Chapter 472: Lu Qi pays respects to the Prime Minister
The war situation between Hebei and the Central Plains has begun to change.
The first is the Xiangyang battlefield. Liang Chongyi accepted the court's invitation and left Xiangyang for the capital with his wife, concubines, children, and hundreds of carts of gold and silver. His general Zhang Zhande was jealous of his wealth and launched a mutiny soon after leaving Xiangzhou. Zhang Zhande led the rebels to kill
They captured Liang Chongyi's family and robbed them of all their gold and silk. The rebels dispersed in a hurry. Zhang Zhande fled with hundreds of rebels to Luocao in Funiu Mountain.
At this time, Li Xilie's tens of thousands of Huaixi troops rushed into Xiangyang City before retreating. They looted for three days and looted all the private wealth and official warehouses in Xiangyang. Then they left the devastated Xiangyang City and retreated eastward. Xiangzhou officials almost
They were all killed, and Zhao Qianling, the surviving Sima of Xiangzhou, went to the court to cry out about the brutality of the Huaixi army.
At this time, Yang Yan happened to be away from Chang'an. This memorial finally appeared on the imperial court of Emperor Li Shi. Li Shi was furious and issued an order to deprive Li Xilie of the title of Prince of Nanping County, which he had just conferred, and also deprive him of the title of envoy to the Northern Han Dynasty.
Li Xilie pretended to be frightened and wrote a letter to the emperor to plead guilty, and swore that he would be held accountable and maintain military discipline. Li Xilie killed thirty soldiers at the same time, sacrificed their heads to Chang'an, and pretended to be a general who caused trouble in Xiangyang.
In the end, Li Shi did not continue to severely punish the Huaixi Army, but ordered them to return to Huaixi as soon as possible. However, Li Xilie used the suppression of bandits as an excuse to occupy An, Mian, and Tangzhou. This battle against Liang Chongyi allowed the Huaixi Army to quickly
The army grew from 30,000 to 60,000, and there were hundreds of warships. They plundered 300,000 shi of food from the official warehouses of Shannan Province and a large amount of money and silk taxes. The territory controlled by Huaixi Jiedu Prefecture doubled.
Under the persuasion of his aide Zhao Sui, Li Xilie took out a small amount of grain to pretend to help the victims of the disasters in Ji'an, Mian, and Tang prefectures, and exempted these three prefectures from taxes for two years in order to win people's hearts.
The imperial court was unaware of these detailed changes, and no one evaluated them. Although Liang Chongyi's family was exterminated, the imperial court was undoubtedly the biggest loser.
The fighting between brothers on the Ziqing battlefield gradually came to an end. Li Jing was far from his brother's opponent. Licheng County was captured by Li Na's army. Li Jing only led a thousand remnant troops to flee eastward in panic, and was chased by Li Na's cavalry.
After catching up with Li Jing and capturing him, Li Na publicly executed Li Jing for patricide and regained the seal of Ziqing Jiedushi.
However, this fratricide also severely damaged the strength of the Ziqing army, and its strength dropped sharply from 80,000 to 30,000. Li Mian, the governor of the Song Dynasty, led 30,000 Shence troops and 20,000 Song Bian troops to defeat Li Na in Xuzhou.
The remaining troops recaptured Yanzhou, Yunzhou and Jezhou. He continued to lead the army to advance towards Qizhou. Knowing that he was defeated, Li Na hurriedly sent people to Chang'an and surrendered to the court, expressing his willingness to reduce the army and never interfere in politics.
At this time, an epidemic broke out in Weizhou due to too many deaths. Li Baozhen and Ma Sui had to suspend the siege of Tian Yue's army and withdraw their troops back to their original base.
Chengde Jiedu envoy Li Weiyue was too cruel and was killed by his general Wang Wujun. Wang Wujun surrendered to the court. Zhu Tao was also afraid of the epidemic and took the initiative to withdraw his troops back to Youzhou.
Under the threat of the epidemic, Yang Yan repeatedly persuaded Emperor Li Shi to finally agree to make peace, accept Li Na's surrender, demoted him to Beihai County Duke, and ordered his army to be reduced to 10,000 people.
The melee in the Central Plains and Hebei that lasted for more than half a year finally came to an end. Except for Liang Chongyi who was destroyed, the reduction of vassal status was almost unsuccessful.
It was already October of the second year of Jianzhong.
That night, a carriage stopped in front of the Yuan Mansion. Lu Qi, the Minister of Household Affairs, got out of the carriage. Yuan Xuanhu, the head of the Yuan family, was already waiting in front of the gate with a smile.
"Welcome Lu Xiangguo to Yuan Mansion, Yuan Mansion is honored!"
Lu Qi blushed. Although he had already been named Tong Zhongshu's subordinate Ping Zhangshi and had the qualification to serve as the prime minister, he had not become the prime minister. Yang Yan was still the right prime minister, and Li Mi was still the left prime minister. Li Mi had already
After returning from Bashu, Du Xiquan was appointed as the governor of Jiannan. The emperor still trusted Li Mi, which made Lu Qi's hope of becoming the left prime minister in vain.
Lu Qi waved his hand, "I am not the Prime Minister of the country, my old master is embarrassing me!"
Yuan Xuanhu chuckled, "I'm not joking!"
