Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 1068

The eunuchs, maids, and guards outside the palace all turned pale with fright, trembling all over. In the past, when Zhao Dezhao was in a bad mood, he would stick one or two of them to death. Although recently, under the persuasion of Queen Li Siyan, there have been some changes. But today Zhao Dezhao's anger is obviously far higher than before, and it is not impossible to execute all of them outside the hall to quench their anger.

After receiving the news, Queen Li Siyan, who came in a hurry, stood outside the Chongzheng Hall for a while, without any expression on his face, and finally did not go in, but ordered: "Go and invite the Prime Minister to enter the palace immediately."

"Yes! Your Majesty!" Gao Dezhi, Zhao Dezhao's confidant and chief eunuch chief, agreed respectfully and left in a hurry.And Li Siyan sighed, turned and left.

After half an hour, when Li Mingxuan came to the Chongzheng Hall, there was no sound coming from the Chongzheng Hall. The Chief Eunuch said, "Li Xianggong, Your Majesty has stopped throwing things."

Li Mingxuan nodded, walked directly to the entrance of the Chongzheng Hall, and said, "Your Majesty, my minister Li Mingxuan is asking to see you."

There was no sound from the Chongzheng Hall for a long time. Li Mingxuan seemed very patient, his expression remained unchanged. He had already grasped Zhao Dezhao's character very clearly. He expected it.He also knew that under the surface of Zhao Dezhao's rage at this time, there was a moment of helplessness and even fear in his heart, so Zhao Dezhao would definitely summon him, because at this moment, Zhao Dezhao could be regarded as a reliance or even a savior. That's just him and Li Jixun, plus Lu Yuqing and Zhang Dong at most.

Just as Li Mingxuan expected, it didn't take long before Zhao Dezhao's pretendingly calm voice came out from the Chongzheng Hall: "Please wait outside the Imperial Study Room, Prime Minister, I'll be there right away!"

Hearing Zhao Dezhao speak at last, the chief eunuch Gao Dezhi was ecstatic, and immediately said yes respectfully with Li Mingxuan, and then arranged for someone to take Li Mingxuan to the imperial study room, while personally leading several eunuchs who still had lingering fears into the main hall. A lot of physical exercise, the emperor always has to clean up his demeanor before meeting and discussing matters with the prime minister.As for the horrific situation in the hall, no one dared to stare or look strangely. According to past experience, a look at this time may bring death.But fortunately, I don't know what Zhao Dezhao figured out, and he didn't anger anyone, let alone kill anyone.

After half a stick of incense, in the imperial study room, Zhao Dezhao's distorted, crazy, and furious face just now disappeared, and there was only a pretended calm posture of the emperor, and he said in an approachable tone: "Give the seat to the prime minister quickly. "

"Thank you, Your Majesty." As usual, Li Mingxuan always behaved extremely respectful in front of Zhao Dezhao.

After Li Mingxuan sat down, Zhao Dezhao said: "When I first heard that Zhao Pu's rebels were blatantly establishing a country in the south of the Yangtze River and proclaiming themselves emperor, I lost my composure!"

Li Mingxuan quickly said: "Your Majesty doesn't know something. After hearing the news, I was so angry that I threw things in the mansion. It's just that I know that this action is not only useless, but also loses the dignity of the court, so I controlled it, and then I was thinking about it." How can we wipe out Zhao Pu and his rebels, and restore our Great Song Jiangnan territory."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Dezhao immediately said: "My lord prime minister has a good plan to restore the rich and prosperous land in the south of the Yangtze River!"

Li Mingxuan shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, we can no longer fight wars right now, because our treasury is empty, and we can no longer pay the soldiers. And the lives of the common people have not been easy in the past two years."

Zhao Dezhao's face changed, and he said coldly: "Mr. Li, what you mean is that we can't send troops to wipe out Zhao Pu and his rebels now."

"Yes, Your Majesty, now we need to recuperate, at least wait until the treasury is full before sending troops south to wipe out the rebels!" Li Mingxuan's face showed a trace of panic just right, but he also showed a loyal look.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will do my best to clarify the administration of officials, stabilize the people, encourage farming and mulberry, and save up the treasury. At the same time, old general Li Jixun just took the opportunity to train troops and prepare for war. Especially if we want to cross the river and destroy the thieves, we must have a strong navy. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to cross the south of the Yangtze River. The most important thing is that if we can't finish the extermination of the Zhao Pu rebels in a short time, the Xiangfu Kingdom in the northwest and the Liao Kingdom in the north will most likely take advantage of the fire and send troops to invade our border. If that's the case, we will The Great Song will go to war on three fronts, and the consequences will be disastrous, so I ask Your Majesty to make complete preparations before sending troops south to wipe out Zhao Pu and his rebels."

Hearing this, Zhao Dezhao's face changed several times. He was so angry before, he only thought that the foundation laid by his father was in his hands and lost the richest Jiangnan in just over two years, so his anger overwhelmed his reason, and he forgot for a moment that there was no more money in the national treasury. How much money, even food and grass are extremely tight.As for the fact that the Liao Kingdom and the Xiangfu Congress took advantage of the opportunity to send troops, he really didn't think about it for a moment. He only heard Li Mingxuan's words at this time, and only then did he know that sending troops to the south of the Yangtze River might lead to the destruction of the country if he was not careful.

