[Forced to become a hero]
6, northwest
In the last years of Tongguang, Li Cunxu sent Li Siyuan to suppress the Weizhou rebels. As a result, Li Siyuan was taken into the city by the rebels, creating an irreversible "misunderstanding." Li Siyuan led his troops south to find Li Cunxu to "defend".
At that time, Li Siyuan had only a few soldiers and was weak in strength. He did not have the strength to overthrow Li Cunxu's regime by force. Li Siyuan was very unsteady, hesitant and indecisive.
When he passed through Xiangzhou, a man named Kang Fu provided him with thousands of war horses, which greatly increased the combat effectiveness of Li Siyuan's army. This gave Li Siyuan the confidence to challenge Li Cunxu with force.
Li Siyuan was able to sit on the throne of emperor, and Kang Fu was indispensable.
Kangfu is also from Shatuo, and his ancestors and grandchildren have been officers in Yuzhou for three generations. Kangfu had been proficient in riding and archery since he was a child. He listened to Li Keyong's instructions and was very trusted.
After Li Cunxu came to the throne, he was asked to manage war horses (horse envoy). Although he was in charge of royal horses, he was not just a little Bi Ma Wen. He was in charge of the maintenance and dispatching of military war horses across the country, and was also in charge of part of the animal husbandry industry. The land classified as pastoral areas by the state is theoretically managed by him.
The importance of war horses in the cold weapon era is self-evident, so this job must be performed by a trustworthy comrade.
Li Cunxu had been at odds with Houliang Jiahe for many years. In order to facilitate the war, he set up a "small horse farm" in Xiangzhou, which was managed by Kangfu, while the old horse ranches such as Daizhou were called "big horse farms".
What Li Cunxu didn't expect was that it was this trustworthy comrade who handed the sharp knife that killed him to his enemy.
After Li Siyuan ascended the throne, he gave Kang Fu a lot of rewards. He was first appointed as Feilongshi (who also raised horses and worked in the palace), then as Cizhou governor, and then as Xiangzhou political commissar (supervisor of soldiers and horses). When the three-pronged army conquered Jingnan, Kangfu served as the general political commissar of the conquering army (the military and horse supervisor of Jingnan Road Camp).
The reason why Li Siyuan took Kangfu as his confidant was not just because he sponsored thousands of war horses in the early days of his business, but because Kangfu had another special skill - Fan language.
Li Siyuan often discussed matters with Kang Fu. The two communicated in Fan dialect, which was incomprehensible to the people around them. Even An Chonghui didn't know what the two were talking about.
Kang Fu became Li Siyuan's most handy eyes and ears, and he didn't have to worry about having ears through the wall.
Li Siyuan valued An Chongjie very much, but he would not be stupid enough to hang himself on a tree. In addition to An Chongjie, Li Siyuan must have other channels and confidants to avoid being ignored by powerful ministers.
And this is what An Zhonghui is most worried about.
This is a secret battle between kings and powerful ministers around the core power, and Kangfu is the key piece in this game. People in the world can't help themselves. Regardless of whether Kangfu wants it or not, he can't escape this fate and is involuntarily involved in a political turmoil.
One day, Li Siyuan summoned Kang Fu again. The two communicated in Fan language and it took a long time before they left.
As soon as Kangfu exited, he saw Privy Councilor An Chongjie standing outside, waiting for him for a long time. An Zhongjie's face was gloomy and full of anger. Kangfu was shocked and quickly said hello.
An Zhongjie took a step closer, lowered his voice, and said viciously: "If you dare to talk nonsense in front of the emperor, I will chop off your head!"
Kangfu was so frightened that he had no choice but to say yes. An Zhonghui's sharp and vicious eyes caused an immeasurable psychological shadow on Kang Fu. He didn't want to be caught between Li Siyuan and An Zhongjie. Since ancient times, any chess piece caught between the emperor and the powerful ministers would not end well.
