In response to Tantanon's gesture, Sima Puhua smiled foolishly. His eyes were sincere and impeccable.
The young Emperor gathered his sleeves and smiled slightly. "I will not add to the matter of the candidates for the spring examination. It will still be decided by the Ministry of Rites. If you have a headache, Minister Sima can communicate more with Tantanon when you return. However, in my opinion, apart from the fact that the chief examiner for the examination needs to be of virtue and prestige, we can make an exception for the specific candidates responsible for marking the examination papers. There is no need to pay attention to seniority. The Ministry of Rites, the Hanlin Academy, and the Imperial College can each choose a few young people to take up the posts. "
Sima Puhua, whose face was full of admiration, quickly bowed and said, "Your Majesty is wise!"
The young Emperor turned his gaze and with great difficulty found Hong Lingshu, who seemed out of place in this small court. After all, Hong Lingshu was an official who had just entered the capital from a local area. Hong Lingshu was also one of the leaders of the Green Party. The Green Party had many ups and downs during the reign of Yonghui, especially after Lu Feichi of the Pillar of Shangguo chose to marry into the Xu family of Beiliang. The Lu Family moved to the northwest, causing all the officials in Qingzhou to feel insecure. Fortunately, not long ago, "Old Assistant Minister" Wen Taiyi had been promoted from an external post to the Jingan Dao Administrator. Only then did the people calm down. However, this was Hong Lingshu's first time in the capital, and he was not accustomed to the crouching tigers and hidden dragons in the capital. The young Emperor's voice grew softer and softer as he said slowly, "Has General Hong's residence in Taian City been renovated?"
Hong Lingshu, who had originally thought that he was just accompanying the Crown Prince in his studies, was overwhelmed by the favor. "Your Majesty, the residence that the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue helped to arrange is excellent. I did not need to make any changes at all. The family members who came with me were full of praise. Your Majesty's kindness is vast and mighty. I am moved to tears! "
The young Emperor smiled. "Assistant Minister Tang put in a lot of thought into this matter. If you want to thank someone, thank him."
Hearing this, Hong Lingshu immediately cupped his fists in thanks to Tang Tieshuang beside him. The latter only cupped his fists in return and did not speak politely.
The former was relatively simple and fast, but there was a big bottleneck between the assistant minister and assistant minister. The latter emphasized being down-to-earth and slow, but as long as one became one of the Three Generals of Ping Zhen, his future would be assured. As long as he could hold on, he would be able to take advantage of the situation and move up step by step. On the other hand, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War still had to go to the local area to take up the position of Deputy Jiedushi. In the end, they would have to fight for the position of Minister of War based on their own abilities. Both methods had their advantages and disadvantages. However, for Hong Lingshu to be directly promoted from a general of a province to a general of Ping Zhen was not a very reasonable promotion. It was reasonable because the imperial court needed to use the Green Party in the hinterland of the Central Plains to pacify the people when thousands of scholars from the Central Plains were rushing to Beiliang. Wen Taiyi, who left the capital, and Hong Lingshu, who entered the capital, were like this. Although Hong Lingshu was a proper outsider, he was not optimistic about the prospects of the Left Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War, Tang Tieshuang. On the one hand, Wu Zhongxuan appeared out of nowhere. On the other hand, Tang Tieshuang's faction was too strong. Hong Lingshu's identity as the Green Party could sometimes help balance the imperial court. However, Assistant Minister Tang's identity as a general of the Gu Party meant that as long as the Pillar of State Gu Jiantang was alive, Tang Tieshuang would not be able to reach the top of the imperial court. The imperial court could tolerate a Pillar of State who led the military of two Liao Provinces to live under the same roof as a General Tang who led the Iron Cavalry of Liaodong. However, they would never allow a Minister of State Tang to work together with General Gu.
Hong Lingshu would not be grateful just because Tang Tieshuang had spent a lot of effort on his residence but kept it a secret. However, the Emperor seemed to casually reveal it in public. Hong Lingshu had to think about it carefully.
The young Emperor picked up the imperial edict again. His expression became serious. He sneered, "Zhao Bing is a vassal of the Zhao family, but he wants to be a traitor. I can tolerate the Guangling Path rebellion, I can tolerate the civil and military officials who defected to the Jiang family of West Chu. I can't tolerate the people of Guangling Path who were caught in the chaos of war. However, I can't tolerate Zhao Bing and Zhao Zhu!"
The Monarch of Liyang paused. "Wu Zhongxuan!"
The burly Wu Zhongxuan said in a low voice, "I'm here!"
The young Emperor said expressionlessly, "Minister Wu, please explain the situation of Guangling Path to my beloved officials."
