Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 173 The grass and trees die in autumn, and the pines and cypresses survive alone (please subscribe!)

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"What's the best way for you dear friends to kill thieves?"

Cai Jing and the others looked at Tong Guan in unison after hearing Zhao Ji's words.

Seeing this, Tong Guan took a step forward and said: "Your Majesty, the Jin army attacked Liaochun Prefecture, and all the troops in the northeast of Liaodong collapsed without a fight. The four divisions of Nvgu Pishi and the Bohai people all surrendered to Jin. They fell into Liaotai Prefecture again. Now that the Kingdom of Jin is rising, it seems that it is on the verge of fighting against the Liao Kingdom. Emperor Tianzuo of the Liao Dynasty moved from Yan to Yinlianghe, and set up eight battalions of the Resentment Army, and another 20 people from the Qianxian Camp. The Jin war is about to break out. In addition, Xixia has hoarded [-] troops and placed them on the border. Now that the border situation is chaotic, it may be... inappropriate to deploy the Western Army at this time."

This time Tong Guan is not evading, but the current international situation is really likely to change rapidly.

The rise of the Kingdom of Jin was too rapid and beyond everyone's expectations. As a result, not only the Kingdom of Liao was caught off guard, but also the Kingdom of Song and Xixia were caught off guard.

Hearing that the international situation is so complicated, no one dared to plan to mobilize the Western Army to suppress Tian Hu and Wang Qing.

Zhao Ji also knew that under such circumstances the Western Army could not be dispatched to suppress the bandits, so he shifted his gaze from Tong Guan to Gao Qiu, and asked, "Can the Forbidden Army go and destroy Tian Hu and Wang Qing?"

Gao Qiu came out and said: "There is a severe drought this year. Jiang, Huai, Jing, Zhejiang, and Zizhou all have ambitious people who take the opportunity to gather and flee, fabricate lies, incite foolish people, and the imperial army is suppressing everywhere. However, if your majesty asks the imperial army to destroy Na Tianhu and Wang Qing, the imperial army can squeeze out... 2 people to suppress Na Tianhu and Wang Qing."

Seeing that Gao Qiu had exerted great efforts to hold back 2 people, Zhao Ji frowned!

Seeing Zhao Ji frowning, Cai You jumped out and said, "I have 80 imperial troops in Song Dynasty, but now it's time to send out only [-]. Gao Qiu, is this how you repay His Majesty's favor?"

Gao Qiu glanced at Cai You, and then said: "In the last year of Taizu Kaibao, the army had 37 troops, including 8000 forbidden troops. 19 people; a few years later, in the early years of Huangyou, the total force reached 3000 million. After Wang Xianggong's reform and disarmament, the total force of the army was 120, including 9000 forbidden troops and 82 Xiang troops. Chongning five years, The Privy Council reported that there was a shortage of 6000 soldiers in the Imperial Army, and there was still a shortage of 1401 new recruits. When Qiu took over, he had reported to His Majesty that there were only 80 soldiers left in the Imperial Army..."

When Cai You heard that there were still 23 people, he immediately said: "There are 7000 people in the imperial army, and you only sent 23 people to suppress bandits for His Majesty. Gao Qiu, you are really worthy of His Majesty's great grace!"

Gao Qiu didn't look at Cai You, but bowed to Zhao Ji, and said, "Your Majesty issued an imperial decree when he built Huayang Palace, saying..."

"cough!"

Zhao Ji coughed lightly, and Gao Qiu's words stopped abruptly!

Do you know why?

It turned out that when Zhao Ji was building Longevity Mountain, his husband's labor was not enough, so he issued an imperial decree to Gao Qiu to let the imperial army build Longevity Mountain.

Gao Qiu listened more to Zhao Ji's words, that is, "occupied more of the imperial army to serve as a force. Most of the recruits were skilled craftsmen... For private repairs, all bricks, tiles, mud, etc. were sent out of the barracks."

