Daming, originally wanted to destroy it, but the system came

Chapter 240 The iron-clad Arutai?
From Ningxia Town, go out of Helan Mountain, and then there is the endless prairie in front of you.

At this time, Zhu Ming did not know that the whole court was shaken because of him. Zhu Yuanzhang was so anxious that he wished he could immediately raise 50 troops to support and 'save' him.

Even Xu Miaojin is rushing towards Ningxia Town at this moment, and may have already arrived.

Because the troops led by Zhu Zhen had been out for several days, they had already passed Helan Mountain and had made several rounds on the grassland.

But there was no sign of those tribes.

"Alutai, do you really think that this king dare not kill you?" Zhu Ming called Arutai over, but did not ask him to kneel down. There was no need to humiliate him in such a way.

Zhu Chu could see that Arutai was a tough guy. If he didn't want to speak, even killing him would be useless.

Arutai sneered and said: "Prince Ming, I, Arutai, am not a fool. Unless you personally agree to let the Ming court send troops to help my lord become the lord of the grassland, I will not lead you to find our tribe."

As these [-] cavalry were defeated at the foot of Ningxia Town, there were more than a dozen nearby tribes that would be unable to withstand the threat of this Ming army.

Arutai knew very well that if he took them to find the tribe's location, it would be all over.

So he used these tribes as bargaining chips, stated his conditions, and said: "As long as Ming Dynasty sends troops and recognizes my lord, my lord will naturally repay Ming Dynasty's kindness and even become a vassal and pay tribute. Prince Ming Dynasty, why are you doing this?" Don’t you agree to such good terms?”

"Do you think I'm one of those fools?" Zhu Zhen sneered: "Now that you are in chaos, why don't you take the opportunity to add insult to injury, and take advantage of your illness to kill you, and help you put down the rebellion and reunify? Then when you have built up enough strength, Are you going to invade our Ming border again, and even burn, kill and rob our people of Ming Dynasty?"

"Even if I help you with an arrow feather now, it will be a life-threatening arrow inserted into the bodies of my people in the Ming Dynasty in the future. Do you regard me as a man who enjoys great achievements? Paying tribute verbally? It's useless."

"Many countries around here have become vassals to our Ming Dynasty. Leaving aside Southeast Asia (I have said this many times), to the east, the Kingdom of Koryo is also our vassal, as well as the three Jurchen tribes."

Yes, during the Hongwu period, even the Jurchens had to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, and even many of the border guards who guarded the Mongols were Jurchens as officers and soldiers.

But later on, didn’t the Jurchens rebel against the Ming Dynasty?

So, verbal things have no meaning at all.

Otherwise, the territory of the daimyo would be the largest. After all, even the Mongolian grasslands were sealed by the Three Guards of Duoyan, also called the Three Guards of Wuliangha. Wuliangha was the third country that existed at the same time as Oara and Tatar after the split of the Northern Yuan Dynasty. Mongolian tribal government.

In other words, one-third of Mongolia at that time was vassal to the Ming Dynasty.

so what?It has never been recognized by history.

Therefore, Zhu Zhen is very practical and believes that only the territory in his own hands is the real territory.

"Either surrender or die," Zhu Ji gave Arutai an ultimatum.

Because they had been out for several days, but had achieved nothing. Seeing that the entire army was about to run out of food, they couldn't go back in despair, right?
That would be so embarrassing.

It was Arutai who took them around in circles on the grassland these days. Since the grassland is vast and sparsely populated, it is difficult to find markers that can be used as markers. Without local guides like them, it is indeed difficult to find the tribes they like to station in. place.

Zhu Zhen finally got angry.

If he had to wait a few more days, would he really have to wait until Xu Miaojin came to collect his body?
"A man from the grassland will not bow his head easily. Just kill me." Arutai raised his head forcefully, without any fear.

"Okay, what a strong-willed man," Zhu Zhen shouted and gave Arutai a thumbs up.

Arutai closed his eyes, waiting for the moment of his fate to come to an end.

As a result, Zhu Chu shouted again: "Wang Fu."

Wang Fu was actually inside the tent, standing aside with his hands clasped in fists: "Your Highness, please give me your instructions."

