Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 369: Be Ming’s Dog

"Tatar Taishi Alitai prays to His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to become a minister. He is willing to be a minister of the Ming Dynasty and guard the border of Mobei for the Ming Dynasty!"

In mid-August, when Zheng He's fleet had just sailed out of Chadi Port, Zhu Di, who was in Mobei, met the envoys sent by Alitai before departure.

In more than a month, the foundation of Hailaer Qianhusuo has been excavated.

Not far from the city base, there is a camp that is more than ten miles long. Beside the camp are thousands of acres of land and hundreds of ravines that have been cleared.

On thousands of acres of land, more than 50,000 civilians were driving their draft horses to plow the fertile black land, while Zhu Di stood on a rammed earth road compacted with stone rollers, with his back to a Mongolian dressed in thousands of households.

Standing on the left and right of the Mongols were the Ming army generals wearing armor, which made him sweat on his forehead and put him under great pressure.

Zhu Di held the melon seeds in his hand, and while eating the melon seeds, he said:

"I sent people to search for more than a month but couldn't find Alitai. Tell me, where has he gone now?"

He turned his back to the question, and the Tatar households also said with shame: "The grand master led many tribes to Hulanhu and lost the temperature."

News of the Tatar defeat has begun to spread to Moxi. Once the Oara tribes know that Arutai was defeated and captured, they will definitely launch a tentative attack on the Tatars.

"By the way, I'll be leaving in a few days. You can continue to use this pasture in the future, as long as you don't cross the stone monument I set up in the west."

He didn't say what horse to use in exchange, which means any horse can be used.

As Zhu Di had guessed, Alitai had been dissatisfied with Alutai's rule for a long time. Therefore, after he successfully broke through, he immediately led the tribes on both sides of the Yinma River to migrate towards Hulanhuwenwen, and He proclaimed himself the Tatar Grand Master.

"It's a pity. If they hadn't gone south, I really wanted Alitai to bring you a message and ask you to take it back to Alitai."

"No wonder I ran so far." Zhu Di nodded and turned back, saying with great interest:
"My meaning is the same as in the letter. He can still graze cattle on the vast grasslands of Luanhaizi and Yuerhai, and he can also send a delegation of 500 people to pay tribute to Kaipingwei in the south every year."

Just relying on this mutual trading qualification, Alutai was able to summon many old ministries to compete with Alitai.

After receiving Zhu Di's promise, thousands of Tatar households breathed a sigh of relief, but they looked embarrassed at the cultivated land in front of them.

If the Ming army did not take action, the Tatars might not be able to withstand the Oaradong invasion.

Zhu Di really didn't pay attention to the Tatars. After all, the Tatars were severely damaged by him, and almost half of them were driven south by him, and they couldn't make trouble at all.

"I thank your Majesty for your kindness!"

"Okay, go back early and tell King Chang Ning the news."

This is a conspiracy, and it is also a conspiracy that Alitai has to accept.

According to Zhu Di's grace, the Tatars can get a lot of things through Kaipingwei's mutual trade every year, which greatly alleviates the Tatar tribe's plight and can even make the Tatar tribe live a better life.

Once they cannot resist, they will push forward and annex the Tatar headquarters bit by bit.

For the Mongols, exchanging draft horses, cattle and lambs for iron pots, tea and grain was undoubtedly a good deal.

"Your Majesty, you are..."

Zhu Di wanted to support the Tatar tribe, which did not mean that he wanted to give money and food, but that he wanted to use the captured Tatar armor to make a deal.

If one day he feels that his wings have become stiff, then Zhu Di can immediately cut off the mutual trade of tribute, and at the same time release the mad dog Arutai and hand over the mutual trade qualification to Arutai.

Normally, he would definitely not agree to erecting this kind of stone monument on the grassland, but now the situation is stronger than the people, and they can't do it without bowing their heads.

"In this case, I will not take away the more than 30,000 sets of armor I captured this time. After you return, let Alitai return to Kuoluanhaizi, and then exchange horses and oxen for the armor, three horses for one set of armor, or Two cows will do, too.”

Similarly, the iron pots and grain trade made to support the Tatars also had to be used to exchange for more horses and cattle.

