In the southeast of Jiangxia County, the tall Tianyue Mountain stands on the south bank of the Yangtze River. A small river flows out from the northern foot of Tianyue Mountain, called the Zhishui River. The Zhishui River flows through the lower zhi and enters the river eastward.

The name of the Lower Pheasant was from the time of Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang. The pheasant means pheasant. At that time, it was considered a kind of auspicious bird. The name of Empress Lü was pheasant. Legend has it that after Liu Bang founded the Han Dynasty, the pheasant in this world kept calling it. Originally, there were many pheasants on the mountain, and it was common to call it down the mountain when there was nothing to do, but it became auspicious when the whole world celebrated, which won the name of the Lower Pheasant for this small city.

Xiazhi is a small town with only two or three thousand households. After Zhao Xi led his army to settle in, Xiazhi's population increased sharply, and the small town seemed very crowded. Zhao Xi moved the people out and almost turned the small county town into a pure military town.

Xiazhi City had 10,000 troops stationed by Zhao Xi himself, mainly responsible for the defense of the river on both sides of the river. Zhou Shengfeng, the prefect of Yuzhang, stationed troops in Chaisang, with more troops than Zhao Xi. He was responsible for transporting materials and sent ships to and from Penglize to guard the southern part of Lujiang.

The two men's troops combined were less than 30,000, but they could block Ma Yuan's huge fleet for several months. It can be seen that these two men have outstanding abilities and tacit cooperation.

On that day, Zhou Shengfeng personally sent a batch of food and grass to pheasants, and happened to discuss something with Zhao Xi.

Zhou Shengfeng said: "It is said that Hefei is fighting very hard, the pseudo-Han army is approaching, and the Yue cavalry general and the Weilu general are fighting fiercely with the enemy. I don't know whether it is true or false."

Now that many counties in Lujiang and Jiujiang are in a fall, their news is not smooth, not only is it late, but the news is also inaccurate.

"It's true, Hefei has fallen, look," Zhao Xi said, handing Zhou Shengfeng a letter on the case, "This is a handwritten letter from Deng Feng to persuade him to surrender."

Zhao Xi's letter to Zhou Shengfeng was naturally meant to show his innocence and remove Zhou Shengfeng's suspicion. At the same time, he also wanted to see the other party's attitude.

Zhou Shengfeng heard that Hefei fell, his face changed slightly. He hurriedly took the letter, looked at it and put it aside, saying, "Deng Feng raised an army because he was already angry, causing trouble to Nanyang. He is a major trouble for the court. Now he has become a general of the pseudo-Han. He said that he would take Hefei and kill Liu Hong in a formation. I don't think it is the truth, maybe he just wants to disrupt our morale."

"It's true," Zhao Xi emphasized again, "Deng Feng will not lie."

"It seems that General Zhennan and Deng Feng are indeed close friends and are close friends." Zhou Shengfeng glanced at Zhao Xi and asked, "So what did General Zhennan think?"

"What do I think?" Zhao Xi also looked up at Zhou Shengfeng, picked up the letter with his hands, and broke it in half with his hands. "Zhao was valued by His Majesty, and was entrusted by the Grand Sima to hand over half of the Jiangnan area to me. Zhao took on this burden. He only had the country in his heart. How could he forget His Majesty's kindness for the friendship of his confidant? Duke Zhou did not worry, Zhao was willing to protect Jiangnan with Zhou Gong and save the world."

Zhou Shengfeng said: "The loyalty and righteousness of General Zhennan is well known to everyone. However, Hefei is lost and Shouchun is isolated. The entire Jianghuai is no longer owned by me. I have retained several counties in Jiangnan, but they are blocked from the imperial court and the news cannot be understood. What if I do?"

Zhao Xi said sixteen words: "Stable the south of the Yangtze River, drive Ma Yuan, advance northward, and overcome the Jianghuai River."

Zhou Shengfeng left the pheasant and took a boat down the river. He kept thinking about this along the way, and his heart was always a little up and down, feeling very unstable.

His confidant, Wei Meng, the Gongcao of Yuzhang County, said: "The prefect has a worried look on his face. Could it be that he is worried that General Zhennan's words are untrue?"

Zhou Shengfeng was silent for a moment and said, "General Zhennan is loyal and righteous, and he will definitely not deceive me."

Wei Meng sneered, "Prince, you are so kind! If General Zhennan is really so loyal, he should have been loyal to Emperor Gengshi at the beginning, rather than defecting to His Majesty who betrayed Emperor Gengshi!"

His words were so arrogant and bold that Zhou Shengfeng was startled, "You, how could you be so disrespectful to Your Majesty?"

This is a direct criticism of Liu Xiu for betraying the Lord, not just disrespectful, but very disrespectful.

Wei Meng said: "Prefect, we are far away from the court and stick to this with the strength of a county. We are loyal and righteous to Your Majesty, but what about Your Majesty? We have never sent a soldier to rescue him, nor have we received any rewards. When the general Zhennan asked for help from Hefei, Liu Hong ignored him at all, but instead scolded Zhao Xi. If it were not for the indulgence of the court and the Grand Marshal, how could he dare to do this? In my opinion, Your Majesty would have long since no one wanted Jiangnan. Liu Hong knew that Jiangnan had become a abandoned land, so he dared not to save him openly. Now that Hefei has fallen and Jianghuai has changed its lords, we are loyal ministers and evil sons hanging out, but the court does not take us seriously at all. What's the use of us being so loyal?"

