First Minister of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 554
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For a whole day, Gao Chong only stayed in Xue's residence, playing chess with Xue Shou in the courtyard, chatting in the study, and even disregarding Xue Yuanjing's objection during the dinner, the two had a drink with each other.

Gao Chong knew very well in his heart that this farewell might be the farewell between his cousins. Xue Yuanjing's eyes were red and he accompanied him all the way, but the three of them never mentioned Xue Shou's physical condition from the beginning to the end.

After getting out of Xue's mansion, Gao Chong looked up to the sky and said nothing, thinking that one of the stars in the sky was about to fall, tears dripped from the corners of his eyes after all, he bowed deeply to Xue's mansion, turned and left.

In the front hall, Xue Shou looked at Gao Chong's leaving back with a calm expression.

After a long time, feeling the biting night wind, Xue Shou finally said: "Zicheng, after the imperial decree of reward comes down, write the letter on my behalf, Xue Shou please resign."

"Uncle, you..." Xue Yuanjing was startled and said hurriedly.

Xue Shou shook his head and sighed, "Go back wherever you came from."

Xue Yuanjing responded with choked up sobs.

The next day, Li Shimin ordered the establishment of Weifengwei, directly responsible to the emperor, and set up two generals Weifengwei, under which there were several Zhonglang generals and school lieutenants, but there was no general post, and the others were the same as the sixteen The guard structure, from then on, is the Seventeen Guards of the Tang Dynasty.

Enfeoffed as the chief book of the crown prince, Xue, a man from Fenyin County, was appointed as General Weifengwei, Duke of Puguo, [-] households with food, and Doctor Ziguanglu with gold.

As soon as the imperial decree came out, those people who didn't know the inside story looked shocked. This Xue Shou was hiding in the mansion on weekdays. Duke, this immediately made many people feel dissatisfied.

It's just that with Wei Fengwei's secret efforts, those people who have ghosts in their hearts trembled and dared not raise any objections.

However, only one day later, Xue Shou resigned due to illness. After Li Shimin repeatedly persuaded him to stay, he had to agree, and Xue Yuanjing was named General Weifengwei to replace Xue Shou.

After saying goodbye to Xue and returning to his hometown, the first month has passed, and Gao Chong also started to prepare for his departure.

This time when he went to Lingnan, he decided to take all four of Gao Kan with him. As the saying goes, it is better to travel thousands of miles than to read thousands of books. If it is necessary to study in the Imperial College, it is better to take it to Lingnan to teach by example.

Li Xiuwan's belly was already slightly bulging, and the husband and wife bid farewell. After Gao Chong bid farewell to his grandmother and parents, he took Tian Yangming and Gao Kan out of Beijing together.

This trip to Lingnan was destined to be unsettled, so Li Shimin specially ordered Qin Qiong to select a thousand elite from Zuo Wuwei to serve as Gao Chong's guard. With this thousand-man guard, ordinary bandits would never dare to approach.

Even in the face of attacks from some local government soldiers, these thousand forbidden troops can guarantee that Gao Chong will escape unscathed.

The heavy snow has melted, but the cold wind is still biting. In this kind of weather, Gao Chong will not ask for trouble and sit directly in the carriage.

In the spacious carriage, the maid He Siniang was obediently making tea, and Gao Chong was lying on the soft bed, reading miscellaneous books boredly.

"Master, how far is it to Lingnan?" Tu Dijin suppressed his excitement, and came to the window, not daring to open the curtain, but asked curiously.

Not only Tudijin, but also Xue Rengui and the others approached the carriage to listen. Gao Chong only asked the four of them to ride horses along the way after they set off, in the name of exercising their willpower.

But these four boys didn't feel bitter and tired, on the contrary, they were full of interest, looking around all the way, full of curiosity about everything unfamiliar.

"Lingnan..." Gao Chong sat stretching in the carriage and put the "Sou Shen Ji" aside, "According to our current speed, it will take about a month."

"so far".

Tu Dijin looked surprised, "Isn't that about the same as I went from Yingzhou to Chang'an?"

