Chapter 5 first quarter
The closer Liu Kai's business trip gets to the destination, the more excited and excited he feels.
Liu Kai's hometown is in the Deshun Army, which is only about three days away to the west of Weizhou.When he was leaving, the officials also asked him to drop by to visit his old father who was recuperating at home due to illness, but Liu Kai did not plan to go back to his hometown considering the importance and tension of the task.
In Liu Kai's view, like the Deshun Army, Weizhou is also his hometown.Ever since his father Liu Zhongwu served as a senior officer in the Western Army, he has taken his son with him for a long time. He even spent more time in Weizhou than in the Deshun Army.Therefore, despite the fatigue of the journey, his state of mind was very refreshed.A sense of joy as a wanderer returning to his hometown kept pouring out of his heart.
When he rode lightly and galloped into Weizhou City, this joyful mood reached its peak.
Weizhou is not a commercial city. It used to have only three to five thousand residents. However, it has long been the seat of the Jinglueshi of Jingyuan Road and the command of all the roads in Shaanxi. The most prosperous city among the five roads in Shaanxi.There are many houses and shops in the city, and there are some neighborhoods and markets that are almost as beautiful as Tokyo.Liu Kai has been familiar with this since he was a child.
Although Weizhou is the center of the military headquarters of the Northwest Army, as a fortress city on the front line of the military, it was already 80 years ago.In recent years, there have been basically no large-scale battles between the Northwest Frontier Army, its powerful enemy Xixia, and the military local regimes established by the Qiangs scattered across the border. Even if there were wars, they took place in remote areas hundreds or thousands of miles away.Even so, according to the old tradition of the Northwest Frontier Army - "Don't rely on the enemy not to attack, but rely on what we cannot attack", the city is still placed under strict military guard.There are deep trenches outside the city, frequent patrols inside and outside the city, and strict inspections, especially near the military headquarters, where the guard posts and environmental sanitation are very strict.This set of defense system was established when Zhong Shiheng, Zhong Er, etc., the ancestors of Zhong Shidao, were the commanders-in-chief of the Western Army. Cast iron is generally poured.All this is also familiar to Liu Kai.
The short separation of a few years has not changed much in this ancient city.Liu Kai is familiar with everything about it, and even among the many sentinels on duty and residents who come and go on the street, there are many people who are familiar or seem to have known each other.He greeted them kindly one by one, and sometimes simply jumped off the horse to exchange greetings with them, and tried hard to search for the pleasant memories of their youth.
The old inhabitants of the old cities are endowed with an old fixed and persistent character.They will not easily forget a friend, and they will not easily change the good impression they once had of a friend.They greeted Liu Qi with clumsy, not-so-emotional gestures and words, but they meant that they were courteous, and they really welcomed him, as if they were still with him yesterday, as if they had never parted hands ( In fact, Liu Kai served in the Xihe Army before going to Tokyo to serve, and it has been six years since he left Weizhou).Liu Kai felt more relaxed after receiving such a warm and considerate reception, and wished he could run all over the city, visit all old friends, and reconnect with old friends after he finished his official business.
But this happy and relaxed feeling was quickly overshadowed by another heavy and serious atmosphere.He never expected that when he came to the east gate of the military headquarters, Zhong Shidao, commander of the Northwest Army, had already led a large number of generals and subordinates to bow and greet him outside the gate.Contrary to the residents, there is no sense of nostalgia in their respectful and dignified expressions.He himself was not treated as an old subordinate or comrade in arms by them, but was received politely by them as an angel with a heavenly constitution in his mouth and a secret edict in his body.It doesn't make him comfortable.
Liu Kai's mission has a certain degree of confidentiality.He didn't go through the normal procedures to announce his whereabouts beforehand. He planned to ride lightly and come to the military headquarters without disturbing everyone.Unexpectedly, Zhong Shidao played the wonderful role of being a military strategist by surprise and attacking his unpreparedness. Where did he find out about his presence, and arranged a dramatic welcome scene outside the gate in advance, which made Liu Kai's plan to resort to personal feelings come to naught. , Liu Kai felt that he had suffered a setback in this outpost.
