Volume 2 Chapter 16 Rumors (Part 2)
"Let me tell you something trivial first."
Zhao Jiu smiled knowingly. "Just now there was some disturbance outside the palace. It was said that there were rumors, so I took such measures to deal with it... But please rest assured, what I said outside the palace was all true."
After Lu Haowen, several prime ministers and people involved in the matter, including those who were given the title of "famous beauty", whether they believed it or not, quickly bowed their heads.
"Besides that, I am a normal man and I definitely don't want to be a monk. If any of my wives can learn from Han Liangchen's wives and dress in military uniforms, I will accept it..." Zhao Jiu continued with a smile. "You must know that what I want to learn is the perseverance of Emperor Zhaolie of the Han Dynasty, not his abandonment of his wife and children at will. Xinye is just to the south."
The ministers remained motionless with their heads bowed, but someone beside the emperor suddenly felt a stir in his heart.
"Finally, this matter ends here!" Zhao Jiu suddenly became serious. "We have been wandering for a year, and the Jin army has just withdrawn. We have finally found a place to stay. We must not cause trouble without reason... Zhang Jun!"
"I'm here!" Zhang Jun was shocked and bowed his head quickly.
"You are the Minister of the Censorate. If any censor arbitrarily impeaches the prime minister, other key officials, or anyone else because of this matter, don't wait for him to hand in the letter. You should first submit a memorial to dismiss him!" Emperor Zhao's tone was extremely stern.
"I have received the imperial edict!" Zhang Jun became more and more frightened, but he accepted the order seriously.
The two Imperial Censors, one Hu Yin and the other a recently appointed official who was a subordinate and named Li Guang, also bowed their heads solemnly.
On the other side, Lu Haowen was naturally grateful and shed tears: "I am incompetent, but I would like to thank the emperor for protecting me!"
The chief escort Lan Gui, who had caused such a disaster, simply knelt on the ground and thanked the government for its protection.
Of course I have to thank the government for its protection!
Bachelor Kobayashi, who had recently returned to normal, watched coldly, but secretly sighed at the good luck of Lu Haowen and Lan Gui.
It was said that on the way, Xiaolin had already noticed that something was wrong with the emperor. So far, he saw very clearly that the emperor was very angry about the rumor. However, the emperor was not angry about the farce of the famous lady or the rumor. He was worried that the rumor came out because someone was impatient and wanted to take the opportunity to cause trouble as soon as they were settled down, in order to bring down the weakest of the officials, Lu Xianggong!
However, the emperor's attitude was already very clear at this time. He hoped to maintain the political stability of the secondary capital and was extremely angry about this kind of sabotage. Therefore, he would rather continue to be a widow and forcibly saved Lu Haowen.
As for Lan Gui, he was able to escape danger unexpectedly because of Lu Haowen.
Thinking of this, Scholar Kobayashi looked at several suspects again - among the other four gentlemen, except for the three of Liu Ji, there was the Chief Censor Zhang Jun who was already frightened at this time, and Yan Xiaozhong, Shaoyin Yan, who took the initiative to get involved in this matter.
Among them, judging from their actions and personal style, Zhang Jun is the most suspicious, and Yan Xiaozhong is the least suspicious... As for the three prime ministers, they cannot be defended or cleared.
In fact, this should be another important reason why the government’s proposal to appoint officials was passed after only a slight concession. The ministers were all under suspicion.
"Officials!"
Just as Xiaolin's brain was gradually functioning as usual, Yan Xiaozhong, who had a dark face, could not help but step out and confront him. "I am absolutely impartial in this matter. With my mere experience as the governor of Tangzhou and having been captured before, I am already a very promising person to be the governor of Nanyang Prefecture. It will not benefit me at all to slander the prime minister at this time!"
"I said it!" Zhao Jiu rarely looked at him with a straight face. "No one is at fault in this matter, don't mention it again!"
Yan Xiaozhong had no choice but to nod his head in agreement. Seeing this, Zhang Jun and several other men, who had been slightly excited, became solemn and dared not say anything.
"As for military marriages, we must be careful of Zhao Yan's 'living wife' during the Cao Wei period. I won't ask about the rest. Mr. Lu is experienced and knowledgeable, so he can take his time." Zhao Jiu relaxed his face and spoke calmly. "Let's talk about Fan Qiong!"
Lu Haowen was relieved at this time. He didn't say anything after hearing this, but looked directly at Wang Boyan. Wang Boyan understood and quickly stepped out to resume his speech, but he was much more serious and compact: "Your Majesty, please know that my judgment on Fan Qiong's matter these days is different from the doubts that other ministers have taken on. Fan Qiong is in Xiangyang, so I have done a lot of exploration and response, and now I am here."
As he spoke, the deputy privy envoy took out a note from his arms, then ignored Lan Gui who stood up and hurried over to take it, and instead directly handed it to Lu Haowen on the side, who then handed it to Lan Gui.
"It is indeed detailed... Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Wang." Zhao Jiu opened the note and could not help but speak slowly after just one glance. "It turns out that Fan Qiong did not occupy the entire Xiangzhou, but only concentrated in Xiangzhou, Dengcheng, and Niu Shou... Thirty thousand troops, is that enough?!"
