The fact that the snake spirit's lair was swept away did not seem to have attracted the attention of the bigwigs in Luoyang City, except for the Empress Dowager Wu Zetian's routine reward for Qiu's achievements.

Zheng Gao, the heavenly official squire, didn't know what agreement he had reached with Wu Zetian, and he was still in his original position, the Zheng family remained calm, Lu Ziluan was in retreat and practiced, and Zheng Guanlan stayed in Luoyang and did not go home, and it was said that he was preparing to go out.

Affected by this, the snake spirit was no longer so ostentatious, and disappeared under the noses of the major forces as usual, and seemed to have stopped its activities.

Wu Chenghe, as always, happily ran the Luoshui Sacrifice Ceremony, and the rumors spread seemed to have lost space to spread, no one believed it, and no one went viral.

Li Rong, who had made meritorious contributions, received some rewards as usual, which did not attract people's attention, and a six-rank lieutenant was too inconspicuous in the capital.

The situation in Luoyang City is as calm as flowing Luoshui, quiet and poetic, and the city is still as prosperous and popular as before.

Half a month later, the military intelligence of the Western Regions came. The general manager of the march of the rest of the road, Wei Zhijia's army, was defeated by the Yinzhijia River, and encountered heavy snowfall, the grain transportation was not continued, Wei was embarrassed, the soldiers were frozen, and many people died. Tubo took the opportunity to attack the Anxi Duhufu, the Tang army suffered heavy losses, and at the critical moment, Anxi Tang Xiujing gathered the remnants, pacified Anxitu, and blocked the attack of Tubo.

Our Lady God Emperor Wu Zetian was furious, lost his temper during the court meeting, and ordered someone to recall Wei Zhiqi, the chief of the marching army, and the deputy chief of Anxi, the capital of Anxi, to protect Yan Wengu and return to Beijing.

For a time, the court was in an uproar. Since the arrival of the Holy Mother, in the face of several major defeats in Tibet, this time Wei Zhiwei was sent to recover the lost territory, but he didn't expect it to fail.

Luoyang, Wenchang right Chengwei Juyuan Mansion

The Wei family has a lot of power in the court, and it is a first-class wealthy family since the Gaozong Dynasty, known as the first gate valve of the Tang Dynasty, and the number of high-ranking officials is beyond the reach of many traditional magnates. There are two current prime ministers alone, Wenchang Youcheng Wei Juyuan, and Fengge Shilang Wei Fangzhen, not to mention the first-level officials of the Assassin History.

At this time, there were three Wei clansmen in Wei Juyuan's study, namely Wei Fangzhen, Wei Mingcheng and Wei Li, the squire of Fengge.

These four people represent the current high-level of the Wei clan and decide the fate of this hundred-year-old clan.

Among them, Wei Zhiqi, Wei Juyuan, and Wei Fangzhi represent Wei's imperial court, Wei Mingcheng secretly operates the armed forces and does some things that are not easy to deal with on the surface, and Wei Li is responsible for Wei's business.

"The soldiers are defeated in the Yinjia River, and Her Majesty the Holy Mother God Emperor is ready to recall the price to be severely punished." Wenchang right Cheng Wei Juyuan said. During the morning court meeting, Wei Juyuan felt the anger of the Empress Dowager Wu Zetian and was worried.

"There have long been people in the court who are dissatisfied with our Wei family, and many people have taken advantage of this incident to fall into the ground, attack and wait for the price, and demand capital punishment." Wei Fangzhen continued, "Even Her Majesty the Holy Mother Divine Emperor has changed his attitude, which is really worrying. ”

A few years ago, because Zhongzong Li Xian deliberately promoted the queen's father Wei Xuanzhen, the Empress Dowager Wu Zetian took the opportunity to abolish Li Xian and dealt a heavy blow to the Wei family. In recent years, Wei Juyuan and others have changed their direction, focusing on getting closer to the Empress Dowager Wu Zetian, and slowly getting reused by Wu Zetian.

"There is another reason for the defeat of this waiting. A few days ago, Wei Zhongchang was sent to see me at night to tell me about the situation of the war at that time. It is suspected that someone on the side of the imperial court deliberately leaked military information. When he first arrived in Anxi and was about to launch an attack, he found that Tubo had prepared in advance, and some local people colluded with Tubo to attack our army's grain transportation, and the weather was unfavorable, so he was defeated so badly. Wei Mingcheng said.

"Who did that?" The other three asked, "Who is so mad?" ”

Military affairs are far from being personal grievances that can be compared, because personal self-interest has put tens of thousands of Tang troops to death, and the Tang Dynasty has never heard of such a thing in more than 70 years since the founding of the country.

"The Hidden Dragon of the Western Regions," Wei Mingcheng said.

"Yinlong has always been with our well water does not interfere with river water, and in Anxi, Guanzhong has great interests, why did he turn to help Tubo and my Tang Dynasty as enemies, is it not afraid that the imperial court will uproot it?" Willy asked.

Wei Li has always been in charge of the Wei family's business in various parts of the Tang Dynasty, and trade with the Western Regions is also one of the major items, and he has dealt with the Hidden Dragon because of business.

"Hidden Dragon has no enmity with my Wei family, but has a grudge with the Tang Dynasty, and now the situation in the court seems to be calm, but in fact it is turbulent, and Hidden Dragon is also uneasy and wants to play a game of chess." Wei Mingcheng explained.

