The Emperor ordered Zhao Tang

Chapter 169 Bitch
Wang Yanzhang wrote to the emperor repeatedly, pointing out that Li Jun was marching eastward along the Xiaohan Road, Wuguan Road, and Ziwu Road, intending to launch a campaign in the areas of Shanzhou, Jinzhou, and Shangzhou. He urged Bianliang to redeploy the western defense, but Zhu Sheng had no time to pay attention.

On February 13, the first year of Qianning, the personal commander Xu Huaiyu, Huang Wenjing, Xue Zhu, Wang Tan, Li Chongyi and others besieged Jeju. Zhu Xuan sent the coach He Gui to help, and Zhu Xuan also ordered Kang Huaizhen to lead 5,000 troops to Sucheng to harass the Bian army. The three parties then fought day and night on the Jeju plain, killing people all over the place.

On February 14, Zhu Wen suddenly appeared in Rencheng and supervised the Xuzhou camp to capture Yanzhou. The Yan army held on and asked for help from Wang Shifan and Li Keyong. Ziqing, who was dawdling, was impatient with the repeated urging of the sage and Wei Bo, and quickly advanced to Ji and Yan via Taishan and Langhu Valley.

On the same day, Songzhou reported that Wu's general Li Shenfu had sneaked into Yingzhou to raid. Chuzhou's garrison commander Tai Meng also bypassed the heavily guarded Sizhou and attacked the empty Haozhou after Liu Shizheng rebelled and fled to Lingnan, and seized the place. Cai's thieves Liu E, Shao Guangchou, and the rebellious former Xuzhou garrison commander Hou Song asked to join Yang Xingmi.

On February 15, the influence of the bandits was still wreaking havoc, production was greatly damaged, the Bianliang government was in financial distress before the summer harvest, and was unable to provide financial support to the local areas. A massive peasant uprising broke out in Pengcheng, Pei, Feng, and Xiao counties that were in the midst of famine.

The remnants of Xu's soldiers, led by General Yuan Qingji, who had been hiding among the people because of Shi Pu's defeat, joined the rebellion, guiding the "rebellion" while absorbing and reorganizing the Uighurs, Turks, and Tubo exiled to Jianghuai. The ant thieves drama that had been staged frequently for thousands of years in the Qin and Han dynasties and made the masses happy was unveiled again on Huai River. Zhu Wen was panicked and angry and had to send more troops to suppress it overnight. He got to this point in the name of pleading for the people, and he knew the pros and cons. And these mud-legged people who didn't understand his difficulties should all be killed! When he destroyed Li Ni, would he let everyone starve to death?

On February 17, Huazhou was in danger. The Weizhou rebels, led by Tian Heng and Wu Yiji, crossed the river from Dongqiu and conquered Weinan. During the attack, the Yicheng army saw the friendly army passing by - the Konghe Army, with bright clothes and horses, and everyone had livestock for transportation, and they were furious! They expelled the Jiedushi Hu Zhen, and then, under the leadership of Li Peng and others, they marched to Kaifeng to punish the Duzhishi Pei Di. They were stopped by the imperial army in Fengqiu, the northern suburbs. Zhu Wen urgently sent Li Zhen and Wang Yin with 50,000 pieces of silk to appease and gather the remaining people. They were told to stop fighting and return to Huazhou.

The reason for the riot of Yicheng Army was not to invite rewards. They had been fighting hard for a long time, relying on their legs to go everywhere, and their treatment had not been improved. When they saw the magnificent Konghe Army this time, they could not hold back. They were not worried about the lack of people but the inequality, and they also reached the limit of the Yicheng Army's strength. This was the reason for the riot of the whole army after Zhu Wen's order was issued. It's like working for you, getting the average salary but being assigned the most work, so you curse secretly while riding a donkey and looking for a job. Can the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty bear this? Curse the hammer and make a fuss directly!

But the Konghe Army and other armies were reorganized from the former Xuanwu Ya Army. Since the establishment of the town in the middle Tang Dynasty, they have enjoyed the treatment of a superior man. If you let them receive the same salary as the foreign troops, then you have to change the commander. Moreover, the powers and responsibilities are different. How many skills should the central army master? What are the tasks they undertake? They are needed to put out fires, supervise the army, train troops, meet the front, and control the strategic points. Why should the foreign troops be on an equal footing with everyone else?

