Zhu Qiming instructed Tang Ji, Jiang Yi, and Zhao Gang to be responsible for receiving grain and grass, and he himself called Shang Huaiying and hurriedly returned to the camp.

Ascending the low hill and entering the barracks, I saw two guards lighting charcoal fires and bowing back.

took off his cloak and threw it on the couch, Zhu Qiming sat down in front of the charcoal basin, "Father-in-law Shang, please take a seat." ”

Shang Huaiying was also polite, but after taking a seat, he didn't dare to get too close to the brazier, and most of his buttocks hung outside the stool, so he could only be regarded as half-sitting.

Looking at the charcoal fire, Zhu Qiming's eyes flashed with reflections, "Has the emperor asked the identity of the tartar?" ”

The quality of the charcoal burned by the soldiers themselves was too inferior, and a thick smoke suddenly rose from the basin, drifting downwind to Shang Huaiying, who was located downwind, Shang Huaiying was suddenly choked and coughed a few times, and after the smoke faded slightly, Shang Huaiying's eyes were wet.

"Ahem! Your Royal Highness, after the court discussion, the emperor summoned the Sprinkle family again, and the emperor asked about the identity of the Tartar thieves, and the Sprinkle family said that they were the light cavalry under the Arazhiyuan. cough cough cough ······"

There was a snort in the brazier, and a bunch of flames burst out, and as the charcoal fire burned more and more, the smoke finally dissipated completely. Shang Huaiying took out a towel and quickly wiped the corners of her eyes, and then quickly put the towel into her sleeve. "The emperor also asked if there was any trace of the heavy cavalry first."

"Heavy cavalry." Zhu Qiming muttered to himself, and then stood up, "How good it would be if the heavy snow came a month late!" Now that the snow is covering the mountains, I am afraid that the Tartar thieves will have to wait until next year's snowmelt season. Oh, when is the war scheduled for the Luchuan side? ”

Shang Huaiying stood up solemnly, "I heard that the emperor had ordered a war to start in the first month, but after hearing the good news of His Highness, he pressed the battle in the south, as if he had forgotten it. ”

Zhu Qiming walked to the window and looked out of the window, "New Year, New Year?" After the ten-day holiday, it was the end of the first month. Alas, I hope that next year's early spring will be a warm spring! ”

"Listening to the meaning of His Highness's words, could it be that the emperor is waiting for His Highness to defeat the cavalry first? But who knows if and when they will be in prison? ”

Zhu Qiming turned around and returned to the brazier to take a seat, smiled at Shang Huaiying, and only replied to him halfway: "The comfortable life of Wara has been too long, the population is too prosperous, and the food and clothing are not enough, and it is not easy to survive until the snowmelt next year." Most of the Tartar thieves will choose to enter the snowmelt season, which is early, and the sky is endless; It's late, they can't afford to wait! ”

Shang Huaiying seemed to have an understanding, "Oh, Your Highness, Lord Wang Ji, who is in the Ministry of War, specially asked the Sprinkle family to give a message to His Highness, he said, according to the side newspaper, most of the people should be stationed in the north of the Xuanfu after winter, please take precautions." ”

Zhu Qiming's eyes lit up, "Okay!" Lord Wang is really a person with a heart! When the Tartars enter the palace after the beginning of spring next year, the king will be able to test the reaction in all aspects by defeating the most elite hoplites of Warat. ”

Shang Huaiying pondered for a moment, and then shook his head, "Your Highness, is the war here related to the conquest on the Luchuan side?" ”

Zhu Qiming's face sank, and his gaze turned gloomy. "Once the war on the Luchuan side starts, it will be protracted, and then the Ming Dynasty can only show goodwill to Wara to stabilize Wara. However, Warat is my Ming's henchman! ”

Shang Huaiying shook his head again, "The Sprinkle family still doesn't quite understand. That's it, when he went out with the first emperor, the Sprinkle family was just favored by the first emperor with his riding and archery skills, how could he think so much! ”

Zhu Qiming smiled, "There is also a hidden dragon and crouching tiger in the inner court!" Father-in-law Shang is a caring person, and as an internal official, it is naturally difficult to be confused many times. ”

Shang Huaiying laughed again and again, and when she looked at Zhu Qiming again, Shang Huaiying's gaze became more kind.

"Your Highness, something is wrong!" Wang Lie suddenly ran in in a panic, panting and said: "Your Highness, Father-in-law Shang, the guards who unloaded the car coaxed the pork, and someone from the escort came forward to stop it, and the two sides were about to fight!" ”

Zhu Qiming frowned slightly, then got up calmly, and looked at Shang Huaiying when he went out.

