The Taishou of the six counties finally signed the 'common defense and mutual aid plan for six counties in one state' in the middle of the night, the plan did not involve personnel changes in the government, these Yang Yuanqing did not interfere, he just took away the control of the army in each county, set up a joint defense command post, and cut off the relationship between the soldiers and the government in the way of centralized training and centralized supply of army food, so that the six counties of Guanbei became the sphere of influence of Fengzhou.

In the next month, the government of the six counties used the method of work for relief to mobilize 50,000 people to build Chiling City in the Chiling mining area, after the completion of the construction, 10,000 troops will be stationed in the city, this military city with a circumference of ten miles will also be hung with the sign of 'common defense command post', and the surrounding 20 miles of wilderness has become a training place for the soldiers of the six counties, and Chiling City has actually become the base camp of Yang Yuanqing to control the six counties.

Although the Taishou of the Six Counties did not want the imperial court to know about the agreement they signed with Yang Yuanqing, there was no impermeable wall in the world, and the matter was leaked out through a certain channel, and then spread to Chang'an, where Wen Sheng, the deputy guard of Chang'an, urgently reported to Emperor Yang Guang of Sui.

In the imperial study of the Xuanzheng Palace, Yang Guang summoned Yu Shiji, Yu Wenshu and Fan Zigai to urgently negotiate the matter.

In the past few days, Yang Guang has fallen ill, he has a serious cold, and he has been resting in the palace, this matter is very important, and he still held a meeting with his sick body.

Yang Guang's complexion was not very good, his face was pale, although he was extremely angry in his heart, but his face did not show it, just a gloomy face.

"Tell me about it! How do we deal with this? ”

Yang Guang's gaze was no longer sharp, but the coldness of his gaze still made the three people present a little uneasy.

"I'll start with two words."

Yuwen Shu bowed slightly and said: "Your Majesty, Yang Yuanqing's intentions are obvious, he wants to expand his power and control the periphery of Fengzhou, this time to suppress the rebellion is his best excuse, the minister thinks that the court can not acquiesce, once the court acquiesces, he will have to inch in, continue to expand to the south, so that the entire Guannai becomes his sphere of influence, the minister thinks that the garrison is the de facto control, if you want to smash Yang Yuanqing's plot, you must start with the garrison, the minister suggested the establishment of the Guannai governor." ”

Yang Guang nodded, and asked Yu Shiji again, "What does Yu Aiqing think?" ”

Yu Shiji bowed and said: "The minister feels that he did something against the Sui in the name of supporting the Sui, which is more harmful, the minister thinks that the court should publicly declare him a rebel, and identify him as a rebel, in order to prevent him from continuing to demagogue, and this time he signed an agreement with the six county Taishou to expand his power to the north of Guannai, and the minister also advocated a severe counterattack, in addition to the military station, the six Taishou must also be severely punished, and they will all be replaced, and the agreement they signed will not be recognized. ”

"What is Fan Shangshu's opinion?"

Yang Guang's eyes fell on Fan Zigai, the reason why he asked Fan Zigai to discuss together was that he knew that Yuwenshu and Yu Shiji both had personal enmities with Yang Yuanqing, and their opinions would be mixed with their own selfishness, while Fan Zigai was relatively neutral and had no interest entanglement with Yang Yuanqing.

Fan Zigai is indeed not as obviously biased as Yuwenshu and Yu Shiji, and Fan Zigai has also served as the governor of Liangzhou for many years, and knows the importance of the frontier, and more importantly, the target of Fan Zigai's officialdom is not Yang Yuanqing, but Yuwenshu and Yu Shiji.

"Your Majesty, the minister wants to know, is the imperial court ready to make a comprehensive turn with Yang Yuanqing, including the defense of Guanlong, and the defense of the Turks, the minister is most worried about the Turks, once Yang Yuanqing openly rebels, he is very likely to collude with the Turks to invade on a large scale, how is the imperial court prepared to defend against the Turks? In addition, there are possible crises within the imperial court, which must be carefully considered. ”

Fan Zigai's worry made Yang Guang's face change, and he realized that if Yang Yuanqing rebelled, unlike the Yuan family and Yang Xuangan, the consequences would be very serious, not only would it cause chaos in the imperial court, but also involve the Turks, which was a consequence that Yang Guang would never want to see.

"Then Fan Aiqing tell me your plan, I want to know."

Fan Zigai quickly glanced at Yuwenshu and Yu Shiji from the corner of his eye, and saw that both of them had gloomy faces and displeasure, so he smiled slightly and said: "Actually, General Yuwen and Yu Shilang are in the right direction, but it is a bit simple to consider the problem, the means are too drastic, and it is easy to force Yang Yuanqing to rebel, since Yang Yuanqing also knows the method of using the Ming plank road to secretly cross Chen Cang, why can't we use it?" What the minister means is that on the surface, the status quo is maintained, but behind the scenes. ”

Fan Zigai stabbed Yuwenshu and Yu Shiji silently, Yuwenshu just wanted to refute Fan Zigai, but Yang Guangyi waved his hand to stop the conversation, and said unhappily: "Yuwen Aiqing, I know that you hate Yang Yuanqing deeply, and I also hate him, but now is not the time to talk about personal vendettas, I must take into account the Turkic threat." ”

Yu Wenshu was helpless, so he had to keep silent, he hated it in his heart, so he gave Yu Shiji a look, but Yu Shiji didn't seem to see anything, and smiled without saying anything.

