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

Chapter 246 Are you ready to enter the grassland again?

After receiving the imperial edict, Zhu Zhen looked at Tang Jie with a cold face.

You don't need to think about it to know that his expedition outside the Great Wall must have been brought about by old boys like Tang Jie.

Otherwise, how could Zhu Yuanzhang know?

As for why Zhu Yuanzhang knew that he was back now, I'm afraid he didn't know that he had come back yet, but he came back just when the imperial edict arrived.

It means that when he left the customs, these commanders went to complain. When the post cavalry arrived at Yingtian, and then the imperial edict was sent from Yingtian to here, it would take this long to go back and forth.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang was really anxious and sent an imperial edict directly. As long as Zhu Chu came back, he would be called back immediately.

Good guy, I asked you to pay homage to your second brother, what did you do?

You were asked to go to Xi'an to investigate the cause of the death of King Qin Zhu Ping, but you took the opportunity to run to the border and even wandered around and had a fight outside the border?
But it has to be said that Zhu Min made great achievements in this battle, so Zhu Yuanzhang did not mention that he led troops privately and acted recklessly, but just asked him to go back quickly.

Otherwise God knows how audacious this bastard would have been.

What Zhu Min didn't know was that Zhu Yuanzhang was so anxious that he called the two princes Fu Youde and Feng Sheng to the capital, and then quickly used the power of the whole country to form an army of 50 to pick him up.

But the problem is that an army of 50 is not so easy to form.

What's more, it's already the end of October, and in a few days it will be November. It's almost the end of the year and winter.

At this time, it is definitely the stupidest choice to form a large army and go outside the Great Wall.

Again, the grassland environment in winter is really harsh.

The price that needs to be paid is too great. Even the food and baggage is much more than in other seasons.

"Your Highness, why are you looking at me like this?" Tang Jie realized belatedly that he finally sensed some bad momentum from Zhu Xi.

"If I had known you were so cowardly and stupid, I should have waited until you were killed before coming back," Zhu Zhen couldn't wait to say it bluntly, hoping that Tang Jie would just die on the city wall.

Tang Jie was shocked and looked at Zhu Zhen in disbelief.

Immediately afterwards, Tang Jie also became angry. Regardless of Zhu Zhen as the vassal king, he said with resentment: "Why did your highness say this? Although the general is not able to defend the city well, that is not the reason for the general. This Ningxia town is said to be nine It is one of the important border towns, but except for the help of the Hetao garrison, we are just a lone army with only one guard post and more than 5000 people. The enemy came too suddenly, and we were unprepared."

"And the last general dare not say that he has meritorious service. At least he had no intention of abandoning the city and fleeing or surrendering at that time. The last general would rather live and die with Ningxia Town than stop the Tatar cavalry."

"I know that Your Highness has always been brave, and I also know that you have grievances. You blamed the general and reported it to the court. But this is not a trivial matter. Ningxia Town was attacked and almost defeated by the enemy. Shouldn't this be reported to the court? Ningxia Town will solve it. Shouldn’t the crisis be reported? What if the imperial court sends a large army to support, but it turns out to be a waste of manpower and material resources, is this okay? "

"What's more, Your Highness is a rich man. You left the gate behind the gate in front of us. If there is any loss, the general will not be able to atone for your sins even if he is buried with you."

"You are so happy, why don't you consider the general's difficulties? To put it bluntly, you don't even have an ultimatum to get out of prison. As long as you are not the prince, the general can put you in jail."

To put it bluntly, the two people have different positions. Zhu Zhen can do whatever he wants with Shang Fang's sword, but Tang Jie cannot let him do whatever he wants.

Good guy, I see what Your Majesty means, but I don’t blame you at all.

But I am not His Majesty's son. I am just a little commander. Don't play with me.

It wasn't like Zhu Ming didn't know what Tang Jie meant, and he also understood that he was having difficulties.

But Zhu Chen sneered and said: "I might as well tell you the truth, that Arutai and his tribe have surrendered to me and have become subjects of the Ming Dynasty. But they used to belong to Guilichi's subordinates, and with this loss I brought back more than 2 strong men, and I brought back so many cattle and sheep. Let me ask you, what will happen to them if you don't care whether they live or die?"

There is no doubt that if Zhu Zhen does not bring enough winter food to Alutai as promised, then they will have no choice but to seek refuge with Guilichi again in order to survive.

As a result, everything Zhu Ming has done before will be in vain.

