"Brother Chong, the younger brother is now a thousand households under the account of Marshal Guo Zixing of Haozhou, come to the army to kill the Tartars, and have something to eat." The payment is "Brother Tang and Dun Shou". I saw that there were so few words on the yellowed paper in my father's hand, the handwriting was sloppy, and the words were vulgar. Tang Ye felt even more confused.

Tang He sighed slightly and said to his son, "You go and make a fire." ”

It was already late autumn now, Tang Ye thought that his father was old and cold, and he did not doubt him in his heart, so he quickly walked out of the room and ordered his subordinates to give birth to a brazier and bring it to his father's bed.

When there was only father and son in the room, Tang He stretched out his hand, and the yellowed letter paper fell and burned in the brazier.

Seeing that the scribbled handwriting of "Brother Tang and Dun Shou" burned and disappeared in the fire, turning into a wisp of green smoke, Tang Ye's brain flashed, and he reached out to the brazier, and under the burning pain of the flames, he hurriedly withdrew his hand, and stomped his feet again and again and complained: "Dad, what does this letter mean to our Tang family?" Are you confused? Without your letter, there would be no world of the Ming Dynasty. ”

Seeing that his son was so stupid, Tang He couldn't help but stretch out his hand and pat it heavily on the bed, and said angrily: "This is a misfortune, and burning it for my father is not to let him leave his offspring." When it came to the urgency, he couldn't help coughing violently. ”“

When the coughing stopped, Tang He reached out and grabbed his son's palm, and said solemnly: "You must forget today's events, and don't mention them to future generations." You have to understand that without Xu Da, Tang He, without Li Shanchang and Liu Ji, even if there is no one, as long as there is Your Majesty, there will be the world of the Ming Dynasty. As a father, he is in his last years, and his days are numbered. After the death of your father, Your Majesty will grant grace, and you will return to your hometown Zhongli. Future generations must not be domineering and rampant in the township, remember that our Tang family has no reliance, which is the best reliance. ”

"Fengtian carries the emperor, and the edict says: Xinguo Gongtang and do not avoid arrows, loyal and fearless, go down to Xishu, Pingjiangnan, fight two lakes, raise the prestige of my Ming army outside the fortress, and descend to the Tartar Boyan Timur, who is really the minister of my humerus. Specially given Tang and Jin Jue Dongou King, Xiangwu, the eldest son Tang Ye inherited the title of Duke of Xinguo, and returned to his hometown to help the mourners. A few months later, a palace eunuch pronounced the decree in front of a group of men, women, and children of the Tang family wearing mourning clothes in front of him in the mansion of the Duke of Xinguo.

Tang Ye also secretly complained in his heart that his father was the founding father, but he did not get an official position for several sons in the family. Recalling those disgraced ministers of the court, looking back at the men, women, and children who were safe and sound behind them, kneeling on the ground to receive the order, in their hearts for the seemingly confused and old, but in fact like a mirror, the deceased father was full of gratitude and kowtowed to thank him, and couldn't help choking up: "Weichen Tang knocks on the holy grace of His Majesty the Emperor."

The eunuch in charge of delivering the decree didn't know what Tang Ye saw in his heart, and when he received the decree, he was so grateful, and he smiled with satisfaction: "Since it is like our family, we will return to the palace to resume our lives." Yan led a few small eunuchs to leave.

In the brightly lit imperial study, the white-haired Zhu Yuanzhang looked carefully at the folds in his hand, and couldn't help but show a smile on his face full of vicissitudes. It turned out that this letter came from Li Jinglong, the Duke of Cao Guo, which told that the family had a limited population and really couldn't get a lot of land, so he was willing to return the 2,000 acres of land that His Majesty had given to his father Li Wenzhong in his hometown Xuyi to the imperial court and give it to the landless people.

In today's world, from the officials to the people, who doesn't regard the land as their life? Seeing Li Jinglong's letter, recalling that a few days ago, Wuding Marquis Guo Ying also had a similar letter, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but be very happy in his heart, and when he slowly put down the fold, he secretly thought to himself: If the fields are all in the hands of your family, will others still eat and live? It turned out that he was born in troubled times and suffered from hunger since childhood. The parents and brothers in the family are all starving to death, and they have seen too many human tragedies where they are easy to eat, so although they have been emperors for more than 20 years, they still know very well in their hearts that the key to stabilizing the world is the word eating. The world has been peaceful for a long time, but the population disparity between the north and the south has become increasingly prominent, and the reason why he has spared no effort to move many narrow counties in the south to Shanxi, Henan, and the river in recent years is to let more people have land to cultivate. Li Jinglong, Guo Ying's move to return the cultivated land is of course very much in line with his own wishes.

