Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 143 Landlords and Bureaucrats: Why are you helping Zhu Yuanzhang? !
Zhu Yuanzhang also followed up and said: "Youde is right. When we saw so many Confucian scholars, Mr. Zhang asked us to provide food for the people. To be precise, he really regarded us commoners as people."

Zhang Cheng smiled and said: "As a Chinese, I only have to fulfill my responsibilities and it is not worth mentioning."

"As a Chinese person, you should fulfill your responsibilities!"

"Since you all say so, then we should also give you a big salute."

Therefore, Chang Yuchun also clasped his fists heavily and bowed towards Zhang Cheng.

Xie Zaixing also laughed and said, "And me."

Seeing this, Zhang Cheng returned the favor and said:

"Let's not talk too much. Since you are here to vote, it happens to be almost noon. If you are in charge, you might as well host a banquet to entertain them."

"That's how it should be!"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled.

And just as Zhu Yuanzhang hoped.

At the banquet, both the host and the guest are naturally happy.

"that is!"

Chang Yuchun also came over and said something at this time.

After Zhang Cheng heard what he said, he understood better. Why was Chang Yuchun able to become Xu Da's partner and the second-in-command of the Northern Expedition in history?

"That's why we have to cross the river as soon as possible to prevent more people from dying tragically at the hands of these reactionaries."

Zhu Yuanzhang also said: "It rains a lot in the afternoon. I hope it rains more."

He listened carefully for a while. For a moment, with his leopard head and eyes, he couldn't help but his eyes widened in anger, and his murderous intention arose in his heart. He wished he could fly over and kill Yuan Bing right now. But after Tao Cheng said, So he said it.

The entire Machang River swelled as a result.

"If we just want to plunder, why should we risk crossing the river to plunder? Are there no opportunities for plundering in places like Jiangbei and Shandong?"

The other rebels still echoed.

During the surge, the rebels also stepped up their propaganda and mobilization work.

"It was reported that Yuan soldiers and landlords armed with iron brooms were sweeping people's lower bodies outside Jiangning Town, claiming to sweep away the smell of thieves. As a result, hundreds of people died tragically!"

The training officer Tao Chengze also said this at this moment after the rebel officers and soldiers in front of him expressed their opinions.

Zhang Cheng couldn't help but say.

Most of the rebels were young and energetic people, so many people couldn't help but gnashed their teeth and clenched their fists after hearing such reports:

"Liu Ju has no long-term plans. He only knows how to burn, kill, and loot. So we have not wanted to follow him for a long time."

"We must be prepared to die in battle!"

"But, brothers, now the Yuan soldiers are also afraid of us crossing the river, so they are strictly guarding us! Especially at the passes such as Tongcheng Gate and Majang River, there are a large number of water fortresses with heavy troops. Hu Yuanzhong's Prime Minister Manjihaya also sent More than 100,000 civilians built traps, iron ropes, and weirs around these water strongholds, so it was very difficult to cross the river. Even if they rushed to the river, they had to face heavy iron shields, spears, and rain of arrows. "

Tao Cheng said: "Then do you dare to guarantee the calligraphy and painting?"

Because the Dragon Boat Festival floods were coming, the rain really fell continuously for a day and night, and then intermittently for almost ten days.

After a while, dense lines of rain began to form between the water and the sky, and beads continued to dance on the river and on the boat.

"It was reported that fifty-six families in Santao Village, Shangyuan, were massacred and their bodies were burned!"

Tao Cheng bowed and said: "You are naturally brave, I have no doubt about this, but I am worried that after you cross the river, you will be armed like the Yuan soldiers and the landlords."

But suddenly, the sky outside became darker and darker, and the wind gradually started blowing.

"By coincidence, we knew that you were going to cross the river, so we guessed that you must be crossing the river to do something big, otherwise who would be willing to go through that trouble!"

Chang Yuchun even talked about the reason why he voted for Zhu Yuanzhang while enjoying his meal.

"At the worst, it's just feeding the fish. Damn, I've eaten a lot of fish in my life. Now letting the fish eat it can be regarded as repaying my debt!"

"Who are you looking down on!"

"When the time comes, whoever breaks the rules and loses his head, don't blame our Prime Minister for being unkind!"

Now that I think about it, he is indeed not only brave, but also a person who understands important things and is good at thinking.

……

“It’s raining so much!”

"Damn! These bastards deserve to be killed!"

At this time, Chang Yuchun started talking.

As stated before.

"What are you afraid of!"

As he spoke, Tao Cheng took out the guarantee letter he had drawn up in advance:

Other volunteers also joined in.

"that is!"

Among them, the most basic one is to bring officers and soldiers together to read, listen and study newspapers.

Everyone hesitated.

"Sign it!"

"Afraid of a bird!"

"Now I just want to cross the river as soon as possible to kill those stupid Tatars, Semu people and their lackeys!"

