The rain fell densely all night, but the dense rain could not stop the gallop of countless knights, the iron horse stepped into the pond, and the rain splashed, spreading a news that shocked the government and the opposition and shocked the Tang Dynasty to every corner of Chang'an, and the right minister Pei Jun passed away suddenly.

In the stormy Tang Dynasty and at the moment when the country was about to be ruined, the sudden death of Xiang Guo undoubtedly painted a more tragic color, which will be a sleepless night for many people.

It was night, Chang'an City did not close the door of the fang, the carriages anxiously drove to Xuanrenfang, the carriages in front of Pei's mansion were already full of carriages, countless guards were waiting in the rain, the long book Pei Mingkai stood at the door with a sad expression, and a concerned greeting made him cry, especially the fourth uncle Pei Shi said that he accepted the will of the head of the family and supported him as the new head of the family, which made him feel more warm in this cold night.

At this time, a carriage was speeding under the escort of more than two hundred cavalry, Pei Mingkai's heart suddenly became nervous, his sister Pei Ying came, although she has nothing to do with family affairs, but her attitude will undoubtedly be the key to whether she can get the position of head of the family.

Pei Ying's carriage stopped abruptly in front of the steps, a personal soldier stepped forward and opened the door, only to see Pei Ying running out of the car with tears on her face, her father's sudden death made her feel painful, she saw her eldest brother appear beside her with tears streaming down her face, she couldn't help it anymore, and screamed big brother! The brother and sister hugged their heads and cried.

"Why did my father go all of a sudden?" Pei Ying calmed down a little and asked, this has always been difficult for her to accept, the last time she came to see her father, the doctor said that although he was critically ill, as long as he was carefully recuperated, there may not be no possibility of turning around, yesterday she also asked someone to bring a message to Longyou, hoping that they could get a little good medicine, but this time her father went, and Pei Ying, who was as careful as a hair, always felt that there was something strange in it.

"It's the Queen Mother." Pei Mingkai took out the letter of the Queen Mother last night with trembling hands, and at this moment this letter became his most powerful shield, and he said with remorse: "I shouldn't have given the Queen Mother's letter to my father last night, I was confused!" ”

Pei Ying took the letter and read it quickly. The content of the letter turned out to be about her husband, and the anger that had just risen suddenly extinguished, and she became unusually sober at this moment. She read the letter three times. There are many doubts in my heart, if it is just this letter, my father will not be so excited that he will die suddenly, Pei Ying knows her father very well, and she has a father's heart. He will inevitably ask why Zhang Huan sent troops to Hebei, and it should be the later words that are the key.

Pei Ying suddenly glanced at her eldest brother vigilantly, "What did you say to your father?" ”

A trace of panic flashed in Pei Mingkai's eyes, and he was about to say nothing, but a deep voice sounded next to him. "Ying'er. Now is not the time to be held responsible, everyone is sad, let's arrange the aftermath for the head of the family first! ”

A person walked out of the door, looking quite like Pei Jun, it was Pei Jia, the waiter of the Chinese book, Pei Jia was the fourth book of Pei Jun's second uncle, the former Ye County Thorn History, transferred to Beijing in April last year, although he was an elder. But he is only two years older than Pei Mingkai. The two grew up together and had a very good relationship. Since Pei You is not in Chang'an, his position is the highest among the Pei family, and this time Pei Jun died, he was in charge of the overall situation.

He saw that Pei Ying asked too much, so he was a little unhappy and said: "Ying'er, there are many important guests in the mansion now, don't let people see jokes." ”

After a pause, he said again: "The suicide note of the head of the family, your eldest brother has been appointed as the heir of the head of the family, and I hope you can also give your full support." ”

Pei Ying was stunned, she glanced at her eldest brother, her eyes drooped and said, "I'm going to see my father." ”

She didn't say anything more, and went directly to the inner house, Pei Mingkai and Pei Jia glanced at each other, and their eyes showed a worried look at the same time.

