The Qi army at that time itself had many factions. In addition to the old subordinates of Taizu, there were also other rebels with Shang Rang as the core who merged over, and a large number of former Tang vassal towns surrendered. Among them, there are not only those who use their weapons to make up for their losses and seize soldiers everywhere, regardless of age or age, to expand their strength, but there are also a large number of those who fish in troubled waters and act as both leaders and rats.
There is a mixed bag of good and bad people among them, and many people are not of the same mind. The more than 100,000 Emperor Taizu who Meng Kai brought with him were also the Emperor Taizu's last capital. If these more than 100,000 troops are lost, I am afraid that the newly minted Great Qi Dynasty will collapse in an instant, and it will be difficult for my so-called Emperor Taizu to have a chance to make a comeback.
Judging from the fact that the former Tang court, which was heading west to Shu, had basically lost control of the vassal towns in Guandong, the world was in chaos in an instant. Those vassal towns with strong military support and self-respect attacked each other for territory and expansion of strength. The so-called emperor and the court have long ignored it. This is also the normal trajectory of history that I knew in my previous life.
According to the ability of this Guilin County King, he will definitely have a place in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms that should have appeared. But this man still accepted the situation when Emperor Taizu was so wary and even risked borrowing a knife to kill someone. This was what Huang Qiong couldn't understand the most.
Of course, if he faced Emperor Taizu, this would definitely not be the time when Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty or Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty had such clear masters. Huang Qiong doesn't think it's possible at all that he has the ambition to take advantage of the situation and become a contemporary Liu Bang in troubled times. At least after the Tongzhou War, Emperor Taizu had become so suspicious that it would be difficult for anyone else to maintain that stable mentality.
Watch him rise in power in Tongzhou, eventually become the most influential figure in the world of Dingding in the Qi Dynasty, and then die of illness on his way back from the Western Expedition. Judging from his various behaviors, he is not the kind of person who wants his subjects to die, but they have to die. If he doesn't die, he will be disloyal. It was absolutely impossible for such a person to be completely devoted to a mean and unkind boss like Taizu, at least in Huang Qiong's opinion.
This so-called history of the founding of the People's Republic of China made Huang Qiong dumbfounded. The establishment of the Great Qi Dynasty was not an inevitable result, but a necessity that appeared by chance. After Emperor Taizu came to Chang'an, he only indulged in drinking and sex all day long, and acted like a fool when encountering problems. This was definitely not the style that an entrepreneur should have.
On the other hand, the prince, later Emperor Taizong, at least seemed to be more capable than Taizu. Thinking of Emperor Taizong, Huang Qiong suddenly remembered that Emperor Taizong had been changing his throne since the fifth year of Jin Tong, and instead established the king of Zhou who was born after entering Chang'an as the crown prince. However, planning began in the fifth year of Jin Tong's reign and failed until Taizu's death.
Even though Emperor Taizong had been supervising the army when he was the crown prince, this Emperor Taizu still failed to achieve his wish. Thinking of this, Huang Qiong hurriedly opened "The Chronicles of Taizong" and the "Benjis of Taizong" that his mother gave him later. After putting the two books together, he was shocked to find that there are some things that can be understood if you think about it more deeply. .
Emperor Taizu wanted to change the prince throughout his life, but he could not succeed until his death. Even in the last five years of his reign, all military and political power was vested in the prince. In addition to the opposition from the forces in the military, another point is probably that Emperor Taizong, although he was supervising the army and staying away from the government, he had formed his own strength in the army through many years of supervising the army.
It is even possible that the most elite army in Da Qi has been controlled by the prince. As for Emperor Taizu, he had not left the Three Palaces of Chang'an for many years, and his influence on the army was no longer what it used to be. Chen Zhou secretly did something during the first battle, but it had the opposite effect. The prince's prestige in the army has greatly increased, almost surpassing that of Emperor Taizu.
After the Guanzhong rebellion subsided, Emperor Taizu not only failed to depose Emperor Taizong from his position as prince. On the contrary, his confidant general Meng Kai was excluded from Chang'an and demoted again and again after the Guanzhong Rebellion was quelled. From the Zuojun envoy who held the actual military power of Da Qi, he was demoted to Shandong and became an observation envoy with only 3,000 old and weak soldiers in his hands, and all the elites were drained.
Although he was reactivated in the battle to destroy the Tang Dynasty, his old subordinates who had been in charge for many years were also dismantled, and none of them participated in the battle of Sichuan. Its strength in the military has been completely cut off, and it can no longer become an independent force. The cavalry brought by Emperor Taizong and the Prince of Guilin to suppress the rebellion in Guanzhong were also their old subordinates who had gone through the bloody battle in Chenzhou and pacified Lianghuai and Shandong.
During the battle to quell the rebellion in Guanzhong, the old subordinates of Guilin County King who stayed in Guanzhong before the Eastern Expedition also returned to the control of Guilin County King. But Huang Qiong vaguely felt that the return of these elites to the control of the Guilin County Prince was only a superficial phenomenon. In fact, they should have fallen into the control of Emperor Taizong.
In the subsequent battles to pacify Jiangnan and Guangdong and Guangxi, although the troops and horses previously brought by the Guilin County Prince were all kept in Guanzhong in the name of defending the capital. The King of Guilin County was also transferred to a casual position and did not lead the army on the expedition. But what does Huang Qiong think? These are all for the other generals of the foreign military.
