Since ancient times, Xiangyang has been the meeting place of economy and culture between the north and the south. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Xiangyang was a channel for the great power Chu and the Central Plains Zhou Tianzi to communicate.

From the Han Dynasty to the Sui and Tang dynasties, the post road from the capital Xi'an and Luoyang to Jiangling through Xiangzhou is the main artery of communication between the north and the south politics and economy.

Zhang Jiuling, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, wrote: "Between Jiang and Han, the state is numbered by ten, and Xiangzhou is the largest. Du Fu's poem "That is, from Ba Gorge through Wu Gorge, then go down to Xiangyang to Luoyang", and Bai Juyi's poem "Get off Xiangzhou County, move the boat to Hanyang Station", vividly depict the prosperity of Xiangyang's "south ship and north horse" and convenient transportation.

Xiangyang (Xiangzhou) is the Jiedu Mansion of Shannan East Road, and in the second year of Guangqi, Xiangzhou and Shannan East Province were not under the governance of Shannan East Province, because in the fourth year of Zhonghe (884 AD), Qin Zongquan sent his general Zhao Deyan to capture Xiangzhou, and then occupied the entire territory of Shannan East Road except for Jin and Shang in one fell swoop.

However, at that time, Liu Jurong, who was the envoy of Shannan Dongdao, immediately fled to Tian Lingzi in Chengdu, so Qin Zongquan had a great contribution at this time, and he had just done it anyway, so Tian Lingzi acquiesced to Zhao Deyan's behavior, so Qin Zongquan immediately praised Zhao Deyan as the queen of Shannan Dongdao.

Now that Qin Zongquan has rebelled as emperor in Caizhou, Shannan Dongdao can be recovered, but now that most of the Weizhou army is resting, Li Bao does not plan to use the Weizhou army to recover Shannan Dongdao.

In addition to the Weizhou army, Li Bao's surplus military strength now consists of the accompanying army and the army of the feudal towns that captured Tian Lingzi and the towns in the northwest region, nearly 60,000 people.

Now that the training of these armies has basically ended, Li Bao has not yet made up his mind on how to reorganize these elite soldiers, after all, the Weizhou army already has more than 50,000 people, and if all of them are incorporated into the Weizhou army, this burden will be too great for Weizhou.

So what name should these surplus troops give, Li Bao was a little hesitant. So he took advantage of the fact that everyone was there, and he went on to raise his problem.

"Rokuro wants to expand the army?" Yang Yan's eyebrows subconsciously wrinkled when he heard this, this current central lack of money is like lack of blood, he really can't think of how to support an army of so many people, the reason why Tian Lingzi fell was because he had no money to support his entourage army and Shence army.

had no choice but to stretch out his hand to Wang Chongrong's salt pond in the river, Tian Lingzi was used to being arrogant on weekdays, and he couldn't remember the meaning of the old proverb "To rob people of wealth is to kill their parents". Although Li Bao made a lot of money, the army that supported 60,000 people would cost 1.8 million yuan a year. The burden was so great that he really didn't have faith.

Li Bao looked at Yang Yan's frowning brows, he laughed and said, "Master Yang, don't worry, we still have this money, don't you remember that we still have millions of assets in this imperial city." ”

Li Baoyi said that Yang Yan woke up when he woke up, when Huang Chaobing came to the city and Tian Lingzi fled to Shuzhong with the emperor and a few clan relatives, and the treasury still kept the wealth of the year, although Li Bao tried to transport it, but he still left millions of wealth in Chang'an City and did not take it away, and now he returned to Chang'an, these wealth can be excavated and used.

Thinking of this, everyone couldn't help laughing, this Rokuro was really far-reaching. Now that we have money in our hands, at least we have the salaries and grain and grass for the first year. As long as the new army is successfully formed and the territory is laid, it will be much easier to provide for it in the future.

But now in Chang'an City, the Ximen brothers and Wu Yipin's subordinates control a large number of Shence Army, and Li Bao wants to form a new army, so it is not good to mix it with the Shence Army, and he must set up another number.

"Since the king wants to be separated from the Shence Military Region, it is completely possible to use the Weiyuan Army, which was the most outstanding in guarding Chang'an, as the name, so that outsiders will know that this army is the king's personal army as soon as they hear the number." Zhao Zhizhao offered advice.

