Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

"It's no use arguing about things like this!" At last someone came forward and said something fair. When Prime Minister Li Hao turned his head to look, it turned out to be General Han Baozheng.

Li Hao was full of anger and wanted to explode, but Wang Zhaoyuan, the deputy privy envoy, always seized on Li Hao's personal smears and criticized him, which made Li Hao feel very difficult... Besides, when the ex-Shu collapsed, the table was lowered, and the family's fertile land was rich in wealth. These are facts and cannot be argued against. Just when someone came out to smooth things over, Li Hao went down the steps, swallowing his anger forcefully.

He took the opportunity to shift the spearhead away from his personal issues, and said: "Your Majesty's court meeting today should start from the big picture and discuss three major issues first. The first is how to respond to the envoys sent by the Zhou Dynasty to ask for crimes; the second is to recognize the strength and weakness of Shu and Zhou. Only with the determination of the first two can we use this as a basis to deploy the general plan of attack and defense, which is the third..."

Before he finished speaking, the eloquent "Wolong" Wang Zhaoyuan immediately said: "What is there to discuss about such matters? Your Majesty does not respond to the Zhou Dynasty with the attitude of the Great Shu Emperor. Are you going to persuade His Majesty to give up his honorary title and become a minister to the Central Plains for the Zhou Dynasty? I said that Prime Minister Li is very good at modifying the table."

Guizi, it's involved in the drop list again, Li Hao's black line is full. Li Hao said angrily: "Wang Zhaoyuan, if you don't advise Your Majesty to deal with it wisely, if the Great Shu falls in the future, none of us will get better! Don't think about the Great Shu court, and when your family is ruined and your wealth is gone, can you be at ease?"

"My house is not full of gold, silver and silk like Prime Minister Li." Wang Zhaoyuan mocked coldly.

Li Hao said angrily: "It's a big national matter that is said in the temple, you don't have to hold on to such small details, but the big things are ugly and ugly!"

Wang Zhaoyuan looked calm, and bowed to the north: "How can your majesty give up your title? I don't agree with it!"

Emperor Meng Chang, who had been silent for a long time, immediately nodded when he heard the title question, appreciating Wang Zhaoyuan's attitude very much.

Wang Zhaoyuan continued: "At the moment, we only need to strictly resist the enemy, and we can secretly send envoys to contact the Northern Han Kingdom and the Southern Tang Kingdom to attack the Zhou Dynasty together while the Zhou Dynasty is attacking Shu!"

Li Hao said coldly: "The Southern Tang Kingdom has no fighting spirit for a long time, let alone; if the Northern Han Kingdom would send troops, where would the Northern Han army be when Li Chongjin and Li Jixun raised their troops? The Zhou army's civil war broke out in Hedong, and the Northern Han did not move; now they want to help the Shu Kingdom thousands of miles away? You are really laughing!"

Wang Zhaoyuan said: "Li Chongjin and others are no more than rebels. How can the Great Shu be compared with the local rebel generals who rebelled? My Great Shu Kingdom has Hanzhong, Bashan, and Jianmen; and Wushan in the east. It is surrounded by mountains and rivers. It can be attacked and retreated. The current situation is unfavorable, so we rely on the mountains and rivers to defend.

Hearing what Wang Zhaoyuan said well, Meng Chang immediately asked, "Deputy Wang thinks that the Shu army can defend against the Zhou army's attack?"

Li Hao hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, no matter how dangerous the Shu Mountain is, the (later) Tang Dynasty once broke it, otherwise how will your Majesty's foundation be obtained? If you don't cultivate military equipment, you can't defend it even though it is dangerous."

"Did Your Majesty ask you?" Wang Zhaoyuan looked at Li Hao coldly. Seeing Li Hao shaking his head and sighing, but he didn't dare to refute, Wang Zhaoyuan didn't pay any attention to it, and when he got excited, he bowed to the north and said, "Your Majesty shouldn't worry about whether he can defend or not, but should worry about when he will be able to secure the Central Plains!"

"Oh?" Meng Chang moved his obese body and said, "I would like to hear more about it."

Wang Zhaoyuan said: "Xingzhou is guarded for a month or two, and Hanzhong is guarded for half a year; the mountains and rivers in the north are dangerous, and the Zhou army will not be able to break through them quickly.

Think again, Your Majesty, how many years (later) Tang established the country, (later) Jin years, (later) Han years, and the Zhou Dynasty has been a few years now. In one or two years, it is still unknown whether the Zhou Dynasty will exist. It won't take long for them to attack Shu, and they don't have that much patience. "

Meng Chang nodded frequently: "What you say makes sense, what you say makes sense!"

Wang Zhaoyuan said: "Therefore, your Majesty does not have to let go of his noble body and humble himself with the Zhou Dynasty. If he wants to fight, we will accompany him! In the Zhou Dynasty today, the emperor is a child, a woman governs the country, the ruler is weak and the ministers are strong, and the end is not far away; back then when 'Guo Rong' was in power, he was aggressive in civil and martial arts, and his majesty was not afraid, but now he is afraid that a child will fail!"

Meng Chang snorted immediately, "I have established the country of Great Shu for 40 years, and the country is peaceful and the people are safe. The north has gone through Tang, Jin, Han, and Zhou dynasties! The Zhou Dynasty is nothing more than a revolving grass bandit, that's all."

When everyone heard what the emperor said, they bowed one after another: "Your Majesty is wise."

Even Li Hao is unwilling to disobey the emperor anymore. Li Hao bowed and worshiped, while thinking: Although Wang Zhaoyuan is a "hammer" (dialect means a certain male organ), he is very annoying, but this guy can figure out the holy meaning, and today he caught the emperor's desire not to be a minister. That's why I was defeated when I argued against him.

