Chapter 138:

Chapter 138:

Late spring is like wine, mid-summer is like wine.

In May of this year, the captured Emperor Later Xia and a group of nobles were escorted to Jiankang as scheduled. The people waited for a long time for the prisoner offering ceremony, which was held in front of Xuanyang Gate in the middle of the south of the imperial city.

It was a sunny day, and the queen mother and the young emperor sat upright on the tower of Xuanyangmen.

The sky is so powerful, don't dare to obey. In the word "cut" issued by the young emperor, the descendant of the dynasty, dozens of Jieren heads rolled to the ground in an instant. The crowd was agitated, and the cheers from the people almost shook the whole city.

This is another unprecedented great victory for the Southerners in the north in the many years after Dayu Nandu, following the Jiangbei War a few years ago. This time the Northern Expedition not only completely wiped out Jiexia and beheaded the enemy in the capital, but also expanded the borders of Dayu to Huainan in one fell swoop, and ruled 18 prefectures in total. Southern Xuzhou, Nanyu Prefecture, and Nanyan Prefecture, which had long since fallen under the rule of the Northerners, returned to Dayu.

Several days have passed since the sacrifice of prisoners, and people are still discussing this topic in the streets and alleys of Jiankang. The name that they mentioned the most was naturally Li Mu, the great Sima of the dynasty.

Li Mu did not return to the DPRK as everyone expected.

After the destruction of Jiexia, in the north today, apart from a few states of Hu, which still occupy the borderlands, and opposed to Dayu, only the state of Xianbei and Yan is left.

After Yan captured Luoyang three years ago, Emperor Murong did not move the capital to Luoyang, but still used the former Yan County as the capital and Luoyang as the companion capital.

In the past few years, using Jiexia, who fled to Runan, as a barrier, the State of Yan has occupied Yong, Qin, Wei in Guanyou, as well as the large hinterland of the Central Plains originally under the rule of Jiexia, as well as Northern Xuzhou, Northern Yuzhou, and Northern Yanzhou. After pushing the national border south to Huaibei, the war stopped, and began to encourage farming, build water conservancy, and nourish the population.

However, not long ago, when Li Mu destroyed Jiexia and Banshi returned to the south, news of war came from the north again.

The Northern Yan army gathered at the border and launched an attack on Tongguan.

After the Murong Clan took advantage of the civil strife in the Southern Dynasty to capture Luoyang, the two sides took Tongguan as the boundary. The western part of Huazhou, where it was located, was under the rule of Li Mu, and the eastern part belonged to the state of Yan, and the boundary was temporarily demarcated.

After three years of calm, Murong Wei suddenly launched an attack at this time, apparently targeting Chang'an.

After Li Mu became Grand Sima, Chang'an was still left behind by Sun Fangzhi and Gao Huan for all these years. They have always been vigilant against the state of Yan, and the Tongguan area has always been guarded by heavy troops.

But Murong Ti's use of troops this time was very sudden, and with careful preparation, compared to the defenders, he had an absolute advantage in strength. The momentum was extremely fierce at the beginning, and it quickly crossed the border and occupied more than a dozen counties in the western part of Huazhou. When they reached Tongguan, they encountered strong sniping by the defenders taking advantage of the terrain, and then stopped their westward march. , the two sides temporarily confronted each other.

The military situation was urgent, so Sun Fangzhi and Gao Huan quickly sent news to Li Mu while organizing defense.

Under such circumstances, Li Mu, who had just finished fighting Xia Jie, temporarily changed his plan and sent someone to **** the prisoners back to Jiankang as scheduled. He immediately led the army to turn around and returned to Chang'an to deal with it.

For ordinary people of the Southern Dynasty, the past three years have not only opened their eyes, but the weather has been good. Since the beginning of last year, many livelihood improvement measures implemented by the court have also made their lives much better than before.

In the eyes of the people, all this comes from Li Mu.

Because there is such a character in the Southern Dynasty, all the blood that had been chilled by disappointment in the past became hot again.

They are eagerly looking forward to, and also firmly believe, that their great Sima Li Mu will continue to be his undefeated God of War. The Yan Kingdom was destroyed.

If this is the case, then Dayu will completely recover the northern land and once again visit Kyushu. This protracted and difficult Northern Expedition, which was initiated by Gao Qiao 20 years ago, will also come to a perfect curtain.

A total of military clothing, to determine the kingdom. Decades of Shen Lu in the Central Plains, once recovered, what an exciting and great cause this will be!

Just when the people of the whole country were immersed in joy and anticipation, they did not know that on this day at the end of May, a messenger from Luoyang came to the Jiankang Palace to bring his master, the Emperor of Yan, Murong Ti, with him. A letter of credit has come.

