A tall stockade was brightly lit. Although it was almost midnight, the burning torches illuminated the house as if it were daytime.
In the lobby, it looked like the seat where the chieftain should be sitting. At this time, a man dressed in the costume of the Ming Dynasty prince was sitting on it. Not only that, he also shouted sharply at the person standing in front of him respectfully.
Said: "Knife delivery, do you know the crime?"
"I know that I am guilty, please punish me, Your Highness." Knife Pai said as he knelt down.
"Since you are guilty, I will punish you by donating 1,500 taels of gold within the year for military purposes; and within the next three years, you will be required to donate 1,000 slaves to our country to offset your sins." Zhu Ming
said.
"Yes, Your Highness." Dao Paisuan was full of reluctance, but the situation was stronger than the others, so he did not dare not agree.
Last year, Zhu Zhen led troops to conquer Ava and recruited various chieftains to send troops to help. Among them, Chief Meng Lian was the chieftain who sent the least troops. This made Zhu Zhen very dissatisfied. At that time, he said that he would punish Chief Meng Lian. But later, because of the conquest of Ava,
The war dragged on for a long time, and he had to go to the capital to pay tribute, so the matter was delayed.
It wasn't until he came back from the capital that he remembered the matter again. Zhu Ming led thousands of troops and went straight to Meng Lian to Xuanfu Division to investigate the crime.
Of course, the thousands of men and horses he brought with him could not be the opponent of Chieftain Meng Lian. If the fight started on the plains, Meng Lian could not defeat him; but in the deep mountains and old forests, the chieftain's knife dispatch could easily defeat him.
Thousands of horses.
But the swordsman did not dare. It is easy to kill these soldiers and horses, but it is not so easy to anger the Ming Dynasty. If the Ming Dynasty is angered, the Ming Dynasty does not even need to send troops directly. It only needs to issue a decree, and the surrounding chieftains will happily lead troops to attack Meng.
Lian Xuan Fu Si. On the one hand, he can plunder the population and money from his place, and on the other hand, he can also receive rewards from the Ming Dynasty. Why not do it?
Therefore, Dao Pai sent a particularly respectful apology and accepted Zhu Chu's punishment.
After Zhu Chu dealt with Dao Pai Shou, he immediately said: "Dao Pai Shou, I am not targeting you, Meng Lian, but all those who disobey orders. The so-called order and prohibition, if everyone does not listen to orders, how can we, Min Fan, conquer the disobedient king?
A transformed country?"
"Although you, Meng Lian, sent very few troops this time, Gu Ye will reward Meng Lian's meritorious service equally without any distinction. As long as you serve Min Fan with peace of mind in the future, Gu Ye will never treat you unfairly.
you."
"Thank you, Your Highness." Knife sent immediately said.
Zhu Chu nodded. It didn't matter whether what Dao Paisong said just now was true or false, as long as he was obedient.
The matter passed like this. Zhu Zhen stood up from the chair and said to the knife sender: "It's getting late now. Please arrange a place to rest alone."
"Your Highness, Your Highness came to me in Meng Lian in the evening and has not eaten yet. Why don't you take care of it so that His Highness can receive the wind and wash away the dust."
Zhu Ming hesitated for a moment and then said: "No need, just take a rest alone. There is no need to worry about cutting the toast."
Dao PaiShuang got a soft nail, but he still said very respectfully: "Then I will go down and make arrangements immediately."
When the sword sender retreated, a guard beside Zhu Chu whispered in his ear: "Your Highness, the sword sender is so respectful, your highness should be careful."
"I know that those who are too diligent are cunning people at heart, so be careful." Zhu Ming said.
While the two of them were talking, a very standard Chinese voice suddenly came from outside the hall: "Your Highness!"
"This is Yunlong's voice!" Zhu Zhen immediately reacted: "What is he doing here from Yongchang!" Yunlong is also one of his guards, and this time he stayed in the palace of Yongchang. According to his order, unless it is It was a very important matter, otherwise the left and right ministers would not have sent people to Meng Lian to inform him. What exactly happened?
Zhu Zhen couldn't help but walked towards the lobby door.
But before he walked out of the door, a short, stocky man wearing the uniform of a guard of the Ming Dynasty prince ran in. When he saw Zhu Zhen, he immediately knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, I have seen you."