"Good instructor, I know." Wang Boyan hurriedly explained seriously. "Fan Qiong set out on his own with only three or four thousand soldiers. But when he arrived here to fight against the military thieves Li Xiaozhong and his brother, he recruited a lot of soldiers from the southwest of Beijing and the north of Jinghu... At that time, he was the army and Li Xiaozhong was the thief, so the military and states naturally cooperated well. So when Li Xiaozhong was driven out by him, he had about 10,000 soldiers, and these 10,000 soldiers were his foundation and reliance."
Zhao Jiu nodded slowly.
After all, at that time, Fan Qiong still had the possibility of a peaceful solution, so he would not go too far, so he was constrained by organization and logistics. In fact, at that time, Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun, and Liu Guangshi were actually core forces of about 10,000.
"After the emperor killed Liu Guangshi and Ding Jin, he was afraid and began to prepare himself a little. He also recruited some soldiers locally, but not too much. All together, there were only 15,000 soldiers..." Wang Boyan continued to preach seriously. "But the emperor should not forget that Wanyan Yinshu left in a hurry because of the matter in Shanzhou. He only brought back the Wanhu he brought from Taiyuan. As a result, many defeated soldiers in the west of Beijing who surrendered to the Jin people in Dengzhou had nowhere to go. And the emperor's imperial camp army pressed on again, so they had to follow the example of Zhao Zongyin and go to Xiangyang."
Zhao Jiu nodded slightly, but calmly: "In that case, we can defeat them in one fell swoop, saving us from wasting time. However, Wang Xianggong said in this letter that we can still deal with Fan Qiong in a righteous manner. What does that mean? Do we still need to persuade him to surrender now?"
"How could this be?" Wang Boyan laughed. "This guy watched Wanyan Yinshu run rampant in the west of Beijing before, and he refused to come even when the emperor summoned him for the last time. It's obvious that he can't be kept... But the emperor, Fan Qiong knows that the emperor can't tolerate him, and he is determined to be a traitor, but the soldiers and officers under him may not want to follow him. These people are the emperor's nominal subjects and soldiers in the name of the court. Before the emperor didn't come, Fan Qiong didn't show his rebellious intentions, and these people were safe. Now that the emperor has led a large army to Nanyang, how can they be safe and not worry about the future?"
Zhao Jiu nodded again... In fact, not to mention Fan Qiong's subordinates, even Fan Qiong himself, who knew that he could not be tolerated by the central government, was timid and did not dare to make up his mind to really rebel. This can be seen from the fact that in the previous year, countless taxes and goods from Bashu were transferred from the Yangtze River to the Han River, through Xiangyang to Nanyang, but this man did not dare to cut off the transportation.
"So, I have two plans." Wang Boyan bowed and said again, but he became serious again. "First, please ask the emperor to issue an order to designate Fan Qiong as the leader of the traitors and publicly offer a reward for his arrest, and at the same time pardon all the innocent people below Fan Qiong and allow them to bring their own troops and equipment to the imperial camp to report; second, please take advantage of the geographical advantages of Nanyang and Xiangyang, send people south, and spread rumors in Xiangzhou, saying that several of Fan Qiong's main generals all want to kill him to serve Nanyang..."
Zhao Jiu suddenly laughed: "This is a strategy of driving a tiger to devour a wolf, it must be effective. Mr. Wang was laughing before, why didn't he laugh when he talked about this?"
"Reporting to the emperor." Wang Boyan became more serious. "This is a military strategy. As the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, I have no choice but to do it. But such a sinister strategy should not be taken seriously by a moral person."
Zhao Jiu smiled and asked again: "Then I have already said that I want to personally lead the army to the south. Does this count as me taking charge of a dirty matter as the emperor?"
Wang Boyan was embarrassed for a moment, but could only force himself to explain: "The government is using justice to punish the rebels, which is in line with the great principles."
Zhao Jiuqing knew what was going on. It was nothing more than that no one felt any psychological pressure when facing someone like Fan Qiong. If they really had to face the Jin people, as there were only 500 of them last time, this group of people would absolutely find it difficult to agree.
However, Emperor Zhao was too lazy to say more. He just put down the note that coincided with Liu Ziyu's strategy and gave a solemn order: "This is the most urgent matter among all matters. We should roughly follow this plan and issue an order to implement it immediately... There is only one thing. Those who are under the control of Fan Qiong and wait and see can be pardoned, but those who surrender to the Jin Dynasty and the monk Zong Yin must not be pardoned! In addition, Nanyang must make good logistical preparations, and Ma Shen of Jinghu North Road behind Xiangyang must also be contacted as soon as possible. Once Xiangyang is shaken, I will personally lead the army and quickly send troops to pacify this beast!"
From Lu Haowen to Yan Xiaozhong, all the relevant people were shocked and were about to step out to respond.
However, amid the increasingly obvious grumbling , Xiao Lin, a scholar, took the lead and said, "Your Majesty, I would like to go to Xiangzhou first and personally carry out this strategy of driving the tiger to devour the wolf on your behalf!"
Zhao Jiu looked at the indomitable Xiao Lin, secretly admiring him in his heart, but nodded slightly: "Just as Mr. Lin said."
After saying this, Lady Zhao, who had to remain a widow because of the internal strife among the bureaucrats, stood up without waiting for everyone to bow and went into the harem to play with the wild pigeons.
For a moment, everyone in the palace could only look at each other awkwardly - what was the big deal about finding a few wives for a single official? But in the end, it turned out like this, arousing everyone's suspicion, while at the same time benefiting those who already had wives and concubines, what was going on?
No wonder the government is angry.
