The successful capture of Jiguan Mountain was no less significant to the Tang Dynasty than the victory over the Ming army at Luohu not long ago.
If magnified, this battle at Jiguan Mountain can be regarded as a powerful consolidation of the foundation of the Tang Dynasty.
Because after defeating Jiguan Mountain, not only were the nearly 100 bandits and more than 100 old, weak, women and children able to recover from Jiguan Mountain, but also a large amount of grain and other property were seized.
Moreover, because Jiguan Mountain is within a hundred miles, among the three bandit families who still refuse to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, the one with the toughest attitude is also the strongest.
Capturing Jiguan Mountain can effectively deter Huang Guishan and Black Tiger Village, allowing the subsequent recovery of Black Tiger Village and Huang Guishan's operations to go more smoothly.
Once Black Tiger Village and Huanggui Mountain are captured and their young women and children are captured, the population of the Tang Dynasty will be able to exceed the two thousand mark.
Among them, there are at least 200 fierce bandits who can carry swords at any time. If they encounter a powerful enemy, such as the Ming army coming to attack, then the Tang Dynasty King's Division will fully mobilize and can mobilize more than 400 troops.
Perhaps whether it is two hundred or four hundred, the difference is not big to outsiders, but for the Tang Dynasty, this is a qualitative leap.
Because this means that the strength of the Tang Dynasty has more than doubled!
Precisely because conquering Jiguan Mountain would bring such great and obvious benefits, Liu Bagou and Wang Wenhua were very excited after hearing the news.
But apart from such an excited crowd, Emperor Li Xuan, as the nominal supreme leader of the Tang Dynasty, saw a hidden crisis.
That was Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren and the others, after they conquered Jiguan Mountain, they did not send the captive young men, women and children back to Huangzhu Mountain, but chose to take the young captives directly to attack Black Tiger Village.
Although they have very good reasons: there are not enough young people in Huangzhu Mountain, and it may be difficult to guard the nearly 100 bandit prisoners in Jiguan Mountain. At the same time, the people in Black Tiger Village have moved, and Fang Dongquan and the others do not have enough time to return to Huangzhu Mountain first.
, but need to go to Black Tiger Village immediately to fight.
However, even so, Li Xuan still saw the hidden crisis.
That is, Fang Dongquan and the others directly integrated nearly a hundred bandits in Jiguan Mountain without Li Xuan's consent or even the court meeting.
Those were not nearly a hundred ordinary prisoners, but ruthless bandits from Jiguan Mountain!
If these nearly a hundred people join Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren and the others, their strength will be greatly improved. And this is not over yet. If they do the same thing in Black Tiger Village and Huang Guishan later, wouldn't they be the youth of these three families?
Will Zhuang be directly accepted by the two of them in the end?
Li Xuan felt a little uneasy about this.
During this period of time, he has been working hard to weaken the influence of Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren.
Improve Butcher Chen's strength, intentionally or unintentionally help the Butcher in the city build a reputation as the best general in Huangzhu Mountain, and expand Butcher Chen's influence.
At the same time, she secretly supported Mrs. Bai to form a standing army rear army through Bai Yunqi and collect prisoners of the Ming army.
These are all measures he took to contain the strength and influence of Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren.
But now he found that these actions he had put a lot of effort into had little effect in the end, because now people directly integrated Jiguan Mountain, Huanggui Mountain, and Black Tiger Village, and then divided up the young and strong people inside.
, leaving no residue to Li Xuan.
But at this time, Li Xuan couldn't fall out with Fang Dongquan and the others, and he couldn't even secretly obstruct their actions.
Because even if Li Xuan, Fang Dongquan, and Huang Xueren have conflicts of interest, they all face a more powerful common enemy, and that is the Ming army!
He, Li Xuan, has to take care of the overall situation!
But this does not mean that he will watch Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren and others carve up Jiguan Mountain, Black Tiger Village, and Huang Guishan as the fruits of victory.
Since he couldn't control it personally, Li Xuan took a compromise approach!
