Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

In the inner hall of the state capital, Xiao Xun, the Marquis of Yifeng, was still sleeping when he was suddenly awakened by a violent sound outside.

"What happened?"

Xiao Xun sat up in shock from the couch, and the servant standing outside responded tremblingly: "It seems like a thief has broken into the state capital..."

When Xiao Xun heard this, he was shocked and angry. He stood up in his clothes and shouted angrily: "What kind of thief dares to invade the state capital!"

"No, I don't know..."

"How many thieves are there?"

Xiao Xun had already grabbed the robe on the hanger and put it on, and asked the maid to fetch his sword.

"I, I don't know either."

The maids were shocked when they heard the sounds of fighting outside, and naturally they did not dare to go out to make further inquiries. At this time, a strong eunuch slave from the Hou Mansion rushed in with a knife and shouted loudly: "Where is my lord? There are powerful thieves and bandits entering the state house outside. The front hall can no longer resist it. Please leave your lord quickly." Evacuate later!”

Xiao Xun was even more panicked after hearing this. He was finally dressed properly, but he asked in disbelief: "There are thousands of elite guards in the mansion, but they can't stop the thieves? How did these thieves enter the city? "

Faced with such a drastic change, Xiao Xun was naturally full of surprises, but his servants could not answer his many questions at the moment. He heard the sound of fighting getting closer and closer, so he could only follow his master towards the back of the mansion, hoping to escape. After leaving the mansion, he reunited with the city defense troops and then fought back.

At this time, in the front hall of the state capital, Li Tai had led his troops to defeat a battle formation of several hundred people entangled in the front hall, and the defeated soldiers fled in all directions. And they had no time to continue chasing and suppressing the crowd. Instead, under the leadership of their guide, they continued to kill the Zhitang of the state capital. Once they controlled the Zhitang, they controlled the military and political center of the city. At least, it would be difficult to carry out any large-scale attacks in the night city. personnel scheduling.

There were also about 300 powerful soldiers holding crossbows and short blades gathered here in Zhitang. When Li Tai and others rushed in, they were immediately hit by a hail of crossbows and arrows, making it difficult to bully them for a while.

Originally, the situation was still in a stalemate, but suddenly there was a rush of drums from the inner palace. Li Tai and others who invaded here had no idea what the drum order meant. They were already exhausted after fighting here. Although they saw that the opponent A little panicked but still determined to resist, Li Tai planned to temporarily retreat to the front hall to wait for backup.

However, at this moment, the soldiers originally stationed in front of the straight hall gave up their formation and retreated to the rear after hearing the drum order.

"The enemy general will abandon the state capital and plan to flee!"

Seeing this scene, Li Tai immediately understood. Even if he gave up the idea of ​​​​retreating, he once again tightened his grip on the horse in his hand and continued to kill forward.

Without a solid formation, the soldiers here fled away. Even if there were still some people left, facing the brave charging enemies, they were either directly killed on the spot, or they retreated backwards.

Naturally, Li Tai could not allow Xiao Xun to successfully escape from the palace and then gather his troops to counterattack. After leaving more than 20 people to collect the seals of the Zhitang documents, he led his troops and continued to rush towards the inner palace.

However, they and their party were not familiar with the layout of the inner palace after all, and they soon got lost in it after fighting left and right. There were many slaves running around among the courtyards, but there was no trace of Xiao Xun, the governor of Liangzhou. They relied on a few captured on the way. With the guidance of the servants in the famous mansion, I finally found the correct path and rushed to the back door of the state capital. But when I interrogated the people wandering here, I found out that Xiao Xunyi had already escaped here and headed into the city half a quarter of an hour ago.

After Li Tai heard this, he felt very sorry. The number of his entourage at this time was not large, and the people and horses were tired, so they were not suitable for searching the city, so he could only retreat to the main hall of the state capital for the time being.

When they returned to the straight hall, Li Qianzhe had also led his troops to arrive, and introduced a middle-aged man in brocade robes who looked slightly disheveled into the hall, pointed at him and said to Li Tai: "Report to the Lord , this person is Marquis Yifeng of the Liang Kingdom and the Lord of the Xiao Palace here."

Li Tai was a little disappointed and worried because Xiao Xun escaped before. Now he saw Li Qianzhe actually leading him back, and he was suddenly overjoyed. He nodded to Li Qianzhe, and then looked at Li Qianzhe who looked confused and panicked. Xiao Xun briefly clasped his fists and said with a smile: "I have heard about Xiao Houxian's reputation for a long time. I come here uninvited. Please forgive me for being rude.

A certain Li Boshan, who is the general manager of Jingzhou in Zhongyin of our country, was ordered by Prime Minister Wen, the Duke of Anding in our country, to recover the land of Hanzhong in Shannan that was stolen before. He is not intending to enter the country to kill people, so Xiaohou can rest assured. Entering the state capital and disturbing Xiao Hou's dream was also forced by the situation. Now that it is a foregone conclusion, I also ask Xiao Hou to help calm the people in the city so that there will be no more killings in the city. This is also to preserve Xiao Hou's reputation for benevolent governance. . "

He thought that his words were both soft and hard, dignified and appropriate, and Xiao Xun should have no reason to reject him. However, after he finished speaking, he saw that the other party's eyes were wandering and he did not dare to look at him. He looked so disgusted that he refused to get close. He suddenly felt unhappy and snorted coldly.

"General, spare your life, general, spare your life..."

This cold snort was like thunder in Xiao Xun's ears, and he was about to collapse to the ground as soon as his knees softened.

