Yun Xi didn't care about Min'er's expression, or didn't care. While eating, he talked to Zhu Song, talking about some light topics, Yun Wei and Yun Zhi also interjected from time to time, and the atmosphere changed from the dull just now to a very active one.

However, Ma Hanyu never spoke. First, Yun Wei's rules are very big, she is not allowed to talk at will, and secondly, they talked about a lot of things in the palace together when they were young, and she didn't know, let alone talk nonsense, so she could only be silent.

After a while, she finished eating, got up and said: "The official family, the twenty uncles, the husband, and the concubine have run out of food, and they are all fighting now, and the concubine takes them to the back pavilion to play, and the province disturbs you to talk." ”

"Go ahead, take care of Wen Kui a little more. I remember that he was very polite when he was in Hangzhou, why is it like this now. Yun Wei frowned and whispered to Ma Hanyu. She said yes and stepped back with the children.

Yun Xi saw that the time was almost up, and drank another glass of wine with Zhu Song, turning the topic to national affairs; After talking about national affairs for a while, he suddenly said: "Uncle Twenty, do you know that Samarkand in the northwest will send troops to the east to conquer the Ming Dynasty next year?" ”

"Is there such a thing?" Zhu Song was surprised. After he left Siping, he hurried all the way to the capital, and although he lived at the post station along the way, he only slept well, so he didn't know what happened during this time.

"On the twenty-third day of the lunar month, I received an urgent report from the northwest that Samarkand intends to conquer the Ming Dynasty in the east." Yun Xi said.

"The kingdom of Samarkand is so rampant!" Zhu Song suddenly said loudly: "(Jianye) At the end of the fourth year, in Guangzhou, His Majesty was magnanimous and did not care, and his country has become even worse!" Your Majesty must punish his country severely! ”

Yun Wei listened to Zhu Song's words and opened his mouth to speak. In fact, the current news can only confirm that Samarkand will fight this year, and after Yili analyzes the people in it, it becomes the Eastern Expedition, and then the mouth of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies becomes the Eastern Expedition to the Ming Dynasty. However, as a 'pacifist', of course, Yun Wei will carefully analyze the imperial court's palace newspaper, and see that it is uncertain whether Samarkand will conquer the Ming Dynasty. At this time, he heard that Zhu Song was misled by Yunxi, and he was about to speak.

But Yunwen didn't say anything in the end. Although it is not certain that Samarkand will conquer the Ming Dynasty in the east, it is very likely, and it is also reasonable for the imperial court to make preparations in advance.

Zhu Song scolded a few words, then turned his head and said to Yun Xi: "Official, but do you want me to contribute?" I am willing to send 5,000 troops to fight with Samarkand in the northwest with the great army. "The words are very heroic.

But Yun Xi scolded with a smile: "Uncle Twenty is really treacherous!" Zhu Song saw that he had not concealed Yun Xi, and he also smirked.

After Zhu Song heard about this, he immediately reacted, Yun Xi wanted him to send troops to the northwest to fight with the army, otherwise why would he deliberately tell him about it today?

And his heart was opened. Of course he was reluctant to send troops to fight in the northwest, even if he sent all the barbarian soldiers he had recruited, but he also knew that since Yun Xi had spoken, it was impossible not to send a single soldier. Therefore, he offered to send 5,000 troops before Yun Xi officially spoke, so that Yun Xi would not let him send more troops when he was happy. But it still didn't hide it.

"Uncle 20, there are as many as 100,000 Han people under your rule, and there are even more than 100,000 Mongols and Jurchens who have taken refuge, and only 5,000 troops have been dispatched, which is too little! At least 10,000 troops! Yun Xi said.

"Official! My Ying clan has been attacking the Jurchen tribe in Siping for the past four years, and it was not destroyed until ten days ago, how can I send 10,000 troops to follow the army to the northwest to fight! ”

"You don't pretend to be poor with me! The Jurchens and Mongols who took refuge under your command are all young and strong, enough to make up 50,000 soldiers, and the Han people can also make up at least 30,000 soldiers, which is 80,000 soldiers, not counting the tribes that are willing to send troops and food to you, and 10,000 soldiers are not much. ”

Zhu Song disagreed with him again, but Yun Xi was reluctant to say more, and said to him in a commanding tone: "There is no need to discuss this matter again!" Zhu Song saw that Yun Xi's heart had been decided, so he could only bow down and agree.

Yun Xi comforted him again: "I don't want you to send your Han soldiers, just send all the Mongolian and Jurchen soldiers." When you go back, tell them that as long as you make meritorious service in the northwest, I will never hesitate to reward them! And it's good for you, too. He repeated what he had said to Yun Xi at the time.

Zhu Song's expression was also much looser when he heard this, and he asked Yun Xi for benefits: population and military doctors. Yun Xi bargained with him and promised to give him a fixed population and military doctors every year.

Hearing this, Zhu Song's expression completely recovered, and he said with a smile: "Official, this can solve my urgent need." Now that they have just occupied the important place of Siping, the Jurchen guards who have arranged for refuge are not at ease, and with a few thousand people, they can set up a camp there as a fulcrum to continue their march northward. ”

"Those military doctors are more important. The barbarians in the Northeast, whether Jurchen or Mongol, are very backward in their medical skills, and in addition to hard resistance when they are sick, that is, they find shaman and dance gods, which seems to me to be similar to their own hard resistance. ”

"So when I sent a military doctor to treat them for the first time, they were immediately impressed by the skill of the military doctors, and many tribes submitted to it."

