Chapter 268: The wind and rain are coming (Part 1)

In the past two days, the same news was circulating in the streets and alleys of Chang'an, teahouses and restaurants. Li Zhengji of Shuofang would retake Zhu Li's path and separatist the other side, which made the last few days of Xuanren's sixth year quite restless. Just when the news that Li Zhengji might rebel had not yet subsided, a real major event that many people witnessed broke out again on the streets of Chang'an. Cui Qinggong and Wang Ang, the two powerful ministers of the dynasty, had a bloody conflict on the streets, killing and wounding nearly 100 people. Cui Xiong's murder case suddenly escalated. However, the matter did not end here. Just after Qianniuwei controlled the situation for an hour, Cui Qinggong left Chang'an with his son in anger and made public statements that it would cause the Wang family to lose their sons and grandchildren. An uneasy mood began to quietly wander over Chang'an. The seventh year of Xuanren was about to come, and it might be a turbulent and uneasy year.

In front of Pei Jun's mansion, Pei Jun's second son Pei Mingyao sent Wang Ang out of the mansion. Pei Mingyao was about 30 years old. In contrast to his eldest brother Pei Mingkai, he had a slender figure, was talented, and was very sleek in his behavior. He was currently a clerk and had a low position, but he had great power. He knew the worldly style and acted very low-key. He did not become arrogant because of his own weight, nor did he appear strong because he was the heir to the head of the Pei family.

He helped Wang Ang down the steps and sighed: "Uncle Wang Shi, it is not that the head of the family does not want to intercept Cui Qinggong and his son, but is afraid of the weapons. Not only does he have two thousand elite cavalry outside the city, but his father is even more worried that his 200,000 army in Huaibei will lose control and give birth to more warlords. Uncle Shi, please understand the difficulties of my father!"

Wang Ang was obviously not very satisfied with Pei Mingyao's explanation. The plaque on his Wang family's gate was shot by Cui Qinggong. He could not bear this kind of shame and humiliation. Besides, Cui Qinggong would definitely be able to transfer troops to deal with their Wang family when he returned. Pei Jun did not mention such a crisis, but he used the excuse of being sick as an excuse to refuse to see him. Wang Ang felt a chill. He said coldly with a gloomy face: "Since Pei Xiangguo is only willing to think about Cui Qinggong, I can only solve the crisis in Xiangyang by myself. Please tell Pei Xiangguo that I will also rush back to Xiangyang to deploy. I will not be able to attend the New Year's ceremony."

Pei Mingyao was shocked. He grabbed Wang Ang's wrist and begged: "Uncle Shi, please think twice. How can my father not consider Uncle Shi's interests? You must not be impulsive in this matter."

"Think about my interests? But how can I see that Pei Xiangguo is doing something that hurts his relatives and his enemies are happy. Sorry! I have to leave." After saying that, Wang Ang pushed Pei Mingyao away and strode down the steps. Pei Mingyao looked at Wang Ang's carriage away, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart. It was raining all night!

Just as he was about to return home, he saw a young man standing next to him, holding a letter in his hand. He looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it. The young man stepped forward and bowed, "I'm Niu Sengru, it's Zhang Shangshu's clerk. Zhang Shangshu ordered me to send a letter to Pei Xiang."

Pei Mingyao remembered that he had seen him and had sent him a document from Zhang Huan at the door of the school. He quickly bowed and smiled, "It turns out that it is Brother Niu. Thank you so much for your hard work. It's just that Pei Xiangzheng was lying in bed sick and it's not suitable to meet guests. I'll tell you this letter on my behalf! Is that okay?"

Seeing that he was polite, Niu Sengru hurriedly handed the letter to him, "I dare not, the letter is here. Shangshu Zhang may have something urgent to do, so please hand it over to the Prime Minister."

Pei Mingyao took the letter, smiled and bowed Niu Sengru, turned around and entered the door. As soon as he entered the door, the smile on his face disappeared instantly. He hummed disdainfully and looked at Zhang Huan's letter. The letter was not banned. Pei Mingyao naturally pulled out the letter and opened it. The content in the letter was very simple, with only one sentence: "Li Zhengji has killed the deputy envoy Sang Ping, please pay attention."

Pei Mingyao frowned, and he also understood what Zhang Huan meant, that is, Li Zhengji was about to rebel, and Chang'an had already caused a lot of controversy, so why did he need to explain it?

Moreover, Uncle Pei Si explained to his father about this matter in the morning. This may be because Zhang Huan released the rumor and wanted to find an excuse to enter Shuofang. Now his father is waiting for trouble and unfortunately fell ill. How could he take this matter out and cause trouble? Does Zhang Huan think it is not enough to add fuel to the fire? Pei Mingyao sneered, tear Zhang Huan's letter in half, pinched it into a ball and threw it into the corner of the wall, and quickly walked back to his father's room, but as soon as he left, a man in a gray robe quickly walked out from behind the house, picked up the letter, and limped away.

