In December, King Zhu Di of Yan reorganized his troops in Beiping and led the Northern Army to march south again, stationing in Linqing, Guantao, Daming, Wenshang and Jining areas in Shandong. [] Sheng Yong responded tit-for-tat and led the Southern Army in Dongchang (
Liaocheng) deployed defense lines, both sides engaged in offensive and defensive operations, and entered a long confrontation phase.
At the same time, in addition to the frontal battlefield, the two sides also launched a series of espionage wars, intelligence wars and diplomatic wars. Feilong secret agents were increasingly active in the capital, constantly building momentum for King Yan, and King Yan also publicly sent envoys to write to the court.
, reiterated that as long as the court punished Fang Xiaoru, Huang Zicheng, Qi Tai and other traitorous and sycophantic leaders, King Yan would give up the southern expedition and return to Peiping. He would still obey the emperor's order and justify his southern expedition. He was killed in one bite.
"Jingnan".
Of course, Zhu Yun refused sternly, and at the same time, he prepared horses and troops to completely annihilate King Yan's forces. What the Southern Army lacked most now was horses, and there were plenty of them on the Mongolian grasslands. However, although the Northern Yuan Dynasty had been divided into two countries, the Tatars
and Wac, but these two countries were in a state of hostility with the Ming Dynasty, and it was impossible to sell war horses to the Ming Dynasty, so the Ming Dynasty took the idea to North Korea.
Tamna Island (Jeju Island) in North Korea was originally a pasture of the Yuan Dynasty government, and was managed by specialized officials. After the Yuan Dynasty fled back to the grassland, North Korea quickly requested the Ming Dynasty to take over the island. Places like Shuangyu Island were isolated because of their isolation.
Hanging overseas was not conducive to the rule of the people, so Zhu Yuanzhang voluntarily gave up and moved the people back to the land. He really didn't take Tamluo Island seriously, so he agreed. However, from then on, he was in the Sui Gong of Korea.
, including fifty war horses.
These fifty war horses were annual tribute. In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang often purchased horses from North Korea and delivered them to the capital of Liaodong for use. North Korea is just a mountainous island country, which is not suitable for raising horses. At first, it could afford to supply it, but after
After the Ming Dynasty conscripted tens of thousands of horses, all the good horses in North Korea were conscripted, leaving some bad horses, some not much bigger than donkeys. As a result, North Korean officials and scholar-bureaucrats could only ride old, sick and weak horses.
This time Zhu Yun sent an envoy to North Korea to request the purchase of war horses from North Korea. King Li Fangyuan of North Korea agreed. He actually usurped the throne and established himself, so he very much needed to be recognized by the Ming government to consolidate his rule and obey the will of the Ming court.
Naturally, he did not exceed his obligations. Not only did he immediately order the recruitment of horses across the country, he also publicly announced his support for the Ming Emperor's just war against the King of Yan.
After a lot of hard work, they wanted all the ponies and bad horses. In the end, they were patched together, but they couldn't get enough of the number Zhu Yun needed. In desperation, Li Fangyuan, who had already praised Haikou, gritted his teeth and reluctantly took out the cattle to make up the number.
. Oxen cannot be used as mounts, but at least they can carry heavy loads. North Korea is a mountainous country, and there are originally few oxen and horses. Now they were almost plundered.
The cattle and horses were gone, and in exchange for the silk, silk, and cloth that the Ming Dynasty used to pay for the horses. The mountains of silk and satin cloth, although beautiful, could not be used as food. Instead, they aroused the pursuit of luxury and profit among some North Korean officials and businessmen, causing
Li Fangyuan had a headache, so he had to resell these silk cloths to Japan and the Ryukyu people. Japan had not yet received permission from the Ming Dynasty to officially launch tribute trade. The domestic upper class could only buy luxury goods through smuggling. Now that North Korea has taken the initiative to trade, Japan
Naturally, you can't ask for it.
As a result, there was a strange thing that the Ming Dynasty was fighting happily, but it actually promoted the economic and trade between North Korea and Japan.
