Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 615: The Underworld: Brotherly Friendship and Respect for Zhu Gaochi

"Chongba, your children and grandchildren are more skilled..."

In the Huagai Palace, Liu Bang clicked his tongue a few times, his eyes fixed on the eight-inch color TV in front of him.

On TV, the scene where Zhu Houzhao fought against the Beizhou buffalo and was then trampled by the war was so shocking that it made people gasp.

"I guess he's just relying on the fact that he won't die and is courting death."

Ying Zheng spoke calmly, but his words were even more lethal.

"Haha, at least my Zhao'er is also an emperor who expands the territory."

Zhu Yuanzhang chuckled and said, without waiting for Liu Bang to speak, he said quietly: "My Zhao'er is the ninth emperor..."

Okay, all the benefits went to Zhu, and Liu Bang and Ying Zheng didn't say anything.

As for Li Shimin, ever since Zhu Gaoxu got him a compound pulley bow, he basically stayed in the Tang Dynasty and never came out.

Archery is Li Shimin's biggest hobby besides governing the country.

Since the coming of Daming, life in this world has become better and better, and there are more and more things that can satisfy the desire for food and drink.

Just like now, while watching TV programs, Liu Bang was holding a bucket of popcorn in his arms with a dark cup of Coke next to him.

Although Ying Zheng was serious, he was holding a bag of potato chips in his hand.

As for Lao Zhu, he was already tired of eating these things. At the moment, he was holding an ice cream and eating it bite by bite.

As Liu Bang switched channels, the channel that appeared made everyone's faces turn black.

"As far as I know, the main reason why the Qin Dynasty fell was that it expanded too quickly, and the grassroots management could not keep up, resulting in a mess at the grassroots level."

"That's right, so it's no problem that the Qin Dynasty fell in my hands. Even if my father lived another 20 years, the Qin Dynasty would only last 20 years at most!"

On TV, Zhu Yunwen with a dignified face and Ying Huhai with righteous words, as well as Zhao Guangyi, Liu Ying, Liu Ju, Li Zhi, Li Longji, Prince Zhenjin and others were sitting aside.

Everyone looked up and saw that the TV program was called "On the Ancient Reasons for the Rise of Dynasties".

"Rebel!"

At this moment, Ying Zheng couldn't help but speak, Liu Bang clicked his tongue a few times, and Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that his teeth were itching.

While they were getting furious, Zhu Gaoxu was constantly improving the productivity of this world. Even if they didn't eat, they would not starve to death, but Zhu Gaoxu still immersed himself in doing these things.

Time passed little by little, and soon fifteen years had gone by in a flash.

In the blink of an eye, the Ming Dynasty has existed for 396 years, and it is only four years away from the 400-year mark.

While Zhu Yuanzhang was full of expectations, the Ming Dynasty on earth ultimately disappointed him.

"Buzzing..."

On this day, as the brilliant light appeared, a young figure arrived at the gate of Fengtian Hall.

He came at an inopportune time, as a large number of emperors of the Ming Dynasty were away from home, leaving only the workaholic Zhu and Zhu Yunwen, and Zhu Di, who was in love with Empress Xu in the Daming Palace.

Therefore, soon after Huaguang arrived, a large number of civil and military officials also arrived, and at the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang and his two men also rushed to the Fengtian Palace.

Yishiha was on duty at the Fengtian Palace, so when Zhu Zhongjian appeared, Yishiha explained the situation of this world to him.

After hearing that this was the underworld, Zhu Zhongjian burst into tears. It was not until Zhu Yuanzhang and the other two arrived that he knelt on the ground and cried, "My descendants are unfilial and have brought shame to the Ming Dynasty!"

"Wait! Tell me what happened to my Ming Dynasty first!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely anxious, as he was still thinking about the Ming Dynasty breaking through the 400-year mark.

"Replying to Grandpa Taizu... How the Ming Dynasty is... My children and grandchildren don't know either."

