"Mr. Du!" Liu Cheng respectfully bowed to Du Wenhuan, but Du Wenhuan walked past Liu Cheng with his head held high, and stood still in his position, and suddenly there was a sound of inhalation in the hall, but Liu Cheng smiled casually, as if nothing had happened.

At this time, the civil and military ministers who were qualified to receive the decree in Ningxia Mansion had already arrived, the drum music outside the house stopped, and the eunuch who delivered the decree walked out from behind the screen and said sharply: "The emperor has an edict!" “

Liu Cheng, who was standing behind Du Wenhuan, saw the other party jump, and then knelt down tremblingly. When the eunuch saw everyone kneeling, he read aloud in a somewhat feminine and clear voice: "Fengtian transports, the emperor edict says-"

At the beginning, the holy decree was to praise the Ming army for defeating Lin Dan Khan and pacifying the northwest captives, and gave Lu Boqi and Liu Cheng the civil and military officials led by the reward, Lu Boqi was promoted to the right capital of the imperial history, and the military governor of Ningxia, Yulin, and Hexi towns has been greatly improved, both in terms of their own grades and the scope of power, and Liu Cheng also became the chief soldier of Ningxia as he wished. Other civil and military officials were also promoted to a greater or lesser extent. The officials kneeling on the ground all had happy smiles on their faces, but Du Wenhuan's heart sank more and more, because he had not heard his name yet.

"The criminal minister Du Wenhuan, the wild wave battle, led to the defeat of the king's division, the fall of the city fortress, and the overall situation of the northwest thief was almost destroyed. He is not guilty of the past, and he will harm the future, and those who are involved in the matter will not be punished. Qingfu is now in court. I wanted to be on the day of the hook. Ming canonical punishment. But thinking about several generations of military service is not without merit. I couldn't bear to order Cao to go to the city, and I gave a gift order to commit suicide, confiscate my family property, and send my wife and concubines to Yunnan. Chin this! Lord Du, take the order and thank you! After reading the holy decree, the father-in-law sneered.

Du Wenhuan knelt on the ground. His spine seemed to be constantly struck by an invisible hammer, and the words of rebuke spit out from the mouth of the eunuch who heralded the decree smashed his body, although he had already been mentally prepared for all this, but reality was reality after all, and a very ridiculous feeling suddenly arose in his heart. It was as if a devout believer suddenly discovered that the gods he believed in were nothing more than clay puppets that he could not protect, and the disillusionment of his life's work that had vanished in an instant made him want to laugh, to dance, to laugh at himself, to others, and to all the things in this world that the world regarded sacred and inviolable. But years of habit made him continue to kneel on the ground, maintaining a respectful appearance.

"The criminal Du Wenhuan is grateful!" Du Wenhuan stood up like a puppet, took the holy decree with both hands, and the brocade guards on both sides rushed forward and rudely peeled off his court clothes and official hats, which marked that he was no longer a minister of the imperial court, but just a criminal who was about to be executed. The people in the hall instinctively moved out of the way. Let the brocade guard escort the man down, as if he had some kind of deadly plague on him.

"Lord Liu is the chief soldier of Ningxia Town, and Liu has become the chief soldier of Ningxia Town, good! Good! Du Wenhuan suddenly laughed maniacally. The eunuch who announced the decree was frightened by his laughter, took two steps back, pointed at Du Wenhuan and shouted: "Du Wenhuan, you are rude, Lord Liu is a hero of the Ming Dynasty." His talent is a hundred times better than yours! ”

"A hundred times better than me?" Du Wenhuan's laughter stopped abruptly, and a hint of mockery appeared on the corner of his mouth: "Not bad." Liu Cheng's talent is a hundred times better than me, that is, the founding Xu Zhongshan and Chang Kaiping (Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, both of whom were named the King of Zhongshan and the King of Kaiping respectively) are afraid that they are not as good as me, but I don't know how clear these characters must be to be able to control them! ”

When the eunuch heard this, he was angry and afraid, and pointed at Du Wenhuan with trembling fingers and shouted, "Du Wenhuan." You are so daring, you dare to talk nonsense and slander Lord Liu, your heart can be punished! Come on, give me a slap! “

The brocade guards responded. I was about to rush forward, but I didn't want Du Wenhuan to pull out a dagger from his waist and wave it violently, the brocade guards were caught off guard, and hurriedly took a few steps back, and the eunuch scolded him sharply: "Du Wenhuan, you don't have to be stubborn!" ”

