The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 65 The Changeable Situation (4)

Saying that, he looked at Li Ye. “I wonder if Vice Magistrate likes this Green Ant wine.”

Li Ye smiled and said, “Why I don’t think this wine is a strong alcoholic?”

The man blinked curiously. “Doesn’t my tongue work?”

Li Ye said, “I’m afraid you’re drunk. A drunk person will naturally say the wine is a strong alcoholic.”

The man laughed. “It would be a shame if I’m drunk due to the non-alcoholic drinks.”

Saying that, he raised the wine pot to Li Ye. “No matter it’s a strong alcoholic or not, I use this wine to congratulate Your Highness for taking up the post of the vice magistrate of Chang’an Office.” With that, he raised his head and drank all the wine in the wine pot.

He drank heroically, but the wine wasn’t spilled at all, which showed that he didn’t pretend to be heroic.

Li Ye liked people who loved wine because he himself was such a person. People were always fond of people with the same habit, so he also drank up the wine in the wine pot.

Chang’an Office, also known as Jingzhao Office, was headed by Fumu. Mostly, it was princes who were the nominal Fumu and they seldom managed affairs. So it was the Magistrate who was in charge of the daily affairs. The Magistrate was in Vice Three-class. The lower position was Vice Magistrate of Vice Four-class and there were two vice magistrates.

The assistant ministers of Six Departments were in the Four-class, and all of them were in Primary Four-class. It could be seen from this that a position of Four-class was not ordinary. Li Ye was the Grand Prince. Normally, the starting point of becoming an official would not be too low, but it still was very rare to get such a real official position as a vice magistrate in Chang’an Office.

His outstanding performance in examinations was one of the reasons, but more importantly, there were people who helped him.

After drinking, the young man with a long sword looked at Li Ye and asked, “Your Highness, you asked me out today, just for drinking?”

This young man was naturally Nangong Diyi.

Li Ye smiled and said, “Isn’t drinking a big thing, and it’s not worth a visit by Nangong?”

Nangong Diyi stared at him. “Of course it’s worthwhile. In addition to practicing, there is nothing more important than drinking.” With that, he laughed happily. “Anyway, I’m quite poor. Your Highness is not going to ask for a present.” Then he sat up straight again and said, “I just don’t know who will pay the bill this time?”

Li Ye said, “Of course I’ll pay the bill.”

Nangong Diyi laughed loudly. “The wine invited by others is very mellow to drink!” Then he raised his voice and shouted, “Waiter, two more pots of Green Ant!”

Nevertheless, before the wine was served, Nangong Diyi touched his forehead and said, “The matter of Niushou Mountain has ended in the Imperial Astronomical Observatory. It ended up with nothing definite. The Imperial Astronomical Observatory is quite different now. It’s unable to constrain the Great Tao such as Zhongnan Mountain any more. And the Imperial Court also doesn’t want to investigate. My hard fighting of that day was in vain!”

When he was speaking, the wine had been served up. Nangong Diyi picked up one of the two pots, opened it and drank.

Li Ye learned from this that the matter of the green lotuses would not have any trouble for the time being, and his mind was calmed down.

...

Nangong Diyi was drunk and finally was carried back by the cultivators of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory. In fact, people with high cultivation like Nangong Diyi, it was more difficult to be drunk than not. However, if a person wanted to be drunk, no one could stop him.

When Nangong Diyi left, it was getting dark and Song Jiao came from somewhere. She stood beside Li Ye and her figure was vague. “Kang Chengxun is going back to Chang’an.”

Li Ye, still carrying a pot of wine, frowned slightly. “Some time ago, he returned to report on his work. Why did he come back again?”

According to Li Ye, Song Jiao started to set up an intelligence agency when she arrived at Prince An’s Manor. She did information work when she worked for Li Yan before, so she was familiar with the matter now. It had been almost two months since Prince An’s Manor secretly recruited cultivators from Jianghu and established intelligence forces.

Song Jiao sneered and said, “The story of Li Guanshu has spread all over the world. Although Wei Baoheng said that he died for the country, it only makes it worse. The Imperial Court appointed Kang Chengxun as the Commissioner of Hedong for the purpose of checking and balancing the three arrogant vassal states in Hebei, especially Li Guochang, the Commissioner of Zhenwu Army, whose force has been expanded in recent years.”

