Zhang Lan heard this.

During the reign of Emperor Wuzong, Hamiwei fell again, and many officials and people of Daqi were also detained and driven by King Gaochang.

It seems that this girl's family became "Gaochang people" at that time.

No wonder others are reluctant to deal with him, the enemy general, only she is willing to take the lead.

was first forced to become a prisoner of Gao Changguo, and now he is a prisoner of Daqi, such an unfortunate person, where is this girl's family?

Zhang Lan secretly sighed, but his face was still cold, and he ordered the prison guards to open the prison door and release them.

When the girl came out, Zhang Lan deliberately raised his voice and said: "As long as you plant long-staple cotton well, you will be able to reduce the crime as appropriate." If you perform well, you can regain your freedom. ”

When the other captives in the prison heard this, their minds immediately drifted.

What is most important to prisoners?

Freedom, of course!

Zhang Lan looked at the flickering expressions of those people in his eyes and said no more.

When the girl heard his words, instead of being grateful, she knelt on the ground with a "plop" and pleaded with a wailing voice: "The little girl is willing to grow cotton all her life, not to be rewarded, not to be free, but to be able to exchange her father and brother for a life!" ”

The Northwest Army did not have the habit of slaughtering prisoners, but this did not include the old officials of the Great Qi who "defected" to Gaochang and those who had been from other races. Whether it is voluntary surrender or captivity and submission; Regardless of whether they took the initiative to flatter or were forced to become officials after the fall, once they were captured by the Northwest Army, they had only one way to die.

"Who is your father and brother?" Zhang Lan asked.

The girl hurriedly replied: "My father's surname is Liu Zhenzi, and he once succeeded his ancestor as a small official of Hamiwei, and his brother is famous, but now he is all detained in Tiger Prison. ”

Tiger Prison is a place dedicated to the detention of felons.

"Looking home?" Zhang Lan's heart moved.

Where do you want to go?

The girl wiped her tears and choked up: "After the fall of Hamiwei, the ancestor of the family was arrested, and in order to protect the family, he had to go out of a different race, but he cherished his hometown, so he renamed his father 'Zi', which means mulberry zi."

Later, the imperial court did not send troops to recover, and the ancestors missed their old hometown very much, so after the birth of their brother, they named it Wangxiang. But until he died, his ancestors did not wait for the day of Hamiwei Guangfu......"

In fact, not only her family, but also the people in the border land, each of them looked forward to the imperial court sending troops to recover the lost land as soon as possible and redo the people of Daqi, but year after year passed, but it was only "the remnants of the tears in the dust, looking east to the king for another year".

After hearing this, Zhang Lan was greatly moved, thought for a moment, and promised: "This matter is not the final say. However, if your father and brother had not aided in the abuse and had truly repented, he would have made it clear to him that he would have spared their lives. ”

The girl hurriedly bowed her head in thanks: "Thank you, General!" Thank you, General! ”

Zhang Lan's promise tore a hole in the prisoners' defense line against the enemy, and many people could no longer hold it back and recommended themselves one after another.

"General, the villain has also planted long-staple cotton."

"And me."

"The villain's family has been farming for generations, and they have to grow long-staple cotton every year."

……

Zhang Lan was very satisfied with this, and ordered the jailer to ask for the truth and report again.

Now everything is ready, just wait to see the results of the trial.

……

In Jiayuguan, Zhang Hong and others are planting cotton in full swing.

In the Qianqing Palace, it is tense.

"According to the usual practice, there is nothing wrong with knighting the queen's father, I don't know why the cabinet returned the edict?" Qi Yu suppressed the dissatisfaction in his heart and politely asked.

"Although it is a common practice, but the previous dynasty was indiscriminately sealed and poisonous, why should Your Majesty follow the rules and not make another good plan?" Jang Gyu argued.

Qi Yu was even more angry in his heart.

Since it is a common practice, why can't others reward him?

Qi Yu took a deep breath and argued as calmly as possible: "It took more than ten to decades for this dynasty to ornate a queen, and the treasury is full, is there no shortage of Huang Guozhang's share of the knighthood?" It's just a false title, how can it be infinitely poisonous? ”

Zhang Gui did not back down, and even moved out of Emperor Taizu with great disrespect: "Your Majesty only sees one person at a time, so he naturally thinks that it is okay to be knighted." In the long run, however, this will be a burden to the country.

"When Emperor Taizu rewarded his sons and their descendants, he didn't think that a few titles would put a heavy burden on the treasury. But Your Majesty now looks at it, and the amount of rice allocated to their descendants every year can be said to be hundreds or thousands of times that of the original, which has brought a great burden to the national treasury.

Therefore, for the sake of the long term, I also ask Your Majesty to withdraw the edict of the knighthood. This is not the advice of the ministers, and all the members of the cabinet hold this opinion. ”

The implication is that if you don't agree with the emperor, even if you issue an edict, anyway, no matter how many edicts you make, the cabinet will exercise its powers and return the edict.

Qi Yu was furious when he heard this.

The cabinet has always been the only one who is the first to be the first to be

"Yuanfu has worked hard for the country and the people, and today's matter will be discussed here first, and he will discuss it later." Qi Yu inhaled calmly and temporarily retreated.

The cabinet, or the power of the first assistant Zhang Gui, is there, although he is the emperor, he cannot directly knight the prince beyond the cabinet. At present, the two of them insist on their own words, and neither of them will back down, and if they continue to argue like this, there will be no result. It's better to withdraw the troops for the time being, and don't make good plans.

Zhang Gui couldn't help frowning slightly when he saw that although the emperor temporarily retreated, he did not agree to his proposal.

He resolutely opposed the knighthood of the queen's father, did he want to take that bit of rice for himself?

He is not for the emperor, for the sake of the great Qi society!

Zhang Gui did not retreat, and stepped forward and said: "Since the day before yesterday, His Majesty was able to show that it was not easy for the soldiers in the northwest to sacrifice their lives to guard the pass, and did not select the second concubine according to the ancestral system, so as to show the world's self-denial and diligence, and share weal and woe with the soldiers; So why can't we change the ancestral system of knighthood for the lord of the country today in order to avoid the endless poison of the indiscriminate title?

"I hope Your Majesty will think twice!"

The emperor did not select the second concubine according to the ancestral system, in addition to sympathizing with the frontier soldiers, he was afraid that he was even more worried that the Empress Dowager Li would intervene again, and his harem would be all Empress Dowager Li's people in the future.

However, it now gave him a good excuse to advise.

It's just that the emperor doesn't seem to be very disgusted with the Huang family daughter becoming the queen, and he insists on knighting his father, what's going on?

Isn't the emperor like Zheng Yuyan? Shouldn't he be indifferent to the Huang daughter chosen by Empress Dowager Li? Why does the emperor insist on refusing now that he has the opportunity to save face for the Huang family?

Zhang Gui's move of "attacking the shield of the son with the spear of the son" made Qi Yu unable to parry for a while.

Zhang Guina's inquiring gaze frightened him, Qi Yu had to take a step back and said, "Yuanfu's suggestion, I will seriously consider it." It's getting late today, so let's talk about it later. ”