After Zhao Yan returned to the capital, he first used thunder to rectify the military academy. After being appointed as regency by Zhao Xu, he soon took action again. The general weapon surveillance was sorted out from beginning to end. In addition to Zhang Dun, the military weapon surveillance supervisor, who surrendered to Zhao Yan in advance and finally saved his position, more than 30 military weapon surveillance officials were cleared out, especially Wu Quan, who was the military weapon surveillance chief, was sent to the Ministry of Justice for the crime of dereliction of duty. It is said that even the charges have been settled and they are going to be exiled to Luzon overseas. They will never come back in their lifetime.

Seeing Zhao Yan's decisive behavior also shocked all the officials in the court for a moment. Everyone was shocked by Zhao Yan's tough methods. They even vaguely saw some of Wang Anshi's shadow in Zhao Yan. When Wang Anshi carried out reforms with Zhao Xu's support, he was also so tough. Moreover, Zhao Yan's confidence was much more than Wang Anshi. After all, with his current status and reputation, there was no second in the entire Song Dynasty. In addition, Zhao Xu's trust in Zhao Yan, it can be said that if Zhao Yan wanted to do something, almost no one could stop him.

It was precisely because of Zhao Yan's tough measures after returning that many people believed that Zhao Yan would definitely go to the court to slap people in the future and attack those political enemies by the way. For example, Lu Huiqing would definitely be the first to be the brunt of it, so many people were waiting to see Lu Huiqing's jokes, and even Lu Huiqing himself was prepared for the worst.

However, what no one expected was that the battle they imagined did not appear. After Zhao Yan cleared the weapons surveillance, he then roughly rectified several other important yamen. Then he did not attack the people in the court again. Instead, he focused all his energy on quelling the domestic rebellion and dealing with disputes in various places due to reforms, wars and other reasons.

At first, I was a little confused about Zhao Yan's actions, but soon some smart people reacted. In order to take into account the overall situation, Zhao Yan did not take the lead in provoking disputes in the court, but instead focused on stabilizing the situation in the Song Dynasty. This is also the best way to deal with the current Song Dynasty. After all, domestic rebellions and various disputes are already very serious. If the struggles in the court are provoked, it will only consume the national strength of the Song Dynasty and will not be of any benefit to the Song Dynasty.

After understanding what Zhao Yan thought, whether it is the court or the people, anyone with knowledge would appreciate Zhao Yan's approach. Many officials took the initiative to let go of their political differences and tried to help Zhao Yan stabilize the domestic situation. For example, even the two old ministers Chen Shengzhi and Zeng Gongliang, who have never been in charge of affairs, also started to truly exert their ability as prime ministers. Lu Huiqing did not dare to move around. However, Sima Guang was a little stubborn and often persuaded Zhao Yan to completely abolish the new law. It is estimated that he has been suppressed by the reformists in recent years, so he has a deep prejudice against the new law. Unfortunately, it is not the time now, so he is perfunctory by Zhao Yan every time.

With the efforts of Zhao Yan and some ministers, the deteriorating situation in the Song Dynasty finally began to stabilize, and some less serious disputes were slowly calming down. Although some new laws with great public grievances have not been completely abolished, they are actually almost no longer implemented locally. This has greatly calmed down public grievances in various places, but what is worried about the most now is the Manichaeism rebellion in the south and the sinister rebellion in the northwest of Xixia.

In March, Jiangnan is a misty scene, perhaps to make up for the previous drought. This year's rain seems to be more than in previous years, and it is constantly coming in spring. As the saying goes, spring rain is as expensive as oil. This continuous spring rain is also a rare good thing for farmers in Jiangnan. At least they don't have to work hard to water the crops.

"This ghost weather. When will the sun be released? If this continues, I will become moldy!" Guo Kui, who was riding on the horse, wiped the rain on his face and cursed in a low voice. Of course, he knew the importance of spring rain to farmers, but for him and his soldiers, this continuous spring rain was simply a disaster. Many soldiers who were marching in the rain had been sick and had to be sent to nearby prefectures and counties for recuperation, which further weakened the strength of his troops.

However, compared to this annoying spring rain, what made Guo Kui even more headache was the cunning Manikh rebels in front of him. He had already defeated the main force of Manikhism last winter, but Shi Fozi, the rebel leader of Manikhism, was an extremely cunning guy. When he saw that he could not resist Guo Kui's army, he immediately led the remaining troops to flee everywhere. Guo Kui could only chase him hard from behind, but the pursuit lasted for several months.

