In the blink of an eye, another year has passed. Zhang Yan is already thirty-five years old and has six sons and nine daughters.
The eldest daughter, Zhang Qiwan, is twenty years old. After marrying Zhao Kuangzan, she gave birth to a son and a daughter.
This time she and Zhao Kuangzan returned to Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo from Hezhong Prefecture, and it was also the first time that Zhang Yan, as a grandfather, accepted the congratulations on the first anniversary of the birth from two babbling little babies.
After the ceremony, there was still some time before the banquet started. Zhang Qixiu, the second daughter of Song Dynasty, and a group of younger brothers and sisters took the two little ones away. Everyone liked these two little guys.
Zhang Yanze finally had time to say a few words to Zhao Kuangzan and Zhang Qiwan. He took the hands of his daughter and son-in-law and walked into a side hall.
Although Zhang Qiwan is not Zhang Yan's biological flesh and blood, her status is also different from that of ordinary adopted sons, because Zhang Qiwan is an adopted daughter who has the right to inherit and is basically the same as her biological daughter.
Among Zhang Zhi's adopted sons, even Murong Nobunaga can barely be considered as half an adopted son. In terms of ethical closeness, he still can't keep up with Zhang Qiwan.
After the two sat down, Zhang Hao personally poured a cup of hot tea for Zhao Kuangzan.
This young man, who was only thirteen or fourteen years old when he first met Zhang Hao, looked like a young master, is now his son-in-law, and is even more a stable and handsome man.
Zhao Kuangzan played a great role in Zhang Gao's success in entering the Central Plains. Without him, he passed the customs all the way, persuaded them to surrender, and forced back a large number of old Central Plains generals from Hezhong Prefecture to Shaanzhou and then to Luoyang.
It is very likely that Zhang Yan will be blocked by Yelu Deguang to the west of Hezhong Prefecture or to the west of Shaanzhou. It is absolutely impossible to deal with Yelu Deguang within a few months.
"Have your father's funeral affairs been taken care of? Don't blame Nobunaga for this matter. If you want to blame, blame me! Murong Erlang also guessed my thoughts and went to do it."
What Zhang Yan was talking about was that Murong Nobunaga did not leave a way for Zhao Kuangzan's father, Zhao Yanshou, to survive.
He was telling the truth, because it was true that he was not prepared to save Zhao Yanshou's life. Otherwise, with Murong Nobunaga's character of focusing on family ties, Zhao Yanshou could at least fake his death and escape.
"My child knows that I, Yeye, and Aweng all asked for it.
In the past, our ancestors and later dynasties were extremely kind to our Zhao family. In the end, they even wanted to rebel, so that in the end they could only rely on the Khitan to help the tiger.
In the battle of Tuanbai Valley, the imperial court was defeated, and I, the Zhao family, bear the greatest responsibility. From that time on, their fate was doomed."
Zhao Kuangzan shook his head, trying his best to look calm and calm, but a bit of bitterness appeared on his face.
The Battle of Tuanbai Valley he mentioned was the battle in which the Khitan Army suddenly appeared in the south of Taiyuan City at the invitation of Shi Jingtang and defeated the Later Tang Army.
Zhao Kuangzan did not shy away from it at all. Indeed, if it were not for Zhao Dejun and Zhao Yanshou and his son who had ulterior motives and deliberately caused trouble, the Khitan people might not have been able to defeat the Tang army in Tuanbai Valley. Naturally, the Zhao family did not have to be directly cut off by Yelu Deguang.
Take him to the grassland.
Zhang Yan sighed deeply and patted Zhao Kuangzan on the shoulder, "Oh man! You just can't go astray. My father Zhao Yanshou is not without talent. On the contrary, he is beautiful, good at riding and shooting, and capable of running an army. He is no better than Gao Xingzhou, Fu Yanqing, etc.
It’s bad, but if you take the wrong path, you can never look back.”
Zhao Kuangzan nodded repeatedly, "I understand, I will definitely remember your Lord's instructions."
"After the New Year, you go to Xuzhou to take charge of the construction of Xuzhou's garrison, prepare for the Southern Tang Dynasty, and make more friends with the heroes north of the Huaihe River in the Southern Tang Dynasty."
Zhao Kuangzan nodded. He had known that Zhang Yan asked him to come from Hezhong Mansion just to transfer him to Xuzhou.
The current Pingzhang of Jianghuai Province has been vacant since Guo Wei left. Now the person in charge of Xuzhou is Fu Yanqing's eldest son Fu Zhaoxu. He is running the entire Jianghuai Province as the military supervisor of Xuzhou Prefecture.
It can be said that Huaibei is still a bit dangerous at this time.
Fu Zhaoxu is the eldest son of Fu Yanqing. Although his abilities are acceptable, his background is too low.
