Volume 5 Chapter 11 Questions and Answers
On the first day of March, the imperial report publishing the dialogue between Zhang Jun and Emperor Zhao was already on its way to all parts of the country. At the same time, the court imitated the famous court meeting during the Jing Kang period and directly and unquestionably approved Zhang Jun's package of plans by counting heads.
Back then, Emperor Taishang Yuansheng used this method to suppress the pro-war faction and changed the overall situation of the court to peace. There were more than a hundred participants in the head count, 70% of them were in favor of ceding the three towns of Taiyuan, Zhongshan and Hejian, and 30% were firmly opposed.
In the face of such a glaring comparison of numbers, the peace faction eventually broke free from the suppression of righteousness and instead overwhelmed the war faction. The Emperor Tai Shang Yuan Sheng was also able to withdraw from the matter, get rid of political responsibility, and directly negotiate peace.
However, unlike the original intention of Emperor Taishang Yuansheng to get rid of political responsibility, today Emperor Zhao and the radicals use this method to implement Zhang Deyuan's package plan, which is obviously a political suppression and demonstration... They want to use the unquestionable political voting results to deprive the moderate faction of any room for opposition.
Of course, even this does not mean that things will go smoothly, nor does it mean that the opponents will shut up.
It can only be said that after this vote, opponents within the court may shut up temporarily, but public opinion in the opposition will have no scruples. Moreover, if this political plan eventually causes problems, not only will opponents within the court speak again, but the scale of the opposition will also be even larger.
As for whether political plans will cause problems... We must know that political plans are just political plans after all. Even if a political plan looks good and sounds good, it is still likely to become bad in actual operation, or even bring disaster to the country and the people... What's more, the series of political plans proposed by Zhang Jun were full of controversy and certain idealized narratives from the beginning.
God knows what kind of troubles will arise when it comes to specific operations.
It is mid-March, spring is here, and the weather is getting warmer.
Just after the morning of this day, after shooting arrows at the martial arts school as usual, Emperor Zhao was sweating slightly, but he did not rush to the stone pavilion, but turned to rest at Xinggang, which was next to the city wall near the martial arts school. As soon as he climbed Xinggang and sat down in the thatched pavilion on the hill, Liu Yan led a team of imperial guards to pile dozens of secret letter boxes next to Emperor Zhao, and then someone immediately set up writing materials in the pavilion.
Zhao Jiu shook his head and smiled bitterly when he saw this: "I originally wanted to hide from these notes, but I didn't expect that I couldn't hide here either."
Liu Yan was of course embarrassed when he heard this, but he could only ask carefully: "I am afraid, should I put the secret letter back to the stone pavilion?"
"No need." Zhao Jiu shook his head and reached for a pen while gesturing to Liu Yan. "These are the rules I set... You'd better follow them."
Seeing the emperor's signal, many people including Yang Yi Zhong and Fan Zong Yin retreated a few steps together. Only Liu Yan immediately opened the secret letter box with his own hands and handed the secret letter to Emperor Zhao to read.
Emperor Zhao responded and issued instructions on the secret letters on the spot.
By the way, Zhao Jiu was always very particular when reviewing secret letters. In addition to responding to specific matters mentioned in the secret letters, he would usually ask about the well-being of these commanding officers and sometimes even correct typos for them.
But this time, Emperor Zhao was obviously a little impatient. He read one letter and replied with a few words, then read another one and replied with a few words again. He quickly replied to all the dozen secret letters.
Obviously full of perfunctory attitude.
After replying, Liu Yan put away the secret letter and left immediately, preparing to send it back as soon as possible according to the rules. Zhao Jiu watched him leave Xinggang, but shook his head and smiled bitterly again: "The secret letter is full of recommendations and praises. Wait, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, they will submit a memorial to the Privy Council with the same words... Have you ever counted how many letters are about expanding the army?"
Everyone naturally knew that the emperor was complaining, and most of them smiled bitterly when they heard it... After all, Emperor Zhao was annoyed by these letters and memorials, so what would happen to them as the people who helped deal with the memorials?
However, at this moment, Ren Baozhong, the gatekeeper wearing a cotton cap, did not hesitate at all. He took a half step forward and bowed in front of the thatched pavilion:
"To let the emperor know, civil officials and military commanders, as well as the central government and local governments, have been submitting memorials regarding military expansion in the past ten days. Of course, I don't know about this, but the official memorials forwarded by the Privy Council and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which mentioned military expansion, totaled 227 since the first court session at the beginning of this month until last night..."
On Xinggang, everyone was stunned and silent for a moment, and no one knew whether they were shocked by the number or by the ambition of this old Dangxiang man.