Later, Gao Qiu intensified his efforts and recruited the field army to do projects. "The commanders, supervisors, husbands, guards, generals, generals, and deputyes often violated the law and favoritism, and made the guards learn ingenious arts. They may serve in the form of embroidery, or Weaving by machine, or for jewelry to play well, or for painting and painting, openly occupying and destroying, sitting and exempting from instruction, being a member of the ranks, but not knowing the ranks, as a warrior, attacking and defending are unpredictable."

That is to say, the tiger wolf of the forbidden army in the Northern Song Dynasty who once defeated the Ten Kingdoms turned out to be doing embroidery, weaving silk cloth, making jewelry, and being a painter for the leaders...

Gao Qiu didn't do these things without telling Zhao Ji, but asked for instructions and reported them.

Zhao Ji felt that the imperial army had nothing to do anyway, so he agreed to Gao Qiu's workaround, and secretly praised Gao Qiu.

This matter can be said to be an open secret. Later Song Qinzong, the subjugated king of the Northern Song Dynasty, admitted in the imperial edict: "Today, the Sanya and the generals are recruiting troops... When they arrive at the military gate, they only follow them directly and serve their craft. , In each battalion, the motleys occupy the third or fourth out of ten, and no longer teach martial arts."

The main force of the central army of the country, after recruiting, is not to train soldiers and practice martial arts, but to be bodyguards and learn crafts. The proportion can account for 30.00% to 40.00% of the total. It is a "secret" that even the emperor knows, is it more than ridiculous?
If it's just that, it's actually nothing, after all, there are still 60.00% to 70.00%.

But the problem is that there is still a huge missing-eat empty sound.

According to Li Gang's reflection after the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were often only quotas in the imperial army of the Huizong Dynasty, but they would rather have vacancies than replenish soldiers. There were not even half of the troops in the army.

Combining these figures, how many soldiers can the so-called 80 forbidden army have?How many generals can there be?
In addition, due to six months of drought and no rain, ordinary people everywhere took up arms and turned into bandits. The imperial army really had to send a large force to suppress it, or the world would be in chaos.

Therefore, it is really a lot for Gao Qiu to squeeze out 2 people for Zhao Ji, and he really wants to help Zhao Ji suppress Tian Hu and Wang Qing's rebellion.

Zhao Ji, who knew something about his own family, vaguely knew that Gao Qi and the imperial army might not be reliable.

This made Zhao Ji somewhat regret letting the imperial army build gardens.

But the garden is related to the heirs of the royal family, so why not repair it?

Or simply repair it, instead of collecting exotic flowers, stones, beautiful trees, rare birds and animals?

No.

This Gen Yue is the face of the royal family, how could it not be carefully decorated?

In a dilemma, Zhao Ji remembered that there is still the omnipotent Immortal Lin Lingsu, so he turned his head to Lin Lingsu for advice: "Is Immortal Lin able to do anything?"

Lin Lingsu gave a salute to Zhao Ji, saying: "Grass and trees die in autumn, and pines and cypresses survive alone. These are all God's tests for Your Majesty. Sincerity is as good as gold and stone. As long as Your Majesty recites the scriptures devoutly and does meritorious deeds, everything will be solved. .”

Zhao Ji suddenly realized, and said: "It turns out that this is God's test for me, and I should be pious!"

Gao Qiu's eyes moved slightly, and then he glanced at Liang Shicheng.

Liang Shicheng nodded slightly.

Gao Qiu secretly gritted his teeth, then took a step forward, then bowed to the ground, and said: "I beg the officials to punish you!"

Zhao Ji was puzzled: "Why does Aiqing plead guilty?"

Gao Qiu said: "I don't know who the minister employs. That Hu Yanzhuo has betrayed the sage's favor and betrayed the trust of the minister. He was greedy for meritorious service, but he was defeated by the Liangshan grassroots bandit Li Yan with tricks, and then the whole army was wiped out. Then Li Yan took the opportunity to attack again. The three prefectures of Jeju, Dongping, and Dongchang were killed, six out of ten of the officials of the three prefectures were killed, and the three prefectures were looted. I am guilty, and I beg your majesty to punish me!"

……

(End of this chapter)