Yongle Emperor's grandson: Zhu Yuanzhang with cheats, Zhu Di went crazy

Chapter 211 Let’s go, I’ll take you home!
"Your Highness, the bodies of the brothers have been settled."

The army was stationed on the banks of the Lushan River.

Jiang An's face was heavy as he walked to Zhu Zhanjun and reported in a low voice.

Zhu Zhanjun nodded, and led the generals behind him towards a row of carriages in the distance.

The carriage was like a long dragon, and the white flag tied to the handlebars fluttered in the wind.

On the carriage, there were small coffins placed one after another, and on each coffin was a red military flag with black characters on it.

The current army is not like what is shown on TV, where everyone is holding flags representing their country.

Throughout the entire army, apart from the commander-in-chief's name, there were very few flags with words identifying the country.

Before going on the expedition, Zhu Zhanjun asked the Veterans Chamber of Commerce to prepare these flags.

He had promised the 100,000 soldiers on the expedition that he would bring the fallen soldiers home.

Today he will fulfill his promise and let these soldiers who died fighting for the Ming Dynasty return home in glory.

In order to transport the remains of these soldiers, Zhu Zhanjun asked the Veterans Chamber of Commerce to prepare a convoy to escort these fallen soldiers home.

"Your Highness."

Qiu Yuan was dressed in mourning clothes, holding a mourning stick in his hand and a soul-guiding banner on his shoulder.

This was arranged by Zhu Zhanjun. These soldiers died because of Qiu Fu's strategic command errors.

As the saying goes, a son pays for his father's debt. In order to make up for the Qiu family's guilt towards these soldiers, Zhu Zhanjun asked Qiu Yuan to lead the corpses back home.

Zhu Zhanjun walked forward, adjusted the white banner hanging on the pole, and led everyone to an altar.

After taking the sacred incense handed to him by someone, Zhu Zhanjun led everyone to bow three times to the carriage.

"Soldiers, you have fulfilled your loyalty to the Ming Dynasty. I, Zhu Zhanjun, the grandson of the Ming Dynasty, would like to express my most sincere gratitude to you."

Zhu Zhanjun raised his hands and bowed.

"Everyone, guns up!"

Jiang An shouted loudly, and the 500 soldiers of the Shenwei Camp, who were lined up in neat rows, collectively raised their muskets and pointed them diagonally towards the sky.

"put!"

"Bang bang bang..."

The flintlock rifle without ammunition made a deafening sound, and the rising smoke swirled in the air for a moment, then was carried away by the wind on the grassland and disappeared into the distance.

"Woooooooo..."

When the horn sounded, Zhu Zhanjun picked up a porcelain bowl with paper money and incense stacked on the rim of the bowl and came to the front of the carriage team.

He took a deep breath, raised the porcelain bowl high, and shouted, "Brothers, let's go home."

"Snapped!"

The porcelain bowl hit the specially placed stones and broke into countless pieces. The neatly folded paper money was blown up by the wind and flew obliquely into the distance.

"Brothers, have a bon voyage!"

The Ming army troops lined up on both sides looked at the carriage slowly moving forward in front of them and gave their most sincere blessings in unison.

"Your Highness's actions today have won the hearts of all the soldiers."

On a hill in the distance, Zhang Fu and others who were watching the ceremony with the old man felt a sense of emotion in their hearts.

As soldiers, they know best what these soldiers need.
When you are alive, you need merit, money, rewards, and status improvement.

If they unfortunately died on the battlefield, the soldiers' greatest wish was to return to their hometown and be buried in the land of the Ming Dynasty.

As soldiers themselves, they knew that in history countless soldiers had died in a foreign land, leaving no trace behind.

The relatives wanted to find a place to cry, but they couldn't find their graves.

Today, Zhu Zhanjun sent the fallen soldiers back home, which was the greatest guarantee for all the soldiers present.

If the king pays attention to this, he will have no regrets even when he dies.

Liu Sheng, who was standing by, looked at the generals under Zhu Zhanjun and could not help but sigh: "Your Highness the Crown Prince has many talented people under his command. Xu Nianda alone is a rare talent in commanding troops."