At the time of the third watch, the cabinet ministers in Beijing and the Empress Dowager Cui Xiaofu have rushed to Pei's mansion, and several people held the first secret meeting after Pei Jun's death in the guest room of Pei's mansion to negotiate the new Xiangguo candidates, among the three parties, because Zhang Huan and Chu Xingshui of the Zhang Party are not in Chang'an, only Cui Yu is alone, Zhang Potian attended but has no right to vote, and Pei Jun died in the Xiangguo Party, Pei You went to Hebei, and Lu Qi favored Zhang Huan, so the Xiangguo Party actually has no one, and the most complete number of the Empress Dowager Party, Li Mian, Wei Ge, Han plus Cui Xiaofu's opinion, The whole meeting formed a one-sided posture, proposing that Li Mian take over Pei Jun's post of right minister, but Cui Yu and Lu Qi strongly objected, pointing out that the cabinet did not appoint Xiangguo under the whole of the country, and finally the two sides reached a compromise, Li Mian temporarily took the post of right minister, and discussed military affairs with Cui Yu, the left minister. ^^ UC eBook. Head. Hair^^

Early the next morning, the imperial court officially released the obituary of Xiangguo's death, and took a day off to mourn, and at the same time, the news of Pei Jun's death flew away like wings to all parts of the Tang Dynasty.

The confrontation in Luoyang has been going on for seven days, Zhang Huan's army has always been stationed on the other side of the Yellow River, and has not launched an attack on Luoyang, but there are two Cui Qinggong's troops in the confrontation with Zhang Huan, one is in the west, and it is Li Shidao's 60,000 Puyang army; One is in the east, is Ma Dawei 80,000 Xuzhou Army, 140,000 against 80,000, three armies in the shape of a character on both sides of the Yellow River, Li Shidao Army and Ma Dawei Army no one dares to act rashly, quietly waiting for a big war to come.

At the beginning of February, countless fast horses poured out of Tongguan, and the sky and earth pigeon books were fluttering their wings and flying, rushing to the Luoyang battlefield with the news of Pei Jun's death in Chang'an.

Zhang Huan got the urgent information from the Department of Internal Affairs on the third day of Pei Jun's death, and he was also stunned by Pei Jun's sudden death, but he did not return to the capital immediately, the stability of the capital does not lie in his return, and the delivery of power does not depend on where he is, all the keys are in the Central Plains and Hebei two battlefields, and Annei must be outside first, without absolute strength, he cannot change the sky of Datang.

At this moment, Zhang Huan is standing on a high post on the bank of the Yellow River staring at the opposite bank, above the river is a white expanse of ice, under the sun, a black spot a few miles away is supported by each other, there is the camp of Li Shidao's army, dozens of generals behind Zhang Huan are whispering, most of them are talking about Li Shidao and his people, the former general under Li Huaiguang, stationed in Puyang for a long time, with 30,000 Puyang elite soldiers, and then supported Dai Deqing to inherit Li Huaiguang, and surrendered Cui Qinggong after Wei Deqing's death, after breaking the Hedong Army, Ambushed the Hebei reinforcements in the two battles, and was named the king of Pinghai and the generalissimo of the sweep, and was Cui Qinggong's most powerful right-hand man.

But Zhang Huan's eyes did not fall on the Li Shidao camp on the other side of the Yellow River, but his eyes fell on the more vast Central Plains in the distance. That's Cui Qinggong's weakness.

"Dudu, I got news that the Yellow River in the Lingwu area has shown signs of thawing. I guess we'll start to thaw here in a few days. At that time, it will be difficult for ships to travel on the Yellow River, so why don't we cross the Yellow River first to look for fighters? Wang Siyu had been depressed for a few days, and he didn't understand why the governor had been delaying the fight, seeing that the river was about to thaw. If he did not cross the river again, he would lose the opportunity, not to mention that the battle of crossing the river would be extremely passive, and he would not be able to cross the river at all at the beginning of the flood season, Wang Siyu was so anxious that he took advantage of the opportunity to go to the bank of the Yellow River to inspect the enemy's situation. Carefully put forward his own proposal.

Zhang Huan glanced at him. He looked back at everyone and said with a slight smile: "Which of you thought of the reason why I have been delaying crossing the river?" ”

Everyone was silent, and finally Wang Siyu hesitated: "Has the governor already ordered Li Shuangyu and Lin Jiuhan to send troops?" ”

"You haven't disappointed me too much."

