The silver lining for the imperial court right now is that Li Fu has no plans to directly attack the capital for the time being.
There are two reasons for this. First, the capital is heavily guarded, and there are still 60,000 Xuan Ce troops stationed there. The Fanyang army has been marching south to Luoyang since the uprising, and now they are exhausted. If they attack the capital and fight against Xuan Ce's army at this time, they have little chance of winning.
The second reason is to put aside the political considerations of military affairs...
Li Fu's advisers told him that now that they had taken control of Luoyang, it was time to enter the stage of political game.
In the view of all the advisers, if Li Fu wanted to pave the way for his smooth ascension to the throne in the future, taking the risk of attacking the capital at this moment would be a very bad idea, and this path should not be chosen unless it is absolutely necessary.
At present, the best way is to take advantage of the occupation of Luoyang to put pressure on the empress in the capital, forcing her to give up the throne voluntarily and depose the crown prince Li Zhi who is not capable of handling the heavy responsibility.
But this is not an easy thing to do, especially the one of deposing the crown prince, which involves many interests and human calculations.
Li Fu was not well-known before this, and his rebellion was sudden. So far, he does not have many supporters.
If he wants to enter the capital city legitimately, he needs the support of various forces. These forces include not only those who hold military power, but also officials and literati who can manipulate people's hearts and public opinion.
Li Fu naturally thought of the Cui family, the head of the aristocratic family: "...Did the Cui family in the capital reply?"
Previously, they asked Cui Liulang to deliver a family letter to the capital to remind the Cui family to express their stance in a timely manner.
An aide shook his head with a complicated expression: "Your Highness, there is no reply yet."
Li Fu frowned and muttered, "Does Cui Ju really not care about his grandson's life or death?"
A grandson that big, can you just say you don’t want him?
As Li Fu was muttering to himself, he suddenly thought of Cui Jing, the general of the Xuan Ce Army… Old Cui Ju could expel such an outstanding eldest grandson from the clan, let alone a dissolute second grandson?
If we compare them in this way, it would not be surprising to throw the latter away to feed the dogs...? As for the remaining 29 members of the Cui clan... Li Fu felt a headache when he thought about this.
Among these Cui clan members, more than half were young men, and the remaining half were in their prime years when they could make achievements. Li Fu introduced them to the military advisers, trying to get them involved in the planning.
But after more than ten days, the conclusion given by the counselors was unexpected. In the counselors' words, these members of the Cui family did have their own strengths - some were good at talking about war on paper, some were good at being arrogant, and some were good at acting on impulse.
In addition to their different strengths, they also have one thing in common, which is that they all have extremely strong self-esteem. The only difference is that some people are strong openly while others are strong secretly.
Because of their overly high self-esteem, whenever disagreements arose during a meeting, many of them would leave the room in anger, and even often the disagreements only occurred among their own family members...
It vividly explains what it means to be a person. Although he has no skills, he has a lot of temper.
The counselors in the Fanyang army were dumbfounded and confused - Qinghe Cui family... just like that? In addition, in places that the counselors could not see, these Cui family members also brought many "surprises" to people.
To show his respect for the Cui family, King Fanyang treated Cui Lang and his companions with great courtesy on the first day he met them, and said, "If you need anything, please let me know."
Therefore, in the following period of time, the cooks in the Fanyang army were the first to experience the fear of being dominated.
After settling down in the army, one of Cui's children drew up two menus, specifying the ingredients needed, cooking methods, and also marking each of their food preferences and dislikes.
When the chefs got the menu, they were amazed. Many of the things on it were things they had never even heard of.
Food is just the tip of the iceberg. The Cui family's children are not shy about their preferences. Today, someone wants a majestic and warlike cricket, and tomorrow someone wants a kingfisher of excellent appearance...
The crickets were found, and a few kingfishers were also brought, but the one who wanted the kingfisher kept shaking his head and said with tears in his eyes, "It doesn't look like it." After further questioning, we learned that he had raised a kingfisher when he was in Qinghe, and it loved him very much. He missed it so much that he became sick...
I have asked a military doctor to examine this illness and it is confirmed that I am not pretending but am truly ill, all for a bird.
Li Fu was overwhelmed by listening to these bad things every day.
After repeated attempts and observations, he had to accept the fact that these thirty members of the Cui family were all trash picked out of a hundred.
These people are useless, so there is only one redeeming quality left, which is their own value, that is, their surname Cui.
But now Li Fu heard that the Cui family had no intention of replying, so even this little value became precarious.
