"Mr. Fan, you must send competent people to Lin Dan Khan's affairs to get tangible news. I estimate that after the Ming Kingdom loses the Da Ling River, there should be no big moves in the next two years. In autumn, when the autumn is high and the horses are fat, I will march west and include the Monan tribes in my bag! ”

"Wechen obeys!"

Beijing, Qianqing Palace, Warm Pavilion.

"Grandpa Hu, please come with a certain family!" Wang Chengen whispered to Hu Kejian: "The emperor is in the warm pavilion!" ”

"Emperor?" Hu Kejian swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his nervousness was beyond words, and after a fierce competition, there was only one last step left before he ascended to the throne of the chief of the imperial horse supervisor, that is, to meet the Son of Heaven, he was a little timid. Different from the officials of the outer court, although the twenty-four eunuchs of the inner palace are high and powerful, their status is only the house slave of the Son of Heaven, whether they are promoted or demoted, they can act according to the Son of Heaven's own preferences, and will not be restricted by customs and officials of the outer court.

"Princess, when you meet the emperor, if you are in some places below, please mention more!" Speaking of this, Hu Kejian bowed respectfully to Wang Chengen.

"Grandpa Hu, don't worry!" Wang Chengen said with a smile: "Your merits in Ningxia are all remembered by the emperor. Several times when reviewing the Tang newspaper, the emperor was sighing that if there were a few officials like Hu Gonggong who knew the soldiers, things in the world would be much easier, and the position of the head of the imperial horse supervisor would have long been in the emperor's heart. “

"Huh!" Hearing Wang Chengen's words, Hu Kejian couldn't help laughing, for a eunuch, what is more precious than the trust of the Son of Heaven? Civil officials have families, peers, and teachers to rely on; The generals have robes, personal soldiers and families; And the eunuchs came from the bottom of society, like potted plants, dug out of the original soil and placed in the court. Every step of the way up was exchanged for sweat, loyalty, diligence, and even their own lives, and when they finally reached the top of the mountain, they suddenly found themselves alone, looking around with only their colleagues full of malice, and the world regarded them as monsters that were neither yin nor yang, and the existence of the demi-human and demigod sitting on the dragon chair was only a thought. will be able to knock yourself back into the mud. Knowing this, it is not difficult to understand the complex feelings of the eunuchs for the Son of Heaven: fear and love, loyalty and dependence, they are like vines attached to the towering tree of imperial power, which makes people disgusted and pitiful.

"Grandpa Hu, let's go over quickly, don't make the emperor wait for a long time!"

Wang Chengen's reminder woke Hu Kejian from his thoughts, and he hurriedly responded: "Yes, yes, let's go over quickly!" ”

The two walked through the hallway. Wang Chengen didn't make a sound when he walked, if someone was observing at this time, he would find that although his movement speed was quite fast, his upper body barely swayed, and the jade pendant hanging from his waist did not collide, which showed that he was well trained in etiquette. Hu Kejian looked at Wang Chengen's back enviously, while trying his best to imitate the other party's actions.

"Princess!" A little eunuch guarding the door of the warm pavilion saw Wang Chengen coming, and hurriedly knelt down and saluted.

"Where's the emperor?"

"Just sent a late-night snack in. I think it's in use! ”

"Good!" Wang Chengen turned to Hu Kejian and said, "Grandpa Hu, you wait here for a while." I'll go in first and pass it through! ”

"Princess, please!"

Watching Wang Chengen's back disappear behind the door, Hu Kejian's heart suddenly felt a strong sense of jealousy, he really knew too well how much power Wang Chengen meant by going in and out of the forbidden place at will. In a sense, under the highly centralized **** imperial power, the actual power of an official can be measured by a very simple criterion - how close he is to the Son of Heaven.

Finally. There was a sound from the warm pavilion, Hu Kejian hurriedly entered the door, and after walking a few steps, he knelt down and kowtowed to Chongzhen behind the bookcase, and said, "Slave and maid see long live the lord!" ”

"Get up!" Chongzhen had just finished his supper and put the evening spoon aside. On weekdays, his pale and tired face was a little more bloody: "Hu Banban, you have done a good errand in Ningxia, and you are a meritorious man!" ”

Hearing Chongzhen call himself "companion", which can only be enjoyed by Wang Chengen, Cao Huachun and a few other old people who followed him when he was in the palace, Hu Kejian's heart couldn't help but feel ecstasy, he tried his best to control his feelings, kowtowed and said: "The slave is just borrowing the emperor's heavenly might, what a merit!" ”

Hearing that Hu Kejian did not take credit, Chongzhen became more and more happy, his character has several weaknesses: he is so happy, and there are often repetitions, he is unwilling to take the slightest mistake, and what he dislikes the most is that the courtiers are proud of their merits and make a direct admonition. Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng both suffered in this regard.

