The morning light shone into the Jinxiang Hall from the window lattices, making the hall bright and clean. The sunlight made the magnificent and luxurious hall splendid and magnificent, as if it were in the fairyland. The civil and military officials below shouted in unison: Long live our emperor.
All the ministers stood up. Guo Shao sat on the dragon throne with his legs spread out, looking down.
Then the eunuch on duty came forward to sing the lyrics, and the officials successively presented their opinions.
Guo Shao sat and looked back at the Hanlin Academy officials sitting in a row on his left. They were writing furiously. The imperial seal and imperial edicts were placed on the table covered with a yellow tablecloth. The hall was fully staffed with personnel and expenses for issuing orders. He felt like he was on a large ship and he was the helmsman. Every adjustment he made affected the direction of the entire country.
Some ministers praised the emperor's military achievements, while others praised the good weather and good crops in various places. Guo Shaoshi kept trying to find the right words to persuade officials to encourage agriculture; after all, it was not wrong for the court to attach importance to agriculture in an agricultural country.
The Minister of Works submitted a strategy for repairing the Yellow River, but Prime Minister Fan Zhi had a different opinion, and the two of them started arguing in the hall.
Everything in governing a country is a meticulous job. It is easy for civil servants to have different political views, and there are countless reasons to support their views. In addition, everyone has to take sides and have their own stances, so governing a country is a very complicated matter.
Guo Shao's approach was to order them to write their own memorials and submit them before making a decision. In fact, he was preparing to throw the dispute to the Council of State to continue wrangling, and wait for them to come to a conclusion. What Guo Shao had to do was to wait for the ministers to reach a consensus, and then approve the memorial to give money and grain.
He knew what was important and what was not. The most important thing for the Great Zhou at this time was still the key to getting rid of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, which was military.
Otherwise, no matter how carefully the internal affairs are managed, once the country is faced with a war that shakes the country, or if there are military generals with their own troops, everything will be in vain.
No matter how much the ministers talked about morality, Guo Shao knew very well in his mind: now he had to maintain the military system first and take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun; only then could he adjust the military power system from a fundamental institutional perspective.
After the grand court session, Cabinet Minister Zuo You left the imperial city. Seeing that it was still early, he went to the Tiger Guards Military Academy in the northern part of Tokyo. But the scene there was quite different.
A large group of men stood in a line on the dusty mud ground, wearing four pieces of plate armor and leather armor. The brand new clothes and armor gleamed in the sun, and all of them were sweating. They held spears and watched the movements of a big man on the earthen platform, and followed his movements with their spears.
As the Huo people thrust out with their spears, they all shouted loudly.
General Zhou Tong rode his horse to Zuo You's side. The two had followed Guo Shao in many battles and were acquaintances. Zhou Tongdao: The imperial guards suffered losses when attacking the Eastern Han and Northern Han, and the Privy Council recruited elite soldiers from all over the country to replenish the troops.
Zuo You was a civil servant, so of course he would not rashly give orders to the soldiers. He immediately praised them: They are all strong and sturdy young men.
Zhou Tong shook his head and said: Most of the elite soldiers in the Central Plains have been concentrated in the imperial army. It is difficult to select strong people with martial arts experience. Some of them are farmers who have just put down their hoes.
Zuo You was shocked after hearing this and said: How can such a person be used
Zhou Tong said calmly: No one is born knowing how to fight. As long as you have a good foundation, you can be a miscellaneous soldier first, and then you can experience more battles. Then there will always be one elite soldier left out of ten.
Zuo You remained silent.
Zhou Tong added: "Except for the Divine Arms, the other elite troops are all trained and sacrificed. The imperial court has 100,000 soldiers, and more than a million of them have died or been injured on the battlefield in the past few decades."
At this moment, Zhou Tong frowned and walked up to a young man and slapped him on the waist: "You can't even move your torso. How can you be so powerful with just your arms?"
When the man saw the general staring at him, his face turned red and he stood there at a loss as to what to do.
Zhou Tong took the spear of a soldier next to him, thrust it forward to demonstrate, and pointed at the man and said: Follow my moves!
The man nervously gestured, but Zhou Tong got furious and strode in front of the man, patted his chest and shouted: Stab here!
The man's face changed and he shook his head hurriedly, unable to utter a word.
Zhou Tong said angrily: "You stab me when I tell you to. You dare to disobey military orders. No one taught you the military rules beforehand."
Zuo You said nothing, but stood outside the queue and silently looked at General Zhou Tong.
Zhou Tong picked up the spear and struck it, seemingly lightly, but it made the man scream in pain. The man finally closed his eyes and stabbed at him with a spear, but Zhou Tong caught it with one hand, and the spear was fixed in the middle of the road and could not move. Zhou Tong swept another spear at him, making the man stagger and scream.
Zhou Tong said with a sullen face: With this little strength, if I had a knife in my hand on the battlefield, your head would have been chopped off. You only have one chance to face each other, and there is no place for us to hide. You have to stab hard and pierce the opponent's armor. Either he will die or you will die.
