My father Zhu Gaoxu

Chapter 951 The withdrawal route

After Zhu Qizhen and Wang Zhen witnessed the cruelty on the battlefield, they were frightened by the description of the eunuch Guo Jing. They no longer cared about their dignity and insisted on withdrawing their troops back to Beijing immediately.

However, Zhang Fu and other ministers disagreed. After all, the army is now exhausted and cannot recover after only two days of rest. Retreating now will only be more dangerous. It is better to stay in Datong City. With the strength of Datong City, Wala will definitely not be able to break it. You need to wait for more than a month, and the other party will naturally retreat.

But Zhu Qizhen refused to listen to anyone's suggestions at all. Regardless of the opposition of the ministers, he must leave Datong and return to Beijing in two days. Wang Zhen also stood firmly on his side, which made Zhu Qizhen even more stubborn. In the end, it was decided to withdraw the troops after two days.

Early the next morning, Wang Zhen announced the withdrawal order to the entire army. As soon as the news came out, the entire army was in an uproar, especially those at the bottom, who were dumbfounded.

You must know that they braved wind and rain all the way, endured hunger, and saw their brothers lying dead on the roadside one by one. After going through many hardships, they finally arrived in Datong, but now they have not even seen the shadow of the Wala people. Zhu Qizhen and Wang Zhen actually wanted to withdraw their troops and return to Beijing. It was equivalent to their trip being in vain, and those brothers who died on the road also died in vain.

There was a kind of anger in everyone's heart for being fooled, but they were afraid of Zhu Qizhen's identity and Wang Zhen's power. The soldiers in the army dared to be angry and dared not speak out, and the morale of the army plummeted because of this. After all, the emperor used himself Just kidding, who is willing to sacrifice his life for such a person?
Zhang Fu was also very angry. After fighting for a lifetime, he had never met people who led troops like Zhu Qizhen and Wang Zhen. They accurately chose the worst option at every step and refused to do so. Listening to other people's opinions is simply making fun of hundreds of thousands of lives.

That night, Kuang Ye, Minister of War, found Zhang Fu again and said to him with a happy face: "Mr. Zhang, the withdrawal route has finally been determined!"

"Which line to take?"

Zhang Fu also hurriedly asked after hearing this.

Although Zhang Fu and others were very opposed to the withdrawal of troops, since Zhu Qizhen and Wang Zhen insisted on going their own way, they had no way to stop them. Now they could only think of ways to reduce the risks during withdrawal, so the choice of withdrawal route became Very important.

"Take Weizhou and cross the Zijin Pass. This will allow you to enter the pass the fastest. Moreover, this line goes southeast, and you can also try to avoid the interception of the Wala cavalry!"

Kuang Ye replied excitedly again.

There are two routes for withdrawing troops back to Beijing. One is to return along the original route, take Yanghe and pass Xuanfu, and then enter Juyongguan via Huailai. This line goes all the way east. Before entering Juyongguan, it is very easy to be intercepted by the Wala cavalry.

In contrast, it is much safer to enter Zijing Pass through Yuzhou. If everything goes well, we will be able to enter the pass in a few days, and then the army will be safe.

"Great! Great! Your Majesty, worthy of being Emperor Taizong, finally made the right choice!"

Zhang Fu almost cried with joy when he heard this. If a good person does a bad thing, he will be criticized by thousands of people, but if a bad person suddenly does a good thing, he will be praised by thousands of people.

Zhang Fu is like this now. Seeing that his mediocre emperor finally made a wise decision at a critical moment, he even felt that Zhu Qizhen was not so worthless.

"Ahem~, Mr. Zhang, don't be too excited. In fact, the decision to go to Yuzhou was not made by His Majesty, but by the prince."

Kuang Ye saw Zhang Fu's excited look and immediately reminded him.

"Did Eunuch Wang decide it?" Zhang Fu finally calmed down from the ecstasy after hearing this, and his face showed doubts. He had no good impression of Wang Zhenke and didn't even believe that the other party would make the right decision.

"You don't know something, Mr. Zhang. Mr. Wang is from Yuzhou. He probably wanted to ask His Majesty to lead his troops through his hometown and let the people in his hometown see his majesty and power, so he decided to return to Beijing from Yuzhou via Zijingguan Pass. ”

Kuang Ye had a wry smile on his face at the end. Fortunately, Wang Zhen was not from Xuanfu. Otherwise, if the army still took the Xuanfu route, they would be in danger.

"No matter what the reason is, we just need to go to Yuzhou. Let's bring enough dry food and march faster on the road. We will try to enter Zijingguan as soon as possible, so that His Majesty and the army will be safe!"

Zhang Fu waved his hand and said, "Zijing Pass is surrounded by the Great Wall on both sides, which is also the famous Inner Great Wall. It is not easy for the Wala cavalry to break through this layer of defense, so they can enter the Zijin Pass alone and return to the capital calmly."

At the same time, Wang Zhen was at Zhu Qizhen's palace, introducing his hometown of Weizhou to him attentively.

"Your Majesty, there are three theories about the origin of the name of Weizhou. The first one is that Zhao Guolianpo repeatedly made military exploits, so King Zhao granted Weiwen to him. Later, the name of Weizhou came into being. The second theory is that it was because of Weizhou. It is named after being close to the Weifen River. The third type..."

But before Wang Zhen could finish his words, Zhu Qizhen waved his hand and said, "I don't want to hear this now. You go down first and make preparations for the withdrawal. You must bring enough dry food this time to avoid the following." The soldiers are making trouble!"

Seeing that Zhu Qizhen was not very interested, Wang Zhen also suddenly realized that Zhu Qizhen's imperial commander originally wanted to imitate Emperor Taizong in his personal expedition, but he finally made the trip and suffered a lot, but failed to achieve even an inch of success. Qi Zhen must also be very disappointed, and naturally he is not interested in listening to what he said about Weizhou.

"I understand, I will leave it to the people below to handle it!"

Wang Zhen didn't dare to talk nonsense and immediately agreed before retreating.

After leaving Zhu Qizhen's palace, Wang Zhen let out a sigh of relief. He was only thinking about himself just now, but forgot to take care of Zhu Qizhen's mood. In this situation, he might not be interested in visiting Yuzhou at all.

"Oops, if His Majesty is not interested, then even if we go to Yuzhou, I'm afraid we won't stop. Then won't my happiness be in vain?"

Wang Zhen suddenly clapped his hands and whispered to himself.

As a failed scholar, Wang Zhen was often looked down upon by others when he was in his hometown. Especially when he later took the initiative to quit the palace and became a eunuch, he became the laughing stock of his hometown. Even though he is powerful now, But there are still many people talking about him behind his back.

That's why Wang Zhencai wanted to take Zhu Qizhen and Dajun to his hometown to let the people in his hometown see his majesty. But now it seems that Zhu Qizhen doesn't want to stay in Weizhou at all, so Wang Zhen's plan has to be played with bamboo baskets. All water is gone.

Thinking of this, Wang Zhen couldn't help but frown. He wanted to persuade Zhu Qizhen to stay in Yuzhou for a few more days, but he couldn't find a suitable reason.

(End of this chapter)