Reincarnation of the powerful minister

"Leaving the capital to the west is Shanxi Chengxuan Political Envoy Division, referred to as Shanxi Division. Sir, please look, this is Datong Mansion, close to the Great Wall..."

Because they missed Sutou that night, the guards formed a circle around the station in the field, each set up a tent, fed the horses, and rested.

Beside the bonfire, Gao Shuo sat on a big rock, holding a map of the territory of the big inscription, and pointed it out to Su Yan.

As a modern person who is "good at reading and doesn't seek deep understanding", Su Yan can outline the outlines of the five continents on the world map in sevens and eighties, but he knows nothing about the boundaries and administrative divisions of the Ming Dynasty, and he doesn't even know what the current first-level administrative units are. "Province", but "Division".

Fortunately, Gao Shuo, as a secret agent of Jinyiwei, knew this very well. When he asked about the route to Shaanxi, he took out the map he carried with him and explained it to him in detail.

"Datong? Is it one of the nine sides?" Su Yan was quite impressed by the place name.In order to resist the northern barbarians such as the Tatars, Daming set up nine military towns along the sideline of the Great Wall to strengthen defense, commonly known as "nine sides".But he only remembers Liaodong, Ningxia and Datong.

Gao Shuo nodded: "Yes. Datong Military Town has eight guards, seven offices, and three forts of 580 under its jurisdiction, and it is located in Datong Mansion."

Su Yan pointed to the word "Dai" next to Datong Mansion on the map, and asked, "What do you mean?"

"This used to be the domain of the acting king. Oh, it's now called Yuwang. However, even though the title was changed, the people stayed in Beijing, but the domain did not withdraw. It just changed the generals at the edge of the town and transferred the people who were originally under the command of the acting king. The Jingbei Army has also been disbanded and organized into various guards." Gao Shuo said.

Su Yan was silent.When the phoenix trees were on the waterside pavilion, King Yu's words of humiliation and hatred lingered in his ears——

"He wants my name, title, vassal land, army... just take it, I don't have to fight him to the death!"

Although thinking of King Yu still harbored resentment, he also felt that the fate and situation of the other party was indeed a bit bleak.Su Yan sighed slowly, and said softly: "It should be. Princes who hold military power, no matter where they are placed, no matter how wise the emperor is, they have to beware of their self-respect. Even if they have no objection, it is difficult to guarantee The subordinates did not have any dissent, and imitated the act of Chen Qiao's mutiny and the addition of yellow robes.

"The emperor has a long-term vision. For the stability of the country and the country, these hidden dangers have been removed in advance."

——but also sacrificed King Yu's ambition and freedom.

I can't tell which is right and which is wrong, I can only say that each has a different position.

Jing Hongzhui was not interested in state affairs, and was roasting a captured hare on a bonfire. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Su Yan's gloomy expression, and suddenly interrupted: "Do you want pepper, sir?"

Su Yan was stunned, and turned to see the oil dripping on the fire, smelling the rich meaty aroma in the air, his mood improved, and he smiled, "Of course. Crush the pepper and mix it with powdered salt to make salt and pepper. .”

"Where's the cumin?"

"Also, grind it into powder and sprinkle more."

Jing Hongzhui held two large bags of pepper and cumin in her palm, with a little internal strength, all the spices were crushed into powder, and the kraft paper wrapped outside was not damaged at all. Su Yan was amazed by this superb martial arts and fine-grained control.

He glanced expectantly at the golden-roasted rabbit meat on the tree branch, then turned his head and said to Gao Shuo, "After Shanxi, go southwest, and you'll be Shaanxi, right?"

"Yes." Gao Shuo stroked the Yellow River on the map with his finger, "Let's cross the river from here and enter Shaanxi Division. We should try to stay as far away from the Great Wall as possible to prevent the northern enemy from disturbing us. We will arrive in Yan'an in about half a month." house."

Su Yan nodded, staring at the capital city on the map, he couldn't help asking his deepest doubts: "Gao Shuo, you..."

He hesitated for a while, leaned forward and approached the other party, and lowered his voice: "Did you come here at the behest of Shen Qianshi? Where are the other nineteen guards?"

