Chapter 978 Three candidates for emperor!

Before this Western Expedition, Yuan Song was widely regarded within the Fengwu Army as having surpassed He Jingyun because of his contribution in conquering You, Yan, Ji and Yu. He became the de facto first general of the Fengwu Army and the person with the most outstanding military exploits in the Fengwu Army...

After this Western Expedition, Yuan Song's reputation in the Fengwu Army reached a new peak thanks to his achievements in conquering Jinyang, taking Wei Pass, and recovering Luoan.

It is no exaggeration to say that before Yuan Song captured Luoan, some close ministers around Ye Mingsheng hinted to Ye Mingsheng overtly or covertly that Yuan Song's reputation in the army was too high and should be restricted!
Although Yuan Song was born a military man, he had been in the army for so many years, and he was very clear about the principle of being too successful and thus endangering the lord!
So after taking Jinyang, he followed the example of his ancestors and wrote a letter to Ye Mingsheng asking him to give him plenty of good land and a beautiful house so that he could live out his life in peace.

Ye Mingsheng knew that Yuan Song was hinting at him that he had no ambition and only wanted a life of wealth and honor, and he could hand over the military power at any time.

At present, the Fengwu Army seems to have many warriors, brave generals, and talented people. However, in Ye Mingsheng's opinion, there are only two and a half people in the Fengwu Army who can stand on their own. One is He Jingyun and the other is Yuan Song!
The other half is Guo Zhiping, but compared to the first two, Guo Zhiping does not seem particularly mature·······························
As for the remaining Xun Ke, Shen Quan, Ma Zhongjun and others, Ye Mingsheng felt that they still needed experience, while Ye Tie, Ye Dong, Ye Tao and others simply did not have the strength to stand on their own!

Ye Mingsheng had a clear understanding of the abilities of his relatives, so he only regarded them as his base and never assigned any important tasks to them.

Therefore, Ye Mingsheng was very pleased with Yuan Song's attitude. He wrote a letter to Yuan Song telling him that his requests would be met one by one, and expressed his 100% trust in him, so that Yuan Song did not have to worry or have any concerns and could focus on the war!

Now after conquering Luoan, Yuan Song defeated the Golden Horde and recovered Yongliang for the Great Zhou. There is no doubt that this is also a great achievement!
But what is very rare is that Yuan Song still seems to have a clear head and is not carried away by the victory!

Ye Mingsheng even felt that the reason why Yuan Song ordered the killing of prisoners in the battle against the Cumans was not only to avenge the people, but also to defile himself!
Although he could understand Yuan Song's intention, Ye Mingsheng did not want to back down. Yuan Song's contribution was too great. If he backed down now, other soldiers would probably be disheartened when seeing this.

The Fengwu Army has always been clear about rewards and punishments, which is also the core competitiveness of the Fengwu Army. Therefore, if there is any mistake in this regard, it will affect the morale of the army. The Fengwu Army will have to march south next, so it must not destroy the Great Wall at this moment...

Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng picked up another letter. This letter was written to him by Jiang Yuyan and was delivered to Dagu County yesterday.

In the letter, Jiang Yuyan not only reported her love for Ye Mingsheng to him, but also reported her work in Luoan to Ye Mingsheng!

Jiang Yuyan said that after she arrived in Luoan, she had been trying to appease the royal family members on Ye Mingsheng's behalf and dispel some of their unrealistic ideas.

Under the threat of military force from the Coordination Office and the army, as well as Jiang Yuyan's tireless persuasion, these old and young members of the Great Zhou royal family have now almost all accepted the reality.

After doing all this, Jiang Yuyan began to look for a candidate for the new emperor for Ye Mingsheng. She provided Ye Mingsheng with three options.

The first choice is the grandson of Jiang Hailin, the King of Zhao of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the thirteen-year-old Jiang Cong. Jiang Hailin, the King of Zhao, is the only surviving prince of the Jiang family of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

The reason why Jiang Hailin was able to survive was largely due to his knowledge of the times. Compared with Jiang Guang, the King of Zheng of the Great Zhou Dynasty, who was once ambitious and vowed to take back power from Shangguan Hongyuan, and the King of Qin who controlled Yongliang and wanted to revive the Zhou Dynasty, King Zhao Jiang Hailin seemed to be at the other extreme.

Jiang Hailin did not care about state affairs, but indulged in eating, drinking and having fun. He was also a weakling in politics and had no strong opinions.

