As for the current Yizhou Mu Shangxun, he did not mean to embarrass Li Hao. He just took care of all official matters and appointed a registrar to assist Li Hao in determining the location of his palace in Chengdu. He did not spend much thought on this matter subsequently.
But this is normal. Shang Xun was originally an official appointed by Emperor Gengshi, but he surrendered to Emperor Wen after the defeat of Emperor Gengshi.
Therefore, he was reused by Emperor Wen later, but his identity was a bit sensitive after all, so there was no need to deliberately establish friendship with Li Hao whether it was public or private. If Ling Buyi had come over, the situation might have been different.
It was very easy to choose the palace in Chengdu. After all, Gongsun Shu had occupied Shu for many years and built many gardens and palaces in Chengdu.
Although some were burned by Wu Han at the beginning, there were also many that were not affected. You just need to pick the best among them.
Of course, it was precisely because of the large number that it took some time to determine.
After that, Chengdu officials sent people to repair the garden. As usual, Li Hao left twenty garrison supervisors behind and continued to inspect other places with his large troops.
It was not until the repairs in Hua County were completed and Magistrate Cheng Cheng sent someone to inform him that Li Hao returned to check the situation.
It is said that the craftsmanship of Shu craftsmen is really good. Anyway, after checking it, Li Hao didn't see any mistakes, so it was officially accepted here.
After the inspection and acceptance, the temporary palace of Emperor Wen needed to be sealed. Except for a group of slaves who were regularly used for cleaning, no one else could enter or exit at will.
However, Li Hao's entourage was not enough, and it was impossible for them all to stay in Hua County, so Li Hao called a group of officers from Hua County. In addition, Li Hao left eighty troops to blockade the city. Temporary palace.
Of course, Li Hao left these garrison cavalry not just to blockade the palace, but also to have these people as the backbone when dealing with Fan Chang later, to cooperate with the soldiers and horses Li Hao recalled to resist.
After all, those people themselves did not go to the battlefield many times, and they were even more loose after being demobilized as civilians. If there was no one to lead, Li Hao would not be relieved.
And to be honest, Li Hao didn't expect that they would be able to deal with Fan Chang just by relying on their bravery. After all, Fan Chang was also a veteran of many years of fighting, and the troops under his command were all trained county soldiers.
Even though Li Hao made Fan Chang unprepared because of his calculations, Li Hao still had no confidence that he could deal with Fan Chang in one go.
Unless Li Hao takes action in advance and takes advantage of Fan Chang not being alert to him, he can lead people to rush in and catch him, which would be a success.
But in this way, Li Hao cannot guarantee that he will be able to obtain evidence that Fan Chang committed the crime. It would be bad if Fan Chang bites back.
After all, the relationship between Li Hao and Emperor Wen was not as close as that between Fan Chang and Emperor Wen. It was inconvenient to do something like this, and we could only do it until there was substantial evidence.
Of course, the news still had to be sent back to Emperor Wen, but it had to be delayed a little longer to show that he had worked hard.
And I believe that even if the news was reported to Emperor Wen, Emperor Wen would not allow Li Hao to take action in advance. After all, not counting their friendship, Emperor Wen also had to worry about what other people thought.
According to Li Haode's investigation, Fan Chang has made great contributions to becoming a dragon. In the past, except for his violent temper, he has not done anything serious. And the batch of ordnance transported into Shu should also be classified as rebel. in the hands of the rebels.
It was mixed in with the normal ordnance and could no longer be traced. After all, it was impossible for Li Hao's men to capture Fan Chang's troops at once.
Therefore, before the rebellion was revealed, it would inevitably arouse suspicion to capture him based on hearsay.
After all, we have always shared weal and woe, and shared wealth and adversity. It turned out that Liu Bang had made another good start in killing the heroes. If Emperor Wen also killed the heroes without any reason, there is no guarantee that others would not have thoughts.
Not to mention those Jingfan heroes and Fengfu heroes, let's talk about the surrendered generals who have surrendered in the past years because they believed in Emperor Wen's wise name. If they misunderstood, I'm afraid there will be another turmoil. This is not what Emperor Wen wanted. desired result.
Therefore, Li Hao could only let Fan Chang take action first. Although he was not sure of directly killing the enemy, as long as he could keep Hua County intact and block Fan Chang's troops in the wild, he could still achieve it.
Li Hao's purpose.
After all, the true face of Fan Chang's rebellion was exposed, and Li Hao could directly call on soldiers and horses from nearby counties to encircle him. What's more, if he wanted to attack Fan Chang, he would definitely choose when Emperor Wen Luanjia was about to arrive. At that time, he would directly ask Ling Buyi to come over. will be more positive.
