On the north bank of the Yellow River, in the woods, Wei Zichun looked eagerly and finally saw the team coming from the north.
His eyes flickered slightly as he watched the group of people approaching gradually, preparing to walk on the ice to the south bank of the Yellow River. There were not many of them, only about thirty people including the coachman.
Since Xue Bai relinquished his military power and returned to Chang'an to perform for the world, he naturally would not bring too many people with him.
Wei Zichun also imagined the possibility that Xue Bai would not be in this team.
If this is the case, it means that Xue Bai must have been ready to raise troops to rebel, so he would resort to mystery to paralyze the court.
Today, Xue Bai will either lose his life or lose his reputation as a righteous man.
"Do it!"
Wei Zichun gave the order without hesitation.
There were not many opportunities for him to take action. Although Li Zhi was willing to send people to help him assassinate Xue Bai, he refused to let Wei Zichun take action on his territory.
The ice surface of the Yellow River was open. They had already wrapped strips of cloth on the horses' hooves, strung their bows and arrows, and while Xue Bai's team was still preparing to cross the river, they suddenly surrounded them.
He brought more than a hundred elite troops here, and Li Zhi sent more than 300 confidants, for a total of more than 400 people, more than ten times the number of Xue Bai's troops, and more than enough for a siege.
The sky and the earth are vast, covered with white snow. Black figures surround them, looking solemn.
Suddenly, before they could rush into the place of an arrow, a brave general suddenly rushed out of Xue Bai's team, drew his bow and nocked an arrow, and shot down one person with a "whoosh".
Wei Zichun also heard the other party shout loudly.
"Hun Yao is here, how dare thieves dare to commit crimes?!"
The murderous momentum of generals who have been fighting at the frontier for many years is definitely not comparable to ordinary people.
The so-called elites recruited by Li Lin looked tough and fierce, but in front of Hun Yao, they were like domestic dogs meeting wild beasts.
The next moment, another horseman broke out from Xue Bai's team, unwilling to be outdone, and rushed straight into the horse. At the same time, he shouted loudly as if he was competing with Hun Yao.
"Have you heard of Xue Xin's name?!"
Wei Zichun had naturally heard of it. Hun Yao and Xue Xin captured the Khitan Khan and Shi Siming alive respectively, and became famous all over the world in one battle. He could be said to be the youngest famous general under Xue Bai's command.
He suddenly felt a little timid.
But the matter has come to this point, there is no way out, if you don't succeed, you will be benevolent.
On the ice, Hun Yao and Xue Xin had led their troops into the assassins, killing them from left to right.
Occasionally, there were two sounds of firearms.
Seeing that the battle was not going as smoothly as expected, Wei Zichun immediately changed his strategy and ordered his subordinates to kill Xue Bai directly.
He had noticed that with the charge of Hun Yao and Xue Xin, there were not many guards left around Xue Bai's carriage.
No matter how ferocious those famous generals were, they could not stop so many of them from killing Xue Bai from all directions.
Soon, a man who dared to die rushed in front of the carriage and horse, and thrust his spear straight into it.
Wei Zichun's breathing stopped at this moment, staring at the carriage.
His killers cheered and opened the curtain of the carriage, and then were obviously stunned for a moment.
Wei Zichun immediately had a bad premonition. He turned his eyes and found that Xue Xin, Hun Yao, was not in any panic because of the assassination of Xue Bai's carriage. He still fought bravely, killing his assassins to pieces.
fall.
Obviously, the carriage was empty and Xue Bai was not in it at all.
Fell into a trap.
Wei Zichun immediately shouted: "Retreat!"
He climbed on his horse and was the first to escape south.
It has been established that Xue Bai's so-called march south was simply to confuse the imperial court.
It is conceivable that as long as the two young and impulsive generals Hun Yao and Xue Xin are sent to Henan to recruit soldiers, they can take Tongguan by surprise.
Xue Bai has rebelled.
He had to inform King Yong of the news as soon as possible.
