The situation of the war between Hebei and the Central Plains has begun to change.

First of all, the battlefield of Xiangyang, Liang Chongyi accepted the imperial court's recruitment, with his wife and concubines, children and hundreds of carts of gold and silver soft left Xiangyang to the capital, his general Zhang Zhande was red at his wealth, just out of Xiangzhou soon launched a mutiny, Zhang Zhande led the rebels to kill Liang Chongyi's family, robbed all his gold silk, the rebels dispersed, Zhang Zhande fled to Funiu Mountain with hundreds of rebels and fell into the grass.

At this time, Li Xilie's tens of thousands of Huaixi troops entered Xiangyang City before retreating, robbed for three days, and plundered Xiangyang's civilian wealth and official warehouses, and then left the devastated Xiangyang City to retreat eastward, Xiangzhou officials were almost all killed, and the surviving Xiangzhou Sima Zhao Qianling went to the imperial court and cried about the cruelty of the Huaixi army.

At this time, Yang Yan happened to be not in Chang'an, and this twist and turn finally appeared on the imperial case of Li Shi, the son of heaven, Li Shi was furious and ordered to deprive Li Xilie of the king of Nanping County, who had just been canonized, and at the same time deprive him of the title of envoy of Hanbei.

Li Xilie pretended to be frightened, wrote to the Son of Heaven to ask for guilt, and swore that he would be held accountable and restrain military discipline, Li Xilie killed 30 soldiers at the same time, sacrificed their heads to Chang'an, and pretended to be a general who caused trouble in Xiangyang.

In the end, Li Shi did not continue to severely punish the Huaixi army, but ordered it to return to Huaixi as soon as possible, but Li Xilie used the pretext of suppressing bandits as an excuse to occupy the three prefectures of An, Chu and Tang, and the battle against Liang Chongyi enabled the Huaixi army to grow rapidly, with the strength of the army increasing from 30,000 to 60,000, hundreds of warships, looting 300,000 stone of grain and a large amount of money and taxes in the official warehouses of Shannan Province, and doubling the territory controlled by Huaixi Jiedu Prefecture.

Under the persuasion of his aide Zhao Sui, Li Xilie took out a small amount of grain to provide relief to the victims of the disaster in the three prefectures of An, Chu, and Tang, and exempted these three prefectures from taxes for two years in order to buy people's hearts.

These details are not known to the imperial court, and no one has to evaluate them, although Liang Chongyi's whole family was killed, the imperial court is undoubtedly the biggest loser.

The brothers on the Ziqing battlefield killed each other and gradually came to an end, Li Jing was far from his brother's opponent, Licheng County was broken by Li Na's army, Li Jing only led more than a thousand remnants of the army to flee eastward in panic, and was chased by Li Na's cavalry all the way, and finally caught up with Li Jing and captured him, Li Na publicly beheaded Li Jing for the crime of killing his father, and recaptured the great seal of the Ziqing Festival.

But this fratricide also made the Ziqing army greatly damaged, the strength of the army from 80,000 to 30,000, Biansong Jiedu made Li Mian lead 30,000 Shence army and 20,000 Song Bianjun in Xuzhou to defeat Li Na's army left behind, and recaptured Yanzhou, Yunzhou and Jezhou, he continued to lead the army to advance to Qizhou, Li Na knew that he was invincible, and hurriedly sent people to Chang'an, surrendered to the imperial court, expressed his willingness to reduce the army, never interfere in politics.

At this time, an epidemic broke out in Weizhou due to too many deaths, and Li Baozhen and Ma Sui had to suspend the siege of Tian Yue's army and withdraw their troops back to their original station.

Chengde Jiedu made Li Weiyue too brutal and was killed by his general Wang Wujun, Wang Wujun surrendered to the imperial court, and Zhu Tao also took the initiative to withdraw his troops back to Youzhou for fear of the epidemic.

Under the threat of the epidemic, Yang Yan repeatedly persuaded Li Shi, the son of heaven, to finally agree to make peace, accept Li Na's surrender, demote him to the Duke of Beihai County, and order his army to be reduced to 10,000 people.

The melee between the Central Plains and Hebei, which lasted for more than half a year, finally came to an end, and except for the destruction of Liang Chongyi, almost no success in cutting the feudal domain.

At this time, it was already October of the second year of construction.

That night, a carriage stopped in front of the gate of the Yuan Mansion, and Lu Qi, the head of the household department, came out of the carriage, and Yuan Xuanhu, the head of the Yuan family, was already waiting in front of the gate with a smile.

"Welcome Lu Xiangguo to Yuanfu, Yuanfu is very honored!"

Lu Qi's face was red, although he had already been named the Pingzhang Shi of Tongzhongshu and obtained the qualification to serve as the prime minister, but he did not enter the prime minister, the right minister is still Yang Yan, the left minister is still Li Yu, Li Yu has returned from Bashu, and Du Xiquan is the envoy of Jiannan Jiedu, and the Son of Heaven still trusts Li Yu, which makes Lu Qi's hope of serving as the left minister disappointed.

Lu Qi waved his hand, "Where am I, what is Xiangguo, the old master is ashamed of me!" ”

Yuan Xuanhu smiled, "The old man is not joking!" ”

Lu Qi's heart moved, he just wanted to ask more, but he felt that it was inconvenient here, so he smiled and said: "Come to visit at night, disturb the rest of the old master!" ”

"Where, Lu Xiangplease!"

