One hundred and eighty-eight chapters

"A big victory?" The Son of Heaven asked with a puzzled face, "Henan has reported another great victory?" ”

"This time it's true, hooray!" The general political envoy Shen Xuan said happily, "King Zhou Chitose ruined his family to relieve difficulties, and the military and people of Kaifeng worked together to break the thief!" More than 10,000 thieves were killed in this battle, and the white bones of the thieves were exposed, and the flat ditch was full of ravines......" Speaking of this, he suddenly realized that his speech was sick, his voice became smaller and smaller, and he stopped his mouth in a sneer.

"Long live the Minister. What Lord Shen said was true. According to the investigation by the Ministry of War, 1,123 of the first ranks of the Kaifeng Prefecture sent to the Beijing Division were all real strong thieves, and there were also three or four hundred people who were unrecognizable by artillery bombardment. It is indeed a great victory, Holy Lord. Not only the Son of Heaven, everyone noticed the word "this time" in the words of the Shen Xuan, and the right attendant of the Ministry of War, Feng Kai (the word Guofeng), hurriedly helped Lord Shen to relieve the siege.

"Long live the Kickstart. The prefect of Luzhou, Song Mingyi, returned to Kaifeng Mansion through Ding Ming. He also mentioned it in his private letter to his minister, and he sighed very much when he saw the corpses of thieves all over the field. "It was Yuan Shijie, the head of the household, who spoke. Song Mingyi turned out to be a Sichuan Qing official Shilangzhong, very valued by adults, a while ago his mother died, Lord Lin, Lord Yuan, etc. all expressed their condolences, and it was normal for them to write private letters to their superiors to express their gratitude.

"I don't suspect King Zhou, let alone Lu Shen and a few of them. I am afraid, as before, that the thief will suddenly appear in another place shortly after each great victory, and the noise will grow stronger and louder each time! Alas, more than 10,000 thieves were killed, and more than 1,000 thieves were found by the military department, that is to say, more than eighty percent of the people who died under Kaifeng City were my people! "The Son of Heaven was a little sad.

"Long live the Minister. Weichen is brave, and the one who attacks the city with the thief is the thief! "Dali Temple, Zuo Temple, Gu Yiyi, played.

"Who would be willing to attack a city from a thief to a good life? It's not all forced by thieves. Besides, even if you are a thief, how can you be born a thief? All over the world, I am all naked, I feel that I must be helpless, and I can't live anymore to become a thief. If the people can live and work in peace, where will there be any thieves? The Son of Heaven shook his head, his tone a little heavy.

Hu Ke gave Qiao Nanxing a chance to express himself in the matter, and put on a face full of righteous indignation and said generously: "Long live, the minister has something to say." Monarchs and ministers are the way of heaven, even if they are white blades and necks, they should also be righteous in their hearts! If you are a minister, you would rather die than obey it! If all the people are like this, how can they be troubled? ”

"Ahem. Your Majesty, the minister has something unclear and wants to ask. "It's Zuo Tongzheng Ma Quan.

The Son of Heaven felt that Ma Quan's words were a little strange, and he was curious: "What is wrong with Ma Aiqing?" ”

"Your Majesty. The minister wanted to ask Master Qiao. As he spoke, Ma Quan turned to Qiao Nanxing and asked with a sincere face, "Master Qiao, dare to ask what you had for breakfast?" ”

Qiao Nanxing was a little confused, looked at Ma Quan, and peeked at Shengtianzi, and saw that the latter was also waiting, so he had to answer: "I drank a bowl of mutton soup and ate a few poached eggs." What's wrong? ”

"Hmm. Last night, Xia Guan passed by Rifang*Liuquanju, and happened to see Master Qiao coming out of it, where the 'cloud abalone', 'lotus swallow', and 'explosive three' should taste very good, right? Ma Quan asked with a smile.

"Master Ma, you, what do you mean by that?" Qiao Nanxing was a little confused, but he already felt that something was wrong in Ma Quan's words.

