After Zhu Yuanzhang read the letter, the smile on his face gradually disappeared.
Then he glanced at Zuo Liangyu, who was a little distracted, and shouted angrily: "Uncle Ning Nan, Wang Yuncheng dared to escape from the battlefield, should you explain to us?"
Zuo Liangyu was panicking and was thinking wildly. At this moment, he was suddenly awakened by the angry shouting. He couldn't react for a moment and instinctively said: "Impossible, Wang Yuncheng is serving..."
Before he finished speaking, he immediately realized that he had let something slip and stopped hastily.
Then he saw Zhu Yuanzhang's cold eyes and hurriedly apologized: "Your Majesty, I didn't mean to offend, it's just..."
"See for yourself!"
Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted him loudly and threw the battle report away.
When Zuo Liangyu saw this, a fierce light flashed in his eyes, and he looked at the documents on the ground with a complicated expression.
At this time, a guard next to him was going to pick up the documents, but suddenly heard Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly, his body trembled involuntarily, and then looked at Zuo Liangyu with some embarrassment.
Zuo Liangyu hesitated for a while, then signaled the guards to step back, then picked up the documents with a look of unwillingness and started browsing them quickly.
When he saw the battle part, he was surprised by Li Ruolian's intelligence.
Then he thought that this method was just a replica of Tian Dan's Fire Ox Formation, so he relaxed a little and continued to look down.
When he saw that Gong Yonggu killed and captured nearly 100,000 rebels in this battle, and Li Ruolian was even called the "God of Killing" by the rebels, he couldn't help but wonder if he was wrong.
But when he saw the bright red "Ping Xihou" seal at the end of the official document, he knew it was true.
Because no matter how bold Gong Yonggu was, he would not dare to lie about such a huge achievement, and he couldn't help but panic.
"Can you see clearly?"
Just when Zuo Liangyu was panicking, Zhu Yuanzhang's voice sounded again.
Zuo Liangyu's body trembled slightly, and after bowing to apologize, he searched carefully.
After a while, he found a line at the end of the official document, which said that during the war, Wang Yuncheng asked his deputy general to lead the army, but he himself was missing.
When Zuo Liangyu saw this, he knew that Wang Yuncheng must have found out that his identity had been leaked, so he took the opportunity to escape, and he couldn't help but feel relieved.
Then he saw Zhu Yuanzhang's cold eyes again, bowed and apologized: "Your Majesty, this matter is due to my oversight. Please allow me to go to Shanxi."
"Even if I dig deep into the ground, I will definitely capture Wang Yuncheng and hand him over to His Majesty."
How could Zhu Yuanzhang believe Zuo Liangyu's words, but at this moment there was a trace of hesitation in his heart.
Because after this war, neither the financial resources nor the military strength of the imperial court were enough to support the war.
Moreover, in Shaanxi, Hunan, Xiangyang and other places, the rebels have been operating for several years. They are not as weak as Shanxi and other places. It will not be a day's work to capture these places.
In addition, there has been no news coming from Liaodong, so once the Jurchens invade, he will have no time to look west.
So next, he must go on the defensive.
Shanxi borders Shaanxi and is most vulnerable to rebel counterattacks.
Zhu Yuanzhang's original plan was to let Gong Yonggu lead his troops to garrison the fields and encroach on Hunan and other places while resisting the rebels.
But now that he heard Zuo Liangyu's words, he felt that giving up the southern part of Shanxi to Zuo Liangyu seemed to be a good plan.
Although this operation will expand Zuo Liangyu's territory again, he will also have to bear the responsibility of resisting the rebels. If the situation changes, Zuo Liangyu may not be much stronger than he is now.
And Gong Yonggu stationed troops in the north, not only could monitor Zuo Liangyu, but also defend the Jurchens, which could be said to kill two birds with one stone.
However, although Zhu Yuanzhang had this idea, he would never let Zuo Liangyu go to Shanxi to take advantage at this time.
So he pretended to be angry and said: "If you go to Shanxi, who will help Jingnan Bo?"
Hearing this, Zuo Liangyu knew Zhu Yuanzhang's intentions, but he still looked at Hou Xun with some reluctance.
Although Hou Xun was a civil servant, he was also a man who had led troops in war, so he could see through the mystery.