"In Japan, there is also Wu Sangui. In the southern region, there are Xu Ruzhen, Zeng Guofan, and Zheng Zilong, who is in charge of the growing naval forces. They are all rare talents."

"Why, are you envious? If you want to go, I can introduce you to someone."

Zhang Fu on the side laughed and joked.

Liu Sheng glared at Zhang Fu unhappily and said, "I don't need your introduction. I knew His Highness earlier than you did."

"Alas, I am old now. If I were a few years younger, I could have made a career for His Highness."

Zhang Fu laughed and pointed at the old fellow.

If it were in the past, the two of them would never dare to discuss this matter.

But now, anyone with a discerning eye in the entire Ming Dynasty can see that no one can shake the crown prince's position.

Even if Your Majesty wants to replace the Crown Prince now, it is impossible.

Under the Crown Prince's command, not to mention the Veteran Chamber of Commerce that controls most of Jiangnan, the high-yield grains grown by the military households alone directly hold the lifeline of the Ming Dynasty.

His Royal Highness's troops are stationed in the newly conquered territories in the former Japan and the south.

Some people even discussed privately that if the Crown Prince wanted to mobilize the army, he didn't need to bother with the Ministry of War and the Five Military Governors' Office at all.

With just one order, it would be no problem to assemble hundreds of thousands of troops.

God, this is something they can't imagine.

If the emperor wants to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops, all departments need to spend a lot of time preparing, but the crown prince can mobilize them at any time.

According to the report of the Ministry of Revenue at the beginning of the year, the granaries built by the Veterans Chamber of Commerce in various places are sufficient to supply the Ming army for ten years.

The firearms and equipment stored in Tiangongfang are enough to equip a legion of 20, and these troops can be deployed for combat at any time.

How can this be called the Crown Prince? There are many emperors in history who could not reach this level.

Therefore, everyone in the Ming Dynasty knew clearly that the Crown Prince's ascension to the throne and becoming emperor in the future was a foregone conclusion and could not be changed at all.

As for competitors, the only possible competitor, Zhu Zhanji, has already given up.

He spent every day with his childhood sweetheart, traveling around the mountains and rivers, and fighting crickets. He even skipped school, and was ready to be a free and easy prince. As for the other princes and princes, to put it bluntly, even if they were all tied together, they would not be enough for Zhu Zhanjun to beat with one hand.

In addition, the current emperor really likes this grandson, so the generals under him don't have so many reservations when chatting with him.

However, despite saying that, they still firmly support the old man.

After the farewell team slowly went away, the old man who stood on the hillside and silently saw them off turned to Zhang Fu and said, "Go and inform the little guy to settle him down and then go to the military meeting."

"Yes."

Zhang Fu responded and rode his horse towards Zhu Zhanjun.

Soon, all the generals gathered in the old man's tent.

The old man sat at the top, looking at the generals lined up on both sides below, with a strange expression on his face.

The one on the right is headed by Xu Nianda, and the whole row are all Zhu Zhanjun's generals.

The other plate, headed by Zhang Fu, includes the court's generals and commanders.

However, looking at the length of the teams on both sides, the imperial court's side was obviously smaller than Zhu Zhanjun's side.

The old man glanced at the two teams and was speechless. When did the imperial court's team become so weak?

He knew very well that not all the generals under Zhu Zhanjun had arrived, and less than half of them were here.

If they all really came, I'm afraid the court's team of generals would look even more shabby.

"Cough cough..."

After a dry cough, the old man said, "Jin Zhong, tell me about the current situation."

In this battle, the Minister of War Jin Zhong also came along and was responsible for receiving intelligence from various places and the assistance of the army.

"Your Majesty, according to intelligence, Mahamu has led his troops to evacuate Yinma River, and his whereabouts are currently unknown."

"But according to our military department's estimates, he won't go too far, and he is likely to have prepared a battlefield somewhere waiting for us."

After talking about the enemy's current situation, Jin Zhong said to everyone: "The reason why the Ministry of War made such a judgment is that in the past few decades, we have been fighting with the Tatars, and have not had many encounters with the Wala."

