"Are you leaving?"

In the early morning of mid-April, when Guo Yan felt a cold on her body, she slowly opened her eyes, but only saw Zhu Gaoxu, who had already gotten up and was being served and dressed by two maidservants.

"I'll be back in a month or two, and I won't go anywhere when the time comes, so I'll accompany you until the autumn harvest."

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the two maidservants who were wearing middle clothes and were in some pain while walking, and stretched out his hand to snatch his clothes from them.

"Temple ......"

"Let's get some rest."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't give the two of them a chance to speak, and walked out of the dormitory with his clothes.

After a short time, he walked to the stables of the palace in full dress, and saw the red donkey who was locked in the stable, sleeping comfortably.

Two flicks of the tongue, the red donkey shook his ears to wake up.

When it saw Zhu Gaochu wearing a mandarin duck battle jacket, it got up as if it had been beaten and walked towards Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu opened the stable door for it, and said to the Jingjun guarding the stable behind him: "Take the armor and send it to the dock, I'll take it out for a spin first." ”

"Yes......" The two pure soldiers responded, and Zhu Gaoxu also put on a saddle for the red horse himself, turned over and rode it out of the back door of the palace.

They came out into the street, and what was visible was a clean and tidy concrete street.

On the streets where the sky was slightly bright, there were already many people who drove their oxen and horses out of the city to farm.

They greeted Zhu Gaochu warmly, and Zhu Gaochu responded with a smile on his head, and rode out of Jilin City on a red horse.

Outside Jilin City, large rice fields and wheat fields have been planted, looking at the fields full of grain, Zhu Gaoxu has no other thoughts in his heart except sighing.

His mind seemed to be empty, and he let the red donkey take him around.

It was only a quarter of an hour before Chiyu walked around comfortably, stopped and pulled the reins in Zhu Gaoxu's hand, waking him up.

Back to reality, Zhu Gaoxu took one last look at the people of Jilin City who were cultivating in the fields, and finally rode to Jilin Wharf on a red horse.

When he came to the dock, the thirty-odd horse boats on the dock were already half full.

Three thousand military horses and three thousand horsemen were driven onto the ship and headed for Zhaozhou City first.

At the same time that they left first, three thousand cavalry began to board one after another.

When he arrived at the dock, Zhu Gaoxu saw Yizha sitting on the side of the road, waiting quietly.

Sure enough, seeing his arrival, Yisha came all the way quickly, and walked over after a few steps: "Your Highness, the matter is done, but what Yang Shanren does depends on himself." ”

"Okay." Hearing that Yizha had done everything, Zhu Gaoxu dismounted.

Seeing this, the soldiers who followed on the side immediately led the red donkey onto the boat.

The red donkey didn't make a fuss, and let the soldiers lead it to the ship.

After they got on the boat, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Yishuha and explained: "This time the northern patrol is preparing for the border, I am afraid it will be difficult to have a harvest, so you have to do a good job in reclaiming wasteland in Jilin, and whether Jilin City can be self-sufficient in the coming year depends on this year." ”

"Please rest assured, Your Highness, the slave knows how to do it." also lost Ha in return to the courtesy.

Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also raised his head and walked towards the horse boat on the red horse, and disappeared in front of Yishu's eyes after a short time.

Soon, with the sound of the horn, Zhu Gaoxu followed the fleet to Zhaozhou again.

At the same time, soldiers and horses from Liaodong, Daning, and Beiping also gathered towards Quanningwei.

As the commander of Zhu Di this time, after waiting for more than half a month, he finally waited for Yang Wen, who came to take office.

With Yang Wen and hundreds of cavalry from his headquarters, more than 5,000 Yanfu cavalry drove north, all the way to Quanningwei.

Although Yao Guangxiao was thirty-three in his sixties, he was still skilled in horseback riding, so the whole army was not slowed down by him.

Compared with Zhu Di, Yao Guangxiao is more delicate, and he has inquired about the identities of most of the people brought by Yang Wen, so when he was in a hurry, he deliberately slowed down his horse speed and came to the side of a commander in his early twenties.

"Commander Yang, it seems that he is an old acquaintance with the Second Highness of my family, right?"

When Yao Guangxiao spoke, the commander in his early twenties also looked back in surprise, perhaps he didn't expect that it was actually a monk who came to find him first.

"Zhang Dewei commanded Yang Zhan, I don't know ...... master is"

More than three years have passed, Yang Zhan has become more mature, and his figure is much burder than three years ago.

