Chapter 575 Nine Towns
Qin Lang hosted a banquet to welcome Cheng Yaojin, and sent people to kill pigs and sheep to celebrate the victorious soldiers.
In the banquet hall, Lao Cheng put on brightly colored silk armor. This silk armor is gorgeous in color. The unicorn swallows the shoulders, the lion wears the phoenix wing helmet, and the tiger head hugs the belly. It is really majestic, although this kind of silk armor is only for generals. The high-end dress has no practical defensive effect, but it does look good.
Usually the generals would at most wear it during the court meeting, but today Lao Cheng actually put it on here too.
The generals who came to the banquet were surprised.
Old Liu has a completely different style. The Duke of Pingyuan, who has just been transferred to the governor of Kuozhou, is wearing a Confucian shirt with a folded foot scarf and a folding fan in his hand.
Two old guys, pretending to make everyone feel sick.
"Hou Junji didn't come?"
As soon as Lao Cheng entered the hall, he opened his mouth and shouted, as if Hou Junji was just a partial general, and he almost didn't say a word about Xiaohou.
Qin Lang is quite normal today, with a purple robe and jade belt, a purple gold crown on his head, and a purple gold hammer bestowed by the emperor in his hand, "Lao Hou, I didn't invite you, let's drink to our heart's content. If we invite him, it won't be disgusting." People, how do you drink alcohol?"
"That's right." Lao Cheng laughed.
Duan Zhixuan, Zhang Zhigui, and all the generals were also speechless seeing this appearance.
The banquet started, but Hou Junji, Chai Shao, and Xue Wanche did not come. No one invited Hou Junji, he relied on his status, so of course it was impossible for him to lose his value without being invited. Chai Shao prided himself on his identity and couldn't make excuses. He is the emperor's brother-in-law, and also an important minister of the founding of the country, but he was like a mess in the Zhenguan Dynasty, and he was always uncomfortable with Cheng Yaojin and Qin Lang and other juniors, so he didn't feel comfortable, so he simply didn't come.
As for Xue Wanche, he and Qin Lang had a personal quarrel, because of Princess Danyang, Xue Wanche almost had to fight Qin Lang.
Even though Qin Lang repeatedly patted his chest to ensure that he and Danyang were innocent, Xue Wanche still didn't believe it. When he saw Qin Lang, he felt that the color of the hat on his head was wrong.
Even though the two of them are now in name only, they lived in separate residences long ago, but this matter has always made Xue Wanche very uncomfortable. This time he was transferred to Longyou, and he even went to the palace to ask the emperor to resign. He didn't want to come to Longyou to fight, but he didn't want to be an official under Qin Lang.
But the emperor finally let him come, maybe the emperor let Xue Wanche come to Longyou precisely because of this personal grievance.
The three of them didn't come, but Qin Lang, Cheng Yaojin and others felt much more at ease.
This banquet is very refreshing.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, all the generals could not return home, nor could they return to Beijing Chaoji to participate in the Zhengdan Dynasty.
This year's grand dynasty, because the emperor still stayed in Luoyang, so it was held in Luoyang. Li Shimin, who had a good face, wanted to rush back to Chang'an, but fortunately, the grand court meeting was held in Chang'an. They also have face when they come to congratulate.
When the Turkic party Xiang Lingnan and other internal chiefs worshiped, they could also show the mighty majesty of the Tang Dynasty.
Luoyang Palace was destroyed by war at the end of Sui Dynasty, so it was a bit shabby.
But although the emperor wanted to show off, the prime ministers like Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng, and Xiao Yu were not used to the emperor's bad habits, and all of them resolutely opposed it. Even Wang Gui and Li Jing, who were staying in Chang'an as far away as the prime ministers, wrote a letter saying that Chang'an had not yet Ability to welcome Shengjia back to Beijing, let alone hold a grand court meeting.
Finally, Li Shimin had no choice but to give up this idea.
This night banquet was very joyous.
Hou Junji stayed in his own courtyard, listening to the sound of drinking, guessing, boxing, and ordering from the courtyard not far away, and even the sound of silk and bamboo accompaniment, he gritted his teeth in hatred.
The dignified prime minister and the minister of the Ministry of War came, and these military leaders dared not give face.
