Chapter 385 The Prince's Three Purposes

Imperial City, Taiji Hall.

In the morning, when the first ray of sunlight fell over the Imperial City, all the civil and military officials had entered the hall to start the morning court.

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

The two groups of ministers took their seats, and the eunuch in front of the hall shouted in a shrill voice: "If there is something, please report it, if there is nothing, please leave the court!"

The Crown Prince sat under the throne, looking at the ministers in the hall with his eyes.

Prince Cheng and Prince Gong had calm faces, 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 the previous two days. The previous two days, everyone was still immersed in the joy of the great victory in Wuming Valley, and the atmosphere was naturally relaxed and joyful.

But the atmosphere of today's morning court was a bit tense.

The reason for this was the reward for the frontline soldiers.

After a great victory, there must be a great reward.

Without mentioning anything else, let's just say that Yang Zhengshan led the soldiers of Tenglong Guard to first capture Qinghuafu 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 army to annihilate the 80,000 Wuliang Hu cavalry and 20,000 rebels of King Qing who invaded the territory of Darong in one fell swoop, and completely put down the war in Chongshan Town and Liaoxi.

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

Others are easy to say, the court is not unwilling to reward, how big the duke is, what kind of reward to give, the court actually has rules.

Give rewards when they should be given, promote officials when they should be promoted, and if there is really no suitable position for promotion, then give more empty positions.

In short, the court will not fail to reward merits.

Originally, this matter was not a big deal.

Just give rewards and promotions according to merits, just like Yang Zhengshan, who was promoted to the deputy governor of the Central Army Governor's Office and the 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 he can be promoted to a nominal position.

The deputy governor was promoted to the deputy governor, and was awarded the title of Dragon and Tiger General and the Upper Guard. If you think it is not enough, then his mother will be posthumously conferred the title of the first-class imperial edict, and several grandchildren will be included in the emperor's personal army as centurions.

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

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

Confer a title!

Since Emperor Chengping ascended the throne, Darong has not conferred a title on anyone except the royal family.

Even those who supported Emperor Chengping to ascend the throne did not get a title.

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

From yesterday afternoon when the news spread from the imperial city to today's morning court, everyone who 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.

The status of the two is very different, and they have never dealt with each other. Although the marriage between the Yang family and the Changping Marquis's Mansion destroyed the prince's plan, this matter is not enough to be put on the table.

It was because of the relationship with Liu Yuan's Mansion that the prince had a lot of bad feelings towards Yang Zhengshan.

In addition, there is the grudge between Jingyuan Marquis's Mansion and the Yang family. Jingyuan Marquis was the first nobleman to surrender 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, they should suppress Yang Zhengshan, so why did they confer a title on Yang Zhengshan?

Many people in the court can guess the prince's first purpose, and some can guess the second, as for those who can guess the third, there are not many.

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

The second layer is that the prince may want to win over the border commanders, taking Yang Zhengshan as an example, opening the door to conferring titles, and winning over the border commanders with titles.

Most people in the court can see this layer.

Which border commander or military officer does not want to become a noble, but Emperor Chengping has always kept the door to conferring titles tightly, causing no one to dare to dream.

But what if the prince is willing to confer titles?

Needless to say, the border commanders will definitely vote for the prince!

As for the prince's third layer of purpose!

The prince glanced at the two emperor brothers next to him calmly.

Xiang Zhuang danced with a sword to target Pei Gong!

The only ones who are threatening the prince are these two, and all the prince's calculations will fall on these two people.

The morning court began, but the hall was quiet, and none of the civil and military officials stood up to report.

The prince was not angry when he saw this, but winked at Zhu Qinwen in the queue of civil officials.

Zhu Qinwen immediately understood, stepped out of the queue and said loudly: "I have a memorial to submit!"

"Approved!" 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 Army Governor's Office, the general of Chongshan Town, and the general of the country, is good at training soldiers, using soldiers like a god, and is good at both literature and martial arts, and is both wise and brave... He joined the army when he was young, fought hundreds of battles, pacified Chongshan, and made contributions to the northeast."

Good guy, this Minister Zhu praised Yang Zhengshan fiercely as soon as he opened his mouth. If Yang Zhengshan heard such praise here, he would be embarrassed.

There is no way, the praise is too much, even Yang Zhengshan himself will feel embarrassed.

And the civil and military officials in the palace also found it funny to hear Zhu Qinwen praising Yang Zhengshan like this.

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 a component of luck and the help of noble people, every promotion was based on his military exploits.

Even the initial trial centurion can be explained as Yang Zhengshan's military exploits 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, such as Zhou Lan, Lu Hua, Liang Chu and other people who had helped him before, and they could be temporarily erased, and only Yang Zhengshan's military exploits could be mentioned.

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

For a time, the ministers in the hall began to discuss.

Many people did not expect Yang Zhengshan to be so fierce.

Yang Zhengshan's reputation is actually not small. His name as the God of Killing and Butcher was also spread all over Liaodong. However, he was just wandering around Liaodong and had never been to Kyoto, so the civil and military officials in the court were still quite unfamiliar with him.

Perhaps they had heard rumors about Yang Zhengshan, but rumors were just rumors after all, and they would not take them seriously.

But now Zhu Qinwen brought these to the court, and they were no longer rumors, but facts.

Therefore, many people were very surprised.

"Yang Zhengshan used a clever strategy in the battle of Guanshankou, waiting for the wind to change, and then used fire to burn 100,000 enemies! Such a great feat is comparable to the battle of Suizhou three hundred years ago!" Zhu Qinwen threw another bomb.

This bomb is comparable to the battle of Suizhou.

Three hundred years ago, Darong had just established the country, and Emperor Taizu was still fighting everywhere, and Suizhou was the roadblock to Emperor Taizu's westward advance.

To put it simply, the victory of the Suizhou War laid the foundation for Emperor Taizu to unify the country. If he had lost the Suizhou War, Emperor Taizu could only be called a king, not an emperor.

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

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

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

Because the first generation of Duke Dingguo of Dayong won the Suizhou War that year by strategy, defeating the majority with the minority and the strong with the weak. The two still have some similarities, but the significance is far different.