Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 404 Civil and Military Officials (Thanks to 20178585/daddycool for the monthly ticket!)
On the morning of April 3, the 31st year of Kaixi, Li Fang, the Minister of Justice, came out and said:

“Your Majesty, Governor Huyan agreed to the request of King Subuktekin of Ghazni without your permission and released more than 2,000 concubines. This is disrespectful to Your Majesty!
If all the generals in the Great Zhou army were like Governor Huyan, where would your majesty's authority be?
I beg Your Majesty to punish him."

Chai Zongxun looked at the ministers in the hall from the Golden Throne, and saw that all the ministers in the queue of civil officials on the left were calm and had normal expressions.

On the right side, quite a few of the generals had angry looks on their faces.

Chai Zongxun's heart moved, and he vaguely understood what the civil officials meant.

The most prestigious military generals and ministers in the court today, such as Huyan Zan, Zhe Yuxun, Jing Sheng and other former commanders of the twelve Longxiang Army Corps with outstanding military achievements, have all gone to Central and West Asia to fight against the Xingxing Sect for more than three years.

Among the military generals in Beijing, except for the Fourth Corps Commander Cao Bin and the Eighth Corps Commander Yang Ye, who were veteran and famous generals and were ordered to rest by Emperor Chai Zongxun, the other eight corps commanders were all newly promoted in recent years for their military achievements. They lacked combat achievements and prestige.

Therefore, the civil officials speculated that the emperor must be unhappy about the escape of the concubines of the Ghazni palace. It happened that all the powerful military generals and important ministers in the court were away on the battlefield, so they took the opportunity to use this incident to impeach Huyan Zan.

It is just unknown whether Li Fang took action at this moment in accordance with the wishes of the chief civil official Zhang Qixian or the second civil official Li Hang, or whether the two factions joined forces to attack the military generals group.

Sure enough, Yang Ye, who was in the ranks of the generals, came out and said:

"Minister Li, what you said is wrong!

As the saying goes, "When a general is away from home, the emperor may not grant him orders." The battlefield is thousands of miles away, and there are some minor matters that the generals have to make their own decisions. How can they report to His Majesty and wait for the emperor's order? "

Cao Bin was afraid that Yang Ye's words were too direct and would be disliked by Chai Zongxun, so he left the group and said:

"Your Majesty, when we, the military officers, are on the march, as long as it is Your Majesty's order, we will obey it and will not dare to disobey it in the slightest.

The military supervisors, military ethics officers, and military police can all testify to this.”

Chai Zongxun nodded slightly, feeling that the current group of military commanders, under the supervision of the military supervisory commission, the military ethics department, and the military police, were all very obedient to the imperial edict, and no one dared to be arrogant and overstep the boundaries of the system.

The "retirement system" required senior generals of the empire to retire from the army and give up their military power at the age of sixty, which could also prevent the generals from gaining too much prestige, which would be detrimental to the country.

Huyan Zan made the decision in the Ghaznavid Palace at that time. Although he let go of more than 2,000 palace concubines, he also obtained the treasures hidden by the second generation of the Ghaznavid monarch.

Chai Zongxun said:

“I did not issue an order to take the concubines of the Ghaznavid Empire back to Bianjing. My dear Huyan, you agreed to the request of the King of Ghaznavid in order to obtain the treasure of the dynasty. This was a wise decision.

How can we ignore the great contributions of our beloved Minister Huyan for such a small matter?

Besides, this matter cannot be blamed on him. "

When the civil officials heard what the emperor said, they knew that Huyan Zan and other generals were in the emperor's favor, and that the emperor did not blame the generals on the front line for the incident with Ghazni's concubines, so they had to let the matter go.

After leaving the court, on the way back to the harem, Chai Zongxun sighed:
“It is really difficult to have both civil and military skills.

It was just that we did not capture any royal concubines during the suppression of Ghazni this time, and these civil officials immediately used this as a handle against military generals such as Huyan Zan to test my intentions.

