The offensive and defensive battle in Guangzhou continued.

In the past, when Wei Qiang, the governor of Yuezhou, served as a transshipment envoy in Liangguang, he rebuilt the city wall of Guangzhou, and saw that it was inconvenient for the people to get water, so he dug wells and livestock water, and made a big crossbow as a garrison. At that time, everyone complained about it, but they didn't expect that these arrangements would come in handy.

Nong Zhigao is anxious to attack the city, but the city wall of Guangzhou is repaired completely, and there is a big crossbow to defend the city, it can not be attacked, so the water is cut off, and the well in the city is inexhaustible, and the city is forced to attack the city, the big crossbow is in the middle, including the entire Liangguang, lack of weapons and armor, and the thief wears more ordinary clothes, and one will die. The thief saw that the siege could not be overcome, and he succumbed slightly.

Su Mian, the governor of Yingzhou in the north of Guangzhou, heard that Guangzhou was besieged, and said to his subordinates: "Guangzhou and Wuzhou are close together, and the city is in danger in the twilight. ”

There were not many soldiers in Yingzhou, and Su Mian recruited thousands of brave people, and commissioned Bao Ke to be imprisoned in Tidian, and led the army south at night, and garrisoned troops twenty miles away from the enemy. The Huang Shimi brothers were the masterminds of Nong Zhigao, and they insisted on their father and beheaded him, and the Huang brothers were discouraged when they heard it. At that time, there were some unscrupulous children among the people who took the opportunity to become thieves, Su Mian arrested more than 60 people, beheaded them, and recruited the people who were forced by Nong Zhigao to resume their business, more than 6,800 people.

The thief is weaker.

However, the city was besieged for a long time, and he went out of the city several times to meet the battle, but he was not victorious. The thief used hundreds of arks to attack the south city from the waterway, Panyu County ordered Xiao Zhu to go out from the siege first, and raised more than 2,000 strong people on the sea, and set the upper reaches of the sea boat, but it did not happen, and there would be a hurricane at night, Xiao Zhu was a drum sail, and went down with the wind and water, and set fire to the thief ship, the fire took advantage of the wind, and the smoke was monstrous, and soon the hundreds of arks in the hands of Nong Zhi became a sea of fire. Xiao Zhu then attacked it, broke it, and accumulated corpses like a mountain. The Guangzhou South Gate Water Route is open.

On the same day, the county gate was issued, and the reinforcements from all roads were the people's cattle and wine and grain into the city one after another, and the people in the city saw the hope of life, and the fighting spirit was fierce, and they defeated Nong Zhigao's attack many times. Wang Han also recruited militia from outside to enter the city and repair the garrison. Nong Zhigao saw that there was no hope of taking the city. Song Dynasty reinforcements continued to arrive. Gave up attacking Guangzhou, crossed the river from Qingyuan County, embraced the captive women for fun, and turned to Hezhou, but could not be defeated. So he vented his anger on Su Xuan's army. At this time, Su Mian joined the army brought by Cai Baogong, the governor of Hongzhou, and others from Jiangxi, and the number of troops reached more than 8,000 people. Su Mian and Cai Baogong defended the danger, intending to control the way back to Yongzhou for the thief army. The imperial court made Zhang Zhong the governor of Guangdong, and Zhang Zhong came to the army and immediately seized the three armies and took him. Facing the enemy lightly, he said to his subordinates: "I was a soldier ten years ago, and I used my military exploits as a regimental training envoy, and you Cao encouraged him. ”

The two armies clashed, Zhang Zhong defeated the two thieves, the horse fell into Nining, and then died with a javelin, and the Song army was defeated. Qianzhou Inspector Dong Yu, Kangzhou Inspector Wang Yi, Lian Inspector Zhang Su, Hezhou Inspector Zhao Yunming and others were all not in this campaign.

Jiang Kai, a famous minister who had many merits in the Shaanxi Campaign, also made the mistake of underestimating the enemy. Led the army to pursue the thief to Lutian, defeated, Yang Kui of Nanenzhou Inspection, Shao Yuqing of Nan'an Army Inspection, Feng Yue of Rongzhou Inspection, Wang Xing, Chang Yonghe and None of them were caught on the West Road.

