Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 232 I can finally get a word in

Captain Han was willing to let Yue Qingfeng go, but Pei Yuan still felt that it was better for his younger brother to share the joys and sorrows with him.

So Pei Yuan continued to help his number one henchman grow, "So do you have an idea of ​​the specific plan?"

Wang Chang thought for a moment and carefully concluded, "The general idea of ​​Qian Hu is, first, to put pressure on Lu Wan, so that Lu Wan is forced to seek political alliances in a passive situation, and gradually take over Liu Jin's remaining faction. The other is to give Lu Wan hope and make him determined to resist the pressure."

Seeing that Pei Yuan was just listening, Wang Chang said, "I have been in Nanjing before, and I have had some dealings with the garrison eunuch Liu Lang. Liu Lang and Liu Jin are sworn brothers, so he is closer to me."

"When Liu Jin fell from power some time ago, Liu Lang was extremely panicked for a while, but he soon returned to normal. But he didn't reveal anything."

Wang Da Sima, who was also a remnant of Liu Jin, had some resentment in his words, "I think he has most likely sided with Zhang Yong. It's just that he is in Nanjing and he didn't want us to get involved, so he didn't say it."

Pei Yuan understood a little, "You want to reveal the news to Zhang Yong through Liu Lang."

Wang Chang replied, "Yes. It was reasonable for me to reveal the internal information of Liu Jin's remnants to his accomplice Liu Lang. Liu Lang secretly defected to Zhang Yong, so I had to deliberately curry favor with him."

"This kind of gossip from Nanjing is particularly easy to be believed by people."

Pei Yuan remained silent after hearing this.

Last year, he was still an indebted young man waiting for flexible employment.

Even if Pei Yuan thought of this opportunity, he would never have the chance to use it.

What is a mere Jinyi Qianhu?
Are you worthy of entering the door of the eunuch Liu Lang?

Even if I could meet Liu Lang, I don’t know how much effort it would take to successfully convince him.

No, he is worthy of being my number one henchman.

Pei Yuan then said, "Go on."

Wang Chang thought for a moment and said, "The situation over at Qingliu is more complicated. They are in serious conflict with our people. It is difficult to directly contact people like Yang Yiqing, Yang Tinghe, and Liang Chu. If we contact the people below, I am afraid it will be difficult to succeed."

Having said that, Wang Chang paused for a moment and looked at Pei Yuan, seeking off-field assistance.

Pei Yuan was stunned. Why are you looking at me?

I can still talk about making decisions, but if I really need to use connections, what can I accomplish with my status?

But Captain Pei was not a coward, and he criticized him immediately, "Don't give up so easily when you encounter difficulties. Look for the answers from yourself."

Wang Chang thought to himself, isn't this just trying to give up and wait for wise men to offer advice?

But thinking about Captain Pei's profound words, Wang Chang's mind flashed and he suddenly realized.

"I see. I didn't expect the commander to have thought of this. I now have an idea."

Pei Yuan suppressed his expression, his eyes were a little subtle, "Then tell me."

Wang Chang said, "The best candidate is the current Minister of War He Jian. When I was the Minister of War, I was considered a eunuch by many people because I was close to Liu Jin. As a result, when Liu Jin died, I was driven to Nanjing."

"It just so happened that the Bazhou army was ravaging the capital, and the power of the Ministry of War gradually increased. So the Qingliu who was in power asked He Jian, the then Minister of Justice, to take over the military power and replace me as the Minister of War."

"He Jian had suffered at the hands of Liu Jin in the past, and he hated Liu Jin to the core..."

After hearing this, Pei Yuan already understood why Wang Chang specifically mentioned He Jian.

He Jian, Liu Jin's mortal enemy, became the Minister of War by replacing Wang Chang, a member of Liu Jin's eunuch party.

But according to the current situation, after Lu Wan wins a great victory over the Bazhou army, the safest way to deal with him is to let He Jian vacate his position and promote Lu Wan, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, to become the new minister of the Ministry of War.

Lu Wan's promotion from the Minister of War to the Minister was a legitimate thing.

What's more, Lu Wanli had made great military achievements, so it would be inappropriate to give him another title of Shangshu when he was promoted.

Even if we don't consider the suitability issue, Lu Wan has made such a great contribution. Unless Lu Wan is promoted above his status and the Ministry of Personnel is petitioned, giving him any other official position would be considered suppressing a meritorious official.

In fact, this normal promotion should be a tacit result for the bigwigs in the court.

But if Lu Wan was the leader of Liu Jin's remnants, the matter would be different.

Especially for the current Minister of War He Jian.

I finally and happily drove away one of Liu Jin's eunuch factions, but in the end, another one of Liu Jin's eunuch factions came to replace me. Didn't I spend the past two years happily in vain?

So which clean official had the biggest reaction to the whole incident? It must be He Jian.

