Dugu Xiang talked endlessly to Jiang Shuo, briefly describing the major events that had happened in the past three years, and Nan Jiyun occasionally added a few sentences. In the past three years, the world has not changed much, but it can also be said to be earth-shaking and undercurrents.
To say that nothing major has changed, it seems that the general trend of the world is still the same. Anlu Mountain did not dare to rebel, Tubo was trapped in a stone fort, and the Great Eclipse did not reach Congling. Uighe, in Mobei, Li Linfu was still in power in the Tang Dynasty, and the imperial concubine Yang Taizhen was still in power. The Holy Family is prosperous, and it seems that the Tang Dynasty is still a prosperous and prosperous scene.
However, beneath the bustling scene is another turbulent undercurrent.
In the sixth year of Tianbao, that is, in the first month of the second year after Jiang Shuo fell off the cliff, the sage sought out the wise men from all over the world, and ordered all those who were proficient in one or more arts to come to the capital. They were supervised by the imperial censor, Zhongcheng Wang, and tried to write poems, rhymes, and essays, but there were no results. One person passed the exam, so Li Linfu came up to congratulate "Ye Wu Yi Xian".
At the same time, Li Yong was framed by Li Linfu. Luo Xishi was ordered to rush to Beihai and kill Li Yong in the county. At that time, Li Yong was already seventy years old and was killed without even a formal trial.
In this year, Li Linfu was imprisoned many times. He set up a court of magistrates in Chang'an. He promoted Yang Zhao, Yang Taizhen's brother, to be the censor, and ordered him to write memorials to dissidents. He then handed him over to the two cruel officials Luo Xishi and Jiwen for trial.
Huangfu Weiming, who had long been demoted to the governor of Bozhou, was sentenced to death, and as early as October of the fifth year of Tianbao, Wei Jian had also been brutally killed.
Li Linfu wanted to shake the prince's position and seduce Wang Zhongsi, who was close to the prince. The sage had always trusted Wang Zhongsi. However, when the prince was involved, he immediately demoted Wang Zhongsi to the prefect of Hanyang and then to the prefect of Handong for two years. Later, Wang Zhongsi died suddenly in the eighth year of Tianbao. He was only forty-five years old.
In the third month of the sixth year of Tianbao, An Lushan, the military governor of Fanyang and Pinglu towns, was also the imperial censor. An was even more shameless and asked himself to be the fake son of the much younger concubine Yang Taizhen.
Therefore, there is Li Linfu inside the court and Anlu Mountain outside. The inside and outside are generally chaotic, absurd, dark and terrifying.
In the seventh year of Tianbao's reign, Yang Zhao, brother of the imperial concubine clan, moved to Shizhong and served as censor Zhongcheng, specializing in judging affairs.
This man was even more treacherous than Li Linfu. He speculated that he would be extravagant, so he lavished money on the people, and made false tributes, which made the people resentful and made people's livelihood increasingly difficult. However, the saint actually thought that he was good at managing money. , On the contrary, the favor is growing.
And Yang Taizhen was so favored that her sisters also followed her and ascended to heaven. They were all granted the title of royal lady and could enter and leave the palace at will. They were so powerful that even the saint's sister, Princess Yuzhen, wanted to give them a threesome when she saw her.
This year, which is the eighth year of Tianbao, Yang Zhao again reported that the various states and counties were rich and had tens of thousands of grains and silk accumulated in the warehouses. He asked the sage to exchange all land taxes levied in various places into cloth, silk and light goods to be transported to the capital. The memorial library is abundant, which is rare in ancient and modern times.
The sage was overjoyed and gave Yang Zhao a goldfish belt in purple clothes to reward his achievements in gathering money. He even thought that the country's supplies were sufficient. He regarded gold and silk as dung and frequently rewarded his favored ministers as if they were endless. However, he did not know that the world was extremely exhausted.
Of course, it's not all bad things. Gao Xianzhi, the deputy governor of Anxi, conquered Xiaobolu. Because of his military achievements, he was appointed as the military envoy in the four towns of Qiuci, Yanqi, Shule and Yutian in Anxi.
However, Wang Zhongsi's most trusted generals such as Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi and Ge Shuhan were not implicated by Wang Zhongsi and were promoted.
Guo Ziyi was promoted to the third rank of Zuowuwei General, Hengsai Military Envoy, and Deputy Governor of Anbei. Li Guangbi was appointed as Hexi Military Envoy and Chishui Military Envoy. Ge Shuhan was even more favored by the saint and was appointed as the prefect of Xiping. Longyou Jiedushi.
