Chapter 556: A startling thrill

The emperor led his troops to the north, and the busiest ones were undoubtedly the military department and the household department. It's just that the entire imperial court needs to do more than just the Northern Expedition, so Zhao Yi, the secretary of the Ministry of War, Guo Zi, the secretary of the Ministry of Households, and Li Qing, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, each led several subordinates to supervise the grain and salary, and the daily affairs of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household were handed over to Lu Zhen, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites.

Others may not be able to do a good job of doing a job alone, but Lu Zhen is at ease, in the morning in the Ministry of Rites, in the afternoon in the Ministry of War, in the evening in the Ministry of Households, and his energy is even more vigorous than that of young people.

Now that the summer is past the most prone to heat stroke, sitting in the afternoon is gradually no longer a chore. After quickly meeting with the four officers of the military department, and solving various matters that had to be decided by himself, he was finally free. After taking a sip of tea and moistening his throat, he thought about the things to be played at tomorrow's court meeting in his heart, and sorted them out one by one, and memorized them all, and then he breathed a long sigh of relief.

"When the emperor comes back this time, the ten people sent to me should be able to take it back, right? Those who can work hard, I carry three parts on my shoulders, there is no merit and hard work, and I can always cover the previous things. ”

Muttering to himself, he looked at the burly figures at the door, and couldn't help but think of the lingering past. The four of them had always been the most trusted Shangshu, but in the end, they were killed and imprisoned, and the dead Fang Bin was not only killed, but also the whole family was registered, and even the emperor committed suicide in order to prevent him, so he sent so ten guards over.

In fact, the emperor was not right at all, even if Song Li, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, was not sick at that time, and Jianyi was not the governor outside, and the six Shangshu met together, when the emperor was sent together, he would only be left alone. If you want to say that you tend to be auspicious and avoid evil, who else in the world can match him Lu Zhen? He usually competes for the first place in everything, but that day he fell last, not so that others would be in front!

"Lord Shangshu!"

Lu Zhen, who was groaning, raised his head when he heard the sound, and saw that it was a soap Li who was kneeling outside the hall in fear, and he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, and then remembered that Zhao Zhen sent someone yesterday to transfer all the scribes who could be recruited to supervise the military salaries of the Northern Expedition, and now there are only these soap officials left in the yamen. He has always attached the most importance to rules and etiquette, and then asked in a deep voice: "What's the matter?" ”

"Lord Shangshu, Zhang Yue has come back from the Arsenal of the Ministry of War, and now he has just entered the Yamen of the Ministry of War!"

The words in front of Lu Zhen directly skipped over, and there were only five words he noticed - Zhang Yue is back! The next moment, he saw the person who said "just entered the yamen of the military department" appeared in the courtyard outside the lobby. Although he couldn't tell which was the green robe or the gray robe, with his eyesight, of course he wouldn't recognize the wrong person, so he stood up.

At this time, he didn't want to blame this kind of big thing for still sticking to etiquette, and he only came to report the news before people came in, and he only cared about one thing, that is, the reason why Zhang Yue rushed back at this time.

Except for Yang Rongjin Youzi in the cabinet, most of the civil officials who accompanied the Northern Expedition were very inconspicuous low-grade officials, except for Zhang Yue, a five-grade soldier who was extremely eye-catching in his background. In the past few days, the military newspapers sent back from the Northern Expeditionary Army have been announced in public every day, and everything seems to be normal, except that there are a lot of gossips around. He even sent two maidservants at home who whispered about the collapse of the mountain behind his back, but his colleagues in the DPRK and China even talked about this.

Although a heart has been mentioned in his throat, he almost didn't ask directly, but after all, Lu Zhen is still worried about the demeanor of the minister who has collapsed in front of Mount Tai and his face has not changed, and he is even more unwilling to lose his temper in front of a soap li, so he immediately sent the soap li who reported the news to retreat, and waited until Zhang Yue came in to salute, and then he asked reservedly: "Did the emperor send you back to fight the front station?" ”

Due to the inexplicable assassination at Jimingyi, Zhang Yue yesterday gave up his original intention of returning to Beijing before sunset in the afternoon, and stayed at the post station to deal with the aftermath. It's not that he doesn't want to find out the mastermind behind the scenes, and it's not that he doesn't care about his own safety, but the assassination in front of everyone's eyes will bring unexpected trouble if he catches the mouth, but he didn't expect that at that time, there were still people begging for mercy and wanting to live. But if you kill it, you will kill it, and at most you will be scolded for being reckless, and this straightforward method may be more effective.

Today, he did not rush early in the morning, but deliberately waited until dawn before setting off, and entered the capital in the afternoon. He originally planned to go directly to the noon gate to ask for a meeting, or send someone to the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies to report first, but after thinking about it, he decided to go ahead and go to the military headquarters. Of course, it happened to be Lu Zhen in the yamen, which also saved him from having another trip to the Ministry of Rites.

