Li Yu learned the news that Gou Sheng had drowned in the Taiye Pool when he was meeting with the prince's ministers in the imperial study. Li Xiaozhong came to report the news. Li Xiaozhong was in Luoyang to meet Li Yu and they would come. Since Li Yu got out and came back, he seems to be much closer to Wang Wu and other guards who are in trouble, which can't help but make Li Xiaozhong very depressed and a little aggrieved, it is no wonder that Li Xiaozhong belongs to the returned Tang overseas Chinese after all, with a face similar to that of a Persian, and he is still a little sensitive and inferior in his heart. In the past two days, Li Xiaozhong has been more active and taciturn than before. Li Yu saw it in his eyes, but he didn't say anything, just remembered them one by one.

After hearing the news of Gou Sheng's suicide by throwing himself into the Taiye Pool, Li Yu was very surprised, and the princes and prime ministers were also very surprised. Li Yu was surprised because he had just ordered the guards to arrest Gou Sheng and hand him over to Lu Yuanying, and Gou Sheng drowned. Li Chen's gloomy gaze because of anger swept over the faces of the prince and ministers one by one, and many people couldn't stand the pressure brought by the emperor's gaze, and hurriedly lowered their heads.

Gou Sheng was Li Yu's first confidant in this world, and even handed over his secret power to Gou Sheng for a time, among all the eunuchs. What Li Yu believes in the most is Gou Sheng, and what he can't tolerate the most is Gou Sheng's betrayal. After hurriedly dismissing the prince's ministers, Li Yu summoned Lu Yuanying again, and Lu Yuanying, who hurried to the scene to investigate the scene, calmed down his shocked mood and said:

"Your Majesty, maybe Gou Sheng is really drowning, but this is the best ending?"

Li Yu was furious, pushed open the window and pointed outside to Lu Yuanying:

"Look, it's the middle of winter outside! The inner servant and young eunuch of the fourth grade, even if there is no suspicion, this way of death is strange enough! ”

Lu Yuanying was ordered to investigate the rumor case, which Li Yu already knew when he was in the Ziqing camp. Lu Yuanying was the person who Li Yu stayed in Chang'an, and Li Yu also thought that it was appropriate to use Lu Yuanying to try this case, so he summoned him alone after returning to Chang'an. Don't look at the prince, as soon as they asked how the case went, Lu Yuanying was all vague, and as soon as Li Yu asked, Master Lu poured beans into the bamboo tube, and even said all the speculations that had been found out and were to be investigated. The guards were on strict guard around the imperial study, and even Li Zhongyan and Gou Sheng were turned away. Gou Sheng is a young eunuch, and he was sent by Li Zhongyan to deal with the affairs of the palace. Li Xiaozhong was ordered to lead people to look for it, but all he found was a dead body.

Lu Yuanying said:

"Your Majesty, how could the minister not know that there was something strange in Gou Sheng's death, and the minister thought that it was impossible for Gou Sheng to commit suicide, so the minister just went to see it, Gou Sheng had bruises on his neck, obviously after being strangled to death, the thin ice in the middle of the lake was broken and thrown into the liquid pool, it may be that the Li guards went too fast, and there was no time to further destroy the corpse. But this man can kill the inner servant and young eunuch without knowing it, Your Majesty, what does this mean? It shows that the people behind this scene have also established their own power in the harem. The minister even suspected that there were eyes and ears for this man in the grain statistics department. Reflecting on it again, this person can cause a storm all over the city in a short period of time when His Majesty leaves Chang'an, how much power should his person's ability to control? The minister's idea was to end with Gou Sheng's death on the surface, investigate the inner servants, and secretly, let all the people of the Grain Statistics Department and Jin Wuwei return to their respective positions, and the minister alone formed a force to continue to investigate the matter. ”

