The leader, Jing Zhao, knelt on the ground with a plop, and everyone behind him followed him. He knelt on the ground, and everyone shouted in unison: "Thank you, general, for being alive! Thank you, general, for being alive!"
"Please get up quickly, please get up quickly." Gao Heng quickly walked down the steps and quickly helped a few people in the front row.
"The one who really saves you is yourselves. Gao is just organizing everyone. It should be noted that a piece of loose sand cannot succeed in any place. Only when everyone unites together and becomes a rope can we not be bullied by others. Now The war is over and everyone has been saved. If you are willing to go back, you can also return to the Ming Dynasty." Gao Heng said loudly.
"No, we won't go back! Many of us were poor in the Ming Dynasty. When we returned to the Ming Dynasty, we also levied exorbitant taxes. The Ming Dynasty was not peaceful. We were either exploited by the government or plundered by thieves. It's no different from here. I'm tired. , I just want to follow the general. The little old man feels that the general is a trustworthy person and a man of great righteousness. By following such a person, the little old man will have confidence no matter where he is." An old man responded loudly.
"Yes, General! Just let us follow you."
"General, I am willing to follow you."
"We will go wherever you go."
"Thank you, thank you all, thank you for your trust, Gao, Gao." Hearing such sincere words, Gao Heng's eyes filled with tears. Unexpectedly, he was loved by so many people. This was something he had never experienced before. I feel that the people of China are always so simple. As long as they have a mouthful of food to eat and a piece of clothing to wear, they are content.
But even with such a simple condition, those bandits and captives, and those government and landlords still want to exploit these things. The prosperity of the people will be miserable, and the suffering of the people will be destroyed. When will it end?
Gao Heng suddenly raised his head and looked at the countless torches, just like looking at sparks. A single spark can start a prairie fire, and these people are the kindling. One day in the future, perhaps they can accomplish greater goals, save more people from dire straits, live a good life, and build a world of great unity.
Gao Heng said categorically: "Please rest assured that everyone is willing to follow Gao. Gao will definitely live up to the trust of his father and fellow villagers. Today, we are starting in this small county. In the future, we will bring more expats together." Come here and build a paradise of our own!”
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I am waiting for the death penalty! I am waiting for the death penalty!"
Thang Long Palace, Thang Long Imperial City, was originally the palace of the Emperor of the Le Dynasty. After the separation of the Zheng and Nguyen families, Thang Long Palace became the capital of the Zheng family, and naturally became the palace of Lord Zheng.
At this moment, in the main hall, several generals who were bound by five-flowered flowers knelt in a row. The leader was the commander of the Royal Forest Army who went on an expedition with Zheng Zuo. They kowtowed like garlic, praying to Lord Zheng to spare their lives. .
Lord Zheng was nearly sixty years old. In ancient times, he was considered to have lived a long life in his sixtieth year. In fact, he mentioned to Zheng Zuo more than once that in a few years, when he could no longer do anything, he would abdicate in favor of others and enjoy the blessings of becoming the Supreme Emperor himself. Leave the country to Zheng Zuo. But who would have thought that such a huge change would occur and Zheng Zuo would be captured. If there were any shortcomings, the Zheng family would definitely have no successor.
It may be that Gao Heng did not have a special understanding of the history of Annan. In fact, Lord Zheng was not the real legitimate leader of Annan. He was just a powerful minister who held the emperor hostage to order the princes, but he did it even more than Cao Cao in history. Although the Li Dynasty after Annan was nominally subordinate to the Ming Dynasty, it was only a superficial phenomenon. It was a minister to the Ming Dynasty but claimed to be the emperor internally.
But now that the royal family is weak, after the Zheng family took control of the power, they abolished the establishment, controlled the government, and put the entire royal family under house arrest. Although they were not executed, the people only knew about Lord Zheng, but not Emperor Li.
What Lord Zheng is worried about is that once Zheng Zuo is gone and he himself dies, the original royal family will find a way to regain the throne. However, if he is allowed to kill all the royal family now, once Lord Ruan finds out, he will definitely publicize it. , when the time comes, we will be very passive politically.
Lord Zheng was uneasy. Zheng Zuo was the son he valued most from childhood. Regardless of his wisdom or bravery, he was the most suitable successor to the Zheng family's regime, especially since Lord Zheng had placed him in the army since he was young. Training, Zheng Zuo has quite a lot of prestige and connections in the army. From the bottom of his heart, Lord Zheng will never give up on him, but asking him to negotiate with a group of civilians is embarrassing. Besides, these people are stupid. God knows if they will open their mouths.
