Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 384 Nine hundred soldiers return to Jade Gate

"Wow—"

In April, in the vast Gobi desert, a wild fox came to dig up the sand under a withered Populus euphratica tree, and crawled out several insects, which were swallowed by it without exception.

Suddenly, it suddenly looked up at the sky, not knowing what it was feeling. It pressed closely against the poplar tree, trying to find someone who could shield and protect it.

I saw black clouds rolling in the sky, as if they would descend on the Gobi at any time. At this time, a strong wind suddenly hit, bringing up a cloud of yellow sand.

In just one hour, the strong wind blowing from the northwest swept across the Gobi Desert, bringing with it a cloud of yellow sand.

This was just the beginning, because when the strong wind passed, the surrounding sky suddenly darkened.

The wild fox opened its eyes cautiously, only to see a black and yellow "wall" blowing from the northwest, which frightened it into digging a hole quickly.

Along with the sand wall came the swift and violent wind.

The raging wind blew up the sand, dust and gravel from the entire Gobi Desert, blowing it to the southeast like a tornado.

Among the noisy crowd, a skinny man grabbed the flag officer's wrist, his sunken eye sockets bursting with hope.

Hiking up the grassless mountains, starting from here, whether you go southeast or northwest, it will be a smooth downhill road.

Hundreds of people rushed around the cavalry team, surrounded the team, and kept cheering.

The small stone castle could not accommodate the team of nearly a thousand people, but the food and vegetables stored in it were enough for them to have a delicious meal.

This flag, even when they were in trouble, never thought of selling it, just to explain their identity at such a moment and prevent them from becoming lonely ghosts.

Such a scene left the flag officer of the cavalry team confused, and it was even harder to draw his weapon.

But no one can laugh at him now, because almost everyone in their team is in the same situation as him.

When the cavalry team ran less than a hundred steps away from the embarrassed team, everyone in the team ran forward, crying and howling like crazy.

Similar to its encounter, on the Gobi Desert at this moment, an embarrassed team was slowly moving toward the southeast.

The team stopped in front of Daheishan. The man who spoke looked like he was at least fifty or sixty years old. He was tall and had no flesh. His whole body was like a dry mummy. His cheeks and eye sockets were sunken, and his skin was dark.

Xingxing Gorge is the only way from Guazhou to Hami. The soil of the entire mountain range is dark brown and very sticky.

They were ragged and skinny, and everyone was wearing burlap. The most valuable thing in the whole team was probably the hundreds of camels carrying buckets of water.

"I am Fu An from the Etiquette Department. Please tell your Majesty that we are back!"

Fu An's words were like thunder on the ground.

"came back!"

But they can figure out these big things, but not the small things.

I don't know how much time had passed, but the yellow sand was crawling under the poplar tree. Not long after, the wild fox emerged from the sand and walked towards the distance.

"Xilulu!"

The muddy road delayed the team a lot of time, and it took them three days to travel more than a hundred miles.

Even his skinny body burst out with huge energy at this moment.

"We're back!!"

The red sun flag with a yellow background is not a flag that can be used by ordinary teams.

While everyone was stunned, the gate of the stone castle opened and a group of cavalry wearing armor ran out.

With an uneasy feeling, when they spent two days crossing the Daheishan Mountains, what appeared in front of them was the existence they had only dreamed of seeing.

Soon, they continued to walk forward, feeling uneasy on the way because they all knew how powerful the horse bandits were in this area.

They were curious about why the imperial stone castle was built to Dahei Mountain, so they asked.

Reluctantly, they continued to head southeast. After hiking for more than a hundred miles in this desolate area, what appeared in front of them was a large black mountain.

They were running towards the team, which was holding a long triangular yellow flag with a red sun on a white background. The flag fluttered in the wind, causing many people in the embarrassed team to shed tears unconsciously.

"what is that……"

Their actions startled the cavalry team. Fortunately, a man took out a triangular red sun flag with a yellow background made of silk cloth from the back of the camel.

Under the wind and sand, a stone castle made of unknown materials appeared at the foot of Dahei Mountain. The snow water on Dahei Mountain was also collected by the water channel and entered the stone castle. What was fluttering in the wind on the stone castle was what everyone saw. The familiar "朙" character flag.

