Chapter 41 Chapter Forty-One

"A lobbyist?" He Yiyang put on a straight face, "Brother, do you really think I'm a lobbyist?" Shan Xingzhang was taken aback: "Then what are you doing here?" He Yiyang stroked his beard: "I'm here this time to make a deal with my brother, I wonder if my brother is interested?" "Business?" Shan Xingzhang didn't know what kind of medicine He Yiyang was selling in the gourd, and his face sank, "I entertained you like this because of our friendship ten years ago. Don't forget, we are now The two countries are at war..."

Hearing a "pa", He Yiyang slapped the coffee table with his palm, causing the tea in the tea bowl to spill all over the table. "Bullshit! The two countries are at war? Are you Xichuan worthy of being a country? Have you forgotten where your ancestral grave is now? Are you not a courtier of the Tang Dynasty?" "Brother, don't be harsh on your words. I, Shan Xingzhang, are a vulgar person, so what I said just now is a fart... We are each in our own right now..." "Bah!" He Yiyang spit on the ground, "Everyone is the master? Who is your master? Meizhou belongs to Xichuan, isn't it from Datang? It's not that my brother said you, you are so confused! No wonder You lost two battles in a row!"

Shan Xingzhang was silent, he also knew that He Yiyang had reason, not to mention that he was not good at eloquence and was a defeated general, so he could only respectfully say: "I would like to listen to my brother's teaching!" "En!" He Yiyang nodded, "This time Wang Situ's troops sent to Xichuan was sent by the emperor to conquer the traitors Chen Taishi and Tian Junrong. Since ancient times, the teacher of the fake king is in line with the will of heaven and the hearts of the people. As a Tang official, don't think Serve the monarch, but listen to Yizhou's orders, and help the tyrants to abuse you, so heaven will not help you!" At this point, He Yiyang sat down, took a sip of tea, and continued, "I have retired to the mountains and have not heard about political affairs for ten years. However Since Grand Master Chen's rebellion, Xichuan has been in trouble, and the people have been displaced. Wang Situ sent Zong Yao and Mr. Zheng to invite me several times. I deeply regard the imperial court, the country and the people of Xichuan as the people, so I burned down the cottage, and sent my soldiers from the He family to be dispatched by Wang Situ !"

"Hey! Brother, your prestige in Xichuan is second to none. Since you have come out of the mountain, there is no reason for my Shanzhang to be invincible! Brother, don't worry, Shan Xingzhang was defeated by my brother, and I was convinced. From then on, I hung up the ax and sealed the armor, and no longer led the army. I just want to govern the people of this state well!" "My brother's words are wrong! Right now, the war in Xichuan is still in chaos. Since you are willing to think about the common people, you should submit to Wang Situ as soon as possible, and we will discuss Chengdu and restore peace to Xichuan!"

"I defeated Wang Jian's army twice before, and this time I met Wang Situ again, how could he take me in as a defeated general!" He Yiyang smiled and said: "That's why I just said, you and I need to make a deal. If you do one thing with me, I will recommend you to Wang Situ..." "Oh? What do you want?" He Yiyang grinned, revealing a few uneven front teeth: "Ask my brother for five catties of Mongolian yellow buds!" When Shan Xingzhang heard it, he couldn't laugh or cry.I thought to myself, what a powerful old Jiang Hu, who clearly came to be a lobbyist, and in the end, he would still cheat me of the tea I had worked so hard to get.He murmured: "Why would Wang Situ want me to be a defeated general?"

At this time, Zong Yao stood up and clasped his fists at Shan Xingzhang: "General Shan is famous far and wide, and he is known as the number one warrior in Xichuan. My father respects the general's reputation and sent me to accompany my father-in-law to ask the general to come out of the mountain to help!" He Yiyang said again: "Don't be confused! Wang Cishi takes pity on you, brother, you are a talent, otherwise you would have died at the hands of Zong Yao's brothers in the battle of Guangdu! Now I will betroth my daughter Lin Lan to Zong Yao, and Situ It is considered half-in-law. This time, Situ sent me to Meizhou personally, which shows how much he thinks of you. If you abandon the dark and turn to the bright now, there will be a prosperous day in the future, and there will be opportunities for you to display your talents!"

Shan Xingzhang looked at Zong Yao with admiration: "Young general, I understand the battle in Guangdu. If people refuse to obey, the world belongs to you after all! Wang Situ has sons and generals like you, and he will definitely be able to do it in the future." Big deal!" He stomped his feet: "Okay! At this point, I can only listen to you, brother! I also hope that brother and General Wang Shao will say something nice for me in front of Situ... But, the new tea you asked for, brother, I have really put in too much thought, can you leave two catties for me?" "No! It must be five catties! My brother, don't be ignorant. Five catties of tea can be exchanged for your life and future. It's not a loss!" After that, he smiled and said: "This Xichuan is originally a place where tea is produced. It used to be here Is there any shortage of tea? Mengshan in Yazhou and Qingcheng in Daojiang are all treasures of fairy tea. In the past, there was not a good harvest? It is only because of Chen Taishi’s disaster in Xichuan that new tea is now more precious than gold. , as long as we assist Wang Situ to pacify Xichuan as soon as possible, my brother, is Xichuan peaceful, and you are still afraid of lack of tea?"

