Pingyang Fu of the Red Chamber

Chapter 308
Beijing,

Inside the palace, in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, in the Royal Study Room.

After Emperor Wu Zhou Shihong finished speaking, he silently walked back to the desk and sat down. Then he took out the folder on Marquis Luo Yun from the far left of the desk, and slowly opened it with his hands. The generals of the border army and Luo Yun were inside Hou's seal and signature are still fresh in my mind.

Dai Quan also knows that His Majesty has been unable to make up his mind for a long time. The court has the strength to fight, but no one will make this decision easily, and the nearly 20 cavalry under Tihou's headquarters are not ordinary herdsmen who charge with a knife guy.

They are all elite cavalry who have been on the battlefield for a long time. They are invincible across the eastern grasslands. Even the Xianbei people's expedition to the east suffered heavy losses at his hands.

It is really unrealistic to defeat them head-on, or defeat them.

Zhou Shihong also sat there silently, looking at the memorial in his hand, thinking about how to fight, how sure Luo Yunhou was, and constantly weighing the pros and cons in his heart.

Just as Emperor Wu was contemplating.

Changle Palace,
The Supreme Emperor also received a secret letter, so he asked Xia Shouzhong, the chief eunuch;
"But something happened at Jinbei Pass again, so the Marquis Qiti came again?"

"Back to the Supreme Emperor, yes, and Tihou personally commanded the army to come, and the number one fierce general under his command, Da Danghu, personally supervised the battle."

After Xia Shouzhong opened the letter and read it, Zhou Shengzhuo also shook his head. This Qi Tihou was too arrogant.

"You read the letter, why are you asking for help this time?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, the slave will tell you right away."

Xia Shouzhong took a general look at it, then started to read,
"Back to the Supreme Emperor, the secret guards arrived. Qiti Hou led an army of more than [-] people and attacked Shanbei Pass for several days. The defenders suffered heavy casualties. Moreover, although Liu Fang's reinforcements arrived, there were too many enemies. As a last resort, General Hou began to attack the counties in the rear. The city has asked for help, and it looks like the war situation is not optimistic."

"Yeah, Liu Fang didn't hold back even after she went, Donghu native."

The Supreme Emperor also had a gloomy face, remembering that when he succeeded to the throne, the Donghu people were just a large tribe under the rule of the Xianbei people, and every year they would show their favor to him and the court in exchange for supplies.

Now that the Xianbei people have become the overlords of the eastern grasslands, it can be seen how far-sighted the leaders are.

Today's Donghu people can't shake their tails too much. One day, they will become Dawu's confidantes. Thinking about it, it is also boring.
"By the way, what countermeasures does the emperor have?"

"Going back to the Supreme Emperor, it seems that he has not yet. His Majesty has not summoned the cabinet ministers, nor has he summoned the old princes to discuss together."

Xia Shouzhong didn't dare to make mistakes, and told about the affairs in the palace and the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Hearing this, the Supreme Emperor didn't worry anymore.
Shihong should have made up his mind, and he was not sure in his heart, but if he was giving in, if Dawu's internal affairs loosened and Donghu people were beside Dawu, it would be difficult to deal with it.

This battle must be fought, how and when to fight is the big deal, Luo Yunhou is a genius.

"Understood, don't spread this matter, just keep an eye on it, don't be careless, the letter will be burned."

"Yes, the Supreme Emperor, slaves must keep their mouths shut."

After Xia Shouzhong responded, he also took a brazier, came to the candlelight, lit the secret letter in his hand, and threw the burning letter into the brazier until it burned out.

Hall of Mental Cultivation,
In the imperial study,

Emperor Wu also slowly read Luo Yunhou's papers, and he did the calculations himself. There are 15 cavalry in the Beijing camp and 20 cavalry in the imperial army. With [-] cavalry, each frontier army can gather [-] iron cavalry, and Luo Yunhou can also send [-] cavalry, which adds up to [-] cavalry. The gap is still very large, and Tihou's headquarters has [-] people.

But looking further down, we can see the battle of attrition at the Northern Pass of Shanxi. This battle was to use infantry to consume the strength of King Youxian of the Donghu people. It was a good move, but the battle situation was changing rapidly. The tribes that attached to Donghu had no shortage of infantry troops. Thinking of this is also a headache for Huang. Although the strategy is good, how to implement it is much worse.

It's better to ask Luo Yunhou's opinion face to face. Thinking of Zhang Jinyu, Emperor Wu raised his head and asked;

"Dai Quan, how is Luo Yunhou in Jiangnan now?"

Dai Quan stood below and watched all the time. Seeing that His Majesty had been contemplating, he didn't dare to disturb him. He responded quickly when he asked questions now, and replied;

"Returning to Your Majesty, Eunuch Zhao also replied to the letter. Now Jinling City is also under the control of the Four Guards of the Imperial Army. The Hou Ye went there and ransacked the homes of the generals of the Guards at all levels overnight, but was advised by Gui Yifu, the deputy commander of Jinling. , less use of swords, Luo Yunhou also stopped immediately, did not expand the arrest, but surrounded the Jia family's ninth house."

Emperor Wu was relieved when he heard that, Jiangnan still needed to be stabilized. If war really broke out this autumn, money and food would still need to be paid by Jiangnan.

"Well, Luo Yunhou is still taking care of the overall situation. I didn't waste my painstaking efforts. I want Luo Yunhou to come back soon after dealing with it, so that we can discuss how to fight the Northland and when to fight."

