Guo Song heard the news that Li Zhengji died suddenly. This kind of sudden death was usually an abnormal death. He was poisoned or assassinated. He might have been killed by his son, but it was more likely that he was killed by Yang Yu.
Yang Yu told him that when he went to Ziqing to serve as the hall master, one of his most important tasks was to assassinate Li Zhengji. If Li Zhengji was killed by Yang Yu, would he be safe now? Will he be silenced by the Hidden Sword Pavilion?
Although Guo Song assassinated Tian Shenyu and Li Lingyao and arrested Lu Sigong, they were different from the feudal lords in that they were still courtiers.
The feudal town is a semi-independent kingdom recognized by the court. Assassinating the leader of the feudal town means that assassinating the king will have extremely serious political consequences. It will lead to the complete independence of the feudal town, or it will trigger large-scale revenge in the feudal town. Dozens of people will be stabbed to death in a day.
He was an important minister and even assassinated the royal family.
Everyone understands this, so they do not dare to assassinate the feudal lord easily. Even if they are used, they must not admit it. The assassin must be silenced in time.
This is what Guo Song is worried about. If Li Zhengji is assassinated by Yang Yu, the Hidden Sword Pavilion will definitely silence all participants.
It was precisely because of understanding this that Guo Song was worried about Yang Yu.
Seeing that Xiaoyu Niang had misunderstood him, Guo Song smiled and said, "I'm not saying you're spying on me, but I just want to inquire about some things about the Hidden Sword Pavilion. Is there any way you can contact the people inside?"
Xiaoyu Niang thought for a while and said: "I can contact you, but I have to go to Chang'an."
Guo Song nodded, "Then why don't you go to Chang'an!"
Xiaoyu Niang scratched her head, "The key is what the young master wants me to do in Chang'an?"
Guo Song burst into laughter and said to her: "Go and find out about Yang Yu. You know Yang Yu, right?"
"I know, Master of Ziqing Hall."
Guo Song thought for a while and then said: "Bring me a letter to senior brother Zhang Lei by the way."
"I understand, just pack up and leave."
After Xiaoyu Niang went down, Guo Song remembered something. Gongsun Auntie had told him that if the imperial court did not send a supervisory army, then the Cangjian Pavilion would definitely send someone to monitor the local military leaders, without exception.
The emperor did not send a supervisory army to himself, so it is obvious that Hidden Sword Pavilion will definitely send people to monitor him.
Just like Yang Yu took over as the leader of the Ziqing Hall to monitor Li Zhengji, would the leader of the Hexi Hall monitor him?
Guo Song doesn't care about being watched, but he must know the movements of the watcher.
He immediately walked out of the inner house and said to a soldier: "Go find Wang Yue and meet me in the outer study."
After a while, Wang Yue hurried over, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See you, envoy!"
Guo Song asked him to stand up and asked: "Are there any people of unknown origin in the city, Han Chinese, who are good at martial arts, and their accent may be from Chang'an area."
Wang Yue shook his head, "There are many Han people who have returned in recent months, with a population of tens of thousands. However, I did not pay attention to the Han people, but to the Tubo, Qiang or Sogdians."
Guo Song said slowly: "What I mean is that there is a secret agency under the imperial court. It is very likely that people will be sent to monitor me and report my situation to the imperial court at any time. I do not want to eradicate them, but I want to know that they exist.
, you need to know what they report to the court, so find them, monitor them, don't alert them, but bribe the people among them."
Wang Yue suddenly understood and said quickly: "I understand, I will start investigating today."
"Go! Report to me anytime if you have any situation."
Wang Yue bowed and left in a hurry. Guo Song walked to the door and asked a soldier outside the door, "What's the matter?"
"Envoy, the historian just sent someone to deliver a dove letter, which seems to be very important."
The soldier presented a volume of pigeon letter to Guo Song. Guo Song took the pigeon letter and opened it slowly. There was only one sentence on it, "The Tibetan negotiation envoy has arrived in Chang'an."
Guo Song suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. There must have been a change of power within Tubo.
...........
Just as Guo Song judged, the Second Prime Minister of Tubo, Shang Zanjie, who advocated recuperation and recuperation, replaced the Prime Minister Shang Xijie and became the new Prime Minister of Tibet. He persuaded Tubo Zanpu and sent an envoy to Chang'an to discuss the withdrawal of troops and an alliance. The Tubo envoy discussed Xinuoluo
He led more than 300 people to Chang'an and was warmly received by Cui Hanheng, the minister of Honglu Temple.
In the imperial study, the emperor Li Shizheng, the prime minister Yang Yan, and his close minister Lu Qi discussed the arrangement of the Tubo alliance. Lu Qi's plan of two tigers fighting against each other was a great success in Ziqing, and a war broke out between the brothers Li Jing and Li Na for the right to inherit.
, they each led their troops to fight fiercely south of Qizhou, which made Li Shi very happy. He rewarded him with a hundred pairs of white jade from Lu Qi, and ten maids in the palace, who favored him even more.
