It was late in the twelfth lunar month, and the huge team guarding the Zhonggong Palace had already passed through Liang County and Song City, and this caused some changes in the mentality of some people in the team.

However, these changes in mentality depend on the person.

People from Dongdu have one idea, and people from Liangjun have another idea.

The people in the Eastern Capital are also divided into those who came from Ziwei Palace and those who came from Jing'antai. The people in Liang County are also divided into officials who were parachuted from above and middle- and lower-level officials and military officials who were born locally. There is even a distinction between county soldiers and garrison troops.

Everyone has different thoughts.

If you think that this is all, you are too naive.

You must know that even in the same small group, the top, middle and bottom levels of the team have completely different thoughts, and individual people have different thoughts.

In this regard, you can get some clues by looking at the gang members of the Deposed Dragon Gang.

However, let alone the complicated thoughts of the middle and upper class elite officials, let’s just talk about the lowest class, whether they are from Dongdu or local Liangjun, whether they are palace servants or civilian soldiers, they actually left Songcheng. Later, he gradually unified his thoughts.

Without him, the road becomes increasingly difficult.

It was only slightly warmer for a day or two, and it was not too warm. It was still freezing cold in the morning and evening. However, from noon to before evening, with the accumulation of sunshine, the originally hard lower layer of snow began to soften. Then as the When such a huge team passes by, often just the first few dozen cars pass by, and the road is covered with some strange mixture of snow, mud, and ice slag.

In a team of twenty to thirty thousand people, not everyone has a carriage or horse to ride on, nor does everyone have moccasin boots. Even those who come from the palace mostly wear cloth shoes, and the civilian husbands who are temporarily recruited are even more so at the beginning. I came here carrying straw sandals...cloth shoes. Straw sandals get soaked easily and even get cut by the ice. Vehicles also start to slip, sink, and be damaged more frequently.

And at night, not everyone is qualified to enter the city or enter the market next to the road. To rest in the manor, most people can only try to drag out some cars, circle them in a circle to block the wind, and then light charcoal fires and firewood. They held livestock or leaned against each other to keep warm. Some people didn't even have a car to protect themselves from the wind... But anyway, they finally dried their shoes while filling a bowl of hot soup, only to find that the shoes had already formed with mud and water slabs. Got a piece.

So early the next morning, the shoes were quickly soaked with mud and water, and even directly destroyed. Some vehicles parked on the road were even frozen together with the mud and water, making it difficult to push or pull them.

At this time, he fell ill and tired, and it was difficult to withstand the severe cold, let alone walk.

The so-called non-combat attrition is mostly derived from this.

There are no weapons, no invasions, not even rain, snow, cold or heat. Walking forcefully will reduce the number of people, let alone this season and this road condition?

Therefore, when we arrived at Gushu City, the people below could no longer bear it, so they all requested to stop for a while and rest in Gushu for three to five days. It would be best to leave after the Chinese New Year... I just wanted to take a foot bath. The palace people helped wash the shoes and repair them to relieve the pain before setting off on the road.

Due to the hard work of traveling, almost all groups at the grassroots level have similar needs, and the pressure is transmitted to the middle and upper levels in almost all directions.

That night, even the Queen heard a similar sound and was obviously persuaded, so she invited Gao Du Gong over again.

"no."

The exhausted Gao Jiang stood at the threshold. After listening patiently, he almost blurted out the answer. However, after he said it, he realized that his tone was strong and immediately softened it slightly. "Your Highness, please do not be moved by the words of these people."

, so much so that I missed my trip..."

"But." The Queen hesitated for a moment and spoke sincerely. "The weather is getting warmer and the roads are completely different from when we first came out, right? I asked the female officer to get out of the car and walk for a while. Although only her calves were still wet, they were all wet.

It’s muddy…how can we walk on this kind of road?”

Gao Jiang, who was originally going to deal with it perfunctorily, paused for a moment, then took a breath and asked seriously: "I would like to take the liberty of asking Your Highness, why can't I take this road?"

The queen was slightly startled, but she still lowered her voice and said: "Gong Du Gong, if you rush on like this, I'm afraid you will force people away, or even force them to death."

