Chapter 223: Scheme
Editor: Atlas Studios
When Rong Xuan heard that Fan Zijin wanted to set the emissary free, he looked at him in surprise. After a moment of silence, he said, “It’s good to let him take the initiative to report this matter to the Emperor. Otherwise, should the matter reach the Emperor without any movement from the emissary, I’m afraid the Imperial Court will accuse General Qi of putting the messenger under house arrest and accuse us of being negligent.”
Fan Zijin nodded. “But we can’t let him go just like that. Brother Rong, I don’t know what kind of hobbies this messenger has. The messenger is His Majesty’s eyes and ears. Even if he doesn’t favor us in the memorial and only speaks impartially, it’s still better than us having to defend ourselves.”
Rong Xuan looked at him approvingly and nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ll handle this myself. I won’t let the general fall into danger.”
Rong Xuan had already inquired about the emissary’s personality and hobbies after he arrived at the Xingzhou Prefecture. Naturally, he knew what to say and what to do to win his favor.
Therefore, when the Emperor received the news that Qi Xiuyuan had sent troops to Hanzhong Prefecture, he also received the emissary’s letter.
Even though the emissary mentioned in the letter that Qi Xiuyuan was loyal and patriotic despite being too unyielding, the Emperor was still very angry.
Now that the treasury was empty, he was still fretting about the money he would give to the Jin Kingdom and West Xia next year. Just as he was about to plead with the Jin Kingdom and West Xia to be lenient, Qi Xiuyuan directly sent troops over. Wasn’t this causing trouble for him?
However, the Yuan family’s army had also been mobilized. If it was only Qi Xiuyuan alone, the Emperor could have simply removed his power. However, now that the Yuan family’s army was involved, the imperial censors and commoners already had many objections to his summoning back the Yuan family’s army then. If he were to make a fuss this time, the commoners would definitely have something to say.
The Emperor did not want to give the commoners more reason to gossip about him.
The Emperor regretted placing General Yuan in an important position back then. At that time, he saw that General Yuan came from a poor background and had no one to rely on in the army or the court. He thought that General Yuan would listen to him, but who knew that General Yuan’s temper was so stubborn? In the past few years that General Yuan had been in control of the military power, he had sent out troops against the Emperor’s will. However, he still had a solid reputation among the people. If the Emperor could not find any evidence against him, he could not deal with him easily.
However, General Yuan had the help of the Shen family. He was clean and loved the people, so the Emperor could not find anything on him at all.
Currently, the most powerful person in Great Zhou other than Minister Qin was General Yuan. However, Minister Qin’s power came from him, while General Yuan’s power was independent of the Emperor. The Emperor punched the dragon throne with an ugly expression and thought to himself, ‘I originally wanted to support Minister Qin to keep General Yuan in check, but now it seems that the effect is minimal. After all, Minister Qin doesn’t have military power, so it’s very difficult for General Yuan to have any scruples.’
Previously, in order to resolve the crisis of the national treasury, he had asked the army to settle their own rations. In the past six months, the Emperor had already vaguely regretted it because he realized that his control over the army, which was originally not much, had become weaker as a result.
With a sigh, the Emperor said, “If only there was someone who could keep the Yuan family army in check.”
When the chief eunuch heard this, he rolled his eyes and said in a low voice, “Your Majesty, isn’t there a ready-made candidate?”
The Emperor looked up at him and asked, “Who is it?”
“General Qi Xiuyuan.” Seeing the Emperor frown, the chief eunuch said in a low voice, “Your Majesty, this General Qi is a young talent. If you promote him and make him a great general, won’t he be able to keep the Yuan family army in check?”
The Emperor frowned. “I’m afraid the Qi family army will follow in the Yuan family army’s footsteps. When the time comes, he will still be disobedient.”
Smiling, the chief eunuch said, “Your Majesty, you’re overthinking. General Yuan leads the troops, and so does General Qi. Since one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, won’t you be the one to benefit from their fight?”
