At noon on July 17, the Dangshan Army and Shang Shui Army, as the "first marching army", gathered in the southern suburbs outside Daliang City.
On the "general's platform" built high in the imperial court, Emperor Wei personally swore in the "first march", congratulated on the victory, and formally appointed Su Wang Hongrun as the "coach" of the "vanguard march of the Sanchuan Jie tribe", and also appointed a general.
Sima An is the "deputy general".
Subsequently, the "first march" army set off, with the Shang Shui Army in front and the Dangshan Army in the rear. The two auxiliary armies carried a large amount of supplies, weapons, and baggage, and slowly moved towards Chenggao Pass.
"What a nightmare..."
Recalling the scene on the "General's Platform" not long ago in his mind, Zhao Hongrun, who was riding a war horse and walking in front of the team, sighed secretly in his heart.
According to common sense, generals who serve as deputy generals will take the initiative to meet with their commanders after taking the oath of office. To put it simply, it is to express their attitude and deepen the relationship between the two.
However, Zhao Hongrun waited for two full hours after setting off from the army, but did not wait for General Sima An to arrive. What this means is self-evident.
Fortunately, Zhao Hongrun had a fluke mentality that "maybe things are not as bad as expected", but the facts proved that he was too naive.
"It's a bad start."
Zhao Hongrun sighed helplessly.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of horse hoofbeats coming from behind him, from far to near. Zhao Hongrun subconsciously turned his head and took a closer look, only to realize that it was a messenger rider.
And judging from the style of the armor, it is the messenger cavalry of the Dangshan Army.
"Could it be someone sent by General Sima An?"
Zhao Hongrun muttered to himself and tightened the reins at the same time.
At this time, the messenger rode his horse to the front of Zhao Hongrun, clasped his fists and said: "Your Highness King Su, the general ordered the villain to come and send a message, asking the Shang Shui Army under King Su to hurry up. According to the current itinerary, the two of them will
We won’t be able to reach Chenggao Pass within a day.”
"...Do you think the Shang Navy's schedule is too slow?"
Zhao Hongrun glanced at the troops under his command.
To be honest, he also wanted to speed up his journey, but the problem was that in order to attack the Jie tribe this time, he tinkered with many war weapons.
It is undeniable that these war weapons are at least at the leading level in the world. The only drawback is that they are heavy. For example, catapults, heavy crossbows, repeating crossbow carts, etc. that are broken into several parts need to be carried by horse-drawn carriages.
However, horses were also a strategic resource in Wei State. Even if they were inferior horses, Zhao Hongrun could not find enough to pull the cart. Therefore, he had no choice but to let some Shangshui soldiers pull the cart.
Can a trip like this be fast?
"Please go back and tell the general. The Shangshui Army is carrying new weapons that will be used in this battle, so it delays the trip. I hope the general will be considerate." Zhao Hongrun said kindly.
The messenger nodded indifferently, cupped his fists and bowed, then immediately rode away.
At this time, there was a civil servant wearing soapy blue casual clothes beside Zhao Hongrun, who took out a booklet and a pen from his arms.
I saw this man moistening the tip of his pen with the saliva from his mouth, and writing the words "Looking respectful but dissatisfied" on the booklet.
Zhao Hongrun caught a glimpse of the scribe's actions from the corner of his eye, looked around, and saw the words on the booklet at a glance, and couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart.
"You have sharp eyes, Mr. Qiu."
Yes, this scribe wearing soapy blue casual clothes is the person specially sent by Zhao Hongrun's father to supervise his son's "homework". He is also the supervisor of this "first marching army" and the censor of the Yushijian, Qiu Yu.
.
Qiu Yu was born in the famous Qiu family in Daliang City and belonged to a scholarly family. Therefore, at the age of only 26, he was already the censor of the Yushijian and became a member of the "Yanguan".
He has a bright future and can be regarded as the mainstay of the younger generation of Wei State.
Qiu Yu smiled slightly. Of course he could hear the sarcastic tone in Zhao Hongrun's words. Hearing this, he smiled and said: "Prince Su, please forgive me. Your Majesty has ordered your officials to record in detail your relationship with Prince Su."
The general's... matters, no matter how big or small, if this is messed up, the officer's long-cherished wish to enter the imperial censor's prison will be ruined."
Zhao Hongrun felt a little strange when he heard it, and asked in confusion: "Isn't Mr. Qiu already the censor?"
Qiu Yu shook his head and explained: "Although one foot has entered the imperial censor's prison, at present, the official position is just a 'supplementary official'. Therefore,... I dare not neglect it."
"Oh." Zhao Hongrun nodded clearly.
The "replacement of officials" mentioned here does not mean "replacement of official positions", but refers to "substitute officials". To put it bluntly, they are temporary workers who have not yet been regularized.
You must know that as the "Yu Shi Jian" was newly established by Emperor Wei last year, the authority of this department is somewhat scary. From the six ministries of the imperial court to the local counties, as long as the Yu Shi Jian wanted to investigate, no one would
Can be blocked.
What's even more terrible is that the "Yu Shi Jian" is directly responsible to Emperor Wei, which completely prevents anyone from using their power to threaten them. So now, some people in the court have gradually placed the "Yu Shi Jian" in front of another "Emperor's Eyes"
”, that is, the same height as the “inner chamberlain supervisor”.
