In the big tent, Su Liang paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, and the lights made his thin figure particularly long. In fact, he had guessed that Zhang Xuan's intention to seize Xingyang County was to use Xingyang County as a condition in exchange for their concessions in the demarcation of the Central Plains.

At this time, the curtain was lifted, Fang Xuanling walked in quickly and smiled at Su Liang, "Does Brother Su still remember me?"

Su Liang is a child of the Su family in Jingzhao. Fang Xuanling once studied in Guanzhong and met a group of young children from the Guanzhong family. Su Liang is one of them, but they just nodded and could not be said to be close friends.

Su Liang certainly knew that Fang Xuanling was highly valued by the King of Qi and was the most trusted military advisor of the King of Qi. But now he was in official business and did not want to reminisce about the past, so he bowed and bowed, "Su Liang met with the Chief Secretary of the Fang."

Fang Xuanling smiled and waved his hand and said, "Envoy Su, please sit down!"

The two of them put away their personal friendship and took the seats. A guard gave them tea. Looking at the guards leaving, Su Liang said straight to the point: "I came here mainly for the matter of Xingyang County. Although Yang Qing was the prefect of Xingyang, his official position was granted by the Luoyang court. Xingyang County was not his private land. He had no right to grant it to others. I hope that you can withdraw troops from Xingyang County immediately."

Fang Xuanling took a sip of tea and said lightly: "The shore of the land is the king's land. We are the army of the Great Sui Dynasty, so what land cannot be settled?"

Su Liang was speechless for a while, and if he continued to fight, he would be the orthodox Sui Dynasty. Although Luoyang was the legitimate grandson ascended the throne, there was the empress dowager in Zhong and the jade seal of the country. People in the world believed that Zhong and Zhong were more authentic. If he argued, he would not be able to gain any advantage.

After pondering for a moment, Su Liang said, "My King Zheng believes that since the King of Qi invites him to hunt Wagang together, he should be sincere. But not only did you not hunt Wagang, you occupied our Xingyang County. His Highness Zheng said that you cannot see your sincerity, and even only have malice. If we cooperate with the Tang army to send troops to Hanoi, will you think we have sincerity?"

"Is Envoy Su threatening us?" Fang Xuanling's tone became colder.

"There is no threat. Don't do to others what you do not want others to do to you!"

Fang Xuanling was silent for a moment and said, "I think there is a misunderstanding between us. Although Xingyang County is nominally your territory, the Wagang Army actually also controls Xingyang County. Otherwise, Wei Jin would not have died tragically at the hands of the Wagang Army. Therefore, we believe that Xingyang County is actually the sphere of influence of the Wagang Army."

Su Liang was about to speak, but Fang Xuanling waved his hand to stop him, "Shilarious Minister Su heard that I finished saying something. I just said that there was a misunderstanding between us, that is, we need to clarify in advance. Once the Wagang Army is wiped out, how should we divide the territory of the Central Plains? Which counties belong to Luoyang and which counties belong to Zhongdu? Make these clear, then we will cooperate happily and we will never come to the door to question the crime like today."

Su Liang knew Fang Xuanling's meaning very well. How could he let Fang Xuanling blur the status of Xingyang County? He said firmly: "The Central Plains negotiations are OK, but Xingyang County cannot be negotiated. It is the land of my Luoyang court, and its ownership cannot be negotiated."

"But now Xingyang County is in our hands. If its ownership cannot be negotiated, then we cannot return it to you."

Fang Xuanling's attitude was also very tough. He couldn't spit out the fat meat he had eaten after eating it. If he had to return it, the other party would have to pay the price."

Su Liang had no choice but to soften his posture, "What do you want?"

Fang Xuanling stretched out two fingers, "Our King Qi's attitude, first of all, Luoyang needs to compensate our army for the money and food consumption in and out of Xingyang County. I think this is reasonable, so please agree first by Envoy Su."

"It is not impossible to compensate a little money and grain appropriately, but I don't think it's too expensive. How much compensation does your army need?"

"If you want 100,000 shi of grain and 30,000 shi of money, or if you don't have money, all of them will be converted into 150,000 shi of grain. Luokou Cang has 1.5 million shi of grain. Our requirements are not high, only 10% of the Luokou Cang."

Su Liang thought about it and found that this condition was indeed not outrageous and they could bear it. He nodded, "It's basically not a big problem, but I still have to go back and report to His Highness Zheng, and he will decide. What is the second condition?"