Zhu Chu pointed at Arutai, a smile flashed in his eyes, and said: "This is a man, a tough guy with a strong heart. We have to respect him. Since he is not afraid of death, let's change the method. Let's come out. It’s been so long, and the horses have been holding it in for a long time, so why not take this tough guy and give our horses some tricks to vent their male desires.”

Arutai didn't understand it at first, but he also felt that the words were not good. He opened his eyes and looked at Zhu Zhen in confusion.

He was a little complacent just now, thinking that even the Ming Dynasty prince admired his backbone, and he was loyal to his master, and he could be said to have died a worthy death without any regrets.

but now.

Always feel weird?

In fact, Wang Fu also looked at Zhu Xi with disbelief. After thinking for a long time, he never thought how could His Highness come up with such a bad idea. He even had to bite the bullet and asked: "Your Highness, how do you do it specifically?"

"It's stupid. Just take him to the horse pen, take off his clothes, and fix his posture with a rope. It's best to feed the horse some aphrodisiac. If the horse doesn't know how to operate it, send some soldiers to help adjust it. You got it."

"Yes, you can't let me take command on the spot, right? But it doesn't seem impossible. Forget it, let me teach you. Arutai, I admire you as a tough guy, and I want to marry you to my subordinate today. Are you happy with a certain cavalryman’s beloved horse?”

Zhu Zhen explained the process carefully. In fact, just halfway through, Arutai's face turned pale.

Grab the bamboo shoots and ask people if they are happy.

Do you admire him for being a man?Still a tough guy?No matter how hard you are, you can't get hard now.

Arutai immediately knelt on the ground, sweating like rain. It was hard for him to sweat so much in this late autumn.

"Your Majesty, please spare my life. No, Your Majesty, please kill me. You can kill me or cut me into pieces. Or, in the worst case, you can use a horse to drag me to death on the grassland, or even use several horses to tear me apart." ) That’s fine, just don’t do that,” Arutai was really panicked.

Even a tough guy who is not afraid of death has something he is afraid of, and that is the insult to his integrity.

He is not afraid of death because he cares about his reputation, which means that he needs to die to maintain his integrity.

It’s not that you’re not afraid of death, but you’re not afraid of anything.

For example, Zhu Chu wants to betroth Arutai to a horse or something, especially a stallion. After all, what I mentioned above is the desire of the male, not the female horse.

Good guy, Arutai, a man who is unyielding and not afraid of death, is about to cry at this moment.

If this spreads out, he will become a laughing stock in the entire grassland, and his reputation will be passed down through the ages, but it will not be a good name.

Arutai can die calmly. In that case, he will be a famous man on the grassland.

But he must not be humiliated like this, then it would be better to kill him.

So Arutai gave up, and at this time he just wanted to die.

Zhu Zhen looked at Arutai who knelt down on his own initiative, and snorted coldly: "You are so shameless, I will deal with you in ten thousand ways. Although there are not many wild beasts on the grassland, there are also wolves. I can let people catch you. There are a few wolves living here, starting from your feet, and eating you alive bit by bit, including the flesh and bones."

"You will not die easily, but you will have to watch your body being eaten bit by bit. You can even feel it when the beast pulls your intestines."

(PS: As an aside, the author had an acute appendicitis perforation a few years ago. During the operation, I could really feel the twitching sensation in the intestines when the doctor was cleaning the pus in the intestines. It was just that I didn’t feel any pain due to the anesthesia at the time. But Thinking back to this day, I still feel a little physically uncomfortable.)
At this time, Arutai no longer had the so-called tough-guy aura of being unafraid of death. Just listening to the inner picture produced by Zhu Chu's description would make him collapse.

Even with their ferocious style, they just kill their enemies and leave them on the grassland for the prairie wolves or various birds of prey to eat the corpses.

But it will not let living people be tortured for life.

Even if it is torture, the most it can do is to be led by a horse and then dragged to death on the ground.

But it was physical pain, and he thought he could bear it.

But Zhu Chu wanted to exert mental pressure, trample on Alutai's dignity, or give him physical and mental torture.

Arutai knelt there, almost prostrated, not even daring to raise his head and look directly at Zhu Zhen.

At this time, Arutai even had hallucinations, feeling that the person sitting there was no longer the weak and bullied prince of the Han family that he had always thought, but his own master who was like a cannibal without spitting out bones.

