Contest (V)

Narentoya, translated into Chinese, means rays of light. Her appearance, when she was like the rays of light that suddenly shot out before dawn, stabbed all the guards who accompanied Zhu Yuanzhang to hunt. She was not a Central Plains woman. The Central Plains woman did not have the kind of heroic posture that blended with the heaven and earth on the horse's back. If the Jiangnan woman was compared to a thrush under the eaves, Narentoya could be called a white crane soaring in the sky. The natural beauty made the flying eagle willing to restrain her wings.

Just as the guards were stunned, Zhu Yuanzhang came to hide in a pedal. Narentoya's feather arrow flew over to his horse's back. Before she could shoot the second arrow, Zhu Yuanzhang's eagle feather was inserted into the other's horse's neck. The deer hunter on the grassland was ultimately no match for the ten thousand horses alone.

What made everyone strange and secretly relieved was that Zhu Yuanzhang did not kill her. It was said that beauty was a disaster, and not all heroes had the hobby to eliminate disaster. After knowing from Narentoya's personal maid, she was the concubine of Emperor Yuanshun and came to assassinate herself just to reduce the burden of conscience for escaping marriage, Zhu Yuanzhang began the biggest nonsense in his life - to prove to Narentoya that he was more competent than her original husband as the dominant ruler of the people. I don't know whether it was the pride that conquered beauty or the beauty entangled the passion. When everything he did during the day was for a compliment by someone, no matter whether this person was really as beautiful as a concubine Bao, the smile was enough to shock the whole country.

Liu Bowen, Li Shanchang, and Chang Yuchun, many people were worried about this, but Queen Ma, tolerant or wisely tolerate later generations and took away all her husband's favor. King Zhu Yuanzhang of Wu was a large number of people in the harem, and no one could pose a threat to Queen Ma's status. After so many years of ups and downs, she already knew how to face these family affairs calmly. What's more, she had already predicted the ending of this story. Like a big sister, she became the person Narentoya trusted the most, and her trust was even more than her personal maid.

Zhu Yuanzhang laid his foundation with national justice as a call. He could forgive an unsuccessful assassination, but the entire Jiangnan might not be able to exist as a woman from a foreign race. Especially under the surroundings of powerful enemies, heroes sometimes have to make a responsible choice. When the eyes of their lovers looking at each other became heavier, Narentoya knew that all the endings had been written. She could not have a title, but she did not want to see the dilemma in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes.

So half a month after Zhu Di was born, Narentoya disappeared again, just as suddenly as when she came.

"You have lived a good life over the years. Our children are now a great hero, and you are satisfied."! Putting down Zhu Di's memorial, Zhu Yuanzhang sighed deeply and took back his mind from the distant grassland.

This memorial made it difficult for him to make a decision. What also troubled him was the secret memorial sent by his son-in-law Li Qi in Shandong and the request of the prince to send him back from the sea to ask the new maritime minister Zhu Jiangyan to go to Jeju to stand by. The sea general made an action, and Cao Zhen accumulated three years of strength and finally found the opportunity to take action.

"Good Master, see how to deal with this matter?" Zhu Yuanzhang didn't raise his head and asked in a low voice.

"Long live, I don't know what I have to worry about, I am willing to share your worries for Your Majesty." Shao Zhi, the newly-entered Grand Secretary, replied carefully. It was already afternoon, and as usual, there were only the rotating ministers in the imperial study.

Zhu Yuanzhang raised his head, smiled with some comfort, and said, "It turns out it's Shao Qing. Li Qing's family has been accustomed to me to handle the memorials for so many years."

"Teacher Li is very talented and is the best candidate for government responsibility. My master's talent is not as good as my master, but it is my duty to share your worries for Your Majesty. I dare to ask Your Majesty what troubles you are." Shao Zhi did not complain in his reply, but he was a little sad.

Zhu Yuanzhang put the three memorials pressed by his hand in front of Shao Zhi, but he didn't expect him to really make any suggestions. He waited patiently for him to finish reading and asked kindly: "Shao Qing, I know that you went to visit the Grand Master yesterday. I don't know how the Grand Master is, and whether it's better than when I visited him ten days ago."

"Return to Your Majesty, Grand Tutor", Shao Zhi hesitated a little, secretly glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang's face, lowered his head and said, "The Grand Tutor is in his seventies, these three major events..."

"What did you say?" Zhu Yuanzhang heard some ominous smell from Shao Zhi's roundabout reply, stood up and asked loudly, "Taishi, the condition of the Taishi is really as you said. When I went there last time, the Imperial Doctor said it was an accidental injury to the heat."

