Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 139 Long live the Ming Dynasty!

"What the hell is this?"

Seeing the manuscript written by Ji He, Zhu Yunfeng couldn't hold it anymore and snatched it from Li Wenzhong to take another look.

A closer look reveals that in addition to the previous content, the beginning actually reads "Dear citizens of the Ming Dynasty, dear soldiers of the Ming Dynasty"

Then he asked everyone whether they had received their salary, new clothes, etc. In addition to gratitude, he even said that there was only one sun in his heart, His Majesty. The only thing missing was loyalty!
After reading it, Zhu Yunfeng looked like an old man on the subway and said to Ji He, "Is this the speech you wrote?"

"Isn't it good?"

Ji Hyuk's eyes widened as he said, "This is the general and Kyung-ge's parade speech."

"Look at the occasion!"

Zhu Yunfeng was speechless: "Can the Ming Dynasty be the same as them?"

Ji He scratched his head and said, "What's the difference? Besides, I haven't written a speech for the Ming Dynasty."

"Never mind. I'll take care of it."

Zhu Yunfeng thought about it carefully and realized that he couldn't blame Ji He.

Because Ji He didn't know much about history and his limited historical knowledge was still at the beginner level, he had no idea how to write an ancient speech.

In other words, there was no such thing as speech scripts in ancient times, and one could not even copy them online, so one could only rely on path dependence.

But he forgot to take the speech manuscript for later generations, and the soldiers below could not understand him at all.

Fortunately, Zhu Yunfeng was different. Although he didn't know how to write ancient speeches, he knew how to speak usefully to the soldiers.

After thinking it over again and again, Zhu Yunfeng used the memo function on his smartphone which had no signal to write a manuscript and gave it to Li Wenzhong, asking him to memorize it himself.

Li Wenzhong looked at it for a while, then said with a smile, "It's better than before."

"right."

Zhu Yunfeng rolled his eyes at Ji He and said, "See? We have to put it into practice!"

Ji Hyuk leaned over to take a look.

It was all written in Ming Dynasty vernacular. He couldn't help scratching his head and said, "I don't understand these words. When did you learn them?"

"If you listen to it often, you will gradually learn it."

"sharp."

"Okay, I'll let them practice it first."

Li Wenzhong said.

He immediately ordered all the soldiers in the capital to assemble.

Zhu Yuanzhang deployed about 300,000 troops around the city of Nanjing.

This army is also composed of soldiers from the Beijing Camp. Unlike the soldiers from the garrisons, they have high salaries, are not engaged in production, are only responsible for training, and are all elite soldiers who have experienced many battles.

Anyway, when Zhu Yuanzhang looked at this army, he often wondered how Zhu Yunwen was defeated by the army he left behind.

Of these 300,000 soldiers, about 100,000 were in the city, and the rest were scattered around Nanjing.

Li Wenzhong gathered 100,000 troops in the city.

As the summons were sounded by trumpets, gongs and drums, teams of soldiers began to trot into the parade ground and quickly began to form square formations.

What does it mean to have 100,000 soldiers standing there?
Anyway, Zhu Yunfeng stood on the built wooden platform and looked over, and saw an endless sea of ​​people with no end in sight.

Fortunately, the training ground is big enough.

Because the Beijing Camp was stationed in the northwest of Jinling City, which is the Gulou District of Nanjing City in later generations, it was not only the stationing place of the Beijing Camp infantry, but also the stationing place of the Ming Army cavalry.

Cavalry requires a large enough area to sustain the horses' daily running to ensure their endurance, so from south to north, in all directions, there are training grounds within a radius of two or three square kilometers.

The parade ground is so large that, let alone if 100,000 people were lined up together to form a square formation, even if they were a little bit apart, with one person standing per square meter, they would only occupy one twentieth of the parade ground.

When arranging the square formation, Li Wenzhong walked to the high platform, glanced below, looked around with a majestic gaze, and waited quietly for the soldiers on the parade ground to quickly line up.

