Chapter 22 Xue Chong

The spring breeze gradually warms in February because of a happy event: Sun gave birth to a son (known as the birth of the queen).

Whether this boy looks cute or smart in the future is not the most important thing. The significance of his birth in the world is that the new Jin Dynasty has an heir, and he has brought hope to the continuation of this dynasty.

Emperor Xue Chongxun had many concubines but few children. Before that, there was only one daughter. If he really had no son, it would mean that there would be a storm when power changes in the future. No one in the high position would be willing to face such a situation. If there was no smooth handover at that time, it might also lead to a long-term civil war, which would not be a good thing for ordinary people.

Some rumors have been heard from somewhere, rumored that the prince was not born by the queen, but was born by the queen's biological mother, Mrs. Sun. Such rumors are difficult to distinguish between true and false, but most of them are speculations and inferences from those who are interested.

What happened before is indeed easy to arouse people's imagination. Why did the queen only openly sell her interest after three or four months of pregnancy? Why did she have to send her to the palace to the Huaqing Palace?

The prominent position of the royal family is easy to attract people's attention, so it is difficult to avoid people's gossip. However, it is almost impossible to produce real evidence in this way. Who is full and risking his life to collect evidence for gossip news?

The court officials didn’t care about these gossips. The emperor only had one son. What’s the point of who gave birth to him?

As long as my father is Xue Chongxun, no one questioned this.

Even if she didn't know Sun's character, people knew that she used to live in the Daming Palace, and Xue Chongxun was the only man in the harem, and there were so many people. Therefore, Xue Chongxun allowed her husband's sister to live a romantic life, saying that she was allowed to leave the palace to live.

In the delivery room of Changchun Palace, midwife and palace maids were kneeling. They were very scared because the people lying on the bed with sweat and exhausted sweat were Mrs. Sun and the Queen's mother. Those who helped Mrs. Sun give birth smoothly did not seek rewards. They would think of it with a little bit of their brains: they might be silenced.

Xue Chongxun's mother and son are free from any constraints of laws, morality and even human rules. They want to kill a few people without even reason, which is lighter than killing a few ants...

This cannot be blamed on Xue Chongxun. If he had not played this role, many people would have fought for this role; the consensus of this era must be that there must be a supreme power person, just like there must be a sun in the sky.

However, Xue Chongxun seemed to have no intention of killing them. He said: You all go down, who is in charge of the accounts in Huaqing Palace? I will send me my oral orders to him to receive the reward.

A smart old woman hurriedly said: Thank you, Your Majesty, the Empress will definitely recover soon.

The Queen...

What does it have to do with her? She is jumping around and holding a baby whose son or younger brother is not sure about it.

The old woman simply stared at the white with her eyes and said it was black, and it was probably the case with the deer and horse.

Xue Chongxun nodded and waved his hand to let them avoid it.He turned around and sat on the edge of the bed and said to Sun: I have to give him a big name.

Sun was not energetic and still looked at him expectantly.Xue Chongxun pondered for a moment and said: Just call Xue Chong, Chong on the left and right center.

What is the deep meaning of the name given by Your Majesty?Sun asked.

Xue Chongxun smiled and said: It has no deep meaning, just because people usually use the word Chong less and is more rare.In the future, all subjects in the world should avoid taboos and will not cause too much trouble to their people.

Sun looked at him with emotion. His sentence had no deep meaning, but actually contained a very important meaning: the word "tag" that the whole world must avoid is nothing more than the monarch and the monarch's elders; Xue Chongxun implied that this son would be the monarch in the future, which was equivalent to promising to make him the crown prince.

Sun turned his head and glanced at Li Yan'er. Her eyes were very complicated.

Xue Chongxun understands: Mrs. Sun loves the queen very much, so she will also care for her son. The child can be raised, but the name is different.The Li family in the previous dynasty was called his father and brother, and it didn't matter.

Yan'er... Sun called out awkwardly, and Li Yan'er hurriedly held the baby and sat beside her, responding with her big watery eyes, waiting for her to speak.

But Sun opened her mouth but couldn't say anything. Xue Chongxun carefully observed her face, as if she could feel the entanglement in her heart.

Li Yan'er waited for a while and then smiled: Xue Chong is very well-behaved.Mom, don’t think too much, just keep it well.

I don't know how to face Yan'er... Sun sighed.Li Yan'er smiled and said: Didn't you say that if my mother likes it, I won't be reluctant to let it go.

Xue Chongxun stood up and said: Let’s talk first... I will go back to Chang'an in the past two days. You have to stay here for at least a month. If your body recovers, you will come back together.

……

Many ministers in Chang'an expressed congratulations, but Xue Chongxun did not read any of them after returning. He told the two women in the Greenhouse Hall that they would only report the memorials from the Northwest battlefield to him in a timely manner, and all the others would be reported according to the annotations of the Cabinet Political Affairs Hall.

What he was most concerned about was Du Xian’s battle in the northwest. The victory or defeat of this battle will be related to the border pattern in the next few decades or even longer.

Du Xian had 50,000 elite troops from the Jin army, plus the coalition forces of Tuyuhun and other countries and the Tubo Mo family, with a total force of less than 100,000, which was very powerful.