It would still be feasible if we could control the garrison troops and patrol officers in one or two prefectures, but we would have to command the entire Jianghuai Province.
Especially in Jianghuai Province, there are "big bosses" like Zhang Xiong, the military supervisor of Huai'an Prefecture, Zhang Yanqing, the governor of Haizhou and the military supervisor of Haizhou, and Gao Yunquan (Haozhou), the governor of Zhongli Prefecture.
These three people are either local heroes and celebrities, or their status is high enough. Gao Yunquan is Zhang Shengren's official uncle. None of the three of them will listen to Fu Zhaoxu.
This resulted in the order issued by the Jianghuai Provincial Office, which could only command the prefectures and counties around Xuzhou Prefecture. Therefore, there was an urgent need for a capable, well-born and high-status person to take charge in Xuzhou.
But in this way, the scope of selection is not large, and the only suitable ones are Yin Zhengqi, Ma Zhaoyuan, Murong Nobunaga, Li Cunhui and others.
But none of these could be touched. After much selection, only Zhao Kuangzan was suitable.
In terms of origin, he is a direct descendant of the Zhao family of the great Lulong warlord, the grandson of Mingzong of the later Tang Dynasty, and the son-in-law of Zhang Shengren of this dynasty.
In terms of ability, Zhao Kuangzan served as the military governor of Huazhou Town under the protection of his family general when he was a teenager.
After Zhang Zhou was established, he served as the military governor of Hezhong Prefecture and the military governor of Heyang for two years. Although his personal force was average, he was able to unite his troops to guard one place.
After Zhao Kuangzan left Hezhong Prefecture, the establishment of the last military governor of the Central Plains, the military governor of Hezhong Prefecture, was also about to be abolished.
Hezhong Prefecture was originally a transfer station established from Chang'an to Luoyang, and was responsible for the transfer of some supplies from the northwest to the Central Plains.
Now that the status of Guanzhong and Chang'an has declined greatly, at the same time, supplies from the northwest no longer need to be transferred to Guanzhong, and even resources from the Central Plains in Guanzhong have to be transferred to the northwest to support Zhang Hao's strategy of entering Anxi again.
Therefore, the status of Hezhong Prefecture has declined greatly in the past two years by Zhang Zhou. There is no need to set up a festival town anymore, and it will be like an ordinary state capital in the future.
"In addition, the whereabouts of the Huaibei thief Li Renshu have not been found recently. After you go to Xuzhou Prefecture, you must strictly implement the two tasks of equalizing land and reducing taxes, and give more comfort to the people who come out of the mountains and swamps.
The fundamental reason why Li Renshu was able to gain power in Huaibei was that the people could not survive. If they could survive, Li Renshu would be forced out sooner or later."
Zhang Gao continued to tell Zhao Kuangzan that Li Renshu, the great thief who once dominated Huainan and Huaibei, had gone from being able to gather tens of thousands of men at any time to almost completely disappearing after Ma Zhaoyuan and Luo Shande's continuous attacks over the years.
But Zhang Gao knew that the Huaibei thieves headed by Li Renshu were just lurking. They were used to the big rewards of licking blood from the edge of a knife and would not just calm down.
The most important task of Jianghuai Province Pingzhang is to catch Li Renshu.
Zhao Kuangzan blinked and looked at Zhang Hao for a long time. When he saw that Zhang Hao had no intention of continuing to speak, he immediately felt very painful.
Li Renshu was able to run so rampant in Huaibei. In addition to the support of too many people who could not survive, the support of a large number of local tycoons in Xuzhou, Huai'an, Haizhou, Zhongli and other state capitals was also a very important reason.
The current garrison in Xuzhou Prefecture only consists of a battalion of more than 1,000 people from Yangwu Town of the Forbidden Army, and more than 2,000 guardsmen who were transformed from the tooth soldiers of the Wuning Army.
With just such a small number of people, it is not enough to control the entire Jianghuai Province, pacify local tycoons, and find the big thief in Huaibei, Li Renshu, no matter how you look at it!
"Is your lord going to take action against Meng Shu?" Suddenly, Zhao Kuangzan thought of a possibility.
Zhang Zhou is currently following the route of elite soldiers, which means that the elite of the country will have 50,000 pro-army households and 80,000 forbidden army households.
The rest is borne by the pro-army, the auxiliary troops brought by the Forbidden Army, the Yicon and Unite soldiers from various places who want to climb up, and the Guardsmen.
It's just that the guard station is still an empty shell with no people to fill it up. It will take at least two or three years to wait until it has a certain combat effectiveness.
The pro-military 50,000 households have completed about 30,000 households, while the imperial army 80,000 households have not even completed the 40,000 households.
