Zhu Youjian paced back and forth in Xinuang Pavilion, and the shadow cast behind him kept changing in length, reflecting strange shapes.
Wang Chengen stood aside and waited patiently. The crackling sound of burning whale oil could be heard all around, and the air was filled with a faint smell of oil smoke.
Wang Gonggong occasionally peeked at Tianqi from the corner of his eyes, but the emperor's young and pale face was hidden in the shadows, showing no joy or sorrow.
"General Zhang of Hejian Prefecture is a loyal minister!"
Zhu Youjian suddenly spoke, and Wang Chengen was startled.
"This man has a close relationship with Wu Xiang, the ancestor of the Western Liao Dynasty. They once smuggled together. Zu Wu was killed by the Kaiyuan army. Zhang Chun and the Liu thieves are at odds with each other. He should be rewarded for his loyalty and patriotism and be used by the imperial court. The Liu thieves invaded Shenjing. At that time, Zhang Chun wanted to raise troops to serve the king, but he was unable to do so due to the strong force of the Liu bandit. Now, once in a thousand years, the Liu bandit is weak and weak, so he was asked to enter the capital immediately and fight to determine the outcome. I will draft an edict now, Confer Zhang Chun the title of General of Jingguo, control all the troops in Beizhi, and kill the Liu thieves..."
Wang Chengen was worried that Zhang Chun was unreliable. If a fight broke out, his grandson would probably escape faster than Wu Xiang. However, this is the only general the emperor can rely on.
"Wang Banban, go to Hejian Mansion, seize this good opportunity, and make sure Zhang Chun enters the capital as soon as possible!"
Wang Chengen quickly agreed.
Zhu Youjian also warned: "Be careful on the road and don't let the Liu thieves find you. When General Zhang comes to the city, my dead soldiers will also take action. At that time, we should cooperate inside and outside to kill Liu Zhaosun."
Wang Chengen had never heard Zhu Youjian say that he still had dead soldiers. Seeing the emperor's resolute expression, he couldn't help but look at him with admiration.
"Without further delay, I will draft an edict immediately and you will leave the city overnight."
Wang Chengen ground it for the emperor and stood beside him, waiting for him to finish writing the edict.
The prince held the edict in his hands with careful movements, as if he was holding the whole world.
"Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will fulfill my mission!"
Zhu Youjian looked at the eunuch's retreating back, smoothed his gray hair, stood up and walked out of the hall, ignoring the two Han generals standing at the door watching him, and walked straight towards the Ancestral Temple.
The so-called Ancestral Temple is the Zhu family ancestral hall, which houses the portraits of emperors of the Ming Dynasty.
When there are major festivals, or when a prince or queen is crowned, or when an enemy country is defeated, the descendants of the Zhu family will go to announce the good news to their ancestors.
Since Emperor Tianqi came to the throne, the country's affairs have been corrupt, nothing good has happened, and funerals have continued every year.
Whenever he heard about the Liu thief's trespass, which guerrilla general was deposed by Liu Zhaosun, which imperial censor was killed by Liu Zhaosun, Zhu Youjian would come to the Ancestral Temple, hold the ancestral tablet and cry loudly.
Crying won't solve the problem.
Moscow doesn’t believe in tears, and neither does the Forbidden City.
Zhu Youjian came to the Ancestral Temple today not to mourn, he wanted revenge.
Visiting the Ancestral Temple is a private act of the emperor and does not require the participation of ministers, as long as the middle-ranking officials are accompanied by it.
After leaving the inner palace, the streets became busy on both sides, the air was filled with the smell of fresh horse manure, and there were feces and garbage on both sides of the road.
The soldiers of the Wucheng Army yawned, and the dung collectors knocked on the door from door to door. Fresh excrement was steaming in the bucket.
Remember when I traveled through earlier
Everyone behaves
Say it one sentence
Forbidden City in the morning
The long street is dark and there is no living person
The toilet that collects feces is steaming
Time travel has become slower
Bows, horses, and edicts are all slow
A lifetime is only enough to kill one person
The guns from the old days looked good too
The bullets are beautiful and stylish
If you kill, people will understand
Half an hour later, in the Ancestral Temple, Zhu Youjian performed the ceremony of kowtow and offered incense to the portraits of his ancestors in turn.
