Seeing that this kid had no intention of obeying orders, Cheng Chumo's hand slowly moved to the hilt of his sword. We are all people who live on the edge of a knife, and you have made a lot of contributions to the army. Unless it is absolutely necessary, Cheng Chumo is unwilling to clean up his men. After all, it is very difficult to build a reputation over the years, and he doesn't want to set an example for you.
"I will obey your command."
Seeing the actions of the two generals, Zheng Qiongping still knelt on the ground, but his doubt just now had already determined the final result. Cheng Chuliang shook his head slightly. This guy could not stay.
"Go back and prepare thoroughly. We'll set out after dark today. Don't tell anyone around you about your departure. If anyone asks, just say you're following orders from the general and it's inconvenient to reveal it to them."
Cheng Chumo waved his hand, signaling the three men to leave. There were too many people in the camp. If they took action here, they would inevitably have to explain to everyone for a long time. But if they went to the wild, some things would not need to be explained. Cheng Chuliang would do this personally.
The three men quickly bowed their heads and accepted the order, then left the general's tent. After leaving the tent, they walked in different directions. If they stopped to discuss, it would inevitably arouse other people's suspicion. What's more, the three of them guessed each other's identities, but there was no connection. Among these tens of thousands of troops, the three of them had never spoken to each other alone, and they came from different units and had never cooperated on the battlefield.
They all guessed what happened just now. Something must have happened in Chang'an City, but it hasn't affected us yet, otherwise the general wouldn't have shown leniency. Thinking of what we did in the army, he should have given us some face.
Zheng Qiongping is different from the other two. Because of his delay just now, his life and death are now written in the book. After returning to his camp, this guy urged his thirty soldiers to get ready and leave immediately after dark. As for the other soldiers under his command, special people have come to take over.
The Tang Dynasty court has always had strict military orders, and the soldiers under your command may not be yours. After receiving the document from above, you must honestly hand over your military power. If anyone delays, the military police will not care where you come from or what your family does, and will immediately arrest you. It is not easy to get out of the military police camp.
From the moment Li Xiang formed the gendarmerie, everyone knew the rights of these people. Even if you had reached the level of a general, the gendarmerie could take you away at any time as long as the procedures were complete. However, Li Xiang also told everyone that as long as you had a clear conscience and had not done anything to harm the interests of the Tang Dynasty, the gendarmerie would never come after you.
Of course, if you have done something wrong, then some things are hard to predict. The military police camp may be your nightmare. Don’t think this is a joke. These things may happen.
Zheng Qiongping hesitated again and again, and finally did not call his good brothers. They were the ones with whom he had the best relationships in the army. Although he did not tell them his purpose, if he wanted to cause trouble, at least some of those brothers would follow him. This is the brotherhood in the army.
Although the various military regulations are very strict, you can't completely shut down your emotions in a place like the military. If someone saved your life on the battlefield, shouldn't you give him a life in return? Even if you don't give him a life in return, if he encounters any difficulties, you can't just stand by and watch, right?
Therefore, if you want to control an army, you must have people who obey your orders. While Li Xiang was developing human soldiers, he was also spreading his own system soldiers. These system soldiers were like Li Xiang's eyes and ears, helping him to control the entire army.
Zheng Qiongping and the other two guys should feel very lucky. These three did not make too many moves in the army, so they could still be given a chance. But at this moment, in the north of the camp, the four young generals were all tied up, and their fate was not so good.
According to the report of the system soldiers, they have been forming a clique in the military camp for the past two years. Now the clique is not small. If they really want to cause trouble, these four guys can gather nearly two thousand people. Usually they are instilling other ideas into these people. In short, when they want to start an army, these people will follow them.
So after dark, they were also invited by Cheng Chumo to discuss things. When these people appeared together, they also knew that some things might be exposed. Unfortunately, Cheng Chumo did not give them any chance to react. He ordered his men to arrest them directly, and took them to the north of the military camp to be beheaded that night.
At dawn the next day, Zheng Qiongping also died in the wild. This guy never thought that just because he hesitated for a moment, he would be on the death list. There was nothing he could do about it. When it comes to matters concerning the safety of the army, no one can be soft-hearted.
Li Xiang's order to Cheng Chumo was to ensure 100% safety, no matter what these people had done in the past or how much merit they had. If they were related to the Five Surnames and Seven Families, then such people should be killed.
Perhaps this is a bit arbitrary, but Li Xiang has absolutely no regrets. This allows us to clean up the entire army at the lowest cost. If you hesitate, some things will be hard to say. If these people rally their subordinates in the future, the number of deaths may be ten times the current number. Can the Tang army accept such losses?
Except for the Northwest Military Camp, the same thing was happening in military camps everywhere. About 112 middle and lower-level generals were all cleared out. These people were also heroes on the battlefield, but who made them stand on the wrong side? At this point, there is really nothing to say. In this kind of political struggle, your path is destined to be narrow.
Dangerous smell
Local officials everywhere also smelled a hint of danger, so when they received the imperial edict from the court, all of them worked honestly for the court. In the current situation, if you don't work for the court, the court may replace you at any time. Don't think that you are so important. When the court abandons you, you won't even have a chance to blink.
