Chapter 273: Killing with a knife (Part 1)

Early in the morning, Gao Lishi came back from the palace. He was on duty last night and had not slept for almost all night. Gao Lishi was old and he was no longer as energetic as when he was young. No sleep a night was exhausted. However, when he returned to the mansion, he still came to find Li Qing'an immediately.

"Qilang, do you know? The emperor intends to ask King Di to go to Anxi to take office."

"King Di!" Li Qingan frowned. How could it be him?

The fact that Li Longji wanted to choose a prince to serve in Anxi was a private chat between Li Longji and Li Linfu, it spread throughout the court and the public through some side sects yesterday afternoon. However, there was no conclusion on who to send to Anxi. There were many discussions among the princes of various families. In fact, no one wanted to go to Anxi, which would be far away from the power center of the Tang Dynasty, especially when the position of the Eastern Palace was not yet clear, whether it was fighting or not, almost every prince had a glimmer of hope for that position.

Of course, as a stakeholder in this decision, Li Qing'an could not be unwilling to care. He did not show any shock or disdain at Li Linfu's house last night. That was just a gesture he did. In fact, he attached more importance to this matter than anyone else. Li Longji decided to expand Anxi's strength. This was good news, but sending the prince to Anxi to prevent local governors from becoming bigger. This is another unfavorable news. How to make the best news and minimize the unfavorable side of it is something that Li Qing'an needs to consider. He also has his own candidate, but this candidate is not King Di. King Di and Yang Guozhong are too close to him and are smart. It will be detrimental to him in Anxi.

"Mr. Gao, is this the Lord's final decision?"

"There is no finalization, but if there is no accident, it should be him. Recently, he has acted a little too much in the battle for the throne, which made the emperor extremely disgusted. Moreover, many court officials thought that he had entered the Eastern Palace and secretly wrote a letter of loyalty to him, so the emperor decided to let him go to Anxi to eliminate his hope of the crown prince."

"What Gao Weng means is that the emperor already knows that the assassination is fake?" Li Qingan asked.

Gao Lishi smiled, "Didn't you reveal the truth yesterday? How could he not know? He was furious at Yang Guozhong last night. I guess Linghu Fei is going to be in trouble."

Li Qing'an thought about it, and he immediately asked: "Will you let King Di go to Anxi? Is it Yang Guozhong's suggestion?"

Gao Lishi thought about it and said, "There is this possibility that King Di will make the decision to go to Anxi. It is said that Yang Guozhong has still suffered a lot after Yang Guozhong was scolded, and it is estimated that he has this suggestion."

Speaking of this, Gao Lishi smiled bitterly again and said, "You know that he no longer allows me to be by my side in this kind of thing, so I just heard of it."

Li Qingan bowed to him and said, "Thank you, Mr. Gao, for telling me, and I have another thing I want to ask Mr. Gao for help."

"Tell me, as long as I can, I will definitely help you."

Li Qingan hesitated and said, "I want to meet the Imperial Concubine. If you have any questions, please ask her to arrange it for me."

"this...."

Gao Lishi felt a little embarrassed: "When the foreign minister meets the imperial concubine, you must get permission from the emperor. I am no longer as good as before. I may not be able to help you with this."

"No! Mr. Gao misunderstood. I just asked Mr. Gao to send me a message to the Empress. If she was willing to see me, she would go to talk to the emperor, so she would not have to make things difficult for her."

"This is OK, but......"

However, Gao Lishi looked at Li Qing'an with some vigilance and asked, "What are you going to see the Empress?"

Although Gao Lishi had a good personal relationship with Li Qing'an and helped him a lot, there was a premise for these, that is, he could not harm the interests of the emperor. He was a person with strong principles. Although he had been neglected by Li Longji in recent years because of the prince's affairs, this neglect cannot change his loyalty to Li Longji. Li Qing'an was also very clear about this, so the conversation between him and Gao Lishi was limited to a range. For example, when King Di went to Anxi, Gao Lishi only told him the result, and Li Qing'an only asked whether it was a conclusion. As for whether it could be changed and how to change it, Gao Lishi did not ask either.

Li Qing'an wanted to see Yang Guifei, which was also a sensitive topic. Gao Lishi knew Li Longji's current physical condition better than anyone else. Li Longji was no longer able to do anything. Li Qing'an wanted to get close to Yang Guifei, and would cause any uproar? For example, Li Qing'an taught Yang Guifei to throw a pot a few years ago, and some eunuchs complained to him. Although Li Longji didn't care at that time, it did not mean that he didn't care. Therefore, Gao Lishi was full of vigilance about Li Qing'an's request.

