"Ahem......"

"This earthy smell ......"

In mid-May, the seventh day of the army's march north.

Perhaps in order to add difficulty to the Northern Expedition, the dust that was always supposed to end in April actually blew up again in mid-May.

The weather that should have been sunny is extremely bad at this moment.

A Ming army of tens of thousands was marching across the grasslands, shuttling through the endless steppe Gobi, the sky covered by a cloudy sandstorm, and the whole land became blurred.

At the front of the marching procession, a few hares could be seen looming in a patch of withered yellow grass.

Some Ming officers and soldiers who were skilled in bows and horses hunted these animals and searched for herbs and game to pick along the march.

However, there are few animals in this vast grassland covered with sand and dust, and the sandstorm even limited the range of the Ming army's pond horse, and nothing useful could be found.

The whirlpool of sand and dust came head-on, and the dust kicked up made the Ming officers and soldiers have to cover their noses and mouths.

After a while, the vision in front of me became more and more blurred, and the whole team seemed to be cut off.

The sand and dust are tiring and exhausting.

With the continuous attack of sandstorms, the Ming officers and soldiers gradually slowed down.

When did Xie Jin, Hu Guang, Hu Yan and other civil officials in Jiangnan suffer this kind of hardship, so they all complained, and only a small number of officials such as Jin Youzi and Yang Shiqi swallowed their anger.

"This dust is against me, but now that the wind is over, it won't blow for long, don't worry."

On horseback, Zhu Di squinted at the dim environment around him, still confident.

This harsh environment, not to mention the civil servants in the south of the Yangtze River, even the military generals in the north are also complaining.

Fortunately, this sandstorm is really as Zhu Di said, but it gradually subsided after a long time.

After a while, the heavens and the earth became clear again, and cheers were heard from time to time in the procession.

Looking at the gradually clearer environment, Xie Jin and the others felt unbelievable, if it weren't for the earthy smell on the tip of their noses that reminded them all the time, maybe they didn't think they had just experienced a dust.

"The weather outside the Seychelles is really as unpredictable as Your Majesty said."

Yang Shiqi stroked his beard, and Xie Jinyan, who was next to him, patted the soil on his body, and his tone was dissatisfied: "What's the use of taking such a place?" ”

When he opened his mouth like this, no one dared to say anything else, so he could only follow the crowd.

Indeed, as far as what the officials saw and heard on the way north, in addition to Shandong and Beiping, some spring colors can be seen in the northern land, and all you see outside the Sai is the desert Gobi.

"This place used to be a sparse forest grassland with abundant water and grass, and fat cattle and sheep, but now it has become like this, do you know why?"

"This ...... I don't know. ”

On horseback, Zhu Di was full of emotion, but the civil officials who followed him couldn't say a reason at this time.

Seeing that they couldn't say it, Zhu Di also said angrily: "When I was looking at the sand table in the capital, I asked the prince about it, and the prince found out the reason only after reading ancient and modern books. ”

"In the words of the prince, this is because the weather has begun to change since the Tang Dynasty, the lack of rainfall, and the uncontrolled grazing of nomads in successive dynasties have turned this once rich forest grassland into the sandy Gobi."

"The prince also said that this place is one of the main sources of wind and sand in Beiping."

Zhu Di said what he heard from Zhu Gaoxu, but for these words, Hu Guang and others scoffed, thinking that Zhu Gaoxu was exaggerating, and only Xie Jin couldn't laugh.

As an all-rounder who is familiar with literature and history, Xie Jin has studied a lot of things, including the time when the sparse forest grassland and the Hetao grassland gradually disappeared, and he is undoubtedly from the middle and late Tang Dynasty.

In other words, there is no problem with what Zhu Gaoxu said, at least in terms of literature and history, as for other ancient books, even Xie Jin is not clear, after all, he does not have the ability to almost remember like Zhu Gaoxu.

"But don't worry about it now, we Han people take this land, so we can control some grazing, and we can always curb it."

