The rise of the prince

Chapter 671 Royal Garden Gala + Heart of a Rich Man

The Mid-Autumn Festival is an important festival of the year, not to mention this year, the streets and alleys are decorated with lanterns and festoons, and guests are feasting at the palace. Li Xingzhou even sent someone to clear Yang Hongzhao, but they were rejected.

This is nothing, after all, the Wangfu also invited Hefu, Xiangfu, etc., but Li Xingzhou also understands that they will definitely not come. The Mid-Autumn Festival is also commonly known as the "Reunion Festival". people have.

After the palace ordered Fang and Shiyu, Li Xingzhou was also ready to have a banquet in the palace.

He walked with Ji Chunsheng and did not ride a horse, because there were too many people on the road and it was not convenient to walk.

There was no talking all the way, and soon arrived at the palace. This time the grand banquet was not held in the Changchun Palace, but in the Imperial Garden, because autumn chrysanthemums were just right, and enjoying the flowers and the moon was the most interesting thing about the Mid-Autumn Festival. Li Xingzhou and Ji Chunsheng came after they arrived at the palace. There were not many people, and they arrived at the Imperial Garden under the guidance of the eunuch.

There were still not many people in the garden, only He Zhao and Xue Fang, and three or five officials from the Imperial Academy who were not familiar with them. Others were coming one after another.

Li Xingzhou went forward to say hello to He Zhao and Xue Fang. He Zhao was still brooding over the fact that he released his pigeons two days ago. Tell him: "I will help you with Yang Hongzhao's matter."

"What did you say?" Li Xingzhou teased him.

"You..." He Zhao's face became even darker, and he finally held back his anger. After all, this is the Royal Garden, and he changed the subject with a snort, "Did you say something to He Xu on the day of the year? He has been busy preparing for the past two days. weapons."

"I promised him that he could go to the New Army Martial Arts Field to practice archery." Li Xingzhou said.

"Nonsense!" He Zhao's eyes widened, "He didn't have a proper job in the first place, he only knew how to run around all day long, he didn't have a family at a young age and didn't study classics, history and etiquette, and he thought about fighting with swords and sticks every day.

After returning from the north this time, as long as I talk to him, I always talk about the barbarians in the north! "

He Zhao was so angry that he blew his beard and stared: "He doesn't learn from so many sages in the Central Plains. He just thinks about things about foreign barbarians. This rebellious son wants to piss me off to death."

Li Xingzhou was almost amused by him. After all, He Zhao is a relatively conservative and stubborn person. Compared with De Gong, he is far less flexible, so it is not surprising that he has such a view.

"How about letting him stay in our army?" Li Xingzhou asked tentatively. In his eyes, He Xu is a rare talent. He has rich experience and has traveled all over the country. He knew from talking with him that he had been there before. From Dali in the southwest, it went up the Tubo Plateau, to the north to the grassland near the Onan River, and to the northwest through the Yumen Pass.

It is more than enough for such a person to stay in the army as a marching staff officer. After all, he knows the way, not to mention that wherever he goes, he is self-sufficient in business, so he must understand the local customs and customs. Know the effect.

This is a very rare talent for Li Xingzhou, but he will not rashly ask for someone directly. After all, it is up to He Xu to say whether he is willing or not, and the He family may have arrangements for his children. , and staying in the army is equivalent to serving as a military officer. If the family has spare power, no one wants their offspring to serve as a military officer.

Sure enough, He Zhao hesitated. He froze for a while and then seemed to have made up his mind. He pouted with a stern face and expressed helplessness: "It's good for him to stay in the army, at least he has a way out."

Li Xingzhou smiled, and He Zhao let go, so he can talk to He Xu, after all, in this day and age, fathers are very strict with their sons.

And He Xu has a generous personality and doesn't like to be restrained, so he should be willing to go north with the army.

But after all, he is a son, and then He Zhao whispered again: "He will be entrusted to King Jin there. Dogs are incompetent, ignorant of economics, ignorant of learning and skills, but they can indeed get it through hard work, otherwise he wouldn't be able to go there. Far, the prince can give orders, but if necessary, please shine a little light."

Li Xingzhou smiled wryly. When the old man didn't ask for help, he would come and go. If he asked for help, he would know that he was King Jin.

At this time, Xue Fang who was next to him interrupted: "In my opinion, Mr. He is not a person who is ignorant. It is said that reading thousands of books is not as good as traveling thousands of miles. How can you say that you are ignorant if you can travel thousands of miles. "

"Master Xue is absurdly praised." He Zhao bowed his hands very politely. As a father, of course he is happy when others praise his son, but he is happy if he is happy. He Zhao's etiquette is still very good.

