Since he came to the throne, Liu Chengyou has basically spent his time busy between summons and interviews with ministers, generals, honorable ministers and even envoys from all parties. It is a bit sad that the Central Plains has been replaced by the old and the new. Among all the countries in the world, only the Wuyue Kingdom in the southeast corner and Ma Chu in Hunan sent envoys to express their condolences and congratulate Dengji.
As for the others, they were extremely cold. Even the young master of the Central Plains, the heir, made some changes, including the Khitan in the north. Meng Shu, who seemed to have suffered a setback in the previous campaign, was gaining strength again. He camped in the north to recruit the envoy Zhang Qianzhao and was gearing up at Dashan Pass. The current external situation of the Han Dynasty is really very bad. It can be said that it is surrounded by enemies on all sides, and it is frightening at every step. The situation is really worrying.
On Ma Chu's side, Ma Xiguang was cowardly and pedantic. Forced by his brother Ma Xi'e, he took the initiative to show his goodwill to the court and asked for asylum, hoping to use the Central Plains Order to calm Hunan. However, the envoy heading north was intercepted when passing through Jingnan with the tribute and property he carried. That's right, Gao Laizi did this low-level thing again. He sent troops around last year to offend the big man. This time, he took advantage of Liu Chengyou's new accession to the throne and flirted with him to get some benefits.
Hearing this, it was like a slap in the face. Liu Chengyou laughed out of anger, seemingly amused by Gao Congjie. If it weren't for the inappropriate timing, he would have really wanted to send troops to let Gao Laizi experience the iron fist of the Han Empire.
In fact, although Gao Congjie's behavior was rogue, he learned from Feng Dao and others that he was actually not that bad as a king. It's better to say helpless than rogue. Jingnan is a narrow land, located in an important thoroughfare, and is surrounded by various countries. It is not easy to survive in the real cracks. In terms of governance alone, Gao Congjie is much better than his neighbor Ma Chuke.
Regarding Jing Nan's little move, Liu Chengyou could only pretend that he didn't see it for the time being. As long as Jing Nan didn't use troops, Liu Chengyou ignored him.
As for Wu Yue, he came to Tokyo to seek justice and comfort at the risk of crossing the feudal territory. In the past two years, the Wuyue Kingdom was also unstable and the political situation was turbulent. In June last year, Qian Hongzuo, the Zhongxian King of Wu Yue, died, and his younger brother Qian Hongzuo succeeded to the throne. However, his human nature is very urgent. In the early days of his administration, he hated the old generals and wanted to drive them away, but he acted in a secretive and indecisive manner.
At the end of last year, a coup took place in Wuyue. Hu Jinsi, the commander of the Neiya army, led his party members to depose Qian Hongchu and appointed Qian Hongchu as the king of Wuyue. It was also a young master who succeeded to the throne, but he came to power through a coup. Qian Hongchu performed very well. He stabilized the government, avoided tax arrears, and won people's hearts. He still did not forget to appeal to Tokyo.
In fact, up to now, only Meng Shu and Khitan are the only ones facing foreign aggression from the Han Dynasty. There is no need to mention Meng and Shu. The two sides are still fighting in Guanzhong. As for the Khitan, the two countries are at odds with each other. Although there is no news from Youbei, through sporadic news, it is generally known that many people have died in the Khitan this winter, and there seems to be some internal instability. But because of this, we are even more worried about them being beggar-thy-neighbors and invading southward.
As for the Southern Tang Dynasty, it is possible to worry about, but there is nothing to worry about. Today among all the countries in the world, in terms of wealth, the Southern Tang Dynasty ranks first. There is little external pressure and it has been stable for more than ten years. But because he was too comfortable, he lost his enterprising spirit, and Emperor Li Jing has completely become a sit-down man.
Last year, due to the chaos in the Central Plains, Li Jing issued an edict to send troops to invade the Central Plains. As a result, Liu Zhiyuan entered Kaifeng, and the Southern Tang Dynasty did not take any action. As far as Liu Chengyou was concerned, during the most difficult period of the Han Dynasty, the Southern Tang Dynasty did not dare to send troops, and the situation is worse now.
However, the Southern Tang Dynasty did not necessarily react to the new establishment of the Central Plains Young Lord. The Tang Lord gave Liu Chengyou a "surprise" by setting up a checkpoint at the border between the two countries, canceling the trade between the two countries, and at the same time ordered that northerners were not allowed to go south to buy rice. I want to use a grain of rice from the north of the Huainan River to enter the north.
Due to the shortage of food in the Central Plains, the Han Dynasty bought a large proportion of its food from Huainan. Although the relationship between the two countries was not harmonious before, they did not clearly break up, and normal private transactions were not severed. But Li Jing took advantage of Liu Chengyou's new arrival and added insult to injury. His full malice made Liu Chengyou extremely angry. Even more irritating than Gao Laizi's robbery of Ma Chu's tribute, although the impact has not yet spread, Liu Chengyou can almost predict that the court will be very sad in the next six months and will inevitably cut back on food and clothing.
Although the impact is not immediate, the consequences will appear sooner or later. In order to delay the market tension, Liu Chengyou ordered the news to be kept secret for as long as possible. After all, the city that is most short of food is Tokyo.
