Xue Bai was quite curious about how Yang Guozhong knew that Zhang Bian leaked secrets to An Lushan. When he asked, Yang Guozhong's power level was revealed.
"That day I went to the palace to report to the emperor. After seeing me, the saint summoned Zhang Bian."
"so what?"
"What's the reason? I'm the prime minister, what's the matter with the saint that I can't solve, so I need to summon other ministers?!" Yang Guozhong was very excited.
Seeing his jealous look, Xue Bai couldn't help but think that people in the past said that Li Linfu was jealous, but now Yang Guozhong is no different from him. Is it really due to his personality? Not necessarily.
Yang Guozhong used to be generous, but since he held more than thirty positions, Li Longji only consulted him on everything, and gradually developed the habit of being exclusive.
"Then what?"
"That idiot Yang Guanghui dared to report groundless news to me, which made me lose ground in front of the saint. I was worried that the saint was dissatisfied with me and wanted to replace Zhang Bian as prime minister, so I sent someone to bribe his servants. Later I learned that, Before Fu Chulin went to Fan Yang, I met him secretly."
As he said that, Yang Guozhong frowned. In fact, this matter had been reported to the police a long time ago, but he didn't pay attention to it at the time. He didn't react until the results came out. He actually regretted not discussing it with Xue Bai earlier.
"Today Fu Chulin reported that An Lushan is willing to go back to pay homage to the prime minister. I thought about it and realized that this should never happen. It must be Zhang Bian who revealed something to Fu Chulin."
You could say that Yang Guozhong was not smart, because he keenly grasped the ins and outs behind the incident; but if you say he was smart, by now, he had lost the initiative and allowed An Lushan to express his loyalty first.
Xue Bai pondered and said: "What did Zhang Bian reveal that would make An Lushan come? Unless...it guarantees that he can be released back to Fanyang."
He didn't believe that An Lushan really dared to leave Fan Yang, so this was the only possibility.
"Are you still coaxing me?" Yang Guozhong no longer believed Xue Bai.
Feeling that Zhang Bian and An Lushan were increasingly threatening his position, he could no longer trust Xue Bai.
"You originally insisted that Zahu would not come, but now he is here. You also said that he will definitely go back. When he steals my position, are you going to say that he will resign soon?"
Xue Bai shook his head and said: "That's not how things look. You have to look at his core interests. If his core interests are in Fan Yang, he will definitely not leave Fan Yang. This is inevitable. As for the rest, it is nothing more than a means to confuse the saint. "
"Then do you know what my core interests are?" Yang Guozhong asked back, asking and answering himself: "I will definitely not lose the power to rule the world. This is inevitable."
He waved his hand vigorously with the authority of a prime minister to stop Xue Bai from speaking, and said: "No need to say any more, I asked you to come to discuss with you how to deal with Zhang Bian."
"Is there any evidence that Zhang Bian revealed secrets to Fu Chulin?"
"Is it easy to get evidence for this kind of thing?"
"Then get the evidence that Fu Chulin accepted bribes. It shouldn't be difficult to get."
Xue Bai casually guided Yang Guozhong to shift his focus from Zhang Bian to Fu Chulin, but he was no longer interested in this kind of court dispute. When things reached this point, he could increasingly feel the crisis coming from Fan Yang.
How can anyone care about Yang Guozhong, who is quite unsettled?
But today's meeting still gave him a very important clue.
The first time he left Yang's house, he went back to find Du Jin.
"Have Lao Liang and the others arrived?"
"We can get there in two days."
"Okay, I need to know the route An Lushan takes to go south this time."
~~
On the seventh day of November, it snowed heavily in Guanzhong, folk farm work had stopped, and there were fewer business travelers on the road.
Amidst the ice and snow, a group of people braved the biting wind and entered Chang'an City.
"General, the Golden Gate has arrived!"
Wang Rao pulled off the scarf wrapped around his face and looked up at the magnificent city gate in front of him with mixed emotions. He did not like Chang'an City as much as others because he felt that Chang'an was too complicated and full of turbulent and treacherous court struggles. He
I like Longyou, you can see the horizon at a glance, simple and clean.
Li Sheng wanted to lead him to Longyou to enter the Memorial Hall, but Wang Nannan refused, saying: "Let's go to Wang Jieshuai's home to pay homage first."
"good."
