But in the next day, King Shen's documents asking for help were sent to Li Xin's desk. Gu Pingyu immediately suggested ignoring this letter asking for help, everyone knew that King Shen was ambitious, and he came to Beijing to fight for power, so he just came to borrow a knife to kill people, and let the Tartars repair this group of monkeys who were not self-sufficient.

Somehow, the news of King Shen's request for help reached the Forbidden City, and before Li Xin could give the order, the will summoned by the palace had been brought to Li Xin's handsome tent by the eunuchs

"Please allow Li Xin to handle military affairs before going to the Forbidden City!" Of course, Li Xin would not do such a thing as pain for relatives and happiness for enemies because of these miscellaneous matters, and arranged for people to rush to the rescue as soon as possible.

Unexpectedly, the eunuch who delivered the decree refused with a straight face.

"Her Royal Highness the Empress and the cabinet ministers are waiting for you, don't embarrass our family!"

In desperation, Li Xin had no choice but to ride his horse and rush to the Forbidden City with the eunuchs. Seeing this, Gu Pingyu breathed a deep sigh of relief, if Li Xin had an order, he couldn't disobey. And if it is really done, it will bring many troubles to the future of the Three Guards.

Empress Zhou, the crown prince and a group of ministers have been waiting in the warm pavilion of Wenhua Hall for a long time.

Whenever a political discussion was held, no matter how late or early it was, Empress Zhou would take the crown prince with her, let him participate in the hearing, and sometimes even let him make decisive judgments on key issues. At this point, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Empress Zhou is cultivating and training the prince in this way how to be a qualified emperor in the future, but what the result of this will be, several ministers dare not assert, only God knows.

Li Xin originally thought that Empress Zhou and the ministers were going to discuss the matter of King Shen's reinforcements, but the matter of reinforcements was not within the scope of this discussion at all.

Empress Zhou first put forward three issues in a general manner, one is the allocation of grain and grass in Beijing. The second is to recruit the sons of the good family in Beijing to form a new army. The third is the establishment of a firearms bureau to be responsible for firearms-related matters.

Li Xin was greatly surprised, the three points put forward by Empress Zhou can be said to be closely related, and the issue of grain and grass allocation involves the ultimate ownership of military power. The formation of the new army shows that this young and dignified woman has realized the importance of reforming the military system and rebuilding a loyal army to the royal ban. As for the 180-degree turn in his attitude towards firearms, he was a little confused.

After all, firearms have been used as early as the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and the scale of equipment in the Ming army is not a few, but for more than 200 years in the Ming Dynasty, muskets have only been used as supplementary firepower for bows and arrows for most of the time. So how did Empress Zhou change this traditional concept?

Soon, Empress Zhou answered Li Xin's question about the change in attitude towards the musket.

"Although I am a woman and do not know anything about military affairs, I have carefully studied the victories of the Marquis of Zhen, and found that there is one thing in common in all these battles, and that is the musket! In the Three Guards, the main combat weapon of the soldiers is the musket, why can't this be the case in the other border armies of my Ming Dynasty? ”

"Your Highness, my Ming Border Army is not only the Three Guards Army with muskets as the main combat weapon, there is also the Beijing Shenji Battalion, which has always been equipped with all kinds of fresh firearms, and has always been the head of the three major battalions. There is also the Shanxi New Army, which is almost all using muskets, and it has been tested in battle formations for the first time, and its combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated! ”

In the face of Empress Zhou's intentional or unintentional admiration for the Three Guards, Fan Fucui instinctively refuted them one by one.

Empress Zhou rarely argued with her ministers face to face.

"Dare to ask the elder Ge, why is my Beijing camp equipped with firearms but repeatedly defeated by the Tartars and rogues?"

Fan Fucui was ruthless and eloquent.

"I wonder if Your Highness has ever heard an allusion?"

"Elder Ge, please speak!"

Empress Zhou patiently replied to her.

"Orange is born in Huainan, and orange is born in Huaibei, and orange is cultivated in Huaibei! Probably, firearms were not suitable for all the Ming border troops. Besides, what His Royal Highness said is suspected of biasing, who said that my Ming border army has been repeatedly defeated by the hands of the Tartar rogues? The Guanning army trained by Sun Ge Lao won many victories and lost few defeats, and the troops of the five provinces led by Yang Sichang also drove the Liukou into the Qinling Mountains in one breath......"

Fan Fucui gushed endlessly, not noticing at all that Queen Zhou's well-maintained and fair face had turned red. He was only worried about one point, it was naturally a good thing for the queen to form a new army, but firearms must not be put in the first place, and there were countless people under Li Xin's command who were proficient in firearms, if he used the excuse to participate and seize the opportunity to seize power, who else could have a legitimate reason to stop him?

However, it seems that Empress Zhou did not understand Fan Fucui's suffering, she only saw that the ministers had reached such a critical moment, and they were still fighting for the prejudice between the civil ministers and military generals, and for the personal grudges between individuals.

"In this way, I will ask the elder to teach me, what kind of soldiers should be trained, how many soldiers must be trained, and how to train soldiers, and who is the right candidate for the general soldier......"

Fan Fucui pondered for a moment and said: "The minister thinks that the soldiers are expensive but not expensive, and they care about the soldiers' lives, not ...... swords, guns and arrows."

A sudden sneer interrupted Fan Fucui's words, "What His Highness asked is true, but Fan Ge Lao only said false, I don't know how to be a good soldier, how to be single-minded, how to kill the enemy?" ”

Fan Fucui looked at it, and the person who spoke was actually Wei Zaode, the champion of Chongzhen's thirteenth year, who was shallow but was promoted to the cabinet by Queen Zhou, and was quite respectful to your predecessors on weekdays, and didn't want to openly question it in front of the queen today, so he was a little annoyed and angry for a while, and then replied angrily:

"Wenchen only sets the strategy, and training is the business of the martial artist, so why should the old man interfere with his beak?"

"Ha, ha!"

Wei Zaode smiled very exaggeratedly, his expression full of disdain for his words.

"A good Wenchen only sets a strategy, please Rong Wei, a junior junior, to interpret it for Fan Gelao, it is clear that it is easy to open his mouth to speak, even if it is not difficult to blow the cattle and sheep to the sky, but if you lower your head and do a practical thing, tsk...... It's hard! ”

"You, you presumptuous!"

Fan Fucui was extremely angry, coupled with his bad temper, he was dizzy and accused Wei Zaode.

"You're presumptuous! Don't be rude in front of the Queen Mother! ”

A slightly childish hoarse voice suddenly sounded in the warm pavilion! It is the crown prince Zhu Cihong.

This scolding made Fan Fucui wake up violently, and when he picked up his court clothes and knelt on the ground, "The old minister is unconscious, the old minister is guilty, ......" knocked on the ground with his forehead, his voice was choked, and everyone in the warm pavilion was moved.

Queen Zhou, who was originally very angry, couldn't help but soften when she saw Fan Fucui's appearance, thinking that he was so conscientious to assist her husband, if he was too harsh instead, it would inevitably hurt people's hearts. But when I think of these old guys who seem to be righteous and strict, for the sake of the door and personal grievances, they actually ignore the danger of the imperial court, and their soft hearts are so steep that they harden again!