Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 185 Civil servants living in fantasy

Zhu Houzhao ignored the memorials from these officials who used the moral principles of the world to advise him.

Now that he has not returned to Beijing yet, he can only keep these memorials and not send them out, and deal with them one by one after returning to Beijing!

Confucian disciples are notoriously hypocritical. They talk a lot about benevolence, righteousness, and morality, but their minds are full of thieves and prostitutes. Pretending to be righteous is their specialty, and Zhu Houzhao is not unaware of this.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao could also guess that although these civil servants were advising him under the pretext of moral opposition, in reality they were doing so because their interests were harmed.

It was precisely because the Ming Dynasty was controlled by these sanctimonious hypocrites that the entire empire became increasingly weak militarily, and it even lost the possibility of expanding its territory. They only sought superficial splendor and peace.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao used his imperial power to allow the Ming Empire to continue moving forward on the path of kingship and hegemony.

In addition to sending the border troops from all border towns to attack across the board and raid the little prince's back garden.

He also ordered the three divisions of the Imperial Guard and the border troops of Datong to form a 15,000-strong cavalry, led by Qiu Yue, and directly followed the intelligence currently held by the Jinyiwei to rush to support the Tuxie and Ordos tribes on the right wing of Mongolia who were pro-Ming.

Although, the desert is vast, no one is sure where the little prince and the Chahar tribe will have a decisive battle with the Tushe tribe and the Ordos tribe of the right wing of Mongolia.

But the Ming Dynasty must support and interfere in the internal affairs of the Mongols, because only in this way can the great power charm and imperial ambition of the Ming Dynasty be demonstrated! It is not an embroidered pillow!

Even if they might return empty-handed, it doesn't matter. Cavalry is more mobile than infantry and there won't be too much loss.

What's more, now the troops in the border towns have been ordered to plunder Hetao. The supplies accumulated by the little prince in Hetao are enough to offset the loss of the 15,000 cavalrymen of the Ming Dynasty who returned empty-handed!
……

The little prince was the Great Khan of the Yuan Dynasty, Batu Mongol. At this time, he did not know that the Hetao base of his 30,000 households on the left wing of Mongolia had been attacked by the border troops of the Ming Dynasty. Now he was leading 50,000 cavalry to a place called Daranteligun to fight against the Tushe and Ordos tribes on the right wing of Mongolia.

The little prince has not started to attack the Tuxie and Ordos tribes yet. He is waiting for the appearance of the Chahar tribe. He believes that the Tuxie and Ordos tribes would never think that he would endure the hatred of the Ming Dynasty killing their sons and directly intercept the Tuxie and Ordos tribes halfway, making it impossible for them to unite with the Ming Dynasty and be eaten by him and the Chahar tribe first.

The leader of the Tushe tribe, Yibula, and the leader of the Ordos tribe, Mandulai Agulehu, did not expect that the little prince would bear the hatred of killing his son and lead his troops to intercept and kill their two tribes first.

Of course, Yibula and Mandulai Agulehu were not really loyal to the Ming Dynasty. They just wanted to use the power of the Ming Dynasty to annex the little prince's Mongolian left wing.

So, now, when Yibula saw that the little prince had stopped him and Mandulai Agulehu, and wanted to kill him and Mandulai Agulehu on the grounds that he and Mandulai Agulehu had killed his son, he also rode his horse and shouted:
"Great Khan! Jinong was killed by the Ming Emperor. If you want to seek revenge, just go to the Ming Emperor. Why are you seeking revenge on us? We have nothing to do with this matter!"

"How can you have nothing to do with it? One of you is the Shunzhong Prince of the Ming Dynasty, and the other is the Shunzhong Prince of the Ming Dynasty. Since you have betrayed the Yuan Dynasty and become Zhu Houzhao's running dogs, I will first get rid of you two thieves, and then settle accounts with the Ming Emperor!"

After the little prince said this, Yibula and Mandulai Agulehu realized that they could not avoid the current situation of war, so they set up a battle formation and attacked the little prince's troops, hoping to take the initiative and strike first when the little prince was not yet firmly established!
The left-wing Mongolian cavalry under the little prince have followed him in battles for the unification of the left wing of Mongolia over the years. They are more skilled in archery and horsemanship and have rich combat experience. They are not afraid of the preemptive tactics of the Mongolian right wing and respond very calmly.

