Wei Cen rode a big black horse and galloped ten miles south. Soon he met several officials and their personal guards who had been waiting for a long time at a long pavilion. Then a group of people rode day and night for two days, heading straight to More than three hundred miles away, we reached Xuanzhou.
The several officials who accompanied him to Mount Jiuhua were naturally core members of Feng Yanji's party, and the highest-ranking one among them was Li Zhenggu, Minister of War.
This person can be said to be an example of a "poor student". He was born as a Jinshi in the Eight Classics, and he was considered the first generation of courtiers in the Southern Tang Dynasty during the Liezu dynasty. At that time, it was the founding of the country, and it was a display of talent and learning that all wastes were prospered. It was a good time, but it was a pity that he had no talent, bad character, greed for money and power. How could Li Min, the founder of Tang Dynasty who finally established the foundation, get sand in his eyes?
The high-profile and arrogant Li Zhenggu was quickly caught in an operation to clarify officialdom carried out by the Liezu Dynasty, and was demoted back to his hometown Wanzai Gaocheng (now Wanzai County, Yichun City, Jiangxi Province) as a minor official until the current emperor After Li Jing came to the throne, Li Zhenggu saw the hope of a comeback and spent a lot of money to find a way through his former colleagues. In the end, he somehow managed to get ahold of the powerful Prime Minister Feng Yanji, thus starting his second spring.
During the nine years of Baoda, Xu Shi had been winning Feng Yanji's favor for many years. Li Zhenggu finally got a good opportunity to make a comeback. He was reinstated by the imperial court and served as the governor of Yuanzhou.
Yuanzhou is located on the border between the Southern Tang Dynasty and Chu State. The border area between the two countries is not only heavily guarded by soldiers, but also an important route for merchants to come and go. Naturally, there are also rogue bandits. This also causes a headache for the court, but the methods adopted are It’s still the traditional way – fighting violence with violence.
Yuanzhou successively replaced twenty-nine governors, all of whom were warriors. However, the local army, which was lazy and lax in training, found it difficult to play its role. In some cases, it even became an accomplice of rogue bandits and profiteers. This made the people of Yuanzhou miserable. Later, The court almost couldn't even collect taxes.
In this troubled world where force is advocated, how can a scholar who only knows poetry, calligraphy, etiquette and music change the status quo when even warriors cannot solve the problem? At that time, most people in the government and the public were waiting to see Li Zhenggu's joke. Even Feng Yanji wanted to give him a try and deliberately threw a tricky area to him. In fact, he didn't think much of him.
But Li Zhenggu didn't think so. After finally seizing the opportunity to make a comeback, how could he give up so easily? As the saying goes, what is arsenic to others is honey to me. This time, Li Zhenggu really tried to govern the place, and he soon discovered the root of the problem, which was still the familiar collusion between government and businessmen and the lack of popular support.
According to historical records, after Li Zhenggu took office, he "respected Confucianism and beautified the administration of officials, built a Confucian temple, prepared sacrificial vessels, and continued singing." He adopted extremely gentle and gentle methods to calm people's hearts and allowed the people of Yuanzhou to resume the work that had been interrupted for decades. According to the Confucian tradition, one should also adopt a selfless attitude when dealing with official affairs... Of course, he will soon offend everyone who should be offended and who should not be offended.
Destroying someone's wealth is like killing one's parents. The consequences can be imagined. Regardless of whether Yuan Zhou managed it properly, it was only a matter of time whether Li Zhenggu's life could be saved. At this critical moment, God finally took care of Li Zhenggu. The Chu State was finally on the verge of collapse due to the feud between the brothers. Emperor Li Jing ordered Bian Hao to lead his army to destroy Chu and march from Yuanzhou. Once the Central Forbidden Army with strict military discipline and superior combat power arrived, Li Zhenggu completely changed his position... .
With the help of the military power of Bian Hao's army, after Li Zhenggu cleaned up the chaos in Yuanzhou, he immediately went to the imperial court to show his merits and paid Yuanzhou's taxes to the imperial court for several years for the first time. This made Emperor Li Jing The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty were all impressed. There is no doubt about the source of these taxes. Only a small part of them were seized from bandits, and most of them were looted from unarmed people.
