On the morning of the next day, Zhe Yanzhi officially read out the emperor's edict, commending Chen Qing for his great contribution to exterminating Xia, rewarding him with a silver reward of one hundred thousand taels, and conferring him the title of King of Lingwu County, making his eldest son Chen Ji the crown prince, and granting him the title of Captain of Shangqingche.
, the first wife, Lu, was registered as the princess, and the second wife, Zhao, was given the title of Mrs. Xia Guo, and the two concubines, named Yu, were given the title of Yiren.
All meritorious officers and soldiers are ordered to be rewarded by the Privy Council and the Ministry of Civil Affairs according to their merits, and a million pieces of silk are also awarded to the officers and soldiers of the three armies.
After reading out the imperial edict, Zhe Yanzhi discussed the management of the Hetao with Chen Qing and several chief officials of the Xuanfu Envoys on behalf of the imperial court.
"I can tell the Xuanfu envoy and other senior officials frankly that the official family is not very interested in the Hetao, probably because it is too far away. When the official family heard that Xixia was destroyed, they only said "good" three times, and then there was nothing more, or even no
Let the Zhengshitang discuss follow-up matters, but the court is very concerned about it. Zhang Jun proposed that the Zhengshitang discuss the governance of the Loop. Although they failed to come up with a plan, the court will still pay close attention to it."
Jiang Yanxian bowed slightly and said with a smile: "Zhe Tongzhi, can you tell us why the imperial court failed to come up with a treatment plan?"
Zhe Yanzhi smiled and said: "Logically, this is not the scope of my responsibilities and I shouldn't say more, but since Jiang Changshi asked, I think we can still discuss it as a kind of political exchange.
I personally feel that the court has not formulated a plan. The key is that the court has no idea about the situation in the Hetao area. How many states and counties there are, how much population, ethnic composition, production situation, etc. are clueless. How can they come up with a treatment plan?
"
"Will the imperial court send someone to find out about the situation in the Hetao?" Zhou Kuan asked this time.
"If the Sichuan-Shaanxi Xuanfu Envoy Department has not provided the corresponding information, then the imperial court can only send people to Hetao to understand the situation. However, if the envoy cannot go to Hetao due to safety issues, the matter may end up being ignored. Zhengshitang
There are so many things to do, it’s impossible to focus on one thing, do you understand what I mean?”
What Zhe Yanzhi means is that if you want the court not to interfere with the Loop, you should not provide any information to the court. At the same time, you must prevent the court from sending people into the Loop to investigate. As long as the court never gets the information about the Loop, it will not intervene in the end.
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Everyone is well aware of Zheyanzhi's suggestion, but Zheyanzhi represents the imperial court, so he cannot go too far and can only make a fuss about such trivial matters. But for Chen Qing, none of the above is necessary, even if
The imperial court made a thousand governance plans and just ignored them.
Chen Qing was more concerned about the financial situation of the imperial court. He asked: "Yesterday, Duke Zhe said that the imperial court had a financial crisis, so it decided to negotiate a truce with the Kingdom of Jin. Actually, I don't care about the peace and truce. I am more concerned with the imperial court's financial crisis.
How serious is it?”
"It's very serious. As far as I know, there are only 500,000 copper coins left in the imperial treasury. Generally, it will have to wait until April next year before the taxes and taxes from the previous year will be escorted to Lin'an. However, the imperial court can't wait any longer and ordered various places to collect as many coins as possible.
No matter how much money was escorted, it was immediately transferred to Lin'an. It is said that it was only 1.5 million guan, which was not even enough for a month's military salary."
Zhou Kuan frowned, "I remember that the imperial court had a balanced budget a few years ago. Why has it changed so much?"
Zhe Yanzhi sighed, "It was mainly due to three major events that caused misfortune to the court. Of course, it had nothing to do with Bashu. The taxes from Bashu have been supplying the Western Army for so many years, and the court could not get them. It had no impact on the court. The key is Jingnan.
To quell the chaos on the South Road, it is said that Zhang Jun's army spent nine million guan in military expenses and millions of dan in food in half a year.
The second is that the imperial court subsidized Jianghuai. During the Jianghuai War, millions of people in Jianghuai were unable to farm, so they had to be fed by the imperial court. In just half a year, the imperial court invested tens of millions of dollars and two million stones of grain. It was like a bottomless pit. What? It’s the end of time, I don’t even know.”
The third is the military salary and food for the 300,000-strong Northern Expedition army. The military salary alone costs two million guan a month, and there is also a large amount of soldiers and armor supplies. Half a year after the Northern Expedition, almost all the warehouses in the court were empty, and it was really impossible to continue the war. There must be an armistice and peace talks.”
Chen Qing said calmly: "Then the financial crisis of the imperial court has become the responsibility of the anti-gold faction?"
