Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 321 Xuzhou Slaughter Knife
"My dear brothers, today's breakfast is our final farewell dinner!"

"Everyone, eat more meat and drink less... Of course! The brothers of Changshandu and Wuning Army can drink more, after all, we don't have to hurry!"

"Hahahahaha..."

On the eighth day of April, as the sun rose high, in the camp in front of Dapeng Posthouse, Wang Shi was chatting and laughing cheerfully with the generals of Xuanwu Army, Huainan Army, Changshan Army, Wuning Army and others.

Everyone burst into laughter, and Wang Shi no longer hesitated, and immediately waved his hand and said, "Serve the food!"

The breakfast that had been prepared since the morning hour was served. Stewed, roasted and other cooked beef, mutton, chicken and duck were placed on the table. Jars of rice wine were placed not far away.

"I spent a lot of effort to bring this rice wine. There are eight hundred jars."

"Brothers from the Xuanwu Army and Huainan Army, please don't drink. Brothers from Changshandu, just drink some rice wine. Brothers from the Wuning Army, just look at your own capacity!"

Wang Shi said this with a smile, and Wang Mingyi and other Wuning Army generals who were sitting in their seats responded with a chuckle.

In the past three days, Wang Shi invited Wang Mingyi and the generals of the Wuning Army to the camp for banquets every day.

At the beginning, Wang Mingyi and his men were very vigilant, and most of the soldiers they led were wearing armor.

But after three days, seeing that the Xuanwu Army and the Huainan Army were about to leave, Wang Mingyi and others gradually put their minds at ease and no longer worried about their own safety.

Today, even though Wang Shi did not allow them to drink, they still put the rice wine on the fire and slowly boiled it.

When the generals of the Xuanwu Army and the Huainan Army saw this, they all swallowed their saliva.

The generals and soldiers of Changshan Du looked at the rice wine in their hands and suddenly felt that it was not fragrant anymore.

"General Ji, this rice wine we..."

Zhao Qian and others showed strong desire and seemed to want a share of the rice wine.

Wang Shi comforted him by saying, "You will have more of this rice wine in the future. Let the brothers of Wuning Army have a taste first. When the imperial salary is paid, I will buy more rice wine to reward you."

The price of rice wine is high, Zhao Qian and others were disappointed when they heard it, and some even looked at Wang Shi with cold faces.

However, facing their cold faces, Wang Shi was only concerned with urging Wang Mingyi and others from the Wuning Army to drink.

Some generals and soldiers of the Wuning Army even looked at Zhao Qian and others provocatively, causing a look of frustration to gradually appear on everyone's faces.

Wang Mingyi and others looked at each other upon seeing this, their eyes filled with contempt for Wang Shi.

After three rounds of drinking, the generals and soldiers of the Silver Sword Army gradually became domineering.

This time, Wang Mingyi brought more than 3,000 soldiers from Xuzhou out of the city to see them off, but as they got drunk, many soldiers took off their armor and drank heavily because they disliked the hot outdoor environment.

The Xuanwu Army and the Huainan Army were dressed neatly as they were about to set out.

"If you ask me, you should just disband this so-called Changshan and incorporate it into our Silver Sword Army..."

"What the hell did you say?!"

At the dinner table, General Silver Knife, who had always looked down on Wang Shi and Changshandu, couldn't help but start to tease them, but this caused several generals from Changshandu to slam the table in anger.

"Damn it, you wanna fight?!"

"Come on, I'll keep you company!"

"I thought you guys were as brave as the rumors said, but after watching you guys for the past few days, I find you are just good-for-nothings!"

Faced with the protests of several Changshan Du generals, the generals with silver swords, spears, and horses in the Wuning army stood up one after another and demoted Changshan Du to the dust.

"What are you doing?!"

Wang Shi slammed the table and stood up, which sobered Wang Mingyi up a little and he subconsciously put his hand on the hilt of the knife at his waist.

The generals of the Wuning Army around them also did the same. For a moment, the atmosphere was tense, as if a fight was about to break out.

What everyone didn't expect was that Wang Shi actually scolded several generals from Changshandu: "Today is a farewell banquet, why are you making such a fuss?!"

"But Marshal Jie, I..."

Several people wanted to explain, but were interrupted by Wang Shi: "If you can't drink, don't drink. Take your people to patrol the camp!"

