eurekapd Chapter 288 Everyone has ideas
Chapter 288 Everyone has ideas
The prime minister was also worried.
Although he was looking forward to Ning Yi really ascending the throne, after all, the Prime Minister had helped Ning Yi a lot along the way.
However, he had experienced many ups and downs in officialdom and had followed the old emperor for many years.
It was quite clear that the emperor on the throne was extremely suspicious.
It is too dangerous to make the Sixth Prince the King of War.
The prime minister did not dare to remind the Sixth Prince rashly, otherwise the old emperor would definitely be angry.
It all depends on what the Sixth Prince thinks.
Fortunately, the Sixth Prince did not accept it, and kept praising the emperor and soldiers for their contributions. He also asked the old emperor to wait until the barbarians were attacked and defeated before re-conferring the title.
From any perspective, the Sixth Prince has done a very good job.
While the Prime Minister breathed a sigh of relief, he was also filled with worry, knowing very well that once the Sixth Prince defeated the barbarians, his career would be over.
Next, Emperor Wu would not allow such a son with outstanding military achievements to hang around in the capital.
He will definitely be forced to become a vassal. If someone is really cruel, it is even possible that he will be imprisoned.
The Prime Minister was full of worries, and he even regretted that he had defected to the Sixth Prince too early.
Judging from the current situation, the old emperor has no intention of deciding on a successor.
It is very likely that I will want to do this for another seven or eight years.
How could the Sixth Prince have survived seven or eight years with such great military achievements?
Unless he rebelled directly like the Fourth Prince, that would cause a huge disaster.
But at this point, the Prime Minister had no choice but to go and rely on the Second Prince.
Otherwise, he would have only tricked the second prince once before. No matter what, he would definitely deal with him first after he ascended the throne.
The last person who was worried was Yang Long.
This person has been unable to eat recently. Her son-in-law is fighting in the front and her daughter is under house arrest in the palace.
How can he, as a father, eat?
He couldn't sleep all night because he received the news of the victory at Hushan Pass. He was both happy and bitter.
The good news is that Hushan Pass has been temporarily defended, so there is no need to worry for at least a short period of time.
As the Minister of War, I can now report to the Emperor.
But the bitter thing is that they used this as an excuse, saying that their spouse missed their daughter and wanted to take her away.
The old emperor actually didn't allow it. If your wife misses her daughter, she can come to the palace to accompany her and visit.
Now your daughter is my daughter-in-law, and my son is fighting on the front line. As a father, I must protect his wife. Otherwise, how can I explain to my son?
Yang Long felt frustrated that he couldn't even pick up his daughter.
It was also clear that, to put it bluntly, the old emperor was still holding the six prince's two wives as hostages.
But Yang Long knew that with the Sixth Prince's ruthless character, would he still care about his wife when the critical moment came?
He was very worried that once the Sixth Prince won, drove away the barbarians and returned to the capital, the old emperor would not forgive him. The Sixth Prince was not someone who would surrender easily, so the two sides would probably quarrel.
By then, his daughter will be the victim.
So Yang Long wrote a letter to Ning Yi, asking him to hold Hushan Pass well and defend it well, and not to try to be brave again to prevent any accidents.
Just let Lao Liu hold Hushan Pass and don't think about sending troops.
He just needs to defend himself, hold out for a year, and come back safely. By then, the old emperor will not punish him severely because of his military achievements.
After reading Yang Long's letter, Ning Yi immediately understood what the fat man was thinking. He was too lazy to care about it and just threw it aside.
As for the Prime Minister's letter, let Zeng Rou write back and tell the Prime Minister not to worry, he has his own way.
Now Ning Yi has arranged for the two newly arrived medical forces from the Beijing Camp to replenish the troops, and Hushan Pass has been completely stabilized.
While training his newly reorganized troops, he also asked the Intelligence Department to purchase more cotton-padded clothes.
He had asked the Intelligence Department to prepare for this matter before he set off.
And they are purchased in large quantities. As for why it is said that there are too many, it is difficult to produce and recruit employees.
That's easy. We just need to go to various parts of the countryside, spread the news, and ask the people there to make cotton clothes and sell them to the north.
I believe that soon, his private army will be able to wear cotton-padded clothes.
Now that it is autumn, Ning Yi is asking the court for cotton-padded clothes, each time requesting 200,000 sets.
Emperor Wu also knew that if Hushan Pass wanted to hold out through the winter, it would need all kinds of supplies.
He naturally handed it over to his subordinates to collect.
What Hushan Pass has to face is the hundreds of thousands of elite barbarians who are about to arrive.
Not only do they need cotton-padded clothes, but they also need various supplies, such as medicinal materials, kerosene, and salt.
Leave these old guys to other people.
After the battle with Aturu, Ning Yi had almost reorganized Hushan Pass after a month of stability.
The capital city didn't cheer for long.
The barbarian army marched south in a mighty force. This time, there were a total of 200,000 barbarian cavalry and more than 100,000 forced soldiers.
Many people were shocked.
Ning Yi was sleeping with Zeng Rou in his arms when he was woken up by Qin Haifeng knocking on the door.
Zeng Rou has always been Ning Yi's personal maid. Ever since last time, she resolutely refused to look for her father and vowed to follow His Highness until death.
Ning Yi truly made her his woman.
Even Qin Haifeng no longer calls her Miss Zeng when they meet, but calls her Madam.
Even if she was a concubine, she didn't even have a wedding ceremony and could only be considered a personal maid.
But she was also the prince's maid, and not everyone could look down on her.
Zeng Rou, a young woman who looked like a high school student, helped Ning Yi get dressed, and then she followed him out, still dressed as a maid.
Ning Yi was puzzled: "What's the rush so early in the morning?"
After Qin Haifeng saluted, he immediately said, "Your Highness, we just received news from our spies that the barbarian army has arrived in Fangzhou."
"There are nearly 400,000 troops, led by the Barbarian Khan himself."
"Four hundred thousand troops?" Ning Yi took a breath and said, "Could it be a large number of refugees?"
In the past, the barbarians did this, with a small number of elite soldiers driving a large number of refugees to attack the city.
If most of the people there were refugees, Ning Yi would not be worried.
Qin Haifeng shook his head slightly. "According to our investigation, there are only a few tens of thousands of ordinary civilians in the army, all of whom are used to escort supplies and build equipment. The rest of the army, except for the cavalry of over 200,000, are all coerced soldiers, and there are also tens of thousands of vassal kings' soldiers."
Ning Yi touched his chin and said, "Atulu was taken care of by our people. They thought it was done by the prince's soldiers, so they asked the barbarian army to take care of the prince's soldiers in the rear as well."
They launched a surprise attack on Fangzhou under the guise of being the vassal king's troops, which definitely made the barbarian Khan furious.
Naturally, they attacked the vassal kings' soldiers who had not come from the rear.
A group of vassal kings' soldiers numbered only a few thousand, or at most tens of thousands, and they were just there to make up the numbers and watch the fun.
Except for a small number of soldiers and horses that were killed by Ning Yi, the rest of the people took a detour to the west.
But there are many people who stay behind and wait to get rich.
Now, they have all been captured by the barbarians and forced to join the army.
There were tens of thousands of soldiers from the vassal kings, as well as many city defense troops who had captured cities and surrendered, and border troops who had surrendered. The number was still terrifying.