Gao Jiang nodded, his face as usual: "That's what I meant when I reported back to Your Highness."

The queen was stunned for a moment and did not understand.

"With all due respect, since I entered the palace, I have seen no projects, inspections, or ceremonies that employ more than 10,000 people, and there has never been one without a death." Gao Jiang stood there talking to the queen, but tilted his head slightly,

This is not to underestimate the queen, but to be a little tired and unable to hold on. "The lives of the people below have never been lives. I didn't know it in the past, but it is indeed the case today... It means that I was favored by the saint that day and was slightly promoted.

Once, I almost froze to death because I was shirtless in winter... Your Highness, saints have always only cared about whether things are successful or not, not about human lives."

"A saint is a saint." The queen glanced at the muddy spots on the other person's body and the hem of the python robe that had almost changed color. Her tone couldn't help but become weaker, but her stance remained unchanged. "We are us... can we die less or less?"

.”

"Then I will tell you a few more truths." Gao Jiang stood there and continued to speak with force. "If we delay the journey due to benevolent thoughts, I am afraid more people will die... Moreover, it is our Ziwei Palace.

Those who come out want to take a break and take a break, but they are afraid that they will also attract resentment, and their efforts will be in vain and cause disaster."

The queen seemed to have some realization immediately.

Gao Jiang also explained further:

"The people in Jing'antai are all cultivated and have horses. They came to escort us, just like sending off the plague god... It's not that they have no good intentions. I just heard from the people below that Fu who lived in Xiyuan before

Long Wei Bai Shou, the current black-shou man with the surname Qin, couldn't stand it, so he asked an old man Zhu Shou to discuss it together. However, the chief eunuch scolded him directly, saying that he was a dog and a mouse... Of course

, I also think that he has good intentions, but he is just a dog trying to get rid of the mouse.

"There are also local officials, let alone the local officials. The earlier we left Liangjun, they would have got rid of the relationship earlier. There are also those civilians who are stationed in the army. To put it bluntly, we left Liangjun.

, so that they can celebrate the New Year, but if we delay it, they will become resentful, angry, and may even mutiny and rebel.

"Besides, I have never dared to tell His Highness that Xianggong Zhang and I are worried that the bandits of the Dragon Dragon Gang in Jiyin, who are entrenched in Dongjun, will collude with the Huaiyou League in the Jianghuai area. These two families are related.

It is related to the fact that the leader of the bandit surnamed Zhang was the one who came out to establish the Huaiyou Alliance on behalf of Jing'antai... In other words, a military disaster is still a possibility. At this time, if you can take a step quickly, you can welcome Xuzhou as soon as possible to support it.

If you have more troops, you will be less likely to have casualties all over the ground.

"As for why we can't wait for the people from Xuzhou Camp to come to Liang County to meet them, I think His Highness also understands that once they come, Prefect Cao will dare to swallow them up... so they don't dare to come.

"Finally, to put it more ridiculously, if we really delay it, the road will turn into mud, which may not make it easier to walk. Not to mention that the ice on the Huanshui River has become thinner, making it impossible to sail boats and use mules and horses to drag luggage along the side. On the contrary,

more tired.

"Your Highness, I have said this. Please trust me and let me continue to pull the team forward... Speaking of this, I don't know if your Highness has thought about it. Once His Highness openly disagrees with me, what follows?

People will no longer listen to their subordinates, and it will only become more chaotic."

After saying that, Gao Jiang bowed his head heavily and leaned down.

After a while, the queen couldn't bear it anymore and spoke first: "Master Gao, please get up... I have been in the palace for a long time, and I take everything for granted, but if I don't say it, there seems to be resentment from everyone up and down, which will make it difficult for you.

Already."

"How dare I say something difficult?"

Gao Jiang sighed and tried to straighten up. "It is my great fault as a minister that your Highness should suffer this injustice."

The queen nodded, but still couldn't help but ask: "If the road is difficult, can you walk in the morning and evening, rest at noon, and avoid the mud?"

