Late Tang

(The power outage yesterday and the computer broke down. I just bought a new one today. I will send you a [-]-character chapter. Thank you for your support. Please recommend tickets and monthly tickets!)

"Your Majesty, it's time to turn the cards."

Late at night in the West Nuan Pavilion of the Palace in Chengdu, Emperor Li Xuan rubbed his forehead with his hand, facing the mountain of requests for food and payment on the imperial case, he had such a headache that he didn't even realize it was midnight.It had been several days since Li Xuan had pampered the women in the palace, this situation worried Tian Lingzi and other eunuchs who were close to him.Once the emperor stopped shooting balls, shooting arrows and hunting, and no longer favored women, and instead slept in the wine and sex, instead facing piles of state affairs memorials all day long, accompanied by civil servants and elders, then this is definitely not the case. A good thing, at least for eunuchs like them, would never be a good thing.

Tian Lingzi closely controlled the emperor's every move. After the emperor got older, he worked hard for a period of time and wanted to be a great king.It's just that after Huang Chao invaded Luoyang and Chang'an, Gao Pian, Zhou Bao, Li Jing, and Li Ke, whom he pinned his hopes on, severely hit the young emperor's heart with the domineering performance of these generals.After retreating to Chengdu in panic, the emperor began to sink. He was extremely pessimistic all day long, always thinking that Huang Chao would soon enter Xichuan, so he slept in wine and sex every day to numb himself.

Tian Lingzi is already very unfamiliar with the emperor's clothes and food.

Moreover, the appearance of the emperor made him faintly afraid.

Tian Lingzi lit the sandalwood at the side, turned away a few court ladies, and whispered to Li Xuan: "Long live, take care of the dragon body. You haven't turned over the sign for a long time, so it's not good to go on like this. The old ministers are still looking forward to your Majesty's help." Can have more children and prosper the royal family."

After retreating into Chengdu, Tian Lingzi saw the emperor sinking, so he couldn't help despising the emperor even more.The big and small affairs of Chengdu Xing in the imperial court are almost decided by him with one word.In particular, the three Jiedu envoys of Xichuan were all his confidantes, and among them Xichuan Jiedu envoy was his brother Chen Jingxuan.In addition, the original Shence Army existed in name only. Although Tian Lingzi suffered heavy losses, after rebuilding the Shence Ten Army and Hundred Capitals, he successfully excluded Ximen Sigong, Yang Fugong and other eunuchs from this new army.

But tonight, he suddenly rushed to meet the emperor. Apart from the emperor working hard again, what was more important was his new report.

"Father, does Li Jing have a report?" Li Yan looked up, his eyes full of expectation.

Some time ago, when Huang Chao was unstoppable and the thieves were rampant, Li Jing, the overlord of the East who held a heavy army, suddenly sent a message to all towns, calling on all towns in the world to send troops to attack Huang Chao and serve the king together.After Li Jing's proclamation came out, to Li Xuan's surprise, it actually aroused the response of all the towns.And soon the three major coalition forces were formed, with twenty or thirty feudal towns participating.

Immediately afterwards, Zheng Tian, ​​commander of the coalition forces in Guanzhong, took the lead in responding to Li Jing and led eight towns to send troops.

These days, Li Xuan has been waiting for news from Guanzhong.

On the one hand, he was a little worried. After all, it was the former Prime Minister Zheng Tian who led the troops of the eight towns in Guanzhong.Moreover, the attitudes of the towns in Guanzhong were ambiguous, and even the Fengxiang Army had surrendered to Huang Chao.If it weren't for Huang Chao's greed and excessive demands, which violated the interests of the towns, and Li Jing's call to ascend to the heights, and joined forces with Zheng Tian, ​​the current coalition forces still don't know where they are.

But on the other hand, Li Zhang is full of expectations for this battle, and the situation in the world has deteriorated to this point.If there are no miracles, Li Tang's Jiangshan Building will collapse, and he will be powerless.He now hopes that Zheng Tian can win this battle, and then other towns will follow suit, so that his country may be preserved.

Although, in his heart, he felt that the fate of the Great Tang Dynasty for 300 years was entrusted to an old civil servant, and there was little hope, but he was still looking forward to it.

On the other hand, he put more hopes on Li Jing.Since Li Jing is going to issue an appeal at this time to order the kings of the towns to work hard, then maybe Li Jing doesn't intend to just watch the fire from the other side.

No matter what, Li Xuan, the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, had to act according to Tian Lingzi's face in Chengdu.But when it comes to the current situation in the world, he still has to count on Li Jing.

