The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

May 7th, the sixteenth year of the Chongzhen reign.

The Grand Canal, with its vast expanse of water, stretches as far as the eye can see.

As the dust settles in the north, thousands of sails are once again raised on the Grand Canal.

This time, however, their direction was not north, but south.

A tall, multi-story ship broke through the calm water and sailed steadily in the middle of the canal.

Chen Wang, dressed in a python robe and armor, with a goose-feather saber slung across his shoulder, stood by the railing at the bow of the ship, gazing at the canal bank not far away.

A gentle river breeze ruffled the stray hairs that fell across Chen Wang's forehead.

Chen Wang's gaze was calm as he stared at the canal shoreline not far away.

A group of armored soldiers, their robes and belts fastened, stood at four points on the bow of the ship, their armor gleaming coldly in the sunlight.

Countless banners fluttered in the wind, moving wildly.

Dai Zhenglin, accompanied by two military officers from the General Staff Department, walked steadily from the rear, stopping only slightly behind Chen Wang.

The canal was calm and peaceful, and the large Fujian ship they were traveling on, serving as the flagship, made the journey exceptionally smooth, as if on flat ground.

"Jiang Xiang has been ordered to lead his troops away from Datong, and the city's defenses are now being taken over by the local garrison."

“The Mongol tribes north of the Great Wall moved their pastures twenty miles north. After the great victory at Jining spread to the south of the Gobi Desert, no one dared to invade the border alone.”

Dai Zhenglin bowed slightly and reported to Chen Wang.

"General Cao has already led his troops westward and is expected to reach Datong by May 20th to take over the defense of Datong and Xuanfu."

After Jiang Xiang surrendered, the number of garrisons recovered from the Nine Borders increased by two more: Datong and Xuanfu. At the same time, it was only a matter of time before Shanxi returned to its jurisdiction.

The Cao family had deep roots in Datong and other places. If they wanted to completely replace Jiang Xiang and control Datong and other places, the best candidate would undoubtedly be Cao Bianjiao.

Therefore, Chen Wang did not hesitate and directly handed over the position of Governor-General of Xuanda to Cao Bianjiao.

Chen Wang stroked the railing in front of him and asked.

"What's the situation in Guan Ning?"

Dai Zhenglin bowed slightly and replied.

"News of the defeat at Jining has reached Liaodong, causing an uproar and panic within Qing territory."

"The Qing troops besieging Ningyuan have all retreated. Zu Kuan led his troops in pursuit for fifty li before returning, having beheaded 357 enemy soldiers."

Dai Zhenglin paused, glanced in the northwest direction, and then spoke.

"Zheng Zhibao was ordered to lead the navy northward. Hui Dengxiang has already led the First Division of Shandong Garrison to Korea by sea. It is expected that they will be able to reach the Korean capital, Seoul, in five days."

Chen Wang nodded slightly, pondered for a moment, and then asked again.

Is Gao Jie feeling any better?

Dai Zhenglin bowed and replied.

"Gao Jie has almost fully recovered. The arrow pierced his armor and went deep into his flesh, but because of the armor and lining, the injury was not serious. After being diagnosed by the military doctor, he is ready to go on a long expedition."

"Send an order to Gao Jie, instructing him to lead the Second Division of Shandong Town from Haizhou into Korea."

North Korea is weak; although the country is exhausted and its army is weak, it still wants to control the whole of North Korea.

The First Division under Minister Hui Dengxiang's command was not enough.

If it were like the Qing Dynasty, where only Korea needed to supply grain for the war, then the more than 10,000 Shandong garrison troops led by Minister Hui Deng would naturally be sufficient.

After all, the Qing government only left a small number of troops in Korea, which made the entire Korea dare not make any move.

But Chen Wang wanted more than just Korea's submission.

Rather... the entire North Korea.

"The Yi family has ruled Korea for far too long."

Although during the reign of the Yi dynasty, the Joseon dynasty was always respectful and obedient to the Ming court.

The Ming Dynasty never had much intention of ruling Korea.

To be precise, the Ming Dynasty had no intention of ruling over its surrounding vassal states in its later period.

Dai Zhenglin was slightly taken aback, his heart trembling.

"Is the General Commander planning to wage war against North Korea?"

As the head of the General Staff, Dai Zhenglin had a very keen military sense.

He knew perfectly well that controlling the entire Korean peninsula and bringing it under his control was sufficient with the Shandong garrison led by Hui Dengxiang, and there was absolutely no need to send Gao Jie north.

Recalling Chen Wang's remarks during the military council, Dai Zhenglin had already guessed some of Chen Wang's thoughts.

"Korea... after all, is still a country that the founding emperor decreed would not be conquered..."

"I know."