The prime ministers of the Zhengshitang usually looked down on him and put up with it. After leaving the capital court and coming to Longyou, a group of guys dared to treat him like this.
Especially Qin Lang, no matter how amazing you are, but you are only twenty years old, why do you dare to make such a big deal? Anyway, I'm also from Qin Shubao's generation. Back then, Tiance Mansion led soldiers together. Do you know how to respect the old and love the young?
"Who participated in Qin Lang's night banquet?"
Hou Junji sat in the room warming himself by the fire with red eyes, and asked his subordinates.
"Except for Chai Duwei and Xue Jieshi who didn't go, the rest went."
"Go and take a sneak peek at the night banquet scene, and finally find someone who is proficient in Danqing painting. I want him to take a peek, and then come back and draw all the scenes he saw, especially Qin Lang's arrogant and domineering face. You have the flattering faces of Cheng Yaojin and others."
"These damned guys are connected with each other and have no court!"
people were sent out, but Hou Junji sat there, the more he thought about it, the more angry he became. Hearing the noise, he couldn't sit still. After thinking about it, he took a jar of wine and went to drink with Xue Wanche.
Xue Wanche and Qin Lang have an unresolved knot, so they can just win over.
In the night banquet hall.
Everyone drank and chatted, and Cheng Yaojin complained to everyone about the big soil enclosure in Fucheng City.
"What the **** is the king's city? It's just a big sheepfold. The palace is not as big as the yard of our old rich landlord in the Tang Dynasty. Damn it, it's a waste of eight hundred miles."
Qin Lang poured wine for Lao Cheng, "You didn't run in vain, at least you fought two battles, captured three thousand, captured famous kings, and captured more than thirty thousand cattle and horses. Not to mention anything else, the five thousand brothers who went out this time, Regardless of life or death, anyone can get a good share of spoils, no loss."
"Loss, why not, it hurts to lose, so many brothers are willing to believe in me, Lao Cheng, thinking that they can make great achievements and earn big rewards, but in the end they ran so far in the wind and snow, horses eat snowmen and drink ice, and we live in the ice and snow for a month , I didn’t eat a few warm meals, which one didn’t suffer from frostbite, and ended up with this, so I’m in a panic.”
"You are the first army in the Tang Dynasty to capture the capital of Tuyuhun. It is worth commemorating."
"Don't mention it, I haven't seen the old thief Fu Yun."
Zhang Shigui and the others thought that Fu Yun was really ruthless. The 5,000 men in the icy and snowy land would not take part in the battle, but just ran away with them, even if they ran, they burned grass. This kind of suicidal way of fighting the enemy is really beyond the reach of ordinary people. of.
If the party members were so ruthless at the beginning, Datang would not have defeated and surrendered them so easily.
"For the current plan, we still need to reorganize the Longyou Army, set up the Ninth Army as soon as possible, and deploy soldiers and horses from various military mansions to guard in place. The critical points along the border must be guarded. One more thing, the beacon must be perfect. Longyou The border is extremely wide, and although we have established nine armies, their numbers are limited, and we must rely on beacon fires to mobilize troops and horses to respond in a timely manner."
All the generals agree with what Qin Lang proposed.
To put it bluntly, which of these people is not a general or general with the ranks of the military guards of the northern and southern yamen on his head, and they came to Longyou to serve as the governor. willing to come.
Although Hou Junji said that he wanted to dismiss Qin Lang from his position, Qin Lang ignored him. Without the emperor's will, or the court making books, Qin Lang, who is also a prime minister, would not care about him.
As long as the emperor does not issue a decree to officially end the war, revoke the camp of the general manager of the Xikaidao march, revoke the camp of the general manager of the Taohe road march, and revoke Qin Lang's position as the envoy of Longyou Xuanfu, then Qin Lang's duty is still to represent the emperor and the court Defending the frontier and defending against the enemy in Longyou, you can even choose an opportunity to counterattack.
The general manager of Xikaido, Qin Qiong, returned to Songzhou to celebrate the new year. The superficial reason was that the old disease had relapsed and he wanted to go back to recuperate. In fact, Qin Qiong was not the kind of person who strived for merit, and after the war came to an end, Qin Qiong didn't want to continue to come as the general manager. It is too much power to control the armies and control the soldiers and horses of the various roads in Longyou, Hexi and Jiannan.
