Daming: I am the Crown Prince

Chapter 86 Yongzhen Yunnan
Mu Chun, who had just inherited the title of Marquis of Xiping, was thirty years old. He had followed Mu Ying in the expedition to the Western Regions since he was seventeen, and had also followed the army to conquer Yunnan, Jiangxi and other places, often serving as a vanguard.

In Lao Zhu's eyes, this child of his own was perfect in every way, except that he had no offspring, which was worrying.

Thirty-year-old Mu Chun has the demeanor of Mu Ying in his youth. When facing Zhu Yunhuan, he is close to and protective of him from the bottom of his heart. This is his younger brother, so he naturally has to protect him.

Just like Mu Ying back then, he always regarded Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma as his parents and tried his best to protect his younger brother Zhu Biao.

"Your Highness, Luchuan Silunfa rebelled before, claiming to have an army of 300,000. In my opinion, that was an exaggeration." Mu Chun said excitedly, "He did have a hundred elephants, and his rebels were wearing armor, carrying shields on their shoulders, and holding large bamboo tubes with javelins on their left and right. They were full of fighting spirit. My father first set up three rows of artillery and crossbows, and then divided the troops into three groups."

Zhu Yunhuan immediately smiled and said, "It happened two years ago. I remember that we killed 40,000 enemies and shot nearly 100 elephants. We also captured more than 30 elephants, and some are being kept in the elephant farm now!"

There is an elephant farm outside Yingtian Prefecture. Some of the elephants were presented by Annan, and some were captured by Mu Ying and others.

They are kept in normal times and used as ceremonial objects when necessary to demonstrate the style of a great country.

"Luchuan has been defeated and has become insignificant. Silunfa begged for surrender and offered tribute. Azi rebelled again and was suppressed immediately." Mu Chun said with great pride, "I think Yunnan has been pacified and now we want to win back the hearts of the people. First, we should spread education, second, we should move the natives out of the dense forests, and third, the court should cultivate land and build water conservancy projects."

Zhu Yunhuan said, "I remember that my cousin expanded Dianchi Lake, which is a good thing. My cousin was in charge of Yunnan for nine years, and the total amount of military farms exceeded millions of acres. This time when you go back, the court will definitely relocate the Han people one after another, no less than 200,000 people."

Mu Chun's eyes lit up, and he said excitedly, "Your Highness, Yunnan is a place of miasma, please ask the court to allocate herbal medicine and medical households."

"Of course, my cousin is not in a hurry to leave." Zhu Yunhuan smiled and said intimately, "I have discussed these matters with my grandfather before. There are too few Han people in Yunnan and Guizhou, so it is difficult to spread education."

Mu Chun was deeply touched by this. "Nowadays, many people only recognize the chieftains and not the imperial court. The imperial court's prestige is not as good as the prestige that the chieftain families have built up for hundreds of years."

The Ming Dynasty was founded less than 30 years ago, and it took only 10 years to recover and develop Yunnan and Guizhou.

Even though the imperial court defeated some chieftains, including the King of Liang who guarded Yunnan and Guizhou during the Yuan Dynasty, and the Duan family, the descendant of the Duan family who ruled Dali.

But for the people who have lived there for many generations, the Mongols, the Duan family or the chieftains have far greater prestige than the Ming Dynasty.

It was not difficult for the powerful Ming Dynasty to conquer a place, but the real challenge was whether it could govern it well and win the hearts of the people.

Although the two were more than twice as old as each other and had hardly met before, they now got along very well. Mu Chun still adhered to the duties of a subject, but Zhu Yunhuan seemed to not care about their status and showed intimacy everywhere.

"Cousin, you have been in battle for a long time, and you often serve as a vanguard." Zhu Yunhuan became serious and said with concern, "Don't do this in the future. You are a marquis of the court and the commander of the army. How can you take risks so easily!"

Mu Chun looked embarrassed, mainly because he didn't want to lie to Zhu Yunhuan, "Your Highness, the battlefield is dangerous. Even if you anticipate the enemy in advance, there may be some unexpected changes. I will definitely not take risks easily, and I have trusted guards around me. But sometimes I have to be brave and take the lead, so that the three armies can fight for their lives!"

Zhu Yunhuan still advised, "Cousin, you are the commander-in-chief! You have countless elite soldiers and generals under your command. How can you go into battle and kill the enemy every time?"

Mu Chun smiled and said, "Your Highness, I grew up in the army and followed my father in battles. When I was young, I was fortunate enough to receive guidance from King Kaiping and King Zhongshan. I remember King Kaiping once said that a man should ride the strongest horse and lead the army into battle. This is truly exciting and a true hero!"

Zhu Yunhuan was speechless. His grandfather was known as the most courageous general in the world. He had never been defeated in his life. He was extremely strong and could break through any enemy lines. However, many people only remembered his courage and ignored his strategy. He was not only a brave general, but also an excellent commander.

Lan Yu is like this, he doesn't care about his life when fighting.

There were too many people who wanted to emulate and learn from Chang Yuchun, and even Lan Yu might not have learned everything.

"We need to talk about this later!" Seeing that he could not persuade Mu Chun, Zhu Yunhuan could only say, "If the court deploys troops in the southwest in the future, it will definitely be equipped with elite soldiers and generals. It's not impossible for my cousin to kill the enemy in person, but the army is there, and I'm afraid you can't go into battle in person."