"Don't be too polite at this time. What happened to Min Fan, and we need to send you here to report it to Gu?" Zhu Ming said impatiently.
"Your Highness, nothing happened in Minfan. Instead, a decree came from the capital. Your Majesty will send 600,000 troops to conquer Annan and mobilize the barbarian troops in Yunnan to fight. Mr. Zuo Xiang has already mobilized Shunning Prefecture, Dahou Prefecture, etc. The barbarian soldiers from the area went to Lin'an Mansion to join the army led by Xiping Marquis. Because this matter is very important, I sent my ministers to inform His Highness." Yunlong said briefly.
"Have you finally decided to send troops to conquer Annan?" Zhu Zheng said. He was in the capital during the Chinese New Year this year, so he naturally knew that Chen Tianping came to the capital to ask for help.
"Your Highness, it was your Majesty who sent the king to Guangxi to recruit loyal ministers of Annan. Unexpectedly, Hu Jiyou lost his conscience and sent an assassin to kill the king of Chen. Your Majesty then decided to send troops to Annan." Yunlong knew that Zhu Xi did not know what happened next. , so he explained immediately.
"I see! This Hu Ji Ya is indeed brave enough. By the way, did you just say that the Marquis of Xiping led the army?" Zhu Zhen asked suddenly.
"Your Majesty, your Majesty's decree allows the Marquis of Xiping to temporarily command the army that is about to attack Annan in Yunnan," Yunlong said.
"Since we let Mu Sheng take charge for the time being, he will definitely let him lead when war starts. Your Majesty is confused! Mu Sheng's military skills are not even 10% of Mu Ying's, Mu Chun's 30%, and even Mu Ang is better than him. So much so that he was actually asked to lead the troops!" Zhu Zhen said.
Yunlong didn't speak. He didn't dare to answer such words.
"No! Gu De will go back immediately and lead the troops with Mu Sheng. We can't let Mu Sheng waste all these soldiers." Zhu Ming said.
Zhu Zhen was about to summon the soldiers he had brought back. But at this moment, Dao Pai returned to the lobby and said to him: "Just now, the gatekeeper reported to me that Han soldiers were coming to the stronghold. I guessed that they were coming. The person who reported the matter to His Highness immediately ordered the person to be let in. But it was still a little late, and I hope that His Highness's affairs were not delayed."
"You did a good job and didn't delay anything." Zhu Ming said.
"Your Highness, the place for you to rest has been arranged. I have come to ask Your Highness to rest." Knife Pai said again.
"No need, I'm going back to Yongchang right now, just prepare some dry food." Zhu Ming said.
"Your Highness," Dao Paisuan said with a surprised look on his face, "What happened when you suddenly had to leave? But you feel that I, Meng Lian, did not entertain you well?"
"It's not that I thought you didn't entertain me well, or that something happened to our Min clan. It's because the imperial court had a decree to send troops to Annan, so I was in a hurry to go back." Zhu Ming said.
Dao Paisuan breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Your Highness, even if you are in a hurry, it will not be in a day or two. Your Highness has just led the soldiers to Meng Lian in the evening. We are exhausted, so we should rest in Meng Lian for a day or two before going back. "
Zhu Ming heard that what he said made sense, and no longer insisted on leaving now, and said: "Then I will rest here tonight and we will talk about it tomorrow."
After saying this, Zhu Zhen looked at the delivery of knives, thought of something, and said: "Didn't the Knife Chieftain just say that he would serve for our Min Fan? When the Ming Dynasty conquered Annan, this was an excellent opportunity for the Knife Chieftain to serve the Ming Dynasty.
Yeah. Chief Dao, are you willing to send troops to conquer Annan?"
Dao Paisuan was stunned for a moment, and then immediately said: "I am willing to send seven thousand troops to conquer Annan. If it can be postponed for a while, I can recruit more soldiers and horses to follow your highness in the expedition." This is directly serving the Ming Dynasty.
If he wasn't working for Zhu Zhen, of course he would do such a thing.
"No need, seven thousand men and horses are enough. If Meng Lian's soldiers achieve great success, Your Majesty and I will definitely not be stingy with rewards."
…
…
"Dad, the summons from the Ming Dynasty has been sent." A dark-skinned man shouted and ran into a room.
In the room, a middle-aged man in his forties and a woman in her twenties were sitting together and talking. Seeing him running in, the middle-aged man frowned and said: "Isn't it a matter of course that the Ming Dynasty's summons order came?
