Bright Spring

However, what some courtiers advocate is not necessarily for the sake of the country; only those loyal ministers who have always defended the Holy Majesty, Jin Zhong, Yuan Gong and a few people in the East Palace, can trust what they say. "

"The empress is still so knowledgeable." Zhu Gaochi said, "This decision is really important, and I dare not take it lightly."

He said solemnly again: "If you do it right, the rebel army will fall apart; if you make a mistake, the consequences will be disastrous! The defeat of Xue Lu has already affected the power of the government and the army. If the court and the army are defeated again, it will make those who stand on the sidelines look at the fire. How does Cao see the imperial court?

Momentum and confidence are very important! "

After hearing this, Mrs. Zhang's expression froze, she was silent for a while, and asked cautiously: "Xu Huizu... and Zhang Fu, aren't they the ministers who have made a name for themselves and wronged the country?"

Zhu Gaochi said: "Of course not! These two men have demonstrated their general talents with their military exploits on the battlefield. Their views are quite different, because there is no right or wrong in general, as long as something is done, it is considered right. of.

I think back then when I was guarding Beiping, facing heavy troops, my father sent the army to Daning. Although this strategy was risky, but later Beiping was defended, and King Ning also joined my father.Father is right. "

Mrs. Zhang's face was a little pale, and said: "It seems that no choice is wrong, it just depends on how to do it?"

Zhu Gaochi nodded and said, "Yes."

Mrs. Zhang nodded thoughtfully, and served the emperor courteously, but didn't speak for a long time.

After a long time, a trace of coldness flashed across Zhang's face, and he smiled again: "Zhang Fu is young, and he has only led the army to fight against Annan, so he is probably inferior to the veterans in general."

Recommend the new book of the city god Lao Shi:

Chapter 4 Fifteen

In the afternoon of that day, Xu Huizu, He Fu, and Wu Gao sat together again in the Mansion of the Commander-in-Chief of the Five Armies.Xu Huizu said straight to the point: "The holy decree has called me to participate in the military affairs at Yumen tomorrow morning. It is still uncertain what strategy the court will adopt; but once my strategy is adopted, I should immediately recommend it to the holy majesty. A general, presiding over the battlefield in Guizhou."

He Fu and Wu Gao paid homage to Xu Huizu together, but did not speak for the time being.

Xu Huizu's eyes moved back and forth between the two of them, and finally stopped on He Fu's face, as if he was waiting for He Fu to express his opinion.

He Fu frowned, and said in a deep voice: "Duke Wei, the general hesitated for a while, but he still wanted to tell that little thing... I'm afraid that you will be impeached first, and you are still kept in the dark, so you are very passive by surprise. Instead of that, it’s better to tell Wei Guogong first.”

Xu Huizu benefited from these words, he asked: "What's the matter?"

"It's like this..." He Fu said.

He told the story of the Xiaohongshan hunting ground at the beginning of Yongle.At that time, Emperor Taizong took his clan nobles to the hunting grounds of the capital to hunt, and he competed with whoever hunted more heads; the lucky head was a famous and expensive Chollima, which aroused the interest of the warriors.As a result, the King of Han was supposed to win, but seeing that He Fu coveted the horse very much, the King of Han took the initiative to give up the jackpot.

(There should be no impeachment for this matter, because Hanwang’s prey was a cat, which is not considered prey; the real key to victory is that the two chased a bird together in the forest, and Hanwang let it out, but this detail No one else knows.)

At this important decision-making juncture of military and national affairs, Xu Huizu still listened carefully to the trivial matters described by He Fu.After all, many major events often depend on the details!

Xu Huizu finally understood the key point in this matter: Han Wang had shown his favor to He Fu.

"It's okay, you don't have to worry too much." Xu Huizu said kindly.

But after he finished speaking, he fell silent, as if he was deep in thought.Xu Huizu was not necessarily comforting He Fu, this kind of trivial matter, He Fu did not take the initiative to show favor, and He Fu would not be able to be overthrown by the officials.

But the current situation is very delicate.

The reason why Xu Huizu and other officials who have made great contributions to the Ming Dynasty fell down is that they stumbled in the Jianwen Dynasty. After all, they did not stand in the right place during the battle for the throne; Those grievances and grievances in the past have taken a backseat on the contrary... You can temporarily put aside the old grievances from the previous dynasty, but you can't ignore the relationship with the King of Han.

The person competing for the merits of this battle is Zhang Fu. Zhang Fu is the "Hero of Jing Nan" and a relative of Jinshang. He was right both times, and he has all the advantages.It is obviously not easy for Xu Huizu and others to gain military merit in an extremely unfavorable situation, and they cannot reveal any secrets or mistakes.

Sure enough, Xu Huizu said after a while: "It's nothing serious, but it's better to be more cautious now."

He sighed unconsciously, looked at He Fu and said, "Success or failure is not enough to judge a hero. In the Battle of Lingbi (during the Jingnan War), General He was defeated by Gao Xu, but you did not stick to the fortification of Lingbi. He When the general heard that the Ministry of Security was besieged by the Yan army, he dared to venture out of the fortifications and go all out to fight. It can be seen that the general is a man of courage."

Xu Huizu turned his head to look at Wu Gao again: "The Marquis of Jiangyin also fought against Gao Xu. During the Battle of Beiping, Li Jinglong and the Marquis of Jiangyin attacked Beiping from the north and the south. The Marquis of Jiangyin led the Liaodong soldiers to attack Yongping City, which was defended by Gao Xu, with ten times the strength. , still build the siege first, and fight steadily. Later, when Yan soldiers came to help, the Marquis of Jiangyin had no choice but to retreat. It shows that the Marquis of Jiangyin is not greedy for merit, neither arrogant nor rash, and very calm."

