Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

"Forget it!" Pei Judao sighed: "Just listen to him first!"

Liu Peiji entered the door and just finished the ceremony when he heard Pei Judao say: "There is something I want you to do. The Shaanzhou rebels have an envoy. Go see him and ask them to send food!"

"Sending food?" Liu Peiji was stunned when he heard this: "Didn't General Ge already lead his troops to conquer? Could it be——"

"Liu Shilang!" Zhang Wenguan coughed: "Soldiers are deadly weapons, and saints have to use them as a last resort. If you can let water transport flow smoothly without fighting, that is the best!"

"What Mr. Zhang said is true!" Liu Peiji glanced at Pei Ju and said, "There must be conditions for Shaanzhou to send food. I wonder how much we can agree to?"

Pei Judao snorted coldly and turned his head without saying a word. Seeing this, Zhang Wenguan knew that the other party would not be able to grant Liu Peiji the authority to make concessions, so he could only smile: "This is your first time there, so you can explore the other party's tone of voice." yes!"

"Talk about it?" Liu Peiji glanced at Pei Judao and said to Zhang Wenguan: "Ms. Zhang, I have something I don't know whether to say or not. Since we want Shaanzhou to open a canal road to deliver grain, some things must be given up. One step at a time, and you can't detect food just by looking at your mouth."

"Liu Shilang, you just have to go first!" Of course Zhang Wenguan knew that Liu Peiji's words were deliberately told to Pei Judao: "Whether it succeeds or not, I don't blame you!"

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dungeon.

The room had no windows, no bed, just a pile of straw on the ground, and a wooden bucket in the corner for defecation. Murong Miao vaguely remembered that the door was made of spliced ​​wooden boards and covered with iron sheet, which was more than a foot thick. When he entered the door, he could briefly glance at the furnishings in the room. When the door closed, he could see nothing, there was no trace of light, and he was no different from a blind man.

Staying in such a place, the living and the dead are no different, both are buried underground. Murong Miao couldn't help but think of the cruel legends in the palace that he had heard in the past: In order to avoid leaking the secrets of the mausoleum, the craftsmen who built the mausoleum for the emperor would be imprisoned in the mausoleum with their secrets after the mausoleum was completed. Buried underground. When he thought of this, Murong Piao didn't dare to think about it any more.

He cursed everyone, Pei Judao, King Pei, the Queen, the Emperor, Cui Hongdu, Hei Te Changzhi, Yiji Lianbode, and in the end, he blamed himself. "Idiot!" he shouted into the darkness. "You are a hopeless idiot!"

In the darkness, he didn't know the passage of time, couldn't see anything, couldn't even make a mark on the wall. We can only estimate how long it has been by the number of meals delivered. Murong Mu didn't know what would happen next. He didn't know whether Shaanzhou had been captured, where Wang Wenzuo was now, or whether he had been forgotten.

The sound of footsteps came from the corridor. Murong Miao was half asleep and half awake. At first, he thought it was just another dream. Suddenly, the heavy wooden door was opened, and a ray of light shone on his face, stinging him. s eyes.

"Captain Murong, you don't look very good like this! What do you want?"

"Water, it would be better if there is wine!" Murong Nao's voice was hoarse and unfamiliar, as if it did not come from his throat.

"Bring some water, it will be bad if you get drunk!" said the voice.

After a while, an earthen jar was delivered to Murong Miao. He picked up the earthen jar and drank heavily. The water flowed out from the corners of his mouth and into his beard. He shouted that his stomach could no longer hold it before he stopped and asked weakly. :"Who are you?"

"Liu Peiji, Minister of Household Affairs!" The visitor replied: "Servant Pei asked me to come and talk to you about the grain supply!"

Murong Miao looked at the man in front of him, his eyes a little dull: "Let me go out first and get out of this hellish place!"

"I'm afraid I don't have the power!" Liu Peiji looked around and shook his head: "Well, this place is indeed very bad. Let's move to a cleaner place where we can see the sun before we talk!"

A few minutes later, the place where they were talking was moved to another cell. Although it was still a cell, it at least had windows and ventilation. Murong Miao was enjoying the long-lost sunshine comfortably. Liu Peiji did not rush him. He patiently waited for the hairdresser to come. Noodle Master: "You can have your hair cut and shaved, and listen to me at the same time. Shizhong Pei asked me to ask you what conditions you must agree to before we are willing to resume water transportation!"

