Late Tang

(Wipe your nose and yell: Please vote!)

Gongsun Lan stood behind Li Jing, a pair of onion-like jade hands were pressing on Li Jing's shoulders to help him massage and knead.

The intensity was neither heavy nor light, Li Jing slightly closed his eyes to enjoy this rare relaxation, smelling the orchid-like fragrance, Li Jing relaxed his whole body and mind.

"Does Saburo want to use the cabinet to replace eunuchs in politics?"

Li Jing closed her eyes and hummed softly. Historically, there were three dynasties in China where the eunuchs were the most harmful, namely the Eastern Han, Tang and Ming dynasties. However, whether it was the Eastern Han or Ming dynasties, when compared with the eunuchs of the Tang Dynasty, the It's really a thousand miles away.Since Suzong, almost all the emperors of the Tang Dynasty were established by eunuchs, and the emperors became the puppets of the eunuchs, and even two of them were killed by eunuchs.

Moreover, the eunuchs in the Tang Dynasty monopolized power, and the Beisi controlled by the eunuchs overwhelmed the southern government of the prime ministers, and they even controlled the imperial court's forbidden army in their hands. It can be said that life and death were all in the hands of the eunuchs.

In the late Tang Dynasty, the monopoly of eunuchs and the separatism of feudal towns were two huge cancers that destroyed the Tang Dynasty.

Since Li Jing knew these two points well, he naturally had to guard against them.

The reason why eunuchs were able to intervene in politics was largely because the emperor needed to check and balance the powers of the prime ministers. As a result, he began to appoint the most trusted eunuchs, which eventually led to eunuchs intervening in politics.

Therefore, in order to prevent eunuchs from interfering in politics, the key lies in someone who can replace the role of eunuchs and help the emperor balance the power of the prime minister.After much deliberation, Li Jing decided to build a new cabinet to replace these eunuchs to balance the power.

But the cabinet cannot be too powerful, otherwise it will eventually become a party struggle, and party struggle is also a major disaster that destroyed the Tang Dynasty.

After thinking about it, Li Jing finally set up a cabinet bachelor in imitation of the early Ming Dynasty.

However, this cabinet is different from that of the Ming Dynasty. The cabinet established by Li Jing is actually equivalent to the Ming Dynasty's chief inspector.

There are a total of nine cabinet bachelors, all of whom are very talented and famous literati.The cabinet bachelor is Li Jing's adviser, who has the duties of consulting and admonishing, and also serves as a lecturer on Jingyan.The most important thing is that they will reply to all draft memorials submitted by Shang Shuxing according to Li Jing's intention.

All the memorials were first submitted to the cabinet for remittance, and the cabinet submitted it to Li Jing for review, and then to the Ministry of Shangshu to draft opinions, and then the cabinet reported to Li Jing for approval, and the cabinet approved the redemption on behalf of Li Jing.

Shang Shuxing holds the right to draft votes, and the cabinet approves the power on behalf of the government.

In order to prevent the cabinet from monopolizing power, they appointed some very famous and upright literati and bachelors, and their grades were not high, set as the fifth grade, which was far lower than the officials of Shangshu Province.What's more important is that cabinet bachelors are elected for three years and cannot be re-elected, and the re-election must be separated by more than three years.

It is the best check and balance not to let power be in the hands of one person for a long time.

Li Jing, the first batch of cabinet bachelors, has drawn up candidates. In recent years, due to the prosperity of Dengzhou, as well as the emphasis on education and literature, a large number of scholars have poured into Dengzhou and other places in the northeast.Many of them were very famous literati and poets at this time.

Some of them have already served in the Northeast Road, but some of them are only serving as consultants and consultants in Wenhua Pavilion for the time being.

This time, Li Jing selected a few of them as cabinet members.

The current cabinet list is Luo Ye, Cao Ye, Xu Tang, Yu Tanzhi, Nie Yizhong, Li Dong, Zheng Gu, Zhou Yao, and Pi Yuexiu.

Li Jing originally planned to appoint Cui Zhiyuan and Du Zhongwu as cabinet members, but after thinking about their identities as foreign relatives, he finally didn't want to make such a start, and only selected nine well-known literati as cabinet members.

These people are all well-known literati today, some of them have also been officials, and a few have failed many trials, but they have a good reputation.

