Chapter 579: Burning East City

Chang'an Pingkangfang is famous for its foreign population settlement. It is also the largest entertainment venue in Chang'an. It has hundreds of brothels, restaurants, and inns. Every year during the imperial examination, more than 100,000 scholars from all over the country gather here. Even if they usually live in a long-term population, it is the largest house with the largest population in Chang'an City. It is mixed with fish and dragons, and it is extremely difficult for the government to manage. There is a brothel called Qiancuitou in Pingkangfang. It is an old brothel with a history of nearly a hundred years. It has a very good reputation and is one of the best in Pingkangfang. However, just this spring, the brothel secretly changed its owner.

In the evening, the flow of people in Pingkang began to increase, and the business of major brothels began to improve. There were crowds in front of Qiancuihu's gate. Most of them were children of wealthy families with bright clothes. Several madams smiled like flowers and enthusiastically attracted customers at the door. The illuminated in Qiancui Building was brightly lit, and the lobby was very lively.

On the fifth floor of Qiancui Building, a corner of the curtains of a window was slightly pulled up. A middle-aged man was looking downstairs. The main building of Qiancui Building was very high, which is one of its major features. You can see a long distance from the top floor. Any movements in Pingkangfang can be seen clearly from here.

The man put down the curtains, turned around and slowly said, "This is the command of the Grandmaster. Do you dare not obey it?"

This middle-aged man is Zhang Tongru who just came from Youzhou. He was originally An Lushan's intelligence leader, but he was dismissed by An Lushan because of the explosion in the gunpowder factory and sent to Chang'an to carry out a plan to retaliate against Li Qing'an. Zhang Tongru also made a beautiful and generous move. The burning of the Chang'an military weapon supervision warehouse in the 12th year of Tianbao was his masterpiece, and hundreds of thousands of weapons were burned.

It was precisely because of the success of military weapon surveillance that Zhang Tongru was promoted to the head of intelligence by An Lushan and became one of his confidants. Although Zhang Tongru had been replaced by Gao Shang, An Lushan still gave him a chance to go to Beijing to plan a revenge against Li Qing'an. An Lushan was full of anger, and if he did not leave, it would definitely affect the morale of the Yan army. An Lushan attached great importance to this matter and sent Zhang Tongru to take charge of the security power.

There were two other two in the room, one was Xu Yingjie, who was An Lushan's intelligence chief in Chang'an. He was over thirty years old, with a square face and big ears, and his military appearance was still there, and he looked handsome. He was originally An Lushan's personal military captain. He was appointed to Chang'an at the end of last year. This time, Zhang Tongru came to Chang'an and actually replaced his position. Although it was only temporary, this matter still made Xu Yingjie extremely uncomfortable. He had a bad relationship with Zhang Tongru in the past, but now his immediate boss has been replaced by nobleness, and he will not sell Zhang Tongru's account. Zhang Tongru put on the airs of his superiors as an airs, used An Lushan to suppress others, and used tiger skins as a flag, and ordered him to plan a revenge immediately. Although Xu Yingjie did not dare to object explicitly, he resisted with silence. He sat against a corner against the wall, with a gloomy face without saying a word.

Another one is Gu Wendao, who is the big shopkeeper of Qiancui Brothel, in his early forties, is white and fat, with a harmonious face. He is not from a military background or a civil service system in Fan Yang, but An Lushan's personal aide. An Lushan opened a large money house in Luoyang, and this Gu Wendao was responsible for the management. This time, An Lushan bought Qiancui Building. On the one hand, in order to make money, and on the other hand, it was also set up as an intelligence base in Chang'an. This Gu Wendao was responsible for both sides.

It is precisely because Gu Wendao does not belong to the two major military and political systems that he became the lubricant for the contradiction between Zhang Tongru and Xu Yingjie.

Seeing the atmosphere in the room tense, he smiled and smoothed out and said, "General Zhang doesn't know that Chang'an is no longer as easy as before two years. Now, in addition to Qianniu Guard, he has also established an inner guard. It is almost impossible to go to the imperial city to do things. Commander Xu was worried that if he failed, he would destroy the intelligence network we had finally established, which would be more than worth the loss."

Zhang Tongru didn't buy this explanation, and he snorted heavily, "Hmph! Can you be sad no matter how hard I was, can I burn the military weapon warehouse? I can do it, why can't you do it?"

"Yeah?"

Xu Yingjie, who had been silent, sarcastically said: "Then I don't know. When the Huaqing Palace was attacked, hundreds of elite soldiers were killed or injured. I don't know whose masterpiece it was?"

The disastrous defeat of the Huaqing Palace has always been a great humiliation for Zhang Tongru. He did not allow others to mention it. Xu Yingjie's words just hit his sore spot. Zhang Tongru was furious and stepped forward and angrily said, "The person with the surname Xu, this matter is the order of the Grand Marshal. You have to do it, and you have to do it if you don't. If you dare to refuse again, I can kill your head immediately!"

