Chapter 238 Unbelievable
"Concubine, please retire!"
After the women bowed, they withdrew.
Jiang Liangdi left Chunhe Palace and went away with her personal maid, with no intention of communicating with anyone.
Li Liangdi got together with two other ladies, Li and Chen.
Rulan glanced at Li Liangdi and made a face at her.
"Rulan, let's go!"
Yu Yanran hurriedly pulled him away and whispered, "Have you forgotten what the Crown Princess just said? Why are you still provoking Li Liang Di?"
"What are you afraid of?" Rulan said nonchalantly, "I did it on purpose just now. If she can't help it, it would be best if she quarrels with me. Anyway, the Crown Princess said that if there is a quarrel, both of them will be beaten with a stick. I have disliked her for a long time, so it's better to drag her to be beaten with a stick to vent my anger."
Yu Yanran: “…”
She was a little confused by Rulan's weird train of thought.
Doesn't this mean killing one thousand enemies and losing one thousand of your own?
Li Liangdi wanted to meet with Li and Chen to discuss the matter, but the meeting ended in a bad mood.
Plus, Rulan just made a face at her, which made her very angry.
Not long after returning to Moxiang Pavilion, someone reported that the Crown Princess had sent someone to deliver Buddhist scriptures.
Li Liangdi didn't have time to be angry and asked someone to invite the person in.
However, when she saw the Buddhist scriptures that were sent to her, Li Liangdi was stunned.
It took him a while to come back to his senses, and he asked uncertainly, "Are these all?"
There were three eunuchs who came to deliver the Buddhist scriptures, and the leader came empty-handed.
The other two people each held a thick pile of Buddhist scriptures. How long would it take her to copy so many scriptures?
"Replying to Li Liang Di, these are all." The leading eunuch smiled and said, "The Crown Princess said that these are the ones that the Queen usually likes. Please copy them all in small regular script, Li Liang Di."
"Okay!" Li Liangdi gritted her teeth.
There were so many Buddhist scriptures that had to be copied in small regular script. She had to do nothing else for a month and had to copy them by lamplight at night in order to finish them.
At this point she also realized that the so-called asking her to copy Buddhist scriptures as a birthday gift for the Queen was complete nonsense.
Zhang Guifen is making fun of her.
However, what could she do? Zhang Guifen agreed under the pretext of sending a birthday gift to the Empress.
She had to do it anyway.
…………
What Zhang Guifen said soon reached Zhao Xing's ears.
After hearing this, Zhao Xing was stunned for a while, feeling a little amused and helpless.
However, although Zhang Guifen's approach seems a bit reckless, it is very useful if you think about it carefully.
Of course, this can only reduce the open conflicts, but secret conflicts are still inevitable.
"Your Highness, Commander Gu brought a big insect and said he wanted to present it to Your Highness!" A eunuch came in and reported.
"Big insect?" Zhao Xing was stunned when he heard this and asked, "Dead or alive?"
"He's dead." replied the eunuch.
After Zhao Xing asked this question, he realized that he had made a stupid mistake just now.
The so-called big beast is the tiger.
Even if Gu Tingye had great courage, he would not dare to catch a live tiger and give it to him.
"Let's go and take a look." Zhao Xing stood up and walked out.
Tigers are protected animals in later generations, but they were not rare in ancient times and were even quite common.
There are many records in ancient history of tiger infestation and the government organizing a large number of people to eliminate tigers.
There were quite a few of these creatures near Bian Jing, and one could often hear of tigers injuring people.
When Zhao Xing came out of the hall, he saw a stretcher on the ground in the square outside the hall. On it lay an orange-yellow tiger with many black stripes.
"Your Highness, I pay my respects to you." Gu Tingye bowed.
Zhao Xing waved his hand and walked forward to look him over.
This one looks like a South China tiger, but at that time there were tigers everywhere and there was no such distinction.
The tiger looked only about one meter long, with a relatively thin body and a cut arrow stuck in its head.
"Zhong Huai, what are you doing?" Zhao Xing asked with some confusion.
"I was free, so I went out of town to hunt. I was lucky enough to shoot the tiger's head with one arrow, and the skin was well preserved. I came to present it to Your Highness!" Gu Tingye bowed. "Haha, Zhong Huai is really brave, he can easily kill a tiger." Zhao Xing praised him a few times and said with a smile: "In that case, I will accept it."
Zhao Xing ordered his men to carry the tiger away and cook it, and took Gu Tingye into the study.
After they sat down, Zhao Xing laughed and scolded, "You just got married not long ago, instead of staying at home with your wife, you even have time to go out hunting, and you don't even bother to go with me."
"Your Highness, how dare I? Your Highness said that he wanted to participate in the winter hunt, but the emperor cancelled the winter hunt. If I asked Your Highness to go hunting together, the emperor would have skinned me alive." Gu Tingye said.
