In the vast desert, most nomadic people live in pursuit of water and grass, herding cattle, sheep, and horses. The men are mostly good at riding horses and hunting. In years when water and grass are abundant, they can live and work in peace and contentment. In bad years, they will rob in groups.
Let’s take a look at the people who work hard in the southern part of the grassland.
Later, when people in the south built the Great Wall, they had a man-made natural moat, an insurmountable obstacle.
Later, the proud men of heaven unified the desert grasslands. They rose up to the south, west, and east, conquered large tracts of land, crossed the Great Wall, and invaded the Central Plains.
But there was only one favored man of heaven, and later they fell apart. Another man, who had a bad start, inherited the destiny, fought from the south, conquered most of their capital, and drove them back to the grassland.
They have the proud sons of the emperor, and so do the Han people in the south. Their glory has been lost. Now the emperor of the Han people has personally led troops to attack the desert many times, reaching the land where they have raised cattle and sheep for generations.
They believe in violence and respect for the strong. They were once superior to the Han people, but now they have become the weaker party.
The desert is solitary and the smoke is straight, and the sun is setting over the long river.
Today's dusk, the red light fills the desert, the lone eagle soars in the sky, the hawk's cry seems to sound like a wail, in the red light of the setting sun, a group of mighty cavalry rides on the red light horse, holding a flag.
There is a hunting sound in the wind, and the bottom is made of a mighty black dragon, with the word "明" written on it.
The leading young man rode his horse, raised his whip, and wore iron armor. The darkness was shrouded in the blood red of the setting sun, making him even more majestic. His eyes were like those of an eagle, and he drew his sword and pointed forward, while the horse's hoofbeats were busy.
"kill!!!"
The vanguard of Ming Dynasty has arrived.
Zhu Zhanji led the elite cavalry and light cavalry to charge forward. Mahamu's subordinates could not imagine that in just over a month, the Ming army's cavalry could penetrate deep into the hinterland of the grassland.
The grassland people, who were unprepared for a while, had no power to fight back when faced with the Ming Dynasty's cavalry charge.
The grenade arrived first, and the explosion made the horses panic, making it difficult for them to mount their horses and fight.
A cavalryman saw the granary not far away and lit it on fire.
Use the prairie people's method to deal with the prairie people. A wave of surprise attacks will hit the horses and run away. By the time the prairie people's cavalry wants to chase them, they have already run a long distance. The prairie people still know the principle of not pursuing the enemy when they are poor, because they are afraid of being ambushed.
I don’t dare to pursue it deeply.
After running a certain distance and seeing no pursuers, Zhu Zhanji's troops stopped their horses.
"Your Highness, judging from its size, it is indeed Mahamu's command. They have a large number of people and a large amount of supplies, and it is difficult to move them in a short time."
"Send one more person to inform His Majesty to confirm that he belongs to Mahamu, and ask the army to come quickly."
This time we find Mahamu's base camp, and as long as the army presses on the territory, it will be wiped out in one fell swoop.
Zhu Zhanji was full of confidence. As long as the Mahamu tribe was captured, the Ming Dynasty would be free of a major hidden danger in the north.
They had been observing Mahamubu from the sidelines, but what was strange was that even after being harassed by them once, the other party did not escape from here, nor did they lead an army to fight against them.
If something went wrong, there must be a monster, so Zhu Zhanzhen did not dare to rush forward and waited for a reply from the large army.
The messenger reported back three days later, but no reinforcements came.
Zhu Zhanji frowned: "What's going on?"
"Your Highness, you can see for yourself."
Zhu Zhanji opened the secret letter and after reading it, his face was full of shock: "Mahamubu surrendered?"
Just when he was advancing with Qingqi to look for Mahamubu, Mahamubu sent an envoy to the Ming Dynasty army to surrender.
Also, Mahamu, a generation of grassland lord, died.
The letter was written in detail. It turned out that during the severe cold last winter and at the beginning of this year, there was a conflict between Wala Mahamu and the Arutai tribe. The two sides refused to give in to each other, which eventually led to a war. Mahamu died during the war.
, Wala's losses are not small.
Now the Ming army advanced into Mobei. After several small-scale battles, Wala knew that he was outmatched.
Nowadays, the morale of the army is low, the internal situation is unstable, and Wala has completely lost the will to fight.
Mahamu's son Tuohuan was not yet able to secure his position. Whether it was for power or survival, he finally sent someone to ask Zhu Di to surrender.
As for Zhu Di, after weighing many factors, he agreed to his request for surrender, and now he sent a letter asking Zhu Zhanji not to continue the attack and to return the way he came.
"Why is Mahamu dead?" Zhu Zhanji threw the envelope to the ground in frustration and sighed.
"Your Highness, His Majesty asked you to go back first, let's go first."
