First Minister of Ming Dynasty

As soon as Wang Heihu turned around, he shouted at the top of the wall.

"See? We've got goose meat! Come on!"

Wang Heihu yelled over and over again, walking from one city wall to the other.

At the head of Yangzhou city, countless soldiers watched Wang Heihu, the yearning in their eyes was self-evident.Although no one ran out again, I don't know how many hearts have already left.

Zhennan Wang Boluopuhua also felt ominous.

It can't go on like this, and in a few days, it will collapse without fighting.

Be sure to drive away the red thief!

The prince mobilized his cronies, planning to take advantage of the darkness and take the initiative to attack, at least to fight a battle!Polo Puhua personally acted, selected 8000 people, led them, opened the city gate, and killed them out in the dark.

It's just that when Polo Puhua left the city, countless young men rushed out from nowhere, and they rushed straight to the gate of the city.

The guarding soldiers wanted to stop them, but when they saw that there were too many people and boundless, they simply joined them. Just like that, as soon as Boluo Puhua left the city, the city gate behind was seized by the people of Yangzhou.

"Go and tell General Zhu to invite Master Wang to enter the city!"

Chapter 128 The Prisoner's Work

"Superior, the people of Yangzhou have seized the city gate, please enter the city!"

"what!"

Old Zhu was overjoyed, he didn't care about anything, and rushed out, and he saw the flames in the direction of Yangzhou, and his shouts shook the sky... He made a decisive decision and sent several generals to lead the army, and went straight to the city.

Just as they were about to leave, Zhang Ximeng rushed out.

"My lord, this entry into the city is extraordinary, even more important than Chuzhou. The remnants of the Yuan army in the city need to be eliminated, and the market must be maintained. The most important thing is not to invade the houses, not to kill people and set fires, and not to lose the hearts of the people!"

Zhu Yuanzhang thought so, nodded vigorously, and said to the generals headed by Feng Guoyong: "Did you hear my master's order? Anyone who dares to violate the military order will be executed without mercy!"

Feng Guoyong nodded hastily, "I will obey orders." After he finished speaking, he said to Zhang Ximeng, "Sir, there is a shortage of food in the city. Do we want to help the people immediately?"

Zhang Ximeng shook his head, "That's not enough. There are tens of thousands of people in the city. If there are no proper rules, it will be messed up immediately. You first put up a notice asking everyone to wait at home. We will register, classify, and distribute them." Food. Those who really have nothing to eat, those who are weak and difficult to maintain, can be sent out first, and we will prepare some porridge in the military camp."

It's not that Zhang Ximeng broke his promise and was reluctant to give steamed buns. Those who have the strength to run out on their own are naturally fine, but the old, weak, sick and disabled have long been weak. Giving two big steamed buns and a bowl of braised pork is not life-saving. That's terrible!

Feng Guoyong was a meticulous person. He took Zhang Ximeng's order and immediately led his troops to Yangzhou City.

But at this moment, Boluo Puhua, the Southern King of Dayuan Township, was already angry and anxious, and his soul was out of his wits.

He led [-] elites out of the city and wanted to fight, but as soon as he left the city, the back road was cut off.He turned around and wanted to fight back, but found that many of his subordinates simply ran away, and some of them went directly to Zhu's army with weapons, and knelt on the ground to receive the steamed buns.

The rest of the Yuan army was also panicked, and if they wanted to return to Yangzhou, it was absolutely impossible.

"Let's go, go to Gaoyou with me, and join Prime Minister Tuotuo!"

Polo Puhua wanted to leave with people, but before he ran far, a group of people rushed over.

Hu Dahai rushed to the front, holding a sharp ax in his hand, like a pack of wolves who saw their prey, howling and rushing forward.Like chopping melons and cutting vegetables, they divided the Polopuhua's troops into two sections, leaving less than 2000 people for Polopuhua. The prince was so frightened that he fled in a hurry.

But he didn't run very far, and was besieged by Hua Yun, Feng Guosheng, Lu Zhongheng and others one after another, and there were almost no soldiers left.

