The Great Tang General

"Your Majesty is now representing the country and the people. You must not rush into battle. Before the reform is completed, you should put the people of the world first!"

Upon hearing that Li Xuan decided to lead the army in person, Li Xian hurriedly tried to persuade Li Xuan.

"Yes! Like Emperor Taizong, after pacifying the world, he would sit in the capital and rule the four directions. Only then would he be considered an emperor..."

After Li Xian finished speaking, Pei Zunqing, Liu Yan, Yang Wan and Yan Zhenqing all tried to persuade Li Xuan.

Everyone knows that Tian Khan is extremely brave and valiant, and even the ancient overlords could not match him.

He must be the first in every battle, and taking the enemy's head among thousands of soldiers is as easy as taking something from a bag.

This also made Li Xuan famous and cast a mysterious image on him, causing the people of the Tang Dynasty and foreign barbarians to write countless outrageous legendary stories about him.

But the prime ministers believed that the emperor should not put himself in danger when the country was thriving.

After all, on the battlefield, it is easy to dodge an open attack, but difficult to guard against an arrow from the dark.

"You are simply worried that I will not charge into battle as usual. However, I know in my heart that I am no longer fit to ride a horse on the battlefield."

"I am personally leading the army to coordinate the entire army and boost morale in the hope of ending the battle as soon as possible. At the same time, I am also training the imperial guards who have not seen battle for a long time."

Li Xuan explained to the prime ministers.

There is one thing that we have to admit.

The Tang Dynasty lacked a general capable of commanding a hundred thousand troops.

The Wuwei governor Li Zhushi is an old veteran, and the Dunhuang governor Guo Xuji is lacking in prestige, qualifications and military achievements.

Hexi is precisely the place where it is easiest to attack the Uighur royal court, so Li Xuan needs to go to Wuwei Army and Dunhuang Army to take charge.

What the Tang Dynasty cannot accept most at the moment is failure.

A failed battle would not only damage the prestige of the Tang Dynasty, but would also undermine the confidence of the people.

The most important thing is that it consumed the huge resources of the Tang Dynasty.

Prime Ministers Li Xian, Pei Zunqing and others looked at each other in bewilderment.

As the Supreme said, it is difficult for them to stop it.

The Supreme is the God of War, and he will win whenever he goes out to fight.

The Huihe were not made of clay. After two generations of heroic leaders, Guli Peiluo and Moyanchuo, fought wars in the south and the north, they established a dynasty.

More than a decade of exploitation by the Tang Dynasty caused the Uighur royal court to forcibly requisition the horses, cattle and sheep of the herdsmen in the name of "paying taxes to the Tang Dynasty". Today, many Uighurs resent the Tang Dynasty.

If the Uighurs do not surrender, there will be a tough battle between the two sides.

"In this case, we, the ministers, will help Your Majesty to achieve victory."

As the chief prime minister, Li Xian was the first to give in.

We can’t reject the Supreme just because we are worried that he will fall into the “White Horse Encirclement”.

Even he believed that as long as the Supreme Lord commanded the entire army, he would be able to annihilate the Uighurs in one fell swoop and unify the grassland.

"Don't worry, my lords. Huihe Yidi Jianxin has succeeded to the throne. We have the card of Crown Prince Yehu. Amid internal and external troubles, victory will surely come to the Tang Dynasty."

Li Xuan nodded with satisfaction and looked at Pei Zunqing and the other four prime ministers.

In this battle, he will also test out a powerful weapon.

Although the cannon had not yet been completed, since the appearance of thunder bombs and explosive packs in the third year of Qianyuan, by the spring of next year, there would be more and more complete explosive packs and thunder bombs.

There are also miniaturized thunder bombs.

Li Xuan selected a thousand men from the Tiance Guard as "artillery soldiers" and stationed them at the foot of Niu Shou Mountain to learn the use of gunpowder and practice throwing techniques.

The reputation of Tian Khan, coupled with the earth-shaking noise of gunpowder, will surely catch the Huihe off guard.

"We obey your order and hope that Your Majesty can return to Chang'an as soon as possible."

Prime Minister Pei Zunqing and other ministers understood the reason.

