Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 572 Cocoon Room
"Wow!"

Xue Bai moved quickly. He flipped the map on the table and threw it on the ground. He then grabbed another one and quickly drew the marching route on it with a charcoal pencil until it was also densely marked.

As if he was solving a difficult problem, he was still stuck in a dead end of thinking, so he took up the map and started over again.

This happened several times, and finally, he rubbed his forehead and threw away the pen in his hand.

Due to the distance, the various intelligence reports sent back to Chang'an were too much and too chaotic, including the conflicts between Wang Nande and Guo Ziyi's reports. He could no longer restore the true situation on the northwest battlefield from them.

The only thing that can be confirmed is that Dazalugong did divide his troops, but whether they were divided into four, five, or even six routes, the Tang army had not actually found out which route was which. The Tang army generals also had their own guesses about where the various Tibetan troops would attack.

For example, Wang Nandi reported to the emperor that the Tibetan army would certainly march straight into Guanzhong and requested to lead his troops back to garrison Chang'an. Guo Ziyi believed that this was a deliberate attempt by Dazhalugong to confuse the Tang army in order to make them run back and forth and consume their morale and food supplies.

In any case, Chang'an was threatened.

It's like having a dagger pointed at your throat, but you're not sure whether the dagger is sharp or blunt.

Xue Bai still didn't understand why Dazalugong would try so hard to attack the Tang Dynasty.

Although many answers have been found, they are not enough.

This war, which had lasted for nearly a year, almost dragged down the finances of the Tang Dynasty, but Tubo was also suffering the backlash from its aggressive military policy. Its people were not having an easy life. How did Dazha Lugong manage to hold on?

The next day, when discussing matters with the prime ministers, Xue Bai did not ask them, but directly told them his plan, first to gather intelligence, and the decision must be based on a large amount of real intelligence. However, military intelligence on the battlefield is not as easy to find out as the news in the official residences and the market. Xue Bai's inherent power cannot do it, and he is unwilling to appoint eunuchs as military supervisors, which is inevitably tricky.

"Send another envoy to Jingzhou to find out the situation clearly." Xue Bai said indifferently, "Don't just keep shouting wolves all day long. How can the Tibetan army break through the defense line so easily?"

"I think that the Attendant Li Qiyun can be the envoy." Li Xian said.

"can."

Wei Jiansu did not object to this matter, but after they confirmed it, he slowly said: "This old minister asks Your Highness to take the Saint and the Emperor to inspect the Eastern Capital."

Xue Bai didn't react much, just frowned and glanced at Du Youlin.

Du Youlin was a little distracted at first, but after noticing his slight expression, he stepped out and said in a daze, "The situation is far from the point where the emperor needs to flee, right?"

Wei Jiansu's euphemism was directly exposed, and his face darkened in displeasure.

Du Youlin saw that he had won the debate against Wei Jiansu, and continued, "When the An family rebels attacked Chang'an, the Saint and His Highness had not yet abandoned the city. Now there are only some vague military intelligence. Is Lord Wei going to persuade His Highness to flee at the sight of the enemy?"

"I am not advising Your Highness to flee." Wei Jiansu said, "The situation has changed. Guanzhong is flat and Chang'an is not easy to defend. The sage was able to defend it back then because the people's hearts were scattered after Chang'an was lost. If the sage were in Chang'an now, the soldiers on the front line would be distracted. When the enemy is so close, the army would have to rescue the people. A battle that could have been won would be more likely to end in a big defeat."

Du Youlin didn't understand it quickly, so he didn't refute it immediately.

Wei Jiansu added, "During the An-Shi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty was still strong, but now the treasury is empty. Once the Tibetan army enters Guanzhong, where will Your Highness mobilize troops? Instead of responding hastily, it is better to prepare for a rainy day and go to the Eastern Capital first. If there is an unexpected event in the future, you can respond calmly."

This means that as long as one escapes early enough, no one can say that he is escaping, but rather that he happened to be on tour, and one can even say that it was precisely because the emperor was away that Tubo was able to take advantage of the opportunity.

Of course Xue Bai couldn't agree to it and thought it was ridiculous.

