Tibet

With the arrival of the New Year, the reign of the Tang Dynasty was changed to the second year of Zhide, the second year after Emperor Li Heng ascended the throne.

Millions of shi of grain transported from the south of the Yangtze River to Chang'an arrived in Xiangyang. Li Ye was well aware that there was a food crisis in Chang'an and Guanzhong. The price of rice rose to 400 yuan. Li Ye did not stop the 2,000 canal ships. Carrying millions of stones of grain to Shangzhou.

With the arrival of millions of stones of grain, the food crisis in Guanzhong was immediately resolved. The government and the public in Chang'an rejoiced, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. For this reason, Emperor Li Heng decided to worship God and thank God for sending food to relieve the crisis.

Luoyang, since Chang'an retreated to Luoyang, the morale of the entire Yan army was low and the hearts of the people were scattered. The Hu generals all asked to carry their wealth back to Youzhou, and An Lushan naturally would not agree.

More importantly, An Lushan's health was getting worse and worse. He was blind, his body was extremely swollen, and he lay in bed unable to move almost all day long.

An Lushan also knew that his days were short, so he had decided to name his successor An Qinghe and depose the stupid and incompetent prince An Qingxu.

But An Qingxu also had an army of one hundred thousand. An Qingxu knew that his father wanted to depose him. He wore armor every day and hid in the military camp outside the city. As long as his father dared to depose him, he would lead his army into the city and kill Gao Shang. Proclaimed himself emperor.

It was this army of 100,000 that made An Lushan very fearful and unable to make up his mind.

In the camp, An Qingxu urgently summoned Yan Zhuang, who was also hiding in the military camp. Although he had a house in the city, he did not dare to go back. The emperor had ordered his arrest on the charge of his previous affair with Li Ye of Xiangyang.

Yan Zhuang also wrote a letter to defend himself, firmly denying that he had an affair with his enemy Li Ye. He insisted that his eldest son Yan Hanhai had died in the rebellion.

An Qingxu also wrote a letter to defend Yan Zhuang, believing that there was absolutely no evidence to accuse Yan Zhuang of colluding with Li Ye in private, and that it was Gao Shang's wanton slander in order to attack dissidents.

Two major generals, including Cui Qianyou and Tian Chengsi, also wrote to the emperor to intercede on Yanzhuang's behalf. They pointed out that the army's inability to capture Xiangyang had nothing to do with Yanzhuang. The main reason was that they could not cross the Han River. The Tang army had hundreds of thousands of stone warships. Blocking the river and forcing them to cross the river will only result in the total destruction of the entire army.

Perhaps everyone's intercession had an effect. Although Emperor An Lushan issued the arrest order, he did not enforce it. However, Yan Zhuang still did not dare to be careless. He was afraid of being noble, so he hid in the military camp with his wife and children. , dare not take a step out of the military camp.

Yan Zhuang hurriedly arrived at the Chinese Army King's tent. Although An Qingxu was lustful and dissolute, he was also very timid at this time and did not dare to find women from outside to come to the military camp. If a female assassin was found, his life would not be saved. .

"Your Highness, what do you say?" Yan Zhuang asked as he entered the tent.

An Qingxu said excitedly: "Li Zhuer wrote me a reply. He wants thirty thousand taels of silver. If I promise not to kill him, he will do it for me."

This news made Yan Zhuang secretly happy. He had no way out now. He had to push An Qingxu up so that his family could survive. At this time, he could not be merciful and had to kill An Lushan.

Fortunately, An Qingxu is also a man inferior to a beast and has no psychological pressure at all for killing his father, which makes Yan Zhuang happy.

Yan Zhuang sneered, "Your Highness can agree to him, but Li Zhuer must die, otherwise if Li Guiren, An Shouzhong and others catch him, he will definitely confess to Your Highness."

"Then how to arrange it?"

"Your Highness, the key is to attack Li Zhuer. We must arrange for someone to kill Li Zhuer in time to silence him. This person must be highly skilled in martial arts and able to protect himself. He will stay in the outer palace. Once Li Zhuer succeeds, go and join him. He can kill Li Zhuer and escape from the palace on his own."

An Qingxu immediately thought of his personal bodyguard An Younv, and he immediately said: "Let the young girl go, she is like a little palace maid, she can easily sneak into the palace and will not be suspected."

"Can!"

Yan Zhuang also knew that this young girl An was very loyal to An Qingxu, had good martial arts skills, good lightness skills, and looked like a girl. She was indeed very confusing, so he agreed immediately.

