Chapter 168 Changed History
Ying Tianfu.

Ever since the imperial court sent 500,000 troops northward, Zhu Yunwen always felt a little uneasy for some reason.

But on second thought, Zhu Yunwen felt that he was too sensitive.

This is an army of half a million men!
Even if we have to pay with human lives, it will take a certain amount of time to defeat the war, right?
What’s more, the one leading the troops to fight this time was Li Wenzhong’s son, now Duke of Cao Li Jinglong.

Li Jinglong had been to Huguang and other places to train troops. In Zhu Yunwen’s view, he could talk eloquently about military affairs and had quite some insights, and he did not look like a military idiot at all.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yunwen slowly exhaled, returned to the dragon throne, and began to flip through the memorials, reading word by word the urgent report from the north that came eight hundred miles away.

Just as he watched, Zhu Yunwen’s face suddenly turned pale.

The weather was not too hot at that time, but the moment Zhu Yunwen finished reading the court report, beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his forehead.

“Failed…”

He uttered a word in a lost voice.

Then, Zhu Yunwen showed an almost unbelievable look on his face:

“How could I lose!?”

This is an army of 500,000 strong. How could they be defeated?!
And how did the Prince of Yan persuade the Prince of Liao, the Prince of Ning and the three Wuliangha guards to become his supporters, and persuade them to participate in the Battle of Beiping in such a short time…

Judging from the contents of the court reports alone, the siege of Peking was not only counterattacked by the Yan army, but most importantly, because the situation reversed, Li Jinglong, the commander-in-chief entrusted with important tasks by Zhu Yunwen, actually took the initiative to surrender on the battlefield, which was no better than an ordinary deserter!
However, Li Jinglong was the general that Zhu Yunwen personally appointed against all odds.

When he thought of this, Zhu Yunwen felt a sweet and fishy sensation in his throat and almost wanted to spurt blood.

But soon, Zhu Yunwen found that he had spit out blood too early.

Judging from the second half of the report, in addition to Li Jinglong who surrendered voluntarily, generals such as Ping An, Qu Neng, and Guo Ying were captured by the Yan army. Those who should be killed were killed, and those who should surrender surrendered.

Today, the Yan army can be said to be fighting to support war. After all the wars, the number of troops has not decreased, but the size of the team has become even larger.

Even in terms of food and fodder, because Li Jinglong, as the commander-in-chief, took the initiative to surrender to the enemy, the soldiers in the rear were defeated and scattered, and the food and fodder they transported were also intercepted in large quantities by the Yan army.

The Southern Army was like sending heads a thousand miles away. Not only did they send all the soldiers and generals into the hands of the King of Yan, but they also used the food and fodder of the 500,000-strong army to feed the Yan army until they were fat and strong.

If Tie Xuan had not gathered the deserters and gathered them in Jinan city to guard the place, I am afraid that even the last bit of food and grass would not have been preserved.

But… who is Tie Xuan? !

Zhu Yunwen always felt that this name was somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

After thinking about it, he finally found the memory about Tie Xuan from a corner of his memory.

As early as when the emperor’s grandfather was still alive, Tie Xuan had been hanging out with Zhu Gaoyu. At that time, Tie Xuan was just a judge in the Governor’s Office. Later, after Jianwen ascended the throne, he was promoted several times because of his closeness to civil officials and Tie Xuan’s good skills.

It was just because he and Zhu Gaoyu had a good relationship in the past. When he was promoted, Zhu Yunwen took this relationship into consideration and still had some resentment in his heart, so he was unwilling to fully use Tie Xuan.

But who could have expected that such a minister who was not trusted by Zhu Yunwen would give him such a big surprise at this time!
Judging from the series of operations including the collapse of the Southern Army, Tie Xuan’s cleaning up the mess, defending Jinan and stabilizing the situation, Tie Xuan did have some quick wit.

However, facing the invincible Zhu Di, could a weak scholar like Tie Xuan really defeat Zhu Di head-on and even turn the tide?

At this moment, Zhu Yunwen finally realized that there was a huge gap between him and his fourth uncle in military affairs.

……

In front of Jinan city.

The development here was not as Zhu Yunwen had expected. The Prince of Yan led the Yan army to fight a desperate battle with the Southern Army here.

Zhu Gaoyu was wearing the “Great Ming Unification Map” and wrapped himself tightly inside and out.

Then, in front of the city gate of Jinan, he pulled up a chair, crossed his legs, and, with two rows of personal guards beside him, he spoke slowly:

“Tie Xuan, we are old acquaintances. Since we are old acquaintances, why don’t you come down and chat with me?”

On the city wall of Jinan, Tie Xuan, Sheng Yong and Gao Wei looked solemn while staring at each other in mid-air, wondering what the Yan army was up to.

They had already prepared for a desperate fight, but for some reason, Tie Xuan and Sheng Yong always felt that the number of Yan troops stationed at the gate of Jinan… did not seem to be as large as they had imagined.

With the help of Xiao Jixiang who was standing next to him, Zhu Gaoyu recognized the identities of the three of them and couldn’t help but sigh at the coincidence of history.

It’s a pity that coincidence is just coincidence, but in fact, with his instigation, the Jingnan Campaign has completely changed beyond recognition.