Tian Lingzi said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, Li Jing sent an urgent report from thousands of miles away. It is good news and good news! Great victory in Guanzhong. In the decisive battle, the [-] Guanzhong coalition forces faced the [-] puppet Qi rebels. Zheng Tian adopted the strategy of the staff group sent by Li Jing to the Guanzhong coalition forces, and used them as bait to lure Shangrang to lead his troops to attack the enemy lightly, and then ambushed and besieged Shangrang. For a whole day, Shang Rang was defeated, and Zheng Tian led the Guanzhong Allied Forces to behead [-] rebels and take more than [-] prisoners. Shang Rang led only [-] riders and fled back to Guanzhong."

This news can be said to be the best news since the imperial court abandoned Luoyang.

As a result, even Tian Lingzi had always been at odds with Zheng Tian and Li Jing, but he didn't dare to hide this matter, but told the truth.

However, at the end, he added another sentence, "Your Majesty, Zheng Tian's victory this time was due to his prior contact with Qin Wang Li Jing. They did not report the slightest battle plan to His Majesty and the court before the battle. Moreover, the battle Afterwards, Zheng Tian did not immediately send someone to win the victory in Chengdu. Instead, he first sent someone to report the victory to Li Jing in Youzhou, and then Li Jing sent the news of the victory to Chengdu. The news of the Longweipi battle was already half a month ago. His Majesty, who is the lord of the world, is almost the last to know the news."

These few words really made Li Xuan's face change slightly, and Li Xuan, who was just in a good mood after hearing the news, was shrouded in a shadow.

Before the war, Zheng Tian and Li Jing's problems were not reported to the imperial court at all, but it can be said that the generals can act cheaply when they are abroad, for the sake of keeping secrets and so on.But after the war, he was not the first to tell himself the news of the victory, but sent it to Li Jing who was far away in Youzhou, Hebei.

Here, there is something intriguing.Especially the news he got earlier, originally Fengxiang Army had already defected to Huang Chao, but later it was heard that Li Jing sent someone to find Zheng Tian, ​​after some planning, Fengxiang Army turned around.But Zheng Tian has been in close contact with Li Jing from Hebei since then.

Li Jing can now be said to be the mighty half of the eastern half of the sky, and the imperial court has nothing to do with this Uncle Li.If even Zheng Tian fell to Li Jing, then he, the emperor, would really be a loner.

He immediately remembered that the three major coalition forces this time seemed to have been summoned by Li Jing's call for action. Moreover, Li Jing still held the titles of Marshal of the World's Armed Forces, False Festival Yue, King of Qin, and Shang Shuling.He has every right to open a mansion and build a government office, and call himself a subordinate.

Although Li Jing has never shown any rebellious heart, Li Xuan, who has experienced so many things, no longer really believes in Li Jing.

Biting dogs don't bark. Li Ke used this Shatuo anti-bone boy. Although he rebelled against Datang twice, at any rate, this guy acts straight and straight, with one intestine to the end, after all, it is easy to grasp.But Li Jing was different. Li Jing was very tolerant and never showed his cards.Even though Li Jing's power is much stronger than that of Li Keyong, Huang Chao and other rebels, he has always used the banner of respecting Tang.

If you are not moved by small profits, you must have big plans!

But now, who else can he trust as the emperor?

He has seen through it now. Although he is the lord of the world, he is actually a real loner.Even Tian Lingzi, his father who brought him up since he was a child, is nothing but a completely untrustworthy person.

"I'm a little sleepy."

"Your Majesty hasn't flipped the card yet!" Tian Lingzi waved, and immediately a little eunuch came up with a box, which contained a pair of sandalwood albums like thick books, with portraits of concubines in the palace hanging on each page .Although Li Xuan came out of Chang'an in a hurry, he didn't take away all the court ladies in Chang'an, but he took all the concubines with him.In addition, after arriving in Chengdu, Tian Lingzi helped to arrange a lot of things, so the emperor who has just turned [-] has a lot of beauties in the palace.

Li Yan took a long breath, stopped in his tracks, turned his head to look at the wooden book, but he saw at a glance that the sign on the front page belonged to Chen Meiren.Chen Meiren is Tian Lingzi's niece, the daughter of Tian Lingzi and Chen Jingxuan's dead elder brother.Although she was pretty, she was poor since childhood, so she was just a little jade, and Li Xuan didn't like her.However, she is the niece of Tian Lingzi and Chen Jingxuan, and now he spends five out of ten nights in her palace.

