King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 723 Why don’t the troops eat breakfast?
The victory in the northwest was great, even if it was not complete victory yet. However, with such a great victory, it was only a matter of time before we expelled the Western Barbarians and wiped out the Dzungars.

The overall situation has been decided. Zhu Xianming has fewer worries and can free up his hands to deal with those people outside.

But in order to minimize the impact on the stability of the court, Zhu Xianming still wanted to give them another chance.

"Dai Quan, take this victory report out and read it to them!"

"Tell them that I am not Emperor Hui of Han, nor am I Emperor Zhongzong of Tang. If they want to force me to abdicate... don't blame me for being ruthless!"

Hearing this, Dai Quan bowed and said, "I will pass on your instructions immediately!"

After Dai Quan left, Zhu Xianming went to Kunning Palace. He wanted to share the good news with the queen as soon as possible.

Outside the Qianqing Gate, Dai Quan followed the emperor's instructions and explained the situation to everyone outside.

The great victory in the northwest came so suddenly that not only the officials who came to give advice were surprised, but also the crown prince and two cabinet ministers.

According to their estimation, for such a large-scale battle, the main forces would not come into contact until mid-June, and it would take at least two or three months for the war to break out.

In most of the time in history, the confrontation would last for half a year or even longer.

Who could have imagined that the decisive battle would not only break out suddenly, but also be decided within a day.

The reason for such a huge misjudgment is mainly that these people do not understand war, and even less do they understand war involving hot weapons.

Of course, for the people present, it doesn’t matter how the war goes; what matters is the outcome.

The fact that everyone dared to come together and risk their lives to give advice ensured that during the decisive war, the emperor would be concerned about the stability of the court and would not start a war.

Now that the outcome has been decided, the emperor's concerns have disappeared, so whether to stay here has become something that the officials on the scene must consider.

Now they can be sure that if they stay any longer they will be dealt with, and there will either be no support in the future or it will be suppressed even if there is.

Sighing, Chen Jinyun walked down the steps and came in front of the officials present.

"Everyone... this matter is all due to your negligence. Your Majesty is kind and does not want to punish you. You can all go back!"

"Admitting one's mistakes and correcting them is the greatest virtue... We should pay more attention to them in the future"

The people present were the backbone of the overthrow of Xiang and Zhao. Chen Jinyun did not want them to be consumed in vain, so he stepped forward to comfort them at this moment.

He had done these stupid things when he was young, and he knew very well that these people needed a step, and he was the one who gave them the step.

Zheng Zhiqing and Zhu Jingyuan also realized this problem, so they joined in the persuasion.

The three of them were of extremely high status, especially the crown prince, whose status was extremely noble, and their words played a big role at this moment.

One after another, people apologized to the three people, saying that they were too reckless and would reflect on themselves after returning home.

Of course, there were a few people among these people who were not afraid of death. They believed that Zhao Yushan was suspected of harboring a criminal and wanted the emperor to punish him severely.

There are very few people who are this stubborn, and each of them has extraordinary courage.

Because the longer you persevere to the end, the more good reputation you can earn, and the smoother your future career will be.

But one thing you must pay attention to is that you can't go too far.

As the time limit given by the emperor was approaching, everyone else had already left, but three people were still kneeling on the ground.

"Why are you doing this!" Zhu Jingyuan was extremely worried.

"Your Highness, the time has come... Look..."

Chen Yuntai reminded him at the right time that he had planned to order people to take action, but the prince was here so he did not dare to act in vain.

"Bastard, get out of here!" Zhu Jingyuan glared at him.

Zhu Jingyuan would never be polite to servants like the Jinyiwei.

The prince is still the prince after all. Just one sentence made Chen Yuntai dare not act rashly. After all, there was still a little bit left before the time limit set by the emperor.

At this time, Dai Quan on the side shouted, "Why don't you step down? Do you have the right to speak here?"

Although the Censorate and the Guards were responsible to the emperor respectively, Dai Quan was in charge of the Imperial Household Department and was able to suppress the Northern Pacification Office.

"Master, I am acting on orders. How can I let them go if they insist on offending the emperor?"

