Steel Dynasty - Chapter 653

[Chapter 652: Conquer Bashu]

A torrential rain suddenly covered Qingzhou.

The sound of raindrops outside the study and the moist smell of rain soaking the earth hit his face, allowing Xiao Ming to find some childhood memories for a while.

When I was a child, I would always smell this natural fresh scent while sitting under the eaves watching the rain, but now the scent is stronger and refreshing.

At this time, Xiao Ming frowned in the face of the pouring rain. A few days ago, he asked the caravan to send fifty artillery pieces to King Huainan. King Huainan must have received them at this time.

With these artillery, King Huainan will have fewer casualties when attacking the city, and once the city is defeated, the rest will be much simpler.

In his opinion, King Yan was just at the end of his battle, and the performance of the Tian family and Ji family was enough to show the opportunistic nature of the wealthy family.

For these wealthy families, they don’t care who rules them. All they want is the prosperity of their own family.

Now that King Yan has lost Bozhou, the remaining wealthy families must have different thoughts. At this time, it is impossible to resist King Huainan wholeheartedly.

Perhaps when King Huainan breaks the city, King Yan’s army will fall apart. Therefore, in his opinion, King Yan’s destruction is close at hand, and King Liang cannot hold out for a month.

In this way, he eliminated two of the three kings in the north, and the only one left was King Zhao.

King Zhao has the fewest men and horses in the Three Kings Alliance this time. It can be seen that this old fox has not taken a fancy to the Three Kings Alliance at all. Perhaps for King Zhao, the only people he truly believes in are the barbarians.

At this time, it was in line with his wishes to remove King Yan and King Liang, saving him the trouble of doing it himself.

Sending fifty artillery pieces to King Huainan this time was not because Xiao Ming was impulsive, but because Xiao Ming felt that he still needed King Huainan as a helper to help him deal with King Chu. He did not want King Huainan to collapse after this battle. He needed It was just that the King of Huainan retracted his power to the south of the Yangtze River.

He was thinking about it when an eunuch suddenly walked towards Qian Dafu from the rain holding an oil-paper umbrella. After saying a few words, the eunuch left.

Qian Dafu walked in at this time, bowed and said, “Your Majesty, the crown prince of Chu, Li Chuyuan, has detained the third prince in Qingzhou.”

“Let him come to see me when the rain stops.” Xiao Ming did not show any surprise, because He received an urgent letter from King Chu three days ago.

In the letter, the King of Chu made up a whole set of excuses, implying that the third prince was the culprit of the farce of his enthronement, and he was just deceived.

The second is his willingness to become a minister, and then the matter of letting Li Chuyuan live in Qingzhou. To put it simply, he is letting Li Chuyuan be a proton to show his sincerity.

Xiao Ming could only sneer at this trick. If he couldn’t see this delaying strategy, the emperor would not have to accept it.

However, the King of Chu made the right bet this time. Xiao Ming really has no intention of touching the King of Chu now. After all, the most urgent issue now is to solve the problem in the north.

His minimum requirement for the King of Chu is to turn his feudal state into a dumping ground for goods. For the time being, he does not want the wealthy south to be turned into a mess.

The rain continued from early morning to two o’clock in the afternoon. At three o’clock, Li Chuyuan arrived at the cabin with the third prince in custody.

“Li Chuyuan, the crown prince of the King of Chu, comes to see the emperor. Long live my emperor, long live, long live!”

In the main hall, Li Chuyuan bowed and shouted.

“No courtesy.”

Xiao Ming smiled. Although he hated Li Chuyuan from the bottom of his heart, he still had to do his best on the surface.

Li Chuyuan then raised his head. This visit to Qingzhou really shocked him. The prosperity and wealth of Qingzhou exceeded his expectations.

This also gave him a deeper understanding of Xiao Ming.

“Xiao Zhen, the guilty minister, comes to see the emperor, long live my emperor, long live, long live!”

The third prince and Li Chuyuan entered the main hall together. After Li Chuyuan shouted long live, the trapped third prince suddenly knelt down and shouted.

Xiao Ming was a little surprised. He looked at the third prince. At this time, the third prince was very embarrassed and his body was much thinner. He still had the infinite scenery in Chang’an.

Li Chuyuan took the opportunity and said, “Your Majesty, the third prince faked the imperial edict. If he hadn’t believed it, his father would not have made him king. I hope your Majesty will understand.”

Xiao Ming laughed and said, “King Chu I’m sorry for your trouble, Prince He. I will severely punish such a rebellious person.”

A smile appeared on Li Chuyuan’s lips. So far, their strategy has not revealed any flaws.

After a pause, Xiao Ming continued: “In the letter, the King of Chu said that the prince will live in Qingzhou for a few years. I wonder what the prince thinks?”

When it came to this matter, Li Chuyuan was already prepared. He said: “Thanks to the emperor. “

Fear me, I have always longed for Qingzhou. It is my wish to stay in Qingzhou.”

“Very good. In this case, the prince will live in Qingzhou.” Xiao Ming said lightly, and he did not need to be too polite to a hostage. .

After saying a few words casually, Xiao Ming sent Li Chuyuan away, but left the third prince in the main hall.

At this time, Xiao Ming looked at the third prince and said, “Do you know why I want to leave you alone?”

“Because the guilty minister is of some use to the emperor.” The third prince seemed to have noticed it a long time ago.

“When we were in Chang’an, the ministers all said that the third prince was talented and intelligent, and now it seems that it is indeed true.” Xiao Ming chuckled.

“This is just the minister raising the guilty minister.” The third prince lowered his head, knowing full well that the smarter the prince, the sooner he would die.

With a slight snort, he said: “After all, King Yan is an outsider, but you are a member of the royal family. Now that the country of Chongqing is like this, how can I choose to trust King Chu but not you.”

The third prince’s expression moved slightly, and he sighed and said: “Your Majesty, the false inheritance was the work of the guilty minister, but it was all ordered by the King of Chu. Otherwise, how could the guilty minister dare to ascend the throne as emperor without soldiers and power?

” In this way, your crime is enough for me to chop your head off ten thousand times, but now the country of Chongqing is in danger. If you can atone for your crime, I will spare your life.” The

third prince’s voice was a little excited. He said: “The guilty minister will send a letter to the King of Shu now, asking him to hold off King Zhao’s troops.”

Xiao Ming nodded after hearing this.

This was the purpose of keeping the third prince. When the King of Chu abandoned the third prince, he also abandoned the fifth prince. After all, the third prince and the fifth prince were brothers.

The fifth prince has always respected the third prince and always obeyed his words. King Chu’s plan was just a delaying tactic. This would undoubtedly give King Zhao an opportunity to get the Shu land and plunge the north into continuous war.

Seeing this, Xiao Ming naturally didn’t want King Chu’s scheme to succeed. Without King Chu’s support, the Five Emperors didn’t know what bad things they could do.

“This time it’s not as simple as a letter. The King of Shu is at the end of his battle. I will send 20,000 troops to follow you into Shu. You can only choose one, life or power.”

(End of Chapter)