The imperial court's decree was delivered to the Yongsan camp.

I heard that Li Hongqian was promoted to the general of Xingzhenbei, the Marquis of Pingting, held the Jieyue, supervised the military affairs of the three places of Zhou, Hedong and Hanoi, and controlled the army of 100,000 in the three places, and the generals came to congratulate one after another. However, Li Hong was not happy at all, but worried. The Son of Heaven suddenly reused, and its intention is self-evident, but let go of the battle for the emperor of the Jingshi, not to mention, only the heavy task of quelling the rebellion against the imperial border, it will be difficult for him to bear, when will this battle be fought?

The generals congratulated Li Hong, and then congratulated Xian Yufu. Xian Yufu was promoted to protect the Huns Zhonglang General, Guan Neihou, everyone was convinced. Earlier, many generals were upset that Xian Yufu was too lightly sealed. In the army, Xian Yufu is the commander of the army second only to Li Hong, and his reputation is very high. The direct commander of the Battle of Yicheng is actually Xian Yufu; After Li Hong was ordered to Luoyang, the army was also led by Xian Yufu; The blocking battle on the Qingshian was also commanded by Xian Yufu, so in terms of merit, Xian Yufu was enough to be a general, but because Li Hong, the commander of the army, was repeatedly excluded and suppressed by the imperial court, he was naturally implicated and has not been reused. This time, the Son of Heaven finally gave him the responsibility of taking care of the Southern Xiongnu, which can be regarded as a favor, but he was not happy, he saw the crisis.

Li Hong was reused, not because of his merits and abilities, but because of the needs of the Son of Heaven. It can be seen from the Zhenbei general who appointed Li Hong as the acting agent by the Son of Heaven that the Son of Heaven was not at ease with Li Hong, and did not grant him the complete power of the Zhenbei general. According to the old practice, the general headquarters of Zhenbei was the military affairs of the three prefectures of Governor, You, and Hebei, but the Son of Heaven changed him to one state and two counties, and it was also two counties of Gyeonggi, apparently to use Li Hong's army to deter the powerful ministers of Luoyang. This is to put Li Hong on the top of the wave, no matter whether Li Hong succeeds or fails, he will fall into the valley of the wave in the future. If Li Hong falls, as Li Hong's subordinates, no matter how big the official position is, no matter how hard the background is, he will be affected. There are too many such things in all dynasties.

If Li Hong was still the general who was captured, he still led the army to fight in the south and the north, and went around to conquer, but it would be fine, because he had not yet fallen into the whirlpool of power in the imperial court, and he was still free from the power struggle, but the Son of Heaven casually decreed that he was pulled into this whirlpool with no return. Now what Li Hong has done has not changed, he still leads the army to conquer in all directions, but just because he has changed an official position and sat in the position of the general of Xingzhenbei, he is in charge of the military affairs of one state and three counties, he is no longer a pure martial artist, but a powerful minister who is deeply involved in a power struggle.

Xian Yu went out of the West River, Xu Rong Zhen Yanmen, and Koi Yi went to Hanoi, and the three generals went to the east and west, and Li Hong's army was immediately divided into four. On the surface, it seems that the number and area of the army controlled by Li Hong are very large, and the power is also very large, but once the war is calmed down and the imperial power is stable, Li Hong's role will be over.

But herein lies the problem. When Li Hong gains power, the Son of Heaven will reward Li Hong's subordinates, and the powers of all parties will do everything possible to win over and split Li Hong's subordinates for their own interests, in order to weaken Li Hong's power, but if Li Hong falls, whether it is the Son of Heaven or the power of all parties, Li Hong's former officials will be gradually cut off, even if you are an important town, you will not be spared, just ask, who will believe in your loyalty at that time? At that time, the wall fell and everyone pushed it, especially the person who betrayed the old master, and the end was even worse, and no one would let go of a despicable and shameless person. So everyone has a calculation in their hearts, Xian Yufu, Xu Rong, and Liyi each hold the holy decree, and their hearts are heavy. From the day Li Hong was restrained, the fates of several people were firmly tied together, and no one could do without anyone, because Li Hong was involved in the battle for the imperial throne, because they still had a supreme son of heaven on their heads.

