Zheng Rong entered Beijing to mourn for Emperor Daxing, but was imprisoned in the prison of the Criminal Department by the current emperor on fabricated charges, which has spread throughout Guangyang City. The people in Guangyang City know that Zheng Rong is the pillar of the imperial court and the benefactor of the whole city, so no matter Hu Han, there is no one who is not worried about this Youyan prince. There are even more people who secretly burn incense and pray, hoping that the prince can turn evil into good fortune, become auspicious in trouble, and return to Guangyang safely.

Therefore, when Zheng Rong miraculously escaped from the prison of the Criminal Department, broke through many obstacles and returned to Youyan Road, and was about to enter Guangyang City, the people of Guangyang were all overjoyed, and they had long forgotten the state funeral etiquette of the emperor's death.

Zheng Rong led the guard of honor all the way into Guangyang, and saw familiar streets and familiar houses appear in his sight one by one, and there were all familiar faces among the people kneeling down along the street, and there was really a feeling of being separated from the world. When he saw that the people in the city loved him so much, his eyes could not help but be filled with tears, and he rode on his horse and kept throwing his hands to the people along the street, and ordered Zhong Likuang to take out a silver tael from his private treasury and reward each of the people who came to greet him with a tael of silver.

Henan front.

The imperial court was very slow to use troops. After Dai Luanxiang received the emperor's decree, he went to the military department to raise the army. However, although this forbidden army was nominally under the unified command of the military department, in reality it was in the hands of the emperor's close eunuchs. Originally, the palace was dominated by the great eunuch Wang Zhonghai, which could be regarded as the unification of power, but after Wang Zhonghai died in vain, the forbidden army was run by four eunuchs respectively, and they all wanted to keep their strength, and they did not want their troops to fight hard with the elite soldiers of Youyan Dao.

In this way, Dai Luanxiang went through several twists and turns, and tore up with these eunuchs for three days, but still did not see a single soldier, and in desperation, he had to re-present the matter to the emperor.

Zheng Yao had just ascended the throne as emperor, and he encountered a major event of rebellion provoked by King Youyan, knowing that if this matter was not suppressed as soon as possible, he would undoubtedly become a laughing stock in the history books, and even whether the throne could sit firmly was unknown. Therefore, he immediately issued an order to require the four eunuchs of the forbidden army to fully cooperate with Dai Luanxiang, and the latter selected elite soldiers to rush to the front.

Since the emperor issued an order, these four eunuchs had no reason to be perfunctory, and let Dai Luanxiang raise some troops. Fortunately, in the past few years, Wang Zhonghai was quite serious and responsible, and the situation of empty personnel and damaged weapons in the forbidden army was not serious, so Dai Luanxiang handled this matter quite smoothly, and selected 150,000 elite soldiers from more than 200,000 forbidden troops, and drove to Henan.

But halfway through, the supply of grain and grass was not available. The grain stored in the granaries in various places is obviously very surplus in the accounts, but when you open the granary, there is only one silo bottom left. Dai Luanxiang is a person who has read military books, how could he not know the simple truth of "the soldiers and horses have not moved, the grain and grass go first", so he had to first clear the granary and old grain for the army to use on the march, and then wrote to the emperor to directly state the benefits and disadvantages, requesting that the grain and grass must be supplied regularly, otherwise the army will collapse without a fight.

So after this period of twists and turns, when Dai Luanxiang led the forbidden army into Henan, it was nearly the Mid-Autumn Festival in August. He personally led his generals to observe the front line, and saw that Youyan's army had already occupied various dangerous positions in Bianzhou and Dengzhou, built fortifications, and had strong walls and clear banners, which could not be moved lightly. So he ordered the forbidden army under his command to guard the main roads everywhere to prevent the Youyan army from taking advantage of the weakness and prepare for a protracted battle.

But what he didn't know was that Cui Nan, Wei Hu, Zheng Sen, and Zheng Miao, the main generals of the Youyan army on the other side, were not in the formation at the moment, and they were rushing to Guangyang to participate in the rebellion ceremony arranged by Zheng Rong and Zhong Li Kuang.

