Tiger Guards

Chapter 751 The Poisonous King
"Military ranks are the foundation of the nation; they should not be bestowed lightly in the future."

A gentle night breeze blew as Zhao Ji lifted Fu Shou's chin with his left hand and patted her face lightly with his right.

Fu Shou had no interest in dealing with this tool of a man. At this moment, she squinted her eyes, bit her lower lip, and tried to control her breathing.

Seeing her useless appearance, Zhao Ji got off the bed to get some warm tea.

Dressed in the attire of a female official, Lady Du waited behind the screen with a scroll of letter in her hands. When she saw him come to the large table near the screen to get tea, she appeared and handed him the letter: "This is a battle report from Hanzhong."

Why did Zhang Lu suddenly remember me?

Zhao Ji reached down from the hook on the screen and took a robe off his shoulders. He then picked up the letter, turned slightly to the side, and opened it under the candlestick. Du Shi seemed to be helping him tie his belt, and knelt down tenderly and considerately.

"Liu Zhang is indeed a complete idiot!"

Zhao Ji casually tossed the battle report onto the table and placed his hand on Du's cloud-like hair bun: "At the time, I was thinking of taking advantage of the victory to enter Shu, but I was afraid that it would be difficult to take care of both ends, and I was also afraid that chaos would break out in the Pingyang camp, so I hastily withdrew my troops. If I had sent a general to lead 10,000 troops to enter Shu with Zhang Lu, I think the two of them working together would have succeeded."

Ms. Du wasn't in the mood to talk, she just kept mumbling "uh-huh".

Zhao Ji couldn't help but sigh again: "But this is also good. If we send generals to divide our troops and enter Shu, they will compete with Zhang Lu for credit and hinder each other, which would be undesirable."

The terrain of Yizhou is best left to a novice.

Now this weakling occupies the fertile and prosperous central Sichuan, vying with Zhang Lu of Hanzhong for control of Bazhong. This is the best possible outcome in the grand scheme of things.

If a capable and skilled general were sent to Shu, it could lead to separatism and loss of control.

Zhao Ji pondered the gains and losses involved, and after analyzing the situation for a while, he couldn't help but sigh with regret.

As long as they don't enter Sichuan, the variables will always exist.

Among the officials and nobles on the inspection tour, former strategist Jia Xu was also brought along by Zhao Ji. Faced with Zhao Ji's warm invitation, Jia Xu naturally accepted with pleasure.

The symbolic significance of the Empress Regent and the eldest prince's tour of Hebei was quite extraordinary.

The emperor was held hostage by treacherous officials involved in the coup in Xuchang. Although this emperor had a difficult life, he traveled to various places and suffered humiliation.

However, the Empress Regent and the eldest prince were not much better off, but with the support of Grand Tutor Zhao, Grand Preceptor Zhao, and Grand Protector Lü, they conquered the various barbarian tribes.

His tours to the northern frontier, and even his inspections all the way to the northern deserts... Such extraordinary achievements had a great impact on the perceptions of the people compared to the emperors of the Han Dynasty.

The nights in Suide are cool, a coolness that feels like home. Jia Xu holds a flat silver pot in his left hand and takes sips of wine from time to time, while in his right hand he grabs a handful of crispy fried soybeans and pops them into his mouth from time to time. Some of them are crunchy and some have a sandy texture.

While putting beans into his mouth with his right hand, he would also be fiddling with soybeans on the table.

Worried that the soybeans would roll on the smooth, lacquered table, a layer of cowhide was laid on the table, with creases, scratches, and stains that only Jia Xu could understand.

The soybeans, arranged in groups of three or five on the cowhide, were moved and rearranged by Jia Xu from time to time.

He stared at the final, settled situation, deeply puzzled.

Undoubtedly, Grand Tutor Zhao's escort of the Empress Regent and the eldest prince on their tour of Hebei was a politically significant event. In terms of warfare, as long as Grand Tutor Zhao left the crowded and suspicious Jinyang, whether it was Yuan Shao in Hebei, Sun Ce in Guandong, or Liu Bei in Nanyang, they would all be in a state of vigilance, precaution, and suspicion.

Especially now that he is on an inspection tour of Hebei, in terms of the mobilization ratio of each thousand households in Hebei, the mobilization during the conquest of Liangzhou was only one-fifteenth. Even including Xu Huang's garrison troops on the eastern front, the overall mobilization was only slightly more than one-sixth, less than one-fifth.