Yu Shiji also saw that Yang Guang didn't really dare to use force against Yang Yuanqing, but he just yelled fiercely, but neither he nor Yu Wenshu saw this, but Fan Zigai saw it, not only took the opportunity to step on them, but also used Turks to make steps for Yang Guang, at this point, Fan Zigai was smarter than both of them, Yu Shiji suddenly became vigilant against Fan Zigai in his heart, and he found that Fan Zigai would be a big threat to him in the officialdom.

Yu Shiji also hurriedly said: "Just now the minister just said that our attitude, not a countermeasure, the minister also knows very well, at this time to move and affect the overall situation, the minister advocates a resolute attitude, but the means must be hidden, the attitude is resolute is not to give Yang Yuanqing any luck, move fast, block his next way, and the means of concealment is to avoid the intensification of contradictions, let him retreat, since Yang Yuanqing is an excuse to infiltrate the bandits, then we can also use the name of the bandits to send troops to station, and the other six Taishou can be replaced with other excuses, Especially Wei Siyun, the Taishou of Lingwu County, who had served in Fengzhou for a long time, had to replace him first. ”

Yuwenshu also realized his mistake, but he wanted to change his words again, but he couldn't start it, and his words were too full, so he couldn't come back for a while, so he could only stand aside in annoyance and be silent.

Yang Guang really didn't dare to force Yang Yuanqing now, Yang Xuangan didn't catch it, Yuan Hongsi fled to the Western Regions again, the anti-Sui forces in the south were ready to move, the rebellion in the north was in full swing, the power of the Guanlong nobles had not been eliminated, and the Shandong scholars began to be dissatisfied again, especially the financial constraints, and the tax was sharply reduced by seventy percent, which made Yang Guang anxious, and he also fell ill because of this.

Forcing Yang Yuanqing to oppose Yang Yuanqing in this grim form is undoubtedly another stab in his back, so as long as Yang Yuanqing doesn't do too much, he will not send troops to attack for the time being, this time Yang Yuanqing will expand his forces to the south, although it is not a very serious problem, but Yang Guang does not want him to succeed so easily, and more importantly, to prevent him from continuing to expand southward.

Yu Shiji's plan was not in a hurry, it was just what he wanted, Yang Guang nodded, "Yu Aiqing makes sense, I know what to do." ”

An hour later, Yang Guanglian issued two decrees, ordered Qu Tutong to be the ambassador of the Guannei Dao, led the army of 50,000 into the Guannei Dao to suppress the bandits, and ordered to move the Lingwu County Taishou Wei Siyun as the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, and changed the appointment of Boling County Taishou Qiu and Lingwu County Taishou.

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It was the end of October, the cold wave began to come from the north, the northwest wind swept across the Mobei and Hetao plains, the trees withered, the grass withered yellow, and the cold winter came.

In a fort twenty miles west of Jiuyuan County, thousands of blacksmiths were busy at this time.

Fort city is a kind of civil defense fortifications unique to Wuyuan County, when the Turks invaded, to give the people a temporary refuge, the whole Wuyuan County has hundreds of large and small forts, the big fort can accommodate tens of thousands of people, the small fort can also accommodate at least thousands of people, the fort city twenty miles west of Jiuyuan County is called Chencang Fort, because it is close to Chencang Village and got its name, it is a big fort city, the circumference is eight miles, it has been idle, but at this time, this Chencang Fort has become the smelting center of the Fengzhou army.

It is about 20 miles away from the South Yellow River, there is an artificial canal leading directly to the Yellow River, millions of catties of iron ore and copper ore transported from the Chiling Mine are piled up on the wharf in the south of the fort city, and the coal transported from Yulin County is also piled up in the west of the wharf, the black coal is piled up like a mountain, and there are people who use ox carts to transport carts of ore and coal into the fort city.

On this morning, Yang Yuanqing took more than a dozen officials to inspect the smelting progress in the fort city, since Yang Shidao left Wuyuan County, Yang Yuanqing concurrently served as the Taishou of Wuyuan County, of course, he was only in name, and the specific government affairs were handed over to Cui Junsu, the county leader.

Today, in his capacity as a taishou, he led the officials to inspect the smelting fortress, which has fifty smelting furnaces, 1,200 craftsmen, and hundreds of people who are responsible for carrying goods.

The smelting of Wuyuan County is different from that of the mainland, not wood, but charcoal as fuel, and there is a large amount of storage near Wuyuan, generally using the coal of Fugu Town, Yulin County, where the coal is shallow and has large reserves, good quality, and extremely high calorific value, and can be used to smelt high-quality white iron, and then further forged into steel by blacksmiths, which can create excellent armor and weapons.

The official in charge of smelting is named Zhang Qian, who was originally a soldier of the Fengzhou Governor's Mansion and participated in the military, and in the early years, he had been a low-level official in the Shaofu Temple of the imperial court for several years, and was very familiar with casting and smelting, so he was responsible for forging in the fort.

Today, Yang Yuanqing did not come to visit the smelting process, he had already seen it many times, he came to the warehouse to check the copper ingots.

The warehouse is located in the north of the fort, a row of dozens of huge stone houses, everyone walks in front of the stone houses, and you can see the stacks of pig iron ingots stacked neatly in the warehouse.

"Chief, this warehouse is!"

Zhang Qian took Yang Yuanqing and other officials into a smaller warehouse, which was brightly lit and neatly stacked with pieces of coarse copper ingots, a piece of copper ingot weighing about 30 catties, as many as 1,000 pieces.

Yang Yuanqing struck the copper ingots with a dagger, and the copper ingots made a crisp metallic sound, and he smiled at the officials: "Guess what I plan to do with these copper ingots?" ”