"Zhao Erhu, after we have said so much, shouldn't it be time for you to tell us something?"
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw Zhao Erhu's eyes flickering, he felt more convinced and shouted in a deep voice.
When Zhao Erhu heard this, his body trembled slightly, and then he knelt down and apologized: "Your Majesty, I didn't mean to hide it, it's actually Brother Li Wu..."
It turned out that after Brother Li Wu, one of the Eighteen Cavalry, lost track of Li Jing in Hangzhou, he used the power of the local Jin Yiwei to find Li Jing's whereabouts.
Unexpectedly, he was being followed. Although he escaped by luck, all the Jin Yiwei in Hangzhou were eradicated.
After that, the other party followed the example and successively launched sieges against Jinyiwei in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hubei and other places.
Fortunately, Wu Mengming had considered this situation when establishing the contact point and divided the contact point into two forces: overt and covert forces, so the entire Jinyiwei army in Jiangnan was not wiped out.
After Zhao Erhu learned of the incident, thinking of his brotherhood, he begged Wu Mengming not to tell Zhu Yuanzhang about the incident for the time being and give them some time to maneuver.
Wu Mengming also felt that although the matter was caused by Brother Li Wu, the contact point he established also had problems such as delayed news and slow response. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang had expressed dissatisfaction with him because of the Liaodong news, and he did not dare to report it at that time. , and agreed.
They originally wanted to restore some contact points with Jiangnan Jinyiwei before reporting the matter to Zhu Yuanzhang, but they did not expect to be discovered by Zhu Yuanzhang soon.
After listening to Zhao Erhu's story, Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked and angry.
It turned out that when he was in Dongying, he found that the number of people at the Jinyiwei contact point was different from the regulations, and he became suspicious.
However, considering that Shandong was constantly in war and Jinyiwei was just built, some damage was inevitable, so I didn't go into details.
But later when he asked about the situation in Linzi, Zhao Erhu couldn't confirm it, so he suspected that something was wrong with Jinyiwei.
Because the contact point of Shandong Jinyiwei was designed by him personally, and a large number of people were arranged in Dongying, Linzi, Jinan and other places, it was impossible not to know whether there was food and grass in the city.
However, since he had no one he could trust since he woke up, he tried his best to cultivate anyone who was loyal and useful.
In particular, Zhang Dabiao, Zhao Erhu and others have always been loyal and have followed him through life and death many times. He originally thought that after letting them practice for a while, he would release them to lead the army and work as an official and a part-time official, so it was not in vain. His one game.
Therefore, although he had already suspected Zhao Erhu, he still explained Lu Jiude's matter to Zhao Erhu, hoping that Zhao Erhu would understand the situation and be honest with him.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Erhu and others were so bold and dared to conceal such a major event.
Then he thought that he had been taking advantage of the internal conflicts of Li Zicheng, Dorgon and others, but he was not monolithic within himself.
If the other party is allowed to seize these loopholes, Ming Dynasty will be in danger of destruction.
Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang's face became more solemn, and the murderous aura in his body gradually became stronger, but it was hidden and he just turned sideways.
Zhao Erhu saw Zhu Yuanzhang's livid face, and thought that Zhu Yuanzhang hated those who betrayed him the most.
Although he was just for his brother and did not do anything to be sorry for Zhu Yuanzhang, he could not be considered loyal.
So he kowtowed again and said: "Your Majesty, I have always been loyal to you. This time I did something stupid. I don't dare to ask for your forgiveness. I only hope that after I leave, you can forgive Brother Li Wu and the others." !”
Zhu Yuanzhang was startled when he heard this. When he looked sideways, he saw that Zhao Erhu had wiped the knife across his neck.
Fortunately, the distance between him and Zhao Erhu was not far, and his martial arts skills were not bad either. He kicked the knife away from the opponent's hand in time, thus preventing Zhao Erhu from committing suicide.
"His Majesty!"
Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang come to the rescue, Zhao Erhu cried again with tears on his face.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the blood mark on Zhao Erhu's neck and the slowly flowing blood, and said in a deep voice: "Zhao Erhu, shall we let you die?"
When Zhao Erhu heard this, he kowtowed quickly and said, "Young man is guilty. He should not make his own decisions. Your Majesty, please punish me!"
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at the few vigilant tiger warriors in the distance, then looked at Zhao Erhu and said: "You have to remember, no matter how big a mistake you make or how dangerous you are, as long as we don't let you die, you will never die." You can’t die, do you understand?”
