novel-bin Chapter 173 Windfall from Heaven
Chapter 173 Windfall from Heaven
Chapter 173 Windfall from Heaven
At the Chancery's desk, the Prime Minister is on duty.
Yang Biao sat in the first seat, with Wang Yun, Xun You, Huangfu Song and Cao Cao on his two sides.
Yang Biao sat upright, his face dignified, and said: "Your Majesty agrees to punish Dong Zhuo. Everyone, please tell me what we should do."
Holding Dong Zhuo accountable was no small matter. One had to consider public opinion as well as the tens of thousands of elite troops under his command.
Upon hearing this, Cao Cao suddenly said in a deep voice: "I object."
Wang Yun looked at him and said calmly, "Cao Mengde, you are just an observer, no need to speak."
Cao Cao snorted coldly and said, "Even if Dong Zhuo is guilty and deserves death, this is not the right time. The court should be generous and appease him, and act when the time is right! Whoever gave such advice to Your Majesty should be executed immediately!"
Wang Yun's expression suddenly darkened, and he said, "Cao Mengde, this is the Shangshutai, don't be so presumptuous!"
"I don't agree with that either,"
Huangfu Song interrupted at the right time and said, "Prince, Prime Minister, Dong Zhuo is the Grand Marshal, Assistant Prime Minister, Governor of Yuzhou, has tens of thousands of elite troops under his command, and has made great contributions in suppressing rebellions. No matter what, you cannot touch him for the time being."
Wang Yun waved his hand on the small table in front of him and said in a cold tone, "These are the memorials impeaching Dong Zhuo. There are more than twenty memorials from county governors, more than a hundred memorials from famous families, and hundreds of people from the suffering families lined up in front of the Supreme Court. Is the Grand Marshal turning a blind eye and turning a deaf ear?"
Cao Cao's narrow eyes flashed with contempt, and he said, "If the news leaks out and Dong Zhuo openly plots rebellion, how will the court respond? Who will be held responsible?"
Wang Yun wanted to drive Cao Cao out, and looked directly at Huangfu Song, saying, "That's why the Shangshutai and the Da Sima Mansion carefully planned to take down Dong Zhuo in one fell swoop and completely solve this disaster!"
"What plan does your Excellency have?" Cao Cao asked again.
Wang Yun's eye twitched, and he suppressed his anger and said, "My idea is to pretend to deliver money and food to Dong Zhuo, order him to come and get it himself, and then ambush him nearby and take him down when the opportunity arises!"
"Can this strategy work against Dong Zhuo?" Cao Cao sat there, narrowing his narrow eyes and raising his head slightly. Even without any expression, he gave people a sense of contempt.
Wang Yun turned to Cao Cao and said in a dull tone: "Do you think the impeachment memorials against you are too few? Or do you think that the Shangshutai are all forgetful?"
Cao Cao opened his eyes and anger rose in his heart.
This Wang Yun was stupid, arrogant, conceited and narrow-minded, and he actually threatened him in public!
Xun You, who had been silent the whole time, saw Wang Yun and Cao Cao were about to quarrel, and quickly said, "Lord Wang, General Cao, this is a serious matter, please don't act on impulse."
Wang Yun snorted, thinking about how to deal with Cao Cao, and asked Xun You, "What do you think, Minister Xun?"
Xun You also had no definite plan, and said: "We can test it first and order Dong Zhuo to come to the capital to claim the reward. Regardless of whether he agrees or not, we can order Gongsun Zan to advance from Yingchuan to Runan, Chen State, and Liang State as soon as possible, and occupy at least half of Yuzhou to compete with Dong Zhuo. Then order Tao Qian of Xuzhou and Wang Rui of Jingzhou to divide up Yuzhou as much as possible to reduce Dong Zhuo's sphere of influence..."
Cao Cao ignored Wang Yun and said thoughtfully, "Yuan Shu has retreated to Yangzhou. He is still a big threat and must be eliminated as soon as possible."
His meaning was very simple. Neither Dong Zhuo nor Yuan Shu were easy to deal with, but there had to be a sequence of priorities.
Xun You glanced at Cao Cao and then turned to Huangfu Song.