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It was about last night that Pei Jun fell ill and was very ill. Yesterday, during the day, Cui Qinggong and Wang Ang's streets were in a hot air and completely tore open his fragile power curtain. Finally, he actually watched Cui Qinggong leave Chang'an with his son. In the past few days, the desolation of the court has mocked his authority in another way. Not only did officials from the third rank, but almost five rank or above went home for the New Year a few days in advance, but also included many Pei Party members. They were not only slacking off in official duties, but more of them expressed their dissatisfaction with him, Pei Jun's monopoly of power.

The law did not blame the public. Faced with the pause of the operation of the court, Pei Jun was helpless. The abnormal mobilization of the Jianghuai army opposite, Pei Jun was not only warned, but also warned. Under the torture of internal and external distress, Pei Jun finally fell ill.

The room was very quiet, filled with a strong smell of medicine. Pei Jun lay tiredly on the bed, his cheeks were deep and his eyes were closed. These days he had been considering the root cause of the chaos in the court. It seemed that everyone was against him, and there was nothing wrong with the concentration of power itself. For hundreds of years, power has been concentrated in the hands of a few people. So why did hundreds of years of political traditions appear in a precarious situation?

It should be said that he knew very well what the problem was. At the very end, it was still a problem of power distribution, including the monarchy, various interest groups, local interests and the interests of the court. When this game of interest lost balance, various hidden contradictions and crises suddenly broke out.

"Father!" Pei Mingyao's voice came from beside him, interrupting Pei Jun's thoughts. He opened his eyes slightly and asked, "Has he left?"

"He left, but he threatened that if his father did not detain Cui Qinggong, he would return to Xiangyang immediately."

"Idiot who doesn't know the overall situation!" Pei Jun opened his eyes and cursed quietly. Zhang Ruohao once told him that Wang Ang was a household dog. He thought about it all day long and was about how to keep his two acres of land. He never considered the overall situation. Now it seems that this is true. He quelled Cui Qinggong's attack for him. Not only did he be ungrateful, but he forced himself more and more.

"Have you told him that if something happened to Cui Qinggong, the situation in Jianghuai will deteriorate immediately? I also have garrisons of 80,000 troops in Nanyang to prevent Cui Qinggong from attacking Xiangyang. Don't he know?"

"The child told him, but he was very emotional and couldn't listen at all." After hesitating, Pei Mingyao said carefully again: "Father, the child has an idea, I wonder if his father is willing to listen?"

Pei Jun glanced at him and said unhappily: "Didn't you always claim to be able to make decisions about major issues? Why are you rude and snoring now?"

"Yes! The child was thinking that it is not necessary to detain Cui Qinggong or even kill him. Even if his subordinates rebel, their strength will be dispersed. We can defeat them one by one and simply solve the Jianghuai cancer in one fell swoop. Wouldn't it be a one-time solution?"

"Where is Li Xilie, what about Li Huaixian? Are you also defeating one by one? Cui Qinggong's men rebelled, how sure are you to annihilate them all? Do you understand his military status? Who has his generals under him have many soldiers, and how much do you know? If Jianghuai is chaotic by military disasters, what does that mean to my Tang Dynasty?"

Pei Jun became more and more excited as he spoke. He sat upright and stared at Pei Mingyao with a stern expression and said, "If killing them can solve the problem, why don't I kill Zhang Huan? Don't kill Zhu Li! Do you know how many troops can be mobilized by the government? Pei Jiashizhong, things are not as simple as you think!"

Pei Mingyao was so stern that he kowtowed to the ground. He kowtowed repeatedly, "The child knew his mistake, please calm down and ask his father to save his health!"

Pei Jun's chest was fluctuating violently. He shook his head and looked at Pei Mingyao disappointedly. He did not ask his son to consider the overall situation like himself. The key is that he did not have a compassionate heart for the people. After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty was extremely weak. After more than ten years of rest and recuperation, the national strength began to gradually recover. Especially the Jianghuai area was the capital of the court, which maintained the survival of the entire Tang Dynasty. Although Cui Qinggong was barbaric, he was from a noble family after all. At most, he wanted to be king in one side, and did not have the ambition to annex the Tang Dynasty, nor did he expel local officials, and he was in a vain. However, his generals were all rebellious, including Zhou Li in Qiao County, Tian Mingzhen in Xuchang, Yang Hao in Wuyang, and Ma Dawei in Fu Li, who were not holding tens of thousands of troops, and were ambitious to imitate Li Huaixian and Li Xilie.

Once Cui Qinggong is in trouble, countless Zhu Xiao will emerge. At that time, it will not only be a catastrophe for the Jianghuai River, but also a fatal blow to the entire Tang Dynasty.

"Go! I want to rest." Pei Jun waved tiredly and ordered his son to go out.