Among them, Cao Ye, a Jinshi in the Dazhong period, successively served as the secretary of Tianping Jiedu, Dr. Taichang, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and Governor of Yangzhou.Later, he resigned and returned home, and now he moves to Dengzhou.Li Jing visited him personally, and after talking with him, he felt that this person is not only well-known, but also very familiar with government affairs. Therefore, it has been decided to appoint Cao Ye as the first assistant of the cabinet, and then Luo Ye, who served as the county magistrate in Jeju, as the second assistant .

The literati cherish their feathers, especially these celebrities. The official position of a cabinet bachelor is not high, but they have weight.However, compared with ordinary officials, these people are less likely to exercise power.

Li Jing now owns five provinces, thirty prefectures and one hundred counties. There must be a strong central court. Although everything is done initially, it must be experienced.

After listening to Li Jing's explanation of the new system, Gongsun Lan understood a lot.

"Cui Li, the two servants, the six ministers, and the generals seem to support Sanlang's new system. I believe that with everyone's support, this new system can be implemented quickly and see results soon." Gongsun Lan comforted Li Jing.

Li Jing nodded, and there was no turning back when he opened the bow. Now that the reform does not touch many interests, Li Jing really doesn't have to worry too much.After all, his army was actually a new type of army from the beginning. Although many subordinate troops were absorbed later, they have been integrated into it after reorganization.Because of this, this is an army completely different from other feudal towns and imperial imperial guards, so Li Jing is sure to implement the new system at this time.

While the two were talking, they heard a report from Zhao Jiang outside: "The king of the county, Gongsun Zhongcheng, there are people from the Supervision Office outside."

Gongsun Lan went out immediately, and came back with a letter after a while.Gongsun Lan served as the Zhong Cheng of the Supervision Office, and also served as the doctor of the Investigation Division of the Fourth Division, responsible for analyzing exchange information and coordinating information sharing among various divisions.

Gongsun Lan came in and handed the letter to Li Jing.

Li Jing took the letter, the letter box had been opened, and the letter was taken out, but on it was a secret letter, composed of Arabic numerals, Chinese characters and various symbols.He returned it to Gongsun Lan with a wry smile. The letters in the intelligence system still used the code word he had designed.But even so, he couldn't understand a single word of the ghostly talisman.

"This is the information that just came back from Chang'an. It was delivered by flying pigeons, fast horses and fast boats. It only took two days from Chang'an to here." Gongsun Lan said with a light smile.

Chang'an is [-] miles away from Liaodong City, which was newly renamed Liaoyang, but this letter was delivered within two days, which is really remarkable.It seems that the Feige system of the Office of Supervision has contributed a lot.However, if you can use the letter sent by Feige, [-]-mile express, or speedboat, the content inside will definitely not be simple.

"What news?"

After Gongsun Lan translated carefully, her complexion changed slightly, and she said to Li Jing, "Ruzhou, who is stationed in the Eastern Capital, recruited soldiers who were rewarded too much for the Shangyuan Festival. Under the leadership of the military envoy Li Guangting, they made trouble in the Eastern Capital and burned the Anxi Gate. Burned and plundered the shops, and went from Changxiamen. Immediately afterwards, there was another army riot in Hezhong, and the capital Yuhou Wang Chongrong of Hezhong made a rebellion, and the plagiarized squares and cities were all empty."

Hearing this news, Li Jing couldn't help but frowned.Not long ago, the imperial court set up the Weishui line of defense in the south of Ruzhou just as it deserved. The Zhongwu Army Jiedu Xue Neng was killed in a mutiny, and the Zhongwu Army was divided into three. Three thousand soldiers of the Probation Army in Xuzhou were killed. .Even Zheng and Ru, the top commanders of the defense line, set up interception envoys, and Qi Kerang, the governor of the Taining Army, was afraid that the Zhongwu Army would rebel, so they had already led their troops to retreat.

At this time, there was another military chaos in the river, and even the East was in chaos.

"After Huang Chao crossed the Huai River and wiped out Cao Quanzhang in Sizhou, he entered the territory of Ying, Song, Xu, and Yan, and the officials and people fled. At present, he has captured Ruzhou and Nanshenzhou, and easily crossed the Weishui defense line. We have captured Ruzhou and are approaching the Eastern Capital."