"Conditions, I've already said it!" Murong Nao stuttered in reply, his tongue still a little stiff.

"Change the conditions! Don't force me to lock you back again!" Liu Peiji said: "You know Shizhong Pei won't accept it!"

"I don't want to be imprisoned either, but it's no use just agreeing!" Murong Miao replied: "You can imprison me, but you can't imprison them too!"

"Okay!" Liu Peiji sighed: "I know what you mean, maybe you don't care about your own life, but have you ever thought about the people in Chang'an, have you ever thought about the soldiers in Longyou, what's on the market in Chang'an these days? The price of food is already a thousand cents per dou, if this continues, it won’t be long before the streets will be filled with thieves and people will die of hunger everywhere!”

"It's not our fault!" Murong Miao frowned and said, "It's not us who joined forces with King Pei to put the emperor under house arrest!"

"These are just your speculations with no proof!" Liu Peiji sighed, but when he saw Murong Mu's sarcastic smile, he raised his hands to show concession: "Okay, let's not argue about this issue for now. Let's put it this way, I don’t know whether what you said is true or not, I just stand on the side of the people of Chang’an and the soldiers of Longyou. They have no fault at all, but they have to starve because of your fight. It’s not fair.”

"There is no such thing as fairness in this world!" Murong Mu sneered: "Okay, I can ask them to transport some food, but this food is for the people of Chang'an. I have two conditions!"

"What conditions?"

"First, these grains are for the people of Chang'an, not military rations, so when the grains arrive, they will be given to you and you will personally distribute them to the people of Chang'an. How about that?"

"Give it to me? Aren't you putting me on the fire to roast me?" Liu Peiji became anxious when he heard this: "If Shizhong Pei knows about it, he will definitely doubt me!"

"If you don't agree, forget it, just pretend I didn't say it!" Murong Nao showed a sly smile.

"Wait a minute!" Liu Peiji's eyes flashed before the figure of a middle-aged man selling household items at a low price to support his family. He sighed: "Forget it, I promise you, what is your second condition?"

"Since Shizhong Pei is unwilling to hand over His Majesty's biological son to me, then at least let me pay a visit to confirm that the child is alive and well."

Liu Peiji thought for a moment and finally nodded: "Okay, I promise you, how much food can Shaanzhou send?"

"Two hundred stones a day is enough for one ship to carry food!" Murong Nao held out a finger. "Only two hundred dan a day, what is enough for this!" Liu Peiji said angrily.

"Two hundred shi a day, that's six thousand shi a month! Calculated at one liter per person per day, it's enough to feed 20,000 people." Murong Miao said with a smile: "In fact, although there is a shortage of food in Chang'an City, it is not as big as a thousand tons of rice." As for the money, with this food, it is enough to drive down the price of rice and meet our urgent needs! No matter how much I have, I have no power!"

"Okay!" Liu Peiji also knew that everything Murong Mu said might not be true, but just forcing the other party was useless. The one who really provided food was Shaanzhou. No matter how much they promised, it would be in vain if they didn't. Although two hundred shi of food a day is a lot, it can still save a lot of people. After all, this is not necessarily a bad thing. If Chang'an's food problem is solved so easily, then Pei Judao will not take him seriously, so why should he work too hard?

After reaching an agreement with Murong Mu, Liu Peiji returned to the political hall and described the conditions negotiated with Murong Mu. Finally, he said: "Shizhong Pei, this is the condition that the fellow put forward. Whether it works or not depends on you!"

"Two hundred shi of food a day is a little short!" Pei Ju said.

Seeing that Pei Judao did not reject Murong Miao's conditions, Liu Peiji breathed a sigh of relief: "I also think it's a bit lacking, but that guy is stubborn and won't let go. I have no choice but to dry him out first." Let’s talk again in two days?”

"That's all, let's make an agreement to transport food as early as possible! Two hundred dan a day is better than nothing!" Pei Judao waved his hand: "Just do as you say!"

Now that the negotiation was settled, Murong Mu wrote a letter and sent someone to deliver it to Shaanzhou. Sure enough, a grain ship arrived from Shaanzhou the next day. After arriving at Guangyuntan, it unloaded two hundred shi of grain. Just after returning, this action immediately aroused huge cheers in Chang'an City. The people of Chang'an City, from the noble clans to the common people, prayed in front of the Buddha to thank the Bodhisattva Buddha for his kindness.

