Chapter 948 Cleaning up from scratch

Chapter 948 Cleaning up from scratch

The next morning, Li Tai led his troops to the Wanshou Palace in Shayuan. He was accompanied by Huangfu Mu, Liu Hui and other former subordinates of Dugu Xin and Yuwen Yu, as well as Liu Qing and others who Dugu Xin had contacted when he returned to Guanzhong.

In the Wanshou Palace, the traces of the imperial guards entering and leaving the palace were still there, especially the ashes of the building occupied by Dugu Xin were even more shocking.

A middle-aged eunuch with a white face and no beard was leading a group of palace slaves standing here for a long time. He hurriedly walked forward and greeted the left side of the road: "I am Zhao Yongguo, the envoy of the Wanshou Palace, and I am here with all the palace slaves to see the king!"

After hearing this, Li Tai's thoughts were inevitably a little dazed, and some bits and pieces of people and things when he first entered Guanzhong emerged in his mind. He still remembered that Zhao Yongguo had led his servants to ambush him in the village, but soon they had no intersection with each other. He didn't expect to meet again here today.

Zhao Yongguo was no longer as arrogant as he was in the past. He bowed deeply on the palace road, his face almost buried in the dust, and he didn't dare to look up at the King of Taiyuan.

Li Tai didn't feel like making things difficult for him after seeing this, he just waved his hand and said, "Don't be polite, this ruined building is where the Grand Marshal was killed?"

"Your Majesty, this is where the thieves committed the crime. I am guilty, I... My father sent a letter before, ordering me to meet the Grand Marshal and his entourage here, and I also mobilized the palace slaves to wait for orders that day, but I didn't expect that my family would give birth to a bad child, and conspired with Lueyang Gong to deceive..."

Although Li Tai had asked him to be exempted from the formalities, Zhao Yongguo still bowed deeply on the ground, first quickly recounting the whole story, and then secretly seeing that Li Tai was getting impatient, he continued He said hurriedly: "At that time, the Grand Marshal was guarded in the building by his loyal servants. My father, fearing that Lord Lueyang would persecute him, pretended to surrender and advised Lord Lueyang and others to leave for a while. I had the opportunity to enter the ruined building to bury the Grand Marshal..."

"The Grand Marshal's body is still there?"

Li Tai was quite surprised when he heard this, and immediately said: "Take me to see him quickly!"

Seeing Li Tai so excited, Zhao Yongguo couldn't help but flash a hint of joy in his eyes, so he hurriedly led Li Tai and his party to the palace. In front of a palace, a coffin was placed, and Dugu Xin's body was buried inside.

It was the middle of winter and the weather was extremely cold. Dugu Xin's body in the coffin was well preserved. Li Tai looked down and saw that his face was still recognizable, but there were traces of burns on his beard and hair, and there were still burns on his shoulders and back. He should have been covered by his body by his subordinates, but he still died of suffocation.

Huangfu Mu and others all cried and bowed around the coffin, while Zhao Yongguo whispered about how he used his position to preserve Dugu Xin's body and used other burned bodies to deal with the demands of the Chinese and foreign governments.

Dugu Xin's murder was indeed heartbreaking, but the fact that his body could be preserved was somewhat of a comfort to the living. Hearing Zhao Yongguo's praise, Li Tai looked at him and nodded and said, "Zhao Yongguo, you are very good. The Grand Marshal's funeral was honorable, thanks to you. There is no need to mention the old things before, and there will be a big reward for this matter!"

Zhao Yongguo kowtowed again and again to thank him after hearing this. In fact, this matter was not his father's advice. Since he was sent to the silkworm room, his father has been very indifferent to him and even did not allow him to use the surname "Yi Fu". He also took a big risk to operate this matter before, and now it seems that he has won the gamble.

Next, Li Tai immediately prepared the secret weapon of Dongyuan and sent it here, and Dugu Xin's body was embalmed and transported back to Tongzhou City.

After Dugu Xin was killed, Zhongwaifu sent people to Chang'an to capture his children and family members. Li Mu sent someone to inform him and he was able to escape from the capital under the escort of his followers, crossing the Qinling Mountains to Hanzhong in the south. It would take some time to return to Tongzhou. Before that, some related matters could only be handled by Li Tai, the son-in-law.

Li Tai's mood was also very complicated for Dugu Xin's death. In addition to sadness and anger, he was also helpless. He had sent people to tell Dugu Xin more than once that it was better to stay still when the situation changed drastically. Instead of taking risks when he was not in an advantageous position internally, it was better to wait for him to deal with the problem more strongly externally.

However, Dugu Xin's background and experience determined that even if he had some reliance and trust in Li Tai, he would never listen to a younger generation. Because their generation of soldiers was trying to get opportunities to move forward in the constant turmoil, which was like a gambler who kept winning. It was difficult to convince him to give up a situation that seemed to be a sure win.

So Dugu Xin had such an end, and a considerable part of it was due to his own personality and experience. It is not uncommon for some masters who think they are experienced to fall into the hands of some young people who do not follow the moral code of martial arts. Li Tai won several times like this, but Yuwen Jue was more imaginative and illogical than him.

When Li Tai escorted Dugu Xin's body back to his old residence in Tongzhou City, Zhao Gui also rushed over after hearing the news and took the initiative to ask Li Tai to take charge of the preparations for Dugu Xin's funeral.