"Jie Shuai..."

"Get out!" Wang Shi threw the clay bowl to the ground. Seeing this, the Changshan generals could only glare at the Wuning Army angrily and then left the main table.

"Okay, now that the spoilsport has gone, let's move on!"

Wang Shi picked up another ceramic bowl, poured himself a bowl of wine, and raised the bowl while saying, "I'll apologize first!"

"General, I think it's time for us to break camp and set off."

"That's right, that's right..."

More than ten generals from the Huainan and Xuanwu armies stood up. Wang Shi was disappointed when he saw this and said, "Forget it, all good things must come to an end. Go ahead and I'll see you off."

"Yes……"

The generals of the two armies nodded one after another. Wang Shi smiled and looked at Wang Mingyi: "Mingtai (father's name), I'll send them off and come back soon. I'll owe you the apology wine first..."

"No problem, no problem. Please go and send the person off first." Wang Mingyi smiled, with a hint of disdain hidden in his smile.

Faced with their disdain, Wang Shi seemed not to notice it and left with a nod and a bow.

After they walked away, several Silver Sword Army generals mocked him, "Look at how timid he is."

"Hmph, wait until the Xuanwu Army and the Huainan Army are far away, then we can take action."

As everyone was talking, Wang Mingyi lowered his head and drank the rice wine with a slight smile on his lips.

He glanced around the camp with a dazed look in his eyes, and gradually realized that something was wrong.

How come they were the only ones left in the camp without them noticing?

"Something's wrong!"

Wang Mingyi suddenly stood up, and the generals of the Wuning Army were startled by him.

"Sanlang, what's wrong?"

The generals of the Wuning Army looked at him in surprise, and most of them were sober now.

"Where are their people?!"

Wang Mingyi questioned everyone, and they looked at each other, unable to answer the questions as they were drunk.

"go!"

Wang Mingyi gritted his teeth and gave the order, while walking out quickly.

Upon seeing this, the generals of the Wuning Army stood up and picked up the armor they had taken off.

Just as they were about to leave the camp, the four gates of the camp were surrounded by the armored and well-armed troops of the Huainan Army, the Zhongwu Army and the Changshan Army.

A rocket was placed on the bow, and Wang Shi loosened the bowstring with a cold look in his eyes.

"put!!"

In an instant, thousands of rockets were fired into the camp, arrows rained down, and countless tents were set on fire in an instant.

"You bastard! You fell into my trap!"

"Push through the armor and rush out!"

"Wang Shi, you bastard, Aye is going to chop off your head!!"

The camp was in chaos. The Wuning soldiers, who were already staggering from drinking, sobered up instantly after seeing the tents around them being set on fire.

"The camp gate is sealed!"

"Bump it open!!"

"The tent is full of wood and kerosene!"

"boom--"

The kerosene exploded, and more than 3,000 Wuning soldiers tried to rush out of the camp, but they could not break down the camp gate.

Some guards leaned their carts against the camp wall and tried to climb out of the camp, but they were greeted by countless crossbow arrows.

The power of Que Zhangnu is enough to knock them down even if it cannot kill them.

The fire continued to burn and the camp gate was constantly hit.

"help me!"

"We surrender, save people!!"

Scary screams continued to ring out, but Wang Shi, Wang She, Zhao Qian and others did not respond, but just kept firing rockets into the camp.

The air was filled with the smell of wood ash and even a faint aroma of meat.

The fire soared into the sky, and even the camp walls several feet high could not stop it from appearing in front of the soldiers of Changshan Du, Zhongwu Army and Xuanwu Army.

"Bang! Bang—"

"kill!!"

Suddenly, a gate of the camp was pushed open and countless figures rushed out.

"Beep--"

The wooden whistle sounded, and the soldiers of Changshandu had already formed a formation to surround the camp gate. When the group of people rushed out of the camp, countless crossbow arrows shot at them.

The spear formation formed by the two-meter-long spears knocked down the Wuningya soldiers who tried to break through, and they finally died at the hands of the Changshandu soldiers whom they once looked down upon.

From noon to dusk, when only a few ruins were left in the camp, all the more than 3,000 soldiers stationed in Pengcheng, including those with silver swords, gate spears, and horses, were killed.

"Marshal Jie, we checked and there is no one alive!"

