The sunlight came in through the rope curtains in front of the wooden window, and sprinkled on the table to form mottled horizontal bars. Guo Shao had moved his office from the west side of Jinxiang Hall to the east side. This location was very good in the summer, with sunlight in the morning and shade in the afternoon, and it was not as hot as the west side.
This place has been renovated and is very spacious. The place where Guo Shao sits is his office study. There is a spacious house on the north side, which can not only be used to post notes and store military files, but also to rest nearby. There is a door on the west side, and there is another house outside, and there is a back door. Guo Shao can summon ministers in private in that room, and he does not need to go through the front main door. The south side is where the cabinet assistants work, and there are side rooms around for the eunuchs to store things and rest. In the front is the Hanlin Academy Political Affairs Hall and other officials on duty who are sent here every day to do miscellaneous tasks.
Guo Shao was reading a file written by a spy leader who had escaped from Jinyang a while ago. It contained some information about Jinyang. However, they had been there for too short a time, so much of the information was only general and not detailed.
Guo Shao searched for a long time but could not find any detailed description of Fen River and Jinyang City. He searched for this because he had just seen a memorial in which someone suggested digging up Fen River and using water to attack Jinyang City.
In addition, some people wrote to the emperor and proposed to use gunpowder to blow up the city, similar to the method used to capture Shouzhou.
But Guo Shao felt that the old trick might not work this time. First of all, the walls of Jinyang City were thicker and stronger than those of Shouzhou. Although Shouzhou was also an important city in the south, its walls were obviously not as strong as those of Jinyang. Shouchun was rebuilt during the Northern Song Dynasty, and its thickness was not as good as that of the later ones. Jinyang was different. It was reported that the stone foundation was built ten feet high and the bottom wall was about twenty steps thick.
Guo Shao thought: The brick-clad earth wall is more than 20 meters thick, and there is a stone foundation more than 3 meters high underneath. Theoretically, it should be possible to blast it with black powder as long as there is enough gunpowder, but this requires a larger space for the medicine storage room in the tunnel, and the underground engineering is more difficult. Moreover, the gap opened by the blast is very likely not as easy to climb as the gap in Shouzhou City, where even horses can run in; it is possible that it just collapsed, and the rammed earth bricks and stones blocked the gap.
The most fatal thing is that Zhao Kuangyin was in the Northern Han Kingdom. He had a good understanding of and attached great importance to the use of gunpowder to blow up cities. Otherwise, he would not have learned how to blow up the city when attacking Jinzhou. It might not be possible to catch the enemy by surprise like in Shouzhou, so the Northern Han defenders should have been prepared.
Guo Shao pondered for a while and still felt very worried.
Jinyang, Jinyang, he whispered twice, then turned and looked at the brush lines on the map.
The Northern Han Kingdom was much smaller than the Southern Tang and Shu Kingdoms, but this place really worried Guo Shao. Before the demise of the southern kingdoms, they had many internal problems, their soldiers were not fit for battle, and there were huge benefits to attacking them; the Northern Han Kingdom was just the opposite, like a hard bone without meat. But this hard bone must be taken down, otherwise the Great Zhou Dynasty’s foundation pattern cannot be opened.
Guo Shao was very worried and unhappy. This wedge-like thing was stuck there, like a stone blocking his ideal.
Another wish is that if we take Jinyang this time, we will not let Zhao Kuangyin escape.
At this moment, Zuo You's voice came from the study door: I have something to report to Your Majesty.
Guo Shao looked up and said: Come in and talk.
Zuo You walked to the imperial desk, bent down and put two memorials on it, saying: "I just saw the memorial, which is from Xiongzhou, Hebei. General Fu Zhaoxu has driven the Liao army out of Hebei and is strengthening defense in Xiongba Yisanzhou; please order the left wing of the imperial guards' Longjie Army to return to Xiangzhou."
