"Wang Zhen is going to the stone quarry now? There is a letter from Dong Langjun saying that Wang Zhen has recruited many heroes in Tongbai Mountain. It seems that many people followed him to Lanzhou this time. You have seen them all!"
Guo Zhongxiong is in his late fifties, with a slender face full of energy and bright eyes staring at the mottled courtyard wall outside the window.
Many officials in this era had lofty aspirations to make great achievements, and Guo Zhongxiong was no exception.
The allied forces were about to conquer Yan, and it was also the time when the soldiers made great achievements. After he went to Lanzhou, he focused his main energy on rectifying the border defense armaments. When he had time, he ran to the villages below, hoping to get involved with the generals.
At this juncture, he didn't particularly want to get involved in the almost personal feud between Cai Zheng and Wang Zhen, but as the flagship figure of Cai Clan in Lanzhou, he couldn't ignore Wang Zhen's movements. Should he suppress them? To suppress.
On the third day after Wang Zhen arrived in Lanzhou, he returned from patrolling the border in Ningwu and immediately called Zeng Run and others to him to inquire about his meeting with Wang Zhen.
"They are all vulgar warriors!"
Two days have passed, but every time Zeng Run thinks of Xu Huai's rogue face, he still can't help but feel a dull pain in his chest, and he says angrily.
"It is said that Yaksha Fox is a young woman with beautiful appearance and a snake-like heart, but is it true?" Guo Zhongxiong was free now and didn't mind expressing more concern.
"I didn't see the female family members with my own eyes before they entered the state government office, but after they went to the post house, I sent someone to follow them. They wandered around the city and attracted many people from the market to watch, but they were beautiful and beautiful. Fake,"
Zeng Run was not qualified to stand proudly in front of Guo Zhongxiong, so he sat aside and spoke truthfully about the situation of the people around Wang Zhen that he currently knew.
"Except for the yaksha fox, who cannot be seen through, Lu Xiong is the most stable around Wang Zhen, and Tang Pan and Xu Xin'an are also young and have a calm demeanor. They may not be underestimated in the future, but it is the reckless tiger who is the most rogue..."
Seeing Zeng Run mentioning Xu Huai, he couldn't help gritting his teeth and asked: "I heard that this reckless tiger is the most brave and brave. Even at a young age, he can be regarded as a first-class general even in the Western Army. How can he be such a rogue?" ?”
"He is a man of extraordinary bravery, but willing to be a lackey without any sense of shame, vulgarity, and recklessness. I don't know how he grew up to be so big, but he was not beaten to death by the villagers!" Zeng Run said angrily.
"Xu Chu, a famous general in the late Han Dynasty, was foolish but brave. He was known as a tiger fool. If this reckless tiger was willing to be a lackey, he would have nothing wrong with him, but he would be quite like Xu Chu." Guo Zhongxiong said without any intention of listening to Zeng Run's words. , "Okay, I can rest assured that you will be responsible for these things, but be careful not to interfere with Lanzhou's military preparations. This is the major task assigned by the Privy Council..."
"Zeng Run understands." Zeng Run stood up and left.
When Zeng Run met Guo Zhongxiong, a middle-aged man followed him, but he did not go directly into the hall to see Guo Zhongxiong, but waited quietly in front of the corridor.
All the officers thought he was Zeng Run's follower who had just been transferred from Bianjing and had never seen him before; at this time, he silently followed Zeng Run out of the yard.
Although the Cai Mansion transferred only a dozen people directly from Bianjing to Zeng Run, it was still inconvenient for these people to enter and leave the state government office openly, and it was also inconvenient for them to stay directly with Guo Zhongxiong.
Therefore, Zeng Run did not live in Zhouya every day, but found another large house on Zhouya East Street; many people transferred from Bianjing also settled here.
Zeng Run also didn't expect that Wang Zhen would delay arriving at Lanzhou for more than three months when he set off from Tongbai Mountain. Several of them had been waiting in Lanzhou for three months without any other errands, so they were almost free.
Come lightly.
