Of course, there was a heated debate in the court over which troops and horses to send and who to lead the attack on Zhou.
Of course, Xu Xuan and Wei Cen could not be stupid enough to directly name Li Zhenggu as their commander, because that would obviously immediately remind people of the recent stalemate between the three, and Li Jing would also see their intentions at a glance. Therefore, when reporting this matter, Xu Xuan and Wei Cen wisely chose to avoid discussing the issue of which troops and horses to send and who to lead the attack.
A small number of officials believe that the former privy envoy Chen Jue and Yan King Li Hongji failed miserably in the Northern Expedition. They led the Imperial Army with the Shenwu Army as the main force, as well as the soldiers and horses of the two states of Xuanrun. Of course, they still need to be resurrected to conquer Zhou State. It is best to capture Xuzhou City. This can be considered real revenge.
This proposal was naturally rejected quickly. Because the counterarguments put forward by the opponents Xu Xuan and Wei Cen are more effective. The Shenwu Army has always been the main force among the six armies, but after several wars, it currently has less than 40,000 soldiers and horses, and most of them are new recruits who have not been recruited for a long time and are not suitable for war. As for the soldiers and horses of Xuanrun and Erzhou, they were the soldiers and horses of King Yan. King Yan had been ordered by the emperor to meditate in his fiefdom for a year, so naturally he could not use them.
The above objections are reasonable, but they are nothing more than two reasons. First, Wei Cen is now the commander of the Shenwu Army. He is his treasure, so he naturally does not want to go to war. The two are not difficult to understand. King Zheng How could one party bring back its political rival, King Yan?
At this time, the most dramatic thing happened. Li Zhenggu, who was actually the target of this court meeting, actually took the initiative to stand up and proposed dispatching the Zhennan Army, which was well-equipped with soldiers from Hongzhou Prefecture. As deputy envoy to the privy council and minister of the Ministry of War, Not only did Emperor Li Jing fall into deep thought about his willingness to accompany the army on the expedition, but the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty did not dare to say anything.
The Zhennan Army, the largest local army in the Southern Tang Dynasty, had as many as 150,000 land and sea troops. It was not because of its important geographical location. On the contrary, it was far away from the dangerous border. The town of Zhennan was surrounded by Fenghua. The three towns of Anhua, Anhua and Zhaowu are connected and stretch for more than 800 miles from north to south. There are soldiers and horses stationed in all. The four towns in Jiangxi add up to a total of more than 300,000 soldiers and horses. Extremely peaceful.
According to common sense, it is not an exaggeration to reduce the strength of the Zhennan Army by half, but in fact, the Zhennan Army has always had a strength of 153,000 troops, but there is a specific reason.
The reason is that the Southern Tang Dynasty had a very long border in the hinterland of Jiangxi, stretching for more than a thousand miles. Jiangxi originally had Chu State in the west, Wuyue in the east, Han State in the south, and Min State in the southeast.
Moreover, Jiangxi does not have much complex terrain. Unlike the Chu region where Li Yuan is located, there are mountains, canyons, dense forests, and rocks across the land. There are many peaks with heights of tens or even hundreds of feet. Once the enemy enters Jiangxi, it will be almost flat. .
Therefore, if Jiangxi did not station heavy troops, once the situation changed and any neighboring country invaded rashly, the Southern Tang would be difficult to stop. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Li Min, the great ancestor, not only greatly increased the strength of the Zhennan Army stationed in Hongzhou Prefecture, the most important state capital in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, but also established three other sections in Jiangzhou, Raozhou, and Fuzhou, forming a star-like situation. To ensure peace in the hinterland of Jiangxi.
Of course, other countries are not fools. Since the Southern Tang Dynasty deployed heavy troops to guard Jiangxi, they would not attack from here even if there was a war. It was obviously a suicidal approach.
As the saying goes, an old lady picks up soft persimmons, and naturally she won't pick on hard bones to bite in a war. These practical issues are what any leader with a little common sense must consider. Therefore, after the founding of the Southern Tang Dynasty, how many places in Jiangxi No war.
Since the land of Jiangxi has been peaceful for many years and the Chu and Fujian states have been destroyed, it means that the Zhennan Army, which has many soldiers and horses, has been recuperating for a long time. These 150,000 people have been well-fed under the support of the imperial court. It's time to serve the court and be loyal to the emperor, and it's not a good thing if the army has been away from battle for a long time.
This was Li Zhenggu's proposal to Emperor Li Jing.
Li Zheng's ancient words triggered a series of consequences. Xu Xuan was shocked, Wei Cen remained silent, and Li Jing was also shaken.
