Fenghou

Chen Qing accompanied Zhang Jun to the horse training team, Zhang Jun asked with a smile: "There are still stones tied to the legs, is this practice effective?"

Chen Qing said with a smile: "The effect is very good. They have a stable foot and will not fall easily, especially when the two armies are fighting!"

"Then it should be popularized among the armies in the Northwest!"

Zhang Jun turned to his staff and said, "Write it down and remind me later."

Zhang Jun visited other trainings and was full of praise. The ability of a general can be seen from the training of the army.

I was not mistaken, Chen Qing was really good at training the collapsed Ximenxiang Army to such an elite level.

"Is there any difficulty now?"

Chen Qing shook his head: "Today, someone from the Privy Council came to help us solve all the difficulties, so we don't need to bother the envoy for the time being."

Zhang Jun smiled slightly and said: "The Privy Council is not easy to deal with! It takes a lot of begging to ask them to do something. This time you wiped out Zhang Kui, and the political achievements will be counted on the Privy Council's head, so they are willing to take the initiative to help you do things." , but the Ministry of War may not be too happy."

"That can't be helped, it's not a humble decision."

"It's true that it has nothing to do with you, but you are the one who gets hurt in the end!"

Zhang Jun sighed softly, pointed to the tent in the distance, "Let's talk in the big tent!"

A few people came to the tent, Zhang Jun sat down and said: "This time you exterminated Zhang Kui, it is not a big or small contribution. According to the usual practice, you can be promoted to three ranks, and your generals can also be promoted to one rank. Privy Council It has already been reported. The Western Army does not have such a good reward. It is good to be promoted to a higher level. It is also because Muzhou is too close to Lin'an. Everyone pays attention to it. Heavy punishment can be said to have advantages and disadvantages.”

"Understandable!"

"In addition, you and Liu Qiong will represent our Western Army in the military training competition next month. The army you are leading now also represents the Western Army. I hope you will go all out to let the emperor and the court ministers take a good look at our Western Army. style."

Chen Qing clasped his fists and said, "The humble position will never disappoint the envoy!"

Zhang Jun pondered for a while and then said: "Actually, I came to you today for another reason. I think you can guess that Yushitai has already impeached you, impeached you for brutally killing prisoners and privately dividing the spoils of war."

Chen Qing smiled and said: "I met that supervisory censor Wang Huan in Chun'an County, but I didn't expect to be charged with these two crimes, and they think too highly of me."

"This time there is quite a commotion. Yushitai is just a vanguard. The real person who wants to deal with you is Xiangguo Fan Zongyin."

"That's why I said that they think too highly of me."

"They are actually not dealing with you, but against me. If you are successfully impeached, then as the coach and the person who recommended you, I will also be implicated. Many ministers who originally supported me will be silent because of this, while the originally neutral ministers There will be a tendency, so I pay more attention to this matter than you."

Chen Qing said apologetically: "I'm sorry for the humble job, I've got the Xuanfu envoy involved!"

Zhang Jun waved his hand, "I should be the one who got you in trouble. In fact, killing prisoners is not a big problem. It is a bit troublesome to divide the spoils privately. Tell me first, how much did you take?"

Chen Qing shook his head, "I didn't get a penny for the humble job!"

"You tell me the truth!"

"It's true that I didn't take any money, and I didn't take any spoils. All the money in the humble job adds up to only 1000 taels of silver, which is the rest of the [-] taels of silver that the envoy rewarded me last time."

"Have you used up all the 1000 taels of silver?"

"The humble job was given to Yang Hua's family who died in battle. His family only had an old mother, his wife, and two young sons. If he died in battle, the family would not be able to survive."

Zhang Jun stared at Chen Qing for a long time, and finally nodded, "I believe you are an upright person, but integrity is not enough in the imperial court struggle, you must learn to defend yourself, you must have sharp fighting methods, talk about it, Do you have any idea?"

Chen Qing thought for a while and thought: "The humble staff thinks that the best way to deal with it is to be open. Any despicable backstabbing can't be used in full view, so the humble staff hopes to have the opportunity to confront Yushitai or Fan Xianggong openly!"

"Makes sense!"

Zhang Jun stroked his beard and said with a smile: "I will try my best to get a place where everyone can see for you to defend."