"Mahamu is not aware of the military strength of our Ming Dynasty, so he has a certain contempt for us psychologically, thinking that with his huge army, our Ming Dynasty will definitely be defeated."

"After taking various considerations into account, we finally concluded that there are two places they might go."

Jin Zhong walked towards the huge sand table and pointed to two places: "According to our estimation, there are probably two areas, Hulanhushiwen and Kangharihai."

"These two places, high in the north and low in the south, try their best to fight against the cavalry charge."

"If our troops reach this area, the enemy will definitely come down from above immediately."

"If our army is unable to cope with the situation and chaos occurs and we are unable to gather together in a short period of time, we will become lambs to be slaughtered by the enemy."

“Even if we can win in the later stages, there will be considerable losses.”

"And given the enemy's habits, once there is a risk of defeat, they will turn around and run without hesitation."

"The main force of my army is composed of infantry, and they are not very familiar with the grassland. It is not an easy task to catch up with them."

After the explanation, Jin Zhong bowed to the old man.

"The above is the Ministry of War's investigation and analysis of the intelligence on this battle."

The old man nodded and looked at Zhu Zhanjun: "Little guy, do you have anything to add?"

Zhu Zhanjun stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Yes."

The old man waved his hand and signaled Zhu Zhanjun to speak out.

Zhu Zhanjun waved behind him and someone came over quickly holding a map.

Jiang An and Shen Shan stepped forward to help unfold it, and everyone could see the scene on the map clearly.

It is a battle deployment map with various arrows on it, indicating the confrontation between the two armies.

Zhu Zhanjun took out his baton and explained to everyone: "According to our intelligence, Mahamu led 3 men and 10 horses and gathered in the Sanxiakou area."

"They plan to wait for us to get close and then attack from three directions, destroying our main force in one fell swoop and throwing our army into chaos."

"The generals leading the troops are Mahamu, Daliba, Taiping, and Batubolo."

"Specific battle plan, they intend to..."

The old man glanced at Jin Zhong, who lowered his head in embarrassment.

Both sides were collecting military intelligence statistics, but Jin Zhong's side relied entirely on guesswork, while Zhu Zhanjun's side even took out the other party's battle plan.

Not only that, he also knew exactly who the other side's commander was, the retreat plan, and the number of troops involved.

This is the real intelligence war. Jin Zhong’s guesswork is totally unreliable.

The old man stood up and walked to the map to look at it for a while. After a moment's silence, he said, "I remember you sent a light cavalry. Can they support us in the battle from the rear?"

"Mahamu is walking along the mountain. Even if we defeat him in the front, he will turn around and run away, and we will not be able to catch up with him."

"If your light cavalry has already gone around, it would be best if we could stop them from behind."

Zhu Zhanjun hesitated for a moment before replying, "According to the communication three days ago, they have already made their way to the interior of Wala and are currently searching for the enemy's logistics camp."

"I gave them an order. Ten days at most. If they fail to find the enemy's logistics camp within ten days, they will cooperate with us to attack Mahamu's main force."

"After we defeat Mahamu's main force, we will return to the capital, and they will stay in the grassland to continue to eliminate the enemy's resistance."

The old man looked at the map held up by Jiang An and Shen Shan, slammed the table and ordered: "Well, since Mahamu wants to wait for us to tire ourselves out, let's attack him from both sides and eat up this Wala tribe."

"Follow the order!"

The generals present immediately clasped their fists and accepted the order.

After discussing the battle plan, the old man suddenly said to Zhu Zhanjun: "A while ago, Alutai asked the Ming Dynasty to send troops to Wala, saying that they would serve as the vanguard."

"I refused at that time. Now that we have sent troops, they will naturally fulfill their promise. He will come over tomorrow to discuss sending troops to fight."

"You and he are old friends too. Tomorrow you can have a good chat with him on my behalf."

"Tartar, haha." The old man sneered: "This is also an ungrateful wolf that can never be tamed. Sooner or later, we will fight again in the future."

(End of this chapter)