In the early morning of the twentieth day of the lunar month, Song Nan wore a robe and jade belt, dressed in a majestic vessel, and entered the palace under the support of the brocade guards and guards; Hundreds of officials gathered in front of the Fengtian Palace, the most eye-catching is the heavily armed regimental commanders nested in a place, most of them are not in the court on weekdays, but today they are collectively attended, when they see Song Nan coming on foot, the Hou Ye's eyes suddenly lit up, and they looked like they were the same enemy.

The British Duke Zhang Mao stood in the corner accompanied by Zhang Lun, coldly watching the commanders of the regimental battalion around Xu Guangzuo thoughtfully, while Xu Guangzuo squinted with a smile, and whispered something to the princes who looked at Song Nan angrily from time to time.

Song Nan is the absolute protagonist today, everyone knows that today is the day when Song Nan is promoted and knighted, but what position he is promoted is intriguing, and the attitude of the marquis of the regimental camp is already obvious, so when Song Nan smiled and saluted the officials who looked at him, the officials were still saying congratulations, but their eyes could not hide the excitement of gloating.

Song Nanjing went to the old man and saluted by himself: "Old man, are you in good health?" ”

Zhang Mao snorted and saluted in return: "Thanks to you, I'm not angry." ”

Song Nan smiled and said, "Has the little grandfather ever conveyed my meaning to the old man?" What does the old man think? ”

Zhang Mao naturally knew what Song Nan was referring to, last night Song Nan went to visit the Guogong Mansion, Zhang Mao deliberately avoided it, and only sent Zhang Lun to see Song Nan; Song Nan and Zhang Lun said those words, the grandfather and grandson discussed for a night, and they both felt that this matter was unlikely, thinking that Song Nan was dying. It is not easy to add a new camp in Beijing, this move will attract unanimous opposition from the whole court, and Song Nan is afraid that he will suffer a big loss in this matter.

But as long as Song Nan does not insist on entering the regimental camp to replace someone, the atmosphere in the regimental camp will not be tense, and Xu Guangzuo's method of winning over the relatives will not succeed. In the final analysis, the marquis are all old relations of Zhang Mao, as long as their interests are not harmed, they will not openly deviate from the British government. Whether Song Nan's matter can be achieved or not is a trivial matter, at least this kid still understands that it is impossible to enter the regimental camp, if Song Nan insists, the British general will not hesitate to openly oppose it in the court.

"Does it matter what the old man thinks? Now that you have made up your mind, and the emperor has promised you, it is useless for the old man to say anything, the old man only reminds you that what should be yours will be given to you, and it is useless to force it if you should not ask for it, and some things are not something you can get if you want to. ”

Song Nan smiled and said: "The old man has something to say, but forgive me for being stupid, I don't understand your wit; Song Nan only believes in serving people, and the old man understands in his heart that I have fulfilled my obligations to the British government, and I only hope that the old man will help me at that time, and it is my business whether it will be successful or not. ”

Zhang Mao said: "The old man can only promise not to object, in fact, it is better not to get that position, if the old man is you, he will not want anything this time, let the emperor owe you this love." ”

Song Nan smiled and said, "Can you do this or look at the face of the little county lord, right?" I understand, the old man really does what he says, and he will never give me the slightest help to Song Nan. But the old man doesn't know me well enough, I will never want what I shouldn't want, and I don't hesitate to fight for what I deserve, I can't compare to the old man's Taoguang Yang, I'm so superficial. ”

Zhang Lun frowned and said, "Song Nan, why do you talk to the old man like this, you don't know the difficulty of this matter?" ”

Song Nan sneered: "It's embarrassing, what is not a difficult thing in life, I just want to know, who will stand up for me Song Nan at a critical time, maybe I'm too naïve." That's it, in this case, I don't pray that the old man will help me, I am sometimes a guy who doesn't hit the south wall and doesn't look back, today's thing is the opposition of the Manchu Dynasty, I also have to fight, not for the promotion of the official to make a fortune, just for this breath. ”

Zhang Mao sneered: "Ambitious, hehe, it's just a little stupid." ”

Zhang Lun also frowned and said, "Song Nan, why bother like this, take a step back and open the sky......

