What Lao Jianhua asked Wei Zixuan to do was neither difficult nor simple.
Through Bao Yuchun's connection, the Japanese pirates hiding in Kuohai Islands have agreed to the plan to harass Shengtang.
Preliminary estimates indicate that in the next month, 30,000 to 40,000 Japanese pirates will land in the northern coastal state capitals and cause large-scale destruction.
Lao Jianhua instructed Wei Zixuan to try to stabilize Li Bing first and not to let the main force of the imperial court intervene prematurely in the early stage, so that the Japanese bandits could successfully occupy some important cities and form a certain scale climate.
This point is very critical. If the Japanese pirates cannot stand firm and are driven out of the sea by the imperial army in a few seconds, then the so-called rear containment will be out of the question.
Regarding this, Wei Zixuan felt a headache.
He could foresee that once those barbaric and cruel rogues came ashore, they would definitely be worse than animals. If they were allowed to wreak havoc without any scruples, burning, killing, looting, and raping women to their heart's content, all local and state capitals would be blown up. The pot is weird.
At that time, countless petitions for help came to the imperial capital like snowflakes. How should Wei Zixuan delay them?
However, Lao Jianhua's order had to be followed. Not only must it be done, but it must be done well, because the last time Li Jiangyao came to the imperial capital to play a trick to lure the enemy deeper, Wei Zixuan failed to detect it in time, resulting in Bao Yuchun losing one general, plus 60,000 troops and laboring swords in vain. Hua was furious about this and kept threatening to kill him.
Wei Zixuan thought about it and finally came up with a solution that was not a solution.
Some time ago, the Minister of War, Dong Tianxing, went to Emperor Shu, hoping to recruit a group of new soldiers to prepare for the upcoming war against rebellion. Because of his position, this suggestion was rejected directly by Wei Zixuan.
For this reason, Lao Dong came to argue with him, hoping that his minister, Zuo Pushe, would not interfere with him.
Now that it was related to the issue of delaying the imperial army to resist the invasion of Japanese pirates, Wei Zixuan thought about the matter again. He rolled his eyes: Why not, let's go with the flow!
They pretended to agree to the request of the Ministry of War, and then used grain and agricultural taxes as an excuse to assign the task of recruiting new soldiers to the eastern coastal state capitals. In this way, if the Japanese invaders invade, they will propose to the emperor that the eastern state capital already has a large number of troops, and there is no need to mobilize the main army to conquer.
In this way, by the time those useless recruits were completely defeated by the ronin, a long time must have passed, and the Japanese bandits should have gradually established a firm footing.
After figuring out this bad move, Wei Zixuan immediately found a pen and paper and drafted corresponding opinions based on the recruitment notice from the Ministry of War. In the morning of the next day, Wei Zixuan reported his proposal to the emperor in front of all civil and military officials.
After listening to his opinion, Li Bing felt that it made sense.
Firstly, in order to resist the Turkic invasion, the Central Plains, Hebei and other places had a huge consumption of soldiers. It is indeed not appropriate to recruit new soldiers from these places, so as not to affect the local farming harvest; secondly, the eastern prefectures have the convenience of water conservancy, and the people Most of them are familiar with water properties, and most of the rebels will be able to use it in their future southern expedition.
Therefore, Li Bing immediately made the decision, with the Ministry of War taking the lead and the Ministry of Household Cooperation cooperating, to recruit new government soldiers in Jiaodong and Lianghuai areas and intensify training to supplement the needs of the main legions in the future.
Wei Zixuan couldn't help but be secretly happy when he saw that his plan had succeeded. As soon as he came to court, he immediately urged his officials to send the court's orders to the eastern states to recruit troops immediately.
Just as Wei Zixuan was implementing his strategy intensively, a pair of sharp eyes were staring at him from behind, and the owner of that gaze was Fenyang Princess Li Xi who was in the Prince Consort's Mansion.
"Princess, the person is still under our control," Shi Feng reported: "Although Beiya Nilin Division raided Hongxiu Zhai first and disrupted our surveillance, Wei Peng did lead a new face from Anle We returned to the Zuopushe Mansion. We secretly checked the details of the man. He came from the south of the Yangtze River. His public identity was a silk merchant named Wang Liang. But after entering the Wei Mansion, he changed his identity and became Wei. Peng’s deputy.”
Li Xi said happily: "Jiangnan? That's great. This is an important harvest. Can you secretly arrest Wang Liang?"
Shi Feng shook his head: "Wei Peng watches them very closely. He takes him with him wherever he goes, and there are guards around him. As long as they don't leave Zuopushe Mansion, it will be difficult for us to attack them."
Li Xi thought for a moment and then asked: "What's going on with Nilin Division? Why are they also targeting Hongxiu Zhai? Have you figured out this matter?"
"It's basically clear." Shi Feng said apologetically: "According to the internal informant report, this matter is all due to negligence. The new flag commander of the Third Section of the Nilin Division, Zhu Junjie, has dealt with me before, so he is also paying attention secretly. My actions. He discovered that Beizhi had been paying attention to the Red Sleeve Zhai recently, so he reported it to Tian Mu, and then accidentally raided there. "
Hearing this, Li Xi said in a deep voice: "The Nilin Division is the emperor's private army. Since they know your identity, I am afraid that I will not be able to escape from His Majesty's eyes. You must be more careful in the future."
