Chapter 196: Intending to Attack Shanggui...
But no matter whether Li Jue can win or not, at least as far as the current situation is concerned, he has successfully replaced Dong Zhuo and became the top figure in Chang'an City.
His subordinates, who had been persuaded from the two perspectives of obeying the emperor's edict and making decisions for Dong Zhuo, gathered around him, allowing him to change his previous servile way of speaking in front of Dong Zhuo.
The only unpleasant thing for him was probably when he was leaving the main hall of Weiyang Palace, he heard Dong Zhuo ask behind him in a calm tone: "This Liangzhou genius that I can't use well, are you talking about Jia Wenhe or yourself?"
Li Jue paused.
Dong Zhuo's tone, which showed that he was not angry at his subordinates' betrayal at this time, made it hard for him not to think of the past.
Dong Zhuo in the past also maintained this state when in crisis.
But when he looked back, what he saw was clearly an "old man" in his twilight years who had lost his vigor.
"Prime Minister, there is no need to sow discord at this time. You should just rest well here."
Having said this, Li Jue turned away in anger.
This illusion that he was always shrouded in a shadow when facing Dong Zhuo made him feel vaguely uneasy even though he was in the position of a winner.
If he could eliminate Dong Zhuo now, he would do it without hesitation.
pity……
Unfortunately, it still doesn’t work!
Fortunately, after he left the main hall, Dong Zhuo no longer had to appear in front of him. He only had to guard against him closely.
This layer of hidden clouds was dispelled again.
He walked towards Wang Yun outside the palace and said, "Thank you, Mr. Zishi, for getting this blood letter from His Majesty. I relied on this to get what I got today."
Li Jue has never been more aware than today of the benefits of holding the title of righteousness. He also understands what it means to have several "reliable" civil servants in his hands.
It doesn't matter how Wang Yun persuaded Liu Xie to issue this edict. What matters is that he can rely on it to win.
I heard that there was once a famous scholar who was good at evaluating people, who commented that Wang Yun had the talent to assist the king.
The more Li Jue looked at Wang Yun, the more he liked him, and he felt that this might be a good sign.
A talent like a king’s assistant, what a good king’s assistant!
Of course, the more important credit goes to Jia Xu.
If it were not for the major policy proposed by Jia Xu, Li Jue felt that he might have chosen to directly summon his subordinates to fight against Dong Zhuo, but in this case, the losses would be too great.
But he didn't know if it was his illusion. When he looked at Jia Xu at this time, he saw him turn around and look in the direction of the main hall of Weiyang Palace, as if he regretted the decision he had made.
Even though his expression had returned to its normal calm state after he turned around, Li Jue still couldn't help feeling a little wary.
We can’t let Jia Xu regret it!
The plan to seize power has already been done, there is no turning back!
Even though Wang Yun has reached a cooperative relationship with him, Li Jue feels that the people of Liangzhou are more worthy of reliance.
He coughed lightly and asked Wang Yun, "I will go to see His Majesty first and ask His Majesty to move to the Weiyang Main Palace and let the Prime Minister change his residence."
Although not everyone knows about this, Li Jue still has to let people see his attitude.
It was also intended to remind Jia Xu that since he wanted to make it his responsibility to revitalize the family, he should not be thinking about Dong Zhuo at this time.
Dong Zhuo now has no control over where he lives, and does not have the ability to help Jia Xu rebuild his family's glory.
After Li Jue said this, he did not look at Jia Xu's reaction, nor did he think about whose consent he needed for this audience. He walked straight to the side hall and pushed the door open.
This action was just like how he tried to find a sense of superiority from the little emperor.
However, compared to the last time, Liu Xie's attitude towards him showed a little more trust.
In Li Jue's opinion, Liu Xie obviously knew who could save him from suffering.
The young emperor no longer had any guard against him, and looked at him eagerly, asking, "Mr. Li, may I ask when can I ..."
"Your Majesty, please move first." Li Jue interrupted him.
But we cannot let Liu Xie say anything like when Dong Zhuo will be killed.
This would do Li Jue a hundred harms and no benefit.
Fortunately, Liu Xie had probably been held hostage by Dong Zhuo for too long, so he did not say anything and immediately followed Li Jue out.
But he had just taken a few steps when he heard Jia Xu shout "Wait a minute".
Jia Xu walked forward, tore off a piece of cloth from Liu Xie's clothes, and wrapped it around Liu Xie's arm until it looked extremely thick, then he stopped.
Meeting Li Jue's gaze, Jia Xu replied: "Show your attitude to the outside world."
Li Jue suddenly realized.
The people who came with him today were not just his confidants.
In order to help him quickly take control of Chang'an City, he brought along a lot of people from both types who he had won over for different reasons.
