Ming Dynasty: At the beginning, the house was ransacked and the ancestral temple was burned down.

Chapter 211: Unlucky Nurhaci! Huang Taiji: Charge in!

Li Chengliang was also stunned, especially when he saw the last three words of the signature on the letter, he instinctively wanted to throw the letter away!

"What's going on... Didn't Zhang Taiyue die a long time ago..."

Li Chengliang's face was full of surprise, but he was not afraid of death. He had fought in battles for most of his life and killed countless people. If he was afraid of death, he would have been scared to death long ago.

Just by looking at the familiar handwriting and the familiar name, I instinctively recalled the person who had been dead for many years.

Li Chengliang's views on Zhang Juzheng were actually very complicated.

He was grateful for Zhang Juzheng's support and reuse, but he was somewhat dissatisfied that Zhang Juzheng also supported and reused Qi Jiguang.

Li Chengliang knew very well that if there had been no Zhang Juzheng, their Li family would probably not have the status they have today in Liaodong.

However, Li Chengliang knew better that Zhang Juzheng was now a criminal, and he was almost liquidated by the emperor because of Zhang Juzheng's downfall!
If Shen Shixing had not protected him for ten years, he would have been dismissed from office by the emperor who was suspicious and dissatisfied with him for a long time!
Li Chengliang was still lucky, and he expressed his gratitude more than once.

Fortunately, he raised a good son, a good son who was good at fighting, smart, and very much loved by the emperor!
With mixed feelings, Li Chengliang began to check the contents of the letter, and after a while, he finished reading it.

But after reading it, Li Chengliang's expression froze!
Because the letter actually said bluntly - there are people in the court who are colluding with foreign invaders, and they are planning to kill your son and destroy your Li family's prestige in Liaodong!

Li Chengliang didn't know who was using Zhang Juzheng's name to deliberately write him this letter, which was not sure whether it was true or not and also contained a threatening meaning!

Just as Li Chengliang was deep in thought, the housekeeper came again and brought him a piece of news that was like "timely rain"!

"Master, Dalang sent someone to tell me that the military department has approved the deployment of troops. He is now organizing the army and will be dispatched in the evening."

Looking at the sun that was about to set outside, Li Chengliang was shocked: "So fast..."

In fact, it was not fast anymore, and this was not the first time Li Chengliang had heard such words.

As long as his son was in Liaodong, he would send someone to say hello to his father every time he went to war, so that Li Chengliang would not worry too much.

As a father, how could Li Chengliang not be worried when his own son went to the battlefield, especially since his son particularly liked to take the lead in charging into battle.

Normally, during a war, the commander only needs to command from behind, but every time there is a battle, Young Master Li always leads the troops.

In the Ming Dynasty, apart from the founding general Chang Yuchun and Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di, there was probably only Li Rusong who was such a stubborn general.

It’s not that Li Chengliang had not tried to persuade Li Rusong, but his son had a very bad temper and was not willing to listen to him, even as his father.

Looking at the letter in his hand, whose authenticity he was not sure, Li Chengliang should have thrown it away and ignored it.

But at this moment, he had a bad premonition gradually rising in his heart.

"How many people did Dalang take to chase the Tartars?" Li Chengliang suddenly asked.

The housekeeper replied, "Master, Dalang brought more than 3,000 men, all of whom are cavalry from our army."

More than three thousand, not a small amount.

After all, the Liaodong cavalry have always been brave, and they are all native Liaodong people, so in terms of numbers, it is not possible to add as many as you want.

Li Chengliang fell into deep thought again. To be honest, if it weren't for this sudden letter, he would not have taken Li Rusong's pursuit of the Tartars so seriously.

After all, he knew his son's abilities, and he knew the Tartars' abilities even better.

But at this critical moment, such a problem happened inexplicably, a problem that he didn't know whether it was true or not, but it was able to disturb his mind!

There was no way, because the reason was the shocking fact that someone in the court was colluding with foreign tribes and not only wanted to kill his eldest son, but also wanted to bring down the entire Li family.

The sun was about to set and the Li Mansion was not close to the garrison camp. Li Chengliang knew that by the time the message was delivered, his son had already sent out his troops and could not be stopped.

Moreover, even if he was stopped, it would be useless. As a father, he knew his son best. Once Li Rusong made a decision, ten oxen could not pull him back.

