The vast night fell, there were large thick clouds on the gray sky, the Lu army who had withdrawn for a day camped and lit a bonfire, the snow had turned smaller, but it was even colder, King Lu sat on the pier in a daze, his heart was dripping blood, his 30,000 troops were over, and Wang Tu's hegemony was over.

The whole army was drained of its spirit, the order was scattered, the face was colorless, some people secretly fled halfway, and now there were even more people whispering.

King Lu stayed for a moment, came to his senses, looked at the dark night, and said to Gonggong Liao: "Do you think the enemy will come to steal the camp at night?"

"Your Majesty, no, it is difficult to distinguish between friend and foe in secret, and the enemy has also suffered great losses, and now we must be cleaning up the battle, and we should be safe for now. ”

"How many more do we have?"

"General Yan is counting, returning to the establishment, appointing and dismissing generals, and now it seems that there are more than a thousand people. Gonggong Liao said in a low voice, his expression was gloomy, in today's battle, the 30,000 soldiers were almost wiped out.

"Where's the grain?"

"There isn't much food, and now it's killing horses and eating meat, or this cold day, it will immediately freeze into ice. ”

King Lu was silent for a long time, looked up to the sky and sighed, and in a blink of an eye, he had regained his composure and majesty: "Come on, send my own soldiers and guards to form a supervision team to rectify military discipline, whoever dares to escape, there is no forgiveness for killing, and whoever dares to secretly talk about destroying the morale of the army will also be killed." ”

King Lu said to a lieutenant who followed, and this lieutenant was full of bravery, and immediately responded, and turned around to arrange for the inspection team to supervise.

"Defectors, there is no mercy. ”

"Disrupt the order in the army, and there is no mercy for killing. ”

The overseers ran back and forth, shouting loudly, and one of the cavalrymen happened to try to escape in secret, and the overseers rushed up, grabbed them, and slashed them with a knife, blood splattered, and the head rolled off.

Looking at this, a fishy smell came up from King Lu's throat, and he couldn't help but reach out to cover it.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong with you?" Seeing King Lu's face change, Gonggong Liao hurriedly stepped forward.

"Wow" King Lu spit out a mouthful of blood, and his chest was more comfortable, and Gonggong Liao was shocked: "Imperial Doctor, quickly pass on the Imperial Doctor......

Speaking of this, I woke up to the fact that there was no doctor at this time.

"I'm fine. King Lu stretched out his hand to stop him.

"Your Majesty, take care of the dragon's body. Father-in-law Liao shed tears, and King Lu calmed down and said, "I'm fine, don't make a fuss." ”

"Now that our army has suffered heavy defeats and losses, Chenzhou can no longer be defended. King Lu said coldly: "Retreating to the state city is to be surrounded, and the most important thing now is to tighten your fists, so as not to collapse the overall situation." ”

"You arrange, find some people among the guards who can still calm down, and quickly ride to the counties to give orders, so that the defenders of each county can quickly retreat to Jinju with food. Speaking of this, King Lu felt heartache again, and there was a little smell of blood in his throat.

"Also, order Han Hongwu to join Gu. King Lu ordered.

This decision is very correct, because of the big defeat, he is only a thousand people, and it will be all over if he wants to catch up with the imperial army, and the most important thing now is to gather the army and stabilize the front, but even though he thinks so, King Lu only feels a cold.

The capital, the palace, the imperial study

The beast-shaped stove was vigorous, the roast was warm, several eunuchs and palace maids were waiting at the door, and a voice came from the imperial study: "Your Majesty, the war is important, and the soldiers from all over the country must be prepared, is it an order to prepare?"