Although Lu Yuanying said this, Li Yu remembered two famous Chinese terms: Jinyiwei and Dongchang, two famous English abbreviations: CIA and FBI. In the officialdom, there are Zheng Yuqing's assessment regulations and Li Jifu's establishment and inspection waiting, as well as the post supervision of the Zhikuan envoy who specializes in receiving anonymous letters, and the Grain Statistics Department has been established for more than five years, so far it has not been subject to much external supervision, and the internal personnel screening is now all preferential, and the power on the dark side is gone, if it is really infiltrated, it is really not fun, and there is really a need for an organization to check and balance. And the "catching bad guys" who were once well-known at home and abroad have become almost paralyzed, and now they have fallen into the tragic situation that the person in charge is not as good as a thief. After all, isn't politics all about checks and balances? In the Ming Dynasty, there was Jinyiwei first, and the east factory was set up in order to balance Jinyiwei, and the west factory was set up in order to balance the east factory and Jinyiwei when Xiaozong, and the inner factory was set up when Wuzong arrived. Of course, Li Yu didn't need so many organizations to fight each other at the moment, and felt that it was very appropriate to let Lu Yuanying do this. So he agreed to Lu Yuanying's request.

A person who has tasted privilege will never be willing to let go, this is the affirmative answer Li Yu received from Gou Sheng, who has become a dead corpse. All power must be effectively checked, this is the choice made by Li Chen. But there is another problem, which Li Yu finds very tricky. Li Chanted:

"In the winter, the water surface is frozen, how can Aiqing explain that he fell into the liquid pool and drowned?"

This is indeed a question that challenges the common sense of natural science and cognition, and Lu Yuanying cannot give a reasonable answer, nor can he get out of a few cars and drag experts and scholars to the park, and each person can get the desired argumentation result with a bowl of soup and ten pieces of cake, just like some modern cities are engaged in demolition and relocation projects. In fact, Lu Yuanying's suspicion of Gou Sheng came from Jin Er's death. The day after Lu Yuanying set his sights on Jin Er, Jin Er was found by the Qujiang River, frozen like a block of ice, with a big hole in his head, and the red and white flowed all over the ground. Jin Er belonged to the old man of the Grain Statistics Department, and it was Pei Du who discovered his talent for asking about Bao when he was with Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhi on the third day of the third month of the 21st year of Yongzhen, and recommended him and Zhao Wu to Li Yu, who was ordered to form the Flying Eagle. Pei Duyuan is in Shannan Dongdao, Li Yu is playing excitedly in Yanzhou, the relationship between the two and the Grain Statistics Department is not one, one has long been broken, and the most likely to have contact with Jin Er is Gou Shenggou's father-in-law, who has been in charge of Flying Eagle for more than a year and has made great contributions to the regularization of Flying Eagle. Before the semi-openness of the Department of Grain and Straw Statistics, the organizational form and personnel inspection methods were completely formulated by Gou Sheng, and the backbone of the grassroots level was also selected by Gou Sheng. Following the line of Jin Er, Lu Yuanying gradually targeted Gou Sheng, who was hidden behind the scenes, and the investigation of Huaqing Palace also showed this, and the entire Huaqing Palace, the most likely institution to enter and exit was in charge of Gou Sheng.

Lu Yuanying believed that there must be someone behind Gou Sheng, because it made no sense for a eunuch who didn't keep his roots to make such a big move. But his clue is to Gou Sheng, and now Gou Sheng is dead, and the clue is broken. Li Yu had no choice but to listen to Lu Yuanying's suggestion, and let him continue to be the general of Yushi Zhongcheng and Zuo Jin Wuwei, and be fully responsible for investigating this case. This errand is called a task force in modern terms, and an independent prosecutor in Western terms. In the history of the Tang Dynasty, there are positive examples of Di Renjie, and negative examples of Lai Junchen, Zhou Xing, etc., which have been fruitful, and have created classic detective stories such as "Di Gong's Case" and classic idioms such as "Please enter the urn". Li Yu pondered whether to set up a special name for this errand and clearly stipulate the duties and authority, otherwise the power is too small, it will not be able to get things done, the power will be too great, and the harm will be too great, which will not be conducive to the formation of a stable and united political situation and the formation of a society ruled by law. For example, Yuan Zhen, although he has handled a lot of cases, he can be regarded as a famous and experienced imperial history, but after all, he is young and vigorous, and now because he stopped Qichuan Yin Fuzai's official position without authorization when investigating the case, he was impeached and overstepped his authority, and he has been demoted to a county lieutenant, patrolling and catching thieves.