The only good news is that the city of Guangzhou has finally been saved.

The biggest highlight of this battle is the speed of the Song Dynasty's post station, and it only took five days for the history to let the news go back and forth, which is an exaggeration, but it is actually less than ten days. The urgent news of Guangzhou reached the Beijing Division, and the order was brought back to Guangzhou from the capital.

In the imperial history, King Cheng raised the letter of impeachment.

The first thing that was impeached was that last year, the two prefectures were prepared and prepared grain, but the grain was in Jiangnan West Road and Jiangdong Zhejiang, and soldiers were prepared, but the soldiers were in the capital, so Lingnan was eroded. The first one is not for Zheng Lang alone. It's the whole Liangfu bigwig.

In fact, these grains and armor are not only for Lingnan, but also for other purposes, Zheng Langwei said, Wang Juzheng had a misunderstanding is reasonable. …,

Wang Juzheng also impeached one thing, saying that since the eighth year of Qingli, the Yellow River has been in danger many times, floods in the north, but there are droughts in the southeast from time to time, and the southern barbarians have actually rebelled on a large scale, and this lord and lord have been reversed. That is to say, the north was a place with a serious drought, but there were many waterlogs, and the south was an area rich in water resources, but there was a drought, but a small Nong Zhigao turned Lingnan upside down and turned it upside down. The two governments also took each other's positions, which was originally a cheap move by Fu Bi because of the Shaanxi Campaign. Now the military in the northwest cannot afford it, Zheng Lang is also a privy envoy, and he is young, more than four years, so God warns that His Majesty must not quit.

After Wang Juzheng's words were finished, hundreds of ministers in the entire hall were silent.

The more things have happened in the past few years, the more Zheng Lang's ability has been proven.

But Wang Juzheng said the opposite, it is not right to say that Zheng Lang is also in charge of the Western Mansion, and it is Zheng Lang's power that has caused so many disasters.

What else should we do? The credit is too high, and he acts in a low-key manner, so he can't find Zheng Lang's handle.

Zhao Zhen was silent.

Actually, it is not accepted.

However, the ministers below all stared at Zheng Lang with their eyes.

Zheng Lang just smiled, he couldn't tell whether it was funny or bitter, and after laughing, he stood out of the train and said, "Your Majesty, the minister also has a play." ”

"Play."

"The Lingnan Rebellion is not only the ambition of Nong Zhigao thieves, but there are various reasons for this result. Since ancient times, there have been many miasma in the south of the Yangtze River, including Liangguang, Fujian, Yunnan-Guizhou, and Bashu, but the degree is different. Among them, Dali is especially strong, so the ancestors used jade axes to row the Dadu River, and did not want to get it. The road is far away, the management is inconvenient, the army gathers and travels, the weather is hot, the miasma is trapped, and it is susceptible to malaria infection, and the gain is far less than the loss. Lingnan is also the same, Liuzhou, Xunzhou, Xiangzhou between the Datengxia is a place that can not live for a long time, of which Xunzhou is the most prosperous, but some areas of Wuzhou in the southeast are slightly comfortable to live in, Wuzhou also has a lot of miasma, from Yangshuo to Zhaoping, Guizhou, called the barren miasma area, this special terrain causes the various tribes in Lingnan to rarely come and go, and it is difficult to form a benign interaction with the central dynasty, and there is a tendency to secession. Therefore, although the imperial court pitied the suffering of the people of the Southern Han Dynasty and let Pan Mei cut it, it was only a constraint on most areas of Liangguang. The miasma also made it difficult for the Central Plains army to enter on a large scale, so after I pacified the Southern Han Dynasty, I wanted to recover Jiaozhi, but the ministers dissuaded it, and my soldiers were more northern troops, and there was no immunity to malaria and the hot weather in Jiaozhou. ”