Descending the simple stone steps, Zhu Qiming looked from afar, and saw that there were two teams of people nervously confronting each other in front of the dining room, one team was the pro-guard army, and the other team was the escort army, each with nearly 100 people, and the two sides quarreled into a pot of porridge.

Next to a carriage pulling pork, a person was shouting loudly, and Zhu Qiming remembered that he was Gao Qian, a hundred households of the pro-guard army. "How many times have you said that the dog is nosy with the mouse, and if you don't get out of the way, I'm welcome!" The words are very impulsive, and the mouth is still clean.

In front of the carriage stood a strong man, standing upright like a stump of wood, stopping the carriage without saying a word. Zhu Qiming, who was flying fast, pondered for a while, and finally remembered that this strong man's name was Fu Yuan, and he was a member of the Guards, because he spoke little, he usually didn't say anything, and his name was very ordinary, so Zhu Qiming always had to think for a while to understand what his name was.

Encountering this incident, Zhu Qiming couldn't make the mistake of coming out first, and Shang Huaiying, who was beside him, opened his mouth, and saw that four people took the lead in walking into the crowd from the other side. The four of them must have come out of the barracks on the other side of the canyon, including Tang Ji, Jiang Yi, and Zhao Gang, and one person must be the officer in charge of escorting grain and grass on the Baoan Prefecture side, who was about fifty years old, with a mediocre appearance, and should be dressed as a thousand households.

"What a noise! As soon as I talked to Luo Qianhu, you guys turned the sky upside down! Zhao Gang put his hands behind his back, looked at Gao Qian coldly, and glanced at Fu Yuan lightly.

After leaving for the north, Zhu Qiming quietly asked Jiang Yi, and finally knew the reason why Jiang Yi was set aside, it turned out that the pro-guard army was all people from Yulin Left Guard, belonging to Zhao Gang's subordinates, and only Jiang Yi was from Yulin Right Guard. According to the theory, Jiang Yi and Zhao Gang are one of the chief officials and the other is the deputy, and it is self-evident who speaks and counts, but it is a pity that Jiang Yi is not good at controlling the crowd, especially when getting along with a group of subordinates who are united with him and are close to him, he is short in speech, wide in heart, and looks like he goes with the flow, and he unconsciously becomes a loner. In this regard, Zhu Qiming can't help much, the background of the pro-guard army is a little complicated, whether Zhao Gang secretly obeyed someone's secret order, this matter is doubtful, this is not something that a prince can rashly mix.

Zhu Qiming and Shang Huaiying came to the crowd, stopped and watched, and were not in a hurry to enter.

"They robbed the pork!" One of the guards said indignantly.

In this wild place, being able to taste meat is the most luxurious enjoyment, and now more than a thousand people who don't stare at these ten carts of pork and mutton with their eyes wide open? Who wants others to eat more and take more? At present, Gao Qian led the crowd to take the pork privately by unloading, so didn't the eyes of the onlookers turn red? Fortunately, this incident did not alarm the more than 1,000 people on the other side of the training ground, otherwise, I am afraid that Gao Qian would have already become a meat pie.

Zhao Gang glanced at Jiang Yi with a smile on his face. Now he has more respect for the latter, which makes Zhu Qiming feel a little relieved.

Jiang Yi nodded at Zhao Gang, and Zhao Gang immediately turned to Gao Qian and said, "Bastard thing!" If the pork is not in the dining room, you are all hungry wolves and want to eat it raw! ”

Zhao Gang obviously wanted to make a big thing small, and only reprimanded Gao Qian for being greedy, but did not mention the matter of military discipline.

"They want to barbecue meat, and they have already moved twenty slices of pork without permission!" One of the guards said with a mouthful.

Privately? This word was a little harsh, and I saw that Zhao Gang was unhappy, and when he raised his eyes to look at Tang Ji, he grinned and smiled very reluctantly.

Tang Ji shouted at the guards who had just spoken: "Shut up! Turned to stare at Fu Yuan and sighed, "Alas, your stubbornness has been committed again, you always commit stubbornness in front of Ben Qianhu on weekdays, Ben Qianhu has never blamed you, look at you who are used to it!" ”

Suddenly, the sound of chaotic footsteps sounded, and more than 1,000 people on the other side of the training ground somehow got the news, and all the hulala ran over, and in an instant the open space in front of the dining room was crowded, and many people stood on the hillside.

