choke element

Chapter 994 Shock (Part )

After the establishment of the Great Zhou, the real center of the court has always been in Tianjin Prefecture, which is close to the sea. After all, money comes mainly from the sea, and the transportation of materials also relies heavily on sea routes. It is also very convenient to connect to Dingshan, a naval base with a stable operation, by sea.

However, the status of Zhongdu Daxing Prefecture has not been weakened.

The imperial court that maintained the country was still in Daxing Prefecture; the inertia of thinking that Daxing Prefecture was the central city of the north still existed; the grain transportation route relying on the Caohe River was still in operation; and its status as the rear base of the northern frontier defense line had not been shaken. More importantly, the luxurious and beautiful appearance accumulated over hundreds of years by the Liao and Jin dynasties was not completely destroyed by the Mongols, and it still had great appeal.

In particular, the Tongleyuan Garden to the west of the palace was originally a garden built during the heyday of the Jin Dynasty. It includes many carefully crafted scenic spots, known as "Ruizhu Palace facing Pengying", and praised as "Water and mountains return to the Peach Blossom Land". Originally, this place was used by the royal family to hold archery and polo competitions and was not open to the public. Many powerful officials and wealthy people therefore built houses around it in order to be close to the water and have a comfortable view.

During the rise and fall of dynasties, the great men who gathered here were mowed down like weeds, with heavy casualties. Since the establishment of the Great Zhou, the size of the palace has shrunk to less than one percent of its original size, and several peripheral gardens have been opened to the public. As a result, the new nobles of the new dynasty gradually occupied the place, forming a rich and powerful area with Tongleyuan as the center.

Of course, most of these new nobles of the new dynasty were not in the core circle of the nobles of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Judging from their place of origin, few were from the Dinghai Army and the Northern Frontier, while most were from the Shandong Red Coat Army.

The leaders of the Red Turban Army included long-time rebels, civilians who were forced to rebel, and deserters without food and clothing. They had suffered a lot in the confrontation with the Jurchens, had lost their fighting spirit due to Yang An'er's failure, and were still not able to adapt to the rules of the Dinghai Army.

By now, except for a few who still maintained a positive and enterprising attitude and tried to win wealth and honor by making achievements on the battlefield, most of the leaders were satisfied with the wealth and honor given by the emperor. Although they were not treated as being dismissed with a cup of wine, they were almost the same.

Among these people, the one with the longest experience and the highest position is none other than Liu Erzu. This great leader of the Red Coat Army, whose reputation is second only to Yang An'er, was born a farmer. He fought in the depths of Mount Tai for many years but never had any great ambitions. He just wanted to find a way to survive for his brothers who worked hard around him.

Now that he had a way to make a living, he felt relieved. Although he held the title of a county marquis and a marshal, he never intervened in other matters and only cared about his own comfort and leisure.

Just like now, he set up a banquet in the front hall of his mansion.

The mansion was granted by the court. It was very large, with a spacious hall, three rooms on the front, and side rooms on both sides. If you squeeze a little in the main hall in the middle, you can put 30 tables for banquets. When Liu Erzu first moved into the mansion, he was shocked and asked his attendants, "Is it occupying a big temple? This is disrespectful."

At this moment, there was only one table in the middle of the hall, and the rest of the space was empty. There were some screens or treasure racks that served as partitions in the empty space, and some exquisite antiques and treasures were placed on the treasure racks, but now they have all been removed. Even the famous calligraphy and paintings that hung on the walls to show their elegance were taken down by Liu Erzu.

When Liu Erzu suddenly did this, his only daughter, Miss Liu, was in tears and laughter. Liu Erzu was over 40 years old when he had a daughter, and he cherished her very much. His daughter couldn't blame her father for his disorderly behavior, so she had to ask people to do as he wanted, and also asked people to prepare the banquet and wait for the guests.

When the food and wine were served, Miss Liu was shocked again.