Gao Chong was startled, and after careful consideration, he smiled and said, "It's pretty much the same. You have crossed the entire Tang Dynasty from the northeast to Guanzhong and then to Lingnan."

Tu Dijin grinned and said: "I heard that the weather in Lingnan is warm, so I don't need to wear this fur jacket, I really want to see it soon."

He grew up in the bitter cold land of Yingzhou since he was a child, and he really yearned for the legendary hot and humid Lingnan.

Xue Rengui shook his head and said: "Lingnan is not a good place, there are high mountains and dense forests everywhere, poisonous insects and miasma."

Pei Xingjian's face turned pale, "We don't want to live in the deep mountains and old forests forever."

Hearing this, Gao Chong in the carriage grinned and said, "That's not the case."

As soon as Pei Xingjian heard the words, Gao Chong continued to say: "But there are still a few cabins, but there may be small animals such as poisonous snakes, centipedes, scorpions, and toads on the beds."

Pei Xingjian was stunned, Xue Rengui and others also turned pale, they did not dare to imagine that scene.

Tian Yangming came up behind him on horseback, and couldn't help laughing when he heard this, "Great Governor, don't scare his brothers back."

"Siguang, come in, come in and be warm." Gao Chong heard the voice and opened the curtains, and suddenly a gust of cold wind blew his face, making him shiver, "If you don't have the guts, then I, Gao Youzhi, really missed it." ".

"Thank you, Commander, I'd better go with them."

Tian Yangming was very aware of superiority and inferiority. Although Gao Chong regarded him as a friend, he didn't dare to be too casual. He immediately pointed at the huge convoy behind, "By the way, see if there are any laggards behind."

Gao Da, the leader of the guard, turned dark when he heard this.

Xue Rengui and the other teenagers also realized that it was their master trying to scare them, so they could only look at each other and smile wryly.

The weather has just warmed up, and I dare not go too fast, and I can reach Jinzhou in five days.

Deng Shiluo, the barbarian chieftain of Jinzhou, led his people to wait at the gate of Xicheng County early on. He was so warm and respectful that Gao Chong had no choice but to stay in Jinzhou for a day.

Lingnan, Nanyin Prefecture, governed by Longshan City.

At that time, Gao Chong recruited officials in Guizhou and supported Li Guanglue as the chief. Li Yuan decreed the establishment of the Nanyin Prefecture General Manager's Office, with Li Guanglue as the general manager.

Later it was changed to Nanyin Prefecture Dudufu.

At this moment in the Governor's Mansion, Li Guanglue looked at the two letters on the desk, his eyes froze and his complexion complicated, he hesitated to make a decision.

Lingnan is completely in chaos, and it has now spread to surrounding counties.

After Gaochong recruited Lingnan, Ningchun, the governor of Yuezhou, educated the bureaucrats and opened up Xinzhou. Li Yuan issued a decree to praise him. Because of the mountain named Jiangshan, he named it Jiangzhou. It has three counties under the jurisdiction of Fengshan, Dongluo, and Gaocheng. Take Fengshan County as the state government.

Later, Ning Chun was transferred to be the governor of Nanhe Prefecture, and his nephew Ning Daoming took over as the governor of Yuezhou.

Now Ning Daoming, the governor of Yuezhou, rebelled against Tang and attacked Jiangzhou.

Jiangzhou is under the jurisdiction of Nanyin Prefecture Dudufu.

On the desk, on the left is Jiangzhou's emergency call for help, and on the right is Ning Daoming's wooing letter. Li Guang is a little hesitant.

If it were someone else, there were basically only two options.

First, be loyal to the court, send troops to rescue Jiangzhou, and attack the traitor Ning Daoming.

Second, seek refuge with Ning Daoming and rebel together.

But Li Guanglue was cowardly by nature, far less courageous than his eldest brother Li Guangshi and second brother Li Guangdu.

