Chapter 761 A Basin of Dirty Water
"Master, do we still have a chance to win?"
Looking at the anxious and hopeful eyes of his subordinates, Xie Zhan was silent for a long time, then nodded, "There's still a chance."
Even facing the suppression of Pingzhou's weapons, which were ahead of Dali's, Xie Zhan did not lose heart. He knew that going from zero to one was the most difficult, but he believed that going from one to two was only a matter of time.
What he needs to do now is to buy time and use time to exchange for space for Dali's growth.
The current situation is that he holds two cards in his hand. The dynamite card is now useless, and only the charcoal card is left.
But considering that Pingzhou is now launching a large-scale attack on the Xianbei, we cannot use force against the Dali like the Xianbei did...
Furthermore, Lu Songli is not a warmongerer.
Therefore, he predicted that the next battle between him and Lu Songli would be a battle for the hearts and minds of the people.
The situation in the Three States Free Trade Zone has deteriorated to this point, and there is no need to cover up Song Mo's death any longer.
Therefore, the imperial court soon rang the funeral bell and issued an obituary to the world.
In the winter of the seventh year of Tianhe, the eighth emperor of Dali, Song Mo, died in Taiji Hall.
At the same time, the world was informed that the late emperor had left a will, appointing his eldest son as the new emperor and naming the reign title Daoming.
This era name is full of Dali's strong expectations for the future.
In addition to establishing a new emperor, the late emperor also left a will, appointing the former Grand Commander Xie Zhan as regent.
After Song Mo's death, after discussion among his ministers, he was posthumously named Ai.
Pingzhou, Changli
At the Pingzhou government office, all officials learned of the death of Emperor Song Mo of Dali. Song Mo's posthumous title also sparked much discussion among the Pingzhou officials.
"Emperor Ai" has many meanings, such as being orphaned and dying young, lacking virtue, and having suffered great hardship.
"Song Mo reigned for seven years and died at the age of twenty-one, a young orphan."
"During his reign, he faced internal and external troubles. Although he took some measures, he ultimately failed to save Dali from decline."
By this point, everyone understands that Song Mo's life was mostly unfortunate, and his posthumous title of "Emperor Ai" also inspires sympathy.
At this time, Lü Desheng spoke up. "How dare Dali make public the fact that Xie Zhan was named the Regent of Dali? This is tantamount to admitting that the Dali court had previously engaged in fraud. Aren't they afraid that we in Pingzhou will hold them accountable?"
"Because of the polo match, Dali and Pingzhou are now at loggerheads. There's no difference between turning against each other once and twice."
As the saying goes, too many lice won’t make you itch.
Lu Songli was very clear that her identity was exposed, and this must have been the work of Xie Zhan.
She was not surprised that Xie Zhan would do this.
Xie Zhan was not stupid. He guessed that she knew that he was not dead. If this matter was still hidden, it would become a handle or a hidden danger. It would be better to reveal it himself and eliminate the hidden danger.
When you have an opponent who understands you, every move you make is like a wise chess game.
And that's what playing Ming chess is like.
It is impossible to win a lot in one go. You can only win a little bit in each round through confrontation, and slowly build up a big advantage.
…
After the polo final, because Dali and Xianbei cheated, Pingzhou took the opportunity to launch an attack and captured Yanzhou and Xuzhou in one fell swoop.
Tuoba Jin and Tuoba Lian did not fight to the death, but instead led the Xianbei army in Yanzhou to evacuate from Yuzhou via Dali.
Then, Dali stationed troops in Yuzhou, Donghai and Yongzhou to guard against the Pingzhou army.
Just when the top leaders of Dali and Xianbei thought that Pingzhou would launch a large-scale attack on Dali's hinterland Yuzhou, Yangzhou or the power center Yongzhou, Pingzhou broke the norm and sent General Qin Heng to lead the three armies to deploy troops along the border line with Dali to confront Dali.
On the other hand, Pingzhou sent three armies to attack the Xianbei.
First, the Sun family army located in Bingzhou advanced westward and intercepted the Xianbei army led by Tuoba Jin and Tuoba Lian.
