When Zhang Jinyan cast his complicated gaze on Niu Jinxing, he didn't notice that the soldier behind him was looking at his back with the same gaze, and when Niu Jinxing turned around and broke up with Zhang Jinyan, the latter used all his strength to squeeze a smile on his face, and nodded at the former's instructions like garlic. Niu Jinxing walked away, Zhang Jinyan's waist straightened up with the disappearance of the prime minister's background, tilted his chin and turned his head, nodded majestically at the smiling soldier with a smile on his face, and waved his hand to signal that they could get busy.

At present, there is no need to take any risk to say bad things about Xu Ping in the DPRK, because there are too many people who say that he is not good, but saying that he is good will be looked down upon by his colleagues, and of course the squire of the military department will not go to find this trouble for himself - Xu Ping and he are not related to him and have never given him benefits, why should he help Xu Ping with this favor? What's more, because of the existence of Xu Ping, the Ministry of War has become the most oil-free department, and it has almost degenerated to a level of the Ministry of Rites, no, it is not as good, at least the princes and lords will send them something, but Xu Ping is a complete iron rooster and porcelain tiger, and he does not pull out a dime - now there are people in the Ministry of War who laugh at themselves and call them Huazi Ministry.

The squire of the military department carefully considered his own measures, he just said that some officials of the military department and even hundreds of officials in the DPRK and China were whispering and were also widely believed by everyone, and he said to Zhang Jinyan in private that it was not written on the official chapter, no matter whether Zhang Jinyan was promoted or unlucky in the end, the squire of the military department was confident that he was in an invincible position, if Xu Ping could repent or choose another general, it would be even better.

After leaving the hundred officials, Niu Jinxing went to meet King Shun alone, after giving up Jiangnan, Li Zicheng's dissatisfaction with Xu Ping was increasing day by day, a year ago King Shun still had a disdainful attitude towards the impeachment of Xu Ping for greed in the Prime Minister's Mansion, but now he often looks at it several times, and then thinks about it for a while, and finally sighs a few times and returns it to Niu Jinxing without any comment.

Today, Niu Jinxing presented Li Zicheng with a piece of impeachment of Xu Ping's henchman Zhou Dongtianqiang for robbing the people's daughter, because this person has always been angry with Xu Ping, refuses to give some convenience to Chen Zhe and others, and helps Xu Ping accumulate money but never wants others to get involved, so he is the second hated figure in the army.

"General Zhou robbed the people's daughters and killed the people, General Xu shielded the murderer, and then accepted him as his favorite." After watching the recital, Li Zicheng shouted: "Li Jiantai just said to the widow that General Xu is not close to women, and he will not take anything!" ”

"The minister heard that Xu Ping sent hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to Li Jiantai."

"Who said that? When was this? When Li Zicheng heard this, he was furious, and asked the guards to pass on Li Jiantai immediately.

But Niu Jinxing stopped Li Zicheng's impulse, he honestly admitted that this was an outside rumor, and there was no real evidence, and it was precisely because of this that he did not write a chapter of impeachment, telling Li Zicheng that it was only out of his loyalty to the obedient lord.

"Since it's a rumor, how do you do it?" Li Zicheng blamed him dissatisfiedly, but in the final analysis, Niu Jinxing did this because of loyalty, so Li Zicheng didn't want to say anything more, but silently discounted Li Jiantai's words in his heart.

But Niu Jinxing immediately pointed out that the impeachment of Zhou Dongtian was not a rumor, and there was still a complaint from the bitter lord in it, but the war on the Jianghuai side was urgent, so the magistrate did not accept the case.

Li Zicheng was still quite skeptical of this, he had rewarded Xu Ping with some palace maids before, but the other party quoted Yue Fei's words and refused, Li Zicheng asked himself if it was Zhao Gou, so although he was a little stupid at first, he still praised it in his heart. Since this is the case, Xu Ping doesn't even want a palace maid, how can he want a woman who Zhou Dongtian robbed? Li Zicheng felt that he was a little incomprehensible.

Fortunately, Niu Jinxing helped Li Zicheng to understand, the reason why Xu Ping didn't want palace maids before was because these palace maids were people with hands and eyes, and they still had a relationship with the palace, even if they were not spies deliberately sent by King Shun, they could still leak every move around Xu Ping to King Shun's eyes and ears. If you compete for favor, it will become even more terrifying, and the jealous palace people may be resentful, and casually saying two bad words about Xu Ping can make him unlucky. If Xu Ping took in these palace maids, it would not be to please his wife, but to put some gods and Buddhas at home for him - is that man willing to do this?

