On December 9th, the Zichen Hall held a daily pilgrimage, and there were a few new faces in the court.

Li Longji may have felt guilty about Li Heng, so he allowed the prince's guests, Donggong Zhan Shi and other three people to participate in the inner court. In this way, the prince, who has always been thin, has a lot of power to speak in the court.

Wei Jiansu first reported that the marshal of the Eastern Expedition, Rongwang Li Wan, was seriously ill in the army, and then reported the news of Gao Xianzhi's setback in the march of Shaanxi County.

Li Longji rubbed his frown and shook his head, he had heard enough of this kind of bad news.

Seeing this, Li Heng hurriedly gave Donggong Zhan Shi Lu Yi a look. Lu Yi took a half step forward with the wat board in his hand and said: "Your Majesty, at this time of turmoil, it is the time for the court to make the best use of it. However, if you want to quickly quell the rebellion and restore the community to Qingping, you must transfer Li Siye to lead troops into the customs. ”

When Yang Guozhong heard this, he hurriedly jumped out and crossed his hands to object: "No, Li Siye has always been proud of his achievements, and during his tenure in charge of the Three Towns, he dominated the business road to collect money, and rewarded the soldiers with private treasury, so that the three armies only felt their kindness, but they did not know the emperor's grace." Don't forget the rumors in Chang'an before, how could the air come to the wind? Who can tell whether his heart is loyal or treacherous? Carrying 100,000 Longyou Xiliang soldiers into the customs, who can control its potential. If he follows Dong Zhuo of the Eastern Han Dynasty, wouldn't the society be in danger? ”

Lu Xi immediately retorted: "What the right minister said is very ridiculous, Li Siye has only been in charge of Longyou for four years, and he has always rewarded and punished strictly and impartially, and opened up business routes just to reduce the burden on the imperial court. After hearing of An Lushan's rebellion, Dr. Li immediately ordered people to distribute grain and grass to each city to defend the city, and actively prepared to enter the court to quell the rebellion outside of Tibet. His Majesty summoned Li Guangbi to lead his army into Hedong, and he immediately transferred 25,000 Chishui troops to his aid. Let me ask the right minister, His Majesty did not say in the holy decree how many soldiers Li Guangbi should bring, but Dr. Li allocated him seven horses from the First Army of Hexi, which is what a person who supports troops and respects himself can do? ”

Yang Guozhong was at a loss for words, pointed at him and said angrily: "You quibble...... You ......"

"Stop fighting!" Li Longji waved his sleeves majestically and said, "Regarding the matter of summoning Li Siye to lead the army into the customs, we will postpone the discussion. Retreat! ”

……

In the palace of the prince of the sixteenth prince's house, Li Heng and Wei Jiansu, the left minister, sat cross-legged in the warm pavilion and talked about Go. Two palace maids squatted beside the copper stove and used chopsticks to stir the bamboo charcoal in the furnace.

Li Heng was in a trance, lost two games in succession to Wei Jiansu, and when the two of them swung to the third game, Wei Jiansu broke the double formation and slaughtered Baizi and a big dragon. While collecting chess pieces, he also talked about the political situation when he talked about the chess game: "Your Highness is in a hurry, don't you want to be quick and not reach?" ”

The prince frowned and said, "But the situation on this chessboard is in crisis, how can you slowly plan it?" ”

"Today in the court, you asked Lu Yi to order Li Siye to lead troops into the court, not only to quell the rebellion, but also to deal with Yang Guozhong. In the past, the pepper case of the Western Regions Chamber of Commerce spread in Chang'an City, and who in the DPRK and China did not know that the contradiction between Yang and Li had deepened, how could His Majesty not know. If he is determined to protect Yang Guozhong, he will inevitably not allow Li Siye to lead troops into the Guanzhong for a long time. Now that Your Highness has intervened in advance, how can the saint not see your intentions? ”

Li Heng's face turned slightly pale, and he hurriedly crossed his hands and stepped forward to ask for advice: "If Wei Xiangdong is watching the fire, please also give it to Li Heng." ”

Wei Jiansu put down the chess pieces and smiled indifferently: "I'm just a bystander, now that the situation has gradually become favorable to His Highness, what you don't do is more useful than doing something." ”

Li Heng nodded meaningfully.

On the second day of the court, the princes did not mention the matter of summoning Li Siye to lead troops into the court, but only discussed the defense of the eastern capital. Now that Marshal Rongwang Li Wan is seriously ill, the Eastern Expeditionary Army is only Gao Xianzhi's final say, Li Longji asked Zhongshu Province to give him an order, and let him lead his troops to rush to Luoyang.

After the dispersal of the dynasty, Li Longji asked Gao Lishi to keep Yang Guozhong, and said that he would let him go to the study of the apse of the Zichen Hall to see me.

Yang Guozhong has been much more cautious recently, although his senses are not very keen, he can also detect the increasing hostility around him.