The Tatar households agreed to the humiliating conditions of using stone monuments as boundaries. When Zhu Di saw this, he smiled heartily and said:

"I'm not used to living in tents, so I might as well build a city here so that I can have a place to rest in the future."

Zhu Di's approach to Tatar was undoubtedly to give him a stick and a candy, but Tatar was quite happy to eat.

Without these 30,000 sets of armor and the iron pots, grain, and tea traded every year, the Tatar tribe would not be able to quickly restore its fighting strength.

Zhu Di nodded and signaled. Seeing this, the Tatar households also knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly before getting up and leaving the place under the supervision of the Ming army.

"In addition to armor, if you want to exchange for food, I can also give it to you."

Not long after he arrived in Hulanhu, some tribes migrating from behind brought letters from Zhu Di.

Zhu Di erected a stone monument fifty miles away from Hailar's Qianhu residence to drink from the Ma River, which can be regarded as determining the nomadic range of the Tatar tribe and the grazing and farming range of the Ming army.

Tatar Wanhu asked in embarrassment, but Zhu Di smiled and said: "We are all members of our own family. If you are bullied by Wala in the future, I will help you find a place."

In this way, Alitai's position as Grand Master will undoubtedly become very stable, and he must also rely on Ming Dynasty.

"One piece of iron pot is exchanged for a horse, one piece of cloth is exchanged for a horse, three stones of grain are exchanged for one cow, one load of tea with one hundred kilograms is exchanged for one cow, and one kilogram of sugar is exchanged for one sheep."

"When you go to Kaiping every year to pay tribute, I allow you to exchange for iron pots, tea, cloth and grain."

"Don't worry, this place is four to five hundred miles away from Kuoluanhaizi. Even if I build a city here, it won't affect you. You can just graze in peace."

"From now on, he will be King Changning of the imperial court. In addition, his younger brother Arutai has also been canonized as King Hening by me."

Thousands of Tatar families had seen this stone tablet on their way here, but they didn't expect it to serve this purpose.

"Alitai suffered this disaster because he didn't listen to my teachings. Now I think Alitai is good and understands my teachings."

After confirming that Zhu Di would not conquer him, Alitai carefully sent this Wanhu man to test Zhu Di's tone.

"Yes, I will follow His Majesty's instructions..."

Thousands of Tatar families bowed happily. Although they were captured by Zhu Di and captured millions of cattle and sheep, they still had a lot of cattle and sheep in their hands.

After he left, Qiu Fu immediately came up and said, "Your Majesty, give them the armor. What if they raise an army to fight against the court again?"

Qiu Fu was obviously worrying unfoundedly. Zhu Di didn't need to ask this question. Zhu Neng explained:

"There is plenty of armor, but how many strong men can the Tatars now arm themselves with?"

"Even if they still have a population of 300,000, they probably don't even have 50,000 men over the age of 15 that they can produce, right?"

"Except for the old men, it would be great if they could take over these more than 30,000 sets of armor and arm them."

“It will take at least more than ten years to restore a generation.”

"Such a long time is enough for us to deal with him two or three more times."

Zhu Neng is only thirty-seven years old now, so he is not worried about what will happen more than ten years later.

Qiu Fu was different. He was already sixty-four. He did not dare to conclude that he would survive until the next Northern Expedition, so he was eager to express himself.

His eagerness seemed very abrupt in this Northern Expedition team whose average general age was about forty, so Zhu Di patted him on the shoulder:

"Qiu Fu, taking good care of your health is more important than anything else."

Zhu Di secretly told Qiu Fu that he would still have a chance in the next Northern Expedition. Qiu Fu could only nod helplessly when he saw this.

Seeing him nodding, Zhu Di also told everyone: "I will lead the troops south tomorrow. The affairs here will be left to Meng Zhang, Wang Yi, and Zhu Neng."

"The oxen and horses obtained in exchange are sent to Xingtaipu Temple in Daning, Bohai, Liaodong and other places. After being domesticated, they will be deployed by the Chief Envoy."

"I'm waiting for the order!" After hearing what Zhu Di said, Wang Yi and the others bowed their hands.

After finishing the arrangement, Zhu Di looked at the fertile land where the meadow had been dug: "This place is good, but there are too few people in the north..."

