The peach blossoms bloom in March. I saw the weather warming day by day, but after a night, the flowers suddenly withered and the spring became chilly.

Early in the morning, Li Jing was about to enter the palace to meet the emperor, but just as he was about to go out, Zhang Tai came to the door with a smile on his face, saying that the emperor had gone to the Qinghua Palace in another palace, and asked him to come to Xuan Li Jing to go to the Huaqing Palace.

Li Jing took the gorgeous carriage assigned by the emperor to pick up by Zhang Tai, and Li Jing only brought six disciples and a team of fifty-man soldiers from the silver spear. In front of their chariots and horses, there were another hundred Jinwu guards as the leading guards. Since Emperor Xianzong reduced the vassals, Wei Bo and Cheng German troops sent assassins to Chang'an to assassinate Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng directly on the streets, the emperor ordered all officials above the third rank to have Jinwu guards in Chang'an City. As prime ministers, they naturally had more guards.

Although Li Jing did not enter the Political Affairs Hall, he was at least given the title of prime minister as the subordinate of the Secretariat, Ping Zhangshi. In particular, he is still a big celebrity in front of the emperor, so the Jinwu Guard who pioneered the way for him directly reached one hundred soldiers.

Yesterday, the north wind suddenly whistled overnight, and at dawn it was already covered with white snow.

This carriage that came to pick up Li Jing was very big. Li Jing could sit down ten people, and even had tea in Li Jing. Now there are only two people sitting in it. The Huaqing Palace is located at the northern foot of Mount Li, Lintong, about 60 miles east of Chang'an City. It is the emperor's other palace. The most famous of this other palace is the hot spring in the palace on the mountain. When spring and winter arrive, the emperor often comes to wash hot spring soup.

Qin Shihuang once built stones and raised the temples in Mount Li. Tangchi was also built in the Western Han Dynasty, Northern Wei, Northern Zhou, and Sui Dynasty. In the 18th year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of Tang ordered the building of a temple here and named it Tangquan Palace. In the sixth year of Tianbao, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang changed his name to Huaqing Palace. At that time, the terrace halls were arranged in an unprecedented situation. The lingering story of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei here was passed down in later generations. However, the emperor rarely visited the city after the Anshi Rebellion.

The performance of the carriage was very good. Li Jing and Zhang Tai sat inside and set off Go, but the board did not shake at all.

"It seems that the emperor hasn't been to the Huaqing Palace for a long time. Why did His Majesty suddenly come to the Huaqing Palace?" Li Jing asked.

Zhang Taiqing smiled, his smile full of sarcasm, "It's not Tian Lingzi's instigation in front of His Highness." Zhang Tai was originally just a middle-level eunuch in the palace, but since Zhang Chengye followed Li Jing, he also gained a strong foreign aid. With the influence of Li Jing, he is now constantly promoted and has become the fourth eunuch in front of the emperor in Chang'an Palace.

However, Qingyan in the palace is more powerful than the officialdom outside. Once you reach a certain position, even if you don’t want to participate in the fight, you can’t help yourself. Thinking about it, Tian Lingzi was just a little eunuch. But with his intimate relationship with the emperor, he first won Yang Fugong, the leader of the Yang family, the largest eunuch family in the palace, and joined forces to kill four sons of Yizong in a row. He made Han Wenyou, the left and right lieutenant of the Shence Army of Shence Army, who was neither legitimate nor eldest, the emperor, and ousted Han Wenyou and Liu Xingshen one after another. Then, Tian Lingzi, who was envoy of the Privy Council, immediately collaborated with Ximen Sigong, the leader of the Ximen family, who had a huge influence in the Right Shence Army. Together, he also grabbed the position of the Shence Army of the former ally Yang Fugong.

Now, Tian Lingzi is in full force, and Ximen Sigong has brought Yang Fugong to deal with Tian Lingzi, and he has also been pulled into this alliance.

"Li Zhongshu must be careful of Tian Lingzi. These times have caused him a great loss. He even lost four or five million huge fortunes. With Tian Lingzi's narrow personality, he would never give up like this." Zhang Tai reminded.

Li Jing nodded. Tian Lingzi and him had already formed a mortal enemy. Now they are just hindering the emperor, so they are just kind-hearted.

"Don't Zhang know why Your Majesty has been slow to let the troops return to the town?" Li Jing has always been a little confused. The 34,000 troops in the towns are not a small number. Every time he stays in Chang'an, the court will provide the troops of each town with one day's food and salary, and even pay a reward every few days. According to the current practice, as long as the troops of each town return to their own towns, all the troops' food and salary are responsible for each town.

As long as the army of each town does not leave the town, each town will supply its own troops. But once it leaves the border, as long as the court summons it, the food must be supplied by the court. This is the rule.

"Has Li Zhongshu not noticed that officials from Chang'an and Guanzhong have been frequently mobilized recently, and even the governors of Guanzhong towns have been mobilized several times, and the troops from Guanzhong towns have even been mobilized several places?" Zhang Tai asked with a smile.

