Chapter 301 Firearms Department
Yelü Chongyuan gave his son 50,000 soldiers and horses, and went to ambush the soldiers and horses that Yelu Yixin had transferred back from the border.
Unfortunately, because of the news that the Song Dynasty had increased its troops, the success fell short.
Even so, Yelu Chongyuan did not let Yelu Nerugu lead his troops back, and continued to stare at the south to prevent the troops from over there.
These 50,000 soldiers and horses were the most elite soldiers and horses in his hands, but he did not expect to be ruined by Yerunelugu like this.
Yerunerugu covered his face and looked at his father.
His eyes are narrow and long, and his face is gloomy. When he looks at people, he gives people a very uncomfortable feeling.
Even as his biological son, Yelu Zhongyuan felt very uncomfortable.
“Tell me, what’s going on!” shouted Yelu Zhongyuan.
"After receiving the order from my father, I stood still. The governor of Tanzhou sent someone to contact me, saying that he wanted to surrender the city to his father and invited me to enter the city..."
"Have you entered the city?"
Seeing that Yelu Zhongyuan was about to get angry, Yelu Nerugu quickly said: "I only agreed to the surrender of the governor of Tanzhou and did not enter the city."
"Then how could he be attacked by surprise? Are you a fool, who didn't take any precautions when he heard that the Tanzhou governor had surrendered?" Yelu Zhongyuan said angrily.
"No, the boy was naturally prepared. It was the governor of Tanzhou and Mubatu who jointly sent troops to attack. Although the boy was prepared, there were too many enemy troops and he was outnumbered, so he was defeated." Yerunelugu said.
Actually, he did not tell the truth. The governor of Tanzhou surrendered on his own initiative and sent people to reward the army with food and drinks.
Yelu Nerugu was in a good mood and felt that Mubatu would not attack by surprise, so he summoned the generals of the army to drink together.
The generals were all drunk, and the camp was robbed. Soon the camp was breached.
Yelunerugu escaped under the desperate protection of his own soldiers and the chaos at night.
Although Yelu Zhongyuan will know this sooner or later, but now that Yelu Zhongyuan is angry, how can he dare to say it.
“Waste!”
Yelu Chongyuan kicked Yelu Nerugu down without even looking at him, and ordered his generals to be summoned to discuss countermeasures.
He launched a sneak attack, but unexpectedly Yelu Yixin also went with him.
It’s just that his sneak attack failed, but Yelu Yixin succeeded in the sneak attack.
That's 50,000 elite soldiers. The most elite soldiers and horses under his command only have a total of 100,000.
Now that half of it was lost at once, Yelu Zhongyuan’s heart was bleeding.
That is to say, Yerunelugu is his son, otherwise he would have the intention to kill.
Loss of soldiers and generals is not a big deal, the biggest impact is the wavering of military morale.
If he cannot stabilize the morale of the army, he will have no choice but to withdraw.
This is something Yelu Zhongyuan is unwilling to accept.
In fact, Yelu Yixin's side is stronger than him.
It's just that Yelu Yixin is not difficult to completely control.
If he retreats and gives Yelu Yixin time to integrate, it will be difficult to say who will win and who will lose.
…………
Zhao Xing did not know the situation on the Liao side.
He spent a day handling government affairs in the palace, tried on the newly made dragon robe, and returned to the East Palace in the evening.
In the main hall of the East Palace, Zhao Xing drank some tea, and Cao Mian walked in.
"I pay my respects to Your Highness!" Cao Mian saluted.
"No courtesy."
Zhao Xing waved his hand and asked someone to give Cao Mian a seat, and said: "I am going to set up a Firearms Department under the Ordnance Supervision, and I want you to be the Firearms Department. Envoy, what do you think?”
The Cao brothers are in charge of the left and right guards of the East Palace.
Now Zhao Xing has no son. After he ascends the throne, the East Palace will be empty.
The Cao brothers can only enter the Dianqian Division.
But the commander-in-chief of the Dianqian Division is their father Cao An. If they also enter the Dianqian Division, the Forbidden Army will become the sole voice of the Cao family.
As the Emperor's personal soldier, Zhao Xing would definitely not allow this situation.
It’s not about trust or distrust, a necessary balance is definitely required.
But he had just ascended the throne and it was difficult to replace Cao An in a short period of time, so he could only arrange for the Cao brothers to go elsewhere.
It just so happened that Zhao Xing had the idea of researching firearms for a long time, but he never took action.
He planned to set up a firearms department and let Cao Mian manage it.
"Your Highness has an order, so I naturally have no objection. It's just that I don't know anything about weapons and I'm afraid of betraying His Highness's trust." Cao Mian said.
Although he doesn’t know what the Firearms Department does, he knows what the Ordnance Supervisor does.
The Ordnance Supervisor is responsible for researching and building ordnance. Since Zhao Xing said that the Firearms Department was established under the Ordnance Supervisor, it must be related to ordnance.
"You don't have to worry about these. The manpower corps will mobilize people from the Ordnance Supervision and the Ministry of Industry. The corps will be arranged in due course. Your task is to ensure that the secrets of the Firearms Department are not leaked at all." Zhao Xing said .
"I obey the decree!" Cao Mian responded.
"There is a piece of wasteland more than ten miles west of the city, and there are no people nearby. The Firearms Department is established there. All the soldiers and horses under your command are designated as the guards of the Firearms Department. When the construction is completed, you Just take people there," Zhao Xing said.
"What about His Highness's safety?" Cao Mian asked worriedly.
"It's almost time for Gu to ascend the throne by then. Gu won't leave the city, so there won't be so many guards." Zhao Xing waved his hand.
“Yes!” Seeing Zhao Xing say this, Cao Mian didn’t ask any more questions.
