The Southern Kingdom is collectively called the Six States.
It is the south of the central region such as Shenzhou (the Shendu area), Yuzhou, and Lingzhou, and is collectively called the Southern Kingdom.
From east to west, they are Jiangzhou, Pingzhou, Ruzhou, Tongzhou and Jianzhou.
There is also Lizhou in the far south, which is very remote.
Although the five states except Lizhou can be divided from east to west, in actual terms, these five states are not tied together. For example, Jiangzhou is the northernmost one, bordering Yuzhou and Lingzhou.
Another example is Jianzhou, which can directly reach Xizhou in the north, while Pingzhou, Ruzhou and Tongzhou are further south from the map and can truly be called the land of the South.
Nowadays, the war in the entire southern country has inexplicably stopped. After the entire north was included in Cao Su's territory, the princes of the southern states all felt the pressure from the giant beast in the north.
The imperial court was already controlled by Cao Su.
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Divine capital, imperial city.
On the fifth day after the Wanping Sect and Tianji Pavilion withdrew their troops, Cao Su held a court meeting, invited the emperor to take his seat, and summoned the surviving court ministers in the capital.
The ministers of the DPRK also suffered heavy casualties in the chaos in the Capital of Gods a few days ago.
According to rumors, half of the six ministerial books died in the mouth of monsters. Guo Shengxiong, who was originally named the "Great General" by the Grand Master, was also not spared. A monster broke into his home and took a bite out of him.
Devour.
Although these ministers have noble status, there is no difference in the eyes of monsters.
The taste of eating these ministers is the same as eating the common people.
So when Cao Su summoned the ministers to open the first court meeting, the number of ministers at the court meeting was sparse, which was even more desolate compared to the original hundreds of officials who came to the court.
When the emperor heard you, he looked like a withered plant and sat on the dragon chair in the Qianyuan Hall with dull eyes.
The first- and second-grade ministers in purple who were nearby were all shocked. Why did the emperor, who was only a teenager, become what he is today?
Cao Su wore black armor and walked into the court hall. He was tall and taller than ordinary ministers by a head.
Standing in front of everyone is like a high mountain, giving people great psychological pressure.
Everyone in the hall was trembling with fear, and no one dared to speak.
Cao Su then said: "Everyone, the imperial court is in dire straits and is in need of restoration. Bandits from all directions are in danger. Do you have any good strategies to deal with it?"
His voice was calm, and he looked at the people in the hall. Most of the officials in the hall were old. Cao Su couldn't pronounce the names of some of them. He only knew that they seemed to have been high-ranking officials for many years.
Cao Su will not stay in Qianyuan Territory for too long. If he wants to go to Tongtian City next, he must complete the operation of Qianyuan Territory to prevent it from having a greater impact on the Cao family.
thing.
The purpose of convening the courtiers to discuss state affairs was not so that the courtiers could come up with any good strategies, but he wanted to see how many people in the court were named Wen and how many were named Cao.
Sure enough, under such a formal question, someone quickly jumped out and came up with suggestions.
Cao Su looked intently and saw a white-haired old man walking out of the queue. He kowtowed three times and bowed nine times to Wen You on the high seat, and then said tremblingly: "General, I think this
, The army under the general's command is elite and brave. Since its formation, it has swept across the wilderness and is invincible. Since the army under the general's command is so good, why not send all the elite troops to the southern country to quell the chaos? "
The person who spoke was Song Yuan, the Taichang Qing in the imperial court. He was over seventy years old. In his early years, when Emperor Daozong was emperor, he had already served as a ceremonial official. After the Rongzheng Rebellion, he entered the court and promoted Song Yuan to Taichang Qing.
What Song Yuan said was reasonable and well-founded, and many senior ministers in the court nodded frequently, obviously deeply agreeing with it.
However, soon, Cao Su's general Wang Qing jumped out and raised objections.
Wang Qing was previously a general under Yang Ming, and later defected to Cao Su under Yang Ming's instructions. Now that Cao Su has taken the capital of God, the power of his subordinates has greatly increased. Wang Qing has also been promoted one after another, and now he is promoted to the post general by Cao Su, which can be regarded as a post-general.
A top-notch general.
Wang Qing said: "You guys don't know something. Although our northern army is brave, most of our troops are cavalry. On the northern plains, we can naturally move freely. But if we go to the southern country, this southern country is mostly swamps."
Places like Jiangzhou and Pingzhou are full of lakes and have many hills and mountains, making it difficult for northern cavalry to attack."
