Li Zicheng had a smile on his face and said to Luo Hu: "You are a tiger general who has made many great achievements. Not to mention far away, just talking about the battle that annihilated Sun Chuanting in October last year, how important the relationship is. It was you who led thousands of cavalry to sneak through the mountains of Mi County, bypassed the north of Linru, and cut off the grain route of the Ming army near Baisha, causing Sun Chuanting's entire army to be defeated. Then you pursued the defeated army day and night, and occupied Tongguan in the midst of the rout. ”

"Sun Chuanting led the remnants of the army to retreat to Lintong, and you chased after it closely, entered Lintong, and killed Sun Chuanting in a scuffle. Of course, other generals have also contributed strength, but your merits are different. When I was in Xi'an, many military generals were knighted, and I deliberately left some meritorious heroes to Beijing to hold the enthronement ceremony before being crowned. You and Wu Ruyi, as well as Li You, Shuangxi and many others, are all preparing to be knighted in Beijing to celebrate the founding of the country. ”

"In order to do the marriage event for you, I have decided in my heart yesterday that I don't have to wait for the enthronement ceremony, I will crown you as Tong Guan Bo in advance, and at the same time promote you to the general. Tomorrow, the Ministry of Rites will prepare an edict for me, and when I confer the title on you, I will also make your mother Mrs. Haoming. You are the uncle of the new dynasty, and your mother is the lady of the commandment. Even if the people of Fei Palace are as beautiful as immortals, how dare they despise their mother-in-law?"

Li Zicheng suddenly laughed: "Little Huzi, are you still afraid that your new daughter-in-law will not be filial to her poor mother-in-law?"

Luo Hu bowed to the ground and kowtowed, choked up and said, "Your Majesty has thought so thoughtfully, the minister doesn't dare to have any more concerns." If the minister's mother is entitled, even if the minister dies on the battlefield, it will be difficult to repay the emperor's favor!"

Li Zicheng heard Luo Hu say the words of dying on the battlefield at this moment, he felt slightly unlucky, looked at Wu Ruyi and said, "Ruyi, you take Luo Hu down, go and prepare everything quickly!"

In the afternoon of that day, on the matter of whether or not Wu Sangui should be used as troops, the ministers who were qualified to participate in the secret deliberations conducted secret discussions in two places. One is where Liu Zongmin lives, that is, a courtyard in the inner house of Maeda Hongyufu. Nowadays, in order to discuss confidential matters, this courtyard is heavily guarded, and following the system of the past dynasties, a leopard's tail flag is planted in the courtyard of the courtyard, three feet away from the front of the steps of the hall. No matter what civil and military officials, even if they are important personnel in the general's palace, no one can cross the leopard tail banner without permission.

There are very few people here today to attend the confidential meeting, less than ten people in total, all of them generals. Li Yu is not only a general, but also the chief general of the first battalion of soldiers of the uprising in eastern Henan, and the brother of Li Yan, the deputy military division, who is both civil and military, so he is a more important figure in the eyes of Liu Zongmin, so he naturally participated in this meeting.

The other place is in a small courtyard in the military master's house, there is a guard at the gate of the courtyard, idlers are not allowed to enter, the small courtyard is extremely quiet, only a sparrow chirped twice on the branches, and then flew away. Through the curtain, in the hall sat Song Xiance, the main military teacher, Li Yan, the deputy military teacher, Niu Jinken, a scholar of Tianyou Pavilion University, Yu Shangyou, the secretary of the military government, and Gu Junen, the head of the Wenyu Academy.

According to the general truth, the Wenyu Academy is the Hanlin Academy of the Ming Dynasty, which has nothing to do with the national military, but Gu Junen's participation in major secret military meetings is another reason. Li Zicheng initially established the central power in Xiangyang, known as the king of Xinshun, changed Xiangyang to Xiangjing, and then discussed the next step of the military strategy, there were three important suggestions at that time, Gu Junen's first occupation of Xi'an, and then the strategy of waving the army to the north, was adopted by Li Zicheng, and was greatly praised.

