Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 29 Jin Wuwei

The evening drum sounded again.

Xue Bai is in the right minister's residence, so he doesn't care much about the curfew anymore.

It's hard to say whether it's freer or less free.

Li Linfu spends every day in the mansion dealing with government affairs, but today he found time to meet him.

"You can actually find someone with your stupid method?"

Xue Bai replied: "A file will always leave traces, as long as you have patience, you will definitely be able to find traces."

"Ji Wen can't find out."

"Ji Facao is too impetuous." Xue Bai responded bluntly, and said: "Since it has been found out that Wu Kangcheng and the Jiang brothers met, he didn't want to deny it directly. In addition, he deliberately chatted and put me It’s possible that I just want to slow down my progress when it’s delayed until the curfew, or it’s possible that I’m using my status as a patrol envoy of the Jinwu Guard to notify the Longyou veterans during the curfew. We can arrange people from the Jinwu Guard to secretly investigate.”

Li Linfu coughed twice, and someone arranged for him to do it.

Afterwards, he seemed to have changed his nature, and offered to give benefits.

"You have done a good job in this matter. I intend to recommend you as an official, but I don't know if you have recalled your life experience. Do you have a family at home?"

Xue Bai hurriedly pretended to be flattered, and replied: "I really can't remember."

He knew that with Li Linfu's suspicion, such an answer could easily make him think that he was deliberately concealing it.

The already thin trust between the two was further fragmented.

"It's okay, think about it slowly." Li Linfu said: "You should supervise and handle the matter of Longyou veterans."

"Here."

Xue Bai turned around and left the hall, and sat down in the verandah in the front yard.

He was waiting for the Jinwu Guard to make arrangements before going over to supervise.

Not long after, someone poked his head in, but it was Yang Zhao.

"I heard from the chief steward that you are going to the Jinwu Guard. I said, how come I haven't seen you for the past two days, but what can I gain?"

"Find some clues."

"Who asked you this." Yang Zhao said: "I heard that you went to Wang Wei's house. He was from the Wang family in Taiyuan, so he didn't give you any good things?"

Xue Bai shook his head.

Yang Zhao said: "Don't blame my brother for not reminding you that you have to reach out for the benefits of working for the right minister. In this way, you can make progress if you have the capital to manage it. Like me, I often give gifts to the three wives, and they are beautiful for me in front of the saint. Say, when the sage wants to employ someone, he will think of me. Otherwise, you will work hard and just wait for the right minister to appoint an official for you, won't you?"

He paused for a moment, and added another sentence.

"Brother's words today are worth a thousand gold."

Xue Bai was speechless for a while, but now that the atmosphere in the officialdom is such that the sage is so extravagant, and the Right Prime Minister relies on his ability to manage money and wealth to rise to the top and follow suit, it is inevitable that he will be more straightforward when it comes to Yang Zhao.

He had no choice but to thank Yang Zhao for giving him a daughter, and asked, "Why is Uncle Guo here?"

"I'm the lackey of the right minister's sect." Yang Zhao smiled triumphantly, lowered his voice and said, "There is a great event, the concubine has returned to the palace."

"Oh?"

Yang Zhao sat down next to Xue Bai, and spoke in a proud tone.

"Let me tell you, I heard that after the imperial concubine came out of the palace, the saint didn't even eat the imperial meal, so he whipped around in anger. When General Gao saw this, he presented the poem you wrote for the imperial concubine. The saint said the poem was not good, but put The imperial meal was given to General Gao, and General Gao asked for an order to call the noble concubine back to the palace."

Xue Bai asked, "How does Uncle Guo know such details?"

With a smug smile on Yang Zhao's face, he said in a low voice, "Mrs. Guo Guo can inquire clearly."

Xue Bai nodded.

Yang Zhao said again: "The imperial concubine said, she wrote down the matter of you sending the poem."

In today's world, if there is another incident with the Du family, Yang Guifei's words may save dozens of lives.

Xue Bai said: "I should thank Uncle Guo for giving me the opportunity."

"You and my brother, why are you polite?"

Anyway, Yang Zhao has already replied Xue Bai with a priceless sentence, so he is not polite.

"The matter is over, Mrs. Guo Guo can finally let go of one thing on her mind. After you have completed the errand for the right minister, I will take you to pay a visit and give you advice on your future."

"Uncle Guo supported me too much."

Yang Zhao said: "This is a good opportunity, if you grab it, don't learn from Wang Wei you saw today."

"Oh?"

