Prime Minister

Chapter 782 Ordered to retreat under the gold medal

Bianjing City is at nightfall.

The guards inside and outside the palace are already locking the gates of various palaces.

The palace people held fire starters tied with long handles and lit the bowl lamps on the top of the hall one by one.

The concierge, Wang Zhongzheng, was summoned by the officials and was going to the hall to face the saint.

During the Qingli period, the palace people were in chaos, and there was a panic in the palace. At that time, Wang Zhongzheng shot the bandits with his bow and arrow, and helped put down the chaos, so he was appreciated by Emperor Renzong.

At that time, Wang Zhongzheng was no match.Because of his courage and courage, he was often entrusted by the court to supervise the army.

Wang Zhongzheng also became the first eunuch besides Li Xian to know the soldiers.

Wang Zhongzheng was surprised when he knew that the officials asked him to go to Xihe immediately.What the officials meant was to let him take over as Xihe Road, and take office immediately. The first thing he did after taking office was to order Zhang Yue to stop advancing troops immediately.

Wang Zhongzheng thought to himself, no, the officials had just granted Zhang Yue the right to act arbitrarily, and now they have ordered him to stop marching troops. Isn't this order contradictory and contradictory?

Wang Zhongzheng reconfirmed the official's intention, and after getting the correct order to restrain Zhang Yuejin's troops, he realized that going to the northwest might not be a good job for him.

But I saw the official said: "I had a word at the beginning, saying that the Xihe River today is like a tiger hugging jade, and it should be taken when its minions are not ready. Now, because of the defeat of Jingsi Lihe Prefecture, we can know that Dong felt that it is not easy for wood to conquer. On the other hand, I intend to stop for a while, not to say that I will not take Xihe, but to judge the situation, and you must clearly tell Zhang Yue what I mean."

Wang Zhongzheng lowered his head and thought, Zhang Yue just sent out troops, how could he easily stop advancing, if he went to Xihe, wouldn't he be in conflict with him?

However, being an eunuch represents the will of the emperor, this is bound to be in conflict with a border official like Zhang Yue.

Wang Zhongzheng didn't want to offend Zhang Yue, but he didn't dare to offend the emperor.

At this point, Wang Zhongzheng was a little envious. The previous two successors, Liu Xixi and Li Xian, all cooperated with Zhang Yue in the Northwest. After making military achievements, they returned to the court and were promoted.

Wang Zhongzheng thought to himself that since he was unlucky, he had to make sure nothing happened when this matter happened to him.

So Wang Zhongzheng said: "Report to Your Majesty, I will go right away, but the horses and chariots are slow after all, but please give your Majesty the gold medal to the army before the minister, and order Zhang Yue to stop advancing first."

The official said: "It's still you who think carefully."

The official immediately ordered someone to write the imperial decree and pass it on with a gold medal.

Immediately an envoy received the gold medal, but saw that the gold medal was a wooden strip, about one foot long, covered with red lacquer.

The vermilion gold medal is called the 'gold' medal because of the eight characters engraved on it.

These eight characters are "Imperial characters, not allowed to enter the shop", and they are written in gold.

The so-called imperial characters are not allowed to enter the store, that is, the gold medal conveys the official imperial decree, and the person who conveys the imperial decree is only allowed to hand it over on horseback, and is not allowed to enter the post station to hand it over.

The emissary held the gold medal high in one hand, and immediately raised his whip, and the horse under his crotch suffered from the pain, and immediately threw off its four hooves and started galloping.

I saw the gallant horse tumbling, the ringing of the bell on the horse's neck was loud, and the horse and the people were galloping away like a shooting star. It was now in the middle of the night, and the gold medal held by the envoy was dazzling, and it was as fast as lightning when galloping. , People on the road see it and avoid it.

When the envoy was about to arrive at the post station, the post soldiers immediately led their horses out after seeing the gold medal from a distance. Along the way, the envoy changed horses without changing people, traveling five hundred miles a day, day and night!
The next day after learning that Wang Zhongzheng was sent to the northwest, Wu Chong stated in the hall: "Your Majesty, Zhang Yue has already restrained the military affairs of Xihe, and now he has ordered Wang Zhongzheng to restrain himself. I am afraid that the success of the front line cannot be blamed for doing things like this." .”

