It rained lightly for two days in a row, the house was damp and cold, everyone talked and sat for a long time, and felt that the cold was pressing, Wang Sheng, Tian Jianxiu, and Cheng Wen all put their hands in their sleeves like farmers, looking a little funny, Wang Kefan ordered his soldiers to light the brazier, and everyone sat together, and soon felt warm.

"Wang Junmen, you are too saving, our Chu army is not short of this pot of charcoal, right? If you don't pay attention when you're young, if you get rheumatism, you'll suffer for the rest of your life. Tian Jianxiu fought in the north in his early years, and he had a lot of problems on his body, rubbing his old cold legs, and advising Wang Kefan with a smile.

"If you don't save it, you have to spend money everywhere, there are holes everywhere, Guilin stopped our food and salary, but for the sake of the safety of Jiangnan, we have to continue to launch the Northern Expedition, and every time we send troops, we have to throw in tens of thousands of taels of silver, not counting the pension of the fallen soldiers." Wang Kefan picked up the fire chopsticks and stirred the charcoal in the brazier, the red flames burned more vigorously, and the room was as warm as spring.

"Guilin? No matter how much money, food, soldiers and horses thrown in by the imperial court, they are no match for the Western Army, to be honest, I didn't expect them to survive until now. Tian Jianxiu was born in Li Chuang's peasant army, and he didn't have much good impression of the Ming Dynasty, and the loyal battalion returned to the Longwu Imperial Court, which was just an expedient measure in desperation, and when it came to the combat effectiveness of the imperial court's officers and soldiers, he was even more disdainful.

"In my opinion, Guilin may not be able to hold out for a long time, so the military gate should not take risks, and send Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong as soon as possible to rescue and escort His Majesty to Hangzhou." Although Wang Sheng is Wang Kefan's cousin, he always calls him a military gate on formal occasions, and after a little hesitation, he said again: "Your Majesty has suffered this time, and you should no longer be obsessed, if you persuade him with good words, it is best to return to Nanjing......

In the past few years, the grievances and grievances between Chu Xun and the Longwu court, Wang Sheng and other high-level officials of the Chu army have seen it, and over time, they have more or less some dissatisfaction in their hearts, they are disappointed in the Longwu court, and they are very disgusted with the conservative civil officials...... More importantly, Wang Sheng and other high-level leaders of the Chu army saw with their own eyes the thriving changes in Huguang, Jiangxi and other places day by day, and saw the Chu army defeat the powerful Qing army again and again, and they all believed that the development model of the Chu army and the Chu Xun group was the right direction, hoping to get rid of all kinds of shackles of the Longwu court and take great strides to continue to move forward.

He is a person who strives to be steady, for fear that Guilin will not be able to hold on, and the Western army will break through the city and take Emperor Longwu away, and the Longwu regime will be torn apart, so he advocates immediately letting Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong send troops to rush into the city of Guilin to rob Emperor Longwu and send them directly to Nanjing.

"Yes, this is a major matter related to the country, there is no room for the slightest mistake, the military gate should make a decision as soon as possible, don't let the junior in the court rob His Majesty." Tian Jianxiu resolutely supported Wang Sheng and reminded Wang Kefan to strike first and not to be sent to Ganzhou or Guangzhou by the Southern Party and the Imperial Party.

"The twisted melon is not sweet." Cheng Wen shook his head and said: "The two generals have been fighting abroad for many days, I don't know the details of Guilin, although the imperial court officials and soldiers are in Liuzhou, but His Majesty has urgently recruited tens of thousands of new soldiers, Du Yinxi and Su Guansheng also sent soldiers and horses to escort them, Guilin City is strong, and there is still a battle force, if Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong ask His Majesty to move to Hangzhou, it is inevitable that there will be a conflict with friendly troops, and the final result is very unpredictable, or should be held still, wait and see what happens. ”

In terms of his attitude towards the Longwu court, Cheng Wen is also a hawk, but he is a literati staff member, and he thinks about problems from different angles, and does not like to use force directly. Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong rushed directly into Guilin to rob Emperor Longwu, but they may not succeed, even if they succeed, it is an act of almost rebellion, no matter how they cover it up, it is difficult to get the support of the majority of the people and gentry.

Although the development speed of Chu Xun Group is very fast, but the talent reserve is still not enough, the influence in Liangguang, Fujian, Guizhou and other provinces is very small, the emperor was robbed to Nanjing, but he did not have such a big appetite to swallow the entire Longwu regime, although Chu Xun's development model is good, but the local control is insufficient, and the implementation of various principles and policies has changed the flavor in the end, and it is not the same as Wang Anshi's reform, it is best to end up with a failed result, and it also burned himself and injured Chu Xun's vitality.