Lu Qi's heart moved. He was about to ask more questions, but felt that it was inconvenient here, so he smiled and said, "I'm going to visit in the evening and disturb the old master's rest!"
"If you are there, please ask Mr. Lu!"
In the past few months, with the Yuan family's deliberate win over, the relationship between Lu Qi and the Yuan family heated up rapidly. Yuan Xuanhu married a granddaughter to Lu Qi's nephew, and the two families formed a marriage party.
Today Lu Qi also received an invitation from Yuan Xuanhu to come to Yuan Mansion to taste tea.
Of course, tasting tea was just an excuse. Lu Qi knew that Yuan Xuanhu must have something important to discuss with him.
The two of them entered the lobby and sat down. Yuan Xuanhu ordered the tea boy to make tea in the lobby. At this time, there were only two of them in the lobby. Lu Qi couldn't help but ask: "Why did the master just say it was not a joke?"
Yuan Xuanhu smiled slightly, "That's why I invited you here."
Lu Qi perked up and said quickly: "I would like to hear the details!"
Yuan Xuanhu took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Lu Qi, "Look at it!"
Lu Qi took the letter hesitantly, "This is..."
"This is a letter written by one of my disciples, Li Yuanjin, the governor of Tangzhou. You will know after reading it."
Lu Qi took the letter and read it carefully, and was shocked. Li Xilie actually set up a vassal office in Tangzhou, but the court knew nothing about it. He became more and more frightened. When Li Xilie sent troops to Xiangyang, he burned, killed and raped. When he withdrew, he occupied An.
Miao, the three states of Tang Dynasty, have not withdrawn their troops so far. The states of Shannan Province have written countless letters to complain, but there has been no response from the court.
"Master, I don't know anything about these things, and I guess the emperor doesn't know either."
Yuan Xuanhu said calmly: "Of course you don't know, I sent people to conduct a secret investigation, and these letters were seized by Yang Yan."
Lu Qi was shocked for a while and then said: "How dare he be so bold?"
"He was the one who strongly recommended Li Xilie to recruit envoys to Hanbei in the first place. Now that he has made such a big mistake, of course Yang Yan will do his best to cover it up."
Lu Qi suddenly realized, "Does the head of the family want me to use this matter to impeach Yang Yan?"
Yuan Xuanhu looked at him with a half-smile but said, "You don't still miss the friendship of your colleagues, can't you bear it?"
Lu Qi hesitated for a moment and said: "The public is public and the private is private. It doesn't matter if he is impeached. I am afraid that if he remains in power, he will have a strong enemy. In addition, even if Yang Yan falls, I am afraid it will not be my turn to be the prime minister."
"To overthrow Yang Yan, we must seize the opportunity. Now the time is ripe."
Yuan Xuanhu smiled slightly and said: "Let me tell you this! The emperor regretted accepting the peace negotiation and Li Na's surrender. He cursed Yang Yan countless times in the palace for causing trouble. Someone in the palace told me that the emperor thought
Yang Yan is the leader of the peace faction, and he has already thought about deposing the prime minister. If Yang Yan is thrown out at this time, do you think his position can still be maintained? As long as you understand the emperor's thoughts and cater to him, you will be the right prime minister.
It has to be you."
Lu Qi became energetic and asked, "What should I do?"
"First of all, you have to be a tough vassal-cutting faction and ask the emperor to prepare for war. In particular, you ask the emperor to cut down Li Na's vassal and call Li Na into the capital to rest. Yang Yan's appeasement makes the emperor very dissatisfied. Your toughness is what he needs.
I am sure that the position of Right Chancellor must belong to you."
Lu Qi was overjoyed and said with great gratitude: "The master of the family is so kind and kind that Lu Qi can hardly repay him!"
Yuan Xuanhu smiled and waved his hand, "What are you talking about? We are a family. If I don't help you, who will I help?"
.........
The next day, Lu Qi formally wrote a letter of ten thousand words to the emperor, urging him to prepare for war and reduce the vassal state, and denounced Yang Yan's policy of appeasement and peace. This blow made Yang Yan dizzy, and the two even quarreled fiercely at the court meeting.
stand up.
At this time, Liu Quan, a doctor in the household department, advised Lu Qi not to talk about the war. Lu Qi became furious and beat Liu Quan with a stick in the household department. This incident shocked the government and the public. Although Lu Qi was summoned by the emperor to criticize, Lu Qi still
He also got the nickname "Lu Cutting Fan" from this, and he was recognized as a hardliner who cut down Fan.
At this time, the supervisory censor Wang Ji wrote a letter to impeach Yang Yan, and without authorization withheld petitions from Shannan Province states to cover up the crimes of the Huaixi Army and the fact that Li Xilie had occupied An, Mian and Tang Prefectures.
Li Shi was furious and issued an order to investigate the matter. The facts were quickly discovered and it was found that Yang Yan had indeed withheld hundreds of love letters from Shannan prefectures without authorization. The brutal behavior of the Huaixi Army was exposed, causing an uproar in the government and the public.
Yang Yan had no choice but to write a letter to plead guilty. Li Shi immediately dismissed him from his position as political advisor and appointed him as Zuopushe. He immediately appointed Lu Qi as the right minister of Zhongshu Ling. Lu Qi, a hard-line advocate of reducing the vassal state, became the prime minister. This signal shocked Hebei and the Central Plains.