And these folk girls who have no background and no relationship are different, and Zhou Dongtian is not only a peasant woman, but there must be some small jasper or a lady from a large family.

Li Zicheng stiffened his face and said nothing, Niu Jinxing continued: "Since ancient times, accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger, and General Xu is afraid of Tianwei and can't say that it is wrong or unreasonable. ”

"How could the widow insist on stuffing the female officer to him?" Li Zicheng said with some annoyance: "The widow rewarded the minister in order to make them happy, not afraid. ”

"Your Majesty." Bull Venus praised.

For so many years since the founding of the country, Li Zicheng's ears have heard all kinds of praises, Niu Jinxing is one of the very rare people who dare to tell the truth - such as today's speculation about Xu Ping and his suspicion of Li Jiantai, Li Zicheng believes that other courtiers must not dare to say to themselves, they always say that everyone respects and loves King Shun and works hard under the Dashun Holy Dynasty, and only Niu Jinxing will tell him that the courtiers below are actually selfish.

"No wonder Tang Taizong likes Wei Zheng." Li Zicheng suddenly felt a lot of emotion in his heart, although Dashun was exempted from taxation for three years, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the prison was clear, but there will always be some defects, Li Zicheng can hear all kinds of gratifying scenes from hundreds of officials, but only Niu Venus will privately say to himself that although these are rare, there are still shortcomings.

"Zhou Dongtian killed five people and injured more than a hundred." Li Zicheng's attention returned to the case at hand, how to deal with this case made him feel a little troublesome, although many people impeached Xu Ping for incompetence and humiliation of the country, but Li Zicheng knew that Xu Ping was powerful, and he never had the idea of changing generals in battle, this Zhou Dongtian was Xu Ping's henchman, and the stolen folk girl was also sent to honor Xu Ping, Li Zicheng was unwilling to deal with this case, at least at this time. If you knock Xu Ping a little and let him not do this kind of thing again in the future, Li Zicheng is very satisfied, after all, this Dashun is his world, and Xu Ping's significance to Dashun is not comparable to some people, Li Zicheng set his eyes on Niu Jinxing: "What does the prime minister think should be done?" ”

"The minister thinks that Zhou Dongtian is also a hard worker, he was born and died for His Majesty, and killed the enemy in blood, this is actually a small section," In fact, Niu Jinxing has always been very wary of Zhou Dongtian, this person is Xu Ping's sworn friend, if one day in the future, Xu Ping and Li Zicheng The contradiction intensifies - if there is really such a day, Niu Jinxing believes that Zhou Dongtian will definitely give Xu Ping a yellow robe, and he is convinced that this person puts his loyalty to Xu Ping above his loyalty to Dashun: "It is better for the minister to send this impeachment chapter to the general in the name of the Prime Minister's Mansion, If the general punishes Zhou Dongtian and then expresses his thanks, the minister thinks that this matter will be about the same. ”

"Well," Li Zicheng nodded, and returned the impeachment note to Niu Jinxing: "There is Prime Minister Lao, I won't just ask about this matter." ”

The results soon became clear, Xu Ping returned the impeachment note sent to the Prime Minister's Mansion, and wrote two big characters in thick ink on it: "Ridiculous!" I didn't even bother to write about myself - similar rumors of impeachment Xu Ping had heard too many times, and he still had more than 100,000 troops to command, so he really didn't have time to find out the reasons one by one, and then explain them to the Prime Minister's Office.

Li Zicheng held the impeachment chapter with both hands, with two dark and dazzling characters on it, although this letter was sent to Xu Ping in the name of the Prime Minister's Mansion instead of him, but Li Zicheng saw these two words when he first rose up a burst of anger, when the initial sense of anger gradually passed, Li Zicheng groaned and said: "Maybe the general doesn't know about this at all?" ”

Today, Niu Jinxing also brought the messenger who went to send the recital, he gestured with his eyes, and the messenger immediately stepped forward and reported to Li Zicheng that Xu Ping had not carefully read the recital of impeachment against him at all, let alone called Zhou Dongtian to inquire, but just skimmed it roughly, sneered and criticized the word "ridiculous", and then fell at the feet of the envoy and asked them to bring it back.

"General Xu still wants to protect Zhou Dongtian." Niu Jinxing commented coldly on the side, if Xu Ping didn't know, he would at least call the person concerned to ask about it, instead of refuting it without thinking about it, he didn't even look at it carefully.

