Chapter 61: Victory News
The army returned to the city and wrote a military report to the court to report the victory. Originally, Niu Jizong meant that Qi Ming should be the first meritorious. After all, Qi Ming led the Lanzhou camp out of the city and killed 10,000 enemies. However, Qi Ming said that Jia Cong went out first, and then raided and disrupted the enemy army at a critical moment, and then the Lanzhou camp had the opportunity to go out and fight. Therefore, Jia Cong should be the first meritorious, and he should be the second.
The beginning of the twelfth lunar month!
Several fast horses suddenly appeared on the Imperial Street of Shenjing, and a knight in the lead shouted, "Great victory at Jingyuguan! 50,000 soldiers and horses of Luosha Kingdom invaded the border, more than 20,000 were killed or injured, and Daqian won a great victory!"
The horse galloped forward until it stopped in front of the palace gate. However, the palace guards did not dare to neglect it. While leading the knight forward, they sent someone inside to report.
Today happened to be the day of the grand court meeting, and even Jia Zheng, a minor official of the fifth rank, was qualified to attend the court. However, due to his rank, he could only stand outside the hall. Of course, if there was something to report, he could also leave the hall, and then the eunuchs would naturally report it to him.
Emperor Longxing sat high on the dragon throne, and below him, all the civil and military officials stood in order and bowed!
Emperor Longxing had just lost his temper. It was the end of the year and the treasury was almost empty. The Dragon Head Palace where he lived should have been repaired long ago, except for the fact that it was leaking. However, officials' salaries, soldiers' wages, and floods everywhere, where could they be short of money? Moreover, after the abdication of the emperor, he highly respected Taoism. This meant that they were going to build another Wentian Pavilion. The Ministry of Works calculated that even if they were frugal, it would cost one or two million taels of silver.
He just felt that there was nothing that could make him happy every day.
Everyone says that being an emperor is good, but actually sitting on this position, especially wanting to be an ambitious and wise ruler, is simply not something a human being should do.
Of course, his biggest frustration came from power! With the emperor in charge, he had been on the throne for many years, but he didn't have much military power.
There is no need to think about the Yuanping lineage. As long as the emperor is still alive, he dare not interfere too much, unless the emperor takes the initiative to lean towards him.
As for the founding lineage, they were actually also close to the retired emperor, just like the second generation of Duke Rong, who followed the retired emperor in his campaigns. Although they were from the founding lineage, they were also subjects of the retired emperor. However, the founding lineage dukes were not as close to the Yuanping lineage as they were, and their power also fell to the bottom.
The only one in charge of the army was Wang Ziteng. Although Wang Ziteng did not get along with Yuan Ping's lineage, he respected the emperor.
Emperor Longxing tried hard to have his own voice in the army, and this time, sending the sons of eight dukes and twelve marquises to guard the border was a test and attempt on his part.
"Xia Shouzhong, go see what's going on outside? It's so noisy!"
The noise coming from outside made Emperor Longxing even more angry. Did they really not take the emperor seriously?
Xia Shouzhong hurried out, and after a moment, he ran back with a look of joy on his face, and then knelt on the ground and kowtowed, "Your Majesty, great joy! A great victory was won at Jingyu Pass in Lanzhou, and the soldiers who came to report the victory have arrived outside the palace!"
Emperor Longxing stood up suddenly, "Quick, announce!"
Soon, a eunuch led a soldier into the hall.
"I am the general Niu Jizong's subordinate and I have ordered the soldiers to come and report the victory!"
"speak!"
"…In early September, 50,000 troops from Luosha invaded the border. General Niu Jizong and the commander of the Lanzhou camp led their troops out of the pass to fight. They were defeated in the first battle, with more than 10,000 troops killed. They then retreated to Jingyu Pass!"
"The troops of Luosha Kingdom attacked Jingyu Pass repeatedly, fighting every day for dozens of days. By the end of September, our Daqian troops had suffered more than 20,000 casualties, and Jingyu Pass was in danger..."
