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

Chapter 207: Annihilation of

A head-on collision would require several times the number of troops to annihilate them all, while attacking a city would require more than ten times the number of troops.

Now that Zhu Qizhen had annihilated 500,000 enemies, Zhu Yuanzhang thought it was very likely that he was going to destroy the Ming army of one million.

The annihilation of 500,000 enemies is indeed an eye-catching achievement, but it cannot be achieved at the cost of losing most of the Ming Dynasty's elite troops.

Otherwise, I really don’t know how to comment on it. Anyway, in Zhu Yuanzhang’s view, this behavior is very undesirable.

However, after hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's question, Yang Chen remained silent for a long time, which made Zhu feel something was wrong!
"Isn't it that things are not as simple as we thought?"

When this possibility appeared in his mind, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly felt goosebumps all over.

After a long time, Yang Chen finally spoke:
"Your Majesty, you seem to have misunderstood me. Zhu Qizhen's absence and the death of 500,000 people in Tumu Fort were called the Tumu Fort Incident, not the Tumu Fort Victory."

"really!"

In an instant, Zhu Yuanzhang took a breath of cold air, and even the temperature around him suddenly dropped several degrees. He knew that what Yang Chen said must be bad. This guess came true, but Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't be happy at all.

It's strange that he can be happy.

Changes recorded in history are generally not good things.

The Xuanwu Gate Incident is a good example. In order to fight for the throne, Li Shimin cut off his eldest brother's head, walked up to Li Yuan, personally appointed Li Yuan as the emperor, and imprisoned him deep in the palace and did not allow him to go out.

The current Tumubao incident made Zhu Yuanzhang's eyelids twitch constantly, and he vaguely felt that there must be something complicated behind it!
"Go on, what exactly happened at the Battle of Tumu? And how did Zhu Qizhen get the Oirat princess pregnant with our Zhu family's offspring?"

Zhu Yuanzhang uttered these words almost with gritted teeth.

However, the facts that followed, even though he had prepared himself mentally, still made him so angry that his blood rushed to his head!

Yang Chen said carefully:

"So your majesty should be able to guess roughly that Zhu Qizhen led hundreds of thousands of elite Ming soldiers and took away all the Ming generals at that time. Except for some people who could not be taken away, he took away almost all the rest.

When they arrived near Tumu Fort, Zhu Qizhen wanted to set up camp for a while. It was said that a eunuch beside him gave him the suggestion, but the commander-in-chief did not think it was a good idea and began to tell Zhu Qizhen to move immediately, otherwise Tumu Fort would be the best ambush place for the Oirat Tatars.

But he never thought that this general didn't even have the power to meet Zhu Qizhen, because the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty at that time had gained great power. This matter needs to start with Zhu Zhanji. At that time, Zhu Zhanji was addicted to playing, and he allowed eunuchs to come into contact with power. By the time of Zhu Qizhen, the eunuchs had already become the emperor's decision-makers. Anyway, it was similar to previous dynasties.

This led to the tragedy of Tumu Fortress, where Zhu Qizhen led the elite Ming troops to waste time, giving the Oirat and Tatar time to ambush. On a rainy night, both forces attacked the Ming army camp at the same time, taking advantage of the situation.

Just like that, in less than one night, hundreds of thousands of elite troops of the Ming Dynasty were all lost in Tumu Fort, and Zhu Qizhen was also captured by the Oirat army.

The defeated Ming army ran back to the capital and told the officials in the capital about this matter. At that time, the pro-war faction headed by Yu Qian had become very weak, and the remaining civil servants suggested moving the capital to Nanjing in the south.

To be honest, Zhu Zhanji should be blamed for this incident. If he had not given up the territory north of the Great Wall, the enemy would not have surrounded Beijing in just a few days.

Fortunately, Yu Qian was in Beijing at that time. He united everyone and seized the military power of Beijing. Most of the generals at that time were killed in Tumu Fort, and the rest all obeyed Yu Qian's orders because he was the Minister of War.

Seeing that they were close to conquering the Ming Dynasty, the Oirat army took Zhu Qizhen to the gate tower of Beijing City and shouted to Yu Qian who was on the gate.

Open the city gate immediately, otherwise the emperor of Ming Dynasty would be killed. However, Yu Qian refused to agree. The Wala army could not bear it, so they made Zhu Qizhen kneel on the ground and ordered him to let Yu Qian open the city gate. Unexpectedly, Zhu Qizhen actually did so!

From then on, in addition to the nickname of the God of War of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Qizhen also had another nickname, which was the Gate Emperor.

Faced with the emperor's servility, Yu Qian waved his hand and said that Zhu Qizhen was not the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, because Yongle had said when he was alive that "the emperor guards the national gate, and the king dies for the country." Zhu Qizhen violated the ancestral precepts, so Yu Qian naturally could not recognize him as the emperor.

