A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 983: Xia and Tang compete for supremacy among the nations, Embroidered Uniform Guards meeting before the emperor

Xia Chengqian Year 3

The Shu Kingdom was located in a remote corner, while the Tang and Xia Kingdoms were the only two countries that claimed to be emperors and had great power over the world.

For their own interests, various countries either chose to serve one side or accepted titles from both sides.

Qi State, Shuofang Army, Dingnan Army, and Dangxiang people all became Tang subjects.

The Kingdom of Yue, the Kingdom of Chu, the Kingdom of Nanping, the Korean army, and the Minister of Wa.

Although Wu was close to Xia, it became a vassal of Tang and became friendly with Shu because of its hostility with Xia.

The Min Kingdom, Southern Han, and Qian Kingdom were far away in the south and had no diplomatic relations with the Xia and Tang dynasties.

In the Qinzheng Hall of the Song Palace in Kaifeng Prefecture of Daxia, Bai Jian, wearing a round-necked robe with a green cloud pattern and a black futou to cover his gray hair, sat on a wide cushion, lying on his side with the help of a table, listening to the reports of the prime ministers in the Council of State.

"According to reports from insiders, last year the Tang emperor sent Li Yan, the envoy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to visit the Kingdom of Shu."

"After returning home, he said that Shu had been extravagant and licentious since the new king took the throne, and had been engaged in large-scale construction projects. All state affairs, big or small, were left in the hands of eunuchs and prostitutes."

"They also condoned the Empress Dowager and Consort Dowager to sell official positions and titles, which led to the corruption of government and rampant corruption. There are signs of the country's demise."

"So he strongly advocated attacking Shu in the court."

"Although the Tang ruler has not expressed his attitude, according to our calculations, the Tang Kingdom has already planned to attack the Shu Kingdom in the south." Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Quan Bingzhong lowered his head and said in detail.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard, formerly the Yizhangdu, the personal guard beside Bai Jian, was in charge of the travel etiquette and security of Duke Song.

In fact, it is an intelligence department dedicated to spying on military secrets and arresting spies.

The predecessor of Yizhangdu was Quan's Tavern, a long-established intelligence agency commissioned by Bai to set up by Quan.

Counting further back, we can even trace back to the secret guards around the Bai family during the pre-Zhou period.

For thousands of years, they have always followed the Bai family's descendants and were willing to serve as their lackeys.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards wore dark-colored round-collared robes embroidered with hawks and dogs, wore black hats, carried bamboo hats, and carried straight swords. They were accompanied by hawks and dogs when they went out and came in, and they could supervise all prisoners in the State of Song.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard had one "commander-in-chief" of the third rank, two "commander-in-chief associates" of the fourth rank, and ten "commander-in-chief assistants" of the fourth rank.

Each state has a state pacification office, with one "state pacification envoy" of the fifth rank and two "pacification assistant governors" of the fifth rank.

Below them are the chief clerks, clerks, captains, captains, small flag officers, imperial guards, strongmen, etc., who have no ranks.

"No, as far as I know, at the beginning of this year, the Tang ruler sent an envoy, Li Yanchou, to Sichuan to express his intention to make peace with Shu. This has already shown that the Tang ruler has no intention of going to war with Shu."

"On the contrary, we should be careful. Although the two countries were allies in the past, now that both of them have become emperors, the alliance is no longer in name only."

This is what Wang Shifan, the Shangshu You Pushe, concurrently the Minister of War, the Privy Academician, the Prime Minister, the Jiedushi of Yicheng Army, and the Prince of Qi, said.

At this time, thirty years had passed since Teacher Wang surrendered to the Xia Kingdom.

Thirty years was enough for Bai Jian to believe that Wang Shifan was not an ambitious person. Therefore, after the founding of the country the year before last, Bai Jian employed Wang Shifan, who was unemployed at home, and appointed him as the Minister of War.

Bai Jian still believed in Wang Shifan's military and political abilities, otherwise he would not have been able to put down Zhang Chan's rebellion so quickly at such a young age and expel Cui Anqian who was sent by the court.

However, this is the only Wang Shifan. Bai Jian does not dare to employ another King of Yan, Liu Shouguang.

