Chapter 261: Mandarin ducks are in pairs

The Jinyiwei Town Fushiyamen in the capital.

Xiao Fan was wearing casual clothes and sat behind the generous desk, watching the information collected by the Jinyiwei from all parties.

The information was transmitted through military posts in various places in the Ming Dynasty. If there was emergency information, it was delivered quickly through carrier pigeons. Each piece of information was sealed, and the interface was covered with scarlet flying fish-shaped paint.

This information was summarized through the Jinyiwei Thousand Houses Offices in various places. After screening, the important part was transmitted from Jinyiwei Thousand Houses in various places to the capital, placed on the desk of the Jinyiwei commander, and decided after reading it by Xiao Fan.

The information on the desk had accumulated like a mountain. Xiao Fan opened it one by one and wrote a few instructions in a pen when encountering important things, and secretly passed it on by the Jinyi School Captain of the Yamen.

There are many types of information, including folk customs, the daily lives of officials from all over the country, the remarks of officials from the capital, the movements of the Tatars in the north, and more importantly, the actions of the vassal kings in various places. Now the Jinyiwei has successfully arranged spies in the palaces of vassal kings in various places. What the vassal kings say, do, and meet people every day, even a few bowls of rice and dishes they ate, the spies reported it truthfully.

Information is like the eyes and ears of the court. As long as the ears and ears are not deaf, all movements in the world are under the control of the court. Xiao Fan increasingly feels the importance of the Jinyiwei. With its existence, the court will not be as unaware of everything outside the world like a blind man.

Dealing with these huge information every day has become Xiao Fan's main job now, which takes up most of his time. However, although the young commander of the Jinyiwei was very familiar with all the movements within the borders of the Ming Dynasty, he did not know that his wife at home sold him to Chen Ying'er for more than 100,000 taels of silver.

With such a wealthy wife, you can imagine how the Xiao family will look like they will be rich in wealth in the future...

Xiao Fan rubbed his sore eyes and was about to take a break for a while, a respectful voice outside the door said, "Sir, a guest is here."

Xiao Fan was stunned: "What guest?"

A figure flashed outside the door, and a short man wearing a hat walked in. He was wearing an inconspicuous coarse cloth dress. The big hat completely covered his face. As soon as the man came in, he turned around and closed the door, then took off the hat, and bowed to Xiao Fan, "Little man Wang Gui, pay homage to Mr. Xiao."

Xiao Fan narrowed his eyes: "Wang Gui? Why are you here again?"

Wang Gui hurriedly smiled and said, "Don't worry, the villain's outfit has not attracted anyone's attention, and there will never be any news."

"What are you doing in the capital?"

"Sir, the villain will prepare food and grass for the King of Yan this time..."

Xiao Fan smiled and said, "Of course I know that you have prepared food and supplies for the King of Yan, otherwise would you come to the capital to travel? I have warned you that if there is no emergency, you will never meet the Jinyiwei, let alone enter the Jinyiwei yamen. Why, I will take my words as an insult to the ears?"

Listening to Xiao Fan's bad tone, Wang Gui hurriedly kowtowed and said in panic: "Mr. Marquis forgive me. The villain entered the Jinyiwei Yamen today. There is really important information report..."

"What information? Get up and talk."

Wang Gui kowtowed again, then stood up, walked to Xiao Fan's desk, bowed down and replied softly, "Report to the Marquis, the King of Yan has issued an order to the villain this time. Within three months, the villain must raise 100,000 stones of food and grass..."

Xiao Fan was surprised: "100,000 stones?"

Wang Gui said with a bitter face: "The news that the villain just received just now is that the capital has the King of Yan's eyeliner. They found the villain and handed the secret letter from the King of Yan to the villain..."

Xiao Fan's face was a little cold, and he knocked on the table with one hand and murmured: "Cooked 100,000 stones of food and grass in three months. This batch of food and grass is enough for the Yan army to eat for a whole year. Why did the King of Yan suddenly need so much food and grass?"

Wang Gui sighed: "Although the villain now has nearly 70% of the acquisition rights of the Yan army, his identity is just a grain merchant. There is only so much grain produced in the world. It is not easy to transfer south and north rice to north. How can it be transferred to 100,000 stones within three months? This is simply impossible..."

Xiao Fan ignored Wang Gui's complaints, and his eyebrows were furrowed tightly.

