Red House Shoufu

Chapter 372 Lu Yu's Loyal Minister Sighs His Grace

Lin Shu led more than [-] imperial troops back to Beijing along the official road. Gao Wanzhen's family, the injured soldiers of the imperial army, and the captured rebels were handed over by Lin Shu to the imperial mausoleum guard who was in charge of the aftermath.

Although the emperor had prepared for the chaos in the capital, Lin Shu still couldn't let go of the good news that the chaos had been settled.

The sky was already slightly bright, and the darkness before dawn had passed. After a night of fighting, the word exhaustion was written on everyone's faces.

Lin Shu looked up at the rising sun, which was about to cross the horizon, and ordered the army to bury the pot to cook, and take a break by the way.

Before the meal was ready, the scouts in charge of the security sent news that a group of soldiers and horses suddenly appeared on both sides of the official road, the number of which was about 5000 people.

"Prepare for battle!"

The tense atmosphere prevented everyone from caring about the broth and other things still in the pot. They quickly set up their formation, surrounded by chariots and horses, loaded their bows with ammunition, and drew out their swords, ready to defend against the enemy.

"Five hundred steps!"

"Three hundred steps!"

"Muskets ready! Crossbowmen ready!"

"Wait!"

The composition of this army is very mixed. Judging from the dress, there are imperial soldiers, frontier soldiers and even a large number of farmers mixed in.

There are the standard iron armor of the imperial court and frontier army, the leather armor of the city guard, and the protective equipment obviously made by the hunter farmers themselves. The weapons in their hands are also various.

The team stopped at a distance of [-] steps from Lin Shu's army, and someone came to investigate after a while.

"My lord, let me ask you clearly. This team of nearly 5000 people is composed of veterans and farmers from Gyeonggi. They are going to the capital to escort the king."

After negotiating with him, Xue Pan reported to Lin Shu: "Most of them are householders of Huangzhuang Village in Xishan. The people who went to deliver the Mid-Autumn Festival gifts to the palace brought back the news of the great chaos in the capital, and organized troops overnight to prepare to enter King Qin of Jing, just in time for us."

That's it!

Lin Shu understood, no wonder there were people in the capital who dared to lead troops into the capital without an edict. This group of people probably didn't know that they led troops into the capital without an edict, and according to the law they would be punished.

"Go and invite the leader over here!"

After a brief negotiation, a person dressed as an old Confucian scholar in his early fifties was invited in front of Lin Shu. When he saw Lin Shu in a scarlet official robe, he was stunned and said: "The humble Xishan Huangzhuang is in charge Lu Chengyi pays homage to Lord Lin!"

"Seeing that you are wearing a Confucian student's uniform, you should have a reputation. After thinking about it, you should know that the law is strict. Gathering thousands of people without an edict, although it is an act of loyalty, it also violates the law of the country. Can you be convicted?"

"The humble official knows it, but the people's will is what they have to do. The humble official and these thousands of people are all able to survive under the natural disaster because of His Majesty's grace. Now that the rebels are rioting in Beijing, the people of Huangzhuang are all worried about your majesty's safety. ..."

It turned out that this group of people were refugees from the capital that the emperor had recruited over the years, and arranged them to live in the various imperial villas in Xishan.In addition, the emperor would go to inspect from time to time, which made the households in Huangzhuang who had a stable life very loyal to the benefactor emperor.

When this group of people heard that the capital was in chaos and someone rebelled, they immediately took up arms and prepared to go to Beijing to protect their benefactor.

The embroidered guards accompanying the team had already sent news, confirming what Lu Chengyi said was true. Lin Shu lamented that the emperor had such a group of diehard fans without knowing it, and then combined the two teams into one and used it hastily. After breakfast, continue on your way.

After all, this army is the emperor's "private army". Whether to reward loyalty or deal with it according to the law is also the emperor's business, and Lin Shu can't make it up.

……

The situation in the imperial city has stabilized. Concubine Xue De has been detained by the imperial concubine in Xukun Palace, including Longshou Palace, and all the young people in the inner six palaces have been wiped out.

In the previous dynasty, the emperor personally sat in the town, so the situation has naturally calmed down. Now, except for some people in the capital who are unwilling to fail and make trouble everywhere, only the [-] rebels outside the west gate are still struggling.

The gates of all the workshops in the capital are closed, and Fangzheng has already organized the people in the workshops to resist the thieves and rioters. In the workshops such as Dashi Yongfang, where there are many nobles, the rioters have been pacified long ago.

When the imperial army took to the streets, the noise of fighting all around gradually subsided. By the beginning of Sishi, except for a little disturbance in the west city, the whole capital had calmed down.

All civil and military officials who stayed up all night in Fengtian Hall breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the emperor sitting on the dragon chair, they couldn't help feeling a little uneasy.