Li Jing's heart moved. He knew that although the vassal states in Guanzhong were not separatist states, over the years, they had also begun to learn from the vassal states in Guandong and Hebei. They also began to carry out the hereditary vassal states. Even the Shence Army had a large number of imperial guards, serving the imperial guards for generations, with the sons leading the father's position and the younger brother's position. What's more serious is that after the Twelve Guards of the Southern Yai of the Court was finished, the Ten Army of the Northern Yai was almost destroyed, leaving only the Shence left and right troops. The only troops in the entire court now were the Shence Army of the 100,000 on the list commanded by the eunuchs.

But in fact, the Shence Army did not have 150,000 at all. Even the soldiers who were actually registered were only a small number of real soldiers. A large number of them were children of powerful families of officials and powerful families in Guanzhong, Chang'an. They had a name on the military list but did not enter the military camp to train. There were more parts of them, which were so-called fabled military names. The so-called fabled military status is a feature of the army after the Middle Tang Dynasty.

After the mid-Tang Dynasty, the imperial army was divided into two categories: one was the imperial guards and the other was the local vassal army. The imperial guards were supported by the imperial court with taxes, while the local army was the vassal army who found their own solutions.

Land-based income, miscellaneous tax revenue, commercial income and two-tax revenue constitute the entire income of the vassal states. The more troops in the vassal states are raised, it is not enough to rely on tax collection. Therefore, local governments start to buy fields, but land can only be used for military rations, and the more they can't be used. Equipment these requires commercial income. The so-called commercial income is to recruit those businessmen who can do business and issue them military registration, and then they can do business under the name of the army, which can get a lot of convenience, and even the army provides capital, and the income earns a large part of the army.

The local area can also be used to buy fields, but the imperial guards rely entirely on the supply of the imperial guards. In recent years, dozens of states left in the court were still providing taxes to the imperial guards, and most of the rest were raised by themselves. The war in the Nanli period continued to cause a lot of military expenditures, and the emperor was extravagant and wasted. The imperial guards' military expenditure was also very limited and often owed wages. Many imperial guards began to do business, one was to recruit merchants into the army, and then let them do business, and the other was to simply go out to do business directly.

In Chang'an City, there are many Shence soldiers driving various business deals.

The Emperor naturally knew that the Shence Army, which controlled the capital, had become so bad that it was so bad, but he had no way to solve it. Because he could not afford to provide the army, he could only do so. Otherwise, it would be very likely to cause a mutiny.

But now, the three tribes of the eight towns are stationed in Bashang, which seems to be not many, but they are in the prestige of destroying the Shatuo Army, and even the momentum of the military parade. Therefore, the Zhengshitang and the Emperor have not allowed them to leave now, and would rather provide for them. The reason is that the court uses their power to solve the increasingly out of control of the Shence Army in the capital. Their solution is actually to treat the symptoms but not the root cause, replace the governor, replace the officers, and even eliminate a group of merchants with fledgling military status.

The court made a quick move this time. In a short period of time, the generals of the generals of the Jieshi in more than a dozen prefectures in the capital had undergone a large-scale exchange and a large-scale cleaning of the Shence Army. Although this touched the interests of many Shence Army soldiers, with the troops on the side of the eight towns, no one dared to make a first bird for a while.

"Is this your Majesty's idea or the Political Affairs Hall's idea?" Li Jing asked.

"This was first proposed by Tian Lingzi. After His Majesty agrees, he will be handed over to the Political Affairs Hall for execution." Zhang Tai replied.

Li Jing was also a little surprised to hear that this was actually proposed by Tian Lingzi. However, after a brief surprise, he quickly understood the key to the matter. Although Tian Lingzi now controls the Shen Ce Army, he actually has not controlled it for long. The Shen Ce Army is in the capital, and it is not so easy to master. This time, through this big move, it is indeed a bit of the decay of the Shen Ce Army. After all, the Shen Ce Army has combat effectiveness, which is more beneficial to Tian Lingzi. Secondly, Li Jing doesn't need to think about it. Tian Lingzi must have inserted a large number of his own people to the Shen Ce Army through this big move, so as to enhance his control over the Shen Ce Army.

When Li Jing thought that he was unknowingly taken back by Tian Lingzi, he felt a little depressed. The more he did this, the more Li Jing hoped to leave Chang'an sooner.

In the afternoon, the carriage arrived at the Huaqing Palace at the foot of Mount Li.

After arriving, the emperor directly sent someone an order and first gave Li Jing a bath for Li Jing.

In such a weather, it is really comfortable to bathe in a hot spring. Lying in the pool, Li Jing is thinking about the situation in Dengzhou. Not to mention Dengzhou, the situation in Yan and Yi is not optimistic. Gongsun Lan has reported to him the latest trend of the Cao army. Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao have joined forces with Wang Jingwu. They have just defeated Xue Chong, Tianping Army, and then defeated the Li army of Taining Army.

The alliance between the Cao Army and Wang Jingwu is not a good thing. Although they had relied on one battle before, they had never acted together. Now, they finally united and defeated both the Tianping Army and the Taining Army. It is conceivable that once Yizhou is lost, their next target is likely to be Ziqing. If the Pinglu Army cannot stop them, these thieves and rebels will never let go of Dengzhou, the richest Dengzhou in the north.
Chapter completed!