On the first day of February, Liu Chengyou succeeded to the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in front of the coffin of Emperor Daxing in the Taiping Palace. The reign title was still the first year of Qianyou, which was changed by the late emperor Liu Zhiyuan in the first month of the year. He honored his biological mother, Empress Li, as the Queen Mother, and announced a general amnesty for the world.
Just as Liu Chengyou put up mourning robes to mourn the late emperor, and went to court to declare his inheritance to the officials, a carriage, escorted by a crowd of bearers and servants, slowly drove through the long street of the inner city and stopped in front of the Guofu Gate.
There were already many people waiting in front of the Guo Mansion. Under the gaze of everyone, the well-dressed Wang slowly stepped down from the carriage, looked up at the plaque in front of the Guo Mansion, and then stood in front of the crowd. He stepped into the wealthy gate.
The carriage left quickly, and the heavy red door closed again, and everything happened in silence.
…
The clear and dazzling morning light fell over the low wall of the courtyard and fell on Guo Xin. After the beginning of spring, the weather gradually began to warm up. At this time, he felt the warmth brought by the warm sun and couldn't help but look towards the eastern horizon.
Just like the rising tomorrow, for Guo Xin, a new day has begun. Now he was preparing to go out. Yesterday, Xie Hui, the commander of Xiangdu, sent someone over to convey a message, saying that he would invite the commander of Zuoxiang to discuss matters in the army today.
Guo Xin had already heard some rumors about what Xie Hui wanted to discuss at this moment... Liu Xin, the late emperor's brother, was squeezed out by Yang Bin, Su Fengji and others and went to Xuzhou Town, which led to many people who followed the late emperor from Hedong. The generals and officers in the army are quite aggrieved, and now they probably want to stabilize the morale of the army.
However, Guo Xin has no worries about this. Because his subordinates are relatively calm most of the time, the deputy generals Zhang Chenghua and Wang Yuanmao in the entire command are his confidants. Most of them also followed him and received generous rewards in the Battle of Weizhou. The city that Wang Yuanmao led had many old people who had been with him since Taiyuan Prefecture, so the entire command was quite 'obedient' to Guo Xin.
In addition, Guo Xin also felt that he had vaguely figured out a way to lead troops with both kindness and power. Whether it was the act of establishing his authority as the first commander, or the recent troubles caused by Wang Shiliang and others in the city, doing these things The effect cannot be said to be obvious, but it can still be felt from the soldiers' comments and the eyes they look at themselves.
Thinking of this, Guo Xin felt a little headache again. He recalled the conversation he had with Liu Ci in the Guards Department ten days ago, and he intended to open up his relationship with Guo Wei and find a place to leave town in Guanxi.
In Guo Xin's view, Liu Ci is not young and has long passed the age suitable for fighting in battle. Moreover, he is already a top figure in the Forbidden Army and has made great contributions to the new dynasty. It is unnecessary and difficult to move up. Walk. For many military generals in high positions, it is indeed a good choice to go to court as a governor of a state or a town.
However, Guo Xin is now powerless in this matter. It's not that he can't speak in front of Guo Wei, but that Guo Wei is too busy right now!
The biggest thing that Guo Wei is concerned about in the Privy Council is the current chaos in Kansai.
Previously, the army sent by the imperial court with Wang Jingchong as its commander had defeated the Shu army twice and basically drove them back to Shannan. Zhao Kuangzan had also entered the court to request orders. Only Fengxiang Jiedushi Hou Yi showed no sign of action after he presented himself to Tokyo. Wang Jingchong is currently leading his army towards Fengxiang.
Guo Xin was thinking about matters far away when he met a group of servants surrounding a sedan chair in front of the palace gate, looking like they were preparing to travel.
Men in the Guo family did not have the habit of traveling in sedan chairs, even Guo Tong, who had been sick all year round, was no exception. As for the female relatives in the mansion, Mrs. Zhang rarely leaves the mansion except for holidays... The person sitting in the sedan chair is obviously the Wang family who just entered the mansion not long ago.
After Liu Zhiyuan passed away, the originally scheduled marriage between the Guo family and the Wang family obviously could no longer be arranged with great fanfare. Fortunately, Guo Wei and Wang Zhang were determined to facilitate the matter as soon as possible, so the two families still got married as scheduled, but in an extremely low-key manner. Even Wang Zhang did not show up that day.
However, considering the struggle for power among the upper class after Liu Zhiyuan's death, and the tribute and taxes paid by the court throughout the year after the beginning of spring... Wang Zhang must not have been easy during this period. Guo Xin sneered at these so-called big shots. Even if he was the only daughter he had cherished for more than ten years, at the critical moment of fighting for power and profit, people like Wang Zhang might not have the time to take it into consideration.
But thinking about it, the Wang family is not the ordinary origin of Guo Rong's wife Liu family. Guo Xin met Wang's sedan chair head-on. He still stepped forward to salute gracefully and asked casually: "Sister-in-law, are you going out?"
A corner of the curtain on the side of the sedan chair was lifted from the inside, and Wang's face could not be seen, but Wang's voice could be heard coming from it: "It's very stuffy in the house, let's go out for a walk."
Guo Xin didn't ask Wang where he was going, and Wang didn't answer much. The carriage quickly set off on the road again.
At this time, Guo Pu led the horse out from behind. Seeing Guo Xin staring at Wang's carriage going away, he whispered in a low voice: "Mrs. Sister-in-law has been very assertive since she came to the house..."
Guo Xin didn't seem to hear anything. He got on his horse and kicked off in the opposite direction to the carriage.
Guo Xin came to the Forbidden Army barracks and passed the gate of the barracks. The barracks in the northeast of Tokyo City occupies a very large area. However, Guo Xin always only took a road he was familiar with, and after a while he arrived at the barracks on the left wing of Fengguo.
What surprised Guo Xin was that before all the generals came to the barracks, the host Xie Hui, who had always been a bit arrogant, was already sitting at the head.
Perhaps it was because Guo Wei was regarded as caring about his fate. As soon as Guo Xin entered the room, many commanders, even two commanders, stood up and saluted him, regardless of whether he knew him or not.
Xie Hui also raised his head briefly at this time, and a flash of light flashed in his eyes: "Commander Guo arrived very early."
Guo Xin clasped his fists: "Since we are going to ask for military planes, I don't dare to be late."
"Commander Guo always says something beautiful." A laugh came from behind, and Wang Jin also arrived.
Not long after, all the summoned generals gathered together, and Xie Hui soon stood up and announced the beginning of the meeting.
It's called discussion, but in fact Xie Hui is doing the talking most of the time, and it's more like arranging matters. The content was exactly what Guo Xin expected. It was basically a cliché asking generals at all levels to restrain their soldiers and declare military discipline.
Nowadays, the Fengguo army has a large number of people, and there are many generals above the commander level alone. Xie Hui above was still speaking seriously about the court's instructions to everyone, while some of the generals below had already lowered their heads and left.
Xie Hui finally finished explaining the imperial instructions, and the generals finally relaxed and accepted the orders with clasped fists.
Just when everyone was about to leave, Xie Hui, who had just sat down, suddenly said something intentionally or unintentionally.
"Don't relax in training in the army. There may still be time to go into battle during this period."
