April fifteen afternoon.

What is the general concept of this time point? That is, it is less than a day before Li Jue's secret envoy returns to Chang'an, two days before Li Jue's own cavalry unit returns to Chang'an, and three and a half days before Li Jue's rear infantry returns to Chang'an.

The guards of the East Gate of the Chang'an, Dong Cheng, the temporary camp in the east of the city, and Liang Xing, the general under Duan Wei, all received invitations from the Shizhong Li Ru, and asked them to attend the night banquet at Shizhong's mansion, saying that there was something important to discuss.

It is vaguely about the unfavorable front-line war, and the need to add troops to reinforce Li Jue.

Liang Xing is an inexperienced person and cannot make a decision on his own when encountering such a thing, so he consulted Dong Cheng to discuss it together, wanting to advance and retreat together.

In history, the only ones under Duan Wei's generals were Zhang Heng and Liang Xing, both of whom were from Wuwei County. In history, these two men followed Duan Wei and were ordered to send troops to kill Li Jue in the early years of Jian'an.

However, after Li Jue's death, Cao Cao followed the situation and used tricks to divide Duan Wei's power in the name of the court, adding additional officials to Liang Xing and Zhang Heng, so that they no longer belonged to Duan Wei. At that time, Duan Wei was old and lost his ambitions. In addition, he was nominally loyal to the Han Dynasty and could not resist Cao Cao's division and disintegration, so he accepted it.

A few years later, Duan Wei died of old age. Liang Xing and Zhang Heng, as a local warlord in Liangzhou, joined Ma Chao's anti-Cao coalition forces, and Cao Cao shot himself in the foot. Because Duan Wei's direct troops always followed Zhong Yao to station in the three auxiliary guards around Chang'an, but did not join Ma Chao. The one who was differentiated by Cao Cao was reversed.

Of course these are all later stories, but from this we can also see that Liang Xing and Zhang Heng are both loyal to Duan Wei and are not very catching a cold towards Li Jue. If Duan Wei had orders and the time was ripe, it would not be impossible for them to deal with Li Jue.

Now that Zhang Heng was taken to the Jingyang front by Duan Wei, he had actually turned against Duan Wei. Liang Xing was left by Duan Wei as the guard of Hangu Pass. He still didn't know that his direct leader and colleagues had rebelled against Li Jue.

...

Dong Cheng and Liang Xing discussed a few words and reached a preliminary consensus: Li Ru's house cannot go easily, as it may be a bit dangerous, such as being seized from military power.

As for being killed, they didn't feel it was imminent, although Li Jue's previous historical record was not very good.

Dong Cheng said: "Liang Zhengwei and Li Jue seized military power and weakened his colleagues a lot. This time General Duan's main force was transferred, and I don't know what hardships he suffered in Jingyang. Maybe he would be in danger, and he would be allowed to fight hard battles with heavy casualties. We are just following His Majesty to have a fortune, so we can't get rid of the fire in vain."

Liang Xing nodded: "What Mr. Dong said is very true. How can we reply to Shizhong Li's invitation for now?"

Dong Cheng took a deep breath: "If Captain Liang believes in me, there is a way to make an arrow on the string and he has to fire it. I have a way to contact my daughter and Your Majesty and ask Your Majesty to summon us to the palace today to avoid Li Ru's invitation.

Then, after I asked my goodwill, I took the opportunity to ask Your Majesty, saying that Li Shizhong had military affairs today. Your Majesty would definitely leave food for me and let Li Ru go to the side palace to discuss. In this way, I would also use the excuse to invite the lieutenant to enter the palace and talk to Li Ru in the palace.

Although the palace guards were all under the control of Li Ying, he probably didn't have time to ambush the arrangements for temporary changes. Now Lantian, the northwest battlefields were all scared overnight. Yesterday, there were urgent reports in the west that Wang Fang had abandoned the guards of Ji County and retreated directly to Huaili. Most of the soldiers and horses of Ji County were wiped out by Zhang Fei, and thousands of remaining light soldiers fled to Huaili. The situation is so dangerous, Li Ying must also dispatch defenses in various places, and it is impossible to listen to Li Ru's dispatch on call."

