Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 174 Letting go for now (please subscribe!)
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"I don't know who the minister employs. That Hu Yanzhuo has betrayed the sage's grace and betrayed the trust of the minister. He was greedy and aggressive, but was defeated by the Liangshan grassroots Li Yan with tricks, and then the whole army was wiped out. Then Li Yan took the opportunity to attack the Jizhou government Dongping Mansion and Dongchang Mansion killed [-] out of [-] officials of the three mansions, and looted all the three mansions, I am guilty, I beg Your Majesty to punish me!"

After hearing Gao Qiu's report, Zhao Ji suddenly stood up and said, "What? Li Yan from Shandong is also rebellious?"

Gao Qiu bit the bullet and said: "Probably not, he just looted the three mansions of Jeju Mansion, Dongping Mansion, and Dongchang Mansion, and then led people out of the three mansions."

Hearing Gao Qiu say that Li Yan did not occupy the state capital to rebel, Zhao Ji looked better and said: "What did you say when you recommended that Hu Yanzhuo, saying that he has undue courage, if you let him, you will be able to destroy Shuibo Liangshan captured the leader of the bandits, Li Yan, who went to Beijing to kill him with thousands of knives, but now he is defeated..." At this point, Zhao Ji remembered to ask: "By the way, where is Hu Yanzhuo now?"

Gao Qiu said: "The whereabouts are unknown."

When Zhao Ji heard this, he became even more furious. He pointed to Gao Qi and Cai Jing and the others and said, "Listen, his whereabouts are unknown. Such a person can also be recommended as a general!"

Liang Shicheng said: "Who would have thought that Hu Yanzhuo was the son of a tiger father and dog. His grandfather Hu Yanzan followed Taizu and Taizong to conquer Shu and conquer Han. He fought countless battles, and he was invincible. Huyan's family has been a famous general for generations. But this Hu Yanzhuo is an embroidered pillow that is not useful."

Seeing Liang Shicheng Gao Qiu speak, Wang Fu immediately chimed in and said, "I really didn't expect that Hu Yanzhuo has such a great reputation, but it's so bad."

Cai Jing glanced at Liang Shicheng, and said, "Taiwei Gao must have only heard of his name and never had any contact with him."

Even Cai You had to say because of Liang Shicheng's face: "Gao Taiwei may be burdened by the reputation of the Huyan family."

Lin Lingsu said: "Immeasurable Heavenly Venerable, this is also one of the tests of the heavens for His Majesty, Your Majesty must keep his Dao heart firmly."

So many influential people speak for Gao Qiu, and Zhao Ji likes Gao Qiu, Zhao Ji's anger gradually dissipated.

After a while, Zhao Ji asked: "Then how to destroy Li Yan and his bandits?"

As soon as Zhao Ji finished speaking, there was a complete silence in Shangqing Baolu Palace, and everyone was silent.

Zhao Ji looked around and asked, "Why is no one talking?"

Still no one spoke.

Zhao Ji didn't like it, so he directly named Gao Qiu, and said, "You know Li Yan's gang of thieves best, how do you say to destroy Li Yan's gang of thieves?"

Gao Qiu bowed to the ground and said, "I dare not speak."

Zhao Ji said, "Say, I forgive you for your innocence!"

Gao Qiu faltered and said: "I feel... that I should let Li Yan and his gang of thieves go for the time being..."

"what?"

Zhao Ji said angrily: "You let me be a thief?"

Gao Qiu bowed to the ground and said nothing more.

Zhao Ji asked Cai Jing again: "You are the prime minister, tell me, how to destroy Li Yan's gang of thieves?"

Cai Jing said: "Let it go for now."

Zhao Ji was furious!
He didn't expect Cai Jing to say that!

Zhao Ji asked Tong Guan again: "Tong Aiqing, how do you destroy Li Yan's gang of thieves?"

Tong Guan was tall and well-dressed, with a beard under his cheeks, and his skin and bones were as hard as iron. He didn't look like an eunuch at all.

Seeing Zhao Ji asking him, Tong Guan bowed and said, "Leave it alone for now."

