A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 368 Going to the meeting alone
Li Yijun arrived at Wuguan.
Due to continuous heavy rain, we had to stay temporarily at Wuguan.

"This rain just won't stop," Li Wenxiang complained, looking at the torrential rain. The Wuguan River in front of Wuguan Pass had swelled considerably.

The turbid mountain torrent rushed down, carrying countless trees and other debris.

"Fortunately, Wuguan Pass wasn't built on the banks of the Danjiang River, otherwise it would probably have been flooded." Li Yi stood on the Wuguan Pass tower, which was only three miles in circumference.

Li Shiji said, "This pass has a long history. It was established during the Spring and Autumn Period and was originally called Shaoxi Pass. It was renamed Wu Pass during the Warring States Period."

The location was definitely carefully selected.

With wind and rain raging, the troops could not advance.

Li Yi and his group were trapped here. Fortunately, it was a fortified town. Otherwise, it would have been even worse if more than 20,000 people had been trapped in the wilderness canyon.

The entire fortress is built in a canyon on the north bank of the Wuguan River, a tributary of the Danjiang River.

The fortress is located on a relatively flat high ground, with the towering Shaoxi Mountain to the north and the deep ravine of the Wuguan River to the south.

With only one gate each on the east and west sides, the terrain west of the pass is relatively flat. However, traveling east of the pass involves winding along the mountainside, with high cliffs and deep valleys, making it a narrow and difficult passage. Since ancient times, it has been a strategic location fought over by military strategists.

Looking at the swollen river in front of the pass, Li Daliang sighed and said, "It guards the border between Qin and Chu, and relies on the natural defenses of mountains and rivers. Passing through Nanyang, the east is in turmoil; entering Lantian, the right side of the pass is in danger. Wuguan is a great defensive line, and its importance is determined by a single move."

This southeastern gateway to Chang'an has always been garrisoned.

However, after Li Yuan entered the pass, he immediately sent troops out of Wuguan to manage the area south of the mountains. Even during the period when Zhu Can was wreaking havoc in the south of the mountains, he only managed to reach Xizhou, which is west of the Nanyang Basin, still several hundred miles away from Wuguan.

The river surrounds the east, west, and south sides.
This fortified pass is indeed strategically important.

The Qin Pass has a hundred and twenty passes; relying on this strategic location, one can fight against a hundred with only two.

"This rain won't keep going on like this, will it?" Li Wenxiang asked.

"No, it won't." Li Daliang looked at the sky. "It should clear up in a day or two."

"I can't see it at all, it just feels like the Milky Way is leaking." Niu Jinda is annoyed by this kind of weather.

The group chatted casually.

Encountering such extreme weather, being able to remain stationed within the fortress is considered lucky. Back in the day, Emperor Wen of Sui sent 300,000 troops on a distant expedition against Goguryeo.
As a result, they encountered continuous heavy rain in Liaoze.

Logistics and food supplies cannot keep up.
The soldiers also fell ill due to the change in environment.

In the end, before they even reached the border or saw a trace of the Goguryeo people, the land army was almost completely wiped out, and the sea fleet encountered a storm, with most of them sinking. This dealt Yang Jian a heavy blow.

His Sui army was able to engage in cavalry battles with the Turks on the grasslands, with numbers reaching hundreds of thousands, and even used cavalry to defeat the Turkic Khan, causing him to vomit blood and flee.

However, they lost 300,000 troops without even seeing a shadow of the enemy in Liaodong.

"With this rain, everything feels damp, and my clothes are going to get moldy." Li Wenxiang, from Weijun, Hebei, is not used to this kind of rainy weather.

Li Yi remained calm; anything could happen in war.
The weather is the easiest enemy to deal with.

They are still in Wuguan, have enough food, and no dangerous enemies nearby, so they are already doing quite well.

Huo was quite optimistic; she even wore a straw hat and raincoat to go down below and cast her net to catch fish.

Surprisingly, they were still able to catch fish.

"We caught several big carp today, I'll make you some sashimi."

Li Yi thought that Huo was known as General Huo in Hebei and was very famous in the rebel army. He was skilled in riding, archery and swordsmanship. He did not expect that Huo also had a delicate side.

