Jiuxi

Chapter 275 273 [One word wakes up the dreamer]

Judging from Qingyu Zhongwang's resume, this person is not an armchair strategist. He is at least more mature and experienced than Qingyu Huaijin.

He was the eldest son of Qing Yugong, and as expected would be the heir to Prince Changshan of the Jing Dynasty. He was naturally qualified to coordinate and command Yan Jing's army, thereby changing the previous chaotic situation of the Northern Army.

It can be seen from this arrangement that although Qing Yugong was far away in Zhao State in the north, he still paid close attention to the Battle of Yanqi and asked Qing Yuzhongwang to come and take charge of the overall situation when Jingjun suffered a major defeat. His intention is self-evident. .

Qing Yugong can accept the current situation because he is confident enough to reverse the situation in the future, but he cannot allow the Qi army to make further progress or even threaten the safety of Heluo. This is his grasp of the overall situation.

Although Su Yunqing had participated in the battle at Yongquan Pass, his main responsibility was to collect intelligence through the agents of the Weaving Department. Therefore, he had a better understanding of Qing Yugong's thoughts. At the moment, he was only curious about how Lu Chen would deal with Qing Yu Zhongwang.

"Master Su, how many people does our Warp Weaving Department currently have in Heluo City?"

However, to Su Yunqing's expectation, Lu Chen's thoughts were obviously not on Qing Yu Zhongwang.

He temporarily suppressed his confusion and replied: "Including those secret agents, there are currently one hundred and twenty-nine people. Of course, this is only the manpower I have. There may be some spies who belong directly to Qin Tiju."

The face of a thirty-year-old man appeared in Lu Chen's mind, and he asked: "Are these people still led by Yin Shangfu?"

Su Yunqing nodded and said, "That's right."

In order to gain the trust of the leaders of the Seven Star Gang, Lu Chen ventured into Heluo City and, with the assistance of Yin Shangfu, killed Chen Jingtang and his son, so that he could smoothly integrate into the Seven Star Gang and lay a solid foundation for the establishment and growth of the Seven Star Army.

That time, Lu Chen was in a hurry and did not investigate the chaotic situation in Heluo City carefully, so he asked again: "I wonder if Mr. Su can tell me what the current situation is in the Puppet Yan Dynasty Hall." .”

"This is a bit long to say."

Su Yunqing naturally had enough patience and did not rush to ask Lu Chen what he thought. He just followed his words and replied: "Leave aside the forces secretly cultivated by the Jing Dynasty, the puppet Yan court can be roughly divided into four factions. One is based on The powerful families represented by Prime Minister Wang An, although they support the pseudo-emperor in name, are actually more inclined to join the Jing Dynasty."

When he heard the name Wang An, he thought of the gentle and considerate Miss Wang from the Lu residence in Ancheng. Even though Lu Chen had a calm face, he couldn't help but feel strange in his heart.

"The second is a group of officials headed by the Second Prime Minister Yu Fenchen. In terms of strength, they are definitely not as good as the powerful people, and their position is quite awkward. They are very resistant to the puppet Yan being completely reduced to the Jing Dynasty's puppet, but they have no face to return to the Jing Dynasty. They defected to Da Qi, but the puppet Yan country has not been established for a long time. If they want to be loyal ministers of the puppet Yan country, they do not have enough confidence."

Su Yunqing naturally didn't know Lu Chen's psychological activities. When he talked about Yu Yuchen, his expression was very complicated, ranging from contempt to anger.

Lu Chen said: "It is indeed awkward, but perhaps it is because of the existence of these people that Jing Chao has not made up his mind to directly annex Puppet Yan. Mr. Su, please continue."

"The third faction is headed by Privy Councilor Pang Shigu. He was just an envoy in the capital at that time. Because he was good at adapting to the situation and had no sense of loyalty, he was pushed to the position of Privy Councilor by the Jing Dynasty. His attitude does not require Needless to say. There are many people like him in the Yan army. For example, the two generals of Dongyang Road, Zhang Junsi and Li Shouzhen, received the salary of the puppet Yan court but were willing to be the hawks and lackeys of the Jing Dynasty. As for the fourth faction, it turns out that The leader is Chen Jingtang, and there are currently no successors.”

"The fourth faction Master Su mentioned must be the part of the puppet Yan army that is unwilling to surrender to the Jing Dynasty?"

"Yes, but they are not willing to surrender to us."

Hearing this, Lu Chen took a cup of tea and took a sip. After pondering for a moment, he said, "I understand that the four factions of the Puppet Yan court are actually two kinds of people. Each of them has their own civil servants and military generals. One has already been determined. The idea is to join the Jing Dynasty. The two want to continue to maintain the status of the puppet government. Even if this is a puppet court, there may be hope of real independence in the future."

Su Yunqing nodded.

Lu Chen felt that something was not right, so he thought for a moment and asked, "Master Su, which faction does the fake Emperor Yan belong to?"

Su Yunqing was slightly startled, then laughed and said: "He does not belong to any faction, because no one in the Puppet Yan Dynasty took him seriously. The current Puppet Emperor's name is Zhang Can, and his father's name is Zhang Riduan. Before the revolution, he was the minister of the Ministry of Rites. After the fall of Heluo, Zhang Riduan was imprisoned by the Jing Dynasty army before he could escape. Later, Emperor Jing wanted to support the puppet Yan to establish a country and implement the policy of northerners ruling the north, so he forced Zhang Riduan to ascend the throne as emperor."

