The Bad Guys: Everyone, let’s revive the Tang Dynasty together!

Chapter 314 Is It Too Late?
Fengxiang Prefecture, Baoji County.

Baoji was formerly known as Chencang, which is the "Chencang" where people openly repaired the plank road but secretly passed through Chencang. Dasan Pass, one of the four passes in Guanzhong, is located in the southwest of the jurisdiction. It is known as the throat of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and is a battleground for military strategists from Hanzhong to advance into Guanzhong.

In the second year of Emperor Suzong of Tang Dynasty's Zhide reign (757), Chencang County was renamed Baoji County because of the legend that a stone chicken was crowing in Chencang Mountain south of Chencang County, which was considered a good omen. Since then, the name Chencang has disappeared in the long river of history, but the word Baoji has been used to this day.

There are many historical stories in Baoji County. In addition to the secret crossing of Chencang by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of Shu Han, made six expeditions to Qishan because he saw that Baoji was only 300 miles away from Chang'an and was the western gate of Guanzhong. If he controlled Baoji, he could go straight down the Wei River to Chang'an.

Going back further, the place where Jiang Taigong fished is also at the foot of Mount Qishan in Baoji. In addition to Taigong fishing, there is also the story of the Phoenix singing in Mount Qishan.

Diaoyutai is located in the Fayu River Valley in the southeast of Baoji, between Wuzhangyuan and Mawei River Valley. The valley is shaped like a winnowing basket, so it is also called "Ji Valley". It is very famous. There are many remains of plank road holes along the coast. Temples were built here during the Han Dynasty.

During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, the Taigong Temple was built here for the first time and four cypresses were planted. A hundred years have passed in a whirlwind. This important road, which is backed by the Qinling Mountains in the south and faces the Weihe River in the north, has become a place of picturesque scenery with green mountains and clear waters, green ancient cypresses and magnificent views. Literati such as Li Bai and Du Fu have left their works of calligraphy here. It can be said to be a famous scenic spot in Guanzhong.

However, with the wars in the world and the constant frictions between Qi and Shu, this place eventually became a secluded place. Unless there were people passing by, few people would take the initiative to come here to enjoy the scenery and express their feelings. After all, no matter how beautiful the scenery is or how famous it is, it is too close to the border between the two countries. Most of those who can live to this day are people who value their lives.

With few tourists, Taigong Temple has difficulty receiving donations, and the Qi State Shogunate is unlikely to spend money to maintain this place. Over the years, it has simply become an inn that is called a temple but is actually an inn. However, it can only barely support the livelihoods of the temple keeper and others.

That evening, four people came traveling from the south, all equipped with mounts, looking dusty and wearing bamboo hats, very much like people from the underworld. There was an old man whose age was difficult to discern, and two sturdy men. As for the remaining man, he must be the master of these three people. He was a young man with a very good temperament, but unfortunately he looked too ordinary.

The four of them stayed in the Taigong Temple. The ordinary-looking young man paid for four or five days' room in one go, plus a few days' food expenses. He was very generous, which made the temple keeper, who was already an old woman, particularly happy. She immediately felt that the young man had become much more handsome.

The temple keeper had checked the whereabouts of several people before and had a good chat with them. He knew that the four people were from a tea gang in Shu State. They used to hang out in Qianzhong area. A few months ago, a war broke out in the south, and Raojiang and Qianzhong areas were in turmoil. They came to the north to do business with their young master and came to see the ancient sites on the way.

The identities of these people were very clean. Although there had been frictions of varying degrees between Qi and Shu for years, they did not ban trade. Instead, they encouraged private merchants to circulate. It was said that in the Central Plains and even in the Jiangnan area, importing Shu brocade had been a national policy for many years.

Besides, even if it is not clean, the temple keeper will just pretend not to know. It has not been open for a long time, and even a mosquito leg is meat. It would be a waste not to accept it. It is expected that no bad people will covet such a poor Taigong Temple. In the whole temple, I am afraid that only the calligraphy works engraved on the stone wall are worth some money.

These four people were of course Xiao Yan and Gong Yangzuo who entered Qi via Shuzhong. The other two were two bad guys in their twenties who pretended to be Xiao Yan's guards to hide their identities. Gong Yangzuo was nominally an old steward of Xiao Yan's family.

There is a tea gang in Shu that has long been infiltrated by Xiao Yan's people. In the past two years, Anle Pavilion has concluded many transactions in Shu, and it is easy to get a few passes. It is more real than the real thing. Even the pseudonym used by Xiao Yan is a real person on paper. No matter what, Fengxiang Prefecture is Li Maozhen's base camp, and being cautious can avoid a lot of trouble.

