Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 183 Zhu Youjian is ecstatic
You can take the stone tablet with you without any worries.

Although the stone tablet must be at a fixed spatial node, the warehouse in Prince Ji’s Mansion is of utmost importance.

But the stone tablet and the space node must be combined in order to travel back and forth, and losing either one will not work.

If the stone tablet was left in its original place, someone might sneak back and move the stone tablet over there, and Zhu and his companions would be trapped in the late Ming Dynasty.

But if we take the stone tablet away and leave a thousand men to guard Prince Ji's Palace, and the space node cannot be destroyed, we can rest assured.

After more than 20 days of transportation, Zhu Yunfeng and his men have brought over tens of thousands of tons of supplies, including countless amounts of food, weapons, and ammunition of all kinds, piled up like mountains, enough to support Zhu in fighting.

So with sufficient supplies and the stone tablet with me, I no longer need to worry about the restrictions of the stone tablet and can leave Changsha and go to a wider world.

After all, one or two people can rebel, but a thousand people guarding Prince Ji’s Palace cannot rebel together.

Even if they rebelled, they would not be able to destroy the space nodes.

Therefore, Mr. Zhu was indeed very thoughtful.

soon.

The next day, Tang He led a thousand people to set out first.

On the third day, when Xu Da had not yet returned to Changsha, Zhu Yuanzhang led the remaining men north.

At present, his troops totaled 5,500 people. Young Zhu Di led 800, Xu Da led 1,000, Tang He led 1,000, and Feng Sheng and Fu Youde led 800 in Xiangyin.

Old Zhu has about two thousand people around him.

In addition, they hired more than 100,000 civilian laborers and auxiliary soldiers to transport supplies.

Just to serve these two thousand people, a transport force of more than 100,000 people stretched for more than ten miles, pushing tricycles and horse-drawn carriages, carrying all kinds of food, tents, weapons, ammunition and other supplies, and marched northward in a mighty manner.

Two days later, they passed Xiangyin and headed towards Yueyang.

It was already October 15th of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen. It was not until today that Emperor Chongzhen, who was far away in Beijing, learned that Zhu Yuanzhang had appeared in the south.

It was afternoon in the Forbidden City in Beijing. Zhu Youjian, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was reviewing memorials from all over the country in his study in the Qianqing Palace.

It has to be said that Chongzhen was a bit incompetent, but his diligence was comparable to that of Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang slept about six hours a day, and Chongzhen was about the same.

He had to go to court almost at dawn. There were only two things that happened in the court. One was the censors quarreling and impeaching this and that.

The second is to ask for money.

Today, a court official wrote to me, "Your Majesty, Henan is suffering from a severe drought. The people have eaten up all the tree bark and grass roots. Please allocate funds for disaster relief."

The next day, the court officials wrote again, "Your Majesty, Li Zicheng is preparing to attack Shaanxi, and Sun Chuanting has no more money to suppress the bandits. Please allocate military funds to suppress the rebellion."

The next day, the court officials wrote again, "Your Majesty, there is a locust plague in Shandong. The locusts have eaten up all the crops. The people are starving to the point of cannibalism. Disaster relief must be provided as soon as possible. Please allocate funds to save the victims."

The court officials of the Empress Dowager continued to write, "Your Majesty, the Jiannu are raiding the border again. Liaodong needs military pay, at least three million taels. Please increase the Liaoxiang."

After the morning court meeting was over, Chongzhen had a rare time at noon. He would go to the harem to pay his respects to his sister-in-law, Empress Zhang, and then have a meal with Empress Zhou and his eldest son Zhu Cilang.

After dinner, he would sometimes take a nap, and sometimes review memorials in his study.

In the afternoon, he met with court officials, such as Zhou Yanru, Chen Yan, Jiang Dejing, Huang Jingfang, Wu Shen, Wei Zaode, Li Jiantai, Fang Yuegong and other cabinet ministers to discuss state affairs.

He continued to review memorials at night, often working until midnight, which was 11 o'clock at night, and then got up at four or five in the morning to continue working.

Looks very hardworking.

But it's of no use.

The Ming Dynasty will eventually be destroyed.

Due to the corruption of state affairs, disasters have occurred across the country, and bad news has come one after another in the past few days.

For example, Sun Chuanting was defeated in Ruzhou, Zhang Xianzhong invaded Hunan, carbuncle broke out in Beijing, plague broke out in Tianjin, and North China, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Shandong suffered from continuous drought and locust plagues.

There were also the Lirenhui and Zhidaohui uprisings in Macheng, the Baitou Army uprising in Dongyang, and the Tianshun Army uprising in Dongkou. Chongzhen was so busy with all these things that he had no time to take a lunch break.

This afternoon he was looking into the epidemic in Beijing and Tianjin, which has caused the deaths of a large number of people. Now the capital is in a panic, and many people, even high-ranking officials and dignitaries, dare not go out and can only stay at home.

"Ugh."