Li Guanglue made up his mind not to provoke that murderer Ning Daoming. He believed that Jiangzhou was a newly developed state after all, and it was not worth fighting. If the court asked about it in the future, he would just pretend that he didn't know. Anyway, he was the chief of the 48 Dong village. However, the imperial court will not do anything to him.

After making up his mind, Li Guanglue got up and prepared to burn the two letters.

At this moment, there was a noise at the door.

"Lu Changshi, you can't go in," only to hear the anxious voice of the guard, "The governor has ordered that no one should come near."

"Go away", and then heard an angry reprimand, accompanied by a scream from the guard, and the sound of footsteps approaching, Li Guang showed a look of horror, and hurriedly threw the letter into the brazier.

With a click, the door opened, and the leader was wearing a brown round-neck gown with an anxious expression on his face. It was the governor of Nanyin Prefecture, Shilu De, who was the one who used it. When he entered the door, he saw a burning brazier.

With a serious look on his face, Lu De quickly stepped forward to kick the brazier over, stamped out the burning letter, and picked it up carefully.

"Bold", Li Guanglue's expression changed immediately, "Lu Deyong, what do you want to do?"

As he spoke, he wanted to step forward and snatch the half-burned letter.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he stepped forward, a person flashed out from behind Lu De, drawing his sword to protect him.

Seeing the shiny knife light, Li Guanglue's heart trembled, and he scolded sternly: "Zhang Tong, if you dare to draw the knife against me, I will dismiss you from your post."

The man who drew the sword was none other than Zhang Tong, the other general of the Longshan Military Mansion in Nanyin Prefecture. If the chief officer of the military mansion was in command of the army, Li Guanglue, the governor, would not dare to replace him at will. Li Guanglue still has a way to dismiss him.

"Li Dudu, let me introduce you formally." Zhang Tong looked resolute, unmoved, and said coldly: "Zhang Tong, the captain of a certain Weifengwei Nanyinzhou Longshan school."

"Weifengwei?"

The decree to spread the word to the world has not yet reached Nanyinzhou, and Li Guanglue looked at a loss.

At this moment, Lu De had a serious expression on his face, and through the fragmented letter with only a few words left, combined with the news he received, he had roughly guessed the content, "Commander, you are asking for your own death."

Li Guanglue's face suddenly changed.

I only heard Lu Deyong continue to say: "The news of Ning Daoming's rebellion in Yuezhou cannot be concealed. General Zhang Bie is not only the deputy general of the Longshan Army, but also the eyes and ears of saints. There is no general Zhang Bie in Nanyin Prefecture. Knowing things, do you think no one will know about Ning Daoming’s rebellion and Jiangzhou’s request for help?”

Li Guanglue's forehead was already sweating slightly, and he felt panicked. Hearing these outrageous words, he hurriedly waved his hands and said, "No, I didn't hide it. I was planning to call the officials to discuss it."

Then Li Guanglue came to his senses and looked at Zhang Tong in a daze, "Zhang, Zhang Biejiang, what is Weifengwei?"

Zhang Tong snorted coldly when he heard the words, and didn't give the governor any face at all, "You will know in a few days, now Yuezhou is in rebellion, Jiangzhou is in emergency, what are you going to do?".

The clay figurine was also very angry. Seeing Zhang Tong being so rude, Li Guang said angrily, "I don't need you to tell me how to do things. Get out now."

After all, Lu Deyong had some friendship with Li Guanglue. When Zhang Tong found him, he understood that this mighty Fengwei was definitely not to be offended. Seeing this, he immediately said: "Zhang Biejiang, please wait outside, I'll come Persuade the governor".

Zhang Tong gave Li Guang a cold look and said, "I can do it myself."

Then he turned around and left, the tip of the knife still dripping blood.

Li Guanglue's eyes narrowed, and he went to the door to have a look, only to see his guard lying on the ground with a terrifying gash on his neck.

"This..." Li Guanglue felt a chill coming from his feet to his head, and his face turned pale, "How dare he? De Yong, how dare he do this?"

Lu Deyong shook his head and sighed, pulled Li Guangyue inside to sit down, and then closed the doors and windows.

