This Burmese envoy was carefully selected, he looked solemn, walked into Bai Wenxuan's tent with his head held high with a jade box, and said loudly: "King Gongchang receives the order. ”

"You are a vassal king......" For Bai Wenxuan, the king of Burma is just a vassal king, and his status is even lower than that of him, the king of the county, and a vassal king dares to give orders to him, the king of the county, and he is also an opponent who has just been defeated on the battlefield...... However, Bai Wenxuan was about to be furious, but he understood a little, and stared at the jade box carefully.

"This is the edict of the Son of Heaven." The Burmese envoy announced loudly, his answer confirming Bai Wenxuan's concerns.

"How do I know if it's the edict of the Son of Heaven?" Bai Wenxuan's tone has softened a lot.

"King Gongchang can check it himself," the Burmese side had long expected Bai Wenxuan to ask this question, so he handed the jade box he was holding to the Ming army guards: "The handwriting of the Son of Heaven, King Gongchang must know it." ”

The horizontal flesh on Bai Wenxuan's cheeks twitched a few times, and he took the jade box from the guard's hand stiffly, opened it and looked at it carefully, and let out a long sigh. Suddenly, he knelt on the ground in the direction of Ava in the south, and kowtowed repeatedly: "The emperor's will is known, and the minister has a book." ”

The Burmese envoy asked unhurriedly, "Is King Gongchang going to resist the decree?" ”

"No, it's just that something is unclear, so I want to go to the Son of Heaven." Bai Wenxuan had already confirmed that this holy decree was indeed written by Yongli himself, so his tone towards the Burmese envoy became polite.

The Burmese envoy thought about it for a moment, nodded, and asked Bai Wenxuan to write the recital, which he said would be handed over on his behalf. Bai Wenxuan asked the Burmese envoy to wait in another tent, and after this person left the tent, there was a sudden explosion in the tent, and everyone asked Bai Wenxuan how the holy decree was written.

"The emperor wants us to return to Yunnan immediately, and we are not allowed to enter Burma again." Bai Wenxuan said dejectedly.

The generals were even more in an uproar, and many people shouted: "The emperor was imprisoned by the Burmese, and this holy decree must not be the emperor's original intention." ”

Bai Wenxuan's views are similar to those of his subordinates, but Bai Wenxuan has a big trouble that they are still from a bad background in Xiying, and not long ago they also made a fuss about Sun Kewang's usurpation. If Bai Wenxuan has a Yongli Inspector beside him, or a figure at the level of a pavilion elder or a scholar, then that person can come forward to announce that this holy decree does not count; But if these words come from the mouth of Xiying, it will be very bad, and it will only make the princes of Fujian and Zhejiang and the people of the world think that Xiying is a thief, and Li Dingguo is also as disrespectful to the royal family as Sun Kewang.

Whether it was before or this time, Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan repeatedly explained that they must be respectful and courteous to the imperial court, and after rescuing the Son of Heaven, they should not place the generals of the Western Battalion next to the Son of Heaven, even if the Imperial Forest Army of the Son of Heaven is unbearable, let the emperor decide who will protect him.

"Our army has reached the city of Ava, and the defeat of Burma is just around the corner, how can we retreat at this time?"

After hearing the complaints of the generals, Bai Wenxuan also had a bitter word, and he also complained in his heart that Yongli was timid: if the emperor did not issue this edict, then Xiying would naturally continue to move forward without the slightest concern; And now that Yongli has issued an edict, as long as Xiying does not obey the order, he will not be able to escape, that is, the emperor will come out, and maybe the emperor and the cabinet will be suspicious of this in the future - as long as the emperor is the emperor, it will be difficult for the courtiers to ignore his will, even if this ignorance is to save his life.

And if you are not afraid of 10,000, you are afraid of what happens, and you will join the Burmese people who have killed Yongli in a frenzy, and with the relationship of this edict, the rescue operation in Xiying may be said to be a murder with a knife.

"Don't you know procrastination? If you can't stand up to this edict, the soldiers dare to save you. Bai Wenxuan didn't dare to say it, and he was already extremely dissatisfied in his heart: "King Jin didn't even care about brotherhood for the emperor, and the emperor, you have to let King Jin be a man." ”

After thinking about it, Bai Wenxuan still didn't dare to continue the march, he hurriedly wrote a recital to Yongli, which said that the soldiers in Yunnan and Sichuan heard that the emperor was not doing well in Burma, and the Burmese were rude to the cabinet, so the king of Jin sent Bai Wenxuan and Deng Ming to pick up the emperor, and asked the emperor to return to China with the soldiers anyway.

Bai Wenxuan wanted to be sent by his own men, but the Burmese envoy refused, and finally Bai Wenxuan had to say that in the second edict given by the emperor, he must see the reply to his cantata.

After sending away the Burmese envoy, Bai Wenxuan said to the generals: "The emperor will issue such a holy decree, perhaps because the emperor does not know the situation of the war." Although it is not explicitly stated in my recital, the emperor can understand at a glance that now our army has a great upper hand, and the emperor does not need to be afraid of the Burmese at all; We'll wait a few days, and then we'll continue our assault on Ava. ”

If he attacked immediately after sending the chapter, Bai Wenxuan was worried that it would make people feel that Xiying did not care about Yongli's life and death at all, and it was not only Yunnan who came to fight this time; Moreover, Yongli is also very important to Xiying, which is supported by Li Dingguo, and he also hopes that after expelling the Tartars in the future, he can help them suppress other factions, if Yongli and the cabinet are worried about this, it will inevitably have troubles.

