Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 232 Two Generals
Luzhou Horse Farm was indeed abandoned. In fact, when Lu Jin first traveled through time, Luzhou Horse Farm was almost abandoned, with only a few hundred horses. Later, after defeating Zuo Junbi, they seized more than a hundred war horses from Zuo Junbi, but they were still not enough to form a cavalry. They were divided up by Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong, and there was not a single horse left in the horse farm.

What's the point of having a horse farm if there are no horses left? Besides, the land for the horse farm was originally seized by the Tartars from the people, and now it's a good opportunity to redistribute it to the people.

However, the horse farm still had to be rebuilt. If you want to conquer the world, you must have cavalry. Later, after Li Shanchang surrendered, he brought a brother with him. Lu Jin then let his brother Li Cunyi be the head of the Yuanma Division, responsible for raising horses.

This guy inspected Lu Jin's territory and finally found a piece of wild land with abundant grass and water, and few people cultivating it, at the foot of Dabie Mountain, southwest of Shucheng. The area was covered with thatched straw beaches, so the new horse farm was named "Thatched Straw Beach".

This is the Maotanchang of the famous Maotanchang Middle School in later generations. In the original history, this place was one of the military horse farms newly established in Anhui during the Ming Dynasty. It is not a coincidence. After all, horse breeding is very selective in location, and the farmland of the people cannot be occupied. There are not many horse breeding lands that meet these conditions.
Speaking of dividing the land, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly became excited. He was a hardworking man who liked farming. Before, his family had no land and they all rented the Liu family's land. They lived a hard life and eventually his parents all starved to death. Now he finally had his own land.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard Lu Jin mention the land, he was happy at first, but then he became distressed.

"We have been allocated land, but now it is spring and the weather is getting warmer, but no one is cultivating our land. I talked to our company's training officer about this, and he said that other soldiers' land is either cultivated by their families or by homeless people like us who hire tenants to cultivate it.

"We also want to recruit tenants, otherwise it would be a pity to leave the land uncultivated. But there are few people in Luzhou now, and the commander-in-chief has distributed land to the people. Everyone has his own land, and they are busy with their own land, so how can they have time to cultivate other people's land? We can't recruit anyone willing to farm now.

"I asked my comrades who have relatives to ask for me. Even if there are people who are willing to help, they don't want to grow rice and wheat. Growing rice and wheat is too laborious. No one is willing to do it."

Zhu Chongba said this, looked at Lu Jin carefully, and asked, "When the spring plowing season comes, can you give us a half-month holiday so that we can plant the land?"

Lu Jin immediately frowned and said, "How can that be possible? Your current training level is still too low. If you don't train hard now, you will be sent to die on the battlefield. Don't you want to live?
"Besides, if we let you go home to farm for half a month, what if the other soldiers also want to go back? If everyone wants to go home, won't the army be dispersed?"

Zhu Chongba himself felt that this was unreliable, and immediately said in distress, "But other brothers have family members to help farm the land, and I have no family, and I can't recruit tenants. It's a pity to leave the land like this."

Lu Jin thought about it and immediately offered an idea, "If you are really worried, you can recruit tenants to help you farm. At worst, you can stop planting rice and wheat and plant soybeans. You can eat them, make tofu, boil salt, feed horses, and fertilize the fields.

"Growing soybeans doesn't require too much work, and beans have many uses and you won't have trouble selling them. You'll definitely have to fight with the army for a few years, so it's better to grow beans first, and sell them directly after the harvest. Save the money first, and when the world is stable in the future, I'll give you some rewards. When you save the money, take the rewards, and go home to build a new house.

“Since we can’t grow rice and wheat now, we might as well grow beans to protect the land, so that the land won’t go to waste.

"If you don't want to grow beans, you can also grow alfalfa. Alfalfa is a forage grass and can also fertilize the fields. You don't need to plow the land. Just harrow it and sow some grass seeds to get a harvest. The harvested grass can be fed to cattle, sheep and horses. If you plant fifty acres of alfalfa and raise a cow, you will have an extra ox to use when you come back to plow the land in the future.

"If all else fails, plant mulberry trees and cotton and linen. Cotton needs to be picked manually, which is troublesome, but sesame and mulberry trees are much more convenient. Sesame can be spun into yarn and woven into cloth, and sesame seeds can be pressed into oil, so there is always a lot of room for sale. Cotton is also easy to sell. Planting mulberry trees is the easiest, as you don't have to worry about anything else but selling mulberry leaves."

