Today he got what he wanted. What he got was not the pleasure of revenge against his father and stepmother, but the joy of breaking free from the shackles.
The Yun family can no longer restrain him.
Yunzhan rode back to the palace, looking radiant.
He was in a good mood and was a bit talkative. When he saw Gu Jue, he told him everything he had said and done in the Bo's Mansion.
"Hahaha..." Tang Yuchu laughed uncontrollably, tears streaming down his face. "Hey, Lao Yun, are you a child? You won a fight outside, and you want to show off to your elders?"
"Puff!" Xue Fengyan accidentally sprayed the wine in his mouth, earning him disgusted looks from several people.
Tang Yuchu laughed loudly and moved a little further away.
Yunzhan: “!”
Yunzhan was so annoyed by Tang Yuchu's laughter that he turned into anger. After a moment's pause, he retorted, "Who is showing off? I am reporting back!" He emphasized the word "report back".
The relaxed look on his face at this moment was completely different from when he was at the Yun family just now.
His personal servant also heard the laughter and noise of Yun Zhan and others outside the hall. Thinking back to the scenes that had just happened at the Yun family, he was filled with emotion.
"Report?" Tang Yuchu smiled even more arrogantly, leaning on the chair and waving his hand, saying, "If you say so, then so be it."
His playful smile made it clear that he was just trying to please Yunzhan.
When it comes to talking big and being shameless, Yun Zhan, a young man raised in a noble family, is really no match for Tang Yuchu and Xue Feng who play them.
After just a few words, Yun Zhan felt that instead of fighting with Tang Yuchu, it would be better to use his fists.
Yunzhan rolled up his sleeves and rushed towards Tang Yuchu, as if he was ready for a duel, but with a smile in his eyes.
In the past, when he first joined the Beidi Army, he couldn't get along with Tang Yuchu and Xue Fengyan. They thought he was a playboy, and he thought they were vulgar soldiers... Until now, they have become close friends who can trust each other with their backs.
Of course Tang Yuchu would not wait to be beaten. He immediately stretched out his hand to the window sill and jumped out of the window. His body was as agile as a monkey without any stagnation or pause.
Xue Fengyan was watching the show from the side, wishing he could fan the flames and urge them to fight quickly and not waste time.
No matter how they laughed and made noises, Gu Jue sat behind his desk calmly and composedly, reading memorials. He was used to it, as if no matter how noisy they were, it would not affect him at all.
Amidst the noise of talking and laughing, Su Mubai, dressed in a tea-white robe, walked in from outside the hall with a smile on his face, looking as gentle and elegant as usual.
As Su Mubai stepped over the threshold, his eyes swept over Yun Zhan, Tang Yuchu and Xue Fengyan, who were neither standing nor sitting properly.
He was still laughing, and his tone was neither hurried nor slow: "What are you doing?"
"You two really have the leisure time." He clapped his hands twice. "The prince is about to ascend the throne. You are old friends in the palace. You have a lot of things to do. You still have time to flirt with each other here."
Su Mubai never uses a single dirty word when he scolds people, but he can still make them swear.
Yun Zhan, Tang Yuchu and others thought they were used to it, but this time they were still shocked by the word "flirting".
Xue Fengyan spat out another mouthful of wine.
At this time, Su Mubai walked to the desk and saluted Gu Jue elegantly: "Why don't you take care of them, Your Majesty?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Qianchen, holding a small flower basket, lifted the door curtain on the other side and walked in slowly.
She obviously heard what was said just now, and her smiling eyes fell on Su Mubai's face.
"What did you just say?" Shen Qianchen asked with a tilted face.
Su Mubai: "..."
Su Mubai didn't say anything, but Jingfeng repeated it for him word for word: "Princess, Lord Su just said, why doesn't the prince take care of them?"
Now, not only Xue Feng was performing, but even Tang Yuchu and Yun Zhan each brought a stool to watch the show.
It's rare to see Su Mubai, this old fox, suffer a loss. Don't miss it if you pass by! Shen Qianchen also sat down, pointed to the documents on the desk with confidence, and said, "The prince is busy!"
If Su Mubai was willing to deal with all these documents, Shen Qianchen would be more than happy. She could then take the prince out to play with cats and ride horses.
Su Mubai went to see Gu Jue silently.
From the moment the princess appeared, their prince obviously had no interest in reading any official documents and his eyes were all on the princess.
Anyway, the prince would not be able to help me, and I cannot defeat the princess.
Su Mubai admitted his mistake very frankly and without any hesitation, cupping his hands and saying, "I was wrong."
Yun Zhan, Tang Yuchu, and Xue Fengyan laughed in a sullen voice, and at the same time they were full of admiration for Su Mubai again. This fox Su was able to hold his head high and put down his status.
High! However, apart from the prince, only the princess can make him like this.
Tang Yuchu patted Yunzhan on the shoulder and winked at him, meaning, learn from him.
He performed this series of actions very naturally, familiarly, and smoothly, and people could tell at a glance that he treated Shen Qianchen in the same way on weekdays.
Yun Zhan inexplicably thought of his father Yun Ce and his stepmother Madam Yun. They were a couple very different from the prince and princess. No, it should be said that the prince and princess were different from the many couples in the capital.
Holding hands with you and growing old together, this is how it should be. There should be no third party interfering between husband and wife, and there won't be a bastard like him, who has to survive in the cracks since childhood...
Yun Zhan was so distracted that when he came to his senses, he heard Su Mubai talking about the three major camps of the Imperial Army and the Twelve Guards.
On the day when the late Emperor Gu Lang passed away, they mobilized the Black Armor Army to force the emperor to abdicate. At that time, they had no intention of rebelling, nor did they plan to let Gu Jue ascend the throne. Their original plan was to force Gu Lang to abdicate and let Crown Prince Gu Nanjin ascend the throne.