The Supreme has spent half his life in military service, and has galloped through mountains, snowy plateaus, grasslands, oceans, deserts, etc.

Marching in heavy rain, heavy snow, strong winds and strong waves is commonplace.

They cannot claim the Supreme by themselves.

"Order the counties within the Governor's Office to stockpile food and fodder, prepare dry food, strengthen training, and mobilize the army's morale. We will officially march on the first day of February next year."

Li Xuan said this to ask the Secretariat to draft an imperial edict to convey instructions to the military governor's office and counties to prepare for war.

As for the imperial guards, Li Xuan would also personally give orders to have them go through the baptism of blood and fire to maintain their elite combat effectiveness.

"The minister obeys the order!"

Yang Wan accepted the order.

"Your Majesty, the Uighur Khan Yidijian has sent an envoy with a large sum of money and has now crossed the Yellow River. How should the Tang Dynasty deal with this?"

Li Xian asked Li Xuan for advice.

Or let the Uighur envoys go back to where they came from.

Either leave the BMW and gold behind and let the envoy go back.

When the two countries are at war, the envoys will not be killed.

Li Xuan never killed an envoy.

"Accused Yidijian of forging Yingwu Khan's last words, usurping the throne while Prince Yehu was away from Shanyu City, and disobeying Khan Tian's order. Confiscate the messengers' belongings, and tell them to go back and report to Yidijian, tie their hands, and go to Chang'an to plead guilty. Otherwise, I will seek justice for Prince Yehu."

Li Xuan gave instructions to the prime ministers.

He would gladly accept the Uighurs' gold.

The Tang Dynasty has been storing gold and silver.

Since we want to develop industry and commerce, we must have more valuable precious metals.

Due to the constraints of the times, paper money could not be issued yet.

History has proven that issuing "big money" will be abandoned by the people.

Moreover, the counterfeiting of copper coins is serious at present.

Because compared with the copper price, counterfeiting is profitable.

There are always people who take risks and make fake Kaiyuan Tongbao.

Even under Li Xuan's rule, counterfeit currency continued to occur.

The imperial court was unable to take back the counterfeit currency, and Li Xuan's consistent approach was to crack down on counterfeiters.

However, counterfeiters often hide in the mountains or at sea, so it is difficult to catch them all in one fell swoop.

Only by offering a large reward to whistleblowers can the trend of counterfeiting be curbed.

Moreover, copper coins were too heavy. Even with a central bank, merchants still used carts and horses to transport coins when purchasing goods.

Since we cannot make big money and issue paper money, the production of silver and gold coins is definitely an important part of stabilizing the currency.

Control the silver and gold mines in the Khorasan region and plunder gold and silver from neighboring countries through trade.

Combined with the reserves accumulated since the period of improving the quality of coins, within ten years, the Tang Dynasty would be qualified to start establishing a system of gold and silver coins.

The anti-counterfeiting measures used on the notes of the Central Bank of the Tang Dynasty are the first step towards issuing banknotes in the future.

"The minister obeys the order!"

The prime ministers bowed and accepted the order.

The next day, the prime minister fully supported the emperor's military reform in the court.

Mainly based on the Council of State Affairs, the Ministry of War, and the Tian Ce Palace, military ranks were established for all governors-general, deputy governors-general, subordinates of the governor's office, lieutenant generals, and generals based on military merit and qualifications.

The military ranks of soldiers formerly at the rank of Lang Jiang and below in the Military Governor's Office were awarded by the Military Governor's Office in accordance with the evaluation rules of the imperial court.

Led by the Tian Ce Mansion, iron military ranks that could be worn on armor and ordinary military ranks that could be worn on casual uniforms were established.

The armor for non-commissioned officers is iron, the armor for lieutenants is copper, the armor for colonels is silver, and the armor for generals is silver plated with gold.

The military ranks from second lieutenant to marshal are designed in the style of the sun, moon and stars.

The lieutenant is a five-pointed star, the colonel is a crescent moon, and the general is the sun.

Ordinary soldiers and non-commissioned officers are simply treated as such.

Military ranks are worn on the shoulders.

The medal worn on the chest has not been abolished.

