Chapter 339 Asking for the Queen

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After Jiang Hongfei executed Tian Hu, Zhang Qing searched Tian Hu for the "Imperial Seal" that Jiang Hongfei had used to exchange for Hebei and presented it to Jiang Hongfei.

In this way, Jiang Hongfei could finally own the Imperial Seal legitimately, instead of hiding it in Jiang Hongfei's Qiankun bracelet as before.

——If Jiang Hongfei had taken out the Imperial Seal at that time, it might have damaged Jiang Hongfei's character, and it might have angered Tian Hu, and Jiang Hongfei's plan would have gone out of control.

This is not a trivial matter.

You know, people nowadays believe in destiny, otherwise why do you think Tian Hu would give up fighting with Jiang Hongfei for Hebei because of the so-called "destiny"? Even until his death, he thought that the reason he lost to Jiang Hongfei was that destiny did not follow him but Jiang Hongfei did?

Now, the imperial seal has returned to Jiang Hongfei's hands after many twists and turns. Moreover, Jiang Hongfei has gained Hebei, the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the Three Prefectures of Pingluanying, and Hedong, a large area of ​​land north of the Yellow River, and has a great unification trend. This seems to further confirm that Jiang Hongfei is destined to be the emperor.

This indirectly led to a large number of talents under Tian Hu joining Jiang Hongfei.

Later, not only talents under Tian Hu, but also talents under the Zhao Song Dynasty, talents under Wang Qing, talents under Fang La, and even talents who had previously joined Xixia from the Zhao Song Dynasty, all joined the Yuan Empire, and the Yuan Empire under Jiang Hongfei became more stable.

Soon, Xu Guanzhong sent a victory report that they defeated Fang Xuedu and captured him alive.

Soon, Jiang Hongfei moved into the palace built by Tian Hu in Weisheng Mansion, and only sent a group of generals of the Yuan army to eliminate the remnants of the Jin State and completely recover Hedong.

At the same time, Jiang Hongfei mobilized capable officials to govern Hedong, provide disaster relief, conduct public trials, cancel debts, distribute land, distribute grain, and encourage farming...

Everything was going on in an orderly manner...

In less than a month, Jin generals such as E Quanzhong, An Renmei, Ru Tingqi, Yuan Jingda, and Shan Jinglong surrendered one after another, and Jin's power in Hedong almost collapsed.

As for the small number of stubborn resistance elements who fled into Taihang Mountains, on the one hand, they were no longer a threat to the Yuan Empire, and on the other hand, Jiang Hongfei had sent people to recruit and encircle them. Jiang Hongfei believed that it was only a matter of time to completely solve them.

In this process, Jiang Hongfei, who had always been unable to control his lower body, inevitably slept with the daughters of the royal family and clan of Jin, such as Tian Hu's Wu Fei (Wu Li's sister), and the sisters of Fan Meiren...

It is worth mentioning that after Jiang Hongfei asked Wu Yong, Du Fu, and Han Shizhong to seize Fengzhou, Wu Yong and others were not idle either.

Wu Yong knew that Jiang Hongfei wanted to instigate the Zhe family to establish a bridgehead between Shaanxi and Xixia of the Zhao Song Dynasty.

The peace treaty signed by Jiang Hongfei and the Zhao Song Dynasty indicated that the Zhao Song Dynasty ceded Hedong to Jiang Hongfei, including the three states of Lin, Fu, and Feng, which were the areas controlled by the Zhe family.

The current head of the Zhe family is Zhe Keqiu.

Zhe Keqiu was a famous general of the Zhao Song Dynasty. His life in history can be divided into four stages for evaluation:

Before the Song-Jin War, Zhe Keqiu was appreciated and recognized by the Zhao Song Dynasty for his military exploits. He served as the governor of the prefecture, the right military official, the governor of Kangzhou, the military commander of Taiyuan Road, and the inspector of Linfu Fengguanjie. He was an extremely good general.

After the Song-Jin War began, Zhe Keqiu actively participated in the main battlefield of the anti-Jin war and repeatedly assisted the capital and Taiyuan. Although he failed in many battles, he was not discouraged and continued to train soldiers and horses, waiting for an opportunity to counterattack.

After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhe Keqiu still led the remaining soldiers to resist tenaciously for two years. Finally, after the heavy losses of his troops, and on the premise that Zhao Gou gave up the Central Plains, in order to preserve his strength and make a comeback, Zhe Keqiu finally chose to surrender to the Jin Dynasty.

