Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 193 The Great Yao's Chaotic Manipulation

Just as Xuan Chong had predicted from afar, in the last year of the Tianyou calendar, Zhu Dali and the other two regional military governors finally submitted to the Ming Dynasty.

Xuan Chong's side decided to follow the "Tongzheng Calendar" for next year's calendar, because the Wu family army recognized the position of the Tongzheng Emperor.

Although the Wu family and Ningzhou, where Emperor Tongzheng resides, have considerable differences, given Zhenzhou's current strength, there's no need for it to play games with opposing sides. Its public stance only needs to consider what's best for maintaining internal unity.

The political correctness within the samurai faction is "sons succeeding fathers" rather than "brothers succeeding brothers".

Within the Xuanchong Group, whether in the Southern Frontier or the Zhenshui faction, all the favors were bestowed upon Wu Fei, and they all believed that only Wu Fei could take care of the interests of all parties.

As for the other members of the Wu family, they have made contributions under Xuan Chong's leadership over the years that are no less than those of members from other families.

Therefore, the principle of "succession by younger brother upon the death of an elder brother" was absolutely not recognized within the Xuanchong Group.

In other words, if Xuan Chong's expedition were to end unexpectedly, the most important thing for each faction in the region would be who would be in charge of the system for evaluating their own war achievements and merits.

Whether they were members of the Wu family or officers, they all believed that in matters of major importance concerning the distribution of public interests among various factions, only the Wu Furnace could continue the "Wu Yuan Chang" rule.

Interests influence values! So what if Emperor Heming was virtuous? What does that have to do with the Xuan Chong Group?
Within the Xuanchong faction, there was no sign of any "virtuous younger brother" in their own family, nor was there any sign of Wu Lu being muddleheaded. On the contrary, Wu Lu's mother, Wu Yangshi, was quite "virtuous".

Therefore, the stance of the Xuanchong Group on the Emperor's family affairs was very clear at this time.

As for whether Emperor Tongzheng will inherit Emperor Ling's profligate tendencies, many generals said: "Anyway, it's Da Yao's family that's being squandered, not ours."

…Wu Fei and Wu Hengyu eventually separated…

The perspective shifts back to the vicinity of Bohai. After dragging on for ten to fifteen days, Zhu Liqiang and his faction, unable to withstand the pressure from Yaodu, made a "nominal" submission. However, even this "nominal" declaration had already alarmed the powerful families of Bohai.

Throughout Bohai, representatives of the puppet regime petitioned and wrote letters, demanding that the general take charge.

Because Zhu Dali made a statement, he cut off many trade routes, to the point that grain ships that were trading ironware to the south were detained by some officials in Dai County.

Back when Emperor Shu was in power, he categorized the entire Bo region as belonging to the Bo King's faction. With foreign enemies still present in the north, the soldiers, civilians, and people of Bo were systematically abandoned by the emperor!

Later, after the Dongshi Army, which had submitted to Xuanchong, the aristocratic families of Bohai cleaned up their debts and went ashore, while at the same time recovering lost territories and ending the period of abandonment due to war.

There may be internal conflicts among the scholars and merchants in Bohai, but at present they are quite unified in their attitude towards the Da Yao court: Now that we have a strong army, why don't you, Da Yao, come to appease us? Do you want to continue with this back-and-forth? Now you're directly letting the three vassal states bordering Bohai to the south rebel against us? This is outrageous.

At the Caolu system forum hosted by the Bo-di Local Maintenance Association, the scholars concluded after discussions that: originally, Bo-di wanted to recuperate and not get involved in the court's disputes. However, the actions of the pseudo-dynasty in Yaodu were intolerable.

So, after waiting for just a few days, the three southern warlords lost control of the situation and declared their willingness to obey the imperial edict to defend the north, showing no regard for the past friendships.

Wu Hengyu's troops were already in a frenzy, demanding a punitive expedition. In the streets of Huangyu City, everyone who spoke of it called it a false dynasty.

Under Wu Hengyu's conscription, both the southern youths he originally brought with him and the Eastern Market Army faction, as well as the knights who had retired from the Yan region, were now being recruited again.

These guys, whose thigh muscles had grown back after three years of peace, all put on their armor again, brought their servants, and even their teenage nephews, and gathered under Wu Hengyu's command.

The 6,000 soldiers of Bohai were assembled within three days.

…Old friendships, not copied into a new book…

In Dai County, Zhu Jiajun's army was completely unaware of this.