Xiao Yan changed his appearance. Gong Yangzuo and the other two usually did not show their true faces, but they did not make any extra efforts. They stopped and walked along the way, arranging people to gather intelligence about Qi Country while trying to get in touch with Huanyinfang. Of course, the next step was to be extremely cautious. At least until now, Xiao Yan had not allowed anyone to come into contact with the other side. He was just lurking and observing.

It was still early, so Xiao Yan simply took the three of them to admire the scenery and browse the traces left by the literati and poets of various dynasties. If nothing else, at least he made it look good.

Gong Yangzuo was not very talented in writing. He just curled his lips as he read the poems and said, "My dear, if you write a poem here, I'm afraid that those who wrote poems before will be so ashamed that they will erase their words completely."

Xiao Yan smiled and ignored him.

All his poems were copied from later generations. How could he not be self-aware? He did not have the literary talent to write such elegant prose. It was already difficult for him to remember them. How could he have the nerve to make fun of the works of his predecessors?

As he walked and looked around, he was actually still thinking about the empress.

Before parting with Ji Ruxue and Qian Wu in Dongting Lake, he deliberately asked Ji Ruxue to disguise herself as him and return to Beijing. During this period, Ji Ruxue even deliberately pretended to be infected with a cold, so that "Ji Ruxue" was temporarily placed in Ezhou (Wuhan) by "him" to prevent the accompanying officials from having too much suspicion. Of course, the bad people on the official ship would also pay attention to prevent the risk of information leakage.

The journey from Changsha to Bian Jing could take nearly a month. What Xiao Yan wanted was to give people the illusion that he was on his way back to Beijing. After all, there were many officials accompanying him, and it was impossible for so many of them to be blind, right?

In this way, people like Li Maozhen would be able to let down their guard to some extent. Xiao Yan could guess that his movements would be watched by Li Maozhen and many others at any time.

Li Maozhen, Li Keyong, Li Siyuan, Li Cunxu, even the Ghost King, the Underworld Emperor, Zhu Youzhen and the like, all compete with him for interests of varying degrees, and it is impossible that they will pay less attention to him, so Xiao Yan needs to seize this opportunity to return to the capital. Only during this time will no one notice his absence.

If Xiao Yan took action after arriving in Bian Jing, would it be too late? At that time, as a champion marquis, he had to deal with too many people. Now the times are different. The people he interacts with cannot be fooled by a substitute, which will create unnecessary risks. On the way back to Beijing, Ji Ruxue can avoid dealing with too many people.

Moreover, Ji Ruxue has been with him for many years and is the person who knows him best. It is not a problem for her to fool him for a month or so. The accompanying officials will not have the courage to do stupid things. Ji Ruxue can also shirk responsibility for some local officials in the name of avoiding suspicion. After all, the generals of the imperial guards do need to keep a distance from the local town commanders.

Back to the present matter, although he had guessed from the secret letter from the empress that Diaoyutai might be the meeting place, due to the empress's cautiousness, he was unable to determine the specific time. Therefore, Xiao Yan began to believe that there must be some clues left here.

He had already found out along the way that there had not been any major changes in Qi State, and there had been no obvious changes in its political measures. Fengxiang was also calm, with no rumors of a coup.

It seems that Li Maozhen obviously gained the trust of the empress before seizing power, and he did not even dare to do it on a large scale. Perhaps in the eyes of the civil and military officials in Qi State, the King of Qi was still the King of Qi, without any change.

As for the empress, she has been living in seclusion over the years. I am afraid that no one in Qi would suspect that the empress is the King of Qi or that the King of Qi is the empress.

It's a bit tricky...

Xiao Yan didn't have much interest in sightseeing, so he returned to the temple after taking a general look, and ate while thinking to himself.

The empress trusted Li Maozhen so much that she probably would not have thought that the first thing her brother would do after returning to Fengxiang would be to seize her power, which is why she fell into such a passive position.

After Li Maozhen regained control of Qi State, he naturally stood in the camp arranged by Yuan Tiangang. Xiao Yan had seen along the way that it might not be easy to use the empress to break the impasse, so he ordered Han Yanhui to instigate the Daliang court to put pressure on Qi State.

Xiao Yan would not care about Li Maozhen's true intention. No matter whether the King of Qi really wanted to take the two towns of Dingnan or wanted to plot against Guanzhong or even Shu, no matter how many ways he came, Xiao Yan would only go one way. As long as the two towns of Dingnan were willing to send troops, they would delay Li Maozhen to a certain extent. Even if Li Maozhen really wanted to capture Dingnan Town by accident, then let him take it.