If I had not been able to stabilize the overall situation of the government, I am afraid that the civil officials and military generals would have already started fighting for power and profit. "

Tang Qi, the chief eunuch who was beside him, said:
"Your Majesty, Holy Ming!
As far as I know, during the years since Your Majesty unified the world, the military generals of our Great Zhou have been promoted to higher positions and made many contributions.

Among the civil officials, although there are some who have been conferred the title of Duke, such as Li Wenzhenggong and Wang Taifu, they have been left behind by the military officials in terms of both the number of people who have been conferred the title and the rank of the title. In my humble opinion, it is inevitable that the civil officials in the court are jealous of the military officials.

Chai Zongxun nodded and thought of the famous general Di Qing in his previous life.

Di Qing came from a military background. During his lifetime, he defeated Western Xia and Nong Zhigao. He was brave and good at fighting, and made many military exploits. He was strict in disciplining the army, liked to read military books, and was promoted to Privy Councilor due to his merits.

However, due to the exclusion and attack from the civil service group including Ouyang Xiu, he was demoted to the countryside and died in depression.

As an extremely powerful emperor, the civil servant group that controlled the cabinet and the Ministry of War did not dare to do anything to the military generals. However, when it came to the second and third generations of emperors in the future, without the suppression of a strong emperor, I am afraid that the civil servant group would use all means to suppress and exclude the military generals and the noble group in order to seize more power.

A typical example is the Ming Dynasty in the past. In the middle and late periods, all power to determine the future of the country was firmly controlled by the civil service group.

Once the civil service group becomes selfish and only cares about personal interests, they will sell out national interests, such as the Donglin Party.

Chai Zongxun felt it necessary to create a system to maintain a long-term balance between civil and military officials and to serve the emperor, who was the decision-maker of the empire.

After a while, they arrived at Baoci Hall. After paying their respects, Chai Zongxun had lunch with his mother, the queen, the two queens and the twelve concubines.

After the meal, when Chai Zongxun was about to go to the Qingshou Hall for a nap, Concubine Yi, Zhou Nuying, kept flirting with him. Chai Zongxun understood and nodded slightly.

After taking a nap for more than an hour, Chai Zongxun got up and went to Yanfu Hall to review memorials. Seeing that the "jury system" in all prefectures across the country had been established and operated, Chai Zongxun could not help but feel relieved.

Chai Zongxun said:

"Now that the jury system has just been established, Chief Steward Tang, the selection process of the jurors must be supervised by the local Wude Division. They must be randomly selected from the local people from all walks of life.

As long as the system is implemented for a long time, the rules will be deeply rooted in people's hearts and become a consensus.

Compared to human nature, institutional design is much more reliable and long-lasting.”

Tang Qi quickly agreed.

After dinner, Chai Zongxun walked to Zhou Nuying's Dieqiong Palace, where Zhou Nuying was already waiting for him at the palace gate.

Zhou Nuying is now 39 years old. Although she still has a beautiful appearance and figure, she can't hide the traces of the passing of time.

The number of times Chai Zongxun stayed in her palace decreased from three or four nights a month more than twenty years before Kaixi to one or two nights in February now. However, as a young couple, they had a deep affection for each other and their love for each other remained.

After taking a bath in the backyard, the two of them lay down on the bed.

Chai Zongxun hugged Zhou Nuying and said with a smile:
"My beloved concubine, what is the reason for your expression during the day? Let me guess.

But is it for Jun'er's wedding?"

Zhou Nuying smiled and said:
"Your Majesty, Holy Ming!
Since Your Majesty has already thought about Jun'er's wedding, I dare not remind Your Majesty again and cause trouble.

But I would like to ask, after Jun'er gets married, where does Your Majesty plan to grant him a fiefdom?

Your Majesty, you promised me that you would grant Jun'er a large vassal state."

(End of this chapter)