In the next few days, Zhu Youzhen had a very leisurely life.

Because the enemy army was far away in Guangning, hundreds of miles away from Shanhaiguan, and there had been no change in the near future, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Sun Chengzong, Wang Zaijin and others, in addition to inspecting the city defense every day, were still arguing endlessly about the strategy of leveling Liao.

And Zhu Youzhen didn't count what he said anyway, so he was happy to be an idler. In addition to eating and sleeping every day, he is also at ease with Qi Meifeng, Bao Yulian and Ekaterina and others to visit the famous places near Shanhaiguan.

Catherine was so brilliant that she learned some everyday Chinese in a few days and was able to communicate with everyone in a simple way. Although it is still a strange tone, such as saying "His Royal Highness" as "electric blindness", it often causes Zhu Youzhen to laugh; But Qi Meifeng and Bao Yulian always stood aside with her, and ridiculed Zhu Youzhen for not being able to learn a word of Russian except for "Hala Shao".

In fact, being idle is also idle, Zhu Youzhen really wants to learn two sentences of Russian with Catherina. He still thinks that if he dies in the future, the so-called art is not pressing, and if he knows more foreign languages, he will have one more way and one more chance of survival.

It's a pity that this is not a material for learning, and I have not been able to learn English for so many years, let alone speak Russian. In particular, there are also big tongue sounds in Russian, which are syllables that require the tongue to flutter to be produced. Zhu You practiced for a day, and his mouth was almost tired and cramped, and his tongue couldn't tremble, so he had to give up helplessly.

Seven or eight days passed without doing anything, and it was already early spring February. The earth, which has been dormant for a winter, is still covered in snow and ice, but there are already some signs of recovery. In sunny places, the snow has begun to melt, making the already rough and bumpy roads even more muddy.

Due to the difficulty of the road and the difficulty of transporting grain and grass, the life of the defenders of Shanhaiguan became more and more difficult. Originally, there was not a lot of grain stored in Guanzhong, and Wang Zaijin successively collected the defeated troops in Liaodong, which had reached 50,000 or 60,000 people, and the military food was barely enough to eat until March.

However, as soon as Sun Chengzong's brigade arrived, the daily consumption of grain immediately doubled. Because Sun Chengzong was in a hurry to lead his troops to Shanhaiguan at that time, all the people and horses only received half a month's grain and grass from Tongzhou, which had been exhausted these days.

Seeing that the grain depot was about to bottom, Sun Chengzong and Wang Zaijin were anxious, and successively appealed to the Jingshi, asking for an urgent allocation of at least 100,000 stone of grain.

However, several letters were sent out in succession, but the court did not move at all. Even Guan Ning, the prison soldier in Jizhou, seemed to be missing and ignored the defenders of Shanhaiguan. Sun and Wang looked anxiously to the west at the head of the city every day, hoping that in the next second, they could see a convoy escorting a large amount of grain and grass. But for several days, there was not even a ghost on the road!

In desperation, Sun Chengzong and Wang Zaijin decided to temporarily reduce the rations of the soldiers from three meals a day to two meals a day, and the rations for each meal were also reduced by half. Because they were afraid that the soldiers would be emotional, the two started by themselves, not only changed to two meals a day, but also exempted the dishes.

Only the king of letters, Zhu Youzhen, because he represents the Son of Heaven, of course he can't go hungry. Therefore, it is still a high standard of hospitality, with more than ten dishes per meal, and complete meat and vegetarian dishes. Zhu Youzhen's personal entourage also enjoyed the treatment of not reducing meals. And Zhu Youzhen was also kept in the dark, and he has eaten a little fat these days.

Although the generals of the Ming army were very reluctant, they had to follow the order when they saw that the superintendent and the manager took the lead in reducing the meal. Of course, there are also those who are bold, Mingli has two meals a day, and after nightfall, he secretly opens a small stove, gets together with close officers, drinks wine and eats meat, and scolds Sun Chengzong for not knowing how to be sympathetic.

But these generals still have a small stove to open, and there is really no way to be a soldier. As the saying goes, people are iron, rice is steel, and if you don't eat a meal, you will be hungry. After the meal reduction order, whether it was the border army originally stationed in Liaodong or the guest army who came from afar, they all complained bitterly and complained.

Outside the grain depot in Shanhaiguan, there have been several brawls in the past few days.

It turned out that the officer in charge of the grain depot had to deal with the officers who came to receive the grain from the battalions every day, and his mouth was dry, he was dizzy and tired, and his attitude became very bad. They often rely on the little power in their hands to make things difficult for those who receive food, and even deliberately distribute less food.

And those officers who received the grain were even more resentful, because the soldiers did not dare to scold the superintendent Sun Chengzong, nor did they dare to scold the king of Jinglu in Jin, let alone the chief general directly under the central government, so they were angry with them all day long. If anyone is at the back of the queue and receives the food a little late, he will be scolded by the whole camp after returning to the camp.

As a result, sometimes there is a dispute between the recipients over the order of the queue, and then a big fight ensues; Sometimes, the recipient of the grain could not stand the white eyes and reproaches of the person who sent the grain, and suddenly lost control of his emotions and beat the person who sent the grain violently. Every time there was a fight, there was a great chaos outside the grain depot, and there was even a time when an officer wanted to rush into the grain depot with a soldier who was pulling grain, and snatch the rations out first.

Sun Chengzong and Wang Zaijin were disturbed by these things and repeatedly served as firefighting captains. For officers and non-commissioned officers who violate military discipline and gather crowds to fight, they should be beheaded for public display. However, the two weighed again and again, and felt that it was all caused by the lack of food in the army, and if they were punished severely, they were afraid of arousing greater dissatisfaction among the soldiers. Therefore, he had to be punished slightly, and the officer who took the lead in making trouble was punished with a cane.