"Hey." Zhu Zhanji was a little indignant. Looking at the location of Mahamubu where smoke was rising not far away, he shook his head helplessly: "God will not kill you."
"Drive, let's go."
Zhu Zhanji had no choice but to go back. If he disobeyed, they would not be able to defeat such a big Mahamubu, and they would also make Zhu Di unhappy.
Zhu Zhanji guessed that Zhu Di agreed to the surrender of the other party, and Zhu Di agreed to all the surrenders from the surrounding neighbors, even though he knew that they might continue to rebel later.
I felt confused and a little angry.
Zhu Zhanji, who rushed back to the Chinese army's tent at starry night, went to find Zhu Di without taking any rest.
He opened the curtain, walked quickly into the tent, and gave a military salute to Zhu Di, who had taken off his military uniform and put on light clothes: "Your Majesty, the forward army Zhu Zhanji pays homage."
Zhu Di was stunned and then laughed. He looked at Zhu Gaoxu and others beside him and walked up to Zhu Zhanji, holding his shoulders and pulling him to stand up.
"My eldest grandson is back. Let me take a look. He doesn't seem very happy. He even stopped calling me Grandpa Huang and called him Your Majesty."
Everyone could see that Zhu Zhanji's face was full of resentment.
"Grandpa Huang, why..."
Zhu Di turned around and waved his hand: "I know what you want to say. You rushed in with Qingqi and found Mahamu's lair. If you can defeat it in one fell swoop, it will be better than Huo Qubing. You don't understand why I accepted their invitation to surrender."
Zhu Di guessed everything he was thinking, and Zhu Zhanji could only be angry but said nothing.
"My eldest grandson, he is as brave as I was when he led the troops in battle. He is brave and resourceful. He came back in such a short time. I'm afraid he didn't get a sound sleep. Let's go down and wash up and rest first."
"Grandpa Huang..."
"Go, go."
Zhu Zhanji was arranged to come out without saying anything. He was still angry, but there was nothing he could do. After washing, he slept with anger from morning to evening.
When I opened my eyes in the evening, I saw Zhu Di sitting by his bed, and he was about to get up in a hurry.
"Grandpa Huang..."
Zhu Di put his hand on his shoulder and said lovingly: "Lie down for now. Your lieutenant told me that your leg was injured during the charge this time. You should have a good rest."
"Grandpa Huang, I'm fine, I can still fight on the field."
"Nonsense, look at you, you fell asleep without even taking off your armor, and you don't mind being too nervous. You've been too tired lately, and your father will cause trouble for your grandfather when you get back."
Zhu Zhanji insisted on sitting up and immediately changed his clothes.
"You, you, are just like me back then. You are unyielding and want to be the best at everything. Now that you are dressed, come and ride a horse with me."
Outside the military tent, the soldiers brought two horses. They got on the horses, and Zhu Di galloped away with a powerful "drive".
Zhu Zhanji followed, and the grandfather and grandson rode to a river. It was sunset, and the dusk on the grassland was always particularly beautiful.
Zhu Di sighed with emotion on the horse: "Zhanji, you are confused because I accepted the surrender of the remnants of Mahamu, and you may even be a little angry."
"My grandson doesn't dare."
"Haha, I'm not as honest as I used to be. But as I get older, my etiquette has improved. Have you ever thought about why I agreed to their surrender instead of killing them all?"
"Grandpa Huang, please make it clear."
Zhu Di pointed with one hand at the setting sun on the horizon and the vast prairie: "Do you know how vast this desert is? It is boundless and vast. It is bitter and cold in winter, but it is so vigorous in spring that it can't pull out all the weeds on the prairie.
Just like if you can’t kill all the people on the grassland, the wildfires will burn for days and nights, and then the spring breeze will blow and the grass will become lush again.”
Zhu Di, who has been dealing with the grassland people for so many years, knows very well that after killing a group of grassland people, a new group will appear somewhere in a decade or so. Zhu Di understands that although the Ming Dynasty is powerful today, it cannot control it.
This grassland.
Zhu Zhanji was indignant: "Are you going to let the remnants of Mahamu go just like that?"
"On the way here, you, your second uncle, and other troops also encountered many remnants of Mahamu's tribe. In total, they killed more than 5,000 enemies. Including last year's battle between Mahamu's tribe and Alutai's tribe.
, there are casualties on both sides, and those who have separated from the tribe, only three to four tenths of Mahamu’s remnants are left, and they should not be able to make trouble in a short time."
"Back then, Taizu conquered most of the Yuan Dynasty from south to north, and Lan Yu even fought as far as Yuerhai. However, in the end, this grassland was returned to the grassland people. The people of the Central Plains will not give up the fertile soil of the Central Plains to come to the grassland and
The grassland people are fighting for this bitter cold land, and this will not be the land of the Ming Dynasty for the time being."
"But..." Zhu Zhanji stopped talking.
