News of another mutiny in Caizhou spread quickly.

However, this time, Li Jian, who was stationed in Shouzhou, did not send troops as decisively as last time, after all, before the last military rebellion, Liu Xingcong took the initiative to send people to seek reinforcements, and he decided to send troops because of this internal response.

But this time Wang Yanyan launched in a hurry, although he finally took control of Caizhou, but this control was only temporary, its foundation was too shallow, and new turmoil could occur at any time.

At this time, if the Wu army sent troops, under external pressure, maybe the local forces in Caizhou would fall to the side of Liang again; It is better to sit back and wait for the situation to change.

If Liang Guo rashly sent troops to fight, it was impossible to say that Wang Yanyan would defect to Wu's side.

His idea was supported by Jiang Mengsun, and the subsequent development of the situation proved his correctness.

When the news of the Caizhou rebellion reached Luoyang, Zhu Youqi and others quickly realized the critical situation in the south, especially Caizhou's proximity to Wu.

Under this kind of thinking, Zhu Youqi and others did not dare to act rashly, so they had to send people to appease Wang Yanyu and order him to be canonized as the new Caizhou Assassin History; On the other hand, at Li Zhen's suggestion, he secretly sent troops to suppress him.

In mid-August, when Wang Yanyan was still immersed in the joy of sitting in the position of Caizhou Assassin, the elite of the 3,000 Liang army suddenly arrived at the city of Caizhou, and the defenders in the city were caught off guard and it was difficult to resist at all.

Then, the Liang army entered the city and wantonly burned and looted, turning Caizhou City into a hell on earth.

The people of Caizhou were originally extremely fierce, and there was a ruthlessness in their bones, and after being burned and looted by the Liang army, it aroused the stubborn resistance of the local soldiers and civilians.

Of course, after all, Caizhou City has been broken by the Liang army, and the follow-up Liang army is coming in a steady stream, in desperation, Wang Yanyu led the Caizhou army to retreat and send people to ask for reinforcements from Wu.

After getting the news, Li Jian ordered Wang An to lead 5,000 troops to attack first to help Wang Yanyu stabilize the battle situation, and at the same time sent someone to Jinling to send a letter to Yang Wu, requesting a large-scale attack on Caizhou.

However, in addition to Li Jian's letter requesting troops, another governor stationed in Haozhou, Wang Juan, also wrote to Yang Wu after receiving the news, requesting to send troops to attack Xuzhou.

In Jinling City, Yang Wu didn't care much about Li Jian's book.

"It's just a Caizhou, it's better to get it easily, if you can't, it doesn't matter. It's not worth it to go to war for such a place. After all, this is not a good time for the Northern Expedition. Yang Wu put down the two of them, and said to Li Chenghe, the privy envoy on the side, with a smile.

"King, do you have to reject all the performances of Li Dudu and Wang Dudu?" Feng Dao, the new general secretary, asked cautiously.

These days, he is familiar with his position, and at the same time has a certain understanding of Yang Wu and others, but now he is still young after all, so he still maintains a cautious attitude.

"Wang, the minister thinks that although it is not a good time to send troops now, but the two generals Li Jian and Wang Juan have been stationed on the front line of the Huai River for a long time, and seeing that other generals have established merits, they have no chance to make meritorious contributions, so the two generals are only afraid of being dissatisfied in their hearts!" Lee Seung-si reminded slightly.

Yang Wu's heart moved, and he suddenly nodded and said: "What you said is the same, since this is the case, then let Li Jian send troops to Caizhou and try to see if you can take Caizhou." In addition, Wang Juan's performance was also approved, and it was a good thing for him to try Xuzhou's defense. ”

After returning from sending troops to Jiangling this time, Yang Wu prepared to carry out a large-scale knighthood to reward the generals who had made great contributions in the past few years.

Not only this Jiangling War, but also the previous large-scale battles such as the attack on Fujian and Hunan, the middle and lower-level officers and generals who made meritorious contributions in those major battles have been rewarded, but Liu Xin, Wang Maozhang, Chai Zaiyong and others who are the commanders of the army have not been rewarded.

Now is also the time for a large-scale reward to appease the generals and boost the morale of the whole army.

In this case, Wang Juan and Li Jian, who have been stationed in the Huai River for a long time, have no credit, so it is no wonder that they are in a hurry.

