Picturesque Rivers and Mountains in the Red Chamber

Chapter 482 6.53 The Dongping Palace is completely finished
Volume VI

6.53 Dongping Palace is completely finished
Time flew by, and it was March in the blink of an eye. Zhou Yang was busy on both sides, and all kinds of things were progressed in an orderly manner.

The first thing is work. Needless to say, the military affairs of Miyun Camp are now on the right track as time goes by. Especially with the advancement of his "teaching camp" system of learning and working at the same time, the original lack of manpower and training The problem of lag has been greatly alleviated, and at least line infantry training has been quite effective.

Another thing is his marriage to Princess Yongjing. Although this girl has already settled in the Zhou family's courtyard and was eaten up and wiped clean by someone, it has not gone through the formal process. Whether it is the Queen Mother or Emperor Changxing in the palace, , have urged him to hold a wedding quickly more than once, so as to avoid the problem of the princess having a pregnant belly. Fortunately, there is no shortage of money now, and all the problems are arranged by the sisters at home, and now they are going smoothly.

Just when everyone thought that Emperor Changxing's accession to the throne was smooth, government affairs were stable, and state affairs could be progressed smoothly, no one expected that an unexpected event completely shattered all the "stability" on the surface—— At three quarters on the morning of the seventh day of March, the Jingyang Bell in the palace struck 81 times, which meant that the country was in danger!

"Pa—" Regardless of the hundreds of officials in Beijing who were in chaos in the vegetable market in front of the Ming Dynasty, or the panic atmosphere in the entire capital, in the imperial study room, Emperor Changxing threw a memorial to the ground with all his strength, "Who Come and tell me, what is going on? Hasn’t Jiannu been wiped out by the emperor’s grandfather for decades? What is the purpose of Dongping Palace?”

All the senior ministers were at a loss, because no one knew what happened. Fortunately, Emperor Changxing had already pointed out that there was a rebellion. Niu Jizong, the Minister of War, hurriedly stepped forward to pick up the memorial on the ground, and after reading it for a moment, With an expression of disbelief, he held the memorial respectfully in both hands for a long time and handed it to Qiu Shi'an first.

"Old Niu, what's going on?" Seeing that Niu Jizong was dumbfounded after reading the memorial, Liu Fang didn't care about the relationship between superiors and subordinates, and even used the usual bragging and spanking titles, "No matter how big the matter is, you Why don’t you explain it clearly first?”

"This memorial is compiled, and the information comes from the land of white mountains and black waters." Niu Jizong looked ugly, but he still suppressed his emotions and said, "On the second day of this month, the slaves who had been wiped out for decades appeared out of nowhere. Come on, tens of thousands of rebel troops have rushed into Shengjing City, and no one from the Dongping County Prince's Palace is left!"

At this time, everyone in the imperial study room was stunned.

"Your Majesty, is there any further news?" Lin Ruhai, the official minister, asked quickly, "For example, what happened to the Zhendong Army, one of the four major border armies?"

"Slave dog, you haven't made it clear yet!" Emperor Changxing was furious and kicked Qiu Shi'an staggering and shouted.

"My lords, please forgive me. The matter is urgent and I will not circulate the information again. Please allow me to explain it clearly to you." Qiu Shi'an regained his balance like a normal person, bowed and said to a group of important court officials, "On the night of the third day of March, The rebel army rushed into Shengjing City through the city gate that should be opened, and immediately raided the Dongping Palace over there.

When the news came back, thousands of people poured into the entire Shengjing city, and a large number of soldiers and horses attacked the suburbs. The garrison was caught off guard and fell into chaos. The result is currently unknown, but no matter what, the imperial court lost its command immediately. In this land of white mountains and black waters, I'm afraid something unspeakable will happen. "

Now, the atmosphere in the imperial study became even more depressing and dead.