Du Wenhuan's gaze swept over everyone, and finally stopped at Liu Cheng, Liu Cheng said in a deep voice: "Lord Du, quickly put down your weapon, and talk to the adults present about the matter to this father-in-law, just if it didn't happen, don't implicate your family!" ”

Du Wenhuan heard Liu Cheng's words, a wry smile appeared on his face, and he suddenly threw himself on the ground, twitched all over, and then stopped moving. When he turned it over, he found that his right hand was holding the dagger upside down, the tip of the blade piercing deep into his heart until it was out of control. The Jinyi guard led by him reached out to Du Wenhuan's nose and touched it, opened his eyes and looked at it, stood up and said to the eunuch: "Father-in-law, Du Wenhuan is dead!" ”

"Dead? Cheap this dog thing! The eunuch spat hatefully: "Quickly clean up here!" ”

Liu Cheng stood aside, he could feel the gazes of everyone gathered on him, if these gazes were scorching and hot a few minutes ago, then now they were cold and piercing.

"Grandpa Hu!" Liu Cheng stepped forward, shielded everyone's sight with his body, took out something from his waist and stuffed it into the hand of the eunuch who sent the decree, and said in a low voice: "Lord Du, please ask your father-in-law to cover up here, don't make your family embarrassed!" ”

The eunuch looked at Liu Cheng in surprise, pinched the object in his hand again, raised his thumb and said: "Mr. Liu really has a large number of adults, since you have opened your mouth, then our family will naturally save it, come and clean up for Lord Du!" ”

Finally completed the ceremony of receiving the order, all the civil and military officials left the scene as soon as possible, Du Wenhuan's abrupt behavior made them not even feel in the mood to stay and celebrate their promotion with wine and delicacies, Liu Cheng did not stay, Du Wenhuan's death made him feel very uncomfortable, there was a sense of foreboding, but he didn't know where it came from. When he returned to his residence, he was about to change out of his official robe and rest, but he heard someone outside say, "Mr. Zhao is asking to see him!" ”

Den.

"Lord Commander, Mr. Zhao, the villain has been monitoring that Russian for the past few days, and has found the following strange things about this guy's behavior!"

The wind squeaked against the windows. Liu Cheng raised his right hand and signaled his subordinates who were making a message to stop talking, Hao Shaoqi walked to the window, and poked his head out vigilantly to see that there was no one in the courtyard. Only then did he close the window and return to Liu Cheng's side to stand again. Liu Cheng nodded slightly and motioned for him to continue.

"Yes, sir!" The informant was a shriveled man in his early forties, dressed in a dirty, dark shirt of no visible color, slightly hunched over. A face looks sad: "This group of Russians often hides in the house, reciting scriptures and doing things, and crying, but the lame man is not in the house, quite unsociable!" Strange to say, they didn't have any dead people, so why did they do so many rituals? “

"Doing something?" Liu Cheng was stunned for a moment, and then he reacted immediately, those Russians should be holding a mass or some other religious ceremony. The man didn't know what to do, but according to what he said, why didn't the lame man participate in their ritual? Could it be that this person has a different faith from the rest of the people, so he does not participate in the rituals of the people? However, there is so little information known that it is of little use to make any inferences.

"What else do you see?"

"And, yes!" The man patted his thigh and said with a smile: "This guy has been holding a wooden board with a piece of paper on it all day. Those who write and draw don't know what to write and draw. "Speaking of which. He carefully took out a crumpled piece of paper from his bosom: "My lord, this is the villain secretly touched out of his room, but I don't know what is drawn on it." “

Liu Cheng took the paper from Hao Shaoqi's hand, opened it and couldn't help but laugh secretly, it seems that this person should be half a companion with himself before crossing, it turned out that the paper was painted with a rather crude plan of the Ming army's urn city. It also marked the approximate scale, the location of the firearms, and the shooting corner, it seems that the intention of this group of Russians is not simple, not just for business.