Now the commander-in-chief of the siege of Shibao City is Ge Shuhan. Ge Shuhan's tactics are actually in the same line as Wang Zhongsi. He first set up an ambush at Jishi Mountain in Kuozhou and severely damaged the Tibetan army, and then built the Shenwei Army in the east of the West Sea to attack Shibao City. The Tibetan army in the fortress formed a pincer attack from the north and the south.
At this point, the Tubo army could only rely on the natural dangers of Shibao City to hold on, but could not send reinforcements.
This year, Ge Shuhan also built a city on Longju Island in the West Sea, calling it Yinglong City. He used it to store grain and grass in preparation for not withdrawing his troops even in the winter, completely stranding Shibao City.
After hearing what happened in the past three years, Jiang Shuo couldn't help but sigh, especially when he heard that Wei Jian and Li Yong were killed by Luo Xixi, he couldn't help but regret and blame himself, saying: "If I had killed more decisively back then, , get rid of Luo Xishi, Wei Xianggong and Li Shijun will not die tragically.
Ge Ruliang shook his head and said: "Luo Xishi is just Li Linfu's eagle dog. From what Xiang'er said, there is also the Yin Alliance's push behind this. Even if you kill Luo Xishi early in the morning, there are still Jiwen, Wang Xian, and Yang Zhao, the world is in a state of exhaustion that cannot be solved by killing one or two treacherous ministers."
Jiang Shuo knew that what Ge Ruliang said was reasonable, but it didn't make him feel any better at all.
Dugu Xiang said, "Why is it useless? Brother Shuo came back to the world today, didn't he defeat Pi Luoge's plot to burn down Yinglong City?"
Only then did Jiang Shuo know that Xiang'er had been hiding on the other side of the Tucheng wall for a long time. The thick earthen wall could be used to hide his breathing. At the same time, he put his ear against the wall, but he could hear the voices coming from the other side. . Dugu Xiang must have known about Pi Luoge's conspiracy by "listening to others".
Jiang Shuo smiled and said, "Master Ge Zhuang is right, everything in the world will not change because of one person. Xiang'er, your ambush at Piluo Pavilion this time was very meticulous. Even if I didn't take action, I think you would be able to capture Piluo Pavilion sooner or later." "
Ge Ruliang twirled his beard with his hand and found it useful. Such a careful arrangement could not have been planned by the careless Dugu Xiang, but was the result of Ge Ruliang's plan. He believed what Jiang Shuo said. Although he and his wife could not think of Jiang Shuo, Shuo had captured Piluo Pavilion cleanly, but it was only a matter of time before he could win.
At this moment, I suddenly heard a faint roar coming from the east, and the sky that was still dark just now showed a faint light.
Everyone was shocked, jumped up to the top of the city, and looked eastward, only to see fire rising into the sky in the far east, illuminating the sea and sky.
Tuoba Chaoguang came from Dangxiang in Haixi and was considered half a local. He said: "Ah... judging from the direction, it should be Yinglong Island in the West Sea."
Ge Ruliang said: "The fire is so fierce, I'm afraid sulfur was used to quell the fire."
But I heard Pi Luo Ge laughing behind me and saying: "You are so confused. You said that success or failure does not depend on one person. How could you not have thought that the Hidden Alliance would not leave any backup in its actions? It seems that another group of people has successfully lit the fire!"
When everyone looked back, Pi Luoge and Duan Jianwei had already mounted two horses. It turned out that Duan Jianwei was knocked to the ground by Jiang Shuo. He had worked hard for a long time and had unlocked the acupuncture points. Everyone jumped up to the top of the city to watch the fire. , he seized the opportunity, immediately got up and unblocked Piluoge's acupuncture points, and then the two mounted their horses and fled.
Piluoge suffered such a big fall today, and he was so angry that he taunted him, then whipped his horse and drove it to the west of the city. Even though the two horses were not much taller than Shudi Guoxiama, they were The fine horses among the Yunnan horses ran very fast. By the time everyone jumped off the city wall, the two horses had already run out of the west gate.
Jiang Shuo made a long neigh in the horse language, but the two horses did not respond. It turned out that Piluoge knew that Jiang Shuo could control the horses in horse language, so he asked Duan Jianwei to stuff the horses' ears with cloth strips first.
