The Warriors of the Three Kingdoms

For example, the famous Zhang Fei, Sun Ce, and Fei Yi all died at the hands of assassins.

Even Cao Cao had been an assassin and tried to assassinate Dong Zhuo, but he failed, embarrassing the profession of assassin.

Of course, to say that the most powerful assassin in the Three Kingdoms period should be a man named Han Long.

The northern Xianbei Shanyu Ke Bineng was the most powerful leader of the northern nomads for decades. He successively conquered and unified dozens of tribes, large and small. Just when Ke Bineng was about to unify Xianbei and dominate the grassland.

Cao Wei at that time absolutely threatened them with the rise of the northern grassland nation, and tried every means to prevent the unification of the northern grassland. In the end, Wang Xiong, the governor of Youzhou, found an assassin Han Long, who sneaked into the grassland alone, assassinated Ke Bineng, The assassination was really successful, and he directly relied on his own strength to disintegrate the entire Xianbei, and the Xianbei family was torn apart.Gradually weakened, and in the next few decades of turmoil, it could not pose a threat to the Central Plains.

And for an assassin like Han Long, the difficulty of assassinating Xianbei Shanyu was no less than that of Jing Ke's assassination of Qin.

Of course, it was not easy for Liu Zheng's Zhang Kai to assassinate Chen Wang and Liu Chong, but compared with an assassin like Han Long, he was still a bit inferior, but this did not prevent Liu Zheng from attaching importance to Zhang Kai.

Throughout history, there are not a few famous generals who died of assassination, such as Huang Xie, the emperor of Chunshen in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and Chen Sheng, the leader of the peasant uprising at the end of Qin Dynasty. As far as Liu Zheng is concerned, if he can recruit a group of such assassins, Dedicated to dealing with the important generals of the enemy army is also an important means to solve the battle between the two armies on the battlefield.

Just like meeting a strong man like Lu Bu, if Liu Zheng can't fight on the frontal battlefield, he can use the assassin's night attack to kill Lu Bu. It is still necessary to exist.

So on the way to Qingzhou, Liu Zheng approached Zhang Kai in private and asked Zhang Kai if he intended to form a shadow force.

Such a shadow force does not lie in the number of people, but in the essence.Only a small number of people with high martial arts skills are needed to perform some shady things.

This kind of person, similar to the Jinyiwei in the Ming Dynasty, specialized in tasks such as investigation, patrolling, interrogation, and assassination.

It's just that Liu Zheng will increase the authority of this Jinyiwei.

On the one hand, he is responsible for a series of tasks such as assassination and investigation, and on the other hand, he is responsible for the security work of Liu Zheng and the main generals under Liu Zheng's command. It is equivalent to a full-time bodyguard. Army assassination.

Although Liu Zheng has been doing these things before, but the division of things in this area is relatively rough, and most of them are controlled by Yuan Zhou. After all, Yuan Zhou is just a literati, not good at martial arts, nor proficient in investigation and assassination In this regard, the best thing is to be able to dispatch personnel.

If there is a person who is better at these things to do these things, it must be better to do this thing.

Liu Zheng just wanted Zhang Kai to take over the fine work, and at the same time cooperate with Dian Wei's more than 2000 soldiers to form the first batch of Jinyiwei.

The soldiers around Liu Zheng are the thousands of households of Jinyiwei, and those fine works scattered all over the land of China are the most basic members of Jinyiwei's subordinates. Liu Zheng wants to integrate these to form a network, from bottom to top He was led by Liu Zheng himself.

Then, the responsibilities of Jin Yiwei were divided into three parts. The first part was detailed work, and the main task was to investigate and detect intelligence.Yuan Zhou has always been in charge of this area.

The second assassination was in charge of the newly recruited Zhang Kai, who mainly carried out the tasks of arresting and assassinating Liu Zheng.

The third guard was in charge of Dian Wei. On the one hand, he trained the skills of these Jin Yiwei, and on the other hand, he ensured the safety of Liu Zheng and special personnel.

