Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 180: Merit is merit, fault is fault, reward those who deserve to be rewarded, and kill those who deserve to be killed
In the end, Zhao Kuangyin agreed to Zhao Guangmei taking Zhao Dezhao with him.

Nowadays, the gunpowder weapons of the Song Dynasty are becoming more and more sophisticated. At the same time, Zhao Kuangyin has become extremely wary of the Liao army stealing gunpowder. After all, at least so far, gunpowder weapons are not fully developed. Although they cannot be said to be useless in field battles, But it is better than nothing, and its role in siege has become more and more fancy.

After all, the Song army was mainly infantry. If both the Liao army and the Song army had gunpowder, the Song army would be at a huge disadvantage, even if the Liao army had less gunpowder.

So this time Zhao Kuangyin is indeed very serious. Since Shu is also an important saltpeter producing area, and there is evidence that saltpeter from Shu has indeed entered Liao, we must pay attention to this.

In contrast, things in the northwest are not that important, at least in Zhao Kuangyin's eyes.

Zhao Guangmei, on the other hand, was anxious for a while and then quickly calmed down and mobilized the imperial army. After thinking about it, he got a piece of paper and mobilized the 73-year-old veteran Guo Chong to lead troops as reinforcements to accompany him.

Of course, at the same time, Cao Bin was ordered to directly mobilize a full 2000 guards from the merchant's army, one old and one young, to act as personal soldiers on his left and right, and by the way, he took over the real command of the Forbidden Army.

Mr. Guo is just a mascot.

If it weren't for the fact that there was no more suitable candidate, Zhao Guangmei would not want to trouble this old man. Although this old man was still a military governor in name, in fact he had long since retired and paid no attention to business.

It's just that this time he went to Shu to face Wang Quanbin. Wang Quanbin was also a veteran. When Li Cunxu died, he was the one who collected his body. It can be imagined how many years he had been in the Forbidden Army. It can be said that he is a tree with deep roots and seniority. He is rich, and he is still a Shatuo person, which has some ethnic conflicts. Of course, Zhao Guangmei is respected enough as the King of Qin, but after all, he is too young. If he wants to relinquish his military power, it is naturally best to find someone with more seniority than him. Deeper veteran general, it is better to keep a facade to avoid complications.

There are indeed not many people left in the Song Dynasty who are more qualified than Wang Quanbin and are still alive.

Moreover, Guo Chong was still a Hu man. Guo Chong was specially asked to replace Wang Quanbin to show that the Song Dynasty had no intention of creating a conflict between Hu and Han, and it was not aimed at the few Shatuo soldiers he had.

In fact, no one can tell who is a Shatuo person and who is a Han person these days unless they go out of their way to tell the difference.

While marching, Zhao Guangmei regained his relaxed demeanor, but Cao Bin became worried again. It is a coincidence that the reason why Cao Bin became a famous general in history was because he fought in this battle against Shu. Excellent performance in combat.

Not because he had military exploits, but because he was the only one among all the generals who conquered Shu to restrain the soldiers from burning, killing, and looting. This was much more important to the Song Dynasty at this time than being able to fight. In this time and space, Zhao Guangmei had a wise eye. Knowing his talent, he had been picked out a long time ago and entrusted with important responsibilities as a relative of the former dynasty. In fact, he was already a civil servant.

Unexpectedly, a strange combination of circumstances brought him back to where he should have been. Could this be the corrective power of history?
In fact, he has been thinking about it these past few days, is this chaos in Shu an accident or an inevitable one?There were riots in Shu in the history before I traveled through it. After I crossed over, there were still riots in Shu. So didn’t I travel through time in vain?

What's even more unsettling is that, no matter in history or this time, their court has actually done nothing wrong from beginning to end. Even what he feared most before Wang Quanbin left the army has done everything he can. In the end, things were still messed up like this.

He has obviously put so much effort into military discipline, so why can't he do it?
"Hey~, is it possible that the army of this feudal dynasty, no matter how well it is built, will eventually degenerate into bandits and bandits, unable to be entrusted with major responsibilities?"