After arriving in Xi'an, whether or not to immediately march into Youyan, Song Xiance, Li Yan, and the general Tian Jianxiu all advocated that the provinces and localities already occupied should be consolidated first, and the capture of Beijing should be postponed, which greatly violated Li Zicheng's wishes; while Gu Junen and many of the newly surrendered ministers all advocated that Beijing should be captured as soon as possible, and that the emperor should hold an enthronement ceremony in Beijing. Li Ziguo personally led a large army to the east, successfully broke through Beijing, and completed the strategy of using troops suggested by Gu Junen in Xiangyang.

When the Great Shun Dynasty was established in Xi'an, Li Zicheng ordered Yu Shangyou to be the secretary of the military government, but did not use Gu Junen. This is because Yu Shangyou also likes to talk about soldiers in his life, and he has done military affairs in the Ming Dynasty and senior officials, and his reputation is high, while Gu Junen is just a tribute in the Ming Dynasty and has no official position, and Yu Shangyou's qualifications and prestige cannot be compared. In addition, Li Zicheng saw that he was impetuous by nature and was not fit to be a secretary of the military department; in order to repay the military strategy he suggested in Xiangyang, he ordered him to be the head of the academy of literature and order, and specially allowed him to participate in important military secret discussions. Due to this special reason, Gu Junen was also invited to attend the confidential meeting of the Military Division's Mansion today.

When the two places were holding a confidential meeting, in a majestic palace courtyard surrounded by red walls inside the Xihua Gate, Li Zicheng anxiously waited for the results of the meeting of the civil and military ministers of his cronies, and he himself was constantly thinking of countermeasures.

After lunch today, he didn't have time to go back to the dormitory to rest for a while, so he hurriedly summoned Luo Hu and Fei Zhen'e, and then summoned Wu Ruyi. After deciding on the marriage of Luo Hu and Fei Zhen'e, he concentrated on thinking about how to fight. Sometimes he studied the maps of the prefectures and counties in Jingdong and the area around Shanhaiguan, sometimes he suddenly stood up from the side of the imperial case and walked around the warm pavilion, and sometimes he unconsciously asked silently from his heart: "Will you go east immediately? Will you defeat Wu Sangui before the Qing soldiers attack?"

He was about to send someone to the General General's Mansion and the Military Division's Mansion to inquire about the results of the meeting, when suddenly Shuangxi came in and knelt down, and handed over a sealed emergency document with both hands. Li Zicheng was shocked: "What kind of emergency paperwork?"

"Back to Your Majesty, Erchen heard that it was Wu Sangui who sent an urgent document to the Military Division's Office, and after Song Junshi and Prime Minister Niu Cheng read it, they immediately ordered the clerk to copy a copy and transfer it to Ruhou, seal the original, send a Chinese army, send it to the palace, and ask Erchen to immediately forward it to the Imperial Palace. ”

As soon as he heard that it was an urgent document from Shanhaiguan that Wu Sangui had received, Li Zicheng immediately wondered whether it was about surrender or not. While speculating wildly, he hurriedly unsealed the seal.

"He still calls himself Daming Ping Xibo, which is very hateful, and he clearly has no intention of surrendering?"

He took it out and looked at it, his face changed with anger, and his fingers trembled slightly. He re-read the important words of the letter, although there were some allusions in the letter that he could not fully understand, but the basic meaning was clear, he was going to rebel!

He threw the letter in his hand on the case, punched it violently, and blurted out a curse: "Damn! How dare you be so disrespectful!"

Li Shuangxi was taken aback and suddenly raised his head. Li Zicheng didn't wait for him to speak, and ordered him to call the propaganda officials to go to the Military Division's Mansion and the General General's Mansion separately, and asked the ministers of civil and military affairs who were discussing military secrets to enter the palace as soon as possible, and they all came to the palace to discuss matters.

