On September 29, ten days after the war broke out in Xuanfu and Huaian Cangzhou fell, the capital was still unaware of such a huge change in the vicinity of the capital. The Ming Dynasty's military intelligence system seemed to be paralyzed in an instant.

In the early morning of September 30, an emergency war report from Juyongguan was sent to the Tongzheng Envoy Department, and then from the Tongzheng Envoy Department's yamen to Wenyuan Pavilion.

The emperor was seriously ill, and many war reports were reviewed by the cabinet first. To check which war reports were relatively important and which war reports were insignificant, we should give them the focus to the emperor for review.

The emperor usually only asked a few questions, and the rest was left to the cabinet and the liexi supervisor.

This time is no exception. This is a report on the war in Xuanfu in the northwest. The person who reported it was Chen Xi. However, this time, when Shen Xi was besieged by Huoling soldiers, he took a small path and took a few turns before he was sent to the capital, describing the difficulties encountered in Tumu Fort, because the war between Chen Xi's troops and the Tatars had not yet begun, and Chen Xi was just going to Chen's battle situation and did not make any specific results.

Chen Xi gave a detailed explanation to the court about the pursuit of thousands of Tatar cavalry in Tumu Fort, and the memorial was sent to the cabinet by the Tongzheng Envoy and submitted it to the cabinet Grand Secretary Li Dongyang, because Li Dongyang was vigilant that day, and he saw this memorial first.

If Xie Qianzhang planned, he would probably not doubt it. If it was Chen Xi's analysis, he was still cautious, but now Chen Xi is facing a real Tatar main force. Chen Xi even pointed out that the general of the Tatar cavalry was Huo Ling, who had been on missions to the capital of the Ming Dynasty several times before and knew Chen Xi.

Chen Xi explained the time, location, and time of withdrawal in detail, and even the movements of the Tatars' advance were clearly explained.

But unfortunately, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet who was watching the night that day was Li Dongyang. Li Dongyang has always been skeptical about Chen Xi, so he was not ready to accept what Chen Xi said.

What Chen Xi and Xie Qian said at the beginning that the war in the northwest would spread from Yansui Town to Xuanfu Town. Chen Xi even proposed several time points for the Tatars to attack. At that time, Xie Qian used this reason to excuse Chen Xi, but was rejected by Li Dongyang without mercy because the report from Xuanfu Town and surrounding military towns did not mention the large number of Tatar cavalry encountered in the report from the key pass.

Since then, even Xie Qian's confidence in Chen Xi has decreased a lot, and Li Dongyang's prejudice against Chen Xi has become deeper.

Li Dongyang personally inquired about the Ministry of War, what crime should Chen Xi be if he was afraid and refused to move forward?

The final result of the Ministry of War informing this matter was decided by the emperor. After all, it involves a second-rank senior official like Governor Yansui. It is not something that can be dealt with at will. Xiong Xiu, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, would be at least a dismissal, and may even be sentenced to death.

Since then, Li Dongyang felt that Xie Qian would definitely give advice to Chen Xi, his grandson-in-law, to help Chen Xi survive the crisis. As a result, just a few days later, Chen Xi's memorial mentioned that he encountered the main force of the Tatar army, which made Li Dongyang not believe in the matter of Chen Xi's memorial from the beginning.

If it were someone else, Chen Xi reported the military and national affairs, whether they were correct or not, would be presented to the emperor, because no one dared to be careless when it comes to the safety of the Ming Dynasty.

But Li Dongyang is different. Li Dongyang is famous for his "Li Gong Conspiracy". He thinks about the problem very thoughtful and comprehensively. What he hates most on weekdays is that the number of soldiers and horses invading the Northern Invaders is bluffing and exaggerating his military achievements. Li Dongyang has always believed that if the frontier war reports, the number of soldiers and horses involved is involved, the real situation is about 20% of the report. As for the number of soldiers and horses killed, the number of soldiers and horses may be exaggerated by more than ten times.

In order to stabilize the frontier, the court always turned a blind eye to false claims of merit. As long as it was not too exaggerated, the court still hoped that the border generals and soldiers could continue to serve the court and kill the enemy. Being petty is undoubtedly a secret of their own affairs. The court never stings with rewards to the border soldiers.