"Oh, I really can't do anything about you! Alright! I'll count the troops right now, and go with my brother to plead guilty to Wang Situ and Wei Xiangye!" In the first month of the first year of Dashun (890 A.D.), Shan Xingzhang, who was defeated in Meizhou, surrendered to Wang Jian, and Xichuan was shocked for a while.Soon, Jianzhou, Zizhou, Jiazhou, and Yazhou asked to surrender.In September, Wang Jian attacked Qiongzhou.Then Li Jian was appointed to govern Qiongzhou, and Zhang Lin was appointed to stay behind.During Zhang Lin's tenure, she completed the restoration of the City God, comforted Yi Liao, and made indelible contributions to Wang Jian's stable rule of Qiong, Shu, Ya and other states.In October, the entire city of Shuzhou surrendered.In just one year, most counties and counties in Xichuan scrambled to submit to Wang Jian, and Chengdu City had become an isolated city. Chen Jingxuan was no longer able to fight against Wang Jian, and could only stick to the city.

While Wang Jian was doing his best to plan for Western Shu, Zhu Wen continued to expand his power in the Central Plains, and the annexation war in the Jianghuai area was also in full swing.The Tang Dynasty, whose mountains and rivers were broken, seems to be repeating the mistakes of the annexation of the princes in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.At this moment, on the golden throne of the palace, there is sitting a young Tang emperor who has the world in his heart... After Li Ye ascended the throne, he promoted and reused a large number of literati. Du Rangneng, Liu Chongwang, Kong Wei, and Zhang Jun paid homage successively.Li Ye often talked with several prime ministers about the past and the present, and discussed the strategies of governing the country.Among these four people, Li Ye was particularly fond of Zhang Jun.

Zhang Jun, courtesy name Yuchuan, was born in a family of officials from Hejian.When Tang Xizong fled south for the first time, Zhang Jun offered a plan to ask the magistrate of Hanyin County to donate food, which was reused by the late emperor.Li Xuan once lamented that Zhang Yuchuan was a genius, and asked Tian Lingzi about Zhang Jun's background.At that time, Tian Lingzi replied: "This man's real name is Zhang Jun, and his style name is Yuchuan. He is from Hejian County. He was alienated from his friends because he liked empty talk, so he kept his name incognito and studied the art of Guiguzi vertical and horizontal in Jinfeng Mountain. As early as the Qianfu period, It was Yang Fugong, the privy envoy, who summoned him to the imperial court, promoted him to be Dr. Taichang, and later was promoted to Duzhi member Wailang. Last autumn and winter, he returned to Shangzhou due to his illness..." At that time, Li Ye (Li Jie) did not respond to this conversation. Hearing that, he never knew how the prime minister whom he doted on got into official career in the first place.