After reading the memorial, Zhu Youjian sighed and rubbed his temples, feeling as if all his energy had been drained from his body.

The country was in a period of great chaos, and the turbulent times had drained away his energy, making him like a puppet.

But there was endless fighting within the court.

Even if the Donglin Party was eliminated, the newly appointed cabinet members would either continue to exclude dissidents and suppress political opponents, or be like clay statues of Buddhas and do nothing.

No one could help him solve the problem or suggest an effective solution.

This made Zhu Youjian exhausted.

At this time, Wang Chengen, the chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, came in with a memorial in his arms. He bowed slightly and said, "Your Majesty, General Zuo Liangyu, the General who Suppresses Bandits, and Lü Daqi, the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War, have written to us."

"bring here."

Thirty-three-year-old Zhu Youjian raised his head.

Although his face is young, his brows are full of fatigue and sorrow.

He didn't know whether the news in Zuo Liangyu and Lu Daqi's letter was good news or bad news, but he had to be hopeful.

Wang Chengen placed the two memorials respectfully on the table with both hands. Zhu Youjian opened the first memorial from Lu Daqi and frowned when he saw the memorial for the first time.

In his memorial, Lu Daqi said that there were bandits in Changsha who claimed to be the reincarnation of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, and that they had defeated Zhang Xianzhong's Sun Kewang's troops and occupied Changsha.

He had reached a consensus with Zuo Liangyu and planned to attack the rebels in Changsha from the east and north first, and then go south to attack Zhang Xianzhong who was in Hengyang.

Looking through Zuo Liangyu's memorial, the content is similar, except that he asked for daily military pay, he used the same excuse.

Zhu Youjian was very angry after reading it. He slammed the table and said, "The bandits nowadays are really lawless. They even dare to impersonate His Majesty Taizu. I really want to kill them all!"

Wang Chengen hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, calm down. Lu Gong is a man who knows the big picture. I think he will quickly wipe him out and send his head to the capital."

As the chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, all memorials had to go through the Imperial Household Department. Naturally, he knew the contents of the memorials and could also predict that Chongzhen would be very angry.

After all, impersonating Taizu was a big taboo, and to some extent it was even more unforgivable than Li Zicheng's rebellion.

"Ah."

Zhu Youjian nodded, and then said after he calmed down a little: "It is also good news. The bandits have defeated Sun Kewang, and Zhang Xianzhong lost an arm. I think it will be easier for Zuo Liangyu and Lu Daqi to fight against them."

After that, he thought for a moment, took out a blank document from the side, and wrote in person: "I will write them a reply letter, and I must do my best to wipe out Zhang Xianzhong."

Soon, Chongzhen wrote a letter of several hundred words to Zuo Liangyu and Lu Daqi. In the letter, he painted a rosy picture for the two of them, but could only avoid talking about their request for food and wages, saying that the country was in trouble and could not afford the wages, and hoped that they would raise money from the bandits and asked them to work harder.

no way.

Zhu Youjian has now even sold the antique paintings and calligraphy in the palace. The national treasury is now empty. He is reluctant to replace his own dragon robe when it is torn and can only patch it up. How can he provide them with money?
So they could only make empty promises and give him some kind of official title as a reward, such as appointing Zuo Liangyu as the Prince's Guardian, to appease this great military leader.

After writing the reply, Wang Chengen took it out and sent someone to deliver it to Zuo Liangyu and Lu Daqi.

at dusk.

Zhu Youjian had just dismissed the inner court and discussed state affairs with several cabinet ministers. He was about to return to his study to rest for a while and read some memorials.

Wang Chengen hurried in again, his face filled with joy as he said, "Your Majesty, great joy, great joy."

"what happened?"

Zhu Youjian asked hurriedly.

Wang Chengen didn't care about etiquette and held the document in his hand in front of Zhu Youjian and said, "It's a memorial from Shaanxi Governor Jin Yudong!"

"Let me take a look."

When Zhu Youjian took the memorial, he saw that Jin Yudong had written in it the news that Sun Chuanting had defeated Li Zicheng in Tongguan.

It is now October 15th. Nine days have passed since Sun Chuanting defeated Li Zicheng on October 6th.

Jin Yudong, as the governor of Shaanxi, was actually in Shanxi. Shaanxi was already in ruins at that time, so he went to Shanxi to recruit soldiers and try to get some money and food to send to Sun Chuanting.

As a result, when he learned the news of Sun Chuanting's great victory on the way, he immediately wrote a memorial to Zhu Youjian, so it was actually faster than Sun Chuanting's own memorial.

"Hahahahahaha."

Zhu Youjian saw the contents of the memorial and laughed, "Good, good, good, finally there is a happy event."

However, the memorial only said that Sun Chuanting defeated Li Zicheng, but did not write down the specific circumstances, so Zhu Youjian did not know that it was actually Zhu Di who was helping.

But this did not prevent him from promoting Sun Chuanting immediately.

