In Puban City (Puzhou Town, Yongji County, Shanxi Province), in Hezhong Prefecture, Wang Chongrong, the governor of Hezhong with a wide forehead and a prominent eyebrows, looked at the messenger in front of him with a cold expression:

"So the Taiping thief took Hangu Road and Shaanxi Guo and harmed my brother, will he still continue to make things difficult for me?"

"Don't hide it from the festival. Xiao De and his group were stopped as soon as they arrived in Xiayang, let alone going to Chang'an to ask for a meeting."

The messenger said tremblingly:

"You said that, is it because someone is eager to seek merit and secretly interfering, trying to ruin the peace talks?"

A military general with thick neck and big eyes beside Wang Chongrong couldn't help but shout:

"The villain doesn't know! He said that he doesn't want to obtain things that cannot be obtained in the battle formation, so don't think of easily obtaining them with his mouth..."

But the messenger became more cautious and cautious:

"alright!"

Wang Chongrong waved his hand in a state of turmoil:

"Since they have no intention of stopping the army, they can only continue to see the battle formation!"

Then he turned to the generals in the tent and said:

"You all understand that it is not because I don't want to settle down in my own territory, but because the peaceful thief is fighting and bullying people too much! He is eager to look forward to Shu and wants to seize the foundation of our army. In the future, if there are any other people in the army, this is the case!"

As he spoke, he saw him pulling out his swordsman and the exquisite lacquer sculpture was broken into two pieces. The generals in the tent were also silent and dared not come out, so they became in unison:

"Only the general is fighting to the death, but the thief is defeated!!"

But when all the generals retreated in public, leaving Wang Chongrong alone in the empty hall, he sighed invisibly, but looked at the carved beams painted by the historical allusion of "Shundu" on the top and fell into deep thought.

Although his current situation is not the worst, it is not much better. Although he has the advantages of the five states of Hezhong Prefecture, Jin, Jiang, Ci, and Xi, and the additional business roads, Anyi and Jie County, which also lead the small and small salt ponds of Shaanxi and Guo prefectures, allowing him to easily recruit and mobilize 50,000 troops, and repeatedly fight to the east and west.

But the current situation is that he has lost the land, land, wealth and tax of the two states under the name of Shaanxi and Guo Observation; and he has to deploy nearly 20,000 troops in the newly captured Fen and Qin prefectures; in order to prevent and block the troops from the Taiyuan Prefecture's counterattack.

The two states were poisoned by the war and their population was declining, and there was almost no decent output of land, finance and taxation. Therefore, they could only rely on the supply and maintenance from the rear. Then, in the Jinzhou area, he had to divide more than 10,000 troops to guard against the Heyang army that might have left Guanxing and suppress the changes in the local area.

In the area of ​​Dayang Bridge on the southern foot of Wangwu Mountain on the north bank of the Yellow River, he also had to maintain a team of troops to block the dual threats from Duji Do troops from Henan on the other side of the river and the Heyang Army from Hebei on the east.

Finally, after failing to cross the river, he was raided and wandered behind him. In order to ensure the comprehensiveness of Yanchi in Anyi, Jie County, he once again divided his troops to maintain and defend. In this way, in the Puban City where he was personally stationed, there were only more than 20,000 soldiers available.

Even though he and the same number of new soldiers and more than 10,000 civilians were recruited from Hezhong Prefecture, he still felt that it was not enough to use it. Because now, He Zhongzheng can be said to be enemies on all sides and use troops everywhere;

The day and night of confrontation with the Taiping Army across the river is also a particularly considerable burden and pressure for the prefectures of Hezhong Town, which is still well preserved. Especially in recent years, the salt of Hezhongchi has also begun to be unsold and has lost the way to transfer to the West and Kansai.

Compared with the expectation of losing money, it is a particularly terrible prospect for any military commander. Because it will mean that it will not only be unable to maintain a decent and luxurious appearance, but also the backlash from the army with insufficient food and salary and rewards, and even the tradition of Yi Shuai.

You should know that he used the fait accompli for the rebellion in his hometown to seize Anyi and Jie County Yanchi, and to control the largest financial institution in Hezhong Town to force Li Du, the chief governor appointed by the court, to bow his head, and finally he was able to replace it.

Therefore, after he took power, he had been working cautiously to maintain the fact of local separatism, and did not hesitate to pay tribute to the New Dynasties of the Great Qi, which was born into a thief. After the Western Army counterattacked, he abandoned it without hesitation, and supported his brother to seize and cut off the Confucius channel in the pass and the Central Plains.

On the other hand, he also launched troops to attack Hedong Town, which had already shown its decline, in order to consume the unstable factors that might pose a threat to his family's long-term rule over Hezhong Town; it was also to feed his tiger and wolf army by seizing the wealth and population on the land of the prefectures and counties, making him feel more and more home.

If it weren't for the fact that the Zhu Xie clan Shatuo, who had killed out of the land of Daibei, had to let his army hate the city of Jinyang, the capital of the Northern Capital, I'm afraid he would have already unified the Hedong and be rich and magnificent.

However, what is even more worrying is that the new dynasty of Huang King's Great Qi was indeed destroyed, but the great Western Army of Zheng Tang was also defeated; the one who was able to take over Guanzhong was actually the Taiping thief who was prosperous in the south and now he is full of wings.