Wu Zhongxuan said slowly, "Currently, the traitor Zhao Bing has a total of 110,000 troops stationed in the north of Guangling Path. In the following half a year, there will be at least 40,000 Nanjiang barbarians entering the north of Guangling River. The traitor Chen Zhibao, excluding the 20,000 Shu troops, will have 30,000 Shu troops rushing to Guangling Path. In addition to the original Zhennan General Song Li and the original Ji Zhou General Yuan Tingshan, as well as the newly absorbed remnants of the West Chu rebels, by the end of the fourth year of Xiangfu, the number of rebels will reach 260,000. Currently, the Imperial Court only has 120,000 soldiers guarding Guangling Path. "
Although the rebellion of the two kings had already made Great Peace City feel uneasy, when Wu Zhongxuan directly stated the number of troops on both sides, even Wen Shouren, an important official in the central government, felt fear. Furthermore, the older officials all knew the ability of the Yan King Zhao Bing. He was a martial artist who had once fought side by side with a certain Cripple Rentu. There was also another matter that was understood. Beside the Yan King Zhao Bing stood a Chen Zhibao, a white-robed war saint who controlled all the soldiers of West Shu. Changshan Commandery Prince Zhao Yang, Yan Country Duke Gao Shizhi, and Huaiyang Marquis Song Daoning, these three martial artists who had also experienced the fires of war in the Spring and Autumn Period were all worried. Zhao Yang was one of the top ten generals in the Spring and Autumn Period. The more so, the more the old man understood the danger of Guangling Path.
Qi Yanglong suddenly opened his mouth and said, "General Gu is leading an elite force south to quell the rebellion, but it is not necessary to immediately enter the battlefield. The Imperial Court is training soldiers at this time. At present, the heart of the army is not with the Imperial Court but with the rebel army. Fortunately, the hearts of the people are with the Imperial Court and not with Zhao Bing and Chen Zhibao. Back then, Xu Xiao's situation was even better, but he still didn't rule by drawing a river. He was unwilling and unable to do so. Now, it's only twenty years later, not two hundred years later. The ambitious Zhao and Chen vassal kings are just continuing the game of chess that has already been decided twenty years ago, as long as … "
At this point, the Head of the Secretariat suddenly fell silent.
Tantanon continued, "As long as the Beiliang cavalry does not rebel and continue to hold back the pace of Beimang's invasion to the south, allowing Gu Jiantang to have time to go south to quell the rebellion, the Zhao and Chen kings will be short-lived."
For some reason, this "as long as" caused many of the nobles and officials in the Cultivation Divine Hall to feel a strange meaning.
"If" Beiliang was not willing to fight to the death with Beimang and abandoned the northwest, retreated a thousand li south, and then conspired with the Yan King Zhao Bing on the Central Plains? What would the Imperial Court do?
It should be known that after Wen Taiyi and Ma Zhongxian, the Jiedushi and Administrator, arrived at Jingan Road, the matter of the grain entering the cold, as expected, was bumpy and slow.
Who would have thought that twenty years of peace and prosperity would be turned upside down overnight?
It turned out.
Unknowingly, the length of the Liyang Kingdom was once again tied to a person surnamed Xu.
This truth made most of the people in the Cultivation Divine Hall feel extremely humiliated.
For example, the head of the twelve scholars Wen Shouren, the imperial relative Yan Jiexi, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites Jin Lanting, and others.
There was an extremely vulgar saying in the countryside of Liyang: Without Butcher Zhang, could it be that you can't eat pork?
Now it seemed that it was really possible.
Without Butcher Xu to help kill people, the official status may not be stable.
Wen Shouren, the Grand Secretary of the Wuying Palace, was pale.
Yan Jiexi, who looked down on His Royal Highness for many years, was gloomy.
Jin Lanting was even more livid.
Cai Nan quietly lowered his head, his expression dark and unclear.
Administrator Han Lin, whose relationship with Cai Nan had improved greatly after the battle with the Great Snow Dragon Cavalry, had a complicated expression.
At this time, the young emperor smiled, "The Xu family has guarded the northwest for two generations. In the second year of Xiangfu, the Beiliang Frontier Army contributed greatly, so the Imperial Court should reward them. Liu Jinu, Wang Lingbao, and other Beiliang generals have died on the battlefield. I'm prepared to write a decree to confer titles to all Beiliang generals, including these two. I also plan to give the King of Beiliang, Hsu Fengnian, the title of Pillar of the State."
The Zhao family's Emperor squinted his eyes and looked over. The entire hall was stunned.
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