Suppressing peasant uprisings has always been a thankless task. Chinese peasants are famous for their simplicity. Who would want to rebel if they were not forced to do so?

So when Zhao Weiji received an order from the court asking him to return to Beijing and prepare to lead troops to suppress it, he felt a hundred reluctances in his heart.

But there is no way. At this stage, he still has to "pretend to be a grandson" to Zhao Guangyi. If you don't let me fight, I won't fight. If you ask me to fight, I will fight.

But with Zhao Guangyi so cheap, Zhao Weiji still felt uncomfortable. He had to think about how to make a fortune from it and turn it into political capital in the future.

In this way, Zhao Weiji, who had not yet passed the New Year, could only bring Tie Zheng and Zhao Xin to Beijing.

…

When Zhao Weiji arrived in the capital, new news came from Shu, that is, Chengdu had been lost. Li Shun led the rebel army to conquer Chengdu, and the remaining defenders in Chengdu fled.

At the court meeting on the 20th of the first lunar month, all the ministers were silent because Li Shun became king in Chengdu and established a so-called Shu regime. This was undoubtedly an extremely embarrassing thing for the Song Dynasty court.

"Invite Zhao Weiji, King of Wu and Yue, to the palace."

Following Zhao Guangyi's oral edict, the eunuch announced Zhao Weiji to the palace.

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live." After entering the palace, Zhao Weiji immediately saluted Zhao Guangyi.

"Ping Sheng, Weiji also knows what happened when I sent you from Huating to the capital to summon you, right?"

"Your Majesty, I am returning to you about the rebellion in Shu. I have also heard about it."

"It's good that you know. Nowadays, the Song Dynasty really can't spare any generals to lead troops to quell the rebellion, so I have to make a hard trip for you."

"It is my duty to share the worries of the Song Dynasty. I just have a small request, and I hope your majesty will agree to it."

"What request?" Zhao Guangyi also knew at this time that there was no one else available, so as long as Zhao Weiji's request was not too excessive, there was no harm in agreeing to him.

"I hope that Li Jiguang, the deputy commander of the Xiazhou Horse Army, will accompany me to Shu to quell the rebellion."

When Zhao Guangyi heard this, it was not a big request. Although Li Jiguang had performed well in the past two years, he was only Li Jilong's deputy after all. It was not impossible to transfer him from Xiazhou. In addition, Li Jiguang was originally brought out by Zhao Weiji, and now he wants to

It was understandable that he wanted to bring someone he knew well as his deputy general when he went to counter the rebellion, so Zhao Guangyi simply agreed.

"Okay, I agreed to your request. Now it's my turn to ask you a question. How many people do you need to suppress the rebellion?"

"Fifty thousand people are enough."

Just as Zhao Weiji finished speaking, a minister in the queue immediately stood up and refuted: "The King of Wuyue is too trusting. Fifty thousand people are enough? Now the Shu rebels have gathered more than 100,000 people, plus the Shu

The land has always been easy to defend and difficult to attack, are your 50,000 people enough?"

After the minister finished speaking, everyone looked at Zhao Weiji to see what kind of rhetoric he could come up with to convince everyone. Even Zhao Guangyi looked at Zhao Weiji with interest.

"Actually, you have not seen clearly one problem, that is, their uprising has deteriorated the moment Li Shun became king. What banner was Wang Xiaobo using at the beginning? Equalizing the rich and the poor. Do you think a person who has become king can still do this?

Are they as rich and poor as ordinary soldiers?"

All the ministers shook their heads. In this era, rank means everything. A king cannot live the same life as a common people. I am a king and I must show that the king is superior to others. In this era, everyone is equal.

a joke.

After seeing that all the ministers seemed to agree with his first point of view, Zhao Weiji put forward a second point of view.

"As far as I know, Hanzhong and Jianmen haven't been occupied by rebels yet, right?"

At this time, Zhao Guangyi also realized that Hanzhong and Jianmen can be said to be the gateway to Shu. If these two places are occupied, the war will be very difficult to fight. If they are not occupied, Shu will be said to have a wide open door.

"Privy Council, what's going on in Hanzhong and Jianmen now?"

"Back to Your Majesty, Hanzhong and Jianmen have not been attacked by rebels so far. The rebels are still active near Chengdu."

"I know, and I will immediately convey my order to these two places as soon as possible, so that the defenders of the two places must defend it no matter what, especially the Jianmen defenders, who are absolutely not allowed to lose their defense."

"Yes, Wei Chen will do it right away."

Seeing the people from the Privy Council leaving the hall, Zhao Weiji began to explain his views again.

"As long as Hanzhong and Jianmen are not occupied, then our Song Dynasty official army's march into Shu will be smooth sailing. Ministers, don't forget that when Taizu destroyed Shu, Jianmen was still in Meng Chang's hands. Under such difficult conditions, our Song Dynasty

The army has been subdued, and now Jianmen is still in our hands. If we can't annihilate the rebels with 50,000 soldiers, then I, the general of the Song Dynasty, will have no face."

