Chapter 202 The Golden Knife
Li Yuanhui handed over the four newly acquired counties of Xinchun, Xunyang, Pengze and Chaisang to the newly joined Lujiang warlords to guard, and then he returned to Hefei with an army of 30,000.

The situation has changed significantly. Right now, the entire Yuzhou is in turmoil. The reason for this is actually five words: "a harsh government is more ferocious than a tiger."

The original intention of this military operation was to recapture Jingzhou, but who would have thought that Yuzhou would fall into chaos.

Li Yuanhui originally wanted to stay in Xunyang for a while and pretend to attack Jiangxia to deal with the court.

Now he could only quickly return to his old nest in Hefei to deal with the possibility that the Yuzhou rebel army might move south to invade Jianghuai.

In addition, we must also guard against Cao Yuanjing in Jiangdong. After all, Pengze and Chaisang have now fallen into our hands.

When he returned to Hefei, it was already September. After only a few days of rest, Li Yuanhui set out for Shouchun, accompanied by more than 10,000 elite soldiers and more than 100 large and small warships of the navy.

The main purpose is to prevent the various rebel forces from coming to Jianghuai to cause trouble.

To put it nicely, they are the righteous army, to put it bluntly, they are rebels and bandits. Once they are allowed to enter Huainan, it will have a huge impact on the current stable situation.

People who cannot survive will do anything to get a bite to eat, including burning, killing, and looting. In the end, they will gradually lose all their moral bottom line.

The Yuzhou army, which was supposed to return immediately to quell the rebellion, was held up by the Western Wei army in Jingzhou and had to split up its forces.

King Murong Hui of Xia led 25,000 elite troops of the central army back to recapture Ancheng and Shangcai occupied by the rebels, and killed thousands of rebels who had surrendered.

Murong Hui was not actually a bloodthirsty person. What he wanted was to deter the bandits who interfered with and rebelled against the Yan court, and at the same time save the already scarce food.

After being defeated, the main force of the rebel army moved towards Ruyin, preparing to cross the Yingshui River and advance towards Chenjun and Liangjun.

At this time, someone suggested coming to Jianghuai to try their luck.

Sun Bai, Xu Junsheng, Zang Tong, Yuan Chong and others discussed it and decided to see if the rumor was true after hearing that Jianghuai was prosperous.

So tens of thousands of volunteers gathered ferry boats and marched towards Huainan along the Yingshui River.

Such a huge momentum certainly could not be concealed from the Jianghuai side. After tens of thousands of volunteers passed Yingkou, they directly ran into the Chaohu navy that was ready for battle.

Before they even saw the city wall of Shouchun, they were severely beaten by the navy in Yingkou, and hundreds of people fell into the water and died.

After a few people discussed it, they decided that if they couldn't even cross the Huai River, there was no point in attacking Shouchun.

So he changed his destination and still had to take his team to Chenjun area to rob and join up with other rebel forces.

As soon as the evil guests left, Murong Hui's envoy arrived. He had nothing else to do but to borrow some food from Li Yuanhui for emergency use.

Murong Hui wrote a personal letter and asked the envoy to bring it over, and the amount he borrowed was not much, only 10,000 stones.

Li Yuanhui thought about it and decided to borrow it.

Although it was 100% impossible to return the money, let's just say it was a good relationship. And helping Murong Hui was not for nothing. After all, if he couldn't curb the situation in Yuzhou, then the fire would burn over sooner or later.

In the north, after learning that a fire had broken out in the rear, Murong Deyu left 20,000 elite troops to guard the Ye County area, and he himself led more than 40,000 infantry and cavalry to suppress the rebellion in Yingchuan County.

In this way, Jianghuai will be under much less pressure.

"I never imagined that the war would get to this point." Li Yuanhui and Zheng Shandao, who had nothing to do, climbed up Mount Bagua together. Standing on the mountain and looking at the border of Yuzhou in the north, they couldn't help but sigh.