And the truth is more than that.
In fact, the power of the imperial censor is greater than that of the inner chamberlain. After all, the inner chamberlain only monitors the palace and Daliang. However, theoretically speaking, the imperial censor, except for the harem, has unimpeded access to the entire Wei state.
A typical director who can use chicken feathers as arrows.
Precisely because of their transcendent authority, the Censor is extremely strict when promoting candidates for the Censor. In addition to talent, learning and moral character, the family situation must also be considered. Within three generations, any relative who has violated the law will be eliminated.
All in all, those who can become censors are all Wei people with a clean family background and upright roots.
Having said that, it is precisely because the review and screening are too strict that the Yushijian is currently obviously short of manpower. Its current main job is to criticize people in the court, no, to impeach some officials for their misconduct.
However, most of them are trivial matters, and we are not yet able to conduct in-depth investigations into any hidden domestic abuses.
Of course, it will be hard to say in the future.
With nothing to do, Zhao Hongrun asked Qiu Yu about the current work progress of the Censorship Supervisor to pass the time.
Unexpectedly, while they were chatting, the messenger rider just now turned back.
"Informing King Su, the general ordered the villain to come and deliver the message. If the Shang Shui army cannot speed up its journey, it is better to separate here. The general will lead the Dangshan army to rush to Sanchuan first, and King Su will advance slowly from behind.
.”
"..."
Zhao Hongrun frowned when he heard this.
Although it is not clear whether it is because the Shang Shui Army's journey is indeed too slow, or because Sima An is dissatisfied because his command position has been replaced, the latter's attitude is already very clear: he hopes to divide his troops and is unwilling to follow Zhao Hongrun on his slow journey.
"How is it possible for you to lead the army first? Otherwise, what would I do in Sanchuan?"
Zhao Hongrun frowned and thought for a moment, then nodded and said: "If I know this, I will ask the Shang Shui Army to hurry up... Please go back and tell the general: In the next few days, the Shang Shui Army will join the Dangshan Army to fight against the Jie people.
I believe that the two armies need to get closer, and marching together is a way to get to know each other better. I hope that the general will put the overall situation first."
"yes."
The messenger turned his horse and left.
Looking at the man's leaving figure, Zhao Hongrun sighed helplessly.
"How long has it been since the army started? The deputy general asked to divide the army... It was obviously a difficult battle with more than 30,000 troops or more than 100,000 or 200,000 Sanchuan people. Unexpectedly, before the battle started, there was a riot in our own army.
No, this is simply a nightmare start!』
Zhao Hongrun rubbed his brow bones tiredly.
Suddenly, he was startled and turned to look at the censor Qiu Yu beside him.
Sure enough, Qiu Yu took out his pen and paper again, wrote down the scene just now, and commented on it.
"Master Qiu, isn't it?" Zhao Hongrun said with a wry smile.
Qiu Yu carefully put the pen and paper back into his arms, and said with a smile: "You should shoulder the king's mandate. Don't blame the king."
"..."
On the other side, the messenger rider also came to the side of General Sima An, who was at the rear of the large team, and stated Zhao Hongrun's words in detail.
After hearing this, General Sima An's face was still as dark as water, he was taciturn and stared straight ahead with a pair of tiger eyes, not knowing what he was looking at.
Next to him, there was a general in his thirties who was wearing a white robe. He laughed loudly when he heard this. He covered his forehead and pretended to be sad and teased his general: "Oh, it's terrible. The other party used righteous words."
"..." Sima An glanced at Bai Fangming and remained silent.
On the other side of Sima An, a general who was similar in age to Bai Fangming, but looked as gloomy and taciturn as Sima An, heard this and said lightly: "He actually ignored our provocation. It seems that King Su's character is not as rumored.
So irritable...it’s not going to be easy to handle now.”
Bai Fangming scratched his hair and said in a nonchalant tone: "Isn't it just a handsome position? Our general doesn't care about it at all."
"What do you know?" Wen Xu frowned and said displeasedly: "The position is not important, the key is 'command'. Do we, the Dangshan Army, have to attack the Shangshui Army and the Chu State's surrender troops?"
Hearing the words "Chu surrenders its troops", Sima An, who had always remained expressionless, flashed a sharp look in his eyes.
"To reuse a group of surrendered troops... is simply ridiculous!"
It turned out that the general had been staring at the Shang Shui Army in front, staring at the surrendered army of the former Chu Kingdom.
To be fair, Sima An had no dissatisfaction with who should be the "coach" and who should be the "deputy general". After all, from a relationship perspective, Zhao Hongrun had to call him "uncle" because he was once a guard of Emperor Wei's side.
.
What's more, he, Sima An, always goes his own way in fighting. As long as he has the Dangshan Army under his command, it doesn't matter who is the commander. Even if it is a pig, he is still confident that he can win the battle.
To put it bluntly, he did not regard the Shangshui Army as a necessary combat force at all. From the beginning, he only wanted to use the Dangshan Army to sweep away the people of Sanchuan.
But he couldn't accept that Zhao Hongrun actually regarded a surrendered army of Chu as his direct descendant, and even distributed new weapons produced by the Smelting Bureau to the latter.