Everything has a price.

After listening to Han Xizai's narration, Li Yuan couldn't help but deeply admire Emperor Li Jing's decision, but he had a headache. It's just that Li Jing made a seemingly logical, secretly but sinister decision, or in his opinion, a very clever decision to maintain imperial power, and this decision will lead to a series of unpredictable consequences.

According to the military system of the Southern Tang Dynasty, the expansion of the army was not trivial, especially for the number of subordinate troops of the Jiedu envoys, which was of course intended to not be too large to threaten the central government.

Therefore, since the founding of the Southern Tang Dynasty, no matter how the amount of soldiers and horses in a certain section and town has increased or decreased, there will always be changes in the amount of soldiers and horses in another section and town, and the ultimate goal is to keep the total number of soldiers and horses in all local festivals and towns as unchanged as possible, and it will always be a few points less than the number of soldiers and horses in the central forbidden army.

And the 40,000 soldiers added by the Wuping Army this time were taken from He Jingzhu's Wuchang Army.

Li Yuan secretly said in his heart, the strategy of the military advisor Xu Kuangheng really worked, in the past, Xu Kuangheng joined the army as Chuzhou, and He Jingzhu assassinated the history of Chuzhou, Xu Kuangheng often handled the official documents of He Jingzhu to reply to the imperial court, and over time, he copied He Jingzhu's handwriting even more vividly.

The so-called silk book found from the assassin after Li Yuan's assassination was Xu Kuangheng's handwriting, and he was naturally not afraid of how the officials compared and checked, which was the key to Li Yuan's success this time and the reversal of Emperor Li Jing's mind, and triggered a series of unexpected changes in the imperial court......

Therefore, Emperor Li Jing took He Jingzhu's Wuchang Army this time, which naturally has another deep meaning, you must know that even the left minister Feng Yansi was trapped in Dali Temple, as one of the "murderers" who assassinated Li Yuan, how could He Jingzhu be spared. And He Jingzhu is not a fuel-efficient lamp, it is estimated that only Li Yuan's side can understand the grievances in his heart.

After He Jingzhu received the holy order to reduce the number of troops, his first reaction was inexplicable, the Wuchang army is an important military force guarding the border of the Southern Tang Dynasty, since the founding of the country, the number of soldiers and horses has only increased but not decreased, and the west of the Wuchang army can be the Chu land of Li Yuan's moderation, and no one in the court knows Li Yuan's growing momentum, in case Li Yuan has a rebellion, the Wuchang army is guarding the gateway to the south of the Yangtze River, which is the first to bear the brunt of resistance.

It stands to reason that the number of soldiers and horses in the Wuchang army should be increased, why did they cut more than half of the soldiers and horses? Could it be that the emperor is in a daze?

Therefore, He Jingzhu sent his eldest son He Zhi into Jinling quickly. Zhongshu's subordinates soon forwarded a note from He Jingzhu to Emperor Li Jing, on which He Jingzhu seemed to be very resentful, and even claimed that he was old and lacked energy, unable to guard the border of the Tang Dynasty for His Majesty, and could no longer guard against the attack of strong enemies for His Majesty, so he asked Li Jing to send another wise person to command the Wuchang army, and he wanted to tell the old resignation Yunyun.

He also said that he was fully loyal to His Majesty, and he did not hesitate to put the horse leather shroud in front of him, but what he was most afraid of was that the villain was making trouble behind him. He can die on the battlefield, but he never wants to die on the cold arrow behind him. A memorabilia is written, it is a deep feeling, impassioned, and tearful.

It's okay now, originally Li Jing was thinking about He Jingzhu's past military exploits and the idea that the envoy should not be moved lightly, and only punished him by reducing the number of troops, to put it bluntly, he was hinting that He Jingzhu would be honest in the future, and he would not do anything else, and at the same time, Li Jing also wanted to see He Jingzhu's reaction. If He Jingzhu didn't keep quiet, this matter would have been fooled, and he would have gotten off the donkey, but now he obviously failed to do so.

After all, the imperial court kept Li Yuan's assassination secret, and even the reason for the fall of Zuo Prime Minister Feng Yansi was not made public, so how did He Jingzhu know that he had become one of the "murderers" who assassinated Li Yuan?

The so-called ignorant is not guilty, but He Jingzhu at this time is obviously not included, and this letter of resignation full of resentment immediately aroused Li Jing's anger.

「...... What a Ho Kyung-so! The previous degree secretly befriended important ministers and assassinated the envoy of my border town, which is an unforgivable crime, and I remember his hard work, spared his life, and also kept his authority, but he just moved 40,000 soldiers from his head to Wu Ping, and he dared to complain? ! The Wuchang Army is also my soldiers and horses! This world is still not my world after all! ......」

This is Li Jing's original words, a murderous word, which made Han Xizai and several important ministers in Chengxin Hall

Everyone was terrified.

In fact, on the issue of increasing or decreasing the number of troops in each section, some people increase, and some people must decrease, and the emperor has always been able to favor one over the other, which border town does not want to increase the number of troops? Therefore, whenever there is a change in the number of troops in the festival, everyone knows in their hearts, and the festival town that has been reduced will naturally regard the other profitable festival town as a thorn in the side.

Soldiers and horses, that is the life of the Jiedu envoy. This time, Li Yuan removed He Jingzhu's troops, which also means that the contradictions between the two will be difficult to reconcile from now on.