The official said: "I know that there was no defeat in Hezhou before, so I thought that the Northwest could be controlled by Zhang Yue's strength, but now that Jing Sili lost his teacher and lost his land, and died for the country, I am very worried. What if Xihe If we lose again, not only will the Xihe River be lost, but the Westerners will also invade Qinfeng Road in large numbers. Once Qinfeng Road is lost, even the Yongxing Mansion may not be able to protect it. Therefore, I will change my previous discussion and delay the matter of Xihe Road."

After a pause, the official added: "It's not that I don't trust Zhang Yue, but I'm just afraid that he's dedicated to sharing the concerns of the imperial court and is eager to make contributions. If he leads the army to easily commit danger, the Northwest will be in danger. Now I want to keep Xizhou as the first priority. As for the conquest of logging, Dong Zhan's matter will be plotted slowly in the future."

After the officials finished speaking, Wu Chong knew the emperor's contradictory mood at the moment. One side wanted Zhang Yue to make meritorious deeds, but the other side was afraid that Zhang Yue wanted to make meritorious deeds too much, and he was defeated.

So the first order let Zhang Yue make his own decision, and the latter order made Zhang Yue stop advancing immediately, and at the same time Wang Zhongzheng and the gold medal envoy Wubaili were sent to urgently order Zhang Yue to stop.

Wu Chong said: "Since there are gold medal envoys, please withdraw Wang Zhongzheng first, and Zhang Yue will serve in the northwest, so why would you like someone to control him?"

The official said: "When Zhang Yue came to Beijing, he also said that it was inconvenient to communicate with the central government, so he invited Wang Anli to the shogunate to supervise the army, and later invited the eunuch to supervise the army from the army. I also invited him from the beginning."

Wu Chong saw that the official was clearly playing tricks and said immediately: "Your Majesty, Zhang Yue had no choice but to say this. Afterwards, Wang Yu said that His Majesty would not send a middleman to supervise the army, and Zhang Yue did not say no. Zhang Yue asked the middleman to be there." In the army, it is necessary to have people who are trusted by His Majesty around, so slanderous words can be used like this."

"Now Zhang Yue has no one else, and he is going to recover Xihe for the court. What if Wang Zhongzheng disagrees in the army, what should we do if Tian Qinzuo forced Guo Jin back then?"

The officials were silent when they heard the words.

Wang Anshi said: "I also thought that Wang Zhongzheng could be withdrawn. Although Hezhou is defeated now, it is because of Jing Sili's carelessness. Zhang Yue is quite famous in the Fan tribe on Xihe Road, so he can appease the Fan tribe and accept his heroes at the same time." For use, so that you can use the Tibetans to control the Tibetans."

Wang Gui also said: "Your Majesty, I also believe that this defeat is a temporary loss of the imperial court, not that the imperial court's soldiers and horses in Xihe were defeated by Dong Zhan and Mu Zheng."

The words of Wang Anshi and Wang Gui caused the officials to fall into thinking again, and then they paced back and forth in the hall with their hands behind their backs.

……

When the gold medal envoy arrived at Zhang Yue's army, Zhang Yue's army arrived at Xizhou.

Cai Yanqing, the transshipment envoy of Qinfeng Road in Xizhou City, led the officials from Xihe Road out of the city to meet Zhang Yue.

When Hezhou was in a tight spot before, Xizhou was not peaceful. The Tibetans wanted to infiltrate the city to ambush and seize Xizhou City, but Cai Yanqing saw through it.After that, the Fans attacked the city several times, but were all repelled by the Song army.

However, Cai Yanqing was worried all day long, and recruited troops from various forts in Xizhou to defend the city. Even so, the city of Xizhou was still turbulent.

After Jing Sili's defeat, Cai Yanqing hurriedly urged Zhang Yue to lead the army to help immediately, and now he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the army arrived outside Xizhou City.