"This has also become our dynasty's management attitude towards Lingnan, there are only a few battalions of forbidden soldiers, few garrisons, few weapons, and most of the prefectures and counties do not even have city walls, so after the thieves got up, they quickly eroded more than a dozen state capitals. This is one of them. The second is human suffering. Supervising the imperial history Jiang Tang once said. Wuling, the land of the miasma, people are afraid of it, and the three members of the Ministry of Foreign Lang Jiang Ze are all willing to be officials in Guangnan, if it is not greedy, why is it so? One sentence flexibly expresses the Central Plains' views on Lingnan. In fact, the miasma is not fearful, it is mostly the gas of accumulated corpses, the humidity of the south, and the rotten gas does not disperse. If the miasma is light, burn the bones and rotten leaves, plant trees, plough the saprolite and expose it to the sun, you can improve the miasma. In the past, there were miasma on both roads, including Jiangnan, but with the dense population, there was miasma on the two roads in Jiangnan? The miasma in Fujian is also fierce, but today it is in addition to the poor mountains and remote areas. How many miasma are there? The second is that it is not adaptable. It can also be cured, eat more tofu and apples, and you can adapt to the local water and soil after living for a long time. Third, there are many drugs that can be cured and prevented. It is not the miasma that endangers the people, but the harsh government, so the master said that the harsh government is fiercer than the tiger. Liu Zongyuan sighed, who knows that the poison of the endowment is even more like a snake!"

"The imperial court has two broads, and most officials are reluctant to go to the two Guangzhous to serve, and the court employs people. One is the southern scholars, who are more adaptable to the southern climate than the northerners. The second is the deprecating officials, most of whom are greedy for ink, who went to Lingnan, the sky is high and the earth is far away, and the greed for ink is even stronger. The original intention of the imperial court was to be a place of bondage. In order to reassure the people, he has always been light-hearted, including only wooing various fetters and tribes, and even not hesitating to use money to buy peace. However, through the hands of these officials, the taste has changed. Mei Zhi, the governor of Huazhou, served as the governor of Zhaozhou (now Pingle County, Guangxi) during the Jingyou period, and saw the illegal behavior of some officials in Lingnan, and regretted it in his heart, so he wrote "Five Miasma Said", Shi has five miasma: urgent levy and tyranny, peel off and offer, and the miasma of this rent; The deep text is good, the good and the evil are not in vain, and the miasma of this prison is also; Drunken feast in the morning, relax and abolish the king's affairs, and the miasma of this diet; encroaching on the interests of the people, with real private storage, this miasma of goods and wealth; Choosing concubines to entertain the voice, this is a miasma. There is one here, the people are angry and angry, those who are safe will be sick, and those who are sick will die, although they are under the hub, it is inevitable, how far away! It is also absurd that the ruler may not know it, but blame it on the miasma! ”…,

"Zhaozhou is one of the most severely affected areas of the Lingnan miasma, and the history is recorded in Zhaozhou, Wuzhou and the left and right rivers, and the miasma is prevalent...... Its miasma is green grass in spring, yellow plum in summer, new grass in autumn, and yellow grass in winter. There are also osmanthus and chrysanthemums, which are endless, especially in spring and winter. Therefore, the sergeant doctor of the court referred to it as a Dafa field, and said that there were many killings. However, in Mei Zhi's eyes, the killing of people in the Dafa field is far less harmful than that of official miasma. In order to get money, there is rent for grain, there is Yong for silk, there is wine for wine, tea and salt are levied, and there is money for the workshop, and the money for the river crossing of the building. If there are more corrupt officials and corrupt officials, how can they be done? ”

Zhao Zhen was moved and couldn't help but lean his body.

Zheng Lang continued: "There is a legend among the people of Lingnan that there is a spring on the road leading from the Central Plains to Lingnan, which is called the Greedy Spring, and the officials went to drink more water from this spring, so they became extremely greedy one by one. In fact, there is such a spring, but the people of Lingnan saw that the imperial court sent an official to come, and they were insatiable, two officials came to the same, and three officials came to the same place, and there were very few officials like Mei Zhi, so they were puzzled, so it was said that the officials drank the water of the greedy spring on the road to explain the reason why these officials were insatiable. When Nong Zhigao raised his army, there were only a few thousand people, and along the way, some of the soldiers were not coerced by Nong Zhigao, and most of them were subordinate people. The soldiers of Shaozhou actually took the initiative to kill the governor Deng Xiang in response, why? ”

Zheng Lang talked eloquently, his expression calm, but it revealed a big problem, a big, big problem.

