The rise of the prince

Chapter 412 Taiyuan Yang Family
Apart from a few officials from the Maritime Department who took the convenience boat, those who went north together also included Wang Tong's family, two porters who accompanied him to carry things, a maid who served his wife, and three Ningjiang mansion guards with knives.

Going up against the current in the north, the big ship of the palace is going fast. The advantage of the large platform of the ship is that apart from the open space, the crew’s living conditions are good, and the heavy load can carry more weapons and ammunition. .

Nowadays, the wind and waves of the inland rivers are not to be feared by Wangfu's Dingnan class ship, only the sea can test it.

At noon, standing on the bow of the boat, Li Xingzhou could already see the majestic Taihang Mountains in the distance. The yellow-brown rocks were exposed in large areas, and the dark green vegetation was very little, like green onions on mashed potatoes, dotted sporadically.

The mountain is as sinister and majestic as it is cut with a knife and an axe. The mountain runs across the north and south, stretching for more than 1000 miles, blocking the east and west, blocking the dust and sight on the other side of the mountain.Therefore, on the side of the mountain is a green plain with luxuriant water and grass, lush vegetation, fertile land and dense population.

Li Xingzhou couldn't see it on the other side of the mountain, but he knew that the land there was barren, ravines crisscrossed, and the mountains were full of loess, making life difficult.

Wang Tong put on his official uniform, and came to the bow of the boat at some time. He coughed to show that he was there, but he didn't speak.

Li Xingzhou turned around and asked, "Is there any contact between Ningjiang Mansion and Taiyuan Mansion?"

"Ahem." Wang Tong coughed twice and agreed: "There are naturally contacts, the source of banditry in Jiangzhou is under the rule of Taiyuan.

Those Black Mountain bandits all came from the west of Taihang Mountain. I sent documents to Taiyuan Mansion many times, hoping that they could help solve the banditry from the source, but they ignored them and let them do their thing. "

Speaking of this, Wang Tong became even more angry: "At the beginning, I also submitted a letter, wanting to ask the emperor to punish the crime of inaction of the prefect of Taiyuan, but there was no news. The emperor also protected those remnants of the previous dynasty, neither punished nor punished. Pursue it, and don't even let them cooperate with Ningjiang Mansion to eliminate the thieves!"

"The remnant of the former dynasty is the Yang family?" Li Xingzhou asked, he was not sure about this.

Wang Tong said contemptuously: "That's right, they are all thieves who changed their families."

Li Xingzhou didn't answer, probably like Wang Tong, some people in the court thought the Yang family was disloyal.

"Tell me about their Yang family." Li Xingzhou sat down on the bow of the boat, Wang Tong was reluctant, but he still said it.

Monarchs and ministers are bigger than father and son, let alone Weng son-in-law, just like Jia Zheng’s family in the Dream of Red Mansions wants to bow down to his daughter. Even if Wang Tong is reluctant, Li Xingzhou is now the king of Pingnan County, the transfer envoy of Beijing North, and the Beijing North Road includes Ningjiang Mansion, Taiyuan The local governors of these areas are obliged to cooperate in the operation. To put it bluntly, Li Xingzhou is his superior.

Wang Tong didn't sit down, but stood up and said in a business-like manner: "The Yang family was originally a general of the Northern Han Dynasty. When I destroyed the Northern Han Dynasty, I fought bloody battles with Jingguo and killed countless soldiers.

After the fall of the Northern Han Dynasty, the Yang family voted for our dynasty. Taiyuan was originally the capital of the Northern Han Dynasty. Emperor Taizong appreciated the Yang family's good fighting skills, and appointed Yang Ye, the ancestor of the Yang family, as the magistrate of Taiyuan and the commander of the military affairs of the three states.Later, in the Taiyuan generation, the Yang family was always in charge of military affairs.

His son Yang Jiye, Sun Yang Yanzhao and others have always been in charge of the military affairs of the three states.Later, Emperor Zhenzong married the royal princess to the Yang family.Up to now, Yang Wenguang, the Patriarch of the Yang family, has been appointed as the official of the Taiyuan government, and he is also in command of the military affairs commander of the three prefectures.

Their Yang family has been run by several generations, and the people in Taiyuan don’t know that they are the army of the Tian family, they only know that there is an army of the Yang family, which is not a good thing.”

Li Xingzhou saw Wang Tong's face getting worse and worse, and he probably understood that he was jealous.

Presumably, many ministers of Jingguo have this attitude towards the Yang family.

After all, the emperors of all dynasties have given both military power and political power to the Yang family, and even married the royal princess to a remote place like the Yang family in Taiyuan.

But they couldn't see that to the north of Taiyuan was the covetous Liao Kingdom, and the land of three states bordered the Liao Kingdom. Taiyuan hadn't had any accidents for so many years, so the Yang family must be bleeding to death.

There are two major battlefields in the confrontation between Jingguo and Liaoguo.To the west of Taihang Mountain is Jingbei Road, the land of three states in Taiyuan Prefecture, and to the north of Zhendingfu on Dongguan North Road to Taihang Mountain, and Taiyuan Prefecture is obviously under the greatest pressure.

