The widowed sister-in-law is embarrassed, she criticizes the villain like he only wants to be a love

Capital

The old emperor's health has been getting worse lately, and the golden elixir given by Yuan An doesn't seem to have any effect.

That day, the old emperor barely managed to hold himself up and went to the morning court. Good news came from Nanwei Mansion. The old emperor was quite shocked when he heard the news.

The King of Qi united with the King of Lingnan to rebel and gathered 100,000 troops to go to Nanwei Mansion. The imperial court had just sent 100,000 troops to replace Zhenbeihou to guard the border of Rongcheng last year. Although the Rong and Di armies signed the armistice agreement, their wolfish ambitions But he never restrained himself, and Rongcheng's 100,000 defenders could not be easily mobilized.

Emperor Hongwu was about to issue an order for the Ministry of War to mobilize 50,000 troops from the Beifu Military Camp to support Nanwei Mansion. The reinforcements here had not yet left the city, so how could there be news of success over there?

"Bring the fold over!"

"promise!"

Yang Zhong immediately walked down the hall, took the memorial from Nanwei Mansion with both hands, and respectfully delivered the memorial to Emperor Hongwu.

Emperor Hongwu opened the memorial and quickly read the contents. Long Yan showed a look of shock.

Li Shangqian's memorial said that Liu Hanzhou, the prince of Yongding Marquis, led 50,000 Northern Hebei troops to support Nanwei Mansion, and together with the 20,000 defenders and the people in the city, they fought against the enemy for consecutive victories. In the end, the King of Qi led more than 20,000 remaining tribesmen to flee. Tongzhou.

This news was great news for the court, but Emperor Hongwu was not happy, and was more confused.

How could Liu Bin agree to send troops? He has always guarded Xinyang Mansion and ignored world affairs. Even if Liu Bin were ordered to send troops today, Liu Bin might not be willing to listen, let alone willingly send troops to support him.

There must be other reasons for this, and Li Shangqian deliberately concealed this reason.

The more the old emperor thought about it, the more he felt that something was not right with Nanwei Mansion. He asked the messenger a few questions but did not get the answer he wanted.

After pondering for a moment, the old emperor announced the success of Nanwei Mansion to the public in front of all the civil and military officials. The officials all praised his Majesty for being wise, understanding people and good at handling tasks.

The old emperor also took advantage of the situation and awarded rewards to the officials of Nanwei Mansion and the Liu family and his son. However, the Liu family and his son and Li Shangqian were in Xinyang Mansion and Nanwei Mansion, so the old emperor sent two officials to the two places with the imperial edict and the rewards. .

After retreating from the court, Emperor Hongwu looked gloomy and sat in front of the chessboard without saying a word for a long time.

Yang Zhong walked in with a medicinal meal.

"Your Majesty, you haven't eaten in the morning. This is the ginseng chicken soup stewed by the imperial kitchen for you. Do you want to try it?"

The old emperor raised his eyes and glanced at Yang Zhong.

"Put it down first, I have no appetite now."

Yang Zhong put the chicken soup on the coffee table aside and looked at the old emperor.

"Your Majesty has been very preoccupied since he came to court, but are you thinking about the good news from Nanwei Mansion?"

Yang Zhong had served the old emperor for more than thirty years. He could immediately guess what the old prince wanted to express with just one look. His Majesty was fine this morning, but his expression had been gloomy ever since he saw the booklet sent by Li Shangqian.

The old emperor frowned and threw the chess pieces in his hand onto the chessboard.

"What do you think of Li Shangqian?"

"Your Majesty, I am just a eunuch who serves as a chamberlain. I have rarely met Mr. Li. I am really not sure who he is. However, I have heard that Mr. Li has a very high status in the hearts of the people of Nanwei. He was a member of the officialdom of Nanwei last year when he was reorganized. He has made a great contribution.”

"I remember that he served in the Feng Family Military Camp."

Yang Zhong's slightly drooped eyelids trembled slightly: "Speaking of which, there are quite a few generals in our court who have experienced training in the Fengjia Military Camp. It seems that Wang Xun, the admiral of the Ministry of War, and Gao Shun, the commander-in-chief, were former soldiers in the Fengjia Military Camp. came out of it.”

The old emperor's eyes flashed with a sharp light, and he looked at Yang Zhong coldly.

"You do know a lot about the Feng family."

Yang Zhong's heart trembled and he quickly knelt down.

"Your Majesty, I am here to serve you. In order to serve Your Majesty better, I privately pay more attention to these officials in the court."

