My father Zhu Gaoxu

Chapter 978 Establishing a new king
In the temporary palace of Tumu Fort, Zhu Zhanhe summoned Zhang Fu, Kuang Ye and other important officials of the Ming Dynasty to discuss matters. Yu Qian, Yang Shan and others who had accompanied Zhu Zhanhe before also came.

"Yongshun Bo Xue Shou returned with 3,000 battalions. Including the defeated troops, there were only more than 60,000 people left. After excluding the soldiers who died in the battle, there were still 50,000 to 60,000 people whose whereabouts were unknown. Moreover, there was insufficient food in the army. I have to go back to Beijing right away, what do you think?”

Zhu Zhanhe glanced at these Ming officials and then said in a serious tone.

"Your Majesty, our emperor was kidnapped by Wala. We defeated Wala's main army before and fled in panic. If we send troops to chase now, it is still possible to rescue our emperor!"

At this time, Grand Scholar Cao Ding was the first to stand up and say.

However, as soon as Cao Ding's words came out, other officials looked at each other in confusion. Among them, Zhang Fu and Guo Mao both secretly smiled bitterly, because they all knew clearly that chasing the Oara people on the grassland was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"Scholar Cao is very loyal, and I appreciate it, but the grassland is vast, and after Xian's defeat, he must be as frightened as a bird. It would be extremely difficult to find his traces."

Zhu Zhanhe was very patient. He paused for a moment and then continued.

"But don't worry, I have already asked Ashe Zhiyuan to take care of the rescue of Qi Zhen. He is from Oara, and he is in the same position as Ye Xian. In addition, he has also won over some Oara nobles. As long as they can find him, he will Xian’s whereabouts will definitely bring Qi Zhen back!”

"Your Majesty, Wala divided his army into three armies and went south. The central army was defeated by you first, but the west and east armies are still there. Now I am worried that after joining the other two armies first, I will kidnap my emperor and knock the pass!"

Zhang Fu took a step forward at this time and reported the report with a solemn expression.

"What the British government said is true. There was a big disaster on the grassland, so the Wala went south to plunder. The defeat of the central route army will not make the Wala restrain themselves. If they kidnap our emperor and go to the pass, the generals at the border will not be able to withstand the pressure. If you open the city gate, the consequences will be disastrous!"

Kuang Ye also stood up and agreed at this time, saying that compared to rescuing Zhu Qizhen, the most important thing now is to clean up the mess he left.

"That makes sense. You happen to be here, Kuang Shangshu. Why don't we just use the name of the Ministry of War and the cabinet to order the border cities to strictly prohibit them from opening the city gates, even if they threaten Qi Town. Wait until Wala knows that Qi Town has no control over them. After using it, you might put him back!"

Zhu Zhanhe also nodded in agreement after hearing this.

In the original history, Ye Xian took Zhu Qizhen hostage and knocked off Datong. Fortunately, Datong guard Guo Deng refused to open the city gate, so Ye Xian made an empty trip. Later, Ye Xian took Zhu Qizhen to Beijing. Under the city, they asked the Ming Dynasty to open the city gates, but were rejected by Yu Qian and other ministers. In the end, they could not capture Beijing first, so they could only take Zhu Qizhen back to the grassland.

"Your Majesty, if you return to Beijing now, what are your plans?"

At this moment, Yu Qian, who had been silent for a long time, took a step forward, looked at Zhu Zhanhe and asked.

After hearing Yu Qian's words, the other ministers all looked at Zhu Zhanhe. After calming down in the past few days, they have been thinking about a problem. Now Zhu Qizhen was captured by Wala, but Zhu Zhanhe led his troops to defeat Wala. , to a certain extent, it can be said that he saved the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Zhanhe was a real royal family. Zhu Qizhen would call him uncle when he saw him.

What's even worse is that Zhu Qizhen has no brothers, but he has two sons, but one is two years old and the other is only one year old. After all the years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there has never been a precedent for a child to be the emperor, so who should be the emperor of the Ming Dynasty now? For inheritance, this is a big problem.

Zhu Zhanhe glanced at Yu Qian, then glanced at the ministers, and then said solemnly: "Qi Zhen was taken prisoner, Ming Dynasty cannot live without a king for a day, so for Ming Dynasty, the most important thing is to establish a new king. , but this matter is of great importance, so let’s wait until we return to Beijing before making a decision!”

Hearing that Zhu Zhanhe directly asked Ming Dynasty to establish a new king, the expressions of Yu Qian and others below changed, because Zhu Zhanhe finally said what they were most worried about, and the other party was obviously going to intervene in the battle for the throne of Ming Dynasty. But Zhu Zhanhe only said half of what he said, indicating that he wanted to intervene in the Ming Dynasty throne, but did not say how to intervene. He only said that he would make a decision after returning to Beijing. This made Yu Qian and others feel like they were hanging in mid-air, unable to get up. It was unspeakably uncomfortable to go and not be able to come back down.

"Your Majesty, the defeat of Tumubao this time was entirely due to Wang Zhen, a man who was monopolistic and did not listen to persuasion and insisted on going his own way. Please forgive me for Wang Zhen's crime!"

At this moment, Kuang Ye suddenly spoke again.

Someone took the lead, and other ministers also stood up to list Wang Zhen's crimes. Apparently after this battle, their resentment towards Wang Zhen had reached its peak, and they even asked Zhu Zhanhe, the Han emperor, to help them get justice.

"Wang Zhen did commit a heinous crime, but you guys may not know that Wang Zhen has already died in the rebellion!"

When Zhu Zhanhe talked about Wang Zhen, he felt a little funny, because these ministers still wanted to lose face. They knew that although Wang Zhen was guilty, the root cause was Zhu Qizhen. But as ministers, they could not blame the emperor. So they simply pulled Wang Zhen out as a scapegoat.

"Wang Zhen is dead? Your Majesty, have you found Wang Zhen's body?"

Zhang Fu was also very surprised when he heard this and asked. You must know that there are more than 40,000 corpses on the battlefield alone, many of which are so bloody that their identities cannot be distinguished at all.

"Wang Zhen's body was not found, but I found someone who can prove that Wang Zhen is dead."

Zhu Zhanhe said and ordered: "Come here, please invite General Fan to come over!"

Someone outside agreed, and a moment later, four sergeants came in carrying a stretcher. Lying on the stretcher was a burly man, his whole body wrapped in white gauze, and there was faint blood oozing out from some places.

"Fan Zhong? Are you still alive?"

Zhang Fu was also shocked when he saw the person on the stretcher. This person turned out to be Fan Zhong, the bodyguard general next to Zhu Qizhen. Ordinarily, Zhu Qizhen was also captured first. Even if Fan Zhong, the bodyguard, did not die, he should be captured together. That's right.

"Mr. British, when we found General Fan, he was already seriously injured and dying. Almost all the hundreds of guards around him were killed. Only he and a few people survived!"

Zhu Zhanhe stood up and walked to Fan Zhong and introduced him.

Originally, Fan Zhong was almost certain to die due to his injuries. Fortunately, the Han Dynasty's medical treatment has made great progress in recent years. Zhu Zhanhe brought the best military doctors with him, and finally saved Fan Zhong's life.

"My subordinates were incompetent and failed to protect His Majesty. As for Wang Zhen, I personally killed him on behalf of the people of the world!"

Although Fan Zhong was seriously injured, he still confessed in a firm tone that he had killed Wang Zhen.

(End of this chapter)