Fortunately, there is Yang's family in Taiyuan Mansion, and Wei Chaoren in Zhending Mansion in Guanbei.

When the autumn wind blew across the river, the sun was just right and the waves were sparkling. Li Xingzhou's brain was washed away by the river wind, and he became extremely awake and active, and turned quickly.

He quickly understood the key point. The defenders in Guanbei are replaced by the forbidden army every year. The Forbidden Army in the north obeyed the command of Jiedu envoy Wei Chaoren.

But the Yang family army is different. The Yang family army does not need a single soldier from the central court. They rely on themselves to defend the border.

To put it bluntly, the court is trying to save money!

It already costs a lot of money every year to raise a large number of central imperial guards to defend the defense line in the north of Guanbei. If more troops are raised to defend the defense line north of Taiyuan, the treasury will be tight or even in deficit.

What's more terrible is that Taiyuan is sandwiched between Taihang Mountain and Luliang Mountain, and its terrain is higher than that of Huanghuaihai Plain. If the forbidden army is transferred from Kaiyuan and goes north to Taiyuan for defense, the journey will be very difficult and long, and it will consume a lot of manpower and material resources.

At this time, it is better to let the Yang family grow stronger, let them guard the border for the country, and save money. The emperor needs the Yang family, so he will naturally win them over. .

Wang Tong doesn't understand this point, he only knows that he is jealous of the power of the Yang family, of course the emperor will not punish the Yang family, whoever offends the Yang family will face the covetous Liao Kingdom, is it true that the imperial court will double the number of forbidden troops to deal with the Liao Kingdom? ?The national treasury of Jingguo runs into deficit every year.

After figuring this out, Li Xingzhou had some idea in his heart about how to deal with the Yang family, because he was the transfer envoy of Jingbei Road, and logically speaking, he also had the right to call the soldiers of the Taiyuan government.

To put it bluntly, the Yang family is the sword in the hands of the emperor. As long as there are foreign enemies, the emperor will rely on them. At this time, whoever dares to let the emperor break the sword is treasonous.

But once the external threat weakened, the emperor wished he could quickly break the sword, because the sword had double edges, and he would hurt himself if he was not careful.

Wang Tong is a bit naive, but his nature is not that bad. From time to time, he pretends not to look at his side, and then says a few words to stir up the topic.His kind of human nature is like that, he thinks a bit about the so-called straight man thinking, and now he probably feels that it is wrong to drag Li Xingzhou into the quagmire of Jiangzhou.
"My lord. Is there really a countermeasure?" Wang Tong asked after hesitating for a while.

"Yes." Li Xingzhou agreed affirmatively. He was almost in Jiangzhou, and it was time to go even if he didn't have one.

"That's good, that's good." Wang Tong nodded.

After a while, the mother-in-law also came out of the cabin, stood at the bow of the boat and took his hand affectionately, while feeling that she had never seen such a big and fast boat before, while introducing him to the scenery along the way.

The mother-in-law is very affectionate to him, just like a family member, and it can be seen that she is well-informed, she is not the kind of lady who does not go out of the door, she can name all the mountains and rivers along the river and both sides .

In the afternoon, after a simple meal, the sailors on the deck cheered, because the wind they wanted came, the sails were pulled up, and the speed of the ship increased again. In the afternoon, the sun slanted westward, and the large-scale buildings in Jiangzhou in the distance The group has come into view.

The officials who took the big ship for the first time, Wang Tong and his wife and others were shocked, because they set off from Kaiyuan in the morning, and they were delayed for nearly an hour after passing the city ship inspection. After leaving Kaiyuan, they kept going against the current until the afternoon. , but just like this, I will arrive in Jiangzhou in the afternoon!
Of course Li Xingzhou knew the reason, because the main source of power for the big ship was to step on the water wheel, and the sails were only for assistance.

As the big ship kept approaching, many people came out curiously to look at the green brick roads and houses on the bank of the Jiangzhou River. They probably had never seen such a huge behemoth before.

A few small boats on the river suddenly rowed over without warning and wanted to get a closer look. The eyes of the old sailors who were watching the water at the bow of the boat were so frightened that their eyes turned green. Whistling frivolously, holding hands and no one listens to them.

It wasn't until Wang Tong waved his hand that his three guards rushed to the bow of the boat, cursed and threatened them. Those boatmen obviously knew who they were, so they stepped aside resentfully.

The sailor wiped his forehead with cold sweat and heaved a sigh of relief. The big ship of the Wangfu is no better than those small boats. A draft can reach more than [-] shi. It doesn't mean that it can be stopped by stopping. If it is too late to avoid collision, those small boats can be crushed into powder directly. , people can't live.

Wang Tong's face was not good-looking, and Li Xingzhou also felt the chaos in Jiangzhou a little bit.

In a big city, the management of the ferry is so loose. Many small boats are scurrying around the ferry, and accidents are easy to happen if you are not careful.The small boat is fine, but a collision with a big boat is a matter of life.

As a result, when he thought about it, he turned around and saw a few small boats over there because they were avoiding the big boats, and there was no one to direct them. Shocked, nothing major happened.

(End of this chapter)