Calculated on the basis of one clan per household, Zhang Zhou's pro-army plus imperial army could draw up to 70,000 people.
This is indeed a way to save money. If the pro-army and imperial troops are not stationed in the guards, they don't need to spend much money. The guards are basically self-sufficient.
Therefore, Zhang Zhou could not only launch continuous wars while the Central Plains economy had not fully recovered, but he could also reform taxes and reduce the burden on the people.
But one problem is that whenever there is a war, the military strength will be relatively scarce.
Therefore, when Zhao Kuangzan saw that Zhang Gao did not send him more troops, he immediately realized that he should allocate troops to fight against Meng Shu.
Zhang Yan did not hide anything from Zhao Kuangzan, but nodded and admitted, "That boy Meng Chang is training his elite troops in the middle of Shu. The middle of Shu is already easy to defend and difficult to attack. Once he trains tens of thousands of elite troops, it will be even harder to fight. I
We are indeed prepared to deal with Meng Chang within the next two years."
There was a look of envy in Zhao Kuangzan's eyes. He also wanted to participate in this kind of battle to destroy the country! But it was obvious that Jianghuai Province needed him more.
"My son, I know. When I go to Jianghuai, I will do a good job in balancing the land and recuperate."
....
A family dinner was coming to an end in a very lively atmosphere.
Although my harem, Zhang Shengren, is divided into the faction of the Cao sisters who are powerful in numbers and the faction of Li Ruoliu who can give birth to sons, oh, we also have to add the faction of Central Plains beauties like Fu Ying'er and Gao Eniang.
But the whole thing is still very harmonious. Li Ruoliu's biggest idea is just to gain greater political capital for brothers Zhang Xiancun and Zhang Xianzhao.
As for challenging his eldest son Zhang Xianjing's position as crown prince, Li Ruoliu may have thought about it before, but her aunt certainly has not thought about it now.
Because Zhang Yan's attitude was very clear, the position of prince did not belong to Zhang Xiancun, nor did it belong to Zhang Xianzhao. This position could only be filled by the direct heir of Queen Cao Yanxi.
As for whether it is Zhang Xianjing, it depends on the fate of this boy. After all, Zhang Shengren's current body will not undergo any major changes in decades.
Without the biggest factor driving the fight for the throne, the fight in Zhang's harem immediately subsided.
Zhang Gao turned sideways and looked at his eldest son Zhang Xiancun not far away, and then turned his head to Li Ruoliu next to him.
My aunt's figure has gotten better and better over the years. Although she is a mother of four children, she is still gorgeous.
On the other hand, as Sanniangzi is getting older, her beauty can no longer withstand the erosion of time.
"Little aunt, that boy Li Zhun went to find Yong'an as soon as he came back. You didn't let him do this on purpose, did you?"
Li Ruoliu rolled her eyes, not at Zhang Yan, but at her eldest son who was speechless.
This guy is good at everything, but he can't walk when he sees a beautiful woman. This is one of the reasons why Li Ruoliu gave up his ambition to seize the throne.
Zhang Xiancun is not without ability, he does have it. Over the years in Longtao Academy and Tiangong Academy, Zhang Xiancun has shown great leadership and charisma, and he is extremely smart.
But it seems that he is a master who can't control himself very well when it comes to women.
In addition to Hua Jianshi's daughter, the former Princess Tang Yong'an, whom he captured, he also had a sticky relationship with An Shuqian's daughter.
He is only fifteen years old! Although he can marry and have children at this time, if he is the eldest son, this will not be a problem.
But he happened to be the eldest son of a concubine who had to fight for it before he could win the big position.
If you mess around like this now, it will give people a feeling that it is difficult to achieve big things, and it will be difficult to attract truly capable and powerful people to bet on things.
So after Zhang Yan made it clear, my aunt simply gave up her thoughts.
"Sage, where is An Shuqian, should I ask my eldest brother to talk to him? This attention has been paid to Zhun'er. How does he expect Zhun'er to give him a high-ranking official position?"
Zhang Gao thought for a while, then slowly shook his head, "An Shuqian was also a strong man in his early years. He has some skills and connections, and his family fortune is quite rich. It will be a big help for him to marry a girl from the An family.
.”
Li Ruoliu looked at Zhang Yan in surprise, "Yong'an is a princess of the later dynasty and Murong Erlang's younger sister. With such a status, she cannot be a concubine."
What Li Ruoliu meant was that as the Princess of the Later Tang Dynasty and the sister-in-law of Murong Nobunaga, Princess Yong'an would definitely not be a concubine.
Although An Shuqian lost most of his power after the establishment of the new dynasty, he still had the merit of persuading Liu Zhiyuan to enter and went deep into the tiger's den to persuade Liu Zhiyuan, and he still had some standing in the military circles.
