As Chang Suining deduced, this merging of states was bound to not take too long due to the clear situation.
At this moment, in Bingzhou, which is two thousand miles away from Xuanzhou, the war has entered its final stage.
All this started when Xiao Chuan, the governor of Hedong Jiedu, suddenly led his troops to attack Cui Jing six days ago.
Xiao Chuan accused Cui Jing of unjustly killing Shi Daicong, the governor of Bingzhou, and being the real traitor. Once this statement spread, and with the help of Xiao Chuan's internal support, civil strife soon broke out in Bingzhou City.
There have always been governor's offices in various places. Most of the governor's posts were remote leaders, but the person who really managed and controlled the affairs of a state was Chang Shi, and Bingzhou was no exception. Those who were loyal to Dai Cong, under the instigation of thoughtful people, soon He turned to Xiao Chuan.
However, Cui Jing's prestige was here. Although he did not personally manage and manage Bingzhou, more than half of the people did not believe Xiao Chuan's words and were willing to defend Bingzhou with him, which prevented Bingzhou from being lost to the internal rebels.
At the same time, someone secretly went out of the city to ask for help, but most of the news was intercepted by Xiao Chuan's people halfway.
All of this proves that Xiao Chuan's ambition to kill people and seize the city was not a sudden move, but was premeditated.
On the third day, Xiao Chuan broke through the defenses outside Bingzhou City and led his army to the gate of Bingzhou City with great momentum.
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As he spoke, he was about to raise his hand to order an attack on the city, but the next moment his eyes suddenly widened, as if he had seen a ghost in the daytime.
"I was busy with things in the city last night and had no time to close my eyes all night. Did I ever have a dream with Brother Xiao?" Dai Cong, wearing a black cloak, walked up to Cui Jing, took off his hood, and asked in confusion.
Xiao Chuan immediately looked at his wise brother who was supposed to hold the script of "Death in vain" and his cheeks suddenly trembled: "...!"
Dai Cong is not dead? !
The "virtuous brother who died in vain" looked at him and said, "It turns out that someone stole my private seal, forged letters between me and Xu Zhengye, and framed me. It was you, Brother Xiao."
He said with a somewhat ashamed look on his face: "Brother Xiao took great pains to set up this trap, hoping to steal Bingzhou and trap and kill Governor Cui... However, I did not die, which disappointed Brother Xiao."
Seeing that Dai Cong had "resurrected from the dead", Xiao Chuan's army was already in an uproar under the city tower.
At this point, what Xiao Chuan still doesn't understand is that Dai Cong originally faked his death and teamed up with Cui Jing to lure the snake out of its hole!
But just now Dai Cong claimed that he had been busy with things in the city all night, and he had obviously pacified the city!
"Cui Jingnu is a thief. She found a fake product from somewhere, and she even tried to impersonate me, Brother Dai Xian!"
Xiao Chuan sneered, not recognizing Dai Cong, but loudly ordered: "Follow me to attack the city, and whoever takes Cui Jing's head will be rewarded with a reward of one hundred taels!"
It doesn't matter if my dear brother fakes his death, he can just turn this fake death into a real death!
Not everyone in his army had seen Dai Cong, and those who followed him in the rebellion also had confidants who knew the inside story. At this moment, they all shouted in agreement and attacked the city gate.
The soldiers behind had no idea what was happening on the tower. When they saw the military flag waving, they all drew their swords and guns and moved. The army was like dark clouds, rolling up dust and smoke, and almost covering the sky with the shouts.
Knowing that the city was secured, Xiao Chuan made up his mind to attack the city as soon as possible, so he launched a fierce offensive.
Soldiers were constantly climbing up the city wall on ladders. A group of soldiers were killed and retreated, and then another group came forward and continued. The city gate was also hit by giant trees with a deafening sound. Iron awls were used to dig through the city wall to create a breakthrough.
Dai Cong felt distressed when he saw it, and felt a lot of banknotes burnt to ashes before his eyes: "Grand Governor, please let your subordinate Dai Zui lead the troops to fight!"
Cui Jing looked up at the sun.
Loud shouts soon sounded: "Open the city gate and fight!"
The soldiers on the tower raised their guns and shouted, "Fight!"
The moment the city gate was pushed open, the attackers carrying giant trees outside the city gate were forced to retreat for a moment. The Bingzhou army held shields in front, swords and guns in the back, and finally there were archers and crossbowmen, rushing out in an orderly manner.
Xiao Chuan frowned fiercely when he saw this.
