【Chapter 485】 Multitasking Overlord
Cold rainy night.
Thunderbolts, lightning speeds, and wind and rain.
After drinking and eating, Li Li followed Mrs. Bu's order and moved into the front yard. Guo Jia, Li Zhi and Huan Fei naturally left the east wing together and moved into the main room of the front yard.
Front yard of the Bu Mansion, inner room of the side hall.
The night is getting deeper, and lightning is thundering outside the house, and wind and rain are shaking.
"Dududu!"
On the stove, the teapot was boiling, and the tea fragrance filled the entire inner hall.
Guo Jia skillfully took off the teapot, poured two cups of fragrant tea, one cup for himself, and the other cup was brought to the window frame and handed to Li Li.
"Fengxiao, is there any news from Chang'an?" Li Li looked at the rain outside the window calmly, and he kept taking the teacup handed over by Guo Jia and asked softly.
"Hmm?" Guo Jia pondered in confusion, his thoughts turned sharply, and he immediately knew why his lord Li Li asked this question.
A month ago, when everyone successfully left Jizhou and the Zhen clan and returned to the Anyi camp, the lord Li Li told Li Xuan and Guo Jia one thing. Before heading south, in front of Guo Jia, Li Li ordered Li Xuan to return to Chang'an day and night, and ordered Liu Zhang, the general's official, to go to Yizhou immediately. The two generals Cao Xing and Yang Ding led a thousand county government troops to escort along the way until Liu Zhang arrived in Chengdu safely.
Before this, Liu Zhang had served as the General of the Guard Office for more than a year and had a good personal relationship with his lord. The two often sang the wind and the moon together, drinking and doing fu. Occasionally, Li Li would discuss calligraphy and painting with Liu Zhang, and painted a few pictures of ladies with ease, and proofread each other. Compared with Liu Zhang, Li Li really did not have the talent for paintings, and it was difficult to enter the elegant hall if he could paint pictures of ladies. However, Liu Zhang was not the case. He painted pictures of ladies with vividness and charm, and had profound attainments in calligraphy and painting skills.
These trivial matters were found by Guo Jia from Li Zhi indirectly, and it was not a secret, so Li Zhi did not hide them from him. After learning about this, Guo Jia was always very confused and was very proud of his lord Li Li. Why did he treat Liu Zhang, the son of Liu Yan in Yizhou so politely that he not only recruited him to serve as the General's Office as the General's Office, but also had a deep personal relationship with him.
What a strange thing!
Thinking back to the whole story in his mind, Guo Jia stood beside Li Li and reported respectfully: "Calculate the time, now Liu Zhang and his party should have arrived in Chengdu. I believe that he will receive a message from Feiying in the next two days. The lord doesn't have to worry. Shangshu Ling has always been cautious and steady in his work, so he will definitely not make any mistakes this time.
What's more, Liu Zhang's trip to Yizhou was not complicated and there was no risk. He should be able to arrive in Chengdu as scheduled. The only thing that could be disturbed along the way was to pass through the territory of Zhang Lu in Hanzhong. However, even though Zhang Lu had the courage, he did not dare to rob and kill the envoy of the emperor openly; if he really dared to act boldly, he would be seeking death. At that time, the lord could legitimately send troops to Hanzhong, wipe out Zhang Lu, and recover the land of Hanzhong."
"Hahaha!" After hearing Guo Jia's words, Li Li smiled calmly, then turned his head to look at Guo Jia. He smiled and said, "Bongxiao must have guessed that my real intention of sending someone to escort Liu Zhang back to Yizhou. I'm not wrong, right?"
"Lord, Mingjian." Guo Jia smiled and nodded, saying, "I heard that Liu Yan, Yizhou, has been ill in bed recently. I think it is because his life is not eternal, and there is not much time left. Among the four sons under Liu Yan, three of them are in Chang'an, and only one son, Liu Mao, stayed by his side. It is said that Liu Mao is reckless by nature and likes to play with knives and sticks. Therefore, he is not loved by Liu Yan. In this way, the lord sent Liu Zhang back to Yizhou at this time, and his intention is self-evident.
But Liu Yan in Yizhou is not an easy person, and he is very scheming. How could he not see the lord’s intention? In this way, will he give up Liu Zhang and choose Liu Mao to take over as the governor of Yizhou?"
Li Li shook his head slightly, turned his head and continued to look out the window. He said in a deep voice: "Liu Yan, Yizhou, is very scheming, and naturally knows my true intention to send Liu Zhang back to Yizhou. Unfortunately, he can do anything even if he knows it, because his second son Liu Mao is hard to become a great man, and he is ill for a long time. Like him, he can't live long. Therefore, Liu Yan has no choice but to choose. If he doesn't hand over Yizhou to Liu Zhang, there will be no successor. There is no other way, so he has to submit!"
Guo Jia felt at ease when he heard this. This was the first time he had seen his lord Li Li's decisive method. He thought of every detail and left no room for Liu Yan. At this time, Li Li was very different from the sunny image he had talked and laughed before. He naturally showed a killing aura, showing his overlord posture.
"Lord, if Liu Zhang turned against our army after he succeeded as the governor of Yizhou, wouldn't the things he did mean nothing?" Guo Jia asked in a low voice with a slightly worried expression.
"Reverse? Hehehe!" Li Li sneered and pondered, gently opened the lattice window, letting the cold wind and moisture outside the window blow in.
