Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 170
"Crackling-"

With the sound of firecrackers, a pungent smell appeared in the streets and alleys of the capital, and the drumming of the Bell and Drum Tower also officially announced that the first year of the apocalypse had officially passed and the second year of the apocalypse had officially arrived.

In the past year, Daming experienced the Great Fire in Hangzhou in March, and the Battle of Jin, Liao and Shen in Ming Dynasty from March to June.

I thought the first half of the year was turbulent enough, but in the second half of the year, the Yellow River broke its embankment, the southwest rebellion and other things made people feel that last year was a very chaotic year.

With the arrival of the new year, everyone expects that this year will be a mediocre year, but perhaps only Zhu Youjian knows that the first year of the apocalypse that has passed will be the best year in the next few years.

"Swap... slap!"

"Singing ceremony..."

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live..."

In the Wenhua Hall, when the general of the Han Dynasty waved his whip, and the minister of the Honglu Temple beat the bell and sang, all the officials in court clothes bowed and knelt down one after another.

In the hall, sitting on the dragon chair is Zhu Youxiao in a crown suit, sitting on the dragon chair, unable to lift up his spirits, apparently did not sleep well.

Behind the twelve o'clock under the crown, there are Zhu Youxiao's tired eyes.

Under the stage, Zhu Youjian, wearing the prince's nine crowns, wearing five chapters of green clothes and four chapters of clothes, painted dragons, mountains, Chinese insects, fire, Zong Yi, shangxiuzao, pink rice, 黼, and 軻It's the old gods.

Beside Zhu Youjian, it is rare that Zhu Changhao, King Rui, Zhu Changrun, King Hui, and Zhu Changying, King Gui, all came to court in the same clothes as Zhu Youjian.

However, judging from the positions of the four of them and the way they looked at Zhu Youjian from time to time, those who didn't know thought that Zhu Youjian was the emperor's uncle, and the other three were the emperor's nephews.

All the nobles and nobles knew the reason for their intention to participate in the Great Court Meeting. To put it bluntly, they wanted to go to the feudal clan.

In the past few days when Zhu Youjian supervised the country, they often went to see Zhu Youjian, but Zhu Youjian deliberately avoided them so that they could not find them.

He is not only hiding from these three emperor uncles, but also from civil servants.

In this way, after hiding for four days, finally at dusk yesterday, Zhu Youxiao returned to the palace.

Probably because he was afraid of Zhu Youjian's talkativeness, Zhu Youxiao asked him to tell him that he had rested and blocked Zhu Youjian.

But Zhu Youjian knew when he saw his brother's appearance today, he probably had fun again last night.

All right, play as you like, I will be an ostrich today.

Thinking, Zhu Youjian closed his eyes and continued to think about what he should eat for lunch today.

There are only three times a year including the emperor's birthday for things like the Great Court Meeting. Unless someone has a brain, who would talk about things at this kind of Great Court Meeting...

"Your Majesty, the censor Feng Sanyuan has something to report."

"..." Hearing someone impeachment, everyone's expressions instantly looked like they had eaten shit.

Good court meeting, nothing to impeach, what impeachment...

"Quite..." Zhu Youxiao, who was too sleepy, responded with a dark face, and Feng Sanyuan immediately stepped forward and said:
"My minister impeached Zhao Nanxing, the left servant of the Ministry of Officials, for employing nepotism!"

"absurd!"

"Sliding the world's great joke!"

"Does Feng Yushi have evidence?"

As soon as Feng Sanyuan opened his mouth, it was like stabbing a hornet's nest in an instant, attracting a group of Donglin Wenchen to attack.

However, since the impeachment system of officials in the Ming Dynasty was based on rumors, even if there is no evidence, they can be impeached indiscriminately, so the cost of framing is extremely low.

Although many Donglin civil servants cursed and cursed, they couldn't stop Feng Sanyuan's impeachment at all.

Moreover, when they questioned Feng Sanyuan, Yao Zongwen, who was involved in the matter, immediately went to the Hukedu and said:

"Your Majesty and ministers impeached the Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Zou Yuanbiao, the Censor of the Left Capital, Zhang Wenda, and the Censor of the Zuodu, Zuo Guangdou, for perverting the law for personal gain, and for cholera in the Metropolitan Procuratorate."

Good guy, Daming is currently the only three censors, and they were all impeached by Yao Zongwen, which makes people have to admire his courage.

"Your Majesty! Minister Zhu Guozuo, impeach Liu Yixiu, a scholar of Dongge University, for forming a party for selfish interests, and causing chaos to the court!"

"His Majesty……"

There was hardly any warning, and the civil servants suddenly broke up. This scene lifted Zhu Youjian's spirits.

