Jingshi, the military department yamen on the street of Chengtianmen in the imperial city.

A middle-aged man wearing linen and filial piety and straw sandals approached the yamen of the military department, and the officials in the yamen avoided it one after another, lest they get into bad luck.

After the middle-aged man entered the military compound, no one dared to step forward and scold, and finally Yang Sichang walked out of the room and stopped him.

Yang Sichang looked at him, frowned and said, "Lu Jiandou, what do you want to do?" ”

Lu Xiangsheng, who was wearing filial piety clothes, said: "Come to the military department to report, prepare to enter the palace to face the saint!" ”

Yang Sichang was slightly angry and said, "You are going to wear this outfit to enter the palace to face the saint?" ”

Yang Sichang didn't dare to say the following words, you entered the palace in this body, Your Majesty sat in the middle, and there were a vote of people standing on both sides, you knelt down and kowtowed when you made a big salute, what is this? Worship Hall?

Lu Xiangsheng said: "I passed away first, I was sad for a long time, my facial features were scattered, not the time of the past, and I stood above the three armies with the body of grass and soil, I am afraid that there is no prestige, the order is not effective, and it is difficult to win, and I also ask the Yang Pavilion to tell Your Majesty on my behalf, and choose other talents to take on this important task." ”

In May this year, Lu Xiangsheng's father died, and he wrote ten times to ask to go home for the funeral, but Chongzhen was not allowed, and he mourned on duty with the method of seizing love, waiting for others to take over.

Yang Sichang sighed and said: "Brother Jiandou, I am also exempt from mourning and serving in the Ministry of War, and the director Gao Qiqian Gao Gonggong is also wearing filial piety clothes to command the military. ”

What Yang Sichang means is that the three people who coordinated the battle are all mourning on duty with their dead fathers, everyone is the same, don't be embarrassed.

In fact, he also wanted to say that there is also the next secretary of the Ministry of War, Chen Xinjia, who also died and his father was on duty at the funeral, and now he is in the lobby of the Ministry of War, I found it.......

Lu Xiangsheng said: "The three of us are now ominous, and the ministers don't care about their parents, how can there be any heavenly son in their hearts?" ”

Hearing this, Yang Sichang looked unhappy and said, "Brother Jiandou should wait to see Your Majesty in person." ”

Lu Xiangsheng stopped talking nonsense with him, changed his clothes, and went to the Forbidden City with Yang Sichang to meet Chongzhen.

.......

In the Qianqing Palace, in addition to Lu Xiangsheng and Yang Sichang, there was another person who came to see the driver, and this person was Gao Qiqian, the eunuch who was in charge of various reinforcements this time.

Chongzhen asked Lu Xiangsheng with a smile: "Lu Qing, what is your strategy for Jiannu to go south this time?" Is it war or peace? ”

Lu Xiangsheng said with a straight face: "The minister is fighting!" ”

Lu Xiangsheng heard that Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian advocated peace when he was in Changping, and the enemy had reached the doorstep, and two of the three people in the united front actually negotiated peace, which made him very worried.

Chongzhen's face changed slightly when he heard this, and only after a moment did he speak again: "The peace talks are the opinions of the ministers, you go outside the palace first and discuss with Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian." ”

The three of them withdrew from the Qianqing Palace, Yang Sichang looked at Lu Xiang and couldn't help but say: "Brother Jiandou, the only army that can fight in the Ming Dynasty at the moment is the Tianwu Army of the crown prince, the Guanning Army of Liaodong Zu Dashou, the Hong soldiers of Hong Chengchou, the Qin soldiers of Sun Chuanting, and the white pole soldiers of Qin Liangyu, now they are either in Jiangnan, or in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and the distant water can't save the near fire!" Even if they all come, it is a desperate gamble, once defeated, the consequences are unimaginable, and I am in danger! ”

Lu Xiangsheng didn't care about Yang Sichang's not mentioning his Tianxiong Army, he said solemnly: "Don't say that I have never negotiated peace in the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years, do you want to let Jiannu swagger in the territory of my Ming Kingdom, and even around the Jingshi?" ”

Gao Qiqian said with a smile: "Lord Lu, the 200,000 Tartar army has entered the customs, are you sure that you will win?" ”

Lu Xiangsheng said solemnly: "What if you can't beat it, resist foreign invasion, although my generation has no regrets!" ”

"Unreasonable!" Gao Qiqian snorted coldly and ignored him.

