Xu Qi is an old fox and is not in a hurry to send troops to fight.

If King Ning did not attack Qingyang County, he would sit firmly. In the end, the emperor did not give him an order to take the initiative to fight.

In Anqing Prefecture City, Zhu Houzhao was also waiting for news. The heavy snow in the past few days has stopped all activities inside and outside Anqing Prefecture. The officers and soldiers lack clothing to keep warm, so they could only hide in the house or tent, sit around the fire, trembling.

It was said that it was a war that was well prepared, but when a heavy snow fell, all problems were exposed. At this time, many soldiers were still wearing single clothes, and cotton coats and quilts suffered a lot in the previous retreat. Even if Anqing Mansion is rich, it still seems very difficult to support the food and clothing and expenses of more than 40,000 troops at once.

"What's going on? A high-quality prefecture like Anqing Prefecture cannot even provide winter clothes and bedding for tens of thousands of officers and soldiers?"

Zhu Houzhao was furious when he learned about the difficulties faced by the army from Zhang Yuan.

Zhang Yuan said in embarrassment: "Your Majesty, the materials behind the rear cannot be transported in time now... Anqing Prefecture, as a military center in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, has no shortage of food in the treasury, but there is not much preparation for wintering cotton coats and quilts. No one had ever thought that the winter in the south this year was so cold that he was caught off guard."

Zhu Houzhao sneered: "What do I want you to do? Even the minimum military supplies cannot be guaranteed..."

When Zhang Yuan heard this, he lowered his head aggrievedly. He wanted to sue Xu Qiu and Zhang Yong to Zhu Houzhao, but after all, the officials in Nanjing who had sent troops were very uncooperative in preparing materials.

But when he said that, Zhang Yuan suddenly realized that it was not good for him to complain without any evidence, so he might as well say nothing... Anyway, he was just a eunuch, and he was just a coordinator in preparing military supplies, not he was the one who led all this.

The final result was that Zhu Houzhao was not completely angry with Zhang Yuan, and began to pace back and forth in the room, carefully thinking about countermeasures.

After a while, Zhu Houzhao asked, "Have the Anqing government initiated a recruitment among the people?"

Zhang Yuan replied: "Your Majesty, you have all the things you can do. The Anqing Prefect sent an official to search every household. All the bedding and clothes you can use are seconded. But this time we have too many soldiers and horses. Each household in the city has not prepared too much wintering. After all, this is the area south of the Huaihe River, so it is difficult to encounter such heavy wind and snow. In addition, in the Dabie Mountains area in recent years, the Anqing Prefecture suffered severe disasters..."

Zhu Houzhao frowned when she heard this: "I just heard that there were disasters and wars in the Central Plains. When did the situation in Anqing Prefecture be so bad?"

Zhang Yuan cannot answer this question.

This is the fact. From the Hongzhi Dynasty, it seemed that the Ming Dynasty was still peaceful and peaceful, but in fact, the lives of the people were just struggling on the line of food and clothing.

Once natural disasters and man-made disasters occur, the people really cannot survive, so they can only rise up.

Anqing Prefecture is the gateway hub of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, covering the entire south of the Yangtze River. Although Anqing Prefecture has not experienced any major wars in recent years, the Central Plains region has been in constant wars, and Anqing Prefecture cannot be completely out of the matter... The Dabie Mountains, which stretches for five or six hundred miles, are the best places for Tibetan soldiers and military use. Many bandits could not survive in the Central Plains, retreated into the Dabie Mountains and then went south to rob. Therefore, the northwest part of Anqing Prefecture has not been at peace.

When Zhu Houzhao saw Zhang Yuan, she shut up and said nothing. She immediately ordered: "I will notify Nanjing quickly and ask Zhang Yong and the others to prepare clothes and food to bring them. I cannot let the soldiers starve and freeze."

Zhang Yuan smiled bitterly and said, "Your Majesty, it's not that I'm not an old slave who refuses to spread the message. It's because Nanjing has been shirking the responsibility. After this snowfall, roads in the south of the Yangtze River were blocked. If it was transported by the river, it would be easy to attack the Ningwang Navy. It would be best to raise materials from the area north of Anqing Prefecture, but the prefectures lack effective dispatch."

Zhu Houzhao was furious: "Why don't there be so many difficulties when not fighting? When the war is in full swing, can't even get a few clothes together?"

Zhang Yuan lowered his head. He knew that he was not capable and would not show off at this time.

In the end, Zhu Houzhao was completely out of patience and began to issue a death order: "Send a message to Nanjing immediately, and ask Zhang Yong and others to sell their products to raise all the costs of the soldiers in the army, and they must be transported within ten days. If Jiang Bin is called, if it really doesn't work, start the war quickly and end the war sooner, and the soldiers will not have to suffer any more."

...

...

Zhu Houzhao finally felt what helplessness is.

It seems that he is the emperor, and as long as he orders, everyone in the world will revolve around him, but when he goes to the battlefield, he finds that there is a huge difference between ideals and reality. Recruiting materials and soldiers is not something that can be done by saying a word.