……

That night, Zhang Jun visited Prime Minister Lu Yihao. Lu Yihao is the prime minister, and his attitude is particularly important.

More importantly, Lu Yihao grew up on both sides of the Northwest since he was a child, and he is proficient in the military. He was also from the Western Army.

In the guest hall, Lu Yihao picked up a teacup and said with a smile: "Brother Deyuan, when you went to Shaanxi Road to take office, you were full of ambition, and you have become so unconfident in just two years? A small impeachment made you so nervous!"

Zhang Jun smiled bitterly and said, "If it wasn't for Fuping's defeat, I wouldn't be so passive!"

"I have also read the impeachment papers of Yushitai. In fact, there are no charges that are really unacceptable, such as plundering the people, raping women, or lax military discipline, indulgence and disturbing the people, etc. I have not seen it, which means that you are a subordinate. It’s still very good, to manage rogue soldiers like the Ximenxiang Army submissively, so you don’t have to worry too much, those two petty charges won’t make any waves!”

"Lu Xianggong, I also know that the two charges are not serious, but with Yu Shitai's impeachment and Fan Xianggong's prejudice, if one of the charges is not convicted, Fan Xianggong will lose face.

But even a small negligence is not fair to Chen Qing, and it will have a great impact on his future. He is a general of the Western Army who has made great achievements, so I specially recommend him to study martial arts. If he Even if I was convicted innocently, I can't explain to the soldiers of the Western Army! "

Lu Yihao pondered for a moment and said, "On this matter, I'm afraid I can only keep silent!"

Zhang Jun was really disappointed. He originally expected Lu Yihao to stand up and uphold justice, but he didn't expect that he didn't want to offend Fan Zongyin either.

Of course, Zhang Jun also understood in his heart that Lu Yihao actually didn't want to take sides on his own issues.

Helpless, Zhang Jun had no choice but to settle for the next best thing, "In fact, there is no need for Lu Xianggong to intercede for him. I just hope that Lu Xianggong will give Chen Qing a chance to defend himself. Fair."

Now that Zhang Jun has reached this point, Lu Yihao has no choice but to give this face. He thought for a while and said, "There will be an issue of dealing with the traitor Zhang Kui in the morning court the day after tomorrow, so I will arrange Chen Qing as a witness in the morning court the day after tomorrow." In the court, I will add Yushitai's impeachment to it, and then he can defend himself!"

Chapter 71 Debate

The early dynasty of the Song Dynasty was one dynasty every five days, which was established by Wang Anshi when he reformed the law, and it has been used since then.

Before dawn, Chen Qing set off. He did not live outside the city last night, but in the Taixue dormitory. Yesterday, an official from the palace supervisor found him and told him the general court etiquette, and left He has a Wubian official uniform.

In fact, there is not much difference in the court uniforms of civil servants, except for the difference in hats and accessories. Civil servants wear Jinxian officials on their heads, military commanders wear cage crowns, civil servants wear seal ribbons around their waists, and military commanders wear beryl jade around their waists.

The court time is at 06:30 pm, which is [-]:[-] in the morning. It lasts for one and a half hours and ends at [-]:[-].

Chen Qing still rode his horse to Da Nei, where there was a special storage place for horses. After a while, he arrived at the main gate of Li.

Officials from the upper dynasty have arrived one after another. The court meeting is generally for officials who go to court, and has nothing to do with rank, so most of the officials are relatively young. This is also a characteristic of the Song Dynasty. Most of the senior officials are false officials, and the real power is in the middle and lower officials. hand.

They are mainly officials from Shangshu Province, the Privy Council and the Three Divisions, who respectively hold the three major powers of politics, military and finance.

On the square of the Daqing Palace, the officials who arrived early gathered in twos and threes to chat, basically talking nonsense, not talking about business, this is the poem written by Xin Qiji: Now that I know all the sorrow, I want to say it, I want to say it Hugh, but said it was a cool autumn.

Although the Song Dynasty did not kill civil servants and officials did not have to worry about their lives, on the other hand, power struggles, factional struggles, and position struggles were very fierce.

For example, the struggle between conservatives and reformers in the Northern Song Dynasty, the struggle between the capitulators and the anti-golden faction in the early Southern Song Dynasty, and various other factional struggles and power struggles.