Zhao Guanjia naturally knew that Ren Baozhong was an old man who had blossomed, but he had been an official for so many years, how could he not know? No matter what his motives were, as long as it really worked, it would be better than Fan Zongyin spending his time looking in the mirror, right? Just now when he was shooting arrows, that guy secretly took a mirror.
With this in mind, Emperor Zhao of course smiled at Ren Baozhong: "Ren Qing is thoughtful, but what are the origins of these 227 memorials? Can you break them down into categories?"
"Reporting to the emperor, the memorials say all kinds of things." Ren Baozhong still answered without thinking. "Often a memorial involves many aspects. I am not as good at Chinese as many scholars and officials. I can only roughly understand the meaning. I can't even understand the twists and turns in some people's words. It is really difficult to classify them specifically and help the emperor..."
Fan Zongyin, Lu Benzhong and others on the side immediately smiled when they heard the words, which was in sharp contrast to Yang Yizhong who had a blank expression on his face. Zhao Jiu was speechless for a moment... One can only say that these two Hanlin scholars really look wealthy and noble.
At this time, Naren Baozhong continued to speak without changing his expression: "So, please forgive me, I can only give a rough summary, it is difficult to be accurate."
"Come to think of it." Zhao Jiu, who had expected such a turn of events , turned around and looked at him seriously. He admired this old Dangxiang man more and more.
No matter what, this person still has talent, so why not give him some opportunities?
Sure enough, Ren Baozhong seized the opportunity without hesitation and gave his summary one by one... As expected, it was similar to what Zhao Jiu had summarized in the past few days.
It is said that ever since the court forcibly and formally implemented Zhang Jun's package of preparations for the Northern Expedition in early March, as the news spread to the local areas, and of course related matters began to be carried out immediately, the central government immediately received a variety of feedback.
However, among these five matters, the empress's appointment and the restoration of reputation were too sensitive, especially since Emperor Zhao and the prime ministers had shown their resolute attitudes through official reports and a grand court meeting in early March. Therefore, few people were willing to discuss these two matters and bring bad luck upon themselves. After all, not everyone had a good brother like Li Jing, who could be sent to Xingqing Prefecture to be the prefect.
Didn’t you see that even the Chief Censor Li Guang and Li Xiantai didn’t say a word this time?
Of course, this is also related to the fact that the implementation of these two things did not involve much and the matters were relatively simple. The court sent envoys directly to Shaolin Temple and Dongxiao Palace on the second day of March, and appointed Quan Bangyan and Guo Zhongxun together.
At the same time, the Jiancai issue was a real tough nut to crack and was the key to determining the success or failure of the preparations for the Northern Expedition. So for a while many people were watching and hesitant about this matter... No one dared to volunteer to participate, and no one dared to criticize easily, they just waited and watched.
To put it bluntly, many silent potential opponents are probably waiting for problems to arise in the specific implementation of this matter, and then they will speak up.
As for the alliance, it takes time to wait for reactions from all parties, and it is not a good time to intervene.
Of course, the messengers have been sent out on a large scale.
Relatively speaking, for now, everyone's focus is on the move to slightly expand the military, which is a relatively simple matter with mature conditions and involves a lot of interests.
As a result, within ten days, secret letters and memorials to the emperor came in one after another, and their contents were varied.
According to Ren Baozhong's summary, the opinions from all sides are as follows:
For example, the generals in the imperial camp often wrote letters to the emperor to describe how important the place where their headquarters was stationed was, how powerful the enemy was, and how stretched strength was. At the same time, they also wrote about how good their troops were at fighting in the past, how they were able to defeat a larger force with a smaller one, and how outstanding their achievements were... In a word, they wanted to gain more troops for their headquarters.
In sharp contrast, local officials in various parts of the front line flocked to the memorials, but most of them described the difficulties of maintaining local troops, how the local people's strength was squeezed out by the garrison, how poor the finances were, and how local security was troubled by the garrison. It was obvious that they did not want the newly established troops after the expansion to be stationed in their areas, or that the proportion of troops stationed in their areas would increase again.
What's interesting is that while the military commanders were fighting for the number of troops in each army, they always tried to trip up their opponents, intentionally or unintentionally hinting at how incompetent the other armies were. However, the civil officials were almost unanimous and extremely united. From the east and west roads of Beijing where Yue's army was stationed to northern Shaanxi, where it had just been recovered, there was no place where the civil officials welcomed more troops stationed.
Those who were qualified to write memorials all wrote them, and those who were not qualified directly wrote official documents to put pressure on the provincial capital and the Privy Council.
Even Wanqi Xie wrote a letter saying that the existence of Yue Fei's troops had posed a huge obstacle to the economic revival of the Jingdongxi Road!