It turned out that Zheng Rong felt that he had committed a crime and had a bad reputation, so he wanted to hold a ceremony and tell the world the reason why he sent troops, so as to justify his name. Zhong Li Kuang also agreed with this thought, and originally planned to sacrifice the flag and parade on the square in front of the Youyan Palace. But Zheng Rong still thought that the scene was too small, so he simply ordered the horse market to be suspended for two days, vacate the vacant land, build another high platform here, erect a flagpole, and hold a ceremony.

The day of the ceremony is selected in the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, God appreciates the face, the weather is sunny on that day, the autumn is high and refreshing, a round of red sun hangs high in the sky, and there are a few breezes blowing, bringing the fragrance of osmanthus flowers, refreshing people's hearts.

Zheng Xin is the eldest son of the king, responsible for presiding over the ceremony, he saw that the auspicious time had arrived, the flag in his hand waved, and the nine cannons behind him roared in unison, and suddenly the ceremonial music was great, the drums and horns rang out in unison, and the square was in a hustle and bustle.

When the drum music stopped, Zheng Rong calmly took the stage, unfolded a seal on the cover of Huang Aya in his hand, and read it out loud. After more than half a month of recuperation, he had already recovered his vitality, and his voice was loud and high-pitched, so that everyone present could hear it clearly:

"Gai Wenming is planning to control the situation in danger, and the loyal ministers are worried that it will be difficult to establish power. It is because there are extraordinary people, and then there are extraordinary things; If there is something extraordinary, then make extraordinary contributions. The husband is not the same, and the solid is not the same as the people.

"Heaven is the Father, the earth is the Mother, and the blessings and misfortunes should be answered, and each one will come down with something. Taste the crow has the righteousness of feeding, the sheep has the grace of kneeling, and the horse has no heart to deceive the mother. Zheng Yao, the second son of Emperor Daxing, was blessed by the saint Hong, but he did not read the heart of loyalty and filial piety, did not understand the righteousness of humanity, and still had deficiencies compared to the beasts, so that he killed the king in vain, framed the uncle, bullied the officials, and exploited the people.

"Zheng Rong, the king of Guyouyan, is the grandson of Emperor Xianzong Zhao, the son of Emperor Shenzong Jing, and the younger brother of Emperor Daxing. If you can open the door and pay money, the meat will welcome the surrender, or you will be willing to turn against the front, or you will be in the way, then you will live in your own business and do not make any mistakes. If you are obsessed and unwilling to come to your senses, you are willing to be a traitor, you are a dog to bark, and you are a tiger and a tiger, then you will be a disaster and your relatives and your father and ancestors will be humiliated. If you go along the way or not, you should choose a place early. Sweep away the traitors, only now! ”

This article was written by Zhongli Kuang at night, written with great momentum and in one go, and everyone listened with bated breath, and all of them knelt on the ground in unison, shouting: "Sweep away the traitors, only in this dynasty!" Sweep away the traitors, only now! "It's all rehearsed beforehand.

Seeing such a scene, Zheng Rong was very satisfied, folded the yellow watch in his hand and handed it to Zheng Xin, and said to everyone in the audience: "The so-called road is one foot high, and the magic is one foot high." Although Zheng Yao is a great rebel, he is still on the throne. Although we have the name of righteousness, the people of the world may not know it. The enemy is strong and we are weak, so the road to rebellion will not be smooth, and it is not known that everyone present may be in danger of their lives. If anyone feels that this matter is more difficult than ascending to the sky, and is unwilling to serve Lone, he can raise it on the spot, and Lone will not be embarrassed. After saying that, Zheng Rong glanced at the military generals who were kneeling on the ground, and asked again in a loud voice, "Is there one?" ”

At this moment, who didn't know each other dared to do the song of the horse, they were all silent, or Zheng Miao knelt in the middle and shouted first: "I am willing to follow the prince and rebel against the heavens!" ”

When everyone heard this, they all parroted and said: "I am willing to follow the prince and fight against the heavens!" I am willing to follow the prince and rebel against heaven! ”

Zheng Rong was condescending, and after listening to everyone's words of loyalty, he became more and more satisfied, so he ordered someone to take a large stack of documents, and rewarded them one by one from the eldest son Zheng Xin.