"Long live"! Shao Zhi's nose felt sore, and tears flowed out, "Long live to calm down. I went to visit the Grand Master yesterday. He was already ill and sometimes awake and sometimes confused. But the Grand Master thought of Your Majesty's work on state affairs and told me not to disturb Your Majesty."

This Li Shanchang, you grandma, Zhu Yuanzhang cursed in his heart and shouted loudly, "Come on, go to the Grand Tutor's Mansion"!

"The slave received the order." While serving the old eunuch Wang, who was serving, quickly ran outside to arrange the matter of leaving the palace. Zhu Yuanzhang told his back, "Don't disturb too many people. I will go back and tell the Grand Tutor's Mansion to receive the emperor. I am going to visit the patient. If the Grand Tutor goes to bed, there is no need to wake him up."

Li Shanchang's mansion was not far from the palace, and the specially made carriage for Zhu Yuanzhang in Peking had already arrived at his destination in just a quarter of an hour. Seeing the arrival of the ceremonial guard from afar, the people from the Taishi Mansion knelt all over the ground.

He ordered everyone to waive the gifts. Zhu Yuanzhang had no time to politely treat everyone, so he grabbed his grandson Li Fang and asked, "How is your grandfather's condition?"

Li Fang was the eldest son of the son-in-law Li Qi and Princess Lin'an. He was five or six years old and did not know the majesty of the royal family. He replied in a quiet voice: "Long live grandpa, grandpa vomited several times today and just finished the medicine."

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at his daughter and thought to himself how long you would hide it from me. He whispered, "Take me to see, send an order, and summon your son-in-law Li Qi to return to Beijing quickly. For disaster relief, Fei Zhen will go on his behalf."

Shao Zhi took the order and went to the side to draw an order. Zhu Yuanzhang followed his daughter and walked to Li Shanchang's house gently. He looked inside through the glass window. Li Shanchang covered the cashmere blanket on the bed, as if he was sleeping. A servant next to him carefully cleaned up the filth on the ground. It seemed that he had vomited it just now.

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at his daughter standing aside and asked in a deep voice: "Why don't you pull up the curtains? Do you care about the servants at home? Or have you never come to visit me before?"

Princess Lin'an was so scared that she closed her shoulders and replied aggrievedly: "It's her father-in-law who doesn't want to pull the curtains. She said she was so angry that she wouldn't see her. She usually had windows open here, father."

"Nonsense", Zhu Yuanzhang knew that it was not his daughter who was not his politeness, so he whispered and said nothing. He ordered the guards standing in the yard irritably: "You wait outside, don't cause trouble here, what else can you do with the Grand Tutor's Mansion?"

The guards agreed, leaving one or two clever hid in the corner where Zhu Yuanzhang looked at him, and the others retreated. The princess did not dare to let her father stand under the window and wait, and carefully pushed open the door and led Zhu Yuanzhang into the outside room.

Li Shanchang likes luxury more. The antiques and jade placed in the room appropriately highlight the nobleness of the owner's identity. The outer room was cleaned up very clean, and the fragrance of medicine in the room calmed down Zhu Yuanzhang a little. He waved his hand and asked, "What did the imperial doctor say, how could he be so sick?"

The princess replied softly: "The imperial physician said it was caused by the heat and excessive fatigue. It had improved half a month ago, but later she received a letter from the son-in-law about the matter in the officialdom in other places. Her father-in-law was a little angry, and it aggravated it again. After taking the medicine, it would not work."

In the officialdom, Zhu Yuanzhang remembered Li Qi's secret order and knew what Li Shanchang was angry about. His grandmother, these so-called officials, when I have time, see how to deal with you. But Shanchang has always been a person who can let go of things in his heart, and should not be so angry about the few officials. Thinking of the imperial physician saying that Shanchang was old and weak, thinking about the grievances that Li Shanchang suffered by his Hu Weiyong case back then, Zhu Yuanzhang felt very guilty. If it weren't for the scary and tired back then, Li Shanchang's body would not have collapsed so quickly. This year's Mongolian war, the bombing of Peking, the famine in Shandong and Henan made him, a martial artist, exhausted and breathless. The Taishi, a literati, indeed, endured too much.

"If you don't work, just change the doctor. Come and send 800 miles to the Zhenbei Army to recall Chen Shitai Dengzhou to me." Even in the palace, Chen Shitai's reputation is not small, and he is alive and dead, and he is flesh and bones. Zhu Yuanzhang holds a glimmer of hope to rejuvenate.

