Chapter 687: On the Road

The appointment of private individuals is a taboo for Chinese officials in the DPRK, but it is commonplace for military generals. Since the Han and Tang dynasties, the generals have accumulated more personal soldiers and private soldiers, especially in the Tang Domain. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, although Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, was a thief, it was still common for the top nobles to raise seventy or eighty families. And the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di was more tolerant of the nobles, so from the British Gong Zhang Fu to the commanders and other officers, everyone has raised a lot of confidants and generals.

It is true that only these people are loyal, but it is not so easy to control. After Zhang Yue seconded all the dozens of people, he immediately left all the people in the British Mansion and let Peng Shisan train them, while he was busy arranging a route and so on. On the day of departure, he met with Zhu Zhanji, who came in disguise, and more than a dozen avant-garde sergeants of the government army outside the city, and waited for Yuan Fang and the four long entourage, and the group immediately set off on horseback.

Zhu Zhanji was originally a little uneasy, however, after two days of hurrying down, seeing that these people ordered the prohibition of military discipline in order, he couldn't help but secretly wonder that when he stayed in a dense forest outside Huai'an Mansion that night, he saw that Zhang Yue had arranged everything to come back and report it, so he praised a few words.

"Yuanjie, you can pick people, these people are actually capable, and the most important thing is to be able to use them like fingers. Even the avant-garde of the government army has been from me for many years, and it is not necessarily more forbidden than them. In the end, the Jiangmen family has such a person. ”

Although he understood that most of Zhu Zhanji's praise at this time had no other meaning, Zhang Yue didn't want this prince to have any suspicions, so he sat next to Zhu Zhanji with a confession.

"Your Highness's praise is true, but there are very few such people in each family. After all, Mu Yuma is not the Duke of Qianguo, these people were all sent over from Yunnan, that is, there are no more. As for the Xu family, there is only such a small amount of family wealth left. Many of the rest are family members who have been levied with the British government, and they have been raised in Zhuangzi when they are old, and they have experienced miasma and blood rain, and they are all first-class good hands. Even so, it took Lao Peng two days of practice to make them all obey. ”

"Peng Thirteen again?"

Zhu Zhanji couldn't help but raise his head. By the light of the torch, he saw Peng Shisan, who was arranging a night patrol. Thinking of the rumors he heard when he came back from Daning, and remembering that this person refused his father's title of official, he felt more and more that talents were rare, so he took a horsewhip and pointed at it: "I remember that he made many meritorious contributions from the British Duke in Jiaoluan, and later followed you to guard the imperial Xinghe, and also fought against the Uliangha and Arutai in Daning." Thousands of households are really not worthy of his merits, even if he doesn't want to do a real job, at least he should be awarded a commanding officer. By the way, the so-called drill made them obey, but he relied on real kung fu to suppress them? ”

"That's right, Lao Peng is not the only one, my four guards almost all took turns. After all, these people are the real confidants of each family, but they don't listen to whether they are neat or not, they only look at whether their hands are tough......"

After talking with Zhu Zhanji for a while, seeing that it was already late at night, Zhang Yue Shao had no choice but to take people to rest, and then returned to his small tent, but he looked at the map by the faint light of the oil lamp. After scanning back and forth twice in that part of Shandong, his gaze turned to the two most important places.

Yuan Fang arranged this trip and the places where he stayed and stayed at the top of the road, and he didn't explain why he didn't live in the city or the inn, and no one asked up and down. The family members believe in obeying orders in everything, and Peng Shisan and Niu Dare all listen to Zhang Yue, as for Zhang Yue and Zhu Zhanji, both of them follow the same truth.

But if you don't understand and don't know what you are not sure about, instead of trying your best to do it and not doing it well, it is better to let it go and leave it to the experts who are proficient in this way.

After four days of traveling, the group finally passed Xuzhou, and dozens of miles ahead was the boundary of Shandong. Staying day and night along the way is certainly nothing big for the able-bodied families, but for Zhu Zhanji, it is quite tiring. Since that time to mourn the emperor in the Daning army, he has not been so tormented for a while. And that time was completely different from this time, after all, he still had a large army to rely on, and the situation in the capital was completely under control. Now that he has some gains and losses, he naturally doesn't dare to relax his vigilance, so when he heard Zhang Yue say that he would stay in Hanzhuang on the side of the canal tonight, he couldn't help but hesitate.

