"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that this matter is very serious, is it more appropriate to recall Lu Shen, the commander of the Ruishi Battalion, back to the capital and inquire carefully?"

"Your Majesty, although the minister does not believe in such rumors, he may be able to let Yousi investigate this matter thoroughly, or Lu Shen will be innocent."

"Your Majesty, maybe Huaizhou Xiao Dudu is passionate about talent, but his attitude towards Lu Shen is indeed a bit extraordinary, and the minister thinks that he should still check it."

Even if Li Duan expressed his attitude straight to the point, the important ministers in the Dongnuan Pavilion still tactfully advised.

However, compared with those low-level officials who attacked the right minister Xue Nanting at the beginning, their attitudes and words were obviously much milder, and they did not wait to pin the crimes of the descendants of the criminal ministers on Lu Shen's head, let alone shout and kill.

Li Duan was not angry.

On the one hand, it is because the people who can enter the Dongnuan Pavilion are all important ministers of the court, and all of them are high-ranking officials above the third grade, even the Son of Heaven must maintain the most basic respect for them. On the other hand, not all of these people wanted to obstruct the Northern Expedition, and some of them sincerely considered the stability of the Great Qi and hoped to eliminate that hidden danger as much as possible.

Seeing that the Son of Heaven was silent, Li Daoyan, the prime minister on the left, glanced to the right unintentionally, and Guo Congyi, the privy envoy standing at the head of the squad on the right, coughed lightly and said, "Your Majesty, it is better to let Lu Shen return to Beijing to report the details of the border war, so as not to cause commotion in the army." After he returns to Beijing, let him explain the doubts in the rumors. ”

This is a serious remark of the old man, and it obviously carries a lot of weight in his capacity as a privy envoy.

Li Duan groaned: "Now that the Northern Expedition is very anxious, I am afraid that it is inappropriate to suddenly recall Lu Shen back to the capital at this time." ”

Guo Congyi was stunned for a moment, and immediately persuaded: "Your Majesty, although Lu Shen has performed prominently in a series of wars, the border army has two metropolitan governors in charge of military affairs, and Lu Shen's presence or absence will not affect the overall situation. ”

Some ministers bowed their heads in agreement.

At this moment, a young eunuch of the Inner Servant Province walked into the Dongnuan Pavilion on tiptoe, bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, the border is urgent!" ”

The ministers were solemn, and Li Duan frowned slightly and said, "Come on." ”

The young eunuch raised a piece of music above his head with both hands, and said in a loud voice: "Huaizhou Metropolitan Governor Xiao Wangzhi's recital, Huaizhou Ruishi Battalion and Zhenbei, Feiyun, Lai'an, and Taixing four armies gathered in the Pseudo-Yan Leize Plain, and the main force of the Jing Army had a total of 18,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry to start a decisive battle, and then the Feiyu Battalion of the Jingzhou Governor's Mansion galloped thousands of miles to help. ”

Everyone pricked up their ears, but the slightly shrill voice of the inner supervisor continued to echo.

"The battle lasted from morning to afternoon, and our army fought fiercely with the enemy for nearly three hours, and finally our army routed the enemy, beheaded 12,739 enemy troops, captured 6,942 enemy troops, and captured more than 5,000 horses. In this battle, part of the cavalry of the Jing army fled back to Heluo City, and the infantry was annihilated! ”

In the end, the inner supervisor's voice was already trembling, and his body was trembling uncontrollably.

All the important ministers in the warm pavilion were speechless.

Of course, they were not pretending in front of the Son of Heaven, but were completely suppressed by this sudden good news.

The border army has achieved many victories in the past two years, but their enemies are basically dominated by the pseudo-Yan army, but if the battle report is not falsified this time, it means that the Great Qi army defeated the main army of the Jing army head-on for the first time in nearly twenty years, and defeated the Jing army of nearly 20,000 people in the first battle!

After the imperial case, Li Duan's face was as red as if he was drunk.

The first to react was Li Daoyan, the left minister, and the old man felt a touch of regret in his heart, and said in a trembling voice: "This is God bless Daqi, and the minister congratulates His Majesty!" Congratulations to the Great Qi! ”

"Lei Ze's victory is famous all over the world, and the battle of the Northern Expedition is like a bamboo, congratulations to Your Majesty!"

Long live all the important ministers, whether they are sincere or fake, at least the joy and excitement are overflowing at this moment.

There was a noisy scene in the warm pavilion.

Li Duan pressed the eagerness in his heart, asked the ministers to calm down with a smile on his face, and then took Xiao Wangzhi's thick recital table from the hands of the inner supervisor, opened it and looked at it carefully, and unsurprisingly saw Lu Shen's name on the back of the worksheet.