Liu Zheng shared this idea with Dianwei and Zhang Kai, and immediately got their approval. Zhang Kai also became Liu Zheng's confidant, and will complete these things for Liu Zheng, but Jin Yiwei is still just a confidant. A prototype still needs some time to slowly train the composition.

Liu Zheng asked Zhang Kai to go to Yuan Zhou and take over the assassination and arrest from Yuan Zhou's hands. On the one hand, this could relieve the busy Yuan Zhou from some burden, and at the same time let Yuan Zhou devote himself to other tasks.

At the same time, Liu Zheng personally appointed Yuan Zhou as the commander of Jinyiwei, and both Zhang Kai and Dianwei were the governors of Jinyiwei.

On the way back to Qingzhou from Xuzhou, passing through Langya County, Liu Zheng originally wanted to go to Yangdu County to visit the children of Zhuge's family.

But thinking that they should have just finished the funeral at this time, and they were in grief, so they didn't want to disturb them, and ordered the soldiers stationed in Langya to take good care of Zhuge's family, and then returned to Beihai.

A few days later, Liu Zheng returned to Beihai. Lu Bu, Gao Shun and others who were stationed in Beihai came out to meet Liu Zheng, and reported to Liu Zheng about Liu Bei's retreat to Linzi City these days.

After Liu Bei's troops fled to Linzi, Zang Ba's soldiers and horses pursued them the next day. Although Liu Bei suffered frequent defeats in the Battle of Beihai, his background was still there, and his own troops and horses had not lost much. Some of Tao Qian's remnants and Cao Cao's soldiers escaped and returned to Liu Bei's tent. As a result, Liu Bei not only did not lose his combat effectiveness, but his strength was even greater than when he was alone.

With enough soldiers and horses, Liu Bei did not completely lose his ability to resist. After returning to Linzi, he could rely on the strong walls of Linzi City to defend, and he would not feel afraid.

In addition, Liu Bei already had several good advisers. Jian Yong, who had known Liu Bei since he was young, and Sun Shao, Sun Qian and others who were recruited in Qingzhou were all quite good internal affairs personnel, but they could also defend Qingzhou. down.

Chapter 613 Gongsun Zan

Zang Ba's troops were not many, and at most he was watching Liu Bei outside Linzi City to prevent Liu Bei from escaping, but he was not capable of destroying Liu Bei. Still unable to destroy Liu Bei in a frontal battle.

Without the assistance of Cao Cao and Tao Qian, Liu Bei knew that he was not Liu Zheng's opponent, and naturally he would not go out to fight Liu Zheng. Liu Bei, who relied on the city wall to hold on, was not something Liu Zheng could defeat in a short time.

Liu Bei, who was huddled in the city of Linzi and only wanted to fight defensively, made Zang Ba and others a little embarrassed. For several days, he hadn't fought a decent battle.

Although Liu Bei has been huddled in the city of Linzi, Liu Zheng is not completely helpless.

He began to let his men and horses lead small groups of troops to gradually overthrow the small counties in other places outside Linzi. He wanted to occupy other small counties first, leave a Linzi city behind, and then plan for the final decisive battle.

This is also the intention of learning from Liu Bei and others to besiege Beihai City first and then persuade them to surrender.

However, Liu Bei dared to lead people to garrison in Linzi City and not return to Yanzhou. Naturally, he had some plans, and he was sure that he could stop Liu Zheng here.

XNUM X Year X NUM X Month.

Liu Zheng spent half a month besieging Liu Bei in Linzi City.

Liu Bei did not go out of the city to fight Liu Zheng. Instead, he quickly sent someone to Jizhou to convey the order for help half a month ago, which resulted in a reinforcement coming from the direction of Jizhou half a month later.

Naturally, the reinforcements this time were none other than Lu Zhi's army that was supposed to fight Yuan Shao in Jizhou.

