Zheng Miao frowned and said, "The Imperial Driver's personal expedition is a big deal, and you can't make a hasty decision. Now that the prince of Lingnan has been captured, what kind of person is Zheng Yu, who is leading the army, you and my brother have some bottom in their hearts, and there is no need for my father to do it himself...... Besides, the soldiers are in danger, in case the emperor has the slightest accident, we can't afford it......"

Qiu Yizhi's opinion on Zheng Miao was actually very clear - he was against the emperor personally leading the army to send troops - and Zhong Li Kuang and Qiu Yizhi himself also opposed it.

But the reason why the emperor is called "emperor" is because of the authority of his words, and even if he says 10,000 words from confidants and important ministers like the prime minister and the prince, he can't stand up to his words.

Therefore, Qiu Yizhi had no choice but to shake his head and sigh: "This matter, it sounds like the emperor has made up his mind, and the destiny of heaven is difficult to disobey, I'm afraid it will be difficult to advise...... I remember that last night, even Master Zhongli's persuasion was useless......"

Zheng Miao knew that Zhong Li Kuang was hired by his father when he was still the king of Youyan, and he had always been obedient to him, and what Zhong Li Kuang said was much more effective than the three princes under the emperor's knees. Therefore, if Zhongli Kuang can't advise, then there will be no one in the court who can advise.

So Zheng Miao sighed and said, "Alas! Now that the will of God has been decided, it seems that we can only follow the will of heaven. ”

Qiu Yizhi nodded: "This is nature. However, in the humble opinion of the younger brother, although the Lingnan Army has no backbone, it is still powerful, and the emperor is not the kind of conservative and fastidious person who uses soldiers. ”

Zheng Miao said solemnly: "Brother Xian's words are reasonable. The foolish brother also wanted to follow his father's side and block the gun for his old man. But listening to what my father means today, it seems that he wants to keep me in the capital to supervise the country, I really don't know what my father means......"

Qiu Yizhi glanced up at Zheng Miao, and thought: Although the third brother is loyal, he is definitely not a dull person - a king like this is patrolling outside, and what kind of prince is left to supervise the country at home, what kind of meaning is this, is it still written in this history book?

However, this layer of window paper is as thick as the dark clouds on the horizon, which is extremely difficult to break and cannot be broken, only to hear Qiu Yizhi say: "Third brother, although this battle is fought on the surface, it is actually money and food. The reason why this Zheng Yu's army of more than 100,000 people lost to the younger brother was because he couldn't get the two things of money and food. The third brother reads poetry and books, which is simple and simple, and he naturally understands it. The reason why the emperor let the third brother stay in the capital is that the third brother understands the key point. Therefore, instead of following the emperor to the south of the Yangtze River, it is really better to do a good job of logistics affairs in the rear, which is the first priority in the world! ”

Zheng Miao listened to Qiu Yizhi's words, and bowed his head silently - with his smart experience, of course, the emperor's intentions had already guessed seven or eight points, but the emperor did not clearly let go of this major event, and no one could talk nonsense.

So Zheng Miao could only follow Qiu Yizhi's meaning and said: "Thanks to the reminder of the virtuous brother, the foolish brother should try his best to do a good job." There is another thing, the emperor seems to want the virtuous brother to accompany the saint to the expedition, in addition to the rewards of the soldiers under his command, they are also temporarily under the command of the virtuous brother, as the vanguard of the seal, and do not disrupt the command. After all, the virtuous brother has been fighting in Jiangnan for a long time, and the situation in Jiangnan and Lingnan is no more familiar than that of the virtuous brother. ”

When Qiu Yizhi heard the news, he was excited in his heart, after all, he had lived for more than twenty years, and he was used to running away from the lackeys, if he was forced to stay in the stuffy jar of the capital, he would have to get sick.

Therefore, Qiu Yizhi's mood immediately became better, and his tone became much lighter, so he talked to Zheng Miao again, but the topic was not limited to matters related to the southward battle.

The two talked a long way, and Zheng Miao saw that it was not early, so he said goodbye.

Since that day, the emperor often summoned Qiu Yizhi to inquire and discuss the matter of going south, but he still let him live in the palace and could not leave.

In this way, another three or five days passed, and the emperor personally ordered the eldest son Zheng Xin and the second son Zheng Sen, who were transferred from the Shanshan and Youyan fronts, to finally rush to the capital. So the emperor issued an order to summon his three sons, the master Zhong Li Kuang and the son of Qiu Yizhi, and held a meeting in the "Shuli Palace" to roughly decide the strategy of sending troops.

At this point, the emperor's personal expedition to the south has been basically determined, and the newly recruited forbidden army in the capital is beginning to be mobilized according to the established deployment. It's just that the imperial conquest is a big thing, and it has not been conveyed to the junior officers, and it must be kept strictly secret by those who know it, so the forbidden officers and soldiers only think that the imperial court is about to send a general to lead the army to counterattack Lingnan, and they do not know that the leading general is the emperor himself.

After another three or four days, Emperor Zheng Rong convened the court's civil and military ministers in the main hall of the Forbidden City, the "Taihe Palace", and officially announced the matter of the imperial conquest. In addition to the three princes, Zheng Hua, the king of Heluo, and Zhong Likuang, the prime minister, and a few other people who had already been in love, the other two Zhongshu Ling, the six Shangshu Shilang, and the senior military officers in Beijing also participated in the court meeting.

Originally, such a meeting of the highest level of the imperial court, Qiu Yizhi's seven-grade small county order could not and was unwilling to participate, but the emperor's personal expedition and southward rebellion had a lot to do with him, so the emperor specially ordered him to participate in the court meeting. It's just that the robes of these seven-rank officials are too conspicuous in such a large group of high-ranking officials, but fortunately, Qiu Yizhi and the earl title of Qinfeng are still in his body, so he temporarily made a set of earl's court clothes, which can be regarded as a gregarious among a group of imperial relatives.