He will even be accused of betrayal, and it will be extremely difficult to conquer the people on the grassland.

No one will cooperate with someone who is dishonest, let alone trust them easily.

Even if food is sent to them, once Guilichi gets wind of it and sends an army to attack the tribe in Arutai, they will have no choice but to become slaves of Guilichi again.

Zhu Ming sneered and said: "You have your difficulties? But what I want to do is a great cause that will last forever. If all the tribes outside Ningxia Town and this grassland become part of my Ming Dynasty, Ningxia Town will no longer be There will be no war. Even based on this, we can plot the entire grassland in the future."

"But now that the holy decree is here, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to resist the decree? Or do you want me to give up the Arutai tribe? Give up the territory and population that I have already obtained? Give up the great opportunity and wait for them to regain their vitality before attacking Ningxia town?"

"It's true that you have difficulties, and it's true that you have made meritorious deeds before. But you can't ignore the country because of personal interests. Why did I scold you a few times?"

Faced with Zhu Chu's stern scolding, Tang Jie's old face turned blue and white. Finally, his lips moved a few times and he murmured: "I never dared to think that Your Highness has such courage. The general thought that you were also going to fight the autumn wind. I thought You have wiped out all the Arutai tribe. I didn’t expect you to conquer them.”

To be honest, Tang Jie was also frightened by Zhu Xi's ambition.

Can you actually make the grassland people surrender loyally?Or even completely conquer the entire grassland?
This is something that Lan Yu, not even the fierce men of the past dynasties, can do. Even Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, even Lan Yu, can only return to the court after fighting for a while.

So what if they break through Wang Ting on the grassland?
They never really occupied the grassland territory.

After they left, the grassland people came back, and when the Central Plains dynasty was weak, they came to fight the autumn wind again.

These prairie people are like flies. They want to eliminate them, but they are scattered all over the prairie. They are not even unified. Each tribe has its own fixed territory and moves frequently.

At the same time, except for the people on the grassland, they will not surrender to anyone else. This is the most difficult thing to govern.

"So you tell me what to do now?" Zhu Yu picked up the imperial edict in his hand. Now that he had accepted the edict, what Zhu Yuanzhang wanted most was to let him go back. They said he was unfilial.

Can Zhu Chu still blatantly disobey the decree?
But does he really want to give up the Arutai tribe outside the pass?
Zhu Ming needed this achievement very much. Both Shen Rong and himself could see how important it would be once he made a great contribution.

Lan Yu is so arrogant and domineering because he won a great victory in the battle of Yuerhai. If he didn't commit suicide, he really wouldn't die.

What would happen if it were Zhu Lili who achieved Lan Yu's level of merit?
In addition, the blue jade case just happened this year. Although the civil and military officials of the entire court did not dare to mention a word, there are still many rumors among the people.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang can use Zhu Chu's contribution to cover up Lan Yu. By then, Zhu Chu's reputation will reach its peak. I am afraid that no one in the entire Ming Dynasty can compare with him at this stage.

Even if Xu Da is still there, he is old and has enough qualifications, but it is a pity that he cannot accept old age.

As for Fu Youde, although he had contributed to the Yunnan expedition before.

But don't forget that Zhu Zhen also quelled the rebellion of the Yunnan chieftains.

Once Zhu Zhen makes an unparalleled contribution in the Mobei grassland, he will really be in the limelight.

It's no wonder that Zhu Ming looked at Tang Jie with an unhappy expression.

If cutting off a person's financial path is like killing his parents, Tang Jie's actions can be regarded as taking a blow out of Zhu's life, disrupting many of Zhu's arrangements.

Zhu Yu didn't care about Zhu Yuanzhang's concern for him revealed in the imperial edict.

That was useless, because it was impossible for Zhu Yuanzhang to make him emperor.

But if he can seize this God-given opportunity, it will be completely different.

So Zhu Ming looked at Tang Jie in front of him and wished he could kill this old guy.

Although Tang Jie had meritorious service in defending the city and was not afraid of death, he had both meritorious service and faults. At least for Zhu Chu, the faults outweighed the merits.

"Otherwise, just pretend that this never happened?" Tang Jie had a sudden thought and wanted to take the imperial edict back?

"Are you kidding? How many heads do you have? Are they enough for Emperor Hongwu to chop off?" Zhu Zhen was speechless.

