Great Han Empire

Chapter 463
In February of the sixth year of Zhongping in the Han Dynasty (AD 189).

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Xiao Yu was resting on Li Hong's arm, her long black hair was messily scattered on her fair and delicate face, her body was slightly curled up, like a docile kitten lying quietly in Li Hong's wide and firm arms.Li Hong gently straightened the long hair scattered on Xiao Yu's face, staring at Xiao Yu's beautiful face with his eyes motionless, his heart was full of love, he couldn't help but lower his head to kiss Xiao Yu's long eyelashes and tender cherry lips , warm cheeks.

From Lulongsai to Hengling, from Hengling to Juzhu Fortress, from Juzhu Fortress to Jinyang, traveling for nearly [-] miles, the wind and snow along the way, the weather is freezing, Xiaoyu didn't say bitterness, just followed silently Galloping behind Li Hong.Li Hong felt sorry for her, and often held her in his arms and galloped wildly.After Xiao Yu followed him, there was no longer the peaceful and peaceful days in the past, there were only continuous wars, endless worries and anxieties, but as long as Xiao Yu no longer felt pain or loneliness, Li Hong would be very happy. Satisfied.

Whenever they camped in the ice and snow, Li Hong and Xiao Yu hugged each other tightly. The sweetness and happiness at that moment made Li Hong unable to contain himself.The bloody career of more than five years has already withered Li Hong's heart. Apart from pain and anger, he has forgotten other emotions. In Li Hong's dry heart, all kinds of colorful emotions spewed out of his heart like spring water. For the first time, he felt that life could be so beautiful.Li Hong feared that this kind of happiness would be fleeting, so he hugged Xiao Yu all night and sat by the fire for a long time, unwilling to fall asleep.

Zheng Xin was very envious, and once asked Li Hong, Zi Min, does it feel good to hold Xiao Yu?You ride with her during the day and sleep with her at night without feeling tired.Li Hong laughed, put his arms around Xiaoyu who was blushing with embarrassment, and said, Shouyan, when you return to Jinyang, I will ask the boss to marry you to Mrs. Fang, and you will know.Tian Zhong who was sitting by the side stretched out his hand and hit Zheng Xin on the head, and said with a smile, what else do you know besides fighting?Children don't talk nonsense.But you are also 20 years old, it is time to have a woman.Zheng Xin was overjoyed when he heard the words, and went to dream by himself.

Back in Jinyang, Zhang Yan specially arranged a new house for Li Hong.Li Hong asked Xiaoyu if he would like to live in the city or in the barracks.Xiao Yu was very scared and said that she would live with Li Hong in the barracks.She has been living alone for a long time, and she is very afraid of living alone in an empty house. The feeling of loneliness makes her very scared.Seeing Xiao Yu's frightened and restless appearance, Li Hong felt love and pity in his heart, so he left with Xiao Yu.

When they arrived at Daying, Yan Wuwei, Beard, Lazy Leizi and a group of people came to visit Xiao Yu, Li Hong took advantage of the fact that all the generals from Youzhou were in Daying, and invited everyone to have a drink.He also specially invited Laoguai and dozens of Lulongsai veterans.At the banquet, Li Hong said, "Today I marry Xiao Yu, and this dinner is considered a wedding feast."Everyone was overjoyed and congratulated one after another.Xian Yufu was very dissatisfied, saying that you are sorry for marrying Xiao Yu into your family so easily.Li Hong said with emotion, compared with those comrades lying in the ground, I am still alive, and I can still marry a wife. I am very, very satisfied.

Xiaoyu was awakened by Li Hong's kiss, she reached out and hugged Li Hong, let Li Hong kiss her white and slender neck, let Li Hong's big hand move on her chest, a strong sense of happiness and satisfaction hit her hard Physically and mentally, she lay weakly on the ground in Li Hong's arms and moaned softly.

Li Hong bit Xiao Yu's earlobe lightly, and said in a low voice, "Don't sleep, follow me to Jinyang today."

Xiao Yu lay on Li Hong's body, her face pressed against her, and whispered, "I'm not going, I don't like it..."

"I'm going to stay in Jinyang for a few days, so you should come with me." Li Hong said with a smile, "Xiao Lan will pick you up in person today, so it's not good if you don't go. When we arrive in Jinyang, we will stay at Zhongyuan's house. If you don't want to move around, stay at Zhong Yuan's house and read the scrolls. Without you by my side at night, I feel restless and can't sleep."

