Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 17 One Net

"Excuse me. Excuse me, is it His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?"

A slightly fat general seemed to be unable to kneel any longer, so he plucked up the courage to test the waters.

"He didn't even tell you this?"

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was extremely surprised, and then he just sat there as if he was angry and didn't say anything.

Seeing this situation, the generals looked to the two dukes for help, but the two men just smiled awkwardly and said nothing.

"Forget it, you guys stand up first." After a few breaths, His Highness seemed to have figured something out and finally remembered that they were still kneeling on the ground.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

The generals stood up and breathed a sigh of relief. It was obvious that this tea time was a huge torture for them.

Unlike those poor people in the north, they can make a fortune by just using their brains in a rich and prosperous place.

If you live a good life, it will be natural.

"They've been arguing over there for half the night and still can't decide whether to fight or defend, so I asked you to come over and talk about the situation."

Zhu Cilang changed into a slightly more comfortable posture, and then looked at the eighteen generals.

To be honest, before coming here, he was wondering if he could pick out one or two tough guys from these people, but when he really saw these people, he sincerely felt that it was a waste of time.

But now that we are here, even if we cannot find generals who truly want to defend the city, it would be a good gain to hear from them about the true situation of the defenders.

"Your Highness, I find it difficult to defend."

The slightly fat general who spoke first had already guessed what was going on:
Even if the lord does not know the real situation in the army, he can guess about 70% of it. How could he want to fight in such a situation?

Therefore, the purpose of summoning these people is obvious, which is to use the mouths of these generals to scare those who want to fight.

As for why the person coming was this prince, the emperor had already fled, so those who wanted to fight naturally had to find a flag.

If he could scare this flag, those who wanted to fight would naturally disperse.

"When you took over, the guards were only 70% to 80% full. In recent years, the salary has been insufficient and desertions have increased. Now only 60% to 70% are left. In addition, the equipment is damaged and the training is insufficient. The actual combat strength is probably only 30% to 40%."

When he first opened his mouth, the other generals were surprised at his audacity, but when he revealed all his secrets, everyone understood the whole story.

Next, a group of people surrounded Zhu Cilang and chattered like old women, from soldiers to city walls, from equipment to morale, in short, if they wanted to defend Yingtian, they had to be prepared to die or the city would be captured.

While listening, Zhu Cilang took note of the situation in the army.

After a while, he didn't hear any new information from these people and prepared to leave, but when he just stood up, he saw a man standing outside the crowd with a red face but not saying a word.

"That person, tell me about him."

The generals looked in the direction Zhu Cilang pointed, but the man remained as he was and had no idea what was happening. When the voices in the room gradually died down, he looked around blankly.

"Don't look at it, I'm talking about you."

At this time, the general's face was a little redder than before, but he just opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

"Do you think you should surrender or defend?"

"Shou!"

"Do you think you can defend it?"

"No."

"Then why guard it?"

"should!"

These two words were so powerful that the generals didn't know how to refute them.

There are many things that should be done in this world, but how many of them develop as they should?

Chongzhen should have trusted people when he was in office, but he didn't; the ministers should have united to help the country, but they didn't; Hongguang should have held on to Yingtian, but he didn't. If everyone in the world could do what they should do, why would the population of the late Ming Dynasty have dropped by tens of millions?
"You come with me."

Zhu Cilang didn't comment on this. He just turned around and walked out after saying hello. When he was in a safe area, he said, "Tie them all up."

He personally does not hate those to whom the Lord has sent.

The military preparations are lax and the soldiers are insufficient. Now even the Emperor Zhu has run away. Why should we let others live and die with Yingtian?

If he were to switch places with these generals, he might go out to sea directly to find an unowned land and rule the country.

But there are no ifs in this world. Even if Zhu Cilang understands their difficulties, he cannot be lenient given the current situation.

"what's your name."

Zhu Cilang pretended not to hear the curses and pleas behind him. However, the red-faced general had not yet reacted. When Zhu Cilang turned around, he replied respectfully:
"Your Excellency Chang Guanlin, the commander of Shuangqiao Guards."

"Is it the Chang family?"

"My family should have some relatives with the Duke's Mansion, but our family has fallen into poverty and we haven't had any contact for many years."

"Oh? You, a commander, have fallen into poverty?"

"My ancestors passed away early, and my father's family seized his property when he was young. When it came to me, I could only join the army to earn a living. Later, I fought in Xuanda with Master Lu for several years and was promoted to a thousand households for my meritorious service."

Chang Guanlin paused for a moment, as if recalling the past, and continued after a moment: "After Grand Tutor Lu was dismissed, I was transferred back to Yingtian. Last year, I was promoted to commander because the court completed the 48 guards."

This resume is extremely impressive among military generals. Apart from anything else, the fact that he had fought in wars with Lu Xiangsheng alone is worthy of special treatment from Zhu Cilang.

"Are there any members of the Duke's family among those people?"

Zhu Cilang asked a question without any context. Zhu and Xu hesitated for a moment before answering truthfully:

"There are two."

"There is one."

"Tell Brother Xiang later not to hurt his own people."

The two dukes will still be of great use in the future, so they need to be appeased to avoid any accidents before they have complete control of the military power.

Xu Yinjue seemed unaware of it, but Zhu Guobi was secretly complaining about it.

He had guessed that Zhu Cilang had kidnapped those people because he did not intend to give the noble families the opportunity to get involved in the military power, so he tried to appease him.

But after all, does Zhu Cilang have the ability to lead his own troops?

If not, we will still have to rely on these generals in the end.

When they returned to the study, Zhu Cilang explained everything to Xu Yu and Xiang Rensheng, and then asked Chen Si to take twenty or thirty brothers with him to leave the Bo's Mansion.

Fortunately, Chen Si's men had already taken control of the entire mansion, otherwise these dozens of people might have caused some trouble.

After leaving the Earl's Mansion, Zhu Cilang did not go directly to the barracks, but went around to the Ministry of War to look for Wang Fuping who was guarding there.

Time was tight, so when the two met, Zhu Cilang got straight to the point.

"Brother Wang, can you find the clerks in the government offices?"

"That's not difficult. Every day at 11:00 a.m., everyone in the government office should be here."

Seeing that Zhu Cilang did not seize the time to go to the camp to control the army, but instead came here to look for some useless clerk, Chang Guanlin was naturally very puzzled.

Without waiting for Zhu Cilang to continue giving instructions, he interrupted him and said, "Your Highness, the military camp is the main business. Let's talk about other things tomorrow."

"It doesn't matter."

Seeing that Zhu Cilang just replied to him with one sentence and then started to ramble again, Chang Guanlin felt anxious but didn't dare to urge him any further.

There are a total of eighteen commanders left in the army, but seventeen of them have been taken by His Highness. Does this gentleman think that he, as a single commander, can control the entire army?

What a child's play!
(End of this chapter)