Now that the matter has been made public and his angelic identity has been exposed, he has no choice but to follow his plan, stay with him to the end, and play out the scene seriously.
He took out an imperial edict wrapped in yellow silk from his luggage, held it respectfully in both hands, and walked in front of the group of people who greeted him majestically, and walked straight into the main hall of the military headquarters that he was familiar with.At this time, all the gates facing the main hall were opened for the angels, and the guards with knives, spears and halberds stood on both sides of the corridor and steps like cast iron, forming a strict and cold atmosphere.Liu Kai walked up to the incense case that had been set up for him in advance, and solemnly announced:
"Chang Shi Dao came to listen to the secret decree, and the rest of the people are not allowed to enter!"
With an expression of displeasure, Zhong Shidao waved his hands vigorously to the people following him, as if he believed that just waving this hand that commanded a hundred thousand troops would produce unexpected effects.Sure enough, after a sound of clanging swords and hurried footsteps, everyone in front of and outside the hall quickly retreated to the distance.Then Zhong Shidao scratched his right foot (it was shot and wounded by the Xixia people in the battle of Zangdi River, which made him slightly disabled), lifted up the robe that didn't fit well because of his broken foot, and tried his best for his age. At the speed of permission, he approached the front of the incense table, knelt down with difficulty, and listened to Liu Kai read the edict in a clear and clear voice:
"The imperial edict said:
"Qing Shiji is loyal and well-versed in military affairs. He has worked hard in the western frontier for years and has become a national leader. If there is no reward, why reward mediocrity? He was specially promoted to be the Jiedu envoy of the Baojing Army, and he was still in charge of the five routes of Shaanxi. The imperial court has a conquest. After receiving the edict, you can go to Taiyuan Mansion to discuss military affairs with Tong Guan, the new envoy of Xuanfu in Hebei, Shaanxi, Hebei, Shugudian scholar Liu Wei, Zhixiong Zhou and Shen. I have made great achievements that will not live up to my expectations. Liu Kai is my confidant, and also an old friend of Qing. If you come here on my behalf, you will be able to understand the will. If you have any doubts, you can analyze and clarify them with Liu Kai. With a deep understanding of my ambition, I went to the military plane quickly.
"This!"
While reading the edict, Liu Kai stood in a condescending position and calmly observed Zhong Shidao's reaction.
Liu Kai's impression of Zhong Shidao has always been heavy, clumsy, and big.In the few years since Liu Qi left him, Zhong Shidao has undergone obvious physical and morphological changes, but the feeling of heaviness, clumsiness, and bigness has not changed along with his physical changes.
The change of a teacher's morality is first manifested in his physique and appearance.
Zhong Shidao has been in the army for decades and has experienced hundreds of battles. He has suffered many knife wounds, gunshot wounds, arrow wounds, sprains, and falls, and each wound seems to only add new vitality to him, but makes him appear even stronger. Strong and robust.What surprised Liu Kai was that the long-term war life could not destroy the youth of Zhong Shidao, but in the three years of peace, it made him grow old rapidly and obviously.He was the kind of man who, when he was not old, looked very old at once.The wrinkles on his face deepened and became denser.The lacrimal sac protruded so prominently that his eyes were shrunk and looked swollen.His beard and the hair exposed under the fringe are already white, his movements are more clumsy than before, and his thought reactions seem to be more sluggish than before.
