Volume 2 Chapter 33: Domineering
Qin Huizhi's involvement in the political struggle at the highest level of the Jin Dynasty was basically a dimensionality reduction attack, because although the Jin Dynasty's top leaders were becoming more and more corrupt and internal conflicts were becoming more and more intense, they were not yet corrupt or intense enough to put the other side to death.
Moreover, most of the Jin Dynasty nobles at that time had come out of the war, and few of them put all their energy into internal political struggles. They still had the determination to unite against the outside world, and still had the simple idea of external expansion and using military aggression to make up for and ease internal problems.
Therefore, Qin Hui's critical hit really had a miraculous effect.
In June, after a series of attempts and discussions, and with the mediation of Wanyan Talan, the Jin Dynasty's top brass indeed carried out a series of simple but significant personnel adjustments in the highest military decision-making body, the Marshal's Office, as someone had imagined.
The King of Jin, Wanyan Wuqimai, voluntarily gave up the post of Grand Marshal, and replaced it with Nianhan, the first meritorious minister of the Jin Dynasty and the de facto number one in the army; Erlido, the third prince of the Jin Dynasty, who was responsible for leading the reserve troops to sit in Yanjing, was changed from the right deputy marshal to the left deputy marshal, which did not mean much; while the Marshal's Left Inspector Wanyan Talan suddenly became the right deputy marshal and became very popular; finally, the fourth prince Jin Wushu was also promoted to the Marshal's Left Inspector and successfully entered the highest level of the army.
In fact, everything was fine before, but the last appointment caused quite a lot of discussion at the beginning, because most of the generals thought that Wanyan Wushu was a bit incompetent. He led the troops out last winter, and although he had military merits, he suffered heavy losses in the end. Not to mention compared with the generals of the Western Army such as Wanyan Loushi, Wanyan Gushen, Wanyan Yinshuke, and Wanyan Balisu, even within the Eastern Army, he was far less competent than General Ali and others.
In a word, based on his military record, he does not seem qualified to serve as the Marshal's Left Inspector, a key position that could actually make him the commander-in-chief of an army.
However, the will of the highest level is there, and the internal affairs of the Wanyan family are not something that others can interfere with.
By late June, after the personnel adjustments in the Marshal's Office were completed, as Nianhan and the three Wanyan brothers failed to meet again in Yanjing under the mediation of Wanyan Talan, both sides stopped insisting, and Wanyan Talan simply fulfilled his promise and wrote directly to Huining Prefecture, requesting the king to make a decision as soon as possible.
However, how could even the Emperor of the Jin Dynasty make a decision for these two families?
If he could make the decision, would he have to worry all day about whether his son could become emperor?
Therefore, Jin Lord Wanyan Wuqimai officially issued an edict, which contained only three sentences:
First, the Emperor of Song is the heart of the people of Song. Because of his existence, Hebei will be in turmoil and the Song people in the Central Plains will be united. We cannot leave him alone. We must chase him down wherever he is.
Second, we should learn lessons from this fight against the Song State. During and after the war, we should support more people like Zhang Bangchang and use them to rule the Central Plains.
Third, although Shaanxi and Longyou are poor areas, they have an important strategic location and cannot be left unattended.
In other words, no matter how he tried to smooth things over, Wanyan Wuqimai still officially ordered an attack on the Song Dynasty as the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, and it was directly aimed at Zhao Jiu himself!
After receiving the imperial edict, the two sides who were confronting each other in Yanjing no longer hesitated, but immediately put aside their prejudices and reached a consensus - immediately mobilize the entire army, and as soon as autumn comes, march from north to south, first sweeping away the rebel army in Hebei, and then dividing the troops into several groups to cross the river together to destroy the Song Dynasty.
Of course, as the commander-in-chief, he especially emphasized that the main force of the Western Army should be responsible for attacking the five routes in Shaanxi, and could only send part of the troops from Xijing Luoyang and Huazhou to fight.
But at this time, Wanyan Wushu was already satisfied, because not to mention that the Western Route Army was willing to send part of its troops to assist, even if the entire Western Route Army did not come, he still had 100,000 troops this time!
