Chapter 344 Something happened in Huaixi

This is a rainy day without morning glow. The sky is particularly dark, with winter rain drizzling, and a heavy black mist covering Chang'an City. As usual, Zhang Huan went out at the moment of Mao Zedong. About 300 personal soldiers guarded him from left to right. The carriage left the gate and passed through a Fang Street, and then arrived at Zhuque Street. Although it was a rainy day, the number of vehicles and horses on Zhuque Street increased significantly, and most of them were officials who went to court.

During this period, there was a significant increase in officials who went to court. Not only middle and low-level officials, but many middle and high-level officials above the fifth rank also began to attend court at the prescribed time. The influence of the Ministry of War's reorganization was huge and it was immediately effective. On the day when the Ministry of War was rectified, the incident of the Ministry of War was a sensation of the court and the people. It became two major events that were widely circulated in the city, if the Guangdefang incident was just an interesting news, In addition to the fact that Zhang Huan had no substantial impact on his reputation, the impact of the Ministry of War was not so simple. In fact, it became a significant watershed between the court officials: departments controlled or influenced by Zhang Huan, such as the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Menxia Province, all entered the court before the third hour of the next day. However, the Secretariat, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Rites, most temple supervisors, the East Palace, and the Prince's Palace were still doing their own things, and they would not even attend court when they came to court later.

Interestingly, the Ministry of Works, Ministry of Revenue, Censorate, Dali Temple, Taifu Temple and other departments have differentiated. Some people support Zhang Huan and go to court normally, while others disdain. Some people are prime ministers or empress dowagers, but they support Zhang Huan's ruling dynasty, but they are forced to express their opinions publicly under party pressure, so they change to the normal time of court in normal time. Although the latter phenomenon occurs, as time goes by, the division of boundaries caused by the trivial matter of going to court in court is becoming more and more obvious.

Zhang Huan's carriage was not moving fast, maintaining a uniform rhythm in the rain and fog, which seemed to have a bit of artistic conception. When many officials saw the Shangshu's carriage convoy coming, they stopped to give way to show respect. In addition to the officials who attended court, there were also some civilians who got up early to make a living. Most of them were walking by the walls and did not dare to compete with the officials.

There is a row of century-old trees near the Zhuque Gate. At this moment, there are more than a dozen people standing under the tree. Judging from their outfits and their personal belongings, they look like a group of businessmen who have just come from another place. They are also very close to the place where Situ is placed, and perhaps they are preparing to write a book in Situ.

As Zhang Huan's team gradually approached, the positions where these people stood began to shift slightly. They unconsciously moved behind the tree, allowing the big tree to block their figure. The leader of the man had a bunch of big beards and his skin was oily and black, just like a merchant from India. His body leaned behind the tree and stared at Zhang Huan's carriage coldly. A trace of deep hatred flashed in his eyes. This person was Zhu Tao, who had just arrived in Chang'an last night. These merchants were all his subordinates, with a total of eighteen people, all of whom were brave men carefully selected from Cui Qinggong's army. In name, Zhu Tao was going to Beijing to get Zhang Huan's gunpowder formula, but in fact he had deeper intentions.

Zhang Huan's convoy did not let him see any flaws and quickly entered the imperial city. When Zhu Tao saw the target disappear, he waved his hand and everyone quickly left and disappeared on the street filled with rain and mist.

Zhang Huan's carriage walked for another period of time in the imperial city, and finally stopped slowly in front of the gate of the Ministry of War. Zhang Huan got off the carriage, walked up the steps quickly, and signed a name on the sign-in book at the door. He flipped it over slightly. Although it was still a quarter of an hour before the court, nearly 80% of the officials arrived, and the doctor and the official-in-law were all here, so he was the last one.

Zhang Huan clicked in praise. Wu Yuanheng was indeed a little smart. The sign-in method was simple and practical, and it was difficult to fake. After ringing the bell, he immediately took away the statistics, and those who arrived late had no way to hide.

