There is a thin layer of water on the ground after the rain, reflecting the lights in the courtyards of Taichung. Every step you take will stir up ripples and the sound of stepping on water.
"Mr. Dong, please slow down."
Wang Ji stood near the main entrance of the Shangshutai, bowed slightly and greeted Dong Zhao. Dong Zhao nodded, stepped over the threshold and walked eastward, slowly but without stopping.
That was the direction of the Privy Council, not the direction of the Nan Palace. It was already so late, and Mr. Dong still had official business to do? It was not until Dong Zhao's back disappeared that Wang Ji came back to his senses. After a few moments of hesitation, he went back to the Regent Pavilion and whispered to Wei Zhen.
The Secretariat and the Privy Council were the two most important functional departments in the Wei Dynasty. One was responsible for the political affairs of the world, and the other was responsible for the military affairs of the world. There were always people on duty no matter how late it was.
Dong Zhao walked straight into the duty room of Wang Guan, the Left Supervisor of the Privy Council.
It was already nightfall, but Wang Guan was still busy with his official duties. This middle-aged official in his early 40s was always regarded as the most benevolent chief of the Privy Council. When the emperor led the Secretariat and the Privy Council to Xuchang, Wang Guan was left in Luoyang to assist Dong Zhao in handling military affairs.
As a result, Wang Chang was transferred to Liaodong by the emperor in Yecheng, and the new Privy Councilor Liu Ye was still on his way back from Liaodong. The burden on Wang Guan became heavier. Documents were constantly traveling back and forth between Yecheng and Luoyang, and Wang Guan rarely returned home on time.
Seeing Dong Zhao hurriedly opening the door, Wang Guan put down his brush in surprise and stood up to greet him: "Mr. Dong, what happened? Why are you so anxious?"
Dong Zhao said gloomily, "Weitai, is there any file on Huang Quan in the Privy Council?"
"Huang Quan, Huang Gongheng?" Wang Guan was puzzled. "Isn't he the governor of Yuzhou? He has always been managed by the Shangshutai. How could he be in the Privy Council?"
Dong Zhao slapped the table vigorously and glanced at Wang Guan: "Think about it carefully! Didn't Huang Quan serve as the General of Zhennan? How could there be no such thing?"
Wang Guan hesitated for a few moments, and seeing Dong Zhao's furious expression, he was puzzled for a moment. Just as he was about to get up and look for him, he couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Dong, what happened?"
"What's the matter?" Dong Zhao sneered, "He is just a surrendered general who was lucky enough to be promoted to Yuzhou by Your Majesty, but he has repeatedly tried to impeach Dong Zhou! Weitai, do you know that Huang Quan ridiculed Dong Zhou twice in his letter to Your Majesty last year? I tolerated it the first two times, but this year Your Majesty is not in Luoyang, but Huang Quan is here to cause trouble again."
"I only have this one son. If I can't even protect him, what's the point of being an official of the highest rank, the highest position in the government?" Dong Zhao pointed outside: "Weitai, go now!"
Wang Guan was indeed a kind person. He had served in the Shangshutai for more than two years under Dong Zhao's management, and he could be considered a trusted person. In addition, Huang Quan was a lone minister who had no contact with the ministers in Luoyang, so Dong Zhao was not afraid that Wang Guan would reveal this matter.
From another perspective, Wang Guan was from Dongjun, Yanzhou, and Dong Zhao was from Jiyin, Yanzhou. Dongjun and Jiyin were neighboring counties, so they were from the same hometown. In this era, being from the same hometown was the most important type of close relationship.
The reason why Central Guard Generals Huan Fan and Huan Yuan were so useful was that they were from Longkang in Qiao County and were from the same hometown as the Cao family.
Wang Guan had no choice but to leave the table and walk out. As soon as Wang Guan moved, Dong Zhao sat down in front of Wang Guan's table, picked up a pen and dipped it in ink, as if he was going to write something.
Wang Guan hesitated and said, "I ask Mr. Dong to calm down. If we take it slow, we can resolve the issue. Why don't we think about how to resolve the issue..."
