Ming Dynasty: pacifying the rebellion and defending the border, dominating the world

Chapter 273 The Emperor is dead, what does it have to do with me, Zhu Shou?
Zhu Houzhao's words caused everyone present to change color.

Zhu Wushi frowned deeply, thinking to himself, "Could it be that things are taking a turn for the better? No, it must be that the Emperor and Prince Su have reached some kind of agreement?"

"That's not right!"

“On that day, Prince Su clearly stated that in order to curb the civil service group, to purge the cabinet, and to prevent the future Ming emperor from suffering the same fate as them, he was prepared to sacrifice the emperor as a pawn.”

"If the emperor does not die, how will Prince Su restore order to the court?"

Zhu Wushi was completely puzzled. Could it be that Zhu Houzhao was deliberately making things mysterious?

But Zhu Houzhao's expression didn't seem fake.

This, however, left Zhu Wushi somewhat confused.

Li Dongyang, however, immediately guessed the reason and sighed deeply: "The emperor may die, but can General Zhu Shou live? Your Majesty, I wonder if my guess is correct?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Wushi, Yang Yanhe, and several other elders trembled violently.

Even the Empress Dowager and Princess Yunluo showed expressions of disbelief.

"Of course!"

Zhu Houzhao's lips curled up wildly as he showed admiration for Li Dongyang: "The Imperial Uncle, together with the Six Ministries of the Cabinet, called a deer a horse, attempting to overturn the world and steal the imperial artifact. Prince Su used this as an excuse to quell the rebellion, and the outcome was already predetermined."

"I want to die."

"You are no exception."

"but……"

At this point, Zhu Houzhao could no longer contain his joy and burst into laughter: "The death of the Zhengde Emperor has nothing to do with me, the Duke of Zhenguo and the Mighty General Zhu Shou!"

For the past few days, Zhu Houzhao had been living in constant fear and anxiety.

After all, he was still young, with a bright future ahead of him, and his desire to become emperor was not that great to begin with. After Zhu Jinzhen suddenly appeared and he witnessed the horrors of the Prince Su's mansion, Zhu Houzhao's enthusiasm for becoming emperor waned even more.

However, circumstances were beyond his control. As the emperor, he was the first person that Prince Su, Zhu Jinzhen, needed to eliminate in order to ascend the throne.

But to Zhu Houzhao's surprise, things took an unexpected turn and a turning point arrived.

"But Your Majesty, isn't General Zhu Shou your alias?" Princess Yunluo was momentarily confused, completely bewildered.

What do you mean by saying that Emperor Zhengde will die but Zhu Shou won't?
Aren't we all the same person?
"The emperor will die from a cabinet conspiracy, which will trigger a series of subsequent events that Prince Su wants to accomplish under his control. After the emperor's death, Zhu Houzhao will naturally cease to exist, and the only one still alive is Zhu Shou, the general of Xuanfu and Datong." Zhu Wushi's face was ashen. He never dreamed that things would turn out this way, but he also sincerely admired Zhu Jinzhen.

"He used the pretext of suppressing the rebellion to allow you to continue living."

"Such tolerance is beyond my reach. But I have another question: Isn't he afraid that you might turn against him in the future, and undermine his rule in the name of the emperor's legitimacy?"

"Clap clap clap!"

Zhu Houzhao clapped his hands lightly and laughed loudly: "Uncle, you are indeed extremely intelligent, you have figured out the key to the matter in a short time. But you are wrong about one thing."

"Where did we go wrong?" Zhu Wushi asked, frowning.

"The mistake is..." Zhu Houzhao paused for a moment, then gave a self-deprecating laugh: "Prince Su is not worried at all that I would pose a threat to him. Just a few days ago, when I held the Ming Dynasty in my hands and was the emperor, I was still able to make you turn black into white, call a deer a horse, and force you to abdicate. Do you think Prince Su would care about the threat from someone he wouldn't even bother to look at?"

These words were both a mockery of Zhu Wushi and Yang Yanhe, and a self-deprecating remark.

Zhu Jinzhen didn't even respect Zhu Wushi and the cabinet, let alone a so-called emperor who had almost been reduced to a puppet, whose true and false life and death were decided at will.
Threat?

