First Minister of Ming Dynasty

snort!

"My lord, let's talk about Zhang Shicheng first. In fact, as mentioned earlier, he started his family with eighteen poles. When it comes to raising affairs, he is still behind the lord, but he is lucky. His salt workers are hard-working and have a good relationship with Yuan Ting Unforgettable hatred, very strong combat power. This is how to take Gaoyou lightly, capture Taizhou, and Yangzhou. But don’t forget, when Zhima Li captured Xuzhou, Tuotuo immediately gathered an army and wiped out Zhima Li. This is how Peng Dahe Zhao Jun fled to Haozhou to avoid disaster. The canal is the lifeblood of the Yuan court, and whoever touches the canal will surely die. What's more, Zhang Shicheng also established a country and proclaimed himself king. "

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned, "Sir, what do you mean, the imperial court will definitely dispatch a large army to attack Zhang Shicheng?"

"My lord is wise, Zhang Shicheng committed two taboos, Yuan Ting will definitely not let him go."

"So, Zhang Shicheng will repeat the same mistakes as Zhima Li?" Old Zhu asked, it really wasn't that Zhu Yuanzhang looked down on Zhang Shicheng, it was that the current Yuan court still had millions of soldiers, and they were all well-equipped elites.

If the Yuan army is desperate, even Lao Zhu himself is not sure that he can stop the Yuan army, and Zhang Shicheng's strength on paper will expand tenfold, which is useless.

There is no need to think about the strength of the situation, the victory or defeat.

Zhang Ximeng understood Zhu Yuanzhang very well, and he believed that even Zhang Shicheng himself thought so.

But who would have known that history is so interesting.

When Tuotuo was about to conquer Gaoyou, he didn't know whether it was the blessing of Yue Fei's heroic spirit, or the possession of the Yuan Dynasty emperor Wanyan Gou... He just did a stupid thing of changing generals just before the battle.

The army of one million fell apart, and Zhang Shicheng picked up a victory for nothing.

In fact, among the three main forces in the southern region at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Lao Zhu's position was the worst... After Chen Youliang devoured the Lord, he inherited the basic position of the Tianwan regime. With the most soldiers and horses, Chen Youliang was able to come up with 60 troops.

Zhang Shicheng won a victory in Gaoyoubai, and got the supplies and food of a million-strong army. The team expanded rapidly, and crossed the river to occupy Suzhou and other places.Due to the richest land and abundant products, Zhang Shicheng has strong financial resources and can stabilize Zhu Yuanzhang.

On soldiers, not as many as Chen Youliang.

In terms of money and food, Zhang Shicheng is not as abundant.

Old Zhu was in such an embarrassing position, and it was a fluke that he was allowed to break out of the encirclement.

It's just that with Zhang Ximeng around, it will be much smoother and safer.

"My lord, this matter is not about Zhang Shicheng's victory or defeat... but whether we win or lose, we are bound to face a big enemy, but Zhang Shicheng wins, we have to face Zhang Shicheng, Yuan Ting wins, we have to face Yuan Ting That's all for Ting!"

Lao Zhu took a deep breath and fell into silence. After careful consideration, he couldn't help but secretly nodded.

After winning Chuzhou and drinking horses in the Yangtze River, he can no longer hide behind others, so he must have the courage to face Yuan Ting directly.Of course, if Zhang Shicheng withstood Yuan Ting's offensive and defended Gaoyou and Yangzhou, although the probability was not high, it seemed to be more troublesome than Yuan Ting's victory!

There is a ferocious tiger by my side!

Li Shanchang frowned, thought for a while, and said: "So, no matter who wins, our situation will not be better?"

Zhang Ximeng nodded, "That's true, so I think we must make preparations."

"How to prepare?" Li Shanchang asked anxiously, and Zhu Yuanzhang also raised his head suddenly, looking at Zhang Ximeng.

"What I mean is to take Liuhe as soon as possible and close the way from Yangzhou. This way, we can advance and attack, and retreat and defend. It can not only support Zhang Shicheng, but also defend against the Yuan army. It can kill multiple birds with one stone. Besides, we should take the opportunity to win Hezhou. , Occupy the Jiangbei area. It would be better if we can attack Wuwei Prefecture again. In this way, we will have depth and can advance and retreat calmly, so that we will not have to hold on when the Yuan army comes. Besides, if the Yuan army is defeated, we have The long river bank makes it easy to cross the river immediately, no matter what, Zhang Shicheng cannot let Jiqing be taken away!"