The civil servants fight each other, and if they say a word wrong, they will be caught. Therefore, it is normal for the court to dismiss and demote. It is precisely because of the disaster that the officials only talk about three-pointers when they meet people, or only talk about romance. .

But once they entered the state of struggle, it would be shameless. Everyone was not polite, they dared to say any vicious words, and they would not save the other party any face at all.

It is because there is no need to worry about personal safety that the court hall is filled with gunpowder smoke, and various personal attacks even surpass the battlefield. Sometimes even the emperor can't bear it, and flees in despair, allowing the two factions to tear each other there.

"Fan Xianggong is here!"

Someone shouted, and a soft sedan was lowered.

Chen Qing saw a tall, white and fat official coming out of the sedan chair. He was very young and looked to be in his early 30s. He should be Fan Zongyin, known as the youngest Xiangguo in the Song Dynasty.

Chen Qing heard someone beside him chuckle again, "The hat is not on right, I guess there are only two photos today!"

Chen Qing also heard about this allusion from Hu Yantong yesterday, saying that this Xianggong Fan was extremely narcissistic and was overwhelmed by his handsome appearance. He had to look in the mirror three times every morning before he would go out.

But extremely narcissistic people are extremely conceited and proud at the same time, with extreme personalities, and they are easy to go to extremes. Therefore, the young prime minister in history died young at the age of 37.

Chen Qing stood in the distance, watching the three-photographer's every move with cold eyes. As expected, this tall, fat and handsome young man was extremely proud, and he ignored the officials who greeted him along the way. He walked slowly with his head down, and soon went to Xiangguo's rest area.

"Master Qin is here!"

Someone shouted and attracted Chen Qing's attention. Qin Xianggong is naturally Qin Hui. Is this famous treacherous official in history finally going to show his face?

I saw an official walking out of a blue soft sedan chair. He was about forty years old, with pale skin, a pair of triangular eyes, and a smile on his face. He kept saying hello to the officials. The defiant Fan Xianggong and Qin Hui are more amiable and approachable.

At this time, Qin Hui saw Chen Qing, and he immediately walked up with a smile.

"You are General Chen!"

Chen Qing was slightly taken aback, "Qin Xianggong knows humble officials?"

Qin Hui chuckled, "I heard that General Chen is going to testify today. You are the only general I don't know, so I can guess."

Chen Qing clasped his fists and saluted, "Chen Qing is the humble one!"

Qin Hui asked again with a smile: "General Chen and Lu Xianggong are very familiar?"

It seems to be a random sentence, but it hides the edge. Today, Chen Qing's testimony in court was a temporary arrangement by Lu Yihao. Qin Hui realized that this arrangement was unusual. Is this the relationship between Chen Qing and Lu Yihao?Or did Zhang Jun ask Lu Yihao for help?It was Lu Yihao's own arrangement, but no matter what the purpose was, it was to make the matter public.

From this, Lu Yihao's position can be seen, on the surface he is neutral, but in fact he is secretly playing along with Fan Zongyin.

Chen Qing smiled, but didn't answer, and Qin Hui punched nothing.

Qin Hui laughed dryly, turned around and left.

'when!when!when! '

The cloud panel of the Daqing Hall knocked, and the ministers began to go to court.

An official of the prison in the palace came quickly, bowed to Chen Qing and said, "General Chen, please follow me!"

Chen Qing followed the officials to the Daqing Hall. Although the sky was just getting dark outside, the hall was brightly lit. Hundreds of officials in the hall stood according to rank. Chen Qing was a military general of the seventh rank. Yes, he was the only one in the entire area, and the surrounding officials were all bowing their heads and chatting, as if they were talking about today's issues.

At this time, the sound of drum music sounded, and the emperor Zhao Gou walked in from the Duo hall on the right surrounded by dozens of court ladies.

The supervisor in the hall on duty shouted loudly: "Kaichao, salute!"

All the ministers bowed together and saluted, "Long live, long live, Your Majesty!"

Zhao Gou waved his hand lightly and said, "My loves, no courtesy!"

Zhao Gou sat down, and Li Xun, the young supervisor in the palace, read out today's agenda items. The first issue was the report on the extermination of the traitor Zhang Kui.

