Jiajing Chengming

The autumn wind is bleak, and the withered yellow grass sways in the cold wind, making a rustling sound, as if telling endless desolation.

In the distance, the outline of the Helan Mountains appeared particularly cold and majestic in the twilight, with the mountain ridges cutting through the sky like a knife edge, exuding a murderous aura.

The afterglow of the setting sun sprinkled on the top of the mountain, reflecting a blood-red light, as if foreshadowing that a bloody storm was about to come.

The Ming army was indeed following Altan Khan here.

It is said that after leaving the pass, Altan returned to the Hetao area.

This land, which was once his place of recuperation, now filled him with anxiety and crisis, because he had learned from the scouts that a large number of Ming army scouts were following him.

He thought it was Qiu Luan's man, so he didn't take it seriously, but he instinctively felt something was wrong.

But not long after, Altan learned a piece of news that made him furious - his Hetao nest hidden behind the Helan Mountains had been attacked.

What made him even more angry was that the Ming army built a large number of Jingguan outside the border wall in this area as a demonstration against him.

Altan's face suddenly turned gloomy, and a hint of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes.

He immediately decided to go and check out those Jingguans in person.

When he stood in front of the triangular tower made of human heads, the anger in his heart could no longer be suppressed.

He suddenly drew out the scimitar from his waist. The blade flashed coldly in the setting sun, as if it was about to chop down an enemy in the next moment.

However, when he looked around, he didn't know who to attack.

"Zhu Houcong!"

Altan uttered these three words through gritted teeth, his voice low and full of hatred.

His face was ashen and his teeth were clenched with a clanging sound, as if he wanted to chew them all into pieces.

However, despite his rage, he knew that no matter how much he cursed or swore, he could not change the reality before him.

This is the case.

The Ming army's night raiders discovered his lair, and the border troops destroyed his permanent base. Emperor Zhu Houcong quickly sent an imperial edict, ordering his border officials to build a Jingguan to humiliate him.

Altan Khan knew clearly that even if he could exploit the loopholes in the Ming court's border defenses to enter the country and plunder, he would only be like a robber, creating some security problems for the Ming Dynasty, but he would not be able to really hurt Zhu Houcong in any way.

Thinking of this, Altan's face turned even more gloomy, and the feeling of powerlessness in his heart almost suffocated him.

He stood in front of the Jingguan for a long time, and finally just took a deep breath and slowly put the knife back into the sheath.

At this moment, there was a slight tremor suddenly from the ground.

Altan's brows frowned and he immediately became alert.

He quickly dismounted, leaned over the ground, put his ears to the ground, and listened carefully to the movement in the distance.

After a moment, his expression suddenly changed and a trace of panic flashed in his eyes.

"He's not Qiu Luan's man!"

"Retreat to the lair immediately!"

Altan stood up suddenly and shouted an order with a hint of urgency in his voice. "We will take revenge later!"

He could guess that the Ming cavalry was approaching, intending to annihilate him in one fell swoop while his troops were exhausted.

However, just as Altan Khan issued the order, he received another piece of bad news - the border troops led by Liu Tianhe had encircled him from the direction of his old nest and cut off his retreat.

Altan's face turned pale in an instant and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

He gritted his teeth and ordered his troops to retreat northward, fleeing towards an even more bitter and cold place.

However, due to days of running around, his troops were already exhausted and the retreat was extremely chaotic.

The Ming army took advantage of their rest and pursued the enemy relentlessly, launching continuous attacks from the rear.

Altan's troops suffered heavy losses during the retreat, with countless cavalry corpses left behind and many soldiers captured alive by the Ming army.

Whenever a captive was brought before a Ming general, they were asked the same question: "Are you still loyal to Altan?"

Zhu Houcong had already issued an order that all captives who chose to continue to be loyal to Altan would be killed without mercy.

When a small leader of the Altan tribe was brought before a general of the Ming army, he sneered and answered without hesitation, "Of course!"

Upon hearing this, the Ming army general's eyes flashed with a hint of coldness, and then he waved his hand.

The next moment, the blade stabbed into the prisoner's chest mercilessly.

Blood gushed out instantly, staining his clothes red.

The prisoner's body trembled violently for a few times, then he fell to the ground powerlessly, and the light in his eyes gradually faded.

Similar scenes continued to play out on the battlefield.

Many Tatars who chose to be loyal to Altan were beheaded on the spot, and their bodies were carried inside the border wall to be cremated and used as fertilizer for military farms.

As an empire with a highly mature agricultural economy, the Ming Dynasty naturally would not waste these resources.