Of course, Lu Qi's rise to power was also related to Yang Yan's strong recommendation. In order to get rid of Li Mi's constraints on him, Yang Yan figured out Li Shi's intention to strengthen the monarch's power, pushed Lu Qi out, and took advantage of Li Mi's opportunity in Bashu to let him
Lu Qi gradually replaced Li Mi as left prime minister.
The two became allies, worked together in a tacit understanding, controlled financial and personnel power, and gradually took control of the government.
Yang Yan bowed and said: "Your Majesty, this is a once-in-a-century opportunity. Tubo wants to recuperate and recuperate, and Uighurs want to return to the grassland. They basically have no time to harass the Tang Dynasty. We must form an alliance with Tubo as soon as possible, so that both sides can stop fighting and use
The border is peaceful, so we don't have to worry about the future. We can concentrate on reducing the vassal state and capture Ziqing Jiedu Prefecture and Weibo Jiedu Prefecture in one go."
Lu Qi also said: "Yang Xiangguo is absolutely right. An alliance with Tubo is a top priority. We must be quick. Wei Chen believes that as long as Tubo's conditions are not too excessive, we can all agree. We must secure a safe settlement on the western front."
, so that you can concentrate on dealing with the reduction of the feudal lordship."
Li Shi walked a few steps with his hands behind his back: "Tubo has put forward three conditions. The first is to open tea and horse markets in Longyou and Xichuan, which I can agree to; the second is to give up the big fight to pull out the valley, which I feel needs to be discussed.
, giving up Da Dou Bugu is too threatening to Hexi, so we can only give up half of it at most; third, giving up Shazhou, this condition is difficult for me to accept, I also hope to form an alliance as soon as possible, but the other party is too harsh, Yang Xiangguo
, you go and negotiate with the Tibetan envoys, replace the third item, and reduce the second item by half."
Just when Lu Qi was about to persuade Li Shi again, Yang Yan glared at him. Lu Qi had to swallow his words. Yang Yan knew Li Shi's thoughts too well. When he regained Shazhou, the whole city was in an uproar. If he lost it in the negotiation again,
They will be scolded to death by everyone in the world.
"Weichen also feels that the other party's third condition is too much, but the other party is just asking for a high price. I will also fight back forcefully. Weichen will definitely fight for it."
Li Shi nodded, "I am looking forward to good news from the Prime Minister."
Li Shi picked up the report on the table and asked, "What do you think of Liang Chongyi's willingness to surrender to the court?"
Yang Yan smiled and said: "I think it is completely acceptable. I summon Liang Chongyi back to the court and give him a high position as a sinecure. Even if Shannan East Road has succeeded in reducing the vassalage, your majesty can order Li Xilie to return to Huaixi and canonize him as the Duke of Huaixi."
Li Shi said happily: "It's exactly what I wanted. I will immediately issue an order to Li Xilie."
.......
The negotiations between the imperial court and Tubo are still continuing. The first round was between Cui Hanheng of Honglu Temple and the Tubo envoy. Both sides proposed conditions. In the second round, they entered into substantive negotiations. Prime Minister Yang Yan personally negotiated with the other party's envoy. Yang Yan said
He rejected the other party's attempt to return to Shazhou.
After several arguments, the two sides reached the first condition and opened a mutual market. The Tang Dynasty also learned from the lessons of the Huihe period and insisted on focusing on private trade without official participation. This avoided the situation of purchasing the other party's supplies at high prices.
The second condition, the two sides finally reached an agreement, is that the Tang Dynasty gave up half of the Dadou Valley. This was not a big problem. The Tang army occupied all of the Dadou Valley, which also posed a huge threat to Tibet. Each side took half, which was considered a kind of
balance.
As for the third condition, Tubo also knew that it was impossible to reclaim Shazhou, so Tubo changed the condition to the Tang army withdrawing from Shule. The reason was that the Tubo herdsmen were mainly concentrated in Shule, and the presence of the Tang army in Shule was a huge threat to the Tubo herdsmen.
To show sincerity, Tubo was willing to give up the city of Qiemo.
Li Shi didn't say anything about this condition for a long time. He still clearly remembered what Guo Song told him. Once he withdraws from Shule, it will bring serious political consequences. The countries in Anxi are united. Withdrawing from any country will affect the Tang army in Anxi.
The last time Tubo proposed this condition, it was rejected. This time they repeated their old tricks.
Yang Yan saw Li Shi's hesitation and persuaded him: "Your Majesty, I know the importance of Shule, and I also know that Tubo can only recuperate for ten years. We are also a temporary measure, just to buy time to reduce the feudal vassal.
Besides, the Anxi Passage has been opened, and we can recapture Shule at any time if the situation requires it. We now need to weigh the pros and cons, which is more important, whether Anxi is more important, or whether it is more important to reduce the vassal vassal. The weak minister is still the same sentence, the Central Plains will not be peaceful.
Why fight against foreigners? Your Majesty should put the Tang Dynasty first."
"Which one is more important, Anxi or the reduction of vassalage?"
This sentence focused on Li Shi's key points. Li Shi was silent for a long time and finally nodded.