choke element

Chapter 978: Forced (Part )

"Killing! Killing!"

"Good fellow, killing someone in the street! Who was killed?"

"I heard that he was a spy sent by the Mongols to gather military intelligence."

"Hey, then I have to go and take a look. There are more and more Mongols in the market recently, and they are bolder than before. I should kill a few of them to show off my power."

The voices in the Yangfang Inn were spread from person to person. The caravan members who traveled far and wide were much braver and more knowledgeable than ordinary people. Knowing that the spy was caught in the market and was to be killed on the spot, no one was afraid, but gathered together quickly, making messy discussions and jokes from time to time.

Yang Woyan stood at the edge of the crowd, watching with a sullen face as his companions dragged out the three Mongolian spies and pinned them to the ground.

The three spies were indeed stupid. When they heard the rumor last night that the imperial court was about to reduce the number of troops stationed in the northern border, they were overjoyed and immediately left the caravan overnight, trying to run back to report the news.

But after living on the sparsely populated grassland for a long time, the Mongols had no idea how strict the layers of control measures in a huge city would be. If they wanted to cross the street, they would bump into soldiers patrolling the streets at night; if they wanted to go out, there were guards everywhere, including the gates of the market, the gates of the inner quarters, and even the city gates; if they wanted to sneak into a place to spend the night, a few sneaky Mongols were too conspicuous and easy to identify.

So in the end they gave up the idea of ​​escaping as soon as possible and tried to return to the Yangfang store and return to the caravan and leave with the caravan.

The caravan had already discovered that they were missing. Before Yang Woyan left, he deliberately left some capable men behind to search everywhere according to his guess. In the southern part of the desert controlled by the Great Zhou, it was not uncommon for Mongols to join the caravan and then regret it. These men had experience in capturing fleeing Mongols.

Who would have thought that before the search was even halfway through, these idiots would come back and fall into the trap?
Yang Woyan's men tied them up immediately, but they didn't realize that this would have ruined Yang Woyan's chance to show off in front of Lu Wusi.

In this case, if Lu Wusi wants to kill someone, he must do it quickly and efficiently.

Yang Woyan immediately ordered people to be on guard, to clean up the place, and then to start the fight. These guards had killed people, so they immediately arranged the scene in an orderly manner. The next moment, he slashed with his sword, and the three spies were killed. Three streams of blood gushed out five or six feet high, and then fell down with a crackling sound, soaking the yellow soil on the ground. The onlookers cheered.

Yangfangdian was a place for trading livestock, and immediately swarms of flies arrived, circling around in a buzzing sound.

At this moment, the crowd outside suddenly became agitated, and a group of knights rushed over and asked, "Why did you kill someone?"

Half an hour later.

The knight who returned from Yangfang Inn reported respectfully: "I have checked and it is the order of the Jinshan Defense Judge."

One of the civil servants immediately shouted, "Asshole! Who is the Jinshan Defense Judge? How dare he order a killing in Zhongdu?"

"I understand. You can go down." Xu Ding ignored the civil servant and waved his hand in a calm tone. The knight immediately withdrew.

The officials standing on both sides of the hall were tense, but when they saw that Xu Ding didn't look angry, they all breathed a sigh of relief. Even the civil servant who stood out to ask questions was the same.

Logically speaking, not to mention that the Jinshan Defense Judge has no authority to do so, neither does the Jinshan Defense Envoy, nor does the Zhongdu North Marshal above him.

Emperor Guo Ning of the Great Zhou Dynasty never concealed his humble origins and knew nothing about specific government affairs and governance, so he was always willing to delegate power and entrusted the important tasks to Yelu Chucai and Xu Ding. Especially Xu Ding, the emperor almost completely let him go, allowing him to continue the official disciples left by his father Xu Chiguo, maintain the power to control the situation in Zhongdu, and ensure the stability since the rise and fall of the two dynasties.

Zhongdu Daxing Prefecture was the core of the country. Without the consent of Xu Ding, the right prime minister and prefect of Daxing Prefecture, no one had the power to kill anyone.

All of these people who discussed the matter were the backbone of the imperial court, and they were all powerful and influential. Any of them could punish a mere judge with just one word. But none of them would do that, and even the one who criticized Xu Ding was just testing Xu Ding's attitude.

According to the rules, the Jinshan Defense Judge did not have this power, even if the judge was instructed by the Left and Right Departments or the Recorder Department, which were powerful institutions close to the emperor. But in the Zhou Dynasty, no matter how much the emperor respected Xu Ding, and no matter how the system was gradually improved; once a situation occurred, everything had to give way.

The situation is that everything that has happened in the past few days is a prelude to military action.

The emperor is really aggressive!
The news released by the emperor was true. The attention of the Great Zhou was about to shift; but before that, the emperor hoped to destroy the Mongols with a real war!

