The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 256 The palace of the King of Chu is vast, the commander spares his life

Xu Xueyan was stunned when he saw that among the Chu soldiers he had recruited, hundreds of them claimed to be the Yi army.

On the contrary, the old man Zhu Huakui reacted faster. He opened the vehicle, took a look, and shouted: "Hurry up and protect the driver!"

The people who drove and escorted Zhu Huakui and his family were all real guards of the Prince of Chu's Palace. After hearing this, they subconsciously guarded the two dozen carriages here.

But when they saw that the Shengjie guards had defeated the other Chu soldiers in just a few breaths and were coming in groups, many of the guards were immediately frightened - after all, they were all wealthy soldiers who had never fought or even killed. Extraordinary.

However, Xu Xueyan, the chief historian, reacted and rushed forward on horseback, intending to kill the charging Shengjie guards with his sword.

"How dare you thieves and bandits...ah!"

Before he finished shouting, Xu Xueyan was shot off his horse by Cao Yunfei with an arrow and was captured on the spot!

Then Cao Yunfei jumped on his horse and accelerated toward Zhu Huakui's carriage!
"Quick! Stop him!"

Zhu Huakui saw what was happening outside through the car door curtain and screamed in horror.

There were actually several loyal and brave guards who stepped forward to intercept him.

As a result, Cao Yunfei pulled out a short blunderbuss, and with a single shot of bullets, several people were beaten beyond recognition and fell to the ground wailing.

The rest of the Chu Palace guards were immediately frightened and fled in panic, and no one paid attention to Zhu Huakui and others on the carriage.

Cao Yunfei rode up to the carriage, cut the curtain with a knife, looked at the trembling old man in rich clothes inside, and asked, "Are you the King of Chu?"

Zhu Huakui's IQ is still there, but not much, and he said: "I'm not alone."

"Hahaha..." Cao Yunfei laughed when he heard this, and immediately pointed the short gun into the car, "No? Then there is no need to keep it."

Zhu Huakui was so frightened that he collapsed and cried, "Farewell, I am the King of Chu..."

"Be honest, or I'll kill you at any time."

Cao Yunfei threatened Zhu Huakui again, and then asked people to get in the car and tie Zhu Huakui up.

Then he checked other carriages
Zhu Huakui was very old, and he actually had more than a dozen young concubines, a dozen sons, dozens of grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren, plus other family members, a total of 200 people, all crowded into more than [-] cars. The carriage was trembling, and no one could escape.

Cao Yunfei, the daughter, did not face any difficulties. He just tied up Zhu Huakui's son, grandson, and great-great-grandson and put them under centralized custody.

At this time, a Shengjie guard commander came over and reported, "Battalion Commander, our main force hasn't come here yet, but the Ming army on the south city gate has already disappeared."

Cao Yunfei looked into the distance and saw that there was no Ming army to control them. Then he looked at the South City Gate, which was already controlled by Shengjie Guards, and couldn't help but sigh: "This city is a bit boring."

···
When the sun was about to set, Liu Sheng rode into Jiangxia City on horseback, covered in the blood-red glory of the setting sun.

At this time, the Yi army had occupied the entire city, and the defeated troops and rioters in the city were quelled by the Yi army at an extremely fast speed. Liu Sheng sent more than 4 troops to attack Jiangxia this time, and his troops were very rich.

Along the way, the generals from various ministries sent guards one after another to report the results of the battle to him.

"Report! The first regiment of the Huben Guards broke through the Wuchang government office, and the Mingming Guardsman Wang Yangji and the prefect Wang Weiping were captured!"

"Report! The first regiment of the [-]th Brigade of the Standing Army captured the mansion and killed Li Yuying, the magistrate of Wuchang Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty!"

"Report! The second regiment of Shengjie Guards has taken control of Prince Chu's Mansion!"

"···"

The Ming army in Jiangxia was not that large, mainly composed of Cui Wenrong, the garrison general of Wuchang Prefecture, with about 3000 troops.

Secondly, there were several groups of Ming troops who fled from Jiangbei and barely maintained a certain organizational structure. They were commanded by the political leader Yangji and numbered more than 3000 people. In fact, they were almost like a mob.

Finally, there were more than 3000 rural soldiers from Wuchang Prefecture, commanded by General Magistrate Li Yuying.

Liu Sheng held more than 5 troops and horses. While conquering Hanyang City, he asked the navy to cross the river directly, land on the beach, transport troops across the river, and attack Jiangxia.