He Jian alone is capable enough to start a team fight with Lu Wan.

"Do you have a way?" Pei Yuan continued to ask.

Wang Chang was somewhat confident. "Before I went to Nanjing, I worked in the Ministry of War for a period of time. I still have some people there. I can pass on a message to He Jian."

Pei Yuan remained silent, "Go on."

"Uh." Wang Chang was at a loss for words. "I can't find a suitable way to contact the emperor. Unless we make it known to everyone, but that goes against our original intention."

Pei Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this.

Damn it, I finally get a say.

Pei Yuan let out a long breath, and then pretended to be calm and said, "Among the generals under Lu Wan's command this time, there are two people we should pay attention to. One is Jiang Bin from the Border Army, and the other is Xu Tai from the Beijing Army. It will be enough if we let these two people get wind of it."

These two men were extremely brave. When the merits were evaluated after the war, they were adopted as sons by Zhu Houzhao and their surnames were changed to Zhu.

Afterwards, Xu Tai led the Ganyong Battalion and Jiang Bin led the Shenwei Battalion, forming Zhu Houzhao's most core armed forces.

If you want to get straight to the point, what better channel is there than through these two people?

In addition, one of these two men belonged to the Beijing army and the other to the border army, and both worked under Lu Wan, and were even Zhu Houzhao's adopted sons, so what they said to the emperor seemed very real.

Wang Chang heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing this, without even doubting or explaining.

He asked Pei Yuan, "I wonder if Qian Hu has anything else to add?"

Pei Yuan thought about it and said seriously, "We need to add the most important point to form a closed loop."

Wang Chang had already been inspired by Pei Yuan, and he asked for advice while thinking, "Which point?"

Pei Yuan said, "You."

"Me?" Wang Chang was a little confused.

He never expected that he had something to do with this.

Wang Chang asked blankly, "What's wrong with me?"

Pei Yuan looked at Wang Chang and ruthlessly revealed a fact, "Because you are the de facto leader of the eunuch party now."

When Wang Chang heard this, his body swayed and he became dazed.

It took a while to react.

Oh my god! It’s really like that!
It was indeed the people who wronged Lu Wan who realized how innocent Lu Wan was.

He wiped the sweat off his face and replied, "I know what to do." Pei Yuan saw the commanders who were busy around the fire began to look over here frequently, so he said to Wang Chang, "Let's stop here first. We will go our separate ways tomorrow. I'll go see Eunuch Gu first. If there are any changes to the plan, I'll let Chen Toutie or Cheng Leixiang notify you."

Wang Chang has communicated with Pei Yuan a lot these days, and he has a rough idea of ​​the future plan. "Okay. Huai'an Prefecture belongs to Nanzhi. More than 100,000 bandit troops have passed through the border, and more than 200,000 imperial troops are stationed here. I, the Nanjing Minister of War, am still qualified to ask questions. For a while, I will not leave Xuzhou."

The two returned to the campfire.

Xu Feng, the Hangzhou Vanguard Commander who was closest to the scene, enthusiastically handed over a small plate of mutton. "It's just been sliced, and it's not cold yet."

Pei Yuan hurriedly took it and thanked him.

Xu Feng asked in a low voice as if jokingly, "Captain Pei is a member of the Jinyiwei, and he can't get along with the Grand Marshal Nan. He has been gone for so long, is there any benefit?"

Pei Yuan said casually, "The factory and the guards are one."

Pei Yuan paused here, then picked up the cold wine beside him and took a sip.

Xu Feng quickly picked up a wine pot from the ashes in front of him and handed it to Pei Yuan, saying, "There is warm wine. Drink from this pot."

Pei Yuan thanked him, poured the wine, and then followed suit, pulling out some still hot ashes from the fire in front of him and warming the wine pot with them.

Seeing Pei Yuan raise his glass, Xu Feng also picked up a glass of wine and clinked it with him, pretending to be intimate and said, "When the banquet started just now, I heard Brother Pei say that he was going to meet Gu Dayong. Could it be that Brother Pei didn't know that Gu Dayong had lost his power?"

After hearing this, Pei Yuan looked at Xu Feng.

But he couldn't tell whether Xu Feng was really talkative or had other purposes.

He thought about it and still said the same vague words.

"Since the Imperial Guards and the Imperial Household are one, there are some things that you outsiders can talk about, but we, the Imperial Guards, don't have the freedom to choose."

Xu Feng pretended to be puzzled and said, "Then Captain Pei should also go to pay a visit to Eunuch Lu. Eunuch Lu is now in charge of military affairs and is in power. If he really suppresses the rebellion in Bazhou, then Gu Dayong and Eunuch Gu will probably never have a chance to turn things around."

