Lu Ming

Chapter 468 Storytelling

Ciqing Palace is located in the east of the Forbidden City, north of Donghuamen, next to the Imperial Horse Prison.

It was called Qingning Palace at the earliest, and it was the residence of the prince.In later generations, Ciqing Palace has disappeared.During the Qing Dynasty, the Xiefang Hall was built on the original site, and later expanded into Nansan.The brothers who are the favorite of the brainless fans in the official dramas basically grew up in Nansan Institute.

In fact, as early as the end of Tianqi, when Emperor Tianqi had no children, Ciqing Palace became the bedroom of Empress Zhang.In the Chongzhen Dynasty, Queen Zhang still lived here until the crown prince accepted his concubine.

Empress Zhang's name is Zhang Yan, and she is the empress of Emperor Tianqi's palace.

Because when Emperor Tianqi was critically ill, Empress Zhang insisted that Zhu Youjian, who was still the king of faith at that time, should take the throne, so after Chongzhen came to power, she respected this widowed wife very much.

Chongzhen not only honored Zhang Yan as "Empress Yi'an", but also throughout her reign, Empress Zhang received the highest respect and courtesy from the emperor.

Why since ancient times, people have worked so hard to strive for a great achievement from the support of the dragon?This is evident.

Today is sunny, neither hot nor cold, and it is the Ching Ming Festival, which is a good day for an outing.However, the activity of playing with arms and fluttering butterflies in the imperial garden is not so suitable for some people, such as sister-in-law and brother-in-law.

So everyone can only sit down, drink two glasses of beer, eat some grilled skewers and chat about gossip-on the white marble platform in front of Ciqing Palace, there is an open-air banquet being held.

It is said to be a banquet, but it is actually some melon and fruit snacks on the coffee table. There is no beer or crayfish. It is a relatively casual medieval lunch party.

There is only one host and guest at the buffet party, and the rest of the court ladies, female officials, eunuchs, and guards around are all wage earners and have to stand.

Wearing a red-sleeved gown, xiapei and red sash, and a beaded emerald phoenix crown, the person sitting in the main seat behind the tea table is naturally the owner of Ciqing Palace, "he is handsome and plump, with a face like Guanyin, and eyes like autumn waves, The mouth is like vermilion cherry blossoms, the nose is like hanging gallbladder, and the teeth are fine and clean." Zhang Yanzhang, one of the five queens in ancient China, was rated by history.

On the left hand side of Empress Dowager Zhang, a young man wearing a golden silk winged crown and a black brocade dragon gown, with a thin face and a small mustache, is the master of the huge Ming Empire: Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian.

At this moment, Chongzhen watched with a smile on the face of the two boys performing juggling under the platform.The boy was skilled, standing upside down, stacking his body, and finally ended the performance with a very thrilling one-foot support rolling action, which won a lot of applause.

"Well, the villain's play is good, he must have suffered from the master, let's watch it."

Queen Zhang is 24 years old this year, which is the best age for a woman.But now is the 17th century when etiquette is rampant. Zhang Yan, who has been a widow for several years, is old-fashioned and has begun to demand herself with the mentality of an elder.

After distributing the reward, the young sister-in-law turned her head to look at the younger uncle, and found that the other man seemed to be smiling and nodding, but he was a little distracted, and there was still a faint melancholy between his brows.

Sighing lightly, Empress Zhang stretched out her hand, lifted the osmanthus dew on the table and said, "Emperor, drink tea."

"Oh!" Chongzhen, who came to his senses, hastily picked up the rose drink in front of him and took two sips.

"Now that the Tartars have retreated, the emperor has become more and more proficient in dealing with those personnel in the court. We have survived the most difficult hurdle. When the emperor gets older, life will eventually get better."

After putting down the crystal-clear glass lifter cup in her hand, Queen Zhang said slowly, "Emperor, you must not worry about the government affairs all the time, so as not to hurt your mind, it is good to have relaxation."

"I understand, Xie Huangsao reminded me."

When the young emperor heard this, his eyebrows stretched a little, and he nodded.

Seeing the emperor and the empress chatting happily, the old eunuchs who were waiting on the side clapped their hands with interest, and then the next group of actors who came out to perform came to the platform, ready to perform a superb Cucu play for the nobles.

At this moment, the emperor sitting on the platform frowned again—at the palace gate behind the actor, a figure was running from afar.

Chongzhen has good eyesight, so it didn't take long for him to see clearly the bright red bullfighting suit of the visitor.At this moment, the emperor's face hardened in an instant—the one who could run around in the palace wearing a senior eunuch's uniform was most likely the person in charge of ceremonies, and it must also indicate that something big happened.

Suddenly, Chongzhen stood up from the chair.He had already seen the face of the person who came: the supervisor of ceremonies was writing squarely.

The young emperor, who has not encountered any good news since he ascended the throne, has already habitually blocked the possibility of good things happening, so when he saw the panting person coming, he had already rehearsed several emergencies in his mind : Are the Tartars returning to the army?Is there another disturbance in the direction of Ji Town?Or is there another police situation on Nine Sides?
At this moment, the emperor's face was ashen, and his slightly relaxed attitude just now had long been thrown out of the sky.Empress Zhang also waved her hand knowingly, signaling the eunuch to drive the actor away.

Accompanied by the overall cold field, it is getting closer and closer to the Founder.

Soon, when Fang Zhenghua ran to the bottom of the platform, intermittent shouts came over: "My lord, great joy, great joy, great victory on the front line, great victory!"