Since ancient times, all the powerful ministers who have been dragged into the battle for the imperial system have not ended well.

Li Hong looked at the three of them apologetically, and reluctantly smiled: "I didn't expect things to turn out like this, you ......"

"People, it's not your fault, you can't help yourself." Xian Yufu shook his hand to interrupt his words and comforted: "A few of us can't help ourselves, so we can only resign ourselves to fate." ”

Xu Rong looked calm and said slowly: "As a subject of the Han Dynasty, we should contribute to the Han Dynasty and solve problems for Your Majesty, this is understandable, as long as everything we do is worthy of the Han Kingdom, we are worthy of it, as for life or death, it is a matter of heaven, and it has nothing to do with us." ”

Lu Yi laughed, pointed at Xu Rong and said, "Brother Zilie said it well. People will inevitably die, as long as they are worthy of the Great Han Kingdom in their lives, they will die when they die, what are they afraid of? ”

Li Hong was very moved and said with a smile: "Then don't talk about it." Since I became the general of Zhenbei, I have only one thought, and that is to recover the four northern counties. If you can regain the lost territory, you will have no regrets when you die. ”

"The general is so heroic." Koji Yi smiled, "The division of troops ......"

"Not yet." Li Hong said, "If the matter of appeasing the Yellow Turban Army cannot be decided, we cannot divide the troops. I will write to Your Majesty and explain in detail the reasons. ”

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Li Hong immediately called Xiao Lan and asked her to write a recital.

Li Hong believes that now the Yellow Turban Army Zhang Yan Department in Taiyuan County is very powerful, and the Yang Feng Department of the Yellow Turban Army in Shangdang County can still go north to support, so if you immediately use force to quell the rebellion, you will need enough troops and a certain amount of time to completely eliminate the rebels in order to completely eliminate the rebels in a war and never suffer in the future, but in this way, Your Majesty's proposal to divide the troops cannot be implemented for the time being.

In addition, since the Battle of Boluogu, the army has been chasing the enemy in the north, and there is no time for the whole army to rest, the soldiers are very tired, and the Xianbei prisoners recruited are not well trained, and their loyalty and morale are worrying. If the three adults go out to battle with such an iron horse, not only will they have combat effectiveness, but they will also have accidents. In particular, if the Hu soldiers rebelled in Hanoi, the Beijing division would be in danger.

Li Hong suggested that His Majesty should send some elite troops from the Northern Army to cross the Yellow River to the north, join up with the soldiers of the counties and states in Hanoi, and jointly pacify the Yellow Turbans of Montenegro, so as to temporarily stabilize the situation in Gyeonggi.

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Li Hong's proposal to appease the Yellow Turban Army caused an uproar in Luoyang.

Li Hong said in his recital that at present, Zhang Yanbu, the commander of the Yellow Turban Army, has the largest number and the greatest influence among the Yellow Turban Army, and if he can be appeased, he can not only split the Yellow Turban Army and deal a heavy blow to the Yellow Turban Army in various places, but also save huge amounts of military funds for the imperial court.

After the Yellow Turban Army was appeased, its hundreds of thousands of troops could be streamlined, and then let them implement military cantonment in the annexed states. First, the soldiers of the Yellow Turban Army can be accommodated, second, the soldiers of the Yellow Turban Army can participate in the nearby border operations, third, they can provide a steady supply of soldiers to the border army, and fourth, they can solve the problem of self-sufficiency in grain and grass for the border army. With these strong guarantees, in the future, the army can not only recover the four northern counties, but also attack the outside of the fortress and attack Hulu from afar, and build a meritorious cause for His Majesty.

