I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 355 A bold idea

"What General Peng said makes sense!" Zhu Houxuan sighed softly.

Ok?
Zhu Houxuan’s words made Peng Ze a little confused. Not only Peng Ze was a little confused, but all the ministers present were also a little confused.

As we all know, Zhu Houchun is a die-hard fan of Zhu Houzhao. He also publicly supports Zhu Houzhao in many aspects. According to normal logic, Zhu Houchun is the person who most hopes that Zhu Houzhao can achieve such great results. But now Zhu Houchun says that what Peng Ze said makes sense. Peng Ze just publicly questioned Zhu Houzhao's battle results!
Everyone was confused about what Zhu Houxuan was thinking for a moment.

"What do you think of what General Peng just said?" Zhu Houxuan did not give the ministers any time to think and started asking for their opinions directly.

Although the ministers could not figure out Zhu Houxuan's thoughts, they were more confident in speaking out when they saw that he did not blame Peng Ze just now...

"This old minister believes that what General Peng said makes a lot of sense. In Taizong's first three northern expeditions to the northern desert, he led an army of as many as 500,000 to 600,000 soldiers. In the last two expeditions, the number of troops he led was smaller, but still 300,000 to 400,000. The soldiers led by Taizong at that time were all veterans who had fought in many battles. Now, your majesty is leading an army of only 50,000 new soldiers, and they have never experienced a major war. Such great results reported in the military report... I'm afraid it will be difficult for the people of the world to believe it!" A minister stepped out and said.

Zhu Houxuan nodded and praised in his heart: This wave of tampering with Taizong is very good! If it were me, I would be too embarrassed to touch it, but now you have done it all for me...

In fact, he also knew that half of the 500,000 or 600,000 troops led by Zhu Di were used as civilian laborers, and the other half were used to protect the logistics roads. Only 50,000 of them could be deployed to Mobei...

Although he understood the reason behind this, Zhu Houxuan would not point it out. It was fine to just do it this way...

Seeing Zhu Houxuan's attitude, the ministers became more active in speaking.

"During the Xuande reign, Emperor Xuanzong led 3,000 cavalrymen to patrol the border. They encountered a group of northern barbarians at Kuanhe. Emperor Xuanzong personally went into battle and shot three northern barbarians dead with his own hands, defeating the enemy army. However, he only killed a few hundred people..." said a minister.

Wow, everyone is starting to try to scam Zhu Zhanji!
"During the Chenghua period, Emperor Xianzong ordered the army to go to Jianzhou to wipe out the people, but only killed more than 600 people..." Another minister stepped out and said.

Well, Zhu Jianshen also encountered it!
Civil officials came out to speak one after another. History was their area of ​​expertise. They listed the Ming Dynasty's foreign war records one after another to prove that the results in the military report were unreliable...

Since Yongle, the Ming army has not achieved any significant results against the Mongols. The civil officials listed the major results to support their point of view...

Of course, no one mentioned the events during the Zhengtong and Jingtai periods. Emperor Xiaozong did not make any military achievements, so no one mentioned that either...

The civil officials even mentioned the Hongwu Dynasty. Except for those few people with outstanding military achievements, they mentioned almost all the others...

Zhu Houxuan nodded repeatedly with a serious face, but he was very happy in his heart. Although the speeches of the ministers were not as eye-catching as Peng Ze's, they were all good materials for external publicity. The most important thing was that these things were said by the civil officials on their own initiative. They were the ones who took the initiative to touch porcelain, which could be used well at that time. Zhu Houxuan had already memorized the name of each speaker in his mind.

Peng Ze was observing Zhu Houxuan's expression and understood something. He guessed that Zhu Houxuan also felt that the result was too outrageous, so he was probably trying to make up for it.
Just as the ministers in the hall were discussing, a eunuch hurried into the hall, whispered a few words in Wei Bin's ear, and handed a package to Wei Bin.

Wei Bin carefully handed it to Zhu Houxuan, who opened it and found it was another military report.
The people in the hall also noticed all this and became quiet.
Zhu Houxuan quickly read the military report and asked Wei Bin to read it.

Although the second military report arrived in Beijing half a day later than the first, it was written by Jiang Jiangong one day after the first military report was sent out.
This military report was longer, describing the course of the battle in more detail. The number of prisoners and beheadings in the end was slightly higher than in the first military report, and it also mentioned the casualties of the new army.
Among them, 2,243 new soldiers died and 8,421 were injured, which shows how brutal the last battle was.

After the second military report was read, the Fengtian Hall became lively again. Although the second military report was more detailed, it made the ministers feel even more outrageous.
Forty thousand new troops actually defeated the Mongols, who were more numerous?
They killed so many Mongols in the battle, but their own casualties were only so few?

Many civil officials had long been dissatisfied with the new army, so they took this opportunity to criticize it.
"Everyone, this military report is even more outrageous. It actually said that the eldest grandson of the Mongolian prince was captured." Peng Ze keenly found the key point from the second military report.

A burst of laughter rang out in the Fengtian Hall.
"This military report said that the Mongolian prince's eldest grandson was captured. I think the next military report will say that the Mongolian prince was killed in battle." Peng Ze continued.

This caused even louder laughter from the officials.
After disbanding the meeting, Zhu Houxuan was ready to return to Nangong. He had convened the heads of various departments to discuss how to publicize and welcome Zhu Houzhao's great victory.

He did not care about the reactions of the ministers in the Fengtian Hall today. After reading the second military report and knowing the detailed process of the battle, he became more convinced of the authenticity of the new army's victory in the Yingzhou battle, which made him feel at ease.

Zhu Houxuan's procession passed through the Meridian Gate and was about to pass through the Chengtian Gate, but suddenly he thought of something and looked up at the majestic Chengtian Gate above.
"Let's go up and take a look!" Zhu Houxuan said.

No one would stop Zhu Houxuan for such a small matter.

Zhu Houxuan walked slowly up to Chengtian Gate, stood leaning against the railing, looking at the capital city of that era, with a myriad of thoughts in his mind.

But he soon felt something was wrong. After thinking for a while, he found that Chang'an Avenue was divided into three sections by the Chang'an East Gate and Chang'an West Gate on the street.
At this moment, a bold idea suddenly jumped into his mind, and this idea quickly took root in his heart.
The more Zhu Houxuan thought about it, the more he felt it was appropriate. Nothing could better show off his martial arts than this ceremony.
So he pointed to the East Gate of Chang'an not far away and said, "What do you think about us demolishing these two gates?"

"Tear it down? Why does Your Highness have such an idea? Why tear down the city gate?" Chen Hong who was accompanying him said hurriedly.

"I just feel that these two city gates are an eyesore, and their functions are very limited. It would be better to tear them down," Zhu Houxuan smiled mysteriously.

(End of this chapter)