On the twenty-third day of the first month, Gaoyang Palace, Hebei. Ω Literature┡

After many discussions with Anton, the two sides finally reached an agreement on a series of major issues such as military, political and financial affairs, among which in the core of military power, Anton is willing to obey the orders of the Holy Lord and the center, but the premise is that the supreme commander of Anton's Han army can only be Li Pingyuan.

The key to appeasing Anton is the redistribution of military power, and the key to the redistribution of military power is the ownership of military decision-making power and military command power. There is no doubt that the Holy Lord and the center must firmly control Anton's military decision-making power, but if Anton wants to faithfully implement high-level decisions, he must also take the command of Anton's army, even if he can't take all of them, he must find ways to install cronies to achieve the purpose of pinning down and restraining him.

However, in terms of the command of the army, Anton had no concessions, which was the most difficult part of the later negotiations, so the Holy Lord and the Central Center sent Pei Shiju, and Pei Shiju lived up to expectations and solved this most difficult problem in the shortest possible time.

It's just that Pei Shiju's solution to the problem greatly exceeded the expectations of the Holy Lord and the center, so that the Holy Lord and his group of cronies and important ministers not only saw the impending crisis, but also were no longer optimistic about Anton's future.

The fundamental reason why Pei Shiju quickly and successfully achieved his goal was "Li Pingyuan", and this also confirmed the rumor that "Li Pingyuan is a secret knife, and a secret knife is a white thief", so that "Li Pingyuan" has become a "political noose" around Pei Shiju's neck. Of course, since Pei Shiju dares to put the "noose" on, he must have a back hand, and there must be various ways to prove that the secret knife is not a white thief, but the problem is that the "noose" has been put on, and the opponent can put it to death at any time, does it matter whether the secret knife is a white thief?

Why did Pei Shiju take a risk and put himself to death? This is not in Pei Shiju's interests, and in Pei Shiju's style of acting, he does not do unprofitable things.

It follows from this that if the matter is profitable, where does the profit come from? What benefits does Pei Shiju see from it?

Under the current general trend at home and abroad, there is only one major event closely related to Pei Shiju's vital interests, and that is the Civil War. Pei Shiju is in charge of the foreign affairs of Middle-earth, and the diplomatic strategy of Middle-earth directly affects and even determines the victory or defeat of the Civil War, if Middle-earth loses the war, Pei Shiju will not only bear the major responsibility of diplomatic strategy mistakes or poor implementation of strategy, but also face all the evil consequences brought about by this, if the great cause of reunification collapses, Middle-earth will even fall into division and war again, Pei Shiju will not atone for his sins, so Pei Shiju will not hesitate to ensure the victory of the Civil War, and do everything to do so.

This inference was valid, and the Holy Lord and important ministers such as Yu Shiji, Xiao Yu, Yu Wenshu, Lai Hu'er, and Zhao Cai were also very pessimistic about the results of Pei Shiju's westward journey, and became more and more worried about the Civil War.

The monarch did not have much hope for the promise of the Western Turks. However, considering that the war between Middle-earth and the desert is beneficial to the Western Turks, considering that the desert has the ambition to rebuild the Great Turkic Khanate, the threat to the Western Turks is far greater than that of the Middle Turks, so the Middle Turks still have a glimmer of hope for the Western Turks, believing that the Western Turks will not fulfill their promises and attack the desert left and right. At the very least, it will bluff to help contain the desert.

However, judging from the current measures of Pei Shiju who did not hesitate to take risks, did not hesitate to lose his political life, and did his best to win over Anton, he said that his westward trip was fruitful, but in fact he had lost his thoughts about the Western Turks, that is to say, his prediction of the Civil War may have changed, and it was no longer the initiative of China and Turkey and the Western Turks to attack the desert, but the two Eastern and Western Turks joined forces to attack Central Turkey, so that China and Turkey would lose the initiative in the war and had to passively face the war.

It can be inferred from this that the timing of the outbreak of the Civil War was not determined by Middle-earth, but by the Turks. If the Turks had taken the initiative to start a civil war, the war would have exploded soon. Middle-earth has been on the eastward crusade for two years, and the army is exhausted, coupled with the deteriorating domestic situation and many crises, Middle-earth is deeply mired in internal and external troubles, and it is the best time for the Turks to take advantage of the fire and rob, fall into the well, and invade the south.

