Chapter 487 Self-motivated

On the eighteenth day after Yang Guozhong's death, Xue Bai handed an imperial edict to Li Guangbi.

At that time, Li Guangbi was leaning down in the stable, checking the feces of his war horse with his fingers, and observing the health of the horse. It was related to the safety of the horse during marching and fighting. He did not want to rely on others, and he did not care whether it was dirty or not.

.

"Don't you wash your hands first?" When Li Guangbi stretched out his hands to take the imperial edict, Xue Bai suddenly asked, showing a kind of respect for the saint, "This is the imperial edict."

"I was rude."

Li Guangbi was a little embarrassed, wiped his hands on his shirt, and ordered his soldiers to fetch water.

Xue Bai was just joking, lightly mocking Li Guangbi's so-called loyalty to the emperor. The important thing is that the content of the imperial edict was Li Longji's commendation and reward for their defense of Chang'an. Although it was not mentioned specifically, it was an encouragement.

The "Prince" and "King of Peking" also recognized the legitimacy of the Chang'an court.

Among them, there was also a reward for Li Guangbi, who replaced Wang Chengye as the governor of Hedong. As for Wang Chengye, he was dismissed from office.

"I didn't expect that you actually received the imperial edict." Li Guangbi received the edict respectfully and sighed.

"As I said, I sent someone to escort the saint to Shu County." Xue Bai's tone was matter-of-fact, and he pointed at himself and said: "Loyal minister. As for Li Heng, he proclaimed himself emperor without permission and is undoubtedly rebellious."

"How to explain the fact that the King of Peking asked Yang Guozhong to pretend to be a saint?"

"Yang Guozhong had no choice but to protect the saint and guard Chang'an. He knew that he had committed a heinous crime and committed suicide to thank the world."

"Piercing the back of your neck with a candlestick to apologize?" Li Guangbi made a somewhat awkward gesture and asked, "Stab it like this?"

Xue Bai disagreed and said: "How can Commander Ji be so good at digging his grave? Death is a big deal."

In the final analysis, those who care about pretending to be the emperor will have Li Longji's imperial edict to appease them; those who don't care about red tape and only care about the defense of Chang'an City will be more likely to side with Xue Bai.

Therefore, he did not intend to dwell on these false etiquettes, and directly pointed the topic at the substantive issues that Li Guangbi was most concerned about.

"Let's get down to business. Two batches of the food and grass needed by Commander Jie will be delivered soon. One is from Hanzhong, passing through Ziwu Valley, and the other is coming from Nanyang, passing through Lantian. Please send someone to Commander Ji to station at least in Lingyuan to assist."

The Shaoling Plateau is located in the south of Chang'an City, on the high ground between the Chan River and the Yan River. Because it is higher than Chang'an City, and it guards the Nanshan Passage, it is one of the southern barriers of Chang'an City.

In the past, when the Tang Dynasty was at peace, the Shaoling Plateau was often used as a separate property for high-ranking officials and nobles, and it could be used as a place to garrison troops to ensure the subsequent transportation of grain and grass.

After talking about this matter, Li Guangbi felt satisfied, became close to Xue Bai, trusted him a little, and was willing to invite Xue Bai to his tent to discuss in detail the strategic plan for countering the rebellion.

He took out his old map, which was so densely drawn and scrawled that others could not understand it.

"Jie Shuai is learning Kuangcao from Cao Sheng?" Xue Bai can now write well and is qualified to comment on calligraphy.

"Don't dare to take it seriously."

Li Guangbi didn't hear his teasing, and took it as a compliment.

"King Peiping, please see that the twenty-three counties in Gyeonggi and the nine counties in Fufeng County have been fortified and cleared. Only Jincheng and Wugong counties have been conquered. Now Cui Qianyou wants to attack Xianyang. If he gets Xianyang, he will covet Chang'an again, and If I hold Xianyang, he will go straight to Tongguan. But I will burn the bridges on the Weishui River to delay his army."