"There's no way around it!" Dong Zhao said firmly, "Weitai, you're not as old as I am, you don't understand. I'm over seventy years old, if I don't care about my descendants, what's the point of being an official? Go away, go away!"
"Yes." Wang Guan nodded and responded, then walked out quickly.
After all, it was the core of the Wei Dynasty. Even at night, it took Wang Guan less than an incense stick of time to bring back Huang Quan's file.
"Leave it here." Dong Zhao asked without raising his head while writing a letter, "Any notification from Yecheng? Which of the newly established Yingzhou is still short of 2,000 shi?"
Wang Guan thought for a moment and said, "Among the four counties in Yingzhou, your majesty has appointed Du Wubo, the imperial attendant, as the governor of Liaodong. The entire counties of Lelang and Daifang have surrendered, and the original governors have succeeded them and have not been replaced. The governor of Xuantu County was selected from the old Goguryeo magistrate, a man named Chen Ning Chen Yuanli."
Dong Zhao frowned: "There is no vacancy in Yingzhou? What about the other border counties?"
Wang Guan said: "The newly established Changli County has not yet appointed anyone!"
"Then it's Changli County." Dong Zhao nodded slightly, added a few more words in the blank document, read it carefully, put down the brush, stood up and said to Wang Guan:
"The one on the left, Weitai, send it to Yingchuan County on my behalf. The one in the middle is sent to Zhao Yan, and the one on the right is sent to His Majesty on my behalf."
Dong Zhao had no intention of avoiding Wang Guan. Wang Guan walked up to him and took a quick look. He was shocked and said, "Mr. Dong, why is it so serious? It's just a small matter in the county. Why would you retire and return home?"
There are three documents on the table. One is a family letter asking Dong Zhou to apologize to Huang Quan and ask Huang Quan to dismiss him. Another is a reply letter to Zhao Yan in Xiangyang. The rightmost letter is Dong Zhao asking the emperor to return home with his bones, and recommending his son to be the governor of the newly established Changli County on the grounds that his son is incompetent in Yingchuan, so that he can guard the border in Youzhou in the north for His Majesty!
Dong Zhao said, "Weitai, you are now over 40 years old and you are the left supervisor of the Privy Council. You are very important. But you have been a governor and a minister, and you have not experienced much political struggle in the court. I will take this opportunity to teach you today."
Although Wang Guan did not understand what Dong Zhao meant, he still nodded and moved a chair to sit next to Dong Zhao. "Mr. Dong, please speak. I am all ears."
Dong Zhao stroked his beard and said, "So-called political struggle, after all, what we are fighting for is your Majesty's will. The way of fighting is completely different when a wise emperor is in power and when a foolish emperor like Huan and Ling is in power."
Wang Guan continued, "The Holy Emperor is in power today."
Dong Zhao nodded: "During the reign of Emperor Ling, I was already an official for my filial and honest deeds. Forty years ago, when I was still in Hebei, I was appointed by Yuan Shao as the governor of Julu. I have seen too many disputes in the world."
"When a foolish emperor is in power, if you want to fight for power, you have to flatter the emperor and favor the subordinates, and form cliques for personal gain." Dong Zhao glanced at Wang Guan and said, "Don't be confused. Even famous and virtuous officials have to resort to these means to keep themselves useful."
Wang Guan responded in a low voice: "It still depends on the world."
Dong Zhao continued, "And now we have a wise emperor. What we need to fight for is the emperor's will. Framing people with crimes is useless. Your Majesty will have a scale in his heart to judge which ministers are more important. If I want to fight with Huang Quan, I can only use this method on the surface."
In public? What about in secret? Wang Guan listened carefully but did not ask.
Dong Zhao didn't say anything, and Wang Guan didn't ask. But the heart that had been raised before finally settled down a little.
Although the consequences of this petition may be greater than directly impeaching Huang Quan, it is still not a direct impeachment, so it is easier to cover up on the surface.
As for what will happen to Huang Quan, who cares?
……
The transmission of news from the border areas was indeed slow, but in the Central Plains area near Luoyang, the news was transmitted smoothly.