"I didn't say I didn't do it, but if I wanted me to do it, I had to do it as I wanted. You must not interfere, otherwise I can give way to you, and if I fail, it has nothing to do with me."

"you....."

The two of them refused to give in to each other like a cockfighting, and they were stalemate. This was actually an inappropriate way for An Lushan to deal with it. He appointed Zhang Tongru to Changjianquan to be responsible for this revenge operation, but at the same time, he did not remove Xu Yingjie from his official position, or secretly gave him an order to cooperate with him. An Lushan did not issue this order. In this way, two intelligence leaders appeared in Chang'an and did not buy each other.

But An Lushan gave Gu Wendao a secret order to monitor Zhang Tongru's actions. Gu Wendao also knew that An Lushan had handed over this task to Zhang Tongru. If it really started, it would probably be unfavorable to Xu Yingjie. Zhang Tongru would really kill Xu Yingjie. He had a good personal relationship with Xu Yingjie, so he stepped forward and persuaded: "It's better to do this. Since General Zhang came by the order of King Yan, General Xu would retreat temporarily. For the sake of the overall situation, everyone should take a step back!"

When Xu Yingjie saw Gu Wen Shi wink at him, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart. He knew that he had lost this time. He took out the gold medal from his arms, slapped the table heavily, got up and left the room.

Zhang Tongru picked up the gold medal without hesitation and looked carefully. He couldn't help but laugh proudly. With this gold medal, all the three hundred spies from Chang'an would belong to him.

Gu Wendao bowed and smiled, "Congratulations to General Zhang for regaining power. I wonder if General Zhang has a specific plan?"

"have!"

Zhang Tongru took out a booklet and sighed, "I must make achievements within three days by commanding the Grandmaster. It is very stressful. I have already had a preliminary idea. Manager Gu might as well discuss it with me!"

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Xu Yingjie handed the gold medal for the dispatch of troops to Zhang Tongru, and immediately left Qiancuilou. He rode his horse alone on the street and felt extremely disappointed. In fact, he also knew that An Lushan gave the power of this action to Zhang Tongru. Although An Lushan did not let him delegate power, the word "full authority" in the order was enough to explain everything. This full authority includes Zhang Tongru's right to kill him.

Xu Yingjie was not reluctant to give up this power, but he opposed An Lushan's action. If he made this decision just for revenge, it would be too rash. More importantly, this decision would probably expose their power in Chang'an and be uprooted by Li Qing'an. Xu Yingjie was full of worry. Zhang Tongru was arrogant and fully exposed his incompetence in the failure of Huaqing Palace. How could he be able to fight against the Northern Tang Intelligence Hall, which had been upgraded to the inner guard?

The glory of the burning of the military weapon treasury that Zhang Tongru kept saying was just because Li Longji was in power. And if they had not been helped by Ji Wen, the Minister of War, at that time, how could they have entered the imperial city? Now he still uses this matter as his capital to show off. The general is also confused, so why can't he see through this incompetent Zhang Tongru?

Xu Yingjie is from Yizhou, Hebei Province. He is from a poor family. He joined the army at the age of 16. He saved An Lushan's life in Tianbao's three-year battle against the Khitans. He was incorporated into the personal army by An Lushan. In the tenth year, Tianbao became An Lushan's personal army captain. He was loyal to An Lushan, but two years ago he was excluded by another An Lushan's confidant Li Zhuer and lost An Lushan's absolute trust. In February this year, he was sent to Chang'an to form An Lushan's intelligence agency. With his efforts of more than half a year, the Chang'an intelligence agency began to take shape and formed a scale of 350 people.

Now An Lushan's order made him lose everything, and Xu Yingjie's heart was filled with dissatisfaction and loss.

Xu Yingjie lives in Jing'anfang, about seven or eight miles away from Pingkangfang. Xu Yingjie was a little worried that Zhang Tongru would not let him go after he took power. He decided to leave Chang'an for a while and avoid the limelight for a while. Xu Yingjie hurried back to his residence. His residence was a small house with four or five houses. In addition to him, there was also an old servant who cleaned his room for him. Xu Yingjie had not yet got married, and only one old mother lived in his hometown.

He pushed open the gate of the yard. The yard was very quiet. When he came back, he always saw the old servant cleaning up in the yard, but today he was not seen.

"Uncle Xia! Uncle Xia!"

He shouted twice, but no one answered. According to time, it should be that his old servant went out to buy vegetables and had not returned, but his professional sensitivity immediately made Xu Yingjie feel something wrong. He turned around and was about to run away. The moment he turned around, his head suddenly hurt. He felt that there seemed to be someone behind him, and he fainted on the ground.

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After a while, Xu Yingjie finally woke up. The dazzling light made him unable to open his eyes and narrowed into a slit. He faintly found himself in a wide room, tied with thick iron chains to a wooden pillar, naked on his upper body, and iron rings were also placed under his feet. A circle of burly men stood beside him, with hands crossed on his chest and looking at him coldly.