In addition, as soon as Jiangxia City heard that the Yi army was coming, the whole city was immediately in chaos. There were countless Ming troops who took advantage of the chaos to escape, and with Shengjie Wei as an internal response, the Yi army easily captured Jiangxia.

Liu Sheng also heard about the wealth of the Prince of Chu's Mansion. When he learned that Shengjie Guard had taken control of the Prince of Chu's Mansion, he immediately led his guards there and ordered all the important prisoners captured by his ministries to be sent to the custody of the Prince of Chu's Mansion...

Zhu Yuanzhang had 26 sons and [-] daughters, and had many children, so his love for his children naturally varied.

Zhu Zhen, the first king of Chu, was the sixth son of Zhu Yuanzhang. His mother, Concubine Hu Chong, was quite favored. In addition, when Zhu Zhen was born, news of the victory over Wuchang came. Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed and promised that "if the son grows up, he will be named Chu".

In addition, Zhu Zhen was talented, wise, strategic, good-natured, young and eager to learn, and was quite popular with Zhu Yuanzhang. Therefore, he was officially named King of Chu in the third year of Hongwu, and vassalized Wuchang in the 12th year.

During the Hongwu period, Zhu Zhen made many military exploits by quelling the barbarian rebellion in the southwest.It was difficult for Jing to cut down the feudal vassal, and it was not greatly affected.

During the Yongle period, he served as Zhu Ming Zongzheng and lived until the 22nd year of Yongle year before he died of illness at the age of 61. It was considered a good death among the first generation vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, the Chu Palace became one of the four rich vassals in the early and mid-Ming Dynasty.

Although the Prince of Chu's Palace began to decline during the Jiajing period, and various major cases that shocked the world occurred after that, a lean camel was bigger than a horse. Even during the Chongzhen Period, the Palace of Chu was still ranked richest among the Ming Dynasty vassals. Into the top five!

Liu Sheng felt this when he came to the Chu Palace.

Although Liu Sheng traveled through the Ming Dynasty for less than two years, he had already lived in Prince Chong's Mansion, Prince Xiang's Mansion, and Prince Tang's Mansion.

All the palaces are actually royal cities, among which Prince Chong's Palace is the most cramped. Although Prince Xiang's Palace and Prince Tang's Palace are good, they cannot compare with the Palace of Chu in front of them in terms of architectural scale and grandeur.

The Prince's Mansion of Chu is located in the middle left part of the old city of Jiangxia, bordering Gaoguan Mountain to the north, Gedi Lake to the south, Yuemachang to the east, and Houchang Street to the west.

It is two miles wide from east to west and four miles long from north to south. The city wall is nearly three feet high, which is larger than some county towns!
In addition to the palace complex (Royal Palace) in the middle of the palace, there is also a large garden in the back, the front is also very vast, and there is even a large lake in the southwest corner called "West Lake".

In addition to fish ponds, rockeries and other landscapes, there are more than 800 buildings such as palaces, pavilions and water pavilions in the city!
After visiting the Prince of Chu's Mansion accompanied by his personal guards, Liu Sheng finally understood why Zhang Xianzhong would claim the throne here after conquering Jiangxia in history - with such a palace, anyone would want to claim the throne!

Even he, who has always adhered to the nine-character policy of "building walls high, accumulating grain widely, and becoming king slowly", wanted to change his title of commander-in-chief to "king".But even if he becomes king, at least he has to wait until he takes over the entire Huguang...

"Let the guards who did not participate in the war work hard and count the seizures from Prince Chu's Mansion, Wuchang Mansion, Jiangxia County Warehouse and other places overnight, and prepare a form and report it as soon as possible!"

"As ordered!"

After sending several personal guards to convey the order, Liu Sheng came to the main hall of the palace, Chengyun Hall.

The main hall of the prince's residence in the Ming Dynasty was always called Chengyun Hall, which echoed the Chengtian Hall in the Forbidden City in Nanjing.

However, the Chengyun Hall in Prince Chu's Mansion was obviously larger than the other three that Liu Sheng had seen.

Sitting down on the golden dragon chair given to Zhu Zhen by Zhu Yuanzhang, Liu Sheng said to Huang Jie: "If you are idle, you are idle. Go and bring Zhu Huakui to chat with me."

"Yes."

Huang Jie took the order and left, and soon brought over Zhu Huakui, who was in custody in a side hall of the Chu Palace.

