Originally, the war in the Central Plains was just an embellishment of the Ming Dynasty, and no one really took it seriously.

But overnight, the war in the Central Plains became a major concern for everyone in the heart of the officialdom in the capital. Even the emperor made arrangements one after another, and further plans were made for encirclement and suppression of the rebels.

Lu Fan, who was not concerned about his own affairs, suddenly led his troops to fight. Lu Fan got a pitifully small number of troops, only two thousand, which was better like a team responsible for logistics and supplies.

As for the previous proposal by Chen Xi to ask Wang Shouren to lead his troops to fight, he was put aside, even Wang Shouren himself did not expect it.

After all, Wang Shouren had just returned to the capital to serve as the Minister of War, and he still had many unfamiliarities about the affairs of the Ministry of War. He needed the old man Lu Wan to give some advice. Unexpectedly, Lu Wan was ordered to go to the expedition. When Shen Xi was relieved, he would also lead the Minister of War as the Right Minister of War.

In Wang Shouren's opinion, the pressure on his shoulders was a bit too great.

If Wang Shouren makes a choice, he would rather lead troops to quell the rebellion. He has certain experience in this regard, but he is an outsider in handling affairs of the Ministry of War and cannot be fully equipped in coordination and employment of all parties.

Zhu Houzhao's incident of dispatching Lu Wan, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War, to send troops caused some fluctuations in the court and the country. Although Zhu Houzhao did not clearly say that this was derived from Chen Xi's suggestion, the people in the court basically knew that Zhu Houzhao agreed to increase his troops after listening to Chen Xi's opinions.

As for Zhang Yuan's remarks about Chen Xi's memorials around the cabinet, it was also hotly discussed by people in the court. Many people began to compare Zhang Yuan with Liu Jin before, feeling that the eunuch party had a trend of making a comeback.

After hearing about this, Xie Qian kept coughing. No one around him was listening to him. Yang Tinghe, Yang Yiqing and others were busy arranging the dispatch of troops and preparing military funds. He said he was sick at home and felt that the court was powerless to be under his control, which was in sharp contrast to Chen Xi's leisure and complacent at home.

"No, you can't do things so simple and rough. What do they know?" Xie Qian said he could let go, but in fact he couldn't let go at all. He had a strong desire to control and couldn't rest at home.

He wanted to go back to the court to do business, but he couldn't hide his face. As soon as Xie Di went to the mansion to ask about his condition, he called Xie Di to the study room, asked for his orders, and made some details.

Xie Di quickly obeyed the order and invited Wang Shouren over.

"Xie Ge Lao!"

When Wang Shouren saw that Xie Qian was a little restrained, he did not come to visit Xie Qian after returning to the capital. He had submitted a message before, but because of the busy affairs of the Ministry of War, he could not let go and visit him.

Xie Qian said indifferently and asked, "Boan, how long have you been back to the capital?"

Wang Shouren replied carefully: "I came back from the ninth day of the year."

"It's been a while since I came back, why don't I come here for a walk?" Xie Qian looked at Wang Shouren, with a faint look of disappointment in his eyes, "I have high hopes for you."

Wang Shouren looked a little ashamed and lowered his head and said, "I was afraid that Mr. Xie would be abrupt. I wanted to wait until I was familiar with the affairs of the Ministry of War and then visit Mr. Xie after everything was on track to prevent Mr. Xie from aggravating his condition!"

Xie Qian shook his head: "It's good that you can come, there's no need to worry about the severity of my illness... Let me tell you honestly, I'm pretty healthy, far from when half of my body was in loess... How is the Ministry of War recently?"

Although Xie Qian basically knew everything about the court, he deliberately pretended to be ignorant and asked Wang Shouren to explain.

Wang Shouren quickly explained what he knew to Xie Qian, and even the court arranged for Lu Wan to lead the troops. Xie Qian frowned and said, "A few days after you return to the court, you will be the Minister of the Secretariat. Can you do it?"

