Chapter 960 The inner world of the Governor of Jiangnan!
Although Lu Jianchao entered the officialdom as a third place winner in the imperial examination, unfortunately, because he came from a poor family and had no backing in the court, he only got an assignment to edit documents in the Hanlin Academy. This undoubtedly poured cold water on the ambitious Lu Jianchao...

Although Lu Jianchao felt very shocked at that time that he, a top scholar in the imperial examination, had to go to the Hanlin Academy to edit documents, and felt that it was a waste of his talent and that his ambitions would not be fulfilled, Lu Jianchao felt very fortunate about this decades later!

After all, the Great Zhou was already showing signs of decline at that time, and factional strife in the court was extremely serious. It was extremely chaotic with various forces taking turns to take the stage!

Therefore, at that time, if Lu Jianchao, who had no backing, took up any important position, he would definitely be taken advantage of. Even if his family was not destroyed, he would be exiled and demoted!
Although there is no future in editing documents in the Hanlin Academy, no one will pay attention to you, so you can keep yourself out of trouble!

Later, Lu Jianchao met Murong Lun, and with Murong Lun's help, his official career began to rise rapidly. However, his experience in the Hanlin Academy also made Lu Jianchao develop the habit of being cautious!

With the outbreak of the Luoan Incident, the court's control over the local areas also fell to the bottom. However, Lu Jianchao, who was born as a civil servant and had no ambition or courage, did not have any other ideas. He was in charge of Jiangnan because his elder brother Murong Lun supported the court's southern tour, so he also supported the court's southern tour at the beginning...
At that time, half of the military expenses of the southern tour court were paid by Lu Jianchao. Therefore, Murong Lun, who had a huge influence on Lu Jianchao, also became an indispensable figure of the southern tour court!
In fact, when it comes down to it, Lu Jianchao has been following his elder brother Murong Lun for half his life. He will stand on whichever side Murong Lun chooses to stand on, and he doesn't have much of an opinion of his own!
Under normal circumstances, Lu Jianchao would not have had many choices in his life. After serving as the Governor-General of Jiangnan, he would be transferred back to the court and might serve as the Minister of one of the six ministries with the help of Murong Lun.

If possible, before retiring, it would be great to be able to enter the cabinet and be called Lord Lu. This was also Lu Jianchao's biggest wish in life!

But no one expected that the three hundred years of the Great Zhou Dynasty seemed to be coming to an end, which also gave Lu Jianchao a new choice in his life!

Although he did not have much ambition and was not very courageous, it was impossible for Lu Jianchao to have no idea about the position of Governor of Jiangnan. He had fantasized about it late at night when no one was around, and even had made some attempts. However, these attempts made Lu Jianchao realize the most serious problems between him and Jiangnan!

As the saying goes, poor mountains and bad waters produce unruly people. As the richest place in the Great Zhou Dynasty, the people in Jiangnan were very keen on doing business to accumulate wealth, which also made the living standards of the people in Jiangnan higher than those in other areas of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

The abundant life made the common people in Jiangnan generally dislike being soldiers, and even less like fighting. Therefore, there were few people who volunteered to join the Jiangnan army. Every time they recruited soldiers, they had to force them to join in order to recruit enough soldiers.

In addition, Lu Jianchao was a civil servant by birth and was not good at military affairs. Moreover, in these turbulent times, Lu Jianchao, who was a civil servant by birth, was most afraid of a coup by military officers. So he won over and divided the original generals of the Jiangnan Army, put them in idle positions, and distributed the military power to several confidants including his nephew Lu Yun.

After all this operation, even though Lu Jianchao bought firearms technology from the Fengwu Army and built a firearms factory that was able to mass-produce the Fengwu Army's Weiyuan Guns and Tiger Crouching Cannons, the combat effectiveness of the Jiangnan Army was still hard to describe!

This is also the fundamental reason why, facing the Zhennan Army under Xu Zhaojie, the Jiangnan Army, despite having all the advantages of time, place and people, still could not completely eliminate the Zhennan Army and suffered repeated defeats!

Lu Jianchao is not stupid. He naturally knows that the combat effectiveness of the Jiangnan Army under his command is not strong. He also knows that if he wants to dominate the world, the combat effectiveness of the army is very important!