Xiao Yan believed that Yuan Tiangang would not want to see Li Maozhen expand his power. Not to mention that Xiao Yan had asked Han Yanhui to remind Jing Xiang that Jing Xiang was always very sensitive about military affairs and would not take it lightly. As long as the Guanzhong defense line put pressure on Li Maozhen, the King of Qi would be like a thorn in his back, and it would not be easy to take down the two towns of Dingnan.

Xiao Yan had previously made a bold guess that Yuan Tiangang was more likely to let Li Maozhen rush directly to Guanzhong, which was in line with Yuan Tiangang's interests. Li Maozhen was already very utilitarian and to a certain extent trusted Yuan Tiangang very much, so he might not be able to resist this temptation. If Qi State dared to act rashly, Jin State would certainly suffer the consequences.

The fact that several parties seemed to be able to obtain their own benefits and thus be led by Yuan Tiangang was a result of the great commander's ability to act. Even heroes like Li Maozhen and Li Keyong found it difficult to refuse.

Xiao Yan didn't know that he had guessed the truth. It was only for the sake of being conservative that he tried to remind Jing Xiang to set up a defense line in Guanzhong. In short, he wanted to restrict Li Maozhen to the small piece of land of Qi State. This was Xiao Yan's return gift to the King of Qi. In any case, Xiao Yan had already made a strategy. He would only stay in Diaoyutai for three days. If he got nothing, he would go directly to Fengxiang to wait for an opportunity. As for whether this trip was to help the empress with a coup or just to rescue the empress, Xiao Yan could only make a judgment based on the situation.

Two more days passed here. During this time, Xiao Yan just took Gong Yang Zuo and a few others to travel around. The farthest place they even went was Guo County, which is located east of Baoji and in the lower reaches of the Wei River. Of course, there would always be one person left at the Taigong Temple, nominally to look after the luggage, as they thought the temple keeper would not be too suspicious.

Due to the previous deep cooperation between Anle Pavilion and Huanyin House, and the lack of mutual vigilance during the honeymoon period, after Li Maozhen returned to Fengxiang, all the bad guys in Fengxiang Mansion had been cleared out by Li Maozhen early, not to mention the territory of Qi. Although some of them had infiltrated again in the past six months, Li Maozhen's precautions were very strict and the progress was much slower than before, so the information Xiao Yan received was not so sufficient.

Logically speaking, after the Empress and Li Maozhen broke up, Li Maozhen should have only gotten a ruined Huanyin Pavilion, and it would be impossible for him to use it so easily. Xiao Yan could only believe one possibility, that is, Li Maozhen used something to threaten the Empress, so Huanyin Pavilion could still operate normally in his hands.

Of course, there is another possibility, that is, all of this is actually a conspiracy between the empress and Li Maozhen to lure Xiao Yan into the trap.

Xiao Yan hesitated on this matter. He was a cautious person, but he acted boldly. He was willing to make decisions immediately and never hesitated at critical moments. This gave people the illusion that he was taking too much risk.

If it weren't for Ji Ruxue's words "I am willing to guarantee my life for the empress", Xiao Yan would not have been so decisive in taking risks for the empress. If this trip to Fengxiang was a trap, Li Maozhen and the empress would work together and use some tricks to keep him. If there were also Nine Heavens Holy Lady and Tongwenguan involved, Xiao Yan was afraid that he would be no match for four hands and would not be able to get out of Fengxiang.

Xiao Yan never denied that he coveted the empress's beauty, but he had never actually interacted with the empress as a woman. If he really coveted her, there would be a limit, and he would not take excessive risks for the sake of beauty.

After two days, Xiao Yan had decided to leave the next day. Gong Yangzuo and others naturally had no objection, so they didn't talk much and only talked a little during the meal.

Not long after the meal, a little Taoist boy from the temple came to see Xiao Yan with a set of pens and ink, begging the distinguished guest to leave a piece of calligraphy.

After all, Xiao Yan paid for four or five days' money but only stayed for three days, and did not ask for the money back. The temple keeper was reluctant to return the money, but was embarrassed to take it by force, so he asked Xiao Yan to leave his calligraphy.

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No matter what, the temple keeper will carve it in this Taigong Temple to make Xiao Yan famous. If his literary talent is really not good enough, the temple keeper will secretly choose a good poem from the poems left by previous tourists and carve it on the stone wall. Of course, he will choose some less famous ones. Of course, he will not tell Xiao Yan explicitly, otherwise it would be too embarrassing. So he just gave a little hint.