"Your Majesty, no, the war in the north is in a hurry. Your Majesty should not abandon the soldiers in front of the formation because of my life and death." Li Shanchang shouted anxiously inside, accompanied by a burst of heart-wrenching cough.

"Before the Double Ninth Festival, the Zhenbei Army will not have any war. Go and summon Chen Shitai to come back to treat the Grand Tutor." Zhu Yuanzhang gave orders and walked into the inner room. The princess agreed while rushing to lift the curtain for him. The princess had already come in to greet him in the morning, so it was not convenient to follow him. She gently left the house and ordered someone to prepare the tea that Zhu Yuanzhang liked.

After not seeing each other for ten days, Li Shanchang had only a pile of bones left. When he saw the emperor coming in, he struggled for a while, but he couldn't support it. He said breathlessly: "Your Majesty, I can no longer kneel down to receive the priest. Please forgive me for your disrespect."

Zhu Yuanzhang snatched up and pressed his shoulder, and said sadly: "Good master, when is it now? We still care about these things. I just come to see you. There is no monarch and minister here today, only the friendship of that year."

Listening to Zhu Yuanzhang's friendship, a smile appeared on Li Shanchang's pale face. Back then, he and this ugly general were very far away and far away. No one expected that one would become an emperor and the other would become the chief minister. Now that his deadline is approaching, the emperor's temples are gray. God has given people too little time. Many things he has thought of, but he has not had the opportunity to complete.

After nurturing his spirit for a while, Li Shanchang asked softly: "Long live, I just heard from Your Majesty that there was no major war before the Double Ninth Festival in the Northern Army. I don't know why, it's too late. Once winter enters, supply will become a problem again. The Liaodong war will not end by the end of this year. General Puying's little men may not be able to survive until next spring."

"Tai Shi, don't worry about the situation of the war anymore. It's important to maintain good health. I'm a lot tired after not having any advice by your side these days. The Jinshan tribe asked to surrender and respect me as the heavenly king. The entire tribe was under the command of the King of Yan. I thought about it again and again and prepared to agree to them." Zhu Yuanzhang tried his best to reassure Li Shanchang. He originally planned to discuss with Li Shanchang, but when he saw the other party's situation, he had to give up.

"After the command of the King of Yan, Your Majesty, this matter is very strange, please be careful"!

After all, it was an old fox, with more thoughtfulness than others. Zhu Yuanzhang was impressed and took out Zhu Di's memorial, so that the eunuch would hold it in front of Li Shanchang and wait for him to sweep it over. "Only you old ministers knew about my past, and they didn't plan to tell Di'er, but they didn't expect that this Mongolian Chen Tianxing appeared at this critical moment. Although no one told Di'er directly, over time, Di'er would eventually know the truth about her biological mother. I plan to study the book and tell him personally, so as not to be separated by the father and son at that time."

Narentoya is really far away. A healthy smile flashed in front of Li Shanchang's eyes. In this way, the entire Liaodong, thousands of miles of rivers and mountains will be under the name of the King of Yan. With the strength of the Northern Army, the war in the north will not end in more than two years. It is just a hidden danger here? He vaguely felt some things. According to Zhu Yuanzhang's will, whoever conquered the country was whose fiefdom, and his adopted son Mu Ying had been granted to Yunnan by him according to this rule. If this continues, King Yan Zhu Di will soon become the master of the entire grassland. For any dynasty, a powerful King of Fans is not a good thing. The Han Dynasty's destruction and chaos in the Jin Dynasty are caused by the great failure of the King of Fans. Thinking of this, although he was a little unbearable, Li Shanchang still reminded: "Long live, after the Jinshan tribe surrenders, our army's northern line can directly attack Huanglong. Will the Andong army be allowed to advance from the Daning area to cooperate with His Highness the King of Yan to fight against the enemy's plan?"

When Xu Da won the Northern Expedition, Wu'anguo killed Nahachu outside Huairou City. In order to celebrate the victory, Zhu Yuanzhang conferred Daning to his newborn sixteenth son Zhu Quan, thinking that this child could bring good luck to the Ming Dynasty. Now, after hearing Li Shanchang say that Tang He would leave the line of Daning, his eyes turned, and he knew the key points. In this way, not only did the land taken by the Andong army be under the rule of King Ning, but the land conquered by the Zhenbei Army and the Andong army should also be distributed to King Ning more. Even if Zhu Di was unhappy, he could not bear to compete for territory with his young brother, effectively avoiding the situation where the King of Yan was dominant among the kings.