But besides feeling absurd, he also felt confused in his heart - was Wei Jiansu's proposal just because he was afraid of Tubo, or was there another reason?
After being trapped in the palace for so long, Xue Bai has recently had a strange intuition that he feels more and more like he is living in a cocoon.

The memorials he saw every day were all screened by officials. Although many trustworthy people were appointed to key positions, the staff and subordinates used by these people were not necessarily reliable. Even if they were reliable, there would inevitably be negligence.

He had another source of intelligence, the Du sisters were still using the business of the restaurant and teahouse to gather intelligence from the people for him. This made him feel that he knew everything, but at a certain moment, he suddenly realized that this arrogance of thinking he knew everything was very dangerous.

Especially after easily thwarting Li Chu's plot to launch a coup while he was destroying Buddhism, he did not realize where Li Chu's confidence came from. Would it be useful for the court officials to jointly ask the emperor to take power?

At that time, Xue Bai felt contempt for Li Chu's arrogance, but recently he began to wonder if there was something he had not noticed.

So after the court session, Xue Bai couldn't wait to meet Du Jin.

"Send someone to keep an eye on Wei Jiansu. Something is wrong with him."

"What's wrong?"

"He advised me to go to Luoyang."

"I'm old and timid." Du Jin said, "What's wrong with that?"

Xue Bai said: "Don't forget, Li Cong is dying."

Du Jin's look immediately changed, like a female cat who was comfortably enjoying the sunlight and suddenly heard a noise and became alert.

She and Xue Bai had been planning for so long, just waiting for Li Cong to die so that Xue Bai could ascend the throne. Leaving Chang'an at this time because of an unconfirmed news, Wei Jiansu must have ulterior motives.

"He's not trying to get rid of you and support a new king, is he?"

"Hard to say."

Du Jin leaned close to Xue's ear and whispered, "If you can't wait any longer, kill Li Cong."

"There is a possibility that Wei Jiansu may not have participated in any conspiracy. He just felt something was wrong. Someone may have deliberately let him jump out and forced me to take action, thus being charged with regicide."

"That's right. It's not worth it if you end up losing everything just to kill a dying person."

Xue Bai said: "Maybe I am too suspicious. Sitting in this position for a long time, it is easy for people to become suspicious."

"I'll send someone to investigate, and we'll know." Du Jin said, "If there is a conspiracy, who do you think is the mastermind behind it?"

Xue Bai didn't answer for a long time, and finally uttered a name in a very uncertain and self-doubting tone.

"Li Longji?"

"Him? He's an old man, what right do you have?"

"He has both means and prestige. But without military power, he is powerless."

When Xue Bai thought about this, he felt that he was indeed too suspicious.

Unless he killed Li Cong himself and was caught by the officials, and generals such as Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi led troops to attack him, Li Longji would have no military power and no hope of restoration. Supporting him for the sake of a good posthumous title was his best way out.

A few days later, Du Jin carefully questioned the spies stationed in Wei Jiansu's mansion, but found no unusual movements.

When Li Qiyun arrived at Jingyuan, although he did not find out the movements of the various armies after the Tibetans divided their forces, he quickly reported to the court, saying that the border troops were exhausted from fighting hard, but the enemy troops were still pouring in. Now the prefectures and counties could only close their cities and defend, and there was indeed a possibility that the Tibetans would drive directly to Chang'an.

This seems to confirm that Wei Jiansu's proposal was indeed made out of consideration of preventing Tubo from entering Guanzhong.

Therefore, Xue Bai had to mobilize another army to support Chang'an.

There was some good news in the series of bad news. While the Qin-Long battlefield was tense, Li Guangbi in Jiannan captured Yanchuan City and pursued the Tubo army in the West Mountain, expanding the territory by hundreds of miles.

When the good news came, all the officials in the court, who had been living in the shadow of war, breathed a sigh of relief.

Wei Jiansu and Xue Bai suggested that if His Highness did not plan to inspect the Eastern Capital, it would be better to urgently dispatch a troop from Jiannan to support the defense of Guanzhong.

In the battle of Yanchuan City, Yan Wu made great contributions, and Wei Jiansu believed that he was the best candidate to lead the troops to provide reinforcements.