Xiaoyu was intoxicated, she wished she could turn into a drop of sweet rain and flow into Li Hong's heart, become one with Li Hong, and be with Li Hong all the time.

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After Li Hong returned to Jinyang, the main generals of various ministries in various places were recalled to the Longshan camp one after another.The second is to reorganize the army and eliminate discipline.The generals of all parties and the main history of the General Zhenbei's Mansion also need to discuss the specific combat strategy of the Northern Xinjiang War proposed by the General Zhenbei's Mansion, so as to improve the plan and present it to the emperor and the court as soon as possible.

Since Sikong Ding Palace was recalled to Beijing, Xu Rong was temporarily in charge of the General's Mansion of Zhengbei University and the General Mansion of Zhenbei.Li Wei and Xiao Lan were recalled by Xu Rong after the year, and the Northern Expedition camp in Lishi City, Xihe County, is currently presided over by Zhang Yan's long history Huang Ting.After Li Wei and his wife returned to Jinyang, Xiao Lan resigned from the Zhenbei General's Mansion on the grounds that she was unwell.At present, General Zhenbei is becoming more and more powerful, and the mansion is full of talents. Xiao Lan thinks that if her husband and wife hold important positions in the mansion at the same time, they will be criticized, and it is not appropriate for her own daughter to mix with a group of big men for a long time to discuss state affairs.Xu Rong didn't dare to agree rashly.Xiao Lan is a senior officer in the mansion recruited by Li Hong. She played an important role in the early days when the Zhenbei General's mansion was short of talents. She is an important figure in the mansion. Whether she can agree to Xiao Lan's resignation is not within Xu Rong's authority.

After Li Hong came back, he immediately vetoed it.The war in northern Xinjiang is about to begin, where can I find an aide like Xiao Lan who is familiar with everything in northern Xinjiang and the affairs of the mansion?In the past two years, Xiao Lan has participated in all kinds of government affairs of Zhenbei General's Mansion, and she personally presided over some matters. Once she resigns, it is not a question of whether someone will do the work, but a question of whether the person who does it can be trusted by Li Hong .Many secrets of the Zhenbei General's Mansion must not be leaked.

Xiao Lan personally approached Li Hong and told about the many disadvantages of her husband and wife serving in the mansion at the same time. Xiao Lan said that now there are rumors that our Zhu family controls the entire Zhenbei General's Mansion, which is very detrimental to the general's cause.Li Hong didn't care, saying that once the war in Northern Xinjiang is over and the frontier counties in Northern Xinjiang are recovered, I, General Zhenbei, will be resigned, and everyone will go their separate ways.You'd better go ahead.You are serving the Great Han Kingdom and not me, so why care about other people's gossip?Zhong Yuan and I are brothers, brothers for life, I trust you.

Xiao Lan had no choice but to continue to take up the post of Zhonglang to handle official affairs in the mansion.Considering her living habits, Li Hong specially arranged for her to preside over the coordination and handling of affairs among the prefectures in Jinyang City.These things are many and complicated, all-encompassing, and belong to the kind of hard work that is tiring and has no visible results.But these things are very easy for Xiao Lan, she led dozens of officials in the Zhenbei General's Mansion to handle them in an orderly manner.

Recently, disaster victims from Jizhou and scattered ants have flooded into Bingzhou in groups. In order to prevent chaos, the governments of Bingzhou have invested a lot of manpower and material resources to relieve and resettle the victims.Due to insufficient money and food, the three adults Zhao Qi, Zhang Yan, and Ding Yuan asked for help from the Zhenbei General's Mansion.For this reason, Xiao Lan begged Li Hong to go to Jinyang many times, because the relief and allocation of money and food had to be negotiated by various governments and finally agreed by Li Hong.

On this day, Xiao Lan personally rushed to Longshan Daying to ask Li Hong to leave for Jinyang.In the morning, Li Hong took Li Wei, Zhao Yunpound, and a hundred black panthers out of the camp on horseback, Xiao Lan and Xiao Yu followed closely behind in a carriage.

Seeing that Zhao Yun was there, Li Wei felt a little strange, so he asked Li Hong in a low voice, "Why did your lord bring Zilong with you? We all know that your lord prefers Zilong, but now that all the generals are in the camp, you just prefer Zilong." Long also needs to be a little more careful, don't need to be so ostentatious, right?"

