Chapter 698 Heart to Heart
Before the two envoys arrived in Jingzhou, Cui Qian, who had returned to the court for a banquet, had already returned to Jingzhou and went straight to Shicheng to report to Li Tai in advance the personnel changes he had seen during his return to the court.
"The current emperor has a very different temperament and is very ambitious. I'm afraid this is not a blessing to the country!"
After telling the details of some personnel changes, Cui Qianxuan even told his biggest feelings about returning to the DPRK on this trip, but when he said this, his expression was quite worried.
For a normal regime, a young, powerful and ambitious monarch is a blessing to the country. However, the Western Wei Dynasty itself was in charge of the hegemony. If the emperor was not satisfied with his puppet status and situation, he would inevitably try to challenge the hegemonic order, causing turmoil in the upper political structure, and then triggering serious internal strife.
After hearing Cui Qian's evaluation of the current emperor, Li Tai couldn't help but sigh.
If the life of the current emperor Yuan Qin could be summed up in one sentence, it would be that he was either planning how to deal with his father-in-law, or he was messing with his father-in-law. As the saying goes, if you never forget something, there will be repercussions. In the end, Yu Wentai finally exceeded the limit of his endurance and killed his son-in-law.
After explaining the current situation in the country, Cui Qian looked at Li Taifa and asked: "What do you want the manager to do about the matter of the imperial court?"
After Li Tai heard this question, he first laughed and said: "I was listed as the choice of Zhuguo. It seems that everyone in the world thinks highly of me!"
"Yes, especially many relatives and friends in Guandong are very enthusiastic about this. They have been cardinals for a long time and are not familiar with the current situation, so they hope that you, Boshan, can bravely assume the honor."
After Cui Qian heard this, he also replied that he had a thorough understanding of the thoughts of these old acquaintances in Guandong. When they recommended Li Tai, they also hoped to form an alliance and become a party and become a political force that could influence the situation in Korea.
"I'm afraid I will live up to their love. Now that the situation in the southeast is still evolving, there will definitely be more opportunities to take advantage of it in the future. The people of Qi are also eyeing Huainan. Under this situation, it is not enough for me to focus on the southeast. In fact, There is no time to look elsewhere!”
After a brief sigh, Li Tai directly expressed his attitude towards this matter.
Of course, the position of Zhuguo sounds more majestic than that of general. If it is just an improvement in reputation and does not involve other situational disputes, Li Tai is of course willing to go further.
Although there are no clear regulations for the eight pillar states in the Western Wei Dynasty, except for Daxingtai Yuwentai, everyone else basically left front-line command positions and no longer held real power after being promoted to the pillar states.
If Li Tai is promoted to Zhuguo, will he return to the imperial court to support his country, or will he continue to stay in Jingzhou and preside over the military and political affairs of the southeast?
Living a life of retirement so early is obviously not in line with Li Tai's wishes. But if he still insists on being on duty, he will be equivalent to another special Zhuguo besides Yuwentai. In other words, his Jingzhou Military Palace will already have the preliminary qualifications to fight against the Huazhou Zhongwai Palace.
If Li Tai is promoted to Zhuguo this time, the most ideal situation for him is to continue to be in charge of the Jingzhou General Administration, and then rely on the advantage of being from the Li family in Longxi to collude with many members of the Guandong family in the country and let them serve in the court. Act as your own spokesperson. And these internal and external personnel headed by him, due to his position as the pillar country, can be said to have escaped the control of the Chinese and Foreign Governments and become another pole.
Cui Qian said that the Kanto clans who enthusiastically supported Li Tai's promotion to the Zhuguo must have similar ideas and wanted to achieve such a situation and create another one controlled by the Kanto clans in addition to the Zhongwai Mansion with the Zhenbing as the main body. The dominant military government.
Presumably this is the main reason why Emperor Yuan Qin specifically brought this topic to Li Tai, just like how Emperor Xiaowu supported the Heba brothers to counter Gao Huan. Thinking about it this way, history really moves from one cycle to the next. Sure enough, the essence of human beings is a repeater.
Li Tai couldn't help but start to think about it. If the emperor couldn't get his father-in-law in Guanzhong, would he leave Wuguan south and come to Jingzhou to join him? Then he can learn from Yu Wentai's operation and simply establish a Southern Wei Dynasty in Jingzhou, so that our Nanyang military nobles can regain their glory...
Such a development route is really exciting to think about, but it is just a thought.
After all, the premise of all this is not whether Li Tai dares to start a new business, but whether Emperor Yuan Qin can run out of Wuguan and give himself the remaining legal value of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
And to be honest, the Eastern Wei Dynasty has been overthrown. In addition, the Jianghan area is not the traditional sphere of influence of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Even if Yuan Qin comes, it will not mean much. The popularity of Jianghan people is not as good as that of Liang Wang in Xiangyang. .
