Chapter 470 Feiyan Manages Military Affairs
Faced with the chaos in Liangzhe, Hua Yue, who had been promoted to deputy position of Central Council and chief envoy of Censorate, said happily that Liangzhe was in a state of disarray and that troops could be dispatched to suppress it directly.
Lord Cao also held the same opinion. Large armies were stationed in Huating, Qingyuan Prefecture and Wenzhou in Liangzhe. With the help of the militia who surrendered, it would be no problem to take over Liangzhe.
However, Mr. Ding had a different opinion. He believed that the new Song Dynasty's announcement to the world and urging Liangzhe to dismantle its independent separatist regimes had been effective, and we should add fuel to the fire to force their further disintegration, set a time limit for their surrender, and issue an ultimatum. In this way, people in the world would have no objection.
Zhao Yulin wanted to laugh when he heard this. To conquer Liangzhe required such a complicated procedure. It really was like an educated person who did not mind the trouble.
However, both Mr. Fan and Mr. Du spoke up to express their agreement, and it seems that there are quite a few people who hold this view.
He thought about it and suggested that we set a two-month deadline. After two months, if Liangzhe still did not open the pass and surrender, we would send troops to take it over. Here, I would like you to do some work and contact the officials familiar with Liangzhe to persuade them to follow the will of heaven. This is what we have done.
The officials agreed immediately and then discussed the appointment of officials.
Zhao Feiyan happily told everyone: After Xie Gong first defected to us, Yulin brother immediately proposed to appoint him and announced it to the world, and the officials in Liangzhe couldn't sit still, and hundreds of them came running out. If we announce the appointment publicly this time, I'm afraid all the officials in Liangzhe will come.
Everyone in the room burst into laughter when they heard this.
He took a sip of tea and said: Not necessarily. We can't just give official positions to everyone we want. Those who used to work in the pseudo-court need to be examined and verified one by one.
He proposed to first sort out the officials of Huating County, Qingyuan Prefecture and Wenzhou, and to let the Ministry of Personnel issue official documents to stabilize these places. At the same time, it also let the local officials of Liangzhe see the sincerity of the new Song Dynasty. If they don't surrender, they may not even be able to be local officials of the same level in the future.
As for those officials who surrendered in Lin'an Prefecture, we will not appoint them for the time being. There are too many of them, and they are of varying quality. Let them all come to Chengdu, and we will appoint them after we have screened and verified them. We will first calculate their salaries from the day they surrendered, and ask Jiankang Prefecture to pay their salaries and arrange for official ships to send them up. How about that?
Lord Li immediately agreed with Zhao Yulin's opinion. He pointed to the document and showed everyone that many of the people were still Shangshu, Shilang, Jieshizhong, etc. from the previous dynasty. What was this called?
Do you still want us to inherit their positions as Shangshu and Shilang and give us the same official positions and salaries?
It is obvious that he is dreaming.
The gentlemen immediately burst into laughter, nodded and said "good, very good". They agreed with Zhao Yulin's suggestion to appoint those local officials to stabilize the political situation first, and invite the rest to live in Chengdu before discussing it.
Zhao Yulin told them: There is another urgent matter at the moment, which is that the Ministry of War must immediately formulate a contingency strategy for Liangzhe.
Once a few local officials are appointed, the chief officials of various places will have ideas, and there will definitely be another wave of prefectures and counties willing to surrender to us. This requires our troops to move in quickly to prevent bloody conflicts caused by internal repression in Liangzhe.
Lao Cao immediately nodded and said: This is the responsibility of the Ministry of War. It is a military secret. Please let King Feiyan make the arrangements on his own.
Zhao Feiyan immediately looked at Zhao Yulin.
He said: "The king is in charge of the army, so he will naturally arrange and dispatch it, and no one dares to disobey. He also has to go to Dujiangyan to check the annual maintenance of water conservancy and will not participate in the court meeting. He believes that the Ministry of War will plan a perfect strategy for the king.
Everyone was stunned immediately.
Then it dawned on me.
This means Zhao Yulin wants Zhao Feiyan to take care of military affairs alone.
Everyone immediately said happily that they had a lot of things to do and were busy with their own things. One by one, they asked Zhao Feiyan for leave and left Jinguan City under various pretexts.
When they came out, Lao Cao said he also wanted to go to Dujiangyan. The Ministry of Water Resources immediately sent someone to inform Yu Shangshu that he would accompany them. Lao Cao told Yu Jie not to rush, as they were just going to take a look. Zhao Yulin said there was nothing else to do, so they set off right away. The two of them got on the carriage and headed straight for Dujiangyan.
After leaving the city, Lao Cao asked him if he was so confident.
Zhao Yulin said it was a small matter. Liangzhe was like an old man on his deathbed. Even if Feiyan was not thoughtful, there were still a group of military advisers. What was there to be afraid of? The king always had to control the military power and dispatch the three armies.
Lao Cao pondered for a moment, nodded and said yes, let our king make the final decision.
He put his worries aside, looked at the clear sky and was in high spirits. He asked Zhao Yulin to race with him again, saying that it was getting late and they wanted to catch up so as not to worry the guards when it got dark.
Haha, this great general who had served as the king still liked the feeling of riding a horse and galloping. He couldn't wait to stop the carriage and lead the horse over.
Zhao Yulin rode his red lightning horse and followed behind Lao Cao, urging his horse to gallop.
In Jinguan City, Zhao Feiyan became nervous.
She pulled Yangjin over and asked her brother what was going on.
No need to worry about military affairs?
Yangjin smiled and said that her brother was handing over power, and wanted to tell everyone that the Shenwei Army was the New Song army under the control of the king, and she just needed to be in charge of the dispatch.
