Father can be an enemy country

Chapter 1340 Sky Lantern
Not far away, Zhu Di and Zhang Yu sat in a pit next to the stove that blocked the firelight, keeping warm while discussing their next move.

"It's getting colder and colder." Zhu Di wrapped himself in animal skins and said, "Brothers are still wearing thin clothes, relying on the captured animal skins to keep warm. This is not going to work."

"The north wind blows the white grass to the ground, and the snow falls in August." Zhang Yu whispered, "Your Majesty, we can't beat around the bush with them anymore. It's time to consider withdrawing our troops."

"I know, but I always feel that Yesudiel and the Oirat people will become a big problem." Zhu Di said with a worried look on his face: "We have wiped out the power of the Northern Yuan this time, but we cannot establish rule in the northern desert in a short period of time, leaving a huge power vacuum, which will definitely be occupied by Yesudiel."

"That's inevitable." Zhang Yu sighed, "The court can only maintain the Daning Military Region, which is already the limit. It is impossible to extend the military line thousands of miles northward. That will drag down the Ming Dynasty."

"Ah, who says it's not true?" Zhu Di said solemnly, sitting cross-legged, "So I want to see if there is any way to kill Yesudiel. Of course, it would be best to kill all the Wala soldiers at once, but it doesn't seem realistic."

"It's not very realistic." Zhang Yu said with a wry smile: "After fighting so hard, we are already exhausted and can't wear Lu silk anymore."

"Yes." Zhu Di looked up at the sky worriedly and said, "Can we just let the tiger go back to the mountains and let it grow bigger and stronger?"

"If it really doesn't work, let's wait until next time." Zhang Yu said softly.

"After we return this time, we will head south. I'm afraid we will never be able to return to Mobei in this lifetime..." Zhu Di shook his head and stared at the brilliant starry sky in a daze. He really hoped to put a perfect end to this final battle.

"Eh?" He suddenly exclaimed, pointing at a bright spot floating slowly in the sky and asked, "Isn't that a star?"

"It shouldn't be." Zhang Yu also raised his head and looked at the bright light in the air. He looked around and found two, three... more than ten identical lights in the night sky.

"Isn't it a Kongming lantern?" He carefully identified it. In fact, it is not difficult to identify a Kongming lantern, but no one would have thought that they would see this thing deep in the Mobei grassland. So he was not sure for a while.

"It's the Kongming lantern!" At this time, more soldiers also discovered the bright lights in the night sky.

"Who put this there?" Ping An asked, looking up.

"Anyway, they are not Oirat people. They hate everything about Han people and they definitely haven't learned how to make Kongming lanterns," Toghon Temur said with certainty.

"It must be one of ours!" Zhu Di jumped up from the pit and ordered in a deep voice: "Send scouts to follow the Kongming lanterns immediately and make sure to pick up one or two."

"Yes!" Xue Liu responded immediately and led people there personally.

~~
Under the same starlight.

Yesudier and his leaders were gathered together for a meeting and saw the same Kongming lantern.

"What is that?" Everyone was talking about it. They had lived in Moxi for half their lives and had never seen such a sight.

"Could it be a meteor?" someone speculated.

"Nonsense, whose meteor flies so low?" was immediately refuted.

"Could it be a firefly?" someone else guessed.

"Nonsense, whose firefly can fly that high?"

"Could it be a will-o'-the-wisp?"

"Okay, stop guessing." Hearing their guesses getting more and more outrageous, Yesudier said in a deep voice: "Who cares what it is? It has nothing to do with us anyway!"

"Yes." The leaders then withdrew their gazes and returned to the gloomy reality.

The situation is better now than at the beginning. At least the Ming army can no longer get what they want. They almost fell into the trap set by Mahamu several times. But "almost" means that although it was very close, it didn't happen. So they still have nothing to gain...

"We have been chasing them for so many days, but we still can't catch them. We are all exhausted." A Wan Hu bravely said, "Why don't we give up, my king?"

"Yes, my king, we really can't catch up. We are exhausted from doing this day by day." Many leaders immediately echoed.

"What do you think, boy from the Choros tribe?" Yesudel looked at Mahamu.

"I'm wondering where the Ming army came from." Mahamu answered the question irrelevantly.

"Is there any need to ask? Didn't Nieqilai say that the Ming army set out from Gyeongju and chased them all the way after defeating them in Buyuer Lake?" The leaders looked at him strangely.

"That means the Ming army has traveled more than 2,000 miles longer than us. If they are going to fail, they will be the first to fail!" Mahamu said in a deep voice: "The Ming army can still hold on, what qualifications do we have to give up?"

"This..." The leaders were speechless.

"The Choros kid is right." Yesudel nodded and said, "Don't forget, we not only want to defeat the Ming army, but also take back the Northern Yuan emperor and the imperial seal in his hand!"

He waved his hands and said, "Our ancestors suffered so much to finally make it to this day. Are we going to give up this opportunity we've been waiting for a hundred years just because we're tired?"

"No..." The leaders could only shake their heads slowly.

"Hold on!" Yesudier encouraged everyone, "The Ming army must be more tired than us. As long as we hold on, they will be the first to collapse!"

After that, he continued to make a promise: "As long as we capture Toghon Temur and take back the imperial seal, we can rebuild the Mongol Empire. By then, you will all be the founding princes, and I will treat you like the great Genghis Khan!"

"Yes." This time the leaders' voices were much louder.

Yesudel looked at Mahamu again and said sternly: "Next time, you can only succeed, not fail!"

"Yes, sir!" Mahamu bowed and responded.

~~
On the other side, Zhu Di waited until dawn before Xue Liu came back.

"Did you pick it up?" he asked bluntly.

"This thing flew too far, and it was hard to pick one up." Xue Liu took a flattened Kongming lantern from the horse's back and showed it to the prince. "It's all covered in ghostly talismans."

"What the hell is this?" Zhu Di looked at the white silk cover of the Kongming lantern in the dim light and saw a big "6" written on it.

He was immediately overjoyed, and patted Xue Liu's shoulder excitedly and said, "This is the lantern that my Lao Liu lit!"

"Ah? Really?!" Now not only Xue Liu, but Zhang Yu and others also came over and asked excitedly, "Is it true?"

"Of course it's true!" Zhu Di pointed at the big '6' and said, "You illiterate people don't know it. This is the number invented by my sixth son! The arithmetic book he compiled for Guozi University uses this number!"

"So what is the number?" Ping An and others asked with blinking eyes.

"Six, you idiot!" Zhu Di laughed and said, "This is Old Six sending me a signal!"

(End of this chapter)