Li Zhi had been nervously waiting for the results of Wei Zichun's assassination in Huazhou City, pacing back and forth uneasily.
Finally, when he heard the report that Wei Zichun had returned in a hurry, he immediately secretly thought that Wei Zichun had failed in his assassination and Xue Bai would cause trouble for him.
However, after meeting him in a hurry, Wei Zichun rushed to him and the first thing he said was, "Xue Bai is rebelling!"
"What?"
"Give me the fastest horse." Wei Zichun said impatiently, "I want to rush back to Jiangling right away!"
Li Zhi wanted to ask what happened, and was shocked when he learned that Xue Bai had not really gone south, but only sent two generals.
As soon as I thought about it, everything became clear.
No wonder Xue Bai relinquished his military power so happily, no wonder the troops came to Huazhou. Xue Bai must be worried that after the rebellion, he, the Shandong Road pacifier who was born in the clan, would raise troops to pacify the king, and wanted to solve the future troubles first.
Only then did Li Zhi realize that Hun Yao and Xue Xin were ordered to get rid of him. Fortunately, Wei Zichun's assassination foiled this plan.
He was not sure how many people Hun Yao and Xue Xin had brought, and he didn't know whether Xue Bai had sent other soldiers and horses, so he simply ignored it and issued an order.
"Quick, close the city gate!"
"If you want to close the city gate, you can give me a fast horse first so that I can report to King Yong." Wei Zichun heard this and shouted anxiously from the side.
There were only about thirty people who came, but they were frightened like frightened birds.
~~
Chang'an, March 3rd.
This is actually the first month of the lunar calendar, and it’s still the middle of winter with heavy snowfall.
The post horse rushed to the city gate and fell to the ground. The courier's face was blown by the cold wind with scars on his face. His hands were frozen and he could not hold the reins firmly.
He fell on the snow and could not rest, so he immediately got up with difficulty, ran on foot, and sent the information he had on him to Chang'an City.
The prime minister on duty today is Wei Jiansu.
He frowned and was doing his official duties. When he heard the sound of footsteps, he raised his head and heard, "Xiang Wei, urgent report from Huazhou."
Wei Jiansu took Li Zhi's memorial and looked at it. His pupils opened, revealing that "something big is not going to happen", but he also had a sense of calmness as expected.
The news is simple - Xue Bai has rebelled.
This was a huge matter, so Wei Jiansu immediately approached Chen Xilie to discuss it.
Chen Xilie let out a long sigh and said, "Don't worry, I will go to see His Majesty and convene a small court meeting to discuss the response."
"good."
Wei Jiansu then waited in the small room, thinking about what he should say during the morning meeting.
He was so anxious that he felt like he was sitting on pins and needles. He kept getting up and walking to the door to look outside, but he still didn't see Chen Xilie return until the curfew.
At first, he thought that maybe the saint was shocked after hearing this and left Chen Xilie in the palace to discuss.
But after waiting in the public house all night, Chen Xilie was still missing at dawn the next day. Wei Jiansu began to wonder if Chen Xilie had been frightened and defected?
He left the mansion, summoned officials, and inquired about Chen Xilie's whereabouts. He was surprised to learn that the other party had returned home, and immediately went to look for him.
"For such a big event, the left prime minister can still sit at home, but I don't know what it means?"
Wei Jiansu was almost certain that Chen Xilie had betrayed the saint and took refuge with Xue Bai.
Unexpectedly, Chen Xilie waved his hand to signal him to calm down, and then said: "I wanted to start playing the saint, but Dou Wenyang suppressed it, and I didn't see the saint."
Of course Wei Jiansu knew that a saint favored a traitor and cut off all communication, but for a while he didn't know why Dou Wenyang did this?
After all, the reason why the saint re-appointed Dou Wenyang was to deal with Xue Bai. There should be some grudge between them.
Afterwards, Chen Xilie gave him an answer that made him laugh and cry.
"Dou Wenyang once promised the saint that King Yong would not rebel. Now that such changes have occurred, he is worried about affecting his position of power. He is suppressing the news and is discussing methods with his staff. He will not dare to report to His Majesty until there is a result.