"Weiyuan Army? Well, not bad. Zhao Dayin thought about it and said it well, so he used Weiyuan Army. Li Bao grinned.

And Zhao Zhizhao, who was praised, was full of smiles, this Weiyuan Army is still the starting place of Zhang Zhifang and Zhang Qingping's father and son, if their father and son knew that the matter of rebuilding Weiyuan Army was mentioned by themselves, they must definitely have a higher impression of themselves.

Li Bao thought of the new army's Weiyuan Army's number, and the Weiyuan Army is the central army sequence, and at that time, he can directly use the national endowment to support this army without him personally paying for it, which is definitely a good way to damage the public and private interests, and this is also thanks to Zhao Zhizhao's ability to think of it.

As for the newly formed Weiyuan Army, Li Bao decided that the Weiyuan Army would also follow the sequence of the Weizhou Army, first forming the Weiyuan First Army, the Second Army, and the Sixth Army, with 10,000 people each, so that the scale of the Weiyuan Army would exceed that of the Weizhou Army.

As for the commander of the Weiyuan Sixth Army, Li Bao decided to transfer all the deputy generals of the five armies in Weizhou to serve as the commander of the second army to the sixth army of the Weiyuan army, and he also planned to set up a separate military envoy of the Weiyuan army, as for the Weiyuan military envoy, Zhang Zhifang served as the commander, and Zhang Zhifang also served as the commander of the Weiyuan First Army. In this way, the equipment of the Weiyuan Army is basically complete.

Wang Jian, Lu Yanhong, Han Jian and others who surrendered with the army were all transferred to the Weizhou Army as brigade commanders. All the middle-level officers in the Weiyuan Army were drawn from the Weizhou Army, and the original generals in the accompanying army and the Fanzhen Army were all dismissed.

The new army had already eliminated a large number of soldiers and ruffians during the retraining in Weizhou, and such an army was reborn after the retraining in Weizhou, and Li Bao also placed high hopes on them. Whether this army can exert its strong strength, not only Li Bao but also the feudal towns in the whole world are also keeping their eyes open, after all, Li Bao, the king of Ji, used to develop in Weizhou in a low-key manner, and few people paid attention to it. However, as soon as the Huangchao bandits were eliminated, the Weizhou army broke out in the northwest region under the leadership of Li Bao, and in the eyes of the world, there was not only suspicion but also curiosity.

The strength of a large number of rebellious troops surrendered by the Weizhou Army after reorganization and training has a bearing on Weizhou's military potential and influence. The results of the training of these former soldiers are also the focus of people's attention.

Therefore, Li Bao still needs to bother to refine, but the formation of this Weiyuan Army must be accelerated, after all, he is not in his hands in Shannan Dongdao and Xiangyang, and Xiangyang is determined to be the new capital, and he must enter the construction layout early.

Thinking of this, Li Bao unconsciously sighed, time is not waiting!

After talking about the affairs of Weiyuanjun, the matters of this meeting have been discussed, and the next thing is to carry it out. Since important matters have basically been discussed, Li Bao doesn't want to delay too much time.

He said to Yang Yan and Zheng Jin: "The next matter of rebuilding the Weiyuan Army will have to trouble the two honorable commanders to follow the statute and submit the table. I will send someone to order the Tiger Ben Army stationed in Fengxiang and Zhang Chengfan to meet the new army that is coming. In addition, the two battalions sent to Bianzhou to help in the war were also drawn from the Huben army and sent out as soon as possible. ”

Yang Yan and Zheng Yan nodded their heads as they said, indicating that they knew how to proceed.

As for Xu Anwen and Zhao Zhizhao, Li Bao continued: "The current matter between Xu Shilang and Zhao Dayin is to solve Tian Lingzi as soon as possible. ”

Xu Anwen and Zhao Zhizhao listened to Li Bao's words, and immediately nodded, they knew that Li Bao's patience with Tian Lingzi had reached the maximum, and this pickle could not be left.