He was a little sad, and finally got up reluctantly and returned to the big tent at the camp not far away to rest.

Early the next morning, he took more than 26,000 people including the two left and right guards of Zhaozhou and the third guard of Yulin from Shangzhi southward, leaving only 30,000 soldiers and horses and 50,000 civilians of Zhu Neng and others.

Compared with the complicated and detours during the expedition, the route back to the south is relatively simple.

Zhu Di did not return to the Zhenlu Guards, but directly led the army to carry a month's rations from Hailaer Qianhusuo all the way south along the west side of the Halawen Mountains.

Without the burden of civilian husbands, it only took them half a month to arrive in Kaiping, and then another half a month to reach Beijing, where they were traveling.

When we arrived in Beijing, it was already September 17th. The bleakness of late autumn was heading south from the Yanshan Mountains. When we arrived in Beijing, there was no green anymore.

Kuai Xiang, a famous craftsman from Jiangdong, came to greet Zhu Di again, and Zhu Di didn't waste any time and led the team directly to the Forbidden City under construction.

The Forbidden City in Beijing was built based on the Forbidden City in Nanjing as a model. Therefore, it was built strictly in accordance with the imperial capital construction principle of "the former dynasty and the later market, the ancestors on the left and the community on the right" in the "Li".

The difference is that due to the emergence of concrete and Zhu Gaoxu's ban on many materials from being used in construction, the Forbidden City in Beijing is not only larger in scale than in history, but even the palace is taller and wider.

The walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing are made of blue bricks and concrete. They are five feet high and four feet thick. They are taller, thicker, and more majestic than in history.

Standing on the nearly 700-acre Fengtian Temple Square, Zhu Di could see the Fengtian Temple that had been built.

Fengtian Hall is fifteen rooms wide and eight rooms deep. It covers an area of ​​nine acres and is twelve feet high. Together with the platform, it is fifteen feet high. It is the largest palace in the Forbidden City. Eighteen animals are placed on the eaves and corners.

In terms of scale alone, it is not only taller than the later Taihe Hall, but also taller than the Fengtian Hall in Nanjing.

Walking into it, even Zhu Di couldn't help but sigh: "This concrete is a good thing. Not only can the palace be built as tall as it is, but it is also convenient for building cities."

Standing in the Fengtian Hall, which is taller and larger than Nanjing, Zhu Di has already imagined the grand scene when he went to court here.

"Why are the colors here so dull?"

Zhu Di said that the only thing that dissatisfied him about Fengtian Temple was that the color was not as good as the flowers in Nanjing. "Back to Your Majesty..." Kuai Xiang stepped forward and bowed: "Tai Xue has studied many things, and many of the things used in building palaces in the past contain trace amounts of toxins."

"If you just walk around and see what's going on, there's nothing there, but if His Majesty and the palace people live there for a long time, they may be infected with toxins. Therefore, Your Highness specifically stated that no toxin-containing ores should be used as pigments in the construction of the Forbidden City."

"But please rest assured, Your Majesty, I have found many pigments extracted from plants, and they have been confirmed to be non-toxic and will be ready for use soon."

"Well, that's fine." When Zhu Di heard that it was Zhu Gaoxu who gave the order, he didn't have any objections. He knew that his second son would not harm him.

"This palace is bigger than I expected. Kuai Xiang, you did a good job. But can the construction period be faster?"

Perhaps it was Empress Xu's serious illness in bed that made Zhu Di fear life and death. He was worried that he would not be able to govern and live in Beijing before his death.

"Back to Your Majesty..." Kuai Xiang bowed carefully:

"Fourteen years is already the fastest speed, and it will be completed in seven years..."

"Seven years..." Zhu Di murmured this time limit, but his mind was filled with the image of his own girl.

Even if he can live for another seven years, what about his sister...

"Okay, please step back. I will have a simple night's rest in Qianqing Palace tonight, and then head south to the capital tomorrow."

"The minister will leave..."

Kuai Xiang carefully exited the Fengtian Hall. After he left, Zhu Di also walked up to the golden platform and sat down on the simple dragon chair.

Since it has not been completely completed, many of the waving hands inside are just simple materials used to indicate the positions of various things, but even so, Zhu Di still sat very comfortably.

