Hongwu Survival Guide

Chapter 121 Darkness Chen Cang
I was immersed in the gentle country last night, I fell asleep a little late, I had something on my mind, but I got up early today.

After simply washing up, Zhu Yuan came to the study, gesticulated in front of a map and began to ponder, and then ordered Xie Yi who came in to take out the letter he wrote to Lao Zhu last night.

Xieyi took out the key and opened the big cabinet by the wall, took out the letter, and said, "Little official, why don't you get busy after eating?"

My little official slept a little late last night, and got up early today, and Xie Yi was a little worried about his health.

Zhu Yuan took a charcoal pencil from the pen holder and drew on the map spread out on the desk, but he just asked, "What time is it?"

"It's still at the beginning of Chen," Xie Yi said, and calculated in her heart according to the 24-hour system proposed by her family official, and then said: "It's less than eight o'clock."

Zhu Yuan thought for a while, and said, "Let He Xuan go and inform Master Hua and Master Wu, um...the letter needs to be corrected, so let's have a meeting at ten o'clock. We have a meeting to discuss important matters."

Knowing that this was a serious matter, Xie Yi nodded her head, motioned for a blank space beside her to persuade her petty officials to eat first, and hurried out the door.

Liu Bai waited for Xieyi to go out, and stepped forward, calling softly: "Little official..."

Without raising his head, Zhu Yuan drew a charcoal pencil on the map from Bianliang to the mouth of the Daqing River in the northern part of the Yellow River, and said, "Bring it here, I'll eat here."

Liu Bai opened his mouth, still wanting to speak.

Zhu Yuan waved his hand: "It's a big deal, be good."

Liu Bai said no more, turned and went out the door.

When I came to the kitchen, I ordered Qing Niang and Luo Shui to bring breakfast to the study room of the main room, and then took a look around. The sack girl was there, the mountains and rivers were there, and there were two of the girls who just arrived yesterday. The officer gave her a name, but she couldn't remember it for a while.

then……

Scanning around again, Liu Bai asked Luo Shui, "Where is Nuan Niang?"

Luo Shui, who was putting the porcelain cup with shark's fin on the tray, also subconsciously looked around when he heard the words, shook his head and said, "Should it be in her room?"

Liu Bai signaled them to bring the meal to the main room, then he went out, called two little maids to follow, and came to Nanwu Nuanniang's room.

When I entered the door, I saw Nuan Niang sitting blankly in front of the dressing table, her eyes were blank, her hair was not combed, and her clothes were not changed.

Liu Bai pursed his lips, and walked forward, with disgust on his face, but picked up the comb on the dressing table and began to comb Nuan Niang's hair, while ordering the two maids: "Pick out two bright clothes from the cabinet."

Then he turned to Nuan Niang, looked at her expression through the bronze mirror on the dressing table, and teased: "I don't know, I thought I met the young lady who hurt the spring and the autumn in the drama, but you are not. You are more beautiful , you’re just a woman, it’s your good fortune that petty officials can take a fancy to you, the courtyard is full of people, big and small, and you still have a low face, who are you showing to?”

Nuan Niang didn't speak, but shook her head.

Liu Bai pressed it hard, combed it, and began to gather up Nuan Niang's hair, while continuing to speak viciously: "If you are a chaste and strong woman, you will not be where you are now if you die early. Since you are not willing to die, you have to accept your fate. Hmph, I Look at you, you just owe a beating. If you find a whip and whip it every day, you will be honest in three days, and you are only a lenient official, but it makes you more face."

Nuan Niang struggled to lower her head again and began to cry.

Liu Bai was not pitiful at all. He straightened her head again, tied her hair together, and continued to taunt: "Yo, crying, who are you crying for? Is your daughter dead? Hey, what a joke. Don't think I don't know, Sister Xieyi has carefully asked about your life experience, if you continue to behave like this, hum, I have your whole family to look good to me."

Nuan Niang trembled, with a little hatred in her fear, she looked over from the bronze mirror.

