Chapter 922: 923 Mountain screen changes
Chapter 922 Chapter 923 A sudden change in the mountain screen
The battle at Shanping was in full swing. Fengjiang's attacking troops had a numerical advantage. Zhao Zheng, who did not receive much reinforcements, felt that he could no longer support himself.
He frequently sent telegrams to the imperial capital, Hezhe, and Guiguang, hoping to receive more support.
But except for Zhao Chen's promise that he was doing his best to help, the telegrams sent to the other two places were like mud in the sea, with no news.
Zhao Chen really worked hard for the situation: while he continued to send telegrams to urge the imperial capital to request rapid support for Shanping City, he also forced the troops to attack Fengjiang regardless of losses, trying to reduce the pressure in the direction of Shanping by storming Fengjiang. pressure.
Even a fool should have realized it by now: What prevented the troops from going north to support him was definitely not the mobilization speed of the Dahua Empire that was hard to recover, but rather that these troops had been ordered not to come out from Guiguang to support Shanping.
Zhao Zheng is certainly not a fool. On the contrary, he is actually quite smart to be in this position. He quickly figured out most of the reasons. At least he understood that the reason why these troops were hoarded in Guiguang and did not come to support him was most likely due to instructions from the Emperor of the Dahua Empire.
In other words, the emperor of the Great China Empire was tricking him—no matter what the reason was, Shanping was a fishhook thrown by the emperor. And he, Zhao Zheng, is the bait hanging on this fishhook!
What Zhao Zheng hated the most was that Zhao Kai didn't even tell him the overall plan, and even asked him to set a flag of "defend Shanping to the death" when the war started.
What he didn't know was that Zhao Kai actually didn't mean this. He had no intention of dealing with Zhao Zheng after Shanping City was lost, nor was he planning to trap Zhao Zheng to death from the beginning.
The actual situation is that Zhao Jie's plan was only delivered to Zhao Kai more than a month ago. After seeing this plan, Zhao Kai liked this plan very much, which could catch almost all the rebels in one fell swoop.
So Zhao Kai immediately adopted this plan, and in order to act realistically in Shanping, he did not inform Zhao Zheng of the plan: Zhao Kai was afraid that Zhao Zheng would abandon Shanping as soon as he saw the plan and not fight to the death at Shanping.
What he was thinking was that Zhao Zheng was kept in the dark and fought to the last moment in Shanping, and then he ordered Zhao Zheng to abandon Shanping and retreat, and at the same time gave Zhao Zheng a reward so that he could get the rewards he deserved for his hard battle in Shanping.
But this was what Zhao Kai was thinking after all, and Zhao Zheng had no idea about it. When he was feeling angry and felt that the emperor was cheating and that he had no way out, Zhao Zheng suddenly felt that he could talk to Zhao Yu on the other side.
Originally, Zhao Zheng was not a member of the inner circle of the royal family: he did not have the status of Zhao Chen and Zhao Jie, nor was he a person like the prince Zhao Yu and Zhao Ji. In fact, he was already a highly respected minister and had no future.
If he emerges in this civil war, it will have a bright ending no matter what. At least he can get a title of prince or something to give his children and grandchildren a future.
But now, he felt that he had abandoned his son and had no future as a wife. He might as well go to Zhao Yu's side while he had the chips in hand.
Anyone with a discerning eye will definitely see that Zhao Yu has the support of the Tang Empire behind him. Even if he loses, he will just flee to the Tang Kingdom - being a popular and spicy drinker in the Tang Kingdom may not be much worse than living an ignoble life in the Great China Empire.
But if - to a large extent, this if may still be a reality. If Zhao Yu wins, he, Zhao Zheng, will be a hero who abandons darkness and turns to the bright side!
What people are most afraid of is having thoughts. Once they have thoughts, they will always feel that what they are thinking about is perfect and perfect.
The more he thought about it in his mind, the more Zhao Zheng felt that what he was thinking was right. As long as he could work it out and get all his wife, children, and children to the Tang Empire, the outcome of this war seemed to have nothing to do with him.
Thinking of this, he immediately summoned his cronies and asked him to find an opportunity to go to the other side and inform the other side that he was willing to defect but was suffering from the fact that his wife and children were being held hostage in the imperial capital.
In fact, at this time, Zhao Zheng was still dreaming of sitting on the fence: it is not easy for people like him to make direct choices.
Zhao Zheng thought very well: if he announced his intention to defect, the attack of Fengjiang's troops would definitely slow down, and his defensive pressure would naturally be less. How many more days can it last?
It is very difficult for my family, who is far away in the imperial capital, to rescue them. Even the Tang Empire has to prepare for a while. In ten days, the winner of the Battle of Fengjiang may be decided - at that point When the time comes, if you make your choice based on the limelight, it’s almost foolproof.
Even if the matter is exposed, don’t be afraid. At worst, you may say that you are out of desperation and made a false surrender. Although it looks a bit ugly, you are not on the side of the winner after all.
But who would have thought that his confidant had just managed to find a way to the other side and explained his purpose of coming. More than an hour later, an intelligence agent from the Tang Empire lurking in Shanping came to the door and met with Zhao Zheng.
