Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

Because Zhao Kuangyin's face was too dark, he couldn't see the complex expression clearly. He walked up and down the ground with his hands behind his back. ∑ After a long time, he said: "I can't think of a good solution for a while. All I can think of is to start from three sides. One is to let Guo Shao face the threat of force from outside, the other is internal rebellion, and the third is to damage his prestige and reputation."

Zhao Kuangyin stopped suddenly and said, "Li Yun..."

Li Jixun's complexion suddenly changed, his eldest son Li Shou'en's head was chopped off by that man; killing his son was fine, and Li Shou'en had intended to marry with good intentions, but that man turned his face and chopped off his head, and sent him to Tokyo to ask for credit! Later, in order to keep Li Yun from making trouble, Li Jixun was forced to write a letter to apologize for the murder of his eldest son, saying that Li Yun was angry because of the rudeness of a dog... In fact, Li Jixun wanted to tear that guy's corpse into thousands of pieces!

Zhao Kuangyin saw Li Jixun's reaction in his eyes, and said kindly: "I know that brother Li is angry, but we have to think about it from the other side: just like Li Yun, who seems to be able to sit in the world? If he just accepts his fate in such a stable way, and waits for the court to slow down and cut his military power, maybe Guo Shao will really let him live and give him a fortune because he thought he didn't betray him at the critical moment. In this way, brother Li will not be able to avenge him."

Li Jixun said angrily: "Tiejiang Guo is not a benevolent gentleman, just pretending to be famous. He is lenient to Meng Chang and others because he thinks that those people are no longer a threat. If anyone really threatens him, he will cut the grass and root out without blinking an eye."

Zhao Kuangyin said: "Li Yun is just an arrogant and conceited man. If he loses his military power, what threat will he pose? If we try to make him rebel, we will let him kill himself. It will not only avenge Brother Li, but also make Guo Tiejiang feel uncomfortable."

"Last time I raised an army with Li Chongjin, and he was unwilling to recruit Li Yun into the gang. How can we persuade him to fight alone now?" Li Jixun frowned.

Zhao Kuangyin said: "Last time, you couldn't trust each other. Not to mention Li Jun, Li Chongjin and Li brother couldn't get along; besides, Li Jun's rebellion was for self-reliance. At that time, he joined forces with you, and Li Chongjin was more qualified to become a big...Let's think about another thing. When he raised his army last year, Li Jun dared to kill Li brother (Li Jixun)'s eldest son to show his loyalty to the court, but quietly let go of the envoy of the Northern Han Dynasty. Why?"

Shi Shouxin listened to the two talking, and kept nodding at this time, muttering: "Brother Zhao has insight into the subtleties."

Zhao Kuangyin said: "That fellow Li Yun has never given up the idea of ​​doing bigger things, but I know that my own territory is small and the army is small, and the Northern Han Dynasty is behind me, so I have always left room for it."

Li Jixun said: "Didn't Brother Zhao say before that the Lord of the Northern Han Dynasty only wanted to protect himself and not make progress, so how could he be willing to send troops to support Li Yun?"

"Without the Khitan looking at the land in Hedong, people in the Northern Han Kingdom can protect themselves!" Zhao Kuangyin said, "As long as the Khitan puts pressure on them and gives them some support, the Northern Han Dynasty will definitely obey the Khitan."

Li Jixun suddenly said: "I know Brother Zhao's intention! Although the Liao Kingdom is currently unstable internally and has no intention of making progress, the king of the South Court, Xiao Siwen, still has his grudges in mind."

Zhao Kuangyin sneered and said: "What Brother Li said is very true. Most of the prime ministers of the Liao Kingdom came from the Xiao family, and Xiao Siwen controlled the sixteen prefectures of Youyun, and he was also a well-established figure in the Liao Kingdom; otherwise, he lost soldiers and generals in Zhuozhou, and he should have been executed. Now there is nothing wrong? In the battle of Zhuozhou, Guo Tiejiang was merciless and slaughtered thousands of elite cavalry from Xiao Siwen in one go. Does Xiao Siwen not care about that blood feud?"

After hearing this, Shi Shouxin praised again: "Brother Zhao is really not a thing in the pool. Now that we are reduced to two, you can still make arrangements for the world. You are very comparable!"

"Alas..." Zhao Kuangyin sighed helplessly when he heard the praise.

He walked to the window, looked out of the window for a long time, and said without looking back: "Our strategies are all small ways. The great way has been lost..."

Li Jixun couldn't help asking: "Brother Zhao's so-called Dao, what is it?"

"Dayi, people's hearts." Zhao Kuangyin said.

After he finished speaking, he continued to look at the scene outside. The north wind is raging, and the snow on the ground is lifted by the wind, like a dust cloud; the clouds above the head seem to be surging, and can be transformed into various images, which are ever-changing and elusive.

...

Outside the city of Jiangning in the Southern Tang Dynasty, Yuhuatai has been occupied by the Zhou army. Guo Shao lives in a temple on the mountain forest. He is writing and drawing. The strange hooks and circles are like ghost symbols, and the writing is also bad.

Guo Shao is not used to thinking about the situation in general. He prefers the judgments of all parties, even down to specific names.

There are several types of people here, except for the direct line generals around Guo Shao who are mainly concentrated in the front of the palace, the other people's positions are more complicated. Some listen to whoever is in power, whoever gives orders in Tokyo, but they have some good feelings for Guo Shao and the others; and their promotion is too slow only by doing meritorious service on the battlefield. After all, opportunities are limited, and they also have ideas to get closer to Guo Shao. Such people as Cao Bin, Murong Yanzhao and so on.

