Well said, Brother Wang, this time we are here to borrow our strength and do our part to help His Highness realize his dream as soon as possible. "Su Qin was also moved by Wang Liao's words, with a look of admiration on his face, "Many people don't understand this truth. They are still addicted to the past pattern. It seems that these noble men can dominate everything, and Taiping teaches people. It seems that the rebellion did not completely wake them up. They are still intoxicated in the past glory of the empire. Sometimes I even think about the reason why the Taiping people were able to rise up and respond to the call, and the people followed the scenery. There should be something specific in this. reason. Don't the people know that they are rebelling, and that rebellion is a serious crime of confiscating their homes, killing their heads, and annihilating nine ethnic groups? So why are people still desperate to join? There doesn't seem to be much worth considering in the Taiping Religion, so why do people work so hard to serve it? This is worthy of our deep thought and enough to serve as a warning. It's a pity that many people in the empire don't seem to understand the truth of this. "
"Well, Brother Su, do you think that if we in Western Xinjiang had not been so actively involved in suppressing the Taiping Religion and instead promoted its development and attack into the hinterland of the empire, would our current situation be better? With those of the Taiping Religion Means and policies can only deceive the people for a while, and they cannot fundamentally solve the problems that the people hope to be solved. At that time, we will rush forward, just like the first wave of the river, sweeping away the wind and clouds, destroying the dry and dry, wouldn't it be better? How much?" Seeing that there was no one around, Wang Liao's words became more bold, but his voice was lowered a bit.
Su Qin knew his good friend very well, and he was afraid that only he could come up with such shocking remarks. He smiled and shook his head: "Brother Wang, it's better not to mention such things that have already passed. Now we still have more to say. Spend some time in these two days. Don't think this is just a preparatory meeting. In fact, this is also a good time for us to meet the think tanks of the Situ princes. The meeting of kings in the later period is important, but many strategies are here. It was born in the minds of the thinkers in the preparatory meeting.”
"Yes, but didn't His Highness set a principle for us to remain unchanged in response to ever-changing changes? No matter how much trouble they make, I remain unmoved. He has all kinds of tricks, and I have old ideas. Now we can still enjoy life. It's only right to look at the beautiful scenery of Fengze Garden." Wang Liao didn't care much about the later negotiations. In his opinion, Situ Tai and Situ Yushuang's line had already merged, and it would be difficult to break the relationship between the two. alliance, and the only one who can fight for it is Situ Biao. And with the current posture, I am afraid that Situ Biao will mostly sit back and watch. This is already an indisputable fact. Instead of spending more thoughts on this, it is better to spend energy on dividing and disintegrating the forces that are attached to Situ Tai and Situ Yushuang and representing different factions, weakening the foundation of the alliance between the two Situ, and laying the foundation for the later period. Be prepared in all aspects for the possible outbreak of war. Wang Liao has always believed that war is unavoidable, and the top priority of the diplomatic department is to actively weaken the other party's comprehensive strength by various means. This also won Su Qin's approval.
The two of them strolled along the water corridor, where small bridges separated small water surfaces one after another on the edge of Fengze. The "Zhiyu San" is the most famous attraction among them. The color of the lake is sparkling and interesting, the shade of the weeping willows is shady, and the greenery hits your face. The two of them strolled there, with a stone bridge on one side and a whitewashed wall with leaky windows on the other. Water lilies were planted in the pond, and small fish were swimming leisurely under the lotus, forming a very quiet small space.
"Knowing fish" is a famous allusion from the ancient legend Zhuangzi and Huizi swimming on Haoliang. It is recorded in "Zhuangzi - Autumn Waters", "Zhuangzi said: 'Traveling leisurely is the joy of fish.' Huizi said: 'You are not a fish, how can you know the joy of fish.' Zhuangzi said: 'You are not me, how can you know that I do not know the joy of fish.'" It was this very interesting dialogue that created this scene. At that time, Fengze Garden The chief designer Ji Cheng specially designed and built this scenery to cater to the literati's pursuit of this quiet and inactive state.
The gentle breeze and the intoxicating spring scenery made the two of them intoxicated and unable to extricate themselves. They were unwilling to leave for a long time, until a sound of words came from the other side and woke them up from their intoxication.
"Brother Hu, His Royal Highness the King of Chu has entered the city, why has His Royal Highness the King of Xiang not entered the capital yet? Are you still worried about something?" A hoarse voice came from the water corridor on the other side of the pool revetment.
"Oh, Brother Ming, you should ask Su Qin and Wang Liao, hasn't His Highness King Qin arrived at the imperial capital a long time ago? Why has he stayed in his military camp and refused to enter the capital?" A somewhat high-pitched voice sounded. He seemed a little out of breath, but his tone was very calm.