After surrendering to the Jin Dynasty, Zhe Keqiu, as a surrendered general, although there was a record of persuading his relative Xu Huiyan to surrender to the Jin Dynasty, his main activity was to obey the command of the Jin people and obey the arrangements of the Jin people. Later, Wanyan Chang abolished Liu Yu. Before that, Wanyan Gao had promised Zhe Keqiu to replace Liu Yu, but was rejected by Wanyan Chang. Wanyan Gao was afraid that Zhe Keqiu would resent and change because of his heavy troops, so he used a trick to poison Zhe Keqiu to death.

Looking at Zhe Keqiu's life, although he had the stain of surrendering to the Jin Kingdom, it is fair to say that he was worthy of the Zhao Song Dynasty. It was because the surname Zhao was too unpromising that Zhe Keqiu failed to keep his family business, resulting in the destruction of the Zhe family's century-old reputation, loyalty, and reputation.

Anyway, Jiang Hongfei was very sure of the achievements and character of Zhe Keqiu and the Zhe family. Therefore, if he could get the three states of Lin, Fu, and Feng, which the Zhe family had held on to for more than 200 years, without fighting, it would be the most ideal way for Jiang Hongfei.

Of course, ideals are just ideals, not reality.

Wu Yong knew that Jiang Hongfei would not leave a Zhe family that did not submit to him in Hedong.

So, Wu Yong used a strategy to lure the tiger away from the mountain, pretending to attack the Jinning Army, and transferred Zhe Keqiu and the Zhe family army away from Fuzhou, and then sent troops to occupy Fuzhou, capturing Zhe Keqiu's son Zhe Yanwen and a large number of Zhe family members.

After Zhe Keqiu knew that he had been tricked, he quickly led 20,000 Zhe family troops back to Fuzhou to rescue his family and clansmen.

Han Shizhong and Du Fu led 30,000 Yuan troops to surround and attack the reinforcements and ambush the Zhe family army.

Although the Yuan army ambushed first, because Zhe Keqiu was very cautious in using his troops, the two sides fought from morning to noon, and the outcome was always equal.

It was not until noon that Wang Sheng, who had been ambushed by Han Shizhong, suddenly led 3,000 cavalrymen to attack from behind the Zhe family’s camp and robbed their family camp. Only then was the Zhe family’s army defeated.

In this battle, the Zhe family army lost more than 5,000 troops and was driven to Wudaoliangmao by the Yuan army.

The Yuan army was well rested and won a great victory.

Taking advantage of this great victory, Wu Yong, Du Fu and Han Shizhong occupied Linzhou again.

The Zhe family army, which lost Lin, Fu and Fengzhou, became rootless all of a sudden, and the Zhe family army that retreated to Wudaoliangmao soon ran out of food and aid.

At this time, Wu Yong went to personally persuade the Zhe family to surrender.

Wu Yong said that as long as the Zhe family was willing to surrender to the Yuan Empire, the Zhe family would still govern Lin, Fu and Fengzhou, and the Yuan Empire would treat the Zhe family the same way as the Zhao Song Dynasty treated the Zhe family.

Zhe Keqiu, who was desperate, had to agree.

However, everyone knew what Wu Yong did, and he would never believe Zhe Keqiu's "one-sided words".

Under Wu Yong's "persuasion", Zhe Keqiu agreed to do two things:

The first thing was to persuade the Jinning Army of the Zhao Song Dynasty, which had been resisting and defending Tian Hu, to come to rescue Lin, Fu, and Feng.

The second thing was to let the younger generation of the Zhe family, such as Zhe Yanwen, Zhe Yanzhi, Zhe Yanshi, Zhe Yanruo, Zhe Yanyan, Zhe Yanye, Zhe Zhichang, and Zhe Zhigang, go to Yanjing, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, to serve as officials, and to send all the women of the Zhe family (such as Zhe Meifeng, the daughter of Zhe Kexi, Zhe Meiluan, the daughter of Zhe Kexing, Zhe Yuexiu, the daughter of Zhe Keshi, Zhe Yueru, Zhe Yuezhi, and Zhe Yuemei, and Zhe Yanshi's daughter Zhe Yanxiu) to Jiang Hongfei as personal guards.

The situation was pressing, and the Zhe family had to either surrender to the Yuan Empire completely or perish.

