Jiuxi

Chapter 270 268 [Aloof than Yunyue]

"Your Majesty, I think this is a serious matter. Would it be more appropriate to recall Lu Chen, the captain of the Ruishi Camp, to the capital for detailed questioning?"

"Your Majesty, although I don't believe such rumors, I might ask you to investigate the matter thoroughly so that Lu Chen can be cleared."

"Your Majesty, perhaps Governor Xiao of Huaizhou is very fond of talents, but his attitude towards Lu Chen is indeed a bit extraordinary. I think it should be investigated."

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

However, compared with the low-ranking officials who criticized Xue Nanting, the Right Prime Minister, their attitudes and words were obviously much gentler. They did not rush to pin the blame on the descendants of the guilty ministers on Lu Chen, let alone shouting about beatings and killings. .

Li Duan was not angry.

On the one hand, it is because those who can enter Dongnuan Pavilion are all important officials of the court, all high-ranking officials of third rank or above. Even the emperor must maintain the most basic respect for them. On the other hand, not all of these people want to hinder the Northern Expedition. Some of them really consider the stability of Daqi and hope to do their best to eliminate such hidden dangers.

Seeing that the emperor was silent, left minister Li Daoyan glanced to the right unintentionally. Privy Councilor Guo Congyi, who was standing at the head of the right squad, coughed lightly and said: "Your Majesty, why don't you let Lu Chen return to Beijing to report on the border war?" Details, so that it will not cause commotion in the military. After he returns to Beijing, let him explain the doubts in the rumors. "

This is a mature and prudent statement, and it obviously carries a lot of weight given his status as Privy Councilor.

Li Duan mused: "The Northern Expedition is very anxious now. It may not be appropriate to suddenly recall Lu Chen to the capital at this time."

Guo Congyi was startled and immediately advised: "Your Majesty, although Lu Chen has performed outstandingly in a series of battles, the border army has two chief governors in charge of military affairs. Lu Chen's presence or absence will not affect the overall situation."

Some ministers nodded in agreement.

At this moment, a young eunuch from the Ministry of Internal Affairs tiptoed into the Dongnuan Pavilion, bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, there is an urgent military situation on the border!"

The ministers were in awe, Li Duan frowned slightly and said, "Come on."

The young eunuch raised a memorial above his head with both hands and said loudly: "The Commander-in-Chief of Huaizhou, Xiao Wangzhi, reported that Huaizhou Ruishi Camp and the four armies of Zhenbei, Feiyun, Lai'an, and Taixing gathered on the Leize Plain of Pseudo-Yan , launched a decisive battle with the main force of Jing’s army, totaling 18,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry, and later received support from Feiyu Camp of the Jingzhou Governor’s Mansion who rushed thousands of miles away.”

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

"This battle lasted from morning to afternoon. Our army fought fiercely with the enemy for nearly three hours. In the end, our army defeated the enemy. We killed 12,739 enemy soldiers and captured 6,944 enemy soldiers. Twelve men captured more than 5,000 war horses. In this battle, part of the Jing army's cavalry fled back to Heluo City, and the entire infantry army was wiped out!"

By the end of the sentence, the inner prisoner's voice was already trembling, and his body was shaking uncontrollably.

All the important officials in Nuan Pavilion were speechless.

Of course, they were not pretending to be in front of the emperor, but were completely stunned by this sudden good news.

The frontier army has achieved many victories in the past two years, but their enemies are basically the puppet Yan army. However, if the battle report this time is not false, it means that the Daqi army has been defeated head-on for the first time in nearly twenty years. The main force of Jing's army, and nearly 20,000 Jing's troops were defeated in one battle!

After the trial, Li Duan's face turned red as if he was drunk.

The first person to react was Left Prime Minister Li Daoyan. A trace of regret appeared in the old man's heart, and he trembled slightly: "This is God's blessing for the great Qi. I congratulate your Majesty! Congratulations to the great Qi!"

"Leize's victory is famous all over the world, and the Northern Expedition is going like a rock. I congratulate Your Majesty!"

All the important ministers shouted long live the mountain, whether they were sincere or fake, at least the joy and excitement were beyond words at this moment.

There was a noisy scene in the Nuan Pavilion.

Li Duan suppressed the enthusiasm in his heart and asked the ministers to stand up with a smile on his face. Then he took Xiao Wangzhi's thick memorial table from the hand of the internal supervisor. After opening it, he looked at it carefully. Unsurprisingly, he saw it on the merit table at the back. He picked up Lu Chen’s name.