After Luo Kedi received the order from Zhu Yun, he used the power of the Jin Yiwei to catch some Flying Dragon Secret Agents who issued leaflets and spread rumors. However, these personnel were just shrimps on the outermost level, and they had no way of grasping the secrets of the Flying Dragon Secret Agents.
Core secrets, no matter how good Jin Yiwei's criminal law is, it has no use against people who don't know the secret at all.
On Xia Xun's side, using Li Jinglong as a breakthrough point, he constantly identified targets from officials who opposed the reduction of the vassal state or were sympathetic to the King of Yan, and tried to win over, corrode, and infiltrate them. Gradually, an extremely tight and huge intelligence network was formed.
In the imperial court, the current internal struggles, like the war on the front line, are becoming increasingly serious and various forces are becoming complicated.
The Cutting-off Sect has now split into two groups. One group is the Confucius Sect headed by Fang Xiaoru, Huang Zicheng, and Qi Tai, and the other is the Young Zhuang Sect headed by Jingqing, Zhuo Jing, Lian Zining and others. Jingqing, Zhuo Jing, Lian Zi and others
Ning and other rising stars were equally loyal to Emperor Jian, but they also hated the incompetence of people like Fang Xiaoru and Huang Zicheng.
Externally, they advocated a severe attack on King Zhu Di of Yan and no compromise. Internally, they hoped to bring down incompetent people like Fang Huang and others, because in their view, it would not be a blessing to the country for these incompetent people to control the government.
, It is a pity that Zhu Yun still trusts Fang Xiaoru and Huang Zicheng the most. Their actions have not achieved any results, and they have only further weakened the influence of Fang Huang and his like.
Just when the feudal faction was quarreling internally, another voice that was originally extremely weak sounded. The representative of this voice was Li Jinglong. Li Jinglong didn't know what medicine he had taken wrong, but he suddenly jumped out and criticized Fang Xiaoru.
Huang Zicheng and his ilk deceived the Holy Will and alienated the royal family, and they were the main culprits in causing the royal civil war. They should be brought to justice and negotiate peace with the King of Yan.
Originally, officials like Ru Chang, Yu Xin, and Gao Wei held this view, but they lacked a strong leader, and their voices in the court were very weak. Although Li Jinglong's reputation was not good, he was a leader who once had the hope of replacing Shan.
The Li family, which has become the head of the military ministers in the palace, also has quite a large network of people and relationships. This interest group that is attached to Cao Guogong's palace needs a chance to stand up again, even if this opportunity is speculation or a desperate move.
Therefore, with their firm support, Li Jinglong, who was too embarrassed to leave the house due to two major defeats, rose up and suddenly transformed from a vigorous warrior into a rising political star.
He discussed matters in the court every day, and he no longer claimed that he was ill. Mr. Cao Guogong was more active than anyone else in going to court. Whenever he got the opportunity, he would eloquently sell to others in the court his "The King of Yan is invincible, and he will destroy the vassal and harm the country."
The theory of "misleading the people, we should punish the traitors and reconcile with the King of Yan" is as fanatical as Wang Jingwei who advocated the "Three Days of Subjugation" theory.
Ru Chang, Yu Xin, and Gao Wei, the peace-negotiating parties who originally had the weakest voices, were delighted to discover that Li Jinglong was a close friend. Soon, they all defected to Li Jinglong's sect. They had absolute say in the rise of the peace-negotiating party from the beginning.
The Fang Huang Sect and Zhuo Jing Sect did not care, and to a certain extent, they even intentionally condoned the existence of this faction.
This is because the Fang and Huang faction hopes that the emergence of the peace faction will cause the Jingzhuo faction to feel a sense of crisis and reunite with itself, while the Jingzhuo faction hopes that the peace faction will pull back the Fang and Huang faction and prompt them to step down. Unexpectedly, the peace faction
You Youwu actually grew up vigorously, and soon became so popular that it was able to compete with the Fang Huang Sect and the Zhuo Jing Sect.
No matter what the real purpose of these three factions is, they all have a high-sounding reason: for the emperor and for the Ming Dynasty!
