Chapter 23 Preparation (I)

"There's no time!" Zhu Chongjiu sat in the command cabin of a northbound battleship, with a huge map in front of him. Gunzhou, Jining, Zhending, Yizhou, Dadu, Feihu Pass, Jingcheng Pass, the major cities and strategic places in Zhongshu Province are vividly visible.

If we follow the regional division of the time and space of Zhu Eighty-one in the later generations, the map in front of us basically includes the municipalities directly under the central government of Beijing, Hebei and Shanxi provinces, and even a part of the southeast of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, only Tianjin is temporarily ignored. Mengyuan's Zhigu City had just been established, and both the size of the city and its military strength were too weak to be mentioned.

Such a large area, according to his original prediction, will not be able to be taken under the rule of the Huaiyang Governor's Mansion until at least three years later. And it should be divided into several stages, step by step compression and nibbling, rather than swallowing a whale. For this reason, he even did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to lure the princes and nobles of the north to raise sheep and replace farmland with patches of pasture. When the Northern Expedition was launched, it dealt a fatal blow to Meng Yuan in terms of food supply.

It's just that they didn't expect that they didn't have the conditions for the Northern Expedition, but Tuhuan Timur's father and son competed to create conditions for themselves. The son joined forces with his wife to force the palace, and after the failure, he led the soldiers and horses away to Jining. When the father slashed and killed the Hou Party and the crown princeling figures who didn't have time to escape, and then handed over the government to Dingzhu. Wang Jianu, Sang Ge Lili and Li Siqi continued to hide in the deep palace to practice the secret method of "acting as a butterfly". After Dingzhu took power, he didn't want to stabilize the political situation, and the first thing he did was to give Totokh peace and Zhaoxue, and then ordered to investigate the Hama and Xuexue brothers who "persecuted" Totok to the end. As a result, Xue Xue was desperate, so she simply fled directly to Jiaozhou with a group of greedy soldiers and corrupt generals. Hama, on the other hand, went to Liaodong after going to sea from Zhigu, and was hired as the left minister by Aluhui Timur, who had just established himself as the emperor, and together with Aluhui Timur's household department Shangshu Yeluzhao, he was specially responsible for the affairs of Huaiyang (Note 1, Note 2) "Heaven gives a good opportunity to Dawu, if people do not take it, God will abandon it!" In the face of the Mengyuan Imperial Court, which was quickly divided into three, the officials and scholars under the Huaiyang Governor's Mansion immediately boiled. Even some of the world's high-ranking people, who had always refused to cooperate with the Great Governor's Office, have come forward in recent days and loudly called on Wu Gong to immediately wave his army to the Northern Expedition. In their opinion, the cannibalism of the Mengyuan royal family is definitely a sign of the end times. And at present, Huaiyang is the closest to Dadu, and it is also the most powerful to replace it!

The concepts of the government and the opposition have never been so unified since the establishment of the Huaiyang Grand Governor. The united efforts forced Lu Luzeng, Su Mingzhe, Luo Ben and others, who stayed in Yangzhou, to send a twist to Fujian with clippers and carrier pigeons one after another, asking the general manager to quickly give a clear decision. And Zhu Chongjiu, who has always dared to take risks, completely hesitated at this moment. He didn't know if what God had given him was a chance or a huge trap.

What he wants to do now is to establish a regime that is completely different from the past, rather than going to most of the capital and getting a vote and leaving. In his limited knowledge of history, there is more than one example of a rebel taking the capital in another time and space, but it ended in tragedy.

After Huang Chao conquered Chang'an, he established Daqi, and it only took two years to turn into a meteor. Li Zicheng entered Beijing for an even shorter period of time, from mid-March when Chongzhen was forced to die, and on April 26, when he was defeated and withdrew, he was only one month before and after. If the south is not stable and there are still tigers sleeping soundly next to the couch, the Huai'an army will rush to the north, Zhu Chongjiu is really not sure that he can stay in the capital for a few more days than Li Zicheng?

"What was the situation of Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition back then?!" After counting the failed examples, Zhu Chongjiu searched his stomach and searched for successful cases in the memory of another time and space. It's a pity that his history teacher "died" at a really bad time, about Zhu Yuanzhang's Northern Expedition, I only remember that it was after Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng were swept away. And when the Red Turban Army in the south was fighting, Mengyuan in the north seemed to be busy killing father and son, and there was no time to go south to reap the benefits!

