Chapter 1216 Wang and Zhou

Chapter 1216 Wang and Zhou

Chapter 1216 Wang and Zhou

"Grandpa, what can I do?" Inside the Wang residence in Wuyi Lane, Wang Tian quietly came to Director Wang and asked.

Director Wang ignored him, even though his son's hair was not disheveled today and his clothes were very formal, and his signature playful smile was gone.

Before people experience drastic changes, it is difficult for them to have a sense of urgency and to take the initiative to change.

Wang Tian sat next to his father for a while, then felt bored, so he stood up and went to the front.

The situation was critical, and many assistants of the Prime Minister's office moved directly to Wuyi Lane to work on the spot.

After Wang Tian arrived, everyone saluted. After the salute, they were busy discussing the war situation, the big clans, or the food and weapons.

"Why doesn't Liu Chao go south?"

"The troops in Moling, Danyang and other places are not yet fully prepared. Perhaps they need to gather their forces before leaving."

"How many people can Zhou Zha mobilize?"

"I think at most 10,000 people. The Zhou family is not as strong as before. Yixing has conducted many investigations and many people have been expelled. The Zhou family members are no longer united. Ten thousand people is the maximum. Maybe only a few thousand."

"It seems that Lord Liu should be able to win, but I don't know how long it will take."

"When will the Xuancheng troops be dispatched?"

"The Prince of Langya refused to mobilize the troops in Xuancheng, saying that he wanted to guard against the Liang bandits."

"Is the Prince of Langya in Wuhu? Why is he concerned about Xuancheng? He also took away 3,000 imperial guards. Jianye is short of troops."

"Now there are only 2,000 Right Guards, 4,300 Colonel Soldiers, and the Left and Right Guards of the Eastern Palace left in Jianye—"

"Don't even think about the Right Guard. Those 2,000 soldiers went to Wumadu. This time, King Fan of Xiangyang is leading the troops. He is said to be knowledgeable about military affairs."

"It's just rumored. I don't think many members of the royal family know how to fight."

Wang Tian listened silently without interrupting. He couldn't interrupt because he had never done any serious work before. People didn't trust you and were unfamiliar with you, so how could they talk to you about military and national affairs? Chatting about love and romance was fine.

After sitting for half an hour, Wang Tian sighed and felt that he was really redundant. He just stood there, not to mention helping, it was good enough if he didn't cause trouble, so he left sadly.

After strolling around for a while, Wang Tian was about to go out when he met his cousin, Wang Xizhi, a friend of Kuaiji.

"Master Yi?"

"Jingyu?"

Both of them were a little surprised.

"What are you doing here, Yi Shao?" Wang Tian was bored, so he grabbed Wang Xizhi and asked.

Wang Xizhi hesitated for a moment and said, "The King of Kuaiji wanted to lead his troops to guard Wumadu again, but after waiting for a long time, it was the King of Xiangyang who took over, so he sent me to ask if this was the Prime Minister's intention."

"Don't ask." Wang Tian said, "Based on his confused performance on the night of the ninth day, no one would let him continue to lead the troops. The choice of the King of Xiangyang was Queen Shan's idea, and my father agreed."

"So that's how it is." Wang Xizhi bowed and prepared to turn around and leave.

"Don't go." Wang Tian held him back and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Your Highness intends to go to the feudal state to recruit a group of soldiers to Jianye..."

"Are you going alone?" Wang Tian looked at his cousin and asked.

I haven't heard that Wang Yishao has any talents. Recruiting soldiers is not a trivial matter, nor is it honorable. Can he do it?
"My uncle will send some people to go with me." Wang Xizhi chuckled and said, "Originally, this was Wang Shu's job, but I got it in the end."

Wang Tian was speechless.

After Wang Xizhi finished his mourning period, he married the daughter of Grand Commandant Liu Kun, the sister of General Guanjun and Governor of Linhuai Liu Zun. If Liu Kun could help, she would be more suitable than Wang Shu.

However, it is outrageous that my cousin and Wang Shu have been competing with each other for so long.

Just because his father (Wang Dao) praised Wang Shu several times in public, his cousin felt uncomfortable. The two were a Gongcao and a friend, but their relationship was extremely bad. It really makes people wonder what to say.

Just at the end of last year, because some people said that Wang Shu was capable of handling affairs, he was appointed as Gongcao, while Wang Xizhi had no ability, so he could only be Wang's friend and play with the King of Kuaiji.