It's just a pity that he couldn't turn his head to look over, otherwise he would have to look at this group of civil servants who bite dogs.

Not only him, but Zhu Youxiao and the three good uncles of the two brothers started gossip and listened attentively.

The Zhejiang Party took the lead, and Qi, Chu, Xuankun and the four parties followed, and began to impeach the officials of the Donglin faction.

At the same time, the officials of Donglin were not to be outdone, and refuted one after another, and framed the officials of the other five parties for nothing.

Anyway, there is almost no price for framing. In this case, it is better to fight back first, and let's talk about whether it succeeds or not.

"Your Majesty! It is not good for me to impeach Zhu Xieyuan, governor of the five provinces, to suppress bandits!"

Your mother and maidservant too!

Hearing that someone impeached Zhu Xieyuan, Zhu Youjian almost scolded him.

Don't a bunch of mentally retarded people know who can be impeached and who can't?

Addicted to rumors?Zhu Xieyuan has done a good job in the Southwest. If he is beaten, who will suppress the rebellion?
"quiet!"

Holding the wat board, Zhu Youjian turned around and yelled, instantly causing many civil servants to stare and look at him.

"Today is the great court, and it was originally a day for court congratulations. How can you make such a fuss here?"

After all, Zhu Youjian looked at Honglu Temple Minister who had not struck the bell, frowned and reprimanded:

"As the Minister of Honglu Temple, shouldn't you maintain the order of the court?"

Without waiting for the other party's response, Zhu Youjian looked at his imperial brother again, and then held the wat board and said:
"Your Majesty, I ask you to punish Feng Sanyuan, the censor, and Huke, who are Yao Zongwen, Jing Yangqiao, the head of the Ministry of Rites, and Zheng Fu, a concubine of the Imperial Academy, for disturbing the court."

Zhu Youjian called out the names of the officials who were the first to provoke and retaliate just now, and signaled punishment to his royal brother.

Of course, this punishment is not a real punishment, it is to make my royal brother show a bad face and end the court meeting as soon as possible.

Zhu Youxiao also knew it well, so he pretended to be a good person and said with a smile:

"Hehe, why did Prince Qi get angry? The officials and workers just messed up for the sake of the court."

Speaking, Zhu Youxiao looked at the courtiers, and then said:

"The congratulatory ceremony is over. If that's the case, let's disperse the court. The matter of paying respects to the Emperor's Mausoleum on Tianshou Mountain can be left to King Qi."

"His Majesty……"

Seeing Zhu Youjian and Zhu Youxiao singing together, the faces of all the officials turned dark.

Who hasn't played this kind of red face and white face method?The emperor and King Qi obviously wanted to end the court meeting quickly.

They wanted to stop them, but Zhu Youxiao got up directly, walked down the high platform under the escort of Wei Zhongxian and Wang Tiqian, and walked out of the Wenhua Hall from the side hall.

Seeing this, Zhu Changying and the others had no choice but to bite the bullet and follow.

As for Zhu Youjian, his expression was indifferent, and he turned around holding the wat board and walked out of the Wenhua Palace through the gate among the courtiers.

Looking at the eyes of the courtier looking at him, let alone how comfortable it is.

During the four days of supervising the country, he was almost annoyed by this group of people, and now he can finally go back to Yanshan Camp.

As soon as he thought of this, Zhu Youjian, who had just walked out of the Wenhua Palace, started to walk with some brisk steps.

Looking at Zhu Youjian who was "behaving profligately", the officials who scattered the court had nothing to do with him except to sneer "rude" with a black face.

On the contrary, Zhu Youjian, after returning to the East Palace in a fluster, immediately ran into Wang Tiqian who came with the memorial.

This scene made his face darken, and he said directly: "Brother Huang is back, why did Zuo Shu hug me here?"

"Er..." Wang Tigan was a little speechless and said:
"Long live said that today's health is hindered, please Your Highness supervise the country for another day."

"..." Hearing this, Zhu Youjian almost lost his breath, thinking about how to escape from the capital.

"Your Highness, please do me a favor, Long Live only slept for two hours last night..."

Wang Tiqian figured out Zhu Youjian's soft heart, so he immediately began to sell miserably for Zhu Youxiao.

"Fine……"

Sure enough, when Zhu Youjian heard this, he could only helplessly put his hand on his forehead to express his helplessness, then turned around and walked into the East Palace, walking towards Xuqin Palace.

On the way, he asked Wang Tigan how his three good uncles were doing.

Wang Tiqian responded that Zhu Youxiao rejected the three of them on the grounds that he was unwell and that there was no good fief suitable for canonization.