"... Zhang Kui, the leader of the bandits, was besieged by officers and soldiers outside the city of Suian County. Zhang Kui had also been awarded the title, and the three hundred forbidden troops from the bandits were also wiped out. Zhang Kui's leader, the Privy Council, had verified his integrity and confirmed that he was himself. Zhang Kui rebelled and rebelled. That's the end of the case..."

After Li Hui finished reading the report, the hall was completely silent, and the emperor Zhao Gou asked coldly: "Do you have any objections to the report of the Privy Council?"

If there is no objection, there is no need for Chen Qing to testify, but if the minister has objections, then Chen Qing is required to testify.

"Wei Chen has something to say!"

Zhang Jun's eyes were narrowed, and as expected, Fan Zongyin stood up.

Fan Zongyin walked out from the team and said, "Your Majesty, I don't have any objections to the report of the Privy Council, but I have some doubts about the details of this bandit suppression, which involves an impeachment report by Yushitai. Since Chen The commander is also here, I think I can use this opportunity to clarify the matter, please allow your Majesty!"

"Prelude!"

Fan Zongyin looked at Chen Qing from a distance, and waved his hand, "Commander Chen, please come out!"

Chen Qing came out slowly, and there was a murmur of discussion in the hall. No one thought that Chen Qing was so young, and it was the first time Zhao Gou saw Chen Qing. This young general who was the same age as him was tall and straight, His handsome appearance filled Zhao Gou's eyes with admiration.

Chen Qing stepped forward and knelt down on one knee, and gave a military salute to Zhao Gou, "The last general of the Western Army, Chen Qing, see Your Majesty!"

"General Chen will die without courtesy!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Chen Qing stood up straight and asked Fan Zongyin calmly, "What questions does Xianggong Fan need to clarify?"

"I saw an impeachment report about you, accusing you of brutally massacring soldiers a month ago, is there such a thing?"

"Surrender?"

Chen Qing sneered and said: "I don't know what the definition of surrender is. If it is a soldier who surrendered, I have never killed it, but if it refers to bandits, is the word surrender too beautified? Kill the prisoners."

"Even if it's bandits! The report said that after the battle, there were hundreds of injured bandits. Instead of treating them, you ordered them all to be executed. Is this true?"

"There is such a thing!"

"Then why don't you treat them, but kill them?" Fan Zongyin looked at Chen Qing sharply.

"Reporting to Fan Xianggong, first of all, I want to say that the war is not over. It was at night, the ground was full of bandit corpses, and there were many injured bandits who were still alive. They still had spears and knives in their hands. Stabbing my soldiers to death, we don't know if Zhang Kui has retreated, are there many enemy troops still ambushing outside the city?

Fan Xianggong, I want to say it again, the war is not over, and there are no prisoners of war. The war is still going on, but it has changed from defending the city to positional warfare. It is a battlefield. It's either you die or I live. It's too cruel, so I have nothing to say. "

Fan Zongyin was speechless for a while, and he said for a while: "You not only killed them, but also cut off the heads of more than 1000 people to show the public, isn't that too cruel?"

Chen Qing laughed out loud, and suddenly he stopped his smile, stared at Fan Zongyin and asked coldly: "There are more than a dozen human heads hanging outside the gate of Yuhang. May I ask Mr. Fan, is this too cruel?"

Chapter 72 Debate

Amid the murmured discussions in the hall, no one thought that the dignified Xiangguo would be publicly humiliated by a commanding envoy without any mercy, which made Xiangguo extremely embarrassed.

Some people were happy to hear it and watched the excitement from the sidelines, but some felt that Chen Qing was committing the following crimes, and his tone and attitude were very disrespectful.

But the emperor didn't speak, so no one could stand up and accuse Chen Qing of being rude.

Fan Zongyin was so angry that his face was livid. A small battalion commander even publicly accused himself in the court, but he was speechless when he refuted him, which made him unable to step down, which was completely beyond his expectation.

But he also realized that there were loopholes in the impeachment report. Wang Huan did not distinguish clearly between the battlefield and the prisoners of war, and took it for granted that the wounded were prisoners of war.

"Quiet!" Li Xun, the young supervisor in the hall, shouted, and the hall fell silent.