Pawn Crossing the River

The Golden Horde felt that there was little chance of attacking the capital. So after looting the suburbs of Beijing, they led their army eastward to attack the weakly defended Luanping, Yongning and other places, and captured several cities in succession. In February, the Golden Horde left some troops to garrison Yongning, Zunhua and other places, led the army to withdraw from the pass, and returned to the grassland with a large amount of looted wealth, population and materials.

The same thing had two different results for the two parties.

In Liaodong, everyone was rewarded for their meritorious service to the king, so it goes without saying. If Yanzhou was not good at defending the border, it would be punished.

Yin Zhengxin got the news that the governor of Youyan had been captured by the Qingluan Guards from the capital and taken to the capital.

The governors, provincial governors, provincial inspectors, commanders-in-chief, and generals under the governor were panicked, fearing that they would be the next one.

Yin Zhengxin had to make corresponding preparations in advance. If the Qingluan Guards came to take him, he would have to abandon his official position and go underground.

In fact, Yin Zhengxin asked himself, he still fulfilled his duties. Relying on the official army at hand and the assistance of the Taiping Sect, he blocked more than a thousand Golden Horde cavalry and guarded the pass he was responsible for. There was no dereliction of duty. It's just that the so-called will of heaven is unpredictable. Who knows what the emperor is thinking? Even a chess player like Qi Xuansu doesn't know. After all, the emperor is a real dragon, and Qi Xuansu can't see through it.

Moreover, the backlash of heaven always comes inadvertently, and this variable is also difficult to grasp.

Fortunately, this change finally developed in a direction that was favorable to Qi Xuansu.

About half a month later, the result came.

The governor was beheaded and thrown into the city, and his property was confiscated. The governor was dismissed and imprisoned, and handed over to the three judicial departments for trial. The governor was dismissed, the commander-in-chief was demoted three levels, and the other senior officials were also punished, either demoted, fined, or reprimanded.

However, Yin Zhengxin was only a fourth-rank right councilor, who did not pass the third-rank threshold and was not considered a senior official. In the end, Yin Zhengxin was not punished this time. Instead, he was promoted to the third-rank left councillor because of his loyalty to duty and meritorious defense. He was still in charge of military affairs, but his authority was greater than that of the councillor and was above that of the prefect. He could even lead troops in battle.

The original left councillor was appointed as the censor, and the former censor temporarily took over the post of the governor. This was naturally a great thing in normal times, but the current situation was unpredictable. Maybe one day he would follow the footsteps of his predecessor. Not to mention a governor, what about the governor? Didn't he end up with a miserable end of being cut in two.

The new acting governor was inevitably worried. Not only did he not have the high spirits of being promoted, but he also saved the three fires of a new official. He was even a little uninterested in government affairs, and many affairs were done by Yin Zhengxin.

Qi Xuansu was the real person in charge of a local government, and it was also a big road government. Naturally, he could do it easily. At the same time, he also took this opportunity to expand the Taiping Sect.

The Golden Horde's southward march caused great damage. Attacking cities and strongholds was secondary. The key was burning, killing and looting, which caused a large number of civilian casualties and refugees everywhere. There were also many stragglers and even deserters who were dispersed by the Golden Horde army. They simply became bandits and became a bandit problem.

The military and political systems at all levels of the court in Yanzhou were beaten to pieces, and they were too busy to take care of themselves, so they naturally couldn't take care of these.

There is no power vacuum. If the court doesn't fill it, there will be clans or associations to fill it.

What Qi Xuansu has to do is to gather refugees and make them Taoists, and at the same time recruit those stragglers and make them ghosts.

To be fair, the people are good people, and these soldiers are good at fighting. It's just that the court exploited them too much, owed them salaries, and treated them as grass, which made the Golden Horde violent.

As for the corruption of the court, the laws of history, the helplessness of human nature, the rigidity of the system, and so on, they are all old-fashioned things and there is no need to say more.

Yin Zhengxin, as the left councilor, acted as the governor, stabilized the situation, appeased people's hearts, and at the same time covered up the expansion of the Taiping Sect.

Even if some people noticed it, they were easily suppressed by Yin Zhengxin. This is the advantage of being an official.

This is also a lucky coincidence.

If Yin Zhengxin is really put in Jiangnan, whether he takes the path of association or the path of local governor, he can't avoid the White Lotus Sect. It is the essence of Confucianism, and it is not easy to occupy Jiangnan.

Originally, because Yanzhou was under the nose of the capital, it was naturally restricted everywhere, but who would have thought that the Golden Horde could fight all the way to the capital, thus opening up the situation.

After this incident, the Taiping Sect directly expanded to more than 100,000 Taoists, more than 50 priests, nearly 1,000 ghost soldiers, more than 300 ghost commanders, and four chief priests.

At this time, Qi Xuansu felt that talents were hard to come by, as the saying goes, it is easy to get thousands of troops but hard to get a general.

Although Lu Yunshan has trained a lot of backbone forces, compared with the rapidly expanding Taiping Sect, it is still too few and too slow.

However, when the power develops to a certain extent, it can also gather luck.

When Yin Zhengxin left the capital, his luck was just a mud loach, but now it is a python, not far from turning into a dragon.

According to the rules of this world, when luck grows, it will naturally attract some strange people who can see the luck.

Soon, many people from all walks of life came to join him.