Li Hao thought about Han Baozheng finding a way for him before, and said immediately: "The minister recommends Han Baozheng, the envoy of Xuanhui North Academy, to deploy for the front battalion, send reinforcements to Hanzhong, and defend Hanzhong against the enemy."

Meng Chang immediately said: "Quite playing."

Li Hao turned his head again and said: "Xingzhou's defense envoy Hou Mao rejected the Zhou army's meritorious service. He must have talent. After General Han arrives in Hanzhong, he can be reused... I really confiscated his money, and I have never seen anyone!"

Han Baozheng said: "I would like to listen to what Prime Minister Li said. Prime Minister Li, don't worry. When Zhou Shizong was still in power, the Zhou army was very strong, but the Central Plains was in turmoil. Now and then, the Zhou Dynasty is orphaned and widowed. They can't take care of themselves. The outsiders want to bully others, so they look down on our Shu army too much. Let me lead the army northward according to the order, and I will meet with the Zhou army to see how they can stand it."

So Meng Chang issued a decree to revise the national book to answer the edict of the Zhou Dynasty, and still called himself "Emperor of Shu". There is quite a tease in the words that satirizes the monarchs and ministers of the Zhou Dynasty as if they were rich and villainous.

...

When Guoshu arrived in Tokyo, it had been more than half a month. It was already the end of the winter month (November), and it was about to enter the twelfth lunar month. It was already snowing in Tokyo, and the world was fluttering like goose feathers. The palaces and houses in the entire metropolis were shrouded in a snow-white snow, and the silver was very different.

This time, not only Fu Jinzhan was angry, but also the civil and military officials of the whole court were very dissatisfied; but it had been more than a month to use troops to the Gongbu, and they hadn't even broken through Qingniling.

Fu Jinzhan convened important military officials to discuss matters in front of the imperial court. Wang Pu was the first to question the feasibility of this battle. He said: "Originally, I planned to take Hanzhong as a frontier camp, but Xiang Gong failed to break through the Shu army's defense line quickly. If it was delayed, the original strategy would not work.

Fu Jinzhan's voice behind the curtain asked, "What do Prime Minister Wang and General Guo think?"

Because Xiang Gong was recommended by Wang Pu, Wang Pu was also a little embarrassed at this time, and turned to look at Guo Shao. Guo Shao was also a little depressed, pondered for a moment and said: "What Wang Shijun said is not unreasonable. Now that it is the twelfth lunar month, the sky is freezing, and the soldiers are trapped in the Shu Kingdom. It is really difficult to consider a temporary truce and withdraw the army to Guzhen, Fengzhou and other places for the winter. But...

Xiang Gong was at the front and learned about various situations on the spot. It is not appropriate for the imperial court to give orders casually two thousand miles away. The minister thought that he could send someone to condolences to the soldiers in front and give Xiang Gong a certain degree of autonomy. If he thinks there is a chance to take Qingniling and enter Tuxingzhou, he can continue to use troops; otherwise, according to the opinion of the privy envoy prince, he will withdraw the army first, and send another army from the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River to contain the Shu army next year. "

Wang Pu could accept it, nodded and said: "General Guo's words are reasonable, we should really ask the general in front what he means."

Guo Shaodao: "No matter what Xiang Gong plans, you can ask him to report in detail the local geography, deployment of troops, etc., so that we can analyze and evaluate the military and political situation of the Shu army."

Fu Jinzhan said: "According to what you said, I sent a fast horse to Guzhen to preach the decree."

Everyone takes command. Eunuch Yang Shiliang said: "If you have something to play, you can leave if you have nothing to do." Several people kowtowed together and said, "I will wait for you to leave."

Guo Shao dawdled until the end, but did not leave the palace. After all the ministers left one after another, he followed the eunuch to the study inside and met Fu Jinzhan alone. As usual, although they met, there were attendants present, and they were not alone.

Fu Jinzhan complained softly: "The lord of the Kingdom of Shu has disgraced me many times. There are so few people in this world who can protect me. I am a little disappointed by Xiang Gong."

Guo Shao persuaded: "The Lord of Shu will suffer disaster first in the end. Don't worry about the empress dowager. The war to unify the kingdom of Shu has just begun, and sometimes things will not go well. Next year, the empress dowager must regain her dignity!

However, I don't think Xiang Gong's ineffectiveness should be entirely to blame for this matter. Although the Northwest Township he led was quite capable, it was still far behind the Forbidden Army in terms of equipment and quality of soldiers; besides, a tiny detail on the battlefield would affect the result. Maybe Xiang Gong happened to meet a talented person from the Kingdom of Shu... The terrain there is difficult and dangerous, as long as the deployment is proper, it is indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack. Otherwise, the Kingdom of Shu would not survive the Jin, Han, and Zhou decades. "

After hearing this, Fu Jinzhan said softly: "You're right, we seem to be too eager for success. If we prepare more, we will use troops to attack Shu next year, and we won't lose Hanzhong. In the end, I made the decision, and I don't blame you."

Guo Shao hurriedly said: "The Empress Dowager always listens to my advice. The main responsibility for this matter lies with me... I was really impatient at the time. I thought that if we can't continue to open up territories and make achievements, our lack of prestige will gradually decline. If things go on like this, there is no solution."

After he finished speaking, his tone became firm: "Take the Kingdom of Shu within the next year! After the deployment and preparations are completed, I ask you to personally lead the forbidden army to attack Shu."