"
"How unreasonable?!" Wei Jiansu was furious and immediately wanted to go to the palace to see him.
Chen Xilie knew he couldn't see him, so he let him go.
As expected, Wei Jiansu did not see Li Cong that day. Instead, he was scolded by the eunuch Dou Wenyang.
"Xianggong Wei has no evidence and dares to assert such a big event based on just one memorial. Isn't it too hasty?!"
Dou Wenyang hadn't figured out how to clear up his responsibilities, so he had to suppress the news for two days to gain time to prepare.
Wei Jiansu was very angry. Unfortunately, although he served as prime minister, he had no real power and could not even see the face of a saint.
He wanted to bypass Dou Wenyang and report to the saint face to face. After much thought, he decided to ask to see the prince Li Qiu.
Different from Li Longji's fear of Li Heng, at least for now, Li Cong still loves and values his son Li Qiu, whom he has raised for many years.
~~
Dou Wenyang suppressed Li Zhi's memorial for several days. During this period, he also sent people to Henan and Shandong to inquire about the news. He learned that the situation was calm there, but Xue Bai's team going south was blocked by Li Zhi in Huazhou.
, and Li Zhi insisted that they would rebel.
He actually still believed in Li Zhi, but more importantly, he wanted to ensure his own power.
Finally, he had an idea and came up with a good idea.
You can put the blame on Li Zhi, saying that originally everything was under control, but it was only because of a conflict between Li Zhi and Xue Bai that he forced Xue Bai to rebel.
In this way, not only can the responsibility be cleared, but also the saint can be put down in time to counter the rebellion. He may also be able to take advantage of this opportunity to gain military power.
After thinking about the matter clearly, Dou Wenyang went to report it to Li Cong.
"Sage, something serious has happened. I didn't believe that such a thing could happen. I sent someone to confirm it. I'm afraid it's true."
At this moment, a eunuch hurried over and said that the prince had something urgent to do and wanted to see him.
Li Cong liked his son and immediately allowed Li Qiu to come and see him.
Dou Wenyang controlled Miyagi City, and was surprised that Li Qiu could suddenly visit him without his knowledge. After thinking about it, he suddenly realized that Wei Jiansu wanted to bypass him to do something.
It didn't matter, he already had the manuscript in mind, so he said: "Sage, I think the prince has heard about King Yong's rebellion. This matter is related to King Wu and Li Zhi, the pacification envoy of Shandong Province. I am checking it these days. Please ask the saint first.
Don’t worry, although King Yong’s rebellion is now evident, he has not yet officially raised his troops..."
Li Cong got the news of Xue Bai's arrival in Xiangzhou a few days ago, and he slept more peacefully at night. He didn't expect such a change to happen. When he heard this, he immediately cursed Li Zhi for his mistake.
After Dou Wenyang gave a detailed account, Li Qiu happened to enter the palace, so he stepped aside.
"My dear father, please be well."
Li Qiu was anxious, his salute was slightly sloppy, and then he couldn't wait to say: "Father, something big has happened!"
Dou Wenyang knew that what Li Qiu was talking about was about Xue Bai's rebellion, and his eyes showed a complacent look as if everything was as expected.
Li Cong also knew about this, and thought that Li Qiu was too impatient, and was not as steady as Dou Wenyang, who wanted to find out first before reporting.
However, Li Qiu's next words made them all stand up in shock.
"King Yong has rebelled!"
"who?"
Both of them, who had been mentally prepared, were surprised and suspected that they had heard wrongly.
Even if it were said that Guo Ziyi or Li Guangbi had rebelled today, they would not be so surprised.
But Li Qiu said it categorically and reiterated it.
"Yongwang Li Lin has raised his troops in Jiangling, claiming that he wants to clear the emperor's side."
Li Cong was puzzled and looked at Dou Wenyang. The two looked at each other, both very confused.
It wasn’t Xue Bai who rebelled? How could it be Yong Wang Li Lin?