This is not to say that He Zhao is closer to Xue Fang, in fact, on the contrary, even if He Zhao doesn't know how to show etiquette to him, He Zhao always keeps a dark face and speaks straightforwardly, but he actually understands, which shows that He Zhao is more attached to Xue Fang. Be your own.

On the contrary, he was polite and polite to Xue Fang, but there was a gap in his heart, and He Zhao had such a temper.

Xue Fang returned the gift, and then calmed down and said: "I think Mr. He's worries are well-founded. When I was young, I also worked at the northern border, in the Daizhou area, and then Datong Mansion, so I often communicate with businessmen who travel between the north and the south. We communicated with each other and learned a lot of anecdotes.

Go north from Datong Mansion, pass Yinshan Mountain, and walk a few hundred miles to the Mobei Grassland. In the past, the two generals Wei and Huo defeated the Xiongnu. Many tribes still have the style of the Huns in those days, good at riding and shooting, fierce and cunning.

It is said that these people kill without batting an eyelid, rarely save food, often trade with others, have a fierce personality, and everyone has practiced martial arts since childhood, and both men and women can go to the battlefield when they fight, but they are scattered and often fight and plunder each other. "

"Hmph, isn't that just a barbarian who has been transformed into a barbarian?" He Zhao said disdainfully.

Xue Fang smiled and said: "It's true if you want to say that, but Mr. He, barefoot is not afraid of wearing shoes. If you let a rich man fight a penniless man, who do you think will dare to fight?" Desperately?

It doesn't matter if you are penniless, it's hard to live anyway, death is death, nothing more than a bad life, if you win, you might get rich overnight, he is 1 willing.

But the rich man didn't dare. If he died, the tens of thousands of wealth he had accumulated all his life would be gone. "

Then Xue Fang looked at them and asked, "In this case, what does the Lord think the rich man will do?"

He Zhao frowned and didn't speak. Li Xingzhou sighed and said, "The most likely thing for this rich man is to try his best to avoid this battle, no matter whether he kneels down to beg for mercy, or wants to give money to the other party."

Xue Fang's eyes lit up, and then he said, "My lord really understands people's hearts, yes, I think so too, and under such a situation, I, Jing Guo, are that rich man.

Fortunately, the Mobei Grassland is a plate of loose sand, otherwise the Huns' rebellion might have continued, but at this time there is no Wei Qing and Huo Qubing in the court, even if they want to, it is impossible. "

He Zhao hummed unhappily after hearing this, and retorted that Jingguo had 10,000+ forbidden troops, tens of thousands of frontier troops, and millions of armored troops, how could he be that rich man.

Xue Fang just smiled, then bowed her hands politely to admit her mistake, without arguing with He Zhao.

In Li Xingzhou's heart, Xue Fang, who once plotted against him, and finally escaped cunningly when he retaliated, took a higher level of opinion. Although this person speaks harshly and has eccentricities, he has to be said to be very far-sighted.

As he expected, no matter whether it is the Kingdom of Jin or Mongolia going south, the reaction of the Central Plains will be the same as the rich man he said.And he also got to the point, why did he do this, because there are no such characters as Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, and it is impossible to exist.

Wei Qinghuo's qubing officer ranks among the top generals and great Sima, who are truly under one person and over ten thousand people, but in Jingguo, even if the military officer reaches the top level, let alone one person under ten thousand people, even if he is equal to the civil servants, he will never be equal. Possibly, still under several people.

Moreover, the ancestral precept of not killing scholar-bureaucrats gave civil officials a natural advantage. In politics, warriors are always short. The horse grazes.

Those at the lower levels withholding military pay, and those at the top suppressing warriors, are drinking the blood of warriors, and then want to send them to the border to fight against foreign enemies. This is the political ecology of Jingguo.

Xue Fang must have seen it clearly. After all, he was one of the few people who climbed up from the bottom step by step by himself, so he directly asserted that there would be no such people as Wei Qing and Huo Qubing in Jingguo.

Li Xingzhou agrees with this assertion, at least in the current political environment, military commanders who deserve too much credit will definitely be killed.

Except that he is so special, because he is the king of Jin, the future heir to the imperial power, and a member of the royal family, he will not share profits with civil servants.

The reason is also very simple, the cake is only so big, some military officers will go away, and the rest will be less, especially the military officers with high credit and high status.

In the previous dynasties, the political resources of civil and military were basically the same. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, even the generals held the highest real power, but it changed in the Jing Dynasty. Because of the system design and official propaganda, the military people were born short of literati. The gold medal for avoiding death of the Taizu Zu Xun not to kill scholar-bureaucrats in his hand.

So civil servants can suppress military officials openly and aboveboard, as long as anyone dares to stretch out his hand to bang the cake, he will chop it up for you directly, regardless of whether you have credit or not, regardless of whether the cake is divided, you will be sent to death.