Xu Huizu raised his sign language and said earnestly: "Don't worry too much, I'm not commenting on the level of the two of you, I'm just talking about your temperament. The battlefield is unpredictable and ever-changing. What will happen, this time is the time to best reflect the temperament of a general. I think Ningyuanhou is more courageous, and Jiangyinhou is more secure."

He paused and continued, "The battle of Guizhou requires bold generals. He Fu and Qiu Fu are the best candidates...Of course Qiu Fu is impossible, he will happily lead the troops Go surrender to Gao Xu."

He Fu and Wu Gao couldn't help smiling when they heard Qiu Fu's comments.

Xu Huizu was serious, without a smile on his face. He pondered for a moment, and finally said to Wu Gao: "If the Marquis of Jiangyin rushes to help Guizhou, he must show his courage and go out to fight with him! The imperial court has 200 million soldiers, and he is not afraid of losing both sides with Gao Xu, but I am afraid Lost momentum!"

Wu Gao clasped his fists and bowed: "The general will always remember Wei Guogong's true words!"

"Everything will be resolved in the morning." Xu Huizu stared and said, "Gao Xu is a rebellious son, I don't need to deal with it! There is no elder brother to teach him severely, he doesn't know the heights of heaven and earth, and he is afraid that he will become the devil king of the world and turn the world upside down. There are no rules."

Wu Gao said modestly: "If the Duke of Wei can go out in person, he will be sure to win."

Xu Huizu showed a very aggrieved expression, "In the battle of Jingnan, if I hadn't been transferred away by the imperial court, I wouldn't have beat him to the ground!"

"That's all." Xu Huizu waved his hand, turned his head and said, "If the court uses my general strategy this time, the world will be settled in one battle! If Gao Xu can't steal chickens (Guizhou), let's throw a handful of rice from Yunnan to win the battle in Sichuan." Become a bird in a cage, trapped to death. So that he can understand that disobedient juniors will not end well."

The two worshiped: "I wish the Yumen court meeting tomorrow, and Wei Guogong's flag will win!"

... The next morning, it began to rain.The weather in the last two days of the winter month has been very cold, and the rain is even colder.The accumulated water trickled up and down along the double eaves of the majestic palace, and the brick floor in the imperial city was like a sea of ​​water. Fortunately, there were a lot of open and hidden channels, otherwise they would have to be flooded.

One after another, some civil and military ministers with umbrellas waded through the stagnant water and walked towards the Fengtian Gate on the platform.All kinds of animals carved from jade, with rock-solid and unchanging eyes, seem to be watching them quietly.

A new round of violent contention related to the Ming Dynasty's thousands of miles of land is about to be brewed here and will soon kick off.

On such a critical day, there is no grand ceremony and music, and there are not many people.There was only one person in the rain who said calmly, "It's rare to see such heavy rain in winter."

The other person holding an umbrella moved his umbrella a little bit and revealed his face. It was Jin Zhong, Minister of the Ministry of War. Jin Zhong looked at the rain curtain, nodded and said, "What Wei Guogong said is that this weather is really rare."

Xu Huizu immediately said again: "By the way, can you exchange Guo Butang (Guo Zi) with Qian Changshi from the Han Palace? Maybe the court can add some conditions."

"Oh?" Jin Zhong was stunned for a moment, he seemed to realize what kind of deal this was, not just a deal between the court and the King of Han, there might be other meanings.Jin Zhong didn't answer right away, he pointed his umbrella at the top and said, "Let's go to the imperial gate first."

Xu Huizu nodded and said, "Please."

Chapter 4 Transactions

Everyone was holding umbrellas, but their boots and the hem of their robes were inevitably wet from the rain, and the brick floor at the entrance of Fengtianmen was wet|damp.

Many people came this morning, including civil servants and generals.The strangest thing is that there are huge differences in official positions, there are state officials, ministerial halls, and seventh-rank officials like Geng Tong... But as long as someone pays a little attention, they will find that many people with high official positions have not arrived. The presence of those present has little to do with the rank of the official.

Right now, these people are the trusted civil and military personnel selected by the Hongxi court.

Jin Zhong, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, took a casual look, and he could roughly understand that there were probably four types of people among them.

One is the confidant counselors of the old Yan Palace, Jin Zhong, Yuan Gong, and Lu Zhen; including Yao Guangxiao, who has not yet arrived, and stood firmly on Zhu Gaochi's side when Taizong established the crown prince.The second is the civil servants who were born as officials in the Eastern Palace, San Yang and others.The third is the important civil servants of the Jianwen Dynasty who surrendered, Jian Yi and Xia Yuanji.

The fourth is the generals of the Northern Army in the "Battle of Jingnan".

Not all Jingnan generals are there.There are too many generals in Jingnan, and if there are too many people, it is impossible for them all to be of one mind!

For example, Qiu Fu, who openly supported the King of Han, was not prepared to come, and Wang Cong, Marquis of Wucheng who had a good relationship with Qiu Fu.In addition, those who did not come include some Earls who are suspected to have a good relationship with the King of Han, such as Wang Ning; several consorts who have made no achievements...

And those generals who stayed in Beiping and assisted Zhu Gaochi in defending the city, Longping Hou Zhang Xin and others were immediately reused, and most of them participated in today's imperial meeting.

Most of them were generals who had military merits in the "Battle of Jingnan" but did not receive special favor from the late emperor. Zhu Gaochi only promoted them after he proclaimed himself emperor.