Zhu Tao came to Chang'an five days ago with 300,000 yuan worth of gold, he first bought the house, lived in seclusion, and sent people to inquire about the movements of the imperial court.

The first war in Shuzhong lasted for nearly two months, the rich area in Shuzhong was ravaged by the military chaos, and it was urgent to have time to recuperate, but Zhu had been characterized as a bandit by the imperial court, so that the local officials in Shuzhong were suspended in Liang and fled from Jiannan, and the government affairs in the entire Jiannan region were paralyzed, and the merchants took the opportunity to hoard Juqi, which caused prices to soar, and the rice was sold for 500 yuan, which caused serious dissatisfaction among the people, and riots occurred in many counties, at this time, a large number of deserters began to appear in Zhu's army, unwilling to die for it.

Just when Zhu was overwhelmed by the chaos in Shuzhong, Zhu Tao once again persuaded him to make peace with the imperial court, and strive to reach mutual understanding with the imperial court in order to ease the situation in Shuzhong.

Before Zhu Tao came to Chang'an, Zhu had given him a list and asked him to find people according to the people on the list, but Zhu Tao has always been cautious in doing things, he understands very well what the first battle in Shuzhong means to the imperial court, he is not in a hurry to come forward, but sent his henchmen to find a few courtiers of the Zhu family to test, the result is not as he expected, the person he wants to see does not even let his henchmen enter the door, and there is even one person who wants to report to the official to arrest.

Zhu Tao was not in a hurry, he sent people to the palaces of the important ministers of the court and China every day to inquire about the news and look for opportunities.

Early this morning, the subordinates who monitored Pei's house came to report, Longyou Zhang Huan came back, Zhu Tao was overjoyed, when the eldest brother raised the army, Zhang Huan wrote a letter to persuade him, and he was Pei Xiang's son-in-law, and he was the best middleman, so he decided to start with Zhang Huan.

"There was no notice in advance, Erlang came to visit suddenly, please forgive me!" Zhu Tao saw Zhang Huan come out. He bowed to the ground and gave a deep salute.

Zhang Huan saw Zhu Tao for the first time, and in his imagination, Zhu Tao was also like his brother, with a slender face and a tall figure, but when he really saw him, he found that Zhu Tao was a white-faced scholar, and his body looked quite thin, which surprised him.

But. Since Zhu Tao came to Chang'an, it means that Zhu's strategy has changed, at least it has become pragmatic, although he won a big victory in the military, but politically he is an out-and-out loser, from the initial slogan of the Qing monarch's side, to now become a bandit scolded by the Tang Dynasty, he is even worse than An Lushan, An Lushan has been operating Hebei for many years, and his power has been deep-rooted. And he still wants to send troops under the pretext of killing the national thief Yang Guozhongwei, what about him Zhu? After only half a year of raising troops in Shuzhong, he arrogantly proposed to use the 36 counties in Shuzhong as a food town, and he didn't want to think about how millions of soldiers and civilians in Shuzhong could tolerate a bandit to claim the throne in Shuzhong.

Thinking of this, Zhang Huan stepped forward with a smile and saluted Zhu Tao back, and said with a smile: "Brother Zhu Xian doesn't have to be polite. It's cold outside, please come inside and talk. ”

"Thank you, Governor." Zhu Tao followed Zhang Huan to the study, this is Zhang Potian has left from the back door, leaving a letter for Zhang Huan on the table, Zhang Huan quietly put the letter into his arms, then turned around and greeted the guests with a smile: "It's also interesting to say, I stayed in Pei's Mansion for a long time, but no one came to visit, and it was less than an hour before I came here, and the guests kept coming to the door." Now I started to think about whether I should just move here. ”

"Of course!" Zhu Tao sat down, and when he heard Zhang Huan say this, he spread his hands and smiled: "The threshold of Xiangguo's Mansion is not something anyone can step into, even if I have the heart to come to you, I will sigh, at least I don't dare to come to Xiangfu to look for you." ”

At this moment, there was a knock on the door, and a chubby maid blushed and timidly came in with two cups of tea, and she put the teacups down. gave a salute to Zhang Huan, "Please use tea!" "It's quieter than a mosquito call.