Li Xuan knew what the Chen brothers were thinking, and now that he was in Chengdu, he was almost completely under the control of the brothers.Now they have even bigger ideas. Li Xuan has just turned [-]. Although he has many women and several children, he has not established a queen or a prince yet.The Tian Lingzi brothers' idea is obvious, that is, let Chen Mei give birth to a son, and then they will make her the queen and the child the prince.In this way, their Chen family, who are in charge of the Imperial Palace and Beiya, and the Xichuan Fanzhen outside, even the queen and crown prince, are their Chen family.

He really didn't want to look for that sign, but he also understood that now he was actually under the control of the brothers.Tian Lingzi controlled the Hundred Capitals of the New Tenth Army, Chen Jingxuan controlled Xichuan, and even the other two Sichuans were actually under the control of the brothers. .

"You don't need to choose, let's go to Beauty Chen in Shuyuan Hall tonight." Li Xuan said calmly.

With a satisfied smile on his face, Tian Lingzi turned over his niece's sign.Then he waved his hand to let the little eunuch lead the way, and he walked side by side with Li Xuan.

Li Xuan extended his hand to Tian Lingzi, the old eunuch was very satisfied and took it with a smile.Looking at his smiling face, Li Xuan felt more and more disgusted.It turned out that he used to obey him, but in fact, he now found that this old eunuch has nothing but to eliminate differences.Looking at Tian Lingzi, he would involuntarily think of Li Jing.

Li Jing and Tian Lingzi are also powerful ministers he cannot control, one outside and one inside.

But when he thought about it carefully, although he had all sorts of doubts and guesses about Li Jing, to be honest, when he had a good relationship with Li Jing before, Li Jing at least paid him millions of dollars in tribute every year.And now, although relying on the Chen brothers' raids in Xichuan, they can still barely maintain the current expenses in Chengdu, but it was Tian Lingzi's eagerness to evacuate the two capitals that made him hardly leave Sanchuan now.

"Your Majesty, Beauty Chen has been waiting for a long time."

Li Xuan lowered his eyes and let out a long sigh, he no longer had the strength to be angry.

During the fight between Li Jing and Tian Lingzi, he still favored Tian Lingzi in the end.As a result, Li Jing was divorced from him and no longer paid tribute to him.On the surface, although the monarch and his ministers are in harmony, the relationship between Li Jing and him has dropped to a freezing point.And he paid such a high price to support Tian Lingzi, what did he get in exchange?What they got in exchange was that they were taken all the way to Xichuan, gave up Liangchuan, and became an emperor who lost the prestige of the king.

Destroy the country!

At night, seeing Chen Meiren's kitsch appearance, Li Xuan hated this family more and more, and after making haste with her once, he went to bed early.

At dawn, Li Xuan pushed away Chen Meiren who was trying to climb up to him like a snake to beg him, and left directly.

After sitting in the imperial study for a long time, Li Xuan respectfully said to Yang Fu who came after hearing the edict: "Yang Qing, what do you think I should do?"

In the palace, among the four eunuchs, Tian Lingzi is still the most powerful. He holds the imperial army and his brothers to control Xichuan, and also controls Xingyuan and Shannandong towns through his confidantes.Under him, Ximen Sigong was old, and because Zheng Tian was fired from the prime minister, his power was greatly reduced, and Zhang Taichao, who had cited Li Jing as a foreign aid, was instead.

Of the four major eunuchs, Tian Lingzi controls the imperial army, and Chen Jingxuan and others control the support of Sanchuan. The position of the chief eunuch is unshakable.

Ximen Sigong and Zhang Tai, one has adopted son Fengxiang Jieshuai Zheng Tian, ​​and the other has the support of Qin Wang Lijing, their status is not weak, and the two are gradually uniting.

Among the four, only Yang Fugong was in charge of the Privy Council and the Shence Army before Li Xuan succeeded to the throne, and he was born in the Yang family, a family of powerful eunuchs in the palace.Later, he was beaten down by Tian Lingzi and Simon Sigong. Speaking of which, his relationship with Tian Lingzi was extremely bad, and his relationship with Simon Sigong was also not good. For Li Xuan, such a person is what he needs most now.Yang Fugong has a background and prestige. The key is that his younger brother Yang Fuguang is now the commander-in-chief of the three major coalition armies, and has a very good relationship with several feudal towns in the Central Plains. The three towns of Zhongwu, Hezhong Town, Yanmen Town, and Datong Town are all Close relationship with him.For Li Xuan, who is desperately eager for military support, the Yang brothers are the people he needs most now.

