Luoyang City was peaceful in the middle of the night, but many people couldn't sleep in this tranquility. For example, the emperor Zheng Yuan of Qi State was one of them.
In the Imperial Study Room of the Imperial Palace, Zheng Yuan was sitting behind the Dragon Case, his eyes closed and his fingers kept tapping on the table, appearing to be a little irritable. Think about it too. Since the defeat of the Qi State's nearly 500,000 troops, the national strength of the Qi State has been in an unprecedented crisis. The country's elite troops have lost nearly two-thirds. I am afraid that there will not be a single retraining of so many troops. Three to five years is impossible. Zheng Yuan can't help but worry that if something happens to the "Qi State" for such a long time, he will be very passive.
Also, the national treasury is now empty again. The'anti-Japanese war donations' collected from the merchants were enough to support the end of this great battle, but now the battle has been defeated, and the loss along the Yangtze River is heavy because of the Dingnan of the'Chen Guo' Wang did not save face for Zheng Yuan, and King Dingnan did not sit idle in order to retaliate for the attack of the'Qi State'.
After defeating Dongfang Lunming, he led his 50,000 elite navy divisions along the Yangtze River to carry out a sweeping sweep of the'Qi Kingdom' for a month. Although the newly appointed General Zhennan also led the remaining naval division of the'Nanying' to intercept Yang Lin, it was clear that he was not Yang Lin's opponent at all, and he did not even see King Dingnan's figure behind Yang Lin's ass. Had it not been for the emperor of the'Chen State' to worry that Yang Lin's mercenaries would take great care of their own merits and transfer Yang Lin back to the capital and complete a truce, I am afraid that the'Qi State''s Yangtze River defense line could be eaten away by Yang Lin a little bit. Even so, there are heavy losses along the Yangtze River, just to make up for these losses is not a small expense!
There are also food and salaries, pensions, and settlement expenses for the 500,000 army, supplements for the loss of various weapons and equipment, and the expenses needed to rebuild such an army. These things add up enough to empty the treasury of the'Qi State'.
The army can be rebuilt if it is gone, and money can be made again if it is gone, but the most troublesome thing for Zheng Yuan is the domestic instability. Since the defeat of the army, the family of powerful officials in the imperial court began to turmoil, and Zheng Yuan felt that these people had less and less treated him as an emperor. In the courtroom, you can argue endlessly about a big and small matter. Even if he is the emperor, even if he speaks, he has little effect, and he doesn't take him seriously. The imperial decree issued below one by one is not taken seriously. This is also the reason why Zheng Yuan is eager to use the method of Dongfanghongchu, because he has seen the terrible signs in the court now, how Zheng Yuan hopes that there is a better way to completely eliminate these aristocratic families!
The fighting and arrogance of these powerful officials can at least be seen, and now they can still be under his own control. But another thing made Zheng Yuan sleepless day and night, and that was the existence of the'Thunder God Mercenary Group'. Now Zheng Yuan has obtained all the information on the process of the First Battle of Chaisang and Dongfang Lunming’s defeat by Yang Lin. When he saw hundreds of thousands of troops vanished in ashes under the unknown weapon of the mercenary regiment, Zheng Yuan’s heart could not be helped. Hold tightly. Think about how his'Tai Chi Hall' turned into rubble, and then look at the encounters of the hundreds of thousands of troops, Zheng Yuan felt that a sharp long sword was hanging on his head all the time, and you still don’t know this handle. When will the sword fall.
Doesn't it feel like the "Tai Chi Hall" has been burned, doesn't it mean that these people can also kill him, the emperor, without knowing it! Every time I think of these like ghosts and charms, Zheng Yuan, a mercenary group that I don’t know at all, is like a throat and trembled. For this reason, I don’t know how many guards and masters have been added to the palace, but Zheng Yuan is still worried every day. The so-called invisible enemy is the most terrifying enemy.
Zheng Yuan thought about these things, if his heart was still as calm as water, then he would be really an expert. In front of him stood an old eunuch in his fifties who was dressed as an eunuch. This man was Zhou Tai, the chief of the inner guard who Zheng Yuan trusted most.
"How is the investigation?" Zheng Yuan asked.
"Your Majesty, the slaves are incompetent. Until now, we haven't found any specific information about the mercenary group. They cover up too secretly. But the slaves found out that they opened a liaison office in a small town on the border between our country and the'Turkic'. Accept the mission. But the minions sent masters to get in, but they were all killed by them. And as far as the minions knew, the'Turkic' and the'Chen Guo' also sent people to get into the mercenary group, but they also and the minions. The same, none of the people sent is alive. It can be seen that the strength of this'Thunder God Mercenary Group' is very terrifying, so please forgive the servants to boldly say that this power should be used now instead of annihilated. If you insist, I am afraid. It's not good for'Qi Guo'." Zhou Tai reported in a shrill voice.
