Emperor Taizong's Growth Plan

Chapter 399 The surging undercurrent from Jixia Academy

The water of the Lujiang River is turbulent and turbulent, and when it is running, it looks like ten thousand horses galloping, with an astonishing momentum.

In the river water, a huge black shadow of tens of feet could be vaguely seen swimming underwater.In the dark, the power of the Lu River's water veins was activated.Immediately above the surface of the river, waves several feet high formed.

The frightening momentum of the river waves was photographed wave after wave, and white waves were immediately stirred up.Under the huge impact, the reefs and silt in the Yixian waterway that blocked the waterway were immediately washed away by the waves of the river.

The Lujiang River was originally a tributary of the Yangtze River, with steep and steep flows and difficult shipping.The weather of the Lujiang River originally only occupied the word "dangerous".

But the current scene on the surface of the Lujiang River is majestic and majestic.As far as the momentum in front of you is concerned, it is not weaker than the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers that run through the Central Plains!
Since Zheng Guo was ordered to call the Dragon King of Lujiang River to dredge the Yixian waterway, this scene has been on the Yixian waterway for more than several months.

The power of the Lujiang River was mobilized, stirring up turbulent waves and dredging the waterways of Yixian County.

There was also a huge wave surging, and it was photographed fiercely. In the sound of "bang" explosion, there was a faint sound of reef breaking.

Oddly shaped, bluish-black reef fragments floated up to the surface of the river, and then disappeared in another wave.At the same time, on the surface of the river, the undercurrent vortex formed by the existence of reefs in the water also disappeared.

The originally turbulent river flowed here, and suddenly became calm.

Seeing this, the water labor laborers by the river suddenly brightened their eyes and shouted:
"Oh, it works, it seems to work!"

As soon as this remark came out, it immediately spread to both sides of the river.A group of laborers and water workers immediately cheered after hearing this.

Zheng Guo, a member of the Ministry of Industry, heard the movement at this time and hurried to the riverside.

Looking at the river surface where the water flow became more and more gentle, Zheng Guo quickly fetched tools and measured the dredging of the water channel together with his followers.

After several confirmations, Zheng Guo clapped his hands excitedly and said loudly:
"The waterway in Yi County has been opened, send someone quickly to report back to His Majesty, Marquis Qu Jing!"

Once the waterway in Yixian County is connected, the army of the Yun Kingdom can send troops from Jiangyang Mansion, and advance along the waterway to attack the Xia Kingdom.

Attacking along the Yangtze River, there will be no worries about food and grass.Xia Kingdom's prefectures and counties along the banks of the river will be in turmoil. They can even point their troops at Jinling City, the capital of Xia Kingdom, and attack Xia Kingdom as quickly as possible, and rule the whole world!
At this time, not far from Yixian County, Nanjin Pass where Xia Jun was stationed.

Hearing the cheers from afar, the chief general of the Nanjinguan Xia Army immediately sighed heavily and said:
"I'm afraid this Yixian waterway has been dredged!"

All the generals of the Xia army suddenly changed their expressions and exclaimed:
"Why so fast?"

"There are many reefs under the Yixian waterway, and it is extremely difficult to dredge the waterway. It requires a lot of manpower and material resources. But I never expected that it would be so fast..."

"I heard that the Emperor of the Yun Kingdom ordered the Dragon King of the Lujiang River to use the power of the water veins to help. This is so fast. The spies we sent have also seen the Dragon King looming in the river."

"Oh, I never expected that this world has changed so much in just a few years."

Everyone didn't feel anything before, but when they think about it now, they realize that the world has changed so much in just two or three years.

Manifestation of luck, visions of army gathering, and strange beasts from heaven and earth, these things that only appear in fairy tales and ghost novels, came to the world so suddenly and without any waves.

The leading general of the Xia Army said in a serious tone:

"Send someone quickly to report back to Jinling City and the Southwest Recruitment Department. The waterway in Yi County has been dredged!"

"Yes!"
-
Jiangcheng Mansion, Southwest recruits Si Yamen.

