"The horse is still alive!"

"Governor Fang is still alive!"

When Fang Yuan and Princess Kunxing returned to the palace, the accompanying Jinyi guards and eunuchs had already spread the news to the palace.

In the Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen saw Fang Yuan, who returned to the palace with Princess Kunxing, and was really alive and well, Chongzhen was both happy and angry.

The joy is that Fang Yuan is still alive, and Da Ming's only hope is still alive!

Angry, he was fooled again, and he had also held a state funeral for Hong Chengchou before, but he was slapped with a loud face; Now it is held for Fang Yuan, and it turns out that Fang Yuan is still alive.

made two big mistakes in a row, and he, the emperor, lost his face.

When Wang Chengen saw Fang Yuan return safely, he also cried with joy, and hurriedly ordered the little eunuch to pick up Fang Yuan and wash the dust.

Chongzhen took Fang Yuan's hand and went directly to Dongnuan Pavilion, and Princess Kunxing also followed closely behind the two.

Chongzhen pulled Fang Yuan to sit on the dragon couch, and said excitedly, "Donkey, you are alive, I am very relieved!" Why did it take you so long to return to the capital, and where have you been in the past few months? ”

Fang Yuan didn't answer and asked, "Your Majesty, who sent the news to the capital that I had died in Liaodong?" ”

Chongzhen hurriedly said, "It was the commander of Tianjin Wei and Weihaiwei who reported that you and the Xuanjia Army were defeated in Liaodong and were captured and killed by the Manchu Tartars!" ”

Fang Yuan suddenly realized that in order to cover up his behavior of escaping from the battle, Liu Sheng and Fei Cheng directly passed on the fake news to Chongzhen that he had not seen with his own eyes and was only based on speculation, "Your Majesty, I have ordered the envoy of the Korean State to send back the news, but Your Majesty has not received it?" ”

Chongzhen said with a solemn expression, "The horse makes people pass the news of returning to China? Not seen yet! Wang Chengen, have you met the envoy of the Korean state? ”

Wang Chengen's face changed, and he hurriedly whispered, "Your Majesty, the Korean country has come to the envoy, and His Majesty was sacrificing heaven and earth at that time, so he didn't let the envoy come to see him. After that, the Korean envoy disappeared, and the old slave then forgot about it. ”

Fang Yuan was secretly frightened when he heard this, the envoy of the North Korean State didn't even bring important news, how could he disappear for no reason, unless something happened behind the scenes.

It seems that the water behind this thing is still very deep!

Chongzhen asked angrily, "Don Ma, is it Liu Sheng and Fei Cheng who are pretending to pass on the military report?" ”

Fang Yuan said truthfully, "These two people fled in fear of battle, and they never thought that they would dare to return to Beijing to deceive Your Majesty." ”

Chongzhen lost his face in front of the world this time, and he couldn't swallow this breath with a good face, so he immediately gave the order, "Wang Chengen, immediately escort Liu Sheng and Fei Cheng to Jingshi in brocade clothes to ask for guilt!" ”

As soon as he spoke, he added, "The nine clans of the two are also all here!" ”

Since Chongzhen ordered the two of them to be escorted to the capital together with the nine clans, it is needless to say that it is to destroy the nine clans. When the Son of Heaven is angry, he will surely shed a river of blood.

Fang Yuan didn't bother to intercede for the two, Liu Sheng and Fei Cheng escaped from the battle, if it weren't for Shi Lang's efforts to turn the tide, thousands of Xuanjia troops would also suffer heavy losses, these two people were innocent!

Chongzhen shook Fang Yuan's hand again and said, "Donkey, tell me what has happened in the past few months. ”

Fang Yuan explained how to attack Liaodong, how to carry out the Lushun, Gaizhou, and Haizhou massacres, how to capture the old capital of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Hetuala, how to retreat to Phi Island but encountered the sea ice, and could only wait until the spring flowers bloomed to return to the capital.

Chongzhen and Princess Kunxing listened with relish, Kunxing also asked curiously, and Fang Yuan patiently answered them one by one.

After explaining what had happened in the past few months, Fang Yuan got up and said, "Your Majesty, in this surprise attack on Liaodong, the minister's Xuanjia army lost 2,600 people, annihilated 4,000 people from the Manchurian Eight Banners, and 30,000 people from the Han Eight Banners and the Eight Banners of Meng. He also planted the battle flag of the Ming army on the city wall of Hetuala, and imitated the Han Huo Hussar to seal the wolf Juxu, and raised the prestige of the Ming Dynasty in Hetualale Stone Dongling! ”

Hetuala, in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty monarchs, has long been an unattainable dream, Chongzhen was overjoyed when he heard it, patted the dragon case heavily, laughed and said, "Okay! Good! Donkey, you're really sick with me! ”

"Your Majesty, don't be deceived by Fang Yuan's lies!"

Cold and feminine came from outside the Dongnuan Pavilion, and the figure of Empress Zhou appeared at the door of the Dongnuan Pavilion, slowly stepping inside, staring at Fang Yuan with her eyes.

He was followed by the crown prince Zhu Cihong.

Fang Yuan could empathize with her anger, he thought that Fang Yuan was dead, and the biggest threat to the prince was gone, but at this time, Fang Yuan came back again, and he really felt the feeling of going from heaven to hell.