After hearing this, his brother became unhappy again and ridiculed Wang Shu for not being free and easy and not having the demeanor of a scholar.

In short, the two of them were competing with each other.

"Since Master Yi is going to recruit soldiers, he should hurry up. I overheard a while ago that the left and right guards of the imperial army have been sent out. Now there are only two guards of the Eastern Palace with 4,000 people in Taicheng, and three lieutenant camps with 4,000 infantry and cavalry in Shitoucheng. There are no more." Wang Tian said, "It's good to recruit soldiers. If there is no trouble in Langya Kingdom, it would be better to recruit some soldiers."

"No wonder there are so many servants from wealthy families standing guard on the streets." Wang Xizhi was surprised and said, "So that's why."

Seeing his cousin's reaction, Wang Tian suddenly regained some confidence.

Wang Xizhi had a big shortcoming, which was that he could not see the things behind things, his cognition was mostly superficial, and he had no ability to engage in politics. His talent was probably all in calligraphy, and other aspects were a mess.

"How do you get to Kuaiji? Do you have to go through Jincheng? What's going on over there?" Wang Tian suddenly thought of something and asked.

"I heard that yesterday (the 19th day of the first lunar month) Zhao Yin led his troops to attack Jincheng. When the battle was most intense, many of the Liang bandits suddenly fled. General Zhao was overjoyed and was about to increase his offensive to capture the city in one fell swoop, but he was defeated by the Liang bandits instead." Wang Xizhi said.

"Oh? How did you lose?" Wang Tian asked.

"According to the King of Kuaiji, the Liang bandits led 200 cavalrymen to attack the enemy. The soldiers who attacked the city were exhausted and were greatly defeated. No less than a thousand people died in battle, jumped into the river, or were trampled to death. The morale of the camps was broken and they retreated back to Henan." Wang Xizhi said, "What a pity, it was just a little short."

Wang Tian also felt it was a pity.

It was normal for some of the Liang bandits to flee. There weren't many of them who could fight. If it weren't for the hundreds of cavalrymen who gave them courage, they might not even dare to defend Jincheng. Now things were not good. Let them fight to boost their morale.

"Jingyu, you..." Wang Xizhi thought for a moment and said, "Take good care of your uncle. I'm leaving now."

"Goodbye, Master Yi." Wang Tian sent the man to the gate before going back.

******
Puzhoujin was relatively calm on the 20th day of the first lunar month. At noon, more than ten ships appeared on the river north of the sandbar.

Soon, a small boat slowly approached, floating in the river.

A man stood at the bow of the ship, leaning against the wind. He was Zhou Xun, the general of the left army of Jin and the commander of the military forces of Jianye River.

His hair had turned completely white, and it was obvious that the murder of his family had devastated him.

Perhaps the only consolation was that his descendants were not completely extinct, because one of them was studying abroad and luckily survived.

After a few days of grief, Zhou Yan gradually calmed down and carried out the prime minister's military orders conscientiously.

He actually didn't have many troops at hand, just over 3,000 men and a hundred ships.

Patrolling the river is a hard job. After all, the wind is very strong, the waves are big, and sometimes there is snow. If this were not the Yangtze River, the water surface might have been frozen.

However, it is better to patrol the river than to fight on shore.

Last night he sent hundreds of men ashore to try to attack Jincheng, but they failed and lost more than 200 men. His soldiers were not happy, saying that this was a fortress built by Sun Quan specifically to control the Yangtze River, and that a strong attack would cause huge losses, and that their navy should not be responsible for this job.

Zhao Yin in the south of Jincheng was also cursing, accusing Zhou Yan of not knowing how to attack from both sides.

You didn't come when they were fighting desperately to attack the city, and then came after they were retreating, making it seem like you were a spy from the State of Liang.

In a word, the navy and the army did not cooperate.

Of course, this was no one's fault. Dividing and attacking together was never an easy task, let alone for the Jianye navy and imperial guards who had not been used to fighting for a long time, but it was frustrating after all.

Speaking of spies, Zhou Yan has also heard some things recently.

Because Shi Zhen was proved to be a spy of the Liang Dynasty, many officials of Langya State came under suspicion, including Langya Prime Minister Zhuge Yi and Lieutenant Kong Tan, even though they had already fought against the Liang army.

What's worse, because the war situation was not going well, they began to shirk responsibility, saying that the Yingchuan Chen family and the Bohai Shi family, who were trusted by the Prince of Langya, were secretly communicating with the north. Even Concubine Shi was vaguely blamed, saying that she was resentful of the Prince of Langya for not being able to become the emperor, and on the condition of becoming a vassal of the Liang State and ceding all the land north of the Yangtze River, she begged the Liang army to enter Jianye and help the Prince of Langya ascend the throne.

