Things happened one after another in the front yard and back yard. It can be imagined that this year has not been a good one.
It is almost obvious that the sect has fallen out with the clan, and the filial piety will not be held until March after the New Year, so the New Year is also very deserted.
But anyway, the year has passed.
After the Lantern Festival, although spring came late in Xiliang and it was still freezing and snowy at this time, thinking about the filial piety ceremony that will take place in two and a half months, you should not be as restrained in doing things and talking as you are now. Everyone still felt faintly relieved.
But it wasn't all troublesome. Shen Shuyan's recovery was not satisfactory due to her mood. Su Yuyin's hidden pregnancy was also concealed with great difficulty due to an accidental fetal movement.
Regardless of these two things, the imperial capital Huo, Gu, Pei, Deng and other families expelled the Soviet Union, which not only directly changed the pattern of the Central Plains, but also caught the Shen family, who had the idea of sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight, a little unprepared.
Neither Su Xiu Ming nor Su Xiu Wei were good at handling political affairs, but they were better at leading troops. Therefore, after the Shen family withdrew to Xiliang on the pretext that the Di people were resurrecting, Su Xiu Ming, who intended to monopolize power, felt that she was too busy.
Although it is said that Huo Zhaoyu's fall in love was due to the Wei family's handiwork, it was not difficult for Su Xiuming to ignore Huo Zhaoyu at that time. After all, hundreds of thousands of troops are in Gyeonggi.
The problem is that Su Xiuming's subordinates are not able to take charge of the government affairs at all, even though at this time the so-called territory that the Wei Dynasty court can really govern is only a few states, and some of them are separated by riots and chaos.
...Su Xiuwei actually has such talents, they are among the group of people who were saved at the expense of Mrs. Deng and others.
But these people followed Su Pingzhan's wishes and were determined to support Sanfang to rise to power. How could Su Xiuming give them a chance
So from Su Xiu Ming's point of view, Huo Zhaoyu can do a good job, so it's better to let Huo Zhaoyu do it! He was just a consort from a noble family, and the imperial power was already in name only. How could the Huo family be able to compete with the Su family
In addition, Huo Zhaoyu brought his wife, Princess Anji, and his youngest son to the imperial capital. In Su Xiuming's view, he had even brought hostages, which made him even more relieved.
Therefore, after Su Xiu Ming snubbed him because he was recommended by Wei Changfeng at first, she found that he was indeed quite talented and had nothing to do with the Wei family. It seemed that Wei Changfeng had acted carelessly, so she felt relieved. The political affairs were gradually handed over to him.
And Huo Zhaoyu is not only good at doing things, but also a good person. He is humble and courteous, has excellent self-cultivation, and knows how to advance and retreat... The good temper and good reputation of the two young masters of the Huo family were appraised by Gu Naizheng, the eccentric member of the family.
Su Xiuming also believed that people like him were no threat to her, so after discovering that Huo Zhaoyu could take care of her worries, she simply continued to choose people from the surviving aristocratic families to take charge of government affairs. So that he can free up his hands to use the capital as his base camp to quell civil unrest and seize territory.
So Huo Zhaoyu recommended to him Gu Naizheng of the Gu family in the imperial capital, who was spared during the fall of the imperial capital; Gu Naizheng's younger brother Gu Xinian; and this second Gu's sister-in-law Pei Yu; as well as Min Sishan and Deng family members of the Min family. Deng Zongle, Zhou Jiazhou Jianyuan and others.
Except for Duanmu Wuyou, who was rejected, everyone else recommended by Huo Zhaoyu was accepted by Su Xiuming, who was eager to get out of government affairs.
This is also an internal struggle in the Su family. Su Xiu Ming is unwilling to trust the talents in the family who are good at political affairs but support the third room. She would rather trust outsiders... Just like Wei Changying left many children in the Shen family unused, but hired Cao Hong'er to take care of her. Same as the second son.
It's just that although Shen Shuxie is one of the darlings of Shen Zangfeng and his wife, he is still a child and not the eldest son. Even if something happened to him by Cao Honger, generally speaking, it would not affect the foundation of the entire Shen family.
But the government...
Su Xiu Ming herself had some opinions about valuing martial arts over literature. In addition, although her father Su Pingzhan had a smooth approach to politics, when the imperial capital fell, Su Pingzhan's lifelong wisdom could not save him. Didn't the two major frontier armies finally arrive and recapture the imperial capital and Yanzhou
Therefore, Su Xiu Ming knew that Huo Zhaoyu and others were becoming increasingly friendly and managing the affairs of the government without leakage, so she didn't take it to heart.