But the border generals used this to deceive the imperial court's rewards, and even deducted them from above and below, and went to the nine borders to become generals. Although it was a little more painful, it was quite rich.

Li Dongyang has always hated such things.

Including Qin Hong, Zhu Hui and others, they often do things that falsely claim their contributions. Liu Daxia is more pragmatic and will not do such things blatantly. In Li Dongyang's opinion, Chen Xi may not be the case.

Since Chen Xi's current situation is worrying and he will be punished by the court at any time, it is likely that in order to reduce or offset the blame, he will falsely report the number of soldiers and horses of the Beiyi or kill the enemy's merits in exchange for the court's forgiveness to him.

Li Dongyang read the report in detail. Chen Xi reported that the number of Tatar cavalry was about 4,000. Li Dongyang imagined that he had encountered about one or two hundred Tatar cavalry. As for Chen Xi's words, he was trapped in Tumu Fort, Li Dongyang believed that Chen Xi was just hiding from Tumu Fort, and did not dare to fight the Tatar scattered soldiers with a number of 6,000 soldiers and horses.

As for Chen Xi's proposal to ask the court to send more reinforcements, it seems even more nonsense in Li Dongyang's opinion.

The most tense place on the Nine Borders is around Ningxia Town. Liu Daxia is now leading troops to restore Yansui Town. This is completing the errand of Qin's order to govern Yansui Chen Xi. Another protagonist of the incident, however, was not enterprising at this moment, and actually stayed behind and reported to the court that Xuanfu Town encountered the main force of the Tatar Central Army.

Liu Daxia said that the main force of the Tatars was around Ningxia Town, while Chen Xi said that the Tatars Central Army appeared in Xuanfu, and the two were too far apart.

If Li Dongyang had made a choice, he would naturally believe what Liu Daxia said. In his opinion, Chen Xi obviously stayed in Xuanfu because he was afraid of war. Now that he proposed that Xuanfu has the main force of the Tatars, he was shirking the responsibility. On the contrary, Liu Daxia was leading troops to fight with the main force of the Tatars in Yansui Town, and Li Dongyang felt that it was more reliable.

"Sir Li, you have been busy all night, it's time to take a break... Do you need breakfast?" an eunuch came over and asked.

Li Dongyang raised his hand and waved it: "If you have an important ticket in your hand, please withdraw first!"

The eunuch wanted to ask about his well-being and took the opportunity to curry favor with Li Dongyang. After all, the emperor's health was not as good as before, and he might die soon. The prince ascended the throne. He would inevitably have the opportunity to become a success once the emperor was a minister. The eunuch who was the chief eunuch who was in charge of the seal of the Sili Supervisor. If he wanted to take this position, he had to establish a good relationship with the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, and even before becoming the eunuch of the boss, Lili Supervisor, he would pretend to be a grandson next to any Hanlin official.

Li Dongyang wrote Chen Xi's book and read it several times from beginning to end. The more he read it, the more he felt it was unacceptable. He heard Chen Xi's meaning, and wanted to fight the Tatars to the death with his men and horses at hand, which made Li Dongyang even more ridiculous.

If Chen Xi’s report is true, the number of soldiers and horses under Chen Xi’s command will be two thousand higher than the number of Tatar cavalry, so he dares to take the initiative to attack and fight against the Tatars. Is he trying to die?

"Chenxi must have been unable to find the main Tatars around Xuanfu Town, so he used a small group of bandits as the central army of the Tatars, falsely reported the number of soldiers and horses in the northern bandits and bluffed the momentum. This example is not advisable when the country is founded!"

Li Dongyang looked at the memorial book. Although he admired Chen Xi's talent, even if he wrote a memorial book, he could write it in an orderly manner and with great literary talent. Li Dongyang unconsciously became loving talent, but when he thought of his eldest son's death, it had something to do with Chen Xi and his wife's offering medicine, he immediately became jealous of the courage.

Li Dongyang was preparing to submit the memorial of Chen Xi Shangcheng as a bluff, and presented it to Emperor Hongzhi, asking the emperor to punish Chen Xi.