Shuangxi said: "Back to my father, just now the Chinese army of the military division said that Prime Minister Niu Cheng, Song and Li, and Yu Shangshu will come to the palace to play to the emperor immediately for the sake of Wu Sangui's affairs. ”

"What about the Marquis of Ru and a few generals? Quickly tell them to come to the palace to discuss matters!"

"Listening to the Chinese army from the military division's mansion, Song Junshi and Prime Minister Niu Cheng went to the general's mansion first, discussed it for a while, and entered the palace together. ”

"Don't wait, send someone to the General General's Mansion and urge the civil and military ministers to come to the palace quickly!"

"Yes!"

Li Shuangxi kowtowed and withdrew, returned to the Wuyingmen duty room, and immediately ordered a Xuanguan Pegasus to deliver a decree to the General General's Mansion, urging Liu Zongmin to lead the civil and military ministers who were meeting military affairs to enter the palace quickly. Until this moment, Li Shuangxi didn't know what Wu Sangui said in his letter, so he could only scold the emperor from the sudden change in his father's expression, beat the case with his fist, scolded, and urgently summoned the civil and military ministers to enter the palace quickly, guessing that there must be an accident on Wu Sangui's side, but what happened to the shocking change, he couldn't know the details, and he didn't know what Wu Sangui wrote, which made the emperor so angry.

Double Happiness was both surprised and anxious. Although he is Li Zicheng's adopted son, and he is also a personal general who does not leave Li Zicheng's side, but since Li Zicheng founded the country in Xi'an, there has been a new relationship between them, and the monarch and ministers have strict etiquette. This new relationship is much bigger than a father-son relationship. In previous years, although he was not very old and his status among the generals was not high, he knew many important matters that Li Zicheng had to deal with, and sometimes Li Zicheng took the initiative to tell him that he knew.

Now that it has become a relationship between the monarch and the minister, many important matters that the emperor has to deal with and consider, he is easily not explained to him, and he does not dare to ask. He fidgeted in the duty room, gave a word to his subordinates, and hurried out of Wuyingmen, went out of Youshunmen to the east, led ten personal soldiers, rode a war horse to Donghuamen, and ran in the direction of the general's mansion.

Li Zicheng picked up Wu Sangui's letter again, intending to read it carefully from beginning to end again. At this time, Wang Ruifen came into the warm pavilion to deliver tea. He stopped reading Wu Sangui's letter for a moment and turned his gaze to the handsome and gentle palace maid. In the past, whenever he saw Wang Ruifen's peach-like cheeks and smelled the quiet fragrance emanating from her body, he always couldn't help but look at her peach cheeks and temples, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, even if he didn't ask her what she said, he had to watch her walk out of the warm pavilion lightly.

But today he saw her come in, and saw her carefully take out the Chenghua porcelain bowl of fragrant tea and put it on the imperial case; he saw her peek at Wu Sangui's letter when she carefully placed the tea bowl on the imperial case; when he saw her, he immediately turned around and walked to the coffee table with carved steel snails of rosewood, and without making a sound, he added incense to the gilded furnace, his eyes chased after her, and he saw the silk red rose on her right sideburn swaying in front of his eyes, and he saw her glance at him respectfully and timidly, and saw that she seemed to want to say something to him but did not dare to say anything。

There was no longer a gentle smile on his face, but only a serious and heavy look. As for Wang Ruifen, she glanced at the letter on the imperial case, she saw the thick ink on the envelope, it was not wrong at all, it was Wu Sangui who wrote it to him, she said in her heart: "Sure enough, the mother is not worried, something happened in Shanhaiguan!"