This messenger was a clan of the Yan Kingdom, named Murong Yuan. He was deeply sinicized, eloquent in speech, and his demeanor and clothes were not much different from those of the Southern Dynasties.

In the letter of credentials, Murong Tzu called himself a minister, with a humble and respectful tone, saying that Murong's family had been a minister of the Great Yu since the ancestors, and that he would follow the waves in troubled times. However, since he was a child, he has admired Sinology, regarded Dayu as the upper kingdom, and succeeded in revenge against Xia Jie in the past, and then after being lucky enough to be the emperor of the Yan Kingdom, he decided to stop fighting for his own protection. In recent years, we have always strictly adhered to the border and dared not take a step beyond the thunderous pool. A few days ago, the reason why the army of Yan State clashed with the defenders of Dayu at Tongguan was not what they wanted, nor did they intend to do so. The reason was that the defenders of Guanxi did not follow the boundaries and repeatedly violated the border, and they were forced to do so. Due to the pressure of the people in Kanto, it was ordered to assemble the army and implement self-defense.

He said that for many years, the north and the south have been enemies with each other, and the northern states have been fighting more and more, and the people's livelihood has been difficult. He knew that if he went to war with Dayu again now, he would definitely lose both, so he focused on seeking peace. As long as Dayu promised not to cross the border and invade in the future, Yan State not only stopped the army immediately, but also was willing to return the Ruyang that he had previously captured from Jiexia to Dayu to show his sincerity in seeking peace. Not only that, he is also willing to formally send a mission to the south, as a vassal, to pay tribute to Dayu, to be a minister from generation to generation, and to repair the border.

This national letter caused an uproar in the imperial court of Dayu.

On this day, although Luo Shenren was in Bailuzhou, he soon learned of the news and immediately sent a letter to Feng Wei.

That night, Feng Wei hurried to the island. Luoshen heard him coming, and hurried to the front hall to meet him.

Feng Wei's face was dignified and he did not sit down. He paced up and down the hall, looking a little uneasy. When he saw Luo Shen coming out, he hurried forward and greeted her: "I haven't met Madam for some time, Madam is in good health. ."

In terms of seniority and age, Feng Wei is older than Luoshen. But in the past few years, in front of her, he has always been very respectful.

She sent him a letter today, but he didn't expect him to land on the island in person so soon.

This is naturally because of Li Mu. Luoshen knew very well, offered his seat for him, and said, "Your Excellency Feng, for the sake of a letter from your niece, you came here in person. I am very grateful, please take a seat." When he was seated, he spoke. Ask about the day.

Feng Wei took his seat and said, "After the envoy of Yan went to the post house today, the courtiers were arguing endlessly about the book of the country. When the court meeting broke up, there was no result."

He paused.

"To be honest, in my opinion, Murong is cunning, and his words are not credible. He said that he Chen Bingtong passed the border first because of my Dayu defenders. This statement is clearly strong! I will also fight for it. It's just..."

He frowned and shook his head: "Liu Hui and others say that the poor pirates don't chase after them. And Murong is strong for the soldiers. If the war starts, the war will be protracted and the national funds will be exhausted, causing people's grievances. If the battle is defeated, the situation will be out of control. The good situation that has come so hard now, I am afraid it will never come back. If the other party really wants to seek peace, it is better to take this opportunity to admit that the north and the south are divided, and to govern by plotting the land, so as to seek long-term peace and stability, this is also what the people want.”

The Liu Hui in Feng Wei's mouth was the general who replaced Lu Guang's official position at the beginning, but he was unwilling to stay when the Jiankang chaos occurred, claiming that he was protecting the emperor and the queen to Qu'a. In the past two years, everyone has been a newcomer to China.

Luo Shen listened and was silent for a while.

She knew in her heart that for the past two years, those clansmen headed by Liu Hui had been silent on the surface, respectful to Li Mu, and dared not to obey, but in her heart, they must have hated him to the core. The most direct cause should be a series of new policies implemented by Li Mu at the beginning of last year.

After Dayu Nandu, over the years, the clans, nobles and powerful landlords from all over the country have divided and occupied almost all the mountains, rivers, lakes and lakes. In addition to paying taxes to the government, ordinary people even cut firewood, hunt, and cast nets for fishing. Additional taxes must be paid to these gentry landlords who occupy Linze. Under the heavy pressure, even in a good year, the income is not enough to feed the whole family, and the life is so hard that he would rather lose his freedom and seek refuge in the manor. The large and small manors attached to the clans and gentry in various places hide a large number of ordinary people as Zhuangding for their own profit, which leads to the court having no soldiers to collect, no taxes to collect, and no wage wars. There is chaos, a vicious circle.

