In the evening, Yuanhe hosted a banquet in honor of Li Xun.

Sima Zhong is getting older, and he has been busy training new recruits during this period, which has hurt his body. However, after two days of training in the city, his complexion is much better. After all, he has led the army for many years, has been on the battlefield for many years, and has exercised regularly, so his body is still very good.

Tough.

There were not many people at night, just Li Xun, Yuan He and Sima Zhong. Li Xun called Li Cunxiao and some other officers from the new military camp to come over, but as of now, no one has come, and they probably won't come.

Sure enough, the soldiers came to report that Li Cunxiao had just issued an order three days ago. In the past half month, the training of all soldiers in the battalion will be further strengthened. During this period, no one is allowed to ask for leave. Li Cunxiao is the person in charge of training. The order is

If Li Xun insists on letting him do it, please cancel this order in the name of the governor.

When Li Xun heard this, he praised: "With Li Cunxiao here, why worry about not having a strong army? I have no worries!"

Sima Zhong also smiled and nodded, and said with considerable praise: "Li Cunxiao does have a good way of training soldiers, which is better than me."

Li Xun looked at him and chuckled: "In that case, old general, it's better to follow me back to Wuzhou. You are always away from the Governor's Mansion. There are still many things waiting for you to deal with. It's not easy to stay here all the time.

.”

Sima Zhong thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll go back to Wuzhou with you this time. With Li Cunxiao here, I have nothing to worry about."

"With you always here, our Governor's Mansion has a backbone."

Sima Zhong smiled and scolded: "You kid, don't give me ** soup. You are the governor of Wuzhou. The backbone is yours, not mine. I'm just giving you a hand."

Li Xun chuckled and said: "As long as you help me, old man, I, Li Xun, will be under a lot of pressure!"

"There is motivation only when you are under pressure. Do your best, boy, and I will keep an eye on you."

Sima Zhong laughed and said.

"If you stay here all day long, I will never dare to be presumptuous."

Li Xun complimented, Sima Zhong is a very good person. His failure was due to his low political quality, but such people are often very cute and do not have too much selfishness. When Sima Zhong first came, Li Xun

In fact, it was just a show, and I was still very wary of him. After all, with such a veteran working under him, I would have some strange emotions in my heart. However, after getting along with him for a period of time, I became familiar with Sima Zhong's personality and character.

Xun Xun really fell in love with him, and he and Fan Zhongyun were left to handle many matters in the Governor's Mansion.

"Captain, since there is no one else, let's get started. The heat of the food and wine will not wait for anyone."

Yuanhe pointed to the food and wine on the table and said with a smile.

Li Xun smiled and nodded, raised his glass and drank with everyone.

Here in Longyou, everything is peaceful and quiet, but in the Central Plains region, a new wave of waves has begun again.

Zhao Zhi continued to increase his troops in Hedong Road, bringing the number of troops to more than 100,000. Such a large-scale deployment of troops was unprecedented. Since Wuzong, the three generations of emperors before Zhao Zhi had never done so in order to ease and stabilize Hebei and Hedong Road.

There are so many heavy troops, and the prince is personally in charge.

The aggressiveness of the imperial court finally caused a backlash from the five major vassal towns in Hebei. This backlash may not be very strong, but it represents a signal. The imperial court is now strong. We are willing to accept weakness and are willing to pay the price, but we must have a degree of restraint. You Zhao

Don't do things too far with wisdom. If you go too far, you will lose everything.

Following Zhang Jinghui, the military envoy of Zhaozhou, the other four military envoys who had not taken any measures in the previous period had an attitude this time, and it was a common attitude.

There are two attitudes, the strong side and the soft side.

The five major vassal towns in Hebei have both alliances and confrontations. When the imperial court was weak, they often fought among themselves for reasons such as territory and wealth. But now that the imperial court has become stronger, they have stopped fighting among themselves and moved toward alliance.

Li Conggu, the military governor of Weizhou, and Chen Qingqing, the military governor of Hengzhou. Their territories connected Hedong and Henan, the two most important towns, Weizhou in the southeast and Xiangzhou in the west. At the beginning of Zhao Zhi's succession to the throne,

The strength of these two important towns was 30,000 at the beginning. However, as Zhao Zhi worked hard to govern, the court slowly recovered its strength, and the country began to recover. The strength of the two states of Wei and Xiang gradually decreased, and finally remained at around 10,000.

, it can be seen from this that the five major vassal towns in Hebei's awe of the imperial court is getting stronger and stronger, but this does not mean that they are afraid of the imperial court.

The five major vassal towns gathered in Zhaozhou. What they discussed was unknown to outsiders, but from their next actions, one could guess that they had reached a certain consensus.

The military strength of Wei and Xiangzhou increased from 10,000 to 20,000, which is not much, but this is an attitude. Behind Li Conggu and Chen Qingxin, Zhaozhou Jiedushi Zhang Jinghui and Youzhou Jiedushi Tian

Zhang, on the other hand, reduced the border defense forces on their territory with Li Conggu and Chen Qingqing on a large scale, or even withdrew them all. This is also an attitude. We will no longer be suspicious of each other. If the imperial court really attacks, you

There is no need to worry about us attacking you from behind. You can respond with all our strength. We at the rear will also provide full support in terms of troops, financial resources, etc.

On the other hand, the five major military envoys in Hebei jointly submitted a petition to remove themselves from the title of county prince, and handed over the list of officials at all levels in Hebei's twenty-five prefectures and seventy-nine counties to the court to express their submission.

From now on, the appointment and dismissal of officials in Hebei Province will be handed over to the unified control of the imperial court. They will only be in charge of the army and will no longer interfere in local government affairs. They will also pay a one-time tribute of three million taels of silver and countless various properties to the imperial court.

This move of the five major vassal towns in Hebei immediately caused shock in the world, and countless people talked about it.

The military power in the Pingzong period was actually much stronger than that in the current Zhao Zhi era. In the Pingzong period, the central imperial army had as many as 400,000, but now Zhao Zhi has less than 200,000 in his hands, plus the military strength of Hedong Road.

, it was only just over 300,000, which was weaker than in Pingzong's time.

But some things cannot just be viewed in terms of quantity, which is too single and too narrow, but must be thought about and considered in the context of the entire larger environment.

During the Ping Zong Dynasty, the Central Forbidden Army had a large number of troops, but he had no soldiers and no outstanding military generals. There were many parties in the court and constant disputes. The internal political environment of the court was very unstable.

Now, with Liu Jie's appointment, the disintegration of the Left Prime Minister's Party, and the reorganization of the Political Affairs Hall, it has been peaceful for so many years, and cracks have appeared in the political environment within the court, but as long as Yang Daosi does not retire from the position of Right Prime Minister for one day,

Down, Zhao Zhi still maintains restraint, this crack will be firmly held down by a force, and the entire court will not undergo major changes and will still remain relatively stable.

Externally, with the great and glorious results achieved in a series of wars such as the White Turban Rebellion, the Battle of Jiangnan, and the Battle of Longyou, the morale of the army was high and the military strength was strong. All the major military governors in the world were afraid. Li

Zhong, Yu Wenzhen, Huang, Ma Wu and others are all military generals who are good at fighting and have great talents. They need talents and numbers. Under such a big environment, how can they refuse to accept the five major vassal towns in Hebei? Dare they?
Chapter completed!