Dou Wenyang had been paying attention to Xue Bai. After accepting Yang Xu's heavy gift, he just waited for Li Lin to present the treasure without any precautions, so he did not receive any news beforehand. He opened his mouth at this time, not knowing how to respond.
Thinking about it again, Li Lin threatened to clear the emperor, but who was he trying to clear him from?
There was no conflict of interest between Li Qiu and Dou Wenyang, but the young man was simply passionate and could not stand the eunuch wielding power for a long time. He did not cover up for him and continued bluntly: "He has told the world that he wants to put down the rebels.
Get rid of the traitors."
If the traitor refers to the traitorous eunuch Xue Bai, who could he be? Dou Wenyang quickly shouted: "He is a treasonous person. He is simply plotting for the throne."
Although he shouted loudly, he didn't understand the details and couldn't say anything useful at all.
Li Cong had no choice but to ask Li Qiu: "What's going on?"
"Please ask my father to recruit his servant Wei Jiansu to inquire."
Under the current situation, Li Cong couldn't care about anything else and immediately summoned Wei Jiansu.
Wei Jiansu was originally angry because Dou Wenyang blocked his way, so he sent a message to the East Palace asking for an audience.
This was a big taboo for a courtier. Fortunately, Li Qiu was liked by Li Cong so much that he dared to agree to meet him and agreed on a date. As a result, just when he was about to leave, he received an urgent letter from the south. King Yong Li Lin was actually calling
Tell the world and openly rebel.
Things have priorities. Compared with the conflict between Xue Bai and Li Zhi, this is the real rebellion.
Just as he was waiting to meet him, Wei Jiansu thought of a possibility that even he himself was surprised by.
"The news of the rebellion of King Yong and King Yong came one after another. It is too coincidental. I suspect that they may have secretly joined forces and agreed to raise troops together."
Wei Jiansu threw out this suspicion and immediately overturned Dou Wenyang's previous excuse that Xue Bai was forced to rebel by Li Zhi, and concluded that this was a long-planned rebellion.
When Li Cong heard this, he immediately felt a sense of urgency about being strangled by his neck.
"Does Wei Qing have a plan to quell the rebellion?"
"I thought we could defeat each one, beat one, and appease the other to prevent them from uniting."
Wei Jiansu gave the strategy and elaborated: "Although King Yong had a conflict with his successor King Wu, he had not yet openly rebelled; King Yong had already warned the world that it would be difficult to stop the flood. I thought that I could temporarily appease King Yong and choose another general.
Lead the army to pacify King Yong."
Li Cong finally dismissed Xue Bai from his official position. Now that he heard that he wanted to appease Xue Bai, he felt extremely reluctant and said, "If he has a counter-intention, what's the use of appeasing him?"
Wei Jiansu replied: "Everyone in the world says that King Yong is plotting to usurp, but I dare to assert that as long as the saint appeases him, he will not dare to rebel."
Li Cong asked in confusion: "Why?"
"The foundation of King Yong is still shallow, and his identity is questionable. Previously, he led his troops to fight against Hu Ni, quelled the rebellion, and won the support of the generals. But once he raises an army, his subordinates will turn away and betray their morality."
Wei Jiansu has been thinking about this matter in the past few days, and analyzed that Xue Bai's safest way to fight for the throne is to wait until the emperor dies instead of raising troops.
"If your Majesty can issue an edict and order King Yong to still temporarily control Fan Yang, he will not rebel."
Having said that, Wei Jiansu suddenly thought that Xue Bai was walking slowly along the way. Could he be waiting for Li Lin to rebel?
If both parties had an agreement, how could Xue Bai be sure that he could convince Li Lin?
Li Cong couldn't make a decision for a while and looked at Dou Wenyang again.
When something big happened, the eunuch he relied on so much in the past became mute.
Li Cong then put aside Xue Bai's question and asked first: "Who can be the commander?"