Jumping Medal, Warrior Medal, Hero Medal, Jade Lin Medal.

To this day, the Jade Kirin Medal is still the most difficult medal to obtain, with only a few people receiving it, proving its value.

There are many military ranks, but they are the same as the nine grades and eighteen levels.

As long as your achievements are great enough and you are ruthless enough, you can be promoted three levels in a row.

There is no restriction on promotion before the rank of second lieutenant.

It means that a new recruit can fight bravely and quickly reach a certain rank.

If they are young, they will be sent to the Central Military Academy for training.

After graduating from the military academy, military rank will also be promoted.

According to Li Xuan's plan, there will be no marshal rank equivalent to the first rank for the time being.

Except for Li Xuan, anyone who nominated the title of marshal would make other generals dissatisfied.

Moreover, even Li Xuan's old subordinates were still a little short of the rank of marshal.

There were nine commanders-in-chief: Che Shensai, Lai Zhen, Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi, Wang Nande, Nan Jiyun, Duan Xueshi, Li Siye, and Li Zhushi.

The Minister of War was Feng Changqing and the Vice Minister of War was Zhang Xing.

Luo Xing, Xue Cuo and Pei Ying were the three generals of the imperial guards.

Liao Zhengrong, commander of the Imperial Guard.

There were fifteen men in all, the general who carried the load on his shoulders for four days.

Li Xuan also intended to grant military ranks to the Jinyiwei because the Jinyiwei had close connections with the military.

Only the Jinyiwei and the Ministry of War had both ranks and military ranks.

There were a total of 25 generals. In addition to the remaining governors, there were Li Feiyuanli, Qu Huan, Gao Kai, Yuchi Sheng, Peng Ren and other very experienced generals who followed Li Xuan to the end. In addition, Guo Ziyi's subordinates Li Huaixian and Tang Chaochen, Li Guangbi's subordinate Pugu Huai'en, and Wang Sili's subordinate Liu Zhengchen were also generals.

Most of the other deputy governors were lieutenant generals.

Except for a few army commanders who were lieutenant generals, most of the army commanders were major generals.

Because in this era, almost all military commanders have experienced the baptism of war.

When the world is at peace, the commander of a army commanding three to five thousand men will be at most a colonel.

Unless the army expands!
According to the imperial system, the team leader is usually a sergeant or a second lieutenant.

The battalion commander is usually a lieutenant or captain.

The regiment commander is usually a major or lieutenant colonel.

With such a composition, many soldiers will surely become captains or even battalion commanders in one battle.

Becoming an "official" can be determined directly by courage. It will surely make some soldiers fearless and fearless.

It’s just that in terms of salary, officers are generally lower than civil servants.

But becoming an officer is a much higher level than before.

The only drawback is that the Tang Dynasty faced greater pressure in the process of maintaining its army.

Under the conscription system, serving in the military and getting paid became a matter of course.

If they were changed to "conscripts", even with Li Xuan's reputation, they would not be able to suppress it.

Therefore, the Tang Dynasty will maintain the current number of troops, and even if it conquers the grassland, it will not set up more military governors. Instead, it will let the military governors of Dunhuang, Lingwu, Taiyuan and other places be stationed on the grassland.

At the same time, they openly or secretly sucked the blood of countries outside the Tang Dynasty to forge the foundation of the Tang Dynasty.

The military rank system will also be implemented in January next year.

Even though military ranks have not been established, the status of soldiers will be officially changed starting next year.

After the news was delivered to the Governor's Office, everyone was delighted.

From top to bottom, everyone felt that they were honored.

Of course, those who are conferred the title of general will most likely be promoted to Tiance Mansion when the term of office changes next year.

Some more generals will be promoted.

……

It is June now and the sun is scorching.

But the year for the change of leadership stipulated by the Tang Dynasty is approaching, so all officials have heavy work to do.

Cui Youfu, one of the eighteen scholars, was sorting out memorials for Li Xuan.

Li Xuan suddenly found an impeachment memorial.

It was a memorial impeaching the prime minister.

A Lujiang County official named Wang Huazhong impeached the chief prime minister Li Xian for nepotism.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month this year, Li Sheng, the former governor of Lujiang County, retired due to illness and returned to his hometown.

