Chapter 192 The Change of the Forbidden Palace (1)
For Shang Yi, this is really a good thing, because Shang Yi knows that it is April of the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), and in the next three or four months, the two peasant armies, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, will They were active in the Hubei area until early August, when Li Zicheng sent his troops north to invade Guanzhong, while Zhang Xianzhong led his troops south to attack Hunan, Jiangxi, and Anhui.
At this time, Shang Yi was thinking about how to establish his own base in the Yangtze River Basin. If he could aim to move around Hubei and Hunan, then he could justifiably find a suitable place to establish a base in this area. .
Although in this way, you cannot develop your own strength wholeheartedly, and fighting these two peasant armies will consume your own strength, but there is no free lunch in the world, so you can get all the good things. As long as it is Once you occupy a base area, there will be a steady stream of supplies, so it is inevitable to consume some supplies for this purpose.
At the same time, Shang Yi still has full confidence in the combat effectiveness of his army. He can't even deal with the Qing army, not to mention that these are just rogue bandits. Moreover, the current combat simulation of his army is basically based on long-range shooting with muskets. , can disrupt the enemy's formation before launching close combat. Although this method of warfare consumes a lot of money, the biggest advantage is that its own casualty rate is very low, and it can also use this opportunity to further train the team. , after all, it is impossible to build an invincible iron army without going through the battlefield and just raising it in captivity.
Therefore, in just a short moment, Shang Yi quickly weighed the pros and cons in his mind, and came to the conclusion that sending troops to Huguang to suppress the invaders would have far more benefits than disadvantages for him. In fact, he could not refuse. So Shang Yi Yi immediately said: "Return to your Majesty, I have been loyal to the country, and I am still a minister. I will bear no mercy even if I die. I will personally lead the troops in Shandong to suppress the rebels. However, this is a big matter, and we cannot do it rashly. I still want to Discuss the strategy in detail with Mr. Wu Ge before it can be implemented."
Although Shang Yi decided to send troops based on his experience, it was not business that was catching up. Since Chongzhen and the cabinet now wanted something from him, they had to negotiate the conditions and get some benefits. And the Ming Dynasty had less than a year left. If we don't take advantage of this last opportunity to strike a deal, Li Zicheng and the Qing Dynasty will be advantaged in the future. Of course, we still need to grasp a certain limit when negotiating conditions with the court, but we can't open our mouths and put forward conditions that are difficult for the court and the Qing Dynasty to meet. , so specific requirements must be negotiated slowly and privately with Wu Zonglai.
Wu Di has also been in the officialdom for a long time, has experienced the world, and has become a good man. Who knows that Shang Yi is also taking advantage of the situation, making conditions and demands. I don't know that although he is not old, he is very scheming, and I am afraid that he will be in trouble in the future. It is also difficult to control. But now he and Shang Yi have common interests, so he must help Shang Yi speak and coax him first before he can be manipulated. Therefore, he said: "Your Majesty, what Shang Yi said is that this time Leaving the capital to supervise the division is a matter of great importance and should not be acted upon hastily. Moreover, Shang Yi's army has just been formed, so there must be some shortcomings in soldiers and armor, and the court must make up for it in terms of money, food and military supplies."
Chongzhen also knew that what Wu Zong and Shang Yi said made sense. When sending people to work, they naturally had to give them enough supplies, money and food. They could not let the soldiers fight hungry. It would be better to just ask for some military supplies, but now the imperial treasury is empty and there is no way to do it. He couldn't get the money out, and he was too embarrassed to say it in front of Shang Yi. So after a moment, Shen said: "Okay, Wu Aiqing, you can discuss it with Shang Aiqing as soon as possible and report the results to me." Know."
As he stood up from the dragon chair, the eunuch beside him immediately shouted at the top of his voice: "Retreat from the court."
Shang Yi and several ministers hurriedly knelt down and saluted. After Chongzhen retreated to the inner hall, they all got up and left.
After leaving the Jianji Palace, Zhao Congfu and Liu Eunuch were waiting outside the palace with several eunuchs waiting to be guarded. When they saw Shang Yi coming out, they immediately greeted him and said: "General Shang, please come with us. The Queen is waiting there.
Wait."
Shang Yi said: "Thank you both."
Several other ministers knew that Shang Yi's wife accepted the Queen's invitation and was following them to pick up someone. Because Zhu A'ao's outing with Jin Yiwei was very secretive, not even the cabinet ministers knew about it, let alone Ye Yao.
Among the Jinyi guards whom Ai rescued outside the city was Princess Kunxing. They thought Chongzhen had a special regard for Shang Yi, so they all watched with envy as Shang Yi left with them.
After walking through several doors, Eunuch Liu led Shang Yi to another palace. He glanced around and saw a woman in the middle of the palace wearing a gorgeous palace dress, a phoenix crown and a harem. Beside her, Princess Kunxing sat.
Zhu Ainao and Ye Yaoyao were also sitting at the side below, sitting on a round stool.
Shang Yi knew that the woman in palace clothes in the middle was Empress Zhou, who was also a great figure in history. She stayed with Chongzhen until his death. He did not dare to raise his head to take a closer look, so he immediately knelt down and saluted: "I am the capital of Shandong, Sidu."
I know the commander, Dengzhou Branch Guard General Shang Yi, see the Empress, see Princess Kunxing."
Just listen to a soft female voice: "General Shang's body is flat."
