Empress Jinghua: The eunuch is nine thousand years old

Chapter 240 Frontier War Begins

The first month is over in a blink of an eye, and the days of cold winter are gradually far away. People in the capital also gradually reduce the thickness of their clothes from being wrapped in big jackets. Can also travel.

With Xia Qixuan gone, only Xia Bin and Xia Qin were left fighting fiercely in Dalai's palace.

In the past, when Xia Shengqing was helping Xia Qin, Xia Qin never paid attention to Xia Bin, but now Xia Shengqing is not in his group, and he has to be on guard against this former ally who will turn against him, and bears a grudge against his former vengeance. stumbling block.

Fortunately, Xia Bin and Xia Shengqing are also enemies, so he doesn't have to worry about them joining hands.

The princes below were fighting nervously, but Ming Shengdi seemed to be even more nervous than them. Every day he suspected that someone was going to harm him. Sometimes he would sit on the dragon chair for three or five hours and would not get up. His desire to control is really a bit of a demon.

However, misfortunes never come singly. When the infighting in the royal family of Dalai had not yet been resolved, the frontier was not peaceful again.

The Xiongnu Kingdom, which is adjacent to the land of Dalai, has always been harassing Dalai in the border area. When General Jingwu was there, although the Huns were rampant, they did not dare to be presumptuous.

With the death of General Jingwu, none of the generals in Dalai fought against the Xiongnu more than his heart. After accumulating nearly ten years of military strength, the Huns made a comeback again with great fanfare, facing each other with swords against Dalai. .

The internal troubles were not settled and external troubles arose. Ming Shengdi was furious at the Xiongnu's actions to disturb the peace of the frontier. He appointed three generals to lead the troops to fight in the frontier, intending to frustrate the Xiongnu soldiers.

But Ming Shengdi still underestimated the Huns.

After nearly ten years of gaining momentum, the Xiongnu Kingdom is fully prepared for a protracted war this time. Not only is there sufficient food and grass, but also an elite army. The soldiers were caught off guard.

In just half a month, two cities on the frontier had been captured.

When the battle report was spread to Shangjing, Ming Shengdi overturned the imperial table angrily, and even scolded all the soldiers sent out to fight.

The battle situation in the frontier was turbulent, not only Ming Shengdi was in a state of distress, but also the courtiers underneath were miserable.

The Xiongnu's capture of the frontier meant that once the border defenses of Dalai could not be maintained, the Huns would rush into the hinterland of Dalai at any time.At that time, these weak servants hiding in the imperial city will not be at the mercy of the Huns.

This is only a long-term worry. The immediate worry is that the frontier battle situation is tight. Ming Shengdi wanted to quickly capture the lost city, so he ordered the soldiers not to retreat when they fought against the Xiongnu.It doesn't cost money to march and fight, forge swords and armor, let alone such a big battle.

Ming Shengdi issued an edict, requiring none of the courtiers of the Dalai Lai to hand over the aid money according to their official positions. Although they didn't ask everyone to hand over tens of thousands of taels of silver, at least a few hundred taels were required.

It’s okay to say that officials with higher official positions have a solid family background, but officials with lower official positions have lost half a year’s salary for no reason, which is really painful.

And the struggle for authority between the crown prince and the eldest son of the emperor has risen a step further, and they have become more vigorous in this matter.

Both of them want to win the honor in front of Ming Shengdi, so they are more concerned about preparing for the battle, and they don't want to lose to the other side if they want their officials to come out.

Leaving aside Xia Bin's side, Lin Runyu will undoubtedly pay the most money on Xia Qin's side.

He is now the head of the imperial merchants in the capital, and it is inevitable to contribute money and efforts for Xia Tian at this juncture.And because whoever pays more money in this match can win Ming Shengdi's trust and his favor.

During this struggle, Xia Bin prepared 35 taels of silver, but Xia Qin only had 27 taels of silver.

The remaining 8 taels of silver would naturally have to be made up by Lin Runyu, and what's more, if he wanted to surpass Xia Bin, he would have to post more.

It is difficult to be an official, and it is even more difficult to be a businessman.

After Lin Runyu was deposed from office by Ming Shengdi, it was hard for him to work hard to reach the level of wealth he has today. Now that he is suddenly asked to spit out tens of thousands of taels of silver, he is really depressed.But he had no choice but to do so, so he could only drink away his sorrows in his palace, often talking about the tens of thousands of taels of silver he had lost.

Winter is over, and spring is coming.Although the frontier is still very cold, the heat in Shangjing has picked up a lot.

Lin Runyu just came back from the prince's mansion this day, still looking sad.As soon as he entered the gate of the mansion, he pulled and threw the jacket he was wearing on the ground, cursing and swearing, and his face was extremely ugly.

"I'm so pissed off, what the hell!"