At that time, on the grassland where the snow had not yet melted, thousands of horses were galloping. The Mongolian cavalry on both wings drew their bows and urged their horses to fight and entangle with each other, and it was difficult to separate them for a while.

The Mongolian right wing, with the support of the Ming army's short crossbows, had hundreds of cavalry vanguards who were quite brave and created bloodstains in the iron-like camp of the Mongolian left wing.

However, at this time, the Chahar cavalry rushed over, and the sound of horse hooves like thunder sounded behind the Mongolian right wing.

At first, Yibula and Mandulai Agulehu thought that the Chahar cavalry were coming to help them, so they were more confident at first and shouted to the little prince:
"Great Khan! Admit defeat! Retreat with your troops! With the weapons of the Ming Dynasty and the Chahar tribe joining us, your left wing will surely be defeated!"

The little prince sneered and continued to fight with the Mongolian right wing with his cavalry.

At this time, the Chahar cavalry was getting closer and closer, and directly attacked the rear of Yibula Tuxie. Yibula was shocked and began to curse the leader of the Chahar tribe:

"Keshiketeng, you traitor! You actually sided with the little prince!"

The little prince laughed wildly: "Hahaha! Yibula, Mandulai Agulehu! You are the real traitors of the Yuan Dynasty! Now your death has come! This Khan will give you a chance. You can choose to commit suicide now, otherwise this Khan will cut you into pieces and then order the warriors on the left wing to ravage your wives and children!"

Yibula and Mandulai Agulehu naturally did not want to commit suicide, so they could only gather their cavalry and charge forward.

In short, once these Chahar cavalrymen joined, the Mongolian right-wing cavalry was suddenly caught in the crisis of fighting on two fronts. For a time, the balance of victory in the war was tilting towards the little prince!

……

With the help of the intelligence from the Jinyiwei and his own years of experience in the border town, Qiu Yue actually appeared in the Darantligun area with 15,000 Ming cavalry. Moreover, he was not far from the battlefield where the left and right wings of the Mongols were fighting in front of him, and they had all gathered on a hillside near the battlefield. As long as they swooped down, it would only take two or three quarters of an hour to reach the battlefield, changing the situation and allowing the Mongolian right wing to survive.

However, Qiu Yue ordered the Ming cavalry to stop at this time, and all of them hid on the opposite side of the hillside, only sending one or two scouts to observe the enemy situation.

Zhang Lun, who was ordered by Zhu Houzhao to follow Qiu Yue to gain combat experience, was very puzzled when he saw this, and could not help but ask Qiu Yue: "General Qiu, why don't we charge forward immediately!" As it was his first time to go into battle and kill the enemy, Zhang Lun was very excited and couldn't wait to ride his horse forward to kill the enemy.

However, Qiu Yue simply lay down on the grass, squinting his eyes and fell asleep:
"No hurry! Killing them now will not be of much benefit to the Ming Dynasty. We will kill them after the Tuxie and Ordos tribes are almost all killed. This way, we can use the Tuxie and Ordos tribes to consume more of the little prince's troops, and we can also use the little prince to make the Tuxie and Ordos tribes lose more troops.
In this way, the remaining Mongolian forces will not be able to recover for at least 30 years, which will naturally ensure that our Ming Dynasty will be peaceful for decades! It will also save the lives of our brothers! This is called "while the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits!"

Zhang Lun sighed. He had never expected that the seemingly rough General Qiu in front of him was so meticulous and would have such a despicable yet cunning idea. But no matter what, as a citizen of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Lun had to admit that it was indeed right to do so.

Qiu Yue did not stand up until the scouts came back and said that the Yongxie and Ordos tribes were badly injured and were about to flee. At this time, Zhang Lun could not help but ask: "General Qiu, can we charge over now?"

"No hurry. A cavalry charge is not a fight between two groups of people. How can it be done without arranging troops? These are 15,000 cavalrymen, not 15,000 thugs!"

Qiu Yue and Zhang Lun had a teacher-student relationship, so he couldn't help but say a few more words. He immediately rode over and looked at the fighting between the left and right wings of the Mongols in front of him. He said to Zhang Lun:
"Young Master Zhang, are you looking at that man? That man is the little prince! The Great Khan of the Yuan Dynasty! You take the Imperial Guards and wait at the entrance ahead. I will kill the cavalry and charge over. By then, the battle situation will be reversed and the little prince's troops will be defeated. After the defeat, they will break through in the direction you are in. You intercept and kill the little prince, and the Ming Dynasty can maintain peace for another 20 years!"