In the past few months, under the deliberate envelopment of the Yuan family, the relationship between Lu Qi and the Yuan family has warmed up rapidly, and Yuan Xuanhu married a granddaughter to Lu Qi's nephew, and the two families have formed a marriage party.

Today, Lu Qi also received an invitation from Yuan Xuanhu to come to Yuanfu to taste tea.

Of course, tea tasting is just an excuse, Lu Qi knows that Yuan Xuanhu must have something important to discuss with him.

The two entered the lobby and sat down, Yuan Xuanhu ordered the tea boy to make tea in the hall, and at this time there were only the two of them in the lobby, Lu Qi couldn't help but ask: "Why did the head of the family say that it wasn't a joke just now?" ”

Yuan Xuanhu smiled slightly, "That's why I invited you here." ”

Lu Qi's spirits perked up, and he hurriedly said: "I want to hear about it!" ”

Yuan Xuanhu took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Lu Qi, "Look at it! ”

Lu Qi hesitated to take the letter, "This is ......."

"This is a letter written by one of my protégés, Li Yuanjin, the assassin of Tangzhou, you will know it when you read it."

Lu Qi took the letter and read it carefully, and was immediately surprised, Li Xilie actually set up a vassal office in Tangzhou, but the imperial court knew nothing, he became more and more frightened, when Li Xilie sent troops to Xiangyang, the arson burned and killed adultery, and when the army withdrew, he occupied An, Chu, and Tang Prefectures, and has not withdrawn his troops so far, and the states of Shannan Province have written countless letters to complain, but the court has not responded.

"Master of the family, I don't know anything about these things, and I guess the Son of Heaven doesn't know either."

Yuan Xuanhu said lightly: "Of course you don't know, I sent someone to secretly investigate, and these letters were all detained by Yang Yan." ”

Lu Qi was shocked for a while before he said, "How dare he be so bold?" ”

"At the beginning, he strongly recommended Li Xilie to recruit envoys for Hanbei, and now that he has stabbed such a big basket, of course Yang Yan has to try his best to cover it up."

Lu Qi suddenly came to his senses, "Does the head of the family want me to use this matter to impeach Yang Yan?" ”

Yuan Xuanhu looked at him with a smile and said, "You don't still miss your colleagues, you can't bear it, right?" ”

Lu Qi hesitated for a moment and said: "The public is the public, the private is the private, it is nothing to impeach him, I am afraid that his phase will not fall, and he will add a strong enemy, in addition, even if Yang Yan falls, I am afraid it will not be my turn to be the prime minister." ”

"We must also grasp the timing to bring down Yang Yan, and now the time is ripe."

Yuan Xuanhu smiled slightly: "Let me tell you so!" The Son of Heaven has repented of accepting the peace and accepting Li Na's surrender, and he scolded Yang Yan countless times in the palace for making mistakes, and someone in the palace told me that the Son of Heaven thinks that Yang Yan is the Lord and the faction, and has the intention of rejecting the prime minister. As long as you grasp the mind of the Son of Heaven and cater to him, you will be the right minister. ”

Lu Qi was in high spirits, "What should I do?" ”

"First of all, you have to be a tough faction to cut the domain, ask the Son of Heaven to prepare for war, especially ask the Son of Heaven to cut Li Na's domain, and call Li into Beijing to be idle, Yang Yan's appeasement makes the Son of Heaven very dissatisfied, your toughness is what he needs, I'm sure that this right prime minister must belong to you."

Lu Qi was overjoyed and said with gratitude: "The family master is kind, Lu Qi is difficult to repay!" ”

Yuan Xuanhu smiled and waved his hand, "What are you talking about, we are a family, who am I not helping you?" ”

.........

The next day, Lu Qi officially sent a letter of ten thousand words to the Son of Heaven, strongly asking for preparation for war and cutting the feudal domain, and denounced Yang Yan's policy of appeasement and peace.

At this time, Liu Quan in the household department persuaded Lu Qi not to talk about the war lightly, Lu Qi was furious, and personally beat Liu Quan with a stick in the household department, which shocked the government and the opposition, although Lu Qi was summoned by the Son of Heaven to criticize, but Lu Qi also got a nickname of 'Lu Cutting Domain', and was recognized as a hardliner of cutting the domain.

At this time, the superintendent of the imperial history of the royal book impeached Yang Yan, and withheld the statements of the states of Shannan Province without authorization, covering up the crimes of the Huaixi Army and the fact that Li Xilie had occupied the three prefectures of An, Chu, and Tang.

Li Shi was furious and ordered to investigate the matter, and soon found out the facts, Yang Yan did withhold hundreds of love letters from Shannan states without authorization, and the brutality of the Huaixi army was exposed, which caused an uproar in the government and the opposition.

Yang Yan had no choice but to write a letter to ask for guilt, and Li Shi immediately dismissed him from his post as governor and changed his position as the left servant, and then appointed Lu Qi as the right minister of the Zhongshu Order, and the hardliner Lu Qi, who advocated cutting the feudal domain, worshiped the prime minister, which shocked Hebei and the Central Plains.