An Lushan woke up suddenly, his eyes widened, but his vision was blurry.
The dim firelight came very close, and he could see clearly that it was Li Zhuer who was holding an oil lamp and stepping forward.
"Sage, what's wrong?"
"Shh, shut up."
An Lushan listened carefully, and sure enough he heard a "booming" explosion.
"What about the dozens of carts of gunpowder?"
“To put it simply, we need to recheck the acres of land, simplify the tax system, cancel miscellaneous taxes, levy taxes based on the number of acres of land and houses, and levy money instead of property. In addition, we need to levy commercial taxes, increase the number of imperial examinations, and reduce the number of family members... Its content
It is so complicated that it has nine volumes and tens of thousands of words, packed in a large wooden box, and cannot be described in a single word."
Hearing this, Da Xixun suddenly remembered.
"Do you still want to continue being tortured?"
As a result, he couldn't help but feel a little unsure.
Xue Bai opened it and saw that it was written by An Shouzhong. The content was very simple, only the seven words "Hui'an Gate at the third watch tomorrow night".
"No." Da Xixun was so shocked that he shook his hands repeatedly, "No, no, no, after Da Xi Yingying took refuge with Xue Bai, she severed all ties with me and turned against me. My son Da Xifu was killed by Xue Bai..."
…
"I'll recruit."
Yan Zhuang said: "That is also Xue Bai's in-law, Ren Yanshi County Magistrate... What did he say to you?"
Tonight, Xue Bai suddenly attacked Xuanhui Gate and blew open the city gate with explosives, scaring the rebel generals into panic.
Yan Zhuang originally wanted to offer some words of advice, but then he thought about it. A person's feet are rotten, his back is rotten, and his eyes are starting to rot. He is suffering from such pain and still can not go completely crazy.
He has a very commendable perseverance. How can it be possible to persuade him to calm down?
"After entering Hui'an Gate, it is neither a palace city nor an imperial city, but Hanjiacang City. If Hanjiacang has no food, it is the best place to set up an ambush. If An Shouzhong really wanted to help me, how could he choose
here?"
"Um."
God's punishment? I didn't see it anyway.
The court was very quiet all the time. Seeing that no one could find anything, Da Xixun felt relieved and thought he would be fine.
Da Xixun recalled the dream he had tonight, and then he realized that today's evil consequences had been sown back then. The scoldings of the persecuted officials sounded ridiculous at the time, but now they have finally come true.
Not long after, Jiang Hai rushed into Xue Bai's tent.
"Let's go find Li Xiazhou."
"Continue to recruit. Among the Luoyang elders you recommended to the saint, is there any hidden secret of Xue Bai?"
An Shouzhong cursed angrily at first, but he thought that Xue Bai had already broken through the door tonight. If he breaks through again next time and the rebel forces cannot block it, then Luoyang will really not be able to defend it.
An Lushan suddenly became angry and yelled: "That was a dream! You asked me how it exploded. Do I know? He just raised his hand and exploded. How do you treat him?!"
Over there, Yan Zhuang came out of the execution room and without thinking much, he directly named his next target to arrest.
He didn't tell An Lushan about this before, which was unlucky.
As if he had heard a ghost story, An Lushan shrank his head and lost sight of his already short neck. He exclaimed: "He can really do this?"
Yan Zhuang turned around and shouted: "Go find it!"
However, someone suddenly came over carrying a package with soil and said, "Prime Minister Yan, you dug this up."
Li Zhuer quickly put down the oil lamp, called two servants, and tried his best to carry the heavy body of more than 300 kilograms to the palace door. Because he had been carrying An Lushan like this all the time, his lumbar spine was very bad.
It was just pain, and now it was accompanied by a strong stinging pain. This torture of back pain kept him from sleeping well all night. In addition, he was on duty to watch An Lushan overnight and could not sleep peacefully all year round, which made him extremely exhausted. He was only twenty years old.
He looks like he is in his forties.
In the same year, there was a flood in Henan, and the Yicang could no longer provide food. They worked together to suppress the matter. Xu Zheng, the champion of Guiyouke, and the supervisory censor, reported the matter. They used the Du Youlin case to demote Xu Zheng to Jinjiang, Quanzhou
The county magistrate later arranged for people to go to Jinjiang County to kill Xu Zheng and throw his body into the sea.
Yan Zhuang recalled that when Luoyang was conquered, Lu Yi was killed because he was unwilling to surrender and cursed An Lushan.
