February is already a good season for lush vegetation and beasts in the south of the Yangtze River, but Yecheng, which is located in the land of Hebei, the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain and the bank of Zhangshui, is just a good season for hundreds of "flowers" to bloom in "spring".

Speaking of Ye this place, it was first developed in the Warring States Period by the famous minister of Wei State, the West 'Gate' Leopard, and gradually became more and more prosperous, and there is a text in the primary school that the West 'Gate' Leopard will put Zhangshui into the witches and officials who harm the people when they govern Ye.

Time flies, the West 'Gate' leopard has already become a text in the history books, the people living on both sides of the Zhangshui River do not know how many generations have multiplied, only the Yedi on the bank of the Zhangshui has become prosperous and rich after thousands of years of time.

In the turmoil of hundreds of years since the end of the Han Dynasty, Luoyang City, the largest city in the Central Plains, gradually declined under the competition of all parties, while Yecheng became the first city in the north of the river because of the bias in the land of Hebei and the danger of mountains and rivers, and its status even surpassed that of Handan City, which was once the capital of Zhao State.

Starting from the Three Kingdoms Cao 'Cao' sealing the king of Wei, Cao Wei, Later Zhao (Qianhu), Ran Wei (Ran Min), Qianyan, Eastern Wei, and Northern Qi were all capitalized here, and after the decline of Jiankang City after the "chaos" of Hou Jingzhi of the Southern Dynasty, Yecheng was already the most prosperous city in China during this period.

One hundred miles south from Yecheng is the Liyang ferry of the Yellow River, and Yecheng itself has Zhangshui, Qinghe and other rivers flowing through, with its surrounding rich Hebei Plain and Zhangshui convenient water transportation, Yecheng has become the economic center of the north, and the business travel is endless.

On the dark street, the two watchmen knocked on the bangs in their hands, and shouted the trumpet when they walked down the street, and it was already the fourth watch. The sky was still dark, and the stars in the sky took advantage of the fact that the moon had set and tried to 'shoot' a little starlight.

At this time, even the morning star had not yet risen, and the last group of farmers in the city who had gathered the night incense were hurriedly sending the vehicles full of nutrients out of the city under the urging of their leader, for fear of being punished for delaying the time to leave the city.

Wait another half an hour for the adults in the city to go out of the court, if the adults in charge of the Northern Qi Dynasty come across the vehicle transporting Yexiang as soon as they go out of the 'door', then it will not be one or two people who are unlucky.

In front of a high 'gate' mansion that covers an area of dozens of acres of land in the city, a huge red lantern is hung high, and the oil lamp inside sprinkles a dim red light under the reflection of the lantern.

The big gate of the courtyard was tightly closed, but the small gate nearby had been opened, and the servants of the courtyard were preparing to go out to buy the day's food.

Although Yang Yu is not as extravagant as the Xianbei nobles on weekdays, there are hundreds of people living in such a large mansion with family members and servants, and there are a lot of poultry, 'meat', vegetables, and eggs needed every day.

Of course, fish is not daring to buy, after Gao Yang slaughtered all the descendants of the Eastern Wei clan a few years ago, and threw thousands of corpses into Zhangshui, the people in Yecheng no longer eat fish, because they often find some human fingernails or something from the belly of the fish.

It was still dark, and many rooms in the courtyard were lit with candles or oil lamps, and many maidservants and slaves were busy with their masters who were about to get out of bed in a moment.

The cooks in the kitchen are also busy, they must prepare eighteen breakfasts before Yang Su gets up to the 'bed', so that after Yang Su gets up and washes the 'bed', the temperature of the breakfast is just right, not to mention that the food can still taste the most delicious without delaying a little time.

The horsemen checked the carriages and horses again to avoid accidents at the 'door', and dozens of guards who were going to follow their masters out of the 'door' were laughing with each other with weapons.

The servants who were busy outside didn't know that their master had already gotten out of bed, and at this moment Yang Yu was taking the notebook he had written last night and reading it again, and from time to time he would revise it again after pondering for a while.

Speaking of which, although Yang Su was born in a down-and-out clan, he was just a Confucian student, but he was valued by Gao Huan and Gao Yang two generations of emperors one after another.