No matter what, Zhang Yan still had to give some respect to an old man like him from Daibei. Naturally, An Shuqian's legitimate daughter had no reason to be a concubine.
Zhang Hao thought for a while and was ready to reveal it to Li Ruoliu.
During this southern expedition, Zhang Yan carefully inspected Zhang Xiancun. Except that he did have some common problems among young people who like to flirt with women, his other abilities were still very good, especially his leadership.
In addition, on the way to move the army, Zhang Hao carefully considered his policy towards the southwestern barbarians. Among other things, the Duan family in Dali, which had already formed a climate, would definitely still have to take a heavy blow.
Without defeating the Duan clan in Dali, Zhang Yan had many tricks to win over the southwestern barbarians. Whether it was through the native official system or religion, it would be very difficult, and competition with the Duan clan in Dali would be inevitable.
I think back when the Ming Dynasty opened up the southwest, Mu Ying, Lan Yu, and Fu Youde led hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fight bloody battles.
After Mu Ying stayed in the town, he led hundreds of thousands of soldiers to garrison the area and used a combination of local officials, floating officials and guards to completely pacify the southwest.
Zhang Gao secretly calculated that if he wanted to pacify the southwest like Emperor Hongwu and destroy the Duan Dali Kingdom, it would be at least ten years later.
At that time, Zhang Xiancun was twenty-five or six years old and was in the prime of life. He was the best candidate to guard Yungui and be the leader of the local officials.
So Zhang Yan said calmly: "You must be talented, and the world will be vast in the future, and you will definitely have the luck to be a powerful person.
If a person like this marries a few more princesses, it will no longer be considered as concubinage, and it will be a help when the time comes to settle down his family."
Li Ruoliu's eyes lit up when she heard this, but then dimmed again, and she let out a long sigh.
"The sage said this, this country is definitely not a good place. Can you tell me, should I go to the east of the sea or the middle of the river?"
Seeing that Zhang Hao didn't say anything, Li Ruoliu suddenly opened his eyes wide, "Isn't it going to Qingtang Plateau? That's not possible! I'm sure you won't be able to bear it."
"Go to the southwest! Go to Tong Haijun Jiedushi, go to Dali." Zhang Gao told the truth, then looked at Li Ruoliu and said.
"From today on, you must teach more accurately in these aspects. Make preparations early and accumulate strength early."
Dali? To be the king of Dali? Li Ruoliu recalled in her mind what she knew about the situation in Dali.
Well, it's not a good place, but it's still much better than the river thousands of miles away and the bitter cold Qingtang Plateau.
Queen Cao Yanxi had already seen the two of them whispering here, and after enduring it for a long time, she couldn't help but walk over with her big belly.
"Sage, the Lantern Festival on New Year's Day is about to begin. Is it time for you to lead us to watch the lanterns?"
Zhang Hao smiled and stroked Cao Yanxi's protruding belly, "I'm telling Jiuniang, what about letting Zhun'er go to Dali Kingdom to become the king in the future? She would be very happy to do so!"
When Cao Yanxi heard this, his eyes immediately narrowed like a little fox, and his face was filled with an uncontrollable smile.
"Really? Congratulations!
My Cao family has a caravan that has been exploring the southwestern Yi lands, and the athletes from the caravan have already visited the Weichu Mansion in Dali."
The Weichu Mansion was the Chuxiong of Yunnan in later generations, and it was already considered the hinterland of the Dali Kingdom. Zhang Gao thought for a while and asked: "Is Cao Yuantong in charge or Cao Yuanxiao?"
Cao Yuantong and Cao Yuanxiao were both from the Cao family in Shazhou and were Cao Yanxi's cousins. They were not too far apart.
Cao Yanxi raised her temples beside her ears and replied softly with a smile: "The fifteenth uncle Yuanxiao is in charge."
Cao Yanxi was answering Zhang Yan's words, but she looked at Li Ruoliu. The meaning was obvious. She hoped that Li Ruoliu would be a little softer. If she could say a few nice words, Cao Yanxi would immediately agree to help.
Of course, Li Ruoliu was even more unambiguous. She would definitely resist in other matters, but when it came to her son, she could throw away any face. Li Ruoliu was about to make a plea at that moment.
Cao Yanxi immediately moved and spoke before Li Ruoliu could plead.
"Ninth Sister, ask Zhun'er to come to Shude Palace in two days. I will personally introduce him then."
After saying that, the two of them looked at each other and smiled, as if the grudge they had before had immediately disappeared without a trace.
Zhang Hao turned his head, and among the beauties flying like butterflies, he accurately grabbed Da Fu's soft little hand and squeezed it gently.
"I'll go to your place tonight." Zhang Shengren blinked and whispered.
Da Fu blushed and looked at Zhang Hao with watery eyes.