Polo Puhua was also shot in the buttocks, and the pain was so unbearable that he could only lie on the horse's back, his lower body was numb.

It doesn't matter what, as long as I can see the prime minister, I beg the prime minister to send troops to avenge myself!

Polo Puhua ran to find Tuotuo, Zhu Yuanzhang was already going all out, every soldier was busy, to what extent?

Mr. Li Zhen came up with everyone from the kitchen.

"You must block the Yuan soldiers, try not to allow them to disperse to the countryside, and do not allow them to harm the people, let alone set fire to looting..."

Zhang Ximeng explained it like a cannonball, Li Zhen laughed and said, "Okay! I got it!"

Holding a kitchen knife, this man directed his subordinates to rush towards Yuan Ting's defeated army.

No one would have imagined that this group of people who came out of the kitchen had amazing fighting power. They were all strong and strong. They swung their knives and guns and were invincible. They would charge wherever there were more Yuan troops.

There were more than 100 people in total, and more than 2000 prisoners were taken in a daze.

Li Zhen is satisfied, "You are all honest, I will cook a small stove for you later, and there will be meat to eat! If you dare to be disobedient, or run away secretly, don't blame me for not reminding you, and you will fall into the hands of hungry people. The meat in the pot is gone!"

The group of prisoners trembling with fear, quickly agreed.

Seeing that they were very well-behaved, Li Zhen ordered again: "How about this, you dig a trench yourself, circle a camp, and stay in it by yourself. If you do a good job, I will give you steamed buns. If you don't do it well, you will eat your fists." , understand?"

"I understand, I understand!"

Another famous scene appeared. The prisoners of the Yuan army dug trenches, built camps, and locked themselves up. That's called obedience!

Zhang Ximeng patrolled around and couldn't help laughing when he saw this scene.

In fact, after seeing this scene, I also understood why Yuan Ting changed Tuotuo, and hundreds of thousands of troops collapsed on the spot. In the past four years, there have been successive natural and man-made disasters ahead.

Yuan Ting's accumulation has been exhausted, and there is not much left.

Take the team led by Polo Puhua as an example. He successfully obtained Yangzhou from Zhang Shicheng, but then something went wrong. He didn't bring much food, and he originally asked the Yuan army in Jiangnan to provide supplies.

But I'm sorry, there are 20 people in the south of the Yangtze River. They need to eat, drink, and deliver food to Dadu. You should wait!

The friendly army is in trouble, and it does not move like a mountain.

This immediately turned Polo into a trap.

He had to extract oil from the people of Yangzhou, and had to plunder nearby. Even so, the army still couldn't get enough to eat, there were many complaints, and the morale of the army and the people were all lost.

At this point, it is impossible not to collapse, and God will not agree!

The Yuan army who wanted to come outside Gaoyou City was similar to the one in Yangzhou.

It's just relying on Tuotuo's ability and prestige, trying to maintain it.When Tuotuo was taken down, the hearts of the people became distracted and suddenly got out of hand.

Thinking of this, why did Zhang Ximeng come up with an idea, if he continues to raid Yangzhou at this moment, what will happen?

Can you beat Tuotuo's tens of thousands of people?

Successful rescue?

If this is done, wouldn't it mean unifying the two Huaihe Rivers and achieving the kingship at the end of the Yuan Dynasty in advance?

This idea was so tempting that Zhang Ximeng wanted to go to Lao Zhu immediately and have a good talk.

But before he could move, the cruel reality shattered Zhang Ximeng's fantasy... From the city of Yangzhou, a dense crowd of people supporting the old and the young came out of the city gate and rushed out of the city.

How come there are so many?

Didn't they tell you that only old and weak women and children who are short of food are allowed to come out?

How did Feng Guoyong do things?

Just when Zhang Ximeng was about to get angry, Feng Guoyong came out in person. His face was full of horror and fear. If he could scare this all-rounder in civil and military affairs like this, he knew how terrible things were.