Zhu Di stroked his beard, then shook the reins of his horse and rushed forward.

Seeing this, Xie Jin and the others still had to follow no matter how reluctant they were.

After the wind and sand passed, the troops of the Ming army regained the rhythm of their advance and tried to advance steadily towards their destination.

In this vast and desolate steppe, they marched against the wind for several days, until they finally reached the southern edge of the city of Uliangha on May 18.

Zhu Di opened the binoculars to take a look at the situation, and then waited for the Tang Qi to return.

After about half an hour, after the Tang cavalry confirmed that there was no ambush, Zhu Di commanded an army of 30,000 to camp in Wuliang Ha Bald City, and at the same time instructed Li Shi and Li Qi:

"According to the time, Meng Zhang should have brought people to wait in the southeast of the Anwen River, and you sent someone to pass on him and transport grain and grass to Wuliang Ha Bald City."

"Command!"

In the face of Zhu Di's orders, Li Shi and Li Qi each led more than 1,000 horses and infantry to the southeast.

Due to the different hydrology of the times and the perennial flooding of the Nuwen River, the Nuwen River is now closer to the city of Wuliang Ha Vulture, but it is only 200 miles away.

Zhu Di saw that the two of them led their troops away from the army, so he also commanded Xu Zengshou, Li Yuan and others to lead the army to camp in Wuliang Ha Bald City, and at the same time sent officials from the household department in the army to let them lead their soldiers to measure how much arable land was outside Wuliang Ha Bald City.

He personally led his army into the city of Uliangha, and looking at the city that had not changed from six years ago, he couldn't help but think of the fact that his second brother forced him to rebel.

"If I had done it at that time, I'm afraid the ending would have been very different......"

Thinking of the current situation of military power in the world, Zhu Di sighed a few times, but he didn't dwell too much.

After all, in his opinion, even if Zhu Gaoxu wanted him to abdicate, it would be impossible to open his mouth at such a juncture.

Zhu Di estimates that when his second child's Sichuan New Deal pilot is successful, and then implements the New Deal in the world, I'm afraid that kid will think about the throne.

"How many more years do I have to live?"

Zhu Di grabbed his beard and didn't care.

Things in the south are not so easy to clean up, how can it be so easy without more than ten years of hard work.

More than ten years later, he may be almost sixty, and it remains to be said whether he will live to that time.

Thinking so, Zhu Di also walked into a wooden house that had been cleaned up, waiting for news from the southeast.

While he was waiting, Li Shi and Li Qi galloped wildly with two thousand Jurchen horse infantry, and the next day they met Meng Zhangfang's distant sentry horse, and went to the camp under the guidance of the sentry horseman.

At noon on the third day, when they came to the place not far from the Nuwen River under the great sun, a camp about ten miles west of the Nuwen River attracted their attention, and two thousand horse infantry, led by Li Shi and Li Qi, rushed directly to the camp.

"Here comes the Tartars!"

"Don't panic, it's your own people!"

Outside the camp gate, the ten-mile army of grain transporters made a frightened sound, and they were about to flee, but fortunately they were stopped by the Ming army, so that the camp roar did not break out.

Li Shi and Li Qi saw the chaotic crowd from a long distance, and they couldn't help slowing down their horses, turned over and dismounted not far from the camp, and walked all the way quickly.

At the same time, more than 100 figures also rode out of the camp.

As the Duke of Liao, Meng Zhang led the current commander of the Zhaozhou Wei to make Gan Yue walk out, and turned over and dismounted not far from Li Shi and them.

"Meng Zhang!"

"Good fellow, I've finally waited for you!"

After more than ten steps, Meng Zhang and Li Lost ran separately, the two sides hugged each other excitedly, Meng Zhang also hammered Li Lost a punch, and complained:

"Your Majesty asked us to leave in three days, but we have arrived here for six days and have not seen any trace of you, I was worried about whether you had met the Hu people, so I waited for your news."

"I encountered a sandstorm and ate a mouthful of dirt." Li Shi explained, and then after the soldiers brought Maza, they sat with Meng Zhang on this grassy and beautiful grass.