Li Hong said with a smile: "Zhongyuan misunderstood. Yesterday when Zilong and I played against each other, I was absent-minded, so I asked him what's the matter, and he said he wanted to go home and have a look. I was very surprised, saying that the soldiers of various departments have been taking turns to rest recently , why haven’t you gone back yet? Zilong explained that the Changshuiying soldiers are all Karasuma and Huns, far away from home, and it takes a long time to go back and forth, so he asked other soldiers to go home one after another, but he put I gave up this opportunity. However, Zilong has been away from home for more than a year and is very homesick. When Zilong led his troops from Jizhou to escort Mr. Cai back to Bingzhou at the end of last year, he took his parents from Zhending City along the way. Jinyang. Speaking of which, he only has more than 40 miles to go home, how can you make him not miss home at all?"

"That's why my lord brought him with me today, to balance public and private interests?" Li Wei smiled and shook his head and said, "My lord really favors Zilong, and it's no wonder that the generals complained a lot."

"Why am I partial to Zilong?" Li Hong said with a look of injustice, "Is it partial if I help you snatch Xiao Lan in Luoyang?"

Li Wei bowed again and again and said: "My lord, that's a preference, that's a preference. Zilong's intelligence, martial arts, and achievements are obvious to all. My lord recommends him to the imperial court as a general in the line of duty, and let him lead a class alone." Jun, everyone can understand this, and think that Zilong has this qualification, but how did Zilong get these military exploits?"

Li Hong smiled and said nothing, he didn't admit it but he had a plan in his heart.He asked Zhao Yun to lead the army alone several times, and Zhao Yun won all the battles. Of course, Zhao Yun's military exploits are getting more and more.Because the others did not have the opportunity to lead the battle alone, they naturally gained very little military exploits.Generally, generals act together with the army, even if they have military exploits, they are not as outstanding as Zhao Yun.

It's actually very strange for people to be together, and Li Hong couldn't explain why he liked Zhao Yun and why he trusted Zhao Yun. From the first time he saw Zhao Yun single-handedly singled out Yan Liang with his horse and gun, he liked this titan. Trust him for no reason.He has always had full confidence in Zhao Yun, and he believes that as long as it is something he entrusts to Zhao Yun, Zhao Yun will handle it well.Li Hong didn't have such confidence in other people, even Zheng Xin and Yan Wuwei who came out of Lulongsai together.

"I think Zilong's luck is good." Li Hong looked at Li Wei and said solemnly, "This time I asked him to rush to help Lucheng, but he led his troops to attack Wuzhong and Xuwu in one go. It was close to Lulongsai. Although the Xianbei people voluntarily gave up on Lulongsai, not Zilong, but he was the first to enter Lulongsai, so the credit for regaining Lulongsai should naturally be credited to him. On. Opportunities are indeed very important, but to successfully grasp opportunities requires strength and luck, both of which are indispensable. So, now not only everyone has complaints, but I also have complaints. Why was Lu Longsai brought down by Zilong? And not by me?"

Li Wei looked at Li Hong's regretful expression, and couldn't help laughing out loud.

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Xiao Lan opened the curtain to see Li Wei who was laughing on the horse, and turned to Xiao Yu who was sitting beside her and said, "The general is joking. Does he usually tell you jokes?"

Xiao Yu smiled lightly and shook her head.Xiao Lan stared into her eyes intently, and praised in a low voice: "Sister is so beautiful, her eyes are like pools of autumn water. In the past, my old man used to praise you in front of me, saying that your eyes are watery, and you are also watery. It's true. Lord General has you in his heart, no wonder he has not married for so many years."

Xiao Yu blushed, bowed her head in silence, and there was a happy smile on her delicate face.

"My lord general passed out once when he attacked Jicheng. I heard that he kept calling your name after he passed out. Do you know about this?"

Xiao Yu was stunned, her heart was sweet and bitter, all kinds of feelings came to her heart for a while, her eyes were quietly moist.

Xiao Lan smiled and said, "Sister's blessing is really enviable."

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Li Hong and Li Wei talked about the situation in Luoyang in low voices as they walked.

"The general is doomed this time." Li Wei said in a low voice, "Even if he wins in Jizhou, His Majesty will kill him. It's just that I don't quite understand His Majesty's intentions. Now that the Northern Army has left Beijing, the West Garden Army Stationed at the Eight Passes of Gyeonggi, there is only the Southern Army in Luoyang City, Your Majesty is very safe now, why didn't he take the opportunity to issue an edict to kill the General? Does Your Majesty have to wait for the General to complete the army and lead his troops south to arrest the General?"

