Listening to politics in the dynasty is of great significance to Cheng Wen.

If it is said that the sudden imprisoning of Li Bing before was because of the strong hatred that carried her mind, then the series of manipulations for power after the house arrest of the emperor belonged to a desperate struggle for self-preservation. Among them, there are both active adventures and passive helplessness.

However, as the situation continued to move forward, the whole situation became more and more "favorable" to Cheng Wen. The Northern Ya Reverse Scale Division was useless, and had lost its role in defending the emperor, and the forbidden army was controlled by her through the edict, so that the imperial capital and even the entire Gyeonggi Province no longer had enough power to balance the Cheng family.

A large number of court officials were involved in the case of poisoning the emperor, imprisoned, and a collective court staff outside Chengtianmen that shocked the world, completely suppressed hundreds of civil and military officials. At this time, no one dares to stand up and question Cheng Wen's authority.

It can be said that the firewood is already piled up, and only a little spark is missing.

And Tian Mu's suggestion that the queen listen to politics is the best Mars. The firewood ignited, and suddenly ignited the sky-high fire in Cheng Wen's heart:

Originally, he just wanted to hold Li Bing hostage so that he could take revenge on Li Jiangyao for his father and second brother, but he didn't expect that by mistake, the door to the peak of power in the Holy Tang Dynasty was completely open to him! The opportunity of the Cheng family is in front of you, and the opportunity of this palace is in front of you!

Queen Cheng Wen's ambition swelled up in an instant. Her goal is no longer satisfied with taking the opportunity to take revenge. A higher step of honor is waiting for her in front of her.

Objectively speaking, this opportunity is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. From the Imperial Capital Incident caused by the crown prince and Xie Guang, to the rebellion in Western Xinjiang and the Turkic invasion, the imperial power system and political map of the Shengtang Empire encountered an unprecedented impact, which led to a series of earth-shaking changes.

Li Kui, the king of Huaiyang, and Li Jiong, the king of the puppet Jin Dynasty, rebelled one after another, and the military forces such as Li Jiangyao, Ma Hongjie, and Murong Xue rose one after another, and the world fell into a war for many years, and almost all the imperial army was thrown into the southern battlefield, and there was no time to look north.

The chaotic Shengtang Dynasty gave careerists and conspirators endless opportunities.

In this case, Cheng Wen suddenly made a move to murder the unsuspecting emperor Li Bing, and indeed had an excellent space and time to advance his various deployments, and then seize the fruits of power.

Since the queen can now be "ordered" to listen to the government, then who can guarantee that there will not be a female emperor who really rules the world one day in the future?

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Cheng Wen immediately became complacent under Tian Mu's encouragement, but her brother, Cheng Dong, the prince of Zhenguo, not only did not feel a little happy, but became more and more troubled and worried.

It is one thing for a relative to be in power, and quite another for a relative to usurp power.

Such a reckless and arrogant approach is tantamount to self-defeating.

Last time, he suggested to his sister Cheng Wen that while the matter had not yet reached a point where it was completely out of control, he should reach an understanding and compromise with the military as soon as possible, especially for Li Jiangyao, the capital of the Zhenjiang Army. Crowning the king, being promoted, rewarding money, and giving land, as long as you can stabilize the army of hundreds of thousands of tigers and wolves, you can give anything, and you can agree to any conditions.

However, Cheng Wen obviously does not have a deep city like him. The queen, who believed that she had mastered the Forbidden Army Legion and the White Tiger Legion, didn't take the Zhenjiang Army seriously at all. Compromise? What a joke! If you don't send troops to attack Li Jiangyao immediately, you can already be considered very forbearing, and give him the title of king?

Now, seeing that her sister is about to listen to the government and openly preside over the overall situation of the court, she is one step closer to the peak of the power of the Holy Tang Dynasty, and it is naturally more impossible for her and Li Jiangyao to temporarily turn their rivalry into jade silk.

Cheng Dong had no choice but to bite the bullet and resign himself to fate, and instead began to strengthen the preparation training of the 200,000 forbidden army in order to meet the big war that might break out at any time in the future.

He divided the entire army into three routes, in addition to the 100,000 soldiers and horses who stayed in the imperial capital, 50,000 went to Tongguan and 50,000 went to Wuguan, blocking the two passes east of the Guanzhong Plain to ensure the safety of Gyeonggi.

At the same time, in the name of the Governor's Office, he also ordered the government troops of the Guanzhong states to assemble and advance to Liangzhou, so as to prevent the main forces of the three towns and Xinjiang left in the western Xinjiang from suddenly leaving the pass and raiding the rear of the imperial capital.

However, even with such careful deployment, Cheng Dong still felt very unsteady.

No matter how you calculate, the strength and combat power of the forbidden army are far from meeting the requirements of defending the imperial capital.

In addition to this, there are two other problems that also worry him very much.

Emperor Li Bing, as the supreme of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, although he has been jealous of Li Jiangyao for a long time, he has never dared to directly turn his face and meet each other, and the reasons behind it are very complicated.

In Cheng Dong's view, in addition to military strength considerations, popular support and financial resources are also Li Bing's two biggest scruples.

When the Holy Tang Dynasty was almost destroyed, Li Jiangyao and the Zhenjiang Army turned the tide and successively defeated the rebel forces in Western Xinjiang, the army of Turkic foreign enemies, Li Kui, the king of Huaiyang, and the traitors in Jiangnan.

It is no exaggeration to say that because Li Jiangyao's previous enemies all appeared in front of the world as bad guys, it led to the stereotype that "if anyone is an enemy of Li Jiangyao, whoever is fucking must be a bad guy".

