Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 40: The Rebellion in Zhongdu (Happy New Year's Eve, Book Friends)
"Hahaha, okay, that's exactly what I meant!" Zhu Cilang laughed loudly, feeling very proud for a moment. This woman is something.

"Your Highness!" Upon hearing this, all the generals in the big tent immediately understood that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was going to personally go to the battlefield again. They all bowed their hands and clasped their fists, trying to persuade him.

Seeing this, Li Benshen's heart couldn't help but jump, and he felt inexplicably nervous. He actually didn't know the "tacit understanding" between Zhu Cilang and his generals, but he was directly shocked by this atmosphere.

But Xing remained expressionless, just waiting for Zhu Cilang to speak. She had already determined that this was a powerful leader.

"I'm going to kill a eunuch who wants to interfere with the throne of my Ming Dynasty. What's so surprising about that? Could it be that his head is harder than my knife?"

Zhu Cilang scowled coldly, his dignity evident without anger: "Get ready immediately. Even a man of eight feet tall can't be as straightforward as a woman!"

Xing was shocked when she heard this. She had never expected His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to personally take action. However, she did not try to dissuade him at an inappropriate time. Instead, she knelt immediately, took the opportunity to bow and compliment him:
"Your Highness is a man of great power and wisdom, and he will surely be a great ruler. The Ming Dynasty will surely be revived!"

Zhu Cilang never made choices based on which was the most reliable or secure, but rather on his own goals and strength. He didn't want to become a puppet like the Hongguang Emperor, so he had to suppress these defeated generals who were originally remnants of the army and even deserved to be executed.

Lu Jiude had never expected that Zhu Cilang, a young man, would have such courage and bravery to plan a night attack and even intend to lead the army himself to take his head. That's why he sent his personal soldiers out to supervise when the morale of the army was unstable.

What he didn't know was that the battle in Lujiazhai, where they defeated the larger force with a smaller one and completely wiped out the Shun cavalry, had already restored the morale of the remaining soldiers of the Beijing camp!

A crown prince who can win battles on the battlefield and plan strategies is enough to make these soldiers follow him to death!
Xing's reaction not only surprised Zhu Cilang, but also made him more determined in his choice. With this insider, his strategy of "capturing the leader first" was halfway to success.

However, he had never expected that Xing would be so decisive, and even suspected that this was a trap set by Lu Jiude and Gao Jie.

But on second thought, Xing was such a smart person that it was impossible for her not to realize that if the real prince died in their hands before Prince Fu ascended the throne, they would definitely not die a good death.

After all, Zhu Cilang did not say at the beginning that he would personally command the night attack, so such a trap would not make much sense, and Li Benshen must have told him that Li Banghua had arrived in Nanjing, and Lu Zhenfei was called by Li Banghua.

In this way, whenever something happened to Zhu Cilang, Lu Jiude would have to find a scapegoat to appease the anger of the officials in Nanjing.

In other words, there are still risks, but Zhu Cilang is the kind of crown prince who dares to think, act, charge and kill in order to achieve his goals. His dominance and fierceness and Prince Fu's cowardice are the reasons why Xing would rather sacrifice the immediate small benefits and decide to follow him.

Under the cover of night, on the small boat crossing the river to the south, Xing secretly glanced at Zhu Cilang, who was sitting outside the cabin with a calm expression and looking up at the moon. Suddenly, she felt inexplicably nervous.

Previously, when Lu Jiude had tried to win over Gao Jie, she had always said that Prince Fu possessed the same heroic spirit as Taizu when he started his army and founded the country, and that he was a wise ruler who would restore the country. But now, it was clear that the one who truly possessed both the noble aura of a king and the heroic spirit was the Crown Prince before her.

With Gao Jie's support, the Xing family originally wanted to negotiate terms before crossing the river. But now, when they saw Zhu Cilang and thought of Prince Fu who had no spirit of a heroic leader, they no longer wanted to discuss any terms.

