Chapter 557: Disaster in Court Level
Li Tai didn't care about what Cai Dabao said about his lack of strength. The most important thing for him right now is that Yueyang King Xiao Qing can take this first step. Even if the results achieved at the beginning are not as expected, he can just continue to work hard next.
After reaching a consensus, the next step is a specific battle plan. For King Yueyang, he not only had to ensure the success of the plan, but also ensured that the truth was covered up as much as possible, so that no one could use this as a basis to criticize him.
Li Tai has no objection to this. At present, Nanliang is not in chaos and order still exists, so he also needs Xiao Jin to maintain his current position of power to protect and develop his plan. If Xiao Jin is exposed and revoked from his post as governor of Yongzhou, it will also be a big setback to his plans.
Xiangyang's plan was to transport supplies up the Han River on the pretext of rewarding the army. Li Tai's Jingzhou tribe crossed the Han River and followed them all the way south, seizing the two counties with lightning speed, and conquering the Du family in Jingzhao. All important members were slaughtered.
In order to ensure that the operation is not leaked, the soldiers and civilians of the two counties can be forcibly moved to Mianbei by Li Tai's troops. Although both counties are settled by overseas Chinese, the total number of military and civilian households should be as many as two to three thousand, which is a considerable amount of human resources.
The key to Li Tai's conception of this timing was to lead King Yueyang to the road, but he did not expect to gain any direct benefits from the operation. Anyway, when Nanliang was completely in chaos, everything would have to be his. However, he did not exclude the immediate direct Interests.
Since the other party proposed such a distribution method, he agreed. How can such a big operation be guaranteed to be watertight? The so-called confidentiality is nothing more than a dead end without any evidence. Those people can no longer stay on the south bank of the Han River, and it is not a bad outcome to go to Mianbei to work as equal-land households and grow crops.
However, Li Tai felt that it was necessary to modify the action plan proposed by Xiao Jin, and did not intend to let his troops cross the Han River in advance. Firstly, it is to prevent the other party from being imprudent in their plans and being dragged down by their pig teammates. Secondly, the appearance of the troops in Jingzhou is different from that of Liang Jun. Once they move around Hannan for a long time, the risk of exposure will also increase.
So he proposed a new plan, that is, his troops would gather on the north bank of the Han River, and Xiao Jin's troops would defraud Xinxing County alone, and then transfer the Jingzhou troops there by boat, relying on the strong cavalry advantage. Lock the perimeter of the territory to eliminate the possibility of the enemy breaking out, and calmly encircle and annihilate the territory.
Cai Dabao did not have the power to directly agree to Li Tai's suggestions for adjusting the action plan, and had to return to King Yueyang for instructions.
However, it was approaching the end of the year. In order to avoid the back and forth bargaining, Li Tai directly ordered Linghu Yanbao and other generals to lead five thousand fine cavalry to set off first, with Liu Fanggui and hundreds of his troops as guides to accompany the army.
If King Yueyang agrees to this plan, then he can directly send boats from Xinxing County to pick up Jingzhou people and horses to cross the Yangtze River south. If contact is lost, Linghu Yanbao and others can just search along the Han River and return to Jingzhou, and there will be no loss.
This operation is not a big battle, and Li Tai does not need to lead his troops personally. Now that his power is becoming more and more powerful, he also needs to cultivate the ability of his generals to take charge of their own affairs, and no longer needs to do everything personally.
Moreover, Jingzhou now needs him to be in charge personally. The performance appraisal method formulated by Cui Qian and other state officials has been gradually promoted among counties. Li Tai not only needs to eliminate incompetent county officials but also select suitable ones. At the same time, we must be careful about the surging public sentiment in the state. It is not suitable to leave Jingzhou for a long time now.
The tired Cai Dabao returned to Xiangyang again, reported to the King of Yueyang Li Tai's adjustments to the plan, and conveyed the news that the Jingzhou troops had set off.
After King Yueyang heard this, he couldn't help but sigh: "Li Boshan is really a young man and a brave man. Since I am a co-conspirator, how can I lag behind my young disciple? It is only right to go to the city first to win the trust of others." Yi, quickly arrange for personnel to go west!"
Once the decision was made, King Yueyang's mobility was also not low. While sending Cai Dabao as envoy to Jingzhou, he was already moving his direct troops away from Xiangyang in batches, so as not to shock the public if a large force suddenly dispatched.
In recent days, he has also treated the newly appointed state capital Sima Du'an quite favorably. He has hosted banquets for him in the palace several times, showing an attitude that he was overawed by the prestige of the King of Eastern Hunan and had put aside his past grudges and was eager to repair their relationship.
So this time, as the new year was approaching, he sent troops to transport money and goods to reward the garrison of the surrounding cities, which naturally included the two counties occupied by the Du family, which was not out of place in everyone's eyes. After all, when the Western Wei Dynasty invaded, King Yueyang gathered money, food and troops in Xiangyang. The military crisis was over and the festival was approaching, so he should share it with everyone.
In order to paralyze the Du family even more, King Yueyang even handed over the matter to Du An, the Sima of the state capital, for specific execution. Du An was naturally not polite to receive this convenience. He arranged the largest amount of reward materials for his own territory, and the required transportation team was naturally larger.
Du'an here is still flattering that the brothers in the Western Region can benefit from their positions and live a prosperous year, but they don't know that this large-scale transportation team was intercepted not long after leaving the city, and all kinds of property They were sent to the warehouses along the coast, and were replaced by sophisticated bows, crossbows, armor and staffs, as well as a transportation team that doubled in size.