He turned his head and glanced at Cao Bin, who was still looking serious on the horse, but he sighed strangely: "I'm using you again. Look, you have gray hair on your temples. It's been hard these past few years, right? "

Cao Bin also said: "I can only hate that in this world, whether in the officialdom or in the military, there are too few people who serve the country and the public, and there are too many people who are greedy and corrupt. No matter how hard it is, it is difficult to kill all these countless snakes." Who would have thought that Wang Quanbin would dare to do this?"

Zhao Guangmei shook his head and said: "I'm afraid that this matter cannot be entirely attributed to Wang Quanbin. The Western Expeditionary Army was involved in everyone from top to bottom. He seems to be the unlucky one to take the blame. For five generations, the arrogant soldiers drove the commander. There are too many things, and I'm afraid they may not be able to escape this time. You said, I have obviously done everything I can. I have told them that they can spend money to buy whatever they like in Shu. , my business bank paid for the reimbursement after the purchase, and they...hey~ what do they want me to do? What else can they do?"

After a while, he couldn't help but murmur to himself: "Isn't there a way in this world to make the soldiers truly come from the heart, without affecting their combat effectiveness, so that they can be disciplined and truly have a deep seed in their hearts?" A lofty ideal? I am a dragon myself, so you can’t let me teach them the art of slaying dragons, hey~”

The most hateful thing is that they clearly have a supervisor in the Western Expeditionary Army. As long as this supervisor can have a little effect, he will not be useless at all.

In the early Song Dynasty, in order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army, all the military supervisors were military attachés or Privy Council officials, giving almost absolute power to the leading generals. In fact, before the Zhenzong Dynasty, there were almost no deputy positions in the Song army, for fear of any Bureaucratic factors have become a shackles for frontline generals and have affected their performance.

Zhao Kuangyin, who started out as a rebel, really gave absolute trust to officers at all levels.

Few people know that the later Song Dynasty, which was extremely strict with military generals, almost all led by literati, and distrustful of warriors to the extreme, actually indulged military generals in almost all aspects at the beginning.

If Zhao Guangmei was not a time traveler, he might be like other people in the DPRK and advocated taking this as an opportunity to increase the power of the military governor and enhance the ability of the civil service system to suppress the warriors. It is necessary to further attack the tooth soldiers. subjective initiative and transform them into obedient "good soldiers".

But unfortunately, he is a time traveler, and he knows better than anyone the consequences of soldiers being obedient, so he can only smile bitterly and take it one step at a time.

Until he left Beijing, he was still a staunch opponent of improving the military supervision system. No matter how domineering the generals on the front line were, as long as they did not rebel, they would become more cowardly than the Song Dynasty.

There is no such thing as both wanting and wanting in this world.

Traveling in such a hurry, they finally arrived outside Chengdu city after more than half a month. Quan Shixiong's rebels knew that they would never be a match for the Song army in a field battle on the plains, so they all fled in one breath before Zhao Guangmei arrived. He returned to the southern mountainous area and pretended to fight a protracted war with the Song army.

Wang Quanbin, Wang Renfan, Cui Yanjin, and Yang Ye personally knelt down to greet him, and led the generals of the three armies out of the city to greet him from a distance, but they could not help but whisper.

"Xiao Yang, look at this day, I'm afraid it's going to rain heavily."

Yang Ye raised his head and glanced at the sky, remaining silent.

Among the four, he has the least qualifications and is the youngest. Although he is valued by the King of Qin, he is still a demoted general. He is incomparable with these three. Although he performed very well when conquering Shu, the Shu army performed poorly. It was so bad that it almost collapsed at the first touch, so how could he look better?
As for what happened later, he was put under house arrest for no reason, and there was no room for resistance from the beginning to the end. After all, the soldiers under him were not his direct descendants, and almost no one was willing to stand up for him.

This was just released, and even after he released it, he didn’t know what happened during this period.

I had no choice but to keep silent.

Wang Quanbin also looked up at the sky and said, "Heavy rain? Not necessarily. I think it's just a gust of wind."

