After Gao Wei's recital arrived in Beijing, it immediately caused an uproar, and the courtiers wrote to ask for Sheng Yong's replacement, accusing that it was because of Sheng Yong's cowardice that Zhu Gaoxu was able to lead his troops south and rescue Zhu Di in Rong County, which led to the destruction of General Ping'an's careful planning; Now Ping An is sitting in Baoding, threatening Beiping, if Sheng Yong is not disposed of, I am afraid that it will cause dissatisfaction among the defenders of Baoding and affect the overall situation of counterinsurgency.

The statement of these people made Zhu Yunwen very strange, a few days ago, these people still felt that peace was useless, and that they were the cadres who were arbitrary, and insisted on rewarding the Baoding army. But after a few days, these people agreed with their own statement, thinking that Ping An had a great merit, they were important ministers of Pingyan, and the Baoding garrison was very important to the overall situation of Pingyan, and they needed to maintain the morale of the army by disposing of Sheng Yong.

Of course, it was not all about removing Sheng Yong's twists and turns, and some courtiers thought that it was inappropriate for the imperial court to divide Pingyan into the Eastern and Western Theater of Operations, and that they should be under unified command, believing that if Sheng Yong returned to Ping'an's command, he could avoid making his own decisions and withdrawing from the siege of Tongzhou without authorization, causing Zhu Gaoxu to go south. Therefore, these courtiers thought that they should unify their command and promote Ping'an to the general of Pingyan and Sheng Yong to his lieutenant.

Not only that, but there are even more outrageous twists and turns, thinking that Ping An and Zhu Di have an old relationship, Zhu Di not only expressed his reverence for Ping An in the letter, but also thanked Ping An for letting him go, and finally regretted that it was juxtaposed with the mediocre Sheng Yong. Their suggestion was to remove Ping'an, or send a prison guard to prevent him from defecting to Zhu Di.

After seeing these twists and turns, Zhu Yunwen couldn't help but smile bitterly, he originally thought that this was Zhu Di's discordant plan, and he would not fall for it. But after reading these twists and turns, my inherent thoughts are a little shaken, because these twists and turns are brilliant, there are things to say, scriptures are cited, and reasoning is sufficient, and after reading them one by one, people can't help but gradually believe that Sheng Yong is incompetent, safe and suspicious, and needs to be replaced.

But Wang Du's words made Zhu Yunwen frightened: "Your Majesty, if Sheng Yong didn't attack Tongzhou, how could Ping An have a chance to conquer Baoding?" If there is no peace, how can there be a great victory in Baoding? These two people are the generals carefully selected by His Majesty, and they also live up to His Majesty's expectations, and there is a great victory in Baoding, Sheng Yong retreated in danger, they are all rare generals, I hope Your Majesty will believe in it, and do not easily shake his mind. ”

"Moreover, does the emperor really want Ping'an to take the credit of Pingyan alone?"

That night, Zhu Yunwen issued an edict, characterizing the letter as a discordant plan of the Yanshu people, intending to make the imperial court cut off its wings, and his heart could be punished; At the same time, it was ordered that no one should talk about the matter again, or use it to attack any courtier.

Then Zhu Yunwen wrote two handwritten letters and distributed them to Ping An and Sheng Yong to stabilize his heart.

After Ping An received the emperor's handwritten letter, he read it carefully, but he was a little puzzled, so he went to discuss with Shi Gaowei, the marching commander. Half an hour later, Ping An took his leave, and never spoke of the letter to anyone again.

As for Sheng Yong, after receiving Zhu Yunwen's letter, he immediately knelt down to the south and thanked the emperor. Zhu Yunwen wrote in the letter: "...... The disaster of the three armies lies in the suspicion that the general resolutely evacuated Tongzhou without fault. I am well aware of the worries of generals, who are mostly infantry, and if they are taken advantage of by the enemy, they can be defeated. If the general is defeated, Cangzhou and Dezhou will be shaken, and Shandong will be shaken, which is not the blessing of the Ming Dynasty...... Although strategy is the long of the general, but it is the short of the general, the brave wins when the narrow road meets, and the bloody battlefield is the ultimate means to defeat the enemy, and I hope the general will be cautious and observe it......"

Beiping, Yanwangfu.

After Zhu Di returned to Beiping, he immediately discovered the consequences of Baoding's defeat, not only those counties that had not surrendered were more determined, but even those counties that had surrendered began to sway again; In addition, there was also an unstable situation in Beiping City, and the Investigation Department of the Imperial Court had assassinated several officials who had surrendered to Cheng, including Li Youzhi, who had reported to Ru Yu, and Lu Qianhao, who had been stationed in Beiping by Jinyi Guard, and even the Investigation Department had posted imperial edicts everywhere in Beiping, which made people panic in Beiping City; Moreover, Ru Yu, the political envoy of Beiping, also reported that some yamen are not as attentive to the pursuit of the investigation department as they used to be......

After Zhu Di returned to Beiping, he immediately recruited the army, it is not difficult to recruit troops in Beiping, there are horse farms around Beiping, it is really not possible to obtain from the Mongols, most of the men around Beiping can ride and shoot, but the problem of morale, Zhu Di can not solve it, because the recovery of morale takes time, and the only way to recover quickly is victory. Of course, although Baoding was defeated this time, Zhu Di did not lose confidence.