"Sir, we found a land temple, and more than [-] yuan soldiers hid in it. Before they could arrest people, the group of yuan soldiers ran out by themselves, all of them pale, as if they had seen a ghost." Yes. We asked, but they couldn’t even speak well. Finally, I went in to check. Inside, there were a lot of bones, all of them were human! There were dozens of bones, and there were children’s bones Skull!"

Feng Guoyong's voice was trembling.

The boatman Laoqi said that people cannibalize in the city. The big guy thought it was an isolated phenomenon, but after actually checking it, he realized that Yangzhou City was already miserable to the extreme. Fortunately, Zhu Jiajun arrived at this time. Otherwise, how many lives these 80 people can live is really amazing Hard to say.

"Sir, what do you think we should do?"

Zhang Ximeng took a deep breath, "How about this, tell the workshops and shops in the city to open for business immediately... Those who worked in the workshops of the shops before will return immediately. Even if there is nothing to do, we will distribute food. Let Everyone maintains their livelihoods, and then we will re-register the situation, and after verification, we will distribute food according to the head of a person."

"Then, what about the refugees?"

"Let the refugees come out and arrange them to farm in Zhenzhou, Liuhe, Chuzhou and other places. If they have no serious business to do, they should not stay in Yangzhou. We can't support idlers."

Feng Guoyong followed Zhang Ximeng's instructions and went to implement them again.

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang was almost busy there. Preliminary verification showed that there were more than 8000 Yuan troops in the city. Except for a small number of people who died in battle, there were also some who escaped. About 2000 people were all captured.

Since there was no time to tie them up, and there were no houses or tents, we could only draw the ground as a prison and take care of it hastily.

In less than a day, so many people were captured, even if it was more than 3 pigs, it was not so easy to catch!

It shows how unpopular Yuan Ting is!

But even so, it doesn't mean that these people are willing to join Zhu's army unconditionally.

Zhang Ximeng came to discuss the next move with Lao Zhu, and happened to meet a group of prisoners from the Yuan army. There were about three to five hundred of them, and they were making a noise.

"You guys are lying! Didn't you say there are steamed buns? What about braised pork? Stewed goose? Nothing! Just give me white porridge? Are you playing me like a monkey?"

Someone took the lead, and many captives followed suit, uttering bad words to the little soldiers of Zhu's army.

The little soldier was also furious, "You are captives! Not the master! I still want to eat steamed buns and roast meat, but no! Fist is enough, do you want it!"

At this time, the one who took the lead in making troubles yelled again, "See? What kind of master king, it's a lie, don't be fooled, big guy, follow me, let's fight out! Find a clear way again!"

Tens of thousands of prisoners, more than Zhu's army.

If there are obedient ones, there will naturally be disobedient ones.

The trouble was not limited to this one place, Zhang Ximeng immediately urged his horse to come over, and saw that he had arrived, and there were many soldiers from Zhu's army behind him, these prisoners were finally honest.

Zhang Ximeng called the little soldier over and asked about the situation.

The little soldier was aggrieved, and told the story again, "Sir, they are the ones who are unreasonable. They are obviously prisoners, but they still don't obey the military orders. They should be severely punished!"

Zhang Ximeng smiled, "This is your fault. Although they are prisoners, they can't speak harshly. They must be kind, reasonable, and behave in a proper manner."

Zhang Ximeng criticized a few words, turned his head, and said to the prisoners: "You are not satisfied with white porridge and pickles. I want to ask, what do you usually eat? But is there something better?"

He asked twice in a row, but no one answered, Zhang Ximeng walked over, grabbed a thin prisoner, and said with a smile, "Tell me, what do you usually eat when you are in the army?"

"Eat, eat black flour pancakes, rotten, rotten vegetable soup."

"Then, do you think porridge and pickles are bad?"

The prisoner had a troubled face on his face, and after muttering for a long time, he just said, "I, I'm not saying it's wrong, it's..." The corner of his eyes glanced at the one who took the lead in making trouble, but he didn't dare to speak out, so he lowered his head .

Zhang Ximeng saw it in his eyes and understood it in his heart.