Song Nan smiled and bowed his hand, said no more, turned around and walked up the steps in front of the hall. Although I couldn't hear the conversation between Song Nan and the British duke clearly, the officials who observed the words and expressions had already guessed some clues from the expressions of both sides, and it seemed that the rumors that Song Nan had made great achievements this time but would gain nothing were true, and it was still wishful thinking to snatch the military position of the leader from the hands of the old relatives, even if he was made a marquis.

Thinking of the time when Song Nan returned to Beijing, the saint led the civil and military officials to welcome the grandeur and brilliance of the ten-mile long pavilion, and then thought about the qiē that was about to happen in the hall today, and the hearts of the civil and military officials flashed two words, that is: tiger head and snake tail, laugh off the big teeth!

The bell buzzed, and the heavy door of the Fengtian Hall also creaked open under the vigorous push of several attendants, and the huge candles in the Fengtian Hall were feverish, shining brighter than the light of the early morning, and the officials stopped humming and greeting each other, and they all dressed up and lined up according to the train and slowly climbed the high steps to enter.

Dozens of red-helmeted and red-armored Han generals came out of the side halls on both sides, standing majestically around the dragon seat, and then under the guidance of several fathers-in-law in the inner court, Zhengde slowly walked out and boarded the dragon seat.

"There is a book to play, and there is no book to retreat!" The old-fashioned opening remarks rang out from the mouth of the waiter.

Officials from the household department and the ministry of officials came forward to report on the relief and reconstruction after quelling the rebellion of the thieves and soldiers, as well as the appointment and dismissal of officials.

Dealing with these trivial matters, Chao Shang suddenly fell into silence, Zhengde glanced down the hall, and saw Song Nan's figure standing on the side of the fourth row of aisles, and said with a smile on his face: "Song Nan, you come forward." ”

Song Nan hurriedly bowed and saluted, and said solemnly: "Song Nan, after three days of rest, has your body and spirit recovered?" ”

Song Nan said: "Emperor Xie is sympathetic to his subordinates, and his body has been much better these days." ”

Zhengde smiled: "That's good, I said, the day you return from vacation is the time when I give you a reward for meritorious deeds, and the focus of today's morning dynasty is this matter, and all the generals who have done meritorious work have entered the palace?" ”

Song Nan said: "They are all waiting outside the hall." ”

Zhengde said: "Announce their audience." ”

After a while, Xu Taijiangbin was the leader, and more than a dozen generals who followed Song Nan to suppress the thieves hurriedly entered the hall, knelt on the ground and shouted long live, kowtowing and saluting; Zhengde smiled and waved his hand: "Everyone, you are all meritorious ministers, today I want to give you a reward, stand aside and wait." ”

The generals hurriedly got up and found a place to stand.

Zhengde glanced back at Song Nan, raised his eyes to sweep the civil and military officials, and said quietly: "Everyone, this time to suppress the thieves, the commander of the Jinyi Guard made Song Nan come forward, lead the army to sweep the anti-thieves, annihilate 70,000 thieves, and ensure the stability of our society, which can be described as a high degree of hard work." A few days ago, I asked you for your opinion on this reward for Song Nan, but I had different opinions. ”

Zhengde paused, glanced around at the expressionless civil and military officials, and continued: "I'm thinking, and no matter how brave Song Nan is in crisis, regardless of Song Nan's courage to shoulder heavy burdens and share the country's worries during the crisis, judging from Song Nan's appearance of suppressing thieves this time, Song Nan is a general who leads the troops. I know that many people will not be convinced, and I don't want to expose your scars, some of you usually boast of your bravery, and the cowhide blows loudly, but when you go to the battlefield, are you still beaten by thieves? I don't want to blame anything, after all, victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, but the truth is obvious, the winner is naturally more capable of leading the army than the loser, do you say that I am talking about it or not? ”

Xu Guangzuo's face was gloomy, the emperor's words seemed to be incompetent, he was the first to take command and suppress the thief, and it was his son who returned from the defeat on the East Road, didn't the emperor's words come to him.

