prosperous age

Zhang Hong merely gave a hint, doing nothing, yet he got Wei Guangde to come forward and devise a scheme that would leave Zhang Jing severely injured, if not dead.

Meanwhile, Zhang Jing sat in the main hall of the Eastern Depot, examining one item after another from the pile of items his subordinates had collected from the market.

Pick out the fun ones and send them to the palace; the Emperor will surely be pleased.

In Zhang Jing's eyes, as long as he could please the emperor, his position would be unshakeable.

When those old guys get too old to do their jobs, they'll voluntarily give up their positions so they can take them.

Thinking of this, Zhang Jing was overjoyed. He put down the large pearl necklace in his hand and ordered, "Go to the Imperial Workshop and find a small box made of rosewood."

Tell them to carve phoenixes on both the left and right sides of the box.

"Yes, Master Chang."

A eunuch hurriedly nodded and bowed in agreement, then rushed out.

The little eunuch went out, while the guards standing nearby watched his departing figure with envy.

They may envy them, but given a choice, they still wouldn't choose this line of work.

That would mean losing a lot of the joys of being a man.

Although after purification, one can get closest to the current emperor and have the opportunity to climb the ranks.

These people have actually mastered Zhang Jingmei's skills to the fullest extent.

It's just about collecting novelties and good things to present to the emperor.

That's what they thought, but Zhang Jing's idea was to wait until the box arrived, make it look nice, and then send it to Consort De.

Anyone who works in the palace knows that the Emperor's favorite concubine is Consort De.

Although he respected the Empress, and even thought the Empress was slightly more beautiful than Consort De, for some reason, the Emperor preferred to go to Consort De's place.

As long as I please Consort De, and she says a few good words to the Emperor, my status in the Emperor's heart will definitely rise.

Zhang Jing thought to himself that everything was fine, and that one day he would be able to replace Zhang Hong and become the head of the palace eunuchs.

However, as he thought about it, he also thought about Zhang Hong's current situation.

Although he is old, he seems to be in good health.

He stroked his chin, wondering if he should learn some skills from those courtiers.

Even if you're not good at fighting, it's good for your health and to live a few more years.

"Masters of the Imperial Palace" did exist in history, but they were not the "martial arts legends" who could fly over rooftops and transcend the mundane in movies and TV shows. Instead, they referred to elite guards or martial arts instructors who were dedicated to protecting the emperor or the royal family in the imperial palace throughout history. They mostly came from the Imperial Guard, the Personal Guard Battalion, or special agencies.

For example, the elites of the Qing Dynasty's Shanpu Camp and the Ming Dynasty's Jinyiwei did possess superb combat skills, but due to limitations imposed by the system, selection criteria, and historical context, they were not "unparalleled martial arts masters" in the martial arts world.

However, in the inner court, besides these instructors and guards, some of them did indeed take in eunuchs as disciples to learn close combat skills.

Some of the best among them would become palace servants, responsible for protecting certain nobles.

To move around in the palace, one naturally had to be a eunuch.

Therefore, during the Ming Dynasty, in addition to selecting clever and quick-witted people to study in the inner school, palace eunuchs would also discover some promising talents to learn various close combat techniques and be responsible for the personal protection of the royal family.

Although the chief eunuchs in the palace were not required to have high martial arts skills, but rather valued ability and character, they all had some knowledge of martial arts.

Even if you're not good at fighting, at least you're good for your health.

This point is actually quite easy to understand.

In other words, eunuchs like Zhang Jing, who rose to power through flattery and sycophancy, were often inferior to these people in every aspect except for their ability to curry favor with their superiors.

Of course, it's unrealistic to expect these eunuchs to develop advanced martial arts skills.

There has been a saying since ancient times that "the poor study literature, the rich study martial arts." Even wealthy and powerful families often fail to produce any real martial arts skills because their children are unwilling to endure hardship. At most, they can only develop some superficial skills. This is even more true for the imperial court, which is even more chaotic than the outside world.

Back then, young eunuchs often didn't have enough to eat, so the chances of them making a name for themselves in their training were slim.

Most of the so-called servants in the palace relied on their physical condition and some skills to be able to hold off three to five people in close combat.

Zhang Jing also knew that given his physical condition, he could only learn a few techniques at most.

He actually envied those eunuchs with large frames, as these people were often the most favored by the palaces and became the personal guards of certain nobles.

Even tasks like sweeping and cleaning are easily selected.

Despite his envy, he suddenly wondered if there was a way to get rid of Zhang Hong and Zhang Cheng, those old guys, sooner or later, so that he could take over the throne sooner.
Once the thought took hold, he couldn't stop himself. He leaned back in his chair, losing interest in the trinkets he had collected. He simply told everyone to put them away.

