On the evening of the day when we returned to Dongdu again, Pei Hongce, who had pulled Chen Yingliang first more than two years ago, finally appeared, and he brought his only son Pei Xingfang to visit Chen Yingliang, a distant nephew, even though he already had a cousin by blood, Chen Yingliang. He still respects Pei Hongce as a good uncle, and he doesn't put on airs of a villain who is successful in the officialdom. As soon as he met him, he hurriedly saluted Pei Hongce as a junior respectfully and called him uncle.
"Nephew, you don't need to be too polite, please hurry up, please hurry up." Smiling and helping Chen Yingliang, Pei Hongce looked at his distant nephew and praised without opening: "You have grown taller and stronger, and you have grown up." You are a young man, yes, you are much stronger than when I first saw you, at that time, you were skinny and your face was pale, so you are as strong as you are now?"
"It's all thanks to my uncle's support." Chen Yingliang quickly drank water and thought about the source, and said, "If uncle hadn't been the first to pull my nephew back then, how would my nephew be where he is today?"
"It's all about you." Pei Hongce laughed, and Pei Xingfang couldn't wait to say: "Brother, do you know? When I heard that you were appointed as the coach of King Qin by His Majesty, my father was so surprised that he even dropped his brush At the table, I later heard that brother, you defeated the Turks and captured Shibi Chieftain alive. My father was so shocked that he even dropped his chopsticks, and my younger brother almost choked to death on the food. How did you do it? How can you be so amazing?"
"Do your best, just add a little luck."
Chen Yingliang smiled modestly, and hurriedly praised Pei Xingfang for growing taller and soon to be able to succeed Pei Hongce, but Pei Xingfang was not interested in this topic at all, and asked impatiently: "Brother, what do you give the imperial court this time?" What kind of reward does His Majesty give you for making such great contributions? Is it possible to enter the court and become an official and stay in the Eastern Capital? My younger brother really wants to learn more about culture and martial arts from you."
This topic is the last thing Chen Yingliang wants to bring up at the moment, but since Pei Xingfang asked, Chen Yingliang has to answer, and this is something that will be announced to the public sooner or later, so Chen Yingliang hesitated for a while, and said with a wry smile: "My dear brother , as you wish, I will be stationed in Dongdu in the future, and His Majesty has appointed me General Youwuwei."
"General Youwuwei?" Pei Xingfang was tongue-tied, and said, "That's a senior official of the third rank, my father is only the fourth rank, brother, how old are you, the official position is already higher than my father's?"
"General Youwuwei?!" Pei Hongce was also taken aback, and hurriedly asked, "Is it a rumor? Or has His Majesty already appointed you personally?"
"Uncle, was it sealed by His Majesty himself, or in front of the accompanying officials." Chen Yingliang answered truthfully.
Pei Xingfang became even more joyful, and hurriedly expressed his congratulations to Chen Yingliang, but Pei Hongce was not happy. On the contrary, he had a worried expression on his face, and said, "It's too high. It's not very beneficial for you to hold such a high position at such a young age. And..., nephew, you Uncle Pei Renji, what's your attitude towards this?"
"Uncle Renji hasn't had much communication with my nephew." Chen Yingliang replied with his head bowed: "On the contrary, Uncle Pei Ju and Uncle Pei Yun have given advice to my nephew and told my nephew to be careful with his relationship with Uncle Renji. Otherwise, Pei Ju Even if uncle is the head of the Pei family, it will be difficult to mediate."
Hearing Chen Yingliang's words, Pei Xingfang, who is only seventeen years old, was of course taken aback. Fortunately, Pei Hongce taught Pei Xingfang well. Although Pei Xingfang was strange, he didn't ask casually. He chose to keep his mouth shut. Pei Hongce nodded, and said with a gloomy face: "Your two uncles gave you the right advice. Nephew, you may not know that your Uncle Renji is eyeing the position of General You Wuwei. It’s not just a day or two, but in order to get what he wanted, he did not hesitate to cooperate with Yu Wenshu to bring down Li Hun…”
Speaking of this, Pei Hongce hesitated to speak, while Chen Yingliang asked, "Uncle, what is the inside story of this matter? I wonder if uncle can let my nephew know?"
After hesitating for a while, Pei Hongce said: "Now you are also a party, so it's good to let you know, but don't spread it. My grandfather and Brother Renji's grandfather are blood brothers, so I Know some secrets—your Uncle Renji was once the favorite general and right-hand man of the former Youwuwei General Li Jing and Li Zhuguo, and also served as the chief Hu Benlang of Youwuwei. Mohe made great contributions to Youwuwei, and later Li Zhuguo was accidentally killed by thieves, so Brother Renji immediately set his sights on the position of General Youwuwei."
