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Yuan Cixian roughly deduced from the dream: Shaohe, for some reason, went to Dunhuang and exiled himself. After years of seclusion, he heard the news of Lu Shiqing's death and returned to his hometown. He didn't know how he learned about the existence of Xu's house.
At that time, everything was settled, Xu's house had become an abandoned place, Lu Shiqing was dead, and there was naturally no more defense. Because of her special status, it was not surprising that she could go in and find out what was going on.
In other words, although Shao He had lived a new life, what she knew was as limited as Yuan Cixian's, or even less. She was not aware of the most crucial political changes in the Great Zhou and the surrounding countries during the turbulent years. But since she was able to get the news of Lu Shiqing's death, it means that she was not completely isolated from the world, but left a loophole to receive information about him. Then, she might also know a little about some major events in which he was involved.
The secret passage of Xu's house was exposed for no reason, and even Lu Shiqing failed to notice the flaw. After this dream and association, Yuan Cixian quickly thought of Shaohe who knew the truth. She knew the location of the secret passage of Xu's house, but she didn't know the specific entrance of Lu's house. This happened to echo the dream. The news was leaked from her mouth, so it should be correct.
But Yuan Cixian was not sure under what circumstances she had revealed this secret. If she was willing, it was understandable. No one knew what had happened in the deep palace of Nanzhao. After two lifetimes of being submissive, one day she would rebound from the bottom due to some stimulus, and even the calmest water could have huge waves.
If she was controlled by someone, it was also conceivable. After all, after the incident on the night of delivery, Yuan Cixian felt that Xiju had no bottom line. With the methods of such a person, Shaohe's cooperation might not be needed at all. As long as she knew about it, he would have ten thousand ways to pry her mouth open.
Lu Shiqing did not express any objection, just said he understood, then carried her to the bed to rest, and told her that it was not yet the hour of Yin yet and she could sleep for a while, but he had to go to the palace to meet the emperor immediately.
The military situation was urgent and could not be delayed. At this moment, Chang'an City was probably in turmoil. Not only Lu Shiqing, but also the court officials were rushing to Daming Palace. Yuan Cixian did not delay him and nodded obediently. But he could not fall asleep after he left. He simply got up, put on his clothes, lit the candles in the room, and then took out a map of the surrounding countries from the outside.
Shicui and Jianzhi saw that she had gotten up at night, so they hurried over to serve her. Seeing that she was staring at the map with a frown in deep thought, they did not dare to disturb her until she sighed softly and asked, "What excuse did the King Ping use to start his army?"
Shi Cui had just received the news from Cao An, and hurriedly replied: "Yesterday was the eighth day of the fourth month, Buddha's birthday. King Ping raised the army on the pretext of receiving guidance from the gods and Buddhas at night to 'clean up the emperor's court'."
Yuan Cixian smiled and said, "Purge the emperor's side. Who? Shi Qing?"
Shi Cui nodded: "The punitive manifesto is three hundred words long, and every word is sharp, saying that the gods of heaven and earth can see through his heart, and it also lists many of your crimes, telling how you deceived the emperor, how you reached a conspiracy with the Uighurs and Nanzhao, how you colluded with the princes in the court and cared about the two masters."
She sneered, "Nothing new here. But what you said is true."
"Madam, don't worry. His Majesty will definitely know that this is an excuse. Even if he has doubts, he will not make things difficult for you at this juncture. After all, Prince Ping is about to lead his troops to attack the capital, and you don't have a single soldier under your command."
Yuan Cixian nodded: "I'm not worried about that. The sage said that he would deal with King Ping first. I just think that the way the sage deals with him may make the Great Zhou a mess."
"What do you mean, ma'am?"
She said calmly to the sound of rain outside the window: "The saint has neither the mind to trust people nor the ability to not trust people. Not only does he want to wipe out King Ping, but he is also afraid of my father. After dealing with King Ping, it is very likely that our Yuan family will be the next one. You say, now that Huainan has rebelled, if the court wants to preserve its strength for the greatest benefit, who should it use to fight against King Ping?"
Shi Cui was stunned: "The Saint wants to mobilize the military power of southern Yunnan and send the King of southern Yunnan to help Beijing."
"In order to eliminate the greatest worry in one's heart, the saint used distant water to quench nearby fire. His imagination is simply out of this world!" Jianzhi frowned.