Xue Bai pointed to the Weishui Bridge and asked: "If you know his intentions, why not set up an ambush on the Weishui River?"

"Our army does not want a decisive battle, so we only need to set up an ambush. If we win a small victory but the rebels do not retreat, should we increase our troops? If we do not increase our troops, once the rebel cavalry is entangled, a small victory will be a small defeat. If we increase our troops, a small number of troops will lead to a major defeat." ." Li Guangbi looked serious and said: "Brother Shuhan has learned from the past and must not send troops rashly."

He is different from Wang Ruolan, who likes to charge bravely in battle, while Li Guangbi's several battles in Hebei were almost always outsmarted, and he was really calm.

Xue Bai agreed with his strategic concept, but was a little worried, saying: "It's like locking a wild beast into our home, with our flocks everywhere. But we have to wait until the wild beast is exhausted before we fight it."

"Yes, but the worst thing is to let it go out to bite. There are more sheep outside. We can only stand on the table and wait until it gets tired before we can beat it and tame it."

"I'm worried about long nights and many dreams." Xue Bai removed his finger from the Wei River and placed it on the Yellow River, saying: "You said that the rebels want to attack Tongguan, but what if they cross the Yellow River and attack Taiyuan? We must defend the Yellow River and have more troops. It cannot be placed on the West Bank."

If you put your troops on the west bank of the Yellow River, they will be swallowed up by the rebels as soon as they arrive. You have to defend on the east bank. Of course, Li Guangbi will send generals. But the east bank belongs to Hedong Road, and Taiyuan can affect the Yellow River defense line. of.

Xue Bai was first worried about Wang Chengye, the governor of Hedong Jiedu, so he used Li Longji's name to depose Wang Chengye. However, Wang Chengye had already taken refuge with Li Heng. Once he learned that Xue Bai had an imperial edict to depose him, he would definitely resist.

"Let's be honest, I'm worried about Wang Chengye doing something bad."

Li Guangbi asked: "Does the King of Peking want me to return to Taiyuan to announce the decree?"

"The defense of Guanzhong cannot be separated from Li Jieshuai." Xue Bai asked: "Who do you think can be the deputy envoy of Hedong Jiedu and temporarily take charge of Taiyuan?"

Li Guangbi thought for a while and said: "Wang Jin. He is a direct descendant of the Wang family in Taiyuan and has a great reputation in the world. He has sufficient qualifications and abilities. When I was in Taiyuan, he helped me defend the city and he is a very strategic man."

Of course Xue Bai knew Wang Jin, who was Wang Wei's younger brother.

"Li Jieshuai has a good relationship with him?"

"yes."

"Then please write a handwritten letter from Li Jieshuai." Xue Bai said: "I will ask the court to appoint Wang Jin, and then the letter can be sent together."

Li Guangbi said: "Do you need me to send someone?"

"Then please ask Commander-in-Chief to send me a general." Xue Bai said, "I want to go to the Yellow River defense line in person."

~~

After leaving Li Guangbi's camp, Xue Bai went to see Yan Jiming and Yuan Jie. These two people specially brought a small number of troops from Jie County to support Chang'an.

Although he didn't really do anything, Xue Bai was about to see them and had something important to say.

The three of them sat down. Xue Bai took out his own map, picked up the charcoal, and drew a circle in the pass.

"This is the true sphere of influence that His Highness currently has."

Then, he drew another circle in the west direction and said: "This is Li Heng's current sphere of influence. Look here, parts of Hebei and Henan, this is the sphere of influence of the rebels."

He did not mention the Qinling Mountains for the time being, which was a place that could be fought for through merit, the name of orthodoxy, etc. in the process of countering the rebellion. His finger pointed to Hedong. After he drew three circles, Hedong was exactly in the middle of these three circles.

Surrounded.

Just three simple circles clearly reflect the important strategic position of Hedong.

