Great Han, court.

The Ministry of War presented the military report sent by the Southern Expedition Army in the past few days, and Shangshu read it out in front of hundreds of civil and military officials.

The occupation of the royal court, the death of the Nanban king, the obvious results of the harassment war, and so on.

Above the court, no one doubted Ye Yunyang's ability to command troops, and with the emperor's strong support, there were fewer and fewer voices of doubt, and there were more and more people who sang praises for his merits.

Daqin has a ghost-faced horse, and Dahan has Nanshan County.

When the matter spread below, the people also raised their eyebrows, and the big men sent their children to the military camp to serve, triggering a wave of military enlistment.

The reason why the emperor trusted Ye Yunyang so much was because his granddaughter Liu Yuying would send secret reports every day to tell him in detail about what he had done.

Facts have proved that Ye Yunyang is indeed loyal to the Han and has no dissent.

Leaving the army in command by such a person, the emperor is naturally relieved.

The army won the battle on the front line, and in addition to praising Ye Yunyang, the hundred officials naturally patted Emperor Liu Qi on the back, saying that he was the first emperor of the Han Empire, and Wencheng's martial virtue was an example for future generations.

The emperor was delighted and ordered a feast to be held in the palace tomorrow night to celebrate the glorious achievements of the Nanshan Princes in Nanban.

It wasn't until he walked into the imperial study and sat down, still immersed in the fluttering mood of before, that the prince placed a stack of pieces in front of him, and he didn't even know it.

"What are these movements?" the Emperor asked rhetorically, after coming back to his senses.

The prince replied: "Father, the great drought in the Central Plains has led to a reduction of more than 60% in the autumn harvest, and the grain harvested is simply not enough for the people to survive the winter, let alone next year's spring sowing." The disaster was so big that the officials below did not dare to make a decision casually, so they reported it to the emperor for a decision. ”

The emperor frowned and said, "Since it is a catastrophe, we will immediately allocate food to help the people, and we must let the people survive the winter safely, and we must not miss the spring ploughing." Although the Han Dynasty is using troops against the Southern Barbarians, it is only an army of 300,000 troops, and with the assistance of the Eastern Barbarian King, in fact, the food and silver money consumed are not much, and it will not affect the disaster relief. ”

The prince nodded: "Yes, fortunately, it is only responsible for the consumption of 300,000 troops, Yun Yang has saved a lot of money for the imperial court, if other generals are sent to command the army, I am afraid that they will not only use such a small number of troops, the money and food are consumed innumerable, and what else can be used for disaster relief." By the way, the secret report of the Emperor has also arrived, please ask my father to take a look. ”

He handed over a secret letter, and the emperor glanced at it and asked, "Yun Yang didn't do anything out of the ordinary, did he?"

"No, except for continuing to suppress Cao Ziang, everything else has been done in a decent manner. The prince replied.

The emperor smiled: "Since there is nothing to do, I will not look at it." Tell Ying Ying that when there is nothing to do, there is no need to write a secret letter a day, she writes very hard, and you and I look hard too. ”

The crown prince nodded, took out a secret letter with good fire paint from his arms, and said, "This is sent from Daqin, the thirteenth undercover secret report." ”

"Thirteenth undercover, he hasn't sent a secret letter in years, right?" the emperor frowned.

"It's been more than five years, and this is the first one. The prince respectfully handed over the secret letter and said: "No. 13 has a calm personality, and he is undercover next to that shrewd guy, so he has to be more careful, if it is not a huge matter, he will not send a secret letter, and the son does not dare to be self-conscious, so he did not open it to see, please ask his father to read it." ”

The emperor took the letter, carefully tore open the envelope, took out the letter paper and unfolded it, and his face changed as soon as he looked at it.

The prince was taken aback and hurriedly asked, "What happened?"

The emperor took a deep breath and said, "No. 13 suspects that the relationship between the ghost-faced colt and Ye Yunyang is not normal. ”

The prince raised his eyebrows: "How can you see it, how is it an abnormal law?"

In his opinion, Ye Yunyang was kidnapped by the ghost-faced horse, and later in the matter of Yingqi, the ghost-faced horse suffered a big loss, and if you want to say that the relationship between the two, even if it is not an enemy, at least it cannot be a friend.

Thirteen suspects that they are father and son. The Emperor frowned.

"What? absolutely impossible!" The prince jumped up directly and said: "If it is a father-son relationship, can the ghost-faced horse kidnap Yun Yang, just let people pick him up! If it is father and son, Yun Yang will make Daqin so miserable in the negotiation? It is obviously not right, Yun Yang's father Ye Feng died in battle fourteen years ago, and there was a lot of uproar a while ago, what is that guy's name...... By the way, his name is Cui Xinli, the one who was sentenced to five horses, you should have an impression of your father. ”

The emperor nodded, how could he not be impressed, he made a big fuss about Cui Xinli's case, not only brought down Xiao Yichun and Ji Yuze of the Ministry of War, but even Taiwei Chi Wenbai was implicated because of this case, and finally the Ministry of War was purged, the Taiwei Mansion was sealed, and the military power was firmly in his hands, and there was no idea of sealing the new Taiwei until now.

"That's right, Ye Feng's father has been dead for more than ten years, how can it be a ghost-faced horse. The prince said.

The Emperor handed him the letter and said, "See for yourself, there are four suspicions on the thirteenth, and if you think about it carefully, these four points really don't seem to be groundless." You must know that No. 13 has no grievances with Yun Yang, it is impossible to frame him, he has been undercover for many years, and he is extremely stable, so it is impossible to joke about such a thing. ”

The prince read the letter carefully, and his face became ugly.

