The Villain's Counterattack

During Bohai's founding and the defense of Longquan Shangjing, Shi Feixuan played a significant role. Xu Ziling's willingness to defend the city with all his might was largely due to Shi Feixuan's persuasion. Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling shifted their stance, from forcing Bai Ziting to abandon the founding of a new state to supporting Bohai's establishment and defending Longquan Shangjing against the Turkic cavalry. Shi Feixuan used every possible means.

What means are you talking about?

What's the best way to deal with men?

Use Shang Xiufang to deal with Kou Zhong, and personally deal with Xu Ziling. Only by treating the symptoms correctly can it be effective.

But she never expected that the Bohai Kingdom, which had just survived the crisis of Turkic invasion, would turn around and plan to form an alliance with Liaodong, which made Shi Feixuan so uncomfortable that she almost vomited blood.

What's the point of working so hard to help Bai Ziting?

Isn't it because of his relationship with Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje that they can unite to fight against Liaodong?

But you ended up falling directly to my enemy.

However, Shi Feixuan did not expect that Bai Ziting was interested in him. It seemed that the people of Liaodong looked down on him, or rather, they looked down on the Bohai Kingdom which was beaten half to death by the Turks.

The Turkic martial master Bi Xuan was badly defeated by the Taoist Xiaoyaozi, and most of the Turkic cavalry who followed him were killed or wounded. However, as long as Bi Xuan was alive, his influence in the Turks would not disappear, and the threat to the grassland tribes would always exist.

If you want to fight against Bi Xuan, you must be a grandmaster, but does the Bohai Kingdom have a grandmaster?

After experiencing the Longquan Shangjing battle, Bai Ziting stopped being arrogant and his IQ finally came back online. He looked around and found that only Liaodong could save him, and that Liaodong had indeed supported him a lot before. However, he made a stupid move at the last moment and offended Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, which not only resulted in the failure of his mission but also caused him to suffer huge losses.

Bai Ziting, the ruler of Bohai, wanted to form an alliance with Liaodong, but Liaodong looked down on him, so he surrendered to him. However, it was awkward for the ruler of a country to surrender to a duke, so an incongruous and unusual document of request was sent from Longquan Shangjing to Luoyang Xiyuan.

Please confer the title of king on Yang Xuyan, Duke of Liao!

Yes, Bai Ziting asked the Luoyang Sui royal family to enthrone Yang Xuyan as king on the grounds that Yang Xuyan, the Duke of Liao, had made great contributions in guarding the border and maintaining order, so that he could bow to Liaodong and seek better asylum.

These days, being too high-profile can make it difficult to be a subordinate.

Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, who was in high spirits after a great victory, almost laughed out loud when he saw this document. Bai Ziting praised the achievements of the Sui army in the Longquan Shangjing battle. Although the words were all about the Duke of Liao, Yang Guang, who knew the situation and understood that it was his own credit, still felt very happy when he read it.

Finally, he waved his hand and it was approved!

As a result, the imperial edict promoting the Duke of Liao to King of Liao for his meritorious service soon arrived in Liaodong, and the one who received the edict was Shi Qingxuan, the wife of the King of Liao.

As soon as Yang Xuyan became the King of Liao, the King of Bohai, Bai Ziting, immediately sent a letter of surrender, expressing his willingness to regard the King of Liao as his elder brother and Bohai as his younger brother, and to maintain friendly relations for generations, only asking for protection. For this, he was even willing to pay tribute every year, with each tribute being no less than 300,000 strings of cash.

Liaodong would naturally not refuse such a good thing, and supporting more tribes to rise up and split the grassland to counter the Turks was originally Liaodong's strategy. However, the degree of this needs to be well grasped. Liaodong's ultimate goal is to annex the grassland, not to really make the grassland strong. However, before that, it is necessary to use the wealth of the grassland to strengthen Liaodong.

Seeing the allies she had worked so hard to win over become the enemy's minions, Shi Feixuan was so depressed that she wanted to vomit blood. She turned around and found Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, wanting to win them over to fight against Liaodong together. After all, Liaodong's tentacles had extended to the Central Plains and were already bordering the Young Marshal's army.

