Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 95 Wolf and Dog

Two days later, an official decree came from the palace: Zhao Dezhao had made great achievements in developing gunpowder. He would be inspected as a tutor, granted the title of King of Lu, and appointed as the gunpowder envoy of the Gunpowder Department.

At the same time, he added another decree: add Zhao Guangyi as the Grand Tutor of the School and grant him the title of King of Qi.

Zhao Guangmei didn't add anything. Zhao Kuangyin seemed to be using this method to express his dissatisfaction with Zhao Guangmei.

Of course, Zhao Guangmei's official position is actually already a bit too good to add to. If he reaches the top, he will really be made the deputy emperor.

However, Zhao Kuangyin still did not relent to his brother-in-law Wang Jixun. He only issued an edict to remove him from the official position of commander of the guards and horses, but he did not issue the order to kill people, and only asked Zhao Guangmei to purge the imperial army.

Zhao Guangmei said, "If Wang Jixun doesn't die, how will he purge the Forbidden Army?"
Then the note was withheld, and there was no reply. No matter how much momentum Zhao Guangmei created, he simply pretended to be dead. Even Zhao Dezhao and Zhao Guangyi began to formally submit letters one after another, and clamored for all the civil and military officials of the court to follow suit. Zhao Kuangyin still pretended to be dead.

There are rumors that the queen has gone on a hunger strike in the palace, and the officials really have no choice. If the trouble continues like this, I'm afraid it won't be a matter of killing Wang Jixun, but whether to abolish the queen.

He saw Yang Ye muttering: "If you ask me, if you abolish the queen, abolish the queen. The Wang family has such a heartless devil. It is obviously because of the lax upbringing. As the mother of the country, the queen cannot set an example for the world. On the contrary, he is shielding her everywhere. I think he is not a virtuous queen, so it is not a bad idea to be deposed."

Then he got a big slap from Zhao Guangmei.

"Can you say this? No matter what, she is still my sister-in-law. Everyone in the world knows that you are mine. If others hear this, they will think that I am dissatisfied with my sister-in-law. Isn't this going to cause trouble? Are you causing discord in my family?"

When Yang Ye heard this, he just pouted, obviously dissatisfied. He was so courageous that he couldn't help but mutter: "Is this woman worthy of her mother's honor in the world?"

"you……"

Zhao Guangmei was furious and wanted to reward him with another big dick, but Pan Mei quickly smoothed things over and said: "Brother, what you said is wrong. In any case, Rong Guogong is also his younger brother, a member of the female class. When he meets Isn't it possible to panic about this kind of thing?"

Hearing this, Zhao Guangmei glared at Pan Mei again.

It seemed that she was scolding Yang Ye, but obviously, Pan Mei's words also revealed her deep dislike for her sister-in-law.

I'm afraid this is no longer the personal opinion of the two of them, but the meaning of the entire Forbidden Army and all the generals. In front of themselves, the two of them are so presumptuous. I am afraid that behind their back, they may not know what they want to say about their sister-in-law, or even Are you criticizing the Zhao family?

After all, their Forbidden Army had a bad reputation among the people. Li Chuyun was already very passive about cannibalism. Now that Wang Jixun's incident is going on like this, the reputation of these generals of the Forbidden Army has been completely affected by them.

There are indeed many precedents for cannibalism among the Fifth Generation Forbidden Army. Eating raw human livers was popular a few decades ago. The successive revelations of cannibalism by high-ranking officials inevitably led to the demonization of the people by the people. Zhao Guangmei took the opportunity to launch a rectification movement for the Forbidden Army. , and it indeed affected the interests of all the Forbidden Forces up and down. After all, who wants to be punished if they are good?

He didn't dare to complain, and he couldn't. This nameless anger naturally moved to Wang Jixun. If Zhao Kuangyin had killed the person quickly, this anger might have dissipated, but he was so ink-stained , this resentment naturally led to the queen.

Furthermore, the Wang family is a general after all. If such a big thing happens, it is natural that it is not only the Wang family that is embarrassed, but also the Zhao family. It has clearly embarrassed all their generals.

The common people who didn't know the truth thought they were all cannibals.

After all, Empress Wang was a second wife and had no children. Zhao Dezhao and Zhao Defang were both children of Zhao Kuangyin's first wife, the He family. It was sheer luck that she became the empress, and her own reputation was average, and she was not known as a virtuous queen. Zhao Kuangyin was so willful, yet so indecisive. Some of the generals were outspoken, and they were already talking after drinking too much. The queen might as well be abolished.