Zheng Yuan couldn't help but wring his brows together as he listened to the old eunuch's words. Zheng Yuan pondered for a long time. Zhou Tai’s proposal is indeed the best way to deal with this mercenary group at this stage. Anyway, the mercenary group is only working for money, and there is not any rebellion or something, since the enemy can hire it. You can do it yourself. At that time, you can only take advantage of it, and you may be able to receive unexpected results, just like'Chen Guo'. When you have enough certainty to get rid of this force in one fell swoop, you will never be soft. But the weapons they use are good things. If they can get the method of making this kind of weapon from the mercenary group, it will be more useful than forming a million army. For this, it can’t be turned against the Thor Mercenary Group. .
Zheng Yuan thought about it and said, "What you said is very reasonable. It is not the time to turn your face against the mercenary group. Not only can you not stand against them, but you must try to win them over. However, the investigation of this unit will continue. It's just you. You have to find ways to build a good relationship with them and try to get out the method of making that mysterious weapon, do you understand?"
Zhou Tai replied: "Your Majesty meant that the slave knew what to do."
Zheng Yuan nodded and then asked: "I know. How about the four power ministers now?" The four power ministers naturally refer to the Taiwei, Taishi, Da Situ and Taifu. After giving Zheng Yuan the designated person, Zheng Yuan paid close attention to their every move. Obviously, he wanted to see the expected effect.
"His Majesty, everything is peaceful on Taiwei's side, there is nothing too big. What the minion does not understand is that Taiwei actually sent Dongfang Lunde's third son to the'Shen Wuwei' as a lieutenant, and Dongfang Lund had no doubts about it."
Zheng Yuan was also a little surprised, but he knew where the'Shen Wuwei' was, could it be said that Dongfang Angyu would not even want his own face? Doing so looks like a disagreement within the family, so Dongfang Angyu is trying to fix Dongfang Lunde. But when you think about it, it doesn't look like this. Although Dongfang Lunde's son was brought to the "Shen Wuwei", Dongfang Angyu also promoted his grandson to the general rank in a disguised form. Isn't this a rise in the dark? Why does Dongfang Angyu promote his grandson
Zheng Yuan thought for a while and said, "You can check the situation of Dongfang Angyu's little grandson. It might not be that simple to be valued by this old guy."
"The minion will send someone to investigate."
Zheng Yuan then asked: "How about the other companies?"
"The big Situ's family has already started to have problems. The eldest son of the big Situ often complains in front of outsiders because he is dissatisfied with the current arrangements. Even more so, he has trouble getting along with his cousin, the newly appointed Hubu Shangshu, and the big Situ has nothing to do. As a slave, I can see that chaos will happen soon."
Zheng Yuan smiled on his face at this time, and finally heard some good news: "Hmm! Not bad! You remember to encourage both of them when necessary. If they have any ideas, such as killing their fathers and brothers, you too You can help in secret."
A cold light flashed in Zhou Tai's eyes, and he smiled and said, "Your Majesty, don't worry, the slave will do it properly."
Zheng Yuan nodded. He was still very relieved of Zhou Tai's ability to do things: "How is the Li family now?"
"The Taifu now seems to be about to change the heir of rights. The Taifu is already doing something to weaken the rights of his son. It seems that the Taifu is going to pass on the position of the head of the family to the new official minister."
"Huh!" Zheng Yuan said fiercely: "This old fox is worthy of being a'tumbler' in the officialdom! He understands that he sees the wind and makes the rudder, and he sees my intentions and pushes the boat along the river. For this fuel guzzler, I I really don’t know how to start. Let me think about this old fox. Tell me how is Taishi now? I’m afraid he is the happiest!"
"Your Majesty's words are not bad. Now the two sons of the Taishi and their family are becoming more and more domineering, and the officials in the capital are now reluctant to provoke them. From the point of view of slavery, the family of the Taishi is a little arrogant, and I am afraid that it will go on like this. There will be catastrophes.” Zhou Tai reminded Zheng Yuan that, after all, Taishi is the emperor’s old-in-law, and Zheng Yuan might not be able to deal with it if something goes wrong.
