Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 448: The Mercy of the Bodhisattva Emperor

The rain fell like pillars.

Chen Qingzhi had lived in the south for a long time and had never seen such heavy rain.

It was as if a hole was poked in the sky, and the rain poured down recklessly. Chen Qianzhi looked at the rain curtain gathering on the eaves, and his mood became even heavier.

The dream start of the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains was overshadowed by this rainstorm.

"General! The envoy from Luoyang has arrived, and he wants you to send food from Hanoi to help Luoyang."

Chen Qingzhi stood up from the futon, looked at the heavy rain and said:

"The grain in Hanoi is all soaked in water. If your Majesty wants it, please send an envoy to get it."

Chen Qingzhi was not a loyal minister in the general sense.

He started out as a chess player and served Xiao Yan for many years before he got the opportunity to lead an army. He then persuaded Xiao Yan to launch a northern expedition.

Chen Qingzhi understood the emperor in Luoyang's thoughts very well.

It is easy to guess what His Majesty is thinking as he sent himself to Luoyang without asking for help from Southern Liang.

Chen Qianzhi was willing to stay in Hanoi for the sake of the overall situation.

But now Luoyang has suffered a disaster, and the emperor is still making his own plans. Chen Qianzhi is extremely angry.

A few days ago, Chen Qingzhi wrote to Yuan Hao, asking him to seek help from Southern Liang and transport grain from Xiangyang to the north to support Luoyang.

This is the best way to solve the flood in Henan.

Since ancient times, there have been two routes for the Northern Expedition. One was the route taken by Chen Qianzhi, which was to go north from Xuzhou along the Yellow River all the way to Luoyang.

The second route is to go north from the Jingxiang area. This route is shorter, but its disadvantage is that there is no continuous water and land transportation, and the cost of logistics transportation is relatively high.

When Huan Wen of the Eastern Jin Dynasty led an expedition to the north, he basically took the Jingxiang Passage.

If it is just for disaster relief, then a batch of food will be enough to solve the immediate problem.

However, Yuan Hao was afraid that the Southern Liang would interfere in the affairs of the Luoyang court, so he rejected Chen Qingzhi's letter and refused to send a letter for help to the Southern Liang.

This was a terrible situation. Luoyang was severely flooded, even the imperial palace was flooded. Emperor Yuan Hao moved to Jinyong City and looted all the food in the city.

An even more devastating famine broke out in Luoyang, but Chen Qianzhi knew very well that the most difficult time was still to come. After the rain stopped, a major epidemic would surely break out, and by then Luoyang City would probably become a ghost town.

The situation in Luoyang is not good, and the situation in Hanoi is also not good.

September was supposed to be the time for autumn harvest, but now the grain was soaked in water. Although Chen Qianzhi organized the army to harvest part of it, food shortage in Hanoi was inevitable.

All the efforts from spring to autumn were in vain, and many farmers had nothing to harvest. If the Luoyang court could not resettle these people, it would be another catastrophe comparable to the Rebellion of the Six Garrisons.

How could it not be in chaos? Luoyang was trapped by Erzhu Rong and Su Ze. How could the enemy not take advantage of such an opportunity?
The more Chen Qianzhi thought about it, the more headache he got. He picked up another letter on the table. It was written by General Yang Zhong.

Yang Zhong introduced the situation in Luoyang, and the content was similar to what Chen Qianzhi knew.

However, the words in Yang Zhong's letter, such as "the officials starved to death, and they even exchanged their own children for cannibalism," still made Chen Qianzhi feel a little suffocated.

Yang Zhongcong also brought an unconfirmed piece of bad news in the letter.

The governor of Yizhou, Xiao Ji, was defeated and was attacked and forced into Shu by Hou Jing, a general under Su Ze. Now the defender of Jingzhou, Wang Sengbian, is stationed in Baidi City to prevent Hou Jing from leaving Shu.

When Chen Qingzhi heard the news, his first feeling was that it was fake news.

