Zhu Youjian was startled and quickly asked, "What happened to Master Gao?"
Wang Chengen sighed:
"Your Majesty, as you instructed, I selected many eunuchs and sent them to Master Gao, but who knew that Master Gao would get angry instead!"
"He told me not to fool him and not to have someone pretend to be a student."
He imitated Gao Qingyun, speaking in a hoarse voice:
"How many people are there in your Dahe Village? How can a hundred children suddenly appear?"
"Did you steal this from another village?"
Zhu Youjian pressed further, "Then how did you answer Master Gao?"
Wang Chengen shook his head.
"How could I dare to accept that? It was Eunuch Cao who interjected. He gestured for me to take the person away, and then he stayed behind to persuade Master Gao."
Zhu Youjian finally breathed a sigh of relief.
With Cao Daban involved, Master Gao should no longer have any doubts.
But he still dared not delay and immediately set off for Taiye Pond.
As soon as he entered, he heard Gao Qingyun reprimanding him:
"Xiao Zhu, I know you mean well, you want my eyes to... well, you just want me to finish my teaching duties as soon as possible."
"But you can't play that trick on me!"
"If you lure students from other villages here to take classes, what will happen when the teachers from those villages find out? Won't they come looking for trouble with me?"
No one knows how Cao Huachun managed to fool him, but Gao Qingyun refused to accept those hundred eunuchs.
Upon hearing this, Zhu Youjian was both surprised and delighted.
"Master Gao, are you really not going to take those students?"
"Then...it must be really difficult for our village to gather so many children!"
Gao Qingyun sighed: "Of course I know that! But there's nothing I can do about it!"
"Hey, if you really care, then urge the people in your village to have more children!"
"If they don't have children, my school will have to close down!"
Zhu Youjian nodded quickly: "Don't worry, Master Gao, I'll go and tell them to have more children right away!"
Upon hearing this, Gao Qingyun coughed awkwardly a few times.
"That's not necessary."
He thought to himself, "If Xiao Zhu really does that, won't all the young people in the village curse me to death behind my back?"
Gao Qingyun shook his head and said, "This depends on fate."
"By the way, how's Little Li doing lately? When will he be back in class?"
Zhu Youjian knew that Gao Qingyun would not be leaving anytime soon, which relieved him greatly, and his eyes were filled with joy.
He casually remarked, "He's almost finished with his business over there, he should be back soon."
After saying this, he smiled and walked out, then grabbed Cao Huachun and sighed:
"Cao Daban, we really owe you a lot this time, otherwise Master Gao would definitely have started to have doubts."
Cao Huachun smiled and said, "Your Majesty, isn't this the very reason you sent me here?"
"This servant is just a little curious, Your Majesty, are you really going to keep this from Master Gao forever?"
Zhu Youjian fell silent immediately after hearing this.
After a long while, he asked, "Cao Daban, Master Gao... does he really not know, or is he pretending not to know?"
These words seemed abrupt and unrelated, but Cao Huachun understood them perfectly.
Zhu Youjian definitely wanted to know whether Gao Qingyun knew that he had returned to the past.
No matter how well they concealed it, there was something strange about Gao Qingyun after all.
Perhaps he had already guessed everything, but deliberately didn't expose it, just wanting to see when Zhu Youjian would confess.
Even if Gao Qingyun didn't realize he had time-traveled, he would eventually discover something was wrong as time went on.
If Zhu Youjian reveals the truth only at that time, Gao Qingyun will definitely be extremely dissatisfied.
Cao Huachun practically watched Zhu Youjian grow up and knew his thoughts very well.
"Your Majesty may only call Gao Qingyun 'Master Gao' now, but in your heart you probably regard him as half a father."
"He certainly wouldn't want Master Gao to be sad."
After hesitating for a moment, he carefully said, "Your Majesty, nothing in this world can compare to sincerity."