"Huh! It's going to rain, your mother wants to remarry. If he wants to cause trouble, let him provoke him. I am still worried that he will be a good baby! Don't care too much about what they do. Let them toss as long as it is not treason. See what they will end up with." Zheng Yuan showed a wicked smile as he said.
Zhou Tai also understood at this time that the emperor had never really trusted the emperor's father and son as the emperor's father-in-law. I am afraid that the fate of the Taishi and the other three officials are the same, but Zheng Yuan's method is different. What the Taishi Zheng Yuan adopted was to let him go and let him go crazy, as the saying goes, "God wants to make people die, and he will make people crazy first."
"By the way, you send someone to keep an eye on that person, and you must be careful not to be discovered by him. If you have something to report immediately." Zheng Yuan asked Zhou Tai to stare at the scribe from'Yingtian Pavilion'. Ever since Zheng Yuan refused to listen to advice and let the'Wu'an King' lead the army, Zheng Yuan felt that the scribe was getting more and more alienated from him, and Zheng Yuan faintly felt that Yingtian Pavilion might abandon him. Although'Yingtian Pavilion' only sent one person, Zheng Yuan knew the power of'Yingtian Pavilion', so he had to guard it now. In case'Yingtian Pavilion' finds someone to replace him, Zheng Yuan's trouble will be even greater.
Zhou Tai naturally knew who Zheng Yuan was referring to, so he replied: "The minion will definitely do it carefully."
Zheng Yuan waved his hand wearily, Zhou Tai understood that this was for him to retreat, "The slave retire!"
Zheng Yuan leaned on the dragon chair, and fell into contemplation again.
The Palace Observatory. The scribe sent by'Yingtian Pavilion' was looking up at the starry sky, and behind him stood a graceful woman in a red dress with a red gauze figure.
Now that the red light in the middle palace has slowly merged into the middle palace, the scribes looked at these and didn't know if they were talking to themselves or saying to the woman behind him: "Who is that? Is it the'Thunder God'?" Mercenary regiment? What are their identities? They won't belong to the'Tian Tianzong'! That would be terrible."
"The pavilion master said, the young master should be calmer in the future. Because the young master is talented, it is inevitable that he will be a little arrogant, so the pavilion master asked the servants to come to remind the young master at all times." The woman in red said indifferently. .
The scribes couldn't help feeling a little angry when she heard her say this. 'Yingtian Pavilion' has never sent two people to perform tasks, but now he has set this precedent, and the people sent are still to supervise him. To say something nice is that the pavilion master loves his disciple, so he sends someone to take care of him, and what is ugly is that the pavilion master does not have confidence in him.
The scribe looked back at the woman in red, and shook his head helplessly. This woman is the "Yingtian Pavilion" sword spirit cultivated by the pavilion owner since childhood, and is a bodyguard who specializes in protecting important people in the pavilion. Of course, this woman in red is undoubtedly the best among sword spirits. Not only is martial arts strong, she is also smart and foresight, so Yuan Tiangang would let her assist. But obviously the scribes were extremely dissatisfied with this matter, but this was the intention of the pavilion master and had to accept it. Of course, there is one more obscure thing, that is, the scribes have long admired the woman in red, but they have never explicitly stated it. Now letting the person he likes to supervise himself will make everyone feel extremely embarrassed.
When the scribe was thinking about the troubles, the woman in red said: "The slave servant found that Zheng Yuan seemed to be suspicious of the young master, and it might be detrimental to the overall situation."
Zheng Yuan began to guard against himself, and the scribes had already felt it. Now I heard the woman in red say the same, and said helplessly: "Oh! Did we choose the wrong person? I feel more and more that Zheng Yuanshi is not the person he entrusted. At first sight, he was only one step away from the unification of the world. But it has become a dilemma now, it seems that this matter needs to be reconsidered!"
Regarding the words of the scribes, the woman in red didn't know how to answer, after all, this matter was of great importance, and it was not something that a sword spirit like her could decide.
"You will go back tomorrow, and tell the pavilion master about the situation here and what I think, and see what the pavilion master thinks. Let the pavilion master decide this matter personally!" The scribe seems to have lost patience with Zheng Yuan. .
The woman in red didn't say much, nodded and turned to leave. And the scribe continued to look up at the starry sky, "Who does the red light in the middle palace represent? 'The scribe was lost in thought.
Taishi Mansion.
"Second Lord, calm down and take a sip of tea." A guy with a sharp-mouthed monkey cheek was holding the tea and handing it to a man with a fierce face in front of him, but he was obviously beaten on the face of the man in his thirties. Got traces.