The low-key and cautious Qin Qiong didn't wait for the emperor's order, and went back directly in the name of recuperating.
So Qin Lang, who is now the deputy general manager, is in charge of the camp affairs. However, due to Qin Lang's position restrictions, he can only command the armies in Longyou, and he cannot intervene in Jiannan and Hexi. This also weakens the power of the camp in disguise. Let the imperial court be less worried and suspicious.
Qin Lang has planned to establish nine armies along the Longyou border, called nine towns along the border, and the governors of the five prefectures along the border will concurrently serve as military envoys for five of the towns, while the remaining four towns will choose strong generals to serve as envoys.
Each town has three thousand soldiers, one thousand cavalry, and two thousand infantry.
This is the main army, which is guarded by soldiers from various Zhechong prefectures.
The other auxiliary soldiers are selected from the township regiments and the attached Qiang tribes. Basically, there is one regular soldier and two auxiliary soldiers. .
Old Cheng drank a lot of wine today, but he was quite sober. The failure of the attack on Tuyuhun gave Lao Cheng a better understanding of Tuyuhun, and he knew that Fu Yun was a difficult opponent.
"The frontier army in nine towns, three thousand in one town, that's 27,000 people, and the auxiliary soldiers are 54,000, which adds up to 81,000 people. Only by ourselves in Longyou Dao, there are a total of twelve prefectures. , I’m afraid we can’t afford it. And we offended the old Hou, this guy has always been cautious, and if he is a minister in the Ministry of War, I’m afraid he will deliberately block our logistics and military supplies, and it will be very troublesome.”
There are many Zhechong mansions in Longyou, there must be 27,000 people, or even far more.
However, the Zhechong Mansion is under the Twelve Guards of Nanya, and the mobilization of the soldiers has to go through the Ministry of War and the Twelve Guards. The governor and the governor do not have this power. , but the governor only plays a supervisory role.
Even in the frontier state, what the governors and governors can really mobilize is the frontier army system and the local regiment training system. The frontier army is drawn from the military mansions to take turns to guard the frontier. The frontier army comes from the mansion soldiers, but they are two different systems.
The biggest problem now is that in the reorganization of the Ninth Army, the first step is to transfer soldiers from the government soldiers, establish a military system, and mobilize the government soldiers, all of which require the approval of the Ministry of War.
Zhechong captains usually command the soldiers of various prefectures, and are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War and the Twelve Guards.
The frontier army is a border defense military system led by the governors. The soldiers of the frontier army are drawn from the government soldiers, and the logistics and supplies are supplied by the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Households, the Weiwei Temple, and the Military Weapons Supervision. The main responsibility is to guard the border.
When the imperial court uses troops, it will generally form a battalion, which will be composed of soldiers and horses drawn from the frontier army or government soldiers, and a general will be sent to lead the soldiers and horses.
This extremely complex military organization system made it difficult for the Tang Dynasty to have more than 600,000 soldiers, but the control was tight, and it was difficult for the soldiers to be generals, and it was even more difficult for the soldiers to be self-respecting. The right to deploy troops and the right to appoint generals are separate.
Qin Lang is now the governor of Diezhou, and can command the border troops under the governor's mansion of Diezhou, but he has no right to command the soldiers of Zhechong Prefecture in the territory, only the right of supervision.
He is also the envoy of Longyou Dao Xuanfu, and he can also control the Longyou army and government soldiers, but this Xuanfu is mostly a supervisory authority.
Only the deputy chief of the Xihaidao camp and the chief of the Taohe army on his head are the deputy commander-in-chief of the Xihai theater and the commander of the Taohe division, which allows him to command the Longyou army and directly lead the Taohe army.
But when it comes to the establishment of new frontier troops, the number of troops, and supply, they are also inseparable from the Ministry of War.
"Why don't you invite Lao Hou over for a drink or two?" Duan Zhixuan asked.
"Drink a bird, without Butcher Zhang, would it be impossible to eat pigs with hair?" Old Cheng was the first to refuse.
(end of this chapter)