Everyone knows that the Dongping Palace is completely ruined. Without the elite soldiers of the Zhendong Army who relied on it as a pillar, even if the court still gives titles to the Mu family princes who remain in the capital, it will only be a false name with an empty salary; however, Realizing this, Zhou Yang remembered another thing, "Only King Beijing still has the title of king."

"My dear friends, do you have any suggestions?" Seeing that the atmosphere was too silent, Emperor Changxing said impatiently, but found that no one spoke. He angrily threw the paperweight on the imperial desk and pointed at Niu Jizong and said, "Niu Aiqing As the leader of the generals, what can you teach me?"

"This -" Niu Jizong held it in for a long time and then said, "The information is not accurate yet, it can't be..."

"Shut up!" Emperor Changxing shouted angrily, which made Niu Jizong blush, but he ignored it. Instead, he looked at the general and shouted, "What about you, are all of you mute?"

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this news is wrong - well, it's probably not accurate enough." Seeing that the civil servants were looking at each other with no intention of answering, and the generals couldn't come up with any decent solutions. Zhou Yang knew that he could not delay it any longer. If Emperor Changxing was completely disappointed with the generals, the price would be too high, so he expressed his guess.

"Oh?" Emperor Changxing finally softened his expression when he saw someone talking, "What does Zhou Aiqing know?"

"Replying to Your Majesty, I am not getting any news, but inferring based on the situation." As soon as Zhou Yang said this, he saw the disappointed look on Emperor Changxing's face, and quickly added, "It should be no problem for Shengjing City to be breached by the rebels. Can we control it?" It's hard to say, Eunuch Qiu also said just now that the news came back relatively early, and further news has not yet been sent back."

"You dog slave, do you mean what Zhou Aiqing said?" Emperor Changxing asked immediately.

"Your Majesty, it's exactly what General Zhou said." Qiu Shi'an replied quickly.

"That's not bad." Emperor Changxing breathed a sigh of relief and immediately looked at Zhou Yang and said, "Zhou Aiqing, if this is really the case, what should I do?" "Your Majesty, if it was just Shengjing City that was at fault, there would still be time to make amends. Seeing that Qiu Shian didn't refute, Zhou Yang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, "The intelligence said there were 'thousands' of rebels. This is impossible. If such a large number of people have gathered and the Dongping Palace can't see it, then it can only be said that they are blind." Only a fool can do it.

Therefore, if Wei Chen's guess is correct, the number of rebels is far less than what they appear on the surface. The so-called "thousands of people entering the city" is basically a bluff. In addition, the Dongping Palace was killed and everyone else was at war. The reason is that the real number of rebels is more than a thousand, which is a big deal. Then the insider cooperates with Kaicheng, but the top priority now, Wei Chen thinks that it is not Shengjing City. "

"Shanhaiguan!" Niu Jizong reacted this time.

"Yes, as long as the imperial court still controls Shanhaiguan, the situation is under control. The next question is how to quell the rebellion - of course, the sooner the better!" As soon as Zhou Yang said these words, everyone on the scene, both civil and military, was Nodding, the atmosphere in the Imperial Study Room relaxed obviously, "So the top priority now is to send out an elite force as quickly as possible to ensure control of Shanhaiguan!"

In real history, before the demise of the Ming Dynasty, no matter what the boasts or the actual strategic offensive and defensive strength, no matter what you say, you can't hide the fact that Jiannu has never been able to do anything to Shanhaiguan; if it were not an internal problem of the Ming Dynasty, It was too big, and the Ming Dynasty's court was so ruthless. If it really dragged on for more than ten to twenty years, it would be hard to say what the outcome of the so-called "Eight Banners" would be. This is the strategic value of Shanhaiguan to the Central Plains!
Since it is about the fastest speed and elite soldiers, no fool can enter the Xiaochao meeting. Everyone looked at Qiu Liang, the current commander-in-chief of the Three Thousand Battalion.