During the Tang Dynasty, martial arts was popular and the imperial court held winter hunting every winter.
Although the Song Dynasty valued culture over military affairs, winter hunting was continued, but not as grand as in the Tang Dynasty.
A few years ago, Zhao Xing wanted to take part in the winter hunt, but the government cancelled it immediately upon hearing about it.
Zhao Xing has also learned horse riding and archery in recent years. The emperor is afraid that Zhao Xing will go hunting personally and something bad might happen.
"Okay, stop talking."
Zhao Xing was a little depressed when he mentioned this, and said, "Since you are so idle, get ready and go to the Northwest Army."
"This is also the reason for my coming here. I have been idle for a while. If I continue to be idle, I will get rusty." Gu Tingye said with a smile.
"This time you will go to the northwest and serve as the commander-in-chief of the Wuxiong Army. Yuan Wenshao will go with you and serve as a commander under you. You won't be back in a short time, so you should bring your wives with you." Zhao Xing said.
According to the normal organization, there are 100 people in a city, five cities form a battalion, five battalions form an army, and ten armies form a wing, which means 25,000 people in one wing.
However, the organization of the Song army was very chaotic and rarely fully staffed.
Wuxiong Army is just a name, it is not an army in terms of organization. It is called a wing.
It only has five armies under its command, which means it has 12,500 men.
There are three armies with a total of 50,000 people stationed in the northwest to defend against the Western Xia border, and the Wuxiong Army is one of them.
Of course, this does not mean that there are only 50,000 troops on the northwest border. There are also garrison troops and local militia drawn from various places, totaling more than 100,000 people.
The commander-in-chief of the Wuxiong Army was of the fifth rank.
"Yes!" Gu Tingye was a little excited when he heard that.
Although Zhao Xing had told him about this matter a long time ago, he was still very excited as he was about to go to the border to take up his post.
"When you go to the northwest, in addition to cooperating with Wang Shao, you also have an important task, and that is training troops! There have been no wars for so many years, and the military is lax. I hope you can train the Wuxiong Army into a strong army." Zhao Xing said.
"Don't worry, Your Highness. I will definitely live up to your expectations!" said Gu Tingye.
"Yes." Zhao Xing nodded and said, "I will transfer Wang Shao to be the military supervisor of Wuxiong Army. I will tell him about it and he will not be a hindrance to you."
The Song Dynasty established three yamen to share military power and were managed by civil servants.
In addition, all the troops on the border have civilian supervisors.
Although the commander-in-chief was nominally in charge of the army, once a war broke out, the military inspector had higher authority.
There is little point in letting Gu Tingye take charge of the Wuxiong Army without replacing the military supervisor.
In the future, when we launch an attack on Hehuang, Gu Tingye’s troops will be the main force.
After giving Gu Tingye some instructions, Zhao Xing let him go back.
The appointment of the commander-in-chief of Yixiang is not something that can be decided by him alone. It also requires the consent of his father, the emperor.
However, Zhao Xing had already told his father about this, and his father had agreed. He just needed to go to the palace and talk to his father.
…………
Sheng Wei received the order and came to the north, and began to repair the city in full swing.
Such a big commotion was quickly noticed by the Liao Kingdom.
At first, the Liao Kingdom did not care. The two countries had been at peace for so many years, and it was not the first time that the Song Dynasty had repaired the city.
However, the Liao Kingdom was still cautious and vigilant. Most of the people repairing the city were young and strong. What if they were soldiers in disguise and they were prepared to use a trick to secretly attack Chencang?
The Liao Dynasty occupied the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun for many years and had a large number of Han people under its rule. It was very knowledgeable about Han culture and was aware of these historical allusions.
As time passed, the Liao Kingdom soon noticed something unusual.
The Song Dynasty not only repaired the city, but also raised and strengthened it. The most important thing is that no one knows what the Song Dynasty used. The newly built city wall seemed to be built with stone and it was a whole.
When the Liao emperor learned the news, he scolded the officials in charge of collecting intelligence.
An entire city wall is made of a single piece of stone. Not to mention whether there is a stone that big, even if there is, can the Han people move it?
But the news became more and more mysterious, and the Liao emperor had no choice but to believe it.
The Liao emperor sent many secret agents to investigate, and eventually got information that the Song Dynasty had used something that could connect pieces of stone into a solid whole.
The secret spy got some cement and sent it back to the Liao Kingdom, where he personally demonstrated it to the Liao emperor. After it dried, he couldn't even break it with a sledgehammer.
Only then did the Liao emperor have to believe it.
I still owe more chapters, and I have paid back all the rewards for extra chapters. I have finally paid back what I owed for so long, and now I am debt-free.
(End of this chapter)