Late Tang

(Thanks to Wang Conger, Mengmengmengmeng, and Xiaofeilongjian for their support, and special thanks to Xiaofeilongjian for their generous reward of [-] coins, thank you!)

It took a long time for Tian Lingzi to recover, and said to Li Xuan: "Your Majesty, this old slave has just learned about it. Right now, the grass bandit is chaotic in the Central Plains, but Song Wei of Ziqing Town is the commander of all the Taoists, but it has been for a long time without success. , not only led to Wang Jingwu's rebellion, which has not subsided for a long time, and now he has done nothing since he served as the envoy of the various Taoists to recruit the grass bandits. The old slave thought that the Central Plains was in turmoil, the grass bandits were rampant, and the rebellion continued. , Pinglu Army and Song Wei are all responsible. The court should reward and punish fairly, so as to appease the meritorious soldiers and warn others."

"I thought Song Wei had made meritorious service to the country."

Tian Lingzi said: "Your Majesty, Song Wei has indeed contributed to the country in the past. In his early years, he served in the imperial army to protect the emperor, and then he went to the southeast to pacify the chaos, and went to the southwest to reject the barbarians. However, since he took office in Ziqing Town, he has not done anything. Not only did he not It was able to stabilize the place and provoke Wang Jingwu's rebellion, and he could not calm down for a long time. Now he is serving as the envoy of various Taoist camps to recruit grass thieves. Song Wei is old and faint, and now he is seriously ill. Young and meritorious, public and loyal to the country, but too young, and now he is also the commander of the three towns, and then the commander of Ziqing Town, which is too scary. What's more, Ziqing Town is still begging for thieves in the Twelve Dao As the leader, it is better to choose a person with high morality and high prestige."

Li Yan hesitated for a moment, "Li Jing wiped out [-] thieves in Songzhou for a while, and his performance is commendable. I think it's better to let Li Jing take over as the Jiedu envoy of Ziqing Town, and take over as the envoy of Zhudao camp to recruit grass thieves by the way. Coordinating the whole army, weeding out the weed bandits will definitely be just around the corner. Henan is stable, and the canals and water transportation will be smooth, so that taxes, money and food from Dengzhou and donations from the town [***] can flow into Beijing.”

"Your Majesty, this is absolutely impossible. One person alone holds the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Four Towns. In my dynasty, only Wang Zhongsi has ever done so. Li Jing is so young, so he should be given the seal of Commander-in-Chief of the Four Towns. Your Majesty should guard against the disaster of Anlu Mountain."

After Tian Lingzi finished speaking, he knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, this is absolutely unacceptable..."

A burst of hurried footsteps sounded outside, "General Zhang Tai, the guard of the right prison, begs to see His Majesty!" A eunuch reported outside.

"General Zhang is here, let's announce quickly." Li Xuan smiled when he heard that Zhang Tai was coming.

Zhang Tai's purple robe and Liang Guan hurried into the hall, his face was full of joy.As soon as he saw the emperor, he congratulated him loudly: "Congratulations, Your Majesty, congratulations, Your Majesty!"

"What happened?"

Zhang Tai played with a smile on his face: "Henan 5 Li has just entered Beijing in a hurry, and it is a great victory! Just four days ago, the Jiedu envoy of Ziqing Town led the various road camps to recruit the grassroots envoy General Song Wei, leading [-] soldiers The three thieves Wang Xianzhi, Huang Chao, and Wang Jingwu were lured by horses to gather in Linyi City and wipe them out. In one battle, [-] horses were wiped out of the three thieves; The remnants fled."

"On the same day, Li Jing, the Duke of Qi, led the town [***] to Yan and Yi in the south, joined the troops of Kang Chenghui, the Pinglu Army, and smashed 15 rebel troops, beheaded more than 12 enemies, captured 20 rebel troops, and recaptured [-] captives. Thousands of young men and women."