Liang Xing heard Dong Cheng say that he could find an opportunity to meet you, so he was overjoyed and followed everything. He knew that in front of the emperor, Li Ying and Li Ru did not dare to act rashly to the generals of the foreign town.

Previously, Huangfu Li was killed in front of the king, but that was a direct confrontation against Li Ying, and Huangfu Li had no soldiers.

Moreover, as the uncle of the country, Dong Cheng could still bring dozens of guards when he entered the palace. Anyway, as long as he looked at the gap where Li Ying was not present, and there was no eunuch's life that "the rest of him should not enter without" in a mess, there would be no misunderstandings like the eunuch murder of He Jinshi.

"In this way, it's a blessing for Mr. Dong. Liang is obeying Mr. Liang's arrangements!" Liang Xing expressed his opinion.

Dong Cheng finally glanced at the other party with a little meaning, took a deep breath, and hinted: "Person Liang, I know you are a loyal and righteous person, and I am quite grateful for Duan Pingdong's envy. However, in the current national crisis, if someone really wants you and me to die, if you don't go, you may implicate the former master. Duan Pingdong was punished by Li Jue, what do you think?"

Until now, Dong Cheng had not told Liang Xing the entire plan. He was just secretly promising benefits to give money, grain and equipment to win over Liang Xing. The reason why he was so cautious was that Liang Xing was too loyal to Duan Wei, so high that he would be afraid of Duan Wei's personal safety.

After all, if Liang Xing followed Dong Cheng and the news reached the front line of Anding County, Duan Wei would definitely be severely punished by Li Jie for the crime of "not being strict with the rule of law".

If Liang Xing sells his leader without hesitation, Dong Cheng will definitely not dare to use such a person. If Liang Xing is steadfast and unyielding, he will not implicate his leader in being wronged, and Dong Cheng will not be able to use this person, so he is very dilemma.

It’s a pity that they are not well-informed. I don’t know that Duan Wei had turned against Anding County three days ago. If I knew that Dong Cheng was simply unconstrained now, Liang Xing would be so happy that he would hit it off and go with him.

Although Liang Xing had no strategy, he was not brainless. He obviously thought of "you can't seem too selfish and just want to preserve your strength and ignore the safety of your boss." So hesitated for a moment before answering Dong Cheng:

"Uncle Dong Guoyu, I am a rough man and don't know so many great principles, but I still know the word "Xinyi". I can't do the things that implicate General Duan. However, if one person does things, one person does it. If Li Ying really suspects and takes it away, he will have to do it!

Li Jue would not attempt to kill General Duan because of this. If he only cuts down his authority, we will still be the main force in the future and will be worthy of General Duan. We will be worthy of him. We will not be able to sit and wait for death! Of course, if we are not in a hurry to that point, we can try not to implicate General Duan, so we will not implicate General Duan."

Dong Cheng breathed a sigh of relief and nodded in praise: "It is best for Captain Liang to have this intention. After all, he is a trustee. Dong only asked one question: If he is recruited into the palace to discuss matters in the evening and His Majesty personally gave an oral order, it may force Captain Liang to do something that may implicate General Duan. What do you think?"

Liang Xing: "What are you doubting about this? If Your Majesty personally made an oral order, of course he would go through fire and water, and put the holy order first!"

Dong Cheng: "Okay, I'll go and arrange it."

Dong Cheng first sent someone to reply to Li Ru, saying that he would go to the banquet on time in the evening, without any indication of changing places. This is also not to hope that Li Ru would be prepared in advance, and he could make time difference changes and deployments at that time.

After replying, around the afternoon, Dong Cheng asked to fly kites on the wall outside the North Palace of Weiyang Palace, that is, outside the northeast corner of the palace.

