Chapter 33 Chapter 33 Back to the Light

When the weather is good, the setting sun is very beautiful; the sun gradually fades from the brilliance of the brilliance, and it becomes a beautiful rainbow in the sky. The end of the sun sinks, the sky turns into darkness, and the cycle of nature is completed again. However, in Li Chengliang's eyes, this kind of completeness and beauty is a kind of cruelty - he stood at the top of the building with his hands crossed behind his back and looked at the sky. His heart also sank minute by minute, into the bottomless abyss, which brought him an uncomfortable feeling mixed with falling, weakness, and powerlessness, which couldn't even be eliminated or resolved. He can only chew the taste silently, and endure the suffering by himself.

He was surrounded by attendants, but he was lonely. Silently raised his head to the sky, he stood motionless; when it was completely dark, he still maintained the same posture, standing in a trance; the attendants did not get his orders, No one dared to move, so everyone stood with him like a puppet; but unexpectedly, after dark, without sunlight, the weather gradually turned cold, and after a few hours, the It's really "cool as water at night", and the attendants are all young and strong, which doesn't matter, but Li Chengliang himself can't do it - he is getting old, and his spirit is in a state of ignorance, but his body is confronted with iron. In fact, under the attack of the cold air, he uttered a few "ha chirps" in a row, followed by a runny nose, and developed a fever that night.

In the past, he seldom got sick, and his strong and sturdy body was as strong as iron and bronze, and there was no possibility of falling down; but this time it was different, the cause was just a minor illness caused by a bit of wind and cold, but it had not healed for a long time. One month later, he was still coughing, especially when he lay down at night, which made it difficult for him to fall asleep, so he couldn't sleep well all night. "Old—I'm really, old?" No matter on the surface he refuses to show any traces, but he can't help asking himself in his selfish heart, and the answer is yes, but he immediately disbelieves it and completely overthrows it as if he doesn't admit it -- so repeatedly. After a few times, it became more difficult for him to fall asleep at night, his cough was more difficult to heal, and his energy became worse. When he was thinking about important things several times, he couldn't concentrate and concentrate.

And when he discovered this phenomenon himself, he shuddered with horror from the bottom of his heart. "How could this be? How could it be like this?" When people get old and their physical strength declines, does their intelligence also decline?Why is there a phenomenon of lack of concentration? After much deliberation, there was no other answer except for the word "old". However, after thinking about it further, his stubborn temper was aroused; he suddenly jumped up from the hospital bed, secretly I said to myself in my heart: "No, I'm not old - I can't be old! I still have a lot of things to do! All major and minor matters in Liaodong have to be decided by me!"

So, he immediately ordered someone to put on a new, crisp clothes for him, recomb his hair and wash his face, and then, with the support of his own willpower, he showed a vigorous appearance, and strode to the study to be a director . There are indeed many things to be done in front of him, and they are all things that require a lot of energy - he subconsciously alerted himself: "But there must be no more negligence!" This vigilance is not without reason. In the past two years, his "luck" seems to be not as good as before. Several battles have not gone smoothly, which has begun to arouse some criticism:

First, in March of the seventeenth year of Wanli the year before last, the local barbarians invaded again and captured Yizhou, and then entered Taipingbao. He sent the general Zhu Yongshou to fight, but suffered a big defeat and the whole army was wiped out. In September, the enemy invaded again, attacking Pinglu Fort with 30,000 cavalry. He sent Li Younian, the military commander, and Feng Wensheng, the commander in chief, to lead a large number of troops to resist, but they were defeated again. Numerous officers and soldiers were killed in battle, and the enemy army ransacked and looted Shenyang, Puhe, and Yulin for eight days before retreating contentedly.

In the eighteenth year of Wanli last year, the situation was even worse. In February, Tumen Khan’s son, Buyan Khan, together with his two uncles, Daweizheng and Xiaoweizheng, united with Tatar of Chahar in the west, and gathered 50,000 troops to attack; He sent a large number of troops to intercept, but was ambushed unfortunately, and thousands of people died in battle; but he was afraid that the court would be punished, so he had to cover up his defeat and kill a group of good people pretending to be enemies, and reported 280 meritorious deeds; Being far away in Beijing, of course it is easy to deceive, so he immediately issued an order to increase his salary; however, the newly appointed governor of Liaodong, who is close at hand, seems to have begun to feel it; so he sent his men to follow the previous method , sent a generous gift there, but unexpectedly hit a soft nail, the gift was returned tactfully, and it became a shadow in his heart-failing to curry favor or bribe, it was like having two pigtails caught in the trap. In someone else's hands—it's not a pretty thing to do.