Gao Shuo saw a snow-white face approaching suddenly, his eyebrows became more and more gaudy in the firelight, his heart couldn't help but miss a beat, he subconsciously avoided it, he lost his balance and slid down the stone.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly. He put his hands on the ground and rolled his body halfway. He immediately squatted down and said with a little embarrassment: "The moss on the stone surface is too slippery."

Jing Hongzhui raised her eyelids and gave him a cold look, and said, "My lord, it's ready."

"Let's cool off for a while." Su Yan ordered casually, then stared at Gao Shuo for an answer.

Gao Shuo said truthfully: "The list of the twenty bodyguards was prepared by Mr. Qian Shi. Including me, there are seven of them are his people - I dare not use all my confidants, for fear that the emperor will be suspicious. The one called The leader of 'Chu Yuan', who was not on the list, is the emperor's imperial guard."

Su Yan thought it was a little funny.Isn't Shen Qi the emperor's eyes and ears and confidant? Gao Shuo said so, it seems like the two of them are secretly on guard against each other, even such a small matter as the list of guards has to play tricks.

Gao Shuo didn't dare to tell him that Shen Qian was imprisoned.

He received this errand, and visited the jail on the eve of his departure. He saw that Mr. Jin was wearing heavy handcuffs and shackles, and was dressed in prison clothes. He was sitting cross-legged on a pile of straw drinking cold water. It doesn't look like, at least the shackles have to be removed.

Shen Qi's complexion was calmer than his, and she said indifferently: "It's only half a month of imprisonment, compared to the punishment of grooming, it's nothing. It's fine on my side, Master Su's side, you have to take care of me more."

Gao Shuo nodded.He knew that the relationship between Shen Qianshi and Mr. Su was unusual, and he guessed that the two had a secret love affair, not only hiding it from the whole court, but also from the emperor and the two nobles.Thinking of when I was lurking on the roof of the Su Mansion, I saw King Yu wanting to indecently assault Master Su, and the Crown Prince also came to look for him in disguise several times.

"I reckon that he will arrive in Shaanxi in half a month. How is his condition, what difficulties he has encountered, and whether he is safe... please report to me in time. Yan'an, Qingyang, Fengxiang, and Xi'an prefectures all have Jinyiwei." Station at the guard, before you leave, take the seal of Beizhen Fusi and borrow their pigeons to send messages."

Gao Shuo agreed one by one, and then asked, "Does your lord have any written or oral messages that you need to pass on to your subordinates?"

Shen Qi reached into her bosom to feel something, then retracted her hand, put her fist on her knee, and said expressionlessly: "No. Don't tell him about my imprisonment."

"Master Su is leaving tomorrow morning, but Mr. Qian can't see him off. If he doesn't tell the truth, and if he doesn't say it, he will feel regretful..."

"He feels regretful and dissatisfied because of this, and even blames me, which is better than worrying in vain." Shen Qi closed her eyes, turned to face the wall, and stopped talking.

Gao Shuo sighed secretly and had to do as he ordered.

"Anyway, these twenty guards are all credible people selected from thousands of people, right." Su Yan said.

Gao Shuo said: "I will swear to the death to protect Mr. Su's safety. However, please listen to my advice and don't take in people with unknown identities in the future. You must know that people are unpredictable."

Jing Hong chased beside her and let out a light snort, with a hint of irony.

Gao Shuo turned to stare at him, his eyes were a bit of Shen Qi's authenticity: "It was you who was talking about! If Mr. Su hadn't decided to take you in, you would have been captured by us long ago, and you would have bound the capital and handed it over to Yousi."

Jing Hong chased after Su Yan, and didn't give anyone face. Facing Jin Yiwei, who had always had old grievances, she seemed to be an assassin and a desperado again, and let out a murderous look from her cold eyes: "Twenty of you teaming up may not be able to defeat me with a sharp sword. Do you want to try?"

Enraged by him, Gao Shuo threw the map in his hand to the ground and stood up abruptly.

This Gao Shuo is worthy of being Shen Qi's confidant, he usually looks amicable, but why is he with Wu Ming...Jing Hong can't catch up with him, this is exactly the same as Shen Qi.Su Yan supported his forehead and said in a low voice, "Shut up what you are arguing about!"

Gao Shuo picked up the map, clasped his fists at Su Yan, and said shamelessly, "I'm sorry, I'll resign from my humble position." After saying that, he went to the outer circle of guards.