In addition to Zhu Qizhen, there was another person who could become the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. This person was Zhu Qizhen’s younger brother, Zhu Zhanji’s youngest son, Zhu Qiuyu.

Zhu Qiyu was appointed as the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty when his brother was captured. With the support of Yu Qian, he resolutely resisted the Oirat army.

When the people of Beijing saw that the emperor himself was going into battle, they all went to the palace to collect weapons. Under Yu Qian's command, the Wala army at the city gate was beaten so badly that they ran back to the grassland in shame.

As for this man called Men Tianzi, he was taken back to the grassland.

During the years he lived on the grassland, he relied on his identity to become good friends with the second generation of the Oirat Mongols. He also relied on his appearance to charm the Oirat princess so much that she took the initiative to serve Zhu Qizhen. Coincidentally, the princess gave birth to two children for Zhu Qizhen!

And this emperor named Men was jokingly called the Wala student by us in later generations.

At the same time, a turbulent change also took place in the capital of the Ming Dynasty. The military generals you left for Zhu Yunwen had already lost a lot in the Jingnan Campaign. Now after the Battle of Tumu, there were even fewer military generals left by Yongle to future generations, or even none.

Otherwise, it would not have been Yu Qian's turn to serve as a military figure. From here on, the Ming Dynasty would have been on the road to destruction. The civil officials were dominant, while the military officials were weak. How could the dynasty be strong?
As the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Qiyu was in a very difficult situation because his mother was a concubine and Zhu Qizhen's mother was the empress dowager. Except for Yu Qian, almost everyone else disliked him. But he was the only one who could be the emperor, so Zhu Qiyu had no choice but to accept this identity.

After a few years, the Oirat saw that Zhu Qizhen was about to become the second-in-command in their family, so they quickly sent someone to send him and the Oirat princess back to the Ming Dynasty.

Firstly, they did not want Zhu Qizhen to interfere with the hatred within the Oirat towards the Ming Dynasty, because Zhu Qizhen could get along with everyone, and if he was allowed to interact with the new generation of the Oirat, the Oirat people would only have a good impression of the Ming Dynasty.

Secondly, he saw that the Ming Dynasty was becoming increasingly powerful under the guidance of Zhu Qiyu and Yu Qian, so he sent Zhu Qizhen back to muddy the waters.

When Zhu Qizhen returned to the palace, Zhu Qiuyu was naturally unwilling to give up the throne, so he directly appointed Zhu Qizhen as the emperor emeritus and placed him under house arrest deep in the palace.

Unfortunately, Zhu Qiyu himself did not leave any descendants due to his poor physical condition. In addition, he was busy fighting with civil officials all day long over the years, which made his health worse and worse.

When the civil officials saw his appearance, they quickly took the initiative to surrender to Zhu Qizhen. Afterwards, Zhu Qizhen also obeyed the civil officials' wishes and launched the coup d'état.

After personally sending his brother away, he became the emperor of the Ming Dynasty again.

The first thing he did after ascending the throne was to kill all of Zhu Qiyu's relatives, and then he killed Yu Qian completely.

When Yu Qian was imprisoned in the imperial prison, he wrote a poem, which seemed to be a seven-character quatrain. I still remember it was called "Lime Chant". Yes, that was the name.

The content is roughly like this: I have used thousands of hammers and chisels to carve out a mountain, and the raging fire burns it as if it were nothing. I am not afraid of being crushed to pieces, I just want to leave my innocence in the world.

Yu Shaobao was a man of strong character and loyal to the people of the Ming Dynasty. Whenever he appeared in Yongle's sight, he offended the emperor many times.

However, Yongle saw his talent and let him off the hook. He did not kill him for his rude words to the emperor. He thought that leaving his talent to future generations would surely make the Ming Dynasty better and better.

After Zhu Gaochi succeeded to the throne, he was reluctant to kill him, and the same was true when Zhu Zhanji succeeded to the throne.

When it came to Zhu Qizhen, he couldn't wait to kill him. When the Jinyiwei went to Yu Qian's house to search his property, they saw that Yu Qian, as the Minister of War and the Prince's Guard, was a high-ranking official with a high salary, but his house was empty, with no servants, no subordinates, and only orphans and widows.

She couldn't help but burst into tears, and finally left some silver.

So I say Yu Qian is the savior of the Ming Dynasty. Without him, the Ming Dynasty would have perished two hundred years earlier. Am I right?"

Yang Chen spoke these words almost all at once without any pause.

When he opened his eyes and looked at Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang's whole mental state was not very good.

In fact, from the moment Yang Chen introduced the true origin of Zhu Qizhen, the God of War of the Ming Dynasty, he was already feeling a little dizzy.

It would take eight to ten days to kill five hundred thousand pigs. Who could have thought that they would be lost at the hands of this young man?

Five hundred thousand!

This is a real person. Because of the influence of his superiors and a eunuch, so many elite soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were killed. Who doesn't know that civil servants are an unstable factor in the dynasty's peacetime?

