After the first interrogation of the case of the explosion in the south of the city, the main messenger behind the scenes pointed directly at Sun Sheng, the prime minister of the dynasty, although Sun Sheng was not directly imprisoned, but the Son of Heaven was furious, and Sun Sheng's loss of power has become a fact. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoIn this case, Xiao Yan didn't dare to hide it, and finally after collecting enough evidence, he wrote an excerpt in detail and handed it to the Son of Heaven.

In this excerpt, Xiao Yan explained in detail the course of the trial, and Prime Minister Sun Sheng finally confessed to the matter, but his original intention was not to rebel, but to obtain money. Subsequently, Sun Sheng also provided several detailed catalogs, recording the sales of weapons and gunpowder over the past year or so.

Li Jing, the Son of Heaven, was very angry when he saw it, and in this regard, he personally wrote a holy decree and handed it to Gao Ze, removing Sun Sheng from the position of prime minister, and confiscating eighty percent of Sun Sheng's family property. Sun Sheng himself was not killed, and under the persuasion of Chang Mengxi, Han Xizai and others, the Son of Heaven sent him to the frontier. For Datang, the so-called frontier is also relatively prosperous, not as good as the bitter cold land in the northwest, most of them are Tingzhou, Jizhou and other places.

The Son of Heaven did not rush to urge Sun Sheng to leave, taking this opportunity, Sun Sheng secretly entered and exited the Yan Wang's Mansion, and he asked again and again, and the Yan King helped him out of this breath. Li Hongji also understood that after Sun Sheng was removed from the post of prime minister, his greatest help no longer existed, and he needed to make another plan.

Sun Sheng finally left Jinling ten days after the holy decree of the Son of Heaven, he was very reluctant, and the glory of the Sun family was wiped out in just ten days, which made him very distressed, and he secretly swore in his heart that one day he must kill back.

After Sun Sheng left, Li Hongji didn't have time to be sad, because the case was a foregone conclusion, and he couldn't change anything. The most important thing now is the alliance between the Tang Dynasty and the Khitan.

Yang Lian, who once advocated an alliance with the Khitans, gave up this time, he agreed to maintain a close relationship with the Khitan, but tried his best to persuade the Son of Heaven not to send troops to the Great Zhou, at present, the Tang Dynasty is actively recovering the economy, and the economy will stop if there is another war, prices will inevitably rise, and the people's lives will be more difficult.

Today's Datang needs to recuperate, and Li Jing, the son of heaven, also knows it, but he refuses to give up this opportunity, so under the persuasion of both parties, Li Jing is very hesitant.

The Son of Heaven of the Tang Dynasty did not make a decision, but he was in a hurry Yelu Xiyin, this was his best opportunity, if he missed it, he might never find such an opportunity again. He went to find King Yan several times and asked him to make sure that he wanted to promote this matter no matter what, but Li Hongji was also quite helpless, he didn't have much right to speak in front of his father, and he didn't have the qualifications to participate in government affairs, he could only rely on the help of important ministers in the court who supported him, but with Sun Sheng's demotion , his power was greatly weakened, and it was not enough to affect the Son of Heaven at all, what should I do?

Since the fall of Sun Sheng, the power of King Qi's party has become more and more huge, and in order to contain the power of King Qi, Li Jing has not appointed a prime minister for a long time. Li Jing knows very well that even if he will pass the throne to the King of Qi in the future, he will not let the power of the King of Qi become difficult to control, and the checks and balances must still be checks and balances.

In such a delicate situation, Yang Lian was not in a hurry, and lived a leisurely life in the mansion every day, occasionally going out of the city to hunt. On the surface, Yang Lian didn't pay attention to anything, but in fact, Yang Lian has been collecting information from all sides.

First of all, Yanzhou, Yunzhou and other places, after a period of governance, grain production in these places has returned to normal, Chen Tie's naval division in Liangshanbo also has more than 200 elite warships, these warships are of different sizes, can adapt to fighting in the Yellow River area, which means that Yang Lian, who has enough naval divisions, can attack from Liangshanbo and control both sides of the Yellow River.

In the event of a war, these warships will cooperate with the north, which can stop the reinforcements coming from the north bank of the Yellow River, in addition, the training of the army is also on the right track, Yanzhou has 3,000 elite soldiers, and Yunzhou has more than 5,000 people. Except for these people, the other people can fight, but the combat effectiveness is slightly weaker.

In this case, there is no problem with self-protection in Yanzhou, Yunzhou and other places, Yang Lian also put his mind at ease and stayed in Jinling temporarily, this time is the most critical period, Yang Lian must stay in Jinling, and the Son of Heaven did not let him return to Yunzhou, so he thought that he would take precautions.

Although the Son of Heaven trusts Yang Lian, the battle for imperial power is bound to be bloody, and Li Jing cannot hand over everything to Yang Lian.