He himself was just a retired official, so it was even more impossible for him to personally mobilize troops to chase his son.

His only hope could only be his second son Li Rubai, who was also in Liaodong.

However, Li Rubai did not have the power to mobilize troops. If he wanted to lead troops to provide support, he had to submit a petition to the court again.

Whether the imperial court agrees or not is one thing, but going back and forth like this will require us to wait for several more days!

For a moment, Li Chengliang became annoyed, and coincidentally at this moment, the housekeeper brought another piece of news.

"Master, one of Erlang's officers wants to see you. He also claims that he has a solution to your urgent problem. Are you going to chase him away?"

Li Chengliang became suspicious upon hearing the news, and he felt that things were getting more and more complicated!

"Let him in!"

Li Chengliang finally said.

……

Liaodong border.

A six-year-old boy wearing a tiger-skin coat was riding on his father's neck, covering his eyes with his hands, and looking at the Liaodong territory blocked by a high wall.

"Father, what is the city like? Why don't they let us in?"

Huang Taiji lowered his head and asked his father, his young face showing confusion and some dissatisfaction.

Before Nurhaci could answer, a burly young man of about seventeen or eighteen years old spoke first.

"Why else? Those Ming Dynasty people despise us because we are barbarians!"

As the first legitimate son born to Nurhaci and Tonggiya after Nurhaci married into the family, Chu Ying always said whatever he thought, without even caring about his father Nurhaci's face.

Chu Ying's words were too direct, which made Nurhaci a little unhappy, but he did not rebuke Chu Ying. He just asked Huang Taiji on his back:
"Old Eight, do you want to go to the Ming Dynasty and take a look?"

The six-year-old Huang Taiji nodded frantically: "Father, I want to! I heard that there were many delicious foods and many fun things in the Ming Dynasty!"

The most important things for children are eating and playing, especially for children who grow up in a cold area like Jianzhou all year round.

Huang Taiji still cannot understand what the south, which is green all year round, looks like.

"Eighth Brother, don't worry." Nurhaci grabbed his son's feet and stared at the city wall that kept them out.

This Dragon and Tiger General, who was personally appointed by the Ming Dynasty, said to his six-year-old son, Huang Taiji:
"Father will be able to take you to the Ming Dynasty soon. Let's fight our way in!"

Huang Taiji seemed to really understand what his father meant. The six-year-old boy moved his hands and feet with joy, and patted his father's head without knowing how hard he was beating a drum, laughing:
"Hahaha! Great! Charge in! Ama! Charge in!"

……

It turns out that being happy is a good thing.

But being happy too early is not a good thing.

Because Huang Taiji moved around too much and was not careful enough with his hands and feet as a little kid, he accidentally slapped his old father Nurhaci's eyes with his palm.

Nurhaci's grip suddenly loosened, and Huang Taiji fell to the ground with a bang!
The six-year-old kid who was laughing the moment before, burst into tears after falling!
Nurhaci didn't have time to comfort his son properly, because his troubles also came!
……

"What? You want me to lead the troops to support...Brother?"

Nurhaci even doubted whether he had heard it wrong.

Are you kidding me?

This time, he brought his two sons and more than 2,000 Jurchens to the Liaodong border just to pay tribute and exchange some things with the Ming people.

His godfather Li Chengliang actually sent someone to lead these two thousand Jurchens to help Li Rusong fight the Mongols!
Treat him as a coolie! ?
"Why, General Longhu doesn't want to?" Qin Liangyu saw Nurhaci's face turn green, and immediately used Li Chengliang's words to scare him:
"General Li said that you have always been filial. Now this is not just about your elder brother, but about the entire Ming Dynasty.

As the Dragon and Tiger General personally appointed by the Ming Dynasty and the Commander-in-Chief of the Left Guard of Jianzhou, it is only natural for you to serve the court.

Oh, by the way, General Li also said that he had asked your second brother to write a letter to the court on your behalf, requesting that troops be sent to assist you, and sent it to the capital overnight."

After Qin Liangyu finished speaking, Nurhaci was also stunned.

Nurhaci knew very well that at this point, Li Chengliang was forcing him!
At present, Li Rubai has helped him submit a petition requesting to send troops. If he does not send troops to help, the Ming Dynasty will definitely be dissatisfied with him!
And Li Chengliang, who had 'raised' him for so many years, would definitely take this opportunity to massacre him in one fell swoop while his Jianzhou Guard had not yet fully developed!
After all, cats are raised for fun. If the big cat is disobedient, just kill it!

