"beg me?"
When Duke Guo of Wei heard that Hong Chengchou asked for him, he immediately became interested.
He said, "I wonder if Ambassador Hong is asking for it on his behalf or on your behalf?"
The two naturally have different meanings.
"Recently, scholars besieged the envoy's residence. The Duke must have heard about it, right?" Hong Chengchou said.
Hearing this, Duke Wei frowned slightly. He turned to look at the Crown Prince beside him and said, "This kind of thing will happen again. Have you ever heard of it?"
"My child has never heard of it." The prince shook his head blankly, and then said, "My child knows that the Jin Yiwei beat up a group of scholars. The whole court has been arguing about this matter for the past two days."
Wei Guogong said: "Since Ambassador Hong mentioned that their residence was besieged by scholars, you should send someone to investigate and find out what happened."
"Yes." The prince nodded in agreement.
At this time, Wei Guogong looked at Hong Chengchou again and said: "It is true that no one in the government knows what Ambassador Hong said, but it doesn't matter. Regardless of whether there is such a thing, if Ambassador Hong is not at ease, I will talk to the Marquis of Funing and let him Send more officers and soldiers to protect you."
"Then I'd like to thank the Duke first." Hong Chengchou thanked him.
But he knew in his heart that the other party was deliberately pretending to be confused. After all, it was about such a major matter as an envoy. As a local leader in the southern capital, how could the Duke of Wei not know about it.
Wei Guogong said: "It is our government's responsibility to protect the safety of the envoys, but the same goes for those scholars. It was not enough to go to the palace to cause trouble, and they actually went to besiege your courtyard. Were none of you injured?"
"I'm sorry, my lord, I'm worried about you. Fortunately, the guards who came with me from the north were quite brave. They stopped the troublemakers, didn't let the female cadres succeed, and protected the safety of my family." Hong Chengchou said.
After hearing this, Duke Wei's face immediately turned cold, and he scolded the prince beside him: "What's going on? I told you not to send officers and soldiers to protect the envoy's residence. Why didn't any officers and soldiers come forward, and instead I asked the envoy?" The guards come forward?"
"Haier did follow your instructions and told Marquis Funing to send troops to protect Ambassador Hong's compound." The prince said aggrievedly.
Seeing this, Hong Chengchou cursed in his heart.
Both of these guys are good at acting.
But he said, "The Duke has misunderstood. There are indeed officers and soldiers appearing around the courtyard where I live. Perhaps there are too many scholars here, and it is inevitable that they are a little helpless."
"Hmph, they were sent to protect you, Ambassador Hong. Since they didn't do their job well, they should be punished." Wei Guogong snorted angrily, and then told the prince beside him, "Remember to ask Funing Hou to rectify his subordinates. The soldiers and horses, especially those who protect Ambassador Hong and others, must be dealt with severely."
"My child has taken note of it," the prince replied.
The father and son picked it up and turned over this article.
After telling the prince, Wei Guogong looked at Hong Chengchou again and said, "Ambassador Hong, don't worry, this time I will ask Funing Marquis to arrange more officers and soldiers to go there. If something like this happens again, Ambassador Hong can come to me."
"Thank you so much, Duke." Hong Chengchou thanked him and said immediately, "Actually, the reason why I came to visit Duke this time was not just for the scholars to block the courtyard. After all, this matter has passed. I hope that Duke If I can give you an accurate word, can the peace talks between Ming Dynasty and Tiger Character Banner continue? If not, I won’t stay here for long, so that I can go back and recover as soon as possible.”
"Let's talk peace!"
Duke Guo of Wei looked hesitant.
From the beginning, he did support the peace talks, but later he found that the resistance to promoting the peace talks was too great. On the contrary, as now, neither peace talks with the Tiger Flag nor an alliance with the Qing Dynasty was the most beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, and it was also There is no need to offend these two parties.
Hong Chengchou said: "Is it inconvenient for the Duke to say it? Or he thinks that it will disappoint me, so it is difficult to say it."
"That's not true." Wei Guogong picked up the tureen on the table, brought it to his mouth, took a sip, and then said, "Ambassador Hong, you must understand that I support peace talks with you.
, but there are also many people in the DPRK and China who oppose the peace talks, which has led to a stalemate in the peace talks. Ambassador Hong still waits a little longer. There is always hope for peace talks, but it may be later. "
Hong Chengchou understood that the other party was trying to evade.
If he had just arrived, he didn't care if the other party continued to shirk the peace talks. As long as the Ming Dynasty did not form an alliance with the Qing Dynasty, he didn't care how long it took.
But things are different now.
The forces opposing the peace talks clearly have the intention of taking action. If there is no result in the peace talks, he is afraid that the other party will really take action.
"Since it's hard for the Duke of the State to tell me, I'll just tell you." Hong Chengchou said, "Huzi Banner doesn't care whether the Ming Dynasty forms an alliance with the Qing Dynasty, because once the Ming Dynasty cooperates with the Qing Dynasty to send troops to the north, the Tiger Ziqi Banner's navy in the southern sea will It will appear on the Yangzi River and penetrate Nanjing."
When Wei Guogong heard this, his expression suddenly changed.
The prince on the side glared at Hong Chengchou and said, "How dare you!"
"Even the capital of the Ming Dynasty was captured by us, what does the prince think we dare not do?" Hong Chengchou looked at the prince of Wei Guogong and asked.
Hearing this, the prince's face turned red with anger.
Hong Chengchou added: "Your Majesty, you can rest assured that our Tiger-Character Banner can go south and cross the river at any time. The Yangtze River cannot stop the progress of our Tiger-Character Banner Iron Division."
Duke Wei frowned.
The Tiger Flag Navy was not a decoration like the Ming Dynasty Navy. If the opponent's navy really wanted to go upstream along the Yangzi River, he was worried that the city of Nanjing might not be able to stop it.
"Do you have to do this?" Wei Guogong asked, staring at Hong Chengchou.
Hong Chengchou said: "I don't want to do this, but some people have gone too far. If I, the tiger-character flag, don't do something and stop talking about peace, I'm afraid my life will be lost here."
"The Ming Dynasty also had its own navy!" Wei Guogong said.
Hong Chengchou smiled contemptuously and said: "If the Ming Dynasty Navy was really useful, the Duke would not buy the safety flag of our Navy with the Tiger Flag every year."
When Wei Guogong heard this, he looked a little annoyed.
It used to be the great pirate Li Dan, but now it's the Tiger Flag. Their Ming ships always have to look at other people's faces if they want to go to sea smoothly.
"It's not that easy for the navy to cross the Yangzi River. As long as I, the Ming Dynasty, put an iron rope across the river, no ship can even think of passing by." The eldest son of the Duke of Wei said unconvinced.
Hearing this, Hong Chengchou sneered and said: "I'm afraid your prince has forgotten that our Tiger Flag has not only the naval divisions that are good at fighting, but also various combat divisions, and several combat divisions in the second theater can be used at any time. Send troops southward."