If the opponent had been holding back behind closed doors, he might have been able to hold on for two days. Now, with just over 10,000 troops in the city, he dared to open the door to face his 80,000-strong army. Is it because he didn't want to die quickly enough?
Being able to gain the trust of Dai Cong to steal the private seal without leaving any clues and setting up this trap all the way shows that he is not a stupid person. He cannot be completely unwary at this moment and seriously think that the other party is seeking death.
When something goes wrong, there must be a monster... Dai Cong's fake death may be just one of the parts!
But the arrow was on the string and had to be fired. The situation in front of him did not allow him to calm down and think carefully. At this moment, he could only ride his horse and attack.
While the two sides were fighting, there were harsh and loud roars that circled above their heads.
Xiao Chuan felt even more uneasy, and soon he heard soldiers running behind him in a panic, shouting: "...Envoy Xiao, Xuance's army is coming here!"
What? !
Xiao Chuan was in disbelief: "Are you really reading that right?! How many people are there!"
The soldier's voice was already trembling: "The scouts say it's hard to tell for a moment, but there are at least 50,000 to 60,000 people! Or more!"
Xiao Chuan was horrified, how could it be possible!
Xuance's army rushed to the north after Cui Jing, leaving the capital and heading north. The marching route should have been the Guannai Road, how could it suddenly appear on his Hedong Road!
Even though he didn't want to believe it, the rear of the army soon showed signs of defeat.
The news that "Xuan Ce's army is coming" quickly spread among the soldiers
, the morale of the army was in chaos.
Xiao Chuan was unwilling to stop there and gave a high-pitched order: "...Capture the thief first and kill the king of thief first. Kill Cui Jing! Seize the city tower and close the gate as soon as you enter the city!"
Capturing the thief first is indeed a good way to frighten the opponent's military morale.
so--
Taking advantage of the collapse of the opponent's formation, Cui Jing took a bow and shot through Xiao Chuan's right arm.
The battle bow used by Cui Jing was comparable to ordinary cavalry bows. The bow was a nine-strength bow, and the arm strength of the person holding the bow was far superior to ordinary people. Therefore, the power of an arrow was extremely high and could break ordinary armor. Xiao Chuan grunted when the arrow hit him. , was so shocked that he fell off his horse.
Dai Cong took this opportunity and led the main force to attack in one fell swoop, killing Xiao Chuan's left and right guards.
Xiao Chuan gritted his teeth and pulled out the arrow. Just as he was about to sit up, countless swords and guns were pointed at him, surrounding him.
After receiving Cui Jing's order, Yuan Xiang shouted: "Xiao Chuan's wolf ambition has been captured alive. Those who surrender will not be killed! Those who resist will be treated as rebels and comrades and punished!"
This order was spread out loudly.
In the chaos, Dai Cong captured the military flag of Xiao Chuan's army. Without the military flag to command, he also heard that Xiao Chuan had been captured. Later, Xuance's army pressed forward, and some people in Xiao Chuan's army soon surrendered.
Most of them didn't know the truth at all, they were just blindly forced to follow orders. Seeing the situation reverse at this moment, they quickly lost their fighting spirit.
However, there will always be people who resist, but judging from the situation, it is destined to be impossible.
Cui Jing stopped watching the battle and walked down the tower.
Yuan Xiang followed quickly and saw the bow in the hands of his Grand Governor, and suddenly felt something was wrong: "Grand Governor...where is your Wanyue? It seems that I haven't seen you with it for a while?"
In the past, as long as the governor wore armor, Wan Yue would never leave his body.
Cui Jing: "Put it away."
Put it away?
Yuanxiang was puzzled, but soon soldiers came up to him. The battle was not really over yet. Yuanxiang was not a careless person, so he didn't bother to ask any more questions for a while and went on his own.
Cui Jing held the war bow in his hand and looked towards the south.
The owner of Wan Yue has returned, so it is naturally not suitable for him to use it.
He will keep it safe until one day it can be returned to its original owner.
The turmoil lasted until the early morning of the next day before it was completely quelled both inside and outside.
But there were still many follow-up matters that needed to be taken care of. Cui Jing stayed up all night and interrogated Xiao Chuan all night. According to Xiao Chuan's final confession, he did have accomplices, none other than Xu Zhengye's party.
He claimed that he conspired with Xu Zhengye to start an uprising in the south and capture the northern capital of Bingzhou. Then they would work together to invade the capital and support the crown prince's ascension to the throne.
As for setting up a trap to kill Cui Jing, it was all because he controlled the Xuance Army and was a minion of the Empress. If he was not eliminated, he was destined to be the biggest stumbling block on their way to achieving their great cause.