Unfortunately, the pool that still existed when they set out has now been submerged by yellow sand. If you want to drink water, you have to dig down at least three feet into the earth.

The wild fox hid in the pit, closed his eyes tightly, and his body couldn't stop shaking.

The chief flag officer did not dare to delay and quickly sent Tangqi to Guazhou to report the matter. At the same time, he received Fu An and others to rest in the stone castle.

It wasn't until the fourth day that they walked out of the Xingxing Gorge and found a waterhole along the old road of the Han and Tang Dynasties.

Just as envoy Fu An and deputy envoy Guo Ji were received into the residence of the chief flag officer in the stone fortress, they had already learned about the situation of the Ming Dynasty on the way back to the Ming Dynasty, such as Zhu Yuanzhang's death from illness, Zhu Yunwen's reduction of vassalage, Zhu Di's Jingnan wait...

"Da Ming! My Da Ming!!"

"After here, whether you go south or southeast, you can see Handong Guard and Shazhou Guard, one of the Seven Guards of Kansai. However, they are not easy to deal with. They often rob envoys. Habit."

"We don't have armor. If we pass by, give them the money from selling our robes in exchange for the opportunity to go to Suzhou."

It couldn't open its eyes and could only smell the thick earthy smell that filled the sky and the earth, waiting uneasily for the storm to pass.

Even if it was just boiled cabbage and white rice, they had tears in their eyes and everyone felt satisfied.

"Isn't the west of Suzhou the jurisdiction of the Guanxi guards? Why did the imperial court build a stone fortress here?"

Fu An, who had finished his meal, leaned forward and asked the flag officer. Hearing this, the flag officer also explained:

"Since the fourth year of Yongle, the imperial court began to move the Seven Guards from Guanxi into Gan, Su and other prefectures to graze their cattle, and granted the leaders of various tribes their rank in order to teach them to behave themselves."

"Guo Du commanded the Qianshi and under the military orders of the imperial court, he built the three guards of Yumen, Guazhou and Shazhou to the west of Suzhou, and diverted the Shule River, Dang River and Chijin River to irrigate the fields of the three guards."

"Right now, the most western location of the Imperial Court is the Black Mountain Fort of the Last General."

After the chief flag officer said all this, Fu An and Guo Ji looked at each other, unable to believe that so many changes had taken place in the court in the thirteen years since they had been gone.

"I wonder when Guodu Commander Qian of Guazhou can receive us?"

Fu An asked the flag officer, who responded: "According to the distance, the news should have arrived in Guazhou, but the army's march is no faster than that of Tangqi. It is still 120 miles from Heishan Fort to Guazhou."

"If Guo Du directs Qianshi to lead the cavalry, they can arrive at dusk tomorrow at most. If it is horse infantry officers and soldiers, they will have to wait until the day after tomorrow."

"Okay..." After hearing this, Fu An breathed a sigh of relief. He never thought that Guazhou was so close to here.

"Since that's the case, let's go to Guazhou tomorrow and meet Guo Du's commanding officer on the way."

Fu An was anxious to return to the mainland, because he had not returned home for thirteen years, and on the way to Nanjing he would pass through his hometown of Kaifeng, Henan, which was his only chance to briefly meet his family.

In addition to him, there are many guards in this team of more than 900 whose hometowns are in Guanzhong, Henan, Shandong and Jiangnan.

After learning about the Battle of Jingnan, none of them were sure whether their hometown had been affected or whether their wives, children, and children were still alive.

"It all depends on you, sir. The general can send Tangqi out tomorrow morning and command Qianshi from Guodu to remind him of this matter."

The flag officer had no right to stop him, so Fu An also bowed and said, "Thank you, little brother."

After being away from the country for thirteen years, they all have goodwill and cherishment when facing people with Ming faces.

"I'll take my leave, you two adults, have a good rest."

Upon seeing this, the chief flag officer returned the greeting and slowly exited the concrete bungalow after saying hello.

After he left, Fu An looked at Guo Ji and sighed: "I don't know what the new king's attitude is. If it doesn't work, you and I should retire early and go home."

Hearing this, Guo Ji shook his head: "I met your Majesty in the early years. Your Majesty is an open-minded person, and when the prince was in Nanjing, he was also famous for being courteous to his ministers, so he should not be harsh to us."