"I just met Li Guangbi, and the sage made him the governor of Hedong. We have to block the rebels east of the Yellow River, so we have to deploy defenses in Hedong. We will send another general out of Jingxing to attack Fanyang, leaving An Qingxu with no choice but to completely pacify him.

Rebellion.”

Xue Bai said and made two more movements with his hands.

He first drew a circle and incorporated Hedong into their sphere of influence, and then drew another circle to include Hebei and Henan.

"In this way, His Highness has pacified almost the entire north. Looking at Li Heng now, he only has the northwest frontier army. He has no food and no name. He will not be able to support him."

As a result, the small circle just assigned to Li Heng was also included in their sphere of influence.

If these steps are taken, and Li Cong regains the two capitals, quells the rebellion, and gets rid of Li Heng, then the world will surely return to its heart, and it will be a matter of course to welcome Li Longji back and ask him to abdicate.

Then, the importance of planning Hedong is equivalent to the saying in "Longzhong Dui" that "Yizhou is a dangerous fortress, with fertile fields thousands of miles away, and a land of abundance, which is why Gaozu became an emperor."

The only difference may be that Xue Bai is not Li Cong's Zhuge Liang. Now their relationship is more like Liu Feng and Liu Bei.

"Do you understand?"

Yan Jiming and Yuan Jie's eyes lit up, and they completely understood the steps to assist Li Cong as the new king.

After guarding Guanzhong, the next step is to completely capture Hedong.

"I understand," Yan Jiming said, "I recruited soldiers in Hedong."

Yuan Jie said: "The salt in the entire Hedong comes from Jiechi."

"Okay." Xue Bai said: "There is an imperial edict here. We also have the general sent by Li Guangbi. There are also two appointments here, the judge of Hedong Jiedu and the transfer envoy of Hedong Road. You go to Taiyuan to remove Wang Chengye and win over him.

Wang Jin..."

Yuan Jie said: "If Wang Jin can't be won over?"

Xue Bai said: "Then take it, he was recommended by Li Guangbi."

Now he had to consider Li Guangbi's attitude, so he specifically asked Li Guangbi to recommend him and try to unite the forces that could be united as much as possible.

"I will also write a letter to Wang Jin." Xue Bai said, "In addition, I will cross the Yellow River with you."

Yuan Jie asked: "Going to pick up your confidante?"

When he and Xue Bai were in Dali Temple Prison, they saw Li Tengkong coming to visit him, so he asked this question, but he forgot that Yan Jiming was Xue Bai's brother-in-law.

The atmosphere suddenly became awkward.

"No." Xue Bai remained calm under Yan Jiming's scrutinizing gaze and said, "Get ready as soon as possible without further delay."

~~

When most people were discussing state affairs, Xue Bai spoke in an attitude of assisting His Highness the Crown Prince in reviving the Tang Dynasty.

Even if some of his words were rebellious, they were still cloaked in the guise of universal justice. For example, what Liu Bei always said was "reviving the Han Dynasty" rather than "I want to be the emperor."

Even if someone gets a glimpse of Xue Bai's ambition, they often don't expose it because it is not at that point at the moment. It is completely too late to wait until the world is at peace and Li Cong succeeds to the throne to talk about it.

Except for a few people who hope to be among the heroes of Yuan Cong, they always like to plot secretly around Xue Bai, such as Yuan Zai.

"Although the saint recognized Lang Jun, he did not declare an edict to deal with Li Heng's crime of treason and proclaiming emperor. I'm afraid he still had the idea of ​​'raising gu'."

The term "raising voodoo" was accidentally mentioned by Xue Bai after he returned from Nanzhao. Yuan Zai used it to describe Li Longji's power tactics to balance the forces in the court. For example, Li Linfu was a voodoo raised to deal with the prince. An Lushan

Yet another one.

Obviously, Li Longji now wants to support Li Heng to deal with Li Cong.

Yuan Zai saw through this at a glance because Li Longji agreed to Xue Bai's request not without conditions. He was very determined to let the kings and ministers go to Shu County.
To be continued...