Things were really as Li Jiangyao had guessed, because of Cheng Xi's death, Li Bing once again moved the army's mind.

Since ancient times, as the king of a country, the emperor is most worried about three things: civil ministers and military officials, military generals and royal power.

The reason why kings are called lonely is because they are really lonely.

In the face of the huge temptation of power, whether it is a civil minister or a military general, or a relative of the emperor, he may betray his king at any time and embark on the road of rebellion. And the most terrible and difficult to deal with among them is the military general group that controls the army.

Or rather, the military.

If the military can be firmly controlled by the emperor, it will basically allow the country to usher in a relatively stable period of peace, and the political, economic, cultural, and people's livelihood will be fully developed.

On the contrary, if the military did not obey the emperor's authority, or if the government did not obey the emperor, the political situation would be in turmoil, not to mention that nothing could be done, and even the emperor himself would be in danger.

Therefore, the emperor is not at ease with the army, and it has never had anything to do with character, but something deeply engraved in his bones.

When you are the emperor, you will think the same way.

Of course, different emperors, because of their different minds, abilities, and wisdom, handled their relations with the military in different ways. Many eloquent and strategic gentlemen can accurately grasp the psychology of military generals, select talents and use their abilities, fully trust, and finally achieve a harmonious situation between monarchs and ministers.

It's a pity that Li Bing is not such an emperor.

Having lost his father at a young age, he can be said to have grown up in fear and worry. Whether a holy religious covenant can keep his right to inherit the throne, or even whether it can save his life, has always been a question without a real answer.

Before the age of twenty, no one could answer Li Bing; After the age of twenty, the situation is more complicated.

Because of this, Li Bing made a big mistake in the last few years of his reign as the crown prince of the Holy Tang Dynasty. He pinned all his hopes on the military at that time, but was almost killed by the military. Not only did he die, but the entire dynasty.

In Li Bing's mind, all the generals who are in charge of military power are not credible.

Xie Guang is not credible, Bao Yuchun is not credible, and even He Jingming, Xu Lie, and Yang Xingtai are not credible. The only thing that can be trusted is himself. The army is most at ease only when it is in his own hands.

Unfortunately, however, creation makes a difference. The long-term presence of the Turks and rebels simply did not give Li Bing the opportunity to personally control the army. On the contrary, it is Li Jiangyao and Ma Hongjie, who are generals who can fight well, because of the needs of the war, they have more and more troops in their hands and their strength is getting stronger and stronger.

On the one hand, Li Bing relied on the generals to destroy the enemy, maintain the Holy Tang Dynasty, and defend his divine imperial power; On the other hand, Li Bing was worried that Li Jiangyao and his military power would become more and more stable, and eventually threaten his position.

He couldn't tell anyone about this extremely contradictory mood, and he didn't dare to tell anyone.

Until Cheng Xitu was assassinated.

To tell the truth, at Murong Xue's bloody wedding, the poisonous assassin killed dozens of royal families and important ministers in one go, but none of them made Li Bing feel extremely nervous and uneasy now that Cheng Xi's death made him feel extremely nervous and uneasy.

The bloody wedding was a frenzied revenge of the remnants of the Turks, an indiscriminate massacre.

Cheng Xi, on the other hand, was aimed at the targeted assassination of senior generals of the forbidden army.

There is an essential difference between the two.

The conspiracy theory with ulterior motives soon spread throughout the court and into Li Bing's ears. All of a sudden, the remarks about the instability of the army once again became the focus of heated discussions.

In this case, a joint note from Shang Shu Zuo Servant and the Grand Governor reminded the suspicious emperor that it was time for a new military personnel arrangement.

Wei Zixuan pointed out that at present, the counterinsurgency war is entering the stage of confrontation between the north and the south, and both the army and the navy have passed the previous period of relatively tense times, the front-line pattern is basically stable, and the imperial court's preparations for war are progressing smoothly. He suggested that he take this opportunity to select some children of traditional nobles who were loyal to the emperor and supplement them to various legions as middle and senior commanders to stabilize the army.

Yin Chengyi emphasized that Cheng Xi's assassination was apparently due to the unwillingness of some people to see the empress's elder brother and a member of the Zhenguo Mansion in an important military position, which just illustrates the necessity of Zuo Xiang's proposal: the newly rising military forces will only fear the return of traditional nobles and lords to the military if they want to monopolize military power.

Regarding the statement of the two of them, Li Bing was quite moved.

Although in many ways, Li Bing was also wary of Wei Zixuan and Yin Chengyi. But he would prefer to see that there are disputes between the ministers of the court and the military generals, and that only in this way can he sit comfortably as the emperor.

Wei Zixuan's idea was obviously aimed at weakening the power of those generals who commanded the army, so he still had personal selfishness. However, in Li Bing's opinion, this is exactly the result he wants.

Soon, a new round of military readjustment was brewing.

In the middle of the month, more than 100 young nobles from the princely palaces of the imperial capital were recruited by the emperor and sent to the front-line corps in batches to serve as captains, military officers, Sima, captains, and chief bookkeepers.

Among them, even the Zhenjiang Army is included.