Zhu Liqiang spent five hours each day feasting and watching song and dance performances, then took one or two hours to read letters from other feudal lords within the Great Yao realm, leaving other affairs to his own devices. —At this time, Zhu Liqiang entered a state of closed-mindedness, his knowledge limited only to the accounts of those "willing to write to him." He ignored matters that required his own investigation.

In the words of this old general: "I've fought most of my life, can't I take a break?"

Come to think of it, it makes sense. Marshal Zhu spent the first half of his life on the battlefield, living a life of hardship every day. Now that the foreign enemies have been eliminated, and he has tasted fine wine and delicacies, he suddenly feels that life is too short and he needs to enjoy himself while he can.

Xuan Chong shook his head at this kind of "life value"; retirement is fine, but one must relinquish power.

As for why someone like Zhu Dali doesn't want to relinquish power, Xuan Chong understands perfectly well: it's because he's afraid of loneliness. Having grown accustomed to having many people revolving around him, he'll find the quiet solitude around him extremely unpleasant in his old age.

Zhu Liqiang, who rarely displayed chivalrous spirit, was now quite emotional. His son, Zhu Chong, rushed into the banquet, informing him that the three southern vassal states were jointly pandering to the Ming Emperor, causing discontent among the people of Bohai in the north.

Zhu Liqiang said nonchalantly, "I have already written to Wu Hengyu to explain, and he did not object."

Zhu Chong stared at his father, stunned. Just a few years ago, his father could make clear judgments about the situation, but now he was so muddle-headed.

That was then. When Emperor Xu was alive, the sixteen warlords, although there were instances of betraying each other, did not suffer "friendship wounds" from each other.

However, now both Ningzhou and Yuzhou have sent out proclamations to the world to punish the rebels. Once the troops receive the proclamations, even if they refuse to obey the imperial edict, they are all rebels! Theoretically, each side can start a war immediately.

However, despite his son Zhu Chong's repeated explanations, Zhu Liqiang insisted that he had written a letter to Wu Hengyu and that everything was fine, so he continued to watch the dance performance. (The stubbornness of the elderly, when subjected to forceful persuasion, can turn into a stubborn insistence on saving face and refusing to compromise.)

Zhu Chong and others said: Zhu Liqiang probably confused the former Wu Fei with Wu Hengyu.

Back then, Wu Fei was very polite, always addressing Zhu as "Brother," and always maximizing Zhu's emotional value during conversations. He also gave Zhu face when dividing spoils and discussing credit. But Wu Hengyu was not like that.

…military campaigns…

Three days later, Zhu Dali's cup fell to the ground, and Wu Hengyu led his army to attack directly. Outside the city, the sound of cannons could already be heard.

Wu Hengyu's 6,000-strong army, along with 20,000 laborers, surrounded Dai County. The accompanying celestial boats, equipped with cannons, bombarded the city walls.

Then the dragon horse landed on the various city walls. Because they did not expect to be attacked, Zhu Dali and the other two regional military governors, when they were following Emperor Ming's edict to defend Bohai, all thought that they were just "putting on a show" and that Wu Hengyu would not take action. As a result, the city walls were not prepared for an attack.

After Zhu Liqiang put on his armor again, he thought to himself, "If only I had listened to advice earlier, I wouldn't be in this predicament today." But he didn't say a word.

Under the cover of artillery fire, three hundred men scaled the city wall. Zhu Chong led his troops to meet them, but encountered Wu Hengyu and was killed with a single spear thrust. Zhu Liqiang wept bitterly on the city wall, crying, "My son!"

Wu Hengyu was slightly taken aback, realizing that he had already killed Zhu Dali's offspring. However, he then thought, "You betrayed me first." So, it was a fight to the death. He rushed forward and aimed at Zhu Liqiang. Zhu Liqiang's personal guards stepped forward to stop him, but to no avail. Zhu Liqiang himself was fifteen years older than Wu Hengyu, so naturally he couldn't stop Wu Hengyu.

On the city wall atop the raging flames, Wu Hengyu rose with the wind and finished off Zhu Liqiang with another spear thrust.

The city of Dai County was thus captured, but after entering the city, Wu Hengyu did not let the Zhu family off the hook.

Heeding the advice of his guards and adhering to the principle of eliminating all traces of the Zhu family, Wu Hengyu slaughtered them all. — Had it not been for the well-established slave system of the Eastern Market Army, Wu Hengyu would likely have acted even more drastically in a city he deemed "unmanageable." Drums and gongs resounded through the streets as the Zhu family members, led by ropes, were taken to the execution ground. With the flick of a bamboo scepter, executioners beheaded one person after another.