Zhao Ji was even angrier: "You all let me rule the thieves, when did our Song Dynasty become so weak, no one dared to say that we should wipe out a group of small thieves!"

"My minister is willing to lead the army to exterminate these bandits for His Majesty!"

Zhao Ji immediately looked in the direction of the voice, and saw that the speaker was Cai Jing's son Cai You.

Zhao Ji pointed to Cai You and said to Cai Jing and the others: "A filial son comes out of a poor family, and a loyal minister is seen in a difficult country. At the critical moment, it is Cai Aiqing who can share my worries!"

Seeing that Cai You jumped out again and wanted to lead troops to destroy Shuibo Liangshan, everyone laughed secretly!
Although Cai You is the son of the talented Cai Jing, he is not at all like his father, he is completely ignorant.

But if you underestimate Cai You because Cai You is ignorant, then you are very wrong.

This Cai You has a special ability, that is, he is especially good at charming.

Moreover, at a very young age, Cai You already knew how to seize every opportunity to pave the way for his future.

Before Zhao Ji became emperor, Cai You could catch up with the courtiers' retreat every time he went to the Tailoring Court. He calculated the time to come out so that he could just meet Zhao Ji, the next king.Therefore, every time King Duan went to court, he could see a young man with handsome features a few years older than himself dismounted and stood with hands folded, courteous and amiable.King Duan asked the left and right servants, which family the young man belonged to, and the left and right said, "It's Cai Chengzhi's son." Zhao Ji then secretly remembered him in his heart.

After Zhao Ji became emperor, Cai You flattered Zhao Ji in every possible way.

Cai You served successively as Kaifu Yi Tong Sansi, Zhenhai Jiedu Envoy, and Shaobao. There was no time limit for visiting Zhao Ji. He and Wang Fu could participate in palace games or be left in the palace for banquets. The two of them would wear Short clothes and narrow trousers, smeared with blue and red, mixed with singing and dancing artists and dwarves, said a lot of jokes and frivolous words of rascals, adulterers and sluts, to win Zhao Ji's favor.

Zhao Ji believed in Taoism, and Cai You advocated some anecdotes on his own, saying that there were talismans of pearl stars and jade moons, crossing phoenixes and riding dragons, and cloud seal scripts in heavenly scriptures. Qing palaces spread all over the world.

It can be said that in order to please Zhao Ji, Cai You did everything possible, even his father Cai Jing was framed.

Can people not laugh at such an ignorant and sycophant who leads troops to fight?

Now, Cai You's power is not strong enough to challenge Cai Jing, and the father and son have not yet reached the point where father and son are fighting each other. Cai Jing still thinks about the relationship between father and son, so before Cai You made the matter real, he said: " Liangshan is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and you have to send a large army to take it. Now that the western army can't move, and the forbidden army can't move, how can the army encircle and suppress Li Yan's gang of bandits?"

"It turns out that there are no soldiers and no generals. I said why both of them said that Li Yan and his bandits will be allowed to temporarily let go!" Cai You regretted secretly.

Zhao Ji, who had calmed down a little, felt embarrassed when he heard Cai Jing's words.

Cai Jing said again: "The top priority now is to wipe out the two thieves who have turned against him, Tianhu of Hebei and Wang Qing of Huaixi. Li Yan's group of thieves are just robbers doing some robbery, and they have no obvious objection. I have the intention of waiting to be recruited, so I am not in a hurry to destroy them first, but I can try to recruit..."

Zhao Ji said: "Li Yan is a heinous thief. If he doesn't kill him, the common people will not be angry."

Cai Jing did not insist, but said again: "In this case, it is not too late to wait for the Liao and Jin to decide the victory and Xixia withdraws troops, or wait for the construction of Genyue to be completed, and then send large troops to encircle and suppress."

Zhao Ji, who has no other way at present, can only follow Cai Jing's words.

Cai Jing said again: "To prevent Li Yan and his group of thieves from becoming bigger, Jeju, Dongfu, and Dongchang must send competent officials to manage it, especially the Jeju Prefecture where Shuibo Liangshan is located. Zhang Shuye, the magistrate of Haizhou, cannot do it. Fu Yin..."

……

(End of this chapter)