Dai Quan, a small deputy captain, thought he would be driven away with just one sentence, but Chen Yuntai's interruption surprised him, so he looked at Chen Yuntai again.

As an intelligence agency, Dongchang basically knows the details of the high-level officials in Jinyiwei.

So he knew that the boy in front of him had the support of Prince Xiang's Mansion, so he dared to act so presumptuous in front of the prince and him.

"Deputy Captain Chen, let me ask you...is it noon now?"

The emperor set a time for leaving at noon, and there was at least one-third of a quarter left, or about five minutes.

Chen Yuntai was not sure about the answer, so he said, "I am reminding these gentlemen that it is not too late to leave now!"

"The master ordered you to arrest the person, but he didn't ask you to talk too much. You are just a deputy captain, and you have the right to interrupt? Go back!" Dai Quan shouted angrily.

Seeing that the prince was looking at him coldly, Chen Yuntai knew that he should not say any more, otherwise he might be in trouble today.

Chen Yuntai stopped talking. At this time, in order to protect the people in front of him, the prince took the initiative to step forward and support the person in the lead.

This was a big enough honor, and the man finally got up "reluctantly", saying "Your Highness, you can't do this".

The farce ended like this. The prince returned to the East Palace and sat in his study in a depressed mood.

After a while, Yuanchun came over. She already knew the situation and understood the prince's feelings.

"Your Highness, don't worry. You have already anticipated this. Maybe no one can defeat you this time. It just came true now!"

"But it's not all in vain. At least Sanfu Zheng Zhiqing... is also thinking of squeezing out Zhao Yushan!"

It was no secret that Chen Jinyun opposed Zhao Yushan, but Zheng Zhiqing always seemed indifferent and always turned a deaf ear to major issues.

But this person, who has experienced ups and downs in officialdom for decades, is now a minister in the cabinet. He has students and friends all over the world, and his power should not be underestimated.

"With the support of the two of them, Your Highness' future will be much easier!" Yuanchun replied with a smile.

"Is it?"

"Of course...as long as we accomplish that!"

Here the couple was discussing in secret, and the news about the great victory in the northwest had already been passed back to Prince Xiang's palace.

Inside the Tongxin Hall, all the ladies in the palace gathered together, each with a look of joy on their faces.

Anyone who has a brain and can think knows that they share the honor and disgrace with the palace, and they will be worried if the palace gets involved in trouble.

The happiest person at the scene was Keqing. Only when this matter was resolved safely could her heart be at peace.

"Our prince won the battle and is a great contributor to the court... Those people dared to throw dirty water on us, and when the prince comes back, he will chop them all up!"

Although Zhen Qin spoke without thinking, the women present found her words very useful. They also hated those officials to the core.

At this time, Yinglian reminded: "Sister Qin, don't say these things outside, otherwise it will cause trouble again!"

Zhen Qin was about to make a few sarcastic remarks, but when she saw Baochai was about to speak, she held it back.

"Yinglian is right. It's fine to say this in this room, but don't say it outside this door!"

"How could I not understand this logic? Don't worry, Princess!" Zhen Qin replied with a smile.

Her belly is now getting bigger and she will give birth in about two months, but she is very satisfied with this.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid there are still some troubles with my father!" Keqing said shyly.

This matter is still under investigation and no one can guarantee that there won't be trouble, so Keqing gave a timely reminder.

Baochai replied: "You don't have to worry about this matter. After today... no one will mention it again!"

Now that the overall situation has been decided, if anyone still makes a fuss about this matter, it would be ungrateful. Baochai believes that there is no one so stupid.

If there is, then she will send him to reincarnate, such as a certain university scholar with a surname of Gao, or...

As a princess, she not only goes to the garden to enjoy the flowers with the ladies of the inner and outer court, nor does she just sit in the study to read books and settle accounts. She has many thunderous methods. "By the way, the lotus flowers in the garden are blooming... Let's have a banquet tomorrow, one to enjoy the flowers and the other to congratulate the prince. What do you think?"

"Sister Bao, do you have any wine?"

Xiangyun asked aloud. Because of her special relationship with Zhu Jinghong, she had almost always lived in Prince Xiang's Mansion for the past six months.

