Final Volume Chapter 58
Final Chapter 58
Chuan State was in constant civil strife due to the dispute over the throne. At the same time, the transfer of Feng State's political center to Shangjing was in full swing. (*[138看书//First release of text]*)
During this period of time, Shangjing has been under construction. The palace of Feng State and the residences of Feng State officials are all under construction. Although the Feng State court has not explicitly stated that it will move the capital to Shangjing, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Feng State is actually moving its capital.
Originally, Feng State was in harmony, and Yin Zhun was excited because he finally returned to Shangjing, which he had been dreaming about. But at this time, a terrible piece of bad news suddenly came.
The ministers of the imperial court who returned to Beijing with him were attacked by the rebels when they reached the border between Mo Di and Andi. As a result, the 10,000 Sky Eagle soldiers who were responsible for escorting them were outnumbered and suffered heavy casualties. The ministers of the imperial court suffered a devastating disaster. A total of 26 ministers and their families were affected and killed by the rebels.
More than 20 ministers were killed at once, and there were many high-ranking officials above the second rank among them. This was a shocking case. Yin Zhun was filled with grief and indignation, and ordered Tang Yin to investigate the murderer strictly and bring the rebels who killed the ministers of the imperial court to justice.
Tang Yin knew very well that there were no rebels, but those who shot arrows in the dark. As for the dead and wounded soldiers of the Sky Eagle Army, they were all false reports. In fact, the Sky Eagle Army did not lose a single soldier.
However, Tang Yin did not miss this opportunity. He took advantage of the situation and carried out a big sweep across the country of Feng under the banner of suppressing the rebels, to strike at the rebel forces within the country of Feng and consolidate the stability within the country of Feng.
This was the second time that Feng State carried out a big sweep against the rebel forces across the country, and a lot of people were affected. Even in Andi, where the people were the most docile, more than 10,000 people were involved, and most of them were executed by local officials in the name of rebels.
Unlike the last time, few ordinary people were involved this time, and most of them were local families with wealth and power.
In the eyes of Tang Yin and the Feng Kingdom court, these local family forces were the most unstable factors and the biggest hidden dangers of Feng Kingdom. As long as these family forces did not collude with local rebel forces, there would be no major rebellion in Feng Kingdom.
This big cleanup wiped out many big families with deep-rooted local forces in Feng Kingdom overnight. In a sense, it did play a great deterrent role. The most interesting point is that this big cleanup did not cause disgust among the general public. Seeing that the local bullies and rich people were arrested and executed by the government, most people applauded.
This big cleanup of Feng Kingdom lasted for more than two months. It felt that if it continued, Feng Kingdom would have new turmoil. Tang Yin then sent orders to the local areas to let the situation gradually calm down.
After this cleanup, it can be said that the centralization of Feng State has reached its peak. The people of Ningdi, Modi, Andi, and Huandi are all afraid of "rebellion". There are no more rebel forces in various places, counties, and counties, at least they dare not appear in the open, openly inciting local people to confront the court, which is exactly what Tang Yin and the court want.
In order to maintain stability, Feng State adopted an iron-blooded approach, so that Feng State would no longer have any worries when playing games with foreign enemies in the future. On the other hand, in Chuan State, because of the struggle for power within the court, the rebel forces in Chuan State began to rise one after another, among which the rebellion in Zhendi was the most intense.
After the destruction of Zhen State, the entire territory of Zhendi was occupied by Chuan State, but Chuan State's rule over Zhendi was not peaceful, and rebellions occurred from time to time. The people of Zhendi have always been fierce, and Zhen State has always implemented a system of universal military service, which has led to the unruly personality of Zhen people who are not afraid of heaven or earth, and they do not accept the rule of Chuan State at all.
In the past, with Xiao Xuan, the whole country of Chuan was united. Even if there was a rebellion in Zhendi, it was quickly suppressed by the Chuan army. Now Xiao Xuan has passed away, and the court of Chuan is busy with power struggles and can't take care of itself. The rebel forces in Zhendi saw an opportunity and started to stir up trouble.
The largest rebel force was the rebel army led by Li Shu. Li Shu claimed to be the eighth son of Li Wei, and Li Wei was the eleventh son of Zhen Wang Li Hong. Counting it, Li Shu was the 49th grandson of Li Hong. As for whether this is true or not, there is no way to verify it, only he knows it best.
However, Li Shu, under the banner of Li Hong's 49th grandson, gathered a group of Zhen people in Zhendi who were unwilling to be controlled by Chuan people.
At the beginning, they did not dare to resist the Sichuan people openly. They just hid in the mountains and forests, became bandits, made a living by robbing, and occasionally attacked the small Sichuan troops passing by. However, Li Shu was quite talented. In just one or two years, he expanded the hundreds of people under his command to tens of thousands, and it seemed that he had already formed an army. It was not until this time that Li Shu's forces really aroused the vigilance of local officials.
However, it was extremely difficult for local officials to send troops to wipe out Li Shu's forces at this time. Li Shu's forces had already grown, and the local officials made the mistake of underestimating the enemy. The Sichuan army that entered the mountains to quell the rebellion for the first time had only 5,000 people, and they rushed into the mountains without understanding the terrain and the enemy situation. The result can be imagined. The 5,000 official troops were killed by the rebel forces led by Li Shu, and more than half of them were lost, and they returned in defeat.