Li Qingan saw his uneasiness in Gao Lishi's puzzled eyes, and quickly explained: "Mr. Gao, please don't get me wrong. I want to ask the concubine for help. It's about me wanting to take Mingyue to Anxi."

"So this is the case!"

Gao Lishi's heart fell in his heart. In fact, he understood what Li Qing'an meant. He also heard some rumors. There were rumors in the palace that the emperor had been obsessed with Dugu Mingyue at the birthday party of the imperial concubine last time. If the rumors were true, this would be a big problem. Sometimes the emperor became confused and his actions were simply incredible. Maybe he would make a big mistake on it.

"Okay! I will enter the palace in two days and have the opportunity to tell the Empress, to see if she can see you. If she can't see you, I will convey your request to her. Do you think this is good?"

"Thank you, Mr. Gao. Qing'an dares not delay Mr. Gao's rest. Mr. Gao please go and rest!"

"I'm really going to have a sleep, I'm really exhausted."

Gao Lishi smiled and stretched, then stood up and left. As soon as Gao Lishi left, Li Qingan immediately found a personal soldier, whispered a few words, and said, "Please come to Rehaiju, I want to see him immediately."

After the personal soldiers left, Li Qingan cleaned up a little, and said to the left and right: "Let's go! Go to Rehaiju."

Generally speaking, the Jiedushi went to Beijing to report their duties for a long time, all of which were about one to two months, and some even longer. There is no doubt that their real purpose in Beijing was not to report their duties, but to coordinate the relationship with the court, and to gain more resources for themselves in the coming year. Therefore, each Jiedushi would have its own agency in the capital, and appointed a confidant to be stationed in the capital to collect intelligence and manage their relationship. Li Qing'an has not been a Jiedushi for a long time and has not come yet.

It is time to establish such an agency, but this does not mean that he has no liaison office. Before he established a real agency, he also had two places with such liaison functions in the capital, one public and one private, and the public place was Anxi Jinzuoyuan. A few years ago, he had a conflict with An Lushan's son An Qingxu here. Jinzuoyuan was responsible for receiving Anxi officials who came to Beijing to do business, delivering miscellaneous reports, and some miscellaneous matters, such as liaison between military families, etc. It belongs to a public and official liaison department.

Li Qing'an's private contact office is Rehaiju, which is actually the secret contact location of the Han and Tang dynasties. It was temporarily used by Li Qing'an as his private intelligence agency. Since he entered Beijing, he has been here three times.

As soon as he arrived at Rehaiju, Chang Jin came out and whispered to Li Qing'an: "General, last night, new information was sent from the Di Prince's Mansion."

"Yeah! Let's talk about it when you go in."

After walking a few steps, Li Qingan turned around and said, "Someone will come here to find me later, and take him directly to the backyard. His surname is Yan, Yan, the King of Yan."

Chang Jin quickly arranged it and followed Li Qing'an to the backyard. Rehaiju is a three-story building. As a wine shop, its shop is not large, covering an area of ​​up to five or six acres, but its overall area is amazing. Behind the wine shop, it bought two houses, connecting to a street behind it, covering an area of ​​more than eighty acres. Behind the wine shop are a mysterious house, which needs to be entered from some special rooms. Its concealment is not even known to the shopkeepers and Hu Ji in the wine shop. The doors and windows of these rooms have been closed for many years, and no one knows what is inside?

Li Qing'an entered a mysterious courtyard, which is the place where the Han and Tang dynasties usually hold meetings. It is also the intelligence sorting office of the Han and Tang dynasties. The information sent from all over the Tang dynasty will be concentrated here, classified, and then summarized and selected its essence to send it to the Shattered Leaf. This has been done for a hundred years. Before becoming the new master of the Yinlong, Li Qing'an did not know clearly about the Han and Tang dynasty. He only knew that they used business as a cover to operate in various parts of the Tang Dynasty, collecting intelligence from various parts, and developing members.