"The imperial court originally adopted a peaceful policy towards Lingnan, and most of the areas were divided into counties with strong autonomy, and the imperial court did not even send officials, and it also co-opted the chiefs of various tribes, and when they saw their various illegal acts, they would rather settle the matter and calm the people, and not say much. Although there is more than benevolence, the prestige is insufficient, so there are a lot of lawlessness in each life, and then the idea of getting Long Wangshu is born, which is the case with Nong Zhigao. However, when various officials arrived in Lingnan, they were greedy and tyrannical, and the people resented them. The chieftains of the tribes are ambitious, and the people everywhere are resentful, can they not produce Nong Zhigao? A Nong Zhigao is not enough to worry about, and it is a big deal that the imperial court sends generals and ministers to lead tens of thousands of forbidden soldiers, which is enough to wipe them out. However, from Lizhou Road, Zizhou Road, Kuizhou Road to the Northwest Gorge District of Jinghu Road, and then to Lingnan, more than one-third of the area of the imperial court is like this, and the more it develops, the worse it becomes, and it can produce a Nong Zhigao at any time. And in the north, there is the pressure of the Western Xia, the siege of the Khitan, and although the Tubo and our dynasty take advantage of each other, but the hostility is not strong, it may be guaranteed that the same is true for their sons? Therefore, the imperial court had to change its policy. The minister is watching, if Yu Jing and Yang Jin go to quell the rebellion to no avail, the minister wants to ask His Majesty to ask His Majesty to go to Lingnan to quell the rebellion Nong Zhigao, Di Qing is the main soldier, and the minister is in charge. Govern Lingnan for two to three years. If you have merit, you will go to deal with the affairs of Meishan and the evil barbarians in some areas of Kuizhou, for about seven or eight years, as long as the court cooperates, the ministers can guarantee that the crisis in the south will be reduced. ”

After finishing speaking, he looked at Wang Juzheng and said, "Wang Zhongcheng, as the head of the ministers, the prime minister has done something wrong. You can calmly admonish, including me who has presided over the affairs of the two governments for a long time, and if I violate the ancestral system, I can be impeached calmly. However, it is not allowed to wear celestial phenomena and soldiers indiscriminately, although the country has many disasters, which is caused by the deterioration of water and soil in the north. Therefore, I have been in power for several years, knowing that the people are restricted, but I still have not released much tax. has been collecting money. I want to control the Yellow River. The treasury must have sufficient money, and if you want to use the army, you must also have sufficient money in the treasury. After the state has money and saves 100 million yuan, the grain storage is full, so that the people can really be lightly treated, and this is why it is also true. However, it is inappropriate for Yanchen to take the fall of the prime minister as his own responsibility, and he is indiscriminate. for a few years. Starting from Xia Zhu, Song Zhen, Chen Zhizhong, and Wen Yanbo are mostly good ministers and pure ministers, and then to me, although Yanchen is majestic, but the prime minister has been in power for too long, which violates the ancestral system. The prime minister's time in office is too short, and he is also unable to implement the governing policy coherently, which is also contrary to the normal and benign development of the country. ”…,

After speaking, return to the train.

In fact, even if Zheng Lang is today, his age is very small in the two mansions, but his words are like the words of the elders, gentle and pure, and in earnest, Wang Juzheng can't speak.

Zheng Lang saved face, in fact, Wang Juzheng impeached himself, one is the bad habit of the minister of Taiwan, he likes to reverse the prime minister, and the second is the grudge between Wang Juzheng and Bao Zheng. In addition, he has been in power for a long time, and it is indeed time to go down, so he has impeached himself today.

Fortunately, he was careful, and Wang Juzheng didn't like nonsense, so he didn't splash much dirty water, but only said a sentence about the upside down of the monarch and the minister.