This state is very frightening, the warriors can't stay longer, is it possible that you are the only country in the world, and there is no place to stay here, but a place to stay.Taking history as a mirror, Zhang Yuan, who was worshiped as the Prime Minister of the Western Xia Dynasty after three battles, was from the Song Dynasty. Later, the Mongols conquered the Song Dynasty, and many of the generals were Han generals. To force talents away by oneself is to seek death. Confucius resigned Later, I said angrily that birds can choose trees, but trees cannot choose birds.

Although he was angry and complained, the truth is the same. Talents are welcome everywhere, but if a country cannot retain talents, it is basically close to death.

And Jingguo's current political environment, just like the big gift in the past, is forcing away martial arts talents, abolishing martial arts, and digging his own grave.

So Li Xingzhou and Xue Fang slowly talked about his views on this matter, but Xue Fang was very cautious, just joking, not discussing deeply, after all, Zhong Daoyu's lesson is still there, and he was directly relegated to the common people.

He had no choice but to say: "It's really inconvenient now, but I ask Mr. Xue to go back and think about this matter carefully. When there is a chance, we can talk slowly."

Xue Fang showed a surprised expression after hearing this, and then quickly covered it up, as if nothing had happened, and said without a trace: "What the prince said. Are you serious?"

Li Xingzhou walked while pretending to admire the flowers, "Naturally."

"Why?"

Li Xingzhou glanced at him, and said four words seriously: "Be prepared for danger in times of peace."

Xue Fang stopped talking and nodded silently.

Li Xingzhou had a lot to say in his mind, but he couldn't say it. History was always full of chance and drama. As Xue Fang said, the tribes on the Mobei grassland were scattered, so there was no threat, but who could have guessed whether they would suddenly unite.

In addition to Temujin's talent, the rise of Mongolia still has the efforts of many people and various accidental factors, but one of them cannot be ignored, and that is the strategy of the Kingdom of Jin.

In order to curb the gradual expansion of the ambitions of the Kingdom of Jin, the Tatar tribes in the eastern grasslands who wanted to break away from the control of the Kingdom of Jin adopted the method of long-distance and short-term attack.

It can be said that this super is extremely clever in strategy. It united with the Qiyan tribe on the Onon River who is far away from them, and attacked the Tatar tribe close to them.

But everything in the world is always full of uncertainties. Everyone is human and not a god. Jin Guo's hand is indeed beautiful, but who would have thought that one of the tribal leaders they raised was called Temujin, and in the end it also caused Jin Guo tragedy.

Of course, these are the scripts of later generations. At this time, Li Xingzhou didn't know whether the Jin Dynasty would be smart enough to support a Temujin, but at that time, the Jin country's strategy was very correct, using the enemy's internal fighting to attack the enemy, At the same time, I can recuperate by myself, but people are not as good as heaven.

Slowly, there were more and more officials in the garden, and the maids brought pastries and drinks, and these fruit wines were still brewed by the palace.

Everyone was in groups, talking about the world and talking about the world, and it was not bad to relax and not talk about politics. Some elegant officials had already begun to recite poems and fight against each other, showing off their talents, and received a lot of applause.

Soon De Gong, Mao Luan, Prince Kang and others also came, and everyone surrounded him. Among so many old people, he seemed out of place as a young man.

Li Xingzhou didn't care, and continued to chat and laugh with them. At this time, it was not completely dark, and the emperor didn't come. Everyone was very relaxed, and they were free to visit in the imperial garden.

After a while, Ji Chunsheng also came running, sweating profusely.

"Uncle Ji, why did you go?" Li Xingzhou asked curiously that they came together, but after arriving at the Royal Garden, Ji Chunsheng went out again.

Ji Chunsheng laughed: "I went to set up defenses. Wu Desi transferred most of his people to the south and center of the city today. There are not enough manpower. The Eight Gates defenders have to be redeployed."

"Then how many gates can there be?" Li Xingzhou asked. There are eight gates inside and outside the imperial city, all of which need to be guarded by the Wu De Division. The Wu De Division originally only had more than 1000 people, and half of them will be transferred, and then divided into eight gates. There must not be many , For some reason, he always felt a little uneasy.

"There are more than a hundred people at the Meridian Gate and the Suzaku Gate, and less than a hundred people from the other gates." Ji Chunsheng didn't pay much attention, and then took a glass of fruit wine from the maid's plate, and drank it down: "Usually, such a banquet would not Will come, no one can talk, but tonight the prince is here, and so will come, hahaha."

Ji Chunsheng laughed heartily, Li Xingzhou looked around, and then laughed too. There are some cultural people here, so naturally Ji Chunsheng couldn't talk to them, and they ignored him.

Slowly, the sky is getting darker
(End of this chapter)