Wang She and Zhao Qian came to report after inspection, and behind them, the camp gate was piled with corpses as high as a hill.

Facing these corpses, Wang Shi was calm and composed: "Inform the three armies. The Wuning Army has repeatedly disobeyed orders. I am following your orders to suppress them."

"All three armies will divide their forces to encircle and suppress the rebellion in Xuzhou, Sizhou, Suzhou, Haozhou and other counties. Eliminate all the evil!"

"The last general takes orders!!"

Wang She and Zhao Qian quickly responded, and the generals of the Zhongwu Army and Huainan Army not far away also bowed in response from a distance.

Soon, Wang She led his army to capture Pengcheng first, and then began to search for the guards in Xu and Si.

The guards in Xiaoxian and Xiapi near Pengcheng were caught off guard, but all those who were captured were executed.

A small number of guards escaped from Xuzhou and spread the news that Wang Mingyi and more than 3,000 other Silver Knife soldiers had been killed.

Without Wang Mingyi, the guards in the Xu and Si areas fled into the countryside or joined the bandits on Longji Mountain.

In less than half a month, more than 3,600 guardsmen in the Xu and Si areas were killed, and more than 1,000 state soldiers were killed. In addition, many officials who colluded with the Silver Knife Army were also brutally dealt with by Wang Shi.

Wang Shi's memorials flew to Chang'an like catkins, making the originally depressed Emperor Li Yi happy. "Good, good, good... I really did not make a mistake in using Wang Shi!"

In the Purple Palace, Li Yi, who rarely convened a regular court session, laughed heartily, and more than 200 officials in the palace also smiled.

Of course, they were happy not only because they had solved the problem of the Wuning Army, but more because the emperor came to court because of this and they could finally see the emperor.

"Your Majesty, there are still thousands of fleeing soldiers in Xuzhou. They should be hunted down and executed!"

Seeing someone making a suggestion, Li Yi looked at the right time and saw that it was Gao Qu (qú), the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War.

Li Yi remembered this person. He used to be an aide to Bai Minzhong and had some knowledge of military strategies.

Thinking of this, he was about to agree when he saw another person come out and bow, saying, "Your Majesty, I think this is inappropriate!"

Li Yi looked over and saw Lu Yan, who was also the Minister of War, objecting: "Your Majesty, the deserters of Yin Dao and other troops were only deceived by the generals and did not intend to cause chaos."

"I think it would be better to order Envoy Wang to execute the leaders of the rebels instead of hunting down the deserters."

Li Yi frowned and asked tentatively, "What if these deserters cause chaos?"

"Your Majesty, I think this group of deserters has lost their leader and will become a headless fly."

"If the imperial court were to hunt them down, it would only arouse their ferocity. If someone like Wang Shouwen or Wu Wei were to emerge among them, the harm would be even greater."

"If the imperial court stops hunting down deserters, they will naturally scatter and return home, and there will be no more power..."

Lu Yan was thirty-six years old, and his remarks made Li Yi nod repeatedly.

Gao Qu was dissatisfied and said immediately: "Your Majesty, I think Xu and Si are important routes for grain transport, and all deserters should be hunted down and executed."

"In addition, we should order Envoy Wang to use Changshandu as the base and train elite troops to guard Xu and Si..."

"Ridiculous!" Lu Yan retorted coldly, while bowing to Li Yi:
"Your Majesty, the Silver Sword Army expanded its army with a base of 2,000 men in the past, and then threatened Xu and Si."

"If we expand the army based on Changshandu, it would be nothing more than training another Silver Sword Army."

"I think that the Wuning Army should be abolished and the military governor of the Wuning Army should be changed to the Xusi Tuanlianshi, with a fixed number of soldiers of 2,000."

Lu Yan spoke eloquently and Gao Qu argued with him, but Li Yi, the emperor, was thinking about other things.

In his opinion, the imperial court's finances were already in trouble. If they followed Lu Yan's suggestion to pacify the Wuning Army, they could save at least 7,000 military salaries in the Xuzhou and Sizhou areas.

The military pay for 7,000 men may not seem like much, but upon careful calculation it is nearly 160,000 strings of cash.

If these 160,000 strings of cash could be saved, that would naturally be the best. But if the Jiedushi of Wuning Army was changed to the Commander of Xusi Military Region, what would happen to Wang Shi?
Thinking of this, Li Yi couldn't help but ask: "If the Wuning Army is downgraded to a militia, how will Envoy Wang deal with it?"

