"I heard you clearly, that's why I asked. If I didn't ask a few more questions, wouldn't I have no place to stand? Even my queen was dismissed at the drop of a hat?!"
Princess Cui said calmly:
"If the queen is virtuous and virtuous, then no one in the world can touch her. But if she is mediocre in talent and virtue and has a sinister temperament, she cannot be a mother to the world. If the king insists on going his own way, appointing traitors, doing random things, and destroying the inheritance of his ancestors, he may not be able to do so.
Find another talented person!"
Princess Cui said very plainly, but a faint hint of brown was revealed in the sleeves of her robe. Cui Jiang did not notice it and said angrily:
"Who can live without making mistakes? This world belongs to my Cui family. Sooner or later, you, a woman, will have to marry outside and belong to another family..."
Suddenly, Cui Jiang's words stopped abruptly. Princess Cui had already stood up, standing gracefully, and said coldly:
"Please give me the last decree of the late king!"
While she was talking, Princess Cui had already taken out a scroll that seemed to be quite old. The will was of great importance. As soon as she took it out, the lights in the entire hall were swaying, and even the hundred people under the corridor were shaking.
Eight bells were ringing rapidly, and even the throne was faintly steaming with dragon energy.
This will is by no means ordinary. It was written by the late king biting off his middle finger before his death and using the essence and blood from all over his body mixed with dragon energy. It is very scrawl:
"My life has expired, leaving only an orphan and a widow. My eldest daughter Cui Ruoying has assisted the country and ascended the throne. If this son is of bad character, I can prepare sacred incense. Historical records record that the national master will sacrifice to the ancestors. If he is really naughty, the ancestors will be killed."
Since it has proven effective, I will select the best from other sects to ascend the throne. The empire that our ancestors worked so hard to conquer cannot be ruined by my branch..."
This will is Princess Cui’s amulet. She can supervise the country’s legal procedures!
Upon seeing the decree, Cui Jiang's face suddenly turned green, and he collapsed on the throne as if a ball had been drained of air. Princess Cui ignored him and said to the historian next to her:
"Class Historian."
The background of this group of historians is not small. It has a long history like Confucius's family. It is a family that has been extended since ancient times. The family education is very strict. Throughout the dynasties, the Ban family has always served as historians, playing the role of silent bystanders.
Every word and deed of the king must be recorded truthfully, which is called daily notes.
This thing has a special feature: contemporary kings cannot watch their own daily life, nor can they edit it on their own.
Of course, there are also tyrants and ignorant kings who want to act arbitrarily, and historians have to withstand the pressure at this time. Naturally, many Ban family members disobeyed Long Yan and died tragically. However, the Ban family's upbringing was very strict and they never gave in. Because of these tragic deaths,
Therefore, in later generations, it also established the Ban family's image of being a noble person.
To this day, as long as it is not recorded by the historians of the Ban family, the literati will not recognize it and think it is a "fake history, a fake". Even the legitimacy of the dynasty will be questioned, which has also formed a suspicion of royal power.
of restrictions.
Nowadays, the historian who kills the Ban family is considered to be the appearance of a cowardly tyrant, which is a sign of the destruction of the country and the destruction of the family. It is very ominous and is despised by thousands of people, so everyone has adapted to this by default. Even David's country was destroyed.
At that time, several historians survived the war unharmed.
Hearing Princess Cui's call, the historians bowed and said:
"What are your orders, Your Highness?"
Princess Cui said:
"Sir, you should have recorded the responses and actions of everyone in the court today."
The class historian said expressionlessly:
"Not a word was omitted, not a word was deleted."
Princess Cui said:
"You can make another copy. I want you to record the original copy. You must remember to seal it with your name. This will be taken to the Temple of Heaven to offer sacrifices to your ancestors and will not be seen by the king."
The class historian thought for a while and nodded slowly.
Cui Jiang's heart was beating violently at this time. How could he not know that he had made a big joke? Only 600 of the 60,000 troops came back. How shameful and humiliating was this? In addition, Zhang Zhen
Hao is also full of misdeeds, and the evidence is conclusive. Once he really burns the historical records on the Temple of Heaven to pay tribute to his ancestors, it is very likely that he will really abolish it!!
Thinking of this, Cui Jiang's face turned even paler. Listening to the rustling sounds of the historians copying, he became even more hesitant. When Queen Cui stood up again, she said calmly, "Go and invite the Imperial Master to prepare for the officiating ceremony."
At that moment, Cui Jiang was trembling all over:
Why would this king feel uncomfortable sitting in his position?
Moreover, Princess Cui and he were also siblings, and there was no bullying like Cao Cao did to Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty. He was still slowly delegating power. Once he felt that he was about to lose it, he immediately felt doubly cherished and fearful.
.
