After Zhu Yuanzhang said goodbye to Li Changru and others with a smile on his face, he took the reins handed over by Wang Chengen, got on his horse and moved forward.
But after he got on the horse, his face immediately turned livid, causing Wang Chengen who was about to speak to shut up again.
Wang Chengen hesitated for a long time, and when he saw that Zhu Yuanzhang's expression softened, he complimented with a smile on his face: "Your Majesty, you just beheaded Cao Desi of Zhengyang Gate alive, which is really satisfying. I have never seen this before in this long time..." ..."
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard Wang Chengen's words, his face immediately darkened.
How could he not understand the meaning of Wang Chengen's words? This was asking him to arrange for people to guard Zhengyang Gate.
In fact, although he didn't say it explicitly just now, he had asked Li Ruolian to handle the affairs of Li Changru and others, which was a hint that Li Ruolian would temporarily take over the duties of city guard.
It is indeed a bit overqualified to let a third-grade official serve as a gatekeeper, but this is also a test for Zhu Yuanzhang to Li Ruolian.
If Li Ruolian was really a loyal and intelligent minister, he would have understood what he meant and taken the initiative to take on the responsibility of guarding Zhengyang Gate.
If he doesn't understand this meaning, or even though he understands it, he doesn't want to do such a mean thing, it doesn't harm the overall situation.
Because Zhengyangmen is the inner city, it doesn't matter much at the moment. Even if there is no one in charge, there are still soldiers guarding the city, so there won't be any trouble for a while.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang would never tell Wang Chengen these things.
Seeing Wang Chengen mention this matter at this moment, I knew that he did not understand the key point.
In fact, Wang Chengen didn't understand, and Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care, because he only needed the eunuchs to do their jobs well, and he didn't need them to be more capable.
However, Wang Chengen was insinuating him, but it was the eunuch who interfered with politics and violated his rules.
He glanced at Wang Chengen coldly, tightened the reins in his hands, and the horse immediately raised its front hooves and let out a long neigh.
Wang Chengen was only half a horse behind in order to see Zhu Yuanzhang's face clearly.
At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly reined in his horse and stopped. Wang Chengen's horse was about to overtake Zhu Yuanzhang. When he saw this, he was shocked and tightened the reins desperately to prevent his horse from overstepping the line.
When he saw Zhu Yuanzhang's livid face and murderous intent in his eyes, he immediately remembered the warning from the Qianqing Palace.
So he hurriedly got off his horse, kowtowed and said, "I am confused, please forgive me!"
Zhu Yuanzhang sat upright on his horse, glanced at him sideways, and scolded: "I think you don't have a long memory. After this tour of the city, you go to the ceremonial supervisor to get twenty imperial staffs, so that you can have a long memory!"
As soon as these words came out, not only Wang Chengen was stunned, but the four guards behind him also looked surprised.
It turns out that among the twelve prisons in the inner court of the Ming Dynasty, the ceremonial supervisor and the imperial horse supervisor were the largest.
The Director of Ceremonies was originally responsible for palace etiquette, congratulations to concubines, and supervision of other eunuchs' violations of laws and disciplines. Later, with the increase in power, he had the power to approve red affairs, and his status was comparable to that of the cabinet.
The Royal Horse Prison was originally a place where horses were raised in the palace. Later, it gradually developed into a military supervisor, in charge of the military talismans and fire cards, and shared military power with the Ministry of War.
It turns out that the two prison guards have always been disobedient to each other and have been fighting openly and secretly for many years.
It was not until Wei Zhongxian appeared that the Royal Horse Supervisor was completely suppressed, creating a situation where the Si Li Supervisor's family was the dominant one.
Later, when Wei Zhongxian was executed, Yuma Jian took advantage of the situation to counterattack, but was still suppressed by Si Lijian.
Although the Yu Ma Jian lost, he had been secretly competing with the Si Li Jian. Especially after Wang Dehua also took charge of the Yu Ma Jian, the fight between the two eunuchs became more intense, but the Si Li Jian still steadily suppressed the Yu Ma Jian.
Therefore, although Wang Chengen was only a fourth-rank official, because he was the eunuch Bingbi of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, even the cabinet ministers had to respectfully call him "Prince" when they met him.