Wu Hengyu's actions have had a considerable negative impact.

Zhu Liqiang has only been muddle-headed in recent years, but he has always treated his soldiers quite well. Moreover, Zhu Liqiang had a past relationship with the Wu brothers, having worked together to pacify Bo County. Wu Hengyu's ruthlessness has created a chilling effect throughout the forces of Dai County.

Hong Qiang looked at the Zhu family, whose entire clan had been executed, and felt a pang of pity: If Wu Fei were alive, this would never have happened; accidentally killing Zhu Chong was an unavoidable accident. But killing Zhu Liqiang as well was unacceptable.

If Wu Fei were present, he would definitely advise Wu Hengyu to spare his life and then treat this old man well after the battle, at least on the surface.

Xuan Chonghui will provide the elderly man, who has lost his son, with good food and drink, while keeping him under surveillance by the Security Bureau. They plan to move on after they've recruited all the employees from Daijun who were originally associated with Zhu Liqiang. If Zhu Liqiang behaves himself, they'll continue to support this old man; if he wants to contact his former subordinates, they'll just say he's "fallen ill with longing for his son."

Even if Wu Hengyu couldn't control his sword and killed Zhu Liqiang on the battlefield, it wouldn't be impossible. At worst, Wu Yuanchang could lose face and cry in the city, wailing "My old brother!" and shedding a few tears. That would win over a large number of neutrals in Dai County. After all, swords have no eyes on the battlefield, and Zhu Liqiang, as a military general, should be prepared to die on the battlefield if he is not skilled enough.

Wu Hengyu chose to purge the powerless group after his victory. This is the area that Wu Fei couldn't help after he was no longer involved.

…As for the obsession with bottling, there are always valid reasons to pursue it…

Meanwhile, in the Hao Kingdom, Zhao Cheng took further action: he renovated the palace in Xia Prefecture and moved the Hao King there. —The Nine Bestowments were meaningless; the real power lay in relocating the emperor to his own territory.

Zhao Cheng dispatched his trusted confidants with 500 soldiers to "invite" the new emperor to Xia Prefecture.

Zhao Cheng locked the new emperor behind the gate and then arranged for someone to bring him food, which was clearly an unseemly act.

This also reflects Zhao Cheng's lack of experience in dealing with "former masters who have lost their abilities".

Zhao Cheng's current actions are similar to a version of those in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. For example, Duke Huan of Qi, Jiang Xiaobai, was locked in the deep palace by his favorite ministers and sons in his later years and was not allowed to speak; or when the three families divided Jin, the ministers of the three families sealed the Duke of Jin in a small house, but when they felt it was not safe, they let him die young.

The former monarch was a hot potato, and what Zhao Cheng did was very undignified and extremely crude.

Xuan Chong's comment: This is completely inconsistent with his military strategy. He (Zhao Cheng) has a kind of uncultured, vagrant feel to him.

Xuan Chong reviewed history and commented: The correct procedure should be to first abdicate, then bestow the title of "Duke of xxx" upon the former monarch, and then see who is still dissatisfied and does not align themselves with him when the dynasty changes; after confirming that all the power systems under his command have rejected the former monarch and pledged their allegiance, then he can then take action against the former monarch.

Although Xuan Chong is currently on a southward expedition, intelligence from the north is transmitted every three days via flying eagles. Xuan Chong himself returns to Zhendi every fifteen days in a mecha.

Xuan Chong was also keeping a close eye on Zhao Cheng's every move. It was now clear that Zhao Cheng had had enough of the ever-growing opposition and was beginning to take full control of his monarch, following Cao Cao's path. Now, any imperial edict that Hao Jun managed to leak would fall into Zhao Cheng's hands.

Xuan Chong's historical records state that after the Eastern Han Dynasty, and throughout the late Tang and Five Dynasties periods, the capital fell and the emperor fled, leading to a rapid decline in central authority. The core issue was that within the power system centered on the emperor, once the high-ranking officials around him disappeared, their positions could not be filled. Therefore, for the emperor to lose his ministers was tantamount to losing power. The fact that ministers in the Tang Dynasty were able to maintain a certain level of dignity, even having figures like Wei Zheng who dared to argue with the monarch, was because even a powerful ruler like Li Shimin could not replace his core advisors after losing them.

