Hearing that the battle on the Pizhou battlefield finally ended, and when the Ming army besieging the city had almost no casualties, they relied on food to force the Qing army to take Kong Youde, and captured him alive, Zhu Shuren was naturally very excited.

When I got the news, it was already the end of the third year of Longwu, and Zhu Shuren himself had already returned to Nanjing.

After all, the large-scale offensive campaign on the front line has basically been fought, and the follow-up stalemate and small-scale encroachment do not need him to personally supervise, and the generals should be fully trusted.

After all, Zhu Shuren is in power, and he can't leave the center of the court for too long, so he has to take care of both sides.

Approaching the end of the year, the weather is cold and freezing, and it is also a beautiful thing to go back to Nanjing, which is relatively warm, to accompany my wife and children, and to celebrate the Zhongxing weather on the New Year.

Therefore, the good news of Kong Youde's arrest is still very valuable to Zhu Shuren. In this year's series of decisive battles, I killed a prince and a county king of the Manchurians, but there was no Ming Zhengzheng punishment after being captured alive, and I always felt that something was missing.

Among the traitor generals, the most powerful is King Sanshun. After all, Wu Sangui in this life has not officially surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, but only released the Qing soldiers into the customs, but in the end, it was anyway, and the sin was not too big. Without Wu Sangui, who else deserves to be compared with King Sanshun?

Geng Zhongming took the initiative to lead the soldiers and dogs to jump over the wall at the last moment, and he was happy with Boluo Yue, and he died, although his own sins were quite heavy, but in this way, Zhu Shuren had no choice but to reward his son Geng Jimao, and he had to give Geng Jimao some pure titles without real power.

Shang Kexi is still in the north, and he was not entrusted with a heavy task this time, and to be honest, the cause of Shang Kexi's original thief is relatively slightly more forgivable than Geng Zhongming Kong Youde, and it can be regarded as forcing Liangshan, and the benchmarking is not as strong as those two.

Therefore, Daming really lacks an enemy prince to open the eyes of the people of the capital and lift their spirits.

Zhu Shuren instructed his subordinates to transport Kong Youde as soon as possible, and try to use medicinal materials on the way to hang his life so as not to let him die easily. In the end, it was transported to Nanjing City on the 27th day of the lunar month.

If it drags on for a few more days, it will not be good to kill people again during the New Year. It is better to use it before Chinese New Year's Eve to remove the bad luck sacrificial knife.

The Criminal Department is naturally also all kinds of urgency, as long as there is no time to try slowly, all kinds of materials are prepared in advance, and it only took half a day of public trial to open everyone's eyes, and it also allows those who have more than five grades of fame and status in Nanjing to go to the lobby of the Criminal Department to observe.

As a result, the vast majority of officials above the fifth grade in Nanjing, as well as meritorious heroes with knighthoods, naturally came to participate in this "patriotic attention education" if they did not have an errand on duty.

After asking, he dragged Kong Youde away in the afternoon of the same day, pulled him to the archway of Confucius Temple by the Qinhuai River, and ate a bite - this execution site is still specially selected, and Nanjing usually does not carry out the execution of Ling Chi sinners.

Isn't this that Kong Youde often advertises that he is a descendant of Confucius, and he is also taking out the family tree from the Eight Classics, since this is the case, then drag it to the door of the Confucius Temple and cut it. It can be regarded as a warning to other spineless traitors by the way.

In the end, before Chinese New Year's Eve, Kong Youde was cut into a skeleton in an expeditious manner, and then the bones were scattered.

Everyone in Nanjing is excited, and the atmosphere of the New Year is also set off. The civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty firmly believed that the Ming Dynasty would definitely achieve greater victories in the coming year, and the complete recovery of the Central Plains was just around the corner.

……

The wheel of history soon turned the page to the fourth year of Longwu.

In the city of Nanjing, there was rejoicing everywhere, and even Zhu Changshu, the Longwu Emperor who was cowardly and lazy and often let Zhu Shuren, Shi Kefa, and Shen Tingyang handle the government affairs, recently participated in various government affairs activities more frequently.

Of course, Zhu Changshu didn't want to care about those complicated things, just because the generals have made too many meritorious contributions recently.

Not only the central capital was recovered, but also the entire territory of Nanzhili (the Ming Dynasty bordered Shandong, and later northern Jiangsu was counted as Nanzhili until Xuzhou) and a small number of Henan prefectures.

With such a big merit, there are too many generals who need to be rewarded and promoted, so Zhu Changshu has to often meet in person, have in-depth conversations and exhortations, and discuss with civilian officials.

