Emperor Zhengde of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 174
The fisherman knelt in front of Zhu Houzhao tremblingly. He thought that the man in front of him was young and not very old, but if he could be a high official, he was naturally a son of an official family.

"I'm here to ask you, can you understand what they say?"

"I can understand Master Zheng's words."

The fisherman thought that Zhu Houzhao's surname was Zhen, so he replied.

Zhu Houzhao was not surprised, so he asked casually, "Ask these pirates, what are they doing here?"

"They said that this warship is very powerful, and they wanted to drive it back for their use, but now you have captured it, and they are clamoring for you to let them go."

After hearing this, Zhu Houzhao pondered for a while and said, "Well, I see, you can go down!"

Several guards quickly came up and took the fisherman down.

Zhu Houzhao was sitting on a chair, looking down at the Ming Navy, secretly happy in his heart, seeing is believing, and seeing the whole thing clearly, in this duel, nearly 200 Japanese pirates were wiped out, and seven No. 80 people were captured. My side only lost less than 60 people.

Qi Jingtong and others stood aside, waiting for Zhu Houzhao's instructions.

They were all worried about His Majesty's safety, and some people even secretly discussed who should be established as King if Zhu Houzhao was killed this time.

Not long after, the logistics management personnel of the navy played up the actual number of casualties, and Zhu Houzhao looked at it for a while and put it aside.

"Li Qing's house!"

Li Dongyang cupped his hands and hurried over and said, "Your Majesty!"

Zhu Hou looked at Li Dongyang and asked: "As the chief minister of the cabinet, tell me, how many people does this Ming Dynasty have?"

This question stumped Li Dongyang all of a sudden.

He stood there for a long time and couldn't answer Zhu Houzhao's question, because there was no approximate figure for any previous cabinet.

They were all wondering what happened to His Majesty today, and it was a bit difficult to ask this question.

"Your Majesty, I didn't implement this question well before, so I beg your Majesty to forgive me. When I go back this time, I will immediately start the census."

Zhu Houzhao nodded and said: "Before Liu Jian was asked to measure the land under the whole world, they only gave me a rough figure, so I just want to know how many people I have?"

After a pause, Zhu Houzhao continued: "I'm a little tired of living in this sea for a while, so let's go back to the capital immediately!"

"As for these Japanese pirates, I think it's okay to chop them all up. It's useless to keep them, and a lot of food will be wasted."

"Besides, they came here to challenge us. I just showed them a little color, so I don't have to let them all go back."

When Zhu Houzhao said these words, the captives kneeling at the bottom didn't hear a word, and even more people muttered and cursed some incomprehensible words.

It is estimated that they are all swear words to greet Zhu Houzhao's eight times female ancestors, but Zhu Houzhao can't understand either.

Since the group of captives was going to be massacred, none of them could be released, and this matter was arranged for Deng Wenlong to do it.

Because Deng Wenlong did not perform any meritorious service in this battle, he has been not very happy. Qi Jingtong will arrange this matter for his subordinates.

They tied all the captives to a warship, sailed to the place according to this eight miles, cut off all the heads of these Japanese pirates and threw them into the sea to feed the fish.

Soon, a group of sharks surrounded him.
Zhu Houzhao was very happy to sit on the dragon chariot. He lifted the curtain and looked out of the window from time to time along the way. His heart was full of curiosity. The guard of honor left Tanggukou in a mighty way.

Now he is talking about Wang Shouren, the governor of Liaodong.

Although he is only seventeen or eighteen years old this year, about the same age as Zhu Houzhao, he has matured a lot in terms of thinking.

The 20 Ming Dynasty army led by him has been stationed west of Daxing'an Mountains, ready to attack the Jianzhou Jurchens at any time.

This Jianzhou Jurchen is very cunning, knowing that she is not the opponent of the Ming army, but has repeatedly invaded the Central Plains, and from time to time came to the interior to plunder, for this reason, there are always urgent reports from Liaodong.

It's not that the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are not powerful, but that the Daxing'anling Mountains are so deep that they can't lead the army deep. This also made Wang Shouren stationed again, but he was in a dilemma.

The Jurchen tribe has a large population and occupies a vast land thousands of miles deep. How difficult would it be for Wang Shouren to flatten the entire Liaodong?

In a head-on confrontation that just broke out, the Jurchen tribe suffered huge losses, losing tens of thousands of people, and the three guards of Jianzhou were also razed to the ground by Ming soldiers.

After that, the Jurchen tribe in Jianzhou led people to flee into the depths of the mountains.

However, this battle is a tug-of-war, and the destruction of the three guards of Jianzhou is the beginning.

Wang Shouren's task is to clean up the front of the Jurchen tribe hidden in the mountains.

This is much more difficult than a frontal assault.

Inside the Forbidden City.

The imperial examination was held as scheduled after Zhu Houzhao's arrival.

Yang Tinghe has already set up the Tribute Court, and each invigilator is personally selected by Yang Tinghe. As a confidential examination for the Ming Dynasty to select talents, there must be no cheating.

Otherwise, he, a cabinet minister who has worked for more than [-] years, will follow Liu Jian's path.

For this imperial examination, Zhu Houzhao is also full of expectations. This is the first time he has faced the truth since he succeeded the Great Reunification.

It was three days after Zhu Houzhao returned to the capital from Tanggukou.

In dealing with the internal affairs of the court, Zhu Houzhao encountered the most troublesome thing, which was the memorial sent by Wang Shouren.

It is said that they were chasing the Jianzhou Jurchens, but the Jianzhou Jurchens rose up to resist them and burst out with powerful fighting power, which amazed the civil and military officials of the entire court.

However, the war that broke out in Liaodong allowed them to see the tenacity of the Jurchen tribe. Under Wang Shouren's pursuit, the Jurchen tribe survived by luck.

But for the Jurchen tribe, the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty pressed on every step of the way this time, and they had already reached the point of life and death.

However, this was just the beginning, Wang Shouren used a trick.

He cut off food for the Jianzhou Jurchens who had fled to the depths of the mountains. It is autumn again. Although there are many fruits in the mountains to fill their stomachs, as time goes by, they will gradually lose the possibility of survival.

Yes, he was waiting for winter.

He didn't take the approach of entering the mountains rashly, because the Daxing'an Mountains are deep, and once they enter, it is very likely that they will never come out again.

If winter came soon, those Jianzhou Jurchens would probably freeze to death.

At this moment, Zhu Houzhao was looking through the memorials sent by Liaodong in the Qianqing Palace.

The eunuch Xiao Fangzi came over, cupped his hands and said to Zhu Houzhao, "The crown prince Taifu Liu Daxia is back."

"Liu Daxia?"

Zhu Houzhao put down the memorial in his hand and thought for a while.

This Liu Daxia was a famous minister of Zhongxing during the Hongzhi period.

This person was the first in the rural examination in the third year of Tianshun. Later, he successively served as the head of the Ministry of War, the chief minister of Guangdong, the left servant and the right servant of the household department.

In the 13th year of Hongzhi, he was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of War, and assisted Emperor Hongzhi to realize the rejuvenation of Wang Chao of the Ming Dynasty, so he was deeply loved by Emperor Hongzhi Zhu Youtang.

Therefore, he, Ma Wensheng and Wang Shu are collectively called the "Three Gentlemen of Hongzhi."

After Emperor Zhengde succeeded to the throne, because he was dissatisfied with the actions of the eunuch Liu Jin, he wrote to Zhu Houzhao to kill Liu Jin many times, but he never got a reply, so he resigned rashly from the position of Prince Taifu and retired to the mountains in frustration.

(End of this chapter)