The old emperor said in a deep voice: "Look, I scared you so much. Those who didn't know thought you had made some big mistake. Yang Zhong, I suddenly feel that the past has passed by so quickly, as if in the blink of an eye. How come I am old?"

"Your Majesty is in his prime. As long as his dragon body is well-conditioned, he will surely live a long life."

"Haha, as an emperor, he is respected by all the people, but his high position is not as glamorous as outsiders think. Let's not talk about this. How is the third child doing recently?"

"The third prince has been fasting and chanting Buddha's name since he was imprisoned. He said that he wanted to pray for your majesty. I went to visit you a few days ago. I saw that the third prince has become much calmer after not seeing him for several months."

"Speaking of which, I watched the third child grow up, and he is also the one I like the most among all my sons, but he is too impatient. Fanbang paid tribute to some spices a while ago. You can go get some and send them to the third prince's mansion."

"promise!"

After Yang Zhong left Tai Chi Hall, the old prince glanced into the darkness.

"Send some people to Nanwei Mansion to investigate what happened in the battle in Nanwei Mansion."

"promise!"

After he was alone in the Tai Chi Hall, Emperor Hongwu slowly leaned on the big pillow of fortune, wealth and longevity behind him, and closed his eyes tiredly.

Now everyone in the front and back courts thought that he was about to die, and everyone had their fox tails exposed.

Now that you can’t wait to start taking action, let’s catch them all in one go!

-

It has been more than half a month since Yan Shu and Jiang Ci left the military camp.

The roads in the mountains were rugged, so Jiang Ci deliberately chose a smaller carriage when traveling. The twenty-five shadow guards were also dressed in coarse linen clothes. From the outside, they looked like an ordinary business team.

At ten o'clock in the evening, they finally walked out of the Qilian Mountains and arrived outside a village at the foot of a mountain in Beicheng.

"Aci, everyone must be exhausted after walking on the mountain road for half a month. Let's camp here tonight."

Jiang Ci got off the carriage and looked around, and his eyes finally landed on the river not far away.

"The river channel in front is wider. Let's take a look to see if there is any water in it."

"it is good!"

After the two discussed it, the team continued to move forward for a while, and finally arrived near the river. The afterglow of the setting sun fell on the grassland, and the entire ground was covered with a touch of golden color.

Yan Shu stood next to the river and looked down at the river below. Looking at it, the river had already dried up, and the weeds near the river had gradually turned yellow.

"The closer you get to the north, the more serious the water shortage becomes. Beicheng Town is the junction of Nanwei Prefecture and Rongcheng. If you continue going forward, you will reach the boundary of Rongcheng." Jiang Ci walked to Yan Shu's side.

Yan Shu suggested: "We still have enough water, let's make some food first."

Jiang Cidao: "I have arranged for them to do it. Let's walk to the village ahead."

Yan Shu looked toward the village. The sky quickly darkened, and he could vaguely see that almost everyone had turned on their lights.

The two held hands and walked more than a thousand meters along the river to the village. It happened that an old man came out of the yard carrying a bucket and saw two well-dressed young people standing outside his door. , the old man was also obviously surprised.

"Where are you from?"

Jiang Ci bowed to the old man and said, "We are here from Nanwei Mansion. We happened to pass by here today and saw that there are still people living in the village, so we came over out of curiosity to have a look."

The old man put down the bucket, his thin face full of sadness.

"I heard that Nanwei Mansion just won a victory. With Governor Li guarding Nanwei Mansion, I think the situation in Nanwei Mansion must be much better than that in Rongcheng. Judging from your clothes, I think you have no worries about food and clothing at home. Why do you want to run away now? Rongcheng?”

Jiang Ci replied: "My family still has some shops over there that need to be taken care of. Now that Rong Di has withdrawn its troops, we heard that many villagers who fled have begun to return to their hometowns. We also want to see how the shops are doing."

The old man nodded: "Everyone who can walk in our village has left, and no one wants to come back. The only ones left behind are the old, weak, sick and disabled. They are really weak and can only live here and survive. I advise you. It’s better to go back early. The water shortage here is too serious. The rivers there are almost dry. We have to walk three miles north to get some water. That water..."

When the water was mentioned, the old man shook his head.

Yan Shu asked curiously: "Old man, what happened to the water?"

"The water over there has also bottomed out. It was originally a ditch after the flow was cut off. Now that all the nearby animals have gone there, the water quality has long been stinky. But there is only this little water within a radius of ten miles. It smells bad. Water is better than dying of thirst.”