"It can't be said that the fight against the Jin Dynasty is a big plan, and victory cannot be achieved in a short time. We must pay special attention to methods and methods. Gou Jian worked hard for ten years to accumulate national strength and finally won in one battle. However, the imperial court's fight against the Jin Dynasty was unorganized and hot-headed. Just resist the Jin, use a hammer in the east and a stick in the west, capture Yangzhou, attack Bianliang, and fight the Jianghuai River. Each time, they come back with a disastrous defeat. I don’t know how much financial, material and human resources were spent. In the end, nothing was obtained, which triggered a financial crisis. Shifting the responsibility to the anti-gold faction, Lu Xianggong dismissed the prime minister, and Li Gang was dismissed. Those who are truly capable of resisting the gold are not reused, while those who are incapable of resisting the gold occupy high positions. Isn't it chilling?"
"The ones who are capable of resisting gold are Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, and Wu Jie. Who are the ones who are incapable of resisting gold?"
"There are two incompetent people who can resist gold. They have the same names: Zhang Jun, a mediocre general, and Zhang Jun, a mediocre prime minister."
Chen Qing smiled and asked, "I'd like to hear the details!"
Zhe Yanzhi shook his head, "In the six months since the Xuanfu Emperor attacked Xixia, many major events have happened in the court. They are all public affairs. The Xuanfu Emperor can inquire about them himself, but it would be bad if I tell them from my mouth."
Chen Qing knew that he was afraid of offending Zhang Jun, so he asked no more questions and sent someone to take him back to the VIP Inn to rest.
Chen Qing returned to his official room and sent someone to invite Zhang Miao. After a while, Zhang Miao hurriedly came over, bowed and said: "See the prince!"
Chen Qing didn't like the title Xuanfu Shi, so he insisted on making him a king. Once he was made a king, the nature would be different. Xuanfu Shi was a minister, but the prince was the lord.
Chen Qing was not modest and acquiesced to Zhang Miao's change of title.
"I just want to know what happened to the court during the six months since I conquered Xixia?"
Zhang Miao was in charge of intelligence, and he had heard about the affairs of the imperial court, but he didn't know the details.
He thought for a while and said: "About the first half of the year, Zhang Jun was transferred to conquer Liu Guangshi, and Wu Jie replaced his defense line. At this time, Yue Fei proposed that he and Han Shizhong on the east line, Wu Jie on the middle line, and the three schools of defense A hundred thousand troops joined forces to attack the Central Plains. Without Zhang Jun's constraints, both Wu Jie and Han Shizhong agreed. The emperor also agreed. At the same time, Yue Fei was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the three armies to lead the northern expedition of two hundred thousand troops. Zhang Jun was appointed as the commander-in-chief. In charge of military logistics.
The imperial edict had been issued, and the army began to send troops to the Northern Expedition. However, for some reason, the emperor suddenly issued an order to remove Yue Fei from his position as commander-in-chief of the three armies, and also canceled the Northern Expedition. The three armies had to withdraw their troops back to Jianghuai.
Immediately afterwards, Yue Fei resigned, and without waiting for the emperor's consent, he took off his armor and went to Donglin Temple in Lushan to observe mourning for his mother. It is said that the emperor was furious, and then Zhang Jun recommended his confidant Zhang Zongyuan, the Minister of War, to go to Xiangyang to take over Yue Fei's position. The news spread to In Xiangyang, Yue Fei's generals complained of illness one after another, and the soldiers were all in panic. One hundred thousand Yue family troops were about to mutiny.
When the news reached Lin'an, the emperor was also frightened. He refuted Zhang Jun's memorial requesting the removal of Yue Fei and rejected Yue Fei's resignation. He ordered Zhang Jun to go to Luzhou to appease Yue Fei, invite him back to Xiangyang, and let Yue Fei control Wu Jie's army.
, in fact it was the emperor who compromised with Yue Fei."
Chen Qing pondered for a moment and said: "Zhang Jun should be the one instigating this, so Zhe Yanzhi said he was a mediocre prime minister."
"The same is true for low-level positions. There are rumors that Zhang Jun was transferred to quell the rebellion of Liu Guangshi. Yue Fei bypassed the governor Zhang Jun and directly recommended Wu Jie to the emperor to be the commander of the center line. Zhang Jun was very unhappy. Zhang Jun originally wanted to
Let Zhang Zongyuan serve as the center line commander."
Chen Qing understood and said with a smile: "So Zhang Jun persuaded the emperor that it was too dangerous for Yue Fei to control an army of 200,000, and he would become the second Chen Qing. The emperor changed his mind and canceled the joint northern expedition. Yue Fei
He lost the right to join forces. He felt that he was loyal to the Northern Expedition for the country, but the court was under suspicion, so he gave up his burden in anger."
"The prince's guess is close to ten, and the truth should be like this."
"But Yue Fei is too upright and doesn't understand the dangers of the imperial court."
Chen Qing sighed, shook his head and said: "He is loyal, but the emperor thinks that he is greedy for military power. If he can't get military power, he will retreat in order to advance. He secretly instigated the army to mutiny, forcing the emperor to admit his mistake and send someone to take him out."
Please go back and give him military power again.
The same thing, from his standpoint and the emperor's standpoint, have completely different explanations. One is that he failed to serve the country and ran away in anger; the other is that he failed to seek power and retreated in order to advance. The emperor's suspicion will not go away, and Yue Fei is in danger.
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Chen Qing slowly said to Zhang Miao: "This is why I am determined to take control of the military. Rather than being suspected of treason, it is better to separatist power. I will never be the second Yue Fei."