Chapter 1217: Dividing the Internal and External

Chapter 1217: Dividing the Internal and External

Many things in the world, even if there are traces of what happened, still make people feel unreasonable and unbelievable after they become facts.

A more famous event is that Empress Dowager Hu of the Northern Wei Dynasty poisoned her son Emperor Xiaoming Yuanxu in an attempt to keep in charge of the government. As a result, Erzhu Rong led his army to Luoyang, which led to the tragedy of the Heyin Incident. Empress Dowager Ling, who did this stupid thing, not only killed herself, but also dragged the entire Northern Wei Dynasty into a quagmire of complete chaos, and never struggled to get ashore.

Li Tai made many assumptions and arrangements for the Southern Chen Dynasty, but even with his broad thinking, he still couldn't imagine that after the death of Chen Baxian, the situation in the Southern Chen Dynasty would change in a way that he couldn't imagine even if he scratched his head.

This is certainly not a problem of his intelligence and imagination. No matter how smart he is, his thoughts and ideas are all within the scope of normal people's thinking, but the change caused by the conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in the Southern Chen Dynasty is really not something that normal logic and reason can imagine.

The idea of ​​the Queen Mother Zhang of the Southern Chen Dynasty to teach her son in front of the coffin completely disrupted the expectation that the personnel situation could be smoothly transitioned after Chen Baxian's death, and the whole situation went into an uncontrollable state.

When the Southern Chen messenger arrived in Guanzhong, the news of the change in the Southern Chen Dynasty came from Liyang. The reason why the news came so quickly was that shortly after Chen Chang, the heir of the Southern Chen Dynasty, ascended to the throne, the connection between the palace and Taicheng was cut off, and Chen Chang's officials in the Eastern Palace could no longer contact Chen Chang. Combined with the previous appointment of the Chen Qian brothers, no matter how slow they were, they could have thought of the chaos.

If the Chen Qian brothers took advantage of this to seize the military and political power of the Southern Chen Dynasty, then whether they left Chen Chang as a puppet or sent Chen Chang directly to his father, the officials in the Eastern Palace who were Chen Chang's confidants and minions would inevitably be purged, so these people reported the relevant situation to Liyang as soon as possible. When Liyang learned that the situation was so serious, they naturally did not dare to neglect it and sent the news to Guanzhong in a few days.

After learning about this, Li Tai felt very amused, but he was not too nervous. With the various personnel arrangements he had made for the Southern Chen in recent years, it would be difficult to make any substantial breakthroughs and reversals even when Chen Baxian was in power. Even if the Chen Qian brothers came to power, it would be difficult to change the situation.

The occurrence of this incident was just a little beyond his expectations, and he immediately began to think about countermeasures.

At present, his basic strategy for the Southern Chen is to support Chen Chang to maintain the stability of the situation in Jiangdong, and wait until the unification of the north is completed, and then concentrate on annexing and unifying the Jiangnan region.

Under the influence of various factors such as the comparison of power among countries and the overall geography, this rhythm of thinking will not change. Therefore, for the changes in the Southern Chen, the first thing to seek is to get it back on track.

If the situation derailed too seriously, we should try our best to retain some personnel elements that are still under control. If necessary, we can directly send troops to take over Jiangzhou and other places that were already unstable under the control of Southern Chen, and further reduce its power.

So Li Tai summoned Chen Tanlang, the nephew of Chen Baxian, who had come to Guanzhong as a hostage, to Shangyang Palace to inform him of Chen Baxian's death and the changes in Southern Chen.

The amount of information in these news was so large that Chen Tanlang was stunned for a long time after listening to it, and then he covered his face and cried: "How cruel to my family! The last farewell turned out to be a farewell forever..."

Li Tai was very patient, and waited until Chen Tanlang's crying gradually weakened and his emotions calmed down a little before he spoke again: "The death of the Lord of Chen is indeed a grief to those who hear it, but his heroic spirit is not far away, and your country's successor was seized by You and Zongfan, which is even more outrageous. Chen Lang heard Can you bear this?"

"This, this... I have been away from my hometown for a long time and I don't know what's going on there. But, but if there is really a traitor who dares to do this, then I... I lost my parents when I was young, and I was raised by my uncle. I am called the youngest son, but I am no different from my own son. If anyone dares to subvert my country, I will never coexist with him!"

Chen Tanlang still had some reservations about the one-sided words of the King of Tang. In his opinion, his cousin Chen Qian was also extremely respectful to his uncle Chen Baxian, and he should not dare to do this. But seeing that the King of Tang was so sure, he would not cheat a mere hostage with his status.

Chen Tanlang was extremely entangled for a while, and could only say that he would never compromise with such a thing. If there was really chaos, he must do his best to correct it.

Li Tai wanted Chen Tanlang to have this kind of attitude. After hearing his statement, he said, "Whatever power and disturbances in Jiangdong are all internal affairs of your Chen family, and outsiders should not interfere. But I have been friends with Lord Chen for a long time, and he has often entrusted his children to me. Now the successor of the Chen family is even my son-in-law, but now he is being held captive by the powerful vassal. No matter what, I should not sit idly by.

