Late Tang

Li Jing once said in the Sirius Festival Hall that someone plays a hero because he is cowardly.Someone plays the benevolent because he is vicious.Someone plays the murderous maniac because he has a strong desire to kill.And people cheat because they are born liars.

"One point!" Yang Lao Wu said.

Under the flickering light, the faces of several people softened.

An oil lamp, like a bean flame, was jumping, illuminating the room.Except for Kong Ergou, for everyone else, the danger has passed.

The dice were frozen in a broken bowl with one side missing, a red dot peeking out from it. The broken dice contrasted sharply with the broken bowl and dirty table.

"One point!" Yang Lao Wu, who was missing a front tooth, laughed in a leaky tone, "Who is it?"

"It's me." Kong Ergou said in a low voice, wearing a black robe that was as hard as cowhide armor with oil stains on it. "I threw it."

"Then pay the money!" Yang Lao Wu laughed and said, "Remember, with the ones you lost just now, you already owe [-] yuan."

Kong Ergou felt cold all over.

The archery tower is three feet high, and there is only a low wooden wall less than the chest height on it. Standing on it, there is nothing above the chest to block the wind from all directions.If it was summer, it would be cool to stand here, but at night like this, it would only make people feel cold and windy.There are almost no corners on the watchtower that can avoid the cold wind. In the second half of the night, even the hands and feet will be frozen and unconscious.

However, Kong Ergou grew up in the mountains outside Daibei, and he has long been accustomed to the harsh wind.Now, it was fear that creeped him out.

"Are you still playing? If I don't play, I will go back to sleep." Zhao Dayou said.He was a tall, loud-voiced fellow with a mass of greasy hair on a protruding head and a small face with sunken eyes from lack of sleep.His mouth was open, a trail of jerky hanging from his protruding lower lip.On the battlefield, this is a terrifying guy, always carrying two big axes, like a humanoid meat grinder, his favorite thing to do is to split the enemy in half.Now he is a leader of Li Sizhao's new Black Crow Army.

Yang Lao Wu, who is missing a tooth, is Li Cunzhang's pro-military lieutenant. confidant.His eyes were gloomy like a poisonous snake, and he turned around to look at Zhao Dayou who was a head taller than him.

"I'm on guard at the second watch." Zhao Dayou was a little disturbed by Yang Laowu's look, and explained in a low voice, "I'm going to sleep for a while."

"Then let's come here first today." Yang Laowu said, "Everyone settle the bill."

Zhao Dayou and Liu Xiaodao stood up, but Kong Ergou sat there with a pale face.

"Ergou, don't you have no money?" Yang Laowu's face darkened, and he said to Kong Ergou in a low voice. "You are the commander of Hengchong Capital, who is next to the king of the county. You are in charge of hundreds of troops and receive a generous salary. If you tell me that you have no money to pay, the brothers will not believe it."

"Recently, I've been feeling a bit unlucky. I've been losing for a few days. Brother Wu, if you can give me a few more days, I'll definitely raise the money." Kong Ergou begged.

Ten thousand dollars is not a small amount of money for a senior officer.But if it was only 100 yuan, Kong Ergou wouldn't be so embarrassed.The point is that these days he gambled with Yang Laowu and the others. He was lucky at first, winning consecutively, but then he lost consecutively.As of this evening, he already owes Yang Laowu more than 10,000 guan, [-]+ money.For Kong Ergou who had just evacuated from Yizhou in embarrassment not long ago, he simply couldn't afford such a sum of money.

"Ergou, you said the same thing last time, and you said the same thing last time. When you were lucky in the beginning, you should accept it as soon as you see it. Now you have to keep on gambling, and now the money is getting better and better. The more you owe, the worse it is to not pay back the money you owe. Besides, the money I borrowed from you is actually not all mine, but mainly from Deputy Envoy Li. It’s not easy for him to owe money for a long time.”

"Fifth brother, if you help me out again, three days, no, two days. Give me two more days, and I will definitely raise money to pay back." Kong Ergou said anxiously, he knew what Deputy Envoy Li was talking about. Who, that is Yang Laowu's brother-in-law, General Li Cunzhang, deputy governor of the Datong Army.That is the second person in the army after Li Siyuan, he is not easy to owe money.

Yang Laowu winked at Zhao Dayou and told them to leave.

Zhao Dayou and Liu Xiaodao got up and left. When they were going out, someone tripped over and there was a low voice of cursing.