As soon as Zhao Weiji said this, all the ministers present stopped objecting. Anyway, since you, King Wuyue, are so confident, you can go ahead.

In this way, after quickly transferring Li Jiguang back to the capital, the two men who reunited led the army and began the journey to Shu to quell the rebellion.

In fact, Zhao Weiji was not worried about whether the rebels could be defeated, because, as he explained in the court for two reasons, corruption and lack of defense were the fatal weaknesses of the rebels.

The real problem is what happens after the rebels are defeated.

China has always dealt with the suppressed rebel armies in a few ways. One is to massacre them all, as represented by Huangfu Song who suppressed the Yellow Turban Uprising in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

Another way is to take it for your own use, such as Wang Shichong, Li Shimin, etc. in the late Sui Dynasty.

But now Zhao Weiji cannot use these two points. He cannot do such a thing by massacring his own compatriots. Moreover, he is planning to find ways to become emperor in the future. This kind of thing to discredit himself must not be done.

Then take it for his own use? In troubled times, it is okay for the heroes to separate themselves. In this peaceful world, if he takes it for his own use, Zhao Guangyi should send troops to suppress him.

But it’s useless to think so much now, let’s go to Shu first.

…

As Zhao Weiji speculated, corruption had begun to occur within the rebel army at this time.

Although Li Shun apparently did quite well after establishing the political power, he showed no mercy in killing the corrupt officials who surrendered in Shu, and all the looted property was equally divided. But since the political power was established, of course he had to appoint officials to run the government.

The appointment of political power and officials creates hierarchies, and the atmosphere of bureaucracy is also exuded.

So gradually, these "officials" began to enjoy the benefits of being officials.

Of course, the situation is not out of control yet. Today's rebels are still attacking the remaining prefectures and counties in Shu with great momentum, and more and more people are participating.

Just when Zhao Weiji was preparing to march from Hanzhong to Shu with his army, the rebels had basically controlled most of the land in Xichuan centered on Chengdu. The entire Xichuan except for the north of Jianmen was basically occupied. And in

After occupying Wu Gorge, the rebels began to spread to Jingzhou.

…

"Report to the general, there is new news from Jianmen. The rebels have basically captured the entire Shu area south of Jianmen. The current situation in Jianmen is no longer optimistic. We hope that the army will speed up reinforcements in Shu."

"Okay, I get it."

After the scouts exited the tent, Zhao Weiji summoned Li Jiguang and others to the tent in the hope of discussing a countermeasure. Since the majority of the army led by Zhao Weiji were infantry, it was impossible to speed up the march at this moment, so he could only rely on collective efforts.

See if we can find a suitable way to quickly support Jianmen.

"Everyone has seen that the current situation in Jianmen is urgent. Once the rebels take Jianmen, it will be difficult for us to enter Sichuan smoothly."

"Now even if the cavalry troops go first, they can't quickly reinforce Jianmen. The road from Chang'an to Hanzhong and then to Jianmen is all mountainous, and the cavalry can't pass quickly." Seeing this situation, Tie Zheng was the first to speak.

As he said, before reaching the Chengdu Plain, the mobility of the cavalry may not be as good as that of the infantry. It is impossible for the cavalry to take the lead in reinforcements like in normal wars, and the infantry to slowly follow behind.

Just when everyone was at a loss what to do, Zhao Xin proposed a plan: "How about we let the cavalry go to Chencang instead of Chang'an? How about Tianshui?"

The words woke up the dreamer, and everyone here felt a sudden realization after hearing Zhao Xin's suggestion. In fact, everyone here made a mistake, that is, they fell into a fixed mindset and always thought of taking the shortest way.

, rather than the best way to go.

If you pass through Chencang and take Tianshui and then go south to Hanzhong through Qishan Mountain, most of the way will be plains and valleys. In this way, the cavalry can quickly reach Hanzhong. If they then reinforce Jianmen, the speed will not be as fast.

.

"Yes, why have we forgotten that Zhuge Kongming, who was responsible for the Shu Han incident, was the one who came out of Qishan to attack Chang'an. This route is indeed worth trying."

Others agreed after looking at the map.

"In this way, Yuan Jing, you lead all the cavalry to Tianshui quickly, and then go south from Qishan and Wudu to enter Hanzhong first. We will lead the infantry to Baoxie Road according to the original route. Once you arrive in Hanzhong, don't worry about us going first.

We will send reinforcements to Jianmen. We will also take apart the bed crossbows and bring them with you."

"The last general takes orders."

In this way, Li Jiguang led the cavalry troops, took the crossbows and arrows that had been dismantled into parts, and rushed towards Tianshui quickly.

Maybe God was helping Zhao Weiji at this time. The rainy season began in March in Sichuan. The heavy rain forced the rebels who were attacking Jianmen to postpone their attack.

In this way, Jianmen, which was already in a hurry, got some time to breathe, but the rebel army that failed to capture Jianmen in time will face disaster.
Chapter completed!