The next morning.
Dawn had just broken in the east, and Zhu Yuanzhang was already up and busy.
He first carefully calculated last night's arrangements, and after confirming that they were correct, when he was about to ask the young eunuch to pass the message to Brother Li Wu, the other party had already walked in.
Brother Li Wu first reported to him the handling of Zuo Liangyu's spy, and then respectfully presented the list of generals who would accompany Cen Hangui on the expedition.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw that most of the 1,500 elite generals on the list were those who returned to the capital with him, and that there were also a dozen loyal and brave Baihu who were demoted to the general banner, he shook his head and said: "Brother Li Wu, we know You are worried, but your list is too deliberate, and it will easily make people suspicious and cause trouble!"
"Furthermore, if you transfer some of the remaining two thousand cavalry, it will easily weaken their combat power. It is better to maintain the original organizational structure!"
Hearing this, Brother Li Wu hesitated for a moment and bowed: "Your Majesty, although this is a suspicious army, they are very likely to encounter wolf soldiers, and the general is worried that you will turn the illusion into reality, so I made some adjustments. .”
"As for the fighting strength of the remaining soldiers and horses, you don't have to worry, because the general has already inspected the commander-in-chief and others in his army before deploying those hundreds of households. Only the commander-in-chief is worthy of the hundred households, and the commander will deploy them. , it will never damage combat effectiveness.”
"And most of the hundreds of households that have been demoted to the general banner have fought bloody battles with the generals. As long as it is beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, they will never complain!"
Zhu Yuanzhang thought that Brother Li Wu was still a little confused about the order last night, but his thinking was so clear today, and he asked curiously: "Who told you that we might turn this army into reality?"
Brother Li Wu was stunned when he saw the question, and said: "Last night, when General Mo went to the cabinet to see Mr. Jiang (Jiang Dejing) to deliver the order, he happened to meet His Highness the Crown Prince. When His Highness learned about this, he reminded the General to send more manpower. , lest you turn your emptiness into real-time shortage of troops..."
Seeing that Zhu Cixiang had this knowledge, Zhu Yuanzhang was quite pleased and nodded: "In that case, we will deploy troops according to this list. However, the matter of deploying hundreds of households must be handled in a low-key manner and not attract attention."
"In addition, let Fan Jingwen bring some important ministers to see off Cen Hangui. The noise must be louder. It is best to let everyone in the capital know!"
Brother Li Wu said: "Your Majesty, before I have time to report to you, there has just been news from the Jin Yiwei that Lord Fan will leave the capital this morning and go south. I'm afraid he won't be able to see off Cen Hangui!"
Zhu Yuanzhang originally thought that Fan Jingwen would wait for Ni Yuanlu to return to Beijing before leaving. Now that he heard that Fan Jingwen would leave Beijing today, he knew that the other party was avoiding suspicion, so he nodded and said: "Okay, then you go tell the prince and let him go and see Fan Jingwen. "
"As for seeing off Cen Hangui, just inform Jiang Dejing and let him handle it!"
"In addition, inform the Jin Yiwei outside the city to pay attention to the movements around the capital and the border with Shanxi, and to find Song Xiance's hiding place as soon as possible."
After Brother Li Wu agreed one by one, he quickly walked out of Dongnuan Pavilion.
Zhu Yuanzhang dealt with some government affairs again. Seeing that it was already Chenshi, thinking that the people in the capital should be busy at this moment, he changed into casual clothes and took a few personal guards out of the palace to check.
He first inspected the inner city and found nothing unusual, so he went to the outer city again.
In the teahouse and tavern in the outer city, although he heard some people still talking about the authenticity of Chongzhen, the volume was much lower than the previous few days, and most people supported him very much, thinking that the impersonation was treason. people’s tricks.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw that most of the people who supported him were poor people, he knew that it was the effect of the previous distribution of land. While he lamented the kindness of the people, he also hated those who brought trouble to the world.
Soon afterwards, these not-so-loud voices were drowned out by the fact that Cen Hangui led his army to the expedition.
