Daming: I asked you to hang yourself, but I didn’t ask you to rebuild the Ming Dynasty

Fang Zhenghua chuckled:

"I am His Majesty's lackey. As long as His Majesty gives orders, is there any reason why it cannot be fulfilled?"

Zhu Youjian patted him on the shoulder:

"Old Fang, you are the person I trust the most. Go to Jiangnan. When you come back, pick up Dongchang and Jinyiwei for me!"

Fang Zhenghua was shocked and his eyes widened.

Jin Yiwei and Dongchang!

As eunuchs, this is their highest honor!

"How dare I refuse to die for Your Majesty!"

Fang Zhenghua's eyes were red and he was breathing heavily.

Like him, everyone was excited by the emperor's promise.

"Old Fang, remember, when you step into Jiangnan, you no longer have benevolence, justice and morality. I don't care what methods you use, and I will not hold you accountable for what methods you use. In short, I want to see people!"

Fang Zhenghua nodded seriously.

Being the emperor's eagle dog, he knew how to do it.

Zhu Youjian took a deep breath and said quietly:

"If possible, please help me keep an eye on the queen and the others. Also, I will let my mistress and Concubine Yuan live in seclusion in the south of the Yangtze River...

We don’t know where they are now. If possible, you can develop some of our manpower in Jiangnan and protect them secretly.

Remember, these manpower - it is better to have a shortage than a surplus! "

"What I want is a hero who is absolutely loyal and can attack powerful enemies, not a man wearing a tiger skin!"

Zhu Youjian looked into Fang Zhenghua's eyes and said with murderous intent:

"Do you understand?"

Founder bends down to the ground:

"The old slave is just a sword in your majesty's hand. Whatever your majesty asks the old slave to do, the old slave will do."

"Very good!"

Zhu Youjian nodded.

"Go get 1000 taels of silver yourself, and take away three boxes of rare treasures. You can use these in Jiangnan."

Fang Zhenghua grinned:

"Your Majesty, I only need to take away 500 taels of silver."

Zhu Youjian raised his eyebrows.

What do you mean?

"Your Majesty is very busy and is in need of money. This old slave goes to the south of the Yangtze River, which is a very rich place."

Fang Zhenghua chuckled strangely: "I ask your Majesty to allow me to do whatever I can to this slave."

Zhu Youjian understood.

"How good of you, old Fang, that you have learned my methods so quickly!"

The purpose of Founder's transformation is obvious - the combat chapter of "Sun Tzu's Art of War"...

Therefore, the wise general will feed the enemy. If he eats one bell of the enemy, he will be worth twenty to me. If he eats one stone of stalk, he will be worth twenty stone to me.

This is the most practical thing!

If you leave money to Nanming, they will only use it to fight among themselves and fund the Manqing!

Why not grab it and contribute to the rejuvenation of China...

"I'm ready!"

Zhu Youjian smiled.

He pointed in the direction of Jiangnan: "I will find a way to open up the route. You can try to buy some ships in Jiangnan and exchange supplies with me."

Fang Zhenghua wrote it down carefully.

……

Fang Zhenghua left, taking 500 taels of silver and [-] carefully selected soldiers to the south.

Zhu Youjian looked at the dust raised by the horse's hooves and remained silent for a long time.

Fang Zhenghua is a ruthless man and a fierce tiger.

How much surprise will it bring to yourself if you put him in Jiangnan?

……

If you hold your left hand empty, it will form an arc, just like the terrain of Nanyang.

Where the finger is is the surrounding mountainous area, and the circled open space is the Nanyang Basin.

The Nanyang Basin is not only the Nanyang area, but also includes part of Xiangyang.

The Nanyang Basin is known as the Little Four Barriers. Like the Guanzhong Plain, there have always been only five passages into Nanyang.

The connection between the index finger and the metacarpal bone is the Yunyang Mountain area, where Shiyan was located in later generations. This is along the upper reaches of the Han River and across the Zhuxi River, which is Hanzhong.

The second joint of the index finger is the ancient Shangyu Road. These two roads are the most difficult, and there is also Wuguan, a powerful pass that is said to be able to reach the Qin Dynasty in one hundred and two.

These two roads have always been accessible only by surprise attack.

To guard this place, we only need a few elite soldiers.

Topographic map around Nanyang Basin

The connection between the index finger and thumb is the east gate of Nanyang Basin - Fangcheng Pass.

This is the squeeze zone between the uplift of the Funiu Mountains and the uplift of the Tongbai Mountains.

A low hill was formed that was forty miles wide from north to south and thirty miles long from east to west.

The name is called Pass.

This has always been the conventional route from the north into Nanyang, and it is also the only road that can pass large armies.

The two joints of the thumb are the Zaoyang Corridor and the Suizhou Corridor.

This is connected to the essence of Hubei - Jianghan Plain.

The best thing about Nanyang Basin is that the areas connected by these passages are all large grain-producing areas!

Whether it’s the Guanzhong Plain in the north, the Henan Great Plain, or the Jianghan Plain in Hubei...

All of them are treasures that can feed the people of several provinces!

From the topographic point of view, Nanyang is like a heart, with rugged blood vessels connecting the surrounding areas.

In other words - as long as Nanyang is captured, Zhu Youjian will have everything around him!

The premise is that he can defend Nanyang...

Therefore, what Zhu Youjian needs to do now is to close the gate of the pass!

Of course, all this is based on the fact that he must first take down Bai Wang and take back the Nanyang Basin!

……

Seeing the Ming army approaching and smoke filling half the sky, the magistrate of Ye County appointed by Li Zicheng fled without a fight...

Zhu Youjian picked up the entrance fortress at the pass.

He quickly ordered the army to take over Ye County.

The east gate of Nanyang opened his soft belly to Zhu Youjian.

Ahead is the pass, which is an easy-to-defend but difficult-to-attack place.

Zhu Youjian needed to make complete preparations, so he had to stay in Ye County temporarily.

Later generations don't know much about this Ye County. If you say an idiom that everyone knows, you will understand where it is.

At the beginning, Confucius had to leave the State of Lu because he offended the State of Qi, and began to study abroad, preaching Confucianism everywhere in order to be used by the king.

He could not find a foothold anywhere, and no king was willing to use his Confucianism.

There was even a period of time when I was so hungry that I couldn't find where to go.

This matter was known to the Chu State, so Ye Gong, a great nobleman of the Chu State, went to Zhuliang and invited Confucius' masters and disciples to enter.

The place of entry is Ye County.

Later, Confucius became dissatisfied because Ye Gong favored Legalism over Confucianism.

So Confucian disciples made up an idiom to describe a person who is different from what he appears to be -

Mr. Ye loves dragons!

The story of Mr. Ye’s love for dragons happened in Ye County.

It was also because of this story that a wise man through the ages was turned into a mediocre person known to everyone.

Ye County has one of the earliest artificial water conservancy irrigation projects in China, the East and West Erpi.

This is what Ye Gong built.

……

Zhu Youjian summoned Huang Nilu and Shen Zhanran.

These two people are good friends of Xin Lehou Liu Wenbing, Shen Zhanran is a student of the Imperial Academy (Guozijian), and Huang Nilu is just a commoner.

"Cao Min waited to see His Majesty!"

Shen Zhanran and Huang Nilu bowed down.

Originally, only scholars could avoid kneeling, but along the way, the emperor had repeatedly issued orders to abolish the kneeling ceremony.

After the Ming Dynasty, except for those who committed crimes, no one needed to kneel down.

The two had no choice but to bend down and bow.

Zhu Youjian sat in the main seat and asked the two of them to get up.