"Yes!" Baochai said with a smile.

But Xiangyun asked again: "Is it enough?"

At this time, Daiyu walked behind her, held Xiangyun's shoulders and said to everyone: "Look at her... They say she is the daughter of a military family, but I think she grew up in a wine vat!"

"You are not as good as Sister Lin, who grew up surrounded by books and is now respected as a scholar. I think Sister Lin should not enter the palace, but become a private school teacher!"

Baoqin, who was standing by, subconsciously asked, "Private school teacher? But Sister Lin is a girl, how can she be a teacher?"

At this time, Xiangyun walked around behind Baoqin and said with a smile: "So... Sister Lin entered the Prince Xiang's mansion and only taught the Thirteenth Master!"

"You guys...just know how to sleep at night, but Sister Lin is still in class after she's asleep!"

Hearing this, everyone present laughed, but Daiyu became really angry and rushed towards Xiangyun with her fist raised.

"I'll beat you up, you bad guy..."

"Sister Lin, please spare my life..."

The two of them chased each other back and forth, just like unmarried girls, which made everyone in the room laugh uncontrollably.

The room was filled with joy, but the degree of joy varied. For example, Yang Jingting was not that happy, especially when others were happy.

Behind her were Zhang Xiaoyue and Li Huizhen. They didn't notice anything unusual and the smiles on their faces were very natural.

Let’s put aside the affairs of the capital for the moment and talk about the fact that thousands of miles away in the northwest, the Ming army is still fighting a hard battle.

Although the decisive battle on June 15 ended with the victory of the Ming army, the Eight-Nation Alliance still had nearly 200,000 troops.

Zhu Jinghong pursued forward all the way, and although he was constantly expanding his victory, the enemy troops were not all pigs.

Even if they were all pigs, it would be impossible to kill all of the hundreds of thousands of them in one go.

The pursuit lasted until June 19, during which the Ming army killed more than 80,000 enemies. Among them, the Luosha Kingdom suffered the heaviest losses because a large number of the infantry were their people.

The reason why the pursuit lasted until June 19th was because they reached the city of Hutu, which was the headquarters of the coalition forces.

After continuous pursuit and fighting, the Ming army's supplies were not up to par, and the entire army was exhausted, so it was time to rest.

If we force ourselves to fight without any preparation, firstly the efficiency will be low and the casualties will be great; secondly, the soldiers will become resentful and lose the support of the people.

Zhu Jinghong was not a person who was eager for quick success and instant benefits, and he had already won a great victory, so he basically stopped the attack starting from June 20th.

The reason why it is said to have basically stopped is that the cavalry were still dispatched in turns to harass the enemy's supply and retreat.

That's right, based on the existing signs, Zhu Jinghong can judge that the enemy army shows signs of continuing to retreat westward.

This situation is very normal. Losing so many people and being so close to the Ming army is extremely dangerous for the coalition forces.

Although there was a Hutu City, the city was small and the walls were low, making it impossible to withstand the strong attack of the Ming army.

What's more, it is impossible for all of the remaining 110,000 troops to squeeze into Hutu City.

The cavalry actually also needed rest. Zhu Jinghong still had nearly 60,000 cavalry. After two days of rest, he sent out 20,000 troops and headed towards Hutu City.

To be honest, after winning a great battle, the Ming army was a little proud, and then something went wrong during this expedition.

These 20,000 cavalrymen encountered an ambush and were surrounded on three sides. They were under great pressure and had to retreat in disgrace.

This also gave Zhu Jinghong a wake-up call, making him sober up from the joy of victory.

In the next few days, he still sent cavalry to harass, while the enemy troops in Hutu City were withdrawing one after another.

After all, this was a large group of more than 100,000 people, and it was impossible to defeat them with only 10,000 or 20,000 cavalry. So Zhu Jinghong could only dispatch more cavalry, and even use infantry to move forward.

One wanted to leave and the other wanted to chase, and the two sides launched one pursuit battle after another across the thousands of miles of Gobi Desert.

On the fourth day of July, Hutu City was captured and the Ming army continued to pursue eastward.

On the eighth day of the eighth month, the Ming army captured the city of Wusu. This battle was much larger in scale, and Zhu Jinghong personally commanded the battle.