This simple and straightforward way of thinking is very common among the people, and even the emperor has no way to do it.

Therefore, Li Bing did not dare to do anything to Li Jiangyao easily, he was afraid that before the battle was won, he would have to be drowned by the spittle of the court officials and the people of the world.

It's a pity that Cheng Wen doesn't understand this truth.

Another truth that Cheng Wen doesn't understand is financial resources.

The main source of the imperial court's wealth came from taxes. The salaries of officials, the army's salaries, and the construction of civil and water conservancy projects all depended on the collection of taxes. However, this way of taking money from the hands of ordinary people is a double-edged sword.

There are fewer taxes, not enough money to spend, and many big things cannot be done. For example, warships were built to fight the rebels and blockade the river. Because of the lack of silver, it was not possible to build enough ships, which caused the army to delay its southern crossing for a long time.

But on the other hand, if there is too much tax, the people will immediately complain. Originally, due to years of war, the people of Shengtang were already struggling to make a living, if the imperial court again expropriated and extorted excessively, where could it not be guaranteed, it would suddenly provoke a popular uprising, and there would be trouble of rebellion and rebellion again.

For this reason, the Shengtang court under Li Bing's rule was always careful to control the proportion of taxes, and from time to time it was necessary to reduce taxes in certain state capitals in order to promote the economic development of those places.

In the event of an armed conflict with Li Jiangyao and other legions, the area east of Tongguan will soon fall into war, and the taxes in the Central Plains, Qilu, northern Hebei, and Lianghuai will not be able to be collected smoothly. At that time, the imperial treasury will become even more stretched in terms of financial resources.

No money, and a fart fight?

On the other hand, the Zhenjiang army has a very diverse source of funds, in addition to the basic taxes in Western Xinjiang, there is also a huge and complicated Silk Road trade transaction income. In particular, the latter's way of accumulating wealth has little impact on ordinary people and is easier to get the support of the people.

In addition, once the Zhenjiang army eliminated the Jiangnan rebels, they could easily collect the wealth accumulated by Li Jiong Lao Jianhua for many years, including gold and silver, grain and grass, equipment, and weapons, and directly convert them into war materials against the Cheng army.

The two sides compare each other, and the judgment is made from the superior.

Compared with combat power, the forbidden army and the white tiger may not be able to beat each other; In terms of people's hearts, most of the people in the world will stand on Li Jiangyao's side; Fighting for assets, the Zhenjiang army is rich and rich, and the bigger the imperial capital, the poorer it is. Anyone with a little brain knows what the ending will be.

Cheng Dong sighed secretly: Alas, the Cheng family's 800-year-old foundation and nearly 1,000 men, women and children will have to pay an extremely heavy price for Cheng Wen's ambition and cleverness sooner or later.

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"Tian Aiqing, how is tomorrow's court meeting arranged?" Cheng Wen sat on the throne in the main hall of Fengyi Palace and asked lazily.

Tian Mu, who has just been promoted to Zhongshu Ling, is already the same prime minister and belongs to the head of the hundred officials. Hearing the queen's inquiry, he hurriedly replied: "Back to Niangniang, the minister has notified the Imperial Historical Observatory and ordered him to supervise the hundred officials to ensure that the situation of the day before yesterday will not occur again." ”

The "situation the day before yesterday" in his mouth refers to the embarrassing scene faced by Empress Cheng Wen on the first day of listening to the government under the pretense of the emperor's will.

On that day, 21 of the court officials in Beijing who were above the level of the fifth rank said that they were sick and did not go to court, 18 people took leave and did not go to court, and there were seven hard bones, so they simply disappeared.

finally waited for the opening of the dynasty to discuss politics, except for the officials of the pro-queen line, the rest of the people almost became mute and did not say a word. They neither proposed nor expressed their opinions, just stared at Cheng Wen who lived on the royal platform quietly, their eyes were full of gloomy and resentful looks.

Cheng Wen was stared at by everyone and was uncomfortable, and hurriedly took care of a few government affairs in the name of Li Bing, and then hastily announced her retirement from the dynasty and returned to the harem in embarrassment.

After going back, the more she thought about it, the more angry she became, and she almost dispatched the forbidden army again to teach those stubborn ministers who didn't know the times, but in the end, it was Cheng Dong and Tian Mu who gave advice and dispelled the idea of making a big move.

Tomorrow is going to the court again, and at this time Cheng Wen opened her mouth to ask, obviously not wanting to face that annoying situation.

After listening to Tian Mu's advice, Cheng Wen finally felt a little relieved, and then asked, "How is the battle on the front line recently?" There is no report from the Governor's Mansion and the Ministry of War. How? Bullying this palace is not through military affairs? ”

Tian Mu hurriedly smiled when he heard this: "Niangniang is too worried." At present, the post of Metropolitan Governor of the Metropolitan Government is vacant, and Dong Tianxing, the secretary of the Ministry of War, has been thinking about it behind closed doors at home, so it is normal that there is no official report to Shangshu Province. As far as the minister knows, the current war in the south of the Yangtze River is going well, except for Ma Hongjie's troops who are still fighting with the rebel Xie Bao's troops and have no new gains, Gong Chengze's troops have captured Jiannan and are marching into Yizhou; Murong Xue's troops captured Tanzhou; Li Jiangyao's troops recovered Fuzhou and prepared to encircle Hangzhou, the rebel's nest. The fall of the puppet Jin King Li Ji is just around the corner. ”