Li Fu was really unsure. He couldn't help wondering, if the Cui family really didn't want them, what should he do with these thirty people? Kill them? This would undoubtedly offend the Cui family... He was about to enter the capital, so he had to be careful about making enemies.
Release him? Wouldn't that make him seem too easy to talk to and easy to manipulate? How to convince the public? Keep him? However, keeping this group of people is not only expensive, but also very annoying...
Li Fu was very worried about this. He spent a lot of effort to bring back the hostage, but now he was going to lose it? Li Fu's distress was within Cui Lang's expectations.
A long time ago, Cui Lang realized a truth: if you don't want to be used by others, it is actually very simple: just be a useless person, and then no one can use you.
It was obvious that the tribesmen he brought with him were very good at avoiding being exploited.
At this time, a young man was holding a sweet-scented osmanthus cake in his hand, and he was very uneasy: "Sixth brother, does the clan really not care about us anymore?"
Because he was too anxious, he often turned his anxiety into food intake, and he has gained a lot of weight.
The middle-aged man leaning slumpedly against a low table, drowning his sorrows in wine, said, "Liu Lang, we are now in Luoyang, it's time to take action."
The young man who was eating the osmanthus cake pursed his lips upon hearing this, and almost cried - life as a hostage was already difficult, and there was an executioner standing by his side every day, who would understand this feeling! "Uncle, no..." On the side, Cui Chen, who was lying on the couch, barely propped up his upper body, his face pale but still firm: "When my nephew recovers, I will definitely be able to come up with a way to escape..."
Cui Chen has been ill for seven or eight days.
The reason why he fell ill was very touching. The military doctor diagnosed that it was due to excessive worry and overthinking.
When hearing this diagnosis, everyone in the Cui family felt complicated.
Worrying too much to the point of falling ill on bed, how exhausted it must be...but how fruitless it is to accomplish anything.
Cui Chen coughed for a while, and when he was about to speak again, he was interrupted by Cui Lang: "Cousin, just relax and recover, I'll take care of this!"
Seeing Cui Lang patting his chest to make a promise, Cui Chen hesitated to speak. In the end, he didn't dare to say anything hurtful - well, no matter what, Liu Lang's starting point was always good... He just hated that his body was so disappointing.
Cui Chen closed his eyes with a sense of self-hatred and sadness, and murmured, "When Mr. Kong Ming was ill and unsuccessful in his great cause, he must have felt this way."
Cui Lang and others remained silent.
The middle-aged man who was sitting and drinking sighed and said, "Good nephew, go to sleep."
After Cui Chen was helped to drink the medicine, he lay down again and closed his eyes to rest, but his brows were still tightly furrowed, refusing to relax.
Cui Lang sat cross-legged, playing chess with his uncle who was a chess fanatic, and he did not seem nervous at all.
After being annoyed by the questions from several disciples, he lowered his voice and said, "Don't worry, grandfather must have a plan..."
Cui Lang dropped a piece and said, "It must be a big plan... The more silent and inactive it is, the more it shows that grandfather has big plans and will not give up on us."
He guessed that his grandfather might have to make an important decision this time.
"Sixth brother...are you lying to us?" the young tribesman asked, "How come I didn't see that at all?"
Cui Lang rolled his eyes: "Now that you've figured it out, what's the point of planning it?"
"Then how did Sixth Brother figure that out?"
Cui Lang smiled mysteriously, holding the chess piece and said, "I can tell the difference!"
He looked unserious and had no persuasive power at all, but those young men felt inexplicably relieved.
As Cui Lang chatted, the tense atmosphere in the tent was silently relieved a lot.
Later, a young man asked in a low voice: "...Sixth brother, if the King of Fanyang really achieves great things, what will we do? What will happen to the Cui family?"
Cui Lang: "Rather than believing that King Fanyang can ascend the throne and become emperor, you might as well believe that I can become the head of the Cui family."
"The sage of the capital, the prince's faction, the King Rong of Yizhou... the King of Fanyang has many difficulties to overcome, and this is just the beginning..." Cui Lang said as he made his move, "What's more, there is someone even more powerful."
"Which one is Sixth Brother talking about?"
Cui Lang raised his thumb, pointed to the southeast, and said proudly: "Of course it's my master!"
One of the tribesmen was stunned: "When did Liu Lang become a disciple?"
"The master in the Jiju Club is also a master!" Cui Lang laughed and said, "Huainan Dao Chang Jieshi is my master, Cui Lang!"
Several middle-aged clansmen shook their heads helplessly, or laughed in silence, thinking that the young man's words were too naive. They had only played a few games of polo in the Imperial College back then. Now that Chang Suining was dominating the area, how could there be any master-disciple friendship between them?