Zhu Yun was originally a soft-spoken person who was unsure of his ideas. Every day, he was subjected to the theories of these three schools. The theories made his head hurt. Even the "Zhou Li" that he couldn't put down, he temporarily put down. He went to court every day.
He cheered up and started to "live in the mud". He began to feel that the cutest people now are the fence-sitters. You, the fence-sitters, stand there, being stupid and never looking for trouble.
The deadlock needs an opportunity to break.
Whether it is the confrontation between the northern and southern armies in Shandong and Hebei, or the tripartite confrontation in the court, they all need to be broken.
Spring is warm and flowers are blooming, the weather is dry and things are dry, so be careful with the candles.
In Cao Guogong's Mansion, Li Jinglong didn't leave the study until very late.
I don’t know when Li Jinglong got into the habit of taking notes.
He wrote down the military deployments and the disputes in the court in detail, analyzing and evaluating each one. Between the lines, his feelings of concern for the country and the people were reflected everywhere. If this notebook fell into the hands of the emperor or Fang Xiaoru,
, Huang Zicheng said, even if they have different political views, they will surely be moved by Lord Cao Guogong’s noble sentiments and great feelings.
Li Jinglong felt that the servant who originally cleaned the study room was said to be careless and unpopular with Lord Cao Guogong. Now he has appointed a special person to clean the study room. This person's name is Xu Jiang, who was brought here by the cousin of Lord Cao Guogong's concubine Yi Zhuo.
He came from the mansion and had only been here for less than half a year. He was a very smart and discerning person, and he worked hard, so he was favored by Li Jinglong and became a servant specializing in cleaning inside and outside the study.
Seeing Lord Cao Guogong get up and go to the back house, Xu Jiang entered the study.
The light on the table is still on, which is Cao Guogong's habit. If the light is on on the table, it means it needs to be "cleaned" immediately.
Xu Jiang closed the door, put down the broom, walked to the light and opened Li Jinglong's notes, flipped through them hastily, and sighed: "So many words today..."
Complaints were complaints, but he quickly picked up his pen, spread out a piece of paper, and hurriedly jotted it down.
Xu Jiang is proficient in ink, and every once in a while, he will copy a few large articles from here and quietly send them to the place designated by Boss Xia. However, he has never seen what effect the things he copied have. He still thinks so today.
Little did he know that what he was copying under the lamp at the moment was the key information that would break the deadlock and completely change the confrontation between the two armies.
That night, Huang Zicheng, Qi Tai, and Chen Di were discussing matters at Fang Xiaoru's house.
Faced with the constraints of Jingqing Zhuojing's plan to cut down the feudal vassal, and the criticism of Li Jinglong and Ru Chang's peace faction, they were helpless. After pondering for a long time, Chen Di, the Minister of Rites, suddenly said: "Mr. Xiaozhi, apart from Ru Chang, there is no one who supports Li Jinglong.
The reason why he is so arrogant is because he has quite a lot of supporters in the military. We need someone to suppress him. The situation of the three pillars of the DPRK also needs to be broken by the introduction of an external force..."
Fang Xiaoru looked moved and said, "What's Mr. Jingdao's clever plan?"
Chen Di said flatly: "Xu Huizu, only Xu Huizu has the qualifications to suppress Li Jinglong."
Fang Xiaoru hesitated and said: "Well... that day at the Mochou Poetry Meeting, Fang walked away in anger, which made Wei Guogong very embarrassed. Now I want to get back together with the old friends, is that okay?"
Chen Di smiled and said: "What's so difficult about this? In the previous Mochou Poetry Club, Xu Huizu had intended to use the marriage of his younger sister as a bridge to form a good relationship with Mr. Xiaozhi. I heard that Mr. Xiaozhi has four sons, and the second son Xian is of marriageable age.
, if you, sir, use your second son to marry the Xu family, it will be enough to prove your sincerity, and I believe Wei Guogong will ignore the past grudges and restore old friendships."
Fang Xiaoru thought for a moment, then stood up and cupped his hands and said, "In that case, I'll ask you, sir, to be a matchmaker!"