The Bad Guys: Everyone, let’s revive the Tang Dynasty together!

Chapter 359 She is here

People all over the world were in a state of confusion. Countless pieces of news were being transmitted frantically outward with Bian Jing as the center, and all kinds of intelligence from the outside world were also falling into the capital like snow.

There were piles of wax documents with the word "Nine" piled up like a mountain. Yu Youshu led a special team to check them, and then select the key information from them and report them to Xiao Yan one by one.

"An urgent report from Shu Kingdom: A large number of Shu troops are being mobilized in Hanzhong, and they are heading to Qi."

Yu Youshu walked behind Xiao Yan and said in an orderly and soft voice: "The person leading the troops is Wang Zonghe, the governor of Xingyuan Prefecture. He led the Shu army in Hanzhong to Baoxiadao. If they meet with Wang Zongkan's troops in Fengxiang, the size of the Shu army will reach more than 50,000."

Xiao Yan nodded without much agitation, and just asked: "Can the three armies of Shenwei, Gongchen and Zhuosheng reach Hulao Pass?"

"They have moved in as scheduled." Yu Youshu flipped through the next document and said, "At the same time, Zhang Quanyi from Luoyang sent a report saying that 70% of the 500,000 shi of grain that the court ordered him to raise locally has been prepared. When the king arrives in Luoyang with the two emperors, all the grain needs will be fully collected."

"Zhang Quanyi is a man who knows the current situation."

Xiao Yan smiled. Fortunately, Yang Shihou was not the only warlord who had the final say in Guanzhong. For example, Zhang Quanyi, the governor of Shaanxi and Guo and the prefect of Heyang, had the power to control Luoyang. If Yang Shihou wanted to secede from Chang'an, Zhang Quanyi could cut off his logistics.

Xiao Yan urgently dispatched the Shenwei, Gongchen and Zhuosheng armies to garrison at Hulao Pass in advance. His primary purpose was to control the eastern gate of Luoyang as soon as possible. In addition, as long as Zhang Quanyi was not a fool, he would know that Xiao Yan was showing deterrence to him.

The Three Divine Power Armies belong to the imperial guards. Since Xiao Yan can mobilize these three armies, it means that the imperial guards are already under his control.

Zhang Quanyi has served Liang for a long time, and although he has a strong foundation in Luoyang, he is nearly sixty years old and is unlikely to have the courage to establish his own territory and fight against the imperial court. Even the eastern gate of the Luoyang Basin has been controlled by Xiao Yan in advance. Unless he feels that he has lived too long, he would not dare to fight to the death with Xiao Yan, who controls nearly 100,000 imperial guards.

If Zhang Quanyi surrenders, most of Yang Shihou's wings will be eliminated. This is the general trend. In this era where sending troops requires large amounts of money and grain, if Yang Shihou does not get the support of Zhang Quanyi, who has run Henan Prefecture into a granary over the years, it would be like cutting off his own arms. Even if he surrenders to Jin or Shu, most of his subordinates will not follow him.

Compared with the so-called threat of the Shu army, Xiao Yan certainly paid more attention to the hidden danger of Yang Shihou, and he finally felt a little relieved at the moment.

"In addition." Yu Youshu opened the next document and said, "With Bian Jing as the center, most of the branches of Xuanming Sect in various states have been cleared out by Gongyang Zuo. People in the remaining branches have heard the news and fled, which may cause harm to the countryside."

"It doesn't matter."

Xiao Yan said calmly, "Let the officials of Tiance Prefecture draft a decree, ordering all towns and states to strictly investigate the fleeing members of Xuanming Sect, and at the same time, to stop them from leaving the capital at night. We are using this as the first task to track down the former members of Xuanming Sect to see the results, and according to the established plan, set up pacification offices in each town to be directly under the jurisdiction of the pacification office in the capital."

Yu Youshu agreed to all of them, and then reported some other information. After receiving all of Xiao Yan's instructions, she immediately went down to pass on the order.

Ye Bushou had already built it roughly. In addition to selecting available people from the original Xuanming Sect, he also selected a group from the Jinwu Guards. As for the rest of the Jinwu Guards, they were all dismissed.

At the same time, Xiao Yan also ordered the selection of a group of elite scouts from the imperial guards to serve in the Yebushou. The bad guys who originally belonged to the Yanzhou, Luoyang and other branches served as direct superiors of the upper and lower departments. Both the light and dark sides of Bianjing have begun to be taken over by the Yebushou.

After quickly dealing with these trivial matters, Xiao Yan met with the staff team put together by Han Yanhui, as well as military generals including Yu Zhong, to discuss the next day's expedition.

Feng Dao still needs to coordinate the overall situation in Hebei on behalf of Xiao Yan, and cannot be summoned to Bian Jing for the time being, otherwise Xiao Yan would definitely be more relaxed. However, Feng Dao and Wang Yanzhang are stationed in Youzhou and Yingzhou in the south and the north respectively, which has indeed relieved Xiao Yan of a lot of burden. A group of scholars recruited from Hebei are also rushing to Bian Jing urgently. These people will first serve in the Tian Ce Mansion, and then slowly take over the various vacancies in the court.

