Chapter 37 Chapter 37 Life and Death

Letters of "Eight Hundred Miles Express" were sent to the city of Beijing one after another. Due to the frequent wars, almost half of these documents reported the battle situation. Therefore, the number of these Zhang Zou documents even read by the eunuchs to the ears of Emperor Wanli is very small. Emperor Wanli's mood was at a low ebb for a long time - after he slowly recovered from an unknown disease, he had no physical problems, but more psychological problems. What I think about is some unpleasant things in my illness. When he was still ill and his sanity began to recover, he had already heard reports from the eunuchs, saying that the ministers in the court were very worried about his condition, and they not only burned incense for him, prayed to heaven, and blessed him with dragons and dragons. The body recovered as soon as possible, and a group of people took turns to come to Wenhua Gate every day to hand in the memorial. Chen asked to choose a concubine for the eldest son of the emperor Chang Luo as soon as possible, and hold the grand ceremony for the appointment of the crown prince as soon as possible——

Although the previous words made him nod his head, but the latter words made him fly into a rage, and scolded: "I'm just a little sick, so I'm going to let go? Urging, forcing me to set up the emperor as soon as possible." Prince——I don't!" His willful and stubborn personality makes him have a firm attitude even when he is lying on the hospital bed and taking medicine. He confronts the ministers bravely and does not compromise at all; his lips are slightly thinner, tight When they were together, a line of domineering arrogance and childish anger formed at the corners of his mouth, so he told the eunuchs in a non-negotiable and independent tone: "Don't worry about these things! Let them go!" Kneel and die outside Wenhua Gate!"

After finishing speaking, he snorted heavily again: "No one will ever think about asking me about the establishment of the crown prince!" Of course, the eunuchs obediently obeyed the order of the Holy Order—— However, even if he decides the matter so recklessly and arbitrarily, and insists on not holding the grand ceremony for the appointment of the crown prince for Chang Luo, there are still a few strands of unhappy thoughts in his heart at any time, which disturb the faint life in his heart. pain. It was this illness that made him touch some feelings that he hadn't noticed before, the deep and subtle places in people's hearts, and even the differences between people, some small details that are only revealed in extraordinary times.

During his illness, every time when he woke up from his stupor, he would never see Concubine Zheng Gui. He called her by her nickname, but there was no response. The eunuchs and court ladies only dared to obsequiously explain that Concubine Zheng Gui was busy with other things. ;Eunuchs were sent to declare, but she seldom showed up right away—in short, she was not in the Qianqing Palace, she was not by his side, and even his two most beloved children, Chang Xun and Princess Shouning, disappeared; Lying on the sick bed, a thought slowly rose in his heart: "They only want to be happy, not to be sick—"

He summoned the eunuchs and questioned Concubine Zheng Gui what she was "busy", and the eunuchs could only answer him respectfully: "Your Majesty has someone from my mother's family to pay her respects, and they are discussing matters; slaves dare not tell—" Or just: "Your Majesty ordered, she will come to visit when she is young——" And even if Concubine Zheng came to his sick bed by chance, there was little concern for his illness in her soft and charming voice, and there was little thoughtfulness to inquire about his illness. Instead, she kept urging him: " Long live Lord, look at how many things have been delayed by your illness! This time, once you recover, you will have to arrange Chang Xun's affairs early!"

She seems to have already prepared all the details of how to establish Chang Xun as the crown prince. When she talks about this, she seems to have a well-thought-out plan; The candidates for teacher protection had already been prepared; however, Emperor Wanli felt a slight chill in his heart when she was not in front of him, he couldn't help thinking several times: "She didn't take my illness to heart at all, she just blindly She wants to make her son the crown prince and make herself a queen—she doesn’t come to see me often, she must be busy preparing for this—she must be like the ministers, thinking that I am going to die, so she is in a hurry to help herself first Intend--"

Thinking of him subconsciously, he felt heartache, and forced himself to restrain his thoughts from not thinking about it, but it resurfaced after a while, which made him very uncomfortable. On the contrary, some people who have always been estranged from him often appear before his sick bed. They are the queen who is also sick, the concubine Wang Gong who is not in his favor, and his eldest son Chang Luo. Chang Luo is already sixteen years old, and his face looks very similar to him, but when he is in front of him, he is often speechless—in terms of demeanor and IQ, he seems to have only inherited the inheritance of Concubine Wang Gong, not like him. His son——When dealing with it, his flexibility was far inferior to that of the eunuch Wang An who was waiting for him.

