Do you know: I am Yuan Wenshao

Chapter 308 It’s a mule or a horse, take it out for a walk

The Queen Mother was not absent from the morning court the next day.

When the morning court was about to end, the Queen Mother said: "The Ai family heard that the thorough investigation of the remnants of the rebel group has caused panic among the people in Bianjing. The Ai family inquired about it and found that what has been found so far are all trivial matters. It can be seen that the remnants of the rebellion are Having been purged, the Ai family feels that the investigation of the remnants of the rebellious king can be stopped. What do the officials think?"

How could Zhao Zongquan have any objections? The government ordered Qi Heng to stop thorough investigations, strictly examine those who had been caught, and release those who were innocent as soon as possible.

Qi Heng did not expect the Queen Mother's attitude to change so quickly. He thought the officials would push him out to calm everyone's anger, but he did not expect that the officials had no intention of pursuing him.

After thinking for a moment, Qi Heng also understood that the official family had reached a tacit understanding with the Queen Mother.

Although the thorough investigation of the remnants of the rebel king was put on hold, Qi Heng could not be happy at all.

The Queen Mother and the officials reached a tacit agreement, the Queen Mother stopped it, and the officials did not delve into the matter.

They were harmonious, but they made Qi Heng miserable.

During this period of time, he could be described as selfless. He arrested so many people and did not give any face to anyone who asked for mercy.

I thought that in the end, even if the Queen Mother protected him, he would be demoted from the capital, but I didn't expect that this would be the result now.

He offended people, but still failed to achieve his goal of getting out of the quagmire of Bianjing.

After the morning court ended, Qi Heng left the palace in despair.

Just when I was about to get on the carriage, a carriage drove over. Xianggong Shen opened the curtain and said, "Yuanruo, get in the carriage and ride with me, and talk to me."

"Yes."

Qi Heng bowed and got on the carriage.

Xianggong Shen ordered the driver to drive the car, glanced at Qi Heng who was sitting silently, and said, "Is it difficult to accept this?"

Xianggong Shen has been in the officialdom for decades, and has been a Xianggong for more than ten years. He has become mature with age.

From Qi Heng's report to thoroughly investigate the remnants of the rebel king, to his selfless and selfless arrest of people everywhere, Xianggong Shen gradually got a taste of it.

Qi Heng was silent for a while and said, "Grandpa, I really don't understand how things got to this point."

"Have you ever seen people in the market going shopping?" Shen Xianggong asked instead of answering Qi Heng's question.

Qi Heng didn't understand what Xianggong Shen meant for a while, and looked at him with confusion.

Mr. Shen said to himself: "Common people in the market will always bargain when buying things, and they will compare every penny. In fact, officialdom or politics is similar to what people in the market buy. They test each other, compromise with each other, and finally achieve their expected goals."

After listening, Qi Heng was thoughtful and said after a long silence: "Grandpa, what do you mean is that the officials and the Queen Mother have achieved their respective goals?"

Xianggong Shen shook his head and said: "Don't look at the fight between the Queen Mother and the officials, but both of them are actually relatively restrained. At present, neither of them wants to quarrel with each other, so they compromise with each other."

Qi Heng laughed at himself and said, "So my chess piece is useless."

"I am telling you this because I want to tell you a truth. The most taboo thing in official circles is not leaving a way out for yourself. And you have violated this taboo." Shen Xianggong said.

When the New Deal failed, most of the reformists were simply demoted.

In addition to the protection of the late emperor, there was also a big reason why he and the conservative faction did not kill him.

A few of them are worried that the reformists will resurrect, and they want to take action to deny the reformists a chance to stand up.

But most of the conservatives disagreed, and with the protection of the late emperor, this was an important reason why the reformers were demoted.

It’s not that the old guard is soft-hearted, it’s that they are leaving a way out for themselves.

This retreat does not mean that we will show mercy to the reformists when they rise again.

But he didn't want to break the iron rule not to kill scholar-bureaucrats.

Once they make a desperate move and break this iron law, they will face the same situation in the future, and they will not end well.

And what Qi Heng did this time left no escape route for himself.

If he had allowed those arrested to visit their homes, they would not have reached this point.

Now the official family seems to have no responsibility to follow Qi Heng, but Qi Heng has basically cut himself off from officialdom.

There are many things that you cannot learn just by being taught by others.

Therefore, Xianggong Shen only said this and did not continue. He patted Qi Heng on the shoulder and said, "But you are still young, and this is your capital."

Xianggong Shen had been in the officialdom for many years, and this small disturbance was nothing in his eyes.

The reason why he didn't persuade Qi Heng to stop him at first was because in his opinion, the situation was very complicated and it would be a good thing for Qi Heng to be quiet for a few years.

Although Qi Heng has retired from officialdom now, he is young and has plenty of time to wait.

……

The Queen Mother of the official family spoke, and the matter came to an end within a few days.

