Chapter 141

After Pang Jun left, Wei Wangshu still stayed in the room with a complicated expression, and no one knew what he was thinking about. Not long after, the door opened and a burly figure walked into the room. It was Wei Wangshu's father, Wei Jinglie, the Duke of Zheng.

　　Standing by the window and watching Pang Jun's figure going away, Duke of Zheng Wei Jinglie walked to his beloved daughter, looked at her rosy face, and asked worriedly: "Shu'er, are you really sure that this Pang Jun is really the right match for you? He was just a small governor, back then..."

　　"Dad, I have made up my mind. He is the one I like. I hope he won't let me down. If he doesn't work out, then I will completely give up. From now on, I will just follow the Buddha and forget about worldly affairs." Wei Wangshu said lightly, still looking at Pang Jun's receding back.

　　"Alas..." Wei Jinglie sighed, shook his head, and left.

　　Pang Jun vaguely felt that the reason why Wei Wangshu favored him was not that simple, but it was not his turn to dwell on it. Recalling Wei Wangshu's enchanting charm, his heart was burning with passion. In order to win her heart, he would accept any dangers ahead. So, after returning to Songzhou, he immediately began to deploy the details of the sand table and map, and summoned all the key officials of Songzhou to the governor's office, explained the situation of the military meeting, and asked them to cooperate with the deployment.

　　As the ruler of a state, Pang Jun certainly could not help with surveying for a long time like a real scout. He only needed to go out occasionally to point out some hidden roads. The rest of the time, he stayed in the governor's mansion, commanding and communicating with Wei Wangshu through letters.

　　It has to be said that Wei Wangshu was indeed a talented woman of her generation. Just based on the description of her father, Duke of Zheng, Wei Jinglue, she was able to roughly infer the division and trends of the major forces in the current court.

　　In the current court, the biggest force is, of course, the royalists who are loyal to His Majesty the Emperor. The royalists here refer to those who are only loyal to the Emperor and have no inclination towards any other princes. They are headed by Xu Xiao, the Grand Marshal who holds military power among the Three Dukes, and Pei Mo, the long-silent Grand Tutor. There are also Wei Jinglue, Duke of Zheng, Hou Xiyan, the Minister of War, Ye Wentai, the Minister of Personnel, Shen Shi, the Minister of Works, as well as several governors and other senior officials. The emperor is still in his prime right now, and they hold great power, and do not intend to support any side in advance. At their level, they are more concerned about how to consolidate their power.

　　Below the royalists are the prince's party, headed by one of the Three Dukes, Grand Tutor Nie Xingyan, Minister of Revenue Dong Jie, and Left Vice Minister of Personnel Zheng Yinglin. Most of them are relatives of the prince's in-laws or disciples and former officials of Nie Xingyan, and they hold the orthodox position of successor to the Jin Dynasty. However, the current emperor favors Prince Zhao, and is dissatisfied with the prince's power that is too strong to be eliminated. The prince's party's goal now is to maintain the status quo in the court as much as possible and suppress the expansion of the power of the princes. Once there are changes in the court, they, who occupy the throne, will naturally support Crown Prince Yang Zhi to ascend the throne.

　　The one who competes with the Prince's party is the currently powerful Prince of Zhao Yang Sheng. The main force of Prince of Zhao's party relies on external relatives, including the current Minister of Rites Nan Xinzhou and his disciples and former officials, the Governor of Jiangnan Province Tong Ming, and the Zhejiang Governor Nan Xinzhao. In the palace, there are his mother, Concubine Nan Xiangwu, who is the current imperial concubine, his cousin Nan Feifei Nan Jieyushi, and the eldest princess Yang Chuyu with whom he has an affair. With the emperor's deliberate connivance, Prince of Zhao's party has been constantly expanding in the court, and in recent years has become a major force restraining the Prince's party.

