The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Seeing that Li Dingguo was unwilling to say more, Ruan did not dare to ask more questions.

She was indeed from the Nguyen clan of the former "Dai Viet".

When the Kuomintang army entered the Indochina Peninsula, they were invincible.

Whether it was the former royal family of the Le clan, or the Zheng and Nguyen clans who had fought for control of "Dai Viet" for many years, none of them could resist "Dai Viet".

In the early days in the north, the Zheng family resisted the imperial army stubbornly and was almost wiped out.

The Nguyen clan was in the south and came into contact with the Kuai army later. After seeing the fate of the Zheng clan, they did not dare to put up much resistance and surrendered after being defeated several times.

In order to maintain a certain wealth and status, after surrendering to Dailai, Nguyen used all means including money and beauty, hoping to open up connections within the Dailai Empire.

It was at that time that Ruan became Li Dingguo's concubine.

It is not known whether the Nguyen family's strategy was successful or not. Anyway, the head of the Nguyen family was later conferred the title of baron by Emperor Dalai, and all the members of the family were relocated to Nanjing to settle down.

Li Dingguo's concubine, Ruan, was from a side branch, but over the past ten years, she had often returned to Nanjing with Li Dingguo.

She quite likes Nanjing - compared with Nanjing, Phnom Penh is just like a remote small county town.

Seeing Li Dingguo drinking tea and thinking, Ruan left and told the servants to prepare the luggage.

Soon, a young general came to the courtyard.

It turned out to be Li Dingguo’s second son, Li Sixing.

"Father." Li Sixing greeted Li Dingguo first.

Li Dingguo nodded and said, "Come with me to the study."

The father and son went to the study together.

Li Sixing couldn't help asking, "What's the matter that father is so anxious to ask someone to call me over?"

Li Dingguo currently has five sons and seven daughters. Not to mention the daughters, his eldest son is the commander of the Seventh Division of the Regular Army, his third son is in college, and his fourth and fifth sons are in middle school and elementary school.

Only the second son joined the 13th Division and served as deputy battalion commander, so he was by his side.

However, Li Sixing usually lived in the military camp and not here, so he asked this question.

Li Dingguo said: "Nanjing sent a telegram to summon me back to Beijing."

Li Sixing still looked puzzled - Li Dingguo was recalled to the capital at least once a year, sometimes even several times.

Nowadays, large warships and ships are sailing on the ocean at a fairly fast speed. Even if Li Dingguo is in Phnom Penh, the round trip will not take more than a month.

Li Sixing felt that Li Dingguo should not have asked him to come here specifically for such a matter, unless he had other instructions.

Li Dingguo continued, "The emperor has returned and said he wants to summon us veterans back to Beijing to reminisce about the past."

"The Emperor is back?" Li Sixing was inexplicably excited at first. He grew up listening to Liu Sheng's stories and admired him very much. Then he thought of something and said, "Is father worried that something might happen in the capital?"

Li Dingguo sighed and said, "As a father, I naturally admire and trust the Emperor. But the Emperor has been gone for more than ten years. Now that His Majesty is respected in the country, many things are different from when the Emperor left."

"All of us who have made great contributions to the founding of the country, none of us have passed away or retired, and all of us are now in high positions."

"Especially military generals like us, who have led troops for decades. Even if they have been transferred to other posts several times, they still have outstanding prestige in the army."

"The most important thing is that the titles of our several county kings have reached the limit, but they will continue to make contributions while leading troops outside."

"In the past few years, His Majesty has found opportunities to punish several dukes and marquises. Even the King of Yunzhong, the King of Guanghan, and the King of Wuwei have been reprimanded."

"So everyone discussed privately, thinking that the current emperor might think that our merits are not worthy of reward, and might have disloyal intentions, so he deliberately suppressed us."

"Some even speculate that if the time is right, the emperor might release his military power over a toast."

There were too many secret messages in these words. Li Sixing listened to them for a while and then said, "Father is worried that the emperor will use the name of the emperor emeritus to let you return to the capital and remove your military power?"