Because Zheng Rong did not give an order, everyone could only kneel and wait, but when they thought that they were about to be promoted, the cultural relics who knelt on the ground were all full of joy and listened to the news on the stage. But I didn't expect that the two or three hundred people who knelt on the ground were only halfway rewarded, and in the originally cloudless clear sky, a few rain clouds blew from nowhere, and they saw that they were getting bigger and thicker, and it didn't take long for it to rain.

Youyan Wangfu has always been governed by military law, everyone knelt on the ground, and looked up to see that Zheng Rong did not leave the stage to take shelter from the rain, so they didn't dare to move half a step, but they were thinking in their hearts: "It was originally a clear sky, why did it suddenly rain, isn't it a bad omen?" ”

Zhong Li Kuang had already seen the suspicious expressions on everyone's faces that could not be concealed, and suddenly had an idea, and he raised his back to the sky and shouted: "The clouds are from the dragon, and the wind is from the tiger." This rain is a blessing from God, bless the prince to success! "I can't stop kowtowing.

When the rest of the people saw it, they also followed Zhong Likuang's example, and bowed their heads with words in their mouths.

Zheng Rong saw that this embarrassing scene was covered up by Zhong Li Kuang without leaving a trace, and couldn't help but look at the resourceful strategist with great admiration. Zheng Rong fixed his mind, and then determined that he continued to reward his ministers in the rain.

It's just that the rain fluctuated greatly and lightly, until the reward of the hundred officials was completed, which completely stopped, and a few gusts of wind blew, and then the clouds were cleared and the sun was seen.

So Zheng Rong ordered his second son Zheng Sen to lead the black ox and white horse that had been prepared to the altar according to the agenda, and then he wanted to sacrifice the flag.

In order to boost morale, Zheng Sen personally took care of the slaughter and sacrifice, he held an extremely sharp big knife, and the head of the big black bull was cut off by him as soon as he slashed it, and a blood gushed out and sprinkled half of the altar. Everyone in the audience saw that he was strong in martial arts, and shouted in unison, "Good!" ”。

Zheng Sen was happy to hear this, and he killed the white horse as well. And the crowd applauded.

Zheng Rong saw that he had done a neat errand this time, and his face was full of smiles, and he said: "Good Zheng Sen, martial arts have grown again, and there is another reward!" ”

Zheng Xin, the eldest son who was responsible for presiding over the ceremony, although he stood behind Zheng Rong throughout the whole process, which was much easier than the people kneeling under the stage, he still stood with a sore back, and when he saw that the ceremony was completed, he mustered up the last bit of spirit, held high the order flag that had been wet from the rain, shook it hard in mid-air, and shouted: "Licheng!" ”

After hearing the amnesty, everyone kowtowed on the ground for a while, and when they heard Zheng Rong's final comment that "please do your best, don't let Lone down", they scattered and went home to change their dry clothes. Only Zhong Likuang, Cui Nan, Wei Hu and Zheng Rong's sons stayed in place and wanted to return to the palace with Zheng Rong, the king of Youyan, to discuss military affairs.

Zheng Rong himself was also drenched, and seeing that the cronies in front of him were as embarrassed as chickens in soup as he was, he smiled and asked everyone to go back to bathe and change clothes, and then come to the palace to discuss matters.

Qiu Yizhi returned to the house, originally wanted to ask the little maid Ruishou to boil water for bathing, but the firewood in the courtyard of the other party did not have time to move back to the house, and was half wet by a shower, so he had no choice but to take a dry towel to wipe his body clean, and hurried to the Youyan Palace.

Therefore, Qiu Yizhi was the first to arrive in the mansion, and when he came to the study where the palace usually discussed important matters, even Zheng Rong himself had not yet arrived, only Zhang Long stood alone at the door, and he looked like Qiu Yizhi hastily dried his body and hair, so he came here to stand on duty.

This Zhang Long is Zheng Rong's trusted personal general, who has just been given the title of General Zhendong and leads troops to monitor the movements of North Korea. Qiu Yizhi usually has a good time with him, and when he saw him standing motionless at the door of the study, he stepped forward and quipped: "General Zhang is a commander in charge alone, why is he still guarding here as usual?" Can't you even find someone standing guard for you in this huge palace? ”