At this time, there are still several sensible people in the royal party. They know that they have been pinched today and they have already suffered a total defeat. Once the real king is deposed, everything will be in vain.
Before this, the royal party was very powerful, and both the Minister of War and the Minister of Hubu had been occupied by the royal party. At this time, the Minister of War had been demoted to the rank of minister, and the one who could speak was Lu Fang, the Minister of Hubu. He sighed and stepped out.
road:
"Your Highness, please calm down. Your Majesty is just confused for a moment. Although there are 60,000 soldiers in the front, there are only more than 30,000 elite soldiers among them. What's more, Hao Shilang just promised to bring back the captured soldiers, so the loss does not count.
It is too big and has not shaken the foundation of our country at all. The evidence of Zhang Zhenhao's corruption is conclusive, but we can only make him spit out more dirty money to appease the remnants of the mutiny."
Princess Cui immediately said angrily:
"Then what Lu Shangshu means is that I'm making a fuss out of a molehill? Didn't you hear that the emperor just said that he wanted the imperial commander to personally conquer? Lu Shangshu, please explain to me what the imperial commander personally conquers means? You also know that Zhang Zhenhao is corrupt and corrupt.
The evidence of his crime is conclusive, so why can’t he be convicted now? Do you think the rules and laws left by our ancestors are nonsense?”
Lu Shangshu smiled bitterly and said:
"That's not what I mean. What I mean is that whatever the king and queen did wrong is because we, the ministers, did not do it well, so we should be punished for whatever mistakes we make. A country cannot live without a king for a day.
Now that the foundation of Daxia has not been shaken, is it a bit hasty to go to worship heaven and ancestors?"
Princess Cui sneered:
"When I was pointed at my nose and called by my name just now, why didn't anyone jump out and say something wrong?"
At this time, He Shangshu, who had just been demoted to Minister of War, also stood up and said sadly:
"It's all wrong. I shouldn't be so happy to encourage the king to send troops. Your Highness, please calm down. Your Highness, even if I and others are confused for a moment, you have to take it into account in the name of the late king. You are also the biological daughter of the late king, right?
Can you bear to let the great country that the late king worked so hard to manage fall into the hands of Zimai?"
The last sentence seemed to move Princess Cui, and she couldn't help but burst into tears and said angrily:
"Yes, so some people are just relying on the blood of the late king to act recklessly and ruin the country that our ancestors have conquered. I originally didn't want to fight for anything, so I released my power step by step.
Be patient, but what I saw today is so insane that I can’t even tell the difference between right and wrong, what else can I say?”
"Cui Jiang, let me tell you. You think you have great talent and great strategy, and you are surrounded by people like Zhang Liang and Li Si. I tell you, you are totally wrong. The way to govern a country is like cooking a small delicacy. How can it be obtained by just imagining it?"
The idea to force me to get married before was probably an idea given to you by your adviser. You think you are very proud of yourself, don’t you? I really don’t want to fight with you, so I give in every step of the way!”
"Before my father died, he asked me to never marry. Why? I will make it clear to you today. If I get married, the blood of the late king will not be yours alone. The son I gave birth to will also belong to us.
The blood of the Cui family!! You will have your biggest competitor. In this case, there is no smoke without fire, and countless things will come out of nothing. For me, if that day comes, one will be my biological brother and the other will be mine.
My biological son, what do you want me to do? But you don’t understand my painstaking efforts at all. You regard my retreat as weakness!"
When Princess Cui said these words, a thunderbolt sounded next to Cui Jiang's ears. The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became. The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became. At this time, he wanted to punish the queen who came up with this bad idea.
After being spurned hundreds of times, Cui Jiang was originally a young man. At this time, he felt fear and panic in his heart. He even felt that he was sorry for his sister. He knelt down on the ground and cried loudly, regardless of his status and dignity:
"Sister, I was wrong, please forgive me!!"
The ministers looked at each other, kneeling and crying after seeing this. After that, the monarch would be like a mouse meeting a cat in front of the princess, and he would be submissive and not dare to resist. The emperor's party all looked ashen, while the princess's party held hands and smiled. The monarch knelt down.
Once I cry, it will be at least another ten years of silence.
Princess Cui snorted coldly and said:
"The Imperial Master said that it will take five hours to prepare for the ceremony to honor the ancestors of the Temple of Heaven. I will go down to rest first."
After saying that, he walked away.
The ministers all looked at each other in confusion, but they knew that the so-called five hours of preparation for the ceremony was an excuse. With so much buffer time left, the royal party naturally wanted to study carefully how to calm Princess Cui's anger.
If she is satisfied, then this ceremony can probably be stopped. But if she is not satisfied, then she might really have to consider establishing a new king.