Guo Shao nodded in response. He and the court officials had expected this result. The Youzhou Liao army had limited manpower and was unlikely to be willing to fight the Zhou army on the territory of Hebei.
Zuo You added: This is a letter from Fu Yanqing, the Prince of Wei in Daming Prefecture, requesting an imperial decree to come to the capital to pay tribute.
Guo Shao thought to himself that some places would not come even if the Jiedushi invited them, like the Zhe family in the northwest and Li Yun who were originally in Hedong. If they were ordered to come to the capital, it might arouse suspicion. However, Fu Yanqing, the warlord, was different. He took the initiative to come to the court to pay tribute; after all, his two daughters were the queens of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Guo Shao said: "I personally approved the request of the King of Wei. I also ordered Fu Zhaoxu to allow the left wing of the Longjie Army to return to Xiangzhou; and let Fu Zhaoxu come to the capital to meet with the emperor and talk about his achievements in Hebei."
I obey your order. Zuo You bowed.
When Guo Shao named his son, Fu Ermei's son was named Hong, which was an uncommon character that was not commonly used. He also had a reason for naming his son: if Fu Ermei's son inherited the throne in the future, it would save people in the world a lot of trouble and make them less taboo. The emperor's name was rarely used anyway, and in fact it was not used in daily life, so who would call the emperor by his name
His inner choice between the two sons was because Guo Hong was the legitimate son and he felt that the Fu family was more reliable. But if Fu Jinzhan also gave birth to a son, Guo Shao had not considered it clearly yet.
When the sun rose that day, Guo Shao went to the Zide Hall for dinner. He met the Fu sisters and Li Yuaner, and during the meal they talked about the fact that the Fu family's father and brother were going to the capital.
As usual, Fu Ermei and Li Yuaner accompanied him to drink tea after dinner and then left. Guo Shao wanted to discuss state affairs with Fu Jinzhan alone, but of course they were not alone, as there were people walking around in the open hall behind the dining room.
It was dusk again, and Guo Shao sat here and talked with Fu Jinzhan several times.
He did bring up the real business: after the death of the previous emperor, the two Li rebelled, and Fu Zhaoxu personally risked his life to retrieve the head of Li Jixun's eldest son in Luzhou, preventing Li Yun and the two Li from forming an alliance, which was a great contribution to the country. This time he led the army to expel the Liao army and set up another offensive, but he had never made any real military achievements in the battle. If he established his loyalty in this way, he might be criticized in the army.
Fu Jinzhan listened carefully.
Guo Shao continued: "Nowadays, the Jiedushi of the newly established Jie basically has no real power. But for a long time, the establishment of Jie was still a symbol of a military man entering the ranks of senior military generals, and it still played a very important role."
What I mean is that the imperial court wants to use military force against Northern Han recently, so Fu Zhaoxu can take advantage of the momentum of expelling the Liao army and lead the troops to fight this battle.
Fu Jinzhan did not interrupt and waited patiently for Guo Shao to finish speaking before speaking: Your Majesty is right, but I don't understand why Your Majesty wants to cultivate Zhao Xu specifically.
Guo Shao was silent for a while, and said in a low voice: Although the King of Wei has prestige, he is already old. Although the Fu family has many garrison generals, they still lack a truly powerful general.
He paused and said, "Life is unpredictable. If anything unexpected happens to me, I hope Jinzhan will have more power at his disposal."
Fu Jinzhan's face changed, and she looked at him and shook her head: You still don't understand
Guo Shao asked casually, not understanding something.
Fu Jinzhan said in a deep voice: Even though you are the emperor, you still don’t own everything in the world, but you are everything to me.
But Guo Shao was a little confused.
Fu Jinzhan said softly: People don't want to go back.
I'm really sorry, an important friend of mine is getting married tomorrow and I have to go. I'll take a leave tomorrow as it's my monthly holiday. I'll resume updating at 7am the day after tomorrow. :