Yuan Cixian thought that he was more than just imaginative. He nodded, lowered his eyes to read the map under his command, pointed at it and said, "Our soldiers and horses in southern Yunnan cannot be raised in the soil and water of Huainan. Logically speaking, my father has a chance of winning this battle. But he is leading the army on a forced march all the way north, which must be a huge loss. It will be a tough battle against King Ping who has a geographical advantage. It may not be easy to win in a short time. The greater the loss of the two armies, the happier the saint will be."
Jianzhi continued, "But the saint may not be able to laugh soon. The eldest son of the Nanzhao emperor in Chang'an is a fake, and the new emperor of Nanzhao is willing to risk the world's disapproval. Seeing that southern Yunnan has been empty for a long time, how can he not be tempted? Once Nanzhao makes a move, the Great Zhou will have to divert its attention... What should we do?"
Yuan Cixian nodded to confirm her judgment and said, "Now it's the turn of the Uighurs to appear. The Saint could not have anticipated this aspect of Nanzhao, but Shi Qing and the Sixth Prince did. In order to avoid harming the people at the border, they must have made preparations early and won over the Uighurs as a friendly army."
"But no matter what, the Uighur spears cannot be pointed at the hearts of our Great Zhou soldiers. Even if these soldiers are working to destroy the Great Zhou, using the Uighur soldiers to stop them would be considered treason. If so, it would be no different from the collaborating Prince Ping and the Second Prince. Therefore, Shi Qing will ask the Uighur reinforcements to avoid the Great Zhou civil war and go directly to the southwest to fight against Nanzhao."
Jianzhi thought for a moment and asked, "But the Uighurs have just experienced half a year of war, and their footing is not stable. The Turks are the predecessor of the Uighurs. They have withdrawn from the historical stage for several years and are always thinking about making a comeback. Now they are probably preparing to take advantage of the situation and choose this opportunity to attack the Uighurs again. If there is a fire in the backyard, how can those soldiers who came to help us fight against Nanzhao with peace of mind?"
Shi Cui was puzzled when she heard this: "The Turks were just repelled not long ago, how could they regroup so quickly?"
"What if the army that was defeated before was just a mist bomb?" Yuan Cixian asked back, "The fact that the Second Prince escaped halfway and led the Turks to attack the Uighurs was itself strange. It was not difficult for him to be rescued by Prince Ping, but how could he command the Turks? He was the enemy of the Turks in the past. Besides, the Turks chose such a stable time to make a comeback, and they were destined to be attacked by my Great Zhou and the Uighurs. How could they succeed? Wouldn't that be just following the Second Prince's busy work in vain?"
"So, the Second Prince was a pawn from the beginning to the end, and the one who really cooperated with the Turks was Prince Ping." Jianzhi judged, "Prince Ping hoped that the Turks would sacrifice some of their troops to play out this half-year-long drama of chasing and fighting each other, completely cutting off the Second Prince's life, while also consuming the court's combat power. In exchange, the condition was to give them a real chance to regroup, which is what they are doing now when both the Great Zhou and the Uighurs are in a mess?"
Yuan Cixian nodded: "Prince Ping has calculated that the Saint is too old to see the situation clearly, and is happy to let him and my father consume each other. At the beginning, he will retain the fighting power of the capital and will not take him down in one fell swoop. As long as he can hold out in my father's hands until the Turks attack, there will be a possibility of a reversal. By then, even if the Saint repents, the Great Zhou will be in a desperate situation, and the capital will not be able to withdraw enough troops to deal with him."
Shi Cui shuddered when she heard this.
This war was closely linked, starting with King Ping, then linked to the imperial court, and then to southern Yunnan, Nanzhao, Uighurs, and Turks who gradually appeared on the scene, and finally circled back to King Ping.
If the world trend is really as predicted, it will push the Great Zhou onto the road to national destruction.
She asked: "Since we already know what the future may hold, is there no way to prevent it?"
"Yes." Yuan Cixian fell silent after saying this, looking at the wind and rain outside the window. After a while, he spoke again, "First, my father must fight to the death and make a quick decision while the army in the capital retains its strength, chop off the head of Prince Ping, and then try to unite the Huainan soldiers who have been instigated to rebel and face the outside world together. Second, when necessary..."
She stretched out a hand, curled her five fingers together and pressed them towards her palm, making a strangling motion: "Someone has to keep the Saint under control."
*
What happened next was just as Yuan Cixian had expected.
Emperor Huining ordered Yuan Yizhi to set off immediately and lead his troops to aid the capital. At the same time, he sent the garrisons of Jingji and Jiangnan to attack the enemy from the south and the north, trying to contain Prince Ping outside Shannan East Road and delay time to wait for assistance from southern Yunnan.