All in all, the makeshift team was finally on the right track, and Xiao Yan actually had quite a few staff members under his command. In the past two years, Han Yanhui and Feng Dao had recruited many talents in the Central Plains and Hebei respectively, and had been sending them to Xiao Yan continuously. However, compared with the huge court organization, it was still slightly thin.

These people are Xiao Yan's real team. It is a general trend to employ generals from Hebei. There are many outstanding people in Yanzhao. Those who were summoned to Beijing were the think tank and available generals who followed Xiao Yan one or two years ago. After being appointed to the Tiance Mansion, they can barely be regarded as an emerging military aristocratic group. It is quite similar to the Guanlong Group at the turn of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the so-called Huaisi Group in later generations, but it is just in its infancy.

Regardless of whether they were the so-called prominent families in Hebei in the past, or the newly emerging generals in Hebei, now that they have been tied to Xiao Yan to form a new political group, whether they have talent or not is one thing, the key is that they can be used without worrying about loyalty issues.

Unlike the original team of the Bianliang court, the Hebei scholars who came to Beijing were able to squeeze into the core and occupy the biggest piece of the pie. If the court situation changed, the original Bianliang officials could still change their allegiance without any pressure, but these Hebei scholars, even if they were not liquidated by the new master, would be severely suppressed by the Central Plains scholars.

Therefore, all the prominent families and military families in Hebei placed their bets on Xiao Yan this time, and they would rise and fall together with him. If they won, they would follow the dragon, like the Lingyan Pavilion in the early Tang Dynasty. If they lost, the clan would be destroyed. There was nothing to say.

If we were to ask which group of people in the world would be most willing to see Xiao Yan become emperor, then these prominent families and military families in Hebei who were tightly bound to Xiao Yan would definitely be his most staunch supporters.

The resentment that Hebei had been suppressed for hundreds of years was all placed on Xiao Yan in one day. As the saying goes: "The general is so free and unrestrained that he soars across the Heshuo River. He attracts the brave cavalry from Lanshan and drives the warriors from Yishui. He tramples on Yan and Qi, imprisons Zhao and Wei, and is good at communicating with the barbarians. His reputation shakes all of China."

This inexplicable rumor has already spread widely in Hebei.

Regardless of whether Xiao Yan himself wants to or not, people from Hebei, including Han Yanhui and Feng Dao, will spontaneously try their best to build momentum for Xiao Yan. This is the role of political groups, which is far from being comparable to one or two people.

But even so, Xiao Yan still couldn't ignore the central government and control everything with his own shogunate like Cao Cao did in the past.

The Han Dynasty was completely torn apart. After the turmoil of Grand Tutor Dong and other ambitious people, the Han Dynasty's prestige had long been reduced to a rotten corpse. At present, Zhu Wen's reputation accumulated over the years has not completely collapsed, and all the towns in Daliang have recognized him. Therefore, Xiao Yan still needs to do his best to maintain the prestige of the central government so that all political institutions including Jing Xiang can be used by him. What can be said is nothing more than personnel issues. Xiao Yan has killed a group of people, expelled a group of people, and needs to win over another group.

Xiao Yan has been busy with military affairs and pacifying local areas recently and has no time to meet one by one the officials who are willing to change their allegiance. Of course, all these matters were handed over to Han Yanhui, the current prefect of Kaifeng and Xiao Yan's spokesperson. He sits in the yamen every day to receive people who want to see him. Some key people need to be invited actively. He is so busy that he has no time to rest. It is a relief for him to take time off to attend the meetings of the Tiance Mansion.

Half of the day was spent in Tiance Mansion. Xiao Yan spent most of the time just listening to the opinions of his staff and did not interrupt much. He only made up his mind at the critical moment. Finally, he finally sorted out the clues.

For example, those who are afraid of the court can be tossed around at will, and they are the easiest to win over. Those who are obsessed with power and power can also be used, and they will work for the King of Song with peace of mind if they are given a sweet date. There are also those who are guilty and hope to protect their property by joining Xiao Yan, so they can be coerced with a big stick.

Of course, there were those who were stubborn and refused to submit in the imperial court. There was nothing much to say to these people. All they had to do was demote them, confiscate their property and make way for them to clear their positions.

In addition, Xiao Yan also needs to personally make decisions to appease the local military governors. At this time, he will not be stingy with any official rank rewards. As long as the military power is in Xiao Yan's hands and all the empty titles are thrown to them, they can only honestly accept this empty title and generous reward that represents Xiao Yan's goodwill.

Another truly major event was the arrangement of the generals and soldiers. For example, several of Xiao Yan's trusted generals, Wang Yanzhang and Yu Zhong, were both appointed as military governors. Yuan Xingqin, Tian Daocheng and the generals, both large and small, were also given honorary titles and honorary posts. The Dingba and Guide armies, as well as the powerful soldiers and horses from Yan who were summoned to the capital, were all heavily rewarded.