Without waiting for Du Youlin to speak, Li Xian immediately rejected the candidate proposed by Wei Jiansu, believing that Yan Wu's troops had suffered heavy losses, and that Tian Shengong, the commander of the Luzhou militia, could be dispatched to lead troops to support Chang'an.

This proposal was obviously made for Xue Bai's consideration.

Now the saint's health is deteriorating, the Tubo army is eyeing Guanzhong, and Chang'an may have major changes. Of course, Xue Bai would like to mobilize as many trusted soldiers and horses as possible around him.

~~
After half a month, the Tubo army did not enter Guanzhong, but the tactics of dividing the troops and plundering broke through several military forts of the Tang Dynasty, causing shock to the imperial court.

It was in this situation that Li Qiyun handed back a secret memorial.

The secret letter was sealed with wax and there was no sign that it had been opened on the road.

Xue Bai opened it and read it, and admitted that it was indeed worth Li Qiyun's cautiousness.

And some of the problems that had previously troubled him seemed to have found answers.

The secret report stated that high-ranking officials in the court were secretly colluding with Tubo.

Before, Dazalugong pretended to negotiate, and everyone thought it was to paralyze the Tang Dynasty. Xue Bai even took the opportunity to form an alliance with Trisong Detsen to alienate the Tubo monarch and his ministers. However, in fact, Dazalugong used the same method and had secretly contacted the ministers in the Tang court who opposed Xue Bai.

This also explains why Dazalugong would rather lose eight hundred of his own men than harm the Tang Dynasty by a thousand, because someone has been secretly passing detailed intelligence about the Tang Dynasty to Dazalugong.

Li Qiyun was not just talking nonsense, he had evidence.

When the scouts returned to the camp, they found that a Tibetan herdsman had brought only a ewe in the mountains, and the ewe was bleating. Later, the scouts found a lamb that had escaped from the fence of the Tang army camp, so they captured the lamb.

After opening the lamb's butt, they found a letter of intelligence about the Tang army, which included the Tang army's troop deployment, the remaining food and fodder, and even the situation in Chang'an, including the number of troops defending the city and how much food and fodder the treasury could spend.

When the matter was reported to Guo Ziyi, he was naturally shocked and finally understood why the Tang army had been defeated so many times recently.

This matter must involve important officials of the court. Guo Ziyi was also worried that Xue Bai would become suspicious of him, so he asked Li Qiyun to deliver a secret letter back to Chang'an.

Xue Bai read this short letter over and over for a long time.

The doubt that had been dispelled came back to my mind again.

Everything is related.

Li Cong was about to die. This was a secret of the Tang Dynasty and should not have been known to the Tibetans. But now Xue Bai was sure that Dazalugong must have known it.

During the fake peace talks, Dazha Lugong successfully colluded with a court official and learned that the Tang Emperor Li Cong was in poor health and that there would be a power struggle in the Tang court after his death. Therefore, an autumn defense war started early and was not over until the second year.

Then, who is colluding with Tubo?

After a brief thought, Xue Bai immediately thought of those people who tried to oppose him in the matter of destroying Buddhism.

Li Heng, Li Chu, Li Xian, Li Mi, Yang Wan, Yang Yan, Wang Jin...

The real mastermind may not be among these people, but he must have used them to manipulate these important royal family officials.

As for how the mastermind contacted Dazalugong?
It must be more than just the soldiers in the army who were transmitting the information. If Dazalugong had spies in the Tang army who were transmitting military deployments, Guo Ziyi should have been defeated long ago.

The Tubo army has only recently started to win big victories, which shows that they have only recently opened up new routes in the army.

Xue Bai thought back to how he used the Huxian case to enforce military discipline, and he couldn't help but feel scared.

When he made up his mind, he had no idea what impact this would have. Looking back now, the rectification of military discipline must have played a role in preventing the army from being infiltrated by spies, and it frightened a group of soldiers with different thoughts.

According to the battle situation, it can be inferred that it was about half a year after the war began, that is, after February of the third year of Shangyuan, that Tubo got the intelligence from the army. Before that, it should be only the intelligence from Chang'an that made Dazha Lugong believe that this war could continue.

"monk."

Xue Bai quickly figured out that this was the information channel between Dazha Lugong and Chang'an.