Zhang Tai's face was flushed with excitement, and his voice was octave higher, "Great victory, Your Majesty! The three thieves who ran across the Kyushu in Henan, one died, one was captured and the other escaped. Hundreds of thousands of grassroots disappeared in a blink of an eye. God bless you, Your Majesty is blessed!" !!"

Li Xuan couldn't help being stunned for a moment when he heard the news, and after he realized it, he couldn't help dancing, the joy on his face was completely undisguised.Although Li Xuan played around all day long and was unwilling to deal with political affairs, he also knew that the grass thieves became more and more ruthless.The eastern part of Henan in the Central Plains is almost corrupted by thieves, and the land of Kyushu is in dire straits.First came the drought, then the locust plague, and then the drought followed by the Yellow River bursting. Since he came to the throne, the entire Central Plains area has not had a good time.After the riots started, the riots became bigger and bigger, and Kyushu was lost and corrupted in a blink of an eye, and countless bandits gathered.Every time he heard the news of 10,000+ hundreds of thousands of thieves, Li Xuan couldn't help but secretly startled.Well now, Li Jing defeated thieves by 16 first, Simon Sigong and others defeated thieves by 15, Song Wei defeated thieves by 50, and now Li Jing and Kang Chenghui defeated thieves by another [-].Just looking at the numbers, [-] million thieves have been wiped out.

Now the three thieves were killed, captured and escaped. Although Huang Chao escaped, this Huang Chao was just a second-in-command, and his subordinates only escaped with a few thousand people.50 million people were wiped out, and the remaining few thousand people are really not worth mentioning.

Then I remembered that Song Wei was the one who took the lead in suppressing the thieves this time. Although the number of thieves killed was not many, it played a fatal blow.Killing Wang Xianzhi, capturing Wang Jingwu and defeating Huang Chao, this should rank first.The merit this time should belong to Li Jing. If it weren't for the fact that he didn't kill and capture Guan Jian, Li Jing's contribution to defeating more than 16 thieves in two battles, recovering several states, and restoring local order would rank first.Now, down one notch, firmly in second place.The third place in credit should be Ximen Sigong and Yang Fugong, who commanded the Six Towns Allied Forces Caozhou to break [-] thieves, and then Kang Chenghui should be fourth.

Li Xuan made no secret of his admiration for Li Jing, "Although Song Wei is old, Wu Wei is still there. The veteran is really a top two. If he doesn't make a move, it will be so earth-shattering. If he fights well, he can beat a grass thief. Song Wei should take the lead, and immediately drafted an edict and handed it over to the Political Affairs Hall for discussion. I think that Song Wei's merits can be added as Song Guogong, promoted to Taiwei, and joined with Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, entered the servant, and granted the title of a thousand Household, give money [-] guan, [-] pieces of silk, confer wife and son, posthumously give his father the post of minister." After talking about the rewards in one breath, the emperor said: "Remembering the hard work of Song Guogong, I welcome you to the capital to recuperate. "

Zhang Tai followed immediately, "What about the Ziqing Town affairs?"

"Leave it to Li Jing, and Li Jing will stay in Ziqing Town to know how to deal with it." Li Yan said immediately without hesitation.

"Your Majesty, it is absolutely impossible. Li Jing is also the commander-in-chief of the three towns, and after staying in Ziqing Town, I'm afraid..."

Li Xuan didn't wait for Tian Lingzi to finish, and interrupted him with a smile and waved his hand: "Father, you don't need to say any more, you are all my right-hand men, and I don't want you to have any misunderstandings. The position of Commander-in-Chief of Zhenjie, but actually only in charge of Zhen[***], and the land under the jurisdiction of Zhen[***] is only Dengzhou, plus the wild land in southern Liaoning. I am quite Guilty, right now, Song Guogong is unwell, so Ziqing Town will be handed over to Li Jing. After all, the rest is just the name of the two towns, and it is actually just the original area under the jurisdiction of Ziqing Town. If Li Jing is talented, he will Let him take on some heavy burdens, Ziqing Town has just experienced a rebellion, so I don't feel relieved to let other people go to Ziqing."

