Chapter 815 A painful choice!
Hanyang, Sun Mansion

Master Cheng Pingzhi was very surprised and walked quickly towards the courtyard. The negotiations between the front line and Xu Zhaojie had made significant progress. He had to report it to the young commander Sun Chenggong as soon as possible...

Just when Cheng Pingzhi was about to enter the yard, he was suddenly stopped by the guards beside him. Seeing this, Cheng Pingzhi became furious and said:

"Get out of here! I have something important to report to the young commander!"

Facing the angry rebuke from Cheng Pingzhi, the old minister of the Sun family, the two guards hesitated for a moment, but in the end they did not let Cheng Pingzhi leave directly. Instead, they said with a hint of apology:

"Master Cheng, I'm sorry, the young commander has instructed that no matter who wants to see the emperor, they must report it and only after approval can they see the emperor!"

"Please wait here for a moment. I will go in and ask the young commander for instructions!"

Listening to the guards' words, although Cheng Pingzhi was still angry, he did not want to embarrass the guards, so he waved his hand and ordered:
"Go back quickly!"

"sure!"

After a cup of tea, several young women with disheveled clothes and rosy faces walked out of the yard. Seeing them, Sun Chenggong knew what was going on. Not only were they Bai Rixuanyin, but these young women were also the old commander's concubines.

Although the old marshal has passed away now, the funeral is still kept secret and he hasn't been buried yet. The young marshal has done such a thing, which is really outrageous and despicable to both humans and gods!

After these young ladies left, the guards came to Cheng Pingzhi and preached respectfully:

“Master Cheng, the young marshal invites you in…”

Upon hearing this, Cheng Pingzhi glanced coldly at the guard in front of him, but in the end he said nothing and walked quickly into the courtyard. Soon he came to an antique room, where a middle-aged man in his early thirties, with ordinary looks and luxurious clothes was waiting for him.

"Master Cheng, you came to see me in such a hurry, is there something important you want to report?"

Although he despised Sun Chenggong's behavior, Cheng Pingzhi also understood that now that the old marshal was dead, the Chu army was now led by the young marshal Sun Chenggong. Therefore, even if he did not want to please the young marshal, he could not offend him. Otherwise, given the young marshal's personality, his entire family would be killed.

Thinking of this, Cheng Pingzhi, the old minister of the Sun family, swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth and reported in a deep voice:

"Report to the young commander, Lord Liu sent a message saying that he and Xu Zhaojie have basically reached an agreement. Both sides will stop the war with Beiche County as the boundary. In addition, Xu Zhaojie is willing to give us the head of the traitor Wang Dayu!"

Hearing this, a complicated look flashed across Sun Chenggong's face. Using Beiche County as the boundary meant that nearly half of Jingchu's land would be ceded to Xu Zhaojie. In the past, this was a condition that he would never agree to no matter what. He would lead his troops to fight Xu Zhaojie to the end, and would not give up until Xu Zhaojie was completely driven back to Huainan...

Unfortunately, after this turmoil, he no longer had the confidence to drive Xu Zhaojie back to Huainan!
After a moment of silence, Sun Chenggong asked Cheng Pingzhi:

"Master Cheng, do you think Xu Zhaojie is sincere in negotiating peace with our army? Or is he just pretending to be nice to us?"

Facing Sun Chenggong's question, Master Cheng did not give an answer immediately. Instead, he thought carefully for a while before slowly saying:

"Young Marshal, in my opinion, Xu Zhaojie really wants to negotiate peace, but he also wants to play tricks on me!"

"Oh? Master Cheng, what do you mean by that?"

Sun Chenggong was very interested in Cheng Pingzhi's answer. He had also asked this question to other senior officials of the Chu army in the past few days. These senior officials had different opinions. Some said that Xu Zhaojie really wanted to negotiate peace, while others said that Xu Zhaojie was just bluffing. Once he had completely digested the land and resources occupied in Jingchu, he would continue to launch an attack on Hanyang.

