The spring breeze blows through the fields, and the crop fields on both sides of the post road are fresh and emerald. With yellow sunshine, green sprouts, brown soil, and white paddy fields, the outdoor scenery is bright and clear, and very beautiful. This scenery eliminates the confusion of many pedestrians.
The boat and horse are tired.
The farmer in a short coat wearing a straw hat who was hoeing in the field was attracted by the pedestrians on the road. He straightened up to rest and looked curiously at the pedestrians on horseback with swords. There were two horses and a carriage on the post road, and the people in the carriage could not be seen.
, the two men on horseback are both young. The one in the front is thin with a square face, and the one behind is a strong man. The thin man is in his early thirties, and the strong man is probably only in his twenties. In the Ming Dynasty, most of those who traveled with swords were those who had achieved great success.
Literary men and military men with high status rarely traveled with weapons, but these two people did not look like men of letters, but more like generals from the Wuchang court.
They are none other than Zhu Guangyang and his cousin Zhao Hu. The eldest and thin man is Zhu Guangyang, the commander of the Second Battalion of the Navy, who is also a very powerful figure in the military. The outfit of two horses and one carriage seems very simple. However, it is said in the army that Zhou Zhou last year
The general went from Lizhou to Wuchang with only one entourage. Zhu Guangyang felt that he was just a commander and could not compare with Zhou Mengxiong. Naturally, he was not qualified to be more prestigious than Zhou Mengxiong when he entered "Beijing".
In addition to the horseman driving the carriage, there were two women on the carriage, who were the wives of Zhu Guangyang and Zhao Hu. The official document ordering them to come to Wuchang for training was strangely written, asking them to bring their wives too... At first, Zhu Guangyang thought that he was sending his family members away.
I went to Wuchang to be a hostage. After all, the new army is very important and it is said that it spent a lot of money. But then I thought about it, it was wrong. The military order only said to take the wife, not the son. What kind of guarantee can a woman do? If she really wants to be a hostage,
I must have asked my son to send it away.
Especially the mother-in-law of Zhao Hu's family, she spent ten copper coins that year! Zhao Hu's family used to be very poor in the blacksmithing business, otherwise he wouldn't have joined the army, and it was to go to sea; most of the soldiers who went to sea to make a living were not
You don't come from a good family, otherwise you won't go there. Think about it, living on a boat for thousands of miles of sea water is not a narrow escape. At that time, some of the soldiers who worked under Eunuch Zheng were exiles who had committed crimes. Zhao Hu's brother married a sister-in-law
, he knew that his family could no longer afford to pay for a wife, so he followed Zheng He's fleet to sea to see if he could make a fortune.
As a result, he was injured. After Zheng He's fleet returned from Luzon, Zhao Hu went ashore to prepare to return to his hometown. On the way, he passed a county that was suffering from famine. Many people fled the famine and many people starved to death. Zhao Hu was on the way.
While he was there, he saw a pair of teenage brothers and sisters crying. It turned out that his father was sick and starved to death. Zhao Hu had no money to find a wife. Seeing that the little girl was pretty good-looking, he immediately thought about it and went to help enthusiastically.
He chopped down trees and nailed the coffin, buried the old man, and distributed the dry food he brought with him to the two children. During the conversation, he learned that the family's surname was Jiang, and proposed to marry the girl from the Jiang family. Zhao Hu only had ten copper coins on him.
But with his eloquent words, he said that it would be a pity that the little sister would starve to death if he fled, but she would definitely be able to support herself if she followed him. He managed to get a wife for himself and return home with just ten cents.
This time, one of the two women on the carriage was Jiang Erniang, Zhao Hu's wife.
The days when Jiang Erniang followed Zhao Hu are of course very different from the past. When Zhao Hu was in Yuezhou, he was a team leader, with more than 100 people under two general banners. His monthly fixed income was only five taels, and he could not get any money.
He could also receive rice, cloth and other physical goods, and his legitimate income alone in a month was equal to the annual income of an ordinary people's family; he was also given a large piece of good land to the Yuezhou army for free.
This time, relying on my old friendship with Zhang Ning and the recommendation of Monk Yao, I was directly promoted to the new army's main ship post commander, and my military salary was immediately quadrupled. And as a general with actual military power, I can still get the spoils of war when I capture someone.
Some, as long as it’s not excessive, it’s basically fine. Nowadays, Zhao Hu is very popular in front of his relatives and friends. He has heard a lot of things like saying that he has shown promise since he was a child. Even his elders praise him for being a good person and understanding the rules. Sooner or later, he will not be a thing in the pool.
.
The group of people walked slowly on the road for a few days and arrived at Wuchang City. Zhu Guangyang took out the seal and showed it to the sergeant guarding the gate. The sergeant immediately looked at him with admiration, told them to wait a little later, and trotted to call for someone.
After a while, three neatly dressed young people were seen riding horses to the city gate. Especially the leader in the middle was very young. He was fair-skinned and looked like a teenager. He was wearing a green military uniform, a white middle coat, and a waistband.
They were wearing golden scabbards and swords, and were dressed very cleanly and neatly. When they walked in front of Zhu Guangyang and Zhao Hu, the two generals were immediately dwarfed by each other. Their appearance and appearance could not be compared with the appearance of this young boy, and they suddenly looked very vulgar.
Housheng came off the horse and spoke very elegantly. He didn't even bend his waist, he stood up straight and said: "I am the palace garrison commander Zhou Zhong. On the order of the King of Xiang, I made a special trip to welcome all the generals who have gone to Wuchang for training. May I ask what you are doing?
Are they Commander Zhu and Commander Zhao?"