Regarding his hesitation, Yuan Convenient explained with a smile: "Your Highness, rest assured, Hanzhuang belongs to Yanzhou Mansion, and this is the seat of King Lu's Mansion. Although King Lu does not anticipate political affairs, he has always been a bit virtuous, and this place is close to Nanjing and far away from the capital, so it is not valued by the King of Han. Besides, Lord Xiao Zhang said before that someone in Hanzhuang answered, since this is the case, let's stay overnight. ”

Now that he has arrived here, he has indeed been safe and sound along the way, although Zhu Zhanji hesitated a little, he still didn't say anything in the end. When he was about to arrive at Hanzhuang, Zhang Yue first sent Zhang Bu to the front station, and when the news came back, he ordered Peng Shisan to take everyone to stay in place for a while, and then enter Hanzhuang in batches after the time had passed, and he and Yuan Fang escorted Zhu Zhanji to an inn that had been arranged a long time ago.

Hanzhuang is the first meeting point of the north-south land route and the canal waterway in Shandong. Because of the light of the official road, this was originally a thriving town, but since the dredging of the Huitong River, it has become more lively. At night, the lights of the boats can still be seen on the docks, but there are only lights in the town, and most of the people have already fallen asleep, and only the only inn is still open. Hearing the movement outside, a young man in the inn raised his head sleepily, and saw a dozen people rushing into the door at once, he was stunned for a moment and immediately stepped forward and went down the door, but he didn't ask a word.

He was busy working here, and Zhang Yue took Yuan Fang, Zhu Zhanji, and Chen Wu upstairs. After entering the guest room, before Zhu Zhanji could react, a person quickly stepped forward. Although he was a little confused, since Zhang Yue did not introduce his identity, he also stood behind Zhang Yue without saying a word.

The person who came was Hu Qi, who was still dressed as a former staff. After he stepped forward, he didn't look at the others, but respectfully shook the ground, and then reported: "My lord, the student has arrived first, and he has inquired about the news in all directions. On the official road from Yanzhou Mansion to Dezhou, the inventory of all inspection departments is much stricter than in the past. Moreover, there have been troop transfers on the Tianjin Wei side in the past few days, and there is a lot of tension, but many people in the past have been detained. ”

"And that's not all." Although he didn't look up and look left and right, out of the corner of his eye, Hu Qi caught a glimpse of the person behind Zhang Yue staring at him, and continued, "The prefect of Jinan suddenly fell ill, and now the acting government affairs are a fellow intellectual. People up and down are not convinced, so the government is in a mess, these days Jinan Prefecture near the prefecture and county even put the billboard and so on have stopped, although the inspection department is more than the duty to do so, no one has the heart to pay attention, and the canal through the states and towns also have a lot of fresh faces, but for the time being, there are no patrolmen to harass the passenger ships and merchant ships on the river. ”

These threads may seem trivial, but to those who know the truth, they mean a lot. Zhang Yue stood in front of Zhu Zhanji, his face was unmoved, but he knew in his heart that his worries were not superfluous. After pondering for a while, he asked Hu Qi, "Is there a ship docked in Hanzhuang right now?" ”

"There are ships, there are four salt ships from Yangzhou from Shandong, and one is a merchant ship to Beijing. Whether it is a salt ship or a merchant ship, they are all just on the way, but those ships are full of salt, and it is not easy to sit on people. Moreover, the adults and the Fang family were old acquaintances before, and they had also dealt with each other when they opened Zhongyan, and many people knew about this relationship, so it was inevitable that they would encounter trouble. However, the merchant ship has some connection with the Lu Wangfu, and the road guide is ready-made, and the joints can be unimpeded. ”

After listening to him, Zhang Yue inquired in detail about the situation outside, and then sent the person out. When the gate closed, Zhu Zhanji looked at Zhang Yue and asked in a deep voice: "Yuanjie, it seems that the land route ahead is not easy to walk, but you plan to take the water route?" ”

"Your Highness, I asked you to take the opportunity of the minister's return to Beijing to visit your father's illness together, in order to arrive in the capital as soon as possible, but in fact, this plan is only half of the plan. Since the queen asked the British public to send a message, saying that her father was seriously ill, she naturally had the intention of borrowing this plan. However, there are impermeable walls in the world, and the people in the capital are so talkative that they can't cover the news, and the minister borrowed people from the nobles of Nanjing, and he is not completely sure that the news will not be leaked. Besides, the minister himself was originally too conspicuous. As long as someone grasps this land route in Shandong, or others wait for us to collide with it, it will be a failure. ”