After all, it was Li Shanchang who considered the problem far more than others. Zhu Yuanzhang secretly admired him and said helplessly: "It's just that I feel wronged Di'er."

"It's not aggrieved," Li Shanchang said gaspingly. "The King of Yan is His Majesty's flesh and blood, and his things are His Majesty's. The Jinshan tribe is sent to him, which is equivalent to returning to the Ming Dynasty. With the origins of His Highness the King of Yan and the Mongols, His Majesty can make full use of it, and perhaps he can solve the mystery of war in the north for more than a thousand years."

A word woke up the dreamer. Chen Tianxing and others used the birth mother of the King of Yan to do something. Why didn’t they make full use of this relationship to bind the Mongolians with the King of Yan. Thinking of this, looking at Li Shanchang’s deep eye sockets, Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely reluctant to leave. If Li Shanchang went like this, where would he find a capable minister who would share his worries? "Good Chief, the country is not yet settled, you can’t abandon me and go west!"

Li Shanchang sighed softly, "Long live, I am old, I have a saying that 'It is rare to be seventy years old'. I will meet a wise ruler in this life, and be ranked among the three dukes, and I am content. In the future, the historians will make a biography for Your Majesty. Whether it is a fool or a loyal or upright person, I will follow Your Majesty and be famous in history. Isn't the goal of scholars for their whole life the country and the world in this way?"

"Don't say that, you are not yet seventy, Jiang Ziya can still go into battle at the age of eighty." Zhu Yuanzhang suppressed his sadness and gently tucked the blanket for Li Shanchang. "When Chen Shitai comes back, that boy is said to be like Bian Que and Hua Tuo is reborn. Your minor illness is just a matter of his raising his hands. When we are in a relationship with the king and his ministers, you have to persevere, no matter how tired you are, you have to persevere, and have a beginning and an end."

Li Shanchang knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was comforting him, and knew that he had not had much time, so he forced a smile, "Thank you to your Majesty's auspicious words, our monarch and ministers have a beginning and an end. Your Majesty must have something else to do today, so why not talk about it together. I feel that my health is good today, and I have also been addicted to giving advice to Your Majesty. I haven't given advice to Your Majesty for a long time. I feel very itchy."

Zhu Yuanzhang took out the prince's memorial and selected the important ones to introduce to Li Shanchang. Since Cao Zhen asked Goryeo to "rented" Jeju Island, the Ming Navy has used this as a supply base to travel around. Under the severe attack of the navy, the Japanese pirates at sea have basically disappeared. According to observations in recent years, Cao Zhen found that July and August (lunar calendar) are the season of hurricanes every year. After September and until the spring of the following year, hurricanes are very rare. Sailors who have been to Japan have also confirmed this point, so Prince Zhu Biao and Cao Zhen are preparing to go to the Japanese pirates' nests in the autumn and ask Zhu Jiangyan to go to the sea to gather together in order to use his negotiating ability. Like the memorial before the Northern Expedition of Wu'anguo, in Cao Zhen's memorial, the comparison of the strength of the enemy and us, and the determination to win the battle are clearly analyzed. Finally, the size and scope of the battle and how to end it.

"This Cao Zhen is a talent. From his memorial alone, you can tell that the battle won more than 80% of the time," Li Shanchang thought for a while and said with great difficulty. "But according to the enemy's situation in his memorial, the Southern Dynasties who wrote a letter that year was the Southern Dynasties of Japan, and most of the pirates were Southern Dynasties warriors. Why was his fleet's main attack direction the port of the Northern Dynasties?"

"Cao Zhen once gave me another memorial a few days ago, saying that the regent of the Southern Dynasties was the regent of the Southern Dynasties, and now he has given up his regent position to others. Japan now has two kings, north and south, strong north and weak south, and the north is about to unify the south. For this reason, Cao Qing's family suggested that the navy pretend not to understand the truth to attack the Northern Dynasties. Our dynasties are currently unable to swallow the entire Japanese Dynasties. After the Northern Dynasties are destroyed, the Southern Dynasties can breathe a sigh of relief and then work with the Northern Dynasties.

The more the riots are, the more opportunities we will have to conquer the Japanese pirates in the future. This is the first reason why Cao Qing's family suggested to take action with the Northern Dynasties. The second reason cannot be put on the table. In the memorial, he said that the Southern Dynasties had been exhausted and he could not get anything out of the way. However, under the control of the Ashikaga family, the people were rich. As long as we make a gesture of supporting the Southern Dynasties, the Northern Dynasties could not defeat us, and we would definitely surrender. At that time, there would be a place to deal with unexpected food in the country."
Chapter completed!