Chapter 1036: Support from all sides
After a busy night, by the dawn of the next day, the rebels had basically taken control of Hulao City.
Although Sima Xiaonan had not yet thought of defecting to the Western Wei Dynasty, now that the matter was over, even his most trusted confidants had already taken practical actions, so he complied. As Pei Zao said, instead of living in fear in the country and worrying about persecution every day, it is better to simply go to a better place.
As the morning dawned, Sima Xiaonan was ready to follow Pei Zao's suggestion and go out to inspect and appease the people who were motivating the counselors in the city. But before leaving, he had a sudden thought: "Since we have to break with the Qi family now, Of course we must give up decisively! Now that the eldest princess is still in the inner palace, should she be brought to death in front of the army? "
The relationship between his husband and wife has always been bad. For this reason, his wife, Princess Dong'an, often came to the Lord Qi to complain. In order to save his own life, he had no choice but to be polite and courteous to the lady.
But now that he has decided to join the Western Wei Dynasty, he no longer needs to take his wife's status as the eldest princess seriously, so Sima Xiaonan planned to take this opportunity to kill her with one sword and vent the anger he had accumulated for many years.
"After all, the eldest princess is the lord's wife, and she has not committed any misconduct. Although the current situation in the city has been initially settled, the human relationship is still not stable. The current plan especially needs to show kindness and leniency to the public, and it is not appropriate to announce it with violence. When the situation is stabilized, everything will take care of itself. Decide as the Lord wishes."
Although Pei Zao had always known what Sima Xiaonan's nature was, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart after hearing his words. He hurriedly spoke out to dissuade him from engaging in such unnecessary drama, so as not to expose his cold and cruel temperament. , but it is not conducive to uniting the masses.
"As Zhong Bing said, let this evil woman live for a few more days."
Hearing that Pei Zao did not support him in killing his wife and swearing the oath, Sima Xiao was stumped and did not continue to insist on his opinion. He just said bitterly.
In order to create a heroic image in front of others, Sima Xiaonan specially took a pair of armor and put it on himself, and then went to the front hall surrounded by his cronies.
At this time, in the front hall of the state capital, Zheng Quan and others who had joined the city to cooperate with Zheng Ziyun, the former state government official, were already waiting here. When they saw Sima Xiaonan entering the hall, they all stood up to greet him.
It has to be said that although Sima Xiaonan's character is a little hard to describe, his appearance and conversation are indeed good. Now that he is wearing military armor, he looks even more heroic.
Although he has been in a passive and confused state since the incident, after recognizing the reality, he changed into a wise man in front of everyone, and all Pei Zao's actions were entirely due to him. His instructions were also highly praised by everyone.
After a brief exchange, it was revealed that the Western Wei Dynasty had been infiltrating personnel in Northern Yuzhou for a long time. Among the state officials, in addition to Zheng Ziyun, a member of the army from Cangcao, there were also several subordinates who also came from local powerful families. Already secretly defected to the Western Wei Dynasty.
And this time, in addition to the more than a thousand people who were escorted into the city by Pei Zao, there were also hundreds of disciples lurking in the market, distributed among the market warehouses, each with his or her identity concealed.
"Tang Gong once raised uprisings in Northern Yuzhou, and he also had many regrets and hopes for Hulao City. He invested in all kinds of personnel arrangements regardless of the cost, but it was a pity that they were not successful. Fortunately, I have given up my evil ways and returned to the right path. "In the city of Juyi, great things have been accomplished. When this good news comes to the court and is reported to the Duke of Tang, the Duke of Tang will definitely be overjoyed and will praise the envoy greatly. The people will also benefit from the good deeds, so that the king will be greatly rewarded for his righteous deeds!"
Zheng Quan clasped his fists at Sima Xiaonan and smiled, and Sima Xiaonan smiled expectantly after hearing his words: "I have admired Duke Tang for a long time. When the thieves were ordered to leave the town in chaos, the law was already in effect. I was afraid that my plan would be crude and my actions would be too hasty, so that my career would be difficult to achieve. Fortunately, things are going smoothly now, which is gratifying.”