The most important thing is that when Zhu Houzhao went on the expedition this time, Shen Xi was left by him. In the court, capable civil servants like Wang Shouren, Lu Wan, and Wang Qiong were not accompanied. He came to Jiangnan mainly for the sake of traveling, but because Shen Xi's attempt to pacify the sea front stimulated him, he was inspired to lead the expedition and quell the rebellion of King Ning with his own strength.

He could have recruited some civil and military officials from Nanjing to accompany him, or simply brought Tang Yin with him to serve in military affairs, but he did not do any of these, so he would be very passive when encountering difficulties.

But no matter how depressed the emperor was, Anqing Mansion was not at the end of his life. He was hit by wind and snow, so life on Ning Wang must be difficult.

Zhu Houzhao called Jiang Bin to discuss countermeasures, but in the end he had no choice but to give up his intention of taking the initiative to fight against Ning Wang's troops.

Because Zhu Houzhao himself was also afraid of failure, and because the military intelligence acquisition has always been lagging behind, he was unable to confirm that the opponent was moving forward, Zhu Houzhao did not want to take risks.

Jiang Bin didn't want to take risks. He would rather be a slander in front of the emperor than make any big contributions, so he always took a shirkish attitude when it comes to taking the initiative.

Jiang Bin made a suggestion to Zhu Houzhao, which was to urge Xu Qiu to lead his troops to fight against King Ning, so as to test the reality of King Ning.

After thinking about it, Zhu Houzhao had no good idea, so he sent someone to Qingyang County to issue an order to lead his troops to fight against Ning Wang's troops.

Didn’t you, Xu Qi, experience defeat, and want to be a turtle with your head now? King Ning can’t let you stick your head out, but I can. Who will sacrifice if you don’t sacrifice at this time? Could you let me stay here for a year or two and let King Ning be glorious outside?

...

...

The military order was passed to Qingyang County a day later. When Xu Qi met the emperor's envoy, he almost collapsed on a chair.

"This ghost weather is full of ice and snow, so you can go out of the city to fight the enemy?" Xu Qi suddenly felt that his life was not long and he fell into a state of despair.

Xu Cheng quickly shut down the irrelevant people. When he returned to Xu Qi, he saw Xu Qi losing his soul, his eyes were dumbfounded, and he muttered to himself: "I don't know who came up with a bad idea. Isn't this a forced husband to die?"

Xu Cheng stepped forward to comfort him: "Don't be anxious, my grandfather may be considering that the army did not prepare so many winter bedding and clothes, so he wanted to fight quickly."

Xu Qi shouted, "If you want to fight quickly, why don't Your Majesty bring troops to help yourself? Even if Your Majesty doesn't come, it's okay to ask Jiang Bin or Wang Lingzhi and others to bring troops here. Why do you let me go out of the city to fight with Ning Wang's troops? What's the difference between doing this and dying if you don't know the enemy's situation?"

Xu Cheng said with a bitter face: "It must be related to the slander of the slander of His Majesty, otherwise His Majesty would never be so powerful..."

Xu Qi said: "Hurry up and tell me what should I do now? I can't let me ruin this place, right?"

"this……"

Xu Cheng thought about it again and again and tentatively said, "The emperor's order cannot be violated. Since Your Majesty issued an order to send troops, we will send troops, but we should not go out in full. We just send troops to test the reality of the Ning King's camp. As long as your Majesty's imperial order is completed, even if there is a small defeat, it can be accepted."

Xu Qi was inspired and nodded repeatedly: "Yes, if you send troops, you can send troops. At worst, you can lose some soldiers and just deal with His Majesty's side."

...

...

Xu Qiu was preparing to send troops out of the city.

He did not intend to lead the troops himself, but according to Xu Cheng's suggestion, he sent some troops to conduct tentative attacks. It is certainly good to achieve results. If he finds that the enemy is strong, he can choose to retreat. If he fails, he will simply lose the attacking troops. Several results are acceptable in Xu Qi's opinion.

The superiors naturally would not care about the life and death of the middle and lower-level soldiers, and should be the first priority to be able to communicate with the emperor.

However, just before Xu Qi was about to send troops out of the city, a special guest came to Qingyang County. When Xu Cheng was panting and told the visitor's name to Xu Qi, Xu Qi was shocked.

"Say it again, who came? Who sent it?" Xu Qiu was afraid that he would hear it wrong, so he immediately asked Xu Cheng for confirmation.

Xu Cheng said: "When the grandfather said, the person who came was Tang Yin, who was appointed by Shen Guogong. This person played an important role in the war against Tatars, Central Plains, and the extermination of Japanese pirates in the northwest."

Xu Qiu said in surprise: "Is it the Tang Bohu who is the best in poetry and painting?"

Although Xu Qiu didn't know much about art, Tang Yin was famous and he still heard of it.

Moreover, as Tang Yin's status soared in front of Shenxi and made achievements in the court, Tang Yin's poetry and paintings became famous in advance, forming a collection craze in Jiangnan and even the entire Ming Dynasty.

Xu Cheng nodded and said, "It was him. He came with Duke Shen's order... According to what he said, in order to avoid the situation deteriorating, Duke Shen sent Tang Bohu to help the war that night of the Battle of Jiuhua... How about you meeting him?"