Huangfu Song understood what he meant, and after a moment's silence, he said, "The Grand Sima Mansion has no plans for the time being."
Xun You was stunned. What does "no plan yet" mean?
Yang Biao said with a straight face, "The treasury is in trouble, and the three states of Xu, Qing, and Ji are in turmoil. Apart from Dong Zhuo, the court is unable to further attack Yuan Shu."
"Must it be delayed until after the summer harvest?" Wang Yun's anger was rising. He could see that Yang Biao and Huangfu Song had already reached a tacit understanding!
Such a big thing was discussed without telling him!
Yang Biao looked down at him and said calmly, "What is your plan for dealing with this, Your Majesty?"
Wang Yun's face turned pale, and he opened his mouth to speak but couldn't utter a word. He was very angry at Yang Biao and Huangfu Song!
Is this how you treat treason and disloyalty?
Cao Cao glanced at Yang Biao with a hint of dissatisfaction in his eyes.
What the Prime Minister did was too easy!
"Come in." Huangfu Song suddenly spoke.
Without waiting for everyone to react, Xu Yan walked in from outside the door, handed over two memorials, and said, "Grand Marshal, urgent memorials from Yuzhou and Jingzhou."
Huangfu Song took it silently and opened the first one, which was Dong Zhuo's memorial requesting merit and demanding money and grain.
After he finished reading it, he took out the second one and just glanced at it, his brows slightly moved.
Everyone was staring at him. Even such a small movement could not escape Wang Yun's eyes. He stretched his head and asked, "Grand Sima, what happened?"
Huangfu Song thought for a while and said without hiding anything, "The first memorial was from Dong Zhuo, who wanted to win merit and demand military pay."
No one cared about this.
Huangfu Song hesitated for a moment and said, "The second one is a memorial from Jingzhou. It says that the envoy Wen Yi issued a letter accusing the Jingzhou governor Wang Rui of corruption and oppression of officials and civilians, and called on all counties to send troops to attack him. Wang Rui accused Wuling prefect Cao Yin of treason and summoned all the county governors of Jingzhou to join the fight."
The others were shocked when they heard this and looked at each other.
Is Jingzhou in chaos again?
Wang Yun looked gloomy and said, "Jingzhou must not be in chaos!"
Everyone looked at each other, no one said anything, and everyone agreed with Wang Yun's words.
Liu Yu of Youzhou was held back by the Wuhuan and Xianbei, Ying Shao of Jizhou was suppressing bandits, Zhu Jun of Qingzhou was mired in the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Xuzhou was in chaos, Yuan Shu of Yuzhou had just been defeated, and now Jingzhou was in civil strife.
All the pressure was instantly placed on the court!
Yang Biao's fat face was tense, and he was more serious than ever before. He said, "The current priority is to make every effort to ensure that the summer taxes are collected as much as possible!"
In order to deal with these disturbances, the most important thing is money and food!
Without waiting for others to react, Yang Biao looked at Huangfu Song and said, "The Grand Marshal's Mansion needs to come up with a specific strategy and meet His Majesty with me later!"
Huangfu Song leaned forward and said, "Okay."
Wang Yun was still thinking about Dong Zhuo, and he was unwilling and angry. He thought about it and said in a deep voice: "After the summer harvest, ask the Grand Marshal to lead the troops personally, unite the troops of the five states, and quickly pacify Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shu!"
Huangfu Song looked at him but didn't say anything.
It is not the same as a few years ago. In order to deal with the invasion of the Qiang people, the imperial court spent hundreds of millions of money. Then came the Yellow Turban Rebellion. The continuous expeditions not only emptied the national treasury, but also squeezed the ordinary people dry.
The current situation is that both the imperial court and the people are weak, and only the aristocratic families are not thin but fat.
It is simply impossible to gather hundreds of thousands of troops from five states to fight like before!
What's more, there was unrest in all places, and the money and grain from the summer tax was just a drop in the bucket.
Cao Cao looked at the crowd with his narrow eyes, silent. He had been in the Grand Marshal's Mansion for some time, and could understand Huangfu Song's concerns, and he also fell into deep thought.
Xun You watched coldly and shook his head secretly.
"Let's wait for the discussion at the Minister's House."