Chang Yuchun took the guarantee letter first.

Seeing this, other people also came over to sign.

As the water in the river rose to almost the same level and the water in Chao Lake flooded out, the missionary and mobilization work was almost in progress, and the entire rebel army officially began to take large boats to the Tongcheng Gate.

Yuan Bing's side.

Manzihaya was so angry that he pointed to the sky and cursed: "God, why are you helping thieves!"

Then, Manhaziya said: "Be careful and defend to the death. The current situation of the water is good for the bandit army and not good for us!"

"We are willing to defend to the death, but Zhongcheng, can you let the soldiers have enough to eat?"

At this time, Marshal He Mu couldn't help but ask.

Manhaziya said: "I also want the soldiers to fight with full stomachs, but unfortunately Jiangnan is short of food now, so they can only be half full."

“How come there is a shortage of food in the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River?”

He Mu couldn't help but say something.

Manhaziya did not answer.

At this time, the frontline officers and soldiers of the rebel army from outside had rushed over in fast boats, each with their shields raised.

Seeing this, He Mu could only draw his sword and shout: "Brothers, the time has come to be loyal to the court. Hold back your hunger. Zhongcheng has promised that when this battle is over, everyone will be well fed and rewarded with two taels of silver!"

Manhaziya didn't deny it either.

After hearing this "cake", many soldiers of the Yuan Dynasty became very excited. They lined up and pointed their spears at the rebels who came to the gate.

But most of them were not strong enough, so Chang Yuchun held down a gun and dragged down many people alone. While he was slashing people at the gate, he shouted: "Didn't you fucking eat? You are so weak!"

At the same time, Xu Da also led his cavalry to take advantage of the rising river level to land ashore in advance and outflank Manhaziya's water village.

When Zhu Yuanzhang saw Chang Yuchun leading his troops to the gate ahead of schedule, he couldn't help but be overjoyed, and hurriedly ordered the infantry to go ashore ahead of schedule.

Zhang Cheng also sighed here.

He thought Hua Yun was already brave enough, but he didn't expect Chang Yuchun to be even braver.

There were so many soldiers blocking him with guns, but he actually broke in through the forest of swords, guns, and swords, as if he was in an uninhabited land.

of course.

Zhang Cheng knew that this might be related to Yuan Bing's current lack of logistics.

As far as he knew, the Yuan soldiers were only preparing to raise food through plundering the people because the emperor wanted to leave 40% of the soldiers. As a result, Duo'er could only meet half the salary of the soldiers guarding the river.

Moreover, due to the early intervention of the rebels, Duo'er had to end the clearing in advance, so that only the soldiers guarding the river could get half pay. Many Yuan soldiers in the north of the Yangtze River still owed pay and were on the verge of starving to death.

As for the rebels, due to the forcible purge last year, not to mention a large increase in taxes and grains, after adjusting the commercial taxes, they also took a lot of money to buy grains from the powerful gentry in the area, and also liquidated many people who violated laws and disciplines. The evil gentry are powerful, so they have abundant food. Now they not only support a large number of soldiers fighting on the front line, but also maintain a lot of logistics personnel in the rear, participating in equipment manufacturing, food road maintenance, etc., which greatly improves the logistics support of the rebel army.

It's funny to say the same.

The Yuan Dynasty regime, which was supposed to be dominated by foreign invaders, now protects the Semu people and Han landlords and bureaucrats within its jurisdiction for various reasons. Not only does it plunder their property, but it does not even impose fines on those who violate laws and disciplines. Strict investigation will be carried out, and those who evade taxes will not be concerned. After all, they have outsourced all taxation rights to semu people.

For example, Liu Bowen refused to join the Yuan court, but Duo'er only treated such scholar-bureaucrats with courtesy and sent troops to protect him. Of course, this is determined by class standpoint.

After all, these Mongolian nobles like Duo'er have become landlords after entering the customs for so many years.

But this only caused the Yuan Dynasty's own central property to be in dire straits, especially when the emperor and high-ranking officials and nobles also took all the baht from the people and used it like sand. On the contrary, it made Semu and Han people and even the landlords and bureaucrats of the southern Han people miserable. Very rich.

And the Yuan soldiers who worked for them, many of whom were Mongolians, had to endure hunger. In short, the logistics situation was very bad.

Therefore, Zhang Cheng saw that once the Yuan soldiers lost their advantage, many middle and lower-level Yuan soldiers surrendered. Some of them knelt on the ground after shooting a few symbolic arrows and took off their armor on their own initiative.

After all, the feeling of running around hungry was too uncomfortable, so it was better to kneel down and beg for surrender and wait to die.

"Your Majesty, it seems that Manhaziya has not been willing to use his own money to support the army, so he should immediately order a ban on killing and surrender. The hatred of these lower-level soldiers should be very great, because they obviously do not have a strong will to fight."