Li Zicheng had to admit that what Niu Jinxing said was very reasonable, but after thinking for a while, he weakly threw the chapter aside: "Since the general must be protected, the widow will not pursue the matter." ”

"There is one more thing to ...... minister" Recently, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household made a big fuss about the Prime Minister's Mansion, because Xu Ping actually asked the Prime Minister's Mansion to purchase smuggling machines at the expense of the army, although the Ministry of Industry has always been dissatisfied with Xu Ping, but it is more than enough than the top, more than the bottom, looking at the shabby appearance of the colleagues in the Ministry of War, they are still very happy in their hearts - at least Xu Ping wants weapons instead of silver to make them himself; The situation is similar in the household department. But this time after Xu Ping proposed to use military funds to buy weapons, the Ministry of Industry immediately jumped three feet high, insisting that this case could not be opened, and the Ministry of Household also went to Niu Jinxing with the Ministry of War to shout, saying that Xu Ping shouted poverty all day long, but now he actually has spare money to buy smuggled goods at a high price, since this is the case, military spending should be reduced, after all, the country has to use money everywhere, and the Ministry of War also said that not only Huguang needs more supplements, but now the war in Yunnan is getting worse and worse, and the Ming army has surrounded Kunming and needs a lot of troops and military funds to support- If Xu Ping didn't go so much, the military department said that they would still be able to piece together reinforcements and not do nothing about the war in the southwest as they are now.

"What is Xu Ping doing here?" Li Zicheng didn't understand the relationship inside, and Xu Ping said in the chapter that he wanted to imitate this kind of machine to make munitions.

Niu Jinxing's explanation, that is, the news he heard from the Ministry of Household and the Ministry of Industry, was that Xu Ping planned to set up some factories to make money, and he had reached an agreement with some local businessmen.

"Of course, the army eats imperial food, how can it earn its own money?" Li Zicheng shouted, when Dashun summed up the lessons of the former Ming Dynasty, one of them was that the army was engaged in production so it raised a large number of military towns with no combat effectiveness, so Dashun mainly used the military system of the former Song Dynasty, at least to make the central army and the border guards out of production: "And the war is so urgent, Xu Ping doesn't want to fight how to fight, how can he just move the idea of making money?" ”

As a result, Xu Ping's proposal was naturally vetoed, and Li Zicheng also agreed that the Prime Minister's Office should send commissioners to thoroughly investigate the distribution of soldiers and military salaries on the Jianghuai battlefield. Since the Jianghuai Shun army had become so corrupt, Niu Jinxing felt that the imperial court could be tougher on them, and he suspected that many soldiers and officers in the army were already dissatisfied with the ink-greedy Xu Ping, and that such a gesture by the imperial court would help to calm the resentment in their hearts and take away their favor from Xu Ping; In addition, even the Jianghuai Shun Army has a large number of old battalions, and the pure and pure Xu Pingyan only has two battalions of guards and armor, and the armored battalion has been under Li Laiheng for many years.

Although he has these supports, of course Niu Jinxing will not be willing to turn his face with Xu Ping, so he plans to focus on beating, as long as Xu Ping reins in his arrogance and serves the country honestly again, Niu Jinxing does not intend to go too far, as for all kinds of bad deeds, he also intends to be vague in the past, and does not hold Xu Ping himself responsible. Thinking about these things in his heart, Niu Jinxing bowed to Li Zicheng and withdrew from the palace.

This time, Li Zicheng did not return the impeachment of Zhou Dongtian to Niu Jinxing, and the latter did not think about this trivial matter when he left in a hurry, and after returning to the apse, Li Zicheng read this recital again from beginning to end, which was full of blood and tears of innocent people, as well as Xu Ping's two big characters of dragon flying and phoenix dancing.

"For the sake of the overall situation, the widow has a clear conscience." Li Zicheng suddenly shouted: "But Xu Ping, have you forgotten that we once high-fived and swore an oath?" Have you forgotten your original ambition to create a peaceful world for all peoples? ”

……

"The only way to do this today is to let the prince return to Beijing to defend the general." Faced with rounds of verification of soldiers and military spending, Zhou Dongtian suggested to Xu Ping that another heavyweight, Liu Zongmin, had returned to Beijing due to injury half a year ago, and he could not count on it for the time being.

Xu Ping was so annoyed by this kind of verification that the Prime Minister's Office, with the support of Li Zicheng, reduced the appropriation for the Jianghuai Shunjun and declared that it would not be resumed until the verification was clear, Xu Ping had no reason to refuse such an inspection, and he was not afraid of such a verification at all.

But things soon evolved beyond Xu Ping's control, and the officials of the military department found fault with the Jianghuai Shunjun army and found all kinds of problems, and Xu Ping had to justify every problem they found. Although every question proved to be a fuss or a fabrication, it was a waste of his energy.