So the question comes back again, is he so idle that he changes his skin to Nanliang because he wants to be a Zhuguo?
No one wants to be the boss. Li Tai will ravage the Yuwen family eight hundred times in his mind every day from when he wakes up to when he goes to sleep at night, but this situation is really not a good time for him.
The biggest conflict in the country today is obviously between the emperor and the powerful ministers. The balance of strength between the two sides is very unbalanced. If Li Tai accepts the emperor's solicitation in order to get ahead, he will have to invest a lot of manpower and material resources in this competition. Maintain a balance between the two. The emperor will be dealt with in a matter of minutes. When a new emperor comes to power, will he be embarrassed?
At present, there is a huge incremental market in Jianghan waiting for Li Tai to develop, and he is nominally the confidant of Daxingtai who has cultivated and promoted him all the way. If he does not seize the opportunity to develop and instead turns back to engage in internal fighting, that is the real thing. Can't carry it clearly.
So Li Tai was really unmoved by this, and even a little annoyed. He frowned and said to Cui Qian in a deep voice: "The Chief Secretary will return to the town to entertain the envoys of the court and the government on my behalf. After the courtesy, send them back. There is no need to send them to the south again. Even if we meet, I will be speechless. Even if you don't read history, don't you see the things in the court? The fall of the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the collapse of the Southern Liang Dynasty, these events are enough to make the court alert?
Now I am accumulating strength by the river and expanding the border for the country. Is it to strengthen the power and prestige of our country, or to strengthen my own prestige? The border guards are generous and hardworking, but the court officials are scheming and causing chaos and provocation. Now they are disturbing me with evil things. Isn't this the cold blood of the patriots!"
Speaking of this, Li Tai was really a little angry. Originally, the entire Western Wei Dynasty was a group of wall-hangers, and only I was concentrating on hurdles for the society. Not only did you not help me, but you also used this kind of shit to disturb my Tao heart. It's really unreasonable! Whether I am the pillar of the country or not, I am already the pillar of this regime. I am really worried about you!
Of course, the actual reply must not be so direct, unless Li Tai wants to experience mixed doubles. No matter how he responds to this question, it is not appropriate, so he simply avoids it.
Even if he shows his loyalty to Yuwen Tai, it is not appropriate. After all, the trend of the times has recognized that he has the potential to compete with the Grand Secretariat. At least his age and appearance are absolutely in control. If his attitude is still too humble, it will appear artificial and suspicious.
And there is no need. Anyway, as long as his top-notch son-in-law is there, Yuwen Tai will never force his trusted general to rebel: Because my son-in-law doesn't get along with me, so I take off my own arm to scare him? There is no such logic!
This matter will inevitably end in vain, and Li Tai is too lazy to waste his energy on it. For him, this is also a confirmation of his position in the hearts of the people after Hou Jing bribed him not long ago and made him understand his weight in the eyes of outsiders.
In addition to mourning and fighting between father-in-law and son-in-law, the Western Wei Dynasty has not had other things happen recently, but they are not good things.
In the second half of last year, when the Western Wei army was busy with the Eastern Expedition, some changes also occurred in Shuzhong. Yang Fachen, a Di tribe of Qiuchi, asked to be the governor of Lizhou, but was rejected and severely reprimanded by Xiao Ji, the King of Wuling in the Southern Liang Dynasty, so he turned to the state and surrendered to the Western Wei Dynasty.
After the Eastern Expedition, Yuwen Tai was a little embarrassed, so he planned to bully the weak to regain some dignity. He paid attention to the situation in Shuzhong and ordered Wang Yue, Yang Shao and others who were stationed in Hanzhong to lead their troops into Shu to help the Di chieftain Yang Fachen resist the Yizhou troops and horses, and to make a slight attempt to seize Shuzhong.
But this test went wrong. After learning that the Western Wei Dynasty had sent troops to interfere in Shu, Xiao Ji, the King of Wuling, hurriedly sent more troops to the expedition. Wang Yue and his men had just entered Shu, but were immediately besieged by the Shu army in Yang Fachen's old nest, Pingxing City, and could not move forward or backward. It had been several months.
The Zhongwai Mansion did not publicize this matter, and even deliberately concealed it. After all, it was too embarrassing. Last year's Eastern Expedition had not yet recovered, and Shuzhong was directly surrounded by heavy siege after a slight advance. It was a bad luck. Compared with the Jingzhou General Administration Mansion, it is no wonder that Guanzhong Shiliu had the idea of creating a new character.
But although the heat of the matter was suppressed, the problem always had to be solved. If it were not for Wuling King Xiao Ji's fear of forming a deadly feud with the Western Wei, he would be harassed and attacked continuously from Hanzhong. Wang Yue and his soldiers might not have been able to hold on until now, and they might have been killed or captured by the Shu soldiers.