Soon, under the command of many middle and lower-level officers such as small flags, general flags, and centurions, the Ming army soldiers formed neat and uniform square formations.

They all wore the same red thick jacket of the Ming army on their upper body, with mountain-patterned armor on the outside, a red military cap on their head, iron mesh skirt and mesh pants on their lower body, and cotton shoes.

The cavalry wore double-breasted shirts, helmets on their heads, later commonly known as flying saucer hats, breastplates, and rode their horses to form formations.

Most of the soldiers still wore swords, and some carried spears. Only the 30,000 people standing opposite the center of the parade ground were dressed like ordinary soldiers, but with swords on their swords and rifles on their backs.

This is the Shenjiying Camp established by Zhu Di last year. The weapon used is a bolt-action rifle blueprint that Zhu Di found on the Internet, which is an imitation of the Mauser rifle used by Germany during World War I.

Thanks to the precise drawings and the fact that the early Mauser rifle was relatively simple in design and was based on the French Chassepeau breech-loading rifle, Zhu Di only took a few days to make a sample.

After a period of adjustment, the sample was confirmed to have passed the test firing. After no problems occurred during multiple shooting tests, it was officially put into production.

Compared with the high-precision automatic rifles of later generations, this bolt-action rifle is much easier to make than firearms like the AK. It does not require so many precision parts and the production speed is also very fast. In one year, more than 80,000 rifles have been produced.

At present, it is mainly equipped in the Shenji Battalion and the Jinyiwei troops. The Shenji Battalion has one for each soldier, while the Jinyiwei only has one for soldiers above the small flag level. It can be regarded as a force used for local governance.

Once the production capacity is further increased next year, it is expected that the entire army will be equipped the year after next.

The Shenji Battalion implemented a strict bullet separation system. At this moment, all of them were carrying rifles, standing straight, looking towards the platform, waiting for Li Wenzhong to speak.

Li Wenzhong saw that everyone below was standing in place. He waited for about five seconds before speaking, "Everyone is standing in place."

"Later, His Majesty will speak to you. Everyone, please remember that when the red flag is raised, you should applaud. What does applauding mean?"

As he spoke, he stretched out his hands diagonally, forming a cross and clapping them up and down, saying, "That's it!"

The sound of applause spread throughout the entire school ground.

The soldiers on the parade ground looked around and had already noticed that the sound came from a black wooden box not far away.

Everyone had a curious expression on their face, but everyone held back and stood upright, their eyes quickly moving away from the black wooden box and looking intently at the platform.

"Raise the flag!"

Li Wenzhong shouted.

A red flag was raised on the platform below.

"Clap clap clap clap!"

All the soldiers began to applaud, and the first round of applause was thunderous.

of course.

There were also some who were just filling in the numbers - the spearmen.

During the Hongwu period, soldiers were divided into three types: infantry, cavalry and navy.

Among the infantry, there are archers, spearmen and swordsmen.

Although it can be further divided into several types of troops.

For example, archers include archers and crossbowmen, and swordsmen include long sword soldiers, short sword soldiers, hook and sickle sword soldiers, etc.

But whether it is an archer or a swordsman, the weapon can be carried on the back.

Only the spearmen were very embarrassed. They could only hold the spear with their right hand and pat the back of their hand with their left hand to indicate action.

With only 100,000 people, it's already pretty good to have everything in order like this.

Li Wenzhong nodded with a little satisfaction and said, "When the yellow flag is raised, you should shout "Long live" three times. Remember the idiom! Applaud the red flag, and long live the yellow flag!"

"Raise the flag!"

As Li Wenzhong shouted, yellow flags were raised below the stage, and the crowds below immediately shouted, "Long live! Long live! Long live!"

They are very skilled at this.

Because since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, whether it was to congratulate the king, or when going to war or the army returned victoriously, people would shout "Long live the king".

The Ming army was no exception, so the shouts of "Long live the army" from below were one wave higher than the other, like a tsunami, rushing towards them. This was the first time Zhu Yunfeng had seen such a spectacular sight. He had only seen other countries' military parades from videos before, but now he was shocked to see it with his own eyes.

