Chapter 695: Discussion among the important officials of the political hall
Su Mingzhe was busy for a long time. He didn't take a break from noon to evening.
On this day, dozens of prominent families and dozens of important officials and dignitaries in the Tang Dynasty were also busy.
The emperor came up with a panacea that could prolong life and asked everyone to attack Goryeo, the Western Regions, and the Plateau.
To fight or not to fight?
Fight, how to fight.
If you don't fight, how can you get the Peiyuan Pill and its prescription?
Everyone is weighing the pros and cons.
The weather in July is already very hot and makes people feel irritable.
Now, the emperor has given such a big problem again, and everyone is even more upset.
That night, many people did not sleep well.
But Su Mingzhe hugged the Wang sisters, feeling particularly satisfied.
The next day came in a blink of an eye.
Su Mingzhe got up under the service of the dormitory lady Guan Yuan Meiren, and with the help of several palace maids, he changed into regular clothes, and then took the chariot to Hanyuan Hall to prepare for the day's work.
Zhang Ananda had already prepared ice cubes to relieve the heat.
Seeing the emperor's arrival, Zhang Ananda hurriedly came over and asked:
"Your Majesty, do you still have something light for breakfast today?"
"On such a hot day, just have some vegetarian food."
Su Mingzhe is not Wu Meiniang who eats all kinds of meat at every meal. His meals are very consistent with the seasons.
After a while, Zhang Anan led someone to pass the food over.
Su Mingzhe had breakfast and began to deal with memorials and political affairs.
Stormy weather occurred in the Jiangnan area, and there were many victims.
The local government helped the people in the city resettle their homes. They spent a lot of money and applied for reimbursement.
As for the common people outside the city, in the eyes of the government, they are not common people.
In the eyes of the government, people are divided into three, six or nine levels. The only people who can be called common people are the "scholars" in the "scholars, farmers, industry and merchants".
The remaining ‘agricultural, industrial and commercial’ are called ‘Qianshou’.
It is recorded in "The Chronicles of Qin Shihuang":
"The country was divided into thirty-six counties, and the counties were assigned guards, lieutenants, and prison guards. They changed the name to "Qianshou" among the people."
"Burn the words of hundreds of families and use foolishness to lead Guizhou."
In the eyes of the government, the common people are the cornerstone of the court, and the "Guizhou head" is just a tool.
Now if Su Mingzhe wants to fight against the powerful family, he can only rely on these "Guizhou leaders".
Swish, swish, swish!
Su Mingzhe quickly approved the memorials for disaster reports from Jiangnan and other places.
After a while, these memorials followed the procedure and arrived at the department responsible for approving the official documents of the memorials.
The chief of the province below is the Shizhong.
Two years ago, Wei Zheng was still the minister in charge of the province, but now it is Yang Shidao.
Although Yang Shidao was born in the Yang family of Hongnong and was a distinguished man, he was a pure and kind man and was rigorous and fair in his work.
When he saw the memorial sent from Hanyuan Palace, his eyes lit up.
Su Mingzhe gave a total of five methods, namely: "relief through work", "recruiting troops", "building factories", "preventing epidemics" and "opening salt farms".
Behind each method, there are detailed strategies and various matters that need to be paid attention to.
Yang Shidao read it over and felt that even though he had been an official for many years, the methods and strategies he could come up with were not half as many as those above.
Thinking of this, Yang Shidao couldn't help but feel ashamed.
However, since the emperor had thought about everything, Yang Shidao simply sent it to be made into an edict, and then sent it to the Zhengshi Hall for sealing and distribution.
The Political Affairs Hall was the place where the three senior officials of the Tang Dynasty regularly discussed state affairs, and their offices were located in Menxia Province.
As a high-ranking official under his sect, it was very convenient for Yang Shidao to go to the Political Affairs Hall to have his seal stamped.
The prime minister on duty at the Political Hall today is Changsun Wuji.
After receiving the memorial, Changsun Wuji read it and felt the same as Yang Shidao. Then he sealed it and sent it to his servants.