Zhao Guangmei also felt that it was a bit tricky. At this point, he was not afraid of offending this sister-in-law. Anyway, he had already offended her to death. It was just that he had just forced his eldest brother into the palace. Although the eldest brother did not kill Wang Jixun, he did not let him go like in history. Ah, he acted like a bitch, so he couldn't do anything further for fear of irritating his elder brother.

I couldn't help but sigh: "My eldest brother is good at everything, but he is too soft-hearted towards his family. There is nothing I can do about it."

Just as he was talking, he saw Sun Liancheng running over, shouting repeatedly: "Something happened, something happened, something happened, your highness, I am very happy."

"What happened to make you so happy?"

"Wang Jixun is dead."

"Dead? How come you died when you were so good?"

"It's the Queen Mother. At noon today, the Queen Mother overheard the discussion in the army and the market. She personally went to the Kaifeng Mansion Prison with a sword and stabbed Wang Jixun to death with one sword."

For a moment, everyone was stunned.

It took a while for Zhao Guangmei to hold back a sentence: "My mother is so powerful that she deserves to be the mother who gave birth to the founding king of the country, that is, Sa." She thought to herself that now, the conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law will never be relieved.

"Well, since it was my mother who took action herself, it seems that this is the best result. Now, there are no further troubles at all. It's time for us to do our business. It's a pity that you two are too junior. , and lack of military merit, the position of commander of the bodyguard, horse, and army is impossible to fall on your heads."

When the two heard this, they quickly rejected it. How could they dare to even think about this?
In fact, with the release of military power over a glass of wine, all the senior generals in the Forbidden Army were wiped out. Both of them have now taken advantage of this trend to rise up. Now Yang Ye has become the commander of the Crane Control and Horse Army, and Pan Mei He has already become the commander of the Hujie Infantry Army, and can be regarded as the head of an important army in the Guards Division. Konghe and Hujie are both elites, and beyond that, that is not what they should think about.

"It is not difficult to see that our troops in the Song Dynasty were unrivaled in this expedition to Jinghu. They leveled Jinghu in 46 days and defeated two places in a row. This is unprecedented. However, the corruption of military discipline and the cruelty of their actions are also unprecedented. , especially above the Khitan Hugo. I know some people in the army say that soldiers must have wolf nature and be wolves in order to win battles. If they can't let go and train wolves into dogs, military discipline will be improved, but their combat effectiveness will not be the same. It must come down, do you think they are right?"

When Sun Liancheng heard this, he lowered his head silently and pushed back quietly. This was not a topic he could interrupt.

Pan Mei and Yang Ye looked at each other with hesitation in their eyes for a moment.

"You can say whatever you think. There are no outsiders here."

After thinking about it, Pan Mei said: "This statement is definitely wrong. We are soldiers, not thieves. However, it makes no sense at all. I'm afraid it is not necessarily true. The battlefield is cruel, and soldiers are essentially fighting for wealth with their lives. Since ancient times, Since then, every battle has had an unwritten rule of breaking down the city and massacring it for three days. If the control is too great, why would the soldiers provoke it?"

Yang Ye also said: "Part of the reason for the poor discipline of the Forbidden Army is that a small number of soldiers are cruel by nature, but on the other hand, it is also because the generals of this dynasty often pursue quick victory when using troops. To win quickly, they must use high pressure. , after high pressure, there will inevitably be catharsis. If this habit of quick victory can be changed, perhaps military discipline will be much better, but..."

Pan Mei answered: "However, the army has been like this since the end of the Tang Dynasty. If you can't win quickly, you may not be able to win. After all, the soldiers are paid. Once a stalemate occurs, the enemy's formation will be difficult to break, and morale will be reduced." After falling down, I just want to get paid and don't want to kill the enemy. If military discipline is too strict, I'm afraid..."

"Yes."

Even Zhao Guangmei nodded in agreement. He understood these principles. As a professional soldier, the wages and bonuses he received during the expedition were definitely higher than usual. Therefore, once he found that the enemy was too strong and difficult to win quickly, it would be easy to just mess with him. Military pay, even when both sides are professional soldiers, will fall into a sit-in war.

It was the kind of war that lasted for more than a month between the two armies, with no one on either side dying.