Lord Zheng stood up from the throne and walked back and forth. The ministers were also silent. It was better not to speak at this time than to speak. No one dares to easily propose giving up Zheng Zuo or rescuing Zheng Zuo. On a larger scale, this is a state matter, but in essence it is still Lord Zheng’s family matter. Whether he saves his son or not is something that Lord Zheng can decide.
The generals were still kneeling down to beg for mercy, and this voice made Lord Zheng feel agitated for no reason. "Pull them down, drag them all down! Put them in the sky prison and wait for their punishment." Master Zheng waved his hand.
A group of royal guards entered from outside the palace and dragged down several generals like wolves and tigers. Their begging for mercy could be heard from far away.
Lord Zheng stopped, looked around at the ministers and said, "Is there no one willing to stand up and share my worries? Zheng Wei, tell me." He named a person.
Zheng Wei is the advisor and prime minister of Lord Zheng, and he also belongs to the Zheng family. Zheng Wei heard Master Zheng's name being called and had no choice but to step out. He looked at Master Zheng's face and thought for a while, he could only take a gamble based on his years of understanding of Master Zheng. He pondered for a moment and said loudly: " Your Majesty, I think it is more important to the public than to the private, so I should save you."
Master Zheng suddenly stopped and said, "Go on!"
"Although the king is in charge of the world, he is still a father. How can there be a son in the world who has a son who is in trouble and his father just sits back and ignores it? This is private morality. If the king turns a deaf ear, what will the people of the world think?" Zheng Wei said.
Master Zheng nodded. In fact, of course he wanted to save his son, but he was afraid of objections. So by using Zheng Wei's words, he naturally had room for maneuver. Master Zheng was quite satisfied. Zheng Wei was worthy of being his number one counselor. He knew his intentions just by looking at him.
Zheng Wei added: "Mr. Yu, Zheng Zuo is the eldest son and the king's heir. Saving the eldest son will be conducive to the stability of the country. If something happens to the eldest son, there will be no one to inherit the throne and Chao Gang will be in danger of chaos. The other party is just a bunch of mud legs. Son, this time our army must have been careless, I think it is better to see what conditions the other party will have before making any calculations."
Lord Zheng praised: "Good! The Prime Minister is indeed mature and prudent. What he said is polite and polite. I agree with it, but I don't know which of my beloved ministers is willing to share my worries."
Zheng Wei cursed secretly, needless to say, he can't solve the problems he raised by himself. He took another step forward and said: "It is my duty to share the King's worries. If I am willing to send an envoy, I can also find out the details of the other party."
Lord Zheng immediately said: "I will give you the right to make arbitrary decisions when the opportunity arises. As long as the foundation of the country is not shaken, you can watch and negotiate with the other party. You can decide the scale yourself and do not affect the war between our army and the Ruan Dynasty."
"I obey," Zheng Wei said with a bow.
"Hahaha, okay, okay, the Zheng family is a bunch of trash, hahaha." In the Guangnan Imperial City, Lord Ruan laughed so hard that tears flowed out. The Zheng family and the Ruan family have been in dispute for many years, and they have been at the national border. I go and fight non-stop. But generally speaking, the Nguyen clan is on the defensive, because the Nguyen clan's regime needs to fight on two fronts, one is to deal with the Zheng clan, and the other is to fight against Champa in the south.
After many years, most of the territory of the Champa regime has been occupied. However, the surging uprisings in various places gave Lord Nguyen a headache, so he could only build a high wall similar to the Great Wall on the northern border to separate the territories of the Zheng and Nguyen families. , stick to the south.
Although the two families are hostile, no matter which one they are, they are well aware of the situation in the other's territory. They are of the same race and origin, but they are split into two regimes, the north and the south. The exchanges between the people are not completely cut off. The two sides are in each other's country. There are a large number of spies in the territory looking for information.
It can almost be said that even if Lord Zheng fell down in the palace today, Lord Ruan would get the news within three days.
Today, Lord Ruan is reviewing memorials in the imperial city. The news during this period can be said to be mixed. Fortunately, the resistance on the Champaign side has been suppressed a lot. The Ruan family's army has the momentum to quell the Champaign, and Fo Lang Ji There is also news over there that they are willing to provide some more artillery to Ruan's army. If he can get more firearm support, his army will be stronger.
Worryingly, the northern border is not peaceful, and the Zheng army is planning a new offensive. I heard that Lord Zheng sent troops to prepare to plunder the Ming Dynasty border. Everyone knows that the Ming Dynasty was rich, and it was currently suffering from internal and external troubles, so it had no time to take care of the defense of the southwest border. , if Lord Zheng really succeeded, wouldn't his financial resources be further expanded? In Annam at that time, the population in the north was densely populated, and the population in the south was relatively small. Excluding Champa, the actual population controlled by Lord Ruan was only the population in the north. half.
