The reason why Li Hong did this was that he did not want these three Zichong Mansion to become the final winner after the chaos in Yangzhou. Therefore, he had to use the help of King Cao, Li Jingye and others to either take it back or take it back. Let them waver tonight and not help each other.
More importantly, Li Jingye and King Cao may not care, but Li Hong must consider whether the three soldiers will take advantage of the situation to rob the people and create greater chaos in Yangzhou once chaos breaks out in Yangzhou City.
Therefore, no matter what, Li Hong must not make these three Zhechong mansions incapacitated in a short period of time and prevent the captains of the three Zhechong mansions from kidnapping all the Zhechong mansion soldiers.
"It's better to be still than to move now. Tell King Luo Bin that after arriving at the residence of King Yue Li Zhen...immediately capture Wei Siwen, and then force Li Jingye to personally lead his troops to the residence of King Yue, so that they can confront each other first." Li Hong turned around and looked at General Pei Zhong. , said with determination.
Otherwise, if Li Jingye stayed in the Governor's Mansion and did not come out, just to protect himself or wait for news from Li Jingyou and the others, then he would be passive and face the King of Yue and the others.
"Yes, Your Highness." General Pei Zhong said with a salute.
After General Pei Zhong left, Mangzhong and Cheetah ran over at the same time and whispered: "It's confirmed, King Cao Li Ming and King Pei Li Xian went to Zhechong Mansion to convince the three Zhechong Mansion."
"Do you know which one it is?" Li Hong asked with a cold look.
"There is a Zhechong Mansion at the west gate of Yangzhou City. I just saw more than ten riders passing by along the street, and there were King Cao and King Pei inside." Mang Zhong said with a solemn expression.
"Prepare your horses and order Lieutenant Tu Qi to lead fifty people and set off with me." Li Hong took the Hengdao from Mang Zhong's hand and said coldly.
"Your Highness, my servant will follow you there."
"No need, just in case Li Jingye attacks suddenly, you and General Pei Zhong will protect this place." Li Hong said as he walked towards the back garden of Manjiang Garden.
There must be a lot of spies from people like Li Jingye or King Yue at the front door, and there must also be spies at the back door. But if a few spies slipped out without anyone noticing, it would be hard for Mang Zhong and Cheetah to think about it.
"Hey... how about I go with you?" Princess Dalai ran over, looked at Li Hong and said hopefully.
"Excuse me, you want to see my Datang jokes, right?" Li Hong shook off Princess Dalai's hand and said without looking back.
"I want to learn how your Zhechong Mansion leads troops and how to prevent them from rebelling." Seeing Li Hong's firm attitude, Princess Dalai had no choice but to stand still and continue.
"Then you go to Bai Chun and she can teach you."
At the back door, Mangzhong and Cheetah nodded to Li Hong, indicating that there was no suspicious person at the back door.
Wei Tuqi led a tall war horse to Li Hong. Li Hong took the reins, pointed at Wei Tuqi and ordered: "Start immediately, you lead the way."
"Yes, Your Highness." Yu Tuqi's thick voice sounded, as if it was shaking the dark night.
A total of fifty-two riders slowly walked from the back gate of Manjiang Garden, led by a lantern. After leaving the end of the street in Manjiang Garden, they immediately started galloping.
In the houses of ordinary people who got up early on the street, the lights that were originally on were silently and quickly extinguished when a burst of rapid horse hooves passed by. You could even vaguely hear the sound of some door bolts falling and the doors being locked.
At this time, Yangzhou City had begun to take shape. Although it was not as large as the Song Dynasty, let alone the previous generation, it was no longer a small city.
In about a quarter of an hour, Li Hong and others galloped slowly to the gate of Zhechong Mansion. As soon as the war horses stopped outside the range of the crossbow at the gate, a crossbow fired over to warn them not to approach.
"Whoever is coming, tell me your name." A loud voice came from inside the gate.
Wei Tuqi glanced at Li Hong, and when he saw Li Hong nodded, he urged his horse to take two steps forward. While he was wary of the cold arrows in the dark night, he shouted loudly: "On the order of Master Li, the governor, come and meet with the captain." For peace talks, King Cao and King Pei have just entered. The governor is afraid of misunderstandings and is even more worried about the unrest along the way, so he sent me and others to meet them. "
There was silence inside the gate for a while, and then he said: "Throw the token in."
When Yutu Qi heard the news, he took the token thrown by Li Hong behind his head and threw it in the direction of the sound without even looking at it.
"Your Highness, will they agree? After all, King Cao and King Pei have just entered." After Wei Tuqi confirmed that he had received the token, at Li Hong's signal, he urged his horse to retreat outside the range of the crossbow and lowered his voice. asked in a voice.
Li Hong's face was expressionless and he said calmly: "I don't know, but if I had just reported my name, I'm afraid you would have been shot into a hedgehog."
Yu Tuqi was startled, feeling that His Highness was being exaggerated, but he did not dare to refute or ask why, so he could only remain silent and wait for the results of the token inspection.
