Chapter 152: Worn Armament
At that time, the previous emperor was in power. Although there were some places that secretly disobeyed the court's orders and did not listen to instructions, and there were many separatist towns, and the power of noble families was also very strong, the current situation had not yet formed.

The royal family was not oppressed so badly by the noble families headed by Shangguan Hongyuan. The power of the princes headed by Prince Zhao was still very strong. They had both soldiers and power.

Therefore, after Xu Kun was captured by Prince Zhao, Prince Zhao did not say a word and directly had Xu Kun beaten up. It was said that one of Xu Kun's bones was broken.

There are two versions of what happened next.

The first version is that after beating Xu Kun, Prince Zhao was still not satisfied and actually wanted to slap Xu Kun. This scared Xu Kun, who had previously told Jiang Lehan that he and Li Caiwei had a very good relationship and that they would never give up on each other, but now he kowtowed like crazy and was willing to accept anything.

Seeing that Xu Kun had surrendered, and with Jiang Lehan crying and pleading for him, Prince Zhao let Xu Kun go, but required Xu Kun to cancel his engagement with Li Caiwei and marry Jiang Lehan.

The second view is that the first view is exaggerated. After all, although Xu Kun is a scumbag and was wrong first, at that time Xu Kun's eldest brother died of illness. The second son Xu Kun is the eldest son of the Xu family and the rightful next Marquis of Zhenyuan. Among the nobles, Marquis of Zhenyuan has always been one of the leading figures.

Therefore, if Xu Kun made a mistake, you, Prince Zhao, could beat him or scold him, but if you, Prince Zhao, slap him or kill him, that would be a very serious matter. Even if you, Prince Zhao, are a royal family member, you would not end up well in front of Marquis Zhenyuan and other nobles.

So the second statement is that it is true that Prince Zhao beat Xu Kun, and it is also true that Xu Kun broke a bone, but after Prince Zhao let out his sigh of relief, he had no other good solution.

I can only use coercion and bribery to Xu Kun, and tell him that if you marry my daughter, I will help you in the army. On the contrary, although I cannot kill you, as long as Prince Zhao is alive, you, Xu Kun, can only be a leisurely Marquis of Zhenyuan, and don't even think about having any real power!

Although it is not known which of the two statements is true, the result of this incident is that Xu Kun chose to betray, the Xu and Li families broke off the engagement, and Xu Kun soon married Princess Qionghua Jiang Lehan and became the son-in-law of Prince Zhao. With the help of Prince Zhao, he successfully became the fourth-rank commander of the Xuanwu Army at the age of less than 30.

At this point, although Xu Zhaojie's biological father, Xu Kun, had offended the Li family, as long as they showed a good attitude and paid a lot of compensation, given the relationship between the Xu and Li families at the time, it was not impossible to turn the page on this matter.

But the bad thing was that Xu Kun had just made a move and got Li Caiwei pregnant.

Li Caiwei was also a woman with a strong personality. She was so depressed that she jumped into the river when her family was not paying attention. This directly resulted in two deaths. After this incident, the Xu family and the Li family, who had originally had a good relationship, began to become enemies.

In the following court struggles, the two families had some conflicts over the issue of military expenses for the Xuanwu Army, and the contradiction between the two became increasingly irreconcilable. Therefore, even after Xu Kun's death, his and Jiang Lehan's eldest son Xu Zhaojie became the new Marquis of Zhenyuan, and the relationship between the two families remained alienated without the slightest improvement... After understanding the causes and consequences of the conflict between the Li and Xu families, Ye Mingsheng analyzed it carefully and felt that, whether because of the previous grievances or because of the current conflicts of interest, the Li family should be willing to deal with the Xu family, or at least willing to give him a hand.

Therefore, he went to Li's Mansion again early this morning, found Li Guangbin, and told Li Guangbin about his plan one by one. After his emotional and logical persuasion, Li Guangbin finally decided to help him. As for helping to transfer Ye Mingsheng's subordinates to the Hujie Imperial Guards, it was just a side job.

After returning to his own courtyard, Ye Mingsheng led Ye Tie into the study and closed the door. Without Ye Mingsheng asking, Ye Tie took the initiative to lower his voice to tell Ye Mingsheng what had happened.

"Master, I found the old soldier guarding the warehouse. According to him, the concubine abandoned by Xu Zhaojie is currently living in Sanyuan Town outside Luoan City. She makes a living by washing clothes for others in the town..."

After getting the answer he wanted, Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes. He thought about it for a day and a night before finally finalizing the plan to deal with Xu Zhaojie.

Considering the current strength comparison between the enemy and us, fighting Xu Zhaojie openly is a no-brainer. If I want to teach Xu Zhaojie a lesson, I must play dirty with him and try to start with the people around him to find his flaws.

After confirming this idea, Ye Mingsheng once again carefully recalled the original owner's memory. As a military attaché of the Xuanwu Army, the original owner wanted to be one of Xu Zhaojie's lickers and dreamed of being taken care of by Xu Zhaojie. Fortunately, he rose rapidly in the Xuanwu Army. However, it was a pity that Xu Zhaojie never looked down on him, causing the original owner to hit a wall again and again...

Although he could not become Xu Zhaojie's confidant, the original owner, as a mid-level military officer who had served in the Xuanwu Army for five or six years, still had a certain degree of understanding of the Xuanwu Army and some of Xu Zhaojie's situations.

In recalling the original owner's memory, Ye Mingsheng keenly discovered some clues in the Xuanwu Army. That is, in the sixth year of Anhe before the Xuanwu Army set out for the imperial capital, the requirements for military equipment and weapons suddenly became very strict.

In the army, a sword or a shield may be worn out during the soldiers’ training or because of poor maintenance. This is a normal and inevitable situation.
According to the general handling method of the Imperial Guards, as long as the wear and tear of the weapons does not affect the normal use of the soldiers, they can continue to be used.

Only severely worn ordnance and weapons will be handed over to the Ministry of War, which will handle them uniformly and issue new ordnance. In order to prevent the leakage of ordnance, the various departments of the Imperial Guards are not allowed to deal with worn ordnance and weapons privately.

However, during the sixth year of Anhe, the Xuanwu Army had very strict requirements on the degree of wear and tear of ordnance and weapons. Even if the wear and tear of the weapons was not serious, they would be collected and sent to the Ministry of War. According to the original owner's memory, the situation of his own unit alone was that the amount of worn-out ordnance handed in increased by 70% to 80% compared to usual times.

(End of this chapter)