Li Yun secretly summoned his eldest son Li Shoujie and ordered him to go to Hedong to persuade Yang Ye.
Shoujie was a little worried and said: "Father and Yang Ye are not close friends. If I go there rashly, will there be any harm?"
Just rest assured. Li Yun said in a deep voice, "If your father felt that it was too dangerous, he would not send you; but my child will go to talk to Yang Ye, so that he can be more trustworthy. Later, the officials of Yunzhou will send you an official pass. You go to Jinyang first, where I have old friends, and then someone will introduce you to Yang Ye."
Li Yunyu said seriously: "The blacksmith Guo who sits on the throne today is brave but not wise. He gave Yang Ye such a good foundation and geographical advantage for nothing. It is impossible for Yang Ye to be without ambition. We will give him momentum, and he has no reason to refuse. Even if the deal fails, he can only keep quiet and dare not say a word."
Yang Ye had a large army under his command, all of whom were former members of the Eastern Han and Northern Han armies. He was afraid that the court would be suspicious of him and someone would persuade him to rebel, so how could he dare to publicize it and just focus on his work
After hearing this, Li Shoujie nodded in agreement.
He followed his father's instructions and rode a fast horse to Jinyang first. When he heard that Yang Ye was in Xinzhou at that time, he hurried to Xinzhou.
When Yang Ye heard that he was Li Yun's eldest son, he asked the old servant to arrange for him to stay in a side room and told him not to be disrespectful. Yang Ye had indeed heard of Li Yun's great name for a long time.
Li Yun had fought against the Northern Han army in Luzhou for many years, and was nicknamed "Hedong White Dragon" by the people. He was indeed a famous and good general. Yang Ye had also been in the Northern Han Kingdom for many years, so how could he not have heard of this old enemy
Now Yang Ye would not care about the former enemy of the Northern Han Kingdom. It was a different time now. Moreover, there were many fightings in Hedong back then, and they used troops on the battlefield and had many private contacts.
Yang Ye walked into the courtyard and slowly walked under the eaves, but did not enter the guest room. He finally walked to the window and looked inside calmly. He saw a young man drinking tea from a cup, and then walking around the room with his hands behind his back. In this room, Yang Ye placed a few rare items, a painting, and a good bow, but the young man seemed to have no interest in the things, and probably had no intention of paying attention to those things.
Yang Ye quickly went to the window but did not go in.
When he reached the door, he met the old servant, who ordered him to invite the guests' entourage into the yard and entertain them. Then he asked Wang Dutou to bring his troops to surround the yard and capture all the people.
Yang Ye stayed in the hallway for a long time, only hearing the footsteps of the soldiers, and there was not much noise inside. Then he received a report from the old servant, and left the villa with peace of mind.
He returned home to see his wife Zhe Saihua.
Zhe Saihua asked: My husband went to see Li Shoujie
Yang Ye shook his head: I just took a look at him, and then I caught him and prepared to send him to Tokyo.
Zhe Saihua was still a little surprised after hearing this.
Yang Ye said: This man is restless and is the son of Li Yun. He came all the way to Hedong. He must be trying to persuade me to rebel. This is not allowed. The world has been in turmoil for a long time. How can the Yang family not recognize the righteousness and start a massacre again
He spoke loudly: I have fought with the emperor in Baigu. With the emperor's martial arts and the combat power of the imperial army, he must have suffered no great loss in Youzhou. If I were blinded by greed, I would surely destroy the Yang family. I have no ambition to take risks unless Tokyo falls and the country collapses. Only then will I consider advancing to Jinyang to protect myself and wait and see.
After hearing this, Zhe Saihua nodded and said: My husband understands the righteousness and knows what is right.
Yang Ye said in a deep voice: Li Yun only knows that I am in charge of the Han army, but he does not know that the Han army has been reorganized. The deputy generals and the commanders are all appointed by the court. In addition, the military staff and messengers are not my people. If I make any rash moves, the Privy Council will immediately notice it.
He frowned and paced a few steps, and said hurriedly: Madam, write a letter to Guanzhong immediately, explain the righteousness and interests, and persuade your father-in-law not to make any unusual moves. Since Li Yun sent people to Hedong to lobby, he might also go to Guanzhong to contact his father-in-law.
Zhesaihuadao: My husband wants to send someone to escort Li Yun's son back to Beijing
Yang Ye pondered for a long time, thinking that Guo Shao had entrusted Xindai and several important passes to him, and it would be impossible for him to do that to a surrendered general he was not familiar with without trust. He immediately said: I will personally escort him to Tokyo.
Zhe Saihua was worried: This is about treason, will the court be suspicious of my husband
Yang Ye said frankly: The emperor treats me with sincerity, and I will repay him with loyalty.
Therefore, Li Yun's eldest son, Li Shoujie, was even worse than Li Jixun's eldest son. Li Jixun's son even met Li Yun once as a lobbyist; but now Li Shoujie didn't even see Yang Ye and was locked up without saying a word.
Li Shoujie stayed in a room all night with a lot of words and confusion in his mind. He couldn't sleep all night, wondering how he had offended Yang Ye.
However, the Yang family did not abuse him. The food they sent him was delicious, and his bed was clean and had a quilt.
The next morning, the door was opened and a warrior said, "Please ask Li Yanei to come out."
Li Shoujie put on his futou, smoothed his hair, and walked out of the room as he was told. Then he saw a prisoner's car and was stunned. Two soldiers came up to him. Li Shoujie had no choice but to let them search him and take away the secret letter sewn into his clothes. Then he walked into the prisoner's car and his hands and feet were locked.
At this time, the imperial guards of the Great Zhou were still in Hebei, and the regent of the Tokyo court was Empress Duanci.
