My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 7: The Operation of the First War God of the Ming Dynasty
"The first war god of the Ming Dynasty?"

"Li Jinglong?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was completely bewildered. What virtue or ability did his nephew have to deserve such high praise?

But the sentence "There is no general in Shu except Liao Hua to serve as the vanguard" is obviously not a good thing to say.

With great curiosity, Zhu Yuanzhang continued to read on.

"In the first year of Jianwen, Zhu Di raised an army to quell the rebellion. Zhu Yunwen appointed Li Jinglong as the general and led an army of 550,000 to attack Zhu Di, who at that time had only 60,000 soldiers.

Logically speaking, with a military strength advantage of nearly ten times and the moral high ground in the fight against the rebel king, this battle would not be difficult, but winning it would at least not be a problem.

But Li Jinglong's tricky operation turned the overwhelming situation into a life-and-death situation."

Now Zhu Yuanzhang finally understood that “the first god of war of the Ming Dynasty” was a living mockery from the immortal!

"In September of the same year, Li Jinglong besieged Peking. During this period, Qu Neng, the governor of the Southern Army, almost broke through the Zhangye Gate of Peking. However, Li Jinglong was jealous and feared that Qu Neng would take the first credit, so he withdrew him alive. This time, the plan failed at the last minute."

Li Jinglong is such a fool, he is more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything!

Is it possible for a commander to be jealous of his subordinates' achievements when the battle is in full swing?
Zhu Yuanzhang had been through hundreds of battles and knew war very well. As a commander, isn't the most basic quality to know how to use troops well?

But Li Jinglong, seeing that the city was about to be broken through, withdrew his siege generals out of jealousy?

No wonder Li Han used the word "sassy" to describe Li Jinglong's military strategy. This time, the operation was indeed sassy in terms of level and style.

"Li Jinglong's troops retreated to Zhengcunba, but were defeated by Zhu Di who pursued them and defeated seven of their camps, resulting in the loss of more than 100,000 soldiers.

Logically speaking, with the game turning into such a mess, any emperor who was not insane would have known that it was time to change the commander, but Zhu Yunwen refused to do so!
I don't know if Zhu Yunwen favored this cousin. He thought that Li Jinglong's military operations were not going well because his power was too weak, so he granted him the power of "exclusive conquest" and rewarded him with a yellow axe, bow and arrow. Li Jinglong reorganized his troops and led another 600,000 troops to the Baigou River. The two sides were about to face a decisive battle. "

Zhu Yunwen was such a fool. Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he wanted to command the battle himself.

"In April of the second year of Jianwen, Zhu Di led an army of 100,000 to attack Baigou River. On the way, he was ambushed by the vanguard officer Ping An and the Grand Commander Qu Neng. The Yan army suffered heavy casualties, so Zhu Di led his army to retreat.

The next day, Zhu Di led his army across the river again to fight. Ping An's troops defeated the army led by Fang Kuan, the general of the Yanhou Army, and the surrendered general Chen Heng was wounded and fled. Zhu Di led thousands of elite troops to rush into the battle array, killing and wounding many of Emperor Jianwen's troops.

At that time, Li Jinglong suddenly led his troops to go around the rear of the Yan army and launched a pincer attack from the front and back. The King of Yan changed his horse three times, and when his arrows were exhausted, he fought with his sword and was almost captured by Qu Neng.

In the evening, Qu Nengfu led his troops to fight. Yu Tongyuan and commander Teng Ju also led their troops to fight. Zhu Di was in imminent danger.

However, at this critical moment, a strong wind suddenly blew and broke Li Jinglong's flag. The Southern Army was immediately thrown into chaos, and the Yan Army took advantage of the situation to launch a massive counterattack.

In theory, emergencies on the battlefield are common, but any general with a little experience will raise the flag again and stabilize the army's position.

However, Li Jinglong had good generals like Ping An and Qu Neng, but he did nothing and watched the Yan army slaughtering people in the encirclement!

Soon, the Southern Army was defeated again. At this time, Li Jinglong had already lost his fighting spirit. He abandoned all his baggage and retreated to Dezhou, leaving millions of shi of grain and fodder to Zhu Di.

At this point, the Nanjing court could no longer organize a decent attack."