Xu Ding leaned back, bringing his back slightly closer to the horizontal corridor at the back of the hall. The majestic breeze passing through the hall from the shade made him feel much more comfortable.

Earlier, when the Marshal's Office suddenly intensively reported a lot of news about Goryeo, and even about reducing the garrison in the northern border and turning to the sea, the clerks headed by Xu Ding were completely confused.

Is this news true or false? If it is false, how should we cooperate? If it is true, why didn't we report it to the government system? With such a big change in Goryeo, is the government system not qualified to participate in it? Is the emperor dissatisfied with the clerks?
Some people asked Xu Ding privately, and Xu Ding himself had many questions. He wanted to ask the emperor in person, but he was afraid that he would be too impatient, which would lose the demeanor of a prime minister and show that there was a lack of tacit understanding between the emperor and the prime minister.

At this moment, the minor officers under the army began to arrest spies in a big way, and even killed people in the streets. The subordinate officials of Daxing Prefecture were all dissatisfied, but Xu Ding figured it out.

He knew why the emperor made such a decision, and why the emperor quickly pushed forward this decision through the military system of the Capital Marshal's Office, but had not yet officially informed the two prime ministers.

Because the decision to go to the sea and reach out to Goryeo or Japan was the result of a compromise between the emperor and the army, not an active decision made by the emperor himself. The same is true for the intensively carried out luring the enemy and the war that is about to break out.

The army of the Great Zhou Dynasty was huge, and it involved huge economic and political forces, which would give rise to interests. No matter how high the emperor's prestige was, no matter how strict his orders were, and no matter how powerful the supervisory agencies controlled by the emperor were, he could not forcibly pull the bridle of the giant beast with his own strength, as he did with dozens or hundreds of people, and twist the army in an unwilling direction.

The ongoing invitation to battle is actually the result of a step-by-step exchange and balance of interests.

The emperor suppressed the desire of many military men to go to war with the Southern Song Dynasty, so he had to provide them with a new direction to gain benefits.

Now that the warriors in the south have gained a new source of profit, there is no reason for the warriors in the northern border to just sit there and watch without benefiting from it.

The warriors in the northern border had hope of eating meat, but what about the threat from the north? If they wanted to reap the benefits without any worries, the warriors had to fight a big battle in the northern border. If the Mongolians were not beaten to the point of breaking bones, the warriors would not be able to escape from the grassland!

This is roughly what happened over the course of about half a year.

Xu Ding didn't know anything about military advances and retreats, attacks and defenses. But at the strategic level of a major power, civil affairs and military preparations are actually roughly the same. The key point is that any decision that seems to be made by a leader's great talent and strategy is ultimately the result of the interaction of many internal and external factors, which leads to an inevitable result.

Xu Ding even found it interesting.

Back then, Guo Ning acted recklessly in Zhongdu City without any scruples, and the old Prime Minister Tu Shanyi could not control him no matter how far-sighted he was. Now that Guo Ning has become the emperor, he has to follow the trend and can no longer do whatever he wants.

The emperor himself might not have felt it clearly, but deep down, he might have felt a little unhappy.

So even though it was a matter of great importance that required close cooperation and full response from the entire court, the emperor subconsciously pushed it to the level of being resolved by the Marshal's Office, and was not in a hurry to mobilize the entire court.

Fortunately, the new dynasty was founded at a time when talents emerged in large numbers, and there were many smart people in the left and right offices and the record office under the emperor. They did not directly take over the responsibility, but pushed the responsibility of doing things to the notorious Jinshan Defense Judge.

Xu Ding, who was outside the situation, also saw it clearly. Therefore, the Mongolian spy who was publicly killed in Zhongdu City just became the excuse for the right prime minister of the current dynasty to use his authority as the prefect of Daxing Prefecture to go to the Marshal's Mansion for investigation.

Such tacit cooperation between the civil and military officials shows that the Great Zhou Dynasty has its own unique operating rules and is by no means a makeshift team as seen by the outside world.

The cool breeze made Xu Ding feel relaxed, and all the worries from the past few days were swept away.

"Prepare the horses. I am going to the Marshal's Mansion."

Xu Ding gave an order, and the attendants hurried to prepare. He stood up and walked out, and said to his subordinates: "Everyone cheer up, we are going to fight a big battle!"

One of his subordinates saw that Xu Ding's face had softened, and half-jokingly said, "How big a battle is this? Is it bigger than the last time the emperor led his men to the south of the desert?

Xu Ding paused slightly and then walked out the door.

I'm afraid it's on a much larger scale.

Compared with the Great Zhou Emperor, Genghis Khan was more influenced by the many tribes under him. And the leaders of many tribes had been patient on the grassland for a long time, and they were probably much more irritable than the officers at all levels of the Great Zhou.

(End of this chapter)