Chapter 57

(for collection)

Yang Yi's character may have been the most gentle emperor in the founding of the Sui Dynasty, but this does not mean that he is a coward. In fact, the most rare thing in the hundred years since the founding of the great Sui Dynasty is that there was no cowardly emperor. Perhaps this has something to do with the habit of not passing on the eldest son in the big Sui Dynasty. The emperor will always choose the most aggressive of all his sons to inherit the throne.

Although the process of determining which offspring is more aggressive... Is somewhat cruel.

Perhaps this is also the fundamental reason why the great Sui Dynasty has not degenerated for more than 100 years. Although it is undeniable that corruption, bribery and even bending the law exist in both local governments and imperial courts, at least the great Sui Dynasty has strong national strength, especially force. What the emperor of the great Sui Dynasty was most proud of and hoped to be proud of all the time was the invincibility of the great Sui army.

Perhaps the emperors of the Sui Dynasty did not forget the history of the decline of the previous dynasty, so they always paid relative attention to the soldiers. You know, before the former dynasty was destroyed by the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Jian, it was once known as the largest country in the Central Plains. However, in the same country established by force, after a hundred years of peace, the emperors gradually forgot the truth that the knife in their hand had to be polished from time to time.

They are used to writing beautiful and prosperous poems with a pen in one hand, but they forget that this hand should have held the cold and sharp knife.

In order to prevent armed men from making trouble, the former Emperor, who only used civil servants, finally couldn't find a decent general to lead the war when facing the rebels led by Yang Jian. The former army, known as a million troops, collapsed rapidly under the destructive attack of the rebels with only a few thousand people in Yang Jian. Yang Jian's division of tigers and wolves against the former army won every battle like boiling soup and snow.

On the wall of the imperial study of Taiji palace, there has always been a piece of calligraphy left by Yang Jian, the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty.

It is as fast as the wind, as slow as the forest, as aggressive as fire, as motionless as a mountain, as difficult to know as Yin and as moving as thunder.

This is a passage written on rice paper with the blood of the former Emperor when Yang Jian led his army to defeat the last army of the former dynasty. To this day, the mounted handwriting hanging on the wall is still bright red. If you understand it carefully, this is a description of how to use troops. But Yang Jian's descendants believed that emperor Taizu was telling his descendants how to be a good emperor.

Yang Yi stood under the blood character and looked at Yu Donglai, the Minister of the Ministry of war, who knelt on the ground and dared not look up. He snorted coldly and said: "If it hadn't been carefully investigated by the people of the Qing government, this matter would have been hoodwinked by an application for merit from the Ministry of military. What worries me most is not that Li Xiaozong, whom I valued at the beginning, failed to live up to my hope, but that so many people in the imperial court helped him tell lies and blindfolded me!"

Yu Donglai felt a little wronged because he really didn't accept the benefits of Li Xiaozong. If it weren't for the merit request reported by General Li Yuanshan of youxiaowei, he would have forgotten the young general of the Li family who was transferred to the border city as a tooth general. But he really knew about fan Gu. His confiscation of silver doesn't mean that General Li Yuanshan of youxiaowei didn't send silver Son. There were two gifts to the Army Department at the beginning. One was from him and the other was given by Hou Jun, the minister in charge of the Army Department.

And fan Gu's great victory is handled by Hou Jun.

So he didn't know how to defend himself. Although he was wronged, he really neglected his duty.

Seeing that Yu Dong didn't speak, the emperor's face softened a little: "Hou Wenji, tell our military minister what happened to fan Gu. I haven't said for a long time. He doesn't know what his fault is!"

Hou Wenji, the caretaker of Qingya Town, leaned over and said, "I will obey your orders."