You know, even feces is considered a valuable asset because of its ability to fertilize the soil.

Those Tatars who chose not to be loyal to Altan Khan, although they saved their lives, were taken to the south and used as coolies in the conquest of Annan. Their fate was equally tragic.

"Great Khan, those of us who chose to be loyal to you were all killed! Their heads were piled up into a mountain, and lime mud was used to build a higher Jingguan at the foot of the Helan Mountains; their bodies were burned into white ash and scattered on the fields."

After escaping from the encirclement of the Ming army, Altan's Wanhu Shandan informed Altan of the information he had learned from the spies inside the pass.

After hearing this, Altan stood up suddenly, his breathing became heavy and rapid, and his eyes were filled with anger.

"Is Zhu Houcong not afraid of angering me?!"

Altan roared, his voice full of anger and unwillingness.

talking.

He kicked over the low table in front of him with all his might, and a bowl of kumis on the table rolled to the ground. The milky white liquid spilled all over the floor, giving off a faint aroma of wine.

Zheng Liang, who had been following Altan, saw this and quickly stepped forward to persuade him: "Great Khan, calm down. Perhaps Zhu Houcong is a madman. We cannot expect him to be rational. We should transfer his anger to other forces."

"No matter what, he is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty is now very powerful. If he really wants to destroy us at all costs, I'm afraid we won't be able to bear it."

After hearing Zheng Liang's words, Altan's body trembled slightly, and the anger on his face was gradually replaced by a trace of fear, and he couldn't help but hug his body with his arms.

Seeing this, Shandan couldn't help but ask, "Khan, what's wrong with you?"

"The grassland is really cold in autumn and winter!" Altan replied, then he looked up to the south, smiled bitterly, and murmured in a low voice:
"Should I actually show my intention to beg for mercy for a madman?"

……

A month later.

Capital.

On this day, Zhu Houcong suddenly issued an edict to host a banquet for Tang Long and Chou Luan, Marquis of Xianning, who had been promoted to Beijing.

Naturally, the two men did not expect that the emperor would suddenly invite them to a banquet.

This made them feel flattered, but also worried that this was a Hongmen Banquet.

But they did not dare to disobey the order, so they had to enter the palace with their heads held high, thinking that the emperor would not acknowledge their achievements in repelling the Tartars and then let them die innocently in the palace.

When Tang Long and Qiu Luan walked into the Qianqing Palace and saw Zhu Houcong, Zhu Houcong's face suddenly darkened. He looked at the two of them coldly, and his voice was low and full of majesty:
"Do you know your guilt?"

Zhu Houcong's question made the two men feel as if they were struck by lightning. They froze in place and didn't move for a long time.

Qiu Luan opened his mouth wide: "Your Majesty, what crime do you want me to confess?"

"Of course it's your crime of collusion!"

"And the crime of deceiving the emperor!"

When Zhu Houcong said these words, his tone was very calm, but they sounded like muffled thunder exploding above their heads.

Tang Long calmed down a little at this time and said, "Your Majesty, although we can't say that we have made outstanding military achievements, we are loyal to the Ming Dynasty. How could we have the intention to collude with the enemy and deceive the emperor?!"

"I don't know which treacherous minister has slandered me, but I beg Your Majesty to understand. If I were disloyal, why would I have fought the Tartars at all costs?"

Zhu Houcong lowered his body after hearing this, and with a sneer that seemed to have seen through everything, he looked at the two of them and said, "Are you still pretending to be stupid in front of me?"

"You can't say that Altan is slandering you, can you?"

"You can't even say that Datong Governor Zhai Peng is slandering you, right?"

Zhu Houcong took out two copies of the memorial from the table and threw them in front of the two men:

"Look for yourselves. Altan has already explained clearly how you bribed him privately, invited him to enter the pass and forced me to issue an edict of guilt, how you let Qiu Luan get the credit for serving the king, and then forced Yuan Fu to death."

"And the governor of Datong, Zhai Peng, the younger brother of the prince's teacher, Master Zhai, has also secretly reported that you have recruited Han Chinese people from Datong as servants, but you have killed innocent people and taken credit for it, and you have slaughtered more than 1,500 Han Chinese people who have surrendered to the state."

The Ming Dynasty often recorded the Hu people who had surrendered to the border towns and participated in military farming and became farmers as "Dazi", which sounds the same as "Tartar", in order to distinguish them in writing from the Hu people outside the Great Wall who had not been naturalized.

After Zhu Houcong said this, he said, "You are really reactionary! You slaughtered those who admired China and voluntarily naturalized and became obedient citizens and used them as military merits; you treated those who refused to naturalize and plundered the Ming Dynasty like bandits, but you kept offering ceremonies and tributes. How can our great China achieve peace if you do this?"