Next, after the enemy army enjoyed a few times of sweetness, the scale of the invasion expanded even larger, and they even gathered 100,000 cavalry to attack in a mighty way; After several examples of collective deaths of his comrades, none of his soldiers dared to fight, and they let the enemy plunder for several days and left. When this incident was reported to the imperial court, the response was of course even worse. Therefore, the imperial court sent a servant, Hou Xianchun, to visit Liaodong. "See" only. "Counting the days, we'll be there in three or four days!"

His information is still leak-tight. No matter where Hou Xianchun and the convoy of his entourage go or what they do, he can get a quick and accurate report; therefore, Hou Xianchun's whereabouts since he left Beijing. It's all in his hands. However, grasping Hou Xianchun's whereabouts is of no use other than being able to predict when he will arrive and how much people have learned along the way! What's more, Hou Xianchun, like all the civil officials in this dynasty, was an official who had been immersed in the practice of stereotyped essays since he was a child, and was born as a Jinshi in the examination. He will have a deep understanding, and he is still young; it is not difficult at all to fool him into happily returning to Beijing-he has full confidence.

He was really troubled, and what he had to spend a lot of energy to deal with was the imperial court far away in Beijing. According to the news obtained, the government, which has long been in decline, has become as corrupt as a boil on the head of dysentery, which will ooze pus with just a light touch. Emperor Wanli once again stopped governing the court, and of course the appointment of the crown prince was put on hold; and the ministers in the court could neither see Emperor Wanli's face, nor did they have the courage to rush into the palace to find the emperor face to face. After speaking, they all pointed the finger at Shoufu Shen Shixing again.

Among the ministers who exerted pressure on Shen Shixing in waves, some of them were acting for their own political ideas, while others were due to personal grievances, or even Shen Shihang's political opponents who had never had the opportunity to force him to step down. Forbearance - the number of several people added together is very large, and of course it will be a considerable force when gathered together. Of course, Shen Shixing was not to be outdone, and immediately led "his people" to fight back; before the attack, he made a careful and prudent assessment, and after deduction, he concluded that the mastermind behind this turmoil was his imaginary enemy Ci Fuxu Guo, he believes that Xu Guo has been coveting his position as chief assistant for a long time, and from time to time, he wants to expand the small opportunity he seized into a big storm to attack him, so as to force him to step down and take his place; after reaching such a conclusion, he He decided to adopt the method of "capturing the thief first and capturing the king" to deal with all those who opposed him—first attack Xu Guo, the culprit of the mastermind. As a result, the open and secret struggles among a group of ministers became several times more serious than before, and the government naturally became more chaotic. As for Li Chengliang, all kinds of internal strife in the court made him worry-originally, he relied on these important officials in the court to accept his great gift and supported him, but now, these people actually "Fighting in the nest", of course there are only two results, one is one win and one loss, and the other is both losers; but no matter what kind of consequences it leads to, it will be fatal to him. "It doesn't matter whether it's Shen or Xu who resigned—ah! But what should I do?" Thinking about it, he really wanted to go to Beijing to persuade him to reconcile, but that was impossible. "In case both sides suffer..." Of course, the worst outcome would be to lose to both sides, and all his backers would collapse, and the thought of the possible ensuing situation made him burn with worry; but, after all, he is not an ordinary person, after worrying, he immediately rises up to face the reality Therefore, he murmured to himself: "The backing has fallen, and there will always be new dignitaries coming to power in the DPRK. We must find a way to rely on it--I have to show some skills to show others, and the weight will also be worth it." Enough!" Therefore, while paying closer attention to the various changes in the court, he also tried his best to cheer up, preparing to perform well in Liaodong, so as to increase his weight in continuing to gain a foothold.