Now he has just been transferred to the north with Yang Wen, serving as the commander of Zhangdewei, commanding 2,000 soldiers of Zhangdewei, and touring north with King Yan.

Of course, he was more happy than being promoted, and this time he could meet His Royal Highness, whom he hadn't seen for three years.

After joining the army for three years, he is no longer a young man who didn't know anything at the beginning, so he is a little wary of Yao Guangxiao.

"The poor monk is Yao Guangxiao, a monk of Yanfu." Yao Guangxiao returned the salute kindly, although Yang Zhan, who heard the words, had not heard of Yao Guangxiao's name, but looking at his age, he might be a close person to His Royal Highness, so his demeanor was more polite.

Seeing the sudden change in his demeanor, Yao Guangxiao also probably knew Zhu Gaoxu's status in Yang Zhan's heart.

In order to get closer to the relationship between the two, he began to discuss with Yang Zhan about the pacification of the Japanese rebellion and the return of the land, and from time to time interspersed with some things that Zhu Gaoxu had done in Beiping back then.

This kind of conversation made Yang Zhan feel a little relieved, at least the other party was not someone who didn't know anything.

It's just that no matter what Yao Guangxiao says, Yang Zhan has always been on guard in his heart, after all, he has experienced many intrigues in the past three years, and these things have made him understand that the ranks are not so simple.

If you want him to let down his guard, then he can only find Wang Xuan, Fu Rang and Zhu Gaoxu.

However, Yao Guangxiao didn't want to get anything from Yang Zhan, he just mixed a familiar face and touched the other party's character and character.

After a brief inspection, he felt that Yang Zhan was a very good person, who knew etiquette and remembered kindness, and was a good talent.

Originally, he thought that Yang Zhan was a person with a "smelly" personality and Zhu Gaoxu, but now it seems that Yang Zhan is not similar to Zhu Gaochu in the past, but more like the Zhu Gaochu that people say now.

"Maybe His Royal Highness is really a prodigal son, and he has changed his character."

Yao Guangxiao pondered the Buddha beads, found an opportunity and left Yang Zhan and returned to Zhu Di's side.

"Where did you go? I've been looking for you for a long time. ”

Seeing Yao Guangxiao appear, Zhu Di looked at Yao Guangxiao who suddenly caught up from behind in surprise.

"I just went to see someone."

Yao Guangxiao smiled charitantly, and Zhu Di felt a little weird, but he didn't think much about it.

The road to the north was boring, and it was grassland, hills and mountains for seven days, until I walked out of the range of Yanshan and saw the endless Daning grassland.

After coming to the Daning grassland, you can see the soldiers and horses who have been transferred to Quanning Wei from time to time.

When these soldiers and horses saw Zhu Di's Daxu, they came over one after another, even if this did not conform to the transfer order given by the Dusi Yamen, it can be seen that Zhu Di's prestige in the Sandu Division is high.

On the ninth day, Zhu Di's team had expanded from the 5,000 Yanfu cavalry at the beginning to more than 30,000 horse cavalry.

Of course, when they arrived at Quanningwei, the northern patrol team outside Quanningwei was a jaw-dropping scale.

Zhu Zhi, Guo Ying, Wu Gao, Liaodong Dusi and Liaowang three guards, a total of 3,600 cavalry, 20,000 sharp soldiers.

Zhu Quan, Bu Wan, Liu Zhen, the three guards of the Northern Parallel Capital Division and King Ning, totaling 4,500 cavalry and 26,000 sharp soldiers.

Zhu Di, Yang Wen, Zhu Neng, Beiping Dusi and Yan Wang's three guards, a total of 6,500 cavalry, 23,000 sharp soldiers.

In addition, there are 3,000 horse infantry and 5,000 infantry soldiers guarded by the king of the valley.

These four men and horses totaled 14,600 horsemen, 80,000 horses, and 94,600 men.

The camp tent that stretched for more than ten miles surrounded the Quanning Acropolis, and the Ming army, which covered dozens of miles, hunted with flags and hunts, and the north wind howled.

This scene is a majestic scene that no one can refuse.

Yang Wen, Yang Zhan and others, who were accustomed to fighting in the south and at sea, were in a trance for a while, and their hearts were full of heroism.

"Okay!"

Dwarf Qiu Lerma, looking at the endless company camp, Zhu Di also spoke proudly: "This northern tour, I want to completely expel the northern captives and teach Nahara to increase memory!" ”

Not only did Zhu Di feel like this, but all the Ming generals who saw this scene had resolute eyes, and there was a sense of pride in their hearts.