Chen Wang's gaze was calm as still water, but his voice carried an undeniable decisiveness.

"But I don't care."

In the early Ming Dynasty, in the 28th year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang decreed that no country should be conquered.

There are many reasons for this.

After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, defeated the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, founded the dynasty, and reclaimed the throne of China.

He had to face a land ravaged by war.

Throughout the Hongwu reign, the southeastern coast was not peaceful. Those former opponents fled overseas and continued to harass the southeastern coast.

The threat from the Mongol Yuan Dynasty remains. Although the Yuan court has suffered successive defeats, it still possesses considerable power.

This is why Zhu Yuanzhang insisted on launching a northern expedition even after pacifying the nine provinces.

Amidst the continuous warfare in China at that time, the people were suffering and the country was impoverished. The battles fought by Zhu Yuanzhang were basically battles that he had no choice but to fight.

In the end, if it was possible to avoid war, Zhu Yuanzhang chose not to fight.

The deepest reason for this lies in the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang had a very profound understanding of China under his rule at the time.

At that time, the northern kingdom had been lost for hundreds of years, especially the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, which had been gone for even longer.

Northerners do not consider themselves Han, and their customs are even vastly different from those of Han people in the south.

It was against this backdrop that Zhu Yuanzhang understood that the most urgent task was to win the hearts of the Chinese people and achieve a common understanding between the North and the South.

The people can no longer endure such hardship; they can no longer bear such burdens.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang chose to continuously weaken the power of the Mongol Yuan dynasty and suppress pirates along the southeastern coast.

In the southwest, a small number of troops were used to subdue most of the chieftains, while suppressing those who opposed them.

In the Western Regions, they held fast to the Hexi Corridor, temporarily stabilizing the frontier.

In the later years of his reign, Zhu Yuanzhang shifted his focus to domestic affairs, making every effort to restore social order and people's livelihoods.

However, it is worth noting that he did not massively reduce the army, but maintained the force at a level sufficient to meet the needs of war preparedness.

but.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang did not establish any so-called "countries that would not be conquered".

After Chen Wang carefully examined the historical records.

He keenly noticed a point that many people had overlooked.

Zhu Yuanzhang established the rule of not conquering any country in the 28th year of the Hongwu reign.

Zhu Biao died in the 25th year of the Hongwu reign.

It was Zhu Biao's death that caused Zhu Yuanzhang to change the national policy he had originally set in mind.

Zhu Yuanzhang was a powerful ruler who single-handedly brought about the downfall of the empire.

Previously, many contingency plans had been laid out in the Hexi Corridor, the southwest, and along the coast. Even when the country was clearly in dire straits, the army was not significantly reduced.

Was Zhu Yuanzhang truly content with merely recovering the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun and taking control of the Hexi Corridor, but unwilling to conquer the Western Regions, take control of the southern desert, and recreate the glorious era of the Han and Tang dynasties, thus leaving his name in history?

In the decades that followed, Zhu Yuanzhang was a man of great talent and ambition, aspiring to be compared with Emperor Taizong of Tang and Emperor Wu of Han. How could he be content to remain confined to the old territory of China?
What lies behind this may not be the emperor's retreat, but a father's deep and restrained expectations for his son.

What Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to do.

This is to lay a solid foundation for Zhu Biao.

His achievements were enough to secure his place in history, a fact that Zhu Yuanzhang was well aware of.

His self-imposed mission was not to create all the glory. He devoted all his energy to cultivating his successor, not only to leave Zhu Biao a prosperous and peaceful era.

We must clear all obstacles for him so that he can realize his great ambitions.

He wanted Zhu Biao, his beloved son, to achieve even greater things and be remembered by the world and by future generations. This was Zhu Yuanzhang's wish as a father for his son to become a dragon among men.

It also represents an emperor's deepest expectations for his successor.

Everything he did was paving a broad road for Crown Prince Zhu Biao to become a wise and benevolent ruler for all time.

He wanted to leave Zhu Biao a prosperous country, a strong country that had recovered from the chaos of war.

He also prepared a sharp sword for Zhu Biao, forged by the nobles of Huaixi and a million soldiers.

After his death, the nobles of Huaixi and the million-strong army he left behind, under Zhu Biao's leadership, will pacify the northern deserts, subdue Japan in the east, capture Vietnam in the south, and recover the Western Regions in the west.

The Ming Dynasty, at that time.

Under Zhu Biao's leadership, the territory will be restored to its former glory as it was during the most prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty.

Zhu Biao will become one of the greatest emperors in history.

Perhaps Zhu Yuanzhang harbored such profound expectations in his heart.

He believed, he knew, he expected.

His son was able to do all of this.

But in the end, all of this...

