In order to prevent being deceived by official documents, according to the rules set by Li Zhongyi, officials above the fifth rank of the imperial court are qualified to write secret notes to him.

Allowing officials to write him secret notes in private was actually not Li Zhongyi's initiative, but a crooked trick that Kang Mazi came up with with a wild boar skin.

It is said that it is a crooked trick, but in fact, allowing officials at a certain level to have the right to give the emperor a secret code, invisibly, strengthens the control over officials.

As the saying goes, tigers also have times to nap, let alone people?

If you are human, you will make mistakes, and Li Zhongyi is no exception.

Li Zhongyi's original intention in implementing the secret system was to understand the real people's conditions in various places. However, the side benefits are significant.

For example, if the governor of Adi did something bad, the general judge and the officials in the state did not dare to fight, but they could report the truth of the matter to Li Zhongyi in the Mizali.

It was only at this time that Li Zhongyi truly understood that Kang Mazi's true intention was actually to let the Han officials supervise and restrain each other, so as not to harm the Manchurians together.

With the growth of his reign, Li Zhongyi's side slowly gathered a group of low-level scholars.

Li Zhongyi used the name of Shangshufang to organize these ministers into a real secretarial team to facilitate consultation and decision-making.

This is mainly a secret code from all over the world, there are too many, even if Li Zhongyi doesn't sleep every day, it is impossible to complete all the secret documents.

Of course, these Wenchen, who run errands in the upper study, belong to the concept of external chronicles, and Ye Xiaolan and Han Xianglan belong to the concept of internal chronicles.

In front of Li Zhongyi, there was a sand table of the situation of the mountains and rivers of Shaanxi Road and Shu, and on the sand table, the deployment of troops of the two countries was clear at a glance.

From the southwest of Shaanxi to attack Shu, you have to pass through two big hurdles, one is the Qinling Mountains, the other is the Daba Mountains, and the total length of the mountain road is more than 300 miles at the shortest.

However, there were many Shu generals in the forbidden army of the Qiang Han Dynasty, such as Yang Lie, Yang Wushuang, He Dabei and others.

Among them, Yang Wushuang, who is the secretary of the General Staff, is even more familiar with the mountains and rivers of Shu. After all, his family has been in the mountains for eight generations, and they are all hunters in the Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountains.

Many officials and soldiers don't know the trail, but Yang Wushuang is a doorman, which adds a few points to the battle of Shu.

In this expedition to Shu and the Western Expeditionary Army, Song Yunxiang's department has been near Fengzhou for three years. Moreover, with the assistance of He Dabei, who also knows the secretary of the General Staff, the geographical disadvantage has actually been narrowed to a negligible extent.

As for Liao Shanhe, except for Li Zhongyi, a Shu person, the generals above the deputy commander in the army are all Shu people.

On the other hand, on the side of Shu State, the general of the unified army sent by Meng Chang was actually the privy envoy Wang Hui.

When Li Zhongyi was still in Shu, he had heard of Wang Chuhui's "glorious" deeds. To put it bluntly, Wang Chuhui is Zhao Kuo in the new era, good at talking on paper.

What's more, Wang Chuhui is a native of Chengdu, and the backbone officers under Li Zhongyi are almost all hunters of Shu.

Before the war started, Wang Chuhui was on the terrain and had already lost three points, how could this battle be fought?

Shu State, Chengdu Mansion.

"Old lady, according to the letter from the meticulous work lurking in Kaifeng City, the Han Emperor Li Zhongyi has quietly left the capital." The chief butler whispered the news he had received.

Old lady Zhao was speechless for a long time, and suddenly sighed and said, "Shu is in danger!" ”

"Old lady, why do you say this?" The chief manager asked Mrs. Zhao puzzled.

Old lady Zhao sighed and said: "Jinyang is narrow and there are few people, and there are Khitan people behind it, Li Zhongyi must be aiming at our Shu country." ”

"Old lady, it's a pity that the emperor doesn't trust the head of our family, and Leng handed over the military power to the king to return to that fake Taoist priest." The chief butler scolded the king angrily.

This Wang Chuhui was originally a fake Taoist priest who relied on fortune-telling to cheat money, but he didn't know how, so he fell into Meng Chang's eyes.

Meng Chang is a traitor, but in fact, there is nothing, even Li Zhongyi has villains around him, let alone Meng Chang?

But the problem is that Li Zhongyi will never give the military power to the hands of the villain, but Meng Chang is the opposite.

To put it bluntly, although Mrs. Zhao and Li Zhongyi have an old friendship, he is still willing to fight with Li Zhongyi.

After winning the war, the interests of the Zhao family are naturally guaranteed. If you lose, it's a big deal to surrender with your whole family.

Li Zhongyi's actions in the north, Mrs. Zhao doesn't know everything about it, at least she understands seven or eighty percent.

The Zhao family has today, mainly relying on the real power of the Xiaorui Army. However, with Li Zhongyi's temper, as long as he enters Chengdu Mansion, the military power will definitely be taken away.

The Zhao family is a family of military generals, and there is no reading seed in the family, so how difficult is it to take the road of Wenchen?

It's just that what makes Mrs. Zhao angry now is that Meng Chang doesn't need to let Zhao Tingyin, a general, believe in the tongue-in-cheek Wang Chuhui, which is really annoying.

To tell the truth, Li Zhongyi did two major things in Kaifeng, and Mrs. Zhao couldn't agree with them.

The first is the land restriction order, and the second is the profit restriction order, both of which have greatly damaged the fundamental interests of the big landowners.

Under the name of Mrs. Zhao, there are more than 100,000 hectares of fertile land, and the annual land rent collected accounts for more than seventy percent of the entire Zhao family's source of income.

