Chapter 145
Spy Life
In the following days, Shangguan Zhi gradually entered the core of Guanzhong, and the prairie princess also kept reporting the movements of Taiyue that she had obtained from the side back to the prairie royal court!
Although Shangguan Zhi was deeply in love with Princess Caoyuan, he was able to stick to his original intention and resolutely refused to have any secret dealings with Caoyuan. After discovering several times that his wife had secretly passed on Taiyue's intelligence, he deliberately prohibited Princess Caoyuan from getting involved in military and national affairs!
Seeing that there was no chance of rebellion with Shangguan Zhi, the princess turned her attention to Shangguan Zhou, the first heir of the Shangguan family!
She took advantage of the opportunity of traveling to invite Shangguan Zhou privately, and told him that Shangguan Yan was his biological child, and confirmed it through blood dripping, which made Shangguan Zhou believe it without a doubt!
At this time, Shangguan Yan, who had grown up under the influence of his mother, had already understood that he had a special mission.
Therefore, he was very kind to both Shangguan Zhi and Shangguan Zhou, and even treated Yue Wuji as a brother!
When Emperor Taiyue began to prepare for the expedition to Yehe, the prairie princess, who knew the news early on, continued to report Taiyue's movements to the prairie royal court!
On the other hand, she incited Shangguan Zhou, promising him to defect to the grasslands by offering him Guanzhong and Jinzhou as bait! Under the temptation of beauties and the flattery of his own children, Shangguan Zhou finally made the decision to betray his country!
At this time, Shangguan Yan had already become Yue Wuji's close confidant. In order to plan and push Yue Wuji to the throne, he could have more access to the core secrets of the empire!
He, the princess of the grassland, and Shangguan Zhou took advantage of the opportunity when Guannei Hou was hunting near the Datong garrison and sent out heavy troops to besiege him. After beheading Guannei Hou, they deliberately created the illusion that he was being bitten by wolves!
Shangguan Zhi, who was following Guannei Hou at the time, saw his beloved wife throwing herself into the arms of another man, his son, whom he had raised with great effort, recognizing a thief as his father, and his lord, who trusted him, being killed in front of him. He felt ashamed to face his old master!
So he drew his sword and committed suicide, cutting his face again and again before he died!
Afterwards, Shangguan Yan mutilated his body, returned to Guanzhong, established Yue Wuji as the ruler, and announced to the public that Guannei Hou had died of illness.
Yue Wuji was favored by the late emperor and inherited the title of Guannei Hou. He followed the late emperor all the way to conquer Yehe and was ordered to lead an army alone to protect the central army!
Shangguan Zhou and Shangguan Yan, one a civil official and the other a military officer, almost completely controlled the generals under Yue Wuji. With their collusion between internal and external forces, the Khan of the grassland continuously passed on information to Wanyan Hongyu.
This also led to a series of tragic defeats for the empire later! After the late emperor was first rescued by Yue Fan and taken to Youzhou, Shangguan Zhou falsely spread the news that the soldiers on the front line had been annihilated.
With Shangguan Yan's full cooperation, Yue Wuji believed it and took the lead in withdrawing from the Yehe battlefield, which resulted in the tragic consequence of the Imperial Expeditionary Force being cut off from its retreat!
After the death of the previous emperor, Yue Beiqiu suddenly emerged as the new king and took control of the court. When investigating the truth behind the disastrous defeat, more and more problems were exposed in Yue Wuji's link, causing Yue Beiqiu to spare no effort to suppress Guannei Hou!
It was at this time that Shangguan Yan keenly realized that the rulers of the empire had already suspected Yue Wuji of treason!
So he took advantage of the situation and guided Yue Wuji to recruit more soldiers and horses to fight against Yue Beiqiu's suppression! He constantly provoked and intensified the contradictions between them, and finally formed an irreconcilable hostility between the two sides!
Although he and Shangguan Zhou privately addressed each other as father and son, they maintained the illusion of hostility in public, seemingly inheriting the grievances of the previous generation, which also made Yue Wuji feel at ease about the two of them!