Glancing at the stake-like guards outside the lobby, he nodded and said, "Lu Shangshu, I did come back by order. Kaiping reported that the military rations were insufficient, and the people were also insufficient. Now that it is almost August, the weather outside the Seychelles is about to be cold, and the emperor is very angry about this matter, so he ordered me to transfer from Kaiping to Xuanfu and return to Beijing to see what is going on, and then urge it. ”

Although Zhang Yue did not relay the emperor's dictation as it was, these few words made Lu Zhen feel the anger of the Son of Heaven, and he couldn't help but chuckle in his heart. Although he was not responsible for the matter of military rations, Zhu Di didn't care about these things when he was angry, so he stood up as early as when Zhang Yue mentioned the Son of Heaven, and after listening to it, he hurriedly said: "The matter of military rations and civilian husbands is really important." Since you are here by the Holy Decree, then don't delay, I will accompany you to see the prince first. ”

Since Lu Zhen took the initiative to put forward this intention, Zhang Yue would not object, and immediately followed him out of the Shangshu lobby. When he turned the door, he happened to see Wan Shijie busy dodging to the side of the road. Although he wanted to stop and say hello, Lu Zhen was next to him, and he still had important matters, so he could only throw a look, and then left quickly.

Although he is sixty miles away, Lu Zhen is not a hero after all, so although he is old enough to sit in a sedan chair, the cloud-headed green mantle sedan chair with gold ornaments and silver embroidery is only carried by four people, and it is impossible to accommodate a second person like Zhang Fu's imperial eight sedan chairs, and Zhang Yue is also riding a horse next to him. When they got off the horse and stopped the sedan chair at the left gate of Chang'an, the two entered the palace, and they all stayed outside as soon as they were entouraged.

It was a long road from the left gate of Chang'an to the noon gate, with three steps, one post, five steps and one sentry along the way, all of them were brightly dressed guards, and the two of them talked to each other and lowered their voices. After all, Lu Zhen is an old minister who has been a scholar for more than ten years, and as soon as the initial shock passed, he had to think about getting some talk from Zhang Yue along the way. Although Zhang Yue would not reveal the reason why the emperor was angry before, he took the opportunity to mention what Wang Yu said. Sure enough, as soon as the words came out, he saw Lu Zhen's face pale.

"How is this possible...... How could anyone be so bold! I don't know anything about it! ”

The Son of Heaven is outside, and if there is a conspiracy in the army, the more food and grass, the greater the danger of the other day - what guy without a head would dare to say such a thing? Zhang Yue also said that the people sent by Baoding Hou Sui Anbo wanted to see him but didn't see him, but God knows, he didn't know that there was such a thing! Thinking of the consequences of these incidents, Lu Zhen, who could not change his face even if he encountered a huge blow, was already a little unbearable at this moment. If Zhang Yue was ten years older, he even planned to behave more groveling.

Zhang Yue knew that Lu Zhen would repay him, but he could be regarded as a first-class capable, so he didn't plan to fall into the well because he had no grievances with others, so he whispered: "In short, now the four major warehouses of Xuanfu have begun to transfer grain to Kaiping for use on the return journey of the Northern Expedition." But Xuanfu itself is also an important border town, and this gap has to be filled immediately, and this matter has to be troubled by Lu Shangshu. ”

Since there was a hint, Lu Zhen promised to send someone to send a letter to Guo Zi and a few of them immediately, and dismissed the plan to extract some more clues from Zhang Yue's mouth. He is not a stupid person, if there is something wrong with the real Son of Heaven, how can Zhang Yue go around such a big circle all the way? In the future, we have to let Shuntianfu clean up those rumor-mongering guys, otherwise who can afford such a startling thrill!

The Son of Heaven is not there, and the prince's daily affairs are in the Duanjing Palace, but now that Zhang Yue has returned from the Holy Decree, the place where he was received has become the Wenhua Palace. After personally inspecting the sword of the Son of Heaven that Zhang Yue carried, although Zhu Gaochi had a faint smile on his round face, he was very surprised in his heart.

He didn't know how many times he had seen Zhu Di's sword, and every time after the Northern Expedition, there would be one or two more gaps, but this time there was a conspicuous crack, which showed that it must have killed people again. At this time, he had no intention of sitting, so he simply stood up and ordered Fan Hong next to him to return it to Zhang Yue. When Zhang Yue explained the reason for this trip, he couldn't help but sigh secretly when he still had some expectations.

It seems that his eloquent father is fine now!

