At the same time that Guo Xu got Yuan Zhenqian's recital, Lu Zhongtian also received Yuan Zhenqian's private secret letter. On the letter, Yuan Zhenqian expressed his respect and gratitude to Lu Xiang. Thanks to him for finding his ancestral Xueji Sword for himself, so that he can make up for his ancestors' regrets. Of course, in the end, it is inevitable to express your attitude and loyalty.

"Lu Xiangde is looking forward to long, and he is the mainstay of stabilizing the situation at this moment. Lu Xiang's appointment as a privy envoy is the expectation of everyone and the desire of the people. I will do my best to assist Lu Xiang in performing his duties, and if necessary, I will be humble in my duties. I know that many people will scold me for being ungrateful, but I don't care, this is from the public heart, for the sake of my Great Zhou Jiangshan Society, even if there is slander, I will sneer at it and ignore it. But with a clear conscience, there is no fear of rumors. ”

In the face of power and status, Yuan Zhenqian didn't even hesitate too much to make what he thought was a realistic choice. How much can affection be worth compared to benefits? Yang Jun is good to himself, but he is dead now. The living Yang Jun may be worthy of his own awe, but the dead Yang Jun is useless.

The imperial court promoted himself, and he was promoted and rewarded richly, which was to give himself courtesy and respect, so why should he not know how to promote. Do you really want to do something for Yang Jun? Do you really want to ask for an explanation for a dead Yang Jun, and to anger the emperor and Lu Zhongtian? Could it be that he could really do anything great with these 250,000 soldiers and horses at hand? The answer, of course, is no. In this case, why bother to offend Tianwei and Lu Xiang, why not push the boat with the water, turn a blind eye. Lu Zhongtian wants to win over himself, so he will push the boat along the river, and after that, Lu Zhongtian will only take more care of himself in terms of money, food, and military salary, and he will sit in this northwest land, as long as the soldiers are good enough to be a soil emperor. Why think too much about other things?

A big stone fell to the ground in Guo Xu and Lu Zhongtian's hearts. What they are worried about is Yuan Zhenqian's attitude, and now Yuan Zhenqian has chosen to stand on the side of the imperial court, that is, he has chosen to be loyal to the imperial court. That's definitely not going to be anything out of the ordinary.

As for the reaction of other armies, the forbidden army in the capital has no need to worry, because the forbidden army has always been very subtle in the appointment of generals because of its special status. As the appointment of the general of the forbidden army to defend the capital and defend the emperor, Yang Jun was very cautious when he was alive, and he did not dare to install his cronies to be in charge. Because if you do that, there is a suspicion of bad intentions. In fact, the appointment of all generals of the forbidden army requires an additional procedure, that is, the appointment of generals above the middle level must be submitted to the emperor for approval. When the first emperor Guo Chong was alive, he personally appointed more than a dozen generals.

Yang Jun's control over the forbidden army in the capital is actually the lowest, on the contrary, Lu Zhongtian is quite scheming to stuff a lot of his own people into the forbidden army. It's called trade-off. The struggle for power in the court was intertwined and wrestled with each other. Where you can't do it, I'm naturally going to go further. In the realm of your tight control, I can only concede three points. Taking advantage of Yang Jun's sensitive and cautious attitude towards the forbidden army, Lu Zhongtian placed many important positions to his cronies.

Now, among the forbidden troops in the capital, the commander of the palace is Bai Qi, who is appointed by Guo Xu himself. The commander of the guard Ma Junsi was Feng Zitang, who was originally the privy deputy envoy of the Great Zhou, and he was half of Yang Jun's person. The commander of the Guards Infantry Division was originally the little prince Guo Kun, but since he and Lin Jue left the capital, this position was concurrently held by another privy deputy envoy, Li Sanshan. But not long ago, when Yang Jun led the army to go on the expedition, Lu Zhongtian had already suggested that Guo Xu promote Wu Kuisheng, the commander of the Guards Ma Military Division, to serve as the commander of the Guards Infantry Division, and remove Li Sanshan's part-time job. Although Feng Zitang is Yang Jun's person and the privy deputy envoy, this person is not a cause for concern. Because this person has long been old, he has been in a state of semi-sick retirement a year ago, and the positions of the commander of the Ma army and the deputy privy envoy are only nominally reserved, and the chief of the guard Ma Jun Division is the deputy commander Li Rong, and this person is already Lu Zhongtian's person, and he is a member of Lu Zhongtian's plan to let a large number of guards in the palace enter the forbidden army a long time ago and infiltrate the forbidden army. Including that Wu Kuisheng, they are all the best in this plan. With Lu Zhongtian's secret help and their own efforts, they climbed to a high position in the forbidden army. At this moment, it was the time for them to take control of the forbidden army.

Therefore, the forbidden army in the entire capital will not cause much commotion because of Yang Jun's death.

As for some local soldiers, including hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in the northeastern border towns, there are actually some worries. But that's exactly what Lu Zhongtian will do next. If these Yang Jun's henchmen in the local area are aware of the current affairs, if anyone dares to move, then Lu Zhongtian will be ruthlessly purged. Even if they remained silent, Lu Zhongtian would purge some of them.

