Zhu Zhanji stood up with his long body, then knelt down on one knee and clenched his fists and said: "Sun Er implores the imperial grandfather to re-establish the Daning Dusi, Kaiping, Sanjiangcheng, Dongsheng, Weiyuwei, Weiyuanwei, Baichengzi Qianhusuo and other Monan guards, and choose a place along the nine sides to build a dock fort and a guard station in the Monan area, and compress the living space of the Tatars, Warat and other tribes. ”

Zhu Di frowned, he didn't expect Zhu Zhanji to suddenly mention this suggestion.

At this time, he also had the same feeling as Ji Gang and Yang Zhangde, this grandson's thinking was too active, and he couldn't grasp his true thoughts at all.

In the eighth year of Yongle, Zhu Di used troops against the Tatars for the first time, and at that time he abolished many guards outside the nine-sided Great Wall.

Zhu Zhanji knew that in the original history, after these guards were abolished, they were not built again.

Even during the period when Zhu Zhanji was in power, in order to guard Beiping, he abolished the last few important guards outside the Great Wall. Since then, the Great Wall is no longer owned by the Ming Dynasty, and Beiping has been directly exposed to the minions of foreign races, and there is no peace.

The so-called rule of Renxuan is nothing more than the praise of shameless literati, who are absolute sinners in Chinese history, and are not even comparable to the captured Yingzong Zhu Qizhen and the foolish Emperor Zhengde.

Zhu Di smiled: "Is Ji'er too worried, I have withdrawn the strength of these guards just to crusade against Warat, of course these guards will not be revoked." When the war is over, these guards will be reinstated. ”

Zhu Zhanji didn't know that Zhu Di thought like this, his understanding of history was only a little bit. But since this topic was mentioned, he did not expose his ignorance, asking: "What if the officers and soldiers suffer heavy losses?" When will these houses be reinstated? Do you have a detailed plan? Grandpa Huang's thoughts, can those sergeants know? Do the generals know? ”

Zhu Di stopped talking, because these were completely his intentions, and he would not let the people below know what he was thinking.

After a while, he said: "As long as the Mahamu clan is destroyed this time, and the guards of Kaiping, Xinghe, Ningxia, Gansu, Daning, and Liaodong are replaced, then the border will never be fine." ”

Zhu Zhanji nodded and said: "Of course, Warat has to fight, but you can't just want to destroy the other party, what if you can't destroy it?" It is easy to cut these houses, but it is difficult to replace. There is no such thing as a perfect plan, and any outcome needs to be considered. The emperor's insistence on dismantling the guard to enrich the crusading army will only make the soldiers think that the emperor wants to give up the guard, and in such a situation, those soldiers will not manage the guard with their hearts, and in the long run, it will be like a fictitious. People's hearts are scattered, people's hearts are difficult to gather, the emperor's grandfather is familiar with the art of war, has he forgotten this? ”

Zhu Di laughed, pointed at him and scolded with a smile: "Little monkey, if you don't get up yet, do you want me to help you up personally?" In the past ten years, no one has dared to point at my nose and say that I have done something wrong! ”

Zhu Zhanji immediately stood up and said with a smile: "Of course the imperial grandfather did nothing wrong, but the information of the superior cannot be blocked for everything. For such a decision related to foreign policy, it is necessary to let the people below know what the imperial grandfather is thinking, so that they will not be allowed to speculate and make some moves against the imperial grandfather's wishes. ”

Zhu Di hummed at this time, and introduced his plans and arrangements for the various guards in Monan to Zhu Zhanji.

From Zhu Yuanzhang to the Northern Yuan, he set up 17 guards and capitals in Monan, and also set up guards in the nomadic areas of the Northern Yuan.

By the Yongle period, these guards had expanded to more than 170 people, but now because of the station, most of them exist in name only.

Now Zhu Di has no intention of revoking the guard, he just wants to use these soldiers to fight, and then go back after the battle.

But in the end, due to many factors, except for a few near Beiping, all of these guards were abolished after his death.

Now with Zhu Zhanji's urging, he also agreed, no matter what the result of this battle is, when he returns to the army, it will be the time when the guard is restored.

After crossing the Yellow River, the army continued to march north, and while Zhu Zhanji was attending military meetings, Zhu Di often asked his opinion.

The ministers and generals of the various armies were a little unimpressed at first, only thinking that this was Zhu Di's intention to cultivate his grandson.

However, Zhu Zhanji deliberately began to gradually express himself in various affairs, and he also slowly attracted the attention of ministers and generals.

However, in order not to make himself the target of everyone at this stage, his performance can only be said to be above the passing line.

For example, Zhu Di is on his own body for the ethnic policy of the grassland, which is not to rob Zhu Zhanji of his credit, but to protect him.

The alliance flag system for the grassland is fine, but the system of reducing the number of people and the Confucian system of enlightenment are things that will be classified as tyranny in history and offend a large number of people.

Zhu Di arranged the things that offended people on himself, saying that it was his own opinion, and it would not have an impact on Zhu Zhanji's reputation.

No matter how much power Zhu Di has, no matter how rich experience Zhu Zhanji has from later generations, history books are always controlled by the literati, and the current literati can be said to be Confucianism.

No matter how good Zhu Di is, it is impossible to kill all the literati, wouldn't that be a national chaos.