Li Yu was not so polite to Gou Sheng's family and cronies, and Li Yu transferred all his anger to Gou Sheng's family. All family members were imprisoned and interrogated, all family property was confiscated, and close relatives were also interrogated. Gou Sheng has been in the palace for thirty years, and he has been prominent for five or six years, and the definition of closeness is too broad, which makes it difficult for everyone in the harem who has been stable for many years to feel at ease. In fact, Li Yu also had the intention of cleaning the harem, and he remembered very well that in history, Xianzong and Jingzong's father and son died directly at the hands of eunuchs at night. And although the inner attendant is Li Zhongyan, but Gou Sheng's scheming is far better than Li Zhongyan, his power in the harem is much greater than Li Zhongyan, if it weren't for Li Yu's cover, Li Zhongyan himself was cautious in his words and deeds, and only took away the position of the inner attendant Gou Sheng, such a person has a different heart, can his cronies not be guarded?

Li Yu returned to Chang'an under the escort of 5,000 soldiers of the Guards, which made the rumors in Chang'an disappear quickly. In order to smash the rumors and stabilize the situation, before the year and the new year, Li Yu took Li Chun to attend a series of public activities in Xuanwu Gate, Danfeng Gate, Chunming Gate, Taimiao, and Taiji Temple. As for the nine kings, led by Li Jing, the king of Tan, and Li Wei, the king of Jun, the method of carrots and sticks was adopted, and in recognition of their concern for their father and the country, each of them was rewarded with a certain amount of silk and a certain amount of gold and silverware, but for their reckless behavior, they were given the punishment of reading and thinking behind closed doors. To be honest, this stick is too light, and the difference between it and no punishment is that there is such a form. This made the crown princess Guo very dissatisfied.

Li Yu did not let go of Li Chun and Guo Shi's behavior of disregarding human life, of course, the reason for the punishment was still that Xiao Feng was killed by the crown princess with a cane for stealing, but Li Yu emphasized that no one abused the power of lynching. The prince was deducted pocket money for three months, and Guo was punished for thinking about it behind closed doors, which can be regarded as a beating to the Guo family. When Li Yu was chatting with Li Chun, he also affirmed that Li Chun was not instigated by the princess's stupidity, and Li Chun's heart was pounding, and he was suspicious for a long time after returning to the East Palace. This time, Li Yu showed a strong style that was completely different from the past, which made Li Chun extremely glad that he had made the right choice, otherwise this time Lin Dedian would really have to change its owner. After such an incident, Li Chun, who knew that he had his father's eyeliner by his side, naturally became more low-key, and he also respected the two generations of emperor Lu Qian, until he secretly instructed his henchmen to raise Lu Zhen and transfer him out of the East Palace.

In short, within two or three days, the situation was completely calmed down. Only two people, Xiaofeng and Gou Sheng, died in such a big matter, which is incredible. Li Fan thought that the teahouses and liquor shops that spread the most rumors should be closed as punishment, but Li Yu refused. As for why he refused, Li Yu did not give much explanation. Because there were few people who died, and not many people were implicated, the New Year of the third year of Xingzhi was not greatly affected.

The west wind is getting tighter, the Guan River is cold, and the afterglow is still in the building. The moon had turned from wax to wane, thinning into a dull yellow ivory comb, combing the seemingly endless hair of the night. There was no wind, no clouds, but the air was so cold that one could remember how many years ago. Li Yu stood in front of the window. I don't know when it started, whenever there is something on his mind, Li Yu likes to open the window and stand for a while, the length of time depends on the mood. Li Zhongyan knew that Li Yu needed to be quiet for a while, and stood aside from afar and waited until it was indeed a long time.

"Your Majesty, it's time for you to rest."

Li Zhongyan reminded Li Yu softly in his ear. The so-called rabbit died and the fox was sad, although Li Zhongyan was on guard everywhere when Gou Sheng was alive, he was afraid that he would take his position, so that he didn't dare to rest when he was sick, for fear that if he didn't pay attention for a day, the position of the people around the emperor would be taken away. Now that Gou Sheng is dead, Li Zhongyan also has an inexplicable fear in his heart, afraid that he will end up miserable one day.