Zhang Huan turned around and said to everyone: "Art of War: Attack the weak first when encountering the enemy, that is to say, we must seize the enemy's weakness, where is Cui Qinggong's weakness?" This is something we must understand before we go to war, and Cui Qinggong's weakness is that the victory was too sudden, he was not prepared at all, yes, he fought all the way. But what about after the bamboo breaks? He left behind a red field. The people of the Central Plains ran and died, leaving less than half of the land. Even he himself has no way to garrison troops, so except for some garrisons in the counties near Luoyang, Henan Province is basically blank, presumably Cui Qinggong, a fool, is now beginning to realize that the problem is serious, but will God give him a second chance? I might as well tell you frankly that five days ago I had ordered Lin Jiuhan of Huainan and Li Shuangyu of Xiangyang to send troops to the Central Plains to accept the gifts left to us by Cui QinggongFirst-||"

There is a terrifying atmosphere in the Luoyang Palace, nearly a hundred palace maids and eunuchs are standing tremblingly under the corridor, and Cui Qinggong's beast-like roar is faintly heard in the distance, so far there have been more than 70 palace maids and eunuchs have been killed, some because the tea is a step slower, and some because the tea is a little faster, as long as there is a little mistake, they are immediately ordered to be pushed out of the cane to death, it is said that last night alone, seven Cui Qinggong's concubines were killed as he wanted, no one knows why he suddenly became like a devil, It all seems to have started with an urgent message three days ago.

In the main hall, a small eunuch walked tremblingly with a bowl of tea, as Cui Qinggong's roar and scolding became louder and louder, his body book also trembled like a sieve, several generals in the inner hall were lowering their heads and did not dare to speak, Cui Qinggong was like a rooster with red eyes, walking back and forth on the jade steps with his hands behind his back.

"Go and grab it! Kill it! Go play with women! It's all a good kill, isn't it? What now? Make the cities like ghost domains, the upper county of the bar can't even afford two hundred troops, and you still want me to pay for food, how can I have food for you, you can find a way to go by yourself, you can't pay for food yourself, but no matter what, give me Chen Liu in three days, and one day later, I will ask for your head. ”

Cui Qinggong scolded and waved his arms, he got an urgent report three days ago, Zhang Huan's Xiangyang army and the army stationed in Huainan set out together, swept all the way across Henan Province, and took away all the land he had worked so hard to build, and in only three days, Zhang Huan's vanguard actually occupied Chenliu, and all the land east of Chenliu fell.

What made him even more annoyed was that Zhang Huan's attack on Chenliu had only 1,000 forwards, while his garrison in Chenliu had 6,000 men, but all of these 6,000 surrendered to Zhang Huan's army without firing a single shot.

In the end, he learned that the vast majority of the 6,000 defenders were captured in Xuchang, and then Cui Qinggong realized the seriousness of the problem, almost half of his 300,000 troops were captured in various places.

Not only did the soldiers hold grudges, but he also listed to recruit hundreds of officials, but only two or three people came to apply, so how could he be called the emperor in the future? Of course, Cui Qinggong didn't think it was his own problem, but the failure of his generals to restrain the soldiers, so he was furious, but there was nothing he could do.

"Get out of here!" Cui Qinggong walked down the steps angrily, suddenly his feet slipped, and he almost fell to the ground, he looked down and saw tea stains all the way on the ground, and when he turned around, he saw a little eunuch holding a tea bowl trembling all over, and the tea stains were flowing down from his hands. Cui Qinggong couldn't help but be furious, kicked the little eunuch to the ground, and shouted: "Drag it out and cut me with a knife!" ”

The little eunuch was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground. That's when it happened. There was a burst of laughter at the entrance of the hall, "Why does the prince bother with these lowly palace people?" ”

I saw Zhu Tao walking into the hall quickly, and bowed to Cui Qinggong and said, "Please calm your anger." ”

After Zhu Tao was appointed as Luoyang Yin, he was quite capable. Soon the situation in Luoyang was stabilized, and the law of centralized grain supply was implemented, and nearly one million stone of grain and two million yuan of money were obtained from the hands of the wealthy households in Luoyang, which further alleviated the situation of Cui Qinggong's lack of grain. also won the trust of Cui Qinggong. named him the prime minister of King Yu, but he is actually Cui Qinggong's prime minister.

