Chapter 385 The Prince's Three Purposes

Imperial City, Tai Chi Hall.

In the early morning, when the first ray of sunlight shone over the imperial city, all the civil and military officials in the court had already entered the palace to begin the morning court session.

Emperor Chengping was still seriously ill, and the Crown Prince was still the regent in the court, while Prince Cheng and Prince Gong were still observing government affairs.

The two classes of ministers took their seats, and the eunuch in front of the palace shouted in a shrill voice: "If you have something to say, please report it. If not, please leave the court!"

The prince sat under the throne, gazing at the ministers in the hall with his bright eyes.

Prince Cheng and Prince Gong had calm expressions, their eyes slightly drooped, as if they were half asleep and half awake.

However, the atmosphere of today's morning court was obviously different from that of the previous two days. On the previous two days, everyone was still immersed in the joy of the great victory in the Nameless Valley, and the atmosphere was naturally dominated by relaxation and joy.

But the atmosphere at this morning's court session was somewhat tense.

The reason lies in the rewards given to the soldiers on the front line.

A great victory must be followed by a great reward.

Let's not talk about anything else, just say that Yang Zhengshan led the soldiers of Tenglong Guard to first capture Qinghua City, Songzhou City, Chongshan Pass, and put down the rebellion of King Qing. Later, he blocked the Wuliang army at Guanshan Pass, and cooperated with the imperial guards to annihilate in one fell swoop the 80,000 Wuliang Hu cavalry and 20,000 rebels of King Qing who invaded the territory of Darong, and completely put down the war in Chongshan Town and Liaoxi.

For such a great contribution, rewards are definitely necessary, but how to reward them requires the officials in the court to come up with a plan.

It's easy to deal with the others. The court is not unwilling to confer rewards. In fact, the court has its own rules on how high the rank of duke should be and what kind of rewards should be given.

Give rewards when they are due and promote people when they are due. If there are really no suitable positions for promotion, then give them a few more honorary positions.

In short, there will be no unrewarded merit in the court.

Actually, this matter is not that troublesome.

Just reward and promote him according to his merits, just like Yang Zhengshan, he was promoted to the position of Deputy Governor of the Central Army Governor's Office and General of Chongshan Town because of the rebellion of Prince Qing. Although he has made great contributions now, he certainly cannot be promoted to a real position, so just promote him to a nominal position.

The deputy governor was promoted to deputy governor, and was given the title of Dragon and Tiger General and the title of Upper Guard. If that was not enough, then his mother would be posthumously conferred the title of First Rank Imperial Edict, and several of his grandsons would be appointed as centurions in the emperor's personal army.

In short, it was easy for the court to reward Yang Zhengshan.

But the problem lies here. For some unknown reason, the prince actually wants to confer a title on Yang Zhengshan!
Knighted!

Since Emperor Chengping ascended the throne, Darong has not granted any title to anyone other than his royal relatives.

Even those who supported Emperor Chengping to ascend the throne were not given titles.

But now the prince actually wants to confer a title on Yang Zhengshan.

From the time the news spread from the imperial city yesterday at noon to today's morning court session, everyone who had heard about it was speculating on the prince's purpose.

As for the relationship between the prince and Yang Zhengshan, there is almost no relationship at all.

There was a huge gap in status between the two families, and they had never dealt with each other. Although the marriage between the Yang family and the Changping Marquis's Mansion disrupted the prince's plan, this matter was not enough to be discussed openly.

However, because of Liu Yuanfu's relationship, the prince had developed a lot of resentment towards Yang Zhengshan.

In addition, there is the feud between the Jingyuan Marquis's Mansion and the Yang Family. Jingyuan Marquis was the first nobleman to defect to the prince, and now Su Gan has become the first nobleman under the prince.

The prince hates Yang Zhengshan, and Su Gan and Yang Zhengshan are mortal enemies.

Logically speaking, they should suppress Yang Zhengshan, so why did they confer a title on Yang Zhengshan?
There were many people in the court who could guess the prince’s first purpose, and some who could guess the second. As for those who could guess the third, there were only a few.

The first level is that the prince may want to win over Yang Zhengshan. After all, a capable and powerful border town general like Yang Zhengshan is very worthy of winning over.

The second possibility is that the prince might want to win over the generals in the border towns, taking Yang Zhengshan as an example, and open the door to conferring titles in order to win over the generals in the border towns.

Most people in the court can see this.

