Chapter 3750 Struggle for power
The current situation can be described as "the clouds are clearing and the moon is bright" for the East Palace, and everything is great. However, after all, the offensive and defensive reversal has not yet been reached. The Guanlong rebels are still strong after receiving support from the world's nobles, and still have an advantage in military strength.
There are two roads before the East Palace, war or peace.
If they fight, it will definitely be a bloody and brutal killing. Together, the two sides have more than 200,000 troops attacking and killing each other around Chang'an City, which will do no more harm to the imperial society. Although there is no need to compromise and cede interests to Guanlong, the outcome is still unknown.
If there is a peace, the mutiny can be eliminated immediately, and the empire will quickly enter the recovery process, but it will inevitably cede its interests to win over Guanlong and stop the war. The resulting decline of monarchy and the rampage of powerful officials will take ten or even twenty years to resolve. Keep fighting to take it back.
War and peace both have advantages and disadvantages, and it is not easy to choose between them.
……
Liu Jie did not give in, straightened up, and said: "Your Highness clearly knows that although the situation has improved now, the rebels have already gained a greater advantage and will fight to the end. The outcome is unknown and will cause irreparable damage to Guanzhong. Your Highness With great righteousness and justice, we naturally have to shoulder the welfare of the people. You can't do anything and use any means. The rebels are already rebellious officials who only want to succeed in the rebellion and threaten the people of the world, so they naturally act without any scruples. Under such circumstances, they should start peace talks as soon as possible and take advantage of the opportunity to win by chance. Set the overall situation.”
Several big guys in the military curled their lips in disdain.
Fang Jun was beaten to death, and he was willing to take extraordinary risks to achieve a great victory in reversing the situation. Liu Ji said that he actually won by "lucky", which was really shameless.
Li Daozong said: "Liu Shizhong's words are wrong. Since His Highness is the most upright person in the world and has great righteousness, how can he easily collude with the rebels? Even if the military disaster is eliminated, it will inevitably become a stain that cannot be washed away. How can we convince the people of the world? ? Not to mention that after the peace talks, a group of traitors and traitors still occupied the court. Where is the law and justice? "
A series of questions were also high-sounding.
Today's alliance with the rebels seems to have ended the war and prevented further losses to the foundation of the empire. However, those rebellious ministers who have no king and no father will continue to stay in the court. If they succumb to being thieves, the prince's prestige will naturally be difficult to preserve, and he will suffer from it from now on. People all over the world criticize him.
History books will also regard this as a great shame and humiliation for Emperor Zhengshuo.
Liu Jie asked back: "But if we fail to annihilate the rebels and bring order to chaos in the end, who will shoulder this responsibility, and who can afford it? War is just a continuation of politics, and a soldier's bounden duty is to obey orders. As long as he is above the court, To make a decision, the military can just follow the orders. There is no need to say more, and don't stretch your hands too far in order to influence the government and deceive the emperor. This is what the powerful ministers do, and the whole world will condemn it. "
In terms of quarreling, how could Li Daozong be the opponent of Liu Jie, who was a censor?
He was so angry that he laughed and was about to scold him when Fang Jun said: "If peace talks are restarted, what conditions will be given to the rebels? In other words, what is the bottom line of the East Palace?"
Pointing to the core, Li Daozong also closed his mouth and looked at Liu Ji.
In fact, even if it is more in line with the interests of the military to continue fighting, the military does not reject peace talks now. After all, the Guanlong clan has always occupied high positions since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, and the military was based on the Guanlong army. Sweeping the world and pacifying the four directions, he has always been closely connected with the Guanlong clan.
Seriously annihilating the Guanlong clan may not necessarily serve everyone’s interests...
Of course, the military will never tolerate the civil servants headed by Liu Jie and others simply negotiating for the sake of peace, and then transferring too many benefits of the East Palace.
Because the problems are obvious, the most important condition for Guanlong to agree to the peace talks is the restriction of the Donggong army. Otherwise, as long as the Sixth Army of the East Palace and the Youtun Guards continue to grow, the East Palace can counterattack the Guanlong clan at any time.
Liu Ji had his own concerns, but he did not dare to say it outright at this time, because no matter what he said, it would inevitably arouse opposition from the military and cause the situation to get out of control.
Therefore, he just said vaguely: "The peace talks have not yet started. It is too early to discuss this point. After the peace talks, we will slowly test and game, and ultimately your Highness will need to agree before we can finalize it."