"Don't you know?" Yang Zhao glanced at Xue Bai, and felt that he still had to remind him, so he waved his hand to let him listen to him, and asked, "You know Princess Yuzhen."

"I don't know much about it."

"You, you still want to make progress like this." Yang Zhao complained softly, and said: "Princess Yuzhen is the sister of the sage, and she has won the favor of the sage, and she is extremely honorable."

Xue Bai knew that the current sage would kill his son as soon as he said it, but he was good to his brothers and sisters.

After all, the saint's biological mother was secretly executed after meeting Wu Zetian, and even the body could not be found. He has been dependent on his brothers and sisters since he was a child.

"Princess Yuzhen did not choose a son-in-law, but became a nun and became a nun. The people who come and go are all talented scholars and celebrities. It was because of Princess Yuzhen's recommendation that Li Bai was able to worship Hanlin."

Speaking of this, Yang Zhao shook his head and smiled, and said: "I heard it too. It is rumored that Wang Wei failed the ranking that year, and King Deqi introduced him to Princess Yuzhen. He was dressed in white, holding a pipa, At the banquet, she played a song "Yulun Robe" for the princess. The princess saw that he was "miaonian, white and graceful", and asked King Qi who it was. They took Wang Wei to the inner room and changed into colorful clothes, promoted him to the guest seat, and treated him kindly as a distinguished guest. During the dinner, the princess saw Wang Wei's flair, and couldn't help but look sideways again and again."

After Xue Bai heard this, he was no stranger to this situation, but he remembered what he saw in Mrs. Guo's mansion that day.

No wonder Wang Wei would say that sentence "You are very similar to me when I was young", it is really similar.

Yang Zhaodao: "It seems that Princess Yuzhen had agreed to recommend Zhang Jiugao as the number one scholar that year, but after meeting Wang Wei that day, she changed her words, 'This year I will be born this year as a solution, I sincerely call Guohua', recruit examiners to the Princess' mansion, send The palace maid preached, and Wang Wei became the first in one fell swoop."

Xue Bai couldn't help asking: "Can the princess decide the result of the imperial examination with one word?"

"of course."

In the whole rumor, Yang Zhao answered the part that shocked Xue Bai the most with two words.

As for whether the other rumors are true or false, I don't know whether they are true or false.

"That year, Wang Wei was twenty, and Princess Yuzhen was just over thirty. One was a handsome young man with many talents, and the other was a noble and beautiful Taoist nun. I won't tell you what happened, you can think for yourself."

Yang Zhao got excited when he spoke, and the smile on his face became brighter.

It can be seen that he usually chats with Mrs. Guo Guo and others, and most of the chats are about the romantic affairs among these celebrities and nobles.

It is rare to even appear to be knowledgeable.

"It's a pity, Wang Wei doesn't know how to flatter, heh, 'Don't forget the past kindness with today's favor', probably such a poem, he violated Princess Yuzhen's wishes and married his childhood sweetheart cousin Cui Shi. No After a while, he was relegated to Jeju for some reason. You see, after his wife died, he refused to continue, saying it was infatuation, but why didn’t he even dare to write a mourning poem?”

After all, Yang Zhao turned his head to look at Xue Bai, with a pointy look in his eyes, and said, "I knew it was like this, so why bother. People, you can't cut off your future."

"Yes, the official career is like going to the sky, so you can't always feel that the road is not good."

From what Xue Bai saw today, Yang Zhao and Wang Wei are indeed worlds apart.

But this kind of Tang Dynasty, even with Wang Wei's family background and talents, can still think that clinging to the right is "not the right way" and that befriending the princess is "a shortcut that doesn't work."

Ordinary people can't even find a way out.

Xue Bai is not Yang Zhao, but he is not Wang Wei either.

No matter how dirty or rough the road was, he had to go on it.

At this moment, a servant from the Prime Minister's Mansion came over outside the door and said, "Xue Xiaolang, the Jinwu Guard has made arrangements."

"Thank you for the reminder, let's go."

~~
As night fell, Chang'an City was under curfew.

Xue Bai climbed up to the watchtower in Dongshi, looked up, and saw the fires of every household in Chang'an City were as neat as a chessboard.

"Thump, thud, thump."

A 50 to [-]-year-old bearded general of the Jinwu Guard strode up the watchtower, held his knife and looked at Xue Bai, and said, "Guo Qianli, the left middle officer of the Jinwu Guard, is here, are you from the right minister's residence? "

When he opened his mouth, the smell of alcohol rushed to his face. Guo Qianli came after drinking a lot of wine, and was already a little tipsy.

