"I have a letter here, you can take a look." Li Congjia took out the letter from his sleeve and threw it on the desk.
Zhang Ji made a surprised expression, slowly picked up the letter, unfolded it and read it.
"This is actually a letter from Li Yuan? Where did your majesty get it? All correspondence is under the control of Prince Huai's Mansion, how could Zhang Wenbiao not know about it?"
"I can guarantee that he won't know. Don't worry about where it comes from. After reading it, let's talk again."
Zhang Ji read the letter in one breath, feeling an indescribable feeling in his heart. The humility in Li Yuan's letter was surprising, but the final threat was very sinister. He was indeed a man with deep intentions. However, Li Yuan really had no other conditions. He only had one condition, which was to kill Zhang Wenbiao. This letter was meant to alienate people, and it could be said that it had sinister intentions, but for Zhang Ji, this condition was exactly what he wanted.
"What do you think?" Li Congjia asked.
"Your Majesty, I dare not say anything."
"Say, I want to hear your true thoughts."
"According to the order. I think there is something wrong with this letter."
"Oh? How do you say this?"
"I believe that some of the words in Li Yuan's letter are not entirely true. He may not be what he said, and may be intended to confuse His Majesty."
Li Congjia frowned and said: "How can I not know who he is, but that's not what I want you to say. What I want to ask is whether the conditions he proposed are credible. Killing Zhang Wenbiao is extremely difficult, and I am worried that we will spend all our time. After removing Zhang Wenbiao from his mind, Li Yuan went back on his word..."
Zhang Ji smacked his lips and said, "Actually, in my opinion, it doesn't matter whether it is trustworthy or not. I just ask your majesty, if killing Zhang Wenbiao can really make Li Yuan withdraw his troops, will your majesty agree?"
Li Congjia pondered without answering, tapping his fingers on the table unconsciously. It was difficult for him to answer this question, but his hesitation was already the answer, that is, he could kill.
"If killing Zhang Wenbiao can get the promise stated in Li Yuan's letter, then we have to try our best no matter what. Not only Zhang Wenbiao, even if Li Yuan wants to take my life as a condition, I will die happily. . I won’t even care whether Li Yuan’s promise is credible or not, because no matter whether it is credible or not, I will always risk my life to give it a try. This is related to the foundation of Your Majesty and the Tang Dynasty, and this is my responsibility.”
Li Congjia stared blankly at Zhang Ye, who had an upright and awe-inspiring face, and felt a touch of emotion in his heart. The many times Zhang Ye had spent with him in the past two years suddenly came to mind. Yes, no matter what, Zhang Jie was the only one who stayed with him from beginning to end. He is still loyal to himself, and he is still the loyal minister who did not care about his own life to protect himself!
"Your Majesty, actually speaking of taking a step back, if Li Yuan does not keep his promise, he is the emperor of Chu. What good will it do to him if he breaks his promise to the world? In addition to exposing his dishonesty, he also What can be done? In other words, without Zhang Wenbiao, would Yangzhou City collapse? Obviously not.
We still have many soldiers who can defend the city. When the time comes, we will have to fight to the death. Could the situation be worse? Unless your Majesty thinks Zhang Wenbiao is indispensable, but in fact his skills have been proven in Tanzhou City, maybe your Majesty thinks too highly of him. "
Zhang Jie's words have made it very clear. Zhang Wenbiao's life or death will not have much impact on the defense of the city. Li Congjia does not have to worry about this and dare not take action. And if Zhang Wenbiao dies, he may be able to get a better result or even the best of both worlds, so the next decision is actually a very simple matter, because the value of Zhang Wenbiao's death is obviously better than that of living.
Li Congjia stood blankly and said nothing. After getting this letter, he has been struggling with this issue. He is not a decisive person, and sometimes behaves very willfully.
At first, Li Congjia's idea was that he didn't want Zhang Wenbiao to die. Although the thief was pretending to be the leader of the imperial court, he had to rely on this tiger to defend Yangzhou. But now, if Zhang Wenbiao's death can bring about a huge change, Li Congjia hopes to fight for it. At one stroke, he was torn between these two thoughts.
Now Zhang Ji's words undoubtedly tilted Li Congjia's thoughts towards the latter. The crisis before him and his own safety all forced him to make difficult decisions without exception.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, the life of a rebellious minister is compared with Your Majesty's country and country. Do we still need to hesitate?! When it is cut off, it will be cut off. When disaster is imminent, you must not have the kindness of a woman!" Zhang Jie spoke sincerely. A sincere look.
"Yes, even if I want to kill Zhang Wenbiao, all the people in Yangzhou City belong to him, how can I easily touch him?"
...
It was already the first watch when Zhang Jie came out of the palace. After hurriedly returning to the mansion, he immediately ordered his two closest friends in Yangzhou City to be called to the study, and then told him everything about entering the palace just now. got them.