Wang Shi was transferred to Wuning Army as a Jiedushi, which could be considered a lateral transfer. But if he was demoted to the Wuning Army Guard, wouldn't that be a disguised demotion of Wang Shi's official position?
Faced with this question, Lu Yan was not nervous and bowed respectfully:

"Wang Shi is quite talented. Why don't we transfer him to the capital and give him the title of Left Jinwu General to inspect the city for a while before sending him out?"

The Left Jinwu General was an official title bestowed upon a military official or demoted to a lesser official position.

It would not be a bad idea to recall Wang Shi from this idle position and then send him to another post after observing his character.

Thinking of this, Li Yi looked at Pei Xiu and asked, "What do you think, Prime Minister Pei?"

"I think that we should eradicate all evil..."

Pei Xiu obviously did not agree with changing the Wuning Army into a militia, and he even more disagreed with transferring Wang Shi to the capital to observe in an idle position.

Seeing that Pei Xiu disagreed, Li Yi immediately looked at Jiang Shen and Bi Zhen. As a result, he realized that Bi Zhen did not come to the court.

"Is Prime Minister Bi resigned?"

Li Yi asked, and Jiang Shen explained: "Prime Minister Bi has been on sick leave at home since mid-February..."

"On sick leave?" Li Yi frowned. He did not believe that Bi Zhen was on sick leave. After all, when Bi Zhen contradicted him before, he was full of energy.

"Is this guy pretending to be sick to show his displeasure because I didn't listen to his advice?"

Li Yi didn't know why he thought so, but he felt that this possibility was not small, so his face couldn't help but look a little ugly.

"Humph!" He snorted coldly, then looked at Lu Yan and said:

"Since Prime Minister Bi is on sick leave, then the affairs of the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Court will be temporarily handled by Minister Lu!"

"I accept the decree!"

Lu Yan never expected to receive the emperor's favor for no reason, and other officials in the temple also cast envious glances at him.

"It seems that the emperor not only supports Lu Luzhan, but also intends to let Lu Luzhan replace Bi Cunzhi..."

For a time, all the ministers thought so, and although Pei Xiu, Jiang Shen, Gao Qu and others were dissatisfied, they did not dare to express it.

"Let Minister Lu handle the matter of Xu and Si!"

"I obey your order..."

Li Yi decided on the matter of Xu Si, and Lu Yan also hurriedly bowed to receive the order.

It was just that he had just received the order when a voice rang out from outside the Purple Palace: "Your Majesty, urgent news from the Eastern Capital..."

"Xuan!"

Li Yi read the urgent report without hesitation. Soon, Tian Yun walked up to the golden platform with the urgent report in both hands and presented it to Li Yi.

Li Yi opened it and quickly read the contents, his face turning grim.

"Your Majesty, may I ask what the urgent report is?"

Pei Xiu saw that Li Yi's face looked strange, so he stepped forward and asked.

Seeing this, Li Yi said with an unpleasant expression:

"Emergency report from Dongdu: Floods have hit Dongdu, Xuzhou, and Ruzhou, and hundreds of thousands of crops have been damaged."

"This……"

Upon hearing this, the ministers looked at each other in bewilderment, unable to believe that a disaster had just struck them after they had announced a happy event.

"Your Majesty, the most urgent task right now is to provide relief to the victims and exempt the affected areas from taxes."

Pei Xiu quickly came up with a plan. Li Yi nodded and then looked at Lu Yan: "Let Minister Lu handle this matter."

"I accept the decree..."

Lu Yan accepted the order, and the officials around him looked at him differently.

Compared with the older Pei Xiu, Bi Zhen, Jiang Shen and others, Lu Yan, who entered the Menxia Province at the age of 36, obviously became the candidate that the emperor tried to train.

If Lu Yan can pass the test, he will probably become one of the prime ministers in the future, and his status is self-evident.

For a time, many officials began to think about how to get closer to him, and Li Yi saw all their performance.

Li Yi was indeed thinking about training officials who could replace Pei Xiu and others, and Lu Yan was indeed one of his target candidates, but if Lu Yan could not resist the temptation, then he would naturally not choose that route.

Thinking of this, Lu Yan suddenly bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I have something else to report!"