Half a month later, Yuan Yizhi and King Ping officially confronted each other. Seeing that reinforcements had arrived, the troops in the capital and Jiangnan were ordered to withdraw from Shannan East Road in order to preserve their combat effectiveness.
But then, something happened that Yuan Cixian did not expect.
Yuan Yizhi's army was unstoppable from the moment they confronted King Ping, and easily won the first battle, blocking the enemy outside Fangzhou in the heart of Shannan East Road.
Three days later, they fought again and pushed the enemy back another hundred miles, forcing the Huainan army to Fuzhou, a border area in the east Shannan Road, and forced them to lie dormant.
Next, they launched a surprise attack from behind, intercepted the baggage train, and burned the food supplies, step by step in an orderly manner, forcing King Ping to retreat to the spot, with no way out.
Yuan Cixian felt incredible. He knew that his father had been marching for many years and was the best in the Great Zhou in terms of experience and tactics, but she was also very clear about the number of garrison forces deployed by the court in southern Yunnan. Even if his father emptied the entire southern Yunnan, he would not be able to achieve such a crushing victory.
The army from southern Yunnan that fought against King Ping was like the elite among the elite, and each of them was capable of fighting a hundred enemies.
Could it be that it fell from the sky
Yuan Cixian had no way to verify her doubts. Since the war, Lu Shiqing rarely returned home. He stayed in the Purple Palace or Xuanzheng Palace during the day and slept in the office of the Secretariat at night.
Two days later, the war situation became more urgent. The soldiers in Huainan were exhausted and could no longer endure it, so they fought desperately to break out.
Yuan Yi just sat there waiting for the net to be closed. With the cover of several trusted men, he led the charge, cut through the barriers, entered the tiger's den, and chopped off King Ping's head with one blow.
In the blink of an eye, the Huainan rebels fled in all directions.
When King Ping's head was sent back to Chang'an at full speed, Nanzhao had not even had time to take any action against the Great Zhou.
When the news reached the capital, the entire court was shocked.
Before they could rejoice, everyone was subconsciously shocked.
It was too scary. When the imperial court was dodging and evading the emperor because of the order to purge the emperor, and was calculating the trick of using the opponent's strength to defeat the opponent, the fighting power of southern Yunnan was so scary!
It seems that as long as Yuan Yizheng wants to rebel, he can become the second King Ping!
For a time, rumors spread throughout the capital, saying that what Yuan Yizheng brought with him were not the local garrisons originally stationed at the southwestern border, but his own private army.
Yuan Cixian was not angry about the rumors because she felt they were right.
If it weren't for the fact that my father has been raising a private army over the years, we would never have had the strength relying solely on those local soldiers.
In order to buy some breathing space for the Great Zhou and kill King Ping before Nanzhao took action, my father risked his life to reveal his true identity. This matter must have been discussed with Lu Shiqing.
Because of this, Lu Shiqing has not returned home these days and has been on standby at the Daming Palace at all times.
If the saint is willing to believe my father and order him to return to the southwest after the crisis of clearing the court is resolved, then everything will be fine and nothing will happen. But once he is intimidated by the power of southern Yunnan and decides to take this opportunity to eliminate the Yuan family and get rid of the donkey, Lu Shiqing will control him at the first opportunity.
Manpower, excuses, and escape routes, Yuan Cixian knew what he had prepared, but he absolutely did not want the old emperor to really force him and force the Yuan family to go to this step.
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. That night, news came from the Daming Palace that Emperor Huining fainted due to overwork and did not wake up all night. At dawn, he spoke for the first time and said that the follow-up of the war would be temporarily handed over to Minister Lu.
This news means that the saint has made up his mind to abandon the dog after the rabbit has died and to destroy the bridge after crossing the river.
The saint, who had always been healthy, fell ill overnight, and everyone was surprised and suspicious. The court officials and the princes and grandchildren of the emperor requested to see him one after another, but were all rejected. In front of the Purple Palace, there was a crowd of people who wanted to see the emperor, and they confronted the Jinwu Guards that Lu Shiqing had deployed earlier for a whole morning.
At noon, one of the remnants of King Ping could no longer bear it and denounced that the sage was not sick at all and that it was Lu Shiqing who had held the emperor hostage.
Before he could finish his words, Lu Shiqing made a gesture and the Jinwu Guard stepped forward and cut his throat with a single knife.
Blood splattered on the steps of heaven. Yuan Cixian knew that from this blow, the Yuan family had rebelled, and Lu Shiqing and the Yuan family had rebelled together.
Everything returned to the way it was in the previous life.
Next, it is Zheng Zhuo's turn.
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