Shunzhi Di said that Minister Miao is still in Jiankang Prefecture, so we can only ask the deputy envoy and the staff officer to discuss the matter.
Yangjin told them that Sister Yuqi was also the deputy envoy, so why not invite Sister Yuqi to come over for discussion. The three women talked to each other and immediately came up with an idea.
After a short while, Wu Yuqi arrived with two staff officers.
Zhao Feiyan said seriously that Commander Zhao and Lord Cao had left Beijing for some business, so let's discuss how to use the troops in Liangzhe. Then she told him the strategy of disintegrating Liangzhe discussed by the Central Council.
After listening to this, the staff officers looked at Wu Yuqi without saying anything.
Wu Yuqi told them that the king had never asked about military affairs in the past, and it was the Third Young Master and Lord Cao who made the arrangements. Today, the Third Young Master handed over power to the king and asked for leave, and he and Lord Cao had gone to Dujiangyan to do business. The Feiyan State's main military department drafted a strategy for using troops in Liangzhe and sent an order to Jiankang Prefecture.
The two staff officers heard it clearly and immediately said that the Ministry of War had already prepared a plan. Geng immediately went to get a thick stack of manuscripts. Zhao Feiyan opened it after verifying it and saw that it was really good. The Ministry of War actually prepared three emergency plans in advance to deal with the changes in Liangzhe.
She picked out the second one and said it was the one to go. She ordered Minister Miao to stay in Jiankang Prefecture to coordinate and respond flexibly, and to coordinate Guo Jing in Jiangxi, Yang Jia in Fujian, the Jianghai Department of Jiankang Prefecture and the South China Sea Fleet of the Navy to deal with possible military situations in Liangzhe.
The staff officer immediately replied that he would obey the order and asked her to sign the document.
After everyone left, Wu Yuqi said that she should go to Jiankang Prefecture. To deal with Liangzhe, the army could not fight a large-scale war, so her Shunfeng Division was the best choice.
Zhao Feiyan said reluctantly that her sister and brother had just returned, and they must have suffered a lot from the long journey.
Wu Yuqi said happily that it was not hard at all, as she was serving the country.
Shunzhi Di burst out laughing, and said with great envy that her sister was very happy to be with her brother, so it was not hard at all. The four women immediately started to wrestle with laughter, and Wu Yuqi still insisted on going to the Liangzhe front in Jiankang Prefecture.
At Dujiangyan in Daojiang County, Zhao Yulin and Lao Cao rushed into the city in the evening. The county magistrate was shocked when he heard that they had arrived, and hurried out to greet them. However, they went straight to the newly opened Chaihuo Chicken on Linshui Street. Before they entered, the people who were eating and playing around were looking around nervously.
Oh my god, hundreds of mighty and strong soldiers came all of a sudden. When has there ever been such a small Daojiang County? When the shopkeeper heard that the third young master had arrived, he hurried out to meet him and carefully told him that Madam Hulan had also ordered a meal here.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said, “Let’s eat together.”
Ke Zhenxie immediately arranged for guards to invite Hu Lan and the others over.
Lao Cao joked that he was so happy, he had a warm home wherever he went, and his petite wives were all prettier than the other.
Zhao Yulin's face turned red after hearing what he said, and he didn't know how to respond. He smiled faintly and motioned Lao Cao to have some tea, which was authentic Qingcheng tea.
As he was talking, his mother Si Niang and Hu Lan came in with a group of children.
Zhao Yulin saw Wu Jing walking happily in front, and immediately stood up to greet her and introduced her to Lao Cao. The little friends were all so sweet.
Cao Youwen laughed and asked everyone to sit down, and asked his fourth mother to sit in the upper seat, saying loudly that today was a gathering of friends and family, and the elders should sit in the upper seat. This made his fourth mother embarrassed, and she insisted on declining.
Zhao Yulin said that we are eating firewood chicken, and everyone eats around the fire without distinction, but today ladies are given priority. He and Lord Cao were drinking at the bottom, and asked the little friends to sit down quickly. As he spoke, he pulled his fourth mother and Hulan to the main seat, and he and Lao Cao sat at the opposite seat.
Old Cao was very moved to see that children like Chen Liu, Wu Jing, and Zhu Fugui had all grown up. He picked up the wine glass and drank with his mother, Hu Lan, and wanted to drink with the children too .
This made Wu Jing and the others very excited. They all ran to toast Uncle Cao with wine, and Uncle Cao soon became tipsy.
Zhao Yulin quickly signaled to Hu Lan to tell the kids to take it easy and not get Lord Cao drunk.
He pulled Hu Lan over to toast Lao Cao, thanking Lao Cao for coming to Dujiangyan to preside over their wedding ceremony, and told Lao Cao to drink this glass of wine and then have tea.
What did Lao Cao ask in surprise?
Brother, are you coming to Dujiangyan to marry little sister Hulan?
Zhao Yulin said, of course. Otherwise, what else could be more important than the state affairs in Chengdu?
The knot between Hu Lan and Zhao Yulin has been untied, but she still feels a little resistant. When she hears that Zhao Yulin is so happy that he doesn't care about anything else just to get married, her face looks like two ripe apples.
He hugged the young woman and said: The wedding in Suzhou was too hasty. Now that Linshui Street has been built, we have built a new home with our own hands, so we should have another wedding here.
How about we ask Si Niang to take care of the wedding and Lord Cao to officiate our wedding so that we can have a grand wedding?
Hu Lan was already intoxicated, leaning against him with her head buried in his chest.
The little friends kept shouting: "Yeah, yeah yeah."
Lao Cao was delighted when he saw this and kept saying: That’s great, that’s great.
He pushed Hu Lan and said, "A toast to thank Lord Cao."
