The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 265 Escape
"General Liu, do you have anything else to say?" Li Heng asked Liu Yan again.

Liu Yan hesitated for a moment, and in the end did not say anything. He shook his head and said, "Not yet. I will take my leave first."

Li Heng saw that Liu Yan was hesitant to speak, but he did not ask any further questions. He just nodded and let Liu Yan leave first.

After Liu Yan left, Zhang Guangsheng stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, Mi Qian and Kang Yi have confessed."

Mi Qian and Kang Yi had previously defected to Tubo and fled to Molichuan with their subordinate Lu Mangqidun, but were captured alive by Li Siye on the way.

After Li Siye captured the person, he did not make it public, but quietly handed him over to Zhang Guangsheng.

"What did you confess?" Li Ying asked.

Zhang Guangsheng said: "There are three main things. The first is that they have exposed all the officials who have conspired with Qixi, Hexi, Longyou, and Guanzhong over the years, and the implications are very wide."

As Zhang Guangsheng spoke, he presented the confessions of Mi Qian and Kang Yi.

Li Heng took it and took a look. There were seventy or eighty names in it, including a dozen from Qixi, with the most from Hexi and Longyou. From Shazhou, Guazhou to Lanzhou, basically every state was involved.

"It's shocking!" Li Ying sighed.

Zhang Guangsheng asked, "Your Highness, should the people involved be severely punished?"

"Let me think about how to deal with it." Li Heng didn't rush to give a conclusion, and asked, "What about the second thing?"

Zhang Guangsheng said: "They did provide An Lushan with a lot of money to support An Lushan's Zoroastrian activities."

Li Heng nodded and asked, "What about the third one?"

Zhang Guangsheng said: "They were the masterminds of the Zoroastrians who assassinated He Jin and injured Princess Aqisi outside Chang'an City. However, they would never admit that this matter had anything to do with An Lushan. They only said that this was a business conflict between them and the He family."

Li Ying asked, "Where are their families?"

"After their plan to assassinate He Jin failed, they sent their families to Pinglu." Zhang Guangsheng sighed, "In other words, their families were protected by An Lushan."

Li Ying said: "It's protection, but also hostages. They have already made plans for the worst."

Zhang Guangsheng said: "I thought that if we captured Mi Qian and Kang Yi, we would be able to find evidence to suppress An Lushan, but I didn't expect these two to deny it. It's a pity."

"really."

Li Heng agreed with her words, but he didn't think so in his heart.

Over the years, Li Heng has been thinking about a question: how should he treat An Lushan.

From an emotional point of view, there is no doubt that he wanted to kill An Lushan.

But from a rational point of view, it is not the case.

Because the Tang Dynasty had come to this point, even if he killed An Lushan, he could not stop the rebellion of the vassal states.

The accumulated conflicts in the Tang Dynasty now cannot be resolved without a war.

In this case, since there will be chaos anyway, it is better to let it be in the hands of someone he is familiar with, so that he can deal with it better.

This is just one of them.

Second, if there were no other unexpected events, the Anshi Rebellion would be a good opportunity for him.

Therefore, not only could he not kill An Lushan, on the contrary, before his goal was achieved, he had to "protect" An Lushan and let An Lushan live the way he should.

If you want to destroy someone, first make him crazy.

Li Ying pondered for a while and said, "Mi Qian and Kang Yi must be kept under strict supervision and no outsiders should be allowed to approach them. I will tell you what to do with them in a few days."

"Yes." Zhang Guangsheng took the order, paused, and took out a document to present to Li Heng, saying: "Your Highness, this is the assessment result of all your guards, and several of them did not meet the standards."

Li Heng took it and took a look at it, then said, "Those who do not meet the standards will be sent back to their original team, and other people will be selected to fill the gaps. Whoever is selected will be reported to me for review, and I will personally inspect them afterwards." "Yes." Zhang Guangsheng accepted the order.

Li Longji approved a private guard of 2,000 men for Li Heng. After such a long period of development, these 2,000 men had become the elite among the elite in Qixi. They usually had high salaries and complete equipment, and were unstoppable in battle. However, if they were not managed well, they could easily suffer backlash.

After all, the Tang Dynasty's guards were notoriously difficult to control.

Zhang Guangsheng knew that Li Ying attached great importance to him, so he did not dare to slack off in the slightest.

After answering this question, Li Heng had a secret chat with Gao Xianzhi and Zhang Guangsheng about some other things before they went back to their respective homes.

……

three days later.

Li Ying personally led people out of Qiuci to meet Aqisi.

Yang Yuhuan had arranged all matters concerning the wedding, so everything went very smoothly.

Li Ying successfully completed the wedding with Aqisi.

After the ups and downs.

Li Ying looked at the wound on Aqisi's shoulder and said, "Last time you were outside Chang'an City, you were injured again while protecting He Jin. The mastermind of the incident has been caught. Do you want me to kill them for you, or do you do it yourself?"

Aqisi's face flushed, she leaned on Li Ying's chest and said, "Anything is fine. What do you want me to choose, Your Highness?"

Li Heng said, "If you were an ordinary woman, I would kill you for you, but you fought on the battlefields of Ningyuan Country, and you are as brave as any man. The person who hurt you should be avenged by yourself."

"Okay." Aqisi smiled, "But they are all in prison. If I do it myself, people will inevitably think that Your Highness is abusing private punishment."

Li Heng said: "That's easy. I'll have them released and you can just kill them on the way."

Aqisi said: "Yang Zhao and Bian Lingcheng are in Anxi. If they knew that someone could escape from the prison where Your Highness governs, it would probably damage Your Highness's reputation."

Li Heng said, "I just want them to know that even the places I govern may have omissions. I will take them to see you kill someone."

Aqisi didn't understand why Li Ying did this, but she didn't want to understand it at the moment, so she just did whatever Li Ying said.

"I will listen to your Highness." Aqisi nodded and started to behave dishonestly again.

……

Two days later, Li Heng led some of the civil and military officials of Anxi, accompanied by the military supervisor Bian Lingcheng, to inspect the garrison castles of Anxi.

Anxi is a vast area with few people. After leaving Qiuci, there is yellow sand all over the sky and a desolate Gobi Desert. It takes a long time to walk before you find an oasis.

Bian Lingcheng had been in Chang'an for a long time and was not used to such desolation, so he complained as he walked.

As the group of people were walking, Zhang Guangsheng suddenly came to report, "Your Highness, Mi Qian and Kang Yi have escaped from prison."

When Bian Lingcheng heard this, he was startled and turned to look at Li Heng.

Li Heng also pretended to be very surprised and asked, "When did it happen?"

"We found them this morning." Zhang Guangsheng said seriously, "When the jailer checked the prison this morning, he found that both of them were not in the prison. The jailer went into their cell to check and found a tunnel under their beds."

Li Ying said, "These two people are the masterminds behind the assassination of Aqisi outside Chang'an City. There are important matters involved behind the scenes. We can't let them escape. Go find them quickly."

Zhang Guangsheng said: "Anxi is a vast area. Once they are released from prison, it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack to find them again."

"We have to find it." Li Heng turned his horse around and headed west, with the others following closely behind.

(End of this chapter)