Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 497 Opportunity
The brush fluently wrote rows of beautiful regular script on the bamboo paper. In the end, the person holding the brush became indignant, and the handwriting became much more sloppy, gradually turning into cursive script. However, the momentum of the brush strokes was not weakened, but became more sharp.

After Xue Bai finished writing the letter, he read it over and over again. He felt that his anger had been fully released, so he called someone over and handed the letter out.

"Send it to Yong County..."

He rubbed his eyes, stood up after a while, walked to the sand table and thought about the situation. If Guo Ziyi went through Bingzhou and Fangzhou and bypassed Hedong and went out of Jingxing, it was even possible that Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi would have a decisive battle.

If it were someone else's idea, they would just fight, and they might not lose. At worst, they could recruit the rebels with the best conditions, win over Shi Siming, borrow troops from the Uighurs, and borrow troops from the Khitan and Xi.

However, it was precisely this approach of adding fuel to the fire that prevented the rebellion from being quelled for eight years, during which there were three emperors of the Great Tang, four emperors of the Pseudo-Yan, and the fall of Luoyang twice. After that, there were many vassal states, from the ten military governors of the Tianbao period to the thirty-six military governors, the capital fell six times, and the emperor moved nine times, which indirectly led to the chaotic times of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms for more than seventy years.

Knowing that the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty would fall, there were some things that Li Heng could do but Xue Bai could not. He did not want to see the possibility of a decisive battle between Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi in Hedong, so he had to do what others could not do. After thinking about it, he found a unique solution.

Xue Bai picked up a military chess piece and placed it at the location of Yong County on the sand table, which was Li Heng's Xijing Fengxiang Prefecture.

Catch the thief first to catch the king.

~~
Fengxiang, Xijing, the imperial palace.

The guards guarding the small palace gate looked up when they saw someone coming, and immediately saluted and said, "Prince Jianning."

"I want to see His Majesty."

Li Neng's face was calm, but there was a hint of anger. Although the guards had not received any orders, they always respected the young prince and did not dare to stop him. They stepped aside and let him in.

Although this place is called a temporary palace, it is actually a remodeled government office and does not occupy a large area. Li Tan walked through the second courtyard and was disturbed by the palace servants' loud greetings, which disturbed Li Heng and Li Chu who were discussing matters in the inner room.

When Li Chu heard the noise, he said goodbye to Li Heng first, retreated from the hall, and stopped Li Tan by chance.

"Sanlang, why are you here?"

As he spoke, Li Chu pulled Li Tan aside and asked in a low voice, "Are you here for the position of Grand Marshal of the Army?"

"No." Li Neng said.

Li Chu sensed the dissatisfaction in his tone, smiled bitterly, and said, "If I were to say, you are far more talented than me, and you are the popular choice. You are more suitable to be the marshal. This matter..."

"I know this very well." Li Neng said, "My father asked Mr. Li for advice, saying that my brother would be made the crown prince sooner or later, so why should he be the marshal. Mr. Li said that if I became the marshal and made great contributions, but my father did not make me the crown prince, how could the generals who followed me to make great contributions agree? Therefore, my father appointed my brother as the marshal."

Li Chu's expression couldn't help but change slightly. After all, it was a bit embarrassing to bring this undercurrent of dispute over the throne to the table, especially since the two brothers had a good relationship since childhood.

Li Neng was very calm and said, "Brother, don't worry that I will be unhappy about this."

"I'm not worried." Li Chu said, "I just hope you don't get angry with Mr. Li because of this."

"No." Li Dan said, "I have already thanked Mr. Li privately. The position of marshal is not easy to sit on."

Having said that, he smiled slightly as an encouragement to his brother and to express his sincerity.

Li Chusui also smiled and said, "That's good."

However, he was not sure whether Li Tan said this sincerely or was just showing off his close relationship with Li Mi.

Now the three of them, father and son, all want to get close to Li Mi, as if there is some hint of "competing for favor" faintly. However, the subtle mentality here cannot be told to outsiders.

