Chapter 97 Scales on the belly
"You mean, Li Yan secretly hid so much grain and Xuanjia in Ji County in order to overthrow the Prime Minister's Palace by force?"
Listening to the revelation about the general Li Yan sent to Ji County, Ma Su's face suddenly turned ugly.
At first, he thought that Li Yan's purpose was simply greed, and he planned to embezzle grain and then resell it. However, when the general confessed, Ma Su realized that he was very wrong!
Li Yan's purpose was never for that little money, and he planned to launch a coup by force!
Li Yan has outstanding abilities, which is an undeniable fact.
At that time, the thieves Ma Qin, Gao Sheng and others raised troops in Li County and recruited tens of thousands of people to rebel. It was Li Yan who personally led a surprise attack with 5,000 troops and defeated the rebel bandits in just a few days.
Because of this, Liu Bei listed Li Yan as his Tuogu minister before his death, and he and Zhuge Liang jointly assisted Liu Chan.
His ability is indeed first-rate. You can see how good he is from the fact that his various corruptions in Longyou did not have much impact.
Ordinary corrupt officials in such a poor place can only squeeze out a few ounces of oil and make people angry.
In addition, Li Yan also advocated the implementation of land equalization, which made many leaders of Longyou and Guizhou think highly of him.
Therefore, Ma Su's idea was just to recover the grain embezzled by Li Yan, and then be done with it. You can retaliate as you please when Li Yan comes back, as long as it doesn't affect my farmland and the people.
But now the situation has changed. Apparently what Li Yan did was a little bit out of line!
Ma Su suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. This was not simple corruption.
In fact, Ma Di should have thought about it a long time ago. You must know that in history, Li Yan's fellow countryman Chen Zhen commented that Li Yan had "scales on his belly" and warned Zhuge Liang that Li Yan might have a military coup at any time.
At that time, when Li Yan was only in charge of military affairs in Jiangzhou and did not have much power, Chen Zhen expressed that Li Yan might stage a coup. Now, Li Yan has 20,000 troops and oversees the affairs of the five counties in Longyou.
Although Wu Yi, Wei Yan, Yang Yi and others exercised control, the restrictions were limited, and they were all monitored by Li Yan. If Li Yan wants to overthrow the Prime Minister's Office in a coup, these three people may not be able to restrict his actions!
Prime Minister, Prime Minister, what kind of monster have you unleashed!
"How does Li Yan plan to overthrow the Prime Minister's Office in a coup? With less than 20,000 troops in his headquarters, he can't reach Hanzhong via the Qishan Road. The Prime Minister probably knows about it."
"There are tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in Shu. How can Li Yan be able to resist the prime minister with his own strength?" Ma Di looked solemn, grabbed the general by the collar, and asked coldly.
Ma Di found it hard to believe that Li Yan had such courage, considering that this was Longyou, not Shuzhong. The prime minister's prestige in Shu is so high, so he wants to make a coup just by hiding a few soldiers and grain for himself?
Li Yan isn't that stupid, right?
"The commander just said that if he can win the hearts of the people of Longyou, he will be able to ask the prime minister for the position of the Three Dukes. Once the prime minister sends someone to replace him, he will take action in Hanzhong." The general waved his hands repeatedly and explained, for fear that Ma Su misunderstood.
"But I don't know the specific situation. I'm just a small official and it's impossible for me to understand it in such detail."
Although he is Li Yan's confidant, he is only a minor official. Li Yan would definitely not reveal so many details of the coup to him, and only a few of Li Yan's close associates would know.
Even he knew that Li Yan hid grain, armor and soldiers in order to overthrow Zhuge Liang.
"Liang Mo Xuan Jia, where are Li Yan hiding?" Ma Su squinted his eyes, a hint of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes, and asked through gritted teeth.
"They are all hiding in the manors of the wealthy families in Ji County, hiding in the name of the wealthy families." The general replied quickly,
Li Shi... Li Yan said that he was a minister of Tuogu of the Han Dynasty, and he was an important minister of the Han Dynasty along with Zhuge Liang. Now that Zhuge Liang has all the power to attack dissidents, he has long been dissatisfied. "
"He promised that if the big families in Hebei County support him and enable him to succeed in the coup, his family's filial piety, honesty and talents will be able to serve in his government..."
After listening to this explanation, Ma Su quickly understood something.
Zhuge Liang has a stable character, always puts the interests of the country first in everything he does, and does not like to go to extremes. If Li Yan can successfully win over Longyou and gain prestige by implementing the Land Equalization Law, there is a high probability that Prime Minister Sangong will not refuse his request.
If Li Yan takes office as Sangong, someone must lead troops and horses to replace Long You. If Li Yan sees the right time and suddenly launches an attack in Hanzhong...
Although Li Yan has declined over the years, his prestige still remains. If he really succeeds, he can easily trigger a civil war if the Dongzhou faction responds with a rallying cry.
"Fuck! Li Yan is so courageous!" Ma Di took a breath and his face became extremely ugly.
Who would have thought that a governor assigned by the prime minister to guard Longyou would start planning how to overthrow the prime minister from the first day he took office.
Li Yan has scales on his abdomen. This assessment is true. Chen Zhen is really good at reading people.
"General, I have told you everything I know. I was only coerced and not an accomplice!" After the general finished speaking, he continued to beg for mercy from Ma Su or the prime minister in his imagination.
Even if he participated in the preparations for the coup and did not report it, it is not yet a coup. The principal culprit must die, but we, the accomplices, can we be lenient?
"I am not responsible for your execution. You can tell the Prime Minister yourself later." Ma Di shook his head, feeling pressure rising all of a sudden.
I wanted to catch a corrupt official, but I didn't expect to find a den of rebels.
"But if you cooperate with us and find all the grain, fodder, and armor that Li Yan has hidden, I won't be able to consider it..."
"The general asked me how to cooperate with you, and I have no problem with you!" The general was overjoyed and quickly answered.
"I know all about the location of Li Yan's hidden black armor, and I promise to lead the way for the general!"
After hearing this, Ma Di was silent for a moment and swallowed the second half of the sentence "Let you die quickly".
There is an unexpected gain, so let’s wait and see.
I have to say that Li Yan is not only bold, but also has a big heart. The location where Xuanjia's grain was hidden was basically known to his close friends, and it was hidden on the territory of a local wealthy family.
It can be said that these wealthy families are playing with fire with Li Yan!
Soon, Ma Su led his men to raid the farms of several wealthy families outside the city.
When the Shu army rushed in, private soldiers from aristocratic families jumped out and tried to resist. Although it was meaningless in front of Ma Su's hundreds of battles, Ma Su still looked solemn.
It was too common for wealthy families in this era to have private soldiers. Any wealthy family would have dozens or hundreds of private soldiers.
In such a small farm, there are more than a dozen well-equipped private soldiers. This situation has a huge impact on social security and can easily lead to instability at the grassroots level.
It seems that the Chinese method is not perfect enough!
After killing the private soldiers, the Shu army broke into the farm and quickly found the hidden grain and Xuanjia! And there was more than one collar, just one farm Ma Su found more than 20 collars of black armor!