The weather is getting hotter and hotter, Yang Lian is hiding in the house and not going anywhere. At this time, on the side of Jiangling, the news came, and after several major battles, the Shu army, which was not strong in combat, finally ended in defeat, and they withdrew from Jiangling.

Zhou Guo, who finally won the battle, also retreated, for Nanping Guo, Guo Wei once had some ideas, but at this time, the three armies were tired, and the old fox Gao Baorong was very cunning, just sent people out of the city to reward the soldiers of the Zhou State, and did not let the soldiers of the Zhou army enter Jiangling, so that Guo Wei, who was about to move, finally chose to give up.

After Gao Baorong retreated from the Shu army, he immediately secretly sent someone to Chengdu in Shu and offered a generous gift to express his intention to be a minister. However, he was very puzzled, how could the second son of Da Zhou Tianzi be killed? Thinking of the treacherous departure of the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses, Meng Chang felt that it was very likely that the Tang people were making trouble, so he sent Fei Yunshan to Jinling to ask for an explanation.

Two days after Yang Lian received the Liang army's strike, Fei Yunshan came, and as soon as he entered Yang's mansion, Fei Yunshan had a black face and asked Yang Lian why he was treacherous and left Jiangling.

Yang Lian had already thought about this matter, but he didn't expect Fei Yunshan to come so quickly, he explained that Datang was very unstable, and when he sent troops, someone wanted to assassinate Yang Lian's family, so in desperation, Yang Lian had to leave in a hurry. The dragons have no leader, how can this battle be fought? So the Don army retreated.

Yang Lian's kind words appeased, Fei Yunshan was dissatisfied, but at most he could only get angry, what else could he do? After calming down, Fei Yunshan made a request, he wanted revenge, so he hoped that Datang could send troops to Zhou as soon as possible.

Fei Yunshan also brought a piece of news, the Zhou State was short of food, this time the Battle of Jiangling, in the end, the Zhou State was not rich in food, and it was difficult to support it, but unfortunately the Shu State generals were not strong in leading the troops, and the combat effectiveness of the soldiers was relatively weak, and finally failed.

Yang Lian inquired in detail, and couldn't help but smile bitterly, in the case of the Shu army's food is sufficient and the Zhou army's food is insufficient, the best way is to stick to the camp and wait for the Zhou army to run out of food, and at the same time, send elite cavalry to ambush and check the Zhou army's grain road, if there is food to come, it can be intercepted and killed. But the Shu army Jiangling did not do this, but took the initiative to attack and fought a decisive battle with the Zhou army. In the end, the first battle was lost, and the Shu soldiers fled in a hurry, and even the occupied land of Nanping was abandoned, in addition to leaving at least 100,000 stone of grain to the enemy.

Yang Lian groaned, the combat effectiveness of Shu is too weak, this is determined by the situation in Shu, the best way is for the Tang Dynasty to contain the Zhou State on the eastern front, and the Shu army will go out of the Great Scattered Pass and attack the Great Zhou. But now is not a good time, because Datang is too short of food.

Fei Yunshan is also very helpless, although Shu is said to be the country of abundance, and there is a lot of grain hoarding, but in recent years, it has sold a lot of grain to Datang, and has fought two consecutive battles that have lasted for more than half a year, and the loss of grain is also huge, and he has no spare strength to support Datang grain.

Yang Lian thought that although the Tang Dynasty could not send troops, since Fei Yunshan came, he could bring some time to Jinling, so that Yang Lian could be the friendship of the landlord. Fei Yunshan agreed unceremoniously, Yang Lian cheated him and let him be scolded by the Son of Heaven, if it weren't for Mrs. Hua Rui's intercession, Fei Yunshan's head might not be guaranteed.

In line with the mentality of eating Yang Lian, Fei Yunshan was eating all kinds of snacks in Jinling fiercely, and he gained weight in just over ten days. After staying in Jinling for more than ten days, Fei Yunshan finally chose to leave, and he had to return to Chengdu to resume his life.

Yang Lian sent him away and repeatedly said that if he had the opportunity, he would go to Chengdu.

Fei Yunshan laughed and left, but the emotions in his heart were very complicated.

Only two days after sending Fei Yunshan away, Yang Lian received a summons from the Son of Heaven. After so much time, there will finally be a result of the alliance with the Khitans.

The Son of Heaven thought for a long time, he did not agree to send troops on a large scale, but hoped that Yang Lian could secretly help the Khitans, such as burning the wheat fields of the Great Zhou in Hebei and destroying the grain of the Great Zhou. This kind of disguised help is also equivalent to helping the Tang Dynasty, if the economy of the Zhou State does not recover, the people's livelihood is poor, the army will not have enough armor, weapons and other things, the food is not sufficient, the food is not good, and the physical fitness will be greatly affected.

Yang Lian agreed, but he thought that he didn't need to return to Yunzhou, because the goal was too big, so he only needed to order it and prepare secretly.