After handling the memorial, Changsun Wuji saw that Yang Shidao was about to leave and quickly stopped him:
"Jing You, don't leave. Xuan Ling and the others will come over later to hold an impromptu meeting."
Yesterday, these important ministers made an appointment to come to the political hall today to discuss whether they should obey the emperor's wishes and attack Goryeo, the Western Regions, and the Plateau.
As important ministers appeared one after another, extraordinarily many people came. Not only the six ministers also came, but also Li Jing, who had been closed for three years and was unable to recover due to illness.
Li Jing is already sixty-eight this year.
Seventy years is rare in life.
Li Jing didn't know how many years he could live. He was so frightened that he was falsely accused of treason three years ago and wanted to hide at home and enjoy his old age.
However, in the past two months, several ministers in the court passed away. After some changes in positions in the court, Su Mingzhe promoted Li Jing to be a young man and appointed him as Minister of War.
Since the political affairs hall is discussing the use of troops in the three places today, it is hard for Li Jing, the Minister of War, not to show up.
When Li Jing appeared, all the important officials present bowed their hands to him and bowed to him.
Although Li Yuan and Li Shimin often said that Li and Tang dominated the world, the person with the greatest military exploits was Qin Qiong.
However, everyone present knew that Li Jing's military exploits were the greatest.
Li Jing's first battle after joining Li Tang was to attack Wang Shichong, and he began to rise to prominence.
In subsequent battles such as the pacification of Nanliang, the pacification of Lingnan, and the pacification of Fugong'er, Li Jing made great achievements.
What's more, Li Jing later destroyed the Eastern Turks and conquered Tuyuhun in the west.
If he hadn't been falsely accused of treason three years ago, Li Jing would still be the general manager of the Xikai Road March of the Tang Dynasty.
Everyone sat down.
Fang Xuanling, as a high-ranking official of Shangshu and the veritable first prime minister, was the first to speak:
"Yesterday, the Lu, Kong, Yan, Wang, Tang, and Xiao families all came to express their willingness to support Your Majesty and send out a large army."
Fang Xuanling was born in the Shandong Group, and his wife is the daughter of the Lu family of Fan Yang. What he said basically means that the Shandong Group is willing to support Su Mingzhe.
The newly resurrected prince Li Daozong stroked his long beard and said:
"The eight Guanlong surnames held a meeting yesterday and expressed their willingness to support His Majesty."
The eight surnames of Guanlong are the eight nobles of Guanlong, and they are also the largest military group in the Tang Dynasty.
Wang Gui, the Minister of Rites, finally spoke:
"Qiwang, the five surnames of the Central Plains, are also willing to support Your Majesty."
The Fufeng Wang family where Wang Gui lives belongs to the Wang family in Taiyuan, which is one of the five surnames and seven hopes.
When he said this, he represented many wealthy families in the Central Plains.
Now the three largest wealthy and powerful groups in the Tang Dynasty have expressed their support for the emperor's actions.
Then the matter of sending troops to attack Goryeo, the Western Regions, and the Plateau is a certainty.
The problem is that as a Central Plains dynasty, there must be a reason to attack barbarians.
Everyone nodded and looked at Fang Xuanling.
‘Fang’s plan is over’. faded
Fang Xuanling is known to be the most strategic and wise, so he must come up with ideas as a teacher.
Under the gaze of everyone, Fang Xuanling said helplessly:
"The countries in the Western Region are in chaos and obstructing our trade routes in the Tang Dynasty..."
"King Yeongryu of Goguryeo once sent an envoy to the Tang Dynasty to ask us to help him eradicate the powerful domestic minister Yeon Gaesumun. In addition, Baekje and Silla also sent people to the Tang Dynasty to open up trade routes and pay tribute.
…”
"Tubo Zampu asked His Majesty to marry the princess four years ago, but His Majesty refused. Afterwards, Tubo continued to invade our border..."
Following Fang Xuanling's words, everyone suddenly looked happy.
Once we have the reasons for sending troops, we only need to discuss which group of troops to send out first.