Cai Yanqing and Zhang Yue met outside the city, and after several months of not seeing Cai Yanqing, he suddenly aged a lot, and the hair on his temples was almost gray, which shows how much pressure he has endured these days.

Zhang Yue and Cai Yanqing went into the city together and sat down in the Jinglue Mansion and comforted him: "Mr. Cai, don't worry too much. Now that I lead the army to Xizhou City, everything will be safe."

Cai Yanqing sighed: "Du Zhi is that I am sorry for you. When you left Xihe, you repeatedly told me to be careful and not to use troops easily. But...but I acquiesced and let Wang Shao lead the army to attack Minzhou. As a result, I fell into the trick of the Tibetans to divert the tiger away from the mountain!"

"I'm really sorry for you, I'm really a sinner of the imperial court through the ages!"

Cai Yanqing looked heartbroken, Zhang Yue was also silent, thinking of Jing Sili who died in battle, Xia Yao felt a little sad in his heart.

Zhang Yue knew that Wang Shao and Cai Yanqing's sending troops to Minzhou involved Wang Anshi's political struggle with himself.

In the end Cai Yanqing admitted his mistake to himself, but Wang Shao still feels that he is right.

He said to Cai Yanqing: "This is the end of the matter, Wang Zichun has been peeping at my position as a strategic envoy, so he made this show. In fact, with his military strategy, how could he be so lost? Greed is blinding!"

"As for Mr. Cai, don't worry. I don't mean to be responsible for you. Now you and I should work together to support the overall situation. Only in this way can we repay His Majesty's trust."

Cai Yanqing said: "Thank you Duzhi for your forgiveness. Now that Jing Sili has died for his country, even his head is missing. Guizhang has led an army to besiege Hezhou City, and he doesn't know how many days he can last. Wang Hou led his army to retreat to Xiangzi City. , the situation is really not good for our army.”

"I don't know how to deal with it?"

Zhang Yue asked back, "What's your opinion, Mr. Cai?"

Cai Yanqing sighed: "What good ideas do you have now? I think it is not easy to hold Xizhou now. Let's not plot him in Hezhou for the time being. Gao Zunyu also sent a letter every day to ask us when we will send reinforcements to rescue him. ?”

Hearing the words, Zhang Yue couldn't help but said, "Xia Guo and Dong Zhan, Mu Zheng had their own ghosts, so he didn't exert much effort. He Gao Zunyu has many soldiers and horses with him, it's a good thing he opened his mouth."

The Xihe Second Army is all in Gao Zunyuna, and there are many followers of the Fan Army. It is not an exaggeration to say that the soldiers are strong and the horses are strong.

And there was a famine in the country of Xia, and the Liang brothers and sisters were also at odds with the big families in the country, so they didn't send many people to attack the two states of Lanhui.

As a result, Gao Zunyu kept yelling that I couldn't stand it anymore, and I was going to be unable to stand it anymore, and he cut off the money and food of the reinforcements sent to Hezhou by Qinfenglu to use it for himself, which was really annoying.

Now that Xihe fell into this field, Gao Zunyu was also to blame.

Cai Yanqing said: "Gao Zunyu has always been like this, but he has to believe it. What's more, now that the army mentions Hezhou, they don't want to go."

After listening to Cai Yanqing's words, Zhang Yue knew that pessimism had spread in Xizhou city, and he was afraid to move forward when he mentioned Hezhou.

Zhang Yue resolutely said: "Mr. Cai, this Hezhou must be saved!"

Cai Yanqing was silent for a moment and said: "Fan Bing is not a scheming person, he used his troops cunningly, otherwise our army would not have followed his way once or twice."

Finally, Cai Yanqing said: "After all, Zhang Jinglue is a frontier minister, and this responsibility is not on my side. If you must send troops to save Hezhou, please be careful."

Zhang Yue said: "Don't worry, Mr. Cai."

When Zhang Yue summoned his generals to conduct military discussions and discuss to enter Hezhou to rescue the siege, the gold medal envoy rushed to the army.

Ps: In fact, the gold medal system only existed in the sixth year of Yuanfeng.

(End of this chapter)