However, Cheng Pingzhi was the only one who held both of Xu Zhaojie's ideas, so Sun Chenggong wanted to hear why he came to this conclusion!
Facing Sun Chenggong's gaze, Cheng Pingzhi spoke calmly:

“Young Marshal, I think that although this villain Xu Zhaojie seems to have captured Wang Dayou and his military strength is unmatched, he actually has considerable internal risks…”

"The first person to bear the brunt of this was Ye Mingsheng of the Fengwu Army. It is said that Ye Mingsheng was a subordinate of Xu Zhaojie in his early years. However, when he was conquering Gongdu in the eighth year of Anhe, Ye Mingsheng accepted the instructions of the Supervisory Office and disobeyed Xu Zhaojie's military orders. Since then, the two sides have been feuding with each other. Xu Zhaojie has tried to kill Ye Mingsheng several times!"

"After Ye Mingsheng came to power, he also attacked Xu Zhaojie several times. Although the Fengwu Army was forced to stop attacking Huainan due to logistical problems and the natural barrier of Nanjiang River, the most elite First Division of the Fengwu Army still stayed in Kangyin, and they are still building ships and training the navy in Kangyin!"

"It is rumored that Ye Mingsheng of the Fengwu Army is a man of great talent and strategy. He led the Fengwu Army to rise in just a few years, and has already seized half of the Great Zhou. In my opinion, he will definitely not let Xu Zhaojie, who has a grudge against him, live in peace in a corner, so I think the Fengwu Army will most likely drink from the Nanjiang River under Ye Mingsheng's order!" "Although the Zhennan Army under Xu Zhaojie is powerful, it is still a dwarf compared to Ye Mingsheng's Fengwu Army. Even if there is the natural barrier of the Nanjiang River to protect it, the result is still extremely dangerous. Xu Zhaojie must be very nervous!"

“In addition to Ye Mingsheng, the great enemy, I heard that Cao Huan of the Huainan Cao family has also developed vigorously after escaping to Jinghai. Although he currently only occupies one county in Jinghai, with the financial support of Jiangnan, he has 30,000 armored soldiers…”

"I heard that Lu Jianchao gave Cao Huan more than 2,000 muskets in order to build Jinghai into the moat of Jiangnan. Cao Huan became much bolder now that he had guns. He has been restless recently and even wanted to take advantage of the fact that Xu Zhaojie's main force was in the rear of our hometown of Jingchu and Huainan to stir up trouble!"

"Besides the threats of Ye Mingsheng and Cao Huan, Xu Zhaojie doesn't have the ability to swallow up all of Jingchu's territory in one go. He has already swallowed up half of Jingchu's land, which is the limit for him and the Zhennan Army. If he continues to be greedy, I'm afraid his stomach will burst!"

"Xu Zhaojie definitely understands the principle of biting off more than he can chew. He definitely wants to stop while he's ahead so that he can digest the territory he has gained from Jingchu. Therefore, I believe that he is absolutely sincere in his peace talks with us!"

Listening to Cheng Pingzhi's series of analysis, Sun Chenggong nodded secretly and then said:
"If that's the case, then what did Xu Zhaojie say to my Military Commission and Xushe?"

Cheng Pingzhi immediately said:
“Xu Zhaojie is a greedy person. From Feng Keqin to Cao Changping, and then to Wang Dayou, everyone who has ever cooperated with him has been ruthlessly calculated by him. Feng Keqin and Wang Dayou lost their lives. Although Cao Changping did not die, he also suffered a great loss. This person has an ugly face and a vicious greedy appearance...”

"Now that he has extended his hand into Jingchu, he will definitely not stop and live in peace with us. After he has solved the problem and digested the land resources occupied this time, he will undoubtedly continue to attack us!"

After listening to Cheng Pingzhi's words, Sun Chenggong sighed secretly. He knew this truth very well!
But a good cook cannot cook without rice. Jingchu was not a powerful vassal state to begin with. Surrounded by powerful enemies such as the Fengwu Army and the Luoan Court, his father Sun Liangyu had to scrape the land to barely support 100,000 soldiers as a means of survival.

However, after all this trouble, only 50,000 of the 100,000 soldiers are left, and they are still under his control. Moreover, due to the loss of territory, the finances are becoming increasingly unsustainable. Currently, the various units of the Chu army have been owed at least two months' wages, and the various units have begun to complain!
Although he was very unwilling, Sun Chenggong also realized helplessly that he had no way to sustain this war. If he continued to fight, all the remaining assets of the Chu army would soon be exhausted. At that time, he, the young marshal, would really become a useless decoration!

