Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 136 Jurchens Launch Surprise Attack, Capital in Crisis (Part 1)
Rebels Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong have captured Zhongdu Fengyang Prefecture!

When the news reached the capital, it caused an uproar throughout the court and the country.

That's where the Zhu family rose to prominence, and their ancestral graves are located there.

It's no surprise why these rebels suddenly stormed into China.

The current emperor must be going crazy with worry, right?

Zhu Juena was naturally not going crazy with anxiety.

He's not a member of Old Zhu's family.
Or rather, his Zhu family doesn't exist in this world, and this Zhu family isn't his Zhu family, so why is he in such a hurry?
In fact, when the news of the fall of Tuocheng and Luyi reached the capital, he knew that Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong's target was Fengyang.

He had already realized it.

However, he did not disrupt his plans because of this, nor did he transfer naval troops from Suzhou Prefecture to defend Fengyang.

This is because there is no value in mobilizing tens of thousands of troops to defend Fengyang to the death, and the cost of doing so would be too great.

That place was notoriously poor at the end of the Yuan Dynasty; otherwise, Zhu Yuanzhang wouldn't have been so poor that he rebelled.

The main reason for Fengyang's poverty is its inconvenient transportation. It is a well-known hilly area in the Jianghuai region, with hills and low mountains everywhere. There is no shortage of arable land, but the transportation is extremely inconvenient. Farming a field may require crossing mountains and valleys, which is exhausting. The land cannot be cultivated, and development is impossible.

Therefore, by the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the entire Fengyang area had a population of just over 16,000.

After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he expanded the original Fengyang County more than tenfold, turning it into Zhongdu Fengyang Prefecture. However, although Zhongdu Fengyang Prefecture was five or six times larger than Nandu Yingtian Prefecture, its total population was only 130,000, which was even lower than the population density of the grasslands beyond the Great Wall!

You can imagine how poor that place was.

Zhu Yuanzhang tried every means to relocate a large number of people, build water conservancy projects, and reclaim wasteland for farming, forcibly moving the population of Fengyang Prefecture to more than 600,000, and using money to create a false prosperity in Zhongdu.

The result was the opposite of what was intended; the hills and low mountains were leveled, trees were cut down, and land was reclaimed indiscriminately, which severely damaged the environment.

From then on, Fengyang Prefecture suffered from constant natural disasters, with either flash floods or severe droughts. The people who had migrated there could not survive and had no choice but to flee.

There is a folk song circulating among the people that goes, "Speaking of Fengyang, talking about Fengyang, Fengyang was originally a good place, but ever since Zhu Yuanzhang came out, nine out of ten years have been barren!"
Calling the emperor by his given name is extremely disrespectful, showing how much of a bad thing Zhu Yuanzhang did with good intentions.

In the sixth year of the Wanli reign, when Zhang Juzheng surveyed the land and counted the population, Fengyang originally had only 13,000 people left. The entire Fengyang Prefecture, excluding the garrison, had less than 100,000 people!
He mobilized tens of thousands of troops to garrison that place, and the transportation of grain and fodder alone was incredibly troublesome.

Therefore, even if he knew that Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong's target was Fengyang Prefecture, he pretended not to know!

He also knew that Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong wouldn't be able to stay in that godforsaken place for long.

Therefore, he ordered Zheng Zhibao to send a hundred small warships, each with a capacity of four hundred liters, with five thousand men to provide support, albeit under false pretenses.

Those five thousand men were musketeers from the Beijing Garrison. They weren't going to support Fengyang Prefecture, but rather to blockade the waterways along the Huai River, Hongze Lake, and the Grand Canal.

Fengyang was already a place with inconvenient transportation. As long as these waterways were blocked, Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong would not be able to continue their advance in the three directions of east, west, north, and south. The two guys would have no choice but to go back the way they came.

To be honest, his response was far too passive. That was Zhongdu Fengyang Prefecture! Even if he didn't send a large army to rescue it, he should at least have made a show of it. Why didn't he even bother to make a show of it?

The main reason he responded so passively to the fall of Zhongdu Fengyang Prefecture was that he felt something was very wrong.

He didn't know which year Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong captured Zhongdu Fengyang Prefecture in history, but it was obviously strange that these two guys were rushing to the desolate Fengyang Prefecture right now.

This is all because supplies must be prepared before troops can move.

This principle is understood by anyone who leads troops into battle, and many people who don't lead troops into battle have also heard of it.

Did Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong hastily raise tens of thousands of troops without stockpiling any food or supplies?

Under normal circumstances, if you raise tens of thousands of troops, you need to seize at least tens of thousands of bushels of grain as food. Otherwise, if tens of thousands of troops go hungry, the whole thing will collapse.

