Cui Yuan is nearly 60 years old this year, he is fat, his cheeks are carved with deep nasolabial folds, and a huge nose is particularly eye-catching, but he is gentle and elegant in his dealings with people, no one has ever seen him angry, and he always has a gentle smile, especially by the petty officials of the middle and lower ranks.

In the past few days, the war in Longyou has consumed his mental energy, the allocation of money and grain, the requisition of people, the manufacture of ordnance, and even the stabilization of the hearts of the people in Guanzhong, and the suppression of rice prices, every little thing needs to be done by him himself, but these are nothing compared to maintaining the status of the Cui family.

Since the sixth year of Qingzhi, he took over Pei Zunqing's phase has been more than ten years, according to the agreement of the seven families of that year, the sixth year of Qingzhi should be Zhang Ruohao to take over the phase, but the dispute between the Zhang family and the concubine made their family split, Zhang Potian succeeded to the phase less than a month, and the 80,000 Hedong Army became the Cui family's bag, and Cui Yuan also ousted Zhang Potian from power, stepping on the peak of power.

Next year is the sixteenth year of Qingzhi, according to the agreement, Wei Ge will take over the phase, he Cui Yuan retired as the left minister, and the current left minister Pei Jun only served as the head of the household, and the cycle continued, the seven great families took turns to govern, as for the Tang Emperor is just a nominal monarch, and does not have any real power.

But power is also a sweet poison, which makes him want to stop, no matter what, he can't lose this position of right minister, just when Cui Yuanzhen was preparing to deal with Wei's, the Hui people unexpectedly helped him, he seized the opportunity, borrowed back the sword of the Wei people, and made the Wei family Benzong disappear overnight.

Things are beginning to take a turn for the better, and whether Wei will be able to govern next year has become ambiguous, and what needs to be done now is to weaken the Wei family once again and completely cut off his hope of succeeding Xiangguo.

Cui Yuan sat cross-legged in front of him and pondered, it is not so easy to weaken the Wei family again, the Hui people have already withdrawn, at least to the north of Helan Mountain, there is no external force to borrow, then they can only think of a way from the inside, and it is best to form a strong alliance. Jiannan Jiedu Shi Yang Qi is old and sick, and he is his in-laws, so there is no need to think about it; Shannan Wang Ang recently because of his bad relationship with Zhang Ruohao, from secretly relying on him in the past, to openly surrendering to him, this can also be done without bothering.

Huainan Chu Xingshui's power is weak, and he has the natural enemy of the Wang family, and his eldest son has been pursuing Ning'er, which is an opportunity, but this person is quite sleek, and he can't be too optimistic.

The rest are Wei Ge, Zhang Ruohao and Pei Jun, Wei Ge will not mention it, he will be the vanguard against himself, Zhang Ruohao and him Cui Yuan are feuds, he must stand with Wei Ge, this is also beyond doubt.

Cui Yuan finally thought of the Pei family, if Wei Ge took over the phase, he Pei Jun will also lose the left phase, at this point, the interests of Cui and Pei are the same, there is the possibility of an alliance, but the alliance needs an opportunity that both parties can accept, in contemplation, Cui Yuan's pen unconsciously wrote two words on the plain paper in front of him: Pei Ying.

At this time, the hurried footsteps of the housekeeper came from outside the door, and Cui Yuan immediately tore the plain paper in front of him to shreds, counting the time, it should be the second brother Cui Qinggong who came to see him.

"Sir! Jingzhao Yin Suzhen asked to see him outside, saying that there was an emergency to report. ”

"Su Zhen?" Cui Yuan was slightly stunned, today is the day of the recess, what is he doing here? Could it be that something went wrong with Cui Xiong, who entered the city? He then said to the butler, "Take him to my outer study." ”

Cui Yuan soon came to the outer study, walked to the door, and saw Su Zhen walking around in the room, looking very anxious and uneasy, he smiled and said: "Let Su make Jun wait for a long time!" ”

When Su Zhen saw Cui Yuan coming in, he hurriedly stepped forward and gave a long salute, "I shouldn't have disturbed Xiangguo's rest, but I really have something important to report!" ”

"No hurry! Sit down and speak slowly. ”

The two sat down cross-legged, the maid served two cups of tea, Cui Yuan picked up the teacup and said unhurriedly: "Say it!" What's up? ”

Su Zhen immediately handed over Zheng Qingming's confession, and he also knew in his heart that Cui Xiong was probably really presuming, he saw that Cui Yuan was looking carefully, so he added uneasily: "Although these two scholars have no background, but the subordinates are worried that once the news spreads, it is very likely to cause trouble among the 100,000 scholars in Chang'an, so the subordinates suggest that the news be blocked immediately and the two people will be moved to Dali Temple."