But what Xue Chongxun was worried about was the plateau combat, which was very unfavorable for the Han soldiers, making the outcome of this battle difficult to predict.

He did not pay much attention to the civil war on the Eastern Front. No matter how many troops Cui Qigao coerced, it was not enough to put pressure on Xue Chongxun. In the situation where there was no big problem with the military, finances of the Jin Dynasty, a group of temporary rebels lacked training and professional military equipment, and Xue Chongxun could not regard them as opponents.

Moreover, Cui Qigao's troops expanded too quickly, and he may also lack the awareness of counter-espionage, which led to many in-house factories' meticulous operations entering his team.

Now Xue Chongxun knows this person's situation through the internal factory organization, and even his combat plan has been accomplished.

According to reports from the internal factory, Xiaozuo failed to get into the core of the rebel military aircraft. Unexpectedly, Cui Qigao did not have much confidential preparation. This guy promoted his ambitions and plans in front of many generals in the military camp, and there were no soldiers quarantined around him, so everything was leaked.

Cui Qigao's direction was to go north, mainly forging ahead in Hebei, and seize the opportunity of the people of Hebei to resist the expedition of Ding.

According to Xue Chongxun's judgment, he may have colluded with Khitan and Xi, and his activities in Hebei can also receive support from foreign tribes.

In Xue Chongxun's eyes, this person is also a capable person. He works one by one and is good at seizing opportunities. These are all advantages.

But the flaws are also obvious. Cui Qigao's series of plans are too thick and not detailed enough.

It can be seen from his confidentiality measures and some inconsistent laws issued in detail.

Due to countless loopholes, Li Yi, the general manager of Hebei, took great initiative.

……

As April began, a memorial to report the defeat was completely beyond Xue Chongxun's expectations. It was not the Tubo battle he was most worried about, but it was the Hebei Civil War that he thought was all under control.

Li Yi was defeated in the battle.

The official memorial reported by the Ministry of War describes that when Li Yi was deploying a defense line north of the rebels, the central army was suddenly attacked by the rebels' superior forces. The left and right wings were not prepared enough before they had time to rescue him, and Li Yi's central army was defeated.

Li Yi and several deputy generals were surrounded and then committed suicide.

Xue Chongxun was very puzzled. Could Cui Qigao be a magic trick?

Unless there are aircraft as reconnaissance tools in this era, how can we take advantage of the situation to grasp the time and location so accurately?

Soon after, the secret report from the internal factory solved Xue Chongxun's doubts.

It turned out that the governor of Huazhou Zhou Ji was missing after the prefecture yamen was broken. Then he fled to Hebei with a group of slaves and surrendered to Li Yi.

Li Yi originally planned to escort the man back to Beijing and hand him over to the court for conviction. Zhou Ji pleaded that he had lost the city and land and returned to Beijing was definitely a death sentence. Instead of dying with the charge on his back, it would be better to kill the enemy camp with weapons and gain a reputation for death in battle.

The deputy generals also advised Li Yi not to worry about it and to take him back to Beijing for trouble; but Li Yi was soft-hearted and was moved by Zhou Ji's generous words, so he agreed to his request.

Moreover, the emperor had done this, and used crimes to rush the enemy camp for the suicide squad in the three cities in Guanbei.

Unexpectedly, after Zhou Ji brought his men into the territory controlled by Cui Qigao, he immediately led Cui Qigao's troops to attack Li Yi's central army along the original route, and Zhou Ji became the guide.

The local army outside Li Yi's army was also scumbag. When they saw that the other party had too many people, they could not defeat them, so they ran away without resistance. The main force of the rebels rushed straight into Li Yi and caught him off guard. The defeat was over in less than a day, and he ended up killing himself.

The atmosphere in the court was not very good at this time. Li Yi was recommended by Zhang Shuo. Now that he has not succeeded, Zhang Shuo has to be implicated. Moreover, Li Yi is already dead. He is Cheng Qianli's confidant, and Cheng Qianli is not feeling well.

And what should I do next?

Continue to send generals to preside over the encirclement and suppression of local military forces, or directly write a letter to dispatch elite troops from Guanzhong?

After reading the memorial and the secret report from the inner factory, Xue Chongxun saw that the eunuch on duty next to him was Yang Sixu, so he asked Yang Sixu: Did Zhang Shuo recommend Li Yi was originally from Cheng Qianli?

Yang Sixu bowed and replied cautiously: He is from the Ministry of War.However, he had a sister in Cheng Xiang's mansion, who was very favored by Cheng Xiang.

Xue Chongxun thought for a moment and said: Go to the Political Affairs Hall to pass on a message to the prime ministers, and he said that Li Yi is a loyal minister.

At this time, the Political Affairs Hall was discussing who would bear the responsibility for the defeat. The person involved, Li Yi, was supposed to be punished, but he was already dead and refused to be captured and committed suicide.

According to the previous practice, such people will not be held accountable even if they lose the battle, and they will also receive pensions.

At this point, only Zhang Shuo took the initiative to apologize.

Yang Sixu came to the Political Affairs Hall to pass oral instructions, and changed the situation again. The emperor specifically told them that Li Yi was a loyal minister, and the meaning in this was self-evident.