It was already afternoon when Zhang Yanling and others returned to the castle. Liu Jin stood at the yamen gate and paced back and forth. When she saw Zhang Yanling and Zhao Yongsheng coming back, she came up to them angrily.
"Zhao Shoubei, you are so brave. How dare you treat the emperor so slowly and hide from people? The emperor got up early in the morning to summon you, but you ran away without a trace. It is simply lawless." Liu Jin said angrily.
Zhao Yongsheng said hurriedly: "My father-in-law, I am humble and busy with affairs, and I am not neglecting the emperor."
Liu Jin shouted: "What is more important than the emperor? It is really unreasonable."
Zhang Yanling explained from the side: "Eunuch Liu, last night the Tatars attacked and Zhao Defei led his troops to resist the enemy. He has not rested since last night until now."
Liu Jin looked at Zhang Yanling and said: "Master Hou, our family can remind you that you came out to serve the emperor, not just running around. Our family has been looking for you all morning and asked you to come back, but you didn't even
Please pay attention to our family. Mr. Hou, our family cannot control Mr. Hou, but the emperor is very unhappy now. You can go and explain to the emperor yourself."
Zhang Yanling smiled bitterly and said: "Father-in-law, there is no need to be angry. I will just go and take responsibility."
Liu Jin snorted and walked into the military office lobby. Zhang Yanling and Zhao Yongsheng followed him to the back hall. After passing the patio, they heard Zhu Houzhao's loud noise in the back house.
"Have you not come back yet? This Zhao Yongsheng is so brave. Is he leaving me here without seeing me? Hasn't the Marquis of Jianchang come back? Haha, the Marquis is really tempered. It's incredible. He doesn't care about me, right? Gu
Dayong, Wei Bin, why don't you send someone to look for them? Just say that if you don't come back, I will punish them."
"Your Majesty, please calm down. We have already sent people to call him. We have sent three groups all morning." Gu Dayong consoled him.
"Send more people!" Zhu Houzhao shouted loudly, and with a clang, a tea cup flew out and smashed into pieces on the stone ground of the patio.
Several pieces of broken porcelain flew to Zhang Yanling's feet, and Zhang Yanling frowned, feeling very angry.
"Your Majesty, calm down, they are coming, they are back." Liu Jin shouted and ran into the back house.
"Are you back?" Zhu Houzhao called, and quickly came to the door, just in time to meet Zhang Yanling and Zhao Yongsheng.
"Your Majesty, Zhang Yanling, has met the Emperor." Zhang Yanling suppressed his anger and saluted. Zhao Yongsheng knelt down beside him and saluted with him.
Zhu Houzhao said angrily: "Do you still know how to come to see me?"
Zhang Yanling said in a deep voice: "Why is the emperor angry?"
Zhu Houzhao said angrily: "You still ask me? You ran away without a trace, and I asked you not to come back. Why are you asking me why I am angry?"
Zhang Yanling frowned and said: "That's because of the Tatar attack. The people I ordered have come back to report it. Doesn't the emperor know?"
Zhu Houzhao said in astonishment: "Tatar attack? Why didn't I know?"
Liu Jin hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, this slave did not report to the Emperor for fear of alarming the Emperor. I heard that there were indeed a few Tatars causing nuisance last night."
Zhang Yanling looked at Liu Jin and cursed in her heart. It turns out that this guy has not reported this matter until now. It is simply disgusting.
Zhu Houzhao also stared at Liu Jin and shouted: "Liu Jin, you dare to hide this from me. Why are you hiding this from me? Am I afraid of the Tatar attack? Are you out of your mind?"
Liu Jin hurriedly knelt down to plead guilty. Zhu Houzhao glared at him and waved his hands: "That's it, everyone, get up. What's going on with the Tatar attack?"
Zhang Yanling then recounted the story of the Tatar attack last night and how he heard the noise and took people to check it out.
Zhu Houzhao stamped his feet and complained: "Why didn't you report it to me last night? I could have gone and killed the Tatars."
Zhang Yanling was stunned and said hurriedly: "How can the emperor take risks in such a situation?"
Zhu Houzhao felt very sorry and asked: "How was the war? How many Tatars were killed? Are there any casualties among the soldiers?"
Zhao Yongsheng reported truthfully: "The Tatars suffered seventy or eighty casualties, and the Longmen soldiers eight were killed and twenty or thirty wounded."
Zhu Houzhao was silent for a moment and said: "It seems that the fighting was quite fierce. Have all the killed and injured soldiers been placed?"
