Chapter 263: Dao Yanyuan's plan

Since Li Jinglong was defeated, he seemed to have disappeared. No one knew where he was hiding. His mansion was burned, his wife took his son Li Zengzhi back to his parents' home, and many servants dispersed.

But Li Jinglong was lucky. He met a benevolent emperor who had never been seen in his past. He lost millions of Ming soldiers in his hands, but was only removed from the position of Grand Commander General. He even retained his title as Duke Cao. He even changed his title to the Assistant General of the Right Army and a second-rank high-ranking official. This is his blessing.

At this time, Li Jinglong was hiding in the mansion of Xu Zengshou, the governor of the Right Army. That afternoon, Xu Zengshou returned from the court and a servant came to report that Duke Cao had something to do to find him. Xu Zengshou quickly came to the east courtyard where Li Jinglong lived. He heard a melodious sound of piano from afar. Xu Zengshou shook his head. This Li Jinglong was too affectionate. This woman defeated him for two consecutive battles. Such an ominous person was still by his side.

In the study, Li Jingling leaned halfway on the soft mattress, holding a wine glass in his hand, and shaking his head with the sound of the piano while drinking. Han Qianjiao was wearing white clothes like snow, with a faint smile on her lips. At this time, she had left the Yan King's intelligence agency. She didn't feel that Li Jinglong was so glorious, but when he was defeated, Han Qianjiao fell in love with this self-proclaimed romantic figure, got in love with him, and was always by his side.

Li Jinglong was squinting his eyes to admire the beautiful woman's slim back when suddenly a heavy cough came from the yard. Li Jinglong immediately heard that it was Xu Zengshou's arrival. He immediately whispered to Han Qianjiao: "Xu Zengshou is here, you can avoid it!"

Han Qianjiao immediately got up and went into another room. Li Jinglong put down his cup, walked to the door and smiled, "Governor Xu came back early today!"

Xu Zengshou walked into Li Jinglong's room with his hands behind his back and swept around. Seeing that the wine pots were everywhere in the room, filled with a strong smell of alcohol, he smiled, "The matter has passed, why should Brother Jinglong be upset again?"

Li Jinglong always believed that the reason for his defeat was that Zhu Yunwen was anxious to urge him, and the three points were that the soldiers were not dead, and the remaining point was that the King of Yan was too powerful. As for himself, he thought he had no chance to let go of his talent.

He looked up arrogantly and said, "What are my grudges? Didn't Geng Bingwen also defeat? How many people in this world can beat the King of Yan? I originally wanted to fight slowly, just because he was urging him in the back. It would be strange if he was not defeated. I have nothing to feel uncomfortable and I am very happy!"

Seeing that he did not admit his mistake and said nothing, Xu Zengshou asked with a smile: "Brother Jinglong has something to do with me?"

Li Jinglong didn't say anything for a long time, and after a while he said jealously: "I heard that Sheng Yong defeated the King of Yan in Jinan, the emperor must be very happy!"

Xu Zengshou shook his head and said, "It's not as happy as you think. This victory is very controversial in the court. Some people celebrate it, but some people think that Sheng Yong succeeded after the King of Yan decided to negotiate peace. The victory was not strong and would damage the emperor's credibility."

"Who said this?"

"Just recommending you as the handsome Huang Zicheng, Qi Tai also thinks so. They are very irritating about Li Weizheng. The two of them have a tacit understanding in this matter. Huang Zicheng made the emperor hesitate. Now there is another Qi Tai. Under their persuasion, the emperor has not expressed his opinion on this matter yet, but I guess there will be a small reward in the end, after all, he defeated the King of Yan."

Li Jinglong did not expect that it would be the result. A gloating smile appeared on his face. Thinking of Sheng Yong's rudeness to him, he said angrily: "If I hadn't refused to surrender to the King of Yan in Jinan and left him with some soldiers, would he have been so cheap? Alas! I was confused for a moment, but I fell to this point today."

Xu Zengshou saw that Li Jinglong was willing to surrender to the King of Yan, so he asked tentatively: "What do Brother Jinglong thinks of this battle to seize the throne?"

Li Jinglong sneered and said, "I think this is just the result of the intensification of internal conflicts in the royal family. It is because the former crown prince died of illness. Changsun should not have ascended the throne by Changsun. He was incompetent. He ascended the throne just because the emperor's love for the house and the country. If I were the prince, I would also raise an army to fight for the throne."

Zhu Yunwen's kindness towards Li Jinglong not only did not make Li Jinglong grateful, but on the contrary, he looked down on Zhu Yunwen even more. However, the King of Yan defeated him twice, but he was full of admiration for the King of Yan.

Xu Zengshou understood Li Jinglong’s thoughts, and then smiled and said, “You still have another chance to come back now, so I don’t know if you want to.”

Li Jinglong sat upright. In fact, he was looking for Xu Zengshou to ask if he had any chance to come out. Unexpectedly, the other party took the initiative to ask him, which made him overjoyed and asked, "What opportunity?"

Xu Zengshou laughed, and he lowered his voice and said, "The emperor was afraid that Li Wei was holding heavy troops in his hand, so he prepared ten generals to recruit soldiers and train in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Huguang. If you want to seize this opportunity, then follow my arrangements."

As Xu Zengshou said, Sheng Yong pursued the Queen of Yan, and the King of Yan immediately sent envoys to the court to condemn Zhu Yunwen for his breach of trust. He said that he took the initiative to retreat north because he believed that the court had sincerity to discuss peace. Unexpectedly, he was pursued, with soldiers and generals damaged and heavy casualties. He asked Zhu Yunwen to explain to him, otherwise he would never accept peace talks.