As we all know, the Ming Dynasty has theoretically maintained those titles with the name of the Governor's Mansion in the early Ming Dynasty, but the real power becomes smaller in the later period, and it is all controlled by the descendants of the nobles of the year.

But since the martyrdom of the first emperor Chongzhen, the bunch of nobles in Beijing are naturally all finished. Later, the city of Nanjing was beaten to the city by Duoduo, and the few nobles who stayed in Nanjing did not perform well, and after Zhu Shuren later relieved the siege of Nanjing, of course, he also had to use the excuse to sort out and rectify the incompetent nobles.

If Xungui is willing to contribute to the court and work hard, he is worthy of that share of Shilu, and it is naturally okay to keep it. But since they are almost like the vassal kings, they are pigs and waste, why waste this money?

A dynasty has experienced a long time, and the reason why it has dragged on more and more is because it can't be reloaded systematically, and more and more debris and garbage are piled up! The vassal king should be cleaned, and the nobles who have been abolished should also be cleaned.

It's just that the henchmen and generals who were personally promoted by Zhu Shuren before were not merit enough, so Zhu Shuren just retired and did not interfere.

Now, Zhu Shuren is also thinking about adding one more to the generals he promoted.

Zhu Di was able to promote his cronies back then, but only by virtue of the merits of the civil war, can't he Zhu Shuren be promoted now? The world has been reshuffled, this time it is a work of salvation and reconstruction, shouldn't it be more worthy of respect than those civil war generals of the Zhu Di Dynasty?

If there is a chance to re-give grace after formatting, Zhu Shuren will not let go of this opportunity.

Of course, it is still too high to directly give the position of the governor of the left and right armies, but it is still possible to get a little low-level position of power, or just use some of the positions of the commander of the Nanjing Jingying as a meritorious service.

Leave a little space, and it is not too late to recover Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi in the future, and then slowly reward them, and finally have to leave a little space to recover Liaodong and go straight to Shenyang.

The first batch of the most deserving rewards are naturally Cao Bianjiao, Huang Degong and others, who have the most outstanding military achievements, and they have respectively won the corresponding false titles in the system of military governors on the left and right, and others such as Liu Guoneng and Li Fuming also have their own reuses, so they cannot be repeated one by one.

The morale of the Ming army has risen again, and the generals are no longer worried that they will not be able to be promoted after being made a marquis and a general, nor are they worried that they will not be rewarded, and they are naturally more and more grateful to the prince of E.

From New Year's Day to the Shangyuan Festival, the Nanjing Palace gave banquets for days to praise the generals. In addition to being promoted, they couldn't help but express their determination to fight with Zhu Shuren again, hoping to speed up the Northern Expedition as soon as possible this year.

However, Zhu Shuren pressed the rhythm a little bit for everyone's eagerness, saying that he didn't have to cut it, and privately instructed Cao Bianjiao and others:

"War is not won only on the battlefield, but must be met with urgency. Back then, Cao Cao slashed the slash, Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi fled to Liaodong to vote for Gongsun Kang, Guo Jia knew that the two thieves were in a hurry, and the picture was slow to be suspicious of each other, self-harm, and finally Gongsun Kang sent the second Yuan head, isn't it beautiful?

For today's plan, Dolgon advocated the southern expedition twice within the Tartars, but they were all defeated and returned, the so-called everything can no longer be done, the death of Duoduo three years ago, has eliminated most of the credit of Dolgon's establishment of the lord into the Central Plains. No matter how bad this defeat is and Azig dies, can Dolgon's position last long?

At the moment, we should not fight with the Tartars, but fight and use both, while continuing to show our muscles, proving that our Ming Dynasty has the ability to fully control the Yellow River defense line. On the one hand, it is necessary to send out diplomatic deception through various channels to mislead the main peace faction and the vacillation faction among the Tartars.

Let them believe that I am not ready for a full-scale counteroffensive, and that I was only forced by Dolgon's southern invasion before! We just want to have a solid line of defense to hold on to each other and take a long-term view.

As long as the situation eases, there will inevitably be changes within the Tartars, and when the time comes, we will strike the final blow to the Tartars, and we will definitely not hinder you from singing and advancing! Straight to the Yellow Dragon! ”

Zhu Shuren has established absolute divine prophecy prestige in the myth of undefeated for many years. As for his grand strategic vision, of course, no one will question it from top to bottom.

Of course, Cao Bianjiao and the other generals immediately expressed their absolute pleasure and convincing, and they must follow the timetable set by the prince of E, and strictly prohibit it.