Gong Yingzong looked at the secret letter sent back from Tubo by his subordinates, his face suddenly turned ugly, and he muttered to himself:
"Yangtong Jiedu envoy? When the Tubo envoys went to Zhongqing City, the emperor of Yun Kingdom was prepared and laid out this chess piece early to control the Tubo Kingdom... Take one step and watch ten steps, predict the enemy first, This emperor of the Yun Kingdom is really powerful!"

Looking at Gong Yingzong's ugly face, the embroiderer under his hand hesitated and said:

"My lord, Anguo reported back that the people of Yunguo had been prepared to encircle and annihilate the soldiers and horses of the rebel forces. The people we sent over have disappeared... It should, should have fallen into the hands of the East Factory of Yunguo."

Thinking of his confident and confident appearance before, Gong Yingzong's face turned blue and purple, he slammed the table, gritted his teeth and said:
"Good calculation, good skill! In this round, I, Gong Ying, lost."

Hearing this, the embroiderer envoy silently lowered his head, but couldn't help but wander in his heart:
What counts as you losing, is that you lost, okay?Being suppressed and beaten by the Emperor of Yunguo the whole time, why are you still pretending here...

Gong Yingzong didn't pay attention to the strangeness of his subordinates, but said to himself:
"Huanghuang's situation is overwhelming. My cheap senior brother really has a good eye. Everyone believes that the national power of Daxia is stronger than that of Yunguo. Only now can I see clearly that among these two countries, there is a great change in the world. The Yun Kingdom that takes the lead is the stronger side!"

"My lord, do you have any other preparations before?" the embroiderer asked at the right time.

When Gong Ying heard the words, her expression froze for a moment, and she was silent for a while before she opened her mouth and said:

"Take my letter and go to Hengyang Mansion to tell the Marquis of Deyang to lead the army back... Now, only by concentrating troops to guard Jiangzhou County can we block the advance of the Yun army."

"Yes!"
-
Xia Guo, the imperial palace of Jinling City, is in the palace.

The Southwest Urgent Report was rushed all the way, and was quickly delivered to Yu Zhaoling's imperial presence.

Yu Zhaoling hurriedly flipped through the military newspaper, and after a glance, his brows furrowed, and he said in a low voice:
"The waterways in Yixian County have been dredged by the Yun Army! Alas, the banks of the Yangtze River, and even the capital Jinling, will be constantly harassed by the Yun Army..."

At this moment, only a dozen or so confidants of Yu Zhaoling's Qiandi are here in the Jinshen Palace.

Hearing Yu Zhaoling's words, Zhu Feiang, who was born in an honorable family in the Xia Kingdom and served under Yu Zhaoling's command when he was in the Southwest Recruitment Division, saw Yu Zhaoling's downcast expression, so he immediately stepped out and said loudly:
"Your Majesty, although the waterway in Yixian County has been opened, Jiangzhou County is still in the hands of our army. Down the river, there are Xunyang County, Yicheng County, and Liyang County, all of which are easy to defend and difficult to attack. If the Yunjun Going down the river, we will encounter all the fortresses in our dangerous city gates. If we attack all the way, we will lose troops and generals. At that time, the morale of the Yun army will be low and the army will lose its edge. If our army regroups, we will definitely defeat Yunguo and conquer the lost ground!"

After all, in fact, the core point of view is still one sentence, accumulating small victories into big victories, trading space for time!
Xia Guo, it's really too big!

No matter how brave the Yun army is and how empty the Xia army is, if they want to fight all the way from Jiangcheng Mansion to Jinling City, it will not be possible in just a few months.

Yu Zhaoling has been in the army for many years, so it is impossible not to understand this truth.In fact, Xia Guo's strategy for dealing with Yun Guo has always been like this, wanting to rely on its strong national power to drag down Yun Guo.

But at this time, since he ascended the throne, he has been losing troops and generals, losing cities and lands, and it is inevitable that he has a sense of defeat in his heart.

Hearing the persuasion from his subordinates, Yu Zhaoling took a deep breath, pulled himself together, and said:
"Half a month ago, Yunyang Mansion was also captured by the Yun Army, and the entire Anshun County fell. Most of Shaoyang County fell, and Tanzhou, Shaoyang County, which is across the Yuan River from Wuling Mansion, has also been destroyed."