Jing Hongzhuan passed the roasted rabbit on the branch to Su Yan as if nothing had happened, "My lord, it's not hot anymore, eat it while it's hot."

Su Yan didn't answer, and sighed, "Wu... Ah Zhui, be polite to them, at least don't tear yourself apart. I didn't hear Gao Shuo say that most of them are imperial guards, and it's not good for you to have enemies everywhere."

Jing Hongzhui was a little bit hot when he called "Azhui", but as long as he didn't make fun of him as a "little concubine", she could bear it, so her face froze (Su Xiaobei: dead face! Su Xiaojing : Frozen pear face!) Said: "This subordinate knows, and I will not cause trouble for you in the future."

Su Yan raised his eyebrows and looked at him: "You think I'm advising you so that you won't hurt yourself?"

Jing Hong chased and said in a deep voice: "This subordinate knows that his temperament is eccentric, and his words are not pleasant to listen to, and he is not pleasing to others."

Su Yan laughed: "What do you care about? It's the first day I know you? If you put honey on your tongue, I'm not used to it. Everyone has their own strengths. I know what's good about you."

Jing Hongzui pursed her lips tightly and said nothing. She tore off the rabbit's legs with clean hands, put them on a plate, and tore off the meat from the belly and back one by one, piled them neatly into a pile, and handed the plate to Su Yan.

Su Yan didn't like to grab greasy food with his hands, so he held a plate and ate it with chopsticks.Seeing him gnaw on the rabbit skeleton with not much meat left, he couldn't help laughing and said: "Stop gnawing on the bones, come and eat meat with me."

"Rabbits don't have much meat. I'll catch you a muntjac next time." Jing Hongzhui bit the baked bones into scum, and swallowed them all. "I've been eating everything since I was a child, and I'm used to it. Don't worry about me, sir."

Knowing that he came from a poor background, Su Yan must have suffered a lot when he was young, so he felt distressed: "There are still dry food in the car, there are sesame seed cakes, fried noodles, chess pieces and dried meat. You can get them yourself and cook them."

"Chessman" is a kind of dry food for travel made of flour and water, shaped into the shape of a chess piece, which can be eaten boiled or fried.When kneading noodles, add salt, ginger juice, pepper, or even animal fat, cooking gravy, etc., and you can make it into various flavors.

Jing Hong got up and went to the carriage to find a pack of three delicious chess pieces, boiled them into a pot of noodles, threw some wild vegetables in, divided them into two bowls, and ate them with Su Yan.

Su Yan burped until he ate. After washing his hands and face, he walked around the campfire a few times, listening to the chirping of insects in the field, and occasionally the shrill night cry of owls. He was both sleepy and a little creepy.

Su Xiaobei and Su Xiaojing were exhausted from driving for a day, before eating some dry food indiscriminately, they fell asleep in the second carriage loaded with luggage.

Su Yan also planned to go back to sleep in the carriage, so he asked Jing Hongzhui, "Where do you sleep?"

"You can sleep anywhere." Jing Hong pointed to the tall tree branch above her head, "It's very good there, far away from the ground, and there are no snakes and insects to disturb."

Su Yan looked up at the bare tree branches, and thought: Mr. Bei still needs to cut some leaves to build a safe house. If you just sleep on the tree branches, you won't be afraid of being bitten to death by mosquitoes.

So he said: "You can sleep in the carriage with me. The two rows of seats in the carriage can be folded towards the wall and covered with mats. Sleeping two people is not a problem."

Jing Hong chased hesitantly, and refused: "There is no reason for a subordinate to sleep with the master. I can't offend my lord."

Su Yan snorted, "It's not like you haven't slept in the same room as me. On the second night after I just fished you up from the river, you were wrapped into rice dumplings, and I was hit by the court stick. I still hope to talk to you to relieve my boredom, but unfortunately you were a saw-jawed gourd at that time, and you moved to another house within two days—did you forget?"

Jing Hongzui couldn't help but think of that night, the young official who was lying face down on the couch in dark blue clothes.Across the hazy yellow light, the young man's eyes were bright, with a thin smile on his mouth, he was seriously injured, but he still spoke to himself peacefully.

In the reflection of the bonfire, his gaze at Su Yan became extremely soft, and he did not say any more words to refuse.