After the footsteps outside went away, Yang Laowu got up and walked to Kong Ergou and sat down, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Brother, you said the same thing last time. In fact, I will give you another ten days Time, you can't collect a hundred coins to pay me back. You said, right?"

"Fifth brother, give me another two days, and I will definitely get the money."

"The opportunity was given to you, but you wasted it." Yang Lao Wu sneered.

Kong Ergou's face was dripping with sweat. He knew that if something bad happened today, he might not be able to get out of this door.

"Fifth brother, as long as you give me another chance, I can do anything for you."

"Seriously?"

"Absolutely, you can be a cow or a horse, kill or set fire, you can do it, there is no difference." Kong Ergou was desperate, and swore.

Yang Lao Wu returned to his seat, took out a dagger, and slowly trimmed his nails.

Until Kong Ergou and others were about to collapse, Yang Laowu finally finished trimming his naked fingernails.Raising his head, he said: "If that's the case, I'd like to give you another chance. If you're willing to do this for me, after it's done, not only will you be able to avoid the one hundred guan money you owe me, but I'll be able to I will send you a fortune, riches, beauties, officials, etc. How about it?"

Kong Ergou doesn't believe in pies falling from the sky. Such a good thing often means greater danger.But now he has no choice, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and say, "Fifth brother has an assignment, and he will die."

"Hey, take it easy, it's not a fatal thing. Although it's a bit risky, the rewards will only be greater. Will Fifth Brother still harm you?" Yang Laowu said with a smile, "Come here, I'll talk to you carefully .”

After a long time, Kong Ergou came out of the house in a state of confusion, lost his mind, and walked back in a daze.

"He agreed?" Zhao Dayou and Liu Xiaodao, who had already left just now, got into the house from behind, and there were several other people with them, all of them are the commander-level officers in the Datong Army, and they are present in every battalion.

Yang Laowu nodded and said with a smile: "He has no choice, what's more, I did show him a bright way and want to give him a fortune."

"Is he reliable? He is an old man in Hengchongdu. He has been following Li Sizhao, and he was Li Sizhao's personal guard before." Liu Xiaodao asked.

"He doesn't know much. But Xiaodao is right. Just in case, you should keep an eye on him. If he acts rashly, kill him directly." Yang Laowu made a slashing gesture with his palm. action.

Yanjing.

The newly built King Qin's Mansion next to the north of Yanjing City has a very large area, a bit larger than the inner city of Yanjing, equivalent to half the size of Yanjing City.This Prince Qin Palace is said to be a palace, but it is actually a group of palaces.The planning is completely in accordance with the layout and scale of Chang'an Miyagi.The entire palace complex has been divided into five parts.They are the offices of the Provincial Courtyard and other yamen festival halls connected to the North City of Yanjing, and the left and right Acropolis on the east and west sides, where there are two guards and pro-army camps, respectively. And pro Yixun Sanwei.Then to the north is the inner court. The first half of the inner court is Li Jing's study, conference room, meeting hall and other office places.The second half is the bedroom area, where many wives and children live.

This time Zhang Chengan came here, it was obvious that Li Zhang wanted to appease Li Jing, so as to ease the relationship with Li Jing, and hoped to use Li Jing's prestige to fight the next battle to exterminate Huang Chao.For this reason, before Zhang Chengan came, he was specially received by the emperor, and the emperor said a lot of good things about Li Jing and asked him to tell Li Jing.

Of course, apart from verbal awards, Li Jing also received a lot of awards without any surprise.

But as early as the last time Huang Chao went to Guanzhong, the emperor had already conferred a lot of official titles in order to obtain Li Jing's continued loyalty.After that reward, Li Jing was already the highest title of King Qin, and Wu Sanjie had already been promoted to the top-ranked Hussar General.In addition, the honors have already reached the top-level Shangzhu Kingdom. In addition, there are a series of special honors such as General Zuo Xiaowei, Tongping Zhangshi, Shangshuling, Zhongshuling, Shizhong, Taishi, Taifu, and Taibao. The fake yellow axe, the envoy holds the festival, and the military is famous among the governors.He was awarded the Marshal of the World's Soldiers and Horses, and the commander-in-chief restrained the soldiers and horses of all the towns in the world.He also served as the secretary order of Daxingtai in the Northeast Road, and also led the ministerial orders of the seven provinces of Andong Province, Liaodong Province, Liaoxi Province, Beiping Province, Rehe Province, Hebei Province, and Shandong Province.

It can be said that Li Jing has already reached the point where there is nothing to seal.

Official positions, titles, honors, casual ranks, and even honorary titles are all sealed to the top.There is even a special title of Uncle Emperor.