"Xiaguan doesn't mean anything. Last time, the official happened to hear Master Qiao tell people that the roast duck in the cheap shop was too greasy, and it was okay to eat it while it was hot in the restaurant, and the skin would not be crispy if they were sent to the house, and they had to be poured with boiling oil before they could be eaten...... Lord Qiao read the books of the sages and sages, and ate delicacies every day, and was naturally full of awe-inspiring righteousness, but when the officials returned to the countryside, they saw that the people around them, if they ate a mixed bread mixed with most of the wild vegetables, they were happy, and they often drank four or five bowls of boiled wild vegetables in the morning and went to work in the fields. The people live like this, and they blame them at every turn for why they don't die...... Well, Xia Guan felt that what Master Qiao said was very right, and there was nothing wrong with it at all. After speaking, he didn't look at Qiao Nanxing anymore and turned to the Holy Son of Heaven: "Your Majesty, the minister has finished asking." After finishing speaking, he returned to the court and hung Master Qiao there, his face was red and white for a while, and he was at a loss for what to do.

The Son of Heaven smiled, feeling a little happier in his heart. These science and Taoist officials are talking about righteousness all day long, and they are tired of hearing it, but they can't do anything to them, Ma Quan's cynicism is really enjoyable.

After laughing, the Son of Heaven unconsciously hung a touch of all kinds of melancholy between his eyebrows: although the defeat of the thief was undoubted, the dead were all minions, and all the first evils were on the run. I don't know where the thief will go next? can envelop so many people, and the number of this group of thieves is indispensable! But how many thieves are there? It's useless to ask hundreds of officials - these people either don't know at all, and those who know will never tell the truth to themselves, either they are alarmist with one mouth and "millions of thieves" or they are fooled and coping with "just a few rogues...... Well, I'll have to let Dongchang check it out. Guan Shengyun was easily pacified, and the Huguang area was very calm. But this thief, although it seems that his combat power is not as good as Guan Shengyun in the past, the damage is much greater: in addition to Nanyang, although Guan Shengyun also robbed and kidnapped people, the people always have a way to live, and the place where the thief Zhang walked is the same as being burned...... No, Zhang Thief always really sets a fire and burns everything to the ground! Alas, when will this scourge be resolved? How is Sun Jie, when will he be able to quell the rebellion of Luxury, and hurry back to destroy the thief Zhang for me! The Son of Heaven couldn't help but think of his beloved general.

Five thousand miles away, in the dense forest southwest of Chishuiwei, Sun Jie, who was covered in blood, pulled out his saber from the body of a corpse, looked up and looked around, the people standing around him were all their own people in Ming army uniforms, relieved, and said with a smile: "Erlei, I killed two." What about you? ”

Shi Erlei replied angrily: "I killed one." There is also one who has already lost his strength and will never be able to block me a few more times, but he taught Uncle Sheng to stab him to death with a knife in the back, otherwise it would be a draw. ”

"I watched from the side for a long time, and you couldn't help but get that guy after a long time, and I couldn't bear to stab it so much. What's the matter, is it wrong to be kind to help? Sun Jie's personal guard captain Sheng Degong quipped.

"Hmph, you obviously know that I made a bet with the handsome and deliberately helped the handsome, so I can't see it?" Erlei looked even more angry.

"Bah, bah, some. Erlei's kung fu is amazing, who doesn't know? It's a little worse than Dashuai, a little bit less brainy, and a little worse than your Uncle Sheng. "Sheng Degong has a very good relationship with Erlei's father Shi Meng, and he likes this lively young man very much, and always teases him.

"Uncle Sheng, you ......" Er Lei was so angry that he was a little speechless.

Sheng Degong's face changed to a tone of lesson: "Erlei, do you know what you do?" ”

"The handsome guard." Erlei muttered unconvinced.