Li Hong calmly said to Wei Tuqi: "If it were you, what would you do? Now that you know that there are three parties in the city, who will you choose and who will you not choose?"
This question made Yu Tuqi stunned. He wanted to blurt out the words of natural submission to Your Highness, but he was swallowed back hard when he reached his mouth.
Seeing that Lieutenant Tuqi was having trouble answering, Li Hong answered himself: "If I were the captain of Zhechong Prefecture, the first people to be excluded and unable to join us would be us, because they knew very well that they were not betrayed by Pei Zhong in the first place. General and King Luo Bin were persuaded to join the Tang Dynasty, so if they join the Tang Dynasty now, when the turmoil finally calms down, the court will naturally not let them go, so they will never want to join the Tang Dynasty again, and what they can choose now is, It depends on whether King Cao and others are more powerful, or Li Jingye can control Yangzhou, and whoever promises them more benefits will be the one they will join."
"This... these people are so helpless, they don't have the character and integrity of our soldiers of the Tang Dynasty!" Yu Tuqi was stunned and said in disbelief.
Li Hong was a little surprised that Wei Tuqi actually understood the meaning of character and integrity, but then he thought about it. Since returning from the expedition to the west, when Wei Tuqi had nothing to do, he had never heard that he went to Pingkangfang in Chang'an every day, where brothels gathered. While waiting for a place to go, I heard that I often hang out in Chongwen Hall when I have nothing to do. From time to time, I wander into the school, sitting in the last row like a big fool, listening to my teacher.
"This is the south of the Yangtze River, not the north. There are only a few Zhechong Mansion here, and most of them have never experienced a real war or been on a real battlefield. Therefore, in their minds, every time there is turmoil in the Tang Dynasty, In their eyes, it is a good opportunity for them to get promoted and make a fortune. It is an opportunity to blackmail the court or gain benefits from other rebel forces. They can even take advantage of the riots and the court has no time to take care of them, so they can burn, kill and plunder the people. When the riots subsided, the previous dynasty or the way I handled them in the early Tang Dynasty would be both positive and negative. So, they have long been accustomed to taking advantage of this. "
Listening to Li Hong's analysis, Yu Tuqi clenched his casserole-like fists tightly and said in a hateful voice: "If such a person goes to the battlefield, he will be useless and will only hinder us! He should be killed without mercy!"
"There is no way to kill them. Killing is not the solution to the problem. As long as they understand that the laws of the Tang Dynasty will no longer be the same as before, as long as they are deprived of their vital interests, they will not be able to stand up for the first time in the future. If they want to The days of both sides taking it all are gone forever.”
As Li Hong's words fell, a voice came from inside the gate: "There are too many of you, so some of you are left outside. Only twenty people are allowed in."
"Promise him." Li Hong looked at Wei Tuqi's hesitant expression and poked Wei Tuqi with the sheath of the horizontal sword in his hand.
"Okay, no problem, can we go in now?" Yu Tuqi wanted to eat the people in Zhechong Mansion alive.
"Yes, you are not allowed to ride war horses, you can only enter on foot."
Li Hong jumped off the horse immediately, without even taking the horizontal sword in his hand, but threw it to the soldiers who stayed outside.
When Yu Tuqi saw that His Highness the Crown Prince had dismounted, he immediately ordered twenty people, jumped off the horse, followed Li Hong closely, and walked to Zhechong Mansion.
After arriving at the gate, as expected by Li Hong, hundreds of soldiers surrounded them. Under the leadership of a school lieutenant, Li Hong and others were surrounded in the middle.
"Turn in all your Hengdao, and then you can meet our Lord Commander." The school captain looked at Wei Tuqi and others with vigilance. When they were surrounded by everyone, they all drew out their Hengdao and said loudly.
Wei Tuqi slowly put the Hengdao back into its sheath, then signaled the soldiers to sheath their knives as well, and cautiously threw the Hengdao at the feet of the captain.
The captain looked at these twenty people, finally put all the knives on the ground, and ordered the soldiers to take them away. He did not take them to see the captain immediately, but tried to say: "On weekdays, you see us captain When you are an adult, you never carry weapons to show friendship. Why did you bring weapons today? Could it be that... you don't understand these rules?"
"Tonight is extraordinary. I had to bring weapons as a last resort. In the past, Yangzhou City was still peaceful. What's the point of bringing a sword? Now that His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived in Yangzhou, he will surely take action soon. Let's go out to see the Captain. We have to prevent the prince from intercepting us on the road, so being so cautious makes you laughable." Li Hong stepped out from behind Wei Tuqi and said with a smile on his face.
"So, you feel the pressure from His Highness the Crown Prince, so you have come to ask us again? His Highness the Crown Prince is now powerful, and my family is considering whether to join His Highness the Crown Prince." The school captain sneered. said.
"So the governor has said that the position of governor of Runzhou is not non-negotiable. The situation in Yangzhou is complicated and changeable now. After tonight, Yangzhou may have a surname of Xu, so I hope the captain will consider it carefully." Li Hong took two steps forward again, looked at the captain and said.
(End of chapter)