"Captain, don't be confused," Lu De persuaded with earnestness: "Yuezhou has been in chaos for so long, and now the news has spread, and Zhang Tong already knows about it. I just found out that he came to look for me just now. How dare you cover up for the rebels."

Li Guanglue saw that Lu Deyong knew everything, and the two were old acquaintances, so he didn't hide it anymore, and said directly: "Ning Daoming's letter, if I dare to act rashly, I will be an enemy of the Ning family in Qinzhou. The Ning family is powerful. He has a high prestige among the bureaucrats, and when my elder brother was alive, he dared not make enemies with him... ".

Hearing Li Guanglue's words, Lu De said with a hatred of iron and steel: "Commander, why do you want to belittle yourself, his Ning family is powerful, and you have people from 48 Dong villages as your backing, so you don't have to turn against him, let alone the Ning family. It's only powerful in Qinzhou, and it's far away from here, so why would you be disloyal to the imperial court just because you're afraid of the power of the Ning family?"

"I don't," Li Guanglue immediately shook his head and said, "I have absolutely no intentions. It's just that, as you said, the Ning family dominated Qinzhou, and now it's only in Jiangzhou. The three counties of Jiangzhou are mixed with Han and barbarians, and they don't have much food. Why bother?" Meet him in battle."

"Confused!"

Lu De scolded with staring eyes: "Captain, you only want to be alone, but you don't know that as the governor of Nanyin Prefecture, you are in charge of Jiangzhou's military and government. Now you are sitting and watching the rebels attack Jiangzhou. This is a crime of conspiracy. Once the court finds out, your life will be terminated." carry on".

Li Guanglue was not calm any more, and said directly: "Since this is the case, then I will send troops immediately."

After all, he was not stupid enough, Lu Deyong nodded, and said directly: "The governor immediately summoned the officials to reprimand the Ning family for their rebellious behavior, and then personally led the troops to help Jiangzhou."

"Ah?" Li Guang slightly trembled, "You want me to lead the army myself?"

Lu De gritted his teeth angrily, and said bitterly: "It's already at this time, if you don't be active, Commander, you won't be the only one who lost his head."

Seeing Lu Deyong say this, Li Guanglue's stern and introverted temperament was once again displayed.

"That's not necessarily the case. The Ning family has stood in Lingnan for a hundred years and has never been defeated. Now the court may not have the intention to stabilize Lingnan. What if the Ning family really succeeds?"

Lu De stood up abruptly after hearing the words, looked straight at Li Guanglue, and said in a deep voice: "If the governor has such thoughts, then don't blame Lu De for not talking about fellowship."

"How are you doing?" Li Guanglue was also annoyed, neither of them took him as the governor seriously.

"Light of the fireflies in the South of the Five Ridges, also want to compete with the rising sun in the Central Plains? Commander, think about it, since ancient times, the unified dynasty of the Central Plains has no choice but to take over the barren land of the South of the Five Ridges?
There has only been one Zhao Tuo in the south of the Five Ridges for thousands of years, but what happened is that he obediently surrendered to the Central Plains.Now that the sage came to the throne not long ago, he is full of ambitions, so how could he allow Xiao Xiao to make trouble, aside from other things, as long as Yan Guogong Gao Chong comes to Lingnan, do you think the Ning family can deal with him? "

Hearing the word Gao Chong, Li Guanglue's face was pale, without a trace of blood.

He still remembered that his second brother, Li Guangdu, who was brave and good at fighting, died under Gao Chong's hand, and he himself also crouched under Gao Chong's horse and surrendered to beg for mercy.

Thinking of Gao Chong, Li Guanglue didn't feel lucky anymore, nodded and said: "De Yong is right, I will give the order."

"By the way, what exactly is that Weifengwei?" Li Guang thought of the arrogant Zhang Tong, "How dare that Zhang Tong be so presumptuous? There is no such Weifengwei in Sixteen Guards, so don't be intimidated by him." up".

　hungry
　　
　
(End of this chapter)