At that time, wealthy families usually paid attention to the rules of decoration and eating and drinking, and tried to make it leisurely and exquisite, but Liu Erzu arranged no dried fruits, plates, or the like, and did not share meals, but a steaming hot but half-cooked roasted lamb. The side dish was wild leeks with a fishy smell.

As for the wine, let alone the kumis packed in a sheepskin bag, you could smell its all-too-unique smell even through the tightly tied opening.

Miss Liu said unhappily, "So much meat! A few days ago, the Quanzhen Taoist priest said that in autumn and winter, we need to be peaceful and restrained, and avoid roasted food!"

Liu Erzu chuckled twice and said in a gentle voice: "I am an old man, I can't eat these, but some of the visitors today may want to eat them, so we have to prepare them... You go, I have a serious guest to discuss business!"

Just as he finished speaking, there was a sound of hurried footsteps outside, and then there was a swish, and the hall door was pushed open. Fang Guosan was standing at the door, panting and saying, "Marshal, have you heard? Linhuang Mansion is lost! Shi Qing is dead!"

Miss Liu quickly went back to the inner hall.

When the Red Coat Army was at its peak, two great leaders controlled Dongping Prefecture: one was Fang Guosan and the other was Zhan Hui.

Fang Guosan was a great man in Mizhou, and he always had his own team. After starting the rebellion, he fought in Hai and Yi, and later retreated to Mount Tai and joined Liu Erzu. When Liu Erzu decided to cooperate with Dinghai Army, Fang Guosan led his subordinates to participate in the attack on various military states in Henan, and he was one of the main forces.

Since that attack, the Dinghai Army swept across the north in a short period of time, and many of Fang Guosan's subordinates were promoted for their merits. Therefore, among the generals who came from the Red Coat Army, he was one of the most well-informed.

"Of course I heard about it... Come, take a seat. It's time for dinner now. Eat some first and wait for others."

Fang Guosan was stunned for a moment, then he noticed that the layout of the hall was different from usual.

He was not the kind of person who thought a lot, so he didn't think much about it and just sat down.

Everyone has spent half of their lives licking blood on the blade. It doesn't matter if they are cold-hearted or if they think too much. Anyway, Shi Qing died. It's hard for a general to escape death in battle. Who can escape death? As for Linhuang Prefecture, it is a border city, far away from Zhongdu. The things he cares about really need more people to explain it clearly.

After sitting down, he took a knife and cut off the mutton to eat. Although Fang Guosan was from Shandong, he had lived in Daxing Prefecture for two years and had frequent contact with northern merchant caravans, so he was used to such a hearty meal.

Besides, mutton is indeed delicious, with the crispy skin, the fresh meat and the spicy chives mixed together, and paired with kumis, it has a unique flavor.

They had not eaten or drunk much when they heard footsteps outside. They both looked up and found that it was Zhan Hui.

Zhan Hui's origins were different from those of Liu Erzu and Fang Guosan. He was an old subordinate of Yang An'er, and one of the four generals of the so-called Iron Tile Daring Fighting Army in the early years, as famous as Ji Junli, Guo Yaoer and others. When Yang An'er claimed to be the king and tried to split Shandong, he first sent Fang Guosan to seize Dongping Prefecture, but he was not sure about Fang Guosan, so he ordered his own general Zhan Hui to monitor him.

The two men were at odds over this and fought several times until Yang An'er died and Liu Erzu came out to maintain the situation.

Later, Liu Erzu sent troops to support Dinghai Army. Dongping Prefecture was the only way for the army to pass through, and Zhan Hui was also included in the army. He also had many old friends and relatives who were promoted for their merits and scattered throughout the Great Zhou military system.

The Great Zhou achieved things very quickly. The soldiers under its command had not been united for long. There were many factions, and each of them introduced some banner figures to represent themselves. The banner of the old Red Coat Army was Liu Erzu.

Under the big group of Liu Erzu, there are many small groups based on their positions and closeness. The leaders of the small groups may have some problems with each other, so when something big happens, they still use Liu Erzu's big group as a platform to discuss.

Zhan Hui received the news earlier than Guo San, but because he lived farther away from Liu Erzu, he arrived a little later.

