Geng Bingwen had already increased his condition to nine guards, but Zhu Zhi still looked at him coldly.
Nine guards were not enough!
Geng Bingwen's heart sank. He didn't expect Zhu Zhi's appetite to be so big.
Including his nine guards and the eleven guards that Zhu Zhi originally controlled, they had basically won over Liaodong. However, Zhu Zhi still hadn't relented.
"Your Highness, how much do you think is appropriate?" Geng Bingwen couldn't help but ask Zhu Zhi about the base price in his heart.
"This king has been conferred the title of Liao King and would like to add the word 'Dong' in the middle. General Geng, what do you think?”Zhu Zhi said.
"The King of Liaodong?" Geng Bingwen gasped.!”
The Liao King was the vassal king who ruled the western part of Liaodong.
However, with the addition of the word 'East', he would become the King of Liaodong. That would be the overlord who ruled the entire Liaodong territory!
Liaodong was so big that even Zhu Yuanzhang had to set up three kings to divide the power, but now Zhu Zhi actually wanted to monopolize Liaodong before King Shen and King Han became vassals!
Geng Bingwen was stunned. He did not know how to answer Zhu Zhi.
If he agreed to Zhu Zhi's conditions, he would become a commander without a commander. In the future, he would no longer have any say in Liaodong. He would only have a second-grade official position, but he would not have any actual power. The commanders of the twenty-three guards in Liaodong were all from the Liao King's residence. Who would listen to him, the commander?
But if he didn't agree, his son Geng Geng would definitely die.
Of course, Geng Bingwen could also go to the imperial court to complain.
However, the result was obvious. The Liao King was verbally punished by the Emperor, while he, Geng Bingwen, had to face the anger of the Fan King.
The vassal kings were never alone. They were in groups.
In the north, for example, the ten vassal kings of Liao, Ning, Yan, Gu, Jin, Qi, Dai, Su, Qing, and Lu formed the circle of vassal kings in the north. This did not include the kings of Shen and Han who had yet to become vassals.
The ten vassal kings formed the circle of the northern vassal kings. As long as they were within the circle of these ten brothers, everyone would give face to each other and help if they could.
Take Zhu Zhi as an example. He was not very familiar with the Prince of Yan, Zhu Di, but Zhu Di would still help him.
Because they were all within the circle of the northern vassal kings, Zhu Di helped Zhu Zhi. Next time, Zhu Zhi would help Zhu Di as well.
Offending Zhu Zhi was equivalent to offending ten northern vassal kings!
Who could withstand the anger of ten princes?
If Geng Bingwen dared to complain, unless he escaped from the north and his descendants never returned to the north, or if the Ming Dynasty was destroyed, every descendant of the Geng family would die.
However, the premise was that Geng Bingwen could bring his entire family out of the north alive.
In short, Geng Bingwen only had two paths left: Either he didn't want military power or he didn't want his son.
"Liao Wang Ye, naturally it's Liao Dong Wang.”
In the end, Geng Bingwen said this with a trembling voice.
He still chose to give the power to Zhu Zhi.
He was already an old general, he could just enjoy his old age and preserve his reputation. However, if they continued to fight to the death like this, not only would they lose their chastity in their later years, but even their families would suffer.
If he gave Zhu Zhi the power now, at the very least, he could guarantee that he would be protected by the Liao King's residence in Liaodong in the future and would not end up in a miserable state.
"General Geng is indeed a smart man.”
After getting the answer he wanted, a smile appeared on Zhu Zhi's face. He said,"General Geng, please write a list of names so that this king can easily change guards.”
"I understand."
Geng Bingwen was going to write a list of his trusted aides in the Liaodong army and present it to Zhu Zhi.
Zhu Zhi would use this list to eliminate Geng Bingwen's henchmen in the Liaodong army and replace them with the trusted aides of the Liao King's residence.
In name, Zhu Zhi's subordinate army only had 15,000 soldiers, but in reality, the high-ranking officers of Liaodong's 23rd Guard were all from the Liao King's Mansion, and the entire Liaodong was in his pocket!
In the entire Great Ming Dynasty, there was absolutely no vassal king who could have such powerful control over his fief like Zhu Zhi!
More importantly, Liaodong was a military town.
For example, King Qin's fief had 70,000 soldiers, but King Qin's Residence had less than 10,000 soldiers on the surface and less than 30,000 under their control.
Zhu Zhi, on the surface, had 15,000 soldiers in the Liao King's residence, but in reality, he controlled 200,000 elite soldiers from Liaodong!
He had already achieved a qualitative transformation, from the Liao King to the real Liaodong King!
"Men, escort General Geng back to his residence!”
After achieving his goal, Zhu Zhi was in a good mood and shouted outside.
"General Geng, follow me."”
Geng Bingwen nodded bitterly.
……
After Geng Bingwen left, Zhu Zhi shouted,"Liao Liu!"”
"Your subject is here!" Liao Liu walked out from the shadows.
"Tell the King Yan's estate that Geng Geng can be released.”Zhu Zhi said.
The reason why he had been suppressing Geng Geng was to create pressure on Geng Bingwen, so as to achieve the goal of making the Liaodong Commander-in-Chief powerless.
Now that Geng Bingwen's military power had been taken away by him, it was useless to suppress Geng Geng any longer.
"Yes!"
After Liao Liu received the order, he returned to the darkness.
Wang Wei was a person who could not see the light. He did the darkest things for his master.
They wouldn't ask questions and would only use their hands to carry out the orders of the vassal king.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]