"Well, it would be nice if there were a few ministers like Hu Daban who were decent and dared to take responsibility!" Chongzhen sighed, and his expression became serious: "Hu Daban, if the widow asks you a few questions, you must answer them earnestly, and there must be no lie!" “

A layer of cold sweat oozed from Hu Kejian's forehead, and he hurriedly kowtowed again and said: "If the slave and maid have half a lie, they are willing to be sentenced to death!" ”

"Hmm!" Chongzhen nodded and asked: "Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, impeached Du Wenhuan, the chief soldier of Ningxia, saying that he was greedy for merit and mistakenly entered, and fought in the wilderness, which caused the situation in Shaanxi to be very bad, and the overall situation of suppressing thieves was almost ruined. You were in Ningxia at the time, Hong Chengchou said true or false? ”

Hu Kejian knelt on the ground and heard clearly, he had already thought about how to answer this question more than a hundred times before he came, and immediately replied without thinking: "Emperor, Mr. Du's soldiers were defeated by the matter of Khan, and the slaves and maids were also responsible. ”

"So, what Hong Chengchou said is true?" Chongzhen said to himself, Hu Kejian's answer was very ingenious, there was not a word in the words to attack Du Wenhuan, but the implication was that what Hong Chengchou said was true, and he also grabbed the responsibility of the prison army, because Hu Kejian had great merit in the next battle to break Lin Dan Khan, Chongzhen would only feel that he was a eunuch who was brave enough to do things, did things fairly, and did not shirk responsibility, and would not really blame him.

"Your Majesty. The slave and maid are only the supervisors of Ningxia Town, and they don't know Governor Hong's strategy of suppressing thieves, whether the defeat of Ningxia has led to a big bad situation in Shaanxi, the slave and maid dare not say anything! ”

"Hmm!" Chongzhen nodded, and there was a little more smile in his eyes towards Hu Kejian: "Hu Banban, you just remembered the comradeship with General Du." Want to explain a few words for him? ”

"This-" Hu Kejian hurriedly kowtowed on the ground, and his voice was a little panicked: "Emperor, the slave maid and General Du have been trapped in the Ningxia Mansion for several months, and they do have some friendship with them, but no-"

"Hu Daban!" Chongzhen interrupted Hu Kejian's defense with a smile: "I understand what you mean, people are not plants and trees, how can they be ruthless?" You're a loyal man! ”

"Emperor!" Hu Kejian's voice was a little choked, and he raised his head, his eyes already filled with tears. Chongzhen nodded slightly to Wang Chengen on the side. Wang Chengen took a few steps forward, helped Hu Kejian up, and said in a low voice: "Father-in-law Hu, tomorrow's emperor's lunch will be overworked!" ”

Hu Kejian was stunned when he heard this, and then realized that this was Wang Chengen telling him that he had become the head of the imperial horse superintendent, and it turned out that in the early Ming Dynasty, the food of the Son of Heaven was provided by Guanglu Temple. However, in addition to providing meals for the Son of Heaven, Guanglu Temple also has palm sacrifices, feasts, wine, and meals. In fact, this is a diplomatic etiquette institution, and everything has rules, and what is on the table is not so much a meal as a prop for practicing etiquette, and according to the rules, a court meeting will be held tomorrow. Today's meal had to be prepared so that the officials of Guanglu Temple could check it to make sure that there was no mistake in the dish, and there was a diplomatic accident. At that time, there was no refrigerator, and all the meals were left for one night and reheated the next day, and the taste can be imagined. At that time, there was a joke called Ten Ridiculous Jokes in the Jingshi, namely the tea soup of Guanglu Temple, the prescription of the Tai Hospital, the prayer of optimism, the sword and gun of the Arsenal, the camp of the Division, the clothing and food of the Nursing Yuan, the mother-in-law of the Teaching Workshop, the Constitution of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Guozi Supervision School, and the articles of the Hanlin Academy. The tea soup here refers to the meal, not the tea, and the emperor is not willing to grieve his belly, so he asked several eunuch leaders in the palace to take turns to use the private kitchen to honor themselves, anyway, these big eunuchs have money in their pockets, and they know how to enjoy it, and over time it has become a common practice, and the chief of the imperial horse supervisor is naturally one of them.

"Thank you, Emperor Longen!" Hu Kejian hurriedly kowtowed twice, and then bent down and slowly retreated. The smile on Chongzhen's face gradually disappeared, and he snorted coldly: "Wang Companion, there are really friends in the court!" ”

"Emperor, where does this start?"

