The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 198: Difficult Questions

"Some of the soldiers who came here to apply for the position are in too high a position. For example, Shi Shouyi is now a captain, in charge of more than 800 people, but he came here to apply for a small position of guard captain. There are even more brigade commanders who came here to apply for the position." Zhang Guangsheng pointed out the problem.

Li Heng was familiar with Shi Shouyi. The first time Li Heng went to attack Xiaobolü, Shi Shouyi followed the army and made great contributions. Li Heng kept his promise and took him to Chang'an.

Later on, he was present at every expedition, and he was promoted to the rank of captain based on his military achievements.

Having these people running for election was a difficult problem for Zhang Guangsheng, but it was a good thing for Li Ying.

An Lushan did not have the right to maintain private troops, so he changed his method and relied on adopting sons to consolidate his power. Now that Li Heng had this right, he naturally had to make good use of it.

Li Heng pondered for a moment and said, "These people are the cornerstone of the army. We cannot transfer them here, but we cannot let their good intentions go to waste. Let them take on the guard duties concurrently, and their original positions will remain unchanged."

Allowing these people to concurrently serve as guards would ostensibly take up Li Heng's guard quota, but in fact, when Li Heng calls upon them in the future, he can not only use the transfer orders of the Ministry of War, but also use the title of guards.

"Yes." Zhang Guangsheng accepted the order and said, "I will sort out the list and then present it to Your Highness for your review."

"Thank you, General Zhang." Li Heng nodded, thought for a moment, and then said, "Check how many Sogdians in the three towns of Hexi, Anxi, and Beiting participated in An Lushan's Zoroastrian activities. Remember, you must investigate secretly."

Zoroastrianism is the religion that Abu Muslim believed in before.

This religion was believed not only by Persians but also by Sogdians.

An Lushan took advantage of Zoroastrian activities to raise a lot of money from the Sogdians and saved up a lot of funds for his activities.

Li Heng now occupies an important route on the Silk Road, and he also wants to get this money, so he has to fight with An Lushan.

"I understand." Zhang Guangsheng took the order and retreated.

Li Heng and Yang Yuhuan walked back. Li Heng spoke much less than before and basically kept his head down, thinking about things.

After returning to the mansion, Yang Yuhuan brought tea to Li Heng and asked, "What are you worried about, my dear?"

"Yes." Li Ying nodded and sighed, but didn't know where to start.

The news that Hongyue sent him were two about An Lushan and one about Nanzhao.

As for An Lushan, even without Yang Yuhuan to please, An Lushan still thrived just as he did in history.

This is easy to understand. After all, in history, An Lushan's purpose of currying favor with Yang Yuhuan was to please Li Longji. As long as Li Longji was still alive, An Lushan's trick would not fail.

Yang Yuhuan was just a scapegoat.

It is said that prosperous times need beauties to embellish them, and troubled times need beauties to bear the blame.

Yang Yuhuan was beautiful enough, and she lived just in the transition period between prosperity and chaos. She both embellished the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty and took the blame for the chaos.

Thinking of this, Li Heng couldn't help but glance at Yang Yuhuan.

He temporarily changed Yang Yuhuan's life, but the general trend of history remained unchanged. An Lushan still served as the governor of two towns, and the An-Shi Rebellion would still come.

And he couldn't stop it.

Because the An-Shi Rebellion could not be resolved by simply dealing with An Lushan.

Hebei Province, with one-tenth of the population of the Tang Dynasty, paid one-quarter of the country's taxes.

Some clans in Hebei did not let their family members take the imperial examinations since the tenth year of Kaiyuan, because they knew it was useless to take the exam.

From the common people to the clans, Hebei was already very dissatisfied with the imperial court, and a few people had long been thinking about rebelling against the Tang Dynasty, such as Gao Shang, who was now by An Lushan's side.

So in a sense, An Lushan was just a tool pushed forward by Hebei to fight against the imperial court. Even if An Lushan was killed, Hebei would have pushed forward someone else.

As for Nanzhao, Li Lin intervened in advance and changed the original course of history.

Originally Ge Luofeng was supposed to stay in Chang'an for a few more years, but now he was released early.

Ge Luofeng is extremely talented and ambitious. Now that he has returned to Nanzhao, big things are bound to happen in Nanzhao.

If Li Lin really suffered losses at the hands of Nanzhao in Jiannan, it would further aggravate the situation in the Tang Dynasty.

The situation in the Tang Dynasty did not get better because of Li Ying's arrival and his achievements, but became more complicated.

Seeing that Li Heng was lost in thought and did not explain to her, Yang Yuhuan smiled and said, "Yu thought of the drowning people in the world as if they were drowning themselves; Ji thought of the starving people in the world as if they were starving themselves. This is certainly a good quality, but you have done everything you can, so you should not worry too much."

Li Heng was startled when he heard this and asked, "How do you know what I'm thinking?"

Yang Yuhuan said, "My dear, you became worried after reading Hongyue's letter. The worry must be related to the content of the letter. Although I don't know what the news in the letter means, I think it should be related to the family, the country and the world."

Li Heng smiled and said, "It's not that I don't want to explain it to you, it's just that this matter is too complicated and difficult to explain."

"I understand." Yang Yuhuan nodded and said seriously, "My lord, you are thoughtful. If I have to explain everything to you, I am afraid it will take half my life. I just want to tell you that you have done a good job. No matter what happens in the future, I will stand by you and fight together."

Li Heng was very moved when he heard this. He hugged Yang Yuhuan and said with a smile, "You trust me so much that you don't even know I sold you out."

"My dear, are you willing to let me go?" Yang Yuhuan smiled. "Aqisi wrote to me saying that my dear always thought of me when he was away at the battle."

Li Heng asked in confusion: "Why did she tell you this?"

"I can't explain to you what I'm thinking, you just need to trust me and I can handle it." Yang Yuhuan said, and she reached out to press Li Ying's arm, and then said, "When I first married you, your arm was relatively soft, but now it's much harder."

Li Heng smiled and said, "You'll learn this after marching and fighting for a long time."

"That's right." Yang Yuhuan took Li Heng's hand and placed it on her waist. "I have been practicing dancing all these years, and my waist has become much thinner."

Li Ying touched Yang Yuhuan's waist and said, "Your dance is beautiful enough, and you are so diligent."

Yang Yuhuan said, "I learned mostly palace music and dance before. After coming to Anxi, I integrated the customs of the Western Regions. I also want to learn sword dance. My dear, do you know Gongsun Da Niang?"

"I've heard a little about it." Li Ying said.

Yang Yuhuan said, "It is said that Zhang Xu's calligraphy was inspired by Gongsun Da Niang's sword dance. I wanted to ask Zhang Xu about this today, but I saw that my husband was talking about government affairs with them, so it was inconvenient for me to interrupt."

Li Heng knew Gongsun Da Niang because of Du Fu's poems, and he was not aware of this rumor.

Li Heng said, "Gongsun Da Niang is performing among the people, so it's not easy to find her. But another sword dance master Pei Min is easy to find. I'll invite him to come and exchange ideas if there's a chance."

"Okay."

Yang Yuhuan smiled slightly and was about to speak when Zhang Mujin walked in with Li Ling.

When Yang Yuhuan saw Li Ling, she stood up and hugged Li Ling in her arms.

(End of this chapter)