After a while, he said in a deep voice: "It is inevitable that Liu Zhang will rebel against me. Otherwise, Liu Yan would rather hand Yizhou over to the sick Liu Mao than to Liu Zhang. On the contrary, if Liu Zhang did not rebel against me, it would be equivalent to handing over Yizhou to me Li Li. Therefore, before he died, Liu Yan would definitely explain the pros and cons to Liu Zhang, let him be wary of our Xiliang army everywhere, and even more so that he could not make friends with me Li Li. Therefore, if Liu Zhang wanted to take over Yizhou, he had to follow Liu Yan's instructions before he died. This was already expected, and it was not surprising.
However, what can Liu Zhang turn against me? Can he resist the hundreds of thousands of troops under my command? Even though Yizhou has more than 100,000 troops and horses, it is worthy of being a tiger and wolf army, but a group of tiger and wolf have a state governor who can only drink and write poems and draw pictures of ladies. What's the fear of this for our Xiliang army!
What's more, I spent a lot of time with him drinking and painting, not just showing kindness to him, but making other arrangements. Therefore, there is no need to think about filial piety. For our Xiliang army, the land of Yizhou is very important, and it is bound to win if we are born and die, and we are bound to win!"
Guo Jiashen nodded with consent and said softly: "What the lord said is very true. Although Xiliang has been a place where dragons and tigers have been entrenched since ancient times, it is still vast and sparsely populated, wars frequently occur, and land is deserted. Therefore, the overlords who occupied Xiliang since ancient times will surely capture Yizhou as the rear of food and grass supply, so that they can be invincible. This was the case with the powerful Qin Dynasty in the past, and so was Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang.
In addition, Yizhou occupies the natural danger of Shu Road, with a fertile land of thousands of miles, a large population, abundant resources, and enough to support millions of soldiers. Therefore, every word that the lord just said is reasonable. Yizhou is related to the success or failure of our army, and it cannot be lost.
However, there is still something that my subordinates are puzzled. Since the lord valued Yizhou so much, why didn’t he lead troops to attack Liu Yan when he died of illness and sent Liu Zhang to succeed to the throne?”
Li Li nodded slightly and whispered: "What Fengxiao said is right. I had thought before that when Liu Yan died, he would take the opportunity to lead his troops to capture Yizhou and seize the entire Sichuan and Sichuan area in one fell swoop. However, after repeated thinking, I gave up this idea and chose to make a long-term plan and slowly approach it, not to act too quickly.
Fengxiao, just imagine that once Liu Yan dies, Yizhou will immediately block the important roads of all the passes, strictly guard against the enemy, and strengthen vigilance to prevent other princes from taking advantage of the situation and attacking Yizhou. Therefore, after Liu Yan's death, Yizhou seemed turbulent, but in fact, the passes were more prepared than before. If our army captured Yizhou at this time, it would be difficult to move forward. A thousand-mile Shu road would be enough to block our army outside the door and make it bloody.
In addition, there is a Hanzhong Zhang Lu between us and Yizhou. If you want to capture Yizhou, you must first take Hanzhong. But now, Zhang Lu from Hanzhong is staring at our army's movements all day long and transfers all 70,000 to 80,000 troops from Hanzhong to the border to garrison. There are 40,000 troops in Yangping Pass alone, which makes our army have no opportunity to take advantage of. Therefore, it is not that I don't want to capture Yizhou now, but that I am not able to meet the strength and have no reach. I can only prepare for my troops and wait for the opportunity to move."
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Li raised his hand and signaled that Guo Jia didn't need to say much. He closed the window casually and said softly: "Miss Bu is here, Feng Xiao will go back to the room first."
"I hope, I will leave first." Guo Jia looked slightly stunned, and then he smiled calmly with understanding, bowed and turned around and left.
Guo Jia had just left, and then the door creaked softly and was pushed open again.
"Miss Bu,, Oh, no, I should call you Master Lian!" Seeing Master Bu pushing the door and coming in, Li Li immediately stood up to meet him and said with a smile.
When he reached out and didn't hit the smiling person, Bu Lianshi was originally angry with Li Li, but when he saw him smiling, his anger suddenly disappeared, and the anger on his face also dissipated.
Then she walked slowly to the round table in the hall and sat down, while Li Li quickly closed the door with his hands and eyes, and then poured her a cup of hot tea.
"Don't scream, who is your sister!" pretending to be unmoved, a touch of red glow appeared on Bu Lianshi's sweet face, but his tone was not kind.
After raising the red lips and taking a sip of tea, she realized that Li Li was sitting next to her and was very close to her. At this moment, he looked at him with a strange smile on his face.
"What are you looking at? I've never seen a beautiful woman!" Inexplicably shy, Mr. Bu blurted out a word that even he was shocked.
Li Li smiled happily and said, "I have seen many beauties, but I have never seen a sweet woman as Master Lian. Taking advantage of the opportunity and time now, I will take a few more glances so that I won't have a chance to see you again!"
Mr. Bu's expression changed slightly, he pursed his red lips and asked softly: "Don't you have many wives and concubines? Are they not good-looking?"
"That's not, they are all very good. But you are the first woman who looks beautiful and smiles sweeter!" Li Li was not nervous at all and responded with a smile, just like a veteran in love. But as he spoke, he suddenly felt something was wrong, and then asked in surprise: "How did you know that I have many wives and concubines? Who told you?"
Mr. Bu’s pretty face flushed, lowered his head, and said softly: “Of course you said it yourself. Apart from you, no outsiders have come to our Bu family after the spring season.”
Before he finished speaking, Bu Lianshi added anxiously: "You are not an outsider! Don't get me wrong, and don't think too much. I just want to say that no one has come to your family in recent months, only you and four of you."
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Chapter completed!