In Liangzhou in April, the grassland stretches as far as the eye can see, and wild flowers bloom everywhere, like a huge colorful tapestry, spreading and stretching, so beautiful.
Looking far into the distance, you can see a thick streak of yellow on the horizon, and there is an endless desert.
Liangzhou City stands at the junction of grassland and desert.
After nearly a month of long journey, when Zhou Jun saw the city again, he was filled with emotions.
Outside the city gate, Kong You had been waiting there early.
The motorcade came from the official road and stopped slowly. Zhou Jun got off the carriage, looked at Kong You up and down, and asked with a smile: "How are you, Bo Hong?"
Kong You bowed and said: "My master, you are fine, and so is Liangcheng."
Zhou Jun heard this, looked at the bustling pedestrians around the city gate, and said to Kong You: "Get in the car and talk."
Kong You nodded and followed Zhou Jun into the carriage.
The motorcade entered the city gate and walked along the main road into the city.
When passing by a square, Zhou Jun saw a shrine built on the street. Inside the shrine was a half-human tall statue of Yinglong. There were incense candles and offerings in front of the statue. A group of people gathered around the shrine, kowtowed and prayed.
Zhou Jun asked Kong You: "Who built this shrine?"
Kong You: "Last autumn night, Yinglong appeared. Coupled with the heavenly book that predicted drought, the number of people who believed in Yinglong in Liangzhou City increased every day. You can often see such shrines at the intersection of every city.
It was built spontaneously by believers."
Zhou Jun was stunned.
Kong You: "There is one more thing about the drought."
Zhou Jun: "What's the matter?"
Kong You: "This winter, rain and snow were rare and the cold could not accumulate. Therefore, when spring began, the land was lumpy and had little fertility, which was not conducive to spring plowing."
Zhou Jun didn't understand what Kong You said at first, but later he understood it after thinking about it.
As the saying goes, auspicious snow heralds a good harvest.
To put it bluntly, proper winter snow can herald a good harvest in the coming year.
This is because, firstly, the snow has a thermal insulation effect, which can prevent the land temperature from dropping too low due to the severe cold in winter; secondly, the snow contains a lot of nitrogen compounds, and when the snow melts, these nitrogen compounds are brought to the soil by the snow water.
, become the best fertilizer.
Therefore, there will be less snow in Liangzhou this winter, which will affect natural spring plowing.
Kong You: "Let's not talk about the spring plowing for the moment. In early March, the court issued an imperial edict, saying that Fan Yang Jiedu envoy An Lushan built a strong military city to ward off the bandits. The war continued and the troops were in short supply, so Wang Zhongsi was ordered to send military envoys.
Go and help."
Zhou Jun frowned when he heard this.
Kong You added: "As soon as the imperial edict arrived at Longyou, Wang Zhongsi personally took some troops and horses and set off for Hebei. Calculating the distance, he should have reached Fanyang by now."
Zhou Jun thought for a moment and sighed: "The imperial court finally took action against Beifan."
Kong You: "What the master said is absolutely true. When the court talks about borrowing troops, it is actually cutting down the vassal. Once the soldiers and horses of the Northern Fan enter Hebei, they will be detained under pretexts and then dispersed and organized. In the end, they will become An An
The soldiers of Lushan."
Zhou Jun: "Wang Zhongsi knows that An Lushan is rebellious and will never agree to borrow troops when he goes to Hebei."
Kong You nodded: "If Wang Zhongsi does not agree to borrow troops, then he has fallen into a trap."
Zhou Jun's expression tightened.
Kong You breathed a sigh of relief: "You also heard a rough idea of this imperial edict to borrow troops from General Li Guangbi. After thinking about it, it was probably Li Linfu's plan. Li Linfu's eyes and ears were all over the Tang Dynasty, and An Lushan had evil intentions.
, I am afraid he has heard about it for a long time. As for Wang Zhongsi, he is a fake son of a saint, and he is loyal to the court. He serves as the interview envoy for Hedong Jiedu and is adjacent to Hebei. How could he not know about An Lushan's rebellion? "
"The imperial court wants to subjugate the Northern Fan. If the emperor speaks out to Wang Zhongsi, the latter will definitely ask for the delegation of power. But if it is for the purpose of borrowing troops to send troops to An Lushan's command, then Wang Zhongsi will definitely rather die than obey.