Huang Chenyan, who was wearing a light yellow beanie, was holding a small heater in his hand, leaning on the soft couch in the room to read military books, when he suddenly heard Lin Runyu's heavy footsteps and cursing tone, he lazily raised his head and looked at him With one glance, he saw that he was very angry, so he put down the military book in his hand again, got up and went to help him.

"The son came back a bit late, why is he so angry today?"

Huang Chenyan squatted down, picked up the jacket discarded by Lin Runyu on the ground, patted the floating ash on it, and wondered if it was because of the prince's affairs again.

Sure enough, Lin Runyu walked to the small yellow pear wood table angrily, picked up the teapot, poured a cup of green tea, poured it down her throat, placed the cup heavily on the table and said, "Why not? It's because of the crown prince, relying on his status as the heir of Dalai, he always tells me what to do with this son."

"Although I belong to his party, I have not sold myself to him. I have to consider everything for him, and I have to pay so much money for him."

The more Lin Runyu thought about it, the more angry she became, and she choked down several cups of tea sullenly, only then did she slightly relieve the anger in her heart.

"This is not over yet. The crown prince also wants this son to win over and contact other imperial merchants in the capital, and ask them to pay a piece of money. How can this son not know what the prince is thinking? Isn't he just wanting to make the imperial merchants a few giants?" Hold it all in the palm of your hand, and all the money that has been paid will be counted on his head. In this way, he can compete with the eldest son of the emperor. Naturally, the prince has nothing to lose, but we have nothing to lose. Such a large sum of money was spent in vain. If you talk about him, you need the crown prince to contribute money and effort, how can there be such a good thing in the world."

Lin Runyu listened intently to Huang Chenyan's bitterness, except for those useless nonsense, Huang Chenyan didn't understand much else, but he did understand that Lin Runyu was worried about the prince forcing him to prepare money.

Lin Runyu had been so sad for quite some time, and Huang Chenyan didn't pay much attention to it a few times ago, but now that Lin Runyu complained so much, he thought about it, and asked casually: "Why does the crown prince want the son to raise so much money?" ?
"It's not to donate some money to the frontier army. You said that the Xiongnu country came to fight us again. It not only hurt the soldiers and people, but also hurt this son. These days are not peaceful. Business It's even more difficult to do, and now you have to post so much money, how can you not worry about it."

"What, the Huns attacked Dalai?!"

Huang Chenyan was stunned for a moment, and suddenly said: "Didn't the Huns have been defeated by my father's marching resistance and surrendered to Dalai more than ten years ago? How could it be?"

In order to resist the attack of the fierce Xiongnu, Dalai not only lost tens of millions of soldiers, Chenyan also lost her proud father.

Lin Runyu snorted coldly: "That happened 800 years ago. Those guys in the Xiongnu Kingdom have always been barbaric and ignorant of their promises. Who knew they would fight us again suddenly. I heard that the Xiongnu Kingdom has already fought to the end. It's three miles away from the mountain, and our generals in Dalai don't know what to eat, and even such a troublesome country can't stop it, it's really a headache."

Lin Runyu clicked his tongue twice, speaking lightly, but Huang Chenyan felt uncomfortable in every possible way.

Back then, his father traded his life for the peace on the border of Dalai Kingdom.She thought her father's sacrifice was worthwhile, but it turned out that what she had saved was the peace of Dalai Lai for more than ten years, and there was no such thing as forever.

In the next few days, Huang Chenyan could often hear Lin Runyu's complaints.

As Lin Runyu's depression deepened day by day, Huang Chenyan's melancholy also deepened day by day.

She really felt uncomfortable staying in Prince Lin's mansion.Because he was concerned about the situation of the frontier war, but he was in the backyard and had no information, so he had to go outside to inquire about the news without telling Lin Runyu every day.

It would be better not to inquire about the news, but it would be even more unpleasant to inquire about Huang Chenyan.

Originally, Lin Runyu was very melancholy when she heard that the army of the Huns had reached the Shoukong Mountain, but in the past three days, the Huns had already reached the tower of Baiyun Pass.

The name of Baiyunguan is very familiar to Huang Chenyan. Her father died in this place.At that time, she was still young, and although she knew that her father died for the country, she didn't know the significance of his father's sacrifice for the stability of Dalai border.

Now that Huang Chenyan is married as a wife, he naturally has more thoughts in his heart, and he suddenly understands how desolate and sad his father was when he died in battle in the frontier.

At this time, she was sitting in the small pavilion in Weirui Bay, thinking about the news she had just inquired from others, and her melancholy became deeper and deeper.

But when Huang Chenyan's mind was heavy, he saw a small boat gradually approaching the lake from the center of the lake.

In the deep night, Huang Chenyan looked intently, and saw a woman in a silk-colored lotus-colored skirt and a ground skirt sitting on the boat, and beside her stood a little girl in pink clothes with a collar, sitting on the boat. The woman smiled slightly at Huang Chenyan's side, and Huang Chenyan looked carefully, and the woman was clearly Xia Zijin who hadn't seen him for a long time.

(End of this chapter)