Warrior in Turbulent Han Dynasty

Hong Ying ordered Yang Ye to be sent away, and she still looked at the window for a long time, sighing faintly.

Suddenly a voice said: "What is the relationship between the lady and Yang Ye?"

The expression on Hongying's face changed, and she said with a smile: "Friend."

The person who walked in the door was the handsome young man named Yu Liang who had come to Tokyo to take the imperial examination. He was visibly upset, with a mix of humiliation and irritation on his face.

However, Hongying swept his eyes across his face with a smile, thinking of the three words "not sensible", but because of this, this scholar is much more interesting than those happy guests who spend their days and nights.

Sure enough, Yu Liang held back his anger and said, "I'm afraid it's more than that?"

Hong Ying didn't argue with him, instead she leaned over gently and said, "If I didn't know those high-ranking officials, how could I find a way for you? Don't be angry, no matter how many people I know, my heart is not yours."

Yu Liang's anger still persisted, but there was nothing he could do.

Hongying rolled his eyes at him, and said, "If you are so noble, let's stop begging Han Xizai."

Yu Liang sighed and said angrily, "I hate officialdom! But this is the only way to achieve success!"

Hongying tried to persuade her, "That "Han Xizai Evening Banquet Picture" has become so popular so quickly, Madam Shen has put in a lot of effort. What do you think Madam Shen is doing for it? She just wants to sell it for a price? The famous paintings of Madam's family are much more expensive than this. But the biggest difference between those famous paintings and this night banquet picture is that the people in the famous painting are dead, while the people in the night banquet picture are still alive.

A scholar-bureaucrat may regard money as dung, but who would not like to be famous all over the scholar-officials, and wherever he goes, people will respect him in awe? This face is huge. Mr. Han understands his kindness to Mrs. Shen.

Now we are just asking him for a small favor, sending the poems you usually write to Li Gu, who is the prime minister in the court, can he refuse? "

After hearing this, Yu Liang said with mixed emotions: "No matter what, my lady is kind to me."

"It's good that you know, you have no conscience!" Hongying punched him in the chest with her pink fist. Yu Liang grabbed it with one hand: "Look if I can't treat you properly!"

Outside the door, night gradually fell.

The warm wind makes the night drunk, the lights in Tokyo are bright at night, the sound of silk and bamboo orchestras echoes in the long streets and alleys, and the spring scenery is charming.

...Tokyo Bianliang is becoming more and more prosperous, and it already looks like a prosperous age. But the court did not give up the national policy of war.

Wei Renpu, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, proposed a plan to send additional agents to sneak into Shangjing and Youzhou of the Liao Kingdom to find out the internal affairs of the Liao Dynasty. When the domestic rebellion occurred, he took the opportunity to raid Youzhou.

Guo Shao didn't respond, and he didn't agree with it in his heart, so he called Wang Pu, Li Gu and other ministers to ask for advice. (Guo Shao has the final say on the position of the minister, but if it is enforced without the support of the ministers, it will be troublesome to implement it. Therefore, the power of the monarch and prime minister is delicately balanced.)

Wang Pu, who is also a minister of the Privy Council, does not agree with this policy. I think there is no difference between Wei Renpu's strategy and the strategy of the Northern Expedition at the beginning of this year. The Northern Expedition at the beginning of the year was to create an opportunity for a sudden Northern Expedition, and Wei Renpu's strategy was to wait for a favorable opportunity...but the essence is still a surprise attack and a quick decision.

The previous method had already proved to be a failure, and Wang Pu and the prime ministers were not in favor of trying it again. Although the army did not suffer heavy losses in the previous Northern Expedition, it consumed a lot of military expenditure and people's strength, and did not get any benefits.

When Guo Shao heard this, he stopped mentioning Wei Renpu's strategy.

A few days later, Guo Shao was processing the memorials in the Jinxiang Hall, and not far away, Zuo You and the other two were also busy sorting and sorting. At this time Zuo You stood up, took a memorial to the royal case, bowed and said: "Your Majesty, this memorial is a bit unusual."

Guo Shao put down the brush, stretched out his hand to take it, carefully looked at the contents without punctuation, and pondered: "Return to the righteous army?"

Zuo You hurriedly said: "The Guiyi Army is in the Hexi Corridor, and it is ruling Shazhou. That is Dunhuang. During Tang Xuanzong's uprising, they broke away from Tubo and entered the Central Plains. But the situation there is complicated, the traffic is blocked, and they have not been in contact for many years. It is really rare for the Guiyi Army to suddenly show up."

When Guo Shao heard the familiar place names such as Hexi and Dunhuang, he immediately became interested, and hurriedly asked the eunuch to find the map.

Unfortunately, on the largest map, only place names such as Shazhou (Dunhuang) are marked, and there is nothing there. Guo Shao stared at the white paper in a daze, unable to see anything.

Zuoyou said: "During the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains obtained Hexi from the Huns, and the army built the city. This is how the land came to be. For hundreds of years in the Han and Tang Dynasties, the imperial court took Hexi as its foundation, went out of the Western Regions, opened up trade routes, and all nations came to the court. It's a pity that after the Anshi Rebellion, the Central Plains was in chaos, and there was no time to look west."

Guo Shao's fingers caressed the blank space, and a feeling of familiarity and bewilderment welled up in his heart. Most of the Western Regions should be the modern Xinjiang; and Dunhuang belongs to Gansu, which is a well-known and well-known place. Nearly a thousand years ago, "China" opened up territory to these places, but now in my own hands, it is completely blank, and I can't even find a map for a while.

Guo Shao, who once experienced extreme self-confidence, now has very complicated emotions. Now the country is not as big as imagined.

