In the Yan army camp in Texas, Zhu Di was squatting in front of the stove to roast the fire, looking not at all like a vassal king with an army of more than 100,000 troops, but more like a military man with a depressed atmosphere.

On the other side of the stove squatted Gu Huai, he picked up a piece of firewood and stuffed it into the stove, stretched out his hand to feel the warmth brought by the flame, and was not in the mood to take the initiative to speak.

The two of them just roasted the fire without saying a word, watching the flames in the stove beating, Zhu Di had grown a beard many years ago, so it looked okay, Gu Huai has always had the habit of shaving, but these days he fights every day, and he has no time to care about this, and now his chin is full of stubble, and he looks extremely decadent.

The topic that should be talked about has been almost talked about in the past few months, and the current predicament, both of them also know in their hearts, but how to break the situation, or how to discuss it, can't say a result.

That's right, the victory is a lot, but Zhu Di and Gu Huai are not easy at all, because they toss and turn, the territory is still very small, the army is still not much, Baoding Yongping Shandong has won a lot of battles, but still can't take the next step in the south, Zhending Xuanfu Liaodong, who has tasted the sweetness, has nothing to do to harass the rear, which really makes Zhu Di and Gu Huai exhausted.

Especially Zhu Di, at this time, he finally felt the unprecedented pressure, the previous war was unclear, just do your best to fight, don't think about it so much, but now winning is winning, but it seems to be more uncomfortable than losing, and this pressure is not caused by the defeat of a certain war, but he has vaguely felt that this embarrassing situation seems to have no end, and the rebellion that hits Jinling and sits on the dragon chair seems to be more and more impossible to succeed.

In fact, Gu Huai and Daoyan also made a lot of analysis of this matter, after all, the imperial court occupied most of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Di's territory was only Beiping, Baoding, Yongping, Dezhou and some of the three prefectures between the rivers, and Dezhou and Baoding were about to be broken, back and forth changed hands several times, the people ran almost away, the cultivated land was wasted, and the Yan army could not compare with the imperial court in terms of human resources and material reserves.

It's been three years, it's been three years, and it seems to have been this vicious circle for three years, if you lose, you will withdraw to Beiping to recruit troops, and if you win, you will go south and Sheng Yong, Ping'an, Tiexuan and others will work hard, but even if you win, the imperial court can rely on strong mobilization capabilities and material reserves to fill the hole, and then Zhu Di has to collect troops and return to Beiping, continue to wait for the next opportunity to go south, and continue to pull hair with those court generals.

The more they reviewed and deduced, the more desperate Zhu Di and Gu Huai Daoyan found that if Jing Nan continued to fight like this, one day, they would lead fewer and fewer troops to be caught by a certain general and sent to receive a reward, and then die in humiliation or live in humiliation.

So Zhu Di and Gu Huai's appearance at this time is also easy to understand, after all, failure is not the most painful, the most painful is the loss of hope.

The fire in the stove is very strong, but the flame of hope that supports Zhu Di seems to be about to be extinguished, what else can be hoped for? Sheng Yong'an and his gang will not give way, and Zhu Yunwen, who is in Jinling, will not say that he will die, and even if Zhu Yunwen dies, it will not be Zhu Di's turn to take the throne, after all, Zhu Yunwen still has sons and brothers.

Xu Huizu is also a very old and spicy general, after taking 100,000 troops to aid Shandong, he saw through Zhu Di's predicament almost at a glance, he didn't even need to recover Texas, after all, he didn't have to consider the impact of the explanation to the imperial court and every move like Sheng Yong, with his status and status, there was no second voice in the whole army under the military order, as long as he led the troops to garrison Shandong, what else could Zhu Di think?

This brother-in-law is ruthless in beating his brother-in-law.

This is the situation now, you can't pass Shandong to the south, and the imperial court to the north is pressing step by step, although the imperial court has been consumed enough in the past three years, but Zhu Yunwen's family background is there, compared with the consumption of the imperial court, what is not looking for death?

Dilemma, really a dilemma.

The north wind has been blowing recently, even if you sit in the tent, you can hear the whimpering wind, Zhu Di frowned and stomped his feet, and was about to open his mouth to find Gu Huai to speak, but the curtain of the tent was lifted.

Zhu Di's personal guards handed over the spy report of the secret spy department, since Zhu Di was there, he naturally asked Zhu Di to read it first, Zhu Di stretched out his hand to take it, only glanced twice, and the expression on his face changed, and then he sneered and handed the general report to Gu Huai.

Zhu Di's series of expressions are not vivid, first happy, then nervous, and finally boring, Gu Huai was confused, but after he finished reading the spy report, he understood how Zhu Di could have such an expression.

This news was sent from the palace city of Jinling, and it was the most secret line, because it was necessary to ensure safety, so the speed was a little slower, and it only arrived today.

The spy report is very short, only a few sentences, talking about the source of Xu Huizu's 100,000 army, and at the same time indicating that the strength of the Beijing division is empty, and if it can take advantage of the weakness, it will definitely be able to succeed in a battle.