On the letter, the thirteenth stated four points, the first point is that the date of Ye Feng's death and the birth of the ghost-faced horse are only a few months in between. And according to his verification over the years, the location where Ye Feng fell off the cliff and the location where Princess Luo Yue was attacked were very close, and the time difference was only more than a month.

After Princess Luo Yue survived, she ignored the constraints of royal etiquette and insisted on marrying a ghost-faced colt with no background, which is said to be to repay the grace of saving her life, but no one knows the inside story.

From the perspective of time alone, there is a reason to connect Ye Feng with the ghost-faced colt, as well as Princess Luo Yue.

The second point is that during the negotiation in the Rising Sun Valley, the two had a secret conversation for a long time, if it was only the relationship between the opponent and the enemy, it was difficult to find a common topic, how could they talk for so long?

The third point, Zhuge Haotang suddenly announced his allegiance to Daqin and gave Ye Yunyang the eastern defense line of the Southern Barbarian King's Court, why did he not withdraw early or late, he had to wait until the army pressed the border to withdraw, and he walked so simply, it was clearly to make way for the Han Barbarian coalition army.

Zhuge Haotang obeyed the orders of the ghost-faced horse, this matter has long been no secret, but what is strange is why he led the army to withdraw as soon as Ye Yunyang appeared, and why did the ghost-faced horse show such cooperation.

Fourth, the 200,000 Qin army suddenly withdrew from the Western Barbarian camp, and Ying Yi was also ordered by the ghost-faced horse, and his withdrawal directly led to a great reduction in the strength of the Western Barbarians, first defeated in the hands of Meng Huo, and then had to take the initiative to show favor and return to Meng Huo's command.

The two retreats of the Qin people, from the point of view of time, were beneficial to the army commanded by Ye Yunyang.

Moreover, Ye Yunyang ordered the troops to stay still several times, just to wait for these two things to happen, proving that he knew about this matter in advance and discussed it with the ghost-faced horse.

Then the question arises again, why did the ghost-faced colt listen to him?

Is it just because of the agreement reached in the negotiations, who will believe it? The ghost-faced horse is the person in charge of the army, and he knows the truth of the soldiers' tricks, even if he had to agree under pressure at that time, he can completely order Zhuge Haotang and Ying Yi afterwards, and let them cause a little trouble for the Han and Barbarian coalition forces before retreating, instead of cooperating with the other party.

The crown prince frowned and said, "Now it seems that the relationship between Yun Yang and the ghost-faced concubine is really not ordinary, but to say that they are father and son, before seeing the conclusive evidence, the son is skeptical." ”

The emperor nodded: "I think so too, Yun Yang has made great contributions to the Han Dynasty, and he has never had a different heart, we should not doubt him." But there is no impermeable wall in the world, and since it is suspected of him, I can't turn a blind eye, even if it is found out and proven to be false, it is better to justify Yunyang's name, right?"

The prince clenched his fists and said: "Father is wise, but how to investigate this matter, it is obviously inappropriate to ask Yun Yang directly." Starting from the ghost-faced colt is an impossible task, what should I do?"

The emperor pondered for a moment and said, "This matter should not be rushed, in case it is known by Yun Yang, it will affect his mentality of commanding the army, and it will be extremely unfavorable to the war." You quietly tell the matter to the Omaki, let her be in charge of the verification, it doesn't matter if it takes a long time, don't rush her. ”

It was a good idea, but the prince was worried, and he couldn't imagine how his daughter would react when she found out about it.

The secret letter passed through the flying wings and was quickly delivered to Liu Yuying's hands.

When he saw the content, Liu Yuying's first reaction was to throw the letter out and exclaim: "How is it possible, the emperor's grandfather and father are dizzy, and they actually suspect that Yun Yang is the son of the ghost-faced horse." ”

After a few moments, she bent down to pick up the secret letter and read it carefully.

Like the emperor and the crown prince, after seeing all the contents, Liu Yuying began to doubt.

Especially when I think back to the time when I was kidnapped, the strange behavior of the ghost-faced colt became more and more suspicious.

Raising his head, he just saw Dongfang Yixue passing by the door, so he ran out and said, "Sister Dongfang, what is Yun Yang busy with, I have a question about cultivation and want to ask him, I don't know if it is inconvenient for him." ”

Dongfang Yixue shook his head and said: "I'm afraid it's inconvenient, I went to bring him tea just now, he was studying the map with General Yin, as if he was deducing something, he didn't have time to drink tea at all, and he didn't even say a word to me." ”

"Who does he want to trap?" the little girl said directly.

Dongfang Yixue looked at her with disgusted eyes and said: "What is a pit, using soldiers is originally a tricky game, he doesn't count others, he has to be calculated by others." ”

Liu Yuying grinned and said, "He doesn't have time to talk to you, let me talk to my sister, I heard that you have known him for a long time, tell me what kind of person he was before, and how did he raise a bad stomach?"

At the same time, Ye Yunyang, who was standing in front of the map, sneezed twice in succession, although he was not superstitious, he still whispered to himself: "Who is talking about me, definitely not saying good things about me." ”

Yin Falcon didn't notice that he was stunned, pointed to one place and asked, "What about here, do you want to send troops to garrison?"

Ye Yunyang shook his head: "It's useless, when the army retreats, it's just a passing place, and there is no need to leave someone to be responsible for answering." Rest assured, the enemy will not leave any men over there, because they have no idea what we really do. ”

Yin Falcon nodded: "Hearing you say this, I'm relieved." I don't know what happened to Meng Tu's side, if he doesn't move, we won't have a chance to copy his back road. ”

"Rest assured, with fragrant bait, he can't be indifferent. ”