Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 252 Xu Da’s friendship

Collecting Liaodong and Korea into the territory of the Ming Dynasty with very little loss. Such an achievement is rare in the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

The military merits of other people are actually easy to confer. For example, several marquises were all conferred dukes, even Nanxiong Marquis Zhao Yong. Originally, Zhu Yuanzhang had said that he could not be conferred the title of duke because of his private slavery. As a result, he was in a good mood this time. Yong was granted the title of Duke.

Among all the military merits, the merits of only three people are not easy to claim.The first one is Wei Guogong Xu Da, he is already an extremely human minister, but compared to the other two, his contribution in this battle is not very big, so he was rewarded with a salary in the end, which can be regarded as a deal.

As for King Zhu Di of Yan, as well as the Prince Consort and Rongguo Gong Zhang Yifan, the ministers in the Wuying Palace discussed it for a long time before Zhu Yuanzhang finally came to the conclusion of the reward.

In addition to increasing his salary, Zhu Di, King of Yan, temporarily took over the military power of Liaodong and Goryeo. With the assistance of Wei Guogong Xu Da, he reorganized the Mongolian army, Jurchen tribe and Goryeo army that had returned from Liaodong.

Zhang Yifan, the eldest prince consort and Duke of Rongguo, established a new order for worshiping wine in the main courtyard of the Dazong, and he was responsible for taking charge of the studies of the royal family.Except for the crown prince, all princes were taught by the Jijiu Order, and they could not join the vassal unless approved by the Jijiu Order.The current vassal king who has already joined the vassal family must also re-study. If he fails to learn, he will not be able to exercise the power of the vassal king.

Except for King Yan.

Needless to say, this must be Zhu Yuanzhang's own intention.

Of course he knew what kind of person Zhu Di was.Since being assisted by Zhang Yifan, Zhu Di has stood out among all his sons until he achieved his current achievements.

Whether from the perspective of being a father or from the perspective of being an emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang certainly wanted all of his sons to succeed.Therefore, he created this new position and asked Zhang Yifan, his son-in-law, to teach his sons, hoping that his sons would become talented.

As a result, these civil and military officials in Wuying Palace quit their jobs.

They all saw the great prince consort's abilities.Whether it's the ability to make money by turning stones into gold, or the ability to transform ordnance into magic, they all want to learn it.

This is also the reason why when selecting students before, there were so many civil and military officials and royal family members who wanted their children and clansmen to compete for places.

Now, the emperor wanted to use the consort for royal purposes, and of course they were not happy.Therefore, the final result of the discussion was that the path that the Prince Consort originally led the students would remain unchanged, and it would be determined whether the new content should be added to Tianxia Social Studies based on the results.

Originally, these new positions were to transfer the Prince Consort back to the capital.However, considering that Princess Lin'an had just arrived in Peiping with her child, in order to avoid the fatigue of traveling and traveling, the prince-in-law was allowed to stay in Peiping to teach, and then return to the capital when the child was older.

The reason for this is that no one expected that the matter in Liaodong would be resolved so quickly.If she had known this would happen, Princess Lin'an would definitely not have gone to Peking.

The discussion on the reward was over, but Zhu Yuanzhang and his ministers were still busy.

The expansion of territories in Liaodong and Goryeo is not the same concept as the expansion of territories in Tubo by Deng Yu two years ago.

The expansion of territory in Tubo was mostly in uninhabited areas. Although it was an expansion of thousands of miles, it actually had no practical impact at all.

However, Liaodong and Goryeo both have populations. Now that they have become part of the Ming Dynasty, officials must be sent to govern them.

No matter how much Zhu Yuanzhang trusted his son and gave him the power to lead troops, he never thought of giving him military and political power.The appointment of local officials was still in the hands of the court.The logistics of the army were also allocated by the imperial court.

The combined area of ​​Liaodong and Korea is very large. What kind of jurisdiction should be used? Is it just a capital city, or should it be set up as provinces, or prefectures and counties? How should it be set up? It is a headache.

The final result of the negotiations was to establish a new Koryo Province with Pyongyang as its capital and four prefectures, including one in Liaodong. The original Koryo was divided into three prefectures.

Fang Keqin, the former magistrate of Guangdong, and the father of Fang Xiaoru, the current magistrate of Xiangshan County, served as the first chief envoy of the Goryeo Provincial Administrative Envoy Department.Zheng Shiyuan, the former director of the Huguang Procuratorate, was replaced by Zheng Jingxue, the current director of the Jingshi Glass Factory. He was the first procurator of the Goryeo Provincial Procuratorate.As for the capital command department, Yongchang Gong Lanyu was in charge.