"The emperor is sage, but it can't be generalized, the affairs of the soldiers are complex and changeable, and there are many accidents. is like Xu Yande's defeat in Shandong, because he didn't understand the thieves, and he didn't expect the thieves to be so fierce that he was defeated; And after Lord Song took over, it was precisely because of Xu Yande's defeat that he was cautious, or it can be said that Lord Song's victory also had Xu Yande's credit. It was Jiao Fang, a member of the Cabinet University, who spoke, and he really said some truth in this eloquent manner.

Some people covered their mouths and snickered, some people scoffed, and some people echoed their words, such as Xu Yande, who could also be said to be meritorious, and had to admire Jiao Fang's shamelessness and eloquence.

"It's really a joke, when Xu Yande suppressed the thieves, the number of thieves was less than 20,000, and when Song Nan suppressed the thieves, the number of thieves had reached more than 60,000. Yang Tinghe spoke coldly, and the sarcasm was overflowing.

Jiao Fang said expressionlessly: "Lord Yang, this is too much, do you mean to say that the development and growth of the thieves is due to the defeat of Grandpa Xu?" So the old man, may I ask, at the beginning of the anti-thief incident, there were only hundreds, and when Xu Yande received the order to suppress the thieves, it had reached tens of thousands, and it had increased dozens of times in just one month, whose responsibility is this? ”

Yang Tinghe said: "That's the responsibility of the Ministry of War, the commander of the Bazhou Wei has been investigated and imprisoned for concealing the enemy, and Liu Daxia, the secretary of the Ministry of War, has also taken the blame and resigned, has Lord Jiao forgotten?" ”

Jiao Fang said again: "Then may I ask ......?"

Zhengde snorted coldly and said: "Two, I am discussing with you about the rewards of meritorious officials, but I am not here to listen to your cabinet arguing about who is right and who is wrong, you should leave these matters to the cabinet to argue; As for the reason for Liu Liu's rebellion against thieves this time, I would also like to hear the conclusion of the cabinet, but it is not what is discussed today. ”

Jiao Fang hurriedly stopped, bowed his hand and retreated, Xu Guangzuo threw away his grateful gaze, since the defeat of the army, he finally heard that someone was aggrieved for his father and son, and he was really caught off guard when he suppressed the thieves, who would have thought that the thieves would suddenly be so powerful, if he had known that this was the result, Xu Guangzuo would not let Xu Yande serve as the governor of the East Road to suppress the thieves.

"I feel that Song Nan has both the talent of leading the army, and the courage and behavior to serve the Daming Society, so I feel that it is appropriate ......to grant Song Nan the position of Admiral of the regiment and battalion, and give full play to his leading talent."

Everyone held their breath and condensed, and said in their hearts: When it comes to the topic, let's see the reaction of the marquis of the regimental camp, the protagonist of this time is not the outer court or the inner court, but these nobles who hold the military power and enjoy honor on weekdays. For some reason, many courtiers suddenly felt a surge of happiness in their hearts, expecting to see these guys who were most favored by the royal family in the Ming Dynasty deflated.

Zhang Mao frowned, listening to the emperor's intentions, he hadn't given up the idea of letting Song Nan enter the regimental camp to replace a certain marquis, so he couldn't say that he would come out openly against it, at this moment, as the governor of the regimental camp, if he didn't try his best to speak for the eleven marquis under him, then these guys would really leave him in the future.

Not only did Zhang Mao think so, but the eleven marquis of the regimental camp also looked at each other, and everyone had reached a consensus in the past few days, once the emperor asked Song Nan to replace one of them for no reason, the rest would never stand idly by, but would put pressure on the emperor at any cost. There is Song Nan today, and there will be others tomorrow, and the fate of a certain marquis today may not be his own fate tomorrow.