Chapter 269 Preemptive

The light came out from the crack of the door. A beautiful concubine walked into the room with a bowl of medicine. The room was filled with a strong smell of medicine and an old man that was about to decay. On the bed, Li Linfu was skinny and pale.

Li Linfu fell ill again since December last year. This year, he was ill and became more serious every time. He also felt that he seemed to have not had much time left.

"Master, I've taken the medicine!"

The concubine helped Li Linfu up and put a pillow on his back. Li Linfu coughed violently, and the concubine hurriedly beat him on his back, "Master, bear it!"

But Li Linfu still couldn't help it and bleed out a mouthful of blood. The concubine quickly caught him with a silk squid. She finally started crying, "Master! This is your third time today."

After vomiting blood, Li Linfu's spirit improved a little. He stroked the concubine's hair and smiled and said, "Duo Nu, it's okay. I'm already seventy years old. I'm seventy years old since I was seventy, so I'm not considered a short life."

The concubine just cried sadly, and Li Linfu sighed and said, "Duo Nu, if I go, you can get married! I will leave you enough dowry."

"Master, I won't marry."

The concubine wiped away her tears and said, "If the master goes, I will go as a nun and read the scriptures for the master for the rest of my life."

Li Linfu was a little moved, but the biggest thought in his heart spread again. If he died, what should his family do? Will Yang Guozhong let them go with his son and daughter, including the most beloved concubine in front of him? And the people he has persecuted over the past decade, Zhang Jiuling, Li Shizhi, Wei Zhuang, and Du Youlin, will their descendants seek revenge on their descendants?

Li Linfu also felt a little regretful in his heart. He had been a dog for Li Longji for so many years. In the end, he got old and couldn't bite him anymore. Li Longji kicked him away. He had to bear the consequences of all major cases over the years. He would be fine if he died, and he would eventually use his descendants to perform surgery. If he had known today, why would he have to be the first?

He gently stroked the concubine's smooth hair like satin, and sighed secretly in his heart. It is probably not easy for such a beautiful woman to be a nun! Her fate is most likely to be sold to the sect.

"Donu, bring the memorial on my desk."

Duonu quickly handed him the memorial and helped him sit down. Li Linfu trembled his hand and opened the memorial. This was the memorial he originally wanted to submit, opposing the circulation of gold, silver and money. Although Li Linfu was almost exhausted, his heart was still like a mirror. He saw through Li Qing'an's true intention of advocating the circulation of gold, silver and money, and also knew what the consequences would be in the future?

The output of gold and silver in the Tang Dynasty was too low, and Anxi, especially Lingxi, produced gold and silver. Once the circulation of gold and silver in the mainland increased, the final result was that Anxi controlled the coins in the mainland, that is, Li Qing'an controlled the economy of the Tang Dynasty. What was Li Qing'an doing? Of course, it was not for making a fortune. Through this incident, Li Linfu vaguely felt a trace of Li Qing'an's hidden deep ambition.

Li Qing'an was not a Hu person, but a Han person. Li Linfu always believed that most of the Hu people's ambitions were to establish themselves as kings and to control one side, while the Han people's ambitions were to drink horses in the Central Plains and change dynasties. Could it be that Li Qing'an also had this ambition?

Unfortunately, except for him, Li Linfu, most powerful people did not see this, including Li Longji, who was obsessed with interests and was blinded by Li Qing'an's private tribute of 200,000 kilograms of silver and 100,000 kilograms of silver every year. He actually agreed to the circulation of gold, silver and money. Perhaps he planned to replace Li Qing'an in the future, but when Li Qing'an's wings became hard, could he still replace it?

Li Linfu is still the right prime minister, and is still the most powerful minister above ten thousand people. It is his unshirkable responsibility to oppose the circulation of gold, silver and money. Therefore, he drafted this memorial, but at this moment he changed his mind. What does Li Tang have to do with him if he is defeated? Li Longji treats him so ruthlessly, why does he have to devote all his efforts to this person's country? He should protect his family.

"Burn it!" Li Linfu gave the memorial to his concubine and said in a trembling voice.

"Master, let's take the medicine first! I'll get a fever later."

"No! You burn it now, burn it in front of me." Although Li Linfu's voice was small, he was firm and could not be discussed.