"Thanks to Mr. Li." Li Chu said with emotion, "Father wanted to continue using Fang Guan, but fortunately Mr. Li designed a plan to stop him and finally convinced Father to use the right strategy..."

"I came here to ask about borrowing Uighur soldiers."

Li Neng interrupted Li Chu for the second time. He took out several documents from his sleeves and handed them out one by one.

"This is the edict from Prince Qing, accusing father of being disloyal, unfilial and unkind. It also accuses all officials of colluding with the Huihe and intending to plunder Chang'an and Luoyang. This is Xue Bai's letter, hundreds of copies of which were copied and shot into the city, scolding father. This is the Chang'an Daily, the first edition published after defeating the Hu rebels. Take a look, brother, what exactly do they say about us?!"

At the end of the conversation, Li Neng's face turned red, and he suddenly raised his voice and said, "I am so ashamed and embarrassed, I wonder how you feel, brother?!"

"Why do you care what others say?"

Li Chu was calm and showed a strong will. He did not even look at the documents. He just folded them up and put them away. Then he said in a serious tone: "I told you that I would never let the Huihe cavalry kill our people."

Li Neng asked, "But you and your father promised Ye Hu, right?"

"You can't just look at the surface of many things." Li Chu said: "This is a dispute over the origin of the Tang Dynasty. We are protecting the foundation of our ancestors and should not be obsessed with trivial matters..."

"If we unite with the barbarians to plunder our own people, then who are the traitors to the Tang Dynasty?!"

"Be quiet. I will protect the people of the Tang Dynasty when the time comes..."

Li Tan was furious and asked, "Your way of protecting the people of the Tang Dynasty is to become brothers with the barbarians?!"

"Snapped!"

Li Chu raised his hand and slapped Li Tan, pointed his finger at his face, and said in a sonorous and powerful voice, "I know my limits, and it's not your turn to teach me a lesson!"

Li Shen was not someone who was easy to bully. After being beaten, he punched Li Chu without saying a word. Then he rushed forward, knocked Li Chu down and started beating him.

"Boom."

"Boom."

After being hit twice in a row, Li Chu wanted to fight back, but he was exhausted recently and was no match for Li Tan. He could only yell, "What are you doing? Attacking Chu... Attacking the Marshal, I will punish you by military law!"

"I don't have a crown prince or a marshal here, I only have a brother who did something wrong." Li Tan punched Li Chu again, grabbed Li Chu's collar, and threatened: "There is no need for the Huihe to plunder the people of the Tang Dynasty. I will be the vanguard and I will be able to recover the two capitals."

"You are no match for Xue Ni."

"A real man will only die in battle. Wake up!"

Li Neng wanted to fight again, as if he wanted to wake up his brother. The next moment, a group of eunuchs rushed over, shouting and yelling. Li Fuguo, Cheng Yuanzhen, Xing Yanen, Luo Fengxian and others all hugged Li Neng and tried to stop the fight.

In the chaos, Li Fuguo was hit by Li Tan, and his nose started bleeding and one of his front teeth fell out; Cheng Yuanzhen was even worse off, and in order to protect Li Chu, he was hit hard and fainted.

"Rebel!"

Suddenly, there was a loud shout, and Li Neng looked up, only to see Li Heng and Zhang Ting standing in front of the hall, looking at him coldly. This was the second time that Li Neng had fought in front of Li Heng.

~~
There was a map in the hall, which must have been used by Li Heng and Li Chu to discuss military intelligence.

Li Neng entered and immediately knelt down to apologize. Facing this grandfather, he was still very filial.

"I know you are dissatisfied with the conditions I promised to borrow troops from the Huihe. But the situation is pressing, what can I do?" Li Heng dismissed his attendants and spoke slowly, sighing: "The matter of borrowing troops was actually entrusted by the retired emperor on the way to Chang'an. He said that the Western Rong and Northern Di had received great favors from the Tang Dynasty and could be used. But when it comes to using them, how can we not pay a price?"

