Beiping, September 26 of the first year of Jianwen.

Today's sun seems to rise extraordinarily late, and the people of Beiping, who have been frightened all night, naturally hope that the night will pass quickly, but there is a strange fear of the dawn.

The sky was still bright, Wang Dazhuang, who lived in Tongfuli, was woken up by a gong, but Wang Dazhuang, who had been confused for a while until dawn, immediately got up, opened the door and looked at the street, and saw that the elder Meng Laohan was calling on the street: "Get up, get up, King Yan is in trouble, everyone hurry out and listen to King Yan's text!" ”

The big and strong daughter-in-law didn't fall asleep, and when she heard the words of the chief, she said with some fear: "What should I do if I am in charge?" Why don't you go out? ”

Da Zhuang sighed and said with a forced smile: "It's going to be fine, call Fuwa, and go out together to listen to what Meng Li Chang has to say." I don't know what happened last night, so go and hear it. ”

Da Zhuang's daughter-in-law hugged her son Fuwa, followed Da Zhuang out of the door, came to the open space in the workshop, and found that many people had gathered there, standing on the platform, Meng Lichang, beside him was a civil official and a few sergeants, and the sharp-eyed people even saw that there were blood stains on the scabbard of a sergeant.

When the people were almost there, Meng Laohan struck the gong and said loudly: "Fellow villagers, the old man is here to tell you the truth, there is a traitor in the court, and he wants to murder Lord Yan." Lord Yan was furious and killed the traitorous minister, this is the voice everyone heard last night. In addition, in order to let the emperor know the grievances of Lord Yan. According to the will of Emperor Taizu, Prince Yan raised troops to pay homage to Emperor Taizu's mausoleum in Beijing, and then explained the reason to the emperor. However, the traitorous ministers in the DPRK and China were too powerful, and they wanted to send large troops to prevent the prince from entering Beijing, so the prince had no choice but to call on everyone to join the army and donate food. The prince promised that he would be rewarded for his military exploits, and the food donated now would be repaid twice. ”

After the lieutenant chief finished speaking, the civil official then came out and read the text, but everyone did not understand it at all. It's just that everyone understands one thing, there is going to be a war, the prince is going to Nanjing, and he is going to recruit troops and food.

In the end, Wang Dazhuang chose to join the army, because it was not possible not to join the army, and the grain collection team of King Yan took away the surplus grain from the family, and if he did not go to join the army, he would have to starve to death at home. After he joined the army, the grain conscription team left some rations for his family, which was enough for his daughter-in-law and children to eat.

In short, the city of Beiping immediately changed, the rationing system of food, the people enthusiastically joined the army, at the end of the day, the king of Yan increased the army by 50,000, selected the elite, got 20,000 elite soldiers, and the rest were incorporated into the guard army and baggage soldiers.

The heads of Song Zhong, Xie Gui and others are hung at the gate of Beiping City, and there is a text on Jing Nan posted next to the door, and there are soldiers at the door, constantly shouting: "The traitors of the court are in charge, and they want to slaughter the people of Beiping. But the people who passed by hurried by, not daring to look at the soldiers. For if a soldier finds a man of good physique, he will stop him and make him a soldier, and if he does not want to, he will be put to death for treason.

After Zhu Di won Beiping, he first selected elite generals, with Zhang Yu, Zhu Neng, Qiu Fu, and Xu Zhong as the commanders and commanded the armies; In addition, the political envoy Ru Yu and the envoy Chen Ying remained in office, and promoted Li Youzhi to be the political envoy to the council, Ru Yu assisted the prince and guarded Beiping, and the rest of the surrendered officials and civil and military officials had their own responsibilities.

......

Jingshi, the first day of October.

The reason why Zhu Yunwen was able to get the news of King Yan's rebellion six days after the incident was due to the fact that Song Zhong's guard captain Kuang Yi rushed to the road. He let four of his men break through the front room, but turned to the back garden himself. After solving a family member by the way, he put on his clothes, and then set a fire in the back garden, and took advantage of the chaos to escape from the yamen of the political envoy, and the guards who escaped from the front gate died under the knife of the Wuliangha cavalry led by Zhu Gaoxu.