"Well done!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "After you step down, go to the account room to receive a reward of ten taels of silver, and then continue to be careful." If there is anything unusual, report it immediately! “

"Thank you, Lord for your reward!" The man was so overjoyed that he hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed twice before exiting the house. Liu Cheng smiled and handed the piece of paper to Zhao Wende on the side: "Jiansheng, this group of Russians is not good!" “

"Yidi's heart is greedy but not kissing, the Russians don't have a good reputation in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, and it's not strange that they covet my Ming Dynasty!" Zhao Wende looked at it and sneered: "But it's just a little self-sufficient!" ”

"It's not necessarily, they can come from thousands of miles, and they are good at firearms, but they can't be underestimated." Liu Cheng folded the piece of paper, carefully put it into his arms, and asked, "Jiansheng, why do you think the lame man doesn't stay with his companions?" ”

Zhao Wende replied nonchalantly: "There is nothing strange about this, this person should be a craftsman, and the others should be Russian scholars and merchants, although they are barbarians, but there should be a difference between the top and bottom in the country, and it is not unusual not to be together." ”

"Jiansheng, I'm afraid you guessed wrong this time." Liu Cheng shook his head: "I have heard people say before that this Russian is similar to the Franky, although there is a distinction between the high and the low in the country, but there is no difference in front of the gods, that is, the servants also have a place in front of the gods." “

"How can such a thing happen?" Zhao Wende was a little surprised when he heard this, and immediately smiled: "In this way, the gods that these Russians and Franky believe in are somewhat similar to the Buddha, they are all in front of my Buddha, and all beings are equal!" Then if you guessed correctly, this guy is not Russian, so he didn't participate? ”

"Possibly!" Liu Cheng nodded: "Jiansheng, you find a chance to detain him alone, but don't let these Russians find out!" “

Zhao Wende was accustomed to Liu Cheng's unexpected orders, and said respectfully: "Yes, my lord!" He suddenly asked: "My lord, I heard that the Son of Heaven gave General Du to death in the holy decree, I don't know if it's true or not?" ”

Liu Cheng sighed and nodded: "Yes, Mr. Du was unwilling to be humiliated and committed suicide on the spot!" For some reason, he didn't tell Zhao Wende everything about the situation.

"Death to Lord Du? A martial artist, this is rare! Zhao Wende's face became extremely ugly, as Liu Cheng's henchman, Zhao Wende knew that Liu Cheng had spent a lot of effort to become the chief soldier of Ningxia, but he did not expect Du Wenhuan to end up with death. Liu Cheng's face was not very good-looking. During the Chongzhen period, there were many civil officials such as bachelors, governors, governors, governors, and governors who died in the political struggle, but there were only a handful of military generals, and the reason for this was that although these civil officials were famous all over the world and had high power, they were separated from the soldiers after all, and they were very different, and Chongzhen didn't have to worry about triggering a mutiny when he was killed, and it was not easy to clean up, which also gave Liu Cheng a vague sense of superiority. Even the emperor has nothing to do with himself. But Du Wenhuan's death broke his sense of superiority, but Chongzhen did this, wasn't he afraid of arousing the dissatisfaction of Du Wenhuan's old department?

"Your Excellency!" A voice woke Liu Cheng from his thoughts, and he turned his head to see Zhao Wende's eyes blazing, staring at him.

"The Son of Heaven is killing chickens and monkeys, and he is giving grace and power! He killed Master Du, pointing at you! “

"Pointing at me?" Liu Cheng reacted suddenly, with his own powerful faction who had just made a miraculous achievement, he naturally didn't have to be afraid of Du Wenhuan's old department making trouble, but he didn't expect that his great achievement had become Du Wenhuan's life-saving talisman.

"Jiansheng, do you think the Son of Heaven killed General Du because of me?"

"It's not just because of adults, it's clearly for adults!" Zhao Wende sneered: "According to the merits of the adults, the prestige among the Mongolian tribes, the position of the chief soldier of Ningxia Town is none other than the adult, that is, he took Du Wenhuan's position to the adult, who dares not to be convinced?" And although General Du was defeated, he still desperately held the city of Ningxia, if there was no Du General Soldier's persistence, there would be no chance for you to turn the tables. Although Du Zongbing has had it, it is not a capital crime. But the Son of Heaven asked for his life with an edict, for what? Didn't you take the head of General Du to scare you? “

Hearing this, Liu Cheng couldn't help but sigh, if it weren't for Zhao Wende's explanation, how could he understand that there are so many ways to come. Chongzhen is not wasteful at all, since he defeated the Mongols, Du Wenhuan, a veteran general of the Western Army, is useless, so he uses his head to scare and scare the new himself. It seems that Chongzhen is not very old, and he is quite skilled in using that little bit of imperial mental art. But the problem is that these tricks may be useful for others, but for Liu Cheng, who has traveled from the afterlife and knows the demise of the Ming Dynasty, these tricks are meaningless, and will only strengthen his determination to follow his own path. (To be continued.) )