Tian Lingzi's face became very ugly. He didn't expect that the emperor, who always obeyed him, would always turn to Li Jing every time he talked about Li Jing?This made him feel a rumbling sense of crisis. Li Jing was not easy to deal with, and he kept confronting him.Right now his strength is not strong, if he really waits for his territory to expand, the more soldiers and horses, Li Jing will come to the side of the Qing emperor, what should he do.

But now that the emperor has settled the matter, it is difficult for him to resist the opposition.But fortunately, it is only staying behind for the time being, and there is still some hope.However, he was unwilling to admit defeat completely, and after thinking for a while, he said, "Ziqing's vice-commander Kang Chenghui also made a lot of contributions this time, should he be awarded the governor of Qingzhou?"

As soon as Zhang Tai heard this, he immediately understood what Tian Lingzi was up to. This was to provoke civil strife in Ziqing Town.After all, Kang Chenghui is the younger brother of Kang Chengxun, who has been serving as Song Wei's deputy, and has a lot of prestige in Ziqing Town.If Kang Chenghui is really provoked to compete with Li Jing for the right to Ziqing Town, I'm afraid that Ziqing Town will be in chaos.

Immediately Zhang Tai immediately said: "Your Majesty, this old slave thinks that General Kang deserves a heavy reward for his hard work. Taining Army Jiedu Li Xi and Tianping Army Jiedu Xue Chong have seriously neglected their duties. The old slave thinks that Kang Chengjiao can be adjusted." Join the Tianping Army or the Taining Army as a Jiedu envoy."

Li Xuan nodded, and immediately responded: "Well, Xue Chong and Li Xi were resigned and went to Beijing. Kang Chenghui was promoted to be the Jiedushi of the Tianping Army, and Cui Yunqing took over the position of the Taining Army Jiedushi."

"Your Majesty is wise!" As soon as Li Yan finished speaking, Zhang Tai immediately praised him first, without giving Tian Lingzi any chance to object.

It can be said that Zhang Tai is now connected with Li Jing's interests. He is very clear that last time Ximen Sigong and Yang Fugong were both swept out of Chang'an by Tian Lingzi, but he was able to stay because he is now powerful among the four nobles in the palace. The lowest, and secondly, because of the relationship between Li and Li Jing.Tian Lingzi was busy fighting with Ximen Sigong and Yang Fugong, and was worried about Li Jing, so he let him go last time.But in the future, Tian Lingzi will definitely not let him go. The struggle in the palace is more cruel than the officialdom. If he wants not to fall, his only guard of honor is Li Jing.

The greater Li Jing's power, the more stable his position in the palace.This time Li Jing made such a great contribution, of course he wanted to help Li Jing become the handsome man of Shangziqing Town.Right now, Li Jing was promoted to stay post, and Li Jing's teacher Cui Yunqing was promoted to Taining Army Jiedushi, and Kang Chenghui of Li Jing's faction could also be promoted to Tianping Army as Li Jing's faction. This can be described as a series of victories.

With the help of the Cui family and the Yu family, and with the full support of Song Wei, Li Jing now has a considerable interest group.Zhang Tai, also one of them, naturally spared no effort to seek benefits for Li Jing.

Now after this battle, Li Jing has Song Wei's full support, and Li Jing is determined to become a powerful feudal clan. He and Li Jing are together, and he is the weakest of the four nobles in the palace.Now that he can have a strong foreign aid, his position in the palace will undoubtedly be much more stable in the future.Especially Li Jing is still so young, but he is so steady in handling things, which makes Zhang Tai determined to follow Li Jing.

With the Cui family, the Yu family, and the Song family, Li Jing's status is already solid. Even if Tian Lingzi and Li Jing are enemies, Zhang Tai is not afraid.There is him in the palace, Yu Cong in the political affairs hall, and in the local area, Yu's family has three towns. If you add Li Jing's four towns, and Cui Yunqing, Cui Anqian, and Kang Chenghui towns, Li Jing can be said to be Momentum is strong. (To be continued.)