For this reason, Zhu Yuanzhang took this into consideration in the early days of the founding of the country and made most of the people within the first six kilometers of the founding of the country military officers.

The idea is to let these military officers suppress the civil officials.

Well, Zhu Yuanzhang didn’t say anything about the Jingnan Campaign led by Zhu Yunwen, because after Yongle became emperor, he also supported a new group of military generals to replace his military generals to suppress the civil officials.

Now, Zhu Qizhen took 500,000 elite troops and most of the generals and ran outside to die.

Not only did he give away his life, but he was also captured!

What kind of thing is it to kneel in front of the city and shout at your own people to open the gates and welcome the enemy?
Where is his integrity? Where is the emperor's mission? Where is the ancestral precepts established by Zhu Yuanzhang?
Could it be that all these things were just thrown aside and ignored?

Zhu Yuanzhang wished that Zhu Qizhen would die on the battlefield, at least he would leave behind a good reputation.

Now, look what has happened. It has become a knife in the hands of the Oirat people, used to stab the once stable Ming Dynasty in the back.

What made Zhu Yuanzhang even more incomprehensible was that Yu Qian clearly did nothing wrong, but Zhu Qizhen, who had returned to the Ming Dynasty, actually went after him and killed him.

He was originally an honest and upright official who devoted himself to the Ming Dynasty, but in the end he fell into such a miserable situation, with nothing in his house.
As a first-rank official, his residence was described as bare and empty. Zhu Yuanzhang really couldn't imagine how he lived on a daily basis.

Take the current court for example. If you randomly pick out a seventh-rank official, his family will probably have at least several large courtyards. If he’s lucky, he may even have a beautiful lady in his mansion.

But Yu Qian was able to remain true to himself, which made Zhu Yuanzhang admire him very much.

Such a selfless person should have had a good ending, but in the end he was so miserable that he wrote this immortal seven-character quatrain in the imperial prison!

Zhu Yuanzhang only felt dizzy, followed by a darkness in front of his eyes.

In Yang Chen's eyes, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly stood up and stared at him straight.

"inverse."

"Hey! Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Someone come! Someone come quickly! Your Majesty has fainted!"

Not far away, Mao Xiang was telling his subordinates that although it was safe in Zhenjiang Prefecture, they must make sure that the Crown Prince was not in any danger.

Suddenly he heard Yang Chen shouting for help, and he immediately felt something was wrong, and his face changed drastically.

He rushed towards the pavilion where Yang Chen and Zhu Yuanzhang were chatting like a madman.

The scene before him made Mao Xiang feel his scalp tingling. Zhu Yuanzhang was just lying flat on the ground, trying hard to open his eyes, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes. Yang Chen standing beside him was even more embarrassed.

He didn't expect that the things he said would actually cause Zhu Yuanzhang to fall down.

"Lord Yang! What did you say to His Majesty again!"

"Misunderstanding! Misunderstanding! I didn't say anything that Your Majesty asked me to say!"

"You! Me! Hey!"

"Don't worry! The time now is right to save His Majesty. You stay here. I will go get a doctor right away."

Yang Chen didn't dare to stay here any longer. He disappeared from Mao Xiang's sight in the blink of an eye.

Seeing that the other person had disappeared, Mao Xiang immediately helped Zhu Yuanzhang up. It would be embarrassing for an emperor to lie on the ground like this if he was seen by others.

At the same time, Yang Chen had already moved away from this area.

Of course, he was not idle either, and hurried to find a doctor in Zhenjiang Prefecture.

He knew exactly what Zhu Yuanzhang was feeling just now. He was simply extremely angry.

There was no way around it. What Zhu Qizhen did was so outrageous and completely beyond everyone's expectations.

All kinds of funny and insulting words were put on Zhu Qizhen's head, such as "Ming Dynasty won", "Emperor calling the door", "Oirat student", etc. He also killed good ministers and his younger brother. Zhu Yuanzhang never imagined that his descendants would be so cruel.

If you have these abilities, what were you doing when you were fighting against the Oirat Mongols?
The news of Zhu Yuanzhang's fainting spread quickly, and Zhenjiang Prefecture was pushed to the forefront.

My goodness, the founding emperor came to your place and was so angry that he fainted.

If it weren't for the superb skills of the doctors in Zhenjiang Prefecture who saved Zhu Yuanzhang from the hands of death, he would probably have died long ago.

Leaning against the wall, Zhu Yuanzhang's face was full of despair. He couldn't believe that his descendants would do such a thing.

He still cannot accept it. At the same time, Queen Ma questioned Yang Chen beside the bed:
"Yang Chen! What the hell is going on with you? Is this the second time?
I'm not saying anything bad about you, but you've gone too far! If Chongba gets into an accident in your Zhenjiang Mansion, how will you and Biaoer get along in the future, and how will Xiongying treat you as his teacher?"

(End of this chapter)