“But I heard that Qi Xiuyuan admires General Yuan very much.”
The chief eunuch smiled nonchalantly and said, “That’s because General Qi is currently a Grade 3 Heralding Grand Master, holding a Grade 4 military rank. He only has three or four thousand men under his command. General Yuan, on the other hand, is a Grade 1 general with over 140,000 men under his command. If they were standing on the same level, General Qi would be much younger than General Yuan…”
The Emperor couldn’t help but smile when he heard this. He clapped his hands and said, “Good plan. It’s just that at Qi Xiuyuan’s age, it’s already fast enough for him to advance to the third-grade. There’s no reason to promote him at this time.”
“How could Your Majesty forget that General Qi is currently attacking Hanzhong Prefecture? If he recovers Hanzhong Prefecture, it will be a great merit.”
“What if he fails?” The Emperor’s smile faded slightly as he asked.
“That means that Qi Xiuyuan is not worth nurturing. Isn’t it up to Your Majesty to decide whether he lives or dies then?”
The Emperor said in distress, “I’m afraid that after we take over Hanzhong Prefecture, the Jin Kingdom will have objections. If we reward Qi Xiuyuan, I’m afraid we’ll become enemies with the Jin Kingdom.”
The chief eunuch looked at the Emperor speechlessly. The Great Zhou and the Jin Kingdom had always been on bad terms, alright? Even if he was a eunuch, he knew that the reason why the Jin soldiers did not go south for a long time was because their country was not peaceful either. Moreover, their country’s strength was not enough to support their southern attack. Moreover, Great Zhou was willing to pay a large amount of money to maintain peace on the surface.
However, even so, there were many conflicts at the border every year. Take this year as an example. The various places reported that the Jin soldiers had gone south to plunder resources on the enemy’s land more than a hundred times. What made the Emperor think that the two countries had very good diplomatic relations?
Did he think that they were brothers like what the credentials said?
However, the chief eunuch only dared to complain in his heart and did not dare to say it out loud. He only comforted the Emperor and said, “Your Majesty, taking back Hanzhong Prefecture is the wish of the people of the world. I believe the Emperor of the Jin Kingdom will understand.”
The Emperor shot him a look that said, “Do you think I’m a fool?” The chief eunuch said, “Now that General Qi has already sent troops to Hanzhong Prefecture and the Yuan family’s army has also left Cai Prefecture, it’s better to win than lose.”
The Emperor thought about it and agreed. Since they had already offended the Jin Kingdom, it was better to win than to lose.
“Order Qi Xiuyuan not to take another step forward after taking over Hanzhong Prefecture to prevent a large-scale counterattack by the Jin Kingdom. Then, send a message to General Yuan and ask him to quickly retreat from Cai Prefecture. Considering there are more than 100,000 Jin soldiers in Cai Prefecture, how much rations will it cost to mobilize these troops? Now that the treasury is empty and disasters are gradually appearing everywhere, I don’t have any grains to support them now, nor will I have any next year.”
The chief eunuch quickly went down to call the emissary in to write the imperial edict.
When Qi Xiuyuan received the imperial edict in Hanzhong Prefecture, he had already occupied more than half of the counties of Hanzhong Prefecture. He put away the imperial edict and agreed with a slight smile. With only 40,000 men in his troops, he had no intention of continuing north. Taking back Hanzhong Prefecture was good enough for now. He planned to take back his homeland step by step.
Jiang Ze led his troops over to meet the commander. After dismounting, he reported, “General, all the counties and towns on the south road of Hanzhong Prefecture have been recovered. All the Jin soldiers have been eliminated, except for a small group that has fled north.”
Qi Xiuyuan nodded. “There’s no need to chase after them. Stay behind and guard the county gates. When Rong Xuan comes, immediately arrange for the recruitment of troops. It’s time for our troops to expand. Take back all the land occupied by the Jin Kingdom’s nobles and use them as military fields…”