This is a difficult matter!
Since the difficult times, the conflicts between the central army of the vassal state and the foreign army, and between the imperial army and the central army have never ceased. Earlier, the Shen Ce Army camp was jealous of the "secret" rewards of the left and right Shen Ce Army stationed in Beijing, and cursed. More recently, the Zhenhai Army hated the comfortable life of Zhou Bao's personal soldiers and rebelled. Wei Bo Le Congxun treated five hundred guests well, but the government army killed him. Leading soldiers is not as simple as giving money to soldiers in exchange for their lives. There are many things to pay. It is a political game between generals and the generals. Whether you can grasp the "degree" of the army well determines your life.

In the military camp, Zhu Wen walked around with his hands behind his back. He sat down, stood up, closed his eyes, and frowned. He barely controlled his anger that was about to burst out.

"Is there any news from Cangzhou?" Wei Bo had tied up a considerable number of troops. Annoyed, Zhu Sheng sent an envoy to contact his "King of Bohai" Lu Yanwei, hoping that the Henghai army would attack Beizhou from the northeast and divert Wei Bo's attention.

Jing Xiang shook his head.

The Henghaijun originally decided to pledge allegiance to Daliang, but...

You will slowly realize the disastrous impact of the failed Central Asian offensive.

Besides, why does one have to be loyal to Daliang to obtain the title of King of Bohai? If Lu Yanwei gave Li some money in a hypocritical manner, wrote a letter of respect, and made a gesture of attacking him, wouldn't Li Ni have to admit it? Alas, he actually had expectations for such a person. After sorting out his thoughts, Jing Xiang reminded him: "The most urgent task is to stabilize Xuzhou and put down the rebellion of Yuan Qingji and Liu Hai as soon as possible."

Jing Xiang got angry when he thought of this. He was just like a copy of Pang Xun! And Liu Hai, whose surname was Liu and who was from Pei, how could this be tolerated? He was waving the banner of the Han Dynasty, and then creating some mysterious feeling of Liu Bang's reincarnation by making up some ghosts and gods. I wonder how many fools would be fooled.

"Although Your Majesty has sent troops to attack, I believe that it is better to surrender and surrender. The bandits who started the rebellion are just seeking official positions. You can appoint Yuan Qingji as the General of the Right Winged Guards, and recruit the remnants of the Xu army to the court, and then disperse them and divide them into various armies. As for Liu Hai, you can appoint him as the Governor of Suzhou and let him stay to govern the local area." Jing Xiang added.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Wen looked quite unhappy.

The bandits started the rebellion just to seek official positions... These words irritated his sensitive heart. His background as a bandit was always a source of deep inferiority for him.

Seeing Zhu Wen distracted again, Jing Xiang coughed twice helplessly: "Your Majesty."

Zhu Wen was stunned.

Unexpectedly, the second attack on Li Shu failed, and even the Yicheng Army and Xuzhou scholars and common people who were nearby did not obey.

The day may come when you will be deserted by everyone.

"Jingqing, then choose a capable person to go to Xu to recruit?" After thinking for a while, Zhu Wen asked cautiously. He had lost the Cao Wei's previous ambition to march west and do whatever he wanted, and fell into serious self-consumption and doubt. On the surface, he was still full of energy and smiling. He often couldn't sleep for most of the night, didn't touch prostitutes, and lacked confidence in doing things.

"To recruit the bandits, we need an honest and trustworthy official. Wang Xianzhi begged for surrender, but the merit-hungry Song Wei deceived his superiors and subordinates and beheaded the envoy of the bandit army, and the matter was left unresolved."

"Who is worthy to be the messenger?"

"The Imperial Counselor Du Xunhe is shrewd and resourceful."

"Let's pick him." Zhu Wen held his forehead with his hands, frowning, and flipped through a pile of memorials on the table: "What plan can be drawn up to be foolproof regarding the Jin Shang matter?"

Jing Xiang said slowly: "To eliminate the root cause, we need to allocate grain for relief for the Xuzhou uprising..."

"Draft an imperial edict and ask Jiang Xuanhui to buy a batch of wheat and millet and send it over." Zhu Wen waved his hand impatiently: "How do we deal with the gold merchants?"