The Holy Lord was very resentful, and his anger at his political opponents was especially greater than his hatred for the Turks, if the two capitals lived in peace and were united with the outside world, why was the situation so difficult? Seeing several important ministers contemplating and contemplating, saying no, the Holy Lord became more and more irritable in his heart, and he couldn't help but point to Pei Shiju's recital, and asked, "What is your objection to this?" ”

Zhao Cai was anxious, and replied first, "Shengshang, military power is the core of appeasement, only by controlling military power can we suppress Anton, and can we firmly control Anton, otherwise, Anton will be out of control, which is a major disaster, and this disaster will not be alleviated because Li Pingyuan led Anton's army, on the contrary, it will become more and more intense, so that it will evolve into a de facto feudal town." ”

Before Zhao Cai finished speaking, the Holy Lord's face was ugly and furious.

This is an internal and external attack, there are northern captives and political enemies who are aggressive, and there are henchmen and important ministers who are cowardly and prevaricating, how can this be reasonable! What do the ministers of their cronies use for? It is the courage to share worries and solve problems for oneself at critical moments, to charge into battle, and to dare to take risks and responsibilities for oneself, rather than shrinking one's head and hiding under one's wings, allowing oneself to rush to the front to shelter them from the wind and rain. Zhao Cai is indeed loyal and upright, but his shortcomings are also like this, he doesn't know how to be flexible, he can't act cheaply, and he can't look at words and emotions and figure out what he wants, but as a result, he forced the Holy Lord into a dilemma with one mouth.

Pei Shiju has already made his position clear in the rush to push Li Pingyuan to the "foreground", Li Pingyuan is an official person, and Li Pingyuan leads the Anton army, nominally the Holy Lord and the center control Anton's military power, and completely takes care of the face of the Holy Lord and the center, and all the responsibilities and consequences brought about by this, he Pei Shiju bears it with all his might, if there is an accident, it damages the interests of the national Zuo, the Holy Lord and the center, only he Pei Shiju asks.

Pei Shiju's attitude made the Holy Lord very satisfied, the interests of Middle Earth and the Emperor were supreme, and he had the courage to take responsibility, which was the fundamental reason why Pei Shiju was still able to win the trust and reuse of the Holy Lord after being hit twice by the collapse of the first emperor and the Yulin storm. The political ideas of the monarchs and ministers can be different, and the governing strategies can be conflicting, but the fundamental interests of the supremacy of Middle-earth and the supremacy of the emperor must be the same.

On this westward trip, Pei Shiju went to the Western Regions with his head and successfully completed the task, with a glow on the face of the Holy Lord; This time he rushed to Anton, Pei Shiju lived up to expectations, vouched for Li Pingyuan with his political life, completed the final appeasement of Anton, and paved the way for the Holy Lord to carry out the Third Eastern Crusade smoothly, and such a loyal, dedicated, and courageous courtier is the real one to share worries and solve problems for the Holy Lord, but internal struggles are everywhere, and Pei Shiju has never been able to integrate into the inner circle of the reformists with the Holy Lord as the reason for political ideas, and has naturally become the target of the reformists' containment and attack.

This time, after Pei Shiju arrived in Anton, he pushed "Li Pingyuan", which was equivalent to publicly admitting that "the secret knife is a white thief", but because the Turks had spread the rumor that "the secret knife is a white thief" to implement a divisive plan, the Holy Lord and the center had to publicly deny this rumor, ******** Pei Shiju, to ensure the unity of the core decision-making level of the center, and as a result, he gave Pei Shiju a chance to "whitewash" Li Pingyuan. Now, unless the Holy Lord and the Central Center have definite and public evidence that the white thief is a secret sword, they can only eat Coptis dumbly and accept the reality of Li Pingyuan's comeback.

Of course, in order to overthrow Pei Shiju, the Holy Lord and the reformers can also create evidence that "the white thief is a secret knife", but in this way, the Holy Lord and the center will veto themselves and slap themselves in the face, which will seriously damage the authority, so unless they are forced to do so, the Holy Lord and the reformers will not turn against Pei Shiju and break the net.

And Pei Shiju's "opportunistic" move quickly completed Anton's appeasement and established the superiority of China in the confrontation between the north and the south, but for Yu privately, the emergence of Li Pingyuan and Anton, an emerging force, will inevitably further strengthen Pei Shiju's strength. That is to say, under the deliberate protection of Pei Shiju, the idea of the Holy Lord and the Central Center trying to weaken or even eradicate Anton's power with the help of the Third Crusade is ten likely, and this is exactly what Zhao Cai cannot accept, so he openly opposes it.

However, the Holy Lord's view is very different.

