Chapter 342 Yingtian Mansion

{}>Zhu Yuanzhang stood on the city tower of Yingtian Mansion and looked into the distance. Please remember it when reading novels

It was already the fourteenth year of Zhizheng. Since the rebellion, Zhu Yuanzhang's heart has been particularly broad, but reality is always unsatisfactory.

Offensive collection was his established strategic intention. Only when he came to Jiangnan could the situation be opened. However, now that he has occupied this place, the situation has not been opened.

To the east of him, the Yuan generals were determined to guard Zhenjiang; to the southeast, Zhang Shicheng had already taken the lead, occupied Pingjiang and Hangzhou, and plundered western Zhejiang; to the south, the Yuan general Basier was stationed in Huizhou, and another army stationed in Ningguo; to the west, Chizhou was already under Xu Zhenyi, and there was also the established Tianwan regime; to the southeast, the Yuan general Shima Yisun guarded Chuzhou, Shima Housun guarded Wuzhou, and Song Boyan guarded Quzhou.

If you want to open up the situation in this complicated situation, there is only one way: fight!

He was always besieged by the Yuan army, which led to Zhu Yuanzhang not being able to get out even though he had gained a foothold in Yingtian Mansion.

Now, the provincial troops besieging Zhu Yuanzhang have retreated to various important places, and the temporary siege of Yingtian Prefecture should have been lifted.

Where should I find a breakthrough?

Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts moved silently. In this world, what did he rely on to this day? Force!

Although Zhu Yuanzhang's military strength is weak, his military training is definitely the first. The quality of the army has always been very high. If you want to enter his army, you must go through strict screening. Those who are not suitable for being soldiers will never enter his team. Moreover, his generals, especially Xu Da, are brave generals, so his army's combat effectiveness has always been higher than that of the Yuan army.

However, the weapons equipped by his army made him very dissatisfied.

The area he occupied was hardly iron-producing. Last time, he lied to Zhang Shicheng, several thousand kilograms of iron; he had long used chimes, and now his weapons are almost mainly based on seizures, which made the weapons very unattackable.

Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang regretted that Jiao yù, who made firearms for him, also ran to Zhang Shicheng's camp. Now Zhang Shicheng's army mainly uses firearms as weapons, which are powerful and equipped with many artillery. I heard that those artillery can collapse the city wall with one shot. With that kind of weapon, it is not easy to capture the siege.

That Jiao yù made some clever weapons in his own place. When he heard that Zhang Shicheng was valued, he was actually very dissatisfied with this.

Jiao yù was originally his own person, so he should ask Zhang Shicheng to come back!

"Mr. Pingzhang, military information is coming from Jiangbei." A personal guard shouted.

Since the Ming Dynasty King Han Lin'er took up the throne, he began to establish all the officials under his command. Zhu Yuanzhang conquered Jiqing, occupied a large area of ​​territory, promoted Zhu Yuanzhang to a fellow officer of the Privy Council, and soon promoted him to Pingzhang, the Secretariat of Jiangnan and other places. Zhu Yuanzhang was not interested in this official position, but in order to show his obedience to the monarch, he still asked his servants to call him this. He only had the closest brother, and continued to call him the eldest brother.

Is there any military situation in Jiangbei? Could it be that the Tartars in the north have had abnormal movements?

Zhu Yuanzhang marched into Jiangnan; the Tartars in Jiangbei were mainly dealt with by Liu Futong, but Zhu Yuanzhang still did not relax his surveillance of Jiangbei, and no trouble could be hidden from his ears.

"Say." Zhu Yuanzhang said.

"The Northern Tartar court showed signs of instability; probably due to the dispute over imperial power, the emperor and the prince were separated from each other, and the two armies in Datong and Taiyuan were said to be in a fight." The guard said.

Datong was the subordinate of the Yuan general Boluo Temur, and Taiyuan was the subordinate of Kuo Temur. The two were loyal to the emperor and the prince of the dynasty respectively. These two people fought to the death, which shows that something really happened.