At the same time, he was also impressed by the neat military appearance, majestic formation, and magnificent momentum of the Ming army.

But if you think about it carefully, it is normal. After all, this team is not the Ming army that was owed wages in the late Ming Dynasty, but the army during the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty.

The founding armies are often very powerful, having emerged from mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Naturally, their momentum is qualitatively different from that of ordinary armies.

"it is good!"

After shouting "Long live" three times, Li Wenzhong said, "Stand up now!"

At his command, the whole army stood up.

Li Wenzhong still stood still, looking down with a dignified gaze.

Time just passed by one minute after another.

About a quarter of an hour later, a carriage surrounded by the Royal Guards slowly drove into the parade ground and stopped under the platform.

Then Li Wenzhong said, "Gentlemen, His Majesty is going to take you to war again. We are going to fight against the barbarians in Peking. I want to ask you a question: are you afraid?"

"Not afraid!"

First someone below shouted, and then the crowd responded by shouting one after another.

Li Wenzhong laughed and said, "I am not afraid either. Why not? Because I will not die. I have guns and cannons. I don't need to fight the barbarians too closely. They will die if they are a few miles away. It is the barbarians that we should be afraid of."

After he finished speaking, he asked again: "Now I want to ask you again, are you full? Are you warm? Are the monthly food and rewards sent back home?"

"Eat well, dress warmly, and send them home."

At first there were maybe a few thousand people shouting, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands. Although the shouting was not in unison and could not be heard clearly, the sound was loud, as if everyone in the city could hear it.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who had just arrived, stood backstage on one side, waiting for Li Wenzhong to finish speaking first. He listened to what was said outside with a smile on his face, then lowered his head to look at the speech given by Ji He.

"What's that about?"

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said, "Xiao Ji, you want me to go on stage and say this?"

Just now, Zhu Yunfeng only had time to write to Li Wenzhong, but not to Zhu Yuanzhang. Ji He had no choice but to say, "Grandfather, I don't understand the vernacular of the Ming Dynasty. This is probably the meaning."

"Okay, I get it."

Zhu Yuanzhang also realized that he might embarrass Ji He, so he said, "I know what's going on."

Li Wenzhong on the stage mobilized the soldiers' emotions with just a few words.

The soldiers below thought that since the beginning of this year, they had enough food to eat, warm clothes to wear, and the rewards were much more than usual. They sent all the money back home, and their families were all well supported. Happy smiles appeared on their faces.

In ancient society, soldiers served only to have enough food. If you talked about ideals, life, and big promises with the soldiers, you would be scolded by them, and they might even rebel against you.

The most typical example is Zhao Guangyi. It took him four or five months to conquer the Northern Han. The soldiers suffered heavy casualties and the morale of the army was very exhausted.

If we reward them for their contribution in destroying Northern Han and allow them to rest for a while, it will surely boost the morale of the army.

As a result, this guy refused to reward him at all and immediately led his troops north to attack the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

When the soldiers saw this situation, and were exhausted from days of fighting, they were immediately disheartened, their morale plummeted, and their war-weariness grew. As a result, they suffered a great defeat at Gaoliang River, forcing Zhao Guangyi to flee on a donkey cart.

So it is only natural that soldiers should eat food. Otherwise, if soldiers can't even get enough food, why would they fight for you?

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang relied on modern developed productivity, increased grain production, and used silver dollars as currency, which led to a leap in the strength of the Ming Dynasty. With money and food, he could naturally treat his soldiers well.

Therefore, the soldiers were naturally happy when asked by Li Wenzhong.

Then Li Wenzhong continued, "Do you know why you can have enough food to eat, warm clothes to wear, and silver dollars in your hands now?"

"It's your Majesty!"

Some clever ones immediately shouted: "It is your Majesty who has given us enough food to eat, warm clothes to wear, and silver dollars to pocket."