Now he was listening very hard to the edict read out by Liu Kai, and he couldn't fully understand the meaning of it all of a sudden, but he had a series of questions:
Jiedushi is the highest rank that military officers can reach (it is almost impossible to be crowned king if you go up).Dozens of members from three generations of their family served as military officers in the Northwest Frontier Army, and some of them became commanders-in-chief of the entire army and strategic envoys along the way. title.It can be said that it is the most lofty honor that the Zhong family has longed for and pursued since the past 70 or 80 years, and it is also the most noble honor that Chong Shidao himself has been in the army for more than 40 years.Nevertheless, according to an old rule handed down by the Zhong family for many years: they don't give anything to others, unless they are sent or rewarded; they don't accept things from others, unless they think they have The sheer right can get it when.Between taking and giving, there is a certain amount of propriety.Although Zhong Shidao has a strong desire for power and promotion, he has self-knowledge. He doesn't think that in the past few years, he has made any outstanding military exploits that surpassed the two generations of his ancestors and fathers, and he deserves such a heavy reward from the Jiedu Envoy. .So what does this sudden and unreasonable promotion mean, and what mystery does he have no way of understanding?He is very vigilant, and he is very afraid that the dignitaries in power will use the bait of Jiedushi to catch him as a big fish.He is a big fish who knows well what is cold and warm, and can distinguish between good and bad, and he refuses to take the bait easily.
Furthermore, according to the long-standing tradition of the Western Army, they absolutely do not want others to interfere in their affairs, and they do not want to intervene in other people's affairs. The military affairs of Hedong and Hebei should be in charge of the northern frontier guards.For more than a hundred years, because He Liao has maintained a humiliating peaceful situation and there has been no real war, this army has long been paralyzed, and currently only a He Shen, who is fundamentally amateurish in military affairs, serves as the ruler in name.Their Northwest Army and Northern Army have their own boundaries, and they have never interfered with each other.He, as the commander-in-chief of the Western Army, why does Zhong Shidao need to go to Taiyuan Mansion to discuss military affairs, and deal with He Shen, whom he despises so much?
In addition, Tong Guan, who was born as a eunuch, had a smooth career in his official career. He was promoted from supervising the army of the Western Army to leading the Privy Council, and now he is also a three-way Xuanfu envoy. This means that the two major systems of the Northwest Frontier Army and the Northern Frontier Army The entire military organization will be placed under his Tong Guan alone, which puzzles him again.There are so many heroes in the world, but this eunuch is supposed to be in charge of the military. Wouldn't it make the morale short of breath!Chong Shidao used to work with Tong Guan in the west for many years, tried his best to restrain his contempt for him, and barely got used to the bad policy of the imperial court sending servants to the front-line combat troops to serve as supervisors, and effectively put Tong Guan in a position of enjoying the benefits Above all, give him merit and honor without letting him intervene in actual military affairs.Even so, Zhong Shidao is still very wary of Tong Guan's domineering personality and domineering style. For such an eunuch, there is no friendship at all, and what good results can be discussed with him? ?
None of this series of questions could be answered and resolved by the current understanding of the teacher's way. He just missed the most important sentence in the official edict: "The imperial court has condemned."Although he had made an estimate beforehand, but because he didn't hear this sentence clearly, he was even more uncertain about some of the above questions.He just vaguely felt from the imperial edict that a mighty vortex that was about to drag him into a swift vortex, a powerful wave that might cause him annihilation had violently hit him.
This kind of teacher is an old-fashioned soldier and a conservative bureaucrat. In military affairs, he is satisfied with defense. Even if he goes out, he only needs to defend.The turbulent state of affairs since Xuanzheng and Xuan will inevitably be reflected in the army. All of this does not conform to the old rules of behaving like a teacher, nor does it conform to the old traditions of the Western Army for many years.He tried his best to build numerous embankments within his ability, in an attempt to prevent it from being affected.Now, facing this imperial edict, the thing he tried his best to avoid inevitably came to his door.
Although Zhong's teacher's reaction was slow, the coherence of these fragmented thoughts gave him a very dissatisfied impression.To this he reacted accordingly, singing almost in his own anger:
"Leader!"
Then he stood up with Liu Kai's unexpected and hasty movements, and took the imperial edict from Liu Kai's hand. Liu Kai felt that his steady hands seemed to be trembling a little.
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