At the beginning of the Tang army's entry into Jingzhou, Xiangyang City was the military and political center of the Tang army, but as the main force of the army had been transferred to Jiangxia County, the garrison of Xiangyang City was only 10,000 people, led by the deputy governor of Jingzhou and the Taishou Wushi Tong of Xiangyang County, but the target of their defense was Wang Shichong in the north. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

On the morning of that day, Zhao Xingben, the military inspector sent by Li Yuanji, and Luo Yumin, a staff member, arrived in Xiangyang City, and the group arrived in Xiangyang City disguised as merchants on the Nanxiang Road.

"Sir, do you think we'll get something out of this trip?" Zhao Xingben asked a little worriedly.

Zhao Xingben came from the Chang'an Supervision and Military Administration, which is a small official office controlled by Li Yuanji, the king of Chu, mainly holding the supervision power of the army, with great power, initially directly managed by Li Yuan, the son of heaven, and later Li Yuan handed over the supervision of the military administration to his son Li Yuanji, but Li Yuan still kept a hand, and Li Yuanji's dispatch to the supervision army must be approved by Li Yuan, the son of heaven.

The Supervision of the Military Administration is divided into two divisions, supervision and supervision, the responsibilities of the two are different, Zhao Xing belongs to the Supervision Division, his specific official position is the Liupin Imperial History, according to the convention, the Imperial History already has the right to supervise the army, but this time he is not here to exercise the power of supervising the army, but was ordered to find Qu Tutong's handle.

Luo Yumin also wore a businessman's black robe, and he smiled faintly: "Who will have no handle, as long as you search carefully, you can find it, and before we set off, we have secretly ordered the Luoyang Intelligence Agency to go south to investigate first, I believe they already have clues." ”

"I see, so where do we go now?"

"Zhao Yushi just come with me."

Luo Yumin was obviously already prepared, he took Zhao Xingben and a dozen guards to an inn near the city gate, he looked up at the gate, and the sign on it read 'Sanchuan Inn'.

"This is it!"

Luo Yumin walked into the door with a smile, and the innkeeper hurriedly greeted him, "Welcome to the shop!" ”

"We are from Chang'an, is Yang Qing here?"

The shopkeeper's face immediately changed, and he said respectfully: "Yang Envoy Jun is here, sir, please come with me." ”

Only then did Luo Yumin whisper to Zhao Xingben: "This is a branch of the Luoyang Intelligence Agency in Xiangyang, and the shopkeepers and guys in it are all people from the Eight Directions Wind Building. ”

Zhao Xingben suddenly realized that he asked his subordinates and his men to rest first, while he and Luo Yumin followed the shopkeeper to a room in the backyard.

There was only one middle-aged man in the room, this person was called Yang Qing, the intelligence chief of the Tang Dynasty in Luoyang, he greeted him with a smile, and said with a deep salute: "Mr. has worked hard all the way. ”

"Where! Where! It's hard work for Yang to make the king. ”

Luo Yumin introduced Yang Qing to Zhao Xingben, and the three of them exchanged a few words of greeting, and then they entered the house and sat down, at this time, the shopkeeper brought them hot tea, Luo Yumin took a sip of tea and asked: "Yang Default Split Volume [1] Envoy should arrive three days earlier than us, are there any clues?" ”

Yang Qing nodded, "There is a little clue, in fact, it is not that I found it, many of them are things that everyone knows, but I usually don't pay attention to them, if you really pay attention, you will find that some places are very inappropriate." ”

"Can you tell us more about that?"

"At present, I have found three problems, the first is that the number of Qu Tutong's personal guards is far exceeded, he actually has a thousand personal guards, far more than the rule of 100 people, and secondly, many Xiangyang people have Qu Tutong's birth card, and the birth card actually calls him the Ming Gong of the world, which is really surprising."

Luo Yumin and Zhao Xingben looked at each other the same, their faces were shocked for two days, they were called the Ming Gong of the world, what is the Son of Heaven?

"And what else?" Zhao Xingben asked.

"There is also the newly built city wall in Jiangxia that exceeds three zhang three, which is three zhang five, which is also built by Qu Tutong."

The city wall can not exceed the capital, this is the practice since the Sui Dynasty, in the past is not to exceed the height of the Luoyang city wall, after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the height of the city wall is not allowed to exceed Chang'an, more than the one must be removed immediately, otherwise it will be regarded as trespassing.

Although this is a convention, in fact, many frontier city walls are more than three zhang three, such as Taiyuan, when Li Yuanji was in charge, in order to defend against Liu Wuzhou's attack, the north city wall of Taiyuan was raised to three zhang and six feet, and the court did not pursue it, so this is an unspoken rule that as long as you don't report it, Qu Tutong obviously also used this unspoken rule to build the city wall to three zhang five, and with the support of Li Shimin, the king of Qin, no one will report and pursue this matter.

In fact, the number of pro-soldiers is also a truth, many generals in the capital because they have no soldiers to bring, there are already a lot of 100 pro-soldiers, but generals like Qu Tutong with troops, there are tens of thousands of troops under his command, if there are no 1,000 pro-soldiers, sometimes the army is difficult to command, but the imperial court did not open up because of this, and still strictly stipulated the number of pro-soldiers of the general.