The "rumbling" sound was still coming, and finally when they reached the door, An Lushan raised his head and looked out.
"Here."
"In my early years, I adopted an adopted daughter named Da Xi Yingying. She was originally entrusted to the King of Longevity Li Xuan. Later, for some reason, this daughter fell in love with Xue Bai."
"I'm sorry to ask you, I don't know why you came here so late at night."
"I didn't talk to him, really." Da Xixun said: "I just saw him leading hundreds of local warriors to Luoyang for support, and stayed with Gao Xianzhi for two days. By the way, they also
He brought dozens of carts of luggage."
Yan Zhuang entered, looked around, and ordered the followers behind him: "Go and search."
He hurriedly got off the bed and was about to leave. When his ulcerated foot stepped on the ground, he felt a sharp pain. Then he slapped Li Zhuer hard and cursed: "Why don't you help me?!"
With this thought in his mind, Da Xixun suddenly saw a rebel with a face as hideous as a ghost rushing towards him, slashing at him with a knife...
"Although he can't." Tian Qianzhen gently touched his face with his remaining hand, and said slowly with a painful lesson: "But what if he instigated the generals in the city?"
"I suspect you are colluding with Xue Bai."
Li Zhuer listened for a while and responded: "Sage, that sound is so far away, it must have come from outside the city."
"Heh." Yan Zhuang sneered.
"Tell me! Who else in Luoyang City belongs to Xue Bai's family?"
As the night deepened, several rows of rockets were shot from the city gate toward the outside of the city. The light flashed in the air, shot into the snow, and then quickly went out.
"I'm not urging you. I must kill those who intend to harm me." An Lushan gritted his teeth and emphasized.
They were all collected for the saint. How could the saint not know? The imperial edict to demote Xu Zheng was issued by the saint himself.
"Xue Huaiyi? Face to face? Could it be that Xue Baimo is the reincarnation of this person and wants to burn down the hall again?"
"God's damnation."
"It was the 16th day of the first lunar month in the first year of Zhengsheng. Xue Huaiyi, the empress's face, was resentful because he couldn't win favors in the Yuan Dynasty. He set fire to the heaven. The heaven collapsed and hit the Mingtang, and the fire spread. According to legend,
The fire burned until dawn, burning the sacred capital of Luoyang like daylight, and the heaven and the bright hall were turned into ashes."
"Can you still care about this?"
The night was still very long, and Da Xixun didn't dare to fall asleep again, for fear of accidentally returning to that hell, so he got up and made tea alone, tasting the bitterness.
Da Xixun shook his head and said: "Really not."
"Mr. Lang, there's a letter."
Suddenly, a piece of paper fell out. When I picked it up, I saw that it was a very old detailed map of Ziwei Palace. It clearly marked the patrol routes of the imperial guards and even the paths between the walls that the palace people used. Yan Zhuang
After seeing it, he opened the wound medicine bottles again, smelled carefully, and poured out the contents of several porcelain bottles. Some of them were elixirs, but one bottle contained what looked like water, but the smell of wine was extremely strong. That was
He had seen the wine used by Xue Bai's generals to pour out wounds outside Shiling Pass. He then opened one of the packages of medicinal materials. The smell was pungent and he licked it. It turned out to be gunpowder.
At this point, Yan Zhuang could no longer trust Da Xi Xun, and said coldly: "You must have colluded with Xue Bai. Who asked you to take out the map of the palace city?"
There was a movement in the front yard, but no one reported it. A group of people had already broken into the yard.
"I said, I tell the truth." Da Xixun said: "They don't trust me. I really don't know if there are any of them in Luoyang City... Maybe there are, but I am also being used."
"Then...this is a game?"
After that, he lifted Yang Lie's body and covered himself. It was heavy, but the pressure made him feel at ease, thinking that this way the rebels would not kill him.
"What can he do to revive us?"
"I don't know. Mr. Yan, believe me, I've told you everything I know."
Yan Zhuang said: "It seems that if you don't use punishment, you won't be able to do anything?"
suddenly.
He used to only focus on rebellion, but never thought about how to govern the country after success. Recently, he has been thinking about how to wipe out the serious disease in the Tang Dynasty. Of course, this is not an easy task. With An Lushan's current situation, he simply can't care about it.
…
"No!"
"Give it to me." Xue Bai casually stretched out his hand to take the letter and asked, "Just shot it from the top of the city?"
Half an hour later, Da Xixun sat on the torture instrument of "donkey colt pulling out a prong", with tears streaming down his face, and murmured: "Before the city of Luoyang was destroyed, I did meet Yanshi County's Prime Minister Yan Chunqing."