Yang Fugong was once the number one eunuch in the palace, with a very flexible mind.As soon as Li Xuan's words came out, he immediately tasted the meaning of them.

The emperor didn't ask Tian Lingzi, which means that the emperor had seen through Tian Lingzi and no longer believed him.The emperor didn't ask Zhang Tai either, which showed that the emperor didn't actually believe in Li Jing, who is very famous in the world today.The emperor never asked Simon Sigong, which means that the emperor didn't even believe Zheng Tian, ​​the representative of the local civil servants and festival commanders.

The emperor only believes in him, this is an opportunity!

It seems that the Son of Heaven has indeed reached the point of desperation, otherwise, he would not be so eager to ask him directly.

Yang Fugong's mind turned straight, and after pondering for a moment, he boldly said: "Your Majesty, this old slave feels that the brothers Tian Lingzi and Chen Jingxuan don't have half the ability to govern the country and the people except for fighting against the party and chasing differences. But Li Jing, hehe, maybe most people in the world think that his He is a famous minister of Zhongxing Datang, but the old slave thought that Li Jing was the biggest enemy of Datang. Now, Zhang Tai, Ximen Sigong, Zheng Tian and others have all started to fall for Li Jing. These people , none of which His Majesty can trust."

Li Yan said weakly: "What you said is correct, but what can be done? Could it be that if I issue an imperial edict, they will be removed from their official positions and their titles?"

Yang Fugong listened to Li Xuan's tone and knew that the emperor was not as simple as he appeared on the surface.At least, he has seen the essence of the matter. Now, the most important thing is not the righteousness of the monarch and ministers, but the real military power of the army. These are the most important things.However, he still tentatively said: "My brother Fuguang is now trusted by His Majesty to serve as the Superviser of the Army and Horse Capital of the World, and he is willing to serve His Majesty to the death and loyalty."

Li Xuan just sighed and shook his head.

Yang Fuguang decided to add fire.

"Qin Zongquan, Zhou Ji, and Lu Yanhong in the three towns of Zhongwu, Wang Chongrong in Hezhong Town, and Li Keyong in Yanmen Town. This old slave is sure to let them lead the soldiers and horses under their command to die for His Majesty."

Li Yan sat up abruptly, and slapped his palm on the table. The pen holder, pen washer, pen holder, and paperweight on the table jumped up. Yang Fuguang quickly lowered his head, "The old slave made a mistake..."

Unexpectedly, Li Xuan took the case and said: "What Aiqing said is serious, are you really sure that these five towns will serve me?"

"For Your Majesty, even though this old slave is willing to die, the 20 troops in the five towns will become His Majesty's most loyal long sword!"

"Hasn't Li Keyong in Yanmen Town been killed in the battle with Li Jing? I heard that Shatuo is now divided into two, and they are all surrendered to Li Jing. Not long ago, Li Jing also asked Li Siyuan As the envoy of Yanmen Jiedu, Li Sizhao is the envoy of Datong Jiedu."

Yang Fugong smiled slightly, "Your Majesty, this old slave has just received a letter from Li Keyong, confirming that Li Keyong is not only not dead, but will also take over the Shatuo soldiers and horses immediately. Li Keyong asked the minister to represent you to His Majesty." , He is willing to go through fire and water for His Majesty, whether it is Huang Chao or Li Jing, as long as he is an enemy of His Majesty, he is willing to destroy the front and capture the flag for this!'

Li Xuan was very pleasantly surprised, and finally heard another piece of good news.Immediately he couldn't help admiring: "I really underestimated Brother Aiqing before. You really know the strength of the wind and see the loyal ministers. When the country is facing such a crisis, you have such extraordinary courage. Great kindness!"

However, thinking that Li Keyong had rebelled against the Tang Dynasty twice, Li Xuan was still a little afraid of this Shatuo flying tiger.

"Although Li Keyong is fierce, he is unruly and difficult to train. If you use him, can you guarantee that this person is reliable?"

Yang Fugong assured: "Li Keyong was almost defeated by Li Jing last time. Even his wife was captured and his children became Li Jing's hostages. If he wants to stand up, how can it be possible without His Majesty's support. Besides , Although he rebelled against Tang twice, there were reasons for both of them, and he was defeated both times. The old slave believes that Li Keyong is not stupid. Even after hitting a wall twice, it is impossible to hit a third time, right? "

"I hope!" Li Jing let out a long breath. (To be continued.)