Chapter 127: Weird chess game

‘Cruff!’ The heavy door of Pei’s mansion opened, making a harsh rotation. The door was rarely opened and covered with rust. Cui Yuan stood on the steps with his hands behind his back and smiled, waiting for the master to come and greet him.

These days are Cui Yuan's most comfortable days in ten years. He can finally send troops to Hedong and realize his dream of planning for nearly ten years in the most direct way. The prosperous Hedong finally changed hands and became Cui Yuan's delicious food on the plate.

Although the delicious food is delicious, it’s a pity that it can’t be enjoyed alone. Another pair of chopsticks took half of it unceremoniously, but Cui Yuan was not annoyed. If Pei Jun stood by and watched him with a smile, it would be the most incredible thing.

Cui Yuan knew very well that no one had absolutely succeeded in anything, and it was rational to finally find a balance. So today he came to visit Pei Jun to find this balance. There was no need to see anything else, just watching him open the door to greet him, and then he knew that Pei Jun was also determined to find this balance.

"Is it a pleasure to have friends coming from afar?" Pei Jun smiled and greeted him from the gate. "Brother Cui, you haven't been to my mansion for two years! How should you punish you?"

Cui Yuan smiled faintly and said, "The one who should be punished should be Pei Xiang! Have you forgotten? I came here to propose marriage at the beginning of the year."

"Yes! Yes!" Pei Jun repeatedly patted his forehead. He sighed and said with a wry smile: "My dead girl was scolded by me a few days ago and ran back to Ye County."

"No wonder Cui Ning said that she hadn't seen Xiaoying for a long time. So that's how it is." Cui Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly, "It's just that the road to Hedong is not peaceful, so Pei Xiangke needs to send more people."

Seeing that he gradually turned to the point, Pei Jun smiled and said, "It's a great crime to not let the prime minister enter the house at night."

He turned sideways and made a respectful wave of hand, "Please!"

Cui Yuan bowed and smiled, "It's better to obey your orders than respect."

The two of them entered Pei Jun's study and laughed. The study had been cleaned up by Pei Mingyuan. A pot of charcoal fire was burning strongly, making the room very warm. The more important thing was that Cui Yuan should not see was gone at this moment.

Pei Mingyuan was about to leave, but he met his father and Cui Yuan and walked in. He hurriedly stepped forward and bowed, "My nephew, please see Uncle Cui Shishi."

"Oh! It's Mingyuan, we haven't seen each other for a long time."

Seeing that he was about to leave, Cui Yuan smiled and tried to stay and said, "I'll talk to your father about family matters, it's okay if you're by your side."

"This..." Pei Mingyuan looked at his father with some anxiety. When the two prime ministers were talking, how could he be qualified to be by his side?

A trace of vigilance flashed in Pei Jun's eyes. The power of Cui Yuan was that he had put on a condom without realizing it. He didn't know that his intentional or unintentional expression today might become the root of the internal strife of the Pei family in the future, but Pei Jun did not show any expression. He gently said to his son: "Since Uncle Cui asked you to stay, then you can serve the marquis aside!"

Pei Mingyuan agreed and stood aside with his hands down. At this time, the two maids laid thick cushions on the couch and brought them hot tea. Cui Yuan picked up the tea cup and took a sip. A warm current merged into his belly, making him feel extremely comfortable. He nodded and smiled: "On a cold winter night, a pot of charcoal fire and a cup of hot tea are enough!"

"Brother Cui was recovering from his injuries and came to visit him in the rain. Pei Jun was very grateful. I wonder if Brother Cui has something important?" Pei stopped exchanging greetings, and he went straight to the point.

"Actually, there is nothing big. I've been upset about the court recently, so I came to find Brother Pei to play a game of chess."

"Play chess?" Pei Jun smiled knowingly. He turned around and nodded to Pei Mingyuan. Pei Mingyuan immediately took the chessboard and chess jar from the bookshelf. Pei Jun pushed Bai Zi in front of Cui Yuan and smiled and said, "Brother Cui is the first, I will follow the trend, so I should let Brother Cui go first."

"It's still the same old saying, it's better to obey your orders than respect." Cui Yuan took the chess and set a piece on his left corner first. Then Pei Jun also set a piece on his right corner. Both of them stopped talking, and their chess was flying, and their faces gradually became extremely serious.

Pei Mingyuan next to him became more and more frightened. It was not because the two of them were fighting fiercely. On the contrary, it was because they played too strangely. According to ordinary chess, they should be tit-for-tat and fight against each other. They would be very cautious when taking every step. But these two people played chess, even if they went on one side, the other party didn't even raise their eyelids. In the end, the chess face turned half black and half white, just like two children playing chess pieces, but these two people were the most powerful right-hand ministers in the Tang Dynasty.

Pei Mingyuan suddenly realized that there was no chessboard in front of him, it was clearly the land in Hedong, the Cui family was in the south, the Pei family was in the north, the chess pieces in their hands were the army, and the real place to compete was in the middle. Pei Mingyuan's eyes immediately stared at the long blank place in the middle, especially the small piece in the middle, which should be Taiyuan.

"Brother Pei, Your Majesty has been gone for ten days, but he still has a coffin in Tai Chi Palace. This is really a shame for us ministers. Your Majesty will not be buried for one day, and the situation in the court will be tense for one day. All officials are in danger, which is not conducive to the stability of our Tang Dynasty country. I think you should immediately bury Your Majesty and let the prince ascend the throne. What do you think?"

Cui Yuan said while his hand was on the blank space on the left. Pei Jun no longer played the other side of the chess, but he also played a piece close to the white chess.