There was no way, Zhe Keqiu could only do what Wu Yong said.

The commander of the Jinning Army of the Zhao Song Dynasty was Xu Huiyan, the military envoy, the governor of the Jinning Army and Lan, and the pacification envoy of Shilu Border.

Zhe Keqiu's niece married Xu Huiyan, so Zhe Keqiu was Xu Huiyan's brother-in-law.

Because of this relationship, the Zhe Family Army and the Jinning Army have always been in the same blood and helped each other.

After Tian Hu occupied Hedong, he wanted to develop to Hexi (Shaanxi, the part west of the Yellow River, that is, Yan'an Prefecture).

This was resolutely blocked by the Zhe Family Army, the Jinning Army and the Jingyuan Army led by Zhong Shidao.

The main force was the Jinning Army.

- In simple terms, the Zhe Family Army resisted the northern forces of the Tian Hu Army; the Jinning Army resisted the central forces of the Tian Hu Army; and the Jingyuan Army resisted the southern forces of Tian Hu. Although the Jingyuan Army has been fighting with Tian Hu, most of the Jingyuan Army is in the Jingzhao Prefecture area of ​​Shaanxi and has not entered Hedong. In Hedong, all prefectures were trapped, and the areas controlled by the Zhao Song Dynasty were only the three prefectures of Lin, Fu, and Feng controlled by the Zhe Family Army and the area west of Jinning Prefecture controlled by the Jinning Army.

Not to mention the Zhe Family Army that has surrendered to the Yuan Empire.

Let's just say that the Jinning Army led by Xu Huiyan, together with hundreds of thousands of civilian warriors in Fen and Jin, had been resisting Tian Hu's westward advance.

The Jinning Army fought dozens of times with Tian Hu's million-strong army, killing, wounding and capturing countless enemies.

Later, Tian Hu's troops learned that the Jinning Army drank river water, so they transported stones, wood, bamboo and grass to block the tributaries, and the water in the city was cut off and the food was gradually exhausted.

Xu Huiyan encouraged the soldiers with patriotic spirit to endure the pain of hunger, thirst, injury and illness, and to fight to the death with the remaining soldiers.

It was with such perseverance that the Jinning Army resisted Tian Hu's westward advance in the middle section.

Wu Yong knew that the Jinning Army was also a huge threat to the expansion of the Yuan Empire to Shaanxi, and after the Zhe Family Army surrendered to the Yuan Empire, the Jinning Song Army was the biggest hidden danger in Hedong.

So Wu Yong wanted to use Zhe Keqiu to get rid of the Jinning Army.

Zhe Keqiu had no choice but to pretend to be defeated and go to Xu Huiyan to ask him to send troops to help him recover Lin, Fu, Feng and Lan, Shi and other counties occupied by the Yuan army.

Without saying a word, Xu Huiyan led the main force of 50,000 Jinning troops to the north.

Zhe Keqiu followed the plan and led the Jinning army into the encirclement of the Yuan army.

As a result, the Jinning army was ambushed by nearly 100,000 Yuan troops and Zhe's army and was defeated.

Xu Huiyan was captured alive.

Zhe Keqiu went to persuade Xu Huiyan to surrender.

Xu Huiyan said sternly: "You are ruthless to the country, what ruth do I have with you?" After that, he spit a mouthful of old phlegm on Zhe Keqiu's face.

Zhe Keqiu said nothing more and retreated.

Wu Yong personally went to persuade Xu Huiyan to surrender, promising: "If you can surrender, Jialiang is willing to ask for you to command Yan'an for generations."

Xu Huiyan was furious and scolded: "I have received great favors from the country and died for the country. I died a worthy death. How can I kneel to you!"

Du Fu drew his sword to threaten, and Xu Huiyan exposed his chest to meet the blade.

Wu Yong saw that he couldn't force it, so he raised his wine and smiled to flatter.

Xu Huiyan threw the wine glass and scolded Wu Yong: "How can I drink your wine!", and then scolded everyone present.

After Jiang Hongfei heard about this, he knew that Xu Huiyan would not surrender. He made a golden mouth and jade words to confer Xu Huiyan as "the loyal minister of Song", and then sentenced Xu Huiyan to death, confiscated his family and asked his family members. All the men in his family became prisoners and accepted labor reform, and all the women were beaten into criminals and redistributed to the meritorious soldiers in the Yuan army.