May is actually not a good time to fight.

Because this time is the spring plowing period, and the people are busy with spring plowing. At this time, fighting outside the battlefield will more or less affect the busy farming of Qingzhou people.

If Qingzhou was not under Liu Zheng's territory, of course Liu Zheng would not mind the life and death of the people in Qingzhou, but now that Liu Zheng is about to take Qingzhou into his pocket, the life and death of the people in Qingzhou is somewhat different from Liu Zheng's. It doesn't matter, Liu Zheng can't watch the people fail to plant the land, and starve to death in winter.

Liu Zheng besieged Linzi, and Lu Zhi led an army of [-] to help Liu Bei.

The two sides met outside Linzi City.

In fact, Liu Zheng had already received the news a few days ago that there was a troop coming from Jizhou, and he had already guessed that it was Lu Zhi's troop.

It's just that Liu Zheng is now fighting continuously, and his soldiers and horses have already suffered some injuries. He knew that Lu Zhi's people had come from Jizhou, so he didn't dare to act rashly.

After all, [-] troops are not a small number. If Liu Zheng led his troops to stop Lu Zhi's men, in Linzi City, if Liu Bei's more than [-] people went out of the city to cooperate, Liu Zheng would not be hit hard.

It's better to do a good job of defense first, and wait for Lu Zhi's soldiers to arrive, and then look at the situation.

Anyway, it is better to fight steadily than to rush in greedily, and be careful to sail for thousands of years.

A few days later, Lu Zhi's soldiers and horses arrived in Linzi City, but because Linzi was besieged by Liu Zheng, outside Linzi City, there were 2 troops from the Yellow Turban Army, [-] troops from Zang Ba, and nearly [-] troops from Liu Zheng himself. .

There are barely [-] soldiers and horses, and the enemy army is almost this number. If Liu Zheng's [-] troops are all his own troops, carefully selected soldiers and horses, then Liu Zheng naturally need not be afraid, but Most of them are the remnants of the Yellow Turbans and bandits. Their combat effectiveness is not very reliable.

So in order to win this battle, Liu Zheng can only be more stable.

The two armies faced off, and the person in charge of the rescue was naturally Gongsun Zan.

Gongsun Zan's soldiers and horses gradually began to form formations outside Linzi City, as if they were preparing for a big battle with Liu Zheng.

But Liu Zheng didn't intend to fight Gongsun Zan's troops here.

Instead, they sent envoys to Gongsun Zan's camp, intending to negotiate peace with Gongsun Zan.

For those who were ordered to go to the peace talks, Liu Zheng thought about it and let Zhang Zhao go.

After all, there were no talents around Liu Zheng at this time, and at the same time, most of them were generals. These people were not sharp-tongued, and could not represent Liu Zheng, and express Liu Zheng's meaning well with Gongsun Zan.

Zhang Zhao had just joined Liu Zheng, just when he wanted to express himself, so when Liu Zheng ordered him to go to Gongsun Zan's army to negotiate, he did not refuse.

After asking Liu Zheng's intentions clearly, he took a few guards and went directly to Gongsun Zan's camp to meet Gongsun Zan.

Gongsun Zan had a group of white horses under him, and the leader was naturally Zhao Yun, the legendary general of the Three Kingdoms. Behind Zhao Yun, all the white horses were handsome and elegant. The hundreds of white horses alone were a beautiful landscape.

Zhang Zhao only brought a few followers, and came here to ask to see Gongsun Zan. Originally, Gongsun Zan didn't really want to meet Liu Zheng's envoy at this time.

But since everyone was here and the battle was about to start again, Gongsun Zan still thought about it and decided to see what kind of tricks this Liu Zheng was playing.

Zhang Zhao's men appeared in the big tent, and Gongsun Zan sat on the main seat, looking up and down at the envoy sent by Liu Zheng.

"Are you the one sent by Liu Zheng?"

"My lord, I'm Zhang Zhao, and I will go on a mission in place of the lord."