When the local government suppressed the rebellion for the second time, it greatly increased the number of troops, and dispatched as many as 20,000 soldiers and horses. However, after the previous battle, Li Shu's power had become famous, and countless people came from all directions to join him. The number of personnel nearly doubled in a very short time.
The second time to quell the rebellion, the two sides fought extremely fiercely. In the end, Li Shu's forces won a great victory because of their advantages in time, location, and people.
Two troops were sent out to quell the rebellion, and two times they returned in defeat. This frightened the local government so much that they no longer dared to quell the rebellion alone. They hurriedly reported to the Sichuan court and asked the court to send out the central army to quell the rebellion.
At that time, it happened that Xiao Xuan and Tang Yin jointly sent troops to Shenchi. The Sichuan court temporarily suppressed the rebellion of Li Shu. They wanted to wait until the matter of Shenchi was resolved and the king's squadron returned to the court before going to Zhendi to put down Li Shu. of rebellion.
As a result, after the Shenchi incident was resolved, Xiao Xuan died of illness on his way back to the country. There was a vacuum in the throne of Sichuan. The princes and princesses formed gangs and formed cliques in the court for their own benefit. Putting down Li Shu's rebellion was postponed indefinitely. .
This just gave Li Shu precious time to increase his power. Taking advantage of the civil strife in the Sichuan court, Li Shu's power surged from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Li Shu even raised the banner of restoring the country. The self-proclaimed general of the Zhen Kingdom led the rebels to attack the local government.
In just one month, the rebels led by Li Shu were overwhelming and captured twelve cities in Zhendi. Their sphere of influence reached five counties and one and a half counties, and they were rapidly expanding outwards.
If this momentum continues, it may not take more than a year to recover the entire Zhendi.
Li Shu was able to grow the rebel force from a few dozen people at the beginning to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands now. Even if there were some opportunistic tricks, there is no doubt about his ability.
He knows very well that with his current strength, he is far from being able to compete with the Sichuan Kingdom. Restoring the country is just an empty talk. The most important reason why he can survive until now is that the Sichuan Kingdom has not yet had time to take action. To deal with him, but the throne of the Sichuan Kingdom cannot always be vacant. Sooner or later, a new King of Sichuan will be born. By then, the government and the opposition in the Sichuan Kingdom will be stable and concentrate their forces to attack him. This seemingly powerful rebel army under his command will The legion may fall apart in an instant.
If he wants to survive for a long time and regain the Zheng Kingdom, he has only one way to go, to form an alliance with a powerful country and join forces to fight against the Sichuan Kingdom.
Now, there is only one country that can compete with the Sichuan Kingdom, or that dares to be an enemy of the Sichuan Kingdom, and that is the Feng Kingdom. Li Shu made the right decision and sent his trusted retainers to the Feng Kingdom to fight against the Feng King Tang Yin. Talk about alliances.
Of course, it is impossible for Li Shu's retainers to go directly to Beijing to see Tang Yin, and it is impossible for him to see Tang Yin. As far as Feng Guo is concerned, who knows who you are, Li Shu, and how can your men see Feng Guo? The king of the country?
The man went to Huandi first and met the commander-in-chief of the Feng Army stationed in Huandi, that is, the commander-in-chief of the Baizhan Army, Nie Ze.
The Baizhan Army has always been stationed at the junction of Huandi and Zhendi to defend against the invasion of the Sichuan Army. Because the Baizhan Army is too fierce and good at fighting, the Huanzhen border garrisoned by the Baizhan Army has always been peaceful, even if it is often harassed. However, enemy troops had never invaded the territory of Feng State. Tang Yin was very satisfied with Nie Ze's ability to manage the army and defend the territory, so he asked the commander of Bai Zhan Army to station in Huan Di to ensure the stability of Huan Di.
Nie Ze is an orthodox Zhenren. Compared with Zhenren, he can talk to him better. Moreover, he is now a marquis in Feng Kingdom and a dignified general. He must be the one to introduce him to the Feng Kingdom court. It can also attract the attention of Feng Country.
Out of these considerations, Li Shu's retainers first approached Nie Ze. Li Shu's retainer was named Xun Xiu, and he had some connection with Nie Ze. His father had worked as a handyman in Nie Ze's house, and he had met Nie Ze when he was young.
When Xun Xiu came to Fengjun Camp to see Nie Ze, it was because of this origin.
But he didn't know that the number of people who came to Nie Ze for this reason every month was at least a dozen, if not hundreds. If Nie Ze could see them all, how could he see them all?
Hearing that the soldiers had come to report, there was someone outside the camp who claimed to be a relative of the former servant of Nie Mansion. When he wanted to see him, Nie Ze shook his head and smiled bitterly, waved his hand and said casually: "Give him a few taels of silver and send him away!"
The soldiers agreed, turned and left. While Xun Xiu was waiting outside the camp, a soldier came up to him, threw him a small cloth bag, and said impatiently: "This is the general's reward for you. Take the silver and go back and forth from where you are." Go!”
Xun Xiu looked at the small cloth bag in his hand and felt dumbfounded. Seeing that he was standing there without moving, another soldier kindly advised: "Brother, I don't think you should go back to Zhendi. Take the money and stay in Fengguo. It's better to make a small living than stay here." It is better to suffer in a pure place."