Zhe Keqiu pleaded for Xu Huiyan's relatives, and Jiang Hongfei said leisurely: "Being a hero comes at a price."

After destroying the Jinning Army, Hedong was completely incorporated into the territory of the Yuan Empire.

After taking Hedong, the first thing Jiang Hongfei did was to send an envoy to the neighboring Western Xia to ask for punishment.

Jiang Hongfei did not forget that Western Xia had sent 30,000 troops to help Yelu Yanxi attack his Yundi, and Li Qianshun had also been thinking about his Yundi, and even his Hedong.

Han Shizhong heard that Jiang Hongfei was going to send an envoy to Western Xia, and volunteered to be the envoy.

Han Shizhong was not fooling around. He went to Western Xia to explore the terrain of Western Xia.

Han Shizhong guessed that Jiang Hongfei would fight Xixia sooner or later. If he knew more about Xixia than others, he might become the commander of the expedition.

Zhe Yanwen went to Xixia with Han Shizhong.

The Zhe family and Xixia were mortal enemies.

-- In history, after Zhe Keqiu was poisoned by the Jin people, Zhe Yanwen, the son of Zhe Keqiu, fled to Hedong with his family, and Xixia took the opportunity to capture Fuzhou. Xixia hated Zhe's long-term resistance to Xia and destroyed all the tombs of Zhe. This shows the depth of hatred between the two sides.

Jiang Hongfei sent Zhe's people to Xixia as envoys, which was clearly a provocation.

The reason was that Jiang Hongfei actually wanted to test Xixia's attitude and give Xixia a clear warning: I, Jiang Hongfei, am not afraid of going to war with you, Xixia, even if we go to war now, it's okay.

Han Shizhong and Zhe Yanwen fully understood Jiang Hongfei's holy intention.

As soon as they arrived in Xixia, they showed off their power.

Han Shizhong talked about the battle of Qingshui River and described with great emotion how the Yuan army defeated the coalition led by the Xia army.

Zhe Yanwen listed the major battles in which the Zhe family had defeated Xixia over the years.

Although many Xixia people, including Li Qianshun, looked unhappy, no one argued, and some even listened with smiles on their faces.

It can be said that Li Qianshun and his ministers were quite restrained.

There was no way.

Now, the Yuan Empire is strong and powerful. It not only wiped out the 30,000 elite troops of Xixia, but also destroyed Tian Hu, occupied Hedong, and became their new neighbor.

The key is that Xixia did provoke first, and the Yuan Empire used this as an excuse to attack Xixia, which is reasonable.

For Xixia, Li Qianshun and his ministers have already thought about it. No matter what ugly words the envoys of the Yuan Empire say or how they provoke, they cannot get angry this time, and they must not give the Yuan Empire an excuse to attack Xixia.

Li Qianshun and his ministers even thought about bribing Han Shizhong and Zhe Yanwen to let them go back and say a few good words for Xixia in front of Jiang Hongfei.

In this case, the provocation of Han Shizhong and Zhe Yanwen was naturally useless.

Seeing that Li Qianshun and his ministers were unmoved, Han Shizhong rolled his eyes and said, "The queen of your country is a Khitan princess. She has repeatedly instigated us to become enemies and even go to war. I hope you can hand her over to my Yuan Dynasty for disposal."

As soon as Han Shizhong said this, the faces of Li Qianshun and his ministers all became very ugly!

That's right.

Because of Yelu Nanxian, Li Qianshun was indeed very close to Yelu Yanxi. Yelu Yanxi had also wanted to run to Xixia for political asylum, and Xixia also sent troops to help Yelu Yanxi attack Yundi.

Based on this, it is not unreasonable for the Yuan Empire to ask for Yelu Nanxian.

But no matter what, Yelu Nanxian was the queen of Xixia. The Yuan Empire asked the queen of her country to go back and punish her, which was simply a great disrespect for her country.

Actually——

Han Shizhong didn’t really want to help Jiang Hongfei ask for Yelu Nanxian. He just wanted to embarrass Xixia, provoke Xixia, and test Xixia’s bottom line.

But what Han Shizhong never expected was that although Li Qianshun left the table angrily, the next day, the envoy Li Renjie came to inform Han Shizhong that they Xixia agreed to let Han Shizhong and Zhe Yanwen take Yelu Nanxian away, but please don’t make it public...

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