Nurhaci panicked. Somehow, he suddenly remembered the plowing and digging of holes during the Chenghua period!

In Nurhaci's eyes, the emperor of the Zhu family always wanted to kill all of them, the Jianzhou Jurchens! It was really abominable!

But he was unwilling to send troops to support Li Rusong like this!

……

In the end, Nurhaci had no choice but to agree.

However, he cited trivial matters such as tribute exchange as an excuse, saying that it might be a little later before he could send troops to help.

Qin Liangyu could tell at a glance that the other party was stalling for time. In Zhang Chonghui's words, Nurhaci would rather wait until Li Rusong was killed in battle before he arrived.

This way, not only could he cry at Li Rusong's grave on the spot, but he could also win some honors. Qin Liangyu knew that Nurhaci was stalling for time, but she did not urge him.

To use Zhang Chonghui's words as well, Li Rusong will never learn his lesson unless he is allowed to die!

……

the other side.

Li Rusong led his troops overnight and chased them to Fushun.

Along the way, the Ming army wiped out many Tartars, and they chased and killed the Tartars all the way!
If it were in the past, Li Rusong would not find it strange that the Tartars were so easy to kill.

After all, the Tatars today are no longer as powerful as they were during the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

I don’t know if it was because of Qin Liangyu’s words or for some other reason, but Li Rusong always felt something was wrong throughout the journey.

In the end, Li Rusong gave the order and ordered the army to stop chasing.

Looking at the darkness ahead, he thought carefully and made a decision again!
He would first take two thousand men to the front to scout out the situation, leaving more than a thousand men to stay where they were, and then set off again after half an hour!
This is an old method, and Li Rusong doesn't know whether this old method is still useful.

In short, listen to that person. It is better to have a backup plan than to have nothing at all.

……

Li Rusong led two thousand Ming cavalrymen to the Hunhe area where the Tartars fled.

At the same time, tens of thousands of Mongolian soldiers were hiding on the banks of the Hun River, waiting to catch Li Rusong at any time!
The leading general 'Zhao Hua' laughed out loud while holding the latest intelligence.

"You only brought over 3,000 men? Li Rusong, you are really courting death!"

……

At the same time, the capital.

Li Rusong was busy staying up late fighting, and the Tartars were busy staying up late ambushing.

The palace examination officials of the Ming Dynasty were also busy marking the papers late into the night.

Yes, the palace examination is over.

The next step is to mark the papers and rank the new scholars.

Guo Zhengyu, the chief examiner of the palace examination and a cabinet minister, was stroking his beard and praising a paper.

"Wonderful! It's really wonderful! I heard that this newly-appointed scholar named Zhao Bingzhong is only 25 years old. He has such insights at such a young age. What he wrote is really remarkable!"

Guo Zhengyu's praises all showed his admiration for this person.

The other examiners who were marking the papers at the same time also heard that Guo Zhengyu was not just praising Zhao Bingzhong for his good policy essay.

What he meant was that he was telling them: Zhao Bingzhong is a talented person and he will be mine from now on!

After a round of searching, the top ten papers were selected with the unanimous approval of the examiners.

These ten papers will be sent to His Majesty the Emperor, who will personally review them and then rank them according to his personal preferences.

Among the remaining test papers, the better ones will be ranked in the second class and awarded the status of Jinshi.

Those who are inferior will be ranked in the top three and be granted the same status as Jinshi.

Of course, better or worse does not only refer to how well the article is written, but more to some other "unspeakable" factors.

Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun, who had been in a daze for more than a month, received the palace examination papers of the top ten candidates early in the morning.

Zhu Yijun didn’t know what was wrong with him. For more than a month, he had been dreaming almost every night, and they were all nightmares.

Watching the palace servants taking turns opening the essay test papers for him to read, Zhu Yijun, with dark bags under his eyes, had no mood to read them.

"That's it."

Zhu Yijun casually pointed to a paper with the most exquisite handwriting and the most pleasing appearance.

Tired, he picked up the red pen and casually wrote the six words "First Class, First Place" on the paper.

Maybe he wrote it too casually and without much care, so these few words don't look very good.