The bigger waste is time, Li Dingguo detected that the strength of the Ming army in Hunan was strengthening, and he judged that the next large-scale attack of the Ming army was imminent, and at this time the pressure of the Ming army on Yangzhou was also increasing, Xu Ping not only needed to consider how to defend Jianghuai, but also needed to consider how to contain the Ming army to reduce the pressure on the Huguang battlefield. This required Xu Ping to mobilize more troops, train more recruits and replenish his army with more equipment, but these much-needed tasks were delayed by verification.

Chen Zhe and Zhou Dongtian both persuaded Xu Ping to bribe, and they both pointed out that this was simply the general outbreak of resentment against Xu Ping by officials in the imperial court for many years - these dissatisfactions had been suppressed because of Xu Ping's successive victories, and with the loss of Jiangnan, the resentment that had been suppressed by Xu Ping's prestige began to break through the cage and be able to speak openly, and finally converged into this torrent.

But Xu Ping held his ground and explained to his subordinates that if their wishes were fulfilled this time, then the court officials would gain an inch in the future; And if they pass this time, Xu Ping thinks that they will understand their firm position, and they will not try this useless work again; The most important thing is that Xu Ping believes that this is a matter of principle that does not need to be considered at all: "How can the front-line soldiers who are fighting bloody battles and lack food and clothing to give these things to the corrupt officials in the rear?" ”

Xu Ping unremittingly defended his letter, and confronted the Prime Minister's Office in his recital to King Shun, saying that he was not opposed to verification at all, but this kind of deliberately difficult verification would only be harmful to the country and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the front line. For this kind of remarks, Xu Ping got a bunch of impeachments for "holding the monarch's father" or "blackmailing the imperial court".

As the days passed, the Ming army's attack on Jianghuai and Hubei seemed to be imminent, but Xu Ping was still not ready to repel the enemy's attack.

After hearing Zhou Dongtian's proposal to ask Li Laiheng to return to Beijing to explain for himself, Xu Ping hesitated, but still wanted to object: "Yangzhou is a heavy land, and the commander will be changed ...... battle."

"My lord, don't think about military issues," Zhou Dongtian hurriedly interrupted Xu Ping's train of thought: "If you can't explain it clearly to the lord, your lord will not be far from the Fengbo Pavilion." ”

At this time, there was no one else in the tent, Xu Ping sighed when he heard this, and he didn't have the slightest intention of blaming Zhou Dongtian for arguing.

Zhou Dongtian carefully observed Xu Ping's face for a while, he had encouraged Xu Ping to be self-reliant before, but he was categorically opposed, this time he thought about it, and whispered: "Have you considered it...... Well, persuade the Lord to go to Zen? ”

"Zen Jean?"

"Well, yes, please go to the Zen Lord, not for the prince but directly for the grandson." Zhou Dongtian said: "The elite of Dashun is in the hands of adults, if Wang Taisun also has this intention, the Gyeonggi region can also be combined inside and outside, and when we first clear those villains in the court, and then fight with Nanming, we will have no worries." ”

If Li Laiheng was not brought in, Zhou Dongtian was worried that if he had not succeeded in returning to Beijing, the Jianghuai Shun army would have to make a fuss, and Liu Zongmin and others would definitely not be convinced, and the vassal kings would inevitably have different intentions.

Xu Ping smiled bitterly and shook his head again and again: "This is a rebellion, Brother Zhou, I am not a loyal minister if I lose it, otherwise you would have lost your head a long time ago." ”

"If these villains are allowed to toss like this, we will all have to be the prisoners of Nanming sooner or later," Zhou Dongtian became a little excited: "The left and right are all dead, it is better to fight to the death to protect the crown prince and grandson!" ”

"Just now you talked about Fengbo Pavilion, I have been thinking, if King Yue disregarded the overall situation and led the army back to the capital to kill Zhao Gou to kill you to the death, would there still be two hundred years of rivers and mountains in the Southern Song Dynasty? The hatred of Yashan and Shenzhou Lu Shen are only afraid that they will come true immediately, right? Xu Ping shook his head solemnly: "If there is anything, we have to wait until after the defeat of the Ming army, now the overall situation is important, not a good opportunity to fight." ”

After vetoing Zhou Dongtian's suggestion, Xu Ping began to think about it seriously, and shared this idea with Zhou Dongtian: "If we can fight another big victory, similar to Anqing, maybe we should consider peace talks with Qi Gong, well, if there is another big victory, I will put a heavy army on the river, pressure Qi Gong to negotiate peace, with the Yangtze River as the boundary, do you think it is possible?" ”

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