After thinking for a long time, Xiao Fan's heart became heavier and Zhu Di's pace of preparation for rebellion became faster and faster, which shows that his ambitions were growing wildly. From Zhu Di's perspective, taking advantage of the new emperor's prominence, neither the court nor the army had established a foundation, and the civil scholars and the people did not establish good trust and prestige for the new emperor. Of course, he had to rebel as soon as possible at this time, otherwise when the new emperor's handling of the world's political affairs and military affairs was on the right track, the difficulty of rebellion would be even greater.

Xiao Fan felt more and more urgently of time.

Zhu Di's pace was too fast, so fast that he could not keep up. Now it is only the early stage of military system reform. Many new policies that are beneficial to the army have just been introduced. Soldiers have just started daily training. Lessons have started classes in the martial arts hall less than two months ago. Juren who competed for martial arts have just been included in the army as low-level officers. Everything is growing and improving slowly. But Zhu Di seems to see the terrible consequences of military system reform, which is very unfavorable to the Yan army, so he actually started preparing for the work in advance.

Zhu Di's rebellion in history was in July of the first year of Jianwen, but the new policy implemented by Xiao Fan in this life made Zhu Di feel pressured. It seems that history has changed again. Unexpectedly, the date of Zhu Di's reprimand would never be delayed until July next year. According to Wang Gui, 100,000 shi of grain will be transferred within three months. Then once the food is in place, Zhu Di's food and supplies are sufficient, and it will be time for him to reprimand after March.

What should I do? The court was not ready at all, and both sides were fighting for time. For Xiao Fan, time was still urgent.

It is necessary to hold back Zhu Di's rebellion for one more month, or even one more day, which is beneficial to the court!

"Sir, what should I do if the 100,000 stones of grain the King of Yan wants, the villain...?" Wang Gui looked at Xiao Fan with help.

Xiao Fan said in a deep voice: "One hundred thousand stones of grain is not a decimal. It may be very difficult to get it together in three months. You should go back first. I will ask the Chen family business to mediate and mobilize it. The Jinyiwei will help you secretly. After three months, you will guarantee that you can make a contribution in front of the King of Yan."

Wang Gui was overjoyed when he heard this, and then knelt down at Xiao Fan, kowtowed repeatedly, "Thank you for your help, the villain kowtow."

Xiao Fan smiled bitterly and said, "You took the Yan army's food and grass transaction in Peking to do things for me, how could I not help you? - I asked you to throw cartilage powder into the food and grass, have you done the same?"

Wang Gui was frightened and looked around carefully, then nodded and said softly: "As the marquis told me, every bag of grain transported to the Yan Army Camp in Beiping was mixed with cartilage powder, and the proportion was very accurate. I would definitely not be able to find it in less than a year or two..."

Xiao Fan frowned, knocked on the table, and pondered: "This time, you double the amount of cartilage scattered in the 100,000 stone of grain. I want these medicines to play their role within three months. Do you understand what I mean?"

"The villain must do it!"

After Wang Gui left, Xiao Fan felt the more serious the situation was, so he hurriedly went to the palace to meet Zhu Yunwen.

The next day, His Highness Zhu Yunwen Jin ordered to urgently dispatch the commander of the Central Office, Sheng Yong, the commander of the Right Army, Ping'an, the Marquis of Changxing, and Guo Ying, the Marquis of Wuding, to enter the capital. The four of them were originally speaking for military and low-level generals in the martial arts lecture hall in the suburbs of Beijing. When they heard the imperial edict, they hurried to the city to meet Tianyan.

In addition to these four famous generals in the early Ming Dynasty, the summoned person also had an inconspicuous civil servant. This civil servant was the judge of the governor's office of the Five Army at that time. He was a scholar with no power to tie a chicken. After Xiao Fan repeatedly begged, Zhu Yunwen issued a confusion to order the scholar to enter the palace to discuss matters.

——This scholar’s ​​name is Tiexuan.

After several people discussed in the palace for a long time, Wuding Marquis Guo Ying hurried back to Daming Mansion under the imperial edict, while the rest remained in the martial arts lecture halls in the suburbs of Beijing, and seized the time to teach middle and lower-level generals.