In fact, Zhang Huan also knew that no one could do anything wrong, especially those who work at low levels, and it is inevitable that they will be late by chance. The key is that the decadent trend in the court has been a long time of malpractice, so he put on strong medicine to treat it. After everything is on the right track and cleansing the officials' laziness, he then slightly adjusts to lower the price of being late.

After signing the name, Zhang Huan walked into the courtyard of the Ministry of War. At this moment, there was no one in the courtyard. In the corridor in the front room, there were people running back and forth, with a solemn expression and conveying stacks of documents. The entire Ministry of War was filled with a tense atmosphere. It was no wonder that the Central Plains War broke out half a month ago. The memorials of the regiments from various places were sent to the Ministry of War like snowflakes, demanding the increase of troops and the allocation of weapons and equipment. Not only the Ministry of War, but also the other departments and temples were extremely busy, and they sent people to the counties near the war zone to resettle victims to understand the situation. At the same time, the Queen Mother Cui Xiaofu had issued an order to reprimand Cui Qinggong for provoking the war, dismissing all his posts, and depriving him of the title of Prince Ruyang, calling on Cui and Wei to cease fire immediately.

At the emergency cabinet meeting held overnight, except for Chu Xingshui who had rushed to Guangling, the other eight cabinet members unanimously agreed to authorize Prime Minister Pei Jun to send troops to quell the Central Plains catastrophe. Subsequently, Pei Jun ordered 100,000 Hedong troops to cross the Yellow River from Gong County, arrive in Zhongmu and Guan County, and closely monitor the development of the Central Plains war.

In this context, the nerves of the entire court were already tense, and everyone was worried about the development of the situation in the Central Plains, and everyone was invisibly walking a little faster than usual.

"Ah, I'm sorry!" An official ran out of the driving department's heading room and almost hit Zhang Huan. He looked up and saw that it was Shangshu. He was so scared that he quickly stood aside with his hands down.

Zhang Huan waved his hand and signaled that it would not be inconvenient. He looked at the court room and saw that everyone was extremely busy. He couldn't help but ask in surprise: "It's not time for court now, why are you so busy?"

"Report to the Shangshu, the archives and documents of the one prefecture and four counties in Duji Province were sent to Beijing last night, with thousands of copies. The Yuan Shigong ordered everyone to sort them out today, so everyone was busy working together."

The four counties in Duji Province are today's Luoyang and Zhengzhou, close to the Chenliu War Zone. Because they are worried about being affected by the war, the court ordered all counties to transfer all archives and documents to Beijing. Last night, hundreds of carriages that had been nearly a hundred years of files were sent to Chang'an.

Zhang Huan nodded and walked into his court room. As soon as he entered the room, Niu Sengru came forward and said, "Governor, Pei Xiang transferred two emergency documents last night. Please check the Governor."

"What urgent matter?" Zhang Huan asked, taking off his outer clothes and handing them to the tea boy.

"There are three things in total."

Niu Sengru opened a memorial and said, "One is that the Zhejiang East Observation Initiative Han Huan hopes that the court will agree to him to form a militia to deal with the war that may spread."

Zhang Huan sneered. This is naturally Han Huan wanted to take the opportunity to expand his troops, and to become Cui Xiaofu's second backbone force after Wadeqing. Everyone wanted to take advantage of the situation in the civil war, so how could it be so cheap?

"What's the second thing?" he asked again without saying a word.

Niu Sengru opened another memorial and said, "The second thing is the latest battle report, saying that Cui Qinggong's offensive momentum has weakened, and 200,000 troops have joined forces to confront Wei Deqing's 100,000 troops in Yongqiu County, about 200 miles away from Chenliu."

Zhang Huan learned about this news the night before yesterday. The Office of the Internal Affairs sent a large number of spies to sneak into the Central Plains with various identities to collect information. Every day, he used a flying pigeon to deliver the latest information to Chang'an, and then sorted it out by the Office of the Internal Affairs and sent it to Zhang Huan's mansion.

He waved his hand and continued to ask, "Let's talk about the third thing!"

"The third thing is the urgent memorial of Li Xilie, the governor of Huaixi. He said that the number of refugees was huge and he could not bear it. He hoped that the court would allow him to transfer some refugees to Huainan for food."