It was not until he took power that he realized that what he had seen in the past was the tip of the iceberg. The Han and Tang dynasties operated the most profitable business in various places, and had huge profits every year. Where did these profits go? Except for a very small part of them transported back to the Saiye, most of the others were left in the local area for developing members, purchasing land, supporting the elderly, opening schools and making friends with government officials, laying the foundation for the Han and Tang dynasties and establishing connections. Moreover, the members they developed were elites from all walks of life, with more than 10,000 people, literati, officials, soldiers, handicraftsmen, etc. Some members were even several generations. It was the local officials they effectively bribed and their low-key and hidden style that allowed the Han and Tang dynasties to survive in the mainland of the Tang Dynasty. The core secret of the Han and Tang dynasties was even the top secret. With Li Qing'an, only twenty-seven people knew about it.

Li Qingan walked into the room and sat down. As soon as he entered the room, he asked, "Have Madam Luo and the others found it?"

The sudden disappearance of Mrs. Luo and the former young master Li Qi shocked the Hidden Dragon Society. They both knew the secret of the Hidden Dragon Society. Their disappearance posed a threat to the survival of the Hidden Dragon Society, and also threatened Li Qing'an's safety. The Hidden Dragon Society used the Han and Tang Dynasties to search for their whereabouts. Li Qing'an also used the power of the government and army to search in Anxi and Beiting, but their whereabouts are still unknown.

Chang Jin sighed and said, "We searched everywhere, but there was still no whereabouts of them. We suspect that they did not return to the Tang Dynasty and went to the Sogdian countries."

"impossible!"

Li Qingan flatly denied, "Jinman County has had their transit records, and they must have returned to the Tang Dynasty."

He suddenly looked at Chang Jin in confusion, "It's not that you deliberately concealed something from me!"

Chang Jin waved his hand in a hurry and said, "The General has wronged me. How could I hide such a major matter? Who knows that this matter is related to the safety of the Yinlong Society? No one will take into account personal affairs and refuse to report it."

"Okay then! Continue to search, and you will definitely find them and send them back to Shattered Leaf as soon as possible."

Li Qing'an took a sip of tea and then returned to the topic, saying, "Didn't you say there is new information about the Di Prince's Mansion? Let's talk about it, what's going on?"

"That's right. Mrs. Sun went to the courtyard for the second time last night. Our people bribed the witch's maid with a lot of money today. They have found out what Mrs. Sun wants."

"Is that? What did she do in that courtyard?"

"He went to the courtyard to pray for a child, but......"

"But what?"

Li Qing'an's eyes were staring at Chang Jin with urgency. He ordered Chang Jin to send someone to monitor King Di, originally to expose the case of fake assassin. Soon, people from the Han and Tang dynasties found that King Di's favored concubine always went to a small courtyard alone. Since the fake assassination case of King Di had been exposed, Li Qing'an no longer cared about this matter. However, this morning, Gao Lishi told him that King Di was going to Anxi to take charge, and Li Qing'an immediately realized the importance of this information.

Chang Jin didn't expect Li Qing'an to take it so seriously. He was startled and hurriedly said, "But she asked the witch for charming skills last night."

"It's true that's not what I expected!" Li Qingan said to himself.

At this time, someone at the door reported, "Owner, the man named Yan is here."

Chang Jin quickly glanced at Li Qing'an, Li Qing'an nodded, and Chang Jin ordered: "Bring him in!"

After a while, one of Chang Jin's subordinates hurried in with Yan Kai. Since Li Qiu recommended Yan Kai to Li Qing'an, they had met and had a good conversation. However, Li Qing'an did not express his opinion on Yan Kai's willingness to surrender. He needed to see the sincerity of this person. He specially sent someone to inquire about it. The information he received was that King Qing had not seen this person for nearly half a year. Yan Kai was idle all day long and was very calm and thoughtful. Since it was recommended to him by Li Qiu, there should be no problem.

"Yan Kai meets with the general!"

Yan Kai bowed deeply to Li Qing'an. He was able to meet a wise ruler and give full play to his strengths to realize his ambition of stabilizing the country and governing the world. This is the dream of every literati of the Tang Dynasty. Yan Kai was no exception. He had been an aide to King Qing for eight years. Now he is nearly forty years old, but he still achieved nothing. King Qing's stupidity and stubbornness disappointed him, and King Qing's despair made him even more desperate.