Gongyang Zuo and others were delighted. How could someone want to take advantage of someone and still make more of it? Xiao Yan's poems were widely circulated in Bian Jing, and his handwriting was also good. Even if the temple keeper and the little Taoist boy were not aware of it, there was no such thing as them taking advantage of him. So they just refused on Xiao Yan's behalf.

It's just a small amount of money, and Anle Pavilion is rich and powerful, so they don't care about it. They just think of it as a donation to the temple.

Xiao Yan looked at the inkstone between the pen and ink, and an idea suddenly came to his mind. He picked up the pen and wrote a poem, but he did not write any majestic poem. Instead, he copied the "Ode to the Goose" which was already familiar to people in this era.

The temple keeper was secretly disappointed. After all, Xiao Yan seemed to have a very good temperament. Maybe he was really a great poet. It seemed that his literary talent was indeed not good, but his handwriting was indeed very good.

But of course she would not reveal this intention. Instead, she praised Xiao Yan's calligraphy for a long time. Gong Yangzuo and others did not understand her meaning, and just thought that Xiao Yan did not want to attract too much attention.

Xiao Yan didn't explain too much and went back to his room to rest.

In the middle of the night, someone knocked on the door. Xiao Yan opened the door and saw that it was the little Taoist boy holding the brush and ink. He waved his hand to let Gong Yangzuo and the other two spread out to guard, and then let the little Taoist boy in and asked, "How did you guess my identity?"

The little Taoist boy was very excited. He first bowed and then tore off a piece of skin from his face.

Xiao Yan was a little surprised. Only then did he realize that the person was actually a woman with spots on her face. However, she looked to be in her twenties and was a dwarf.

The little Taoist boy was so excited that he explained to Xiao Yan incoherently.

It turned out that she was arranged to this place by Huanyinfang more than ten years ago. The purpose was to monitor this temple to see if there were any spies from Shu Kingdom entering Qi along this route. Over the years, this temple has been deserted, but there has still been a temple priest and so on because of her. Not many people know her identity. Over the years, she often thought that she might have been forgotten by Huanyinfang.

But she had no complaints, because she was a dwarf and a woman, and she had lived a very painful life before she was twenty years old. If Huanyinfang had not taken her in and allowed her to be of use, she might have committed suicide long ago because she could not bear it.

So even though she thought Huanyinfang had long forgotten her, she had been working diligently over the years, collecting as much information as possible from tourists in the hope that it might be useful in the future.

Until last month, Saint Ji Fanyintian actually came to see her in person. The little Taoist child then knew that a drastic change had taken place in Huanyinfang. Many intelligence personnel outside had been recalled and controlled, and no outsiders were allowed to contact them. She had not been noticed because she was too secretive.

The only thing Fanyintian handed over to her was the painting "Li Jiu Sending Off King Qi" that Xiao Yan had presented to the empress. On it were Xiao Yan's handwriting and his freehand drawings of gods and figures.

The little Taoist boy's task over the years is to judge whether a person is a spy for the Kingdom of Shu based on his appearance and various details, and then record them. He has his own experience in this regard.

She made careful judgments based on Xiao Yan's temperament, but was not sure. After observing for two days and knowing that Xiao Yan was about to leave, she gave advice to the temple keeper and found a way to obtain Xiao Yan's handwriting. After comparison, she dared to visit him boldly.

Xiao Yan listened silently, and looked at the little Taoist boy who was still a little excited, feeling emotional.

Huanyinfang is not without talents, but it has buried a talent.

"Thank you for your hard work." Xiao Yan stood up with a serious expression to express his respect.

The female Taoist child suddenly burst into tears and cried softly, "The Holy Princess of Fanyintian came here carefully half a month ago. She was very careful. The Holy Princess and the Empress just thought that the prince would not come again..."

Xiao Yan remained silent. He didn't expect that the hope the empress entrusted to him would be so heavy.

He did not say much. The female Taoist child did not know much information. Too much talk would lead to mistakes. Talking too much would not do any good. So he just asked the person's name and let her continue to wait here.

Xiao Yan did not tell her that he planned to ask the Empress for her one day. This female Taoist child was a consistent talent, but when she was emotionally excited, she might not be able to dress up as a little Taoist child as before.

On the second day, he took Gongyang Zuo Sanri to the place the female Taoist child told him. At a specific time every day, someone would go there and observe carefully. When Xiao Yan left a mark in a specific place, someone would contact him.

Xiao Yan was only worried that it might be too late.

(End of this chapter)