Fang Jun shook his head, ignored Liu Ji, and turned to Li Chengqian: "Your Highness, the peace talks are of great importance, and the situation of the army is the basis of the peace talks, so Wei Chen believes that the military should be involved in the peace talks. , can control the current situation at any time, so that Liu Shizhong will not be blinded, and eventually be deceived by the rebels, harming the interests of the East Palace."
When Liu Jie heard this, he firmly objected: "Absolutely not! The military has a tough style and can't bear to see the sand in its eyes. How can it make concessions and move forward and retreat freely during negotiations? Previously, the Duke of Yue brazenly raided the rebels, which led to the termination of the peace talks. We must not repeat the same mistake now.”
Not only him, but this time even Xiao Yu also nodded in agreement: "The war is over and the rebels have suffered heavy losses. If the East Palace military is involved during the peace talks, it will inevitably arouse the hatred of the rebels and be detrimental to the progress of the peace talks."
Although they are extremely dissatisfied with Cen Wenwen's support for Liu Ji, both sides have the same interests in this matter, and the military must be excluded from the peace talks. In fact, as long as there are ministers in the court who are interested in peace talks, no one is willing to let the military participate.
Li Jing has a high status and is impatient with these complicated affairs. As a royal family, Li Daozong has deep entanglements with Guan Long, so neither of them is suitable. If the military participates in the peace talks, it can only be done by Fang Jun himself. And with Fang Jun's current status and qualifications, how can Liu Jie suppress him?
Moreover, Fang Jun is clearly opposed to the peace talks. If he joins, the peace talks will be in trouble...
Li Chengqian waved his hand and said decisively: "Let Liu Shizhong take the lead in presiding over the talks, find out the rebels' demands as soon as possible, and then formulate corresponding peace talks terms."
This is tantamount to complying with the wishes of Liu Jie and others and excluding the military from the peace talks.
Regardless of whether he is inclined to Fang Jun or not, he still has the idea to win over the civil servants of the East Palace. The world's principles, civil and military affairs, cannot be ignored without the support of the military, right?
As a prince, he can be distant and distant in his heart, but his behavior must be as fair as possible. When civilian officials are so resistant to the military's participation in peace talks, he cannot insist on forcing the military into the peace talks team.
After all, "balance" is everywhere...
Li Daozong was dissatisfied and was about to express his opposition when he was secretly poked by Fang Jun. When he looked at Fang Jun suspiciously, the latter had already nodded and said: "Your Highness clearly understands that I will obey the order."
Liu Jie and others all breathed a sigh of relief.
Given the prince's favor and trust in Fang Jun, and the fact that Fang Jun now has the power of a great victory, if he insists on participating in the peace talks, the prince may not be able to refuse. Fortunately, Fang Jun knew the general situation and knew that peace talks were the most correct thing to do at the moment. Otherwise, Li Ji, who was stationed at Tongguan, would be a sharp sword hanging over the head of the East Palace. No one knew whether or when he would fall. ……
……
At the end of the meeting, all the ministers exited in unison, talking in low voices and leaving in twos and threes.
Li Daozong stood at the door and waited until Fang Jun came out. Then he asked his soldiers to hold umbrellas to block the rain, and together with Li Jing who came out later, they returned to his residence at the inner gate.
This is a house not far from the prince's residence. Although it is small in size, its architecture is exquisite and its interior furnishings are also different from ordinary military buildings. It was probably the residence of generals in the past.
The three of them took off their boots at the door, stepped on the smooth floor and entered, sitting at the coffee table by the window. Li Daozong boiled water and made tea himself.
The water in the pot was spraying white air. Li Daozong took off the kettle and started to make tea. After the soldiers offered several plates of pastries, Li Daozong waved his hand and dismissed him.
After drinking tea and eating a piece of snack, Li Daozong asked: "Why did Cai Erlang stop me just now? Those civil servants are now blinded by the achievements of the peace talks. They only want to hold all the achievements in their hands and don't care at all." What kind of losses will the East Palace suffer, and what kind of restrictions will be placed on our army... If we cannot participate in it, who will protect our interests? ”
Maybe he didn't care too much about the benefits he would gain from this mutiny, but as a member of the military, he watched the troops belonging to the East Palace fight to the death to turn the tide, but in the end the fruits of victory were seized by civilian officials, and even Selling part of the military's interests in exchange for Guanlong completing the peace talks as soon as possible... Li Daozong was disgusted.
Fang Jun disagreed and took a sip of tea. His tone was calm but full of domineering: "So what if we don't participate in the peace talks? We have the troops in our hands. If we feel that the terms of the peace talks are inappropriate, the worst we can do is start a war directly. A few greedy civil servants can't succeed. Climate.”(End of Chapter)