The battle between imperial power has always been the most cruel struggle.

However, this is the best way. The Tartars were not only unable to deal with the rebels from all over the country, but also had internal strife. It was definitely a good opportunity for the rebels and themselves.

That means that you can temporarily ignore the power of the Tartars and continue to expand your territory and conquer the city.

He had long taken a fancy to another strategic location: Zhenjiang.

Zhenjiang is located downstream of Yingtian Prefecture, across the river from Yangzhou, and captured Zhenjiang. Sooner or later, Yangzhou is its own. Moreover, Zhenjiang is also a hometown of fish and rice, with abundant grain production.

In this world, if you stick to yourself, you will sooner or later be annexed by others. The only correct choice is to keep your own strength stronger, stronger, and even stronger.

Zhu Yuanzhang knew this truth, so he left Guo Zixing alone very early and achieved today's achievements. Although there was Guo Zixing above his head and Han Liner above his head, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that these were all nominal.

If he had the same weapon as Zhang Shicheng, then why worry about the big thing going? Zhu Yuanzhang was also very jealous when he envied Zhang Shicheng. If he had the same weapon as Zhang Shicheng, he would have fought all over the country long ago, but this turtle shrank into the turtle and became the left chief of the province of Jiangnan and northern Jiangbei.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang look down on Zhang Shicheng a little. Although this person is capable, he lacks the necessary conditions for achieving great things: ambition.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang are the richest, I am afraid Zhang Shicheng’s plan is to sleep on the pile of wealth!

Zhu Yuanzhang had a very accurate guess. Zhang Shicheng in history was indeed such a person. After he obtained the richest land in Jiangnan, he completely degenerated and did not want to make progress. The army lost its combat effectiveness. After looking at Chen Youliang being eliminated by Zhu Yuanzhang, he was also killed by Zhu Yuanzhang like autumn wind swept away fallen leaves.

However, history will not be repeated. Since Zhang Yang became Zhang Shicheng, he naturally knew that if he wanted to take office, he had to keep strengthening himself and never stayed there. However, Zhang Yang knew better that it is important to accumulate strength. At some point, compromise was not terrible. Nominally obeying the Yuan Dynasty was just nominally, and he could raise an army again at any time.

"Brother, my subordinates have caught a few people who came to the city to sell si salt." Guo Ying found Zhu Yuanzhang on the top of the city and said to him.

The salt industry has always been a key industry for tax collection, and Zhu Yuanzhang was no exception. He occupied the land and wanted to sell salt, but he had to pay twice the tax, which was also an important part of his fiscal revenue.

Since the land occupied by Zhu Yuanzhang was inland, all the salt had to be imported from outside, so some illegal salt vendors wanted to go to si sea salt.

Guo Ying was in charge of the safety of Yingtian Mansion. Yesterday, his subordinates caught several salt dealers.

If it is an ordinary salt dealer, there is no doubt that if you catch it, you will either behead your head or ask the other party to pay a generous compensation; there is no need to report it at all.

Guo Ying received a report from someone and was about to arrest a few salt vendors. At this time, they were in the largest warehouse in Yingtian Mansion.

When they saw the soldiers around them, these people were not panicked at all, which even worsened Guo Ying's suspicion. The ordinary si salt dealer. When they saw the official army, their first reaction was to escape. Their background must be quite large.

Next, a man among the salt dealers walked out and took out a ingot of gold. It was OK, it was gold. He said this as a fine. Then, the other party picked up the shoulder pole and wanted to leave.

It is said that these golds are enough to fine; Guo Ying originally wanted to let it go, but he always felt a little strange. The style of these salt vendors is even more like a soldier.

"Stop!" Guo Ying shouted.

At this time, the salt vendor who was about to go out slowly turned around and had a short musket in his hand.

"Get out of here!" Guo Ying was shocked.

