Late Tang

Li Jing was embarrassed for a moment, he knew that what Wang Zhong just said was actually not just his opinion, in fact, he understood that this was the opinion of most brothers on the island for him to accept the Xiao family into the island.

He had already anticipated this when he agreed to allow the Xiao family to enter the island.However, he did not take the initiative to explain before, and now Wang Zhong finally mentioned this matter. After pondering for a while, he said: "It is normal for Deputy General Wang to have doubts about this matter. But at this time, I have been thinking about it for a long time. I have been thinking about it before. I didn't explain it to you, I hope you can figure it out for yourself and understand the reason behind it, but now that you have brought it up, let me explain it to you."

He paused, and then said: "You should understand the current situation in my Tang Dynasty. The imperial court is basically dominated by eunuchs. The imperial court is now unable to restrain the local feudal towns. It only has about 15 Shence troops in its hands. But the imperial court The four important positions in charge of military power, the left and right Privy Council envoys, and the left and right shence army lieutenants are all controlled by eunuchs, and the eunuchs decide whether to abolish the emperor or even directly murder the emperor."

"When the emperor was young, I heard that the emperor appointed the eunuch Xiao Mafang Tian Lingzi as the envoy of the Privy Council, the lieutenant of the Zuo Shence Army, and the general of the Zuo Jianmen, and called him father. All the affairs of the court were decided by him. Holding power, selling off officials and nobles, relying on favor and tyranny, and invading the emperor. And the young emperor is also completely indifferent to government affairs. He entrusts all the important affairs of the court to Tian Lingzi, but he plays unscrupulously. Music, Go."

Li Jing sighed, "Looking at the world today, in fact, it has already become the world of noble families. The three towns in Hebei are independent and independent, and the court is unable to control them. There are many feudal towns in the Central Plains. It has almost become a separatist regime. On the surface, although the Jiedushi is still appointed and dismissed by the court, in fact, the soldiers in the Central Plains are so powerful that they have secretly colluded with the aristocratic families in various places to control one side, and the commander has become nothing more than a powerless People. Although there are many places in the southeast, there are many envoys and observers, but in fact they are famous but have no soldiers, and the military is corrupt. They obey the imperial court, but in fact they are only unable to provide their own soldiers and horses because of the bitter cold in the frontier, and they have to rely on the imperial court for all logistics, food and salaries."

Wang Zhong listened half-understood: "What is the general talking about? Is it related to us?"

"It's related, of course it's related, and it has a lot to do with it." Li Jing said solemnly, "If you carefully understand the situation in the world today, you will find that the situation in the world today is actually very delicate and dangerous. To put it bluntly, the world Now it is divided into two parts: the central court and the local feudal towns. The central court holds the Shence Army, the last direct armed force, and barely controls Guannai Province and Gyeonggi Province. Outside of this, it is completely controlled by the local feudal towns."

"The 48 square towns in the world can be divided into four categories, which can be described as four types: separatist type, anti-containment type, frontier type, and financial source type. Among them, the three towns in Hebei, Weibo, Chengde, and Lulong are old-fashioned separatist towns. , Time to fall, time to judge, although the imperial court had pacified it during the Xianzong Dynasty, but now it has restored the separatist regime again, and even Yiding, Ziqing, Huaixi, and Cangjing Zhufang Townships also established their own regimes in the early years. After Huaixi was pacified, it was withdrawn, Ziqing Town was also divided after it was pacified, and several other towns were also pacified."

"In addition, the anti-containment towns were set up by the imperial court after the Anshi Rebellion to prevent the three towns in Hebei from going south. There are Xuanwu, Wuning, Zhongwu, Zelu, Heyang, Yicheng, Hedong, and Shanguo feudal towns. Most of them are in the Central Plains area. In the early years, the imperial court was unable to quell the strong troops of the three towns in Hebei. It was only relying on the towns in the Central Plains to contain the three towns in Hebei. The superiors obey the imperial court, but in fact they are all a group of delicate soldiers and powerful generals, colluding with the local wealthy families, not much different from the three towns in Hebei."

"As for the imperial border towns, which are concentrated in the southwest and northwest frontiers, they completely rely on the imperial court for supplies, and they also have to bear the pressure of invasion by foreigners in the border areas. It has already become a bottomless pit."

"Only Fang Towns with financial resources are concentrated in the southeast region. There are eight provinces in eastern Zhejiang, western Zhejiang, Huainan, Fujian, and Jiangxi. They are rich and prosperous, and they obey the central court. Now the court's taxes are almost entirely dependent on the southeast. Towns from all sides. It is a pity that their troops are small and their armaments are corrupt."

"The power of the feudal town is growing, and there are human rights. The officials of the shogunate of the feudal town can set up their own bureaus. With financial power, they can retain the military expenditure of their own land and freely dispose of them. There is also the right of supervision, which has considerable power over the appointment and dismissal of state and county officials. It can be said that a feudal town is a small imperial court, especially the three towns in Hebei and the towns in the Central Plains. But if you have carefully observed these feudal towns, you will find that there are almost two status quo in today’s feudal towns. The section commanders are in the air, and they actually control the power of Fangzhen. The second is that the section commanders control the soldiers and horses of Fangzhen, but they are frequently mobilized. Therefore, no matter what the situation is, there is actually a shadow behind them, that is, the nobles of the family."

