In the twentieth year of Tianshun, summer, April, Pingjing City, Mingzhou.

Zheng Huang Cao Ju had just gotten up, the sky had not yet dawned, and the lights in the distance were swaying and emitting a faint brightness, and he could vaguely see the sergeants on duty nearby.

Several palace maids Xiao Huangmen are serving Cao Ju in court clothes, today is the day of the ten-day court meeting, looking at himself in the mirror, sparse silver hair, age spots all over his face, the look in his eyes has long been hidden in the passage of time and the chaos of state affairs, and he no longer has the energy of the original.

The bell ringing not far away, it was the bell for the hundred officials to enter the palace, Cao Ju sighed slightly.

Chen Zhong, the head of the inner court who was waiting next to him, asked in a low voice: "Emperor, there is still a quarter of an hour to go, why don't you eat some snacks and tea?" ”

Cao Ju nodded, Chen Zhong waved his hand quietly, and soon a few delicate snacks were delivered, along with a bowl of fragrant pumpkin millet porridge.

"Chen Daban."

"The old slave is here."

Cao Ju drank a few sips of porridge and stopped talking.

Fortunately, Chen Zhong can be said to be extremely familiar with this situation, there is not much good news over the years, but the bad news is non-stop, Chen Zhong has followed Cao Ju since he was very young, accompanied Cao Ju to read, write and practice martial arts, watched Cao Ju ascend to the crown prince's throne, and watched Cao Ju ascend the throne, witnessed his heroic style of destroying the country, and also accompanied him to lose his army and land and the final loneliness, there is enough tacit understanding between each other.

But after all, the two of them are just old men now.

"The emperor wants to ask the southeast war report?"

In the entire Da Zheng, only Chen Zhong can talk to Cao Ju like this, even the current crown prince Cao Ke does not dare.

Cao Ju was silent, and Chen Zhong continued: "Since the old general Su said that the enemy was broken a month ago, there has been no news, and the old slave has sent a few little cubs to keep an eye on the pavilion and the military department, and if there is any news, it will be reported to the emperor as soon as possible." However, the emperor does not need to worry too much, now that our army has turned into a decline, there will be good news about Su Shuai and 200,000 tigers in the near future. ”

"Well, I'm getting old after all, let's go, go to court." Cao Ju smiled self-deprecatingly.

The place where Emperor Zheng ascended to the throne is called the Purple Pole Palace, in the very center of the entire Forbidden City outer city, sitting on the dragon chair with good eyesight can even see the palace gate, for example, Cao Ju sometimes deserts when he is in the court to look at the palace gate, he is over seventy years old, and his eyesight is quite good, but it is really not easy.

Speaking of which, this is the forty-fourth year of the reign of Emperor Zheng Cao Ju, and Cao Ju, who is already over the age of old, feels more and more powerless about the beacon fire and the soldiers in the four realms in the country.

Since the defeat in the northwest ten years ago, Cao Ju has not slept a day.

The seventy-year-old man sat on the dragon chair and could no longer straighten his waist, leaning but always a little twilight, Cao raised his hands on his knees, trying his best to show his majesty, but he always felt that he lacked some taste.

Hundreds of officials worship, long live the mountain, the household department is still the money and food, the military department is still crying soldiers, and the heroes in the court have always had these two people since the defeat of Tianshun for ten years.

Cao Ju had a headache, the household department always said that the treasury was going to run out of money, and the army department always said how much the front-line army lost, and if it was necessary to replenish the soldiers, it was necessary to keep up with the armor and equipment, otherwise it would be unstable.

The problem is that the annual tax revenue does not go into the domestic treasury.

Hubu Shangshu is an old man who is almost eighty, he has resigned several times and was left by Cao Ju by all means, the elders of the three dynasties are older than Cao Ju, but he is still full of energy, except for some age spots and gray hair, there are no traces of almost eighty on his face, and he is called a fine life, and a pen account is clear for you, coupled with his brilliant writing, the prestige of the literati of the entire Dazheng is extremely high.