Zhang Jing's plan to bring down several powerful eunuchs in the palace was not something that could be accomplished overnight.

Only by provoking the palace's most sensitive spots can they possibly bring them down.

Zhang Jing understood this very well, just like Feng Bao.

If you offend the Emperor, being banished is just a matter of a word.

No matter how glorious they were when they were in power, a single word from the emperor was enough to send them obediently to Nanjing.

While Zhang Jing was still considering it, he had no idea that Zhang Hong and Wei Guangde had already secretly plotted to kill him.

It can only be said that Zhang Jing rose too quickly, but his foundation was too weak, and he has a lot of work to do.

He rose to power through the favor of the Wanli Emperor, so for a long time he was only thinking about how to please the emperor and did not consider anything else.

Liu Shouyou had already left the cabinet, and he understood very well what Wei Guangde meant.

Getting rid of Zhang Jing was already a unanimous decision within and outside the court, even though Zhang Jing was technically his superior.

It wasn't that Liu Shouyou was afraid of Zhang Jing and dared not do it, but rather that he had to consider who should do it.

The heads of the Eastern Depot were all drawn from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, so although the Embroidered Uniform Guard appeared to be supervised by the Eastern Depot, Liu Shouyou actually had his own spies planted within them.

Putting himself in their shoes, he didn't doubt that the people from the Eastern Depot might be secretly trying to win over his own people, otherwise how could they supervise the Embroidered Uniform Guard?

Therefore, Liu Shouyou must be careful about who is doing this, lest the news leak out.

He knew very well that as long as he got the evidence out, Zhang Jing was doomed.

The palace will absolutely not spare his life.

"boom"

A loud bang was heard outside the north gate of the old port city, followed by a chorus of wails.

The Aceh army, braving the Ming army's artillery fire, has been launching an offensive against the old port city for several days.

Just now, as more than ten Aceh soldiers were carrying a huge log and ramming it against the north gate, a dark object was precisely dropped from the city tower.

The object bounced twice upon landing before exploding violently, instantly engulfing several soldiers carrying wooden stakes nearby, after which the stakes landed directly on the ground.

Most of the soldiers who were further away were also injured and had no strength to continue carrying the wooden stakes.

Many people clutched their chests and collapsed to the ground, groaning in pain.

In just a moment, more than ten Aceh soldiers rushed up from behind them, grabbed the ropes on the wooden stakes, lifted them up again, and rammed them toward the city gate.

"boom."

After another resounding crash of a wooden stake slamming against the city gate, a dark, pile-like object was thrown down from the city wall. This time, the Aceh soldiers reacted quickly; those at the back hurriedly dropped the stake and took cover.

They escaped unscathed, but those ahead of them were not so lucky. The dead were alright, but the wounded soldiers collapsed to the ground, groaning in agony.

On the city wall, Commander Yu stared at the fleeing Aceh soldiers and spat out a mouthful of phlegm.

He really got his fill of that last two attacks that killed ten thousand men.

In fact, what he just threw down was not the real "ten-thousand-man enemy" of the Ming army, but a smaller "ten-thousand-man enemy" used by the navy, weighing only about thirty kilograms.

The "Ten Thousand Man's Enemy" weapon, prepared by the Northern Army of the Ming Dynasty for city defense, was a massive device weighing eighty or ninety kilograms. It contained gunpowder mixed with poisonous fire and divine fire, and when ignited, it could rotate and spray flames in all directions. It was described in the "Tiangong Kaiwu" as the "number one weapon for city defense."

When the enemy attacks the city, the fuse is lit and thrown down from the city walls. Flames will shoot out in all directions and rotate continuously, scorching the enemy soldiers. Finally, it explodes and burns, with terrifying destructive power.

The navy introduced a slightly less powerful version.

Smaller in size and easier to throw, it also has two types of internal components: incendiary and explosive. It can be regarded as a Ming Dynasty version of incendiary bombs and hand grenades.

In fact, the Northern Army generally called this little thing "Thunderbolt" or "Heaven-Shaking Thunder," but the Navy called it "Enemy of Ten Thousand Men," perhaps because they thought it sounded more imposing.

The Aceh army's siege of the Ming city gates failed again, and the Aceh soldiers began to retreat.

Such offensive and defensive battles have been taking place continuously over the past few days.

In the initial stages of the attack and defense on the city walls, the Aceh army was able to take advantage of the gaps in the Ming army's heavy weapon deployment to successfully approach the city walls.

After all, it would be difficult to stop the Aceh army from approaching by relying solely on the arquebuses on the city walls.

However, once the Ming army brought over their large and medium-sized breech-loading cannons, a barrage of fire often sent them scattering and fleeing.

However, the tiger-squatting cannon, which was the Ming army's favorite cannon, was not very useful in this kind of city wall defense battle.