In other words, Cheng Wen fought with the idea of "sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight", and did not want the Chu army to wade into this troubled water too early, if he could rescue Emperor Longwu at the last moment, of course, it would be the best, in case of smashing, it would not be a big deal if he was caught by the Western Army, and there was nothing else in the Ming Dynasty, the prince of the Zhu family had it, for example, Zhu Huaqi, the king of Tongshan, served as a middle-level officer in the Chu army, as long as he discussed it with Zheng Chenggong, Jin Shenghuan and others, it would be okay to set up another emperor at that time.

"I'll think about it again." Wang Kefan smiled and nodded, noncommittal to the opinions of a few of them: "Guilin is far away from thousands of mountains and rivers, we can't reach it here, no matter how anxious it is, I have authorized Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong, and ordered them to act when they have the opportunity, Tan Xiao is thick and fine, Zhou Guodong is reluctant, their two partners just complement each other, maybe they can give us a surprise......"

Guilin is three thousand miles away from Nanjing, with the traffic conditions of this era, the delay in information exchange is too long, if Wang Kefan is commanded by remote control, and when his order arrives in the army of Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong, the daylily will be cold.

It is conceivable that Guilin, three thousand miles away, may be in a fierce battle at the moment, although the recruits recruited by Emperor Longwu are not in battle, but they can help defend the city under the command of the officer, if there is no special means such as the Chu army, this kind of siege war will often develop into a stalemate war of attrition, which is very cruel to both the offensive and defensive sides, to see who can't hold on first, there is nothing lacking in Guilin City, and it should be able to hold out for a while.

No matter what you do, it is best to push the boat with the river, the lowest cost and the greatest benefit, Chu Xun is now on a big plate, and all aspects must be considered, although Wang Sheng and others are all hawks, but if they forcibly send troops to rob Emperor Longwu to Jiangnan, Wang Kefan still needs to communicate with Zhang Kuang and other bigwigs.

He diverted the topic and said: "A few days ago, we reported a group of Chu election officials to the Ministry of Officials, and finally called back more than 20 of them, all of whom were Qian Qianyi's disciples, and it seems that His Majesty hated him. Qian Qianyi's contribution this time is not small, these days have been at home at home, how to arrange, I want to sum it up with you. ”

Wang Kefan has reached a tacit agreement with the Longwu Imperial Court, and the officials will not interfere with the appointment of Chu Xuanguan under normal circumstances, but Qian Qianyi helped Wang Kefan in the last turmoil, and he himself had the experience of surrendering to the Manchu Dynasty.

"The ministry doesn't approve it?" Cheng Wen didn't know about this situation, and he was annoyed when he heard it: "I went back and personally reported to the officials, how did he call back, how can I report it, see who dares to refute my sparse text!" Hmph, the officials are really long-handed, and when they are too busy to take care of themselves, they dare to refute our Chu election officials, and they must not get used to his problem. ”

Tian Jianxiu said: "Qian Qianyi's guy is despised by the people of the world, and the military gate should be abandoned, otherwise it will be a loss to the reputation ......of our Chu army."

Wang Sheng waved his hand and interrupted him disapprerovingly: "Hey——, let's act right, sit upright, do we still need to please those corrupt scholars?" No matter what Qian Qianyi has done before, it has nothing to do with our Chu army, General Tian should not be Mr. Morality, and those who have the ability should be used. If you want to say that Qian Qianyi had been reduced to the Qing Dynasty before, then tens of millions of people in Jiangnan lived under the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty for three years, should they all be killed and locked up? ”

"Qian Qianyi's character is at a loss, but he is indeed a leader of Shilin, a contemporary Confucian, and he is old in the officialdom, he can be called an old horse, he really has the ability to be an official, and there are few people in Chu Xun who are better than him." Cheng Wen groaned: "This person, should be used or used, either send it to the court as Mr. Ji'an's arm, or stay in Jiangnan to be a student and politician, one release and one receiving, each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and please ask the military to decide." ”

Qian Qianyi is an old bureaucrat, the best at engaging in political struggles, although there are stains on his body, it is also convenient for Chu Xun's group to control him, and send him to the Longwu court, as long as he is strongly pushed by Chu Xun, it is likely that he will be arranged as a united front object to arrange a higher position, which can further enhance Chu Xun's control over the Longwu court...... Staying in Jiangnan to do academic politics is a more conservative choice, the position of academic politics is respected, but the real power is not large, let Qian Qianyi manage the provincial academic politics, and he is not wronged. Of course, those angry young scholars are likely to scold this and scold a provincial scholar for being an example of Shilin, how can a traitor be allowed to be a traitor, but a few buzzing flies don't need to be ignored.