In other words, in another time and space, God gave Zhu Chongba a hanging, so that he had time to calmly unify the south, and then gathered the country to go north. If you want to refer to Zhu Yuanzhang's successful way, the Huai'an army should definitely refuse the Northern Expedition. Immediately take out Zhang Shicheng, Peng Yingyu, Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Futong, and integrate all the red scarf forces into one place. and then compete with Meng Yuan. But then he Zhu Chongjiu is not God's illegitimate son, and he can't get the same treatment as Zhu Chongba in another time and space. By the time he finishes cleaning up Zhang Shicheng, Liu Futong and others, it is estimated that the turmoil in the north will have subsided long ago. The Northern Expedition will turn into an unprecedented gamble! Win, then China will be revived! If you lose, you will sink forever!

This gamble is too big, and Zhu Chongjiu easily does not dare to bet. And if you don't copy Zhu Yuanzhang's successful model in another time and space, I'm afraid the rest is the red road in northern Shaanxi. Zhu Chongjiu is very familiar with the history of that road, first going to the northeast, then the Central Plains, and Huaihai to completely solve the opponent's vital forces. Immediately, it was the million-strong division Chen Bing Changjiang, and the opponent was still busy changing the president and fighting for military power, and several major factions were fighting happily.

But before the red swept through China, people in northern Shaanxi had trained tens of thousands of cadres through Kang Da in advance. Therefore, every time a piece of land is laid, it can ignore the existence of the original local gentry and bureaucratic system, and directly issue government decrees to the lowest level of the whole society. And his Huaiyang University has just opened, and the talents recruited for several consecutive imperial examinations are only in their early 200s. It's not enough to stay in the local area yourself, so how can there be extra cadres to go north with the army?

After thinking about it, the answer is actually very clear. If you judge by reason, no matter from any angle, the time is definitely not ripe for the Northern Expedition at this moment. However, if he takes the initiative to give up this opportunity in front of him, it will inevitably deal a serious blow to Huaiyang's military and people's morale. After all, the general righteousness recognized by Huaiyang is to "expel the Tartars", and now the "Tartars" themselves have turned their butts, but you are unwilling to kick you in the back, don't you prove that your original slogan was not sincere!

"Lord, Liu Shumi asks to see!" Thinking about it backwards, Lian Guoxing, the commander of the guards platoon, pushed the door and walked closer, reporting in a low voice.

"Liu Shumi? Let him in! Zhu Chongjiu's train of thought was interrupted, and he couldn't help frowning. When did I say he wasn't allowed to come in! ”

"He, he seems to have a thorn on his back. My lord, would you like to pick him up at the door? Lian Guoxing thought about it and reminded cautiously.

He is the eldest son of Lian Laohei, and graduated from Jiangwutang this year. Because of his reliable identity and excellent graduation grades, he was sent to Zhu Chongjiu's side as a guard. For his own father-in-law, of course, he is not as afraid as others, and he dares to say anything to his face.

"Huh?" Zhu Chongjiu was slightly stunned by Lian Guoxing's reminder, and immediately, his face was full of anger. He took a hard breath of the cold sea breeze and commanded in a deep voice, "Xuan!" When you go to the door, say that the chief manager of Huaiyang Xuan Liu Bowen has entered the house to make a statement! ”

"Yes!" Lian Guoxing keenly sensed that the atmosphere in the command cabin was not right, and immediately raised his hand to salute a standard military salute and ran out quickly.

"Whew!" Looking at his back in a hurry, Zhu Chongjiu exhaled again. Immediately, after turning around and walking back to his handsome case, he sat down with a cold face.

"The chief manager has an order, and Liu Bowen, the deputy envoy of the Xuan Privy Council, will enter the interior to make a statement!" After a while, Lian Guoxing's slightly nervous shout sounded outside the door. Immediately, there was a sound of hurried footsteps on the deck, the door curtain was opened by the guards from outside, Liu Bowen wore a long robe, walked in with a bamboo scorn and a wide and narrow wattle on his back, and bowed down, "Minister, privy deputy envoy Liu Bowen, knock on the lord." Chitose, Chitose, Chitose! ”

"Humph!" As soon as Zhu Chongjiu saw the bamboo strip, his face began to darken. Deliberately tilt your head and do not give the other party any response. It wasn't until Liu Bowen bowed to the king three times according to the standard courtiers that he walked down from behind the handsome case, pulled out the bamboo strips behind the other party, and folded them into several sections, "Now, are you satisfied?!" Zhu has completely become a demon butcher, and his name can stop children crying at night! ”

"Weichen was negligent for a while, and actually arranged for Chen Youding to take over Quanzhou, which is indeed to blame. Please punish the Lord according to the law! Liu Bowen was rarely honest once, neither refuted nor begged for mercy, bowed down, and let it be disposed of!