Tie Xuan looked at Zhu Gaoyu, his emotions were fluctuating inside, not as calm as he appeared on the surface.

His eyes flickered slightly, seeming a little complicated, but after a long time, they finally turned into a sigh.

Gao Wei even spoke up, wanting to persuade Prince Yan through Zhu Gaoyu.

The main idea was to use the affection between brothers to move the hard-hearted Prince of Yan, and then use the example of “Duke Zhou assisting King Cheng” in the previous dynasty to persuade Prince of Yan to assist Zhu Yunwen as the emperor’s uncle, so that the monarch and his subjects could get along well with each other without hurting the brothers.

It’s just a shame.

Zhu Gaoyu would not be moved by this. Even if he was moved by Gao Wei’s words, the Prince of Yan would not be shaken at all.

Just because… Prince Yan is not in Jinan City at all.

The sun was getting dim and it was about to set. Zhu Gaoyu had been basking in the sun for a whole afternoon and was already feeling drowsy.

He simply stopped talking, yawned, slowly jumped off the chair, stretched his body, and then started laughing:
“Okay, Tie Xuan, it’s time for dinner, I won’t entertain you. Eat and drink. If the brothers in the city are hungry, they can also join our Yan army.”

“Don’t worry, we have three meals a day, two vegetarian meals and one meat meal, which are nutritionally complete.”

Smoke rose from the fire in the back, and Zhu Gaoyu walked happily in that direction.

As the number one lackey of the emperor, Xiao Jixiang has been trained over a long period of time since the Jingnan War.

If it were in the past, he would never have dared to challenge so many generals under the city gate as a eunuch.

But now…he can!
Akimbo!

Xiao Jixiang turned his head and looked at Tie Xuan, Sheng Yong, Gao Wei and others with a meaningful look:

“Speaking of which, it’s about time.”

What time is it?
When Sheng Yong, Tie Xuan and others heard Xiao Jixiang’s words, for some reason, their hearts skipped a beat and a bad premonition arose in their hearts.

What does this mean?
Before Sheng Yong and the others could figure it out, a soldier hurried up the city wall and came to them breathlessly, looking anxious and speaking in an almost fearful tone:
“Commander-in-chief! The Prince of Yan took the Guantao Road and crossed the river. He successively conquered Dong’e, Dongping, and Shanxian. He was almost on the verge of attacking Xuzhou when he came here!”

After these words were spoken, the generals on the city wall, who had been united in their efforts to make a final stand, now all felt dizzy and didn’t know how to react.

……

Xuzhou.

After the Prince of Yan led his army in a hurry and captured Xuzhou, he could not help but think back to the night before his departure.

Zhu Di, Xu Miaoyun, and four sons sat in the hall.

Everyone has different opinions on how the Yan army should plan its next route after the Battle of Peking.

Among them, Zhu Gaoyu had the most bizarre ideas, perhaps because of his young age.

Until now, Zhu Di can still recall the night when Zhu Gaoyu asked him why he had to attack Jinan and Dezhou instead of using Xuzhou as the gateway and aiming directly at Yingtian Prefecture. Zhu Di felt suddenly enlightened at that moment, as if the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining.

Admittedly, this tactic was a strange and risky approach, but after the Yan army annexed the imperial army and expanded its army by fighting to support fighting, coupled with the fact that forced marches were not suitable and the men were too cumbersome.

Therefore, it is entirely possible to divide the troops and station them outside the city of Jinan to temporarily contain Sheng Yong, Tie Xuan and others.
Zhu Di took advantage of this opportunity to attack Huanglong and rushed to Yingtian Prefecture.

After fighting for such a long time, Zhu Di advanced step by step cautiously. During the process of consecutive victories, he seemed to be in a prosperous situation, but in fact, Zhu Di’s situation was dire.

Zhu Yunwen could afford to lose, but Zhu Di could not.

Zhu Di knew clearly in his heart that his so-called pacification was actually no different from treason. He used things like “clouds covering the sky” and “the unification of the Ming Dynasty” to prove that he was orthodox.

But Zhu Di understood, Zhu Gaoyu understood, and his sons all understood that they were all traitors.

If you fail, there is only one way out, and that is death!
Xuzhou.

Zhu Di climbed to a high place and looked into the distance.

The target is directly aimed at the capital.

However, attacking Yingtian Prefecture by force is obviously a pipe dream.

The city wall of Yingtian Prefecture is made of granite mixed with glutinous rice lime, and is extremely strong.

The most important thing is that although the Southern Army heading north numbered 500,000, this did not mean that the guards in the city would be left empty.

On the contrary, there are still more than 100,000 troops in Yingtian Prefecture, which is several times stronger than Jinan City. It is not an easy task to capture it.

So… Zhu Di needs to take some alternative approaches.

He needs two people.

To be precise, there are actually three people.

But Li Jinglong was not in Yingtian Prefecture at this moment.

Then there are only two people left in Yingtian Prefecture.

One was Zhu Sui, the Prince of Gu who guarded the Jinchuan Gate, and the other was Xu Zengshou, the younger brother of Duke Wei.

Today’s copy is 6,000 words. Good night, everyone.

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(End of this chapter)