Chapter 30 Ningguo
"I, Liu Guangshi, the military governor of the national army, come to see you. I didn't expect to see you again today after several months of separation! I was previously in Huaibei, being pursued by the Jin army, and being ostracized by Zhang Jun and Wang Yuan. I almost thought that I would never see you again in this life!"
Unexpectedly, this late-night imperial meeting held by Emperor Zhao in the wild fields on Bagua Mountain with grief and indignation began with Liu Guangshi kneeling down and crying as soon as he appeared.
"Liu Qing..."
Under the firelight, even though Emperor Zhao was furious before, he couldn't help but feel a little confused at this moment. He wondered if Yang Yi Zhong had deliberately lied to favor Zhang Jun, and that he had misunderstood this veteran of the Western Army who was the same age as Han Shizhong.
However, he glanced at the two generals who were following Liu Guangshi and bowing from afar at the edge of the curtain, namely a commander named Fu Qing, and Wang De, nicknamed Wang Yasha, whom he had heard of a long time ago...but it was difficult for him to deny Yang Yizhong's report.
Helplessly, Zhao Jiu, who had just put on his clothes and sat on the armchair, adjusted himself a little, and then barely suppressed his emotions and asked again: "Mr. Liu, let's not talk about the Jin army. You said that you were excluded by General Zhang and General Wang... What's going on?"
"Your Majesty!" Liu Guangshi, who was fully armored, suddenly raised his head, revealing his face covered in mud, and it was difficult to see his features clearly, looking quite pitiful. "Good Master, please know... Yesterday, I received the decree from Your Majesty in Cai, allowing me to split my troops and cross the Huai River for a rest. I am naturally grateful, and because the soldiers in our army were killed and wounded in large numbers by the Jin people, they are really unable to fight. Even if we stay in the city, people will be in a panic, which is not conducive to defending the city. So I thought of asking Taiwei Wang (Wang Yuan, the commander of the Imperial Camp) and Taiwei Zhang (Zhang Jun) to make it convenient for me to lead some of the scattered soldiers to cross the river at night to calm the army..."
When Zhao Jiu heard this and thought of the scene where he was so scared that he jumped into the river, he couldn't help but nodded. In fact, by now Liu Guangshi seemed to have explained half of the matter of him sneaking across the river.
only……
"But why did they start a dispute, why did they want to rob the boat, and why did they burn the ferry?" Zhao Jiu frowned and asked no more.
"Reporting to the emperor!" Liu Guangshi immediately raised his head and pointed at Wang Yuan, the commander of the imperial camp, who also chose to kneel down. "The reason for the dispute is that Wang Yuan did not want me to lead the troops across the night!"
"Why isn't he allowed to cross the river at night?" Zhao Jiu continued to frown and asked like a tape recorder, but he was asking Wang Yuan.
"Reporting to the emperor!" Wang Yuan raised his head at this time, his face was covered with smoke and mud, even more colorful than Liu Guangshi's, but his words were filled with grief and indignation, and no one knew what he was suppressing. "Your Majesty..."
"Good instructor, I know!" At this moment, Liu Guangshi suddenly interrupted and continued to point at Wang Yuan and complained in tears. "General Wang has selfish motives! He has been responsible for many dignitaries and secretly transported money and goods to those dignitaries at night, so he is unwilling to transport troops for me! My subordinates were indignant and quarreled with General Wang's subordinates, which led to the chaos!"
Zhao Jiu was even more puzzled and could only continue to ask: "Where did all these dignitaries come from? Where did all the wealth come from that even requires a troop transport ship to transport it? Even if there was, they should have crossed the Huai River from Yingkou before. How could they still be in Huaibei now?"
"It was given by Zhang Jun." Liu Guangshi kowtowed and explained. "Your Majesty doesn't know that Zhang Taiwei had successfully suppressed bandits in Jingdong and Huaidong before... The rebels were rioting, and the military and state treasuries and the people's property were all seized by the rebels, and Zhang Taiwei took them calmly, so he hid countless treasures in Xiacai City, and this time he had long wanted to take them out to bribe the dignitaries in order to seek a future. But your Majesty had to leave after a few days, and he had no time to do so, so he asked Wang Taiwei to be the middleman, and sent countless treasures across the Huai River late at night, and handed them over to his old subordinate Yang Yizhong for distribution... As for my failure to restrain my subordinates who later became greedy when they saw the money and even seized the boats and burned the ferry, this is indeed my fault!"
Zhao Jiu had a blank expression on his face. He first looked back at Yang Yizhong who knelt down with a plop, then looked at Wang De and Fu Qing who stood at the edge of the curtain without saying a word, but finally looked at Wang Yuan:
"Wang Qing, what do you say? Did you transport the goods for Zhang Boying?"
"I...I...I really didn't know!" Wang Yuan hesitated for a long time, but gave an incredible answer. "When the rebellion broke out, I was transporting troops in the river, or maybe it was Huangfu Zuo, the inspector I left behind in Xiacai, who did it privately? As for after the rebellion broke out, I was really incompetent. I couldn't control the fleet, and I couldn't put out the fire at the ferry. I could only flee in embarrassment... Today's crime is all due to my incompetence!"
Zhao Jiu tilted his head and thought for a while before he understood what Wang Yuan meant - Liu Guangshi pushed all the responsibility onto Zhang Jun, who was unable to cross the river to make a clear decision, and onto Commander Wang in front of him. For some reason, Commander Wang dared not deny it, nor take responsibility, so he pushed the responsibility onto a subordinate.
And without asking, Zhao Jiu could guess that Huangfu Zuo was probably stranded in Huaibei and would not be able to come over for a while.
Thinking of this, Emperor Zhao sneered, and glanced at Lü Haowen, Zhang Jun and others who had hurried here, and then stopped his gaze on another person: "Mr. Wang, you are the Prime Minister. Now the three generals Liu, Zhang, and Wang are having disputes with each other, and you are the only one who can settle their disputes. What do you think is going on?"
Wang Boyan took a step forward and came to the center of the tent. He maintained the dignity of a scholar-official and a prime minister. He neither knelt nor burst into tears, but that was all... He opened his mouth to speak, but when he met Zhao Jiu's cold smile, his heart skipped a beat and he almost immediately wanted to swallow the words he had prepared; but when he turned his head again, his eyes passed the three generals kneeling to Emperor Zhao and fell to the entrance of the tent behind him. He saw the figures of Wang De and Fu Qing, but in the end he did not dare to change his words.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