Pei Yuan seemed to be a little anxious about the question, and instead of answering, he asked, "Left Censor-in-Chief Lu Wan is also in Xuzhou, why is Commander Xu still entangled with the Southern Grand Marshal?"

Pei Yuan's rhetorical question was actually very weak. As a garrison in Nanzhi, it was of course primarily responsible to the Nanjing Ministry of War.

After Pei Yuan finished speaking, he seemed to realize that he was powerless to fight back, and he muttered in a self-deprecating way, "That's right. As for Lu Wan, the Southern Sima also has to rely on him as the backbone."

Xu Feng was secretly delighted after hearing this, and he pondered the meaning of Pei Yuan's words.

When he came to his senses, the conversation had already stopped. Pei Yuan was drinking by himself and had no intention of talking again.

Xu Feng didn't do anything too obvious and started drinking with others again.

Early the next morning, Pei Yuan took his small team and left the team which was mainly composed of soldiers from the Nanzhi Guard.

When passing by the post station, Pei Yuan did not stop, but hurried into the city of Xuzhou.

The city of Xuzhou was once briefly captured by the Bazhou army, and the city showed signs of being dead.

The Bazhou army did not kill people indiscriminately in Xuzhou, but as Pei Yuan had judged before, many people, even those who looked respectable, were struggling to survive and could not withstand any impact.

Taking just a little bit of wealth away from their lives is enough to bring their balanced economic structure crashing down.

What's more, this time Xuzhou was captured by the Bazhou Army, which was in the most desperate situation and in need of supplies.

Pei Yuan didn't have much opinion on this.

See what problem it can solve?
Pei Yuan and his men quickly found an inn that was barely still in business.

Seeing that it was relatively clean, I didn't make a fuss about it.

There were quite a few people in their group, so they booked two courtyards.

Cheng Leixiang and Chen Toutie were already very experienced and were busy arranging accommodation for everyone.

This is the first time in recent days that we have entered the city for repairs, and everyone is quite excited.

Pei Yuan hesitated whether to take Sun Keding with him, but finally decided to wait.

If Gu Dayong got mad when he saw Sun Keding, even if he changed his mind temporarily and said that he was brought here as a gift, he would not be able to communicate normally with the furious Gu Dayong.

He simply decided to meet Gu Dayong first to see which way the wind was blowing.

As for Sun Keding, he has been very honest these days.

Pei Yuan had a complete hold on him, and he no longer had the spirit and energy of a Jinshi graduate and former county magistrate.

After a simple rest for the night, early the next morning, Pei Yuan cleaned himself up, put on his neat official uniform, and went to visit Gu Dayong with Chen Toutie and two personal guards.

I don't know whether it was because she was afraid of the other tigers in the palace, or because she was afraid that the emperor still had feelings for her.

Lu Ting was quite polite to Gu Dayong who refused to leave.

At least I didn't think of any shady tricks to eliminate him completely.

Gu Dayong is now temporarily staying in the City God Temple in Xuzhou City. Although he is poor, he has a dozen servants serving him.

After hearing that Pei Yuan was seeking an audience outside, the listless Gu Dayong immediately thought of this person and asked the eunuch who came to report, "Is it the Pei Yuan who owed me 29,500 taels of silver?"

The eunuch guarding the gate was stunned and thought to himself, no one said anything.

Gu Dayong had been so bored these past few days that he didn't know what to do. When he heard that someone came to see him, and it was the guy who owed him nearly thirty thousand taels, Gu Dayong immediately became much more energetic, "Go and bring the person here!"

The eunuch guarding the gate quickly welcomed Pei Yuan in.

Pei Yuan sighed secretly. Among these famous eunuchs, he was the only one who had a certain status in Gu Dayong's heart.

The main reason was that he owed him a large sum of money.

Pei Yuan did think about whether he should take advantage of Gu Dayong's difficult situation and find an opportunity to design some unexpected events to get rid of this biggest creditor.

But Pei Yuan thought about it for a long time but still couldn't figure out the most core question.

Why me?

Why would I hastily end the top-level relationship that I spent thirty thousand taels of silver to build? Moreover, I didn't spend real money, but an IOU...

If we trace the whole thing from the root, it is equivalent to Pei Yuan getting a real job for free from Gu Dayong with an IOU without spending a penny.

No loss at all.

Maybe someone would say that this IOU has to be repaid eventually, isn’t it equivalent to spending another 30,000 taels of silver?
Here, the core idea of ​​Pei Yuan's operation is reflected.

If you really gave Gu Dayong 30,000 taels, he might remember you for a while. If you owed Gu Dayong 30,000 taels, he might remember you for life.

Although thirty thousand taels of silver is a lot, what if you don’t plan to pay it all back?

If I could pay back a few hundred or a thousand taels of silver every year, I could get the protection of a vice-ministerial level official like Gu Dayong.

Pei Yuan could only say that this was totally worth it!

(End of this chapter)