"What's the court's reaction?" Li Jing asked.Originally, there was Cui An lurking in Dongdu, but Li Jing thought that Huang Chao couldn't please him.But now it seems that Huang Chao didn't do anything, and the tens of thousands of people in the Weishui defense line in Ruzhou and Chenxu collapsed directly.Cui Anqian is now in Dongdu, behind him is Wang Chongrong's rebellious army in Hezhong, and in front is Huang Chao's 30 army that has swelled up again after entering Henan. The pressure is very high.

"The imperial court appointed Hezhong Jiedu envoy and Tongping Zhangshi Li Du as the prince Shaofu, and Wang Chongrong as the heir in Hezhong. Zhou Ji was appointed as the Zhongwu Army Jiedu envoy and Xuzhou governor, Qin Zongquan was Caizhou governor, and Lu Yan Hong is the governor of Chenzhou."

Li Jing couldn't help sneering, Zhou Ji, Qin Zongquan, Lu Yanhong and others killed Jiedu envoys and governors to stand on their own. Not only did the court not dare to pursue it, but formally recognized the positions they had seized. This shows that the court is now extremely empty .And Wang Chongrong, who caused chaos in Hezhong, also successfully drove away the original Jiedu envoy, and became the queen himself.

Internal and external troubles, even if the court has improved in the past few years, in the end, the result is still a mess.

"The imperial court issued a decree to call Zheng Congyu, the Jiedu envoy of Hedong, to recruit envoys from the west of Hebei, and hand over to Li Keyong, the envoy of Jiedu, who was camping north of Yinshan Mountain, and called him to lead the East Army of his own way, and the deputy envoys of Jiedu of the Datong Army Xin Xuan and Zhenwu. The military governor Yu Yu, the Tiande military governor He Lianduo, the Xiayin military governor Tuoba Sigong, the Heyang military governor Li Zhuo, and each of the six towns led their own troops to attack Huangchao in the south."

Li Keyong actually became the emissary of Hebei's four-sided camp. The imperial court gave power to control the five cavalry of Anqing, Sage, Qibi, Tatar, and Xi, and was fully responsible for encircling and suppressing the rebels in Hebei.

"Huang Chao preached to all the towns, 'Everyone should keep their forts, and don't attack our front! I will enter the eastern capital, that is, to the capital, and I will ask for my own crimes without warning everyone.' 30 troops went straight to Luoyang, and Qi Ke gave it to them. In the land of Luoyang, Cui Anqian has only more than [-] soldiers and horses. Zheng Congxun and others are far away in Hedong, and it is difficult to get there for a while. The emperor has ordered Cui Anqian, Zhang Zimian, Du Qiang and others to abandon the eastern capital Luoyang , retreat to Tongguan to keep Chang'an!"

When Li Jing heard that Li Xuan actually ordered Dongdu to abandon Luoyang and retreat to Tongguan to protect Chang'an, he also felt a little inconceivable.Although Luoyang was destroyed in the Anshi Rebellion, it is still the capital of the Central Plains, and its defense is self-evident.What's more, although the Weishui defense line was lost, Qi Kerang was defeated again, the Zhongwu army was in chaos, and the Hezhong army was in chaos, but Cui Anqian still had more than [-] people in his hands.The Heyang army is also on the other side of the Yellow River in Luoyang. As long as they can hold on to the city, the officers and soldiers of the six towns including Zheng Congyu can also arrive quickly.

But now the emperor ordered to abandon the Eastern Capital. The reason is self-evident. What they are most worried about is their own life.Although it may be possible to hold on to Dongdu, if Huang Chao goes straight to Tongguan, once he breaks through Tongguan, he will be at the foot of Chang'an City.At this time, although Luoyang is good, it is not as good as Chang'an.

It's just that they haven't thought about what kind of shock it will cause once Luoyang, the eastern capital of the Tang Dynasty, falls into the enemy's hands?

Thinking of this, Li Jing couldn't help feeling a little tight in the chest and upset.Although he had been looking forward to the arrival of this day, when this day was really coming, Li Jing still felt an unspeakable irritability in his heart.

The Tang Empire is about to be destroyed! (To be continued.)