To be honest, when Li Yuan saw the batch of tattered armors and weapons, he actually didn't want to curse. He even had the urge to pile these tatters together and burn them to ashes in front of two court officials. But Li Yuan knew that he must not do this. After traveling through time and space and experiencing so many things, Li Yuan, who was already well-thought out in dealing with things, has become more cunning and thoughtful about things.
Every unexpected thing naturally has a reason for it to happen. Making inappropriate actions without understanding the reason is a reckless and childish behavior.
For example, in this matter, Emperor Li Jing loves his son very much, but now King Zheng Li Congjia is still delayed in Langzhou and has not returned, and the angel Han Xizai has come with a mission, just to bring King Zheng back to Jinling smoothly, so it stands to reason Generally speaking, Li Jing absolutely does not want anything to happen at this juncture. At least for now, there is still some sweetness between the court and Li Yuan, even on the surface.
What's more, Li Jing still regards Li Yuan as his spearman, and is about to march into Guiguan and go south to attack the Han Dynasty. Sending such a batch of defective products that are not worthy of the stage will definitely be detrimental to the subsequent war.
Since the emperor has this idea, the courtiers below have no reason to do so, because today's court is almost controlled by King Zheng's party. The interests and even life and death of King Zheng and Li Congjia are of vital importance to them. Left Prime Minister Xu Xuan It is absolutely impossible for others to do such a thing, and let this batch of junk materials be sent to Langzhou in place of money and food. This is an illogical thing.
Those old foxes were not stupid. They couldn't have known Li Yuan's reaction when he received this batch of supplies. They should also know that this matter would not be beneficial to Prince Zheng's return to the dynasty, but these rags were still sent over. There must be a reason.
Therefore, Li Yuan will not show any emotion easily until he understands the reason.
After all, materials are still materials no matter how tattered they are. Although these armors and weapons are in tatters, they are still of some use. These things can be reorganized, the armor can be repaired, and the rusty weapons can be sharpened. If they are not good enough, they can be recast in the armory, and they can always be put to their best use.
Nowadays, the Ordnance Supervision is working hard to develop and produce armaments, but the focus of supply is mainly on the Wuping regular army after the expansion and reorganization, and it cannot take care of the regiment training troops and horses in various states and counties, so these materials are still of some use. At least considering this aspect, there is no need to impulsively reject these supplies.
At the afternoon banquet, Li Yuan did ask the reason. Although these two court officials spoke very cautiously, under the attentive reception of the dignified Governor of Langzhou and the serving of fine wine and delicacies, they could not resist and revealed a lot of information in their words.
In the drunken words of the two officials, Li Yuan got two important pieces of information. First, the armor and weapons produced by the Jinling Ordnance Supervision are currently being fully supplied to the Zhennan Army stationed in Hongzhou. This army of 150,000 soldiers and horses is in the process of replacing its weapons. Second, Privy Councilor Wei Cen personally issued an order to fully supply Hongzhou's troops and horses, and personally ordered that this batch of junk materials be transported to Wuping in place of part of the money and grain.
Although the two officials did not explain the specific circumstances of these two incidents, Li Yuan naturally felt keenly that something major had happened in the DPRK.
The Zhennan Army was a military force commanded by Duke Qiqiu of the Song Dynasty. It had 153,000 waterway soldiers and horses under its jurisdiction. It was based in Hongzhou Prefecture (now Nanchang, Jiangxi Province), located in the hinterland of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It was a deterrent to Wu Yue, The most important force in Fujian, before Li Yuan's Wuping Army came into being, it was also known as the most brave and capable soldiers in every town.
Although there have been many wars in recent years, the Zhennan Army, which has 150,000 soldiers and horses, has rarely been dispatched. Because of the loyalty of these soldiers and horses, even the emperor was not sure. This can be traced back to Song Qiqiu's father Song Shuo. Cheng, Song Cheng, who died young, was the deputy envoy of Zhennan Jiedu in the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the influence of the Song family and his son in the Zhennan army was extraordinary. This army was also the reason why the emperor had such great regard for Song Qiqiu. An important reason for being afraid but not daring to take action abruptly.