"I wonder if this counts as the unpredictability of life?"

"It's better to say, if I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have done it in the first place."

"Hey"

The central plains of Yuzhou used to be densely populated, but now it is in a state of desolation. At the beginning of the year, when Gao Zhixing, the governor of Yangzhou, was on his way to take office, he saw that the farmland on both sides of the Ying River was deserted, foxes and rabbits were infested, and the population was sparse. For this reason, he compared it with the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers and felt that Li Yuanhui had a good way of governing the people.

But in fact, what does Li Yuanhui know about governing a place?
But it just means less trouble.

Let each county reduce corvée and taxes, then gather the refugees together, give them food first and then let them farm and work.

It's that simple.

It's just light taxation and low levies, what's so difficult about that?

It’s actually quite difficult.

Yuzhou is in a state of deep-rooted problems that are far more serious than those in Jianghuai. It is no longer a matter of simply reducing taxes and levies, but a time for radical change.

This is true in Yuzhou and in the whole world.

Youzhou, Ji County.

A team of cavalry entered Ji County under the banner of "General Liu with Huwei".

Today, this flag has become very famous in Youzhou.

In August, the owner of this banner led 3,000 cavalrymen out of the border. When they returned, there were only about 2,500 people left, but each of them had several Turkic barbarian heads hanging on their horses.
For the people of Youzhou, who were invaded, burned, killed and looted by the Turks last year, the mention of this name is enough to inspire them. They are indeed Youzhou men!
Liu Xuanji was dressed in a brocade robe, looking tall and mighty. He walked all the way into the Governor's Mansion located in the inner city of Ji County. The soldiers on his left and right all bowed respectfully to him.

"Greetings, Grand Commander."

In the hall, Xue Shixiong saw Liu Xuanji coming in, and a smile appeared on his face as he said, "General Liu, there is no need to be polite. Come, please take a seat and serve tea." "Thank you, Governor."

After sitting down, Liu Xuanji said: "Commander-in-chief, I came here this time..."

Xue Shixiong waved his hands quickly after hearing this, "I know what you are going to say. This is not something I can decide. It is already against the rules for you to lead your army to attack outside the Great Wall, and now you want to lead your army to fight the Goguryeo people, saying that you are training by fighting. Xuanji, I have no objection even if you want to go to the Great Wall, but now the officials in the court are terrified when they mention Goguryeo, and all the four directions are using troops. Goguryeo is a border barbarian, and they can't beat them to Yuguan, so let them go for now."

Liu Xuanji said: "Grand Commander, I am not here to talk about this"

Xue Shixiong was surprised and asked, "Not this? Then you seem to be thinking about something else."

Liu Xuanji stood up, walked to the map, and pointed to the location of Shanggu County. "The Tuoba clan has occupied Daibei for a long time, but Tuoba Yuqing is now in Jinyang. I can take advantage of their unpreparedness to attack Pingcheng and Dai County."

Xue Shixiong heard this and said, "The officials in the court are only concerned about destroying the Western bandits, so you should not get involved in these matters. By the way, the last time you went out to the border, the Turks were very mad. I heard that Shibi Khan will send Liu Huzhi and Wang Xuba to Youzhou. You should pay more attention during this period. These two old bandits are cunning and have the support of the Turks. They are not easy to deal with. The newly recruited cavalry still needs to be polished."

Liu Xuanji listened to Xue Shixiong's instructions, then bowed and said, "Don't worry, Grand Commander. I have heard of the names of Liu Huzhi and Wang Xuba. They have been causing trouble for many years. If they dare to step into Youzhou again, they will never return."

Xue Shixiong nodded, very satisfied with Liu Xuanji's statement.

Ever since Liu Xuanji came to the Youzhou army, he has always maintained a high morale to fight, and it can even be said that he is happy to hear about war.

He was the vanguard in every battle and the rear guard in every retreat. All the soldiers respected his bravery and fairness.