It is early summer in April, and the spring breeze is not yet calm, so flying kites is also pretty good. A relatively huge and slender kite with distinct colors and patterns was quickly flew up and even seen in the palace.

Not long after, about three o'clock, some bad news suddenly came from the palace, as if it was because of the sudden feeling of being uncomfortable and having some acute illness. At the beginning of the Shen period, Liu Xie sent an edict, allowing Dong Cheng to temporarily enter the palace to visit his daughter's acute illness.

This excuse is very normal. Not to mention that Dong Cheng was still a trusted general of the Western Liang army until now. His daughter was a concubine who was sick and the emperor asked him to visit him. Who dared to stop him?

Dong Cheng was taking the guards and preparing to go out to Li Ru for a banquet. Of course, he immediately changed the way halfway and headed straight to the palace gate.

When he arrived at the door, the guard at the palace gate today was Li Jue's general Zhang Bao (who was not the same person as Zhang Fei's son Zhang Bao, but only had the same name). Zhang Bao was originally directly under Li Jue. After Li Jue left, he entrusted Chang'an defense to Li Ying, Li Xian, Li Jin, and Zhang Bao followed Li Ying's family.

Li Ying is responsible for the city's defense, and Li Xian is responsible for the inner palace defense. They cannot specifically address each palace gate, so the specific palace gate guards still have a certain degree of autonomy.

Zhang Bao stopped Dong Cheng's guards and wanted them not to enter. Dong Cheng explained: "This general is going to go to Li Shizhong's mansion to attend a dinner party to discuss military situations. He has to be summoned to the palace temporarily. He cannot change his clothes or change his entourage and gifts, please forgive me."

The confidant eunuch of Liu Xie who was leading Dong Cheng beside him also said, "Emperor Zhang Duwei, this uncle Dong brought some gifts originally for Shizhong Li to keep his female family healthy. Just then, Guiren Dong was in a critical illness in the afternoon and seemed to need these supplements, so let him bring them in. Your Majesty has its own convenience."

Zhang Bao did not receive the ban in advance. Judging from the eunuchs' intention of representing the emperor, he felt that dozens of guards could not make trouble. There were still thousands of guards in the palace, so he was ordered to release the people.

Li Ru arranged the wine, food and knife and axe driver at the mansion. When Shen Shi was halfway through, it was time for dinner. Before Dong Cheng came, all the horses he had found in Dong Cheng's mansion came back, saying that Dong Cheng's family said that Dong Cheng had gone out to the banquet as scheduled.

Li Ru was confused and by chance, he had been wrong for more than a moment. It was not until the end of Shen Shih that the small yellow gate in the palace that Dong Cheng had asked His Majesty to leave food in the palace because of the sudden illness of Concubine Dong.

The little yellow gate finally added: "Dou Guojiu did not want to delay national affairs. He resigned to Your Majesty on the grounds that he wanted to discuss military affairs with the Shizhong. His Majesty said that he would ask the Shizhong to join the palace to give him a banquet, so he would discuss it with Dong Guojiu in the palace so that he would not be exhausted."

Li Ru was caught off guard. Li Ying inspected the defense of the camps in the west of the city, because in the afternoon, Xiliuying reported that Zhang Fei was about to surround Huaili and might have to cross the river from Xiliuqiang. Li Ying had to watch it himself, and also told his second son Li Jin to defend well.

Li Ru had no one to discuss it, so he had to go to the palace with a tough bullet, but he felt that the problem was not big, because Li Xian in the palace still listened to him, but unfortunately the knife and axe driver had no time to arrange it, and the venue was not suitable. If Dong Cheng had any questions, he could only find a way to put a house arrest first and then design the army to seize it.

At the same time as Li Ru entered the palace, Liang Xing of course also entered the palace - his reason was that "at the beginning he also wanted to go to Li Ru's house to attend the banquet, but on the way, Dong Cheng sent someone to summon him and said that His Majesty had changed this military service meeting in the palace and he didn't have to go to Shizhong's Mansion."
Chapter completed!