Zhu Zhongjian cried, but Zhu Di took out his phone and said, "Wait a minute, I'll start a video call, and then you can talk slowly."

After saying that, Zhu Di took out his mobile phone, opened the group chat of "A Loving Family" and made a video call.

At once, dozens of people connected the video, and Zhu Zhongjian's eyes widened when he saw this scene.

At this moment, the human world is no more than the level of people's livelihood and technological innovation in the fifties and sixties of Zhu Gaoxu's previous life, while the Ming Dynasty has already caught up with the level of people's livelihood and technological innovation before Zhu Gaoxu traveled through time.

Even though the military level is very poor, there is no point in studying those things since we can't fight a war in this world.

"What's wrong, Master Taizong?"

"I'm in the wild, Grandpa, what's wrong with you?"

"Dad, I'm rowing with the second and third sons and my younger brother and sister. Can't we talk about it later?"

"Master Taizong, I'm on the snowy mountain!"

"Are you blind? Didn't you see the glorious light coming just now?!"

Looking at the large group of descendants whose background ranged from rivers to snow-capped mountains, from snow-capped mountains to deserts, and from deserts to grasslands, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but curse.

After Zhu Yuanzhang's reminder, everyone looked up and saw the remaining traces of Huaguang.

"Is the new king here?"

"Inspector Zhong! Inspector Zhong! How come you came down so quickly?"

"Wait a minute! Grandpa, is Daming still here?"

"Noisy! Turn them off!"

Zhu Yuanzhang really couldn't stand the noise of these guys talking at the same time, so as soon as they opened their mouths, he asked Zhu Di to turn off their voices.

"Say it!"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Zhongjian, who could only shed tears while confessing what happened during the 15th year of the Yongli reign.

When they heard that Yang Fang and Zhang Huaiyun were guarding Zhu Zhongjian and fighting with Li Zheng and Li Yue in the Forbidden City, everyone held their breath and dared not breathe.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that Zhang Huaiyun was pedantic and refused to break through, he was so angry that he yelled, "Pedant! Tell that kid Zhang Fu to bring Zhang Huaiyun to see me!"

Afterwards, Zhu Zhongjian told the story bit by bit.

After the Renyin Palace Coup, the central government lost most of its tax sources. The royal family took the opportunity to occupy many prefectures and counties, thereby obtaining stable tax sources. The same was true for some local governors, and an arms race began.

After that, rebellions broke out in places with more serious nationalism, such as Japan and Southeast Asia, and there were also many uprisings by grassroots military officers in the southwest.

Prince Ning and Prince An were the first to lose their patience and start a rebellion, and the court began to suppress them.

After all, it was a civil war, and with the improvement of education, both sides fought relatively restrainedly. At least they dispersed the civilians before the war.

During this period, many capitalists in the Central Plains took advantage of the war to raise prices.

The price of grain in Henan was driven up by capital, and the people were ignorantly attacking and looting it. Prices continued to rise. Many private factories breached their contracts and sold their goods due to the lack of raw materials, and a large number of factories were merged and acquired.

In order to cope with the war, the imperial court began to lower the thresholds for various taxes. Coupled with rising prices, a large number of middle-class people were exploited by the imperial court and upper-class capital and went bankrupt.

Afterwards, Zhu Zhongjian recounted how, after the Erwang Uprising was put down, Jiang Qiu, Zheng Lingyao and others ordered soldiers to shoot Zhang Huaiting, and Yang Fang was slandered and cut off his beard to fake the appearance of self-immolation, while he escaped back to the Northeast.

Hearing this, Zhu Di breathed a sigh of relief: "You did a good job, kid. At least you are not confused!"

When Zhu Yunwen learned that Zhu Zhongjian had become Li Zheng's puppet, he gloated over it, while Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di sighed, "It's hard for you, you're so young."

After his praise, Zhu Zhongjian revealed that Yang Fang had issued a telegram in Jilin, accusing Jiang Qiu of hiring a killer to kill the Duke of England Zhang Huai'an and then pinning the blame on himself, and he also issued the "Fengtian Serving the King" manifesto.