You should know that from ancient times to the present, there has been no long time since there has been an example of the battle between the south and the north, and finally succeeding and gaining a foothold? Whether it is Liu Laozhi or Chen Qingzhi, they will inevitably end up failing and losing.

Therefore, the forces that can achieve success in the south are weaker than the heroes in the north in their innate pattern and foundation, and are basically left to the unification of the Southern Dynasty in the future. Even if there are some heroic strengths, they will not be taken seriously.

But it was this Taiping thief who rose in the barbaric miasma land outside the ridge that caused him to suffer unexpected defeats and losses again and again. Therefore, it was not a shame to gradually calm down from the interests and gains of military adventures, and Wang Chongrong, who tried his best to gain the upper hand, had a costly plot and peace in his heart.

After all, his position as a leader was taken advantage of the situation in Hezhong Town when he was in danger. Therefore, he could not ensure that when Hezhong Town encountered danger again, would anyone recall the possibility of taking advantage of the situation and abandoning him as the leader, or replacing him?

The current situation of being forced to divide the troops outside and fight from all sides has exacerbated this worry and trend in disguise. Because the opportunity to lead troops alone also means more opportunities to contact and win over soldiers.

Therefore, these key positions and responsibilities are all in the hands of the Wang family and its related people. When the three Wang brothers were there, Wang Chongrong, the second brother, was in charge of Hezhong, and his elder brother, Wang Chongying, was in charge of Shaanxi Guo (the observing envoy), and another younger brother, Wang Chongjian, was the defense envoy of Tongzhou...

This formed a three-legged tripod echo, which almost responded to challenges and threats from all parties with ease; even if Wang Chongrong went out, the other two remaining people would naturally stabilize the situation in the rear.

But now, when Wang Chongjian was ordered to support Chang'an in the early years, he unfortunately died in Tongzhou. Now Wang Chongying and the two states of Shaanxi and Guo were lost together. He could only replace him with Zhu'er and nephew who were relatively inferior in prestige and qualifications.

However, except for the adopted son Wang Ke and a few candidates who are skilled in archery and horses, the others can only be used as the leader and supervisory formation. This inevitably leads to his control over the army by more than one level.

Therefore, he must be careful to protect and personally grasp the most elite part of the Hezhong Army in order to form sufficient deterrence and checks and balances in other aspects; he cannot cause excessive losses in the battle with the Taiping thieves.

Therefore, after seeing the power of those Taiping thieves' warships easily smashed the camps and bridges, he did not want to have a greater conflict or expand the war with him, except for making up his mind to regain the Taiping Army's station.

Even if there is a blood feud to attack and kill his brother Wang Chongying, the temporary bowing and patience of the Wang family is not an unacceptable price compared to the long-term wealth and safety of the Wang family.

However, the front hooves of all this still have to take down the Taiping thief who crossed the east of Dayu to have a commendable victory to subdue the public internally; at the same time, as bargaining chips and credentials that can coexist across the river, they will reopen the door to negotiate with the other party.

According to the information and experiences he has obtained so far, the Taiping thief came from Shu and entered Guanzhong to fight with the Western Army, so naturally it is inevitable that it will be very harmful. He also needs to manage and suppress all directions to guard against Helong's counterattack.

In addition, the wars in the pass have not stopped, but have not been able to recuperate for several years, and the place has been destroyed and the population has withered. The thieves in peace do not get much cooperation in the local area, but instead rely on the south to make efforts to support and lose supply for maintenance.

Therefore, even if the Taiping thief secretly took a surprise attack and accidentally took away Hangu Road and Shaanxi and Guozhou, they would have to divide their troops and guard the troops and have absolutely no spare energy to stay in the Hezhong side for a long time.

Although their warships and firearms are sharp, they cannot go ashore or threaten deeply; therefore, among the enemy threatened by the three parties, the most priority is to stop the battle with the Taiping Army, which is across the river.

As long as the Taiping thieves shrink, Zhuge Shuang of Heyang is just an old dog robbed by fire, and he will naturally retreat if he is unable to support himself. In Wang Chongrong's eyes, the biggest threat to the Hezhong Army is always the Shatuo Army, which lives in a high-rise building in Hedong.

Or the Zhu Xie family who held the Daibei cavalry and the athletes of various races in their hands, and was like a thorn on their backs. After a few years of attack and killing each other, they had already formed blood feuds and feuds that could not be dissolved.

If you can get a box with the Taiping thief, you may still have the chance to exchange the opponent's aid on the grounds of jointly dealing with the Shatu army in Hedong; and what about obtaining firearms and weapons that can deal with the Shatuo cavalry?

Thinking of this, Wang Chongrong suddenly asked: "Can there be news in Fenzhou recently?"

Then someone replied:

"On the report festival, except for routine military information notifications, no other news has been returned in Fenzhou within the past three days."

"No, send someone north to find out..."

After hearing this, Wang Chongrong went back and then suddenly stood up: because when he left his nephew (son of Wang Chongjian) Wang Lian in Fenyang City as the judge of grain transport, he repeatedly asked for messengers to submit it every day, even if nothing was done, it would be fine if he just told him about safety.
Chapter completed!