Li Yu glanced at Li Zhongyan and said:

"Am I not a lover? If he hadn't coveted it in the first place, thinking things he shouldn't have thought about, I wouldn't have done such a heartless thing. In troubled times, he has no reverence for the laws of the Son of Heaven, and I also want to make an example of him, so I have to do it as a last resort. Li Zhongyan——"

Li Zhongyan:

"The old slave is here."

Li Yu turned around, stared at his eyes condescendingly, and said:

"You and Gou Sheng are both old men who have served me for five years, will you be like him?"

Li Zhongyan was so frightened that he hurriedly knelt on the ground, kowtowed, and trembled:

"Your Majesty, the old slave's loyalty can be seen from the sun and the moon!"

Looking at Li Zhongyan, who was kneeling at his feet and weeping bitterly, Li Yu said softly:

"Get up. You and Gou Sheng have completely different personalities, one is peaceful, the other is utilitarian, I hope you do things well, don't learn from him to stretch your hands too long, and the future can be completely different from his ending. ”

Li Zhongyan cried:

"The old slave must follow His Majesty's teachings!"

After saying that, he sobbed up. Li Yu looked at Li Zhongyan's embarrassed look with tears and snot, his mood suddenly improved, and he couldn't help but want to laugh, and said:

"Old thing, you're so old, go and wipe your face!"

Li Zhongyan went in fear. However, when Li Zhongyan returned home, he found that the emperor's reward had already arrived at the door, and the portion was not much, ten brocades. When he found out that the brocade was sent before it was dark, Li Zhongyan held a brocade alone and cried.

Li's offensive seems to be nothing more than a bluff. Tens of thousands of troops arrived at the city of Yanzhou, only facing the defenders from a distance, and were not in a hurry to attack. It seems that he has traveled so far just to see Yanzhou City. However, the tension in Yanzhou City has not been alleviated, because Li Yu's army did not attack Yanzhou, but attacked the city everywhere, in just ten days, the eight counties attached to Yanzhou have been captured by him, Rencheng, Pinglu, Qufu, Zou four counties were the first to be broken, and the general Wang Zhixing is leading the troops to storm Surabaya. The situation of the north and south facing the north and the south of the alliance is very obvious. Yanzhou now only has the flawed hill of the governance and the two counties of Qiuqiu and Taishan, standing on the head of the city every day, you can see a group of remnants of the defeated civil officials knocking on the door to enter, but no one dares to open the door, one is because Guo Rihu does not want to open, afraid that after opening the city, there are too many soldiers and horses to control themselves, and the other is because other officials in Yanzhou City are afraid that there are fraudulent people mixed in it, even if there are not so many people entering the city, it is too much to consume grain and grass, and they refuse to open, so these unlucky Ziqing civil and military forces had to scold and scold, and turned their heads to the east to Mizhou. As a result, he was even more unlucky on the road, and encountered a partial division sent by Li Yu to Mizhou to attack and harass, so he had to either flee north to Laizhou, Yunzhou, or simply surrender.

The officers and generals who were gearing up were puzzled by Li Yu's disregard for Yanzhou, which was close in front of him, but Li Yu did not explain much. Did you ask Li Yu to tell the generals that this was the emperor's will, saying that Guo Rihu had secretly lost his sincerity and made a great contribution to protecting the emperor from danger safely? The generals thought that Li Yu had his own arrangements, so they didn't ask much. As a result, the soldiers inside and outside the city faced each other, but they did not disturb each other, and there was no trouble with each other, and there was a situation of peaceful coexistence of cats and mice like Puyang. That's it, the New Year is coming.

After the sacrifice, the Duke of Liangguo, the envoy of the Wuning Army, the head of the Huaihai Road March, and the south of Yunzhou recruited Li Yu to follow the light car, and led more than 100 cavalry to Qufu quietly. Naturally, some generals didn't understand and asked Li Yu what he was doing in Qufu, Li Yu smiled and didn't answer, and said:

"If Chen Guogong is here, he will also go."