It is true that the Zhennan Army is the army of Duke Wei, and now King Zheng's party is in a cooperative relationship with Duke Song Qiqiu of Wei. It is not difficult to understand that Li Zhenggu has such a proposal, but there was such a thing at the court meeting today. Xu Xuan's intention was to transfer Li Zhenggu out of the capital, and he knew very well that with the current state of empty treasury and lack of people and horses, he would go against the rising power of the country.
The Zhou Kingdom will definitely come back in defeat in this battle. If the leader is not good, he will be severely punished by the emperor and criticized by the whole country for his second defeat.
In Xu Xuan's imagination, after he raised the matter with Wei Cen, if Li Zhenggu had some brains, the best way to deal with it was to say nothing, so as not to be pushed to the forefront by them. He never expected that Li Zhenggu He actually stood up and made suggestions.
Worrying about Li Zhenggu not being able to catch the trap, Xu Xuan quickly became ecstatic. After glancing at Wei Cen, he found that Wei Cen was silent and acting surprisingly calm. This made Xu Xuan puzzled, but The excitement of succeeding finally defeated his reason. Xu Xuan had no time to think too much and was determined to continue to add fuel to the flames.
On the other hand, Emperor Li Jing was already in a tangle. If the Zhennan Army could be used to march north to attack Zhou, this powerful army might really surprise him, but at the same time, he also knew very well that if the Zhennan Army really established special merits, then the master behind it, Song Qi Qiu may take advantage of the situation to retaliate, which is not a good thing for Li Jing's country.
But Li Jing had to face an extremely realistic situation. Previously, Li Jinquan rebelled and the Northern Expedition suffered a disastrous defeat. The Forbidden Army had been severely weakened. What Xu Xuan and Wei Cen said was quite reasonable. The Shenwu Army finally restored its organization, and most of them were new recruits. Not high, fighting at this time is equivalent to dying.
As for his eldest son, King Yan Li Hongji, it was not because his decree had not expired, but as a father, he was unwilling to put his son in danger again.
Thinking of this, Li Jing suddenly realized that it might be a good choice to fight with the Zhennan Army.
Regardless of victory or defeat, it was acceptable to him. Victory was certainly a good thing for the Tang Dynasty. If Song Qiqiu wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to return to the court, he only had to try his best to attribute his military exploits to others, and defeat would be enough. It was equivalent to weakening the strength of the Zhennan Army, which was a heavy blow to Song Qiqiu. Secondly, he ordered the Zhennan Army to go on the Northern Expedition. He could also take advantage of the situation to appoint and remove some civil servants and generals to secure the Zhennan Army. Gradually, this command Li Jing Worry about years of chronic disease and differentiation.
Li Jing naturally knew that Li Zhenggu had contacts with Song Qiqiu, but in recent days, King Zheng's party had split, and Li Zhenggu and Xu Wei were fighting each other, which could not be hidden from him. Therefore, even if Li Jing thought that Li Zhenggu was The proposal was based on the selfish intention of taking the opportunity to promote Song Qiqiu's return to the court, and he also felt that this proposal might be beneficial.
The dispute soon came to an end. Li Jing issued an edict and approved Li Zhenggu's suggestion. He appointed Li Zhenggu, the deputy envoy to the Privy Council, as the commander of the expedition to the north, and Song Mojie, the deputy envoy of the Zhennan Army, as the deputy capital. In addition to the 20,000 soldiers and horses and 30,000 navy troops left behind to guard Jie Town, the Zhennan Army also selected six generals from the forbidden army in Jinling to accompany the army. The remaining 100,000 soldiers and horses were all They all set out for war, and Li Zhenggu and others immediately left Beijing and went south to Hongzhou Prefecture to prepare for the war.
And Xu Xuan also reported to the court, with a selfless appearance, and proposed that in order for the Zhennan Army to defeat Zhou's heavy troops deployed on the front line in Xuzhou, he suggested that the Privy Council should supply all the latest armor and weapons to the Zhennan Army. As for the money and food needed. , Zhongshu’s disciples will try their best to raise funds.
This move was highly praised by Li Jing, who ordered that the equipment replacement in other festivals be suspended and that the Privy Council should fully support the Zhennan Army.
Needless to say, it happens that the Wuchang Army led by He Jingzhu and the Qinghuai Army led by Liu Renzhan are in urgent need of replacement this year. Now they can only postpone their troops. Liu Renzhan was so angry that his good son Liu Chongjian was bedridden recently, but He Jingzhu, the governor of the Wuchang Army, was very angry. He had just lost 40,000 troops and horses, and now he had a new injury, He Jingzhu He was furious and scolded all eight generations of Xu Xuan's ancestors.