Liu Bai was not afraid at all, curled his lips and said: "The little official is sympathetic to the fragrance and cherishes the jade, and sister Xieyi is also soft-hearted. In this case, I will be a bad woman. I don't feel comfortable seeing you around the little official. Do you want to die? If you want to , today I will find a place for you to hang yourself outside, and let someone bury you quietly. Afterwards, the petty officials will beat and scold you, and I will bear it. Speak, do you want to?"

Nuan Niang trembled again, and subconsciously avoided the blank gaze in the mirror.

she……

I don't know if I don't want to die, or if I dare not die.

Hearing Liu Bai's tigress-like power, the two maids tremblingly opened the cabinet next to Nuan Niang's bed, picked out clothes according to Liu Bai's instructions, and showed them to her.

Liu Bai ordered a bright red makeup and flower dress, a moon white embroidered skirt, and ordered two maids, one opened the dowry for Nuan Niang to choose jewelry, the other fetched water to wash the woman's face, and continued to finish it by herself. With a flowing cloud bun, she didn't forget to stare at Nuan Niang in the mirror at the end, and scolded: "Pretentious."

Inside the house.

The meal was set on the outside table, and Liu Bai called out a few more words before Zhu Yuan put down his pen, went to the table and sat down, picked up the chopsticks and picked up a small soup dumpling that must have been made by Qingniang, and put it away for the time being. thoughts.

He took a bite of the soup dumpling, picked up the spoon, and noticed Nuan Niang standing next to Liu Bai.

Seeing him, Nuan Niang, who was a little more resigned than before, subconsciously avoided her gaze, but a faint blush involuntarily appeared on that dignified face.

Thinking of last night, Zhu Yuan smiled and motioned to his side: "Come here."

Leaving a small pout, he still moved out of the way.

Nuan Niang moved over with her head down and her eyebrows lowered, looking at a loss.

Zhu Yuan called the woman to his side, but did nothing else, felt the fragrance that was different for every woman, continued to eat, and said after a while: "If you don't like to stay in the inner house, after a while, Ying Hai The school organized by the company will have female classes, you should be a female teacher and teach them."

Liu Bai, who was standing outside, shook his head first when he heard what his little official said.

How can this work?
Before Liu Bai could speak, Nuan Niang also shook her head, her voice was still very soft: "Slave... Just stay in the inner house."

Liu Bai breathed a sigh of relief.

This woman, she is quite knowledgeable.

But Zhu Yuan said: "I don't raise people here for nothing. Since you usually make things perfunctory on purpose, then go out and be a lady husband. That's the deal."

Even if the women around her didn't point out the fact that Nuan Niang deliberately hid it, Zhu Yuan had already discovered it.

Seeing what Zhu Yuan said, Nuan Niang stopped talking and accepted it silently.

Seeing this, Liu Bai had no choice but to persuade: "Young official, this... how can I do it, it's not decent."

It doesn't matter whether the petty officials in the family give this woman a title, since she has been accepted, if she is allowed to show her face, outsiders will see it as a joke.

As for what to eat rice, how many people eat rice in the back and forth yards?

Zhu Yuan ignored a certain girl, and said to Nuan Niang: "It will take some time before the school starts, so, for those girls yesterday, you should teach them to read some words first, and this time you are not allowed to be perfunctory, or you will be punished."

Nuan Niang hummed lightly again.

Speaking of those girls...

But thinking of last night, Nuan Niang's face turned even redder.

The little man next to him is really, really good at... messing around.

Seeing his petty officials ignoring him, Liu Bai pursed his lips, but he could only think of waiting for Xie Yi to come back and let her persuade her.

After Zhu Yuan and Nuan Niang finished talking, they didn't neglect Qing Niang and Luo Shui on the other side. They turned around and talked about yesterday's "Dao Yi Zhi" and praised them for their good school.

After talking like this, after breakfast, Zhu Yuan went back to the desk in the inner room.