Duonu didn't dare to say more. She took the memorial and carefully dismantled it, put it on a plate, lit a corner on the lamp, and the memorial soon ignited. The words turned yellow and black in the fire, and were finally swallowed by the flames and burned to ashes. Duonu poured it into the incense burner, and Li Linfu also let go of his heart. It's time for Li Qingan to come and see him.

At this time, the voice of the second son Li Guo came from outside the door, "Father, is it convenient now?"

"What's the matter with him?"

Duonu opened a crack in the door and asked, "What's the matter with you, Master?"

"Please tell my father that Wang Gong has something urgent to ask for a meeting."

His voice was very small, but Li Linfu still heard it. He glanced at the corner of the house and it was already a moment of Hai. It should be the time to close the city gate. With Wang Gong's steadyness, something must have happened at this time.

"Take him here!"

Li Linfu's heart became a little nervous. He originally planned to ease the relationship with Li Heng and protect his family, but he did not expect that Li Heng would be deposed. The new prince has not decided. In order to protect the fate of his family, he carefully cultivated Wang Gong as his successor. Now Wang Gong is deeply trusted by Li Longji and holds more than 20 positions. In addition to the prime minister, his power is no longer inferior to Yang Guozhong. As long as he asks him for a last resort, he can enter the prime minister and compete with Yang Guozhong, thereby protecting Li Linfu's funeral. This is Li Linfu's wishful thinking. Only in this way can the prime minister party not disappear like the Eastern Palace party.

But now Wang Gong is so powerful that he is still coming to find him. It can be seen that a serious incident must have occurred. Could it be that it is related to the assassination of King Di?

After a moment, Wang Gong was hurriedly brought in by Li Jin. Wang Gong stepped forward and bowed, whispered: "Prime Minister, are you in better health?"

"Stop talking nonsense, what's the matter?"

"yes!"

The situation was urgent, and Wang Gong didn't care about greetings. He quickly explained the incident of Yang Guozhong's arrest of Xing Jun, and finally said: "Prime Minister, I am very worried that they will capture Xing Jun. I just learned on the road that my brothers were unable to leave the city, but a cavalry of Jinwu Guard left the city. Things may change rapidly tomorrow."

Li Linfu deserves to be the one who came over the strong wind and rain. He kept silent and listened patiently. When Wang Gong finished speaking, he suddenly said, "No! Today, Yang Guozhong did not go to see the emperor and used the Dragon Martial Army. The Jinwu Guard must not have the emperor's will."

Wang Gong suddenly realized that he was still the prime minister and the high-ranking minister! He immediately found Yang Guozhong's loophole and used the army without voluntarily. This is secondarily, which shows that they had been prepared long ago. Why did he have been prepared long ago? Unless they had wanted to interfere in this matter, from this point, it may be refuted that it was a trap set by Yang Guozhong and the others.

"Prime Minister, then tomorrow I will report to the emperor to report Yang Guozhong's power."

"No! You don't have to worry about this matter. You go to Dali Temple to ask for someone tomorrow, don't worry about Xing Han. If you can't get this person, you won't be in Dali Temple. If you go to Ren Haichuan, you are in charge of this case. Even if Dali Temple arrests people, you must hand them over to you."

"But I'm worried that he has written his confession."

"I just hope he is like this, and he is so sorry! Let him write another confession, overturn the previous testimony, kill the person after writing the confession, and then you complain to the emperor, saying that someone killed someone to silence him. I see how Yang Guozhong can fulfill this matter."

Wang Gong praised it and hurriedly said, "The Prime Minister is so smart! In this way, the chain between Ren Haichuan and Xing Han will be broken. Then I will use the Censorate to impeach Yang Guozhong with his own troops, so that he can't afford to take advantage of it."

Li Linfu nodded with a smile, "Yes, you have indeed made progress."

Speaking of this, he pondered again: "But we only have a three-point chance of winning in this matter. They have been planning for a long time and will not be so easily compromised. The key is that Xing Jian. As long as Yang Guozhong catches Xing Jian, the initiative will be in his hands. Your brother is a little careless, alas!"

