Great Han Empire

Chapter 265 The situation changes suddenly
"When the wedding team came to the gate of the Sikong Mansion, their vigilance was the weakest. At this time, an assassination is a sure hit, and the blow to the reputation of the Xu clan is the biggest. Those snobs who followed the Xu clan saw that the Xu clan It’s hard to guarantee, and you must be afraid, and you may change the court under the sway.” He Yong (read yong) looked a little excited, and said in an irritable tone, “However, today’s assassins are very rampant, and they have already moved in Yongping Street hand, so that we fall short.”

He Jin frowned, and said, "Have all the assassins arranged near the Sikong Mansion withdrawn?"

Yuan Shao nodded and said: "It's all settled properly. I have already sent people to bury the two retainers of Duan Gui's mansion in a pile of random graves at the foot of Mang Mountain." He looked at He Yong, and then said: "This time we The opportunity was seized by others, and the new wife of the Xu Clan was also robbed by the gang of assassins. As a result, the effect of this matter was far worse than we expected. The result is two different things.”

"If we follow our method and assassinate at the gate of Sikong's mansion, leave behind the corpses of the two martial arts masters in Duan Gui's mansion during the escape, and plant this stolen goods on the Zhongguan, we can not only make Xu Xiang and Zhongguan The official immediately tore up his face, and he could also take the opportunity to win over the Xu family and a group of bureaucrats who followed the Xu family to become a great help for us. Master Zhu's daughter died innocently, and the hatred of the powerful family towards Zhongguan can be almost instantly Ignited by us. In this situation, middle officials can't tell. They are alone and helpless. What else can they do but wait for death? On the contrary, as long as we launch an action to eradicate rape and eunuchs, we will immediately get the absolute support of the powerful family It's a pity..." He patted the desk angrily, and cursed angrily, "Gao Gong and Zhuo Yan, these two bastards, have spoiled our good deeds for no reason. Gong Gong thinks he is smart, but he is actually an idiot. Using your brain and coveting small profits, this time not only was it taken advantage of by others, it also disgraced my Yuan family."

"These two bastards are willing to do anything as long as they are short of money." He Yong said angrily, "I didn't send someone back to talk about such a big matter."

"I have already sent someone to ask, He Feng said, Li Hong invited them to drink at Zhangyue Terrace last night, and Li Wei said a lot of provocative things at the banquet, instigating them to go back to the city this afternoon to find Xu Gen's troubles, Li Wei They also gave them a lot of money in private. From this, it can be concluded that this was done by Li Hong. Li Hong was assassinated on Yongping Street a few days ago. Do it here, this person is very courageous."

"He is more than courageous." Yuan Shao shook his head and said, "He is a lunatic. In Xiliang, he fought against 5+ rebels with 10,000 people. Is this called courage? To put it mildly, it is luck. To put it badly, he is a lunatic. .Fight against this kind of lunatic, if you don’t die, you will lose your skin. But I don’t think it’s that simple.”

He Jin smiled lightly and said, "Benchu, tell me."

"What reason does Li Hong have to go to all lengths to snatch a woman? Does he have a reason to make this so obvious? Since he has done so, there is only one possibility: to be appointed by others." Yuan Shao said slowly, " General, brother Boqiu, how will the situation in Luoyang change with Li Hong's robbing?"

Yuan Shao glanced at the two of them, and without waiting for them to speak, he continued, "Without any evidence, it is far-fetched to say that Li Hong robbed people. Sir Sikong and his staff will definitely consider this, so they He will doubt the general, the middle-ranking official, and even the clan. In short, the Xu clan who is so famous will definitely think of other strategies for his own destiny. The power you want to win over. In this way, the power of all parties in Luoyang will be weakened, but who will benefit the most?"

"It's Your Majesty." He Yong sighed, "Ben Chu had a unique vision and hit the point. Li Hong's robbing really meant a lot."

He Yong thought for a while, and then said: "Yesterday, Xu Jing was enlisted by His Majesty as Shangshu, and Xu Shao was enlisted by His Majesty as Taishi Ling. Today, the Xu family has more than a dozen bureaucrats in Beijing and various states and counties. , plus their close friends and protégés, they are so powerful that they have indeed surpassed the Yang clan and the Yuan clan, and have already become the number one clan in the Han Kingdom. If they want to establish their own family, this power should not be underestimated .”

"What we are worried about has happened again and again." He Jin said with a sad face, "At the beginning, we were worried that His Majesty would use Li Hong's power to do whatever he wanted. Whether it is human beings or not, it is His Majesty who is slowly taking our lives. Look, what happened in Jizhou..."

