After the Sichuan War, Zhu Gaoxu immediately gave twice the salary to the officials who surrendered and surrendered in Sichuan, so as to stabilize the hearts of the officials and soldiers at the first time, and at the same time reorganize the soldiers and horses and train the elite.

He won great victories in three battles and obtained hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, so he must first absorb and digest them to stabilize the morale of the army.

At the time of the Jingjing, the soldiers and horses on both sides experienced a major defeat, and the defeated soldiers and soldiers surrendered to surrender, because they were both civil wars, so it was easy to surrender.

But now that Zhu Gaoxu has divided the land and increased his salary, then they have been defeated by the official army, and will they still surrender?

Dozens of acres of home are on Zhu Gaoxu's side.

Zhu Di, after you win, will you redistribute it to everyone? Will you be paid according to Chu Gaoxu's standard?

If Zhu Di wants to make such a hair, he will go bankrupt immediately.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu's trick is very poisonous and effective, as long as he is given time, the territory he rules will become more and more stable, and when the official army comes to attack in the future, it can be said that most of the cities and counties will not be thrown back and forth like in the Jingjing.

After the victory of Sichuan, Zhu Gaochu did not rush to attack Huguang again, because there were too many troops recently and needed to be properly handled, and more importantly, the autumn grain was imminent, and Zhu Gaochu wanted to stabilize the autumn grain and ensure the army food.

He increased his troops and horses dramatically, and doubled the officials' salaries, all of which required a large amount of food.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu requisitioned and operated grain everywhere at this time.

The output of the southwestern provinces is far inferior to the territory controlled by Zhu Di, but fortunately, he still has two grain-producing areas of Jiaozhi and Zhancheng to support.

A steady stream of ships is coming from the port of Haiphong in Jiaozhi to Guangdong and the coastal areas of Fujian.

In mid-August, an order spread throughout the southwestern provinces and Fujian, Guangdong, and countless craftsmen and iron materials gathered in the direction of Guangxi and Huguang.

Zhu Gaoxu brought craftsmen from Yunnan to prepare to cast artillery in large quantities in Huku.

At the end of August, Zhu Neng, Huo Zhen, Chen Zhi and others in Huguang received news that the official army had suffered another crushing defeat in Sichuan, and Song Sheng retreated to Shaanxi to reorganize the defensive line.

When the three martyrdom heroes heard this, they couldn't believe it.

Song Sheng fought in the name of stability, commanded the army for decades, and never suffered a major defeat, and He Fu, Zhang Wu, Qu Neng and other generals helped, but he didn't expect to be defeated.

It is said that the defeat was as bad as Guangxi's, and only tens of thousands of cavalry fled back.

Within a few days, the entire battle was slowly transmitted back to Huguang, and the generals knew that it was Qu Neng who was backwater.

It was not until the beginning of September that Zhu Gaoxu's soldiers and horses set off from Yongzhou and officially entered the hinterland of Huguang.

The news of the defeat in Sichuan has spread everywhere, and the fact that Zhu Gaoxu has given money to officials all over the world is also well known, and all the prefectures in Huguang have surrendered one after another where there are no large numbers of officers and troops stationed in them.

Like Baoqing, there was originally Bao Qingwei, but when Zhu Neng returned to Changsha, he took Bao Qingwei away, and there were only a few hundred soldiers in the city, and they also surrendered decisively.

At this time, the official army had just experienced a major defeat in Guangxi, and there were not many soldiers and horses in Huguang, so Zhu Neng gathered the soldiers and horses from the nearby county governments to Changsha for self-protection.

This allowed Zhu Gaoxu's soldiers to go down to Baoqing, Hengzhou, Wugang, and Qianyang, so that the entire southern part of Huguang was included in Zhu Gaoxu's territory.

At the same time, Sheng Yong's army, which was returning to Guizhou from Sichuan, sent Zhao Gui to lead 20,000 troops from Wushan in Sichuan to Huguang and return to Zhou.

Huozhen, who was originally in Yuanzhou, retreated to Changsha first, and then combined with Zhu Nengyi, the two of them combined had less than 100,000 soldiers and horses, and the rebels had powerful artillery, so they could only defend one big city.