With Zhu Di's suspicious and irritable father, Zhu Gaochi is no matter how benevolent and filial he is, and he hopes that Zhu Di will ascend to heaven more than once in his heart, so he is now criticized again, and his mood is even worse. At this time, he tried his best not to put that nameless fire on Zhang Yue, but his face couldn't look good anyway. After asking in a few words, he was about to simply hand over the drudgery of the military rations to Zhang Yue and let him suffer some hardships, but he heard a sentence that surprised him.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, on his return trip yesterday, when he passed by the Rooster Station, he encountered a group of assassins disguised as merchants. Thankfully, all the Assassins were killed on the spot. ”

Zhang Yue's sudden words immediately drove away Zhu Gaochi's anger, and even for a moment, he even thought that Zhang Yue was talking nonsense. But after all, he was a middle-aged man who had been the crown prince for seven years and twenty years, and soon realized that Zhang Yue would never dare to break nonsense about such a big matter, so he unconsciously tightened his brows.

"The assassins are all dead?"

"Returning to His Royal Highness the Prince, they are indeed all dead."

"I will order a thorough investigation of this matter, you go back first!" - Even for his own sake, he has to investigate fiercely!

Exiting the Duanjing Palace, Zhang Yue let out a long sigh of relief, and tried his best to drive out the boredom in his chest. He is not a firefighter, and he was sent by the emperor to send a branch to the west, and he doesn't know how many major family events he missed. Thinking of this, he didn't want to delay at all, and immediately stepped up his steps and walked out, but when he passed the Zuoshun Gate, he was blocked by the oncoming people. Although his heart was like an arrow, but seeing the smiling face in front of him, and the middle-aged man next to him who tried his best to pretend to be indifferent, he hurriedly pressed his eager thoughts and hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

It is a great joy for the concubine to be happy, but because he is getting older now, Zhu Zhanji, the imperial grandson, is being watched more and more closely by the ministers, and even someone cares about being happy and laughing a few times when there is nothing to do. So on weekdays, he didn't even bother to go to the Imperial Palace, preferring nothing to fight crickets. Today, it was easy to see a loophole, and reported that his parents took Jinyiwei to the Forbidden Garden to ride and hunt, at this time his back hurt but he was happily addicted to his hands, and when he came back, it coincided with Zhang Yue's return, and he couldn't help but feel even more happy.

"I thought you must have come back with the imperial grandfather, but I didn't expect you to come back first! What, what's the big deal this time? Being young is one heavy responsibility after another, do you know that many people in the Jinshi of that subject last year took you as an example! ”

"His Royal Highness the Imperial Sun said this, but the minister is going to be embarrassed." Zhang Yue saw that Zhu Zhanji was surrounded by eunuchs and Jinyi guards, and next to him was Yuan Fang, and there were no other civil officials nearby for the time being, so he said bluntly, "In fact, the ministers came back all the way from the emperor's order, not only to urge the army and the people, but also to see the situation in Xuanfu and other places in Beizhili." The emperor is a new victory over Uliangha, but it will take a while to sweep away the remnants, counting the cost of military rations on the return trip, so he has to make more preparations. ”

Hearing that there was something in Zhang Yue's words, Zhu Zhanji thought about it carefully, and there was no smile on his face. Although the eunuchs who accompanied him were all trustworthy, after all, Jinyiwei was the Eagle Dog of the Son of Heaven and not his Eagle Dog, so he knew that he couldn't ask any more questions at this time. He asked two other words without being salty, and he mentioned the good news that the imperial grandson concubine Hu was pregnant, and then smiled again: "I forgot, not only did you become a father one step faster than me, but also your lady has a son again, I think you should go to Lingji Palace tomorrow morning to pray for blessings, this is really a first-class blessing." Yuan Fang, you give Zhang Yue a ride and ask him to hurry home to see his daughter-in-law! ”

Seeing that Zhang Yue was stunned for a moment, Zhu Zhanji smiled narrowly, left Yuan Fang and the other brocade guards, and led the eunuchs into Zuoshun Gate briskly. It wasn't until he walked out that Yuan Fangfang next to him stepped forward and reminded with a dry cough: "Lord Zhang, let's get out of the palace!" ”

Zhang Yue, who was suddenly shocked, took a deep breath, but the joy in his heart couldn't be suppressed no matter what, and he grabbed Yuan Fang's arm and asked, "What His Royal Highness the Imperial Sun just said is true?" ”

"What His Highness said is naturally true. And your fourth brother has already made a family affair with the Wu'anhou Mansion next door, and now the dowry has been received, and the marriage will be completed when Wu'anhou comes back. ”

While saying this, Yuan Fang sighed in his heart. It's enough to tell Zhang Yue that Shuangxi is coming, as for other things, it's better for him to talk less and more, so that people are in a good mood for a while!