novelonline Chapter 1116 Decentralization
Chapter 1116 Decentralization
Chapter 1116 Decentralization
Weizhou was the seat of the Jingsai Military Supervisory Office of Western Xia.
However, the Western Xia Weizhou Military Prison had been defeated by Liu Changzuo, and was now captured by the Huanqing Road troops led by Yu Chong, who captured more than 3,000 people.
But just two days after Yu Chong captured Weizhou, he learned the news that Mingsha City had fallen.
Yu Chong stood on the Weizhou City Wall, staring at the direction of Mingsha City for a long time, and said to himself: "Zhang Zizheng must have died for his country."
After saying this, Yu Chong felt a lump in his heart, and almost fell down on the top of Weizhou City Wall amid the shouts from people around him.
The people around him supported Yu Chong and said hurriedly, "General, although Mingsha has fallen, Zhang Zizheng has not received any news. As long as he is okay, there may be a glimmer of hope."
Yu Chong shook his head and said, "You don't know that Zhang Zizheng was very effective in this battle. He would rather cut off the retreat himself and saved the entire Jingyuan Road army. This man is truly a pillar of the country and a hero of the world."
"If he makes any mistake, how can the court forgive me?"
An aide on the side said, "Why not explain it to Prime Minister Zhang?"
Yu Chong shook his head and said, "I don't have a close relationship with Prime Minister Zhang. If I suddenly come to him, wouldn't it be a joke in the officialdom?"
While Yu Chong was speaking, a scout came to report: "General, the Tangut troops from Mingsha City are heading towards Weizhou."
Yu Chong said angrily, "I know."
The staff said, "General, the Tangut troops have already been exhausted after capturing Mingsha. They are just bluffing now."
Yu Chong said: "Of course I don't know. I'm just worried that Liang Yong will be able to attack me from behind."
The staff said: "The Western bandits have always only robbed once and then left, and have no intention of plotting to take over the prefectures and counties. The current strategy is to abandon Weizhou."
Yu Chong calmed down a little and thought to himself, I was so panicked and confused because Mingsha's attack was broken, this is a bad sign.
Yu Chong asked, "Where are the people from Zhangqianyuan?"
After Yu Chong asked, he met Zhang Gen immediately.
When Zhang Gen learned that Mingsha City had fallen, he said calmly, "Daddy told us in advance that if Mingsha can be saved, then we should save it. If we can't save it, then we should use the whole army first."
"I can testify to the court that the governor has done his best and no one else is to blame."
Yu Chong was half-believing and half-doubting, but he pretended to be overjoyed and said, "The signing court is really very understanding."
"I wonder what the signing court has to say?"
Zhang Gen said, "I don't deserve it, Commander. In my humble opinion, we should ensure the safety of the rear, relocate all the people of Weizhou back to the south, and then burn down the city, leaving not a single brick or tile for the western bandits."
Yu Chong nodded and said, "That's right. I will transfer three teams of personal soldiers to the signing office and return to Huanzhou first. I will lead the army to cover the rear and retreat slowly!"
Zhang Gen knew that the other party was trying to show goodwill to him, so he readily agreed.
Zhang Gen led Zhang Gong and Zhao Long and several thousand soldiers and horses back to Huanzhou.
Upon learning that Mingsha City had been captured, Huanzhou was now in a state of chaos. Not to mention the foreign tribes that had been semi-submissive to the Song Dynasty, they were now ready to make a move, and even the city was filled with a tense atmosphere.
Someone in the city spread rumors that the Song army was going to abandon Huanzhou and even Qingzhou, and asked the people to leave Huanzhou as soon as possible.
When Zhang Gen learned about this in the city, he went to the city's magistrate and decided to impose martial law on the entire city. He personally led Zhao Long and Zhang Gong to patrol the city, and soldiers checked the population from house to house. Anyone with an unknown identity was taken away and detained.
More than a hundred people were arrested overnight.
It was later confirmed that more than ten Western Xia spies had sneaked into the city and were planning to attack the armory.
Under Zhang Gen's command, Huanzhou City quickly stabilized.