Zeng Run walked back with the middle-aged man, and there were several people in the yard who were stretching their muscles and practicing sticks. It was hot in the summer, and everyone was shirtless. Their bodies were made of iron-like sinews, full of strength that was about to burst out at any time.
.
Seeing Zeng Run and the middle-aged man rushing back, everyone put down their sticks and gathered around to ask about Guo Zhongxiong's situation. The middle-aged man raised his eyebrows slightly, and everyone immediately stopped talking and gathered around the middle-aged man in a polite manner.
The young man and Zeng Run entered the house.
When I saw Guo Zhongxiong, the middle-aged people were waiting in front of the corridor and did not enter the official residence.
On a hot summer day, she wears a gray and black linen short shirt, black linen pants, and straw sandals woven with hemp rope. Her big, cracked feet are exposed, and she wears a non-slip shoulder knife wrapped with a thin hemp rope on the handle.
At this time, his face was thin and withered, expressionless, like a hard and silent stone in the mountains. No matter how he looked, he looked like Zeng Run's follower.
But at this moment, back in the courtyard, the middle-aged man walked into the room, casually took off the shoulder knife from his waist, put it on the table, and sat down straight away. Suddenly, he had the aura of Yuan Ting Yue Zhi.
"Hu Hou, you and Mr. Zeng went to the state government office, what did Guo Langjun say?" At this time, someone still couldn't help but ask.
"I was convicted and demoted from my position to serve the people. Now I am just an idler in front of the prime minister. Don't mention the old title anymore. You should call me Yue Hailou!" the middle-aged man ordered.
"..." Everyone murmured, but no one actually called him by his name.
Zeng Run thought of Guo Zhongxiong's disapproving attitude and felt a lot of dissatisfaction in his heart. He sat down at the bottom of Yuehai Tower and said dissatisfied: "We have been planning here for a long time, for fear of making the slightest mistake, but Guo Langjun didn't take it seriously.
, and even thought I was making a fuss out of a molehill..."
Yue Hailou motioned for everyone to sit down first, and comforted Zeng Run first:
"Guo Langjun didn't know the many things Zheng Hui and Dong Qifeng did in Tongbai Mountain, and he didn't even know the details of how Zheng Hui and the others planned an ambush for Wang Zhen, Yaksha Fox and others, so he couldn't realize the ferocity of these people.
Cunning, this is not surprising - as long as we know it, it is enough that Guo Langjun is willing to give us convenience!"
Yue Hailou never expected that a figure like Guo Zhongxiong would be a puppet who obeyed the Privy Council in everything - if that were the case, it would be a great harm for the imperial court to send such a figure to preside over the military affairs of Lanzhou.
Yue Hailou recently returned to Bianjing and had time to dig out the previous secret reports from Zheng Hui and Dong Qifeng. Combining the letters from Dong Cheng and others as well as many local reports to the court in Biyang County, he found that some details were better than before.
Others speculated even more bizarrely.
At the same time, he also expected that Guo Zhongxiong would not focus on suppressing Wang Zhen. As long as Wang Zhen stayed safe and did not cause trouble, Guo Zhongxiong might even tolerate Wang Zhen dormant in Lanzhou. Only then did Yue Hailou decide to personally
Come to Lanzhou.
Today, he followed Zeng Run to see Guo Zhongxiong to verify that his previous judgment was correct. Of course, Yue Hailou had no dissatisfaction with Guo Zhongxiong in his heart. The only pity was that he only rushed to Lanzhou yesterday and could not see Xu with his own eyes in Kelan City.
Huai, Tang Pan and Xu Xinan are the rising stars who are shining brightly in Tongbai Mountain.
"What are we going to do?" Wen Run asked, "I can arrange the mining, transportation and material supply of the quarry. I can put three or five people in at will and they will never be discovered."
"Arrange three or five people to sneak into the stone quarry and stab Wang Zhen to death when they see an opportunity - Wang Zhen is just a supervisor of the stone quarry, and there are only one or two old officials around him. The supervision of the stone quarry is all useless.
The Xiang army was in charge, and there was no need to arrange anything in advance. After the assassination, they fled directly from the quarry to the mountains to the south. Mr. Zeng blamed everything on the prisoners for causing trouble - everything fell into place, and there was so much to consider and do.
