor himself. If the ministers speak for themselves and the country is humiliated and the emperor regrets it in the future, there will be no good fruits to be gained.
After making a "difficult" decision, the question came again. Who is willing to make the decision? Li Jing asked. The ministers were silent and lowered their heads subconsciously. No one was willing to send an envoy. This was not a good job. Not to mention other things, Sun Shengke was detained in the north by the Han Emperor.
Seeing the reaction of these ministers, Li Jing couldn't help but get angry: "You, who are devouring your emperor's salary and receiving the country's favor, are not willing to share your worries for your father? Do you want me to go north in person to beg for peace from the Han Emperor? This is a promise to the country. Do you want me to bear the humiliation alone?"
After Li Jing said these words, all the courtiers remained silent and pretended to be dead. Li Jing's expression became more and more anxious. At this time, Zhong Mo, a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy and the Minister of Household Affairs, stood up, prostrated himself, with tears in his eyes, and said in a choked voice: "I would like to take a trip to Jiangbei for your majesty!"
Someone took the initiative, and the tense nerves of the courtiers present finally relaxed. When Li Jing saw this, his eyes were red, and he lowered his rank to help Zhong Mo up personally: "Zhong Qing has the experience of envoys to the Han Dynasty, and he must achieve his mission when he goes north. I'm sorry!"
Zhong Mo sighed, gritted his teeth and said, "You have a destiny, and I will take care of your worries. Your Majesty, please rest assured!"
"I would like to go with Mr. Zhong!" At this time, another minister came forward, but it was Li Deming, a bachelor of arts and sciences.
Seeing the solemn look on his face, Li Jing was so moved that he had the feeling that "the strong wind knows the strong grass, and the rough and sway knows the loyal ministers". Without further words, he immediately took Zhong Mo and Li Deming as the principal and deputy envoys and quickly headed north with gifts.
After Zhong and Li headed north, Li Jing received two good news. A letter came from Ezhou. Liu Renfan, the military envoy of Wuchang Jiedu, reported that he defeated the invading Hunan bandit army at Changshan Village. The bandit general Wang Kui was defeated and 3,000 enemy soldiers were wiped out.
But it was Wang Kui who was named the Military Envoy of the Wuping Army by Liu Chengyou earlier and was ordered to assist the Northern Han Dynasty in conquering the Tang Dynasty. He led 6,000 Langzhou soldiers into Ezhou. After attacking Changshan Stronghold of Tang Dynasty, Liu Renfan led the attack, but was defeated, losing more than half of his troops, and fled back to Hunan in embarrassment. Since then, the two friendly armies that conquered the Southern Tang Dynasty, Wuyue and Hunan, were successively defeated by the Tang army. Facts have proved that "friendly armies" are not enough.
The second letter came from Li Hongji, King of Yan. General Yan Lin Renzhao led two thousand boatmen to raid the Han stronghold in Liyang, destroying it and killing more than a thousand enemies. There is no mention of battle losses, and the record looks relatively poor, but this is the best record Tang Ting has received in recent times when facing the Han army.
A little green among thousands of flowers is particularly eye-catching. Of course, the one with the best record against the Han must be Guo Tingwei of Xuyi. Even He Jingzhu of Shouchun caused a lot of casualties to the Han army. No one said anything about it, and the news was difficult to spread.
Li Hongji, King of Yan of the Southern Tang Dynasty, who knew that the imperial court was pushing for peace talks but was still unwilling to accept it, reported this matter to the imperial court in order to cheer up Li Jing and the Southern Tang imperial court. Tell them that relying on Jiang Fang, they can still compete with the Han army.
The effect is naturally there, but such a victory is too small. In fact, after hearing the good news from both sides, Li Jing was happy for a moment, just a moment. After all, the trend was irreversible. Li Jing was even worried about whether Lin Renzhao's fight would anger the Han army and affect the peace talks.
However, despite the ups and downs of his emotions, Li Jing still issued an edict to praise Liu Renfan and Lin Renzhao, especially Lin Renzhao, who was directly selected as the defense envoy of Hezhou and the envoy of Jiangbei Camp.
In Hefei, Liu Chengyou arrived here, and the Huainan camp moved here to supervise the various Han armies nearby to attack the prefectures and counties along the Yangtze River. At the same time, Liu Chengyou sent out the Tieqi, Fengguo, and Xiaodi armies. In the area of Chuyangtai and Taizhou, the strength of the Han army was somewhat insufficient. Only more than 8,000 soldiers from Fengchen camp and Husheng camp were left in front of the emperor to guard them.
Hunan's report and the defeat of Liyang were also presented to Liu Chengyou's desk almost at the same time. The same is true for the Liyang battle report. The Han army’s side is more detailed and more realistic. Being attacked by Lin Renzhao, 372 Han soldiers were killed, the stronghold was destroyed, 1,500 shi of grain stored in it were burned and 1,000 shi were burned, and more than 400 Tang soldiers were killed in succession.
Zhang Yongde appealed to Liu Chengyou, saying that he was negligent and lax, so the Tang army took advantage of him, and asked Liu Chengyou to plead guilty. In this regard, Liu Chengyou ordered his people to reprimand him, and at the same time told him that a small defeat would not matter, as long as he was vigilant. He also issued an edict, instructing all the Han armies in Huainan that the Tang army was still brave enough not to underestimate the enemy.
As for Wang Kui's defeat by Liu Renfan, Liu Chengyou ordered to reward Wang Kui with a hundred pieces of crossfire silk. At the same time, he only said that there would be changes in Hunan.
The current situation in Hunan is basically that the ten brothers Wang Kui and Zhou Xingfeng divide their power and control the military and political affairs. Wang Kui is the most powerful, followed by Zhou Xingfeng. Now that Wang Kui was defeated and lost three thousand troops, his strength was greatly reduced, and "brothers fighting against each other" was inevitable.
Of course, Liu Chengyou couldn't care less about how the situation in Hunan would develop at this time. Or, there is no intention to care about it, such as chicken ribs, tasteless, and it is not such a pity to abandon them temporarily...
"A thousand taels of gold, two thousand pieces of brocade silk, imperial clothes, rhinoceros belts, tea, and some medicines. There are also five hundred cattle for the army and two thousand stones of wine!" In the city of Hefei, Li Fang said to Liu Chengyou, who was accompanying the envoy of the Tang Dynasty. Gift list from the north.
"This is the sincerity of suing for peace! It can be seen from this gift list that the Puppet Tang Dynasty was still wealthy, and his efforts were not small!" Liu Chengyou took the gift list, glanced at it, and said lightly: "Niu is going to Huaibei. Leave it to Wang Pu to deal with it, and give all the remaining gifts to the generals and commanders. In addition, we will send wine, meat, and two thousand stones of wine to reward the soldiers!"
"Yes!" Li Fang responded, and then asked Liu Chengyou for instructions: "When will your Majesty receive the Tang envoys Zhong Mo and Li Deming?"
Rolling his eyes, Liu Chengyou pointed up and said: "Let them dry out for one night, and take them to the military camp tomorrow morning to let them watch our Han army's martial arts exercises. Tell Li Chongjin to let him train for me and entertain the Tang envoys, and do not use them outside." In front of you, the majesty of our Han army has been reduced!"
Almost immediately understanding Liu Chengyou's intention, Li Fang chuckled and responded: "Yes!"