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These things have nothing to do with Zhang Yifan.He waited until Zhu Di's triumphant return, and then returned to Tianjin by boat.

Even though he was in Liaodong, he had been communicating with Princess Lin'an.Therefore, he knew that his wife and children had arrived safely at his house next door to Prince Yan's Mansion in Peiping.

All in all, I haven't seen my wife and children for a year.Especially when his son was only a few months old, he had no choice but to leave his wife and children and come to the north. Therefore, Zhang Yifan was even more eager to return home.As soon as they landed in Tianjin, they and Zhu Di rushed back to Peiping to reunite with their wife and children.

After more than half a month, Zhang Yifan finally walked out of his mansion and started working again after Nanjing came back with the decree of rewarding the success.

The previous period of time was regarded as a holiday.It is quite pleasant to accompany my wife and children, or take my wife and children out for a walk. It is not as crowded as during the holidays in later generations!
That night, a grand banquet was held in Prince Yan's Mansion as a celebration banquet for the reward.Zhang Yifan's family was naturally invited.In fact, since the two families have such a good relationship and are neighbors, they often have dinner together, but this time, it is more formal.

Princess Lin'an and Princess Yan took their children to their own table, while Zhu Di, Zhang Yifan and other male relatives shared a table, making it convenient for them to have a celebration banquet and talk at the same time.

As the vassal king, Zhu Di was originally ranked after the King of Qin and the King of Jin.But now, no matter in terms of salary or power, he has become the highest among the vassal kings. He is in charge of the military power from Peking to Liaodong and then to Goryeo. It must be said that he is absolutely high and powerful.

No, Zhu Di was smiling and happy from beginning to end. He encouraged Zhang Yifan and Xu Da to drink from time to time, and even made an exception to give Lan Yu a glass to change.

As he drank, he looked at Zhang Yifan happily and asked: "Yifan, do you know what makes me happiest?"

"The devil knows!" Zhang Yifan didn't want to follow his wishes, "Just be busy and be happy, I'll keep you busy later!"

Commanding the military forces of Liaodong and Goryeo, it is definitely not an easy task to reorganize the surrendered Mongolians, Jurchens and Goryeo troops, even with the assistance of Xu Da and others.After Zhu Di heard this, he laughed and said: "They all say you are smart, but this time, you didn't guess it, haha!"

When Zhang Yifan heard this, he thought that in the original history, after Zhu Di became the Yongle Emperor, he was as virtuous as Zhu Yuanzhang and could keep himself busy to death, so he replied to Zhu Di: "You dare to say that you command so many people?" Army, unhappy?”

After hearing what they said, Xu Da and Lan Yu both looked up at Zhu Di. They didn't believe that as a military general, they wouldn't be happy because of this?
After Zhu Di heard this, he laughed again and said, "It's a little bit, but what I'm happiest about is that I'm the only feudal lord who doesn't need to listen to your preaching. What does this mean? It means that my ability has finally been recognized, haha! "

It was mentioned in the imperial edict that Zhang Yifan was responsible for the wine-sacrifice order of the newly established main courtyard and was in charge of the prince's studies. He still had great power, but Zhu Di did not use it.

After Zhang Yifan heard this, he immediately understood.

In the past, the two of them were despised and looked down upon by a group of senior people because they were still young.No, all Lan Yu here have a share.For this reason, Zhu Di worked very hard. In order to win the competition, he let the newly married Princess Yan stay alone in an empty room and lived and ate with five hundred men in the military camp for three months.

In the future, he has been working very hard. One of the big factors is that Zhu Di wants to be recognized by others, especially Zhu Yuanzhang.

But now, this recognition is given in the form of an imperial edict, no wonder he is so happy.

Everyone present understood this. Lan Yu simply raised his glass and said to Zhu Di: "It was because I was blind and couldn't see the abilities of His Highness and the Prince Consort. I will punish myself with three glasses of wine!"

After he finished speaking, he drank three drinks in a row without stopping, making the atmosphere at the table even more cheerful.

Xu Da watched from the side with a smile on his face, but he knew very well in his heart: No matter how close Lan Yu was to his son-in-law, he was still the prince's person.