Therefore, although he is a prince, because of his character, he does not have much say in the royal family. When Zheng Wang Jiang Guang and Lin Shize launched the Luoan coup, they did not bring Zhao Wang Jiang Hailin with them and left him in Luoan...
At that time, Jiang Guang and Lin Shize might have used Shangguan Hongyuan to get rid of Jiang Hailin, and then put the big hat of killing clan members on Shangguan Hongyuan!
However, a blessing in disguise, although Jiang Hailin was left in Luoan, he moved closer to Shangguan Hongyuan because of his decisiveness.

Therefore, Shangguan Hongyuan did not vent his anger on Jiang Hailin and kill the King of Zhao of the Great Zhou as Jiang Guang and Lin Shize had expected. Instead, he issued a manifesto to the world in the name of the King of Zhao, angrily denouncing Jiang Guang and Lin Shize for using the emperor to plot evil!

Therefore, even though Shangguan Hongyuan later destroyed the Southern Tour court and massacred King Zheng, King Qin and other relatives, King Zhao Jiang Hailin was able to escape!
When Jiang Yuyan came into contact with the royal family, the King of Zhao of the Great Zhou once again demonstrated his fence-sitter nature and took the initiative to express his desire to cooperate with the Fengwu Army. He even hinted to Jiang Yuyan that as long as Marshal Ye nodded, he could take the lead in abdicating the throne to Ye Mingsheng among the clan members.

Jiang Yuyan, who is also a relative of the Zhou clan, was disgusted by the fawning face of King Zhao Jiang Hailin. She felt that Jiang Hailin had let down the ancestors of the Jiang family and brought shame to the Zhou clan.

However, in her heart she had to admit that Jiang Hailin's full cooperation with Ye Mingsheng might be the best choice for the Great Zhou clan, so she also nominated Jiang Hailin's grandson, the thirteen-year-old Jiang Congli, as one of the candidates...
In addition to Jiang Cong, Jiang Yuyan believed that the second candidate for the emperor was her younger brother, Jiang Shen, the 17-year-old youngest son of King Qi Jiang Zhe. This son was the product of King Qi Jiang Zhe's drunken sexual misconduct and favoring a maid. He and Jiang Yuyan were siblings with the same father but different mothers.

Because his mother was a maid, even though he was the son of King Qi Jiang Zhe, he had a very low status in the clan. However, there was an advantage to his low status, which was that Shangguan Hongyuan did not kill him when he retaliated against the clan members, and he spared his life. His humble origin made Jiang Shen live up to his name, and he was very cautious in his words and deeds, and he did not dare to do anything that crossed the line. It was because of this that Jiang Yuyan recommended him to Jiang Shen.

In addition to Jiang Shen and Jiang Cong, the last person recommended by Jiang Yuyan is quite interesting. This boy is named Jiang Chang, who is 31 years old. He is the second son of the former Hedong County King Jiang Jian. This boy also went to Sichuan during the Luoan Rebellion. Later, after the imperial army broke through Rongcheng, he was also captured!

Originally, Jiang Chang was going to be executed by Shangguan Hongyuan like other clan members, but because his mother was the cousin of Shangguan Hongyuan’s wife, and Jiang Chang admitted his fault very well, it was said that he hugged Shangguan Hongyuan’s thigh and begged for pain, and his wife, Song, gave Shangguan Tingshu many gifts··································
Therefore, with the help of his kinship and Shangguan Tingshu's intercession, Jiang Chang not only saved his life, but was also appointed as Lieutenant General of the Imperial Guards to closely protect the young emperor Jiang Rui.

The position of Lieutenant General of the Imperial Guards was the third rank in the Great Zhou Dynasty, which was not low at all in terms of rank. However, because the little emperor Jiang Rui was just a decoration, the so-called imperial city was just a gorgeous prison, and the imperial guards who protected the emperor were actually the jailers who guarded the little emperor!

Many of the Imperial Guards are Shangguan Hongyuan's confidants, so Jiang Chang, the Lieutenant General of the Imperial Guards, is actually just an empty title with no real substance!

The reason why Jiang Yuyan chose Jiang Chang as one of the candidates had a lot to do with his wife, Song, who was the legitimate daughter of the Song family, a wealthy family in Sichuan.

Although the Song family is considered a wealthy family in Sichuan, its actual status is similar to that of the Cui family in Liaoyang. It has no political influence outside Sichuan. Therefore, in the eyes of some aristocratic families at the top of the Great Zhou, the Song family is actually a country bumpkin in Sichuan!

Therefore, from this perspective, although Jiang Chang is the second son of a prince, he should not marry the daughter of the Song family in Sichuan.

