Chapter 696 Returning from the lost path

Chapter 696 Returning from the lost path

When Li Tai came to Shicheng, Cai Dabao and several other Xiangyang officials were already waiting here.

"I've met the general."

When he came to see the ceremony, Cai Dabao lowered his head and deliberately avoided Li Tai's eyes, looking quite guilty.

Li Tai was not in a good mood when he saw these Xiangyang officials. He did not say much and said directly: "Although I have no right to interfere with Xiangyang's military and political affairs, the two places are closely related and intimate. Xiangyang suddenly raised troops. Please ask Cai Canjun, what does King Liang want?"

Cai Dabao knew that he was in the wrong. After hearing Li Tai's question, he lowered his head. After a moment of silence, he replied: "Your Majesty has lost another relative recently. The general should know about this. Xiangyang this time There is no foresight in raising the troops, but the king hates family thieves and is eager to get rid of Jiangling's ugliness! It is shameful to tell others about such a family scandal, so he did not send an envoy to inform the general."

It was obvious that this rhetoric was formulated early in the morning. After hearing this, Li Tai didn't say anything more. He sneered a few times and then entered the city first. Cai Dabao and others also knew that it would be difficult to deal with it. After seeing this, they quickly followed Li Tai's personal soldiers into the city.

Although he was quite unhappy with King Liang's attitude, Cai Dabao had taken care of his father when he was living in Xiangyang. Li Tai still wanted to give Cai Dabao some face and invited him to dine at his house after entering the city.

During the meal, Cai Dabao secretly took a look at Li Tai's expression. After much hesitation, he finally said: "If the general is worried about Hou Jing's rebellion, the king also has a plan for this matter. The troops will only be used to kill the traitors in the east of Hunan." Everything in Mie and Jiangling will be the same as before, and the king will definitely cooperate with the general to defeat the rebel army..."

"Ha, Cai Shen's army deceived me into not knowing what I was doing? The rebel army is powerful. You are a traitor to the Liang family. What does it have to do with me?"

After Li Tai heard this, the anger in his heart became a little uncontrollable. When Li Tai asked angrily, he saw Cai Dabao's expression of shame and sighed again. Then he lowered his voice and said slowly: "I know This is not what Cai Shenjun meant to say about me, but even for the King of Liang, making such false prevarication is really hurtful!

The King of Liang is not a fool, and of course he has his own opinions on everything. Although the King of Liang and I have a close friendship, there is no reason to hinder our plans with personal feelings. If King Liang feels that this action is inevitable, he will definitely succeed immediately. Since there is no need to conspire with me, there is no need to tell me about the future.

Although I am a close friend of the King of Liang, I am also a border official of the Wei Dynasty. If the King of Liang can succeed, although I personally congratulate him, I cannot completely avoid border defense. "

Since they met, this was the first time that Cai Dabao saw Li Tai lose his temper due to anger in front of him. Although the angry mood quickly subsided, it also showed how disappointed and dissatisfied this incident made him.

Although Cai Dabao tried to persuade the King of Liang many times before raising his troops, he still failed to persuade him.

When facing the angry Li Tai at this time, he could not distance himself from the fact that King Liang was the final decision-maker. Li Tai still was not rude to him, which also made him feel ashamed. After a brief pause, he avoided the table. He bowed deeply to Li Tai at the table and said in a deep voice: "The general uses his troops like a god, and he can judge the situation accurately. I would like to ask how the general will deal with himself in this chaos? Why did he enter the stone city this time? Begging for hope. The general can take care of old feelings and give some advice as a reference. "

"In eastern Hunan, bullying relatives and harming compatriots is indeed a bad act, but now we are fighting against the thieves on the river, which is related to the survival of the country and whether Liang Tong can succeed. The king of Liang is attacking him with family hatred and private hatred. How can he be popular among people? Such abandonment of his family and country, It’s not a righteous act, it’s actually an act of violence!”

Things have to be prioritized, and punishments have to be public or private. The Eight Kings Rebellion in the Western Jin Dynasty can be said to be the worst clan fratricide in ancient and modern times. Not only because this rebellion directly triggered the Five Husties in China and the centuries-long conflict between the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The great chaos was also due to the fact that those who participated in the chaos completely put their personal desires for power above the interests of the family and the country, desecrated public weapons, and secluded themselves from the world, making the Sima family the most ugly and heinous political family in history.

Of course Li Tai didn't care about Liang Tong's survival, but he would never choose a Nanliang clan that was alienated from the hearts of the people in Jiangnan as a partner, so when Cai Dabao asked, he said this without concealing it. : "Loyal advice is unpleasant to the ears, and good medicine is bitter to the mouth. I know that the King of Liang has never lost his ambition to help others. It is still easy to return while the lost path is not far away. If you realize your mistake again and go far away, even if you are reluctant to let go, you must break away!"

Even though King Liang is confident that he can conquer Jiangling first and then defeat the rebel army, I dare not put the safety of the soldiers and civilians of Jing Mansion on this arrogant thought. Only by locking in the physical victory and self-controlling the opportunity, allowing me to advance and retreat without relying on the time, can I live up to my superiors and my subordinates.