　　In addition, Qi Wang Yang Man and Song Wang Yang Jie are also two forces in the court. Although their power is not as strong as that of the Crown Prince and Zhao Wang, they have always been acting as troublemakers in the court. Through repeated confrontations between the Crown Prince's party and Zhao Wang's party, they have slowly strengthened their own strength. Now those who support Qi Wang are the faction of Yue Yongtu, the Minister of Punishment, and Du Yuan, the Left Vice Minister of Rites. Qi Wang Yang Man has found his position, which is a knife in the hands of the emperor. When the Crown Prince is powerful, he will stab the Crown Prince's party; when the King of Zhao is powerful, he will stab the King of Zhao's party. Some courtiers in the court secretly call him "Qi Mad Dog", and Song Wang has almost no hope of winning the throne, so he can only rely on Qi Wang with a few relatives in an attempt to gain more benefits.

　　As for the situation in Xichuan, it was the same as the war in Liaodong, and it could even be said to be in a state of decay. Qi Tiansheng, who called himself the "King of Shu", relied on the natural barrier of Xichuan, with a checkpoint every five steps and a pass every ten steps. After a year, the imperial army that was suppressing the rebellion suffered more than three thousand casualties and only broke through four checkpoints. If they really wanted to attack Fanzhou, they would need to break through thirteen passes in total. The Western Di people were always ready to move, and the border guards could not be distracted to help suppress the rebellion, so they were stuck there.

　　As for the north, which posed the greatest threat to the imperial court, the Northern Hu people launched a large-scale autumn offensive two months ago, broke through Lingzhou, the northernmost part of Anbei Province, and plundered thousands of people back to the northern border. The border defense troops of Anbei had been suppressed to the point of being breathless in the long-term dispute with the Northern Hu people, and the imperial court's supplies had not arrived yet. The soldiers could not even run and could only watch the Northern Hu people plundering.

　　Before being conferred the title of nobility, although Pang Jun became the governor of Songzhou at a young age, he was, after all, only the governor of a remote small place and had not yet entered the big scene. Even King Zhao did not care much about him. But now it is different. If a governor or a county marquis only possesses one of them, he is just a small pawn in the eyes of the court officials. If he possesses both and is only seventeen years old, he is a considerable force even if compared with those in the capital. Therefore, after Pang Jun was conferred the title, King Zhao and his party spared no effort to exaggerate that he was one of their own.

　　Due to the special nature of Songzhou, the prestige brought by Pang Jun's many actions, and the attitude of the commander Wu Xiang, Pang Jun's secret power in Songzhou is much greater than that of other governors. Even Fei Lin, the governor of Liaodong, did not expect that Pang Jun, who went to Songzhou almost empty-handed, could actually make a name for himself. The presence of the Japanese and Fei Qingyu also made it impossible for Fei Lin to easily trip up Pang Jun, so he had to change control to winning over, and let Pang Jun give Fei Qingyu a promise.

　　In addition, news about the "Tianyi Religion" came from "Suifeng" and Wang Fangmei of Zhejiang Province: The number of believers of the "Tianyi Religion" has been expanding rapidly in the past six months, not only in Jiangnan, but also in the two rivers and the Central Plains Province, not to mention Xichuan, which is already in a state of division and rebellion.

　　But what's interesting is that although Qi Tiansheng raised the banner of rebellion under the instigation of a woman who was the concubine of the "Tianyi Divine Religion", he did not stop the pace of developing his power. Some time ago, he formed an alliance with the Tang Clan of Xichuan and married the fourth lady of the Tang Clan, "Poisonous Hand Flying Swallow" Tang Ying, as his "concubine". Not only that, he even forcibly married Fu Jinghua, a widowed junior sister of the current leader of the Emei Sect, who was known as the "Heavenly Swallowtail", as another "concubine", intending to use the power of the Tang Clan and the Emei Sect to strengthen his own strength. The situation is stronger than the person, and although the two sects are powerful, they are just underworld forces after all, and they have to bow their heads.