Yang Sichang admired Lu Xiangsheng a little in his heart, and he said patiently: "Since ancient times, there has not been more than internal strife, and those who can win externally, although I have calmed down the rebellion of the rogues in various places on the surface, but the people are still not stable, such as Shaanxi and Henan, which have suffered from war all year round, still need to slowly stabilize and govern, and so on, I can rectify the armament, go north to attack the Qing, and the shame of detaining the customs many times with Xue Jiannu, and never suffer from border troubles!" Therefore, the imperial court must first be in peace! ”

Lu Xiangsheng frowned and said: "What the public said is reasonable, but Jiannu is a barbarian, and now he is stationed on the side of the Beijing Division, doing tiger and wolf things, Brother Wen is the minister of the imperial court, he may be able to see it?" ”

Yang Sichang was silent, he was also extremely conflicted in his heart, and it was difficult to make up his mind.

Gao Qiqian coughed heavily and said sharply: "Okay, let's all go in, don't let Your Majesty wait!" ”

The three of them re-entered the Qianqing Palace and saluted again.

Chongzhen smiled and said, "How is the discussion?" ”

Lu Xiangsheng said generously: "The army of slaves and thieves pressed the border, invaded our land, and killed my people, I can only talk about war, how can I make peace, the minister is still the main battle, and I am willing to fight to the death with the slaves and thieves, and repay the country with death!" ”

Yang Sichang's face turned white, and he persuaded me for a long time, you Lu Xiangsheng didn't give yourself face at all?

The smile on Chongzhen's face gradually disappeared, he nodded, and said, "I won't talk peacefully, Lu Qing don't worry, let it go!" ”

He looked at Yang Sichang again and said: "Let the cabinet draft a decree, add Lu Xiang to be promoted to the secretary of the military department, and control the world's reinforcements!" ”

.......

On the second day, Lu Xiangsheng completed the formalities and led Shang Fang's sword to prepare to go to Changping to unify the army, Chongzhen sent Yang Sichang to see him off, and also sent 30,000 taels of silver to reward the army, of which 10,000 taels were given to Lu Xiangsheng personally, and some war horses and weapons were sent.

After receiving the reward, Lu Xiangsheng was very grateful, and felt that the peace was indeed the suggestion of the courtiers, and His Majesty's determination to resist the war was still very firm, and he decided to fight a good battle to repay the kindness of the Son of Heaven!

Before leaving, Yang Sichang retreated, pulled Lu Xiangsheng aside, and admonished: "Brother Jiandou, don't fight!" ”

Lu Xiangsheng nodded, hugged his fist, got on his horse and left the city.

After Lu Xiangsheng came to Changping, he gave all the silver rewarded by the emperor to the soldiers, including his own 10,000 taels, and he only left one tael of silver for people to build a silver cup to commemorate, and the rest was filled into food.

After distributing the money, Lu Xiangsheng began to work, he held a grand oath meeting in Changping, attended by Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, Shanxi Town, and more than 50,000 reinforcements from various towns in Ning.

Lu Xiangsheng looked at tens of thousands of horses, his mood was agitated, these tens of thousands of soldiers and horses plus tens of thousands of people in the Beijing camp were not defeated against Jiannu!

When Lu Xiangsheng was giving a fierce speech at the oath meeting, Gao Qiqian came to Changping and said a few words at the meeting, but what he said was not encouraging, it was not good, and what he said was fucking frustrating!

The oath meeting was hastily ended by this eunuch, and Lu Xiangsheng endured his efforts without scolding him.

That night, Lu Xiangsheng was discussing in the army, and Gao Qiqian also came, Lu Xiangsheng ignored him and continued to discuss the matter, and he proposed that the troops attack the Qing army camp in four ways.

Gao Qiqian laughed, laughing very madly, and only after a while did he say, "Does Inspector Lu want to send him to death?" ”

Lu Xiangsheng couldn't hold back any longer, reasoning with him, are you here to supervise the army to fight, or are you here to make trouble?

Gao Qiqian was very arrogant, relying on himself to be a prison soldier and continued to point fingers casually, ignoring Lu Xiangsheng.

The enraged Lu Xiangsheng asked for the division of the troops, to put it bluntly, he did not let the prison army point fingers casually, but to his surprise, Emperor Chongzhen actually let the two of them divide power and command the army, Gao Qiqian commanded 30,000 troops and horses from Shanhaiguan and Ningyuan, and he commanded 20,000 horses in Xuanfu, Datong and the three towns of Shanxi.

Lu Xiangsheng nominally commanded troops across the country, but in fact led less than 20,000 soldiers, which made him very helpless and full of uncertainty about the future war.