Zhurou

Chapter 224 Great Victory

Huang Men's voice was sharp to begin with, and it immediately drowned out the rest of the noise.

Zhang Yi was about to hit the pillar, but was held back by both sides. He was struggling hard. Hearing this, he could not even move. He just stared at the door and shouted, "What did you say?"

The eunuch was startled, but seeing the censors all over the place, and Zhang Yi being dragged by the imperial guards and eunuchs, he turned around and saw Zhao Mingzhi and Zhao Hong not far away, so he raised the memorial in his hand and shouted, "Your Majesty! Let Your Majesty know that there was a great victory on the front line, the Di soldiers have all retreated, our army has recovered Xuzhou, Dongping, and Daming Prefecture, although there are one or two scattered soldiers in Yidu, they are no longer a threat - the Di army's general Zong Mao was killed in the battle..."

"what?!"

Zhang Yi's voice was urgent and his expression was even a little scary.

The eunuch was so frightened that he gulped his saliva, but when he looked up, he saw the princess looking straight at him. The young emperor Zhao Hong's eyes were even wider, and his eyes were red like rabbits. He compared them with Zhang Yi beside him, and wondered where his monthly salary came from, and who was the one who funded the construction of the house he lived in. He also thought that if he caught the eyes of the princess and the emperor this time, he might get some benefits in the future. He gritted his teeth and shouted again: "The Di army's general Zong Mao died in the battle - the thief's head has been cut off and is being sent to the capital. It will be delivered to the capital tonight at the earliest and tomorrow at the latest!"

He shouted twice in succession, causing everyone in the field to look over and there was a moment of absolute silence.

Zhao Mingzhi was still holding his brother's arm, but at this moment he felt his feet inexplicably go soft, as if he was stuck in a quagmire, or as if he was stepping on clouds. His heart was beating fast, and he couldn't land for a long time. He was originally supporting that person, but now he had to rely on Zhao Hong's strength to barely stand.

Zhang Yi shouted, "Where did the battle report come from? Who sent it? Did Daming Prefecture send any report? Where is the testimony of Dong Jian?"

He added: "If it was only Pei Yong who said this, his words cannot be trusted!"

His questions were more pointed than the last, and although they seemed unrelated, everyone in the room knew that each one was a questioning of the good news.

Zhang Yi had no intention of concealing his doubts.

He didn't bother to bang his head against the pillar to prove his innocence and force the emperor to pay his respects. He just stared at the package in the eunuch's hand, turned his head and bowed to Zhao Hong, saying, "Your Majesty, there has been no accurate report from the front for many days. Even the spies sent back by the court were all peripheral news. How could there be such a great victory in one day? We must verify it carefully. If it is not true and the court believes it to be true, I am afraid the consequences will be disastrous!"

When Zhao Hong heard the eunuch shout "great victory", he felt his soul return to its place at once. His chest was no longer stuffy, his head no longer ached, and the stars in front of his eyes disappeared. It was as if the sky had suddenly brightened up. Even the air he breathed was more refreshing. Naturally, he didn't want to listen to Zhang Yi's nasty words at this moment. He stretched out his hand and said to the eunuch: "Where is the memorial? Hurry and present it!"

The other party was kneeling on the ground. Hearing this, he did not stand up. Seeing that there were only a few steps to go, he simply crawled over on his knees, holding the bag in his hands.

Zhao Hong reached out and grabbed it.

The bundle was about half a foot high and as wide as two adult palms. Zhao Hong could not lift it with one hand given his arm strength. He grabbed the knot on top and lost his grip, so the outer cloth was pulled open, causing dozens of folded books inside to fall to the ground.

Zhao Hong had been emperor for a long time. Although he could not decide state affairs and his words carried little weight, he was more than capable of understanding ordinary reports.

He didn't care about the emperor's etiquette, he just squatted on the spot and started to look through the memorials on the ground.

Children of eight or nine years old cannot read as well as adults. Such action made everyone outside the hall crane their necks to come closer. However, they could not see the handwriting clearly from such a distance. Even Zhang Yi just frowned and waited patiently for a moment. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Zhao Hong flipping through the books aimlessly. He opened this book and glanced at it, then looked at that book, obviously looking for what Pei Yong had written.

The more anxious he became, the more confused he became. He couldn't help but turn around and shout "Sister!"

The fact that these words were shouted out made all the officials in the hall feel strange, especially Zhang Yi who shook his head and thought: Such a trivial matter, she keeps calling me sister, with such a person's character and such hobbies, won't the government be controlled by women for a long time in the future?

We should try to make the emperor be close to wise ministers as soon as possible.

As he was still thinking, he couldn't help but take a few steps forward.

