Chapter 224 Subtle Attitude
Chapter 224 Subtle Attitude
Just as Wang Sang and Liu Ling tried to reunite with Wang Mi and head south to Ji County again, the Xingyang Shogunate also received a memorial from Ji County.
Sima Yue already knew the news that Pei Xian had abandoned his army and fled. To be honest, he was very surprised, but even more furious!
He never thought of abandoning the river defense line and retreating without a fight.
Even if they were unable to wipe out Liu Han's forces in Hebei, they should at least guard the Yellow River, right? If they were allowed to rush straight to Henan, everyone would suffer.
Therefore, the order he gave Pei Xian was very clear: station troops at Bai Ma to guard the ferry, and at the same time send cavalry to patrol various places to prevent thieves from sneaking across the river.
In a nutshell, even if you don't dare to cross the river to the north, you must at least guard the Yellow River for me.
Obviously, Pei Xian disappointed him.
"Send someone to Luoyang to dismiss Pei Xian from his post as the governor of Yuzhou and Pei Yi from his post as the prefect of Hongnong." Sima Yue gave the order, leaning weakly on the back of the couch.
Pei Xian abandoned the army and fled, so of course he had to be dismissed from office.
Pei Yi provided many conveniences to the three forts of the Shao family in Hongnong while in office: no taxes were required, no conscription was required, and the seized land was also legalized.
This made Sima Yue very unhappy. Just then, news of Pei Xian's incident came, which made him have an even worse impression of the Pei family, so he dismissed them all.
"Taifu, on what grounds did Pei Yi get dismissed from office?" asked the chief clerk Guo Xiang.
"Pei Yi used too harsh punishments, which displeased the people, so he was pardoned."
"Yes." Guo Xiang quickly wrote the memorial and sent an envoy to Luoyang.
In this matter, the two Shangshu Pushe, Zhongshu Jian and even Si Tu Wang Yan would not offend the Taifu.
As long as they don't object, Pei Xian and Pei Yi will lose their positions. And this is actually the Taifu's hidden dissatisfaction with the Pei family. Who did you send me?
I have done my best to honor your Pei family!
Pei Chun was appointed as the prefect of Xingyang, Pei Zheng was appointed as the prefect of Henei, and Pei Yi was appointed as the prefect of Hongnong.
Pei Dun was appointed governor of Xuzhou, and Pei Xian was appointed governor of Yuzhou.
Pei Kuo was appointed General of the Right Guard.
Pei Miao served as a secretary to the shogunate.
Is this how you repay me?
Unfortunately, the people surrounding him now are all of this kind.
To this day, Sima Yue feels somewhat regretful and feels that they have brought him a lot of trouble.
But there is no point in regretting it. If we don't use them, who else can we use? If we don't use them, who will support us?
Once you get the benefits from the scholars, you can't get off the boat.
"Master, over there on the White Horse..." After Guo Xiang finished writing, he felt that he should give a reminder.
Even for the sake of your own life, you cannot let the thieves come to Henan.
Sima Yue thought for a moment, looked straight at Guo Xiang, and asked, "How many soldiers are there in Yuzhou?"
"And..." Guo Xiang couldn't answer.
"Taifu, there are only these 20,000 people in total." Liu Yu said, "A group of people died in the battle to pacify Hebei, and another group was taken to Yanzhou by Gou Xi. Another group died and dispersed during the rebellion in the past two years, so there are still 20,000 people left."
"Tell Wang Shiwen to reorganize the troops and recruit a batch of new soldiers." Sima Yue ordered.
"promise."
"The Yanzhou soldiers should also be trained well." Sima Yue said, and then sighed secretly.
There are still more than 40,000 soldiers in Yanzhou.
He was the governor of Yanzhou and the nominal commander of the Yanzhou troops, but it was impossible for him to manage them personally. In fact, it was left to the people in the shogunate to lead them.
He had no idea what the situation was like now. He vaguely remembered that Gou Xi led this group of people to defeat Ji Sang and Shi Le in the Dongwuyang area, and they were very powerful.
The Xuzhou troops had recovered to about 20,000 to 30,000 men, led by Pei Dun.
Adding the Wang Guojun, if you count carefully, he has a lot of soldiers at hand, although they are scattered everywhere.
These soldiers still need to be trained well so that they can be handed over to the prince in the future. Otherwise, how can he survive in troubled times?
For some reason, he kept thinking about the prince recently, which made him feel confused and a little frightened.
Sometimes he would think of Shao Xun and the prophecy that was gradually spreading.
Taibai was born and the Xuchang warehouse was opened. This has already happened.
When the Luo River stops flowing, the Immortal will appear. This remains to be realized.
Regardless of whether it was true or not, he didn't want to see this person continue to jump up and down.
"Qingsun, the report from the front is that Liu Yuanhai has appointed Shi Le as his commander and commanded 100,000 infantry and cavalry. Is it true? Or is it false?" Sima Yue suddenly asked.
"Maybe it's a lie." Liu Yu thought for a moment and replied, "But there should be 30,000 or 40,000 cavalry. Claiming to have 100,000 is a trick of the military. Pei Yuzhou sent several groups of spies, and they got confused after finding out the military situation. If there were only tens of thousands of ordinary infantry and cavalry, why would it be like this?"
Sima Yue nodded.
Thirty or forty thousand cavalrymen, can't they defeat Shao Xun's mere ten thousand men? Let the Xiongnu bury him.
However, he is more likely to stay in Ji County and shrink from moving forward. We should think carefully about how to deal with him.
******
Luoyang received the news a day later.
On the fifth day of October, after the court meeting, the emperor moved to Hualin Garden, set out tea and wine to entertain several important ministers, and asked questions. Empress Liang personally trained a group of female musicians and dancers to entertain them.