"The matter of sending troops to Tibet must be postponed for a while."
Li Jing opened his mouth and said:
"The air on the plateau is thin. After we climb to the plateau, we Central Plains people have difficulty breathing and become weak physically. Therefore, if we want to attack Tibet, we need to train our troops first."
"The Western Region is not in a hurry."
Hou Junji said: "The area there is complex and there are many tribes. We can definitely find someone to buy Tianshan Snow Lotus."
"Then we have to attack Korea first."
Li Ji, who had remained silent, finally spoke:
"As long as the imperial court gives me 50,000 soldiers and horses, I can wipe out Goryeo!"
In Li Ji's view, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty made three eastern expeditions, raising a total of five to six million troops and civilians. In the end, domestic rebellions continued and Goguryeo was not captured.
If he brings 50,000 people to pacify Goguryeo, his reputation will definitely become the highest among Tang Dynasty generals.
Unfortunately, Li Ji's idea was immediately seen through by everyone.
Li Daozong snorted coldly:
"Your Majesty has already made a decree. If we go out on an expedition, we are going to make His Highness the Crown Prince the Commander-in-Chief of the March Army, and we will divide the army into two armies, land and water, to attack Goguryeo. Among them, the candidate for the Commander-in-Chief of the Waterways has also been decided, and he is Zhang Liang, that scoundrel!"
When Li Ji heard that the commander of the navy was Zhang Liang, he immediately secretly said something bad.
Zhang Liang was also a member of the Wagang Army and Li Ji's general.
And Zhang Liang is a rogue guy. On the surface, he is a brother-in-law with everyone, and they often drink and play together.
However, once someone drank and complained about the government affairs, Zhang Liang, a bastard, would immediately report it to the emperor.
Several generals who were born together in Wagang Village are all heroes who can help their brothers.
As a result, something like Zhang Liang appeared around me.
As a result, everyone gradually stopped interacting with him.
However, although Zhang Liang was not compatible with other generals, he was deeply loved by the emperor.
On the eve of the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Li Shimin sent Zhang Liang to Luoyang and other places to win over heroes from all sides.
Li Yuanji captured Zhang Liang and tortured him to extract a confession, hoping to get Li Shimin's plan from him. However, Zhang Liang gritted his teeth and would rather die than surrender.
Finally, Zhang Liang was rescued, and Li Shimin introduced him as his confidant, giving him the same treatment as his other confidant Zhou Shaofan.
Now, His Majesty is going to conquer Goguryeo eastward. He has first appointed the prince as the marching general manager, and then appointed Zhang Liang as the waterway general manager, leaving only the position of land route general manager.
Among the several important ministers sitting here, only Li Ji, Li Jing, Hou Junji, and Li Daozong are qualified to hold the position of land manager.
Li Daozong first said that he was in poor health and might need to rest for a while.
Hou Junji was a little eager to give it a try, but he was still busy with errands in the Western Regions, so it was hard for him to open his mouth and continue to serve as the Eastern Expeditionary Army.
Li Ji and Li Jing looked at each other and realized that the job was about to fall on them.
"I'd better go."
It was rare for Li Jing to take the initiative to ask for help.
Some time ago, his first wife Zhang Chuchen suffered from heart failure. It was Su Mingzhe who sent someone to send a piece of spiritual jade, which suppressed the illness.
Li Jing took the initiative this time because he wanted to help the prince establish his career as a way to repay the emperor's kindness.
Of course, if Your Majesty could take pity on my little contribution and give you two Peiyuan Pills after refining them, I would be even more grateful.
Hearing that Li Jing took the initiative to ask for help, Li Ji suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.
If he were to serve as the commander-in-chief of the unified army, it would still be a bit of a challenge for him to conquer Goguryeo.
But accompanying the prince to send troops and acting as a bodyguard for the prince was a bit useless to Li Ji.
If something happens to the prince, or if he wants to win over him to rebel, Li Ji doesn't know what choice he should make.
Therefore, now that Li Jing took the initiative to ask for help, Li Ji no longer had to struggle in his heart.