In addition, after the Yellow Turban Army was appeased, the millions of displaced people stranded in Taihang Mountain would go down the mountain with them. After solving the problem of the displaced people, the source of the rebels and the root cause of the rebellion disappeared, so appeasing the displaced people was the top priority to appease the Yellow Turban Army. In the recital, Li Hong proposed a pacification method for reclaiming land and tuntian. He said that the two counties of Taiyuan and Shangdang are vast and sparsely populated, which is just the right time for the strategy of reclaiming land and tuntian, so as to strengthen the border and resist the enemy.

Shang Shutai was the first to see Li Hong's recital, and Huangfu Song and Lu Zhi were surprised and delighted, and they met the Son of Heaven overnight. After listening to the explanations of the two, the Son of Heaven was very interested in saving military funds and making meritorious contributions. Now the Dasi Nong Mansion has no money, and the military funds are all subsidized by the Shaofu Government, so saving military funds is actually saving money for the Son of Heaven. As for the establishment of the world's meritorious deeds, that is, of course, the happiest thing for the Son of Heaven. He carefully read Li Hong's recital twice, and asked with a smile: "Didn't Zhuqing say that Li Hong is a barbarian, do I think he is very knowledgeable?" What do you think of Li Hong's proposal? ”

Huangfu Song said: "Your Majesty, now that Youzhou has been lost, Zhang Ju and Zhang Chun's rebels are attacking Jizhou on a large scale, and the top priority is to drag Zhang Yan's Yellow Turban Army in Bingzhou, so as to prevent them from joining hands to cause trouble in the Central Plains." In addition, if a war broke out in the two states at the same time at this time, the imperial court would indeed not be able to afford a huge amount of military expenditure, so the proposal of General Xingzhenbei was very timely, which could just solve the urgent needs of the imperial court. ”

The Son of Heaven was a little nervous when he heard this, and hurriedly asked, "Did the ant thief hit the Hejian Country?" "The Son of Heaven has a lot of land and mansions in the country between rivers, so he is very worried.

Lu Zhi said: "Your Majesty, the Youzhou army is holding out in the area of Gaoyang City in the Hejian Kingdom, and the rebels have not yet reached the hinterland of the Hejian Kingdom, but they may go directly south and attack the Xindu City of the Anping Kingdom. ”

"What about Liu Yu? Liu Yuke rushed to Xindu City? ”

"Lord Liu is assembling troops in Xindu City, and at present, 3,000 soldiers and horses from Bohai County and Qinghe Country in Jizhou have arrived in Xindu City one after another, and Zou Jing, the captain of Qingzhou, is on the way with 5,000 soldiers and horses from Jinan State and Pingyuan County, and they can be there in a few days."

When the Son of Heaven heard this, he exhaled.

"Your Majesty, the matter of the state ......"

"After tomorrow's court meeting, no matter what the three princes and nine ministers say, Shang Shutai will immediately issue an order to appease him."

In the court, the three princes and Jiuqing suddenly heard that the Son of Heaven wanted to appease the yellow turban ant thief, and it was really chaotic, and the voices of persuasion came and went.

For decades, whether in the Western Xinjiang or the Central Plains, the Han Kingdom has implemented a strategy of suppressing and killing the rebels, and only after the former Taiwei Zhang Wen ran to Xiliang, he was really unable to quell the rebellion before he came up with a strategy to appease him. At that time, Li Hong, as a subordinate of Zhang Wen, also went to Jincheng County to make a pacification envoy, but in the end it turned out that this method was useless, and it could only make the rebels more arrogant and more fearless.

A group of ministers, such as Taiwei Cui Lie and Situ Xu Xiang, opposed fiercely.

They believed that Zhang Yan's active care was purposeful. If Zhang Yan put forward a series of conditions that were unacceptable to the imperial court, the matter of appeasement would have to be postponed again and again. As long as it drags on until October, when the grain is ripe, the ant thieves will have food. At that time, if Zhang Yan suddenly did not want to be appeased, and raised troops to rebel again, things would be complicated. Moreover, even if Zhang Yan is appeased, even if the Yellow Turban Army is tuntian, but a thief is a thief, once they can't meet their expectations, they may rebel at any time, is this a problem for raising tigers?