Zhu Chongba was very excited when he heard this. "What the Marshal said is indeed a solution. Let me think about it. It's a pity that I don't have any family. It would be great if I had family to help me take care of it."

Lu Jin stood up and patted his shoulder. "You will find your family. If you can't find your relatives, we will find a way to find you a wife. How can a living person die from holding his urine? How can you not know how to plant the land?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Chongba stood up and said, "Thank you for taking care of me, Marshal. You have given me land and helped me find my family. Unfortunately, I, Zhu Chongba, have nothing to repay you. I don't know when you will use your troops. When that happens, I, Zhu Chongba, am willing to be your vanguard."

Lu Jin patted his shoulder and said, "First, train your troops well. When we find a fighting opportunity, you will definitely have a chance to make contributions."

After saying that, Lu Jin turned and left, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang standing there alone, looking towards the north, wondering whether any of his family members were still alive.

Of course, there are some living relatives of Zhu Yuanzhang. When he first conquered Haozhou, Lu Jin was recruiting soldiers in Haozhou. When Zhu Yuanzhang joined the army, he wrote two letters, one to his sister and one to his eldest brother. Now, several months have passed, and there should be news from there.

What Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know was that the person who delivered the letter to his relatives was not an ordinary person, but someone from the Military Command Department's intelligence system who was specially instructed by Lu Jin to deliver the letter.

Of course, the spies in the intelligence system did not specifically help him find his family. The current intelligence system mainly focuses on Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Yangzhou Road in Jiangsu. As for the area from Xuyi to Xuzhou, there is no stable intelligence station, and they rely on scattered spies to wander around and inquire about news.

The order Lu Jin gave to the northern intelligence station was to find Mao Gui, Xue Xian, Fu Youde, and the Deng family. Since they were heading north anyway, it was a good opportunity for them to deliver a message to Zhu Yuanzhang on the way.

In ancient times, people would not easily leave their hometown unless they really could not survive. Even if they went out to escape famine, they would come back if things turned around. After all, it is hard to leave one's hometown. In addition, there is a high probability that there are ancestral graves in one's hometown. The ancients attached great importance to this. Therefore, as long as the target village can be determined, it is not difficult to find someone to deliver a letter.

So after two months of searching, they actually managed to deliver the letter to Li Zhen in Xuyi.

Li Zhen was Zhu Yuanzhang's second brother-in-law. His sister was known in history as Zhu Funu. Her specific name is unknown, but it doesn't matter because her sister died of the disease during the great disaster and plague a few years ago. However, Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew Baoer and his brother-in-law Li Zhen were still alive, but they were also living a hard life.

Li Zhen was not from a wealthy family. He was just a poor scholar. Although he studied, he also had to farm by himself. However, in the year of disaster, nothing could grow on the land. Since his wife passed away, he could only depend on his son and live a life of misery.

A few days ago, someone suddenly found their village and said that his wife's brother had sent him a letter. Li Zhen and Bao'er then learned that Zhu Yuanzhang, who had begged for food and became a monk, had now surrendered to the rebels in Luzhou and became a junior officer in the rebel army.

Although he was only a captain of ten men, Marshal Lu of Luzhou allocated land to them. Now his brother-in-law Zhu Chongba had fifty acres of land under his name, and they were living a relatively stable life for the time being. So he wrote a letter to his relatives, saying that if they really couldn't make ends meet, they could come to Luzhou to seek refuge with him.

After receiving the letter, Li Zhen and his son hesitated for a long time. One reason was that Li Zhen still had a few acres of thin land for the time being. Although he was still living a hard life, he could still barely survive after the disaster. Now he was afraid that the rebel soldiers and Yuan soldiers would kill people indiscriminately and suffer from war. Otherwise, Li Zhen would not be willing to leave.

Besides, Zhu Yuanzhang is only a captain of ten men now, not a high-ranking official. His family only has fifty acres of land. Even if he and his son go there, they can only farm for a living, which is no different from now. At most, they can live a more stable life without having to worry every day. This is the case if the Yuan army does not attack.

But the messenger told them that the Yuan army would definitely attack in a few months at the least and half a year at the most, and the Xuzhou rebels would be vulnerable. They would probably be caught in the crossfire. If they wanted to survive, they should make plans early. After that, the messenger left.

Li Zhen immediately doubted this man's identity, thinking that he must be a rebel, and his information channels must be much more informed than he, an ordinary citizen. Since the Yuan army was definitely coming, it would be better to head south to Luzhou now.

After making up his mind, he found that some of his fellow villagers were buying up land and houses and accumulating wealth. Li Zhen despised his fellow villagers who valued money over their lives. He sold his own land and exchanged it for some food. Then he took his 13-year-old son south to Luzhou.

