Chapter 721 Meeting at Mianchi
Chapter 721 Meeting at Mianchi
Soon, the messenger came in and bowed, "I am delivering a letter to the Crown Prince on the orders of His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin!"
"Where is the letter?"
The messenger took out a letter from his arms and presented it to Li Jiancheng.
Li Jiancheng was stunned when he received the letter. On the cover of the letter was written "From your younger brother Xiao Xia to your brother Jiancheng".
Li Jiancheng suddenly seemed to be back in the second year of Renshou, when the sixteen-year-old Xiao Xia was chatting with his father on the Jiangdu ship. At that time, he called him Brother Jiancheng, but he was actually only a few months older than him.
When Li Jiancheng opened the letter, Xiao Xia first highly praised his moral character of loving the people like his own children, and saying that he would rather let his soldiers run out of food than rob the people.
In the letter, Xiao Xia changed the subject and said that he had no intention of annihilating Li Jiancheng's army. He just hoped that Li Jiancheng would come to Mianchi County to sit down, have a drink and reminisce about the past. Then he would withdraw his troops and send food for Li Jiancheng's army to return to Guanzhong.
Li Jiancheng was a little confused. Is it that simple?
But then he changed his mind and thought that there was no need for Xiao Xia to do this. His army would be out of food tomorrow anyway, so there would be no harm in going there himself.
After thinking it over, Li Jiancheng found that he had no choice. He could only go to see Xiao Xia. Perhaps there was still a glimmer of hope. If he didn't go, there would be no hope at all.
The next morning, Xiao Xia ordered someone to deliver 500 dan of grain, which slightly alleviated the urgent needs of Li Jiancheng's army.
Li Jiancheng then took a carriage to Mianchi County. An hour later, the city wall of Mianchi County appeared in front of Li Jiancheng. Li Jiancheng sighed deeply, why was it Mianchi County? It reminded him of the meeting between Qin and Zhao at Mianchi.
Perhaps he was overthinking it, Li Jiancheng smiled self-deprecatingly, they did not have the advantages of the Qin State.
At this time, a group of cavalry came up, and a young general clasped his fists and said, "I am Su Lie, and I am here to welcome the Crown Prince on the orders of His Royal Highness the Regent!"
Li Jiancheng knew Su Lie. He nodded and asked, "How is your grandfather?"
"My grandfather is in good health. This year, he is also the chief examiner of the imperial examination."
Li Jiancheng said "Oh!" softly, and stopped asking. He felt that if he continued to ask, he would only bring shame upon himself. Su Lie had already called the Prince of Jin "His Royal Highness the Regent Prince", which was a hint as to who was the authentic Sui Dynasty.
The carriage entered Mianchi County and came to a heavily guarded parade ground. A huge tent was set up on the parade ground, and the front of the tent was full of soldiers.
Li Jiancheng came to the big tent with trepidation in his heart. Xiao Xia had been waiting here for a long time. Xiao Xia smiled and clasped his fists and said, "Brother Jiancheng, it's been many years since we last met!"
Li Jiancheng quickly responded, "Thank you, Your Highness, for the food you sent this morning. My soldiers didn't starve."
"They will all be my people in the future, and I will not mistreat them."
This made Li Jiancheng really embarrassed. Xiao Xia smiled and waved his hand, "Brother, please!"
Li Jiancheng walked into the big tent. He thought the tent was decorated magnificently, but he was stunned when he entered. The tent, which covered an area of one acre, was actually empty. Although it was covered with carpet, it was empty except for a table with a pot of wine and two wine glasses on it. There was not even any snacks. It turned out that they came here to have a drink.
Li Jiancheng smiled bitterly in his heart and followed Xiao Xia to sit down. Xiao Xia filled a glass of wine for him and said with a smile: "Don't worry. Poisoning is something that only Wang Long, Yu Wenhuaji and others do. I don't want to be their comrade."
"I'm not worried!" Li Jiancheng raised his wine glass and said, "Thank you again, Your Highness, for sending the food!"
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "Brother Jiancheng is sometimes inexperienced. I know that the people in Shan County have a lot of food. They have distributed all the food in the granary at the dock. Your Highness can collect the food and provide relief porridge to maintain the minimum survival of the people. The 30,000 troops will have at least one month's worth of food. At that time, even if your country's reinforcements do not come, I will not continue the siege."
