Chapter 295: The Great Liao attacks!

"Report! Report!"

"Informing Your Majesty, urgent report from the Yanmen Pass garrison, the Liao army has invaded!

Emperor Tianzuo of Liao has raised the entire army of the country, numbering 700,000, and has already besieged the Great Wall Pass!"

A few days later, the arrival of a messenger, sweating down his back and riding a fast horse, broke the silence of Bianliang.

"Report! Informing Your Majesty, the Manichaean followers in Qingxi County, Muzhou (modern Chun'an, Zhejiang), Fang La, have rebelled.

They have organized the masses with Manichaeism, have already developed over ten thousand people, and have captured several prefectures and many counties.

They have established the 'Holy Duke' regime and changed the era name to 'Yongle'!"

Before the officials of the imperial court could come up with any way to deal with the Great Liao invasion, an urgent report came from the south of the Yangtze River.

"What should we do, where should we go?"

"This Great Gan is afraid it's finished!"

With the Great Liao invading in the north, Fang La rebelling in the south, Western Xia eyeing covetously in the west,

the attitude of the Western Army unclear, and in the center, officials and gentry dissatisfied with the policy of "gentry serving and paying taxes together" and "taxing by land,"

the Great Gan regime, which had just been established, was already tottering in the wind and rain!

For a time, the hearts of the people in Bianliang City were in panic; ruffians and hooligans wanted to take advantage of the chaos to loot,

commoners began to rush to the streets to buy grain, and officials and gentry with ulterior motives began to secretly collude.

But the Great Gan center, which should have been the most flustered, was quiet at this time.

"Finally here!"

Zhang Jie, who was leaning on the dragon throne pretending to doze off, suddenly opened his eyes.

The reason he hadn't done much during this period,

appearing as if he had fallen into a bed of pleasure and had his spirit worn away,

besides needing to digest the vast northern territory of the Great Song, which covered a million square kilometers, was to lure the snake out of its hole.

To avoid the Great Gan's military edge being too sharp, scaring the rumored Emperor Tianzuo, who was fond of great achievements but was a coward at heart,

making him afraid to assemble the Liao army for a decisive battle.

In this battle, he wanted to break the spine of this dynasty that had oppressed the Central Plains for a hundred years!

And the reason for not moving in the south was because, after a hundred years of management,

the gentry south of the Yangtze River were already deeply rooted; he wanted to use Fang La's sharp blade to cut off these networks!

To facilitate this situation, he let Song Wan stop after capturing Xiangyang,

leaving a gap for the southward advance, and then stagnated on the grounds of insufficient military supplies,

and also kept the news that the Western Army had already surrendered and submitted firmly sealed.

"Brother Wu Er, go make arrests!"

Understanding that the time had come, Zhang Jie ordered Wu Song.

"Yes!"

Wu Song, who had been standing silently by Zhang Jie's side without saying a word, responded and left with long strides.

The rest of the civil and military officials, except for the Liang Shan veterans like Chen Wen, looked at Wu Song's back with extremely complex eyes,

containing rejection, hatred, and even a trace of fear.

If they were the tentacles of the behemoth that was the Great Gan ruled by the Majesty,

then this Wu Song, Wu Erlang, was the blade in the Majesty's hand,

a sharp blade specially used to hang over their heads to maintain rule!

During this period, hundreds of officials and generals had entered the imperial prison under his command and never came out again!

For a time, the officials of Bianliang City changed color at the mention of the imperial prison.

Wu Song's iron-tower-like figure stopped at the gate of a government office.

On the plaque hanging above the main gate of the office were written three gold-plated characters—Embroidered Uniform Guard!