After that, all of them will follow Gu Jue back to the North and manage their own piece of land in the North.
Therefore, they only temporarily controlled the three camps of the Imperial Guards and the Twelve Guards, with the purpose of maintaining stability and preventing any further trouble.
But now, Gu Jue is about to ascend the throne. Since he is going to take control of the political power, he must first take control of the military power and keep the three major camps of the imperial army and the twelve guards firmly under his control.
Because Kang Hongda was sentenced to death, hundreds of thousands of imperial guards were now leaderless, so Gu Jue directly transferred Su Mubai to serve as the governor of the Beijing camp, replacing Kang Hongda's position.
At this time, Su Mubai was reporting the number of people in the three camps of the Imperial Guard: "…The Divine Pivot Camp has 30,000 people, the Divine Machine Camp has 20,000 people, and the Fifth Army Camp, including the prisoners captured that day, has 40,000 people."
Gu Jue raised his eyebrows, bent the knuckles of his right index finger, and casually knocked on the desk twice.
His little action made Shen Qianchen, Yun Zhan, Tang Yuchu and others realize that something was wrong.
In recent days, in order to understand the government affairs, Gu Jue read a lot of memorials from recent years. He remembered that the number of imperial guards was mentioned in several of them, but the number recorded in the military records was far more than this.
If this is the case with the three major camps, what about the number of people in the twelve guards?
Gu Jue narrowed his eyes and asked in a very calm but firm tone: "Eating a salary without working?"
Throughout the dynasties, the problem of empty pay has been inevitable in the military, whether in the local garrisons or the imperial guards in Beijing.
The Great Qi Dynasty already has a history of one hundred years, and Gu Jue has long known that there is this problem in the army. But in the past, he could only manage the Northern Army. It was not until now that he had the legitimate power to rectify the style of the Great Qi army.
"Yes." Su Mubai nodded in response, with a hint of sarcasm on his elegant face. "According to current statistics, the number of people in the three major battalions of the Imperial Guard is half less than the number on military records." At this moment, the sharpness of his character as a military commander could not be concealed by the elegant mask on his face.
The source of the problem of drawing empty salaries is that the generals in command falsely reported the number of quotas in order to embezzle the military salaries. However, the proportion of "registered but unemployed" has reached half. It must be said that the severity of the problem exceeded the expectations of Gu Jue and Su Mubai.
Tang Yuchu threw a salt-and-pepper peanut into his mouth and said casually, "Kang Hongda is really 'bold and careful'!"
Xue Fengyan touched his nose, exchanged a playful look with Tang Yuchu, and joked: "Then shouldn't we thank him?"
It is easy to understand that Kang Hongda, as the governor of the Beijing camp, could not have been unaware of the situation, but he indulged himself in it and was so greedy that the army was weakened, which would only lead to the weakening of Da Qi's national defense.
Now, everyone understood. No wonder, after annihilating 65,000 soldiers from the army camp, although the imperial guards had launched several counterattacks, they were all small-scale and could not cause any waves, let alone achieve anything.
At first, Su Mubai thought that the opponent still had some big tricks that he hadn't used yet. After waiting for a few days without any movement, he thought that maybe it was because Kang Hongda was captured that the army was leaderless, the imperial guards were not united, and the troops were not deployed in time, which led to the defeat.
Now, when they thought about it again, they all understood.
The actual number of the imperial guards was half less than the number of soldiers registered. Therefore, when troops were really needed, they could not mobilize a large force, which led to the Black Armor Army's attempt to force the emperor to abdicate so smoothly this time.
In the end, the news of the death of the late Emperor Gu Lang was just the last straw that broke the camel's back.
"Heh." Su Mubai seemed to think that the joke played by Tang Yuchu and Xue Feng was not funny at all. He glanced at the two of them with a bit of contempt, and he almost said blatantly, "You two simple-minded rude guys!"
Even Shen Qianchen, who was drinking tea nearby, gave Xue and Tang a look that said "you guys should use your brains too".
So, Xue Fengyan silently asked Tang Yuchu for a peanut. The two of them looked heartless, but Yun Zhan seemed to be thinking about something.
Su Mubai continued, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid this matter will involve a lot of people."
It must be more than just Kang Hongda's problem that he could collect so much empty salary. After all, this is the capital of the emperor, not the Northeast or Northwest where the emperor is far away. Therefore, this matter must be a matter of exploitation from top to bottom, layer by layer, and huge benefits were used to shut the mouths of the relevant people.
"If this is brought into question, there will probably be turmoil in the court."
Su Mubai's expression and voice were unusually serious, and he pursed his thin lips.
If most of the generals of the three camps of the Imperial Guards and the Twelve Guards were paid without paying, then once they take action, the army will surely be in turmoil. The prince has just come to power, and if he takes action against the civil and military officials at the same time, it will inevitably make his foundation unstable and cause panic among the people. Some people may even spread rumors that the prince is just taking advantage of the situation.
The air condensed with Su Mubai's words.
Others were just thinking about the forced abdication half a month ago, but Shen Qianchen couldn't help but think of her past life: in her past life, when she and Qin Yao led their troops eastward to force the emperor to abdicate, the problem of empty salaries in the army was even more serious. From the imperial guards in Beijing to the various garrisons, they were all empty salaries. The Great Qi was already shaky...
In their previous lives, the Da Qi they had seized was even more desolate than the current one, and it would take much longer for this land to recover...
Shen Qianchen lowered her eyes, immersed in her own thoughts, and did not notice that her brows were slightly furrowed, until she felt someone's warm fingertips touching her brows, smoothing out the wrinkles.
(End of this chapter)