"Tell me, what are you doing here, what does Liu Zheng have to say?"

Gongsun Zan didn't like Liu Zheng very much. Although Gongsun Zan and Liu Zheng didn't have much grievances, the only meeting in their life was a few years ago, when they were in Hulao Pass, but Gongsun Zan replaced the Han Dynasty, and Liu Zheng was a rebel , the two sides have different positions, so Gongsun Zan still hates Liu Zheng.

Another reason is that Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan have a good relationship. This time, Gongsun Zan heard that Liu Bei had suffered a great loss under Liu Zheng's hands, so he naturally wanted to meet Liu Bei to save face.

"My lord, I heard that your lord is leading an army, and you want to send me over to discuss peace with your lord."

"Negotiation? Hahaha, Liu Zheng really knows how to joke. He has just severely damaged my imperial army. Now he is here to negotiate a peace. Does he think too much?"

When Gongsun Zan heard about Zhang Zhao's intentions, a mocking look appeared on his face, and he couldn't help despising Liu Zheng.

Seeing Gongsun Zan's attitude, Zhang Zhao was not moved, but continued talking.

"My lord already knew that Lord Gongsun would not agree to the peace talks, but he said, if Lord Gongsun is not afraid, just come and attack, and see who will suffer in the end."

"Taking advantage of the fact that the two sides have not yet fought, nor have they ended up in a situation where both sides suffer, my lord wants to restore the relationship between the two, so we will temporarily suspend our troops."

Liu Zheng's sending Zhang Zhao over for peace talks was just a test. Let's see how much confidence Gongsun Zan has.

Chapter 614 Demarcation and rule

Liu Zheng really didn't want to fight Gongsun Zan and Liu Guanzhang. Firstly, Liu Zheng was short of troops.

Fighting Liu Guanzhang here, although Liu Zheng has some confidence, it is not easy to defeat his opponent.

Not to mention Liu Guanzhang, Gongsun Zan is also not easy to provoke, if these people fight to the death, Liu Zheng has little chance of winning.

It would be better if there were peace talks.

If peace talks are not possible, Liu Zheng will also have to look at Gongsun Zan's attitude.

If Gongsun Zan directly rejected Zhang Zhao's proposal and acted very tough, then Liu Zheng could know from this that Gongsun Zan came prepared.

He should have great confidence in defeating Liu Zheng, and Liu Zheng has to take some corresponding countermeasures.

And if Gongsun Zan seriously considered Zhang Zhao's proposal, it meant that although Gongsun Zan had come to aid Liu Bei, he was not very sure of fighting Liu Zheng. In this way, Liu Zheng had another attitude towards Gongsun Zan.

From the way Gongsun Zan refused the peace talks, Liu Zheng could judge the reality of Gongsun Zan's war.

"He, Liu Zheng, is really rampant. If he says to fight, he will fight. If he says to truce, then he will truce. Where will our court lose face?"

Gongsun Zan still did not back down.

Zhang Zhao continued to speak.

"My lord, Gongsun, you have made a mistake. The battle to invade Qingzhou was fought first by the people of the imperial court. It wasn't my lord who wanted to attack the court. My lord just came here at the entrustment of Miss Zhang Ning from the Yellow Turban Army." Qingzhou's rescue did not intend to become an enemy of the imperial court."

Although there will be a big battle sooner or later in the relationship between Liu Zheng and the imperial court, the two sides have not completely broken their skins yet.Zhang Zhao's words would not completely offend Gongsun Zan.

Moreover, what Zhang Zhao said was correct. What happened on the Qingzhou battlefield was originally a battle initiated by the court. If Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Tao Qian and others hadn't attacked Qingzhou first, Liu Zheng would not have come to encircle and suppress the Yellow Turban Army.

Of course, speaking of this, it was also caused by the Yellow Turban Army's dissatisfaction with Qingzhou and their desire to attack Xuzhou. However, if we want to trace the source of this situation, it is impossible to explain clearly in the past day and night.

