First Minister of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 274

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Xiazhou, Yiling City, Governor's Mansion.

In the back hall, a banquet had already been set up, Xu Shao, as the host and even an elder, naturally took the honorable seat, the first on the left was Li Xiaogong, Prince of Zhao Jun, and the first on the right was Gao Chong.

The Tang inherited the Sui system, and respected the left. For example, when the Shangshuling was vacant, the Shangshu Zuopushe was the prime minister, followed by the Shangshu Youpushe. "Suishu" records: "...Yizhu Kingdom, Xiangguo Sima, Bohai County Gong Gaojiong served as Shangshu Zuopushe and Nayan...", and Yang Su, who was then Shangshu Youpushe, assisted Prime Minister Gao Jiong.

Li Xiaogong was made the king of the county, and the official worshiped the chief officer. He was the superior of Gao Chong, so he naturally sat on the left. As for the seat in the middle, Xu Shao also gave up and asked Li Xiaogong to take the seat, but Li Xiaogong was as his name suggests, gentle, respectful and thrifty Xu Shao respected him very much, so he naturally refused to take the chair.

After they were seated, Li Xiaogong took the imperial decree from Chang'an urgently and Li Yuan's handwriting, and handed them to Gao Chong with a faint smile on his face.

"Chang'an's decree came two hours sooner than Youzhi", motioned Gao Chong to take a look.

Gao Chong hurriedly got up and went forward, took it with both hands, and respectfully unfolded the imperial decree. After reading it, he was overjoyed, "Congratulations in advance, Your Majesty".

Li Xiaogong raised his brows, "How do you say this, why does this king like it?"

"The merit of destroying the country is not a great joy," Gao Chong said with a smile.

Li Xiaogong snorted, noncommittal, "Look at the sage's handwriting."

Gao Chong opened it in doubt, and was stunned on the spot, "This... how can this make me, how can I be able to fulfill this important task."

Li Xiaogong smiled when he saw this, with a calm expression on his face, "Yu Zhi became famous at a young age, and has experienced many battles, so it is natural to be a heavy responsibility."

Hearing Li Xiaogong's words were neither salty nor dull, Gao Chong raised his head and said seriously: "This is definitely not what Youzhi wants. Your Majesty, don't misunderstand, Youzhi just want to work together to destroy Xiaoliang together."

Li Xiaogong just smiled and said nothing, compared to Li Yuan, who is always changing his face, he is extraordinarily self-cultivated, but Gao Chong's heart is cold. Compared with before, Li Xiaogong's attitude has obviously changed. Before, he was open-minded and friendly, but now his smile is still very He was warm, but showed a bit of life, and even Gao Chong vaguely felt a bit of unkindness.

Gao Chong also understands this very well. As the king of the county, Li Xiaogong is the chief officer of the marching army. He ranks above Gao Chong and is also older than Gao Chong. ", to put it bluntly, Li Xiaogong is just a polished commander, and the real command power is in the hands of Gao Chong, a junior who is only in his twenties. It is no wonder that Li Xiaogong is dissatisfied.

Xu Shaoren is an old man, so he didn't know how to do it, so he just smiled with his beard and said, "Your Majesty is the chief commander of the army, and You is the commander of the army. If Xiao Liang is destroyed, he will have the merits of destroying the country. I would like to congratulate you both in advance." .

Li Xiaogong's face softened a little when he heard the words, and he said with a straight smile: "I still need a lot of help from Mr. Xu."

Xu Shao's meaning is also very clear, no matter who has the real commanding power, at least Li Xiaogong is the coach in name, if Xiao Liang is destroyed, Li Xiaogong's credit will only be more than Gao Chong's.

And Li Xiaogong is such a smart person, after Xu Shao mentioned this point, Li Xiaogong immediately figured out that if the battle goes well, then he will be the coach, and the greatest contribution must be his, if the battle goes wrong, the real command is in the hands of Gao Chong , and has nothing to do with him, the biggest crime will be on the high punch.

Figured this out, Li Xiaogong also restored the old kindness, raised his glass to Gao Chong and said: "Youzhi's words are right, we will work together to destroy Xiao Liang, everyone is happy."