A hundred thousand Jin troops are enough to destroy the Song Dynasty and sweep across the Central Plains. Why do they need donkey carts?
"I think we should not let this man go easily!"
"Mr. Xu, I also think that we should not indulge him easily, but what can we do if we don't indulge him now? Should we arrest him and bring him to justice? What should we use to arrest him? What if he really rebels?"
In the early autumn, in the evening, the cicadas were still chirping, but the weather was gradually getting cooler. In the palace in Nanyang City, two prime ministers were arguing fiercely, while Emperor Zhao, who was sitting behind the imperial desk, seemed a little absent-minded.
"Prime Minister Yuwen." Xu Jingheng replied seriously. "I never said to arrest him, but I said to use both kindness and severity... If we can't properly demonstrate the authority of the Central Government and force him to give in, what will the Central Government use to organize the Western Army in the future? Will we let the emperor go to the barracks again and again to subdue these people?"
"In fact, it's not a bad idea." Emperor Zhao interrupted instinctively.
"It's okay once or twice, but how can it be like this every time?" Xu Jingheng was furious. "And how many people are really loyal and brave like Han Shizhong? Zhang Boying and Han Shizhong can be trusted, but what if we meet a real thief next time? Your words are inappropriate!"
Zhao Jiu came back to his senses and nodded slowly again, because what he said was so true... He did it because he knew Han Shizhong was trustworthy and Zhang Boying was likely trustworthy. If it was someone he had never heard of, how could he dare to go?
Of course, no one mentioned the matter of Zhai Chong. It’s not about whether Zhai Chong is trustworthy or not. In fact, everyone knows that Zhai Chong is trustworthy, but some people think it is unnecessary to go, and that going would be a loss of official status. This matter is not the same as what is being discussed now.
However, after Xu Jingheng dominated the whole audience, he was speechless for a moment, because he could only dominate others but could not solve his current predicament.
What dilemma?
We have to start with the fundamental reason why Xingzai came to Nanyang.
By the way, there were objective and realistic reasons why the dispute between Nanyang and Yangzhou in the previous year represented the pro-war and pro-peace camps.
For example, according to the data before the Jingkang Rebellion, in the entire south of the Yangtze River, except for a small number of garrisons in the Suzhou and Hangzhou areas, the rest of the places basically only had some scattered garrison troops and local soldiers. According to the organization, the total number was about 20,000 to 30,000 people.
And according to the general view these days, the Southeast has no military tradition.
Well, this kind of regional discrimination is probably that people in the Yangtze River Delta cannot be the backbone of China, and the Osaka Division is the shame of the Imperial Army. I don't know why, but it is very popular and even has become the mainstream of public opinion. For example, Li Gang and Hu Yin, the typical southeastern officials who hold the right to speak in the court, like to blacken themselves every day, and often write letters saying that only the troops in the northwest can be considered a strong army and so on.
So at this time, what exactly did it mean for you to lead tens of thousands of troops to Yangzhou and even cross the river?
Starting from scratch? Building an army from scratch? And using people from the southeast to form an army? Can such an army recover Hebei and bring back the two saints?
To put it bluntly, the reason for going to Nanyang was to attract the remaining Western Army troops, the highly qualified soldiers from the Northwest, and the war horse trade with Qingtang area.
With the skeleton of the Western Army, we recruited high-quality soldiers locally and exchanged them with our Tibetan compatriots for some excellent war horses. This is what it means to fight against the Jin army.
Of course, Zhao Jiu didn't believe that there was a gap in the quality of soldiers between the northwest and the southeast. As an engineering graduate, he didn't have the habit of regional discrimination.
Moreover, in actual operations, on the issue of the quality of soldiers, Emperor Zhao now feels that the refugees from Hebei and Hedong may be more suitable. These people have a natural desire to fight, and using them as soldiers can effectively avoid affecting local production.
However, no matter what, if one wants to resist the Jin, especially if one wants to push back within ten years, one cannot ignore the Western Army and Guanxi.
Otherwise, Emperor Zhao would not have come to Nanyang despite his many shortcomings.