Lu Jianchao also wanted to enhance the combat effectiveness of the Jiangnan Army, so he spent a huge amount of money to purchase firearms technology from the Fengwu Army and build a firearms factory. Although Lu Jianchao told Ye Mingsheng that he did this to guard against Xu Zhaojie, only Lu Jianchao himself knew his real thoughts························
However, although the firearms were good, they were far from achieving the effect that Lu Jianchao expected, which was to greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the Jiangnan Army! The Jiangnan Army was still at a disadvantage in the confrontation with the Zhennan Army!

Lu Jianchao also had the answer in his mind as to how to solve this problem. He knew that as long as he could delegate power and employ a group of talented generals, the combat effectiveness of the Jiangnan Army would surely be improved!

However, Lu Jianchao had deep concerns about delegating power to these people. He was always worried that after these people got power, they would not focus all their attention on improving the combat effectiveness of the army, but would think about overthrowing him, Lu Jianchao!

For Lu Jianchao, although he would like to try to dominate the world if possible, he cares more about whether his position in Jiangnan is stable and safe!
Therefore, Lu Jianchao never fully delegated power to his subordinates, and still concentrated the military power of Jiangnan in a few close confidants such as his nephew Lu Yun, in order to ensure the stability of his position.

Honestly speaking, in such a situation, facing the invincible Fengwu Army, Lu Jianchao did not have much confidence in the Jiangnan Army under his command. Therefore, although he had not made a decision on whether to negotiate, Lu Jianchao was actually somewhat inclined to let the Zhennan Army go amid the debate among his subordinates.

The first battle that the Fengwu Army would fight when it marched south would be against Jingchu, followed by Huainan, and finally Jiangnan. Therefore, Lu Jianchao had previously thought about paying the money himself and letting Xu Zhaojie and Jingchu contribute, and the three parties would unite to resist the Fengwu Army that wanted to unify the world...

However, although Lu Jianchao had good ideas, Xu Zhaojie was not on the same page with them at all. He wanted to annex the South by himself, integrate the South's resources, manpower, and financial resources, so as to compete with the Fengwu Army and compete with Ye Mingsheng!
So Xu Zhaojie first sent troops to Jingchu and captured several prefectures and counties in the south of Jingchu, and then invaded Jiangnan. Although from a military point of view, Xu Zhaojie expanded the territory of the Zhennan Army and strengthened its strength!

However, from the perspective of the overall situation, none of the three southern families is as powerful as the Fengwu Army. Only by uniting can they have a chance to compete with the Fengwu Army. If the three families are not united, they will be defeated one by one by the Fengwu Army, and no one can escape from the clutches of the Fengwu Army!
Therefore, Xu Zhaojie's ambition caused the alliance of the three southern families to fail before it was truly formed, forcing Sun Chenggong to move closer to the Fengwu Army!

Therefore, Lu Jianchao has been secretly cursing Xu Zhaojie, saying that he is just a military man with no sense of the overall situation and deserves to be defeated by the Fengwu Army!
Although he was scolding Xu Zhaojie, Lu Jianchao had to be more realistic. The strength of the Zhennan Army was far inferior to that of the Fengwu Army. Now that the Fengwu Army had annexed Jingchu, its strength was undoubtedly even greater!

At this time, although there were only more than 10,000 people left in the Zhennan Army of Chishan Prefecture, these people were elite veterans of the Zhennan Army and their combat effectiveness was very strong...

If he did not agree to peace talks and continued to mobilize heavy troops to encircle and suppress Chishan Prefecture, then even if he could wipe out the Zhennan Army, the losses would be considerable and the strength of the Zhennan Army would be weakened!
Although the Jiangnan Army and the Zhennan Army are enemies now, when the Fengwu Army moves south, the Zhennan Army will be a shield blocking the Jiangnan Army. Therefore, weakening the power of the Zhennan Army now is equivalent to the Jiangnan Army weakening its own shield!

Although he had such an idea, Lu Jianchao was now entangled in the fact that although Xu Zhaojie was willing to swear now and promise never to invade Jiangnan in the future, Lu Jianchao knew that Xu Zhaojie had no credibility at all and he would always be thinking about Jiangnan! Whenever the pressure from the Fengwu Army on him was reduced like now, this guy would start to plot against Jiangnan again!
Thinking of this, Lu Jianchao couldn't help but sigh. Today's Jiangnan is like a tempting piece of fat meat, and there are wolves surrounding it, and everyone wants to take a bite. Although he, the Governor of Jiangnan, is very angry about this, he is also very helpless!
Just when Lu Jianchao was feeling a bit torn and racking his brains to come up with a foolproof plan, a servant suddenly came to report that his son Lu Houde came to ask for a meeting.