Because the imperial palace in Luoyang is not in the middle, but in the northwest corner, you only need to break through this city gate to enter Ziwei Palace.
"No, there was no collusion. The map had been in my office before, and I accidentally put it in when I was packing away my belongings."
An Lushan rubbed his eyes and finally managed to vaguely see the two high halls standing under the starry sky. He couldn't help but become confused and murmured: "Where is the thunder coming from?"
"Yes." Yan Zhuang sighed, "Compared to the combat power of our officers and soldiers, what is more dangerous right now is our military morale. We dare not hide it from the saint. People's hearts are indeed floating now."
"Sage, the bright hall is still there." Li Zhuer looked around and saw only heaven. Although there was no one in the bright hall, the lights were still burning. It was really beautiful.
"Is the Mingtang destroyed?"
"Yes, yes."
This time, Xue Bai's tone was much harsher than last time, with a threatening tone, saying that there were not many opportunities left for An Shouzhong to abandon the dark side and turn to the bright side. If Luoyang City was captured by Wang Shi, An Shouzhong would be killed.
The whole family will be executed for serious crimes.
"The grain stored in the Yi warehouse is taken from the people and used for disaster relief. As for the Hanjia warehouse, it is for national war preparation. How dare you plunder it all just to serve one person?"
"Prime Minister Yan! Please believe me. Even if there is an insider in the city, the person in charge must not be me. They can't trust me. This is really true!"
In the middle of the night, Yan Zhuang had fallen asleep and looked very haggard. Tian Gan was truly a young man. Although he was seriously injured, his eyes were still shining, like a dog ready to catch a mouse for its master at any time.
Yan Zhuang didn't know what to say, he thought to himself that you, the Zoroastrian Cult, have been clamoring all day long to use the bright holy fire to burn away the evil in the world, so why should you be afraid of a fool?
Tian Qianzhen remained silent. After listening to these conversations, he looked back and said, "This dream of the saint may be an omen."
In the case of Du Youlin, Du Youlin was not dead, but they killed thirty-seven people in the court who dared to speak out.
Even saints cannot escape, because saints are the chief culprits...
"No, just let me build momentum for Qing Wang Li Cong. In the past year, although the court was controlled by Yang Guozhong, secretly, Xue Bai used Li Cong's name as the crown prince, and used banks and newspapers as tentacles to win over many state and county officials.
General, I have always been ordered to do these things..."
"Hundreds of people support Luoyang and bring baggage? What could it be?" Yan Zhuang said.
"What if the letter was not written by An Shouzhong?"
Da Xixun thought to himself, can he hide it from a saint?
"No."
After hearing this, An Lushan realized that the two high halls in the palace were too high. If any one of them collapsed, it might hit him. He couldn't help but be horrified.
"I had a dream." An Lushan was still a little frightened when he mentioned this, and murmured: "I dreamed that on the day I ascended the throne, Xue Bai suddenly came and blew up the entire Mingtang."
"He and the two of them are brothers in the clan."
No, the saint knows.
Nowadays, Yan Zhenqing is a marching commander under Ge Shuhan, blocking the main force of the rebel army from Tongguan. Yan Gaoqing leads the army to Yongqiu to prevent the rebels from plundering Jianghuai. Both brothers are the enemy of the rebels. Therefore, Yan Zhuangyi
When I heard this name, I immediately became alert.
He woke up suddenly and sat up on the couch, only to realize that his whole body was soaked with sweat. It was just a dream, because the Minister of Household Affairs who stayed in Taiwan was not Yang Lie at all. Yang Lie died because he was unwilling to cooperate with them.
Lost officials.
"Where is the wooden box?"
"It came from outside the city?" An Lushan repeated it again, finally recovering from the panic and said: "Go and call Yan Zhuang and Ah Hao."
"Here!"
~~
It's night, and Da Xixun is also caught in a nightmare.
"Lu Yi's official position is not low, why was he attracted by you?"
"Yan Chunqing? What is the relationship between this person and Yan Zhenqing and Yan Gaoqing?"
An Lushan's eyes were not focused, but his murderous intent was not diminished, and he shouted: "I want you to kill everyone in Luoyang City who may surrender to Xue Bai! Kill, kill, kill!"
Yan Zhuang then ordered people to torture him again.
Yan Zhuang took a sip with the tea cup in his hand. His mouth was full of tea foam, which made him look a little bitter. He didn't speak again for a long time, waiting for the results of the search.