Shi Feng cupped his hands and responded: "Yes, I will be more cautious in my humble position."
"The current situation in the imperial capital is very complicated, far beyond our imagination," Li Xi continued to analyze: "If Wei Zixuan is an undercover agent of the Jiangnan rebels, then Tian Mu's position will become complicated and confusing. If he also falls to Wei Zixuan, Our situation would be extremely disadvantageous.”
Shi Feng said: "I think the situation may not be that serious. If Tian Mu is also a member of Wei Zixuan, there should be no accident in Hong Xiuzhai."
"Well, your speculation makes sense." Li Xi nodded slightly: "We might as well make a bold assumption first. Wei Zixuan is Wei Zixuan, and Tian Mu is Tian Mu. They each have their own masters, but they are all hostile to us. What about other people? For example, Yin Chengyi and Gong Chengze?"
Shi Feng thought for a while and said: "Yin Chengyi may be Wei Zixuan's accomplice, but Gong Chengze is obviously closer to Tian Mu. Both of them are the kind of people who are greedy for power and are just greedy for profit."
"In other words, Tian Mu and Gong Chengze were only used by Wei Zixuan, or were they tied to Wei Zixuan for their own selfish interests?" Li Xi said while thinking.
Shi Feng nodded: "That's probably the case. Although they are full of hostility towards the Protectorate, General Murong and the Zhenjiang Army, our current real enemy should be Wei Zixuan first."
Li Xi looked at the table with his fingers and analyzed: "Wei Zixuan learned through Xiaoting that I was going to Xiangji Temple to worship Buddha, and deliberately arranged for Jinghuini to block the meeting, and then secretly sent someone to deliver the evidence that framed Shen Changshi. In my house. When I go to report Shen Lie to the emperor in order to rescue my brother, he will encourage Tian Mu to kill Shen Changshi."
"Later, the wedding was attacked by poisonous assassins. Wei Zixuan took this opportunity to frame the Zhenjiang Army and suggested that the emperor send troops to suppress it. The prince-in-law and General Xu were put under house arrest in Yeting Palace because of their opposition. Fortunately, the guardian returned to the imperial capital in time and put this person under house arrest. A series of conspiracies were resolved.”
"Afterwards, Wei Zixuan realized that Xiaoting might be a flaw, so he asked the housekeeper Wei Peng to find Wen Zan, use coercion and inducement, and ordered him to secretly get rid of Xiaoting. It was a good deal. And even if Wen Zan was caught, Wei Peng could accuse him Deny it and push this matter away.”
Speaking of this, Li Xi looked up at Shi Feng and sighed: "It was so dangerous. Wei Zixuan almost succeeded several times. In that case, not only would Shen Lie die unjustly, but the imperial court and the Zhenjiang Army would also fall into a melee, and even I, most likely, will not be able to escape the fate of being assassinated by Xiaoting."
Shi Feng nodded slightly: "That's right. Fortunately, most of the guards were able to turn the tide, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable."
Li Xi fully agreed with this: "Brother Jiang Yao is a gift from God to Shengtang. He is the mainstay of the dynasty. Both the Li family and the soldiers and common people should be grateful."
She paused for a moment, then sighed: "However, the current situation still cannot be relaxed at all. Wei Zixuan's official worship was Shangshu Zuopushe, and he was deeply favored by the emperor. However, Shangshu Ling and Shangshu Youpushe both died tragically at the hands of assassins. In our hands, he is the only prime minister in the court, and almost no one can check and balance him. If we don’t have solid evidence in our hands, we may not be able to defeat him, not even his cronies."
"That's why the Imperial Guard asked General Murong to leave the imperial capital temporarily." Shi Feng said: "Only by staying away from the court and in the army can we avoid the open and hidden arrows here and wait for opportunities to counterattack. And we have also received military orders from our superiors and must sacrifice our lives. Keeping you safe.”
Li Xi smiled: "I am not afraid of them! They are playing tricks and tricks, and women are not necessarily worse than men. As long as Wei Zixuan and his like don't send an army over to use knives and guns, I have the confidence to fight them to the end!"
Shi Feng had a deep understanding of Princess Fenyang's determination during this time, and at the same time he admired her very much. He raised his hands and said loudly: "Please tell me what plans the princess has next."
Li Xi thought for a while and said: "The first step is to stay invisible for a while and only help me secretly. Try to stay out of the Nilin Division's sight as much as possible to prevent them from making trouble with you."
Shi Feng responded: "The adults in the Imperial City branch also have the same intention, and let the humble officials try to work in secret."
Li Xi nodded and continued: "From now on, your Intelligence Department should do your best to keep an eye on Wei Zixuan, including all the servants in his family. No matter how detailed it is, no one can be missed, even the bitch student in Zuopushe Mansion. Zai'er, you need to know clearly as soon as possible."
Shi Feng laughed dumbly: "Okay, let's go all out!"
"The third point is that all of Wei Zixuan's memorial proposals must be carefully analyzed to find out the reasons and true purposes behind them, and the Chief Protector must be notified in a timely manner so that he can take precautions."
"I understand, I must let the informants in the imperial city pay more attention."
"Last point, let me find out the situation of Wei Zixuan's family thoroughly. From today on, I want to have a good relationship with the Wei family!"