This incident caused controversy in the court, with half of praise and criticism. The focus of the debate between the debate was whether the emperor really broke his promise, whether peace talks first or peace talks later. It is obvious that when the King of Yan withdraws his troops, the envoys of the court's peace talks arrived in Xuzhou. Therefore, officials led by the Minister of Justice Bao Zhao all believed that Sheng Yong's sending troops was a normal military action. Sheng Yong and Tie Xuan held Jinan to block the King of Yan's going south, and now defeated the King of Yan again, so they should be highly praised. Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai believed that the reason why the King of Yan retreated north was because the court's determination to negotiate peace talks was made. The King of Yan withdrew his troops in order to show sincerity. The court had sent several letters to Sheng Yong in succession, but he did not consider the emperor's credibility and sent troops without authorization, which led to the emperor's breach of trust. There should be no praise, but instead criticized Sheng Yong.

The debate between the two factions of praise and criticism made Zhu Yunwen dilemma. In the end, the middle-aged group sent Xu Huizu to smooth things over. Sheng Yong led the Ai army to restrain the Yan King's army from the south at the critical moment, winning time for the Liaodong army to fight. Even if there were minor mistakes, it would definitely be more of a merit than a demerit. In any case, the court should praise the soldiers of the former army, otherwise no soldiers in the world would be willing to work for the court.

Under Xu Huizu's persuasion, Zhu Yunwen was finally convinced. He decided to praise the soldiers who resisted in Jinan, and the chief general Sheng Yong was granted the title of Marquis of Licheng, the former army governor, and the governor Tie Xuan was appointed as the Minister of Personnel.

Just when the court reached its final conclusion on the defense of Jinan, Li Weizheng had already led his army to leave the capital and was on his way to Wuchang, while King Yan Zhu Di returned to Beiping sadly.

Zhu Di was very sad. This southern expedition, he could be said to have ended in failure. First, the left army general Zhang Yu was killed, and then the rear army general Chen Heng was seriously injured and died. Not to mention the heavy losses under the city of Jinan, the most death was that the 30,000 Yanshan Iron Cavalry, who had been through the battlefield for a long time, was wiped out by his extremely heartbroken. When he returned to Peiping, he locked himself in his room and no one saw him.

In the evening, Yao Guangxiao came to Zhu Di's study with his hands behind his back. A hundred and fifteenth household stopped him, "Master, the prince has an order, no one will see him."

"Don't you even see me?"

The personal soldiers and Baihu said apologetically: "The prince is in a bad mood, so the master may wish to come back in two days."

At this time, Zhu Di's voice came from the house, "Please come in!"

The personal soldiers immediately put Yao Guangxiao in the study room. Yao Guangxiao entered the room. Zhu Di signaled him to sit down. Yao Guangxiao sat down and smiled slightly and said, "This is a small defeat, why should you take it to your heart?"

Zhu Di sighed and said, "I am not worried about this failure, but I regret it because I raise a tiger and become a disaster."

"Does Your Highness refer to Li Weizheng?"

Zhu Di nodded and said in pain: "I have at least three opportunities to kill him. It's all my fault for cherishing talents for a while and believing in his promises. I didn't realize that he was such an ambitious person. Today, he is now in a prime position to enter the court, which seriously hinders my plan to seize the throne. It's too late for me to regret it!"

Yao Guangxiao stared at Zhu Di, and he said slowly: "Have you ever thought about what was the defeat of Your Highness to Li Weizheng this time?"

"I thought about it, but I couldn't see through it for a while. I just felt that he had been planning for the day for many years."

"How many years of planning are just appearances, or just a means. The key is that he has grasped something that His Highness has not grasped."

"What?" Zhu Di was stunned.

"Great righteousness!"

"Great righteousness?" Zhu Di didn't understand.

"Yes, it's the righteousness." Yao Guangxiao smiled faintly and said, "We say that he is doing a show or hypocrisy, but he did raise the banner of national salvation when millions of Southern Army were destroyed and the savages were in panic. It was his move that won great political bargaining chips and was admired by the world. Later, he built Confucius Temple, dragged the little emperor, etc., all for this political bargaining chip. His Highness's failure was that he could not put forward a clear and touching slogan, that is, there was no clear political purpose, which made people always feel that His Highness was fighting for the throne for himself, so His Highness would fail in the battle with Li Weizheng."

Zhu Di nodded silently. Yao Guangxiao was right. He was indeed not considering this aspect. The last time he proposed to wipe out Lan Yu, it was not effective in the end. In fact, it was because his attitude was not clear enough and he was not targeted.

Seeing that the King of Yan had already realized something, Yao Guangxiao said again: "I have been thinking about this for Your Highness these days. I think Your Highness should clearly put forward the banner of 'restore the old system and kill the civil officials of the left ban' to win the support of the military."

Zhu Di was silent. He needed to think carefully before making a decision on this matter.

Yao Guangxiao didn't say much anymore. He smiled as soon as he changed the topic: "Your Highness guess, why did Li Weizheng ask the little emperor to make peace with Your Highness?"

"I heard that he wants to go to Sichuan to pacify Lan Yu and get his political capital."

"This is one, what about the second?"

"Second?" Zhu Di frowned and shook his head, "I can't imagine."

"Your Highness might as well change your thinking. If you are Li Weizheng, what is your highness's first thing to do in order to better control the court?"

"I will seize military power first!" Speaking of this, Zhu Di suddenly realized, "You mean, Li Wei is going..."
Chapter completed!