Moreover, he knew that Chongzhen was very suspicious of military generals, and given Zuo Liangyu's previous domineering behavior, Chongzhen would never let him go to Shanxi again.
So when he saw Zuo Liangyu's gaze, he shook his head slightly, indicating that the other party should not force anything.
Seeing this, Zuo Liangyu couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.
"We heard that your general Li Cheng is in Xibaipo. If he can capture Taiyuan and you can defeat Ma Chongxi, we will agree to your request!"
Just when Zuo Liangyu was disappointed, Zhu Yuanzhang's voice suddenly sounded again.
Zuo Liangyu was overjoyed when he heard this, and then thought of Zhu Yuanzhang's previous performances, and couldn't help but feel worried.
Hou Xun also looked at Zhu Yuanzhang in surprise, wondering why he made such a decision.
After seeing their expressions, Zhu Yuanzhang said loudly: "Uncle Ning Nan, are you willing?"
Zuo Liangyu hesitated for a while, then raised his hands and accepted the order: "I accept the order!"
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, then looked at Hou Xun and said: "Hou Qing, although Uncle Ning Nan is loyal and brave, he is still young, and it is inevitable that he will have some ill-thoughts."
"We know that you are a mature person, so I will let you assist me in this matter. You must not be negligent and miss our important event!"
When Hou and Zuo heard this, they were both shocked, but they still bowed and responded.
Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled again and said: "Okay, you guys will discuss it first, and then come to us in the big tent after you have a preliminary plan!"
After he said that, he turned around and walked towards the big tent.
When Zuo Liangyu saw Zhu Yuanzhang going to the big tent, he was shocked again when he thought that Hao Xiaozhong was still in the big tent.
He wanted to step forward and delay, but he had no good excuse.
Just at this moment, a personal guard ran over quickly and whispered a few words in his ear, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
Not far away, Zhu Yuanzhang saw Li Sanbao running over with an anxious look on his face and whispered: "Your Majesty, Hao Xiaozhong is dead!"
Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned when he heard this and asked: "Really dead?"
It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang had seen Hao Xiaozhong suddenly betray Zuo Liangyu before, so he guessed that he had been bribed by the people behind Zuo Liangyu, and wanted to take the opportunity to take Hao Xiaozhong away for interrogation.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that Zuo Liangyu would never agree, and under the circumstances, he could no longer force Zuo Liangyu.
So he took advantage of the opportunity to review the soldiers and took Zuo Liangyu away.
At the same time, he secretly asked Li Sanbao to do something to make it appear that Hao Xiaozhong was dead, so he asked this question.
When Li Sanbao heard this, he said with some embarrassment: "The general did not expect that Hao Xiaozhong's people would attack him, so he was negligent and allowed that person to succeed in a sneak attack. Later, the person also committed suicide."
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he looked back at Zuo Liangyu who was discussing with Hou Xun, and couldn't help but think highly of Zuo Liangyu.
Then he quickly walked into the big tent, ordered Zhang Dabiao and others to wait outside, and hurriedly took out the two secret letters in his arms.
Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked when he saw that both letters had signs of urgency. Only then did he understand why Gong Yonggu had mixed the letters with the battle report.
He first opened Shen Zhanran's letter, which stated that the second batch of grain had arrived at the port safely, but was robbed by bandits on its way from Tianjin to the capital.
Although the grain transport soldiers fought hard, one-third of the grain was still stolen by the enemy.
At the same time, due to the mixed personnel in Beijing, Shen Zhanran was worried that food was still at risk in the capital, and hoped that Zhu Yuanzhang could return to Beijing as soon as possible to take charge of the overall situation.
After Zhu Yuanzhang read the letter, a murderous intent flashed in his eyes, and then he opened Wu Mengming's letter.
But he just took a look, and his face immediately turned pale.
It turned out that the letter said that in order to delay the Jurchens from sending troops, Li Guozhen and Wang Shoulin took the risk of revealing their identities as envoys and asked to see the North Korean king Li Hao.
Unexpectedly, Li Hao refused to see them at first, and then insisted on imprisoning them despite the objections of some ministers, preparing to send them to Shengjing to claim credit from Dorgon.