"If you count the soldiers and horses of the Second Highness, I'm afraid you can gather enough 100,000 troops."

Yang Wen looked at Zhu Di and told him his conjecture.

His words are also what Zhu Di thinks, after all, the scale of this northern tour is unprecedentedly huge, and it is impossible for his second child to miss such a brilliant opportunity, and he will definitely bring a large army here.

"The number of horse infantry in the second child should be the largest in the three capital divisions, if he brings enough horse infantry, we can go straight to Lingbei in the north this time, and teach Nahara to escape completely!"

Zhu Di shook the reins and walked back and forth in front of the army, listening to his words, everyone's faces were full of smiles, only Yao Guangxiao was not shocked.

"Big brother!"

Suddenly, more than ten people came from the camp under the low hill, Zhu Di took a closer look, but saw Zhu Quan, Zhu Zhi, Guo Ying and others galloping.

More than ten people rode up to the dwarf hill and met Zhu Di.

"How do you call me big brother?"

Seeing Zhu Quan and Zhu Zhi coming on horseback, Zhu Di grinned, although his mouth was asking, but his face was happy.

"The third brother has passed away, and the eldest brother is naturally the fourth brother."

When Zhu Quan arrived in front of Zhu Di, he couldn't help but smile bitterly in the face of the inquiry, Zhu Zhi on the side didn't call Zhu Di brother, after all, he was late, and he and Zhu Di had not met a few times, so it was not as close as Zhu Quan and Zhu Zhi.

"The fifteenth brother is restrained, but it's okay, just go on a few more northern tours with me and your seventeenth brother."

Seeing Zhu Zhi's restraint, Zhu Di also grinned, and at the same time put his eyes on Guo Ying, who was indifferent on the side.

Although there are three in sixty, Guo Ying, who is dressed in uniform, still looks energetic.

"Uh......" A second ago, Zhu Di also said that Zhu Zhi was restrained, and when he saw Guo Ying, he himself became embarrassed.

"Marquis Wuding, I went to Jilin to see my daughter-in-law, and the second child didn't treat her badly."

The embarrassed Zhu Di borrowed Guo Yan to get closer, but Guo Ying just bowed his head indifferently: "The last general knows, thank you for taking care of His Highness Bohai." ”

"Hehe......" Zhu Di, who felt that the conversation was too white, set his eyes on the generals who followed them.

Liu Zhen and Ping'an are old acquaintances, as for Wu Gao and Zhu Di who also trained with him for a period of time in Beiping, Wu Gao has five out of forty, but he has a cold attitude towards the vassal king and only does his own business, so many people in the army don't like him.

Zhu Di just smiled and nodded to them, which was regarded as a greeting.

After greeting him, he turned his head to Zhu Neng and said: "You lead the army to camp, and the rest of the generals have a good rest, and three days later, the army will march north, and the second brother will send a letter from there, saying that he will join us south of the city of Wuliangha." ”

"Yes!" Zhu Neng turned the horse's head and controlled more than 30,000 troops to camp on the periphery, while Zhu Di himself led the generals in the army to go to Quanningwei to discuss matters.

Yang Wen left Yang Zhan and asked him to assist Zhu Neng to lead the army to camp.

For Yang Wen, Yang Zhan still respects him very much, after all, this is also his benefactor.

Under Yang Wen's arrangement, Yang Zhan and Zhu Neng led the army to the periphery.

Zhu Neng didn't know the relationship between Yang Zhan and Zhu Gaoxu, so he roughly understood his level during the conversation with him on the road, so he divided his troops with him and set up camp.

Two hours later, when the two camps were erected, each side went to the other's camp to study.

Zhu Neng's ability doesn't need to be elaborated too much, even Yang Zhan, who has been following Yang Wen for three years, can't help but praise when he sees the camp he has arranged.

However, when he was praising him, the sound of horses' hooves came from outside the camp, and a general turned over and dismounted and looked for Yang Zhan.

"Look at it, this northern stronghold is a little different from when we were in the south, see what you can ...... about."

"Yang Zhan!!"

Yang Zhan was still explaining to his commanders and officials, and the next second he suddenly heard someone calling him by his name.

He subconsciously turned around, but saw someone hugging him directly: "You kid has changed a lot!" ”

Yang Zhan was hugged without even recognizing this person, and his subordinates also looked at this person who was close to his own commander in surprise.