After dealing with the promotion of many powerful generals, seeing that the Shangyuan Festival had passed, Zhu Shuren took stock and found that there were still two people who needed to be disposed of alone.

The first special object of merit is Geng Jimao, who defected to the battle during the Battle of Huangshui, waved his sword against Abatai's personal guards in order to survive, and finally beheaded Abatai.

Although he knew that Geng Jimao was definitely a despicable villain, since he was on the verge of rebellion, he later helped the Ming Dynasty to disrupt the Fengyang Qing Army and help the Ming Dynasty recover the central capital. His father, Geng Zhongming, the old traitor, was also killed in the chaotic battle, and Zhu Shuren could only pinch his nose and give the Geng family preferential treatment.

In the end, he officially made Geng Jimao an earl, gave him a large reward, and retained the title of chief soldier, and even allowed him to continue to lead the surviving Han army banner soldiers who he led with him on the battlefield of Weishui.

However, in fact, Zhu Shuren will definitely not give him another chance to make obvious meritorious contributions, at most he will be put on the secondary battlefield, and it will not be his turn to upgrade his weapons and equipment. This is also out of appeasement and a sign to surrender and rebel.

In addition to real power, Zhu Shuren is not stingy in other aspects, no, the New Year's Eve also made Geng Jimao come to the palace several times as a guest. When the palace held a banquet to entertain the generals, Geng Jimao was also allowed to drink with those famous generals.

Anyway, this kind of benefit, which has no substantial harm and just needs to be spent on the face, can be given.

In this way, Geng Jimao is co-opted, Kong Youde Lingchi, one positive and one negative are all established, and how to choose the northern traitor in the future will naturally have a scale in his heart.

After pacifying Geng Jimao, Zhu Shuren only had one last special example of rewarding meritorious deeds - in the Battle of Xinyang, he led a rifled gun sniper team to snipe and kill Li Yu of Azig.

In the follow-up large-scale counteroffensive, Jiang Shoude, Li Dingguo, and Sun Kewang all made meritorious contributions, and naturally they all had their own rewards, and they could just do business.

The killing of Azig was not trivial, Zhang Huangyan not only sat firmly in the position of governor from then on, but Zhu Shuren even promised to continue to attack north in the future, so that he could sit in more than one province as the governor! For example, taking into account Henan, Shanxi, or Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningbo at the same time is negotiable. In addition, Zhang Huangyan was also made a marquis.

Zhu Wenzhen, who directly commanded the troops, was also knighted and got the general title.

Li Yu's level is even lower than Zhu Wenzhen, and he is just a specific sniper mission. But the most troublesome thing is that he is a North Korean.

And although he helped Zhu Shuren fight for five or six years, he had always asked to keep a low profile and remain incognito to prevent the leakage of his life experience from causing trouble to his family still in North Korea.

When he first came in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, he was just "bringing capital into the group" and brought a battalion of Korean bird gunners, and Zhu Shuren appointed him as a garrison according to the size of the troops he brought. In the past five years, he has accumulated merit one by one, and has participated in the war since he fought Zhang Xianzhong in Hunan, and has gradually risen to the rank of commander, guerrilla, and general......

This time to snipe Azig again, it is absolutely necessary to give a general soldier, and it is not enough.

After all, if the Ming Dynasty was a military general with a relationship and a hard background, killing a Qing army's Jia Lae Zhen would be able to promote the general army, even if there was no backstage and being oppressed by the Ming army generals, killing a Meler Ezhen would definitely be able to promote the general army.

Azig is the prince of the banner lord, the only brother of the same mother and the only one in Dolgon, how can he be promoted to the general army?

Therefore, Zhu Shuren felt the need to bring him over to talk about this time.

……

Three days after the Shangyuan Festival, Li Yu, who rarely went to Nanjing to report on his work, was summoned and asked to go to the palace of the king of Hubei for a banquet.

To tell the truth, since Li Yu was rescued to the south that year, he only passed by Nanjing for a short time, and most of the time he was arranged to run around the Huguang Theater. Now it is rare to have the opportunity to come to Nanjing to live for a longer period of time, I am still very curious, and there is a sense of pilgrimage.

After all, it is a North Korean, and it is an honor to be able to go to the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Nanjing City is much wider than their small family Seoul Mansion, and after Li Yu came, the travel itinerary was full every day.

This time, he was summoned to the Ewang Mansion, and naturally he was like a countryman entering the city. As far as his ears and eyes could see, he felt that it was even more luxurious than what he saw when he was a teenager and had the rare opportunity to follow his father to Gyeongbokgung Palace for a banquet.