"What's more, you and I still have a piece of news about Yuan Yi to report to His Majesty. This is related to the situation in Mobei. Even if Your Majesty does not reward you, you will not be harsh."

"I hope so." Fu An sighed, and then chatted with Guo Ji for a few words about his plans after returning to Beijing, and it was not until this time that they fell asleep separately.

Early the next morning, the flag officer prepared horses for Fu An, Guo Ji and other officials, and sent twenty cavalry to escort them.

Although the road to Guazhou is very safe, and the Guanxi horse bandits have been wiped out by Guo Yong in the past two years, yesterday this team ate up most of the reserves of Black Mountain Fort, because these more than 20 cavalry needed to go to Guazhou to transport new troops. A batch of supplies arrived.

In the early morning, a team started to set off. The difference was that this time many of them rode camels, and the buckets on the camels' backs were left at Black Mountain Fort.

After arriving at Black Mountain Fort, there are water supplies and places to eat at the six stations along the way.

Although they may not necessarily have enough food, they can still provide a meal for the entire team.

Time passed little by little, from early morning to noon, and then from the hot noon to the late afternoon (15 o'clock). Walking on the cleared official road, Fu An and the others also saw a cavalry team galloping from a distance.

Thousands of cavalrymen came running from the direction of Guazhou, waving flags from a distance.

Fu An and others dismounted one after another. After all, Guo Yong's official position was still relatively high.

Soon after they dismounted, thousands of cavalry spontaneously lined up on the left and right of the team. Guo Yong also dismounted and walked to Fu An, Guo Ji and others, and the three of them bowed to each other.

Several years of military career in the northwest have added a touch of vicissitudes to Guo Yong's face, as well as a man's perseverance.

Fu An, Guo Yong and Guo Ji had met each other when they were in the capital, but they were not particularly familiar with each other at the time, so the first words Guo Yong spoke caught Fu An and Guo Ji off guard.

"I really didn't expect that you guys would come back during Fu Du's incident."

"Uh...this..." Fu An and Guo Ji looked at each other, not knowing what Guo Yong meant. Upon seeing this, Guo Yong knew that they had misunderstood, and he quickly smiled and said: "I didn't mean that, I meant that His Highness's efforts were in vain."

"Your Highness?" Fu An asked in surprise, and Guo Yong also explained:

"Your Majesty and Your Highness ordered Zheng He to sail to the West and go to Horumos with more than 27,000 officers and soldiers, preparing to demand your release from the Timurid Kingdom and compensation for losses."

"The last time I read Di Bao, Zheng He and the others had already arrived at Bangala, and maybe they have arrived at Horumos now. That's why I said that Your Highness's efforts were in vain."

Guo Yong's explanation made Fu An and Guo Ji take a breath of cold air and feel a sore nose at the same time.

"For the sake of more than a thousand people like me, we actually bothered the court and His Majesty to send out a large army. We are ashamed..."

Fu An bowed to the sky, his voice filled with a cry that he tried his best to suppress.

"If this is where you are, Your Highness and the others will be very happy to know that you are back."

After Guo Yong said that, he immediately asked his cavalry to give up their horses, and ordered them to give their horses to the guards behind Fu An to ride, while the cavalry rode war horses.

Anyway, as long as you don't attack, you won't lose many feathers by riding a war horse slowly. At most, it will just feed you two more beans.

Compared with these, Guo Yong is more concerned about Fu An and their experiences along the way.

He asked the military officials to take notes, while he communicated with Fu An and Guo Ji.

Everything they said was recorded, and as expected they would be rushed to Nanjing after arriving in Guazhou.

Since they could not return to Guazhou City in a short time, they camped near a post station and rested for the night before arriving in Guazhou the next day.

When they set out thirteen years ago, Fu An and the others passed through Guazhou, but at that time Guazhou was the grazing land of the Shazhou Guards.

When they returned here thirteen years later, what they saw was a city made of concrete.

The city is more than one mile in length and width and less than five miles in circumference. It is built on the Shule River.

On both sides of the Shule River, former pastures have been developed into farmland, and canals made of concrete structures are everywhere.