Wei Jiansu had already suspected it, and said: "King Yong is your Majesty's younger brother and has a noble status. Only by appointing the prince as the marshal of the world's troops and horses, and then appointing Guo Ziyi as the deputy commander, can the rebellion be suppressed."
The monarch and his ministers exchanged answers, but Li Cong could not make a decision and needed to think about it further, so he asked Wei Jiansu to retire first.
Dou Wenyang has been listening, his sense of crisis getting stronger and stronger, and he is worried that he will lose power.
He couldn't think of a way to put down the rebellion, but he had plenty of ways to resolve his own crisis.
"Sage, King Yong was sent to Jiangling for the Supreme Emperor, and Wei Jiansu was deeply trusted by the Supreme Emperor. I know that Wei Jiansu has no collusion with King Yong."
One sentence reminded Li Cong that the story behind King Yong's rebellion was probably not simple.
The Supreme Emperor was well versed in power struggles. After abdicating the throne, he never gave up and kept trying to regain power. Who knows if he was behind the scenes?
In the following days, all kinds of news came in like snowflakes, and it was overwhelming.
What Li Cong was extremely concerned about was that Li Lin actually claimed in his statement that he was following the Emperor's secret edict to raise his troops.
He was very disappointed and angry about this.
He finally joined forces with Li Longji. He cared about the family ties that are thicker than water and hoped that the father and son brothers could work together to revive the country left by their ancestors, but they were betrayed again.
People's hearts are treacherous, and the struggle for power becomes increasingly complicated.
Li Cong has gradually become unable to distinguish the positions of everyone, it is difficult to distinguish between loyal and traitorous, and it is difficult to distinguish between right and wrong in various strategies.
He feels very confused and doesn’t know who to trust. What should he do?
Just on the matter of whether to appease Xue Bai, the opinions of the DPRK and China could not be unified at all.
At this moment, Xue Bai's memorial also arrived.
This time, no one dared to suppress the matter and refuse to report it, and the memorial was immediately submitted to Li Cong's court.
The moment he spread it out, Li Cong felt inexplicably nervous, fearing that Xue Bai would say something treacherous, and then he would have to face two rebellions at the same time.
Fortunately, after reading the memorial, the breath he was holding was relieved.
Xue Bai's tone in the memorial was very harsh, accusing Li Zhi of intending to assassinate him, and asked the saint to make the decision for him.
But at least there was no rebellion, and he still regarded himself as a minister.
It was at this moment that Li Cong felt his fear and made a decision. He wanted to appease Xue Bai as Wei Jiansu said.
After making the decision, the next question that faced us was, if one of Xue Bai and Li Zhi was right, then the other one must be wrong.
~~
Huazhou, Li Zhi has been very worried recently.
He clearly felt Xue Bai's eager gaze.
After Wei Zichun assassinated Xue Bai's team that day, Hun Yao chased him all the way and asked Li Zhi to hand over the murderer.
Li Zhi said that the assassination did not happen in his own territory and that he knew nothing about it. Instead, he accused Hun Yao of being a rebel who wanted to attack Huazhou, so he closed the city gate tightly and refused to let Hun Yao enter the city.
Hun Yao was furious and brought more soldiers and horses from Xiangzhou to attack Li Zhi. He did not attack the city by force, but only scolded him outside the city every day.
This situation is very similar to a rebellion, but as long as Xue Bai did not formally raise his troops, it can also be said to be a conflict of grudges between individuals.
Of course, Li Zhi knew that this was not a personal grudge, so he reported to the court one after another while anxiously waiting for reinforcements.
Finally, he waited for the court's decree, but when it was unfolded, he froze there.
Before he could figure out why, he learned the news from the south that King Yong had rebelled.
Li Zhi guessed Li Lin's thoughts when he met Wei Zichun, and he shouldn't have been surprised, but what he didn't expect was that Li Lin was so impatient that he rebelled before Xue Bai.
Looking at it this way, Xue Bai was too calm and still remained calm, which made it appear that he was the one who colluded with Li Lin and planned to rebel.