What he meant by this was that the war was caused by the retired emperor and that the responsibility lies more with him.

"Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, there has been a custom of recruiting Hu people to fight. Emperor Taizong loved the Chinese and the barbarians equally and was revered as the 'Heavenly Khan'. Do you still remember the stone tablet under the Lingwu Tower? I recruited Huihe soldiers, which is an old custom! In the second year of Emperor Gaozong's Yonghui reign, the Western Turkic Ashina Helu invaded the border. Emperor Gaozong ordered the Huihe to send 50,000 troops to assist the Tang Dynasty in defeating the Turks in Yinshan."

Li Neng finally couldn't help asking, "Your Majesty, when you recruited the Huihe people, why did you promise them the children of the Tang Dynasty?"

"Is it my fault?!"

Li Heng was angry at Li Tan's interruption, stepped forward and kicked him over, and asked more directly: "The country has fallen into such a state, how can I recruit them without giving them great benefits? Am I not trying to save the country from collapse? It's fine for other ministers, but why can't even you understand my painstaking efforts?"

Li Neng knelt down again, seeming to want to say something but stopping himself.

Li Heng said, "Don't you think about it? If we don't recover the two capitals as soon as possible, when will the rebellion in Hebei be quelled? There's no guarantee that the kings of Shu will not have other ideas again! When that happens, the whole country will be in chaos, and there will be endless harm and countless lives will be lost. It won't just be the people of the two capitals who will suffer."

"I thought..."

"Your thoughts are superficial." Li Heng sighed, "You are too young to understand. I have another consideration for this matter."

"Your Majesty, please enlighten me."

Li Heng said: "The Huihe were originally a small part of the Tiele tribes, but since the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Xueyantuo, the Huihe have gradually grown stronger, proclaimed themselves Khan, and seized all the land of the Xiongnu. They have the potential to threaten the Tang Dynasty. Borrowing troops from the Huihe can make them consume the rebels, driving away the wolf and devouring the tiger, killing two birds with one stone."

Li Neng pursed his lips and remained silent for a moment, but still whispered a word between his teeth.

"But has your majesty not thought about this? Since the rebellion, all the elite troops of the Tang Dynasty have been transferred to suppress the rebellion, leaving the border defenses empty. If the Huihe didn't know the details, it would be fine. But now that you are borrowing troops, your majesty is thinking of driving the wolf to devour the tiger. How can you be sure that the Huihe won't have wolfish ambitions? What if he takes the opportunity to test the truth? We will let the wolf into the house from now on, and it will be out of control!"

"Are you talking nonsense just to contradict me?" Li Heng said, "The Huihe came for profit. As long as there is profit, they can be used by the Tang Dynasty. I borrow their troops to stabilize the government and also consume the Huihe's fighting power, so that they fight each other. Why should I be afraid of inviting a wolf into the house?!"

After hearing this, Li Neng looked up at Li Heng, his face gradually showing sadness, almost shedding tears, and said, "Grandpa, have you lost your mind for the throne?"

"You deserve to die!"

Li Heng raised his finger in anger and cursed: "Don't think I don't know what you are thinking! You instigated the generals to nominate you as the Grand Marshal, but you failed to gain military power. You are jealous of your brother and Yehu's brotherly relationship, so you don't want me to quickly put down the rebellion!"

Li Neng was horrified and terrified. He immediately kowtowed and said, "I have absolutely no such intention!"

He keenly sensed that something was wrong and asked again, "Who told Your Majesty this?"

Li Heng's face grew colder, and he was angry that Li Neng still did not think about his mistakes. He snorted coldly, "Go back and reflect on yourself, stay at home, and don't let me see you making irresponsible remarks about state affairs again."

After saying that, Li Heng looked at the map again. Now was the critical moment to pacify Xue Ni, and he didn't want a little family matter to affect his clear judgment.