Wang Rengan frowned and said: "It's already this time, why are you still trying to take advantage of Te Niang? The New Deal in Beijing is in full swing, and even we on the front line have heard about the three major projects. At such a critical time, His Highness the King of Qin actually asked him to personally Come here, is this still called a gust of wind? Even if it is a gust of wind, it is still a strong wind, a strong wind, a hurricane. Who is the King of Qin? Who in the world knows?"

Wang Quanbin curled his lips and said with a look of disdain: "Everyone knows who he is, but isn't it known to everyone who I am? I have been in the Jin Dynasty since the Tang Dynasty. Li Keyong's men have been serving as soldiers for more than fifty years. No matter how strong the wind in the Song Dynasty is, can it blow the deep roots of my tree?"

Then he glanced at the other two people and said: "Needless to say, Xiao Yang, from the beginning to the end, he and us are not of the same mind, but the three of you can't add insult to injury to us. As long as the three of us can advance and retreat together, It’s like the roots of an old tree are deeply rooted into the ground. No matter how strong the wind or the waves are, there is nothing to fear.”

After saying that, Yang Ye opened his mouth wide and said, "Ha~, tui!"

He spat on the ground.

"Being old and not dying is a thief. When a person is old, he should retire and enjoy his old age like the King of Wei, and keep his reputation before and after his death, so as not to rely on his old age all day long and let others look at him for the sake of his waning years. If he gets three points, he really thinks how great he is, and he doesn’t know how great the sky is, and he has caused a big disaster without even realizing it.”

"You...you, a surrendered general, dare to talk to me like this? Don't think that because you have the support of the King of Qin, you can be presumptuous. Let me tell you, let alone the King of Qin, even if he is an official, he has to give way to me. .”

"Look, I just said that old people often can't tell the difference between the sky and the earth, right?"

"You..." Wang Renfan finally couldn't help but interrupted impatiently: "Okay, okay, just say a few words less, one military commander and one commander, in front of the soldiers of the three armies, like this Does it look good? Now is not the time to hold people accountable. Let’s think about how to tell His Highness. This time, it’s really ugly!!”

When Cui Yanjin saw this, he shook his head helplessly and continued to feel anxious as he looked into the distance.

Wang Quanbin has now made it clear that he intends to rely on his old age, and it is obvious that he intends to drag them both into the water, and rely on the military power in his hands to confront His Highness the King of Qin. Obviously, he is not willing to hand over the military power.

This was a routine operation for their five generations of generals, and Yang Ye made it clear that he wanted to be a loyal minister and lackey of His Highness the King of Qin. Of course, there was nothing to say about this, because Yang Ye's power came from the King of Qin. He has no foundation at all in the army, and the massacre of Shu this time has nothing to do with him. If he confronts His Highness the King of Qin, he will be in trouble.

He was a little hesitant, because he was completely different from Wang Quanbin. He had been Zhao Kuangyin's direct confidant from beginning to end. To put it bluntly, the reason why he was sent to come with Wang Quanbin was because he trusted him more.

If His Highness King Qin hadn't come in person this time, he would definitely not have cooperated with Wang Quanbin in supporting the troops and respecting himself. Whoever came would have to give him some face. He and Zhao Kuangyin really had a budding relationship.

But His Highness the King of Qin...

That's not a normal person.

In addition, Cao Bin, who came down together, is said to be selfless and will not give face to anyone. His Highness, King Qin, will not really punish himself for his crimes, right?
Hey ~
Tangled ah.

Why is he the King of Qin?

The four of them did not speak, and had no interest in talking anymore. They waited for a long time, and the team of Zhao Guangmei and Guo Chong arrived belatedly. Among the dense array, Zhao Guangmei came out in full body armor, but did not dismount. , but after taking off his helmet, he looked at the four people in front of him over and over again, looking at the formation of the Western Expeditionary Army in circles, without saying anything, and the air pressure was very low.

"Yang Ye."

"The end is here."

"I heard that this matter has nothing to do with you?"

"I……"

"But as a commander, you actually suppressed military power just because someone said you were suppressing? I am very disappointed in you."

"The last general is guilty."