Speaking of this, Pei Hongce paused for a moment, and then said: "Brother Renji's appointments at that time were already first-rank Doctor Guanglu, regardless of rank, seniority or meritorious service, they were enough to take on the role of General Youwuwei." Brother Renji is determined to win this important task. Your Uncle Pei Ju also promised to take this position for Brother Renji and support him as the number one member of our Wenxi Pei family's military, but for some reason, this Things have never been as expected, brother Renji didn't say anything on the surface, but he complained in front of me in private, saying that that old sycophant Yun Dingxing relied on Yu Wenshu to become the general of Zuo Tunwei, brother Pei Ju promised him But there is still no news about it, does Brother Pei Ju have any opinion on him?"
"So what happened later." Pei Hongce lowered his voice and said in a deep voice: "Brother Renji first sued You Xiaowei General Li Hun for treason in June this year, because the case involved my deputy general Li Hun, the young prisoner. Min, Brother Renji told me the truth in private, he first sued Li Min that Yu Wenshu was behind the scenes, and the exchange was that Yu Wenshu recommended him as the Great General of Youwuwei!"
"Is there Yu Wenshu involved?" Chen Yingliang's face turned pale, and then he said in his heart: "It seems that this Pei Renji may have some problems in terms of character. I remember that he surrendered to Li Mi and surrendered again in history. Wang Shichong was killed in the end because he wanted to get out of Wang Shichong's account, offending such a person for no reason is really unlucky."
"Nephew, now do you understand how troublesome this matter is?" Pei Hongce said in a low voice again: "For the sake of the important military position of General Youwuwei, your Uncle Renji did it wickedly. But your Uncle Pei Ju directly made a private deal with Yu Wenshu, which might offend your Uncle Pei Ju, the Patriarch of the Pei family, and paid such a heavy price, but in the end let your nephew take the lead. How could he feel? "
"What's more troublesome is that I had a misunderstanding with Uncle Renji and his daughter." Chen Yingliang had a frowning face, and hurriedly asked, "Uncle, what should I do about this matter?"
"It's not easy. Even if Brother Renji and I are cousins, some things can't be said explicitly, but can only be implied." Pei Hongce frowned a little, and after thinking for a while, Pei Hongce said: "Well, after a day or two, you Prepare a gift, I will take you to meet Brother Renji, and use the excuse of being a junior to make up for the rift between you and him. Fortunately, this was just an accident, and Brother Renji is not a particularly unreasonable person. You've exhausted your etiquette, if I give him some more hints, he probably won't hold grudges against you."
"I hope so." Chen Yingliang sighed inwardly, and then prayed in his heart: "I hope that girl Pei Cuiyun will go home and stop making trouble, otherwise this matter will be even more difficult."
I chatted some gossip with Pei Hongce and his son, and reported to Pei Hongce the good news that he had become a father and was about to get married. Uncles and nephews parted happily, and the night passed quickly. In the morning of the next day, Chen Yingliang, Wang Shichong, Yun Dingxing and other main generals of King Qin's army were called into the court. The purple official uniform of Shangzheng third rank received congratulations from a group of jealous colleagues. Wang Shichong and Yun Dingxing and other meritorious ministers also received awards. The false title is not mentioned.
Next, Chen Yingliang will of course be even busier. While accepting congratulations from everyone, he has to take care of the aftermath of Qiao Peng and Sui Jun's aftermath. Then, the General Youwuwei's mansion will officially take office and meet with Dugu Sheng, Huangfu Wuyi and other former bosses. His subordinates deal with the aftermath of Youwu Weiqin Wang Dajun, during which time he must apologize to Huangfu Wuyi and Dugu Sheng and other seniors, and become their boss with trepidation, he is extremely busy—fortunately, Huangfu Wuyi has a good character, Due to the suppression of his family power in recent years, Dugu Sheng was very self-aware and did not dare to covet Chen Yingliang's position. In addition, the tiger generals headed by Liu Changgong and Xie Zichong also supported Chen Yingliang very much. The General's Mansion was finally not boycotted, and was lucky enough to get through the first difficulty.
Let’s also take a casual look at the situation of Chen Yingliang’s political enemies, overt or covert. When I saw Chen Sangliang, who was not even twenty years old, wearing a third-rank official uniform, he was forced to eat stone powder every day recently. Of course, Feng Deyi's eyes are fire-breathing, and Pei Ju and Pei Yun's opponent Yu Shiji in the court also has a bad face. He is very unhappy that the political opponent has added a heavy general. And it's nothing at all—Feng Deyi's eyes are just breathing fire, and Uncle Xiao's eyes can directly eat people!