After Shang Yi stood up, Queen Zhou said again: "Although the Ai family is in the deep palace, I have heard that General Shang is both wise and brave, brave and good at fighting. He can be called the pillar of the Ming Dynasty. Now that I see him, the Ai family is very happy.
.”
Shang Yi said: "Your Majesty, you are very grateful. I should be loyal to my country."
Empress Zhou said: "Okay, it's not long before you and your wife enter the palace, and the Ai family will no longer keep you. My prince, please escort them out of the palace on behalf of the Ai family."
Zhu Ainao responded: "Yes, mother and queen. I respect your orders."
After hearing this, Ye Yaogui also stood up and saluted Queen Zhou with Shang Yi, then followed Zhu Ainao and walked out of the palace.
Zhao Congfu, Eunuch Liu and other eunuchs were still waiting outside the palace gate. When they saw Zhu Ayao bringing the couple out, they all came to welcome them. It seemed that Zhu Ayao was quite fond of Ye Yaoyao and kept pulling him.
Ye Yaogui walked side by side, talking quietly as they walked. Shang Yi only took a step behind, following behind them. Everyone else followed behind.
After passing through several palace courtyards, the group came to the front of Jianji Hall, which is the central axis of the palace and leads directly to the front door of the palace. Zhu Aona stopped and said: "General Shang, Mrs. Shang, I will send you there."
You are here now."
Shang Yi was about to leave, when a group of more than ten palace maids and eunuchs happened to pass by. The two sides happened to bump into each other. Both sides were startled. One eunuch scolded: "You blind slave, you didn't see the princess."
Are you here? Why don’t you go around a little bit?”
The group of palace maids and eunuchs had no choice but to take a detour and pass by Shang Yi and Ye Yaoyao. But at this moment, Shang Yi suddenly felt something in his heart, as if he caught something, and looked in the direction of the group of palace maids and eunuchs.
He kept staring at the backs of their group. At this time, this group of people had walked more than ten steps. Others saw that Shang Yi's movements were a little abnormal, and they couldn't help but have objections. Zhu Aao said: "General Shang, what's wrong?
?”
Shang Yi pointed at the group of palace maids and eunuchs and said, "Princess, can you ask them to stop for a moment?"
Zhu Yuyao was slightly startled. Although she didn't know what Shang Yi meant by doing this, she still raised her voice and said, "You all stop."
Although the group of palace maids and eunuchs stopped, no one looked back. At this time, Zhu Yuao looked at Shang Yi with doubtful eyes, obviously looking to see what he would do next.
And Zhao Congfu immediately reacted and knew that something was wrong. When the group passed by here just now, they did not salute Zhu Aa, and when Zhu Aa called them to stop, they did not immediately apologize to Zhu Aa. If they were from the palace,
Eunuchs and maids obviously would not be so ignorant of the rules. Therefore, Zhao Congfu winked at a guard beside him.
The guard immediately understood and came to the group of people and said: "Are you from that palace?"
At this moment, Shang Yi noticed something was wrong and said immediately: "Be careful." But it was too late. A palace maid suddenly turned around, raised her delicate hand, and a thin, gossamer-like cold light flew out of her sleeve.
The guard screamed, leaned back, and fell to the ground. There was only a little blood on his throat.
Just listen to the palace maid scolding: "Do it." The accompanying group of people showed their hidden weapons and rushed towards them. Shang Yi also recognized the palace maid who had just taken action.
It is Akashi Hime, the wife of the leader of Xuanhuang Sect.
But just now when Zhao Congfu ordered a guard to go over for questioning, several other guards were also alert, so they also drew their swords and raised their guns to fight. The other eunuchs and maids were frightened, but fortunately
Zhu Aelao had seen some things in the world, so she didn't panic and scolded the eunuchs and maids not to act erratically.
At this time, Shang Yi immediately took off his loose official clothes, revealing a camouflage uniform underneath. But he couldn't help but secretly regret it, because he was entering the palace and was afraid of causing unnecessary trouble. Not only did Shang Yi not bring a pistol or saber,
I didn't even bring my body armor, arm and leg guards, but fortunately I did bring my nunchucks. They were immediately pulled out of the lining.
But just after a moment's delay, two guards were killed by the Xuanhuang Cult. One man stabbed Shang Yi in the chest with a short sword. Shang Yi turned slightly and dodged this attack.
With his sword, he swung his nunchucks and struck the man on the head. The man reacted very quickly and immediately turned around with his sword, hitting the nunchucks away with a "dang" sound.
But Shang Yi flipped his wrist, and the nunchaku tip spun in the air, and struck back quickly. That man was considered a first-rate player in the world, but he had never seen such a weird stick path before, and he couldn't dodge it.
The head of the stick hit him on the temple. He let out a scream, fell to the ground, and fainted immediately.
But immediately there were two more women, each holding a short sword, and stabbed at Shang Yi randomly. At this time, Shang Yi didn't care about showing mercy, and danced his nunchucks into an airtight stick shadow.
It was the first time for the two women to encounter this kind of weapon, and they were dazzled. With two "dang, dang" sounds, they were hit on the wrist and the dagger was knocked to the ground. Then Shang Yi didn't wait for the two of them to react.
The stick swept across and hit a woman's left cheek. The woman only brought out a pool of blood and fell to the ground screaming. Then he flew up with a leg and hit another woman's lower abdomen with his foot.