Chapter 477 Song Mo plotted against me?
For the important officials of the imperial court, the bottom line of the negotiations with the Xianbei royal court had been roughly determined.
The next step is to discuss who will be responsible for this matter.
There is war going on there now, who would want to go there?
What if we can’t reach an agreement and I lose my life?
The court ministers looked at the sky and the earth, you looked at me, I looked at you, but no one looked at the emperor.
Even when their eyes occasionally met with their sworn enemy, they silently looked away, refusing to harm the other, who would surely take them with them. A specific example can be seen in the case of how the task of disaster relief in Nanyang fell to the chief officer, Zhang Xian, and his deputy, Zuo Anmin.
At first, someone suggested Lü Desheng, but Song Mo rejected him. He no longer trusted Lü Desheng. Negotiations were a serious matter, and he needed to hand it over to someone he trusted to be responsible.
In the end, the ministers recommended Prince Gong, and Song Mo agreed.
That's roughly how the matter was decided.
After leaving court, Song Mo received a secret letter, which revealed the secret of the robbery of Pingzhou's tax grain.
After reading it, Song Mo immediately smashed another set of his favorite tea cups.
"You are a traitor, a traitor who deceives the emperor and deceives his superiors. You deserve to be killed!"
Such thunderous rage made Liang An, the eunuch guarding the palace gate, shudder.
Afterwards, Song Mo first summoned Prince Gong.
The king and his ministers had a secret conversation for half an hour.
It is said that when Prince Gong left the palace, his face was expressionless and it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or angry.
Song Mo later summoned Lin Ran and gave him a secret order.
Coming out of the palace, Lin Ran felt as if the setting sun had stained the sky with blood. As the Grand Guardian, why did he always receive missions like this?
Finally, an imperial edict appointing Lu Desheng to be in charge of the negotiations was issued from the imperial palace and sent to the Pingzhou Governor's Mansion at an expedited speed of 800 miles.
When the ministers learned that the emperor had suddenly replaced the person in charge of the negotiations, they all looked at each other in confusion, not understanding why. However, this result was acceptable, so none of the ministers objected.
After Zhang Xian learned about this, he asked to be Lu Desheng's deputy in the negotiations.
Thinking that this time, he would join forces with Lord Lu to fight against the Xianbei, he felt excited.
However, Zhang Xianzhi's request was rejected by Song Mo, who appointed Zuo Anmin as his deputy.
Zhang Xian was puzzled. It was obvious that Zuo Anmin and Lord Lu were not on good terms. How could the negotiations between Dali and the Xianbei royal court go well if they were asked to cooperate with each other on such a big matter?
After receiving the order, Zuo Anmin said to Zhang Xian proudly, "Master Zhang, don't worry. I will assist Master Lu well this time."
"You're the best!" Zhang Xian replied, then left with a flick of his sleeves.
Southland
For Xie Zhan, everything was developing as expected.
He could actually strive for an opportunity to negotiate with the Xianbei.
After seizing this opportunity, he could force the two families of Lu to rebel against Qin, and then he could fight for power in the name of suppressing rebellion, hold the emperor hostage to command the princes, and then control the government.
There's one downside to this path: Song Mo is too old to be as easy to control as Zhizi. But he can wait two years...
But this also means that he has to give up the Southland that he has run for two years, or at least he will not be able to control the Southland openly.
But the South has a geographical advantage, and he is reluctant to give it up.
Another way is that after Qin and Lu raised the banner of rebellion, they also responded.
Moreover, he and Jiang Boya had deduced that if Pingzhou rebelled and they followed suit, King Cheng in the southwest would also follow.
By then, the world will enter a situation of competition among heroes.
These were two different paths. After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to choose the latter. This meant that many of his previous plans would have to be adjusted accordingly.
However, since he has made such a choice, he naturally will not join in the negotiations. As the saying goes, a gentleman does not stand on a dangerous wall.
But he will keep a close eye on the direction of this negotiation in the coming period.
Pingzhou, Governor's Mansion
The Prefect of the Guards Lin Ran came to convey the imperial edict. After Lu Desheng received the order, Lin Ran told him that he would stay in Pingzhou for the next period of time until the negotiations were over.
Lu Desheng was ready to arrange accommodation for him, but he refused. Lin Ran came out of the governor's mansion and went straight to the post station to rest.
Under Lu Songli's arrangement, the Lu family father and daughter, the four brothers of the Qin family, and Xue Xu gathered together.
Although everyone was a little surprised to see each other, they all thought that they had come to discuss negotiations with the Xianbei royal court.
At the beginning, it was.
Lu Desheng became the person in charge of this negotiation, and he felt quite proud. My late emperor, this court really cannot do without me.
But when he saw the court's bottom line - using Tuoba Lian to force the Xianbei army to withdraw unconditionally from Dali and sign a ten-year peace treaty, Tuoba Lian had to be a hostage in Chang'an during the ten years.
Lu Desheng couldn't help but frown. Does the court's request seem like they want a serious negotiation?
Would the Xianbei royal court agree to this request? What was the imperial court thinking? They were overestimating Tuoba Lian's role!
Negotiations are very difficult.
When Lu Desheng was thinking about how to negotiate to meet the court's requirements and gain some benefits for his family, Lu Songli spoke.
"Dad, Song Mo may not be able to tolerate you this time." She pointed this out calmly. What she didn't say was that this result was entirely caused by her instigating the situation behind the scenes.
Hearing this, Lu Desheng's eyes widened: "What the hell? What do you mean there's no room for him?"
The others were also startled by her words; it was so sudden.
Moreover, they in Pingzhou have made great contributions recently. Why can't the emperor tolerate Lord Lu?
Lu Songli said, "Dad, Song Mo knows about the salt lake in Longcheng, and the inside story of the tax grain being robbed."
Xue Xu observed the nose with his eyes and the heart with his nose. Madam Qin Liu did not hide these two things from him, and he helped to clean up some of the tails.
These two things were indeed a bit outrageous to the emperor.
Qin Heng and his other brothers remained silent. After realizing that Song Mo had always been harsh on the Qin family and oppressed the Qin family, they turned a blind eye to whatever their sixth brother's wife did, and sometimes even silently added fuel to the fire.
As soon as Lu Desheng heard these two things, he understood that Song Mo was not a man of great ambition. Song Mo had always disliked him, and the fact that he had kept the Dragon City Salt Lake secrets secret and cheated the emperor on the tax grain tax was something Song Mo really couldn't tolerate.
"No, what's wrong with his brain?" Lu Desheng muttered.
Even if we knew they were cheating on the grain tax, would the common people benefit from it? Why was Song Mo so angry? Would he be happy only if all the grain was burned or robbed by the Xianbei?
Wait, since Song Mo couldn't tolerate him, why did they order him to be in charge of this negotiation? Lu Desheng reacted and looked at the court's request again, feeling that there was a hint of conspiracy.
"My girl, Song Mo is plotting against me?"
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