Xun You realized that nothing could be discussed here.
……
While there was a commotion in the Secretariat, Liu Bian was in the armory, inspecting the latest weapons and equipment.
After walking around, Liu Bian came to the courtyard and rode the big white horse cautiously. Seeing that it was docile, he rode for a long time before he said to Zhao Yun with confidence, "This horse is good. Is it from Xiliang?"
Zhao Yun followed closely beside Liu Bian and raised his head and said, "Yes. They were sent back by Zhong Tingwei. There are a total of 120 horses."
Liu Bian stroked the horse's fur and saw that this horse was much stronger than the other horses. He smiled and said, "Well, the Zhong family really lived up to my expectations. With these horse breeds, the horse farm in the Imperial Army Camp will finally be useful."
Zhao Yun was a horse lover. He followed Liu Bian and wanted to reach out and touch one several times but then pulled back.
"His Majesty."
Pan Yin came running in, looking flustered and excited, holding a memorial in his hand, and shouted hastily, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."
Liu Bian was worried that the horse might get angry at any time, so he was very cautious. He glanced at him and asked, "Is there a fight in the Shangshutai?"
Seeing so many people around him, Pan Yin suppressed his excitement and said, "The memorial from the Imperial City."
Liu Bian took it quickly, opened it and looked.
This memorial was very thick, as if it was two books spliced together. Liu Bian frowned and read it carefully from beginning to end. His expression changed from a hint of nervousness at the beginning, to confusion, and then to curiosity, and finally to rapid breathing and excitement.
He flipped his right leg, jumped off the horse, patted the memorial, and laughed, "Good! Good! Good!"
He couldn't say anything other than good.
In this memorial, Huangfu Jianchang recorded in detail the course and results of the battle between Dong and Yuan, and reported on the basic situation of Yu and Xu.
A lot of words were also spent on describing how he robbed Dong Zhuo's money and food!
Pan Yin knew it, but he was still excited and kept laughing.
Zhao Yun and Dian Wei looked at the memorial curiously. They rarely saw Liu Bian lose his composure.
Liu Bian clapped his hands on the memorial, his eyes burning, countless thoughts flashing through his mind. After a while, he faced the gazes of the crowd and laughed, "Good news!"
As he spoke, he walked out quickly and said, "Go back to the palace!"
In this memorial submitted by Huangfu Jianchang, the total amount of money and grain he had robbed was recorded: 480,000 dan of grain, and money, including 200 million coins in cash, and other treasures were counted separately, the total amount was more than double.
Two hundred million coins is two million strings of cash, equivalent to two million taels of silver. You should know that the court's tax revenue at that time did not exceed seven hundred million for the whole year!
This is a windfall, a windfall from heaven!
Liu Bian walked very fast, thinking about how to use it. As soon as he got on the carriage, before he sat down, he said: "Huangfu Jianchang did a great job, reward him, a big reward! When he comes back, I want to see him first. Who is in the Imperial Guards Camp? Oh, Huang Zhong, order him to lead 5,000 troops to Yanzhou to escort Huangfu Jianchang back to the capital. No, the money and food will be kept in the Imperial Guards Camp for the time being, and don't let anyone know for the time being. Also, everyone in the capital must come to the Shizhonglu to discuss matters..."
Pan Yin hurriedly wrote down everything, climbed onto his horse, followed the carriage toward the imperial road, and approached the window, whispering, "Your Majesty, Wuling Governor Cao Yin has rebelled."
Liu Bian pulled open the curtains and asked in confusion, "Who are you talking about?"
Pan Yin handed over a memorial and said, "Cao Yin, the governor of Wuling, Jingzhou."
Liu Bian narrowed his eyes slightly, reached out to take the memorial, and vaguely remembered that this was the case.
After reading the memorial, Liu Bian nodded slightly, basically confirming it.
Cao Yin was at odds with Wang Rui and was afraid that Wang Rui would kill him, so he issued a manifesto under the pretext of another day in an attempt to strike first.
In history, he did so, and when Sun Jian got the chance, he led his troops to force Wang Rui to death. Then Liu Biao replaced Wang Rui as the governor of Jingzhou.
Asking for a monthly ticket~