Wang Shouren quickly stated: "I must do my best to live later."

"If you don't have the ability, just doing your best is useless."

Xie Qian spoke without hesitation. After he spoke, he realized that this was inappropriate. He wanted to accuse Wang Shouren of his inability to do so. He quickly changed his words, "Of course, Bo'an, you are capable, so you don't have to put too much pressure on yourself. If the matter is really difficult to solve, you can ask me very well. You are the same year and your relationship should be good..."

Wang Shouren could have said that he had visited Chen Xi, but when he thought that Xie Qian might mind, he simply avoided this sensitive topic and respectfully accepted the order: "Mr. Xie reminded me."

Xie Qian said again: "Zhihou is now recuperating at home, but with his age, he should not be seriously injured... At such a critical moment, he should bravely take on the heavy responsibility and do his best to help the court quell the rebellion... After all, he is not a child."

Wang Shouren probably understood what Xie Qian meant and thought to himself: "Mr. Xie wants me to persuade Zhihou to return to the court earlier?"

After returning to the capital, Wang Shouren had investigated the grudges between Chen Xi and Xie Qian clearly. He naturally knew about Xie Qian's previous suppression of Chen Xi and understood the crux of the problem between Xie Qian and Chen Xi.

Xie Qian said with some emotion: "In fact, it is best to lead troops to the war. However, he served as the governor and used troops many times, and took charge of the war against the Tatars. He had never lost his achievements in the south and north. Although we cannot define the future with past achievements, he can still make a move in governing the army. You can listen to his opinions on military arrangements."

"yes."

Wang Shouren responded quickly again, but thought to himself: "As the Minister of War, Zhihou should have obeyed his orders in the affairs of the Ministry of War, and he still needs to remind you separately? Mr. Xie, Mr. Xie, can't hide his face and want to use my mouth to explain something to him?"

Thinking of this, Wang Shouren said: "Mr. Xie, Zhihou has not returned to the court because he has conflicts with His Majesty in some matters. It seems inappropriate to let him directly intervene in the affairs of the Ministry of War... I wonder what you have to explain to him, so I can tell him together."

Xie Qian was very satisfied with Wang Shouren's "consciousness" and nodded, "Go and tell him that I will not force him to do things he doesn't want to do. It is not appropriate to rely on him alone in the current situation. Let him focus all his thoughts on supporting the country and not think about making trouble with His Majesty. This is meaningless."

Wang Shouren thought to himself: "Zhihou said he was sick and did not return to the court to serve, so the same is true for Mr. Xie. Now Mr. Xie wants Zhihou to return to the court, which probably means that Mr. Xie himself wants to return to the court as well... But Mr. Xie is worried and has a grudge with His Majesty, so that he wants Zhihou to mediate and make things resolve the situation successfully?"

Wang Shouren sighed and said, "Old Xie is dedicated to the court, and I have always admired you later. Zhihou also highly praised your contribution to Mr. Xie. I think I will submit a memorial to Your Majesty and ask Your Majesty to come to Mr. Xie for advice."

Xie Qianxin was arrogant and arrogant: "I don't have this meaning, I just want to do my best for the court."

Hearing Xie Qian's words, Wang Shouren completely understood what was going on and quickly saluted: "I'll go to talk to Zhihou that night. Mr. Xie, please rest more. If you have any questions, just let me know."

...

...

Xie Qian wanted to return to the court, but couldn't hide his face and wanted to rely on others to help mediate.

It was useless for Wang Shouren to tell Chen Xi this meaning. Chen Xi himself had no intention of returning to the court, and even had plans to give up.

However, out of respect for Xie Qian, the elder, Chen Xi still submitted a memorial, declaring the importance of Xie Qian's return to the court as soon as possible to stabilize the overall situation. He knew that the memorial would be suppressed by Zhang Yuan, but he did not take any countermeasures and let it go.

Xie Qian himself has broken his relationship with the emperor, no wonder others have!