The Song Dynasty was different. The imperial examination system standardized a nationwide mechanism centered on the emperor, with local talents selected every four years.

Even if the emperor loses the country, he still retains the legitimacy to hold imperial examinations and recruit talented individuals, and local powerful families will fill the vacancies in the central government and form new leadership teams.

Therefore, the emperors of the Song and Qing dynasties were able to retain power even after fleeing the capital, while the emperors of the Han and Tang dynasties quickly lost power after leaving the capital.

During the Han and Tang dynasties, officials were treated with dignity; in the Ming and Qing dynasties, they were treated like household slaves. This wasn't due to cultural influx of barbarian influences, but rather because the power structure of centralized government became increasingly sophisticated.

Therefore, after seeing Zhao Cheng's chaotic situation as a usurper, Xuan Chong, from the perspective of an authoritarian ruler, believed that schools must be established, and they should be established in various places to set up examinations and implement a selection standard system.

The teaching aid "Zhao Cheng" was very effective. After witnessing the various maneuvers of highly capable and ambitious individuals in handling political issues, Xuan Chong became increasingly convinced of the historical context.

…Let's return our perspective to the inner workings of the major hexagram…

After capturing Dai County, Wu Hengyu swiftly launched attacks on the other two warlords. Knowing they could not withstand Wu Hengyu's 6,000 fierce troops and 20,000 conscripted farmers advancing south, the other two sought reinforcements from Yaodu City.

In this heated battle that seemed to be turning the tables on Bohai, Yao Du, who had been stirring things up, suddenly fell silent.

Born in the capital of Yao, Ji Yan is skilled in power struggles but not in military affairs.

He immediately wanted to issue an order to label Wu Hengyu a rebel in response to the attack, but was eventually dissuaded by others!

The core of power struggles is to push opponents out of the center of power and then build layers of "protective belts" with oneself as the center of power.

This protective barrier made of all the world's literature cannot stop the real swords and spears.

Ji Yan believed that getting the three northern vassal states to side with him would resolve the issue of the disloyalty of the Eastern Market Army in Bohai.

Little did they know that the three vassal states believed that the Yuzhou troops occupying Yaodu would do their utmost to resolve the Dongshi army problem and demanded their cooperation!

Returning to the current situation in Yaodu, Yuzhou is indeed without troops, because while the Eastern Market army was marching south to conquer cities and territories, a peasant uprising broke out near Yuzhou.

This peasant uprising was clearly supported by other feudal lords, as these refugees transformed into a massive army of three to four thousand peasants, dressed in rags and wielding pitchforks, who began looting along the roads.

The troops from Yuzhou had no choice but to go and quell the rebellion, but on March 17, the Yuzhou troops were ambushed.

The troops from Yuzhou arrived at the official road leading to Heluo to fight the bandits, but things didn't go smoothly from the start.

The bandits had gathered tens of thousands of men. Although they were numerous, the general of Yuzhou believed that his three thousand elite troops could easily defeat them. So he sent an infantry square formation to press forward from the front, and then had the cavalry prepare on the flanks.

When the three iron cavalry units of Yuzhou, numbering approximately two hundred and fifty, appeared from the flanks of the bandits, the ground trembled from their hooves. The poorly trained peasant army, however, did not collapse but instead formed a pincer movement. These were clearly no ordinary bandits.

When the Yuzhou troops were fifty paces from the front, they encountered a horse trap, losing a third of their iron hooves. Afterwards, this peasant army raised the banner of Emperor Tongzheng and began to assemble.

The armored cavalry of Yuzhou still rolled over, and the peasant army's spears snapped under the iron armor.

The bandits, pounded by the horses, were sent flying several meters into the air like shattered dolls. The armored cavalry, like armor-piercing bullets, smashed through three ranks, causing a massive shattering within the formation. The fear from the impact spread beyond those three ranks, leading to a complete collapse.

The bandits fled, but they did not scatter; they retreated along the official road.

When the Yuzhou army pursued the fleeing enemy, they encountered an encirclement of 20,000 men. The Yuzhou army was horrified to discover that this was the army of the lords of Lanzhou in the east!

The era of battle royale among the feudal lords has begun.

Note: The peasant uprising army encountered by the Yuzhou troops was a consequence of Wu Hengyu's opening up of the lakes and marshes and his vanquishing of demons. In this chaotic world, Yu Li dispatched his own family to join Wu Hengyu's troops and instigate a rebellion in the south. As for the lords in the east, they had long harbored resentment towards Yuzhou.

(End of this chapter)