"When will we be able to pull out so many people in Bohai?"

Looking at the group of people, Li Shi couldn't help asking, because he saw that most of the people in this group were Jurchens.

Seeing that he was curious, Meng Zhang also explained: "Since I got the news at the end of last year, I have placed all the Jurchens in Zhaozhou, and now Zhaozhou has also expanded a lot. ”

"At present, there are more than 47,000 people in Zhaozhou, and there are 30,000 exiled prisoners to be disposed of, you see ......."

Meng Zhang pointed to the team of people not far away with a horsewhip in his hand, among which there were not only children, but also women and old people, who were basically the families of the assigned objects.

"Coupled with the tens of thousands of people transferred from Jilin, Changchun, and Andong, this is enough to get together so many people, and by the way, 20,000 horses were brought to pull grain."

"That's right!" Hearing that there was food, Li Yu urged: "Hurry up and let people get food, after eating military rations for half a month, a bird's taste faded out of my mouth." ”

"I know what kind of temper you have, I've been messing with it for a long time." Meng Zhang smiled heartily, and at the same time instructed Gan Yue behind him:

"Gather the sentinels and prepare to arrange a grain transport team to transport grain to the city of Uliang Ha Vulture."

"The last general commands!" Hearing the military order, Gan Yue responded without thinking, and immediately arranged for someone to recall the sentry horseman.

Li Lost and the others watched the Zhaozhou cavalry galloping back and forth with envy, and couldn't help but smile and asked: "There are some things that we don't want to ask Your Highness, you are honest now, is Bohai rich and tight?" ”

"Who told you to take your family south?" Meng Zhang smiled dumbly when he heard this, but he still gave a general introduction:

"More than 60,000 people migrated to the south last year, and 100,000 Jurchens migrated south in the Bohai Sea, and now there are more than 109,000 households and more than 477,000 people."

"As far as the fields are concerned, there are basically 40 acres per household, and the Bohai field endowment alone is enough to supply Modong Sanwei."

"We're not asking about that." Li Shi and Li Qi looked at each other, and said directly: "There must be enough military horses and riding horses in Bohai now, I see that you are almost 2,000 cavalry here." ”

"No, the four thousand men I brought this time are all cavalry." Meng Zhang smiled, which made Li Shi and Li Qi instantly have the idea of fighting local tyrants.

"But it's a pity that His Highness said that without his fatwa, no one is allowed to touch the military horses of Bohai and Liaodong."

Meng Zhang added, Li Shi and Li Qi were discouraged, after all, they didn't dare to make waves under the noses of their Highnesses.

To tell the truth, as far as Zhu Gaoxu's anti-corruption and anti-corruption methods against the Jiangdong Liufu and Shandong squires are concerned, even the old brothers from Bohai are worried that they will be arrested for corruption.

Fortunately, their military salaries were high enough, and Zhu Gaoxu granted hereditary official positions and ranks to most of the Bohai military attaches and soldiers, so their lives were much more nourishing than those of civilian officials.

The 40,000 Bohai brothers who went south at the beginning, the worst was also a small flag officer, and this little flag officer was at least holding the Zhaoxin Lieutenant Rank of the Sixth Rank behind him.

The military rank plus the scattered ranks, plus the military salaries of those from Bohai and Yanfu were raised by Zhu Gaoxu, so a small flag official from Bohai and Yanfu would have at least three times as much as a civil official from the same official rank of Qipin, about 240 stones.

This is comparable to a civil official from the fourth grade.

However, even so, there are still many military attaches in Bohai and Yanfu who are involved in the procuratorate of Jiangdong Liufu and Shandong.

Although they will not be exiled back to Bohai after being found to be corrupt, they will enjoy a more uncomfortable punishment than returning to Bohai, and they will be stripped of their official positions and ranks, leaving only one house, and the father and son will not be allowed to join the army.

