Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 195 Returning to Hongwu for the New Year

In early December of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, the bandits fled to Henan.

Young Zhu Di began to pursue.

He only brought 1,500 men with him, but his baggage train, civilian laborers and auxiliary soldiers numbered over 10,000.

This strategy successfully tricked Li Zicheng.

After Li Zicheng discovered that the enemy had few men, a large amount of baggage, and was even out of touch with the baggage train, he immediately sent Liu Zongmin to lead the cavalry to launch a surprise attack from behind.

In the Battle of Ruzhou, Sun Chuanting was actually defeated by this move, because heavy rain allowed Li Zicheng to successfully rob food.

However, Zhu Di's strategy was to repair the plank road in the open while secretly attacking Chencang.

On the surface, he was pursuing the main force, but in fact, the baggage train was just a bait, waiting for Li Zicheng to arrive.

He led a thousand men to the front, and hid five hundred men in the baggage train at the rear. When Liu Zongmin came over, they launched a surprise attack and defeated Li Zicheng's cavalry.

Liu Zongmin was killed by AK on the spot, and Li Zicheng's cavalry troops of tens of thousands were defeated.

Afterwards, the young Zhu Di led a thousand cavalrymen to the outside of Shangqiu City. Since the artillery was in the baggage train at the rear, he bombarded the city with mortars and broke down the city gate.

Then they suppressed the enemy with AK and grenades and quickly rushed into the city, defeated Li Zicheng's troops again and captured Shangqiu City.

However, Li Zicheng had more horses and cavalry.

Although they were defeated, many people fled before Zhu Di bombarded the city. His troops were stationed outside the city, and they immediately broke camp and fled as soon as the city was broken.

Therefore, apart from the loss of more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, the main force was barely preserved.

But it was already very embarrassing.

Because of the Battle of Tongguan, the number of Li Zicheng's soldiers was reduced by nearly half, and now he has lost more than 10,000. His strength has directly regressed to the level of Zhang Xianzhong and Zuo Liangyu.

There are only about 30,000 to 40,000 actual combat soldiers, and they have to carry hundreds of thousands of elderly, weak, women and children. The situation is not optimistic.

So he had no choice but to continue fleeing to the southeast.

His escape to the southeast obviously caused panic in Nanjing. Many officials in Nanjing wrote to Chongzhen, requesting Sun Chuanting, Lu Daqi and Zuo Liangyu to come and defend Nanjing immediately.

This was naturally exactly what Zhu wanted.

Because he also wanted to go to Nanjing, return to his loyal city of Nanjing.

Therefore, during this period, many talented people gathered in Nanjing City.

In mid-December, Chongzhen in Beijing also ordered Sun Chuanting to immediately leave Shaanxi to pursue Li Zicheng's troops.

At the same time, he gave orders to Zuo Liangyu and Lu Daqi.

At this time, he had no idea that the South had been controlled by Zhu.

First, the information was complicated, and most officials chose to keep it secret from Zhu. Rumors can make a person lose his temper, so even if a small number of officials sent secret reports, it would be of no use.

Secondly, he did not believe at all that the Ming Taizu had descended to the earth, and thought that he was just some ignorant traitor. So he thought that the South was spreading rumors, so he ignored it.

Under such circumstances, several forces formed a strange situation.

The Manchu Tartars in the north were caught up in an internal power struggle due to the death of Huang Taiji and had no time to look south.

The grass on Zhang Xianzhong's grave was three feet high, and Li Zicheng was chased into a miserable state.

Chongzhen still thought that Lu Daqi and Zuo Liangyu had defeated Zhang Xianzhong, Sun Chuanting had defeated Li Zicheng, and the domestic situation was gradually improving.

Even some time ago, he was still praising Sun Chuanting and Lu Daqi for their good work, but he didn't know that someone was carrying the burden for him.

The result is that all three forces are confused.

The Manchu Tartars did not know that their death was approaching, Li Zicheng did not know where the Ming army's experts came from, and Chongzhen did not know that he would be slapped in the face in the future.

This fourth force is obviously very powerful, but no one knows about it. It is a strange thing.

And for Lao Zhu, this is also a good thing.

Now, Huguang and Sichuan in the south have submitted to him, and only Guangdong, Yunnan, Fujian, Guizhou, Zhejiang and Jiangsu have not yet submitted.

Once the entire South has submitted, it will be time to announce it to the world.

However, it is not difficult to recover these areas. Except for Jiangsu, these areas were basically conquered by issuing edicts in ancient times.

The real battlegrounds are mainly Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong and other places.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Fujian, Zhejiang and other places can basically be easily conquered by taking over Sichuan, Huguang and Jiangsu.

Therefore, Lao Zhu was not too worried.

In mid-December, Lao Zhu also left Chengdu by boat almost at the same time.

The reason why we didn't take the boat before was to ensure his safety.