In the next few days, after Zheng and Yang Yan made arrangements, they gave the emperor a recital at the court meeting, admonishing that now Chang'an's defense is empty, and there is a shortage of soldiers in the city, and it is advisable to form a Weiyuan army to strengthen the defense of Chang'an. He also admonished that the sparse military strength of the Shence Army was not enough to protect the defense of Chang'an City, so the Weiyuan Army should expand its army by more than 60,000.

Emperor Li Yi allowed it and ordered Prime Minister Yang Yan to take charge of the matter.

At the same time, Zheng Zheng played that Tian Lingzi had already confessed, and the responsibility was heavy, and he had been detained for a long time, so it was not easy to keep this traitor alive.

After hearing this, the emperor hesitated and dismissed the court.

After Li Bao heard what happened in the court, he immediately wrote a letter to Hu Sanbao and asked him to send it to the Sixteen Princes' Mansion.

A day later, Shouwang Li Jie met the emperor, and when Li Yi heard that Lao Qi was visiting, he was very happy and immediately summoned Shouwang Li Jie. After the two brothers had fun for a while, Li Jie told Emperor Li Yi an allusion that Li Bao had told Emperor Yizong back then.

Emperor Li Yi was silent for a long time after listening to Li Jie's allusion to "Killing Corrupt Officials", which was described by Emperor Daxing as the art of dragon slaying, and he said to Li Jie for a long time: "I know that my father is very bad, and I also know that he has done a lot of bad things, and the courtiers and people hate him very much, but he is only my father in my eyes." ”

It is true that the emperor Li Yi is very simple, but he is not the teenage young emperor of the year, after so many years of displacement and human warmth, he has slowly matured, and finally he reluctantly replied on Zheng Jin's recital: "Yes."

In the first month of April in the second year of Guangqi, the four winds and sunshine were beautiful, and the Suzaku Street in Chang'an City was crowded with people, and the alleys were empty. Just because this day is the day when the imperial court disposes of the powerful eunuch Lingzi, people came to Suzaku Street early to watch the death of this former pickled erector.

Li Bao sat on the high platform, looking at the surging crowd and Tian Lingzi kneeling under the gallows. All this forms a stark contrast, Tian Lingzi, who was in power in Chang'an in the past, and was above 10,000 people under one person, must not have imagined that he would this day.

Tian Lingzi looked at everything around him indifferently, people's scolding and discarded debris no longer had any threat or impact on him, and his heart was dead. This day was something he never expected, he hated, hated Li Bao, hated the emperor, hated King Shou, hated everyone, but what could he hate?

He looked up at the sky, and when the sun reached noon, he said to the jailer beside him, "I want to say a few words to King Ji." ”

The jailer looked at Tian Lingzi, and then at Li Bao, the king of Ji who was sitting upright on the high platform, he hesitated for a while, and then shook his head decisively.

Tian Lingzi was helpless, his eyes were full of resentment in the direction of Li Bao, and he stared at him for a while. He turned his head and said to the executioner beside him, "Do you know how the execution will be carried out later?" ”

The five big and three rough executioners, after listening to Tian Lingzi's words, shook his head contemptuously, and he said in a rough voice: "How do you die as a thief, that is up to our Prince Ji and Zhao Dayin of Jingzhao Mansion, you just need to die with peace of mind." ”

"You, bastard! In any case, a certain person has also been in a high position as an envoy of the Twelve Armies, and you dare to treat a certain ...... like this."

Tian Lingzi didn't finish his words, because the executioner was too lazy to listen to him, he picked up a rag cloth that he didn't know what he had wiped and stuffed it into his mouth.

Zhao Zhizhao looked at the sky, noon had arrived, he asked Li Bao beside him for instructions, then picked up the token and threw it into the distance, and said loudly: "The hour has come, execute quickly!" ”

The executioner took down the wooden plaque on Tian Lingzi's back, and then slashed it at Tian Lingzi's trembling neck.

Tian Lingzi's head fell to the ground, and the moment the blood on his neck spurted out, the emotions of the crowd watching also reached a high level. They praised, rejoiced, and shouted. The Tang Empire and Chang'an, the source of all this suffering, finally found a way and time to vent. Chang'an is crazy!

Li Bao stood on the stage, looking at the crazy crowd, he said leisurely: "The traitor has been eliminated, and the people are happy!" ”