Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 83: Good with few and good at it
"You have changed a lot..."

On the Xiaoling Baoding Shinto, looking at Zhu Gaoxu walking towards him, Xu Zengshou had a complicated expression.

Since he returned to Nanjing this time and met Zhu Gaoxu at the Wei Guogong Mansion, he felt that his nephew had changed a lot.

But he didn't expect that his nephew would have changed enough to offer some opinions on government affairs to the emperor.

Only a hundred or so people in the civil and military dynasties could have such qualifications, and even I could only keep my head down and do things.

But my nephew...

For a while, Xu Zengshou didn't dare to get along with Zhu Gaoxu as before. Zhu Gaoxu, who was walking towards him, was also keenly aware of his uncle's emotions. The long knife was taken away from his hand.

"My uncle, with his status, actually uses the sword of the Ministry of War."

"You guy!" After the knife was taken away, Xu Zengshou subconsciously took it back, staring like before and preparing to teach Zhu Gaoxu a lesson.

It was only when he was about to take action that he realized that the person in front of him was no longer the Zhu Gaoxu he once was, and he had to put down the hand he was about to raise in embarrassment.

"Haha... uncle went out for a trip and became sentimental."

Looking at Xu Zengshou's hand, Zhu Gaoxu smiled and joked heartlessly. Xu Zengshou had no choice but to fasten his sword.

The conversation and actions of the uncle and nephew were all noticed by Guo Ying next to him.

Perhaps Zhu Gaoxu's actions could fool Xu Zengshou, who was in his twenties, but he could never fool Guo Ying, an old man who was nearly sixty years old.

"This kid... is not simple."

Guo Ying commented secretly in his heart, and at this moment, Zhu Gaoxu, who was on the side, also raised his hand and bowed to Guo Ying:
"I didn't have time before. Now that grandpa has entered the underground palace, I can get close to Wu Dinghou."

The Battle of Jingnan has not yet broken out. In Zhu Gaoxu's view, even if Guo Ying is likely to become his enemy in the future, this does not restrict him from being friendly with Guo Ying at the moment.

Zhu Gaoxu still has great respect for Guo Ying, a founding figure who was not party-minded or selfish.

"I once heard from my father that Wu Dinghou fought more than 17 battles in his life, captured more than [-] men and horses, and suffered more than [-] injuries."

"To tell you the truth, if possible, I hope to be like Marquis Wu Ding, opening up territory for the Ming Dynasty and protecting the country."

Zhu Gaoxu's words were [-]% true and [-]% false, but Guo Ying found it very helpful.

Although he still paid great attention to the distance between him and Zhu Gaoxu, in front of the soldiers, he still bowed in return and said:

"These are just false praises from His Highness the King of Yan. Although I have fought in the north and south, I am afraid that compared with the merits, I am far less than His Highness the King of Yan."

"The kid doesn't think so..." Zhu Gaoxu shook his head, rejected Guo Ying's self-effacing statement, and also expressed his own opinion:

"Although my father made an emergency landing of tens of thousands of Naierbuhua's tribe and captured General Azuli's headquarters, he did not inflict any fatal blow to the Beibei."

"On the contrary, it was the Battle of Yuerhai between Wu Dinghou and the generals that defeated the Northern Barbarians to a rout. They eliminated Kublai Khan's lineage as emperor and forced the Northern Barbarians to lose the throne."

In the more than half a year since he came to the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Gaoxu has been understanding the situation around the Ming Dynasty. Because of his understanding, he scorned the so-called "Northern Yuan Dynasty is not destroyed" and "North and South Separation" in later generations.

In his opinion, Bei Yuandu has been beaten by the Ming Dynasty and has reduced its imperial title. It only dares to call itself the Great Khan, and there is nowhere to look like a country.

It can be said that with only the battle of Yuerhai, the Ming army had pushed the Northern Yuan Dynasty back to tribalism. The Oara and Tatars in the west could only hide in the distant Mobei and Moxi, and did not dare to approach Monan.