For this reason, Li Hao also deliberately left Yuan Wo behind, asking him to hold Li Hao's talisman to lead everyone, and to contact the old Shu troops who were about to gather from outside.
He also guaranteed that when Fan Chang attacked Hua County, if Li Hao failed to send back the news in time due to something, he would be able to lead his men to fight against Fan Chang immediately.
As for Li Hao himself, he took the remaining 200 people to continue patrolling other places, and also attracted Fan Chang's attention away, lest he pay attention to the situation in Hua County.
In fact, Li Hao's plan was indeed successful. According to the reports from the informants sent by Li Hao to keep an eye on Fan Chang, Fan Chang has already begun to gather troops and is constantly moving towards the junction of Jianwei County and Ba County. It seems that They are preparing to attack Hua County.
It's just that this move was done covertly, so it didn't attract the attention of officials from Ba County.
There was an undercurrent surging in Shuzhong, but things were not going well for Emperor Wen. Originally, Emperor Wen had the idea of training the prince when he took the prince to the west this time.
He originally thought that the prince's presentation of the map and his initiative to fight for the opportunity to participate in the Western Tour meant that the prince was enterprising enough and was no longer as flat as before.
So along the way, Emperor Wen arranged a lot of errands for the prince and asked him to learn to do them, including the military affairs involved in this march.
After all, now that the world has been decided, as the crown prince, you may not need to go into battle in person, but you can't be ignorant of military affairs.
But the prince's performance disappointed Emperor Wen a little. The prince had committed numerous taboos in the military such as unclear rewards and punishments, indecisiveness, and lax orders.
There is no other way. If Li Hao were here, he would be able to help him handle various matters.
But now that Li Hao is away, and the other generals accompanying him are not from the prince, he is forced to take charge personally, and the result is not very satisfactory.
This made Emperor Wen specially summon the prince and said: "The prince knows that no matter how to run a country or an army, it is necessary to be lenient and powerful, and to use both grace and power.
These days when you are in charge of military affairs, you reward everyone who deserves rewards, but you don't punish anyone who deserves punishment. This is not the way to run an army.
If this continues for a long time, who else will act according to military orders? Even the most elite soldiers and horses will be manipulated and unable to go into battle. "
After hearing Emperor Wen's lesson, the prince did not dare to defend himself and could only keep promising. However, when he later punished those who violated military regulations, the prince was still undecided and let him off lightly.
This gave Emperor Wen a headache, and he could only call the prince again to teach him a lesson, but lessons were lessons, and things had to be solved.
So Emperor Wen sent Ling Buyi to the prince to assist him in handling military affairs, and also showed the prince how to run an army.
As a result, the prince's avoidance mentality started to rise, because Ling Buyi could handle these things that he considered difficult quickly and easily.
After a lot of back and forth, the prince gradually became too lazy to bother and left everything to Ling Buyi, and he became the hands-off shopkeeper.
Regarding this, Ling Buyi was very dissatisfied and persuaded: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, you asked me to assist you in handling these matters so that you can learn to handle military affairs as soon as possible. After all, this is what you need to do in the future.
So how can you just throw your hands away to others now? This goes against His Majesty's original intention and is really not appropriate. "
Faced with what Ling Buyi said, the prince couldn't understand it, so he agreed.
However, the prince himself has flaws in his character. He is unwilling to make decisions when encountering problems. When encountering difficulties, he instinctively avoids them and obeys the opinions of others.
Therefore, accompanied by Ling Buyi, the prince persisted for a few more days before falling into his old ways, which made Ling Buyi lose his temper.
It also happened that the Western Inspection Team had passed Hanzhong County and was about to enter Shu. The mountain road was even more difficult to navigate and the affairs to be dealt with were more complicated, which gave Ling Buyi even more headaches.
But even so, Ling Buyi did not forget
It was necessary to send someone to contact Li Hao and ask about the situation in Shuzhong and whether the mastermind behind the ordnance case had been found out.
But before Ling Buyi could send a messenger, Li Hao had someone send back a letter about Fan Chang being the person behind the theft and sale of arms. He also explained that Fan Chang was already gathering troops at the border of Jianwei County with the intention of seizing Hua County. Not good for Emperor Wen.
Then he also explained his actions, indicating that he had made arrangements to ensure that Hua County would not be lost, and asked if he could take action in advance to capture Fan Chang.
Emperor Wen was very shocked after seeing this. He even announced Ling Buyi's involvement. After all, it was hard to tell others about this matter now, and Ling Buyi was the person who had been investigating the matter, and he was Emperor Wen's eldest son. , nothing to worry about.