Qi Heng didn't know if he had been hit, so he directly handed over the rest of the matter to the officials of the Ministry of Justice.

The officials from the Ministry of Punishment briefly checked and released all those who had only boasted about King Yan or had some contacts with Prince Yan but had not helped him with anything.

Among them was Sheng Changfeng.

As for the two people with four and five bedrooms in the Gu family, who had indeed helped Prince Yan and his son with matters, they were not released.

There are almost a dozen such people.

The four-bedroom and five-bedroom family went to Gu Tingye to ask for help, but Gu Tingye refused. However, there was actually a mystery behind Gu Tingye's words at that time.

If you want him to help plead for mercy, you need Gu Tingyu or Xiao Qin to come to him and speak.

After the four-bedroom and five-bedroom people returned, they found Gu Tingyu and Xiao Qin and forced them to go to Gu Tingye to help plead for mercy.

How could Gu Tingyu and Xiao Qin be willing?

Gu Tingyu knew that he was not going to die soon, and he also knew that only Gu Tingye could support the Gu family, so he had already planned to give the title to Gu Tingye.

But it doesn't mean that he doesn't hate Gu Tingye.

When the Bai family came in, it was indeed not the Bai family's problem, but the Gu family's own problem.

Even if there is no Bai family, in order to fill the hole and keep the title, the Gu family may have the Li family, Liu family or something.

But no matter what, his mother died of depression because of Bai's entry.

He was naturally unwilling to ask Gu Tingye to ask for help.

Xiao Qin was even more reluctant. She and Gu Tingye had actually broken up, but they were still pretending on the surface.

Asking her to look down at Tingye, he would naturally not agree.

Even if Four Fang and Five Fangs used what happened to force her, Xiao Qin didn't agree.

At this moment, the officials stopped the pursuit of those who rebelled against the party and ordered him to be released as soon as possible.

Now they were so happy that they had four bedrooms and five bedrooms. In their eyes, their son's things were nothing at all.

After waiting for a few days, most of the arrested people were released, except for a dozen people, including their son.

Now the two of them couldn't sit still and ran to the Ministry of Justice to inquire about the news.

After spending a lot of money, I still got some information.

Because there is evidence, the two have been determined to be the remnants of the rebel king, and it is impossible to release them.

With four and five bedrooms, I felt like the sky was about to fall, and I came to the Orange Garden again.

This time the two of them were rejected. Gu Tingye did not return home while in the army. Minglan, on the other hand, went back to serve Mrs. Sheng because she was ill.

The people in the four and five bedrooms didn't know that Gu Tingye and his wife were hiding from them, but they had no choice but to go back to Gu's house and start a fight with Gu Tingyu and Xiao Qin.

Gu Tingyu was unwilling to agree to beg Gu Tingye before. In addition to being unwilling to bow to Gu Tingye, another reason was that he firmly believed that Gu Tingye would not stand idly by.

He looked down upon the four-bedroom and five-bedroom apartments, but it was impossible for him to really ignore them.

Because the education they received since childhood has ingrained clan ideas in their minds.

In Gu Tingyu's view, Gu Tingye was only angry about being kicked out, and still had feelings for the Gu family.

Even if he doesn't ask Gu Tingye, Gu Tingye will eventually help.

However, for several days, Gu Tingye did not come back from the military camp, and Minglan also did not come back from the Sheng family.

Gu Tingyu couldn't sit still anymore. If it dragged on any longer, it would be too late to deal with the issue.

Gu Tingyu immediately sent someone to the army to ask Gu Tingye to come back.

Gu Tingye was also very generous and returned directly to the Gu family.

Gu Tingyu took Gu Tingye to the Gu family ancestral hall and stayed there for more than half an hour.

No one knows what he said specifically. Anyway, Gu Tingye came out of the ancestral hall and went to the palace to plead for mercy.

……

Yuan Wenshao didn't know what happened to the Gu family. He had been busy training soldiers in the army.

Now five and a half months have passed since the restructuring of the western suburbs camp, and in another half month it will be the official martial arts performance period.

Not only the rear army, but also the other four army camps are also training in full swing.

At this moment, a piece of news spread throughout Bianjing.

The covenant with Xixia has been formally signed, and Xixia has handed over three cities near Lingzhou City to Da Zhou.

In addition, the promised 20,000 war horses have also been given.

Now he has followed the envoy team into the northwest border and entered the territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

In other words, the 20,000 horses will definitely not be able to run.

With 20,000 horses, it was somewhat reluctant to form a cavalry force of 10,000 people.

Normally, cavalry have high mobility. In order to maintain mobility, they always have one person and two horses.

One horse carries the necessary baggage while the other rides. You can switch horses when you are attacking.

However, regardless of whether they are attacking or fighting, the horses will be damaged, so some horses must be supplemented.

Even so, it is no problem to form a cavalry of seven to eight thousand people with 20,000 horses.