"Who is in charge of disaster relief in Xuzhou? If the people have no food, Liu Hai's thieves will be killed endlessly." Jing Xiang asked. Bang! Zhu Wen slapped the table and cursed: "How long has it been? The court has not yet reached an agreement? Why do I support you? Do you want to be idle? You ask me about everything. Do I have ten heads?" Looking at Jing Xiang's tearful and aggrieved eyes, perhaps he realized that it was too much to talk to his prime minister like this, and it would not be good to kill him with one stick. His tone softened stiffly: "I'm not talking about Jing Qing. Disaster relief, what disaster relief? The money and grain I paid were exploited by the county officials, and there were only a few grains of rice left in the people's pots. Anyway, it's a lie. I asked Jiang Xuanhui to buy some food and transport it to Xuzhou. There is no need to send a separate person to be responsible."

"Your Majesty..." Jing Xiang choked with tears, "Either don't do it, or do it well. Everything has a beginning, but few have an end. Everything has a beginning, but few have a complete ending. Since..."

"Alright, alright, stop crying. I will change Xie Tong's title to Wuning Army's promotion and demotion officer and order him to oversee this matter."

Jing Xiang asked hurriedly: "What about Ruzhou and Zheng..."

"Don't say anything." Zhu Sheng immediately realized what Jing Xiang wanted to say. He glared at him with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and scolded: "Since the attack on the horse bandits, there has been widespread grief and starvation. I know. But in order to let the people have enough food, I have tried every possible way. Borrowing from the rich, selling scattered officials, peddling titles, twice risking cutting rewards for foreign troops, and fining illegal warriors. Is this not enough to resettle the gangsters? Did the dog officials of Ru and Zheng fill their pockets? Jianchang Palace does have grain reserves, but that is for the army..."

Financial problems have already surfaced.

After the defeat in Hezhong, the salt ponds in Beidi and Hezhong, which were controlled by the Li family, completely stopped exporting salt to the Central Plains. Zibo, Qinghai and Huainan, which owned sea salt, also banned the sale to Zhu Wen. There were also salt ponds in Shuzhong and Shannan, but they were afraid of Li Ni. After the "Order to Ban the Flow of Salt to Bian" was issued, they did not dare to sell in large quantities for a while, and they would be stripped of their official positions if caught. Now the Liang people mainly rely on Youzhou and Cangzhou for salt, and the salt from these two towns cannot avoid Weizhou. As Tian Xide's inspections became more and more strict day by day, the amount of salt coming in became less and less, and it plummeted. The price of salt also rose again and again, soaring to 500 coins per bucket, and eating bland food has become common.

In order to ensure the supply of the army, Zhu Wen implemented the "surplus salt collection system", and of course there was no salt profit.

Second, the bandits destroyed the production of Ru, Henan Prefecture, Zheng, Bian, Chen, and Xu. It is not that all the people were killed. The goal of the bandits was not to kill people, but to burn fields, destroy houses, and burn grain, artificially creating famine and hooligans. Today, it seems that the pig-killing people succeeded. These places are not only unable to provide assistance to Zhu Wen's war for the time being, but there are still hundreds of thousands of men and women who need Zhu Wen's additional funding for relief.

Third, the "annual tribute" from the two vassal states of E and Wei was also abolished.

Wuning Army, Xu, Si, Su, Hezhong, Jin, Jiang, Henei, Huai, Meng, Ze, Huaixi, Guang, Shen, Cai, Henan, Shan, Guo, these fourteen states and one prefecture did not need central transfer payments due to the bloody war, and they dare not expect to make a profit in one or two years. Chu and Hao have been lost, so they will not be mentioned.

At this time, the financial pillars of Daliang were the household taxes and land taxes of the nine states of Zheng, Hua, Bian, Song, Bo, Yu, Ying, Cao, and Pu. "Yong" was also a major supplement. For example, this time when Zhu Wen used troops in the east, he conscripted more than 100,000 civilians. If they did not want to serve, they could pay to avoid disaster. The remaining income was very miscellaneous, including taxes on entering the city, taxes on leaving the city, taxes on stalls, property taxes, transaction taxes, and green seedling money.

Is it enough? At present, Zhu Wen has more than 200,000 Chinese and foreign troops, which is not difficult to maintain.