Li Wenzhong took a closer look and saw that it was Song Ye, the son of Song Chaokai, a founding general and the current commander of the Right Guard of Cavalry. He thought to himself that this kid was smart and he should be promoted in the future.

"It's your Majesty! Long live your Majesty, long live your Majesty!"

As the first person shouted, the rest of the people followed suit. Before the yellow flag was even put up, people below were already shouting "Long live the flag".

Li Wenzhong nodded with satisfaction. After waiting for a long time, when the cheers ended, he said, "No, it's because your Majesty governs the country well, and the weather is favorable. You are kind and love us soldiers and the people. You think about whether we eat well and wear warm clothes. When there is food, you think about giving it to us first. When there is money, you think about rewarding us first. Sometimes I also think that it is God who gave us your Majesty. Let your Majesty lead us to drive out the barbarians and not be slaves of the Khitan master. Your Majesty's kindness, I will never be able to repay it in this lifetime."

"Your Majesty's grace! Long live His Majesty!"

Song Ye shouted again.

"Long live your Majesty!"

Then there was another shout from below.

Later, Ji He was confused and asked Zhu Yunfeng, "Why did Lao Li say Khitan master and slave?"

Zhu Yunfeng rolled his eyes at him and said, "I want you to read more history books, and you should read the emperor's uncle. During the Yuan Dynasty, the Han people called the Mongols Khitans, and "Lao Ye" was the respectful title that Han slaves used to address the Semu and Mongolian nobles. Slaves have been called Han slaves enslaved by the Hu people since the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China, and this is not something that only started during the Qing Dynasty."

"Oh."

Ji He suddenly realized that he really didn't understand these little historical details.

"Please listen to His Majesty's instructions."

When Li Wenzhong saw Zhu Yuanzhang waving at him backstage, he knew that Zhu Yuanzhang was about to go on stage, so he hurried down and nodded to the flag bearer below.

The flag bearer then raised the red flag.

"Clap clap clap clap!"

There was thunderous applause for a moment.

Zhu Yuanzhang walked slowly onto the stage.

There are three microphones on the podium.

He walked to the stage, placed his hands on the podium, and looked down first.

The applause lasted for a long time, and it took a full minute before it gradually stopped.

He said softly, "Gentlemen, I came from humble beginnings as a commoner and won the world. Do you know why I won the world and not others?"

There was silence below.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked around, overlooking the 100,000-man army, and continued: "Because I love my soldiers, they died for me."

"A few years ago, Peng Youwen, the commander of the Pingyang Garrison, withheld two months' worth of military rations, causing more than a hundred soldiers to starve to death. I hated him so much that I ordered a hundred soldiers to stab him to death with guns."

"Why dare you kill him like this?"

"Since he has no mercy on the little soldier, how can I be merciful to him? If I don't kill him, what crime will I be guilty of if the 100 people starve to death?"

"Sometimes I also think, how wonderful it would be if there were no wars in the world. Soldiers wouldn't have to fight and die on the battlefield."

"But the barbarians are still marching south, and the Khitan masters are still trying to keep me as a slave."

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed to the north and shouted, "They want to take me as a slave, but I won't agree! My brave soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, do you agree or not?"

"No!"

Suddenly someone shouted.

When the others saw Song Ye's cleverness, they were immediately prepared and there was a lot of noise for a while.

"it is good!"

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said, "My soldiers, we must never forget that the territory of the Ming Dynasty was won by countless soldiers fighting bloody battles. Whoever dares to covet the territory of the Ming Dynasty and oppress the people of the Ming Dynasty will be annihilated! This time, I will lead you to the north to kill all the barbarians, so that your families will not be bullied by them, and the people of the Ming Dynasty will not be bullied by them. Now, pick up your swords and guns, and shout with me, Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

"Long live the Ming Dynasty!"

Before the yellow flag was even raised, the soldiers below were already roaring like a tsunami. Everyone raised their weapons high, their excitement difficult to conceal, and they kept shouting. Their morale seemed to have soared into the sky!
(End of this chapter)