At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang actually asked Wang Chengen to go to the Clerk of Ceremonies to be punished. This was not a slap in the face, telling him how to hold his head high in the palace in the future.
Seeing that Wang Chengen seemed dissatisfied, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes became more murderous.
Originally, given his personality, even if he did not kill Wang Chengen, he would beat him and then transfer him away from him.
However, since he had just arrived and there was really no one around him, and Wang Chengen was quite loyal, he made a compromise.
Unexpectedly, Wang Chengen would not appreciate it, and he couldn't help but have murderous intentions.
For a moment, the scene was surprisingly quiet.
"Old slave obeys the order!"
Wang Chengen was silent for a while, then seemed to have come to his senses, and replied with a depressed expression, while kowtowing repeatedly in apology.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw that Wang Chengen had surrendered, he snorted coldly and drove his horse forward again.
Wang Chengen looked at Zhu Yuanzhang's back, his expressions of fear, confusion, and anger flashed away.
Then he got on his horse again and rushed after Zhu Yuanzhang.
About a quarter of an hour later, Zhu Yuanzhang arrived near Yongding Gate.
Because of the incident at Zhengyang Gate, Zhu Yuanzhang did not go directly to the command post at Yongding Gate. Instead, he took Wang Chengen and others to find a relatively remote place to climb the city, preparing to go to the city first to understand the situation.
Just a few meters away from the city, they saw a general in armor arguing emotionally with two eunuchs.
After listening carefully, I found out that the general wanted to go to the city to participate in the defense, but the two eunuchs did not allow him to go to the city because he did not have a city defense warrant issued by Wang Dehua.
The general explained several times and even produced a warrant from the Ministry of War, but the two eunuchs just refused to do so. In the end, the general had no choice but to leave angrily.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw this, he couldn't help but frown again.
You must know that since that person can produce the warrant from the Ministry of War, he cannot be a spy.
But the two eunuchs not only refused to allow him to enter the city, but also refused to acknowledge the order from the Ministry of War. Something was wrong.
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a while, and then tried to ask a personal guard to take him to the city with a belt card, but he was rejected by the eunuch.
Later, they took advantage of Wang Chengen's status as eunuch and gave the two eunuchs two gold ingots, so that they could successfully climb the city.
When Zhu Yuanzhang walked up to the city, his face had become very ugly.
But when he went up to the tower, his face instantly turned livid, and his body trembled slightly with anger.
Because on a section of the city wall that was 50 to 60 meters long, there were only two or three tired-looking soldiers standing at the crenellations, looking into the distance.
There were seven or eight other people gathered around a very heavy and old cannon, whispering, not knowing what they were discussing.
The remaining dozens of people actually threw their bows, arrows, armor, etc. aside, and sat or lay on the ground, indifferent to everything in front of them.
After seeing Zhu Yuanzhang and his entourage, the people who were talking stopped talking and looked at them with some surprise.
However, their eyes did not stay on Zhu Yuanzhang. Instead, they kept looking at Wang Chengen, and there seemed to be a trace of resentment in their eyes.
When they saw that Wang Chengen didn't speak, they looked away and started talking and laughing to themselves.
Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but touch the sword at his waist, but in the end he did not pull it out.
Because he saw that whether they were chatting or lying on the ground, the soldiers all had worn-out armor and sallow complexions.
Not far from these soldiers, there was a large pool of water stains, with some broken bowl fragments and a few grains of millet scattered in the water stains.
Seeing this situation, he knew that it was not the soldiers' fault, but the serious arrears in military pay.
Although he had already guessed that the fighting spirit of the soldiers would not be very high due to the arrears of military pay, he did not expect that it would be so bad.
After sighing secretly in his heart, he slowly stepped forward and looked out of the city.
Upon seeing this, Wang Chengen wanted to remind Zhu Yuanzhang not to get too close to the city, but he opened his mouth and did not speak in the end.
Zhu Yuanzhang walked to the crenel and looked at the situation outside the city.
I saw that although the moat under the city was still sparkling, the water had bottomed out and it basically lost its role in protecting the city.
For dozens of miles in front of the moat, there is an open flat land with almost no villages or trees. This is obviously the result of the strong walls and clear fields.