After saying that, she turned around in a panic and ran, but bang! Bang on the door and stumbled out, Zhang Huan couldn't help but shake his head and smiled: "Did you see it?" I'm still their master. But it's so unfamiliar, it seems that I must move here. ”

Zhu Tao kept looking at this stupid maid and running away. He realized something, but he didn't show his face, only took a sip of tea, and asked tentatively: "I have heard some rumors in Chang'an City in the past two days, saying that the governor has been appointed as the envoy of the Longyou Festival by the imperial court, but is there such a thing?" ”

"Yes, in fact, I came to Chang'an, to a large extent, to thank you." Speaking of this, Zhang Huan changed the topic and said lightly: "What is Erlang coming to Chang'an for, can you tell me?" Zhu Tao originally planned to make a few more detours, and then implicitly put forward his requirements when the time was ripe, but he didn't expect Zhang Huan to be so direct, he didn't have the slightest room to think, Zhu Tao hesitated, then sighed slightly and said: "After the battle of Shuzhong, I persuaded the eldest brother to send someone to the court to apologize, but he refused to listen, and he had to force the court to make him the king of Shu and attack Hanzhong. And now that the people of Shuzhong have rebelled, he finally knows that he has done wrong, so he sent me to Chang'an to mediate, hoping to reach a reconciliation with the imperial court. ”

"Then what does Zhu want?" Zhang Huan asked without leaving any room, his eyes were as sharp as a sword, as if penetrating Zhu Tao's thin body.

This, this, this Zhu Tao was forced to look at Zhang Huandi, he didn't dare to raise his head, and said three times in a row, and finally his heart was crossed, gritted his teeth and looked directly at Zhang Huan's sharp gaze and said: "This is our bottom line, I can't tell the governor." ”

"So, Zhu just wants to take advantage of me, right?" Zhang Huan's gaze quickly became cold, he put the teacup on the table and said coldly: "I'm sorry! I'm a little tired, so I won't accompany General Zhu Er. ”

After speaking, he stood up and was about to leave, Zhu Tao hurriedly stood up to stop him, and said again and again: "Please calm your anger, I am sincerely asking the governor to help, in my opinion, only the governor can help us, and we will be grateful afterwards!" ”

Zhang Huan stared at him, and only shook his head for a while and said: "Actually, you don't need to ask me for any help, you go directly to Xiangguo's Mansion to submit a book, I think both Cui Xiangguo and Pei Xiangguo will be happy to meet you, why do you bother to go around such a big ***?" ”

Zhu Tao sighed helplessly, bowed to Zhang Huan again, and said very sincerely: "Actually, I didn't know that I could submit a letter directly, but I came to Chang'an for five days." But whenever Shuzhong is mentioned, the people of Chang'an all grit their teeth, everyone denounces it as a Zhu bandit, and even Cui Xiangguo is so angry that he falls ill, so I don't dare to act rashly, so I want to find a middleman, so that the two sides can reach a compromise, and Zhang Dudu has an old relationship with the eldest brother, and he has written to persuade the eldest brother. I think Zhang Dudu is the most suitable person. ”

Zhang Huan sneered in his heart, in the final analysis, the Zhu family brothers still want to seek the greatest benefits, not only to be the middleman, but also unwilling to tell themselves the bottom line, just to let themselves test the attitude of the imperial court.

Of course, the Zhu brothers asked him to come forward to help, which was something that he Zhang Huan couldn't ask for.

"Oh well! Since Erlang is embarrassed, I won't ask where you live, this time tomorrow. Please come here again and I'll bring you the news. ”

Two hours later, Pei Jun finally returned to the mansion, after he met the queen mother, he was invited by Chu Xingshui to go to his mansion for lunch, and it was not until the way back to the house that he knew that Zhang Huan was back.

Ever since Cui Yuan fell ill. Pei Jun gradually became the spiritual pillar of the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military affairs, when Zhu shouted to revitalize the dynasty, he immediately made a decision, urgently transferred 30,000 troops from Hedong into the pass to defend Chang'an, so that Chang'an's troops reached 40,000, stabilized the situation in Chang'an, and Zhang Huan sent his sword south to force back Zhu, Pei Jun lost no time in adjusting Taicang rice to suppress grain prices, and hit the giant merchants who stored grain, and finally made this crisis that was very likely to cause the wind of fleeing in the capital disappear. And he himself has won widespread praise for his efficient and decisive style, and even has a faint tendency to replace Cui Yuan.

But Pei Jun was extremely cautious at this point, on the one hand, he severely reprimanded several subordinates who wanted to invite him as the right minister, and on the other hand, he repeatedly asked the Queen Mother for military affairs, and sent people to Cui Yuan for instructions every day. He also won the respect of the people in the Cui party.

The first battle of Nanchong County wiped out Pei Jundi's 60,000 Hebei Erlang, and his most powerful henchman Zhang Guangsheng died on the battlefield, Pei Jun did change a little because of this, not only in his appearance of becoming rarely smiling and grim. What's more important is that he has reflected on the deep reasons for the occurrence of this Shu Rebellion more than once.