"Xue Bai, under the order of the Right Prime Minister, investigate some matters."

"Hey, what a young man."

Guo Qianli looked startled, put his head in front of Xue Bai, and said: "I got the order, and I have already sent people to follow Wu Kang."

Xue Bai did not expect that among the Jinwu Guards, the one who switched to Li Linfu was such a reckless man. It was a bit strange, but he couldn't ask, "I think you seem to be a good person, why do you work for the right minister?"

"General Guo worked hard, did he make any changes?"

"No, he is leading people to patrol the streets in Anyifang."

Xue Bai looked to the south for a while, but he couldn't see anything in the night, he could only see the faint light of fire behind the square building.

Guo Qianli said: "Don't worry, my people are watching him quietly."

Xue Bai nodded and asked, "General Guo, can you talk to me about Wu Kangcheng?"

"The veteran who came back from Longyou, the year I was transferred from Longyou to Chang'an, he hadn't been there yet." Guo Qianli hiccupped and said, "Our Zuo Jinwu Guard General Xue once made meritorious service in Longyou, and many Longyou The veterans on the right are settled by him."

"General Xue? It has the same surname as mine, which General Xue is it?"

"General Xue Hui of Zuojin Wuwei, his grandfather is Xue Rengui, a famous general of our Tang Dynasty, and his father is Xue Na Xue Jieshuai, the Duke of Pingyang who defeated Tubo."

Speaking of this, Guo Qianli smelled of alcohol, patted his chest and said: "I have made meritorious service under the command of Xue Dajie, and Li Taibai even wrote poems praising me!"

Xue Bai's original intention was to investigate the Jiang brothers, but he didn't expect that every person he met in Chang'an City would have such an extraordinary experience.

"Oh?"

"In the second year of Kaiyuan, I fought against Tubo with Commander Xue Dajie! In this service, more than 120 people were beheaded, and [-] million cattle and sheep were seized. The poem Taibai wrote to me...wait."

Xue Bai looked at it, and saw Guo Qianli took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, presumably he often recited poems with others.

Guo Qianli coughed a few times and read aloud.

"The young general came out of Wuwei, and entered the palm of the silver platform to protect Ziwei."

"Go to the sky with your sword in the morning, and return drunk with the whip in the evening."

"Aizi plays the jade flute in the wind, and the beauty dances to the moon with her clothes."

"In the past, the heroes were like in a dream, and when they met, they wanted to be drunk with Chunhui."

His voice is ugly, but even a casually written poem by Li Bai can show elegance and boldness.

When Xue Bai looked at Guo Qianli again, he could tell some stories from that vicissitudes of face.

The night was silent, and Wu Kangcheng hadn't moved yet, so they simply talked about the old things on the Longyou battlefield in this watchtower.

He didn't deliberately pursue anyone, Xue Bai listened to what Guo Qianli said.

"In that battle, General Wang was the vanguard, chasing the Tubo army to the entrance of the trench, entering the Battle of Long Castle, and was surrounded by heavy siege. The generals were jealous of General Wang's military exploits and refused to come to rescue him. In the end, General Wang was outnumbered and died fighting hard. "

"Which General Wang?"

"The crown prince's right guard rate, Feng'an army envoy, General Wang Haibin Wang." Guo Qianli said: "After the general Wang died in battle, his son was adopted by the sage as a false son and named loyal heir, that is, the prince's righteous brother. Hexi, Longyou, Shuofang, Hedong four towns Jiedushi, Wang Zhongsi."

Xue Bai then became more and more clear.

From Huangfu Weiming to Wang Zhongsi, the Longyou Army and the East Palace have always been inextricably linked.

Jiedushi can be changed, but this relationship network has always been there.

What puzzled him was that from Guo Qianli's tone, he should also be one of the people in this network.

"You said that the crown prince kept dead soldiers and was related to Longyou, I believe it." Guo Qianli said again: "But there are many veterans in Longyou in the Jinwu Guard. No clues have been found, and Wu Kangcheng has never acted unusually."

At this time, someone rushed to the watchtower and reported: "General, Wu Kangcheng's night patrol is over and he is going home."

"Did he move?"

"No."

Guo Qianli then asked: "Is it possible that Mr. Xue Lang made a mistake?"

Xue Bai looked at Guo Qianli, who had thick eyebrows and big eyes, but wondered if Li Linfu had made a mistake. The person in front of him clearly looked like a prince.

(End of this chapter)