The Son of Heaven made a decision, and Yang Lian was going to implement it, so he rushed to Honglu Temple and talked to Yelu Xiyin about it. This result was obviously unacceptable to Yelu Xiyin, which was not in the interests of the Khitans, to be precise, it was not in the interests of his Yelu Xiyin, so he categorically refused.

Yelu Xiyin and Yang Lian's negotiations broke up unhappily, after Yang Lian left, Yelu Xiyin cleaned up, went to Guo Rong, and told the matter, the two disguised themselves and went to Li Hongji, the king of Yan, to discuss things.

The lack of influence made Li Hongji very helpless, and Yang Lian was in charge of the negotiation, and Li Hongji, the king of Yan, couldn't intervene at all, so he was very helpless.

Guo Rong had long expected this possibility, but he didn't expect Yang Lian to come up with such a bad idea, and he actually wanted to burn down the tuntian of the Great Zhou and destroy the economy of the Great Zhou. Guo Rong gritted his teeth and must not let Yang Lian succeed.

"Brother Guo, what should I do now?" Li Hongji asked, Sun Sheng was driven away, which caused him huge losses, and he gritted his teeth these days, eager to kill Yang Lian.

Guo Rong groaned slightly, and said: "King Yan, now that the power of King Qi's party is getting bigger and bigger, since the Son of Heaven has made a decision on this matter, I am afraid it will be difficult to change it, unless it is ......."

"Unless what? Brother Guo might as well say it directly. Li Hongji was a little anxious, thinking that his eyebrows were burning, Guo Rong was still selling guanzi here.

Guo Rong slowly stood up, glanced at Yelu Xiyin, and said, "I'm afraid I need the help of the Khitan envoy for this matter." ”

Yelu said in a hidden voice: "Since you and I have chosen to cooperate, then you might as well say it directly, what do you need this king to do?" ”

"King Zhao, this matter still requires you to suffer some grievances." Guo Rong said.

"Wronged?" Jereh was puzzled.

Guo Rong explained, according to his thoughts, since Yang Lian is responsible for negotiating with the Khitan, Yelu Xiyin will directly contact Yang Lian, and he needs Yelu Xiyin to deliberately provoke Yang Lian, if a conflict breaks out between the two sides, it will be better, so that Yelu Xiyin can sue Yang Lian for sabotaging the diplomatic relations between the two countries as a Khitan envoy. In this way, the Son of Heaven will intervene in this matter.

Even so, Li Hongji was still puzzled, in his opinion, his father was too partial to Yang Lian, an outsider, even if there was a conflict with the Khitan envoy, his father would definitely protect Yang Lian. This matter should not have much impact on Yang Lian, and it can't change the outcome of this matter.

Guo Rong suddenly laughed, looked at Li Hongji fixedly, and said loudly: "Dare to ask King Yan, why do you want to be a prince?" ”

"Naturally, it is to become the honor of the Ninety-Five and reign over the world." Li Hongji replied unabashedly.

"That's a good point, but judging from the current situation, it is not easy to seize the position of prince." Guo Rong said.

These words made Li Hongji fall silent, it is true, when Sun Sheng and Sun Prime Minister were there, he was at a disadvantage in the action to seize the heir, and now that Prime Minister Sun has been demoted, what hope does he have? That hope is too slim.

"King Yan, please forgive me for saying that with the departure of Prime Minister Sun, King Yan wants to take the heir, but now it is impossible, completely impossible." Guo Rong added.

"Why?" Li Hongji licked his lips and couldn't help asking.

Guo Rong sighed and said, "King Yan, Your Majesty is a wise lord, there are actually many loopholes in the case of the explosion in the south of the city, but the Son of Heaven did not pursue it, why?" Because he knows that on the surface, Prime Minister Sun is the main messenger of this matter, but in fact, I am afraid that this is not the case, Your Majesty is very likely, no, it should be said that he has been completely sure that he guessed that it was King Yan who did it. ”

When Li Hongji heard this, his body couldn't help but tremble, Guo Rong's words made him feel cold, if so, then it would be troublesome.

However, even if the Son of Heaven guessed it, he didn't do it, and the reason for this may be that King Yan is his own son after all, or it may be Queen Zhong's consolation. No matter what the reason is, it doesn't matter, the important thing is that this evidence is in the hands of His Majesty, and he knows King Yan's thoughts, so he will definitely not pass on the position of the prince to King Yan, and in the future, he will also try his best to suppress King Yan. Guo Rong said again.

Li Hongji pursed his lips, is this really the case? If this is really the case, he will have no chance with the prince in his life, let alone ascend to the throne of the Son of Heaven. Listening to Guo Rong's words, Li Hongji's forehead couldn't help but be dripping with sweat, he wiped his forehead, and his voice was already a little hoarse unconsciously.

"Brother Guo, is this really the case?" Li Hongji asked, this made him take aback, is this voice still his voice?