It was still early, and Li Dongyang was not in a hurry to go back. In fact, he only stayed in Wenyuan Pavilion for two days in one day, and Xie Qian was on duty for the remaining eight days. As for the elderly and weak Liu Jian, he did not have to take shifts on duty.

Li Dongyang has always been in good spirits, but he became indifferent to government affairs due to the pain of losing his son and wanted to retire early, but he was worried that the emperor would suddenly have a few shortcomings and that if he left, he would seem irresponsible to the royal family and the court. So like Liu Jian's idea, he slept in the court for a few years. After the crown prince ascended the throne, the country would be stable and he would retreat and let others take over. He admired Wang Hua, Liang Chu and others very much, and believed that these people were qualified to be the responsibilities of the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet.

After writing the ticket plan, Li Dongyang personally sent the memorial to the Silijian for some minutes after he had compiled last night, without wanting to pretend to be someone else.

Because Xiao Jing, the eunuch in charge of the seal of the Sili Supervisor, was humble, Xiao Jing would mostly adopt the opinions of the cabinet's grandson when reviewing the memorials on behalf of the emperor. For a long time, Li Dongyang formed a habit that when he encountered some hesitant memorials, he would take them to the Sili Supervisor for discussion... Of course, it was more of a kind of guidance than a discussion.

After guidance, the eunuchs of the Silijian Bingbi will basically write the purse according to Li Dongyang's ideas, which allows the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet to directly have the authority of the prime minister and can even issue orders to the six ministries.

This time was no exception. Li Dongyang went to see Xiao Jing to remind Xiao Jing about the details of the memorials written by the memorials, including the handling of Chen Xi's false reporting of the number of thieves.

Li Dongyang came to Silijian. Because it was not the first time, even the guards guarding the palace gate did not come forward to stop him. Li Dongyang entered the hall and did not see Xiao Jing himself. A few eunuchs with pens disappeared, and only two eunuchs took turns.

Li Dongyang looked bad: "Where is Eunuch Xiao?"

"If you go back to the Pavilion Master, Eunuch Xiao took care of His Majesty's living in the Ganqing Palace last night for half a night, and he went to bed only after the fourth anniversary. Several other father-in-law also had important matters... Do you have something to do?" One of the eunuchs asked cautiously.

When Li Dongyang heard that Xiao Jing was resting, he looked a little unhappy. He stayed up all night and didn't fall asleep. Instead, Xiao Jing just served the sage and went back to rest for half a night. He himself wanted to write the memorials of the tickets early, so as not to be present when Xiao Jing got up in the afternoon, and there might be some conflicts of opinion. At that time, he would be futile to find Xiao Jing again.

Li Dongyang said: "Go and send it to the public, and it means that there is an important military newspaper. I'll wait for him here!"

After saying that, Li Dongyang sat down directly in the Sili Supervisory Hall, drank a cup of hot tea, and felt tired, so he leaned on the back of the chair and closed his eyes and slept. He fell asleep for a while.

After a while, Li Dongyang was woken up. When he opened his eyes, Xiao Jing had already stood beside him. When the two looked at each other, they found that each other's eyes were covered with bloodshot, and they obviously had not had a good rest.

Xiao Jing asked: "Sir Li is here, but is there an emergency battle report?"

“Yes, there are two.”

Li Dongyang took out two more representative copies of the Northwest War Report alone, one was the news that Liu Daxia was leading his troops to overcome Yansui Town, and the other was the news that Chen Xi said that he encountered a large number of Tatar main forces in Xuanfu Town.

Xiao Jing held it in his hand and compared it for a little while, and found that both sides were making trouble for the main force of Tatar.

Xiao Jing didn't have many ideas. After seeing it, he raised his head and looked at Li Dongyang and asked, "Sir Li, why are there two main forces in this... Tatars, are they still thousands of miles apart? Such a sudden report of conflict is presented to Your Majesty. Wouldn't your Majesty worry in your heart?"

Li Dongyang said: "I will know after reading the ticket and planning. Most of them are Chen Xi's bluffing. Since the war in the northwest is about to be settled, you might as well intercept the Chen Xi's memorial and present the memorial of Shangshu Liu of the Ministry of War to Your Majesty for a while!"

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ps: The third update is here!
Chapter completed!