Su and Pei Xiangguo said goodbye and left, but Wei Yunqi stayed, Zhang Xuan stood in front of the window with his hands in his hands, looking at the Zhongdu Tower under construction in the distance, Wei Yunqi understood the reason why Zhang Xuan left himself, he said frankly: "Weichen can fully understand the reason why His Royal Highness wants to reuse Li Chun, and wants to vigorously develop the handicraft industry, especially papermaking and printing plates, expand the spread of literature, establish official learning, and gradually weaken the foundation of the wealthy scholars, but Weichen wants to say that His Royal Highness's idea is very good, but the time to reuse Li Chun is indeed not ripe." ”

"Why?" Zhang Xuan didn't turn around and asked coldly.

"His Royal Highness dismissed the two Shangshu, everyone knows that this is aimed at the Hebei Shi clan, which has caused a huge shock in the government and the opposition, everyone in the Hebei Shi clan is in danger, at this time it should still be focused on stabilizing the officialdom, if Li Chun is reused, the officialdom of Zhongdu will be in chaos, His Royal Highness's foundation in the imperial court is not solid, Weichen is worried that the hearts of the people in the officialdom of Zhongdu will be scattered, and in the end it will only cheapen Li Yuan."

After a moment of silence, Zhang Xuan nodded slowly, "You're right, there are foreign enemies, don't change the system too much and cause turmoil, okay, Li Chun is quite good at water control, I appointed him as the commander of the capital water, I believe that no one will fight with him for this drudgery." ”

Wei Yunqi smiled and said: "That's right, the promotion from the fifth-grade squire to the chief supervisor of the fourth-grade temple is also a big promotion, but it is much better than being directly promoted to the third-grade Shangshu." ”

Zhang Xuan didn't want to mention this matter again, so he turned around and said, "Lu Qingyuan's appointment as the waiter of the Ministry of Rites is canceled!" Let him continue to serve as the governor of Zhuojun. ”

This was requested by his wife Lu Qing, on the grounds that her brother lacked state and county experience and did not understand the hardships of the people, so that he could deal with ordinary people more, which was conducive to the accumulation of his brother's life experience, and this was also their father Lu Zhuo's repeated request, Zhang Xuan could understand Lu Zhuo's long-term plan, so he agreed to his wife and let Lu Qingyuan continue to serve as the county governor of Zhuo County.

Wei Yunqi nodded, "Weichen understands, he hasn't gone through the entry procedures yet, and the county leader of Xinzhuo County has not been appointed, this matter is very simple, and there is no need to write a document, just let him go back to Zhuo County directly." ”

"Well, is there anything else?" Jang Hyun asked.

"Wechen has one more thing."

Wei Yunqi lowered his voice and said: "Now the streets and alleys of Zhongdu are talking, His Royal Highness's surname is Zhang and not Yang, it is not appropriate to continue to maintain the Sui Dynasty, and there is no need, Your Highness, should we change the country name?" ”

Zhang Xuan shook his head, "The time is not yet ripe for this matter, as you just said, my foundation in the imperial court is not yet solid, Li Yuan is still watching from the sidelines, and when the general trend of the world has been decided, it is not too late for us to discuss this matter slowly!" ”

Wei Yunqi happily praised: "His Highness's concentration is very accessible! ”

Zhang Xuan also smiled: "I don't have any determination, for example, if I take Jiangdu, I can't wait halfway back to the division." ”

Jiangdu is a legacy of the previous dynasty, after Yu Wenhua and the Huai went north, Zhang Xuan was indeed ready to solve Jiangdu together, but due to the Tang army's attack on Hanoi, Zhang Xuan had to temporarily give up recovering Jiangdu, withdraw the army back to Hebei, Jiangdu became a Great Sui enclave controlled by the general Chen Ling.

However, neither the Luoyang Sui Dynasty nor the Central Sui Dynasty was able to control Chen Ling, and Jiangdu actually became a separatist force that stood on its own under the banner of the Great Sui.

The sails outside Donghae Island obscured the sky and the sun, and the 30,000 sailors, led by the old man Hou'er, rested for only one day in Dongnae County before heading south along the coast again, and arrived in Donghai County a few days later.

Laihu'er walked down from the big boat, Li Ben, the garrison general of Donghai County, hurriedly stepped forward to salute Laihu'er, Donghai County is the southernmost part of the Great Sui, due to its close proximity to Xuzhou, the situation of the defenders of Donghai County is relatively special, there are 1,000 county soldiers in the county of Zhiyangshan County, which is directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War, and there are 3,000 garrisons on Donghai Island, but they belong to the navy, led by Yingyanglang General Li Ben, in addition to supplying materials, the Donghai County government generally does not set foot in Donghai Island.