Regarding Zhu Jinzhen?

That's an absolute joke.

Zhu Houzhao himself could not have imagined what kind of threat he could pose.

“He won’t.” “Even if I were to gain military power in the future, for Prince Su, it would be nothing more than issuing an edict to quell a rebellion. He might not even need to alarm the Grand Secretariat; the local army could suppress me.”

Zhu Houzhao was not stupid. Although he was trapped in the palace, he could still receive information from the outside world. The Tian Ce, Cang Yun, and Shaanxi garrisons simultaneously launched attacks across the entire Ming territory, and were invincible in every battle.

It cannot be simply described as being invincible.

Besides the various garrisons in Shaanxi, Zhu Houzhao noticed a battle report that was most unbelievable.

Whether it was Li Chengen's 30,000 Tian Ce Iron Cavalry attacking Duogan Commandery and advancing further west into the Western Regions, or Xu Changhai's Tian Ce Army entering Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, or Zhu Jinzhen and Xue Zhi's Jingnan Army, or Changsun Wangqing's Cangyun Iron Cavalry.

There were no casualties!

No matter how disparate their strengths, death is inevitable.

Because that was war, not child's play; it was impossible to avoid any losses.

Let alone those at the Vajra Realm, even those at the Finger Profound Realm or even the Grandmaster of Celestial Phenomena have all perished on the battlefield. During the chaos at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the number of terrestrial immortals who died in battle could not be counted on one hand.

However, during Zhu Jinzhen's reign of terror, neither Cangyun nor Tiance suffered any damage.

How terrifying is this?

It should be noted that since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, firearms have never been abandoned. Although the troops stationed in various places cannot compare with the Shenji Battalion in the capital, they still have a considerable number of red-coated cannons.

However, they still failed to inflict any damage on Cangyun and Tiance.

This was inconceivable to Zhu Houzhao.

"Tian Ce, Cang Yun?"

Zhu Wu was ambitious and ruthless, and indeed extremely intelligent, understanding things at a glance.

"Ah."

Zhu Houzhao didn't hide it, and in fact there was no need to: "My uncle has been in charge of the Dragon Guard Manor for a long time and has been plotting for my position for a long time. He naturally has a deep understanding of military affairs."

"If you were to command the army, given a million strong soldiers, or even the full strength of the Cangyun and Tiance armies under the Prince Su's command, as you know them, you could probably achieve victory in every attack and battle..."

"can!"

Zhu ignored Zhu Houzhao's words and interrupted him decisively.

"The Cangyun and Tiance under the command of Prince Su's mansion are said to be all first-grade Xiantian, or even Vajra Realm. Most of the officers serving in them are Zhixuan, and there are even Grandmasters of Celestial Phenomena."

"This kind of army, even if it were a legitimate emperor, could be invincible in every battle."

Everyone in the Qianqing Palace, including the Empress Dowager and Yunluo, who were women, nodded in agreement.

The reputations of Cangyun and Tiance were already widely known during this period.

If it were truly as terrifying as the rumors suggest, even a pig could accomplish everything Zhu Wushi described if placed in the commander's position.

Zhu Houzhao was not annoyed by the interruption, but asked meaningfully, "Uncle, how can we achieve a hundred victories without a single casualty?"

"What do you mean?" Zhu Wushi's pupils suddenly contracted as soon as he uttered the question, and he exclaimed, "You mean that the Cangyun Army and Tiance Army under Prince Su's command accepted the world's challenges and suffered no casualties in the face of resistance from the Ming Dynasty's garrisons?"

The expressions of everyone inside the Qianqing Palace changed instantly.

Yang Yanhe and other cabinet ministers were all knowledgeable, learned, and well-informed. They might only be able to talk about military strategy on paper, but they were not completely ignorant of military matters. They clearly understood how terrible it was that Zhu Houzhao said there were no casualties.

Even Princess Yunluo found it unbelievable: "Impossible, right? Even if the Vajra Realm is said to have a body as strong as Vajra, cast in bronze and iron, it is still a body of flesh and blood. How could there be no casualties?"

(End of this chapter)