On the south bank of the Lai River, the Acropolis of Suzhou.

The Suzhou Acropolis is where the Jiuquan City of the later generations is located, it is the first guard after entering Jiayuguan in the east, known as the first guard in the west, and there are only 20,000 people in the city.

However, due to the heavy task of the West Ping Fanyi, the north to the captive, and the south to Fu Wusizang and the Qiang people, there are a full guard of 5,600 full soldiers, and there is also a Jiayu Pass, which is full of 1,000 people to guard the thousands of households, for the temporary command of the Suzhou Guard during the war.

Therefore, the soldiers owned by the Suzhou Wei are the guards who have the most troops in the Shaanxi Xingdu Division, except for Ganzhou, where the commander is stationed.

It is actually the second city in Hexi, so the commanders of the guards who serve here are all military generals who can take on important tasks.

In the second half of the night, in the Suzhou Acropolis under the night sky, the curfew was pitch black, and only a few vultures flew over the sky and let out a few wails.

What is inconsistent with the tranquility is that a yamen in the city is brightly lit, which is the residence of the Wei Command Embassy.

In the Wei Command Envoy Division, a strong man dressed in crimson drag, about forty years old, with a long beard, was sitting in front of the desk and looking at the recent military newspaper official documents.

"In the fourth year of Jianwen, on May 25, Zhenyi Qianhu fought with Qingqiang, defeated and returned, and lost the north entrance of Qiang."

"In the fourth year of Jianwen, on the eighth day of the sixth month, three hundred miles north of Weibei, Suzhou, a large number of Northern Yuan cavalry haunted."

"In the fourth year of Jianwen, on the tenth day of June, the western section of the Lai River collapsed ......."

He frowned bitterly, checked the military newspapers reported by Suzhou Wei, sighed from time to time, and beat his head and heart that hurt a little.

"Humph! Civilian officials mislead the country, civilian officials mislead the country!! He couldn't help but pound the table and said angrily.

His headache has become more and more serious recently, and he can't sleep all night in pain, and tonight is the same, and he can't help but look at these bad military reports in the inner hall and deal with the official documents.

This person's name is Deng Pingyu, who is the commander of the Suzhou Guard, and the leader of the control of five or six thousand people.

Claiming to be the illegitimate son of the late Ninghe King Deng Yu, it is said that Deng Yue followed Xu Daxi to the Hexi Corridor, and when he returned to the school, he had a night with a Qiang girl, and after Deng Yue left, the woman was pregnant in October and gave birth to this Deng Pingyu.

Regardless of whether this story is true or not, this Deng commander did not insult Deng Yu's prestige, fifteen years from the army, the south and the north, conquering everything, invincible, accumulating military merits and being promoted to the commander of the three products of Suzhou, this is the most promising candidate for promotion to the military attache of the Shaanxi Xingdu Division.

However, since Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne and became emperor four years ago, he felt that everything was not going well, he repeatedly hit a wall in battle, and suffered a lot of defeats, and he suffered from this headache four years ago.

Zhu Yunwen's year name Jianwen, it can also be seen from this era name that Zhu Yunwen should be in stark contrast to his grandfather's Hongwu, one is martial and the other is Chongwen.

Zhu Yuanzhang was martial, the status of the warrior was high, and the kings were divided into border fortresses, and the kings were assigned soldiers and horses, and as soon as Zhu Yunwen came to power, he did the opposite, improving the status of civil officials, suppressing military generals, cutting down the vassals and removing soldiers and horses to the central court.

This Shaanxi Xingdu Division is not like the Department of Political History in the interior, which is sparsely populated, and originally did not set up prefectures and counties and a series of corresponding civil officials, but only set up a guard capital division, and the military and government were attributed to the commanders at all levels, and the military and government were integrated to resist foreign enemies.

However, since Zhu Yunwen ascended the throne four years ago, he began his micro-manipulation master behavior.

First of all, the Minister of Military Affairs was dispatched to the Department of Civilian Counsellor and Military Affairs, and the commander of the capital was stationed in Ganzhou, the same town, and the power of the commander of the capital was divided by half, and even faintly higher than that of the commander of the capital.

This is not the end, just sending a counselor minister obviously cannot go deep into the grassroots level of the various health posts under the Xingdu Division, so they have sent additional political envoys and senators, and each of them has been sent to each guard post to participate in military affairs and government affairs according to the affairs of the judge.

Even the most basic hundred households would be dispatched to each tuntian to be managed by the same governor and water conservancy general, and the power of military attachés at all levels was greatly divided and weakened, making them feel that the imperial court was distrustful and overstretched.

Even he, a military general in the northwest frontier, was not spared, and Suzhou Weizhong sent a political envoy to the council to decide military affairs and fight with him. One is in charge of military law and civil law according to the affairs of the judge.