Lujiang County is the second largest county in Huainan. Under this circumstance, the imperial court will either promote a governor of a central county to take over, or parachute one from the imperial court, or promote a lower-level official.

After Li Xuan ascended the throne, he would more often promote lower-ranking officials.

Give local officials a chance.

After Li Sheng resigned, he usually had to choose between the Chief Secretary and the Deputy Governor.

However, the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Personnel ultimately chose Yuan Wei, the Deputy Governor, to succeed as the prefect of Lujiang County, rather than Wang Chonghua.

Yuan Wei was a famous scholar in the Tang Dynasty, and the Yuan clan was a famous aristocratic family in the Tang Dynasty.

His father, Minamoto Mitsuhiro, served as Shangshu Zuocheng and was the nephew of Minamoto Qianyao, a famous prime minister during the Kaiyuan period.

And many people know that Yuan Wei, who grew up in Chang'an, and Li Xian are old friends.

Wang Chonghua was a Jinshi from a poor family.

He believed that his performance under the performance evaluation system was better than Yuan Wei's.

Moreover, during the Qianyuan and Yuanzai periods, the Chief Clerk and the Biejia were both fourth-rank officials and were in competition with each other.

The Beijia no longer focused on military affairs, and together with the Changshi, he assisted the prefect in handling government affairs.

Under this system, if there is a promotion, it will be him who will get it. Otherwise, no one will be promoted, and it will not be Yuan Wei's turn.

Therefore, Wang Chonghua directly pointed out in his memorial that Li Xian was nepotism.

In fact, nepotism was very common in the Tang Dynasty.

Because Li Xuan is the biggest nepotist.

Just think of him as the emperor, with privileges. But Li Xuan couldn't just listen to Wang Zhonghua's one-sided words, he had to investigate it thoroughly.

"Mr. Cui, many people choose officials, why do you choose old friends and relatives?"

Li Xuan put down the memorial and asked Cui Youfu.

"Reply to Your Excellency, this is human nature."

“When selecting an official, one must be familiar with his ability and character. If one does not know him personally, how can one know his true situation?”

Cui Youfu answered Li Xuan in a rather obscure way.

Li Xuan nodded in agreement.

Then he handed the impeachment memorial to Cui Youfu and instructed: "Let the Minister of Personnel Liu Yan handle this matter. He knows what to do!"

"According to the order!"

Cui Youfu took the memorial and left.

In fact, Li Xuan believed in Li Xian.

But Li Xian was a normal person after all. Perhaps it was true as Cui Youfu said, Li Xian felt that Yuan Wei was more suitable to be the prefect than Wang Zhonghua.

Li Xuan understood that this mentality was the same as his own.

In fact, there is another crucial point.

For example, Li Xuan appointed people based on personal connections because he needed people to obey his orders.

In the tide of the great struggle, if you always go against him and don't follow his orders, even if you have the talents of Zhuge Liang and Xiao He, it won't work.

Not long after, Liu Yan submitted the assessment results of Wang Zhonghua and Yuan Wei to Li Xuan.

The performance evaluation system is a scoring system.

In addition to many tasks, officials will be given scores every year.

The full score is 100.

Excellent is above 80 points.

A good score is more than 70 points.

A passing score is 60 or above.

Those below 60 and above 50 points are in a "probation" period. If they fail twice, they will be dismissed from their official position.

If the annual score is below 50, the candidate will be directly dismissed.

Under the performance evaluation system, only those with good political achievements are eligible for promotion.

Lujiang Biejia Yuanwei's total score last year was eighty-three points.

Wang Chonghua scored 84 points.

Slightly ahead!

It also shows that the Lujiang County Prefectural Government operates efficiently, and there are no problems even in the counties under it.

Otherwise there wouldn’t be such excellent test results.

No wonder Wang Zhonghua was dissatisfied.

Perhaps to many people, Yuan Wei has a prominent status and his abilities are almost the same as Wang Zhonghua.

It is only natural to promote Yuan Wei.

Before the imperial examination reform, just having the name Yuan Wei would add more than ten points.

"Minister Liu, do you think it is legal for You Pushe to do this?"

