Hongwu Daming: Why hasn't my son rebelled?

Chapter 12 Xu Da's gift of treasure is all thanks to His Royal Highness Liao Wang!

Zhu Qi helped to measure the data and put forward the requirements, and the rest was on-site guidance, waiting for the Jinwu guards to make the sand table.As for doing it yourself?Zhu Qi didn't think about it, he was already a prince now, if he made a sand table and did it himself, then the prince would be too dishonest.

If possible, Zhu Qilian would not be bothered to do it as a sideline guide, but there is no way, his grid sand table, equal proportions and other requirements seem to be a bit too demanding for the quartermasters and soldiers of the Jinwu Guard.

For the sponsorship of 1000 taels of silver from Prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Qi could only personally guide him. As a younger brother, Zhu Di naturally accompanied him throughout the whole process. , for fear of missing any link, as long as it has something to do with war, Zhu Di is very interested.

After busy work, the sand table was finally completed, and the time was approaching evening. Fortunately, there were soldiers who often made sand tables to help, otherwise it would really be impossible to complete the work in one afternoon.

Zhu Di turned left three times around the sand table and turned right three times. He was amazed. Although Zhu Di didn't know much about the sand table, from an intuitive point of view, it must be Zhu Qi who made the sand table better!
The other soldiers also admired the Liao King Zhu Qi at this time, and praised him one after another. Zhu Qi thought they were flattering, so he didn't care much. He led Zhu Di back to the palace, had a good rest at night, and went tomorrow Find Prince Zhu Biao to get the money!
…………

into the night.

In the dark night, the continuous torches illuminated the general's camp, and the soldiers on guard and patrolling, armed with long guns in groups of five, patrolled back and forth within four miles of the military camp.

Xu Da rode his horse all the way to the gate of the Jinwu Guard camp. After the soldiers guarding the gate had checked the ultimatum for customs clearance from the barracks, they quickly moved out of the way. Xu Da walked all the way into the barracks while summoning the quartermaster.

Tomorrow there will be a martial arts lecture, and the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang will also be there. Xu Da, according to the usual practice, came here in advance to ask whether the preparations in the barracks are proper. The most important thing is of course the weapons and equipment of the soldiers in the barracks. Oh no.

The quartermaster did not dare to be negligent, and took Xu Da all the way from the grain depot to the armory. After checking everything one by one, Xu Da asked some questions about tomorrow's process arrangement. After making no mistakes, he turned around and prepared to leave.

But the quartermaster hesitated, and said behind him:
"General Xu, there is actually one thing that my subordinates think it would be better to report to you."

Xu Da reined in and asked:
"What's the matter?"

Quartermaster said:
"Actually, His Royal Highness King Liao came to the camp today, and it seems that he was ordered by His Royal Highness to make a map sand table."

Xu Da, who was sitting on the horseback, didn't notice anything wrong, so he smiled and said:
"His Royal Highness King Liao is very talented in this area. I am not surprised that His Highness the Crown Prince would make such a request."

The quartermaster thought to himself, "Then let me surprise you," and then said respectfully:

"What this subordinate wants to say is not the case, but the map sand table made by His Royal Highness Liao Wang, which is quite different from the ones we used to use in the past."

"Very different?"

"Also ask General Xu to come with me."

The quartermaster led Xu Da to the military tent that had been inspected before, and pointed to the map sand table. Xu Da walked over suspiciously. He had seen a lot of map sand tables, and he had seen them all with dummies on them. Can you still make flowers?As for what needs to be reported separately?
Xu Da was full of doubts, but after seeing the sand table on the map, he saw the mountains and rivers on it, which were still the same as usual, but it seemed that the height of the mountains fluctuated, and the size of the lakes were also different. On the sand table map, there are more square grids of normal size, and even the Zijin Mountain in the middle is marked with three different peak heights.

Seeing Xu Da's puzzled face, the quartermaster knew that his report was correct. It was the first time for the well-informed General Xu to see such a map!
"General Xu, let me tell you in detail..."

…………

An hour later, Xu Da took the sand table map, and the bewildered quartermaster, holding a badge to enter and leave the palace, begged to see Zhu Yuanzhang late at night.

The quartermaster was really stupid. Although he knew that the map sand table made by His Royal Highness King Liao was very useful and novel, he never expected that after telling General Xu Da, he would bring himself and the map sand table to Meet the emperor!
It's the middle of the night, who knows if His Majesty is with some concubine in Ruanxiang?Anyway, if it was me, if I was interrupted during the man-making movement, I would definitely be furious.

Fortunately, the internal officer who delivered the message saw that Xu Da was begging to see him late at night, so he didn't stop him. Not long after he entered, he sent the emperor's order to let the two of them wait in the side hall.