Now back to the present, it is already autumn, the Jin army has retreated for several months, Chang'an has been recovered, Guanxi seems to be pacified, and even Wanqi Xie has been successfully recruited. Zhong Xiang has returned and been promoted... That's right, Zhong Xiang accepted the messy official position of Dongting Lake Pacifier given by the central government, and promised to help Emperor Zhao to eliminate Li Xiaoyi, the bandit who was running around near Dongting Lake... What he said sounded like the truth, but no matter what, Wanqi Qing has made a contribution!
But Emperor Zhao wanted to control the Western Army, did he do it?
Of course not.
The reason is very simple. Two generals, one named Qu Duan and the other named Wang Xie, took the lead in controlling the situation in Guanxi after the rebellion. Wang Xie controlled Fengxiang Prefecture, the three most important prefectures in Guanxi, Jingzhao Prefecture, Fengxiang Prefecture, and Yan'an Prefecture, while Qu Duan controlled Jingzhao Prefecture and Yan'an Prefecture.
And the natures of these two people are completely different.
Among them, Wang Xie was the one who went to Hanzhong and persuaded Zhao Jiu to go to Chengdu. After that incident, Zhao Jiu had already sentenced him to death in his heart and asked him to go to Fengxiang, hoping that he would not harm Hanzhong and affect the whole country.
But Qu Duan was different. Although he was born in a humble family, his father was a guard in front of the emperor who died in battle. He was appointed as an official at the age of three and was good at writing since he was young... The Western Army had a saying specifically about him, which was 'Qu Da is a man who is both civil and military'.
In other words, this guy is a typical general of the Western Army, and one of the "own men". It is precisely because of this that, in the process of retaking Chang'an, this guy killed Liu Xiliang, a commander of the same level, and reported that this guy was a deserter, and the central government believed it; then this guy took advantage of the battle between two armies in Chang'an and launched a surprise attack, destroying and annexing the two armies together, and the central government also accepted it.
Not only that, the central government also appointed him as the governor of Yan'an Prefecture at the suggestion of Yuwen Xuzhong... This was basically the treatment Li Yanxian received after he recaptured Shanzhou.
However, now that Chang'an has been recaptured, many things have become clear. The Central Government has learned that Liu Xiliang is not a deserter at all, but a hero who has just recaptured Fengxiang and is preparing to recapture Chang'an! How could Qu Duan kill him, annex his troops, and then attack Chang'an?
In Chang'an, the central government knew from the beginning that one of the two warring armies was under the banner of the Song Dynasty, because the leader of this rebel army was appointed by Li Yanxian of the neighboring Shanzhou, and he could not wait to present the credit for retaking Chang'an through Li Yanxian. But how to say it? In this day and age, it is indeed difficult to distinguish between the rebel army and the bandit army, so the court did not pay too much attention to Qu Duan's actions.
However, the Central Committee also learned another thing now. After Qu Duan defeated the two armies at the same time, he captured the leader of the rebel army and surrendered, but beheaded the leader of the rebel army who had Li Yanxian's appointment document in his possession...
After these two incidents broke out, the whole court was in an uproar. Even Emperor Zhao, who had always been lenient towards military generals, didn't know what to say.
Besides, of course Zhao Jiu knew that the Western Army was full of bastards, and the better they were at fighting, the more bastards they were. Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun , and Wang De were all Western Army soldiers, and they were all bastards too. A few days ago, Wang De was making a fuss because the old Taiwei Yang Weizhong had returned, and he was worried that the military power of the central army in the imperial camp would be taken away. As a result, the old Taiwei Yang took the initiative to request to go to the southeast to protect the empress dowager after only a few days of arrival. Now he is the commander-in-chief of the rear army of the imperial camp...but these people are bastards at the same level as a bastard like Qu Duan!
And the most important point is that Emperor Zhao did not see how Qu Duan showed a military level comparable to that of his bastard! He fought a battle with the Jin army and did win, but it was his subordinate Wu Jie who led the troops independently.
Do you think that's the end?