You can even form a cavalry with one person and one cavalry.

Because the Zhou Dynasty has the most infantry, the cavalry generally fights mainly to support the infantry. It will not be too far away from the infantry, so it rarely makes long-distance attacks.

In this way, a cavalry team of fifteen thousand can be formed.

In the era of cold weapons, cavalry is king. As a general, who doesn't want to command the cavalry?

As soon as the news reached Bianjing, many generals came to the palace to see Zhao Zongquan. The purpose was self-evident.

Yuan Wenshao did not go. Even if he went, he felt that Zhao Zongquan would not let him form the cavalry.

Before the war horses arrived in Bianjing, the people scheduled for the five armies to perform martial arts arrived.

There are a total of 400,000 troops in the five armies. Naturally, it is impossible for all of them to participate in the military exercise.

Zhao Zongquan ordered each army to bring two thousand soldiers and horses to the Chinese army to participate in martial arts exercises.

The day before the martial arts performance, the commanders of the four armies had already arrived at the military camp with two thousand soldiers participating in the martial arts performance.

Early that morning, Zhao Zongquan came to the Chinese army camp with hundreds of civil and military officials.

At the gate of the camp, Shen Congxing and other commanders of the fifth army were waiting with a group of generals.

Seeing the official's chariot arriving, he quickly stepped forward to salute.

"I will see you, Your Majesty!" Everyone bowed and saluted.

Zhao Zongquan did not ride in a car, but came on horseback. He smiled and excused everyone, and entered the camp with the support of everyone.

For this martial arts performance, Shen Congxing had already built a tall standing platform in the school field.

A group of people came to the school grounds and climbed onto the general stage. There were more than ten thousand soldiers in five phalanxes below the stage. They all knelt down in single paint and shouted in unison: "Greetings to your Majesty!"

The roar of ten thousand soldiers was truly terrifying, as if it was about to break through the sky.

Many of the accompanying civil servants on the general stage turned pale with fright.

One of the officials also stood up and angrily scolded Shen Congxing: "Marquis Weibei, what should you do if you scare His Majesty by doing this?"

"I am also from the army. How can this small scene scare me? On the contrary, it is too late for me to be happy when I see the soldiers with such momentum." Zhao Zongquan laughed loudly and asked the soldiers to excuse themselves.

With an army of ten thousand people, the people behind Zhao Zongquan couldn't hear clearly just by shouting. There were already messengers running on horseback to convey Zhao Zongquan's meaning.

With a "Thank you, Your Majesty", the soldiers who were kneeling on one knee stood up one after another.

Zhao Zongquan looked at Shen Congxing, Yuan Wenshao and others and praised: "In just a few months, you have trained the soldiers to this level. You have lived up to my expectations."

"Your Majesty is so complimentary. I just fulfilled my duties and don't dare to take credit!" Shen Congxing said.

Yuan Wenshao and the others followed suit and repeated it.

"Haha, you have done your duty well. If everyone in the world thinks like you and fulfills their duties, I will be relieved." Zhao Zongquan pointed out.

"Your Majesty, I feel that it is too early to praise at this time. Although I don't know how to fight, I also know that some things cannot be taken at face value." A civil servant said.

"Yes, Your Majesty, let's see the effect of the martial arts performance. Although it is just a martial arts performance, it cannot represent the real combat power. It can still tell something better than shouting like this."

Civilization and military affairs have always been in opposition. The Great Zhou Dynasty valued civility over military affairs. Now that the officials paid so much attention to generals, the civil servants felt a little uneasy.

Seeing Zhao Zongquan praising the generals so much, the civil servants naturally came out to cause trouble.

These civil servants are indeed scholars, and they are very sharp-tongued.

Some people alluded that the 10,000-strong army was empty, while others said that there was nothing to show at all in the military performance.

The generals were so angry that Shen Congxing sneered: "They all say that there is specialization in skills. I agree with what the gentleman just said, you don't know how to fight." "Cao GUI's Theory of War" said: Fighting requires courage. With one go, Then it will decline, and three times it will be exhausted. This emphasizes the importance of momentum."

"Marquis Weibei was joking. There is a saying among the people that a mule or a horse comes out for a walk. I admit that momentum is useful, but you can't use momentum to scare the enemy away in a war, right? In the end, it still depends on your true ability." The civil servant retorted. .

"All right!"

Zhao Zongquan waved his hand and said: "What's the use of these verbal disputes? Let the martial arts begin!"

"Yes, I will go down and prepare now." Shen Congxing responded.

Zhao Zongquan nodded and sat down with the accompanying civil and military officials.

The group of people got off the general platform, and Shen Congxing said: "You all saw it, right? Those civil servants are waiting to see our jokes, and they all show their skills."

"Marquis Weibei, I feel that just by watching martial arts performances, no matter how good they are, they can still pick out the thorns. How about adding an actual battle?" Yuan Wenshao suggested.

(End of this chapter)