Jiang Shuo wanted to chase after seeing this, but Mrs. Achu stopped him and said, "Shuo'er, don't chase anymore. It's so dark in the wilderness that there's no guarantee they won't do some evil tricks."
Dugu Xiang also said: "Pi Luoge is not seriously injured. Now that his acupoints have been unlocked, his Qi Sword is still very powerful. Brother Shuo, please don't take risks."
After three years, she finally met Jiang Shuo again today. Naturally, she didn't want him to make any mistakes again. How could Jiang Shuo not know Xiang'er's thoughts? He thought that it would be useless to catch up with Piluo Pavilion at this moment. Longju Island should Dragon City had been burned down, so he had no choice but to give up the pursuit.
Nan Jiyun asked: "Young Master, what should we do next?"
Jiang Shuo had no idea in his mind, so he turned to look at Ge Ruliang and said, "Master Ge, what do you think?"
Ge Ruliang solemnly crossed his hands to Jiang Shuo and said: "Young Master, according to Ge's opinion, we don't have a boat, and we can't get to Longju Island. Even going to Yinglong City at this moment won't help. In my opinion, we might as well go to Shenwei." military."
Jiang Shuo asked in confusion: "The Shenwei Army is the military town built by Ge Shuhan? Where are we going and what are we doing?"
Ge Ruliang said: "I heard that Ge Shuhan is now in the Shenwei Army. He originally wanted to follow Wang Zhongsi's story and slowly kill the Tibetan army, but the saint kept urging him to attack the city, and now that the food and grass are being burned, I'm afraid he has to change The strategy is urgent to attack Stone Castle."
Nan Jiyun raised his eyebrows and said, "Master Ge, what do you mean..."
Ge Ruliang said slowly: "The goal of the Hidden League is not to help the Tubo people defend the city, but to let the Tang army attack Shibao City and suffer heavy casualties. Now it seems that the current situation both in the court and on the battlefield has fallen into a hidden state. In the plan of the Hidden Alliance, if we want to destroy the conspiracy of the Hidden Alliance, we can only win quickly."
Jiang Shuo asked: "How to win quickly?"
Ge Ruliang said: "It is to help the Tang army capture Shibao City at the minimum cost!"
Tuoba Chaoguang shook his head and said: "It's easier said than done. Shibao City controls the only passage from Longyou into the West Sea. It is located on a solitary cliff. There are cliffs on three sides. The city head is covered with horse-faced walls. There are no blind spots in defense, except for Tubo. With strong bows, thunder stones, fierce fire and other defensive weapons, even if all of them are peerless masters, it is impossible to climb up the city. To attack the city, you can only go up the north slope. This slope is narrow and long. Under the dense attack of strong bows and crossbows, a martial arts master is no better than an ordinary soldier wearing heavy armor. If the sharp soldiers of the Tang army cannot attack, all the heroes in the world may not be able to succeed."
Ge Ruliang said: "What Nephew Tuoba said is right, but there is no other way to think of it at this moment. Why not go to the army, take a look at the situation, and then discuss countermeasures."
Tuoba Chaoguang said again: "Brother Shuhan is difficult to deal with. We go to help. What if he doesn't appreciate it?"
Jiang Shuo thought of what Dugu Xiang had told him about Ge Shuhan and Tuoba Shouji fighting in Lingzhou, and also thought of the scene when he saw Ge Shuhan on the bank of the West Sea, and thought that what Tuoba Chaoguang said was true. It's true, Ge Shuhan is very conceited. How could he conquer a city and land with the help of a knight-errant?
Dugu Xiang smiled at this time and said: "If it really wasn't possible yesterday, it can be done today."
Seeing everyone looking at her with suspicion, Dugu Xiang smiled and said: "Because we have Brother Shuo, we don't need to look for Brother Shuhan. I heard that Brother Shuhan used two Jiedu deputy envoys as vanguards, and one step general Hexijie." Zhang Shouyu, the deputy envoy of Du, and Gao Xiuyan, the deputy envoy of Longyou Jiedu, are both old friends of Brother Shuo."
Jiang Shuo said happily: "Both eldest brothers Zhang and Gao have already achieved the rank of Deputy Envoy of Jiedu!"
Dugu Xiang said: "The two of them admire Brother Shuo's methods very much. If Brother Shuo goes to visit and asks them to introduce them to General Brother Shuhan, they will not be rejected."
Some people died, but not completely...
