Across the Water Margin: Officials of Ximen

Page 519

Just when Ximenqing began to plot against Chao Gai and Wu Yong, the fish that slipped through the net in Liangshanbo, in Yanjing City, Prime Minister Li Chuwen was discussing major issues with his family and cronies at home.

Emperor Yeluchun's health is getting worse day by day, and now he is recuperating in Yaochi Hall in the south of Yanjing City.Early this morning, Yeluchun knew that time was running out, so he secretly summoned Li Chuwen, his most trusted prime minister, in Nanyaochi Hall.

Liao Kingdom, a small imperial court in Yanjing, has the army of the Jin Kingdom in the north, and the long-coveted Song Army in the south. The followers of Tianzuo Emperor Yelu Yanxi also called Yelu Chun a rebel. Under the double pressure of internal and external troubles, he was already timid. The fearful Yeluchun finally couldn't take it anymore.

Yeluchun met Li Chuwen lying on the sickbed, and expressed to Li Chuwen his regret for being the emperor with tears.

Yeluchun told Li Chuwen that he was sorry for Emperor Tianzuo Yeluyanxi, and after his death, he hoped that Li Chuwen could welcome the fifth son of Emperor Tianzuo Yeluyanxi, and King Yeluuding of Qin would succeed him.

In order to prevent the officials in Yanjing who opposed Emperor Tianzuo from obstructing this matter, Yelu Chunmi granted Prime Minister Li Chuwen the post of Marshal of the Fanhan Mabu Army, and asked him to control the military power and act according to his own wishes.

After Li Chuwen got the secret decree, he hurried back home, and immediately called his brother Li Chuneng, son Li Shi, Gongsun Sheng, Wu Yong and other confidantes together to plan great things together.

Yeluchun asked Li Chuwen to serve as the Marshal of the Fanhan Horse Army, because he wanted him to protect the small imperial court in Yanjing.But Li Chuwen saw that the building was about to collapse, so how could he be loyal to the Liao Kingdom.

Li Chuwen decided to take refuge in the Song Dynasty. Taking advantage of the emperor's serious illness and dying, he led the Han army into Yanjing City, controlled the government and the public, and then opened the city to welcome the Song army.

The [-] new troops recruited and trained by Li Xi were not far from Yanjing City, and Wu Yong, the "star of wisdom", assisted Li Xi in training troops in the barracks on weekdays.

These three thousand soldiers and horses are the Han army directly controlled by Li Chuwen in Yanjing City.

Li Chuwen decided to select 3000 warriors from the [-] people to hide in his own mansion in the city, wait for an opportunity to surround the Nanyaochi Palace, and control the officials of the Liao Kingdom who accompanied him there.

Li Shi was in charge of taking the rest of the new army to occupy the gate of Yanjing City, and to meet the troops from other places entering the city.

Relying on his title as Marshal of the Fanhan Horse Infantry and these [-] soldiers, Li Chuwen may not be able to completely control Yanjing City.

At this time, the nobles of the royal family Yelu Dashi and Xi Wang Xiaoqian were leading troops to station on the border of Liao and Song Dynasties to prevent the Song army from invading the north again.

Of course Li Chuwen had to guard against the two of them disobeying his command and leading troops to attack the city.

Therefore, Li Chuwen needed more troops to guard Yanjing City.

At this time, the two generals Chao Gai and Dong Ping guarding Tanzhou were the ones Li Chuwen had arranged in the army.Li Chuwen decided to let Wu Yong rush to Tanzhou immediately, and asked Chao Gai and Dong Ping to lead troops south to Yanjing City, and cooperate with him inside and outside to completely control the Yanjing City.

As for Gongsun Sheng, he also had a task. He was responsible for going to Yizhou to contact Gao Feng, the magistrate of Yizhou, and Wang Ji, the general guarding the city.

Both Gao Feng and Wang Ji were Han officials single-handedly promoted by Li Chuwen, and they had sworn allegiance to Li Chuwen.

Li Chuwen asked Gongsun Sheng to send an order to the two of them, ordering them to monitor the Xiao Qian and Yelu Dashi troops stationed on the north bank of the Juma River, and to intercept Xiao Qian and Yelu Dashi troops in the name of the Marshal of the Fanhan Horse Infantry if necessary. , Seize the military power in the hands of the two.

As for Li Chuwen's younger brother, Li Chuneng, who was in charge of the Privy Council affairs, was assigned to Nanyaochi Palace, where he monitored the movements of other ministers beside Emperor Yeluchun.

After some plotting, Li Chuwen was full of ambition, thinking that the city of Yanjing was under his control.

Chapter 8 and Four Never Vote for Song Dynasty

As the head of all officials, Li Chuwen was deeply trusted and important by Tianxi Emperor Yeluchun, and took charge of the political power of the Liao Kingdom.

Now that the emperor in Yanjing City is seriously ill and dying, isn't he the prime minister who has the final say on the affairs of the city?

In addition, there are [-] soldiers from his son inside, and troops from Tanzhou and Yizhou outside to support them. Xiren Xiaogan and Khitan Yelu Dashi are far away in Baigou. There is really nothing in this court that can hinder Li Chuwen's control. People of the imperial court.

Guo Yaoshi's ever victorious army in Zhuozhou and Zhang Jue's army in Pingzhou were also Han armies.Although the two of them were not Li Chuwen's confidantes, they had been taken care of by Prime Minister Li Chuwen on weekdays, and they would not have stood by the Khitan people when Li Chuwen, a Han official, seized power.

After all the calculations, Li Chuwen also believed that he had the chance to win, and that his strength was enough to control Yanjing City.

