Fang Xuanling thought for a while and said, "I need to ask His Highness the last two conditions, but I can answer the first condition clearly now. As long as I give up Jingzhou in full, I will completely mean that I will not take away the money and food of the people of Jingzhou and the government, and no longer burn, kill and loot on the land of Jingzhou, then we will not attack the Tang army again. However, we will not interfere with Wang Shichong's army. Unless this army burns and kills the people, we will send the Tang army out of the country with gifts."

Chen Shuda nodded and smiled, "Mr. Fang means that once Wang Shichong's army is in trouble with Jingzhou, the Sui army will also attack them, right?"

"That's right! This is the principle of our King of Qi. We have already solemnly warned Wang Shichong before that if he dares to indulge soldiers in Jingzhou and kill civilians in Jingzhou, then his army will all be killed. So far, we have not heard of Wang Shichong's army looting the people."

"Okay! I hope that Military Advisor Fang will ask His Highness King Qi as soon as possible, and we hope to resolve the Jiangxia crisis as soon as possible."

Fang Xuanling understood Chen Shuda's eagerness very well. Chen Shuda was worried that Jiangling's army would withdraw to Nanyang. If the conditions for Jiangxia were agreed, Li Shenfu's army could quickly retreat to Xiangyang, thereby intercepting Wang Shichong's retreating army.

Fang Xuanling smiled slightly, "Chen Prime Minister Don't have to worry about Xiangyang. Prefect Wu has led 20,000 troops back to Xiangyang. At the same time when the Prime Minister arrived in Hankou, Wang Shichong's army in Jiangling would not retreat north to Nanyang so easily."

Chen Shuda was stunned. Has the warrior army retreated north? He didn't even know.

However, he also breathed a sigh of relief. Since the Tang army had already gone north, he didn't have to worry about the result. Thinking of this, he smiled happily: "I have come all the way east, but I don't have the intention to appreciate the magnificence of the Yangtze River. I heard that the Red Cliff is not far away, so I want to pay a good view of it."

In the big tent, Zhang Xuan calmly listened to Fang Xuanling's three requirements of the Tang Dynasty, and said lightly: "The first condition is to reply according to the military advisor's opinion. As for 10 million kilograms of pig iron, I cannot let them all be transported away. I will give them half, and we will have the other half. The third condition is the same. Qingjiang County and Yiling County can only choose one."

"Your Highness, in fact, I think the meaning of five million pounds of pig iron and ten million pounds of pig iron is not great. It is better to let them choose one within the second and third conditions, which means we can only agree to two requirements, and they must give up."

"Which military advisor thinks they will give up?"

"I don't know this, but Weichen heard that pig iron can no longer be bought in the Chang'an market, and even selling pig iron privately in the black market is a death sentence. This shows that Chang'an's pig iron is extremely scarce. Perhaps the Tang Dynasty wanted to transport all the plundered strategic materials and Jiangxia's pig iron back to the Tang Dynasty after the Eastern Expedition. Unexpectedly, we were hit hard by us, and they could not even take away Jiangxia's inventory."

Zhang Xuan walked a few steps behind his hands and asked in confusion: "Is there no pig iron in the spoils they have invaded Xiao Xian?"

"Your Highness, Jiangling has no pig iron inventory, and Liang's inventory is in Jiangxia. Half of the 10 million kilograms of pig iron in Wuchang City are left by Xiao Xian in the past, and the other half is mined and smelted by them."

"I see!"

Zhang Xuan nodded and said, "Then follow the military advisor's plan. Only two of the three conditions can be chosen. If you want pig iron, you cannot cut off Yiling County and Qingjiang County. If you want Yiling County and Qingjiang County, you don't want to take away a pound of pig iron."

That night, Fang Xuanling wrote a letter, ordering a soldier to enter Wuchang City to deliver a letter to Chen Shuda.

In the official room, the candlelight flashed and darkened. The expression on Li Shenfu's face was also gloomy and clear. Chen Shuda brought him the emperor's message. It seemed that the emperor wanted to examine the real reason for the miserable defeat in Fushui's battle. This made Li Shenfu quite nervous. It seemed that the emperor did not fully accept his explanation. Unfortunately, Chen Shuda was vague and could not satisfy Li Shenfu's doubts, making him feel uncomfortable like a cat's claw.

After reading the letter, Chen Shuda did not say a word for a long time. Li Shenfu saw that Chen Shuda was heavy in his heart, so he asked carefully: "Ceiangguo, what is the letter saying?"

Chen Shuda sighed deeply, "The letter said that pig iron and county can only choose one, and I don't know what to do? These are the three conditions offered by the emperor, and it does not say that you can give in."

"What if we don't give in?" Li Shenfu asked again.

Chen Shuda smiled bitterly, "Let us give a reply within three days. If there is no reply within three days, it will be regarded as a failure of negotiations. The Sui army will attack Wuchang County with all its strength."