They were mostly deployed inside the city gates and on the city towers to prevent the enemy from expanding to the flanks after scaling the city walls.

As for the Aceh army's artillery, it was of little use in such a surprise attack.

However, after several days of unsuccessful sieges, the Aceh army changed tactics, concentrating its forces to attack the city gates in hopes of breaking the current stalemate.

However, after the Ming army brought out the "Ten Thousand Enemy" weapon, it seemed that their idea of ​​opening a breach at the city gate would be difficult to realize.

At this time, the generals of Aceh were several miles away from the city, looking at the retreating soldiers with worry.

The raid failed. Their plan to launch a surprise attack on the Ming army outposts in the middle of the night, sneak up on the old port city unnoticed, and then rush in when the old port city gates opened in the morning was undoubtedly a failure.

They discovered that the Ming army outpost was empty after they quietly surrounded it.

The soldiers on the outpost watchtowers were nothing more than straw figures dressed in Ming army uniforms.

"It's been several days, and we still haven't been able to take the city. What do you suggest?"

In fact, not only Aceh, but all the countries in Southeast Asia had no way to attack such a fortified city.

They suffered heavy losses and were defeated when facing the Portuguese-held Temasek.

This defeat was achieved despite having the support of Ottoman firearms; even now, they remain helpless against the heavily fortified city walls.

"General, this kind of forceful attack is not the way to go."

The Ming people moved all the surrounding people into the city, but their fleet was not in the port, which means they must have left and gone back to Burma to continue loading soldiers.

It would be very difficult to besiege the city and force them to submit.

I think we should surround the city on one side, build a fortress near the dock on the other, and try to destroy the dock as much as possible.

In this way, even if Ming reinforcements arrive, they will find it difficult to gain a foothold at the dock.

One of the officers offered a suggestion.

"You mean, we should position the artillery over there?"

The Aceh commander frowned and asked.

"Exactly. Although it is difficult for us to completely occupy the dock, and those two forts are indeed difficult to attack, they can blockade the dock, and we can blockade the dock as well."

"As soon as the Ming ships return, if they dare to land and disembark, we will bombard them with cannons."

The officer said excitedly, "As long as the Ming troops in the city see that the reinforcements have been repelled by us, their morale will surely be thrown into chaos."

Then, when we launch our attack, Old Port will be ours for the taking.

"good idea."

Immediately, a general chimed in.

At this time, they all thought that the Ming Dynasty was only planning to increase its troops in Old Port. Little did they know that because of a time traveler, the Ming Dynasty's foreign policy had changed drastically.

Two hundred years later, the Ming Dynasty once again planned to destroy the country.

Yes, the first country to be conquered was actually Annam.

Although they eventually succeeded in restoring their country, the price they paid was enormous.

The Ming army did suffer a defeat there, but Annam also paid a heavy price to defeat the Ming army.

It should be noted that the Ming army's formation at that time was the strongest in the world.

If it weren't for the terrain advantage and if Annam hadn't sacrificed lives, it would have been extremely difficult to defeat the Ming army.

In other words, the fact that the Ming Dynasty had not launched a war of annihilation against other countries for two hundred years led them to begin to underestimate the Ming Dynasty.

As for Burma, which the Ming army conquered in one battle, well, that was the Pacification Commission, and like Palembang, it was nominally part of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, it's really hard to say whether it was the destruction of a country or the suppression of a rebellion.

This may become one of the controversies in future history.

Just as the Aceh army near the old port was discussing their next move, the Ming army had already successfully launched a surprise attack on the Aceh capital, Kutaraja.

In fact, the outcome of the war was already decided when hundreds of Ming vanguard soldiers stormed into the west gate of Kutaraja.

Two hundred soldiers who captured the city gate rushed up the low city wall and set up their guns and cannons, while the remaining three hundred or so surrounded the city gate to defend it.

Behind them, a steady stream of Ming troops were attacking the city.

Meanwhile, more than ten miles north of the city, hundreds of cavalrymen were charging around the city, their target the main road at the east gate.

If the cavalry successfully block the passage, then King Aceh will be trapped like a turtle in a jar, with virtually no chance of escaping.

In fact, inside the Aceh palace, the Sultan of Aceh had just received news of the Ming army appearing at the west gate and was unaware that the east gate would also be sealed off by the Ming army.

"How could this be? Weren't they surrounded in the old port city?"

The Sultan roared in the palace, with a group of panicked officials of the kingdom standing in front of him.

As for the generals, they hurriedly assembled the army in the capital.

After losing the city gates, the natural course of action was to organize an army to retake them and then fight the Ming army from the city walls.

If there were only a few hundred Ming soldiers, they would actually succeed.

Unfortunately, by the time they had mustered over two thousand men and rushed towards the west gate, the main Ming army had already entered the city. (End of Chapter)