They then turned to Wang Zhongsi's house, and when they reached the gate, they looked up and saw the three words "Yanshoufang" hanging on the plaque above. Wang Nan could not help but think that living in Yanshoufang could not really extend Wang Zhongsi's life.
Nowadays, several of Wang Zhongsi's sons live in the Wang's residence. None of them had official positions during their mourning period, and all of them are taciturn. The spiritual tablets are placed on the table in the lobby, but there are no other things around them, making it look deserted.
Wang Nan put on the three sticks of incense, turned around and saw some luggage and items placed in the side yard, and asked, "What are these?"
"We plan to sell this house and move elsewhere."
Li Sheng was puzzled and asked: "Why? After all, it is Wang Jieshuai's home."
"It's too expensive to live in Chang'an. It's better for us brothers to split up our families. We have lived with my grandfather in Longyou, Mobei since we were young. We are not obsessed with living in Chang'an."
Wang Ruolan and Li Sheng were all sighing after hearing this. They didn't expect that the death of a famous general who once made a name for himself in four towns would be so careless.
Just as they were about to say goodbye and go out, the sound of rapid horse hooves sounded outside the door. A tall woman wearing a mantle got off her horse and braved the wind and snow to rush to them. It was Wang Yunxiu. She crossed her arms and saluted Wang Nanlan: "Brother.
"
Wang Yunxiu also grew up in the army, and had a good relationship with Wang Ruolan. Because they were from the same clan, they always referred to each other as brother and sister. On the other hand, although Li Sheng was also promoted by Wang Zhongsi and praised as "the enemy of ten thousand people", Wang Yunxiu was already married at that time.
They are not that familiar with each other.
"Sorry." Wang Nan sighed, "You shouldn't have come here, so we're leaving now."
"How about I take brother to meet someone?" Wang Yunxiu said.
"who?"
…
The next day, before dawn, Xue Bai heard the crowing of roosters in the courtyard, rubbed his eyes, and got up from the couch.
This is a very difficult thing. Yan Yan and Qing Lan are still sleeping on the left and right, and their bodies are all warm. He is reluctant to leave that warmth.
The crowing chicken was actually not raised by Xue Zhai, but by Princess Hezheng's Mansion next door. The chicken's voice was so loud that it seemed like it could wake up half the people in Xuanyangfang.
Xue Bai entered the study room holding a candle. The fire dispelled the darkness and illuminated the messy documents and maps on the desk. There were more documents in boxes on the ground. There were various contents on them, including Datang Border Town.
The resumes of various generals, the battle reports of various towns over the years, and the maps are mostly of Hedong, Fanyang and other places.
The reason why these materials were collected was because Xue Bai was a member of the Zhongshu family and took advantage of his position to copy the backup copies kept by the Zhongshu family. Of course, some of them were taken from elsewhere.
Hearing the noise, a servant knocked on the door and walked into the study. The person he saw was Xue Bai. He made a few gestures in sign language, which meant "There is a lot of paper in the room, so please be careful with the candlelight."
This is a mute slave, and he is exactly the same mute slave who was in charge of the records library in Li Linfu's house.
No one knows when Xue Bai acquired such a person and how much of Li Linfu's inheritance he inherited.
Xue Bai then blew out the candle, gestured twice with sign language to show his understanding, sat down in the darkness, and rubbed his tired eyes that were still sore and swollen after a good sleep.
The mute slave brought a plate of food and retreated silently.
It was daybreak after breakfast. Xue Bai opened the window, and the cold wind blew in the snowflakes. It was so cold that people could not help but shrink their necks. However, he did not close the window again, but began to think about the information and organize it.
They are trying to weave a web that can contain the Anshi Rebellion. The various generals that the Tang Army now has can become the threads that weave this web.
He sat like this for a long time, and at noon Qinglan came in to deliver the meal and said: "Mr. Lang, the Wang family's wife has come to ask for an audience. She said she has brought someone you want to see."
Xue Bai had heard about Wang Ruolan for a long time, but this was the first time he saw him today. He was very impressed as soon as they met, and thought that Wang Ruo's fierceness did not disappoint him.
On the contrary, Wang Nan was a little disappointed when he met Xue Bai, because he felt that Xue Bai was too young and handsome, which was different from what he expected. However, he did not despise Xue Bai because of this, but held the ceremony very solemnly.
"I've met Xue Lang."
"General, don't be too polite."