Zhu Yuanzhang visited four or five teahouses and found that the people were discussing Cen Hangui's decision to send troops. After hearing that it was him who had issued the order, they were all very optimistic about the prospect.
It seemed that as long as it was an order given by Zhu Yuanzhang, it was a guarantee of victory, completely forgetting that the war was still going on more than a hundred miles away from the capital.
Of course, where there is light, there will be shadows, so he also heard some voices slandering him, and even his personal guards found a rebel lair under his instruction.
Although there were only six or seven people in the group, it still made Zhu Yuanzhang a little uneasy.
Because he has ordered Jin Yiwei to eliminate the female agents many times, but still cannot completely eradicate them, and judging from the behavior of these people, it is very likely that the leader of the other party is hidden in the capital, and his status should not be too low.
When Zhu Yuanzhang finished visiting the last teahouse and was about to return to the palace, four or five soldiers in armor suddenly walked in from outside.
As soon as they entered the teahouse, they shouted to the boss to serve tea.
Then he drove away a table of people with better seats and sat down as if no one else was around, all the while cursing.
Zhu Yuanzhang was quite dissatisfied when he saw these soldiers being so domineering. When he wanted his personal guards to teach him a lesson, he accidentally heard their origins from the curses of those soldiers.
It turned out that these people were soldiers who were going to go on an expedition with Cen Hangui. Because they felt that it was too dangerous to leave the city at this moment, and they did not want to waste their lives, and relying on some connections, they left the military camp with an excuse.
They wanted to hang out here for a few hours, and after the army set off, they would return to the military camp and continue to live a happy life.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang was angry, because he saw that other people were involved in the conversation, he suppressed his anger and continued to listen.
When he learned from the conversations of those people that the person behind the other party was actually a Qianhu who stayed in Beijing, and that there were more than 200 soldiers who escaped from the military camp at this time, the anger in his heart was completely ignited.
Just when Zhu Yuanzhang was about to use the few people in front of him as a raft, more than a dozen soldiers walked in from outside the teahouse. After seeing the previous few people, one of them, a man with a small flag, immediately stepped forward and asked them why they violated the order without reason. .
Unexpectedly, those people were so arrogant, they didn't pay attention to the flag that accused them, and their words were full of provocation.
Xiaoqi was obviously a fierce person, so he immediately ordered the lock to be taken away.
Seeing this, the people in the teahouse got up and fled, leaving only Zhu Yuanzhang and his party sitting in the corner and the boss who was complaining endlessly.
At this moment, another twenty soldiers rushed in from outside the teahouse and helped the previous few people to surround the small flag of law enforcement.
Upon seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang was about to ask his personal guards to take action when suddenly a high-pitched shout came from outside the teahouse: "The partial generals Zhi Rengan and Qianhu Bu Yao Lian resisted the law for no reason and have been beheaded!"
"Anyone who is bewitched by him will return to camp immediately and forget about the past. If he remains stubborn, he will be beheaded..."
As the sound rang out, a group of cavalry passed by the teahouse.
The leading cavalryman seemed to have seen the situation in the teahouse. He immediately raised his voice and looked at the soldiers coldly before riding away.
The group of soldiers who had been very arrogant before saw this, immediately shrank, and finally followed the little flag out of the teahouse with helpless expressions.
Zhu Yuanzhang ordered his personal guards to compensate the boss for some tea money, and then left.
On his way back to the palace, he also saw a dozen groups of resentful soldiers being escorted back to the military camp.
Soon afterwards, he received news that those soldiers who left the barracks for excuses were beheaded by Brother Li Wu, and his morale was greatly shaken.
Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy to see that Brother Li Wu was so courageous.
But his good mood did not last long, because as soon as he entered Dongnuan Pavilion, Jin Yiwei sent a report of Shen Zhanran's defeat.
While he was deep in thought, the defeat report of Huang Degong and Jiang Yingkui was also delivered to him.
Only this time, Zhu Yuanzhang showed a smile.