Although he said too much, he talked about Zhou Shengfeng's heart. Zhou Shengfeng had actually been thinking about whether Jiangnan had been abandoned by the court? Is no one coming to rescue them at all? If so, their persistence would be meaningless. At most, they would share the pressure on the battlefield in the north, and they themselves were abandoned sons who were used by Liu Xiu to restrain the enemy's army.

It has to be said that this feeling of being used and abandoned makes people feel very uncomfortable, even if it is their master who abandons them.

Zhou Shengfeng only took office for a year. He was from Nanwuyang, Taishan County. He had a deep foundation in Yuzhang. However, because he was generous and favored by the people of Yuzhang, he was highly loved by the local wealthy families and the people recognized him more.

But he was still a crowdfunding prefect and had to rely on local tyrants to support him. For example, Gongcao Wei and Meng are children of local clans. This is in line with the rules of the Han Dynasty officialdom. The prefect was directly appointed by the court, and the subordinates under him were all locals.

Compared with the Central Plains, Yuzhang can be said to be a wild land. The sky is high and the emperor is far away. Everyone doesn’t care about who is the emperor. Whoever cares about them will live the same life. It is best not to fight a war, and whoever is strong will accept it. Generally, as long as the emperor of the Central Plains is determined, there is no need to attack at all. It is done with an edict.

As long as there are no ambitious people, this is a place that is easier to attract surrender.

Wei Meng's idea was the representative idea of ​​the local wealthy family. When he heard that Hefei was lost and Jianghuai was gone, he immediately made a small plan of interests in his mind and almost immediately came to the conclusion that the strongest among the strong had already been decided, and it would be meaningless to continue fighting. It was time to change the boss.

A worker, who is not a boss?

Because Zhou Shengfeng and the wealthy family of Yuzhang have maintained a good relationship, Wei Meng used Zhao Xi's affairs to explore the prefect Zhou's tone. If the prefect is willing to surrender, the powerful will definitely support him. If the prefect refuses to surrender, the powerful may abandon him and surrender on their own. If he encounters some utilitarian people, he may be able to join forces to be him and take the prefect's head to seek credit.

Zhou Shengfeng was a little confused because he was originally the Minister of the Shangshu around Liu Xiu, and was a close minister. He was highly valued by the emperor. Later, the emperor wanted to ease the border and sent him to train. If he did a good job, he might be of great use to return to the court. Who would have thought that he was so lucky that he had just taken office for a year and was about to leave the court.

Although he understood what Wei Meng said, he was always a little embarrassed, so he used Zhao Xi as a shield, "I once joined forces with General Zhennan to support the court, and his vows are still in my ears. How can I surrender to the enemy?"

Wei Meng said: "Zhao Xi and Deng Feng are good friends. Deng Feng got the Jianghuai land, but did not come south to attack. I believe he had already agreed with Zhao Xi! If the prefect hesitated, I am afraid that he would be sold by Zhao Xi at any time!"

Zhou Shengfeng was half-believing and half-doubted, but he couldn't make up his mind and said, "I will make an appointment to advance and retreat together. Zhao Xi will definitely not let me down... wait and see!"

Wei Meng was secretly anxious and had to contact the local wealthy families and look for a step to retreat by himself.

A few days later, a shocking news suddenly came. General Zhenwu of the Han army, Tang Jing, led the mountain soldiers across Tianyue Mountain and rushed into Yuzhang County. He attacked Ai County while the people were unprepared. Then he advanced eastward along the Xiushui River, Haihun, Liling and other places and submerged.

It turned out that seeing that the water battle could not be broken, Ma Yuan sent out ace mountain soldiers who attacked Shu, and advanced by land, carrying mountain cakes, and took a dangerous mountain road, and unexpectedly appeared behind the enemy.

The situation was completely different at once. Zhao Xi and Zhou Shengfeng were very passive and they were about to lose the most reliable logistics base.

Tang Jing's attack was sharp and turned Yuzhang County upside down. All cities surrendered. He only entered Yuzhang for half a month and occupied most of the counties.

He collected the boats from Yuzhang and went north into Pengli Lake. The troops were heading towards Chaisang. At this time, Zhuge Zhi, the general of the Wuwei in Lujiang, also led his army south and approached the river from the north bank. It seemed that he was going to attack Chaisang with Tang Jing.

General Fubo Ma Yuan is finally about to break the deadlock. This move from the black tiger to see the dawn of victory!

The Yuzhang surrender faction, who was already ready to move, began to accelerate its activities.

That night, Wei Meng came to pay a visit to Zhou Shengfeng and advised: "At that time, General Zhennan and the prefect crossed the important roads of the river and blocked the mouth of Yuzhang, Ma Jian's troops could not advance in an inch. If the prefect surrendered at that time, he would submit to the court with a complete Jiangnan land. If he had the merit of offering land, he would have been granted the title of marquis. Now that Ma Yuan was broken through his heart, the situation was very embarrassing and no longer had the weight he had at the beginning. However, he still had the important town of Chaisang, and he could still offer land and surrender. The prefect was mistaken the previous time, and this time he must not make mistakes again. If he did not surrender, he would probably lose his life and put himself in for nothing!"

Zhou Shengfeng knew that the situation was irreversible and said, "Now that the troops are bribed, the surrender may not be used more. What should we do?"

Wei Meng said: "It is better to ask Zhao Xi to come to support on the grounds that Chaisang was attacked. Then, when the two armies join forces, they will behead him while they are unprepared. They will offer Zhao Xi's head to the new lord, and will win His Majesty's favor."

Zhou Shengfeng lowered his head for a while and sighed: "It is unrighteous to surrender alone, how can he harm others for his own benefit?"
Chapter completed!