After listening to Zhang Jie's narration, Zhou Yi, who is now the commander of the cavalry army in the Yangzhou Imperial Forbidden Army, was delighted and said: "It's not in vain that I tried so hard to send this letter to the palace! Sir Zhang! This is what we all dream of getting rid of." What a great opportunity to lose this paper! What did His Majesty say? What did he think? When we came to Yangzhou with Your Majesty, we were constantly bullied by this thief and others. I have endured this tone for more than half a year!"
Zhang Jie said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty did not express his position. He only said that he would consider it, but I guess that His Majesty is also moved. On the one hand, His Majesty is worried that Li Yuan will not keep his promise. What if Li Yuan does not retreat after we have tried our best to kill Zhang Wenbiao? , could it be that he fell into Li Yuan's counterintuitive plan? On the other hand, His Majesty is also worried that it will not be easy to kill Zhang Wenbiao, but it will affect everyone's lives, so His Majesty is hesitant. "
Du Chengdao, who served as deputy general of the garrison at the west gate of Yangzhou, frowned and said: "Your Majesty is right to have doubts. I also doubt Li Yuan's motives. If Li Yuan had the power to attack the city, why didn't he attack the city directly? Why did he write a letter to ask Your Majesty to take the risk? Kill Zhang Wenbiao? Could it be that he was worried about Zhang Wenbiao's ability to lead the army, so he wanted to use counterintuitive tactics to get rid of the person he was most afraid of."
Zhou Yi frowned and said disdainfully: "You mean, Li Yuan is not as good as Zhang Wenbiao? It's just his two moments that Li Yuan needs to be afraid of him?"
Du Chengdao scratched his head and said: "Then Li Yuan is a general who fights for the common people! Even if Zhang Wenbiao is not as good as Li Yuan, we have to admit that Zhang Wenbiao has the ability to lead the army. After all, he swept the entire Jiangbei!"
"Bah! What ability does Thief Zhang have? He just killed 150,000 soldiers and horses not long ago. I think he is just a weakling. If you say Li Yuan is great, then I'm convinced. But if you say Zhang Wenbiao is great, I'm not convinced. ." Zhou Yi sneered.
"If he is really a idiot, why are we sneaking around like this now -" Du Chengdao was about to retort, but Zhang Ji shouted coldly: "Don't stop arguing. Are you here to argue?"
Zhou Yi and Du Chengdao quickly shut up. Zhang Ji frowned and thought for a while, then said softly: "I don't care about Li Yuan's true intention now. It doesn't matter to me whether he can successfully kill Zhang Wenbiao. I'm thinking about something else now." matter."
"What are you thinking about?" Zhou Yi asked in a low voice.
"I'm thinking that we may have made a big mistake." Zhang Jie sighed.
"What does Mr. Zhang mean by this?" Du Chengdao asked puzzledly.
"I called you here because I want to discuss it with you. This matter is related to the life and death of the three of us. We must make a decision." Zhang Jie said in a deep voice.
When the two of them saw Zhang Jie speaking solemnly, their hearts trembled and their expressions became serious.
"Zhou Yi, Chengdao, in order to seize the opportunity, we did not hesitate to kill people in Feng Lingdu. I also married my sister to His Majesty in order to gain a foothold in the new dynasty. At that time, I thought this step was the right one. We made the right move, but now it seems that this may have been a bad move, and we have embarked on a road of eternal disaster." Zhang Jie's desolate voice echoed in the room, and his words were full of chill.
"You mean we shouldn't have done this in the first place?" Du Chengdao asked in a low voice.
"It is indeed a bad move. After all the hard work and infamy, nothing was gained. Instead, it became a wedding dress for the gang of traitors in Jiangbei." Zhou Yi said coldly.
Zhang Ji glanced at Zhou Yi, and then said in a deep voice: "Zhou Yi, the matter is over, there is no need to mention it again. What I want to say today is that we must truly understand which side the general trend is on.
At the beginning, I thought that the Tang Dynasty was the orthodox court in the world. As long as we supported King Zheng to ascend the throne, we would be the ministers of the dragon. No matter whether the final situation was controlled by the new emperor or Zhang Wenbiao, no matter how unlucky we were, we could still be high-ranking officials and rich. lifetime. That's why I bet all my wealth on it, but as you can see the current situation, the Tang Dynasty is in an irreversible decline, but Li Yuan is unstoppable.
Not only is he unstoppable, I am afraid that even the hearts and minds of the people in the world are now on his side. Do you all know the news from the outside? Fourteen states in the north of the Yangtze River and half of the state capitals in the south of the Yangtze River all surrendered to Chu and supported Li Yuan.
In Shouzhou, Liu Renzhan and Liu Chongliang led the Yiyong to riot with the people. Liu Chongjian had tens of thousands of soldiers, but they all ended up with their heads missing. It is said that all their heads were delivered to Li Yuan. Our current imperial court has long ceased to exist in name only. If Yangzhou City is destroyed in the future, Li Yuan will definitely continue to lead his army to attack Jiangnan. How can Li Jingsui be his opponent? It won't be long before the entire Tang Dynasty is completely destroyed. "
"This Li Yuan is really quite capable." Zhou Yi shook his head and sighed.
