Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 365: The only one who is tall and hard is Daming

"Father, is this the Great Wall?"

The eldest prince, who was born in July of the second year of Taichang, is still a child. This time, he was held by his father and sat on the horse, looking at the Gubeikou Great Wall with curiosity and amazement.

"Yes, this is the Great Wall." Zhu Changluo also looked up. "The Great Wall is thousands of miles long. This Gubeikou Great Wall has been built for more than 1,500 years. In the 11th year of Hongwu, Taizu ordered the construction of the pass and gate. Look, there is the Iron Gate, and there is the Water Gate. It was modified again during the Longqing period, and now..."

The weather in Miyun has started to get hot in May, but the situation in Gubeikou area is different.

This trip was leisurely, Zhu Changluo took his son to the Wangjing Tower of this section of the Great Wall. This is the highest point of this section of the Great Wall. As the name suggests, you can overlook the capital from afar.

Looking south, then north, Zhu Changluo finally looked at his son: "How is it?"

“The mountains and rivers are truly magnificent!”

Under the strict instruction of his teacher, Zhu Youjian spoke very conscientiously.

Zhu Changluo glanced at Zhang Sixiu, this was his credit.

The prince went on tour with the emperor, and his enlightenment teacher also accompanied him.

"The mountains and rivers are magnificent, and people should be more ambitious!" Zhu Changluo touched his head, "It is said that reading thousands of books is better than traveling thousands of miles. You are the prince, and you can't leave the capital easily. Take a good look along the way. In addition to seeing the magnificent mountains and rivers, you should also see the border people and foreigners!"

After a pause, he said to Zhang Sixiu: "The steepness of Gubeikou Pass is also due to your father's contribution."

Zhang Sixiu bowed and said, "That was my father's duty as a minister. It is far inferior to your majesty's ability to subdue all races and educate the world with virtue. This Great Wall will be of no use to you in the future."

"It will definitely be useful." Zhu Changluo laughed, and then continued to rub his son's head. "Even if you are capable in the future, and your descendants are also capable, the Great Wall will always be useful. It is the silent thousand-year history of our Chinese nation. I am afraid that you will not be capable in the future, and the northern foreign tribes will attack us again. I hope it will not be used in that way."

Zhu Youjian's face flushed red, and he shouted, "I will never let it be used to defend against foreign enemies again!"

"Okay! Father believes you!"

Zhu Changluo laughed loudly, and it was unclear whether he was happy that he had such ambition or laughing at his childish talk.

Li Ruhua, Li Sancai, Fang Congzhe, Sun Chengzong and Jie Jingfu looked at the emperor and the prince silently with smiles on their faces.

"Let's go. We still have to cross the watershed and reach Luanping before dark."

When the imperial carriage returned, it was escorted by the Jinyiwei, Yongwei Battalion, Tianshu Battalion and the Standard Battalion of the Left Governor-General of the Central Army Governor's Office.

There were two commanders: Yu Zigao, Duke of Jingguo, and Dayun, Marquis of Xiliang. There were also two generals: Qin Liangyu, the loyal earl who commanded the Yongwei Battalion, and Zhang Shenwu, the Changbai earl who commanded the Tianshu Battalion.

In addition, there was Wang Zhizhen with the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Luo Sigong, the Superintendent of the External Inspection Office, with a hundred people, and seven civil officials selected by the Jinxian Academy.

The emperor took the prince on a tour of Gubeikou for a while, but the escort team had actually already left Gubeikou.

The iron gate of Gubeikou was extremely narrow, only able to accommodate one carriage and one horse. However, the emperor, the crown prince, and the concubines who accompanied him could not have ridden horses all the way. The carriage went through Shanhaiguan to Shenyang, while the remaining carriages were transported to the north of the Great Wall through the water gate of Gubeikou.

After Zhu Changluo and Zhu Youjian got on the carriage, the Miyun guards guarding Gubeikou respectfully escorted the emperor and the prince out of the border wall, and the imperial carriage began to move forward.

Shu Baiqing, the prefect of Chengde Prefecture, only brought Wang Xun and officials from Luanping County to wait at the foot of the mountain outside Shibapan.

Along the way, the civil officials on horseback walked slowly, reminiscing about the past and sighing about the present.