Kou Zhong was not a fool. He really thought that Shi Feixuan would fully support him because of Xu Ziling. She was never the real person in charge. Cihang Jingzhai always supported Li Tang and Qin Wang Li Shimin. Li Shimin's military achievements in recent years were worthy of this support. The entire Tuyuhun belonged to Li Tang.

Shi Feixuan visited Kou Zhong as a lobbyist, hoping that Kou Zhong would send troops to Luoyang and join Li Tang in besieging Luoyang. The excuse was also ready. Kou Zhong had helped Wang Shichong defeat Li Mi of Wagang and won a great victory. After that, Wang Shichong turned around and wanted to deal with Kou Zhong. Isn't this the best excuse?

As the saying goes, it is never too late for a gentleman to take revenge, not to mention that it has only been less than ten years since Li Mi's downfall.

Unlike the original novel, Li Tang did not have an absolute advantage in the fight for the world at this time. After discovering that Li Mi was still ambitious, Li Yuan secretly condoned Li Mi and Wang Bodang, and they actually left Chang'an alive and returned to Wagang again, trying to make a comeback.

Attack Luoyang?

Kou Zhong wanted to laugh after hearing what Shi Feixuan said.

Luoyang not only has Wang Shichong, but also the Sui royal family. Any one of them is not easy to deal with, and when combined together, they are not something that Shaoshuai's army and Li Tang can contend with. Let's look at the so-called allies.

Seventy percent of Li Tang's army was in Tuyuhun, and Li Shimin, Li Jiancheng, and Li Yuanji were all unable to spare any effort. In addition, their eastward route was blocked by Tongguan, and they could not threaten Luoyang at all.

Li Mi, a yesterday's flower, couldn't even raise an army of 10,000 people. Instead, he was looked down upon by the people of the world for rebelling against Chang'an. This also angered Zhai Jiaojiao, who repeatedly wanted to lead people to kill him and avenge her father.

Kou Zhong had no good feelings towards Li Mi. Even though he knew that it was best to form an alliance with him, he was still unwilling to do so. Kou Zhong's background determined his style of doing things. In his eyes, Wang Shichong was not a good person, and Li Mi was not a good thing either. They were birds of a feather, and Li Mi was even worse than Wang Shichong.

At least because of Yang Xuyan, Wang Shichong in this world did not rebel and proclaim himself emperor as in the original novel. Instead, he was always just a minister, and obeyed the orders of the Xiyuan royal family.

Luoyang cannot be attacked, Liaodong cannot be defeated, so what is the future of Shao Lujun?

south!

Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling summoned the top brass of the Young Marshal's army and, after analyzing the situation together, decided to march south with all their might. On the one hand, they wanted to avoid the behemoth Liaodong, and on the other hand, they wanted to expand rapidly. Even if they could not defeat Liaodong, they might still be able to divide the world into two.

No, it should be divided into three parts!

King Yang Xuyan of Liao occupied the north and the area north of the Yangtze River, Li Tang occupied Guanzhong and Tuyuhun, and the Shaoshuai's army occupied the area south of the Yangtze River. This was the best outcome Kou Zhong could have imagined.

Are you talking about Dou Jiande in the north and Xiao Xing in the south?

He did not think that Dou Jiande would be a match for Yang Xuyan, nor did he think that Xiao Xing would be able to fight back against him and Tiandao Song Que.

The young marshal's army had a huge amount of wealth from Yang Gong's treasure in front, war horses and supplies from the grassland in the back, and a large number of weapons obtained through Shan Wanjing's channel. For a time, the soldiers were strong and the morale was high, and they headed straight to the south.

Du Fuwei, the governor-general of Jiangnan, had no children and treated Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling as his own. He ignored Shi Feixuan's advice and chose to merge his forces into the Young Marshal's army.

He called himself the Grand Steward and regarded himself as the father of Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling. This was passing on the power to the next generation rather than surrendering, so he was naturally justified and even happy, knowing that there was someone to carry on the legacy.

But in this way, King Wu Li Zitong was in trouble.

He had already had conflicts with the Young Marshal's army, and since he was a rebel who had proclaimed himself king, how could he possibly save face by submitting to the Young Marshal? In the end, under Shi Feixuan's deception, he chose to surrender to Li Tang, trying to scare Kou Zhong off. At least he could gain the support of the righteous forces led by Shi Feixuan, right?

However...

Before the young marshal's army moved, Liaodong and Luoyang took action.