After boasting, Sima Xiaonan quickly asked: "Although the matter here has been settled now, after the news leaks out, it will inevitably lead to counterattacks by enemy forces from Luozhou, Heyang and other places. Although Hulao City is strong at the moment, There are only a few soldiers. If we don’t have a strong army to support us, we may not be able to survive for a long time! Please tell me, Zheng Lang, how will Wei support me?”
"Please rest assured, sir. My father has already led five thousand elite troops from the north of Xiangcheng to defend the city. Hezhou, Guangzhou and other people will also support him."
After Zheng Quan heard this, he quickly said: "The people from Xiangcheng, Yichuan, Luyang and others are just the first batch of reinforcements. When the news of the incident is sent back to the court, a large army will be mobilized in the country to respond! Tang Gong's past achievements in Heluo, Your Majesty must have heard about it. It is still unknown whether the thieves will dare to fight. Even if they dare to fight, it will only be another defeat! "
"That's right, that's right. The many debates in the country about Heluo have resulted in more defeats than victory, so that the generals in the country can't help but change their minds when talking about Li and Tang Gong. If they fight again, they will definitely bring shame on themselves!"
After Sima Xiaonan heard this, he was also quite excited. Of course he had heard about Li Boshan's several great victories in Heluo.
The reason why he was so easily persuaded by Pei Zao to defect to the Western Wei Dynasty had something to do with this. Otherwise, even if he decided to defect to the Wei Dynasty, what he was thinking about was to lead his troops and abandon the city before the country could react. , dare not stay and defend the city.
If possible, Sima Xiaonan certainly wanted to keep his status as a feudal official, and did not want to abandon the city and flee to Guanzhong to become a wealthy idler in name only. Therefore, when he heard that the Western Wei Dynasty had a relatively complete response plan, he naturally also Feeling at ease, he led a group of government officials to inspect the city.
Since everything in the city went smoothly this time, no large-scale wars or riots occurred, and the control of the city would be more favorable in the future, so the news of the accident was not conveyed immediately.
However, Hulao City is located at an important transportation hub between the east and west, and a large number of people and goods pass through it every day. Even if there is no conclusive news, once the flow of people is blocked, the surroundings will definitely be able to notice the clues very quickly.
The first person to discover that something was wrong in Hulao City was not the governor of Luozhou, but the Baigu City garrison who was closest to Hulao City. The reason why he discovered that the situation in Hulao City had changed was due to some accidental factors, not because of The contact was official, but through a private matter.
There are often a large amount of silk items in the garrison areas of the Northern Qi Dynasty, which are the rations and military supplies of the garrison officers themselves. These military supplies are usually just piled in warehouses, but some generals with quick thinking will find ways to loan out these military supplies to make profits. The targets of the loans are usually wealthy households and merchants around the town.
As an important logistics city, Hulao City also has a high demand for financing from the private sector. The wealthy businessmen in the city have large transaction volumes and receive payment in a timely manner, so they are naturally high-quality customers. Therefore, the Baigu City garrison simply loaned out the military supplies, silk and silk in Hulao City, earning a considerable amount of interest every month.
But this time at the end of the month, when it was time to collect the interest, the garrison general sent his troops to Hulao to collect the interest, but they were driven away by arrows fired by the defenders. When those soldiers came back to report, the garrison general was furious and ordered another order. Many people went there, but soon they discovered that Hulao City was occupied by thieves, so they no longer cared about collecting debts, hurriedly returned to the garrison, and quickly sent someone to report the matter to Jin Yong City.
In the sixth year of Tianbao's Western Wei Dynasty, the former governor of Luozhou suddenly died in Mangshan. Later, the former Sima of Luozhou, Dugu Yongye, was recommended by Duan Shao, king of Pingyuan, as the governor of Luozhou and took charge of Jinyong City.