Li Xuan asked Liu Yan.

“It’s a little flawed, but not incomprehensible.”

Liu Yan did not take the opportunity to slander Li Xian just because they were competitors.

Because Li Xian is indeed a man of high moral character and charm. He is selfless and dedicated to his work in both big and small matters.

The prime minister can serve a maximum of two terms of eight years.

But there is one situation.

If an ordinary prime minister stays in the position of Shangshu, Zhongshuling, etc. for eight years.

If he is suddenly promoted to chief prime minister, he can complete a term.

Now that Li Xian’s first term is coming to an end, his re-election for a second term is a foregone conclusion.

Compared with the aged second prime minister Pei Zunqing, the third prime minister Liu Yan is most likely to become the chief prime minister.

So he is not in a hurry.

Although the prime ministers took turns in managing government affairs, there was still a big gap between the chief prime minister and the ordinary prime minister.

For many matters, the emperor would discuss them with the chief prime minister alone.

This alone makes him incomparable to other prime ministers.

Regarding Li Xian's matter, Liu Yan thought from the bottom of his heart that it was not a big deal.

The descendants of famous officials suppressed Wang Chonghua. Although they were one point behind Wang Chonghua, it was still within a reasonable range.

Li Xuan remained calm and after exchanging a few words with Liu Yan, he asked him to return to the government hall for the time being.

He ordered Wei Yingwu to summon Li Xian to Ganlu Palace.

Although he appointed people based on personal connections, he was the one in charge and could not have the same mentality as the officials.

He felt that Liu Yan had overlooked one thing.

That would be very unfair to Wang Zhonghua.

"I pay my respects to the Supreme!"

After Li Xian entered the palace, he bowed to Li Xuan.

"You Pushe, Shangjun Assistant Official, both are of the upper fourth rank, why did you promote Yuan Wei and not Wang Chonghua?"

When Li Xuan saw Li Xian, he spoke straight to the point.

Li Xian was stunned for a moment, and thought to himself that it seemed that he promoted Yuan Wei to be the prefect of Lujiang in January.

He immediately realized that he was impeached just because of one point.

"I know Yuan Wei and know his talent and ability. I think he can better govern Lujiang County. Moreover, Wang Chonghua was originally a fifth-rank official. It was only during the Qianyuan period that he was promoted from the fifth-rank official to the same rank as Beijia. His foundation is not as solid as Yuan Wei, who served in Chang'an. I and the prime ministers know that Wang Chonghua is a Jinshi and has served as a county magistrate and county magistrate, but we don't know his character and ability."

"Also, Yuan Wei is fifty-five years old this year, and Wang Zhonghua is thirty-six years old this year."

After thinking about the decision at that time, Li Xian replied to Li Xuan.

He chose Yuanwei for many reasons.

"The strictness of the performance evaluation system has made officials in various places tremble with fear and dare not be negligent. In order to achieve excellence, many officials work day and night. Now Wang Zhonghua has written to me to attack me. Since it is a normal promotion, the performance evaluation system must be given priority!"

"No matter how heavy the situation is, I won't change even a little bit."

Li Xuan had heard Li Xian's explanation and understood the thoughts of the literati of that era.

But once the rules are established, how can there be any changes?

Except for the emperor who can promote officials in the Secretariat, the rest must follow the rules.

From now on, no matter what happens, nothing can change the one-point advantage of the performance evaluation system.

Otherwise, it won’t be long before two points, three points, five points, and ten points are surpassed.

"This is my fault, I am willing to be punished!"

Li Xian realized his mistake, understood that he was being emotional, and admitted it immediately.

"I will deduct your salary for three months. I hope this will serve as a warning to you. Yuan Wei does not need to be dismissed. Many officials are about to have their terms expired. Wang Zhonghua will be promoted to the new governor of Shangjun for his outstanding performance."

In order to maintain Li Xian's dignity, Li Xuan did not dismiss Yuan Wei.

And Yuan Wei was not at fault.

He was not only punishing Li Xian, but also warning the court and local officials to attach importance to the performance evaluation system.

Use “not changing even a little bit” to encourage officials all over the world.

(End of this chapter)