In the middle of March in the second year of Taichu, it rained lightly.
It is drizzling, falling from the sky. In the Jianghuai area of the source world, there is a lot of rain. Now the Chinese mainland seems to have inherited this. When the weather is good, it is normal.
Once it starts to rain, it continues continuously, and there are still lingering raindrops.
There were fewer pedestrians on the streets than usual, with only some city patrol soldiers occasionally passing by on the streets despite the rain.
Several short and fat men came to a restaurant in the rain.
"Mr. Li!"
These men had an obvious military aura. After they arrived at the restaurant, they were led by the waiter to a private room near the window. At this time, there was already a middle-aged man in the room.
After several people entered the room, one person was left holding the door outside, and then closed the door to isolate the noise in the restaurant outside.
"Have you found out all the information I asked you to inquire about?"
The middle-aged man, Mr. Li, motioned for everyone to sit down, and then asked calmly.
"We have already found out all the official information about the situation in Sihong City..."
"A month ago, Wang Jing led his army to the north and annexed Xiao Yuanming and Zhang Lin. He now has tens of thousands more troops! According to my observation, if Wang Jing mobilizes his troops and civilians, he can pull out at least a hundred thousand troops!"
One of the men said in a deep voice.
"I'm afraid there are more than 100,000 troops! There are almost 100,000 soldiers on the surface alone. Wang Jing also implemented the guard system and organized many young and strong prisoners into guard soldiers. These guard soldiers The scale is tens of thousands!"
Another person shook his head and said.
"This Wang Jing is really becoming a man. I heard that a few months ago, he only had more than 10,000 troops in his hands. I didn't expect it to expand so fast. If it continues like this, it will definitely become a thorn in the side of the king!"
These people, including Mr. Li, were all envoys sent by King Wu Yang Xingmi.
Among them, the one known as Mr. Li is Li Decheng.
He was originally a more trustworthy general under Yang Xingmi. He was polite and capable, and was capable.
However, in the history of the original world, he assisted Xu Wen in usurping the power of Southern Wu and was called an important minister of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
Because of this, after arriving in the world of China, Yang Xingmi directly deprived him of his military power.
It's just that before Li Decheng came, he was still working diligently under Yang Xingmi and had no other thoughts. If he killed the other party because of historical records. Yang Xingmi was afraid that he would kill most of the civil and military generals under his command.
So Yang Xingmi did not kill him, but asked Li Decheng to become a civilian. He was also asked to act as an envoy to visit General Wang Jing of Zhennan who occupied Sizhou.
Li Decheng also learned from some scribes what he had done in history, but after coming to the world of China, he was a minister of Yang Xingmi instead of a minister of the Southern Tang Dynasty.
It was impossible for him to abandon Yang Xingmi and seek refuge with Xu Wen who didn't know where he was in these troubled times.
Yang Xingmi deprived him of his military power, so he could only obey and asked him to be the envoy, so he led people to Sihong.
Li Decheng also sighed in his heart at this time.
As a general of his generation, the reputation of Zhang Lin, the chief general under Gao Pian, was as good as thunder.
He also knew Zhang Lin’s ability.
In addition to Zhang Lin, there was also Sun Ru, who had repeatedly gained the upper hand in back-and-forth battles with King Wu Yang Xingmi... Both of them were actually eliminated by Wang Jing.
Among them, Sun Ru was beheaded long ago.
This kind of ability to lead troops was still superior to that of King Wu. It was precisely because of the death of Sun Ru and Zhang Lin that after receiving the news, Yang Xingmi became afraid of King Jing of Sihong.
Li Decheng had a good guess at his king's thoughts.
If it weren't for the fact that there were powerful enemies on both sides of the king's north and south, he would have led a land and water army to march westward.
"Besides these, what else have you heard about? How is Sihong's navy? And what is the current situation of Yuan Shu and Zhang Guiba?"
Li Decheng asked.
The few people he brought with him were all relatively capable subordinates. They had experience in the military and held official positions in the military. They accompanied him on this mission and acted as escort captains.
In addition to a few of them, there were also three hundred guards, all of whom were arranged to camp in the military camp outside the city.
Li Decheng first reported the news to General Zhennan's Mansion and learned that General Zhennan Wang Jing was in Wanshou at this time and was not in Sihong.
Since Wang Jing could not meet them for the time being, he returned to the post house first and asked people to inquire about the news at the tea shop.
Of course, their actions would not be hidden from Shen Yi and the spies from the Military Intelligence Department.
However, Li Decheng didn't think about hiding anything in other people's territory. When people inquired about information, it was all done openly. As an envoy, it is normal to come to another force and seek information.
Just like in the later generations of the original world, envoys sent to other countries, in addition to informing each other, another task is to collect news from the other country...
This is human nature.
As long as Li Decheng didn't want to send secret assassins and collect military and political secrets about Sihong, Shen Yi, Bu Zhe and others would turn a blind eye.
"Sihong's naval force is about ten thousand, and the general of the navy is Li Jun. It is said that this man was a water pirate in the Song Dynasty. He was good at water warfare, so he was reused by Wang Jing."
"As for Yuan Shu and Zhang Guiba, they haven't heard anything since they retreated a month ago!"
a man said.
"What we can inquire about is public information. The movements of Yuan Shu and Zhang Guiba should be classified as Sihong's secrets and are not accessible to ordinary people. So we cannot inquire..."
All they could find out was information from Si Hongming's face.
The real secrets are definitely untouchable.
Li Decheng also understood this in his heart, so there was no disappointment on his face. He stood up and came to the window. Through the gap in the window, he could see a person standing on the corner of the street in the distance.
This man didn't hide his figure much, he just stood in a hidden place, staring at the restaurant in the rain.
This is someone from Zhennan General Mansion.
The General's Mansion would definitely not allow their envoys to pry around, so they directly sent people to keep an eye on them. This kind of almost overt surveillance was also a silent warning.
Tell them not to overdo it.
Li Decheng suddenly sighed, "You can see clearly that although the population in Sihong City is not as good as that of Qinghe, it does not look as prosperous as Qinghe."
"But Sihong's people's and military's hearts are in the General's Mansion. The top and bottom work together and are prospering! Yuan Shu and Zhang Guiba, one is a withered bone in the grave, and the other is a bandit of the grass army, how can they be Wang Jing's opponent?"
"I'm afraid that before long, Yuan Shu and Zhang Guiba will be destroyed by Wang Jing!"
After the forces of Yuan Shu and Zhang Guiba were destroyed. There are more than two million people under Wang Jing's rule, and he can expand his army to 200,000 by drawing one out of ten.
By the time.
Wang Jing wanted to expand eastward along the Huaihe River, and the first to bear the brunt was the King of Wu, Yang Xingmi, who occupied Qinghe!
Perhaps Yang Xingmi saw this, so he first asked him to come to Sihong to make inquiries in the name of an envoy to see the real situation in Sihong.
7017k