Zhang Cheng reminded Zhu Yuanzhang at this time.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and ordered: "Wu Liang, Wu Zhen, you immediately lead our troops to stop the brothers from killing and surrendering. Anyone who refuses to listen will be killed! And order the brothers to shout for surrender without killing them!" "

"Yes!"

"Those who surrender will not be killed!"

"Those who surrender will not be killed!"

Soon, many rebels shouted.

The rebels had received pre-war guidance before the war. They knew that the lower-level Yuan soldiers also suffered greatly and had deep hatred. Once the commander did not know how to be considerate of his subordinates, he might not have a strong will to resist, so they actively cooperated and implemented the policy of not killing those who took off and landed. The order comes.

Even Chang Yuchun had to temporarily stop the indiscriminate massacre, and temporarily suppressed his unfulfilled desire to kill, and said to his subordinates: "We haven't made great achievements yet, so we can't break the rules too much. Listen to the superiors. Those who surrender will not be killed in order to achieve greater results as soon as possible!”

then.

More Yuan soldiers descended on this side, and many forts along the river surrendered.

Seeing that the rebel army was as fierce as thunder, Manhaziya was even more frightened when he commanded it well. Especially when he saw that the water forts on his side surrendered without a fight, he was so angry that he jumped:

"How could you surrender!"

Manhaziya was about to cry but had no tears, so she had to say to He Mu: "We must let them guard Huangdun!"

Before He Mu agreed, the official school came to report that Huang Dun had surrendered.

After hearing this, Manhaziya couldn't help shouting: "My food!"

Afterwards, Manhaziya fainted.

He indeed withheld a large amount of food and salary as private food and deposited it in Huangdun, in order to use it as a tribute to the emperor and Hama and other people in power in the future.

After all, he was the one recommended by Tuotuo. If he wanted to keep his official career, he had to spend more money.

After waking up, Manhaziya withdrew to the mouth of Yuxi, where he gathered the Yuan Ting navy to prepare to block the rebels from crossing the river.

At this time, Duo'er only sent someone to bring food. The visitor said to Manhaziya: "Your Majesty said, Zhu Yuanzhang and others are preparing to cross the river now. They are worried that you will be short of food, so they have sent 30,000 dan of food. I hope you will." Order the navy to guard tightly and not allow the rebels to cross the river easily! In addition, the fire cannons have been received. After successfully blocking the rebels from crossing the river, I ordered Ren Zhigong to go see him quickly. "

"Yes!"

Manhaziya agreed, and not long after that, he saw the newly arrived food.

"This is the food raised by You Cheng. Most of it has been sent to the Duke. I hope the Duke will use it to motivate the whole army."

The visitor started talking after seeing this grain in Manhaziya.

Manhaziya promised with all his heart, but after the visitor left, because he thought about the importance of his official career, he looked at the plump new grains in front of him, and gritted his teeth and said: "I will fish for the last time, as long as I can be promoted back to Jingli, I’ll stop!”

talking.

Manhaziya then ordered his trusted generals: "Transport 20,000 shi back to Taiping, and send only 10,000 shi to the entire army. No, five thousand shi. Keep half of it first to see if they make trouble!"

"Yes!"

"It's great. The higher-ups finally gave us food."

The Yuan Ting navy did not make a fuss, and many Mongolian soldiers were moved and burst into tears.

He Mu, who followed the retreat, also wiped the corners of his eyes and said, "Yeah, it's not easy up here either. I think I'm working hard to raise food. I don't have the heart to let us go hungry. I believe everything will be fine!"

Seeing that the navy did not make a fuss, Manhaziya was very motivated to prepare for a water war. He couldn't help but feel happy that he could be greedy for five thousand more grains. However, at the same time, he felt a trace of regret in his heart, wondering if he should have just Can giving out two thousand stones also boost morale?
When he thought of this, Manhaziya couldn't help but stamp her feet:

"What a sin of mine, sending out so much food!"

Because the rebels successfully arrived at Huangdun, and there was only the mouth of Yuxikou, which was heavily guarded by the Yuanting navy, away from the river, their morale was greatly boosted, and they also began to step up preparations for war.

Just now.

Li Pusheng and Zhao Pusheng were dissatisfied with Zhu Yuanzhang's enfeoffment of the Chaohu generals who were originally under them and listed them as general soldiers. They also saw that most of the Yuan army's water fortresses had been defeated, and now the Yuan army only had one riverside water fortress in the north of the Yangtze River. Keshou once again gave birth to the desire to develop independently.

Li Pusheng went to Zhao Pusheng and said: "Come all the way, you are not allowed to make personal wealth or kill people indiscriminately. The brothers are almost exhausted, and then you have to fight against Hu Yuan's navy for Zhu Yuanzhang. Why!"