Fang Xuanling took out a scroll and handed it to him, "This is a boundary map of the Central Plains. I hope our two families can divide the red lines on this map as the boundary."

Su Liang took the map and looked at it for a while, but he couldn't say a word, but this was a written map. The argument was meaningless. There was only the difference between agreeing and not agreeing. After a while, he nodded and said, "Okay! I'll go back to report to King Zheng."

Su Liang then stood up and said goodbye. Fang Xuanling sent someone to send him out of the camp and watched him leave. At this time, Zhang Xuan slowly walked up from behind and smiled and said, "Does the military advisor think they will agree?"

"There should be no problem with the grain, but they may not do it if they demarcate the Central Plains."

Zhang Xuan sneered, "I will give them half of Yingchuan County, which produces grain. They should be content. Otherwise, Xingyang County and Yingchuan County will not give them any. See how they come to ask me when they come?"

"Aren't your highness afraid that they will form an alliance with Li Yuan to deal with us?"

Zhang Xuan shook his head, "I was a little worried before, but now I'm not worried."

Fang Xuanling was stunned, "Is there any new news about the Grand Marshal?"

Zhang Xuan nodded, "I just received the news from Chang'an that Li Yuan was preparing to send troops from Wuguan, obviously to capture Nanyang County. Now we and Li Tang will probably hunt Luoyang."

After reading the map, Wang Shichong couldn't help but be angry and used Xingyang County to exchange Liang County. It was so damning that he divided Yingchuan County into two and used this as the boundary. He went east to the middle line of Yingchuan to the middle capital and west to the Luoyang to the middle line of Yingchuan. If so, what's the point of sending troops to conquer the Wagang Army? Wouldn't this help others make wedding dresses?

The more Wang Shichong thought about it, the more angry he became. He tore the map to pieces, jumped to Dongfang and cursed, "Zhang Xuan, is this your sincerity in the alliance? I would rather not have such an alliance!"

Su Liang was speechless. Wang Shichong's attitude was as expected. Zhang Xuan was indeed a bit too bullying. Even Yingchuan County only gave them half, but this was just Zhang Xuan's bid. If they re-buffeted, the entire Yingchuan County should belong to them."

"Your Highness, Yingchuan County and others may be able to give in."

"This is not possible!"

Wang Shichong said angrily: "Xingyang County is obviously my land, but now he uses it to threaten me and asks me to give up Liang County and divide Liang County into two."

Speaking of this, Wang Shichong asked Su Liang again, "Have you told them that if they were not sincere, I would form an alliance with Li Yuan and send troops to deal with his Hanoi County."

"Weichen said it, but the other party did not comment."

At this moment, a soldier rushed over and knelt down on one knee to present an urgent report, "Report to Your Highness, General Yuwen's urgent letter!"

Wang Shichong was stunned. Did Yuwen Chengdu encounter any trouble? He quickly took the letter, looked carefully, and then stomped his feet and complained, "How could this happen! Do you really want to anger me to death?"

"Your Highness, what's wrong?" Su Liang asked.

"Li Yuan sent troops, Li Shimin led his army of 30,000 out of Wuguan. Now the vanguard has arrived in Neixiang County, Xiyang County."

Su Liang was also stunned. What should I do?

Wang Shichong already understood why Zhang Xuan had such a high price. It was impossible for him to form an alliance with Li Yuan to deal with the Northern Sui Dynasty. Luoyang's only power expansion direction is to go south to Xiangyang. As long as it occupy Xiangyang, there will be a chance to plot against the south in the future. Now the Tang army is heading south in large numbers and directly infringing on its own interests. A fierce battle is inevitable.

Wang Shichong stayed for a while and said to Su Liang: "Please go to Chuqiu County again and tell Zhang Xuan that I will accept his map to delineate boundaries. As for food, I can give him 300,000 stones. I only have one condition. Please ask him to deal with the Wagang army independently. You can tell him openly that the Tang army has left Wu Pass and I must withdraw my troops south."

Wang Shichong had to face reality. If he did not agree to Zhang Xuan's conditions, he would soon face a serious situation of being attacked from both sides, and he had no choice but to compromise.

The two sides quickly reached an agreement. General Wang Shichongliu, Qiu Huaiyi, led 20,000 troops to defend Chenliu County to prevent the Wagang army from advancing towards Luoyang, while he himself led 30,000 troops to quickly head towards Nanyang County.
Chapter completed!