Yang Ye was also helpless. In fact, if Wang Quanbin was the only one who wanted to hand over his military power, he would still have room to struggle. But among these three people, Wang Quanbin was the commander of the road, Wang Renfan was the deputy privy envoy, and the supervisor of the army. Cui Yanjin is also the commander of the Infantry Guards. His immediate leader was the former commander of the Crane Control Army.

No matter which one of these three people could legitimately crush him to death, at that time, these three people were clearly of the same mind, so there was no room for resistance for him.

Even if one of these three people stood up for him, he would dare to argue with reason. Who has the knife in his hand that is disadvantageous?
Hey ~
Just accept it as bad luck, what else can you say.

But Zhao Guangmei continued: "Wang Quanbin, what do you have to say?"

"Old minister... I have nothing to say."

"Since I have nothing to say, let me confer my head on him. There are 800 million people in Shu. They need me, the Song Dynasty, to give them an explanation. Take Cao Bin and chop him down to serve as a warning to others."

Wang Quanbin was stunned. He thought that no matter how serious this matter was to him, even if it was extremely serious, the most he could do was to treat him like a commoner and kill him immediately?
Not even given a chance to return to Beijing to appeal?
"Your Highness, are you serious?"

"Otherwise? Am I kidding you? Take it!"

"Your Highness! I, I am indeed guilty, but I also have the great merit of defeating Shu! I have the merit of destroying the country! Even Sima Fang and Deng Ai are far from being able to compare with me. If you are in a hurry, boasting that Qing Dynasty will pacify Shu in forty days, it has never been compared with How many generals are there compared to me? Does the Song Dynasty treat meritorious soldiers like this?!"

"What you said does make sense, but as the saying goes, merit is merit, and mistakes are faults. Of course you have made great achievements, so of course you cannot count them down. However, if you are arrogant about your merits, you really deserve to die."

As he said that, he took off a roll of imperial edict from his horse and threw it over, saying: "The merits of destroying Shu cannot be repaid without heavy rewards. I will grant you the title of King of Runan County. After your death, your son will inherit this title." The position of the county king, two shares of the Royal Bank of the Song Dynasty, and joining the board of directors of the commercial bank are rewards. General Wang, is this enough?"

"Ah, ah this... this..."

"A generous gift, I, the Song Dynasty, gave it to you as a reward for your contribution to conquering Shu. However, you took bribes, perverted the law, and committed plunder. This is also a crime worthy of death. Cao Bin, why don't you do it?!"

"Here!"

After that, Cao Bin got off his horse and caught the person himself. Wang Quanbin was stunned until he was stunned. He didn't even react for a while.

Just as he was about to struggle, he heard Cao Bin whisper: "Old general, don't you want to leave some dignity to your children and future generations? Even if I don't kill you today, how many more years will you have left to live?"

"I……"

Then he was really carried out of the battle by Cao Bin, and he lay on the ground in front of the two armies. He took out his saber without any hesitation, and actually planned to kill him directly.

A group of soldiers couldn't help shouting: "Since ancient times, I have never heard of killing the coach in a big victory. Are Zhao Song's elbows turned outward?"

"What's the point of killing and robbing the rats of Shu? The two armies are at war with each other. This is an enemy country. Don't you think it's ridiculous for Your Highness to kill our own general for the sake of the enemy's people?"

Zhao Guangmei didn't even hesitate when he heard the words. He waved his hand directly, and countless veterans of the old camp stepped forward, took out their divine arm crossbows and pointed them straight at his personal camp.

"Arrogant soldiers drive away commanders, brave generals drive away kings. Whoever is arrogant and brave and wants to rebel, just come out! Come on, kill me, and you can break the soil to build a country again, and build another Houhou Shu, come on!"

But he finally calmed the person down.

Then he turned to look at Cao Bin: "What else are you writing on?"

puff.

Knife up and down.

The commander-in-chief of the Conquest of Shu, who had been fighting for more than fifty years since the Tang Dynasty, was now in his own military formation, in front of the soldiers of the three armies, with his head missing.

(End of this chapter)