After another two or three days, Jingshi finally came. But it was not the grain team that came, but the eunuch who delivered the message. And there was not just one decree, but three in one day.

It turned out that these eunuchs who delivered the decree were also delayed by the muddy road. It was only a few hundred miles from Jingshi to Shanhaiguan, but it was several days longer than usual.

The first purpose is to reward the meritorious soldiers in the great victory of Zunhua.

This holy decree really counted the first merit on the head of Zhu Youzhen, the king of letters, and rewarded him with 100,000 taels of silver, 5,000 taels of gold, and gave him ten royal horses, and a pair of golden helmets and armor.

This result is also expected by everyone, who made Zhu Youzhen his younger brother Banzai. And they did kill and wound many enemy leaders with their own hands, regardless of whether it was blinded or handed over shit luck, no one can erase this record. Although the gold and silver rewarded far exceeded the normal level, it was the emperor's own private money, and people could spend it as they wanted, and they wanted to give their brothers a little more, and the fertilizer and water did not flow into the fields of outsiders, which was reasonable.

And the next "hero" surprised everyone: it was actually Guan Ning, the prison guard, and Tu Zhong, the eunuch of Jizhou Town! The will said that the two "supervised the army meritorious, the command is determined", and the reward is also extremely rich, in addition to each reward 10,000 taels of silver, 500 taels of gold, but also give three East Pearls, and the first house in Beijing!

After listening to Sun Chengzong's relay, Man Guigang immediately jumped up and scolded: "Who the hell is this will? Lao Tzu fought desperately in front of the battle, these two eggless things shrank behind to enjoy Qingfu, and in the end, the credit was theirs? Especially that Tu Zhong, he obviously didn't save him when he saw death, how did he become a 'commander'? Master Inspector, didn't you go up to impeach Tu Zhong? Are the people in the cabinet blind? ”

Sun Chengzong also said with a bitter face: "General Man, this is the end of what you say, don't go outside and talk nonsense!" It seems that the court did not investigate the fact that you killed the city gate officials without permission, which is already good! ”

However, immediately after the second decree came, that is, to reprimand Man Gui for his arrogance and lawlessness, to kill the officials of the court without asking for the order, and to accuse Sun Chengzong of rewarding Man Gui improperly! Although Sun Chengzong was not punished at all, he demoted Man Gui to a general!

Only then did Man Gui know that he was just a martial artist, and compared to the power of the imperial court, he was really insignificant! He was as disheartened as a frosty eggplant, and he couldn't scold anymore. When the generals of Liaodong saw that he was unlucky, they all rejoiced in their hearts, and secretly said: "You deserve it!" Who made you so arrogant! ”

Sun Chengzong had no choice but to comfort Man Gui and said: "General Man, it is normal to float and sink in the sea, don't worry too much." As long as you make more meritorious contributions, this superintendent will still protect you as the chief soldier. If it is rejected again, the old man, the overseer, will not do it! ”

The third decree that came at the latest, was to transfer the king to the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, and set off immediately on the day of the purpose; The position of Liaodong Economic Strategy is concurrently held by the superintendent Sun Chengzong!

It turned out that in order to stick to the plan of building a city in Ningyuan, Sun Chengzong finally adopted Yuan Chonghuan's suggestion, secretly played the imperial court, and asked to remove Wang Zaijin!

And although Wei Zhongxian hated Sun Chengzong for being a member of the Donglin Party, he didn't dare to mess around too much about such a major event as a war, and he still hoped that Sun Chengzong could pacify Liaodong, so that he could continue to control the dynasty and be his nine thousand years old.

Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, Wei Zhongxian finally instructed the cabinet to draft a decree to transfer Wang Zaijin, who disagreed with Sun Chengzong, away.

After the king received the decree in Jin, he hated Sun Chengzong greatly. Although he is not a member of the Donglin Party, he usually admires Sun Chengzong's style, and the personal relationship between the two is not bad.

And this time for the war in Liaodong, the two tore their faces, and their friendship for many years was completely terminated.

The next day, when the day was unknown, Wang Zaijin resolutely refused the farewell of Sun Chengzong and others, and embarked on a journey to Nanjing alone.

It turned out that after the Ming Dynasty moved its capital from Jinling to Beiping when it became its ancestor, it still retained a bureaucratic system in Nanjing, and the six ministries were all available, but they all had posts but no powers.

Wang Zaijin understood in his heart that although this Nanjing Military Department Shangshu was a second-class officer, it was actually an errand for the elderly. I am over 60 years old, and it seems that my career is about to come to an end.

At this time, God was funny, and there were snowflakes again. Looking at the snow-capped mountains in front of him, Wang Zaijin touched the scene and was full of emotion, and couldn't help but recite the famous sentence of the Tang Dynasty poet Han Yu on the horse:

"A morning plays nine heavens, and the sunset falls to eight thousand sunshine roads.

If you want to eliminate the evils for Shengming, you are willing to decay and cherish the last years!

Where is Yunheng Qinling's home? The snow hugs the blue pass..."

As soon as he reached this place, he suddenly heard the bell hanging on the horse behind him, and a slightly immature voice came from afar: "Lord Wang, wait a minute!" This king will send you one! ”

Wang Zaijin looked back in amazement, and saw Zhu Youjian coming with a horse in the wind and snow!

At this moment, this old minister, who has experienced the emperors of three dynasties and the ups and downs of the Huan Sea, couldn't help but burst into tears!