From this point of view, how could Mrs. Zhao give up and have already eaten a large piece of fat in her mouth?

As the saying goes, the butt determines the head, and Mrs. Zhao is a member of the big landlords, so it is naturally impossible for him to agree with the land restriction order and the profit restriction order.

In the afternoon, Zhao Tingyin returned home from the army, and when the old lady Zhao heard about it, he sent someone to call Zhao Tingyin over.

"My lord, what's the matter with calling the child?" Zhao Tingyin saluted respectfully.

Mrs. Zhao stroked her beard and said: "The meaning of cutting down Shu over there in Kaifeng is no longer self-evident, and our family's position should also have a result." ”

Zhao Tingyin has been pondering this matter these days, and when he saw Mrs. Zhao asking, he arched his hand and said: "My lord, our family has an old relationship with Li Zhongyi, if you go over, you don't dare to say that you will be rich and noble for a long time, at least your life is worry-free." ”

Old lady Zhao understood that Zhao Tingyin wanted to simply vote for Li Zhongyi, after all, Meng Chang didn't trust their old Zhao family.

"Have you ever thought about it, once you vote for Li Zhongyi, our family's thousands of acres of fertile land will no longer be able to be saved?" Mrs. Zhao forced Zhao Tingyin to ask.

Zhao Tingyin smiled bitterly and said, "It's much better than having a big feud after the battle, right?" ”

Old lady Zhao understood, what Zhao Tingyin meant was that Shu was definitely not Li Zhongyi's opponent.

"According to what you say, we are not Li Zhongyi's opponents?" Mrs. Zhao wanted to ask her son clearly, so she asked again.

Zhao Tingyin sighed and said: "Li Zhongyi conquered the party in the west, Pinggoryeo in the east, and more importantly, the Northern Expedition recovered the Youji Prefectures. The Central Plains is rich and powerful, there are many people, and Shu is in a corner, so I am afraid it is not an opponent. ”

The more the old lady Zhao listened, the more frightened he became, and the more he listened, the more he felt that the situation was sinister, and Zhao Tingyin had not calculated Meng Chang's mediocrity and incompetence, and he already thought that Shu was not Li Zhongyi's opponent.

"Father, the key is that we have an old relationship with Li Zhongyi." Zhao Tingyin didn't want to meet Li Zhongyi's sword soldiers, mainly because he wanted to leave a way back.

After all, without the Zhao family's rescue at the beginning, Li Zhongyi's father and son were afraid that they would have fallen to the ground long ago.

Just when the father and son were discussing, they suddenly got an astonishing news that Meng Renyi, the king of Kui, was arrested by Meng Chang and put in prison.

Meng Chang has always been jealous of Meng Renyi, which is no secret in Shu. It's just that Fang Jin's strong enemy is about to overwhelm the border, but Meng Chang has destroyed the Great Wall, which is really terrifying.

However, what the Zhao family didn't expect was that that night, Meng Chang actually sent troops to surround the Zhao Mansion and put the old lady Zhao and Zhao Tingyin into the prison together.

In the next few days, all the powerful families who had anything to do with Li Zhongyi were all arrested by Meng Chang and put in prison.

I have to say that Meng Chang's decision to arrest people this time is unprecedentedly wise and martial.

People like Mrs. Zhao, although they are hindered by the land restriction order and the profit restriction order, do not want to be restrained. However, after all, there is the old love in the past, and the determination to resist Li Zhongyi is not so firm.

If you go outside, you must first settle inside, Meng Chang's decision is not wrong!

After all, anyone can surrender Li Zhongyi and keep his position, but Meng Chang himself cannot.

After Li Yu was captured and went to Kaifeng City, he was unexpectedly sealed by Li Zhongyi as an unpleasant disobedient marquis, how could Meng Chang not take it as a warning?

It may be a bit too much to rather die than surrender, but resolutely not surrendering is Meng Chang's proposition.

After Li Zhongyi stayed in Jingzhao Mansion for half a month, Song Yunxiang, the general of the expedition to the west, was summoned to the temporary palace in the city.

"General Zhengxi, the head of the Shaanxi Road Soldiers and Horses, and the minister Song Yunxiang knocked to see the emperor." Song Yunxiang respectfully bowed to Li Zhongyi's feet.

Li Zhongyi smiled and waved his hand and said, "Get up, I haven't seen you for some days, it's weird." ”

"The minister also misses the emperor very much, but Shu Meng has not faced, and the minister has no face to bow to Tianyan." Song Yunxiang stood up, clenched his fists and arched his hands, and his attitude was unusually submissive.

Li Zhongyi smiled and ordered: "Come here, give a seat, serve tea, and serve melons and fruits." ”

After all, Song Yunxiang is a general in the field, and he is an old courtier who has followed him for many years, and the necessary grace is a matter of course.

After Song Yunxiang sat down, Li Zhongyi asked him with a smile, "Are you ready?" ”

Song Yunxiang got up again and said respectfully: "If you go back to the emperor, the preparations for the northern road to cut down Shu are basically ready, and just wait for the emperor to give you an order, and the army can go straight south." ”

Li Zhongyi nodded and said with a smile: "The army of 100,000 is divided into two, and the distance is hundreds of miles, so it is impossible to go hand in hand." ”

Song Yunxiang hugged his fists and said: "Your Majesty, the minister heard that the first person to enter Chengdu was crowned a marquis, but is there such a thing?" ”

As soon as Li Zhongyi heard this, he smiled, Song Yunxiang must have used this to express his confidence that he would win this battle.

"Shiguang, this is a critical period before the war, what I want to say is that it is better to give up the fighter than to lose the battle, understand?" Li Zhongyi was most worried about the generals' greed and recklessness.