"The country has nurtured the people for three hundred years, and our soldiers and civilians have received the grace of Emperor Wu for generations. Now the country is in danger, and the survival of the royal family is at stake. Even if our soldiers and civilians die, we have no regrets."

Zhu Zhongjian spoke the contents of the manifesto with great emotion. Zhu Di and Zhu Yuanzhang were inspired after hearing it: "Okay, give Yang Zhan a little reward!"

Before he finished speaking, Zhu Zhongjian told him that Yang Fang was against the imperial court in Yanshan, which led to the various vassal kings rising up in rebellion.

This should have been a happy thing, but the various vassal states did not care about the life or death of the royal family and were all expanding their own strength.

They expanded their territory under the pretext of "serving the king", and parts of Dongzhou, Beizhou, Nanzhou and Kunlunzhou were out of control.

As he could not stand on moral ground, Li Zheng was able to rise again and began to hire natives from places such as Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia to fight, naming them "Rui Shi".

If we were to say who hated the Ming Dynasty the most, this group of people would definitely be the best among them. Therefore, they had no psychological burden in massacring the rebels, and even wanted to kill all the Han people.

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned pale, but he also gave a conclusion: "When they are tempted by benefits, they are brave when they have the upper hand, but once they are at a disadvantage, they are no better than a mob."

"Taizu, you are absolutely right!" Zhu Zhongjian then told the story of the various vassal states rising up in rebellion, Yang Fang's death after the battle in Hebei, and the northern uprising army falling into infighting.

Then, Zhu Zhongjian told about Li Yue's disastrous defeat in the river, in which more than 60,000 elite soldiers were killed, 100,000 elite soldiers were defeated, and more than 30,000 people were missing. "If Li Zheng had not had a navy to harass the rear of the Western Army, I'm afraid the King of Liang and his men would have fought all the way to Beijing."

Zhu Zhongjian felt sorry for them, but Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly: "They are not good people either!"

"If they had done their best, Li Zheng and others would not have been able to cause chaos after the palace coup."

"The reason why the situation is so chaotic is because they don't work hard and only care about expanding their territory. They are even worse than the Liu clan in the late Eastern Han Dynasty!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that his teeth were itching, and he felt that these royal family members were a bunch of rotten fish and shrimp.

Zhu Zhongjian lowered his head at what he said, but Zhu Di tried to smooth things over by saying, "Let's continue."

"Yes..." Zhu Zhongjian was silent for a while, then he calmed down and continued to talk about what happened later.

After the disastrous defeat in Hezhong, Wang Tong of the southwest united a large number of southwestern royal families to respond to the call for support. A large number of areas in the southwest fell, and Li Zheng began to organize his army and prepare for war.

Just before the army set out, Li Zheng fell ill and was bedridden, so Jiang Qiu led his troops south.

However, Jiang Qiu was defeated by Wang Tong and retreated to Chengdu. Wang Tong then led a large army to capture Guangxi and Jiaozhi.

Upon hearing the news, Li Zheng sent Li Meng as the governor of Sichuan and Guizhou, appointed Jiang Qiu as the governor of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan provinces, and appointed Duke of Song Hu Xiang as the governor of Huguang provinces to resist Wang Tong.

Because Siam and other countries were in rebellion, Wang Tong destroyed Siam and other countries, which was also a disguised form of expanding territory. However, this expansion of territory did not affect the underworld, which made Zhu Di and others a little confused.

At the same time, Li Zheng died of illness in Beijing, and the powerful capitalists began to favor Jiang Qiu, who was easier to control, as the new spokesperson.

After learning about this, Li Yue invited Jiang Qiu to Beijing on the pretext of discussing military and political affairs. He took the opportunity to launch an attack on Jiang Qiu when his plane was crossing the Taihang Mountains, causing conflicts to break out within the powerful capital.

"Wait! That Li Zheng is here, right? Send someone to bring him here. I want to beat him to death!"

