People say that blessings never come in pairs and misfortunes never come alone.
It doesn’t seem applicable to Li Po…
The fact that he was able to become king so calmly was actually an external manifestation of Li Po's staged victory, symbolizing that since then, Li Ding'an had separated himself from Jin and officially entered the ranks of the princes of the world.
At this time, Pei Shiqing's good news also arrived.
Pei Shiqing and others led their troops eastward to Shangdang. They first marched along the southern foot of Taiyue Mountain to capture Qinyuan, and then encircled Tunliu. The march was very fast. Before Yan Zong, the prefect of Shangdang, could react, they had already entered Shangdang.
Party hinterland.
The ensuing battle was just as Li Po expected. Yan Zong struggled hard several times, but to no avail.
Yan Chengshi, the general guarding the garrison, was Yan Zong's nephew. He was so frightened that he only had time to send a letter asking for help, so he was surrounded in the garrison. Within two days, his general Lu Sheng killed Yan Chengshi and others, and surrendered to the city.
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Then Pei Shiqing divided his troops and sent Luo Shixin to lie down by the Zhuoshui River. He defeated the Xianghuan defenders who came to help in one fell swoop and crossed the Zhuoshui River to capture Xianghuan.
In fact, Xianghuan was already occupied by the Pei family at this time, and then Licheng surrendered, and the townships and counties were defeated without attacking. The northern part of Shangdang was pacified almost in the blink of an eye.
This not only showed that Yan Zong was not popular among the Shangdang, but also because the Shangdang began to suffer from food shortages. After a difficult winter, Yan Zong even ordered various places to levy food taxes, which made the already mountainous and hilly areas more difficult.
People in the northern part of Shangdang complained.
The number of refugees and bandits suddenly increased. Yan Zong issued decrees carelessly, and kept sending people to Jiangjun to request Li Po to allocate food and grass. He really regarded Li Po as being taken advantage of.
Of course, he was not stupid. He felt that Li Po was fighting with Li Tang and did not dare to offend him, so he took the opportunity to seek some benefits.
You see, wasn't it good last year? There was not enough food, so Jiangjun shipped food over. There was an infestation of bandits, and it was Li Ding'an who sent people to put it down.
It's just that the general sent is not very sensible. After killing the bandits, you can just leave. He also wants him, the head of a county, to go to Lucheng to meet him. Bah, even if Li Ding'an comes, Yan Zong will not go there like that.
A Hongmen Banquet.
So this year, Yan Zong planned to repeat his old tricks, and also let the officials and people of Shangdang know the truth. He, Yan Zong, is the master of Shangdang. When outsiders come and go, they have to leave a place for Yan Zong.
Otherwise, we must not make it easy for him.
Well, this grass-headed king of the Shangdang is just like this. He is no different from some warlords in the past or later. They can't understand the changes in the outside world and don't want to see them. They only think about their own three acres of land.
Dividing land will, sooner or later, be the fate of being taken over by others.
In fact, before the grass-headed king could wake up, Zhang Lun had already led his troops to Shangdang City.
There is actually nothing to say about this battle. Zhang Lun has a long-standing reputation in the Shangdang, and Pei Shiqing is leading the army. The city has not been broken yet, and Yan Zong has become a prisoner.
Pei Shiqing led his army into Shangdang County and immediately began a large-scale purge.
This is not only because of Li Po's military order, but also because Pei Shiqing will be under the rule of Shangdang in the future. Pei Shiqing, who is gentle on the outside but deep and calm on the inside, is not a good person.
His previous vacillation left a lot of bad impressions on Li Po. Today, Pei Shiqing understands that if he hesitates again, the Pei family in Hedong will be disgraced like the Wang family in Jinyang.
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Therefore, the ruthlessness of his attacks and the decisiveness of his judgment are completely different from Pei's name.
On the day he entered the city, Pei Shiqing ordered hundreds of members of the Yan clan to be arrested. With just a wave of his hand, all of them, regardless of gender, old or young, including Yan Zong himself, were beheaded under the county wall.
Once the blood starts flowing, it's not over.
After that, all the members of the Yan Zong were captured and imprisoned. Within a few days, the heads were pouring down again. Luo Shixin was not idle in the north either. He was the most murderous one under Li Po. In addition to searching for people in the northern counties,
In addition to the members of Yan Zong, Luo Shixin divided his troops in various directions, brought the bandit leaders in the mountains and fields to him one by one, happily chopped off their heads and sent them to Pei Shiqing.
Pei Shiqing was indeed taken aback by him. He had long heard that Li Ding'an's sworn brother was murderous and unruly. Now that he saw it, he was indeed well-deserved. Hundreds of heads were sent to him, which immediately dwarfed his side.
Pei Shiqing had no choice but to send Zhang Lun to the north because he was really afraid that General Luo would go crazy and turn the northern counties of Shangdang into Shura hell.
After this purge, the entire Shangdang party did not boil with complaints, but became silent. Everyone tremblingly visited the new Shangdang County Lord one after another.
While the war is going on, the reputation of the Pei family in Hedong will only play a small role, but when the war reaches a certain level, the effect of fame will increase exponentially. The Yan family in Shangdang does not have such a halo bonus.
After the blood was gone, Pei Shiqing promoted his subordinates to officials, and spent his spare time urging everyone to get busy with spring plowing matters. He did not order Zhang Lun and Luo Shixin to return to the military commandery city.