However, after the Luoan Incident, a group of clan members retreated to Sichuan and Shu. In order to win the support of the local powerful forces in Sichuan and Shu, King Zheng Jiang Guang promoted the marriage between the members of the Great Zhou clan and the local powerful families in Sichuan and Shu, trying to win over the local forces in Sichuan and Shu in this way, and integrate the forces of all parties in Sichuan and Shu to fight against Shangguan Hongyuan...
So the wedding of Jiang Chang and Song was a product of this. King Zheng Jiang Guang held more than a dozen political marriages like this, in which clan members married the daughters of local nobles, and clan daughters married into the family.

Objectively speaking, Jiang Guang's method at the time was very good. For Sichuan and Shu nobles like the Song family, although these relatives were in trouble at the moment, they were still relatives after all. Some concepts of the 300-year reign of the Great Zhou were still deeply rooted, so these local nobles were also happy to use the identities of these relatives to enhance their own political status.

It was with the help of these local nobles in Sichuan and Shu that Jiang Guang and Lin Shize were able to integrate the power of Sichuan and Shu and resist Shangguan Hongyuan for several years.

However, the imperial court on its southern tour later showed its declining power, and these local powerful families in Sichuan and Shu successively moved on. After defeating the imperial court on its southern tour, Shangguan Hongyuan wanted to take this opportunity to thoroughly rectify Sichuan and Shu and consolidate his rule in Sichuan and Shu.

However, due to the sudden rise of the Fengwu Army and the successive capture of Youyan, Jiyu, Qi and Lu, its momentum in the northern part of the Great Zhou was so great that Shangguan Hongyuan felt threatened.

The north is regarded as his base by Shangguan Hongyuan, so how can he allow others to sleep beside his bed? In order to resolve the threat of Fengwu Army, Shangguan Hongyuan had to transfer his power to Yunbing, which completely thwarted his original idea of ​​governing Sichuan and Shu...

Shangguan Hongyuan's idea at the time was to first eliminate the Fengwu Army and remove the threat in the north, and then turn back to reorganize Sichuan.

Therefore, in order to make Sichuan and Shu contribute money and manpower during his expedition against the Fengwu Army, Shangguan Hongyuan had to flatter the local powerful families in Sichuan and Shu, such as the Song family, so that local forces in Sichuan and Shu like the Song family were also preserved.

Although Shangguan Hongyuan had good ideas, unfortunately he would never have the chance to reorganize Sichuan. Although Shangguan Changgong did not succeed in escaping to Sichuan some time ago, Shangguan Changgong had made preparations in advance and sent his cousin Shangguan Tingshu to Sichuan, in an attempt to preserve a spark for the Shangguan family.

But unfortunately, although Shangguan Tingshu is not a waste, his ability is not strong either. The reason why he was able to thrive in the central government of the Great Zhou Dynasty was largely due to his family influence.

As the Shangguan family suffered a heavy blow, Shangguan Tingshu had a hard time in Sichuan and was even about to be completely marginalized by some local tyrants headed by the Song family!
The current leading figure of the Sichuan-Shu local forces is called Song Weijie, who is the biological brother of Mrs. Jiang Chang, Song.

It was precisely because of this relationship that Jiang Yuyan considered that establishing Jiang Chang as emperor might help win over the Song family, so she recommended Jiang Chang to Ye Mingsheng...
As for the three people recommended by Jiang Yuyan, Ye Mingsheng was satisfied with the first two. They seemed to be easier to control. If he asked them to go east, they would not dare to go west. If he called a deer a horse, they would not dare to say it was a deer!

However, as for the third Jiang Chang, Ye Mingsheng couldn't help but sigh that Jiang Yuyan was still a little too naive. Looking at the world of the Great Zhou today, no one has the ability to compete with him, Ye, head-on. He doesn't need to win over anyone or assign the throne to anyone!

Now it shouldn't be him, Ye, who should show goodwill to the Sichuan Song family, but the Sichuan Song family should come and fawn on him!
Moreover, if Jiang Chang is made emperor, the Song family in Sichuan and Shu will become foreign relatives. Judging from the information sent by the Coordination Office, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Shangguan Tingshu to continue in Sichuan and Shu. Song Weijie is likely to become a separatist in Sichuan and Shu. Therefore, if Jiang Chang is made emperor, there will be even more trouble in the future!
As for Jiang Cong and Jiang Shen, Ye Mingsheng still needs to take a look. If there is no problem, Ye Mingsheng plans to choose one of them as the new emperor of Da Zhou, who should also be the last emperor of Da Zhou...

(Tongming wants to hear everyone's views on the current plot. I hope you will give me your opinions. Tongming will listen attentively!)
(End of this chapter)