There has been peace for a long time in Nanliang. Although Yongzhou suffered from a military disaster this year, the enemy troops stopped at Fancheng to the north of the Han River and did not disturb Xiangyang on the south bank. Although the departure of soldiers and civilians from Fancheng to the north has caused many people and families to mourn this year, as the new year approaches, the joyful atmosphere of celebrating the festival will ultimately dominate.
As a result, the shops in the city were full of people shopping for goods, and ordinary people tried their best to put on bright and new clothes.
There was no shortage of virtuous village elders who called on the villagers to come into the city and thank King Yueyang in front of the state capital for his good governance of the place and for protecting the people from military disasters and allowing them to live another happy New Year.
King Yueyang was naturally very pleased that the villagers knew what they were doing. He ordered the government officials to bring out several large baskets of iron coins and scatter them along the long street in front of the government as rewards.
Although the iron money is light and flimsy, it would be quite painful if it was dropped by the pocket. However, the crowd obviously did not care about this at this moment, cheering and thanking each other while laughing and picking up the money. More and more people gathered in front of the state capital, showing a cheerful scene of people enjoying themselves.
Although the city of Xiangyang is bustling and lively, it is inevitably too noisy and crowded, and it is not considered a first-class livable environment.
Ordinary people could not resist the various dangers outside the city and had to live in the city. However, for some powerful families with armed tribes, after all, they had to occupy a piece of landscape outside the city to build gardens and run their businesses. Only then could they feel free and comfortable.
Nowadays, people from these powerful clans are scattered all over the country, working as officials or running businesses. It is inevitable that they will gather less and leave more. But when the New Year comes, the tribesmen try their best to return to their hometowns to worship their ancestors and visit their relatives.
Therefore, as early as many days ago, many subordinate officials in the state capital had frequently taken leave, and less than half of them could still work normally. King Yueyang was deeply loved by the people this year and was in a very good mood. He simply announced the closure of the government office and stopped working. He allowed all the officials to go home to celebrate the festival and make new achievements when he returns to the government next year.
There is Wanshan Mountain to the west of Xiangyang City, and there is a pool at the foot of the mountain called Wanshan Pool, also known as Shenbei Pool.
It is said that during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Du Yu had prepared a good name for future generations, and he was aware of the vicissitudes of the world. When he was in Xiangyang, he recorded his achievements in defeating Wu with a monument. One monument was erected on Xian Mountain, and the other was sunk under the pond to ensure that even if the shore was high, It is a valley, and a deep valley is a mausoleum. Later generations can see the inscriptions and know its merits.
Beside Wanshan Pond, there is a garden villa building, which is where the Jingzhao Du clan lives. Specifically, the Du clan members of Du Huaibao, the former governor of Liangzhou, admired the deeds of their ancestors, so they lived beside Wanshan Pond.
As the new year approaches, people of the Du clan also return to their ancestral home one after another. Although Du Huaibao passed away, all nine of his sons were strong and strong, and they had sons after sons. It could be said that they were a powerful family with a prosperous population.
On this day, the Du Family Manor welcomed a distinguished guest, the prince of Yueyang, Xiao Qing.
King Yueyang only had a few dozen relatives accompanying him on his trip, but there were several large carts filled with goods. The Du family came out to welcome them, and they couldn't help but feel a little suspicious when watching this battle. King Yueyang smiled and ordered the officials to unload the goods on the cart. Then he realized that it was a gift prepared for the Du clan people, both men and women, and no one was allowed to pull it.
Although the gifts were not precious, just a few scrolls of scriptures and a few bolts of silk, they were presented by King Yueyang personally to the house, which undoubtedly reflected the importance he attached to the Du family.
Therefore, the people of the Du clan came forward one after another to receive the gifts and thank them, expressing their admiration and gratitude to this king who was a courtesy corporal. King Yueyang stayed at Du's house until nightfall before he got up to say goodbye. Even though Du Andang wanted to lead his clan disciple Jia Zhang to escort King Yueyang back to the city, King Yueyang refused with a smile, not wanting to disturb their family's happy time together.
After the family sent the Yueyang King's gift out of the house and returned home, Du You'an, the youngest son of the Du family, couldn't help but said: "This king is so polite to my family today. He has lost his usual strong posture, and it makes me uneasy."
Among the brothers, Du An was the best at maneuvering. It was only when he visited Jiangling and asked the King of Xiangdong that he solved the embarrassing situation that Du had faced before. After hearing this, he smiled and said: "What's so strange about this? Yueyang Although the king is young, can he win more people's hearts than the king of eastern Hunan?
When I paid homage to the King of Eastern Hunan before, your Majesty told me that there were many people in the court who said that Yongzhou was the ancestral land for the prosperity of the country and wanted to move the young king to another place. King Yueyang thought that he got the news from elsewhere, so he was eager to make a good relationship with my family in order to ask for help. Although Jiangling is powerful, there are also many people who want to favor him. If King Yueyang can understand the way of humility, my family will not have to be too hostile to him. "
Not to mention the discussion of the Du brothers, not long after King Yueyang left Du's house, his subordinates who had been waiting here for a long time appeared in Daozuo. He stopped the car, looked back in the direction of Wanshan Pond, and said in a cold voice: "Although there are still a few members who have not returned, we are afraid of changes, so we will take action tonight. The place where the monument was buried in Duwuku is where the bones of his clan were buried. It can be regarded as a reconciliation between the past and the past. If you don’t pass on good deeds to your family, it will inevitably bring disaster to your family!”