Xue Yuan walked over to stand beside Chu Wei.
Chu Wei noticed him, his lips pursed, but instead he had the guts to reach out his hand towards the emperor, but halfway there, he was stopped by Xue Yuan's quick and accurate stop.
"Lord Chu, you passed."
Xue Yuan lowered his voice as he let go of his hand and drew a handkerchief from his arms to wipe his hands. He appeared to be wearing a smile, and hadn't done anything to hurt anyone, but Chu Wei looked at him as if he could see the icy warning in his demeanor.
Chu Wei expressionlessly put his hands behind his back, his long, bony, slender fingers stiff and cramped.
Xue Yuan looked at him in this manner and grinned silently, whispering mildly and affectionately, "Chu Wei, with you being such a wimp, can you withstand the Emperor?"
Chu Wei's complexion sank, he did not have the good of the dragon and the sun, but more than this more unconvincing point turned out to be, "Why am I impatient?"
He blurted it out near off the top of his head, and was mute afterward.
Xue Yuan's smile took on a bit more of a mocking flavor. He walked over to Gu Yuanbai's side and bent down to gently carry the emperor on the soft collapse in his own arms, Chu Wei couldn't help but step forward, wanting to stop his treacherous behavior, but as soon as he stepped in, he was gripped by Xue Yuan who held the saint's hand and lightly punched him in the face.
Chu Wei stopped.
The reason why the force was light was still because Xue Yuan could not spare Gu Yuanbai's hands. The palms were soft and the flesh was delicate, but it was much more humiliating to have this pair of pampered hands smacked across the face.
Xue Yuan palmed this one hand, his fingers inserted into the little emperor's fingers, hitting the Scholar's handsome face one at a time, and this proud son of heaven's expression changed and changed, but it was obvious that he couldn't take it.
"If he did that to you," Xue Yuan laughed, "how could you stand it?"
As if speaking in secret, he whispered, "You can't, I can."
Chu Wei was lonely and proud, he was hit so hard that he favored his face, and the jade-like side of his face turned slightly red as a result, it didn't hurt, but his expression was stoic, and there were hidden signs of anger.
"His Holiness wouldn't do that." He suppressed it, refuting Xue Yuan's words.
Xue Yuan wiped Gu Yuanbai's hand, and Gu Yuanbai's eyelids jumped a few times, vaguely showing signs of awakening. Chu Wei's heart jumped, as if he had seen some flooding beast, and he stood up straight.
Xue Yuan looked at this action of his and smiled contemptuously, placing Gu Yuanbai's hand on his lips in front of him and kissing it out of thin air.
Gu Yuanbai opened his eyes and saw this scene, he was confused, before he came back to his senses, his hand was already hard, "slap" hit Xue Yuan's face.
After returning to his senses, frost condensed on Gu Yuanbai's face.
Xue Yuan turned his head sideways, he smiled faintly and smoothly took Gu Yuanbai's hand, pulling it to his lips and blowing on it before sighing tersely, "I've been thinking about this slap for a long time."
"Look at you tender, your palms are red."
*
"Xue Yuan, are you starting to commit crimes again?" Gu Yuanbai blackened his face and had the dagger delivered.
Xue Yuan's suddenly tawdry remark made Gu Yuanbai plan to break his third leg.
Kneeling on the ground, Xue Yuan looked at the dagger, his face was iron blue, at the critical moment, outside the door, a eunuch high voice hamming: "Report! Eight hundred miles urgent report!"
Gu Yuanbai abruptly threw away the dagger in his hand and got up, striding towards the outside.
Outside to report the eunuchs dusty, kneeling on the ground to hand over the urgent report, Tian Fusheng hastily received, a simple check and then ran to the hands of Gu Yuanbai.
Gu Yuanbai unfolded the letter paper to take a look, his face gradually serious, after putting down the letter paper, immediately patted the table and said, "Let the Secretary of the Ministry of War, the Secretary of the Ministry of the Household, and the Privy Councilor immediately come to the Xuanzheng Hall to deliberate!"
"Yes!" Tian Fusheng was busy sending people forward to summon the two Shangshu. Gu Yuanbai sat down behind the table, unfolded his pen and paper, and wrote the main points in a flowing stream.
There was a locust plague in the north.
In ancient times, locusts, floods and droughts were the three most likely disasters.
The northern eight hundred miles of urgent report, only the above sentence "locusts cover the sun, wherever they pass, not an inch of grass", Gu Yuanbai can imagine how serious in the end.
The Secretary of the Ministry of War, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, and the Privy Councillor rushed to the Palace of Declaring Government, and Gu Yuanbai didn't have time to say much, and gave General Xue's folders directly to them to read.