The Holy Lord wants to win the final victory of the Eastern Crusade, to win the Great War between the North and the South, and under the current predicament of internal and external troubles, he can only do his best to unite all the forces that can be united, although he did want to weaken or even eradicate the emerging force of Anton, but because Pei Shiju vouched for Li Pingyuan with his political life, he had to weigh the gains and losses, compared to the huge benefits brought by the final victory of the Eastern Crusade and the victory of the Great Northern War, it must be far greater than the scourge of Li Pingyuan, so the Holy Lord decided to accept the fact of Li Pingyuan's comeback. He really didn't believe Li Pingyuan, but he believed in Pei Shiju, and that was enough.

It's a pity that he believes in Pei Shiju, which does not mean that his cronies and important ministers also believe in Pei Shiju.

Xiao Yu followed Zhao Cai and also questioned, "Shengshang, it is okay in principle to grant Li Pingyuan the command of Anton's army, but the question is, is Li Pingyuan a white thief?" What if Li Pingyuan is really a white thief? Of course, we can't speculate, let's talk about things, Li Pingyuan commanded Anton's army, can he absolutely control the white thief? If the answer is no, Li Pingyuan is just a puppet, and Wen Xigong's influence is very limited, then, what can we do to ensure that Anton's army absolutely obeys the orders of the Holy Lord and the center? There is more serious, is there a master-slave relationship between King Qi and the white thief? If the white thieves support the king of Qi and the army of Anton accepts the command of the king of Qi, then in the future, we will not face the division of the feudal town, but the ......"

Xiao Yu wanted to speak and stopped, but the meaning was very clear, and his questioning hit the "key" of the Holy Lord, which made the Holy Lord couldn't help but be angry, his face was like frost, and his face was no longer ugly, but iron-blue.

This is the first time that someone has directly and openly questioned King Qi's secret collusion with traitors. This nature is too serious, if it is true, there is evidence to prove that the king of Qi and the white thief, Li Zixiong and other traitors are in collusion, then the political life of the king of Qi will be completely over, the father and son will inevitably turn against each other, and this political storm is bound to sweep away Li Hun, Dong Chun and other military nobles, once the Li family of Longxi Chengji is destroyed, it will inevitably shake the entire Guanlong aristocratic group, the bloody battle between Xijing and Dongdu will be open and white-hot, and the complete break between the two capitals will shake the foundation of Guozuo, and Guozuo is on the verge of collapse. Middle-earth is likely to fall into division and war, and it will be difficult for the Lord and the Reformers to turn the tide in this predicament.

At this time, Yu Shiji also spoke, "Add another fire", "Shengshang, we noticed that in this urgent performance of Wen Xigong, he took into account the possibility of an active counterattack on Andong in the desert, and considering that Anton's defense was weak during the expedition of Anton's main army to Goguryeo, it was recommended to make every effort to strengthen the Changcheng garrison on the Youyan line, and Huaihuangbian Town is particularly important, not to be ignored and slack, let alone to transfer troops from the Youyan line to participate in the Third Eastern Crusade. ”

Yu Shiji looked at a few important ministers, then looked at the Holy Lord, and questioned quietly, "Why did Wen Xigong have this suggestion?" What is the purpose? Does it imply that the Holy Lord still wants to sit in Huaihuang and continue to patrol the border, and he can't lead an expedition to Goguryeo? If this is the case, we might as well imagine that when the Turks desperately counterattacked Anton, Anton pretended to be invincible, the army was defeated, and they swarmed into the Great Wall. ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked. Yu Shiji's doubts were more powerful than Xiao Yu's, not only suspecting that King Qi was complicit with the white thief, but also suspecting Pei Shiju of secretly manipulating, and it was clear that he would be caught all of them.

At the critical moment, Yu Wenshu unceremoniously "made up for it", "Although Anton promised to participate in the Third Eastern Crusade, who dares to guarantee that Anton will keep his promise and send the main force on the expedition?" If Anton Yang disobeys the Yin and takes the weak people to pretend to be the main force, and the people who control the strings of Donghu also delay it under various excuses, Youyan will inevitably face a huge threat, and once the rebellion breaks out and repeats the mistake of Yang Xuangan's mutiny, the consequences will be unimaginable. ”

The Holy Lord was extremely angry, almost suffocating, but his heart was as clear as a mirror. At this moment, he must take into account the overall situation, must believe in Pei Shiju, and cannot listen to biased beliefs, so he resolutely made a decision and ordered the king of Qi to end his patrol and immediately lead the army to participate in the Third Eastern Crusade.

However, a new question arises again, when the King of Qi arrives on the battlefield of the Eastern Crusade, doesn't he just happen to fight hand in hand with Anton's army? Wouldn't it be just right for the two sides to form an open alliance with Anton?

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