"I heard that this is not the official palace of the prince of E, but the courtyard he built next door to the princess's mansion, I don't know how luxurious the official palace of the prince of E, and how luxurious the Forbidden City will be."

Li Yu was dizzy and was led to the place, which was a water pavilion in the pool, with cold plums planted all over the pool, and the weather was quiet. Zhu Shuren sat upright, with staff and guards on the left and right, but no other guests, so it can be seen that it was a separate banquet.

Li Yu was flattered when he saw this posture, but he didn't expect that he was specially invited today, so he hurriedly stepped forward to bow and salute.

Zhu Shuren was facing away from him at the time, admiring the plum blossoms, and when he heard that the guests were coming, he was not in a hurry to turn around, but just held a glass of warm wine and whispered thoughtfully:

"Sit, Li Yu, how many years have you been with Lonely?"

Li Yu hurriedly thanked him, and carefully sat on the table set up for him next to him, and hurriedly replied in detail: "It's been six years, and this year is the seventh year." ”

Zhu Shuren took a sip of hot wine, but still didn't look back: "Do you remember that before you came to vote, you were a pseudonym Li Yue in the Qing camp?" ”

Li Yu: "Back then, it was the third brother of my father who was reluctant to give up the general, so he let the general impersonate him...... It's just to deceive the Tartars. ”

Only then did Zhu Shuren nod, turned around and sat down: "Mr. Ling Zun Diaoyan was a Korean soldier Cao Jushu back then, is it still now?" ”

Li Yu: "Because of some changes in the middle, he was pursued by the Tartars, and the king (Li Liang) once demoted his father to the chief envoy to paralyze the Tartars.

But that was all before Huang Taiji's death. Later, when the limelight passed, and Dolgon had no time to look east after he came to power, the king quietly promoted his father back to the Bing Cao Judgment. ”

Zhu Shuren listened to it and sighed with some emotion, it has been several years, and all parties have experienced ups and downs. He took a sip of refreshments, as if he remembered something, and waved his hand and ordered: "Chat while eating, don't be restrained, everyone can do their own thing." ”

Li Yu dared to eat, but he was still very cautious, basically picking Zhu Shuren to eat and drink and not have time to ask, so he quickly took a bite.

Once Zhu Shuren put down his cup and was quick to think about it, and he could ask questions at any time, he had to make sure that there was no food in his mouth, so that the leader could answer his questions.

After Zhu Shuren thought about it, he said frankly: "Over the years, I haven't dared to publicize you, and the rewards have been as low-key as possible, not because the rewards and punishments are unknown, but also to protect your family." After all, North Korea was still forced to become a vassal state of the Tartars, and Ling Zun deceived the Tartars in your affairs at the beginning.

No, a few days ago, he gave Geng Jimao a reward, but he didn't dare to publicize it before, because he was afraid that Geng Zhongming was in the enemy camp, and if he really had the heart to join Daming, he would be implicated? It wasn't until Geng Zhongming and Tartar Huo died together that Lone gave Geng Jimao a knighthood. ”

Li Yu also thought that Zhu Shuren wanted to use this to say, "In order not to affect your father, when calculating the military exploits of sniping Azig this time, you will try to secretly give as much money as possible, but it is not good to publicize it openly."

So he hurriedly expressed his understanding, and said that everything was a sharp instrument distributed by the prince, and they just obeyed the command, trained strictly, and played normally, and did not dare to take credit.

Zhu Shuren waved his hand this time, signaling that he had guessed wrong: "No, this time Gu doesn't plan to hide it anymore, there is another way, you can not only be rewarded for your merits, but also not affect your family, it depends on whether you dare to accept this responsibility." ”

Li Yu was in good spirits, and hurriedly said that it was luck to be reused by the prince, and everything was followed.

Zhu Shuren went straight to the point: "Gu has already asked Your Majesty to reopen Dongjiang Town in name, but in fact, it may not be necessary to set up a town on Phi Island, where Mao Wenlong was stationed back then, but it can be located in the south of the Yalu River and in North Korea."

As long as you have the courage to take on this heavy burden, you will be the chief soldier of Dongjiang Town in the Ming Dynasty. With the merit of sniping Azig, it is not enough to seal a general soldier, and I also asked for a general number for you.

Lone can allocate you a battalion of elite soldiers in your headquarters, and then give you two battalions of strength and weapons, and will also bear the corresponding military salaries and money, and you can be escorted back to North Korea by Zhenhai General Zhang Mingzhen. However, you have to raise military rations in Korea on your own, and it is impossible to cross the sea to raise rations.