General Xue led the troops to the northern border, firstly, to escort the caravan, and secondly, to deter the nomadic herdsmen of the northern border, and to achieve the purpose of the border exchange. The main purpose of the trip was commerce, not war. However, Gu Yuanbai had given him enough soldiers and horses, enough food and grass, and General Xue had brought enough of these with him, originally wanting to show off his ambitions and teach a good lesson to the Northern Border Nomads who had become more and more arrogant in recent years, but as soon as he traveled to the northern region, he discovered the plague of the Great Locust.
Wherever they passed, the locusts had already gnawed through the grass and animal hides, and General Xue promptly sent his men to protect the grain and grass day and night and capture these locusts manually. And when they arrived at the northern border, the soldiers guarding the northern border were already starving to the limit, and when they saw them arrive with a large amount of grain and grass, they immediately collapsed to the point of tears of joy.
Nomadic is even more because of the sudden locust plague, grass and cattle and sheep fur have nibbled, they attacked the border in advance, initiated several frequent engagements.
More distressing than this is the fact that cannibalism has already occurred in the affected areas in the north.
As soon as General Xue arrived at the border, immediately sent people to defend against foreign enemies and fire locusts, the army's large number of grain and grass is to transfer a part of the relief of the people began. Chaotic cannibalism is rectified by strong-arm tactics, resettling border soldiers to resettle the people in the disaster area, and spreading the news so that the affected people immediately rushed to the border military garrison.
A few bold policies go down, as if the hell of the border finally appeared a ray of light. However, General Xue was nervous, knowing that this battle is difficult not nomadic anymore, but food and natural disasters.
The locusts were hard to catch, and even harder was the amount of grain and grass that General Xue had brought with him; Gu Yuanbai had given their line of troops more than enough grain and grass, but they wouldn't be able to support the stricken areas for long.
The three ministers understood why His Majesty's expression was so grave after reading the folders, and the Secretary of the Ministry of War said directly, "Your Majesty, there can be no delay, and people should be sent to transport food to the northern border immediately, or else the north will suffer heavy deaths and injuries, not to mention the possibility of riots."
The Privy Councillor said in a deep voice: "In the past, when the Nomads invaded the Central Plains, it was September, and they had strong soldiers and horses at that time, and the warriors and horses were all fat and healthy. But from General Xue's report, we can see that the nomads have also been deeply affected by the locust plague, their horses, cattle and sheep have run out of things to eat, which has caused them to launch multiple invasions in advance, the nomads have always relied on their strong horsemanship, and now that they have lost their powerful horses, it is the right time for us to suppress them."
Gu Yuanbai's face was frozen, "After the locust plague, there will be a series of disasters and disease outbreaks, the court must be prepared to deal with everything. Minister of the Household, how are the treasury stores?"
The Minister of the Ministry of Revenue looked relieved, ''Back to Your Majesty, Jinghu South and Hunan two places to scavenge the rebel army's supplies, the national treasury has been stuffed. Afterwards, there were donations of rice and grain from the south and north of the country, only the capital city has hastily established twenty-two more granaries, which have been stuffed to the brim. The entire Daheng dynasty, because of the previous anti-corruption, but wherever there is a lack of grain silos, meat silos, has been transported to make up for the grain, and now it is the fall of the harvest, all over the wind and rain, even if it is to the north of the border to draw more food, after January, the grain silos are still piled up."
With his words, the atmosphere steeply lightened.
The Privy Councillor's heart was strengthened, and he said, "At this moment, then, it is the time for my Daheng soldiers to be strong and powerful."
Gu Yuanbai face slightly slowed down, whether it is anti-corruption or dealing with the rebels, he did these things are dancing on the landmine, did not expect to come to the present day, but instead, hard to turn the disadvantageous situation of the northern border to the advantage.
Yes, the locusts gnawed the grasslands upon which the nomads depended, and their cattle and sheep they killed and dried into jerky for the rations of the marching soldiers, but their horses could not eat their cattle and sheep.
And without the strong steeds of the nomads, Daheng was really not afraid of them.
Gu Yuanbai steeply recognized that this was a perfect opportunity.
An excellent, one shot opportunity to attack the Nomads of the North.
It was a great temptation, and Gu Yuanbai began to seriously wonder if he should start a war now.
In Gu Yuanbai's original plan, he was prepared to start the border market first, exchanging good horses, cattle and sheep from the nomads, so as to train a high number of cavalry. Until a few years later, when the cavalry is strong, the transportation is built, and the post stations are developed, then he will go to wipe out the nomads in one fell swoop.
What would be the pros and cons if it were to start a war now?
