The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Li Dingguo, along with Ruan, his second son Li Sixing and a group of guards, boarded the fastest cruiser currently available in the South China Sea Navy and returned to Nanjing in just over ten days.

After entering the city, he first reported to the Military Affairs Council with his guards, and asked the officials to arrange a camp for the guards.

In the city of Nanjing, except for the royal family, no family was allowed to keep armed personnel with firearms, bows and crossbows.

As the prince of Dalai, Li Dingguo's military rank was promoted to three-star marshal. Even when he went to handle private matters, he could call on no more than a battalion of guards to accompany him.

But if he stayed in Nanjing, he would not be able to take his fully-equipped guards with him wherever he went.

Reporting to the Military Affairs Council and having guards stationed in special camps are all necessary.

As for his safety issue.

As the capital of the Great Empire, Nanjing is extremely safe.

The patrol police spread across every street and alley in the city, the Nanjing Garrison stationed in key locations, and the tens of thousands of imperial guards stationed near the imperial city, plus the strict ban on illegal guns, artillery, bows and crossbows, are sufficient to ensure the safety of residents.

If someone was really bold enough to assassinate Li Dingguo, a top general of the empire, in Nanjing, it would surely be a major event that would shock the world.

The imperial court will certainly get to the bottom of the matter and give Li Dingguo justice.

Of course, Li Dingguo did not mean that there would be no one to protect him once he arrived in Nanjing.

Firstly, as an important general of the imperial court, the Military Affairs Council would request a team of personal guards to take over his security work.

Secondly, the Li family also hired a small number of guards who were all retired veterans. Although these veterans did not have guns, bows and crossbows and other sharp weapons, they had swords and other close combat cold weapons. The most important thing was that they were vigilant and sharp enough to protect the safety of Li Dingguo and everyone in the Li family.

Li Dingguo came out of the Military Affairs Council and returned to his residence with a team of personal guards.

He now has one wife, three concubines, five sons and seven daughters. Except for the eldest son who is in the standing army and two daughters who are married, the rest still live in the Li Mansion.

This time when he came back, the mansion was naturally much more lively than usual.

Li Dingguo also enjoyed the warm time with his family.

However, before he could enjoy it for long, someone delivered an invitation in the afternoon.

"King Wuwei invited me to a dinner at his home?"

Li Dingguo frowned after reading the invitation.

The post was sent by Shen Wandeng.

Shen Wandeng retired several years ago and is now nearly seventy years old.

I heard that he had a serious illness last year and was able to survive thanks to the latest treatments and medicines provided by several professors from Nanjing Medical College.

Li Dingguo came from the peasant army of Zhang Xianzhong. Over the years, except for his colleagues in the Fifth Division at the beginning, and a few generals who had been on good terms with Zhang Xianzhong, such as Sun Kewang, Liu Wenxiu, and Ai Nengqi, he had a very ordinary relationship with other generals in the army.

However, Shen Wandeng had fought alongside him several times when he had just joined the Qie tribe. Among the nine princes today, he had a relatively good relationship with him.

In addition, Shen Wandeng is old and had a serious illness last year. Now that he has returned to the capital, he should go and see him.

But Li Dingguo knew that Shen Wandeng knew of his return so quickly and was so eager to invite him, so the matter must be complicated.

Considering that the retired emperor had returned after more than ten years away, Li Dingguo inexplicably felt that there was an undercurrent in the capital.

I'm afraid something big is going to happen!

···
The sun sets in the west.

Li Dingguo brought his second son Li Sixing and third son Li Runxing, and came to the Shen Mansion with gifts.

As for his other two sons, they were still underage and not suitable for participating in such a dinner, so he did not bring them.

"Brother Dingguo, I didn't expect that I would see you again - I am really old, and I am afraid that the brothers in the army will see less and less of each other."

Shen Wandeng's hair was mostly gray, but his beard was mostly black. He was a little fatter than a few years ago, but his skin was getting looser, and there were even obvious age spots on his face and hands. Thinking of Shen Wandeng's serious illness last year, which he almost died, Li Dingguo also felt quite sad.