"Although Your Majesty and the imperial court continued to send food, salaries and military equipment to Bingzhou after the beginning of the year, have you noticed that Shang Shutai has never discussed with me about the Northern Xinjiang War since Mr. Huangfu left. This is especially strange. Your Majesty three I have been urged to go back to Bingzhou twice, but Shangshutai has not given me a detailed battle plan.” Li Hong said, “What does this mean? Should we fight or not in the northern Xinjiang war? Do you want to fight after it is established? The current Luoyang looks very chaotic, and the powers of all parties are fighting fiercely for the imperial rule. Your Majesty and the court may have no intention of going out to fight in the near future."

"We don't know what happened in Luoyang at the moment. There are all kinds of theories and guesses." Li Wei said, "After all, we are not in the court, so we don't know the specific inside story, but two things are for sure. One is that Your Majesty He didn't want to kill the middle-ranking officials in exchange for the support of the nobles. Second, His Majesty didn't want Luoyang to be plunged into a bloody storm because of the imperial order, so he transferred both the Northern Army and the West Garden Army out of Luoyang to completely eliminate the incident. The possibility of a mutiny. But under the current circumstances, His Majesty can recall the general back to Luoyang, take and kill him, so why hasn’t he done so?”

Li Hong thought for a while, and said with a wry smile: "How can we guess what His Majesty is thinking? In fact, the matter of imperial order is very simple in my opinion. As long as Your Majesty lets me bring [-] cavalry to Luoyang, he can do whatever he wants ? Killing traitors, killing generals, killing nobles, you can do it, isn’t it just to establish a prince, is it so complicated? The reason why the struggle for imperial lineage is so complicated and dangerous, in the final analysis, is because His Majesty doesn’t trust me.”

Li Wei smiled and said: "You really know how to tell jokes. If His Majesty orders you to bring [-] cavalry to Beijing, would you dare to go?"

"Only idiots come to Beijing." Li Hong said in a low voice, "I killed the general in front, and I was the one who lost his head in the back. Your Majesty doesn't trust anyone, so he trusts himself. But having said that, His Majesty will never Let me lead my troops to Beijing."

"Of course, the general's subordinates are either barbarians or Yellow Turban Army, or rebel captives. Your Majesty will not even let you cross the Yellow River for this kind of army, let alone enter Beijing." Li Wei sighed. How does His Majesty plan to stand up? What is His Majesty's purpose in not killing the General so far? Could it be that Your Majesty wants to force the General back?"

"How did the general rebel?" Li Hong asked, "The soldiers of the northern army are all descendants of the capital, and they have been favored by the emperor. Even if the general deceives them back to the capital, as long as your majesty gives an order, the soldiers of the northern army will immediately turn their backs on them. Kill the general. Didn’t the general Dou Wu’s Beigong mutiny fail like this? Didn’t the general know? If the general wants to rebel, he can only use other troops, not the northern army and the Xiyuan army. These armies It’s okay to use it to threaten people, but when it comes to the critical moment, I still listen to His Majesty. Could it be that the soldiers of the Northern Army and the West Garden Army will attack the palace? Just dream.”

"Then why is your majesty urging the general to go back to Bingzhou? Why divide the northern army into two? Why let the general lead the army? Since Lord Huangfusong can go to the army, my teacher can also go to the army, and Lord Lu Zhilu can also go to the army. Why did Your Majesty agree to let the general go out?" Li Wei frowned and said, "Your Majesty is either a genius, or..."

"What do you mean?" Li Hong asked.

Li Wei leaned into Li Hong's ear and whispered: "Your Majesty should have only one purpose in doing this, and that is to force against the general, and take the opportunity to wipe out all the people who support the general in the court, and completely eliminate all those who oppose the abolition of the prince and the establishment of the concubine." People who will clear away all obstacles for the little Marquis Dong to inherit the great power in the future."

Li Hong was taken aback, "Then why does Your Majesty try to win over scholars? Want to recruit a large number of scholars to join the court?"

"In this way, His Majesty can see the true colors of more scholars, kill more scholars who oppose him, and kill more scholars who may endanger Xiao Donghou in the future." Li Wei hesitated, "It's just that Your Majesty uses It would be too risky to force the Great General to clear up dissidents and establish the imperial line, so I say that His Majesty is either a genius, or..."

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(End of this chapter)