In ancient times, population was the basis for a country's development. With half the population missing, the Ruan family's regime was inferior to the Zheng family in many aspects, and was naturally in a passive defensive situation. Now Zheng is mainly attacking the Ming Dynasty. If he can win, his strength will be even stronger. How can this make Lord Ruan not anxious.
But at this moment, a piece of news that made Lord Ruan unbelievable came. Lord Zheng's plan to attack the Ming Dynasty was disrupted by a group of expatriates. Not only that, even Zheng Zuo was captured by the expatriates. Now the Zheng family has become a What a mess.
Lord Ruan jumped up from his chair happily and almost fell over. If he hadn't been concerned about his image as the king, Lord Ruan would have wanted to look up to the sky and scream. He grabbed the arms of the minister who came to report the news, "Quick! Tell me what's going on."
Lord Ruan is more low-key than Lord Zheng. Lord Ruan only calls himself the Duke of the country, so he calls himself Gu.
The minister said: "Your Majesty, we have received news from the front line recently that there has been a drastic change in the Zheng family. After many inquiries, we finally found out the whole story. Lord Zheng originally planned to attack the Ming Dynasty, with Zheng Guang leading more than 10,000 troops. Attack Zhennanguan, but unexpectedly, they were defeated by the Ming army and Zheng Guang was killed. After the Ming army withdrew, a force stayed and raided Tuo County in the north, where many Chinese expatriates were imprisoned. After these people were rescued , Master Zheng was unwilling to give in and asked Zheng Zuo to lead ten thousand troops to annihilate them. Unexpectedly, the horse lost its front foot, and even Zheng Zuo himself was captured, and the entire army was almost annihilated."
Lord Ruan's mood increased every time the minister said something, and he kept nodding his head, which showed how happy he was in his heart.
Lord Ruan said: "The Zheng family has encountered such a big setback this time. I think we should find a way to get Zheng Zuo back. After all, he is the heir apparent."
The minister said: "Yes, according to reliable information, Lord Zheng has sent Zheng Wei to the north as a special envoy for negotiation."
Lord Ruan said: "Okay, okay, taking this opportunity, we have Fo Langji's artillery again, should we launch a counterattack to dampen their spirit?"
The minister bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I have something to say. I don't know whether I should say it or not."
Lord Ruan said: "But it doesn't hurt to talk."
The minister said: "It is true that the enemy of the enemy is a friend. I think that since these people can capture Zheng Zuo, they must be ordinary people. Lord Zheng is careless and thinks that they are weak-legged, which is why we are defeated today. Maybe we You can think about it in a different way.”
Lord Ruan said: "What do you mean?"
"My lord, wouldn't it be great if there was a strong support behind to contain the Zheng family?"
"Ah, it makes sense, it makes sense." Lord Ruan patted his forehead, as if he suddenly realized that the Zheng family has about 100,000 soldiers in the country. At least one-third of the troops are needed to defend the country, and there are five more. Thousands of soldiers and horses are confronting them on the southern border, and the remaining 20,000 are mobile troops. If someone can control the back, the mobile troops will definitely be useless. The 50,000 soldiers and horses will have no reinforcements, which will be very beneficial to themselves.
Furthermore, the Zheng family had aroused the resentment of the Ming Dynasty, and now that the situation was like this, he had to guard against it. From this point of view, Master Zheng had stolen the chicken but lost the rice, losing his son and losing his army.
Lord Ruan walked back and forth quickly, raised his hand and pointed at the minister and said: "We should do something, we should do something. In this way, you immediately go to the layout and find a way to get in touch with this people. You are right, the enemy Our enemies are our friends, and it would be great if they could contain Lord Zheng, but they can’t live alone for long, so we have to provide some help. As a group of expats, what they lack most when they gather together is money, food and supplies. If we can provide a batch, It will definitely alleviate the situation greatly, hum, Lord Zheng, you too will have this day!"
The minister bowed and left, but Lord Ruan walked to the desk, spread out the map, and looked at it for a long time, but his brows knitted together. The location of Yuan County is not good. It is inland. The border between the Ruan family and the Zheng family is in Guangping, which is far away from Yuan County. If you want to support supplies, you can only go by sea, but the ports are in the hands of the Zheng family. If the Chinese want to obtain supplies, they must at least capture Xin'an Port first.