"Bullshit, according to the law, according to the law, of course you are not wrong at all! Whoever is dispatched to occupy Quanzhou and who is to occupy the port is within the purview of you, the privy deputy envoy. And Zhu also used the seal on the order to dispatch troops, and then out of the basket, how can you push the responsibility on your head?! surnamed Liu, okay, you are ruthless, you have calculated everything. Aren't you afraid to leave a butcher's name in history?! Zhu Chongjiu was furious, and folded the bamboo in his hand again and again.

If it weren't for the fact that there weren't enough strategists available in his hands, he really ordered someone to press Liu Bowen on the deck and beat him hard first. This guy dares to change his way to be himself now, and if he really enters the cabinet in the future, he doesn't know what bold things he will do!

"The name of the butcher? The lord is wrong to say! Liu Bowen took a half step back, avoiding the saliva and anger that was spraying in his face, and responded very calmly, "Tu Quanzhou, Chen Youding, what does it have to do with Liu, and what does it have to do with the lord?" Moreover, the Quanzhou Pu family killed more than 3,000 royal families surnamed Zhao and more than 3,000 wounded soldiers in Lianghuai, and it was a matter of course for the lord to fake Chen Youding's hand to avenge Zhao Song. The historian can only praise the lord's loyalty and righteousness, how can he scold the lord for being murderous? ! ”

After saying a few words, he actually said it confidently, and Zhu Chongjiu was so angry that his face turned pale, but he couldn't find any flaws to refute. gritted his teeth for a while before he threw the crumpled bamboo strips on Liu Bowen, and said loudly, "You, you, I'm talking about you." I see, you did it on purpose! You, you, since you have done such things, how can I Huaiyang still win the hearts of the people of Quanzhou in the future? How to make those maritime merchants work? If the people's hearts are lost, and Zhu Mou has traveled thousands of miles to win a dead port, what is the use of birds? ! ”

In a hurry, he said all the swear words. Facing Liu Bowen, the knuckles of his fingers clucked. The news that the Pu family in Quanzhou City and several other major families attached to the Pu family were slaughtered by Chen Youding was sent by the sailors to chase them from the sea last night. According to Zhu Qiang, the commander of the naval division who stayed in Quanzhou Port to receive the Pujia fleet, he reported that when Chen Youding was approaching the city, the families who stayed in Quanzhou had already taken the initiative to go out and surrender. However, Chen Youding immediately detained several principals and preachers of the Tianfang Sect who had come to plead guilty, and then rushed into the city with a wave of his master, ordering the four gates to be closed. Overnight, Pu, Huang, Xia, You and other major families who betrayed the Song family were uprooted. All the temples of the Heavenly Sect in the city were also burned.

When the next morning, Zhu Qiang and Fu Youde heard the tragic news and hurriedly stepped forward to stop it. And by this moment, there was already a river of blood inside. The adult males of Pu, Huang, Xia, You and other families, regardless of the main branch and side branches, all died. All the preachers and fanatical believers of the Tianfang Sect in Quanzhou City, as well as more than 40 households of big food merchants who had close contacts with the Pu family, were also suppressed by Chen Youding overnight because they tried to raise an army.

Because they were dissatisfied with Chen Youding's indiscriminate killing of innocents, Zhu Qiang and Fu Youde immediately joined forces to blockade the port of Quanzhou, protected the remaining maritime merchants, and forbade Chen Jiajun to enter the country to do wrongdoing. At the same time, he sent clippers to chase after his lord's ship, and impeached Chen Youding for indiscriminate killing. And when Zhu Chongjiu received the joint performance of Zhu Qiang and Fu Youde last night, he found that he was accidentally exploited by Liu Bowen again. roared in the command cabin for half the night with his head stuffy, but finally found that he had no way to take Liu Bowen!

Sending Chen Youding to take over Quanzhou was the proposal of the General Staff, and the reason given by Liu Bowen, the chief of staff, to Zhu Chongjiu was that Chen Youding was familiar with the local situation, and the Chen family had a strong influence in the local area, so he could help the Huai'an army quickly stabilize Quanzhou. Zhu Chongjiu thought that he was reasonable, so he simply used the seal on the order. And now, all the unstable factors in Quanzhou City have been killed by Chen Youding, and of course they are so stable that they can't be more stable. It's just such a Quanzhou, what is the use of Zhu Chongjiu? Losing the hearts and minds of the local people, how can the Huai'an Army gain a foothold there for a long time?

