Bright Spring

9 Chapter Forty

Earlier, when Zhu Gaoxu had just left Zhangde Mansion, he had already ordered the Beiping Chief Political Officer and the Shandong Chief Political Officer to order the generals near the north to report to Peking.

The Liaodong Dusi (near Liaoyang) has also received the order, and then ordered that the generals of the guards set out to go south.

The commander of the Liaodong capital is called Cao Yi. He has been serving as the commander of the capital since the end of Hongwu until now.Recently, the emperor made a northern tour and summoned the generals of the guards to report on their duties, which seemed to be relatively normal, but Cao Yi felt a little uneasy.

Today he was pondering this matter again in the Yamen's Office, and suddenly reported to Daning City General He Hao to see him.Cao Yi immediately said to the guard: "Please."

He Hao is also one of the people who is going to report on his work, but he first came to Liaodong Capital.Obviously He Hao is Cao Yi's confidant.

During the "Battle of Jingnan" that year, King Ning was forced to join the Jingnan Army, and all his official guards were taken away by Taizong, and he also brought a large group of Mongolian cavalry from the Wuliangha tribes.Daning City was also empty for a while. (Daning City is located in the south of Chifeng City, north of Yanshan Mountain, and northwest of Liaoxi Corridor.)

Later, King Ning moved his vassal to Jiangxi, Daning City lost its status as a vassal fiefdom, and the capital of Daning almost existed in name only.During the reign of Yongle, Daning City was temporarily garrisoned by the capital of Liaodong until now.At that time, Cao Yi, the commander of Liaodong, sent his general He Hao.

After a while, He Hao walked into the signing room.He was a burly man with powerful movements, clasped his fists and bowed, and said in a loud voice: "The last general will see Cao Dushi."

"Okay, okay." Cao Yi, whose beard and hair were already grey, nodded and said, "You have to go to Peiping quickly, don't delay too long."

He Hao's face was a little confused, probably because Cao Yi meant to come to the Liaodong capital for this trip.But He Hao didn't say much, and respectfully replied: "Yes."

Cao Yi stood up from the chair, pondered for a while, and suddenly said: "I'm afraid your business will come to the Holy Majesty this time. Those guards in the west didn't get any benefits, and they were very jealous. Don't take this opportunity to blow the pot away." ?”

When He Hao heard this, he suddenly said: "Cao Dushi was worried about this matter, and he already knew about this matter today? From Yongping Mansion to Daning City, there are not Jin Yiwei sitting in every yamen Remember, it should have been reported to Beijing earlier, but no one has cared about it these years. Besides, it is not a rare thing. Merchants go south from outside the customs with Korean ginseng and other things, and then carry goods from the mainland to outside the customs. Weiwei along the way The toll money collected is something that has happened a long time ago."

Cao Yi said: "Brothers should be fine, the old man may have a hurdle."

He Hao immediately patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, Du Envoy Cao, the matter is decided by the general himself, and has absolutely nothing to do with Envoy Cao who is far away in Liaodong Capital!"

"Huh." Cao Yi made a sound from his nose, noncommittal.

After a while, Cao Yi asked again: "Is your business a bit big?"

He Hao showed an embarrassed smile, "It is said that it is doing business with Duoyan Sanwei, but in fact it is not just the people of Sanwei. The Tatar tribes have been at odds with Ming Dynasty before they came to the throne, and the usual trading has been cut off. The things needed by the Tatar tribes, such as tea, flour, ironware, etc., were exchanged from Duoyansanwei Wuliangha people. Wuliangha people bought from us. This business is not small. "

He continued bluntly: "Later, we couldn't do it on our own, so we found several big salt merchants.

One of the ways that those salt merchants wanted salt citations was to send military rations to the border, get the official documents signed by the generals, and then exchange them for salt citations.Another way is to simply spend money to buy Yanyin from the vassal king, and Yanyin is rewarded by the sage.However, salt was very expensive in the past, and some salt merchants were willing to send military rations.