The time has entered March, the weather in Beiping is warming up rapidly, the ice of the moat is gradually melting, and some small rivers have completely taken off their winter coats and are flowing happily in the early spring sunshine. Perhaps affected by the warming weather, there are also a lot of laughter and laughter in the palace of King Yan, the family members of King Yan's subordinates accompanied Princess Xu Yihua to enjoy the flowers in the garden, the cherry blossoms in the garden have opened, and others such as magnolia and apricot blossoms have also grown flower bones, and the flowering period is not far away. The garden is filled with a refreshing fragrance, a group of graceful and luxurious women are frolicking and playing among the flowers, adding a lot of vitality to the Yanwang Mansion, and it seems to wash away the melancholy brought by the defeat of Baoding.

Zhu Di hurriedly walked through the garden with a few guards, and everyone hurriedly knelt down to say goodbye, Zhu Di smiled and said: "Everyone get up, it's like coming home in the king's palace, princess, treat yourself well, the king still has something." ”

"Yes!"

When Zhu Di arrived at the front hall, he immediately turned to the side hall in the northwest direction. When he arrived at the door, Zhu Diping retreated from the subordinates, asked him to be on guard around him, and pushed the door in by himself. Seeing Zhu Di come in, Master Daoyan, who was sitting upright with his eyes closed, stood up and clasped his hands together: "Amitabha, lord, the old man is polite." ”

"It's okay, Master, please be seated!"

"Thank you, Lord Wang."

After the two of them sat down, Zhu Di was about to speak, but was stopped by Dao Yan and pointed to the teapot. Zhu Di understood, smiled, picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup, and then drank it slowly.

Dao Yan looked at Zhu Di with a smile and said softly: "Lord Wang, this is a tribute tea from Wuyi Mountain, Fujian, which is the most calm, and Lord Wang feels better?" ”

Zhu Di took a long breath and said with a smile: "Master, you are really a master." ”

......

Zhu Di put down the teacup and pondered his words: "Master, the discord plan has failed. ”

"Oh? How did the imperial court deal with it? ”

"The court decreed that this was the king's divisive plan, and no one was allowed to attack the courtiers on it, so no one has mentioned this matter. Moreover, Jianwen sent two handwritten letters to Ping An and Sheng Yong, but I don't know the content. ”

"Oh, it doesn't seem like Imakami is confused." Dao Yan took a breath of cool air and said.

"Yes, in fact, the call for the removal of Sheng Yong is very high, and there are also those who let Ping An unify his command, or even remove Ping An. As long as the court can adopt one of these three, it will be beneficial to me, but Jianwen ignored it. ”

"If you replace Ping An or Sheng Yong, you can go to Jianwen for an arm; Even let Ping An serve as the main general, it is also beneficial and harmless to the king, because Ping An will not let Sheng Yong get a great success, he is likely to let Sheng Yong move closer to Baoding, or return to Cangzhou, so Sheng Yong will do nothing, it's a pity! ”

"Lord Wang," Dao Yan pondered the words and said in a low voice: "What do you think of Ping'an and Sheng Yong?" ”

"Ping'an wins in the command of the battle, this battle of Baoding, if it was changed, under the siege of the king's 50,000 cavalry, I am afraid it would have collapsed a long time ago, and I would not have been able to wait for Li Yuan and Fang Zhao to seize the city. Of course, even if Ping'an is good at fighting, if there is no Li Yuan and others, then Ping'an will already be a prisoner of this king at this time, alas! Speaking of this, Zhu Di was a little annoyed.

"What about Sheng Yong?"

"Although Sheng Yong's reputation is not obvious, but in this battle of Tongzhou, the attack was sudden, and the retreat was decisive, although the retreat was a little early, but its sense of smell on the battlefield was still good. According to the plan of this king, this king will solve Ping'an first, and then return to Tongzhou to attack Sheng Yong with Eseku, so that these two armies can be broken, but I didn't expect that they all failed in the end. ”

"Eseku," Dao Yan was silent for a moment, and said in a deep voice, "Do you have to come this far?" ”

"This king has no other way, the army is insufficient, and the internal troubles are not settled, so he can only borrow foreign aid." Zhu Di sighed slightly.

"How are they doing?"

"They are now near Zunhua, and the king did not let them enter the city, but let them hide in the mountains, and sent people to send them regular provisions."

"Speaking of which, this king has some regrets about killing Geng Bingwen, but I didn't expect Jianwen to take advantage of the situation to enable Ping'an and Sheng Yong, they are more difficult to deal with than Geng Bingwen, if the battle of Baoding is replaced by Geng Bingwen, this king is confident to win."

Dao Yan thought for a while and said: "In fact, today I have also discovered that the military generals in the DPRK and China are withering, so I will vigorously promote the young generals, which is the same as the practice of the prince. ”

"Then, in the master's opinion, how to break the deadlock?"

"It's still the old way, the prince should go south immediately, plunder the Hejian, Cangzhou, and Dezhou lines, attract Sheng Yong to come back for reinforcements, and then destroy it on the way back to Sheng Yong's army."

"What if Sheng Yong attacks Tongzhou again?"

"Then fight on both sides with Eseku and eliminate Sheng Yong."

"What about peace?"

"Although Ping'an captured Baoding, it suffered heavy casualties, and the generals were either injured or killed, and now is the weakest time, and they will not go north." Dao Yan thought about it for a moment and said, "According to Lao Wei's estimate, it will take at least a month for reinforcements to arrive, and it will take another month to complete the integration, so before May, Ping An should not be able to fight." ”

"Well, the master is really clever!"