There is no Xiao Wangzhi himself on this request form, so Lu Shen's name is ranked first.

After reading Xiao Wangzhi's detailed description of the war, Li Duan couldn't help but have mixed feelings in his heart.

He knew that Lu Shen's performance would definitely not be bad, but he didn't expect that it would be the young man who was in charge of the strategic planning of the entire battle, and Xiao Wangzhi himself played more of a role in correction and errata.

If there is no rumor......

Li Duan sighed in his heart, but his face did not show a single thing, and after closing the watch, he looked at the ministers, and said happily: "Zhongshu immediately drafted a commendation decree on behalf of me, so that the border soldiers understand that the imperial court will never treat them badly, and those who have meritorious service will be rewarded!" In addition, let Xiao Wangzhi keep up the hard work, I hope to receive his next good news as soon as possible, and I want to see Dongyang Road return to the rule of Daqi! ”

"Obey the order!"

The two prime ministers responded in unison.

Li Duan looked at Guo Congyi again and said: "Guo Aiqing, the Privy Council must draw up the reward for the soldiers of the border army as soon as possible, they shed blood and died on the battlefield, and the imperial court must not delay in rewarding and bereaving these matters!" ”

Guo Congyi bowed his head and said: "The minister's order!" ”

At this time, everyone was immersed in great joy, and Shang Shuding of the Ministry of War said when he saw the petition: "Your Majesty, now it seems that the rumors of Lu Shen's life experience must be rumors spread by the northerners, they were defeated all the way on the battlefield, and they couldn't stop my attack on the border army at all, so they wanted to use these rumors to divide the Great Qi court, and their hearts can be punished!" The ministers ask Your Majesty to thoroughly investigate the source of these rumors, and catch those spies in the north to make an example! ”

The warm pavilion suddenly fell into an awkward silence.

Li Daoyan, the left minister, looked at the ground at his feet silently, and the right minister Xue Nanting's face floated with a touch of disgust.

Li Duan raised his eyes to look at Ding Hui, and smiled meaningfully: "Ding Aiqing is reasonable, Qin Zheng." ”

"The minister is here."

"This matter will be handed over to the warp weaving department to investigate, slowly and carefully."

"Obey."

Li Duan stood up and said: "Post Lei Ze's great victory in the city with the emperor's list, as well as in the prefectures and cities of all parts of the south of the Yangtze River, I want to let the people of Daqi share this joy, I think this is the best New Year gift!" ”

The ministers said in unison: "Obey the holy judgment!" ”

The influence of Lei Ze's victory greatly exceeded the estimation of the monarchs and ministers of the court, especially when the follow-up survey of the warp weaving division was sent to Beijing, confirming that the Huaizhou Governor's Mansion did not cheat in the slightest this time, and the border army was the main force of the 20,000 Jing Army, which almost instantly formed a fierce tide, with Yongjia City as the core and spread in all directions.

Putting aside the drumming and blowing of the sheng by those literati and ink writers for the time being, the wealthy people in Jiangnan actually took the initiative to donate money and property to the imperial court for the first time, although this phenomenon is not a common behavior, relatively speaking, it is just an exception, but it is enough to shock the big people in the court.

Under this wave that swept everything, the rumors about Lu Shen's life experience were instantly crushed silently, who would pay attention to this kind of rumors without any evidence?

However, in the imperial city, Li Duan's joyful mood was a little more gloomy.

"This Ji Ximing is bold, who gave him the power to do such a thing?!"

Li Duan's tone was gloomy, looking at the three pieces of music in front of him from left to right, then looked at Qin Zheng, who was standing solemnly in the hall, and said coldly: "You go and find out to me in person, when Ji Ximing left the capital for Huaizhou, how could he start investigating Lu Shen and Lu Tong before the rumors broke out, and who was he instructed by!" ”

Qin Zheng lowered his head and said, "The minister obeys the order." ”

Among the three-point movements in front of Li Duan, the leftmost one is from Su Yunqing, the Huaizhou Inspection School of the Warp Weaving Division, and the middle one is from Yao Chong, the Huaizhou Thorn History.

Because of this, Li Duan was extremely angry, because Ji Ximing did not report to him in advance, but acted on his own.

But he can't blame Qin Zheng for this matter, Ji Ximing was originally a candidate to check and balance Qin Zheng, if he held Ji Ximing in the palm of his hand, it would cause the Son of Heaven to be puzzled.

"Your Majesty, after all, Ji Ximing is from the third grade, Lu Shen beat him seriously in front of so many people, even if he can be cured, I'm afraid he will be a wasted person, do you want to punish him?"

Qin Zheng reminded impartially.