After reading Yang Ye's memorial, Fu Jinzhan first sent a fast horse to deliver it to the Hebei army. Then, on the east side of Jinxiang Palace, she summoned Yang Ye behind a curtain and commended him for his loyalty to the country and for living up to the emperor's trust.
Yang Ye expressed his gratitude.
Yang Ye had already come to the capital to show his loyalty, which proved that he had no second thoughts. But after hearing about the failure of the Northern Expedition, Fu Jinzhan felt uneasy inexplicably when facing these warriors who held military power.
Yang Ye knelt on the floor in the hall, prostrating himself before the superior with great respect, and even the ministers on both sides were at ease. However, Fu Jinzhan was still extremely wary of him, perhaps just a prejudice that left a deep impression and fear on her during many wars.
Fu Jinzhan kept Yang Ye in Tokyo, praising him as a wise general whom the emperor could rely on, and promised to reward him when the emperor returned to the court.
She quickly thought of the Zhe family in the northwest, and thought: Since Li Yun had contacted Yang Ye, he should also try to win over Yang Ye's father-in-law, Zhe Dejian.
Fu Jinzhan then waited for Zhe Dejian's attitude.
Guo Shao led the main force of the Zhou army to Daming Prefecture, where he replenished some military supplies and stayed for a day. He also went to see his father-in-law Fu Yanqing.
At this time, an urgent report was received from Tokyo: Li Yun had contacted everywhere and was preparing to rebel, and Li Shoujie, who was sent to Hedong to persuade Yang Ye, had been arrested and taken to Tokyo.
Guo Shao did not expect that Li Yun would be exposed so soon. His original deployment was to let Wei Wang Fu Yanqing command the towns in Hebei as the Western Army after the incident, and the right wing of the Longjie Army stationed in Dezhou along the Caoqu as the Eastern Army, to suppress the rebellion from two directions. He judged that these troops were enough to deal with Li Yun, but the imperial guards were still in Hebei. Guo Shao discussed with his ministers and temporarily changed his mind. The army would go to deal with Li Yun's matter on the way.
He ordered Shi Yanchao to rebuild the Yellow River floating bridge in Bozhou, east of Damingfu, and the vanguard crossed the Yellow River to guard the ferry. Then he sent envoys to Yunzhou to question the crime.
Guo Shao personally instructed the envoy: First, explain the pros and cons. If the army crosses the river, Yunzhou will surely be captured. Advise him to take the initiative to come to the headquarters to welcome the emperor. I can spare Li's life and give him wealth and honor for his contribution in avoiding casualties of soldiers and civilians in the civil war.
The envoy was ordered to go to the residence of the governor of Tianping Army in Yunzhou.
Unexpectedly, when he saw Li Yun, Li Yun was drunk and flushed. Then he put the tablet of Taizu Guo Wei in public and burst into tears.
All the civil and military officials of the Taiping Army present were shocked.
Even the envoys were frozen in place, unable to say anything wrong about Li Yun because our dynasty also worshipped Guo Wei as the Taizu, and Taizu had shown favor to Li Yun, which was known to everyone. But why was he crying
A military general hurriedly said to the emperor's envoy: Our lord has drunk too much today and behaved a little bit out of control. I hope you will forgive him.
The messenger hurriedly said: In that case, I will come to see you again another day.
Unexpectedly, Li Yun said: There is no need to meet. Come, send his body back and leave his head behind.
The generals were stunned. The messenger's face changed color and he said anxiously: Li Jieshuai, please think twice and don't be confused for a moment, otherwise you will make a big mistake. Your Majesty has said that as long as Li Jieshuai comes to Your Majesty's camp to plead guilty, he will be spared from death and be granted wealth and honor. Li Jieshuai, Li Jieshuai
The messenger was dragged out by his personal soldiers without explanation, his hat was roughly taken off and thrown on the ground, and then stepped on by the soldiers. The messenger could not help but curse: Li Yun, your mother, I will wait for you on the road to the underworld, and you will not have a good end.
The civil and military officials in the hall looked at each other in surprise.
Li Yun choked up and said: "Taizu was very kind to me, but I have never been able to repay him in this life. Instead, I watched helplessly as barbarians from nowhere tried to seize Taizu's throne and became officials in the government. Thinking of the difficulties Taizu went through in starting his business, how could I bear it?"
The staff members' faces looked very grim. Now that the army had crossed the Yellow River, it was too bad to start a rebellion. But it seemed that Li Yun had no choice. The secret was leaked at the wrong time. Now he could only plead guilty if he did not resist. Li Yun did not seem to believe that the emperor would forgive him.
Li Yun said: "The false emperor Guo Shao is a prodigal son. He rashly attacked the Liao Kingdom and defeated most of the battle-hardened imperial guards left by the first emperor. Today, we will start the army first and wait for the response from all the towns to restore the Great Zhou together."
At this point, even the emperor's envoys were killed and the emperor was publicly called a barbarian fake emperor. There was no choice. No one objected on the spot. The generals present were all Li Yun's old subordinates for many years. No one knew which one would stand loyally by Li Yun's side. Usually everyone was familiar with each other, but now no one knew what was in each other's mind.
Immediately a military general came to pay his respects and said: The imperial army is powerful and has already seized the Yellow River. We should immediately improve the city defense and defend Yunzhou City to the death.
Li Yun said coldly: We did not raise an army to defend the city and wait for an attack. Immediately order the troops to gather and go out of the city to fight a decisive battle.
Li Yun was not only hot-tempered and arrogant, but also a good commander of the army. He felt that at this time, the defenders of the city were all harboring their own ulterior motives, and that only by gathering the troops and fighting once, might there be a chance.