After Ling Buyi found out, he was also very surprised, although he also thought that this person in Shuzhong who was doing business with King Yong must be in a high position.
He originally even thought of Shang Xun, but he never expected that it would be Fan Chang. This is really unbelievable.
Ling Buyi instinctively doubted the authenticity of the news, but after reading it carefully later, he still agreed with what Li Haode said.
After all, the letter was well-founded and contained a detailed description of the uprising. Ling Buyi did not think this was Li Hao's nonsense, because it was easy to verify the truth unless Li Hao wanted to rebel.
But not to mention other things, just because of his own concerns, Li Hao was more concerned than Fan Chang. The Yuan family and his family were either in the capital or Xuzhou, and there was a large family in Qingzhou to care about.
If something happened to Emperor Wen because of Li Hao, I'm afraid the entire Yuan family would be dead.
On the other hand, Fan Chang has all his family members around him, and the probability of risking his life without any scruples is relatively high.
So after thinking about this, Ling Buyi took the initiative and said: "Your Majesty, please give an immediate order to mobilize heavy troops to capture Fan Chang."
But Emperor Wen was still hesitant. He was not questioning Li Hao's judgment. After all, whatever Ling Buyi could think of, he could think of it himself.
But just as Li Hao thought, he was worried about this matter, worried that this move would affect his whole body.
After thinking deeply, Emperor Wen said: "After all, Fan Chang was the first to raise troops with me. Without proof, we cannot easily attack him.
Anyway, Li Hao had already made arrangements to control the scope of Fan Chang's rebellion immediately, so it would be better to wait for him to take action before extinguishing it.
However, in order to prevent accidents from happening to Li Hao, you first quietly bring the Tiger Talisman to Shu to meet with Li Hao, so that you can mobilize soldiers from various counties to encircle and suppress him. "
Although he was not satisfied with Emperor Wen's decision, Ling Buyi also understood Emperor Wen's difficulties and finally agreed.
It's just that Ling Buyi asked Emperor Wen to slow down a little and help delay Fan Chang's rebellion, so that he could have more time to make arrangements with Li Hao in Shu.
Emperor Wen naturally agreed to this, and then Ling Buyi quietly left the western patrol team and quickly entered Shu pretending to be a caravan.
For this reason, Ling Buyi and even the black armored guards who had been accompanying him only took two brothers, Liang Qiufei and Liang Qiuqi, and a dozen people to set off.
Then following Li Hao's messenger, Ling Buyi found Li Hao in Mianzhu and fully understood the specific situation in Shu.
After all, the content disclosed in the letter only contained the results and did not introduce much about the process. It was impossible for Li Hao to tell the messenger everything, which would not be conducive to confidentiality.
After accurately understanding all this, Ling Buyi believed in Li Hao even more, and immediately asked: "Now that you have arranged it, is there anything I need to do here?"
Li Hao replied: "This is true. In fact, according to my investigation, Fan Chang did not have many soldiers to launch the rebellion this time. Maybe because of the leakage of secrets, he only had more than 4,000 private soldiers who were close to him. .
In addition, he didn't know that we were already on guard, so the chance of winning by surprise was still very high.
It's just that the old troops I installed around Hua County have been away from the battlefield for a while. I'm afraid they need a strong general to lead them to show their true strength.
But now I am definitely under Fan Chang’s surveillance, so I want to ask Zicheng
Go to Hua County to take command. At that time, I will use the excuse of His Majesty's approach to send another 80 troops to go there. In addition to the 100 troops there already, Zicheng can use these 180 troops as a The backbone, commanding all the troops.
As for the county soldiers in Guanghan and Bajun, they are temporarily stationary to prevent the news from leaking. After Fan Chang takes action, the two generals Liang Qiu will go to mobilize their troops to wipe out the rebels in one fell swoop. "
After hearing Li Hao's plan, Ling Buyi did not object in the end. After all, the plan was considered safe, and being able to capture Fan Chang personally was what he wanted.
Seeing that Ling Buyi agreed, Li Hao informed him of all his arrangements around Hua County, including the paper armor matter. Ling Buyi couldn't hide it anyway.
Ling Buyi was stunned when he heard this, and was very puzzled that something like paper could be used as armor. However, after seeing the matter later, he couldn't help but sigh: "Zi Yang's fantastic ideas always make people laugh. Eye-opening.”
Li Hao accepted Ling Buyi's comments indifferently, and then everyone followed his plan. After Li Hao dispatched his troops, he set out to meet Emperor Wen, and then attracted Fan Chang's attention.
But just as Li Hao was walking through Qing County, he suddenly heard a burst of fighting.