So there are some things, even the emperor who is in power, can't do it.

Zhu Di is almost obedient to Zhu Zhanji now, but Zhu Zhanji needs to pay more attention to his position in front of power.

Zhu Di is old and strong, he attaches the same importance to power as Zhu Yuanzhang, even if he is willing to delegate power to Zhu Zhanji, he will not let Zhu Zhanji move his core power.

The so-called core power is the army and the government.

What I give you, you can want, I don't give it to you, you can't fight.

The struggle for power is also the main contradiction and reason why most of the princes did not die well in the ancient imperial era.

So even if he got Zhu Di's permission to participate in some national affairs and express his opinions, he was careful not to grab power.

What's more, he doesn't look down on the power that is now heavily constrained.

He was even more afraid that he would have to become a slave to power after falling into such complicated relationship disputes.

In addition, he has decided to start developing a foreign strategy in two years, and wants to start a new business outside the current imperial court. Therefore, not only did he not rush to strengthen his influence in the army and the imperial court, but he was somewhat evasive about not establishing personal relations with any officials.

This kind of behavior also makes Zhu Di like him more, a grandson who is capable and does not fight for power is a good grandson.

Otherwise, he will be like the prince, guarded and tabooed by him, and he will be beaten when he finds an opportunity.

When the army arrived in Jinan Province, they rested in Jinan Province. The sergeants on horseback and boats could stand it, but the sergeants on foot had been marching continuously for almost half a month, and they were already exhausted.

Five days later, the army set out again. This time, we arrived in Beiping City on February 15.

After the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown by Zhu Yuanzhang, less than 100,000 inhabitants remained in the Yuan capital.

During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, wealthy households from Shandong, Hebei and other places moved to fill Beiping, and after decades of development, the population of Beiping will reach 200,000.

In the original history, Zhu Di moved the capital to Beiping, another large-scale immigration, in the sixteenth year of Yongle, the population exceeded 500,000, and in the Zhu Zhanji period, the population exceeded Nanjing, reaching 1 million.

Nanjing's population of 1.2 million has grown to less than 900,000.

But now, Beiping is just a companion capital, and the total population of the grassland has not exceeded 200,000.

However, as a result of this expedition, Beiping has now become a large military camp, where millions of people gather.

On the Beiping side, Zhu Gaosui, the king of Zhao, was the leader, and on the army side, the deputy general of the conquest and the Marquis of Anyuan, Liu Sheng, was the main leader, and hundreds of high-ranking generals arrived in Tongzhou from Beiping to meet them.

The whole welcome ceremony lasted a whole day, and the emperor's honor guard was welcomed into Beiping and stayed in Zhu Di's former Yanwang Mansion.

Zhu Zhanji was not impressed by Zhu Gaosui, the king of Zhao, and he had already been in Beiping very early. Over the years, I have returned to Yingtianfu a few times, and every time I meet Zhu Zhanji, I only meet a few times in public, and the uncle and nephew are also hello, hello, hello, everyone.

In history, the fiercely contested battle for the succession that has been described is simply an undercurrent.

This once made Zhu Zhanji a little disappointed, he thought he could watch a good show, but who knew that it would be so calm.

But if you think about it, you can understand that Zhu Di is a hero, and his throne is robbed of his nephew, how can he allow several sons to make trouble.

The history recorded by those literati said that Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaosui seized the heir, and exaggerated it greatly, but they just wanted to put gold on their bodies.

Because the prince is the object of their support, how can they show their merits if they don't write the other party well.

But in reality?

When Zhu Zhanji, the king of Zhao, Zhu Gaosui, directly bowed his head and proclaimed his ministers.

Even Zhu Gaoxu wanted to rebel against Zhu Zhanji, but as soon as Zhu Zhanji's army arrived, his men and horses immediately scattered, and there was not even a large-scale battle.

Therefore, the so-called succession, Zhu Gaoxu wants to be Zhu Di's second, which is not as powerful as described by the literati.

Zhu Zhanji was more interested in Liu Sheng, the world's first firearms army, the ancestor of the artillery unit.

In the eighth year of Yongle, Liu Sheng followed Zhu Di on his first northern expedition, and after arriving at Huiqujin, he led the Shenji battalion as the vanguard and defeated Arutai.

This was the first large-scale application of artillery and firearms in the Ming army.

The Tatars, though unstoppable with one man and three horses, bowed their heads under the power of artillery and firearms.

Liu Shengjin was made a marquis, and Galumi was 500 stones, and he was still a hereditary earl.

Subsequently, Zhu Di sent him to defend Ningxia, crusade against and kill the rebel general Feng Dalan Timur and others.

This time, he was recalled, the commander-in-chief of the Beijing battalion soldiers, and served as the general of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Zhu Zhanji was interested in him because he had a more effective gunpowder formula in his hands, but he had never had the opportunity to see the Shenji Battalion of the Ming Dynasty before, so he did not rashly take out better gunpowder.

If Zhu Di asked him where the gunpowder formula came from, he couldn't answer at all.

Therefore, even if there is a more effective gunpowder formula, he has to find a suitable opportunity to come up with it.

What's more, today's artillery, firearms and iron are not good. Increasing the power of gunpowder will only cause the firearm to explode, not increase the power of the firearm.

Before the development of better artillery, the importance of gunpowder formulations was not at the forefront.