For this kind of behavior of managing his head with his ass, he feels constrained everywhere, but he can't go up and down, and he can't echo the beginning and end.

In several battles, because of the fingers of these civilian officials who did not understand military affairs, their soldiers had no fighting spirit, and the generals' talents were restricted, and the combat effectiveness of the entire Suzhou Guard Army seriously declined, so they were repeatedly defeated in foreign wars.

Once the civil officials were defeated, they brushed aside the relationship, and handed a note directly to the counselor and minister, which directly led to Deng Pingyu being repeatedly questioned, and this promotion was far away.

He was arrogant and brave in battle, determined to become a famous general like his father Deng Yu, and became a marquis and a general, and his name went down in history.

He is going to be a man of ten thousand households, but now he is trapped in this small Suzhou guard, how can he not be irritable and insomnia?

I saw that this commander Deng was looking at the military newspaper with a lamp, but he saw a commotion outside the commander's yamen, which broke the silence of the midnight.

Deng Pingyu was furious when he looked at this report of defeat, and when he saw the noise outside, he smashed the military newspaper on the table, and Huo Ran got up to look at it.

Before he could go out, he saw a person in his early thirties, dressed in a scarlet robe, embroidered with military attachés and beasts, but he was quite white and polite.

This person's name is Li Chengen, who is the commander of Suzhou Wei, from Sanpin, and belongs to Deng Pingyu's deputy.

Although the official rank is half a grade lower than himself, Deng Pingyu never dares to underestimate this person, although he claims to be Deng Yu's illegitimate son, but this Li Chengen is the cousin of Li Jinglong, the current Duke of Cao Guo, a real relative of the emperor, and he was sent to Suzhou Wei to be a gold-plated official.

"Lord Deng, you have a look." , then Li Chengen handed over the envelope.

Deng Pingyu frowned and snatched it and opened it, and immediately became angry, and before he finished reading it, he threw the general newspaper on the ground and scolded: "Which bastard let them get out of the customs without permission?!" If you let the political envoy know about it, you can't join Lao Tzu again?! ”

"Sixteen people out of the customs, just two of his mother's back, that's all, still at the pass and on duty hundreds of households, according to the judge's affairs, all day long staring at these shitty things Shen Laozi, if these two things are involved, let alone promoted, if you don't degrade the official, your mother's ancestor will burn high incense!"

Deng Ping's temperament was as fierce as fire, pacing back and forth in the hall, scolding.

Seeing that Deng Pingyu was angry, Li Chengen unhurriedly picked up the letter on the ground and said, "Lord Deng, it's not too late for you to read the letter first and get angry." ”

Deng Pingyu hesitated slightly, took the letter again, continued to read it, and placed the letter on the table after a while, unusually silent, stuffy and scary. Frowning at the letter, rubbing his fingers.

I saw his lips move, looked at Li Chengen with a smile on his face, and said, "What about the princess of Beiyuan and the official?" ”

Li Chengen said with a smile: "I placed it in the official post in the Acropolis, and sent more than 100 soldiers from the two general flags to guard it. ”

Deng Pingyu nodded, and paced with his hands in his hands: "It's right, look at it, such an important person, don't make the slightest mistake, now the imperial court is suppressing and monitoring us more and more seriously, don't seek no merit but no fault, report to the court to let these two people live well before the will comes down." ”

Li Chengen said meaningfully: "Does Lord Deng just want to be innocent? This great credit fell into the hands of you and me, and fell into the hands of the suppressed military attachés of Suzhou Wei, so you don't want to turn over? Exporting bad spirits? ”

Deng Pingyu didn't understand what he meant, and asked: "Although this princess of the Northern Yuan Dynasty is a big person, but it is a burden to us, and the credit for doing a good job has been taken away by the counselor and minister, and if she does not do well, she will be blamed." Lord Li, you have also been in Suzhou Wei for a long time, do you still see these civil officials of the imperial court who monitor us? ”

What Deng Pingyu said is true, over the years, he has occasionally captured the high-ranking officials of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, and he also reported to the capital department one by one to report his merits.

But in the end, they all sank into the sea, it was purely a meat bun and a dog that never returned, how could he not know that these credits were taken away by those court officials, and he was tired and tired of encountering these burdens, and he could only seek no merit but no fault.

Li Chengen smiled and said, "Haha, my brother Deng, you only know one and don't know the other." ”

After that, he took out a yellowed rice paper letter from his arms, and Deng Pingyu looked at the paper and knew that it was not an ordinary letter.

Who can use rice paper as a letter, which one is not a dignitary?

At least this desolate border pass is not productive, and even Ganzhou, where the Xingdu Division is located, cannot have it, a terrible thought flashed in his mind, and he was shocked in his heart, and looked at Li Chengen in disbelief.

Li Chengen made a gesture of invitation and said: "There are many people here, so be careful that the wall has ears." ”