Li Dingguo shook his head, "Not really - what I just said was all groundless speculation by some people. Releasing military power over a cup of wine? According to the Dalai military system, although we are high-ranking veteran generals with high prestige, we have no chance to train our own team and have no military power at all. Why should we release military power?"

"Then why is the father worried?"

Li Dingguo sighed, "Over the past few years, our family has had many new relatives. With so many people, it is inevitable that some of them are short-sighted and profit-seeking, and they secretly violate the law."

"What I am worried about is that when I return this time, His Majesty will blame me for this matter and even dismiss me from my military post or transfer me to a sinecure."

Li Dingguo's speculation was not groundless like his previous remarks, but had a reason.

In the past few years, Wuwei King Shen Wandeng was first reprimanded by the current emperor for family affairs involving his in-laws, and soon after he voluntarily resigned and retired.

Although Shen Wandeng is already in his sixties, he is still in good health.

The Dalai Army did not stipulate a certain age at which senior generals must retire, so Li Dingguo and others believed that Shen Wandeng's resignation and retirement was most likely suggested by Liu Rui.

After that, there was Helian Yue, King of Guanghan, who was fined and sent to a border province for reeducation through labor because one of his sons broke the law.

This was the result of Helian Yue's personal plea to Liu Rui - although Helian Yue's son's crime was indeed mitigated within the scope of the law, afterwards, Helian Yue was transferred from the position of commander of the standing army division and commander of the war zone to the position of vice president of the military academy.

Although Helian Yue was a few years older than Li Dingguo, he was not yet sixty years old at the time and was in equally good health.

Therefore, in Li Dingguo's view, Helian Yue was transferred to an idle position by Liu Rui and marginalized in the army.

There will be no possibility of making any meritorious service in the future!

There are many examples of other military generals and meritorious officials being demoted, transferred to less prestigious positions, or directly dismissed due to various issues, but their status and position were not as prominent as Shen Wandeng and Helian Yue.

Therefore, Li Dingguo was worried that he would encounter a similar situation when Liu Rui summoned him back to Beijing.

In fact, if he really encountered such a thing, he could accept it calmly.

Just thinking about the possibility of having to face Liu Sheng made him feel complicated - more like uncomfortable.

There is both guilt and grievance.

It's unclear, the way is unclear.

Li Dingguo sighed again, looked at Li Sixing, his eyes suddenly became stern, and said: "I know that you have many friends in the army, and you have some relationships with several young people from the big Zhenla clans."

"Before you didn't make any mistakes, I didn't restrict you too much. But now our family is in danger. You have to be cautious if you stay here."

"If you do anything wrong, I can't protect you, and it may even implicate your entire family. Do you understand?"

Why did Li Dingguo keep Li Sixing by his side? It was because this second son was prone to making mistakes and was not as worry-free as the eldest son.

Now he is about to return to Nanjing. Without him, Li Sixing is very likely to let himself go, so he naturally has to give him some instructions.

Li Sixing was upset when Li Dingguo pointed out his faults. He nodded first, then couldn't help but mutter, "You have been crowned a king, but you are still worried about this and that in Dalai. You are even more worried than before you were crowned a king."

"Since our family is so uncomfortable and in danger staying in Dalai, why not let the emperor fulfill his promise and go overseas to establish a vassal state."

As soon as Li Sixing finished speaking, Li Dingguo glared at him and said angrily, "You have no memory. I have told you so many times that you are not allowed to mention the issue of overseas fiefdoms. This is the real way to bring disaster. Don't you understand?!"

Li Sixing felt wronged, but he didn't dare to talk back. He said sullenly, "My son only said a few words in front of you, but he would never say it outside."

Li Dingguo snorted, "As long as you understand!"

After thinking about it, he still felt uneasy about leaving Li Sixing alone in Phnom Penh - the emperor was far away and the Xia army was extremely "prestigious" in the local area. Who knew what outrageous things Li Sixing would do?

So he said, "Forget it. I'll write a transfer order later and you can go to Nanjing with me."

Hearing that he could go to Nanjing, Li Sixing was immediately happy. He saluted and said loudly, "Yes!"