"The result of both sides being hurt so far is not what my lord wants to see. If Lord Gongsun still wants to continue fighting, my lord is naturally not afraid, but if the fight continues, both parties must suffer losses. Such unnecessary losses, I think everyone is unwilling to see that, instead of continuing to compete on the battlefield, it is better to sit down and talk, and perhaps the needs of both parties can be resolved.”

Zhang Zhao showed Liu Zheng's toughness, and he did not humbly sue for peace. The attitude of suing for peace was entirely up to Gongsun Zan.

After Gongsun Zan heard Zhang Zhao's words, he didn't have the tough attitude just now, but looked at the advisers around him, wanting to ask them for their opinions.

There were indeed several people standing beside Gongsun Zan. Among them, Guan Jing, Gongsun Zan's most trusted advisor, was a long history under Gongsun Zan's command and had won Gongsun Zan's trust.

Although this Guan Jing's strategy is not very good, he is very loyal to Gongsun Zan.It can be regarded as one of the most loyal advisers under Gongsun Zan.

Gongsun Zan usually consulted with him on many matters, so he would naturally discuss with Guan Jing whether to accept the peace talks on such a major matter.

In addition to asking Guan Jing, Gongsun Zan mainly wanted to ask the opinions of the advisers around him to see what everyone meant.

Guan Jing was calm and calm. After thinking for a while, he turned his head and leaned into Gongsun Zan's ear, and whispered a few words in his ear.

The expression on Gongsun Zan's face changed slightly, and after some hesitation, he spoke again.

"You said that Liu Zheng is interested in peace talks, so tell me what kind of peace talks he wants?"

Guan Jing told him, first listen to Zhang Zhao talk about the details of the peace talks, see what kind of peace talks Liu Zheng wants, and then think about whether there is a need for peace talks based on the conditions raised by Liu Zheng. If Gongsun Zan can accept the opinions put forward, then this peace talk may not be unacceptable.

Although Gongsun Zan brought [-] soldiers and horses, he had some confidence, but Liu Zheng's strength and Liu Zheng's reputation were also very terrifying in the ears of Gongsun Zan and others, and it was not easy to defeat Liu Zheng.

If he could avoid fighting, Guan Jing was still reluctant to let Gongsun Zan's men fight Liu Zheng directly.

Once there was a fight, it would be Gongsun Zan's soldiers who would be lost, which was not a good thing for Gongsun Zan.

When Zhang Zhao saw that Gongsun Zan wanted to listen to him in detail, he said straight away without being wordy.

"My lord doesn't want to fight with the imperial court, so there are only two requirements, and the two sides can have a truce. The first is that we are willing to let Liu Bei's troops leave unconditionally. The second is that after the truce in Qingzhou, the two sides will divide the land and rule with Linzi. The city is the boundary, the east of the city belongs to my lord, the west belongs to the imperial court, and the two sides cannot fight again in a short time."

What Zhang Zhao said was complicated, but the meaning was actually very simple.Liu Zheng just didn't want to fight him, so he made two requests. One is that Liu Bei and others can be allowed to leave, but Linzi City must be handed over to Liu Zheng.

At the same time, the city of Linzi was designated as the boundary, the states and counties in the west were under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, and the east was managed by Liu Zheng's men and horses, and the two sides no longer fought for it.

Gongsun Zan's purpose was actually to come to Qingzhou to rescue Liu Bei. Liu Zheng satisfied him and allowed him to take Liu Bei's people away from Qingzhou without incident. As long as Liu Zheng only wanted Qingzhou, even half of Qingzhou, he would be satisfied. The purpose has been achieved.

If Gongsun Zan had no other purpose, he would have agreed to Liu Zheng's proposal.

After Guan Jing heard Zhang Zhao's words, he once again leaned into Gongsun Zan's ear and whispered closely with Gongsun Zan.

The two seemed to be discussing something.