Zhao Mingzhi paid no attention to it. When he heard Zhao Hong calling out, he immediately bent down, bent his knees and sat on the ground. With a clear purpose, he took out a few reports with dark purple covers, opened them and looked through them. He only glanced at the first page of preparatory content, but when he turned to the rest, the word "great victory" caught his eye.

She read on hastily and turned to the end. It was indeed the report submitted by Jiedushi Pei Yong. She read it again and again. The words in it were just a straightforward narrative, saying that they went north first, then west, then turned southwest, and finally chased to the northwest. They kept entangled with the Di soldiers, fought more than a hundred battles of varying sizes, and finally defeated the main force of the Di soldiers in Taiyuan together with the ambush troops that had been waiting for a long time.

Looking at the specific date, it was many days ago.

Although he didn't know why the report came so late, Zhao Mingzhi had no time to investigate.

The news came too fast, too good, and without any preparation, so she couldn't believe it for a moment. Her hands holding the battle report began to tremble. She took a deep breath and calmed down a little. She spread out the report and handed it to Zhao Hong, reminding him, "Your Majesty, please take a look."

Before Zhao Hong could stretch out his hand to take it, he had already leaned over to take a look. He saw what Zhao Mingzhi was pointing at at a glance. His mouth suddenly opened wide, and he read carefully for countless times. It seemed as if he did not recognize any of the words he was familiar with in daily life. He just read the words "great victory", "our army won a great victory", "the Di people were defeated", etc. over and over again. He even could not help tracing on the ground with his right index finger. As he wrote, his face was covered with tears. He really looked like a child, without any of the calmness he usually tried hard to show.

His face flushed red, his chest rose and fell even more, and his heavy breathing could be heard even a few steps away. He hurriedly grabbed the memorial, reluctant and anxious, and shouted to everyone around him: "Hurry up and give it to Mr. Zhang!!"

Zhang Yi was the first person I thought of.

The eunuch reacted very quickly and immediately took the memorial and presented it to Zhang Yi.

Zhang Yi had been an official for many years and was well versed in many things. To him, Zhao Hong's thoughts were written directly on his face, so how could he possibly hide them from him?

He only took a quick glance and immediately noticed the hostility and show-off in Zhao Hong's words and actions, and his face suddenly darkened. How can a king be so stingy!

He did not say much, but just secretly took note of the matter in his heart, and hurriedly took the report handed over by the eunuch and read it carefully.

There were not many words in the report, but the choice of words almost dazzled his eyes. "Victory", "great victory", "great victory", "captured", "killed the enemy" and so on were used as if they were free of charge. Not to mention that a child like Zhao Hong was extremely excited after reading it, even Zhang Yi, who was used to seeing this, couldn't help but be moved.

However, he reacted quickly. Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, a thought flashed through his mind and his eyebrows knitted again. He asked again, "Has there been any report from Daming Prefecture? Has anyone received any memorial from the various places?"

Then he turned to Zhao Mingzhi and said, "Your Highness, this is a serious matter. In addition to the confirmation from the parties, the court should also send envoys to verify it. You must not neglect it, or you may kill innocent people and take credit for it."

He was afraid that the princess would not be able to tell good from evil, so he added: "The Di people are cruel and good at fighting. They are always difficult to defeat and kill. If what is reported is true, our dynasty has won such a great victory and the number of enemies killed is already shocking. By this calculation, wouldn't it be that five or six out of ten Di soldiers who attacked this time were killed? This is too unreasonable!"

"Pei Yong marches recklessly and never obeys orders from the court. He is cunning and ruthless, so perhaps there is something else going on."

Zhang Yi was also a warrior who fought his way through the battlefield. He knew very well that the minds of military commanders outside the battlefield could not be described by the word "cunning", and their various methods were beyond the knowledge of outsiders.

Xuzhou, Dongping, Damingfu, and Yidu are all big prefectures and cities. Although they have been occupied for a long time, they still have their strength and a large population.

  How easy is it to kill the Di people who are retreating in an orderly and well-defended manner? But how easy is it to kill the people of a village or a town along the way?

Compared with his military achievements, what does that little bit of conscience mean to Pei Yong?

Checking the corpse to verify military merits may not sound good, but it is actually within Zhang Yi's duties and is not an exaggeration.

Zhao Mingzhi did not say much, but stated: "As Prime Minister Zhang said, the court will send envoys to reward the three armies for their great achievements today, and we will verify it together at that time."

But when it comes to the word "reward", Zhang Yi has something more to say.

"Your Highness, the inner treasury is now running out of money. The city is running out of grain and fodder. Everything is getting more expensive day by day. I'm afraid we won't be able to afford any rewards. It's better to wait until everything is confirmed before discussing this matter..."

But how could Zhao Hong like to hear such words?