The news is outrageous, and anyone with a discerning eye can tell it's fake, but some people still believe it.

In particular, Du Yi, the governor of Danyang and a follower of Queen Shan, criticized most fiercely, almost saying that Concubine Shi Gui, Prince of Langya, and Zhuge Hui were traitors who should be executed.

Zhou Yan was helpless and even a little sad. Why were there so many people like Du Yi in the court? Did they forget what the previous emperor said, "Tolerance for the sake of the country"?

Shi Guipin is fine, but can Zhuge Hui be easily moved? Compared with the overall surrender of Jingzhou, the current chaos around Jianye is really nothing.

Thinking of this, he let out a long sigh.

His wife and children were killed by the thief Qian Feng, and now he has to work with this gang. I don’t know if it’s worth it.

There was a sound of paddling water behind me.

Zhou Yan turned around and saw a man standing at the bow of the boat, waving at him: "Brother!"

Zhou Yan looked carefully and found that it was his third brother, Zhou Zan, a military official in the Prime Minister's Office.

The boat soon approached, and Zhou Zan seized the opportunity and boarded Zhou Chan's boat.

"Brother, Silong ran away." Zhou Zan said in a low voice.

"Silong" is Zhou Dan, the son of Zhou Zha, who is an eighth-rank official in the court. He is usually not taken seriously and does not associate with the brothers Zhou Yan and Zhou Zan.

To be more precise, most of the Yixing Zhou clan members did not interact with them much, and only a small number of people were jealous of Wang Dao's power and wanted to obtain official positions through Zhou Yan's connections.

"Why didn't you stop him? If he dares to run, he will be a traitor and should be killed immediately." Hearing that his cousin had run away, Zhou Yan became furious and looked at Zhou Zan with red eyes.

Zhou Zan was speechless and dared not speak.

Zhou Yan glared at him fiercely and asked, "Is that all?"

"The King of Jiyin sent me to ask you, since Jincheng has been under siege for a long time and has not been conquered, should we transfer Su Jun's troops to the south?" Zhou Zan asked.

Zhou Yan heard this and shook his head slightly, saying, "Prince Jiyin is already confused. The Prime Minister hasn't even mobilized the troops from Guangling to the south, so why is he so anxious?"

Zhou Zan nodded, and couldn't help asking, "In fact, it's not just the Prince of Jiyin. Yesterday, when I was in Jiangcheng, the Langya Prime Minister Zhuge Yi had already submitted a petition requesting the transfer of the Northern Army or Su Jun's troops to besiege Jincheng. He said frankly that the Imperial Army had lost its fighting spirit, and in order to avoid delay, it was advisable to transfer elite troops and brave generals to quickly eliminate the bandits."

Zhou Yan still shook his head and said, "That's true, but the troops in Jiangbei cannot move."

Zhou Zan was a little confused.

Zhou Yan said patiently: "Qian Feng is in Jincheng. You think I don't want to kill this thief as soon as possible? But people can't let their emotions get the better of them."

Zhou Zan suddenly felt that his brother was a little scary.

He seemed to have no heart and didn't care about anything.

He didn't care about his clansmen. He half-tricked and half-forced his cousin Zhou Xu, with whom he had played, studied and grown up since childhood, to be dragged to the prefectural mansion and killed at the doorstep of his old house in Yangxian.

He didn't care about his mother. After killing Zhou Xu and his clan member Zhou Shao, he didn't even go back to the old house, let alone visit his mother. He went straight back to Jianye, so that his mother had to rush out to chase him.

He probably didn't care about his wife and children. Apart from the fact that he was heartbroken and vomiting blood when he first heard the bad news, he acted as if nothing had happened and carried out the prime minister's military orders meticulously.

Perhaps, what he really cared about were only his future, official position and Wang Dao’s vague “comments”.

Zhou Zan was a little disappointed and even sad, and said with some emotion: "Our words are not influential, and if the court really transfers troops from Jiangbei to the south, there is nothing we can do."

Zhou Yan glanced at Zhou Zan and said, "No, I have to write to the court and ask them not to transfer the troops from Jiangbei to the south. If Beigong Chun knew about this, he would definitely march south in large numbers, which would ruin national affairs."

Zhou Zan stared at his brother blankly, speechless for a long time.

(End of this chapter)