Yang Su studied in the clan study when he was a child, there was a plum tree in the school hall, the plums were ripe and fell to the ground, and the children in the clan school were all vying to grab it, only Yang Yu sat still and read as before.

All this was seen by his Ji father Yang Wei, and he was greatly surprised and ordered someone to build a house for him next to the bamboo forest in Yang's mansion, and replaced all his eating utensils with valuable copper products (in ancient times, copper was money), so as to set an example for everyone to learn, and since then there has been an allusion to "bamboo forest room, copper plate heavy 'meat'".

When Emperor Xiaozhuang of the Northern Wei Dynasty killed Erzhu Rong, Yang Kan in the clan participated in the plan, but the hundred-legged insect of Erzhu's family died but did not stiffen, and the Erzhu brothers raised troops to take revenge, Emperor Xiaozhuang was killed, and the Yang family was also destroyed 'door', Yang Su happened to go out, only luckily picked up a life, and only the second brother and one sister and the brother and grandson 'daughter' of the whole family survived.

Yang Su did not fall down after this tragic change in the family, he saw the hope of revenge from Gao Huan, who had just risen, so he threw himself into Gao Huan's 'door' to give advice to Gao Huan's crusade against the Erzhu group.

And Gao Huan also valued him very much when he saw Yang Su's talent, and asked him to handle military affairs and documents with the army, and later married him a 'daughter' from his concubine.

During the period of following Gao Huan and the Erzhu clan to fight, Yang Yu did not dare to forget for a moment the hatred of destroying the 'door', and regarded himself as a funeral everywhere, eating only pickles and rice at every meal, never staining any wine, and 'meat', getting thinner and thinner, but when he was fighting, he always followed the army to charge forward and bravely kill the enemy, so that the world was impressed by Confucianism (I also 'admired' it).

After the Erzhu brothers were defeated and killed, and the Erzhu group perished, Yang Su finally got revenge, so he asked Gao Huan to be dismissed and go home to bury his father and brother.

How could Gao Huan, such a high-level talent who can write and martial arts, be willing to let go, so all the 'doors' of the Yang family had to be gifted, and when Yang Su's father and brother were buried, there were tens of thousands of people who participated in the funeral. It was the bitter cold of midwinter, Yang Su walked barefoot on the thick snow, crying all the way, and everyone who saw it was moved.

When Gao Yang became the emperor, Yang Su, who had always been respected, became the prime minister of the Northern Qi Dynasty, and married Gao Yang's sister under the auspices of Gao Yang, the eldest princess of Taiyuan who had been the empress of Emperor Wei Xiaojing (amazing, princesses can marry two).

Although he was so favored by Gao Yang, Yang Su did not lose himself because of this, and the history books commented that he "assumed a great position, and the 'door' was absolutely 'private' and 'friendly'. Light goods and wealth, heavy benevolence and righteousness, rewards before and after, accumulation of huge thousands, scattered nine clans, among the shelves, there are only thousands of books. ’

One of Yang Su's superpowers is that he is very good at remembering 'sex', as long as he meets once, he can remember people's names and appearances, so when he selects and appoints officials, he often decides when he meets once. Others think that he is just judging people by their appearance, but they don't know that he has already mastered all aspects of this person's information, and he has already had a comprehensive investigation conclusion in his mind.

Since the great change in Gao Yang's temperament in the sixth year of Tianbao, he has become increasingly absurd and 'lewd', but absurdity is absurd, Gao Yang has given great trust to Yang Su and 'handed over' all major national affairs to him to deal with.

In the ancient society of 'the soldier dies for the confidant', Yang Su was of course very moved in the face of such trust. For a Confucian student like Yang Su, it is his responsibility to cultivate himself and rule the country and level the world, although the emperor is brutal, he can trust himself and provide himself with a stage to display his ambitions, what else can he not bear.

So even if Gao Yang asked Yang Su to serve him in the toilet to wipe his buttocks, and let Yang Su pretend to be dead to play a big funeral game with him, and even a few times Yang Su was tied up by Gao Yang and whipped the skin to open the 'meat', but Yang Su was still loyal to Gao Yang.

In order to solve Gao Yang's bad 'problem' of killing people, Yang Su 'gets' a group of death row prisoners from death row, dressed as the emperor's 'attendant' guard, as soon as Gao Yang's murderous addiction came up, he quickly stuffed one up, called "for the imperial prisoner".