Kuang Yi was a man of great fortune and fate, he chose to flee a little farther away from Xizhimen, and escaped from Beijing before Zhu Di blocked the Nine Gates. Of course, this is also where he is smart, and Zhu Di's defense focuses on the south and east, and the west is not tightly defended.

Kuang Yi stole a horse at night and rushed to Zhigu. He knew that as long as King Yan rebelled, no place near Beiping would be safe, and no matter where the guards were, they might tie him up and ask King Yan for credit. Zhigu City was built by the emperor at his insistence, and the guard general was Guo Yue, the emperor's henchman, and most of his subordinates came from martial arts, which could be trusted.

Kuang Yi traveled day and night, Ma was tired and died, so he walked, and finally arrived on the east bank of the Haihe River the next day, that is, on the afternoon of September 26, and was discovered by a sentinel boat patrolling the river, and reported it to Guo Yue. Guo Yue was shocked when he heard the report, and immediately strengthened the defense of Zhigu, sent small boats to patrol up the river, and at the same time urgently reported to the imperial court for 600 li, as well as alerted the general Geng Bingwen, the capital of Henan, Qu Neng, and the capital of Shandong, Sheng Yong.

Geng Bingwen was not far from Zhending City when he heard the report, he immediately galloped into Zhending City, defended the city, sent reconnaissance cavalry to the north, and at the same time urged reinforcements to the imperial court.

Zhu Yunwen was shocked when he heard the report, and then his heart ached, he admired Song Zhong very much, Song Zhong as the commander of the Jinyi Guard, almost no notoriety, and he did things more openly, he originally wanted to be of great use in the future, but unfortunately he didn't expect Song Zhong to die tragically in Beiping in such a way, I thought he could at least get out of the way. Although the specific situation has not yet been reported, he knows from his impression that Zhu Di should be sweeping the surroundings of Beiping, and now he is extremely nostalgic for the era of telephones and the Internet, and the current information transmission is too slow.

He immediately convened a meeting of the Military Aircraft Department in Wuyingdian, which was attended by Xu Huizu, Duke of Wei, Chang Sheng, Duke of Cao, Li Jinglong, Duke of Wuyingdian, Xie Jin, scholar of Hanlin University, Huang Zicheng, secretary of Taichang Temple, Qi Tai, secretary of the military department, Zhuo Jing, a waiter of the household department, He Fu and Gu Cheng, instructors of martial arts, and Feng Xingjian, director of the Investigation Department. Feng Xingjian has been very satisfied recently, he found that jumping out of the circle of Jinyiwei is not a bad thing, and specializing in intelligence is more important to the emperor, the only bad thing is that he can no longer wear such a flamboyant flying fish suit.

First of all, under Zhu Yunwen's signal, Wang Du picked up his baton and pointed to the map and said: "The latest news we know so far is on the evening of September 25, and it is the information sent by Kuang Yi, the captain of Song Zhong's guard, the commander of Beiping Command. The general situation is as follows: On the afternoon of September 25, Ru Yu, the political envoy of Beiping, invited General Song to go to Fuzhong to discuss matters, and then ......"

Wang Du roughly described the situation at that time, and all this shocked everyone. In broad daylight, the political envoy of Beiping and the envoy assassinated the capital of Beiping, which is simply incredible. Everyone had a thought in their hearts, but they didn't dare to say it.

Seeing everyone's concerns, Zhu Yunwen smiled and said, "Everyone, I will evaluate this matter, and you can directly raise any questions." ”

"The cause of this incident was that Ru Yu and Chen Ying joined forces to make a trap and assassinate Dusi Song Zhong, and then there were cavalry and archers outside the mansion who killed all the Dusi guards, and the captain of the guard, Kuang Yi, escaped by luck and complained to the imperial court. Right, there's nothing wrong with my description. ”

"Your Majesty."

"First of all, I feel that Ru Yu and Chen Ying did not want to rebel against Song Zhong by killing Song Zhong, and they did not have the ability, they must be instructed by others. By the way, Liu Zhen sent people to the Criminal Department and Dali Temple to deliver a decree to arrest the families of Ru Yu and Chen Ying, and when the news of the rebellion of the two was confirmed, they would immediately be punished. ”

"Yes!"

"By the way, Song Zhong's family is here?"