"Aren't your Jurchens and Mongols just north of Liaodong? It's not far from the realm of Daming when my grandfather was alive, and I didn't know that our medical skills were a hundred times better than theirs? Yun Xi was a little puzzled.

"Some people have heard of it, but except for a few tribes close to Liaodong, the rest have not been diagnosed and treated by us in our lifetime."

"A large area of land north of Liaodong is still a reckless forest, in which the Jurchens hide to fish and hunt for a living, except for the occasional collection of ginseng and other precious Chinese medicine, or deer antler velvet and other things, the Jurchens who live in the deep mountains rarely go out of the mountains to the Han people's places, only the tribes living on the edge of the mountains and forests will often trade with the Han people."

"It was only after I was sealed in Kaiyuan that I sent Sanwei's men and horses to cut down trees and build a village in the north, and opened up farmland in a place where the terrain was a plain, so that I came into contact with the Jurchens living in the deep mountains."

"These Jurchens in the deep mountains were very fierce, and at first they often harassed the people who farmed, and I had no choice but to use both soft and hard measures to destroy the most rampant tribes, and then trade with other tribes, so that they could get the goods at a price several times cheaper than before, so that they were willing to submit."

"Wen Yan in his mouth, big stick in his hand." Yun Xi interjected.

"What the official said is good, concise and to the point, and that's what I said in my fiefdom." Zhu Song nagged about many of his hardships in the Northeast.

"I see." Yun Xi sighed: "I thought it would be very easy for you to expand northward based on Kaiyuan, but I didn't expect it to sound so difficult. ”

"Compared with Yunxi's nephew, it is naturally much easier, after all, I have my back to Liaodong, if I hadn't met the Siping tribe, I should have expanded my land to the north for at least two hundred miles. But there are many barbarians in the Northeast, and it is not easy to get them to submit. Zhu Song said again.

"It's so hard for you." Yun Xi said.

"Although it is hard, the new place is my fiefdom, and the newly descended people are all my people, and my children and grandchildren will always be sealed in Kaiyuan in the future, so I don't feel hard." Zhu Song said with a smile.

Yun Xi laughed for a while, and then said, "Don't talk about this." For the New Year, say something light. You are north of Liaodong, what are the local anecdotes? ”

"If you talk about anecdotes, there's nothing about it. In Liaodong, there are also Jurchens and Mongols who submit to the Ming Dynasty, and the customs are mostly the same, so there is nothing to say. By the way, there's one thing I thought was interesting when I first saw it. ”

Zhu Song said: "Although the barbarians in the Northeast are collectively known as the Jurchens, there are actually many ethnic groups, and the customs of each ethnic group are also different. One of them, in the last years of Hongwu, was named Jianzhou, and the Jurchens in its place were called Jianzhou Jurchen. ”

"The custom of this Jianzhou Jurchen is different from that of other Jurchens: all the hair on the top of their heads and forehead is shaved, leaving only a small hair at the back of their heads, the size of copper coins. This little hair is left uncut and left to grow, and when it reaches the back, it is tied into a braid and left behind the head. ”

"I had never heard of this custom before I saw it, and although it is recorded in the book that the party members of the Western Xia also shaved off the hair on the top of their heads, all the hair around them was retained, and they were tied with a circle of pigtails, instead of a braid on the back of their heads like the Jianzhou Jurchens."

Zhu Song said this as an anecdote, and Yun Zhi was really surprised: "It's really strange that there are people with this kind of hair." She then looked sideways at Yun Xi: "Official, this Jianzhou Jurchen ,......" She was silent halfway through her speech.

"Official, but what the minister said is inappropriate?" Zhu Song saw that Yun Xi's expression was very gloomy, and he didn't know what the reason was, so he hurriedly said.

"It's not that Uncle Twenty said something inappropriate, it's just that I thought of something, so I have such an expression." When Yun Xi heard Zhu Song's words, his expression immediately returned to normal, and he smiled at him.

But Yun Xi's smile was very reluctant, even a person with shallow experience like Yun Zhi could see that Yun Xi was in a very bad mood, and Zhu Song was even more worried in his heart, and he pleaded guilty to Yun Xi with different words many times, wondering where he said the wrong thing. But Yun Xi just told him that he had thought of something else, and it had nothing to do with Zhu Song's words.

Zhu Song was surprised, but he didn't dare to ask again. And because he still had something to do, he resigned: "Official, I just came to Yunwen's palace as soon as I arrived in the capital, and there are still some things that have not been arranged." ”

"Uncle Twenty wants to go back to the palace, right, it just so happens that I want to go back after staying in the second brother's mansion for half a day, let's disperse, and I will hold a banquet in the palace to entertain Uncle Twenty the day after tomorrow." Yun Xi said immediately.

Zhu Song bowed and bowed, and was about to retreat. After Yun Xi agreed, he seemed to have made up his mind: "The army you sent to the northwest this year must all be Jianzhou Jurchen soldiers." ”

"Yes, official." When Zhu Song heard this, he knew that Yunxi was disgusted with the Jianzhou Jurchens, and he was surprised but his face was not obvious, and he bowed down and said.