He confiscated all the temple properties in the world and intended to guide some monks into Tibet to preach, conduct cultural infiltration and plant spies. In turn, Daza Lugong took advantage of this.

When the monks entered Tubo smoothly with the connivance of the Tang court, it not only concealed Xue Bai's conspiracy, but also brought what Dazha Lugong wanted. No wonder there are rumors that Dazha Lugong's Chinese name is Ma Chongying, and he is the illegitimate son of a Tang monk.

If all this is true, a huge conspiracy has been brewing unknowingly.

It was not like the minor fights between Li Heng and Li Chu. What the father and son did was just a trick to deceive Xue Bai.

Before Li Cong's death, Tubo would definitely not withdraw its troops.

It is more likely that around the time of Li Cong's death, Dazha Lugong entered Chang'an and joined forces with someone in the Tang court to get rid of Xue Bai and establish a new king. After that, he returned to Tubo with the promised gold, silk, children, and princesses.

~~
"Is it really?"

"Wei Jiansu must have noticed it, or he may be trying to lure me away from Chang'an."

“But I didn’t find anything.”

That night, under the dim moonlight, Xue Bai and Du Jin talked about the previous topic again, and they were still at a loss.

“I’ve played this out many times.”

Xue Bai said slowly: "If Li Cong dies, I will declare my accession to the throne. At this time, the Tubo army has reached the outskirts of Chang'an. As long as the troops in the city are still under my control, I can wait for Wang Nan to return for help."

Du Jin asked, "Unless someone opens the city gate and lets the Tibetan army in?"

"I can control all the royal family members."

"Are you so sure that it was Li Longji who was secretly plotting this?" Du Jin asked, "What if it wasn't him?"

Xue Bai was no longer so sure.

After becoming the crown prince, he had too many government affairs to deal with, which distracted most of his attention. He saw too few things with his own eyes and received too many mixed messages. He was no longer as sharp as before.

"Sitting here, I feel like I'm sitting in a spider web. Slowly, unknowingly, I'm being wrapped into a cocoon by invisible threads."

"Maybe we are too suspicious. So far, apart from the letter from Li Qiyun, there is no other evidence."

"Well, Tian Shengong is about to arrive in Guanzhong. With this army, no matter how many schemes they have, they will be useless."

"Forget it."

Du Jin stretched out her fingers and pressed down Xue Bai's frown to stop him from thinking about it.

Then she leaned over and whispered, "Even Qinglan has it, I won't admit defeat."

Only Xue Bai knew how hard Du Jin tried to have a child.

……

The bright moonlight shines on the vermilion walls of the Daming Palace, and the night gradually becomes quiet.

In the distance, the sound of a baby crying was heard, waking up Du Jin who had fallen asleep from exhaustion.

She smoothed the hair around her ears, straightened her tired body, and said, "I want to go see the child."

"I'll go with you." Xue Bai couldn't sleep, so he got up.

"You don't trust me?" Du Jin said, "I'm his godmother."

"know."

The two walked through the corridor and opened the door, only to see Yong'er and the nanny busy taking care of the child. Yan Yan said from behind the screen: "My husband is still criticizing until this time tonight... Oh, Sister Du is here."

"Something difficult happened."

Du Jin's attitude towards Yan Yan was still quite cold, but she was very interested in her child. She asked the nurse, "Have you fed him?"

"Yes."

"I'll give you a hug."

"This……"

Yong'er quickly took two steps forward and used her small body to block Du Jin.

Instead, it was Yan Yan behind the screen who said, "Let his godmother hug him."

It was strange. Although Du Jin was not very experienced in holding the baby, the moment the baby was in her arms, the baby inside stopped crying immediately, as if the baby liked the smell of Du Jin.

"You are really smart." Du Jin teased, "You know who is the one who can work hard for you and serve you wholeheartedly."

There is some sarcasm in these words, as well as some self-pity.

But what did a child of that age know? He just opened his shiny black eyes and looked straight at Du Jin. He sighed slightly and hummed a song he had heard in his childhood.

~~
"Your Highness, the Emperor wishes to see the young master."

The next day, Xue Bai received the same report again.

This was not the first time that Li Longji expressed his desire to see Xue Bai's child. Previously, he had declined on the grounds that the newborn was weak and sickly.

