Chapter 235 Succession
As the year draws to a close, the military camps inside and outside Hefei are relatively cheerful because the New Year is approaching, and everyone is discussing New Year rewards and scheduled banquets.

However, some veteran soldiers noticed something was wrong. Gathering the troops in Hefei during the Chinese New Year should not be as simple as letting everyone celebrate the New Year together.

Maybe there is a war to be fought, maybe a big war.

Moreover, the camp leaders of each camp were almost in the general's mansion all day long, participating in meetings, which deepened the speculation of some middle-level officers and veterans. However, this did not affect their enjoyment of the rare leisure time, because the leaders' meetings meant that they could relax in the barracks.

All the military leaders of the Huaixi Right Camp were helping to prepare and clean Zhu's house as they were about to get married.

Xu Dalang and Tang Yun, who were given the name Xu Qiande by Li Yuanhui, were hanging lanterns, while Hu Kuohai, Geng Changxing and others were sweeping the courtyard, and Wu Liang and Zhou Deyong were pasting window decorations and wedding characters.
As the elder and the most influential person in the village, Tang Wu was in charge of directing the arrangements in the middle, shouting and feeling around to see if there was anything that was not arranged properly.

The bride is the daughter of Guo Changshi, and is said to be a wealthy woman. Guo Changshi's family is from the Xiping Guo family. If it were in the Former Wei Dynasty, Chongba would have no chance to marry into such a high family.
At this moment, the Guo family was busy preparing things to entertain the wedding party. In fact, both families were in Hefei City, only a few hundred steps away, and this distance could not be called a long marriage.

When Murong Jiayin heard that there was going to be a wedding here, she asked her maid to bring some jewelry to add to her makeup.

As soon as the Guo family heard about the reward from Princess Jinyang, Guo's mother brought her daughter to the back house of the general's mansion to thank the princess.

Li Yuanhui, his staff and generals naturally had no time to take care of this.

In the hall, everyone gathered around the map to discuss how to deploy and defeat the enemy, as well as how to recruit reserve troops and how to transport food.
Once the war machine starts running, some things are far more important than fighting on the battlefield.

There is a saying that goes, "Three minutes on stage requires ten years of hard work off stage." This saying is about opera, but it is similar in other fields.

The moment of battle on the battlefield may be exhilarating, but the preparations needed for this moment often require thousands, even hundreds of thousands or millions of manpower and material resources to prepare for such a war.

Fortunately, Li Yuanhui has developed large-scale military and civilian settlements in Jianghuai in recent years, and has lightened taxes and levies, allowing the people to live in harmony. Nearly one million shi of military grain has been stockpiled, and this year's summer and autumn grains have also begun to be collected normally. At present, the warehouses of all counties have accumulated grain.

In addition, the major powerful families must have large amounts of food and fodder, but for now they cannot ask for it casually.

After Guo Fenghe was appointed as the acting prefect of Huainan County, the position of Chief Secretary was taken over by the military officer Xie Xun, and Li Baishi was transferred back to the shogunate and officially took over as the military officer of the record room.

Although Li Yuanhui had appointed him as a military officer before, his main task was to stay in Zhongli and Yinling areas to purse Huaibei, and at the same time be responsible for supplying food and fodder to Liu Yuanqing's troops in Pei County.

After Liu Yuanqing's troops submitted to Li Yuanhui, although they were still an independent faction in name, they accepted Li Baishi's advice, streamlined the troops, eliminated the old and weak, and reorganized the tens of thousands of his men.

Finally, they got more than 20,000 young and strong people, and organized them into ten camps. According to the Taoist Sun Lingxiu's suggestion, they used the earthly branches as the camp names, namely "Camp A", "Camp B", "Camp C", "Camp D", and so on.

After training morning and evening, they gradually became elite soldiers.

Liu Yuanqing's actions naturally could not be concealed from the Wagang Army in Xia Pi.

Zhai Rang was very dissatisfied with Li Yuanhui's interference in Xuzhou's affairs, because he had already regarded the entire Xuzhou as belonging to Wagang.

He also wanted to swallow up Liu Yuanqing's troops.

But who would have known that this kid surnamed Liu was so ungrateful that he actually defected to Li Yuanhui.