Breaking free of the man's arm, Yang Zhan still wanted to be angry, but after seeing the man's face, he threw a punch: "You guy, scare the master!" ”

"Hey, hey!" The man dodged Yang Zhan's punch, and at the same time grinned: "When you see the eldest brother, you dare to do it." ”

"Fart you, you're going to be the sixth at most, aren't you, Lin Wuliu!" Yang Zhan laughed, and the person who came was Lin Su, who was transferred to Kaiping Right Guard as a commander.

At the beginning, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered a groundbreak, and Lin Su and Wu Zhang were the ones who guarded Zhu Gaoxu.

Yang Zhan and Wang Xuan visited Zhu Gaoxu many times, all through the hands of the two of them to send messages, or to talk through the door.

In a few months, several people have already become acquainted.

"How did you become the commander of Kaiping's right guard? Isn't the commander of Kaiping's right guard Lin Su? ”

When the old people reunited, there were naturally endless words, but what made Yang Zhan puzzled was Lin Wuliu's identity.

"Your Highness changed my name, and now my name is Lin Su." Lin Su stepped forward with a smile, hugged Yang Zhan and said with a smile: "Go!" Go to your camp and drink tea and eat meat. ”

"I don't have meat for you to eat...... Yang Zhan was helpless, but Lin Su grinned: "Can you still let you have meat?" I brought a fat sheep from Kaiping Right Guard, and I happened to eat it today. ”

"Good!" Hearing that he could eat mutton, Yang Zhan hugged Lin Su and returned to his camp.

When passing through the camp gate of Zhu Neng's camp, I happened to meet Zhu Neng, who had returned from studying at Yang Zhan's camp.

Zhu Neng knew Lin Su, so seeing Lin Su and Yang Zhan so close, he couldn't help but show a surprised look.

Feeling Zhu Neng's gaze, in order to make Yang Zhan live a nourishing life in the north, Lin Su also hammered Yang Zhan's shoulder and introduced Zhu Neng: "Brother Zhu, this is Yang Zhan, a good brother of His Royal Highness when he was in Yingtian City!" ”

"Oh...... That's ......" Zhu Neng was stunned by Lin Su's words, he really didn't know that Yang Zhan and Zhu Gaoxu had such a relationship.

"Are you going back to the camp to catch up?" Zhu Neng looked at the two of them and asked, and when he saw Lin Su nodding, he said, "Your Highness has brought a few jars of wine, and I will have someone send you two catties over, don't drink too much." ”

"It's not good...... Yang Zhan was still a little restrained, but Lin Su nodded briskly: "Okay!" ”

Seeing that Lin Su agreed to come down and Zhu Neng left, Lin Su also explained to Yang Zhan: "King Yan loves His Royal Highness, let's eat meat and drink wine with confidence, it's okay." ”

"That's good......" Yang Zhan nodded, and then walked towards his camp tent with Lin Su.

The two chatted about their experiences in the past three years along the way, and after entering the big tent, they were also waiting for the mutton, drinking tea and eating some dried fruits.

Before the mutton was ready, the wine from Zhu Neng's side had already been delivered.

The two endured it and waited until the mutton was served before they began to drink and eat meat.

"You are far away from us, but close to Wang Xuan, I read the Di newspaper, he seems to have been promoted to an official position."

"Yes, now he is already in command of the affairs, although he is still at the same level as us, he has been able to control the soldiers and horses of the capital, and he has an official position with Fu Du in commanding the affairs."

Lin Su talked about Wang Xuan, and Yang Zhan also explained with a smile, after all, he and Wang Xuan are not far apart, especially since he has been following Yang Wen in Guangxi last year to quell the rebellion, and the two are more than a thousand miles away, and it is relatively easy to exchange letters.

He was very happy about Wang Xuan's situation, but when Lin Su heard Yang Zhan say this, he also thought of some of his former brothers, so he asked Yang Zhan: "You and Chief Officer Yang went to Yingtian to report on their work, right?" ”

"It's gone, what's wrong?" Yang Zhan was eating meat and drinking wine, and he opened his mouth curiously.