Now that he had sensed the conspiracy against him, he no longer refused.

From the perspective of etiquette, if he refused again, he would be caught by the court officials.

In addition, this is also an opportunity to test Li Longji. At least now the process and guards of arranging Li Longji to go to the Daming Palace are all under Xue Bai's control.

Only by truly resolving possible crises can we best protect our children.

So, after Xue Bai nodded, he personally arranged for the eunuchs to go to Taiji Palace to pick up Li Longji and Gao Lishi.

In addition, there was Li Zhi, the Minister of the Imperial Clan, and several attendants.

It was rare for everyone to enter Shaoyang Courtyard, so they were arranged to sit in the front hall for a while. The eunuch brought wine and said with a smile: "Your Highness knows that the emperor likes to drink, so he specially prepared these fine wines."

"Haha, it's hard for this child to be filial."

Li Longji behaved very cheerfully and drank directly from the wine glass. As a result, the eunuch who served the wine shook his hand when pouring the second glass, and the wine stained Li Longji's clothes.

Xue Bai had no choice but to ask someone to take the emperor to change clothes temporarily.

He actually knew that Li Longji would not do anything bad to his children, but he still made this overly cautious arrangement.

This is not like his usual style, but he is no longer the same person he used to be.

Li Longji was very easy-going and did not seem unhappy about this little episode. He changed his clothes and could not wait to see his great-grandson.

Only then did Xue Bai ask the wet nurse to take the child out.

Perhaps due to Yan Yan's poor health, the child weighed only five kilograms when he was born. He is still very small now, but his eyes are bright.

"Good good."

Li Longji did not reach out to hug her, but just leaned forward to look at her for a while, then smiled and said, "She is a little weak, but it doesn't matter. I was like that before. She will be fine when she grows up. Just by looking at her eyes, I know she will be very smart in the future. Good."

Xue Bai said: "Yes."

"Gao Lishi, bring me my gift."

"Here."

Soon, Gao Lishi took out a box and opened it, revealing a jade pendant.

The material of this jade pendant is not top-grade, but what is strange is that there is a lifelike dragon engraved on it.

Li Longji personally took the jade pendant and handed it to Xue Bai, saying, "This is a relic of Emperor Taizong, passed down from Emperor Gaozong to my father. Now I give it to this child."

"Thank you, His Majesty, for the reward."

"You and I are still estranged. I just hope this child will not be estranged from me."

As he spoke, Li Longji showed a kind smile, which made the child giggle.

Anyone who sees it will find the picture of four generations living under the same roof extremely harmonious.

"By the way, have you chosen a name?" Li Longji asked again.

Xue Bai said: "Not yet."

He didn't seem to be in any hurry to name the child.

I can’t tell the reason, maybe deep down he’s still not sure what his last name is?

"Then I'll start one."

After Li Longji finished speaking, he solemnly uttered two words.

"Li Zuo."

Everyone was stunned.

Li Longji used to be very careful about state affairs, fearing that he would be persecuted if he interfered with Xue Bai. But today, he dared to intervene so directly in Xue Bai's family affairs without any hesitation.

It seemed that naming this child "Li Zuo" was more important than the safety of himself, the emperor.

"Write your name down in the royal book of records," Li Longji ordered, "and issue another decree to confer the title of Prince of Guangling on Li Zuo, with a fief of 5,000 households..."

This was all Li Longji did this time, coming to see the child.

Putting aside his identity, he looks like an old man who wants to see his great-grandson.

Of course, he had hundreds of real great-grandchildren, but he had never seen any of them receive such attention from him.

From beginning to end, Xue Bai was observing Li Longji, trying to see if there was a conspiracy behind that kind and benevolent expression. Unfortunately, Li Longji concealed it very well.

But Xue Bai would not be fooled by him. Instead, he thought that the happier they were, the more of an illusion it was.

It is very likely that in order to prevent the Tang Dynasty from being passed on to Xue Bai's son and becoming a member of a different bloodline, Li Longji did not hesitate to collude with Tubo.

It was precisely because of the birth of this child that the Li Tang royal family was determined to resist, but they still named him "Li Zuo". Come to think of it, it's really ironic...

(End of this chapter)