"There are no watchtowers on the road, only the sun can be seen; the ridge is close to the clouds and the stars can be picked." Li Sancai sighed, "How many envoys from the Song Dynasty sighed at Yanyun in the past when they saw the eighteen steps of the Zhaixing Tower?"

Li Ruhua had a smile on his face.

Fang Congzhe lowered his head and looked at the wheel tracks on the stone road carefully. He said: "The prisoner carriage of Emperors Huizong and Qinzong crossed north, the Zhao Song Dynasty was ruined by the tyrants and treacherous ministers, how could Yanyun be brought back? Since then, when I was sent to Zhongjing, I have not seen many envoys sighing and lamenting. Instead, they went to visit secluded places along the way. 'Red bridges and willows reflected in the pond, suddenly it looks like the south of the Yangtze River.' It's sad and lamentable."

Li Sancai nodded repeatedly: "Now that the Holy Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is in power and all the ministers are united, it is only today that you and I can calmly pass through this Zhaixing Ridge and accompany the emperor to summon the barbarians to pay homage. Such a beautiful scene should be passed down in poetry and prose!"

Fang Congzhe smiled and asked, "Commander Li, are you interested? Please come in!"

Li Sancai felt a little uncomfortable. Being transferred to the Privy Council as the Right Commander of the Central Army was of course considered "extremely valued".

Haven’t you seen that another right commander-in-chief, Yuan Keli, had already surrounded the Tatar Khan in Liaodong and forced him to surrender, and then defeated the Jianzhou Jurchens?

But Li Sancai knew very well that he did not have much military talent. The Central Army Commandery was no better than the other four offices. Under the emperor's nose, the Central Army Left Commandery was very important, while the Central Army Right Commandery was just an ordinary errand boy.

Now that Fang Congzhe called him that, Li Sancai's poetic inspiration suddenly diminished.

But since he initiated this conversation himself, I can only say: "Then Xiuwu will throw out some ideas first."

He called himself Xiuwu and had always had great ambitions, but now he was in the Privy Council where he could not fully display his abilities.

They were all Jinshi graduates, and Li Sancai was the first to do so. The civil officials of the Privy Council and the Ministry of Rites then began to conceive poems and essays about the frontier.

The military generals, on the other hand, were listening to Yu Zigao, Dayun, Qin Liangyu and Zhang Shenwu talking about the wars of last year and this year.

Yu Zigao was lucky. Although one of his palms was broken, he still survived in the end.

Now, as the Duke of Jingguo, he has another position: the real commander-in-chief of the imperial army.

This position has been separated from the Jinyiwei.

The Jinyiwei was also officially split up with the return of the Tianshu Camp to Beijing.

In the future, the Foreign Affairs Office under Admiral Luo Sigong will have two names under one team. Some of them belong to the military but work in the Lifanyuan.

The Southern Pacification Division of the Embroidered Uniform Guard would be included in the Privy Council's name, the Five Military Pacification Division, which would serve as the emperor's specialized military judicial institution.

Most of the Jinyiwei Beizhenfu Division were incorporated into the Tianshu Battalion. On the one hand, it supplemented the strength of the Tianshu Battalion, and on the other hand, it continued to exert the Tianshu Battalion's internal and external special warfare potential.

As for the Jinyiwei itself... from then on it became a truly specialized ceremonial guard, with only a very small number of forces retained as the Forbidden City guards.

The Yongwei Battalion and the Tianshu Battalion constitute the high-end armed forces among the emperor's personal army. Under the personal army command, the three major forces of foreign vassal intelligence, military justice and local security will be controlled through the Foreign Affairs Office, the Five Armies Pacification Office, and the future Public Security Office.

This was what Yu Zigao had earned by sacrificing his life, and it was just by chance that the emperor arranged him to this position.

They were all ministers promoted and appointed by the emperor.

The atmosphere was peaceful and harmonious all the way.

The Eighteen Bends wind across the mountain, and then you can see the Luan River Valley.

To the east is the Halahetao area where the two sides had been in a long standoff last year. Now it is naturally no longer called by a foreign name.

After going down the mountain, you will see Luanping County, which has just begun to be built on the west bank of the Luan River at the foot of the watershed.