He subconsciously measured the distance with his palm, and finally set his sights on the area of ​​"Beijing" in the northeast. Compared with the loss of control in the west, Youzhou is the most threatening loss.

Guo Shao put this memorial separately and said: "We must actively respond to the memorial of Guiyi Army."

This matter has received unprecedented attention. Both the Political Affairs Hall and the Privy Council have consulted many previous files, and roughly figured out the situation in Hexi in recent years.

After the mid-Tang Dynasty, the Han people in the Hexi Corridor broke away from the control of Tubo, and became very powerful, owning territory in eleven states. The above table enshrines the Tang Dynasty as Zhengshuo, and the Zhang family as the Jiedushi of the Guiyi Army.

After the demise of the Tang Dynasty, the Guiyi Army suffered civil strife and its strength declined, and became a vassal of the Uighurs in Ganzhou. The Cao family, a rich family in Shazhou, restored the Guiyi Army, which has occupied Shazhou and Guazhou until now.

The person who recently submitted a letter to the original dynasty is a member of the Cao family, named Cao Yuanzhong.

There is too little content in the memorial. The Central Plains has no time to look west these years, and knows little about the specific situation in the far west. Most of the ministers' discussions are guesswork.

The ministers believed that the reason why Cao Yuanzhong sent people to contact Tokyo was because the Great Zhou had been expanding and accelerating the unification of the world over the years, and his prestige had begun to spread far away.

For a while, the officials scrambled to praise the emperor, and his reputation spread far and wide, and he was recognized by all quarters.

Sitting on the dragon chair, Guo Shao had to admit one thing, it was easy to be self-inflated by the praises of his courtiers. But he still knew the truth in his heart: he didn't even take back Beijing, the capital of future generations.

The monarch and his ministers hit it off immediately, and generously responded to Gui Yijun, and officially conferred titles on Cao Yuanzhong: Jiedu Envoy of Hexi, Protector of the Western Regions...

No one objected, because Zhou Guo's power couldn't reach Hexi at all, and it couldn't control it in essence. The locals came to Fengzhengshuo on their own initiative, and they didn't need money or soldiers, so of course the titles were very generously given.

The attitude of the imperial court, Cao Yuanzhong can not only manage Hexi in name, but also use the identity of the Central Plains dynasty to communicate with the tribes of the Western Regions.

Guo Shao decided to send a mission and Guiyi army envoys to Hexi, and took the imperial edict to find out the situation.

At this moment, Lu Duoxun, an official of the Imperial Academy, volunteered to be an envoy.

During the battle of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Lu Duoxun risked his life to go to Jiangning to persuade him to surrender, but his contribution was of little use in the Southern Tang War. In addition, his aptitude was too shallow, so he was still not reused after returning to the court.

This time he invited Ying again, and Guo Shao agreed to his request. And asked the Privy Council to order Wang Jing of Qinzhou to receive the imperial envoys and send troops to escort them.

... The Hakka envoy of Tokyo has close contacts with Wuyue Kingdom, hoping that Wuyue Kingdom can accept the land and surrender; Han Xizai, a highly respected scholar in the south of the Yangtze River, is also trying to persuade the Qian family. But little progress has been made. Wuyue Kingdom has a submissive attitude and pays tribute every year, but the country still maintains a large amount of force. On the one hand, Da Zhou couldn’t find a reason to attack Wuyue Kingdom, on the other hand, he also felt that it was a waste of money and people... Wuyue Kingdom was not very easy to fight, and the Southern Tang Kingdom fought against it for decades and did not destroy it.

Last year, the Great Zhou Dynasty also sent envoys to the Southern Han Dynasty with an edict to contact them. Unexpectedly, the ruler of the Southern Han Dynasty responded to the court and even called himself "Zhen" and regarded himself as the "Emperor of the Great Han Dynasty". This Guo Shaojun and his ministers were very angry.

At the beginning of this year, people were sent to negotiate again, asking the ruler of the Southern Han Dynasty to give up the title of emperor and submit to the Zhou Dynasty... The ministers thought this was a reasonable request. Now Da Zhou sits in the Central Plains and has annexed Shu, Southern Tang and other separatist regimes.

Unexpectedly, just a few days after Lu Duoxun left Tokyo, he suddenly received a report from Jiangnan: The ruler of the Southern Han Dynasty did not agree with the envoy of the Great Zhou, and he killed him in anger!

When the ministers heard the news, they were in an uproar.

People couldn't understand why the ruler of the Southern Han Dynasty would do that. Wang Pu said directly: "The ruler of the Southern Han Dynasty is a fool!"

All the ministers discussed one after another, and immediately launched a war against the Southern Han Dynasty. The generals also volunteered one after another, asking to take a soldier to destroy the Southern Han Kingdom... The generals were very active. They saw that the Southern Han Kingdom was relatively weak and the interior was dark. This was an obvious opportunity to make military achievements.

But Guo Shao did not express his opinion immediately. Although he was as angry as the courtiers, he could not disturb the situation; observing Wang Pu, Li Gu and other ministers, he was not in a hurry to shout and kill.

Guo Shao couldn't help pondering, the specific considerations... the deployment of troops is too far away, and there are no soldiers in the south of the Yangtze River who can fight. After the fall of the Southern Tang Kingdom, the elite soldiers were drawn away and the military power was divided.

Secondly, it will take time to rashly launch a war of annihilation thousands of miles away. Before the Great Zhou Dynasty, the general plan was "first north and then south", establishing prestige through the Northern Expedition, and then taking advantage of the situation to recover the remote areas in the south; now that the war in the south is being launched again, it is changing the strategic direction, and it cannot be done rashly.

Guo Shao now needs an adjusted overall strategy. .