Beijing City, late at night on the eighth day of the lunar month.

The night was already deep, but Chen Kefu, the actual ruler of Hebei, did not rest.

The spacious imperial study was originally where the emperor commented on the recital, but the little emperor of the Nine Emperors was just a puppet of Chen Kefu, and Chen Kefu would not give him this power at all. Especially after the intelligence that Yang Gao inadvertently showed last time in the main hall, Chen Kefu had long been wary of this little emperor who had been pretending to be stupid before. Although not only did he worry that the nine-year-old little emperor could cause him any trouble, Chen Kefu resolutely refused to let the little emperor come into contact with any government affairs since then.

The palace maids and eunuchs in the imperial study are also people who have believed in him, but tonight these people are all waved back, if in the big study, there is only a bright palace lamp, and when the candle flame mixed with incense burns, there is constantly a strange fragrance in the air.

Chen Kefu was wearing a mink fur coat on his body, holding a small copper stove in his hand, and quietly leaning on the specially made soft chair. This soft chair resembles a sofa, stuffed with soft velvet, and leaning on it, the whole body is half-sunk into it, and it is extremely comfortable.

Chen Kefu closed his eyes slightly, and his whole face was extremely calm, as if he had fallen asleep.

It's just that the pair of feet stepping on the precious Persian carpet at this time revealed his mood at the moment. His face seemed to be asleep, but his right foot was gently tapping the ground under it. With each tap, he counted them in his mind. By now, he couldn't remember how many times he had tapped the ground, counting his whole body and starting to fugue.

The night of melting snow is colder than the snowy day, and Chen Kefu is still here in the middle of the night. He's waiting.

There was a slight footstep, but it stopped again at the door of the imperial study. He heard his head of guard, Chen Lei, talking to the eunuch Li Chaoen outside the study.

He opened his eyes suddenly, "Chen Lei, come in." ”

Chen Lei walked quickly into the hall. "Your Highness, Master Tang of the Secret Service Division has something urgent to report."

When Chen Kefu heard the urgent letter from the Secret Service Division, he was originally uneasy. Instead, it immediately calmed down.

With a long sigh of relief, Chen Kefu easily sank his entire body into the soft chair and closed his eyes again. Said calmly. "Read!"

"Yes!" Tang Jinyun stepped forward and took out the fold from his arms.

"General Hu Hai of Shanggu County sent an urgent report that his troops have secretly arrived in Shanggu, and his subordinates have arrived at the designated location, so I would like to report to His Highness!"

"General Li Benlei of Yuyang County sent an urgent report that he had mobilized troops and horses from Linyu Pass and secretly marched to Yuyang, Beiping, and Anle counties, ready for the next move. Special letter to report. ”

"General Luo Yi of Xindu County sent an urgent report that his troops and horses have complied with His Highness's military orders, and the troops are divided into three routes. They arrived at the three counties of Hejian, Xindu, and Qinghe respectively, and all preparations were made. Always on call. ”

"Bohai Qin Qiong and General Luo Shixin sent an urgent report from the flying pigeon, and everything has been arranged."

"Pingyuan Li Chengyi and General Daniel Zhang sent an urgent report that the soldiers and horses were already in place."

"General Hengshan Luo Zhong sent an urgent message from the flying pigeon, he has strengthened the defense of the three cities of Jingcheng, Feihu, and Puyin, and secretly dispatched soldiers and horses in accordance with His Highness's order."

"General Xue Dingguo of Gucheng reported that his 10,000 soldiers and horses have captured the three cities of Gucheng, Manuscript City, and Luancheng, and they can continue to go south at any time."

Chen Kefu, who had been closing his eyes, stood up with his eyes like electricity.

Tang Jinyun was startled, and the report stopped.

Chen Kefu got up and walked dozens of steps in the hall before stopping, turning around and returning to the soft chair, his excitement calmed down slightly, "Go on!" ”

"Yes, General Li Jing of Shandong sent an urgent report from Feigeon, he has followed His Highness's instructions, regrouped and contracted his troops and horses, retreated to Qi County on the south bank of the Yellow River, and waited for his changes." …,

"General Zhang Zhongjian, the general of the Hailong Guard, sent an urgent report from Feige, he has mobilized ten Wuya warships, twenty Huanglong warships, and 50,000 soldiers and horses to set off from the port of Beishacheng in Liaodong, and can reach the coastal counties of Shandong in one day, and can send an elite force to the west along the Yellow River at any time."

Chen Kefu got up again and walked to the edge of the sand table on the side of the palace of the imperial study to watch. According to Tang Jinyun's report just now, he planted small flags one after another in those counties that already had soldiers and horses. After a long time, the flag had been planted, and all the counties in Hebei, except for a few counties in the southwest, had secretly assembled troops.

The counties of Huaibei in Shandong, which had already recovered most of the counties, did not advance but retreated, Li Jing's soldiers and horses retreated to Qi County, and there were no imperial soldiers and horses stationed in the land of several counties again.

After staring at the sand table for a long time, Chen Kefu said: "Give the generals stationed in various places, all soldiers and horses are on standby at any time, once the situation changes, there is no need to ask the court again, and immediately act according to the previous plan." ”

"Yes!" Tang Jinyun retreated, turned around and walked out of the hall.

The order has been issued, but Chen Kefu is still a little anxious in his heart, although the plan this time has been repeatedly calculated, but he still has no certainty in his heart. This feeling is not a lack of confidence in one's own army, but a lack of knowing whether it is right or wrong to do so.

