Seeing that Xu Huai's expression became unusually serious and was not at all pleased with Wei Chujun's easy agreement, Cheng Lunying was shocked and thought that this matter was not as simple as it seemed, or that the envoy had previously sent Han Gui to discuss with Wei Chujun.
Was the original intention of the five-way salt tea tax discussion just to test?
Cheng Lunying remembered that when Han Gui got up to go to Wei Chujun to discuss the matter, he looked hesitant at first and then moved quickly, and asked: "Did you think there would be a problem in the palace before?"
Han Gui signaled all the officials in the study who were assisting with official duties to stay away for the time being, pulled up a chair and sat down in the hall, and said to Cheng Lunying: "Our Majesty is not a broad-minded person.
The response to the "Chen of the Conferment of Fields for Military Merit" was a little duller than expected. Now it seems that His Majesty is still eager for us to send troops to cross the Huaihe River as soon as possible - we also put forward some harsh conditions before, and they were very cooperative and agreed...
…”
"You really don't want us and the Red Husbands to kill both of us?"
Cheng Lunying had previously gone to Xiangyang Prefecture and was mainly responsible for handling local military and political affairs. He had little involvement in the affairs of the production department, let alone wondering what kind of person Emperor Shaolong was. He asked hesitantly.
"If that's the case, they should hold on to some superficial authority even tighter," Han Gyu said with a smile, "because they have to consider that both we and the Red Hu people will suffer a loss?????????????
??After that, they will step up their efforts to usurp power. Another thing is that they really want us and the captives to lose both sides. At this time, they should try to hold us back as much as possible. Otherwise, your plan for crossing the Huaihe River this time will be so mediocre.
No wonder, I really don’t see too many opportunities for both sides to suffer losses, and at most it will be a disadvantageous advance!”
"..." Cheng Lunying thought about it carefully and felt that something was indeed very fishy.
"Have someone bring Zhang Xiongshan and the others over to ask about the situation in Runyang and the two states and whether there have been any other changes recently," Xu Huai said to Han Gui.
Han Gui walked to the corridor and ordered a guard guarding the corridor to run and call Zhang Xiongshan, Chen Songze and Jiang Ping.
Deng Gui came over from the military camp at the right time and asked Xu Huai to discuss the list of the third batch of generals who would enter the Higher Military Command School for short-term training. After hearing that Wei Chujun easily agreed to write a petition to transfer the salt and tea tax of the Five Routes to the Fifth Route Envoy.
I also feel a little strange:
"The central government doesn't have much money and food in its hands. Even if Wei Chujun and Ge Boyi Weng fall out, there's no need to rush over to us, right?"
Since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty, the most important annual revenue is the tax on salt and tea. Even in the Ministry of Household Affairs, in addition to the Duzhi Envoy Department, there is also a Salt and Iron Envoy Department to deal with this task (sometimes the three departments are merged into one, also known as the Three Departments)
The person in charge is located in the deputy prime minister position, or is directly led by the prime minister or deputy prime minister, also known as the planning prime minister). At most, it can account for 60 to 70% of the central annual income.
Normally speaking, due to the needs of the war, Emperor Shaolong might relent and agree to allocate an additional three to five million guans of money and grain from the Salt and Iron Envoy Department every year for the battle across the Huaihe River, but he would not easily agree to the sale of five-way salt and tea.
Exit from the Salt and Iron Division.
Zhang Xiongshan said:
"From the information compiled in the past two days, we can't see anything unusual in the palace and Yangzhou. They are even calmer than before. Just in case, the Military Intelligence Department has also sent some more manpower to Runzhou. Do you want to add more manpower?
, or arrange a few ships to wait on the river?"
Although it only takes one day to travel from Jianye to Yangzhou by water, Xu Huai has not officially lifted the martial law along the river. In order to prevent the pirate ships from pretending to be civilian ships to infiltrate and cause damage, the navy will conduct an inventory of all boats going to and from Jianye.
This also restricted the communication between the palace and Yangzhou City, where Ge Yu led his troops to garrison at this time.
However, Runzhou was an important town east of Jianye, and its governor was Luo Nanguang, one of the ministers of the Qiandi Department. It faced Yangzhou across the river, and it only took an hour for boats to travel. If the palace communicated with Yangzhou through Runzhou, the navy would
It's very difficult to intercept.
No matter how tight the navy's blockade is, it has its limits, and it is impossible to completely cut off the communication between both sides of the Yangtze River.
.
Such close communication between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait through boats at night would be impossible to blockade.
Zhang Xiongshan also believed that the palace did not want secret letters or messengers carrying oral instructions to fall into the hands of the Jingzhou navy, so it would choose to contact Yangzhou through Runzhou.