The two discussed for a while, finalized all the details, and then began to deploy.

In the northern city of Luoyang City, there is a pharmacy called Nanrentang, which specializes in selling various medicinal materials. There is also a doctor sitting in the shop, and there is an endless stream of people buying medicine and seeing doctors every day.

This morning, a middle-aged female Taoist priest came. She was wearing a half-worn Taoist robe, holding a whisk in her hand and a sword on her back. She was about thirty-seven or eighteen years old, with a medium build and a pretty appearance. He should have looked good when he was young, but now that he is middle-aged, he already has a tuft of white hair on his forehead and a few wrinkles at the corners of his eyes.

The middle-aged female Taoist priest was Mrs. Gongsun. She was entrusted by Li Ye to come to Luoyang to do two major things. One was to assassinate An Lushan, and the other was to destroy the Zoroastrian assassin organization.

Of course Li Ye knew that in history, An Lushan was killed by his son An Qingxu, and he bribed An Lushan's personal eunuch Li Zhuer to kill An Lushan.

But this is history. Could it be that history has been changed by itself and will no longer follow its original trajectory?

Once An Lushan survives, he will most likely take revenge on himself and send assassins to Chang'an to assassinate his father Li Dai, or send top assassins to Xiangyang to assassinate himself and his family, or even assassinate his senior officials, such as Li Mi, Liu Yan and others. .

An Lushan was a Sogdian and the leader of Sogdian Zoroastrianism in the Tang Dynasty. Zoroastrianism is good at using assassins to assassinate kings and win at the minimum cost.

According to Qiu Ming's confession, he was the head of the intelligence station. He only had seven people under his command, but the thirty assassin warriors were not under him, but were sent by Ashina Chengqing, who was a member of the Yan Kingdom. Taiwei is also the deputy leader of Eastern Zoroastrianism.

Ashina Chengqing escaped from a cave in Lantian County and did not return to Chang'an. He most likely went to Luoyang Daguangming Temple or returned to Youzhou Daguangming Temple.

Nanrentang Drug Store is one of the intelligence points set up by Jiang Hanjun in Luoyang, and it is also the general intelligence station. There is also a restaurant and an inn.

Aunt Gongsun came to the medicine shop with two young female Taoist priests. The two young female Taoist priests were both Aunt Gongsun's apprentices and female internal guards. They had received special training, and both of them were highly skilled in martial arts.

When I walked into the drug store, a clerk came up to me and said with a smile: "Taoist sister, do you want to buy some medicine?"

"Immeasurable Heavenly Lord, I want to see your shopkeeper Wang. I'm coming from the south."

Coming from the south means coming from Xiangyang. This is an internal lingo that only you can understand.

"The shopkeeper is here, please sit inside, three Taoist nuns!"

Aunt Gongsun led her two apprentices into the inner hall and sat down cross-legged on the couch. After a moment, a middle-aged man hurried over, clasped his fists and saluted: "I am Wang Jing, the shopkeeper of the medicine shop!"

Aunt Gongsun took out a silver medal and handed it to him. Wang Jing took one look at it and said with a smile: "We have received a pigeon letter from Xiangyang, welcoming Gongsun Zhenren to Luoyang!"

"Shopkeeper Wang might as well sit down and talk slowly!"

Wang Jing asked the waiter to serve tea, and he himself sat down across the table, "The pigeon letter said that Master Gongsun came to Luoyang for work on behalf of His Highness. I wonder what help we can provide."

Aunt Gongsun said slowly: "His Royal Highness has given me two tasks, which are not necessarily required to be completed. They are all for me to take action. One task is for me to assassinate An Lushan. The other task is to investigate Zoroastrianism and destroy their assassin organization. "

Aunt Gongsun did not hide her mission. She needed Wang Jing's help, so it was best to be honest, and Wang Jing would know how to help her.

Wang Jing pondered for a while and said: "According to the information I received, the conflict between An Lushan and An Qingxu intensified due to the inheritance issue. An Lushan will worship Luoshui on the Lantern Festival and announce important events. He is probably the new crown prince, so the real person will be here soon." After waiting for a few days, I will infer that An Qingxu will definitely take action before the Shangyuan Festival."

Aunt Gongsun nodded and said with a smile: "Okay! I'll leave Anlu Mountain alone for now. I want to investigate the Daguangming Temple in Luoyang first. Can Shopkeeper Wang provide me with some information?"