Episode 10 Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Although Shangguan Yuanji only replied to Cai Song with sixteen simple words, these sixteen words are very profound.
First, he was reminding Cai Song that you can do anything, but the only thing you can't do is to form a clique for personal gain, which is also the thing that the king fears the most. Pointing this out is Shangguan Yuanji's return to Cai Song for sending 50,000 taels of gold. Second, he was warning Cai Song that if you dare to form a clique for personal gain, you will definitely die. The reason why he warned Cai Song in this way is actually to help Feng State.
After a war to defend the country, Feng State's homeland was riddled with holes, its national strength was greatly damaged, and it could not take care of itself. At this time, Feng State was most afraid of chaos in Ningdi, and the only one who could cause chaos in Ningdi was the Cai family with a high reputation. If the Cai family colluded with their friends and suddenly rebelled, Feng State would be unable to take care of it.
Shangguan Yuanji's reply was to appease Cai Song and not let him jump off the wall. It also had a deterrent meaning. No matter how you mess around in the eight counties of Ningbei, how you embezzle and accept bribes, and how you embezzle, it doesn't matter. As long as you don't form a clique for personal gain, the king will not punish you. His intention was to stabilize Cai Song first, and when the Feng Kingdom was settled down and there were no worries, then the court would be able to deal with Cai Song with ease.
On the second day after Zhang Xin reported Shangguan Yuanji, Tang Yin had not yet talked to Shangguan Yuanji, but the latter took the initiative to come to the door, and even moved the 50,000 taels of gold that Cai Song gave him to the palace. In front of Tang Yin, Shangguan Yuanji told Tang Yin the whole story of why he accepted Cai Song's gift.
After he finished speaking, Tang Yin understood Shangguan Yuanji's painstaking efforts. He nodded repeatedly and praised Shangguan Yuanji for doing the right thing. If Cai Song was anxious at this time, it would be extremely disadvantageous to Feng Kingdom and a huge hidden danger. Tang Yin only accepted half of the gold handed over by Shangguan Yuanji, and asked Shangguan Yuanji to move the other half back to his own home intact, as a reward from the king.
On the other hand, Shangguan Yuanji's reply was passed back to Ningdi Liangzhou. After Cai Song read it, he felt that his thatched cottage had been opened. It turned out that the king could not tolerate the most was to form a party for personal gain. Then he would not do that. As long as he could be rich and prosperous for a lifetime, why would he form a party or do personal gain?
After receiving Shangguan Yuanji's reply, Cai Song, who had been worried for days, felt relieved and praised the 50,000 taels of gold for being worth it. Sure enough. Zhang Zhe's impeachment was passed to Tang Yin. Tang Yin not only did not impose any punishment, but also praised Cai Song for his meritorious service in governing Ningdi, promoted his official position to the second rank, and granted him the title of baron.
Such a reward made Cai Songle almost lost his mind. Without asking, he knew that it must be his gift that made Shangguan Yuanji speak well of him in front of the king. Later, Cai Song gave Shangguan Yuanji another gift and wrote a letter to thank him profusely.
Shangguan Yuanji not only received the benefit, but also received Cai Song's gratitude and won the monarch's affirmation and praise. He had the best of both worlds and was very smooth in his work and his skill in handling things.
Zhang Zhe's intelligence and talent were not inferior to Shangguan Yuanji, but his way of doing things was far different from Shangguan Yuanji. Of course, Tang Yin also saw Zhang Zhe's straightforward personality and appointed him as the Imperial Censor to help him supervise the officials.
After this incident, Cai Song continued to live his comfortable life in Ningdi, but was reminded by Shangguan Yuanji that he no longer held banquets in the mansion easily, nor invited guests casually, and deliberately pretended to be low-key, but his money-making became more and more unscrupulous.
Many cities of Feng State were rebuilt, and the most important one was the southern gate of Feng State, Baguan.
Because the Zhen army used plague tactics, the plague was rampant in Baguan. In order to prevent the spread of plague and prevent Mo State from taking the opportunity to seize Baguan, Ren Fang burned Baguan clean with a fire. Now Feng State is rebuilding a city here.
For this checkpoint fortress, Tang Yin spent a lot of money, allocated a huge amount of gold and silver, and built two cities in a row. One of these two cities was built on the original site of Baguan, and its name was still Baguan, and the other was built at Pofengkou and named Xingfengcheng. Xingfengcheng can not only plug the loophole of Pofengkou, but also echo with Baguan, killing two birds with one stone.
While rebuilding the city, Tang Yin began to recruit soldiers on a large scale, and the scope of recruitment was expanded from Feng State to the eight counties of Ningbei. No matter whether it was Fengren or Ningren, as long as they were willing to join the army, Fengjun would accept them all.
In the battle against the Chuanzhen coalition, Tang Yin could see that the Ning soldiers were not strong in combat, but it was not because the Ning people were born weak, but because they were not trained enough. As long as they were trained according to the Feng army's methods, the combat effectiveness of the Ning people and the Feng people was actually the same.
While recruiting soldiers, Tang Yin issued the second Nayan Order and the Conquest Order, and the scope still included the eight counties in the north of Ning.
During this period of time, although the Ning people still had hostility towards the Feng people, it had been reduced a lot, and the Ning people gradually accepted the fact that Ning was divided by the Feng and Mo countries. As Tang Yin's decree to recruit talents and recruit soldiers was issued, there were also many Ning people who came to participate. This indicates that the Ning people have gradually integrated into the Feng country, but at the same time, as the Ning people gradually entered the Feng court, real factions also appeared in the Feng court.