He came to Yu Donglai and whispered not far away: "In February of the eleventh year of God's blessing, the Mongolian Yuan bandits knocked down the pass, and fan Gu's garrison defeated Li Xiaozong, which led to the destruction of fan Gu city. All the 800 border troops and 2000 people in the city were slaughtered by Mongolian Yuan bandits. Li Xiaozong fled fearing his crime and hid in the youxiaowei army to seek shelter. The youxiaowei General Li Yuanshan led his army to the border pass. After fighting overnight, he recaptured fan Gu city and killed thousands of bandits. But To cover up the crime of Li Xiaozong's defeat and dereliction of duty, Li Yuanshan concealed the fact that all the people in fangucheng and the border troops died in the war in his memorial to the imperial court. "

"Ah?"

Hearing these words, Yu Donglai was surprised and couldn't help but utter a very light exclamation. Why is the story told by Hou Wenji so different from the truth he knew? He knew exactly what happened in fangucheng. So when he saw that the memorial said that the participating military headquarters knew but didn't observe a few words, he was scared and didn't dare to read on, but Hou Wenji Why don't you know at all?

So he subconsciously looked up at Hou Wenji and wanted to find some hints from Hou Wenji's face. But Hou Wenji just continued with a cold face and a flat tone: "On the day when fan Gu's city was broken, the Imperial Envoys came to fan Gu's court just the day before yesterday. They were surrounded by bandits. After fighting in the middle of the night, they were outnumbered and died in the country. After the war, General Li Yuanshan of youxiaowei cherished Li Xiaozong's talents, bribed military officials and thousands of Gao Tianbao, who was responsible for investigating the matter, and changed Li Xiaozong's defeat into a fierce battle, so as to win a great victory."

There are several key words. Li Yuanshan cherishes the talents of Li Xiaozong, so he covers up, not because Li Xiaozong is also from the Li family in Longyou. There are no plain words that sound like anything, and they often hide interesting information.

Hou Wenji looked at Yu Donglai expressionless and said, "this is the truth. Lord Yu understood?"

Yu Donglai is neither a fool nor an idiot, otherwise how can he be the Minister of war? After years of ups and downs in officialdom, he had a good grasp of the affairs of the imperial court. You can understand Hou Wenji's sentence. Ask him and he will know what to do.

"Sin minister, I see."

He bowed his head again and said to the emperor, "the guilty minister is greedy for work. He clearly knows that there is something strange and does not investigate it. It is for dereliction of duty. Please punish him. I dare not argue."

"I ask you..."

Emperor Yang Yi sat cross legged on the earth Kang again, looked at Yu Dong and asked, "how much silver have you received?"

……

……

"I plead guilty, but I'm true. I don't have the advantage of receiving a copper coin."

Yu Donglai bowed his head to the ground and said sincerely: "I have the crime of neglecting my duty, but I really dare not accept bribes and bend the law for favoritism. I failed to find the secret about fan Gu and Li Xiaozong, and I am ashamed of your Majesty's trust in me. However... Although my family is not very rich, there is no shortage of silver... I will definitely not dare to deceive your majesty because of some yellow and white things."

Yang Yi took a sip of tea and nodded; "It's true... Your Yu family really doesn't lack those money. Even if they are not much worse than Wu and his family. I ask you, how many people in the Yamen of the military department have received the benefits of Li Yuanshan, do you know?"

"The minister is not aware of it. In the past two months, the minister has been busy secretly recruiting people for food and grass, and other matters of the Ministry of war are the ministers and gentlemen."

The emperor, um, turned and looked at Hou Wenji: "I didn't expect that someone would betray me in the Qing Yamen."

He used the word betrayal.

Hou Wenji pulled up his robe and knelt down. He took off the beam crown on his head with both hands and bowed to the ground: "I'm disappointed with the master. I'm not qualified to continue to command the sentiment Yamen."

"Always take off your official hat. Are you not afraid that I think you are threatening me?"

The emperor asked coldly.

Hou Wenji raised his head and said, "I dare not, I feel guilty."

He spoke so simply that he didn't say a word to defend himself.

The emperor snorted, "if someone below makes a mistake, I'll take off the official hat of a principal, and the ministers and chamberlains of the ministries and offices of the Sui Dynasty won't sit so stably. You can't blame your subordinates for their mistakes, but the Qing government can't do this job well, so you have to continue. Cut the salary for three years, lower it one level, and you'll write a plea later."