Dai Quan was also taken aback, the emperor was determined to fight, this is a shocking event, why don't he call the courtiers to discuss it, but he didn't dare to say anything,

"Reply, Your Majesty, Luo Yunhou will definitely handle it properly, but Your Majesty still needs the courtiers' dedication."

Hearing Dai Quan's reminder, Emperor Wu smiled, and these civil servants only had a mouth, and there were too few who could do anything.

"By the way, the people from the household department have finished checking, and they said they checked the granaries in the counties and cities below. Have they checked? How about the grain storage?"

Dai Quan was surprised, what should I say.

I could only froze at the hesitation and couldn't speak out, the hand of the Emperor Wu who had just put down the memorial stopped, and asked suspiciously;

"You old man, if you have something to say, tell me what's wrong?"

Dai Quan immediately knelt down and replied;
"Returning to Your Majesty, the granaries in the capital and the counties in Zhongzhou are full, and there is water transport to replenish the granaries every month. There is no shortage. But, but."

"But what? Don't say it quickly."

Emperor Wu's heart sank, could it be that there is something wrong with the granary, and the battle after the autumn will be suspended?

"Returning to Your Majesty, the people sent by the imperial court only checked the granaries in Dongshan and Qingchuan counties. How could you imagine that the granaries in the two cities were burned to the ground that night, leaving nothing behind?"

Dai Quan also said carefully, how can he not know that the people below are so lawless.

Emperor Wu Zhou Shihong directly threw the memorial and said angrily;

"Lawless, lawless, what do the magistrates of the two cities say?"

"Return to Your Majesty, saying that the fire happened accidentally due to dry weather and dry things? It was caused by ineffective rescue."

"Hehe, I accidentally caught fire. It's really okay. The decree is drafted. All speculators will be taken down by the city guards of Dongshan County and Qingchuan County, as well as officials above the fourth rank. They will be escorted to Beijing for a strict trial, and then a report will be issued. If there is not enough food, If there is a problem, all officials above the fourth rank here will directly search their homes and go to Beijing for strict interrogation, and the commander of the imperial army will arrange for people from the two counties to search their homes to find out what is hidden, and send cavalry to go quickly."

Emperor Wu felt great hatred in his heart, the civil servants kept saying that they wanted power and wanted to fight for power, but he was so loyal, and he was also faintly suspicious of the distrust of the civil servants.

On the other hand, Xungui, although making small mistakes, learned from Shen Zhongxin and Eunuch Yang from the household department that the Xungui were all patchwork, and they evened up the accounts owed. Instead, the civil officials procrastinated, I haven't received half of them so far, which is absurd.

"Yes, Your Majesty, the old slave will pass on the decree immediately, Your Majesty, the old slave will go and say it in person."

Dai Quan also kowtowed on the ground and replied.

"Well, get up, your people from the Imperial City Department must follow up, go and see, where did the food go, and who took it, find out!"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

harem,

Cining Palace,
Empress Dowager Lu also did not fall asleep, she kept tossing and turning on the bed, thinking a lot but now she couldn't do anything, her granddaughter was found, but she couldn't meet her, and now she even went to Jiangnan, and she didn't know what happened.

I couldn't sleep, so I got up and put on some clothes, and outside the next door, the nuns around me hurried in when they heard the movement, and said;
"Queen, why are you up? It's still cold, wear more clothes."

Then several nuns hurried over and took the fox fur cloaks, and then put them on for the queen mother, and the queen mother nodded and put them on, and then asked;
"Nowadays, it's not too cold. Do you know what's going on in the palace these days?"

The old slave beside him brought a cup of hot tea to the Queen Mother, and said;

"Returning to the master, the harem is nothing more than a matter of jealousy. Concubine Wu, nobleman Zhou and many other beauties are secretly competing for favor!"

"Hey, it's all passing by. What are you thinking if you don't leave a son and a half daughter? By the way, how is the investigation at the Tai Hospital?"

Empress Dowager Lu rarely sent someone to check the tonics and medicated diets taken by the emperor these days. Why is there no one in the harem who is pregnant? I really don't have that idea. After all, the three princes are in hand, sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai, but the old concubine's side is not necessarily the case.

Then I sent someone to the imperial hospital to watch, but there is nothing wrong with taking the medicine to boiling the medicine these days, and even the dregs of the medicine were compared. Could it be that the emperor himself has something wrong with his body? I put it deeply in my heart.

"Okay, let's keep an eye on this matter slowly, don't worry, this harem is nothing more than those things, and now it's almost time to choose the prince, and the princes can't sit still, alas, the Ai family really wants to see Watch the fun."

"Master, slow down, yes, the words are still those things, but hey, the old slave also loves the master."

The nuns around her were all mournful and displeased. The Empress Dowager Lu also understood in her heart how her son died. How could any of the crown princes who came down from the throne be alive? Even if they were alive, life would be worse than death.

Thinking of this, Empress Dowager Lu also had vicious eyes, glanced at Changle Palace and Yangxin Palace, and sneered at the bottom,
"Aijia made a mistake by himself, so I can't blame others, but there's nothing I can do now, isn't it, but God, I made a joke for my old lady, the granddaughter was found, you said that if there is a boy, Aijia's grandson You don't want to be a prince, the emperor's material."

"Yes, master, that's the reason, but master, the capital is also undercurrents now, I'm afraid it will be extremely difficult."

"It depends on human effort. If they don't fight or grab it, we have no chance. Take your time. The Ai family has been waiting for decades, and they are still afraid of this, haha."

(End of this chapter)