He picked up the book on the table again, it was a piece from the Investigation Department, and he had read it more than a hundred times these days. Every time he looked at it, he felt a little heavier, but the more he looked at it, the more angry he became. It was this movement that finally made him make this determination. Originally, he wanted to be gentle, but when he took a step back, the enemy went further. He had to put all his energy on this, and even the original plan to send troops to the south and sweep away Hebei a few years ago had to be stopped again.

"Gate valve, family, heroic! You really forced me to make a move, I wanted to give you a chance, but you didn't cherish it. Chen Kefu sighed.

Picking up the piece, he looked at it again. What is written on this piece is not anything else, but the heroes of Hebei and Shandong.

Since the Northern Wei Dynasty entered the Central Plains, those Xianbei military aristocrats according to the Sinicization policy implemented by Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Xianbei people changed to speak Chinese, changed Han surnames, among which the Yuan surname, the eldest grandson surname, Yuwen surname, Yu surname, Lu surname and other nobles as the head, known as the "national surname", from the Xianbei surname nobles, transformed into a Han surname family, known as Xiaowen Sinicization.

On the other hand, those who did not cross to the south and remained in the north were conquered, but they did not want to be mixed with the Hu who had changed their surnames to Han. In order to distinguish Hu Han, they often preceded their surnames with the name of the local county, which was called "county surname".

With the split of the Northern Wei regime, the county surname was split into two branches: one was from the Eastern Wei Dynasty to the Northern Qi Dynasty, which still maintained the Han Dynasty's tradition of emphasizing Confucianism, called Shandong County surname, with Cui, Lu, Wang, and Zheng as the main surnames.

The other branch was through the Western Wei to the Northern Zhou, and then from the Sui to the Tang, under the Yuwen clan's policy of taking Guan Chinese as the standard, the Shi clan gradually became Huhua, which is the so-called Guanzhong County surname, with Wei, Pei, Liu, and Xue as the surnames.

In the Western Wei Dynasty, in order to compete with Gao Huan, with the help of Su Sui and others, Yuwentai changed the place of origin of the Shandong scholars who moved west to the Guannei Prefecture in the Guannei region, and established a more Hu people-based ruling group that was compatible with the Xianbei aristocracy and Han nobles based on the military system, that is, the Guanlong group proposed by the famous historian Chen Yinke.

As a result, in addition to the Jiangnan Shi clan in the south, the Han people in the north and the military aristocracy of the Hu people gradually merged and assimilated, and finally formed the Shandong Shi clan, and then split again, becoming the Guanlong group, and the Shandong group east of Taihang Mountain.

And now Chen Kefu has to face Shandong Group. After the Sui Dynasty unified the Central Plains, although politically it was the Guanlong group that took the initiative and advantage. However, the Shandong clan still retains the centuries-old tradition of reading and lecturing the scriptures, so they still enjoy a superior political and social status. In this vast area east of Taihang Mountain, although the Sui family and the Guanlong group continued to suppress and weaken the Shandong clan, the Sui Dynasty was founded for too short. …,

Especially since the seventh year of the Great Cause, Hebei and Shandong have had the most serious turmoil, but the impact on the Shandong people has not been serious. The most unfortunate people were the rich and small landlords, the clans and the powerful, who relied on their strong forts and began to take advantage of the war to annex land, embezzle wealth, evade taxes, and even force a large number of people into slavery. Even behind the scenes, they are secretly supporting the rebellious armies of some clans.

In the investigation of the Investigation Division, although Hebei Shandong was constantly suppressed by the Sui Dynasty and the Guanlong Group, its power was weaker than that of the Guanlong Group, and even compared to the Jiangnan Group, which was deliberately promoted by Yang Guang, the emperor of the Sui Dynasty, did not have the upper hand. But in this Hebei land, especially after the power of the original imperial court gradually declined, they grew stronger again.

By the time he led the Liaodong Army into Hebei, the Shandong clan had surpassed the Great Sui Dynasty in the early years of the founding of the Dynasty, and its power had reached a peak of rebound.

Among them, the eight surnames and twelve ethnic groups are the strongest, and the eight surnames are the eight big surnames, namely the Zhuojun Lu family, the Yuyang Lu family, the Hejian Lu family, the Gaoyang Cui family, the Qinghe Cui family, the Shanggu Cui family, the Zhao County Li family, the Bohai Gao family, the Pingyuan Liu family, the Langya Wang family, the Qi County Zheng family, and the Pengcheng Lanling Xiao family. Among them, Lu and Cui are the largest surnames in Hebei, and Xingyang Zheng and Longxi Li are known as the four major surnames in the world. Both surnames are numerous clans, each with two powerful branches.

Eight big surnames and twelve big clans have basically controlled the countryside of Hebei and Shandong, plus those large and small landlords and heroes. Although Chen Kefu recovered Hebei and captured Shandong, in fact, the city was in the hands of the imperial court, and the local villages were all in the hands of the powerful family.

He originally planned to suppress the clan by borrowing grain. But he didn't expect that his action would provoke a strong backlash from the clans. During this time, under the supervision of the Investigation Department, the powerful people of the family jumped up and down, conspiring against each other, so that Chen Kefu had to change his strategy.

Chapter 554: The army marches together

Chapter 554 Army, to the website