On the surface, Yang is stupid and lustful. Indulge Zhu Zaida, and it is the history of Shu County's greed for money. Concealing the truth, but looking deeper, the imperial court has weak control over the locality, and when the family that controls a place suddenly disappears, it immediately becomes a state of disarray, and finally Zhu exploits the loophole, which is the fundamental reason, is the contradiction between the family government and centralized power.

In fact, not only Zhu in Shu, but also Zhang Huan in Hexi, if there was no wall of the Wei family to block it, the imperial court would not have no way to take Zhang Huan, who appointed and dismissed officials on his own.

At this moment, Pei Jun had returned to his study, he immediately sent his son to invite Zhang Huan, and soon, Zhang Huan hurried over, he had just come back from the spring house, and before he could sit down, Pei Jun looked for him.

"Son-in-law, see father-in-law!" Zhang Huan respectfully saluted Pei Jun, while Pei Jun looked at his son-in-law with complicated eyes, although he used various methods to eliminate the bad influence of Zhang Huan's encroachment on Longyou, but he was still very dissatisfied with Zhang Huan in his heart, this dissatisfaction was not because he breached the contract, nor because he was guaranteed in the contract, but because Zhang Huan did not tell him the truth about the party membership.

"Sit down!" Pei Jun barely squeezed out a smile, he waved his hand to signal Zhang Huan to sit down, and then carried the teapot to pour a cup of hot tea for himself and Zhang Huan, pushed it in front of him, and asked, "When do you plan to go back to Beijing this time?" “

"I'm going to go back after the debriefing, and there's still a lot of things to deal with over there." Zhang Huan is also very aware that Pei Jun is very conflicted with himself now, on the one hand, as the left minister of the Tang Dynasty, he presided over the cabinet meeting and formulated a strategy to summon himself to Beijing to test himself; On the other hand, as his father-in-law, he hopes that he can be strong to help him.

Zhang Huan guessed correctly, Pei Jun did fall into a kind of confusion at this time, from the lessons of the Shuzhong Rebellion, he was more clear about the general direction of strengthening centralized power, but when Cui Yuan fell ill and the opportunity came to him, he couldn't help but want to replace it and make the Pei family a dominant party.

Pei Jun was silent for a moment, sorted out his chaotic thoughts, and said to Zhang Huan: "The cabinet has reached an agreement to change the title of Wei Ge to the envoy of Hanzhong Jiedu to defend Shuzhong Zhu, and at the same time, the Wei family will also move to Hanzhong, although your debriefing report said that it was to attack Hehuang and could not be done, but this cannot change the fact that you occupied Longyou, I hope you will express your apologies to Wei Ge and compensate them with something practical." ”

When Zhang Huan heard this, he smiled slightly and said: "This is very simple, I can return all the property of their Wei family, and I can also sell some of their Wei family's shop properties and convert them into money, and I can return the personal belongings belonging to their Wei family, but other conditions, I forgive my son-in-law for not agreeing." ”

"You're a man!" Pei Jun shook his head and said with a wry smile: "If you hadn't seen the opportunity quickly this time and sent troops to Shuzhong in time to help the imperial court once, I'm afraid it would be really difficult for you to be an official in the court in the future." ”

Zhang Huan was stunned, he heard what Pei Jun said, so he hurriedly asked, "Could it be that the imperial court wants me to enter Beijing as an official?" ”

"What do you say?" Pei Jun smiled faintly and asked rhetorically, "Since you have officially become a prince, do you still want to be outside the balance of power in the imperial court?" ”

Zhang Huan didn't speak, he lowered his head and pondered for a long time, and then said: "As I said in my debriefing report, I do have the consideration of attacking Hehuang, please give me another year." ”

"Give you a year!" Pei Jun agreed without hesitation, his tone changed, and he said sternly: "But our Datang and Tubo Alliance, although we have not recognized the current border between the two countries, but this time without my consent, you can't act without your own permission anyway, this is a state affair, and it has nothing to do with our personal relationship." ”

"This time I promised Sangkook." Zhang Huan nodded solemnly and said, "I will definitely send someone to report to Xiangguo in advance, and I will do it after obtaining Xiangguo's consent." ”

Pei Jun sighed, "Okay! I'll trust you one more time. ”

"Please rest assured, father-in-law, I may use some means to get to the top of the house, but once I get to the top of the house, I won't have to do anything that outweighs the loss."

Speaking of this, Zhang Huan didn't want to mention this matter anymore, he smiled, changed the topic, and said mysteriously: "There is a person who came to me for help today, and my father-in-law may guess who he is?" ”