Xiao Wangzhi himself was not on this application form, so Lu Chen's name was ranked first.

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

He knew that Lu Chen's performance would definitely be good, but he never thought that that young man was responsible for the strategy and planning of the entire battle, while Xiao Wangzhi himself played more of a correction and correction role.

If there hadn't been that rumor...

Li Duan sighed in his heart, but did not show it on his face. After closing the memorial, he looked at the ministers and said with great joy: "Zhongshu immediately drafted a commendation edict on my behalf, so that the frontier officers and soldiers can understand that the imperial court I will never treat them badly, and those who have meritorious service will be rewarded! In addition, let Xiao Wangzhi continue to work hard, I hope to receive his next success report as soon as possible, and I want to see Dongyang Road return to the rule of Daqi!"

"The minister obeys the order!"

The two prime ministers agreed in unison.

Li Duan looked at Guo Congyi again and said: "Guo Aiqing, the Privy Council must work out the rewards for the frontier soldiers as soon as possible. They shed blood and sacrificed on the battlefield. The court must not delay in rewards and pensions!"

Guo Congyi lowered his head and said: "I accept the decree!"

At this time, everyone was immersed in great joy. Upon seeing the situation, Minister Ding of the Ministry of War said: "Your Majesty, it seems that the rumors about Lu Chen's life experience must be rumors spread by the Northerners. They were defeated all the way on the battlefield and could not stop them at all. Unable to stop my attack on the frontier army, I wanted to use these rumors to drive a wedge between the Qi court and the Qi court. This is a very despicable act! I would like to request your majesty to investigate the source of these rumors thoroughly and seize those spies from the north to be punished as a warning. Follow your example!"

The Nuange suddenly fell into an awkward silence.

Left Prime Minister Li Daoyan looked at the ground at his feet in silence, and a look of disgust appeared on the face of Right Prime Minister Xue Nanting.

Li Duan looked up at Ding Hui, smiled meaningfully and said, "Ding Aiqing's words make sense, Qin Zheng."

"The minister is here."

"This matter will be handed over to the Weaving Department to investigate, slowly and carefully."

"The minister obeys the order."

Li Duan stood up and said: "I will post the great victory of Lei Ze with imperial notices all over the city, as well as in various prefectural cities in the south of the Yangtze River. I want the people of Qi to share this joy. I think this is the best New Year gift!" They all said in unison: "I will obey the holy decree!"

The impact of Lei Ze's victory greatly exceeded the expectations of the emperor and ministers in the DPRK, especially when the Weaving Department's subsequent survey of the results of the war was sent to the capital, confirming that the Huaizhou Governor's Office had not deceived at all this time, and that the border troops had actually annihilated and captured both. The main force of Wanjing Army formed a violent trend almost instantly, spreading in all directions with Yongjia City as the core.

Putting aside the encouragement and playing of the sheng by the literati, the rich folk in the south of the Yangtze River took the initiative to donate property to the imperial court for the first time. Although this phenomenon was not a universal behavior, it was just an exception relatively speaking, but it was enough to make the imperial court The dignitaries in the hall were shocked.

Under this sweeping wave, the rumors about Lu Chen's life experience were instantly crushed into silence. Who would pay attention to such rumors without any evidence?

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

"This Ji Ximing is so bold. Who gave him the power to do such a thing?!"

Li Duan's tone was gloomy. He looked at the three memorials spread out from left to right in front of him. Then he looked at Qin Zheng, who was standing solemnly in the hall, and said coldly: "Go and find out for me personally when Ji Ximing left the capital for Huaihe." State, how could he start investigating Lu Chen and Lu Tong before the rumors broke out, and who was he inciting!"

Qin Zheng lowered his head and said: "I obey the order."

Among the three-third memorials in front of Li Duan, the leftmost one comes from Su Yunqing, the Huaizhou Inspector of the Warp Weaving Department, and the middle one comes from the Huaizhou Governor Yao Chong. The two of them detailed what happened in front of the Governor's Mansion that day. There is not much difference in the content, and it can be regarded as an original record without deliberate distortion by Chunqiu's writing style.

Because of this, Li Duancai was particularly angry because Ji Ximing did not report to him in advance, but instead acted on his own initiative.

But he couldn't blame Qin Zheng for this matter. Ji Ximing was originally the person to check and balance Qin Zheng. If he held Ji Ximing in the palm of his hand, it would arouse the emperor's doubts.