People who are familiar with history will probably feel that Zhang Ximeng's worries are unnecessary. Zhang Shicheng won the battle of Gaoyou and captured Yingtian, which is also a matter of course.

But standing at the moment, no matter what happened, who would dare to assert casually?

Zhu Yuanzhang very much agreed with Zhang Ximeng's judgment, but he hesitated, "We have just discussed that we need to recuperate and recuperate, and we can't use troops casually. Now we have to send troops again, I'm afraid it will hurt the strength of the people..."

Seeing the worry on Lao Zhu's face, Li Shanchang said with a smile: "Sir, it is not difficult to defeat others without fighting. I think Mr. Zhang must have a clever plan, right?"

Zhang Ximeng rolled his eyelids, you really think highly of me!

But speaking of it, he really thought of a way.

You said that Zhang Shicheng sent someone who was not good, and insisted on sending a novel writer. If you don't lie to him, you will be sorry for his career.

As for what strategy to use, don't bother thinking about it. Anyway, "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has it all... Suddenly Zhang Ximeng realized something... It seems that the Three Kingdoms can use a lot of plots from the end of Yuan Dynasty.

For example, Zhang Shicheng is very similar to the Yuan family, they are all dead bones in the grave.Chen Youliang devoured the master and killed Ni Wenjun and Xu Shouhui one after another, just like the little Lu Bu at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

The most fun is the battle of Chibi.

The historical records of the Battle of Chibi are very brief. The simplest version even has only one sentence, saying that Cao Cao's arrival at Chibi is not good for preparing for the war.As a result of the great epidemic, many officials died, and the soldiers were led back.

Soochow is not even mentioned.

Of course, the records in Wu State are much richer, mentioning that the water battle defeated Cao Cao, and mentioning that the Sun Liu coalition army burned down the camp.

It's just that no matter which version, it doesn't mention that Cao Cao killed 10,000+ people.

In fact, if Cao Cao really lost 10,000+ people, these soldiers have family members and relatives, and the number may be more than a few million. Will these people be indifferent?In an instant, Cao Cao was finished, what else can he use to rule the world?

Even if it is a novel, I only dare to send [-] Red Flame Army. Although this is outrageous and enough to ruin a country, it is still much easier than the Battle of Chibi written by Lao Luo.

Then someone wants to say, could it be that the wonderful Battle of Chibi in the Three Kingdoms was all fabricated by Lao Luo out of thin air?

I want to say something here, it’s really not true, the Battle of Chibi in the Three Kingdoms has a prototype.

This prototype is the Poyang Lake battle between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang... when Chen Youliang sent hundreds of thousands of troops down the river to attack Lao Zhu.

Everyone is afraid, and the army's morale is in chaos... At this time, Liu Bowen stepped forward to encourage Zhu Yuanzhang, stabilized his fighting spirit, and then used Kang Maocai to feign surrender and ambush Chen Youliang. Zhu Yuanzhang won the first round.

The defeated Chen Youliang fled back to his lair, built a warship, and accumulated strength. When Zhu Yuanzhang went to rescue Xiaoming Wang, he went out with all his strength and made a sneak attack.

When Lao Zhu arrived, Chen Youliang's boat was big. To be safe, he connected it with iron cables. The Chen Han regime...

Did you see that, the feigned-surrender plan, the chain-link plan, and the fire-burn plan were all duels between Lao Zhu and Chen Youliang.

Luo Guanzhong wrote these in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but because the Three Kingdoms was so famous and this passage was so exciting, the big guys took the content of the novel as the real Three Kingdoms.

However, the truly wonderful confrontation between Zhu and Chen in history has been forgotten by most people.

It is true that piracy shut down the original.

Zhang Ximeng didn't know whether to be happy for Lao Zhu or to sympathize with him: Your achievements are well known, but your achievements don't belong to you!

Let a codeword be stolen.

Writer's highlight moment.

But since it was Luo Guanzhong who came, let's use Luo Guanzhong's method to deal with him.

"My lord, we just need to forge a letter from Zhao Junyong, saying that he wants to invite the lord to attack Gaoyou together. After the matter is completed, we will distribute Liuhe to the lord. Then, at the banquet, accidentally reveal this letter to others. He must have been terrified when he saw it. At this time, Zhang Shicheng must be afraid and dare not stop us from sending troops to Liuhe. After we win Liuhe, we can negotiate cooperation with Zhang Shicheng, and maybe we can get a good deal!"

Zhang Ximeng said with a smile, obviously, in his heart, Luo Guanzhong is not a wise man with a feather fan and a scarf, he should be positioned as Jiang Gan who steals books!