Li Guochang, one of the ambitious people in the late Tang Dynasty, was the father of Li Keyong. Zhu Quanzhong overturned the Tang Dynasty and established the Liang Dynasty in the Central Plains, which was the first dynasty of the Five Dynasties. At that time, Li Keyong was the Emperor of Jin Dynasty and controlled the whole Shanxi, fighting with Zhu Quanzhong for years.

Song Jiao continued, “But after the affair of Li Guanshu, Li Guochang looked down upon the Imperial Court more and more. He had long regarded Kang Chengxun as a thorn in his side. Recently, he sent masters to Hedong secretly, causing many disturbances which Kang Chengxun could not solve. Kang Chengxun is greedy. After arriving at Hedong, he accumulated wealth by unfair means and did not show mercy to his people and soldiers, which was dissatisfied by all of the people in Hedong. Now, the people and soldiers are unhappy about Kang Chengxun’s incompetence to the disturbance. Kang Chengxun realized that he could not control the situation, so he sought help from Wei Baoheng and returned to Chang’an for refuge.”

“In short, Kang Chengxun was not expelled by the Hedong Army, but it was almost the same. If he hadn’t run fast, he would not have ended well.”

Li Ye sneered. “So, he left Hedong and returned to Chang’an in such a hurry without permission?”

In recent years, it had been common for soldiers to expel commissioners. One of the reasons was the arrogant soldiers and generals. But the expelled commissioners were charged that they were not sympathetic to the soldiers so as to cause their dissatisfaction.

Originally, there were more than fifty vassal states in the world, only three in Hebei had always been arrogant. But with the dimming of the Dynasty and the weakening of the country, not only the three vassal states in Hebei had arrogant soldiers and generals.

Song Jiao answered, “The Imperial Court didn’t command him to come back. Kang Chengxun left Hedong rashly. It was obvious that he left his post without permission. This crime will be serious. But as the Prime Minister, Wei Baoheng, who is in charge of the Central Government, will help him. At least, he will not be charged unilaterally.”

Li Ye sneered. “In order to protect Kang Chengxun and reduce his crimes, Wei Baoheng will reprimand the Hedong Army. He’ll blame them for being arrogant and aggressive and forcing Kang Chengxun to leave. Kang Chengxun has exploited people since he went to Hedong. He harmed people there and the Hedong Army was angry. Now if the Imperial Court reprimand them, it will aggravate their dissatisfaction with the Imperial Court.”

“Wei Baoheng’s actions will only harm the prestige of the Imperial Court and drive a wedge between the Imperial Court and the vassal states and the people. Once there is a disturbance in the world, the army of the vassal states and the people of the world would not do their best to help the Imperial Court deal with the rebellious army. Wei Baoheng and other dross really should be eliminated!”

Li Ye remembered what had happened in his Last Life. At first, the members of Huang Chao’s troops just were a group of bandits. When the army of the Imperial Court fought against them, the Imperial Court won most of the times and forced them to flee everywhere. But the competition for authority in the Imperial Court was too fierce. Award only depended on the parties, regardless of merits. Those who had merits were not awarded and those who made mistakes were not punished. Every time the war came to the point of victory, good generals were replaced by the incompetent private relatives. As a result, it was impossible to completely eradicate Huang Chao.

At last, when Huang Chao’s troops went to attack Guanzhong, the vassal states along the way ignored the orders of the Imperial Court, turned a blind eye to Huang Chao’s troops and allowed them to transit, which led to the fall of Chang’an.

The vassal states on the four sides of Guanzhong was designed to protect Guanzhong and was a barrier to Chang’an. The soldiers in these vassal states were able to defeat Huang Chao and his troops, but they were unwilling to contribute.

Song Jiao was silent for a moment. After the Battle of Bagong Mountain, she had had no more illusions about the Imperial Court. So, at present, she didn’t care about the Imperial Court. She said to Li Ye, “When the Rebellion of Pang Xun was calmed down, Kang Chengxun and Li Guanshu were both at the front line. They were executioners in the Battle of Bagong Mountain. At present, Kang Chengxun fled from Hedong and was bound to be in a panic. He will come to Chang’an in some days. This is our opportunity.”

Li Ye watched the night coming and felt like choking in his throat. He drank up the wine in his hand and his gaze became sharp. “Kill him!”

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