This is what he thought about: firstly, if he defeated ten guilds with one force, no matter how good these people were in politics, their lives would still be in their own hands? Secondly, Huo Zhaoyu himself was very young, and the people he recommended were all young people from aristocratic families. Many of them, including their parents and elders, were killed in the fall. Without the support or advice of their elders, they could only rely on themselves.
Su Xiuming felt that these children from aristocratic families were not as good as the Su family in terms of family power, and not as good as herself in terms of age. It was just about some paperwork—Su Xiuwei and other members of the Su family had persuaded him several times and proposed at least placing some people from the Su family in key places.
But Su Xiu Ming was worried that Su Xiu Wei was trying to trick her.
All in all, this suggestion falls by the wayside.
But if Huo Zhaoyu and others are just left in control of the government, the problem won't be that big.
Unless someone else takes down the capital, Huo Zhaoyu and others will not and cannot do anything to the Su family.
The problem is that Su Xiu Ming agreed to Huo Zhaoyu's request to build the Forbidden Army in the middle of last year.
At that time, several not-so-good cases happened - hundreds of thousands of Qingzhou troops were stationed in Gyeonggi, all young and strong soldiers, and they had been away from home for a long time. How could they not miss them? Although it is said that after the war, many girls from good families who had no support fell into prostitution. But compared to the hundreds of thousands of troops, even if a group of troops were divided to support Donghu, the rest were still beyond the reach of prostitutes.
There was internal fighting in the Su family, and it was too late to win over the military. Su Xiuming and Su Xiuwei turned a blind eye to such "trivial matters".
As a result, the Qingzhou Army was spoiled. They forced good girls into prostitution and raped civilian girls, and then they just paid it back.
In the end, someone was so bold that he took the idea to the noble clan.
As mentioned before, except for the imperial palace, almost all the mansions in the imperial capital were burned down. As a result, the nobles who originally lived a life of bustling food and drink in the imperial capital could only temporarily live in a separate courtyard outside the city after the imperial capital was recovered.
Of course, the size of these villas cannot be compared with their main residence, and the defense is certainly not comparable.
Some soldiers looked at the large and small villas scattered outside the city and felt that there were so many noble families and their own family was the top family in the world. As long as they did not provoke the same clan, the smaller noble families and those who were not so proud The... should be... no problem, right
Not to mention the pampered nature of noble women, even if they have plain facial features, they can still have good skin that is hard to possess for women from common people. Just saying that they can have ladies with their status... That was something they had never dared to think about before.
As a result, scholars and women suffered disaster.
The problem is that the first woman who was sneaked into the house by the Qingzhou Army at night was a widow with children to take care of. So after crying secretly, she silenced a few slaves and pretended that nothing happened - if this happened, her natal husband's family would be ashamed, and she would definitely not survive. What about her child
But this silence only emboldened those daring soldiers to continue picking on women from aristocratic families.
Those who were killed next either remained silent or just committed suicide without saying anything... Because in the past few years after the fall of the Imperial City, several people who committed suicide were thought to be following their ancestors... Until one time, these soldiers also received their retribution and sought help from the Imperial Capital Gu. Sneak into a branch of the clan.
What they didn't know was that the other courtyard looked small in size, and after asking, the people living there were indeed descendants of a branch of the Gu family in the imperial capital... But this descendant of the branch was also famous among the descendants of the imperial capital a few years ago: Gu Yiran.
When Gu Yiran was Emperor Huanzong, he returned from Xiliang and received a great reward together with Shen Zangfeng and others.
Later, his elders found a job for him to be sent abroad. Like Gu Naizheng, both the couple escaped disaster.
It was just that Gu Yiran was good at military strategy but not at civil affairs, so Huo Zhaoyu did not mention him when recommending young men from various aristocratic families to govern. He concentrated on keeping his filial piety at home.
Like all couples who have not yet made a filial piety, he and Princess Chengxian... Because Princess Chengxian's biological father is the emperor at the moment, she has been named a princess. In short, the couple lived in the front yard and the back yard... To be honest, this was also the reason why the Qingzhou Army was able to succeed.
But during those few days, Princess Chengxian happened to be in poor health, so Gu Rouzhang, the eldest daughter of the Gu family, who was of the same clan as Gu Yiran, went to visit...
