Hangzhou, Zhejiang Dusi Yamen.

"General, there is your family outside asking to see you!"

"Who is it?"

"It's an old man who calls himself Xu Zhi, who comes from Beijing, and seems to be in a hurry."

"Uncle Zhi?" Xu Huizu was stunned for a moment, quickly got up, trotted all the way to the door, supported Xu Zhi, who was standing at the door, and said continuously: "Uncle Zhi, why are you here?" It's freezing this day, how dare you bother your old man to run so far? Is something going on at home? ”

"Grandpa, isn't this about to be the New Year? The fourth master asked me to ask, when will you go back? ”

"Huh?" Xu Huizu's heart "chuckled", but he said casually: "This is not in a hurry, you come in, it's okay to increase longevity and Yingxu?" ”

"Well, it's all good!"

While speaking, Xu Zhi handed the reins to the sergeant, let people take care of him, and followed Xu Huizu into the Yamen of the Dusi.

……

When he arrived at the back house, Xu Huizu retreated from everyone and said in a low voice: "Uncle Zhi, is something wrong?" ”

"Grandpa," Xu Zhi looked left and right, and said in a low voice: "I'm afraid something is going to happen, the fourth master is in trouble!" ”

"Longevity? What happened to him? Wasn't he ordered by the emperor to think about it behind closed doors? Xu Huizu frowned, and he suddenly had a bad premonition.

"Here's the thing," Xu Zhi leaned in front of Xu Huizu and whispered the matter.

It turned out that after thinking about it all night, Xu Zengshou found that he had no other choice, and he had to report the situation to the emperor as soon as possible, because the emperor had arranged a task for himself, so it was impossible not to send someone to monitor, so not only to report, but also to be fast! But in addition to this, he also wanted to inform his eldest brother, so the next morning he sent his family to send a letter to the eldest brother who was reorganizing the army in Zhejiang, in which he only described Song Tianyuan's words and the recent situation in the capital, and said nothing else. He believed that his eldest brother Xu Huizu could understand what he meant.

But he soon found out that he was too reckless, so he immediately sent Xu Zhi, the oldest family member in the family and Xu Da's personal soldier back then, to order him to go to Hangzhou, meet Xu Huizu, and tell him about the matter, if he met Xu Xing, who had delivered the letter before, he would destroy the letter immediately, and it could not fall into anyone's hands.

But Xu Zhi traveled all the way, but found that when he first left the city, there were still people who had seen Xu Xing, but after more than thirty miles, Xu Xing disappeared, and no one saw them. Seeing this, Xu Zhi was in a hurry, day and night, rushed to Hangzhou in the early morning of the next day, and after the city gate was opened, he immediately rushed to the Yamen of the capital to meet Xu Huizu.

After listening to Xu Zhi's description, Xu Huizu was like a thunderstorm, his face was pale, he pointed at Xu Zhi with his finger, wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything, and finally shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Longevity, can you grow your brains?" ”

Seeing Xu Huizu's appearance, Xu Zhi didn't know what to say for a while, so he had to be silent.

About a cup of tea later, Xu Huizu calmed down, only to find that Xu Zhi was still standing, and quickly raised his hand and said, "Uncle Zhi, you are the old man of the Xu family, and you are also old, sit down!" ”

"Thank you, Grandpa, but the etiquette can't be wasted! Xu Zhi can stand! ”

Xu Huizu was stunned for a moment, and said with a wry smile: "Okay, Uncle Zhi, what do you think should be done about this matter?" ”

Xu Zhi arched his hand and said: "Although the fourth master is reckless, there is nothing wrong with this matter, he is thinking about the Xu family, so don't blame him." ”

"Blame?" Xu Huizu shook his head: "The matter has come to this, what's the use of me blaming him?" ”

"Grandpa, please forgive me for saying bluntly, the fourth master's letter must have fallen into the hands of the Investigation Department, the Intelligence Department or the Security Department, although the fourth master did not write anything out of the ordinary in the letter, but I am afraid that some people will use this letter to make waves, then it will be troublesome."

"Yes," Xu Huizu paused for a while, and said slowly: "Now the emperor's mind is becoming more and more unpredictable, and I don't know how many heads will fall to the ground this time, this letter to increase longevity is likely to be said to be 'watching the government and politics, with ill intentions', this kind of thing is indisputable, once the emperor listens to it, the Xu family is afraid that a big disaster will come!" ”

"This," Xu Zhi thought for a moment, and said, "Grandpa thinks the emperor will go on a killing spree?" ”

"Very likely," Xu Huizu nodded, and said: "The emperor is keen to expand the territory, and he is very disgusted with some domestic constraints, and now that North Korea and the Northeast are basically calm, the next step must be the Wa Kingdom or Mongolia, in this matter, if this kind of thing occurs, the emperor will definitely kill the chickens and monkeys, and deter the vassal kings and our nobles, so the longevity is to hit the knife edge!" Alas! Xu Huizu sighed and slammed the table hard.