I opened the envelopes and read them one by one. Most of them were replies to Da Xixun from important officials of the imperial court. Among them was a letter from home, with beautiful handwriting, telling some things about Chang'an, saying that someone had sent a gift to Grandpa, and it should be his daughter.
It was written by Feng Da Xi Xun. He must have not had time to send it out when the city fell, but he was flattering Yang Guozhong.
"We have destroyed the foundation of the country, and it will destroy us."
Although he did not admit it, he knew in his heart that Xue Bai was more capable than he was. He was indeed willing to take a look at the national policies proposed by such a person. Unfortunately, An Lushan massacred thousands of officials in Luoyang, and the Yan Dynasty became great in a short period of time.
It may be difficult to make changes.
In the pool of blood, the minister of household affairs in Liutai was still mumbling.
"Not yet."
The two hurriedly entered the palace and saw the ceremony. Yan Zhuang saw that An Lushan's face was covered with sweat and asked: "Sage, has something happened?"
The Tang army made sneak attacks every night and tried to use explosives to blow open the city gate. Although they failed several times, the movement brought great deterrence to the rebels in Luoyang City. Now the rebels were panic-stricken, and Li Zhuer was actually very scared in his heart.
, I just didn’t dare to show it in front of An Lushan.
"Recruit, after I was demoted, no one was willing to lend a helping hand. Da Xi Yingying sent someone to find me and arranged for me to return to Luoyang for retirement, saying that he was repaying the kindness of raising me."
~~
Northwest of Luoyang City, Xuanhui Gate.
In the chaos, a general quietly thrust an arrow letter into An Shouzhong's hand. When he opened it, his face suddenly sank.
Xue Bai was sitting behind the desk in a daze looking at a map. Jiang Hai accidentally took a look and saw that the horizontal and vertical words on the map were "Yuanbi City", "Xuanwu City" and "Xuanwu City".
"Zuzang Palace" and "Ouchi" seem to be a map of a palace city.
Xue Bai pondered, with a look of worry on his face, and said, "I suspect An Lushan no longer believes in An Shouzhong."
"Fuck it!"
The lights in the hall were dim. The strange thing was that An Lushan didn't get angry because of this, but just walked forward. After walking for several steps, Li Zhuer realized that An Lushan's eyes were almost broken.
"this……"
Tian Qianzhen said: "Zhu Xicai is in Xue Bai's army, and there may not be another Zhu Xicai in Luoyang City. Even before the saint entered Luoyang, there is no guarantee that he did not place people in advance."
"Lu Yi, the imperial censor who stayed in Taiwan," said Da Xixun, "It was through his connections that Da Xi Yingying transferred me back to Luoyang."
"The general finally understood that the purpose of Lang Jun's sneak attack tonight was not to destroy the city, but to destroy it." Jiang Hai pointed to the map on the table and said: "But even I don't know who gave Lang this There are also some other letters from you."
"Keep talking."
An Lushan first asked: "With this movement outside the city, Xue Bai won't come in, right?"
"kill!"
"Yes!" Tian Qianzhen responded immediately.
Terrible screams immediately filled the cell. Da Xixun could not bear the punishment, so he had to confess. His voice was weak and intermittent, but in order to avoid being punished, he still tried his best to speak more.
Blood flowed all over his body, making him wet. Then, he seemed to hear Yang Lie mumbling to himself. By some strange coincidence, he put his ear to Yang Lie's mouth in the pool of blood.
"Prime Minister Yan? I was wronged! These are just for self-defense."
"Da Xi Gong is so elegant that he stayed up late at night and was still drinking tea." Yan Zhuang sat down opposite Da Xi Xun and said: "I still remember that in the sixth year of Tianbao, I was just an official, and you are already the chief official of the Ministry of Personnel. Now I can Are you qualified to sit across from you?"
Da Xixun panicked and said, "It must be gunpowder. Oh, I bought those items from one of Yan Chunqing's men for self-defense."
Yan Zhuang casually poured the hot tea from the cup on Da Xixun's face, took the package, and opened it. Inside he saw some soft gold and silver, a large pile of flying coins, a small packet of wound medicine, and a few letters.
"Take it away."
Yan Zhuang said: "She asked you to work for Xue Bai?"
Da Xixun was horrified and murmured: "I am a surrendered minister. If you treat a surrendered minister like this, you will be unpopular."
At this point, it is a pity that the countless treasures collected in the past have completely lost their use.