In other words, Zhu Chu at this time is more like a king on the grassland.

"Arutai, I will give you one last chance. If you still dare to lead me around here, then go and breed my horse. But it will not be a female horse, but a male horse as a wife. I would like to See if you can give birth to a foal," Zhu Zhen said with a sneer.

Seize bamboo shoots, a man from Arutai, you want him to give birth to a foal?

Not to mention the foal, even if it gives birth to a child, it won't be born.

Even Wang Fu couldn't bear to look at him and turned away.

But what I have to say is that in this way, Zhu Ming really allowed Arutai to break his defense.

He didn't want to be a stallion's wife, so he could only say with a trembling voice: "Alutai doesn't dare anymore. Lord Daming, please give me another chance. This time I will take you to find our tribe. And Alutai I am willing to lead all the tribes to surrender to you and become your slaves." If Zhu Chu is familiar with the rules on the grassland, he will know that Arutai has deserted his master at this time, that is, that ghost Lichi, and wants to completely surrender to Zhu Chu. He is the master.

But even if he knew, Zhu Zhen didn't care.

So Zhu Chu asked someone to notify the entire army and prepare to set off.

More than 5000 people were not dissatisfied at all. Although they had been circling Helan Mountain for the past few days, they had never questioned it.

They had lost confidence in the Zhu family because of the many evil deeds of Qin King Zhu Ping.

However, as Zhu Ming quickly calmed down the morale of the army with his own unique methods, and during this period of time following Zhu Ming, he saw the bravery of the Dian King and even benefited from it. Now the 5000-man army is full They are all cavalry, not infantry anymore.

Even if they haven't followed Zhu Chu to the point of following him to death, at least they are full of confidence and admiration for Zhu Chu.

Otherwise, why would they abandon their three major commanders and run out with only Zhu Zhen raising his arms?

So the entire army silently packed up the temporary camp, with Alutai riding in front to lead the way, and they followed His Royal Highness deep into the grassland.

Zhu Chu also arranged a horse for Arutai and did not let him run on the ground. At the same time, he was not afraid that Arutai would dare to run.

If you dare to run, I will shoot you to death with a machine gun.

Arutai has also seen the power of the big pineapple, not to mention that there are 5000 Ming troops behind him, and he can't run far even if he wants to.

In addition, after being intimidated by Zhu Zhen, he finally no longer dared to cheat and cheat. Instead, he took Zhu Zhen and others all the way to a certain place in the grassland, and this was where one of the grassland tribes gathered.

Nomadic people live on the grasslands. They are not engaged in production, that is, they do not cultivate land or reclaim wasteland.

This is because the grasslands are windy and rainy, and there are few places suitable for farming, so they have developed a nomadic lifestyle.

This also makes them homeless. They often change pastures several times a year and never stay in one place.

Originally, they were going to change places this year and were planning to move to another pasture.

However, because of this Operation Autumn Wind, the nearby tribes have put their migration on hold.

Especially today.

A loud sound of horse hoofbeats quickly attracted the attention of the men, women, and children in the tribe.

"It's Arutai and the others who are back."

The tribe suddenly burst into cheers.

Because they knew that once the autumn wind attack was successful, they would harvest huge amounts of food and many Han people as slaves.

This is a benefit to the entire tribe.

In particular, many things from the Han family cannot be obtained on the grassland.

With the current relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the grasslands, there is no possibility of trade circulation at all.

That's why the caravan before Shen Rong was able to reap huge rewards. One is that the scale of Shen Rong's caravan is not small, and the other is that the grassland has not seen various things from the Central Plains for a long time, and many of them were promoted by Shen Rong. The value of one's own goods depresses the value of the other party's cattle, sheep and horses.

The autumn wind this time was also very important to these tribes. They had previously exchanged a large number of cattle and sheep with Shen Rong, and now they needed a batch of food for the winter.

In fact, they wanted to rob Shen Rong before, or even catch them all in one go.

It was Shen Rong who was so well-informed that he was not destroyed on the grassland.

Just as the whole tribe came out happily to greet their hero.

"Wait a minute, that's not our man, it's the Ming army. Oh no, the Ming army is here."