"Actually, actually," Xu Zhi suddenly gritted his teeth and arched his hand: "Grandpa, in fact, this matter is not unsolvable, as long as it is ......."

"Just what?" Xu Huizu's expression was shocked, staring at Xu Zhi.

"Grandpa should make a decision," Xu Zhi "pounced" and knelt on the ground: "Grandpa, please immediately send someone to execute the eldest lady, complete the third lady, and let her enter the palace to accompany her!" ”

"What?" Xu Huizu was furious: "You bastard! How could I, Xu Huizu, be the one who killed my sister and sought glory? Besides, besides," Xu Huizu pointed with one hand: "The eldest sister and the second sister are both married to the sons of the first emperor, how can the third sister marry the emperor?" Isn't this a mess of generational divisions? ”

Xu Zhi, who was lying on the ground, sighed secretly, this grandfather is good at everything, his literary talent and martial arts are outstanding, and he is also extremely loyal to the imperial court, but maybe it is the reason for Xu Da's early death, in order to support the big family of the Duke of Wei, he soon became young and old, too square, and did not know how to be flexible.

Xu Zhi gritted his teeth, raised his head and said: "Grandpa, I know that the eldest lady is pitiful, King Yan is dead, and her three sons were given death by the imperial court, although the emperor spared her life, but for her, this is simply worse than death, so Grandpa might as well obey her wishes." The eldest lady, as the concubine of King Yan, is a thorn in the emperor's heart, if the emperor thinks of it one day, I am afraid that the Xu family will be implicated. ”

Xu Huizu's face sank like water, but Xu Zhi didn't care, and continued: "As for the third young lady, although from the perspective of the first emperor and the old man, they are inferior in rank, but I think it doesn't matter. The grandfather once obstructed this matter, and even wanted to marry the third lady, but the emperor personally made a will on the grounds of the oath of the third lady at the beginning, and gave the third lady the right to choose her own marriage, so that even the grandfather could not stop it. In that case, why didn't Grandpa fulfill them? ”

“……”

Xu Huizu had green tendons on his forehead, tried hard to suppress his anger, and said, "Uncle Zhi, I want to think about this matter, you can stay with me, and return to Beijing with me when the time comes." As for replying to the letter, I will arrange for manpower, so you don't have to worry. ”

"Alright, obey the order!"

……

At this moment, Xu Zengshou regretted it a lot, he knew that he was in trouble.

At this special moment, at this treacherous moment, he told his eldest brother about the situation in Beijing and Song Tianyuan's words, it is easy for people to misunderstand, anyone who sees this letter will feel that he has other plans, and even think that the Xu family has other plans, once the emperor knows, the consequences are simply unimaginable!

If the emperor has good intentions, then after seeing this letter, it is natural to think that he has different intentions, because he has a criminal record, and even thinks that the eldest brother is unfaithful, then the Xu family will not be able to eat and go around! And if the emperor is malicious, then this letter is an ironclad proof, he befriended the rebel party, said a lot of things against his will, and told these words to the eldest brother who holds military power, all of which is easy to be accused of "during the emperor's departure from Beijing, he made friends with bandits, spied on the government, and had bad intentions", so ......

In fact, Xu Zengshou's idea cannot be said to be unreasonable, but his judgment of Zhu Yunwen is not entirely correct, Zhu Yunwen has no intention of dealing with the Xu family, even if he does not look at Xu Miaojin's face, he will not cut off his arm. Because he has too many things to do, Korea, Japan, Mobei, the Western Regions, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and other large lands are waiting for him to conquer, but there are still too few talents in his hands who can take charge of themselves, the older generation was killed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and most of the fierce generals who can fight the younger generation are under Zhu Di, and they are basically dead after the rebellion. What can be used now is Ping'an, Sheng Yong, Xu Huizu, Qu Neng, and only a few people, as for Geng Xuan, Song Xuan and others, they still need more experience, not to mention others.

In addition, Xu Zengshou felt that Zhu Yunwen was confident when dealing with Zhu Di, the king of Yan, and it was a big mistake. For Zhu Yunwen at that time, his fear of Zhu Di can be said to be deep in the bone marrow, Zhu Di's military talent can be said to be not under Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, and the Beidi Yan Army is extremely elite, no matter how overestimated, it is not too much. Although Zhuo Jing and Gao Wei have both suggested that King Yan be moved, and Zhu Yunwen has also been moved, he has never found an opportunity. It may be that Zhu Yunwen's hostility is too obvious, Zhu Di has been unwilling to go to Beijing to see him, in this case, Zhu Yunwen naturally did not dare to send someone to Beijing to read the holy decree and order him to move the seal. Zhu Di in history dared to rebel when there were only 800 people, how could he obediently obey his orders when he was in power? Therefore, Zhu Yunwen could only follow the normal process, gradually transfer Zhu Di's henchman army, and send Song Zhong to take charge of the Beiping Metropolitan Division, but even so, Zhu Di still reversed, and once had more than 200,000 troops, controlled Beiping, Juyongguan, Baoding and Yongping, and had a relatively stable base. However, fortunately, Ping'an and Sheng Yong were indeed as brave and good at fighting as in history, and finally with the absolute superiority of artillery and troops, they quickly defeated King Yan and turned the court into peace, which also made Zhu Yunwen more confident, so he quickly invested in the expansion of the empire.