However, in just a few days, Xiao Yan had spent more than two million strings of cash on the imperial guards, including the Guide and Dingba armies. Not to mention other things, at least the imperial guards were loyal to Marshal Xiao at the moment.

This is a necessary means for Xiao Yan to create a community of interests among his political groups. He not only wants to win over the hearts of the troops, but also wants to show the world how rich and powerful the people who follow him will be.

What he gave was not only wealth and honor, but also a path of military merit with a very broad path for advancement. Think about Wang Yanzhang, who was still an unknown figure under Zhu Youzhen two years ago. However, after following Xiao Yan in several major battles, he was promoted like a rocket and his fame increased greatly. Among all the princes in the world, how many people didn't know Wang Yanzhang at that time?

The excitement this brought to the generals and soldiers under his command was beyond words. All of Xiao Yan's measures made them firmly believe that as long as they followed General Tiance and fought to the death, their upward path would be unlimited!

This move certainly has both advantages and disadvantages, and even poses considerable risks in the long run. However, for the moment, Xiao Yan's move is undoubtedly a powerful weapon that no one dares to underestimate.

From now on, those in Daliang who wanted to challenge Xiao Yan's army would have to think carefully about whether they want to be the first to take action before facing Xiao Yan's soldiers who are happy to hear about war.

What a temptation do the four words "noble group" carry for ordinary soldiers?
The Imperial Guards had witnessed how Xiao Yan rose to power step by step with his military achievements. Following such a Tiance General, would they still worry about not being able to rise to prominence with their military achievements? Would they still worry about not being a member of the noble group in the future?
It only took Xiao Yan a few days to roughly build a stable interest group, which naturally cost the Tian Ce Mansion a lot of effort. But seeing that this group was led by a strong leader like Xiao Yan, everyone in the Tian Ce Mansion felt that the future was promising, and even though they had been tired for several days, they were still full of energy.

Not to mention that I am being treated like a cow by the general, as long as I shed my last drop of blood, I will be the general's most loyal cow and horse!
As Xiao Yan's top aide, Han Yanhui was pleased, but still regretted that time was too short and he was unable to recruit too many talents for Xiao Yan. However, he was currently entangled in worldly matters, and from now on, as long as Xiao Yan did not fall, he was afraid that he would not have a rest for half his life. He had no choice but to leave these matters to other people. Therefore, before and after the show, he just crossed his hands and bowed to Xiao Yan, and was escorted by more than ten guards to Kaifeng Prefecture. He was busier than Xiao Yan.

All the members of Tian Ce Mansion performed their duties, and as the Western Expedition was imminent tomorrow, they all took their leave and left Xiao Yan very quickly, not daring to waste even a moment.

On the eve of the expedition, Xiao Yan instead had some free time. He walked out of the Tiance Mansion, which was converted from a two-story royal palace. He did not bring any followers with him. He was just alone in his purple robe, thinking to himself.

How to deal with the two emperors Zhu Wen and Zhu Youzhen had already been decided. Even Zhu Wen's adopted son Zhu Hanbin would be brought along with Xiao Yan to the army.

As Jing Xiang is a man of great prestige in the court, Xiao Yan has to bring him along as well. It is impossible for him not to be on guard against Jing Xiang, but this time Xiao Yan wants Jing Xiang to give him advice during the war.

As the first strategist in Daliang who made Zhu Wen obey his orders, Jing Xiang was not just a name.

Although Xiao Yan wanted to borrow the Shu army to establish his prestige this time, his preparations were actually a bit hasty. He had to fight quickly and not delay. He wanted to use a big battle to intimidate the local warlords in Daliang, and to frighten the people of the world so that he could adequately deal with Yuan Tiangang.

He thought as he walked, and deduced various details over and over in his mind. The palace was very large, and he walked around in a big circle. It was not until dusk that a maid came to invite him to have a meal. Xiao Yan had the meal brought to the study. He liked to think when he was alone.

The waitress responded and left. Xiao Yan stood in the corridor and looked at the waning moon gradually appearing in the sky before slowly walking towards the study.

There was already candlelight in the study, but the door was closed. Xiao Yan frowned slightly. He didn't like others messing up his things, but he didn't think Bago would have the courage to do so.

He slowly climbed the stairs and entered the room, but he did not see anyone in the main hall used to receive ministers. Then he seemed to notice something and glanced to the side, and was stunned.

But in the study room that only he was qualified to enter, there was a purple-haired woman wearing simple round earrings, sitting behind the table, flipping through pages of written papers without any scruples but boredom.

The face is extremely beautiful and the royal feeling is amazing.

The woman held her cheek with one hand and turned the paper with the other. Only then did she tilt her head slightly and look at Xiao Yan with a lazy look.

Looking at the dazed Xiao Yan, she blinked her peach blossom eyes.

"Why, seeing that it was a little girl who came to visit, Prince Song didn't want to see her?"

(End of this chapter)