Chapter 133: Court Dispute
Emperor Yuanzong heard that the Zhenbei Army was unwilling to help, which led to the fall of Pingliang Fort to this day.
As expected, he became furious and wanted to issue an edict to blame Zhao Yanjiao for dereliction of duty.
This time, his order was not carried out and was rejected by the Minister of War Xu Zheyuan in the court.
He was an old minister who had assisted the emperor in ascending the throne. He was about to take up an official position and seldom attended court.
But these old ministers had to come to today's grand court meeting.
Things are different now than they were five years ago.
The last tragedy in Suijin Town involved thousands of people, and public opinion was in turmoil, so no one dared to speak for the Zhenbei Army.
But this time, Tang Ying blamed the Zhenbei Army for its slow rescue.
After all, Pingliang Fort was lost from the Xuanwei Army, so they need to bear the main responsibility.
The Zhenbei Army could only be considered powerless to provide rescue, and if the emperor wanted to punish Tang Ying, he had to put him in jail first.
Changing generals during a battle has always been considered a major taboo in military strategy. This is obviously not a good thing, and the emperor is unwilling to do so.
While raising his objection, Xu Zheyuan also handed over a note from the Zhenbei Army demanding military pay.
For five years, the Ministry of Revenue owed military pay of 800,000 taels, which was exactly the amount of money the Grand Princess needed to build the purification temple.
In recent years, the northwest has been stable, and the court felt that the Zhenbei Army was consuming too much silver.
After a while, in the memorials submitted to the Ministry of War, there was a request for the Zhenbei Army to cut military spending.
For this reason, the Ministry of War not only transferred the bows, crossbows and arrows that should have been sent to the northwest to the southeast navy, but also only allocated 20,000 sets of thick winter jackets and cotton clothes.
Xu Zheyuan made an impassioned speech in the court: How can we fight a war without money? Do we want those soldiers to run naked in the snow with bare hands?
The Zhenbei Army's pay was repeatedly delayed by the Ministry of Revenue, and no one cared.
Moreover, the Suijin Guards of the Zhenbei Army have just made a contribution.
The same small garrison was captured by someone and was difficult to capture for a long time, so there was no punishment.
A man who killed the tribal leader got dozens of heads but no reward.
Now there is no punishment or reward, and no reward is given. How can the other generals accept this?
If it were an ordinary court meeting, the emperor could just say a few words and leave the court, but today there were so many people present that he couldn't leave the court at all.
The ministers below were in an uproar. Emperor Yuanzong, who was over fifty years old, looked grim, with cold sweat on his forehead, and sat there motionless.
He has been in power for many years and is no longer the weak emperor who first ascended the throne.
At that time, Emperor Yuanzong was just an unfavored prince and had no chance of vying for the throne.
Fortunately, with the help of his sister, the emperor, and the general Zhao Yanjiao, he was able to reach the highest position step by step.
In order to express his gratitude, he made Zhao Yanjiao's sister, Concubine Yan, the queen and made the prince she gave birth to the crown prince.
The emperor's sister had the merit of following the emperor, so no matter how extravagant she was in her daily life, he would always grant her requests.
However, the queen was taciturn and although her appearance was dignified, she was far less beautiful than the other concubines in the palace.
The Crown Prince has no faults in his character, but he is dull. He does not have the steady and considerate temperament of the eldest prince, nor the lively and smart like some of the younger princes.
Even though the Grand Tutor had advised him many times, the Crown Prince had a gentle and kind nature and was quite virtuous. Even if he had no merits or faults in the future, he would still be a good monarch to protect the country.
He still doesn't like it.
Everyone in the court said that he was too strict with the prince and would scold and curse him if he made any mistake.
No one knows his own heart.
Every time I see those two faces, I think of Zhao Yanjiao who behaved rudely in front of me.
More than 20 years have passed, but the scene in which Zhao Yanjiao forced him to make Zhao Yanzhu his queen by threatening the border is still vivid in his mind.
This was a great humiliation for an emperor.
Even though the Zhenbei Army is having a hard time now, they are trying their best to hide themselves.
As long as Zhao Yanjiao does not give up his military power and the empress is not deposed, Emperor Yuanzong will never be able to resolve this knot in his heart.
