Chapter 153 What happened back then
At that time, the military officers in the Xuanwu Army were somewhat curious about why the requirements were suddenly so strict, but they did not take it seriously. Although the requirements for wear and tear were much stricter, the Ministry of War quickly issued new ordnance, so that the soldiers did not encounter the embarrassing situation of lack of weapons.

Everyone is actually quite happy about this situation. After all, who would want to use the old one when they can use the new one?
Especially some military equipment like firearms, due to the forging process, their service life is not long. Coupled with other reasons such as poor maintenance, they are easy to break down over time, and once they break down, they are often accompanied by non-combat casualties.

Every year, people from various departments die because of this situation, and even some military officers lose their lives.

Therefore, Commander Xu Zhaojie was highly regarded by Prime Minister Shangguan Hongyuan, and the Xuanwu Army enjoyed the treatment of Shangguan Hongyuan's personal army, the Shenwu Army.

But now Ye Mingsheng looks back at the court situation back then and finds that the situation may not be what everyone thinks...
The story begins with Xu Zhaojie's father, Xu Kun. He married Jiang Lehan, and with the help of Prince Zhao, he became the commander-in-chief of the Xuanwu Army. Five years later, he became the commander-in-chief of the Xuanwu Army, one of the six commanders of the imperial guards!
The reason why Xu Kun was able to become the commander of the Xuanwu Army was that the royal family, led by Prince Zhao, played a great role behind the scenes. The royal family helped Xu Kun because, on the one hand, Xu Kun married Jiang Lehan, the Princess of Qionghua, and became the son-in-law of Prince Zhao.

On the other hand, it was also because the commander of the Shenwu Army at that time, Shangguan Hongyuan, had already shown his prowess and possessed a strong appeal in the imperial guards. He was also the hereditary Duke of Anguo of his family. He had military power and status, and was very popular among the nobles. He was on the verge of becoming a powerful official!

At that time, Emperor Jing was already seriously ill and was about to die, so he had no time to deal with Shangguan Hongyuan. Therefore, in order to fight against Shangguan Hongyuan, the royal family chose to support Xu Kun.

It is said that in order to get the royal family to help him, Xu Kun thanked them profusely, made various promises to deal with Shangguan Hongyuan, and patted his chest loudly. However, when the royal family supported him and helped him control the Xuanwu Army, Xu Kun's scumbag nature was once again exposed, and he refused to admit his mistake...

When the noble forces led by Shangguan Hongyuan and the aristocratic families led by Lin Shize conspired to launch a coup against Crown Prince Jiang Song who was supported by the royal family, Xu Kun, driven by interests, chose to return to the noble camp and kept his troops in place, allowing Shangguan Hongyuan to succeed and massacre the royal family.

With the killing of Crown Prince Jiang Song, Emperor Hui Jiang Rui, who was supported by the nobles and aristocratic families, ascended the throne. The power of the royal family, which had suffered a severe blow, withdrew from the political stage of the Great Zhou.

Although the world of Great Zhou still nominally belonged to the Jiang family, the court was more like a joint rule by the noble families. The two forces entered a brief honeymoon period, with Prime Minister Lin Shize presiding over government affairs and the Grand Commander of the Imperial Guards Shangguan Hongyuan leading the army. The two men, one civil and one military, worked together sincerely to stabilize the situation of the Great Zhou Dynasty, which had already shown signs of decline at that time.

However, with Shangguan Hongyuan's victories in several foreign wars and his leading the Imperial Army to defeat some local separatist forces that did not obey the court, his reputation in the court was at its peak. Shangguan Hongyuan was not satisfied with the position of Grand Commander of the Imperial Army and set his sights on Lin Shize's position as Prime Minister. Lin Shize was not to be outdone and took countermeasures against Shangguan Hongyuan's ambitions. He won over Wang Taikang, the commander of the Longxiang Army, and Xu Kun, the commander of the Xuanwu Army, to fight against Shangguan Hongyuan.

At this time, Xu Kun, this scumbag, might be too much of a scumbag, and God couldn’t stand it anymore, so he arranged for Xu Kun to get a serious illness. It only took him half a month from the onset of the illness to his death...
With the death of Xu Kun, Wang Taikang was left alone and was forced to surrender his military power and resign to return home for the safety of his family. At this point, Lin Shize's countermeasures were completely bankrupt. Therefore, this old fox in the political arena took the initiative to conduct a series of political exchanges with Shangguan Hongyuan and gave the position of Prime Minister to Shangguan Hongyuan.

Xu Kun's successor, his son Xu Zhaojie, also inherited his father's scumbag nature, being lustful and fond of abandoning women, but in terms of ability he is much better than his father. First, through a tearful performance, he successfully worshipped Shangguan Hongyuan as his adoptive father and gained Shangguan Hongyuan's trust.

Then, in the battles against the Golden Horde and the Robes, Xu Zhaojie performed very well. With his outstanding military achievements and strong connections among his family's nobles, he became the commander of the Xuanwu Army at the age of 24. He was also the youngest third-rank commander of the imperial guards in the three hundred years since the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

After becoming the Prime Minister, Shangguan Hongyuan no longer concealed his ambition and launched a series of actions with the aim of changing the dynasty and replacing the Jiang family's empire with his own. However, perhaps his actions were a little hasty, or his style was too strong.

This led to the split of the noble power that had originally closely surrounded Shangguan Hongyuan. Everyone knows that Shangguan Hongyuan is a tyrant, a strong man, and extremely greedy for power!

When you, Shangguan Hongyuan, become the emperor, you will definitely hold power firmly in your hands. You will not tolerate the situation now where power is in the hands of the nobles. By then, you will have the military power in your hands and a righteous cause. Everyone will either kneel down and hand over power, or die...
Therefore, in order to avoid this situation, a group of noble forces headed by Duke Chengguo Zhao Yuanan colluded with the aristocratic families to secretly fight against Shangguan Hongyuan and prevent him from becoming emperor.

And Xu Zhaojie, who has now completely turned to the anti-Shangguan faction, did not do so suddenly. As early as the fifth year of Anhe, he married the youngest daughter of Jiang Xiahou and became Zhao Yuanan's brother-in-law. As he became more powerful, he gradually changed from a staunch supporter of Shangguan Hongyuan to a neutral faction.

In the sixth year of Anhe, when the Xuanwu Army had strict inspections on the wear and tear of its weapons, although Xu Zhaojie had not yet turned against them openly like he does now, his overt and covert contacts with Zhao Yuanan and Lin Shize had increased a lot. Therefore, no matter how you look at it, the care the Ministry of War gave to the Xuanwu Army at that time did not seem to be authorized by Prime Minister Shangguan Hongyuan.

The more Ye Mingsheng thought about this, the more he felt that there was something wrong. He always felt that behind this seemingly normal operation, there were some unspeakable secrets hidden...
(End of this chapter)