Now Zhu can be said to be the hope of the Ming Dynasty. There is Zhu Biao in the Hongwu Dynasty, so it doesn’t matter if he dies.

But the late Ming Dynasty still needed Zhu's personal power.

Young Zhu Di was too young. Unless we went to the Yongle Dynasty and brought over the elder Zhu Di, he might not be able to win the support of the people.

So for safety reasons, traveling by land is the best option.

The reason why we are taking the boat now is that when Zhu Yunfeng went to Changsha to take Sun Chuanting to the Hongwu Dynasty, he took Zhu's safety into consideration and brought a batch of hovercrafts and life jackets.

These supplies were transported to Chengdu by Li Qiande using large ships via the Xiangjiang River and then the Yangtze River.

Lao Zhu walks slowly by land, and it is just as slow going upstream.

Basically, Lao Zhu had been in Sichuan for about a month and had stayed in Chengdu for seven or eight days before being sent to the destination.

With these air mattresses and life jackets, safety can be guaranteed.

After all, since ancient times, there have been countless ship capsizings on the Yangtze River freight route. If you are not careful, the ship may capsize and people may die.

The boat ride to Chengdu is slow, but the boat ride out of Sichuan is extremely fast.

Rowing against the current means traveling four to five kilometers per hour.

Going east along the river, the speed can be as slow as 20 to 30 kilometers per hour, or as fast as over 40 kilometers per hour. It is possible to reach Jiangling City from Baidi in one day.

In just a few days, about a thousand kilometers, and in just six days, Lao Zhu reached Yueyang from Chengdu.

The ship turned south again and headed towards Changsha along the Xiangjiang River.

In late December, after spending more than a month in Sichuan, Lao Zhu returned to Changsha.

It was late winter and the year was drawing to a close, and the city of Changsha was bustling with activity.

In the twelfth month of this year, there was heavy snowfall in the north. The southern region was also snowing due to the influence of the Little Ice Age, but the snow was not that heavy.

Except for some mountainous areas with higher altitudes, other places in Hunan have light snow, while Changsha has moderate snow.

The snow was rustling and the banks of the Xiangjiang River were covered in snow. The snow was about two or three centimeters thick, which was definitely not comparable to the snow in the north, especially in the northeast, which was two or three meters or even half a meter thick. But for the southerners, it was naturally a rare sight.

The fleet slowly sailed into Changsha Wharf. There was a lot of traffic outside the cargo gate and a large number of dock workers were moving goods.

Since the new Changsha prefect had not yet arrived, Changsha Tongpan Zhou Ernan took on the task of governance. However, Xu Da was in charge and he was also good at internal affairs, and he governed Hunan in an orderly manner.

In the past few months alone, a large number of refugees have poured into Changsha. The world is in chaos now and it certainly cannot support trade, so they use modern resources to reclaim land and repair water conservancy facilities.

At the same time, he hired civilians to transport supplies from modern times to Hubei in preparation for Zhu's conquest of the world. Changsha gradually regained a certain degree of prosperity.

The yellowing branches of the willows along the riverbank were swaying, their leaves had all fallen off, leaving only dry, withered branches swaying in the wind.

Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He were like two kids, holding two convenient branches in their hands. They were bored and poked each other and gestured, as if they didn't care about the heavy snow in the middle of winter at all.

Old Zhu came down from the bow of the boat and was greeted by Changsha officials led by Xu Da and others.

"His Majesty!"

Xu Da bowed and saluted.

Only Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He elbowed their way into the crowd and shouted excitedly, "Ancestor."

Old Zhu got off the boat. He had no idea what to do with these two guys. He put his hands behind his back and said unhappily, "You are already 30 years old, but you are still so disrespectful that you don't even have a wife."

What he was most dissatisfied with was that Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He were not married yet.

"Hee hee hee."

Zhu Yunfeng came over with a playful smile, patted Old Zhu's shoulder and said, "Aren't we accompanying you, the ancestor, to conquer the world?"

Old Zhu walked forward slowly, and Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He followed behind him. Only the two of them could follow Old Zhu closely, even almost side by side. The others were at least two or three meters away, walking cautiously.

Ji He looked around and said, "It snows a lot this year."

"This snow is really a disaster year."

Lao Zhu shook his head.

"Anyway, it rarely snows in Hunan in winter, and everyone is looking forward to it, especially in Guangdong, where the temperature is over 20 degrees in winter, which is so hot that people can die."

Zhu Yunfeng couldn't help but scoop up a handful of snow on the ground and rub it.

People in the south tend to make a fuss when they see snow. Even though there will be snow in the mountains even if it doesn't snow in the town, playing in the snow alone in the mountains is different from playing casually outside.

"Why are there still people looking forward to snow?"