A few days later, the three garrisons in Daming Prefecture, Zhangde Prefecture and Dongchang Prefecture had dozens of thousands of households. Eighty thousand garrisons began to be frequently mobilized, and they slowly advanced to the north for dozens of miles. They stationed near Shunde Prefecture. All the soldiers of the Yan army were in panic. Zhu Nengzheng, who was the assistant commander at the time, trained the new army in Shunde Prefecture. Seeing the abnormal movement of the imperial army, Zhu Neng ordered the Yan army soldiers not to panic and not to make any hostile actions to the court. At the same time, he sent people to report to the Yan Prince's Mansion in Beiping.

Zhu Di and the aides of the Prince of Yan's Mansion were shocked and were still unsure. Before he could respond, Zhu Neng sent another military report. The 80,000 troops of the court were divided into two parts under the dispatch of Guo Ying, the Marquis of Wuding, and began an imaginary confrontation called "Military Exercise" outside Shunde Mansion. The two parts were named after the Red and Blue Army, with the other side as the imaginary enemy, and the generals of the two sides were the commander. Guo Ying was appointed as the adjudicator. Eighty thousand people fought a confrontation on the plain outside Shunde Mansion, which was quite powerful.

After discussing with his confidant generals such as Daoyan, Zhang Yu, Qiu Fu, etc., Zhu Di immediately ordered Zhu Neng to order the Yan army in Shunde Prefecture to retreat more than a hundred miles north and stationed outside Baoding Prefecture, and not to have any conflict with the imperial army.

The military exercises were vigorous and colorful. The momentum was shocking during the exercises. The sermon drums could be heard for dozens of miles. The Yan army sent countless scouts to summarize the returns of all parties. The generals of the Yan army were secretly frightened. The soldiers of the Yan army battalions were panicked. The originally high morale suddenly dropped to a very low level. The royal palace also issued a urging that it would not be possible to conflict with the imperial army, so everyone in the Yan army was depressed.

The exercise lasted for several days, and 80,000 people appeared in the stage, and the fun was lively in Shunde Mansion. Finally, Guo Ying waved his hand and finished the work! Under the gaze of the soldiers of the Yan army, 80,000 people retreated back to Daming Mansion like a tide, waved his sleeves without taking away a cloud, which was even more chic than a love-making prodigal son.

Zhu Di and others then realized that they were intimidated! This was naked political and military intimidation!

Zhu Di was shocked and angry. Needless to say, it must be Xiao Fan who was so bad that he used this trick!

He wanted to reorganize the team and make a fuss for a tooth, but the morale of the Yan army was quite sluggish. Without a few months of rest and training, he might not be able to recover. Besides, before the preparations for rebellion were sufficient, Zhu Di would not dare to take the charge of provoking the court. If Xiao Fan made a trick and really took the blame for himself, the morale between the two sides would be increased and the outcome would be really hard to predict.

Zhu Di was so angry that he threw all the porcelain and jade in the inner hall of the royal palace cleanly, then trembled, took a few deep breaths, and once again endured this breath.

"Xiao Fan, you are so bullying! If the king of Japan comes to the Great Bao, you will definitely..."

"Prince, stop making a wish, hurry up and train troops..." Daoyan's face turned gray and sighed deeply.

I am often afraid that the autumn festival will come, and the flowers and leaves will fade.

The coolness of late autumn makes people feel cold all over the body, but Chen Ying'er sweats slightly at this time.

In the main wing room of the inner courtyard of the Xiao Mansion, several wives of Xiao Fan, Huamei, Jiangdu and Zhang Hongqiao invited Chen Ying'er, the female shopkeeper of the Chen family business, to the banquet. The wives expressed their gratitude to Chen for their dedicated help to their husbands over the years.

Xiao Fan did not object. He saw how much Chen Ying'er had been worried about herself and how tired she had suffered in the past few years. While feeling sorry for her, she really wanted to express her to her. Now the wives were asking for a banquet for Chen Ying'er in unison, and Xiao Fan immediately agreed without hesitation.

Due to the insistence of several wives, the banquet was placed in the main wing room of the inner courtyard in the form of a family dinner. Everyone had a warm dinner around the table.

After a few glasses of wine, the girls laughed and said a few words. They used the excuse of going to the warehouse to count the money, and Jiang Du used the excuse of being unable to drink. Zhang Hongqiao used the excuse of going back to the room to practice playing the flute. The three girls got up and ran away at the same time. At the table in the main room, only Xiao Fan and Chen Ying'er, who were blushing, were facing each other.