This kind of treatment is even more uncomfortable than exiling them back to Bohai, at least they can work hard for a few more years to cultivate their own farmland, but there is no wasteland for them to reclaim in the south of the Yangtze River, they can only be glad that they have learned words in the army, and they can write letters to others.

Of course, Zhu Gaoxu also turned a blind eye to the old brother Bohai's help to this group of people, after all, he also had feelings for the old brother Bohai, but he just hated iron and steel.

"There are more than 24,000 military horses, of which 20,000 are free-range in the military horse farm, and the other more than 4,000 have been brought out by me."

"There are more than 267,000 horses, more than 63,400 horses, and more than 465,000 cattle."

Meng Zhang shook off the family background of Bohai and Liaodong as if showing off, and he was almost carried away with jealousy when he heard Li Shi and the others.

"How can there be so many?" The two of them couldn't believe it, but Meng Zhang shrugged: "The small tribes that Wuliang Hadong fled from are not just one who escaped, but they fled with their herds. ”

"At the current speed, I estimate that in another four or five years, the imperial court will be able to pull out at least 50,000 cavalry to march north."

Meng Zhang said a terrifying number, that is, 50,000 cavalry.

Since it was a northern expedition, it naturally did not include the cavalry in the northwest and southwest of the country.

If you count the cavalry in these places, the cavalry in the hands of the Ming Dynasty is probably not less than 80,000, which is almost more than the sum of the two Ming armored cavalry of Tatar and Warat.

Even if only 50,000 cavalry were mobilized to march north, this force would be enough to destroy the respective headquarters of the Tatars and Warats.

"How do you feel like you ...... dreaming"

Li Shi touched his short beard, and so did Li Qi next to him.

For the Jurchens, raising horses was not a problem, and cavalry was not a problem, but the Mingjia cavalry was a problem.

When the land of the six cities was at its peak, there were only seven or eight hundred Mingjia cavalry, and now how many years have passed, Bohai can pull out 4,000 Mingjia cavalry, and in a few years, it can even pull out 50,000 Mingjia cavalry.

If the Ming army can really pull out so many Ming armored cavalry, then the Tatars and Warat may have to reunite overnight.

"By the way, you ......"

Before Meng Zhang's words were finished, he saw a thousand-household official leading more than ten cavalry from the temporary ferry of the Annowen River, and turned over and dismounted to Meng Zhang and the others, handing out a letter.

"Guogong, the East Palace Decree."

"Chen Mengzhang takes the order!" Although it was thousands of miles away, when Meng Zhang learned that this decree was issued from the East Palace, he still stood up and took the decree respectfully.

Not long after, he opened the fatwa under the curious eyes of Li Shi, Li Qi and others, and then took out a fire fold and burned it on the spot.

"What's wrong?" Li Lost asked, but Meng Zhang didn't hide it, and said directly: "Your Highness asked you to open the post road from Jilin to Whale Haiwei as soon as possible." ”

"In addition, the North Korean side sent people to the capital, saying that our guard post had overpassed."

"Our guard passes?" Li was stunned, but Meng Zhang spoke: "Jianzhou Wei." ”

"Jianzhou Wei?" Not only Li Lost, but everyone scratched their heads, unable to remember which guard house this was, until Meng Zhang reminded them.

"It's the wild people in the middle of the house, right?"

Li Shi reacted, and when he saw Meng Zhang nodding, he said in disgust: "Their gang is good at looting, I'm afraid they caused trouble this time." ”

"Whether you cause trouble or not, after all, it's my Ming people." Meng Zhang said that, and then motioned to Li Lost and others to join the camp with him to catch up.

Seeing this, Li Shi and Li Qi did not refuse, and followed him to the camp one after another.

However, when they learned the news and walked to the camp, Zhu Gaoxu, who was in Nanjing, finally received the North Korean envoy.

"The Korean envoy Jin Zhan begs to see His Highness!"

"Xuan!"

In the Chunhe Palace, Zhu Gaoxu did not raise his head in response, and after a while, he heard footsteps.