Secondly, the army led by Yue Shu set out from Fuyu County, among which Wei Kuang, as a lieutenant general, led his own army and headed straight for the Xianbei grassland.
Finally, the Jintai Army was the main force, led by Qin Sheng, and Qin Zhao also led a Qin family army to follow.
The two armies went straight from Qingzhou to Yanmen Pass, and then went out of the pass. The Qin family army led by Qin Zhao was responsible for dealing with the Xianbei army blocking the road, while Qin Sheng led the Jintai army across the grassland and headed straight for the Xianbei capital - Shengle.
Dali
When the emperor passed away, the whole country was in mourning.
For a time, the prices of sacrificial items skyrocketed.
The people are complaining because they really have no money left.
But the government didn't care, because the regent ordered that the emperor must be buried with great ceremony, and the people under his rule could not lag behind, and every household must hang the emperor's clothes in white!
The common people were oppressed by the government and became full of resentment and anger.
Xie Zhan was very busy. He was busy with the funeral of the late emperor, the transfer of power, personnel reorganization, and he also had to pay attention to the development of the war with Pingzhou and Pingzhou's war situation with the Xianbei.
One day, after Xie Zhan finished his work, he returned to the Regent's Palace from the palace.
When the carriage was halfway there, it was discovered that the road ahead had been dug up artificially, and the guards he led immediately became alert.
At this time, many young men in ragged clothes rushed out of the alley and threw rotten vegetable leaves, cow dung, stones and other objects in his direction.
"What are you doing?" Xie Bai shouted.
The roadblocker cast a hateful look at Xie Zhan.
"Xie Zhan, you evil ghost, how far are you going to push us ordinary people?"
"Yes, do you want to kill us?"
"How could you be so cruel? First you used horse racing to rob the people, and now you want us to spend exorbitant prices on white linen and other sacrificial items? You'll do anything for money."
"Are you willing to force us to death?!"
After hearing this, Xie Zhan frowned slightly. His first reaction was that Pingzhou was behind this.
After his guards resolved the matter, he questioned the arrested people and then sent people to investigate the matter in detail.
After checking, he found out that it was people from the horse racing gambling house in Yuzhou who came to collect debts and forced a family of twelve to death.
This incident sparked widespread outrage and heated public opinion. Countless victims of horse racing surrounded the government office, demanding that the culprit be severely punished.
Under the guidance of the Pingzhou navy, the government was also swept up in the investigation by public opinion.
He had originally intended to eradicate the illegal horse-racing gambling houses in Dali, and his confidants such as Fan Yang and Zuo Anmin knew about this.
After the people from the Yuzhou government asked for instructions from their superiors, they received authorization and began to investigate.
The investigation brought out a lot of trouble, and they finally caught a big fish - Cao Huating.
Cao Huating is one of the owners of the secret horse racing gambling house in Dali.
But when Cao Huating was arrested, he confessed that there was someone behind him.
The Yuzhou government had to continue the investigation, and finally Cao Huating confessed in public, revealing the identity of the mastermind behind the secret horse-racing gambling operation that was all over Dali. This person was none other than Xie Zhan, the Regent!
In addition to him, there are two other small bosses, one is Lord Wang Yun, and the other is the second Xianbei prince Tuoba Jin.
As soon as this news was announced, it caused a huge uproar.
"Cao Huating? Go check his identity!" Xie Zhan ordered.
After an investigation, it was discovered that he was a remnant of the Zhu family in the South, and this must be his revenge on himself.
Xie Zhan knew very well that Zhu Huating must have escaped death at this moment.
"Master, what should we do now?"
Xie Zhan pinched his brows. The current public opinion was very unfavorable to him.
This was a trap, and Fan Yang Zuo Anmin and his men fell into it.
The key point is that Wang Yun actually admitted it!
A basin of dirty water was poured down on his head.
It directly tarnished his reputation as regent and dealt a heavy blow to him.
Thinking about him, during this period of time, everyone in Dali, from the emperor to the noble families and officials, was played in his hands.
But he turned around and fell into Lu Songli's hands.
Lu Songli, ah Lu Songli, your methods are getting more and more dirty.
She really didn't even give him a chance to breathe.
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