He asked the envoy to bring an "imperial edict" to Fang Dongquan and the others. Naturally, the edict first praised them greatly, and this time the praise was given to everyone. Fang Dongquan, Huang Xueren, Chen Tufu, Wang Danxu, Qian
Mengjiu is among them.
However, Li Xuan also formally appointed the generals outside the country in the imperial edict. He appointed the general of chariots and cavalry, Jun Dongquan, to supervise the affairs of suppressing the bandits. He appointed Prime Minister Qian Mengjiu as the supervisor of the army, and generals Chen Tufu, Huang Xueren and Wang Danxu assisted in suppressing the bandits.
To put it simply, there was a change from the previous lack of priority among the generals, and the formal establishment of the main person in charge of the Huang Guishan affairs in this crusade against Black Tiger Village.
This appointment seems to have no problem, but it is the result of Li Xuan thinking hard all night. It contains Li Xuan's evil intentions!
To put it simply, he raised Fang Dongquan high and ignored others, especially Huang Xueren.
However, Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren have always been equals. Even when they attacked Jiguan Mountain before, they all discussed it. Now that Li Xuan has directly given Fang Dongquan the title of responsible for all the thieves' affairs, Huang Xueren will be willing to do so.
Yu Zai is under Fang Dongquan?
It's impossible to think about it with your toes.
Some time ago, the two of them fought so fiercely that the conflict broke out long ago, and now, Li Xuan wants to further deepen their conflict.
As long as Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren are not allowed to unite, then Li Xuan can slowly divide their power.
Li Xuan claimed to have done a great job in this little conspiracy, but when he returned to the backyard at night, he was summoned by the Queen Mother, Mrs. Bai.
As soon as they passed, Mrs. Bai said: "This is too obvious. They are not fools. How could they not guess your little thoughts behind it!"
Li Xuan also knew that Mrs. Bai seemed to be staying in the harem, but she was very well-informed. He had just issued the imperial edict today and she knew about it that day, so it was not surprising that she knew about it.
Mrs. Bai continued: "Don't be anxious about these things. Let your uncle train the rear army first. As for Black Tiger Village and Huang Guishan, let them make trouble!"
Having said this, Mrs. Bai pulled Li Xuan over, and then said with a look of pity: "Don't worry, my son, mother will not let them ride on our necks for too long, sooner or later we will have to deal with them!"
After listening to Mrs. Bai's words, Li Xuan thought for a moment, then nodded: "This matter is indeed urgent!"
At this moment, Mrs. Bai said: "But since it has been done, there is no need to regret it. Just pay more attention in the future.
By the way, how's your Guards doing? You seem to go less often recently. You have to keep an eye on the Guards' drills. Don't always let your guards take care of it. You can do it yourself.
You have to use some snacks too!”
When Li Xuan heard Madam Bai ask this question, he showed a surprised expression. Madam Bai actually paid so much attention to the Guards and asked him to pay more attention to him.
Could it be that Mrs. Bai has also seen that the Guards she has trained has a bright future?
Seeing the puzzled expression on Li Xuan's face, Mrs. Bai smiled and said: "You are so small-minded and want to hide it from me. I gave birth to you. If you stick your butt out, I will know what you want to do. Isn't that right?
Do you want to train a personal army?"
Speaking of this, she also said: "It's not just me, other people can see it to some extent, but they all think those little brats are useless!"
At this time, Mrs. Bai showed a profound look and said to Li Xuan: "Although those half-grown boys are not useful now, people will grow up. After a few years, these boys will become adults!"
To be honest, these words really frightened Li Xuan. This Mrs. Bai actually thought so far ahead that she thought of several years in the future.
But what makes Li Xuan relieved is that Mrs. Bai has limited knowledge and has not seen the real potential of the Guards at all. The Guards trained by Li Xuan are different from ordinary bandits.
In fact, there are only two people in the entire Huangzhu Mountain who can see the true potential of the Guards. One is Li Xuan himself, and the other is the captive Zeng Ziyun!