"Go away." The big man said, raising his leg and kicking the guy who handed the tea to the ground.
The guy with the sharp-mouthed monkey cheeks was not angry, and he smiled and said, "As long as the second master is happy, you can kill the little ones."
This big man was Wei Chenghu, the second son of Taishi Wei, and now he has served as the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard. The guy with the sharp-mouthed monkey cheek is Wei Chenghu's personal follower, Shen Yong. This guy can be said to be Wei Chenghu's koo-headed military officer. Wei Chenghu bullies men and women outside for all evil, and this Shen Yong has given him a lot of bad water.
Today, Wei Chenghu went to'Cuihuazhai' to listen to Feng Yuan playing the piano, but he was upset. Originally wanted to make fun of Feng Yuan tonight, but Feng Yuan scolded him bloody in public. Later, when he wanted to go forward and teach Feng Yuan to teach Feng Yuan, the'Princess Tianxiang' came, and Zheng Siyun was so big at the time. Anger, let the guards under him beat Wei Chenghu fat and threw it out of Cuihuazhai.
Wei Chenghu has been thinking about Feng Yuan a long time ago, but he still didn't dare to mess around with the "Princess Tianxiang". Now he feels that they are favored by Wei Jiazheng, so he has become more and more courageous, thinking that he would even offend Zheng Siyun. It doesn't matter, there is an emperor covering him! Unexpectedly, he suffered a big loss on his first shot today, and Wei Chenghu would never swallow it.
Dongfanghong clearly remembered that two years ago, on a whim, he wanted to do a serenade in front of Ouyang Yuying’s window. Of course Dongfanghong would do whatever he wanted, so Dongfanghong worked hard. The body was made, and countless plucked instruments such as guqin, zither, pipa, etc. were removed to make up the six strings on the guitar.
At that time, Dongfanghong spent more than two weeks to complete his masterpiece, and immediately called all the people in his yard to try everyone's ability to accept it. But Dongfanghong thought of'rock and roll' music as soon as he held the guitar, so Panther's "No Place for Self" blurted out, but this effect made Dongfanghong a little scared. The six domestic servants who had come to listen to Dongfang Hong’s singing enthusiastically fainted four on the spot, and the remaining two were foaming at the mouth and almost closed their breath. The other was the strongest spout of blood, to Dongfang Hong. Said a classic line "My son! People want money to sing, you sing to death!"
After more than a month, everyone saw Dongfanghong hiding as much as possible, fearing that he would be dragged to listen to the song. Dongfanghong was depressed to death at the time. You must know that these people are so sensitive to'rock'. He should sing a lyrical first at the time. As a result, all the good things were broken.
Later, Dongfanghong held his guitar and ran to Ouyang Yuying's window to sing love songs in the middle of the night, thinking that his wife would never do the same! Who would think that before the prelude was finished, Ouyang Yuying ran out of the house screaming, holding an iron rod in her hand and hitting Dongfanghong as a fat beating, she said, "You don’t like others." Just say that they are leaving! But why are you murdering your fiancée?" Dongfanghong only understood when he asked, and Ouyang Yuying also knew the rumor that he was singing on the guitar to his death, so the scene just now happened. Dongfanghong almost didn't die of depression. His good intentions resulted in a fat beating, and he was also charged with murdering his wife.
From then on, Dongfanghong wanted to smash the guitar as soon as he saw it, but it took him a lot of time and effort to do it, so he kept the guitar but entered the warehouse where the sundries were kept. Today, Dongfanghong hadn't recruited, but once again remembered his old friend. But Dongfanghong absolutely dare not sing rock and roll anymore.
'It seems that I can only fight, find a few slow-paced lyrical songs, maybe I can handle it! It is said that music knows no borders, but is this music also timeless? "Dongfanghong is really not sure about this, especially if pop music can be accepted by people of this era, I am afraid only God knows.
'If you can't accept it, there's no way. I can't lose without a fight. I'd rather be beaten to death than scared to death. "Dongfanghong finally made up his mind to give up and start practicing piano tomorrow. The big deal is to make people laugh at me as a music idiot.
When Dongfanghong was still asleep the next day, someone in the yard was calling him. Dongfanghong got up with sleepy eyes, and asked as he walked: "Who? You called me so early. I don't know if lack of sleep will affect your health!"
"It also affects your health. You won't affect your health if you visit a brothel!" Dongfang Hongjian was talking about Ouyang Yuying. At this time, Ouyang Yuying was already looking at him with upside-down eyebrows! And next to Yao Xuezi with tears in her eyes, she was a goddess of resentment.