Song Qiqiu asked himself to live in seclusion behind Jiuhua Mountain in Chizhou, but he did not give up his post as the military commander of the Zhennan Army. He only entrusted all the soldiers and horses of the Zhennan Army to a few close generals, and ordered them to drill day and night to pacify the place. Nowadays, the town south of Zhennan is considered peaceful. In addition to the large number of people in Jiangnan and sufficient food, it is also because of the huge deterrent power of these 150,000 soldiers and horses.
Now, these two officials revealed that the imperial court was making every effort to provide troops and horses to the Zhennan Army.
Changing equipment, according to the normal principle of changing equipment every five years during the Southern Tang Jiedu, this time the equipment change was a bit unexpected.
The last time the equipment of the Zhennan Army was completely replaced was only two years ago. This was the principle of the Southern Tang Jiedu soldiers and horses that Li Yuan learned about after he took office as Wuping Jiedushi. The Jiedushi soldiers and horses to which Song Qiqiu belonged Changing clothes in advance is obviously against this principle.
There is only one possibility to explain the court's decision this time, and that is that the Zhennan Army soldiers and horses are going to fight, and they dare to issue it openly through the Privy Council Order, which means that this battle is still approved by the emperor. This is the only possibility. explain.
As for why the Privy Council would transport such tattered equipment to Wu Ping, Li Yuan still couldn't figure it out. Obviously these equipment cannot be equipped with soldiers and horses. Even if the old equipment is transported to Wuping, it is much better than giving these tattered equipment at the bottom of the warehouse. Is it just to disgust Li Yuan's narrow-mindedness? I don’t know what the intentions of Xu Xuan and others are.
It has to be said that Li Yuan's sense of smell is very sensitive, and he did judge some wind directions from the information disclosed by the two officials. But Li Yuan didn't know that the situation in the court was far more complicated and confusing than he thought. This time the imperial court redressed the troops and horses of the Zhennan Army and was indeed about to urge the Zhennan Army to launch military operations. However, Li Yuan naturally knew nothing about the specific circumstances behind the scenes.
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The actual situation is that the situation in the Southern Tang court has had a chemical reaction-like effect since Xu Xuan, Wei Cen, Li Zhenggu and others came to power. Following Feng Yanji's exile and Chen Jue's illness, within a short period of time, the government was officially taken over by King Zheng's party with Xu, Wei and Li as the core. However, Emperor Li Jing did not know whether he was pretending to be deaf or dumb, but he treated them wantonly. The appointment and dismissal of officials and the formation of cliques for personal gain were tacitly tolerated.
For example, Shen Zhao, a good disciple of Xu Xuan, had no political achievements since he became an official, but he was promoted to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and entered the core decision-making level. This was obviously biased.
For the scheming emperor Li Jing, although he actually didn't care which minister came to power, as long as the country was stable and government orders were issued smoothly, fighting for power and profit was the job of his subordinates. All he wanted was for the Southern Tang Dynasty to continue smoothly. , but the dominance of King Zheng’s party in the current government is obviously not the balanced situation he is assured and expected.
What's more, Li Jing knew in his heart that the newly appointed Xu Xuan and others seemed to have an ambiguous relationship with Song Qiqiu, the Duke of Wei in Jiuhua Mountain. This touched his bottom line. You must know one of the warnings given by the great ancestor Li Min when he died. , is to make the successor wary of Song Qiqiu's cronies, so after he ascended the throne, although there was no way to defeat Song Qiqiu, who had established a foothold in the Southern Tang court for many years, he still wanted to firmly defeat him. Pressed down in the deep mountains and old forests.
As an emperor, Li Jing knew very well that no matter how powerful Song Qiqiu's popularity was, he was just a minister after all, and he often only needed to seize one of the opponent's weaknesses to kill him with one blow.
So Li Jing simply turned a blind eye and spent most of his time meditating in Chengxintang. He only secretly ordered Zu Chongen to watch every move in the court.
Not long after, Li Jing finally found an opportunity, because he discovered that after he retreated, he actually contributed to the internal conflict between King Zheng and his party, and the new deputy privy envoy Li Zhenggu seemed to be the breakthrough.