"For the defeat of Ningxia, Du Wenhuan should obviously take the first responsibility, but there are people in the DPRK and China who defend him, saying that Hong Chengchou attacked dissidents and did not pay soldiers to place this defeat, and the responsibility should be held accountable Hong Chengchou, what is this not a friend?"

In the face of Chongzhen's questioning, Wang Chengen didn't dare to speak, with his past experience, he knew very well that this matter was not as simple as it seemed on the surface, but he also had no tangible evidence in his hands, defending Du Wenhuan, you must know that accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger, and the power of the sky is unpredictable. In the end, he could only hang his head and say in a low voice: "Emperor Shengming!" “

Ningxia, Fucheng.

Time flies quickly, and in the blink of an eye it is almost the beginning of spring, and although the cold air blowing from the Pamirs and the Siberian wilderness has long dominated the land, some signs of loosening can already be seen from the little shoots peeking through the old locust trees in the courtyard. Du Wenhuan's body is also like this weather, through the most difficult days, although he still coughs often, but the spit no longer has bright red blood, without the support of people can walk a few laps in the yard, the doctors are also optimistic that this summer, Du Zongbing will be able to get back on the horse.

But Du Wenhuan didn't have much smile on his face, this middle-aged man who was a little resolute became more and more silent, whether it was his wife, son or personal old servant, he couldn't get a word from his mouth, but every day he inquired about the actions of Liu Cheng, Lu Boqi and others from the mouths of several cronies, and let out an inexplicable bitter smile from time to time while listening, which made his relatives more and more worried, but they didn't dare to say anything more in front of him, so as not to cause a recurrence of the disease.

At noon at this point, Du Wenhuan had lunch, walking in the yard as usual, and suddenly saw the old servant running over from outside in a panic, shouting: "Master, master, it's not good!" ”

"What's the matter?"

"Master, master!" The old servant gasped: "Someone from Jingshi is here, there are many brocade guards, I am very afraid of people, do you want to let Lao Er inquire!" “

"That's it, there's nothing to ask!" At this time, Du Wenhuan's calm expression made people a little scared: "Wait for me to change into court clothes!" ”

"Imperial clothes?" The old servant was stunned for a moment: "What are you going to do?" Sir, your body is important, so let's recuperate at home."

"If you want to prepare, prepare, when is it so unruly!" Du Wenhuan's face showed a rare hint of anger. The old servant habitually obeyed the master's orders, and ran busily, Du Wenhuan walked to a round stone bench and sat down, and said to himself with a wry smile: "Sure enough, Du Wenhuan, Du Wenhuan, if you had known today, would you still take this road that day?" ”

At dawn the next day, the gate of Du's Mansion was violently knocked, and as soon as the gate was opened, a team of brocade guards rushed in, and a small colonel led by him shouted loudly: "General Du, the holy decree has arrived, go to the General Soldier's Mansion to receive the decree!" ”

Due to the fact that Du Wenhuan had been mentioned in advance, there was no usual panic in the house, and Du Wenhuan, who was dressed in court clothes, pushed away the support of the old servant, took two steps forward and said in a deep voice: "Your Excellency, please lead the way!" ”

The hundred households led by Du Wenhuan were quite surprised by Du Wenhuan's calmness, and said with a smile: "Okay, Du Zongbing is a good man, come here, seal the door of the house, don't let the messy people collide!" ”

Baihu's order caused the family members behind Du Wenhuan to let out a frightened cry, Du Wenhuan's iron-like face twitched twice, and suddenly turned around and shouted: "What are you crying about!" ”

The family was frightened by Du Wenhuan's cheers, Du Wenhuan's gaze swept over everyone's face, and when he saw his old wife, his gaze seemed to become softer, but then he turned his head and walked quickly towards the door.

General Military Office.

Drums were playing in the verandah under the festival hall, Liu Cheng was wearing the official robe of a second-class military general, standing in the second place in the left compartment, and the position in front of him was still empty, which was reserved for Du Wenhuan, the current chief soldier of Ningxia Town, but everyone present knew that this position would soon be Liu Cheng's. Liu Cheng could even feel the burning gaze mixed with envy and flattery from behind him.

"My lord, Mr. Du has arrived." Wang Anshi's voice came from behind him, since he designed to kill Bu Lost Rabbit Khan and annex the Tumut Ministry, he has been running under the command of his new boss all day long, as if he has already regarded himself as Liu Cheng's person. Liu Cheng is also very happy to include it in his own pocket, compared to his future plans, the existing talent is too few. (To be continued.) )