The high-level leaders of the Chu army have followed Wang Kefan for a long time, and under the influence of their ears and eyes, they have all become pragmatists, Qian Qianyi is useful to the Chu army, so he must use it, and other messes are not considered at all.

"Let's stay in Jiangnan, Xuezheng ...... Well, let's get involved in politics. Wang Kefan thought about it for a while and said: "Qian Qianyi can be used, but it can't be used, the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility, when people reach a certain position, some things can't be done, ordinary people can endure humiliation and live, Qian Qianyi, as a member of the imperial court and a leader of Shilin, should not have been reduced to ...... There are some bottom lines that still have to be kept. ”

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Wang Jingwei defected to the enemy, one of the big factors was because he firmly believed that China would be defeated, Japan would win, and it was better to "save the country by curve" than to burn the jade in the end, and after surrendering to the Japanese, he also tried to safeguard China's interests in some aspects, but in general, Wang Jingwei's surrender dealt a heavy blow to the anti-Japanese resistance at that time, and the Kuomintang * Kuomintang * Party was split, and the people's confidence was severely frustrated, which led a large number of Chinese troops to surrender and become a puppet army.

The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility, this sentence is not as easy as just talking, politicians squeeze their heads to climb up, but also have to bear the corresponding responsibility, otherwise they will be nailed to the pillar of shame in history......

Before I knew it, it was getting late, and the soldiers brought food, and several people gathered around the brazier, chatting while eating.

This is a typical Wang Kefan style, among their own people do not pay attention to rules and pomp, everyone holds a rice bowl to eat, no different from ordinary soldiers, but the content of the rice bowl is very rich, stewed rotten braised pork, with oily soup poured on the white rice, plus a few pieces of greens, a fried egg, everyone eats very sweet...... The senior officers of the Chu army were all under tremendous pressure, and they were all working very hard, so Wang Kefan had already given clear instructions that there should be no unanimity between officers and soldiers on the issue of food, and that senior officers could open small stoves and eat as well as possible to ensure their health.

"Well, it's delicious, it's still the braised pork in our hometown, and the food in Suzhou and Hangzhou is exquisite enough, but I'm not used to eating it." Wang Sheng finished eating first, put the rice bowl down, took out a sweat towel to wipe the grease on his mouth, and looked satisfied.

"Hehe, the Jiangnan cuisine is lighter, not as enjoyable as our braised pork in Hunan, but if you eat more, you will find the wonderful taste." Wang Kefan said with a smile: "Let's go to Shanghai together, the dishes there are also unique and worth tasting." ”

Tian Jianxiu interjected and asked, "How is Shanghai being built?" The momentum was so loud that when I came back from Jiangbei, I saw ten people, and at least eight of them would mention Shanghai. ”

Cheng Wen replied with a smile: "It's a little slower than we expected, but in the eyes of outsiders, it's already a great miracle, and in just three or four months, a city has been built by the sea......"

Jiangnan is rich in the world, and the labor cost is relatively expensive, although Chu Xun has tried all kinds of methods, the construction progress of Shanghai is still a beat slower than the scheduled plan. In order to solve the labor problem, the Chu army not only recruited people in Jiangnan and drew labor, but also recruited fleeing Jiangbei people through the Northern Expedition and sent them to Shanghai to settle.

Wang Sheng was a little surprised and asked, "No one is working?" What about the captives of the Battle of Ningzhen? Aren't there still earth monkeys in Hong Kong? ”

Wang Kefan replied: "Hong Kong has spread out, and there is also a shortage of people, some of the prisoners of war in the battle of Ningzhen were sent to open mines, and some were sent to Nanchang, and Shanghai only received a few thousand prisoners, which is still not enough." ”

Ma'anshan iron ore is the welfare of the traverser, after the basic assessment of the Jiangnan shape, Wang Kefan immediately arranged for professionals such as geographers to go to Ma'anshan to prospect for ore, a palm-sized Ma'anshan, they quickly found a copper-iron symbiosis mine, the proven reserves are unusually rich, enough for several years of mining, the prisoners of the battle of Ningzhen were transferred more than 10,000 people nearby, and they went to Ma'anshan to open the mountain for mining first.

"The captives are all coolies, and they can be treated more preferentially in the future." Wang Kefan instructed Cheng Wen: "No matter what these guys have done before, they are now working for us, give us an extra bite of a meal, drink some boiling water usually, let us take a bath or something, they can live for us for two more years to work and atone for their sins." ”R1152