After the planning was done, Li Chuwen and his party each took orders to act and made preparations for seizing power.

What is waiting at this moment is the death of Emperor Yeluchun.

Most of the medical officers in the palace also had Li Chuwen's eyes and ears, and they were sending news to Li Chuwen at any time.Li Chuwen was going to control all the queens and ministers who went to visit when the emperor was dying.

Two days later, as a secret envoy sent by Li Chuwen, "Smart Star" Wu Yong came to Miyun City, Tanzhou.

"Tuota King" Chao Gai and "Double Spear General" Dong Ping joined the Liao Army and experienced several bloody battles with the Jin Army. Now they have adapted to their identities in the Liao Army and regard themselves as real General of the Liao Kingdom.

Tanzhou is adjacent to Gubeikou in the north, and is responsible for defending against the invasion of the Jin army.

Because of their heroic performance in the Battle of Zhongjing Road, Chao Gai and Dong Ping were appreciated by Xiao Qian, the king of the Fourth Army. In addition, they were recommended by Prime Minister Li Chuwen, so they were reused after Yeluchun ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. He was promoted to be the general of Tanzhou.

After Chao Gai and Dong Ping took office, they were also conscientious and loyal to their duties.They sent troops to set up numerous passes along the Chaoli River in the south of Gubeikou of the Great Wall, and strictly defended the Jin army at Gubeikou, preventing the Jurchens from stepping out of Gubeikou.

On the day Wu Yong arrived in Miyun City, Tanzhou, Chao Gai and Dong Ping were studying the military situation in the mansion and talking about the recent re-breakout of war in Zhongjing Road.

Since Xiao Qian, the king of the Fourth Army, ordered the Xi people in the Zhongjing Road area to rebel, the entire Zhongjing Road was full of smoke, and all the prefectures had Xi people and Khitan people rebelling, making it difficult for the newly occupied Zhongjing Road area to be established for a while. rule.

Although the Emperor Wanyan Aguda of the Kingdom of Jin marched directly westward from the Shangjing area to the Xijing Road, and threatened to recruit and surrender the ministries near and far, the war in the Zhongjing Road area did not subside because of this.

The soldiers and horses of the Jin army left in Zhongjing Road were all busy fighting the chaos, so naturally they had no time to go south.As a result, the pressure on Chao Gai and Dong Ping, who were on the front line in Tanzhou, was greatly reduced.

However, Chao Gai and Dong Ping were not idle. Instead, they sent capable men across the mountains and into Bei'an Prefecture, Xiwangling and other places to send money, food and weapons to the rebellious Xiren tribe to help them fight the Jin army.

When Chao Gai and Dong Ping were discussing how to send people secretly to infiltrate Bei'an Prefecture and Zezhou to stir up trouble, "Smart Star" Wu Yong came in wearing a white robe and shaking a feather fan in his hand.This guy came to Liao Kingdom and took refuge in Li Chuwen as an aide. At this time, he came to Chao Gai's army, still dressed as a military adviser.

The guards at Chao Gai's mansion were all bandit confidantes from the Great Song Dynasty. These people saw that it was Wu Yong, the military adviser, but they didn't pass it on, so they walked into the mansion with Wu Yong.

"Brother Chao Gai! Brother Dong Ping! Xiaosheng is here!"

Wu Yong didn't wait for his subordinates to pass on the message, so he opened his mouth and shouted at the two of them.

"The military master is here! Hahaha~ What a good day today, the military master came from the capital to visit us old brothers!"

Chao Gai laughed and went forward.

"Military division! I haven't seen you for a long time, what wind brought you here?"

Dong Ping also greeted Wu Yong with a smile.

After the three met and exchanged greetings for a while, Wu Yong winked at the two of them, and said in a low voice, "Two brothers, Xiaosheng has an important matter to discuss here, which is related to your life and death! You and I have a chance to talk."

After Chao Gai heard this, he hurriedly ordered his subordinates to wait outside the hall, and not to allow other people to come in to disturb the meeting of his three brothers.

After all the subordinates retreated, Chao Gai led Wu Yong and Dong Ping to sit down in the secret room, and hurriedly asked, "Military Master, what happened?"

Wu Yong said to the two: "Prime Minister Li Chuwen ordered Xiaosheng to recruit two brothers to lead the army to go to Yanjing City to plan great things..."

Wu explained Li Chuwen's purpose of arranging him to come in a concise manner.

When Chao Gai and Dong Ping heard this, the Liao Kingdom was about to have civil strife!The two looked at each other, and after hesitating for a moment, Chao Gai asked Wu Yong: "Military Master, you are resourceful, and you must have some calculations in your mind. Should we take orders to help Prime Minister Li seize power?"

Wu Yong snorted coldly, and said, "Brother Chao Gai, Brother Dong Ping, from Xiaosheng's point of view, this time we brothers should not follow that Li Chuwen to rebel and seize power."

Dong Ping heard the words and asked: "Why? We were introduced by Brother Gongsun and took refuge in Prime Minister Li before we could gain a foothold in the Liao Kingdom. Prime Minister Li is kind to our brothers, and Brother Gongsun has an inseparable relationship with Prime Minister Li. We Why don't you lead the army to help him?"

Wu Yong sneered and said, "If it's just an internal struggle for power among the ministers of the Liao Kingdom, we should naturally stand by Li Chuwen's side and help him clear the obstacles. In the future, our brothers and sisters can also take this opportunity to make a fortune. It's a pity that Li Chuwen's seizure of power this time is In order to dedicate the city of Yanjing to the Great Song Dynasty, and to that Taiwei Tongguan!"

"Sigh~~"