As for the city of Chengde, it is located dozens of miles to the east, on the northern bank of the lower reaches after the Yisun River merges into the Luan River.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty officially began this tour, and the route was set as: out of Gubeikou to Luanping, through Chengde Prefecture to the newly established Songting County formerly known as the Chahan Hetao area, then to Daning in the upper reaches of the Laoha River, and then turn east through the Daling River Valley to Yizhou, then north through the Guzhidao from the Liaohe Road to Shenyang, and then north to Kaiyuan, and finally to Tongliao.

Today, many sections of this route are undergoing road construction.

It was not only to facilitate the emperor's tours, but also to renovate the road network after taking back the old land of Kaiping and Daning, at least the main roads should be repaired first. Zhu Changluo's move was nothing more than to use the pressure of his own tour to make the newly appointed border officials pay more attention.

The manpower is available for the time being.

After last year's war, a large number of people from the Kharachin, Doyan and other tribes, the four Chahar Lingnan tribes, the Khalkha and Khorchin tribes were captured.

The long-term goal is to assimilate them and treat them as citizens of the Ming Dynasty, but at this moment, the approach is still to use work-for-relief.

"I have stayed in Tongzhou for two months, and have negotiated with the owners of Changminghao, Zongminghao and other local trading companies. A total of more than 30,000 laborers have been recruited from northern Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi... In addition to the Han people who fled to the border and the people who surrendered, the top priorities are three things: building roads, building cities, and reclaiming wasteland..."

Shu Baiqing was reporting on his work. This was certainly a rare opportunity.

"I know all about the difficulties of expanding the border." Zhu Changluo nodded after listening. "There are many things to be done, and you are all very hard-working. Don't worry about money and grain. When we arrive at the city, I will meet with the people who are relocated to the border. With reassurance, after I leave Chengde, you will work with the Ministry of Revenue to preside over the survey and sale of land in Chengde Prefecture. In addition to the three urgent matters you mentioned, the fourth matter needs to be discussed with the Ministry of Works, and that is water conservancy."

The Luan River system is well developed, but since it was lost during the Song Dynasty, it only had temporary actual control over this area during the early Ming Dynasty, but soon retreated back to the south of the Great Wall defense line.

For hundreds of years, animal husbandry was the main industry here.

Now that it has returned to the hands of the Ming Dynasty, whether it is the future development of agriculture or commerce and industry, the water conservancy management of the Luanhe River system will be a long-term project.

It is also a transportation project.

This tour was just like the previous visits to the Military Industrial Park and Dagu, and it felt very familiar to Zhu Changluo.

He inspected and guided many aspects of the work along the way, encouraged local officials when he met them, encouraged the Han people who had moved to the border, and also visited the Tatar people who had surrendered to him to comfort them.

The purpose is very clear: the Ming Dynasty wants to build a new Chengde Prefecture and make it more prosperous and wealthy than before.

As he was on the road, Li Hui also started to move northwest from Seoul.

The head of the Korean officials who escorted him on the diplomatic mission to the Ming Dynasty was named Jiang Hongli.

Li Hui now looked indifferent and was too lazy to scold them for their infidelity.

Jiang Hongli's mother was the great-granddaughter of Zheng Guangpil, a famous prime minister during the reign of King Jungjong of Joseon. His grandfather also served as the Right State Councilor, and his father was also known as Jinheunggun.

During this period in Korea, the Kang family belonged to the Southern Party.

In the 25th year of Wanli, after Jiang Hongli passed the Korean imperial examination, his first official position was a storyteller in the Crown Prince's Lecture Hall, a subordinate of Gwanghaegun Yi Hui.

Li Hui's kindness to him was as great as a mountain. He quickly promoted him to the position of Dushi of Gyeonggi Province, and then transferred him to Hamgyong Province to serve as Dushi, and later to the Chief of the Censorate.

But Li Hui did not know that even if these things had not happened, the former Jiang Hongli would have been defeated and surrendered when he served as marshal in the future and followed the Ming Dynasty to fight against Nurhaci. He and Jin Jingrui, who served as deputy marshal, were imprisoned by Nurhaci in Jiefan City, which was expanded by Jiefan Village.