Now, Yuan Zhenqian's biggest worry no longer exists, and Lu Zhongtian has nothing to fear. He decided to start working on Yang Jun's henchmen. If he wants to finish controlling the army, some people are destined to become stepping stones, which must be kicked away. After obtaining Guo Xu's consent, Lu Zhongtian began his purge operation.

In early August, the imperial court issued a decree to summon the commanders and deputy commanders of the garrisons from all over the country to come to the capital to meet them. Nominally, it meant that the emperor would discuss matters in the army with the officials in the army, summarize the reasons for the defeat in the Liao war, and listen to opinions in person on matters related to improving the combat strength of the army. It sounds like a summons to listen to the opinions of the generals in the army, but in fact, this is a feast. Because all the targets of the notice were the generals on the list of Yang Jun's remnants that Lü Zhongtian had spent several days making up, Lü Zhongtian wanted to take advantage of such an opportunity to carry out a major purge and a great rebellion. Obviously, some of the generals who came to the capital would not have a chance to return alive, and those who could leave alive could only be those who declared their allegiance to the emperor or Lu Zhongtian.

……

In the middle of August, although most of the Great Zhou is still hot summer, there is no feeling of autumn. However, in the land of Yanyunbian Town, there are already signs of autumn coming.

The sky was blue and the trees on the slopes of the wilderness began to change color. The originally verdant mountains and wilderness are now showing signs of color. This transformation will become rapid, only after a month and a half, and soon autumn will be strong and autumnal. In September, the weather will be significantly cooler, which means that winter is not far off.

Bazhou, a majestic city in a large surrounding town, stands tall among the mountains at this moment. The city in this large surrounding town has experienced countless battles, and the tall walls are mottled and potholed, and they are covered in scars. Like a weathered old man. But over the past hundred years, despite countless attacks and dangers, it has never been captured by the enemy. Therefore, the border city of Bazhou is, to some extent, already a psychological totem on the northeast border of the Great Zhou. If Bazhou is not lost, the border town will still be stable, which is already an unwritten consensus in the hearts of the soldiers in the border town.

At this moment, on the city tower in the north of Bazhou, two figures are standing at the battlement of the city tower, looking at the undulating mountains in the north and the red and yellow mountains in autumn and talking. One of them was tall, with a dark complexion, a look of deep apprehension on his square face, and a furrowed brow. The man standing beside him, though he was wearing armor, had a well-built physique, elegant demeanor, and a scholarly demeanor. However, like the black-faced and stout man, his face was also cloudy, and his brow was furrowed into a pimple.

"Brother Qingshan, what do you think of the holy decree sent by the imperial court asking us to go to the capital to see the driver?" The person who spoke was Han Gang, the commander of the Ansu Army, and the person beside him was Ma Qingshan.

After the defeat of the army, Han Gang was detained in Zhuozhou City, Ma Qingshan and others led the remnants of the army to retreat to Zhuozhou, and ordered Han Gang to be released, Yang Jun was in a coma at that time, and Bai Qi had no ill feelings towards Han Gang, and there was no objection to Ma Qingshan's decision. After withdrawing to Bazhou, Ma Qingshan advised Han Gang not to follow Yang Jun back to the capital, because Han Gang was questioned by Yang Jun before, and returning to the capital would be disadvantageous. Han Gang is not a fool, of course he knows that he will not have good fruits to eat when he returns to the capital at this moment. The reason why Ma Qingshan stayed in Bazhou was because Bai Qi wanted to return to Beijing, and the 70,000 soldiers and horses who had retreated from Bazhou needed someone to lead the rest, so Bai Qi asked Ma Qingshan to stay in Bazhou to deal with the aftermath and lead the remnants of the army to prepare for the enemy.

Han Gang and Ma Qingshan stayed in Bazhou City to rectify the soldiers and horses, they received the news that the Liao army was assembled in Zhuozhou, and when the soldiers and horses in Baozhou Rongcheng and other border towns were extremely nervous, the two of them did play a role in fixing the sea god needle in Bazhou. The two summoned the town guards on the left side to tell them not to worry, arranged the arrangements for beacon communication, and formulated a plan to help and rescue, which reassured these people.

It's just that in the end, the Liao people seem to have stopped at Zhuozhou City and did not go south, and Liu Zhenbang, the peace envoy of the Great Zhou, went north from Bazhou, and everyone also understood that the imperial court was negotiating with the Liao. For Han Gang and Ma Qingshan, although they knew that this peace conference was bound to be an unequal peace conference, as soldiers, the peace conference was also the biggest humiliation for them. However, as the generals of the defeated army, they are not even qualified to inquire. When Liu Zhenbang passed through Bazhou when he came back from Zhuozhou to discuss peace, he didn't even give them a good face, let alone tell them about the content of the peace agreement. As a soldier, he can't defeat his opponent, which ultimately leads to the necessity of peace negotiations, which is the most guilty and tormenting point of Han Gang and Ma Qingshan.