~《》~      Chapter 20: The Contest Behind (Part 1)

The prefect of the six counties finally signed the "One Prefecture and Six County Joint Defense and Mutual Aid Plan" late at night. There were no personnel changes involving the government in the plan. Yang Yuanqing did not interfere. He just took away the control of the military power of each county and established a joint defense command post. Through concentrated training and centralized supply of military food, he divided the military and government relations between the county and the government, making the six counties in the north of Guanzhou the sphere of influence.

In the next month, the six counties' governments used labor-for-relief to mobilize 50,000 civilians to build Chiling City in the Chiling Mining Area. After the construction, they will station 10,000 troops in the city. This military city with a circumference of ten miles will also be hung with a sign of "Common Defense Command Post". The surrounding 20 miles of wilderness became the training place for the six counties and counties. Chiling City actually became the base camp controlled by Yang Yuanqing.

Although the prefect of the six counties did not want the court to know about the signing of the agreement with Yang Yuanqing, there was no airtight wall in the world. The matter was leaked through a certain channel and then spread to Chang'an. Wen Sheng, the deputy guard of Chang'an, urgently reported to Emperor Sui Yang Guang.

In the imperial study of Xuanzheng Hall, Yang Guang summoned Yu Shiji, Yuwen Shu and Fan Zigai to discuss the matter urgently.

Yang Guang fell ill these days and had a serious cold. He kept resting in the palace. This matter was of great importance, so he forced his illness to hold a meeting.

Yang Guang looked bad and had a pale face. Although he was extremely angry, his face was not revealed, but his face was gloomy.

"Tell me! How should we deal with this?"

Yang Guang's eyes were no longer sharp, but the coldness that his eyes kept showing still made the three people present a little nervous.

"I'll say a few words first."

Yuwen Shu bowed slightly and said, "Your Majesty, Yang Yuanqing's intention is very obvious. He wants to expand his power and control the periphery of Fengzhou. This time, suppressing the rebellion bandits is his best excuse. I think the court cannot agree with it. Once the court agrees, he will gain a foothold and continue to expand southward, so that the entire pass becomes his sphere of influence. I think that the garrison is de facto control. If you want to break Yang Yuanqing's plan, you must start with the garrison. I suggest the establishment of the pass-in chief."

Yang Guang nodded and asked Yu Shiji again, "What do you think Yu Aiqing?"

Yu Shiji bowed and said, "I think that the harm of his anti-Sui under the name of Sui is even greater. I believe that the court should publicly declare him a rebellion and believe that he is a rebellion to prevent him from continuing to bewitch people's hearts. This time he signed an agreement with the prefect of six counties to expand its power to the northern part of the pass. I also advocated a severe counterattack. In addition to military entry, the six prefects must be severely punished and replaced them all. I do not recognize the agreement they signed. Only when the court has a strong attitude can the prefects of other counties be warned."

"What is Fan Shangshu's opinion?"

Yang Guang's eyes turned to Fan Zigai. The reason why he asked Fan Zigai to discuss with him was that he knew that Yuwen Shu and Yu Shiji had personal grudges with Yang Yuanqing, and their opinions were mixed with their own selfish thoughts, while Fan Zigai was relatively neutral and had no interest disputes with Yang Yuanqing.

Fan Zigai is indeed not as biased as Yuwen Shu and Yu Shiji. Moreover, Fan Zigai has served as the chief executive of Liangzhou for many years and is well aware of the importance of the border. More importantly, Fan Zigai's goal in the officialdom is not Yang Yuanqing, but Yuwen Shu and Yu Shiji.

"Your Majesty, I want to know whether the court has been prepared to turn against Yang Yuanqing in full, including its defense against Guanlong and its defense against the Turks. I am most worried about the Turks. Once Yang Yuanqing rebelled publicly, he is very likely to collude with the Turks to invade a large-scale. How is the court ready to defend against the Turks? In addition, there are also possible crises within the court, and these must be considered clearly."

Fan Zigai's concerns changed Yang Guang's expression. He realized that if Yang Yuanqing rebelled, unlike the Yuan family and Yang Xuangan, the consequences were very serious. It would not only cause chaos in the court, but also involve the Turks. This was a consequence that Yang Guang would never want to see.

"Then Fan Aiqing talks about your plan, I want to know."

Fan Zigai quickly glanced at Yuwen Shu and Yu Shiji from the corner of his eyes. Seeing that both of them had gloomy faces and looked unhappy, he smiled and said, "Actually, General Yuwen and Minister Yu are in the right direction. It's just that the problem is a bit simple, and the method is too fierce, so it is easy to force Yang Yuanqing to rebel. Since Yang Yuanqing also knows how to use the method of building a plank road openly and crossing Chen Cang secretly, why can't we use it? What I mean is that on the surface, it is still maintaining the status quo, but exerting force behind it."

Fan Zigai stabbed Yuwen Shu and Yu Shiji quietly. Yuwen Shu was about to refute Fan Zigai, but Yang Guang waved his hand to stop the conversation and said unhappily: "Yuwen Beloved, I know that you hate Yang Yuanqing deeply, and I hate him too, but now is not the time to talk about personal grudges. I must consider the threat of the Turks."

Yuwen Shu had no choice but to keep silent. He felt very hatred in his heart and winked at Yu Shiji, but Yu Shiji seemed to have seen nothing and smiled without saying anything.