That's why the Song army likes to carry out surprise attacks and quick victories when fighting. It is also because they are afraid of turning the war into a pay war. Otherwise, what is the difference between pinging Jinghu in forty days and pinging Jinghu in eighty days?In forty days, I'm afraid it took more than thirty days just to travel. Just now, Li Chuyun had to eat people, which shows how anxious he was.

Then Pan Meidao said: "The opposite of high pressure is generous rewards. Only heavy rewards and generous rewards can make the soldiers go crazy in a short period of time. Some of these generous rewards are given by the court, and some are given by the generals themselves, but more. It still has to come from the enemy. If there is no full benefit, the soldiers will definitely not fight tooth and nail. And if military discipline is to be clarified, no matter how rich the merchant houses and the court are, the soldiers will probably still be more willing to pay, right? "

"A dog may not be able to defeat a wolf in a real fight, but because it is kept by its owner, it only needs to look after the house and have bones to eat. Unless it endangers itself, how can it have the ferocious aura of a wolf? "

Zhao Guangmei glanced at Pan Mei after hearing this, knowing that he was probably one of the generals who held the view that dogs are worse than wolves. After all, Pan Mei's military discipline in history was not very good, but he was not as perverted as Li Chuyun. He burned, killed and looted. He also did a lot of things, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to always be under Cao Bin based on his ability.

With a cold snort, Zhao Guangmei said: "This is the shortcoming of the recruitment system. However, in the final analysis, our soldiers in the Song Dynasty do not have a sense of ownership and patriotism. Soldiers are no different from bandits. The soldiers I want are neither It should be a wolf, not a dog, but a human being, the real master of the country. The reason why we, the Song Dynasty, established a trading house was to share the world with the tooth soldiers and military households. But look at the current forbidden army. Do you look like a master? The people of Hunan are also the people of the Song Dynasty, and their property is also the property of the Song Dynasty. Doesn’t the property of the Song Dynasty also belong to military households like them?"

Of course, this is actually a difficult problem to solve. As far as he knows, similar problems are unsolvable even in the 21st century. Those princely soldiers in the Middle East are still fighting the most ruthless battles with the most elite weapons. , a fully automated armored division could be captured alive by two brigades of guerrillas with only light weapons, so that the princes had to rely heavily on mercenaries.

Aren’t those princes in the Middle East rich enough?

This is not something that can be solved with money.

Of course, you still have to try.

"The purge of the Forbidden Army is imperative. If we want to cure the root cause, we must also carry out reforms. Of course, my eldest brother also has his own ideas, but again, he will change his, and we will change ours. You two are my confidants. Everyone in the world knows that you are my people, and reform starts with your Crane Control Army and Hujie Army."

"First of all, we need to clarify military discipline. In a few days, a man named Cao Bin will come back from other places. I will appoint him as the military supervisor of the commercial bank. It is a temporary assignment. He will be fully responsible for this rectification and re-establish military discipline. Anyone who violates military discipline will become an unwelcome person in the trading company and will no longer enjoy the pensions and benefits of the trading company. His family will also lose the qualification to work in the trading company. Starting from the two of you in the army, he is a relative of the former dynasty. His prestige in the military may still be a bit lacking, but I hope you can fully cooperate with him on this matter."

Naturally, the two of them had no objections and agreed one after another.

"Secondly, in order to cultivate the sense of ownership among the soldiers, it is natural to treat them as masters first. In this expedition to Jinghu, all the disabled and sacrificed soldiers will receive a pension from the imperial court, and a share from the trading company. , anyway, there will be a lot of money left after building the nursing home.”

"Third, I will personally take charge of the anti-corruption storm operation, and use people from the Forbidden Army to carry out anti-corruption campaigns in commercial banks. At the same time, Han Lingkun and my brother-in-law Gao Huaide will lead a team to select a group of investigators from the commercial banks. Team, investigate all the generals in the Forbidden Army and above, and comprehensively investigate the illegal behavior of the generals in the army to see if there are any bastards like Wang Jixun in the army. If there are, kill every one you catch."

"Commercial houses are inspecting the Imperial Guards, and the Imperial Guards are inspecting commercial houses?"

"Yes, the candidates for the inspection team are voted by veterans of each army for more than five years. Let them vote for people they trust. Tell them that the trading company belongs to the Zhao family, but at the same time it belongs to everyone, all military households, They are all the owners of the commercial bank, and the commercial bank has made a total of more than 500 million yuan this year. This money belongs to everyone."

(End of this chapter)