"Your Majesty, Lord Qi of the Ministry of War has entered the palace with Zhao, and now he is waiting for orders outside the palace." The sharp voice of Xue Jing, the head of the imperial study, sounded outside the door of the study.

Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while, recalled what was the matter of summoning Qi Tai into the palace today, and said in a deep voice: "Let him come in." ”

After a while, Qi Tai, who had thick eyebrows and big eyes, and was born with a Chinese face, walked into the imperial study under the guidance of Xue Jing.

Zhu Yuanzhang stretched out his finger and pointed to the letter from the Timurid Khanate in the Western Regions on the desk, and said lightly: "What did you see when I saw the Timurid Khanate this morning?" ”

Although the early court had already heard the officials of the Ministry of Rites reciting this letter, Qi Tai still bowed forward, unfolded the letter and read it carefully, only to see that it was written: Gong Wei Emperor Ming was ordered by the heavens to unify the four seas, benevolence and Hongbu, grace and support, and all countries admire. Xianzhi wants to rule the world peacefully, and the emperor is specially appointed to be the lord of billions of trillions. The light is vast, like a mirror in the sky, there is no distance or near, and the salt shines on it. The minister Timur was thousands of miles away, and he heard that the saints were magnanimous, beyond eternity. The blessings that have not been available since ancient times have been shared by emperors. The emperor obeys the unconquered country. Far away, ignorant places, all clear. The old are not happy, the young are long, the good are blessed, and the evil are fearless. Now and the grace of the distant country, all the merchants who come to China, so that the view of the capital, the city, rich and majestic, such as out of the darkness, suddenly see the day, how fortunate it is! He also undertook the letter of grace and soothed the labor, so that the stations and posts were connected, the roads were not strong, and the people from distant countries could get their help. Admiring the Sacred Heart, like a cup shining on the world, makes the minister's heart suddenly bright. The tribes in the vassal country, hearing the sound of Zde, dancing and wearing. There is no way to repay the favor, but to look up to the heavens to bless the holy longevity and blessings, just as the heavens and the earth are eternal and endless.

Seeing the timeless font, Qi Tai couldn't help but smile dumbly, bowed down and played: "A few months ago, the Khan of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, the Black Son of the Fire Messenger, sent an envoy to the court, willing to submit to my Ming Dynasty as a vassal state, and his envoy once mentioned that although the Sultan Timur of the Timurid Khanate was born in the Turks, he claimed to be a descendant of the barbarian chief Temujin, and since the rise of the Western Chagatai Khanate, the four sides have been conquest and massacre. In Weichen's view, such a ruthless foreign barbarian chief is cruel and murderous, and he probably will not make such sycophants, and this letter is just a wishful translation of the Ministry of Rites officials, and its meaning is inevitably in the opposite direction. At this point, his demeanor gradually changed to solemnity.

Originally, the Chagatai Khanate was one of the four khanates of Temujin, and was later split into the Western Chagatai Khanate and the Eastern Chagatai Khanate. The Timurid family was a nobleman of the Western Chagatai Khanate, and the family was already very powerful in his father's time, and the royal family of the Western Chagatai Khan intermarried with them. During the civil strife of the Western Chagatai Khan, Timur supported the royal family Hussein, who was related to him by marriage. During this period, they were in a bad situation, their forces were relatively weak, and it was during this time that Timur's leg was crippled. Timur finally put Hussein on the throne of the Great Khan. However, Timur rebelled and killed Hussein, and he received the long-dreamed throne and declared himself a descendant of Genghis Khan.

Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang started in troubled times, and he didn't know how many honey-bellied swords he had seen, and he had hidden treacherous people, and he could not be said to have read countless people, so he would not be carried away by this letter full of sycophants, and he couldn't help but bow his head slightly when he heard the words.

Qi Tai knew that the reason why the emperor summoned him was because he was worried about the land of the Western Regions, and after a little thought, he continued: "As Wei Chen can see, the land of the Western Regions is adjacent to the grassland, and there are many ethnic groups. ”

"I will draft this decree, and tomorrow the Ministry of War will issue a document and dispatch Xining Hou Song Sheng to command an army of 80,000 to garrison the Liangzhou Guard." Zhu Yuanzhang turned back to the desk and picked up the brush to draft the purpose.

Qi Tai hurriedly bowed down and said: "In Weichen's humble opinion, the lives of the various ethnic groups in the Western Regions and my Han people are very different, and it is advisable to appease and deter at the same time. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but sigh lightly when he heard this, and slowly put down the brush in his hand. He has been at war with the Mongol Tatars all his life, knows the enemy very deeply, and knows in his heart that these nomadic tribes are as tenacious and tenacious as the weeds on the steppe, if they blindly dispatch a large army to attack, they will be defeated and flee this year, and they will be robbed and killed next year. Thinking about this, he looked up at Qi Tai, frowned and said in a deep voice: "The language is incomprehensible, the customs are very different, who is it better to send the envoys?" As he spoke, he couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart: The civil officials in the court are all Confucian children, and they often value the outline of etiquette and law as if they were their lives.