Finally, this farce finally came to an end. Naturally, the royal party was completely defeated. The queen was deposed as a noble concubine. The new queen was selected by Princess Cui. The power of the royal party was completely eliminated from the three important departments of the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Personnel.
After being stripped away, King Cui Jiang's power actually increased, which was a real surprise to him.
But anyone with a discerning eye can see at a glance that no matter how powerful an individual's power is, he must have minions to execute it. Therefore, Cui Jiang's feeling that his power has become greater is actually an illusion, because he is held in the palm of Queen Cui's hand.
How much power he has depends entirely on how much power Princess Cui wants to give him.
Of course, it has to be said that the king Cui Jiang is indeed not a talented person. He is headstrong, loves success, and is strong on the outside. What's more terrible is that he is very irresponsible. It is no wonder that most of the officials in Dongxia are willing to let Cui Jiang
The princess came to draw the curtain.
***
Soon, Hao Langzhong, oh no, it should be Hao Shilang also brought back good news.
Wu Zuocheng readily agreed to let people back. Dongxia sent about 57,000 people this time, and the casualties during the siege were about 18,000, plus those who were missing, those who escaped, and the Sanli tribe
In total, nearly 35,000 prisoners were captured.
Although these prisoners are all young and strong men, they are all professional soldiers. They have undergone organized and unified training. If they are used as herd slaves, they will be a huge hidden danger. There are more than 30,000 soldiers who eat every day.
There are big pits of food. It is estimated that even the guards of four or five thousand people cannot deal with them. Normally, it is okay to say that once internal and external troubles break out, it will easily lead to very serious consequences, so if it is normal, then
Most of them will be killed directly.
But Lin Fengjin always wanted to give Princess Cui some face, so he first selected all the soldiers among the more than 30,000 people and sent them back.
Then, thousands of auxiliary soldiers who were honest and obedient and had certain skills were selected from the auxiliary soldiers to stay. They agreed on a time limit, and after working in Wu Zuocheng for three years to atone their sins, they could go home. During this period, their family members were even allowed to visit.
.
Accommodation is three people per tent, and more importantly, animals are not valuable on the grassland, and meat is provided for three meals a day. In the first year, only rice is included. Three sets of clothes are given, and in the second year, you can receive 30% of the salary, and in the third year, you can receive
Seventy percent of wages.
These auxiliary soldiers are all honest farm men. The "prairie barbarians" here in Wu Zuocheng are quite friendly as long as they don't fight. There are also many Han people here. Although they live in poor conditions, they can eat meat every day.
It seems like a day in a dream.
What's more important is that there have been many battles in the grassland for many years, and there have always been more boys and girls, and the atmosphere is also very open, so these auxiliary soldiers want to play with women or even beg for wives, as long as they are not so picky, or they dislike foreigners or already have children
Yes, it's really not hard to find.
It wasn't until the second year when these auxiliary soldiers started to receive wages that they realized that 30% of Wu Zuocheng's wages here could actually be regarded as normal wages in their hometown (the difference in wages between economically developed coastal areas and inland areas)! This news immediately shocked the public.
People were shocked a lot. The 70% salary for the third year was more than twice what it was back home!
Finally, in the third year, at least 60% of this group of auxiliary soldiers stayed, and some wanted not to stay. Their wives and children were all here... and many of them even became friends.
The companion invited people from his hometown to come here to make a living. Because the people who come here are selected first, they must first know a craft, and then they must be honest and diligent. In addition, Lin Fengjin can also suppress his subordinates. Racial discrimination is strictly prohibited
, so although there was a small friction, it made Wu Zuocheng more prosperous and developed.
Calculating this, Lin Fengjin also gave Princess Cui a lot of face. He let at least more than 20,000 people go back, and they were all elite soldiers, with only a small number of auxiliary soldiers. Of course, these people's armor, weapons, and luggage
It's impossible to pay back anything.
More importantly, these people are not free. Hao Shilang said in the court that it is indeed true that it does not cost the treasury a penny. Lin Fengjin made a lot of money in Incheon and previous transactions.
So he has no intention of exploiting Dongxia people's money anymore!
So what does Lin Fengjin want? But he wants wood!
Huge timber that has grown in the Changbai Mountains for hundreds or thousands of years!
These woods are the best materials for building ships. You must know that the climate in the south is humid and warm, while in the north it is cold. Therefore, if the same trees live to be fifty years old, they must be smaller in the north, but the quality of the wood is tighter and tougher.
Dense, this is because it grows slowly.
Timber of the same size may take two to three hundred years to grow in the north, but it may take seventy or eighty years to grow in the south.
The shipbuilding industry in the south has been around for thousands of years, but the Eastern Xia has just started. Therefore, the shipbuilding wood suitable for the south can be said to be incredibly expensive, especially the wood suitable for five-masted ships and seven-masted ships.