In this pursuit, it seems that Guo Kui's army chased Shi Fozi in a panic, but in fact it is not the case. Manichaeism has been operating in Jiangnan for many years and has many supporters among the people, especially some gentry and lower-level officials, who have colluded with them. In this way, Manichaeism can often get local assistance when it escapes, and as a result, the already defeated rebels began to slowly recover their vitality. Now, tens of thousands of people have gathered under Shi Fozi's command.

Compared with the Maniche rebels, Guo Kui's army seemed very majestic on the surface, but in fact they were defeated everywhere in this pursuit. Some local forces who secretly surrendered to the Maniche were making condoms for him everywhere. Although they did not dare to confront the army head-on, it was enough to delay the delivery of food and grass in secret or release some wrong news to make Guo Kui feel exhausted.

What Guo Kui didn't expect was that there seemed to be Manichae traitors among his men. He had designed several military operations against the Manichae rebels before, but he did not expect that the other party would find out in advance, but instead used his actions to set up a trap. As a result, not only did he fail to capture the Manichae rebels, but the sent troops were damaged and the generals were furious.

Guo Kui was also a little surprised when it came to the incident of traitors under his command. First of all, all the troops under his command were Western troops transferred from the northwest, and the Manichaeism could not reach there, so the possibility of traitors in the Western Army was very small. However, in addition to the Western Army, he also had some officials sent from places to the army. These officials were responsible for the logistics and other affairs of the army. Sometimes they would also be exposed to some secrets in the army. In addition, the infiltration of Manichaeism into the local areas, so Guo Kui could almost conclude that the traitors must be among these officials, but the number of these officials was large, and it was not easy to find the traitors in a short period of time.

Thinking of the above things, Guo Kui, who was riding on the horse, had a headache, especially now that the drizzle was soaked, and the spring breeze blew, making people frightened. At this moment, a young general stepped forward and suggested to Guo Kui: "General, you can't walk like this anymore. The soldiers can't stand it anymore. If you don't take a break and bake your clothes, you may be sick tomorrow. With our troops, if you continue like this, you may not be able to defeat the other party even if you catch up with the Manichaean rebels!"

The young general who spoke was named Yang Anxing, who was the brother who was in the same dormitory as Hu Yanqing and others. In addition, Yang Anxing was also Yang Huaiyu's nephew. After graduating from the military academy, he entered the Western Army. Although he was not as dazzling as Hu Yanqing, he was also steadily promoted to the position of military commander. This time he was transferred to Guo Kui to eliminate the Manichi religion and made a lot of contributions, so he was valued by Guo Kui and became one of his important assistants.

"An Xing, I also know that going on like this will make some soldiers sick, but the Manichaean rebels have escaped far away. If we don't catch up with each other, we may lose the traces of the Manichaean rebels. If these Manichaean sergeants find a place to lurk, they will definitely become my Song Dynasty's confidant in the future!" Guo Kui said helplessly at this time. He also wanted to stop and rest, but he was afraid of losing the traces of the Manichaean rebels ahead, so he could only advance in the rain.

Hearing Guo Kui's words, Yang Anxing felt very helpless. Originally, there were 30,000 Western troops who came with them, but after the consumption of these months, not many people died in battle. However, many of them became sick because they could not adapt to the local climate and had to settle down in nearby prefectures for recuperation. Now their remaining troops are less than 20,000, and the Manichae rebels who fled ahead have increased to 30,000 to 40,000. As one goes up and down, he is really worried that one day these people will be eaten by the Manichae rebels.

Guo Kui insisted on rushing, and Yang Anxing could also measure his difficulties, so he no longer persuaded him. He returned to his headquarters and continued to grit his teeth and rush forward. Finally, when it was almost dark, he finally arrived at a land called Qingyunling. According to the situation they had obtained before, the Manichaeism rebels had stationed here two days ago.

In fact, Guo Kui and the others quickly found traces of the camp where the Manikh rebels were stationed. Judging from the scale of this camp, they should be the main force of the other party. And judging from their marching direction, they should have crossed Qingyun Ridge. However, this also made Guo Kui and the others even more worried, because after passing Qingyun Ridge, it was the territory of Hangzhou. They had driven the Manikh rebels away from Hangzhou before. Is the other party going to kill again this time?
Chapter completed!