As Qiu Yue spoke, he gave orders to other Ming cavalry officers, and then he held his bow horizontally and charged towards the battlefield where the Mongolian cavalry was.

For a moment, the armor glowed like a burning flame, shaking the earth with a rumbling sound!
More than 10,000 Ming cavalrymen showed the demeanor of Han men!

The short crossbow in his hand shot out clusters of sharp arrows like a spirit snake spitting out its tongue, piercing through the void and killing the Mongolian left-wing cavalry who were fighting with the Mongolian right-wing cavalry on the ground!

Originally, Yibula of the Tushe tribe and Mandulai Agulehu of the Ordos tribe had already despaired. They watched helplessly as their cavalrymen were killed to almost nothing, and could only flee frantically with the remaining cavalrymen. However, they did not expect to hear intensive shouts of killing coming from behind them at this time, and in the Chinese language!

They understood at once and turned their heads almost at the same time. When they saw the dazzling big flag with the word "Ming" appear in the vast sky, they seemed to have recovered their fighting strength and charged towards the little prince's troops again.

"The Ming army is coming, kill them!"

Yibula gave a loud shout and rushed forward to kill him.

The Ming cavalry was like the boiling magma spewing from the Flaming Mountain, tearing into pieces the formations of the Little Prince's and Chahar's cavalry, causing complete chaos in their rear!

Suddenly, the situation turned around!
The Chahar tribe collapsed and retreated, evacuating to the northeast to avoid being attacked by the Tushe and Ordos cavalry and the Ming cavalry.

The little prince was greatly surprised and furious when he saw this, but he soon realized that something was wrong and began to become a little frightened. He wanted to evacuate, but at this time, it was not so easy to evacuate.

Caught off guard, the little prince was defeated and fled by the Ming cavalry.

The little prince led his remaining cavalry directly towards Zhang Lun. Zhang Lun led the royal guards and charged over. The sound of killing was deafening, which frightened the little prince, who was already a frightened bird, even more. The morale of the little prince's remaining troops was thrown into chaos again, and thousands of them were killed or captured!

The little prince took advantage of the chaos to retreat to his old nest in Wuhai Mountain. Zhang Lun was so angry that he chased after him.

The little prince thought that returning to Wuhai Mountain would give him an opportunity to regroup his forces and defeat the Ming cavalry and the Mongolian right wing, but when he returned to Wuhai Mountain, he found that his old nest was already littered with corpses and had been burned into rubble everywhere.

The little prince was hungry and thirsty and could not get any supplies. The remaining soldiers under his command could only kill horses to satisfy their hunger.

The little prince himself was even more furious. He did not expect that the Ming Dynasty would change its past practices and cut off his retreat. But at this time, he had no time to think about it, because Zhang Lun, relying on his youth, led the Imperial Guard Battalion to catch up again, annihilated the last remaining soldiers of the little prince, and captured the little prince alive.

However, Zhang Lun no longer knew where he was, so he could only take the little prince south. Finally, they arrived at Shenmu Fort and met Liu Meng, the Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief and Governor of Yansui.

Seeing that Zhang Lun had only about 700 cavalrymen, and that they were already in tattered clothes, Liu Meng instinctively asked, "Did you lose? Did the Emperor's personal expedition lose?"

Before Zhang Lun could say anything, Liu Meng immediately ordered his personal soldiers to tell Ma Wensheng that His Majesty had been badly defeated!

The Imperial Censor Bai Xian also immediately ran to Cai Kuan and said that Your Majesty had suffered a great defeat and might not have returned from the northern expedition.

For a time, more and more civil servants, northern gentry, and even princes were spreading the news that His Majesty had suffered a great defeat in his personal expedition and might be captured.

Perhaps the powerful and wealthy gentry are more willing to believe and accept this result. They want Zhu Houzhao to die so much that they are almost going crazy!
Finally, even the capital city knew the news.

The Thirteenth Imperial Censor Li Tianfu, the Imperial Secretary Xu Zhen and other officials all rushed to tell each other: "Your Majesty's personal expedition to the frontier was defeated! I'm afraid the Northern Expedition has not returned yet! It is obvious that excessive military spending is not a blessing for the country, nor is it a blessing for the Ming Dynasty. Woohoo!"

The latest chapter is not written by the author himself to lower the villain's IQ. This kind of thing happened in history. After the battle of Yingzhou, the civil officials did falsely spread the news that Zhengde was defeated.

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(End of this chapter)