Tang Long and Qiu Luan were silent at this time.

Both of them looked at the copied memorials on the ground in disbelief.

Qiu Luan's face had turned pale. Although he was a military official, he was not as calm as Tang Long when faced with problems, and was more afraid of death.

Tang Long was making his final struggle at this time.

Therefore, Tang Long said, "Your Majesty, please do not believe Altan's words. He is deliberately trying to alienate the ruler and his subjects of the Ming Dynasty, and wants Your Majesty to destroy the Great Wall yourself!"

"Self-destruction of the Great Wall?"

"How dare you compare yourself to the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Houcong did not get angry but laughed instead.

then.

Zhu Houcong simply said, "I might as well tell you straight, I promoted you back to Beijing ahead of schedule because I have sent a large army out of Beijing to Hetao to attack Altan, because Liu Tianhe has already found Altan's current lair there and cut off his path. And Altan is leading a tired army back, and he didn't plunder any supplies, so he was defeated by the army I sent and the border troops of Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Ningxia!"

"In order to protect himself and prevent me from continuing to pursue him at all costs, he asked for peace again and offered to sell you out as a condition."

"He returned all the silver dollars you gave him before he even removed the seal of Xingming Bank."

When Zhu Houcong said this, he looked at Tang Long, whose eyes were already wide open, and at Qiu Luan, who was constantly wiping his sweat:
"You have overestimated the integrity of your allies outside. When they sell you out, they will do it without hesitation, and even without any regrets! Otherwise, he, Altan, would not have sold you out first, regardless of whether I would agree to peace or not, just as a favor!"

"It shows how worthless you are in their eyes. You may even be worth less than the dogs they raise! After all, I heard that the people of the grasslands value dogs very much and will not easily give dogs to others, even to close friends!"

Tang Long had already clenched his fists at this time, and his whole face was shaking as if he had Parkinson's disease.

Zhu Houcong knew that his words must have hurt Tang Long.

But what Zhu Houcong said was the truth. Disloyal and unrighteous people like the compradors of later generations would not be treated as human beings even by external forces that had collusion with them for the benefit of the people.

Because these people have already given up the basic bottom line of being a human being, their allies will not respect them either.

"Your Majesty, I admit my guilt!"

"But I actually didn't expect it to come to this point today."

"Now I only ask Your Majesty to show mercy and give me a chance to live."

Qiu Luan had already started begging for mercy at this time.

Zhu Houcong did not say whether he wanted to forgive Qiu Luan or not, he only talked about other things.

"I know that you are dissatisfied with my support for the Yuanfu to survey the land throughout the country, and you are also dissatisfied with my monopolizing power, which prevents you from controlling the local areas and from manipulating the court to embezzle more national funds and people's wealth!"

"But I am not angry, nor do I feel annoyed by this."

"Because I never expected all of you to be loyal to the emperor and patriotic. I also know that there will be gamblers in the world who will make gambling moves that they think are smart after being blinded by greed."

"But since you have chosen to bet that I will not see through your conspiracy, you must also be prepared to admit defeat."

When Zhu Houcong said this, he looked at Qiu Luan and said, "So, don't ask for mercy, and don't lose your respective shares!"

Qiu Luan just sobbed and cried at this time.

Tang Long also started crying.

But not long after, Tang Long spoke up, "Your Majesty, although I deserve to die, do you know that the one who really came up with this idea was not me, but the East Palace Master Zhai Luan? He asked Zhai Peng to instigate us to do this. Even the Da Zi who killed innocent people and took credit for it was found by Zhai Peng for us. Now he is turning the tables, obviously wanting to clear himself so that he, Zhai Luan, can also clear himself!"

"You say so, but I guess you don't have any real evidence."

Zhu Houcong asked with a smile at this time.

Tang Long said, "No, otherwise, he wouldn't have filed a complaint against us. But a dying man's words are good. I don't need to deceive Your Majesty at this time. I just want to remind Your Majesty that Zhai Peng is not a good person. You can't really think that he is trustworthy and reliable just because he has the courage to expose my superior today. Let him be the governor of Xuanda, or even go to Beijing to take charge of the Ministry of War!"

"And Zhai Luan behind him is even less of a good guy, and he will never be able to be a cabinet minister or even a prime minister in the future! He is the one who really wants loyal ministers like Zhang and Gui to be executed as soon as possible! As for whether there is anyone behind Zhai Luan, I don't know, but I think there is!" (End of this chapter)