It should be said that this is not an important matter. Li Panyu also sent a express report saying that a large number of refugees flocked to Shannan, and refugees were by-products of the war. This is extremely normal, and this matter has nothing to do with his Ministry of War.

Zhang Huan waved his hand and was about to let Niu Sengru take out the memorial when he suddenly found that Li Xilie's memorial seemed to be the original. He was stunned and immediately called Niu Sengru, "Wait a moment!"

Zhang Huan pointed to Li Xilie's memorial and said, "Take it over and show it to me."

He opened Li Xilie's memorial, and there was Li Xilie's signature and bright red seal behind it. It was indeed the original, not a copy copied by the Secretariat. According to the general process, important incidents occurred in the local area. Officials from various places would send the memorial to the corresponding departments of the Secretariat. After the initial approval of each department, they would send it to the Secretariat for approval by the Minister of the State. If it is of great importance, a cabinet consultation would be held. The general matter would be approved by the Secretariat and issued directly, and copies would be copied to the ministers of the Cabinet and the Empress Dowager.

So the copy Zhang Huan received should be a copy, and the original should be transferred to the Ministry of Revenue, but now the memorial in front of him is actually the original. Could it be that he made a mistake in some link?

"Who sent this memorial?" Zhang Huan frowned and asked Niu Sengrudao.

"It was Han Sheren from the Secretariat who just delivered it a quarter of an hour ago."

Han Sheren was Han Yu. He was transferred to the Central Secretariat at the beginning of the year, specifically for the Ministry of War. It is necessary to explain here that in the Tang Dynasty, there were a total of six Central Secretariats (equivalent to the current state secretary), corresponding to the Six Branches of Shangsariat. They were of fifth rank official titles, and their official positions were not too high, but their power was very high. They had the power to control edicts and could also put forward their initial opinions in memorials sent by various provinces, which were called "Five Flowers Judgment".

However, after Pei Jun came to power, he reduced the six Secretariats to two, and added another Secretariat, focusing his power on Pei Jun's hands, and extinguishing the ministry and cabinet through the Secretariat.

After the establishment of the new cabinet at the beginning of the year, the Secretariat of the Secretariat carried out corresponding reforms. First, the authority of the Secretariat was reduced, and no longer handled specific matters. It was only responsible for notifying the convening of cabinet meetings and holding the meeting minutes; second, the six Secretariats were reset, corresponding to the six ministries of the Secretariat, Pei Jun, Zhang Huan and Li Mian, each nominated two people, one as the righteous and one as the auxiliary, and three Secretariats were responsible for the penning of the edict, also known as the "Editor's Edict". All memorials were negotiated by the three of them to discuss whether to convene a cabinet meeting, and preliminary opinions could be expressed on the memorials.

In this way, Zhang, Pei and Cui realized the balance of power to some extent, and the two Zhongshu Sheren nominated by Zhang Huan, one of the Zheng Sheren was Han Yu, and the other auxiliary was Chu Xingshui's eldest son Chu Wei.

Han Yu has always been cautious in his work and will never make such low-level mistakes. There must be some reason for this. Zhang Huan pondered and said nothing. Seeing that the governor was very concerned about this memorial, Niu Sengru said, "Han Yu said that this memorial was sent to his mansion last night, and he didn't know what the intention of Pei's prime minister was."

Needless to say, Pei Jun ordered Han Yu to transfer this memorial to himself. There was no approval from him on it, and only the opinions of the three people who wrote the letter were clearly written: "The Ministry of Revenue sent people to approve the number of refugees and then dispersed them to Huainan and eastern Zhejiang counties as appropriate."

‘Yes! This memorial should be directly transferred to the Ministry of Revenue. Why did it come to my own hands?’

Zhang Huan paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, and he was puzzled by this. Could it be that Li Xilie's repatriation of refugees had other profound meanings? At this point, Zhang Huan suddenly thought of a possibility, that is, Li Xilie's repatriation of refugees was an excuse, and his hand was stretched to Huainan was the original intention. Pei Jun also saw that there was this possibility, so he urgently transferred the memorial to himself.