Emperor Tianqi lowered his head and stared at the lingering green smoke burning in the incense burner. Above his head, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to be resurrected before his eyes.
Zhu Yuanzhang, who was wise and powerful at the beginning and conquered the world in the end, had a shoehorned face and a profile that looked exactly like a bald Qiang. At this moment, he stood in the illusion of nothingness and looked down at his descendants, trying hard to maintain the majesty of the founding emperor of his country.
Ming Taizu's rich Fengyang accent sounded in the Ancestral Temple:
"Zhu Youjian, the prodigal son, listen! When Zhu Houcong was the emperor before, the country was so powerful that he fought against Mongolia and Miao territory. The Japanese behaved according to the rules. The civil servants and eunuchs each played fifty pieces, and all the ministers in the court were willing to listen. The emperor said that the world was stable and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment. Later, he refined elixirs and cultivated immortality, which led to bad things, but he was still a good emperor. Now look at the prodigal sons and daughters, who killed Wei Zhongxian, cut off his limbs, and sent some incompetent generals. Back then, I All the empires he conquered have been lost! Now Liaodong has fallen into the hands of Liu Zhaosun, and that bastard has harmed many people outside the pass! I am in heaven, and look at the murderous Li Xianzhong and Zhang Zicheng causing trouble in the middle of the pass, and that Zhu Youjian , you have to catch him every time, and Liu Zhao and Sun Ling will be killed that day!" (see note 1)
Zhu Youjian clenched his fists and looked up at Zhu Yuanzhang in the void, his eyes blurred with tears:
"The Great Ancestor appears! The unworthy descendant Zhu Youjian is willing to listen to the Great Ancestor's teachings! He must kill all the Dong Liu thieves and safeguard the inheritance of his ancestors!"
Zhu Youjian held the incense case and cried, his voice whimpering like resentment, admiration, tears and complaints.
Finally, he wiped away his tears, looked back at the censor who was following him, and said murderously:
"Li Ruolian, are all the dead soldiers ready?"
~~~~
Emperor Tianqi and Wang Chengen conspired to assassinate Liu Zhaosun and plotted to rebel again. As the assassin, Liu Zhaosun was not idle for a moment.
Saying it may hurt Zhu Youjian's self-esteem, but the protector's thoughts were actually not on the emperor at all.
Perhaps out of trust in Emperor Tianqi, or perhaps out of contempt for him, during this period of time, the number of eunuchs and maids placed by the Protector in the Qianqing Palace had decreased significantly.
The Protector's attention was focused on the war in Shaanxi. For several days, the old man Yang Hao went to the Protector's house early to discuss political affairs with his son-in-law.
In the blink of an eye, November came, and all parts of Shaanxi were still cut off from the capital, and there were not even a few business travelers.
The Protector was worried all day long, foreboding that Deng Changxiong had been defeated, and the Kaiyuan Army suffered heavy casualties in Shaanxi.
In order to prevent the farce of Li Zicheng's armed march all the way to Badaling in the 17th year of Chongzhen, the Lord Protector began to defend the capital early. He planned to shrink the military strength in various places, abandon Shandong, and transfer all the Shandong and Liaonan garrisons to the capital to replace those in the north and south. Those unreliable Ming troops.
Only in this way can we resist the snowballing bandits and finally choose the opportunity to fight to the death with Li Xianzhong or Zhang Zicheng.
However, this strategy of tearing down the east wall to repair the west wall obviously does not help.
But now that the matter is over, Liu Zhaosun doesn't care about that much anymore.
The only blame is that I was confused and led my troops into the pass too early after listening to Kang Yinggan and the others' instigation.
I thought that after entering the customs, a million-strong army from all over the world would cross the river and win the tailwind, but I didn't expect that I would be knocked back to my original shape at the first checkpoint.
The Lord Protector felt regretful at this time. It seemed that the bandits around 1622 were not as weak as he thought.
Facts have proved that simply measuring the strength of an opponent based on the development of time is simply a time-traveler trying to find a sword. To be precise, it is a mistake of mechanical materialism.
The wandering thieves in this plane, whether they are Zhang Zicheng or Li Xianzhong, are much stronger than in history due to the effect of the butterflies produced by time travel.