Changsha is an important town and should have been fortified, but the waterway is a little narrower, and it is far from Jiangnan and Henan.

At this time, the soldiers and horses requisitioned by the imperial court were gathering in Wuchang from Henan, Jiangnan and other places, which was too far away from Changsha.

Changsha is obviously not safe, the rebels will definitely fight Changde in the next step, there are no soldiers and horses stationed there, there is a high probability of surrender, once the rebels take Changde, Changsha may be surrounded, and what if the rebel army bypasses Changsha and takes Yuezhou (Baling) directly, what if he is cut off?

So they simply gave up Changsha.

So as a last resort, the two retreated to Wuchang.

Zhu Neng wanted to guard Guilin at that time, in addition to wanting to nail a nail in Guangxi, but also because there was a clan in Guilin.

Now the auspicious king of Changsha has not yet appeared, and it will not be sealed until the time of the Ming god of war.

So there is no clan in Changsha, Zhu Neng and Huo really want to come and go, or retreat to Wuchang.

At this point, the west of Huguang Yuezhou, including Changsha, fell into the hands of Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu moved the main force to Changde, and the officers and troops arranged defensive lines in Jingzhou and Yuezhou.

The officers and troops were desperately dispatching troops and horses from all directions to prepare for the next decisive battle, while Zhu Gaoxu was slowly stabilizing the rule of the provinces, training elites, and requisitioning food and people's husbands, and was also prepared.

——

It's obviously a hot summer, but September in Beijing is cool everywhere.

At this time last year, Zhu Di was still discussing the matter of moving Beijing to the north in the imperial court, but now, in addition to moving the capital, there is also the rebellion of the Han King, two major events, which make the Beijing officials anxious, or rather, it is better to make Zhu Di anxious.

In the first year of Yongle after the Jingjing Martyrdom, (1403), Li Zhigang, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, said that Yanjing Beiping was the emperor's "land of dragon prosperity", and he should follow the practice of Ming Taizu to Fengyang, Anhui Province, and set up it as the accompanying capital.

Ming Chengzu then vigorously promoted the status of Yanping Beiping Mansion, took Beiping as Beiping Mansion, and changed Beiping Mansion to Shuntian Mansion, which was called "Xing Zai". At the same time, the people began to be relocated to enrich Beiping; More than 100,000 people were forcibly moved into Beiping, including displaced people from all over the country, wealthy households in the south of the Yangtze River, and merchants from Shanxi.

At that time, there were many complaints among the people, and the people were miserable.

But since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the old Zhu family likes to do this.

Zhu Yuanzhang moved the wealthy households of Suzhou in the south of the Yangtze River to Fengyang, and to other places, and he also moved tens of thousands, more than 100,000 yuan.

In their eyes, the people of the Ming Dynasty, especially the rich businessmen, are no different from Zhu Luo, and they can move there if they want to.

At this time, however, the merchants and wealthy were still very obedient, because their status was still below that of the peasants.

When you reach the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the landlord class is more arrogant, and it is not so easy to move like this at that time.

In the fourth year of Yongle, that is, in January this year, before Zhu Gaoxu raised his army, Zhu Di issued an edict to build the Beiping Imperial Palace and city walls based on the Nanjing Imperial Palace.

The imperial court invested nearly 10 million taels of silver and a large amount of manpower and material resources before and after Beiping, almost emptying the finances of the household department.

It had only been a few months since the ground was started, and Zhu Gaoxu suddenly reversed.

In the original history, in the seventh year of Yongle, Zhu Di used Beiping as a base to carry out the northern expedition, and at the same time began to build the Changling Tomb in Changping, near Beiping. The construction of his mausoleum in Beiping instead of Nanjing proves that Ming Chengzu has made up his mind to move the capital.

But now Zhu Gaoxu suddenly reversed, and the ministers of the court didn't care much, after all, where Zhu Di's strength was, there was a son who had beaten Lao Tzu.

Unexpectedly, after entering August, the imperial court suffered a crushing defeat in Guizhou, Guangxi, and Sichuan.

