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On the fifteenth day of the first month of the second year of the Ming Dynasty, this day is the Shangyuan Festival, that is, the Lantern Festival of later generations, but it is called the Shangyuan Festival among intellectuals.

Although the world is now in turmoil, several provinces in the north are still under the control of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and several provinces such as Guangxi and Yunnan-Guizhou in the south are still in the hands of Zhu Youlang, the king of Gui, but after all, the Ming Dynasty nominally owns half of the country, and it is also the first Shangyuan Festival that Zhu Hongsan seized the old capital, so it is natural to hold a special event. The imperial court allocated 100,000 silver dollars for a lantern festival on the Qinhuai River. Nanjing has not suffered any military disasters here, the basic population is there, and the rich families in the city have not suffered any losses, so this Shangyuan Lantern Festival is really full of people, and for a time there are some shadows of prosperity in Nanjing City.

Zhu Hongsan did not rejoice with the people, he wanted to hold a banquet in the palace to appease the only few county kings in the Ming Dynasty, who were also warlords in the actual sense, Li Chengdong, Jin Shenghuan, and Wang Deren.

Li Chengdong was left in Nanjing by Zhu Hongsan after the city of Nanjing was broken, and the ostensible statement was to use his cavalry to ensure the safety of Gyeonggi, but anyone with a discerning eye knows that Zhu Hongsan's new army here in Nanjing has three divisions of nearly 50,000 people, and where is there still three divisions of 50,000 people in Yangzhou, so Li Chengdong needs to help here. Leaving Li Chengdong was actually Zhu Hongsan who took a fancy to his cavalry and was ready to form a cavalry team of his own.

Of course, Li Chengdong also knew that he was not a fool, but his 27,000 cavalry garrison was between Qian Yong's two divisions, and he couldn't move at all, so he couldn't help it. In the end, Li Chengdong could only hope for Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren, who had just arrived, hoping that they could say a few words for themselves.

Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren arrived on the fourteenth day of the first month, but they did not come by themselves, but brought all the people and horses of their department. Zhu Hongsan's holy decree to them was to move Yangzhou to the jurisdiction of Ma Jiyuan, the governor of Yangzhou and the governor of Liangjiang, and prepare to subdue Shandong and Henan. Jin Shenghuan followed Zuo Liangyu to fight in Henan all the year round, Wang Deren was a rogue, and now let himself return to the north, one by one, smiling, and also under the management of Jin Shenghuan's in-law Ma Jiyuan, there is no doubt about him, and all the troops under his command A total of 400,000 people were brought to Nanjing.

Jiangxi is a province with a large population, as Zuo Liangyu's general, Jin Shenghuan, of course, has to do his best to expand his troops, in less than half a year, Jin Shenghuan has captured nearly 300,000 strong men near Nanchang, plus his original men and horses, to form an army of 300,000, known as 600,000. Wang Deren is similar, he got 100,000 people in Jiujiang, claiming to be 200,000. After receiving the emperor's holy decree, these two men immediately led all the horses and horses eastward along the Yangtze River to the periphery of Nanjing. Because there were too many people, Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren had already arrived in Nanjing, and some of the troops remained in Jiangxi and did not set off, but there were more than 300,000 people and horses who arrived in Nanjing.

Originally, Li Chengdong was waiting for these two county kings to come and discuss with them, but when he saw these two idiots coming to Nanjing with so many people, he quickly dispelled his thoughts.

Li Chengdong's son Li Yuanyin asked inexplicably: "Father, aren't you going to meet Jin Shenghuan and them?" Why don't you go? ”

Li Chengdong pursed his lips and sneered: "These two idiots, what do you want to do with so much waste to Jingshi?" Could it be that you are coming to force the palace? Look at it, according to the methods of that faint king, you must not let these two fools go! ”

Just when Li Chengdong was waiting to see a good show, news came out from the palace that on the fifteenth Shangyuan Festival of the first lunar month, the emperor wanted to give a banquet to the three county kings, saying that he wanted to thank the three for their efforts anyway, and at the same time let them bring all the female dependents, and the imperial concubine would invite the female dependents to the inner palace.

Li Chengdong took the holy decree and directly violated the total, will not the emperor want to take this opportunity to serve his own family! But it's impossible to think about it again, even if Jin Shenghuan's army is all peasants, but the number is too much more than the Ming army, and the emperor is not completely sure and does not dare to do it. Li Chengdong thought about it for a while, there should be no problem, so he asked Li Yuanyin and his wife to prepare, and they went to the banquet in the evening.

The emperor invited Li Chengdong to naturally not dare to go late, so he rushed to the palace with gifts in the afternoon. Li Chengdong rushed to Hongwumen only to find that he was the first to come, and neither of Jin Wang had arrived. The brocade guard at the door checked the waist card and put Li Chengdong and Li Yuanyin's family into the palace, Zhu Yu was a frequent visitor in the palace, and Li Chengdong and his son took their son to the harem to meet their mother. Li Chengdong and his son, under the leadership of the little eunuch, passed through the three major halls and entered the square outside the Qianqing Palace through the Jingyun Gate and the Rijing * Gate.

Li Chengdong as a country native hat where to come to the palace, he used to think that the palace must be splendid, the ground is covered with gold bricks, how to think that the Nanjing Palace is dilapidated, one of the three major halls of Fengtian Hall is still a piece of rubble, Li Chengdong rolled his eyes.

Li Chengdong asked his son in a low voice: "Child, it seems that the emperor is not very happy, and his house is destroyed and he has no money to repair it!" ”

Li Yuanyin is different from Li Chengdong, he is still a little cultured, he knows that the Fengtian Hall in the Nanjing Imperial Palace was burned by the heavenly fire during the orthodox years, and he has no money to repair it, and the current emperor has no money, so he naturally maintains the original ecology.