Hearing this, Zhu Youjian was a little happy. After all, it was too troublesome for these vassal kings to stay in the country. Not only was it a waste of national power, but also a waste of manpower.

When he was thinking this way, he also returned to Xuqin Palace, and Wang Tiqian also asked the two eunuchs to put down the memorial, then saluted and left.

Zhu Youjian asked people to take off his heavy clothes, changed into light ordinary clothes, and moved his body.

But at this moment, Lu Wenzhao came with the military report.

"The latest news from Your Highness, Jianlu, and Southwest has arrived." Lu Wenzhao hurried in, bowed and took out two military newspapers.

Zhu Youjian took over the military newspaper, then sat down on the main seat, motioned for Lu Wenzhao to also sit down, and then asked someone to prepare breakfast, and then opened the letter unhurriedly.

The first letter was the latest information from Southwest. After She Chongming committed suicide and Fan Long died in the rebellion, Zhu Xieyuan ordered people to extinguish the flames of the Yongning Xuanfu Si Yamen, and prepared to go to Linzhou City to meet with Hong Chengchou after a rest.

The content of the letter was about the situation on the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, and it was expedited eight hundred miles later, and after three days and four nights, it was delivered to Zhu Youjian.

That is to say, judging from the content of the letter, Zhu Xieyuan should join forces with Hong Chengchou at this moment, and is attacking Fan Hu in Linzhou City.

After Fan Hu was defeated by Hong Chengchou, only more than [-] remnants remained in the city. Taking the artillery of the Ming army as an example, it would not take long to take down Linzhou City.

but……

"This is just an appetizer..."

Zhu Youjian put down the letter and sighed, and Lu Wenzhao also said:
"Your Highness, Yongning is about to be put down, so that over [-] troops including Zhu Xieyuan will be able to enter Guizhou. Shouldn't this be a harbinger of success in suppressing the rebellion?"

"She Chongming was put down, but look at our casualties."

Zhu Youjian picked up the letter and said to the casualties at the end:
"Before the start of the war, Yang Wenyue had [-] men, Wu Aheng [-], Sun Chuanting [-], Du Wenhuan [-], Cao Wenzhao Duogan Camp [-], Hong Chengchou [-], Zhu Xieyuan [-], totaling [-] , plus [-] auxiliary soldiers."

"It's less than three months since the start of the war, Yang Wenyue has only [-] men left, Wu Aheng has [-], Sun Chuanting has [-], Cao Wenzhao has [-], Hong Chengchou has [-], Zhu Xieyuan has [-], and the auxiliary soldiers only There are more than [-] people left."

"Old Madam Qin's side is not good either. The [-] white soldiers lost [-], and the [-] auxiliary soldiers lost more than half."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youjian let out a sigh of relief:
"In three months, more than [-] main and auxiliary soldiers have been lost, and nearly [-]% of the [-] troops who can fight the rebels in the wilderness have been lost."

"On the other hand, chieftains such as An Bangyan and Song Wanhua counted more than [-] Yi soldiers and more than [-] to [-] other native soldiers, with a total strength of more than [-]."

"Although Hu Yingtai, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Mu Zeng led troops to support them, judging from the current situation, I am afraid it will become a tug of war."

"With [-] troops at home and abroad, every month of delay will cost more than [-] taels of money and food. Such a tug-of-war will make the situation of the treasury even more difficult."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youjian was a little hesitant, whether to transfer the army to Guizhou.

To be honest, besides Tengxiang and Wuxiangwei going to the southwest, the Sixteenth Guards currently have land infantry of eleven guards.

In addition to guarding against the northern captives, it is fine to transfer two to three, or even four or five guards.

The She'an Rebellion is not so easy to put down, it would be good if you can take advantage of this time to train your troops.

The only concern may be the pressure from Houjin and Liaozhen.

Liaozhen was not peaceful, and he could not be completely assured of the safety of Beizhili.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian suddenly felt a little upset, so he could only say to Lu Wenzhao:
"Continue to pay attention to the matter in the Southwest. I estimate that An Bangyan and Song Wanhua will change their minds when the news of the breach of Linzhou City spreads."

"Not surprisingly, they will let An Xiaoliang and Aminong return to Fang Zhijin, and after Hu Yingtai leads the troops into Guangxi, the rebels who invaded Guangxi will also return to Guizhou and defend the Guinan area."

"Why didn't you invade Guangxi?" Lu Wenzhao was puzzled, but Zhu Youjian sneered:

"The land of Guangxi and the junction with Yunnan are okay, but the central part is full of miasma and sweltering heat, which is very different from Guizhou's climate."

