Cui Shao left this meaningless sentence and did not give Ye Mingsheng an answer. He just asked Ye Mingsheng to think about the reasons...

Because the sky was dark, and Cui Shao was not too young, and he had traveled so long from Quang Ninh Mansion, he was physically and mentally exhausted. Therefore, in this short meeting, the two parties only confirmed their intention to cooperate, and then

Ye Mingsheng provided Cui Shao and the guards he brought with him, and arranged a camp in the military camp for them to rest.

When Ye Mingsheng returned to the tent and hugged Pei Zhixiu to sleep, he found that he couldn't fall asleep no matter what. The changes in his situation in the past three hours were completely beyond Ye Mingsheng's expectation.

, it can be said that what was lost is what was gained in the east, without the help of the Yun family, but the stronger Cui family was ushered in!

However, Ye Mingsheng was still a little concerned about the sudden arrival of the Cui family!

Ye Mingsheng is a person who likes to control everything. He doesn't like things to be outside of his control, or he doesn't want there to be any key things that he doesn't know...

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And now there was a doubt in front of him: why did the Cui family change their previous cautious style and choose to take risks with him?

Is the 180-degree change in the Cui family's attitude an opportunity for themselves, or is it a trap dug for themselves?

Ye Mingsheng must understand this problem. Only by understanding this problem can Ye Mingsheng judge how sincere the Cui family is in cooperating with him.

Since he couldn't sleep, Ye Mingsheng simply stopped sleeping and started thinking carefully.

Although Cui Shao didn't reveal much useful information about this issue just now, Ye Mingsheng noticed one of his words!

Cui Shao’s original words at that time were:

"I just figured it out..."

This is very important just now. It shows that Cui Shao only figured it out recently, and what happened recently?

The people from Shiwei, who were recruited by Song Wenhui to help out, ignored the agreement between them and Song Wenhui and stabbed the Liaoyang Army in the back, which directly led to the precarious situation that the Liaoyang Army and Song Wenhui himself are now in.

Therefore, Ye Mingsheng boldly guessed that Cui Shao made such a big change because he was related to the Shiwei people!

And if we continue talking from this angle, Ye Mingsheng feels like he has caught something...

As a foreign race, the Shiwei people ostensibly submitted to the Great Zhou Dynasty and obeyed the orders of Song Wenhui, the governor of Liaoyang. However, in fact, they were very independent. It could even be said that they were completely independent. They were still the Great Zhou Dynasty in name only.

subjects of Zhou.

And because they are nomadic people, not good at height, and the production methods and systems are very backward, they have developed the habit of robbery. Whenever they encounter natural disasters or man-made disasters, they will pick up their old trade and go to the people of the Zhou Dynasty.

Grabbing a vote for the place of residence has also caused disaster in Liaoyang in recent years.

And if Song Wenhui was able to persuade them to join the war, he must have paid huge benefits, otherwise the Shiwei people would definitely not sacrifice their lives for him...

So the question arises, what conditions did Song Wenhui give to the Shiwei people to convince them to sacrifice their lives?

First of all, it is definitely not about money and food. For this war, both Song Wenhui and the Zhenwu Army have prepared hard and prepared for a long time. Money and food have been invested in the army, and wars have always been a matter of burning money. As the saying goes, "cannons"

One ring is worth ten thousand taels of gold.”

Once the war started, money and food were all needed for the settling-in expenses of the soldiers, the pensions for the wounded and wounded soldiers, and the supplies consumed in the war. Liaoyang itself was not rich, and the financial situation of the Liaoyang army was also on the verge of collapse.

Song Wenhui simply could not afford so much money and food to hire Shiwei people to participate in the war.

Since it is not money and food, there is only one answer!

That's land!

Although doing this will make Song Wenhui suffer some criticism in public opinion, after all, the Shiwei people are not Luobei people, and neither the people nor the government pays much attention to them. And the most important point is that the Shiwei people are still nominally large.

Zhou's subjects, so Song Wenhui had a lot of room for change in public opinion...

And why were Chen Dechang and Shen Jianzhong able to let the Shiwei people betray Song Wenhui?

There is no doubt that it was because Chen Dechang and the others offered Shiwei a higher price than Song Wenhui offered!

If the financial situation of Song Wenhui's Liaoyang Army is very bad, then the financial situation of Chen Dechang, Shen Jianzhong and their Zhenwu Army is not much better. Song Wenhui still controls the richest Dongning Mansion in Liaoyang, and can collect some money.

Tax,

As for the Changqing Mansion of the Zhenwu Army, it was the front line against the Luobi people. It was sparsely populated and the people's livelihood was poor. The Zhenwu Army could persist until now only by relying on blood transfusions from the imperial court and donations from some wealthy families such as the Gongsun family who had taken refuge in the past.

family fortune!

Therefore, the Zhenwu Army, which also had no money or food, could still only give the Shiwei people land!

Moreover, they were at a disadvantage at the time. In order to allow the Shiwei people to retaliate against Song Wenhui, they could only promise more land. Maybe Posuo Mansion and Lelang Mansion, which bordered the Shiwei people, were all captured by the Zhenwu Army.

Got out as promised...

And this has a huge conflict of interest with the aristocratic families represented by the Cui family!

In today’s terms, what are these aristocratic families?

That is the big bourgeoisie and big landowner class!

Land is an important asset of their family and the source of their wealth!