After all, an association like the Taiping Sect can be considered a semi-powerful force in the martial arts world, but it is regarded as a demon cult by the orthodox Buddhist and Taoist sects. The extremely mysterious Great Sage Master is the cult leader that everyone in the martial arts world is afraid of, because the Taiping Sect and the White Lotus Sect are allied, one in the south and the other in the north, so the Great Sage Master and the leader of the White Lotus Sect are known as the two great demons in the martial arts world.

But who would have thought that the great and virtuous teacher was actually an official of the imperial court. When he arrived in Yanzhou, he became the chief minister and participated in politics. He did not practice martial arts in seclusion all day long, but buried his head among the papers. After working for another ten years or so, it would be possible to become a governor and governor. It would really be said that he was hiding from the court.

Among these Jianghu people, there was a down and out man named Song Guanying. His martial arts training was a mess. Looking at his talent, it was clear that he should pursue the literary career, but he was slightly inferior to Lu Yunshan. As a result, he accidentally entered the martial arts path, and he was depressed and frustrated. .

Qi Xuansu appointed Song Guanying as the sacrificial wine and asked him to follow Lu Yunshan to practice for some time.

When Qin Lingge laid out his plans in Liaodong, he naturally noticed the Taiping Sect, which was close at hand, but he didn't pay much attention to it. In his opinion, they were just a bunch of people, and those who stood out died first. This kind of association was used to disrupt the world. There are other people who take care of the world, but they are just opening the way for the true king.

Liaodong is not afraid that the Taiping Religion will affect him. After all, there is a Yu Pass in the middle, which is the first pass in the world.

In Qin Lingge's view, there is only one real enemy, and that is Qi Xuansu.

Previously, he believed that Zhao Yan was Qi Xuansu's chess piece, and Zhao Yan first served as an official in the capital, and then was sent to Qiantang Prefecture as the prefect, which was the territory of the White Lotus Sect. Qin Lingge instead suspected that the White Lotus Sect was the work of Qi Xuansu.

In this way, the White Lotus Sect is the most serious problem, while the Taiping Sect is not the only one who suffers from ringworm and scabies.

Qin Lingge learned about the trends in the world, and after careful consideration, he used the connections of the Qin and Li families to secretly promote a major event in the world, that is, the eight major sects besieged the White Lotus Sect with the intention of eradicating this cancer of the demon sect. .

The eight major sects are not just ordinary people. They are local tyrants with strong military force. If they unite, they will really be an incredible force. Although the White Lotus Sect has hundreds of thousands of believers, if the core top leaders are beheaded, it will fall apart in an instant.

This is a bad move. The idea is correct, but the goal is wrong.

If the direction is wrong, the more correct the method, the more wrong the result.

Many people watching the chess game laughed.

"Qin Lingge's cleverness was misled by his cleverness."

"The little headmaster has finally brought the situation back."

"It's just that the Qin family in the book has also been reorganizing its army and practicing martial arts in recent years, and it is obvious that it has the intention to compete in the Central Plains. The Liaodong cavalry dominates Liaodong and looks down on the world, just like the old story of Changsheng Da Zhenren. Once the Liaodong cavalry knocks on the pass and goes south, it can be done with just a few There are thousands of ghost soldiers and not even a few horses. In my opinion, we still have to retreat to the south of the Yangtze River and rely on the natural dangers of the river..."

"To defend the river, you must defend the Huaihe River. If you cannot defend the Jianghuai River, you will lose everything. The river is thousands of miles long, like the snake on the Changshan Mountain. If you are prepared in front, you will be widowed in the rear. If you are prepared in the rear, you will be widowed in the front. If you are prepared everywhere, you will be widowed everywhere. How can you defend it? Besides, retreating to the south of the Yangtze River is a way of peace."

"Brother Taoist's words are very true. The Han and the traitors are not at odds with each other, and the king's business is not at peace. How can we retreat?"

There were many high-ranking masters who did not speak rashly, but were observing the expressions of the chief master and Master Ziji, thoughtfully.

Could this chessboard game be a hypothetical scenario of a three-way war?

It's a pity that neither the Grand Master nor Master Ziji showed the slightest thoughts on their faces, they just watched the chess game quietly.

At this time, another person came to the Return to Truth Hall, wearing a purple lotus crown on his head. He was exactly the same as Pingzhang Daren.

When many real people watching the battle saw this person, they all saluted and called him "Zhen Da Zhen".

The person who came was none other than Wuniang. She had been delayed for some time because of something, so she came late.

Xiao Yin was bored. When he saw Wu Niang coming, he immediately jumped into Wu Niang's arms.

Wu Niang picked up Xiao Yin casually, but looked at the chess game with a serious expression.

Obviously, Wu Niang is not here to join in the fun, nor is she here to watch the fun. She takes this chess game very seriously.

However, Wuniang is not of a caring nature for the country and the people. She is not afraid of a war between the three Taoist factions, and she has not experienced infighting within the Taoist sects. So it is already obvious that she cares about Qi Xuansu.

As for why it is important, only Wu Niang herself knows.

Don’t forget, in terms of seniority, Wu Niang is older than anyone else. She has met Xuansheng and Xu Zu, and fought against them. Before that, she lived in the Kunlun Cave for many years, with Lu Wu The gods have dealt with him and have met the Six Enlightened Witches. The secrets Wu Niang knows are unmatched by anyone - not even Yao Zu. When Wu Niang followed God Lu Wu to fight against the Six Enlightened Witches, Wu Xian Still sleeping in the Netherworld Valley.

Wu Niang naturally has her own reasons.