Li Linfu also understood in his heart that it was mainly Li Longji. If he did not want to pursue Yang Guozhong's crime of using the army without voluntarily, he would naturally block him. Moreover, if Xing Jian admitted it, Ren Haichuan would not have much effect. Yang Guozhong could use Xing Jian to prepare evidence, such as notes, secret orders, etc. Even if Ren Haichuan changed his confession, it would be too late. The only way to do this is to lose the money, protect Wang Gong, and protect himself.

Thinking of this, Li Linfu sighed again and said, "You are indeed very dangerous now. You must be mentally prepared. If you really can't do it, sacrifice your brother and let him take this for you. I hope the emperor will just stop until he is not hurt."

Wang Gong felt sad. He and his brothers were affectionate and sacrificed their brothers to protect him. He would never be at ease in his life, but now, he really has no choice but to do anything.

"Prime Minister, I understand. Wang Jian is in my mansion. I will have a good talk with him to arrange his funeral in the evening."

Wang Gong left, Li Linfu slowly drank the medicine. He needed to make his health better and go to plead for Li Longji in person tomorrow.

The next morning, Li Linfu forced himself up. He sat on the couch, and the concubine Duo Nu carefully combed his hair. Li Linfu's face was calm, but his heart was filled with helplessness and loss. He said that only to comfort Wang Gong last night. But in fact, he knew the risks of this matter. How could Yang Guozhong be willing to kill only one Wang Yan? With Linghu Fei's methods, he must first make Li Longji believe that Xing Jian committed the crime, and then slowly lead to the Wang brothers. With Li Longji's stupidity over the past two years, I'm afraid the Wang brothers will be really hard to protect this time.

‘Silent!’ Li Linfu couldn't help but sigh inwardly. In the past two years, almost everyone has seen that Li Longji has become foolish. Indeed, he has become foolish in the government affairs of the court, or he has no intention of inquiries. Like Li Qing'an's order for gold, silver and money circulation was passed so easily, but would he be foolish in the struggle for power? Li Linfu was a little confused. If he was not foolish, how could Li Longji hand over Yang Guozhong's brother-in-law to Li Qing'an? If he was not foolish, how could Li Longji demote Gao Lishi? But if he was foolish, he knew that while being promoted to Yang Guozhong, he also valued Wang Gong, and the balance was extremely clever. Li Linfu could no longer see through Li Longji.

"Father!" The voice of his second son Li Jin suddenly came from outside. He rushed into the lobby like a gust of wind and shouted excitedly: "Father, something big happened in Xingqing Palace!"

"What are you doing in a panic!"

Li Linfu's face sank and said unhappily: "What happened?"

Li Jin restrained his excitement and hurriedly said, "Father, news came from Xingqing Palace that Li Qingan went to Xingqing Palace early in the morning and impeached the Jinwu Guard to attack the Anxi Army camp last night."

"What!" Li Linfu stood up with a 'tween!'. He couldn't believe his ears, "You mean, Jinwuwei last night?"

"Yes! I heard that the Jinwu Guard insisted that the court criminals ran into the Anxi military camp and had a conflict with Anxi."

Li Linfu stood there for a while, and suddenly he sighed to the sky, "The sky has eyes, and I, Li Linfu!"

"Father, you are......" Li Jin had never seen his father so excited, and he was shocked.

Li Linfu was completely sick. He waved his hand excitedly and shouted, "Prepare the car, I'm going to Xingqing Palace!"

Xingqing Palace, Li Longji, who had not gotten up early for a long time, was forced to get up early today. Early in the morning, the Anxi Jiedu governor Li Qing'an rushed to the gate of Xingqing Palace to file a lawsuit, suing the Jinwu Guard for attacking the Anxi military camp at night, which had a serious impact on the morale of the Anxi army.

Li Longji didn't know what happened, but judging from Li Qing'an's words, this incident was very serious. What does it mean to attack the Anxi Army camp at night?

Li Longji had to get up. He had no idea what the Jinwu Guard did last night. Logically, the Jinwu Guard belonged to the Beijing Guard Army. Any transfer outside its scope of responsibility must pass through him. Li Longji and attacked the Anxi Army barracks, which was obviously not their scope of responsibility.

Before he could find out the situation, Li Longji became furious. Who dared to be so bold and mobilized troops out of the city without authorization?

