Zhang Ru sat down with a dark face and stared at the young man's face for a while: "You know me?" ”

The young man subconsciously reached out to touch the beard on his chin, and when he did it, he found that his freedom was imprisoned, and he smiled and said: "Lord Zhang is a noble person, and he doesn't remember the villain, but the villain remembers Lord Zhang." Back then, he was beaten for thousands of days, and Lord Zhang's majestic style made the villain envious! ”

After being reminded by the young man, a figure came into Zhang Ru's mind.

is also white, but the young man in white in Zhang Ru's impression is full of righteous indignation, and he is not as tranquil as the person in front of him.

"Your name is Wang Shangbin, you were born in a family of merchants, you have a reputation for raising people, and you have never been admitted to the Jinshi for the time being." Zhang Ru said word by word.

He really didn't expect that the person he met in a small inn would now sit opposite him as a hostile. And the young man in front of him didn't have the childishness of the year on his face at all, but a little more meaningful.

Wang Shangbin, who is known as Lu Fei, smiled: "Thanks to the commander's affordability, he still remembers the little person Wang." ”

Zhang Ru also smiled: "In the heyday of ten thousand families, those who dare to scold ten thousand heavens angrily, I naturally have to check it carefully." I'm very curious, why did you, a scholar who is still arrogant, come to Yansui to be a cangda official in a bitter cold place? ”

He naturally didn't think that Wang Shangbin couldn't get along and ran to Yansui Town to be a cang, and the other party must have his purpose when he came here.

"It's a long story."

"Long story short."

"Say it, is the commander willing to let it go?"

"It depends on how much weight you say, and you, in the hearts of those behind you, have a lot of weight."

"No, you can say hello to the governor on behalf of the Duke of Baoguo."

"How much of the business here does the Baoguo Gong account for?"

Wang Shangbin stretched out seven fingers: "Yansui's side, seventy percent, nine sides total, thirty percent." ”

"Baoguo Gong is so perverse, Brother Wang is willing to serve the tiger?" Zhang Ru raised his eyebrows and asked.

Wang Shangbin arched his hand: "The commander still calls me Lu Fei!" came to Yansui, and Lu had long forgotten his real name. ”

He said this with his own considerations, if the matter was revealed, the court would investigate it afterwards, and with Zhu Yong's merits and power, he might not be punished from above. And he, as the real handler, will inevitably become a puppet who is pushed to the forefront. Not wanting to involve his family, he could only forget his original name.

Zhang Ru said: "Then Brother Lu, are you really willing to fight for the tiger?" ”

Lu Fei said with a smile: "What is perverse, what is it called to act for the tiger?" How long has the Governor been in Yansui, and how long has he been inspecting the Nine Sides, how does the Governor know that the border army has really been eroded? The governor has lived in the capital for a long time, and he doesn't know how ugly the civil officials in the capital are, not to mention anything else, just say that the officials of the household department, the silver money deducted from the military salary every year is enough for a small official to buy a mansion that only a third-grade official can afford. After peeling back the layers of baggage, how much military salary can be left? One stone of military rations, when it is not a war, only two taels are in the hands of the soldiers. ”

Zhang Ru said coldly: "This kind of embarrassment is not exactly the result of a silverfish like Brother Lu. ”

Lu Fei clapped his hands and said: "What Lu did today may make Lu infamous for a lifetime, but Lu does not regret it." Lu was a literati who was born in a family of merchants, but he liked fame but took such verses right away. There are not many wars on the nine sides of the Ming Dynasty, small wars are continuous, and those veterans who have survived a hundred battles don't even have a place to go, and the monthly pension and silver have finally become the pockets of those cool officials. What Lu did was just to protect some more old soldiers and not let the border army chill.

I don't deny that there are a lot of scum in the border army, but at least Baoguo Gong is not, and neither am I.

We have only one purpose, from the silver from the imperial court, there can be less people who are touched, those soldiers who fought for the country, and fewer people who died of cold and starvation, even if the flood is monstrous after Lu's death, what does it have to do with me! ”

"Da Ming is not your Da Ming." Zhang Ru glared.

Lu Fei was not afraid: "The world is the world of the people of the world." ”

Zhang Ruyan stopped: "Zha Jingguan, Ben General does not have that authority." ”

Talking about a stick of incense, this is the first time he has brought the word "general" in the process of talking, before, he has been talking to Wang Shangbin under the pseudonym Lu Fei as a friend.

Lu Fei smiled miserably: "I don't know, but the commander has the royal flag in his hand, and he can check the generals of the border army." ”

Zhang Ru sighed: "I don't have much time, I have to go back to Beijing before August, and now it's mid-April, and I will have to complete the nine sides in three months." Not to mention other places, among the tens of thousands of soldiers in Yansui alone, a few loyal and traitorous people can't find out at all with the less than 1,000 brocade guards in the hands of the generals. ”

Lu Fei took out a rolled white paper from his sleeve: "No, there is a list here, but I can share the worries of the commander." The Governor may not be able to completely eradicate the stubborn disease, but with this list, he can at least make an example of the monkey. ”

When I opened the paper scroll, I found that it was a string of human lives, including the official positions of these people, their current locations, and the composition of the properties and families they had purchased within the boundaries of Yansui Town. The content is very detailed, comparable to the dossier carefully concocted by the brocade guards.