These aristocratic officers knew very well in their hearts that they represented the emperor Li Bing, and the purpose of going to each legion was to monitor the movements of the army and gradually infiltrate and control the military power of the legions to which they belonged.

In particular, the three legions of Qinglong, Suzaku, and Xuanwu became the main targets of the noble young officers.

At the same time, an investigation into the murder of Cheng Xi was launched. The criminal department is in the open, and the north is in the dark, and both sides are two-pronged. However, the professional killers of the Intelligence Department naturally do not leave any clues for others, and the Criminal Department has always been at a loss to the end.

It's different.

Although they did not find key evidence, all indications showed that the person who killed Cheng Xi came from the Intelligence Department of the Zhenjiang Army.

As a result, a counterattack against the Imperial Capital Branch of the Intelligence Division was launched.

Under the instruction of Empress Cheng Wen and Wei Zixuan, with the acquiescence of Emperor Li Bing, Tian Mu commanded his subordinates to begin a large-scale crackdown on the secret agents of the Intelligence Department in the imperial capital. Although Yudra sent people to warn the Imperial Capital Branch, it was still a step too late.

Relying on the basis of its previous cooperation with the Intelligence Division, the Reverse Scale Division quickly destroyed the five intelligence bases of the Imperial Capital Branch, and a total of eighty-three secret agents were secretly arrested.

The relationship between the imperial court and the Zhenjiang army has almost come to the brink of rupture.

-

In the face of the crisis, Li Jiangyao was not flustered. Since everything was expected, there was nothing to rush about.

He instructed Yudra to let the imperial capital branch go into a dormant state, no longer carry out intelligence work in the short term, and temporarily avoid the edge of the imperial court. At the same time, to prevent Xu Youchang's plan to get rid of those noble officers, he instead arranged their posts properly and treated them honestly.

According to Li Jiangyao's words, as long as you fight the rebels wholeheartedly, you are the Pao Ze brothers, and there is no need to distinguish any background.

Of course, having the right mentality does not mean being blindly credulous.

Li Jiangyao secretly instructed Yudra to make a detailed survey of the six noble officers who came to report. Among them, there was one person who caught the attention of the Intelligence Division.

Marquis of Fengyang, Yan Qiuping.

Compared with the arrogance and self-righteousness of the other five, although this Marquis of Fengyang is not very old, he is humble and polite, and he also has a lot of respect for his colleagues in the Zhenjiang Army. In particular, the high command announced the job arrangement, and even if he was assigned to the front-line troops, Yan Qiuping had no complaints.

It stands to reason that it is a good thing that the people sent by the imperial court can understand the rules so well, but the Intelligence Department found in the investigation that the Marquis of Fengyang's Mansion had an unusual intersection with a person.

That person's name is Shi Xun, and he has taught martial arts in the Marquis's Mansion, and Shi Xun's earlier identity was an officer in Beiya.

Beiya has always been a royal private soldier, and it is really suspicious why the officers there would go to the Marquis of Fengyang's mansion to be a teacher.

In order to find out the situation, Yudra made a special trip to Dashu Mountain, ten miles north of Luzhou City, and asked Shen Lie, who was recuperating there, to guide him.

Since Shen Lie was rescued from the imperial capital by the Intelligence Division, he has been staying in Dashu Mountain to recuperate. The mountains and rivers here are beautiful, the climate is pleasant, and it is not far from the base camp of the Zhenjiang Army, so it is very safe and secure in terms of safety and treatment conditions. More than half a year has passed, and his injuries have been healed.

Hearing Yudra say that he had something to inquire about, Shen Lie seemed very happy, and hurriedly asked the other party to speak freely. But when he heard Yudra mention the name Shi Xun, he immediately frowned.

"Shi Xun? This ......" Shen Lie said in a deep voice: "Are you sure he worked as a teacher in the Marquis Mansion of Fengyang?" ”

Yudra nodded: "Well, sure." We once asked the six officers selected by the imperial court to fill in their resumes carefully, among which the martial arts master inherited this item, and Yan Qiuping wrote three masters, including Shi Xun. We compared the archives and found that this Shi Xun also appeared in the roster of Beiya, so we had some doubts. How? Lord Shen, is there really a problem with this Shi Xun? ”

Shen Lie smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Is there a problem aside, let's not talk about it for the time being, first of all, Shi Xun is a fictitious person. ”

"Fictional? What does that mean? Yudra was curious.

Shen Lie said: "Shi Xun is a pseudonym, and it is also a pseudonym that I used for a while when I was young. ”

Hearing this, Yudra couldn't help but be surprised: "You mean that someone has used your fake name?" ”

"That's how it should be." Shen Lie smiled faintly: "Moreover, there are only two people who know my pseudonym, one is my master Qin Zhu, and the other is Lao Jianhua. ”

Yudra's eyes lit up: "So, Yan Qiuping's martial arts instructor is Lao Jianhua?" No, it's not the right time! When Yan Qiuping was learning martial arts, Lao Jianhua should still be hiding from pursuit in Turkic and Western Xinjiang. ”

Shen Lie nodded: "Maybe it's someone related to Lao Jianhua, or maybe it's him who stayed under Sheng Tang's hands, it's all possible." ”

Yudra said in a deep voice: "Since this is the case, then Yan Qiuping must also have a problem!" ”