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 in Shandong. Sheng Yong responded tit-for-tat and led the Southern Army in Dongchang (Liaocheng).
Defense lines were deployed in the area, both sides attacked and defended, and entered a long confrontation stage.
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 use this to justify his southern expedition. He was killed in one bite.
"Jingnan".
Of course, Zhu Yunwen sternly refused, and at the same time, he was preparing to completely annihilate King Yan's forces. What the southern army lacked most now was horses. There were plenty of horses on the Mongolian grasslands. However, although the Northern Yuan Dynasty had been divided into two countries, namely the Tatar and the
Wa Ci, 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 yearly 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 actually suitable for raising horses. At first, it could afford the supply, but in
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 and sick horses.
This time, Zhu Yunwen 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 on his own. Therefore, he very much needed the recognition of the Ming government to consolidate his rule. Naturally, he was not interested in the will of the Ming court.
Not only did he immediately order the recruitment of horses nationwide, but he also publicly announced his support for the Ming Emperor's just war against the King of Yan.
After a lot of struggling, 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 Yunwen 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 they can at least be used to transport heavy loads. North Korea is a mountainous country, and there are originally few oxen and horses, but 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 North Korea has taken the initiative to trade, and Japan has
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 receiving the order from Zhu Yunwen, Luo Kedi 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 layer. They could not grasp the core of the Flying Dragon Secret Agent at all.
Secrets, no matter how good Jin Yiwei's criminal law is, it has no use against people who don't know the secrets 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 recruited, corrupted, and infiltrated 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 Cut-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 Jianwen, 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, these incompetent people were in no way responsible for the country's control of government affairs.
Fortunately, it is a pity that Zhu Yunwen still trusted Fang Xiaoru and Huang Zicheng the most. Their actions have not yet achieved any results, and they have only further weakened the influence of Fang Huang and others.
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 Spirit 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 Zhongshan
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 defected to Li Jinglong's sect one after another. They had the 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.
Because the Fang and Huang faction hoped that the emergence of the peace faction would cause the Jingzhuo faction to feel a sense of crisis and reunite with themselves, while the Jingzhuo faction hoped that the peace faction would pull back the Fang and Huang faction and prompt them to step down. Unexpectedly, the peace faction
With both civil and military power, they actually thrived and soon became so powerful that they were able to compete with the Fang Huang Sect and the Zhuo Jing Sect.
No matter what the real purpose of these three major factions is, they all have a high-sounding reason: for the emperor and for the Ming Dynasty!
Zhu Yunwen was originally a soft-spoken master 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 aside. 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 see, the fence-sitters are standing 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 about the fire.
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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. Every line of his words reflected his concern for the country and the people. If this notebook fell into the hands of the emperor or Fang Xiaoru,
, in the hands of Huang Zicheng, 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 introduced to Lord Cao Guogong by his concubine Yi Zhuo's cousin in the fifth room.
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 on the table is on, 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 being complaints, he quickly picked up his pen, spread out a piece of paper, and hurriedly memorized it.
Xu Jiang is proficient in writing, 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 the things he copied have any effect. 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, there is no one who supports Li Jinglong except Ru Chang.
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 between the DPRK and China also needs to be broken by the introduction of an external force..."
Fang Xiaoru looked moved and said, "What is 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 Zhongxian is of suitable age for marriage.
Age, if you marry your second son to 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, stood up and cupped his hands and said, "In that case, I'll ask you, sir, to be a matchmaker!"