After Nanyang learned of all this, it still did not punish anyone. Instead, at Yuwen Xuzhong's suggestion, the provincial government officially sent a document to Chang'an through Wuguan, asking Qu Duan to come and take up his post and explain the two matters.
As a result, Qu Duan turned a deaf ear to him and cried directly to the elders of Chang'an, saying that he was loyal to his country, but ended up arousing suspicion from the villains in the central government. After crying, he submitted a note to Emperor Zhao, probably inviting the emperor to visit Chang'an and then entrust the military and national affairs to him. After ten years of management, he would be able to lead an army of 200,000 to recover the Central Plains, recover Hebei, and welcome back the two emperors!
After submitting the letter, he led his team directly to Yan'an in northern Shaanxi to take up his post, without paying any attention to the documents from the central government.
Now, everyone in the central government was disgusted by him, and even Emperor Zhao wanted to tear him apart... Because Zhao Jiu got accurate information that before this guy left, he cried to the people of Chang'an and wrote a poem on a pillar in a pavilion outside the city. The poem contained these two lines.
So-called:
Instead of going to Guanzhong to build a career, he came to the river to fish.
There is no need to say what this is about or who is being mocked, and Emperor Zhao is not in the habit of not getting angry when someone points at his nose and scolds him.
But the problem was that Qu Duan led his troops directly northward, and the central government had no way to do anything about him.
Yuwen Xuzhong and Xu Jingheng talked for a long time. Although Xu Jingheng, the hardliner, won because Qu Da did something disgusting, after his victory, Xu Xianggong didn't know how to deal with this person for a while.
"Remove him from his post as governor of Yan'an Prefecture!" Xu Jingheng thought for a long time before coming up with a plan. "Add a defense envoy for Yao County..."
"No." Emperor Zhao immediately denied it. "It's already autumn, the Jin army can come at any time, Chang'an is in ruins and can't be defended at all, but Yan'an Prefecture will bear the brunt of the attack, so it can be defended... If we dismiss him as the prefect of Yan'an, he might not even dare to defend Yan'an."
Xu Jingheng rarely gets depressed.
"Someone needs to be in charge of Guanzhong. Who will go to Guanzhong?" Zhao Jiu paused for a moment and made a last effort.
Everyone looked at each other, and then recommended candidates. However, as Yuwen Xuzhong and Minister of Works Lu Yihao took the initiative to volunteer, the others stopped recommending. After all, no one could compete with these two... However, facing these two candidates, Emperor Zhao was still a little hesitant.
It should be noted that the importance of Guanzhong is unquestionable, but the problem is that these two people may not be able to control the situation.
For example, Lu Yihao was the oldest and most experienced man in the palace, even far superior to several ministers. However, when he was in charge of Hebei in the past, he was captured by the Jin people, which seemed to prove his incompetence in his position.
For example, Yuwen Xuzhong was the prime minister and had been dealing with Guanxi affairs. He seemed to be the most suitable candidate, but Emperor Zhao had known him for a long time and knew that he was a weak person. In fact, Yuwen Xuzhong's firm anti-Jin stance and his courage to take on tasks were not so much a sense of mission as a sense of guilt as an envoy to the Jin during the Jingkang period.
But, this one isn’t okay, that one isn’t suitable, so who should go?
In the silence, Yang Yizhong came out of the hall without paying attention to etiquette, and then passed Lan Gui to hand over a note in public. Emperor Zhao made up his mind: "Yuwen Qing will be promoted to Jiedushi, and he will go to Guanzhong and Shaanxi as an envoy today to pacify the various routes. Lu Qing will be promoted to the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, and envoys will be sent to Tokyo, Yangzhou, Chengdu, Shanzhou, Nanjing, Ruyang, and Chuzhou to let the garrisons, governors, and Jiedushis in various places speed up and carefully prepare, and then reiterate their respective arbitrary powers."
Yuwen Xuzhong and Lu Yihao were about to respond, and the new Chief Censor Hu Mingzhong was even ready to impeach Yang Yizhong, but after hearing what came next, they suddenly came to their senses and then the whole hall fell silent - it was obvious that the war had started again.
But the imperial court had only been in Nanyang for less than four months...it was too difficult!