Without a city, Lin Fengjin was determined to develop shipping, how could he be hindered in this regard? The shipbuilding workshop in Wu Zuocheng had already been making intensive preparations.
But on the one hand, each company has taken very strict precautions, and on the other hand, those who can build ships are also treated very well in the south. It is indeed a bit difficult for people to leave their hometowns and come here, so the progress is not fast. But Lin Fengjin's idea is
Let’s prepare the materials first. Once the materials are ready, it can be transported to Jiangnan for processing when the time comes. This step alone will save a lot of trouble.
There are also many knowledgeable people in Dongxia, and they are well aware that Wu Zuocheng wants these things, so they have always resisted. However, this huge timber is not like other things and is extremely difficult to smuggle. Now they have caught this
God-given opportunity, how could Lin Fengjin not rip off a huge sum of money?
Of course, the Eastern Xia court's negotiation with Hao Shilang finally held its nose and admitted that they did not spend a penny from the state treasury, because the costs of felling trees, transportation, etc. were all paid by Wu Zuocheng himself, and even the wages of the loggers.
It's all their fault.
In the hearts of these people in the Dongxia court, it was a surprise to be able to exchange for more than 20,000 elites. Although they had been defeated, everyone knew the importance of veterans. As for Wu Zuocheng's plan to build ships, then
Let's do it. At most, it's just a scabies disease. It seems that he has no ambition. If there are really signs of hegemony, it should be to recruit more people and build more weapons. How can the money be used to buy merchant ships?
But the one who laughed the happiest was Lin Fengjin, because the wood that was cut down was really piled up like a mountain. According to the current market situation in Jiangnan, if these wood changed hands, it would be worth at least 20 million taels of silver, which is even more exaggerated.
What’s amazing is that the cost of these woods is almost negligible!
What, you said that the prisoners of Dongxia are also a cost... If those soldiers are not sent back to the Dongxia people, the final result will probably be that they are trapped and killed. What is the cost of more than 20,000 people being trapped and killed?
?On the contrary, it will make both parties become mortal enemies.
Therefore, in total, although the market, docks, and various facilities outside Wuzuo City have been demolished, plus the business lost during the war, as well as the consumption during the war, pensions, etc., we have also suffered a huge loss.
money.
However, if you calculate the accounts carefully, you will know that the wood collected from Dongxia can be worth 20 to 30 million taels.
There were also captured armors and weapons, all of which were selected from the arsenal at the command of the King of Eastern Xia.
You know, steel is expensive at this time. A thirty-forged steel knife cannot be bought without seven or eight taels of silver. The worst leather armor costs six taels of silver. As for iron armor, it is even more amazing. The most basic
Inlaid leather armor and inlaying iron plates on important parts such as the heart cost fifteen taels of silver. As for Wenshan armor, chain mail, etc., they only cost hundreds of taels of silver. The amount of these seizures was at least astonishing.
There were also cavalry among the Dongxia people, as well as nearly 10,000 excellent war horses. Although they were soaked for several days and were drugged to have diarrhea all day long, at least 5,000 to 6,000 were finally captured and cured.
Head. This is a carefully selected and well-trained war horse!
In the north, a tall and powerful horse is often selected out of ten, and then it is carefully fed and trained for a year and a half to make it accustomed to the sound of golden drums and shouts of death. Only then can it be considered qualified.
In the south, being able to have a tall horse riding on the streets is almost as eye-catching as driving a million-dollar luxury car through the city. These five or six thousand war horses are not only a symbol of status, they are transported directly to the south of the Yangtze River.
It can be said that as soon as we got off the pier, there must have been many stewards arriving, patting their chests and not even asking about the price, just saying that they would take as much as they wanted...
In addition, there are still six to seven thousand skilled auxiliary soldiers left behind. On the grassland, a skilled and strong male herdsman slave is worth at least seven or eight cattle and horses, and even has a price that is not marketable. Here is the calculation.
At least another million taels of silver.
Throughout the ages, wars have been a waste of money, and this war was certainly no exception. However, according to this calculation, Wu Zuocheng basically made a fortune, so he made a fortune in a very low-key manner.
And after they dealt with it in this way, although the Dongxia people felt that they had lost a disastrous defeat and lost face, Wu Zuocheng did not do anything bad. He neither yelled nor slapped him in the face. He still let him go to save his face.
Maintaining the same style as before. The key is that it is you, Dongxia, who takes the initiative to beat others, not Wu Zuocheng who provokes others.
Therefore, the officials in Dongxia turned a blind eye, and the endless flow of caravans continued to operate at the border between Wu Zuocheng and Dongxia. Even because they were secretive before, they simply made it public now.
Now that we are here, it can be said that it is even more prosperous than before.