In order to make these death row ** willing to do this job, he also set up a reward system, as long as the death row prisoner does not die for three months, he can be exempted from crime and go home. This work has become the hope of the death row inmates, and it has played the best of both worlds, and it is really difficult to think about it for Prime Minister Yang's IQ.

When Emperor Wenxuan Gao Yang was drunk and dreamed of dying, Yang Su accompanied Gao Yang to play various high-risk games, and at the same time handled the political affairs of the Northern Qi Dynasty in a clear and orderly manner, which made the Northern Qi Dynasty get an evaluation of 'the lord is faint at the top, and the government is clear at the bottom' in the official history.

In this way, until last summer, the situation in the world changed abruptly, and under the successive blows, it was difficult to cheer up the 'spirit' and regain some of the demeanor of the year, Gao Yang just made some arrangements for the dangerous situation and died, this year Gao Yang had just turned 30 years old, and Yang Su was 48 years old.

As soon as Gao Yang, the difficult lord to serve, died, the civil and military forces of the Northern Qi Dynasty were relieved, of course, the cat 'urine' in the corner of the eye still had to squeeze out a few drops, at that moment, only Yang Su was sad, what was he crying about?

The soldier died for his confidant, Gao Huan avenged himself in the sea of blood, and Gao Yang gave himself a stage to display his ambitions, and the two generations of the Gao family can be said to be more kind to themselves than the sky.

But now that Gao Yang is dead, the former overlord of the world is facing siege from all directions, and there are various forces inside that are 'wanting' to move, and the situation faced by Yang Su can be said to be full of crises.

The newly enthroned crown prince Gao Yinsheng is 'sexual' cowardly, Gao Yang's two younger brothers Gao Yan and Gao Zhan are in power, and the Han and Xianbei people inside and outside the court are full of contradictions and differences, and the road ahead can be described as dangerous, and if you don't pay attention to it, you will fall into the abyss!

When Gao Yin ascended the throne, according to the arrangement of Emperor Wenxuan Gao Yang, Yang Yu and Shangshu's left servant 'shot' Ping Qin King Gao Guiyan, 'servant' Yan Zixian, and Huang 'door' 'servant' Lang Zheng Zimo were auxiliary ministers.

According to this, it can be seen that Gao Yang is wary of Xianbei nobles, because in addition to Gao Guiyan, who is Gao Huan's brother, Yang Yu and the three of them are Gao Huan's 'daughters-in-law', and they are all Han people, and there is no Xianbei noble.

So Yang Su, who turned out to be the prime minister of the Northern Qi Dynasty, became the first person in the Northern Qi court, and took charge of the power of the Northern Qi Dynasty.

In view of the fact that Gao Yang often indiscriminately rewarded in the last years, Yang Su was ready to learn from Zhuge Zhishu's experience if he wanted to rectify the rule of officials in Northern Qi, and only those who rarely received knighthoods would feel honored.

In order to reduce the resistance to the rectification of the rule of officials, Yang Yu started by himself, first took the initiative to ask Gao Yin to remove the throne that Gao Yang had given him back then, and then deprived those nobles who had been rewarded for their military merits and deposed them one by one.

Since ancient times, the implementation of a policy has been very risky, and in order to succeed, several conditions must be met, the most important is that you must have sufficient power and the power to guarantee power, that is, military power, and the second is that you must have the support of the majority of people.

It's a pity that Yang Yu doesn't have any conditions, and his deprivation of the title of most people will inevitably arouse the resentment of the vast majority of people, and Yang Ying, as a Han official, will inevitably not be supported by the Xianbei magnates who controlled most of the Northern Qi army at that time.

In the face of the reform that Yang Su wanted to implement, even Gao Guiyan, who was also an auxiliary minister, did not agree to do it immediately, but because the reform was mainly aimed at the Xianbei aristocracy, it was still carried out under the promotion of many Han officials in the court.

In the face of the Han officials led by Yang Su in the court, the Xianbei nobles who were unwilling to be knighted and weakened their military power gathered around Gao Yan, the king of Changshan, and Gao Zhan, the king of Changguang, so the power of the two uncles increased sharply, and the threat to the young lord Gao Yin became more and more great.