In his letter, Zhu Yuanzhang said that he had followed Marshal Lu to Luzhou. If any relatives came to look for them, they could first go to Haozhou to find a battalion commander named Tang He, who was an old acquaintance of his. Tang He would then naturally send them to Luzhou to find him.

So the father and son went west from Xuyi to Haozhou. However, what they didn't know was that the northern part of Haozhou had already been fortified and cleared, with no human habitation for hundreds of miles. The father and son had to travel on foot, and they didn't have much food with them. There was no one on the road, and they almost starved to death.

This was not the worst. When the two of them went to Haozhou, they happened to encounter Chelibuhua's attack on Haozhou. Zheng Yong's Second Cavalry Regiment fought with Chelibuhua in the uninhabited area in the north of Haozhou. The battle between nearly 10,000 cavalrymen scared the father and son so much that they were afraid of being affected. They could only find an deserted village and hide for a long time.

In fact, the real battle lasted only two days, but the father and son had no scouts, so they hid in an abandoned village and did not dare to go out to get any information, for fear of being caught by the cavalry.

After hiding like this for nearly half a month, the food the father and son brought was about to run out. They were so hungry that they had to travel cautiously at night and sleep in the morning. They hid all the way until they arrived at the Huaihe River ferry in Haozhou. Fortunately, there was a boat controlled by the Shengwu Army at the ferry. They learned that they were coming to Haozhou to look for their relatives and had letters that could tell Tang He's name, so they were sent across the river by ferry.

After going through a lot of hardships, they finally arrived at the city of Haozhou. They were interrogated by the gatekeepers. After learning that they were there to look for their relatives, the gatekeepers agreed to help them find their superior.

Li Wenzhong, who is only 13 years old this year, is of course not called Li Wenzhong yet. This boy now only has a nickname, Baoer.

Baoer looked at the soldiers of the Shengwu Army standing guard at the city gate. They were all wearing bright red dark armor, four-petal iron helmets on their heads, and holding five-meter-four-long spears in their hands. They looked very majestic.

He was immediately delighted and said, "Dad, Marshal Lu's soldiers are so powerful. I saw so many armored cavalry a few days ago, and today the soldiers in Haozhou City are also wearing shining helmets and armor. My uncle must be living a good life as Marshal Lu's personal soldier. We made the right decision this time."

Now 49 years old, Li Zhen looks older after a month of running around, but she is not as optimistic as her son.

"It's hard to say. Marshal Lu's soldiers are powerful, but it has nothing to do with us. Your father is too old to lift a sword or a gun, and you are still young. I guess you can't even hold up the armor. We are not here to join the army. If we go, we will just look for your uncle. At most, he will reward us with a piece of land, and we will have to farm for a living in the future."

When Baoer heard this, he immediately wilted. Yes, his uncle was just a captain of ten men, and he didn't join the army. How could he take care of them?

The father and son waited for a while, but seeing that no one came to pay attention to them, they couldn't help but become anxious.

Baoer said again, "Dad, could it be that our uncle lied to us? Or maybe he went to the war and died in it?"

Upon hearing this, Li Zhen slapped his son and immediately scolded him, "Don't talk nonsense. Your uncle clearly wrote in the letter that he was recruited by Marshal Lu to be a personal soldier. He also followed Marshal Lu to Luzhou. There are no official troops from the Yuan court there. How could he die in the battle? Don't worry, don't worry, wait a little longer."

"Oh."

In fact, Li Zhen himself was also afraid. He had sold his land in his hometown and brought his son to seek refuge with his wife's brother. Now Zhu Yuanzhang had become their only hope. If Zhu Yuanzhang really died in the battle, both father and son would not know how to survive next.

The father and son waited at the city gate for a long time. The soldiers guarding the city finally called the battalion commander over. It was Lu Xianzong, a surrendered general from Anqing who had just been transferred to the Fifth Regiment. Lu Xianzong's gunshot wound on his arm had just healed. This was the first person who had fought with Lu Jin and was shot by Lu Jin and was still alive.
Lu Xianzong glanced at the father and son and asked, "You are here to seek refuge with your relatives. Are you looking for the captain of the Thousand Households, Tang He?"

"That's right, could the general please let us know?" Li Zhen asked respectfully.

Lu Xianzong said, "The battalion commander Tang He you are looking for has been transferred. He is not in Haozhou now."

"Ah, this..." The father and son were stunned.