Qi Tai thought for a moment and then said in a deep voice: "Weichen is bold, and he recommends one person to be the position." Speaking of this, he looked up at Zhu Yuanzhang and continued: "Chen Cheng, an official of the Honglu Temple of the Ministry of Rites, Chen Zilu is proficient in Fanbang language and writing, although he is still young, he is actually a capable person, and he will definitely live up to the trust of His Majesty's court." ”

"Chen Cheng? Chen Zilu? After Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a moment, he suddenly recalled in his mind the young man who was the editor of the Hanlin Academy, wrote against the Qin King's transfer of troops to suppress the foreign rebellion, and later demoted himself to the Honglu Temple of the Ministry of Rites as a seven-grade civil official.

Recalling that this person was only a Hanlin Academy editor in the past, but he was bold and reckless, talking on paper, opposing his son King Qin's transfer of troops to suppress the rebellion, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but be slightly angry, and said coldly: "The court's plan, how can it be child's play, how can you guarantee that this person will live up to my trust?" ”

Qi Tai had only a few encounters with Chen Cheng in the Hanlin Academy in the past, but he was convinced that he would not look away, and he heard the emperor's words with annoyance, but he was not afraid at all, and after taking a slight breath, he said slowly: "Weichen is willing to guarantee with his life. ”

Hearing that this person who is calm by nature and has always had few people who has always been so admired by Qi Tai, the squire of the military department, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but sigh slightly, nodded and walked back to the desk, took the brush handed by Xue Jing, and wrote on the yellow silk: Fengtian carries the emperor, and the edict says: Chen Cheng, an official of the Honglu Temple of the Ministry of Rites, was promoted to the "Wailang of the Driving Department" of the Ministry of War, and was ordered to send an envoy to the Western Regions to Sali Wuer (now the Qaidam Basin, Xinjiang), and presided over the matter of appeasing all ethnic groups......

When the morning sun rises, there is already a stream of people outside the three mountain gates of Yingtian City.

The young man in the official road bowed to Qi Tai in front of him and said: "The official is about to travel far away, I don't know what other teachings the adults have?" ”

Qi Tai thought for a moment and then said in a deep voice: "General Xining Hou Song has been in battle for a long time, and he is following His Majesty's founding generals. He had been an official in the court for a long time, and he knew that the Chinese officials and military generals in the current dynasty had always been quite estranged, and he couldn't help but be a little worried that Chen Cheng was young and vigorous, and he had a dispute with Xining Hou Song Sheng over the matter of appeasing various ethnic groups and setting up a guard office.

"Xining Hou has been guarding Xiliang for a long time, and he is naturally far clearer about the local situation than the lower officials, and the lower officials dare not be stubborn and use their own discretion, so as not to delay the court's plan to appease them." Chen Cheng is now a member of the military department, and in the face of Qi Tai, who is a soldier of the military department, his top boss, he is not cramped at all, and he still said without being humble or arrogant.

Qi Tai's gaze swept over the three-foot long sword at Chen Cheng's waist, and the entourage behind him took a bow in his hand, handed it to Chen Cheng, and said with a smile: "I heard that you practiced riding and archery when you were in the Guozijian, and this time to go to the Western Regions, not to mention thousands of miles away, the foolish brother is rude to send each other, only fake public and private, transfer this riding bow for you to use." ”

Chen Cheng solemnly took the well-made riding bow made by the Ministry of Industry in Tai's hand, which was far better than the inferior bow he used in his practice in the past, and couldn't help but be happy in his heart. When the retinue tied the quiver full of feathered arrows firmly to the side of the saddle, he immediately turned his horse, turned his horse's head after saluting Qi Tai, and led a group of attachés and escorted Ming soldiers to the north.

Seeing the official road under the sun, the backs of Chen Cheng and his party gradually drifted away. Qi Tai recalled that the young man with the title of the gold list, from the Hanlin Academy, which was coveted by scholars all over the world, gave His Majesty a decree to the Honglu Temple of the Ministry of Rites, which was regarded as a yamen for hundreds of officials to eat and wait for death, but he was not decadent and demoralized, and today he was promoted to a five-grade official by the emperor, and when he went to the Western Regions alone, he did not have the slightest ambition to be complacent, and he couldn't help but bow his head slightly. In his heart, he firmly believes that this young man who has risen and fallen in the officialdom but has not lost his ambition, and is still so honorable and disgraced, will never be knocked down by thousands of miles of wind and frost and endless hardships.