A few days later, when Yu Chong led his troops back from the front, he saw that Huanzhou City was in good order and asked who had done it. When he learned that it was Zhang Gen, he nodded.
When Yu Chong saw Zhang Gen, he immediately invited him to the headquarters of the Military Affairs Office to talk.
Upon learning that Yu Chong had invited him, Zhang Gen hesitated whether to go, but then he thought again, this is Huanzhou, although it is a border area, it is also the territory of the Song Dynasty, and Yu Chong would not dare to do anything to him.
So Zhang Gen asked Zhang Gong to stay and went to the camp alone.
Zhang Gen saw that the headquarters was heavily guarded, with soldiers guarding everywhere. He came to a hall, but saw a sign saying "This is the hall, anyone who enters without permission will be executed."
Zhang Gen walked into the hall under the guidance of the officials.
He saw Yu Chong, who was wearing casual clothes, drinking alone in the hall.
Yu Chong glanced at Zhang Gen and said with a smile, "My dear nephew, please sit down!"
Zhang Gen felt a little nervous, but he still sat down.
Yu Chong smiled and said, "My dear nephew, you came to see me alone today, which shows your courage. I admire you."
Zhang Gen said: "Why can't I see the commander?"
Yu Chong smiled and poured a glass of wine for Zhang Gen, then said, "My dear nephew, you were just trying to fool me before. Didn't you think I couldn't see it?"
Zhang Gen's face darkened, and he immediately asked, "Why do you say that, Marshal?"
Yu Chong said with a smile: "You want to impeach me. I only guessed 30% of it. Now that I have tested it in person, I can say it is 100%."
"Ha ha!"
Zhang Gen thought to himself that he was really too shallow and was finally discovered by Yu Chong.
Zhang Gen still said: "General Jie, how could I have such intention?"
Yu Chong smiled contemptuously and said, "My dear nephew, if I have really been fooled by you, I would have been an official for so many years. Can you secretly distribute the gold and silver I gave you to the soldiers?"
"Don't be scared. Even if I have ten times the courage, I won't dare to do anything to you! Drink!"
Zhang Gen felt a little relieved and drank the whole glass of wine generously.
But Yu Chong said: "The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit. If you don't impeach me, Prime Minister Zhang will not let me go. Yu still has self-knowledge."
Yu Chong remained calm when he said this.
Zhang Gen also admired the other party's magnanimity.
Yu Chong said: "My dear nephew, to be fair, I have been very kind to you these days."
Zhang Gen said: "Marshal Jie treated me with great courtesy."
Yu Chong said: "I know you don't care about money, but I have discussed with you the strategies of fighting and the ways to command soldiers and generals in the past few days. Have you benefited from it?"
Zhang Gen nodded.
"That's good. My dear nephew, you can go now." Yu Chong said and then poured himself a drink.
Zhang Gen stood up and said goodbye.
……
The next day, an envoy came from outside the city with an imperial edict and went straight into the headquarters. He read the edict in front of the civil and military officials in Huanzhou City and dismissed Yu Chong from his post as the governor of Jingyuan Road.
After hearing the imperial edict, Zhang Gen thought to himself that this was too bold.
If it had happened a hundred years ago, if the military governors of the Tang Dynasty received such an imperial edict, they would have killed the messenger on the spot and started a rebellion.
As for making up a pretext, we could ask Yu Chong to go outside the city to participate in the investigation, and then capture him on the spot. This would be the best plan.
It should be noted that the civil and military officials in Huanzhou City used to obey Yu Chong.
However, after the messenger read out the imperial edict, Yu Chong handed over the seal on the spot without saying a word. At this moment, the civil and military officials around him seemed to have suddenly forgotten Yu Chong and no one said a word.
Yu Chong also cooperated very naturally. When seeing Yu Chong being taken away, the civil and military officials pretended not to see it and did not even look at him.
Afterwards, Yu Chong followed the messenger like leading a sheep, left the headquarters, and found a place in the city to guard.
The next day, Co-Privy Councilor and Six-Route Executive Privy Councilor Han Zhen and Qinfeng Route General Cai Yanqing led their troops into the city and took over the tens of thousands of troops in Huanzhou City.