"I will definitely supervise and stabilize the morale of the army."
Although he had known that this day would come, Da Xixun still shook his hand and the tea spilled all over his crotch.
When the real interrogator found out that Da Xixun was actually Xue Bai's man, Yan Zhuang was a little surprised. Thinking about the impact of the bank and the newspaper, he already felt a little terrible.
"What does this mean?" Yan Zhuang said, "I don't believe that Xue Bai can break into Luoyang City and destroy Mingtang."
"As for An Shouzhong's letter." Jiang Hai pondered and said, "It's true that he can't bear it anymore. I don't really believe that An Shouzhong has the guts to harm Mr. Lang. Moreover, the detective horse has not yet reached Shaanxi County. The rebels returned to support."
When he looked back, he thought of the time when he met Xue Bai. It was in a wine shop outside the Imperial Academy. Xue Bai behaved very calmly together with several contemporary eminent scholars.
Some soldiers from the Tang Dynasty came here, quickly collected the arrows on the ground, and hurried back to the camp.
Yan Zhuang received a lesson, lowered his head and thought for a while, then said: "The Mingtang was indeed destroyed once."
"What?"
"No! Don't kill me..."
"For long-term considerations, I respect the prince. Furthermore, Lu Yi very much agrees with Xue Bai's strategy of reviving the prince."
After handing the letter to Jiang Hai to read, Xue Bai asked, "Can you tell me your opinion?"
Yan Zhuang didn't answer with a cold face, and said to his subordinates: "Remember what he said now, and we will see what he says after the severe punishment."
"You are destroying the foundation of the country for your own selfishness. You can't hide it from the saints, and God is aware of it. What you do will definitely be punished by God!"
The torture this time did not make Da Xixun reveal anything more. Until he was dying, he did not come up with anything new to confess. In the end, he just trembled his lips and murmured two words in a low voice.
Jiang Hai rolled his eyes, thought for a while, and asked in a low voice: "Then can we use the trick? Make a move to the east and attack the west?"
He accidentally fell asleep and went back to the day when he worshiped Anlu Mountain at Qianyuan Gate. Human life was not even as good as the pigs and sheep in the slaughterhouse. He ran away and stepped on the intestines of Yang Lie, the minister of household affairs in Liutai.
So he slipped and fell to the ground.
"In the hands of Lu Yi, or in his house, or at the Yushitai in Luoyang."
"How?"
"No, Xue Bai is good at using explosives, even though his momentum is huge." Yan Zhuang agreed, glanced at Tian Qianzhen's severed hand, and continued: "However, if you want to use explosives, you always need to light the fuse, which is cumbersome and easy to use.
Be on guard. Besides, we have reinforced the city gate, so he will definitely not be able to get in."
"Dig?" Da Xixun was shocked and said anxiously: "How could you... wow!"
Fortunately, there was a separate city within the city gate, and a city gate within the other city. The rebels had a large number of troops and were heavily guarded, and they could not let the Tang army rush in.
Yan Zhuang asked: "I wonder how it collapsed?"
"yes."
Da Xixun hesitated, and then he was willing to confess honestly. It turned out that he had really taken refuge with King Qing's family. As for the revenge he repeatedly preached about killing his son, in fact Xue Bai only deceived Da Xifu, who was involved in the crime.
He died in the Lishan assassination case. In officialdom, in the face of real interests, he would not care about the petty grudges of the past.
"General, Xue Bai has handed you a letter."
"Still there?"
That year, Wei Jian mobilized a hundred large ships from Luoyang in order to gain power; Li Linfu, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, mobilized another 200 ships; Wang Jian reported that the money and food he presented to the saint did not come from taxes; and later Yang Shenjin
The three brothers... and there is also Ta Xixun, who paid 20,000 yuan from Henan Prefecture in the name of setting up a farm in Shaanxi County as a saint in order to offer relics to his mother.
Since the war, An Shouzhong has not been able to sleep at night. He was playing dominoes tonight by burning the midnight oil. Hearing the news, he rushed over all night and ordered his guards to block the city gate at all costs.
"So, you can barely be regarded as Xue Bai's father-in-law, just like Yan Zhenqing and Yan Gaoqing?"
Yan Zhuang still lets people use torture to help him think of something again.
By making An Shouzhong suspect, Xue Bai's alienation plan was successful again. With the current situation of the rebels, it can be said that alienation is tried and tested.
But on the other hand, An Lushan is so suspicious that he is afraid that the spy in the city is also in danger now, and Xue Bai must also find a way to save him...