Li Duan raised his hand and pinched his eyebrows, and was silent for a long time before he said, "I will issue an edict to apply for punishment." That's it, now he should focus on the Northern Expedition, and when he returns to Beijing to take up his post in the future, I will let him try his best to change this barbarian style. ”

Qin Zheng's eyes moved slightly, and he realized that the Son of Heaven had made a decision about Lu Shen's future, that is, to ensure that the Huaizhou Army successfully completed the set goal of the Northern Expedition, and then transfer Lu Shen to Beijing after recovering Dongyang Road.

As for whether he was entrusted with a heavy task or idle at that time, Qin Zheng did not know, and he did not want to speculate.

"The two incidents of the right prime minister being attacked and the rumors of Lu Shen's life experience are enough to show that the spies in the north have penetrated deeply in Beijing, and even Ji Ximing's identity is involved, you put down other things now and clean up Jingzhong well."

"Your Majesty rest assured, the minister immediately began to make arrangements."

Li Duan bowed slightly, and after Qin Zheng retired, he ordered the palace inner supervisors to retreat, and their eyes fell on the rightmost letter in front of him.

This piece of music is from Lu Shen's hand.

When Lu Shen left Beijing, Qin Zheng gave him a jade plaque, and at the same time he had the right to fold it at any time, but Lu Shen never used it, in fact, this is also the reason why Li Duan was suspicious of the rumors of his background.

The number of foreign officials who can be secretly folded is very small, unless it is specifically allowed by the Son of Heaven, generally only the governors of various prefectures, the assassins of various prefectures, and the inspection of imperial histories have this qualification.

No matter what level of official, even if there is no serious matter, he will present secret folds to the Son of Heaven from time to time, Xiao Wangzhi and Li Tianrun are no exception, this is an important means to maintain the feelings of the monarch and the minister and express loyalty.

But for a whole year, Li Duan never received Lu Shen's secret music.

Although Li Duan often saw Lu Shen's name in the recitals of frontier officials, especially Xiao Wangzhi, and knew his movements and actions, he would inevitably have doubts in his heart, whether Lu Shen did not understand the rules of officialdom, or did he not want to become his Li Duan's minister.

Therefore, after hearing that rumor, Li Duan's first reaction was that Lu Shen never had a heart-to-heart relationship with me, and this was the reason.

Until he waited for Lu Shen's first secret fold.

He had already seen it before, but at this moment, there was silence in the hall, and Li Duan couldn't help but open this letter again.

"The words are not ugly, but the words and sentences are too straightforward, which shows that I didn't study seriously when I was a child."

Li Duan looked at the contents of the paper and said angrily.

“…… Your Majesty, Ji Tidian is really too deceitful, he imprisoned the minister's father just because of some gossip, and then used all kinds of bad means to try to bend into a trick. The minister endured it and didn't want to fight with him, but when he saw his father's troubled and weak appearance, the minister really couldn't control the anger in his heart, so he punched Ji Ti on impulse. Chen didn't expect his martial arts to be so bad that he couldn't even catch a punch, and Chen admitted that he was wrong. ”

When Li Duan saw this, he couldn't help but snort lightly, but there was a little more smile in his eyes.

"Your Majesty, about the rumors about the minister's life experience, the minister thinks it is really ridiculous and ridiculous, this is obviously the conspiracy of the county lord of the Jing Dynasty in the north after suffering a defeat. The border army has just won a great victory in Leizer, and the recovery of Dongyang Road is just around the corner, and the minister wants to continue to serve His Majesty, but the minister also knows His Majesty's difficulties. If His Majesty deems it necessary, the minister is willing to return to Beijing to confront those people face to face. Chen has always firmly believed that the truth cannot be false, and the truth cannot be false, and those rumors have no lethality. ”

Li Duan shook his head and criticized the word "naïve".

"Having said that, this kind of rumor is indeed disgusting, although Chen's father is only a businessman, but he loves Chen, and he has been like this since he was a child. If no one in the world believes that the minister is the son of his father, His Majesty will feel very embarrassed, and the minister is willing to resign from all military positions and return to Guangling Mansion to accompany his family. ”

Li Duan stretched out his hand and pressed it on the piece, and there was a little more warmth in his eyes.

“…… Your Majesty, the minister has no literary talent, and he doesn't know how to express his thoughts, but please believe that your majesty will prove himself on the battlefield, and the horse leather shroud will not hesitate. ”

This is the end of this recital, and the inscription is "Huaizhou Governor's Mansion Ruishi Battalion Captain, Lu Shen plays carefully." ”

Li Duan's mind came to mind when Lu Shen came to the capital, and he couldn't help but sigh lightly when he replied between the monarchs and ministers.

After a long time, he whispered to himself, "I hope you will not live up to my trust." ”

(End of chapter)