Li Yuanyin told his father what he knew, Li Chengdong pouted after listening to it, that faint gentleman didn't expect to be able to endure it!

The Jingyun Gate and the Longzong Gate behind the three major halls square are important gateways to enter the square in front of the Qianqing Palace, which can lead to the middle road of the outer court and the middle road of the inner court, so it is also called the "forbidden door". From the prince down, the civil service of the third rank, the military rank of the second rank and above, and the people brought by the officials of the inner court are only allowed to stop twenty steps away from the steps outside the door, and it is strictly forbidden to trespass. It can be said that the harem has entered here, so in front of the Jingyun Gate stood full of officers and soldiers of the Praetorian Guard Division with loaded guns.

Entering the Rijing* Gate and entering the Qianqing Palace, the crown prince Zhu Hai has received the news and greeted the father and son here at the door.

Li Chengdong saw a young man in a bright yellow dragon robe standing at the door, looking at him with a smile, and recognized that this was the prince. Li Chengdong took Li Yuanyin and hurriedly stepped forward, ready to kneel down and salute.

Zhu Hai hurriedly stepped forward to support him and said, "Uncle Huang, don't see outside, we are all a family, and the one behind must be my brother-in-law Li Yuanyin!" Sure enough, a talent! ”

Li Chengdong personally killed Zhu Hai's mother Ma Xiaofang, knowing that he and the prince had an unsolvable feud, but seeing that Zhu Hai had nothing to do, he sighed in his heart: I didn't expect Zhu Hongsan's son to be so powerful, and his laughter is invisible, there is really a father, there is a son!

In fact, this is Li Chengdong's thoughts, how can Zhu Hai not hate Li Chengdong? But Zhu Hongsan gave him a strict order not to mention Ma Xiaofang's matter again, and Zhu Hai had no choice but to make a false deal with Li Chengdong.

"Uncle Wang, I didn't expect you to come so early, and the others haven't arrived, please come in quickly, and the little nephew will accompany the two of you to the side hall to rest first!" After Zhu Hai finished speaking, he pulled Li Chengdong into the Rijing* Gate and came to the side hall of the Qianqing Palace to rest.

The Qianqing Palace here is not as dilapidated as the three major halls outside, how to say that it is also Zhu Hongsan's home, and if you want to save here, you will lose the dignity of the country, so Zhu Hongsan will paint the main palaces of the Qianqing Palace and the harem with his own money, which can be regarded as a New Year. However, it is only the exterior wall that has been painted, and the inside has not been renovated, so the environment in the side hall is not very good, and the red paint of several pillars is mottled, revealing the primer below, which is completely gold and jade.

Zhu Hai smiled bitterly and said: "Uncle Huang don't see outside, my father said that now is the time when the country is in danger, and we must share the hardships with all the people in the country, so there is no renovation in the palace, so that Uncle Huang can see it!" ”

"Where is it, this is what a generation of benevolent monarchs should look like, Xiao Wang has no time to look up and dare to laugh!"

Zhu Hai pulled Li Chengdong to sit down and began to chat with his father and son, the banquet was scheduled for the evening, and there were still two hours.

After a while, a little eunuch outside passed the word, and the king of Wuchang County and the king of Jiujiang County came. Zhu Hai stood up and said with a smile: "Uncle Wang and brother-in-law sit down for a while, and the palace will go out to greet them!" ”

Li Chengdong watched Zhu Hai go out, and whispered to his son Li Yuanyin: "This prince is not simple, have you seen the King of Chu, can you see how powerful the two of them are?" ”

Li Yuanyin has a good relationship with Zhu Huai, the king of Chu, because of Zhu Yu's relationship, and Zhu Huai wants to make friends with this kind of general who leads the troops, so he naturally stoops down to make friends, so Li Yuanyin has a good impression of Zhu Huai.

"Father, the king of Chu is not as heroic as the crown prince, but he is also amiable!"

Hearing Li Yuanyin say this, Li Chengdong sighed in his heart, he had met the king of Chu once, and he was smiling and amiable on the surface, but at first glance, he was a smiling tiger with a bad stomach, and his son was in the army all the year round, and he was still a little hot when he looked at people. I don't know how Zhu Hongsan was born, none of these sons are incompetent, you must know that the prince is only seventeen years old, and the king of Chu is only fifteen years old.

Just when Li Chengdong was slandering, Zhu Hai at the door walked into the hall with a few people.

Li Chengdong saw that the first big man was in his forties, with a beard and a four-clawed cyan dragon suit. The big man was followed by a man, with a short figure, a face full of small pits, as if he had been hit by the iron sand of a musket, and two pinches of red hair on each side of his cheeks.

In the end, this guy Li Chengdong recognized that it was Wang Deren, the general under Bai Wang, Li Zicheng's general, because of those two pinches of red hair, people gave him the nickname Wang Zamao.

Li Chengdong was Gao Jie's subordinate back then, and Wang Deren was Bai Wang's subordinate, and the two didn't have a deep relationship, but they met a few times. Back then, Bai Wangke was not as high as Gao Jie's position, so even Li Chengdong looked down on Wang Deren. However, Gao Jie and Mrs. Xing broke their shoes and were discovered by Li Chengdong, and Gao Jie had no choice but to escape, which was enough for ten years to meet.

Li Chengdong saw these two people coming in, Wang Deren was behind, and the one in front must be Jin Shenghuan. Li Chengdong hurriedly stood up and said, "This is Brother Jin? ”