Xue Bai hurriedly stepped forward and held Wang Nan's elbows to help him up, but it turned out that he was being held up by an iron frame and could not be lifted at all. He had no choice but to let Wang Nan make a full salute.
Li Sheng on the side was actually very familiar with Xue Bai. The two were about the same age and got along like friends. At this time, Li Sheng saw that Wang was rarely like this, so he also bowed.
After that, they sat down and talked.
"General Wang has been transferred to Hedong in a hurry, but for the time being, he is not worthy of the high position of general. The only one is Yunzhong Army Envoy." Xue Bai said, "But what I can guarantee is that in the future, there will be an opportunity to make contributions in Hedong.
More than Longyou. We should all know that the internal situation in Tubo has been very chaotic in the past two years. There will probably be a stalemate with the Tang Dynasty for several years. As for Hedong... you know why An Lushan had to get rid of Wang Jieshuai.
And then quickly.”
Wang Ruan was a very smart man and immediately asked: "Xue Lang means, An Lushan wants to rebel?"
"It seems that the whole world knows it?"
With this consensus, the subsequent conversation went more smoothly. Wang Nanwan originally wanted to explore the details of Li Heng's deposedness after the fireworks ceremony, but his focus was completely led by Xue Bai, and the content of the discussion was Ruo Anlu
If the mountains are going to rebel, what is the significance of the various cities and passes in the east of the river?
At the end, Xue Bai asked: "I have proposed that Li Guangbi be appointed as the deputy envoy of Hedong Jiedu. Will he return to Chang'an with the general?"
This kind of thing is like playing chess. He wanted to use one or two of Gao Xianzhi, Guo Ziyi, and Li Guangbi to replace An Lushan, but he couldn't do it at the moment, so he had to look at Hedong first. He originally wanted to transfer Guo Ziyi to Hedong Jie
Du envoy, but now Guo Ziyi was attacking Absi in the north, so he considered Li Guangbi.
Compared with Wang Rao, Li Guangbi's seniority and official position were much higher. As early as the fifth year of Tianbao, Wang Zhongsi said, "The one who will win our soldiers in the future will be Guangbi." And Li Guangbi is now the deputy envoy of Jiedu, so he is
Flat tone.
Wang Rao was a little surprised and said: "Deputy Commander Li has been transferred to Shuofang as Deputy Envoy of Jiedu."
"When?"
Xue Bai was surprised. He had clearly reached a consensus with Yang Guozhong at that time, but now it had changed. Moreover, even though he, a member of Zhongshushe, had not heard about such a big transfer of generals.
Wang Nan said: "On the day before I left Longyou and returned to Beijing, Deputy Commander Li received the transfer order and set off for Zhongshou surrender city."
Xue Bai did not show any surprise. He nodded and said, "General Wang, please rest for a few days before heading to Hedong when you are ready."
~~
Seeing Wang Jinlan, Xue Bai made a special trip to Zhongshu's door, but he did not see the imperial edict regarding the appointment of Li Guangbi as Shuofang's military governor.
He couldn't help but wonder, thinking that Yang Guozhong had gone back on his promise, or that someone had accidentally written "Hedong" as "Shuofang". With this kind of doubt, he arrived at Chen Xilie's apartment and pushed the door straight in.
The official building is in the shape of "work" and is separated by a screen. Going around the screen, I saw Chen Xilie leaning there and sleeping soundly, his heavy breathing blowing the beard on his lips.
However, Xue Bai noticed that there was an official document on the desk, and the ink was not dry. He speculated that Chen Xilie was clearly dealing with the official document just now. He must have seen him coming, so he quickly pretended to be slack in political affairs.
What kind of strange mentality is this? He couldn't hold it anymore and wanted to fight for power with Yang Guozhong. He also regarded Xue Bai as a member of Yang Guozhong's family, so he also planned to paralyze Xue Bai.
Of course, it is also possible that he was just pretending to be asleep and was too lazy to talk to Xue Bai.
"Left Prime Minister?"
"Left Prime Minister?"
Xue Bai called twice in succession, but Chen Xilie didn't open his eyes. Knowing that he couldn't wake up a person who was pretending to sleep, he reached out and flipped through the pile of documents on Chen Xilie's desk.
"Huh?" Chen Xilie woke up immediately and said, "What is Mr. Xue doing?"