Lu Chen didn't know much about the details of this period of history. Now that he was listening to Su Yunqing's eloquent talk, he couldn't help but murmured: "So, this Zhang Can shouldn't be considered a loner?"

"Are you referring to the Zhang family's own strength? Zhang Riduan's ability to become the Minister of Rites back then was indeed based on the foundation of the Zhang family in Jingshan. However, more than ten years later, the Zhang family has been torn to pieces by people secretly sent by the Jing Dynasty. . Even if Zhang Leduan can leave some foundation for Zhang Can, in the current situation of the pseudo-Yan Dynasty, it will be difficult for him to change his destiny." Su Yunqing has been immersed in conspiracy and conspiracy all year round, so he can naturally keep up with Lu Chen in this regard In fact, when Lu Chen asked about Yan Emperor Zhang Can, he guessed what the other party was thinking, which was to start with Zhang Can to provoke internal turmoil in Beiyan.

There is nothing wrong with this idea. After all, whether Wang An or Pang Shigu, there is not much difference in who sits on the throne. They can be important ministers of Yan State, or they can suddenly become high-ranking officials of Jing Dynasty, but Zhang Can cannot, even if he is just a puppet Emperor, the end will definitely be miserable.

The problem is that the emperor of the Zhang family is too weak and has no ability to break the balance.

The Warp Weaving Department also thought about starting from this angle in the early years, but later found that it was impossible to do so before giving up.

Facing Su Yunqing's reminder, Lu Chen did not argue, but continued to ask: "May I ask Mr. Su, what kind of person is Zhang Can?"

"He is a man of great ambition and talent, but he is generous on the outside but jealous on the inside. After being hit a few times, he indulges in drinking and partying every night. We don't have many eyes in the Puppet Yan Palace, so we can only detect it to this extent. Maybe Zhang Can is pretending to be like this. , but whether he pretends to be fake or not has little impact on the overall situation."

Su Yunqing's answer was very sincere. He obviously didn't want Lu Chen to waste energy on this issue.

Lu Chen said, "Then can I think that Zhang Can is not a timid person?"

Su Yunqing hesitated and said: "It can be said that we might as well make it clear what Captain Lu's plan is."

Lu Chen did not answer directly. He stood up and walked slowly with a tea cup in hand, his brows and eyes full of concentration.

"Suppose I were Zhang Can, and my father was the Minister of Rites, and my family's reputation was well-known far and near. According to common sense, even if I have no ambitions, I can still enjoy a lifetime of glory and wealth. However, when Jingjun came, Heluo City was destroyed. My father was forced to become the false emperor of Lao Shizi, and the Zhang family in Jingshan became the treacherous ministers and traitors known to thousands of people."

Su Yunqing looked at him curiously, feeling very fresh in her heart.

Lu Chen kept pacing and continued: "If you can really be the emperor of a small court, even if you will be interfered by the Jing Dynasty, as long as you have the power in your hands to get drunk, the power of the court has already been divided up by those below. , but they pushed our Zhang family to bear the blame. My father died young and depressed because of this, and I had to continue to be their scapegoat. Why? I resisted but to no avail, so I could only drink to drown my sorrows and complaints. I am full of grief and anger, but I haven’t gone crazy yet..."

There was a hint of surprise in Su Yunqing's eyes.

Of course he knew that Lu Chen was imitating Zhang Can's mental journey, but he had to admit that although this process was very simple, it was very likely to fit Zhang Can's true thoughts.

Lu Chen stopped, turned to look at Su Yunqing and asked: "Master Su, if you were Zhang Can, you have the status of emperor but can't do anything, you and your father and even the entire Zhang family will be infamous in the history of history. , and you will be infamy for thousands of years. Those people below divided your power, and the dignitaries of Jing Dynasty laughed at you coldly. You can only use strong alcohol to anesthetize yourself. Don’t you want to do something? "

"Of course I will kill them all."

Su Yunqing nodded without hesitation, then smiled bitterly and said: "Captain Lu, we have discussed this issue before. Even though Zhang Can has this idea, he does not have the strength."

"There are many types of strength."

Lu Chen took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "If we expect Zhang Can to conjure a large number of loyal ministers and generals out of thin air, or hundreds of thousands of elite troops, he will completely control the entire puppet Yan court and drive back the Jing Dynasty's forces. To the north, this is obviously an unrealistic conjecture. However, this is also not a situation we want to see. Even though Zhang Can has thousands of grievances and pains, the Zhang family has betrayed Da Qi after all, so we don’t want Zhang Can to truly Rise up, as long as he can cause some unrest.”

Su Yunqing also picked up the tea cup. The tea was already a little cold, but he didn't care at all. He said slowly: "Captain Lu is saying that Zhang Can is a trigger. We must find a way to light this trigger and injure a whole area in Heluo City." , and then cause chaos within them?"

Lu Chen returned to the chair and sat down, staring into Su Yunqing's eyes and said: "Master Su, although Zhang Can has no ability to change the overall situation, he is the emperor of the puppet Yan after all, at least nominally the co-leader of the different factions. In the Jing Dynasty Before officially taking over, both Pang Shigu and Yu Xinchen had to give the emperor a little favor, such as going to the palace to participate in some ceremonies."

Su Yunqing's heart trembled, as if he was enlightened, and said softly: "Let Zhang Can summon the ministers and then go on a killing spree?"

Lu Chen laughed and asked calmly: "Why not?"

(End of this chapter)