Volume 1 The Wind Rises Chapter 35 Meeting Li Chongjin
Luo Youdu left the palace, glanced in the direction of the Council Chamber, and said to himself: "Sure enough, we can't underestimate anyone."
From the beginning he had a feeling that everything was going too smoothly.
Ever since he went to the Ministry of Household Registration to investigate household registration, all his goals have been easily achieved.
In almost every matter he encountered, there was someone who cooperated with him in a vague way. Even the top leader of Kaifeng Prefecture gave way to him and found an excuse to run away to Luoyang.
Until today, Shi Shouxin fell into the trap as agreed, and Luo Youdu just reacted.
His plan to revitalize Kaifeng Prefecture has become a means for several prime ministers in the conference room to suppress the military with culture.
Luo Youdu always felt that Fan Zhi and Wang Pu had extraordinary administrative abilities but were not good at internal fighting, which was why they were so miserably suppressed by the military generals.
Now it seems that I have underestimated those bigwigs in high positions.
As a scholar, how could it be possible not to have some devious thoughts?
Infighting?
That is the skill that civil servants rely on to make a living, so how could they not be good at it?
It's just that the general trend of the court is to value military power over culture. Faced with this trend, these old foxes wisely chose to lay down their arms, shrink like a tortoise shell, and show their weakness to the enemy.
The weaker the civil officials, the more arrogant the military officials became, and the less they would tolerate an outstanding ruler like Guo Rong.
This will help to achieve the goal of controlling military power with culture as soon as possible.
As expected, Guo Rong accelerated the process of controlling the military with civil officials and began to improve the status of civil officials in the government.
No action has been taken so far, fearing that none of the old foxes are willing to be the first to take action.
It just so happened that Wang Jixun's incident happened, and he was involved in it. Naturally, he took advantage of the situation and pushed himself to the front line, becoming the pawn that broke the deadlock.
Being used as a pawn in the hands of the two prime ministers, Fan Zhi and Wang Pu, Luo Youdu did not have much resistance and was very open-minded about it.
If you can take advantage of others, others can certainly take advantage of you.
Whether in modern times or in ancient times, no one can avoid becoming a pawn in the hands of others. The key lies in whether you are a discarded pawn or a master with sufficient value and benefits.
As for chess players, they need to have a certain status.
If you can’t even be a good chess piece, how can you play chess?
"join the army!"
Zhang Jin walked over quickly.
Luo Youdu nodded and said with a smile: "Thank you for your hard work!"
He clearly realized that after what happened with Wang Jixun, Zhang Jin had developed a sense of admiration for him and completely identified with him. He offered to act as a bodyguard to avoid being persecuted by Wang Jixun's relatives and friends.
Luo Youdu naturally valued him even more.
"Don't rush back to Kaifeng Prefecture. Let's go to Li Shixiang's house."
The envoy Li is naturally Li Chongjin.
Li Chongjin was a military general and held the title of prime minister, but in reality he was unable to exercise the power of a prime minister. It was just a symbol of status.
Li Chongjin promised yesterday to help Shi Shouxin, Li Jixun, Zhao Kuangyin and others to plead for Wang Jixun, but today when he saw Shi Shouxin took the initiative and seized the upper hand in the court, he naturally did not say much, but returned to his house and read quietly in the study.
The older you get, the more you can appreciate the benefits of reading.
When Li Chongjin was young, he was like many generals in the world. He was young and frivolous, thinking that scholars in the world were just boastful people and not worth mentioning. He spent all his time studying archery and horse riding, and then learned the skills of leading troops in battle from his uncle Guo Wei.
However, as his status became higher and higher, Li Chongjin gradually found that his knowledge was no longer sufficient to support his current position, so he began to pick up books to make up for his shortcomings.
It was also because of picking up the book that Li Chongjin's realm was sublimated, he became more calm, and learned to keep a low profile.
Otherwise, considering that he was able to compete with Guo Rong for the historical status of the Emperor of the Great Zhou, why would Guo Rong respect him as the number one in the military and even trust him so much that he would be in charge of commanding the troops in the imperial palace?
"Prime Minister, there is a man outside the palace who claims to be Luo Youdu, a military officer of the Law Department, asking to see you."
Li Chongjin slowly put down the book, thought for a moment, and said, "Please invite him to the reception room. I will be there soon."
After pondering for a moment, Li Chongjin couldn't guess Luo Youdu's purpose, so he simply gave up thinking about it and walked straight to the reception room.
The first impression Luo Youdu gave him was that he was young, too young.
I've heard that this well-known military officer in Kaifeng Prefecture is young and promising, but I never imagined he's so young.
When Li Chongjin was looking at Luo Youdu, Luo Youdu also secretly glanced at Li Chongjin.
Luo Youdu had a deep impression of this military leader.
In later generations, Luo Youdu specifically learned about the history of the Chenqiao Mutiny.
The reason why the Chenqiao mutiny was successful was mainly due to the fact that the generals and officers in Kaifeng City did not resist.
On the one hand, it was because Zhao Kuangyin was so popular among the soldiers, and on the other hand, it was because the Chai family was an orphan and a widow and could be bullied.
The initial cause of this was a mysterious transfer order, which ordered Li Chongjin, the military governor of Chengde Army, co-prime minister, and commander of the Imperial Guard Army, to be appointed as the military governor of Huainan, acting grand marshal, and concurrently the imperial attendant.
The young brat Chai Zongxun directly transferred Li Chongjin, who held the military power of the imperial city and was loyal to him, to Huainan, which resulted in the entire city defense of the capital falling into the hands of Zhao Kuangyin.
If it weren't for this transfer order, Zhao Kuangyin would have no hope of launching a mutiny.
When Li Chongjin learned that Zhao Kuangyin was plotting a rebellion, he chose to raise an army to restore the Later Zhou Dynasty, but by then the situation was already hopeless.
Li Chongjin did not have a good impression of Luo Youdu and said coldly: "Since you are here, I think Shi Shouxin, Li Jixun and others have already lost."
Luo Youdu bowed and said, "Your Majesty made the choice, so there is no difference between winning and losing. Your Majesty has specifically ordered me to handle this matter with full authority, and has allowed me to search Wang Jixun's mansion and behead him in Kaifeng Prefecture."
Li Chongjin's face suddenly changed when he heard this, and he shouted, "How dare you! Are you showing off to me?"
Luo Youdu hurriedly said, "I dare not. The envoy has misunderstood me. I came here for myself, for the envoy, and for the emperor. I know that the envoy thinks that executing Wang Jixun in this way is an insult to him."
"Isn't it?" Li Chongjin said angrily, " Wang Jixun is wrong in every way. He has made contributions to the Great Zhou. He has fought against hundreds of enemies many times on the battlefield, regardless of his own death. Is it so difficult to give him a peaceful death?"
Luo Youdu did not directly answer Li Chongjin's question, but asked: "Is the Prime Minister afraid of death?"
"Who isn't afraid of death?" Li Chongjin answered without hesitation.
Luo Youdu said, "Yes, who is not afraid of death? But when I interrogated Wang Jixun last night, I asked him why he killed those guards who were loyal to him. May I know what his answer was?"
"He said that he wanted to kill me because I rejected him in public and he felt humiliated. But he didn't dare to kill me because he was afraid of losing his life. So he took out his anger on the guards and killed them as if he had killed me. To this day, what he regrets most is not that he killed his guards, but that he didn't kill me at the time."
"Prime Minister, do you think this kind of person is afraid of death or not?"
