Chapter 211: The stranger of Zhongnan

"Who!" The sudden warning made Zhang Huan and his entourage immediately nervous. The eighteen special guards had swept into the darkness like a gust of wind. After a moment, a man was pushed out from the darkness of the city gate. He was about fifty years old, his hair was half white, his clothes were old, and he looked a little down-and-out, but his eyes were extremely bright, with a rebellious sneer.

Several personal soldiers searched behind him and pushed him in front of Zhang Huan. Zhang Huan pointed at him with a whip and said, "Who are you? Why do you make amazing words?"

The man did not answer, looked at the sky with his hands behind his back, as if he had not heard it. Lin Jiuhan behind Zhang Huan was furious, and swung the whip and slapped him. Zhang Huan had no intention of stopping him, and looked at the whip coldly, and the man was indifferent, glanced at Zhang Huan sideways and sneered.

When the whip was only one inch above his head, the ground shrank back again, Lin Jiuhan grinned. He was Zhang Huan's personal guard leader, how could he be so reckless? It was just a temptation.

Zhang Huan nodded slightly, glanced at the personal soldiers on both sides, and walked forward in the carriage guarding Cui Ning, walking more than a dozen steps, and Lin Jiuhan said behind him: "Sir, please come with me!"

Guo County has a large city. Since the mid-Tang Dynasty, it still retains the structure of the Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods. A north-south central axis divides the county into two, with neat roads and scattered houses. Administrative education institutions such as county governments and libraries are in the north, while various commercial shops are in the south. At this time, it was dark and there were not many pedestrians on the road in the cold night.

County Magistrate Chen had arranged accommodation for Zhang Huan and his party, which was received by the largest Guocheng Inn in the county. The people who were originally staying were persuaded to go elsewhere, and the entire inn was booked by Zhang Huan's people.

Seeing that County Magistrate Chen was inquiring about everything and making great arrangements, Zhang Huan smiled and thanked him: "Mr. Chen, it's too late, so I won't bother you. Go back! We will leave tomorrow morning."

County Magistrate Chen repeatedly instructed the inn shopkeeper, and saw that he really didn't need him anymore, so he bowed and said, "Then I will go back first. If the envoy Zhang has any requests, he can directly send someone to the county yamen courtyard to look for me."

After saying that, he bowed to Zhang Huan again and then slowly retreated. At this time, Cui Ning got off the carriage, looked at his back and smiled at Zhang Huan, "Huanlang, don't you often say that good officials are hard to find? This Chen County Magistrate is good, why don't you second him to Longyou?"

"It's not about whether an official is good or not, but about the people. It's simple to know what kind of official he is. Find some details and observe it."

Seeing that Cui Ning was only single and did not take care of his maid, Zhang Huan smiled and said, "If you are interested, I will take you to buy two maids tomorrow. Let's go and touch the details of this County Magistrate Chen."

Cui Ning nodded, smiled, and followed Zhang Huan into the inn. Guo County is located on the shore of the Wei River. There are a lot of materials and merchants, which also makes the inns here very large. Guocheng Inn covers an active area and has hundreds of houses that can accommodate thousands of people at the same time. There are as many as a hundred people in the store. However, it is winter now, the Wei River has frozen, and the boats are not enough. In addition, it is the New Year again, so the original business of the inn is also very deserted. Zhang Huan and his party arrives, and the inn immediately makes the inn lively.

Zhang Huan and Cui Ning live in an elegant courtyard. This place seems to be the back garden of a wealthy family, with strange flowers and trees everywhere, rockery fish ponds, which look deep and quiet.

There are four suites in the private courtyard, all of which are gorgeously decorated. One of them is the VIP room in the entire inn, which is only for guests with special identities and is rarely opened. Today, the arrival of the Longyou Jiedushi made this VIP room open at the beginning of the new year.

This is a suite with four or five rooms, luxuriously decorated and spotlessly cleaned. The innermost room is the dormitory, the middle is the living room, the next to it is a small study room, and the outermost room is the reception room. Cui Ning worked hard all the way and felt a little uncomfortable, so he went into the inner room to clean up.

Zhang Huan sat in the living room and said to his personal soldiers: "Bring him in!"

After a moment, several personal soldiers led the lie person up. The personal soldiers were polite to him and did not make things difficult for him. The man walked into the room and quickly stepped forward and bowed slightly to Zhang Huan, "Hu Yong, a wild man from Zhongnan Mountain, met Governor Zhang."

"Sir, please sit down!" Zhang Huan smiled and made a gesture. With the bright light, he looked at the amazing person again. Although he was old-fashioned, he had a slender figure and a white face. Especially the long beard under his jaw was one foot long, which looked very out of the world and had a bit of fairy temperament.

‘Hu Yong?’ Zhang Huan silently recited the name twice, and never heard of it. Although he was an unknown person, his knowledge of Pei Jun’s purpose of ordering him to come to Fengxiang was unusual.