Li Shanchang frowned, and he didn't say anything about this plan... because what happened to Wu Datou had already told him that in this world, there are only things that can't be imagined, but nothing can't be done.

Anything weird will happen.

People can only pull their hair and lament the poverty of imagination.

Lao Zhu thought about it again and thought he could give it a try.

"Success, let's prepare a banquet according to Mr. Zhang's suggestion. Let's treat Luo Guanzhong to a drink... By the way, call Datou Wu and give Luo Guanzhong a good show!"

Chapter 75 Disposal

Luo Guanzhong had mixed feelings and couldn't tell what he was feeling.

He came here with full confidence, but at this moment, he was [-]% sure, not even half.

Because he found that although the red scarves were not well-known, they did things very well. Although the market was not crowded with people, it was already quite impressive during the war.

The most important thing is the rules!

From top to bottom, everything is within the rules.

It turned out to be a bit better under Yuan Ting's governance than when there was no war.

Of course, Gaoyou can’t say it’s not good. It can only be said that the state of vigorous vitality and all things competing for development is different from the orderly and step-by-step experience here.

Who is good and who is bad, Luo Guanzhong is not sure.

Since you can't even convince yourself, how can you convince the other party?

So Luo Guanzhong was very cautious, came to the lobby of the former prefect's yamen, greeted Lao Zhu, explained his purpose, and handed Zhang Shicheng's letter.

"This is the idea of ​​my family, King Cheng. I hope to invite General Zhu to participate in the grand event and destroy the violent Yuan!"

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at the content of the letter in a hurry, and handed it to Zhang Ximeng who was sitting next to him, and then he said with a smile: "We don't read many books, and we don't know many characters. But the meaning above is still clear, you are sincere. But let us surrender to Da Zhou! Right?"

Zhang Shicheng named his country Zhou, and he named himself King Cheng.I don't know how his brain circuit grew. He changed his name to Zhang Shicheng, and then called himself King Cheng. Could it be that he contracted a problem when he smuggled salt?Just like to advertise honesty and trustworthiness?

Lao Zhu didn't have the time to speculate, but the condescending attitude in the letter made Lao Zhu very uncomfortable.

Luo Guanzhong was also quite embarrassed, "General Zhu, the Red Scarf is a family in the world. My family, King Cheng, occupies Gaoyou. He has many soldiers and many generals, and his momentum is like a rainbow. Naturally, he wants to contact the heroes and achieve great things. If General Zhu is willing to join forces, I am willing to go back immediately , Persuading King Cheng to show more intentions."

Zhu Chongba sneered, "Is Zhang Shicheng really stupid, or is he fake? Or does he think we are stupid? He cut off the canal for food, and he called Wang Jianguo without authorization. The Yuan court's army is not far away. He is afraid that he will be the first Two sesame plums. When the time comes, what he needs is for us to help him, understand?"

Lao Zhu's tone was harsh, and he tore off Zhang Shicheng's skin without showing any mercy.Luo Guanzhong was dumbfounded, and wanted to refute, but found that what Lao Zhu said seemed to be correct!

His teacher has analyzed that as long as he is king, the Yuan army will definitely fight.However, it has also been said that Cheng Wang Jianguo is justifiable, and he can command heroes to fight against the Yuan court together.

Let Shi Naian talk about the good and the bad, and truly listen to what you have to say, just like listening to a speech.

Since there are good and bad, then why don't we claim to be kings and still wear boa robes!

But when it comes to Lao Zhu, the conclusion is much simpler.

Xuzhou Sesame Lee, a lesson learned from the past, the next one is you Zhang Shicheng!

Luo Guanzhong couldn't help trembling, he forced a smile, "My family, King Cheng, is not afraid of strong generals. What's more, the Yuan court is tyrannical and absurd, and people hate it. Even if a million troops come, they are still no match for King Cheng!"

I have to say that this is Luo Guanzhong's bragging. After all, he can't understand history like Zhang Ximeng.

Old Zhu laughed loudly: "In that case, you King Cheng should ascend the throne and proclaim yourself emperor, and become emperor yourself. You are mere King Cheng, you have wronged him!"

Luo Guanzhong was speechless. For the first time, he realized that the kung fu of the hands and the kung fu of the tongue were not the same kung fu.Like a certain author, he is a shy boy who is not good at words.

Faced with Lao Zhu's sharp words, which pierced his heart, he didn't know how to answer... And since Zhang Shicheng was in a difficult situation, shouldn't His Royal Highness King Cheng submit to him, General Zhu?

Speaking of this, there is no need to talk about it anymore, this time Zhao'an has failed completely.