"I know you are angry. What you are angry about is not that you didn't kill the enemy, but that you didn't win the world-famous military merit. But Zhanji, you are the grandson of the Ming Dynasty, not the vanguard. Beheading the enemy general is a military merit and is preserved for future generations.
A peaceful and prosperous age is a tribute to the king."
Zhu Di said that for this reason, Zhu Zhanji naturally could not refute: "Grandpa Huang, it is my grandson who is reckless."
"My idea about the grassland is to fight until they are afraid. Our Ming Dynasty has advantages that the grassland people cannot match. Our culture, our high city, and our weapons."
"As long as the Ming Dynasty is always stronger than them, as long as they maintain their internal struggles, the grassland troubles, even if they are serious, can no longer pose a threat to our Ming Dynasty. As long as there are no extremely stupid people in my descendants, the grassland people will never think about it again.
Enter the Central Plains."
Zhu Di couldn't even imagine how stupid people in the future generations would have to be to lose to this group of people on the grassland after he had built such a prosperous Ming Dynasty.
"But grandpa, you still have to be vigilant. If Genghis Khan appears again on the grassland, what will happen to him?"
Zhu Di exhaled, looked at the vast grassland, and smiled slightly: "No, there will never be Genghis Khan again on this grassland."
"Why is this?"
"Since Genghis Khan, everyone in the grassland has wanted to be the proud son of heaven, and they all want to be Genghis Khan. We still have a little Temujin locked up in the military prison."
"Everyone wants to be Genghis Khan, but no one can be Genghis Khan."
Zhu Zhanji nodded and understood what Zhu Di meant. If everyone in the Ming Dynasty wanted to be emperor, wouldn't it be a mess? If anyone with some talent could just pull a group of people from the top of the mountain, wouldn't there be no one to farm?
, no one is weaving anymore.
Zhu Di did not want to completely wipe out the Mahamu tribe, and according to his character, he would not be able to easily kill the surrendered soldiers if others asked him to surrender to pay tribute and be honored as the emperor. This would undermine the dignity of the Ming Emperor.
"Zhanji, the battle in the grassland is maintained, just like the battle between the Mahamu tribe and the Alutai tribe. This time our losses are minimal. It is an unexpected surprise. As long as they are still fighting, the hidden danger to the Ming Dynasty will be small.
, instead be careful of those shady guys, and also trade with the grassland, but only give them some food in exchange for their horses."
"My grandson understands."
…
Inside Yingtian Mansion
Zhu Zhanzhen took the battle report and exclaimed: "What, Mahamu is dead?"
The battle report from the front stated that Mahamu was dead, and the remnants of the former Mahamu asked to surrender. Mahamu's son Choros Tuohuan swore to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty and requested to inherit the throne of Shuning King, but Zhu Di did not agree to his request.
ask.
Zhu Gaochi was overjoyed. The long-prepared war did not happen. The Ming Dynasty's military losses were small, and the financial losses were also small. This was what he was happy to see.
Zhu Zhanzhen was unhappy: "Why is the pony gone?"
"What are you mumbling to yourself?"
"My son just feels strange why Grandpa Huang didn't kill them all at once."
"Your grandpa Huang certainly has his own considerations."
"Oh, what a pity."
"Why are you thinking about annihilating everyone and your whole family at such a young age? Why have I never seen you so murderous before?"
Naturally, Zhu Zhanzhen couldn't say that it was because he knew that Mahamu's grandson, Ye Xian, would capture the Mingbao Sect in the Battle of Tumu Fort in the future, and he couldn't reveal that he was a time traveler.
"My son has realized his mistake. Father, Grandpa Huang and the others should be back soon."
"We have sorted out the military affairs of Shuntian and will be returning to the court soon. We have to prepare to welcome the Holy Emperor."
Zhu Zhanquan must have rushed to do this job. He had just returned from Jiangxi and immediately said: "Father, welcome the emperor and hand it over to your son. Your son will definitely handle the matter beautifully with the Ministry of Rites."
Zhu Gaochi glanced at his two sons, weighed it and said, "If it's okay, I'll leave it to you. If you don't do it well, you'll be punished."
"Father, don't worry."
Why leave it to him? He has an impatient temper and is very happy with his achievements. He can always make some small mistakes for you. According to Zhu Gaochi's experience, at this time, he must make some small mistakes so that Zhu Di can use them to scold him.
Otherwise, you, the prince, have done a great job in supervising the country, and I, the emperor, are useless. Such words will come out of Zhu Di's mouth.
It can't be a big deal, but if you make a small mistake and let Zhu Di take it out, it will be fine. If you get scolded and left out for a period of time, it will be fine.
Zhu Gaochi has a thorough understanding of Zhu Di's character. After all, he has been working for Zhu Di for so many years. Zhu Di is the chairman and he is the CEO, so everything must go according to plan.