Lu Xianzong took the letter from the two and said, "You are looking for someone named Zhu Chongba in your letter. You also said that General Lu's personal guard went to Luzhou. Why don't you just go to Luzhou to find him? Why do you have to look for Tang He?"

"This," Li Zhen hesitated, "We can go directly to Luzhou, but my father and I don't have much money and no extra food. It's still far from Luzhou. My father and I..."

Li Zhen hadn't finished speaking, but Lu Xianzong had already understood the meaning of his words and immediately said, "Why don't you stay in Haozhou first and take the post boat to Luzhou in two days? As for the expenses, I can help you with some of them. How about that?"

"I'm afraid this is not a good idea. It will cost the general too much money." Li Zhen said modestly.

Lu Xianzong waved his hand and said, "It's not a big deal. Just take a few days' meal for you and your son. When I come back, I'll go find Tang He and ask him to treat me to a drink, and that will be considered paying off."

Li Zhen heard this and said, "Thank you very much, General. I will definitely repay you in the future."

Seeing this, Baoer also hurriedly followed suit and saluted.

Lu Xianzong waved his hand again and then led the father and son into the city.

Haozhou is connected to Liang County next to Luzhou by the Hao River. In order to facilitate communication, a post station was set up on the Hao River. Ships traveled back and forth to deliver letters, so the transportation was quite convenient. However, there were not ships every day. There were only fixed ships on the 28th and 28th of each month, and there was only one message every six days. The rest of the time, unless it was urgent military information, the next message would be exactly three days later.

The father and son stayed in the city for two days. They saw that the soldiers in the city were training very diligently every day, and thousands of them were wearing the same standard armor. Li Zhen immediately understood that this must be the armor made by the Shengwu Army. It seemed that the strength of the Shengwu Army was stronger than he thought. They could produce their own armor and weapons, which was already stronger than most of the rebel armies. What's more, half a month ago they saw that the Shengwu Army had a powerful cavalry of thousands of people.

On that day, two more people came to the outside of Haozhou City looking for their relatives. It was a coincidence that Lu Xianzong was called to the city gate by soldiers again. He found that this time they were a mother and son. The mother was middle-aged and the son was only in his teens, but he was not short in height.

"Are you also looking for relatives? Who are you looking for?"

The young man immediately bowed and said, "My dear boy, I am here to meet the general. My uncle is the personal guard of General Lu. He asked us to come to Haozhou to find a captain named Tang He."

"Another person comes to look for Tang He. Your uncle is the Marshal's imperial guard. Could your uncle also be called Zhu Chongba?" Lu Xianzong asked in surprise.

Upon hearing this, the young man and his mother looked at each other in surprise, then immediately nodded, "That's right, General, do you know my uncle?"

Lu Xianzong shook his head, "I don't know him, but a few days ago there was a guy who came to Zhu Chongba to look for his relatives. The guy claimed to be his nephew and called him uncle. You two should be a family, that's perfect, come with me."

So, the mother and son were led into the city in a daze. After meeting Li Zhen and his son, they asked each other and found out that the two families were really "relatives". Li Zhen was Zhu Yuanzhang's brother-in-law, and the mother and son, the girl was named Zhu Wangshi, Zhu Yuanzhang's sister-in-law, and the son was named Lu'er, who was sixteen years old this year and was Zhu Yuanzhang's nephew. Obviously, Lu'er's relatives were closer.

Although both families lived in misery, otherwise they would not have come to seek refuge with Zhu Chongba, who was only a sergeant. But at least they had a companion. The two boys were also of similar age and soon became close.

The next day, they took a boat to Liang County and then went to Luzhou by land. The four were stopped by the soldiers at the city gate again. The soldiers went to find the battalion officer on duty that day. Because the musketeers of the Imperial Guard had to be trained, the soldiers guarding the gate of Luzhou were all from the Xianzhen Camp. Today was the turn of the Xianzhen Camp of the First Brigade to guard the gate, and the battalion officer on duty happened to be Xu Yong, Zhu Yuanzhang's immediate superior.

After listening to the report, Xu Yong was immediately puzzled and asked, "Zhu Chongba, he is from the Imperial Guards, could he be from our battalion?"

After saying that, he looked at the two classes that were competing in the training ground. What was being trained in the ground was a team-based attack and defense drill. One of the classes was Zhu Yuanzhang. At this time, all 24 people in the two classes were wearing heavy armor and holding large guns without gun heads. They were attacking and defending each other under the command of their respective squad leaders. Zhu Yuanzhang was especially brave. As the squad leader, he led the entire squad to charge bravely and soon broke through the line of the opposing squad.