"Reporting to your highness, that will only make people freeze." Gao Jiang smiled bitterly. "It is still winter, the first thing is to protect yourself from the cold. Even if your shoes are broken or you fall down from exhaustion, most people will get sick from the cold in the end."

The queen could only give up.

Gao Jiang also saluted again and turned out.

As soon as the people left, a female official dressed in men's clothing and wearing a sword turned around and said angrily: "Your Highness, what Gao Dugong said seems to be reasonable, but if it were a saint here, just one word would make him suffer no matter how hard it is.

Even if you can change it, how can you push and hold back like this, half-softly and half-hardly forcing His Highness?"

The queen sitting there touched the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, smiled bitterly, and simply said: "Do you also know that he only listens to the saints?"

The female officer was speechless immediately.

The queen could only remain silent.

To put it bluntly, the queen has been a queen for more than ten years, and before that she was a princess and a princess for more than ten years. How come she doesn’t understand political rules?

These people in the officialdom have always been responsible only for their own source of power.

When the queen meets such a husband, he doesn't have any power. Everyone in the palace knows that in the position of Duke Gao, only a saint can decide his life, death, honor and disgrace, so how can he really care about the queen's thoughts?

Therefore, what Gao Du Gong wants is to pull the team over as soon as possible and give the saint an explanation. Since the lives of the people below are nothing to the saint, naturally they are nothing to Gao Du Gong.

The two sides have different standards for measuring issues.

By the same token, now that the emperor's uncle is in charge of the Eastern Capital, Huang Huangran says otherwise. Naturally, the people in Jing'antai don't need to talk about bullshit Beiya Governor and Nanya Xianggong, and they are also too lazy to go to Bird Queen. They just want to go quickly.

He returned home and settled the matter, and then he got promoted and made a fortune with Uncle Cao.

But at this time, there is still one person who can say something, and that is Cao Wang, the prefect of Liang County.

Cao Wang's political stance is self-evident, and he must support Uncle Cao. However, as a traditional and powerful official in the border areas, with a surname from the Yuanzhi country, and as a half-master, he undoubtedly has enough energy to support the team.

The itinerary was changed... In addition, although it sounds very subtle, the fact is that it is difficult to imagine that such a traditional feudal official would make any unnecessary refutation of the queen's suggestions outside of military and political affairs.

After all, among the real foreign ministers, their power comes largely from political tradition and ethics, and the identity of the queen is part of this political tradition and ethics.

In other words, the queen has a way to make the team listen to her words. She only needs to gather everyone together, the red belts and black belts of Jing'antai, the governor of Beiya, the husband-in-law of Nanya, and the local civil and military officials.

If you ask her seriously, someone will naturally fall in line with her statement and achieve her goal easily.

Even if Gao Jiang really did what he said, he would lose his authority because of this. To put it bluntly, wouldn’t there be Zhang Shizhao? Without Gao Jiang, the butcher would not be able to eat pigs with hair on them?

But it is a pity that the queen seems to have no idea of ​​having direct contact with foreign ministers. I don't know if it is because of her husband's domestication for more than ten years.

And on the other hand, when you are almost exhausted or about to freeze, how can you give all your hope to a queen who has never obtained power?

How did you know that I was in the deep palace?

In this way, the petition that had been brewing for two or three days was easily put back at the highest level. Early the next morning, that is, the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the team continued to set off. There was a commotion in the middle and someone tried to delay it. Gao Dugong showed no mercy and struck a blow.

After killing seven or eight people, he threw hundreds of unmistakable sick cases together with these seven or eight corpses in Gushu City, and then continued to escort the Zhonggong Brigade along the frozen Huan River.

At noon, the old problem came again. The servants, palace servants, sergeants, and civilians were complaining. But this time, Gao Dugong, who had been prepared for a long time, showed his strength to build the Tongtian Tower and asked a man named Wang from Beiya

The father-in-law gathered seven or eight hundred young chamberlains, each of them was given a bunch of sticks, and then they were released in unison. They did not care about anything else, but only the chamberlains and palace people in the core team. If there was a pause, those who cried, regardless of gender, would use the sticks.

Heading down.

Later, even those who were whispering to each other were beaten up.
To be continued...