Chapter 90: Fengtian Jingnan

Zhu Quan's fief was in Daning, and he had 100,000 heavily armed troops in Guanning under his command.

His military force was quite strong, and he had some tricks up his sleeve, but he just didn't have the courage.

One hundred thousand troops are a lot, but compared with the entire Ming Dynasty, it is a bit insufficient.

"Old Seventeen."

"Fourth brother, why are you here? You...you are not..."

"Yes, I fled back to Shuntian Prefecture." Zhu Di said.

"Do you know the consequences of this?"

"Consequences? Even if it's death, it's better than me acting crazy and stupid in Yingtian Prefecture and competing with pigs for food." Zhu Di patted Zhu Quan on the shoulder.

Zhu Quan had heard about what happened to Zhu Di in Yingtian Prefecture.

He was also deeply uneasy about this. After all, they, the brothers, were not very close to that brat Zhu Yunwen.

"Old Seventeen, Zhu Yunwen treated me like this, and he will treat you the same way."

"You came here this time, aren't you just to scare me?"

"I want to borrow your soldiers."

"What...what are you going to do?"

"Follow the will of Heaven and quell the rebellion!" Zhu Di's tone was more resolute than ever before, and his eyes flashed with a frightening look as he said, "The old man once said that if someone in the future is unfilial, he can raise an army to remove the emperor's entourage."

"No, no, if Zhu Yunwen wants to reduce the power of the vassal states, then let him do so. Anyway... I have no interest in fighting for it. But if we raise an army, Zhu Yunwen will never let me off."

"I don't want you to raise an army, I just want you to lend me your soldiers."

"What's the difference between that and me raising an army?"

"You can say that I kidnapped you and forced you to hand over the military token. Even if Zhu Yunwen guessed it, what can he do to you?" Zhu Di's tone was full of temptation: "If...if I, the fourth brother, really seize the world in the future, then I will share the world with you."

Zhu Quan's eyes flickered, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't moved.

But he still couldn't make up his mind immediately.

"I brought one million taels of silver with me this time. As long as you agree to lend me troops, the one million taels will be yours."

Zhu Quan was shocked: "Fourth brother, where did you get so much money?"

"Don't worry about it. Just tell me whether you want to lend it or not. You should know that among us brothers, you are not the only one with military strength. You can't save up this much money even if you save for your whole life."

"Okay, I gave you this soldier because you forced me to do so. I don't know anything else."

"Help me buy some more food and supplies. You can help me with the payment first. I have plenty of money here, and I will definitely benefit from your contribution."

In the original history, Zhu Di raised his army in a hurry, and relied on the 800 private soldiers of the Prince of Yan's Mansion to counter the 30,000 defenders of Yanjing, and then asked Zhu Quan for borrowed troops.

Now Zhu Di has no shortage of money. He has borrowed an army of 100,000. People in Yanjing are working day and night to produce armor, weapons, and muskets, and are also mining various minerals.

What Zhu Di still lacks is food and grass, but with Zhu Quan's help, his preparations are going quite smoothly.

……

bang——

Zhu Yunwen only learned of Zhu Di's disappearance a month later.

After all, Zhu Di's residence was guarded by his people, and Zhu Di could not escape his eyes and ears no matter where he went.

Zhu Di didn't go out for a month, and no one cared about it, thinking that Zhu Di didn't want to go out.

Who would have thought that we suddenly received news that Zhu Di was missing.

This news made Zhu Yunwen so angry that he was fuming.

"Your Majesty, Prince Yan should have fled back to Shuntian Prefecture. The most urgent task is to bring him back to Beijing." Luo Ming said.

"Zhu Di has long harbored rebellious intentions. His escape this time probably means he is ready to start a rebellion." Zhu Yunwen sat back in his seat dejectedly.

"Then we must be prepared and notify all the city passes to prepare for the enemy, so as not to be caught off guard. Secondly, the Prince of Yan only has 30,000 troops. Even if he raises an army, it will be difficult to achieve anything without money and food. Moreover, after suppressing the rebellion, it is more reasonable for Your Majesty to reduce the number of vassal states."

After Zhu Yunwen thought about it for a while, he also felt that what Luo Ming said made sense.

Before his death, Zhu Yuanzhang repeatedly warned his father not to reduce the power of the feudal lords.

And he began to reduce the power of the princes three months after he ascended the throne.

Now, many ministers in the court have criticized him, but he is still forcefully pushing forward the policy of reducing the power of the princes, and is facing considerable pressure.

If the Prince of Yan raised an army at this time, he would have more legitimate reasons to reduce the power of the princes.

So at this moment he was even more looking forward to Zhu Di's uprising.

"Your Majesty, I will personally go to Shuntian Prefecture and reprimand the King of Yan, forcing him to raise an army. This way, you will be in the right position."

"No, this trip is extremely dangerous. You must not take risks." Zhu Yunwen refused without hesitation: "Besides, you and Aunt Hanshan are newlyweds. If she knew that I sent you to Shuntian Prefecture, she would definitely come here to make trouble."

It is obvious that Zhu Di is now planning to show his knife. If Luo Ming goes to Shuntian Prefecture at this time, he might be killed by Zhu Di. Zhu Yunwen does not want to let his trusted minister take risks.

"OK then."

Luo Ming thought of his wife and gave up his idea.

Princess Hanshan Zhu Mingxi, although she married Luo Ming, did not move to the princess's mansion, but lived under the same roof with the old couple.