He said, "People say that sixty-nine is a hurdle. Since Brother Shen has passed this hurdle, it means that he has survived a great disaster and will surely have good fortune in the future. In my opinion, he can live for at least another ten years."

"I don't dare to think about living for more than ten years. I will be satisfied if I can live another four or five years."

After a few pleasantries, Shen Wandeng led Li Dingguo to the hall and sat down.

Soon afterwards, Helian Yue also came.

Compared to a few years ago, Helian Yue has obviously gained weight after becoming the vice president of Nanjing National Defense University.

His hair was gray and his beard was pure black. Although his wrinkles were deep, his face did not have age spots like Shen Wandeng's - after all, he was not yet sixty years old.

But he seemed to be less energetic than Shen Wandeng, probably because he had not been happy in the past few years.

Shen Wandeng did not invite more people. After Helian Yue arrived, the dinner started.

The three of them ate, drank and chatted, either about military affairs, or about the children of each family, or some hot topics in newspapers recently.

For the identities of the three people, these things are not important.

Among the three, Li Dingguo still had a military post, so he was still restrained in his diet. Shen Wandeng was old and had just recovered from a serious illness, so he ate even less. Helian Yue was in a bad mood and also had no appetite.

As for the young people from the three families, with their elders present, they could not chat and drink freely, and naturally did not eat much.

So the dinner ended quickly.

Afterwards, Shen Wandeng invited Li Dingguo and Helian Yue to the flower hall in the mansion to drink tea and chat.

After a few words, Shen Wandeng said, "It's not just Brother Dingguo who was called back this time - the King of Yunzhong, the King of Kuaiji, the King of Wudu, and the King of Luzon also returned to Beijing one after another a few days ago."

"Now, among the nine kings of other surnames in our Dalai, only Zhang Ao, the King of Rinan, and Huang Fei, the King of Nanhai, have not returned. However, I guess they should be on their way."

"Judging from the time, I'm afraid that the emperor has just returned here, and the emperor has issued an edict to summon you, the foreign kings who are leading troops outside, back to the capital."

"Brother Dingguo has always been very knowledgeable and was highly valued by the Grand Emperor. Do you know what this matter means?"

Helian Yue didn't say anything but looked over. It was obvious that the two had discussed this matter before, and this time he mainly wanted to hear Li Dingguo's opinion.

Li Dingguo never expected that the nine kings from other families would be recalled to Beijing.

There must be something going on here, and it might be something bigger than he expected.

After sipping his tea and thinking for a while, Li Dingguo said, "If the nine foreign kings are all recalled to the capital, then something big must be happening."

"Now, our great power is feared by all directions. We have no rivals in Central Asia to the west, Japan and Eastern Qing to the east, the South China Sea to the south is our inland sea, and we have even explored the Arctic Ocean to the north."

"Although there are some disputes with several major Western maritime powers in Africa, North America, and South America, it is unlikely that our nine great kings will be involved."

"So, this big event must be an internal matter of our Great Dao, and it is related to our nine great kings."

After listening, Shen Wandeng and Helian Yue both nodded slightly, feeling that what Li Dingguo said was reasonable.

As for the Liu Bei royal family, they felt that these people were a threat and wanted to gather them together and wipe them out at once.

These statements are just ridiculous ideas held by some middle and low-level people, and these top generals of the army would not believe them.

Their existence posed no threat to Liu Bei's royal family. Getting rid of them would only bring harm and no benefit to Liu Bei's royal family. Therefore, neither Liu Sheng nor Liu Rui had any reason to do so.

At this time, Helian Yue said: "If we are talking about matters related to our nine great kings, and it is also an internal matter of Dalai, then it can only be the overseas fiefdom promised by the emperor back then."

Having said that, the depression on Helian Yue's face finally melted away, turning into anticipation, excitement and nervousness.

Then he said jokingly, "You can't really call us back just for the emperor to reminisce about the past, right?" (End of this chapter)