The first thousand two hundred and fifty-four chapters
Just when Guo Song personally led an army of 80,000 people to the north to conquer the capital of Silla, officials all over the country were also holding intensive votes. This was a measure led by the Ministry of Officials to ensure that the King of Jin legally ascended the throne.
If officials all over the world believe that King Jin can replace Tang Dynasty in ascending the throne, and by extension, people all over the world will support King Jin in ascending the throne, then King Jin's accession to the throne is completely legal, and no one or any reason can stop him from ascending the throne as emperor.
The voting in Yuanzhou was also held in Pinggao County, and was reviewed and supervised by a supervisory censor from Chang'an. The censor responsible for supervising the voting in Yuanzhou was the young Bai Juyi, who arrived three days ago with two entourages.
Pinggao County.
Yuanzhou has a total of four counties under its jurisdiction, Pingliang, Baiquan, Pinggao and Xiaoguan County in the north. Pinggao County is the prefectural government. The county magistrates, county magistrates, county lieutenants and chief registrars from the four counties all gathered in Pinggao County.
Including more than a dozen officials from the state government, a total of more than 30 officials with rank nine or above will participate in the voting scheduled for April 1st.
The time of the first day of April was determined by the Ministry of Officials. All states in the world, including Guangzhou in Lingnan, would vote on the first day of April. Then the imperial officials would affix seals on the spot and expedite the voting for eight hundred miles.
The ballot boxes were sent to Chang'an.
Unlike the imperial court, all local government voting must use real-name voting, mainly to avoid fraud. In fact, a ballot box only contains dozens of votes. It is easy to find out who cast what vote based on handwriting. Anonymity is meaningless.
Real-name registration is required.
In a restaurant in Pinggao County, Xiaoguan County Magistrate Xie Changming specially invited Bai Juyi, the imperial censor, to have a drink. Bai Juyi took the imperial examination only one year later than Xie Changming, but his official rank was one level lower than Xie Changming. Xie Changming was already a seventh-grade county magistrate.
.
Of course, there are many factors for everyone's promotion. For example, in the same period as Xie Changming, some people were still ninth-grade officials. Xie Changming and others were promoted for a special reason. The Jin army happened to regain Jiangnan. Since Jiangnan accounted for 30% of the imperial court's taxes, in order to win over
Jiangnan gentry, many officials from famous families in Jiangnan were promoted one after another. Xie Changming was a descendant of Xie'an, a famous family in Jiangmen, and Xie An in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. He was promoted from the eighth rank to the seventh rank, and from county captain to county magistrate.
Xiao Zhenye, Han Yu, and Lu Nan all benefited from the Jiangnan noble clan and received special promotions, while Bai Juyi benefited from his wife and was promoted by half a level and got a good job.
Xie Changming poured a glass of wine for Bai Juyi and said with a smile: "How could the imperial court think of letting hundreds of officials vote to approve King Jin's ascension to the throne?"
Bai Juyi picked up the wine glass and said with a smile: "Everyone in the court knows that this is Du Xiangguo's plan, but without the consent of His Highness the King of Jin, it cannot be successfully implemented. I think everyone knows this and is avoiding this sensitive matter."
question."
"But wouldn't it be better if His Royal Highness Prince Jin openly admitted that it was his opinion?"
Bai Juyi shook his head, "You think too simply. It's easy to cheat here. If His Highness wins with a high vote, it will make people doubt the authenticity of the vote. And he is the person involved, so he'd better avoid all rules and enforcement."
It is all operated by the Zhengshitang and the Ministry of Personnel, and has nothing to do with the King of Jin himself."
"But what if it doesn't work?"
Xie Changming smiled and said: "Wouldn't that be self-defeating?"
"How could it not be successful? The Political Affairs Hall has stipulated a thousand recommendation votes. The military took 40%, and the court officials and local officials each took 30%. In the military vote, His Royal Highness the King of Jin was unanimously approved, and he has already received 400 recommendations.
ticket.
Among the remaining 300 votes from the imperial court and 300 votes from local governments, as long as more than 100 recommendation votes are obtained, more than half will agree to King Jin's ascension to the throne.
In fact, the imperial court has received 290 of the 300 recommended votes. His Royal Highness the King of Jin has received nearly 70% of the unanimous support. His ascension to the throne is a foregone conclusion. Even if the local officials vote unanimously against it, it will not change the result. Now, you
It’s time to understand!”
Xie Changming was speechless and said: "This...isn't this just going through the motions?"
"Of course it's not just a formality. Everything must be strictly implemented. This is what everyone expects. Do you still want to veto His Highness the King of Jin?"
"That's not true. Of course I won't object to it. I strongly support it, but I know there are people who are opposed to it, and there are several opponents."
"Who objects?"
Xie Changming hesitated for a moment, leaned forward, and lowered his voice: "I know that Baiquan County Magistrate Wang and Sang County Prime Minister will object. They are both Yuanzhou wealthy families, and the Jin King's abolition order has a great impact on their families.
, they usually complained a lot, saying that Emperor Li Tang could not abolish slavery, and they all hoped that the rule of King Jin would end soon and that Emperor Li Tang would rule the world. They said so publicly."
Bai Juyi sneered, "The Li Tang royal family has exterminated their heirs. Where can there be Emperor Li Tang? Even if there were no heirs, the King of Jin would not allow Emperor Li Tang to ascend the throne. Emperor Li Tang would kill the entire Guo family.