Pei Mingyao didn't dare to say anything, so he stood up and went quietly. Pei Jun closed his eyes and didn't want to think about anything. Soon, the sky gradually became dark and the room became very dark. Suddenly, Pei Jun was awakened by a slight sound of footsteps again. He was not the concubine who came to light the lamp.

“Didn’t I tell you not to disturb my rest?”

"Father, it's me. I have an important thing to report to my father." This is the voice of the eldest son Pei Mingkai.

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The night gradually enveloped Chang'an City, and it was one day closer to the New Year, as if it was particularly quiet before the storm. On the eve of the New Year, the night in Chang'an became quieter, and there was no longer the hustle and bustle of the previous few days. Especially in the west city of Chang'an, most of them had all the New Year's goods, and there were very few pedestrians coming to shop. Many shops simply closed early to take stock and began to settle the harvest of the year.

There is a restaurant called Qinling Restaurant at the gate of Xishi City. It is only considered to be medium-level in terms of scale, but the restaurant market is very good. There are a large number of people coming and going every day, and many of them are merchants from Xishi City. It is precisely because of the special attention of merchants to various news that this Qinling Restaurant has become a famous news distribution place in Chang'an.

There are fewer and fewer customers, and the Qinling Restaurant is also about to close. More than a dozen guys are cleaning the store tiredly, and what are they muttering?

"I'm so tired every day that I'm paying such a little wage. I'm going to do odd jobs for people!"

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"That's right, I heard that other restaurants will send red envelopes at the end of the year, and we don't even see a shadow here. We are so stingy."

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"Stay early and get off early, what's there to complain about?" The shopkeeper was so troubled by the guys that he miscalculated several times. He simply stopped writing and scolded everyone unhappily, "At least I can't be hungry to do things here, and didn't see the rice price rising again twenty cents?"

When the shopkeeper saw the shopkeeper speak, they didn't dare to say anything. After cleaning the restaurant, they all dispersed. The shopkeeper was about to close the door but suddenly found someone hiding in the corner. After a closer look, it was a shopkeeper in the store. He didn't come in the morning and looked around and didn't see him.

"Shan Erlang! What are you doing?" The shopkeeper rushed up, grabbed his ear, dragged him into the store. He was about to scold him fiercely, but he saw that he was covered in dry grass and blood stains on his body. The shopkeeper was shocked, "What's wrong with you? What's wrong with you!"

The guy named Shan Erlang looked around nervously and whispered: "Don't ask, can you pay me my salary this month? Someone wants to kill me."

"Murder!" The shopkeeper's face turned pale. At this moment, the guy in front of him immediately became a plague god. He didn't dare to ask more questions. He grabbed a few stakes of money and stuffed it into his hands, and urged him repeatedly, "It's only more, no more, you go quickly!"

Shan Erlang thanked him, and slipped out like a mouse against the wall. Shan Erlang was from Chengdu. He came to Chang'an to work at the beginning of the year. He was recruited into a Qinling restaurant because of his neat words. His life was too ordinary, but at noon the day before yesterday, two people found him and asked him to spread some news. The price was three stagnant money. Shan Erlang was greedy for small profits and agreed and spared no effort to promote the news that Li Zheng was about to rebel.

Unexpectedly, when he was paying money at night, he suddenly recognized one of them as a listener from the Shu Palace. When he met an old friend in a foreign land, he was stunned for a moment and wanted to recognize his fellow villager with the other party, but he ended up killing.

He was stabbed, but finally reacted quickly and jumped into the river and fled. He was scared for a day and could not stay there. He decided to go back to Chengdu, so he slipped back to the restaurant to ask for wages. Next, he had to go to his residence to get twenty coins he had saved in the past six months.

Shan Erlang lived near the restaurant. He rented a bungalow and walked two miles from the restaurant.

The yard gate was closed, and the owner seemed to have already gone to bed. The window was pitch black. Shan Erlang did not dare to yell. He climbed over the wall and entered the yard. The yard was very quiet. The dog that had been barking in the past did not come forward to meet him. His scalp became numb, and he curled up in the corner of the wall and did not dare to move. His eyes were staring at the door of his room. For about a quarter of an hour, there was no movement.

Although he felt something was wrong, he didn't want to give up twenty coins of hard-earned money. After a while, there was still no movement. Shan Erlang finally plucked up the courage to slowly touch the door.

‘Squeak!’ The door slowly opened, and there was a pale moonlight in the room. The curtains were swaying gently, as if a man was hanging in the air. He squatted down and saw the box containing money under the bed. Shan Erlang swallowed, crawled in with his hands and feet.

Suddenly, his heart stopped beating. He saw a pair of feet under the curtains. His scalp exploded. He screamed, turned around and ran away. But it was too late. Five or six people stood in the yard, each holding a knife in his hand, looking at him coldly, with blood on the knife.

Two people also walked out of the room behind him, blocking all his retreat.

"I didn't say anything to anyone!" Shan Erlang was so scared that he trembled all over and begged: "Please spare my life."
To be continued...