"I heard that An Sishun transferred Li Guangbi to the position of deputy envoy of Shuofang Jiedu, but there has never been any news about it in Zhongshu's province. I suspect that An Sishun faked the imperial edict and transferred people without authorization."
The last sentence surprised Chen Xilie, and he quickly stopped and said: "Don't talk nonsense."
"Is there an imperial edict?" Xue Bai asked.
Chen Xilie began to pretend to be confused again, rubbed his old eyes, deliberately thought for a while before remembering, and murmured: "I remember that there is a copy of the imperial edict, where is it. I remembered it, Xue Lang, please take it and file it."
Xue Bai took it and saw that the edict was made more than a month ago, which was when he suggested to Yang Guozhong to recruit a group of officials. In other words, it was possible that when he was about to transfer Li Guangbi to Hedong, someone wanted to stop him urgently.
Due to this incident, he was quickly transferred to An Sishun's command.
"Is this what the Right Prime Minister means?"
"I don't know either." Chen Xilie stroked his beard and said, "It must be the intention of the saint. An Sishun has always admired Li Guangbi and asked him to be transferred to Shuofang not once or twice."
"I see."
From this small incident, Xue Bai could already feel that, as Yang Guozhong was worried, a force was indeed forming in the DPRK that wanted to compete for the power of the prime minister. Zhang Bian and Chen Xilie seemed to be taking advantage of Yang Guozhong's fight with An Lushan.
At this time, some actions began to take place.
But he is still not interested in these power struggles. At this juncture, Zhang Bian and Chen Xilie are not worthy of his attention.
~~
Zhongshou surrendered to the city.
The weather was extremely cold and heavy snow filled the air. Most of the Tang troops stationed here stayed in the barracks, talking around the bonfire and talking about what was going on.
A galloping horse came over and hurried to An Sishun and said, "Commander, Li Guangbi is here."
"I'll go meet you."
An Sishun did not hesitate, got up and left the warm spring-like commander's mansion, and rushed outside the camp gate. Sure enough, he saw a group of brave cavalry coming, running through the wind and snow with turbulent momentum, and rushed to Zhongshoujiang City.
The first man, a man in his forties, has high eyebrows and deep eyes, a straight nose, a thick beard on his face, and a deep and resolute expression. He is Li Guangbi.
He has a calm and capable demeanor, and a bookish air in his military temperament. He looks like a completely Confucian general, but he is actually a Khitan. He is from Liucheng, Yingzhou. His family is a Khitan noble, and his grandfather Li Kailuo is a Khitan chief.
, Wu Zhou surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.
"I've seen Jieshuai."
"I feel relieved now that you are here."
An Sishun is nearly sixty years old. He has a completely different personality and appearance from An Lushan. He is neither fat nor thin, tall and strong, with a serious face and an air of righteousness. While he is very strict in running the army, he also loves to nurse his soldiers, so he is very strict.
Win the military's heart.
Earlier, the imperial court asked him to step down from his post as the governor of Hexi Province, but many chiefs in Hexi Province made trouble and refused to let him go. Although there were criticisms from the imperial court, saying that he was taking advantage of the military's morale for his own sake, it can also be seen that he had a good reputation in the army.
He personally stepped forward, put his hand on Li Guangbi's back, and led him into the house. This was a very close gesture.
As he walked, he said: "Li Xianzhong... Now it's time to call 'Abusi' back. Abusi surrendered to Ge Luolu. The saint was annoyed by his betrayal. He ordered us to put down Ge Luolu's rebellion and capture Abusi. Now
Guo Ziyi led the troops north. Before he left, he told me that he looked forward to fighting alongside you."
"This is also an honor for me." Li Guangbi had also heard about Guo Ziyi's name for a long time, and he was also excited about it.
"Okay!" An Sishun was overjoyed, "I have strong generals like you under my command, so why worry about Ge Luolu's injustice?"
"I heard that Gao Xianzhi's defeat in Talas was also related to the defection of the Geluolu people before the battle." Li Guangbi said, "Geluolu has always followed Huihe's lead. Perhaps Huihe also has the intention of testing the truth of our Tang Dynasty."
"So we must fight this battle well."
While they were talking, they had arrived at An Sishun's mansion. When they arrived in the lobby, they immediately felt warm.
Li Guangbi originally wanted to continue asking about Shuofang's military affairs, but An Sishun shook his head and stopped answering, instead asking about an irrelevant topic.