Lone does not ask the Korean State to attack the Tartars immediately, but as long as you hold the Yalu River, and publicly re-recognize my Ming Dynasty as Zhengshuo, and expel the Tartar envoys to appear, even if you have a great achievement.

What Lone wants now is to put full pressure on the Tartars and completely destroy Dolgon's prestige! Let the Tartars feel betrayed and separated! If the Tartars dare to attack Korea, you will use your three battalions of soldiers and horses to fight against the original Korean officers and troops. If the Tartars are strong, Lone will send reinforcements to bleed the Tartars on the defense line of the Yalu River! ”

Among the conditions offered by Zhu Shuren, it was not completely boring, and he was also worried about the outflow of advanced weapons, so Li Yu would never let Li Yu bring the sniper rifle back.

The elite soldiers of that battalion only gave 2,000 Wuchang smoothbore guns, and 2,000 only for the birds, Lumi, and turtledoves made in previous years. As for the equipment of the remaining two battalions of 8,000 people, it is only for the equipment of the earlier old Ming army, but the number is sufficient.

To put it bluntly, many of them are things that were eliminated after the Ming army was upgraded, and it was enough for the Korean Dongyi. and confiscated the money of the North Koreans, what kind of bicycles do you want?

As for military salaries, they will directly bring a batch of conscription money to them as settling-in allowance and pay, and the rest of the East and West Korea will be settled on the spot to reduce the logistical pressure.

When Li Yu heard this, his blood immediately boiled.

He has been helping to work for six years, and there are many benefits, but he can't see the light of day. Listening to the words of the prince, he can finally see the light! While opportunities and risks certainly coexist.

After Zhu Shuren finished the order, he also showed him an edict that had not yet been sealed, but only drafted and did not go through the process, as long as he accepted it, he would be "General Anton".

Of course, the Ming Dynasty did not have a formal general system, and the generals were randomly selected from the ancient miscellaneous generals.

Therefore, it is not like the Han and Tang Dynasties, there is a "four expeditions, four towns, four pings and four an" ordering. "General Anton" may not be more noble than Liu Guoneng's "General Dangkou" or Huang Degong's "General Ping Thief", both of which are of the same grade.

At the beginning, Zhu Shuren briefly served as the title of "Krupp" for two years, strictly speaking, it is about the same gold content as those thieves and thieves, but it has now been abandoned.

The prince finally made up his mind to flip the table, so he let go of his promotion to general.

Li Yu knew very well in his heart that this matter would definitely cause trouble, and the Tartar would definitely put pressure on him when he knew about it. However, the situation between the Ming and Qing dynasties has been reversed, and if North Korea jumps ship in time and re-innovates, it will be better to say that it was indeed forced by the Tartars in the future.

And no matter what the king of Joseon is, Li Yu and his own family will definitely get a lot of benefits from it. His father is already a soldier Cao's judgment, if their family has the support of the Ming Dynasty, it will not be easy to be promoted to the leader of the council (equivalent to the head of the cabinet on the side of the Ming Dynasty)? When the time comes, everything in North Korea will be up to them!

In fact, in fact, there is no need for Li Yu's butterfly effect, because in the original history, another year (1649), after the current king of Joseon, Li Yu, died, he entrusted Gu to Li Shibai as an assistant, and Li Shibai was automatically promoted to the left council and the official Cao Jushu. In a few years, it will slowly rise to the level of leading the government.

If Li Yu returns to China, it will be nothing more than to accelerate this process for five or six years.

After thinking about the pros and cons, Li Yu immediately patted his chest and packed the ticket, kowtowed to thank him, and said that he would definitely complete the prince's entrustment.

Zhu Shuren nodded: "Then you can rest for half a month, restrain the men and horses, and after the first month, when the wind is smooth, let Zhang Mingzhen send a fleet to transport you back to Seoul." ”

"The last general will obey Jun's orders!" Li Yu's whole body was trembling when he hugged his fists, and he still had an idea in his heart.

He was only Li Shibai's concubine, so he was not valued by his father back then, and let him be a stand-in for his third brother as a sister-in-law and go to the Qing Kingdom as a hostage to bear the danger.

Now he is the Dongjiang General Soldier and General Anton canonized by the Ming Emperor! There are three battalion guards! He brought 4,000 elite soldiers, 8,000 weapons, equipment, and salaries, and returned to China to recruit troops to defend the town. It's a shotgun change!

Those three brothers-in-law, do you dare to look down on him as a brother-in-law!