?Why are you so excited? You are going to be a Tushe in the future, how can you be so restless?"
"I understand, Dad." After receiving this scolding, the dark-skinned man immediately bowed and said.
"Dad, since the summoning order from the Ming Dynasty has been sent, let's immediately gather the people in the village and prepare to set off." The woman who was twenty years old said at this time.
"Going so early? It's not necessary. It only takes half a month from us to Lin'an Prefecture where we will meet, and the Ming Dynasty's summons order takes a month." The middle-aged man took the hand from the dark-skinned man.
"The summoning order," he said after reading it once.
"Dad, it's useless for the men in the village to stay at home. It's better to go to Lin'an Mansion early. First, when the generals of the Ming Dynasty see our litigants come to Lin'an Mansion so early, they will definitely think that our company
Being respectful to the Ming Dynasty will be very beneficial to our lawsuit; on the other hand, even if the Ming Dynasty recruits us to fight without military pay, we still have to take care of the food. If we go early, we can save a day's food in the village, so why not go early?
" said the woman.
"But there are long lawsuits around?" the middle-aged man said worriedly.
"With such a big event, how can the surrounding chiefs dare to attack our third department of enlightenment? Are we afraid that the Marquis of Xiping will get angry and destroy his stronghold first? Dad doesn't have to worry about other chiefs," the woman said again.
The middle-aged man thought for a while and said, "You are right. In two days, I will lead the people in the village to Lin'an Mansion."
He then said to the dark-skinned man: "Go and tell all the families in the village this news so that they can be prepared."
The dark-skinned man agreed and ran out again.
The middle-aged man said to the woman again: "Thanks to you often reading the Ming Dynasty's newspaper, we were able to know twenty days ago that the Ming Dynasty was going to send troops to conquer Annan and recruit local soldiers in Yunnan. Not only did we avoid the chaos,
I also took advantage of this and made a lot of money.”
This middle-aged man is Tushe Long Shangdeng from the Third Department of Education, the swarthy man is his son Long Zhehei, and the woman is his daughter Long Ping'er.
After Long Ping'er returned to the Third Department of Education from Kunming last fall, he sent people to Xin'an every month to buy manuscripts of the Di newspaper from the officials. At the time, Long Shangdeng actually didn't agree with this and thought it was of no use, just because it cost little.
I agreed.
But he didn't expect that it would work soon. In early August of this year, another Dibao brought back from Xin'an Office reported that the Ming Dynasty was about to send 600,000 troops to punish Annan.
Although this piece of news was very brief, Long Ping'er took it very seriously. He immediately went to Long Shangdeng and said to him: "Dad, if the Ming Dynasty is going to send troops to Annan, it will definitely recruit our people. Dad should make preparations in advance."
"Although the Ming Dynasty's practice is to recruit native soldiers when going on an expedition, it may not necessarily be recruited here, right?" Long Shangdeng said with some confusion.
"Dad, didn't you see? The Ming Dynasty is going to send 600,000 troops! With so many soldiers dispatched, it is definitely not possible for all of them to be the Han people's own army. Many local soldiers will be recruited. I am afraid that all the local soldiers in the entire east of Yunnan are being recruited. If we are included in the lawsuit, we will definitely not be able to escape!" Long Ping'er said.
Long Shangdeng recognized Long Ping'er's judgment and began to prepare for it.
At the same time, Long Ping'er also took advantage of the fact that he knew about this matter, and the Han merchants who came here to do business did not know the time difference. He ordered that no matter how much the price was, he would try his best to buy herbs or other items related to wound healing from the merchants, while he himself But the herbs here are not sold to them.
At that time, these traders were still very strange, suspecting that the people in their three divisions of enlightenment had brain problems; but a few days later, the news that the Ming Dynasty was going to send troops to conquer Annan came from people who had just arrived from Xin'an, and these people immediately understood What's going on? The prices of herbs or items related to wound healing have risen sharply, so the people from the Third Department of Education re-sold the herbs to vendors and made a lot of extra money.
"Daddy now knows how important the Di newspaper is," Long Ping'er said.
"From now on, I will send someone to Xin'an every half month to buy the newspaper." Long Shangdeng said.
Long Ping'er smiled, chatted with Long Shangdeng for a few words, and suddenly said seriously: "Dad, during this expedition, my daughter thought that she should take Luo Yi and his wife as military doctors accompanying the army to Lin'an Mansion."
