Time flickered into December, the second year of Jianwen is at the end of the year, a few days ago because of the victory of the imperial army and full of carnival atmosphere Jinling gradually cooled down with the temperature, inadvertently, Jinling City actually snowed heavily.

These days, there is a lot less news in the north, after the defeat of Zhu Di, the king of Yan, Dongchang, he slipped back to Beiping to rectify the army, and Sheng Yong, who seemed to have become a famous general in the mouth of the people, did not rush it, but regained the city step by step, not only Texas returned to the hands of the imperial court, but even the three mansions in Hejian gradually began to sway, as if Zhu Di, the king of Yan, was really defeated, and returned to the original dilemma of only Beiping.

The southern army and the northern army have entered a long stage of confrontation, there is no flying war on the frontal battlefield, Jinling, the chessboard of the spies wrestling between the two sides, naturally attracted everyone's attention, these days, the secret spy division and Jinyi Wei lurking in Jinling carried out a series of spy warfare and intelligence warfare, the activities of the secret spy department are becoming more and more frequent, constantly building momentum for the king of Yan, and the king of Yan also publicly sent envoys to Jinling again, once again reiterating that as long as the court exterminates Fang Huangqi and other traitors, the king of Yan will give up the southern expedition and return to Beiping, As for King Yan's practice of biting himself to death in Jingjing, Zhu Yunwen gritted his teeth with hatred, but he had nothing to do with Zhu Di, so he could only sternly refuse, and then let Sheng Yong on the front line polish his sword and gun, and wait until the beginning of spring to give Zhu Di a ruthless blow.

At the same time, Jinyiwei also appears more and more often in people's field of vision, up to officials, down to the people, Jinyiwei's Zhao Prison is once again filled with fresh prisoners, the bigger the action of the secret spy department, the more ruthless they will catch people, the two sides continue to fight, but the secret spy department with Gu Huai personally does not show too many flaws, plus Jinyiwei is now understaffed, after a few months of spy warfare, he can only catch some outer spies who spread leaflet rumors, they don't know the core secrets of the secret spy department at all, No matter how good the punishment of Jinyiwei is, there is no way to take them, and after the stalemate on the frontal battlefield, the spy battlefield has also begun to fall into a strange calm.

And in the past two months, the most bizarre thing is that Li Jinglong, who is recognized by everyone, has once again been revitalized and stood on the political stage of Jinling.

All of this has to start from the battle report of the Battle of Dongchang back to Jinling, Huang Zicheng Qitai and the officials of the family invited credit at the court meeting, and Zhu Yunwen also generously gave a reward, but Fang Xiaoru, who was silently watching, was a little unhappy, there is a reason that there is no widowhood but unevenness, everyone assisted His Majesty well before, how did the credit for winning the battle all belong to you? Although the three princes and three orphans are fictitious, he Fang Xiaoru also wants it, so Fang Xiaoru went back and summed up with the officials close to him, and the court on the second day immediately made waves.

And seeing that the three bigwigs of the Cutting Domain faction pinched up, the officials who were also in favor of cutting the feudal domain but hated by the other party Huang Qi and the three of them lit up, although they were also in favor of exterminating the feudal king and never compromised, but internally, they also hoped to pull down incompetent people like Fang Huang, because in their opinion, such incompetent people were really harmful to control the government, but it was a pity that Fang Huang and Qi and the three of them quarreled because of their merits, and Zhu Yunwen's trust in the three of them was still not diminished at all. On the contrary, those officials who hoped that the three of them would get out of the court fanned the flames, but it didn't have the slightest effect, it just made the contradictions between Fang and Huangqi and the three deeper.

But just when the situation on the front line was very good, and the faction began to fight, another voice sounded that was originally scattered and weak to the extreme, and Li Jinglong, who had not dared to see him since returning to Jinling, didn't know what medicine he had taken wrong, and jumped out and began to lash out at Fang Xiaoru and Huang Zicheng for bewitching the monarch and dividing the royal family, and they should be brought to justice, and then make peace with King Yan, let him honestly go back to be the vassal king, and then the world will naturally be peaceful.

Of course, if it was just Li Jinglong who jumped out alone, then everyone could disdain what he said as a fart, but what was surprising was that those officials who were not in favor of cutting the feudal domain in the first place, but who didn't have the opportunity to make a sound, saw the dignified Guogong charging shirtless, and actually pinched his nose and came to his side, and began to wave the flag and shout together, as more and more officials joined, the voice of this faction became louder and louder in the court, and even every day at the court meeting, officials jumped out to denounce Fang Huang and his ilk, making a few people who were not high but powerful into disgrace. And most importantly, they still have nothing to do with these officials.

You must know that Fang Xiaoru and Huang Zicheng are courtiers after all, no matter how much Zhu Yunwen favors them, the court still has to maintain it, if it is just one or two who jump out, like Yu Xin before, and make a mistake like Yu Xin before, and ask His Majesty to punish them, it will be easy to deal with, but so many officials jumped out at once, if Fang Xiaoru and Huang Zicheng dare to risk the world's disapproval and clean them up, what should this court do? Do all the work themselves?

Therefore, with the firm support of so many officials who opposed the cutting of the domain, Li Jinglong, who did not dare to come out because of the two major defeats, suddenly became a rising political star.

At this moment, those officials of the Cutting Clan faction who originally wanted to clean up Fang Xiaoru and Huang Zicheng first regretted it, and hurriedly turned their guns to the outside world, and quarreled with the peace faction in the court every day, and those middle-of-the-road officials who looked like grass on the wall stretched their necks to see, and the originally lifeless Jinling court became more and more exciting day by day.