After a slight pause, Zhang Yue explained: "After the minister learned the news, he sent people to Shandong day and night. This person is quite reliable, and he doesn't know the inside story, so it's naturally the most suitable to find out the news. According to what he said, the land routes in Shandong have now been closely monitored, and since the inspection department has set up cards along the way, it will not work to use money and identity to send them along the way. Therefore, from here, it is not easy to go anywhere along the way to these states and counties in Texas, and it is too risky to take the land route. ”

Seeing that Zhu Zhanji was silent in thought, Zhang Yue added: "Now it seems that the other party has already been wary of us leaving the honor guard and waiting to rush to the capital, so they control the land route." It's just that we only rest for three hours a night, so I'm afraid they haven't heard that soon. There can be an inspection department on the land route, but there are not many checkpoints on the canal, especially those boats that have enough food and water and do not need to dock, and they can be unimpeded along the canal. As long as others still think that we still have so many people to continue to go north, then, His Royal Highness will take the waterway to Tongzhou, although it is a few days slower, but it is safe, after all, even the military attachés in Tianjin and other places may not be reliable. I had expected this, so I had already sent five people to wait in this Han Village, just in time to escort His Highness through this Shandong by boat. ”

At this point, Zhu Zhanji only nodded. Of course, he knew that Zhang Yue was not a lie, when his grandfather Zhu Di raised troops, many generals in Tongzhou and other places were looking for the wind, which was not only because of popularity, but also because of the large amount of benefits in advance. Now Zhu Gaoxu has also been operating in Shandong for several years, and he doesn't know how many officers he has wooed, and it is not an exaggeration for Zhang Yue to be cautious. In the face of the merits and wealth of the sky, who can guarantee that no one leaked the news and no cold arrow was aimed at him?

"In that case, Chen Wu and I will take Yuan Qing and them on the boat, how can you fill the vacancy of only the three of us?"

Zhang Yue saw that Zhu Zhanji had made up his mind, so he replied with a smile: "Since Your Highness only brought Lord Yuan, Gonggong Chen and them, this matter will be easy to handle." The reason why I let many people wear hats along the way, and deliberately kept His Highness apart from those family members, is to confuse the public if something happens. I've got a stand-in here, and when the time comes, they'll put on their hats, and no one will recognize them. Since we are here, we don't have to stay overnight in the wilderness all the way in the future, let's stay in Hanzhuang tonight, and from tomorrow, I will take them to stay in Yanzhou Mansion, Tai'an Prefecture, and Jinan Mansion for one night each. ”

Zhu Zhan is basically not a person who drags mud and water, and at this time, he nodded when he heard that Zhang Yue had already arranged everything. Leaving Yuan Fang and Zhang Yue to continue discussing, he took Chen Wu out of the guest room. At this moment, Hu Qi immediately greeted him, led him into a guest room around the corner, and retreated himself.

He had lived in the wilderness for several days, and sitting on that neat and clean bed at this time, Zhu Zhanji couldn't help but let out a long breath. At this time, Chen Wu next to him couldn't help but ask in a low voice: "Your Highness, we only bring five people, and we are not the vanguard of His Highness's army, will it ...... Too adventurous? Although Lord Xiao Zhang is a person you appreciate and a child of the Zhang family, he is really a little worried about handing over the matter to him like this. ”

"It's good that you can have a heart, but you don't have to worry about this matter." Zhu Zhanji glanced at Chen Wu and saw that he was still worried, so he said lightly, "Although the capital is said to be the queen mother, if you want to arrange the defense and transfer of the army, etc., it is inseparable from the British duke." The queen mother can trust the British Duke wholeheartedly, why can't I trust Zhang Yue wholeheartedly? Over the years, I have helped him several times, and he has helped me many times, and now as long as he allows me to arrive in the capital safely, is this credit not comparable to the support of the Han King? From the first time I met him, I knew that he was a good match and trustworthy. ”

"Your Highness said so, and the little one has nothing to remind me of. It's just that Xiao still thinks that Xiao Zhang's statement that the military attaches in Tianjin and other places may not be credible seems to be a bit alarmist. ”

"It's better to believe what you have than what you don't!"

After bursting out these ten words, Zhu Zhanji didn't speak again, only washed and washed his feet under Chen Wu's service and went to bed. Lying on this fairly soft bed, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart - his grandfather Zhu Di swept the world with a group of generals with great ambition at that time, which was certainly a temporary feat, but after ascending the throne, he immediately cut the authority of the vassal king, and clearly didn't want others to take advantage of it. The funny thing is that there are still people who can't see the situation clearly and covet the dragon's work.

Zhu Gaoxu often compares himself to Li Shimin, but in his opinion, it is just a straw bag with a false appearance!