In fact, after Zhang Jun became estranged from his friends, he plunged into Jinfeng Mountain and became a hermit.During the Qianfu period, the great eunuch Yang Fugong, who was now in power for a while, was still serving as a privy envoy at that time, and Zhang Jun put down his arrogance and asked to be an attache.Like many eunuchs, Yang Fugong often felt inferior because he was an eunuch, and what he feared most was being looked down upon by scholars.When getting along with Yang Fugong, Zhang Jun, who was quite scheming, hid his knowledge, and even respectfully asked this eunuch for learning.Although Yang Fugong received a lot of compliments on weekdays, it was the first time he saw a scholar ask him for advice, and he immediately fell in love with Zhang Jun.Afterwards, he recommended Zhang Jun to join the imperial court. From this, Zhang Jun had the opportunity to directly enter the official career as a scholar and became a minister.Later, when Huang Chao sent troops to Tongguan, the smart Zhang Jun knew that it would only be a matter of time before Chang'an fell, so he claimed that he was sick and left Beijing to escape the catastrophe.Later, when Yang Fuguang, the supervisor of the Zhongwu Army, died, his brother Yang Fugong also lost power in the court, and once retired, and Tian Lingzi happened to rule the court with one hand.Regardless of Yang Fugong's early recommendation, Zhang Jun turned to Tian Lingzi's family and was appointed prime minister in the last years of Emperor Xizong.Of course, Yang Fugong held a grudge against this point.When Yang Fugong replaced Tian Lingzi in power, he immediately dismissed Zhang Jun and dismissed him as idle.After Li Ye came to the throne, he didn't know many details about Zhang Jun.He hated the eunuch Yang Fugong when he was in power. Of course, all of Yang Fugong's enemies were the ones he needed, so he restored Zhang Jun's status as a confidant.The four phases of the Tang Dynasty stood side by side, and the intention was not to rule alone, but to govern fairly.But Li Ye often made an exception and summoned Zhang Jun alone. On this day, when Zhang Jun and Li Ye were having a secret conversation, he said to the emperor: "Don't compare the past events of the power ministers in the late Han and Jin Dynasties. With your majesty's wisdom now, you are forced by the strong beam internally and externally. The humble ministers cry every night. , not to sleep peacefully." "What do Ai Qing think should come first?" "There is no such thing as a strong army! The central army is strong and the world obeys." Li Ye thought of the fact that the imperial court could not send out the imperial army to attack Tian Lingzi and had to borrow troops from Wang Jian and Gu Yanlang, so he agreed with Zhang Jun's idea very much.Therefore, the monarch and his ministers combined and issued an edict to recruit troops in the capital, planning to form a new army outside the Shence Army, bypassing the eunuchs, and directly controlled by the emperor.Unexpectedly, this move quickly recruited 100,000 new recruits!Li Ye placed all his expectations on the 100,000 new troops.If this army can reproduce the original glory of the Shence Army, then he will have the opportunity to reverse the current situation of the separatist regime in the feudal town and realize his grand long-cherished wish of supporting the rule of Zhenguan.But Li Ye never imagined that the team he had placed high hopes on would be wiped out in the end. Another day, Li Ye was discussing the matter of conquering Shu with several prime ministers in the Taiji Hall.Du Rangneng reminded: "At present, although Wei Xiang has the name of commanding the Yongping Army and the Dongchuan Army, he has no real military power. Gu Yanlang sits on the throat of Dongchuan, so naturally he refuses to give it his all. The commander-in-chief of the imperial court to fight against rebellion. As far as I know, Wang Guangtu recruited talents in Xichuan. On the day Xichuan is pacified, he will definitely rule Xichuan!" Zhang Jundao: "Your Majesty, although Du Xiang's doubts are not unreasonable, but I think that Wang Situ twice protected the late emperor in danger, which shows his loyalty to the royal family. Even if he is somewhat ambitious, compared with some people in Hedong and Jianghuai , and can’t be counted as a traitor.” "Who is the traitor Zhang Aiqing mentioned?" Li Ye asked. At this moment, a large sedan chair was slowly carried into the Tai Chi Hall by the porter.Li Ye took a closer look and saw the great eunuch Yang Fugong reclined in the shoulder chariot. He didn't carelessly get out of the sedan chair until Li Ye approached, and asked with a smile, "This old servant wants to meet with the saint for some things. It just so happens that several adults are here." I don’t know what the emperor and the adults are talking about?” Li Ye usually tried his best to avoid contact with the person who helped him to the throne, but seeing Yang Fugong ignore his imperial prestige so much today, he felt indignant.He sneered and said, "I am discussing with several prime ministers who is the traitor." Yang Fugong stroked his bare chin and said, "I don't know who the emperor thinks is a traitor?" At this time, the Prime Minister Kong Wei said righteously: "Your Majesty! Why do you need to talk about the princes outside, only to find that there are rebels in front of today's eyes!" With a word, the Tai Chi Hall was suddenly silent, and it was so quiet that you could hear the hangings on the brackets outside the hall. The wind chime made a slight sound. Li Ye didn't come back to his senses for a moment, and asked in surprise: "Who is Kong Aiqing talking about?" Kong Wei turned around abruptly, and pointed his right index finger straight at the tip of Yang Fugong's nose: "Yang Fugong!" Yang Fugong was taken aback: "Your Majesty, Prime Minister Kong spewed blood!" Kong Wei didn't wait for Yang Fugong to explain, and said again: "Yang Fugong is no more than a servant of His Majesty's family! He dared to shoulder his chariot to enter the palace gate, how can he have the emperor in his heart? He adopted fake sons outside, so he secretly raised warriors to plot rebellion?" In desperation, Yang Fugong could only kneel down on the ground, and argued: "Your Majesty, this old slave adopted a strong man as a righteous son, and used his family wealth to support the country's men, in order to protect the country. How could Master Kong call it a rebellion? ?” Li Ye said: "For the support of the country, why don't you call them Li instead of Yang?" One sentence made Yang Fugong speechless, so he had to stand with his hands down. At this time, Li Ye slipped his eyes to the outside of the Tai Chi Hall, and saw the warriors who followed Yang Fugong lined up on both sides of the steps.Standing on the leftmost side of this team of guards was a burly man with a bearded face. "Yang Junrong, I don't know what the name of the big man standing on the left under the steps is called?" Yang Fugong turned back, and also looked outside the Tai Chi Hall, he couldn't help feeling relieved.Yes, with this group of guards protecting you, even if you are the king of a country, what can you do to me?What's more, I supported you to sit on this golden throne of yours!Thinking of this, Yang Fugong showed an imperceptible smug expression on his face, and said in a boastful tone: "This big man, whose real name is Hu Hongli, I adopted him as a foster son and named him Yang Shouli." Li Ye couldn't help shivering, thinking: So this person is Yang Shouli!I have heard of it for a long time.With such a person by Yang Fugong's side, when will I be able to eradicate this traitorous minister!