The transportation of grain was costly, so some salt merchants simply searched for places to open up wasteland around the capitals of Liaodong and Daning, and recruited refugees who had settled down and even escaped exiles to cultivate land.He planted grain on the spot and gave it to the generals in exchange for salt.

However, after the reign of Wude, the imperial court suddenly stopped the treasure banknotes and used silver and copper to cast coins; the part of the treasure banknotes that the Holy Majesty rewarded the vassal kings was all replaced by Yanyin.Salt caused too much, and the price has been falling all the way in the past two years.Now most of the salt merchants are unwilling to send military rations, and simply spend money to buy them.

At that moment, we found another way to make money for the salt merchants in Daningdusi.What the Wuliangha people want to buy, just ask the salt merchants to send it to Daning City.When they passed the border, they said it was something they needed to open up wasteland in the frontier, or the goods needed by the Daning garrison, and they checked along the road, and it has been smooth so far. "

After He Hao finished speaking, he emphasized: "No matter how we investigate, we never do business with Tatars, only with Wuliangha people. This is not a crime of collaborating with the enemy! Wuliangha people supported Emperor Taizong back then, and now The three guards and the title are also the three guards set up by our Ming Dynasty."

Cao Yi looked at He Hao for a while, then said calmly: "Your princes in the court are not fools, and the Wuliangha people are closely related to the Horqin tribe in the Tatars. When things are in the hands of the Wuliangha people, they are nothing more than transfers. One hand."

He Hao stretched his neck: "That's Wuliangha collaborating with the enemy."

"That's all, that's all." Cao Yi shook his head and said, "Don't stay in Liaodong Capital, and go to Peking first."

He Hao clasped his fists and said, "The final general obeys orders and resigns."

Cao Yi watched He Hao walk out of the threshold, and sighed secretly again.

I heard from friends in Peiping that the emperor's Northern Guards had more than 1 cavalry.If these people want to drive the Northern Expedition in person, there are too few people, and if they are just accompanying the guards, it seems that there are more.Cao Yi even boldly speculated that the emperor would not come to purge some disobedient generals?

The more Cao Yi thought about it, the more afraid he became, but there was nothing he could do about it.Today, he is famous for being good at fighting, not to mention that he followed Taizong to go out to fight, and the "Battle of Jingnan" was Taizong's arm; , across the Ming Dynasty from the border of Yunnan, and won the throne.

Such an emperor, Cao Yi dared not resist after eating a hundred leopards, so he could only wait to be killed.Even if he dared to resist, his subordinates were not willing to follow him to death.

So Cao Yi began to comfort himself, trying his best to think about the good.For example, most of the old ministers have not been purged after today's ascension to the throne, and even some people who opposed the present have lived well; Cao Yi has not been involved in the "battle of crimes", so he will not be cruel to him ?

However, Cao Yi quickly remembered what happened to Emperor Hongxi and his elder brother.Cao Yi fell into deep thought again, wondering whether such a scheming thing was done by the Holy One?

... The military generals from all over Beiping who were ordered to go have arrived one after another.The Beiping chief envoy also wrote a memorial and sent people south to find the emperor's brigade and send it to him.

When Zhu Gaoxu received the memorial, he had just entered the ground of Beiping Chief Envoy.The army on foot and various vehicles marched and set up camp step by step, walking very slowly, only a few tens of miles a day.

The weather in the north is getting colder and colder, and it is already winter.

The snow hasn't fallen this year, and the wind is often dry and cold.The vegetation along the way is withered, and the dim colors are dotted with a little green leaves. Compared with the winter in the capital, this place is much more simple.But Zhu Gaoxu is quite used to it, he had spent a lot of time in Beiping back then.

In early November, people finally arrived outside Beiping.At this time, there was no vassal king in this big city, and the officials from the Third Department of Beiping came out of the city to welcome them. Among the crowd, there were also the border generals summoned by Zhu Gaoxu.

After the ceremony, the emperor's guard of honor and guards surrounded Zhu Gaoxu's Luanjia and entered the city gate.