Wei Li didn't pay much attention to politics and didn't quite understand the reasoning.

The background of the hidden dragon is not a secret to the Jingzhao Wei family, and the descendants of the hidden prince Li Jiancheng were established, and they were naturally dissatisfied with the imperial court since Emperor Taizong.

"If the court is safe, I will be Wei Shi'an, taking advantage of the chaos and winning by surprise is the choice of the weak," Wei Juyuan stroked his beard and said, "The people of the hidden dragon deliberately shook the court, but we have to calm down and not be moved by them." ”

"I'll talk about these things later, the matter of waiting for the price is the urgent matter at the moment," Wei Fangzhen said a little anxiously, "How to calm the anger of Her Majesty the Holy Mother God Emperor, so as not to be punished for the price?" ”

"This time to attack Tibet, most of Anxi protected Yan Wengu and took great responsibility. He has been in Anxi for many years, but he has not been able to appease the localities, so that our army's grain transportation is unfavorable, and he should bear the primary responsibility for the defeat. Wei Juyuan said.

"The capital of Anxi protects Yan Wengu? Yes, he does take responsibility for his failures. Wei Fangzhen's eyes lit up when he heard this, he had to find a scapegoat for this matter, there was no doubt that Yan Wengu was the best one.

"Of course, the hidden dragon ignores my Wei family, if we are indifferent, other people will also look down on me and others, so we still have to teach them a lesson." Wei Mingcheng said.

"Well, these things are decided by Mingcheng and Brother Li." Wei Juyuan said.

"In addition, I think it is necessary to strengthen our Wei family's intelligence work in Luoyang, so as not to suffer losses again due to the news. If we had known about the leakage of military information in advance, we would have been able to get out of the way when the price was not good, and we would not have been so miserably defeated. Wei Mingcheng said, "A few days ago, I asked someone to open a restaurant in Luoyang, and while earning money, I inquired about the news by the way. ”

"A little thing, just deal with it." Everyone nodded in agreement.

Wei Mingcheng controlled Webster's dark department and detected a lot of useful news, Wei Fangzhen and others were able to move smoothly in the officialdom, and it was not without Wei Mingcheng's contributions.

"The Observation of Microscopic Eyes really lives up to its name," Li Rong quietly comprehended, and sighed involuntarily.

From Li Yuanfang, he got the cultivation method of "Observing the Microscopic Eye", Li Rong felt like a treasure, and under the careful tasting, he felt that the mystery was endless, but he was always entangled in things, and he had no time to meditate and comprehend, just a simple scratch. Now that I have been meditating in the camp all day, I have time.

Of course, this is also because the cultivation of the "Microscopic Eye" needs to be refined with a special potion, Li Rong asked the housekeeper Ge Weisheng to collect the medicine, and it took more than a month to prepare the potion and send it to the camp for Li Rong to use.

Dropping the potion into his eyes, Li Rong began to carefully use his true qi to open through the small veins in his eyes, which was so difficult that it was enough to make people extremely painful.

The veins in the eyes that need to be opened are very small, and the true qi must be condensed into silk, carefully penetrated, and a circulation of true qi must be formed. Fortunately, Li Rong and his two lives were mentally strong, and they controlled their true qi to complete this difficult challenge to the sky.

Li Rong was a little lucky, and looked towards a big tree in the distance.

Every leaf clearly appeared in his eyes, the fine veins and cyan luster were all exceptionally bright. Li Rong even felt that the lush trees shone with a faint green light, which was very surprising. Li Rong knew that this should be the breath emitted by the big tree, but it was difficult for ordinary people to perceive it with the naked eye.

"Although it was a little harder, I finally practiced it." Li Rong said in his heart.

At this time, Yu Chi Xiu ran over from outside.

"Yuan Ming, tomorrow day off, Cheng Boxian said that Nancheng Jishanfang has opened a new restaurant, it is said that the dishes there are from Jing Zhaowei's family, which is more exquisite than the meals in the palace, Cheng Boxian specially booked a table there and invited us to taste it together tomorrow." Yu Chi Xiu said happily.

"Cheng Boxian invited us to dinner?" Li Rong frowned slightly, he was trying to quietly practice martial arts in the camp, so much so that he didn't want to go out to have fun, but Cheng Boxian was his sworn friend, and he hadn't eaten well together since he entered Beijing, so he couldn't easily refuse.

"Okay, we'll go eat tomorrow." Li Rong thought about it and replied.

"I hope that guy doesn't lie to me, I also heard that Jingzhao Wei's meal is famous all over the world, and idlers can't taste it at all." Yu Chi Xiu said with some envy.

Although the Wei Chi family has been among the first-class military generals since the establishment of this dynasty, there are people who have been generals of more than three grades from generation to generation, but the background is really not as good as these hundreds of years of wealth and nobility of the gate lord clan, and there are no high-end hotels in these years, the best chefs, and the diet are all from those gate lord clans, ordinary people will not eat more meat no matter how rich they are, and they are not as good as others in terms of exquisiteness.

Of course, these are nothing to Li Rong, and no matter how exquisite the food here is, it can't be compared with later generations.

The two made an appointment and prepared to go out of the camp early tomorrow morning to find Cheng Boxian to taste the food he said.

At the same time, Wei Jie, who followed Wei Mingcheng to Beijing, also invited Qiu Zhenqi, the son of Qiu Shenji, the general of Zuojin Wuwei, to have dinner at the restaurant.