Chen Ying'er's head was so low that she almost fell to her chest. Her white neck was covered with red tides, like a beautiful crabapple, which was so touching.

Xiao Fan sighed secretly, he was not a fool, the three wives ran out one by one, giving him and Chen Ying'er the opportunity to get along alone. How could he not understand what the wife meant?

After several years of getting along, Chen Ying'er silently gritted her teeth and gave so much for him. How could Xiao Fan not be moved? In her most beautiful years, a woman worked so hard for a man. Besides her full love for him, what else could she want?

But... the scenes of leaving the Chen family came to my mind. Xiao Fan could not forget what he said. He was so passionate and heroic when he stepped out of the Chen family's door, but now... what is this?

An indescribable emotion was repeatedly entangled in his heart. Whether it was due to the so-called face and self-esteem of a man, or the inability to let go of the past, even though he was interested in her, Xiao Fan could not raise the courage to take a step forward.

He picked up the green wine cup, Xiao Fan sipped it slowly, then coughed a few times, put on the airs of an adjutant, pretending to be majestic, and said, "Shopkeeper Chen, how are you preparing for the 100,000 stone of grain and grass that Wang Gui wants?"

Chen Ying'er looked up and glared at him, pursed her thin lips, and said, "I have contacted more than a dozen grain stores. It's a bit difficult to get a hundred thousand stones in three months, but it should be fine if I work hard."

"Well, that's good, I'm very comforted..." Xiao Fan's official airs were getting more and more agile. At this moment, he really felt that he was the commander-in-chief who handled official duties in the yamen, and his handsome face unconsciously showed a majestic attitude.

"These 100,000 stones of grain and grass are very important to the King of Yan, and they are also very important to the official. You must not make any mistakes. If you want to use this 100,000 stones of grain and grass for victory in a war, you must not take it lightly!"

Chen Ying'er gave him a fierce look and said angrily: "I understand, do you have any instructions for the commander?"

Xiao Fan laughed dryly: "Everyone is so happy today, and it's so amazing to talk about business. Forget it, I won't mention this..."

Only then did Chen Ying'er turn anger into joy, and then rolled her eyes lightly.

Before he was happy for a long time, Xiao Fan then said: "The Chen family business needs to open a few more semicolons, and you cannot call your Chen family's name. You can send a capable confidant to take care of it. This can better cover the strength of your Chen family and also provide convenience for the Jinyiwei..."

Chen Ying'er was so angry that she chewed in secret: "My commander, didn't you say you didn't talk about business?"

What else can I talk about without talking about business? Xiao Fan opened his mouth, but couldn't find the topic for a while.

In recent years, Xiao Fan has always been talking about business and has never mentioned any private topics. The two of them even have little chatting.

Chen Ying'er raised her glass to greet each other, and then drank it all in one gulp, and the blush on her pretty face became more and more beautiful.

I looked up at Xiao Fan again. The lover was shaking hazy under the lights, and the cold room turned into a beautiful and ambiguous situation. I don’t know if it was a heavy wine intoxicating or the person was drunk.

Chen Ying'er smiled bitterly, held the pot and filled the wine, drank it all in one gulp, sighed quietly, and said, "Xiao Fan... Now you are Xiao Fan, not the commander, nor the Marquis Chengyi, and I am just Chen Ying'er, an ordinary woman who is not married to the double 10 years old, not the shopkeeper of the Chen family's business, okay?"

Xiao Fan heard the sad meaning in her words and couldn't help but sigh and nodded: "Okay."

Chen Ying'er smiled sadly and said, "Xiao Fan, do you know how hard I have worked in the past few years?"

"I don't know, but I can imagine it."

Chen Ying'er's mouth curled a complicated smile: "You have a high position and a powerful wife at home, and it's the time when a young man is proud. How can you imagine the hard work of a business woman?"

Xiao Fan said in a low voice: "Put your heart,... I also lived a very hard time in the Chen family as a son-in-law."

Chen Ying'er was shocked, and tears fell on her face in an instant, and she choked and said, "Who was wrong and who was right? Several years have passed, can you and I know each other in my heart?"

"We are not wrong, but what we are wrong is inappropriate."

"It's not right... It's not right." Chen Ying'er said to herself in a daze and said bitterly: "Xiao Fan, if I treated you better back then, would you be an ordinary couple with me in the Chen family in Jiangpu?"
To be continued...