In Peiping, Zhu Gaoxu remembered that his father complained that the Mongols were too good at running away several times.

Their escape speed was such that even the thousands of people in Peiping who traveled thousands of miles north could not find any trace of them, but this was not surprising.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Expedition, the number of troops the Mongols can draw has been declining, and the armor rate has also declined with the decline in troop strength.From the first year of Hongwu, 50 million troops could be mobilized to confront the Ming Dynasty on multiple fronts. In the tenth year of Hongwu, there were only more than 20 remnant troops fleeing north. Then in the [-]th year of Hongwu, even more than [-] troops could not be mobilized. .

It can be said that today's Eastern and Western Mongolia combined can only pull out an army of about [-] at most, and the armor rate is less than half.

If it weren't for the fact that the Mongols could gain some support and population from Central Asia and Eastern Europe through the Eurasian grassland passage, I'm afraid they wouldn't even be able to stay in Mobei now.

Unfortunately, during the Jingnan period and more than ten years after that, the Ming army did not conduct a large-scale Northern Expedition, thus giving the Mongols a chance to breathe.

Otherwise, with the Ming Dynasty's national and military strength, the Mongols' living space will only be continuously compressed.

Because of this, Zhu Gaoxu was unwilling to appease the emperor, and the prerequisite for his unwillingness to appease the emperor was that Zhu Yunwen would not forcefully cut down the feudal vassal.

As long as he does not forcefully reduce the vassal state, but adopts his own methods to reduce the vassal state, Zhu Gaoxu believes that few vassal kings will stand up and sing the opposite.

Whether it is you or your own cheap father, everyone will obediently guard the border and guard the border for the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Gaoxu's relationship with Zhu Yunwen during this period was not only to comply with Zhu Yuanzhang's ideas, but also to get Zhu Yunwen to accept his proposal to reduce the vassal status.

But now it seems that although Zhu Yunwen greets him with a smile on the surface, secretly he may have been impatient with him for a long time.

In such a situation, it is difficult for Zhu Gaoxu not to hate Zhu Yunwen.

As long as he listened to Zhu Yuanzhang's words, Ming Dynasty would not miss the best opportunity to drive away the residual forces.

"You look so ugly? Are you suffering from the cold?"

Zhu Gaoxu was still thinking about all the wrongdoings of Zhu Yunwen in history, but Xu Zengshou touched his forehead with concern and brought him back to reality.

"No, I just thought about things in the north, and for a while I didn't know how to express it to Marquis Wu Ding."

Zhu Gaoxu reluctantly answered, but Guo Ying watched his nose with his eyes and his heart with his nose. All the flattering words he said to him went in through the left ear and out through the right ear.

He had seen too many nobles who committed suicide after making good friends with the feudal lord, so it was naturally impossible for him to follow in those people's footsteps.

Zhu Gaoxu's identity is one of the most sensitive among the people in the entire capital, not to mention that he is still in charge of politics in Wuying Palace.

For now, Guo Ying knew exactly what the emperor was thinking.

Checking and balancing the four powerful vassals of Qin, Jin, Yan and Zhou is what the emperor is currently doing.

If this matter does not go according to the emperor's idea, then Feng Sheng and Fu Youde, who are currently recuperating at home, may not be able to save their lives.

These two heroes who no longer have military power can't save their lives, let alone myself who is in charge of the palace guard?

Therefore, Guo Ying just wants to end the Zhongyuan sacrifice as soon as possible and does not want to get entangled with Zhu Gaoxu any more.

It is not difficult to see that he deliberately kept a distance, so Xu Zengshou also whispered in Zhu Gaoxu's ear:

"Wu Dinghou is His Majesty's personal person. You'd better not get close to him, lest you be caught by the people in the temple."

"I know..." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, glanced at Guo Ying, and sighed inwardly.

"It seems like I won't be able to do anything here in Nanjing."

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu also turned his head and looked outside the Purple Mountain, looking at the city of Nanjing that could not be seen at a glance:
"If you want to use your skills, you still have to go to a place far enough away from Nanjing."

(End of this chapter)