Although we often encountered heavy rain on the road, it only delayed the journey for more than a day.
On the evening of August 16, Zhao Yan in Xiangyang received a letter from Dong Zhao in Luoyang.
Like Yangzhou, Jingzhou is also a state located on the border of Wei. However, from the perspective of appearance, Wei occupies more territory in Jingzhou. In addition to Xiangyang County, there are Nanyang County in the north, Nanxiang County and Dongsan County in the west, and a small half of Jiangxia County in the east, a total of six and a half counties. It is much more respectable than Yangzhou, which only has Lujiang County and half of Huainan County.
After the current Jingzhou governor Guanqiu Xing took office, the provincial capital was ordered to be moved from Wancheng in Nanyang County to Xiangyang City on the south of the Han River. This can be regarded as a "commander-in-chief guarding the border" and a "governor guarding the border".
Zhao Yan put down the letter beside him and looked at everyone in the hall: "Lord Dong and Wei Pushe have gone to ask for the emperor's order. What do we say now? Who will go to Jiangxia?"
Xiahou Ru sighed, "Don't worry, Lord Zhao. Since the court has not assigned me any position, I will go to Jiangxia. After all, I am the General of Pingnan. Although I cannot catch up with the rank of the rear general, it should be enough."
Zhao Yan narrowed his eyes and thought for a few moments: "Jiangxia cannot be short of people, and Xiangyang cannot be short of people either. If you go, what will Xiangyang do?"
"Isn't Lord Zhao in Xiangyang?" Xiahou Ru said, "With Lord Zhao here, the rest of Niu Jin, Lu Shi, Shen Dan and others are all veterans, so it should be fine. Jiangxia has many soldiers, if Lord Zhao can't go, I'll go."
"Alas." Zhao Yan sighed, "Then let Junlin go. I will stay in Xiangyang and wait for the next assignment from the court."
Xiahou Ru said: "Since the first year of Taihe, the court has been continuously drawing troops from Jingzhou to Yongliang. When General Qian was stationed in Chang'an, Chen Situ was still in office, and he drew 8,000 troops from Jingzhou. In the second year of Taihe, the court sent me to lead the army to the west to provide assistance, and I took another 10,000 troops with me. Before I left, I tried to ask the general for troops several times, but was rejected every time, so I had to return empty-handed."
"Last year, the general returned 8,000 soldiers to Jingzhou. Together with the 22,000 foreign troops in Jingzhou and the 20,000 soldiers from the prefectures and counties, we can barely gather 50,000 troops. But among these 50,000 troops, the general's Jiangxia stationed 25,000 troops, accounting for half of Jingzhou."
Zhao Yan said, "Then go ahead. Leave tomorrow and don't delay any longer. Go to Jiangxia by land, don't take a boat. Junlin is an important general, and it's not safe to sail on the Han River."
Xia Houru nodded and said, "If we go by land, we can go from Fancheng to Caiyang, then pass through Anchang and Suixian, and we can reach Anlu in three days. But it has been raining a lot recently, so the road may be difficult to travel."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yan put down the document in his hand, then stood up and slowly walked to the door. He stretched out his hand to catch the raindrops from the eaves. In just a few moments, the rain filled his entire palm, and many water droplets splashed out.
"Look at this heavy rain, Junlin, have you remembered anything?"
Xiahou Ru also stood beside Zhao Yan and sighed, "Even if we can remember something, what else can we do here? Lord Zhao, has His Majesty returned to Yecheng now?"
"Mr. Dong said in the letter that Your Majesty should have returned from Liaodong by now. But Liaodong is a long way away, how can I know where he has arrived?" Zhao Yan shook his head helplessly: "Jingzhou is not like Yangzhou and Yongliang. Apart from Junlin, where else can we send a general to lead the troops?"
"Placate Wen Pin comfortably. I will then submit a petition to have his son Wen Dai promoted to Lieutenant General. After all, he is a senior official of the state. If there is any change, please send me a letter in time."
"Yes, I know." Xia Houru replied. (End of this chapter)