Han Zhen was very busy handling military affairs, and the civil and military officials in the city were all trembling with fear when they saw him.
This man has a bad reputation and is more difficult to serve than Yu Chong.
Zhang Gen entered the headquarters to pay respects to Han Zhen and Cai Yanqing, thinking that it was Yu Chong who was sitting here yesterday. And yesterday, those indifferent soldiers, officers and civil officials all sat in the corridor with bated breath, holding calendars in their hands, waiting for the court to attend.
Every official whose name was called looked nervous when he went to meet Han Zhen.
Some people looked exhausted after being taken out of the festival hall.
Zhang Gen was originally an official of the Privy Council, so he went straight into the hall to pay his respects.
When Han Zhen saw Zhang Gen, he said to the person below him, "Do you know who this young man is?"
The man at the bottom saw Zhang Gen and said with a smile, "Could it be that you are Prime Minister Zhang's husband? You seem so friendly to me the first time I met you."
"Back then, when I served as a transport envoy and followed Prime Minister Zhang to pacify Qingtang and take over Xihe, I was always at his side."
Zhang Gen knew without any guessing that this person was Cai Yanqing, the governor of Qinfeng Road.
He said, "It turned out to be General Cai Cao. My father has said many times that General Cao was the first to reform the military tactics in Xihe Road, and then he went against all odds to send troops to rescue Hezhou City and saved the war situation."
Cai Yanqing laughed when he heard this and said, "This is the happiest thing in my life."
Han Zhen smiled and said, "A tiger father will have a dog son. Zhang Qianyuan is much better than your sons."
"Exactly, exactly."
The officials who had just attended the court were all sweating profusely. If they had heard Han Zhen and Cai Yanqing praising Zhang Gen one after another, they would have been extremely envious.
Officialdom is like reincarnation, some people start out in hell difficulty, while others start out in easy mode.
Han Zhen said to Zhang Gen: "Yu Gongda was dismissed from his post and taken back to the capital for trial. The emperor asked me to temporarily take over the post of Huanqing Road General!"
Zhang Gen thought to himself, this power is really amazing. He stood up and said, "Congratulations to Zhishu!"
Han Zhen couldn't help but say proudly, "This shows how much your father values me."
Han Zhen guessed correctly that this extraordinary move was the work of Zhang Yue.
He strongly suggested it in front of the emperor.
If a general does not have real power in a local area, he will be restricted everywhere and have no place to display his power. Therefore, the governor must also serve as the governor of the first state in the route, and then he can take on the post of the general manager of the army.
After Yu Chong, the governor of Huanqing Road, was dismissed, Zhang Yue directly let Han Zhen take on the role of governor of Huanqing Road, which was also a move that broke the convention.
Originally, Han Zhen wanted to control the various troops through six generals, but now he leads one of the troops himself and also controls the other five troops.
In the past, the emperor would have been unable to sleep.
But why did Zhang Yue dare to delegate so much power?
In fact, this also went against his original intention, but he suddenly thought of history proving that although civil officials leading troops are often not very reliable, it is just like the saying that a scholar will fail to succeed in a rebellion even after ten years.
He had never seen a few purely civil officials leading troops to rebel.
Zhang Yue searched through history books but seemed to have never found such a case.
The closest person was probably Zeng Guofan, but he didn't dare to rebel in the end.
The purpose of centralization is to centralize power, but the purpose of centralizing power is also to better delegate power.
In this case, why don't I think in reverse and boldly give power to the generals in the front? However, Zhang Yue did not give the post of Qingzhou governor to Han Zhen.
Cai Yanqing asked, "But what if Xixia sends envoys to negotiate peace with our dynasty?"
But Han Zhen said rudely: "The court discusses the court's affairs, and we fight our own affairs."
Cai Yanqing asked, "Prime Minister Zhang, do you mean to fight and negotiate peace at the same time? Can't you negotiate peace and fight at the same time?"
They both looked at Zhang Gen at the same time.
Zhang Gen shook his head, indicating that he knew nothing about it.
(End of this chapter)