Speaking of Li Zhenggu, this extremely power-hungry Minister of War quickly revealed his true colors when he first entered the Privy Council. He should grasp all kinds of power matters and arrogantly participate in matters that should not be interfered with.
Of course, Privy Councilor Wei Cen adopted a resigned attitude. Others did not know what was happening at the foot of Jiuhua Mountain, but he knew it very well. Now everyone is in the same boat. They are all friends of Duke Wei and there is no need to fight with each other. .
But in recent days, Li Zhenggu seems to have become more and more valued by Emperor Li Jing. The few times Li Jing rarely spoke, he praised Li Zhenggu. Wei Cen didn't feel it, but left prime minister Xu Xuan felt something in his heart. Got a strange feeling.
Xu Xuan was an out-and-out scholar. Civil servants serving the emperor were like a group of dignitaries raised by a noble lady. Even if they all knew that they were the same kind of thing, they would still compete with each other for favor. The newcomer actually surpassed him in the limelight. How could the old man be willing to accept it?
Over the past month, Li Zhenggu became more and more arrogant and even began to interfere in the government affairs of Zhongshu's subordinates. However, his different political views from Xu Xuan caused a dispute.
After several disputes, the personal conflict soon expanded into a formal conflict between Zhongshu's disciples and the Privy Council.
Xu Xuan was a man who was courteous on the surface but held grudges in private. He soon found Wei Cen, the Privy Councilor, and told him in a very sincere manner. He was leaning towards Wei Cen, who had been in the court for a long time. Why did Wei Cen ignore Li Zhenggu's move? So much. At the critical moment, Wei Cen, who had been silent recently, showed an attitude of sharing the same hatred with the enemy, which made Xu Xuan ecstatic.
Afterwards, in these disputes, Li Zhenggu never gave in, Xu Xuan and Wei Cen also worked together, and the Zheng Wang party that should be united seemed to have cracks and began to divide into two factions.
While Li Yuan spent two peaceful days with Peng Qingying at the foot of Wushan Mountain in Xizhou, Xu Xuan and Wei Cen in the capital had already reached an agreement to deal with Li Zhenggu. The wily Wei Cen quickly came up with a plan, which was how to keep Li Zhenggu away from the capital.
Wei Cen's suggestion was that Li Zhenggu was currently serving as the Deputy Privy Envoy and Minister of the Ministry of War. The simplest and most effective way to keep Li Zhenggu out of the emperor's sight was to let Li Zhenggu go to war with his troops. . In this way, Li Zhenggu had to leave Beijing to command the battle.
It was not difficult for Li Zhenggu to lead the army in the war, because there was a ready-made reason in front of him, which was the previous defeat of the Northern Expedition. The defeat of the Northern Expedition was a huge lingering scar for Emperor Li Jing and even the entire Southern Tang Dynasty. , which is also the reason why Li Jing has been confused and unable to sleep at night in the past six months. So the left minister and the privy envoy attacked at the same time and submitted a memorial requesting to send troops to the northern country to retaliate.
Xu Xuan didn't know anything about military affairs, but he intuitively believed that this was a great plan. He didn't know that the danger was yet to come, and he didn't know how many times Wei Cen and Li Zhenggu had secret talks in private...
The Prime Minister Zuo's Privy Envoy, on behalf of Zhongshu's subordinates, reported the matter to the Privy Council at the same time and resolutely requested the dispatch of troops. This was the first time since Li Jing ascended the throne.
You must know that it was Li Jing who initiated the war in the past, which often led to fierce debates, such as the treasury was empty, such as the lack of men and horses, but this time it was rare for the central ministers to have the same position, and the reasons for the proposal were legitimate, and they were seconded by most of the courtiers, and even Several Jiedu envoys far away in Jiangbei came to express their support for this matter. Li Jing was surprised by such a united effort.
Li Jing was originally worried about the defeat of the Northern Expedition, but he was hesitant to take action because of many practical factors. But now hundreds of officials have asked for orders to send troops to the Northern Kingdom. Even if Li Jing has lost most of his anger over the previous defeat, he does not want the officials to feel that he is willing to humiliate the Tang Dynasty.
As a result, the matter of sending troops to retaliate against the Zhou Kingdom was quickly finalized and became the most important matter in the Southern Tang Dynasty.
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