"You didn't go looking for Wang Jian and Wu Zhangyi?" Lin Su talked about his comrades back then, and Yang Zhan also stopped drinking in his hands, and looked at Lin Su: "You don't know? Shouldn't you have gone to Ying Tian first? ”

"I couldn't go to ......" Lin Su sighed, and explained a little helplessly: "As soon as Fu Du and I arrived in Shenyang, we were ordered by the Governor's Mansion to let the military attache who was transferred to Kaiping leave for Kaiping immediately, so we couldn't respond to the Tianshu report. ”

"That's right." Yang Zhan put down the wine glass in his hand, and looked at Lin Su's expression before slowly speaking: "I naturally went to look for it, but they are not doing very well at the moment, Wang Jian is still in the position of a hundred household officials, and Wu Zhangyi has been promoted to the chief flag officer, but he is not doing well, so he avoided me and didn't see it." ”

As soon as Yang Zhan spoke, Lin Su knew what Wang Jian and Wu Zhangyi were psychologically with.

If it was an ordinary friend, it would naturally be blushing or scolding them, but Wang Jian and Wu Zhangyi were not that kind of people, and they were good brothers with Yang Zhan and himself.

I haven't seen each other for three years, and my former friends and brothers have all become commanders and commanders, and I am just a small hundred-household official and chief flag officer.

Such a gap is naturally embarrassing, so they can only avoid Yang Zhan.

Knowing the recent situation of the two, Lin Su also sighed and took a sip of wine, and sighed: "If I and the brothers around me, if we hadn't made up our minds to go north with His Highness, I'm afraid that we would be at most the same as Wu Zhangyi and them now." ”

"Well......" Yang Zhan didn't refute, after all, he also felt sorry for Wang Jian and Wu Zhangyi.

He stayed in the army for three years and came into contact with all kinds of people, from Zhejiang to Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Huguang, and he met not a hundred commanders and thousands of officials, but eighty.

But in all fairness, the quality and ability of this group of people are uneven, those who are strong have to learn from them, and those who are weak are not even as good as Wu Zhangyi.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang treats the military attaches who fight the world with him very favorably, as long as they don't make trouble like Huaixi Xungui, they can basically pass on their official positions to future generations.

Such a system has certainly ensured the wealth and nobility of the military attachés of the guard post for generations, but it has also led to the uneven strength of the armed forces in various places.

Some of the children of military attachés will be repelled by the robbers even if they take dozens of people to hunt down dozens of robbers, while some of the children of military attaches can lead more than 100 soldiers to pursue hundreds or thousands of robbers.

Judging from what Yang Zhan has seen and heard, the ability of the military attachés in the area from Zhejiang to Guangdong is very worrying, and there is no longer the fierceness of more than ten years ago.

In the entire Ming Dynasty, the army that could fight was nothing more than Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guangxi, followed by Shaanxi and Xingdu, as well as Beiping, Daning, and Liaodong.

Slightly secondary, there are provinces such as Shanxi and Huguang that need to prepare for border and counterinsurgency and maintain law and order for a long time.

In addition to these, the quality of military attaches and soldiers in the remaining provinces is worrying.

"In the southwest, I heard that the Marquis of Xiping has already requisitioned a large army and is preparing to attack the traitors of Daogan Meng."

Yang Zhan said with a little emotion: "When I exchanged letters with Wang Xuan, he said that this time Xiping Hou prepared an army of 60,000 and was ready to hit Sister Yun Mu in one fell swoop. ”

"I don't know where it is, but I think it's similar to the Mobei Royal Court." Lin Su was not clear about the situation in the southwest, and while eating a bite of meat with a smile, he smiled heartily:

"By the way, this time His Highness will also participate in the Northern Tour, and you can also see His Highness at that time."

"That's it!" Yang Zhan couldn't help but smile, and revealed to Lin Su: "I am far away from the place where you work, but it's nothing, because if nothing else, after this northern tour, I should go to Liaodong with Chief Officer Yang to take up a post." ”

"At that time, I will see if I can serve in southern Liaoning or Liaoshen, so that I can go to His Royal Highness and Fu Du to command the affairs."

"You're going to Liaodong?" Lin Su was also surprised by this news, and after reacting, he said with a little envy: "You guy, you are lucky, if you can tour the north with His Highness in the future, maybe you will soon climb to the official position of the commander of the capital." ”

"How is that possible!" Yang Zhan couldn't help laughing: "At my age, being a commander is already satisfied, but at your age, it's time to rise." ”

"Twenty-eight!"

"That's bigger than me, too!"

"! Come and drink! ”

"Drink it...... it"

In the tent, the two laughed and laughed, and when they pushed the cup and changed the lamp, they remembered the days in Yingtian Capital City.

It's just that compared to their laughter, Zhu Gaoxu, who is hundreds of miles away, is not so comfortable......

(End of chapter)