After Dugu Yongye learned about this, he immediately panicked. While sending scouts to the direction of Hulao City to check and confirm, he also notified all the city garrison under his rule to be more vigilant and be on guard. Of course, he did not forget to The matter continued to be reported to the higher-level Heyang Xingtai.
At this time, the personnel affairs of Heyang Xingtai were relatively chaotic. It happened that the personnel arrangements for the handover between the old and the new were in a state of flux. A few days ago, the imperial court ordered that Xianyang Wang Hu Luguang be appointed as Heyang Xingtai to replace Fufeng Wang Ke Zhu Hunyuan.
Such important personnel appointments cannot be completed by a simple handover. It should be noted that the feudal officials of the Northern Qi Dynasty did not take office alone. Each subordinate would lead a large number of subordinate disciples to be placed in the military government, so as to facilitate the control of local military and political power.
Heyang is the most important river defense town in the Northern Qi Dynasty, and Zhu Hunyuan has been in Heyang for many years, so naturally his confidants have arranged everything. He is about to leave office now, but these confidants cannot be abandoned directly, nor can they all be taken away, otherwise the entire Heyang military defense will be paralyzed for a period of time.
Therefore, who should be retained, who should be taken away, and what kind of job adjustments should be made, all require careful consultation and discussion between Zhu Hunyuan and his successor Hu Luguang. If both parties have a gentle and friendly attitude and know how to be humble to each other, then the communication process will naturally be very smooth.
Unfortunately, Zhu Hunyuan and Hu Luguang were not very friendly before, but they still had some hatred. During the war in the sixth year of Tianbao, Li Boshan besieged Jinyong City, and Hu Luguang came to Heyang to ask for reinforcements. However, Zhu Hunyuan focused on the overall situation and did not send troops, and also imprisoned Hu Luguang.
Therefore, in Hu Luguang's heart, brother Ke Zhu Hunyuan also needs to bear some responsibility for the death of his father, so he came to Heyang to replace Ke Zhu Hunyuan this time. One of the principles he holds is that Ke Zhu Hunyuan No one will be left in the student department!
This attitude naturally made Zhu Hunyuan a little unacceptable. He himself was old and could return to the court to support his family, but the generals under his command still needed to make contributions and make a living to support their families. After so many years of operating in Heyang, the result was that Who can bear to be bald by someone?
Therefore, although Zhu Hunyuan moved out of Xingtai in accordance with the imperial edict, he still stayed in Heyang Beicheng and instructed his generals not to hand over specific military battalions. Even if Hu Luguang wants to appoint or remove some important positions, he still needs to report to the court. Whether the court will agree or not is another matter, and there is some wrangling between them.
In this atmosphere, Sima Xiaonan, the governor of Northern Yuzhou, was reported to Heyang Beicheng on suspicion of defecting to the enemy based on the news of Hulao City. Hu Luguang, who had just taken over and had not yet straightened out his personnel relations, and Hu Luguang, who had just abdicated but had not yet straightened out their personnel relations, Zhu Hunyuan was a little dumbfounded when he refused to hand over power.
There were disagreements again about what to do next. Hu Luguang's idea was to attack as soon as possible regardless of whether it was true or not, and control all the personnel in Hulao City first to prevent the situation from getting out of control and causing a catastrophe.
However, Zhu Hunyuan believed that Yuzhou in the north was not under the jurisdiction of Heyang Xingtai, and even if there were changes, he would have to report to the court, so he did not want Heyang to send troops to intervene immediately.
Especially in his opinion, if the matter is true, then the situation in Northern Yuzhou is not the focus. The most important thing is whether the Western Wei Dynasty will raise a large number of troops to respond and repeat the Battle of Mangshan. Therefore, Heyang must retain heavy troops to wait for subsequent changes, and must not act rashly.
Although Zhu Hunyuan has resigned, the generals in Heyang still mostly follow his orders. Since he has made this statement, the generals have a relatively negative attitude towards sending troops. If Hu Luguang continues to insist, he can only lead his confidants there. In desperation, he can only report the matter to the court quickly.