"In addition, the Guangxi chieftain and An Bangyan and others are not at odds. Once they invade the Guangxi chieftain's land, they will inevitably suffer a counterattack, so they will not enter Guangxi."

"Before they thought that after the invasion of Guangxi, there would be a large-scale Guangxi chieftain rebellion. However, except for Anlong and Shanglin, the other chieftains did not respond, so An Bangyan will soon give up this idea."

Zhu Youjian knew that An Bangyan's goal was always Huguang, followed by Sichuan, and finally Yunnan.

Guangxi is not within the scope of his plan at all, because the ethnic groups in Guangxi and the Yi people do not deal with each other.

Different from the ethnic migration places believed by later generations, the Miao people were originally in the south of Huguang, the Yi people were also in the west of Guizhou, and the Zhuang and Yao people of later generations were in Guangxi.

These ethnic groups are gradually migrating and sinicizing in the process of constantly reforming their land and returning to their own countries, and finally formed the situation known to later generations.

The current population of Guangxi is half of the Zhuang people, followed by the Yao people, and finally the Han people.

After several reforms, Guangxi has stabilized internally, and it doesn't even bother to associate with the Yi people they consider "vulgar".

Therefore, Guangxi is the place Zhu Youjian is least worried about. What he is worried about is that An Bangyan and others are hiding in the mountainous area of ​​Guinan and fighting the tug of war with the imperial army.

It's not that he hasn't thought about luring Guizhou chieftains into Huguang and Sichuan, and solving each other in the plains.

But this trick has long been used by the Ming army in the southwest. Unless the [-] Ming army is wiped out, it is impossible for them to go to the plains.

Historically, She Chongming would go to the plains because all the troops from Sichuan were transferred to aid Liao, the interior was empty, and he also made a surprise attack on Chongqing, which made him so ostentatious.

After discovering that the Ming army mobilized soldiers and horses to encircle and suppress, he immediately abandoned his luggage and fled back to Chongqing and Yongning to fight mountain warfare.

It's a pity that even in mountain warfare, She Chongming was no match for the Ming army.

If it weren't for the fact that the Ming court allocated too little money to the southwest soldiers and horses in the early stage, the She'an Rebellion would not have dragged on for more than ten years.

What Zhu Youjian has to do now is to give Zhu Xieyuan enough support.

In history, Zhu Xieyuan was able to suppress the rebellion successfully with the remaining soldiers and horses after he had mobilized elite soldiers to aid Liao, so now this group of elite soldiers will only be faster.

Thinking of this, he asked the eunuch who was left behind by Wang Tiqian:
"From the beginning of the Southwest incident to the present, how much money has the court allocated to the Southwest?"

Hearing the words, the eunuch was stunned for a moment, as if he was recalling, and after a while, he bowed and responded:

"In October and November, no money or food was allocated, and the government in Sichuan and Huguang has been raising money."

"The only one was the [-] taels of domestic silver allocated by Your Highness on the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, and the Yanshan Artillery Factory's [-] ten-jin cannons, two hundred five-jin cannons, and six thousand pace guns. , One hundred thousand catties of gunpowder."

The eunuch's words directly showed Zhu Youjian's generosity.

In Ming Dynasty, one catty was equal to 1.2-1.3 pounds in Europe, a five-jin gun was a six-pound gun, and a ten-jin gun was a twelve-pound gun.

In this era, on the East Asian battlefield, Zhu Youjian is the only one who can take out three hundred six-pounders and thirty twelve-pounders in one go.

The artillery production capacity of Yanshan Institute far exceeds that of major European countries.

At the same time, there were no more than [-] six-pound guns in the British ordnance inventory, no more than fifty guns from seven to twelve pounds, and no more than a hundred guns from twelve to forty-eight pounds.

However, for such a number of cannons, for Daming, who is proficient in using the iron cannon casting method, as long as there are enough clay molds, enough silver, and enough craftsmen, thousands of cannons can be cast in a year.

This is unbelievable to Europeans, and the reason why the Ming Dynasty in history did not realize this potential is entirely because of the ruler's fixed thinking.

If Chongzhen had been able to transfer all the cast Hongyi cannons to Hong Chengchou during the Battle of Songjin in history, Hong Chengchou would have known Huangtai Jida even the wild boar skin long ago.

In the second year of Chongzhen, Wang Zunde borrowed Portuguese artillery and imitated 175 Hongyi cannons. A total of [-] were sent to Beijing from the north. As a result, due to the many border problems at this time, these cannons were scattered in various counties.

By the time of the Battle of Songjin, there were more than [-] Hongyi cannons scattered in the north.

If all these artillery are shipped to Liaodong, what city can't be defeated?