Zhao Yongsheng said hurriedly: "The bodies have been transported away and handed over to their families for burial. The injured have been treated and are recuperating in the camp. There is no fear for their lives. Your Majesty does not need to worry."
Zhu Houzhao nodded and said: "The dead are generously rewarded, and the injured are generously rewarded. They are all good men of the Ming Dynasty. I should have fought alongside them. It's all your fault for not reporting me. If I had participated in the war, I might have killed more Tatars and fewer."
Soldier."
Zhang Yanling was speechless, but could only nod in agreement.
Zhu Houzhao said: "But why didn't you come back until noon? Didn't the Tatar nuisance end at dawn? Why didn't you come back to see me earlier?"
Zhao Yongsheng glanced at Zhang Yanling and wondered whether he should tell the truth about the Tatars' tunneling in. Zhang Yanling did not want to hide the matter and said in a deep voice: "Zhao Shoubei, please report the truth to the emperor."
Zhao Yongsheng nodded and immediately reported the truth about the Tatar tunnel. Zhu Houzhao, Liu Jin and others were so shocked that they were speechless for a long time.
"It's really...unbelievable that such a thing happened." Zhu Houzhao murmured.
Liu Jin said with a white face: "General Zhao, you are derelict in your duty. How could you let the Tatars dig a tunnel under your noses? What's the big deal? Aren't all the Tatars here? What are you doing to eat?
?”
Zhao Yongsheng couldn't explain it. This was indeed a dereliction of duty, and his character was not one to shirk responsibility. He could only kneel down and kowtow: "Your Majesty, this matter is indeed a dereliction of duty. Please punish me."
Zhang Yanling could not watch from the sidelines and said: "Your Majesty, I don't think this matter is the fault of General Zhao and others. The Tatars are cunning and try every means to sneak into our territory of the Ming Dynasty to cause trouble. Longmen's troops are limited and the defense line is long. It is true that
It’s hard to prevent. This
The second time was that the Tatars caused no less than dozens of disturbances for two consecutive months to cover the excavation of a tunnel. It took them two months and hundreds of lives to dig a tunnel, but they were immediately aware that it was the Tatars.
It is a big failure, not General Zhao and his team’s dereliction of duty.”
Zhu Houzhao nodded slightly and said: "What you said makes sense. If the Tatars want to dig a tunnel, we can't stop it. The key is to discover and deal with it in time. They spent so much time and money to dig a tunnel, but they were
It is indeed not a dereliction of duty if we discovered it in time.”
Liu Jin said: "Your Majesty, General Zhao just said that Tatars got in. That means they succeeded."
Zhang Yanling said: "According to judgment, the number of people who came in was not large, about thirty to fifty people. It's just that the mountains are so crisscrossed that we can't catch them for a while. There is indeed a potential danger."
Zhao Yongsheng kowtowed and said: "I will immediately notify the surrounding garrison forts to take strict precautions. We will also send personnel to carry out searches."
Zhu Houzhao nodded and said: "A mere thirty or fifty people are nothing. If there are more people, I'm afraid it will be troublesome. According to this, wouldn't all the Tatars be able to sneak into our Ming Dynasty through this method? Aren't our border towns becoming a sieve?
.Dig a tunnel, it’s a shame they figured it out.”
Zhang Yanling shook his head and said: "Don't worry about this. Digging tunnels is only suitable for small groups of Tatars to sneak in. War horses and heavy equipment and weapons cannot pass through the tunnels. If the Tatars want to use this method to invade, wouldn't it be in vain?
The more people there are, the more severe their losses will be. When the soldiers and horses from all over the place are surrounded, they will have no way to retreat, and as many as they come in will die."
Zhu Houzhao was relieved, nodded and said: "So that's the case, but I've been worrying too much. Where is the tunnel? I'll go take a look."
Zhang Yanling said: "Your Majesty, we have not filled up the tunnel. We estimate that there will be people from the Tatars coming in from the tunnel after dark. It is not suitable to go there now. Sounds are transmitted through the tunnel. If someone eavesdrops on the other side, they will listen.
If there is any movement, the emperor has sent a large number of brothers to follow for protection, which may alert the snakes and disturb them, ruining our plan to wait and see at night."
Zhu Houzhao was very excited after hearing this. This plan was so exciting.
"Well, I won't go now, but I will participate in killing the enemy tonight. You are not allowed to stop me, I have already decided."