For this rebellion of the vassal king, at the beginning, Zhu Yunwen was indeed very angry, but he quickly calmed down, and even he felt that this was a good opportunity, he just took this opportunity to clean up the opposition forces in the country and lay a solid foundation for the next step of reform. At the same time, he also made up his mind that no matter who was involved in this matter, whether it was a vassal king, a civil servant, a military general, or a Japanese coward, he would be severely punished. As for letting Xu Zengshou be an undercover agent, it's just a chess game, it's good if it works, it doesn't matter if it doesn't work, this move is just to appease the Xu family.

Today's Zhu Yunwen is very different from Zhu Yunwen when he first ascended the throne, at that time he was not very good at using the almost unlimited power in his hands, he still retained some of the ideas of equality and freedom in later generations, and he had an instinctive disgust for some of the punishments of Ling Chi, half beheading, and Zhulian Nine Clans, and felt that it was too cruel. But after quelling the rebellion of King Yan, Zhu Yunwen found that it was not difficult to kill people, in order to avoid future troubles, with his order, the heads of thousands of rebel generals fell to the ground, and the remaining tens of thousands of rebels and their families, totaling more than 200,000 people, were relocated to the northwest, and the north was empty.

And Zhu Yunwen's feeling also made him feel peculiar, the death of so many people did not make him feel sad, but made him happy, because he finally survived, as for the price paid, he completely ignored it, after all, in another time and space, there are far more people who have died.

Since then, Zhu Yunwen has devoted himself to the expansion of territory that is common to traversers, but things are not as easy as imagined. There are four foundations of power in the Ming Dynasty, namely Wenchen, military generals, nobles and vassal kings, among which the vassal king is to be guarded against, Wenchen is to use but also to guard, and the military generals are relatively loyal, because they have been raising troops for many years and rewarding continuously, which is the favorite of military generals, and the last one is the Xungui represented by the Xu family. According to the practice of the Ming Dynasty, the guards are distributed all over the place, not under each other, once the war starts, they will send the nobles from the imperial court to lead the troops, after the war, the guards return to the original station, and the nobles return to the imperial court to resume their lives. Although in a few decades, these nobles will not be able to take on great responsibilities, but now, they are indispensable; And taking 10,000 steps back, Zhu Yunwen also did not want to hand over the military power to the literati.

Zhu Yunwen's reforms have been carried out slowly, and although no one dares to openly oppose them, grassroots officials often use various means to resist them, resulting in little success. In fact, the reason is very simple, after the Yuan Dynasty was classified as "Stinky Lao Jiu", the literati of the Ming Dynasty became very sensitive, and the experience of the Yuan Dynasty was simply unbearable for them, and the status of the literati was only higher than that of beggars, and even prostitutes were located on them. In their view, Zhu Yunwen's reforms are very similar to the pragmatism of Meng Yuan, the status of merchants, craftsmen, and even farming experts is getting higher and higher, and literati, especially those who can only read four books and five classics, are rarely reused by Zhu Yunwen; On the contrary, those literati who have a skill are often promoted to important. All of this made the orthodox literati sad, such as Fang Xiaoru and others, who spent a lot of effort to teach the crown prince Zhu Wenkui, and he no longer had any hope for Zhu Yunwen.

Because Zhu Yunwen had to win over Xungui, and the Xu family was the vane of Xungui. For Xu Miaojin, Zhu Yunwen's feelings are very complicated, from the nature of a man, he is very willing to have such a beauty. But there are still many obstacles between them. One is caused by Xu Miaojin herself, because her second brother-in-law was punished by the court on behalf of the king, she was discouraged from the vassal king, and she swore that it was not suitable for her, although her original intention was not to marry the vassal king, but from her status, she could only marry the vassal king; The other is the issue of seniority, from the perspective of Xu Da and Zhu Yuanzhang, the difference in seniority between the two is not suitable from the perspective of etiquette.

But since Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne, in order to win over Xu Huizu, Zhu Yunwen often asked Queen Ma Hui and Concubine Bai Fangrui to entertain the daughters of the Xu family.

But after the death of King Yan, Xu Yihua suggested that her sister should grasp happiness, so during Zhu Yunwen's stay in Beiping, Xu Miaojin and Zhu Yunwen's relationship progressed quickly, but unfortunately because of Xu Zengshou's undercover matter, the two increased their misunderstanding, Xu Miaojin's love was deep-rooted and very sad; But for the sake of the overall situation, Zhu Yunwen did not comfort her and explained to her......