Gao Chong also raised his glass and drank it all in one gulp, feeling a little worried in his heart.

Jiangling City, in the former Sui Dynasty, Jiangling was the seat of Nanjun. After Li Yuan abolished the county and established the state, although Nanjun was occupied by Xiao Mian, he changed Nanjun to Jingzhou. Jiangling City has a long history and was called Ying in ancient times. Chu State is here. The capital has been established for more than [-] years. There is a large population and rich products. Since the first year of Wude, Xiao Xian moved the capital to Jiangling after he was proclaimed emperor by the king of Liang.

In the main hall, Xiao Mian's face was gloomy. Under the wide dragon robe, he clenched his fists tightly. The veins on his arms were exposed. After all, he couldn't hold back. Xiao Mian slapped the desk, "Who promised me at the beginning, Zhou Faming? Absolutely loyal."

Although this sentence was in a questioning tone, Xiao Xian's eyes were fixed on a minister in the palace.

Seeing that Xiao Xian was so furious, the man turned pale, and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, please calm down. Back then Zhou Faming brought the four prefectures to vote, which greatly increased my prestige. It is reasonable and reasonable, so I should accept it."

This person is Zheng Wenxiu, King of Chu of Daliang.

In the last years of Daye, Zhou Faming separatized Huangzhou, and then Xiao Xian in the west and Lin Shihong in the east rose up one after another to contain the Sui army. Zhou Faming sent his eldest son Zhou Shaode, his second son Zhou Xiaojie, and his youngest son Zhou Shao to attack Qizhou, Shouzhou, and Shuzhou. Since then, it has occupied the land of four states.

But Zhou Faming is quite self-aware, even he is not the master of the Ming Dynasty, and it is difficult to aspire to the supreme position with only the land of the four states. After Xiao Xian became emperor, Zhou Faming took the initiative to defect.

In order to protect his own interests, Zhou Faming sent people to bribe the important minister Zheng Wenxiu with a lot of money. In the end, Xiao Mian relaxed his vigilance against Zhou Faming and still let Zhou Faming rule the four states.

It's just that after Li Tang revealed his intention to conquer Xiaoliang, Zhou Faming would submit to Li Tang, and Li Yuan immediately appointed Zhou Faming as the governor of Huangzhou.

This made Xiao Xian extremely annoyed. When Zhou Faming came to vote, he deliberately divided his power. Although Huangzhou could not interfere, he sent officials to work in the other three states.

Because Dong Jingzhen, Zheng Wenxiu, Yang Daosheng and others all lead troops to support Xiao Mian as the main force, Xiao Mian has no way to attack them, and it is difficult to weaken the power of the kings, so Xiao Mian wants to start with the newly invested forces as a breakthrough , so as not to let the local forces sit on the big, overhead center.

It's just that Zheng Wenxiu tried his best to protect Zhou Faming at that time, and the rest of the kings knew the way, and they all pretended to be deaf and dumb, so Zhou Faming was able to continue to rule the four states, which led to today's disaster.

But what Zheng Wenxiu said was reasonable and it was hard to refute it. Seeing Zheng Wenxiu was so terrified, Xiao Xian couldn't get angry, so he said directly: "Zhou Faming is now sending troops out of Xiakou, what does the King of Chu think should be done?"

When Zheng Wenxiu heard the words, she said disapprovingly: "Zhou Faming, a dude, don't worry about it. To deal with him, Ma Guiqian, the governor of Anzhou, is enough."

Zhou Faming was indeed born in a famous family. His grandfather Zhou Lingqi was the general of Nanliang chariots, his father Zhou Jiong was the governor of Nanchen, his elder brother Zhou Faseng was the former governor of Xuancheng in the Sui Dynasty, and his second brother Zhou Fashang was the former general of Wuwei in the Sui Dynasty, but he is said to be a dude It's really too much.

"Ma Guiqian?" Xiao Mian hesitated, "Can he resist Zhou Faming?"

To Zheng Wenxiu's saying that Zhou Faming is a playboy, Xiao Mian just took it on deaf ears, Xiao Mian was just lenient on the outside and taboo on the inside, not stupid, how could a person occupying the land of the four states be an incompetent playboy.

(End of this chapter)