The words of the soldier made the veins of Emperor Longxing jump. Didn't he say he was going to report victory? Why was there a series of casualties and defeats? If he hadn't known that this soldier wouldn't dare to deceive him, he would have been furious by now.
"The military situation is urgent, and Jingyuguan is in danger! The military commander Jia Cong took the initiative to ask for a fight, wanting to leave Jingyuguan to contain the Luosha army!"
"General Niu Jizong agrees!"
"On the night of October 2, General Jia Cong led his 2,500 cavalry out of the capital's Jade Pass!"
"On the fifth day of October, Luosha State once again gathered troops to attack the pass. When the two sides were fighting fiercely, General Jia Cong, who was hiding outside Jingyu Pass, led his troops to attack the enemy's right wing, killing more than 3,000 enemies and disrupting the enemy's army formation!"
"Okay!" Upon hearing this, Emperor Longxing felt his blood rushing up, and he shouted, "Keep talking!"
"The commander of the Lanzhou camp inside Jingyu Pass shouted, leaving more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to General Niu Jizong to guard the pass, and then he personally led all 20,000 soldiers and horses out of the pass to seize the opportunity and attack, and the enemy was defeated!"
"Commander Qi Ming and General Jia Cong led their troops to pursue and kill the enemy for dozens of miles, killing nearly 20,000 enemies. The Luosha army was frightened and dared not fight again, so they retreated a hundred miles and stopped fighting..."
"Good, good, good..." Emperor Longxing's eyes lit up, and all the civil and military officials in the court woke up from their astonishment and kowtowed to the ground, "Congratulations, Your Majesty..."
Emperor Longxing was too lazy to pay attention to these people, and instead asked the soldier, "The general Jia Cong you are talking about is the one who killed two to three thousand enemies and rushed into the enemy's center to kill the enemy's main general in the military report last year?"
"Your Majesty, that's exactly what happened. General Jia Cong joined the army as a battalion commander, initially commanding 500 cavalrymen! In last year's battle, he was promoted to the rank of military commander for his military merits, commanding an entire army!"
"Haha, you are indeed worthy of being my Daqian Qilin son. Young general, this is exactly what you should do!"
"Submit the detailed military report, and you can withdraw and collect your reward!" Emperor Longxing said to the soldier with a big laugh.
After he sat down, he took the military newspaper from Xia Shouzhong, flipped through it, and then said, "Fang Yao!"
When Fang Yao, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, came out of the class, he heard Emperor Longxing say, "If I remember correctly, this Jia Cong is your disciple's grandson?"
Fang Yao said, "Your Majesty, Jia Cong was selected as the top candidate by my disciple Wei Qi because of his outstanding literary talent in the county examination. After that, Jia Cong came to my house to become my disciple! He even won the title of scholar by passing the top three in the imperial examination! To be honest with your Majesty, when Jia Cong volunteered to go to the border, my disciple had a big quarrel with the Jia family. If it weren't for Jia Cong's loyalty, filial piety and patriotism, I'm afraid he would have made a scene in front of your Majesty."
"Yes, I remember this incident. At the beginning, the Jia family was poor and sent a scholar who only won the imperial examination to guard the border. I was so angry that I wanted to issue an imperial decree to reprimand the Jia family. However, I later heard that Jia Cong wanted to follow the example of his ancestors and serve the court, so I gave up. I never thought that Jia Cong would give me a surprise."
"Other things are easy to say, but Jia Cong has already made two great contributions. Although he has been promoted in the army, it is far from enough! How should we reward him?"
"Your Majesty, I think Jia Cong is loyal to the emperor and patriotic, and he is also the bravest among the three armies. He should be rewarded handsomely and given a title!"
The person who spoke up was none other than Hou Xiaokang, the first-class viscount of Xiuguo Mansion! The four kings and eight dukes were from the same lineage, and now that Jia Cong had made a great contribution, they naturally wanted to give him a push.
"That's wrong. It was just two encounters. If you can confer a title for such achievements, then wouldn't we have too many nobles in Daqian? At most, they can be promoted to a higher rank or two, but conferring a title is too much."