Zhu Youjian immediately began writing again: "I must immediately reinstate Sun Chuanting. Now he is the only one who can eliminate the bandits."

"Congratulations, Your Majesty. Congratulations, Your Majesty. The commander-in-chief's memorial has not yet arrived, but I think Li Zicheng has been seriously injured."

Wang Chengen flattered: "It is only a matter of time before Li Zicheng is eliminated and peace is restored in the country."

"Yes."

Zhu Youjian's heavy mood seemed to be swept away, and he sighed: "Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong are traitors who bring disaster to the country and the people. Finally, we have a chance to eliminate them. I hope Sun Chuanting and Lu Daqi will try harder."

As he spoke, he handed the written document to Wang Chengen and said, "Hurry up and give it to Sun Chuanting immediately."

"Yes."

Wang Chengen immediately took the official document out and asked the Imperial Household Department to arrange for someone to send it to Shaanxi immediately.

When Zhu Youjian saw Wang Chengen go out, he let out a long sigh, leaned back on the dragon throne, and enjoyed this rare moment of happiness.

But less than half an hour later, Wang Chengen returned with an ecstatic expression on his face and said, "Your Majesty, the commander-in-chief's report has arrived. It is truly a great victory."

"Finally we're here."

Zhu Youjian immediately took the memorial and opened it to read.

Sun Chuanting's memorial was much more detailed than Jin Yudong's. It not only included the battle process, but also the damage inflicted on Li Zicheng.

In the Battle of Tongguan, in addition to killing or wounding more than half of Li Zicheng's troops, a large amount of supplies were also seized.

At that time, the young Zhu Di brought too few artillery shells, only more than a thousand, and not many bullets either. With one bullet for each soldier, there were basically less than 30,000 bullets.

These ammunitions were not enough to wipe out Li Zicheng's hundreds of thousands of troops.

But the heavy blow was still easy.

Basically, the 800 people brought by young Zhu Di were fighting in the front, while the more than 10,000 Tongguan Ming troops behind them were picking up things in the back.

How rich is Li Zicheng now?

By plundering the wealth of Prince Fu's Mansion and Wan'an Wang Mansion, he possessed millions of taels of silver in a very short period of time, as well as countless other gold, silver, and jewelry, and mountains of food and fodder.

Although historical records do not record how much money and grain were obtained from the two palaces, there is a record that thousands of soldiers were sent to pull carts every day, and it took seven or eight days to empty the palace's wealth.

In addition, he tortured the rich and plundered the landlords, and the gentry and landlord class in the entire Henan region was wiped out. The baggage wagons stretched for hundreds of miles, with no end in sight.

After the Battle of Tongguan, all the baggage was seized by Sun Chuanting. The silver alone was at least two million taels, and the rest of the food and various military equipment were countless.

In the memorial, Sun Chuanting even stated that in addition to withholding one million taels as military expenses for expanding the army, he would take the remaining one million taels to the capital and hand them over to the emperor.

However, Sun Chuanting naturally did not dare to mention Zhu Di's situation in the memorial. He only said that the soldiers fought bravely to defend the city, repelled Li Zicheng's repeated attacks for several days, and took advantage of the darkness to raid Li Zicheng's camp, causing strife in the camp, and defeated the rebels in one fell swoop.

After seeing the battle report, Zhu Youjian excitedly stood up from his chair and walked back and forth in the study for several times. He was extremely excited and said, "Great, great, great, this is a great victory, a great victory."

"Mr. Bai Gu has lived up to my high expectations. He has lived up to my high expectations. Li Zicheng is seriously injured. Mr. Bai Gu must pursue the victory and he will surely be able to annihilate the rebels."

"That's great, that's great. I'll reward you, I'll reward you."

"Quick, confer the title of Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince, and confer the title of Imperial Concubine to Lord Bai Gu's wife!"

"And Lord Bai Gu's son. I remember he was a teacher in Baode County, and was later promoted to the head of Baode Prefecture. He was granted the title of... Yazhong Doctor, no, Jiayi Doctor!"

Zhu Youjian was so happy that he almost spoke incoherently.

The news of this great victory was so exciting that it greatly boosted his mood.

Because there has been no good news in recent years.

The Liaodong border was completely lost in the Battle of Songjin. The Jiannu attacked Beijing many times and even invaded Hebei and Shandong, threatening the heartland of the Central Plains.

Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were causing chaos everywhere in the mainland, and small-scale uprisings also occurred in other places.

There are also various natural disasters that never stop.

Perhaps the only good news is that Emperor Taiji of the Jiannu Empire died in August this year, and an internal power struggle broke out in the Jiannu Empire, leaving them no time to march south.

Now that the external threat has been temporarily eliminated, it will continue to threaten the security of the Ming Dynasty only after the internal power struggle within the Jiannu army ends.

The internal threats were gradually subsided, so how could Zhu Youjian not feel happy?

At this moment.

Zhu Youjian felt as if a mountain had been removed from his shoulders, and even the restraints seemed much lighter.

(End of this chapter)