After seeing Liu Sheng, Zhu Huakui immediately prostrated himself and shouted: "Xiao Wang meets Marshal Liu!"

Initially, Liu Sheng saw that Zhu Huakui was an old man, so he was not too embarrassed to embarrass him, but when he saw that his prostrations were neat and his voice was loud, he smiled and said, "Pingshen."

"Thank you, Master!"

Zhu Huakui was overjoyed when he saw that Liu Sheng was not as vicious as the rumors, and was even "kind" to him, thinking that he could survive and even retain some of his wealth.

After all, he was just a distant vassal king, not a prince. There were many examples of the founding emperor of the new dynasty treating the old dynasty clan well in order to win the hearts of the world and show his broad mind.

Liu Sheng looked at Zhu Huakui, but he remembered some of the stories about the king of Chu in the late Ming Dynasty that he had read in novels.

So he asked with a smile: "King of Chu, Gui Geng?"

"Come back to the commander, Xiao Wang is seventy."

"Seventy years in life are rare."

"Yes, yes."

"I heard that you have been the King of Chu for 60 years?"

"Come back to Commander, it's true."

"I heard that you are not of the Zhu family's blood?"

Zhu Huakui was stunned for a moment, and then he knelt down with a plop and shouted: "You are wronged. The commander-in-chief cannot listen to the rumors spread by those distant clans. Xiao Wang is definitely a descendant of the Zhu family!"

Liu Sheng was unhappy when he saw this, "You are the King of Chu of the Ming Dynasty after all, how do you look like you are kneeling down all the time? And you are seventy years old. If people who don't understand see this, they will think that I am abusing the elderly."

Zhu Huakui stood up quickly in fright.

Unexpectedly, Liu Sheng continued: "Since you are the real King of Chu, then there is no problem - tomorrow the Japanese commander will kill some members of the Zhu Ming clan to vent the people's anger, and he must start with you, the King of Chu. If he kills the wrong person, Not good."

Zhu Huakui was dumbfounded when he heard this.

He knelt down again and shouted with tears in his eyes: "Commander, spare your life! I, I am actually not a descendant of the Zhu family, I am a descendant of the Wang family!"

Liu Sheng was delighted when he heard this and said: "Get up and talk - why are you a member of the Wang family again?"

Zhu Huakui cried and said: "My mother-in-law, Princess Chu Gong, had no children and was worried that the throne would be passed on to a sideline, so she adopted me from my uncle, my biological father, and lied that I was born to her." ··”

Under Zhu Huakui's narration, a secret of the Chu Palace was presented to Liu Sheng and others.

Huang Jie and other generals who were watching were all wide-eyed. They didn't expect to eat the big melon of the Ming Dynasty lord.

After hearing this, Liu Sheng said, "You couldn't have made up a story to deceive me just to survive, right?"

"Xiao Wang will never dare!" Zhu Huakui promised hastily, "If the commander doesn't believe it, you can ask those clans!"

Liu Sheng sighed, "But according to what you said, you are the evil thief who has been stealing the throne of Chu for 60 years. I can't spare you even more. Come here, bring this thief to the Zhu Mingchu clan and ask him clearly. If He was really a fake king of Chu, so he was beheaded on the spot."

After hearing this, Zhu Huakui was stunned and then collapsed.

When the personal guards came to pull him, he realized what he was doing and shouted: "I was wrong! I shouldn't have deceived the commander! I am the real King of Chu..."

Liu Sheng feigned anger and slapped the table, "You old thief, I wanted to chat with you kindly, but you lied so much that I didn't even know which words were true and which were false!

Come, take him under custody, investigate the crimes he committed, and wait for a public trial in front of the people of Jiangxia in the future! "

"Commander, spare your life, spare your life..."

Zhu Huakui kept struggling and begging for mercy, but he was still detained by his guards.

Afterwards, Liu Sheng had dinner at Chengyun Hall, drank some tea, and spent more than an hour handling today's military affairs.

When he was about to go out to inspect the various units, Bai Yu, the military and political officer of the Shengjie Guard Brigade, and Li Guofan, the military and political officer of the Huben Guard Brigade, each took several regiments of military and political officers and took a few stacks of accounts to the Chengyun Hall.

"Commander, the seizures from Prince Chu's Mansion have been preliminarily calculated. This is the general account."

After saying a few words, the two handed the general accounts in their hands to Liu Sheng.

　First more.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)