Wang Qing explained one of the dilemmas currently facing Cao Jun from a technical perspective.
This is why Cao Su is holding back his troops now, allowing rebellious thieves like Chu Xinfeng to escape and flee into places like Lingzhou and Jiangzhou.
Cao Su's initial focus was also on the land of Xizhou, and he was not in a hurry to go south to quell the rebellion.
Compared with the Southern Kingdom, Xizhou has endless plains and deserts, which are more convenient for Cao Su's cavalry to charge and kill.
Many doctors were obviously disappointed, and Songyuan said again: "In this case, we cannot let the many bandits in the south continue to develop like this. The veteran heard that the Nading Star has swept through the three states, and has more than 500,000 soldiers under his command.
Its momentum is so huge that it is even more powerful than the Wanping Army in the early years. If it is allowed to develop, it will be difficult for the Southern Kingdom to protect it."
Song Yuan looked very old, but as he spoke, he kept "encouraging" Cao Su to send troops.
Cao Su remained silent, scanning the entire audience with a tiger-like gaze. Many ministers did not feel the need to look at him and lowered their eyes one after another. Cao Su finally focused on Song Yuan, but Song Yuan raised his hand with a calm expression.
Cao Su suddenly put aside this topic and asked Song Yuan: "Doctor Song, how many vacancies are there in the court now?"
Song Yuan was stunned, and turned his gaze to the other side. The Minister of Civil Affairs was a middle-aged man. After being caught by Song Yuan's gaze, he stood up and said, "Tell Prime Minister Song, last night, there were ten purple-robed officials above the third rank.
One person was killed or injured, including..."
He paused slightly, then changed his words: "General Guo and others died on the spot. In addition, there were many injured ministers, and countless officials below the third rank died."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The entire god is almost in ruins, and the number of official deaths is relatively small compared to civilians.
The death of so many central officials caused the entire center to be almost paralyzed. If Cao Su hadn't accidentally broken into the divine capital, the numerous gaps would have been impossible to fill.
Cao Su was in a heavy heart and said sadly: "It is a pity that so many colleagues have died, but since we have survived, we must carry on the legacy and continue to guard the Divine Capital for the sake of thousands of people.
Governance is good, then in your opinion, who should fill these vacant positions?"
To replace the vacant position, this is the right to appoint and remove officials, it is the real supreme power, and Cao Su actually did it openly in front of the emperor.
Those who were interested took a look at the emperor. The emperor looked just like before, sitting on it like a living dead, his face was solemn, neither sad nor happy, neither noisy nor fussy, and did not say a word.
And some people couldn't help but get excited. What does the general mean? He is not prepared to imitate the imperial master and seize the military and political power? The power of appointing and removing officials in politics is prepared to be transferred to many civilian officials? If this is really the case, then
Whoever can control this power also controls the lifeblood of the civil servants in the world?
Many civil servants looked at Song Yuan.
Song Yuan holds the high position of Taichang Qing, and he is the only giant in the court who can talk to Cao Su head-on. If even he dares not accept Cao Su, then the direction of the court will inevitably change.
Even more confusing.
Song Yuan remained silent and did not speak.
Cao Su was surprised. This old man, Taichang Qing, was more cunning and cautious than he thought.
Just when there was silence in the court hall, an old man in black robe stepped out from behind Cao Su.
"General, there are many vacancies in the court, and they are all important central positions. Every position is very important. People cannot be selected and appointed easily. They need to be strictly inspected to confirm the combination of virtue and talent before they can be appointed with confidence."
The old man had a hooked nose and a sinister face. He had been hiding behind Cao Su and had never spoken.
Now that he spoke like this, many old ministers felt as if a dark wind was blowing in the entire palace when they saw this person.
Weng Xiao is now Cao Su's number one counselor. He is also a gray-haired old man. When he speaks, everyone can even feel a strong sense of gloominess emerging from this man.
"Master Weng is right."
Logically speaking, Weng Xiao has not yet entered the third-rank official position, and has only served as a military advisor and general beside Cao Su. According to his position, he is more like Cao Su's aide.
However, Cao Su brought Weng Xiao into the Qianyuan Hall against the rules, and no one in the hall dared to question him.
After Weng Xiao spoke at this moment, there was silence in the hall again until Song Yuan admitted what Weng Xiao said.
Cao Su turned around and came in front of the emperor. His huge body even blocked everyone's eyes from looking at the emperor. Cao Su was the only one left in the line of sight.
Cao Su said in a deep voice: "Master Weng is right. The vacant positions must be carefully considered."