Zhai Rang was very angry about this, but he was still very rational and knew that he should not conflict with Li Yuanhui at that time. After all, they were now colleagues.

Moreover, he could not take action immediately on Liu Yuanqing's side. If Liu Yuanqing led his army directly south to join Li Yuanhui, he would have no legitimate reason to do so.

Ever since he took on the official title, Zhai Rang has been extremely persistent in having a legitimate reason to serve as a teacher.

Those who don't know him would think he is a pure scholar who is almost corrupt.

However, Luoyang soon gave him the pretext to prepare to send troops to attack Jianghuai. As a result, a large number of Wagang troops were mobilized from Qingzhou and Yanzhou to Xuzhou.

After receiving the news, Liu Yuanqing immediately informed the Jianghuai side, repairing the city on the one hand, and stockpiling food and grass in preparation for the battle on the other. In fact, winter is not suitable for sending troops, and the cold weather requires a lot of supplies. Food consumption is also higher than in spring, summer and autumn.

But for Luoyang, the opportunity is now and will never come back.

While Li Yuan has not yet completed the integration of Guanzhong and Western Yan is still in name only, this is the only opportunity to eliminate the potential threat from Jianghuai.

If we wait any longer, it might be Luoyang that will be caught in the crossfire.

Murong Chao, who was almost lying down, was an emperor who was easily influenced. Several prime ministers including General Zheng Guo all advocated this, so Murong Chao agreed to use military force.

The winter in Luoyang was also very cold. In the palace bedroom, Emperor Guangping was lying on a couch covered with a thick felt.

As the winter progressed, Murong Chao's health became worse. He didn't know what was wrong with him. As the year drew to a close, he felt weak after walking a few steps.

He was so weak that he didn't even have the energy to enrich his harem, but an idea came to his mind.

Is he dying?
When he thought about this, he felt a little scared. A normal person is afraid of death.

This is even worse for those in high positions.

But after the fear, he felt a little bit of anticipation. If he died, he wouldn't have to worry about these trivial things all day, right?

But after death, what should be done with the throne?
The late emperor gave it to him because he was older and more generous. But facts have proved that he has no ability to save this ancestral foundation that is sliding into the abyss.

The second brother rebelled and is now trapped in Chang'an. He will die sooner or later.

His eldest son was only ten years old, and his temperament was not much different from his. Moreover, he was still a child. If he sat on the dragon throne, he would be torn to pieces by the wolves.

The fifth son is the legitimate son of the previous emperor and the former crown prince. Unfortunately, he is in Shu, otherwise he would be a good candidate as he is smart and courageous.
It seems that the only choice is the third child.

The third son’s mother was Concubine Wei, who came from the Jingzhao Wei clan. Several of his uncles were talented. His wife’s family was the Yuwen clan, a large Xianbei clan from Liaodong that originated from the same clan as the Murong Xianbei, and had deep roots.

But the Yuwen clan of Wu Wangfei's family is not from the same branch as Liang Wang Murongzhan's mother's family. They are just from the same clan, not the same family.

Therefore, Murong Chao immediately decided on this idea, and in a rare decisive move, he ordered his trusted eunuch to secretly summon King Wu Murong Yang back to Luoyang, saying that he missed his brothers and wanted Murong Yang to return to the capital to preside over the ceremony. He wanted to finalize this matter as soon as possible.

He was afraid that if it was delayed any further, his body would not be able to bear it.

The person who summoned him changed horses but not people along the way, and traveled quickly for several days and nights, and quickly arrived in Hongnong to meet Murong Yang.

Murong Yang was quite surprised when he heard the news.

He asked the messenger to rest first, and he would set off again after meeting the general the next day.

He then summoned his cousin Wei Xiaoju and the chief secretary Liang Chongli.

"The Saint summoned Your Highness to return to Luoyang to preside over the New Year's Day ancestral worship?"

Liang Chongli exclaimed, and Wei Xiaoju also looked surprised.

When the emperor is seriously ill, the only one who can preside over the ancestor worship on his behalf is the crown prince or the heir apparent.

"Could it be that the emperor is ill and wants to pass the throne to Your Highness?"

(End of this chapter)