Cui Qinggong saw that his face was full of spring breeze, and the anger in his heart disappeared slightly, so he glared at several generals fiercely and scolded: "Get out!" Starting tomorrow, take Chen Liu, for me in three days, or I will take your life. ”

Several generals didn't dare to say more, and left with their heads bowed and hatred, and Cui Qinggong kicked the little eunuch who was kneeling on the ground again. Tell him to fuck off. Only then did he sit on the dragon chair angrily, pointing to the backs of several generals and saying to Zhu Tao: "These bastards connived at their subordinates. looted and killed people all the way, making me lose the hearts of the people in the world, how can I not be annoyed! ”

Zhu Tao saw that he began to realize the seriousness of the problem, but he wanted to put the responsibility on his subordinates, so he took a step forward and whispered to Cui Qinggong as soon as his eyes rolled: "It is not difficult for the prince to regain the hearts of the people, the key is to put the means in place." ”

Cui Qinggong didn't follow his words and asked, but glanced at him and said, "I'm quite happy to see your sample book, what's the good thing?" ”

Zhu Tao was surprised: "Don't you know that Pei Jun is dead?" ”

"What!" Cui Qinggong was taken aback, he stood up abruptly and said, "When is it, why don't I know?" ”

"I also just received the news, and now I am here to report to the prince." Saying that, he handed a roll of pigeon letters to Cui Qinggong, Cui Qinggong snatched it, but glared at him dissatisfiedly, he should have reported it when he entered the palace, but he didn't say it until now.

Zhu Tao smiled absently and said: "Pei Jun died of illness, Li Mian temporarily took the position of right minister, Zhang Huan must rush back to Beijing to seize power, so that he will most likely not attack before the Yellow River thaws, plus the Hebei crisis will divert the attention of the imperial court, then the prince will have time to redeploy, including regaining the hearts of the people, and preparing for the prince's future accession to the throne." ”

After Cui Qinggong read the pigeon letter, the anger accumulated in his heart for many days was immediately swept away by Pei Jun's death, he couldn't help but look up to the sky and laugh, laughing so that the flesh on the eagle's nose trembled up and down, and shouted repeatedly: "Good! Well dead! ”

His laughter wafted over the palace, and it made everyone up and down the palace breathe a long sigh of relief.

Cui Qinggong was only now half-lying comfortably on the dragon chair, squinting his eyes and asking Zhu Tao: "You said that it is not difficult to regain the hearts of the people, how do you say this?" ”

"The key is to have a scapegoat, kill it to thank the world, ordinary minions are not enough, this person must hold a heavy army and plant it on his head to be convincing, such as Ma Dawei, Li Shidao and others."

Cui Qinggong sat up as soon as he got off the book, he stared at Zhu Tao word by word and said, "You actually let me take away their military power!" ”

Zhu Tao touched the big Hu Shu and smiled gloomily, "The prince is wise." ”

Compared with Zhang Huan and Cui Qinggong, Pei You received the news of the death of the head of the family a little later than two days, not because people were late to deliver the letter, but because Chang'an sent them the news, it was already three days after Pei Jun's death.

At this time, Pei You was personally leading 120,000 Hebei troops from Ye County to the north, they had arrived at Hengshui County, Wei County, and joined the defeated Youzhou Army, while the 10,000 vanguard of the Hui Army was located in Mo County, Wen'an County, and the two armies were still more than 400 miles apart.

The news of the death of the head of the family spread all over the camp in an instant, the entire Hebei army was immersed in great grief, the commander Pei You locked himself in the camp tent, the water and rice did not enter for a whole day, the death of the eldest brother was as if the beam of the Pei family was suddenly interrupted, and the huge pressure made Pei You almost out of breath, he not only shouldered the heavy task of expelling the Hu people and recovering the mountains and rivers, but also revitalized the Pei family, so that the power of the Pei family could be smoothly transferred, such a major task, can he afford it?

At this time, the severity of the responsibility had made him unable to care about the crying brother, and he sat on the edge of the couch, ten fingers deep in his hair, and painfully thought of countermeasures, a position he had maintained for three hours.

But it wasn't just the sudden death of his eldest brother that made him miserable. It's that he knows the truth about his eldest brother's death, and there is a secret book on the table next to him, if Pei Mingkai sees this book, he will definitely be surprised. Will tremble with fear. Because this secret letter is the real inheritance letter of the head of the family, as early as when Pei You left Beijing for Hebei, Pei Jun had quietly handed over this official letter of inheritance to his most trusted second brother, and the letter was written by him. There is also his autograph on it, as well as Pei You's signature, which is clearly written, and the position of heirloom is given to Pei Mingyuan.