Li Jinglong was so happy that he not only ordered to praise Li Zhenggu and promoted him to be the minister of the Ministry of War, but also showed great kindness and changed Li Zhenggu's hometown of Gaohou Township for ten thousand years to "Nostalgic Township" and "Gaocheng". Changing the name to "Zhengxiuli", the ancient and handsome Li Shangshu came into being. After his net worth increased, he was finally able to get into Feng Yanji's eyes. In less than half a year, he became Feng Yanji's "confidant" who often missed him.
Now that Feng Yanji is in trouble, his party members suddenly fall into a leaderless situation. Although the Deputy Privy Councilor Wei Cen, as the person with the highest moral character among the party members, has temporarily become the backbone of Feng Yanji's party, there are always some ambitious people who have Taking advantage of the opportunity, one of them was Li Zhenggu, who was in charge of the Ministry of War.
Li Zhenggu and Wei Cen had never dealt with each other since they met, and the relationship between the Privy Council and the Ministry of War where they worked was extremely awkward.
As a veteran military management agency of the imperial court, the Ministry of War can be traced back to the "Five Arms System" of the Cao and Wei Dynasties of the Three Kingdoms. However, it can only carry out some management of local armies such as the Xiang army and militia that lack combat effectiveness, plus some logistical support and surveying and mapping. Such matters cannot be involved in commanding operations and dispatching troops. It can be said that the sense of existence is extremely low.
The Privy Council of the Southern Tang Dynasty was not only in charge of important military affairs, but also had personnel power, recruitment power, troop deployment power, etc. It could be said to be a department with considerable real power, which was in sharp contrast to the fictitious power of the Ministry of War.
Li Zhenggu, who finally became the Minister of War, had a taste of power. As the saying goes, when people go to high places, water flows to low places. He and Wei Cen were both guests of Feng Yanji, and they were also "predecessors" in the Liezu dynasty. How could they not yearn for the high-power Privy Council?
Nowadays, Chen Jue, who has great power in both the government and the public, is still in charge of the Privy Council. Although Chen Jue's power is not as powerful as before after the Northern Expedition, how can his influence that has dominated the government and the public for many years be easily shaken? Li Zhenggu naturally didn't dare to think about it, but he had always had some secret thoughts about Wei Cen's position as deputy privy envoy.
When Wei Cen proposed to go to Jiuhua Mountain to mobilize reinforcements, Li Zhenggu's eyes immediately lit up, and he soon thought that the man living in seclusion in Jiuhua Mountain, the behind-the-scenes giant who had deep connections with Feng Yanji and Chen Jue, might be him. Perfect timing to score three goals...
At this time, they had just arrived in Xuanzhou, and the teams of several officials and their accompanying personal guards were all mixed together.
Everyone was anxious along the way because they were thinking about Feng Yanji, but Li Zhenggu still had his thoughts on his mind, always chatting with Wei Cen. There were probably some hidden hints of ridicule in his words, but Wei Cen always had a cold face and refused to respond directly. Occasionally, he would just say something like "it was urgent on the way", which made Li Zhenggu look like he was asking for trouble. .
As a result, Li Zhengu never said a word to Wei Cen again. Soon Li Zhenggu's troops naturally distanced themselves from the main force, and then one or two more officials fell behind one after another.
Among the officials who were originally on this trip, in addition to Li Zhenggu from the Ministry of War, there were also important ministers from the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Yushitai. The total number of guards from each family was no less than a hundred people, and they had just entered Xuanzhou. In less than two hours, the team following Wei Cen was inexplicably reduced to only a dozen of his personal guards.
One of them, a minister named Liu Zijing, originally had a close personal relationship with Wei Cen, but now for some reason, as if discussing with other officials to isolate Wei Cen, he suddenly slowed down on the way forward, and finally Not even a human figure was seen.
It doesn't matter to Wei Cen. After being immersed in the court for so many years, he is destined to not be able to form a so-called true friendship with these ministers who have their own evil intentions. It is mostly just for profit. If it wasn't for Feng Yanji, how could he go with them? ? It’s best if we don’t interfere with each other and don’t interfere with each other. When they arrived at Jiuhua Mountain, in front of that expert, how could the voice of a powerful deputy minister of the Privy Council be comparable to theirs?
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