Finally, someone noticed something unusual and discovered that the oncoming troops not only carried the flag of the Ming Army, but also were dressed in the style of the Ming Army.

"But isn't the one at the front our master Arutai?" Someone also pointed to Arutai who was leading the way in front of the team.

Soon, the faces of the people in the tribe became serious, because they had guessed something, but they didn't dare to admit it yet.

Since Arutai brought this Ming army here, the answer is already obvious. Their troops fighting Qiufeng have lost, and their men may be dead.

Arutai became a prisoner of the enemy, and it was Arutai who led these Ming troops to find the tribe's location.

In fact, looking back now, Zhu Ming should have kept Shen Rong, or asked Shen Rong to leave some people as guides.

After all, Shen Rong's caravan had visited these tribes before.

But at the time, he didn't know that they would be defeated so soon. Even the previous battle in Ningxia Town was not favored by others. Even Zhu Zhen at the time just wanted to defend Ningxia Town.

So I never thought of conquering these tribes now.

And Zhu Ming also has his own ideas, let’s not mention them for now.

Soon, Zhu Zhen led the army to the tribe.

"Run," the tribe suddenly went into chaos, especially countless women, shouting to the many teenagers in the tribe, asking them to run away quickly.

Because according to the customs on the grassland, once a certain tribe is defeated and conquered by others, the men will basically be killed, even teenagers.

Only children and women would escape, but they would be taken away as slaves.

The women didn't care about themselves at this time, they just wanted to let their children escape.

But with a wave of Zhu Chu's hand, the cavalry behind him immediately dispersed, outflanking them from the left and right, and soon surrounded the tribe.

This is a small tribe, at least for a force of 5000 people, it can still be easily surrounded.

Moreover, there are no strong men in the tribe anymore. It is thought that all the strong men have been taken away.

At this time, they were surrounded by the Ming army, with almost no ability to fight back and no possibility of resistance.

"Arutai, what's going on? Have you forgotten who you are? Don't you even have any dignity?" An old woman of quite a certain age walked out of the tribe, supported by several women. He glared at Arutai, his old face full of disappointment.

"Ama," Arutai was ashamed, because this was his mother, and he had no face to face her at this moment.

Arutai lowered his head, feeling extremely aggrieved because they didn't know what kind of torture and humiliation they would face if they refused to give in.

He had no choice. This damn Prince Ming was really a devil.

Zhu Chu glanced at Arutai, then looked at the old woman in front of him, and the people in the tribe who were either glaring at him angrily, or looking frightened and despairing.

"This king is Zhu Ming, the king of Dian in the Ming Dynasty, so that you can know who you were defeated by, who conquered you, and whose captives you became," Zhu Ming said his name loudly.

Arutai's old mother was shocked, surprised that Zhu Zhen turned out to be a prince.

But more people are indifferent.

Because after all, Zhu Zhen is the prince of the Ming Dynasty, not the prince of their grassland, nor the golden family of their grassland.

So only Arutai's old mother spoke and said: "Even if you are the Ming Dynasty prince, it is impossible to make our tribe your slaves. All you can get is our corpses. Even our cattle I would rather kill the sheep and burn them than leave them to you."

What an old lady who is not afraid of life and death, and she deserves to be the mother who gave birth to a strong-willed man like Arutai.

After the old woman scolded Arutai and Zhu Chu one after another, she even ordered them to retreat into the tribe. Although the tribe's strength could not resist Zhu Chu's army, they still planned to fight to the death.

This is really a realization of mortality.

Listening to what the old woman said, it seemed that she was planning to set a fire. She would rather burn the tribe to the ground than leave even a little bit to Zhu Zhen?
Zhu Zhen hesitated. Should he immediately let his troops rush into the tribe and kill them all, and help them die?
Or watch them burn themselves to the ground?
"Forget it, I'm not here to enslave you, Arutai, go and stop your mother, don't let the old lady do stupid things. Tell them, I'm here to liberate them," Zhu Zhen thought, why not Will the grassland also change its soil and return to its current form?

(PS: I feel uncomfortable. My eyes are suffering from conjunctivitis. It may be caused by overusing my eyes in the past few days. The entire right eye is congested, and it swells and hurts. I am photophobic and can't open my eyes. Fortunately, there are still a few more Chapter manuscript.)
(End of this chapter)