Chapter 246 Peace Negotiation
The Battle of Suishui was one of the highlights of Xiang Yu as a representative of the military situation school from the end of the Qin Dynasty to the Chu-Han War.

The 30,000 Chu troops killed the 500,000-strong coalition army, which was completely defeated, with corpses strewn all over the ground, and the Sui River stopped flowing.

Eight hundred years later, Zhai Rang, known as the "Little Overlord", led an army of 100,000, besieged Chengxiang County, and occupied the north of Sui River.

Li Yuanhui's side, including Liu Yuanqing's troops in Xiang County, as well as Lu Xun, Sun Lingxiu's troops, and Lu Qin's navy that was blocked in the south of Si Shui, had a total of about 100,000 troops.

However, Li Yuanhui did not let Lu Xun and Sun Lingxiu lead their troops to join forces, but still ordered them to defend the city and support the two wings. He also sent Zhu Deyu and Chang Yanheng to lead more than 10,000 infantry and cavalry to attack the Hekou Water Fort with Lu Qin's troops.

After half a day of fierce fighting, the water fort was captured. Lu Qin led the navy up the Sui River and directly arrived at the city of Xiang County.

Seeing this, Zhai Rang sighed helplessly. "The time is not on my side."

On the one hand, his sigh was because the Jianghuai Army controlled the Sui River, making the encirclement impossible.

Meanwhile, Zhai Rang received news that Li Yuan established Murong Chang, the King of Shu, as emperor, and was later named the King of Tang.

This meant that the Li family had basically taken control of Guanzhong. At the same time, Murong Chao's death also made Zhai Rang feel that it seemed unnecessary to continue to fight with Jianghuai.

In Zhai Rang's mind, Emperor Guangping Murong Chao and the new emperor Murong Yang were two completely different concepts. As for Emperor Guangping who recruited Wagang, Zhai Rang and other Wagang ministers were at least willing to acknowledge this kind-hearted emperor.

Li Yuan also claimed that Murong Chao was poisoned by Murong Yang. So to some extent, Wagang was unwilling to accept Murong Yang's orders.

This is also an opportunity.

Zhai Rang is also at a crossroads now.

There are three paths before him. The first one is to go straight, follow the pace of the Luoyang court, and fight to the death with Li Yuanhui in Jianghuai. However, this path is basically impossible because it is completely against the interests of Wagang and Zhai Rang himself.

The second way is to use this opportunity to become independent.

In the name of revenge for Emperor Guangping, he broke with the Luoyang court, which was justified. He could have called himself a king first, and then an emperor.

After all, the Wagang Army now occupies the entire Qingzhou, Yanzhou, and most of Xuzhou. In such a chaotic world, it is enough to be king or emperor.

The third way is to surrender to the imperial court in Chang'an and form an alliance with the Li family.

Zhai Rang was very hesitant, and Yang Sui advised him to make a truce with Li Yuanhui and to sign an alliance with Sui River as the boundary.

He then withdrew his forces to capture the entire territories of Yanzhou and Yuzhou, and then led his troops to Luoyang.

This may be Zhai Rang's only chance to capture Luoyang.

Since Guanzhong had basically been integrated, the next step would be to take Jingzhou or to go east through Qiaohan and attack Luoyang.

If during this period of time, the Wagang Army continued to fight with Li Yuanhui over several cities in Xuzhou, then the entire Wagang Army would lose a good strategic opportunity.

After all, to the Li family, Li Yuanhui was just a minor general.

The real main force in conquering the world was Li Yuan, Li Erlang and others in Guanzhong.

The next step is that the Li family will most likely send troops to Jingzhou. In this way, the Bashu and Guanzhong areas controlled by the Li family can be connected to the Jianghuai area through the Jingchu area. In this way, whether advancing to Jiangdong from the upper reaches or attacking Guanzhong from two directions, the Li family can firmly grasp the strategic initiative.

Cui Xiaotong also agreed with Yang Sui's strategy. "What Yang Changshi said is very true. It is unwise to compete with Li Yuanhui for Xuzhou. It is better to lead the army westward to take Yanzhou and Yuzhou. If Li Yuan sends troops to Jingzhou, Li Yuanhui will definitely respond. So he is also unwilling to waste time with us in Xuzhou. Li Yuanhui is the most prudent in using troops. If we continue to stalemate for a long time, it will be disadvantageous to us."

After listening to the two think tanks, Zhai Rang nodded helplessly. Then he said with some worry: "What if Li Yuanhui refuses to withdraw his troops?"