Which general or military officer in a border town doesn't want to become a noble? However, Emperor Taiping has always kept a tight control on the right to confer titles, so no one dared to even dream about it.

But what if the prince is willing to confer a title? Needless to say, the generals in the border towns will definitely flock to the prince!

As for the prince’s third purpose!

The prince glanced at his two younger brothers beside him calmly.

Xiang Zhuang's sword dance is aimed at Pei Gong!

The only ones who pose a threat to the prince are these two people, and all the prince's plans will fall on these two people.

The morning court session began, but the hall was silent. Not a single civil or military official stepped forward to make a report.

The prince was not angry when he saw this, but instead gave a wink to Zhu Qinwen who was in the queue of civil officials.

Zhu Qinwen immediately understood what he meant, stepped out of the line and said loudly: "I have a report to you!"

"That's right!" the prince said calmly.

Zhu Qinwen took out a memorial from his sleeve and read it aloud, "Yang Zhengshan, the deputy governor of the Central Military Governor's Office, the general of Chongshan Town, and the general of the country, is a master of training soldiers and using them like a god. He is good at both literature and martial arts, and is both wise and brave... He joined the army at birth, fought hundreds of battles, pacified Chongshan, and made great contributions to the northeast."

My goodness, this Minister Zhu started praising Yang Zhengshan as soon as he opened his mouth. If Yang Zhengshan heard such praise here, he would definitely blush with shame.

There is no way. If he praises it too much, even Yang Zhengshan himself will feel embarrassed.

All the civil and military officials in the palace found it funny to hear Zhu Qinwen praising Yang Zhengshan so much.

But soon they stopped finding it funny because Zhu Qinwen began to list Yang Zhengshan's military achievements.

In twelve years, Yang Zhengshan was promoted from a trial centurion to the general of Chongshan Town. Although there was an element of luck and help from noble people, every promotion was based on his military achievements.

Even the initial trial centurion title could be explained as being earned because Yang Zhengshan had made military achievements in blocking the Hu cavalry in Yangjia Village.

Since Zhu Qinwen wanted to praise Yang Zhengshan, he would naturally weaken the existence of other people. For example, Zhou Lan, Lu Hua, Liang Chu and other people who had helped him before could be temporarily erased and only Yang Zhengshan's military exploits would be mentioned.

After listening to Zhu Qinwen's enumeration of Yang Zhengshan's military achievements, all the civil and military officials in the court suddenly realized that Zhu Qinwen's previous praise of Yang Zhengshan was not exaggerated.

For a moment, all the ministers in the hall began to discuss.

Many people didn't expect Yang Zhengshan to be so powerful.

Yang Zhengshan's reputation was actually quite good. His name as the God of Killing Butcher spread throughout Liaodong back then. However, he was only hanging around Liaodong and had never been to Kyoto, so the civil and military officials in the court were quite unfamiliar with him.

Perhaps they have heard rumors about Yang Zhengshan, but rumors are just rumors after all, and they would not take them to heart.

But now that Zhu Qinwen has brought these to the court, they are no longer rumors but facts.

Therefore, many people were surprised.

"Yang Zhengshan used a brilliant strategy in the Battle of Guanshankou. He waited for the wind to change and then attacked with fire, burning 100,000 enemies! Such an unprecedented feat is comparable to the Battle of Suizhou three hundred years ago!" Zhu Qinwen dropped another bomb.

This bomb is comparable to the Battle of Suizhou.

Three hundred years ago, Dayong had just been founded and Emperor Taizu was still conquering wars everywhere, and Suizhou was the obstacle blocking Emperor Taizu's westward advance.

To put it simply, the victory in the Battle of Suizhou laid the foundation for Emperor Taizu to unify the world. If he had been defeated in the Battle of Suizhou at that time, Emperor Taizu could only be called a king, not an emperor.

The one who won the Battle of Suizhou was the first Duke Dingguo of Dayong.

Comparing the Battle of Guanshankou with the Battle of Suizhou three hundred years ago, and comparing Yang Zhengshan with the first Duke Dingguo of Dayong, to be honest, this is really praising Yang Zhengshan too much.

However, in terms of performance, the two can still be compared.

Because in the battle of Suizhou that year, the first Duke Dingguo of Dayong won it by relying on strategy, defeating the larger force with the smaller one and the strong with the weak. The two battles do have some similarities, but the significance is very different.

(End of this chapter)