When the footsteps stopped, the owner of the voice also began to sing: "Jin Zhan, the envoy of the lower country, bows to His Royal Highness the Prince, may His Royal Highness the Crown Prince be a thousand years old and a thousand years old......"

Zhu Gaoxu closed the music and glanced at Jin Zhan, he has a good appearance, he is a typical North Korean appearance, with a big face and single eyelids, and his temperament is also cringe.

"Your Highness, this person is a scholar of the Korean National Art Museum, and he is a Korean Confucian."

Yisha reminded Zhu Gaoxu, but Zhu Gaoxu chuckled when he heard this.

With him, no bullshit works.

He is not as good as them when discussing the Four Books and Five Classics, but when discussing historical materials, Zhu Gaoxu is not worried that he will fall into the disadvantage.

"I heard that you are here for the affairs of the Helan Mansion and the Twin Cities Governor's Mansion?"

In the face of Jin Zhan's salute, Zhu Gaoxu went straight to the point, and moved out of the Yuan Dynasty's Helan Mansion and Shuangcheng Governor's Mansion to swear sovereignty.

"Exactly ......"

Jin Zhan obviously didn't expect Zhu Gaoxu to look tall and mighty, five big and three thick, but when it comes to historical materials, he can also say that the head is the Tao.

"Your Royal Highness, Helan Mansion and Shuangcheng Governor's Mansion only belonged to China in the Yuan Dynasty, but before Hu Yuan invaded our country, they were both our homeland, and the ministers did not record this place as Liaojin owned by Liaojin in the "Geographical Chronicles" of "History ......of Liao" and "History of Jin", so it can be seen that it is not Liaojin territory at all."

"The Helan Mansion and the Shuangcheng Governor's Mansion are originally the land of our dynasty, and the Jurchens on the ground are also the people of our dynasty."

In the face of Jin Zhan's words, Zhu Gaoxu did not accept the invitation at all, and directly used the local ethnic groups as proof.

Since the DPRK has not completely taken over the northeastern region, they have not made any immigration, and the number is naturally not comparable to that of the local Jurchens.

"In addition, at the beginning of the new dynasty, the two commanders of the Jianzhou Left Guard and the Central Guard went to Jilin to report on their work, which is enough to prove that they are people from the imperial court."

After Zhu Gaoxu said, Jin Zhan could only speak: "The Jurchens here only came to live here to obtain shelter, which does not mean that this place is owned by the Celestial Empire. ”

"So how does that mean that this place is owned by North Korea?" Zhu Gaoxu asked Jin Zhan rhetorically, and Jin Zhan also listed a bunch of historical materials when he saw this, but they all said that Liaojin had no ruling foundation in the local area.

In the face of Jin Zhan's nonsense, Zhu Gaoxu said directly: "Liaojin doesn't have it, then Han Jin finally has it, right?" ”

Jin Zhan knew that Zhu Gaoxu wanted to talk about the four counties of the Han Dynasty, so he hurriedly said: "The four counties of the Han Dynasty are too far away, and I am afraid it ...... mention them now."

"The four counties of Han are too far away, so aren't Silla and Goguryeo far away?" Zhu Gaoxu questioned Jin Zhan, and cold sweat slowly oozed from Jin Zhan's forehead.

Due to the lack of historical data, Jin Zhan could not produce substantial evidence of Joseon's rule over the northeastern region, but the Ming Dynasty was able to take over the Helan Mansion and the Shuangcheng Governor's Mansion in the name of Dayuan.

His original idea was that the northeastern region was not a rich place anyway, and the Prince of Daming should not look down on that place.

Now it seems that he underestimated the decision of the Ming prince and overestimated the status of North Korea in his heart.

"Your Highness's move is to ignore the diplomatic relations between the two countries."