"You go back first." Zhao Xing waved his hand.
Zhao Xing doesn’t expect to be able to build guns, as long as he can develop more powerful gunpowder.
Today’s gunpowder is too weak. If the power of gunpowder could be increased, it would still be enough to blow up cities even without guns.
Both Liao and Xixia occupied many cities.
Even if the Liao and Xixia civil strife were greatly reduced, if they wanted to destroy the two countries, the Song Dynasty would suffer huge losses.
But it’s different with gunpowder. It can completely blow up the city.
The next morning, Zhao Xing was dealing with Zazi.
An eunuch walked in and saluted: "Your Highness, the young Yin of Kaifeng Prefecture, Sheng Hong, would like to see you."
"Let him come in."
Zhao Xing put down his pen, picked up the tea cup and drank a few mouth.
As soon as the tea cup was put down, Sheng Hong walked in.
"I pay my respects to His Highness the Crown Prince!" Sheng Hong saluted.
"No gift!"
Zhao Xing smiled and said, "I wonder why Sheng Aiqing came to see me?"
Sheng Hong held a tie in both hands and bowed: "Your Highness, The matter that His Highness asked me to investigate has been found out. Please take a look at it!"
"I won't read it. Sheng Aiqing, please tell me." Zhao Xing waved his hand.
“Yes!”
Sheng Hong said: "Kang Wang, the eldest wife of the Kang family, has used various means to kill nine concubines in the family over the years. The evidence is conclusive."
"It's really shocking!" Zhao Xing said with a gloomy face: " Sheng Aiqing, what should be done according to the law for the crime committed by this Kang Wang family? "
" According to the law, he should be exiled for three thousand miles!" Sheng Hong said.
The so-called exile of three thousand miles is just a saying. The size of the Song Dynasty is not known to be three thousand miles.
Zhao Xing frowned and said: "Nine lives, why is the punishment so light?"
"Back to Your Highness, everyone killed by Prince Kang has a physical bond, and such punishment is completely in accordance with the law." Sheng Hong said.
Zhao Xing frowned even more when he heard this. Although the ancient laws provided certain protection for servants and concubines who sold themselves, in the final analysis the laws still favored the powerful.
Only the King of Kang killed more people, otherwise he would have been punished with the rod and passed away.
"Bianjing is the most virtuous place. If this incident spreads, it will be too shocking. Forget about being exiled, just send the person to the Criminal Punishment Department directly." Zhao Xing said lightly.
With the Wang family taking care of him, he won’t have much hardship in exile.
This is too cheap for Kangwang.
"Yes!"
Sheng Hong responded, bowed and said: "I am guilty!"
"Oh?" Zhao Xing looked at Sheng with a half-smile. Hong said, "What crime did Sheng Aiqing commit?"
"Kang Wang is the biological sister of my wife. My relatives committed this serious crime, but I did not notice it. It is really a serious crime!" Sheng Hong bowed. road.
"In that case, let's fine him half a year's salary." Zhao Xing said.
Of course he knew that Sheng Hong's claim of not noticing was a lie, and Sheng Hong even helped cover up the Kang Wang family.
But this kind of thing was too common in ancient times.
If we really want to investigate further, who among those high-ranking families has not killed several servants?
Who reported it to the government first according to the law?
It's better not to beat him to death, but take the initiative to fine him some money, and the matter will be over.
The social situation is like this. Even if Zhao Xing ascends the throne and rules the world, it will still not change.
"Thank you for your forgiveness, Your Highness!" Sheng Hong secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The reason why he took the initiative to plead guilty was because he guessed that Zhao Xing should know that he had covered up the matter of the Kang Wang family.
Now it seems that Zhao Xing really has no intention of pursuing the matter.
"This time Sheng Aiqing can be regarded as righteous. Now I am busy supervising the country. Kaifeng government affairs require Aiqing to worry about it. Thank you for your hard work." Zhao Xing said.
Sheng Hong was very excited when he heard this and said: "This is what I should do."
Although Zhao Xing did not say it explicitly, the meaning in his words was already hinted. When he ascends the throne , Sheng Hong will be allowed to take over the post of Kaifeng Governor.
After sending Sheng Hong away, Zhao Xing continued to deal with government affairs. However, he was not busy for long when Empress Cao sent someone to invite him to come over.
Zhao Xing was a little confused. He had been supervising the country for some time, and Queen Cao had never sent anyone to look for him.
With doubts, Zhao Xing went to Renming Palace.
As soon as I arrived at the palace gate, I heard the voice of Queen Cao talking to someone.
Entering the main hall, Zhao Xing saw that in addition to Queen Cao, there was also an old lady in her sixties, wearing imperial robes, sitting and talking to Queen Cao.
Zhao Xing walked in, and Queen Cao and the old lady both looked over.
Seeing it was Zhao Xing, the old lady stood up quickly.
"My son, I pay my respects to my mother." Zhao Xing saluted.
"Ms. Wang Liu pays homage to His Highness the Crown Prince." The old lady saluted.
"No courtesy." Empress Cao waved her hand and said with a smile: "Fu'er, this is the widow of the late Mrs. Wang."
Zhao Xing was stunned at first when he heard this, and then felt a twinge in his heart. Sneering, he thought Sheng Hong was honest, but he didn't expect that he would play tricks on him.
Sheng Hong reported the investigation results to him, and then the old lady of the Wang family came into the palace. It was obviously Sheng Hong who revealed it.
After all, Mrs. Wang is not in Bianjing. How could she suddenly come to Bianjing at such an old age?
However, Zhao Xing remained calm on his face and said with a smile: "Mrs. Wang doesn't need to be too polite. She was taught by Mrs. Wang when she was a child."
(End of Chapter)< br>