This year, the mobilization rate reached one-quarter. Although this mobilization and conscription rate is already very high for the counties in the hinterland, for the young and strong men of the various Hu tribes, one-quarter is one-quarter. They still have three-quarters of their young and strong men who can be reorganized into an army.

A quarter of the already mobilized Hu (non-Han) militia consisted of the best military officers within the Hebei militia system; the personal guards following Zhao Ji were themselves an excellent group of officers. Therefore, if Xu Huang in Youzhou fought well, Yuan Shao could still catch his breath.

If Xu Huang doesn't fight well and gets bogged down in a tough battle... then don't blame Grand Tutor Zhao for mobilizing at all costs, leading hundreds of thousands of Hu rebels into the land of Yan and Zhao, turning the pacification war into a war of annihilation.

Therefore, even if Zhao Ji admitted that he came to Hebei to escape the summer heat and enjoy the scenery, with so many people inside and outside the province, who would believe him?
Zhao Ji now seems to be holding a torch, ready to awaken the terrifying war behemoth that is the Hebei Yi Cong at any moment.

The Xianbei, Xiongnu, and various Qiang tribes, who had already achieved the status of having a thousand households, had always longed for war.

Last year's limited mobilization resulted in the mobilization of volunteers who brought back substantial spoils of war. Some volunteers, after achieving merit, moved to the interior with their families to enjoy a better life.

This has made the vast majority of young and middle-aged people engaged in nomadic production envious. It is precisely because the vast majority of young and middle-aged people engaged in nomadic production last year produced under a relatively stable order that they have the material reserves and psychological needs to participate in expeditions and respond to recruitment this year.

Once the scattered Hebei militia are mobilized and gathered together, with hundreds of thousands of cavalrymen assembled, there will be a big problem if they can't be fed.

Even Jia Xu was wary of them, and only Zhao Ji could summon and mobilize these hundreds of thousands of knights with a single military dispatch.

But then, this behemoth composed of hundreds of thousands of knights, a dung-generating machine, will destroy too many things.

At this moment, Jia Xu could only hope that Yuan Shao wouldn't pull any new tricks and really cause Xu Huang to suffer a great loss, and if the situation in Youzhou showed signs of collapse... Based on Jia Xu's understanding of Zhao Ji, even if Zhao Ji was very restrained and made limited mobilizations, he could still mobilize 50,000 elite cavalry to sweep eastward in a mighty force.

As for the Langya people who are about to migrate... In Jia Xu's eyes, these hundreds of thousands of people are nothing special. If these people were really good at fighting, they wouldn't have ended up in their current situation.

The help these hundreds of thousands of people provided to the Zhao family was not even as great as that of the thirty thousand Hu cavalry... Righteous Knights.

The loyalty and righteousness of the Hebei region were the foundation upon which the Zhao family stood.

Now, Grand Tutor Zhao is escorting the Empress Regent and the eldest prince on their tour of Hebei, which is essentially a way for him to display his spoils to the uncouth Hu tribes.

Grand Tutor Zhao Yan is the one who has feelings for the people of Langya, but if he forcibly takes them in, it will threaten Zhao Ji's base of support... Zhao Yan will most likely pretend to be deaf and dumb.

Bringing the people of Langya back to Xizhou would certainly strengthen the Zhao family's control.

But for Grand Tutor Zhao, the greatest purpose of these Langya people was to entertain Zhao Yan and provide him with enjoyment in his later years.

If you really think that you can force Zhao Ji to act according to their demands by capturing the people of Langya... then you are mistaken.

Jia Xu looked at the soybeans on the cowhide, his gaze falling on the northeast corner, and couldn't help but shake his head.

Zhao Ji once praised him as a ruthless strategist, and this title quickly spread.

Jia Xu felt the title was too heavy, but he also felt a little bit of pleasure and secret joy.

However, compared to Grand Tutor Zhao, Jia Xu felt that he, as a strategist, was just a strategist, while Grand Tutor Zhao was more like a treacherous ruler.

This idea only crossed his mind briefly; Jia Xu would never dare to slander or defame anyone.

Subsequently, Jia Xu tried to resolve the situation from the perspectives of Yuan Shao, Sun Ce, Liu Bei, and the Xudu court.

And so, Jia Xu entertained himself, engaging in a battle of wits with himself.

When he felt slightly tired, he rolled up the cowhide on the table, turned around and returned to his simple bed on the march. He fell asleep as soon as he lay down.

Compared to a large, comfortable bed, the simple bed he used during military campaigns was more likely to lull him to sleep.

(End of this chapter)