There, Jin Jingrui was still trying to write intelligence and send it back to Korea, proposing his own "defense strategy" against the Jianzhou Jurchens. Then he was reported to Nurhaci by the spineless Jiang Hongli, who eventually forced Jin Jingrui to commit suicide.

This guy even married another wife during the eight years he spent with the Jianzhou Jurchens. Because he was a good flatterer, he was eventually allowed by Huang Taiji to return to Korea with 247 Han slaves and 31 Korean slaves.

Now, Jiang Hongli was "entrusted with an important task" because he passed the imperial examination, was familiar with Chinese, and was very quick to take sides.

At this moment, he advised Li Hui kindly: "You were bewitched by Nurhaci and resented and rebelled against the country. Although Your Highness has done these things, the Emperor is merciful and Your Highness should not worry about his life. Now that you have repented of your sins and abdicated, you can still enjoy your old age in peace if you sincerely repent in front of the Emperor. After years of war, the people of Korea are all eager for the grace of the country. Your Highness, please don't make it difficult for me on this journey."

Li Hui's eyes were out of focus. He didn't look at him, nor did he seem to hear what he said.

The small carriage is the prisoner carriage.

Now that he has passed the initial period of anger, he no longer has the ambition to control his own destiny.

But death... He didn't actually want to die, and he didn't have the thought of committing suicide rather than suffering humiliation.

He just felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

Recalling his first impression of the meeting, he thought to himself: That guy just wants North Korea, right?

That's why I play with myself like this.

Now that his goal has been achieved, why must he kill him, exterminate the Li family, and make the other ethnic groups outside the Ming Dynasty fear and fear in their hearts?
Jiang Hongli kept on chattering and Li Hui gradually became annoyed.

"Shut up."

Jiang Hongli had a slight look of anger on his face, but thinking of his identity, he didn't know how the emperor would deal with him in the end, so he retreated in disappointment and only told the people around him to keep a close eye on him.

In the long team, there were a group of eunuchs and palace maids carefully selected from the Korean civil officials who "followed" Kim Gyeong-rye in his military remonstration to Lee Hui.

This is actually a common practice, but it was only a common practice in the early Ming Dynasty, especially when Zhu Di was in power.

And this group of palace maids were certainly not just palace maids. They basically came from major families, or they were beauties collected from various sources.

Choose her as a noble lady, make her a palace maid, reward her to your ministers... the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty can do whatever he wants with her.

At this time, the news that Nurhaci was executed by the Ming Dynasty with a precise cannon from miles away had spread throughout the grassland.

By the time they heard it, the distance had become ten miles away.

The Ming soldiers possessed the ability of clairvoyance and powerful cannons.

It sounds like in the future it will be able to take the head of a barbarian chieftain from thousands of miles away, but now it's just a trial run.

"Nonsense!"

Lindan Batur cursed angrily, then looked at Daiqing in panic: "Taiji, why is Nurhaci like this... Didn't you say he..."

Although Dai Qing lost his Aohan tribe and his younger brother, he gained a new position in the severely damaged Chahar tribe and became a subject that Lindan Batur had to rely on.

Nurhaci died in battle, that's for sure, so quickly.

After a long silence, Dai Qing said, "I asked someone to ask Bu Shitu why they, the Tumed, betrayed the friendship of their blood relatives."

"..." Lindan Batur was full of hatred in his heart, "How short-sighted! This is not the benefit promised by the Ming Dynasty!"

"It's a firearm." Dai Qing said, "A new type of firearm. This time, the Ming army didn't use any firearms against us."

Lindan Batur looked at him in astonishment: "What kind of firearm?"

"There is no need to light a wick, a firearm that can fire a bullet in one or two breaths..." Dai Qing closed his eyes, "I guess, when we go to Tongliao this time, the Han people will show us what clairvoyance is and what kind of firearm it is."

Lindan Batur understood what he meant, and felt even more depressed.

If the Ming Dynasty defeated the people of Changshengtian without even using these weapons, then in the future...

Can we still wait until the day of recovery?

How many of the powerful people on the grassland will still be able to resist the upcoming Kurultai Assembly, which will be initiated by the Han emperor?

(End of this chapter)