The Sui army's ultimatum shocked Li Shenfu. He was different from other generals. His fighting will was very weak. Although Wuchang County was tall and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, even if the Sui army attacked with all their strength, it would have suffered heavy casualties. According to Zhang Xuan's principle, he would never pay such a great price for a Wuchang County. If Qu Tu had guarded Wuchang County, he would never give in and fight with the Sui army to the end, and finally forced the Sui army to compromise. Even the Tang Dynasty would not lose Jingzhou, at least the six counties in Jingbei could be protected.

Unfortunately, Li Shenfu was not Qu Tutong. He did not have Qu Tutong's courage and confidence. He just wanted to withdraw from Jingzhou safely as soon as possible. Anyway, Jiang Xia could not defend it sooner or later, so it would be better to escape unstoppable and maintain the strength of the army.

Li Shenfu advised: "In my opinion, Yiling County and Qingjiang County cannot escape anyway. As long as we need it, we can still regain it. But once the pig iron is lost, it is impossible to get it back. I suggest that it is more realistic, transport 10 million kilograms of pig iron back, and temporarily give up Yiling and Qingjiang counties."

When Chen Shuda set off, Li Yuan allowed him to fully resolve the Jiangxia crisis, so Chen Shuda did not need to ask Li Yuan for instructions. He could make his own decision, but lost Yiling and Qingjiang counties. How could he go back and explain to Li Yuan?

And there is also a very realistic question. How can they transport 10 million kilograms of pig iron back? You can't ask the Sui army to help with transportation!

After hesitating for a long time, Chen Shuda hesitated and said: "That's the case, but what are we going to transport pig iron?"

Li Shenfu heard that there was a concession in Chen Shuda's tone, and immediately became excited and said, "We can rent a civilian boat and have a good talk with Zhang Xuan. I believe he will not stop us."

Chen Shuda frowned and said, "There are still civilian ships now?"

"Of course there is, but Chen Xiangguo doesn't know. I know there are two freight merchants in Jiangxia County. Their hundreds of tugboats are hidden in the county. You can ask these two merchants to transport pig iron back to Bashu, and maybe you can also secretly transport 300,000 stones of grain back together."

"This is unlikely. I had already made it clear when I negotiated with Fang Xuanling. Zhang Xuan's attitude was very clear. Soldiers can carry food with them, but they are not allowed to be transported away. The prince calculated by himself, how much food can we transport away?"

Li Shenfu pondered for a moment and said, "You can let the soldiers march lightly, and the soldiers and armor can be handed over to the cargo ship and pig iron to transport them together, so that each soldier can carry five dou of rice. In this way, it will be 16,000 stones of food."

"This won't work!"

Chen Shuda shook his head and said, "We are likely to encounter the Zheng army retreating north halfway. Soldiers must wear armor and carry weapons. This cannot be vague."

"If this is the case, each soldier can only carry dry food for up to seven days, and we are giving up all the food."

"There is no way. Zhang Xuan means that we want to keep food, so he allows soldiers to carry food with him. This is just a subtle way of expression."

Chen Shuda really didn't want to worry about food. There was not enough food and could be planted with land, but pig iron could not be done. This is the strategic material that concerns the survival of the Tang Dynasty. He said again: "I can reply to Fang Xuanling, but the prince must confirm that 10 million kilograms of pig iron can indeed be transported away."

"Don't worry, Prime Minister! As long as Zhang Xuan promises us to use civilian boats, I promise to transport all the pig iron away."

Chen Shuda finally reached an agreement with Fang Xuanling. The Tang army gave up the third condition, that is, to retain Yiling County and Qingjiang County, which also belonged to Jingzhou. In fact, if the Tang Dynasty had to retain these two counties, it would be impossible to hand over Jingzhou to the Sui army intact, which was inconsistent with the Tang Dynasty's previous promises, so Chen Shuda agreed to withdraw the Tang army of Yiling and Qingjiang County to Bashu.

But Chen Shuda still retained a little. The premise for the Tang army to give up Yiling County and Qingjiang County was that Zhang Xuan had to promise to remain neutral in the fierce battle between the Tang army and the Zheng army, and not support Wang Shichong at the last moment, causing the Tang army to fail.

Zhang Xuan agreed to this point, and at the same time allowed Tang Jun to rent civilian ships and transport the stockpile iron away.

Three days later, hundreds of tugboats were carrying 10 million kilograms of pig iron toward Yiling County. At the same time, 32,000 Tang troops, led by Li Shenfu, left Wuchang County and marched towards Xiangyang County.

The Sui army then completely occupied the entire Jiangxia territory, but then Zhang Xuan remained silent and ordered Lai Huer to lead a hundred warships to Xiangyang to control the Han River. Zhang Xuan himself led a large army to station in Jiangxia County and sat on the mountain to observe the fierce battle between the Tang army and the Zheng army.
Chapter completed!