The resettlement of millions of displaced people on Taihang Mountain will not be completed in three to five years, but in these three to five years, the imperial court needs to spend at least tens of billions of money to support it, where does the imperial court get this money? This money is several times more than what is needed to counter the rebellion, and it is far less than a quick counterinsurgency. The imperial court spent tens of billions of dollars to reclaim land and fields, but who benefited the most in the end? It was Zhang Yan and his Yellow Turban Army. After Zhang Yan's success in Tuntian, his strength is strong and full-fledged, if he raises troops again, who will restrain him? Li Hong avoided the important and trivialized, and only talked about the benefits of Tuntian, but never talked about the harm of Tuntian, which was obviously a deception to the monarch.

There is a more important question: who is in charge of the pacification of the Yellow Turbans? Recruiting the Yellow Turban Army and pacifying the displaced people is actually one thing, and whoever presides over it must take charge of the military and government of the state, otherwise it cannot be discussed. Of course, the ministers were unwilling to let General Xingzhenbei take charge of the military and political affairs of the state, so Li Hong would be even more dangerous to the Great Han State. But to appease the Yellow Turban Army, there must be a strong general like Li Hong as the backing, otherwise, the Yellow Turban Army will not pay attention to the court's appeasement. However, now that Li Hong is the top secretary, how many people can command in the Han Kingdom? Looking at the court, which of the three princes and nine princes is willing to do this thankless task?

Therefore, all the ministers who opposed the proposal of appeasement believed that now was the best time to kill the rebels, and they must not miss it. Li Hong had a bad brain and didn't understand anything, so he fell for the ant thief Zhang Yan's delaying tactic. The ministers suggested that His Majesty should issue another decree and strictly order Li Hong to quickly quell the rebellion and go north to Youzhou as soon as possible.

Just when there was a lot of quarrel in the court, the general He went in and out of the column and said: "Your Majesty, in order to drag Zhang Yan's rebels east to Changshan, let's appease them first." Zhang Yan could not go to Jizhou to meet the Youzhou rebels, which would greatly alleviate the critical situation in Jizhou, and the Youzhou rebels would lose strong support, and it was unlikely that they would continue to move south. In addition, General Zhenbei's army fought many battles, and the soldiers were exhausted, and they also needed a period of rest to accumulate strength. ”

"Regardless of whether Zhang Yan's initiative to be appeased is a delaying tactic or not, there is no loss to us. Once it is October, if Zhang Yan rebels again, he will kill himself, and the Zhenbei army, which has recovered by then, will definitely be able to completely annihilate the rebels with a thunderous blow. ”

What the general He Jin needs is time, and he can't wait for Li Hong and Zhang Yan to toss slowly in Bingzhou, and the longer the toss, the better.

If the appeasement is not successful, the two sides will fight, and the time to counterbalance the rebellion will drag on for a long time. If the appeasement is successful, it will be even better, so many Yellow Turban troops are in Tuntian, and Li Hong is bound to send a large army to guard it in case the Yellow Turban Army rebels, so Li Hong just wants to go south by order, and he has to weigh it again. In addition, the imperial court would definitely not be able to afford the money needed to reclaim land and land in Bingzhou, and after a long time, the Yellow Turban Army could not see the sincerity of the imperial court's appeasement, but deliberately deceived them, and they would definitely rebel again.

"Haha......" He Jin thought of Li Hong's embarrassed appearance of leading the army to quell the rebellion everywhere, and his mouth opened with a smile. As long as Li Hong is busy in northern Xinjiang, he can't afford to look south, then he will have plenty of time.

Situ Cuilie asked, "General, what if Zhang Yan doesn't rebel?" ”

He Jin laughed and said, "Then reclaim the land." The discussion of the general of Zhenbei is beneficial to the country and the people, and there is no harm. ”

"What about the money?" Cui Lie then asked.

He Jin spread his hands and said, "Recruit first, why do you want to think so far?" Drag Zhang Yan down first. ”

"Then who's going to appease you?"

