"For a while, I very much agree with the conclusion reached by some historians of Tianshu Pavilion, that the root of the decline of the Ming Empire lies in cultural inheritance, in the Confucian culture that shouts that the sea is tolerant and tolerant, but in fact dominates the Confucian culture of the same party and the same as the other...... Alas! ”

Zhu Daolin sighed faintly, and continued with deep feelings: "Let's take the Dengzhou counterinsurgency operation we are about to face, Yuming, I don't know if you have thought about it, why nearly 50,000 troops have besieged Dengzhou for more than three months and have not made any progress?" ”

Li Yuming thought for a while and replied: "There are 30,000 rebels in Dengzhou City, and the Dengzhou city wall is tall and thick, easy to defend and difficult to attack. ”

Zhu Daolin asked again: "If with the assistance of the Jiangnan Naval Division, I commanded the New Army to take Dengzhou in three guards in one day, what would you think?" ”

"Take Dengzhou in one day? This...... Is it possible? ”

Li Yuming looked at his senior brother in disbelief.

Zhu Daolin nodded: "It's completely okay, when the sailors and the new army units arrive in Dengzhou, you can see how I can take Dengzhou in one day, and I don't need any army under Zhu Dadian's command to help!" ”

"What I want you to consider is, why the Fourth Route Army has besieged Dengzhou for more than three months and still can't take Dengzhou, just because the rebels occupy favorable terrain and the troops of each route are not enough?"

"In the past three months, nearly 50,000 troops have launched several large-scale siege battles?"

"Don't think about it, I'll tell you, only twice! The war report of the Imperial Court was written in such a fierce and incomparable manner that in fact both attacks were retreated at the touch of a button. Don't you think it's very strange that there was no fierce assault and landing battle at all? ”

Li Yuming gradually understood: "Senior brother is saying that all the armies have their own hearts, and they have not done their best to attack the city in order to preserve their strength?" ”

Zhu Daolin nodded: "Everyone knows the strength of the 30,000 rebels in the city, except for the thousands of elite soldiers of the rebel generals Kong Youde, Li Jiucheng and Geng Zhongming, who joined later, the other more than 20,000 rebels are not chaotic people. Even the 3,000 Dongjiang soldiers who fled from Phi Island to join Kong Youde's rebellion are also stragglers who are trying to fill their stomachs! ”

"As long as the encirclement and suppression army adopts a combination of appeasement and crusade, divides the rebel armies in the city that are not subordinate to each other, and then works together to launch an attack on the city, even if the losses are larger, Dengzhou City can be successfully taken."

Li Yuming realized: "Could it be that Lord Zhu, the governor of Shandong, and Lord Chen, the governor of Denglai, can't see the thoughts of the generals of the various armies?" ”

"How can you see it?"

Zhu Daolin said disdainfully: "The four route armies are more than 7,000 infantry soldiers of Ding Sihou, deputy chief soldier of Shandong, 12,000 cavalry of Wang Laicheng, deputy chief soldier of Beijing, 4,500 cavalry of Wu Xiang, former general of Guanning Army, and 20,000 guards led by Zhu Dadian himself, and tens of thousands of people who are responsible for transporting grain, grass, artillery, gunpowder, and camping are not included. Every day, people eat horses and military salaries and supplies, and spend tens of thousands of taels of silver, who will pay for them? ”

"In peacetime, civilian officials discriminate against military generals and soldiers in every way, and wantonly exploit them, and even the food and weapons transported from Dengzhou to Juehua Island are drifted by three to four percent every time.

"It is the civilian officials who have the greatest credit for winning the war, and it is the military soldiers who have lost their lives, who wants to take a second look at the civilian officials? Who wants to give money as a reward? ”

Li Yuming finally understood: "No wonder Senior Brother has to buy a large amount of grain, horse feed and meat after Jimo confiscated hundreds of thousands of stones of grain and grass. It turned out that I never expected to be able to get supplies from Zhu Dadian and the others! ”

Zhu Daolin smiled: "It's good to understand, you can't be a personal guard by my side for the rest of your life." I don't want you to stay by my side for the rest of your life, a good man, sooner or later you have to go out to lead the army to fight, no matter where you go in the future, you must keep in mind: the Ming civil officials are unreliable, and the so-called friendly troops are even more unreliable. It's all on your own! ”

"Little brother remembered!" Li Yuming nodded heavily.

######

Early the next morning, Zhu Daolin and his elite set out on the journey again, arriving at the Wuliqiao camp in the southwest of Dengzhou at four o'clock in the afternoon.

After receiving the urgent report, Zhu Dadian, the governor of Shandong, Chen Yingyuan, the governor of Denglai, Ding Sihou, the deputy general of Shandong, and Wu Xiang, the former general of the Guanning Army, led dozens of civil and military forces to come to Yuanmen in advance to greet them, and saw more than 1,000 cavalry in strange clothes and armor coming slowly from a distance, and everyone looked at each other. Stunned.

Zhu Daolin, who was wearing a steel helmet and wearing a big coat, turned over and dismounted 50 steps away from Yuanmen, and Guo Zhongjun, Li Yuming and six guards behind him dismounted at the same time and followed closely, but more than 1,000 elites stood 50 steps away, without the slightest intention of dismounting.

Zhu Dadian, who is known as the beautiful bearded man, was slightly stunned, and soon showed a cordial smile, strode forward to greet him, and saw Zhu Daolin bending down to salute first, and immediately stepped forward to support Zhu Daolin's hands: "I have admired the name of General Fengguo for a long time, and when I saw it today, it was really majestic and extraordinary!" ”

Zhu Daolin humbly gave another salute: "My lord praised it falsely!" Xiaguan led 1,300 cavalry of the new army to arrive first, and 15,000 soldiers of the infantry and artillery battalions had already set out from Jimo and arrived in Dengzhou within five days. ”

Zhu Dadian and all the civil and military forces thought that only Zhu Daolin led more than 10,000 new troops from Jiangnan to the north to help in the war, and they didn't know that Wei Guogong's Jiangnan Navy Division and Zhang Gongwei's left-behind guards would also go north to participate in the war.

Zhu Dadian hurriedly asked: "General Zhu, how many warships are there from the Jiangnan Naval Division?" How many soldiers are there in the left-behind guard under Marquis Zhang? ”

Zhu Daolin replied truthfully: "This time, the two Jiangnan water and land companies went north to quell the rebellion with the permission of the emperor, and the naval division mobilized all 35 warships, nearly half of which were transport ships with more than 4,000 materials, in order to destroy the rebel warships and block the retreat of the rebels from the sea. ”

"The total number of officers and soldiers left behind in Jiangnan led by Zhang Houye is about 5,600, and all the officers and men are equipped with firearms, which is the first elite unit in our Ming army to be fully equipped with firearms."

All the civil and military forces were in an uproar, and they all sighed how much silver did it cost? What kind of formation should such an all-firearms army use? And how to fight?

In the end, Zhu Dadian behaved decently and magnificently, and after a few words of praise, he warmly invited Zhu Daolin to the camp to talk.

Zhu Daolin respectfully thanked him, once again saluted all the civil and military forces, and deliberately glanced at the young general with bright eyes behind the smiling veteran Wu Xiang, and implored Zhu Dadian, Chen Yingyuan and others to go first, and he was half a step behind to show respect.

Zhu Daolin's move immediately won the favor of everyone, and many civil and military officials began to mutter: "The Zhu Daolin in front of him is extraordinary, humble and generous, and he is not as rough and domineering as the legend!" (To be continued.) )