Although Zhu Chongba was ruthless during training, he was very good at dealing with people. He quickly stepped forward and pulled up his comrades on the opposite side, saying repeatedly, "Thank you, brothers, thank you for letting me."

The soldier who came to report immediately said, "Battalion Commander, the squad leader who just won the battle is Zhu Chongba from the Fourth Company."

"I see. Call him over."

"Yes."

When Zhu Chongba heard that it was the battalion commander who called him, he did not dare to neglect it and immediately put down his wooden spear and came to report. Lu Jin happened to pass by with Zhu Shou and Zhang Wen. Zhu Chongba was the person that Lu Jin specially cared for. When he saw Xu Yong calling him, he thought something had happened, so he asked, "What happened? Why did you stop training?"

When Xu Yong saw that it was Lu Jin, he immediately clasped his fists and said, "General, four civilians have come from outside the city, saying that they are here to look for Zhu Chongba's relatives."

Zhu Chongba happened to come over and was immediately excited when he heard this, "Someone is here to look for our relatives? Is it a boy or a girl? How old are they? Marshal, battalion commander, can you allow me to go outside the city to take a look?"

When Lu Jin heard that it was Zhu Chongba's relative, he suddenly had an idea and thought of the two possible people. He immediately said with a smile, "Chongba, what do you think? I told you that day that someone in your family must be alive, but you didn't believe it."

Zhu Chongba was very excited at this moment. Upon hearing this, he immediately bowed and said, "Thank you very much for your kind words that day, and for finding someone to help me deliver the letter. It is all because of your kindness that I can find my family today. I will go through fire and water for you in the future without hesitation."

"Okay, let's not go through fire and water just yet. Let's go to the city gate and see. Which city gate?"

The gatekeeper hurriedly said, "Reporting to the commander, at the east gate."

"Then let's go and see together."

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned and confused. Why was Lu Jin more active than him? Zhang Wen and Zhu Shou, who were following behind Lu Jin, looked at each other and saw each other's confusion.

"The Marshal is busy with official duties. How can I trouble you to take care of my household affairs?"

Lu Jin said, "You only have 50 acres of land, and you don't even have a house. Now your family has come to you for refuge. How are you going to accommodate them?"

"We" Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned by the question. He really hadn't figured out how to arrange it for the time being.

Lu Jin waved his hand, "Okay, let's go and take a look first. If it's suitable, I'll arrange a job for them. If not, I'll give them land and houses, and let them settle down and farm in Luzhou. There are wastelands everywhere now, but the population is very small, so there will be a place for them to use their talents."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Chongba bowed deeply and thanked him immediately, "Thank you very much, Marshal. You are so kind to me. I really don't know how to repay you."

"Okay, grown man, why are you talking so much nonsense? You don't have to think about how to repay me. I just want you to be loyal. All you have to do in the future is train hard and fight hard against the enemy."

"Yes, Zhu Chongba will fight hard and be loyal to the enemy in the future."

Then the group went to the city gate. Although Zhu Yuanzhang was anxious, he did not dare to walk in front of Lu Jin. When he finally saw Li Zhen and the other three, Zhu Yuanzhang was very excited. Although he could hardly recognize the two half-grown boys, he still recognized his brother-in-law Li Zhen and sister-in-law Zhu Wangshi at a glance.

They hadn't seen their relatives for many years and had just encountered a disaster. Every family had lost someone, and only they were left alive. The whole family burst into tears. Lu Jin watched from the side, but didn't want to disturb them. He quietly told Xu Yong beside him to wait until the family finished talking before letting them go to the Marshal's Mansion to find him. After that, he took Zhang Wen and Zhu Shou back first.

Zhu Yuanzhang was still pouring out his heart to his relatives. When everyone was tired of crying, he asked how the two families were found. He learned that Tang He had been transferred away, and a thousand-household battalion officer named Lu Xianzong took care of them for a few days and asked them to come here by post boat. Zhu Yuanzhang immediately said.

"Don't worry about this. I will definitely go and thank the battalion commander in person in the future. Otherwise, how can our family be reunited here? We must remember his kindness."

Baoer's eyes were red from crying. He rubbed his clothes and whispered, "Where does my uncle live now? My father and I have come all the way here. We are penniless and have no money to eat."

This question made Zhu Yuanzhang stunned. He looked at the eager eyes of his nephew and niece. He still lived in the military camp, so where could he find a place to accommodate his family? So he said this.

"Come on, I'll take you to see the Marshal. The Marshal loves his people like his own children. You two can read and count, so you're both good prospects. The Marshal will make sure you're settled."

(End of this chapter)