In fact, Liu Shining, the governor of Xuanwu, who controlled the four states of Bian, Song, Bo, and Ying, went out at random - hunting with 20,000 people in the south of the city. Li's show was not as big as his. The general Li Wanrong rebelled and promised - "I will be the commander, and you will be rewarded with 3,000 strings of money, and you don't have to worry." Make him the successor, and reward each person with 3,000 strings of money! Don't worry, I can definitely afford it. Upon hearing this, the Bian army immediately turned against Liu Shining and drove him out.

It can be seen that he is arrogant.

Although it suffered damage after the Chaos Rebellion, the same thing still applies. The foundation is strong. Before the Chaos Rebellion, there were millions of people in Songzhou alone. How many people could Sun Ru and his gang harm? In addition to Zhu Wen's ten years of governance, it was easy for the core nine states to maintain the operation of Daliang. But why did the financial problem surface? Because the East Yanyunqi, South Wuxiang, West Tang, and North Jin were fighting at the same time, there must be sufficient grain reserves and deposits. There must be a sense of crisis! Therefore, Zhu Wen sold official positions and issued tickets randomly to make money. The severely affected Ruzheng states only gave civilians a bite of food to keep them from starving. Jing Xiang proposed that the government fund them to rebuild their homes, but he temporarily refused. Unless the situation is clear and Daliang regains the upper hand, he will have the room and motivation to "love the people."

"What should we do about the Jin merchants?" Zhu Wen skipped the topic directly.

Jingxiang was dull.

Spending out a sum of money to allow several states of Ru and Zheng to quickly settle down, will this affect the army's food?

Seeing this, Pei Zhu, who was acting as a strategist nearby, replied: "Nothing should happen on the western front. We can order Wang Yanzhang to lead his troops to Juyangchuan, Zhao Yu to block Huangxiangban, and Zhang Cunjing to guard Hezhong, blocking Li Ni's passage to the east from Lushi, Tongguan, and Xiaxian."

"You--you don't understand." Zhu Wen finally tapped the table with his raised hand and sighed. Only Jing Xiang could communicate with him! Is that what he was asking? If Li Ni really dared to fight him in Ji Province, he would be more than happy. What he was worried about was that Jin Shang would be taken over by Li Ni. By then, Li's army would reach Jin, Shang, and Jun, and advance, using the three states as bases, and then threaten him on the two lines of Ruzhou and Hongnong.

Jingnan, Xiangyang, Qianzhong, Kuimen, and Langzhong will also be within the radiation range of Li's army, and their ability to swing left and right will be greatly reduced. By then, the best choice for these people is to hold their noses and act as loyal subjects. After another two years of digestion, it will be a matter of time before Li Ni takes over Hunan and Eyue. This is a scene that Zhu Wen dare not imagine.

Therefore, Feng Xingxi must be protected.

Seeing Jing Xiang was hesitant to speak, Zhu Wen, who had been silent for a long time, said, "Immediately order Zhu Yougong of Shanzhou, Zhao Yu of Guozhou, He Wei of Yucheng, Zhang Cunjing of Hezhong, Niu Cunjie of Heyang, and Deng Jiyun of Luoyang to send troops to support Wang Yanzhang. All routes should be under their command. Li Ni must not be allowed to use Jinshang as a base. Whoever can kill Feng Xingxi will be the governor of Jinshangjun. If this person does not give us a chance, we will win him over to resist Li Ni together."

This guy is so indecisive that he even secretly sent an envoy to Bianliang to celebrate the birthday of the Queen Mother last year. He is not ambitious, but he certainly can't bear to give up his days as the local emperor of the three states. As long as Li Ni plots to take over the Jin merchants, he will be able to support him. Thinking of this, the haggard appearance of the Queen Mother appeared in front of him. Zhu Wen raised his head and asked Pei Zhu: "Is there any response? Has the Queen Mother agreed to return to the court to take charge of affairs?"

"The saint still said that he was terminally ill and his blood was weak."

"Bitch!" Zhu Wen was furious. He turned around with a gloomy face and strode out of the tent.

A slut who has been played with by others, and she still pretends to be so. Without me, how can you, a bitch, sit in the jeweled and jeweled palace and act like a tantrum? He spent so much effort to please her, but she didn't even smile. What kind of woman is she? She is so heartless and ruthless, so fucking shameless!
Or, do you have someone in your heart?

(End of this chapter)