"Except Yuan Shizu, who else can compare with me?"

Thinking that he had captured more than 200,000 Tatars in one battle, Zhu Di proudly stroked his beard.

He kept holding it in all the way, and when he arrived at the Forbidden City in Beijing, which looked similar to the Forbidden City in Nanjing, he finally couldn't help it.

However, after simply boasting, Zhu Di still held back his excitement and prepared to take this excitement back to Nanjing to share it with his sister.

Thinking of this, he reluctantly got up and left the Fengtian Temple, which was simple but full of home atmosphere.

The next day, he took the lead in abandoning the army and led more than a thousand light cavalry to gallop south.

Due to a delay of several days in welcoming the Alitai envoy, he was unable to return to Nanjing before the frost. Instead, he waited until the first day of October to arrive at Jiangdongmen Pier by boat.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

With the sound of twelve gun salutes, Zhu Di stepped off the dragon boat on Jiangdongmen Pier.

On the dock, Zhu Gaoxu came forward to bow, and in front of the ministers, returned the seal representing the supervisory state to Zhu Di.

While Zhu Di took it, Zhu Gaoxu also looked at him.

It has to be said that the exposure to wind and sun in the past six months has made him look a bit darker, but the happiness on his face is also visible to the naked eye.

"You haven't changed much, except that your beard has grown a little."

Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaoxu, who was still tall and vigorous, and straightened his back after tutting a few times: "I took care of Arutai this time, you should have seen him, right?"

Arutai was escorted south by Zhu Dixian for half a month and arrived in Nanjing a few days ago. Zhu Gaoxu had naturally seen him and knew that this was the old man's request for credit.

"Except for my father, I can't think of anyone else who can fight this battle so beautifully."

Guessing the old man's thoughts, Zhu Gaoxu flattered him appropriately.

"There's no need to flatter me. It's a real regret in my heart that I couldn't defeat the Tatars in one fell swoop this time."

After getting the admiration he wanted, Zhu Di immediately became proud and kept saying that his results were too small, but he couldn't hide the smile on his face.

Seeing what he said, Zhu Gaoxu didn't bother to expose him and said directly:
"My son had someone sort out the Dingyuan Hou Mansion in advance and let Arutai move in."

"Ah?" Zhu Di didn't expect that this boy Zhu Gaoxu was so evil-minded. Dingyuan Marquis Wang Bi was the first to contribute to the Battle of Yuerhai. It was also because of him that the Beiyuan Dynasty was completely split into two major parts, the Tatars and the Oaras.

If Arutai had arrived in Nanjing and then moved into the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion, it would have been a great honor, but he was captured, which was a bit humiliating.

After reacting, Zhu Di smiled happily and patted his shoulder: "You are not bad, just like me."

"father……"

Just after Zhu Di finished praising Zhu Gaoxu, he heard a weak voice coming from beside him.

He looked sideways and realized that Zhu Gaosui had appeared next to him.

"Lao San, when did you come?" Zhu Di looked surprised, but Zhu Gaosui's face turned green: "My son has been here..."

"I didn't pay attention, haha..." Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaosui with a smile, nodded with satisfaction:

"Well, that's good. He's lost a bit of his childishness and looks more like an adult."

"I respectfully welcome Your Majesty..."

After Zhu Di finished speaking, he saw Xia Yuanji and others from the Sixth Department came forward to bow and salute.

When Zhu Di saw them looking around, he knew that they were looking for the minister of the headquarters to reconcile with Jin, so he calmly said:
"Stop looking. They have probably just arrived at Quanningwei now, and it will take several months to go south."

In order to pursue speed, Zhu Di had people escort Xie Jin, Yang Shiqi and others in advance to the southeast of the desert. However, without Zhu Di's supervision, the speed of their southward journey was simply touching.

Zhu Di clearly set out ten days in advance, but Zhu Di had already traveled more than four thousand miles, but they had only traveled less than two thousand miles.

At this moment, Zhu Di could only be glad that he did not go all the way south with them, otherwise he would probably be back in Beijing at most, and he would still be far away from Nanjing.