Now that the national treasury was empty and the war was about to begin, it was difficult for Left Prime Minister Xu Xuan to raise money and food, so he naturally focused on the money and food sent by the imperial court to Langzhou. Soon he ordered people to withhold part of the money and food, and communicated with Wei Cen After discussion, he ordered people to replenish the junk equipment accumulated in the warehouse of the Ministry of War and send it to Langzhou. This was not because he ignored that King Zheng was still trapped in Langzhou and disgusted Li Yuan due to his selfish impulse, but because he did it deliberately.
In the eyes of others, Xu Xuan, who has always been loyal to King Zheng, would never do this, but this could just show the emperor that even if I, Xu Xuan, support King Zheng, since I am the left prime minister, I am an important minister of the emperor. Supporting the emperor's military actions regardless of anything else was a gesture of profound justice.
And he dared to take such a risk because he had the confidence. This time
After all, the Northern Expedition was the emperor's will, and Yuezhou, near Langzhou, had already deployed 40,000 Yueshan troops. Now that Li Yuan's Wuping army was recovering its strength, it certainly did not want any war for the time being. Moreover, Li Yuan's performance in front of the court was Show great loyalty...
Xu Xuan was extremely certain that Li Yuan would not react against receiving this batch of junk, which would give the court a perfect excuse to deal with him. On the contrary, he would just swallow his anger and send Prince Zheng and Li Congjia back obediently.
All in all, this was Xu Xuan's most thoughtful and bold move. It not only achieved his selfish goals, but also won applause from the government and the public. Even the emperor Li Jing had to look at him with admiration and praised Xu Xuan. : "Xu Qing is acting much more fairly now, like Fang Du. It is rare to consider the overall situation. I am very pleased that Xu Qing is worthy of such a big responsibility."
…
Li Yuan, who was far away in Langzhou, had no idea about all this. This military operation against Zhou was a top-secret operation and the court did not publicly announce it. Because the imperial court did not want to leak the news before the military operation so that Zhou could take precautions to ensure that the war was unexpected and successful. Therefore, the two officials who escorted the supplies to Langzhou did not know many details.
Zhong Ming, a member of the Department of Household Affairs, and Li Shouki, a doctor in the Treasury Department of the Ministry of War. As the officials responsible for the specific affairs of the Six Ministries, if they had not been responsible for raising money and food, and allocating armor and weapons to the Zhennan Army, they would not be able to give it to Li. That little bit of pitiful news. Even telling Li Yuan this bit of information was actually not allowed because it was also a court secret.
It was the revelation of this news that allowed Li Yuan to quickly judge the possibility of military action by the imperial court. If the Zhennan Army guarding Jiangxi had a military action and there were many neighboring countries around, it would be difficult to determine the target, but it was the most likely. It is nothing more than the Southern Han Kingdom. After the recent war, the relationship between the Southern Tang Dynasty and the Southern Han Dynasty has completely deteriorated.
But then I thought something was wrong. He had already asked Ying to recapture Guiguan and go south to destroy the Han Dynasty. The court had also approved an increase in the number of troops. Could Emperor Li Jing be so kind as to transfer the 150,000 strong Zhennan Army to assist in the battle?
Thinking further, Li Yuan suddenly broke out in cold sweat on his back. Could this be to deal with him?
However, Li Yuan soon realized that his worries were unfounded. If the court really wanted to deal with him, it would not be so abrupt. At least the emperor's precious son, Prince Zheng, had not returned yet, let alone the Zhennan Army, which was thousands of miles away. To deal with oneself, it is really a waste of effort to deal with the near and far away. Do you think the Yueshan Army and the Wuchang Army are just decorations?
In short, since King Zheng's party in the court dares to transport this batch of tattered equipment to Langzhou, it shows that they are not worried that Li Yuan will be angry with the court and continue to detain King Zheng. Since they are not worried, there must be someone My own confidence, otherwise how could I do this?
Li Yuan didn't want to think too much about these matters, and treated them calmly. If he strengthened the local defense, the truth would come to light sooner or later. His father-in-law Zhou Zong had been transferred to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. He was indispensable for raising money and food. He would at least write a letter explaining this. thing.
The money and food delivered this time was withheld, and a batch of tattered equipment was also given as a gift. It was a good excuse. If the court needed the Wu Ping Army to assist in combat later, he could use this tattered equipment as a temporary excuse, and no one had anything to lose. Easy to say.
What Li Yuan has been thinking about now is his own problem, which is how to quickly find a way to make money, not to make money, but to make big money, lots and lots of money.
Especially when this batch of tattered equipment arrived, Li Yuan's willingness to do so became even stronger. I just want to complete the recent expansion of Wuping Army and various military ideas. After all, Wuping Town can only rely on itself and there is no other way.
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