At this moment, Zhang Ximeng suddenly said, "My lord, I don't think King Cheng has any malicious intentions. He doesn't know our strength. As the saying goes, once you are born, you are familiar with us. Just move around more. What's more, the Yuan court's army is overwhelmed by Mount Tai. There should be more cooperation with King Cheng."

Zhang Ximeng turned to Luo Guanzhong again, and said with a smile: "Your envoy, don't mention the contents of this letter. Now that my lord is under the command of Marshal Guo, how can he be attached to King Cheng? But if your envoy is willing, you can come here Look more, listen more, and when we return, we can explain clearly to King Cheng and let him know about our situation."

Zhang Ximeng turned to look at Zhu Yuanzhang again, "What do you think, my lord?"

"Well, that's not bad...do we have anything urgent to do today?"

"Yes, there are a few corrupt officials to be dealt with, including Lao Zhang, the prefect of Hengjian Mountain, and Bai Jingen, the former prefect of Chuzhou." Zhang Ximeng explained to Luo Guanzhong with a smile: "My lord follows the thunderbolt law of eradicating rape and evil." Tricks, no mercy to Yuan Ting's running dogs and corrupt officials who harm the people, I don't know what His Royal Highness Cheng did?"

Luo Guanzhong cheered up, and said loudly: "My King Cheng's [-]th pole carried out an incident. He first killed Zhao Lian, who participated in politics in Jiangbei Province of Henan Province, and then killed Li Qi, the prefect. Corrupt officials, all of them are afraid of the prestige of King Cheng!"

What else can I do, blow it!

Zhang Ximeng didn't talk nonsense to Luo Guanzhong, he just smiled and said, "That's good, please envoy to see how we judge corrupt officials!"

……

Lao Zhang was captured when he broke through Hengjian Mountain.

Some people may be curious, why it has been delayed until now, and he has not been dealt with yet?

This matter is Zhang Ximeng's idea. He asked Lao Zhang to write a self-report, and he wrote [-] words every day. If he didn't write enough, he was not allowed to eat or sleep.

He tormented Lao Zhang to let him explain more about Yuan Ting's situation, not to follow up and read novels!Don't take your seat right...

Yuanshi is a bad account. Due to too many transliteration problems, looking around, there are a lot of Timur...not to mention the similar height, and various things are messed up. It is easy to cause confusion.

So when it comes to the past dynasties, you can tell a few famous officials and a few interesting emperors... But when it comes to the Yuan Dynasty, it seems that after Kublai Khan, the Yuan Dynasty collapsed and perished, and there are too few things that can be left in memory .

Zhang Ximeng also had limited knowledge of the situation in the Yuan Dynasty. Although Jia Lu was there, he was only a Hanchen and a technocrat after all, so he didn't know many things.

At this time, the value of Lao Zhang is reflected. His leader is Semuren again.

He knew a lot about the news in the army, the Yuan court's finances and taxes, and even the secrets of the palace... These days, Zhang Ximeng squeezed out a full 30 words from Lao Zhang and put them in the files for future use.

Just such a hand has greatly exceeded the imagination of ordinary people.

There is no doubt that as long as we persist, the information in hand will only become more and more abundant. At that time, Zhang Ximeng can say: No one knows Yuan Ting better than me!

And these things not only include Yuan Ting, but also those Khanates.

As a lowly public instrument, Zhang Ximeng has the responsibility to plan the future affairs of Emperor Hongwu... As we all know, Lao Zhu is the real incarnation of Emperor Gan, and he alone picked up the work of the emperor and the prime minister.

Of course, doing this made Hongwu prosperous, but Lao Zhu did all the work, what is Zhang Ximeng doing?

It's a crime to tie a troublesome emperor like Lao Zhu to his daily government affairs!

His energy should be devoted to bigger things, such as bringing all the vassal states of the Yuan Dynasty into the territory and so on... Now Zhang Ximeng can let Lao Zhu enter Chuzhou a few months earlier, and then he can also seize Jinling earlier.

The longer the time, the greater the influence, and the more changes will be brought about... At first, Zhang Ximeng was also worried about problems such as the master of high meritorious service, and companions like companions. The knife in Emperor Hongwu's hand is very sharp.

But gradually Zhang Ximeng realized that he could completely steer this magical weapon in other directions without knowing it.And as long as his career grows bigger, Lao Zhu will need more helpers. Sooner or later, he will understand that a person's power is limited.

In fact, it's not just Zhang Ximeng who can sit back and relax, those nobles who have nowhere to put their energy, may also have a better way out.