So Cao Ju sighed slightly again, hurry up and say it, after speaking, he pulled it down, and he couldn't pretend to be it.

His eyes habitually drifted to the palace gate.

Well?

Cao Juteng stood up suddenly.

The tiredness in his eyes all dissipated, making the startled officials feel a new pressure from the superiors.

No matter how old the tiger is, it is also the king of the forest, and the aftermath can still shake the mountain.

The guards on both sides of the aisle of the palace are five steps and one post, and all of them have bright helmets and bright armor that look mighty and extraordinary.

"Su Shuaijun reported, a great victory!! Great victory!! Great victory!!! ”

The sergeant who gave the order hissed his throat and rushed towards the main hall with a red feather military newspaper in one hand.

The guards on both sides also shouted and passed through, of course, there are regulations on which position is qualified to shout, and if you are not qualified to shout, you will look at each other, and you can see the joy in each other's eyes.

In Zheng Guojun newspaper unified with red lacquer seal, urgent military newspaper is inserted red feathers, so called red feather military newspaper, by the sergeant to change the horse not to change people day and night 800 miles through, meet the pass pass all need to be released, under the palace gate immediately hand over the weapon can go straight into the interior.

The monarchs and ministers had already heard it clearly, and they were all overjoyed.

When the sergeant was panting and ran to the side of the stairs, there was already a small yellow door waiting, and he took the military report and ordered: "Wait here." ”

At this time, Cao Ju had regained the majesty of the emperor, and the entire hall was solemn and solemn.

"Chen Zhong."

"The old slave is here."

Cao raised his right hand and pointed it: "Read it, you read it yourself." ”

"The old slave obeys."

The little yellow door general next to him handed it over, and Chen Zhong also felt in good spirits.

"Minister, the Duke of Chu, the head of the southeast camp, the head of the soldiers and horses of the three states of Zilinghai, the general of the Qin Command to conquer the south, and the southeast to recruit Su Chuanfang, the minister heard that the emperor was four, and the autumn was Su; and those who heard the soldiers forbade violence and eliminated harm. The three emperors worked hard in Beidi, the five emperors were in a famine, and although the former Chu was strong, he was eventually defeated by the Quartet and was in chaos. The people who cover the barbarians and the Central Plains have been endless since ancient times. Since Xu Cao and others waited for my soldiers to fight and Koubian, the southeast was uneasy, Sanzhou was terrified, Cai Yue took advantage of the gap to skept my Linghai, and in a few months, he was trapped for thousands of miles, and Li Shu in the border was in an uproar. Qi Qi has been around for three years.

On the ninth day of the first month of last month, the minister detected that the enemy wanted to attack Kaiwu County through Mengshan, so he ordered to attack, and defeated the enemy 70,000 in the left of Mengshan with a thunderous momentum, and ordered the general soldier Fu De to lead the Wu army to advance rapidly in the starry night, blocking the enemy in Guangnan County, and the army pressed in, and the enemy could not form a formation in a panic, and lost 60,000 troops to make it defend Haizhou and insufficient.

On the 18th of last month, the enemy secretly sent 15,000 generals to raid Chongxian County, intending to cut off our grain route, and sent out 17 generals and 350,000 elite soldiers to display Panshui County to control me. The enemy bullies us and is outnumbered, and I am afraid that I will lose face to face when I divide my troops. And the enemy will be tired, and I will fight for days and days to attack the village, and all the armies will not be able to rest. I wanted to send dead soldiers, but I detected that the enemy had a group of mountain bandits and 10,000 strange soldiers to plunder Sanchuan County on our right flank, and if this our army was in danger of being surrounded.

Li Cheng, the commander of the Weidu of Shiling Prefecture, defeated more than 22,000 enemies and beheaded more than 6,000 people 30 miles east of Nanyi County, Sanchuan County, with 5,000 people to ambush the radical enemy.

On the 29th of last month, our army arrived, with 70,000 armor soldiers and 130,000 auxiliary soldiers.

