More updates from "Thunder Nine Heavens")
Sixty miles north of Jiangling City, there are no rivers, lakes or mountains. It is flat and open all around, making it impossible to hide a large army.
Prime Minister Zhong's brother and Prime Minister Zhong Yi arrived early with thousands of troops.
Not long after, Gu San also arrived, leading Ju Ming's three thousand personal guards.
Zhong Yi rode out alone, and Gu San also stepped forward alone.
Zhong Yi said: "At the meeting place, each party is allowed to bring only three hundred soldiers, and no cavalry is allowed. The soldiers are two hundred steps apart. The leaders of both sides approach alone, five steps (6.5 meters) apart."
"Okay." Gu San agreed.
Zhong Yi immediately returned on horseback and ran further south to meet Zhong Xiang: "Your Majesty, the red thieves' personal guards are all wearing foot armor. No wonder they can repel the encirclement and suppression by all the officers and soldiers."
Zhong Xiang shook his head and said: "Most of those infantry armor were captured from the army."
Zhong Yi said: "The red thieves have thousands of soldiers, so it is really difficult for our army to win. I think we should abandon Jiangling and rely on the natural dangers of the Yangtze River to build more warships and train naval forces."
"That makes sense." Zhong Xiang also had this intention.
As long as there are naval forces, even if the Yangtze River cannot be defended, Dongting Lake can still be retreated.
Prime Minister Zhong said to his son again: "Go and talk."
"Why are you going?" Zhong Ziang asked in surprise.
Zhong Xiang explained: "I am the emperor of Da Chu. Even if we want to discuss state affairs, the old Zhu thief should come here. You are the prince of Da Chu, so you are on an equal footing with the little Zhu thief."
Zhong Ziang thought this was true, so he led his three hundred guards forward.
The large armies on both sides retreated, and the guards stopped after advancing a short distance.
Ju Ming led all musketeers, and now there are more than 500 musketeers. The scale of the musketeer workshop is constantly expanding, and there should be 800 musketeers early next year.
These musketeers wore chain mail inside and silk clothes outside.
Silk clothing is not only for good looks, but also has the effect of preventing arrows. Together with the chain armor, it forms a two-layer defense. Basically, you no longer need to be afraid of long-range attacks (except for crossbows and divine arm bows).
Zhong Ziang stepped forward on his horse and shouted: "I am the Crown Prince of the Great Chu State, but across from me is the Grand Marshal of Sichuan Gorge?"
Ju Ming rode the cornucopia and walked slowly: "Why are you here?"
Zhong Ziang said: "The master is to the master, and the prince is to the prince. If you want my father to come forward, you must have the Sichuan Gorge Manager to come in person."
"That's right," Zhu Ming took out his blunderbuss and asked while playing with it, "Do you have any brothers?"
Zhong Ziang didn't understand what he meant: "There are still brothers, what does that have to do with you?"
Ju Ming immediately felt bored. He originally planned to kill Zhong Xiang with one shot, but the fox didn't show up.
Since the prince of Chu is not an only son, there is no big use in killing him.
Let's negotiate honestly.
Putting away the blunderbuss, Ju Ming asked: "Your Majesty wrote to my father last year, saying that he was willing to draw a river to rule it. But Jiangling and Zhijiang are both north of the Yangtze River. Why did you and your son go back on your word?"
Zhong Ziang was startled, he and his father really didn't care about this.
"Dividing rivers and ruling them is just a general statement. The city and the land will naturally belong to whoever conquers them." Zhong Ziang's words were not sophistry. This was what his father and son thought.
But Zhu Ming took out a letter and said with a smile: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Chu, do you want to read it again? What is written in black and white on the paper is that the Zhu Zhong family ruled across the river, the Zhu family ruled north of the Yangtze River, and the Zhong family ruled beyond the Yangtze River.
Nan, Ru and his son have betrayed their trust and their words do not count, so I will have no choice but to lead my own troops to Jiangling!"
Zhong Ziang was speechless, because this was indeed the fault of his Zhong family. He could only bite the bullet and said: "Your Excellency, please wait a moment. This matter is very important. I need to go back and discuss it with my father."
"Go." Zhu Ming said.
Zhong Ziang galloped back and told the story of the letter.
Prime Minister Zhong was immediately dumbfounded. He really didn't think about it carefully when he wrote the letter, and now he inexplicably told the truth.
"Father, how should I reply?" Zhong Ziang asked.
Zhong Xiang's mind was spinning so fast that he actually laughed: "Since I have this letter, then I will not lose face by giving up Jiangling, but I will keep my promise and give an explanation to my subjects. But I have eaten too much.
There is no need to spit out the meat for free, so let the man named Zhu use money and grain to redeem the city. I kept my promise to give these two cities to him, and if he wants them, he has to spend money to buy them!"