Since Cai Shenjun asked me, I will no longer hide it. Before entering Shicheng, I had sent people to Jiangling to cut the land in the north and east of the Yangtze River and set up my own border defense. If the King of Eastern Hunan agrees to his request, from now on, your armies will decide their own lives and deaths to the west of Hanmiang. I will only invite the crowd to watch the situation. "

Although he had expected it, Cai Dabao couldn't help but feel gloomy when he heard from Li Tai that he would give up support for Xiangyang and let them fight to the death with Jiangling Military Mansion and Hou Jing's rebellious army.

He knew that King Liang's idea was to attack Jiangling first while Jiangling was busy taking care of itself, and then use this as a temptation to let Li Tai lead his army to join him and fight Hou Jing's rebellious army with him.

But such an idea is full of wishful thinking, especially a shrewd person like Li Tai who has accurate judgment of the situation and is like a prophet. It is even less likely that Liang Wang will pinch his nose and leave.

Sure enough, Li Tai quickly found his position in this seemingly complicated situation and placed himself in a position to sit on the mountain and watch the fight between tigers and tigers, allowing several parties to fight and fight. In the end, no matter which party If you win, you must be respectful and even give up part of the spoils in exchange for a friendly attitude.

Although he allowed Xiangyang to fend for itself, Cai Dabao also knew that it was difficult to criticize him morally. After all, this move of troops was caused by his own king's own will and no conspiracy, so the other party naturally did not take the initiative to cooperate with him. obligation.

After learning about Li Tai's plan, Cai Dabao had no intention of staying any longer and hurriedly returned to Wuning City where King Liang's army was stationed.

"Although he is a close friend, in the final analysis Li Boshan still despises me and thinks that I cannot replace Xiangdong to control the situation."

When King Liang heard Cai Dabao relaying Li Tai's plan, he was shocked, but more importantly, he was embarrassed. He then muttered again: "No matter what his plan is, I will eventually be canonized by the Western Dynasty. If If Jiangling can be captured quickly, Li Boshan must cooperate and cannot just sit back and watch Hou Jing’s rebel army take Jiangling away!”

Seeing that the king was still stubborn, Cai Dabao sighed again and said: "General Li has sent envoys to Jiangling to claim the land. If the king of Eastern Hunan, in order to protect himself, cedes Yongfu and Xiangyang to Wei, will the Western Dynasty still be polite? Is it necessary to wait for the king?"

"This, how is this possible! What good will it do to Jiangling if we cut off Xiangyang? Besides, I am..."

Hearing the possibility described by Cai Dabao, King Liang suddenly panicked. He shook his head repeatedly, and then looked at Cai Dabao and said in a pensive voice: "But, my message has been spread to all parties, and now the army has even reached Jiangling City." If you think about retreating before you even see your head, won’t you become the laughingstock of the world?”

"As a current plan, the king should go to Shicheng to visit General Li as soon as possible and listen to his advice to resolve the dispute."

Cai Dabao did not agree with attacking Jiangling at this time. Seeing that King Liang had regrets, he quickly spoke again.

However, this plan was still too embarrassing for King Liang to accept. Just when he was still hesitant, news came from Xiangyang on the way back that the Jingzhou boat master from the upper reaches of the Han River was coming down the river and was about to arrive at Xiangyang. information.

This immediately made King Liang alert, and he realized that Li Tai's preface was not a joke, and he might have already made plans to give up cooperating with him.

Although he didn't say it, the military support from the Jingzhou Governor's Office was one of the reasons why King Liang dared to raise his troops to seize Jiangling. After learning about this situation, King Liang no longer dared to delay, so he followed Cai Dabao's advice. , went to Shicheng in person, hoping to seek Li Tai's forgiveness.

Cai Dabao is still quite capable, at least he has a deep understanding of King Xiangdong. After Li Quji returned to Shicheng from his mission to Jiangling, he seriously brought back the proposal from the King of Eastern Hunan to cede Xiangyang, as long as Li Tai could deal with the army of Liang King Xiao Qi and ensure that Hou Jing's rebel army would not attack Jiangling from the north of the Yangtze River. , then the King of Xiangdong will recognize his possession of Xiangyang!

When King Liang arrived in Shicheng, Li Tai was also considering whether to give up this restless guy and let the Jingzhou Governor's Office directly control Xiangyang? After all, when he dispatched all the people, he actually considered this as an option in his mind.

However, after weighing it, he gave up this more tempting idea. The North and the South have been divided and estranged for a long time. If the North wants to unify the South, it is a relatively low-cost plan to support puppets gradually. Especially now that he is not the talker of the Western Wei Dynasty, it is even more necessary to use such a middleman.

The Liang Wang bloodline status is sufficient, and they also have a good foundation for working with each other. Although the situation got out of control once, if it had been someone else in Nanliang, it would have only gotten worse. And at the moment, he doesn't have access to a more important alternative than Liang Wang. Although he still has Xiao Yuanzheng, he is obviously not suitable.

So when King Liang came to Shicheng and apologized sincerely, Li Tai generously forgave him and did not delve deeper into the matter. And when King Liang suggested that he was making too much noise and it was difficult to settle the matter directly, Li Tai also had plans for this.

He proposed that after King Liang returned, he would hold a grand funeral for Shaoling King Xiao Lun, and asked the King of Xiangdong to send his son and ministers to attend the funeral of King Shaoling. In this way, the dignity of King Liang can be preserved, and he can also give people the impression of being knowledgeable, fair and upright.