At this time, the bell in the distance rang again, and the third hour of Mao was coming, but Zhang Huan could not sit in the cemetery room anymore. He stood up and said to Niu Sengru: "Ruo Yuan asked me for help, tell him I'll handle the matter in Longyou and rush back before noon."

The carriage left the imperial city and drove east along Chunming Street. The noise outside the car window was noisy and seemed very lively, but Zhang Huan sat in the carriage and fell into deep thought. The Central Plains battle between Cui Qinggong and Wei Deqing attracted almost everyone's attention, but no one paid attention to Li Xilie in Huaixi. Moreover, warlords emerged in various parts of the Tang Dynasty over the years. Everyone's eyes were either to pay attention to themselves in Longyou, Zhu Li from Shu, Cui Qinggong from Huaibei, Li Huaixian from Chenliu, and Li Zhengji from Shuofang, but no one paid attention to Li Xilie in Huaixi.

He hid under the shadow of Cui Qinggong for a long time, and was in Huaixi, which was sparsely populated and insignificant in the Tang Dynasty. In addition, he never interfered in local government affairs, so he actually had no control over Huaixi, so the court did not take him seriously.

Zhang Huan remembered Cui Qinggong's attack on Xiangyang again, and he also quietly sent troops to Jiangxia. However, when he saw that the situation was wrong, he immediately retreated back to Huaixi. However, it also shows that this person is indeed hiding ambitions. Now he is going to take advantage of the chaos to attack Huainan again.

In other words, Li Xilie is actually a snake pretending to hibernate.

But this share is transferred to Zhang Huan

However, the memorial reminded Zhang Huan from another side that if you want to connect Shannan and Huainan, you do not have to attack Cui Qinggong, and taking down Li Xilie's Huaini can also achieve the same effect.

The carriage drove into the East City and first went to Qianyun Restaurant. A personal soldier went upstairs. After a moment, he came out of the restaurant to report: "Governor, Li Sizheng had an urgent matter and just rushed to Wu Zhuyue Bao Store."

"Governor, why don't we wait here!" Li Dingfang suggested on the side. The group of people walked around in a mighty manner, and he always felt something was wrong.

"Go and see if anyone follows you." Zhang Huan casually told Fang Wuqing behind him.

Fang Wuqing nodded, and he immediately disappeared like a shadow.

"Change and go to Wu Zhuyuebao Store."

The carriage slowly turned around and drove towards Wu Zhuyuebao Store.

After a moment, the carriage stopped at the door of the store. Zhang Huan entered the store. The store was deserted. Only one person was looking at several newly arrived jewelry with his hands behind his back with interest. Zhang Huan recognized her back at a glance. Li Fengyun was still wearing a Taoist robe, and she looked a little out of place in the jewelry spirit.

"Why, is the female Taoist priest interested in these common things?" Zhang Huan walked behind her and asked jokingly.

When Li Fanyun turned around, he saw that it was him and smiled and said, "The Taoist priest also needs to cultivate the Three Pure Ones. How can he be divorced from the world? Besides, I am not a true Taoist priest, so can't I see it?"

As she said that, she suddenly thought of something and looked out, and saw that there were indeed cavalry standing outside the gate. She frowned and said, "Can you keep your personal soldiers away from here? Don't let others doubt this?"

"Don't worry, no one should follow me now." Zhang Huan smiled, but he still gave Li Dingfang a few instructions. Li Dingfang left dozens of people, and he led a brigade of cavalry to leave the store temporarily.

Li Fanyun kept seeing his personal soldiers walking away, and then smiled at Zhang Huan and said, "An interesting thing is about to happen here. Do you want to take a look together?"

"I have something important to come to you too..." Zhang Huan saw that Li Fanyun was a little weird and smiled and changed his mouth and asked, "Tell me, what is an interesting method?"

Li Fengyun was about to explain, but saw a few people riding horses from afar, so he pulled Zhang Huan, "They are here, let's go inside and wait."
Chapter completed!