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty relied on special agencies like the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Eastern Depot, and Western Depot to firmly hold power in their hands,

and after the appearance of the "Gate-Calling Emperor," the "Leopard House Player," the "Daoist Emperor," the "Drug-Taking Emperor,"

the "Lazy Dragon" who didn't hold court for decades, and the "Carpenter Emperor," these crouching dragons and phoenix chicks,

they could still maintain control over the vast empire of the Great Ming,

allowing Chongzhen, a vassal king who had never received any imperial education, to ascend the throne,

and still be able to kill whichever chief councilor he wanted to kill,

and slice whichever commander he wanted to slice (Commander Yuan Chonghuan called it professional~).

With such a useful agency, how could Zhang Jie, a master of imitation, not imitate it?

Wu Song, who had followed him since Yanggu County, traveled north and south with him, served as his personal bodyguard,

and had always been loyal, was promoted by him to be the first-generation Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

After he promulgated policies like "gentry serving and paying taxes together" that dug at the roots of the gentry,

and scholars, those gentry didn't oppose it openly,

but they did a lot of things in secret!

Emperor Tianzuo could grasp the timing so accurately,

besides the tip-offs from talented people who knew the times like Gao Jiye,

their figures were also looming in it.

Even with Fang La's rebellion south of the Yangtze River, many people were fanning the flames.

Zhang Jie's method for this was: close the door, release the Embroidered Uniform Guard!

Before he personally led the imperial expedition, he had to clear out the vermin within Bianliang.

The motto that the Principal had always practiced, "to resist foreign aggression, one must first pacify the interior," also had some truth to it.

Wu Song's gaze swept over the neatly assembled and fully armed Embroidered Uniform Guards, and he said in a deep voice:

"The Majesty has an order: anyone who dares to spread rumors to confuse the public, collude privately, or take advantage of the opportunity to create chaos, shall all be arrested and brought to justice!"

"We respectfully follow the Majesty's holy decree!"

The crowd of Embroidered Uniform Guards responded with a boom.

On this day, the Embroidered Uniform Guards, wearing green robes, tied with gilded copper belts, wearing double-fish waist plaques,

wearing phoenix-wing helmets, and carrying goose-quill sabers, poured out of their nest, their footprints covering the entire Bianliang City.

"Your business has been exposed!"

They knocked on one closed door after another, entering one heavily guarded courtyard after another.

"Tell you, I am the brother-in-law of Minister Li..."

"I have old ties with Father-in-law Hu!"

"My dad is..."

"I am an official of the imperial court!"

One criminal suspect after another clamored, still wanting to use their background to make the Embroidered Uniform Guard wary.

The leading Embroidered Uniform Guard centurion held high the double-fish waist plaque in his hand:

"Execute first and report later, imperial authority is specially granted, this is the Embroidered Uniform Guard!

Take them all away!"

After a round of strict crackdowns, the public security situation in Bianliang City rose by several stars.

"Raise the entire army of Bianliang, I want to go on an imperial expedition!"

After cleaning up the restless bad forces in Bianliang City, Zhang Jie issued an edict.

With his supreme prestige and invincible battle record, naturally, no one opposed it.

The war machine of the Great Gan, which had stopped for a while, roared and started up again.

"Prime Minister, is my army mighty?"

Outside the Great Wall Pass, the former border between the Great Song and the Great Liao,

Emperor Tianzuo, Yelu Yanxi, wearing a dragon-pattern embroidered robe, gilded armor, and riding a tall horse,

mighty and extraordinary, pointed with his horse whip at the iron cavalry in front that looked like a tide,

and asked with pride in his heart.

Xiao Wuna, a high official of the Great Liao, who had served as the Xuanhui Commissioner of the Northern Court, the Privy Commissioner of the Southern Court,

and the Prime Minister of the Northern Prefecture, lightly stroked his beard and praised:

"The Majesty's army is the number one strong army in the world, naturally mighty and magnificent."

Yelu Yanxi, having received a satisfactory answer, smiled with self-pride:

"It is good enough that it can enter the Prime Minister's eyes."

"But Your Majesty."

Xiao Wuna's tone suddenly changed, and he advised:

"The new dynasty of the Central Plains is different from the Great Song, I hope Your Majesty will think thrice!" ===== CHAPTER 296 =====