Chapter 1177 Recovering Huainan

Chapter 1177 Recovering Huainan

There is a small training ground in the backyard of the Hongnong City Lord's Mansion. In the early morning, the sound of horses running and neighing could be heard.

On the smooth horse ramp of the training ground, Li Tai was controlling the horse under his crotch while carefully approaching a knight on the opposite side. He found an opportunity to grab the horse lance in the opponent's hand, and roared while the horses were staggered. He directly snatched the horse lance in the opponent's hand and won the lance snatching round again.

"Uncle is still strong and brave as before!"

The one who competed with Li Tai in the lance snatching competition was his nephew Li Zhen who had just come here from Huainan. The age difference between uncle and nephew was not too big. They had played games together in the village in their early years. Now Li Zhen failed in several lance snatching competitions and was willing to admit defeat and sighed that he was not as good as him.

"You are too lazy! Even if you don't need to fight in person, the world is not peaceful and there will be wars. If you are not familiar with the basic military skills, how can you lead the army and make achievements?"

The victory of the competition did not make Li Tai happy. Instead, he was somewhat dissatisfied with Li Zhen's obvious lack of physical skills. He immediately frowned and said in a deep voice: "Are the Liang people really vulnerable in the past? It's just that their generals are timid and afraid to fight. They lose their will when they encounter dangers. You must not learn the habits of the southerners and be lazy in martial arts!"

He is not discriminating against any region, but in the current situation, the people in the south, especially the upper ruling class, have always lacked a correct understanding of military merit and force.

The civil strife in the Southern Liang that just passed can be said to be a very painful lesson. The Southern Chen, which was established on the ruins of the Southern Liang, is still far inferior to other contemporary regimes in terms of military construction. In addition to a group of military talents emerging during the civil strife and the founding of the country, there is no system and phenomenon of systematic training of relevant talents afterwards.

In recent years, Li Tai has been mainly busy with paperwork. Even when he led the army to fight, he rarely went to the battlefield to kill the enemy. He often felt that his thigh muscles had grown back. He still had to take some time to do some physical training after finishing the busy military and political affairs. This was not only due to the sense of crisis in his heart, but also to remind himself that the world was not settled and he should not relax.

But seeing that Li Zhen had lived a stable life in Huainan for a few years, he was not as diligent in practicing skills as he was in previous years by his side, so he could not help but give him some advice. After hearing this, Li Zhen nodded repeatedly and said that he would practice martial arts diligently and not slack off in the future.

Of course, Li Tai was not asking everyone in his sect to train to be physically fit, but just asking and reminding the masses to correct their attitudes and not be arrogant and lax because the situation was good.

After beating Li Zhen, the uncle and nephew returned to the front hall for dinner. While eating breakfast, Li Tai learned about the personnel situation in the south.

When the Western Wei and Northern Qi fought a war, the situation in the south did not stagnate. On the eve of the expedition to the east, Li Tai arranged for Wu Mingche and others to escort Chen Baxian's son Chen Chang back to Jiangdong, and agreed with the Southern Chen to attack the Northern Qi together.

Although the Southern Chen was weaker, Chen Baxian was also a hero of the time. He naturally hoped to take this opportunity to recover the lost territory. Before the Western Wei sent envoys to communicate, he had already actively dispatched personnel and prepared to attack Huainan. After Chen Chang and his party returned, the Southern Chen army began to march north to Huainan.

However, compared with the rapid progress of the Western Wei since the start of the war, the offensive of the Southern Chen seemed a little unsuccessful.

The Southern Chen inherited the chaos and decline of the Liang Dynasty, and its national strength was not strong. In the previous defense of Jiankang, it lost the opportunity to seize the supplies and weapons of the defeated Northern Qi army because of the intervention of the Western Wei, so the recovery of its strength was very slow.

As shown in this battle, the Southern Chen Dynasty did not even have the basic transportation capacity to deploy combat personnel and transport supplies to Huainan, and had to rely on the fleet forces of the Western Wei Dynasty in Liyang, Qinjun and other places. The lack of its own strength also greatly reduced the ability of the Southern Chen Dynasty to cross the river to fight.

This summer is hot and dry, and the Huainan area has also been affected. The water levels of canals, lakes and rivers have dropped, and some have even dried up. The shrinkage of the water network has further restricted the power of the Southern Chen army, making it difficult for them to launch a powerful and fierce offensive against the Huainan stronghold of the Northern Qi Dynasty.

In addition to the restrictions of these unfavorable factors, the Southern Chen Dynasty was also somewhat unstable. After Chen Baxian eliminated the forces of Wang Sengbian and won the battle to defend Jiankang, the internal and external situations had achieved a preliminary stability. Only Wang Lin, who was entrenched in Jiangzhou, and Xiao Bo in Lingnan were still causing trouble.