"Commander Xu, are you awake?"

The sound came from above his head. He raised his head with difficulty, and there was a sharp pain on his head. Only then did he realize that there was a second floor above his head, and there was a man sitting next to the stairs. He was about the same age as him and over thirty years old. He held a cup of tea in his hand and looked at him with a smile on his face.

"What, Commander Xu doesn't know me anymore?"

Xu Yingjie suddenly recognized this person, Hu Peiyun, the leader of the Inner Guard Intelligence Hall, and the former intelligence leader of the Anxi Army, "So it's you!"

"It's me!" Hu Peiyun put down the teacup, walked down step by step, walked to him, and said in a pity: "Poor man! One Zhang Tongru beat you up to the point of losing your troops and unarmed your armor, and he took the initiative to give up military power, making the 350 brothers under your command feel sorry for you!"

Hu Peiyun's words made Xu Yingjie feel as if he had fallen into a thousand-foot ice cave. He gave the military power to Zhang Tongru an hour ago. How could they know? And his every move seemed to be under their control.

Xu Yingjie closed his eyes in pain, a heart that was deeply hurt by failure. The intelligence network of 350 people he worked hard to organize was full of 350 people, and it was always the meat on the chopping board.

"Commander Xu, do you want to know who betrayed you?"

Xu Yingjie asked in a deep voice: "Is it Wang Hong, Zhang Liubo or Xu Le?"

These three people are the three officials under his command. In such a short time, Zhang Tongru could only discuss with these three people. 'Ba, bha!' Hu Peiyun gently plucked his hands and smiled: "Smart! I immediately found the right scope. Yes, it was one of them, but he did not betray him. He was ours from beginning to end."

"It's Zhang Liubo!"

Xu Yingjie guessed him all at once. This person was originally a spy left by Geshu Han in Chang'an. Later, he defected to him and was promoted to the main business because of his shrewdness and ability. The other two were brought by him from Youzhou, so he was very trustworthy.

"Hmm! Basically correct."

Hu Peiyun nodded and smiled faintly, "Does Commander Xu want to know where Zhang Tongru's plan is to attack?"

Xu Yingjie smiled bitterly, "Would Zhang Tongru talk about any action?" He had already touched it clearly. He shook his head and said that he didn't know.

"Say that! If it were Commander Xu, where would you attack?"

"Xianyang Granary!" Xu Yingjie whispered.

"It's true that the heroes have the same views!"

Hu Peiyun raised his thumbs up and praised: "If it were me, I would choose there."

The Xianyang granary has 200,000 stones of grain. It is not only as tight as Chang'an. It is not only easy to succeed, but the Anxi Army camp is located in Xianyang. If a fire burns down the Xianyang granary, it will also be a heavy blow to morale.

Hu Peiyun shook his head and sighed, "What a pity! An Lushan was not using people properly, so he didn't let Commander Xu take charge of this matter, but let Zhang Tongru's fool take full responsibility. He will eventually destroy An Lushan's last bit of power in the capital. Does Commander Xu know? Zhang Tongru's plan was to burn East City."

Xu Yingjie lamented in his heart that Zhang Tongru, a idiot, actually wanted to burn East City. You must know that Qianniuwei stationed two thousand troops in East City and West City, and closely protected the east and west cities. Not to mention that they were difficult to do anything at all. Even if the fire was lit, it would be quickly put out by soldiers. Perhaps Zhang Tongru believed that burning East City had a great impact, but in fact, the fire in East City had no impact on the army. At most, some merchants were damaged.

"Forget it, I won't go around the circle with you. I want your entire list of 350 people. I will give you a way out afterwards, otherwise I will make you worse than death!"

Hu Peiyun installed an important personnel in An Lushan's Chang'an Intelligence Network. This person was named Zhang Liubo, who was in charge of the second group. He had 80 spies under his command. Hu Peiyun had the list of these 80 people, but the other 270 people were not found. If all of these 270 people were not arrested, there would be endless troubles. If everyone wanted to arrest him, he could only start with Xu Yingjie.

Xu Yingjie sneered and said, "Do you think I will tell you?"

"Yes, you will definitely tell me that I have your bottom line. If you don't believe it, let's take a look..."

Hu Peiyun winked at dozens of burly men and left the room. From a distance, he heard Xu Yingjie's scream. He shook his head and left quickly.

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Two hours later, a presiding judge hurried to Hu Peiyun's door, bowed to him and said, "Report to Master Hu, he has already called him!"

"Yes!" Hu Peiyun stopped his pen and asked, "Did he say a word? Or did he use his mother to threaten him?"

"Report to the hall master, this person is extremely hard and is not afraid of our torture, but after we let him see his mother, he collapsed, and he explained all our problems."

"Where is the list?"

"It's in his house, hidden very secretly."

"Go! Send someone to get the list immediately."

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To be continued...