Is it normal for Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong to hastily gather tens of thousands of troops and rush to the desolate Fengyang Prefecture instead of attacking the rich vassal states to stockpile food in case the army collapses?
There must be a demon in the abnormal situation!
This is very similar to the feint attack or the siege of Wei to rescue Zhao strategy often used by the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou in history.

He didn't fall for the trap. After Zhongdu and Fengyang Prefecture fell, he sent 5,000 troops to block the waterways!
At this time, the most important thing is the capital. Why should he care about the godforsaken Fengyang Prefecture?
He continued as before, reviewing memorials and then going on inspection tours, as if he were unaware that Zhongdu Fengyang Prefecture had already fallen.

It's truly a case of the emperor not being worried, but the eunuchs are dying of anxiety! In the past few days, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, Liu Ruoyu, and even Wang Yingchao, all the eunuchs who knew his countermeasures, were almost going crazy from being so anxious.

They all wanted to remind the current emperor, "Your Majesty, Zhongdu Fengyang Prefecture has fallen! Your Zhu family's ancestral graves are right there!"

However, none of them dared to speak. This was because they all knew very well that the Emperor's decisions were beyond question.

It's better if they don't speak; once they do, they're definitely not going to get anything good out of it.

The eunuchs were extremely anxious.

Zhu Jue, however, acted as if nothing had happened, continuing with his usual routine.

That morning, around 9 a.m., he had just finished reviewing the memorials when he led Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, and others straight to the East City Military Parade Ground.

At this time, the East City Grand Training Ground was so crowded with people, horses, and chariots that it was impossible to fit them all.

Lu Xiang-sheng could only take all the chariots to the drill ground in the northeast city, and then lead tens of thousands of veteran cavalrymen of the capital garrison to train 50,000 chariot soldiers and 100,000 infantrymen, while directing these new recruits to take turns building barracks in the northeast outer city.

At this moment, there were more than 50,000 troops training on the two large drill grounds, and another 50,000 troops building barracks around the Northeast City drill ground. The troops were so densely packed that it was like entering an anthill.

The traitors in the court were unaware that a full 160,000 troops were crammed into this place!

He had just run from the East City Military Parade Ground to the Northeast City Military Parade Ground when Lu Xiang-sheng, having heard the news, came forward to greet him, cupped his hands in a salute, and then whispered, "Your Majesty, are you about to send out troops?"

send troops?

What kind of troops should be deployed?

Zhu Jue shook his head slightly and said, "I just came to see how the new army of the Beijing Garrison is training."

Uh, Zhongdu Fengyang Prefecture has fallen.

Aren't you going to send a large army to take it back?

Lu Xiangshan glanced at Wang Chengen and Fang Zhenghua, who looked as if they were constipated, and still couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, if I may be so bold, what about Zhongdu?"

You don't need to worry about that.

Zhu Jue said calmly, "I have already made arrangements in Zhongdu. How are your chariot and infantry training going?"

How did you arrange it?

I haven't seen you send any reinforcements.

Forget it, I'd better not ask.

If Your Majesty wants to speak, you will; if Your Majesty doesn't want to speak, asking is pointless.

Lu Xiang-sheng was taken aback for a moment, then explained carefully: "Your Majesty, the chariot soldiers were conscripted early and are now barely able to fight. The infantry are only equipped with spears and lances, and they haven't even been equipped with 10,000 muskets yet. Their training time is also a bit short. They can barely manage to defend the city, but I'm afraid they won't be able to handle field battles."

These infantrymen were conscripted to defend the city; field battles were the job of chariot soldiers.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Do you think infantrymen need to be equipped with short weapons like swords and knives?"

How do you say this?

Lu Xiang-sheng pondered, "Your Majesty, if Marquis Meng and the others have time to forge swords, then naturally it would be good to have better equipment. However, it seems that Marquis Meng and the others do not have time yet."

"Your Majesty, I believe that if all else fails, equipping each infantryman with a short blade about a foot long would be quite good. They're easy to forge and shouldn't take much time."

Short blade?

It is indeed simple to forge a short blade about a foot long at this point.

The question is, should we build a multi-functional military knife, or a bayonet that can be attached to the front of a musket?
Zhu Jue was pondering this when the captain guarding the east gate suddenly rode up at full speed, holding a memorial and bowing, saying, "Your Majesty, an urgent report from Xuanfu Town, eight hundred li away."

Xuanfu Town?
Zhu Jue took the memorial, glanced at it, and couldn't help but snort coldly.

Sure enough, something fishy must be going on!

A messenger from Xuanfu Town reported urgently that the Jurchens had suddenly amassed over 100,000 troops to attack Dushikou. The garrison at Dushikou numbered only a few hundred and was unable to resist. Now, the Jurchens had broken through Dushikou and were advancing directly towards Yanqing Prefecture.

(End of this chapter)