At the beginning of last year, Xiao Bo of Lingnan led his army northward and was hit head-on by Chen Baxian. After retreating to Lingnan after his defeat, Chen Baxian used his connections and influence accumulated in Lingnan in his early years to contact the local tyrants in Lingnan and persuade them to continue attacking Xiao Bo. Finally, he succeeded in killing Xiao Bo in the territory and initially quelled the rebellion in Lingnan.

But then Chen Baxian did not pursue the victory. On the one hand, Jiankang Sanwu in Jiangdong is now the core area of ​​his rule, and the main force cannot leave easily. On the other hand, it is inconvenient to enter and exit the Lingnan area. Once the army passes Dayuling, it will be difficult to return.

When Chen Baxian led his army from Lingnan to the north to defend the king and attack Hou Jing, it was a lot of trouble. Not only is the road rugged and difficult to travel, but the local tyrants in Jiangzhou, Hengzhou and other places will not sit idly by and watch Chen Baxian's army advance and retreat freely, and will definitely find ways to obstruct it.

Of course, the most important point is that Chen Baxian is no longer young. With the initial pacification of internal and external troubles, he is eager to make further progress in his reputation and give an explanation to himself and his followers. Therefore, in the second half of that year, Chen Baxian completed the abdication and officially replaced Liang and established Chen.

Because he did not do his best to eradicate all evil, when the army of Southern Chen invested heavily in the Huainan area, the Lingnan area was in chaos again. The local forces headed by Ouyang Xi and Ouyang He, father and son, gathered again to make trouble and expelled the Lingnan prefecture and county officials appointed by Chen Baxian. By the way, these father and son are the grandfather and father of Ouyang Xun, who was copied by Li Tai's pirated calligraphy.

At the same time, Wang Lin of Yuzhang also took advantage of the chaos to launch frequent offensives, and even went south to respond to the rebellion in Lingnan. Therefore, not long after Chen Baxian supervised the war in Huainan, he had to lead a part of his troops back in a hurry because of a fire in his backyard. He was busy sitting in Jiankang while balancing various parties, trying to suppress the unrest in Lingnan again.

Under such circumstances, it was naturally difficult for the Southern Chen to make any major breakthroughs in the Huainan area. It only conquered some unimportant strongholds. Large cities like Guangling were defended by the Northern Qi army like a rock.

Although Li Tai did not expect the Southern Chen to have any major creation in Huainan, after all, as long as the other party could contain the withdrawal of the Northern Qi troops in Henan, Shandong and Huainan to a certain extent, it would be considered to have fulfilled the needs of the Western Wei side in this cooperation.

However, when I heard that since the beginning of the war, our side has expanded a lot of territory, and the Northern Qi has even completed a coup and changed an emperor, but the Southern Chen is still just rubbing its head in Huainan and not getting in, it is really a bit disappointing.

After hearing Li Zhen's description of the changes in the internal situation of Southern Chen, Li Tai couldn't help but sigh that it might not be Chen Baxian's incompetence, but it was really difficult for a good cook to cook without rice!

The original Southern Chen was already congenitally deficient, but at least because the Northern Zhou's overly radical means after conquering Jiangling made the rule in Shannan unstable, the Southern Chen was able to take the opportunity to expand, and even played a highlight of the Taijian Northern Expedition in Huainan.

However, compared with history, the current Southern Chen is more congenitally deficient. If it weren't for Chen Baxian's control of Jiankang, the Three Wus and other core areas, it would not even be qualified to establish a regime. If it wanted to develop on this basis, it would naturally be more difficult.

However, since the Southern Chen exists, it has its meaning of existence. For example, if the two countries had not cooperated this time, if the Southern Chen had not tied down most of the Northern Qi's forces south of the Yellow River, then when these forces were integrated, at least in the current stage of the war, the Western Wei would not have progressed so smoothly, and the Northern Qi would have wanted to make peace, at least there would be some twists and turns on the battlefield of Heluo.

Li Tai was naturally happy to maintain such a relationship with an ally who was not too harmful and could help at a critical moment. So in the subsequent negotiations with Northern Qi, he also asked the envoys of the Southern Chen to join in, so that they could feel the benefits of following a strong boss.

Although the Chen envoys came to Hongnong this time at the invitation of Li Tai, they also undertook certain tasks. In addition to expressing their gratitude to the King of Tang for sending back his prince, they also wanted to ask whether the war between the Western Wei and Northern Qi had come to an end?

