Chapter 22: Cut the land

The military life of one month on the Guzang Grassland made Zhang Mai feel as if he had returned to the days in Lingxi. Although life in Liangzhou was more comfortable, Zhang Mai was a little addicted to it for a while and went to the Guzang Grassland to train with the new recruits. Zhang Mai first entered with a utilitarian heart. He valued this new army very much, so he must firmly grasp control over it, and to master an army, one of the very important things is to let the soldiers find that the commander can share the joys and sorrows with them. This is what Zhang Mai has realized in the past few years.

With this feeling, Zhang Mai entered the Guzang Grassland, but after the first few days of painful adaptation, Zhang Mai gradually got used to it. The pain and fatigue washed his addicted heart. Zhang Mai came back little by little during the western part of the mountain. He lived in Guzang Grassland for a month and then returned to Liangzhou. Instead, he was a little uncomfortable.

The entire Guzang grassland is full of new recruits, but Zhang Mai learned a lot from them - something he almost forgot after entering the city, that is, the simplicity, courage and directness of a passionate man!

This is not only the behavioral pattern of soldiers, but also their thinking pattern. Looking at the current behaviors of the Tiance Army, he soon saw some hidden worries. Especially the atmosphere brought in by some civil and military generals in Shazhou, it was even more unsatisfactory!

Cao Yuanzhong's feelings and judgments about Zhang Mai are completely different from Zhang Mai's own feelings and judgments about himself.

The incident of moving people in Shazhou made Cao Yuanzhong feel that he seemed to have won a political victory.

Then, the birth of Zhang Mai's eldest son made Cao Yuanzhong feel that he had found a support for strength. Perhaps a new era for the Tiance Army was coming.

However, the last victory seemed very weak, and the two major military and political aspects of the Tiance Army were not as good as the Cao clan. Those who were spread throughout the court and the country were either Lingxi or opponents of the Cao family during the rebellion of the Guiyi Army.

If you want to change this situation, you must win over the forces that can be won over, divide the enemy, and win the broadest allies - this kind of political thought, Cao Yuanzhong would not have been able to do so a year ago, but now he has changed. When Kang Long and Kang Xing mentioned his things around him, he accepted them without reservation.

"The Hexi faction is half of us, half of us are the Murong family, and the traitors of the Zhang family. The Murong family is approaching us recently, and the power of the old Murong cannot be underestimated. I think we might as well bring them in. As for Zhang Yi and the others, they have always wanted to make the marshal their own family - they will not cooperate with us, and even if they are coming, we don't want him. As for the Lingxi faction, the main force is the two commanders who lead troops outside!" Kang Xing said: "Guo Luo is one faction, Yang Yi is another faction, and Xue Fu is closer, but he has no foundation in the center, he is just a general who leads troops and fights."

Kang Xing's words hit Xue Fu's biggest weakness - he has no political foundation, so compared with Guo and Yang, he is more like a pure soldier.

"So, we don't have to consider him for the time being. As long as the situation is inclined to us, Xue Fu will know how to choose. And among Guo and Yang, Guo Luo, hum!" Kang Xing didn't say it, but Cao Yuanzhong and Kang Long both understood what he meant. Guo Luo was their natural rival and could not be reconciled. "But Yang Yi is different. Although he and Guo Luo have a relationship, his ex-wife is already dead, and now they are our relatives. So I think we should be able to win him, at least make him neutral, so it should be natural for us to enter the center."

"However," Conlong said: "To achieve this goal, it still needs a big thing to promote it."

"event."

"It must be a major event that can expand territory." Kang Long said: "Uncle Guo, although you are close relatives, the Tiance Army is the most important military merit. If you don't have any contributions and want to get the same status as Guo Luo and Yang Yi, the people below will be dissatisfied, and even Xue Fu will overwhelm you."

Cao Yuanzhong naturally understood this truth, but it was really easy to expand his territory! Not to mention that there has been a subtle balance between the Later Tang, Khitan, Tiance, Lingxi Uighurs, Saman, Houshu and other countries. Under this balance, it would be extremely difficult for any side to make progress - this is not like a year ago, when the entire Northwest was in a state of "breaking the deadlock". The chaotic situation gave the Anxi Army the opportunity to sweep thousands of miles in one or two years. Now it is difficult to have such an opportunity. What's more, even if there is such an opportunity, the three generals of Guo, Yang and Xue will be the turn of Cao Yuanzhong?

Just as Cao Yuanzhong was pondering, Kang Long pointed out someone to him: "Uncle Guo, do you still remember Sang Weihan?"

"Sang Weihan? Ah, it's the man from Hedong!"

"Yes!" Kang Long said: "This person can bring us a great contribution."

"A great credit? You mean..."

"Shuofang, it's a problem!" Kang Long said: "This is the gift Sang Weihan gave to his uncle."

Shuofang is today's Ningxia, and Dingnan means today's northern Shaanxi. With the current situation, the Guanzhong Plain has returned to the Tiance Army to the west, and the south is Houshu, which is an alliance with the Tiance Army. If Shuofang and Dingnan all belong to the Tiance Army, the Tiance Tang cavalry generals can ride from northern Shaanxi at any time and get the troops from Longyou and Hanzhong. Guanzhong becomes the item in his pocket, or if he crosses the Yellow River, enters Hedong and gets Qin and Jin, then the entire Central Plains may change their ownership!

