Realm of Power

Tang Wenqian's eyes were always looking at Li Long. When he saw that the other person's face was also extremely shocked, he breathed a sigh of relief. It didn't seem to be fake. As a descendant of the Li clan, Li Long had the highest status in the army. Regarding this matter I don’t know. It seems that it was not specially arranged by Li Clan. Otherwise, Li Clan’s move this time would be too shocking.

"Please report this to the Prime Minister, Thirteenth Lang. I, Tang Wenqian, am very grateful!"

Tang Wenqian bowed his hands calmly. The content on the gift list was part of the list, and the last signature was also part of it. He believed that Li Long was a smart man, and he knew very well that what he seemed to be pleading for was actually selling Li Clan a huge favor. , if the imperial envoy is really that woman, then only Li Clan can solve this dilemma,

The leader of the clan, Mrs. Li, proposed to allow the Song people to enter the southwest at the palace military meeting, which has disturbed the attention of the court. Now the special envoy of the Falcon Empire, the most powerful country in the western continent, will arrive in Hanglin soon, and as the special envoy, it is rumored that The Li clan woman who fled to the Western Kingdom for several years is afraid that the whole of Hanglin will explode!

This has to give Tang Wenqian an illusion

When the Song people enter the southwest, they may not necessarily fight the Western army as most people imagine. Similarly, if Longyang's 100,000 Western troops attack Yanzhou, they may not be asking for death. But this kind of thinking, when thinking of Yanzhou After there are still 300,000 grassland troops, it feels a bit ridiculous. How is it possible? You must be overthinking it! Even if Long Yang avoids the Prairie Army in Yanzhou, the Prairie Army will not listen to Long Yang. Besides, everyone knows that although the Western Army has its own system, it has never been sloppy in fighting foreign enemies, fighting against the Gallic Empire. decades. Millions of soldiers from the Western Army shed blood on the battlefield, and I have never heard of collusion between the Western Army and foreign enemies.

"You need to be careful about this matter. This gift list..." Li Long felt the seriousness of the special envoy incident. The signature on it can be authenticated by an acquaintance in the clan. The premise is that you must take this gift note yourself

"If Thirteenth Lang needs it, just take it!" Tang Wenqian smiled slightly. "It's just a gift list. You can have someone make a copy. Anyway, it's just an attachment to the submission, just the signature on it. I hope Thirteenth Lang doesn't want it." Let others see it." Tang Wenqian's voice stopped, and a wry smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Leng Yue Ruhua, Li Yuehua, this name. No one mentions it now, but a few years ago, it was such a prestigious name, and it was on the lips of many young talents, not to mention the red line case that shocked the entire empire. The unattainable Princess Li Clan, Criminals in prison. The protagonist who was chased for thousands of miles finally escaped into the disappearing shadow of the Western Kingdom.

Li Clan wanted to send Li Yuehua, known as the Phoenix Girl in the clan, to the palace, but he was strongly blocked by Zhang Clan, a force from the descendants of the clan. Who is Li Yuehua? The apple of the eye of the Li Clan and one of the heads of the northwest region of the Military Intelligence Department. Although he is less than twenty years old, he is already the person who independently controls the intelligence system of one party.

Careful as hair. He was ruthless and planned several shocking incidents. Together with Yelu Qiyeguang, who is famous for his assassination on the grassland, they are called the Moonlight Twin Butterflies. With such a capable woman, how dare the Zhang clan descend into the murky water called Gongmen? She has means, is ruthless enough, and is quite qualified in terms of status. With the full support of the Li clan, within a few years, this It is inevitable that Concubine Li will replace the current Empress Zhang.

Except for the Song family, which lives in the south and hardly interferes in the court, the four major first-class clans in the empire have no influence on the court.

The Li clan was at the top of the civil service, while Zhang Clan was the head of the military generals. The Tang clan controlled money and food. Queens in the past dynasties were all selected from generals such as Zhang Clan. This was the emperor's method of winning over the generals, which has been the practice of Zhongbia for hundreds of years. Rules are also a guarantee for the stability of imperial power. The Central and Eastern Empire was built on the chaos of various countries in the past, so it has always been a little wary of generals holding military power, so the method adopted was to raise the The civil servants came to suppress the generals, and then the emperor married the general's daughter as his queen. This formed a stable balance. Therefore, Zhang Clan's reaction to Li Clan's violent attack was particularly large. This was against the rules. If Li Clan replaced him Without the descendants, the civil servants will truly control the Central and Asian courts, which will bring darkness to the military ministers of the entire empire. How can the military ministers headed by Zhang Clan just sit back and watch such a situation occur?