Zhao Zhen came to his senses and said loudly: "No, what if the prime minister went to Lingnan to suppress thieves?" ”

It's not terrible to suppress thieves, and rest assured, Zheng Lang is far above Yu Jing with his troops.

But what kind of place is Lingnan? If you don't get it right, you can be recruited, and if you get it right, how can a good minister who can be broken by a country be buried in Lingnan?

Zheng Lang had no choice but to stand up and say: "The ministers of the world go to Lingnan for evil, so Lingnan is not a good minister, and the minister is the head of the world's ministers, if you don't lead by example, how can you speak of others?" Moreover, the suppression of thieves in Lingnan is small, and governance is the greatest. When others go, the minister is not at ease. Therefore, the minister pleaded with him. ”

There was silence in the hall.

Many backward young ministers looked at Zheng Lang with respectful eyes.

Zhao Zhen was in a bad mood, Zheng Lang blocked his mouth with words, and was so anxious that he got up from the dragon chair, paced back and forth, and finally said: "Disperse, Zheng Qing, you stay and discuss matters." ”

The ministers retreated.

Zhao Zhen took Zheng Lang to the Ying Pavilion and said on the way: "Zheng Qing, you don't have to doubt yourself, in order to avoid suspicion. ”

Zheng Lang replied: "There are three, one of them was the minister of the two provinces at that time, and there were some arrangements in the Western Xia, which was convenient for cheap action, so the minister accepted it. Now that he has made a contribution, the treasury is gradually enriched, and the Western Xia and the Khitan have been at loggerheads for more than four years. But he can no longer serve in the two mansions, not for the sake of His Majesty, but for the sake of future generations. In case there are kings among the descendants who are far less wise than His Majesty, and the courtiers are like Li Linfu and his ilk, who control the government and cannot retreat, the use of ministers today is beneficial to the country, and he will become an example of harming the country in the future. Therefore, the minister must retreat. Second, the outside must be safe, so Zhuge Liang personally flowed the barren land, captured Meng Shu seven times, and started to be safe behind Shudi, so that he could go out of Qishan six times. Looking at the Khitan again, it is also the same to prepare to use troops to block divination first, not Western Xia. Over the years, from Kuizhou Road to Lingnan, there was a rebellion, and it became a big disaster together, and there were not many people who could have both civil and military affairs among the ministers of the imperial court. Either Han Qi, or rely on him to deter Western Xia. Only the minister is the only person who is suitable to go. The way of governance, or there are ministers above the ministers, and there are few ministers in the way of management, and what Lingnan needs most is the minister who is good at management. The third is the long-term plan of the country, the country's decades of great governance, the population multiplies violently, north to Hebei Hedong, south to Fujian, densely populated, only Jingxi Road population is slightly lower. It must be reopened, and from the west of Xiangshui and south of Wuling, almost one-third of the country's area is only restrained by the imperial court. Although the Xiangshui River Basin is beautiful, it is still forced by Meishan barbarians and cannot be developed. Although Lingnan is far away, it has a huge Yushui system, and the water flow is almost better than that of the Yellow River, so it may not be necessary for the imperial court to benefit. With these three, the minister must go and personally take charge. ”

"That said, how can I feel at ease," Zhao Zhen sighed.

Over the years, from the northwest to the Khitan, then to Beizhou, and then to Lingnan Jinghu Kuizhou, Zheng Lang has almost pushed himself to the most dangerous front line, and Zhao Zhen is very guilty in his heart.

When they came to the Ying Pavilion, the two monarchs and ministers sat down.

Zhao Zhen said: "Zheng Qing, tell me about the benevolence and righteousness you wrote." ”

The second book of benevolence and righteousness was blurred by good and evil, Zheng Lang was afraid of causing controversy, so he never let it come out, and after Zhao Zhen learned about it, he asked Zheng Lang to dedicate it to him. It refers to this righteousness.

Zheng Lang began to explain.

Zhao Zhen stared at Zheng Lang, listening, and suddenly his eyes were slightly moist. I thought to myself, those ancient sages were just like that.