How could King Jin do such a stupid thing that endangers his descendants? These guys are just wishful thinking. If they had the ability, they would vote against it tomorrow morning. I don’t believe they dare to actually vote against it!"
Xie Changming sighed softly, "You are right, they really don't dare to vote against the real-name voting system. These guys are dissatisfied, but their official position is more important. You let them lose their official position just to vent their dissatisfaction."
, they may encourage others to do so, but they themselves will never do stupid things.”
...........
Early the next morning, a voting ceremony was held in Yuanzhou Prefecture Office. More than thirty officials from four counties and prefecture offices filled out their votes on the spot, sealed them in envelopes, and placed them in an empty wooden box for supervision.
Censor Bai Juyi inspected the tickets, sealed the wooden box with the official seal, put it in a cloth bag, and handed it over to the messenger in full view of the public.
Several messengers got on their horses and galloped towards Chang'an with the ballot boxes on their backs...
At the same time, all states in the world also completed their voting at the same time and handed it over to the messengers. The messenger knights from each state rushed the votes to Chang'an in an eight-hundred-mile rush. The officials will conduct unified opening after the last ballot box arrives.
Box check.
Silla's conquest is still continuing. After Guo Song stabilized the rear, he led an army of 80,000 to attack Jinzhou City. Jinzhou City was only 150 miles away from Jinhai Capital. Two days later, an army of 30,000 soldiers led by Li Bing
Arrive at Jinzhou City first.
The gates of Jinzhou City were opened wide, and groups of Donghu soldiers rushed out. After two days of rest, Zhu Ye's army had recovered its morale and physical strength. At the unanimous request of the generals, Zhu Ye also became ambitious. He
We must give the Jin army a head-on blow.
Zhu Ye is good at seizing opportunities. He knows that the opponent's main force is dozens of miles away and will be killed in half a day at most. However, he must seize this half day to defeat the opponent's vanguard army head-on and give the opponent's morale a heavy blow.
.
What's more, the enemy army ran a long distance and consumed a lot of physical strength. At this time, the Jin army's combat effectiveness was weakened, which was the time for them to take advantage of their weakness to attack.
Under the leadership of Zhu Ye, the 50,000-strong army surged towards the Jin army's forward troops ten miles away.
The place where Li Bing's army is currently located is just in front of where the Donghu soldiers massacred the Silla nobles. The terrain here is open, with an open space up to three miles wide, and dense woods on both sides in the distance.
At this time, the 30,000-strong army was already in formation and ready.
In fact, this is a relatively obvious strategy to lure the enemy. There are loopholes in it. Usually the cavalry comes first, but here the infantry arrives first, which is not in line with common sense. However, even such an obvious loophole was ignored by the enemy.
Li Bing secretly admired the judgment of His Highness the King of Jin. Zhu Ye did not dare to admit defeat in terms of momentum. In a battle with the Jin army, he would have to fight if he did not fight. So according to Zhu Yejian's deviant character, he would definitely seize every opportunity to defeat the Jin army.
If they are caught off guard, then they can create this opportunity for Zhu Ye,
"General, the enemy has reached three miles away!"
Li Bing nodded. He had already seen the yellow dust billowing from the opponent's side. The overwhelming army was coming towards them. At the front were five thousand cavalry. The five thousand cavalry were racing wildly on the ground. The fierce sound of horse hooves made the ground shake.
"Pass my order, the heavy armored infantry are in position, and the crossbow army is ready!"
Five thousand heavy-armored infantry were arranged in two staggered rows, squatting half-crouched, holding the sword in their hands on the ground. The sharp blade pointed outward at a 45-degree angle, forming a long wall of gleaming sharp blades.
The cavalry was extremely fast and had already reached a mile away. The cavalry were Khitan soldiers and were directly affiliated with Zhu Ye. Every time they fought with the Silla army, the Khitan cavalry took the lead in attacking the Silla army and broke into the Silla army's formation.
After they dispersed, the army immediately moved up to cover up the enemy and completely defeated the Silla army.
This move has been successful in many battles so far. There has even been a great victory in which 5,000 cavalry swept through 30,000 Silla troops. It has never failed. Against 30,000 Jin troops, Zhu Ye will of course have to repeat his old tricks.
But neither the Khitans nor Zhu Ye himself had ever fought against the Jin army, and had never seen the heavy armored infantry of the Jin army at all.
Behind the heavy armored infantry are 10,000 spear infantry, behind the formation are also 10,000 spear infantry, and in the middle of the two spear infantry are 10,000 crossbowmen. The soldiers are holding arm crossbows, and the crossbow arrows are cocked.
Half squatting on the ground, the crossbow pointed upward, waiting for the order to fire.
At this time, the enemy's cavalry had already reached fifty steps away, while tens of thousands of troops also rushed a hundred steps away.
The red flag was waved and a general shouted: "Shoot!"
Ten thousand crossbows fired in unison, and ten thousand crossbow arrows soared into the sky, forming a cloud of arrows. They moved quickly, passing over the enemy cavalry in front, and fired towards the dense enemy crowd behind. The crossbow arrows fell like a storm, with a pitiful howl.
Crossing the ground, crossbow arrows shot through the enemy's leather armor and nailed countless enemy soldiers to the ground.
At the same time, five thousand cavalry also rushed towards the Modao army formation of the Jin army. The cavalry had clearly seen the forest of swords in front of them, and they screamed in fear.