Emperor Qitai listened, remembered Pei Ziyun's plan, and was silent for a moment: "Aiqing drafted the text, if the war is unfavorable, the army will be transferred to the king." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty. ”

At this time, Cabinet Minister Yue Ji took a step forward: "Your Majesty, the minister has a good performance, there has been heavy snow in various places this year, and many places have been affected, so they have to allocate money to go down for relief." ”

"The army that encircled and suppressed King Lu is still using soldiers, and the amount of money spent this month is more than double that of the previous two months, and now it is necessary to mobilize the soldiers, and the treasury is really difficult to support!"

Emperor Qitai raised his face and groaned, silently took a sip of the teacup, and said for a long time: "Let's talk about disaster relief first, I remember that there is still a lot of grain in the warehouse?"

"Your Majesty, in the past few years, there is a lot of grain in stock, but the pacification of Jibei Hou, military spending, and disaster relief have used a lot of grain reserves, although there is still some foundation, but there is not much. ”

"What do you think should be done?"

"You can send a commissioner for disaster relief, according to half a catty of coarse grain per person per day, so that there will be no hunger this year, as for the silver, the minister really has no choice. ”

Emperor Qitai was silent for a long time before he said, "What do you think about the battle situation?"

"From the minister's point of view, the camp is surrounded, and it is difficult for King Lu to break through, but if you spend it slowly, it will take at least three or five years, and it will be very difficult to spend money on military expenses and food. Jiang Shuyu, who was in charge of the household department, said: "The national treasury has used up 3.5 million taels last year, and looking at this situation, it will cost 5 million taels this year, but the household treasury only has 10 million taels left." ”

"With this amount of money, if it lasts for two years at most, it will fall into a situation where there is no money to use. ”

Emperor Qitai's face changed: "Why is this the case? I remember that when the first emperor was at least 30 million taels in the household treasury!"

Jiang Shuyu listened and swallowed his saliva: "Your Majesty, the war has been going on for several years, there were Japanese invaders in the southeast, the Marquis of Jibei was in turmoil, and now he is fighting against King Lu, as well as building a mausoleum, His Majesty ascending the throne and so on. ”

"Your Majesty, the ministers are afraid, for the sake of the future, can you give some more taxes?"

Emperor Qitai listened, stretched out his hand to stroke his forehead, and felt depressed.

Before becoming an emperor, I only felt that the position was high, I was the only one, I controlled the fate of the people in the world, and the lives of the courtiers, wealth and glory were all in my hands, but when I really got to a position, I understood the responsibility.

Emperor Qitai looked at the snowflakes in the distance, refused to look away for a long time, and said: "No, I have only just ascended the throne and changed the yuan, do I have to increase taxes?

"The relief of the relief, the appropriation of the appropriation, the household department to raise as much as possible, you can have a plan, you can offer. ”

The cabinet ministers, looking at Emperor Qitai's expression, glanced at each other.

Luo Gui coughed at this time: "Your Majesty, maybe you can increase the place to open business, Yingzhou alone had a sea tax of 1 million taels last year, which is the first among all states, and more sea bans can be opened, and under the convenience of trade, at least 3 million taels can be increased." ”

Hearing this, Emperor Qitai couldn't help but nod: "Ke"

The minister was talking, and suddenly, a eunuch bowed down and reported: "Your Majesty, Pei Zhenjun has sent news." ”

"Quick, show me. Emperor Qitai listened, the minister hurriedly came over and then forwarded it, the emperor opened the chapter, looked at the title, couldn't help revealing surprise, and then looked at it, his hands trembled a little: "Pei Zhenjun has defeated King Lu, beheaded eleven generals, killed 10,000, captured 20,000, and King Lu only led a thousand horsemen to escape." ”

Emperor Qitai was a little worried, but at this time, he was stunned, surprised and couldn't believe it.