Since Concubine Dou climbed the Youshun Gate Tower this morning to watch the ceremony quietly, she saw all kinds of situations, and she served the emperor at noon, she already knew in her heart that there was probably bad news from Shanhaiguan. She was determined to be a virtuous concubine of the Dashun Emperor, and tied the glory and disgrace of herself and her family with the national fortunes of the Dashun Dynasty, so she returned to the Renzhi Palace after lunch to rest, and she was not at ease about state affairs, and secretly told Wang Ruifen to pay attention to all the emperor's movements and tell her at any time.

The two palace maids who were standing outside the window of the Xinuan Pavilion of the Wuying Hall just now heard the emperor angrily pounding the imperial case, scolded a foul word, and were eager to call the minister of civil and military affairs to enter the palace to discuss the matter, Wang Ruifen soon knew, and Concubine Dou also knew. Wang Ruifen used the excuse to send tea and incense to the emperor, spied on the movement, and sure enough, he secretly saw Wu Sangui's letter on the imperial case. Although she couldn't know what was written on the letter, it was enough to see the words written on the envelope.

Dou Meiyi listened to Wang Ruifen's quiet report, her heart sank suddenly, and she asked secretly: "Wu Sangui's letter is so important, does he dare to resist and not surrender?"

She likes to read historical books and cares about national affairs, but she can't guess Li Zicheng's ideas. It's just that judging from some signs, she estimates that there will be a war and an army to Shanhaiguan. She also estimated that after the imperial meeting, the emperor would quickly send a general to lead 100,000 elite soldiers to the east. She heard that the Dashun army came to Beijing with 200,000 horses, and she always believed it to be true, so she thought that the emperor would definitely send 100,000 horses to conquer Wu Sangui, and the emperor himself would sit in Beijing, and the enthronement ceremony would be held as scheduled.

Dou Meiyi has always believed that women regard suppleness as a virtue, so since she was chosen by the side of Emperor Dashun and was favored, she was determined to be a virtuous concubine who was neither jealous nor jealous and did not interfere in court politics. However, she only hopes that Dashun's national fortunes will be prosperous, the country will be eternal, and the four seas will return to their hearts, and she is not willing to continue to have wars, let alone the disaster of war near Beijing, which will ruin the lives of people and shake the foundation of Dashun. The more she thought about it, the more confused her mind became, and her worries could not be discharged, but she couldn't tell any palace maid around her about her worries, she just sighed secretly in her heart.

"Your Majesty, you have to think about the word peace and war repeatedly. It must be remembered that the soldiers are fierce and the battle is dangerous, and do not rely on the anger of the moment. ”

Because Wang Ruifen came to deliver tea and incense, Li Zicheng put down Wu Sangui's letter and shifted his eyes to Wang Ruifen. After Wang Ruifen left the warm pavilion, he got up from the throne and hesitated in the warm pavilion for a long time, thinking about the war, and then he sighed in his heart: "It seems that the matter of ascending the throne on the eighth day of the first month cannot be held as scheduled!"

He sat down in front of the imperial case again, picked up Wu Sangui's letter, read it again, and said to himself in his heart: "You can't wait any longer, send troops immediately......!

He was about to pass on Double Happiness into the temple, and Double Happiness came in in a hurry. When he heard the voice, he turned around and hurriedly asked, "Have you already called the ministers of civil and military affairs who sent the propagandists to call the ministers of civil and military affairs to come to the palace quickly?"

Shuangxi knelt down and said: "Back to Your Majesty, after the sons sent two heralds, they were still afraid of delay, so they rode forward in person. Erchen had just left Dong'anmen not far away, and he was met by the ministers of Ruhou and the same deliberations on horseback, and they had arrived at this moment. ”

"Where are they now?"

"Now Wu Yingmen is waiting for the order. ”

"Call them in!"

When Shuangxi went out to deliver the decree, Li Zicheng turned to look at the imperial case, and with a bang, he punched Wu Sangui's letter again.

After the ministers of civil and military affairs bowed in front of the imperial court, Li Zicheng ordered to sit down. When everyone had just sat down, Li Zicheng first asked Liu Zongmin, "Ruhou, have you read Wu Sangui's letter?"