Signed to Zhu Cihong, Prince of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 277 Chapter 277, Hetao land must be won, Zhu Cihong rescued the siblings
After offering incense to Zhang Xianzhong, Zhu Cihong led the army to continue southward.

The plateau in northern Shaanxi is very desolate, and Zhu Cihong naturally knew this long ago.

But it wasn't until he actually set foot here that he realized that this desolation was even more desolate than he had imagined.

In this area, there is only one village in a radius of tens of miles. This is a normal situation. There was even a time when the army walked for three days before finding the next village.

"How did this happen?" Zhu Cihong couldn't help but said, "I remember, don't there are many Ming soldiers and civilians stationed here in northern Shaanxi?"

The British prince also had a bad face, and sighed: "This is an important border area of ​​Ming Dynasty. Not far from the north is the Hetao land occupied by the Mongols. It has always been plundered by the Mongols in autumn and winter. After Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong raised their troops, The northwest frontier army here fled south in large numbers to join the rebel army of these two people, how can the common people continue to survive here without the protection of the frontier army?"

Zhu Cihong listened to the British Duke's words with a solemn expression, feeling quite heavy in his heart.

This is the importance of the army. Without a strong army, ordinary people would not even dare to live on the border.

Even Zhu Cihong is now two or three hundred miles away from the border, and the common people still dare not live here!
Zhu Cihong snorted, and murderous intent flashed in his eyes: "The Hetao area will be taken back together after all."

Since Qin Shihuang established the Great Qin Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty and the northern nomads have fought fiercely around the Hetao area, which lasted for nearly 2000 years.

Most of the time, the Hetao area was actually controlled by nomads, which obviously made Zhu Cihong very dissatisfied.

The Hetao area belongs to the central part of the Yellow River's "Ji" character. If the Hetao area can be captured, then the entire south bank of the Yellow River belongs to Ming, and Daming can use the Yellow River as a line of defense.

Conversely, the Hetao area is now in the hands of the northern Mongols, and the Mongols can go directly south from the Hetao to northern Shaanxi at any time, all the way to Xi'an, causing huge pressure on the northwestern border of Ming Dynasty.

Over the past few decades, the Mongols on the Hetao side have been fighting among themselves, and several khans took turns to dominate and fight each other, which made the Daming frontier army on the Shaanxi side not so strenuous.

If one day these Mongols once again unite under a Genghis Khan-type overlord, then the existence of the Hetao area will really become a serious problem for the Central Plains Dynasty.

Thinking of this, Zhu Cihong couldn't help feeling a little bit emotional.

"Damn, why does Daming have so many questions!"

There are Jiannu in the northeast, Little Japan in the East China Sea, Mongolian tribes in the west and north, and Dutch, Portuguese and Spaniards in the south.

Enemies surround you.

What’s ridiculous is that within today’s Ming Dynasty, there are actually many people who are constantly advocating seclusion!
Do you really think that if you close the door and act like an ostrich, the enemies outside will not discover your existence?

All I can say is, stupid and naive.

While speaking, the Ming army led by Zhu Cihong passed a village mightily.

Like the other villages, this one seemed to have been abandoned long ago, the walls of many houses had collapsed, and a few crows landed on the trees, their croaking was disturbing.

Zhu Cilang was silent for a while, then took out the sniper rifle.

There was a loud "bang", and the loudest crow was hit by the bullet and exploded on the spot. The other crows flew up in shock and fled in all directions.

Zhu Cilang withdrew his sniper rifle and snorted, "You're a thief!"

The Duke of England was stunned watching this scene, and then said with a smile: "It would be great if the old minister could have marksmanship like His Royal Highness."

Zhu Cihong was about to speak when his eyes suddenly paused.

Near the dead tree where the crows had just settled, the wooden door suddenly shook, and a small arm stretched out from the gap, waving non-stop.

Zhu Cihong's eyes froze, and he said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, send a few people to take a look."

The British prince followed Zhu Cihong's gaze, and was taken aback immediately, and hurried over with a few personal guards.

"Someone!"

"It's a child."

"Open the door, open the door!"

"Forget it, go over the wall, hurry up, she seems to be unable to withstand it."

The British prince quickly climbed over the tall courtyard wall and landed with a bang.

Zhu Cihong let out a sigh: "I didn't expect that our Duke is still a monkey."

The wooden door was finally opened, and the British Duke brought out the two children with one in each hand.

Zhu Cihong couldn't calm down anymore, so he jumped off the carriage and hurried to meet him: "What's the matter? Lao Fang, call the doctor quickly!"

After a lot of fuss, Zhu Cihong's chariot had two more children.

These two children are siblings. The elder sister is about five or six years old, and the younger brother is about three or four years old. Both children look very thin and have obviously been tortured by hunger for a long time.

A military doctor said softly to Zhu Cihong: "Your Highness, the two siblings are fine, but they have been hungry for too long. Just feed them some water and food, and they will recover slowly."

Zhu Cixiang immediately ordered people to bring water and food. As expected, the two siblings' eyes lit up when they saw it, and they started gobbling it up.

"Eat slowly, don't choke, your stomach will hurt later." While comforting the two children, Zhu Cihong gave Fang Gonggan a wink.

Finally, when the two siblings were full, Zhu Cihong asked, "Why are you two here, where are your parents?"

The younger brother was obviously a little scared, and subconsciously hid behind his sister after hearing Zhu Cihong's question.

The older sister tightly protected the younger brother, and said timidly: "Ah, my father said that he was going to be a soldier, and he hasn't come back for a long time. My mother has been taking us with me, but everyone in the village has left. My mother doesn't want to leave. There is only one in the village. The other day, she told us to find food for us, and told us to hide at home and not talk, but, but she...she hasn't come back for a long time. My brother kept saying that he was very hungry, so he cried, and then we didn't have anything to eat, I, we..."

In the end, the girl's voice was already crying.

At this moment, Fang Gong went and came back, still holding a small sachet in his hand, and whispered to Zhu Cihong, "Your servant asked me to look for it in the village, and there was a corpse by the well that looked like A woman has been dead for several days. Judging from the traces, she should be too hungry and weak, and she fell and hit the stone at the mouth of the well and died while fetching water."

Before Zhu Cihong could speak, the girl's eyes suddenly lit up: "The sachet is Grandma's sachet! Big Brother, have you found Grandma?"

There were originally hundreds of soldiers and generals beside Zhu Cihong's chariot, but at this moment, everyone was silent.

Zhu Cihong sighed for a long time, carefully blown away the dust on the sachet, then handed the sachet into the girl's hand, and spoke gently.

"Your mother went to look for your father, and you will see him in the future. The eldest brother is your father's friend, and your father entrusts your elder brother to take you to the southern city, where someone will take care of you."

The girl seemed to understand but still nodded slowly.

Zhu Cixi ordered someone to free up a carriage, put the two children on it, and then continued south.

Looking at the abandoned village gradually moving away behind him, Zhu Cihong let out a long sigh.

"What kind of fucking worldly shit is this!"

Dusk has come, and the village after the army left has become dead silent again.

There is a new grave on the small hill behind the village. A crow landed on the brand new wooden tombstone, glanced left and right, and was very satisfied with this shelter, so it croaked in peace.

There are two lines of writing on the tombstone.

"The tomb of the Ming Dynasty's mother."

"Zhu Cihong stands."

(End of this chapter)