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Tai Chi Palace.

"Aye, how could you agree to such a condition!" Queen Pei was furious and paced back and forth in the room: "Obviously it was those traitors in Shaanzhou who cut off the water route and left Chang'an without food. In doing so, they became Good people, we have become evil people, Zhang Wenguan and Liu Peiji must be Wang Wenzuo's accomplices, please take them down and punish them!"

"No!" Pei Judao shook his head: "If we do this, we will only drive the neutrals to the opposite side!"

"That must be dealt with!" Queen Pei said angrily: "In my opinion, it is better to agree to Ge Dewei's request and let him command the soldiers from various prefectures in Guanzhong to besiege Shaanzhou! Open up water transportation!"

"If we do this, we are really doomed!" Pei Judao sighed: "Today we are issuing an order to send troops from all over the country to attack Shaanxi Province. Tomorrow there will be problems with the North Gate Imperial Army. They will fight for a thousand dollars, even if the North Gate Imperial Army and Not many officials in the DPRK can support their families with their salaries!"

"How could this happen!" When Queen Pei heard this, she couldn't help but sigh: "We originally thought about how to deal with Wang Wenzuo, but we didn't expect that even the few minions left by Wang Wenzuo couldn't subdue him!"

"Hey!" Pei Judao sighed: "Wang Wenzuo originally built water ships, four-wheeled carriages, rivers, and canals. Unknowingly, he held the throat of the Tang Dynasty in his hands. As long as he moved his fingers, Chang'an would breathe. No. I really didn’t think of it at the beginning!”

"If I had known this, I shouldn't have let that Japanese person take charge of this matter in the first place!" Queen Pei said bitterly.

"No one in the world could have known earlier. Besides, the water transportation was a hard job at the beginning. How many people came back in disgrace, otherwise how could it be a Japanese's turn? The Tang Dynasty was short of everything else, but there was no shortage of officials."

"What should we do?" Queen Pei asked: "Wang Wenzuo will come back sooner or later. By then, won't we just have to wait and see?"

"After much thought, I can only bring Pei Xingjian back!" Pei Judao sighed: "As for the military generals of the Tang Dynasty, he is the only one who can compete with Wang Wenzuo. As long as he can win, then everything will be easy!"

"That can only be like this!" Queen Pei sighed: "If I had known this, why would I take such a dangerous strategy? Even if I am changed, I will not necessarily die!"

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Fan Yang.

The twists and turns of the Yanshan Mountains are like a raised wall across the Northeast Asian continent, dividing the North China Plain and the Mongolian Plateau. Fanyang is located at the southern foot of the Yanshan Mountains. Several valleys passing through the mountains converge here. It has been the intersection of grassland herders and Central Plains farmers since ancient times.

"Finally back!" Looking at Fan Yangcheng with Yanshan Mountain in the distance, Wang Wenzuo sighed: "I hope it's not too late."

"Don't worry, General!" Lu Twelve said with a smile: "It doesn't matter if the imperial messenger arrives first, as long as you give the order, the Lu family, Zu family, and Gao family in the city will definitely rise up, and Fanyang City will definitely be yours. "

Wang Wenzuo glanced at Lu Twelve and said nothing. This guy's tone was quite serious, and he didn't know whether it was true or not.

"Then you go to the city first and see how the situation is!"

"Yes!" Lu Twelve responded, then mounted his horse and set off. Wang Wenzuo returned to the carriage and said to Xue Rengui: "Mr. Xue, what do you think? Are you tired?"

"What's so tiring about sitting in this carriage! You look down on my old bones too much!" Xue Rengui replied a little unconvinced. He played with the furnishings of the carriage: "But your carriage is indeed a good thing, and It’s fast and not bumpy. Can you give me one?”

"That's easy to say!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile: "When we get to Luoyang, I will ask the workshop to build a good one for you."

“Luoyang?”

"What's so difficult about using obedience to counter rebellion?" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile.

"Forget it, I'm not as good as you young people in terms of talk. If my guess is correct, the people in Chang'an will probably say that they are the ones who follow the rules and you are the ones who are the opposite, right? I can't tell who of you is right and who is wrong, but after all, they It’s in Chang’an!”

"Haha!" Wang Wenzuo laughed and said, "Don't you think Mr. Xue thinks I am a traitor?"

“Hey!”

(End of this chapter)