Seeing that the enemy's strength was no longer in its heyday, and the enemy was a united army, there were many constraints, so he sent Liu Xiang, the commander of the Yangwu Army, to command 20,000 elite soldiers, and attacked the armor to capture Wenchuan to cut off its rear road; He also sent Gan Tu, the commander-in-chief of the Fenwu Army, to command 5,000 cavalry and 1,000 soldiers to capture Hanoi, where the enemy's grain and grass were located; He also sent Haizhou, Weilingzhou, Weimaqiu, and Li Chengerdu to command envoys and 3,000 sailors to go down along the Panshui to disturb the enemy's grain routes; He also sent the Xiangzhou army to command Cao Kecheng's troops to intersperse with the enemy's territory; He also sent the commander-in-chief of the Pingwu Army, Kui Dayong, to command the capital of Zizhou to make Wu Quan block the enemy's key charge, and the ministers came out of the army.

At the beginning, the marshal of the enemy coalition army Yuanwu noticed that he intended to concentrate his forces to break the first attack on my Yangwu army, and heard that there were police in Hanoi who were burning and urgently divided troops to help, and were commanded by the Xiangzhou army to make Cao Kecheng broken, and the enemy sent 50,000 troops out but heard that the waterway was broken, when Liu Xiang's department had been damaged by more than half, Yuanwu was reluctant to send 10,000 troops to inspect to help, and ordered the soldiers to storm Liu Xiang. However, Cao Cai did not have one heart and wanted to retreat to defend the territory, and the ministers sent clever men to Chen Ming to think that they were safe, and secretly urgently ordered Fu De, the chief soldier of the Guiwu Army, to follow up the assault in the starry night, so as to make it impossible to fight again, and ordered Cao Kecheng to go west to reinforce Gantu to hold Hanoi, and then ordered all roads to join forces to force the enemy to fight a decisive battle.

On the sixth day of the first month, Fu De, the commander-in-chief of the Wu Army, came to report that Cao Cai had broken up, and then ordered all the troops to rush into the encirclement.

On the seventh day of the first month, the commander of the Zizhou Weidu commanded Wu Quan to lead 3,000 troops to arrive first, and retreated after a small setback.

On the eighth day of the first month, the remnants of the enemy 170,000 were stopped by us on the Red River beach, and the armies marched forward bravely. However, the poor rat has the power to devour the cat, Zizhou Weidu commanded Wu Quanqin to lead the pro-guard to rush into battle, and finally died in battle, the general soldier of the Pingwu Army, Kui Dayong, weighed dozens of arrows and shouted wildly and died of injuries after the battle, Haizhou Weidu commanded Ma Qiu to be shot under the horse by a stray arrow, and fortunately the pro-guard was desperately rescued.

The army fought bloodily for three days and nights, and at noon on the 11th, the enemy marshal Yuanwu personally went to the front line to boost morale, but was shot and killed by our sergeant, and the arrow passed through the throat and died on the spot.

The saint has an order, and there must be an urgency. Since the summer of the nineteenth year of Tianshun, the minister was ordered to go south to attack the thief, since he knew that he was like fire and water and inherited the period of the Son of Heaven, he did not dare to take a break all day long, and it has been a year so far. Fortunately, thanks to the candlelight of the Son of Heaven, the soldiers used their lives to defeat the stubborn enemy, and the ministers began to have the face to win in the court, and they were exposed to the news. The meritorious ones, the disabled in the war, and the gains and losses of materials are detailed in another table, and then worship the holy face. ”

Cao Ju was amazed after hearing the case, and opened the merit book and scanned dozens of pages, there were too many, and after a while, he looked at it again and said: "Great goodness, in this way, the matter in the southeast will be settled, and only the northwest will be left." Sergeant Xuanjie went to the palace to personally interrogate. ”

"Your Majesty has a decree, declare that Sergeant Jie will go to the palace!"

Chen Zhong's male duck throat was transmitted by the small yellow door at the door, and the sergeant standing on the steps first knelt down three times and thanked Tian's grace, and then followed the little yellow door into the main hall.