Zhang Huan did not dare to look down on him, so he asked, "Mr. Hu has been to Chang'an recently?"

"I've been in Fengxiang for a year and haven't been to Chang'an?"

Zhang Huan smiled and asked, "Since the teacher has not gone to Chang'an, how do you know that Pei Xiang wants to replace Cui Xiang? How can you know that I came to Fengxiang to give way to force Cui Xiang? Could it be that Mr. has the trick of ghosts and gods?"

He asked three questions in a row, and of course he knew that Hu Yong did not have any magical skills. He was either a wise man or Pei Jun's spy. However, even if he was Pei Jun's spy, Pei Jun would never tell him such a major secret. It was because Zhang Huan understood this that he was full of curiosity.

Hu Yong raised his head and smiled, "I don't have any magic tricks, I just concluded from various signs that have happened recently."

Seeing Zhang Huan smiled but didn't say anything, he continued to say: "The Helong Incident made Cui Yuan's power advantage just obtained by Cui and Wei alliances no longer exist overnight, and the defeat in Shuzhong ruined Cui Yuan's authority and even became ill. Pei Jun was the biggest beneficiary of these two great changes in the Tang Dynasty. Not only did he gain the upper hand in the cabinet, but his military strength was also severely unbalanced in Guanzhong. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him to replace Cui Yuan as the right prime minister. He is not a good man and a trustworthy woman. How could he miss this opportunity? So I was wondering whether he would take advantage of Fengxiang's weak defense and force Cui Yuan to give way? It happened that two things happened today. One was the pension issue that caused dissatisfaction between the army, and the second was the governor who led two thousand people back to Fengxiang, so I guess this was most likely the governor who wanted to take Fengxiang."

"Why did sir, I came to Fengxiang to use force? I just passed by Fengxiang when I returned to Longyou. It was just dark. I stayed overnight. What's so strange about this?" Zhang Huan asked without saying a word.

"It is of course normal for the governor to go back to Longyou to pass by Fengxiang, but the time is not right." Hu Yong smiled confidently and said, "Five days ago, the governor passed Fengxiang to Chang'an, and came back five days later. That means that the governor had only been in Chang'an for one day, which should be the first day of the first lunar month, and the whole country would rest on the first day of the first lunar month, so naturally there was no report on his duties. The situation in Longyou was calm. If there was an urgent matter, he would not rest in Fengxiang. Then the governor please tell me that he had only been in Chang'an for one day, and he did not even participate in the report on his duties, so he rushed to Fengxiang. Why is that?"

Zhang Huan didn't speak for a long time. Although he was just a guess and had no evidence, his broad thinking and accurate grasp of the court made him look at him with admiration. He suddenly felt a sense of love for talent. Since Li Mi refused to come to Hexi with him, he had always lacked clever counselors around him. Although Du Mei was good, he had a narrow vision and a poor overall view. He could not help him in many aspects. As for Meng Jiao and others, they were just white-faced scholars, and they could only organize documents for him. They were far-reaching. They were far-reaching today. They met Hu Yong by chance, and they were the ones they needed urgently. And he took the initiative to stop him, which meant that he was willing to join in.

However, although Zhang Huan was very moved, he wanted to test Hu Yong again. After pondering and smiling, Zhang Huan asked him frankly: "Mr. I just talked about the general trend of the world and had a unique vision. Can you analyze it for me again, how should I play chess in the overall situation of the world in the future?"

Hu Yong had long been confident about this. He smiled faintly and said, "If the governor wants to think of the next trick, he must first understand the situation in the chessboard. The pattern of the aristocratic family's government has been calm for seventeen years. The seven major families have their own forces. The strong ones are the right prime minister first, Pei and Cui, and then Cui, and then rotate downwards. This has always been the case. However, since the Uighurs invaded the south the year before yesterday, the strength of the Wei family was severely weakened, and the rotation system of the prime minister was broken. Cui Yuan used various means to be the right prime minister again. Then the emperor passed away and the weak lord ascended the throne. It seems that the aristocratic family's government still exists. In fact, the aristocratic family's government has been in name only, but has become a powerful government government. Who's the reality

If he is strong, he will have more power. Cui Yuan also saw the seriousness of this problem. In order to maintain this aristocratic government, he modified the family system, which allowed a large number of aristocratic children to enter the court to serve as officials, deprived the children of poor families of them to become officials, and also suppressed the resurgence of the Li family, causing serious confrontation in the court. It can be said that this incident is the root of the current great changes in the court. This is why Zhu Li's rebellion in Shu developed extremely rapidly, and Zhang Envoy had the opportunity to occupy Helong. Therefore, I dare to assert that the Tang Dynasty would enter an era of drastic changes," he said.