To re-seal, the only thing left is to add Jiuxi, Xu Jianlu goes to the hall, and he does not participate in praise.But if it really comes to bestow such glory, the Son of Heaven will not be far away.

So, now the emperor loves and fears Li Jing.He not only needs Li Jing to maintain the current weak situation of the Li Tang court, but also has to worry about whether the powerful Qin Fan will directly throw off the court and start a new one on his own.

But since it's appeasement, it can't just be a few words of verbal praise.

The imperial court can't afford any money now, so in the last edict sent by the emperor, there is no intention to promote Li Jing.However, [-] food towns were specially added to Li Jing, and [-] households were sealed for real food, and the number of real food seals was increased to [-].In addition, [-] hectares of Yongye land in Liaodong were granted.

In addition, since Li Jing has nothing to seal, then seal his wife and son.In particular, Wang Guiniang was given the title of Princess Qin, and Yu Youniang, who had not yet passed through the family, was given the title of Princess of Lingnan. In addition, after the last time Li Jing's eldest son was named King of Lanling County, Li Jing's remaining 21 sons were given the title of "Lanling County King" again. The Duke of Pyongyang, even the No. 20 second son who was just born and was still in his infancy was awarded the title of Duke of Pyongyang.Li Jing's [-] daughters were also named princesses.Li Jing's other wives were all named Mrs. Guo.For three generations of Li Jing's ancestors, they all presented the king's title and the rank of general.

These things are really powerful, and it doesn't cost the court a penny, but everyone in the world can see the emperor's all-encompassing trust in Li Jing.

Li Jing didn't give Li Jing any more titles, but he gave him a lot of titles as his wife and son. In addition, he also wantonly added the titles of Qin Fan soldiers.

Last time, Li Jing asked the imperial court to confer titles on the officers and men of Qin Fan, and conferred a bunch of titles such as Duke of the Four Kingdoms, Duke of Nine Commanderies, and Marquis of 36 Kingdoms.This time, Li Xuan took the initiative to award rewards to the soldiers of the Qin Fan. Basically, all officers above the battalion level of the Qin Army were rewarded.Everyone first arrived at the ranks and honors that were one or two levels higher than normal.In addition, the original official positions of various civil and military officials were originally appointed by Li Jing himself.Now, Li Xuan decreed to officially confer these official positions on them.

Li Xuan even gave away the always precious title as if he didn't want money.

Under the king Li Jing, Cui Yunqing and other nine people were newly appointed as county kings, and eighteen state princes, 36 county princes, 72 state princes, 360 county princes, and [-] county princes were named.There are countless uncles, sons and men.

This knighting completely broke the previous system.The titles range from King, County King, State Duke, County Duke, County Duke, State Marquis, County Marquis, County Marquis to Founding Boss, Founding Son, and Founding Man, and recognized the titles of Lord and Jazz established by the Qin Dynasty, and added A total of fifteen ranks have been established for knight titles and knight titles.Princes, princes, princes, and princes are nobles, uncles, sons, and men are nobles, and knights, knights, knights, and warriors are knights.

With the new title system of the fifteenth class, the emperor suddenly created more than [-] knights for Qin Fan.

Moreover, in this new title system, apart from the title of title, Li Yan not only has no fiefdoms and food towns, but also no salary at all.They are all empty titles, and the required fief, food, salary, etc. must be completely resolved by Li Jing himself.

Generally speaking, Li Xuan gave Li Jing the title of wife and son, and gave it to his ancestors as a posthumous gift, which is a great honor and favor.But granting a large number of official positions at once, and conferring countless nobles among the soldiers of the Qin Fan, this was completely a temptation by Li Xuan, or it was a trouble for Li Jing.And this is not just causing trouble for Li Jing, it also hides the emperor's temptation to Qin Fan and his courtship of Qin Fan's civil and military skills!

The emperor wanted to increase the influence of the imperial court and the influence of the emperor among the Qin Fan.This kind of indiscriminate rewards really caused Li Jing a lot of trouble, he disrupted Qin Fan's original order of rewards.For this reason, Li Jing couldn't refuse, otherwise, it would make these subordinates who had just been promoted feel unhappy.

Li Yan wrote it casually, but in the end, Li Jing had to pay for the countless salary increases after being promoted.Moreover, an excessively high official rank system will bring more troubles.

Li Jing looked at the bright yellow python robe, jade belt and golden crown bestowed by the emperor, with a hint of anger on his face.

The emperor is playing with fire! (To be continued.)