"Your Majesty, as long as we have five days, I promise to pull out five thousand elite cavalry!" Qiu Liang's confident answer made everyone at the scene nod. According to the rules of the feudal era, the three thousand battalion can perform like this. He is truly worthy of the title of "Elite Soldier", not to mention the following, "If I have ten days, I can pull out another five thousand!"

"Qiu Aiqing is interested." Emperor Changxing smiled with satisfaction.

"Your Majesty, it's too slow!" But Zhou Yang knew that this would definitely not work.

"What do you think Zhou Aiqing should do?" Seeing that he had a solution, Emperor Changxing became much more easy-going.

"Brother Qiu, please forgive me, what I said may be a bit exaggerated!" Zhou Yang couldn't care less about the title issue, not to mention that his request was indeed excessive in this day and age, "If troops are to be sent out tomorrow, three thousand battalions can pull out how many people?"

"What, tomorrow? Ziyang, are you crazy?" Before Qiu Liang could speak this time, Liu Fang shouted dissatisfied, "How could it be so fast?"

"Brother Qiu?" Zhou Yang bowed apologetically to Liu Fang and continued to ask Qiu Liang - Liu Fang's position was the left minister of the Ministry of War. Because the right minister was vacant, he was also responsible for the food and grass supplies for the army's expedition.

"Two thousand, there really is no more!" Qiu Liang hesitated for a while, gritted his teeth and then said with a wry smile, "This is only possible when you only bring enough dry food and are desperate."

In these days, if you want to ensure the supply of thousands or even tens of thousands of troops, it is not like modern times, just find a combat readiness warehouse to mobilize, and then randomly find a nearby train station, and the two parties can coordinate the shipment, and the mobilization speed is even faster than The army can't be any slower. The ancient saying "the troops and horses have to move before the food and grass are moved" refers not only to the importance of logistics, but also to the lag!
"Although it's a little less, luckily I still have it here." Zhou Yang finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Zhou Aiqing, do you want to leave tomorrow?" Even though Emperor Changxing was already impatient, he didn't expect anyone to be so impatient. "What if there is any oversight?"

"Your Majesty, please forgive me!" Zhou Yang interrupted him regardless of etiquette, "No one knows what the situation is at the White Mountains and Black Waters. If something goes wrong at Shanhaiguan, the imperial court will be in big trouble. At this time, the soldiers and horses would have been there a day earlier. , it can at least increase the chance of winning by [-]%, but now we are extremely urgent and can’t take care of so much!”

"Zi Yang, how many can you mobilize?" Qiu Liang asked immediately.

"The personal guard cavalry is the governor, the Shenji camp is directly under the cavalry governor, plus two cavalry per thousand households for [-]% to [-]% of the [-] households, I can also mobilize two thousand cavalry here." Zhou Yang was actually deliberately conservative. But to say more would be to offend Qiu Liang. Fortunately, four thousand fine cavalry are enough. "Add two more infantry and cannons to one hundred households, that's all."

"I'll send you an extra thousand horses from the [-] battalion. All the people along the way will set out at full speed, and you don't need to be sympathetic to the horses. There will be no problem in arriving at Shanhaiguan in four to five days." Qiu Liang said without hesitation, "Your Two artillerymen are also brought with them, equipped with three times the number of horses, but for such an attack, the horses must be fed with fine materials throughout the whole process, I wonder if Wen Shangshu can support it?"

"Things have their own priorities." Wen Fuli, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, nodded after thinking for a while, "The official warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue is at your disposal. Even if you need to feed the horses with fine grain, I will leave it up to you!"

"With such a combined effort of civil and military forces, and a unified mind, there is no need to worry about the immortality of the slaves!" Emperor Changxing nodded happily, turned to Qiu Liang and Zhou Yang and said, "In that case, thank you for your hard work, my dears - Zhou Aiqing doesn't have a Spyge yet, right? When this matter is settled, I will not hesitate to reward you generously, so Qiu Aiqing doesn’t have to worry, the Tian family will never treat meritorious ministers badly!"

(End of this chapter)