Outside the courtyard door, Li Shanchang stood silently, holding a gift box in his hand and smiling.
Zhu Yuanzhang came to the door, stared at him for a while, and said: "I didn't expect Mr. Li to come to see me."
Li Shanchang twirled his beard and said, "General, when you say this, do you think that in order to avoid suspicion, I will never have any contact with you, or that I will become a stranger when I meet you?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was startled, smiled slightly, and said: "Mr. Li is joking, please come in."
Zhu Yuanzhang borrowed Guo Zixing's small study to entertain Li Shanchang.
As soon as the two sat down in the study, Ma Xiuying came in with tea.
"Mr. Li, we meet again."
Li Shanchang smiled and said: "I feel relieved to see that my wife is safe and sound."
After tea, Ma Xiuying left the study and closed the door.
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Mr. Li, can I ask you something?"
Li Shanchang smiled and said: "The general wants to know the news about Tang He and the others, right?"
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "Please tell me, sir."
Li Shanchang said slowly: "General Tang He was transferred to Wenzhou Road. General Hua Yun was transferred to Zhuzhou Road. Most of the other generals were also separated. Only General Miao Daheng resigned and returned to his field."
Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned and said: "General Miao resigned? Do you know the reason?"
Li Shanchang said: "I heard that General Miao once attacked the stronghold when the king was still in Longtan Village. It turns out that he had no face to meet the king!"
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a while and said, "Is there any news about Brother Xu Da?"
Li Shanchang shook his head: "I only know that he went to Poyang Lake to become a water thief, but I don't know the details."
Zhu Yuanzhang cupped his hands and said, "If Mr. Li has any news about Brother Xu, please let us know."
Li Shanchang smiled and said: "In the spring of next year, the king will march westward. When Raozhou is captured, the general will naturally go to Poyang Lake to find General Xu!"
Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned for a while, then nodded and said: "That's true."
Li Shanchang suddenly blinked and said: "General, does he know that at the end of this year, the king will hold a football match?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned and said: "What football match?"
Li Shanchang smiled and said: "Of course it's a ball game. Your Majesty has ordered that all generals in the army with grades above six can sign up to participate and form their own teams. Each member of the winning team will be rewarded with a good horse!"
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "I can't play Cuju, so I won't participate."
Li Shanchang said meaningfully: "I think this is a good opportunity to integrate into the Jiangdu Army. If the general wants to go to the battlefield again, don't miss the opportunity."
After saying that, he stood up, cupped his hands and said, "It's the end of the year soon, so I won't bother you anymore and I'll say goodbye."
Zhu Yuanzhang personally sent Li Shanchang out of the courtyard and watched him go away, still thinking about his last words in his heart.
Just as I was about to close the door, I suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves and a horse team came running down the quiet street.
The leader is a woman wearing a white cloak, with beautiful features and heroic spirit.
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw the other party's horse stopping in front of the courtyard gate, he dismounted and strode towards him. He frowned and asked, "Who are you looking for, girl?"
The woman said nothing and stared at Zhu Yuanzhang, seeming to be very interested in him.
Zhu Yuanzhang's doubts deepened and he asked: "Have we met somewhere?"
The woman asked: "Is your wife at home?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was moved in his heart and thought to himself: "Madam has lived in Jiangdu for a while, and this woman may be her friend. But how come such a charming woman has never been mentioned by her?"
Suddenly, a flash occurred in his mind, and he cupped his hands towards the woman and said, "Zhu Yuanzhang has met the princess!"
The woman was Qin Lingjun. She smiled slightly and said, "Sure enough, she is very responsive." She turned around and looked in the direction of the street.
Zhu Yuanzhang was a little puzzled when he suddenly saw a carriage approaching on the street, followed by a group of cavalry for protection.
The carriage stopped at the entrance of the courtyard, and a man got out of the carriage. It was Zhang Yangquan, King of Chu.
Zhu Yuanzhang hurried over to greet him, cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, Zhu Yuanzhang, pay homage to your Majesty!"
Zhang Yangquan held his hand and said with a smile: "I heard you arrived, so I came over to take a look. In fact, I have always wanted to have a good chat with you, but we were rivals before and couldn't do it. Now we can finally talk happily!" <
/p>
The three of them entered the small courtyard together. Zhu Yuanzhang invited Zhang Yangquan into the small study. Ma Xiuying was pulled by Qin Lingjun to talk, so it was Mu Ying who served tea.
Zhang Yangquan saw that the boy was well-behaved and asked him his name.
Zhu Yuanzhang replied: "This is my adopted son, Mu Ying."
Zhang Yangquan's eyes lit up and he asked Muying: "How old are you this year?"
Mu Ying puffed up her chest and said: "Ten years old!"
Zhang Yangquan smiled and said: "Then he has reached the age of going to school. General Zhu, you can let this child go to the Imperial College to study."
Zhu Yuanzhang cupped his hands and said, "Thank you so much for your grace."