Looking around, the entire Guazhou City and the cultivated land outside the city are surrounded by water canals, and there are rows of small trees on both sides of the water canals.

These small trees are six to seven feet high and have seven or eight rows.

They are like city walls, blocking most of the wind and sand that blow across the farmland.

Outside the small trees, there are rows of small squares made of straw. According to Guo Yong, this is the sand fixation method taught by the East Palace.

Although there is a Gobi desert near Guazhou, a lot of yellow sand is blown every year when strong winds blow. These squares can effectively fix the yellow sand and prevent it from blowing into the cultivated fields.

"After all the changes, I never thought that I could still see trees and farmland in Guazhou."

Walking on the rammed-earth official road, Fu An, who was side by side with Guo Yong, sighed and looked at the "oasis" deep in the Gobi.

“The successful settlement of Guazhou and Yumen was due to the Shule River and the rivers flowing down from the Qilian Mountains.”

Guo Yong pointed to the southwest with his horsewhip. Although he could not see anything, Fu An and others who had seen Qilian Mountain nodded in approval.

They passed through the sand control forest and saw many people farming in the fields.

Seeing them, Fu An asked, "Are these military households?"

"No, they are Han people who migrated from Suzhou." Guo Yong shook his head and said at the same time:

"The imperial court began to relocate the people in Hexi three years ago. Many Huihui and Tatars were moved to Guanzhong, Henan and Sichuan, and many Han households were moved to Longxi, Gansu and other towns."

"I think the imperial court's intention is to set up three divisions in Hexi after the Han households in Hexi occupy the majority in the future."

"By the way, the imperial court has taken over the lands of Modong, Bohai, and Annan. Do you know?"

Guo Yong reacted and asked Fu An and the two of them, but they were very confused.

Seeing this, Guo Yong just happened to tell them what happened in the past few years.

He didn't talk about what happened before the Battle of Jingnan. He mainly talked about what happened after the first year of Yongle.

For example, there were two campaigns to the north, to the south to destroy the Hu clan in Annan, to the west to destroy Luchuan, to reform the country internally and to return to the currents, and to conduct one overseas expedition to the East and two to the West.

These great achievements made the Ming Dynasty's territory reach the highest level in all directions except the northwest.

Even in the Han and Tang dynasties, Han troops were not sent to garrison and build cities in the upper reaches of the Yinma River. Fu An and others were proud of this.

During the more than ten years they were trapped in Samarkand, they had complained and worried. Especially when they learned about the Battle of Jingnan, they were very worried that the Ming Dynasty would become the Tang Dynasty after the Anshi Rebellion, and they would never return to it. Opportunity to return home.

Fortunately, the Battle of Jingnan ended quickly, and Timur's death also gave them a chance.

Khalil was unwilling to offend the increasingly powerful Ming Dynasty, so he could only release them not long after he came to power.

Now, they have returned to Daming. Although they came back a little late, they finally came back.

"By the way, Guo Du is in charge of the affairs. We have something important to tell you. Please be sure to tell your Majesty."

Fu An thought about the information he had obtained, and Guo Yong also suppressed his smile after hearing this, waiting for Fu An to tell the story.

The two looked at each other, and Fu Ancai took a deep breath and said, "When we were in Samarkand, we met Yuan Yi Bor Jijin Benya Shili."

"He is the son of Timur Elbek and the current Yuan descendant."

"When we met him, he was only fourteen or fifteen years old, and he only had about a hundred guards around him to help him escape to Samarkand."

"After Timur's death, chaos broke out in the Transoxiana region, and civil war broke out between Timur's two grandsons. We were released shortly after the civil war broke out. Khalil, the leader of Timur's kingdom, sent us escorts to Kulan City before leaving. We got protection after communicating with the country of Yili."

"Last year, we met the leader of the country, Shami Chagan, in Yilibali, and we also learned that Benya Shili was also in Yilibali."

"He is very close to Mahama, the younger brother of the leader of Shamechagan. It is said that he is preparing to recruit guards to regain the position of the Great Khan of Mongolia from Guilichi."

"Although I don't know what the situation is, I think this news may be useful to the court."

Fu An told all the information he had learned. Guo Yong frowned the whole time and finally said: "This matter must be told to His Highness immediately. I will send Tang Qi to tell His Highness now."