Therefore, although Chang Luo's visit brought him a little warm feeling, it also made him unhappy at the same time. Moreover, once Chang Luo's various things in his mind were compared with Zheng Guifei's mother and son, his His heart fell into complicated confusion; even though his mouth gave orders forcefully, his heart was filled with various feelings that he couldn't figure out. And since he couldn't figure it out, he simply ignored it—fortunately, he was already used to it, and he could get the peace and peace after escaping from reality—for the reason of "illness" , he hid in the Qianqing Palace, spending his days indifferent to everything——

There are several stacks of memorials from all over the country in his imperial study, and the eunuchs responsible for arranging the chapters for him have also neglected their duties because of his lazy attitude. Few people are carefully processing these chapters and understanding the contents. ,, but just pile up the received performances neatly on the storage shelf according to the "routine" every day. It wasn't until the Ministry of War received the official document sent by Xing Jie from North Korea that the officials racked their brains and through various channels, finally let Emperor Wanli know an important and extraordinary news, that is, Japan launched a long-term Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the protagonist of the seven-year invasion of Korea, is dead.

At the age of sixty-two, he died on August thirteenth--before this, he had been ill for several months with increasing age, from June to his own distress, to mid-July, to his own I don't know, I started to make all the arrangements behind me, including instructions to the Japanese troops who were fighting in Korea. In order not to affect the progress of the war, the decision he made was to ask his subordinates not to announce his death for the time being, and wait until the fighting gradually slowed down before withdrawing the army of Zhengchao in batches-so, even if the Japanese army of Zhengchao knew about him The news of death, it is already the season of winter.

It was already the end of the year when the Emperor Wanli heard the news from the eunuchs; he didn't know Toyotomi Hideyoshi at all, and he couldn't imagine for a while what impact the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi would have on the whole situation or the Ming Dynasty, let alone He felt that the news was of no importance at all; therefore, he just casually responded: "Oh, since Japan's national funeral is held, the war in Korea will probably not continue!" He immediately ordered: "Let's discuss with the Ministry of War, withdraw our Ming reinforcements!" After a while, he seemed to tilt his head and said after thinking for a while: "In Japan, after all, they also paid tribute to me, Ming Dynasty - also discuss with the Ministry, let's show them something!" In this way, he dealt with this matter in a few words; a seven-year-long transnational war did not hold much weight in his heart, to the extent that he ignored all the achievements and casualties of his own army. However, when Nurhachi received the news of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death, his reaction was quite different—he who was drawing a map of Jianzhou on paper with a pen suddenly raised his head, opened his eyes, and shot Two sharp eyes came and asked carefully: "When did he die? When the news reached North Korea, what happened to the people from several parties?" He talked tirelessly, and if the spies couldn't answer the questions he thought of, he would be ordered to go back to North Korea to investigate; even, he immediately sent a group of deep spies to collect more detailed and richer information for him. Therefore, for a long time to come, he was very busy working - he thought about and judged the collected information one by one, from some practices of Toyotomi Hideyoshi to what happened in the Seven Years War Bit by bit, the current situation in North Korea, and even the possible route of the Ming army that is about to withdraw from the country when returning to the division—— He also convened the "Five Tiger Generals" and his younger brothers to discuss matters together, and gave key instructions: "After the Korean war is over, the situation in Liaodong may change accordingly—we have to keep a close eye on the situation in Liaodong. Respond to any changes, seize every opportunity—” He often has the thinking habit of combining the past, present, and future. He always looks forward, and his goal is always in the long-term future. He is also good at grasping the present; Looking far away from the wild—before the war between Japan and North Korea started, he had put a lot of effort into observing the war, and he has not let up in the past seven years; but now that the war is over, his thinking habits make him keep paying attention With the current situation changing, as well as various situations that may occur in the future. Of course, during the course of the seven-year Three Kingdoms War, he gained a lot of benefits; compared with other ministries in Liaodong who were indifferent to this war and had eyes like peas, they only knew how to strive for some small profits in front of them. When the minister came, he ran far ahead, making Jianzhou's strength far surpassed by a lot, and the space and potential for development expanded to infinity—— The new year is coming soon. After assessing the current situation and assessing his strength, he told himself with confidence: "Next year, Jianzhou will have new breakthroughs and new developments—" In the new year, he will enter a new mileage at the age of 41, and will lead all the people in Jianzhou to create a bigger new situation and create a stronger new generation--before New Year's Eve. One day, he took a small team of horses to hunt in the outskirts of the mountain. The horses galloped on the snow, kicking up slush all over the ground. When the beast trail appeared, he took the lead to draw the bow and shoot the arrow; in the midair of the wind and snow, the feathered arrow he shot pierced the wind powerfully and hit the target accurately; then, he raised his head amidst the cheers of the crowd. Xiangtian, with a confident smile on his face.