When a bird selects a good tree to live on, he had the idea of ​​re-submitting to the wise master. Just when he was about to vote for another new master, Li Qiu recommended him to Li Qing'an. Yan Kai and Li Qing'an had been dealing with him for a long time. He never thought that he would become Li Qing'an's aide one day. After a long conversation with Li Qing'an the day before yesterday, he suddenly realized that Li Qing'an was the wise master he had dreamed of over the years. He was young and promising and had a high position. The area he controlled was wide and there was a vast land for him to use.

Yan Kai was extremely nervous. He had never been eager to serve someone like today. Last time, Li Qingan did not give him a clear answer. Will he give him hope today?

Li Qingan saw the tension in his heart. Yan Kai was pretty good. Judging from his previous experience in dealing with this person, this person is as careful as he is good at discovering problems from details. For example, in the last case of Du Bosheng in Yangzhou, Du Bosheng could infer from the messy clues that King Qing's gold was obtained by him. From this point, we can see that he is not simple.

But he also found that this person's fame and fortune was too strong. Compared with Yan Zhuang, he lacked a kind of righteousness. To put it bluntly, he could share wealth and hardships. Li Qingan did not want to reuse this person, but now he has changed his mind again. Yan Kai will be of great use in his plan.

Li Qingan smiled slightly and waved his hand and said, "Sir, please sit down!"

He winked at Chang Jin again. Chang Jin understood and stepped back. Yan Kai sat down nervously, and a maid came in and presented him with tea.

"Mr. Yan, please have tea."

"Thank you!" Yan Kai nervously picked up the tea cup and took a sip of the tea slowly.

Li Qing'an smiled and said, "Last time, the gentleman told me that the mastermind who assassinated in Weishi County was King Di. I asked the gentleman to go back and ask for details. I wonder if there is any progress?"

Yan Kai hurriedly said: "I talked to County Magistrate Luo yesterday and learned some situations. I wonder what aspects of the situation you want to know?"

"I want evidence!" Li Qing'an said: "I want to know if there is any evidence that the Jinzhou two monsters were taken away from prison by the Di King."

Yan Kai knew that this was the test question given to him by Li Qing'an, so he put in real effort on this matter and quickly stood up and said, "Report to the envoy, Han Baiyan, an aide to the King of Di, went to the prison to ask someone. He once left a receipt with his handwritten handwriting on the receipt. Compared with his current handwriting, the truth should be confirmed."

"What about this note? Did you make it?"

Yan Kai said with some regret: "After King Di killed the two monsters in Jinzhou and sent people to Wannian County Prison to destroy all the materials of the two thieves, so County Magistrate Luo said that he had nowhere else."

"So where is there?" Li Qingan heard that there was room for his tone.

"Report to the envoy, there may be still in Chang'an County!"

"Chang'an County?"

"Yes! The county magistrate Luo said that the two monsters in Jinzhou also committed a case in Chang'an County. Shortly after the two thieves were bought by Han Baiyan, the Chang'an County Government also interrogated the two thieves due to a case. Because the people were gone, Chang'an County borrowed the materials of the two thieves. Later, when they returned, some of the materials were missing. Luo's county said that he remembered it very clearly at that time. He personally put the receipt of Han Baiyan's reference into the file because this was the evidence. However, when Chang'an County returned, the receipt was gone, so he inferred that the receipt should still be in Chang'an County."

"I see!"

Li Qingan walked a few steps behind his back, and he suddenly laughed and said, "Does King Qing know about this?"

Yan Kai shook his head and said, "I have only told the little prince about this matter. Because there is no evidence, I have not told King Qing yet."

Li Qingan walked to the door and looked at a peach tree in the yard. The peach tree was full of buds and full of vitality. He looked back at Yan Kai and smiled and said, "Will sir be willing to do things for me?"

Yan Kai was overjoyed, Li Qing'an finally agreed. He hurriedly stepped forward and gave a deep bow, "I am willing to serve the envoy!"

"Sir, please sit down! Please sit down!"

The two sat down again, and at this time, their relationship immediately became much closer. Li Qing'an no longer concealed him and said, "I got the news today that the emperor planned to let King Di go to Anxi to take charge, but I don't like this person. I want to change to a prince. Can the sir guess who it is?"

Yan Kai's thoughts moved slightly, and he blurted out: "King Qing!"

"Smart!" Li Qing'an applauded and smiled softly, "Sir, it's true that sir, if there must be a prince in Anxi, then King Qing is my best candidate, so I hope sir will continue to stay by King Qing's side. Do sir, do sir understand?"
To be continued...