After approving Li Jian's letter, Yang Wu turned to look at Li Chengsi and said, "A few days ago, I asked your Privy Council to sort out the merits of the generals of various ministries over the years, and now you can do it?" ”

"Yes, now that it has been almost sorted out, the minister has ordered someone to write a note, and asked the king to look at it." Li Chengsi handed over a document and replied respectfully.

As a privy envoy, he basically has no chance to lead the troops to the battle, and this time the reward for his merits basically has nothing to do with him, and he may not even have the opportunity to go further in his life.

However, when he became a privy envoy, he was already canonized as the Duke of the State, which is also the highest title for people with surnames outside Wu today, so although Li Chengsi is envious in his heart, he will not suffer from gains and losses for this.

Yang Wu took the document and immediately read it.

This document is mainly to record the merits of the commanders or governors who have made great contributions in the past few years, and make a ranking to determine the size of their merits.

The number one person in the ranking is none other than Liu Xin, who is now stationed in Jiangling.

This person captured the first battle of Yuezhou in the first year of Wuyi, captured Fujian in the second year of Wuyi, and led the troops to capture Tanzhou together with Zhu Siqing in the third year of Wuyi, forcing Ma Yin to finally surrender to Wu, and at the end of the fourth year of Wuyi, that is, at the end of last year, he led the troops to crusade against Tan Quanbo in Qianzhou.

It can be said that in the great battles after the founding of the Wu State, except for this battle of Gangneung, he basically participated in them and made outstanding achievements, so Li Chengsi ranked him in the first place.

In second place is Wang Maozhang, whose main credit is the capture of Yuezhou in the first year of Wuyi and Li Chengsi, and this time in the Battle of Jiangling, he served as the commander of the left wing of the Wu army in the decisive battle, successfully defeated the opposite Shu army, and laid the victory of the Wu army.

Of course, Wang Maozhang's qualifications and prestige also have a certain bonus, and he was seriously injured in the first battle of Jiangling, so it may be difficult to lead troops into battle in the future, so Li Chengsi finally ranked him second.

After Wang Maozhang, there are generals such as Zhu Siqing, Chai Zaiyong, Li Chengding, Lu Shizhou, Qin Pei, Hou Zhan, Zhou Ben, etc., whose merits are almost the same, and basically they have only participated in one or two of the major wars in these years, or participated in one of the major wars, but only served as deputy generals.

For example, Zhou Ben only participated in the First Battle of Fujian, Zhu Siqing only participated in the battle to capture Hengzhou and Tanzhou, and although Li Chengding participated in several major battles before, he participated in all of them as a deputy general, and after he became the governor, he only participated in the battle to quell the rebellion in Wuzhou not long ago.

In addition to introducing and ranking the merits of these governors, the merits of Mi Zhicheng, Zhu Qianyou, Li Decheng, Sima Fu and other commanders were ranked.

However, these commanders are only serving as deputy generals after all, and their merits are naturally not as great as those governors, so Yang Wu took a brief look and didn't ask again.

At the end of the document, Li Chengsi introduced several commanders with outstanding performance.

This includes Liu Chongjing, who was officially appointed as a commander only last year.

This person had a good performance in the battle to capture Tanzhou last year, but the most prominent one was the battle to capture Qianzhou this year.

In this battle, because of Tan Quanbo's personal prestige, the people of Qianzhou enthusiastically participated in the defense of the city, which made the defense of Qianzhou unprecedentedly strengthened, although the Wu army repeatedly attacked fiercely, but never able to break through the city.

During this period, Liu Chongjing personally led the troops to attack the city many times, and he was extremely brave, so he was favored by Li Chenghe.

Of course, if Liu Chongjing did not have Liu Wei as a backer, even if Li Chengsi took a fancy to him, he would not add his name to this list of rewards.

After reading the entire document, Yang Wu pondered for a long time, and finally put Wang Maozhang's reward in the first place, and Liu Xin's ranking in the second.

At the same time, it also raised Zhouben's ranking and ranked it in third place.

Then he added the names of Zhu Jin, Guo Chongtao, and Yan Keqiu, and tied their rankings with Zhu Siqing, Chai Zaiyong and others.

In addition, there have been some changes in the order of many generals, but the intensity of the adjustment is not large, and the original order of Li Chengji is still followed.

After doing this, Yang Wu returned the document to Li Chengsi, and then asked: "You can take a look at this document, and then send a copy to the cabinet scholars, let them discuss it, if there is no problem, they will be rewarded according to this document." ”

"Yes, the minister will order someone to copy it." Li Chengsi took the paperwork, glanced at it roughly, and first saw the extrusion changes in it, and couldn't help but be shocked.