The chaos is over, but I don't know how many people will lose their heads in this rebellion.They looked around, counting those who were not present in their hearts, and couldn't help worrying whether they would be innocently implicated.

"My lord, Jia Jing came to report that the imperial city was safe, and all the rioters were killed as soon as they came out of the secret road. The troops of the Sixth Commander of the East Palace had already followed the secret road to Qincha Temple, the Duke of Qi's mansion and other places. The thieves have all been put down, and now only the west city is left in the city, and there are still some rogues who are stubbornly resisting."

After listening to Xia Shouzhong's report, the emperor slightly raised his eyelids, and asked softly, "How is the imperial concubine?"

Only Xia Shouzhong bowed and replied: "The imperial concubine has cleaned all the six inner palaces, and it is still safe now. It is just that there are a lot of things found, and the empress said that the emperor will deal with it himself after everything is stable."

Xia Shouzhong thought of what he saw in Xukun Palace, and felt a headache for the emperor.The palace was never clean, but the things that were found everywhere were really shocking, that is, the Xukun Palace of the imperial concubine and the Fengzao Palace of the virtuous concubine Yuanchun, a few prohibited items were found.

Not to mention the Zhen family in Longshou Palace, chronic poisons, abortion products, anyway, there are all kinds of things that Gongdou can use.

The emperor didn't realize that this time he had completely cleaned up the harem by calming down the chaos, thinking that the imperial concubine Yang was still unwilling to act arbitrarily, so he nodded and said: "Say to the imperial dining room and bring some meals. "

"The old slave has already sent someone to prepare, and the saint has also made arrangements. The emperor will eat first!"

While the monarchs and ministers were eating in Fengtian Hall, the battle at the West Gate was still going on.Of course, Chen Ruiwen and Liu Qian wanted to quickly break through the defense of the West Gate, but unfortunately, the [-] rebels under their command had already retreated before they attacked the city.

At first, he was deceived by Chen Ruiwen and Liu Qian's false imperial decree. When the crown prince Gao Wancheng and his cabinet minister Qian Qianli boarded the west gate in person, the rebels under the city were already shaken and knew that they had been deceived.

If it weren't for Chen Ruiwen and Liu Qian's Zuo Xiaowei and You Wuwei's management for a long time, most of the middle and lower generals were confidantes, and it is estimated that they would have mutinied several times.

The person who presided over the battle in Xicheng has changed from Gao Wanjiang to Qian Qianli, a cabinet minister. He looked at the red cannon and asked Gao Wanjiang beside him: "How is the British Duke's preparations going?"

"Mr. Huige, the city has just been pacified, and soldiers and horses are being mobilized everywhere. It is temporarily impossible to encircle the rebels. The old man said that it will take about an hour."

Gao Wanjiang had many wounds on his body, especially on his forehead and face, where there were several cuts from the rubble blasted by the artillery.

However, his spirit was in high spirits, and he would be in good spirits. After being persuaded several times, he still stood by Qian Qianli's side with his sword in his hand.

Qian Qianli looked at the rebels who kept rushing up to attack the city, and couldn't help worrying: "It's already daybreak, Chen Ruiwen and Liu Qian have already quietly brought their relatives out of the capital, the old man is afraid that they will see the rebellion. Run away. This is tens of thousands of rebels, if they disperse, the capital will be in chaos for a long time."

Gao Wanjiang also followed Qian Qianli's face showing concern, and nodded in response: "Ge Lao said that the rioting soldiers disturb the people, and the mountains on the north side of the capital are simply natural places to raise bandits. It's a pity that the city has just been leveled, and the soldiers and horses Mobilization takes time."

"Wait, now I can only hope that the British Lord can dispatch troops sooner, encircle the group of rebels in the city, and wipe them out!"

……

Lin Shu led nearly [-] soldiers and horses galloping along the official road. The scouts kept sending news from the front. Knowing that the gunfire outside the west city gate continued, he thought that the rebel army was powerful and the capital was in danger.

Until the scout returned again, bringing a familiar figure with him.

"Brother Mastiff, why are you here?"

It turned out that it was Lin Mastiff and several Lin family soldiers who brought Daiyu's autographed letter.

Lin Mastiff handed two letters to Lin Shu: "When the chaos broke out yesterday, my subordinates went out of Beijing from the east city gate at the order of the girl, and have been hiding outside the city gate. Before dawn today, Uncle Rong of Ningguo Mansion used a hanging Basket sent the girl's handwritten letter, and the subordinates brought people to find the head of the family."

Lin Shu ordered the team to stop and rest, while he opened the letter and read it.

In Daiyu's letter, she explained the reason why she arranged for Lin Mastiff to guard outside the city. It turned out that Wang Lun, the intelligence leader of the Lin family, had noticed the strange situation in the Duke's Mansion of Qi earlier. The family went to Zhuangzi outside the city for an autumn tour, and did not return to the capital until the Mid-Autumn Festival. This is not in line with the habits of nobles in the capital.