Thinking of this, Sun Chenggong felt helpless and could not help but envy Ye Mingsheng. The two of them were of similar age, but Ye Mingsheng started from scratch and occupied half of the country in a few years. He had an army of millions and defeated Xu Zhaojie step by step. Xu Zhaojie was forced to give up Anqing first and then half of Huainan, losing all his soldiers and face...

However, he couldn't even protect the family business left by his father. In order to obtain help, he first surrendered to Shangguan Hongyuan, his father's enemy. Now he has to give up half of Jingchu's territory to get peace!
Comparing the two, I feel extremely ashamed and unworthy of being a son!

If I were Ye Mingsheng, I would definitely lead my troops south now, attack Xu Zhaojie's old nest Shouchun, arrest all three clans of Xu Zhaojie, kill them one by one in front of Xu Zhaojie, and finally cut this bastard Xu Zhaojie into pieces to vent my hatred!
After putting himself in Ye Mingsheng's shoes and fantasizing for a while, Sun Chenggong felt a lot more relieved, but he had to return to reality.

Although he now intended to reach a peace agreement with Xu Zhaojie to give the soldiers and civilians on his side a rare chance to breathe, unfortunately, after becoming a vassal and obtaining help from Shangguan Hongyuan, although Sun Chenggong still had a high degree of autonomy over the affairs of Jingchu, after making such an important decision as peace talks, Sun Chenggong had to consider the opinions of Shangguan Hongyuan.

Shangguan Hongyuan's help was not so easy to obtain. Along with silver, food, and firearms entering Jingchu, there was also infiltration from the Luoan court.

Sun Chenggong saw all of this, but in order to survive in the cracks, he had no choice but to endure!
Although they still don't know what Luoan court's attitude is towards them and Xu Zhaojie, judging from the fact that they are afraid of wolves in front and tigers behind, they don't have the courage to send troops to fight Xu Zhaojie with real swords and guns. If nothing unexpected happens, they will eventually choose to default...

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Yijing, Ye Mansion

Looking at Qiqige in front of him, Gu Sansi asked very seriously:

"Miss Qiqige, is this what the eldest lady meant?"

Feeling Gu Sansi's seriousness, Qiqige was also stunned for a moment, but still did not lose his mind and said:
"Master Gu, you are joking. This is just my personal opinion. It has nothing to do with the eldest lady. If you feel it is inappropriate, just pretend I never said anything. Qiqige apologizes to you!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Qiqige bowed to Gu Sansi. Gu Sansi knew that although Qiqige was just a maid on the surface, she was actually Ye Mingsheng's concubine, so he turned away and did not accept Qiqige's greeting.

Although Qiqige said that this matter had nothing to do with An Miaoyi, it would be strange for Gu Sansi to believe him. However, since Qiqige denied it, Gu Sansi did not say anything about this issue, and changed his tone and continued:
"I have assigned Master Jingren a homework. I would like to ask Madam and Miss Qiqige to supervise Master Jingren to complete it. I will come to check in seven days!"

Qiqige nodded and said:

"Thank you for your hard work, sir. We will supervise Master Jingren to complete it!"

Upon hearing this, Gu Sansi bowed and said goodbye without saying anything else. Half an incense stick later, he walked out of the mansion and got on the carriage back home...
After the carriage had moved out for a while, Gu Sansi, who was alone in the carriage, let down his guard and sighed helplessly.

In the eyes of outsiders, Gu has not only become the Minister of Personnel of Fengwu Army, but also the teacher of Young Master Jingren. He has shown signs of surpassing Cui Shao and Murong Yuliang in popularity in Fengwu Army. This is a time when he is riding high and galloping!
But as the saying goes, one knows whether the water is hot or cold only after drinking it. Sitting in this position, Gu Sansi felt unprecedented pressure. Not to mention other things, just the two positions of deputy director of the Personnel Bureau made him a little overwhelmed. During this period, many people approached him in various ways to say hello, hoping that he could say a few words for them, just like a man who was indecisive when crossing the river!
Knowing that this issue was very sensitive and important, Gu Sansi did not dare to act on his own and instead asked Ye Mingsheng for instructions. However, what he did not expect was that Ye Mingsheng, who always held the personnel power firmly in his hands, this time let go and gave him the decision-making power.

After careful thinking, Gu Sansi gradually realized that Ye Mingsheng's decentralization was a test for himself, but this also increased the pressure on him by three points...

(End of this chapter)