"The imperial court is in dire straits and needs to be revitalized. The central government is the head of the world and needs to focus more on construction. But who should be chosen? Who can be chosen? What kind of achievements and talents are worthy of these positions? This is not something Cao can say.
The general’s palace is designated as this is the Qianyuan court, so it should have a suitable set of regulations and a convincing system.”
Cao Su proposed system construction, and then talked about the construction of the Military Machinery Pavilion, which was rumored outside: "Cao believed that there should be another pavilion above the court. This pavilion is called the Military Machinery Pavilion, ranking above the six ministries.
When I was young, I only used this pavilion to assist the emperor in handling government affairs."
As soon as Cao Su said this, all the ministers in the hall were shocked.
Wherever the emperor needs to deal with government affairs now, this Military Machinery Pavilion was clearly established to help Cao Su handle government affairs.
At this time, among the vacant positions in the court, there were still the original left and right prime ministers. The purpose of Cao Su's establishment of the Military Machinery Pavilion was obviously to divide the power of the left and right prime ministers.
The key point mentioned is the appointment and removal of officials for vacant positions.
No one among the old ministers of the Taishi, headed by Song Yuan, dared to speak against him at this moment. After Cao Su raised this opinion, all the courtiers in the hall fell silent, apparently acquiescing to the matter.
Cao Su added: "The Military Machine Pavilion will initially have a pavilion with one chief assistant, one secondary assistant and three assistant ministers. Can you recommend any suitable ministers?"
The emperor was also in the court, but Cao Su began to control the court openly.
However, among the many civil servants who had scolded him harshly before, no one spoke up.
Because anyone with a discerning eye can see that this Junji Pavilion seems to be the original "prime minister" power, and there are only two original prime ministers in total. Plus the six ministers, there are only a few positions in total that can reach this level.
, and Cao Su seemed to have increased the number of prime ministers by three at once.
The Military Machine Pavilion is located above the Six Ministries. This recognition alone is enough to make all civil servants flock to it.
What's more, now that there are vacancies in the court, Cao Su is equivalent to controlling the power to appoint and remove officials in the court. Anyone who opposes Cao Su at this moment is tantamount to making a joke about his own future.
So the entire court looked at Cao Su with fiery eyes.
Cao Su has soldiers, wealth, and now he controls the lifeblood of officials. At least for now, no one in the court will stand up to oppose him.
Behind Cao Su, Wen You on the high seat had dull eyes.
He looked at Cao Su's back. Although he felt resentful and resentful in his heart, he also felt a sense of powerlessness.
Cao Su is too powerful, not only because he has many soldiers and generals under his command, but also his martial arts is so high that he is almost invincible in the world. How can such a person be an enemy?
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At the end of the dynasty, all the officials were invited out of the palace.
However, Cao Su did not leave. Together with Weng Xiao and Ma Chao, he led a group of soldiers and went deep into the imperial city.
The entire imperial city was very desolate. After several rounds of mutinies, very few servants survived.
Cao Su is in control of the imperial city. He has seen the front palace before, and today he specially brought people to the deep palace.
In the deep palace, only a few of the emperor's concubines and the late emperor's concubines were left.
Rong Zheng once bloodbathed the imperial city during the Shendu mutiny, and the Queen Mother of Yan, who once dominated the world, also disappeared after begging for Taoist palace in Shenshan to no avail. Like Yan Da before, the Yan family seems to have quietly disappeared.
He drew a clear line with the Wen family.
This was something that Cao Su admired. He didn't even know when the Yan family had left the imperial city.
Therefore, in the imperial city, after several rounds of mutinies, there were bloodstains everywhere that were destroyed by the flames of war.
After today's court meeting, Cao Su led his troops to the deep palace of the imperial city, with the purpose of taking over the last remaining resources of the Wen family.
For example, he previously cultivated the domineering Thunder Prison.
The Thunder Prison is one of the important resources of the Wen family. Like the Dongzang Study Room, it is enough to serve as a secret place for family heirlooms.
It is said that the Dongzang Study Room was previously destroyed in the hands of Rongzheng. Although Cao Su failed to get the Dongzang Study Room, he did gain access to Rongzheng's General's Mansion. There was also a study room in the mansion, which contained countless books. It was a precious place.
place.
However, I heard that the Thunder Prison was not damaged, but was controlled by Rong Zheng with troops and horses.
After Cao Su defeated Rong Zheng, he sent people to take control of the entire palace, but he never had time to visit Lei Prison. Today he finally found an opportunity, so he revisited his old place and came to the outside of Leng Palace.