Hu Yong's profound insight shocked Zhang Huan. He stood up without hesitation and bowed deeply to Hu Yong, "Sir, great talent, Zhang Huan is disrespectful!"

Hu Yong quickly replied the gift, and he said frankly: "I am not to hide it from the governor. I was originally aide to Prince Yu. During the palace coup 17 years ago, I was in Fengxiang's supervision of the grain. When the prince died, I became a wanted criminal of the court. I had no choice but to escape into Zhongnan Mountain in anonymously. It was not until ten years ago that I left Zhongnan Mountain and began to travel around the world. Last summer, I accidentally met Li Mi in Pengjun. Only then did I realize that the governor was really Prince Yu. After I returned to Fengxiang immediately, I paid attention to your every move. Until you took the opportunity to occupy Longyou this time, I knew that the time for me to come out again."

"It turns out that Mr. Hu is my elder!" Zhang Huan was very moved. His predecessors planted trees and later took advantage of the cool air. Who said that his father did not leave his own inheritance? Li Fei Yuanli, Xin Yunjing and other veterans of Guanlong, Li Mi and Hu Yong, and other long-scheming counselors, as well as Li Mian and other ministers in the court, were all valuable treasures left to him by his father.

He immediately half-kneeled and gave a big gift to Hu Yong, "Please help me with sir!"

"Young Master can't do it!" Hu Yong hurriedly helped Zhang Huan up. He silently stared at Prince Yu's son, with tears flashing in his eyes. It's been seventeen years! He thought he would be the last of his life, but he didn't expect that he could serve his lord again.

He respectfully helped Zhang Huan sit down, but he knelt down solemnly and kowtowed to him three times: "I, Hu Yong, are willing to serve the lord, and are loyal. If you violate this oath, the gods and men will kill each other!"

"Sir, please sit down and talk." Zhang Huan happily accepted Hu Yong's allegiance, and then asked him to sit down and said frankly to him: "Sir, the guess is right. I was indeed entrusted by Pei Xiangzhi to pick Fengxiang, but I have decided to give up this action and go directly to Longyou."

"Why?" Hu Yong was a little surprised. He asked quickly: "Did the governor plan to give up Pei Jun's big tree?"

Zhang Huan nodded silently. After a while, he suddenly smiled coldly and said, "Although Pei is my father-in-law, he once said that he intended to help me ascend, but these have a premise, that is, I cannot threaten his power. In fact, I know very well that although he opposes the government of aristocratic families, his real purpose is just to turn the equal power of the seven families into one to dominate the court. His position as prime minister can never be lost, so he will never really want to help me ascend. He is like Cui Yuan, who wants to support a weak lord ascend the throne and control the court."

Speaking of this, Zhang Huan let out a long sigh and said: "The birds are gone, and the good bows are hidden; the cunning rabbits die, and the lackeys are cooked. If I really help him get the right prime minister, I am afraid that my own chance will be gone. Therefore, letting the Cui family continue to be the right prime minister and maintain the balance of power in the court may not be a bad thing for me."

According to Zhang Huan's personality, he would never say these words to his subordinates. However, since Hu Yong is a newcomer, if he doesn't show any real skills, the other party will probably underestimate him. After saying these words, he raised his eyes to Hu Yong, waiting for him to continue to explain his chess-playing method.

Hu Yong secretly admired Zhang Huan's words. No wonder he was able to seize the Wei family's foundation in a short period of time. As expected, he knew that Zhang Huan did not tell him everything. For example, if he wanted to maintain the balance of power in the court, it was not enough not to accept Pei Jun's task. He must have some actions, and he did not tell himself about this.

However, Hu Yong did not care about Zhang Huan's retention. As a lord, if he told his subordinates about everything, he would lose the mystery of the leader; on the contrary, as a subordinate, if he concealed his lord, that would be a taboo.

Hu Yong smiled slightly and continued, "I don't know how the court appeased the governor. As far as I think, the court may let the governor go to Beijing to become an official and incorporate the governor into the official game of power."

Zhang Huan suddenly thought of Pei Jun's words, and he smiled and said, "Mr. Nai, is it better to be an official in Beijing or not?"

"Of course it's going to Beijing!" Hu Yong said without hesitation: "I prefer to go to Beijing to become an official, so that I can lay a good foundation for myself, but it won't work now."

"Why can't it work now?" Zhang Huan asked.

"Now the governor has just occupied Longyou and entered Beijing as an official. It will leave a bad impression of a powerful person on the court and the country, which will be very unfavorable to the reputation of the governor. On the contrary, if the governor seized Hehuang or Hexi and became a hero of the Tang Dynasty, then not only will he take advantage of the bad influence of the Shu chaos to seize Longyou, but the whole country will also think that the governor should enter Longyou. At that time, he will become an official again. Wouldn't he be able to take advantage of the east wind to rise?"
Chapter completed!