He looked around and cursed angrily: The court gave you food and clothing, and paid you military pay, not to let you dawdle here. If anyone is not serious and slacks off, go to the lower camp to farm. Damn it, he can't even learn such a simple move.
Zuo You watched for a while without saying anything to interfere, and then said goodbye to Zhou Tong. He heard the crackling sound of muskets from the original place, so he immediately mounted his horse and took his men to follow the sound to another place to investigate.
The person who set off the firearm was from Shenhuodu. There Zuo You met the Military Equipment Supervisor Zan Jurun, and the two talked for a while.
There were some new soldiers in Shenhuo City, some of whom died and were injured in the Northern Han Kingdom, and some new soldiers were recruited. At this time, Zhao Hu was already considered an old soldier. He had fought in battles and was different in the eyes of the new soldiers.
The soldiers usually tried to please him in their words, and one even asked him in awe, saying that he had killed someone with his own hands.
Zhao Hu just said that killing or being killed in battle was not a big deal, as long as you were in the front, it was inevitable. When asked how he killed people, he was unwilling to talk about those experiences. He himself did not want to recall them, and felt that there was nothing to say.
However, after going into battle, Zhao Hu is indeed different from the beginning. At least now he is not too confused. He is very calm in the queue. He understands the use of practice and what he should do.
Prepare to shout at this time.
Zhao Hu picked up the musket with his right hand, clamped the wooden handle with his right arm, raised the fire pot with his left hand and bit open the wooden plug with his teeth. His movements were swift and skillful. When he looked at the soldiers next to him from the corner of his eye, he saw that he was in a panic, using his left and right hands and mouth in a very messy way, and sweating anxiously.
The captain raised his saber and pointed it at the target in front of him, shouting:
Bang, bang, bang, bang, a series of explosions rang out in the smoke. Soon, the generals' loud shouts and curses were heard. In each row, there were always some soldiers who could not successfully fire due to various strange reasons.
At this time, the general ordered a break, and everyone took their own iron cups and scooped water from the water tank at the side of the field. Under the scorching sun, every time they took a break, they would first drink water.
Zhao Hu took a sip, and it still tasted the same, a little salty. This was boiled cold water, and salt was added, so it was salty. As for why salt was added, only the people above knew, and it was said that it was good to drink this after sweating. Salt in Tokyo was very expensive, but the army was not short of salt, because the reason why salt was expensive was because it was sold by the government.
Someone next to him muttered: This thing can really kill people
Another soldier turned to look at Zhao Hu and asked: Brother Zhao, have you ever killed an enemy soldier with a firearm
A battle scene emerged in Zhao Hu's mind: a whole row of thirty people firing their guns, but they couldn't hit ten people. Whoever hit them knew, so he casually said: If we fire at the same time in a row, we will always be able to hit a few people.
The soldiers discussed it and felt that it was useless. Someone said: This thing is really strange. Why would the imperial guards use it
Zhao Hu recalled the time when he was nearly killed in a fight with enemy soldiers, and said: Our soldiers in Shenhuo City are not good at martial arts, and cannot defeat the elite enemy troops in a fight. We can use this to gain some advantage.
Everyone sighed.
At this time, the captain came over and talked to the soldiers while drinking water. Zhao Hu saw that the general was in a good mood, so he asked: "General, shall we attack Youzhou from now on?"
The captain laughed and said: You call me general, but I have no say in the court. How would I know where the emperor wants to attack
He paused and said: "However, according to the brothers' guess, we should attack Youzhou. In the south, there are only Wuyue and Southern Han. Wuyue is submissive to the Great Zhou, and Southern Han is so far away and weak in military force. Is it worth our imperial army to go all the way to conquer it?"
Shenhuodu is, after all, a member of the left wing of the Huben Army, and if there is a war, he will most likely follow the emperor in person.
At this time, another ten generals came and agreed: The emperor must want to take over the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun.
When Zhao Hu heard this, the fire in his heart was immediately rekindled. He seemed to see his father's house that was burned black beyond recognition, the torn women's clothes in the thatched shed in the Xu family's yard, and the bloodstains on the thatch. That was the young mother he had worked so hard to propose to.
Zhao Hu felt ashamed and angry, his teeth were clenched tightly, and his fists were clenched until his knuckles turned white.
The ten generals looked at Zhao Hu in surprise: What's wrong with you
Zhao Hu came to his senses and said hurriedly: "When we attack Youzhou, I will definitely charge to the front and I will not be afraid of death."
The ten generals patted Zhao Hu on the shoulder and said: The army needs brave men like you.
Zhao Hu said again: "General Wang Shi must be good at martial arts. He should teach us when he has time. I think firearms are too stupid. They will always be rushed in front of us and killed."
The ten generals laughed and said, "Don't worry, let the newly recruited soldiers learn firearms, and then we will teach you to use other weapons. Our Shenhuodu originally used firearms, and we can't put important things aside, otherwise the superiors will blame us."
Zhao Hu said: "As long as I can kill the Khitans in Youzhou, I will have no regrets even if I die."