Zhao Erhu kowtowed with gratitude and said: "I understand, I will swear to be loyal to Your Majesty from now on. If Your Majesty doesn't let me die, I will never die!"
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and signaled him to stand up. After a moment of silence, he asked again: "Does Shen Zhanran know about this?"
Zhao Erhu shook his head repeatedly and said: "Xiao Xiao knows the seriousness. Only Xiao Xiao and Commander Wu know about this matter, and no one else knows about it."
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at him again and said, "That's it for now. You don't need to mention it to anyone, including Wu Mengming. Do you understand?"
Upon hearing this, Zhao Erhu hurriedly bowed and responded.
Seeing that Zhao Erhu had calmed down, Zhu Yuanzhang asked again: "You just said that all the Jinyi guards in Jiangnan were seriously injured. What is the situation in Huai'an?"
Zhao Erhu thought for a while and said: "This matter is strange. The place where the incident occurred was Hangzhou. Logically speaking, Hangzhou Jinyiwei should be the most severely damaged, but the losses in Huai'an, Wuchang, and Nanjing were much greater than those in Hangzhou. Ming and The two dark forces were almost completely eradicated by each other."
Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said: "Wuchang has also been damaged, so how could the whereabouts of Wang Dehua, Li Zushu and others be discovered before?"
Zhao Erhu said: "Commander Wu knew that Wuchang was an important place. In order to prevent the news from affecting His Majesty's decision-making, he asked the remaining Jinyi guards to hire a large number of gangsters. Therefore, the news was more timely than before, but it cost a lot of money. Awesome." m.
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "Okay, you ask the Jin Yiwei in Huai'an to follow Wuchang's method, and make sure the information is timely and accurate."
"In addition, you send a message back to Beijing and ask the prince to allocate one million to Wu Mengming and instruct him to establish a contact point for Jin Yiwei as soon as possible!"
Zhao Erhu glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang in surprise, bowed in agreement, and hurried to make arrangements.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhao Erhu's back, shook his head slightly, and then looked at the sun above his head.
Although it was not midsummer at the moment, the sunshine today was very fierce, making him hot all over.
He stretched his body wantonly, and then carefully recalled Zhao Erhu's actions just now. After confirming that the other party really wanted to commit suicide, he temporarily suppressed the matter and thought about Lu Jiude's intentions.
After about a cup of tea, Zhao Erhu came over in a panic and reported that not long after Zhang Dabiao raised Zhu Yuanzhang's banner, he was attacked by a force of about 3,000 soldiers and horses.
Fortunately, Zhang Dabiao brought 500 elite troops with him, plus 500 dead warriors, so the other party did not take advantage of him.
Unexpectedly, that night, another five thousand people came to steal the camp, and they were all cavalry, and their combat power was also very strong.
Although Zhang Dabiao fought hard, he was still surrounded by the opponent.
Fortunately, Huang Degong, who was blocking the refugees, learned of Zhu Yuanzhang's whereabouts and hurried over to save Zhang Dabiao and others.
After Zhu Yuanzhang listened to Zhao Erhu's story, he was silent for a while and said, "Does Huang Degong know that I'm not there?"
Zhao Erhu shook his head and said: "Brother Zhang lied that His Majesty was frightened and needed to rest. He did not let Huang Degong come to see him. He just asked him to lead his troops to guard the perimeter."
Zhu Yuanzhang mused: "With Zhu Ji gone this time, I believe the news that we are in Shandong will spread soon."
As he spoke, he looked at Zhao Erhu and said, "Let's rush to Shanxi with three hundred Jin Yiwei. You stay here and wait for Zhang Huangyan."
"At the same time, we will also leave you an imperial decree. If Zhang Huangyan comes back victorious, you will hand over the imperial decree to him and let him be fully responsible for the war east of Jinan."
"If he returns defeated, you and he will go back to Weifang in a roundabout way. If Weifang has been lost, you will join Lu Zhenfei and try to hold the south of Shandong..."
Hearing this, Zhao Erhu shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, Shandong and Shanxi are both battlefields. How can you go there with only three hundred Jinyi guards? It is better to wait for Zhang Qianhu to come back and lead the army with you."
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "We know your loyalty, but this place is also very critical. If you don't stay here, we won't worry."
"Besides, although this matter is dangerous, it is also an opportunity. If it succeeds, Shandong and Henan can be decided in one battle. We must not miss this opportunity..."
Zhao Erhu was deeply moved when he saw that Zhu Yuanzhang still trusted him. At the same time, he knew that he could not dissuade him, so he had to carefully select 300 troops and watch Zhu Yuanzhang leave.
Some people died, but not completely...