Mu Chun just smiled and said nothing. As an experienced military commander, he must understand the situation on the battlefield better than Zhu Yunhuan, who knew nothing about military affairs.

"By the way, cousin, you have nothing to do anyway, how about coming to the training ground with me tomorrow to fight?" Zhu Yunhuan immediately became proud and said, "I'm not bragging, I am also very strong. I'm not good at using a gun, but my sword skills are pretty good. The ordinary guards don't dare to fight with me, and there's no point in giving in everywhere. We are family, so there's no need to be polite, cousin, come and practice with me?"

Mu Chun smiled and replied, "Okay! I will dare to learn from your highness's tricks!"

"You two seem to be getting along!" A voice suddenly came from the entrance of Wenhua Hall, and Old Zhu said dissatisfiedly, "What time is it? Are you still thinking about fighting tomorrow? With your mediocre skills, you dare to fight with your cousin?" Mu Chun hurriedly saluted, and Zhu Yunxun said unconvincedly, "Can you at least fight a few moves? After all, I have been practicing swordsmanship since I was a child. Even if the guards usually give in and wait for the moves, I am not an embroidered pillow."

"You?" Old Zhu did not hide his contempt and said bluntly, "Tomorrow you will fight with me. I am an old man and I can beat you with one hand. I am not saying anything bad about you. If you had one ten-thousandth of my skills, you would not be like this now!"

Zhu Yunhuan became suspicious. He felt that what Old Zhu said might be true and he might have really overestimated his own kung fu.

He never dared to underestimate Lao Zhu's abilities. Whether it was commanding troops or fighting, Lao Zhu was an absolute strong man. It was not an exaggeration to call him a hexagonal warrior.

Old Zhu smiled and turned around, saying, "Let's go and have dinner first. You two have been talking for half a day and you still haven't finished talking. You still need me to call you. Is this reasonable?"

Mu Chun quickly said, "I know my crime."

Old Zhu was a little unhappy, "I've told you a long time ago that you are my family, and I've always treated you as my own child!"

Mu Chun had no doubt about this, because the children of other noble families had to take a test to see if they were qualified. But he was the only one who didn't have to do it. The emperor said in front of all the ministers that he was a member of his family.

Zhu Yunhuan followed Old Zhu and said, "I was just talking to my cousin about relocating the people to Yunnan. There are too few Han people and it won't work. I also think that this matter cannot be limited to the court. Uncle Eleven can also help in Shu."

"It's not peaceful over there either. It will probably take a few years." Old Zhu analyzed, "I'm afraid we won't be able to wait for that day. You should remember this. When Shu is well governed, remember to move some people to Yunnan and Guizhou. When there are more Han people and education is promoted, there will be military farms over there, and the people will be able to settle down."

It is really not an easy thing to achieve large-scale development. It requires a huge amount of resources and the results are not immediate.

If you are lucky and things go well, you may only see some trends after a few years. If you continue to develop for decades, you may not be able to see real results.

Zhu Yunhuan continued, "My cousin is also useless. Zanyi seems okay. He needs to be taught well. It's better for him to go there."

Old Zhu snorted coldly. His nephew Zhu Wenzheng had already made him very angry when he was young, and his great-nephew Zhu Shouqian made Old Zhu extremely disappointed. But there was nothing he could do, because that was his eldest brother's bloodline.

So now everyone is counting their hopes on the ten-year-old Zhu Zanyi, hoping that after he inherits the title of King of Jingjiang, he will be able to protect the country and the people and do some good things in Guilin.

"Lan Yu will be able to return to Beijing in a few days. Let your cousin go with you then." Old Zhu opened his mouth and said to Zhu Yunhuan, "Let Lan Yu see what his family should do! We don't expect him to be like your uncle and cousin. As long as he can be half as good as them, we will have less worries!"

Old Zhu continued, "Your grandmother can still discipline him now, but how many years can she do that? Lan Yu is well-behaved in front of your grandmother, but once she turns around, she becomes a bossy person."

Zhu Yunhuan smiled and said, "That's still not enough."

"Didn't you discipline him enough?" Old Zhu said with a smile, "Your father disciplined him a lot back then. Do you think Lan Yu dared to make trouble in front of your father? Discipline is a science. If you don't discipline people well, they will feel unhappy, complain, and even do stupid things. If you discipline them well, they will be obedient and easy to use."

Zhu Yunhuan always felt that this had some PUA meaning, but he still had to learn a little bit.

Zhu Yunhuan still had a lot to learn about the art of ruling his subordinates. It was easy to say that he should use both kindness and severity, but it was not easy to implement it.

Seeing how the emperor and the crown prince got along, Mu Chun didn't feel too surprised at all. He grew up in the palace and knew how the emperor and the crown prince got along.

What surprised him was that the knowledge of this grandson of the emperor was not what his peers should have, so even though the emperor and the grandson of the emperor treated him as a family member, Mu Chun also abided by the duties of a minister and attached more importance to the responsibility of stabilizing Yunnan.

The emperor and the crown prince have revealed this intention everywhere, that he will stay in Yunnan forever.

Protecting the southwestern border for the Ming Dynasty is what the Mu family should do.

This is also an opportunity for the Mu family, because even King Xu Da of Zhongshan, King Chang Yuchun of Kaiping, and King Li Wenzhong of Qiyang did not receive such treatment.

The emperor truly treated Mu Ying as his own child, and some of the treatment he gave him was only available to members of the royal family.

If I can't defend Yunnan well, I would be unworthy of being a minister!
(End of this chapter)