Your Zhenwu Army ceded a large area of ​​land, which is equivalent to letting these aliens into Liaoyang, exposing some aristocratic families represented by the Cui family to the sight and blades of these aliens. With the greedy character of these aliens,

, then it’s self-evident what will happen next!

Therefore, the Cui family and other large and small families must be opposed to the Zhenwu Army's actions.

Although he found some reasons, Ye Mingsheng felt that it was not enough. This alone seemed not enough for Cui Shao to take the risk and choose himself. There must be another reason for Cui Shao to make such a big change. Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but think hard.

If Zhenwu Army wants a stable Liaoyang, then it must rely on the power of the Cui family!

But what if Zhenwu Army doesn’t want a stable Liaoyang?

Or maybe the Zhenwu Army doesn’t care about Liaoyang’s stability at all...

This thought suddenly flashed through his mind, and Ye Mingsheng suddenly became energetic. His eyes widened as if he had thought of something incredible.

Although the answer he came up with may be a bit shocking, Ye Mingsheng always remembered this sentence, remove all impossibilities, and the rest will be the truth even if it is impossible!

If the truth of the matter is really as Ye Mingsheng thinks, the problem that has always puzzled him before seems to have a reasonable explanation in an instant.

Thinking about the Cui family cannot be limited to Liaoyang. The real root of the matter lies in the changes in the situation of the entire Zhou court!

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At a quarter past midnight the next morning, the city gates of Shoucheng were opened wide. Tens of thousands of Liaoyang troops, carrying more than 100,000 stones of military rations originally prepared to stay here for several months, quickly withdrew towards Dongning Mansion. They had received the order to retreat yesterday.

But it was only now that they completed their preparations and began to execute the order to retreat.

Half an hour after the Liaoyang Army retreated, a battalion of the Fengzhou Army entered Shoucheng and officially took over the bridgehead for the Fengzhou Army's march into the interior of Liaoyang.

At the same time, the Liaoyang Army also withdrew to a place called Dongwogou, which was considered a dangerous place. However, due to the emergency military situation, the Liaoyang Army retreated very quickly, and they did not expect that there would be an attack by troops.

The scouts' inspection was also very casual. If there was no problem around, they would let the army pass through Dongwogou.

And just when all the tens of thousands of Liaoyang troops entered the Dongwo ditch, countless soldiers of the Fengzhou army suddenly appeared on both sides of the ditch. The shouts of killing were loud, and countless rolling stones, wood, lead bullets and arrows were heard.

, all fell into the ditch like raindrops. The Liaoyang army was caught off guard and hundreds of thousands of people were killed and injured...

The general who commanded this Liaoyang Army seemed to be very tenacious. Although his subordinates suffered heavy casualties from the ambush, he still did not give up resistance. He continued to command the army to resist desperately, and tried to let the remaining Liaoyang Army soldiers escape from Dongwogou.

Break out through the exits on both sides.

He thought it would be good then, but unfortunately, from the beginning of the ambush, Yuan Song and Guo Zhiping each led more than 20,000 people to block the exits on both sides. After several consecutive charges in vain, they saw that

As the casualties increased, an atmosphere of despair spread among the Liaoyang army.

At this moment, the Liaoyang Army general who had been commanding the army regardless of his own safety was finally targeted by the Fengzhou Army musketeers. Dozens of powerful muskets were fired at the same time, directly beating him into a sieve.

Seeing that the generals had been beaten to death, the soldiers of Liaoyang, who had lost their backbone, completely collapsed.

They threw down their weapons one after another, then knelt on the ground and surrendered to the Fengzhou Army. Surrender was like a whirlwind, quickly sweeping through the entire Dongwo Valley. It was only a stick of incense that left thousands of Liaoyang soldiers in the trench.

The soldiers all made wise choices...

"Third uncle, what do you think of our army's battle?"

Ye Mingsheng asked Cui Shao, who was watching the battle in the ditch with a telescope:

Although there is still a gap between him and the Cui family, Ye Mingsheng needs to unite with the Cui family to keep warm. Therefore, for better cooperation, Ye Mingsheng is willing to make some changes to express his sincerity, which naturally includes

Changes in the title of Cui Shao.

Upon hearing Ye Mingsheng's inquiry, Cui Shao slowly put down the telescope in his hand and said very calmly:

"Very good, well done!"

Although his performance was calm, Cui Shao was still very excited in his heart. Judging from Ye Mingsheng's past achievements in conquering the east and west, he knew that Ye Mingsheng's Fengzhou Army was very capable and could make up for the Cui family's war effort.

However, there is still no actual quantitative concept of the combat effectiveness of the Fengzhou Army.

But today's battle that he witnessed with his own eyes made him truly feel the strength of the Fengzhou Army. He originally thought that although the defeat of the 10,000 Liaoyang Army was doomed, it could be done with a little effort.

Unexpectedly, in less than half an hour, all of them were dead or injured, and all the remaining ones who were alive surrendered.

This battle undoubtedly gave Cui Shao great confidence. Although he expressed to Ye Mingsheng yesterday that he was willing to support the Fengzhou Army, considering that the Zhenwu Army is now at its peak, Cui Shao also has deep doubts about his choice, and

The performance of the Fengzhou Army in this battle has undoubtedly strengthened Cui Shao's support for Ye Mingsheng.

Ye Mingsheng didn't care about Cui Shao's dull reaction, but said calmly:

"If I'm not wrong, the reason why you choose to support me, third uncle, is because the entire Liaoyang Province is just an abandoned son, right?"
To be continued...