The emperor and his subjects were in great joy and enthusiasm, and there seemed to be a sign of revival.
Those who came included:
Xun Fan, the Junior Tutor of the Crown Prince - the current crown prince is named Sima Quan, the younger brother of the former crown prince Sima Tan (Prince of Qinghe) and the grandson of Sima Yan.
There were more than ten people including Shangshu Zuo Pushe Liu Tun, Shangshu Ling Gao Guang, Shangshu Lang He Sui, Taipu Qing Miao Yin, Taishi Ling Gao Tangchong, Sanqi Shilang Wang Yan and so on.
After the defeat at Huanyuan Pass, Miao Bo was relieved of his post as a military officer and became the Imperial Guards Assistant Minister. However, this was just a transition, as he was said to be promoted to the position of Imperial Attendant and participate in confidential matters.
In addition to the emperor's line, there were also court officials such as Si Tu Wang Yan, Shi Zhong Yu Min, You Wei General Pei Kuo, and Xiao Qi General Wang Hu.
They are not the emperor's men, but they can only be said to be slightly inclined towards Sima Yue. In addition, over the past year or so, they have become increasingly disappointed with Sima Yue. They are objects that can be cooperated with or even won over.
Queen Liang Lanbi always paid attention to the situation on the field and then arranged the program with just the right rhythm, which greatly pleased the emperor and his ministers.
Queen Liang was also very happy.
The twenty-one-year-old young queen only had eyes for the emperor, and most of the time she looked at her husband with eyes full of respect and admiration.
The emperor wants to restore order in the court and take back the power lost during the previous emperor's time. This is called restoring order out of chaos and is only natural.
Now that such an opportunity happened to arise, although she was a little uneasy, she was still very supportive.
Today, all the wise men have gathered to discuss state affairs, which makes her feel that her husband has done the right thing, and the tenderness in her eyes is almost overflowing.
However, there was something that made her feel a little wrong——
"I think the matter reported by Marquis Luyang should be taken seriously." When everyone was discussing the matter in Hebei, the Minister of the Court Yu Min said, "Either fight or retreat. To retreat before a battle is not the right way to use troops."
After Yu Min said this, it was difficult for everyone to avoid this issue.
When the emperor looked at him, he suddenly felt annoyed.
Yesterday he asked all the ministers vaguely, "Yu Min has great talent, can he be appointed as the governor of a state?"
He really didn't expect that the important official he personally selected would have a relationship with Shao Xun, so he wanted to kick him out and replace him with someone else.
Shangshu Ling Gao Guang suggested that Yu Min be appointed as the governor of Yongzhou and transfer General Zhenxi Shan Jian to be the deputy minister.
This matter was opposed by Liu Tun because he was worried that Shan Jian would replace him.
Si Tu Wang Yan also expressed his opposition implicitly, believing that Guanzhong was indeed important and should be kept calm.
If the emperor must select talented people from prefectures and counties to serve in the court, then he might as well appoint Shan Jian as Shangshu You Pushe, Yu Min still as Shizhong, and Ding Chuo, an old acquaintance of King Nanyang, as the governor of Yongzhou, to reassure him.
Wang Situ's suggestion made Gao Guang and Liu Tun very satisfied.
Gao Guang has an old acquaintance with Shan Jian and wants him to come to the court to help him and check and balance Liu Tun.
Liu Tun retained his position as Shangshu Zuo Pushe and was barely satisfied - the left and right Pushe, with the left being the main one.
Shan Jian must have also intended to leave Guanzhong and enjoy the glamorous world of Luoyang.
Most likely, Yu Min was unwilling to go to Guanzhong. The Shizhong had great power and only a fool would not want it.
Sima Mo, the King of Nanyang, sent away the governor selected by the court and replaced him with his confidant, and he was also happy.
Wang Situ’s proposal actually made everyone happy!
Of course, the emperor was not satisfied, but he had no choice but to give up the idea of getting rid of Yu Min.
"Shao Qing has 20,000 men under his command, and they are brave and good at fighting. How can he not defeat the bandits? Yu Qing is worrying for nothing." The emperor smiled and said, "I am in the palace, waiting for good news."
Yu Min was silent.
The emperor obviously had something against Shao Xun.
But last year, the emperor was still very happy to win over the Marquis of Luyang, and regarded him as another Miao Yin and Miao Bo.
There is probably only one reason for this: prophecy.
This niece's husband, ah! He rose too fast, and was envied by others. I don't know who deceived him.
Of course, prophecies and rumors are often far-fetched and not believed by wise people. But when it comes to matters like the ownership of the world, it is always better to believe it than not to believe it.
The emperor was restrained by others, otherwise he would have found a reason to kill Marquis Luyang.
It is unlikely that we can expect the emperor to intervene in this Northern Expedition.
At the same time, Yu Min also felt a little emotional.
When the Huns captured Pingyang and Hedong counties, the Grand Tutor vowed to launch a northern expedition, but in the end this was the outcome.
Now that I think about it, the Grand Tutor didn’t really want to launch a Northern Expedition.
It was simply because he had let Wang Mi go all the way, and his prestige had been severely damaged, so he wanted to do something to win back the hearts of the people.
But as for this move to win back people's hearts, it was just lip service. When it came to real action, he backed off. Even people like Wang Mi and Shi Le were afraid of him. What else is there to say?
Alas, what a bunch of idiots!
If Marquis Luyang was smart, he should have ordered his troops to turn back and pretended to be nice. Anyway, all the troops had not arrived yet, so no one could blame him.
Forget it, I'll ask someone to take the letter over when I get back.
(End of this chapter)