The quartermaster really wanted to ask, but General Xu frowned from beginning to end, staring at the grid-shaped sand table without saying a word, and waited until the emperor came, then General Xu hurried over to salute.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang was called up in the middle of the night, his expression was pretty good, and he didn't show any displeasure. Especially when he heard that Xu Da had a report on military affairs, he was even more looking forward to it. said:
"Xu Tiande, do you have any military affairs to report?"

Xu Da hurriedly asked someone to push up the map sand table, and said:

"Your Majesty, today I got a sharp weapon that can deal with Beiyuan. If I could bring this sharp weapon with me when I conquered Beiyuan last time, I definitely wouldn't be easily defeated by Wang Baobao in Lingbei. Who would win? It's hard to say who will lose!"

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he was very surprised, because he knew Xu Da very well, and he was definitely not the kind of person who would make excuses or exaggerate. He can say this, this sharp weapon must be able to influence the situation of the battle s things.

I saw Xu Da push out the sand table of the map, and Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the sand table of the map was indeed different from what he had seen before, but the mountains were still mountains, and the rivers were still rivers.

Zhu Yuanzhang was quite puzzled and asked:

"Xu Tiande, is this map sand table what you call a sharp weapon?"

"Exactly! Your Majesty must be thinking that there is nothing special about this sand table, right? In fact, it seems that my minister and Your Majesty have the same thoughts."

With a smile on his face, Xu Da raised his finger to the sand table and said:
"At first glance, this sand table does not seem to be much different from ordinary sand tables, but there are two things that are unusual. First, this sand table, whether it is the height of the mountain, the size of the lake, or the length of the road, is a kind of sand table. The length of the ratio, that is to say, the height of this mountain is 120 feet. If you choose a road at random, the length of the mountain is the same as the height. In reality, it is 120 feet long!
Second, Your Majesty, please look at the squares one by one. The length and width of each square represent a mile in reality. In this way, as long as detailed information can be obtained in advance, then in the battle, you will know how long the army is. No matter where you are on the map, even a mediocre general can see the distance around you at a glance! "

Zhu Yuanzhang also personally led troops to fight, so he naturally understood the importance of maps. Maps are the foundation. If you lead a large army to march and fight, if you are blind to the surrounding environment, what a fart.

This is also the reason why Zhu Qi drew a detailed map, and Zhu Yuanzhang felt that he was talented as a general. Knowing the map and marking the map is the first element of a good general!

But in many cases, even if there is a map, how long does it take to get from one place to another? Such a question is often based on inquiries or the general's own intuitive judgment.

This has led to a problem, that is, the accuracy is greatly reduced, and the personal experience of different generals is different.

In the second Northern Expedition against the Yuan Dynasty, it was because the map was not accurate enough that the Yuan people were more familiar with the local area than the Ming army. They knew how long it would take them to march. what time.

The plan of the Ming army is that the three armies will move forward, and the offense and defense will echo each other. When encountering enemies along the way, they will be able to respond quickly. It looks perfect, but the actual situation is not the case.

For example, the army in the middle road crossed the desert. During the period, they knew that there was a valley, but they didn’t know how long the valley was and how long it would take to cross. They could only estimate by looking at the map. Even if they were wrong by two hours, it was enough to distance themselves from the left and right armies. , unable to deliver messages and support each other in time.In addition, the judgment and intuition of each general are different, and there will be different results in actual operation.

Because of one or another reason, it was difficult for the three-way army to arrive at the location according to the established plan and time, but the Yuan people were different. They could only predict various situations based on their past experience and respond accordingly.

This is also an important reason for the failure of the second Northern Expedition led by Xu Da.

Zhu Yuanzhang is not mediocre. He knows the benefits of such an accurate and intuitive map, which is to make the formulation and execution of combat plans more accurate, especially the execution.

The sand table with equal proportions and grids seems to be a very simple method, but it was not invented until modern times, and it also made the sand table one of the most important props in modern warfare!

Zhu Yuanzhang knew that this sand table was definitely not made by Xu Da, so he hurriedly asked:
"Who made this sand table? There is such a great talent in our Ming army!"

Xu Da smiled, clasped his fists and said:

"Return to Your Majesty, this sand table was made by His Royal Highness King Liao!"

"what?!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was taken aback for a moment, this was really something he never expected, and Xu Da pointed to Zijin Mountain and said:

"By the way, the height of this mountain was measured by His Royal Highness King Liao himself."

Zhu Yuanzhang was even more strange, saying:
"Impossible, I've never heard that that kid Zhu Qi asked someone to measure the height of Zijin Mountain."

The quartermaster knew that it was time for him to appear on the stage, so he hurriedly said:
"To tell you the truth, His Royal Highness King Liao personally went to measure it today."

Zhu Yuanzhang was amazed:
"Today? He measured the height of Zijin Mountain in just one day?"

"Your Majesty, you guessed wrong. His Highness Liao Wang didn't use it for a day."

The quartermaster shook his head and stretched out a finger:

"His Royal Highness Liao Wang measured the height of this mountain, and it was just a stick of incense before and after."

(End of this chapter)