Shu is a land of natural dangers. Even if Su Ze occupied Hanzhong, it would not be easy to attack Shu via the Shu Road.

When Cao Cao occupied the entire north, he took the initiative to attack Shu but suffered a disastrous defeat. After Cao Cao's death, the offensive and defensive situation of Hanzhong against Shuzhong changed, and Hanzhong was harassed by Shuzhong instead.

Chen Qingzhi really couldn't imagine what method Hou Jing could use to destroy Yizhou in such a short time.

However, the several pieces of information Yang Zhong mentioned in the letter made Chen Qianzhi feel that the news did not seem to be a rumor.

What happened to Hou Jing flying across Yinping and launching a surprise attack on Jiangyou City was that he followed the same route that Deng Ai took to attack Shu.

Originally, Xiao Ji fled to Jiange and led 10,000 Yizhou soldiers who were sent to Jiange back to Chengdu. However, because Xiao Ji was stingy with rewards for the soldiers, these soldiers lost their discipline, plundered the people, and were defeated by Hou Jing's ambush.

After hearing the news, Chen Qianzhi felt that this was not a rumor and these things could really happen!

As a close minister to Xiao Yan, Chen Qingzhi certainly knew what kind of person Xiao Ji, the eighth son of Xiao Yan, was.

Over the years, there were always big families in Shu who impeached Xiao Ji, but Zhu Yi, a favorite minister who helped Xiao Yan share his worries, rarely allowed these discordant memorials to appear on Xiao Yan's desk.

Even if there were some memorials that could not be stopped, Zhu Yi would explain to Xiao Yan that they were conflicts between the big families in Shu and the vassal kings, and persuade Xiao Yan not to help either side.

Xiao Ji is Xiao Yan's son. The so-called "not helping either side" actually means helping Xiao Ji.

In this kind of atmosphere, one can imagine the combat effectiveness of the soldiers in Shu.

The more Chen Qianzhi thought about this unconfirmed news, the more likely it was to be true. He looked at the heavy rain outside with cold hands and feet, as if this heavy rain had already fallen in his heart.

Move the whole body.

Chen Qingzhi had originally planned to bypass Yuan Hao and directly ask for help from the Southern Liang, but if Shuzhong was lost, Jingzhou would become the front line. The Southern Liang had already been short of food, and Chen Qingzhi's own 7,000 white-robed soldiers had only gathered enough food a few days before the expedition.

Once Jingzhou becomes the front line, it will be impossible to transport food out. On the contrary, Jingzhou will need other regions to transport food to it.

Then Chen Qingzhi's plan to ask Southern Liang for food would fail.

This year's spring plowing yielded no harvest, and autumn is about to come. Chen Qianzhi dared not imagine what Luoyang would become.

Chen Qingzhi pounced on the map again.

Just like Go, this game is already trapped, and the only way to break out is to break through the blockade.

west?

Chen Qianzhi shook his head. He said that Hedong County was not very wealthy and had also suffered from disasters. It would be useless to conquer it.

Chen Qingzhi didn't think he could possibly break into Guanzhong, because Su Ze, the Duke of Su, was no pushover.

It seems that the only way out is to go west.

If he wants to survive, he can only attack Xiangzhou again.

Control Ji County and fight against Erzhu Rong. If you can defeat Erzhu Rong, the chess game will be activated and you can go north to Jizhou.

If you can't win, you can retreat from Ji County to Xuzhou and return to Southern Liang along the same route.

There was a bitter look on Chen Qianzhi's face. Although his 7,000 white-robed soldiers were elite, they were exhausted from fighting all the way. Chen Qianzhi originally wanted to rest in Hanoi, but he didn't expect that God would not let him rest.

Damn it, God! It should have been better after the autumn harvest.

Chen Qianzhi cursed again and had no choice but to let his soldiers give orders that the entire army would prepare to march eastward after the rain stopped.
-
In Jiankang City, Emperor Xiao Yan of Southern Liang looked at a pile of reports with a gloomy face.

He had already received news of the great defeat in Shu.