"Li Wufeng? Does he dare to go to Beijing? There was a lot of trouble in Jinzhong and the military department. The military department's investigation is still ongoing. Xu Wentao's rebellion is purely an excuse for Li Wufeng to attempt to occupy Jinzhong. That's all. Now it's too vicious to put the responsibility on Xu Wentao, who is said to have committed suicide out of fear of crime. Xu Xiangyang has been bitten back and sent to jail. He really takes it. After a night of romance, he is now actually He was accused of dereliction of duty, but no one asked him about the officials who prostituted women with him?" The hoarse voice seemed to have no clear purpose, and he was talking nonsense.
"There is no need to mention the past. Now that Jinzhong has fallen into the hands of Li Wufeng, and the west exit channel has been opened, Li Wufeng can probably stay in the Imperial City with peace of mind. But if he wants to enter the city, I'm afraid It depends on his mood." The high-pitched voice known as Brother Hu replied calmly.
"Brother Hu, do you know? His Highness's First Army and Second Army seem to be undergoing large-scale adjustments during this period. I heard that the Cangzhou barracks stretch for dozens of miles, and there are even many troops stationed in the north of Zhongzhou. I heard that It's His Highness's army." The hoarse voice was somewhat mysterious, becoming more and more mysterious.
"Oh, isn't that strange? Cangzhou is His Highness's territory, so it's no big deal for his troops to be stationed there. As for Zhongzhou, His Highness must bring a certain amount of escort troops when he comes to Beijing. In addition to His Highness the King of Chu, the King of Qin Both the King of Xiang and King Xiang will be guarded by soldiers." The high-pitched voice disapproved.
The footsteps gradually came this way. Su Qin and Wang Liao exchanged glances with each other, smiled knowingly, and stepped forward to meet them.
The corner pavilion in the corridor became the place where the four people met. Almost at the same time, both sides recognized each other. "Brother Su, Brother Wang." "Brother Hu, Brother Ming."
After a period of meaningless greetings, it seemed that both parties had consciously avoided the matters to be discussed, and talked about the scenic spots in Fengze Garden. It could be heard from the tone of both parties that they were somewhat insincere.
Su Qin looked at the thin middle-aged scribe. This Hu Tingzhi was an extraordinary figure. He once served as the director of the Logistics Department under the General Administration of Military Affairs. Unfortunately, he was tabooed by the Deputy Minister of Military Affairs, Piqué. After the fight, he ended up in a prison waiting to die. Later, he was sentenced to exile for some reason. It seems that Situ Biao should have helped him at that time. Otherwise, how could a person with such an arrogant heart like him do this? He succumbed to Situ Biao, who was still a playboy at that time. This time, Situ Biao's negotiator is probably him. He can't tell anything from the other party's tone, but with his knowledge, he should be able to tell the direction of the current situation. However, Su Qin can't predict how the other party will act. Such an attitude to deal with.
While Su Qin was thinking about Hu Tingzhi, the scholar surnamed Hu was also thinking about the two men in front of him who were rivals in the long run but may be collaborators at present. Xijiang placed their most powerful first legion Kansai, and the navy has also made changes, which is obviously to intimidate itself, but this is not entirely a bluff. If our side really wants to join this joint camp, I am afraid that Xijiang will really provoke and launch an attack on the five lakes, avoiding the strong and attacking the weak. It has always been a common method in Western Xinjiang.
Deep down in his heart, Hu Tingzhi actually does not want to cooperate with Xijiang, because he has an intuition that the alliance between Situ Tai and Situ Yushuang now looks amazing. With the support of external forces, it seems that it is not inferior to Xijiang or even in Xijiang. The overall strength still exceeds the strength of Xijiang, but the fragility and looseness of this alliance determines its fate. Cooperation with Xijiang will only accelerate the collapse of this alliance. And when the alliance between Situ Tai and Situ Yushuang ends, they may become enemies as allies. Compared with this kind of alliance, which has its own ulterior motives, Western Xinjiang is in the hands of a powerful figure, with unified political and military orders, and strong armed forces. Perhaps its weakness is that it is compared to the excessively large armed forces. In other words, Xijiang's backward economy and the environment it was in were not very peaceful. Hu Tingzhi had never been able to understand how Xijiang's finances could support such a huge armed force.
According to his calculations, with the existing armed forces in Xijiang, Xijiang's finances should have gone bankrupt several times long ago. Even with bank support, it would never be able to last for so long. Financiers are not philanthropists, and they cannot be infinite. They have invested funds in a regime that cannot financially support it. Although Xijiang made a lot of money from grain speculation last year, it is still impossible to maintain such a large-scale army. What is even more strange is that long before the grain speculation, Xijiang Xinjiang's military power has expanded to an astonishing degree, but its finances can still be maintained, and there is still money for speculation. This is a problem that Hu Tingzhi cannot figure out even if he thinks about it.
Xijiang should have other financing channels, this is Hu Tingzhi's inference, but just thinking about such a huge military expenditure makes me shudder. How did Xijiang obtain this funding from sources other than fiscal and taxation? Hu Tingzhi has been tirelessly searching for this answer, but until now he has not found a reasonable explanation.