The disadvantage is that it is too troublesome.

Today we will go out of the border to fight the Turks, and the day after tomorrow we will cross the Yu Pass to cause trouble for Goguryeo.

If it weren't for Xue Shixiong's pressure, he would have sent troops to Bingzhou to attack the Tuoba family's stronghold in Daibei.

As for why Xue Shixiong forced him not to go, there was actually a reason.

Although the Daibei Tuoba clan helped Murong Zan a lot in the early days of his uprising, they began to keep their troops inactive after Tuoba Yuqing occupied Bingzhou.

Even when the Turks invaded, they always maintained a tacit understanding with the Yan army.

Later, the court sent people to communicate secretly with the Tuoba family. These things were told to Xue Shixiong by his nephew Xue Chu before he left Luoyang.

After all, given his level and position, he should know about this.

But he couldn't tell Liu Xuanji.

After all, confidentiality is still necessary.
But Liu Xuanji could guess this without him saying anything.

After leaving the Governor's Mansion, he met up with several of his trusted confidants, including Zhang Shiwu and Zhao Teng who had always followed him, Tian Hong from the same county, Liang Chongdao and Li Heshang who were promoted after he served as the Cavalry Commander of Youzhou, and the group went straight to a restaurant in Jixian County.

After they ordered some wine and food, they sat in the private room. Liu Xuanji said, "The imperial court is indeed communicating with the Tuoba family secretly, otherwise it wouldn't have been so long without a single battle."

Zhang Shiwu asked, "General, does this mean that Commander Xue didn't agree? He didn't agree to both things?"

In fact, whether going out of the border or looking for trouble with the Goguryeo people, in addition to killing the enemy and training soldiers, they could also plunder a lot of property.

This is a windfall for the border troops.

So everyone was very enthusiastic about going on the expedition.

Liu Xuanji shook his head and said, "We don't need to go out this time. Wang Xuba and Liu Huzhi, the two old thieves, will probably come back to find us soon."

Tian Hong said: "These two old thieves, claiming to be from Youzhou, actually led the Turks and brought disaster to the village."

Monk Li also echoed: "Yes, we must settle accounts with these two old thieves."

Zhao Teng on the side suddenly blinked, and then seemed to remember something and said: "I heard that this Liu Huzhi claimed to be a relative of the Han Dynasty, a descendant of King Jing of Zhongshan, and a member of the same clan as Emperor Zhaolie. He also said that he had received some kind of golden sword."

Monk Li asked curiously, "What does this golden knife mean?"

"Mao Jindao, it's Liu."

Zhang Shiwu said: "I think this Liu Huzhi is just a name for nothing. How can a jerk like him be worthy of a golden sword? If anyone wants to own this golden sword, it should belong to our General Liu!"

Liu Xuanji glared at him when he heard this, and then said, "Stop talking nonsense."

Everyone was confused, but Liang Chongdao, who had some knowledge, said, "Brothers, don't mention this Maojin Knife casually. 'Liu Xiu sent troops to arrest the unrighteous, and Maojin cultivated virtue to become the emperor.' The prophecy of the golden knife is that the Liu family, the descendants of the Red Emperor, will become the emperor. So don't talk about the Maojin Knife casually, lest you bring trouble to General Liu."

At this time, Zhang Shiwu suddenly said, "Then our General Liu is also a descendant of the Han Dynasty, a descendant of King Jing of Chengyang, and also of the Liu family. So, could the Maojin knife that Liu Huzhi mentioned be our General Liu?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone looked at Liu Xuanji.

Liu Xuanji smiled and shook his head: "What gold and silver knives, they are all nonsense to fool people. Don't mention it again in the future. Drink."

Upon hearing this, everyone smiled and clinked their glasses with Liu Xuanji. Although they didn't mention the matter again, a seed was planted in their hearts.

The golden knife represents the emperor.

(End of this chapter)