And in this flat land, four or five miles away from the moat, there are more than a dozen military camps scattered.
In the meantime, smoke curled up from cooking stoves, war horses neighed, and the faint sounds of soldiers practicing could be heard.
Zhu Yuanzhang was filled with emotion when he saw this.
Suddenly he narrowed his eyes and stared at the few wisps of smoke in the air.
Then he discovered that these dozen or so military camps actually had military flags of four or five colors. They were obviously improvised and miscellaneous troops.
After seeing these flags, Zhu Yuanzhang remembered the colorful flags he had seen hanging in the shops before, and silently made calculations in his mind.
"Your Majesty, you should stay away from the city. Those traitors fired cannons at this gate in the morning!"
After Wang Chengen hesitated for a while, he walked to Zhu Yuanzhang and reminded him softly, while staring at the soldiers on the tower warily.
Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, glanced at him, nodded slightly, and was about to turn around and leave when he heard another set of footsteps.
"Your Majesty, where are you? The humble minister Luo Yangxing is here to escort you!"
Suddenly, a loud voice came from far away.
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he couldn't help frowning and looked towards the place where the voice came from.
I saw a burly man wearing a black gauze hat and a crimson crane uniform running from a distance with dozens of royal guards.
As this shout rang out, the soldiers lying on the top of the city or chatting all looked nervous, looking around, and finally looked at Zhu Yuanzhang.
"Your Majesty is here!"
"It's really your Majesty!"
...
After all the soldiers saw Zhu Yuanzhang's white uniform, they knew that His Majesty was really here, and they all looked surprised.
In addition, many soldiers heard the shouting and hurriedly ran from other city walls.
"How dare you not kneel down and salute when you see His Majesty!"
When Luo Yangxing saw this, he immediately shouted loudly to everyone.
After hearing this, everyone reacted and knelt down shouting long live.
"Commander Luo Yangxing, commander of the Jinyi Guards, arrived late. Please forgive me, Your Majesty!"
After Luo Yangxing saw everyone kneeling down, he respectfully saluted Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang was a little dissatisfied because Luo Yangxing acted recklessly and shouted loudly to reveal his whereabouts.
At this moment, I saw that he, as a military general, was still wearing the court uniform of a civil servant in this critical moment, and he was already angry in his heart.
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Luo Yangxing coldly, then ignored him. Instead, he slowly stepped forward, helped up a soldier who had been guarding the city carefully, and shouted at the same time: "Everyone, please stand up!"
The soldier who was helped up by Zhu Yuanzhang choked with tears on his face: "Thank you... thank you, Your Majesty!"
After hearing this, all the soldiers also thanked the Holy Grace.
After Luo Yangxing got up, he stood behind Zhu Yuanzhang with a red face, secretly regretting it.
In fact, he was not a reckless person, but because he had left his post without permission before and failed to follow him in time, he was already a little worried.
Later, when I chased him to Zhengyangmen, I heard Li Ruolian talk about Zhu Yuanzhang's beheading of Cao Desi, and my heart became even heavier.
So when he arrived at the Yongdingmen command post and still didn't see Zhu Yuanzhang, he lost control of his emotions. That's when what happened just now happened.
As for the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang was really angry about the court uniform, he was not aware of it at all.
Because the imperial court has a long history of emphasizing civility over military affairs, especially after many governors and generals were appointed by civilian officials, the military attachés changed their careers one after another and took pride in wearing civilian clothes.
In peacetime, he not only likes to use poems and books to appear elegant, but even when talking about the war situation, he will quote Confucius, Xunzi and other remarks to show that he is not a reckless man with no ideas.
Although Chongzhen corrected this trend after he ascended the throne, it was hard to get rid of. After he repeatedly reprimanded it as useless, he ignored it.
So don't say that Luo Yangxing doesn't know the reason for Zhu Yuanzhang's anger at this moment. Even an old official who is good at figuring out the emperor's mind may not be able to figure it out for a while.
Just as Zhu Yuanzhang was cordially asking about the situation of the soldiers, a burst of angry curses suddenly came from the distance.
"Get up, get up quickly, if you don't get up, don't blame my men for being ruthless!"
"You lazy guys, you don't even know what time it is, do you still want to live?"