But if I rashly question you, I am afraid that your people will misunderstand that I am bullying you, and I will be used by those with ulterior motives. Creating public opinion, destroying the alliance between the two countries, and even going to war. This is really not what I want. Fortunately, Chen Lang is a guest here, and you can use your mouthpiece to convey my thoughts to Jiangdong. Now I ask you to return to the country as soon as possible and declare your feelings for me. Although the Chen Lord has passed away, the successor is still there. The evil purple has taken over the red, which is unacceptable to heaven! "

"The king allows me to return to the country?"

Although he was in a state of confusion due to the news of his uncle's death and the civil strife in his family, when he heard that the King of Tang allowed him to return to Jiangdong, Chen Tanlang still couldn't help showing a look of surprise.

Although he was treated well in Guanzhong, he was a prince of the royal family in Jiangdong, and he also held military and political power and was in charge of a region. That feeling was naturally not comparable to that of a hostage living under someone else's roof.

"The situation in Jiangdong is unpredictable now. If Chen Lang returns lightly, he will probably be deeply trapped in it and unable to extricate himself. I will arrange for you to go to Huainan first and ask about the situation by the river. There are our elite soldiers and brave generals there to help you. If the situation deteriorates and you must use the sword, then Chen Lang, remember that you are not alone!"

Li Tai certainly did not want Chen Chang to be a shrewd and capable successor to the Southern Chen, but he was more or less disappointed that the situation was overturned so easily.

If the Chen Qian brothers were really bold enough to do something to Chen Chang, then Chen Tanlang was a backup plan he arranged to help him stand up in Huainan and confront Jiangdong. If the situation has not deteriorated to that point, then Chen Tanlang is an arrangement to check and balance the Chen Qian brothers.

Because this incident happened too suddenly, the response must be timely. After communicating with Chen Tanlang, Li Tai sent his entourage to Huainan. At the same time, he sent a message to Shi Ning, who had previously served in Yingzhou, asking him to reorganize the land and water troops in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River for combat readiness, and if necessary, to go downstream by boat and car to put pressure on Jiankang.

When the Western Wei dispatched personnel and prepared to intervene because of the changes in the Southern Chen, the Jiankang City of the Southern Chen was also in chaos.

With the Queen Mother's edict, appointing the brothers of the King of Linchuan to take charge of the internal and external military affairs, the situation in Jiankang City suddenly changed. Although the original Crown Prince Chen Chang served before and after the medicine, he also had his own set of East Palace team to assist him in governing the country, and he still had control over the personnel of the outer court.

However, after taking office as the Zhongshu Jian, the King of Shixing, Chen Xu immediately ordered the dismissal of the officials who governed the country, and did not allow them to stay in the center.

Yin Buhai and others were unwilling to be controlled by others. They actively wrote to the emperor to defend themselves and repeatedly requested that the successor king meet with the ministers. At the same time, they passed the relevant news to the outside world, hoping that Wu Mingche and others in Jiangbei could voice their support for the successor king.

This series of actions naturally made Chen Xu even more disgusted. He first sent Cai Jingli, the secretary of the Central Secretariat, to lobby Yin Buhai, Cai Daye and others. As a result, several people were still unwilling to sit in the palace of the successor king and insisted on fighting. So Chen Xu simply put them all in prison for leaking the secrets of the central government.

When seeing that all these officials of the Eastern Palace were severely punished, there was no more voice in the court opposing and questioning the ruling of the two kings. Originally, there were few people in the Southern Dynasty, and most of those who stayed in Jiankang were people who had experienced the Hou Jing pseudo-court, and they could not say that they had any strength and ambition. Now that the Chen family has been established for more than two years, it is really impossible to cultivate any loyal and upright ministers who would sacrifice their lives for the king.

However, the key to the two kings' smooth control of the situation in the capital was that the imperial guards in the capital did not make any questioning or opposition.

Although Du Ling, the commander of the Central Army, was also Chen Baxian's founding entourage, he was almost strangled last year because he opposed Chen Baxian's sneak attack on Wang Sengbian. Since then, although he has continued to perform his duties, he is no longer as upright and honest as before. Faced with this situation, he also chose to protect himself and obey the order of the empress dowager to cooperate with the two kings.

As for other imperial army generals, most of them were completely incapable of making their own voices in such a change, and the middle and lower-level soldiers were generally somewhat alienated and unfamiliar with the successor Chen Chang. Only Wei Zai, who served as the prince's right guard and was in charge of the Eastern Palace Guards, was immediately transferred from this position because he refused to obey the adjustment of the Eastern Palace Guards by King Shixing.

As for Zhao Zhili, who was also in charge of military affairs, and Cai Jingli, the secretary of the Central Secretariat, who was in charge of imperial edicts and internal and external communications, they also obeyed the orders of the two kings one after another. For a time, Chen Qian was in charge of the city, and Chen Xu was in charge of the central book and the control of the city. No one in the capital dared to disobey the two kings.

The brothers were able to do this, and they relied on more than just the edict of the empress dowager. Regardless of the edict of the empress dowager, Chen Qian had a pivotal position in the Southern Chen Kingdom. With his entry into the court at such a time, some Yuancong Gongshi would naturally approach him.

The edict of the empress dowager only brought to light many personnel disputes and surging undercurrents that were bound to occur in the court in the future.