"Wonderful son-in-law, don't be discouraged. Victory and defeat are common occurrences in military affairs."
The father-in-law poured tea for the Lord Protector. Liu Zhaosun took it with both hands and forced a smile to Yang Hao.
"Now that things have come to this, it's time to think about what's going on at the moment. As the saying goes, we must first settle our domestic affairs."
Liu Zhaosun said oh, and Yang Hao didn't need to say more, he knew what his father-in-law was going to say next.
"Xian son-in-law, I heard that Kang Yingqian is now Kang's first assistant. What kind of person is he? In the thirty-seventh year of Wanli, he was at the bottom of the top three Jinshi. All he could think about was fighting for power and profit. He would do whatever it took to get the upper hand. For his own selfishness, he encouraged the good son-in-law to enter the customs. , and encouraged you to use troops everywhere. Now that Shaanxi has been defeated and chaos has broken out in the Central Plains, where has he hidden? Did he ever have a plan? "
Liu Zhaosun looked at Yang Hao and knew that he and Kang Yingqian were incompatible:
"Father-in-law, Kang Jianjun is an old friend. Without him in Saarhu, I wouldn't be able to survive, let alone see you."
"Xian son-in-law, you should kill this person, otherwise Kaiyuan will continue to suffer from internal friction!"
Liu Zhaosun waved his hand:
"It is my decision to enter the customs. It has nothing to do with anyone else. I am responsible for it alone. Kaiyuan is prosperous and its territory is growing, so internal friction is inevitable."
Yang Hao was speechless.
During these days, under the connivance of the Protector, Zhang Yan and Kang Yingqian became more and more arrogant. The dignitaries in the capital regarded Zhang Yan as the just wife of the Protector and went to curry favor with Kang Yingqian. Kang Yingqian became the chief minister of the cabinet, which made the chief minister Yang Hao was embarrassed.
"Mrs. Jin, Mrs. Yang, and Mrs. Zhang are all evenly matched. You let them fight fiercely. Doesn't the virtuous son-in-law not know the dangers of party strife in the Ming Dynasty?"
Liu Zhaosun nodded slightly.
"Fights are everywhere. If any lady is too weak, I won't worry. Let's fight. Wang Yangming said that it is easy to break thieves in the mountains, but hard to break thieves in the heart. It is not easy to find them. Let them fight, and the thieves in everyone's heart will be there. It's revealed. I can clean it up..."
Yang Hao was speechless for a long time. :
"Good son-in-law, you are playing with fire and getting burned! If you are not careful, you will fall apart. I said that I wanted to beat Kang Yingqian, but you have always ignored him. Until today, you have allowed him to have a big tail. Do you know how many people support this person now! "
Liu Zhaosun laughed, the situation was not as serious as Yang Hao said.
"That's why I want them to cause chaos on their own. When Shaanxi is calmed down, I will clean up the traitors and maybe kill a few more."
When the Protector spoke, he looked cold and expressionless, as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him. Yang Hao couldn't help but take a breath when he saw his son-in-law. He noticed the murderous aura in Liu Zhaosun.
Liu Zhaosun looked forward with cold eyes:
"Except for Yang Qing'er, Jin Yuji, Qiao Yiqi, the Chinese Guards, and you, my father-in-law, everyone else can die."
Yang Hao didn't dare to say anything.
"Wonderful son-in-law, Qiao Yiqi met the prince, who is the Supervisor of Ceremonies."
Liu Zhaosun nodded slightly. Wang Chengen was an informant in the Forbidden City. It was not surprising that he contacted Qiao Yiqi.
"Qiao Yiqi is a good person and a good son-in-law knows better than me. I wonder what information he will bring to the emperor this time."
Liu Zhaosun laughed.
Yang Hao failed to bring down Kang Yinggan, and now he has to deal with Qiao Yiqi again.
"Qiao Jianjun has no bad intentions. No matter what he does, I will not kill him. But Zhu Youjian is different. I have spared him twice, and he still wants to play with fire."
Liu Zhaosun gave the emperor many opportunities, but Tianqi refused to settle down and become Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty.
In this case, we had to send the emperor on his way first.
Note:
1. Adapted from Zhu Yuanzhang’s Edict on Training Imperial Students
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