"This... I will see you or not?" Xu Qi hesitated.

I don’t know how capable Tang Yin is, but if he is happy to meet him as soon as he comes, his intuition tells him that it is inappropriate, because now the emperor intends to avoid asking Shen Xi for advice. Meeting Tang Yin is likely to become a time bomb, and even if he wins the battle, he may be angry by the emperor.

Xu Cheng said: "Mr. Master, let's meet me. See what Duke Shen has to do. Even if we don't adopt it, it's good to listen to the opinions."

Xu Qi thought about it carefully and nodded slightly: "Yes, this is not Shen Zhihou's coming in person, but he just sent a counselor to see what trick he had... Oh, by the way, how many people did Tang Bohu bring?"

"Just a few entourages."

Xu Cheng said, "It doesn't seem like he is here to take over military power... And even if Duke Chen comes, he can't dispatch Duke, don't you? At most, I'll give some advice."

Xu Qi was satisfied: "What he said is very true. If you just help me give advice, then I will listen to Tang Bohu's opinion. It just happened that the troops would be sent to the war tomorrow, so that Tang Bohu would come to visit overnight. Remember to avoid outsiders."

...

...

Tang Yin arrived in Qingyang County under the order of Chen Xi.

Originally, the place Tang Yin wanted to go the most was Anqing Prefecture City, but he knew very well that the emperor loved face and did not ask Chen Xi to assist him in commanding the army. In his current state, he went to the emperor for military service. It was basically difficult to get what he wanted, and he might not even see Zhu Houzhao.

If Zhu Houzhao really intended to use Chenxi to suppress the rebellion, he would not have been pressed to the new city until now, and even if the situation of the war was not conducive to the court, it would have been the same as before.

Tang Yin went to Qingyang County for a long time. After all, Ning Wang surrounded the city. Fortunately, there was a large river that spread across the river and the sea. Ning Wang could not monitor the river surface at all times. Therefore, Tang Yin took a boat and went straight to the water gate of Qingyang County without any danger, and then knocked on the city gate with a handwritten letter issued by Chenxi.

After a while, Tang Yin saw Xu Qi in the county town.

Tang Yin quickly stepped forward to salute. Xu Qi seemed very enthusiastic and greeted: "Are you the famous Tang Bohu? You have long admired him."

Tang Yin did not think that his reputation could be so great that he was "respected for a long time" by Duke Wei, so he quickly returned the gift: "Mr. I am just following the order of Shangshu Chen to help you defeat the thief."

Xu Qi didn't expect Tang Yin to say so directly, and he was quite inspiring to show his power.

Xu Cheng smiled and said, "Mr. Shen is intent, but the situation around Qingyang County is not very good now. Now, the Ning Wang's soldiers have no intention of retreating for a long time. It has been snowing continuously in the past two days. The soldiers are seriously tired of war, and the next battle is not easy to fight."

Tang Yin looked at Xu Cheng, then looked at Xu Qi, and understood that Duke Wei could not treat him as his own person as soon as he came.

Even though he was sent by Chen Xi and even brought a plan to retreat to the enemy, this place was Xu Qi's territory. If he had to dispatch troops and generals, his suggestions sometimes had a counterproductive effect.

Tang Yin said: "Mr., before coming out, Shangshu Chen gave the opinion that he should not be entangled with King Ning's troops for the time being. If he could send a group of strange troops to attack King Ning's rear, he might receive miraculous results."

Xu Qi had a look of expectation on his face, but after hearing Tang Yin's suggestion, his face suddenly froze. His expression changed rapidly as if he was saying: "Shen Zhihou is just like this."

Xu Chengze asked curiously: "How to send troops to attack? Where is the surprise attack?"

Tang Yin said seriously: "Currently, the number of soldiers and horses of Ning King outside the city is about 6,700. In the towns to the west and north, the number of soldiers and horses of Ning King is about 15,000 to 20,000. This is the number of King Ning's main force. In addition, in Jiujiang Prefecture, Nankang Prefecture and other places, King Ning arranged about 7,800 soldiers and horses, and finally in Nanchang Prefecture, there were about 10,000 people..."

Xu Qi and Xu Cheng looked at each other. Xu Qi was very despised Tang Yin and Shen Xi before, but after Tang Yin told him about the soldiers under King Ning as if they were familiar with them, Xu Qi did not dare to neglect any more.

Xu Qi said: "Bohu, you are a young man like Zhihou. You are quite successful among the younger generation. I don't think you can talk nonsense. How did you know the number of Ning Wang's soldiers? "

Tang Yin knew that it was useless to go around with Xu Qi, and said bluntly: "These are the numbers obtained from the front-line scout investigation, and the news is very accurate... As we know in the bottom lane, Your Majesty should have issued an imperial order to ask Mr. Xu to send troops in the near future. After entering the city, he will observe that Mr. Gong will send troops early tomorrow morning, right?"

Although Xu Qi wanted to deny it very much, in this situation, he felt that denying it was futile and nodded: "You are very informed, it is true."
To be continued...