Li Tai did not get this news from the Ba Mansion, but from Li Qianzhe who returned to Jingzhou from Brazil.
"Because of the disturbance of this war, all parts of Shu are on high alert. Although the other side is unique, the general's previous achievements in recovering the south of Lianghan Mountain are too amazing, and the Shu people are afraid of being harassed by this, so all parties are blocked and no communication is allowed. Even the Hanzhong troops trapped in Pingxing City are affected by this..."
Li Tai was a little proud when he heard Li Qianzhe's story. He didn't expect that his reputation was so loud in the relatively closed Shu. Then he was a little amused. In addition to being worried about Wang Yue and other soldiers who were affected by his reputation, the more important thing was that because of the martial law in Shu, Li Qianzhe could not transport all the Shu brocade he purchased and exchanged from Shu during this period.
In August last year, Li Qianzhe was ordered to go to Shu and Baxi to trade with the Shu people. Faced with the huge profits of white sugar, the Shu people in Baxi also responded enthusiastically, agreed to the various conditions offered by Li Tai, sent hostages to Jingzhou, and gathered manpower and material resources to build a small city for trading goods in its border areas.
In the past six months, Li Qianzhe has been in charge of the trade in the other territory, and has exchanged more than 30,000 pieces of Shu brocade from Shuzhong. Although there is still a huge gap compared to the 100,000 pieces required by Li Tai, this is already a very impressive achievement.
However, due to the rugged roads and inconvenient transportation, although the Shu brocade obtained from the trade has been transported back, there are still more than 10,000 pieces stored in the small city named Sugar City in Shuzhong.
Now, due to the invasion of the Western Wei Dynasty, all parts of Shuzhong are on high alert. Some of the Brazilian nobles who participated in the trade did not dare to have more exchanges with Li Qianzhe at this cusp. Not only did the trade stagnate directly, but even the Shu brocade and other seasonal goods stored there could not be transported out, and it became unsafe.
Speaking of this, Li Qianzhe also had a bitter look on his face and sighed: "Nowadays, the Shiliu families in Brazil still dare not make any changes because of their frequent comings and goings. But if the two sides continue to be at odds with each other and the customs blockade remains the same, I’m afraid they won’t be able to live in peace anymore…”
Li Tai also felt a headache when he heard this, because Hanzhong was recovered in advance, which made Yuwentai speed up his strategy against Shuzhong. He also expected this situation, so he arranged for Li Qianzhe to penetrate the business.
However, due to the excessive vigilance of the Shu people, Yuwentai's test was kicked directly on the iron plate, and it also had such a serious impact on his arrangement, which was really unexpected for him.
More than 10,000 pieces of Shu brocade plus other fashionable goods are still a very considerable fortune even for Li Tai today, and he is naturally reluctant to give it up. But if you want to successfully transport it, you must resolve the tense attitudes of both parties.
Li Tai knew that Xiao Ji, the king of Wuling, had great ambitions and was not satisfied with being trapped in Shu as a local emperor. He had always looked down on the king of eastern Hunan and had always wanted to leave Shu. He probably was not very happy to fight with the Western Wei Dynasty in Shu. . Therefore, as long as the Western Wei people bow their heads and admit their small mistakes, they can probably negotiate peace.
However, the situation in the Western Wei Dynasty was not very optimistic. Yuwentai encountered military obstacles one after another, and at the sensitive point of the new emperor's accession to the throne, he was looking for trouble, so he was probably not willing to bow his head.
However, Li Tai happened to capture Xiao Yuanzheng, the son of King Wuling. If he could use this as a bargaining chip to negotiate with Shuzhong, he could achieve a more decent ending.
Li Tai did not intend to hand over Xiao Yuanzheng to the Chinese and Foreign Affairs Office, but wanted the Jingzhou General Manager's Office to negotiate with Shuzhong so as to have the right to speak on the matter, so he wrote a letter and sent it back to China as quickly as possible. Zhoubafu.
At this time, in the Chinese Foreign Affairs Office in Huazhou, Yu Wentai was agitated by all the internal and external affairs. When he received Li Tai's introduction and browsed it for a while, he couldn't help but smile and sighed with relief: "Boshan and I really have a heart to heart. , If there is a new difficulty, it will be solved, but if everyone in the house is like this, why should I worry? "
This plan proposed by Li Tai can be said to be a great solution to his urgent needs. In addition, the recent performance of the Jingzhou General Manager's Office has been remarkable, so Yuwentai simply transferred the governorship of Hanzhong Liangzhou from the Qinzhou General Manager's Office. He returned to the General Manager's Office in Jingzhou, and appointed Yan Qingchu as the Sima of the General Manager's Office in Jingzhou to handle Liangzhou affairs, and cooperated with the General Manager's Office to properly handle the matter.
I wish everyone a happy Mid-Autumn Festival and happy holidays! ! !