"Uncles, please don't disbelieve me." Cui Lang said calmly, "If there is a chance, Master will definitely save me."
A tribesman who was sitting cross-legged laughed, looked around, and said in a teasing tone: "In this case, we will wait for Liu Lang's master to come and rescue us."
Cui Lang continued playing chess, saying nonchalantly, "Then you uncles must follow me and keep your lives..."
While the members of the Cui family were following Cui Lang's jokes, Li Fu, the King of Fanyang, after much deliberation, decided to send a letter to the Cui family in the capital, trying to use a combination of soft and hard tactics to invite the Cui family to join him in achieving great things.
Cui Lang's letter was sent to the capital before Luoyang was captured. In Li Fu's opinion, his situation was very good now. Even if the Cui family really didn't care about the life and death of those 30 young men, he had some capital to impress the Cui family.
On that day, King Fan Yang sent out no less than dozens of invitation letters like this, and had people spread them everywhere to recruit useful forces.
He wanted to take advantage of the situation to expand his reputation and gain enough popular support, so as to minimize the resistance to his ascension to the throne.
But Duan Shiang told him that this was not enough, and he should continue to expand his power and let people all over the world see the heroic appearance of King Fanyang Li Fu, then naturally more people would choose to follow him.
Li Fu hesitated: "But all the gentlemen are persuading me that now is not a good time to attack the capital..."
"Your Highness has already taken Luoyang, so there is no need to rush to the capital." Duan Shiang said, "I am referring to Henan Road, which is very close..."
As a secondary capital, Luoyang was independently under the jurisdiction of Henan Prefecture. Henan Prefecture today refers to the land east of Luoyang, starting from Zhengzhou and Bianzhou, south to Yingzhou to connect with Huainan Prefecture, east to Dengzhou to face Dongluo, covering the land of Qi and Lu, a total of 27 prefectures, and the well-deserved granary of the country during the Great Sheng period.
Li Fu's eyes lit up. It was the golden autumn of October and the granaries in Henan Province were full. Even if he did not expect to take over the twenty-seven states in one fell swoop, even if he could only take half of them, even if he had to confront the capital later, he would not have to worry about food and wages in the rear!
Furthermore, as Duan Shiang said, the stronger his power becomes, the easier it will be to intimidate and win over the hearts and minds of all parties...
Judging from his experience of attacking Luoyang, among the three states that came to support Henan, more than half of the troops in two states chose to defect to him, which shows the degree of public unrest... With Henan being like this, is there any worry that he can't take it down?
But Li Fu believed that he was not a rough and rude person, and his troops still needed to rest, so he decided to send an order to the various states in Henan Province first, asking them to surrender voluntarily. If they insisted on resisting, he would not mind leading his troops to them.
Bianzhou, adjacent to Luoyang, was the first to receive the manifesto from King Fan Yang.
Hu Lin, the governor of Bianzhou, was unwilling to submit to King Fanyang, but he knew clearly that if the Fanyang army attacked, Bianzhou would have no power to resist...
Previously, he was ordered to send out half of the city's garrison to aid Luoyang. Those garrison troops were either killed in battle or captured. Even his trusted military officer was killed by Duan Shiang of the Fanyang Army...
Hu Lin felt hatred and resentment in his heart, and he also despised Duan Shiang's actions, but the only 10,000 troops left were not enough for him to resist.
At night, when Hu Lin was restless and unable to sleep, his wife suddenly sat up and said, "If the master doesn't want to surrender, then don't surrender... Why don't we try to ask for help!"
Hu Lin sighed, "Madam, everyone is busy now, and the people in the capital are also in turmoil... Luoyang has fallen into the hands of the rebels, how can the court care about a small Bianzhou?"
"Of course not to the court..." In the dim light, the governor's wife asked, "Master, have you never thought of asking the Huainan Dao Chang Jieshi for help?"
Huainan Road is adjacent to their Henan Road, and when Chang Jieshi was still the General of Ningyuan, he had visited their Bianzhou.
Envoy Chang stopped Xu Zhengye from being killed on the Bian River, helped Bianzhou with disaster relief and prayed for rain to stop, and he also stayed in the Bianzhou governor's mansion for many days, and they got along very well... With this rare relationship, would it be stupid for the master not to ask for help?
When Hu Lin heard this, there was no surprise on his face, but rather a hesitant expression.
Obviously, he was not stupid, he had thought about it, but...
Seeing this, his wife hurriedly asked, "What are your concerns, my dear?" (End of this chapter)
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