When he heard that Lu Houde was coming, Lu Jianchao knew that the matter of Xu Zhaojie escaping back to Huainan must have come to fruition, and he immediately nodded in agreement.

A moment later, a tall, handsome young man who looked 70% similar to Lu Jianchao came in front of Lu Jianchao...

This person is Lu Houde, the eldest son whom Lu Jianchao relies on the most!
Just as Lu Jianchao thought, after greeting each other, Lu Houde introduced:

"Dad, the matter has been investigated clearly. Xu Zhaojie only brought six or seven guards with him. He disguised himself as a businessman and sneaked out of Chishan Prefecture under the cover of night. Then he bribed the navy officials and boarded a ship at Songjia Port to return to Shouchun!"

Although he had already expected this, when he heard his son's introduction, Lu Jianchao suddenly felt a surge of anger in his heart. He grabbed the teacup on the desk and smashed it to the ground!
"boom!"

With a crisp sound, the precious porcelain bowl worth more than ten taels of silver broke into several pieces. Feeling his father's anger, Lu Houde lowered his head and said nothing.

After half a cup of tea, Lu Jianchao's anger gradually subsided, and he asked Lu Houde in a deep voice:
"Who in the navy accepted bribes?"

Faced with this question, Lu Houde fell silent. Seeing that his eldest son did not speak, Lu Jianchao's heart sank, knowing that the answer must be from someone close to him.

Although hesitant, Lu Jianchao, who was still angry, wanted to know who tortured the bold man. He gritted his teeth and said:
"Say!"

Seeing that his father insisted on knowing the answer, Lu Houde spoke:
“Navy Commander Wang Chuanxiang…”

Although he had expected that the person who did this must have an extraordinary identity, otherwise Houde would not be so wary, but when he heard the name, Lu Jianchao's heart was still shaken, and he looked at his most respected eldest son with a scrutinizing gaze.

Lu Houde was not surprised at his father's reaction. He continued calmly:

"Dad, we have the evidence! You can send someone to investigate at any time! Even though I don't like him, I will never frame him for this matter!"

After listening to his son's words to this point, Lu Jianchao was silent for a while before he nodded calmly.

Looking at his father who was furious just now and now became silent after hearing the name Wang Chuanxiang, Lu Houde was full of sarcasm!

Knowing that his father would not blame Wang Chuanxiang no matter what he said, Lu Houde was too lazy to waste words. He wanted to leave directly, but suddenly he thought of something, took out a letter and patiently said to his father Lu Jianchao:

"Dad, there is one more thing. My brother-in-law Zhengshan sent you a letter. Please see what to do!"

After he finished speaking, Lu Houde handed the letter to Lu Jianchao. Lu Jianchao was very interested in the letter, so he opened it and started reading without hesitation.

After drinking a cup of tea, Lu Jianchao read the letter three times, then put it down with a look of grief on his face and fell into deep thought··························
This letter was written by Murong Lun's son Murong Zhengshan to Lu Jianchao. The content of the letter is mainly divided into two parts. Because Lu Jianchao and Murong Lun were not only friends for life and death, but also in-laws, Murong Zhengshan also informed Lu Jianchao of Murong Lun's death and some situations of the Murong family.

As for the second part of the letter, according to Murong Lun's will, he had some things to give to Lu Jianchao, so Murong Zhengshan wanted to fulfill this wish for his father, so he intended to take the things to Jiangnan, and asked Lu Jianchao if it was convenient.

Although he knew more than a month ago that Murong Lun had failed in a coup in Luoan and died, Lu Jianchao still felt very upset when he heard the introduction of his old friend's son. It was not an exaggeration to say that Murong Lun was a man of great kindness to him. He was not only his best friend, but also a good brother in his career!

When he was framed and imprisoned, he was so disheartened that he wanted to hang himself. It was Murong Lun who stopped him and actively worked on his behalf to clear his name. Later, he was able to rise rapidly to the lucrative position of Governor-General of Jiangnan, and it was all because of Murong Lun's efforts behind the scenes.

So Lu Jianchao was definitely grateful to Murong Lun!
(End of this chapter)