The letter I intend to send to Lao Zhu today, apart from explaining why I am not suitable to return to Jinling, and the bad move, is also a suggestion for the battle of Dadu.

Zhu Yuan took the method of reverse derivation.

First of all, confirm one thing, Emperor Zhizheng will not stick to Dadu, but will only flee in a hurry after the Ming army suppresses the border.

This is what happened on the original timeline.

Zhu Yuan didn't think that because of himself as a butterfly, Emperor Zhizheng would somehow have a little more courage to stick to it, and it was more likely that he would choose to run away.

According to the results, the Ming army can make corresponding deployments.

The first is to identify strategic goals.

If the next strategic goal of the Northern Expedition is to capture Dadu and take back the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun that have been lost for too long, then Lao Zhu does not need to change his strategy to increase troops to the north, he just needs to go through the previous script again. .

Now that Lao Zhu has changed his mind, it is obvious that the primary strategic goal of the next battle of Dadu is not the city, but two people.

Zhizheng Emperor father and son!
The reason why Bei Yuan was still entangled with Daming for decades after withdrawing from the Central Plains was that the Yuan family’s lineage has not been cut off, so that no matter whether it is the northern desert or the southern barbarians, Zheng Shuo is respected and refuses to belong to the Central Plains , As a result, Ming had to continue to use troops abroad.

This time, as long as the Zhizheng Emperor and his son are taken down, the result will be like the end of the Ming Dynasty on another timeline. Both the Chongzhen Emperor and his son died, the Ming Dynasty lost its legal orthodoxy, the royal family’s superior position was not recognized, and the whole country quickly fell apart. .

At present, the Yuan court is already torn apart, which is worse than in the late Ming Dynasty.As long as the Zhizheng Emperor and his son are taken down, not to mention the orthodox Yuan court, even the former Bei Yuan will no longer exist.

At that time, whether it is Zhang Li in Guanzhong, or Kuokuo in Shanxi, or Naha Chu in Liaodong, or even Liangwang and Duan in Yunnan, they will not have a clear object of allegiance.

Even if the Mingxia regime in Sichuan sees the fall of the Yuan court, it will make wise choices sooner as it did before.

All in all, the Zhizheng Emperor and his son are like the first card in the whole set of dominoes.

Therefore, it can be said that taking down Zhizheng Emperor and his son is even more strategically valuable than conquering Dadu and taking back Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures.

Now that the strategic goal is determined, the next step is how to do it.

Zhu Yuan's first suggestion was only one word: Hurry up!

Compared with the previous step-by-step journey from Shandong to the Northern Expedition, the next step must be to fight fast, not to care about the gains and losses of cities and places along the way, and to go to the city and catch turtles before Zhizheng and his son escape from the capital.

Of course, this is the ideal state.

The problem is that Emperor Zhizheng and his son are not blind and deaf, so pressing over here quickly may also allow them to escape faster.

Therefore, Zhu Yuan's second suggestion is also one word: block!

Assuming that Emperor Zhizheng and his son still fled ahead of time before the Ming army besieged Dadu, the Ming army had to send surprise troops even earlier to block the critical passes where Emperor Zhizheng might escape, such as Juyongguan in the northwest of Dadu, and Yuguan leading to Liaodong. , and even some other channels that may be used for escape.

In Zhu Yuan's letter yesterday, the main point was to suggest that Lao Zhu send out a number of surprise troops to block the pass in advance.

And offer generous rewards.

It is not an exaggeration for the generals who command the troops from all walks of life to win the father and son of the Zhengdi Emperor.Just like Liu Bang once offered a reward for winning Xiang Yu, he gave a thousand pieces of gold and ten thousand households.

This is not the time to be stingy.

In addition to the two things of 'fast' and 'blocking', there are many detailed suggestions.

For example, hundreds of portraits of Emperor Zhizheng's father and son were drawn by the sketch method and distributed to the various armies so that they could be hunted down and intercepted according to the pictures in case the father and son of Zhizheng escaped.