She knew that if the Crown Prince wasn't killed by Lu Jiude by tomorrow morning, the outcome would be a foregone conclusion. This was her last chance. Protected by the reinforcements sent by Gao Jie, the group avoided the surveillance of Lu Jiude's personal guards and split into two groups to enter Gao Jie's camp outside Fengyang City. Chen Fu led a squad of armored soldiers and Li Benshen in the vanguard to ensure safety.

These so-called personal soldiers sent by Lu Jiude were actually not very strong in combat. They were only considered elite in Nanzhili. Although they came to monitor at this time, they behaved very lazy and were directly bribed by Gao Jie with three hundred taels of silver and a meal of wine and meat.

When Zhu Cilang met Gao Jie, he didn't waste any words. After Gao Jie and his generals paid their respects respectfully, he immediately made a series of promises of promotion to Gao Jie. Then he immediately ordered Gao Jie to send troops to eliminate the more than one hundred personal soldiers sent by Lu Jiude to monitor him.

Since he has led his troops to the south bank of the Huai River and outside Fengyang City, he will no longer be restrained. Due to Lu Jiude's misjudgment, the defense of Fengyang City has been completely empty, which is a good opportunity for him to take action.

Gao Jie was a little hesitant at first because of the suddenness of the incident, but when he saw Xing's eyes, he immediately agreed to the order of the crown prince in front of him. He also personally led more than 200 trusted servants to fight. In less than two quarters of an hour, he killed all the soldiers sent by Lu Jiude and submitted a letter of surrender.

Not only that, he also sent his trusted servants to contact Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo and Wang Hui, informing them to lead troops to quell the rebellion and protect the emperor.

These people were originally watching and they believed the news from the north at first. But after the military meeting just ended, these three smart men who had led the army in Nanzhili for many years got together and immediately realized that something was wrong and became suspicious.

But the incident happened suddenly, and the two sides were separated by a river. Lu Jiude was always on guard, so it was difficult for them to find an opportunity to verify. They could only continue to wait and see. In particular, the three of them did not reveal their true feelings to each other, and their words were half-hearted, and they stopped at the right point. It was obvious that they were worried that the other party would do something bad behind their backs.

At this time, Zhu Cilang had already led Chen Fu, Zhou Shixian, Xing, Li Benshen, Hu Maozhen, and nearly two hundred servants assigned by Gao Jie, a total of nearly three hundred elite soldiers, and headed directly towards Fengyang City.

After Xing and Hu Maozhen tricked the Changchun Gate of Fengyang City into opening, they joined forces with Chen Fu and others, and nearly three hundred elite armored soldiers quickly captured the city gate. Then Chen Fu and Hu Maozhen led their troops directly to the government office where Lu Jiude was.

"Your Highness has issued an order: Suppress the rebellion and capture Lu Jiude alive. Those who stubbornly resist will be killed without mercy!"

The outermost wall of Fengyang City is more than 60 miles long, with nine city gates and 18 water gates. After Ma Shiying was invited by Shi Kefa to Nanjing to discuss the important matter of supporting the new monarch, although Lu Jiude controlled all the troops in the camp, it was impossible for him to take care of everything in such a large city, not to mention that his elite troops were now sent out to keep an eye on three generals and one governor.

While Chen Fu and Hu Maozhen advanced straight ahead, Zhu Cilang, escorted by a group of cavalrymen, quickly rode into the city from Changchun Gate.

Lu Jiude only had more than a hundred personal soldiers left in the city, and their combat effectiveness was worrying. The rest were soldiers from the southern Ming army who could only be used to defend the city and were completely insignificant. Once the city gate was opened, the situation was set in stone.

Fengyang was the central capital of the Ming Dynasty. There was also an imperial city within the Forbidden City, which had great political significance. This was why Zhu Cilang did not summon troops and generals from various departments outside the city, but wanted to enter the city first.

He wanted to capture Lu Jiude and Zhu Yousong as quickly as possible to avoid any further complications, and he also wanted to summon these military leaders under the backdrop of the buildings in the city that represented the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty, so that he would have enough deterrence and obtain the greatest political benefits.

(End of this chapter)