Of course, no matter how noisy the three major factions are, the core idea cannot be changed, everything is for His Majesty, for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yunwen is a soft-eared emperor, every day in the court to see the officials of the three factions arguing back and forth, you have a set of theories and I have a set of theories, it hurts his brain, yesterday I felt that what the two gentlemen said was extremely true, and Yan Yi must not be tolerated, today I feel that Li Jinglong is reasonable, and if the people suffer in turmoil, wouldn't it go against the original intention of cutting the feudal domain? Over time, he also began to stretch his neck to watch the fight with the mud, like the group of centrist officials, and watch the civil and military officials quarrel in a mess.

At this time, Gu Huai had already taken Li Jinglong as a breakthrough point, constantly looking for targets from officials who opposed the cutting of the feudal domain and sympathized with King Yan, and carried out co-optation and infiltration, and gradually established a larger and more rigorous intelligence network than before.

And Gu Huai, who accompanied Xu Miaojin to live at the foot of Qixia Mountain and watched the whole autumn and winter, finally returned north after laying the overall situation of Jinling.

He looked at the cute little girl in a pure white fur suit, surrounded by mink fur, and wearing rabbit down ear protection, and rubbed her head:

"Before I go, I'm going to see someone."

……

The young eunuch named Huai'en, dressed in the clothes of ordinary people, hurried into the alley with his head bowed, although he had been in the palace for several years, and the neighbors might not be able to recognize him, but he still did not want those people to think of him as a young man who entered the palace as a eunuch.

Most of the people living in this alley are poor people, although it has been a few years since the last time I came, it seems that nothing has changed, and the stone walls and wells where I played as children are also the same as they were at the beginning, maybe the next time I come back, this place will still not change? It's just that I was a carefree teenager before, and now... is already a eunuch who has lived in the harem for a long time.

It's only been a few years, but it's been like a lifetime apart.

Walking all the way, reminiscing all the way, sometimes sour and sometimes sweet, Wynne finally saw the dilapidated thatched hut, the door had been hung with white flags, he pushed open the door, a small coffin stopped in the courtyard, Wynne's nose was sour, and tears poured out: "Mother..."

Huaien's father left early, it was the old lady who pulled him up, probably because the life was too hard, Huaien just grew up, his mother fell ill, there was really no way to live, so he sent Huaien into the palace, but the harem that place is not said to be able to come out if you want to, for five years, Huaien has not been able to come out to see his wife, this time the reason why he can go out of the palace is because the father-in-law in charge of internal affairs received the money and sent a kind heart, knowing that his mother is dead, so he asked him to send his wife on the last trip.

No way, the harem is a very realistic place, if you want to climb up as a eunuch, you have to recognize your godfather, but Huai'en's godfather was killed by Zhu Yunwen in a bad mood before, a young eunuch who has lost his protective umbrella is naturally the target of everyone's bullying in the harem, even if Zhu Yunwen thinks that he is clever and makes him a serving eunuch in the imperial study, there is no way to change this status quo.

The only relative in the world died like this, and he didn't even see the last face, Wynne cried for a while, and a figure in a green shirt appeared by the door, standing with his hands in his hands, looking at him quietly.

"It's time to be buried."

……

A barren slope, a few handfuls of loess, a wooden plaque, and incense, candles, melons and fruits, Wynne knelt in front of the grave and kowtowed deeply.

After a few moments, he straightened up, turned around, and stumbled down towards the green-shirted figure again.

Gu Huai, who had been watching silently, raised his eyebrows: "Guessed my identity?" ”

The Huai En in front of him was a secret child buried by the secret spy department before, and it was not the most important point on the line in the palace at first, but with the start of Jin Yiwei, the missed Huai En became the chess piece that could contact Zhu Yunwen the most.

Wynne, who was kneeling on the ground, did not reply, but kowtowed deeply again.

Xie probably took care of his mother's funeral? Gu Huai thought about it, turned around and walked down the hill.

I just wanted to take a look... Now that I've seen it, there are some things that don't need to be said.

This time I came to Jinling for a long time, although I provoked chaos in the court and made a lot of moves among the people, but what Gu Huai was most satisfied with was Li Jinglong's line that he buried the deepest and most attentively, and the young eunuch in front of him was the second.

A figure walked behind him, looked up at the incense candle on the hillside and the figure still kneeling, and said, "Just him?" ”

"From today onwards, use all resources, including Li Jinglong's side, and spare no effort to let him climb up in the harem."

Thinking of the bits and pieces of these days, Dong Liangcai had great admiration for the green-shirted scholar in front of him, he walked behind Gu Huai with his arms crossed, and suddenly said: "Really left?" ”

"Don't you wish I had gone sooner? With me pressing, aren't you uncomfortable? ”

"That's what I said..."Dong Liangcai pouted, "Don't worry, Jinling will take care of it for you." ”

"It's not to help me, it's to help yourself," Gu Huai's face was expressionless, "When the day the prince enters Jinling, you will thank you for everything you have done today." ”

"Tsk, draw such a big pie?"

"Believe it or not."

"Hey, I said," Dong Liang stopped, "his old lady..."

Gu Huai shook his head slightly: "It has nothing to do with me." ”

He walked away with his hands in his hands, his green shirt fluttering: "I hope that next time I hear your news, it's not that you have been arrested and slaughtered by Pei Xi, revenge, you have to live to be qualified." ”

Watching the green shirt disappear into the night, Dong Liangcai touched the position on his waist where Gu Huai had stabbed him, and grinned with his teeth:

"Don't die, or how the hell will I return this sword?"