Although Li Clan tried his best to send Li Yuehua to the palace, Zhang Clan had controlled the military cabinet for many years and knew that he might not be Li Clan's opponent in a direct confrontation, so he turned to the second best. In the end, Zhang Clan did not mention whether Li Yuehua was He can enter the palace, but he just clings to some of Li Yuehua's actions in the Intelligence Department to launch an attack and accuse Li Yuehua. The person who was sent into the palace was not a princess at all, but an undercover agent of Li Val. This accusation was very serious. To spy on the emperor was to be disobedient and to have evil intentions. This reason given by Zhang Val was already extremely cruel. , the imperial power is inviolable, and any prominent family member who gets involved in this will be guilty of confiscating their family and exterminating their clan.

Even the first-class Li clan couldn't bear it and had to cancel the plan to send Li Yuehua to the palace, and immediately announced that Li Yuehua would be removed from the Li family tree, sent to heaven, and handed over to the empire's full-time court to hear the case, because Li Yuehua There was a red line birthmark about five or six centimeters long on her right wrist, so the case was also called the red line case.

Just the day before the trial, Li Yuehua was rescued by his subordinates in prison. Zhang Clan immediately sent countless masters to intercept and kill the woman in the wild as a fugitive.

It is said that the two sides fought a bloody battle for thousands of miles. As the leader of the generals, Zhang Hua's subordinates are also masters in the military. They are very skilled in killing and tracking, and they are determined to hold on. Logically, they should have the upper hand. The person who rescued Li Yuehua is a spy. People from the company are good at spying on intelligence and carrying out assassinations, but how can they be the opponents of regular soldiers?

But the result was completely unexpected. It was Zhang Vale who lost.

Three first-level masters and seventeen second-level masters were lost. Zhang Long, who led the team, was seriously injured and came back in despair. In the autumn military competition two months later, Zhang Clan performed mediocrely and was severely punished by the emperor. After scolding him,

Although the other party's subordinates were almost dead, they rushed into the southwest with all their strength. With the protection of the Long family of the Western Army, they sneaked into the vast mountains and lost their traces. All the forces in the court were discerning, how could they not see it? Qing Dynasty, this is basically a war between the two gates, there is no smoke. But there is still blood flowing like a river. Among the so-called Li Yuehua's subordinates, most of them are probably members of the Li clan. You must know that even the Intelligence Directorate of the Imperial Capital in Central Asia only has four first-class masters in charge. Why can Li Yuehua's little shrimp subordinates be able to fight against Zhang Clan's elite masters recruited from the army?

Zhang Clan's strength was greatly damaged. Li Clan was not the most famous of the four first-class ones. Two of them disappeared for no reason! The most important problem is that because of the long-standing grievances between the two major valves, the grassland army went south a year later. Zhang Clan, the leader of the military ministers, led the flattering Zhangwu army to fight. Li Clan looked indifferently and criticized the military ministers' unfavorable battles many times in the court. Finally, Zhang Clan's contemporary family head, the Zhongbia Military Ministry, advocated subordination. cloud. The battle with the grassland army took place in the Changting River, seventy miles outside the Imperial City. It lasted two months. The Central and Asian troops were defeated miserably. The Fengzhangwu Army collapsed. More than 300,000 people died in the battle. Countless troops were defeated. Countless corpses even blocked the five In the ten-meter-wide Changting River, coach Zhang Congyun committed suicide in despair.

The emperor was furious and deprived Zhang Clan of his first-class rank. Zhang Clan, one of the four first-class men, stepped down from the altar. In the catastrophe of the Imperial Capital, Zhang Clan completely fell. Except for a few women and children who followed the court southward, most of the other Zhang Clan's children died in the battle in the Imperial Capital. Therefore, there are now four great families in Zhongbia. There are only three left, Zhang Val. It’s just a noun, a group of orphans. It’s good to be alive,

In Li Clan's mansion, the old Prime Minister Mrs. Li put the gift list in her hand on the table with a serious expression, and read it carefully over and over again. Her whole body couldn't help but tremble a little, and the deepest shock filled her heart. , at the critical moment, my daughter was so considerate that she even took the risk and came to Hanglin. It seemed like she was on a mission on behalf of the empire, but in fact she was warning the emperor of Zhongbia that the Li clan also had considerable power in the Western Continent.

Li Yuehua was not dead. Mrs. Li had known about it for a long time. She even proposed to let the Song people enter the southwest this time, which was proposed in Li Yuehua's secret letter.

Among the four great clans, Mrs. Li has felt the crisis since Zhang clan died in the imperial capital. Li clan and Zhang clan have been fighting for so many years. Although they each have their own victory or defeat, in fact, they don’t know that this is what the emperor would like to see. One is The head of the civil servants, one has the appearance of a military commander. The Tang clan was originally the emperor's confidant. Sitting on the dragon throne, watching the farce of checks and balances between civil and military ministers, in fact, the Tang clan controlled the empire's economy and military logistics in its hands. It was the emperor who sat on the throne. The foundation for stabilizing the court,

But now that the feud was over, Mrs. Li tried her best to pretend to be an old lady. In the court, she was half asleep and half-lidded, pretending to be stupid, just hoping that the emperor would be lenient, but obviously, The young emperor who had lost the imperial capital had already made plans to truly eliminate the first-class clans. The emperor's eyes had begun to look at him with murderous intent.

