Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 508 Hebei
Baoyanjun knew that this was his brother making arrangements for his funeral arrangements.

"Using small things to serve big things" was the national policy set for him by King Anzang. In the future, he had to serve the big country carefully in order to preserve the destiny of Goguryeo.

Baoyan Jun nodded quickly. King Anzang might have said too much today, so he leaned back on the bed and closed his eyes. The entire palace fell into silence again.

Just as Yuwen Tai was busy taking over the entire Goguryeo royal city, Hu Sichun's personal guards had already arrived near the Goguryeo royal city. After witnessing Yuwen Tai entering the city, they immediately ran back to report to Hu Sichun.

Hu Sichun was shocked when he heard this. He did not expect that Yuwen Tai would act so quickly and capture Pingcheng before he even arrived there.

Fortunately, I was cautious, otherwise I would have fallen into Yuwen Tai's arms.
Hu Sichun became even more disgusted with Gao Huan.

He was a close confidant of Erzhu Rong and was sent by Erzhu Rong to serve as a military supervisor in Gao Huan's army.

Now that he was sent to Goguryeo by Gao Huan, Hu Sichun naturally believed that all this was Gao Huan's attempt to get rid of him.

Hu Sichun paced back and forth, thinking for a long time before saying to his men:
"Go and invite Jinbi here."

After a while, Goguryeo's envoy Jin Bi was invited to Hu Sichun's room.

Hu Sichun said bluntly:

"The rebel army has landed from the sea and has captured Pingcheng."

Jinbi said:

"Your Excellency, are you kidding? How is that possible?"

Jin Bi laughed dryly twice, and when he found that Huke Sichun did not laugh with him, his expression gradually became solemn.

"Your Excellency, is this true?"

Huke Sichun called the personal guards he had sent out and asked them to explain in detail the whole process of Yuwen Tai's entry into Pingcheng. After hearing the details, Jin Bi finally believed it.

He said tremblingly:

"Your Excellency, what should we do?"

Jin Bi is the eldest son of Left Prime Minister Jin Zhongxian and is a member of the Left Prime Minister's political group.

The left prime minister, Kim Jong-hyun, advocated supporting young royal family members, forming an alliance with the Khitans of the Eastern Wei, and taking advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains to annex Baekje and Silla to the south.

This proposition was naturally contrary to the intention of the Western Wei Dynasty. Now that Yuwen Tai controlled Pingcheng, the Zuo Xiang faction must have been purged. It was estimated that Yuwen Tai would send troops to arrest him soon.

Jin Bi was a pampered young man, but now he was at a loss and could only turn to Hu Sichun and ask him for help in finding a solution.

Hu Sichun stood up and paced back and forth for a long time.

He also has his own considerations.

The best way was naturally to escape back to Khitan, but he believed that Gao Huan had ill intentions towards him. If he escaped back to Khitan, Gao Huan could punish him on the grounds that he had not done his job well.

Liaodong is now in a period of war. Gao Huan is the top military and political leader. He can easily kill himself. It is impossible for Erzhu Rong to stand up for himself at this time.

Can't return to Khitan.

Hu Sichun took a few more steps and said to Jin Bi:
"Are you clear about the situation in Baekje and Silla?"

Jin Bi immediately said:

"I have been to Silla twice and Baekje once, so I am quite familiar with them."

As century-old enemies, Jinbi naturally knows both countries very well.

The relationship between the three kingdoms of Silla, Baekje and Goguryeo was a mess, and it was common for two countries to join forces to check and balance the other.

When two countries form an alliance, they will enter into marriages with each other.

After a hundred years of contention among the Three Kingdoms, the royal families of the three kingdoms have actually become one family. This is a bit similar to the period of royal wars in Europe, where the upper class has actually already been one family.

As the son of the left prime minister, Jin Bi's family had branches in Silla and Baekje, similar to the Zhuge family during the Three Kingdoms period.

Hu Sichun immediately said:
"Let's set off immediately and head to Silla!"

Since going back north is a dead end, why not try going south?

His original mission was to unite with Goguryeo to deal with Yuwen Tai.

Now that this mission has failed, Goguryeo might become an enemy and help Yuwen Tai attack Khitan.

It would be better to go directly south and change the mission to unite Silla and Baekje to contain Goguryeo.

After Hu Sichun made a plan, he immediately concealed his whereabouts, changed into ordinary people's clothes, and bypassed Pingcheng with Jin Bi, and hurried to the Silla royal city.
-
Su Ze had already learned the news of Yuwen Tai's capture of the Goguryeo capital through reports from his followers.

Yuwen Tai can only be said to be a talented person who can build a country.

Conquering a country alone is not a simple military problem. Yuwen Tai's army was enough to control Pingcheng, but it was definitely not enough to control the entire Goguryeo.

This involves various military and political decisions in order to truly control Goguryeo.

But Su Ze believed that Yuwen Tai had this ability.

In the historical timeline before Su Ze traveled through time, Yuwen Tai was a ruthless man who relied on the Wuchuan Group to fight against Gao Huan, who inherited the political legacy of Erzhu Rong.

Yuwen Tai was not only a man of excellent military skills, but also had a high political level. The military system of the Sui and Tang dynasties was developed and reformed by Yuwen Tai.

Therefore, Su Ze also believed that Yuwen Tai would be able to integrate Goguryeo's power and open up a second battlefield against the Khitans in Goguryeo.