Putting Wang Maozhang's ranking first, Li Chengsi understands the meaning very well, it is nothing more than taking care of Wang Maozhang, a meritorious veteran.

Wang Maozhang and Yang Wu had a lot of friendship back then, and later made great contributions in the process of eliminating Qian Hao and pacifying the Tianyu Rebellion, especially Wang Maozhang defeated the Liang army in the Battle of Qingzhou, and became famous all over the world, and is now one of the most powerful generals in Wu State.

In contrast, although Liu Xin, Chai Zaiyong and others have also established a lot of credit, they are still a little worse than Wang Maozhang.

At the beginning, Yang Wu thought that Wang Maozhang was healthy and not very old, so he did not give him a too high knighthood, so as to leave room for rewards for meritorious service in the future.

Otherwise, with Wang Maozhang's exploits back then, I am afraid that it will be almost the same to become a national prince; However, in that case, Wang Maozhang can only stay in the center next, and cannot continue to lead the troops to fight, otherwise there may be a situation where high merit is not rewarded, which is obviously not what Yang Wu wants to see.

But now that Wang Maozhang is seriously injured, the chance of personally leading the troops to fight in the future is very slim, Yang Wu naturally wants to take his previous merits into account and give him the final reward.

In this case, even if Liu Xin's actual credit in the past few years has surpassed Wang Maozhang, he can only be relegated to second place.

In addition to Wang Maozhang's ranking, Zhou Ben's ranking also rose to third, which made Li Chengsi a little surprised.

Because Zhou Ben and Wang Maozhang's contributions back then were similar, the situation of the two also had a lot in common.

Zhou Ben's age is also not very old, and there are still many opportunities to lead troops in the future.

Even Yang Wu knew that in history, Zhou Ben would live to the founding of the Southern Tang Dynasty, which would be more than 20 years later.

Therefore, if there are no major changes, Zhou Ben should still be able to lead the army to participate in the Northern Expedition in the future.

Now Wang Maozhang is ranked first in credit after all, so why is Zhou Ben also ranked third?

You must know that in terms of actual merits, Zhou Ben also served as the commander of one of the armies in the crusade against Fujian, and the opponent in that battle was too weak, even if he won, it would not be a great credit.

Li Chengsi couldn't understand why Yang Wu suddenly raised Zhou Ben's ranking, but after saying goodbye to Yang Wu, his heart moved, but he suddenly figured it out.

"Maybe the king arranged it this way, but it was for the sake of increasing the chips for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Yes, now among the people of the Yang family, among Yang Wu's younger brothers, there is still a trace of Yang Longyan inheriting the Wu Kingdom, and the other younger brothers basically have no hope.

It is Yang Longyan, Yang Wu's closest younger brother, and he has little hope of inheriting Wu in the future, after all, Yang Wu is still young now, and it is normal for him to be in charge of Wu for another twenty or thirty years in the future, at that time, Yang Wu's own sons have long been adults, and it is impossible to pass the throne to his younger brother.

And Yang Wu's Zhaohua Xu clan was pregnant again before Yang Wu went to Wu this year, if there is one son left this time, plus the previous two sons, then there will be three heirs.

In any case, the current crown prince is no longer the only prince, his position will inevitably be challenged by his younger brothers, and those ministers of the court, as many princes grow up, some people will inevitably have some thoughts.

Therefore, Yang Wu further improved the status of his maternal grandfather Zhou Ben, which is also showing his attitude.

Li Chengsi figured this out, and naturally understood that at least for now, the crown prince's position was still extremely stable, and no one could threaten his position.

The next day, the Cabinet held a brief meeting, mainly to discuss the list of merits.

Although Yang Wu has already made some changes to the imperial pen, such an important matter naturally cannot be decided by him alone, and others will also have disputes due to various considerations.

In the end, the ministers discussed a list, which was basically based on the revised list by Yang Wu, but some of the rankings in the back have changed.

Yang Wu didn't care much about this, as long as he didn't mess around in general, he naturally wouldn't ask so much about the specific details.

However, Feng Dao proposed that now Li Jian and Wang Juan are about to send troops to attack Caizhou and Xuzhou, and this time because the main force was not dispatched, the battle should not last too long before the result will be divided.

Therefore, Feng Dao suggested that the specific reward could be awarded together after the end of this war, which could also motivate the officers and soldiers of the two armies to fight the enemy more bravely.

Yang Wu naturally readily agreed to this suggestion.