Therefore, he also spoke and said to his son-in-law: "This is all in the past. We still need to continue to work hard. Remember not to be proud and complacent!"

Zhu Di is the vassal king, so Xu Da has the qualifications to speak to Zhu Di without any problems.

After hearing this, Zhu Di said without hesitation: "Of course, Meng Yuan is not destroyed, how can we relax?"

Zhang Yifan was eating vegetables with chopsticks. When he heard these words, he reminded: "You are still in charge of the Korean people, and you must be careful of Japanese pirates!"

In fact, the most serious harassment by Japanese pirates was not the Ming Dynasty, but Goryeo and later North Korea.After all, the Japanese country is closer to that side, and it can be regarded as just a short distance away.

People of this era may forget the existence of Japanese pirates, but for Zhang Yifan, who traveled through time in later generations, thinking about the Japanese country is instinctive.As long as there is a chance, he would definitely not mind instigating the Ming Dynasty to destroy the Japanese country.

Hearing his words, Zhu Di said without hesitation: "Japanese pirates? I'm afraid they won't come! I haven't forgotten your three-step method of destroying Japanese pirates!"

The defense of Koryo Province is actually in charge of Lan Yu.At this time, when he heard the conversation, he followed suit and said, "You can only be a thief for a thousand days, but you can defend yourself against thieves for a thousand days! For the Japanese pirates, just call the Japanese country directly."

When Zhu Di heard this, he was very happy. This was a coincidence, so he said to Lan Yu: "Yes, destroying the Japanese country will end everything, and there will be no more problems with Japanese pirates!"

Xu Da listened, and before Lan Yu could speak, he spoke first and warned: "Okay, okay, do you really think it is easy to destroy a country? This time, it is impossible to destroy Goryeo without Yifan's advice."

Having said this, he paused and said: "Your Majesty will not agree with it either. Just conquering Liaodong and Korea will be enough for the court. To settle down and make it the real territory of our Ming Dynasty, all I don’t know how much effort it takes! Especially in Korea, there are problems just speaking in one language, and it takes many years to polish it!”

As expected, Xu Da was not just a pure military general, he also had many considerations other than military affairs.Perhaps it is also because of this factor that he always recognizes himself and sides with Zhu Yuanzhang.

Hearing his words, Zhang Yifan was a little surprised.To be honest, he didn't even think about the aftermath.I have to say that what Xu Da said makes sense.

It is actually not difficult for military commanders to expand their territory, but it is difficult to digest it.

For example, the man in front of me, who was the Yongle Emperor in the original history, sent people to destroy Annan and became part of the Ming Dynasty.But it was not digested in the end, so that after his death, the Ming Dynasty regarded Annan who was constantly causing trouble as a burden, and finally gave up.

When he was thinking about this, Xu Da, as an elder, turned to look at him and warned him in the same way: "Also, Yifan, you can't be arrogant and complacent. I've heard that there are still people in the court. Some remarks say that you have indeed invented many good things with your talent and learning. However, it is impossible to always invent good things that are so useful and valuable, right? "

Having said this, he paused and said sincerely: "You have to take care of the first batch of students now. It's best to take care of them and make them famous. Only in this way can the yin and yang of the court be eliminated." Shut up, people. If you want to become a saint of the Ming Dynasty, and if you want to pass down your talents and knowledge through the imperial court, there will be no obstacles!"

If they had just met last year, Xu Da would never have said these words to Zhang Yifan.Because although these words are good words, they are a bit harsh and not everyone likes to hear them.

However, now that Xu Da has worked with Zhang Yifan for so long, he already understands Zhang Yifan's personality and knows that he will not be angry because of these words and is a measured person.

Therefore, when he saw Zhang Yifan leaving those students alone and spending all day with his wife and children, although it was excusable, he still wanted to say something and remind Zhang Yifan.It can be considered an old man’s words!

At this time, Zhang Yifan heard what he said, and of course he understood that Xu Da was doing it for his own good, so he smiled and replied: "Don't worry, Uncle Xu, I know what I know. I have already thought about how to take care of this group of students, which will last about a year." In half a year, he will definitely do something that will shock the people of the world and blind their eyes!"

Upon hearing his exaggerated words, Zhu Di immediately became interested and asked immediately: "What can surprise people so much? How does it compare to the cement, glass and the like you had before?"

Xu Da and Lan Yu were also curious after hearing this. They both stared at Zhang Yifan, waiting for his answer.

(End of this chapter)