In this way, the situation in Liaodong will continue to develop in a direction favorable to them.

Su Ze withdrew his attention from Liaodong, and he had enough energy to deal with Erzhu Rong in front of him.

After the battle at Yanmen Pass, Erzhu Rong stayed in Jinyang.

Perhaps realizing the importance of internal affairs, Erzhu Rong successively appointed a group of local officials.

But looking at this appointment, Su Ze still smiled.

Among Erzhu Rong's closest "Erzhus", Erzhu Zhao died in the battle of Yanmen, Erzhu Zhongyuan died in Youzhou, and the remaining few capable sons were Erzhu Shilon, Erzhu Tianguang, Erzhu Yanbo and Erzhu Dulü.

Among them, Erzhu Shilon was Erzhu Rong's cousin, 25 years old, and was appointed as the governor of Qizhou.

Erzhu Tianguang is the cousin of Erzhu Rong, but he is older than Erzhu Rong Shilong. He is only 29 years old this year and was appointed as the governor of Yanzhou.

Erzhu Yanbo was also Erzhu Rong's cousin. At the age of 29, he was appointed as the prefect of Henei.

Erzhu Dulü was only 22 years old and was also Erzhu Rong's cousin. He was appointed as the Yin of Henan, in charge of the capital area.

However, these were all the talented people in the Erzhu family. The rest were either too young or their qualifications and achievements were not enough to convince the public. Erzhu Rong was forced to appoint a group of officials who were not Erzhus.

Yuan Tianmu, the only person whom Erzhu Rong trusted wholeheartedly and who occupied a special position in Erzhu Rong's group, was appointed as the governor of Jizhou and stationed in Yecheng.

Erzhu Rong granted Yuan Tianmu the power to establish a government office and appointed him as the Grand Administrator of the Northern Road, in charge of the entire Hebei defense line.

Yuan Tianmu was Erzhu Rong's sworn brother. Even those "Erzhus" did not dare to act presumptuously in front of him. Yuan Tianmu also repeatedly advised Erzhu Rong to appoint more capable people as officials, and he had also submitted a memorial to impeach the illegal "Erzhus".

Erzhu Rong respected his sworn brother very much, but for those "Erzhus" who were impeached, Erzhu Rong only gave them slight punishments, and after each punishment he would reward them with new positions.

Yuan Tianmu could only sigh when he knew about this. After all, those Erzhus and Erzhu Rong were his family, and he knew the principle of not alienating distant relatives. From now on, as long as these Erzhus did not commit any crime in front of him, Yuan Tianmu could only turn a blind eye.

Apart from the Erzhus, there were very few people from other families that Erzhu Rong trusted.

Among the three Heba brothers, only Heba Sheng was appointed as the governor of a large province. This appointment is also very interesting. He was appointed as the governor of Xiangzhou.

Xiangzhou, located to the east of Henan controlled by Erzhu Dulü, to the north of Yanzhou, and to the west of Qizhou, was an area surrounded by the "Erzhus".

The other Erzhus were granted fiefdoms in various states and were granted the power to establish their own governments, that is, to form their own shogunate and control both military and political power. They were truly local power groups.

However, Heba Sheng, the governor of Xiangzhou, only held the position of governor, but did not have the privilege of establishing a government office and could not control the local army.

As for the other two brothers of the Heba family, Heba Yun was kept by Erzhu Rong, while Heba Yue was sent to Jingxing by Erzhu Rong to guard the gateway connecting Bingzhou and Dingzhou.

As for the remaining states, such as Qingzhou, Beixuzhou, etc., Erzhu Rong simply did not appoint prefects, but let these local officials maintain the status quo and just pay taxes on time.

Erzhu Rong's stinginess with official positions and his distrust of people from other families made Su Ze think of Xiang Yu.

There is naturally no problem when winning a battle, because this is the time to make the cake, and people from other families can get a certain share of the cake.

But when the cake is not big enough, this contradiction will become apparent.

For example, Gao Huan, who fought to the death with Yuwen Tai in Liaodong, did not get a decent official position in this personnel adjustment. He was just sent away as a general with a miscellaneous rank. Su Ze didn't believe that Gao Huan would not feel resentful?

In addition, the three Heba brothers had extremely high prestige among the Six Garrisons. They were also the first to defect to Erzhu Rong. Heba Duba had made great contributions in the assassination of Wei Kegu and already had a title.

However, Erzhu Rong was so stingy with his three brothers that he left Heba Sheng, a talent in this area, in Xiangzhou, which was surrounded by Erzhu people. This was also the rear area where it was most difficult to achieve success, and the intention of defense was also obvious.

Compared with his military capabilities, Erzhu Rong’s political shortcomings were too serious.

In contrast, Su Ze would rather build a stage for his subordinates to display their strengths, and then use systems and rules to restrain them, rather than suppress them by nepotism.

Rewarding merits and punishing faults is the best way to maintain the healthy operation of a system. However, it is so difficult to do these eight words.

It's time to put some more pressure on the Erzhu Rong group.

Su Ze summoned the generals in Dingzhou and ordered Murong Shaozong to send troops to Changshan (Shijiazhuang) to threaten Jizhou.

Su Ze himself led his troops to Jingxingkou, blocking the passage from Bingzhou to Dingzhou and confronting Heba Yue.

(End of this chapter)