Idiot! Mediocre! Not even as good as Zhao Kuo who was good at talking about war on paper!
Zhu Yuanzhang suppressed his anger and read the letter.

When he saw Li Jinglong open the gate of Nanjing to welcome Zhu Di into the city, and Zhu Yunwen disguised himself as a monk and escaped in the chaos and his whereabouts were unknown, the anger in his heart burst out!

What a great Li Jinglong, what a "first war god of the Ming Dynasty". Even the gods in heaven can't stand your "great achievements"!
After thinking about hanging Li Jinglong up and beating him in various ways, Zhu Yuanzhang calmed down a little.

After his anger, his heart was filled with helplessness. One was his biological son, one was his grandson, and although the other one was not surnamed Zhu, he was also his nephew.

Zhu Di and Li Jinglong are just teenagers now, and their hair has not even grown out yet.

Zhu Yunwen was even older than him. Zhu Yuanzhang was not that foolish to blame them for things that hadn't happened yet.

They are just children!
After calming himself down, Zhu Yuanzhang read to the end of the letter.

"Perhaps, if Zhu Biao had not died, everything would have been possible to change, and the Ming Dynasty might have ushered in a completely different future."

Yes, didn’t all this start with Zhu Biao’s premature death?
Zhu Yuanzhang was not a sentimental person. On the contrary, he had experienced hardships since childhood and fought for many years, and had long since developed a steel will and sharp thinking.

I received Li Han's letter and gained insight into the future development of events. Isn't this a blessing for the Ming Dynasty?

Perhaps this is God giving himself another chance to save the Ming Dynasty!

Now that he knew what would happen in the future, Zhu Yuanzhang had the confidence to change it!
The only one who can inherit his throne is Zhu Biao!
He read the contents of the letter several times until he had memorized them, then burned them.

Then he put away the medicines sent by Li Han, left the Buddhist hall, and walked towards Kunning Palace.

The most important thing at this time is to heal the girl.

When they arrived at Kunning Palace, Empress Ma was half lying on the bed, and several imperial doctors including Lou Ying were guarding her side.

The palace maid was feeding Empress Ma with porridge one spoonful at a time. At this time, Empress Ma was so weak that she didn't even have the strength to cough. She could not eat at all and could only rely on porridge and other liquid food to survive.

Zhu Biao was standing beside them, looking at Queen Ma with a worried look on his face.

Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang coming in, Zhu Biao quickly stood up and saluted, and Lou Ying and others followed suit.

"Father, you are here. I have just finished my work and I am worried about my mother's safety, so I came to the palace to visit her privately. Please forgive me, father."

Although Zhu Biao and others called Zhu Yuanzhang "Father" in public, Zhu Yuanzhang preferred them to call him "Dad" in private.

There's no way around it. Old Zhu was born a peasant, and daddy sounds more approachable than the emperor.

Zhu Biao was a smart and filial child since he was young. Coming to visit Empress Ma was a filial act. How could he blame him?

Seeing Zhu Biao's haggard expression, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but feel a little sad.

Zhu Biao's eldest son, Zhu Xiongying, who was also Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest grandson, died not long ago. Zhu Biao suppressed his grief and continued to help him manage state affairs, which was difficult for the child.

When Zhu Yuanzhang thought of the sentence in the letter, "with the spirit of using it to the death", he suddenly felt that he was not a qualified father.

But now that I know what will happen in the future, I will not let that tragedy happen to Zhu Biao again!
"Biao'er, you are filial, so how can we blame you? But you should not overwork yourself. You should rest when you need to."

"I understand, Dad."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said nothing more. Looking at the weak Empress Ma, his heart was filled with sadness.

Since the girl married me, she hasn't had a few days of peace. She has either been accompanying me in battles or helping me stabilize the morale of the troops.

After becoming the queen, she did not enjoy a few days of peace and quiet. She was either taking care of one grandson or another.

The death of her eldest grandson Zhu Xiongying made her bedridden. Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang felt even more guilty.

"Back then, I was imprisoned in a water dungeon by Guo Zixing and became a prisoner. It was you, my sister, who did everything you could to save me."

Zhu Yuanzhang said silently in his heart:

"Now that we have found the elixir, it's your turn to save you!"

(End of this chapter)