Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 201: Battle in the North
On the Songhua River in the north, the area is now experiencing windy and snowy weather and biting cold.

If an ordinary person faints in such weather, he will just have to wait to become an ice sculpture the next day.

Normally, no one would appear here in such a climate, but there are actually large groups of people living in the mountains and fields beside the Songhua River. They are hiding from the cold under tents, and some are wrapped in thick quilts to prevent being eroded by the cold.

There were several more flags around the camp.

Some flags have the Ming Dynasty painted on them.

It is obvious that this is a Ming army. In addition to "Ming", there is also the word "Yan".

That’s right, this army is the Three Guards Army under Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di was sitting in an important command chair in his tent. Under the candlelight, he was looking at a map on the table.

At this moment, there was a sudden noise outside the door, and a young man with a gleam in his eyes and several wounds on his face that had not yet healed appeared in front of Zhu Di.

He was wearing armor different from the others, and judging from his appearance, he should be a General of Cavalry.

Surprisingly, this man was very young, and seemed to be only a few years younger than Zhu Di.

Although he is young, his bright eyes are enough to prove that his practical experience is no worse than those of older people.

"I am Zhang Yu! I come to report to King Yan!"

"speak."

Zhu Di did not even raise his head, but asked Zhang Yu to tell him all the important military matters.

If nothing unexpected happens, he will be an important right-hand man of Zhu Di when he goes south. It can be said that Zhang Yu has been following Zhu Di since he came to Peiping, going through life and death with him, and they have a true brotherhood on the battlefield.

"Your Highness! I led 800 light cavalrymen to the Jianzhou Jurchens. After several days, I successfully eliminated all the main Jurchen tribes, including the Huligai, Oduolian, and Tuowen tribes. A total of 30,000 people were beheaded!"

It sounds impossible for 800 people to behead 30,000 people, but given that the Ming Dynasty now has control over gunpowder, this is a piece of cake.

One month ago.

Zhu Di used Beiping as his base and went to Liaodong to establish a base. From then on, he launched a general attack on the three Jurchen tribes.

In the past, it was extremely difficult for Zhu Di to find these enemies hiding in the deep mountains and forests.

The mountains and wilderness are the territory of these Jurchens. Once they hide, it is impossible to find them.

This is also the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang chose not to confront the Jurchens head-on.

Unfortunately, ever since Zhu Di got the cannons brought from Zhenjiang Prefecture.

The combat capability of the Ming army doubled directly.

For example, if there were some enemies in the mountains a few hundred meters away, the Ming army would have sent people to investigate in the past. But now it was different. Zhu Di would just use a telescope to make a simple observation. If he found traces of enemy activities, he would choose to open fire without saying a word.

Anyway, the army now controls about a hundred cannons, each of which can fire a shell weighing up to 60 kilograms.

These shells are not ordinary iron balls, but shells that can actually explode when they hit the ground. Not to mention how powerful their lethality is, they will definitely have an impact within a ten-meter radius of where they hit.

The light cavalry troops led by Zhang Yu are also not simple.

In the past, light cavalry could only rely on the weapons in their hands to punish the enemy.

But now it is different. Zhang Yu can lead his subordinates to go deep into the enemy's territory and use the speed advantage of the light cavalry to move back and forth.

Use explosive packs to disrupt the enemy.

Everyone knows that although the Jurchens ruled the Central Plains for a period of time, the Central Plains was too weak at that time and there was no opportunity for technological development at all.

When the Mongols moved south and drove the Jurchens back to their hometown, these Jurchens became unwilling to make progress and began to live a life of poverty and desperation again.

As technological civilization regressed, even the combat capability was greatly weakened. The only advantage was that they could rely on their natural ability to ride horses to constantly negotiate with the enemy.

However, this advantage is now insignificant in front of the Ming army.

Each member of the troops led by Zhang Yu carried three 15-jin packs of explosives.

This thing is not pure black powder, but a mixture of two-thirds black powder and two-thirds yellow powder.

In addition, there are a lot of steel ball powder inside. Once it explodes, the area within a five-meter radius will definitely be deeply affected, and it is not impossible that they will lose their combat effectiveness immediately.

With these advanced weapons, Zhang Yu and his men were invincible. In less than ten days, they wiped out most of the Jianzhou Jurchens.

The Huligai, Oduolian, and Tuowen tribes mentioned above were the three most powerful tribes of the Jianzhou Jurchens, and the kings of each tribe had different surnames.

The Guwalgiya clan, the Wanyan clan, the Niuhuru clan, the Socholo clan and so on are all included, as for the Aisin-Gioro clan.