"Exactly." Zhu Guangyang responded very kindly. He didn't seem to argue with this young man who didn't even have hair. He said politely, "We are new to an unfamiliar place, so we will be able to help General Zhou."
Zhou Zhong didn't say much, he just said: "Please."
After saying that, several people mounted their horses one after another. Zhu Guangyang rode his horse and walked slowly side by side with Zhou Zhong. Suddenly he asked casually: "Is your father Zhou Budang?"
Zhou Zhongdao: "Yes."
Zhu Guangyang had a look of surprise on his face and praised a few more words, such as "a tiger father has no son" and so on. Anyway, there is no need to pay for saying nice things. No wonder this boy is such a conductor at such a young age. He is less than 20 years old. If it weren't for Zhou Mengxiong's
How can my son be on an equal footing with Zhu Guangyang? Zhu Guangyang has gone through hundreds of battles and fought hard for many years.
The group of people talked while walking towards Chayuan Street, which is located to the north of the Chu Palace. Now the cabinet, the power center of the Wuchang court, is also located in the Beigong Gate. There are six yamen outside, which can be regarded as the political center of Wuchang.
, there were a lot of official carriages and horses coming and going on the street, and officials on horseback were constantly dismounting from their horses across the street, clasping their fists to say hello to Zhou Zhong. Although Zhou Zhong was young, many people knew him because he often appeared at the palace gate.
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At the entrance of a courtyard next to the Ministry of War, there is a plaque that reads: Emperor Ming's Military Academy. This name is really strange.
Zhou Zhong pointed to the sign and said: "When the navy generals from all over the country come to Wuchang, you will be trained here, but you don't need to go today. The King of Xiang said that the name of our Ming Dynasty should be the Ming Empire, and Ming is the name of the country.
"The empire is a state body that implements the emperor system and orders small barbarian states from all over the world to bring prosperity to the world, so it is called an empire."
Zhu Guangyang thought it was good. Of course he, a military general, didn't bother to care about the literal meaning. Regardless of the Ming Dynasty or the Ming Empire, there was always an emperor at the top, and civil and military power at the bottom. They relied on imperial examinations and connections to get to the top. It was just because I thought it was strange, so I looked at it a few more times.
Eye.
The group of people walked for a while and turned from the street into an alley. They saw that the doors of the houses in the alley had signs hanging on them, such as the first building of the military academy and the second building of the military academy. They stopped outside the door of the first building, and several people in Qingyi
The young man came out to take the reins. Zhou Zhong said: "Just leave the carriage and horses to the servants here. On the carriage are the wives of the two generals. Please get off the carriage. In the next two months, the two generals and their wives will live in
Here, there are gardeners, cooks, grooms, and maids transferred from the Chu Palace, so you don’t have to worry about food, clothing, housing, and transportation.”
Zhu Guangyang hurriedly asked: "These are all arranged by King Xiang?"
Zhou Zhong said seriously: "They are all descended from Prince Xiang. He looks after all the generals as if they were his disciples."
Zhu Guangyang said: "The last generals and others have no choice but to fight to the death, and cannot repay the kindness of the King of Xiang... Hey, why doesn't General Zhou dismount? Excuse me, please lead me. Let's go in and have a drink of tea."
"General Zhu kindly accepts it." Zhou Zhong said gracefully, "You two and their families have traveled a long way, so I can't bother you too much. You guys have a rest first. There will be a reception banquet in the palace tomorrow night.
You need to take your wife to the banquet, so that you can meet the prince... By the way, you must not give gifts. The generals should wear the newly issued naval uniforms and do not bring weapons into the palace."
Zhu Guangyang's cousin Zhao Hu couldn't help but said: "Can we enter the palace to meet the saint now?"
Zhou Zhongdao: "It's not to meet the emperor, but to meet the King of Xiang."
Zhao Hu hurriedly said: "It's an honor to meet the King of Xiang. But I don't know what's good and what's good, so I'm thinking about meeting the King, haha." After hearing this, Zhu Guangyang breathed a sigh of relief, but was still worried that Zhao Hu said the wrong thing, so he said
To say that the King of Xiang is equivalent to the emperor or something like that does not make sense. After all, this kid has never seen much of the world and he was just a pawn before... But thinking about it, there is no need to worry.
Zhu Guangyang added: "We are very happy to meet the King of Xiang, but we are sure that we will bring my concubine to the palace for the banquet? I'm afraid that the women have little knowledge and do not understand etiquette, so they will make a joke."
Zhou Zhong frowned and said: "The princess will also attend the banquet. This is a family banquet. Please don't betray the prince's kindness."
"So that's it, you will eventually be stupid, stupid." Zhu Guangyang said in shock, "I never expected that the prince would value us so much and recommend us as members of his family."
Zhou Zhongdao: "You people in Yuezhou don't know that the prince recently asked civil and military officials to revive the six ancient arts and set an example for the people of the world. Both civil servants and military generals must learn the skills of playing music, chess, calligraphy, painting, bowing, horse riding, and shooting. Military generals can't just kill people, not just kill people."
I understand elegance and respectability. My dynasty is upright and the world is upright. The prince uses force to fight against rebellion, and his subordinates are not like the gangsters who rob homes and houses in the lush green forests. Your wives are not the wives of the villagers, what kind of joke can they make?"
Zhu Guangyang repeatedly said yes, and Zhou Zhong left after finishing his words.
After the outsiders left, the two women got out of the car and walked into the yard together. At this time, Zhao Hu said casually: "We lead troops to fight, why should we learn the six arts?"
Zhu Guangyang looked at his cousin with a smile, thinking about his relationship with King Xiang, and joked: "Don't think it's useless. In the future, the world will be determined, and we will be honored by becoming marquises. Princes, generals, and powerful families naturally have to pay attention to pomp and appearance.