If you want to eat people, you want to eat people. At the moment when Chen Sangliang is enjoying the spring breeze, Xiao Yu and Xiao Huaijing, the uncles of the Great Xiao Kingdom, dare not act recklessly. They can only watch the little flea Chen Yingliang fly away. Soaring to the sky, he became one of the sixteen most important generals in the Sui army, and after the imperial court disbanded, Xiao Guoshu and Xiao Guoshu didn’t even have time to get together and scold Chen Yingliang for being a villain. He also went into the palace to beg Empress Xiao and the concubine to intercede for the cousin-in-law, let them come forward to pour pillows, and begged Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty to forgive Li Yuan's big or small crimes, and spare Li Yuan from dying. Uncle's house, to understand each other's activities.
Li Er was also at Xiao Yu's home. After the Qin King War ended, Li Jiancheng handed over the military power to Fan Zigai, and he himself followed Fan Zigai to Taiyuan for reorganization and review. Dingxing's army returned to Dongdu, and then voluntarily resigned from the army and left the Zuo Tunwei army, and lived in the home of Xiao Yu, who was close to his relatives and had a good relationship, and actually participated in the rescue of Li Yuan. It is the important task of contacting the officials of the Li family.
It was getting late, uncle Xiao Guo and Li Er were discussing the rescue operation while eating. First, Xiao Yu said: "The Empress has already interceded twice on behalf of Tang Guogong. Although Your Majesty did not let him go, sister see It can be seen that His Majesty is still a little hesitant to execute Tang Guogong, Tang Guogong's niece, Empress Concubine De, has never found a chance, and once she has the opportunity, Empress Defei will definitely try her best to plead."
"Duke Dugu Zuansi, Duke of Shu, Yu Shiqian, Duke of Yan, and Yuan Wendu have also agreed to help." Xiao Huaijing also said: "It's just that His Majesty is still angry, and the Duke of Shu and the others dare not jointly sign this seal. It is said that as soon as there is a little rumor from the third envoy, they will join in the concert immediately, and implore His Majesty to spare the net and spare Tang Guogong from dying."
"What's the attitude of the third envoy? Has Tang Guogong been convicted?" Xiao Yu asked quickly.
"No, that old cunning Pei Yun keeps his mouth shut, and he hasn't leaked any information until now." Xiao Huaijing replied helplessly: "Even the Duke of Shu personally came forward to inquire about the case, that old cunning kept laughing, no Ken leaked every single word about Tang Guogong’s case, and the officials at Yushitai also secretly reported to me that Pei Yun has not yet convicted Tang Guogong.”
Xiao Yu swears a dirty word, and there is nothing he can do about Pei Yun who is slippery than oiled loach, but Li Er, who has been listening beside him, suddenly said: "If my nephew is right, Pei Yun is also watching His Majesty's attitude, The eight families of Guanlong are connected with each other, they are related by marriage, and they protect each other. If you offend one family, you may offend eight families at the same time. As the head of the Li family, my father has an extraordinary status. The No. 2 person will never dare to convict my father without authorization, which will lead to a death feud with the Guanlongmen Clan. So he must also be watching His Majesty's attitude. If Your Majesty thinks my father deserves to die, he will definitely not show mercy. If Your Majesty My father can forgive me, and he will never be stingy with this favor!"
"It makes sense." Xiao Yu, who always liked Li Er's nephew, nodded, and said, "If that's the case, then we don't have to worry about the third envoy. As long as His Majesty nods and agrees to let Tang Guogong live, Pei Yun and Zheng Shanguo and those old tricksters would definitely not dare to condemn Tang Guogong to death, they would only create steps for His Majesty, so that His Majesty has steps to go down."
The key has been found, but how to persuade Emperor Sui Yang to pardon Li Yuan is a big problem, because whether it is Empress Xiao and Concubine Wang De, or uncle Xiao Xiao, they all changed the three-pronged strategy of Li Yuan concealing the beginning and end of the letter, hiding and escaping, and destroying King Qin's war. A criminal fact—especially the sabotage of King Qin's war directly endangered the life of Emperor Sui Yang. It was extremely difficult for the violent Emperor Sui Yang to forgive Li Yuan, who had indirectly entrapped him. So after discussing and discussing, Uncle Xiao Xiao had no choice but to beg Empress Xiao to continue to make a pillow fuss—for such a terrible matter, even if Uncle Xiao Guo pleaded, the risk factor was extremely high.
"It's all the fault of that little thief, Chen Yingliang!" Xiao Yu suddenly dragged Chen Yingliang out to hang and beat him again, cursing, "If it wasn't for this little thief who wants to compete with Duke Tang and embarrass him, what about Duke Tang?" Let the samurai Xun come forward to prevent the Taiyuan merchant from selling grain to him? How could he be discovered by that sinister villain, Master Yin?"