~~
In the city, in the small courtyard where Li Neng was temporarily staying, a palace maid named Xiao Ezi dipped a little ointment with her fingers and carefully applied it on the red mark on Li Neng's cheek.

Seeing his handsome face being beaten like this, she felt very distressed. She pursed her lips and almost cried. But she still thought about him from Li Tan's perspective. "My dear, you had a fight with Prince Guangping. Will he be angry?"

"It's okay." Li Neng said, "We have fought countless times since we were little. I won't take it to heart."

Having said that, he could actually feel that since Lingwu became emperor, the relationship between them, their father, sons, and brothers seemed to have subtly changed.

But at this moment, he was thinking carefully about who was hiding behind him and trying to harm him. There must be such a person. He was very sure that someone had slandered him in front of the emperor, which was why His Majesty said such a thing today.

Li Neng thought carefully, but did not notice that Xiao Mozi was staring at him. It was not until a long while later that he turned around and realized that she was very close to him.

"what happened?"

"Lang Jun."

The little moth seemed to be infatuated. It murmured softly, moved forward, and kissed Li Tan carefully. Its movements were a little clumsy, and its cold lips trembled slightly.

After a while, Li Neng pressed her shoulders, pushed her away a little, and shook his head.

Xiao Gezi was very ashamed, lowered her head, and explained softly to herself: "My lord, you left Chang'an, and there is no one to serve you. It must be very hard to endure. I want to serve you, but I dare not ask for a title."

Li Neng said: "I'm hungry, let's eat."

"My lord, do you not like me? It's because I'm not pretty enough."

"Li Fuguo entrusted you to my care. I cannot embezzle from you."

Speaking of this idiom, Li Neng seemed to find it interesting and even smiled.

He had not yet married, but was engaged to the daughter of his husband Zhang Yi, and there were no other concubines in the mansion. When he left Chang'an, he took this little maid with him on purpose, not out of lust, of course, he had seen too many women prettier than Xiao Ezi, he was simply out of promise.

In such a chaotic situation at that time, some people even abandoned the concubine who had accompanied them for several years and gave birth to their eldest son. Some people still kept their promise and protected an insignificant ant-like person.

Little E looked at Li Neng's smile, the admiration in her eyes seemed to overflow, and she said, "But the relationship between me and Gou'er is just brother and sister. What I like is, yes, my dear."

Li Neng was a little surprised.

Xiao Gezi lowered her head and said, "I didn't understand the love between men and women before, but now I gradually understand... the human affairs. I really only regard Brother Gou'er as my brother. He has been castrated, so naturally he regards me as a relative. My dear, you..."

I don't know where she learned about human affairs, and she also understood the difference between the castrated Li Fuguo and the non-castrated Li Neng. While she was speaking, one of her small hands touched Li Neng's legs intentionally or unintentionally. She was startled and her cheeks immediately flushed.

The girl was in love for the first time, and she looked back shyly, with a kind of immature yet touching charm. Li Neng was stunned when he saw her.

The little moth then whimpered, leaned into Li Neng's arms, and offered his soft lips...

~~
"Li Gou'er is here."

In the Marshal's Mansion, Cheng Yuanzhen was still talking to the eunuch next to him. When he heard that Li Fuguo had arrived, he turned around and glanced at him, with a hint of disdain in his eyes.

In his opinion, Li Fuguo was just a substitute for Li Jingzhong. He did not spend much time with the sage. How could he compare to himself, a servant who raised the sage's eldest son?

Li Fuguo also knew his own limitations and usually did not dare to conflict with Cheng Yuanzhen. He just honestly and dutifully served the sage loyally.

"I heard that Princess Guangping passed away due to illness." Li Fuguo stepped forward and said softly, "Your Majesty specially ordered me to come and offer condolences."

This incident happened very suddenly. Li Chu had been busy in the past two days replacing Fang Guan as commander-in-chief and recovering the two capitals. Today, after a conflict with Li Tan in the palace, he returned home and found that his wife Cui Caiping had passed away. He was deeply saddened.