"Most of the Yajiang who control Fangzhen are local powerful families, such as our Ziqing Town Yajiang Wang Jinwu, the Wang family is the fourth largest family in Ziqing. In addition, those who act as Jieshuai are basically The outstanding figures from various families, such as Song Wei, had been in high positions in the Shence Army in his early years. He was born in the Song family in Chang'an. , you will find that more than half of them are actually from those aristocratic families."

"Many of the emperor's will have long been out of the Gyeonggi Guanzhong, and the place is almost in the hands of families from all over the country. The Xiao family, known as the first gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, can be said to be very influential and capable. You say, if I If I am not a disciple of Duke Cui and Yu Gong, but also has good friends with King Zhao, will Song Wen know about me as a pawn? Will he give me the position of Samana General?"

Wang Zhong shook his head: "No!"

"Yeah, if I don't have that background, no matter how capable I am, I won't be able to sit in this position in a short period of time." Li Jing sighed, "Then tell me, if I have a handsome Song Jie on my body right now The subordinate's mark, do you think Wang Jin and Feng Zhang would let us go so easily last time, instead of killing us directly?"

Wang Zhong shook his head again, "Probably not. The more powerful a person is, the less he likes to be blackmailed by others. Generally, those who dare to treat them like this will end up dead, unless the person is more powerful than them. We Last time they blackmailed Feng Zhang and Wang Jin, they must have hated us to the core, but they are afraid of our relationship with Song Jieshuai, Cui Sima, King Zhao, etc., so they are just wary."

"That's right! We are just small pawns, but with the backing behind us, even powerful people like Fengzhang Wang Jin have to worry about us. So, this is called taking advantage of the situation. The same is true for the Xiao family. We We can’t put all our eggs in one basket, otherwise what will happen to us if one day our backers abandon their pawns to bail out the car?”

"What do you mean?" Wang Zhong was still puzzled.

"What I mean is that before we don't have enough self-protection strength, we might as well show weakness and find more backers. The Xiao family borrowed money from us, and sent their sons and family members to Shamen Town. Everything, in my opinion , The purpose is nothing more than two points. One, is to continue to borrow money, or provide supplies and other help, and continue to infiltrate, until we are completely inseparable from their support, then we will become vassals of the Xiao family. Second, maybe the Xiao family didn't think so far. They just set up a chess piece here in advance because of the relationship with my mother and even some of our performances that surprised them. If we have For greater development, he also made an early bet, and if we fail to succeed, there is no loss. No matter what point, this is the usual method of those noble families."

"Accepting the help they are providing now, we will also face potential risks later, but we will also be protected by them." Li Jing smiled: "Their idea is actually good, but if they just put us Seeing that they have made some bets on other people in the past, then they must have been mistaken. Do you really think that if the Xiao family lends me 20 pennies, we will be able to make us owe them more and more debts? Debt? Do you really think that if the Xiao family sent 100 people to the island, they would be able to influence us?"

"Is not it?"

Li Jing smiled: "I can tell you with certainty that those are impossible. Look now, we borrowed them 20 guan before, but then we got more money from Fengzhang Wangjin. The Xiao family found that the loan was meaningless, so they lent us 60 yuan in an attempt to tie us up, but you see, we have now gained another 100 to 4000 yuan. Is it meaningful for them to lend us money? He sent We recruited [-] people, but now we have [-] people, as long as we arrange them individually, do you think they can infiltrate us?"

"To put it bluntly, I know what the Xiao family's plan is. But I still accept their proposal, borrow their money, and accept their people. It's not because we really need their money. In fact, I just want to borrow it." It’s all about the power of the Xiao family. Originally, we were only facing two forces, but now that we have brought the Xiao family in, we have become a three-party force. Only when the water is muddier and there are more backers on it, can we hide in their shadows and support us. Go through the first round."

"I still think it's a bit too risky!"

"Life is a gamble. If we don't gamble, others will force us to gamble. It is better to choose actively than to choose passively. This time I brought the Xiao family here, firstly to let them participate in this battle, to participate in the attack on Cat Island, Even if they accepted the nomination certificate. Secondly, taking the initiative to let them see our secret ally Zhendonghai is to show the Xiao family our strength. In addition, showing the Xiao family to Zhendonghai is also to show Zhendonghai Show our strength. We are still very weak now, so the Xiao family thinks they have the initiative, and we take the initiative to reveal this to them, which will make them believe in us more. Now we are only in the initial stage of cooperation with the Xiao family, and they will be in control These secrets will not do anything to us. But if one day in the future, if we have a rebellion, do you think they will still pose a threat to us even if they have mastered these secrets?"

"It only takes half a year, and we are not afraid of anyone!" Wang Zhong said confidently.

Li Jing smiled, "Then, let's be grandchildren for another half a year, and then they will know that they underestimated us."

(To be continued)