"Lord Wang, the Mongolian political envoy has received good news, our army has encircled and annihilated the remnants of the Northern Yuan Dynasty in Mobei, and captured the son of Dehuan alive."

In mid-February, when Li Yuntian was discussing the territory and port garrisons he had obtained from the Timurid Empire with the nobles of the Jiangwutang lineage, a military attache walked briskly into the council hall and made a deep announcement to Li Yuntian.

"What about Gu Chen?" Li Yuntian frowned slightly when he heard this, and asked in a deep voice.

Li Yuntian values Gu Chen more than Ye Xian, because Gu Chen is 10,000 times more dangerous than Ye Xian, and he is at best just a military general, while Gu Chen is both civil and military, and the reason why Beiyuan has made so many troubles for Da Ming over the years is completely Gu Chen's dominance behind the scenes.

According to Li Yuntian's prediction, if Gu Chen didn't make a mistake and rebelled with the King of Han back then, then he should be able to enter the marquis by virtue of his military merits, and his military talent is outstanding among the generals of the Ming army, and there are only a handful.

If Gu Chen can't be caught, then Da Ming will still be in trouble, at least Li Yuntian will be in trouble, because Lu Tianxing has been executed by Ling Chi in the capital last fall, Gu Chen will definitely go to fulfill Lu Tianxing's wish to come and do something to him.

"According to the confession of the captured Northern Yuan generals, Gu Chen disappeared a few days before they were surrounded and annihilated, and no one knows where he went." Hearing this, the military attache hurriedly said in a deep voice, "However, according to some people, Gu Chen had a secret conversation with Ye Xian before he disappeared. ”

Li Yuntian's brows suddenly furrowed deeper when he heard this, in fact, as soon as the military attache opened his mouth, he knew that he had not caught Gu Chen, otherwise he would definitely mention Gu Chen when he talked about it first, because Gu Chen was the number one person in the Northern Yuan Dynasty that Li Yuntian had ordered to be arrested.

Speaking of which, if he was able to catch it smoothly this time, Li Yuntian wanted to thank Wendu of the Timurid Empire, it was Wendu who led the army to pursue all the way, and the generals and Gu Chen and his party were able to jump up and down, exhausted, and finally surrounded and annihilated a year ago.

The reason why Wendu wanted to pursue Yexian and Gu Chen, instead of returning to the Timurid Empire, was because he was a hostage in the hands of Li Yuntian like the 100,000 soldiers of the Timurid Empire who surrendered, and only when Khordu Khan completely handed over the ceded land to Li Yuntian of the Ming Dynasty would he let Wendu go.

Before this, Wen Du could only stay in Daming, and Li Yuntian was not afraid of him escaping at all, because if he escaped like this, it would affect the diplomatic relations between Daming and the Timurid Empire, so he would definitely not act rashly and wanted to go back with the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Timurid Empire.

"Lord Wang, Gu Chen must have run away, this person is scheming and scheming, he must have realized that they were almost done and ran away in advance." After the discussion, Li Yuntian returned to his office with a serious expression, and Lin Xin brought him a cup of hot water and said with some concern, "Lord Wang, do you want to strengthen the vigilance in the mansion." ”

The "mansion" in Lin Xin's mouth naturally refers to the Zhongwu Palace, she was in the council hall just now, so she naturally knew about Gu Chen's escape, and was worried that Gu Chen, who was at the end of his rope, would attack the family members of the Zhongwu Palace.

"Gu Chen is different from Lu Tianxing, this person is very conceited, and he shouldn't do anything to this king's family." Li Yuntian shook his head when he heard this, and after taking a sip of hot water, he said in a deep voice, "Besides, Gu Chen knows that he only has one chance to attack this king, so he will definitely not startle the snake, so as not to expose the target." ”

"Lord Wang, Gu Chen has reached this point, do you still want to be unfavorable to the Lord Wang?" Lin Xin felt that Li Yuntian's words were reasonable, and after a deep groan, she asked in a coquettish voice, feeling that Gu Chen was too persistent.

With the destruction of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, Gu Chen had lost the opportunity to challenge Li Yuntian head-on, so he could only use those shady means to deal with Li Yuntian in secret, but Li Yuntian's heavily guarded side was not so easy for him to succeed.

"I'm afraid that revenge on this king is the motivation for him to live, and once he loses this goal, his whole person will collapse." Li Yuntian smiled bitterly when he heard this, Gu Chen is too stupid and loyal, otherwise he would not have ended up in such a situation, he has lost everything, so he can only take revenge on himself as the greatest pursuit in life.

The so-called open guns are easy to dodge and dark arrows are difficult to defend, Gu Chen has enough patience to plan his revenge plan, which makes Li Yuntian a little nerve-wracking, so Gu Chen's secret plan will become unguardable.

"Lord Wang, Duke Wu has been escorted back to the capital, and he wants to see you." Just when Li Yuntian was feeling sad about Gu Chen's matter, a military attache came in and said in a deep voice.

"Let's go, follow the king." Li Yuntian sighed secretly in his heart when he heard this, and after greeting Lin Xin, he walked away, although the battle of the Western Regions had ended, there were still two small tails left to solve it.

A small tail is Song Hai, the Duke of Wuguo, and the other small tail is Yang Sanyu, the Marquis of Chengning.

Song Hai is the main general, so he must be responsible for the defeat of the Western Expeditionary Army in Blue Leaf City, there is no doubt about this, but there is no clear conclusion on how to characterize Song Hai in the war, and whether Song Hai was forced to break through or actively flee after leaving the battlefield The trial of the case is completely different.

Li Yuntian, as the commander of the Battle of the Western Regions, and also the imperial history of the Zuodu of the Imperial Procuratorate, will be responsible for the interrogation of Song Hai at that time.