The reason is very simple. Although the armies that went south to the south of the Yangtze River at that time were mainly under the command of Huang Ye, who was named Shangyang County King at that time, 60% of the generals of each army were replaced by Guilin County King, who was also commanded by the prince. Old subordinates. The old subordinates of Emperor Taizong's cousin all stayed in Hebei in the name of guarding against the Khitans.
Thinking of this, Huang Qiong figured out everything. This Guilin County Prince was not a direct descendant of Taizu at all, but a chess piece secretly arranged by the prince. It can even be said that he dared to kill the Tongzhou defense envoy without purpose, and the person standing behind him was the original prince and later Emperor Taizong.
If the previous Tongzhou Defense Envoy had sent more than a dozen letters asking for help, they were secretly withheld by the jealous Meng Kai. But behind this old man stood the prince. No matter how courageous Meng Kai was, and his hands and eyes were too powerful, he couldn't hold them all down. The DPRK's delay in sending reinforcements may be due to Taizu's shadow behind it.
However, his eastern expedition left his old subordinates in Guanzhong, except that Emperor Taizu had become wary of him and kept the elite under his command outside the capital. It is more likely that Emperor Taizong did it deliberately. He used the elite troops of the Prince of Guilin under his actual control to secretly monitor the movements in Chang'an City, especially the direct descendants of Emperor Taizu.
Otherwise, Emperor Taizu had only eight armies of imperial guards led by his confidants. How come before the prince left Beijing, he was suddenly transferred out of Chang'an and sent to Hanzhong to garrison in the name of fearing that he would repeat the mistakes of the Shence Army of the former Tang Dynasty after garrisoning Chang'an for many years without fighting. Replaced with the more than 10,000 elite soldiers brought by the Guilin County Prince from Tongzhou, they were reorganized into the Eight Yulin Army to guard Chang'an and guard the imperial palace.
Although he went out to supervise the army, it was to gain more strength in his hands. Because Emperor Taizong knew very well that he could control Chang'an with the tens of thousands of troops and horses from Guilin County alone. But if there is enough deterrence against other factions in the Qi army, especially the cousins who hold heavy troops, it is impossible to suppress them from making any changes.
For the prince at that time and later Emperor Taizong, the King of Zhou was born after entering Chang'an. A little kid who has no military power in his hands and has not yet formed his own power is not an opponent in his eyes at all. The cousins who started their careers together with Emperor Taizu, and who are now all on their own and holding heavy military forces, are his strong rivals for succeeding to the throne in the future.
Not to mention that once Emperor Taizu died young, those cousins who had already been granted the titles of county princes and princes, and who had heavy troops in their hands, it was impossible not to have some changes. Even though Taizu was still in power at that time, these cousins who were already too big to lose their tails were more or less disobedient.
There are even a few ambitious people who have set their sights on the position of Emperor Taizu. As for whether this so-called Great Qi Dynasty has the ability to finally dominate the world, these people probably won't think too much about it. Emperor Taizu now holds the throne. These nephews and nephews who also had the same surname Huang and who had joined the army with Emperor Taizu, and who had experienced hundreds of battles, should also have the right to inherit.
Without real strength in his hands, even if he successfully ascends the throne, it will be difficult for him to secure the throne under his ass. At that time, the military power of the Qi Dynasty was not completely in the hands of the imperial court. At least Shang Rang, who joined the group later, was in a line of his own. Not to mention the prince at the time, and the later Emperor Taizong, even Emperor Taizu could not fully control his troops.
As for Emperor Taizong's cousins, the least they had were seven to eight thousand troops and the most were thirty thousand. And if we want to achieve unification of the world, it is necessary to take back military power. But let's not talk about the resumption of military power. These cousins are not willing to accept it. Given the circumstances at that time, it was impossible to replace all these generals.
At that time, the Qi army itself lacked independent generals. The surrender of the former Tang Dynasty was unreliable, and no one could guarantee that they would not betray them on the battlefield. As for the generals at all levels who came from the peasant army, they were fierce, but when it came to strategy, it was still two words. If they don't even know how to read a few words, it would be better to kill them if they read military books.
However, these nephews of Emperor Taizu had read some books with Emperor Taizu, who was a scholar. Although the level is not too high, it is at least better than those generals who do not want to make progress and just fight hard. If all these people are withdrawn, who can still lead the troops to fight?
But if they have a large number of soldiers and horses in their hands, especially when they have begun to refuse to listen to greetings, and even when they deliberately preserve their strength on the battlefield, no one else will be at ease. For those in power, there are times when it is not just outsiders that need to be guarded against, but also when one's own brothers are too late to lose, they need to be even more vigilant.
Thinking of this, Huang Qiong somewhat understood the cause and effect. When the Guilin County Prince went to Tongzhou to work for the army, it was most likely that Emperor Taizong, in view of the Zuo Army envoy Meng Kai, not only did not send any reinforcements in the face of the emergency, but also seized more than ten emergency documents from the defense envoy without authorization. He wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to recruit the defense envoy from the same state under his command.
Although the Tongzhou defense envoy was a rogue, he was one of the few in the Qi army who was brave enough to stand alone. Moreover, the combat effectiveness of his unit was enough to be considered an elite among the Qi army, which was already in disarray at that time. With such a team in hand, the prince at least has more cards in hand when facing his cousins.
Unexpectedly, this guy failed to ask for help and simply prepared to rebel. At that time, the king of Guilin took action. He probably got the prince's secret order to seize his army if he failed to recruit him before setting off. Otherwise, the action will not be so crisp and clear.