Her cooking skills are quite good.
She was skilled at preparing carp, slicing the fish into thin slices as thin as cicada wings, and even removing the tendons, scaling, and skin.

The skill with which she pulled out tendons and skinned the fish made Li Yi sigh in admiration. She was truly a formidable female steward, capable of both riding and shooting on the battlefield and preparing raw fish.

Li Shiji and Li Wenxiang both liked raw fish, especially when paired with the persimmon wine that Li Yi brought out.

Li Daliang had also stayed in Wagang for a period of time, but he had a low status there. When drinking, he lamented that Zhang Bi had saved his life back then, but later he left without saying goodbye and returned to Tang. He wondered if Zhang Bi had been implicated.

Although Li Shiji and Guo Xiaoke were high-ranking officials in Wagang, Zhang Bi was of too low a rank for them to know him or his whereabouts.

"Does the Duke of Jin not want to eat it? Does he look down on my cooking?" Huo Yu asked.

No, I don't eat raw fish.

"Why?" Mrs. Huo asked curiously at first, then seemed to realize something. "Actually, I know quite a few people who don't eat raw fish or even any fish at all."

In previous years, uprisings broke out in Henan and Hebei. The Sui army launched a campaign to suppress them. The rebels were mostly starving people who could not survive. Although they were numerous, they lacked weapons and armor and had no experience. Often, thousands or tens of thousands of rebels were easily defeated by the government army of a few hundred or a few thousand.

I suffered several crushing defeats, with the bodies of fallen rebels lying everywhere, and the river water turning red with their corpses, blocking its flow.

Later, no one dared to eat the fish in that river anymore, because when the fishermen caught them and cut open their bellies, inside…

Huo didn't continue, but everyone knew what she was talking about.

People assumed that Li Yi didn't eat raw fish because he had seen it when he traveled the world with his master, Master Li.

Li Yi didn't explain. He was actually worried that raw fish might have parasites. He had reminded others to eat less of it before, but few paid attention. So now he usually doesn't say anything and just doesn't eat it himself.

"I do eat fish."

Li Yi boiled a pot of water.
Pick up a slice of fish that Huo has sliced ​​very thinly, and gently swish it in boiling water a few times until it is fully cooked.

Pick it up, dip it in the sauce, and it tastes pretty good.

“You’re not eating raw fish like that! It’s such a waste! It’s not fresh or sweet at all.” Li Shiji shook his head.

They ate sashimi and drank persimmon broth.
Huo Yu also picked up some raw fish and ate it in the broth, and the two chatted as they ate.

"Why did Steward Huo choose to stay in Guanzhong? You could have stayed in Chang'an and lived the life of a noblewoman, which would have been stable, wealthy, and easy."

Mrs. Huo smiled. "The life of a noblewoman? Spending all her time on drawing eyebrows and applying lipstick, studying various eyebrow and hairstyle styles all day long, or even just focusing on clothes, jewelry, flower arranging, and incense burning, or is it that noblewomen visit each other to drink tea and play polo?"

She shook her head. "This kind of life would be torture for me. I can't stand it."

"Is Steward Huo worried about the Wenxiang brothers?"

“He was still a child when he died, and I raised him single-handedly.”

Looking at the wind and rain outside, and the swollen Wuguan River, Huo Yu asked him, "Duke of Jin, there's still no movement from the east."

Did your plan fail?

"No rush, let's wait a bit longer and let the arrow fly for a while longer."

"The Duke of Jin seems very confident?"

“I have a feeling that good news will come soon, and more than one.” Li Yi smiled.

Handong.

In Suixian County, Suizhou, Tian Zan, the Chief Secretary of the Xianzhou Circuit, the Governor of Suizhou, and the Prefect, looked at the letter in his hand.

He has read this letter many times over and over again.

This letter was written by Li Yi, the Pacification Commissioner of Tangshan and Commander-in-Chief of the Han River Road Army, but it was not written to him, but to Yang Shilin. In the letter, Yang Shilin was asked to send troops to attack him, and it was said that as long as he cut off his head and presented it to the emperor, the court would not only forgive him for his past mistakes, but would also grant him the imperial surname Li and make him the Prince of Chu.