You must know that every festival, the palace will be given imperial meals by civil and military officials above the third rank in Beijing. If there is no one at home, who will thank you for taking these imperial meals?Isn't that disrespectful?
This abnormal behavior made Wang Lun alert, and immediately went back to the house to report to Daiyu, the housekeeper.It just so happened that the servant came to the palace to give food, so Daiyu thought about it and wrote the matter in a letter, asking the servant to return to the palace quickly with the secret letter.

Fortunately, there was plenty of time. After the emperor's secret letter was delivered to Lin's residence, Daiyu arranged for Lin Mastiff to go out of the capital and guard outside the east city gate, waiting for the opportunity to deliver the secret letter to Lin Shu.

The Embroidered Guards had long been secretly ordered to monitor the Chen and Liu families, and their hiding places outside the city had been found out.If it wasn't for avoiding agitating others, the emperor would have sent out the Imperial Army out of the city long ago.

Just because of the secret letter sent by Daiyu, the emperor followed suit and entrusted Lin Shu with the task of arresting the families of Chen and Liu.

This was simply giving credit, and Lin Shu didn't know how to describe it.

According to Embroidery Guard's detection, the family members of the Chen and Liu families gathered in one place, and they were hiding in an unnamed village not far from the west of the city, waiting for news from Chen Ruiwen and Liu Qian.

It seems that Chen and Liu did not dare to guarantee the success of the rebellion, and were ready to run away at any time.He even left three thousand soldiers and slaves to protect his relatives, for fear that the imperial army would overwhelm them and wipe them out in one fell swoop.

There are only about a thousand elites around Lin Shu, but many of the people from the Xishan Huangzhuang have undergone years of military training.

Seeing that the emperor had been training a personal soldier of his own since the time he collected these refugees, he was probably just beating rabbits at that time, with the attitude of giving it a try, but he didn't expect that it would come in handy.

The Zhuangzi of the Tibetans did not have much defensive power. When Lin Shu led an army to suddenly enter the Zhuangzi from the west, the soldiers and slaves of the two families were all in a daze.

Such things as rebellion were basically unpopular during the heyday of the dynasty.Regardless of the three thousand soldiers and slaves in Zhuangzi, less than half of them are willing to follow Chen Ruiwen and Liu Qian to the dark side.

After a fight, all the slaves and soldiers of Zhongxin Chen and Liu's family died under the big saber. The people's horses were imprisoned in Zhuangzi.

Then Lin Shu asked someone to find a carriage, put Chen Ruiwen and Liu Qian's wife, daughter and grandson into the carriage, and the group hurried to the west gate of the capital.

……

Speaking of Chen Ruiwen and Liu Qian's rebellion this time, the plan was very good, but the execution was extremely poor.

From the very beginning, they put all their hopes on the explosion of Fengtian Temple. Unfortunately, the secret road of Qincha Temple was accidentally discovered by Xiuyiwei early on. This incident cannot be separated from Daiyu's time in Qincha Temple. make a fuss.

Concubine Xue De's side was even more amazing. Lin Shu sometimes had to lament the absurdity of this rebellion by using the method of Gongdou to do rebellion.

After suffering for so many years, Concubine Xue De actually thought of using an "accident" to cause the deaths of three generations of the royal family to clear the way for her son to succeed to the throne. What is her brain circuit like?

Even if the Supreme Emperor, the Emperor, the Crown Prince, and Gao Wanxuan, the fifth son of the Emperor, all died in Fengtian Hall, could her son really succeed to the throne smoothly?
There are still many royal family members in the capital, not to mention that Prince Yizhong Gao Wanzhen has been in a "coma". What if a group of officials come up with a strategy to elect an adult heir to the throne from the clan?

If he wants to rely on two or three martial arts men as his backer, is it true that the British Duke Zhang Yuelian is too old to carry a knife?The old man has been living in the big tent of the Beijing camp, otherwise the emperor could sit firmly in the Fengtian Temple and watch these people plot and plan a rebellion.

"My lord, we will be outside the west city gate soon!"

Xue Pan reined in his horse to report, and Lin Shu took out his binoculars to look at it. The battlefield where the artillery was roaring was still in a state of confrontation. Lin Shu was anxious for Chen Ruiwen and Liu Qian to arrive for a while.

These two are still high-ranking military generals of Da Chu, so they don't blush after fighting like this?

"Send someone to contact the head of the city and ask the old man of the British government if there is a plan in the city."

Lin Shu ordered the army to rest on the spot and recharge their batteries.Xue Pan immediately took orders to lead people to contact the people in the city quietly.

Everything was going on in secret, and Lin Shu observed the surrounding situation with a telescope, ready to respond to actions in the city at any time.

(End of this chapter)