Cui Xiaotong bowed and said, "Lord Zhai, in the twelfth year of Tiansheng, the five of us went to Chang'an in the name of our old master, Envoy Murong, and got to know Li Yuanhui. We also went to Li's house to pay a visit and have some friendship with him. I would like to cross the river in a light boat and go to the south bank to make peace with the Li family."

Zhai Rang sighed when he heard this, "This is the only way. I'll have to trouble Cui to join the army."

"It's my job, Mr. Zhai, you are too polite."

After Cui Xiaotong made some preparations, he took Qin Zhongyu, Yang Xianguo, and Chen Dengyun, who were accompanying Zhai Rang on the expedition, and came to the Suishui River under the banner of an envoy. After explaining the situation to the navy of Jianghuai, they took the enemy's ship to the south bank and were led all the way to the Jianghuai camp.

Cui Xiaotong was amazed at what he saw along the way, and couldn't help but feel a bit of respect for the young man back then.

Just by looking at the layout of the military camps and the arrangement of fortifications, it can be seen that the commander-in-chief is no ordinary person.

After entering the camp, we saw that it was clean and tidy, orderly, and the soldiers were in high spirits. These details undoubtedly demonstrated the army commander's ability to command and command troops.

Even the most elite troops of Wagang could not exceed this standard.

The four of them waited outside for a while, and then followed the messenger into a large tent.

There were four people in the tent, all of whom were very familiar.

Li Yuanhui, Zhu Deyu, Zhang Jian, Han Quan.

"My dear, I haven't seen you for a long time. I hope you are well." Cui Xiaotong first bowed and clasped his hands together.

The others also smiled and saluted with their arms crossed.

As the host, Li Yuanhui also laughed very freely and said, "Hahaha, when you say old friends, I know it's you, Jiji. Why don't you see Qin Da?"

Qin Zhongyu said, "Thank you for your concern, my brother will go to Yuzhou with Xu Maogong to help in the battle."

Li Yuanhui was stunned when he heard this, then he smiled and said, "Maybe we met in Yuzhou, but it was too dark and we didn't recognize each other."

Afterwards, several people greeted each other. Zhang Jian had the best friendship with the people in Qi County, but Old Zhu, who was no longer a monk, was almost unrecognizable by several people.

"So it's Monk Rujing. Hahahaha, I knew you couldn't stand loneliness. You returned to secular life after all."

"You don't know yet, do you? The monks have already married."

"Hahaha"

Several people reminisced about the past and were filled with emotion when talking about old times.

When the food and wine were served, they started drinking, just like an ordinary gathering of old friends. They didn't talk about their respective masters, but just talked about interesting things and old times.

After three rounds of drinks, Cui Xiaotong told Li Yuanhui the purpose of his visit and said frankly that Zhai Rang had asked them to negotiate peace. Cui Xiaotong did not talk about any friendship, but just hoped that Li Yuanhui would seriously consider the peace talks and told him the general conditions.

Li Yuanhui nodded, saying that he would consider it carefully. He then arranged for a few people to go to the tent to rest and said that the peace talks would be discussed tomorrow.

After everyone left, Li Yuanhui picked up the wine glass and drank another glass of wine. Then he said, "Brother Zhu, Brother Zhang, what do you two think about this?"

Zhu Deyu wiped his head out of habit. This was his habit in the temple. After returning to secular life, he seldom did this action often. But today, when he met an old friend, he was reminded of his days as a monk.

"If you ask me, it's not impossible to negotiate peace. We don't have as many soldiers as Wagang, and our territory is not as big as Wagang's. The King of Tang has also sent a message asking us to cooperate in attacking Jingzhou. After we join forces with our friendly forces in Guanzhong to capture Jingzhou, we can turn around and attack Jiangdong and Wagang Army. I think this is more appropriate."

Li Yuanhui nodded after listening to what Zhu Deyu said. Zhu's strategic vision had improved a lot and he was already able to consider issues from a global perspective.

Then he looked at Zhang Jian, but Zhang Jian, the elder brother-in-law, shook his head and said, "I just think that drinking with them is meaningless. They all have something on their mind. As for whether to negotiate peace or not, if they are eager to negotiate peace, they might as well ask for more benefits."

"Hahahaha" Li Yuanhui burst into laughter upon hearing that.

"Brother Zhang, what you said makes sense. Brother Zhu also said it well. There is no point in continuing to fight with Wagang. Xuzhou is not important to us. On the contrary, if we can take Jingzhou, we can connect with Guanzhong and Shuzhong. At that time, we can attack or defend. However, Xuzhou can be given up, but Pengcheng must not fall into the hands of Wagang."

"It all depends on what the father and son of the Pengcheng Pei family decide."

(End of this chapter)