"Mr. Li, please come this way." Cheng Yuanzhen quickly raised his hand and led Li Fuguo in.

"please."

Li Fuguo looked over and saw a scratch on Cheng Yuanzhen's arm. He couldn't help but ask, "What is this?"

"This was injured by Prince Jianning."

Cheng Yuanzhen sighed and said, "I was hit many times and passed out. When I woke up, I heard that the princess had passed away. Alas."

Li Fuguo looked down and saw that the Marshal's Mansion was still busy and no one was attending the funeral, so he asked, "Where is Prince Guangping?"

"Prince Guangping was extremely grief-stricken, but the country was in great danger. He could only suppress his grief and continue to discuss with his generals about recovering the two capitals, so as not to delay the dispatch of troops. As for the funeral of the princess, she was buried simply as she had said before her death, for the greater good."

Li Fuguo stood in awe and said with emotion: "Prince Guangping and his wife have contributed a lot to the Tang Dynasty."

When they went back inside, they saw that Cui Caiping's body had been put into the coffin, and the palace maids were wearing linen clothes, kneeling there and crying.

Cui Caiping had been married to Li Chu since the fifth year of Tianbao and had given birth to two sons for him, the second son Li Miao and the third son Li Si. Now one is eight years old and the other is seven years old. They were both crying their hearts out and looked very pitiful.

Because the Tang Dynasty had produced an Empress Wu Zetian, the royal family was extremely strict in guarding the harem and often did not have a legitimate wife. For example, Yang Yuhuan was only a noble concubine, and Zhang Ting was only a concubine before. Without a legitimate wife, there was naturally a lack of legitimate sons. Therefore, these two sons were considered rare legitimate sons in the royal family. However, the lack of legitimate sons for a long time had made the ministers regard the eldest sons of concubines as legitimate sons. In addition, Yang Yuhuan was a disaster to the country, and Cui Caiping was Yang Yuhuan's niece. Therefore, Li Miao and Li Si did not receive the preferential treatment of legitimate sons, and they knelt behind Li Shi.

Li Fuguo saw this and thought that maybe Shen Zhenzhu would be the head of Prince Guangping's harem, so he asked, "Will Prince Yichang be raised by Madam Shen in the future?"

Cheng Yuanzhen shook his head and said, "She will be raised by Madam Dugu."

Li Fuguo looked over and soon found a very beautiful woman in the crowd, and suddenly he realized something. At this moment, he couldn't help but think of his little moth, thinking that the rich and powerful always change their minds, but he just wanted to spend the rest of his life with the person who attracted him at first... although he could no longer do anything.

He wailed twice and began to mourn for Cui Caiping. In the evening, he and Cheng Yuanzhen carried the coffin out of the city for burial.

When Li Fuguo returned to the palace, Li Heng had already fallen asleep. Only Zhang Ting was still looking at the memorial, waiting for his reply.

"how?"

"Replying to Concubine Shu, I believe Cui Caiping did not die of illness, but was strangled to death by Cheng Yuanzhen."

Zhang Ting was unhappy when she heard the title of Shufei. She was of noble birth and had done a lot for Li Heng. She should have been named queen no matter what. However, when Li Heng became emperor, he only named her Shufei.

She knew that this was blocked by Li Mi, who said that he was doing it for Li Heng's own good, fearing that others would think that Li Heng's claim to the throne was selfish. In fact, it was Li Mi who had selfish motives. First, Li Mi was worried that there would be another Wu Zetian in the Tang Dynasty, and second, he wanted to assist Li Chu as the crown prince in the future, fearing that her son would compete with Li Chu.

In other words, if she could not get rid of Li Chu or Li Mi, it would be difficult for her to become the queen. Therefore, she paid close attention to Li Chu's movements.

"How do you know that Cheng Yuanzhen strangled him to death?"

Li Fuguo replied: "I have asked, Cui Caiping was still alive and kicking a few days ago, she didn't look sick. Also, there were scratches on Cheng Yuanzhen's arm, he said it was Prince Jianning who injured him, but I saw with my own eyes that when he fainted, his arm was clearly intact..."

