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

Chapter 441 The Zhang brothers’ thoughts

Also shocked were Emperor Hongzhi in the palace and the three cabinet ministers.

No one expected that Zhu Zhishan, who was the least favored, would directly jump to second place in the imperial examination, while Zhan Ruoshui, who they had originally favored the most, was ranked third.

If we continue to say that this has nothing to do with Chen Ce, it would be a bit unreasonable.

The students that Chen Ce has trained are so amazing. If Chen Ce were to take the exam himself...

The small court meeting will continue. The Ministry of War has sent all the remaining nine red cannons to the southeast, and it is expected that they will be delivered to the front line of the Japanese island in early March this year.

After Ren Qian, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese island, possessed the red cannon, his war situation almost swept across the Japanese island with a crushing force. If the remaining nine cannons were all handed over to him, it wouldn't take long for the Japanese island to be completely defeated.

Now there are more and more surrenderists in Japan, and almost half of the shogunate in Japan has surrendered.

It was not just the Ming Dynasty that paid attention to the War against Japan. The surrounding countries such as Korea, Ryukyu, Malacca, Sumatra and others were also paying close attention. Since the Ming Dynasty announced the war against Japan, it has only been about four months, and almost half of Japan has fallen.

The power of the Ming Dynasty made the four barbarians tremble.

Emperor Go-Kashiwahara of Wa Island originally intended to use the strong intervention of the Ming Dynasty to resolve the Warring States conflicts on the island. He originally planned to wait for the Ming Dynasty and the shogunate to enter a stalemate, and then take back all the military power of the shogunate in his own hands in the name of the emperor, and finally reform the country's political system, concentrate imperial power, and completely eliminate the power of the shogunate.

However, his wishful thinking was in vain. He had never expected that the Ming Dynasty's military power would be so powerful.

In other words, he underestimated the military strength of the Ming Dynasty and overestimated the strength of the shogunate on the Japanese island.

Who could have known that in just four months, the Ming army would sweep across the entire Wa Island with unstoppable force? Emperor Go-Kashiwabara also tried to communicate with the Wa Island commander-in-chief Ren Qian, but he couldn't find the Ming commander-in-chief at all.

At the end of this year, Emperor Go-Kashiwara was frightened and sent three letters to the Ming court in succession. The letters only arrived at the palace today.

Emperor Hongzhi showed Emperor Go-Kashiwabara's letter of peace to the six ministries of the Cabinet. Liu Jian suggested that the other party's surrender could be accepted. After all, the Ming Dynasty had sent so many troops over, and the logistical supplies, financial resources and food were consumed in large quantities every day. If the war was stopped now, it would not only achieve the goal of deterring Japan, but also prevent the court from losing too much national strength due to this war.

However, more senior officials began to refute Liu Jian. The war had already reached this point. Once the remaining nine red cannons were sent into the Japanese island, they could almost occupy the entire island. Even if they took a step back, the Ming Dynasty Ministry of Rites had sent so many letters to admonish and persuade them.

But the Japanese emperor not only did not take the Ming Dynasty seriously, he also detained and killed officials from the Ministry of Rites. Wouldn't it be a laughing stock to neighboring countries if we accept their surrender now?

Emperor Hongzhi nodded in agreement, but did not accept the peace letter from the Emperor of Japan. He asked the Ministry of War to convey an order to Ren Qian, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese islands, to continue the attack until all the Japanese islands were occupied.

Emperor Hongzhi's strategic plan was not just that. He had a bigger plot to occupy the entire Japanese island. It was certain that there were large reserves of copper and silver mines on the Japanese island. If the Ming Dynasty really accepted the surrender of Japanese island, how to mine those copper and silver mines?
……

Zhang Mansion.

Zhu Houzhao, along with Liu Jin, Gu Dayong and several eunuchs, walked arrogantly to find the Zhang brothers who were having breakfast and drinking porridge.

"Uncle, why is your breakfast so simple?"

A few days ago you were having soy milk, fried dough sticks and boiled eggs, why are you drinking porridge now?

When the Zhang brothers saw Zhu Houzhao, their faces twitched slightly.

"Is the money ready?" Zhu Houzhao asked directly without any further ado.

"Forehead."

Zhang Heling's body trembled slightly, and he tried to force a smile and said, "I'm ready."

"When will Chen Ce invite us to dinner?"

Zhu Houzhao: “?”

Zhang Heling was anxious and asked, "Didn't he say that when the results were announced that day? He wanted to celebrate for his students and host a banquet for us. How come he forgot now?" Zhu Houzhao shook his head and said, "I don't know. Don't worry about it for now. Just give me the money."

The Zhang brothers paid the money and watched Zhu Houzhao, the bastard, leave with gritted teeth.

"Humph!"

"Don't eat for the next few days!" Zhang Heling said coldly, "Empty your stomach. Chen Ce will treat us to a meal that day, so we must eat and drink his food well!"

"Give this money back!"

Zhang Yanling: “…”

Brother, four thousand taels of silver, how much do I have to eat to make a profit?

"That's true."

Zhang Heling snorted and said, "This Chen Ce is really too much! He cheated us out of four thousand taels of silver. He is simply shameless!"

"It's such a shame to eat him!"

Zhang Yanling was speechless and thought to himself, Brother, aren't you a little shameless?
Chen Ce didn't cheat us out of four thousand taels of silver. It's his students who are doing well, not us.
Besides, let's take a step back and say, wasn't it you who insisted on going to the prince to gamble? You also swore that this wave would definitely make a lot of money.

Zhang Heling: "Yo, yo, yo, what do you mean? Are you blaming big brother now? Do you think big brother has wronged a good person?"

"If Chen Ce hadn't trained Zhu Zhishan, we would have lost at most two thousand taels. We brothers can tolerate losing one thousand taels each, but not two thousand taels!"

"So isn't this Chen Ce's fault?"

"He's almost dying of illness, why is he still teaching Zhu Zhishan? If he didn't teach Zhu Zhishan, would Zhu Zhishan be able to pass the imperial examination and become the top scholar?"

"So tell me, whose fault is this?"

Zhang Yanling: Oh my god, you are such a genius, brother! What you said actually makes so much sense.

Zhang Heling narrowed his eyes and said, "Humph! I get it. Let's go! Let's go find those Confucian scholars!"

"What are you doing?"

Zhang Heling said, "The two of us will definitely not be able to make back our money, but if we call all those Confucian scholars and have them eat together, we can definitely defeat Chen Ce, right?"

"Also, send invitations to our good friends in the capital! Just tell them that we brothers want to treat them to a meal!"

Zhang Yanling was stunned for a moment, then he gave a thumbs up and said, "Great! Big brother is really great!"

"This is a brilliant idea! We can invite our friends in the capital to dinner without having to spend any money ourselves. This is really a brilliant idea!"

Zhang Heling laughed and said, "Not only that? If those scholars knew that Chen Ce was holding a banquet, they would definitely come to eat and drink for free. Now that Chen Ce is so famous, who among those failed candidates would not want to worship Chen Ce as their teacher?"

"Go ask Chen Ce! Find out where he is holding the banquet, and then tell those scholars to go find Chen Ce at the banquet!"

Zhang Yanling hurriedly asked, "Brother, why don't we tell those scholars where Chen Ce lives?"

Zhang Heling: “???”

"Second brother, we want to eat Chen Ce to death, but we don't want to kill him for real!"

(End of this chapter)