Of course, even if Li Jing did not issue that edict, the Han Dynasty would not be able to buy much food from Huainan, because the Han Dynasty court was very poor, and the Han people were very poor. As for the local governors and the courtiers, maybe their families had wealth, so they could It is basically impossible to share the joys and sorrows with the imperial court and donate some money.
However, this move of the Southern Tang Dynasty gave Liu Chengyou a handle and kept his words, and by the way aroused Liu Chengyou's greed for the fourteen states north of the Yangtze River in the Southern Tang Dynasty. Since ancient times, the land of Huainan has been an important land of wealth for the country. At that time, Yang Xingmi also used Huainan as the basis to rise and establish the Wu Kingdom. In addition, Huainan's barrier effect on the river defense...
"Zhou Shizong" attacked Huainan three times and returned Jiangbei to the Central Plains. Liu Chengyou already had that idea in his mind. However, it is just a thought, and there is nothing that can be done against the Southern Tang Dynasty at the moment. The most important thing for the big man is to regulate the country and recuperate. Moreover, Liu Chengyou's attention was still on the war in Guanzhong to the west.
There is no peace in Guanzhong, and my heart is uneasy. This is the most realistic portrayal of Liu Chengyou's heart today.
Moreover, Li Shouzhen's side of the river was also restless. After learning that Liu Zhiyuan died and the young master succeeded to the throne, he immediately reached a climax. He was deceived by Master Zong Lun and became confused. He was confident that he had "destiny" and felt that the opportunity had come. In Puzhou, they repaired the armor and repaired the city defenses. Although the anti-rebellion flag was not raised, the anti-rebellion spirit was already rising.
In order not to continue to provoke Li Shouzhen, Liu Chengyou just pretended not to know, as long as he did not officially raise the flag of rebellion. Very frustrated? It is indeed true, but no matter how aggrieved it is, you have to endure it.
A small leak will sink a great ship.
Li Shouzhen's illness was a minor one, as was the Shu soldiers' illness. What really worried Liu Chengyou from the bottom of his heart was the situation in the north. Youzhou reported that Zhao Yanshou, king of Yan, fell ill due to overwork.
There is no reason why Liu Chengyou is not nervous. If Zhao Yanshou dies suddenly, the situation in Youyan that Liu Chengyou has painstakingly planned will collapse in an instant. The Khitan will never let go of that opportunity and will definitely go south.
Thinking of the consequences, Liu Chengyou shuddered. On the one hand, he sent envoys and imperial doctors to the north to comfort him. On the other hand, Liu Chengyou had begun to think about how to deal with the situation after Zhao Yanshou's death and who should replace him.
Now in the Yan army in Youzhou, Zhao Yanshou is the leader and Zhang Li is the deputy. That's right, it was the former Khitan servants Pu She and Tong Ping Zhang who had secretly communicated with Liu Chengyou, but they did not receive a positive response from Liu Chengyou. Last year, Zhao Yanshou entered Youzhou and made a lot of efforts to improve people's livelihood.
However, Zhang Li is also ill... Moreover, he is a scholar and is old. Even if he succeeds Zhao Yanshou, he may not be able to scare the leaders of the Yan army. If the imperial court is directly under the jurisdiction, to be honest, today's big men do not have the strength and energy to do it by force, but they will bear a big burden. If we look for another Han general to suppress it, I am afraid it will be difficult to deal with the Yan army that has established its own system. If there is a slight discord, I am afraid it will fall apart. If one of the Yan generals is promoted, whether the court can trust him or not is a problem, and whether he can be recognized by other Yan generals is also a big problem...
Wei Renpu, who was promoted to the Privy Council with Guo Wei, discussed for a long time and listed all the possibilities. Wei Renpu gave a suggestion, and sent Zhao Kuangzan, the military governor of Jinchang, to go north. He was the son of Zhao Yanshou, the son of his father. Continue. After thinking about it, this is a choice that can barely be accepted by all parties. Although Zhao Kuangzan is young, he has done a good job in Jingzhao. He is comprehensive in resisting Li Tinggui.
The premise is that Liu Chengyou must have this ability. In addition, Zhao Kuangzan is currently leading the Jingzhao Town Army, cooperating with the Guanyou Army and Wang Jun to deal with the Shu Army.
After careful consideration, Liu Chengyou decided to accept Wei Renpu's suggestion, move Zhao Kuangzan to Lulong as the observation envoy, conduct camp deployment in the north, and take him north to Youzhou in case of unexpected events. On the other side of Guanzhong, he was replaced by veteran Bai Wenke to control Jingzhao. Using Bai Gong, in addition to his qualifications, is also to make plans for the future. Last year, Liu Zhiyuan transferred to various towns, and Bai Wenke replaced Zhao Kuangzan as the governor of the river. He was also familiar with Puzhou...
Although the edict was issued, Liu Chengyou couldn't help but murmur in his heart. Could Zhao Yanshou be pretending to be ill in order to make money for his son to go north?
Of course, this thought only passed away in a flash. Liu Chengyou did not believe that Zhao Yanshou had the ability to accurately predict the court's reaction. Furthermore, even if Zhao and his son had different intentions, it would be better to allow them to separatize Youzhou than to fall into the hands of the Khitans again. If the Yan army collapses, the pressure on the Han will be even greater.
Even if he is well prepared for contingency, Liu Chengyou still has to pray that Zhao Yanshou can live for two more years...