If the Western Wei no longer needed them to attack and contain Huainan, they planned to withdraw their troops and stop fighting. Although it was disappointing that the war was fruitless, if the war continued, they would soon be unable to hold on.

However, when they heard that the King of Tang had arranged for them to participate in the negotiations with the Northern Qi, and that the content of the negotiations also involved the ownership of the Huainan territory, these people were overjoyed. They did not expect that there would be such a good thing in the world!

In addition to being surprised, these people naturally began to prepare seriously. When it comes to tracing the origins of the silk-pulling cocoon, the people of the Southern Dynasty are much more professional.

While the Western Wei was still using a dry tone to cooperate with the military to coerce the Qi envoys, the Chen envoys had already sorted out the ownership of Guangling and other cities, and directly produced a long local chronicle. The above-mentioned Wei and Jin Dynasties, the following and the present, the various personnel origins in the Huainan area are recorded in detail, which makes it impossible to deny.

Li Tai looked through the materials sorted out by the Chen envoys, and he couldn't help feeling that professional matters should be handed over to professionals.

He has been staying in the north for the past few years, hanging out with a group of warriors, which has made his thinking rougher, not as smart as before. It should be noted that when he was in charge of Jingzhou and united Jiangling, he also had all kinds of ingenious operations. Now interacting with Northern Qi again seems a little rough, without the lubrication of these means.

So in the following negotiations, Li Tai asked people to directly put all these materials out to prove that asking Northern Qi to return those lands was not a weak request at all.

These territories and cities were originally occupied by Northern Qi in the past. Now that it is no longer strong, it is natural to spit out these swallowed lands, otherwise it would be asking for a beating.

After seeing these materials, the envoys of Qi were a little confused for a while. After gritting their teeth and browsing through these materials, they all felt emotional: It turns out that we were really nothing in the past. We did so many evil things to bully men and women. Now we are being taught a lesson, and we really deserve it!

Although these feelings had to be held back and could not be expressed, their inner thoughts had also changed somewhat.

Including Lu Yao, who had just arrived and was still quite persistent, his mood had also changed slightly at this moment. He thought it was not appropriate to continue to argue with the Western Wei over the issue of Huainan, because the Northern Qi was indeed capricious and had a bad record in this regard. If it continued to entangle with this, it would inevitably make the image of the Northern Qi more negative.

Of course, there is another more important point, that is, the Huainan issue itself does not belong to the core interests of the Northern Qi. Now, the country has invested in the personnel management of Huainan, mainly the Hebei clans and Hebei tyrants headed by the Zhaojun Li family.

But now the voice of both is not very high. The Zhaojun Li family was naturally endless as a descendant during the Tianbao period, but now it has become a fallen phoenix. Even the core member Li Zuxun was directly beaten to death by Bo Ling Wang Gao Ji, and there was no follow-up at all. As for the powerful people in Hebei, they were even more silent at the moment. If they said one more word, they might be called up to fight against the Wei army.

Under this mentality, the Qi envoys did not argue with reason anymore, and made great concessions on the Huainan issue, agreeing to cede the six counties of Guangling, Hailing, Shennong, Yangping, Xuyi, and Zhongli in Huainan. If we add Hefei, Liyang, Qinjun, Shouyang, Yiyang and other places occupied by the Western Wei before, it means that the power of Northern Qi has basically withdrawn from the Huainan area.

After achieving such a result, the Chen envoys who came to Hongnong with Li Zhen were ecstatic. The army in the country fought hard for several months, wasted people's money and resources, but did not achieve any success. However, they only went on a business trip, worked a few night shifts, and wrote materials for a few nights, but they did not expect to get back a large area of ​​Huainan lost land!

Li Tai was quite satisfied with the result. Everything is difficult at the beginning, especially for a regime like Northern Qi that is used to being tough. It is doubly difficult to make it bow its head. Now, with the issue of Huainan, we have finally penetrated a layer of Qi people's defense line. When discussing other territorial issues, it will naturally be smoother.

At the same time, he also felt that the method used by the Chen envoys for negotiation was indeed quite good. If these materials were not supported by strong strength, they would be a pile of waste paper. With sufficient strength as endorsement, it would be an indisputable truth!

As the imperial residence of Tianfu and the old capital of Qin and Han Dynasties, Guanzhong naturally has no shortage of historical origins.

So Li Tai only arranged for Li Zhen to return to Huainan first, and notify Dou Luning, the general manager of Yingzhou, Quan Jingxuan, the general manager of Hezhou, and others to cooperate with the Chen people to take over Huainan. As for these Chen envoys, he temporarily detained them and asked them to sort out and research the routes of the Qin and Han emperors' Fengshan Taishan and the prefectures and counties they passed through, so as to give Northern Qi a set of ancient times.