Moreover, Li Yuntian also needs to know what happened, so that he can make the most fair judgment on Song Hai, no matter how Song Hai is also the prince of the Ming Dynasty, he can't deal with it rashly.

Penal Department, Prison.

Li Yuntian's arrival made the prison jump for a while, and no one thought that Li Yuntian would come, so the prison officer hurriedly led his subordinates to bow down to greet him, feeling uneasy in his heart.

If it were another minister, the prison officer would not be so nervous, Li Yuntian is not only in a high position but also in charge of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate has the responsibility of cleaning up unjust prisons, so before knowing Li Yuntian's intentions, the prison officials naturally have to be worried, for fear that his extortion of criminals will be exposed.

Not everyone can enter the prison of the Criminal Department, and the people who are imprisoned in it are usually court officials who have committed crimes, and the common people can only live in the prison of Yingtianfu, unless the civilian prisoners whose cases are particularly serious can be escorted to the prison of the Criminal Department.

Therefore, working in the prison of the Criminal Department is also a good errand with oil and water, and the prisoners who are locked up in it usually have rich families, and those prison officers and jailers will naturally not let go of such a good opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity to extort money, and there is a good chance that those who go to prison will be sentenced anyway.

Even if the prisoners in the prison are acquitted, then they will definitely adhere to the principle that more is better than less, because the extortion is related to the prison officials and jailers.

After learning that Li Yuntian was coming to interrogate the newly imprisoned Song Hai, the prison officer suddenly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and hurriedly asked Song Hai to be taken out of prison.

In a clean room, Li Yuntian saw Song Hai with handcuffs and leg irons, Song Hai had changed into a white prison uniform at this time, full of white hair, black and thin, he had long lost the vigor he had when he left the capital, and he looked like a dry little old man.

"The sinner Song Hai knocked on the prince." Song Hai didn't expect Li Yuntian to come to the prison to see him so soon, his face was full of excitement, and he knelt on the ground and saluted Li Yuntian with a plop.

Since the fiasco of the Western Expeditionary Army in the Western Regions was made public by the imperial court, Song Hai and Yang Sanyu have been deprived of their titles and official positions, and now they have become ordinary people.

"Remove the shackles." Li Yuntian couldn't help but sigh in his heart when he saw Song Hai's haggard appearance, and said in a deep voice to the prison officer standing aside, although Song Hai was defeated in Blue Leaf City, he was the former prince of the Ming Dynasty after all, and in Li Yuntian's opinion, victory and defeat were a common thing in soldiers, so it was really unreasonable to shackle Song Hai, who had escaped back to the Ming Dynasty after all the hard work.

Since Li Yuntian had spoken, the prison officer naturally did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly stepped forward to personally remove the shackles worn by Song Hai, and then retreated with interest, with his rank, he was not qualified to attend Li Yuntian's interrogation of Song Hai at all.

"Come on, move a stool for Grandpa Guo." Li Yuntian glanced at Song Hai, who was kneeling there with a look of gratitude, and instructed the guards in the house, he could see that Song Hai's body was very weak, and he must have endured hardships in the Western Regions.

Song Hai suffered a lot of injuries on the battlefield when he was young, otherwise he would not have become the prince of the Ming Dynasty, and now he is an out-and-out old man who has passed the age of the sixtieth year, how can Li Yuntian, who is also a nobleman, watch him kneel there and be tried, so he will naturally be treated preferentially.

"Thank you, Lord Wang!" Song Hai's heart couldn't help but warm when he heard this, he didn't shirk it, and sat on the chair after thanking Li Yuntian.

"Wu Guogong, this king already knows the course of the battle of Blue Leaf City, and the soldiers of our Western Expeditionary Army fought bloodily for several days, and finally were outnumbered, which is really a pity." After Song Hai sat down, Li Yuntian pondered for a while and then said with a serious expression, "Now the imperial court wants to know, why did the Duke of Guo disappear that day?" ”

Although Song Hai has been deprived of his title, he is also Li Yuntian's elder anyway, so Li Yuntian still calls Song Hai the prince of the country, which is a kind of respect for Song Hai.

"Lord Wang, since the enemy army had broken through our army's defense line and divided and surrounded our army that day, the criminals realized that the battle of Blue Leaf City had been whited, so they decided to lead the army to break through."

Song Hai's face showed a painful look, as if he was unwilling to recall the unbearable past in the past, "The enemy army sent cavalry to pursue, although the criminals escaped the pursuit of the enemy army under the brave resistance of the soldiers, but due to the unfamiliarity of the people in the Western Regions, they lost their way, and finally were captured by the local tribes and became their slaves, and later the criminals took advantage of their civil strife to escape. ”

"Wu Guogong, when this king was in Kansai, he once obtained the battle of Blue Leaf City from the West Chagatai, and they did send people to pursue you and others, but they didn't know the identity of you and others before, and later learned from the prisoners that it was the commander of the Western Expeditionary Army who broke through, and when they sent people to chase after them, they had already gone far and they returned in vain."

Li Yuntian bowed slightly when he heard this, he had already figured out the progress of the battle of Blue Leaf City from the Timurid Empire when he negotiated peace with Khordu Khan in the ancient city of Dunhuang, and because of the brave resistance of the Western Expeditionary Army, they had to postpone the process of eastward advance, and then left Li Yuntian precious time to arrange the arrangement, and successfully rescued Monte Khan and others from Beshin Bali City.

"Wu Guogong, do you have any witnesses who can prove that you were captured by the local tribe?" Subsequently, Li Yuntian Yufeng changed his mind and asked, this is the key to the problem, and only by finding out the reason for Song Hai's disappearance can he be sentenced.