In the tent of the Chinese military camp, the dim candlelight danced slightly, illuminating two figures sitting opposite each other.

"Seventh brother, why did you come to Lone's camp so late?"

When there is no one else, Li Cunmiao is used to calling Zhang Chengye "Seventh Brother", which can also make the relationship between the two more friendly.

"My lord, the old minister is here because he wants to discuss some things with the king."

Li Cunmiao suddenly became interested, he raised the wine jug, filled the wine glass in front of the two of them, and then asked, "I don't know what makes Seventh Brother so anxious?" ”

Zhang Chengye's expression was a little solemn, he didn't go around in circles, but went straight to the point and said: "I don't know if the king has noticed that in recent years, our army has repeatedly defeated the Liang army, and the momentum has been greatly enhanced. ”

"During this period, whether it was the King of Qi, the King of Shu, or even the King of Yan, they all took advantage of the fire to rob the Liang State; However, the state of Wu, which had made many northern expeditions before, had never moved! ”

Li Cunmiao took a sip of wine and smiled, then said a little disappreciatively: "What's so strange about this?" Yang Wu, the king of Wu, was now bent on pacifying the south, so he did not use troops against the Liang State. Gu felt that maybe Yang Wu might secretly talk to Zhu Wen! ”

Although he didn't know the specific situation, after so many years, Li Cunqiao could also see Yang Wu's plan, so he could guess that there might be collusion between the two families.

Otherwise, Yang Wu would not have let go of the many opportunities in the past few years, and even had a cold attitude towards the envoys sent by Li Cunqiao to join forces to crusade against Zhu Wen.

"Yes, it is precisely because of this that the old minister is worried. That Wu Wang Yang Wu obviously wants our army to confront Zhu Wen, and he just happens to reap the benefits! Zhang Chengye sighed.

Li Cunmiao's face was not very good-looking when he heard this.

When Zhu Wen was the strongest, the two joined forces to deal with Zhu Wen, and the cooperation was quite close.

In the era of Yang Xingmi, the Huainan Army had many northern expeditions, and it had used troops many times against Suzhou alone.

In the Yang Wu era, the Huainan Army also launched two large-scale northern expeditions.

The second time is just that, but it is just to set a trap for Wei Quan, and at the same time gain fame for Yang Wu himself.

However, Yang Wu's first Northern Expedition was a real battle with the Liang army, won a major victory, and captured Suzhou.

It can be said that it was this battle that directly ended the heyday of Zhu Wen and made the Liang army begin to decline.

At that time, the Jin army had just come out of the most declining era and began to move towards revival.

If the Wu army can still actively go on the Northern Expedition as it did at the beginning and attack the Liang State with the Jin army, I am afraid that Zhu Wen will have been disabled a long time ago, where can he still have the current strength.

"Even if you know King Wu's plans, what can you do? Not to mention the nearly 30 years of war between Hedong and Zhu Wen, the grudge is too deep to be warned; Even if Lone can let go of this hatred, where can I develop in Hedong except to fight the Liang army in the south? Li Cunqiao sighed.

Indeed, geographically speaking, Yang Wu's state of Wu could first annex the southern states and then go north to the Central Plains, but the Jin state obviously did not have such a choice.

Nowadays, among the major forces in the entire north, except for Liu Shouguang, the king of Yan, Li Maozhen, the king of Qi, does not border the territory of the Jin State, and Guanzhong has been war-torn for a long time, and now it is not richer than the territory of the Jin State, and even if it is captured, there is not much gain.

In addition, Li Maozhen is notoriously smelly and hard, and extremely difficult, it is not difficult to defeat him, but it is difficult to eliminate it.

What Zhu Wen couldn't do when he was the strongest, Li Cunqiao didn't think he could do it easily.

On the other hand, the current territory of Liang is the richest area in the world, with a large population, fertile land, and a high degree of development, and if it is captured, it can have huge benefits.

In addition, the relationship between Jin and Qi is not bad now, so there is no need to fall out at this time.

Therefore, after this withdrawal, Li Cunqiao planned to completely eliminate Liu Shouguang first to eliminate the threat of the flanks; But after that, he could only go south to fight Zhu Wen with all his might.

In short, regardless of whether Yang Wu plans to reap the benefits or not, Li Cunqiao can only confront Zhu Wen according to his intentions: this is a yang conspiracy, even if he knows it, it is useless.

"Great King, our army continues to move south to fight the Liang army, not only to expand the strength of the Jin Kingdom, but also to avenge the Tang Dynasty."

"This is where morality lies, and the king must do it! So it's nothing. ”

"But what the old minister wants to discuss with the king today is not this matter, but another extremely important matter!" At this time, Zhang Chengye suddenly said solemnly.

"I don't know what it is, but it's related to King Wu Yang Wu?" Li Cunqiao asked.