For example, the expansion of Timur who is currently stationed in Taiyuan, according to his past memories, Zhu Yuan believes that there is no possibility of winning over. In order to avoid the extension of expansion who is firmly loyal to the Yuan Dynasty from sending troops to rescue Dadu, he must divide his troops to maintain the oppression of Taiyuan.

For another example, if they were lucky enough to block the Zhizheng Emperor and his son in Dadu City, the siege of Dadu would also need a fast word, and it must not be dragged into another protracted Pingjiang lock city.

Zhu Yuan's suggestion is to use a lot of gunpowder to directly blast the city wall.

I finished everything I wanted to write before, but from last night until now, Zhu Yuan couldn't help but have a new idea in his head that was constantly running around this matter, and it was an idea to keep Chen Cang in the dark to prevent the Zhizheng Emperor and his son from escaping.

The army is divided.

The land troops continued to march northward for the camp step by step according to the previous northern expedition rhythm.

Another group of surprise soldiers traveled down the Yellow River from Bianliang, arrived at Bohai Bay from the northern estuary of the Yellow River, and then took a naval ship to attack Zhigu.

Zhigu, later Tianjin.

The strange soldiers landed from Zhigu, instead of going to Dadu, they went straight to Juyongguan in the northwest of Dadu. Before the Yuan court reacted, they cut off the most likely route from Zhengdi and his son to escape to Shangdu Kaiping.

Of course, since we have all arrived in the Bohai Sea, by the way, we need to divide another army. It doesn’t take too much, three to five thousand is enough, we will fight the rabbits, and take the Yuguan, which leads to the outside of the pass in the northeast of most of the capital, which is later known as Shanhaiguan.

This not only blocked another escape route for Zhi Zhengdi and his son, but also blocked possible reinforcements from Liaodong, killing two birds with one stone.

Here, the strange soldiers sneaked into Chen Cang and closed the door smoothly, so the main army on the land could start beating dogs.

Inside the study.

Zhu Yuan thought about it in detail, and after adding this idea of ​​"darkness in the dark" in the letter, the time was almost right.

This letter is five or six thousand words long, and some alterations are inevitable, but Zhu Yuan doesn't have the energy to copy it again, and it's not suitable for the women around him to help copy it. I believe Lao Zhu can understand it, so he directly put the envelope and sealed it After leaving, the house was handed over to Wen Zao, who had been waiting for a long time.

After Wenzao left in a hurry, Zhu Yuan turned to Mingyuan Hall to discuss specific execution matters with Hua Gao and Wu Zhen who rushed over.

Anything is easier known than done.

No matter how many ideas you have, if you don’t do it, or if you don’t do it well, it’s all vain.

Now that Lao Zhu has made up his mind, the 5000 people that the navy plans to transfer must also speed up the integration.Moreover, if Lao Zhu agrees to his plan of keeping secrets, more preparations are needed here to cooperate.

The three discussed for more than half an hour, and some things were initially finalized.

First is the schedule.

The 5000 naval personnel must be dispatched by the end of June and assembled in Shandong by the end of July. Moreover, together with a large number of ships, it is best to gather in Laizhou in the north of the Shandong Peninsula rather than in Jiaozhou in the south.

At that time, if there is a division of troops from Bianliang, they will join them together. Except for a small number of people rushing to Yuguan, the brigade will go straight to Zhigu.

Today is the sixteenth of May.

In other words, there is only about a month of preparation time left here.

Not only that, but at the same time as dividing [-] troops to the north, the transportation of food cannot stop. After all, the basis for Lao Zhu to change the strategy of the Northern Expedition was the opening of the sea food road, which provided sufficient food and pay for the army ahead.

In case of an accident on the grain road, it would be more serious than if the [-] army could not go north on time.

Therefore, all these things are easy to say, but they are intricate in practice.

The meeting was over, and the three of them simply had lunch here, and then hurriedly went to work separately.

(End of this chapter)