Although the merchants' unrest was temporarily suppressed, Li Xiang knew that this was only a temporary solution. Even if all the generals in the army were cleared out, it would only break the legs of the Five Surnames and Seven Families. As for their bodies and heads, they were still in Chang'an City.
Interrupting these young generals in the army is also to force these people to take desperate measures. The initiative is in their hands, but when Li Xiang's counterattack begins, these people must take action. If they do not take any action, Li Xiang may continue to infiltrate slowly until all these people are killed.
"I really didn't expect that there would be so many of their people in the army. Over the years, I thought the army was in our hands, especially with the establishment of the Tiance General's Mansion. It made me feel that we already had many capabilities. I didn't expect that these people would still infiltrate us. They are really omnipresent."
When Chang Sun Chong saw the main list, he didn't know what to say. There were more than a hundred people related to the Five Surnames and Seven Families. Although their levels were not very high, if all these people were gathered together, or if they were discovered after three to five years, it would be a big deal.
"After all, they are a large family that has been passed down for hundreds of years. This is not Xiao Qiao's. They have no people of their own in society. We really underestimated them in the beginning. Now that something like this has happened, we must reflect on it. At least from this moment on, we must not be lenient towards them."
What Li Xiang said was the truth. When there were many victories in overseas wars, in many cases, Li Xiang did not fulfill some of his original vows and relaxed a lot. Now they are collectively counterattacking. If he had implemented the policy of suppressing the Five Surnames and Seven Families from the day he was reborn, this scene would never have happened.
Li Xiang still remembered that when he was just reborn, about half of the officials in the court came from major families. Maybe they were not directly from the Five Surnames and Seven Noble Houses, and some came from some small families in Jun County, but they were also dependent on the Five Surnames and Seven Noble Houses. As long as they were connected with each other, they could cause trouble for you in the court at any time, and you didn't know how to solve it. After all, when you want to solve a problem, you have to find these children of the aristocratic families.
Li Shimin promoted a group of new aristocratic families, that is, families with meritorious service, but these people had too weak a foundation. Although they had their own official positions in the court, they were mixed up in the local areas and had no way to infiltrate. They could only help Li Shimin resolve some obvious conflicts.
But the Five Surnames and Seven Noble Houses have experienced multiple dynasties, so how could they not understand how to fight you? If it is just an open struggle in the court, they really can't win, but if it is a private struggle, they have a hundred ways to make you lose.
Of course, the most important thing is that Li Shimin wants to save face, and this guy is not a tyrant. This is also their biggest reliance. If Li Shimin does anything without caring about anything and just does it according to his own psychology, then these guys would not have come to this point. They could just send troops to raid their homes.
However, Li Shimin's face-saving projects had to be done well, so when these so-called face-saving projects came out, the people of the Five Surnames and Seven Families would be able to find your flaws and even prevent you from taking any other action. Facts have proved that what they did before was indeed very outstanding, and they also took control of many powers of the Tang Dynasty.
But no matter how powerful they were, they did not see Li Xiang's transformation at the last moment. When Li Xiang began to transform, these people stepped in without hesitation. The economic foundation was their greatest means, but Li Xiang's economic foundation was stronger than theirs. Relying on some new things in the system, and opening banks in advance, Li Xiang gathered social wealth in his own hands, and then pulled other small families to come over.
It was at that time that the Five Surnames and Seven Families felt their danger, but they still felt that they could hold on. After all, they had existed for so many years. If they couldn't hold on to such a small thing, many other things would be troublesome.
But Li Xiang would never let them persist. He let the major families step in the auction of land outside. After spending huge amounts of money, they got some land that was too dangerous. After all, Li Xiang knew more about the land outside the Tang Dynasty than they did. Where was safe and where was not safe was just a matter of a word from the Tang Dynasty army.
In other words, if Li Xiang wants this place to be safe, then it will be safe enough here. If you don't want this place to be safe, then you will be harassed by nomadic peoples at any time. At that time, let alone making money, it would be good enough to be able to ensure your own safety. If you can't guarantee your own safety, no one, including some of their domestic slaves, will be willing to go to foreign lands, because that means losing their lives.
There is still some room for improvement for the Five Surnames and Seven Families. If they can bow to Li Xiang early, just like the Cui family of Qinghe, at least one thing can be preserved. Although the family members will not live as long as before, at least it will be different from now, and there are still some areas they can get involved in.
But the other families did not think so. In the process of fighting with Li Xiang, these people were unwilling to give in at all. In their opinion, if they gave in now, it would not benefit them at all, but would allow Li Xiang to strangle them. So in this case, they must recover everything from Li Xiang.
Li Xiang fully supports their behavior. They occupy the main force in society. If we don't take the initiative to attack, it will be difficult for us to dig them out. Only when they take the initiative to attack us can we fight against them.
With the strong support of the system, Li Xiang disintegrated the power of the Five Surnames and Seven Families bit by bit, but his mistake was that he did not pursue the victory.