"Not bad! What the old minister wants to discuss with the king today is the strategy of separating the military and the government of Wu State! Zhang Chengye's expression was extremely serious, and he had obviously thought about this matter for a long time.

"Separation of military and government? Does Seventh Brother want Gu to emulate Wu Guo? Li Cunmiao was shocked when he heard this, and his whole body couldn't help but stand up and ask loudly.

For this policy of Wu State, Li Cunmiao naturally has some understanding, after all, if the system of various countries today is basically the inherited Tang Dynasty system, the rights of local assassins and festival envoys are relatively large.

Only the state of Wu is now implementing a policy of separating civil and military forces, and the right of local assassins has been greatly restricted, and there is no canonization of festival envoys.

This system allowed the power of Wu to be highly concentrated, and the military, financial, and talent of the whole country were concentrated in the imperial court, so it took a great advantage in the process of fighting with other countries.

Of course, the more important advantage of this system is that it eliminates civil strife at the root, so that the imperial court no longer needs to be on guard against local forces as in the past, so that much of its power is used for internal strife.

Of course, Li Cunmiao also knew the benefits of this system, and he regarded Yang Wu as his opponent a long time ago, so he would naturally have some understanding of the policies he implemented.

However, the separation of military and political affairs is not so easy to implement, especially now that the Jin State is concentrating on military affairs.

The army of the Jin State is now basically in the hands of those generals, and if the power in their hands is rashly collected, it is easy to cause the soldiers to deviate from morality, and even if it is not good, it will plunge the Jin State into civil strife.

The current Jin Kingdom has finally come out of decline and is gradually prospering, and Li Cunmiao is naturally unwilling to take the risk of causing trouble again.

So he cleaned up his mood, sat down again, and said, "Seventh brother, this policy of separating the military and the government certainly has many benefits, but if it is not implemented properly, it is likely to cause great trouble!" ”

"The old minister also knows that this matter is easy to cause chaos, but the fundamental problem of the Tang Dynasty's demise is that the strength of the local feudal towns is too strong, and the imperial court is powerless to suppress it, and in the end it can only decline step by step."

"Now if the king wants to revive the Tang Dynasty, he must not follow the old path of the Tang Dynasty." Zhang Chengye said in a deep voice.

In fact, he has long wanted to follow Wu Guo's policy of separating military and government from the state, but Li Cunqiao had just succeeded to the throne before, and his prestige was not enough to completely suppress those veterans, so he did not rashly put it forward.

But now, with many victories over the Liang army, Li Cunqiao has completely consolidated his position, greatly enhanced his prestige, and has the basis for the separation of military and political affairs.

So at this time, he asked Li Cunqiao to discuss the matter.

"Now the king's territory is not large, and there is pressure from Zhu Wen from the outside, so he can still maintain one heart and one mind, and all the generals can work together to fight the enemy."

"But what about the future?"

"In the future, when the king's territory is more, if he still canonizes the festival envoy as before, this is taking the old road of the Tang Dynasty!"

"At that time, those envoys of the festival will only think about their own interests, and they will not take state affairs to heart, and as long as they are slightly dissatisfied, they may cause a mutiny and other chaos. This is not the way to last long! ”

……

Zhang Chengye said bitterly.

"Brother Qi, you understand all these orphans you said. However, now is obviously not the time to implement the separation of military and government, which must be understood by Brother Qi. So let's wait until the situation is more stable in the future! Li Cunqiao shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"Wait until the future? I'm afraid it will be too late in the future! Zhang Chengye said with some excitement: "King, if you wait until the territory is big and the envoys of all regions are canonized, then if you want to move them again, the difficulty will definitely be several times greater than now!" ”

Li Cunqiao was silent.

It is good to start making rules like Wu Guo now to prevent local forces from gaining momentum, but the risk is too great and it is easy to cause chaos.

Today's Jin State can't afford this kind of chaos.

And if he waits until the future, Li Cunqiao will certainly be able to prepare more, and the strength of the Jin State will also be able to deal with the challenge of local forces, even if there is a little civil strife, it will not be a big problem.

However, the local forces will definitely be stronger at that time, and the price will be even greater.

Whether to try to weaken local forces now or wait until the future will not be able to distinguish the pros and cons in a short period of time.

Therefore, it is normal for Li Cunqiao to be extremely hesitant.

Seeing that Li Cunqiao was silent, Zhang Chengye also knew that he couldn't push too hard, so after he pondered for a while, he proposed:

As the king said, it is true that now is not the time to immediately implement the separation of military and government, but the old minister feels that some necessary preparations need to be made. The king might as well do these things well first. ”

Li Cunmiao breathed a sigh of relief, and he was also worried that Zhang Chengye would have to let him engage in the separation of military and political affairs, which would be very unpleasant.

So at this time, listening to Zhang Chengye take a step back, Li Cunmiao also took a step back and said: "I don't know what preparations are made, if it is beneficial to the country, Lone will naturally implement it!" ”