Zhang Ting was too lazy to listen to more evidence and sneered.

She had long guessed that Li Chu would not tolerate Cui Caiping. This was originally a marriage without feelings. Li Chu married Cui Caiping because of the favor her mother's family received. Now Cui Caiping's most valuable background has become a burden. In addition, the Tang royal family was afraid of the legal wife. How could Li Chu not want to get rid of Cui Caiping? As for Li Chu's love affair, it was actually a small part of the reason. In short, three birds with one stone.

"I originally wanted to use Cui to deal with Li Chu, but he unexpectedly took away my handle in advance. I have to be alert." Zhang Ting thought to himself and hesitated for a moment.

She wanted to rely on Li Chu to recover the two capitals and lay a foundation for her son, but she also wanted to get rid of Li Chu in time. At present, the best way is to sow discord and instigate Li Chu and Li Tan to fight each other, but it seems that the effect is not obvious.

Li Fuguo, who had received favors from Li Tan, still favored Li Tan even though he had been taught a lesson by Li Tan twice. At the same time, he had been helping Zhang Ting deal with Li Chu and Li Mi, so he said, "In my opinion, Concubine Shu still needs to win the support of Prince Jianning."

"Go and tell Li Neng that Li Chu killed his wife." Zhang Ting said slowly, "Make sure he knows that Li Neng can kill even his own wife, so how can he still care about brotherhood?"

"Here."

Li Fuguo agreed, left the palace at night and rushed to Li Tan's residence.

He often came here, often to see Xiao Gezi. Seeing her would calm his heart, which was sinking day by day in the power. They talked about the countryside when they were little, and felt the unique throbbing of a little boy.

He himself did not realize that he did not love the little moth, but his former self before castration. But no matter what, this love was extremely deep.

Li Fuguo waited in the front yard for a long time, but Li Tan and Xiao Ezi never came out. He felt puzzled and got up and walked to the backyard.

There was no mistress in the house, and there were few guards and servants. In addition, Li Fuguo often came here, so no one came out to stop him when he walked to the backyard. Gradually, the moans of a woman in the house reached his ears.

"..."

Li Fuguo's fingers began to tremble unconsciously. He rushed forward, hesitated, then leaned over the window, slightly opened the window and looked inside. He saw the scene that sent him into hell.

He saw the little moth's desperate struggle and Li Neng's strong body.

Even he could feel the pleasure of the two people's intercourse, but it made him extremely painful.

At this moment, he lost not only his beloved, but also his dignity.

Li Fuguo was crying and his broken nose was bleeding. The snot and blood mixed together, making him look extremely miserable.

He finally understood the meaning of what the Saint and Concubine Shu said. In this world, only power can protect oneself, and only power can gain the favor of others.

Only power can surpass the health and strength of the body...only power.

~~
After several days of preparation, Xue Bai planned to send a surprise force to attack Fengxiang while Li Heng was still integrating his defeated army before he could make a comeback. This would make it possible to end the war before Guo Ziyi arrived in Hedong.

He then sent Yan Zhenqing and Wang Nande to defend the city; and sent Tian Chengsi to lead a cavalry to bluff and pretend to attack Chencang, intending to cut off the communication route between Li Heng and Li Longji and attract the Uighur cavalry; after that, he personally led 4,000 elite cavalry to wait for an opportunity to act.

You have to have an opportunity. Sometimes you can only wait for the opponent to reveal a flaw to attack, and sometimes it can't be just a small flaw.

Li Heng had the legitimacy, the support of the border troops, the strong reinforcement of the Uighurs, a rare genius like Li Mi to give advice, a famous general of the time like Guo Ziyi, and an outstanding son... It seemed that he could at least maintain the solid defense of Fengxiang.

But if Li Heng was truly an eloquent ruler, why would Xue Bai have to work so hard to reverse the decline of the Tang Dynasty?

(End of this chapter)