"Of course it's General Xingzhenbei."

"Then who's going to appease the homeless?"

"Of course, it's Lord Zhang Yi, the assassin of the state." He Jin said, "He is the assassin of the state, and he is the only one." ”

"Zhang Yi?" Cui Lie's eyes widened and said, "General Xingzhenbei will listen to him?" If two ministers are asked to do one thing, can this thing be done? ”

He Jin rolled his eyes and stopped talking. He hoped that Zhang Yi and Li Hong had better fall out immediately, so that he would have a chance.

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Ignoring the opposition of the ministers, the Son of Heaven ordered Li Hong, the general of Xingzhenbei, to be responsible for appeasing the Yellow Turban Army, and Zhang Yi, the assassin of Bingzhou, to be responsible for pacifying the displaced people.

This decree has just been sent, and Li Hong's recital has arrived again.

The Son of Heaven was not happy when he saw it. That's why you are a general of Xingzhenbei, and you won't listen to me, is this still necessary?

Huangfu Song smiled and admonished: "Your Majesty, there is no war in the state now, and it doesn't matter if you move troops slowly. General Lee's caution is very reasonable, Your Majesty, please think about it, if 20,000 iron cavalry make trouble in Hanoi, then the land of Gyeonggi will be in danger. ”

The Son of Heaven was taken aback, and then changed his mind and asked the general He Jin to send troops to Hanoi to quell the rebellion. After He Jin received the order, he immediately asked Liu Biao, the marquis of the Northern Army, and Yuan Shao, the servant of the imperial army, to lead the Yue cavalry camp to cross the river to the north.

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After Li Hong received the order, he was overjoyed and immediately notified Zhang Yan, and the two sides immediately agreed to build a camp in Dalongshan to negotiate.

A few days later, Zhang Yi, the assassin of Bingzhou, rushed from Yanmen Pass to the Longshan camp. Zhang Yi is in his forties, with a thin body, a white face and a long beard, and elegant manners. This person is extraordinary, upright, and has been an official in Bingzhou for many years, and has a good reputation. Zhang Yi hated the Yellow Turban Army very much, and he believed that the main reason why the Great Han Kingdom had the decline today was because the Yellow Turban Army raised the flag and rebelled, burning, killing and plundering everywhere. So when he first saw Li Hong, he immediately bluntly expressed the anger and dissatisfaction in his heart, saying that he wanted to write to His Majesty and refused to appease the Yellow Turban Army.

Li Hong thought to himself that this is better, I was worried about how to kick you away.

Seeing Zhang Baiqi and Huang Ting again, Li Hong was very excited, he took the hands of the two of them, and said with a smile: "Last year, the two of them said that they would go back to Taihang Mountain to cultivate vegetables and grow vegetables, how did they do?" ”

Huang Ting said embarrassedly: "What about still growing vegetables?" As soon as we returned to Taihang Mountain, we were forced to do things by the handsome, and we didn't even plant a single grass. ”

Li Hong laughed and said, "This time the negotiation is completed, I will give you a piece of land for you to grow vegetables." ”

Zhang Baiqi held Li Hong's hand and said movingly, "Thank you!" ”

Li Hong patted him on the shoulder vigorously and said seriously: "No matter how difficult it is this time, we must negotiate, otherwise, I will stay in Taiyuan and not go there." ”

The two sides quarreled on the first day of negotiations.

Zhang Yi didn't want to talk about it, but when he saw Huang Ting talking to him about the land, he was angry, and the two didn't say a word, and then they quarreled.

Li Hong was furious and immediately ordered Pang De to take people to take Zhang Yi to the camp and lock him up.

"Who's the biggest official here?" Li Hong looked at the group of people brought by Zhang Yi and the state assassin mansion Peng Shi, and asked in a cold voice.

A young man of twenty-four or five years old, elegant in appearance and polite in his manners, stood up.

"Xiaguan and the state capital, don't drive Tang Muyun."

"Then you continue to talk, if you deliberately provoke again, I will cut you with a knife."

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