Cui Yuan looked at the confession without saying a word, the smile on his face gradually disappeared, his face became more and more gloomy, he didn't know the inside story of this matter, he always thought that the second brother was just putting the credit of other officers on his son, which didn't hurt, but it was actually taking the credit of a group of scholars, Taiyuan Zhang Huan, Jincheng Xinlang, so many sensitive names, could it be that the second brother was indifferent?

Cui Yuan was extremely angry in his heart, now is the most critical time to bring down Wei Ge, the second brother actually provoked this kind of thing, if this handle is caught by Wei Ge, won't he have lost all his efforts?

Although Cui Yuan was annoyed in his heart, he didn't show it on his face at all, he groaned, and then smiled at Su Zhen: "This is not a big deal, there is no need to mobilize the people, then the two of them will stay in Wannian County for the time being, and wait for me to find out the situation, if it is really Cui Xiong's merit, I will personally apologize to them!" ”

Su Zhen saw that Xiangguo didn't care, so he had to stand up awkwardly and say goodbye, "It's the subordinates who make a big fuss and disturb Xiangguo's rest, and the subordinates will leave!" ”

"Go ahead! You don't have to ask about it. ”

Cui Yuan had been witnessing Su Zhen's back disappearing, his face suddenly changed, and he immediately shouted in a low voice: "Someone!" ”

Several generals immediately appeared in front of the door, "Humble here!" ”

"Go! Call the second master to me immediately! ”

A general took the order, Cui Yuan took two steps with his hands behind his back, he thought for a while and then turned back and said: "Send someone to the Sixth Inn of Gaosheng in Pingkangfang, and monitor every scholar who lives there for me, especially the one named Zhang Huan, remember!" No one is to be alarmed without my orders! ”

About half an hour later, Cui Qinggong hurried over, he only returned to Chang'an this morning, unlike Cui Yuan, he didn't take Zhang Huan and others in his eyes at all, so Liu Yuanqing said that he met Xin Yunjing on the road and sent someone to pick up his son and couldn't do it, he just blamed a few words, no wonder, the entire battle situation was controlled by him, and more than a dozen scholars had no evidence, so could they still snatch the credit?

"Look at the good things you do!"

As soon as Cui Yuan saw him, he scolded him, "If you want Xiong'er to take that credit, why do you still leave trouble and let them into Beijing!" ”

Cui Qinggong has been very afraid of Cui Yuan since he was a child, and when he saw that his brother was angry, he hurriedly explained: "I also wanted to kill them, but there is Xin Yunjing's son in it, I am afraid that killing it will cause trouble, as for the matter of Xiong'er, it is clearly written in my military merit book, there are swords left by him at the scene, and there are many Hui prisoners of war who can prove it, and since more than a dozen scholars have no evidence, they are not afraid that they will turn the sky upside down!" ”

Cui Qinggong's explanation calmed Cui Yuan's anger a little, he sat down, looked at his brother and said seriously: "You have been leading troops outside for a long time, and you still don't know a lot about things in the court, such as why I ordered you not to save Kaiyang County for a long time, and it is true to kill people with a knife, but what is my purpose?" My term of office as right minister will expire next year, so how can I be re-elected? This is the most urgent thing facing our Cui family, if you can discuss this matter with me first, I will let you give this credit to Pei Yong, so that I can take this opportunity to melt the impasse between me and Pei Jun, and at the same time cause the disagreement between Pei Jun and Zhang Ruoho, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone, but unfortunately you just gave this credit to your son, hey! ”

Cui Qinggong lowered his head in shame, what the eldest brother said, he really couldn't think of it, not only that, but because Pei Yong was Pei Jun's nephew, he didn't give him a chance to make meritorious contributions at all.

"And what about this?"

Cui Qinggong gritted his teeth and said: "It's better to send troops to arrest them as soon as possible while the situation has not expanded!" ”

Cui Yuan shook his head gently, "No, the matter can't be hidden from those old foxes, and now sending troops to cover it up is to make people suspicious." ”

He stood up and walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, a gloomy smile slowly flashed in his eyes, "Since that Zhang Huan even dares to burn the military rations of the Hui people, then I might as well make a bet with him!" ”

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