Pei You is very clear about the reason why the eldest brother finally chose Pei Mingyuan, and the eldest brother has realized that Zhang Huan's ascension to the throne will be inevitable. He wants to leave a way back for the Pei family.

And now the news from Chang'an is Pei Mingkai, the head of the family who passed on the throne before his death. Pei You immediately understood that the sudden death of his eldest brother was by no means accidental.

This is what makes him painful and dilemma, if he exposes Pei Mingkai, he will inevitably involve Pei Jia and other Pei family disciples in Beijing, then this matter will be extremely heavy to the Pei family, and it will follow in the footsteps of the Cui family, and the Pei family will also split, but if it is not exposed in time, I am afraid that the raw rice will have been cooked by the time they go back.

"What should I do?" Pei You was so painful that he tore his hair.

"Second uncle!" The curtain was raised. Pei Mingyao walked in angrily. At present, Pei Mingyao is the marching Sima and the marshal of the rear army, controlling 50,000 rear troops. In addition to his grief, he had just heard that Pei Mingkai had assumed the position of the head of the family, he immediately wiped away his tears and came to the second uncle with great anger, he thought that his father would never pass on the position of the head of the family to a lame book.

He came in and brought a cold wind, blowing the documents on the table everywhere, but Pei Mingyao didn't care, he picked up a few documents on the ground, and said: "I heard that Fourth Uncle Pei actually announced that the eldest brother will be the heir to the head of the family, does the second uncle think this is fair, we are here to fight to defend Hebei, but they took advantage of the cold bones of the father to steal the position of the head of the family, does this still take the second uncle in his eyes?" ”

"I'm in a lot of pain, too!"

Pei You slowly raised his head, his face looked very haggard, and he sighed and said, "The head of the family died suddenly, what should our Pei family do!" ”

Pei Mingyao took a step forward and asked in a low voice, "Second uncle, did your father mention to you about the heir of the head of the family?" ”

A sentence reminded Pei You, he suddenly stood up, hurriedly flipped through the things on the table, and muttered: Where did you go Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of the document in Pei Mingyao's hand, his face couldn't help but change suddenly, and he shouted in a low voice: "Give it to me!" ”

Pei Mingyao saw that the second uncle's expression was abnormal, he glanced at the document in his hand suspiciously, but he was so shocked that his eyes were about to fall, the head of the family inherited the book, he read in a trembling voice, this is written by his father, he knows.

Pei Mingyao took a few steps back suddenly, he couldn't believe his eyes, Pei Mingyuan, his father actually set up his fifth brother as the heir to the head of the family, so why did that lame book say that his father set him up, why? Could it be

Pei Mingyao's face changed in an instant, and he pounced! Fell to his knees and cried out heartbreakingly, "Father! "Tears rained down.

Pei You realized that the problem was going to be serious, and he hurriedly stepped forward and pressed his nephew's shoulder and said, "Mingyao, you have to be reasonable!" ”

"Sanity? No! Pei Mingyao jumped up, stared at the red eyes and shouted, "Second uncle, don't you understand? My father was probably killed by them, how could I be sensible! ”

"You bastard!" Pei You saw him shouting and screaming, and the soldiers outside most likely heard it, so he rushed up and slapped him hard, "Now that the enemy is now, are you going to kill us?" ”

Pei Mingyao covered his face and took a step back, he looked at the second uncle sadly, returned the inheritance letter of the head of the family to him, tears welled up from his eyes, "My father died, died without knowing it, and the second uncle knew the truth but ignored it, are you worthy of my father?" Pei You's eyes were also red, he stepped forward and pressed Pei Mingyao's shoulder, and said bitterly: "I know, when we drive Tatar out of Hebei, I will definitely go back to investigate this matter, and I will not tolerate it, but you must restrain yourself now, understand?" ”

"But by then, I'm afraid it'll be too late." Pei Mingyao muttered to himself, he suddenly sneered, and resolutely turned around and left the big tent.

Pei You looked at his back and walked away, couldn't help but slam his fist on the table, and yelled, "Hate me to death!" ”

(Thank you for your monthly pass support)