Ever since Zhu Yuanzhang learned that his descendants were replaced by the Aisin-Gioro clan, he has been extremely unhappy with people with this surname.

When Zhu Di started the Northern Expedition, Zhu Yuanzhang specifically instructed that people with this surname must be taken good care of, and it would be best to make them understand that the Ming Dynasty was a country of etiquette.

After arriving at the front line, Zhu Di did not disappoint Zhu Yuanzhang. He did take a series of measures to make the people of the Jurchen tribes feel what cruelty was.

On the first day of arriving here, Zhu Di ordered people to find the whereabouts of the Aisin Gioro family.

He was surprised to find that Aisin-Gioro was actually a servant among the henchmen under the command of the Liaodong Regional Commander.

More importantly, the totems of other Jurchen tribes are wolves, tigers, etc., but the Aisin-Gioro tribe regards the wild boar as the supreme sacred symbol of the tribe.

He didn't understand it at the time, but later he found out that Aisin-Gioro believed that wild boars could act alone in the mountains and were not afraid of tigers or attacks by wolves.

This alone is enough to prove the power of wild boars.

Afterwards, the ancestors of Aisin-Gioro took the initiative to move the tribe to a place close to where wild boars lived, and at the same time worshipped wild boars as a sacred totem.

Zhu Di did not have so much time to let the other party go. After finding out the location of Aisin Gioro, he ordered people to go there and suppress them as soon as possible.

All the men were hanged outside the city gates.

As for the women, except for those with decent looks who were allowed to be kept in Guanzhong and sold as slaves, the rest were all executed.

His action soon caused many people to hate the Ming Dynasty. Even the commander of the Liaodong Regional Command, who had been a local emperor for too long, wanted to discuss with Zhu Di on an equal footing.

According to the division of power, the territory controlled by Zhu Di should be parallel to the Dusi, and not very close to his Liaodong Dusi.

Unexpectedly, the commander was captured on the spot by Zhu Di and beheaded in front of thousands of people.

The commander's subordinates didn't even dare to say a word.

Zhu Di rubbed his palms and looked at the map, whispering from time to time:

"Of the three Jurchen tribes, the Jianzhou Jurchens have already taken over 80% of the territory. Now Qiu Fu is bypassing the Jianzhou Jurchens and heading to target the Haixi Jurchens. I don't know what's going on with them."

That’s right, when Zhu Di set out to attack the three Jurchen tribes, he had no intention of targeting only one side of the enemy, but instead vowed to kill all of them at once!
Zhu Di would eliminate all the hostile forces such as the Jianzhou Jurchens, the Wild Jurchens, and the Haixi Jurchens as long as they could be classified as Jurchens, regardless of whether they were submissive to the Ming Dynasty or not. As long as the spread of civilization could be maintained, all Zhu Di had to do was to erase all traces of their existence.

"Zhang Yu!"

After thinking about it, Zhu Di made a decision, but he couldn't make this decision by himself, so he needed to find someone else to do it.

Zhang Yu seemed like a killing machine and could only make simple responses. This was also the reason why Zhu Di admired him.

In war, the most important thing is to be obedient. Zhang Yu's character is very much to Zhu Di's liking, because he himself is a madman on the battlefield, and madmen always cooperate with each other tacitly.

"Go find the Marshal. I have something to discuss with him."

Hearing this, Zhang Yu was stunned for a second, then nodded in response:
"I understand. I will go find Marshal Xu right away."

After saying that, he left the tent and walked to another more luxurious and huge tent.

During this expedition, Zhu Yuanzhang was very worried about Zhu Di's combat experience. In order to be prepared for any eventuality, he made this Northern Expedition a model within the court.

Zhu Yuanzhang specifically ordered Xu Da and others to go out together.

However, Xu Da would not appear on the battlefield. He would only observe whether Zhu Di was qualified for this position. He would write down all the arrangements on the battlefield, check for omissions and fill in the gaps afterwards, and tell the other side where the weaknesses were exposed in the battle to prevent them from happening again next time.

In the huge tent, there are several heaters in use. Compared with the ice and snow in the outside world, it is as hot as summer in the tent.

Even so, Xu Da still felt cold all over while sitting cross-legged on the kang.

There was a mirror standing on the ground. Xu Da turned around as much as possible to see what the wound on his back looked like.

He took off his heavy armor and dragged half of his robe to his chest.

He held a wooden stick in his mouth to prevent the pain from coming into contact with the wound and causing him to scream out uncontrollably.

Finally finding a suitable position, Xu Da suddenly discovered that his wounds were more serious than he had imagined.