Even if it was transported to the ship, it would be enough to defeat the governor of Luzon in Spain and take Luzon down. In the Songjin Battle, Huang Taiji only had a pitiful sixty red barbarian cannons, but Hong Chengchou was even more pitiful than him. The problem is that there are only twenty Hongyi cannons in the entire army.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian paid special attention to the artillery factory. Last year, more than [-] clay molds were prepared and placed in the shade of Yanshan Daying. Cannon casting began in November this year.

Although there are more than [-] clay models, less than [-] clay models can be used to cast cannons, but this scale is unprecedented.

Not only these [-] clay models, but almost every month the Artillery Factory makes more than [-] clay models, ranging from six pounds to thirty pounds.

As for the cost of the artillery, it is not as expensive as what Xu Guangqi and the Portuguese bought.

Daming is cast iron cannon, the price is very cheap, the cost of the six-pound cannon is only forty-five taels of silver, the cost of the twelve-pound cannon is ninety-six taels of silver, the cost of the twenty-four-pound cannon is one hundred and eighty-five taels, and the cost of the thirty-pound cannon is two More than one hundred and sixty taels.

If more than [-] clay molds were used to cast cannons, the total would be no more than one hundred and eight thousand taels of silver.

The firepower represented by these more than one hundred and eight thousand taels of silver is powerful enough to recover Tieling, Kaiyuan, and Fushun!

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian took a deep breath, and asked Lu Wenzhao:

"The monthly clay molds made by the Artillery Factory allow Liu Fan to double the output. After supplementing the artillery gap of the [-]th Guards Army, and guaranteeing [-] clay molds that can be cast at any time, they can stop."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao bowed in response, and Zhu Youjian also picked up another military newspaper.

The opening of the military newspaper, what Zhu Youjian saw was another bad news.

[On the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month in the first year of the Apocalypse, Weng Guodai from the Horqin Tribe and the envoys sent by the old slaves, Shuotuo and Engel, formally formed an alliance in Yiktanggalipo to punish Baima Wuniu, and the two sides traded with each other. 】

"Aligned in advance..."

Looking at this letter, Zhu Youjian was not surprised.

Nurhachi is not a fool, nor is he dead.

After knowing that Liaodong could not survive, he must seek a breakthrough direction.

Zhu Youjian had already estimated that if Nurhachi did not attack North Korea, it could only mean that Li Hun of North Korea had private trade with Houjin, so he would go to fight the Jurchens in Beishan and make friends with the Horqin tribe.

Now it seems that his estimate was correct. North Korea's second-five boy really had private business dealings with Jianlu. No wonder Nurhachi didn't have any conflicts with North Korea during Li Hui's reign.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian hated the toothache, so he turned his head to look at Lu Wenzhao and said:

"Has Yang Gao set off yet?"

"Return to Your Highness, not yet. The departure schedule is set on the [-]th of the first lunar month." Lu Wenzhao responded, and Zhu Youjian also looked at the military newspaper in his hand and felt a little tricky.

He was wondering if he should wait for the artillery factory's cannon to be cast, and then lead people to perform a "sweeping hole in the courtyard".

But he was a little uncertain, because Daming hadn't encircled the Northeast right now, if Nurhachi was sacked, or even suffered heavy casualties, then it could not be ruled out that Houjin would flee to the grassland.

After all, if the population of Houjin drops sharply right now, with their cattle and sheep size, they can really be nomadic.

If they really ran to the grasslands, it would be difficult for Jin to be encircled and suppressed. Every expedition would be a huge challenge to Ming's finances.

One soldier, one man, and one mule.

This kind of configuration can barely maintain a combat radius of [-] miles, but once on the grassland, this distance needs to be extended ten times, or even twenty times.

In other words, a regular soldier needs at least ten civilian men and ten mules and horses to maintain a campaign.

Only by mobilizing [-] men, mules and horses, can [-] people march eastward and westward on the grasslands to pursue Houjin.

This person eats horse chews and transports grain and grass. If it is really over two thousand miles, ten stones will be sent to the front line, and at most there will be only two stones left.

Calculated in this way, an army of [-] will consume more than [-] stones of grain and grass and hundreds of thousands of stone beans for a month.

If it was okay during the Taiping period, when the weather was good for the people, there was a good harvest, and no one would die of starvation, Zhu Youjian could fight Hou Jin for more than ten years without fear.

But the problem is, there is no good weather for him...

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian only felt that today was not going well, so he could only say with a headache:
"We must speed up the abolition of the Liaodong Guard, and then recover Tieling and other places, and cut off the old slave..."

(End of this chapter)