"What do you think?"

Tian Zan asked his clan brothers and trusted generals in front of him.

“This letter was intercepted by our men at the Dahong Mountain Pass. Li Yi’s envoy was disguised as a merchant and was heading north to Xianzhou, so I believe this letter is genuine,” a general said.

“Yes, if Li Yi had sent someone to deliver this letter directly to us, it would have been a deliberate attempt to sow discord. But since he secretly sent someone to the north and we intercepted it, it must be genuine,” Tian Zan’s second son added.

Another recruit said, "Under interrogation, the man admitted that his mission was to pretend to be a merchant, travel by boat down the Han River, and then head north. He did not know the contents of the letter."

Tian Zan tapped his fingers on the table.

"I now suspect that Yang Shilin may have also received such a letter, but the content was to ask me to attack him and to give me a promotion."

"impossible?"

"Hmph, what's impossible? Deception is the best policy. All's fair in war." After receiving the letter, Tian Zan's mind raced with various thoughts.

Ultimately, he concluded that this was Li Yi deliberately sowing discord.

"Should we explain this to Master Yang to clear up the misunderstanding?"

"What if Yang Shilin didn't receive the letter?"

Tian Zan sighed. If he burned the letter and pretended not to know anything, then if Yang Shilin received a letter, whether it had the same contents as this one or was meant for him, there would be trouble.

However, if he informed Yang Shilin of the contents of the letter, Yang Shilin might already know about it, or he might not have received the letter at all. In either case, it was not the best option.

He and Yang Shilin originally each occupied a prefecture in Handong. They were both local strongmen who raised an army and carved out their own territories. Because neither of them was very strong, they survived in the cracks. So they formed an alliance as brothers and advanced and retreated together. Especially when they faced Zhu Can's plunder, they could only stick together for warmth.

but now,

Who can guarantee that Yang Shilin won't stab him in the back, use his head to exchange for the imperial surname, the title of King of Chu, or even take the opportunity to annex his territory?

He actually opposed Wang Shichong's invasion of Dengxiang, since Xiangyang was under the jurisdiction of his Suizhou General Administration.

But in the end, Yang Shilin ignored his objections and not only did not send troops to rescue Deng Xiang, but he also secretly sold military rations to Zheng's army.

In the end, he lost Xiangyang, but Yang Shilin made a fortune selling grain.

I have many thoughts.

"Report,"

Minister Yang sent someone to invite the Grand Steward to Xianzhou to discuss important matters.

Tian Zan's brows furrowed immediately.

He waved for his guards to leave.
He snorted twice. "It seems Yang Shilin also received Li Yi's letter. I just don't know if it's a letter telling him to kill me or to kill him."

Regardless of the reason, Yang Shilin did not send someone with a letter to explain the situation. Instead, he summoned him to Xianzhou, saying that it was to discuss important matters.

This made Tian Zan think that Yang Shilin wanted to strike first.

They were all survivors of chaotic times, and each one of them was more vigilant than the last.

"Steward, this means you can't go to Xianzhou. Be careful Yang Shilin might harm you."

Tian Zan burned the letter.

"Since Yang Shilin wants to invite me, how can I refuse?"

"Steward!"

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." He narrowed his eyes, his gaze filled with murderous intent.

On that day, Tian Zan only took one hundred cavalrymen to Xianzhou, taking the Sui-Zao Corridor.

Suizhou is bordered by Dahong Mountain to the south and Tongbai Mountain to the north. These two mountains stand side by side, separating the Nanyang Basin from the Jianghan Plain.

Although traveling along the Sui-Zao Corridor to Xianzhou involves a longer route, the advantage is that the road is flat and there is no need to cross the Tongbai Mountains.

Suizhou's terrain is like a dead end. Although it is easy to defend, it is also controlled by forces from all sides. The three passes of Yiyang to the east can also bypass the Suizhou-Zaozhuang corridor.

In recent years, Tian Zancheng has also been troubled by the terrain of Suizhou.

Throughout the journey, Tian Zan pondered repeatedly until he finally made up his mind when he saw Biyang City on the north bank of the Biyang River in Xianzhou.