Qufu is the hometown of Confucius, where the Confucian Mansion is located, although Chen Guogong Li Guangyan is a Hu person, but grew up in Taiyuan, has always admired the Confucian culture of filial piety, and the family relationship between Li Guangjin and the brothers is simply a model of Confucianism. If he is the head of the Huaihai Road march, he will definitely go to worship the Confucian Temple after defeating Qufu, he will go, how can he not go to the home of Li Yu's generations of hairpins? Li Yu knew that not only Li Guangyan would come, but also Han Yu, who was not very easy to deal with himself because of "Pinghuai West Tablet", would also come here, not only came here, but Han Fuzi, who regarded himself as a direct teacher of Mencius, would also go to Zou Cheng to worship Mencius. Li Yu wants to take this opportunity to repair the relationship with Han Yu, after all, the two are old acquaintances, aren't they? Li Yu didn't think he was at fault in the matter of "Pinghuai West Monument", but he didn't want to offend the literati, after all, he remembered the lesson of his father Li Sheng offending Zhang Yansheng very clearly, not to mention that Han Yu now has the reputation of Wenzong.

Therefore, the big car of Liang Guogong came to Qufu at noon on this day. After arriving in Qufu, the generals who followed Li Yu found that Li Dingjin and others of the First Guards Army, Li Yuanyi and others of the Tenth Army of Shence, Hou Weiqing and Li You of the Fifty-second Army had also arrived. Liang Guogong is going to hold a meeting in Qufu. After the meeting, the secretary in charge, Zheng Lu, led Li Yu and his entourage to the former residence of the Holy Master of Dacheng and met with Wen Xuangong (the title of the descendants of Confucius. It began in the first year of the Western Han Dynasty, when Emperor Ping named the descendants of Confucius as the Marquis of Bao in order to promote etiquette and religion. In the following thousand years, the title was changed repeatedly, and in the second year of Song Renzong Zhihe (1055), he was renamed Yan Shenggong, and later generations have always followed this title. In the early years of the Tang Dynasty, he was named the Marquis of Baosheng, and in the Kaiyuan Dynasty, Confucius was called the King of Wenxuan, but he changed the Marquis of Bao Shenghou to the duke, and he still took Wenxuan as the name. ), worshiped the Temple of Confucius. Hearing that a military general like Liang Guogong actually wanted to worship the Confucian Temple, Wen Xuangong was surprised, and he didn't care that the New Year was approaching, and there were many family affairs, so he personally greeted Li Yu and them, and the southern generals with the wind and dust worshiped the Confucian Temple, and a group of generals who had just come down from the battlefield appeared in Wen Sheng's family temple, and even Wen Xuangong felt a little weird and a little proud. In order to find a balance, Wen Xuan explained the rites of the saints to the generals with affection.

In the records in the history books, Wen Xuangong's preaching was very successful, and many generals nodded frequently and were deeply educated. But that's not the case with the records in the wild history. Ye Shili said that in fact, many generals of Wen Xuangong's Qilu dialect did not understand very well, and those who understood did not understand what Wen Xuangong said, but because of Li Yu's presence, they had to nod desperately. And it is said that when Li Yu left temporarily, there was a knighthood who was not low at all, at least a general who was at the same level as Wen Xuan asked Wen Xuangong:

"Wen Xuangong has said so many truths, which really makes me admire. The words I have read in my life may not be as good as the words I can read in a day. It's just that I don't know that the three generations of Li Shidao's father and son have stayed in Ziqing for 60 years, and they are not in line with what Wen Xuangong just said, and I don't know if Wen Xuangong went to Yunzhou to preach to Li Shidao and let him surrender to the imperial court? If Wen Xuangong can move him, how many fewer people will have to die. ”

made Wen Xuangong blush. After some generals heard that Duke Wen Xuan was the same duke as Li Yu, they couldn't help but exclaim for a while:

"Oh, how many battles does Wen Xuangong have to fight and how many people do he have to kill?"

Wen Xuangong was so angry that he trembled and said:

"King Wenxuan's doctrine pays attention to benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom and faith, and it is to make people cultivate themselves and rule the country and level the world, respect the Son of Heaven, do their own duties, and rule the world, how can it be such a thing as going into battle to kill people?"

The result, of course, was that the public apologized after being reprimanded by Li Yu. What Li Yu means is that the ultimate goal of our war and Confucianism is the same, and the world is peaceful, so I will take you to feel the demeanor of a saint. The doctrines of indoctrination and joining the army in our army all came from the saints. After some reprimands, the generals really took out the right shape and behaved. Wen Xuangong's face also improved.

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