Zhu Yuanzhang rolled up his sleeves and Yishiha hurried to do it.

"You continue!" Zhu Yuanzhang signaled Zhu Zhongjian to continue. Zhu Zhongjian then told him how Li Yue sent people to control him and forcibly searched out the "Heavenly Book" in order to resolve the stalemate on the battlefield.

At the same time, after learning that Li Yue had taken action against the powerful capital that did not support him, Zhu Yuanzhang's face became solemn.

"This Li Yue is not as good as his father, or even as good as other powerful people. His father knows that he cannot replace our Zhu family, so he only wants to make money. But this Li Yue is different. He is probably plotting the throne."

"Is he dreaming?" Zhu Di couldn't help but ask. Zhu Yuanzhang also sneered: "It is precisely because of his lack of ability that he thinks so."

"If he had some ability, he wouldn't have been defeated miserably in Hezhong, nor would he have dreamed of the throne."

"Gao Xu is right. The people love our Zhu family deeply and blame them harshly. Apart from our family, anyone else who wants to be the emperor is courting death."

Zhu Yuanzhang was full of confidence, and Zhu Zhongjian bowed and said, "Grandpa Taizu is right!"

Then, Zhu Zhongjian told Li Yue that after Li Yue obtained the Heavenly Book, he named himself Duke of Yan and ordered the Northern Zhili and Shanxi military factories to develop new equipment.

In addition, after Li Zheng's death, his capable generals Li Meng, Hu Xiang, Hu Su and others restored order, marched north to defend the king, and sent people to contact Wang Tong, which also boosted Zhu's morale.

After that, Li Yue, who had successively failed in the Guanzhong Campaign, Henan Campaign and Huaihai Campaign, kidnapped Zhu Zhongjian and fled to Japan.

"This guy is at the end of his rope, and no one has killed him yet?"

Zhu Yunwen couldn't believe it, but Zhu Di nodded and said, "I guess he is relying on the soldiers of the Li family to maintain the situation with difficulty, but the defeat is inevitable, and he won't live for too long."

Zhu Di signaled Zhu Zhongjian to continue, and Zhu Zhongjian also told the story of how Li Yue's son Li Ling quelled the rebellions in Japan and Southeast Asia and killed more than one million rebels.

Everyone could see that Li Ling was killing the rebels on the surface, but in reality he was plundering wealth.

He definitely couldn't afford to offend overseas Han people, so this group of natives became his target.

Since the rebels killed many overseas Han people and the two sides had deep hatred, Li Ling's actions were supported by this group of people.

At the same time, Li Yue was completely expelled from Zhongzhou, and Zhu Zhongjian also fell ill when he arrived in Japan.

Li Meng, Zhu Bohai and others from Zhongzhou reached a peaceful consensus.

Later, Li Yue was worried that the Tsushima Strait was not enough to stop Li Mao, so he took the seriously ill Zhu Zhongjian to Southeast Asia.

When he arrived at the Yongle Islands in the South China Sea, Zhu Zhongjian died of illness at the age of 27.

Since Zhu Boqian had only one son, Zhu Zhongjian, and Zhu Zhongjian did not have any children during his house arrest, when Zhu Zhongjian passed away, Zhu Boqian's lineage became extinct.

In addition, the rest of Ming Guangzong Zhu Yizhen's sons also rose up in rebellion to defend the king during this turbulent decade or so, but were suppressed and some died.

Except for the three princesses, the male descendants of Zhu Yizhen's lineage are basically extinct.

"No more descendants?!"

Zhu Yizhen, who was filming the show with Zhu Houzhao and others, widened his eyes, and Zhu Boqian next to him sighed.

In the Fengtian Hall, Zhu Yuanzhang breathed a sigh of relief: "It's okay, as long as the Ming Dynasty is not destroyed."

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard half of it, he probably knew that the Ming Dynasty would not perish. After all, Li Yue was not as smart as Wang Tong, Zhu Bohai, Li Zheng, Li Meng and others. His defeat was only a matter of time.