"Hush, brother, keep your voice down." Xiao Huaijing, who had been frightened by Yin Shishi, quickly reminded him to keep quiet, and carefully observed the surrounding maids and servants, and said in a low voice: "Brother, beware that walls have ears, and Yin Shishi is narrow-minded. , if you know that you are insulting him behind his back, maybe you will take the opportunity to slander him again."
"I'm fine here, I don't want your family, the temple fair!" Xiao Yu scolded angrily, and said: "The fact is also the same, if it wasn't for Chen Yingliang's little thief and Tang Guogong to fight for credit, how could Tang Guogong be captured so dangerously?" handle?"
Xiao Huaijing didn't speak any more, just buried her head in her meal, but Li Er's expression was gloomy, and he asked after a while: "Uncle Biao, I heard that Chen Yingliang has officially assumed the post of General of Youwuwei?"
"It's officially canonized today." Xiao Yu cursed weakly: "The clown jumped on the beam, put on the third-rank official uniform while still in court, and stood behind Yu Wenshu."
"So, Chen Yingliang is already qualified to make a statement to His Majesty alone?" Li Er said to himself, and then suddenly said: "Tomorrow, I will visit him, Chen Yingliang, and beg him to intercede for my father and save my father! "
"Erlang, are you crazy?" Both Xiao Yu and Xiao Huaijing were taken aback, and said in amazement: "The little thief Chen Yingliang has such a deep hatred with your father, how could he come forward to save your father?"
"No matter what, I have to give it a try." Li Er said with a gloomy face: "I still want to take Chai Shao to go. The little thief Chen Yingliang can achieve the great service of King Qin this time and be named General Youwuwei. Chai Shao has made great achievements, and we have a grievance with him, even if he wants to refuse, he will not be able to speak up!"
Uncle Xiao, big and small, advised Li Er not to humiliate himself, but Li Er insisted not to listen, and suddenly said: "Uncle Cousin, Uncle Xiao, if possible, when I go to beg Chen Yingliang tomorrow, you'd better arrange one or two People from Yezhetai and Silitai followed secretly and collected Chen Yingliang's words and deeds, which might be of great use."
…
At the same time when Uncle Xiao Guo was puzzled by Li Er's intentions, Emperor Sui Yang was also enjoying the imperial meal in the imperial city of the Eastern Capital, where Emperor Sui Yang seldom lived, beside the beautiful Ningbi Lake, and there were no beautiful concubines to accompany him. , there were only three civil and military ministers, Pei Ju from the left, Su Wei from the right, and Yu Wenshu, the boss of the military. Of course, the banquet was full of delicious food, wine and delicacies, but it was a pity that Emperor Sui Yang was in a bad mood and kept looking at Ningbi Pool with a golden cup In a daze, it seemed that something was on their minds. None of Pei Ju, Su Wei and Yu Wenshu could guess why Emperor Sui Yang was like this, and they didn't dare to say anything casually, waiting patiently for Emperor Sui Yang to open his mouth.
Sure enough, after a long time, Emperor Sui Yang, who was very good at giving favors to his ministers, really spoke up, and sighed: "Chen Aiqing and Yun Aiqing have been appointed and rewarded for their meritorious service. The next step is to reward the soldiers who have done meritorious service. These officers and men have devoted themselves to life and death for me, so they should be rewarded heavily, but unfortunately the current state is not enough, and my money is also very tight, how to reward, I wonder if you dear friends have a good plan?"
"Is the emperor troubled by this?" Pei Ju and Yu Wenshu immediately understood the implication of Emperor Sui Yang's words, and their faces turned pale, because they heard that Emperor Sui Yang meant to withhold military rewards.
"Your Majesty, regarding the rewards for the army, I think you should reconsider." Su Wei, the prime minister on the right, immediately took over the conversation and said seriously: "During the siege of Yanmen, Your Majesty announced that the soldiers who made meritorious deeds would be promoted to the sixth-rank Jianjiewei, and they would be rewarded ten ranks of silk and satin." At that time, for the sake of power, the rewards were too heavy. At present, the national use is insufficient, and the treasury money and food are still useful. The minister feels that it needs to be reconsidered. There are also rewards for the military exploits of the various kings and horses, which should also be reconsidered. "
It's not like Fan Zigai was by his side in history, at least he persuaded Emperor Sui Yang to keep his promise. After listening to Su Wei's speculation and slander, Pei Ju and Yu Wenshu didn't dare to speak out even though they complained in their hearts, while Emperor Sui Yang Nodding repeatedly, he said, "It should be reconsidered, it should be reconsidered."
"It's over, it's hard for me to be a man now." Yu Wenshu lowered his head and lamented.
"My poor distant nephew." Pei Ju, who was still somewhat conscientious, also wailed in his heart for the distant nephew who had saved his life, "You have just taken office, and you will soon be unable to explain to the soldiers, what can you do?"