Chen Xi didn't care much about the issue of the imperial court sending troops because Zhu Houzhao never gave him a chance.

After a few days, the mansion was safe and sound. Chen Xi summarized the information from various parts of the Central Plains in detail, summarized the causes and consequences of the rebellion and was surprised to find that many situations were similar to historical records.

"I have done so many things, and history is still developing along the established direction. What can I, a little butterfly, do?" Chen Xi felt a little depressed. "If the situation in the court stabilizes in a few years, my existence value will only be lower... The emperor's suspicion about me becomes more and more obvious. Rabbits and dogs are the unchanging law for the ruler and ministers to get along for a long time."

Chen Xi put several stamps on one after another, all involving military aircraft. As for whether Zhu Houzhao could see it, it was not very important to him. He just fulfilled his duties as a minister.

On February 15th, Lu Wan led his troops out of the capital. Although he had few troops, Chen Xi was convinced that Lu Wan had the ability to quell the rebellion and was in a much relaxed mood.

February 17th.

Li Jue came to report the shipbuilding process to Chen Xi. During the period, he talked about Lu Wan's dispatch of troops. He was very moved: "Your Majesty only allocated two thousand infantry and cavalry from the surrounding areas of the capital to go to war with the Minister of Lu. It is probably difficult to resist tens of thousands of rebels in this way. In the end, you must do it yourself."

Before, Li Jue and others deliberately avoided mentioning the matter of Chen Xi leading the troops, but now the rebellion in the Central Plains has caused a lot of storm and gradually no longer avoids it.

Even officials with good relationships with Chen Xi were wondering whether they should lead Chen Xi to come out of the mountain, as if Chen Xi had to lead the troops to quell the bandits.

Chen Xi smiled at this and said indifferently: "Mr. Lu has great power in his heart. If he leads his troops, he will definitely win the championship. He is definitely not comparable to mediocre people."

...

...

Chen Xi's words are like a great prophecy.

Early on February 24th, Shuntian Prefecture reported that Lu Wan led his troops to fight with a unit of rebels in the area north of Deshengdian. Lu Wan cooperated with less than 2,000 local soldiers to kill more than 10,000 rebels. Then, he annihilated more than 5,000 rebels in the pursuit. The results were astonishing, and two thousand beheaded and nearly 10,000 prisoners were captured.

The news came, and the emperor was shocked.

I thought that only Chen Xi led his troops could achieve fruitful results, but I didn't expect Lu Wan to be able to obtain them, and it was less than ten days after going to war.

As Lu Wan defeated the rebel vanguard, the morale of the main rebels who were circulating on Wen'an and Dacheng fell sharply and retreated to the southeast, and could no longer threaten the capital. The threat from Bazhou was lifted.

Zhang Yuan reported the news to Zhu Houzhao in the afternoon of the same day.

Although Zhu Houzhao spent the night in the palace every day at this time, he still had a lot of trouble, especially after the palace was repaired, Zhu Houzhao sang every night, and even threw away the wedding. The women outside the palace, including Concubine Hua and Concubine Li, were taken into the palace by him more than once, but they did not arrange a fixed residence and would send someone back to the Leopard Room the next day.

Zhu Houzhao was not so enthusiastic about the woman who came to the palace in the leopard room. She obviously did not want to fulfill her previous promises to Concubine Hua and Concubine Li.

"...Your Majesty, this Minister Lu, recommended by Lord Shen, does have a good job of leading troops to fight. He has achieved a brilliant victory in just a few days. The threat to the capital has been temporarily lifted. I heard that the main force of the rebels was seriously damaged and retreated to the east of the canal. The two groups of troops sent before took the initiative to cooperate to form a siege against the rebels..."

Zhang Yuan was very happy and felt that this was a great time to show his merits. Even if Lu Wan was not the one he recommended, the merits would not fall on him, but Chen Xi chose the person and he had helped him before. Zhu Houzhao was happy and never stingy with the rewards. As the chief of the Secretariat, he would also benefit from it.