He had to let those who were still loyal to Dong Zhuo see that Dong Zhuo was only under house arrest and had not been killed by him.
Those who sided with him for the sake of the emperor naturally wanted to see His Majesty being rescued from the clutches of Dong Zhuo.
Of course, the more miserable Liu Xie's life is at this time, the better.
But you have to know that the blood letter he wrote to Li Jue was certainly not written with his own blood. Dong Zhuo also knew that he could not exploit the emperor Liu Xie to his heart's content, so he did not treat him harshly in terms of food and drink.
Then we can only fake it.
Jia Xu's performance made Li Jue give up his suspicion that Jia Xu might still be loyal to Dong Zhuo.
Therefore, Li Jue continued to obey Jia Xu's next few suggestions.
The first was that Li Jue wanted to take the position of general and command the military, but he could only keep the imperial edict in his hands for the time being.
The most urgent task was to ensure that no of Dong Zhuo's subordinates in Chang'an would try to rescue him, or to pass on his current situation to Duan Wei.
The second was to order Duan Wei to send his troops to investigate the situation in Liangzhou.
"Why not let him return to Chang'an to report on his work?"
Duan Wei was a loyal follower of Dong Zhuo and was very good at commanding soldiers. Li Jue felt that rather than letting him live and cause trouble for himself, it would be better to let him return to Chang'an and capture him on the pretext of needing to deploy soldiers.
No matter whether you kill him directly on the charge of treason or put him under house arrest, the right thing to do is to avoid future troubles.
Jia Xu gave Li Jue a look as if he wanted to say something but hesitated.
Li Jue: “…”
He may have understood Jia Xu's subtext.
Even though he was confident that he could win against Dong Zhuo, when it came to commanding troops, he definitely couldn't defeat Qiao Yan on his own.
It would be fine if he let Dong Zhuo's power fall into his hands at this time, but if he really captured Duan Wei and lost the forces that helped him along the way, he would probably not have the opportunity to fight back.
He himself might be able to compare with Duan Wei, but his brothers and nephews are far inferior to him.
Jia Xu's unspoken words were left for Li Jue to savor on his own.
He just continued, "The autumn harvest is not far away. The Guanzhong Plain harvests earlier than Liangzhou. Less trouble is worse than more. Dispatching Duan Wei at this time would only arouse suspicion. However, investigating the enemy situation is common sense."
"Qiao Yan has returned to Liangzhou. No one can guarantee that she will not choose to attack Sanfu first. Even if the prime minister is in this position, he will issue an order to let General Duan go to investigate."
It would have been fine if he hadn't said that, but as soon as he said that the Prime Minister would make such a choice, Li Jue quickly replied, "Just follow your words, sir."
He couldn't admit that he was not as wise as Dong Zhuo!
At most, when he was about to send this order to Meiwu, he sought the opinion of a certain "talented king's assistant".
For Wang Yun, Duan Wei was still able to act freely, which was obviously more in line with his idea of internal strife among Dong Zhuo's subordinates. He also fooled him, which further strengthened Li Jue's determination.
So this imperial edict ordering him to carefully spy on the deployment of troops in Hanyang, Liangzhou, soon reached Duan Wei's hands.
Duan Wei had no doubts and immediately sent out scouts.
As Qiao Yan's power in the counties of Liang Province grew, the spies that Dong Zhuo left in Liang Province could only report major events that occurred in Liang Province.
For example, when the governor of Bingzhou was in Liangzhou and when he was in Bingzhou, and then there were the changes of forces in the state.
However, they did not dare to investigate the situation at the junction of Liangzhou and Sanfu without authorization.
Ever since Qiao Yan hosted a banquet for various aristocratic families in Liangzhou at the beginning of this year, these spies have been feeling even more insecure.
It’s not their fault that they dare not act rashly.
So it can only be left to the scouts.
But what surprised Duan Wei was that according to the information sent back by the scouts, the people guarding Shanggui, the strategic point in Longshang, were not Qiao Yan's men. 1
On the surface, there was no change in the army's uniforms, but the scouts under Duan Wei had sharp eyes and could clearly see the difference in the quality of the army.
They are so lazy...
Judging from Qiao Yan’s battle record, she would not make such a low-level mistake.
This is not an ordinary sign.
Duan Wei stationed more troops along the Wei River and sent the news to Chang'an.
Li Jue also immediately summoned Jia Xu, Fan Chou, Yan Xing and others to discuss the matter.
Jia Xu pondered Qiao Yan's intentions and replied when meeting Li Jue's inquiring gaze: "There are several possibilities. One is that she wants to change the direction of attacking Chang'an, withdraw the troops stationed in Shanggui, and attack Gaoling with all her strength from Anding County and Beidi County."