Old Zhu said it casually, but he quickly reacted and looked around the city. Although there have been great changes, there are still many poor people in ragged clothes and tattered cotton jackets trying to make a living. He sighed and said, "Yes, in the future, when the country is strong, the snow will not matter no matter how cold it is. But in the Ming Dynasty, a heavy snow, a rainstorm, a flood, a drought, are all death warrants for the dynasty. The south is already like this, I really don't know what will happen in the north, how many people will freeze to death this year."

When he said this, Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He looked at each other and fell silent, their expressions no longer as relaxed as before.

It has been so long in later generations that we have forgotten the sufferings of the ancient times.

Or it could be said that most of the time they don't have much sense of responsibility, and think that these things have nothing to do with them, and they just need to live happily.

Suddenly someone enlightened me and I realized how huge the disparity in this world is.

After a while, Zhu Yunfeng scratched his head and said, "Forget it. I'll work overtime this year and bring some more cotton-padded clothes, quilts and food. Governing the world is a political matter. I'm definitely not as good as you, my ancestor, as a keyboard warrior. But it's no problem to bring some things."

Ji He also said: "I remember there are still a lot of raw materials in the warehouse. We can transport them to Changsha and set up a textile factory in Changsha. This can also solve employment problems and promote business. What do you think?"

"Ha ha ha ha."

Old Zhu laughed and said, "It's good that you have this intention. In troubled times, people are worse than dogs. If you want to live a peaceful life, these quilts and cotton clothes alone will not work. You also need peace in the world."

As he spoke, he shook his head again, looked up at the snowflakes flying in the sky, and muttered to himself: "Let the people of the late Ming Dynasty be patient and wait a little longer, it will be over soon."

He will definitely go back to spend the New Year with Empress Ma and others, and after the New Year he will have to come to the end of Ming Dynasty to continue his battles.

However, Nanjing will be conquered by next spring.

In this way, the entire south will be under his control, and he can then send troops northward to pacify the Central Plains. Wherever he goes, the people will surrender. He can then take Beijing, slap that kid Chongzhen a few times, kill the parasites in the capital, and then he will have the Qing Dynasty outside the Great Wall.

By then, the world will be peaceful. The population will grow explosively in the late Ming Dynasty. If provided with abundant seeds and fertilizers, a new era of prosperity will soon come.

The team entered Changsha City and went all the way to Prince Ji's Palace.

Old Zhu was very satisfied with the great changes that Changsha had seen in just three months.

When September just arrived at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Changsha was already so depressed that there were almost no people to be seen on the streets.

Nowadays, you can at least see a lot of people, and there are even many shops on the streets. The signs are swaying in the wind, and peddlers on the streets are shouting in clear voices.

Prince Ji's Palace remains the same as before and has not been renovated. Only the old site remains.

Prince Ji Zhu Youdong has not returned yet.

Because after Zhang Xianzhong attacked Hunan, this guy fled to Nanjing and then to Beijing.

Historically, just as he fled to Hebei, Li Zicheng captured Beijing. Zhu Youdong had to flee south to Nanjing again and died of illness in Huai'an in June of the 17th year of Chongzhen.

So Zhu Youdong should still be in Nanjing at this time, or has already left for Beijing.

There have been big changes in the warehouse.

More than ten large warehouses have been built around, still using iron sheds, covering an estimated area of ​​seven or eight acres. At first glance, they look like factory buildings, with mountains of materials piled up inside.

"How's it going, old ancestor? You didn't eat dry rice, did you?"

Zhu Yunfeng pointed to the warehouse in the distance and said proudly, "When you were away, Chichi and I worked overtime and didn't dare to delay for a moment. I didn't calculate the exact number of tons, but I estimate that there must be hundreds of thousands of tons, most of which are food. It is not a problem to feed millions of people."

Two people moved hundreds of thousands of tons of goods. This was the result of Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He's work over the past few months.

Fortunately, it is a fully mechanized operation.

Trucks carrying hundreds of tons of cargo were unloading at the warehouse outside, and workers were putting the goods into the warehouse.

Zhu Yunfeng and Ji He drove a forklift, which could load 20 tons at a time onto the conveyor belt, and could produce several thousand tons a day.

"very good."

Old Zhu nodded with satisfaction, smiled and patted Zhu Yunfeng on the shoulder and said, "You did a good job this time. Now that you are back in Hongwu, tell me what you want."

"What are you saying? In the Hongwu Dynasty, do I need to tell you what I want? I can just tell my grandmother."

Zhu Yunfeng curled his lips and said, "I'll be thankful if you don't urge me to get married."

"You still have to get married. It will be next year at the latest. I will assign you a marriage partner next year."

Old Zhu squinted at him and said, "You can't run away. A man should build a family and career. It's shameful for a man in his 30s to still not get married."

Zhu Yunfeng's face suddenly turned bitter.

Run to the end of Ming Dynasty.

Still can't escape the fate of being urged to get married.

(End of this chapter)