"Who's stealing pork? Who! ”

"If you don't return the stolen pork, the brothers will cut the meat from him!"

The Guards and Guards immediately formed a united front to denounce the hateful meat thief in their minds. In the sound of condemnation, I saw fear in Gao Qian's eyes.

In that era of material shortage, in a wild place, eating meat was a big thing, and if you didn't get it right at the moment, there would be a big mess. Therefore, Zhu Qiming hurriedly touched Shang Huaiying's arm, and the two squeezed into the crowd together.

"Gao Qian, within a moment, quickly return the pork with your people, otherwise, twenty rods!" Shang Huaiying said sharply, and then instructed Zhao Gang: "Deputy Zhao Qianhu went to supervise." ”

The eunuch system of the Ming Dynasty was an extension of the system of checks and balances between internal and external officials in the army, and the eunuch of the supervising army was the eyes and ears of the Son of Heaven, ensuring the absolute loyalty of the army to the Son of Heaven, so the right to speak was extremely heavy. When Zhao Gang saw that Shang Huaiying had spoken, he didn't dare to slack off, so he immediately called a few pro-guards and went to the barracks of Gao Qian and others to check first.

Gao Qian hesitated for a moment when he heard this, as if he was weighing whether a twenty-for-twenty meal of barbecue was worth it, and finally seemed to understand that in the face of strict military discipline, this calculation was really redundant, and immediately blushed and greeted his subordinates quite unwillingly.

The Qianhu surnamed Luo came to Zhu Qiming's front and saluted, "The security guard Qianhu Luo Jun sees His Royal Highness the King of Yue." ”

Zhu Qiming smiled and bowed, "There are thousands of households." ”

Luo Jun turned to Shang Huaiying to give a salute, "I have seen Lord Prison Army. ”

Shang Huaiying bowed slightly, and then said with a smile: "His Royal Highness the King of Yue is busy with military affairs, why don't you accompany Luo Qianhu to rest with tea?" ”

"How dare you, how dare you!" Luo Jun turned to Tang Ji and said, "Go to Tang Qianhu's barracks and wait, and resign when the unloading is completed." ”

Tang Ji accompanied Luo Jun to leave. More than a thousand soldiers didn't care about the scene at all, but turned their heads to look at the improvised stone steps, needless to say, they must have been waiting for the return of half a cart of pork.

During the war years, it was easy to be arrogant and fierce, no, only two small battles were fought, and a group of people had a little arrogance, Zhu Qiming couldn't help but shake his head when he saw this, thinking that everyone was getting carried away about such a big thing as eating meat, so he didn't take it to heart.

Gao Qian quickly led the crowd to carry the pork to the dining room, and Zhao Gang came to reply and raised the tone extremely high: "Your Highness, Lord Supervisor, the humble position has been counted, and there are twenty pieces of pork, and nothing is missing." ”

Over there, Gao Qian left his subordinates and returned to the open field rather embarrassed. Shang Huaiying glanced at the audience, and his eyes fell on Gao Qian's face, "Gao Qian, His Royal Highness the King of Yue loves soldiers and can't bear to punish you, but this prison army can't spare you!" The first offender will be treated, and the followers will not be prosecuted, and you will be punished for kneeling on the snow for an hour, which is considered a small punishment and a big commandment! ”

Gao Qian's face over there was a bitter look. I didn't eat the meat, but I had to be frozen for an hour, who to reason with!

Zhao Gang was stunned here, and his eyes immediately swept towards Fu Yuan, as if there was a hint of blame.

"Father-in-law Shang, Nian Gaoqian is a first offense, it is better to be exempted from punishment and not to be an example." Zhu Qiming said.

Shang Huaiying groaned slightly, looking very embarrassed, "That's it, since His Royal Highness has opened Chrysostom, then this prison army will spare you once!" Then he looked around at everyone, "This is just one case, if anyone dares to commit any more crimes in the future, they will be severely punished!" ”

Gao Qian hurriedly ran to Zhu Qiming's side, clasped his fists and half-knelt to salute, "Thank you, Your Highness!" ”

Zhu Qiming shook his head, "Eh, you can't bear this kind of gratitude, if you encounter such a thing in the future, it will all depend on the merchant supervision army, and I am afraid that the king's words will be difficult to count at that time." ”

Gao Qian turned to Shang Huaiying to thank him: "Thank you, Lord Supervisor!" ”