Then Yue Wuji married Qin Shuangxue, the legitimate daughter of the number one family in Guanzhong. She was definitely a good wife. Under her guidance, the entire Guanzhong and Jinzhou were able to recuperate.
Especially since she followed the family's wishes and took a tough stance against the grassland, and Yue Wuji and her were deeply in love, Shangguan Yan's position was weakened!
At this time, Shangguan Zhou sneaked into Shangguan Yan's mansion to have a secret meeting with the grassland princess, and was accidentally seen by Qin Shuangxue who was visiting the family of an important official!
The two powerful figures of the Shangguan family, who had always acted like they were at odds with each other, actually appeared in the inner house of one of the families, and they seemed to be very familiar with each other!
Qin Shuangxue therefore began to doubt the true situation of the Shangguan family and ordered his trusted subordinates to investigate secretly.
But before she could get any real evidence, she was hunted by soldiers sent by Shangguan Zhou who were disguised as grassland soldiers when she left the city to pray for good weather. She was eventually trapped and committed suicide!
Shangguan Yan and Shangguan Zhou took advantage of Yue Wuji's grief over the inexplicable death of his beloved wife and had no time to take care of the affairs of the territory. In the following years, they continued to place their confidants in positions of power and took control of Guanzhong and Jinzhou.
After Yue Beiqiu's death, Shangguan Yan, who had been dormant for a long time, once again persuaded Yue Wuji to start an army to "clean up the court" and completely break the good situation of the empire, hoping to weaken the empire's power and prepare for the grassland's southward march!
Unexpectedly, the Youzhou forces emerged suddenly and defeated the grassland army several times. The change of the grassland Khan completely changed the direction of the grassland's goals!
Although Yesen gave him the high position of Zuo Xian Wang, the reality that he was unable to launch a large-scale attack on Taiyue in the short term left him with nowhere to use his energy.
So, under the pretext of gaining more opportunities for Guannei Hou, he came out of retirement and took up the post of Governor of Shandong. In fact, he just wanted to take advantage of his proximity to control Tai'an Prefecture, the gateway to Youzhou.
The reason he tried his best to stop the Lu family from going to Youzhou in Jinan Prefecture was to completely slow down the rise of Youzhou! It was a pity that he ended up doing something for others and fulfilled Liu Buqi's reputation as a fox spirit!
In order to facilitate communication and to enhance his voice in the grassland, he married Shangguan Luoyang to Yesen. Luoyang did not disappoint him. With her intelligence and talent, she quickly rose to power and won Yesen's trust. She was even able to stay behind to command the troops when Yesen's army went out to war!
Afterwards, the Youzhou army went on an expedition to Yehe. Shangguan Yan realized from the mobilization of the Youzhou garrison troops that Liu Buqi was losing control of Youzhou.
Therefore, a message was sent to Shangguan Luoyang, asking her to send troops to Youzhou. This was also the reason why Youzhou was later inexplicably attacked by the grassland!
After Yue Lingxi returned to Youzhou and sent troops to attack Datong Prefecture, Shangguan Yan, with the support of the Datong Army controlled by Shangguan Zhou after his death, persuaded Yue Wuji, who was preparing to return to rescue, to go out first to disrupt the situation, win buffer time, and then return to rescue!
His purpose was not to become the Marquis of Guannei, but to use this to provoke a major fight among the four forces within the Taiyue Empire, consume the empire's foundation and strength, and make advance preparations for the next attack on the grassland!
After turning the army around, he even murdered Yue Wuji, seized power, and led the army to attack the Datong Great Wall regardless of casualties, intending to open up the grassland passage and return to the grassland!
But after being stopped by Yue Lingxi, Shangguan Yan began to frantically consume the army of Guannei Hou, and even gave up his plan to disguise himself and escape to Chang'an through the Mobei passage he had discovered before!
There is only one goal, to madly consume Youzhou’s strength!
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