"You still know that it's the handsome's personal guard! What do the guards do? Protect the handsome! Right? You should always be on the side of the big handsome to block the thief's knife! It's good for you, when you see the thief, you will pounce on yourself, and you don't care about the handsome! What kind of guard is this? You have killed a hundred thieves, if the commander is injured by the thief, is it your ability? Sheng Degong's tone became stern.

Shi Erlei remembered his duties at this time, and was so embarrassed that he couldn't speak.

"It's okay, it's okay, it's a bet I made with Erlei, don't blame him. We are all small thieves, where can we hurt the general. Sun Jie was excusing Erlei, then he opened the topic and looked around and asked, "Do we have any casualties?" ”

"Back to Dashuai, fifteen dead and twenty-three wounded. Most of the injured brothers were not very serious. ”

"Hmm. How many thieves are there? ”

"Back to Dashuai, one hundred and thirty-one thieves were ambushed, and there were about twenty or thirty who escaped."

"Good. Finally, I didn't feed the mosquitoes for three days in vain. Pack up and go back to camp. Sun Jie ordered.

At the beginning, this battle made Sun Jie very depressed. Since the siege of Guiyang was relieved, the Yongning thieves and the Shuixi thieves found that Sun Jie's troops were much stronger than those previous Ming opponents, and it was impossible to win through large-scale field battles, so they used their geographical advantages to play guerrilla warfare and harassment warfare with Sun Jie. Several times Sun Jie poured out of the nest in the hope of finding the main force of the two thieves to have a decisive battle, but each time it was in vain. On the contrary, the two thieves of Ming and An Bangyan were reduced to zero, capturing an outpost today and attacking a group of grain ships tomorrow, so that the Ming army, which had a huge advantage in troops, could not be used until Sun Jie came up with a countermeasure to break up the troops and fight small ones. This time, Sun Jie led a battalion of 200 guards to set up an ambush for three days, and blocked a sneak attack team of extravagant Chongming for him.

"Marshal, counting our more than 100 levels this time, as well as Deputy Marshal Shen, General Shangguan, and General Shi, we have almost 2,000 beheadings this time, right?" On the way back to the camp, Sheng Degong seemed to be in high spirits.

"Almost. However, this is not an option. I'll have to find a way to have a good time. Sun Jie was a little absent-minded, "I don't want to spend half of my life here." ”

"Who's to say it isn't. But the two thieves were scared by us, and if they didn't dare to fight, we couldn't do anything about it. Sheng Degong scratched his head, "These many beheadings must be counted as many levels of merit, right?" ”

"Hmph, don't think you don't know what you want, you're waiting for the silver, right? However, don't expect too much, the thieves sent out to harass them are not elites, and it is estimated that the military department will not be able to reach even one percent. ”

"This ......" Sheng Degong actually knew that this was the case, but when he heard Sun Jie say it himself, he was still a little disappointed.

"I'm thinking about it, the saint should send some internal money, don't worry." At the mention of the saint, Sun Jie's heart moved. "I don't know how the Holy Dragon Body is, no matter how loud the commotion here is, it's just a corner of the border, that thief should have been leveled, right?" Sun Jie thought secretly in his heart, but he didn't know that at this moment, the Son of Heaven was also thinking about his subordinates.

* On the day of Fang, Yongle years (a said orthodox years) built archway, is what we call today Beijing "Dongdan" - Dongdan and Xidan are abbreviated, the full name is "Dongdan archway" and "Xidan archway", a long time to refer to the name of the place. The archway in the east is inscribed "on the day", and the inscription in the west is "Zhanyun". The words are taken from the classic "History of the Five Emperors": "It is like the sun, and the hope is like a cloud." It means to see the sunrise in the east in the morning and the clouds in the west in the evening. Fan Zhongyan's "Mingtang Fu" has: "Looking at the clouds and going to the sun, singing Yao and singing Shun." The sentence refers to the people's yearning for the Son of Heaven and feeling the blessings of the Son of Heaven, so these two names were taken and built next to the Forbidden City.