In order to prevent there really being a conspiracy behind the scenes, a more direct method is for the Military Intelligence Department to send more manpower to Runzhou, or to dispatch a group of boats disguised as merchant ships or fishing boats, and to lurk near Runzhou City day and night to see if they can intercept the ships sent by the palace.
Messenger, first find out what you are plotting.
"It is easy to be a thief for a thousand days, but it is difficult to guard against a thief for a thousand days - not to mention the battle to cross the Huaihe River is imminent, how can we ensure that the thief is caught before the army crosses the Huaihe River?" Han Gui said with emotion.
Cheng Lunying and Deng Gui both had solemn expressions on their faces. According to the original plan, once the freeze on the Huaihe River was lifted, they would arrange a small group of troops to cross the Huaihe River to test the resistance of the captive soldiers. It would be difficult to figure out what Qiandi was planning in a short period of time.
What, can the army feel at ease crossing the Huaihe River?
"Let's not alarm the enemy yet," Xu Huai closed his eyes and thought for a while, but did not let Zhang Xiongshan continue to send more manpower to Runzhou, and said, "Let's have a good time this year first before talking about anything else!"
"Although it's a bit troublesome, it's really time to move the headquarters of the Recruiting Envoy to Huangchuan!" Han Gui said.
Huangchuan is the seat of Guangzhou. Huangshui originates from the western foothills of Huaiyang Mountain. It passes through Huangchuan and enters the Huaihe River. On the opposite bank is Huaichuan, an important town in Rukou. At this time
It was occupied by Yue Hailou's troops.
The battle to cross the Huaihe River and capture Huaichuan is also the most important step in the early stage. It can not only control the key node of Rukou and shield Luoshan, Xinyang, Chushan, Huangchuan and other places on the inside, but also be the key to the subsequent restoration of control of the areas along the Ruhe River.
The key pre-step is to direct the troops along the Yingshui River to prepare for the capture of Ruyin, the important town of Yingshui where Yingzhou is located.
In addition, Huangchuan is located between the east and west routes, and the main force of the Jingsheng Army is mainly stationed in Huangchuan. Xu Huai will move the headquarters of the envoys to Huangchuan, which will make it easier to command and coordinate the operations of the east and west armies.
Since Deng Gui was in charge in Shouchun and Yang Qiye was in charge at Ye Zhongli in Haozhou, there was no need for Xu Huai to stay here personally to supervise the battle.
Of course, the New Year is coming in two days, and Cheng Lunying thought that Han Gui's suggestion to move the train to Huangchuan immediately was undoubtedly intended to lure the snake out of its hole and prompt the underground gang to start their conspiracy in advance, so that they might be able to discover more
It is better to have clues than to simply wait and see.
Xu Huai pondered for a while, but shook his head and refused to accept Han Gui's suggestion, saying: "Let's spend this new year well first!"
…………
…………
Xu Huai originally wanted to wait and see what happened before the army crossed the Huaihe River, but just after the New Year, he was still encouraged by Han Gui to set off for Huangchuan.
The main reason is that he has been leading troops to fight abroad for more than a year, and he has been spending less time together with Liu Qiong'er and Wang Xuan.
The Huaihe River is frozen again at this time. If Liu Qiong'er, Wang Xuan and the others want to take the road from Huangchuan, Gushi, Huoqiu and other counties to come to Shouchun for a reunion, they may run into the infiltrating raider cavalry scouts.
Too dangerous.
Just in time for the Gushui pontoon bridge to be built, the post road between Luoshan and Huangchuan was completely opened, and the Wubao defenses along both sides of the Gushui were connected with the defense system of Luoshan County. Xu Huai dared to penetrate in without fear of the cavalry.
So he set off for Huangchuan to inspect the field transfer, and took the opportunity to reunite with Liu Qiong'er, Wang Xuan's two daughters, and their youngest son Xu Zhenchen, who had set out from Huaiyuan.
Xu Huai set off for Huangchuan, and the relocation of the army was naturally put on the agenda. The battle to cross the Huaihe River was also ready to go.
Before Sun Yanzhou, Hu Dangzhou and other bandit generals led their troops to retreat north, they burned Huangchuan City to ashes with a torch.
In the two cities in the north and south that stand on both sides of Huangchuan River and Huangshui River, there is almost no intact building. There are ruins and decaying walls everywhere, and there are traces of burns everywhere.
When Liu Shiwang came out and learned about Guangzhou, he still set up his administrative office in Huangchuan. In the early stage, he could only pitch tents in the city to serve as government offices.
Under such conditions, the envoys will be relocated at this time.
