Shi had several meetings with Lord Lin Fenglin, and one of the discussions on history made Shi particularly impressed.

Regarding history, Lord Lin put forward two points of view that made Shi dumbfounded during the conversation, one is that 'history is a little girl dressed up by others, and what she looks like is just because the victor wants her to be like that.' The other is that "the course of history develops both inevitably and accidentally." Among them, the choices of historical figures, large and small, sometimes determine the course of history. Shi tried his best to refute Lord Lin's point of view at that time, but Lord Lin laughed and did not argue, and only gave two names respectively: Wang Mang and Zhang Liang.

Afterwards, when Shi studied Wang Mang in history, he found that Lord Lin's first point of view was fully confirmed, Wang Mang was actually an enterprising reformer, but because the change was too radical and violated the interests of many powerful people, he was stigmatized as the biggest conspirator and hypocrite by some people in later generations.

As for Zhang Liang, it is easier to understand. When Zhang Liang raised a lot of money to dare to die and brave people, and used a large iron vertebrae weighing 120 catties as a weapon to ambush Qin Shi Huang who was touring the east in Bolangsha, if he hadn't hit the concubine's vehicle by mistake, but successfully hit Qin Shi Huang, history would not have been what we saw, maybe we wouldn't have been born!

Zhang Liang's example reminded Shi of a typical example of a personal influence on the course of history: Li Hongyi, the envoy of the Zhenning Army.

If he had chosen a different path, he might not have appeared in the following week, at least not so soon......"

——The above is excerpted from the book "Book of the Southern Tang Dynasty" written by Shi Yan, a historian of the Southern Tang Dynasty? Miscellaneous Treatises" November 14 in the third year of the Later Han Dynasty (950 AD) is just a dull winter day for the vast majority of people, but it is by no means a good day for those who are in the middle of the whirlpool of history, such as Li Hongyi, the envoy of the Zhenning Army.

Near noon, after the envoy of Lanzhou met the prime minister's mansion and sent off the envoy who arrived from Tokyo, Li Hongyi, the envoy of the Zhenning Army, rushed back to his mansion with a solemn face, and did not answer the big and small wives and concubines who greeted him with a smile on his face, waved everyone away, and hid in the study alone.

What's wrong with the always good-natured lord? Everyone smiled and scattered.

At lunchtime, when one of Li Hongyi's favorite concubines dared to knock on the door of the study, there was no sound for a long time, and when she mustered up the courage to push open the door of the study, she found that there was no one in the study at all.

Just when the Li Mansion was desperately looking for his Lord Li, Li Hongyi, who was dressed in civilian clothes, was already sitting in the mansion of Guo Wei in Lanzhou, and sitting opposite him was Wang Yin, the commander of Guo Wei's guard infantry army who stayed in Lanzhou to protect his relatives.

Just now, Li Hongyi, who jumped into the mansion from the back wall of the mansion, was almost tied up by the guards, but fortunately, a guard leader had seen this jiedu envoy before, and immediately respectfully invited him to the study, and quickly told Wang Yin.

After Wang Yin finished serving tea, he bowed his hand to Li Hongyi and said: "Prime Minister Li, why don't you order the villain to come to the mansion to meet you if you have something, but you enter the mansion so mysteriously?" ”

Li Hongyi did not answer, took out a bright yellow edict from his arms, and gently placed it on the desk.

Wang Yin rushed forward, opened it to take a look, and immediately trembled all over, and sat on the chair. After a while, Wang Yin suddenly woke up, got up and bowed respectfully to Li Hongyi, and said, "The villain replaced Guo Envoy and thanked Li Envoy!" He also asked Minister Li to inform the villain of the matter in detail. ”

Li Hongyi stared at the edict in Wang Yin's hand with empty eyes, and said bitterly: "Fang Cai, the enshrined official Meng Ye came from Tokyo (now Kaifeng, Henan), and the current emperor secretly ordered Li to kill all the relatives of Guo Envoy and General Wang. It seems that Guo Envoy is too accomplished, and someone is going to start! ”

After Emperor Yin of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, Guo Wei, who started as a privy deputy envoy, led his troops to pacify Li Shouzhen, the envoy of the Yongxing Jiedu, Zhao Sijuan, and Wang Jingchong, the envoy of the Fengxiang Jiedu, and other rebellious divisions, and then moved to the Northern Expedition, defeated the Khitan, and stayed in the Fengye capital (now Handan, Hebei) with merit, and the envoy of the Tianxiong Army, and the privy envoy, all the prefectures and counties of Hebei listened to Guo Wei's moderation, and the strength of the male has been able to make the world pay attention.

Of course, Meng Ye also brought the emperor's message, because the Zhenning army was stationed in Lanzhou (now Puyang, Henan), located on the north bank of the Yellow River, guarding the most important ferry in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, which happened to block the road for the Tianxiong army to go south, and if the Tianxiong army had any objections, Li Hongyi must do his best to stop the Tianxiong army north of the Yellow River.

Fang Cai, facing the envoy Meng Ye, Li Hongyi agreed with one brain.