"What! You want to take them with you? Dad remembers Zhu Xiancai's identity because you wrote to me from Kunming and told me in the letter that you must not offend them. Now you are marching to fight and want to take them two with you! You should We know that if Zhu Xiancai makes a mistake, all of us in the Third Department of Education will die without a burial!" Long Shangdeng said.
"Dad, of course I know. But my daughter has her own reasons for thinking this way."
"Over the years, my daughter has repeatedly inquired, and finally found out her entire life experience and what happened back then."
"A few years ago, there was a rebellion in the Ming Dynasty... This Zhu Xiancai was the daughter of the King of Qi whose subordinates rebelled. And Luo Yi was the son of a military general who joined the rebellion. Not only that, Luo Yi His father also raped the concubines of King Qi." Long Ping'er said.
"Just like this, the emperor of Ming Dynasty will still allow Zhu Xiancai to marry Luo Yi?" Long Shangdeng said in surprise.
"Of course the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was not willing. But Luo Yi's father was a general who was very favored by the King of Qi. Zhu Xiancai was engaged to Luo Yi before; Luo Yi's father had no choice but to rebel. He rebelled anyway at the critical moment, and I don’t ask the Ming Dynasty to forgive me, I just ask to forgive Luo Yi.”
"The emperor of the Ming Dynasty was a little entangled because of this and didn't know how to deal with it. Zhu Xiancai and Luo Yi were very good friends before, and now they begged the emperor to spare Luo Yi's life. The emperor finally agreed to pardon Luo Yi, but he asked them not to be in his family from now on. So Zhu Xiancai and Luo Yi came to Yunnan. As for coming to us, it was probably a coincidence." Long Ping'er told her father the not entirely accurate information she had obtained.
Long Shangdeng heard this story, weighed it over several times, raised his head and said to Long Ping'er: "But what does this have to do with us sending troops to take their husband and wife as military doctors?"
"Dad, of course it has something to do with it." Long Ping'er then expressed his thoughts.
After hearing her thoughts, Long Shangdeng was silent for a long time and asked: "What if you guess wrong?"
"Dad, my daughter is 90% sure that she will not guess wrong. Even if she guesses wrong, as long as Daming is not informed that Zhu Xiancai once served as a military doctor in the army, there will be no problem." Long Ping'er said.
Long Shangdeng was silent for a while, and then said: "Okay, I'll risk it for our lawsuit. However, Zhu Xiancai must voluntarily follow her as a military doctor. She must not be forced."
"Don't worry, Dad, she will definitely be willing to work as a military doctor." Long Ping'er said.
…
…
"You mean, your Third Department of Education is going to send troops and you want me and Luo Yi to be military doctors?" Zhu Xiancai asked in surprise.
"Yes, Sister Zhu." Long Shangdeng's second daughter, Long Pu Lan, said.
"You know my identity, but you dare to let me serve as a military doctor with the army?" Zhu Xiancai asked.
"Sister Zhu, my father ordered this. I don't know why. If you want to know, you can ask my father." Luang Pulan said.
Zhu Xiancai was silent for a while and said: "No, since you are willing to use me as a military doctor, I will not shirk it. When will we set off?"
"The morning after tomorrow." Luang Pulan said.
"Well, Luo Yi and I will set off with you the next morning." Zhu Xiancai said.
After Long Pulan left, Luo Yi walked out of the back room and said, "Xiancai, why did Long Shangdeng take you with him? He must know that if you have any bad intentions, they will not end well in the three departments of education.
"
Zhu Xiancai shook his head and said: "I don't know, and I don't want to know. All I need to know is that Long Shangdeng doesn't dare to kill the two of us. We are just military doctors, there is no need to know so much."
"But..." Before Luo Yi could finish his words, he was interrupted by Zhu Xiancai: "It's nothing but. Let's also prepare and bring everything we need to bring. You don't need to bring too many herbs and so on. You can just take the medicine when you start fighting."
The military doctors over there in Sheng are not enough to treat the injuries of these local soldiers. At least they have enough herbal medicine. Then we can just use their herbal medicine."
Luo Yi opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything and just said: "I know."
==============
Thanks to book friends Jinyu, book friends 160210112511043, hzfhc, plate drift, United Russia Party, and their 477 rewards.