In order to live up to the grace of Wen Xuantuo, Yang Su began to plan to reduce the power of the two kings, at this time, because the Northern Qi was besieged from all sides, Yang Su tried to control a part of the army by resisting the attacks of various countries, but because of the non-cooperation of the leading Xianbei generals, and Yang Su himself did not understand the military, the Northern Qi failed again and again on the battlefield.

The ministers and nobles who were attached to Gao Yan and Gao Zhan wrote to each other, asking that Gao Yan, the king of Changshan, preside over the foreign military province and cavalry province of the Northern Qi Dynasty, so that the siege of various countries could be repelled.

In desperation, Yang Su suggested that the two kings should be made assassins, away from the central power center, and this matter was supported by the Empress Dowager Li.

However, the Empress Dowager Li is a Han Chinese, and the Empress Dowager Lou Zhaojun, who was born in Xianbei, has always been very dissatisfied with her, and after Gao Yin ascended the throne, she once said, "How can you make the Han 'woman' above the old 'woman'?" ’

Under Lou Zhaojun's statement, after a struggle between the DPRK and China, coupled with the fierce attack of the Northern Zhou and Turks, Gao Yan was appointed as the governor of the military forces west of Taihang Mountain and east of Hedong, mainly responsible for presiding over the battle against the Turkic army and the army of Xi Chengxing of the Northern Zhou Dynasty.

At that time, Yang Su thought that Gao Yan himself was not military like himself, and the Turkic and Northern Zhou armies were strong, and Gao Yan, who was responsible for this heavy responsibility, would inevitably not win, and once Gao Yan lost, then Yang Su would have enough reasons to deprive Gao Yan of his military and political power.

However, Yang Yu never expected that the Xianbei nobles would obey Gao Yan's dispatch, and the newly rising famous general Shuozhou Governor Hu Lawyer's Association would block the Turkic army with all his might, making it a futile backfire, and Gao Yue, a veteran general sitting in Pingyang, blocked the attack of Da Xi Chengxing, and actually repelled the Turkic and Northern Zhou armies successively.

As a result, Gao Yan became more and more popular, and under the pressure from inside and outside the court, Gao Yan resumed the post of Great Sima, and in fact took charge of almost all the armies of the Northern Qi Northern Front and the Western Front.

Under such circumstances, Yang Su dismissed and deposed the old ministers Cui Xian and Cui Jishu from their posts because of 'private' grievances, which made a group of Han officials who had 'befriended' the second Cui in the DPRK and China centrifuge from him, and Yang Su's power became even weaker.

In the face of such a dangerous situation, Yang Su certainly would not fail to see clearly, on the one hand, he was pulling together the Northern Qi army on the Huaisi battlefield in the south, and on the other hand, he strengthened the army strength of the leading general Erzhu Hun Tianhe who depended on him.

This time, the Hu Lawyers Association was ordered by Gao Yan to go south to support the Huaisi battlefield, which made Yang Su very uneasy, because the Hu Lawyers Association was born in the Xianbei noble family and was a general under Gao Yan. The Hu Lawyers Association needs to pass through the vicinity of Yecheng to go south, and if the situation changes, it will pose a great threat to Yecheng.

In order to test the Hu Lawyers Association, and the southern front Chen Baxian was sick and the Chen army was no longer effective in attacking, Hou Andu and Cheng Lingxi, who continued the northern expedition, were blocked by Murong Yan outside the city of Xiapi County, and the need for reinforcements was no longer urgent, Yang Yu ordered the Hu Lawyers Association in the name of Emperor Gao Yin not to go south, but to attack the land of Sanqi under the occupation of Wang Yong to the east.

To Yang Su's relief, the Hu Lawyers Association did not resist his order, and a few days ago, Yang Su received intelligence from secret agents that the Hu Lawyers Association's army had begun to turn eastward.

Seeing that the candle on the desk had been burned for nearly half of the time, Yang Su re-copied the notes in his hand that had been revised in many places, preparing to continue to implement the next step of reform at today's court meeting.

However, Yang Su did not know that in the Northern Qi court, which was full of contradictions between Hu and Han, this power struggle had evolved into a Han-Hu dispute, Gao Yan and Gao Zhan had the approval of the Empress Dowager, and had the support of the Hu ministers who controlled the main army with Gao Guiyan, He Baren, Hu Lujin, etc., and a bloody conflict was inevitable.