As soon as he finished speaking, Quan Bingzhong turned his head slightly to look at him, and Wang Shifan felt as if he was stared at by a wolf, and felt uncomfortable all over. Fortunately, he was clean enough. According to the investigation of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, in the past 30 years, Wang Shifan either practiced calligraphy at home every day, or made friends with various calligraphy masters, and frequently frequented the bookstores in Kaifeng City to buy calligraphy and paintings.

It was also because of the guarantee of the Embroidered Uniform Guard that he was able to enjoy a second spring.

"That's true on the surface, but according to our informants in Chang'an, this might be a trap set by the Tang Lord. He always likes to use this method to paralyze the enemy. Isn't it because of the past experience of the King of Yan?"

When Wang Shifan heard Quan Bingzhong say this, he reacted.

Because Liu Shouguang and Wang Shifan are neighbors, although they have different interests and hobbies, they can get along well.

The two had communicated with each other, and Liu Shouguang cried to him more than once that he should not have listened to Li Cunxu's lies and really thought that he was a sincere vassal.

I didn't expect that it was just to stimulate his ambition, otherwise the State of Yan would not have perished in his hands.

Seeing that Teacher Wang had understood, Quan Bingzhong added:
"We also have people in Shu. According to investigation, because of Tang's friendly gesture, Shu's ruler Wang Yan sent Hanlin scholar Ouyang Bin as an envoy to establish friendly relations with Tang, and even removed the garrisons on the border between Tang and Shu."

"This." Upon hearing that Shu Kingdom had withdrawn its defenses, Teacher Wang was speechless. Is the King of Shu really brainless?

No matter how good the relationship between the two countries is, they cannot withdraw their defenses.

Bai Jian had already understood the situation when he heard this, and said with a smile: "It seems that Tang Yan's past incident has recurred."

"It's just that this time I'm missing the accident of Da Xia."

At this point, Bai Jian seemed to have thought of something and ordered, "Bring me the map."

After he finished speaking, Li Da, who had been standing by, hurriedly worked with the eunuch to find a roll of geographical map made of cowhide from the pile of maps in a remote corner of the hall, and quickly spread it out on the open space in front of Bai Jian in two steps.

The vast world map unfolds, several feet long and wide.

Bai Jian, wearing white socks, stepped on the map and traveled from the location of the Khitan Kingdom along Taiyuan, Jinzhou, Huaizhou, across the Yellow River, to the land of Luozhou.

Without stopping, we continued walking down two or three steps and arrived at the Xiangyang area.

He took his cane, pointed at Xiangyang, took a step west, and pointed at Junzhou and Fangzhou, northwest of Xiangyang.

These two places are connected to Jinzhou of Shu Kingdom, and were also Shannan Road in the pre-Tang period.

"From Junzhou to the west, you will reach Jinzhou. After passing Xicheng, you can go west through Fangshan Pass, Shiquan, and Yangzhou to enter Liangzhou."

"Go south, cross the Daba Mountains, and you will reach the Tongzhou area of ​​Shu. Go down the Dongguan River, and after passing Quzhou, you will reach Hezhou."

"Further south of Hezhou is Yuzhou. Below Yuzhou, the natural barrier of the eastern gate of Shu will be open to me."

"Although we cannot take over all of Shu, we must make some plans for such a good opportunity."

After saying this, Bai Jian happened to stop in Yuzhou, looked around at the ministers around him, and said with a firm face: "There will always be a battle between Xia and Tang. Unifying the world is inevitable, and we must plan for it first."

Cui Shaojie, the Privy Councilor, the Prince's Junior Tutor, the Privy Councilor, the Jinzi Guanglu Doctor, the Senior Guardian, the Prime Minister, and the Founding Duke of Qinghe County, immediately took the lead in saluting and said, "No one is more wise than Your Majesty."

After Cui Shaojie finished speaking, Bai Zhanwen, the Minister of the Left, the Minister of Personnel, the Prince's Junior Tutor, the Wenhua Direct Scholar, the Jinzi Guanglu Doctor, the Prime Minister, and the Founding Duke of Chenliu County, also said, "Your Majesty is wise."

Minister of Works Liu Fansheng, Three-Minister Shao Ning, Grand Commander Bai Xiaoqiang, General of the Zhenjun Army Zhu Lingde and other heads of provincial governments and courts who attended the meeting all echoed the call "Holy and Wise".

(End of this chapter)