This intelligence officer was very straightforward and directly explained the purpose of his visit, indicating that it was very simple to pick up the Zhao Zheng family in the imperial capital, as long as Zhao Zheng could find a way to make his own family trust the person they contacted.
Such an efficient way of action confused Zhao Zheng... He really didn't expect that the Tang Empire really didn't give him time to continue riding on the wall. In desperation, Zhao Zheng finally made up his mind and handed over the code he left behind before leaving to the intelligence personnel of the Tang Empire.
As a result, that night, Pan Yiping, a businessman from the imperial capital of the Great China Empire, came to Zhao Zheng's home. After checking the password, he paid out a large sum of cash and bought everything in Zhao Zheng's mansion.
That’s right, there’s no need to pack anything, everyone leaves immediately! These people left the city overnight and ran westward. By the time Zhao Kai got the news and reacted, the family's plane had already passed Daxiguan and was about to cross Shahun City.
Further west is the State of Qin, so although Zhao Kai ordered a plane to take off to intercept it, due to the various reasons mentioned above, it was difficult to find the plane.
The Great China Empire has no way to force the Qin State to make friends - Qin State is ready to take action these days, and has been looking for trouble on the border. A discerning person will know at a glance that this is the Qin State's intention to take advantage of the situation.
At this time, if you continue to look for important people from the Qin State on the pretense of an empire, you may be directly passive in diplomacy. If the Tang State supports the Qin State to go to war, those idiots in Qin may really take action.
Angry Zhao Kai could only take out his anger on Li Mingshun, the Forbidden Army who was responsible for guarding Zhao Zheng's family and the general in charge of city defense: He reprimanded Li Mingshun and fined him a year's salary. He also pulled out 30 people from the city defense army and 50 people from the Forbidden Army, killing them all. .
What no one knows is that these people have all been transferred, and those who executed them are all death row inmates in the prison. These people have changed their identities and been locked up in the prison to continue living.
As the saying goes, money can make the world go round. Pan Yiping spent money, and it naturally had the effect of spending money: the family of the killed death row inmate was overjoyed when they saw the reward, and the jailer in the prison burst into tears when he saw the benefits.
The soldiers who were replaced naturally also received subsidies. They did not have to die for the time being, but they would definitely die unless something unexpected happened. Although they could only change their names, the money their families received was so much that they felt Even if you die, you should be grateful...
The aftermath was handled very carefully, and the DC-3 arrived in Qin safely. There, more than 20 people including Zhao Zheng's wife and children will take a safer train to bypass Shu and Chu, and finally arrive in Tang.
So in the afternoon of the next day, the Tang Empire intelligence officer who had been staying at Zhao Zheng's headquarters was waiting for the news he wanted.
"General Zhao Zheng, your family and children are safe. They are now in Qin State and will arrive in Tang State soon." Looking at the shocked Zhao Zheng, the intelligence officer of the Tang Empire smiled and said: " Your family asked me to bring you a message: 'Phoebe rocking chair under the walnut tree.'"
Hearing this sentence, Zhao Zheng was sure that what the other party said was indeed true. This is a code word in their family that only his mother and he know, and will only be used at the most critical time.
"Alas..." Zhao Zheng sighed and stopped struggling, finally making up his mind: "I will order the troops to stop resisting... please Datang... please invite the Fengjiang rebels to enter the city."
The whole handover process was actually very smooth: Shanping City originally supported Zhao Yu, and the people and civil servants there had long since wanted to fight.
Some troops, especially the local troops in Shanping, actually did not want to fight. They were just suppressed by Zhao Zheng's army and did not dare to move.
It's okay now, with one order, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Shanping City was handed over peacefully, and nearly 200,000 Fengjiang defenders entered the city. Together with the 100,000 Zhao Zheng troops who had defected, they occupied a large area north of Guiguang in one fell swoop.
These places were originally dedicated to Zhao Yu, but now they are simply decided by word of mouth. The Shiwanfengjiang troops advanced to about 50 kilometers north of Guiguang, and then they encountered the Guiguang defenders and stopped.
It was only at this time that Zhao Kai, who was far away in the imperial capital, finally confirmed that Zhao Zheng had surrendered and Shanping had fallen into Zhao Yu's hands.
Zhao Kai, who was in disarray, immediately ordered Zhao Jie to go to Guiguang to take charge of the overall situation - in his plan, this position was actually reserved for Zhao Zheng.
The Fengjiang Civil War, which was originally a good situation for the Dahua Empire, suddenly took a turn for the worse. The news of Shanping changing hands was like a nuclear bomb detonating within the Dahua Empire.
The 400,000-strong Dahua Empire army entrenched near Guiguang City actually started killing each other overnight... Before Zhao Jie could reach Guiguang, Guiguang was in chaos and was occupied by Fengjiang's troops from the south.
The connection between Jiange and the Dahua Empire has been completely severed! —
The time difference is reversed again... The second update will be provided tomorrow morning, so don't wait any longer.
(End of this chapter)