Although He Jingzhu's performance was not really resigned, but just a temper, the emperor took it seriously, and after Chengxintang was angry, he immediately issued an order to detain He Jingzhu's eldest son, He Zhi, and wanted to send the forbidden army to Ezhou to ask for the guilt.

At the last moment, the new left minister Xu Xuan, the new privy envoy Wei Cen, and the new deputy privy envoy Li Zhenggu stood up one after another.

They are very smart and very good at figuring out Li Jing's thoughts. At a glance, it can be seen that Li Jing's original intention was just to punish He Jingzhu slightly, not that he really wanted to kill him, not to mention that He Jingzhu is not old, and he has not yet reached the point where he is ineffective. The main reason is that Li Jing admired He Jingzhu very much before.

You must know that since Li Jing ascended the throne, he has always had a grand wish to dominate the world, who is He Jingzhu? That was the first general to lead the army into Chu that year, in Li Jing's mind, He Jingzhu, the credit is indelible, he is a fierce general in his own right, and he is the guarantee of the peace of the Tang Dynasty.

Who is the strong enemy? In addition to the Zhou State in the north, it is naturally Li Yuan, the governor of Langzhou, who is in Chu.

In any case, the emperor's jealousy of Li Yuan has always been difficult to let go, Xu Xuan and others certainly understand this truth, this time Li Jing seems to have met Li Yuan's requirements, but in fact, he is just taking this opportunity to reshuffle the court, otherwise there will be no chance for them to take the throne.

The emperor, just to maintain the imperial power, is to know how to balance the contradictions between his courtiers, or use these contradictions to better serve the Tang Dynasty. This time, since Feng Yansi was knifed and He Jingzhu was knifed, it seemed that Li Yuan was indeed defended, but as an emperor, whether the courtiers were assassinated, even if they died or not, at most it was a moment of indignation or regret.

No matter how to compensate Li Yuan and how to favor, what should be guarded against is still to be guarded, and now that the emperor has publicly transferred part of He Jingzhu's troops to Li Yuan, the contradiction between the two has been expanded to the extreme, as long as he has the intention of dealing with Li Yuan, He Jingzhu will also become the sharpest blade.

Therefore, as long as Li Yuan is still in Chudi, He Jingzhu will be of some use. Under the persuasion of Xu Xuan and others, Li Jing finally retracted his will, and did not hold He Jingzhu accountable again, but made a will to exhort him to protect the border and serve the imperial court.

However, the number of troops in the Wuchang army has been reduced from the original 70,000 to 30,000, while Li Yuan's Wuping army has reached 100,000. Li Jing suddenly had a headache again, and set his sights on the two new privy envoys again, in order to seek a new solution, the premise is not to violate the holy decree he has already issued, and it is not child's play to increase or decrease the number of soldiers and horses.

How to fix it? When Li Jing was still hesitating, after several important ministers made eye contact, Li Zhenggu, the privy deputy envoy and secretary of the military department, gave Li Jing a solution, that is, to reorganize the 40,000 soldiers and horses that the Wuchang army had been reduced into a new army, and send a reliable general to control and garrison Yuezhou in the name of patrolling the Dongting waterway.

Li Zhenggu's reason is very sufficient, since it is necessary to guard against Li Yuan, who has a heavy army, to ensure the tranquility of the western border of the Tang Dynasty, then naturally the soldiers on the border must be at least equal to Li Yuan, and the imperial court can not increase the number of troops for the Wuchang army, so it simply reorganized the 40,000 soldiers and horses that were retrenched into a new forbidden army, and the establishment of the central forbidden army has always been unrestricted, as long as the emperor nods.

And these 40,000 soldiers and horses were originally adjusted by the famous general Liu Renzhan, which is considered an elite army in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and it is easy to recruit and difficult to train, so that these well-trained men and horses will not be scattered in vain due to retrenchment.

As for why it was stationed in Yuezhou, it is naturally self-evident. Yuezhou belongs to the rule of the Wuchang army, but it is located in Chu, and it is only two or three days away from Langzhou, Langzhou, Yuezhou, and Ezhou, the three are connected together, and the imperial court will be 40,000

The newly formed forbidden army was placed in Yuezhou, placed next to Li Yuan's pillow, and it was directly inserted into the heart of Wupingjun like a wedge.

Once something happens, even if the 40,000 forbidden troops are not able to defeat the Wuping army, they can use the waterway to wait for the mobilization and reinforcement of the Wuchang army in Ezhou, as well as a steady stream of material replenishment, which perfectly solves the problem of insufficient troops to guard against Li Yuan, and can control the war within the scope of Chudi, so as not to burn to the south of the Yangtze River so quickly.

Seeing that Emperor Li Jing nodded in acquiescence, Li Zhenggu impatiently threw out his true intentions, and soon mentioned the crux of the matter, that is, the suggestion of who to recommend to lead the forbidden army.

There is no suspense on the issue of this candidate, Xu Xuan, Wei Cen and Li Zhenggu do not need to discuss, and they also know who to recommend, but they can't be too obvious in front of the emperor.

So Wei Cen and Li Zhenggu deliberately recommended some generals who were mediocre in battle and obviously not treated by the emperor, and finally Xu Xuan, the left minister, pretended to be thoughtful, and gave a name that the emperor did not expect - Zhang Wenbiao.