Although the enemy still has 100,000 troops at this point in the war, there are not many elite soldiers left, and most of them are young and strong men forcibly conscripted by the Dzungars.

As for the entire coalition, Britain, France, Spain and Portugal had withdrawn their remnants, which meant they had withdrawn from the war process, and the Eight-Nation Alliance became just four countries.

Even from these four countries, the Russians withdrew a portion of their troops. It was obvious that they no longer had any hope of winning, but they continued to fight because they couldn't bear to lose face.

As for the Kazakh and Turkmen khanates, they were still sending troops under the coercion of the Russian Empire, and each still had 20,000 troops on the battlefield.

When Wusu was captured, Zhu Jinghong also learned what had happened in the court. He was drinking happily with his generals, but he almost overturned the table in anger.

When asked by everyone, he did not hide anything and directly told the court’s criticisms, which again aroused the indignation of the generals.

Fortunately, the emperor handled the matter fairly, and after everyone had scolded him, they stopped talking about it and continued to plan to attack westward.

After five days of rest, the army continued to advance westward. Their goal was to capture Jinghe City, which was a very critical node.

After taking this place, they will march south, cross the Tianshan Mountains through the river valley, and then go straight to Yili.

The current weather is already very cold. Even though the Ming army has coal supplies for heating, many soldiers still suffer from frostbite, so the progress of the war is extremely difficult.

But Zhu Jinghong had to fight, because the imperial court could not afford the consumption and could not continue fighting next year or the year after.

The most crucial thing is that if we fail to capture Yili in one fell swoop, the situation may change next year, making this year's sacrifices and consumption go to waste.

On August 17, the Ming army arrived outside Jinghe City. Only then did they realize that the main force of the enemy had retreated out of fear of fighting, leaving only a few old and weak troops in the city to serve as decoys.

The enemy withdrew early in the morning, less than two hours ago, so it is possible to catch up with them if we pursue them at this time.

What Zhu Jinghong was worried about was that these people would escape to the river valleys and block their way through the Tianshan Mountains.

It doesn't even need to be blocked for too long, just a dozen days until September, when the mountain will be blocked by heavy snow and it may be impossible to get through.

On a small hillside, looking at the main army marching quickly, Zhu Jinghong said proudly: "I will surely take the momentum of this great victory and attack Yili directly... to capture the city and destroy the country!"

Under the current temperature conditions, cavalry combat is no longer possible, so all the pursuit troops are infantry.

Of course, the main force of the enemy is basically infantry, and the cavalry can only play a certain "escort" role.

The pursuit lasted for two days, and the entire army had traveled seventy or eighty miles. Under the current geographical and weather conditions, this was already a very efficient pace.

When he woke up in the morning and saw the pass ahead, Zhu Jinghong became nervous.

If the enemy has occupied the mountain pass and formed a defensive system, the subsequent battle will be extremely difficult.

Because he was concerned about the military situation, he went directly to the vanguard, but found something different.

Because it was a forced march, the soldiers on the march were eating, except for the sergeants in the vanguard who were only marching, leaving the rest of the army behind.

"Call your commander!" Zhu Jinghong was very angry.

He always cared for his soldiers and never let them travel on an empty stomach.

Soon the commander of this army arrived. He was an acquaintance of Zhu Jinghong, Wang Jie, the current commander of Yaowu Central Guard, who was also the captain of the guard when he went to Nanjing.

"Why don't the troops eat breakfast?" Zhu Jinghong questioned sternly even though they were acquaintances.

Facing the pressure, Wang Jie said confidently: "Reporting to Master Thirteen, I have already given the order... to seize the pass while the enemy's defense is not stable, and then have breakfast!"

After he finished speaking, the soldiers around him also shouted: "Prince, if we can't take the pass, we won't eat!"

"Yes...take the pass first and then eat!"

Hearing this, Zhu Jinghong laughed and praised: "Good... there is a sense of morale!"

Looking at the pass just a few miles ahead, Zhu Jinghong said in a high-pitched voice: "Once you take over the pass, I will slaughter cattle and sheep for you... and personally celebrate your success!"

(End of this chapter)