"Your Majesty, after all, Ji Ximing was promoted from the third level. Lu Chen severely injured him in front of so many people. Even if he recovers, he will probably be a cripple. Do you want to punish him?"

Qin Zheng reminded impartially.

Li Duan raised his hand and pinched the center of his eyebrows. He was silent for a long time before saying: "I will issue an edict. That's it. Now we should focus on the Northern Expedition. When he returns to Beijing to take up a post in the future, I will let him try his best to change his appearance as a barbarian. Make a party.”

Qin Zheng's eyes moved slightly, realizing that the emperor had made a decision about Lu Chen's future, which was to first ensure that the Huaizhou Army successfully completed the set goal of the Northern Expedition, and then transfer Lu Shen to the capital in a legitimate manner after regaining Dongyang Road.

Qin Zheng didn't know whether he was entrusted with important responsibilities or whether he was idle at that time, and he didn't want to speculate.

"The criticism of the right prime minister and the rumors about Lu Chen's life experience are enough to show that the spies from the north have penetrated deeply into the capital, and even Ji Ximing's identity is involved. You should put other things aside now and clean up the capital. "

"Your Majesty, don't worry, I will start making arrangements immediately."

Li Duan nodded slightly, and after Qin Zheng resigned, he ordered the palace guards and eunuchs to retreat, and his eyes fell on the memorial on the far right in front of him.

This memorial was written by Lu Chen.

When Lu Chen left the capital, Qin Zheng gave him a jade medal for raising people, and he also had the right to secretly recite it at any time. However, Lu Chen never used it. In fact, this was also the reason why Li Duan had doubts about the rumors about his life experience. .

The number of foreign officials who can secretly submit memorials is very small. Unless the emperor specifically allows it, generally only the governors of various prefectures, governors of various states, and patrol censors have this qualification.

No matter what level of officials they are, even if there is no serious matter, they will submit secret documents to the emperor from time to time. Xiao Wangzhi and Li Tianrun are no exception. This is an important means to maintain the relationship between the emperor and his ministers and express their loyalty.

But for a whole year, Li Duan never received a secret message from Lu Chen.

Although Li Duan often saw Lu Chen's name in the memorials of frontier officials, especially Xiao Wangzhi, and knew about his movements and actions, he would inevitably have doubts in his heart. Did Lu Chen not understand the rules of officialdom, or did he not want to be Li Duan's? The minister of thigh and thigh.

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

Until he waited for Lu Chen's first secret letter.

He had read it once before. At this moment, there was silence in the hall, and Li Duan couldn't help but open the memorial again.

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

Li Duan looked at the content on the paper and said angrily.

"...Your Majesty, Ji Tidian is really bullying people too much. He imprisoned Chen's father just because of some rumors, and then used all kinds of bad means to beat him into submission. I had already endured it and didn't want to break up with him. But when I saw my father's sleepy and weak appearance, I really couldn't control the anger in my heart, so I impulsively punched Ji Tidian. I didn't expect that his martial arts was so poor that he couldn't even catch a punch. Admit you were wrong.”

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

"Your Majesty, I think the rumors about my life experience are really ridiculous and ridiculous. This is obviously a conspiracy of the Jing Dynasty princess in the north after suffering a defeat. The border army has just won the great victory of Leize, and the recovery of Dongyang Road is just around the corner. I want to continue I serve His Majesty, but I also know His Majesty’s difficulties. If His Majesty deems it necessary, I am willing to return to Beijing to confront those people face to face. I always firmly believe that truth cannot be false and falsehood cannot be true, and those rumors have no lethality. "

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

"Having said that, this kind of rumor is really disgusting. Although my father is just a businessman, he loves me very much. He has been this way since childhood. If everyone in the world does not believe that I am my father's son, your Majesty will also Therefore, I feel very embarrassed, and I am willing to resign from all military positions and return to Guangling Mansion to be with my family."

Li Duan stretched out his hand and pressed it on the memorial, with a little warmth in his eyes.

"...Your Majesty, I have no literary talent and don't know how to express my thoughts, but your Majesty, please believe that I will prove myself on the battlefield, even if I am wrapped in horse leather."

This memorial ends here, and is signed: "This memorial is written by Lu Chen, the captain of the Rui Shi Camp of the Huaizhou Dudu Mansion."

Li Duan recalled in his mind the exchange between the emperor and his ministers when Lu Chen came to the capital, and he couldn't help but sigh slightly.

After a long time, he whispered to himself: "I hope you will not betray my trust."

(End of this chapter)