As Pei Shiqing expected, soon Changping Prefect Lu Haoran sent a letter, asking himself to be blamed and wanting to resign from the position of Changping Prefect.
This was undoubtedly a kind of temptation, and Pei Shiqing immediately wrote back to Lu Haoran, setting out his interests and denouncing what Yan Zong had done.
Although the letter did not mention anything about Changping County, the meaning was very clear. I have killed Yan Zong, but whether your head is still safe depends on whether you are smart enough.
Lu Haoran is indeed much smarter than Yan Zong, otherwise at this time, Li Po's order did not say that Lu Haoran and Yan Zong would be treated equally. In other words, Yan Zong was deeply disgusted by Li Po, and what Lu Haoran did was actually
It's almost the same as Yan Zong, but whether it's in Li Yuan or Li Po, the treatment is much better than that of Yan Zong.
In comparison, it is clear who is stupid and who is smart.
When Pei Shiqing sent the good news, Lu Haoran had actually set off from Changping, and was going to come to Jinyang to meet Li Po with Yan Zong's head, but one was completely beard and tail, and the other was only left with a head.
It can be said that Pei Shiqing easily defeated Shangdang and Changping counties without much delay in spring plowing. He is worthy of being a descendant of the Pei family in Hedong.
Afterwards, Pei Shiqing hurriedly sent Luo Shixin out of the country as a gift, fearing that the murderous devil would stay in Shangdang and not leave.
Luo Shixin was quite dissatisfied. He returned to the Shangdang, so it was fine that he couldn't kill him. He couldn't even cut off the head of the thief Yan Zong with his own hands, which made him very unhappy.
On the other hand, Zhang Lun was very satisfied. He easily achieved some military exploits and got the position of lieutenant of two counties. The next thing he had to do was to suppress the bandits.
Now he is not only the general of the Wei Mansion, he also has the responsibility of protecting the country and the people. His qualifications are much closer than others, and Li Po's great use of him can be seen clearly.
This situation is completely different from the situation in Li Tangshi. How could he be dissatisfied? When bidding farewell to Luo Shixin, this smiling man's beard was raised.
This obviously reminded Luo Shixin of Cheng Dabeard, so he punched him in the chest several times until the man couldn't laugh anymore. Luo Shixin jumped on his horse and drove away with a big smile.
Li Po had never doubted Pei Shiqing's talent, and Li Po had expected Shangdang's appointment, but it was too fast. Not even a few days after he returned to Jinyang, the good news was already delivered to his desk.
After Li Po saw it, he was overjoyed, but he also sighed secretly. The importance of the clan is still as important as before. Even if the world is in such chaos, the reputation of the clan is still so powerful. It seems that in the future,
In some things, you still need to be more cautious.
Li Po then passed on the good news, adding fuel to his ceremony of becoming king.
He also ordered people to pass an order to Pei Shiqing to exempt Shangdang and Changping counties from taxes for three years. He also ordered Zhang Lun to step up efforts to eliminate banditry and train his soldiers diligently without neglecting them.
Then, at Pei Shiqing's request, he sent an order to Zhao Ying, the prefect of Jiangjun, to transport grain to the Shangdang.
Having finished handling the first and last parts without much effort, Li Po thought with some pride. After fighting and killing for many years, he finally had a territory that he could advance, retreat and defend.
Now there is another prince joining...
Thinking back to the time when Xiao Ran returned to the Great Wall with the wind and snow all the way, even if he broke his head, he would never have imagined that he would be where he is today.
Huh? Where are the little ones at home? Look at the family fortune I have earned for you. Humph, if you do something bad in the future, you will be very sorry for me...
But before he could be proud for long, Li Bi came to pour cold water on him.
I muttered in his ear several times that there were not enough people watching the ceremony and her status was not valuable enough. It seemed that the Princess of Han was not very interesting...
Li Po was a smart man, and he understood after listening to it twice. As the saying goes, if you don't return wealth to your hometown, you can travel at night like fine clothes. Since both of their hometowns are in Kansai, they definitely can't go back.
But on the day he became king, there were not many relatives around him, which made his wife a little irritable, especially thinking about his parents and relatives in Chang'an, so Li Po's ears suffered.
Li Po couldn't help it. It was very rare for Li Bi to look like this. It just meant that his steps were too fast and too big, which made his wife a little uncomfortable.
He did not expect that he would be able to reach today step by step, and Li Bi also did not expect that one day he would become a princess. When this question enters people's minds, various emotions will follow.
But Li Po didn't want to make a happy and sad story, so he could only comfort him, and called Li Chun, Hongyanzhu'er, and Ashi Tianxiang over, and scolded them one by one, making Li Bi happy.
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But there were some words that I really couldn't help but say. Within a few days, people came to watch the ceremony.
In early March, the envoy from Dou Jiande of Hebei Province finally arrived in Jinyang, and several more names were added to the list of people attending the ceremony.
Dou Jiande's official secretary, Liu Bin, was the most powerful traitor in the world, Wang Bo. There was also Dou Jiande's official minister, Sikong of the Sui Dynasty, and Yang Gongren, the eldest son of King Yang Xiong of the Guan Dynasty.
These people have various origins. Except for Liu Bin, a native of Hebei, whose reputation is not obvious, the other two people are not unknown people.
Well, now Li Bi finally felt that being a princess was somewhat interesting.