After thinking about it, Kangfu decided to protect himself wisely and voluntarily withdraw from this political game. So he took the initiative to find Li Siyuan and asked him to be transferred to a local government and leave the central government.
As it happened, the northwest of the empire was in turmoil at the time. As mentioned before, the political form in the northwest is very complicated. The central dynasty is beyond the reach of the central dynasty and has almost zero control. It is basically autonomous by the leaders of ethnic minority tribes and is only nominally subordinate to the Central Plains dynasty.
Therefore, the northwest region has been in such a situation for a long time: various forces have been fighting each other for actual control of the region. After winning, the court will appoint the winner as the legitimate ruler of the region based on the policy of "using barbarians to control barbarians". A brief period of calm ensued in the area;
The reason for the lull is that challenging the authority of the winner is a sure-win business. Because even if you win by chance, it is still considered a "rebellion" in legal terms, and the court will intervene by directly sending troops. Therefore, the winner who is appointed by the court has the central court behind him, which is his talisman;
Once he dies, there will be a brief state of anarchy before the new appointment letter from the imperial court arrives. This will be the opportunity for the various forces to reshuffle. They will use this precious time to carry out a new round of fighting and fighting, and finally The winner will reestablish a new order in the region and then be appointed by the imperial court.
This is the basic logic of the turmoil in the northwest region.
Now, Han Zhu, the governor of Lingzhou Shuofang Army, has passed away, and his younger brother Han Cheng claims to be the queen. There is a power vacuum, and heroes from all walks of life begin to appear.
For example, Li Kuangbin, the general of Xiazhou Dingyuan Army, launched a mutiny and captured cities and territories, plunging the northwest region into chaos. Han Cheng urgently reported to the court, asking the court to formally appoint him as soon as possible and recognize his legal rule over Shuofang's army.
An Chongjie was overjoyed when he received the report. This was really a good strategy to kill two birds with one stone! So Kangfu was sent to the northwest.
He served as the governor of Liang Prefecture, served as the governor of Shuofang and Hexi and other military governors, and inspected and disposed of Ling, Wei, Xiong, Jing, Gan, and Su prefectures, managed the camp fields, and escorted the tribes. Wen Chi inquired about taxes and other envoys.
A long list of titles, to put it simply, he is the General Manager of Northwest Territory Affairs. The actual official rank was very low. He was still a governor, but he exercised the military and political power of the Lingzhou Shuofang Army. He also took on taxation, national united front and other tasks. The most important thing was that he also took charge of these affairs of the Hexi Army, and Hexi had control of the army at the time. It is not in Hou Tang's hands at all.
In other words, An Chongjiao shaped Kangfu into a "public enemy" in the northwest region, and everyone among the barbarians and the Tibetan captives was willing to kill him.
An Zhongjie wanted to kill someone with a borrowed knife and kill him.
After Kangfu was appointed, he was frightened and immediately ran to Li Siyuan, crying bitterly and begging to resign.
Li Siyuan also felt that An Zhongjie was a bit wicked, so he asked An Zhongjie to place Kangfu elsewhere.
An Zhongjie was furious and said: "What kind of credit does Kang Fu have? He has been directly promoted from a small governor to a military governor before he has achieved any merit. What is there to be dissatisfied about? If you dare to pick and choose in the face of the emperor's favor, then what? Should other vassals and towns in the world follow suit? Besides, the appointment document has been issued, and the emperor’s golden words must not mean what he says?”
Li Siyuan had no choice but to find Kang Fu privately and comforted him: "It's not that I don't want to help you, it's just that An Zhongjie insists on it, and there's nothing I can do about it. Just aggrieve yourself first, and take care of yourself!"
When Kang Fu left Beijing to take up his post, he cried like a tearful person.
Killing someone with a borrowed knife was An Zhongjie's idea. Li Siyuan did not want to kill Kang Fu, but also knew that the northwest was extremely dangerous, so he sent General Niu Zhirou and others to lead an army of 10,000 to escort Kang Fu to his post.