After the fall of Zhang Clan, the emperor began to be able to integrate the army and directly intervene in imperial affairs. If he finds another opportunity to get rid of Li Clan, then the emperor may truly hold all the power in his hands. You know, the four major The power of the powerful clans has existed for hundreds of years, even before the founding of China, so from the first Since the beginning of the Biya era, the emperor has never really held the power of the empire in his hands. The power of the empire has always been in the hands of thousands of aristocratic families headed by the four great nobles. When the court moved south, not only was it shaken The prestige of the Zhongbia emperor and the hundreds of years of foundation of the aristocratic families were also eradicated by the grassland people.

As they headed south from the court, many wealthy families accompanying them were in dilapidated condition. They were fleeing under the fire of war and the time was so tight. The things that could be brought out were very limited, not to mention that all the land and land deeds that were worth every inch of land were turned into waste paper. , it can be said that it is good to be able to preserve one tenth of the accumulation of hundreds of years. After this, no wealthy family can stop the reform in the center of the court.

This time, the emperor really saw hope

The Luzhou Army's northward advance seemed to be the emperor's operational mistake, but upon closer inspection, it was found that it was not the case at all. The people who proposed the northward advance to Yanzhou were wealthy families and powerful men. These people also imagined that they could return to the imperial capital as soon as possible. Go and stay in Hanglin, they are nothing, but these wealthy families are all civil servants after all, and they have no experience in grand strategic layout.

What's more, no one expected to encounter 300,000 grassland troops marching south this time. They were immediately caught off guard and became a mess. If tens of thousands more Luzhou troops died in the battle in the north, the emperor would definitely take this opportunity to launch an attack and overthrow these In the wealthy world, that’s why all the generals saw the predicament of the Luzhou Army, but no one offered to rescue them.

Even the emperor himself was watching with cold eyes, waiting for the Luzhou army to be defeated, and for the powerful families to ask for punishment. When the time comes, he would deal with them one by one. If one is missing, he will take back more power.

The emperor is determined!

This is what Prime Minister Li Tai thought in her heart. After experiencing three emperors and battling wits and courage with them for so many years, she already knew the emperor's thoughts when she agreed to the withdrawal of the Luzhou Army.

The emperor was already impatient and used the blood of tens of thousands of Luzhou soldiers in exchange for the largest victory of the Zhongbia royal family in the war against the family in a hundred years.

If the family is accused of this, the power of the family will be uprooted. From then on, the emperor will be the emperor, and the emperor will stick to his word! If it were you, you would make the same choice! More than ten days ago, an unsigned secret letter was delivered to him. It said that Long Yang would leave Guangling and march north to rescue Yanzhou.

Mrs. Li just smiled. The secret letter was sent by an old man who had been with her for more than thirty years. There should be no problem. However, the Long family of the Western Army did not leave the southwest. This had been a rule for many years. It said that it would be issued soon. Guangling? This is too much fun, not to mention the current situation. The central court is eyeing the power of the Western Army. It is easy for Long Yang to leave Guangling, but it is difficult to return to Guangling.

Long Yang is not a fool. On the contrary, he is the number one general in the Zhongbia Empire. How could he not see such a situation clearly?

As a result, Long Yang really left Guangling, the court was shocked, and Mrs. Li was also shocked. He received a second letter, which proposed that the Song people enter the southwest. The reason was very simple. He wanted the emperor not to worry about it every day. Family, the best way is to let the emperor see more valuable goals, such as The Western Army, such as the Song Clan, such as Long Yang. After reading this, Mrs. Li was completely shocked. Who is this? She simply watched the Li Clan to death. Even if she didn’t know whether it could succeed, she could only give it a try. If When talking about the power of aristocratic families, the first one to discuss is the Li clan. The emperor wanted to eradicate the aristocratic families, how could he miss the Li clan!

Therefore, during the meeting in the court, Li Taiyan, with an old face, proposed that the Song people should enter the southwest

If this stone is smashed, the emperor will not be thinking about the Li clan for at least three or four years, and Longyang's 100,000 Western Army marches north, then the possibility of the Luzhou Army being destroyed will be greatly reduced, and the Li family will be considered dead again. Climbed out from inside

Regarding this, Mrs. Li was even a little excited. There were thousands of aristocratic families with more than 100,000 people. How many people had been saved? Just when Mrs. Li was secretly relieved, he saw Li The gift list from Long, this is the third letter! The familiar handwriting suddenly made Li Da's eyes light up. In addition to being excited that Li Yuehua was coming back, what was even more shocking was that if everything was a game of chess, then whose hand had laid out this game of chess! (To be continued)