Li Jiancheng was speechless. It was clearly the other party that cut off his food supply, and now they were teaching him how to save food. This was simply a great irony.
Although he felt disgusted, Li Jiancheng still reluctantly bowed and said, "Thank you, Your Highness, for sharing your experience!"
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "Let me teach you another military strategy! It's better to have a bird in the hand than two in the bush. Do you understand what I mean, brother?"
Li Jiancheng shook his head, "Your Highness, why don't you just speak frankly!"
"What I mean is that instead of dividing the troops to attack Longyou and Hedong, it is better to concentrate the forces to take Longyou. Anyway, the Wagang Army is focusing on eliminating Liu Wuzhou and Wei Daoer and can't take care of Guanzhong. So only 10,000 troops should be left at Pujin Pass, and the rest of the army can go to Longyou, kill Xue Ju and his son, recapture Longyou, and then concentrate the forces to attack Hedong. Hedong is there, it can't escape!"
Li Jiancheng sighed and said, "The main reason is that 60% of our soldiers are from Hedong. Our attack on Hedong at least gives them hope. If we don't attack Hedong anymore, they will see no hope."
Xiao Xia waved his hand, "This kind of thing is easy to solve. Send out a few hundred preachers to spread the word among the soldiers and let them understand that the purpose of retaking Longyou is to have no worries so that they can concentrate their forces to retake Hedong. The soldiers will understand."
Li Jiancheng thought about it and realized that it was true. He stood up and saluted, "Thank you again for your good advice, Your Highness!"
Xiao Xia asked him to sit down, and filled his glass again, saying with a smile: "There is another thing. I am not trying to destroy the relationship between you brothers. I have experienced it myself. Look at the five dragons fighting for the throne at the end of Renshou, and then look at the King of Qi poisoning his eldest brother. The competition for heirs in every dynasty has been extremely cruel. Why?
Because the throne not only represents your own interests, but also the interests of all your subordinates and supporters. Even if you don't want to fight for the throne, your subordinates and supporters will push you to participate in the fight. This is a very cruel reality. Brother Jiancheng, do you understand what I mean?"
Li Jiancheng nodded silently. Pei Ji had told him the same thing before, asking him to take control of the military power as soon as possible. Once the second prince controlled all the military power, it would be troublesome.
Xiao Xia observed Li Jiancheng's expression and when he saw that Li Jiancheng did not jump up and blame him for destroying their brotherhood, he guessed that there were already some signs of something going on between Li Jiancheng and Li Shimin.
This kind of struggle for succession is not unique to the emperor's family. In fact, the struggle for succession within a large family is equally exciting. Where there is a world, there is struggle.
Although Li Shimin was young, the Western Corps headed by Qu Tutong had already supported him. If Li Shimin regained Hedong, the Hedong Corps would also support him. In addition, with the neutrality of the Guanzhong Corps, Li Shimin would actually get the support of the military, while Li Jiancheng would be supported more by the civil service group.
However, it is not known whether the Xuanwu Gate incident will happen again. Although it is impossible for a person to step into two identical rivers at the same time, after all, all the backgrounds have changed and the time is not right.
But what? Fighting for the throne is the nature of all heirs to the throne, so even if there was no Xuanwu Gate Incident, there would be other gate incidents.
Xiao Xia raised his glass and said with a smile: "I sincerely hope that Brother Jiancheng will get the support of Hedong Group and Jiangnan Group."
The next afternoon, Xiao Xia supplied Li Jiancheng with another 500 dan of grain. At the same time, Li Jiancheng received news that Zhang Xutuo's army retreated south to Hongnong County, and the ancient road of Xiaohan in the west was open.
Li Jiancheng immediately led an army of 30,000 and set off. It took only two days to reach Tongguan. The moment he led the army into Tongguan, Li Jiancheng knelt on the ground and burst into tears.
The life and death of 30,000 troops was meaningless to Xiao Xia, but Xiao Xia was more interested in Li Jiancheng. After a conversation in Mianchi County, Xiao Xia naturally became a supporter behind Li Jiancheng.
(End of this chapter)