Now, whether Zhu Bohai in the west ascends the throne, or the throne is transferred from the eldest son of Emperor Shenzong, Zhu Yizhen, to the second eldest son, Prince Xin, Zhu Yizhen, in accordance with the rule of "the throne is inherited by the younger brother" in "Huang Ming Zuxun", the old Zhu family will not lose out.

"Okay, you are indeed unlucky, but my Ming Dynasty can still survive, this is the best news."

"Old Four, turn on Gao Xu's voice and block the others."

"Hey!" Zhu Di followed Zhu Yuanzhang's instructions and turned on Zhu Gaoxu's voice.

As the voice chat was turned on, Zhu Gaoxu, who was sitting on a boat, said lazily: "Grandpa, Dad, I said before that the new ideas are not yet mature, and the current ideas and systems can only maintain the nominal monarchy. Do you believe it now?"

"I believe it, but if this is a virtual emperor, is this still my Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Yuanzhang asked, rubbing his chin. Zhu Gaoxu was also stunned by this question, and said, "It should be considered..."

"Okay! Just calculate it!" Zhu Yuanzhang nodded. Zhu Gaoxu widened his eyes: "I'm just guessing..."

Before he could finish his words, Zhu Yuanzhang clicked to end the call, and the screen in front of him instantly went black.

"Old man, this is too..." Zhu Gaoxu smiled bitterly, then calmed himself down and continued to row the boat.

While he was rowing the boat, a large number of civil and military officials who had come with Zhu Zhongjian also followed.

"Grandpa! He is Li Zheng! The one next to him is Jiang Qiu!"

Zhu Zhongjian's eyes showed hatred as he pointed at two guys who looked to be in their forties and shouted.

Li Zheng and Jiang Qiu were disheartened when they were pointed out. Zhu Yuanzhang rolled up his sleeves immediately after hearing this: "Fourth Brother, Yun Wen!"

"exist!!"

"Let's fight together! If we don't beat them up and leave them with psychological trauma, we will be thanking them for our three punches!!"

"superior!!"

Soon, the four members of the Zhu family rushed down the Fengtian Hall with great momentum and knocked to the ground Li Zheng, Jiang Qiu and a group of people who were brought by Yishiha and others.

"Dad! We're here too!"

Not far away, Zhu Chong, Zhu Gang, Zhu Quan and other vassal kings who learned that their descendants had been pacified also joined the battlefield in a menacing manner.

Under the siege of hundreds of people from the Zhu family, Li Zheng, Jiang Qiu and others were beaten beyond recognition.

Compared with the fierce fighting situation at Fengtian Temple Square, Zhu Gaoxu shrugged his shoulders and let out a long sigh after hanging up the phone.

Zhu Gaochi looked at him and said, "Second brother, aren't you upset that your children and grandchildren are like this?"

"It's not bad. It's not that bad." Zhu Gaoxu said while rowing the boat:
"My Great Ming Dynasty has been around for nearly 400 years, and there is nothing to be sad about. If there is anything sad, it is better to say that it is sad for the people who have been in turmoil for 15 years."

"It's a pity that their life and death are too light in the eyes of those people in the world..."

He sighed deeply, and Zhu Gaochi said, "You are still the same as always. You should pay more attention to yourself."

"If the Ming Dynasty ends in these 396 years, even if Grandpa loves you dearly, he will definitely give you a beating."

I don’t know if it’s an illusion, but Zhu Gaoxu always felt that Zhu Gaochi was gloating when he said this.

"Boss, you seem very happy?" Zhu Gaoxu said with a fake smile.

"I didn't!" Zhu Gaochi said seriously, "Second Brother, you and I are one. How can I be happy if you are punished?"

Zhu Gaochi, who was called out, quickly denied it. Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu hugged him in his arms and said with a wicked smile:
"In that case, you will be punished by me then!"

"what?!"

(End of this chapter)