"Okay, everyone should go back to their duties. I will go back to the inner court to rest first. I will give a banquet at the Huagai Hall tomorrow. You can come here when you have time."

Zhu Di was too lazy to talk nonsense with everyone. After all, as long as his second son was in charge of supervising the country, he wouldn't have any problems.

Thinking of this, Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaosui: "Let's go, take me to see your mother."

After he spoke, he took the initiative to walk towards the palace, took Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaosui to sit on the emperor's palace, and rushed towards the Forbidden City.

When the ministers saw this, they looked at each other with a hint of helplessness, as if they were saying that the relationship between father and son was a little too good.

"Second brother, have you read the imperial edict I wrote to you?"

Sitting on the carriage, Zhu Di completely ignored Zhu Gaosui and only focused on Zhu Gaoxu. Whenever he behaved like this, Zhu Gaoxu knew that something was wrong.

"Don't tell me that you just came back and you are already thinking about how to clean up the tiles..."

Zhu Gaoxu said one sentence, and Zhu Di's old black face turned red instantly.

Fortunately, because it was too dark, it was difficult for others to see the blush, so he pretended to be angry and said: "How can you miss dad so much? Is dad like that?"

"Alas..." he said with a long sigh: "When I went south this time, I saw that many people in Beizhili and Henan did not have cattle for plowing, and could only use people as livestock to carry plows to plow the fields. It was really heartbreaking."

"I was thinking at that time, if I could capture more livestock, then after being tamed by Xingtaipu Temple, the people would be able to benefit from it."

Zhu Di did not mention the Third Northern Expedition in one sentence, but he vaguely mentioned the Third Northern Expedition in every sentence.

Zhu Gaoxu listened helplessly and could only say: "Although my mother's condition is under control, her body is getting thinner and thinner and she needs to be taken good care of."

"It's not that I don't want you to go to the north, I'm just worried that if you go to the north again, it's hard to talk to my mother..."

As soon as he said these words, Zhu Di's expression changed and he nodded solemnly: "Don't worry, I will definitely take good care of your mother when I come back."

The Northern Expedition can certainly make Zhu Di feel at ease and happy, but Sister Xu is also equally important to him.

He felt that his health was not bad, and it was appropriate for him to devote a few years to taking care of his sister Xu.

Bei Zheng and other things were not attractive to Xu Meizi at all.

"By the way, during Zheng He's voyage to the West, he collected four tributary countries for the imperial court, namely Punggala, Nunapu'er, Alisha, and Shandaluo."

"These four countries are paying tribute to the Central Plains for the first time, and three countries are located on the important waterway of the Little Western Ocean. Therefore, the imperial court set up an official factory in Chadi Port of Bangkara Kingdom."

Zhu Gaoxu talked about his achievements in supervising the country when Zhu Di went north. After hearing this, Zhu Di shamelessly said:
"Well, it's not in vain that I was in charge of the Tatars in the north. I didn't expect that my reputation would be heard by countries thousands of miles away."

"Huh?" Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaosui looked at each other in confusion. They didn't mention Tatar at all. How could they become famous because of fighting Tatar?

"Next time I clean up Wala, I guess my reputation will spread further."

Zhu Di knew it didn't matter, but it didn't matter. He mainly just wanted to show off.

"You'd better take care of your mother first and then..."

Seeing that Zhu Di couldn't leave Bei Zheng in three words, Zhu Gaoxu could only shake his head and sigh, thinking that the old man didn't know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt were before he became a master.

After he finishes this battle, it will take at least two or three years to raise millions of dans of grain to stock Hailaer's homes for thousands of households.

"Second brother, the Northern Expedition depends on you."

Zhu Di didn't want to do any logistics-related work. In order to let Zhu Gaoxu work hard, he even held Zhu Gaoxu's hand and said disgustingly:
"I've taken care of Tatar and Wala, and then you can comfortably be the Emperor of Peace."

"..." Zhu Gaojiu didn't say anything, but looked straight at Zhu Di. Zhu Di also felt that his cake was a bit too big. In order to prevent the atmosphere from being awkward, he turned his attention to Zhu Gaosui and cursed with a straight face. :
"Look at your second brother, and then look at you. The feudal lord has not even given birth to a prince in these years. Go back and reflect on it!"

(End of this chapter)