Cao Yuanzhong couldn't believe Kang Long's words at first, but Kang Long said, "Uncle Guo, don't say things you don't believe first. It's better to see Mr. Sang first."

After seeing Sang Weihan, Cao Yuanzhong stepped into the Marshal's mansion again, but this time he did not come to see Fu'an, but to ask for Zhang Mai.

Zhang Mai was holding his eldest son and feeding him milk. He was feeding him now. He didn't have to worry about melamine anyway. When he saw Cao Yuanzhong, he held his son's little hand and smiled, "Uncle is here, uncle is here." But suddenly he saw a scholar with a strange face behind Cao Yuanzhong, and asked, "Who is this?"

Cao Yuanzhong said: "This is Mr. Sang Weihan, a famous scholar from the Central Plains. Mr. Sang is full of knowledge and has been ranked as a Jinshi. I know that the marshal has always loved talents and respected the wise, so he brought him to pay homage."

Sang Weihan bowed to the ground and said, "Scholar of Luoyang, pay homage to the prince."

Zhang Mai said oh, and asked someone to carry his son down. Cao Yuanzhong was a relative, but Sang Weihan was an outsider. Zhang Mai didn't want to play with him in front of him and sat under the grape trellis in the yard. Then he said: "Sir, since he is a talented person, why did he come to Liangzhou without Lisi, but he came to my house."

Sang Weihan said: "I am not seeking office for myself, but to offer thousands of miles of land to the prince!"

Zhang Mai was stunned and then burst into laughter. Sang Weihan was not moved by Zhang Mai's laughter at all and said, "What is the prince laughing?" Zhang Mai smiled and said, "I laugh because your words are funny!" He said to Cao Yuanzhong, "Yuanzhong, why are you born like such a crazy person? Our Tiance Army is now creating all industries, and it is indeed necessary to have talents, but what we need is hard-working talents, not just a mouth full of poverty."

Cao Yuanzhong was snatched by him, and his face was a little uneasy. He urged Sang Weihan with his eyes, but Sang Weihan was not anxious and said, "Prince, I am poor, but I felt that there was nothing funny about what I said just now."

Zhang Mai lowered his eyes and said listlessly: "In the world today, the territory of the countries is gradually becoming stable, restraining each other, and checking and balancing each other. The Khitan wants to take my Beiting, but the 100,000 powerful troops were curbed by my general Yang Yi. I am not like Kaijiang, but it is not easy to counterattack the Khitan. My brother Li Congke and Yelu Deguang are just advancing and retreating in the Yanyun area. The three powerful countries in the world have invested 100,000 elite troops and entangled hundreds of thousands of people in the rear. It is not easy to obtain a territory of hundreds of miles. Isn't it funny if you are an unarmed poor person and say you want to offer thousands of miles of land at the right time?"

At this time, there were only three people under the grape trellis. Sang Weihan said seriously: "Prince, although I am just a scholar, my master has a great ability to overturn the world. This thousand miles of country is definitely not empty talk. As for whether the prince wants it, it is just a sentence."

Zhang Mai said, "So you are here to be a lobbyist..." He glanced at Cao Yuanzhong and said, "Who is your master?"

Sang Weihan said: "Hedong Jiedushi---Duke Shi Ling."

Zhang Mai was a little surprised now: "Shi...Shi Jingtang?"

“That’s right!”

Zhang Mai straightened his body and stared at Sang Weihan, his heart trembling slightly.

To be honest, since Li Congke is not very famous, Zhang Mai had no impression of him at all. After approaching the Central Plains, he did not recognize Li Congke, so he once doubted whether the era he came to was real history, but two people evoked his memory, one was Feng Dao and the other was Shi Jingtang.

In Zhang Mai's impression, Feng Dao corresponds to the tumbler. What about Shi Jingtang? That guy is a big traitor! Isn't it just him ceding the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun? The weakness of the Chinese nation from the Five Dynasties to the Song Dynasty and the destruction of the country can be said to have planted a distant cause from this traitor, so Zhang Mai felt from the bottom of his heart disgust of this person.

For this reason, Zhang Mai sent many people to inquire about Shi Jingtang's recent situation, but what he heard was completely different from the Shi Jingtang he had in his impression. Since Shi Jingtang was a traitor, he thought he should be a sinister, cunning, despicable and shameless bad guy. However, the information he obtained through Lu Jialing was that Shi Jingtang was not only a famous general in defending the country, but also an honest official in governing the country. In addition to being a little bit of great achievements, he was simply a model of civil and military officials in the Later Tang Dynasty! So Zhang Mai also thought that Shi Jingtang, who is now, might be two people from the one he knew, sold to Shi Jingtang.

But now, Shi Jingtang's envoy was standing in front of him. Zhang Mai knew from Lu Jialing that there were spies sent by Shi Jingtang in the city, but he did not expect that this "spy" would follow Cao Yuanzhong's line and stand in front of him as today.

After a while, Zhang Mai came to his senses and asked, "Shi Mai sent you here, I don't know what's wrong." Shi Jingtang was the son-in-law of Li Siyuan, the Mingzong of the Later Tang Dynasty. Zhang Mai and Li Congke became sworn brothers, and they always knew a little about the family affairs of the Li family.
Chapter completed!