After all, although Gu Rouzhang and Gu Yiran are far apart by blood, they are of the same clan, and so many people from the Gu family died when the imperial capital fell. The so-called gap between the main sect and the side branches no longer exists. When he learned that his sister-in-law was ill, Gu Rouzhang went over to visit her. Because the Pei family's villa where she lived was far away from Gu Yiran's house, and it was too late to talk, he simply stayed there - she was living in the same room as her sister-in-law at the time. live.
As a result, these Qingzhou soldiers, who had a taste for food and taste, were noticed by Gu Rouzhang not long after they sneaked into the backyard.
Then Gu Yiran was alarmed in the front yard...
In the end, these people were lynched by the Gu brothers and sisters, who were not in a good mood to begin with, and learned that they could not stop talking about everything...
After hearing how they explained how many daughters of aristocratic families had been harmed, Gu Yiran and Gu Rouzhang, who originally thought they had caught a few thieves, were going crazy!
In the eyes of the children of the gentry who have been taught since childhood that the difference between gentry and common people is like a world of difference, this kind of thing... is absolutely intolerable!
Even if the Su family is standing behind these soldiers!
You know, when the former crown prince Shen Xun insulted Wei Changjuan, the young lady of the Wei family in Fengzhou, he was still the crown prince of Wei, and he lost his position because of it! What's more, a few soldiers who are too lazy to look at in the eyes of the nobles
... In short, although this matter was not made public for the sake of each family's face, privately it caused the entire imperial capital's nobles to arouse hatred towards the Su family.
Later, through Huo Zhaoyu's mediation, the situation was finally calmed down.
Huo Zhaoyu took advantage of this situation to propose the establishment of the Forbidden Army.
According to him, the forbidden army was just a name, and of course it was impossible to give military power to the clan. Mainly for the safety of the family.
Since the Qingzhou Army is stationed in Gyeonggi, it is actually responsible for such errands.
But if they commit such a thing as stealing, who would still believe them? They all asked to come by themselves.
Su Xiu Ming was also distressed earlier. She also heard Huo Zhaoyu say that if they don't agree, the aristocratic family will definitely not be able to trust the Su family. When the time comes, they will all go back to their ancestral home. He can't preside over government affairs alone... Su Xiu Ming can't hold them all hostage. Or kill them all. After thinking about it, I gave him a quota of 2,000 people and agreed.
In the end, Huo Zhaoyu did have two thousand forbidden troops, but these forbidden troops were all selected from the guards of various families. They were also given ten days off every month to go back to their master's house... They trained other servants at the master's house. They were soldiers in name, but in fact they were at least some kind of captain... Anyway, Huo Zhaoyu would not admit that this was his idea.
Su Xiu Ming was not worried when she heard the news. She only said that the family was frightened by what happened before and hoped to train all the servants. In his opinion, the soldiers who have only been established for a few months, even if there is a general who can use soldiers like a god, what can be trained in such a short time? He planned to wait a moment, wait until the previous events were forgotten, and then strike again. To prevent the conflict between the two parties from worsening further.
But he never expected that while Wen Yaozi and others joined forces to attack the Su family's territory, and Su Xiu Ming and Su Xiu Wei responded with all their strength, Huo Zhaoyu and other aristocratic families who had formed a private alliance would bring out nearly 10,000 well-armed people. !
Of course, even a hundred thousand troops cannot scare the Su family. The problem is that the rebellion came too suddenly!
What's more, Huo Zhaoyu actually used Emperor Xingping as a cover.
Someone was sent to tell Su Xiu Ming and Su Xiu Wei that Wen Yaozi sent assassins into the palace to kill Emperor Xingping and deceived the two into the palace. In order to prevent being seen through, the poor old Emperor Xingping was really left half alive...
The fact that these two people were able to leave the palace alive is enough to prove that the Qingzhou Army is capable and the hastily trained Forbidden Army has failed to live up to their expectations.
The Su family, which has been in the capital for several years now, is in a coma due to serious injuries to Su Xiu Ming and Su Xiu Wei. The eldest son Su Ruoqian has long returned to his hometown to observe filial piety, and the fifth son Su Yuwu is far away in Donghu... Wen Yaozi and others caught the situation of the military morale in chaos. Defeated, they were fleeing towards Qingzhou in a mess.
However, Wen Yaozi and others stopped moving when they reached the northern position of Panzhou. It is said... It is just said that it was an agreement with Huo Zhaoyu and others.
Huo Zhaoyu, a young man from an aristocratic family who was recognized as a kind-hearted man during both the Huanzong and Minzong eras, unexpectedly revealed his true colors and replaced the Su family's territory in the capital and nearby states. The new tyrant among them! (To be continued)