"
"Li Linfu calculated this accurately, so he used the excuse of borrowing troops to create a conspiracy among the court, Wang Zhongsi and An Lushan."
Zhou Jun: "Conspiracy?"
Kong You: "If Wang Zhongsi agrees to borrow troops, it will strengthen Anlu Mountain's military power and endanger the Tang Dynasty; if he does not agree to borrow troops, then he is disobeying the decree, which may cause dissatisfaction of the imperial court, and even
Suspicion. Borrowing troops or not borrowing troops, both are bitter consequences. Wang Zhongsi can see through it as long as he thinks a little. However, Li Linfu knows that Wang Zhongsi's final choice must be to refuse to borrow troops. Therefore, Youcai said, this is
Conspiracy."
Zhou Jun asked again: "Why is Li Linfu so sure that Wang Zhongsi will not agree to borrow troops?"
Kong You: "Master, please listen to me slowly. Let's talk about performance first. If Wang Zhongsi agrees to borrow troops, he only needs to send a military envoy to lead the troops and go to Hebei to complete the handover procedures. But the reality is,
As soon as Wang Zhongsi received the imperial edict, he immediately ordered his troops and went there in person. Some guessed that Wang Zhongsi wanted to take advantage of An Lushan's absence in Chang'an and could not make it back to Hebei, and once he came, he complied with the imperial edict.
Secondly, we surveyed the enemy camp and found reasons to reject the idea of borrowing troops."
After Zhou Jun listened, he nodded. What Kong You expected was almost the same as what was recorded in the history books.
According to the history books, after Wang Zhongsi received the imperial edict to borrow troops, he took advantage of An Lushan's absence in Hebei and went to Xiongwucheng to inquire about it. When he came back, he wrote to Li Longji, saying that An Lushan had the intention of treason and could not borrow troops.
.
Kong You said again: "Let's talk about the reason. From the perspective of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Zhongsi weighed the pros and cons of borrowing troops and chose the lesser of the two evils. With his move, he believed that he neither violated the imperial edict nor gave peace to the emperor.
Lushan sent elite soldiers. But in the whole thing, he forgot only one person - the current emperor."
"Although the emperor is Wang Zhongsi's false father, the Northern Fan is powerful and has many soldiers and generals, which will inevitably arouse suspicion. Wang Zhongsi insisted on being close to the saint, so he thought he was smart and wanted to get around it, but he didn't know that this was a taboo."
"Now that I have experienced several uterine changes, in order to eliminate internal troubles, even my own son will be killed, let alone an adopted son?"
"So, when Wang Zhongsi made plans, he thought about the country; while when Li Linfu made plans, he thought about people's hearts."
Kong You paused for a moment and said: "Finally, let's talk about the response. If Wang Zhongsi really refuses to lend troops this time, then the imperial court will probably target Beifan everywhere in the future, and Li Linfu will also take the opportunity to slander Wang Zhongsi. The latter is not good at scheming.
, fighting with the right side, if you are not careful, you may lose everything. In order to prevent such a day from happening, the master needs to do two things at the moment."
Zhou Jun: "What two things?"
Kong You: "First, if Wang Zhongsi is demoted, the troops of the Northern Fan will be leaderless, and the master can win over trustworthy people for future use; second, if the Northern Fan is shaken, the situation in Hexi and Longyou may change.
, the master family should find a way out early and not stick to Liangzhou."
Zhou Jun listened and nodded gently.
The motorcade finally stopped.
Zhou Jun got off the carriage and immediately saw Jin Fengniang and Chao Mu at the gate of Jinzhai.
Chao Mu saw Zhou Jun and hesitated for a moment.
Golden Phoenix leaned into Chao Mu's ear and whispered something.
Chao Mu smiled happily, opened her little hands, stumbled towards Zhou Jun, and shouted vaguely: "Aye."
Zhou Jun was so happy that he picked up Chao Mu and spun him around a few times, causing the latter to shout happily.
In the motorcade, Granny Peng and a group of courtiers also got out of the car, looked around, and whispered.
Zhou Jun saw this and said to Kong You beside him: "Prepare accommodation and expenses for them, and all treatment will be the same as that of the teahouse craftsmen."