"The general doesn't need to worry about the affairs of Jizhou." He Yong said, "Although we provoked the affairs of Jizhou, we can't control it, and we can't control it. We can only use it flexibly instead of intervening in it. It is the key to ensure that we can advance and retreat freely."

"General, the matter of Jizhou is carried out very secretly. Ren Lihong has great abilities, and it is difficult to find any clues. Don't worry." Yuan Shao said with a smile, "If Li Hong finds out something, the person who wants to kill him is probably worse than Taihang Mountain. There are more ants and thieves."

"General, what we are most worried about now is whether His Majesty will take the eldest prince to Jizhou." He Yong said, "After Mr. Zijiang met His Majesty, his attitude towards us has changed a lot. Don't talk about meeting the emperor that day, so..."

"Could it be that Mr. Zijiang saw something?" The general looked surprised and said hesitantly, "Did we miss something?"

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The Son of Heaven looked at Zhao Zhong and Zhang Rang who were kneeling at their feet, waved his hands and said, "Get up, they are both very old, and their legs are still so flexible. Kneeling is faster than anyone else."

The two supported each other to get up from the ground, and after saying a few words of flattery to the emperor, Zhao Zhong started nagging, saying that Li Hong only took away one Changshui battalion of the Northern Army, which was too little.The Son of Heaven smiled and said, "You two don't know about my difficulties. The General only reluctantly agreed to this Changshui Camp because I put my face down. It's not as easy as you said."

Zhang Rang immediately asked about Xu Shao. "Did Mr. Xu say anything to His Majesty? I heard that he has a lot of research on astrology, and he is much smarter than the former Tai Shi Ling Shan Yang."

The emperor smiled bitterly, and said: "He didn't say anything, he only said that he should not take Shihou with him during the trip to Jizhou."

Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong complained incessantly, but they smiled even brighter.

"Your Majesty, what Tai Shi Ling said is just a family opinion." Zhang Rang said with a smile, "With the current power of the general, Your Majesty should consider the safety of the trip to Jizhou."

"Your Majesty can stay in Luoyang and let the old ministers accompany the Queen Mother to Jizhou..." Before Zhao Zhong finished speaking, the emperor interrupted him with a smile, "Aren't the two lovers afraid of being killed by Dong Zhong?"

The smiles on the faces of the two froze, their expressions extremely unnatural.

"Today's court meeting, many people wrote to impeach Li Zhonglang, do you know what's going on?"

"I heard that the bride of Mr. Sikong's family was snatched away by an assassin yesterday." Zhang Rang replied cautiously, "It seems that this matter has something to do with Yuan Shu, the captain of Changshuiying."

The emperor sneered and said, "Did you guys do this?"

"No." Zhao Zhong firmly denied, "This matter must have been sent by the general."

"But the general said that you did it." The emperor picked up a roll of memorials and threw it to Zhao Zhong, and said with a strange smile, "The general said that you are lawless, and you will be arrested and interrogated in the Tingwei mansion."

"He's tired of working." Zhao Zhong said angrily, "Your Majesty, He Jin has ulterior motives. After you arrive in Jizhou, he might plot something wrong."

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The seat of Wei County in Jizhou is Yecheng.

Yecheng is an ancient city. It was originally the capital of King Ming of Shang. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Huan of Qi rebuilt the city.During the Warring States Period, it belonged to the State of Wei, and Marquis Wen of Wei once made his capital here.Ximen Bao and Shi Qi, the ministers of the Wei State, successively served as the county magistrates of Ye, and dug twelve canals to divert water from Zhang to irrigate the fields, making the brine land full of fertile fields.Shang Wangming once served as a water official to rule the river, and was honored as the Bo of He after his death. It was the custom of the Bo of He to marry a wife during Ximenbao's time, and the Bo of the Lord worshiped was Shang Wangming.

Wang Fen, governor of Jizhou, arrived in Yecheng last month.In order to recruit soldiers, he asked the emperor for an imperial decree to build an army of 2 under the pretext of going to Montenegro to exterminate the remnants of the Yellow Turbans.It is conceivable how difficult it is to recruit [-] soldiers in a short period of time.However, Wang Fen did it unexpectedly.

Xiang Kai hurried back to Jizhou after negotiating with King Hefei.Under his matchmaking, the leaders of the Yellow Turban Army stationed in Montenegro, such as Bai Rao, Sui Gu, Ku You, and Yu Du, thought there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, and immediately raised 2 elite Yellow Turban soldiers, led by Ku You, who disguised themselves as refugees. , Taking advantage of the wind and snow, he went down the mountain overnight and rushed to Yecheng.In a very short period of time, this [-]-strong force was quickly formed and began training.