"Then what should we do?" Tang Jie was really anxious. If what Zhu Ming said could be realized, just the fact that there would be no more fighting outside Ningxia Town would be a great achievement.

Due to the special geographical environment of Ningxia Town, the people living here, not only in dire straits, but also in the autumn harvest every year, are worried that they will be hit by the autumn wind again this year.

The problem is, if it’s just the autumn wind, it’s nothing. At most, we’ll lose some money and food.

But the Tatars still want to arrest people, and the people they kidnapped will never come back. They don't know whether they are alive or dead, and they don't care whether they live or die.As the commander of the local garrison, how could Tang Jie not know the plight of the local people.

But should we give up this opportunity just because of this imperial edict?
If he really misses this opportunity, I'm afraid he will be a sinner for the ages, and the people here will hate him for thousands of years.

"Find Peng Yue and the others," Zhu Zhen glared at Tang Jie and ordered.

Tang Jie did not dare to let the people below make arrangements, but also to avoid Zhu Xi's anger at this time, he hurriedly went to find it himself.

After Tang Jie left, Wang Fu came out from behind and complained: "Your Highness, why do you need to scare him? He is also responsible."

"I know, but you can't always let someone hold you back, right?" Zhu Ming shrugged, with no trace of anger on his face.

In fact, Zhu Min knew that he could not hide the fact that he sent troops from Xi'an to aid Ningxia Town, not to mention that he led the army out of the border and even circled around Helan Mountain.

I get angry when I talk about this, damn Alutai.

It is simply impossible to hide the truth from the enemy. It should be noted that paper cannot contain the fire. What if there are also Jin Yiwei in the army?

Zhu Yuanzhang will know it sooner or later, and once he knows it, there will be such an imperial edict.

It's just that Zhu Yu didn't expect that Zhu Yuanzhang was really worried about his safety. He originally thought that he was here to reprimand him for his misbehavior and transgression.

It seems that he himself knows that he has indeed overstepped his bounds.

"Then what should we do now?" Wang Fu looked at the imperial edict in Zhu Zhen's hand worriedly. According to the meaning of the imperial edict, Zhu Zhen might have to set off immediately to prepare to respond to the sky.

"Stupid, who gave me this sword? Who said that Shang Fang's sword is like my own?" Zhu Chen tapped the sword on his waist with the imperial edict.

Wang Fu opened his mouth wide and was once again stunned by His Highness's coquettish moves.

Although the imperial edict was issued by Zhu Yuanzhang, Shang Fang's sword was also given by him personally. This is called using the other's spear to attack the other's shield.

Is the imperial edict more powerful, or is the sword of Shang Fang, who is here in person, more powerful?
Anyway, Zhu Yuanzhang is not here, no one can tell clearly.

"You may as well accept the imperial edict, you may as well get things done, and you may as well go outside the customs again," Zhu Zhen winked at Wang Fu.

Wang Fu suddenly couldn't laugh or cry, Your Highness, Your Highness, you are really treasonous.

"It's okay, I don't know what's going on, but I always feel that the old man likes me now," Zhu Zhen said, looking like a dead pig who is not afraid of boiling water.

In fact, this is really not an illusion. When Zhu Chu was in Yunnan, father and son had already begun to doubt each other.

But since Zhu Chu entered Beijing and father and son met again, Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards Zhu Chu changed greatly.

Zhu Yu even pointed at the civil servants and officials in the court hall and cursed loudly. Zhu Yuanzhang seemed angry, but in fact he meant to be partial.

He whipped Fang Xiaoru in the Imperial College, and Zhu Yuanzhang just let him go to school lightly.

Good guy, for ordinary people, the Imperial College is like a carp leaping over the dragon's gate, but Zhu Chu is originally from the dragon's gate. It really doesn't matter whether he goes or not. It's better to say that not going is the reward, right?
Is there a prize for beating lecturers and professors in public?

At this time, Zhu Yu, relying on Zhu Yuanzhang's connivance, actually planned to resist the decree?
At this time, Tang Jie had already brought Peng Yue and the others over. The four commanders first bowed to Zhu Xi and said goodbye, and then Peng Yue asked: "Your Highness, why did you ask Lord Tang to find us?"

Zhu Ming responded and said: "Well, brothers, have you rested enough? It's time to prepare yourself and enter the grassland again. I conquered the tribes in Arutai before and promised them to send them a batch of food before winter. .The previous cattle, sheep and horses. Except for the horses, the other cattle and sheep can be exchanged for food with the people."