At the same time, there were some debates in the central government, but the focus was higher... Some people suggested adding more personnel to the Imperial Camp Navy to ensure the stability of the Yellow River defense line, others suggested massively expanding the Imperial Camp Navy in order to harass the Jin Kingdom's rear as soon as possible, and of course more people suggested expanding the Imperial Camp Central Army, which is the direct force here in Tokyo.
With the expansion of the military force, officers were naturally needed, and there were many memorials recommending candidates.
And at this time, we must grasp the key points.
"Excuse me." At the end, Ren Baozhong bowed his hands seriously and said under the complicated gazes of several close ministers around him. "These are actually minor details. Will the emperor not allow troops to be stationed there just because some prefectures and counties oppose it? Or will the emperor give them an additional thousand soldiers because some commander is more boastful? And I roughly summarize that in the matter of expanding the army, there are actually several things that the emperor faces... Should we expand on land or on water? Should we expand cavalry or infantry? Should we put the heavy troops in Guanxi or Jingdong? When recruiting people, should the core generals be the old generals who were eliminated before or promoted from below? When supplementing the middle and lower-level officers, should we use old soldiers or new ones?"
Zhao Jiu nodded repeatedly after hearing this: "Your Excellency is thoughtful... But I have been a little blinded by these things these days... What are the specifics of these?"
Ren Baozhong was overjoyed, and hurriedly took another half step forward, bowing and saying, "Your Majesty... First, should we expand the army on land or on water? If we expand on land, it will be convenient for the decisive battle after crossing the river during the Northern Expedition; if we expand on water, it will be convenient for advancing and retreating."
After saying that, Ren Baozhong immediately looked at Emperor Zhao with a little anticipation.
Zhao Jiu came up with the answer after a little thought... The Northern Expedition was a last-ditch effort, and the decisive battle was what decided everything. If one had to make a choice between the two, of course, one would choose to expand the army.
However, although the official immediately had the answer in his mind, his face showed no expression and he did not respond.
"Secondly, should we expand the cavalry or the infantry? The cavalry is for attacking, and the infantry is for defending." Ren Baozhong saw that Emperor Zhao did not speak, so he hurriedly continued to explain.
"Riding!" Zhao Jiu immediately answered in his heart, but remained silent on his face.
"Third, whether it's Jingdong or Guanxi, if we put heavy troops in Guanxi, we will take Hedong, and if we put them in Guandong, we will take Hebei." Ren Baozhong continued to speak hurriedly.
"Guanxi!" Emperor Zhao still only answered in his heart.
"Fourth, should we use veterans or promote from below..." Ren Baozhong was already a little cautious at this time. "And after the promotion, should we fill the vacancies with lower-level imperial camp officers or martial arts students?"
"Of course, we will promote them from below." Zhao Jiu finally smiled at Ren Baozhong and spoke. "We will select some of those who have made military achievements from the Imperial Camp and promote them. After the promotion, we will give priority to filling the vacancies at the grassroots level from the martial arts and the Imperial Guards."
Ren Baozhong got an answer and relaxed for a moment. The guards and martial arts students who were accompanying him were also very happy, but they did not dare to show it.
Only Fan Zongyin, Lu Benzhong and others could not get a word in and felt a little embarrassed for a while.
Fortunately, after saying this, Emperor Zhao stood up and walked out of the thatched pavilion, then walked down the Xinggang Hill, as if he was going back to the stone pavilion in the harem to work. A group of close ministers and Ban Zhi did not care about much and immediately followed him.
However, when the team arrived at Linhua Gate and was about to enter the harem, Emperor Zhao, who had walked through the gate first, suddenly stopped and turned back to order: "Yang Yizhong, follow me. The rest of you wait for sixty breaths before entering."
The emperor had given an oral order, and although the crowd, who had different thoughts, were caught off guard, they could only stop outside the door and watch Yang Yi Zhong, who had not said a word today, walk forward with Emperor Zhao for dozens of steps, and then stop in an open space in front of the nearest fish pond.
"Land or water?" Zhao Jiu asked with his hands behind his back.
Yang Yizhong looked back at the people outside the door with complicated expressions, feeling helpless, he could only bow his head and say: "I am not a general..."
"Of course I will ask Generals Han, Yue, Li, and Zhang again, but now I am asking you."
"I personally think it is Lu."
"On horseback or on foot?"
"ride!"
"Kansai or Jingdong?"
"Kansai!"
Since Zhao Jiu got the answer that was exactly the same as what he had thought, he neither nodded nor shook his head, nor did he care when the person behind him would count to sixty breaths before coming in. Instead, he went straight to Shiting with his hands behind his back to handle official business.