Zhu Houzhao was excited, but sighed: "Although that's the case, I still have something to be dissatisfied with... Mr. Lu just brought two thousand men and fought rashly with the rebels. If he failed, wouldn't the rebels take advantage of the situation to kill the capital? He would be very risky to do this."

Zhang Yuan did not agree with the emperor's "true insights". In his opinion, Lu Wan was a master of art and courage, and it was in line with what Chen Xi mentioned before. He wanted to die and live. The troops sent were mainly soldiers of the Beijing camp, and they shouldered the important task of defending their homes. They should not temporarily dispatch troops from the northwest to respond to emergency responses.

But the emperor will only consider issues from his own standpoint!

Although the rebels have great power, they have no ability to attack and are not threatening the capital. Therefore, even if they kill the thieves, they cannot compare with the battle in the northwest. However, if Lu Wan fails to take the risk, the morale of the rebels will be greatly boosted, and they may not necessarily take over the county towns such as Bazhou and obtain siege equipment in one go. In this way, the capital will be in a dangerous place, and the ministers' actions will seem a bit inappropriate.

Zhang Yuan said: "Maybe it was Lord Shen's arrangement, so Mr. Lu is so confident that he has almost no flaws in scheduling, and the cooperation between several groups of people is very appropriate."

Zhu Houzhao nodded when he heard this: "If Secretary Chen was dispatching troops and generals, I could breathe a sigh of relief. Secretary Chen's arrangements would not put the capital in a dangerous place. However, I still have to issue an edict to inform all the troops responsible for suppressing the rebellion that they should not take risks to advance, and prevent the situation of winning first and then losing."

“Yes, yes!”

Zhang Yuan responded, but he didn't agree.

"Your Majesty is really harsh. Mr. Lu is not satisfied with a happy victory, and he still has to act rashly next time? If you think of your old man, the victory that my eldest nephew won was not achieved after a rash advance? It seems that in your old man's mind, different people have different requirements for leading troops. In this case, I'd better not get involved. The credit is not mine."

...

...

Zhu Houzhao seemed to do some military subordinates, all of which were seemingly right but not wrong, but the general meaning made Zhang Yuan understand that he would ask the Minister of War if he had something to do.

After seeing Zhu Houzhao, Zhang Yuan even felt a little puzzled: "The credit was obtained by Mr. Lu, but why does it seem that His Majesty not only did not mean rewards, but also wanted to be held accountable? And the boy from the Shen family who stayed at home just submitted some suggestions and took away the big head of credit?"

After meeting the emperor, Zhang Yuan went to see Chen Xi without stopping.

These days, Zhang Yuan was suffering from no reason to see Chen Xi, fearing that Chen Xi would have any plans and would not know them, so that he would be at a disadvantage.

What he was most worried about was that Xiao Taozi, Zhang Yong and others were involved with Chen Xi. Shortly after returning to the capital from the imperial tomb, he investigated the relationship between the eunuchs and Chen Xi, and found that Xiao Taozi and Zhang Yong had received support from Chen Xi, and Zhang Yong even almost became the eunuch in charge of the seal of the Sili Supervisor.

When Zhang Yuan arrived at the Shen family, he was not careless this time. He went to the study carefully and did not read Chen Xi's manuscripts and booklets, and sat in the guest seat and waited for tea.

After a long time, Chen Xi came out of the inner house and Zhang Yuan took the initiative to stand up and salute.

"...There is news on the battlefield in the Central Plains." After Zhang Yuan bowed, he leaned forward and whispered.

Chen Xi nodded: "As expected, Mr. Lu is quite good at leading troops to fight. This victory is the result of his strategy."

Zhang Yuan asked in surprise: "Isn't it that you are giving guidance from behind?"

Chen Xi glanced at Zhang Yuan: "Where does this start? I have been resting in the mansion recently. Please ask less about military information. Why do you say that I am giving advice from behind?"
To be continued...