Today, only one of him and Yang Shilin can live.

The south gate of Biyang City slowly opened.
The setting sun is like blood.

Tian Zan reined in the horse, and the hundred riders behind him stopped together.

"Please, Chief Secretary!"

At the city gate, Yang Shilin's soldiers clasped their fists, the armor plates on their bodies clanging loudly.

Tian Zan lightly kicked the horse's belly, urging it forward.

The knights behind him were stopped.

"The Minister of the Imperial Secretariat has ordered that, apart from Chief Clerk Chen Tian, ​​the rest of his entourage should be settled and rested at the post station outside the city."

Tian Zan turned his head to look at the captain of the guards, his eyes catching a glint of cold light in the shadows of the city walls.

"Leave ten men behind, the rest go to the post station to rest and wait." He looked directly at the captain. "I'll leave ten men to serve me. Surely my sworn brother won't object. Or you can go and ask him. I'll wait here for his reply."

The atmosphere was stagnant for a moment.

The captain had no choice but to go into the city to ask for instructions.

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the captain rode back on horseback, with a handprint on his face.

"Please, Chief Secretary Tian."

"Can I bring ten followers now?"

"The Minister of the Imperial Secretariat said it was acceptable."

Tian Zan gave a shout and led only ten riders through the barbican, across the inner city gate, and toward the residence of the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat.

In front of the office of the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat,

Sixteen armored warriors wielding halberds suddenly crossed their halberds to block the road.

"Insolence!" Tian Zan's personal guard captain roared, gripping the hilt of his sword.

"The Minister of the Imperial Secretariat has ordered that all those entering the residence must remove their armor and weapons," the chief of the guards said as he stepped out of the gate to the head of Tian Zan's personal guard.

Tian Zan chuckled twice, "When did my older brother become so rule-abiding?"

"Remove your armor!" Tian Zan gave the order, and his personal guards removed their armor from each other, and then removed his armor as well.

"Please, Chief Secretary, the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat has prepared a banquet in the rear office to welcome you and wash away the dust of your journey."

Yang Shilin prepared a lavish banquet.

"Brother, you're late, so you should be punished with three cups of wine!" Yang Shilin smiled and stood up to greet Tian Zan as he entered after removing his armor.

Tian Zan stepped forward with a smile.

"Brother, you've set up a trap for us today."

Yang Shilin's expression turned somewhat unpleasant. "What do you mean by that, my brother?"

Tian Zan took the wine cup, but didn't drink it. Instead, he toyed with the gilded silver cup. "Is this wine poisoned?"

"My dear brother, you jest."

Tian Zan chuckled a few times, "Brother, do you really want me dead that badly? What benefits did the Tang people offer you, granting you the imperial surname Li and making you the Prince of Chu?"

Yang Shilin's expression changed slightly. "Brother, you haven't even had a drink yet, why are you talking nonsense?"

Tian Zan, however, slammed the gilded silver cup in his hand onto the ground.
The wine glass fell to the ground.

Changes occurred suddenly.

The sound of crossbows rang out continuously outside, one after another, accompanied by cries of pain and agony.

Captain Dong Yi, wielding a blood-dripping sword, entered.

"The Minister of the Imperial Secretariat was executed after his personal guards rebelled."

Upon hearing this, Yang Shilin's expression brightened, and he smiled at Tian Zan, saying, "You shouldn't have come."

"Pfft!"

Before he could finish speaking, Dong Yi had already slashed out with his sword.

With a fierce slash,
Yang Shilin's head flew up.

Blood splattered.

Tian Zan looked at Yang Shilin's head rolling on the ground and sneered, "When you were drunk and raped Dong Yi's wife, you should have thought about today."

You even dared to embezzle the soldiers' pay; you must know you're not far from death.

Why do you think I dared to come alone? Because if I wanted to kill you, you would have lost your head long ago.

"Master Tian, ​​here's Yang Shilin's head." Dong Yi picked up Yang Shilin's head and handed it to Tian Zan. "What do we do next?"

"Send someone to submit a memorial to Xiangyang, stating that I am willing to lead the six general administrations and thirty-five prefectures of Xianzhou Road to submit to the Great Zheng!"

(End of this chapter)