In his early years, he was regarded as Yang An'er's military advisor by the Jurchens, which shows that his personality is more meticulous than Guo San. As he strode in, he said, "Shi Qing has always been smart and knows how to get benefits. After he became the general manager of the Linhuang Prefecture, we all gathered money and smart people and followed him to the northern border to make a fortune."

Having said this, Zhan Hui turned around and closed the door before continuing, "In fact, this money and capital can be invested in the southern business, the fleet at sea, Goryeo, or Yin Chang. The reason why I invested in the northern border was that I believed Shi Qing's words and I wanted to flatter our emperor. But..."

The heavy weight of Zhan Hui's body made the seat creak. He looked at Fang Guosan who was eating meat with big mouthfuls and shook his head in disdain. Then he turned to Liu Erzu:

"Because of what Old Yin did earlier, everyone was a little embarrassed, so we invested a lot of money to show that we were following the imperial court's plan. Well, now that the imperial court's plan has gone wrong, we have to lose our money first?"

After saying this, Fang Guosan also looked bitter.

The Great Zhou was a military regime, and the former members of the Red Coat Army were an important group among the military, so of course they were treated very well. As long as they had enough experience, or had meritorious service or military rank, they would receive a bonus from a certain business.

The lower-level soldiers used it as a guarantee of a stable income, but those at the level of Fang Guosan and Zhan Hui were guaranteed to have two to three thousand strings of cash a year, and it was not cheap money. Adding other income on hand, they were all wealthy.

When they heard about the trouble in Northern Xinjiang, several people immediately thought that their family assets in Linhuang Prefecture were gone.

As the economic cooperation between the Zhou Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty deepened, and overseas trade flourished, a large amount of copper coins flowed into the north, and the wealth of the military aristocracy who enjoyed political privileges grew dramatically. This growth prompted the military aristocracy to invest their capital in industry and commerce or profitable animal husbandry instead of just buying land.

For example, most of the major leaders of the Red Coat Army invested their money in Tongzhou, and relied on Shi Qing's power as the Defense Commissioner of Tongzhou to do some transportation business.

After Yin Chang's accident, the emperor kept a close eye on the transportation of materials, and Shi Qing was transferred to be the general manager of the Linhuang Prefecture's military.

Naturally, there was business to be done in the Northern Frontier, and the Great Zhou Emperor Guo Ning had been encouraging investment in order to ensure the expenses of the Northern Frontier defense line, so everyone followed suit.

Now, those people who had just tied their own interests to the Northern Frontier are starting to get angry.

It was normal to be so upset. After the news of the incident in Linhuang Prefecture reached Zhongdu, it could not be covered up at all. Four or five different versions of the battle report had been circulated, and people were everywhere.

Everyone is a warrior, not a saint, and they all attach great importance to wealth and honor. So all kinds of shocks, doubts and anxieties gathered, and they would think, how could something happen in Linhuang Mansion? How could something happen in Linhuang Mansion?

Once Linhuangfu was in trouble, it was clear that the Mongolian army's ability to attack was greatly enhanced. Then what about the military and civilian settlements along the boundary trench to the west of Linhuangfu? What about the felt fields and herbal medicine shops? What about the warehouses, trading grounds and car dealerships? And what about the many ranches to the east of Linhuangfu that were established in cooperation with the Jurchens who defected to the Great Zhou?

There is danger! There is big trouble!
The door of the hall was suddenly pushed open with a bang, and Shi Gui stepped in.

Shi Gui was also born in Taishan, but he had a close relationship with Yang An'er in his early years. When Yang An'er started his army in Moqi Mountain, Shi Gui was one of the first few people to accept Yang An'er's appointment. Later, when the Red Coat Army failed, Shi Gui's troops were reorganized and reorganized with difficulty. Dinghai Navy's system would not be lenient to anyone, which resulted in him becoming a figurehead general and being slow to get news.

Shi Gui rushed into the hall with a gloomy face and shouted, "All I have left is money! I'm going to run out of money now... This war is not going well!"