The end of the world begins with the king

Chapter 723

For the decisive battle against Jishui, everyone in the Yong army was full of expectations.

At this moment, the imperial army east of Jishui is full of fear of war, so that pessimism is spreading.

Although the fortification has been started half a month ago, the defense line is not set tightly, and the cooperation between the various ministries is not very tacit.

As the chief general of the imperial army, An Guogong Zhu Chengming was very worried after a new round of inspections of the defense lines of various ministries.

So he has ordered the commanders of various ministries to come to his central army yamen to discuss matters.

The news was sent out yesterday, and it was announced that it was time to arrive at Chenshi today, but now the time has passed, and all the commanders have not yet arrived.

What upset him even more were the people who had arrived before him.

In the lobby, these people were either making loud noises or arguing with each other, turning this solemn lobby into a vegetable market.

There is a limit to human patience after all, when Zhu Chengming couldn't bear it, he slapped the table and shouted: "Shut up!"

After all, he is the chief general, and everyone still needs to give him some face, especially the chief officers of the army transferred from the southeast.

Of course, it was just to save face and calm down, and everyone still treated him coldly.

Generally speaking, there are two reasons for Zhu Chengming's inability to appease his subordinates.

Although he is the Duke of the state, Zhu Chengming is different from Lu Liqing. He has only inherited the title for seven or eight years, and he has not led the army for a long time, which leads to his lack of prestige.

On the other hand, it is because of the complex sources of the various military ministries today, including the differences between the old and new Forbidden Army, as well as the contradictions between the guards of each capital.

It stands to reason that now that the enemy is at hand, no matter what, they should work together to tide over the crisis together.

However, under the influence of pessimism in the army, the officers did not have strong confidence in winning the battle, and they did not have a sense of urgency in defeating the battle.

It seems contradictory on the surface, but as long as you look deeper, you can understand that changing the dynasty is a dead end for the emperor, but it is not the case for the courtiers below.

The so-called one emperor and one courtier refers to the dismissal of the upper echelons of the imperial court, which has little effect on the people below.

Once the imperial court is defeated, as long as they take advantage of the trend and turn against them, they will basically not be liquidated.

In fact, the purpose of Zhu Chengming calling everyone to discuss the matter today is to suppress this unhealthy trend.

"Everyone, I didn't call you here to listen to your troubles..."

"Yesterday, I went to your army camp and found a lot of omissions!"

"Habayashi Right Guard's stronghold is too far back, there is about five miles between Huben Left Guard and Shenwu Right Guard, how can this work?"

Zhu Chengming didn't intend to wait any longer for the commanders of the left and right Jinwu Guards who didn't come, so he directly started the topic at this moment.

"General, there is a beach in front of our army, and our army can't set up camp any further. You can learn from this!"

"General, our army set up camp according to your military order, and the five-mile open space in the middle should let Shenwu Youwei come over!"

"Bullshit, why should we lean over and stretch the front line so that our army won't fight any more?"

For a while, there was another quarrel in the lobby, and it didn't work if Zhu Chengming still slapped the table. The internal conflicts among the hundreds of thousands of troops in the imperial court were too great.

In fact, Zhu Chengming was also very distressed that he could not sit firmly in the position of the general, and even thought of withdrawing.

But now, the capable people in the court don't want to take the blame, so he has no choice at all.

As for his lieutenant general, Wu Shengchang, Marquis of Gaoping, he hid aside at the moment and didn't say a word.

And the current scene was also seen by the censor in charge of the army and the eunuch, which made them extremely worried.

In the end, there was a lot of noise in the lobby for more than half an hour. Even though Zhu Chengming controlled the "discipline", he didn't discuss much and ended hastily.

"General, his surname Zhu placed my Habayashi right guard at the forefront. I endured it for the sake of the court's overall situation, but he also said that our army was stationed too far back. What do you think he means?"

"General, my brothers followed you to fight north and south. You have suffered a lot in the past few years. You have to speak for your brothers!"

"Commander Chen is right. General, you can speak up for the brothers, otherwise the people in the southeast will take advantage of it all!"

Although Wu Shengchang didn't want to engage in factional struggles, he didn't care about such things, and the people below would find them himself.

Both the Imperial Army and Nanyang are guarded by Sige Guards, and he is an old subordinate he led this year to fight.

If he didn't speak for his old subordinates, these people would alienate him, and he would have no right to speak in the barracks and court at that time.

Wu Shengchang was trapped, and he also had his own difficulties, so he didn't say a word during the discussion just now, in order to weaken the factional struggle as much as possible.

At this moment, the subordinates came directly to him, and he couldn't do without saying a few words.

"Everyone, the general has his difficulties, and they are all for the imperial court. We have to be considerate and worry about each other!"

However, Wu Shengchang's words were not recognized by the people present, but instead attracted a lot of scrutiny.

Over the years of fighting, these troops have developed an arrogant and domineering atmosphere. Wu Shengchang, the "army leader", does not live up to his name.

And these arrogant commanders are actually not much different from Wu Shengchang.

If they don't fight for the benefits of their subordinates, they will also be betrayed by their subordinates. The power position has always been supported by the subordinates. '

"General, we are willing to be considerate and considerate of others, but I am afraid that others will not consider us!"

"that is……"

Knowing that it would be useless to continue, Wu Shengchang said: "No matter how many difficulties there are, we have to win this battle first. The imperial court will see your difficulties and mine!"

Wu Shengchang had just finished speaking, and someone answered immediately: "General, don't talk about rewards, the rewards for the court's victory in the past two months have not yet been distributed, and the brothers have quarreled several times. Already!"

Immediately afterwards, someone complained: "Brothers are fighting abroad, and the family lives on food and rewards. If the court delays any longer, I think our people will be dispersed if we don't fight this battle!"

Wu Shengchang only said one sentence, and the people below had several sentences waiting, which made him helpless.

"It's hard for you, it's hard for the general, and it's hard for the court!"

Just because Wu Shengchang said this, he didn't say anything, because these problems are not something he can solve, or there is no way to solve them at all.

"Go back first, go back!"

After saying this, Wu Shengchang quickened his pace and left, he would be bored to death if he stayed any longer.

Anyway, the main general is Zhu Chengming, and these things should be a headache for him.

On the other side of the barracks, Gu Chongliang, the censor of the army, and Ding Youcheng, the eunuch of the army, were discussing the matter of the military meeting just now.

"Our family has handed over a lot of memorials, but the court has still not responded. The Yong army has already reached the other side of the river. It is impossible for the army to continue to quarrel like this!" Ding Youcheng looked worried.

"Yes..." Gu Chongliang sighed.

After thinking about it for a while, Ding Youcheng said: "How about going directly to the emperor and requesting the replacement of the chief general?"

As military supervisors, they only explained the situation in the army, which mentioned some problems, but did not express their views on the problems.

Now if they propose to replace the chief general, it will break the long-standing rules.

Let Ding Youcheng utter these words, one can imagine the hidden dangers in the army.

Gu Chongliang said, "This... I'm afraid it's against the rules!"

"At this time, how can we take care of these things? I will put the safety of the court as the most important thing!" Ding Youcheng said earnestly.

It is also ironic to say that civil servants have read the books of sages and sages and take it as their duty to govern the country and the world, but now they cherish feathers when the court is in danger, which is not as good as a eunuch.

Of course, you can't overturn a boat of people with one shot.

For example, among civil servants, there are people like Qiu Youxian and Lin Guanhai.

(End of this chapter)