The tragedy, which was originally just skin rot, had now begun to ooze pus. The pus from the pustules smelled extremely foul, and the wound site had long been eroded into a piece of rotten flesh.

If there were any carrion-eating creatures such as flies around, they would surely swoop uncontrollably towards the cave entrance.

"Damn it, what happened to this wound? I didn't eat meat or drink wine, but now it's as bad as Guan Yu's poisoned arm. Is it true that I, Xu Da, only have less than ten years left to live, as Yang Chen said?"

Thinking back to when Yang Chen told him about his lifespan, Xu Da couldn't help but feel sad.

People are afraid of death when they get old, and he is no exception.

Not to mention that Xu Da himself had a lot of concerns. He had both a son and a daughter, and his loving wife gave birth to a little daughter for him.

Whenever Xu Da thought of these children calling him dad, he felt sad.

After all, I am a founding hero. Can't I live a few more years?

Only he knew how serious and troublesome his injury was.

Many imperial doctors suggested that if they wanted to cure the disease completely, they had to do something like Guan Gong's method of scraping bones to treat poison. Compared with Guan Gong's condition, Xu Da's condition was more dangerous.

The extent of the wound decay was so great that it was beyond everyone's expectations.

If the entire piece of flesh was dug out, the carbuncle on the back might be cured, but the person probably wouldn't be able to hold on and would die directly in the ward.

Thinking of this, Yang Chen's shadow appeared in Xu Da's mind, and he muttered to himself:
"Perhaps this little fellow can cure my illness? I heard that this kid is doing very well in Zhenjiang Prefecture, and His Majesty has taken a new look at him. I know my brother's character very well. If this kid doesn't have any real ability, my brother would never look up to him.

In other words, his abilities might be even stronger than before I left the capital?

Then he should be able to cure me, right?"

When Xu Da thought about pinning his hopes of survival on Yang Chen, he couldn't help but laugh.

Ever since he learned about Yang Chen's identity, Xu Da didn't dare to take the initiative to contact him. He knew very well how special this guy's identity was. According to his understanding of Zhu Yuanzhang's character, Yang Chen would become the sharpest sword in the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

Anyone who gets close to him will immediately become a serious concern for Zhu Yuanzhang.

When Yang Chen suddenly approached Hu Weiyong and Xu Da, he knew that Zhu Yuanzhang must be behind this. Otherwise, this guy would have been hacked to death by a group of Jinyiwei from the moment Hu Weiyong contacted Yang Chen.

Even if you have a special identity, it is useless. In Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, everyone except your relatives is a pawn.

Only by obeying his orders can the officials in the court have a chance to survive.

"Report to the commander! The general Zhang Yu, who is under the command of the Prince of Yan, is asking for an audience outside the tent!"

The voice of the personal guards was heard outside. Xu Da turned his head slightly, and the stubble on his face could even be reflected outside the tent by the firelight.

He didn't think much about it and knew for sure that it was Zhu Di who asked the other party to come.

Immediately responded in a deep voice:
"Got it. Tell him that if the King of Yan has something to do, let him come here in person."

"Yes!"

After the guards saluted, they turned and left.

Outside the account, the wind and snow were getting stronger. In the past, the Ming Dynasty simply did not have so many supplies to keep out the cold.

Firstly, the treasury was empty, and secondly, some people in the court were malicious and deliberately ate up all the materials mobilized by the Ministry of Revenue along the way.

The cotton-padded clothes that were originally used to keep out the cold were replaced with straw clothes by the time they reached the front lines.

This time, Zhu Yuanzhang's cleansing of Jiangnan and various powerful policies prevented them from having the opportunity to engage in corruption.

"Captain, the commander asked me to tell you that if it was the King of Yan who sent you here, then have the King of Yan come here in person."

Zhang Yu shook off the snow on his body and thanked his soldiers.

"Thank you brother!"

"You are too polite, General Captain."

After saying that, Zhang Yu turned around and left.

Although he was a captain of light cavalry commanding 800 soldiers, in terms of status and position, he was just a military general under Zhu Di, the Prince of Yan.

Compared with the personal soldiers around Xu Da, he really had no say in the court.

After returning to Zhu Di's tent, Zhang Yu told him the matter directly.

When Zhu Di learned that his father-in-law asked him to go there in person, he was not angry.

Nonsense, how could he have such a bad temper? Xu Da was far superior to him, a rookie, in both status and experience.

Compared with Xu Da, it is not an exaggeration to say that Zhu Di is a new recruit.

Not to mention that Zhu Di respected his father-in-law very much.

If Zhang Yu didn't come back, he would go there in person.

It was actually his fault for letting Zhang Yu speak just now.

(End of this chapter)