Others also watched from the other side, but out of jealousy or pure dislike of Guo Shao, they were very happy to see Guo Shao's misfortune. This kind of people are unwilling to act rashly or take risks when the situation is good, but once Guo Shao encounters a disadvantageous situation, they are very likely to stir up trouble and stir up trouble. Guo Shao didn't think that he was pleasing to his eyes if he was ignorant of virtue.

More dangerous ones, such as Li Yun, the Jiedu envoy of the Zhaoyi Army in Hedong.

There are more powerful and powerful soldiers in their hands. Most of them are used to fighting for power and profit from above, and they are people who play by ear. But because they were unfamiliar, they didn't show a more obvious position, and Guo Shao couldn't figure out what those people were thinking.

Guo Shao stopped writing and rubbed his temples. Zhao Kuangyin’s mutiny at Chenqiao was quite famous in history, and Guo Shao also wanted to follow suit, but he couldn’t imitate it...Because Zhao Kuangyin was adorned in a dragon robe by his subordinates in Chenqiaoyi, and then proclaimed himself an emperor and established a country. But he can at least be sure of one thing: it is completely impossible for a person to become emperor "innocently" without extremely careful arrangements beforehand. Historically, from Chai Rong's death to Chen Qiao's mutiny, what exactly did Zhao Kuangyin do during this period?

As soon as Guo Shao was distracted, he heard the sound of rain on the tile roof. In this place, it snowed for a long time in the twelfth lunar month, and it didn't take long for it to rain again.

He got up and walked out of the fasting room. Tan Shitou, a veteran in his forties, bowed slightly at the door. Guo Shao ignored him, and went outside to watch the rain under the eaves. The sound of wooden fish in the temple "duk tuk tuk" came, and there was a sense of tranquility amidst the sound of rain.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey..." Suddenly, there was a cry of birds, only one, lonely and high-pitched, indeed somewhat ethereal. The voice changed from slow to urgent, from near to far, and then it stopped after a single sound. Guo Shao looked up, but he didn't see any birds flying.

But I saw a large army camp at the foot of the mountain. It was raining in the sky, and from a distance, we could see the "thatched huts" in the barracks; they were not huts, but tents covered with thatch. There was a lot of rain in the south, and Zhou Jun's tarpaulin tents would leak after soaking in the rain for too long, so it became such a scene.

At this moment, two umbrellas appeared in the rain on the stone steps. Guo Shao withdrew his gaze from a distance, and stopped to look at it for a while; the guards such as Qin Shitou beside him also looked sideways.

An umbrella was lifted up, revealing Zuo You's face, Zuo You immediately shouted: "The Lord is just watching the scenery outside!"

The person next to him also showed his face. It turned out to be the military general Cao Bin, who hurriedly saluted to this side on the wet steps with Zuo You. Guo Shao said: "Come and talk."

The two continued to walk this way under umbrellas. Guo Shaochu was also a little puzzled at the beginning, Zuo You and Cao Bin had nothing to do with each other, why did these two people walk together alone? After thinking about it for a while, I remembered one thing. When Wu Yue's army made progress on the Eastern Front, Zuo You would intentionally or unintentionally say that Cao Bin had made great contributions.

Guo Shao really didn't think much about it at first, but then he suddenly realized that Zuo You was recommending people and at the same time wooing his followers.

However, Guo Shao didn't mind this. If Cao Bin had a good relationship with Zuo You, he would be able to move closer to himself... More help and less help, the pros and cons are clear at a glance. Who would think that there are too many people helping him? Moreover, Guo Shao also wanted to promote Zuo You, but Zuo You's background was too weak and his prestige was too small, so it was good for him to have a group of people to support him; Zuo You's talent was much worse than that of Wang Pu and others, and the advantage was that he spent a long time with Guo Shao.

Cao Bin went to the eaves, and bowed again: "Wu Yue's army set out from Runzhou, from the north of Tangshan, marched westward along the great river, and is now stationed in the northeast of Jiangning City. At the end, the mission of Wu Yue as an envoy to Wu Yue was completed, so he came back to return."

Guo Shaodao: "General Cao not only completed his mission this time, but also persuaded the Wuyue Kingdom to mobilize the army to send troops, and also repeatedly made strange plans in many battles. He is really a great talent!"

Cao Bin hurriedly clasped his fists and said, "This subordinate is just doing his job."

Guo Shao nodded solemnly: "Mr. Zuo often says hello, and I also think that General Cao has both ability and integrity, which is not bad." After he finished speaking, he paid attention to Zuo You's expression, and sure enough, he saw that Zuo You was very useful.

"How about we go to the fasting room, make a cup of hot tea, and talk in detail?" Guo Shao said again.

Cao Bin's face was flushed, and he hurriedly said, "Please, Marshal Guo."

Guo Shao brought two people into the fasting room, and said directly: "Let's not talk about Wuyue Kingdom first, and you can talk about it when Wang Shijun (Wang Pu) arrives. He will create files for everyone in Wuyue Kingdom."

Cao Bin nodded in agreement after listening.

Zuo You said: "The Southern Tang Kingdom is already in this state, why hasn't it surrendered yet?"

Guo Shaodao: "Li Yu sent someone to assassinate me. I feel guilty. However, there are really loyal ministers in the Southern Tang Dynasty. Otherwise, Li Yu can't help Li Yu if he surrenders or not."