"As long as you are sincere to Master Gao, no matter what you do, Master Gao will always forgive you in the future."
Zhu Youjian breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
"That makes sense!"
"It seems that I will have to visit Master Gao more often in the future."
At this moment, Luo Yangxing also rushed over. After hearing this, he smiled bitterly to himself: "Before today, His Majesty would go to Taiye Pond whenever he had nothing to do."
"If we're going to be traveling a lot in the future, won't we have to live here?"
But he didn't dare to speak up to dissuade them, so he could only change the subject.
"Your Majesty, this is Lord Qian's report."
After the Donglin Party and Wei Zhongxian were wiped out, Zhu Youjian also began to dislike Qian Qianyi.
But considering that he had just made a great contribution, it was not a good idea to punish him.
So they simply appointed him as an imperial envoy and sent him to inspect Shaanxi and Gansu.
Qian Qianyi thought this was the emperor giving him an opportunity to leave the capital and make meritorious contributions.
Once he returns to the capital, he will likely be able to enter the cabinet and become prime minister.
So he got very excited and worked hard on inspections in Shaanxi and Gansu.
After several months of investigation, he even wrote a lengthy report.
Zhu Youjian snorted: "What did he write in his report?"
Luo Yangxing quickly said:
"Your Majesty, Lord Qian said in his memorial that there are many starving people in Shaanxi and Gansu, and the local authorities are unable to provide for them."
"If the imperial court doesn't come up with a solution quickly, things might get complicated."
Zhu Youjian was not surprised by this.
After all, Gao Qingyun had told him long ago that Li Zicheng, who overthrew the Ming Dynasty, was from Shaanxi and Gansu.
If Shaanxi and Gansu were in harmony, would Li Zicheng have been so bored as to rebel?
Even if he himself is just being unreasonable, the people of Shaanxi and Gansu will not follow him to their deaths.
Zhu Youjian said calmly, "I had already planned this matter. I will recruit soldiers from Shaanxi and Gansu and have them serve in the Beijing garrison."
"In this way, the Beijing garrison will have new recruits and will soon be able to revitalize itself."
"And the soldiers' pay for these new recruits can also be used for disaster relief."
At this point, Zhu Youjian suddenly remembered something.
"Since Qian Qianyi happens to be in Shaanxi and Gansu, let's have him take care of this matter first."
He didn't want to see Qian Qianyi, so he decided to give him something to do and have him return to Beijing later.
Luo Yangxing naturally wouldn't object.
"Then I will go and deliver the decree immediately."
However, this decree only made the officials more certain that the Ming army had suffered a crushing defeat.
"It seems this defeat has severely damaged the Beijing garrison!"
"Otherwise, why would we recruit soldiers in the Northwest?"
"Hmph, I'd like to see how the Emperor will manage to gloss over the triumphant ceremony in a few days!"
Just as they were waiting to see the joke, Ningyuan Frontline.
Yuan Chonghuan, however, looked completely bewildered.
"Hmm? What about the Jurchens outside the city?"
"Yesterday they went to great lengths, cutting down trees nearby, making it look like they were building siege equipment."
"How come they disappeared so early this morning?"
Not only was Yuan Chonghuan puzzled, but the other garrison commanders were also baffled.
"Yes, the Jurchens' grain doesn't fall from the sky. They can't just come all this way for nothing and then hastily retreat without doing anything."
"Could it be that something went wrong with the Beijing garrison?"
Upon hearing this, Yuan Chonghuan frowned.
What problems could possibly arise with the Beijing garrison?
"If the Beijing Garrison is defeated, the Jurchens will become even more arrogant. They will definitely send someone to tell me about the Beijing Garrison's defeat and then try to persuade me to surrender."
"How could they suddenly withdraw?"
"On the other hand, since they've withdrawn, could it be that... the Beijing garrison won the battle?"
As he analyzed this, an expression of disbelief appeared on his face.
"But how is that possible?"
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