Zhu Mingxi would come to pay his respects to Rosen and Chen Lian every day.

It can be said that Zhu Mingxi has achieved everything that a daughter-in-law of this era should have.

In fact, Rosen doesn't like these customs.

After all, except Luo Ming, everyone in the family has nothing to do, so it’s better to sleep until they wake up naturally.

But it was Zhu Mingxi's daily greetings that forced Rosen to get up early every morning.

It would be great if Zhu Mingxi could be as heartless as his daughter Luo Mingyue every day.

Rosen is sitting by the lake fishing at this moment.

Recently, he has made some breakthroughs in his magic power and hopes to open the sixth page of the Black Book.

At this moment, a servant came over.

"master."

"Well, has Zhu Laosi encountered any problems again?"

"Now the news that His Royal Highness Prince Yan has started a rebellion has spread all over Shuntian Prefecture, causing grain merchants to frantically hoard grain and raise grain prices. His Royal Highness Prince Yan would like to ask you if there is any way to get grain."

"In half a month, send at least 10,000 people to Donghaikou. There will be 2 million dan of grain and 5 million jin of meat."

"On behalf of His Royal Highness Prince Yan, I would like to thank you, Master."

"Throw some fish fry into the lake tomorrow. I've been fishing all morning but haven't caught any fish." Rosen dropped his fishing rod and stood up.

……

When Zhu Di received two million shi of grain and five million jin of meat, his head was buzzing.

He didn't expect Rosen to be so powerful, and even felt a little afraid of Rosen.

If ten million taels can be accumulated through mining, then these two million shi of grain and five million jin of meat are enough for a million-strong army to consume in a year.

"Your Highness, the current situation is a bit troublesome." Yao Guangxiao hurried to Zhu Di.

"What's wrong? Not enough money? Or not enough food?"

"It's the meat. So much meat can't be preserved for long. Even if our people eat millions of pounds of meat, they can only watch it slowly go bad. Now it's winter, and there's still ice and snow to preserve it. Once the weather gets hot, all these millions of pounds of meat will be thrown away."

"Rush to Yingtian Prefecture as fast as you can and ask Mr. Luo if he has any other solution."

Zhu Di now has a happy trouble. In the past, he had no money, no food, and no soldiers, but now he has everything, all because of his father Luo Ming.

Zhu Di even felt that the other party was sent by God to save him.

Now he actually had the chance to see his food go bad because he couldn't finish it.

Half a month later, he got Rosen's reply, the saltpeter method of making ice.

Zhu Di then began to recruit soldiers on a large scale. Now he had plenty of money, food, weapons and armor, so he no longer hid his intention. He wanted everyone in the world to know that he was going to quell the rebellion.

On January 1, the second year of Jianwen, Zhu Di officially launched an army under the name of Fengtian Jingnan.

It is more than half a year earlier than the original history.

Originally, Zhu Di was imprisoned in Yingtian Prefecture for a full year.

This time he arrived eight months in advance, and with three months of preparation, his military strength reached 150,000.

Although the military strength is still a huge gap compared to the one million troops of the entire Ming Dynasty.

However, there are several princes' troops among this million-strong army, and these princes will not help Zhu Yunwen. The best result is that neither side helps each other. Secondly, the garrisons of the border fortresses cannot be withdrawn.

The maximum number of troops Zhu Yunwen could mobilize was only 600,000.

Zhu Yunwen dispatched Li Jinglong, Duke of Cao, to lead 500,000 troops to attack Zhu Di.

Before the war started, Rosen went to the scene to watch.

Li Jinglong is truly a member of the Prince of Yan faction.

After all, it is impossible for a normal person to do such an anti-intellectual thing.

The vanguard army was about to capture the city of Yanjing and the city gates had been breached, but Li Jinglong actually ordered a retreat.

In this battle, Li Jinglong was defeated miserably. He killed more than 100,000 of his 500,000-man army, and Zhu Di took over 200,000 of them. The remaining 200,000 or so fled back to Yingtianfu in a panic.

Zhu Di also lost tens of thousands of troops in this battle, but he received another 200,000 troops from Li Jinglong. Now Zhu Di's troops have increased from the original 150,000 to 300,000.

This battle also caused an uproar in the court of Yingtian Prefecture. No one expected that Li Jinglong would lose, and lose so miserably.

Zhu Yunwen had to deploy troops and recruit soldiers.

Of course, he now had to ask for help from the vassal kings. Not to mention asking them to send troops, but at least to keep them in place.

Especially the Prince Mu's Mansion in Yunnan, which is the most powerful vassal king and has an army of 300,000.

Rosen collected a large number of corpses during this war and used them to expand the volume of the distorted space.

In other worlds, Rosen could remain indifferent to the deaths of countless people.

But here, seeing those farmers who may not even have received any training being sent to the battlefield like conscripted men, Rosen's heart was still deeply touched.

These ordinary people probably had never killed a chicken before, but now they had to face the well-equipped Yan army.

But this is the reality of this era, and this is the sadness of this era.

The Yan army was usually treated to rice and meat, and their equipment were swords made of fine steel.

But the imperial court's army was fed with brown rice biscuits, which would choke your throat if not accompanied by a bowl of water. Their weapons were even more crudely made.

Even if there is a huge disparity in military strength, even if it is a head-on confrontation, the imperial army may not win.

Perhaps because of Rosen's help, the Yan army's offensive was much smoother than in the original history.

It was originally going to take four years to capture Yingtian Prefecture, but now it has been done two years ahead of schedule.