Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 435 Unstoppable
Wa Island.

The commander-in-chief in charge of this attack on the Japanese was transferred from Liaodong. When Ren Qian was in Liaodong, he served as the governor of Liaodong. He was in charge of the defense of the entire Liaodong over the years and had a very rich resume.

The fact that a non-hereditary military commander could rise step by step to the important position of Governor-General of Liaodong is enough to show that all of Ren Qian's martial arts were accumulated through repeated wars.

And this is indeed the case. Ren Qian joined the army during the Chenghua period. He followed Wang Yue and Wang Zhi to participate in the Liaodong Campaign, and later participated in the Hami Battle three times, the Southwest Rebellion, the Huguang Bandit Suppression War and other wars. He had rich military experience.

Since the Ming Dynasty's 80,000-man army landed on the Japanese island, General Ren has commanded five large-scale plains battles, all of which ended in victory.

On the one hand, it was because Ren Qian's command level was online, and on the other hand, it was because the Japanese's combat effectiveness and weapons and equipment were actually much worse than those of the Ming court, and they were not at the same level at all.

However, during the siege, Ren Qian still encountered difficulties. Although the Japanese army's military level and individual soldier quality were not very good, they still had some ability to defend the city.

In ancient military wars, attacking a city generally required five to ten times more troops than defending it, and the number of soldiers lost in a siege was countless.

There were only 80,000 land forces landing on the Japanese island. If too many people were sacrificed in defending the city every time, it would not be worth it for the Ming Dynasty.

If they attack the city at all costs, General Ren is confident that there will be no Japanese city that he cannot defend.

But this was not the strategic goal he wanted, nor was it what the Ming court wanted to see.

The siege came to a standstill and General Ren was under great pressure. At the beginning of February, a cannon was transported to the battlefield on the Japanese island by a warship from the southeast.

The Ministry of War personally sent people to attack the city.

Ren Qian's initial thought was the same as Ma Wensheng's, thinking that it was a bit unrealistic for a weapon to change the pattern of war.

But when the cannons sounded on the city wall of the Japanese island, Ren Qian was completely shocked!

A cannon completely destroyed the Japanese dream of defending the city. The Japanese in the city instantly collapsed and gave up defending the city.

The cannons bombarded the city gate, instantly blasting a hole in the already inferior wooden gate.

When seeing these scenes, Ren Qian was completely shocked and even forgot to command the siege.

However, what shocked Ren Qian even more was that the Ministry of War told him that the court was still working hard to manufacture such weapons and would deliver another nine cannons by the end of the month. The court hoped that Ren Qian could speed up the complete occupation of the entire Japanese island.

After hearing this, Ren Qian's confidence suddenly increased. He broke through the city with a crushing force and continued to advance towards the capital of the Japanese island!
……

Everything was going well on the front line, and Emperor Hongzhi could finally relax.

There were many things happening in the 15th year of Hongzhi, and the most important thing at hand was undoubtedly the imperial examination.

This year's imperial examination was even more lively than the previous one, and many talented Confucian scholars joined in this imperial examination.

Such as the Four Talents of Wuzhong, the Four Talents of Jingji, Zhan Ruoshui of Guangzhou, and so on!

In the past ten days, Chen Ce often went to Zhu Zhishan's courtyard. As for the policy essays and other articles, Chen Ce was not too worried. Zhu Zhishan had been in power in the southwest for so many years and should have his own unique understanding of political affairs. There was no problem with the policy essays at all.

The first eight-legged essay is particularly important.

And this is precisely Zhu Zhishan’s weakest point.

In the past ten days, Chen Ce has purchased examination papers from previous years and tried to analyze the eight-part essay and examination questions that are most likely to appear in this year's examination.

Based on his own understanding and the personality of this year's examiner Liang Chu, he tried to give Zhu Zhishan three eight-part essay prediction questions.

1. All living beings respect their parents, so they are said to be matched with heaven.

2. When the empire is governed by virtue, rites, music, war and conquest are decided by the emperor.

3. May your majesty live forever.

Liang Chu was a traditional Confucian scholar-official who had the principle of being close to the emperor and his teacher ingrained in his bones. He was particularly loyal to the emperor, so the questions he asked were likely to be related to the emperor. Chen Ce deduced these three questions based on Liang Chu's personality and asked Zhu Zhishan to write a good essay to answer them.

Zhu Zhishan wrote a lot, but Chen Ce was not very satisfied with any of them. Finally, out of desperation, Chen Ce personally helped Zhu Zhishan solve the problems. After solving all three problems, he explained to him the subsequent ideas and asked Zhu Zhishan to continue writing according to his ideas.

It is worth mentioning that Chen Ce only provided him with a solution, and Zhu Zhishan had to understand the subsequent ideas himself.

Chen Ce discovered that it made sense that Zhu Zhishan had failed to pass the imperial examination despite his entire life's efforts. His approach to solving a problem was completely contrary to the requirements of the imperial examination. In other words, he could never find the core argument of a sentence in the Four Books and Five Classics, and always misunderstood the central idea.

In early February, just five days before the imperial examination, Chen Ce came out from Zhu Zhishan.

I met the Zhang brothers head-on.

The Zhang brothers tilted their heads, shook their shoulders, and said to Chen Ce with a half-smile: "Chen Chunjian, are you teaching the students?"

Chen Ce: "Um...uh? What's wrong?"

These two guys almost always come to visit for no reason, so who knows what they are planning.

Zhang Heling smiled and said, "Nothing, just asking you, how is the teaching going? Can Zhu Yunming pass the exam?"

Chen Ce shook his head and said, "I don't know."

Zhang Yanling laughed and said, "I heard you were giving him a hard time. Haha, don't waste your energy. It's useless."

"This Zhu Zhishan has been taking the imperial examination for nine years, and he has failed every time. The gap is too big, and there is no hope at all."

Zhang Heling knocked Zhang Yanling on the head and said, "Don't talk nonsense! Isn't there a teacher like Chen Ce here?"

"Didn't he take Chen Ce as his teacher? With a genius teacher like Chen Chunjian, how could he not teach a Jinshi?"

Chen Ce smiled and said, "Thank you for your good words. It's all right now, I'm leaving now."

After Chen Ce left, Zhang Heling looked at Chen Ce's back and murmured, "This kid is really not modest!"

"What's the point of teaching him for the past ten days?"

Zhang Yanling said, "That's right! If Chen Ce could pass the exam, he would have taken it long ago! I admit that he is very talented, but he is not good enough for the imperial examination!"

"Humph, you still have the nerve to be someone else's teacher, so arrogant! Too arrogant!"

Zhang Heling was shocked when he heard this and said angrily, "Bullshit! Don't talk nonsense! How can you be too ashamed to be a teacher?"

Even though we brothers are so awesome, didn't we still accept Wen Zhengming and Xu Zhenqing as our students?

If Chen Ce doesn't have the face to be someone else's teacher, then aren't we all completely shameless?

……

Lun Mansion.

Zhan Ruoshui is temporarily living in the outer courtyard of Lun Mansion during this period, preparing for this year's imperial examination.

Lun Wenxu came back from his duty at the Hanlin Academy today, and found Zhan Ruoshui and asked, "Yuanming, how is it?"

“Are you confident about this scientific expedition?”

Zhan Ruoshui smiled and said, "Let's not talk about this. What's wrong with you, Bochou? Are you having a conflict with your sister-in-law?"

(End of this chapter)