Volume 1 The Wind Rises Chapter 12 Disagreement
Under the guidance of Cui Yan, Luo Youdu entered the Great Zhou Palace from the side door of Xihuamen.
The Great Zhou Palace was not as majestic and luxurious as imagined. Instead, it was rather simple and full of traces of history.
Luo Youdu pondered secretly that it seemed that both Emperors Guo Wei and Guo Rong lived a relatively frugal life, so he should not be too extravagant when he became rich in the future. He had to follow their example since he was working for them.
On the other hand, Luo Youdu also saw that the economy of the Great Zhou was indeed not that good.
Otherwise, no matter how frugal Guo Wei and Guo Rong are, they still have to put on a show.
After all, this is not an ordinary place. It is the face of the Great Zhou.
Walking through the corridor, Luo Youdu actually heard the shouts of "stab", "kill", "stab", and "kill". The sounds were getting closer and louder.
Luo Youdu's heart sank and he was confused and uncertain. What was going on? Could it be that he was forcing the emperor to abdicate?
Cui Yan smiled and explained, "This is the Imperial Guards training! Luo Congshi must have heard of the example of Tang Taizong's military training in Wude Hall."
Luo Youdu suddenly understood.
He knew that history.
Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, seized the world with the help of the Xuanwu Gate Incident. Although he minimized the impact through various operations, he could not avoid turmoil.
The Turkic Khan Jie Li seized the opportunity and led an army of 200,000 to the city, heading straight for Chang'an.
Li Shimin devised a strategy of false attack and personally led Gao Shilian, Fang Xuanling and six other riders to the Wei River to sign the Wei River Alliance with the Turks.
After the Turks withdrew, Li Shimin regarded this as a great humiliation and set up a training ground in the Wude Hall of the imperial palace, where he trained soldiers day and night in an effort to avenge his humiliation.
Guo Rong followed this example, apparently because he was driven desperate by the soldiers who had turned against their allies in the Battle of Gaoping, and he wanted to train a truly iron-blooded force.
Luo Youdu looked in the direction where the voice came from. In this palace, how bad could the soldiers trained under the emperor's nose be?
He vaguely remembered that when Emperor Taizong of Song, Zhao Laoer, led an expedition to the north, the fighting power of the Song army was terrifyingly strong.
That bastard Zhao Laoer led the Song soldiers to destroy the Northern Han in five months.
Then Zhao Lao Er went back on his word. Before the war, he said that he would reward the army after the Northern Han was destroyed. But after the Northern Han was destroyed, he said that he would reward the army after the conquest of Youzhou.
An emperor's words sound like farting.
This war is not a tour, and the soldiers are not fools.
After the Northern Han was destroyed, the soldiers were lucky enough to survive. No one knew whether they could survive if they went to attack Youzhou again.
Even if we win the battle and die in it, will the military pay still be sent to hell?
Zhao Laoer's words directly caused the Song army to collapse and the soldiers lost their will to fight.
Even so, after a month-long journey, the Song army still defeated the Liao Kingdom's Northern Court King Yelu Xidi, Xiao Taogu, Yishi King Sahe, and Yelu Xizhen, who were stationed on the outskirts of Youzhou, and beat them so hard that they were at a loss.
Han Derang was so frightened that he hid in Youzhou City and dared not move.
Yelu Xizhen and Han Derang are both rare generals.
The Song army then began to besiege Youzhou, and Zhao Laoer made another stupid move.
Originally, a unit of the Song army was going to bypass Youzhou to besiege and attack the reinforcements. However, when Zhao Laoer saw that Youzhou City could not be captured for the time being, he called the army back and attacked the city together.
This is screwed.
The Song army was besieging Youzhou, and there was no soldier guarding the periphery. The Liao reinforcements directly launched a thousand-year killing attack on the Song army, stabbing the Song army in the ass.
To be honest, the Song army was really strong at that time. Using infantry against cavalry, they were at such a disadvantage but still managed to withstand the charge of the and repel the Liao soldiers.
It’s just that the Song army has brave men, and the Liao army has the same.
Yelu Xiu'ge and Yelu Xizhen led the cavalry to go around the back of the Song army, launched a surprise attack on the Song army at night, and directly killed Zhao Laoer's command post, shooting him in the buttocks and thighs with two arrows.
Zhao Laoer had never seen such a scene before, and was so frightened that he abandoned his army and ran away.
This guy had an arrow wound on his butt and couldn't ride a horse, so he got on a donkey cart and drove south with sparks and lightning, leaving behind the myth of the Gaoliang River God of Carts.
Luo Youdu listened to the deafening shouts of killing and couldn't help thinking: The spirit of the Song army must have started from here!
It’s a pity that he met Zhao Laoer.
When passing by the training ground, Luo Youdu suddenly saw a man. He was dressed in iron armor, tall and mighty, and was inspecting the training of the soldiers.
Zhao Kuangyin!
Zhao Kuangyin suddenly looked outside the hall and saw a familiar figure.
Luo Youdu!
The two men looked at each other, one outside the hall and the other inside, with a limited field of vision, and soon the figures disappeared from each other's sight.
Zhao Kuangyin withdrew his gaze, thoughtful.
Luo Youdu stopped having wild thoughts and followed Cui Yan obediently to Yanhe Hall, where Guo Rong handled government affairs after leaving court.
After waiting outside the palace for a while, Luo Youdu received a message from the eunuch: Guo Rong wanted to see him!
Luo Youdu straightened his clothes and strode into the hall.
"I, Luo Youdu, an official of the Law Department, pay my respects to Your Majesty."
Luo Youdu bowed a little lower than usual.
Cui Yan had already explained the rules to him in detail.
If it is a formal court meeting, all civil and military officials must bow respectfully and greet each other.
In such private occasions, a long bow will suffice.
Guo Rong looked at the people in the hall with great interest and said, "No need to be polite. Please take a seat."
Stools and chairs have become popular in this era.
There are two ways to be seated. One is to be seated directly, which means kneeling on a mat like in ancient times. The other is to be seated on a chair, which means sitting normally on a chair.
Luo Youdu obviously hasn't reached that level yet.
There was a glimmer of surprise in Guo Rong's eyes. He knew that Luo Youdu was not very old, only in his early twenties. But at this moment, seeing that he was calm and his eyes were bright, without any fear at all, he couldn't help but feel happy.
Luo Youdu's magnanimity alone earned him a lot of points in the heart of the Emperor of the Great Zhou.
Guo Rong's guess as to whether Luo Youdu was hiding his incompetence was just a guess. It was not very important to him whether he was right or not. He also wanted to give Cui Yan a hint and scold him, so that he would know that the dispute between Zhang Yue and Lu Bin was not because both of them had their reasons, but because he, the top leader of Kaifeng Prefecture, was too indecisive and lacked the courage to make a final decision, which allowed them to fight each other.
But from the first impression, Guo Rong felt that his guess was correct.
"Taizhi Cui held three meetings, and you attended all of them. I summoned you today to ask what you think about the attitudes between Zhang Yue and Lu Bin regarding the use of torture. To be honest, I never punish people for their speech."
Luo Youdu stood up, bowed slightly, and said: "I agree with the ideas of the two superiors. What they said makes sense. But I do not agree with their method of torture..."