Naturally, there was no need to mention the favorable side, Daheng's granaries were overflowing, while Nomad was suffering from locust plague and his army was weak. If we attacked now, it would naturally be the perfect time to do so, but an early attack on Nomad would be a sudden and huge pressure on Daheng's army logistics and on the people's officials as well.
Repairing the road is underway, if you want to lead to the northern border of the developed traffic, but also after two or three years, not to mention the other, if you really hit down the large grassland, inconvenient news blockage, like this locust plague have to be a long time to pass to the hands of the Gu Yuanbai, and how to be afraid of them resurgence it?
It's not hard to fight the world, it's the defending the world that's hard.
Gu Yuanbai thought a lot, his head was flying. The nomadic people of the northern frontier is not only the eight parts of the Khitan, there are also the three parts of the migratory birds divided into three parts, Gaochang, Ganzhou and Huangtou, in addition to the three parts of the migratory birds, there is also a weak ethnic group, and that ethnic group is the female genitalia.
The nomads above the steppe, their total number adding up to hundreds of thousands of people, this is a huge northern ethnic group.
But these nomads were in constant civil strife, each treating the side peoples as slaves, and in the eight tribes of the Khitan alone, the old chiefs were already in dark tides among the eight chiefs because of their impending deaths from old age and disease.
Should I fight?
Once the imperial court attacked in force, they were defenseless in the early stages, but afterward, they would surely confer to unify their resistance. The entire Daheng Dynasty has not yet ushered in the preparation for a long-term battle, and on the grasslands, there are always places where locusts cannot reach, and once they are unified, they will help each other out, and at that time, it will be the unification of another nomadic people.
Gu Yuanbai swished his eyes open as he said forcefully, "Fight."
The Privy Councilor and the Minister of War gazed at Gu Yuanbai.
Gu Yuanbai looked at the Minister of the Household and said succinctly, "You will go and transfer grain and grass to be loaded now, and maximize the amount of grain and grass that can be sent to the northern border."
The Minister of the Household received the order and hurried away.
The Minister of War couldn't help but say, "Your Holiness, do we really fight?"
"To fight, is to fight," Gu Yuanbai suddenly laughed, "but the border crossings are also to cross the border."
"I don't intend to forcefully step on the nomads now," looking at the two courtiers' puzzled eyes, Gu Yuanbai continued, "What I want to do is to make them think that I'm going to make a big move against them."
First, the nomads who had gradually become arrogant and domineering over the years were scared, showing off Daheng's abundant food and troops. When they were so scared that they were ready to unite, that was when Gu Yuanbai stopped the war and went to negotiate peace with them.
Give them a title at random, push one of the tribes to be the leader of all the peoples, and then bully them to trigger their civil unrest. Treating them differently is the easiest way to centrifuge them, and the easiest way to divide them into gangs.
It would be best to get the nomads to accept the imperial court to go ahead and run a school, weren't they eager to learn Daheng's civilization? Daheng could teach their children for free, and by the time their children knew profoundly what imperial power was above all else, and what was the Han script and Han culture that penetrated into their bones, they would have been indoctrinated.
Children who were indoctrinated would report to the resident ministers to expose their parents' evil deeds once their own parents did something bad to the Daheng Empire. Everyone was scornful of each other, and controlling minds was the most effective way to rule.
Of course, if they were unwilling to accept the court's schooling, then wait a few years, when Daheng's iron cavalry set foot on the grasslands, the hundreds of thousands of them would become hard laborers to liberate the labor of the lower class commoners.
The Privy Councillor stroked his beard, exchanged glances with the Minister of War, and said, "Your Holiness, do you have someone in mind for the person who will deliver the grain and lead the troops?"
Gu Yuanbai paused and said, "Xue Yuan."
*
Meanwhile, in the Sounding Stage.
Li Angshun, Prince of Western Xia, asked, "The person on that carriage, turned out to be the Prince of Harmony?"
His subordinate returned, "I personally saw the carriage parked in front of the Prince of Harmony's Mansion, and those guards were so imposing that they must be the Prince of Harmony."
"I heard that the Prince of Harmony had also gone to war," Li Angshun thought about the man on that carriage showing a small half of his chin, "I didn't expect the Prince of Harmony to look like he turned out to be this kind of appearance."
He smiled meaningfully, "The Western Xia beauties we brought with us, then let's send one forward to the Prince of Harmony's residence. Think of it as making amends, after all, we can't afford to offend a powerful person like the Prince of Harmony in the Daheng Capital."
"By the way, let's go and see what the Prince of Peace really looks like," murmured Li Aung Shun, unable to resist his interest, his slightly curled black hair falling down, "how it looks, how it doesn't look like a conquest of the battlefield."
Instead, they are well-bred, and their skin and flesh are delicate and fairer than that of the Daheng official called Chu Wei.
Could it have been a misreading at the time?