What?" someone said impatiently.
"If you say a few words, I won't think you are short-tongued? Do you think the prime minister still intends to take Wang Zhen's life now?"
Yue Hailou glared at the man, asked him to sit back and said,
"Before, Wang Zhen tried every means to obstruct the alliance of troops to attack Yan, and he also showed a lot of disrespect to the Prime Minister in his words. He was worried that Wang Zhen would be obsessed with party fighting and ignore the great cause of the family and the country, so the Prime Minister did not want to tolerate him. But now the alliance of troops to attack Yan
The trend has been established and no one like Wang Zhen can stop him anymore. Killing him again will be just a trivial matter, or even an extraneous issue. I asked you and Mr. Zeng to come here to keep an eye on Wang Zhen and the people around him, and act according to the situation. It is not certain.
We must take action. In addition, many wars in ancient and modern times seemed to be successful, but ultimately failed. The main reason is that the central government did not control the local areas well, and the old military intelligence scouts conveyed too many errors. In this war, the Privy Council must
If you want to take the lead, the officials will frequently drop decrees even if they can't. If there is a big mistake in the military situation and the Privy Council is not aware of it, what will happen here? Do you need me to remind you? The Prime Minister has always wanted to add a staff office to the Privy Council to specialize in
However, there are some people in the government who are short-sighted in matters such as spying on military intelligence in border states and enemy territory. They must transfer this power to the useless Ministry of War and not let the Privy Council specialize in it. The prime minister has no choice but to suggest that he first
I sent you here to watch the situation in the clouds in case something goes wrong."
"It turns out that it was your Huhou's idea to send us to Lanzhou!" Zeng Run said with emotion.
"I mentioned this matter to the prime minister when I accompanied the eldest son as an envoy to Yandu, but I don't know why I kept delaying it," Yue Hailou said, "It should be this time that Wang Zhen was kicked to Lanzhou.
The two things collided and you were sent here, but you still care too much about Wang Zhen. Think about it, if you can conquer Yan, the Prime Minister's achievements will last forever, and Wang Zhen can no longer compete with the Prime Minister.
What is there to be afraid of? When I returned to Bianjing, I originally wanted to write a letter and send someone to remind you, but recently I looked through Zheng Hui and Dong Qifeng's previous secret reports and found something fishy, so I decided to come and take a look.
!”
"After Xu Wufu's death, a man named Xu Wuqi joined Dong Langjun's family. This person should know a lot about the details of Tongbai Mountain. Can he be transferred here urgently?" Zeng Run asked.
"I recognize Xu Wuqi. Although I haven't seen him for more than ten years, I don't believe him - even if Dong Cheng wants to believe him, I can't..." Yue Hailou said.
"Then what should we do next?" Zeng Run saw that both of his suggestions were mercilessly rejected by Yue Hailou, but thinking of his past reputation, he did not dare to have any objections and just asked him in a low voice what was good about him.
Method.
"Thousands of armies are easy to come by, but good generals are hard to find. According to what Zheng Hui wrote, Chen Zixiao, Zhong Changqing, Guo Junpan, Pan Chenghu, Wu Qi and other thieves are quite capable. You go to Guo Zhongxiong and use it as an excuse to adjust the quarry and prison camp.
and the guards who escorted the stone materials, gathered these people to the stone quarry," Yue Hailou said, "Will Wang Zhen still make trouble, and whether these thieves are really as good as Zheng Hui's letter said.
It is better to gather them together and see what they are capable of at a glance than for us to sit here and make random guesses! In addition, we will put the eagle and I into the prison camp, and all our hands and feet must be cleaned. We are not allowed to do hard labor in the stone quarry, but we are
People see flaws..."
To mine and transport stones in the quarry, firstly, people were transferred from the Xiang army, and secondly, prisoners were transferred from the prison camps to serve as hard labor. The prisoners in the quarry were squeezed much more harshly than the generals of the Xiang army. Zeng Run did not expect that Yue
Hailou will personally pretend to be a hard labor prisoner and sneak into the quarry!