In the Datong Hall, Li Longjigao sat on the dragon couch with a gloomy face. Below, Li Qing'an was full of anger and pointed at Deng Wei who was kneeling on the ground and said sternly: "Your Majesty, this person led 500 cavalry to sneak into our Anxi Army camp at night. After being discovered by the sentry, he said that there were criminals in the court running into the military camp and that they must go into the military camp to search. They were fully armed and came with force without any evidence or any document or order. This was clearly an attack on our Anxi Army camp at night. I, Anxi, fought bloody battles for the Tang Dynasty, with many casualties, and no money or reputation. The dead in the battle have not yet been cold. None of our soldiers have any complaints about these, but the Jinwu Guard is going to attack the military camp at night. Your Majesty, how can I explain to the soldiers of the Anxi Army when I go back?"

Deng Wei knelt on the ground, his courage was about to be scared. He wanted to apologize to Yang Guozhong today, but he didn't expect that Li Qing'an was so tough. He came to Xingqing Palace to complain as soon as the city gate opened. He was shocked and scared, and he was scared and unable to even defend.

Beside Deng Wei, the general of Jinwu Guard, Wang Chengye, looked angry. He didn't know about this. Deng Wei just told him that it was Yang Guozhong who was privately dispatching troops. Wang Chengye was extremely angry. The damn Yang Guozhong actually reached into his Jinwu Guard. But now he didn't have time to settle the matter. He wanted to overcome the current crisis. Jinwu Guard privately dispatched troops. Li Longji wanted to hold him accountable first. He heard that Li Qing'an was talking so seriously that he secretly complained that something was wrong. Li Qing'an obviously wanted to make a big deal.

Sure enough, Li Longji snorted heavily and stared at him with anger on his face, "General Wang, how do you explain this to me?"

Wang Chengye no longer cared about protecting Deng Wei. He bowed quickly and said, "Your Majesty, just like Your Majesty, I just heard about this. My rule is not strict and I am willing to be punished by Your Majesty."

He left it cleanly, not only clearly stated that he was unaware of it, but also decided to make a charge for himself in advance. It was just that the rule was not strict, and the Jinwu Guard's night attack on the Anxi Army had nothing to do with him.

"You don't know?"

Li Longji's sharp eyes turned to Deng Wei again, "General Deng, I want to hear your explanation. If you can't give an explanation, I will kill you all!"

At this point, Deng Wei couldn't care about Yang Guozhong and sent troops privately. Unless it was to defend the emperor, no matter what reason he had, it would be a death sentence.

He gritted his teeth and said, "Your Majesty, I dare not hide it. This is the main culprit of the assassination of King Di. I ordered me to arrest me. I chased me to the Anxi Army camp, but the criminal was gone. So I asked the Anxi Army for the fugitive. I have great courage and dare not attack the Anxi Army at night."

"Is that true?" Li Longji glanced at Li Qing'an again. In fact, he didn't believe that the Jinwu Guard would attack the Anxi Army at night, because there must be a reason.

"General, what he said is the truth?"

Li Qingan sneered. He knew that Deng Wei would say this. Of course, he was either trying to cause trouble for Deng Wei, or he wanted to lead Yang Guozhong out.

"Your Majesty, this person is talking nonsense. What power does Yang Shangshu have to mobilize Jinwu Guards? What does it have to do with Yang Shangshu? This person had a feud with me when inspecting the camp, so he wanted to seek revenge on me. Now that he can't take revenge, he wants to blame Yang Shangshu. Your Majesty, this matter has nothing to do with Yang Shangshu, so he should not listen to his words."

"Your Majesty, I dare not deceive the monarch. It was indeed the order of Shangshu Yang. Your Majesty invited Shangshu Yang to ask, and I will know that I am willing to confront him."

Speaking of this, Li Longji understood a little bit in his heart. Deng Wei gave him ten thousand courage, and he would not dare to find trouble for Anxi Army. It was probably Yang Guozhong's private actions. Li Qing'an and Yang Guozhong are mortal enemies!

He glanced at Wang Chengye and said, "General Wang, what do you think?"

When Wang Chengye heard that Li Longji threw the problem to him, he was secretly annoyed in his heart and said, "Your Majesty, it is related to the military rules of the Jinwu Guard. I also want to understand the matter clearly. Please ask Your Majesty to summon Shangshu Yang to confront him."

"Okay then! Summon Yang Guozhong." Li Longji was helpless and had no choice but to issue an edict.
Chapter completed!