After Guo Yong said this, he turned around and ordered the military officer in charge of recording to confirm that the contents of the document were correct, and then sent someone to send the document to Nanjing.

It is more than 4,000 miles from Guazhou to Nanjing. Even if it is 800 miles away, it will take nearly ten days to arrive.

In the next ten days, Guo Yong helped Fu An and the others make clothes and official robes, and sent military doctors to conduct physical examinations on them.

After confirming that most of them were fine, Guo Yong prepared food and fresh water for them and saw them off on the fifth day of their arrival in Guazhou.

When Fu An and the others arrived at Yumenwei, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu in Nanjing also received news of their return to the Ming Dynasty.

"I thought Fu An and the others had surrendered a long time ago, but I didn't expect that they had been captured for so many years without revealing the imperial court's information."

In the Wuying Hall, Zhu Di held the document with detailed records and lamented the tenacity of Fu An and Guo Ji.

In front of him, three tall, short, fat and thin figures looked particularly abrupt.

The tall and strong Zhu Gaoxu, the fat Zhu Gaochi, and the thin Zhu Gaosui.

When the time entered May, Zhu Gaochi finally returned to Nanjing, where he had been away for many years. His fat figure was scolded by Zhu Di, and he was asked to fast and pray for Empress Xu as the eldest son.

After returning to Nanjing and eating fast for three days, Zhu Gaochi showed signs of depression. Even if he knew about Fu An and the others, he couldn't cheer up at all. He just said calmly:
"Dad, now that Fu An and the others are back, do we still want to continue fighting Timur?"

Zhu Gaochi's words revealed that the Ming Dynasty also received news from Horumus, Zheng He and others.

In the past month, the news brought by Zheng He and others was so explosive that even Zhu Di couldn't help but sigh.

Destroyed Ceylon's 50,000-strong army, stormed its capital, captured its leader alive, recruited thirteen vassal states of India, bombarded and captured Khurumus...

Zhu Di's blood boiled with excitement when he heard these major events, and he wished he could replace Zheng He with himself.

However, the original excuse for the bombardment of Horumus was that Timur detained the Ming envoy. Now that it is known that Timur has released Fu An and others, it seems a bit... …

Zhu Di touched his beard and glanced at the old god Zhu Gaoxu: "Second brother, your elder brother is asking you a question."

"Huh?" Zhu Gaoxu looked at Zhu Gaochi in surprise, and then at Zhu Di, thinking that the boss is clearly asking you, why are you asking me.

Just seeing Zhu Di's expression, Zhu Gaoxu could only say helplessly: "We have been beaten, we can't just retreat, right?"

"What's more, although the mission has been released, when I sent the mission there were more than 1,500 people. Now only more than 900 people have returned. Of the remaining 600 people, 500 basically died in the Sacrifice. Markham.”

"If the imperial court doesn't care about this kind of thing, does that mean that in the future, as long as the vassal states are unhappy, they can massacre the officials of the Chinese embassy in other countries without authorization?"

"In my opinion, the Timurid Kingdom must give an explanation to the imperial court on this matter. Otherwise, I would rather let Zheng He help the Black Sheep Kingdom to fight against the Timurid Kingdom and assign the entire Western Persia region to the Black Sheep Kingdom." ."

Zhu Gaoxu said it categorically, leaving no room for error.

After hearing this, Zhu Gaochi said cautiously: "Second brother, what you do is not in line with the way of a gentleman..."

"Gentleman?" Zhu Gaoxu glanced at his eldest brother speechlessly. Sometimes he really felt that his eldest brother was ruined by this Confucian gentleman's way.

Zhu Gaochi smiled awkwardly, while Zhu Gaosui was wandering around, thinking about what to eat for lunch.

Facing Zhu Gaochi's embarrassment, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Zhu Di and bowed solemnly:

"Sage Confucius said that repay kindness with kindness and repay grievance with straightness, and now is the time for the court to repay grievance with straightness."

"Fu An, Guo Ji and more than a thousand people adhere to morality and are not ashamed of the Han family. Does the imperial court want to be ashamed of the Han family?"

"If Timur does not apologize and compensate us, we will fight to the death!"

(End of this chapter)