Because of this, he was able to obtain Xu Zhengye's real autographed letter, successfully deceived the empress, and framed Dai Cong.
After Cui Jing ordered his testimony to be compiled, he ordered it to be sent to the capital immediately. He also ordered the news that the chaos in Bingzhou to be settled to be spread to everyone as soon as possible to reassure people.
After arranging everything, Cui Jing stood alone in the study and suddenly felt that she might write a letter in person to Chang Sui Ning to report that she was safe, even if it was to report safety to Bingzhou.
But he suddenly thought that he didn't know where she was at this time. She had told Yuan Xiang before that she planned to leave the capital, and she might not be in the capital at the moment.
At this time, Yuan Xiang walked in, holding a stack of letters: "Grand Governor, these are all letters that were previously sent to Bingzhou and were intercepted by Xiao Chuan's men."
"My subordinates specially selected them for our Metropolitan Governor's Office. Most of them have been dismantled and inspected by them. They are all here. Please take a look."
In order to lower Xiao Chuan's vigilance, they deliberately showed weakness to him and allowed him to "control" everything outside Bingzhou without paying attention to everything, so they were able to successfully secretly lure Xuance's army here.
Seeing Yuan Xiang put the letters on the bookcase, Cui Jing didn't know what he thought of. He read the letters one by one without rushing to open them. Finally, he saw the thought on an opened envelope. The handwriting I saw contained four characters - Cui Jing personally signed it.
Cui Jing then showed his letter.
Chang Suining reminded him in the letter that her trip to Bingzhou might be a scam, and asked him to be more vigilant. She also informed him that she was on her way to Xuanzhou and that she would stay at the mansion of Princess Xuan'an for a few days.
Finally, he warned him that if he had noticed it, there was no need to reply to prevent the secret from being leaked.
"Grand Governor, has something happened again?" Yuan Xiang couldn't help but ask when he saw that the Grand Governor just held the letter and looked at it repeatedly.
Cui Jing came back to his senses: "...Nothing happened."
Yuan Xiang breathed a sigh of relief and noticed that his governor seemed to be in a good mood.
Yuan Xiang racked his brains and thought for a long time, then asked tentatively: "Grand Governor...is that a letter from Mrs. Chang?"
The corners of Cui Jing's mouth unconsciously raised slightly, and she said "hmm", folded the letter neatly, put it back in the envelope, and put it aside alone before opening the other letters.
Yuanxiang suddenly realized it, and he said, how could the governor read the letter and read the flowers? He would not put it down after picking it up!
After waiting quietly for the Grand Governor to finish reading the letter, Yuan Xiang suggested diligently: "Grand Governor, won't you reply to Mrs. Chang's letter? How about your subordinates help you polish it?"
Cui Jing said nothing and just started laying out the letter paper.
Yuanxiang grinned and stepped forward to grind.
Cui Jing picked up the pen and glanced at the subordinates who were still standing aside.
Yuan Xiang quickly retreated a little further, waiting for his own chief governor to finish writing the letter, so that he could arrange the manpower to send it out as soon as possible.
But what happened next shocked Yuan Xiang.
His own governor, who always made no mistakes when writing because of his meticulous and clear ideas, actually wrote seven or eight pieces of paper in a row, but he was still not satisfied.
Sensing the strange gaze from his subordinates, Cui Jing was silent for a moment, looked at the pile of discarded letters beside him, and said, "Take these and burn them first."
Yuan Xiang responded quickly and stepped forward to hold it up.
"No peeking."
Hearing this warning, Yuan Xiang was excited: "Yes!"
After his subordinates retreated, Cui Jing spread the paper again and ground it - this was one of the reasons why he had to send Yuan Xiang away. The entire inkstone had been used up, and he hadn't written a word yet... If Yuan Xiang is allowed to grind again, the atmosphere will become strange, which will not be good for both of them.
As soon as Yuan Xiang left the study with the pile of discarded letters, he met Chang Shi Dai Cong.
Yuan Xiang hurriedly pulled the person to the corridor and whispered: "Dai Changshi has something important? If it is not urgent, we will go in later!"
Dai Cong looked solemn: "I'm here to plead guilty to the Governor. It was my oversight before that gave Xiao Chuan an opportunity, which almost caused the Governor and the entire Bingzhou to suffer..."
Yuan Xiang glanced at the direction of the study: "None of this is important..."
Dai Cong: "...?"
So what is important?
At this moment, he noticed the pile of crumpled letter papers held in Yuan Xiang's arms, and couldn't help but ask: "Are these...?"