Zhu Di spoke: "This one named Huai'en is the shadow you buried in the imperial study?" ”

Gu Huai's eyes appeared in front of the figure kneeling next to the lonely grave in Jinling City that night, and he put away the spy report: "Yes, there is an official bribed by the secret spy department, he climbs very quickly, and now he is already a royal eunuch, not only responsible for serving in the imperial study, but also the small yellow door during the court." ”

Zhu Di sneered: "I stole the important news... But what's the use? Take advantage of the weakness, I am not in Suzhou and Hangzhou, from Texas to Jinling, how easy is it? Don't you know that if you hit Jinling City, you can fight it? ”

Gu Huai nodded, although this information is important, but Huai'en's idea is indeed a bit whimsical, Zhu Di has been fighting for three years, isn't it for this purpose? But the problem is that Xu Hui, Zu Shengyong, and even Tie Xuan can't get out of the way for Zhu Di to hit the capital.

After all, the biggest obstacle to the capital is Shandong in front of you, Shandong has been fierce since ancient times, not to mention the courage of the soldiers, the generals who are guarding here are the leaders of the imperial court, how easy is it to fight the past? It's no wonder that Zhu Di and Gu Huai were so surprised when they saw this spy report.

So the stove continued to be warm, the cold wind continued to howl, Gu Huai and Zhu Di continued to roast the fire, thinking about how to solve Xu Huizu and Sheng Yong, but after a while, the wooden branch in Gu Huai's hand that was playing with the flame stopped.

He suddenly thought of one thing: Do you have to fight Shandong when you go to Jinling?

People's thinking has blind spots, many times people are in trouble because they don't know that they know the solution, this situation is commonly known as drilling the tip of the horns, and for Zhu Di and Gu Huai, Shandong is their blind spot, especially Zhu Di, probably the defeat suffered in Jinan gave him too deep an impression, making him feel as if he couldn't touch the capital without taking Shandong and conquering Jinan.

Even Gu Huai was affected by this kind of thinking, in the military discussions day by day, in the review and deduction of letters exchanged with Daoyan again and again, he also slowly felt that Shandong was going to the point where he could not avoid the capital, and if he wanted to win, the only way was to solve Sheng Yong and Xu Huizu, and then go straight to Jinling.

If these two people continue to drill like this, they will probably inevitably fail, but today's spy report provided Gu Huai with some space to think, allowing him to discover this blind spot while re-examining this war.

If the rebellious Zhu Di and Gu Huai are compared to thieves who want to pick the lock and enter the door, then Jinan is the lock hanging on the door, no matter how exquisite Zhu Di and Gu Huai's lock-picking skills are, there is no way to solve this lock, and no matter how long it is wasted, it will be useless, and at this time Gu Huai suddenly looked up at the door, and found that his and Zhu Di's purpose may not be to pry open the lock, but to enter the door, but this door - a wooden door.

Gu Huai's hand trembled slightly, he suddenly understood the pleasant feeling of those saints and masters who had worked hard to achieve enlightenment for decades and then attained enlightenment once, and he finally understood that he could still give up the attempt to pick the lock, raise his foot and kick the door open.

Zhu Di watched Gu Huai suddenly seem to have a stroke, and couldn't help but be frightened, as soon as he stood up, he wanted to pinch Gu Huai's people, Gu Huai came back to his senses, threw away the wooden branch, grabbed Zhu Di's sleeve deadly, and hoarsely said: "Go to Jinling... Don't hit Shandong! ”

Zhu Di was stunned, watching Gu Huai drag himself to the sand table like crazy, pointing to a place, so excited that he couldn't speak.

Then slowly, his eyes widened in disbelief, his mouth opened wide, a vassal king and a scholar, all standing in place, feeling incredulous about their previous stupidity.

The door was kicked open, the road to the capital was opened, and Gu Huai saw the road sign to the Son of Heaven, and then he pointed it out to Zhu Di.

On the map, the name of that door is Xuzhou.

……

On December 28 of the third year of Jianwen, there were only two days left before the New Year, and in the Yan army camp outside Dezhou City, Zhu Di, who was dressed in black armor, stood outside the camp tent and looked at the south deadly.

Behind him were all the generals of the Yan army in the south, Gu Huai, Zhu Neng, Qiu Fu, Gu Cheng... Even Zhu Gaoxi and Zhu Gaosui stood in the queue with solemn faces.

The military order for the rectification of the army has been passed down half a day ago, and as far as the eye can see, all the Yan soldiers and soldiers are packing their bags, putting on armor, taking weapons, and fighting for three years, they have become accustomed to obeying military orders, even if it is the New Year soon, they will set foot on the battlefield again and start fighting.

Zhu Di watched this scene quietly, he knew that this attack was not the same as before, and half an hour ago, he had already told all the generals that he had made up his mind that this would be their last attack.

He looked back at his generals, who had been fighting for many years, and the people around him had died one after another, Zhang Yu, Tan Yuan, and many others, and he always returned to the same starting point, going around in the same place, rather than dragging it down like this and waiting for death, it was better to fight!

"After so many years of fighting, I often wonder, when will it end? Now it seems that the time has come," Zhu Di said slowly, "This time to send troops to fight should be regarded as the final decision, there is no return, there is no death!" ”

He rolled over his horse and glanced majestically at his army and generals, the cloak behind him being blown hunting: "Go on the march!" ”

If you don't succeed, you will be benevolent!