"Now that the waterway in Yi County has been dredged, the Yun Army can go down the river and cut off the connection between Wuling Mansion and Jiangzhou County. Yi County, Shaoyang County, and Anshun County are encircled by the Yun Army's three roads, and Wuling Mansion is surrounded by enemies. It's dangerous!"

Having said that, Yu Zhaoling gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice:

"Decree to general Sun Qianfang of the Wuling Mansion, ordering him to lead his troops to evacuate to Jiangzhou County!"

For the same reason as when he abandoned Hechi County, although half of the more than [-] Xia troops in Wuling Mansion were transferred from the county soldiers, they were not considered elite.But at this time, Xia Guo could never afford to lose these troops.

This is why Xiao Cheng made Wu Zixu deliberately retreat in the first place, so as to help Liao Gu ascend to a high position!

Because no matter how smooth the battle in Wuling Mansion is, as long as Anshun County and Shaoyang County fall, the Xia Army of Wuling Mansion, which is in a prominent position, can only choose to retreat!

"Your servants, obey the order!" All the ministers in the palace also knew the situation at this time, so they could only choose this way, and they all bowed down immediately.
-
Yunguo Imperial Palace, in the Hall of Mental Cultivation in Zhongqing City.

Di Renjie, Minister of Dali Temple, Song Ci, Langzhong Songci, Minister of Qing Officials in the Northern Territory of the Ministry of Justice, Zheng Zhidu of Dali Temple, Zhang Tang, Director of the Ministry of Justice, and Zhao Yu, the Supervising Censor, all walked into the hall and bowed down to Xiao Cheng.

"Come on, see Your Majesty!"

Xiao Cheng looked up at the few people, nodded slightly, and said in a deep voice:
"Song Qing, how is the investigation going?"

Song Ci took a step forward, leaned over to salute, and said:

"I have checked in detail. The family members of the three offenders in the official's mansion all committed suicide by taking poison. But there is indeed something strange among them!"

"The person who did it, although his technique is clever, looks normal on the surface. But the bodies of the family members in the three houses are scattered all over the house, and they don't look like they all committed suicide by taking poison. This is suspicious point one!"

"The minister even found the package that was packed hastily in the three mansions. If the prisoner intends to commit suicide with his relatives, there should be no need to do so. This is the second doubt!"

"The third doubtful point, and the most important one, is that I found signs of dislocation on the bones of some of the deceased's cheeks."

"Therefore, I boldly speculate that the family members of the criminals above the three mansions were all broken into the mansion by masters, and the bones were removed by capture techniques, and the poison was forcibly poured and then reset. , Take the bones of the deceased for inspection, it will definitely not be found!"

Xiao Cheng narrowed his eyes and snorted coldly:
"Sure enough, as I expected, this Gao Fang and his accomplices are just a cover for the people behind the scenes to deceive the public!"

When Zhang Tang heard this, a cold light flashed in his eyes, and he said in a deep voice:
"The minister is now going to interrogate Gao Fang and his accomplices. For His Majesty, we must find out all the people behind this scene!"

Zhang Tang is confident in his torture method, no matter who it is, as long as it is in his hands, he will definitely not be able to survive the torture.

Zhao Yu shook his head slightly when he heard the words, and said:

"I'm afraid they won't be able to ask anything from Gao Fang."

Since it was pushed out to deceive others, what could Gao Fa know?The three people who really knew, including the whole family, were forcibly poisoned to death!

Di Renjie stood where he was, frowning tightly. After a moment of silence, he said in a deep voice:
"Your Majesty, I actually have a doubt! The people behind this poisoned the whole house of three people in the prisoner's residence. The technique was exquisite. If it weren't for His Majesty's candlelight and Master Song's proficiency in inspections, he would never have discovered the strangeness!"

When Xiao Cheng heard this, his heart moved, and he said:
"What does Di Qing want to say?"