Yu Shiji also realized that Yang Guang did not dare to really use force against Yang Yuanqing, but he yelled fiercely, but neither he nor Yuwen Shu could see this, but Fan Zigai saw that not only took the opportunity to step on them, but also used Turks to make a step for Yang Guang. At this point, Fan Zigai was better than both of them. Yu Shiji suddenly became alert to Fan Zigai, and he found that Fan Zigai would be a major threat to him in the officialdom.

Yu Shiji also hurriedly said: "Just just said that our attitude is not a countermeasure. I also know that this move will lead to the overall situation. I advocate that the attitude should be firm, but the means should be hidden. The attitude should be firm, so that Yang Yuanqing cannot give any luck. He should act quickly and block his next path. The means should be hidden is to avoid the intensification of conflicts and make him retreat when he sees the difficulties. Since Yang Yuanqing is an excuse to infiltrate bandits, we can also send troops to settle in the name of bandit suppression. The other six prefects can be replaced with other excuses, especially Wei Siyun, the prefect of Lingwu County, who has served in Fengzhou for a long time, so he must first replace him."

Yuwen Shu also realized his mistake, but he wanted to change his words and could no longer start. Moreover, he was too full to say that he could not come back for a while, so he could only stand aside in regret and remained silent.

Yang Guang really dared not force his rebellion against Yang Yuanqing now. Yang Xuangan did not catch him. Yuan Hongsi fled to the Western Regions again. The anti-Sui forces in the south were ready to move. The rebellion in the north was in full swing. The power of the Guanlong nobles had not yet been eliminated. The Shandong gentry began to be dissatisfied again. Especially the financial difficulties were tight, and the taxes were sharply reduced by 70%, which made Yang Guang very anxious, and he fell ill because of this.

In this severe form, he would undoubtedly force his opponent to rebel against Yang Yuanqing, so as long as Yang Yuanqing does not do too much, he will not send troops to attack for the moment. This time, Yang Yuanqing expanded his power south. Although it was not a very serious problem, Yang Guang did not want him to succeed easily. More importantly, he would stop him from continuing to expand south.

Yu Shiji's plan was not too fast or slow, just as he wanted, Yang Guang nodded, "Yu Aiqing said it makes sense, I know what to do."

One hour later, Yang Guang issued two orders, and issued an order to grant Qu Tutong the ambassador to the Inner Road of the Pass, leading an army of 50,000 to the Inner Road of the Pass to suppress bandits. He also issued an order to move Wei Siyun, the prefect of Lingwu County, to be the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, and to be appointed as the prefect of Boling County Qiu He, the prefect of Lingwu County.

.........

It was already the end of October, and the cold wave began to come from the north. The northwest wind swept across Mobei and Hetao Plain, the trees withered and the grass withered and yellow. The cold winter is coming.

In a fort city twenty miles west of Jiuyuan County, thousands of blacksmiths were busy working hard.

The fort city is a unique civil defense fortification in Wuyuan County. When the Turks invaded, it gave people temporary shelter. There are hundreds of fort cities of all sizes in Wuyuan County. The large fort city can accommodate tens of thousands of people, and the small fort city can accommodate at least thousands of people. The fort city twenty miles west of Jiuyuan County is called Chencangbao. It is named after it is close to Chencang Village. It is a big fort city with a circumference of eight miles and has been idle all the time. But at this time, this Chencangbao became the smelting center of the Fengzhou army.

Here is about twenty miles away from the South Yellow River. An artificial canal directly leads to the Yellow River. Millions of kilograms of iron ore and copper ore transported from Chiling Mine are piled on the docks south of the fort city. There are also carbonite transported from Yulin County, which are also piled on the west side of the docks. Black carbides are piled up like mountains, and civilians constantly use ox carts to transport trucks of ore and carbide into the fort city.

That morning, Yang Yuanqing and more than a dozen officials inspected the smelting progress in the fort city. Since Yang Shidao left Wuyuan County, Yang Yuanqing also served as the prefect of Wuyuan County. Of course, he was just named and handed over the specific government affairs to the county magistrate Cui Junsu.

Today, as the prefect, he led officials to inspect the Smelting Fort City. There are fifty smelting furnaces, 1,200 craftsmen, and hundreds of civilians responsible for carrying items in the entire Fort City.

The smelting of Wuyuan County is different from that of the mainland. It is not made of wood, but carbon is used as fuel. There are a large amount of storage nearby Wuyuan.

Generally, the carbohydrate in Fugu Town, Yulin County is used. The carbohydrate there is shallow burial, large reserves, good quality, and extremely high calorific value. You can use it to make high-quality tinplate, and then further forge it into fine steel by blacksmiths, so that the best armor and weapons can be created.

The official in charge of smelting was Zhang Qian. He was originally a military officer from the Fengzhou General Administration. He worked as a junior official in the Shaofu Temple of the imperial court for several years in the early years and was very familiar with casting and smelting, so he was responsible for forging in the forging of the fortress.

Today, Yang Yuanqing was not here to visit the smelting process. He had seen it many times. He came to the warehouse to check the copper ingots.

The warehouse is located in the north of the fort city, with dozens of huge stone houses. When everyone walked past the stone houses, they could see the neatly placed pig iron ingots in the warehouse.

"Maintain, this warehouse is!"

Zhang Qian took Yang Yuanqing and other officials into a smaller warehouse. The warehouse was bright and there were also neatly placed thick copper ingots. A copper ingot weighed about 30 kilograms, which was as large as thousands.

Yang Yuanqing knocked the copper ingot with a dagger, and the copper ingot made a crisp metal sound. He smiled at the officials and said, "Guess, what am I going to do with these copper ingots?"

...........

!~《》~

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Chapter completed!