Qi Tai stood up and arched his hand: "Your Majesty, Song Zhong is a native of Haining, Zhejiang, his father Song Yuntian raised troops with Taizu and died in battle Shen Eryu. His old mother is still alive, and his wife Li is the daughter of Li Wendao, the instructor of Hangzhou Prefecture, and has two sons and a daughter, the eldest son is about seventeen or eighteen years old, and the specific name cannot be remembered. ”

Zhu Yunwen smiled and said: "Qi Shangshu has a good memory, that's good, I issued an order to posthumously crown Song Zhong and the loyal marquis, and give the earl a hereditary iron coupon, a hereditary commander, and a quasi-concubine to inherit the lord; In addition, the old lady was given a first-class life, and the Li family was given a first-class life. ”

As soon as the words fell, everyone was shocked, Zhuo Jing stood up and said: "General Song was assassinated, the emperor is grieved, and the ministers can understand it, but is the reward too generous?" ”

Others also asked Zhu Yunwen to take back his life, especially He Fu and Gu Cheng couldn't accept it, they were close to the age of sixties, but they didn't have a title, Song Zhong was assassinated, so they were posthumously named the Marquis of Zhongzhen, and they were also hereditary earls, which made them hot and jealous.

Zhu Yunwen stood up and pressed his hands weakly: "Everyone, I know what you think, and I think that Song Zhong's reward is too heavy, and it is indeed a bit heavy in terms of his merits. However, I can say with certainty that Song Zhong was killed by King Yan, and he was the first person to die in the imperial court to quell King Yan's rebellion, so I want to give him a generous gift. I not only want to praise Song Zhong's merits, but also let the secretaries understand that I will reward you for calming down Yan Rebellion. I also hope that you can work together to calm down the rebellion as soon as possible! ”

"I am willing to die for the emperor!" After listening to Zhu Yunwen's words, everyone was very excited and knelt down in unison to thank him.

Zhu Yunwen raised his hand: "Everyone, get up, I have something to say today." ”

"Emperor Xie!"

"I first set the tone, this time to quell the rebellion of Yan, the court's reward will not be less than the expulsion of the Northern Yuan."

Yes? Everyone widened their eyes in surprise, not to mention the young Guogong, even He Fu, Gu Cheng and other veterans did not put the rebellion of King Yan in their eyes, in their opinion, King Yan was only cramped in a corner of Beiping at most, with no more than 100,000 soldiers, the imperial court military strength exceeded one million, and the money and food were far more than it, and it was natural to quell the rebellion, how could the emperor take it so seriously?

Seeing everyone's looks, Zhu Yunwen sighed secretly, maybe the Jingjing in history was because he despised King Yan too much and failed step by step. I don't understand military affairs, and I can't go to the battlefield, what I can do is to remind the soldiers to pay attention to King Yan. In addition, use heavy rewards to motivate generals to kill the enemy, by the way, there is also military law to be strict, the army goes to battle, and the first military law is important.

Zhu Yunwen took the baton and walked to the map by the wall, and everyone hurriedly followed. Zhu Yunwen pointed to the map and said, "The current situation makes me very worried. ”

"First, Yan rebelled against the rebellion, and I estimate that the guards around Beiping will soon surrender, such as Tongzhou, Miyun, Jizhou, Zunhua and other places, so within a month, its troops will reach tens of thousands. The northern army has always been good at fighting, and Yan Rebellion will be able to conduct a battle with the army of the imperial court of more than 100,000 when the time comes, so once the generals on the front line are negligent, they will definitely be defeated. ”

"Second, the king of Zhou, Feng Sheng, and Wang Bi rebelled in Daning, and it is likely that they colluded with Yan Rebellion, so their 80,000 people may soon enter the Great Wall, and if the two join forces, the army of the imperial court will need more than 300,000 to compete with it."

"Third, since the fiasco of our army in Mobei in the last years of Hongwu, the power of the Mongols has increased greatly, and I can imagine that when the Daning army also enters the Great Wall, Kaiping and Daning will become the pastures of the Mongols, and if they cross the Great Wall again, then it may be a catastrophe against the sky."

"Fourth, the deterioration of the situation will also cause a chain reaction, and maybe other vassal kings will also have different thoughts, which is also a place of concern for me."