Li Zhi was deeply aware that something was wrong, and quickly ordered people to prepare pen and ink. He wanted to write a letter to prove himself to the saint.
But before he finished writing a self-defense memorial, news came that Xue Bai had invited him to meet outside the city.
"He's attacking?!"
Li Zhi always thought that Xue Bai was still busy preparing for the rebellion in Fan Yang, but he didn't expect that he would attack so quickly.
But on the other hand, it was also a good thing. At least it was not difficult for him to explain that the reason why Wei Zichun was allowed to assassinate was because Xue Bai was a rebel.
He immediately arranged for defense.
However, after the order was issued, the guard who came to report the news said that King Yong only brought a few people and was not attacking the city.
Li Zhi didn't believe it, so he climbed up to the top of the city and took a look. He actually saw Xue Bai waiting outside a stone's throw away. He was not wearing armor and there were no soldiers or horses around him.
If you want to assassinate Xue Bai, this is really a good idea.
After Li Zhi hesitated, he let Xue Bai enter the city and went to the long street to greet him personally. At the same time, he secretly ordered his confidants to be ready to take action.
Although he had the idea of taking action, when he came down from the stone steps at the top of the city and saw Xue Bai, he felt a murderous aura coming towards him.
However, after not seeing each other for several months, Xue Bai's momentum has become stronger than before. Hun Yao and Xue Xin, who are following him from left to right, are also majestic. Although they are small in number, they are more powerful than thousands of troops.
"Why did you collude with the rebels and send people to assassinate King Yong?!"
As soon as they met, Hun Yao shouted and asked in front of the soldiers at the city gate.
He was young and vigorous. He was assassinated and was blocked outside the city gate by Li Zhi for several days. He was already angry and naturally did not have a good attitude when they met.
Li Zhi originally did this out of public interest, but as long as Xue Bai didn't really rebel, he was in the wrong. What's more, now that King Yong has rebelled, he can't explain clearly, so he has to deny it.
"There is absolutely no such thing..."
"I'm telling you!" Hun Yao didn't wait for Li Zhi to finish his words and interrupted him directly, saying: "King Yong is the pillar of the country, and you dare to assassinate him? Aren't you afraid that Fan Yang's fierce soldiers will have no one to suppress them and cause another big chaos?!
"
This sentence was a threat and a reminder to Li Zhi that assassinating Xue Bai would not make the situation better, but would only make it worse.
Now that Li Lin has rebelled, if Xue Bai dies, no one will be able to suppress Fan Yang's surrender of troops and generals. When the time comes, they will take advantage of Li Lin's rebellion to establish a separate regime and it will be a small thing, but they will rush to kill and cause a big thing.
Li Zhi immediately broke out in cold sweat.
When the soldiers around him saw this scene, they felt frightened towards Xue Bai.
Who dares to listen to the order of this obedient Li Zhi and kill a powerful and powerful pillar of the country?
After a while, just when Li Zhi was thinking about how to respond and was about to speak, Xue Bai glanced at Xue Xin.
Xue Xin then rode forward.
His horse was also unruly, running away with a kick, almost hitting Li Zhi, and stopped after a long hiss.
The scene was a bit chaotic, but Xue Xin had already taken out a letter and read it out.
The content is also simple. Because of Li Lin's rebellion, Xue Bai did not have to return to Beijing and quickly returned to Fan Yang to guard.
In addition, Li Zhi's poor governance caused Li Lin's men to cross the border to assassinate Xue Bai. He dismissed him as the pacifier of Shandong Province and returned to Beijing to make arrangements for him. He was temporarily replaced by Hun Yao.
After hearing this, Li Zhi was speechless. He knew that this decree was true. The saint did not distinguish between right and wrong. At the moment, he only cared about appeasing Xue Bai, and Xue Bai also took the opportunity to recommend Hun Yao as the appeasement envoy.
As a result, he calmed down the envoys dignifiedly and could no longer order any soldiers to kill Xue Bai.
Xue Bai rode into the city with only a few horses. Not only was he unscathed, but he also always looked upright and magnanimous.