The heavy taxation and the loss of Dingkou, these two interactions directly affected the huge drawbacks of the lifeline of the Southern Dynasty. It was not that Gao Qiao did not correct it in the past. But in this imperial court ruled by the gentry, the decree has reached the bottom, and it is just a piece of paper.

Luoshen still remembers how difficult Li Mu's situation was in order to implement the New Deal. Even Feng Wei, who was very supportive at the time, expressed his indignation at these shortcomings of the imperial court, but when it was actually implemented, he shied away and was unwilling to help. In addition to his unwillingness to offend people, the pressure from the Feng clan is also an important reason.

After all, among the nobles who were officials in the imperial court, who did not have a lot of mountains, forests and lakes, and who did not accept the offerings of those manors below? If the New Deal is really implemented, Feng's interests will certainly be harmed.

It was under such difficult circumstances that Luoshen went to find his uncle Gao Yun, who had retired due to illness at the time, stated the pros and cons to him, and begged him to take the lead in releasing all the houses in the manor under his name that should have been registered but had been concealed. Ding.

Uncle was very upset. But in the end, he was persuaded by Luoshen, and barely reported all the more than 800 people who had been hiding in the manor over the years.

After the Gao clan became the first clan to respond to the New Deal, Li Mu no longer had any scruples, and ordered the execution of Liu Yan, the governor of Kuaiji County, who had more than 3,000 people hidden in a manor with extremely bad influence at the time and who openly took the lead in disobedience. Once the knife went down, the whole court was silent, and no one dared to pass the buck. The new policy was finally implemented, and the people rejoiced. It took only more than a year, and the effect has already begun to show.

And the Liu Yan who was used to sacrifice the flag that day was Liu Hui's relative.

"I don't know where Da Sima is leading his troops now, and I don't know when he will receive the news."

While Luoshen was contemplating, he heard Feng Wei sighed beside him.

"If the Great Sima is here today, we can make a final decision, whether it is war or peace, and the courtiers will not be arguing to such an extent."

Luoshen raised his eyes, looked at Feng Wei, and said, "Duke Feng, although the Da Sima people are not in Jiankang, but Duke Feng has doubts about this, I can return to you on his behalf."

"People's minds are settled. If Murong replaces the army with sincerity, even if the big Sima wants to restore Luoyang, he will never go his own way and fight endlessly at the risk of the world. But now Murong is clearly turning right and wrong. There is no big Sima. My life, I don't believe that my younger brother will cross the border to attack the Yan people without authorization. His credentials must be deceitful, and his intentions are even more suspicious. Liu Hui and those people are dissatisfied with the big Sima, and how quiet they are on weekdays, Feng Gong should know in his heart. Before Da Sima does not reply, I beg Duke Feng, when the court is discussing, don't give in!"

"My niece will thank Duke Feng first!"

Luoshen gave him a deep thank you.

"Aah! Madam, don't be like this! This is a state affair, no trivial matter. Even without Madam's entrustment, I wouldn't dare to take it as a joke until I get the words of the big Sima! Madam, don't worry, I will definitely fight according to reason and persuade the queen mother not to. Be gullible!"

Luoshen sent the people away, and sat alone for a long time, with heavy thoughts, strolled along the courtyard, and came to the riverside again, standing by the riverside.

There is no tide tonight, the river is quiet, passing by the bank of the river stone under her feet.

She looked at the dark night sky on the opposite side, and when she was in a trance, she suddenly heard a slight sound of water plucking from the waterside of a river not far away, as if someone had drilled out of the water.

"Who dares to trespass the forbidden area?"

Around Bailuzhou, there are almost a few guard posts, patrolling day and night. The nearby guards were immediately attracted by the change, and they quickly gathered around, standing in front of Luoshen, and shouted with their swords drawn.

A man stuck his head out of the river and wiped his wet face.

Luoshen recognized it, and it was Li Xie, the Duwei who had not seen him for a long time, and hurriedly ordered people to retreat.

"it's me!"

Li Xie came ashore, quickly came to Luoshen, and said in a low voice respectfully: "Madam, there are eyes and ears at the nearby ferry, so I dived here. I came here on the order of the Great Sima, and arranged to **** my wife out of Jiankang as soon as possible. "

Luoshen also gradually realized that in the past six months, since Li Mu left Jiankang, whether he was in Bailuzhou or in the city, no matter where he went, there seemed to be eyes staring nearby. My heart sank, but before I could answer, there was a sudden sound of footsteps behind me, and when I turned around, a servant girl ran over and said, "It's too late! Please tell me your madam!"