However, the ancestral laws have stipulated that the queen cannot be deposed without a fault, and the crown prince cannot be deposed even more.
In addition to Zhao Yanjiao, there were other meritorious officials in the court who supported the fight for the throne.
If Zhao Yanjiao does not meet with a good end, it will probably lead to the grief of the whole family, and there will definitely be a big disturbance in the court.
For example, the Minister of War Xu Zheyuan who took the lead in the rebellion at this time.
After finally using the Xuanwei Army to gain some of Zhao Yanjiao's military power, he still made such a big mistake.
Now that the two garrisons were under attack, the border was unstable, and some people in the court were speaking for Zhao Yanjiao, Emperor Yuanzong had to suppress the pain in his heart and the sweet taste in his throat.
This kind of thing cannot be answered at the grand court meeting, and it is bound to lead to repeated arguments and debates.
Half a month later, Emperor Yuanzong was also dizzy from the noise, and the Ministry of War finally received the imperial edict: Tang Ying was ordered to make meritorious contributions while serving his sentence and recapture Pingliang Fort as soon as possible.
The Ministry of Revenue allocated 200,000 taels of silver and 10,000 sets of winter cotton clothing to the Zhenbei Army to assist the Xuanwei Army and the government in annihilating the Di Lu people and eliminating banditry.
This is still a piece of paper, and the Ministry of Revenue needs to allocate silver, money and materials before it can be distributed to Yunzhou.
Calculating at the fastest speed, the Zhenbei Army will probably receive the 10,000 sets of winter clothing in the sunny month of March, or maybe even less.
Fortunately, it only took one sentence to ask the Zhenbei Army to cooperate with the Xuanwei Army Tang Ying to conquer Pingliang Fort. There was no need to delay time, and the coordination order from the Ministry of War was quickly transmitted to Hecheng.
Naturally, a message was sent to Suijinwei in the shortest possible time, telling them that they would not receive the imperial reward for the time being, but the material rewards from the Zhenbei Army had been delivered to the garrison.
At this time, the scene in Suijin Town was already completely different.
Just after the fifth day of the first lunar month, Chuntao, a young wife in the town, found Song Liyun and asked about work. Everyone in the family was idle, so she would be happy to earn a few cents.
Song Liyun asked her to go to Boss Mu's store and wait for news.
After the New Year, Boss Mu returned to Suijin Town. When he learned that Jin Sanchong and others were the accomplices back then, he cursed for a long time.
He still wanted to open a shop in Suijin Town. After discussing with him, Song Liyun planned to transfer the business of selling acorn tofu to the Elderly Hall.
Now Song Liyun wants to distribute the work to every household in the town.
The business is food processing, from peeling acorns to grinding acorn flour, and then washing out the starch to make dry vermicelli.
This is something she has been thinking about for a long time. Suijin Town cannot continue to be lifeless.
The people here are already suffering enough, and they cannot bear the pain physically. They need to live happily and wait for their loved ones to return.
Moreover, now that I am in the midst of it, it is impossible for me to remain unscathed in this chaotic world. Only common interests can unite people.
They mastered the method of removing the astringency of acorns, and others took the processed acorns and processed them into vermicelli noodles and sold them to the outside.
Now that food prices are rising, I can make a profit and benefit many people.
However, this involves a lot of accounts coming and going, which is complicated, so it requires someone who knows how to do accounting to manage it.
Song Liyun pays Boss Mu based on his income and takes a commission from it.
Boss Mu originally thought that he would lose a sum of income, but he didn't expect it to be even bigger, so he immediately agreed.
When Chuntao and the others went to collect the acorns, Boss Mu explained the processing requirements and respective wages for each step.
Each household can choose each step of the process according to their family situation.
Many people choose to peel the oak shells, but Chuntao's family has many men working, so she directly chose to grind them into flour.
As soon as the word came out, three families in the town chose to help grind the flour, one family knew how to make vermicelli, and the remaining four families were willing to peel the acorns.
Song Liyun calculated that the economic value of the acorns, which were originally worthless, had increased exponentially.
Each pound of processed acorns can be sold for one penny. These wild fruits are found all over the mountains. There is no cost, but it is troublesome to pick them up.
In addition, making acorn noodles requires groceries and flour, which can also drive some planting industries.
(End of this chapter)
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