Thinking of this, he was already dripping with sweat involuntarily, but after he thought about it for a while, he frowned and said, "It's just that, we can recharge our energy and store up energy, but it also allows Zhao Pu's dog thief to firmly establish himself in the south of the Yangtze River." Li Aiqing needs to know that the wealth and wealth in the south of the Yangtze River is still higher than that of the Central Plains and the Jianghuai River.”

Li Mingxuan said: "Your Majesty, I have an important matter to report to Your Majesty. I have received news that Wuyue King Qian Zhiyin has sneaked back to the former Wuyue's old place near Hangzhou, and secretly contacted the old Wuyue Ministry."

Zhao Dezhao was furious when he heard this, and cursed: "Qian Zhiyin, this bastard is also trying to plot against the country, and I want to destroy his Qian family and nine clans."

Li Mingxuan continued calmly: "Your Majesty! Qian Zhiyin has the intention of treason, and his intention is punishable, but it is a good thing for the court and His Majesty at the moment."

When Zhao Dezhao heard it, he couldn't help being stunned for a moment, and said, "How do you say that?"

Li Mingxuan said: "Your Majesty, in order to appease the old ministers of Wu and Yue, the late emperor arranged important positions for Wu and Yue's descendants in the Jiangnan camp and the navy. Now there are five people serving under the command of the two rebels, Sun Meishi and Wen Zhanhui. Generals, and have certain military power in their hands. In addition, there are a total of 10 Xiangjun and Xiangjun on the Liangzhe Road, all of which were under the command of Gao Chengxiang, the commander of the eight capitals of Wuyue State. Also, the newly emerging top force in the world, Iron Sword Villa It is said that the master behind the scenes is the king of Wuyue. Now the king of Wuyue is wealthy because he holds the Wuyue bank in his hands. If people and horses were placed in the past, they could only do the work of escorting food and grass at most, but if after Gao Chengxiang practiced secretly, Qian Zhiyin was equipped with armor and weapons, and there would be a hundred thousand soldiers and horses. Xiao Xie. The minister guessed that Qian Zhiyin wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to establish the country when the Great Song Dynasty sent troops to attack Zhao Pu. But since the minister already knew about this, he would not let him take advantage of the oriole. The minister would secretly transfer the money Some things about Zhiyin were leaked to Zhao Pu and the rebels, forcing Qian Zhiyin to expose what he planned in advance, so that the two rebels, Zhao Pu and Qian Zhiyin, would bite the dog first, and then the court would sit back and watch the tiger fight. Time to send troops to wipe them out in one fell swoop. Take back the land in the south of the Yangtze River."

When Zhao Dezhao heard the words, he was overjoyed immediately, and said: "What Li Xianggong said is very true, so I will act according to Li Xianggong's words."

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In five days, Baturmu led the [-] wolf guards to complete the camp three miles west of Shazhou City. On the third day, the two medium-sized tribes closest to the Xizhou Uighur Kingdom raised food and grass to be sent to Batur Most of Mu Daying was robbed and burned by horse thieves who suddenly appeared, and attacked their tribe.After such a thing happened, it would be difficult for the grain and grass to be sent to the Baturmu Camp.

On the fourth day, Baturmu sent 5000 people to the two tribes without waiting for the food and grass to arrive, but Huang Dongqiu did not stop them and let them leave.The five thousand wolf guards came to these two tribes, disregarding the begging of the two tribes, forcibly collected almost all the food and grass of the two tribes, and killed dozens of people for this.

After the 5000 people went to raise food, Baturmu sent a large number of scouts to stare at the Volunteer Army, and at the same time led the army to provoke them every day, trying every means to draw the Volunteer Army out of the camp to charge and fight.However, the Volunteer Corps could not stand firm, because of the painful lesson on the first day, Baturmu finally did not dare to let the army attack the Camp of the Volunteer Corps.

"Baturmu knows that the food and grass brought by these 5000 people is the most important thing now, so it is better to come here to provoke us to fight. If we don't go out, they just want to entangle us, lest we secretly send an army Ambush the 5000 people they escorted. But he doesn't know that we don't need our men and horses under Shazhou City to deal with those 5000 people." Huang Dongqiu stepped out of the command tent and watched the provocative wolf guards from a distance with binoculars With a glance at Jun, he entered the tent while talking.

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In the morning light, the soldiers of the various brigades of the Volunteer Corps came out of the tent one after another amidst the sound of the horn for dinner. They took the bowls and chopsticks as a unit, and went to fill the steaming hot mutton soup that the first class had just made in the morning. steamed bun.

Even for ordinary soldiers, there are several pieces of mutton in the soup. This is already an excellent meal for ordinary people in this era. Unless it is a festive event or during the New Year, it is generally not eaten. So everyone ate happily.In Huang Dongqiu's view, even half of morale comes from good food, so he attaches great importance to food.

According to the relevant regulations of the wartime barracks of the Xiangfu National Army, there are "nine prohibitions and eighteen cuts" in the army, including the prohibition of making loud noises, prohibiting laughing and fighting, and so on.But this mainly means that it is possible to speak appropriately during wartime or at night, when resting and eating.

(End of this chapter)