"One possibility is that she first transferred the guards to assist with the autumn harvest in order to launch an early attack, and then launched an early attack."
"One is that she had a conflict with the governor of Hanyang and the Hanyang nobles, and there was a disagreement on the stationing of troops."
"There is another possibility that she did this to create confusion and set a trap for us to fall into, but this possibility is the smallest."
Li Jue asked: "Why is this?"
Jia Xu still responded with silence.
If this is still a sentence that he is not suitable to say, it is still not difficult to guess.
Because this is an accusation against Dong Zhuo.
His loss of fighting spirit might not just be noticed by Li Jue.
This might be the reason why Fan Chou was won over by him, and Duan Wei should be aware of this.
So, what about Qiao Yan?
She started attacking Liangzhou in April last year until July this year, during which time Dong Zhuo had several opportunities to send troops to Liangzhou, but he gave up all these opportunities and let Qiao Yan become powerful in Liangzhou.
Dong Zhuo's cowardly attitude was not lost on this opponent.
When Dong Zhuo had given up all the better opportunities to send troops, how could she guarantee that Dong Zhuo would choose to send troops at this time?
Rather than wasting manpower on a trap that is likely to be useless, it is better to hold on normally while quickly reorganizing armaments and actively responding to the battle.
Jia Xu went on to say: "So it is feasible to attack Liang Province. However, we must also defend Gaoling and Huayin to prevent the first possibility."
"Of course." Li Jue replied.
He himself was from Niyang in the north and was familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of the terrain from Nishui to Jingshui. Li Xian and Li Li, who were in charge of guarding this place at the moment, naturally knew it as well.
With the support of Chang'an's reserve army, it would not be easy for Qiao Yan to take this route.
Li Jue finally had some confidence in this.
After Jia Xu's analysis for him, Li Jue's thoughts had completely drifted to the possibility of attacking Shanggui.
Except for the last, least likely scenario, he can take action in any of the other scenarios.
Jia Xu said that plans must change with the situation. The most favorable situation now is undoubtedly -
Send troops to Hanyang and establish a base in Liangzhou!
Thinking of the possibility of returning to Liangzhou in the near future, Li Jue could hardly contain his excitement and paced back and forth in the room.
But he suddenly stopped and asked Jia Xu, "Mr. Yi, who do you think should be the commander in the attack on Shanggui?"
Li Jue himself cannot move.
He needed to be wary of Dong Zhuo's actions, but also needed to make sure he had the little emperor in Chang'an City.
He felt uneasy about handing the matter over to anyone after he left.
But if Duan Wei was allowed to take action and this plan, which sounded like it had a very high chance of success and was very likely to be the first to disrupt Qiao Yan's plan, was handed over to him, Li Jue felt that he would not be willing to do it no matter what!
This deserves his credit!
At this time, in the side hall of Weiyang Palace, Dong Zhuo, who had been imprisoned for several days, looked at the person who brought the food and asked, "Is this what he gave me to eat?"
He also looked at the food box in the other person's hand.
As the autumn harvest was approaching in Chang'an City, some food was purchased from Shu. Therefore, there was no shortage of food for the senior officials and generals in Chang'an.
This is even more true for Dong Zhuo.
A few days ago, Li Jue provided him with the same food as usual for show, but after hearing about the cost of these foods, Li Jue ordered the meals to be changed to the standards for palace servants.
After he cleared out those members of Dong Zhuo's army in Chang'an who objected to his usurpation of power, he became more and more unscrupulous.
Although he still had no intention of taking action against Dong Zhuo, he treated Dong Zhuo even worse.
The royal family and ministers of the Han Dynasty were allowed to eat beef, and this was naturally acceptable to Dong Zhuo after he seized control of the government and seized power.
However, what was placed in front of Dong Zhuo at this moment was actually a rotten cow bone. 2
Does Li Jue think that this is enough for Dong Zhuo, or does he imply that Dong Zhuo is just like rotten bones and flesh? I'm afraid this answer can only be given when Li Jue appears in front of Dong Zhuo.
But the humiliation contained in this action was truly directed at Dong Zhuo's face.
Dong Zhuo's face was as gloomy as water.
But the person who delivered the food did not see it. After Dong Zhuo did not get a reply and overturned the food in front of him, a ray of clear light flashed through his lowered eyelids.
Angry? He would never be angered by Li Jue!
The rebel's complacency at this moment not only did not make him angry, but instead he felt a sense of urgency as if he was back in the situation where he had escaped death that year.
So what if we let Li Jue be proud for two days?
Dong Zhuo sneered in his heart.
When he was galloping around Liangzhou and making friends with the rich and powerful, Li Jue was still playing in the mud in Niyang!
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