"I've actually been wondering whether it's appropriate for us to agree to His Majesty to make a three-year-old child the crown prince. Now His Majesty is unfortunately leaving halfway. The crown prince is young, so Empress Cui will naturally be the empress dowager's power to supervise the country. Everything else is easy to say. I just worry that the right prime minister and the empress dowager are both surnamed Cui, which will make people all over the world discuss the prime minister, and may damage the reputation of the prime minister."

After Pei Jun said this, he didn't wait for Cui Yuanlu to make a fuss and played ten pieces in a row. The black chess took half of the blank strip in the middle. Cui Yuan smiled and did not stop the other party from playing chess without following the rules. Instead, he handed over the left part to Pei Jun.

Pei Mingyuan nodded secretly. If he read it correctly, his father would have occupied this area, Fenyang County and Fenyin County. The land was extremely fertile and was known as the granary in Jinzhong.

At this moment, there is still one on the chessboard in the middle and the right. The one on the right should be Jiangjun and Lujun. Jiangjun is a densely populated area, while Lujun is the Taihang Mountains. Although the population is small, it is close to Hebei and its strategic location is very important.

Cui Yuan gave up a son in Jiangjun first. He smiled faintly and said, "The Empress Dowager is the Empress Dowager, the Right Prime Minister is the Right Prime Minister. My Tang Dynasty is the country rather than the family. It is actually okay if everyone's surname is Cui. It was only when I heard that the Prime Minister Pei took over tens of thousands of soldiers from the Anbei Protectorate. When it was reported, I thought that Prince Pei had expanded the establishment of Fanyang Jiedushi without authorization, which gave me a headache."

Without waiting for Pei Jun to make a move, he gave three sons in a row and took the densely populated Jiangjun into his pocket. Then he smiled and said, "Duan Xiushi's food is sparse, and he really can't support 80,000 troops. I'll give this cheap to Pei Xiang."

Pei Jun was not showing any weakness. He also found his three sons and occupied the Lu County next to Hebei. He smiled coldly and said, "In fact, since Brother Cui was using Chenliu, why did he leave five thousand troops to guard it? It would make people think of it. Is it a story of false attack on Guo again?"

It was related to each other's personal interests, and they no longer gave in. At this time, their eyes fell on the small open space in the middle, where was Taiyuan, the northern capital. They held the chess at the same time, but they couldn't let go. After a while, they froze back the chess in their hands.

Cui Yuan smiled faintly and said, "Justice Pei mentioned that the prince was young and was not suitable. In fact, this was fine. He asked the good teacher to teach me carefully from his youth, so that I would be a kind and virtuous king in the future. However, the Minister of Rites Zhang Potian was humble and had shallow knowledge. Compared with Zhang Ruohao, I thought that how could the ministers of the Tang Dynasty be decided by a family? It was because the emperor was not good to object. But now the emperor was no longer there, so I had to mention this matter again. I was going to hold a cabinet meeting to remove Zhang Potian from his post as the subordinate of the Secretariat and the Secretary of the Central Committee and retain his Grand Marshal. I wonder if Pei Xiang agreed?"

Pei Mingyuan next to him sighed in his heart, saying that people say strength is the capital to gain a foothold, and this is not false at all. Hedong has been divided up by Cui Pei and the two families, and the Zhang family is out of the way, so naturally they cannot squeeze into the cabinet. It is reasonable that Zhang Potian fell again.

Pei Jun nodded. He understood Cui Yuan's meaning. Since Zhang Potian was married, there must be someone to replace him. This new Minister of Rites formed a bear paw and a fish with Taiyuan, and both cannot be obtained.

"I agree with Cui Xiang's opinion that Zhang Potian should be out of the box, but I wonder if I can recommend one person?" In Pei Jun's opinion, Taiyuan is a fish, and the Minister of Rites is a bear's paw, so he naturally wants to abandon the fish and take the bear's paw.

Cui Yuan had a long time ago, and the situation in the court was about balance. Only balance could be stable. Now he already has a king, the Yang family is in hand, the Wei family is central, and Pei Jun only has the Chu family in Huainan, so this new Minister of Rites must be given to Pei Jun.

Cui Yuan now needs a stable situation to digest the benefits he has gained, so he smiled slightly and filled the five chess pieces in his hand together. "I agree that Pei Xiangguo will recommend the new Minister of Rites."

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Cui Yuan had already said goodbye and left, but the chess was still not collected. Pei Jun looked at the chessboard silently with his hands behind his back. Pei Mingyuan stood behind him. He did not dare to disturb his father's contemplation. After a long time, Pei Jun gently picked up the five white chess that occupied Taiyuan. Taiyuan was still in the hands of the Zhang family, and there were still 30,000 Hedong troops that had not been resolved. It was still too early to say it.

Zhang Potian left Chang'an and rushed to Hedong five days ago, but could not leave Tongguan. He had no choice but to return to Chang'an. In this way, Taiyuan became the fish on the chopping board. Pei Jun frowned slightly, "The Hedong Army is a powerful elite army. Do you really want to give it to Cui Yuan?"

Pei Jun glanced at Pei Mingyuan from the corner of his eyes, and saw that he seemed to have some understanding, so he smiled faintly and asked, "Tell me, how should we take this move?"

Pei Mingyuan nodded, and he tore off a corner from a piece of red paper, kneaded it into a ball, and slapped it on the blank space in Taiyuan. "This chess piece is neither black nor white. Since my father is determined to get the position of Minister of Rites, it is best not to interfere in Taiyuan again, then we might as well take this move."
Chapter completed!