According to the previous arrangement, Zhu Gaoxu did not live in the larger Yan Wang Mansion and Zhao Wang Mansion, but went straight to Gaoyang County Wang Mansion where he used to live.But now the plaque of the County King's Mansion is gone, because there is no longer the name of the Gaoyang County King, people generally call it the Old Courtyard of Beiping.There is a huge gap between the specifications of the Prince's Mansion and the County Prince's Mansion. In comparison, the former Gaoyang County Prince's Mansion really seems to be just a courtyard.

Zhu Gaoxu did not immediately summon the frontier generals to discuss matters, but only asked the eunuch to pass the decree to repair for a whole day.After the welcome ceremony, everyone went back to the residences arranged by the capital of Beiping.

But that afternoon, Zhu Gaoxu summoned Wuliangha Renjier alone.

Zhu Gaoxu doesn't know what the Mongolian name of the chicken is.I don't know who took this Chinese name, it may be Emperor Taizong Zhu Di.Because Zhu Di also named the eunuch a dog or something.

Zhu Gaoxu was in the upper room in the front yard, and when he saw the chicken entering to worship, he suddenly felt that this Wuliangha man seemed to be a lot older, and his face was full of wrinkles.I remember that when Ji'er participated in the "Battle of Jingnan" under Zhu Gaoxu's command, he seemed to be relatively young and strong.Only then did Zhu Gaoxu suddenly realize that more than ten years have passed since the "Battle of Jingnan".

"General, please get up, sit on the chair." Zhu Gaoxu personally stepped forward to help him up.

Ji'er bowed: "Thank you, my lord." He spoke Chinese, with a strange accent, but it was easy to understand.

Zhu Gaoxu said again: "The general followed me to fight in the north and south, and never saw each other again. First, I lived in the southwestern border, Yunnan Prefecture, thousands of miles away; later, I succeeded to the throne in the capital. I remembered the general several times, but everything was wasted. We finally met again today."

After hearing this, Ji'er seemed to be moved on his wrinkled dark|rough face: "I don't want the Holy Majesty to be able to think of my servants."

Zhu Gaoxu asked, "What's your situation now?"

Ji'er said: "It's still the same as before. There are more than a thousand tents under his command, which belong to Fuyuwei. But when we were teaching in the capital, Emperor Taizong gave us a lot of rewards."

Zhu Gaoxu said directly: "I should give you more rewards, and there must be opportunities in the future."

Ji'er looked up at Zhu Gaoxu, was silent for a while, and finally said: "My lord, Fuyuwei is in trouble."

Zhu Gaoxu changed to a patient sitting position, and said, "If you have anything to say, just tell me." He intuitively felt that this time, he could get some useful information from General Ji'er.It was right to meet this Wuliangha man alone today.

Chapter 941 Tatars Go East

The Wuliangha Sanwei grazing land is located in the Northeast region, on the east side of the Greater Khingan Mountains (now called Harawen Mountains), and is mainly active in the Nen River (now called Naowen River) and the Songhua River.Among them, the Fuyuwei jurisdiction where General Ji'er is located is at the northernmost point of Sanwei.

General Ji'er's expression looked very heavy. He was sitting on a grand teacher's chair, leaning over to face Zhu Gaoxu and said, "Before I left, the command envoy 'Hai Sha Nan Daxi' told me to let the Holy Majesty know the blessings." Yu Wei is in a very dangerous situation."

Zhu Gaoxu nodded without saying a word.

General Ji'er continued, "According to legend, Emperor Taizong promised at the beginning to allow the three guards to go south and obtain Daning City and the surrounding land. I don't know if it is true or not, but it has been widely spread. After Emperor Taizong ascended the throne, he did not do that. Many people in the Three Guards tribes are very dissatisfied, among which the people from Duoyan Guard and Tai Ning Guard complain the most."

For such a promise, Zhu Gaoxu was noncommittal, and he himself didn't know what his father said, whether he said it or not.