He had been displeased with Zhang Yi these days, and felt that his nose was not a nose, and his eyes were not eyes. At this moment, he immediately interrupted and said, "Mr. Zhang, rewards should not be given after a day, and punishments should not be returned! Mr. Zhang just taught me this yesterday, how come you have forgotten everything after just one night!?"

He also said: "If rewards and punishments are clear, then brave men will be encouraged... Rewards should be given within a certain time, so that the people can quickly benefit from doing good..."

He read on without any stumbling, speaking more than a dozen sentences. Most of the quotations were from classics taught by Zhang Yitong and the other two government officials during the recent imperial lectures, which were used to persuade the Emperor to get close to good ministers, select outstanding ones from the imperial guards, promote them and reward them generously, and then dispatch troops for guarding. Now that he repeated them, although not every word was wrong, they were basically the same. Using them here surprisingly had an inexplicable sense of both appropriateness and irony.

After Zhao Hong finished speaking, his tone was high and low, and there was a hint of yin and yang in his voice: "Mr. Zhang, I remember all the principles taught by you professors very clearly. It just so happens that I will accept your advice today and fulfill your hard work!"

Even though the emperor was only eight or nine years old, his words were still golden. But now, in front of the censors, he was being mocked by them for what he had said. It was really like using one's own spear to attack one's own shield. I wanted to say that this is a different time, but many of the truths involved cannot be explained in just a few words.

Zhang Yi was so angry that he almost fumed. He opened his mouth to refute, but before he could make a sound, he felt the blood boiling in his heart and his throat itchy and bitter. He didn't know if it was because he had a mouthful of phlegm stuck in his throat. He couldn't spit it out or swallow it. He stood there with a grim face, making hissing and coughing sounds from his throat.

However, Zhao Hong didn't pay much attention.

He was actually a little nervous in his heart, fearing that he had made a mistake. He turned around and looked at Zhao Mingzhi first. Seeing that she did not mean to blame him, he secretly wiped the sweat from his palms inside his clothes. Then he shouted to the eunuch who was sorting out the memorials on the ground: "Hurry up and look for those memorials according to Prime Minister Zhang's instructions - is the death letter of the Di people Marshal Zong Mao real or fake!"

After he said this, the eunuchs on both sides did not care whether it was appropriate or not, and started to look it up.

It was a pity for the censors outside. They had been kneeling for a long time today and had not been persuaded to stand up for a long time. Not to mention that they had been completely forgotten by the emperor, even Zhang Yi, who organized this matter, had completely forgotten about everyone and only stared at the memorial on the ground.

After all, the eunuch who delivered the memorial was the most familiar with the situation, so he naturally moved the fastest. In a short time, he found all the memorials from several places, as well as the reports from Xuzhou, Dongping, Damingfu, Yidu and other places. He pointed at the words and reported, "Your Majesty, please look! Zong Mao is really dead. When he was defeated in the battle with our army and wanted to escape, he was shot from behind with an arrow, his sternum was broken, and he was shot by arrows. Fortunately, his head and face were not injured. The head was in good condition, but the hair was a little messy. After all, the Di people were brutal and rude. Dong Jian, the eunuch of Hedong Road, said in his report that he saw the head being cut off with his own eyes. The personal soldiers in the tent of the Di bandit commander also identified it. Many of our captives also recognized it. It was the head of Zong Mao himself. There was no falsehood. He was dead!"

This person exaggerated the situation and what he said was all nonsense, but his description was so vivid that people who didn't know him would think that he was the one who saw Muneshige being shot to death on the battlefield and who cut off the bandit's head with his own hands.

But Zhao Hong really liked what he heard. He was already smiling, his face wrinkled a little, and he said, "Well done! Well done!!"

He praised her a bit, and perhaps thinking of the tragic scenes he had seen when he traveled south and north, the countless dead bodies, the countless people who had been forced to leave their homes, the broken families, and the pity for his own family, he seemed to be relieved at this moment, and immediately asked: "Who killed the bandit leader?! I... I will reward him heavily!! Such a brave warrior, such a great deed, is truly a meritorious official of our Great Jin, he should be promoted, given a title, and rewarded heavily!"

After he finished speaking, he turned to Zhang Yi and said, "Mr. Zhang, I want to reward this man handsomely. Do you have any objection?"

The merit of shooting and killing Marshal Di Bing with his own hands is so great, why ask again? He acted as if he was such a mean person, young, but acted so deliberately, and learned such a ridiculous mind!

Zhang Yi was so angry that his chest felt stuffy, but he could only cough and said in a hoarse voice: "Your Majesty is right."

There was a phlegm sound in the throat.

But before he finished speaking, the eunuch on the ground shouted loudly: "Let your majesty know that it was Pei Yong, the governor of Jingzhao Prefecture, who shot him with his own hands using the divine arm bow!"