The actual significance of such a grand ceremony as the court meeting was not very great—the things to be announced at the court meeting were often decided in advance—but the main significance was to use such a grand ceremony to announce to the whole world that the emperor was going to personally crusade against the rebellion, so as to inspire and boost the morale of the army, and at the same time to demoralize the enemy.

This pre-arranged ceremony was usually presided over by the Ministry of Rites, but the current Ministry of Rites is Shi Liangzhi, the youngest of the six scholars.

This Shi Liangzhi was originally a scholar of the Ministry of Rites when the first emperor Zheng Yong and the puppet emperor Zheng Yao were there. He had a lot of grudges with the current emperor Zheng Rong before, and even once served the order of the puppet emperor Zheng Yao, and presided over the trial of Zheng Rong, who was still the king of Youyan, so that he tortured Zheng Rong's vitality.

After Zheng Rong ascended to the pole, he originally planned to be the first to punish this Shi Liangzhi. Unexpectedly, this young scholar of the Ministry of Rites was very proficient in etiquette, and at that time he put forward a suggestion that Zheng Rong should take Emperor Shenzong as the main Shuo and sit on an equal footing with his imperial brother Zheng Yong, so as to make his ruling foundation more justifiable. With such a great merit, Zheng Rong of course could no longer punish Shi Liangzhi, so he simply punished him by one level and still presided over the affairs of the Ministry of Rites, which can be regarded as a clear proof that the emperor is benevolent and ignores his previous suspicions.

However, this Shi Liangzhi is really competitive, although he is guilty, he is meticulous in running the affairs of the Ministry of Rites, but he has made several contributions in a year, and finally the official was reinstated and re-assumed the position of the secretary of the Ministry of Rites.

Therefore, the court meeting presided over by him was also meticulous and carried out without any cold venue.

And when Huang Zhong Da Lu roared, and Emperor Zheng Rong personally announced that he would personally lead the army to cross the Yangtze River south to quell the Lingnan Palace, several princes and important ministers under the golden rank led hundreds of officials to kneel down together, and the mountain shouted "Long live!" "There's a great momentum that overwhelms the sea.

Then Zheng Rong took out the holy decree that had been prepared long ago, checked the generals one by one, and assigned tasks.

These generals had already been greeted and knew their tasks before the meeting, so they did not feel shocked or panicked at all when they heard the order, but instead they were excited and confident, and they tore their throats one by one to receive the order of thanks. This voice of gratitude was louder and louder, giving people a sense of eagerness to try, just waiting for the emperor to give an order to lead the tiger and wolf division to set foot in Lingnan.

When the court meeting ended, the news that the emperor was going to go south in person spread from the palace to the capital, from the capital to the Guannei, and from the Guannei to the world, as if he had grown wings, and in a blink of an eye, it had spread all over the world.

As early as when Emperor Zheng Rong was the king of Lingnan, he was known for being good at leading troops, and there were not 100 dramas, drum lyrics, and novels describing his leading troops to quell rebellions, exterminate water bandits, and resist the Turks, but also 70 or 80. In the "Battle of Rebellion" a few years ago, Zheng Rong only relied on the strength of Youyan Dao in less than three months to break through the capital Luoyang, forcing the puppet emperor Zheng Yao to set himself on fire, which added to his invincible mythical aura.

Therefore, when the people of the capital heard the news of the emperor's personal conquest, they immediately became excited, and they wanted to compete to see the demeanor of the emperor immediately.

Originally, when the king of Lingnan was in turmoil, in order to ensure the stability of the capital, a curfew was strictly ordered, and no one could go out and walk around for no reason at night. However, this move by the people of the capital is a manifestation of trust in the imperial court, which helps to improve the morale of the people, and cannot be forcibly stopped.

Therefore, the imperial court was ordered by the Prime Minister's Office, and the Yamen of Luoyang Mansion sent additional manpower to prevent fires or people taking advantage of the chaos to cause trouble, so they also let the people do their own thing.

Two days later, it was the auspicious day of the zodiac, and it was organized and arranged by Shi Liangzhi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, to hold a ceremony for the royal drive.

The main gate of the imperial city, which had been closed for a long time, was finally opened today, and the Pingchang Gate, which was set up for the emperor's expedition and triumph directly south of the Luoyang city wall, was also opened rarely. The straight Huangcheng Avenue that communicates the two gates has long been a loess mat road, a clean water splash street, sprinkled and swept meticulously, and a forbidden soldier stands every ten steps on both sides, and it is strictly forbidden for any idle people to step on the avenue for half a step.

At noon, a cannon could be heard in the imperial city, and then the war drums were beating, and the emperor was finally about to lead the army.

The emperor's royal driving action, all ceremonial ceremonies have their own regulations, the ritual utensils used cannot be missing, the flag cannot be more than one, and even the footsteps can not be stepped on half a wrong step.

However, even under such strict regulations, Shi Liangzhi, who presided over the ceremony, still did his best to make a flower.

For example, the troops that take the lead and open the way pay attention to a mighty and majestic. However, Shi Liangzhi did not choose those false forbidden army honor guards, but asked the emperor to issue an order to let Qiu Yi's department and Zhao Chengxiao's 218 people walk at the front of the team.

More than 200 people came from the battlefield in the south of the Yangtze River and returned to the capital after a lot of hardships and deaths. Therefore, in addition to the elite spirit, this group of soldiers also has a bad aura - especially Zhao Chengxiao and his seventeen bandit-born soldiers, all of them have tigers and bears, with fierce faces, riding on high-headed horses, just like a fierce star descending from the sky and a demon crawling out of the ground, which makes people dare not look directly.