Zhang Ru couldn't help but glance at Lu Feigao: "I always thought that Brother Lu was just a scholar, but I didn't expect Brother Lu to be a master of spying." ”

Lu Fei said with a smile: "I have been away from Beijing for a few years, but I have been rooted in Yansui, if I can't get this little thing, where can Lord Baoguo rest assured that I will be placed here." ”

Zhang Ru smiled when he heard this, and raised the paper scroll in his hand: "What does this mean?" ”

Lu Fei said lightly: "The commander can take this as a meeting gift for the Duke of Baoguo, or as a reward for me, a scholar who wants to repay the spring for the grace of dripping water." Of course, what Lu hopes most is that the governor will use this list as a gift for the Duke of Baoguo. ”

"You're dead set on protecting the country." Zhang Ru said: "What benefits has Baoguo Gong given you, you are willing to help him carry this kind of head-off thing." ”

"Not everything needs benefits to be done, just like when I knew a scholar named Liu Peng in Changsha Mansion, he finally died in the border town of Datong, and he couldn't even get the simplest pension, and he also had no complaints. He took it with his hand with a pen, fought to the death, and left a name on a broken stone tablet, and he didn't feel that it was not worth it. Lu Fei pondered for a moment and said.

Zhang Ru stood up suddenly: "Do you know Liu Peng?" ”

The scholar who died in the battle of Laohukou, but could not get a pension because he was not a border army of the Ming Dynasty, and no longer had any relatives in his family, his name is now engraved on the stone tablet outside the city of Laohukou. Engraved on the stele along with his name were 13,714 dead in the battle of the Datong Left Guard and the defenders of Laohukou.

This stele was carved by the local people, and the imperial court only promised to set up a stele for Tuhu and the three thousand old soldiers who died in Yajiao Mountain, but did not promise to build a stele for these border soldiers who died in battle.

The people, with their practical actions, paid tribute to the heroes who had returned for nine days.

Lu Fei explained: "I was the same year as him, he went on a study tour, and he came to Yulin City to find me, but he only got together for a few **** and left. At that time, Datong was at war, and I heard that he was going to Datong, and I persuaded him, but I didn't expect that that day's farewell would become a farewell. ”

"He's a hero." Zhang Ru said in a deep voice.

Although he looks down on many literati in the court who only know how to attack each other, Zhang Ru still admires this kind of scholar who really sees death as his home and has a hard backbone.

That is to say, Liu Peng did not leave half of his relatives in this world, otherwise he would definitely try his best to bring his relatives to the capital and give them the best life.

"I don't want so many heroes to appear in Daming, because when heroes appear, it is often when the world is unfair." Lu Fei said with emotion.

Zhang Ru nodded and said, "Yes, Daming needs heroes now, and I also hope that one day Daming will not need heroes." ”

The change of topic made the atmosphere dull, and the two fell into their own contemplation, especially Lu Fei, who knew Liu Peng, thinking of that somewhat childish year, he couldn't help but feel a faint pain in his heart.

After a while, holding back the tears that were about to burst out of his eyes, Lu Fei whispered: "The words of the article are also finished, I don't know if the commander will kill the students or let them go?" ”

Zhang Ru thought for a while and said, "Bao Guogong's gift will be accepted, but Ben will have a reluctant request, I hope Brother Lu can tell Bao Guogong." ”

"Governor, please." Lu Fei is colorful.

Zhang Ru said: "The situation in the capital is unpredictable, and I will inspect the nine sides, just to prevent it from happening, so I want to ask Baoguo Gong for an attitude, and ask for an attitude of His Majesty after the dragon controls Bintian, whose side is he on." ”

"Oh, what position does the general want to put the prince in?" Lu Fei raised his eyebrows and asked.

He naturally knew the relationship between Zhang Ru and the crown prince, and deliberately asked rhetorically, just to confirm Zhang Ru's attitude.

Zhang Ru, who didn't think he could call the shots, said with a smile: "Naturally, I am on the side of the prince, even if the prince is really not optimistic about the prince, please don't interfere in anything." After all, in the south and in the north of Zhu, there were only these two princes in the Ming Dynasty, and they held the military power in their hands. ”

Xu naturally refers to the descendants of Xu Da in Nanjing, Yongzhen after Chengzu, and now in power is Xu Li, the sixth Duke of Wei; Zhu refers to Zhu Yong, the actual governor of Yansui, Ningxia, Guyuan, and Gansu who has the real power to lead the generals and seal the letter eight times, and now actually supervises the soldiers and horses of the four towns of Yansui, Ningxia, Guyuan, and Gansu.

Zhang Ru is Zhu Yong's nominal boss, in fact, if Zhang Ru does not take out the royal flag, it is basically impossible to make this old prince bow down.

After hearing his request, Lu Feiwan smiled: "There is no need to report this matter to the national prince, so you can make the decision." The commander can rest assured that if someone dares to disturb the prince's accession to the throne one day, 370,000 soldiers and horses in the four towns of Yansui, Gansu, Guyuan, and Ningxia will definitely send troops to the king. ”