This profound paternal love and grand vision.

Ultimately, all of this vanished with Zhu Biao's untimely death.

The early death of the crown prince not only deprived the Ming Empire of its most ideal successor.

This completely shattered Zhu Yuanzhang's last remaining ambition.

This once mighty founding emperor, who once looked down upon the world, finally lost his upright posture after suffering the successive blows of the deaths of Empress Ma and Zhu Biao.

Zhu Yuanzhang in the imperial court remained the same autocratic emperor.

But deep within the palace, he was just an ordinary old man who had lost his loved ones one after another.

The Ming Dynasty's expansionist path came to an abrupt end, and it embarked on a completely different path.

The Lan Yu case and the establishment of the "non-conquerable country" plunged the Ming Empire into a state of conservatism, effectively halting its progress and preventing further advancement.

A gentle river breeze, carrying damp moisture, brushed against Chen Wang's resolute face.

He is not Zhu Yuanzhang.

His current situation is completely different from that of Zhu Yuanzhang back then.

"When Emperor Taizu Gao established the Ming Dynasty, the country was devastated by the wars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and the people's livelihood was extremely impoverished. Choosing to recuperate and rebuild was undoubtedly a wise decision."

"Years of war have left nine out of ten houses empty in the Central Plains. If the people are not allowed to rest, the newly established dynasty will surely repeat the mistakes of the Yuan Dynasty."

Chen Wang lowered his gaze and looked at the gently flowing river.

"However, our current situation is not like that of a country that was exhausted in terms of people and military strength at the end of the Yuan Dynasty."

Today, the Ming Dynasty has suffered from more than a decade of natural disasters and man-made calamities, as well as the devastation of war and epidemics.

However, the Ming Dynasty today is still much stronger than when Zhu Yuanzhang first established it.

Even after this series of blows, the Ming Dynasty still had hundreds of millions of people and remained the most powerful force in the world.

The accumulation of thousands of years of civilization still flows in our blood.

The Ming Dynasty, established by Zhu Yuanzhang, allowed Chinese culture to take root again on this land.

He is only thirty years old now, and the whole of China is about to be brought under his rule.

Compared to Zhu Yuanzhang, who was already over forty at the time, he had more time to realize his ambitions.

When European countries set sail on the east wind of the Age of Exploration.

What this land needs is not to remain stagnant and complacent, but to look outward and explore.

and so.

Chen Wang was not prepared to repeat the mistakes of Zhu Yuanzhang.

The Korean Peninsula is separated from the Central Plains by only a river and should have been incorporated into the territory soon.

However, the ancestral precept of "not conquering a country" and the conservatism of the civil service group kept this territory, which was so close, out of reach.

Those civil officials sitting high in the imperial court, in order to maintain a superficial peace and prosperity and to line their own pockets with more money and grain, did not hesitate to suppress military generals and even voluntarily give up territory.

From the Western Regions to the Southern Frontier, from the Northern Plains to the Eastern Wilderness, the territory of the Ming Dynasty shrank continuously over the course of a century.

but.

all.

All of this will end today.

Everything that Zhu Yuanzhang needed to consider was outside the scope of Chen Wang's considerations.

These problems are no longer problems.

Chen Wang gripped the railing in front of him tightly.

“These former vassal states have occupied this rich land for far too long.”

"All under heaven belongs to the king; all within the four seas are his subjects."

The vast land of the East, though expansive, can accommodate hundreds of rivers and thousands of mountains.

but……

But it cannot tolerate a second regime.

"Reclaiming Korea will set a precedent and send a signal to the world."

Chen Wang's gaze went forward, past thousands of flags.

The annexation of Korea will be a brand new beginning—a precedent that will shake the world.

"I want all the nations of the world to know that wherever the sun and moon shine, wherever frost and dew fall, that is all Han territory."

"I know that this will undoubtedly cause a huge uproar among all the nations and vassals of the world."

Chen Wang turned slightly to the side, holding onto the railing, and looked at Dai Zhenglin standing beside him, as well as at the group of Jingnan Army generals standing there.

"But...so what?"

Chen Wang knew all of this.

None of this matters.

The river wind whipped up waves that lapped against the gunwale.

"The myriad nations of the world today."

"Who?"

"Can they withstand the onslaught of my Jingnan army?"

Chen Wang had no doubt.

Without hesitation.

No matter how many people question it, no matter how many people oppose it.

It doesn't matter.

because.

His troops will clear all obstacles for him.

Let all dissenting voices fall silent.

"All great works require sacrifice to achieve."

Chen Wang slowly raised his hand, as if he had already touched the land that was about to be incorporated into the territory.

"The myriad nations of the world may not understand."

"But they will ultimately, and must, obey..." (End of Chapter)