"Huh?" The young emperor with his hands behind his back and a gloomy face was suddenly stunned, and then he turned his head to look at the emperor's wife in surprise, as if he wanted to confirm his judgment: did I hear you wrong?
Empress Zhang also looked dazed, her pretty face was full of bewilderment, and seemed to have a bit of fear on her face, she looked helplessly at her brother-in-law.

Fortunately, the answer will soon be revealed.I saw Fang Zhenghua running up from the steps in a hurry, then knelt down in front of the emperor with a "puff", panting and said: "I, my lord, the front, the front line is big, the victory, the general soldier Cao, Cao, Cao Chuan, the formation cut , beheaded Amin, seized four or four thousand, the heads of the culprits."

With a bang, the emperor shook his head and took a step back, the chair was knocked to the ground.The next moment, the emperor took a step forward with a cold expression on his face, pointed at Fang Zhenghua and cursed fiercely: "Idiot, make it clear, which group of soldiers did Amin kill again!?"

"My lord, Amin was beheaded, it was our Daming's chief soldier who beheaded Amin!"

"what!"

The emperor was stunned for a moment with his mouth wide open, and after smoothing out his thoughts, he bowed and pointed at Fang Zhenghua and asked in a deep voice: "Could it be that someone else's battle report came to deceive me again?"

Seeing the emperor pointing at the tip of his nose with slightly trembling fingers, Fang Zhenghua understood that the emperor seemed calm, but in fact his chest was already full of excitement: "There is a head, my lord, there is a head on the way! Amin's, and Four thousand strong Tartars are on the way!"

With a look of astonishment on his face, the young emperor couldn't believe the answer at all. At this moment, he slowly got up again, scanned the people around him, and finally met his sister-in-law.

After confirming that he did not have auditory hallucinations, the emperor's face turned flushed instantly. Excited, he coughed a few times, and then asked, "Who sent the news?"

"My lord, it's Wen Zongbo."

"I'll attack your old mother!". If Chongzhen was not young, he would have suffered a brain hemorrhage by this time: "Then Wen Tiren is the Minister of Rites, where is the battle report!?"

"My lord, this battle report was sent into the city by a member of the Wen family!"

The young emperor coughed again eagerly, and then he realized that he could no longer communicate with Fang Zhenghua like this: "Where is Wen Tiren?"

"Just outside Ciqing Palace, waiting to announce the good news to the emperor!"

"Then pass it on!"

"promise!"

The next moment, a young eunuch with nimble legs and feet ran madly towards the palace gate.

In this way, under the eyes of everyone, under the emperor's fire-breathing eyes, Wen Tiren came to the emperor at a slightly faster speed than usual.

"My humble minister pays homage."

"No courtesy, no courtesy, come here, give Wen Qing a seat!"

The extremely impatient emperor immediately interrupted Old Wen's etiquette.

Seeing that the emperor's appetite had been completely whetted, Lao Wen no longer kept a secret, and explained the ins and outs of the matter.

The story of Lao Wen is this: Because of his old relationship with Xiong Wencan, a certain soldier surnamed Cao who came to King Qin this time sent people from Tianjin to bring some local products from Fujian to Lao Wen.

At the same time, Cao Zongbing also complained about the situation in his letter to Lao Wen.These included the fact that Nanbing was unacceptable, trapped him in Tianjin Wei, and the situation was chaotic, and he felt that he had nowhere to use it.

At this time, Wen Shangshu, who was warm-hearted and proficient in the art of war, pointed out a clear way to General Cao in his reply letter: Don't come to Ji Town to participate in the battle. General Cao might as well send surprise troops to attack Yongping three cities directly from the south, and cut off the enemy's rear. Might not be miraculous.

Then things went on like this step by step: after seeing the letter brought by the messenger of the Wen family, Cao Zongbing did as he said, relying on his subordinates' sharp guns and sneak attacks, he caught the tartars in the three cities of Yongping by surprise— —The stupid Tartars never expected that there would be a sneak attack from the south.

After defeating the Tartars in the three cities of Yongping, Cao Zongbing led the soldiers with high morale and went straight to the Santun Camp.When the Tartars on the top of the city saw Amin's head, they lost all morale and began to flee out of the city.

Then Cao Zongbing, who occupied the three camps, soon ushered in Shuo Tuo who ran away from Zunhua.

In this way, Cao Zongbing, under the guidance of the military strategist Wen Shangshu, adopted a division strategy and achieved an unprecedented victory in one fell swoop, leaving a total of [-] Tartar heads including Amin.

After listening to Wen Tiren's story, Chongzhen was so excited that he couldn't help himself, and asked repeatedly: "Aiqing, is there evidence for what you said?"

"Yes, yes!"

Wen Tiren took out a letter from his pocket.

The handwriting of this letter is neat, it can be seen that it was written by a master who often handles official documents.

This is a normal situation, because in ancient times many military generals could not write letters well, so they were all dictated by the generals, and the master wrote the letter for them, and finally it was OK to stamp and draw the letter.

This letter was written in Cao Zongbing's tone.The above content is nothing more than thanking Wen Shangshu for showing him the way, which made him win a large number of Tartar heads.So he wrote a letter to Wen Shangshu to announce the good news at the top of Santunying as soon as the battle ended.

The letter also said: At the same time as the letter was written, Sun Chengzong's army had already joined forces under the city of Santunying.Therefore, the good news sent by the generals in front will reach the capital soon.Cao Zongbing will also bring 4000 heads to the capital to congratulate the emperor in the near future.

After reading the letter with trembling hands, Chongzhen stood up from his chair again, and said loudly impatiently: "Come here, Chuan Luo Yangxing, Zhou Yanru, and Wang Zhixin come to see me immediately!"

(End of this chapter)