"See the old general!" Li Ben stepped forward and knelt down on one knee to salute.

"General Li, please get up!"

Laihu'er let him get up and asked, "Has the cavalry arrived in Donghai County?" ”

This time, Zhang Xuan was bound to win Jiangdu, so not only did the 30,000 naval army and hundreds of warships all go south, but Pei Xingyan's 30,000 cavalry did not return to Zhongdu, but also went south directly from Hebei and entered Donghai County from Langya County, which is also the advantage of cavalry, high-speed maneuver and flexible mobilization.

Li Ben hurriedly said: "General Pei's cavalry just arrived this morning, but it is in Qishan County. ”

After hesitating for a moment, Li Ben asked again: "Do you want to inform General Pei of your humble position?" ”

Lai Hu'er nodded, "You can send a letter to tell him now that I will continue to go south, and ask him to go south as planned, and I will arrange boats to cross the river and transport grain and grass for him on the other side of the Huai River." ”

"Obey the order!" Li Ben hurriedly went to send the letter.

Lai Hu'er immediately ordered in a loud voice: "Order the three armies to rest for two hours, and the army will continue to move south!" ”

Due to the plundering of Yuwen and the plundering in Xuzhou and the outbreak of war with the Wagang army, a large number of people fled from Xuzhou to Jiangdu County and Langya County to avoid military disasters, and the population of Qishan County surged from 20,000 to 100,000, and the burden on the county was extremely heavy, and the people were also miserable.

Officials from Donghai County and Langya County sent more than a dozen requests for help to Zhongdu, imploring the imperial court to support disaster relief.

To this end, the imperial court specially allocated 50,000 stone of grain and 150,000 bags of wild peas to Langya County and Donghai County for disaster relief, and at the same time transferred more than 100 officials from various places to assist the two counties in disaster relief.

At the same time that the Sui army's naval division arrived at Donghai Island, Pei Xingyan led 30,000 cavalry to arrive in Qishan County in the early morning, and there were forage and grain warehouses in the city of Qishan County, which could replenish grain and forage for Sui soldiers and war horses.

In a forest that stretches for dozens of miles outside of Xushan County, surrounded by a small stream, the water is gurgling, and it is particularly cool and attractive in the middle of summer.

30,000 cavalry and war horses rested in the woods to avoid the hot weather, the hot weather had a great impact on the war horses, so the soldiers were careful to take care of their war horses.

Soldiers constantly went to the creek outside the woods to fetch water and water the horses to cool down, and they tried to travel at night and rest during the day, so far the army and the horses still maintained sufficient strength.

Pei Xingyan sat on a big rock, concentrating on studying the map, Zhang Xuan gave him the order to cross the Huai to the south, stop at Gaoyou, and not to attack Jiangdu without an order, Pei Xingyan understood the intention of the marshal, the marshal was to deter Chen Ling, let him recognize the situation and surrender to Zhongdu, but once Chen Ling surrendered to Chang'an, war was inevitable.

Deterring Jiangdu is not a big problem for Pei Xingyan, the key is to avoid being attacked by the enemy, Pei Xingyan knows very well what the war horse means to the princes of the Central Plains, even if it is Du Fuwei, the leader of the Jianghuai thieves with a dense water network, will also be red-eyed, Pei Xingyan must not let his cavalry encounter a sneak attack.

At this time, a soldier rushed over and knelt down on one knee to report: "General Qiyu, Zhao County Commander sent someone to deliver a letter, probably from the East China Sea Island." ”

Pei Xingyan's spirits perked up, it was very likely that Laihu'er had arrived on Donghai Island, and he immediately asked, "Where is the letter?" ”

A county official was led into the woods and presented a letter, Pei Xingyan opened it and read it, as he expected, Laihu'er arrived at Donghai Island, and continued south, and the letter said that Laihu'er would send a fleet to transport grain and forage for him.

Pei Xingyan hurriedly asked, "What kind of fleet did Donghai Island send?" ”

"Two hundred small boats have been sent to go directly to the Huai River from Donghai County."

Pei Xingyan breathed a sigh of relief, he was afraid that if he sent a big ship of more than 1,000 stones, he would not be able to go to the small river at all, so he could only take the sea route and then go around the Huai River, which would make a mistake, and he was quite thoughtful about it.

Pei Xingyan said to him: "Please tell Zhao County Order, and ask him to immediately organize the people to carry grain and forage onto the ship, and be sure to prepare it before dark." ”

"General rest assured, my county commander organized the people in the morning, and now he should be already carrying grain and forage."

Engaged in saying goodbye and leaving, Pei Xingyan looked at the sky, it was still afternoon, and he would set off when it got dark. (To be continued.) )