"Congratulations to Your Majesty, congratulations to Your Majesty, King Lu has been defeated, it seems that the world is peaceful, and it is not far away. The cabinet immediately celebrated, and Emperor Qitai recovered, his face was happy, and said: "Okay, good, it is worthy of Pei Ziyun, who defeated King Lu in one fell swoop, and the world is peaceful again." ”

Hearing this, the faces of several ministers changed, they exchanged glances with each other, nodded, and Yue Ji straightened his clothes and stepped forward: "Your Majesty, the ministers have a book to play." ”

"En?" Emperor Qitai was stunned, looking at the serious looks of the ministers, his smile couldn't help but disappear, and the whole study was slaughtered.

Resignation Slope

The sky is not beautiful, it rains, but there are pro-soldiers on the hillside to block all the roads, no one is allowed to pass, from time to time there are Taoist patrols back and forth, and Yu Yunjun and the elders arrived, and immediately there were Taoist people to lead up, a group of several people wore robes and climbed the steps, in fact, this mountain is not high, but it is only a hundred levels, some pine trees are planted around, the cold rain is blowing, and a few people are not aware.

An elder smiled bitterly and said to Yu Yunjun, "You have accepted a good apprentice, we are not as good as you." ”

Yu Yunjun also smiled bitterly: "The head of the family is favored by the destiny of heaven, and he is talented, so he can't be taken for granted." ”

"And whether it's yours or mine, this is the blessing of Songyunmen, the head of the sect has sent the Dao Law back last time, I have already read it, if you want to talk about the basic Dao Law, I am afraid that the Xuanmen may not exceed. ”

"This time, the head of the sect will survive the thunder tribulation, and he will definitely be able to bring Songyunmen to glory, if this is the case, a hundred years later, I will also have the face to go to the blessed land to see the ancestor. ”

"Well, let's hurry over to protect the Dharma. ”

Talking and laughing, when I arrived at the top of the mountain, the hem was soaked, and I looked around, but when I saw the rain falling, the mountains near and far were chaotic, but there was a hexagonal pavilion on the top of the mountain, and I saw Pei Ziyun looking at the sky with his hands in his hands, looking at the sky in a Taoist robe, the wind and rain fell, and they all slipped through, and even the corners of his clothes were not wet.

Yu Yunjun looked at the sky and knew that the hour was not yet yet, so he asked: "We rushed over, and I also heard that you defeated King Lu, but why don't you take this opportunity to completely take down King Lu?"

Hearing this, Pei Ziyun shook his head with a smile: "King Lu's reaction was very fast, he didn't return to Zhou City at all, and went back to Jinzhou directly." ”

"What's more, I defeated King Lu and recovered Chenzhou, which is already a great achievement, do you think the imperial court and Emperor Qitai will allow a Taoist to completely defeat King Lu?"

"I am already a true monarch, and I am the highest position that a Taoist can get, and my achievements are not rewarded!"

Pei Ziyun exhaled as he spoke, and smiled wistfully: "King Lu has been hit by this blow, and he is at the end of his rope, but he has to live for a while longer." ”

"Hmph" Yu Yunjun listened, and said hatefully: "The imperial court wants to cross the river and tear down the bridge." ”

"Yes, but which court is not like this? After all, in the name of the overall situation, everyone has to obey!" Pei Ziyun snorted, seeing that everyone was still indignant, he looked at the black cloud, and was silent for a moment before saying: "The most important thing is that the foundation of our Taoist people is not here." ”

The sky surged with the clouds, yin and yang merged, giving birth to spring thunder, Pei Ziyun looked at a little: "Look, the first spring thunder of this year is coming." ”

"This spring thunder is where the great power of my generation lies. ”

"Now I am too eye-catching everywhere, but I like to enjoy the beautiful scenery, everyone knows it, so I used the excuse of climbing the mountain to watch the rain scenery as a pastime, and only brought my own soldiers and Taoists. ”

"If you don't take advantage of this opportunity, I'm afraid that in the blink of an eye, people will start and there will be a lot of trouble. ”

These words were thrilling, Yu Yunjun still wanted to ask, but when he heard the sound of "boom", a muffled thunder flashed in the clouds, like a wheel running over a bridge.