"What I'm saying is that as long as we defeat the Yuan army at Yuxikou and the passage from Chaohu to the river is opened, we can completely make a living along the river. Whether it's recruiting people or looking for opportunities to cross the river to establish a foundation, it's better than giving him Zhu Yuanzhang It is necessary to be strong to work hard, not to mention that Zhu Yuanzhang is a treacherous person and enfeoffs our people. Once we successfully cross the river with him, we will only be controlled according to the rules."

"Besides, we already have so many fields in this area, why should we follow them to take risks?"

Zhao Pusheng echoed.

Li Pusheng said: "As long as you, Old Zhao, are willing, I will contact them. If anyone is unwilling to leave, we will take advantage of the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang's people are still outside to surrender. The ship is basically full of our people and kill him!"

Zhao Pusheng nodded.

Soon after learning that Huang Dun had surrendered without a fight, Zhang Cheng, because of his familiarity with history, also found an opportunity to ask Zhu Yuanzhang:

"Does the superior think that Li Pusheng and Zhao Pusheng will continue to seriously help us cross the river in the future?"

"It's hard to say! We have named Yu and Liao, who are not supposed to be in the same rank as them, as general soldiers. I think they must be unconvinced. Moreover, they already have extensive farmland in Chaohu, so they may not be willing to risk crossing the river."

Zhu Yuanzhang said.

Zhang Cheng said: "Tweening favors to their subordinates is the best strategy that we have long agreed on in the political hall, because our goal is to conquer the entire Chaohu Navy, not just these two people, so there are necessary checks and balances. There must be means, otherwise it will make subsequent reorganization more difficult.”

"That's right!"

"However, Mr. Zhang, don't worry. We are also on guard against this. We have asked the school inspector to keep an eye on him, Li Pusheng. If he is really dishonest, we will decisively ask Yu, Liao and other people who have secretly loyal to us to In the name of entertaining him, get rid of him!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's expression became serious as he spoke, and then he said: "Then use Li Pusheng's head to intimidate him Zhao Pusheng."

"If Li Pusheng is dishonest, Zhao Pusheng must be accomplices, otherwise he, Li Pusheng, would not dare to act rashly."

"So, why don't the superiors just deal with it together?"

Zhang Cheng asked.

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "This Zhao Pusheng is quite capable. He is very good with two swords and is good at fighting. He has repeatedly caused Zuo Junbi to suffer heavy losses. If he can be conquered, he will be more helpful when crossing the river. So, if Li Pusheng really rises We have no other plans to get rid of him first."

Zhang Cheng nodded and said: "It's better to be on guard! We have to be on guard. After Zhao Pusheng learned that Li Pusheng was invited to the banquet, he was on guard in advance. He even ran away and surrendered to Xu, Chen and others, rather than joining us or surrendering. Yuan Bing."

Zhu Yuanzhang became thoughtful after hearing this.

At this time.

By chance, Zhu Yuanzhang's general Hua Yi came with Sang Shijie and Zhang Desheng: "Come on, General Sang wants to see you."

"what's up?"

Zhu Yuanzhang asked Sang Shijie and Zhang Desheng directly.

Sang Shijie said: "Li Pusheng wants to rebel!"

Zhang Desheng nodded and gave Zhu Yuanzhang the order given to him by Li Pusheng: "Yes, this is the order given to us by General Li. We secretly order our brothers to all wear armor tonight and prepare to kill all the first officers left on board." The school and the Prime Minister."

Zhu Yuanzhang took the order and read it.

"Go handle Li Pusheng's affairs, and leave it to me to guard against Zhao Pusheng."

Zhang Cheng whispered to Zhu Yuanzhang at this time.

Zhu Yuanzhang said "hmm", then took the warrant and said to Sang Shijie and Zhang Desheng: "You guys, follow me!"

Zhang Cheng here said to Qi Xiang: "Go and summon the three generals Chang, Xie, and Deng, and tell them that we will give these new recruits a chance to make great contributions first!"

Qi Xiang raised his hand and said yes.

Zhu Yuanzhang also asked Sang Shijie, Yu's father and son, Liao brothers, etc. to entertain Li Pusheng here.

Li Pusheng just wanted to discuss the rebellion with him or persuade him not to rebel, so he brought Zhang Desheng to where Sang Shijie was waiting.

But Li Pusheng saw Zhu Yuanzhang as soon as he arrived.

Zhu Yuanzhang directly threw the order in front of him and said: "Li Pusheng, you can rebel if you want, why do you want to kill us?!"

Li Pusheng looked back at Zhang Desheng in shock: "How dare you betray me?"

"I understand. You must be like them. You also want to be the commander-in-chief and don't want to be below us."

Li Pusheng then looked at Yu, Liao, Sang and others and started talking, and suddenly asked loudly: "But why are you willing to live under Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhang Cheng and the others?!"

(End of this chapter)