But it was not only Qu Tutong who crossed the rules, almost all the generals who led the troops exceeded the rules, such as Duan Decao, who surrendered to the Northern Sui, had 500 personal soldiers, and he was only a general, stipulating that the number of personal soldiers could not exceed 50 people.

It is one thing to stipulate regulations, but it is another thing to put them into practice, so in many cases, the military department turns a blind eye and acquiesces in the existence of such a phenomenon of exceeding the rules.

Of course, Luo Yumin also knew about this situation, so he was a little hesitant, it was difficult to defeat Qu Tutong with only the city wall and his own soldiers, he pondered for a moment and asked: "Is there a specific physical object of the raw card I just said?" ”

"Yes! I've got a piece. ”

As he spoke, Yang Qing took out a sign from the box next to him, which was the same size as the spirit tablet, because the worshipper was still alive, so it was called a raw card.

"This is from a farmer's house, please take a look."

Luo Yumin took the spirit card and looked at it, it read: 'Ming Gong of the world', literally, this farmer should praise Qu Tutong as the enlightened duke, the most in the world, but the ambiguity is in the world and the Ming duke, needless to say, the four seas are not the king's land, the world is under the rule of the Son of Heaven, and the Ming Duke is another name for the princes of one party, with this brand is enough to cure Qu Tutong's sin of supporting the army and standing on his own.

Next to him, Zhao Xingben said in a low voice: "If it is just based on our words, the Son of Heaven may not believe it, but if Wu Shi Tong can also prove the authenticity of this raw card, then it will be difficult for Qu Tutong to explain, what does Mr. think?" ”

Luo Yumin nodded slowly, "We see the same!" ”

..........

Wu Shi Tong never thought that Li Yuanji, the king of Chu, would send an army to supervise the imperial history and stationed in Xiangyang County, and he didn't get any news in advance, so when Luo Yumin and Zhao Xingben appeared outside the county office, he was so frightened that he trembled.

He knew in Taiyuan that Li Yuanji was a ruthless person, more vicious than a poisonous snake, and once he was targeted, he would never end well.

He hurriedly came out, although his official quality was much higher than that of the supervising servant Yushi, he still respectfully saluted Zhao Xing's bank, "Welcome to Xiangyang County!" ”

Zhao Xingben said lightly: "Wu Taishou doesn't have to be polite, I'm just doing business, I hope Taishou can cooperate!" ”

"Of course I will cooperate vigorously, Zhao Yushi is here, please!"

Wu Shi Tong invited Zhao Xingben to enter the official office, but he glanced at Luo Yumin, who was expressionless, a little puzzled, and secretly thought in his heart, "Who is this?" ’

The three of them walked into the inner hall, and when the warrior saw Luo Yumin also coming in, he finally couldn't help but ask, "Who is this gentleman ......?" ”

Luo Yumin took out the gold medal of the King of Chu and lit up in front of his eyes, "I came here by the secret order of the King of Chu!" ”

Wu Shi Tong was shocked in his heart, could it be that this person is the legendary Xuanwu Fire Phoenix?

I don't know who spread the rumor, many officials in the imperial court know that there is such a secret organization in Chang'an, called Xuanwu Huofeng, which is responsible for monitoring hundreds of officials, assassinating rebels, controlled by the King of Chu, and Wushi Tong has also heard of it, Wushi Tong saw the gold medal of the King of Chu, and naturally thought of Xuanwu Huofeng, and his double strands couldn't help but tremble slightly.

Luo Yumin didn't explain, so he sat down next to Zhao Xing himself, Zhao Xingben said with a serious face: "Someone secretly reported some things in Jingzhou to the Shengshang, which made the Shengshang very angry and ordered the King of Chu to find out the facts, and we came to verify it on the order of the King of Chu." ”

Wu Shi Tong was even more nervous in his heart, and asked tremblingly, "I don't know what Zhao Yushi needs to verify?" ”

"Someone impeached Qu Tu for privately increasing his personal guards, repairing the city wall, and obtaining an arrogance title among the people, may I ask Wu Taishou, these are the facts?"

When Wu Shi Tong heard that he was here to check Qu Tutong, he was immediately relieved, and his thinking began to calm down, and after thinking about it, he said: "There is indeed such a thing as increasing the personal guard, but this is with the consent of His Royal Highness the King of Qin, and it should not be considered a private setting." ”

"Does the military department agree? Or have you filed it with the Ministry of War? Zhao Xingben asked.

"I haven't heard of this, so I probably don't."

"Then it's still private!"

Wu Shi Tong didn't dare to argue anymore, since the other party didn't take King Qin's will seriously, it would be humiliating to move King Qin out, so he nodded silently.

"What about the high city walls?"

Of course, Wu Shitong understood what the high repair of the city wall meant, and he also reminded Qu Tutong at the beginning, but for some reason, Qu Tutong didn't take it to heart, which he couldn't deny, so he had to admit: "The newly built Jiangxia city wall is indeed two feet higher than the Chang'an city wall, which I also think is inappropriate." ”

"Very well, then let's confirm the third thing!"

Samurai Tong hesitated and asked, "I don't quite understand what it means to obtain a transgression title?" (To be continued.) )