　　Pang Jun and Ji Shuanghua were joking about the fact that Fu Jinghua was raped by Qi Tiansheng: According to seniority, Fu Jinghua is Ji Shuanghua's junior sister. When Pang Jun was in Xichuan, he raped Qi Tiansheng's daughter. He could be considered Pang Jun's cheap father-in-law, but now they are his brother-in-law, which made Ji Shuanghua, the beautiful mature woman who was already pregnant, feel shy.

　　Based on the above, Wei Wangshu made the following suggestions to Pang Jun: 1. Lie dormant and secretly accumulate strength, and do not expose one's edge too much for the time being, so as not to attract attention and become the target of public criticism; 2. Help her father, Duke of Zheng Wei Jinglue, to drive the Japanese back to the east coast of the country, suppress them but do not break them, and protect themselves by nurturing them; 3. Find a way to lure the people of "Tianyi Sect" to Liaodong to develop believers, but they must be under control; 4. Vigorously develop the official village in Songzhou, strengthen ties with the Zhejiang fleet, secretly accumulate more food and money, and train the current limited military force into a backbone elite force.

　　Pang Jun immediately understood what Wei Wangshu meant: The "Tianyi Sect" must be a rebel, and it must have colluded with powerful families in many places, otherwise it would not have been possible to expand so quickly. It is estimated that it will not be long before the world will be in chaos. At that time, the "Tianyi Sect" believers in Liaodong will also take the opportunity to cause chaos. Their rebellion and the covetous eyes of the Japanese people will give Pang Jun an excuse to expand his power, and the money and grain accumulated over a long period of time will be put to good use. At that time, the officials of the court will be too busy to take care of Pang Jun, and of course they have no time to care about Pang Jun. The only person in Liaodong who can take care of Pang Jun is Fei Lin in Yanzhou. But Fei Lin, this old fox, will not release his eagle until he sees the rabbit. If Pang Jun marries Fei Qingyu at that time, he will have no objection.

　　She had clear ideas and was extremely beautiful, which made Pang Jun fall in love with her at first sight. If the timing had not allowed it, Pang Jun would have really wanted to go to Yanzhou immediately. Even if he had to kneel down and beg, he would have wanted to marry Wei Wangshu, this intelligent and beautiful woman.

　　He indeed lacks a virtuous wife by his side. Ji Shuanghua can only manage the household chores, and her abilities are not enough to deal with Pang Jun's rebellious heart. Wang Fangmei is far away in Zhejiang Province, helping him manage his money and teaching Tianxi. His master Gong Qinxue has to help him manage "Suifeng", and is not familiar with the court. Fei Qingyu is too eccentric and is not a good choice either. The only one left is Wei Wangshu.

　　However, Wei Wangshu believed that under the current circumstances, Pang Jun had enough ability and energy to handle matters that were not too onerous, and she herself had to return to Tianjing to secretly and clearly and quickly understand everything in order to better help Pang Jun. If she stayed in Songzhou, Pang Jun's understanding of the current situation of the court or his current analysis of the court would be very insufficient, which would not be conducive to Pang Jun's future activities. Therefore, she planned to return to Tianjing immediately in the spring after the war here stabilized, and Pang Jun would have to let her go.

　　Time passed and it was December again. Recalling this time last year, Pang Jun was in the capital, having spent three days indulging in obscene and crazy incestuous intercourse with Tang Yuxian. "I wonder how the mother and daughter are doing now?" Pang Jun thought as he looked at the snowflakes drifting outside the window.

　　Far away in the Prince of Wei's Mansion in Tianjing, Tang Yuxian was in a warm room at this time, exposing a large area of ​​charming body. The two lumps of beautiful flesh on her chest had become a whole circle larger than before due to childbirth. They were round, full and slightly sagging. Her nipples were large and purple-brown, and her areolas were dark brown. The little princess Yang Ning, who had just turned one month old, was holding one of them in her mouth and sucking it with relish.

　　Tang Yuxian looked at her lovely little daughter and murmured, "I don't know how your father is doing now." The baby girl in her arms didn't seem to feel her mother's sorrow and continued to sip the delicious food in her mouth...