Not to mention being attacked and frightened by the police station that night, after entering the hall, he saw Li Tai's tall body covered in blood, with some thick plasma even sticking to his armor, and his whole body was filled with a strong and pungent smell. The bloody smell in his heart made him extremely frightened, and he didn't hear the meaning of Li Tai's words at all.

Li Tai didn't want to humiliate the other party to show off his power. Seeing Xiao Xun in such a state of panic and depression, he lowered his head and did some self-examination before he realized what kind of image he was now, so he stopped talking to the person who was frightened out of his mind for the time being. Xiao Xun quickly ordered the blockade of Jincheng, and no one was allowed to enter or exit that night. He also shouted to Luocheng that the defenders of the various camps were on standby in their respective camps and that no unauthorized actions were allowed.

After explaining this, Li Tai temporarily borrowed the palace to take a bath and tidy up his appearance. He was not a psychopath. The previous battle was fierce and he had no time to care. But now that the battle was over, he naturally couldn't stand the fact that he was wet, slippery and bloody.

When he returned to Zhitang, the Li brothers had basically grasped the military and political situation in the city.

After Li Tai sat down and listened to Li Qianzhe's brief explanation, he realized that there were nearly 20,000 defenders inside and outside Nanzheng City, and more than 300,000 shi of grain reserves. Naturally, such a large city would not suffer from the fatal negligence of saving rice but not salt like that in Jiankang Taicheng, and all kinds of defense materials were fully prepared.

Hearing this, Li Tai couldn't help but secretly feel happy that the sneak attack was successful. If the army marched out step by step and surrounded Hanzhong, even if Nanzheng City could be captured, it would still take a long time. And there was Liu Zhongli in the east of the Han Dynasty who was eyeing Xiangyang, and there was Murong Shaozong in Henan who didn't know where he was going. He absolutely couldn't send most of his troops abroad for a long time.

Li Tai was also quite surprised that Nanzheng City had gathered so much war energy. After further questioning, he found out that this was the initiative of Xiao Xun's aide Liu Fan. At Liu Fan's suggestion, Xiao Xun began to gather manpower and material resources in the country to Nanzheng from a very early stage.

Li Tai had naturally heard of Liu Fan, a famous person in Hanzhong, and he couldn't help but feel happy when he heard that Li Qianzhe had taken it upon himself to stick with him.

However, in his opinion, Liu Fan's suggestion to Xiao Xun was not very wise. There were many unruly Fang Yu chiefs in Shannan, and Xiao Xun's power and prestige might not be able to control them calmly. It seems to have a lot of human resources, but in fact it puts itself on an unstable powder keg.

For example, if the Ankang Li family had not been forced by Xiao Xun's overly tough attitude, they might not have directly turned over to him.

However, before their arrival, Nanzheng had gathered so many armed chiefs without causing any major commotion, and the state affairs were handled in an orderly manner, which shows that Liu Fan is indeed talented in handling general affairs.

Li Tai naturally does not need anyone to give him some macro-strategic guidance. What he needs is talents who can fully understand his intentions and carry out his orders. From this perspective, this Liu Fan is worth winning over. .

Anyway, before he left Huazhou, Yu Wentai didn't specifically tell him who he must pay attention to after conquering Hanzhong. Even if he told him, he could just pretend that he didn't hear it.

When he learned that Liu Fan and Xiao Xun were both arranged in the side room of Zhitang, Li Tai got up and went to meet them again.

When he walked into the room, Xiao Xun, who was still discussing in a low voice with Liu Fan, suddenly stopped and looked straight at Li Tai, his eyes becoming a little unbelievable. Liu Fan beside him whispered a reminder After that, he suddenly woke up, and then quickly lowered his head. Perhaps the first impression was too terrifying, which made him secretly fearful when he saw Li Tai.

Seeing that Xiao Xun still didn't dare to look at him, Li Tai couldn't help but feel a little helpless. I've traveled all over the Three Kingdoms, and this is the first time I've met a guy who wasn't impressed by my looks!

He turned his attention to Liu Fan and said with a smile: "I heard that most of the affairs of the state government are handled by Liu Ji's office. Those who can do more work. Although I am in this city now, everything still needs the help of Liu Ji's office." . Now the situation in the government is settled, but people in the outer city are still uneasy. In order to avoid the panic and disturbance of the people, I intend to disband the troops and order them to return to their hometowns. The government orders in the state are as in the old Liang Dynasty, so that the people can live in peace. "What do you think of Liu Ji's office?"

Naturally, Liu Fan also learned about Li Tai's identity from the Li brothers, so he naturally did not dare to make excuses in front of them. After listening to Li Tai's words, he stood in front of the banquet and bowed deeply: "A certain class of sinners cannot keep their land and fulfill their duties. I am ashamed of myself. It is a blessing for the people of this place to be able to uphold the virtues of being benevolent and righteous, but I would like to ask Governor Li what to do with my lord, Master Xiao."

"When we met before, I told Marquis Xiao that this time I came here just to regain the lost land, not to commit evil and murder. What's more, Marquis Xiao has ruled this town for a long time and spread his virtues. He has always been popular among the scholars and the people. As long as Marquis Xiao does not behave in a solitary manner. If you are willing to help me appease the state, I will treat Xiao Hou with great courtesy."

When Li Tai said this, he looked at Xiao Xun who was bowing his head and said nothing.

Xiao Xun's body trembled when he felt the gaze. After a moment of silence, he whispered again: "Thank you, Governor Li, for protecting me. I, I will definitely help Governor Li control the situation of the state."