Especially when compared with the top scorer's paper, which had beautiful and neat handwriting that looked like it could be printed, Zhu Yijun's handwriting looked even uglier.

Zhu Yijun might have been shocked by the ugliness of his own handwriting, but he had already written it and couldn't erase it and rewrite it.

"Forget it!" Zhu Yijun slammed his red pen on the table in annoyance and ordered: "Let the cabinet sort out the remaining places. I'm tired!"

……

Hearing that His Majesty the Emperor was so lazy that he didn't even bother to rank the top ten candidates in the imperial examination, several cabinet elders were speechless...

Fortunately, the emperor still picked out the top scholar, who was Zhao Bingzhong, whom Guo Zhengyu had praised publicly.

"I think we should let this person take the second place."

Cabinet minister Fang Congzhe pointed to the paper of a man named Shao Jingyao and asked Prime Minister Zhu Geng.

Guo Zhengyu glanced sideways and said in a strange tone, "Master Fang, could this person be your fellow Zhejiang native?"

Fang Congzhe's face changed: "Meiming, don't make up your mind. I have never met this person. I just saw that he is good at policy writing!"

"Oh?" Guo Zhengyu turned his head and looked at Ye Xianggao, who happened to come to the cabinet to join in the fun, but put his hands in his sleeves, clearly not wanting to get involved, and asked, "Jin Qing, what do you think?"

Ye Xianggao had no expression on his face, but he was already dissatisfied in his heart. He knew very well that Guo Zhengyu was trying to force him to take sides.

"I think the top ten papers are all very good. If I really have to choose, I really can't make any choice. Besides, I'm not a cabinet minister and have no right to discuss this matter. I think it's better to let the prime minister choose." Ye Xianggao directly kicked the ball back to the prime minister Zhu Geng.

Even if Zhu Geng was a fool, he should have seen that something was wrong, so he quickly asked his assistant Yu Shenxing to shield him from the arrows:
"Keyuan, what do you think?"

Yu Shenxing glanced at the four people back and forth. He had long been accustomed to the cowardly Zhu Geng and the same kind of people as the other three.

"Then let's follow what Lord Fang said and grant Shao Jingyao the title of the second place in the first class of the imperial examination!" Yu Shenxing said directly.

This time, Fang Congzhe became the embarrassed person again.

After some discussion, Yu Shenxing left on the pretext that the Ministry of War had an urgent matter and he had to deal with it personally.

Now that Yu Shenxing had left, Zhu Geng no longer had a shield, so he naturally found an excuse to withdraw.

Ye Xianggao also joined in the fun and after roughly writing down the names of the top ten new scholars, he also left the cabinet.

Now, the only two hostile parties left in Wenyuan Pavilion were Fang Congzhe and Guo Zhengyu, who had grievances against each other in every way.

What they are going to fight for next is the most difficult position to choose, the third place among the first class!
After all, the third place winner has to be handsome, no matter what!
Just when Guo Zhengyu and Fang Congzhe were debating who would be more suitable to be the Tanhua Lang, Ye Xianggao came to the Ministry of Rites.

It seemed that he was just curious. Ye Xianggao asked casually:

"By the way, who is the unlucky guy who is last in the third class this year?"

The official from the Ministry of Rites, who had been up all night, was so sleepy that he kept yawning and answered casually:
"Who else could it be other than that traitor Zhang Yunxiu? As soon as the palace examination was over, his paper was thrown aside. No one even dared to look at it. He was already left with the last place."

Ye Xianggao was also silent. He did not expect the examiners of the palace examination to be so perfunctory. Zhang Chonghui actually guessed it right...

"By the way, where is Zhang Yunxiu's palace examination paper?"

"I don't know. It was lost a long time ago. I heard that it was taken away by someone sent by Eunuch Chen."

"Oh...it doesn't matter if I lose. I'm the last one anyway."

"Yeah... ah, I'm so tired..."

"You'd better cheer up. If anything goes wrong, you'll be in trouble."

Ye Xianggao left after giving the last "instructions". This time, after getting a definite answer, he returned to the cabinet.

At the same time, inside Zhao’s mansion.

Zhang Chonghui had just finished writing a poem and was ready to spread it.

"The first and second place in the imperial examinations were both awarded to Zhang, and perhaps the literary star will shine on the land of Chu."

"Although my husband is dead now, Wulang is still the third place winner in the imperial examination."

(End of this chapter)