But Bai Wenxuan only waited for a few days, and the new decree arrived, in which Yongli refuted the claim that he was under house arrest, claiming that he was all right in Burma, and that he had already negotiated with the Burmese authorities, and would soon go to sea from southern Myanmar to Kinmen. Yongli said that he had no intention of going back to Yunnan at all, and he did not plan to bring the soldiers from the Xiying camp with him when he went to Fujian, so that they could return to Yunnan as soon as possible.

After seeing this holy decree, Bai Wenxuan was stunned, even if the emperor was controlled by others, he would not speak for the enemy like this. At the beginning, after Ming Yingzong was captured by the tile spur, he did not issue an edict to let the Ming army retreat, let alone say that everything was good in Mongolia, and he had a very happy life. As for the issue of the cabinet, the Imperial Guards and the Burmese people, Yongli said that those people were to blame, and the emperor had no objection to the Burmese king's disposition.

Bai Wenxuan felt that he was being forced to the edge of the cliff, the emperor was obviously worried that the Ming army's continued attack would bring danger to his life, if Bai Wenxuan ignored the emperor's feelings, it would easily cause resentment, and he would definitely think that Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan did not care about his life or death. After learning the content of the holy decree, the Ming officers and soldiers were in a surge, and many people said that this must not be Yongli's inner thoughts, and asked King Gongchang to continue the attack. Bai Wenxuan also hoped that the views of these officers and soldiers were right, but he turned over and read the holy decree of Yongli several times, but he really couldn't find any hint from the other party that he would continue to march.

"Maybe we retreat a little bit, and threaten Mangbai again, and he will be willing to release the emperor?" Bai Wenxuan took a few more recitals, delaying time, while discussing with his henchmen, if Mang Bai could return to Yongli under the threat, it would naturally be the best, Bai Wenxuan strictly obeyed the orders of the imperial court, the emperor could feel Xiying's loyalty, and he could also realize that both Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan valued his life.

But a few letters went up, but Yongli never replied, and all the chapters were like stones into the sea, and Bai Wenxuan, who did not know the essentials, weighed again and again, and still planned to withdraw from the army. After retreating thirty miles to the north, Bai Wenxuan set up camp again, and seeing that the Ming army refused to continue walking, Ava sent another envoy to urge.

Bai Wenxuan argued with reason, saying that since he had withdrawn from the army in accordance with the order, the Burmese rescue should hand over the emperor. The Burmese side claimed that Yongli's holy decree was to withdraw all Ming troops from the border, suggesting that only then could the return of the Great Son be considered.

The two sides were in a stalemate for some time, and as the Ming army dragged on for longer and longer, there was more spontaneous resistance in the locality, and the effect of the Ming army's last victory was gradually passing, and time would always make the sense of fear become thinner and thinner, and the Ming army could not prevent the resistance from gathering in the rear because of the weak troops.

After hearing that the requisition of grain in the rear was affected and that someone began to ambush the lone soldiers of the Ming army, Bai Wenxuan began to seriously consider the issue of continuing to retreat. At this time, Deng Ming also came from Hedong to inquire, and after hearing that Bai Wenxuan had plans to withdraw from the army, Deng Ming reproached dissatisfiedly: "Now the Burmese around Ava are watching our actions with wide eyes, if we retreat this time, no matter what the reason, it will make the Burmese feel that Mangbai still has a chance to sit on this throne, which is a great encouragement to those who support Mangbai; And if we don't retreat, the reckless supporters will waver, and the wallgrass will find a way out. If King Gongchang retreats this time, he may not be so smooth next time he comes to Ava. ”

No matter how weak the spontaneous resistance is, it will bring losses to the Ming army, and the Ming army will continue to lose its personnel due to illness, and the Qinwang army, which has only 20,000 men, cannot accept a protracted war of attrition.

"But the emperor doesn't want us to save him." Bai Wenxuan said with a wry smile.

"How could the emperor not want to? It must have been the Burmese who intimidated the emperor. Bai Wenxuan didn't dare to say that Yongli was a coward, but Deng Ming didn't have this concern.

There were other people around, and the Burmese envoy was also there--Deng Ming did not ask for a private meeting, but went through the Yongli decree in public, and called the Burmese envoy to inquire -- Bai Wenxuan was unwilling to echo Deng Ming's accusation against Yongli in public, so he pulled Deng Ming to the back of the camp and whispered: "General Deng is right, but what will the emperor think?" ”

"What do we think about the emperor?" Before, Bai Wen chose the tone of a whisper, and Deng Ming's answer did not mean to lower his voice at all, and the generals in the camp could hear it clearly: "The most important thing is to save the emperor from coming out." ”

Deng Ming didn't think about whether Yongli would doubt himself because of this, he never thought of being loyal to the Ming Emperor, or worrying that Yongli would settle accounts after the autumn, or use the imperial court to control other princes...... Deng Ming only knew that Yongli must not die now.