"Those cattle can be used as farm cattle. I think ordinary people can't afford to replace them. It's better to find some landowners to exchange them. According to the market value, it can only be slightly cheaper."

"The sheep are also good things. Not only are the mutton delicious, but the wool can also be woven."

"You ask the soldiers to exchange everything for me with food and grass."

Several conductors looked at each other.

Replace everything with food and grass?

How big does it have to be?
After all, Zhu Chu brought back [-] cattle and [-] sheep this time.

Moreover, cattle were expensive in ancient times. Even if a cow was sold for only ten taels of silver, it could still be sold for 10 taels of silver.
Now, taking the price of rice in Yingtian in Beijing as an example, one tael of silver can buy seven to eight shi of rice. According to the "Research on Grain Yield per Mu in Chinese Dynasties", one shi is about 76 kilograms.

In other words, one tael of silver can buy between 500 and [-] kilograms of grain.

How much can you buy with 10 taels of silver?

Hundreds of thousands of stones, and that's just cattle. What about [-] sheep?

Even if I ate part of it in the past few days, it was only in a small number.

"Your Highness, are you trying to raise millions of grains of food and grass? What do you want to do?" Peng Yue was stunned.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just asking you. I leave this matter to you. Can you complete it?" Zhu Ming asked.

"It is possible to exchange for enough food, but it is not easy to raise it all in a short period of time," Peng Yue pondered for a moment before giving his answer.

"That's good," Zhu Xi nodded and said, "I don't care how you do it, or whether you go to Weizhou City, Qingyang or Xi'an, I don't care about the process, only the result. And in these three days Within the next day, you have to exchange a batch of food and grass for me here first, and I will go to the outside of the customs again."

still go?

"Wait a minute, Your Highness, you asked us to exchange these cattle and sheep for food. Are you planning to continue leading our troops deep into the grassland?" Niu Sheng suddenly came back to his senses and guessed Zhu Chu's intention. intention.

Isn't this just to drive them away so that they can take away their military power and troops again?
"Your Highness, you are not being honest. I, Niu Sheng, consider myself to be a bit of a force. If you let me serve under your account, it would be over. Why would you go around in a big circle and isolate us?" Niu Sheng said at that time Not happy anymore.

Zhu Chu looked at this man who was as strong as an ox and thought to himself, "Aren't you stupid?"
Niu Sheng really guessed it right. In fact, it doesn't matter if you leave this matter to others. There is no need to let the three commanders do the hard work.

But if we don't find something for them to do, how can we take away the 5000 troops from their hands?

Nominally, they were the guards of Qin King Zhu Ping, and were under the command of the three major commanders.

Even if Zhu Zhen is the prince, it is not a war at this time, so naturally it is not under his control.

"Niu Sheng, right? Since you are not afraid of death, then come with us," Zhu Ming looked at this idiot with a smile, and actually easily agreed to Niu Sheng's invitation and asked him to join in.

Niu Sheng was immediately overjoyed.

"Wait a minute, Your Highness, if this fool can do it, then I can do it too," Peng Yue said anxiously. Why should he sell cattle and sheep by himself while you go to build a career outside the Great Wall?

"That's okay," Zhu Zhen nodded and agreed to Peng Yue's offer.

Then Zhu Chu looked at the last Qian Shu.

Qian Shu lowered his head and ignored the winks of his two colleagues. After hesitating for a moment, he raised his head, looked at Zhu Zhen and said: "Your Highness, since Peng Yue and Niu Sheng are following you, there are so many of them and I don't have many. Let’s go buy food and fodder for you.”

"A very smart choice," Zhu Ming praised: "You know, if we fail to make an immortal contribution during this expedition, what awaits us will be punishment from the imperial court and His Majesty. We may even be exiled as a whole family."

Even if there is no imperial edict from Zhu Yuanzhang, it is still a serious crime to leave the border at will.

And this Qian Shu has always known how to protect himself wisely, so naturally he will not take this risk.

So Qian Shu took on the task of converting those cattle and sheep into food and grass, and at the same time he voluntarily gave up his military power.

Zhu Ming was not polite and directly handed over the troops originally belonging to Qian Shu to Commander Wang Fu, and asked Wang Fu, Peng Yue and Niu Sheng to notify the entire army to prepare.

At the same time, Zhu Chu did not forget that there were still eight thousand prisoners in the city.

"It's time for them to get their bearings."

(End of this chapter)