The three major battles in the three provinces all ended in disastrous defeats, with losses of 500,000 or 600,000 officers and soldiers before and after.

Under the rise of the other, the soldiers and horses of the Han King Zhu Gaoxu were heard to have exceeded one million, and firmly controlled the southwestern provinces, and formed a trend of resistance with the Ming court.

After entering September, the fiasco of the three major battles of the imperial court has spread all over the world, and the situation is extremely unfavorable for the Ming court.

What's even worse is that at this time, Zhu Gaoxu proposed to double the amount of money for officials in the world.

After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he first conquered Annan and built the imperial city of Beijing, investing tens of millions of silver in two major events, and the treasury was almost emptied.

On the second day of the ninth month, it was another day of the previous dynasty.

In the summer, the sun had not yet risen, and the ministers had already arrived outside the imperial city gate.

People are in groups of threes and fives, and they are all whispering.

The crown prince Zhu Gaochi silently stood beside Yao Guangxiao and Yuan Heng, these two people were also diligent in the last dynasty after the Han King raised troops, and basically came every time.

Because Yao Guangxiao and Yuan Heng were not popular with ministers, the prince preferred to stand with Yang Shiqi, Yang Rong and other cabinet members.

But in the past few days, the prince has been a little worried and has been looking for an opportunity to ask the two, so he is standing close to the two today.

Zhu Gaochi thought to himself while looking at the ministers.

Sichuan was defeated again, and when the ministers were discussing, many people couldn't hide their gloating, and of course the prince knew that there were many ministers in the court who still disobeyed his father, Zhu Di.

Emperor Zhu Di had only been in office for about three or four years, and Zhu Gaoxu raised troops, and his position was not very stable.

Now that they have suffered defeats in a row, those courtiers who had different intentions and dared to be angry in the past must gloat.

Kill, these people who eat inside and out, and ride the wall on both sides, will be killed, Zhu Gaochi's benevolent face flashed with a trace of ruthlessness.

Last night, he also had a nightmare, the second brother Zhu Gaoxu rode a big horse into the Beijing Division proudly, and the officials in front of him knelt in front of Zhu Gaoxu flatteringly, and then scolded Zhu Di and his son.

That scene was no different from when Zhu Di entered Beijing.

No, Zhu Gaochi quickly thought that Emperor Jianwen still has many ministers who refuse to surrender and would rather die, if Gao Xu enters Beijing, how many of the ministers here today are willing to die for my father?

I'm afraid there isn't one.

It's really sad, the more the prince Zhu Gaochi thinks about it, the more angry he becomes, and the more he thinks about it, the more depressed he becomes.

He couldn't help but turn his head to look at Yao Guangxiao and Yuan Hui, and found that the two of them were not good-looking, completely different from their high-spirited demeanor when Jing was martyred.

He immediately understood that the two of them probably also realized that the current situation was very bad.

Who should I ask? The crown prince Zhu Gaochi had something he wanted to ask them.

In fact, when the imperial court was defeated in Guangxi, the prince wanted to ask the two, but at that time he was still very afraid of his father and did not dare to ask, and if the imperial court won in Sichuan, there was no need to ask.

Now that Sichuan has lost again, the prince feels that if he doesn't ask again, he won't have a chance in the future.

"Master Daoyan, Lord Yuan." Zhu Gaochi looked left and right, and the other ministers around him were a little far away at this time, so they called even quieter.

"His Royal Highness the Prince." Yao Guangxiao and Yuan Heng bent down one after another.

"I have something I want to ask you two."

"Prince, please speak." Yao Guangxiao said with a smile.

"Brush" The prince's face suddenly turned red, and his expression was a little hideous.

Yao Guangxiao and Yuan Heng are inexplicably wonderful.

I saw Zhu Gaochi hesitate for a moment, and finally gritted his teeth and said, "Is it true that the incident of King Wu was killed?" ”

Yao Guangxiao and Yuan Heng's faces changed greatly.

Of course, the two knew what the prince was asking.

Shizi is not in good health and will burp, Gao Xuling has to work hard.

The crown prince wondered, did my father say this?

(End of chapter)