After Mu Ying withdrew, Zhang Yangquan looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and said, "General Zhu, our army will march westward next year. What do you think of this matter?"
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that it was related to the war, a bright light flashed in his eyes and he said: "What aspect does the king want to hear?"
Zhang Yangquan said: "Just tell me how to deal with Chen Youliang!"
Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a while and said: "With the strength in the king's hands, it is not difficult to destroy Tianwan's army. I can deal with Chen Youliang with three tactics: emergency, medium and slow."
Zhang Yangquan said: "Oh? What are urgent, medium and slow?"
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "If your Majesty wants to defeat Chen Youliang quickly, you can use the urgent strategy. If you are not in a hurry, you can use the medium strategy. If you want to win with the minimum loss, you can use the slow strategy!"
"What is urgent policy?"
Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand forward: "Send troops immediately, advance by land and water. One general will lead the army to attack Raozhou, and another general will lead the navy to go straight to Jiangzhou. We will definitely win!"
Zhang Yangquan touched his chin and said thoughtfully: "You mean to say that our army can achieve complete victory in a head-on fight with Chen Youliang!"
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "Tianwan's army has internal and external troubles, has suffered repeated defeats, and its morale is low. As long as our general does not make mistakes and faces the enemy head-on, we can win."
Zhang Yangquan thought for a while and said: "So what about the middle strategy?"
Zhu Yuanzhang tapped his finger in the tea cup, and then drew a marching route on the table.
"First take Raozhou, and then lure Chen Youliang to fight a water battle with our army in Poyang Lake. Chen Youliang has blind confidence in his building ships and is unaware of the gap in strength between the two naval forces. Using this method, the chance of winning will be higher and the battle losses will be smaller!"
”
Zhang Yangquan nodded: "Where is the slow policy?"
"Our army does not attack, but only sends a large number of troops to divide the Cheonwan Army with rumors. After the Cheonwan Army splits internally and attacks each other, it will then march westward. This method is the most stable and the slowest to produce results!" p>
Zhang Yangquan secretly thought to himself that Zhu Yuanzhang's slowdown strategy was almost the same as Liu Bowen's strategy. They both took advantage of Tianwan's army's internal problems to win in another battle.
"In your opinion, which strategy is best?"
Zhu Yuanzhang hesitated for a long time and said: "I think we should fight quickly!"
"Urgent strategy?"
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "The Song army in the north is unstoppable and may capture most of the capital at any time. We should unify the south of the Yangtze River as soon as possible before they capture the north!"
Zhang Yangquan stared at him and said: "Do you think the Song army can defeat Yuan Ting?"
Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while and said: "The Song Army has a Maogui. As long as Liu Futong does not have any quarrel with this person, the Song Army should be able to win given the current situation."
Zhang Yangquan smiled, stood up and said, "Okay, let me go back and think about it again."
In another room, Ma Xiuying is also entertaining Qin Lingjun.
The two chatted for a while, then Qin Lingjun suddenly said: "Sister Ma, the zoo will open tomorrow, do you want to go and have a look?"
Ma Xiuying asked in surprise: "What is a zoo?"
Qin Lingjun said: "Do you know about elephants and peacocks?"
Ma Xiuying shook her head.
Qin Lingjun smiled and said: "The lion should know, right?"
Ma Xiuying was moved in her heart and said: "What you just said were wild beasts?"
"Yes, in the past few days, the Khmer Kingdom, Siam Kingdom, and Srivijaya Kingdom in Southeast Asia have sent envoys to Jiangdu Prefecture to congratulate them. They brought these wild beasts."
Ma Xiuying said in a daze: "Have foreign countries begun to congratulate you?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he realized his speech error and hurriedly said: "I mean...are you here to congratulate us?"
Qin Lingjun smiled and said: "This is actually the first time this year, and we have only visited three countries."
Ma Xiuying sighed: "I didn't expect that even foreign countries knew about Jiangdu Army!"
Qin Lingjun smiled and said: "These Nanyang countries don't know much about the situation in the Central Plains. When they judge the rulers of the Central Plains dynasty, they will only judge the rulers by the number of merchants."
"Businessman?"
"Yes, among the forces in the Central Plains, our army is the most open to maritime trade. Important cities along the coast have shipping offices, so a large number of merchants have poured into the Southeast Asian countries."
Ma Xiuying said: "So that's it."
Qin Lingjun continued: "Your Majesty felt that it was too expensive to raise these wild beasts, so he ordered the construction of a zoo and charged entrance fees so that these wild beasts could feed themselves."
Ma Xiuying was dumbfounded, unable to laugh or cry. She felt that the King of Chu's thoughts were different from those of ordinary people.
Qin Lingjun said: "The zoo will open tomorrow. If you are interested, you can go and have a look."
Ma Xiuying thought for a while and said: "Thank you, Your Highness, Princess, for telling me. I will discuss it with my husband."