Chapter 105 The old man is still in trouble, but he has great ambitions.

"He is a man of deep affection and loyalty."

Li Shimin nodded.

He was willing to resign his title for a friend he hadn't contacted for more than 20 years. This deep friendship and loyalty might be the reason why he was able to achieve such great success that his master would not doubt him.

now.

When Li Bai was exiled to Yelang and suddenly encountered a general amnesty, his mood was like a roller coaster, soaring from the bottom to the top.

The whole person seemed to be surrounded by warm sunshine, and he waved his hand and wrote the famous poem "Early Departure from Baidi City" in the future.

The phrase 'the boat has passed through thousands of mountains' is exactly the best interpretation of his mood at the moment.

As I write, the past comes to my mind, and when I look back, I am already in tears.

The pen in his hand waved freely, and finally only three words were left covering the paper:

'Guo Ziyi'.

……

[When Guo Ziyi was 57 years old, his mother passed away. Guo Ziyi resigned from his post and returned home to observe mourning.]

【After three years of mourning, Guo Ziyi would be sixty years old.】

[At the age of sixty, the lower half of my body is almost buried in the ground. ]

[Everyone thought that Lao Guo's career had ended here, but no one expected that Guo Ziyi's story had just begun.]

……

"Ah! Can you still achieve great things when half your body is buried in the ground?"

“So inspiring!”

"An old horse still has ambitions to run a thousand miles. How magnificent!"

"I feel full of fighting spirit again!"

“Even though one is old, one can still have lofty ambitions.”

"age is not a problem!"

Guo Ziyi's deeds have truly inspired countless depressed middle-aged and elderly people.

Of course, there are also many people who pour cold water on it.

"Don't talk nonsense. It's the times that make heroes. He just happened to encounter the An-Shi Rebellion, which gave him the opportunity to display his talents. Now the world is peaceful. If he still wants to make achievements at his age, he's dreaming!"

"There aren't many people who can make it big at this age, right? How can you be so confident?"

“I don’t know who gave you the confidence.”

……

[This year, the vassal general An Lushan led 15 rebels from Fanyang and marched all the way to the eastern capital Luoyang.]

[The governor of Shuofang, where Guo Ziyi served, was named An Sishun, who was An Lushan's cousin.]

[An Lushan had rebelled, so the court dared not let An Sishun be the governor, so Guo Ziyi, who was in mourning, unexpectedly received a letter of appointment from the court and became the governor of Shuofang, becoming a frontier official overnight.]

【Xuanzong ordered Guo Ziyi to take up his post immediately. Thus, Guo Ziyi finally had a stage to display his talents.】

[This year, at the age of 59, he personally led the army, along with Li Guangbi, Pugu Huai'en and other generals of the Shuofang Army, to win successive victories in the Hedong war zone, inflicting heavy damage on the rebels.]

[At this moment, everyone was surprised to find that Guo Ziyi was so good at fighting. It was a waste of his talent over the years! ]

[Although Guo Ziyi had won many victories in the Hedong battlefield, the situation in the Hebei battlefield was not optimistic. An Lushan's rebels first conquered Changshan County, and then Ye County, Guangping County, Julu County and other counties fell one after another.]

[The rebels marched southwards, heading straight for the eastern capital Luoyang, which made Emperor Xuanzong, who was still in the palace at the time, very anxious.] [So Emperor Xuanzong said to Guo Ziyi, "You are so powerful, why don't you send a general to support Hebei?"

[After much deliberation, Guo Ziyi recommended a great general, Li Guangbi, who was also Guo Ziyi's mortal enemy.]

[Li Guangbi was nearly 10 years younger than Guo Ziyi. Both of them had served as generals under An Sishun, the former governor of Shuofang. Li Guangbi was very smart, good at riding and shooting, and loved reading, and was highly appreciated by An Sishun.]

[When he was in his 40s, Li Guangbi was promoted by An Sishun to be the deputy envoy of Shuofang Jiedushi, with a higher rank than Guo Ziyi, and became Guo's leader.]

[It is certainly a good thing for a leader to appreciate you, but too much appreciation is not necessarily a good thing. An Sishun fell in love with Li Guangbi and insisted on marrying her daughter to him.]

[At that time, Li Guangbi already had a wife who gave birth to three sons.]

[But An Sishun's daughter couldn't possibly be his concubine, so Li Guangbi faced a difficult choice: either divorce his wife and rise to prominence with An Sishun's daughter, or completely offend his superiors and face a bumpy career from then on.]

[Li Guangbi was a good man who valued friendship and loyalty. He did not hesitate and directly claimed to be sick and asked for leave, even skipping work.]

[From this we can see that Li Guangbi is also a good man with a sense of loyalty and righteousness, but for some reason, Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi just don’t get along. ]

[Perhaps this is why there can't be two tigers in one mountain. ]

[How badly did they disagree? They didn't even talk to each other during the team dinner.]

[After the fall of his old leader An Sishun, with Guo Ziyi taking office, Li Guangbi reluctantly returned to work.]

[The guy who had always been at odds with him has now become his leader. Li Guangbi feels like countless ants are crawling on him. He is very uncomfortable.]

[When Li Guangbi heard that Guo Ziyi had sent him to Hebei to quell the rebellion, he immediately knelt down and said to Guo Ziyi, "It is my duty to go to Hebei to quell the rebellion, but after I leave, I beg you not to persecute my wife and children because of our past hatred."]

[Guo Ziyi helped Li Guangbi up and said, "What are you talking about? The country is in danger now. I recommended you because of your talent. Don't think too much about it."]

[Look at Guo Ziyi's broad mind. Facing his former office rival, Guo Ziyi not only did not suppress him, but also recommended him to the court and made Li Guangbi the governor of Hedong.]

[Some conspiracy theorists might think that Guo Ziyi was not playing a trick by tricking Li Guangbi into going to Hebei to die.]

【Not really. 】

[After Li Guangbi arrived in Hebei, he lived up to everyone's expectations and quickly recaptured Changshan County, and also defeated the army of the rebel general Shi Siming. ]

[Shi Siming was unwilling to accept the defeat and sent people to cut off the grain transportation route of Changshan County. Changshan County was in urgent need of grain and grass. Guo Ziyi led 10 troops to rescue without saying a word and joined forces with Li Guangbi.]

[Colleagues who used to be at odds with each other have now become the closest comrades-in-arms. ]

……

"good!"

"With such a broad mind, it's no wonder that he can achieve great things without being feared by others."

Liu Bei nodded secretly and admired Guo Ziyi's character.

This person has great righteousness in his heart.

Unlike some people, who, faced with the crisis of national destruction, are still thinking about internal fighting.

……

[The 10-strong coalition army of Guo and Li first attacked the Nine Gates and then took Zhao County.]

[After conquering Zhaojun, the Tang army looted the city wantonly. Li Guangbi was very angry when he saw this and asked, "What's the difference between you and the rebels?"]

【Then he ordered the robbed property to be confiscated and returned to the people. 】

【As for Guo Ziyi, he knew that many of the captured rebels were forced to join the war, so he ordered that only the rebel commanders be punished and all other prisoners be released.】

[Then Guo and Li defeated Shi Siming's army in Hengyang, killing 4 enemies. Shi Siming fell off his horse and fled.]

[What the two did was well received by the military and civilians of Hebei. Other counties and prefectures began to fight against the bandits on their own, and more than a dozen prefectures and counties in Hebei took the initiative to return to the embrace of the Tang Dynasty.]

(End of this chapter)