Coming here must have been a bit hasty, and Xu Huai could only live in a villa in the south of the city for the time being.
If you don’t look at the corpses that have been exposed in the wild and haven’t had time to collect them, and you don’t look at the ruins and ruins that are set on fire everywhere, just look at the thin snow covering the foothills, the sunset, the sky and the earth are shining brightly, it is really a mountain and river.
A magnificent scene.
In addition to Han Gui, Cheng Lunying, Fan Yong, Zhang Xiongshan, Jiang Ping, Chen Songze, Shi Hu and other officials and bodyguards who recruited envoys, as well as Deng Gui, Liu Shiwang, Xu Xin'an, Fan Zongqi and others stationed in Shouchun, Huangchuan and Xinyang
In addition to the main generals, Shi Zhen, Xu Wuqi, Wang Ju, Zhou Jing and others also rushed to Huangchuan to see Xu Huai in the name of reporting on their duties.
In the east courtyard of the villa, everyone sat in a pinewood pavilion overlooking the evening sun, listening to Zhang Xiongshan's report on the new summary and sorting of intelligence from Yangzhou, Jianye and other places by the Military Intelligence Department in the past few days:
"After Ge Yu led his troops to station in Yangzhou, he began to secretly clean up the generals and military officials who were involved with his troops, the late emperor, and Jingxiang. If they were even slightly implicated, they would even reach the point of 'I would rather kill a thousand by mistake than miss one person.'"
.The Yangzhou Horse Infantry Academy has not only detained hundreds of military officials and soldiers, expelled thousands of troops from the camp, but even dozens of people have been secretly executed. Unfortunately, three informants from the Military Intelligence Department were among them, which also led to some
The transmission of information was delayed, and we were unable to control the trends in Yangzhou City in time..."
The Vietnamese imperial army still wanted to maintain control of the army despite such a serious emphasis on civility and suppression of military power and the low status of soldiers. They mainly relied on extremely strict classes.
Law.
As the Supervisory Military Academy and the Cavalry Infantry Academy, which are in charge of military law and discipline, they usually have the power of life and death over grassroots military officials and lower-level soldiers, and it is difficult for outsiders to intervene.
Gu Fan and Deng Gui suddenly fell to Jingxiang in Huaidong, which would completely put the Qiandi Department into a situation where everyone is in danger. It is not difficult to understand that the Qiandi Department will further clean up the internal affairs, but the problem is that the Qiandi Department
At this time, Jingxiang had already suppressed him in the court, and he was still carrying out such fierce internal purges. This only shows that Xu Huai, Han Gui, and their previous guesses were correct.
"We haven't played the Qingjun side yet, but they want to play the 'King Ni Qinwang' first!" Xu Huai sighed and shook his head helplessly.
"If Ge Yu led his troops to cross the river to Jianye to "kill King Niqin", whether his troops took a boat directly from Yangzhou to Jianye, or crossed the river to Runzhou first, and then borrowed a road from Runzhou to walk westward, they would be in trouble.
It cannot be completed in one day. They should be worried about being intercepted and sniped by our Jingzhou Navy and Niushou Mountain Rebels deployed near Jianye,"
Shi Zhen stood in the cold wind with sleeves on his hands, frowning, and said,
"But if His Majesty intends to cross the river to surrender to Yangzhou, they should also be worried that your Majesty will mobilize water infantry to surround Yangzhou city, cut off Yangzhou's communication with other roads, and give them a trap. For them,
The relatively safe way is for Ge Yu to lead his troops to cross the river directly from Yangzhou, and with the help of Luo Nanguang, control Danyang City to meet with His Majesty, and then contact the two Zhejiang and other road supervisory departments to carry out the matter of 'killing Niqin King' - in this way they can
Don’t worry about sending your army to cross the Huaihe River to fight, we can mobilize troops and horses in a short time to surround Danyang City!"
"It's a pity. If your army had not crossed the Huaihe River, they would have tolerated it. But if you lead your army to cross the Huaihe River and make them go through so much trouble, I don't know how many years it will take before they can truly recover the Central Plains!" Deng Gui frowned.
said with an eyebrow.
"What about luring the snake out of its cave before crossing the Huaihe River?" Cheng Lunying asked.
"I'm afraid it's not enough to lure the snake out of the hole now," Han Gui said. "We were more urgent before and just asked them to reveal more clues. But before the army was dispatched, or even before the main force of the Chihu Mansion was engaged,
, they should still be a little patient!"
"If you fail to lure the snake out of its hole, you can only use a strategy to scare it away," Shi Zhen looked at Xu Huai firmly and said, "If you can't make this determination, then please stop this crossing of the Huaihe River in time!"
