Coming out of the inverted room where Wu Gao was detained, Zhu Gaoxu met Hou Hai. Hou Hai took a copy of the report and saluted: "The lower official received this letter from the governor of Shengdu, and Ruan Zhi, a Jiaozhi person, is being escorted to Guilin Mansion. The prince may want to see the news. ”

Zhu Gaoxu took it and browsed it, and the content was similar to what Hou Hai said just now. He asked casually, "Only Ruan Zhi, Jin Shi didn't come back?" ”

Hou Haidao: "The lower officials don't know. ”

"As soon as Ruan Zhi arrives in Guilin Mansion City, he will immediately bring him to see me." Zhu Gaoxu ordered.

He already had a faint premonition in his heart that the matter of persuading the Ming army to surrender might not go well.

In the afternoon of the same day, Ruan Zhi arrived at Guilin Mansion. Zhu Gaoxu was discussing with the generals in the living room of the front yard, and when he heard the report, he ordered Ruan Zhi to come and meet.

After waiting for a while, a dusty young man arrived at the door, he was Ruan Zhi, whom Zhu Gaoxu had met during his expedition to Annan. Ruan Zhi was wearing the short clothes of the people of the Ming Dynasty at this time, and he looked no different from the appearance of the locals in Guangxi.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty and the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the Jiaozhi region gradually broke away from the Central Dynasty; Prior to this, Cochin was under the jurisdiction of the Jinghai Jiedu Envoy, and there were many Han Chinese in the vicinity of Thang Longna. Therefore, the Jiaozhi people in the north near the Yunnan area of Guangxi are also similar in appearance to the people of the Ming Dynasty, but the people on the side of Champa (South Vietnam) are very easy to distinguish.

Ruan Zhi was a member of the noble clan of Ruan Gong Gui, a nobleman of the Chen Dynasty in the Cochin region, and joined the Hu rebels during the Hu regime. Ruan Zhi initially led troops near Qin Station, but Zhu Gaoxu thought he was completely unsuitable to be a military general. Later, the Ruan family was favored and wooed by Zhu Gaoxu, and Ruan Zhi has always been a Jiaozhi person who is more inclined to the Han Palace.

Ruan Zhi knew Zhu Gaoxu, hurriedly stepped forward to clasp his fists and salute, and said, "His Royal Highness the King of Han, General Jin has been captured by the Ming army of Dongguan (Shenglong)!" ”

The civil and military of the Han Wangfu in the living room immediately started talking noisily.

Zhu Gaoxu had vaguely guessed the result before, and asked calmly at the moment: "No courtesy." What happened? ”

"Xie Jin!" Ruan Zhi's emotions were a little excited, and he only said one word.

Zhu Gaoxu said kindly: "Don't worry, sit on the chair and take your time." ”

Ruan Zhi thanked him, and thought for a while before saying, "General Jin is from the Han Palace, and I know him below. Seeing the letters and promises of the King of Han that he brought...... He tried his best to arrange for General Jin to meet with some Ming generals in Dongguan. At first, it was safe, and most of the generals of the Ming army did not want to offend the people of the Han Palace; What's more, after inquiring clearly, the generals who are easy to talk were screened out before they were introduced to General Jin.

Recently, Dongguan has a military order from Zhang Fu, the general of the Ping Han Dynasty, and anyone who exposes the traitors and spies of the Han Dynasty can be promoted and rewarded. The senator of Cochin Province, Xie Jin, worked very hard to carry out this military order, and every time he went to the army, he persuaded the soldiers to report the secret matter directly to him.

Finally, one time, General Jin's matter was discovered by a general's personal soldiers, and ordinary sergeants couldn't find a way to tell the informant, but now the personal soldiers directly found Xie Jin. Xie Jin immediately arrested the general of the Ming army, and then found General Jin along the vine. I was very worried when I heard the news, so I had to flee Dongguan City overnight......"

Hou Hai, the chief historian beside Zhu Gaoxu, couldn't hold back at first, and scolded on the spot regardless of Sven: "Mother|! So what's wrong with Xie Jin? The puppet emperor obviously disliked him, so he reprimanded him to Jiaozhi, why did he work so hard? ”

Ruan Zhidao: "General Jin's errand was not going well, but he was captured because of the Senate. Senator Xie often made generous statements in crowded places, saying that Chen Jikuo's rebels threatened Jiaozhi Province, and that the Han King disregarded the general interests of the country and the safety of Jiaozhi Province, and intended to drive the Jiaozhi garrison to rebel and send them to death......"

The generals were in an uproar and scolded one after another, and of course the civil and military forces of the Han Palace's mansion felt that Zhu Gaoxu was very wronged. Because Zhu Gaoxu refused to recognize the rebels in Yunnan and gave up many benefits for the sake of righteousness; Now that they have been slandered, everyone is naturally very angry.

A military general stood in the middle of the room, hugged his fists and said: "The last general asks the prince to send troops immediately, go south from Guangxi, march to Jiaozhi Dongguan, and pull out those little people to correct the Fa!" ”

Zhu Gaoxu was noncommittal, looking thoughtful.

From the many words Ruan Zhi said, he paid attention to one of the sentences: "General Jin's errand was not going well."

So Zhu Gaoxu guessed the mentality of those generals of the Ming army, they probably felt that the civil war in the Ming Dynasty would not last long, so they were not willing to travel a long distance to come back to fight the civil war, and just wanted to sit and wait for the result, and whoever won would take refuge in whomever he would...... After all, this is the unanimous calculation of many forces for more than a year.

However, the forces of Jiaozhi Province are unlikely to help the imperial court attack the Han army. One of them, the families of the officers and soldiers of Guizhou were under the control of the Han Palace, and it was easy to surrender in battle; Second, the road is still too far.

The Jiaozhi Ming Army is not Zhu Gaoxu's enemy for the time being, at least not the main enemy. Zhu Gaoxu also had to consider the 2,000-mile march distance from Guilin Mansion to Jiaozhi Dongguan.

His silence made the living room even more noisy. Some people are scolding the generals of the Ming Army, watching the fire from the other side, being shameless and loyal.

Zhu Gaoxu raised his head and glanced at the general following the scolding. He said to himself: Although everyone is showing loyalty, do you really believe it?

It is true that there are people in this world who have tried to train human beings to be completely faithful and obedient instruments, but they have failed; Moreover, once the real power is completely handed over to those "tools", all the rulers will be devoured and taste the bitter fruits. Whether it is Mamluk in the west, or the eunuch of the Tang Dynasty, or the civil official of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

"We'll talk about it later." Zhu Gaoxu finally spoke.

The noise of the crowd was a little quieter, and they all turned their heads to look over. Zhu Gaoxu then said: "The decisive battle between Huguang and Guangzhou is the most important thing, and all military and political decisions must be considered for this battle!" As long as we win this war, the overall trend will be determined. If you deal with the Jiaozhi garrison, it will affect the Battle of Huguang, so you can put it on hold first and do it later. ”

"The last general will obey!" Everyone bowed down and stopped arguing.

Zhu Gaoxu looked at Ruan Zhi again, and said quietly: "Although Jin Shishi's matter was not done, the loyalty of the Ruan family is remembered by this king. Sooner or later, this king will surely clean up the affairs of Jiaozhi, and he will never treat you badly at that time. ”

Ruan Zhi looked tired, but showed an excited gaze, "The Ruan family has always despised me, but I have been appreciated by the King of Han, and I will definitely be a person with serious manners in the clan in the future!" ”

Zhu Gaoxu smiled and promised bluntly: "If those Jiaozhi people who are committed to this king can't get enough benefits, then how can this king govern the Jiaozhi region?" ”