When he came to the emperor's study, Li Longji was sitting cross-legged in front of the desk reading the note, looked up and glanced at Yang Guozhong, and put the paper in his hand upside down on the desk, so as not to let him see the contents of the note through the back of the paper.

"Guozhong, sit."

He crossed his hands crampedly, and then sat on the bed diagonally opposite, but he didn't dare to lie down the whole person, and only sat with his butt next to the edge.

The emperor looked into his eyes and said in a slow tone: "Now that the thieves are attacking Xingyang, if Xingyang falls, the eastern capital will be in danger. At this time of national crisis, I really need a general who can take the lead, in fact, it is only a matter of time before Li Siye leads his troops into the customs. ”

"Your Majesty!" Yang Guozhong opened his mouth and admonished: "Li Siye's support for troops is too strong, I hope Your Majesty is deeply worried!" The minister thought that if he wanted to summon the Hexi army into the pass, he did not have to summon Li Siye, and His Majesty could bypass the order he gave to the military envoys under his command, so that they could lead the troops to cross the Yellow River, leaving Li Siye alone to defend the territory in Hexi. ”

Li Longji frowned and shook his head, got up from the front of the desk and paced in the study, and Yang Guozhong also quickly stood up and bowed to the side.

"The so-called thousands of troops are easy to obtain, one general is hard to find, and fighting a war is not as simple as you say, and you can win by handing over tens of thousands of people to anyone. The most important thing in the army is the general...... That's it. He stared at Yang Guozhong and said, "You should understand that Li Siye has no dissenting intentions. Those rumors in Chang'an City are just tricks played by the anti-Juan thieves. He was willing to let Li Guangbi take almost the entire Chishui Army, which was enough to prove his public heart to me. However, I still haven't issued a decree to summon him to the customs, and you should understand what is going on. ”

Yang Guozhong listened, tears flowed down, knelt on the ground and walked to the emperor to cry bitterly: "Your Majesty, the minister has a festival with Li Siye, if he leads the troops to Guanzhong, he will not be able to tolerate the minister, what should the minister do?" ”

Li Longji turned around, picked up the song that had just covered it from the imperial case, held it in his hand, and said: "After he sent Li Guangbi to Hedong, he gave me another note, called Ping Thief Six Strategies. The first strategy is to let me kill you, in the name of breaking the rebellion and leaving the teacher. He also cited the example of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty who killed Chao Cuo. In the past, Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty reused Chao Cuo to cut the domain, touching the interests of the vassal states and triggering the Eight Kings Rebellion, and the rebels attacked the imperial court under the banner of 'Zhu Chao Cuo, Qing Jun's side'. What is the crime of Chao Cuo presiding over the cutting of the domain, the one who is guilty is the Seven Kings who rebelled, but Emperor Jing in order to divide the alliance of the rebels and make his division unknown, he still reluctantly ordered Chao Cuo to behead Chao Cuo. ”

Before Yang Guozhong finished listening to this story, his whole body was already in a cold sweat, kneeling in front of the emperor and kowtowing again and again, knocking bruises and bruises on his head and crying: "Your Majesty! The minister is loyal to His Majesty, if His Majesty wants to take the life of the minister, how dare the national loyalty not show his head. Have mercy on me for many years of serving Your Majesty wholeheartedly, please leave me a whole corpse, and do not inform my mother of this, lest she be saddened in vain, and pity me that I will no longer be able to listen to the teachings before you! Your Majesty......"

"Get up." Li Longji crumpled the letter into a paper ball in his hand: "How can I be the Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, who falsely killed the virtuous ministers in order to appease the rebels? ”

Yang Guozhong kowtowed again and again gratefully: "Your Majesty's holy grace, Guozhong will never forget, I can't repay it in this life, and I will serve Your Majesty in the next life." ”

"I just need you to be your prime minister, go down."

After Yang Guozhong retreated, Li Longji took a closer look at the six strategies of the flat thief who had been kneaded into a paper ball, and the rest of the strategies touched the key points, and he had already memorized a rough idea, but the first strategy was really contrary to his original intention, so he abandoned it, so he threw the kneaded song into the burning copper furnace.

In fact, Li Siye has many vague hints and prophecies in the six strategies of the thief, such as killing Guozhong alone can save the people of the world, this sentence appears twice in the song, but the salvation is changed to redemption, the world is changed to Chang'an, and killing Guozhong can redeem the people of Chang'an. Do the people of Chang'an include the two ladies of the Yang family in Kaihuafang? Does it include Yang Guifei in front of Chenghuanjun.

It's a pity that the emperor didn't understand Li Siye's hint, what can be done by killing a man, why do you have to wait until you are forced to Ma Weiyi to make three or four women Xiang Xiaoyu die, the more ruthless the emperor can not delay it ruthlessly, and the more miserable the final result of the Yang family will be.