"Thank you, your majesty."

Hou Wenji kowtowed.

"The thousand families... Since they are so willing to receive silver, bury him alive at the door of the household bank, so that he can see countless silver all day, but he can't catch a penny. The male Ding FA of the family is a slave in the frontier, and the female dependents... Send them to the weaving company to do slave work. Each person will be given a copper salary every month. When they have saved enough silver, they can go Slave nationality. "

The punishment of burying the corpse at the door of the silver warehouse was to let the thousand families be trampled under their feet all the time. How can you save enough silver for a copper salary a month? Don't talk about life. It will be difficult to turn over from generation to generation.

The emperor leaned back against the wall, rubbed some frowns and continued: "Li Yuanshan, the general of the right Hou Wei, perverted the law for favoritism and bullied the king. This crime is unforgivable, but he will be given a lighter punishment after reading his military achievements over the years. He will be reduced to a five-grade general, stay in the army for use, reduce 300 households in the city and pay a fine of three years."

"Fan Guya's General Li Xiaozong, although he fought hard, abandoned the city and fled after his defeat. He also tried to hide his defeat and bribed military officials... I don't blame him for his defeat. Can I blame a general who fought until the last soldier? When dealing with Li Xiaozong, ask him for me... Why don't you have the courage to face an enemy 20 times his own Me?! "

"I paid special attention to Li Xiaozong when he was in the martial arts academy."

The emperor opened the thick talent record on the table, opened it, found one of the pages, took the Zhu pen and crossed out Li Xiaozong's name: "unfortunately... I lost a promising general."

"Let the Ministry of punishment and Dali Temple ask for a crime. You can commit any crime you should commit."

The emperor put down his Zhu pen and said faintly, then looked at Yu Dong and said: "Go back and find out by yourself how many people in the military headquarters took Li Yuanshan's silver. Not only this time, but also Li Yuanshan's bribe. Since the people in the military headquarters dared to take Li Yuanshan's silver this time, didn't they dare to take others' money before? This is not the first time, and I don't have the tolerance and patience to let bygones be bygones. After checking, draw up a list, and some people sit in official positions After a long time, I forgot the awe I should have... In this case, why should I be stingy with the butcher's knife? "

"I will comply."

Yu Donglai quickly replied.

"Wait, I haven't finished yet!"

The emperor's eyes stopped on the record of reserve talents and said as he thumbed through the names written down by himself: "Yu Donglai was transferred to the post of minister of the Ministry of war and demoted to the position of minister of the Ministry of war to act as an agent of the Ministry of war. After returning home, I would like to check what you can find out. In addition... I will also be fined for three years. Li Yuanshan will take out how many bribes the officials of the Ministry of war have received, and tell me the number after counting."

"I want him to take out another one, plus his share of bribing officials and the salary you fined, and send someone to fan Gu. I want to build a cemetery for the border soldiers and people who died in the war in fan Gu. The rest of the money will be sent to the relatives of the border troops as a pension."

"They are the most loyal and brave soldiers of the great Sui Dynasty. They use their lives to tell me their loyalty to me and their feelings for the great Sui Dynasty. In a word, I am ashamed of them, and I blame myself. After Hou Wenji reported this, I specially checked the monthly salary of the soldiers of the border army. It was very distressing that they only took it when they were alive How can we not bury them after death when we spend some money to serve our country? "

"In addition... Yu Donglai, after you return to the military department, send someone to count the number of all the border troops in the Sui Dynasty. What I want is the real number. There must be people who eat empty rates, but don't let me know. After the statistics, I will discuss with the people in the household department to see if they can double the rates of the border troops. They defend the border for the country. I can't let them have enough to eat and wear."

"To tell you the truth, it's the frontier army's hard-working money!"

Speaking of these words, the emperor raised his head and looked coldly: "if you let me know who dares to hack the silver, I will kill his nine families. If the number of living people is not enough, I will pick up his ancestral grave!"