The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Chapter 714 The Prince’s Worries

On the second day, a team of light cavalry drove out of the imperial city unhindered, passed through the north gate and headed northeast along the avenue.

In late spring in March, the vegetation and mountains were lush, and the beautiful scenery along the way slowed down the team's march.

Just as the leading young man in yellow robe was admiring the beautiful scenery, the forests and mountains on the road ahead shook, and the sound of swords and horses could be heard faintly.

Everyone around him suddenly became nervous, and many people immediately gathered in front of the young man, taking a defensive stance.

The young man frowned, but did not seem flustered. Instead, he signaled the guards to come forward and inquire.

Soon, a general came on horseback, jumped off his horse with a plop, knelt on one knee and said:

"I am Jia Lian, the humble general, and I have been ordered to train the soldiers of the musket army. I did not know that the crown prince was coming, so I hope Your Highness will forgive me for disturbing you."

The prince's face warmed up when he saw Jia Lian. When he saw Jia Lian apologize, he jumped off his horse, helped Jia Lian up, and said with a smile: "The general is diligent in state affairs. I am not even happy about it. How can I blame you?"

As he spoke, the prince glanced at the front-line soldiers whose faces he could already see in the distance, and asked curiously, "I just don't know why the general came here to train the soldiers?"

Jia Lian replied solemnly: "I have been training the musketeers in accordance with your majesty's order. For a long time, I have mainly focused on the shooting training of the soldiers and neglected physical training.

The musket army and even the firearms battalion are a strong army that your majesty has carefully built, so naturally there cannot be such a shortcoming. Therefore, I wrote to your majesty last time and decided to lead the entire army to conduct a long-distance march. The route chosen is exactly the 80-mile round trip from the camp outside the north city to the Jiuzhang River area in Ningping County.

But I don’t want to disturb His Highness’s carriage, so I…”

The prince did not wait for Jia Lian to finish, and shook his head and sighed: "General Jia's loyalty to the emperor and his patriotism are unmatched in the country. I really admire him..."

The prince's words were not entirely polite. It was not even noon yet, and Jia Lian's troops were obviously on their way back. If what Jia Lian said was true, and he had really marched more than 80 miles, then he probably set out before daybreak.

From what he had seen Jia Lian do, he was too loyal to the king's affairs. No wonder he was so trusted by his strict father. This made it difficult for him, the prince who was repeatedly reprimanded by his father and should have been dissatisfied, to feel jealous.

To prevent Jia Lian from continuing to express his "fear", he explained: "I have been ordered to stay in Beijing. In addition to supervising the state, I am also responsible for arranging hunting.

You must be aware that every spring and summer, my father would lead members of the royal family and other princes out of the city for hunting, and this year they chose Tiewang Mountain.

I have already arranged for the relevant defense matters. My father is about to return to the capital, so I will go to Tiewang Mountain to make the final inspection arrangements."

Jia Lian was not surprised to hear the prince say this.

Hunting in spring and summer is a royal tradition. Although this season is not a good time for hunting, the so-called "hunting" is to lock prepared animals in the mountains and forests and then kill them in competitions, which does not affect the ecology much.

Instead, the word "Iron Net Mountain" that appeared from the prince's mouth made him secretly frightened.

When he was reading in his previous life, he felt that this place was unusual, as if something big had happened there. Combined with the fact that the power struggle between Emperor Ningkang and the Emperor Taishang had broken out, this place suddenly appeared, which made Jia Lian speculate.

But Jia Lian was not particularly worried. After all, even if he looked at the books of his previous life, even if something really happened at Tiewang Mountain, the emperor should still be the final winner. This was one of the reasons why Jia Lian clung to the emperor from beginning to end.

The prince naturally didn't know what Jia Lian was thinking. Seeing that Jia Lian was silent, he thought that Jia Lian was being reserved in front of him, so he smiled and said, "I have heard that the musket army created by the general is very extraordinary, and its combat power far exceeds that of the other six imperial guards, but I have never witnessed it with my own eyes.

Today is a good opportunity, I wonder if this king has the honor to see it with his own eyes?"

Jia Lian shook his head: "Your Highness is too kind. It is an honor for all the musketeers that Your Highness intends to review it."

As he spoke, Jia Lian bowed slightly to the prince, then mounted his horse and rode to the front of the army. It was unknown what he said to his subordinates.

Then two lieutenants rode up to the front of the battle and shouted, "All troops, obey my orders, line up in battle array, and be solemn."

The loud and powerful voice spread out like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves. The soldiers of the Musket Battalion, who were originally standing on tiptoe to check the situation out of curiosity, now joined the battle formation in an orderly manner like machines.

Suddenly, the wide road became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. The troops were divided into two groups, with only enough space in the middle for two carriages to run side by side.

Jia Lian turned around and saw the prince riding towards him with his men.

He did not exchange pleasantries with Jia Lian, but rode his horse slowly through the middle of the army, scanning all the soldiers.

The Imperial Guards were originally the highest-paid military force in the dynasty, and this was especially true for the newly-established Firearms Battalion.

After Jia Lian established the Musketeer Army, especially after the muskets were further improved and even the problem of rifling was solved, Jia Lian never doubted the combat effectiveness of the Musketeer Battalion in head-on combat again.

In a head-on confrontation, any traditional army that is unafraid of death would lose its will and collapse in the face of the musketeers' powerful firepower.

But obviously, the musket battalion also had a weakness, that is, it could not face the enemy head-on. For example, the enemy suddenly attacked and broke through the square formation before it was fully formed, for example, hand-to-hand combat at night...