"The business school run by Huaiyang firm has also trained a lot of people in the past two years. As long as the lord gives an order, the merchant can immediately take over Quanzhou, including all maritime trade! "I have long been prepared how to deal with Zhu Chongjiu's anger, Liu Bowen looked up at his lord's eyes, and added unhurriedly. As for the people's hearts, the lord doesn't have to worry too much. General Fu Youde is brave and good at fighting, and he has always been benevolent, just enough to enter the city to clean up the mess! As long as he quickly restores order in the city and drives away Chen Youding, the killing god, the local people will definitely regard him as a Buddha of ten thousand families. ”

"What about Chen Youding, do you want me to kill him, or arrest him and hand him over to Yousi for trial? I really arrested him, how could the rest of the surrendered Zhejiang army not be sad? Zhu Chongjiu was stunned when he heard this, and after a little pondering, he knew that this method could also work. But he still couldn't vent his evil anger in his heart, looked at Liu Bowen's eyes, and continued to ask loudly.

"Strictly reprimand, and then let him make meritorious service for his crimes, and lead the troops to recover Zhang, Tingzhulu." Liu Bowen smiled slightly and quickly gave an answer.

"Let him make meritorious contributions to recover all parts of southern Fujian? Do you think he kills too few people?!!! When Zhu Chongjiu heard this, his heart had just become a little smaller, and his anger was raging again. took a step forward and looked down at Liu Bowen and asked.

"There are many clans in southern Fujian, where does the lord have time to slowly consume with them?!" Liu Bowen smiled again, his face was indifferent. As if talking about the weather outside the cabin, and not tens of thousands of lives. "If you kill them all, the natural place will be peaceful. If the lord sends some good-hearted civil officials down, the local area will be ruled in less than three years. As for Chen Youding, even if the lord decrees that he is not allowed to kill indiscriminately, he will not be relentless. He is a local, and if he doesn't offend all the local wealthy families, how can he win the trust of the lord? ”

"This?" Zhu Chongjiu's body shook, and lightning flashed and thundered in his mind. Chen Youding is a general, with heavy troops, and his family has deep roots in southern Fujian. Leaving this person there was originally a helpless move for him. No one dares to guarantee that when the main force of the Huai'an Army retreats north, Chen You will definitely become the next Pu Shougeng. After being used by Liu Bowen to kill in the local area, Chen Youding completely cut off his own foundation in the people, and it was no longer possible to support the army and respect himself. The Great Governor's Mansion also got what he wanted, and stabilized Fujian at the fastest speed!

Killing two birds with one stone, killing two birds with one stone perfectly. Facing Liu Bowen's confident smile, Zhu Chongjiu instantly found that his anger was so unsustainable. There is no time, and what Huaiyang lacks most now is time. Compared with the losses that may have been caused by the delay of fighters in the northern battlefield, the massacre in Quanzhou immediately seemed insignificant!

However, this clever plan is so dark and bloody. It was so bloody that Zhu Chongjiu's eyes were red when he thought about it, and his exhalation was as heavy as a mountain. He was unwilling to kill, not even the captured Mengyuan soldiers. And as time went on, he found that he was killing more and more people, and he became more and more cold-blooded.

Perhaps, this is the path of the emperor! After clenching his fists for a long time, he slowly released his fingers and sighed, "That's it! You have the ability and the reason. Zhu can't say you! There is no cure for your sins. But if it goes on like this, what is the difference between Zhu and the founding emperor of Mengyuan back then? ! ”

"At least, after the killing, the lord brought a peaceful and prosperous world!" Liu Bowen glanced at him and responded faintly. "The minister firmly believes that this will be the case, and the lord must be the same. After all, the history of the previous dynasty must be written by the new dynasty! ”

Note 1: Jining Road, the area of today's Taiyuan.

Note 2: Aruhui Timur, the youngest son of Ögedei, after the destruction of Li. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Aluhui Timur rebelled and sent a letter to Tuhuan Timur: The ancestors gave you the world, why did you lose most of it? Why don't you give me the national seal, and I will be the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty? Although he was defeated and killed in the end, his rebellion in the north created a long development opportunity for the Red Turban Army in the south.