Zhong Ziang admired his father and asked: "How much should the price be? It can't be sold cheaply, and it can't be too expensive. If the price is too high, it will force Zhu to lead troops to attack."
Zhong Xiang thought carefully: "The price of Jiangling is 500,000 guan and 10,000 shi of grain; the price of Zhijiang is 80,000 guan and 2,000 shi of grain."
This price is indeed not expensive, it can even be said to be cheap, because Jiangling is so wealthy.
But the premise is that Prime Minister Zhong will not take away the people and goods there.
How could it not be taken away?
Even if Ju Ming spent money, he could only buy two empty cities.
Zhong Ziang rode to negotiate again and explained the request made by Prime Minister Zhong.
Ju Ming sneered: "Do you think I am the foolish emperor of Kaifeng who spent money and food to redeem Yanjing, but ended up buying a few empty cities?"
Zhong Ziang said: "There will be some left in Dingkou, it is not an empty city."
"Get off the horse!" Ju Ming yelled.
"What?" Zhong Ziang asked.
Zhu Ming didn't bother to say anything anymore, he took out his short musket, loaded the bullets and powder, and aimed at Zhong Ziang's crotch and horse.
Even though the short gun's accuracy was very poor at a distance of several meters, Ju Ming was confident that he could hit it.
If you accidentally hurt Zhong Ziang, you deserve to be unlucky!
Seeing Ju Ming take out the fire sticks to blow the fire, Zhong Ziang became more suspicious and couldn't figure out what Ju Ming was doing.
What happened on the battlefield in Shaanxi did not reach Jinghu.
"boom!"
The sound of a gunshot was like a bolt from the blue.
Ju Ming aimed at the horse's chest, but unexpectedly hit the horse's neck.
Zhong Ziang fell down as his horse fell, and his right leg was pressed by the horse.
The horse was still alive and lying on the ground twitching.
Zhong Ziang was so frightened that his mind went blank. He was slapped on the face by Ju Ming before he came to his senses. He shouted in panic: "What kind of magic did you use?"
Zhu Ming took a short blunderbuss and threatened: "This is a fire blunderbuss, also called a musket. Do you know how I defeated the army? I have ten thousand fire blunderbuss soldiers under my command. They can penetrate iron armor from a distance of fifty feet. The officers and soldiers are all interested in this thing."
I was frightened by the news.”
"Ten thousand fire gun soldiers?" Zhong Ziang's face turned pale.
Zhong Xiang's soldiers were approaching two hundred paces away. Zhu Ming put away his muskets and mounted his horse, leaving a message: "After the summer harvest, I will lead my troops to capture Jiangling. You and your son can take care of themselves!"
By the time the soldiers arrived at the scene, Ju Ming had already ridden away.
Soon, Prime Minister Zhong also came after hearing the news. Looking at the horse corpse lying on the ground and his son with a broken leg, he couldn't help but ask: "What kind of weapon did the little red thief use to plot? How could the wound on the horse's neck be there?"
Like that?"
Zhong Ziang repeated in horror: "It's an iron rod with a hollow in the middle. The little Zhu thief said it's called a fire gun or a fire gun. He has ten thousand fire gun soldiers under his command and can penetrate iron armor fifty feet away. This is the weapon he uses.
Defeat the officers and soldiers. Father, Jiangling cannot be defended. This fire blunderbuss is unpredictable and cannot be defeated by mortals."
"He has ten thousand fire-gun soldiers. He really has so many magic soldiers. He has already entered Tokyo." Zhong Xiang was shocked and angry. "This little thief is extremely cunning. He tricked me into having a discussion in person. He must have wanted to
An assassination attempt was made to kill me! If I had come in person, I would probably have died violently, and the man named Zhu would definitely take the opportunity to seize Jiangling!"
Zhong Ziang suddenly remembered: "Yes, he asked the child if he was an only son when we met him! If I answered that he was an only son, the person who died was not a war horse."
Zhong Yi asked: "Your Majesty, how to make a decision?"
Zhong Xiang gritted his teeth and said: "I won't take away the city that I conquered with my own skills in vain if he doesn't give me enough money and food!"
Zhong Yi couldn't help but said: "Brother, why are you angry with that red thief? Since he only killed the horses and not the prince, he didn't want to quarrel and leave us some leeway. Jiangling is isolated outside, which is really not conducive to defense.
, just empty out the population and property.”
Zhong asked instead: "I abandoned Jiangling and Zhijiang without losing a single soldier. How do the officials think of me? How do the believers think of me?"
"Just say that you keep your promise and have already made an agreement with Zhu Thief." Zhong Ziang said.
To be continued...