At present, the person with the highest official position in the Feng country is Zuo Shuang. In the war with the Chuanzhen coalition, Zuo Shuang led the Western Border Army and made many military exploits, and also saved Jinyang from danger, which made Zuo Shuang win Tang Yin's appreciation and trust. In order to commend Zuo Shuang's meritorious service, Tang Yin promoted Zuo Shuang to the rank of general and granted him the title of marquis. He also changed the discriminatory name of the Western Border Army to the Flying Dragon Army.
Another army mainly composed of Ning people, the New Army, was also reorganized by Tang Yin. The New Army played an indispensable role in defending Jinyang. The battle was so hard that almost all of the 100,000 New Army were killed. In the battle with the enemy, the New Army fought side by side with Tang Yin, showing a tenacious fighting spirit and would rather die than retreat. Now Tang Yin no longer regarded the New Army as a cannon fodder army. He promoted the commander of the New Army, Nan Ye, to the rank of general and renamed the New Army the Huwei Army.
So far, Feng State officially had seven main army corps, namely the Pingyuan Army, Sanshui Army, Chifeng Army, Direct Army, Sky Eagle Army, Feilong Army, and Huwei Army. Among them, the Feilong Army and Huwei Army belonged to the Ningren Army.
For the strength of each army, Tang Yin uniformly stipulated that it would be 150,000. In addition, the Tongmen garrison was reduced to 100,000, and formed its own system, completely separated from the various armies.
In the past, the Tongmen garrison was drawn from various corps, and occupied a lot of quotas in each corps. For example, the total strength of the Sanshui Army was said to be 170,000 or 80,000, but in fact, there were only 120,000 or 30,000 combat troops, and the remaining 50,000 or 60,000 were all in Tongmen. Now Tang Yin stipulated that the strength of each corps was 150,000, which seemed to reduce the strength of each corps, but in fact, the combat troops of each corps have been greatly increased.
Fengguo was rebuilding and expanding its army in full swing. At this time, Ningdi had an unexpected and very interesting thing. The envoy of Tia came to ask for help.
At the beginning, Fengguo and Du Ji joined forces to send troops to Ningguo. Fengguo wanted Hedong County, and Du Ji wanted Ningguo to withdraw its garrison in Tia. In the end, both countries achieved their goals. This happened a long time ago. Now Fengguo has destroyed Ningguo, but Du Ji still failed to defeat and annex Tia.
Du Ji's army had besieged Tia City, the kingdom of Tia, for half a year, and had tried every possible means, but had failed to capture it. Until now, the two sides are still at war.
The Tia envoy came to Liangzhou, met Zhang Zhe and Cai Song, and asked them to send troops to rescue Tia. The reason given by the Tia envoy was that regardless of whether Ningguo was annexed or not, the alliance between Tia and Ningguo was still there. Since Fengguo had annexed Ningguo, Fengguo should inherit Ningguo's alliance and assist Tia.
Cai Song was living a comfortable life now, so he was willing to send troops to fight, and he almost didn't even think about it, and rejected the Tia envoy on the spot. Zhang Zhe thought that it would be better to ask the king and the court for their opinions on this matter first. He let the Tia envoy stay in Liangzhou temporarily, and then wrote a letter to Tang Yin to report Tia's request for help.
Tang Yin is currently busy rebuilding the city and reorganizing the Feng army. As for the matter of rescuing Tia, he has the same attitude as Cai Song. He refuses without thinking. However, Qiu Zhen has a different opinion. He stopped Tang Yin and publicly raised the matter in the court, asking the ministers to discuss it again.
Feng State is busy with its own affairs, so how can it have the energy to help Tia? Besides, Feng State and Du Ji have secretly signed an alliance. Even if they want to send troops, they will send troops to help Du Ji fight Tia, and it is impossible to turn around and fight Du Ji.
Qiu Zhen raised this matter in the court, and most of the military generals did not express their opinions. The civil officials unanimously opposed it. Tang Yin even felt that Qiu Zhen was unnecessary and there was no need to discuss this matter in the court.
Seeing that everyone thought that Tia should not be aided, Qiu Zhen frowned and said worriedly: "Du Ji is in the north of our country, and Tia is in the west of our country. If Du Ji annexed Tia, then Du Ji would become a huge threat to dominate our northwest. Du Ji's ambition may not be limited to Tia. If he suddenly attacks our country in the future and sends troops from the northwest, our country's situation will be worrying."
To be precise, Du Ji is located in the north of Ningdi and Tia is in the west of Ningdi, but the eight counties in the north of Ningdi have been annexed by Fengguo and have now become Fengguo's territory, so Qiu Zhen calls himself our country.
After hearing his words, before others could speak, Zhang Xin laughed and said: "Prime Minister Qiu is overthinking! Du Ji is just a small barbarian country, how can it pose a threat to our Dafeng? Even if it annexed the small country of Tia, it is not a big deal. Besides, our country has an alliance with Du Ji, and Du Ji cannot use troops against our country."
Tang Yin nodded, indicating that he agreed with Zhang Xin's words.
Qiu Zhen disagreed and said, "Du Ji is weak now, but that may not be the case after annexing Tia. Tia has various advanced technologies, and the Du Ji army is brave and good at fighting. If the two are combined, the Du Ji army will become a corps that any opponent will fear."
"I think... Prime Minister Qiu is exaggerating too much, right?!" Zhang Xin looked at Tang Yin.
Tang Yin remained silent.
At this time, another person stood up and said that he agreed with Qiu Zhen's point of view.
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