Zhu Yi had no way to cover up such news, so he could only send all the news sent by various parties to Xiao Yan's desk and let Xiao Yan make his own judgment.

The first was the memorial of apology from Xiao Ji, the governor of Yizhou.

But although he said he was asking for forgiveness, he was actually shirking responsibility.

Xiao Ji was like a mad dog, blaming everyone else for his defeat.

The reason why Hou Jing was able to advance so quickly was because he had guides in Shu, which was the result of an agreement that the major families in Shu had already discussed with Hou Jing.

Xiao Ji also admitted that his subordinate Fan Sheng might have harbored treasonous intentions for a long time, and that Fan Sheng had deliberately surrendered to the enemy with 10,000 Yizhou troops, and that he, Xiao Ji, was deceived by this traitor Fan Sheng.

Xiao Ji even hysterically asked Xiao Yan to expel all officials from Shu in the court.

Xiao Yan himself ignored his son's memorial. Instead, he read the memorial sent by Xiao Yi, the governor of Jingzhou.

Xiao Yan felt both pity and love for this son.

It's a pity that Xiao Yi lost one eye due to illness. In history, physically disabled princes basically had no chance of inheriting the throne.

If the emperor had a choice, he would never let a physically disabled prince inherit the throne. A disabled emperor would also find it difficult to gain the respect of court officials.

What he loved was that Xiao Yi's personality and hobbies were similar to his own, and he was also a rare all-rounder among the princes.

Among Xiao Yan's sons, Xiao Yi was the prince whose literary talent was second only to that of Crown Prince Xiao Tong. Before he was sent to Jingzhou, he wrote 30 volumes of "Biography of Filial Piety", which specifically listed the stories of famous people in ancient times who were virtuous and filial.

It was precisely because of this son's excellence that Xiao Yan handed over Jingzhou to him.

But after reading Xiao Yi's memorial, Xiao Yan became even angrier.

Xiao Yi's memorial simply listed what he knew and did not make any comments on the loss of Yizhou.

But after seeing his son Xiao Ji's cerebral thrombosis, Xiao Yan, who had always been a vegetarian and a Buddhist, developed high blood pressure!

In such an important battle as the conquest of Hanzhong, you, Xiao Ji, as the governor of Yizhou, did not go to the front line to supervise the battle, nor did you stay in Chengdu to organize the logistics, but instead ran off to Mount Qingcheng to escape the summer heat?

You failed to mediate the conflict between the local army and the guest army, and allowed Yizhou to wander around in Jiange doing nothing. But if you captured Nanzhong City, it would be like exchanging homes with Liangzhou!
He also did not take part in the battle to retake Chengdu, and only let his own generals lead the troops. He was also stingy with the rewards he gave to his generals. Even when he arrived at Baidi City, he was stingy and refused to give the rewards promised to Wang Sengbian's army. Finally, his residence was surrounded by Wang Sengbian's soldiers, and Xiao Ji was frightened into taking out gold cakes to reward the soldiers.

"So greedy and stingy! I don't know who he learned this from!"

Xiao Yan was so angry that he slammed the table and said.

Bian Ji, who was standing aside, was stunned for a moment. He glanced at Emperor Xiao Yan and asked, "Doesn't your son look like you?"
After calming down for a long time, Xiao Yan said to Zhu Yi:

"Xiao Ji made a mistake. Do you think he should be punished?"

Zhu Yi was already a worm in Xiao Yan's stomach. If Xiao Yan really wanted to punish his son, he would not have asked him.

This is how Xiao Yan treated his relatives. When Xiao Hong was on the Northern Expedition, he abandoned the entire army and fled, causing the Northern Expedition army to suffer a disastrous defeat. Afterwards, Xiao Yan did not punish Xiao Hong, but instead promoted him to a higher position.

In terms of personnel losses, the army Xiao Ji lost this time was still not as much as that lost during Xiao Hong's Northern Expedition.

But how can we convince the people if we don't punish Xiao Ji after his defeat?
(End of this chapter)