"I want to say, since the people behind the scenes can handle the case so cleverly, why didn't they help Gao Fang to make the matter perfect?" Di Renjie said in a deep voice.

Zhao Yu heard the words, and continued to answer:

"Since Gao Fang is a cover, the people behind the scenes may use him as a scapegoat, so naturally there is no need to worry too much."

Di Renjie shook his head slightly, and said in a deep voice:
"Absolutely not!"

"Gao Fang is the doctor of the Ritual System Department of the Ministry of Etiquette. According to the officials, they want to use the imperial examination to make a profit. Gao Fang is an indispensable person, and he shouldn't be abandoned so easily."

Speaking of this, Di Renjie's eyes flashed brightly, and he continued:
"And even if Gao Fang is just a scapegoat, the people behind the scenes should have helped before the incident was revealed. Because they are hiding behind Gao Fang, if Gao Fang is not exposed, they will be safer!"

Zhi Du heard the words, his brows became tighter, and he continued:
"Hearing what Master Di said, why do you think that the people behind the scenes wanted Gao Fang to die from the very beginning?"

When Di Renjie heard this, he immediately raised his voice and said:

"I feel that Gao Fang is not important to the people behind the scenes. It doesn't matter whether he dies or not! What they want is to ruin the imperial examination system. As long as this fraud case is exposed, the imperial examinations promoted by His Majesty will not matter. The reputation of being born and selecting scholars based on their talents will also stink..."

"I heard that Xia Guo, like me, Dayun, held an imperial examination to select talents a while ago. I'm afraid that this matter is also planned by Xia Guo!" Zhang Tang answered again.

On the dragon chair, Xiao Cheng narrowed his eyes, shook his head slightly, and said:

"It's not necessarily Xia Guo's doing, otherwise it will definitely not escape my eyes and ears!"

Zhong Zizhuo, the envoy of Yiwei at the sticky pole, is now the second-rank embroidered envoy of the Xia Kingdom, and his loyalty value on the gold finger panel is as high as [-].If Xia Guo really made any moves, it is impossible for Xiao Cheng not to know!

Speaking of this, Xiao Cheng suddenly picked up the secret book in his hand and asked the eunuch beside him to pass it to several people in the palace.

"This is the detailed information on the three people found by Dongchang. Take a look!"

On top of the secret fold is the incomparably detailed information of Zhuang You and the other three.

After several people looked through it in turn, they subconsciously looked at each other, bowed together and said:
"Please forgive me for being stupid, I haven't seen anything unusual."

"The three of them are from Confucianism, Legalism, and Famous Schools respectively. After I established the Jixia Academy, they all became officials because of their political arguments!"

When everyone heard this, they were all stunned.

With a cold face, Xiao Cheng said in a deep voice:
"I think that the people behind the scenes may not be here for the imperial examination... The target they want to attack should be the quota system of the imperial examination. In other words, what they attack should be the local government-run academies!"

Even the quotas for imperial examination exemptions can be given and accepted privately. Those who know know that this is a secret manipulation by Gao Fang and other ministers of the court and China to take advantage of their positions.Those who don't know will definitely feel that there are so many dirty things hidden in this government-run academy!
However, Xiao Cheng established government-run academies in various places and gave them exemptions from examinations. From the beginning to the end, the purpose was to cultivate academic disciples, so as to balance and weaken the influence of various schools of thought, Chinese, military, and military officials in the court, and to avoid being like Xia Guochao. As above, there is a trend of faction among a hundred schools of thought.

And among the hundreds of schools of thought, it is inevitable that no one can see the key to this.

Maybe it is because among the various schools of thought, some people want to use this method to attack the local government-run academies, force Xiao Cheng to reform the quota system of the academies, and even abolish the local government-run academies...

Thinking about it this way, all the previous doubts can be figured out!

Having said that, Xiao Cheng looked around at everyone, and said in a deep voice:
"I have suspicions, but there is no evidence. I have given you the right to investigate secretly, and we must investigate this matter to the bottom!"

Hearing the words, several people's expressions immediately lifted, and they all bent down to salute, saying:

"Come on, follow your orders!"

(End of this chapter)