However, he thought about it alone in the study for a long time, and finally made a decision that affected the course of history: inform Guo Wei through Wang Yin. In other words, in this choice of the side that is related to the future development of the Zhenning Army and himself, he chose Guo Wei, who is a soldier and general, instead of the little emperor in Tokyo.

"May I ask Minister Li, where is Meng Ye now?" Wang Yin asked eagerly.

"I've gone to Yedu! In order to reassure Li to act, Meng Ye once said that he had another secret edict to the important generals in the Yedu army, and he would raze Guo Envoy Xiang and Tianxiong Army Supervisor and Xuanhui Envoy Wang Jun in one fell swoop. Li Hongyi said everything Meng Ye said.

"Liu Chengyou, this yellow-toothed child, he is so vicious!" Wang Yin was so angry that his steel teeth were almost ground up, and he hatefully went straight to the name of Emperor Yin of the Later Han Dynasty. Liu Chengyou is only 20 years old this year, and in the eyes of their old ministers, he is a stinky child!

"When there are Yang Wei, Shi Hongzhao and Su Fengji outside the court, and there are traitors such as Li Ye who are shameless and troubled to the country, Li can't bear to be humiliated by loyal and good ministers, and after receiving the secret edict, he thinks a lot and decides to tell the king!" Li Hongyi stood up and arched his hand.

Wang Yin bowed deeply again to express his gratitude, raised his head and said: "Wang Yin, on behalf of Guo Envoy Xiangming, thanked Envoy Li for his kindness, and please borrow the edict to use it!" ”

"Envoy Guo?" Li Hongyi asked softly.

Wang Yin nodded, and said hatefully: "He is unkind, don't blame me for being unjust!" He can only blame himself for seeking death! ”

Li Hongyi clenched his fists, didn't look at the edict on the desk, and turned away.

Soon, Wang Yin led more than a dozen guards to drive out of Lanzhou City and go straight to Yedu.

An hour and a half later, Wang Yin saw Guo Wei explain the matter in detail, and took out an edict to testify. Subsequently, Guo Wei, who was frightened, urgently summoned Wei Renpu, Li Hub, Wang Pu, Fan Zhen and other confidants to the study to discuss secretly.

Half an hour later, all the guards of the Guo Mansion were dispatched, blocking the city gate, searching the whole city, and soon caught the enshrined official Meng Ye and his party, and also learned about the generals they had met secretly: Guo Chongwei, the commander of the Yedu Ma Army, and Cao Wei, the commander of the infantry army.

Guo Wei hasn't gone to look for the two yet, and the two have already come to the door to ask to see them.

As soon as Guo Chongwei and Cao Wei entered the door, they immediately knelt on the ground and told the truth about Meng Ye's visit, Guo Chongwei even drew his sword and put it on his neck, shouting: "If Guo Envoy doesn't believe that the villain has no intention of rebelling, the villain will commit suicide immediately to clarify his mind!" Guo Wei, who was very happy, helped the two of them up with his own hands and let them participate in the emergency military meeting attended by all the generals.

In front of the general gathered in the hall, Guo Wei held up an unopened edict and shouted: "Today, the secret edict is issued, saying that there are generals in my Tianxiong army who are secretly Khitan, and want to rebel against the Han Dynasty, and order Guo to immediately kill the generals in the army." Although Guo is a mighty emperor, but the generals and Guo live and die together, Guo really does not believe that there will be brothers who will betray the country, please tell Guo what to do? ”

It is really a person who sits at home, and woe comes from heaven! The generals were in an uproar and scolded bitterly, calling this edict extremely ridiculous.

A burly young man spun out of the crowd and fell to his knees. It was Guo Wei's nephew Chai Rong, who was adopted by Guo Wei as an adopted son, also known as Guo Rong.

Chai Rong kowtowed again and again, and said loudly: "Today, the Lord has a small reputation, and believes in treacherous words, so that there is no distinction between black and white, and loyalty and treachery are reversed. We have fought hard with the marshal on the battlefield for many years, and we are all loyal, but we have been wronged in this way, which is really a strange injustice in the world! Marshal, please! ”

Guo Wei nodded and asked Chai Rong to get up. Chai Rong kowtowed again, still kneeling on the ground and said loudly:

"Marshal, the current dynasty is in turmoil, and the country is no longer a country. The marshal is the important minister of the country, and he has made outstanding achievements, like the sun and the moon, who does not know, who does not know? At this time when the country is in danger, the marshal should raise troops, get rid of treachery, clear the king's side, turn the tide in the fall, and help the community in danger, we are willing to follow the marshal to the death! ”

When the generals heard Chai Rong say this, they all knelt down and shouted: "One Qing Jun side, Kuang Zheng Chaogang." We will swear to follow the marshal to the death! ”

Guo Wei pondered for a long time, and finally nodded lightly to show that he agreed to the general's request.

On November 15, the 50,000 Tianxiong army began to set off in formation, and the Tianxiong cavalry, which galloped north of the river, took the lead in rushing south.

After all, the wheel of history still rolls forward along its trajectory.