Li Hong took five thousand cavalry from the Changshui Battalion and three thousand black leopards from Puyang City across the Yellow River, and rushed to Yecheng to join the governor Wang Fen.

Li Hong's itinerary was very tense.The emperor will leave Luoyang in mid-February, and the inspection time given to him is only about 20 days.During these 20 days or so, Li Hong needs to determine the exact journey for the emperor to return to his hometown, to know the town where the emperor rests every day, to check the repair status of the old houses and ancestral temples in Hejian, and to supervise and review the construction of the emperor's temporary palace. It is still necessary to ensure safety.Li Hong didn't know how to do many of these things, and Li Hong's subordinates didn't know how to do them either, so they could only rely on Zuojun Sima Li Wei to handle them.

Li Wei recommended his schoolmates to Li Hong not out of selfishness, and he had no choice but to deal with so many complicated things by himself.For example, for the simplest record work, there are dozens of volumes of letters in a day, and they need to be sorted out at night. Is there no one to do it?Li Hong recruited Chen Hao, Xie Ming, Yin Si, Yu Peng and Tang Yun from Taixue under the order.Each of these people brought more than a dozen black panther volunteers who could write. Everywhere they went, they ran around and kept busy. They wanted to visit local bureaucrats, check the local population and terrain, and record the local customs. Favors, things like that, I'm so busy that my feet don't stick to the ground, sometimes I don't even have time to eat.Xiao Lan disguised herself as a man in the army and followed Li Wei to help out. The two were so busy that they didn't even have time to talk about love.Time is too tight.

Li Hong still has one more thing to worry about, and that is Wang Fen, the governor of Jizhou, and his [-] troops.

Cao Cao deliberately went to Zhangyuetai that day and told Li Hong that Wang Fen, the governor of Jizhou, was plotting to kidnap the emperor, which surprised Li Hong very much.After Cao Cao left, he immediately went to Li Wei to discuss with several subordinates. Is what Cao Cao said true or false?Everyone said their own reasons, and most people thought that Cao Cao was talking nonsense and alarmist.Wang Fen is also a celebrity in Pingyuan, how could he do such a rebellious thing?This kind of regicide is something most people dare not even think about, let alone do.As strong as Huangfusong, he holds heavy soldiers in his hands, but he doesn't even have the idea of ​​treason, let alone a weak celebrity who has no power to restrain a chicken.Why would he dare to do such a thing?Just relying on the [-] recruited soldiers?

Li Wei thought very seriously that no matter what Cao Cao said was true or not, when he arrived in Jizhou, the first thing to do was to take over the military power of the [-] troops, and the second thing was to check Wang Fen.Wang Fen doesn't have any troops, what else can he do?
Li Hong asked him: "Zhongyuan, how credible do you think Cao Cao's words are?"

Li Wei said: "It's completely believable."

Everyone was surprised and asked questions one after another. Li Wei said: "Although Cao Cao came from a family of eunuchs, his grandfather Cao Teng and father Cao Song were both famous important ministers in this dynasty. They have a good reputation and have done many good things. My teacher said I once said to me that although eunuchs are despised by others, there are also good people among them. Cao Teng is a good person. Cao Cao himself is very talented. Whether it is martial arts knowledge or leading troops to fight, he is second to none among the eunuchs. Yes. He is upright, outspoken, and hates evil like a vengeful man. He is decisive and capable, and his reputation is better than that of his ancestors. He will not tell you lies. But I suspect that he is not telling the truth."

"How do you say that?" Li Hong asked.

"I suspect that he knows the details, but he is unwilling to betray his friends, so he only revealed a little bit." Li Wei said, "I think, after the arrival of the Black Leopard Yi, you should let Chen Ming bring the scouts to Yecheng first." It’s better to inquire about the situation. If we catch any clues, things will be easy.”

Li Wei was familiar with the situation in Luoyang and the court affairs, so Li Hong naturally obeyed.Li Hong asked him again if he had any other countermeasures. He should not be too passive when he arrived in Jizhou, and it would be better to have a little initiative.Li Wei said with a smile: "That's not easy. Didn't Lord Jizhou Inspector Wang Fen ask for military funds? You tell His Majesty, let us take it along the way. If we have money, shouldn't we take the initiative? "

Li Hong laughed and clapped his hands.

On this day, the troops arrived at Zhangshui.Li Hong saw Chen Ming rushing up with several people.

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(End of this chapter)