Chongzhen said lightly, "Why did the queen say this? ”

Empress Zhou said coldly, "What the Manchu envoy said is far from what the horse said, and the Manchu envoy said that Fang Yuan was defeated in Liaodong, and only led the remnants to flee back. Now he is lying about Le Shi Dongling, which is clearly to deceive His Majesty, and the crime is extremely evil. ”

The Manchu envoys also arrived?

Fang Yuan was slightly stunned, secretly speculating about what was wrong in the middle?

Chongzhen looked at Fang Yuan and Queen Zhou suspiciously, and couldn't tell which was right and which was wrong for a while, and who was lying.

Princess Kunxing was dedicated to protecting Fang Yuan, and muttered, "Queen Mother, the concubine is the royal family's own family, why would you rather trust a Manchu envoy than believe the words of the concubine?" ”

Queen Zhou yelled at her, "Shut up! A dignified princess who showed up before she passed the door. even hugged and hugged in public, the royal face was lost, and I didn't go back to Kunning Palace to face the wall and think about it! ”

Princess Kunxing has been favored by Queen Zhou since she was a child, and it is the first time that she has been scolded so harshly by Queen Zhou, Xiao Qiong's nose was slightly sour, and she rushed back to the harem with a whimper.

Fang Yuan silently looked at Kun Xing, who was scolded back to the harem, and was also angry, but now was not the time to collide with Empress Zhou, he sighed deeply and suppressed his anger, and asked, "Your Majesty, dare to ask the Manchu envoy what is the matter of this trip?" ”

Chongzhen coughed and said, "The peace talks are the peace talks envoy sent by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. ”

Fang Yuan lost his voice and said, "Peace talks? What peace talks? ”

Wang Chengen said, "Horse, Ningyuan City has been besieged for half a year, Wu Sangui has been trapped in the lonely city and has already run out of food, if there is no peace talks, I am afraid that Ningyuan City will be gone!" ”

Fang Yuan's mind exploded, and he lost his voice and said, "Your Majesty, the main forces of the Eight Banners of Huang Taiji and Dolgon have already been surrounded by Wei and rescued Zhao by the ministers, and they have been led to Liaodong. The siege of Ningyuan City was only the weak army of the Han and Mongolian Eight Banners, and Wu Sangui did not dare to go out of the city to fight in the field, it was simply a delay in the military aircraft, and he should be punished! ”

The crown prince Zhu Cihong obviously had a deep opinion of the other party's original prejudice, and said lightly, "Don Ma, what kind of siege Wei to save Zhao is just your words in order to clear the sin of the defeated army." Whether Ningyuan City is the elite of the Manchu Qing Dynasty or not, Wu Sangui should know better. ”

Fang Yuan was secretly frightened, the victory or defeat of the surprise attack on Liaodong was directly related to the conditions of the peace talks, if the entire Ming monarchs and ministers did not even know anything about the situation in Liaodong, and let the Manchu envoys come to fool, they would definitely suffer a big loss in the peace talks.

And for the sake of political struggle, Empress Zhou and the crown prince can even use military affairs as child's play, and use the words of the Manchu envoy as an arrow, which is unforgivable.

Fang Yuan asked in a deep voice, "Princess, what are the conditions for peace talks?" ”

Wang Chengen said truthfully, "The conditions put forward by the Manchu Qing Dynasty were that the two sides would take Ningyuan City as the boundary and open the Zhangjiakou Gong City of Xuanfu, and the Ming Dynasty would pay 1 million taels of silver and 2 million pieces of cloth every year. ”

Fang Yuan secretly sneered, Manqing is really a lion's mouth! Who proposed this condition? Huang Taiji, or Dolgon?

Zhu Cihong smiled proudly and said, "Father, after days of negotiations with his sons, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has agreed that the two sides will take the Daling River as the boundary, and the Ming Dynasty does not need to pay silver and cloth every year, but only needs to pay 200,000 taels of silver and 500,000 pieces of cloth at one time, and beheaded the envoy of the Korean State and completely severed diplomatic relations with the Korean State. The Manchus signed a peace treaty, withdrew their troops from Ningyuan City, and swore a bloody oath with the Ming Dynasty that they would not offend each other within three years. ”

Chongzhen listened to the prince Zhu Cihong's condition for replying was to be happy, if only 200,000 taels of silver and 500,000 pieces of cloth could relieve the siege of Ningyuan, and he could also buy the peace of the Ming Dynasty for three years, then he would be able to free up his energy to sweep away Li Zicheng's rebellion, which was really profitable.

As for the killing of the Korean envoys, Chongzhen hated these Korean envoys to the core, if they hadn't brought the news of Fang Yuan's life to the palace in time, Chongzhen would not have had a state funeral and lost face.

What's more, the Ming Dynasty now has no border with Korea on land, only sea contact, and the severance of diplomatic relations is just a process problem, which is naturally within the scope of Chongzhen's tolerance.

What's even more rare is that the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty were reluctant to come forward for peace talks, and when they took responsibility, the prince was willing to share Chongzhen's worries and took the initiative to take on the heavy responsibility of peace talks, which made him impressed.

Chongzhen laughed and said, "The prince has made a great contribution this time, good, good." ”

"Kill the envoy of the Korean state?"

Fang Yuan was shocked when he heard this, these tributary envoys of the Korean State came to Daming with the news that Fang Yuan was still alive on the orders of the King of Korea. These messengers had disappeared for so long, and had not brought the news at all, and now they had suddenly appeared.

There must be a conspiracy behind this strange diplomatic incident!