Jin Zhan brought up the topic of diplomatic relations with tributary vassals, but as soon as he heard this topic, Zhu Gaoxu sneered: "I heard that there has always been a slogan in the Korean temples to go to Liaodong, I don't know if this counts as ignoring the diplomatic relations between the two countries?" ”

"It's... The minister ...... "Jin Zhan broke out in a cold sweat, he couldn't imagine that Zhu Gaoxu even knew about this kind of thing, as if he lived in Gyeongbokgung Palace, where the king lived.

"This land is closer to the lower country......"

Jin Zhan was in a hurry to go to the doctor, but Zhu Gaoxu did not laugh again when he heard this, which made Jin Zhan raise his eyes cautiously and saw Zhu Gaoxu with a cold face.

He hurriedly knelt down, but Zhu Gaoxu ignored it and said directly: "If it is close, North Korea is closer to the Celestial Empire, but will my Celestial Empire claim that North Korea is the territory of the Celestial Empire?" ”

After Zhu Gaoxu finished speaking, he simply got up and walked in front of Jin Zhan, slowly helped him up and said:

"I know that Kwon Zhi Joseon (Li Fangyuan) can't restrain the lawless ministers in the temple, or you look at it......"

Zhu Gaoxu pretended to think, and only said after a while: "You asked the state affairs of Quanzhi Korea to send that group of ministers to lead the troops to attack Liaodong, the Celestial Empire still has 10,000 people on the Liaodong side, although it is not much, but the Celestial Empire is large, although the number is small, it is not much compared to North Korea." ”

"At that time, let these 10,000 people fight with the troops and horses led by the Korean ministers, and whichever side wins, this northeastern part will belong to whomever it is."

"Ah...... This...... Don't dare! ”

Jin Zhan was frightened by Zhu Gaoxu's words, after all, the news from North Korea was not closed, and they also knew that Annan had actually been destroyed by the Ming Dynasty, and the most important of them was the Western Navy led by Zheng He.

If North Korea mobilizes troops and horses to attack Liaodong, and Zheng He lands directly from the sea, then North Korea may not be arguing about the issue of one or two pieces of land, but whether it will destroy the country.

The news of the size of Zheng He's Lower Oriental Fleet had already spread in Korea, and Li Fangyuan, the lord of Korea, was very jealous of the Ming Dynasty's naval forces.

Now Zhu Gaoxu's hand seems to be using the landing of the North Korean army in Liaodong as an excuse to destroy the country in one fell swoop.

After all, Zhu Di personally led an army of 30,000 to the north, who knows whether this army will go north to fight Uliangha or North Korea.

If Zhu Di personally conquered North Korea and left the prince in charge of North Korea, then once he agreed, it would be a move to destroy the country.

"The minister has not thought it through, and hopes that he can return to North Korea, and after consulting with our lord, he will send an envoy to Daming and ask to see His Highness Tianrong."

Jin Zhan wanted to escape from the Chunhe Palace, but Zhu Gaoxu also smiled when he saw this and said, "You go back and discuss slowly, I'll wait for you." ”

Although Zhu Gaoxu was saying it with a smile, Jin Zhan felt that it was a threat.

"The minister retired ......"

Compared with the stability when he came, Jin Zhan, who withdrew at this time, seemed to be very flustered, and seemed to be really worried about Zhu Di's personal expedition to North Korea.

When he hurriedly withdrew from the Chunhe Palace, Yizha stepped forward and handed over the tea, and Zhu Gaoxu also took a sip, disdainful of the direction in which Jin Zhan disappeared:

"Bian Yi is cheap, and he is also worthy of negotiating terms with me!"

"Records of Ming Taizong": "In May, Gengyin went up to the garrison of Wuliang Ha Bald City to search for the traces of the guards and soldiers of Wuliang Ha. ”

"Bohai Chronicle": "On the second day of May, North Korea sent an envoy to seek Helan, Shuangcheng and other places, and said: "This place is very close to North Korea", and the last time it said: "North Korea is closer to the Celestial Empire", so that the ministers cowardly ran back, and the eunuch of Bohai said: "North Koreans, the border Yi is a lowly species, does not know the king, and is not enough to treat benevolence and righteousness." ””

(End of chapter)