Cao Ju put down the booklet in his hand and smiled like an old grandfather next door, "What's your name?" Where are the people? How old is it? How many years have you been in the army? ”

"Back to Your Majesty, Weichen's surname is Zhang Xiyang, a person from Fenzhou Mansion in Fangzhou, seventeen years old this year, joined the army at the beginning of last year, and has been in the army for a year and three months."

Cao Ju was slightly surprised: "Zhang Xiyang? Then he opened the merit book, and saw that the leader was Zhang Xiyang.

"You are Zizhou Wei, Zhang Xiyang, who shot the commander of the enemy army with one arrow?"

"Back to Your Majesty, it is Weichen."

"Yes, yes, sure enough, the hero is a boy." The state-owned god shooter Cao Ju is naturally happy, I don't know how many people died in this arrow, and I don't know how many pensions are missing, and the treasury is short of money.

"Since you are from Fangzhou, why did you go to Zizhou to join the army? There are thousands of miles between these two states. ”

"Oh, you get up first and talk back."

Zhang Xiyang thanked him first and got up and then said: "Ten years ago, Tianshun's father, brothers and uncles were all killed in battle, and Shi Weichen was only six years old. After the officials of the Candle Dragon Mansion pushed Weichen into the Candle Dragon Mansion, they were assigned to the Zizhou Wei Army after March. ”

The ministers above the court were all moved, Tianshun ten years, only ten years ago, not long, not short.

Cao Ju was even more sad, "Ten years of Tianshun, my sin is also!" ”

The ministers were shocked and knelt down: "The ministers are waiting for capital crimes, capital crimes!" ”

Cao Ju naturally couldn't cut people because the people below were talking about two capital crimes, and it was just a sedan chair to carry it.

"If you are guilty, you should be even."

"Zhang Xiyang, where do you live now?"

"Back to Your Majesty, Weichen is currently Su Shuai's personal guard."

"Fruit grow? In this way, I told Su Shuai that transferring you to the guard camp, being promoted to the head of the team, and accompanying the emperors and grandsons to perform martial arts can be regarded as my consolation to the late General Zhang. ”

Cao Ju waved his hand: "That's it, pass the decree to let Su Shuai return to the court as soon as possible, and I will wait for him to sacrifice his captivity." ”

All this was decided before Zhang Xiyang could react, and Cao Ju, who has been the emperor for more than 40 years, cares if a team is willing or not, and it is not a great honor for anyone to accompany the prince to perform martial arts.

"Your Majesty has a will, retreat from the dynasty."

Everyone shouted long live again and walked out of the hall together, as for the newly appointed Zhang Xiyang, who was appointed to accompany the prince to perform martial arts, who had the leisure to look at a few more fruits, and he was not his own son.

Zhang Xiyang was the last to leave the Purple Pole Hall in such a daze, and as soon as he came out of the door, the fatigue of running around for days immediately came up, and several horses were wasted for thousands of miles.

You can take a break, I have long heard that Yedu is prosperous, sleep well, and then live up to the good time, the team is right, Zhang Xiyang smiled secretly, is seven products, is a hundred people, sixteen-year-old hundred people.

"Team Zhang! Stay! ”

Zhang Xiyang, who heard the call, reacted a little before he was sure that it was himself, and when he looked back, he saw that it was the emperor's personal companion and hurriedly saluted.

Chen Zhong walked a few steps to help Zhang Xiyang, this small move made Zhang Xiyang's heart warm, and he was a little moved, this is the emperor's personal eunuch, who has been with the current emperor for almost seventy years, and is the emperor's most trusted person. It's still not enough to see, even if Chen Zhong farts, someone will fight in order to smell it and then intoxicated: "After Team Zhang's meritorious service, our family doesn't dare to suffer like this." ”

Looking carefully, Chen Zhong's old face was also full of smiles, and he was born in a good life, and he actually had a three-point resemblance to his nephew who had died in battle: "Team Zhang is coming with our family, and the emperor has summoned him." ”