In the six-official system reformed and implemented this year, Zhao Gui served as the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan, which was in charge of the various ceremonies of the country, and the funeral affairs of the ministers were also within his authority. Therefore, Zhao Gui's request was not purely a show of courtesy, but an exercise of his authority.

However, the six-official system was originally a far-fetched product, and from the beginning of its creation, it was not intended to reform the system to be more reasonable, but to highlight the authority of the hegemony under the name of respecting the ancient and restoring the rituals, so its structure itself was not without roughness and omissions.

For example, one of the reasons why Yuwen Jue was able to make such a fuss in the Chinese and Foreign Affairs Office this time was that Yu Wentai had hastily implemented the reform of the six-official system.

Even if the Chinese and Foreign Governments and the imperial court, which were originally under his control, had some personnel incoordination due to reforms, they could still follow the inertia of past political traditions to cover up the past. However, Yu Wenjue's methods were rough, and Li Zhi and others had ulterior motives. This resulted in the entire Chinese Foreign Affairs Office becoming their one-man show, and other personnel structures were completely insufficient to form any restrictions and corrections on them.

Therefore, Li Tai did not even accept the appointment of Otsuka Zai before, and it was not because of modesty. If he did not do it, he would not let others do it. When the current chaos has a little clue, he will tell the court to abolish the six-official system. Of course, we will not follow the rules of the Six Officials System to arrange any personnel tasks at the moment, especially Zhao Gui, the eldest uncle, who has a false position. He knows nothing about etiquette!

Therefore, Li Tai directly rejected Zhao Gui's request and asked him to stay cool for now. Instead, he asked the emperor to temporarily appoint Lu Bian as Taichang Qing, responsible for managing the funerals of several ministers in the country.

Not only Yuwentai and his son, Duguxin, but also generals such as Wang Xiong who died in Heluo, the court also needed to send ceremonial officers to assist each of their families in holding funerals, including appropriate posthumous honors and other matters that also needed to be discussed.

Although there were no more chaotic battles after Li Tai returned, the previous Chinese and Foreign Affairs Office was in an unusual state of chaos and came to a complete standstill, and it was not easy to put these personnel chaos back in order.

Of course, Li Tai will not retain the original personnel structure of the Sino-Foreign Mansion. However, before forming his own Bafu team, the first thing to solve is the issue of armament.

Previously, the Chinese and foreign government reorganized the troops that could still be dispatched and controlled. Some of the government soldiers who participated in river defense and the Chang'an Forbidden Army were reorganized together.

But this so-called reorganization only broke up the original organizational structure, and the new organization did not take into account various needs such as battles. There were even two or more generals in one camp and one team. Fortunately for this kind of reorganization, they stayed in Tongzhou and did not move. If they really had to go out to fight, they would probably be disorganized within a few days of leaving the camp.

However, Li Tai does not intend to restore it to the original state after this kind of reorganization, but to make more detailed and effective changes based on the existing reorganization.

Because he had no intention of continuing to maintain the Liufang Forbidden Army. The personnel relations within the Forbidden Army were complicated, and he had some experience. He had previously arranged for family generals such as Li Xiaoyong to enter the Forbidden Army system in order to develop other businesses around the capital.

The Forbidden Army system has become a trash can, and the combat effectiveness of the Liufang Forbidden Army is also very worrying. Relying on these people to carry out palace guards and control the court, he might as well directly assign the responsibilities of guards to the soldiers who had completed the land transfer in Xiangyang, and directly establish a system of guards assigned to the soldiers.

In addition to this mixed and chaotic team, there is also a team led by Hou Mo and Chen Chong in the Weinan area. Originally, Hou Mo and Chen Chong were only stationed in Weinan. However, under the influence of the Zhongwai Mansion, he directly pushed his troops to Shangluo and confronted the Xiangyang troops who entered Wuguan on the upper reaches of Danshui River.

It is precisely because of Hou Mo and Chen Chong's blockade that the team that Li Tai arranged previously failed to effectively deter the behavior of the Chinese and Foreign Affairs Office. Therefore, Hou Mo and Chen Chong also need to bear a certain degree of responsibility for the personnel chaos in the Chinese and Foreign Affairs Palace. .

Therefore, after a preliminary understanding of the relevant situation, Li Tai immediately ordered the former Sino-Foreign Affairs Bureau Secretary Ma Daxi to inform Hou Mo Chen Chong, asking him to quickly abandon the army and return to the court before the New Year to await sanctions, otherwise he would be punished as treason. .

In addition, the personnel chaos in the Chinese and Foreign Governments in the past period, coupled with the transfer of power in the Overlord Government, will inevitably have a certain impact and influence on various states, counties and other local forces.

Therefore, after the internal situation became slightly stable, Li Tai, in the name of the commander-in-chief of the Chinese and foreign military forces, ordered the governors of various prefectures and counties to come to the court to report their duties. If it was inconvenient for them to come to the court due to the busy military and political affairs in the country, they would need to send the chief historian and other sergeants. Enter the court on behalf of others.

Suddenly rising from a prince to a ruling tycoon, and taking over a mess with chaotic personnel, it was also a big challenge for Li Tai.

But like all people with aspirations and ambitions, these numerous personnel challenges did not deter him, but instead made him full of high morale.

The military power here in Tongzhou was sorted out, and the soldiers of the battalions were either disbanded and returned home, or transferred elsewhere. Then Li Tai led the civil and military officials back to Chang'an from the emperor. After the New Year, when the internal and external situation became more stable, he began to in-depth Fight chaos and correct mistakes.