"Approved!" After Li Yi reacted, he approved his remarks lightly.

Seeing this, Lu Yan immediately said: "The Uighurs were originally subjects of the imperial court, but the Ganzhou Uighurs and Liangzhou Umos are plotting to seize the imperial court's Liangzhou land, so it is natural for Longyou and Hexi Town to send troops to expel them."

"However, the Western Region Uighurs have always been respectful to the imperial court. However, Longyou and Hexi sent troops to seize the Western Region Uighur land, which really brought shame to the imperial court. I think..."

"I'm afraid there's something wrong with what Minister Lu said!"

Before Lu Yan could finish his words, Zhang Yichao couldn't help but interrupt him.

He had wanted to keep a low profile in Chang Chao, but now Lu Yan brought the topic to Helong, so he had to stand up.

"His Majesty!"

Facing Lu Yan's accusation, Zhang Yichao bowed to Emperor Li Yi and said, "My nephew Huaishen was originally appointed as the Deputy Protector of Anxi by the late emperor, and the late emperor mentioned in his imperial edict that my nephew Huaishen should lead troops to recapture Xizhou."

"My nephew Huai Shen's actions were instructed by the late emperor, and were not an act of provoking a border conflict without authorization."

"What's more, the Western Regions originally belonged to the imperial court, but were taken away by Tubo in the past."

"Now that we can recover the lost territory, it should be a happy event. However, the Uighurs in the Western Regions are just like the Hou Jing people. It is good enough that the court allows them to graze horses in the Tianshan Mountains. How dare they claim that the Western Regions are their land?"

Zhang Yichao was also helpless. Everyone with a discerning eye in the court knew that the situation the court was facing now was not good. The issues such as the refugees from Guandong and the Ministry of Revenue were the most important issues.

In this situation, how foolish would it be to not resolve these important issues but instead care about the Western Regions thousands of miles away?

Obviously, Lu Yan felt that the emperor had mentioned several times that he would pacify Helong, so he wanted to take this opportunity to show off.

Not only Zhang Yichao noticed this, but Pei Xiu, Jiang Shen and others also noticed it. Although Li Yi was slow, he gradually reacted.

Honestly speaking, if possible, he still wanted to pacify Helong and resolve the "worries" in Guanzhong.

But the situation was like this. Ever since he learned about the Shence Army, he had lost the courage to defeat Liu Jilian.

In a situation where the Shence Army was useless, the cost of defeating Liu Jilian became very high, so he had not mentioned Longyou at all in the past six months, just to let the matter go.

Although Lu Yan was expressing his opinion for his own sake, he misunderstood Li Yi, which made him a little unhappy.

After calming down, Li Yi said calmly:

"The matter in the Western Regions was indeed approved by the late emperor."

"The Uighurs in the Western Regions are not receptive to the king's teachings, and they even protected the rebels Dulun Xijia and Xiali who invaded Liangzhou. They should be suppressed."

"Zhang Duhu's recovery of Xizhou was a great achievement, not a fault."

"Pass on my order to allocate 20,000 pieces of silk from the treasury to reward the Hexi Guiyi Army and take them to Weizhou."

"Okay, I'm tired too, let's adjourn the court!"

After he finished speaking, Li Yi turned around and walked down the golden platform, while Zhang Yichao, Pei Xiu and others all breathed a sigh of relief.

They had already seen from the emperor's attitude that he no longer had any hope of pacifying Helong.

The only thing that could make the emperor change from his original radicalism to his current calmness is that the eunuchs in the Northern Department used the number of soldiers in the Shen Ce Army to collect empty salaries and eat fictitious wages.

"Retreat!"

"Tens of millions of years old..."

Amid the chanting of rituals from the Honglu Temple, more than 200 court officials left the Purple Palace, and Lu Yan also walked out nervously.

He was not stupid. He also felt the emperor's change of attitude towards the Helong issue from his attitude. Therefore, he knew that he had helped the emperor to get into trouble and was worried about being punished.

Fortunately, his worries were unnecessary. Until he walked out of the Purple Palace, no eunuch asked him to stay.

As long as nothing went wrong, he was confident that the emperor would gradually trust him.

Thinking of this, Lu Yan looked at the officials who were leaving the court in groups, and couldn't help feeling a little proud.

"It won't be long before all of you will kowtow before me!"

(End of this chapter)