"Are you a general of the Yuan court? What did you do before?"

The leader hesitated and panicked, and said after a while: "I, I am a thousand households, I, I surrendered on my own initiative, yes, it is meritorious!"

Zhang Ximeng smiled, threw him aside, grabbed the little soldier of Zhu's army with his backhand, led him to the other soldiers, and then said earnestly: "Do you understand? These ordinary soldiers are ours, you just now Shout out and scare them too. That's not the way to do things."

After finishing speaking, Zhang Ximeng raised his head again and said: "Brothers, the Zhu family army is a team of poor people. Among us, there are many soldiers and horses from the Yuan court. As long as they are kind and honest soldiers, they are our brothers and sisters. Everyone He is also a reasonable person, rice, grain and meat cannot be delivered all at once, so please be considerate.”

Seeing that Zhang Ximeng's tone was kind and reasonable, the prisoners nodded one after another.

"If the adults say so, we will understand."

Zhang Ximeng smiled again, "One more thing, I want to tell everyone that the high officials, generals, Wanhu, Qianhu in the Yuan Ting army...they were originally the ones who oppressed the big guys, and there are many conscientious people among them. , but there are many people who do evil and instigate trouble! They are not willing to lose their power, and they want to agitate the big guys and give them their lives to die. No matter what, it will not work!"

When that Qianhu heard this, his eyes widened suddenly, and he was moved. He got up and wanted to run, but Zhang Ximeng stopped drinking.

"Take it!"

In an instant, someone rushed forward and took this Qianhu down. How could he be convinced, and roared at the top of his voice, "You are lying, and what you say doesn't count! I have been fooled by you!"

He yelled, but a soldier covered his mouth and dragged him down.

Zhang Ximeng smiled unabated, looked at the other prisoners, and said with a smile: "Don't be afraid, big guys, just remember one thing, you are also poor people, we are all the same, what did this person do in the army just now, everyone As long as you stand up and report something, if it is true, you will be punished immediately!"

Zhang Ximeng glanced over all the captives, and finally landed on the thin captive, encouraging him: "Speak, I'll make the decision for you!"

The young prisoner pondered over and over again, and finally said: "He, he withheld our food and pay, and also killed more than a dozen people for nothing... Does this count?"

Zhang Ximeng laughed, "Naturally, I'll bring him here now to confront you—does the big guy have the guts?"

The prisoners looked at each other, and some of them showed hesitation and entanglement on their faces. They peeked at Zhang Ximeng, as if they had some distrust. One of the prisoners dared to say, "You, can you really decide for us?"

Zhang Ximeng smiled, "Then you might as well think about it, why do we want to shield Yuan Ting's lackey Yinggou?"

The prisoner struggled for a while, and finally said: "Then, then we will believe you once! Speaking of this bastard...he has done so many bad things!"

Chapter 129 Turning a Hawk Dog into a Human

Zhang Ximeng successfully opened the hearts of the soldiers, and the big guys began to complain about the injustice they had received in the army. Several soldiers fainted from crying when they talked about their sadness.

At this moment, Lao Zhu also rushed over. He didn't disturb the big guys, but just sat down silently behind the crowd.

Listening patiently, one of the soldiers was arrested. Originally, his mother was ill. He used the money he saved from hunting to buy medicine for his mother. However, because he was carrying a bow and arrow and holding a machete, Yuan Yuan The army saw him and said he was a piece of material, so he was arrested and forced to join the army.

"I told them that I wanted to go back to see my mother, but they refused. They tied him up and hung him in the barracks of the barracks for three days. I couldn't bear it, so I agreed to them. Within a few days, I I was forced to follow them. When I went out of the city gate that day, I saw my mother. She was sitting among a bunch of beggars, her clothes were all torn, leaning against the city wall, motionless. She came to look for me. She She is still sick, and it is not easy to go from home to the county seat. Someone persuaded her to go back, but she refused, saying that she must see me. The day I left, she, she died!"

When the soldier said this, he was already sobbing, and almost passed out.