"I heard that your wife was born in the Wang family of Taiyuan and died of illness a few years ago?"
"Yes." Li Guangbi's eyes dimmed slightly.
An Sishun nodded, sighed and said, "A man cannot live without a family. When a man is away at war, he should have a woman at home to take good care of him."
Li Guangbi didn't know what he meant by saying this suddenly, and was surprised for a moment.
"You and I are both barbarians, and we don't need mother-in-law or mother-in-law to do things." An Sishun said, "I have a daughter who is just right for you. Call her out for you to see... Go and call Jiuniang out."
Soon, a tall and plump Sogdian woman was led into the hall. She was in her twenties, neither beautiful nor ugly, with an ordinary appearance. She wore a Hu robe and looked at her with bold eyes.
Li Guangbi was very satisfied that he was about to marry a heroic husband.
Li Guangbi, the hero of the first generation, lowered his head under her gaze and avoided it.
He cupped his hands and said, "Thank you very much for your love, An Jieshuai, but I have a very close relationship with my late wife. After she passed away, I had already vowed never to marry again. Please forgive me for letting you down, Jieshuai."
Generally speaking, that's where things end.
An Sishun loved talents and expressed his intention to get married, but Li Guangbi refused and let it go with a laugh. Although they were superiors and subordinates, marriage matters could not be forced.
However, An Sishun was still persuading her, and kept talking about how wonderful his daughter was. He also said that since they were all from foreign backgrounds, they would be able to get used to getting along with each other after they got married.
Li Guangbi gradually felt offended. Although his father and ancestors were Khitan people, they had long admired Han culture and learned poetry and etiquette, which was why he took the initiative to surrender to the Tang Dynasty during the Wu Zhou Dynasty. As for him, he was both civilized and military, strictly followed etiquette, and respected himself.
As a man of the Tang Dynasty, An Sishun repeatedly called him a "Hu" and forced him to marry the daughter of Hu Feng.
"Come on."
Finally, Li Guangbi said in a solemn tone: "Please don't try to persuade me any more, I have no intention of continuing the relationship!"
An Sishun had an eager face. The smile on his face froze when he heard this. A fierce look flashed across his eyes, but he still didn't give up and said, "Let's think about it again."
The two of them had some unpleasant quarrels over this private matter. Li Guangbi felt that An Sishun's upright and awe-inspiring image of serving the country with loyalty had collapsed in his heart.
In the following days, he, the new Deputy Envoy of Shuofang Jiedu, did not take office as smoothly as expected. He was unable to gain access to military power. He even had difficulty passing through the camp and was stopped under various excuses.
He was eagerly transferred, but was ignored and even monitored.
Regarding this situation, Li Guangbi's favorite general Hao Tingyu said with emotion: "An Sishun is trying to force the general to submit. The general might as well just marry his daughter. You won't suffer any loss anyway."
"Not at a disadvantage?" Li Guangbi frowned slightly and asked, "Why do you think he insists on marrying me?"
Hao Tingyu said matter-of-factly: "Of course I admire the general! I admire him so much."
"Do you remember what he mentioned repeatedly?" Li Guangbi murmured: "He said, 'Everyone is a barbarian,' and he was very concerned about my Khitan origin."
"General, I stopped being a Khitan decades ago."
Hao Tingyu didn't think much about it at first. He just wondered why Li Guangbi was thinking so much about this kind of thing. After a while, he thought of something Ge Shuhan once said and reacted suddenly.
"General, are you suspecting that An Sishun has other motives for wooing you?"
Li Guangbi shook his head and said, "An Sishun has always been loyal and loyal. You should not suspect that he has any ulterior motives."
Even so, he was already a little unsure.
Hao Tingyu was anxious and said: "In my opinion, if you don't agree, it will be dangerous to stay in Shuofang."
"Don't be frightened or cheat, or speak evil words, and I will not be in danger."
Hao Tingyu was already anxious and asked: "Has the general forgotten how he persuaded Wang Jieshuai back then? Hardness is easy to break, but softness lasts forever. An Sishun's intentions are unpredictable, and there is no guarantee that the general will contradict him like this.
He will not turn against you."
Li Guangbi asked: "How do you want me to marry his daughter?"
"General, have you forgotten that you gave Wang Jieshuai an idea back then? He didn't use it, but you can use it now." Hao Tingyu said, "Pretend to be sick to protect yourself."