For this purpose, Jia Lian had conducted some targeted training, such as marching at night, arranging enough scouts and torches, and not camping in narrow areas unless necessary... In short, try to avoid close combat with the enemy.

He only had these three thousand musketeers, and after training them for so long and spending so much ammunition and resources, he felt it was not worth it even if the outcome in hand-to-hand combat was one for two.

In order to improve the flexibility of the musket army, he also prepared to train lancers. Unfortunately, even if he begged and begged, Emperor Ning Kang finally only allocated more than 300 war horses to him, which was just right for him to reward the 300 men with the best performance in the previous special training... Although Jia Lian was not satisfied with the musket army, others did not agree.

Of course, like most people, the prince did not quite understand the strength of the musketeers. After all, he had never seen the warriors of the Qing Dynasty collapse like an anthill in front of the musketeers who were not well-equipped.

He just felt that, apart from anything else, Jia Lian's musketeers were too luxuriously equipped.

They were all wearing golden soft armor, everyone had a fine steel knife on their waist, a standard spear on their back, and some other combat equipment whose functions he did not quite understand but everyone was equipped with.

The prince felt that this was probably the most neatly equipped, complex and well-equipped army he had ever seen in his life.

In addition, each of them is a strong and powerful man, and there are both cavalry and infantry, which makes the overall power even higher.

Seeing this, the prince, who was originally somewhat skeptical about the Musketeers, couldn't help but think that perhaps such a Musketeers could really create some miracles.

The prince walked silently through the not particularly long army formation. His entourage seemed to be intimidated by the momentum of the army, and followed the prince without saying a word, from the front to the back of the army formation.

"Your Highness?" Jia Lian walked up to the prince and called out tentatively.

The prince waved his hand and said with a smile: "The general is indeed good at commanding the army. Such an army is rare. Perhaps it is true as the general said at the training ground. Such an army is enough to defeat tens of thousands of soldiers in the capital camp."

Jia Lian smiled, knowing that the prince was probably just trying to give him face. Not to mention that these locals were not sure about the real combat power of the musket army, even Jia Lian himself...after all, he had never fought with real weapons, so everything was just theory, and he was not completely sure.

"I see that Your Highness has not been accompanied by many people. It is still a long way to Tiewang Mountain. Do you need to send someone to escort you?"

"No need. General, since you have a mission to accomplish, please leave on your own."

Jia Lian didn't say much. After paying his respects, he led the team back.

……

The prince looked at the musket army that was heading towards the capital like a golden dragon, and suddenly sighed, "I don't know when I will be able to personally lead such a well-equipped army and gallop across the mountains and rivers and the battlefield.

Sometimes I can't help but think that I, the crown prince, cannot gain the trust of my father as much as a minister.

For example, Jia Lian, he is much younger than me, but my father can trust these troops to him. If it were me, I would be afraid..."

As he said this, the prince laughed at himself, but he was not sure what he was laughing at.

The confidants and staff beside him did not dare to reply, but his eldest companion smiled and said, "You are joking again. Even if the Marquis of Zhenyuan is highly valued by His Majesty, he is just an outsider. I am His Majesty's eldest son.

If Your Majesty did not trust me, how could you have appointed me as the crown prince..."

After the old eunuch's words came out, everyone around him agreed.

"That's right. His Majesty still trusts Your Highness. For example, during this national funeral, many people speculated in advance whether His Majesty would let Your Highness or Prince Yun stay in the capital to supervise the country. In the end, His Majesty did not hesitate to let Your Highness exercise the power of supervision!"

Ever since the land clearing incident, the Crown Prince has been neglected by Emperor Ning Kang. On the contrary, the Third Prince has been repeatedly valued.

This abnormal phenomenon naturally caused many people to speculate. It happened that the Queen Mother passed away and the emperor left the capital. According to the rules, a prince or a prince should stay in the capital to supervise the country.

Among the princes, naturally only the Crown Prince and the Third Prince are qualified.

Many people were waiting to see who Emperor Ningkang would appoint as regent, hoping to gauge his inner thoughts. The result was both unexpected and expected.

The crown prince retained the power of regent that was rightfully his, which naturally made all the crown prince's followers secretly relieved, thinking that the crown prince had not lost his integrity.

However, the prince himself did not seem to think so.

"Regent? On paper, I am the regent in Beijing. In reality, since the day my father left Beijing, all military and national affairs are still under the sole control of my father.

Even for memorials from inside and outside the capital, my father would order people to prepare a batch every three days and send it to the imperial mausoleum for your approval.

  The so-called regent is nothing more than sitting in the palace doing nothing. What kind of regent is he?

Otherwise, how could I not know that Jia Lian had transferred his troops out of the camp for training..."

Only the Ministry of War and the Emperor were qualified to mobilize the Wei army. Apart from them, even the commander of an army could not take a large number of troops out of the camp without permission.

Jia Lian would naturally not make such a low-level mistake, so he reported and asked for instructions in advance.

If the crown prince was normally the regent, such a small matter would naturally be approved by him personally, and he would not be unaware of it.

Moreover, he had some other ideas in his mind.

  He felt that Emperor Ningkang's attitude towards him was becoming increasingly cold. Could it be that the reason he asked him to stay in Beijing this time was that he disliked him to such an extent that he even deprived him of the right to attend the funeral of his grandmother, the Concubine Dowager?

After all, it was his blood grandmother who passed away, so it was only natural for him, the eldest grandson, to mourn for her and send her off...

  Didn’t you see that the Third Prince didn’t fight with him for the so-called power of regent at all, and happily followed Emperor Ning Kang to attend the funeral?

The staff knew that the prince was worried, but they didn't know how to comfort him. After all, they hadn't thought of a good explanation for what the prince had just said, so they could only keep silent.