Those who can afford to be equipped with muskets are not the salt vendors, they are clearly Zhang Shicheng's subordinates.

If the other party just comes to sell some si salt, then forget it; who knows if the other party is here to spy on some information?

"Bang, bang, bang." Several muskets fired, and several soldiers fell down on his side.

"Chasing!" Guo Ying knew that after the musket fired, they had to reload it; so they could take advantage of this time to capture all the other party.

Unexpectedly, in a flash, the other party made a second shove.

Guo Ying had no choice but to look at the other party and was about to disappear into the alley. At this time, the brigade of soldiers in charge of patrol finally arrived.

After paying dozens of people, they finally caught these salt dealers.

How to deal with it? Guo Ying didn't dare to make any decisions by herself, so she had to find her elder brother.

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "A few salt vendors, just do what they should do." He didn't know yet that there were so many things in between.

"Brother, please look at this." Guo Ying took out the seized musket. "This is carried by several salt vendors."

Zhu Yuanzhang took it and said that it was a short musket, a short but powerful musket. Just looking at the barrel, you can tell that it was made of good iron, and the whole body exuded the sharpness of metal.

Where did such a foolish musket come from? Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes looked to the east.

Zhang Shicheng, what did you send these people to do? Have you already taken a fancy to Yingtian Mansion?

"Bring those salt dealers up," said Zhu Yuanzhang.

Soon, several men with big tied up were brought up by a few beaten men with blue noses and swollen eyes.

Dozens of his own people were killed by the other party, which was a big loss of face. How could the people who escorted them give them good looks? It would be good without stabbing them a few times.

When Zhu Yuanzhang saw the man behind him, he felt very familiar. When he walked over and saw him, he suddenly burst into laughter.

"So it's Brother Shixin. I haven't seen you for a long time. Don't be fine." Zhu Yuanzhang said.

The leader of these salt dealers is Shi Xin.

As Zhang Yangbi forced the court to agree to the conditions of liberalizing the salt market, he accumulated more than half a year of salt and all had sales. In the base of Dingxi Salt Field, a large amount of salt was purified, with high quality and circulating, and quickly occupied many markets.

Shixin is responsible for some of the sales channels.

In addition to the areas controlled by the imperial court, there were already large areas occupied by the rebels and did not obey the imperial court's orders. Shi Xin became interested in allowing the jing salt to circulate these areas.

Shi Xin often did this kind of thing. He was originally a si salt dealer. Under Zhang Yang's hands, he had done many salt trading. He naturally became familiar with this kind of thing.

So, Shixin didn't say hello to Zhang Yang, and went to open the market by himself.

Unexpectedly, something unexpected happened here.

Those who followed Shi Xin were all soldiers who had killed people on the battlefield. Those who had experienced the battlefield were not afraid of such minor accidents. Shi Xin originally wanted to use money to bribe, but who knew that it would not work, so he could only run away. In order to run away, he could only kill a few people on the other side.

The ones they carried were short Wufeng guns, which had strong firepower, but they were slightly closer.

He was about to escape from danger, but he was surrounded by many people and killed dozens of people in vain, but he still couldn't escape.

Having killed so many people on the other side, thinking that the other side lets you go? Then don’t have a beautiful dream.

As a result, when he saw that the other party did not directly cut off his or her people on the spot, he took them to the city wall. Then, he saw the once familiar person Zhu Yuanzhang.

The last time I was doing business with Zhu Yuanzhang, I didn't get any advantage, and I almost got a fortune by Zhu Yuanzhang. Shi Xin knew that it was a big deal, and it was more troublesome than killing him directly. Maybe it would bring a lot of extra things to the elder brother.

"Young Master Zhu, yes, we haven't met for a long time." Shi Xin said.

"I heard that Mr. Zhang has recently become the left prime minister of the Jiangnan and Jiangbei province of the imperial court. Zhu is busy with military affairs and has not had time to congratulate him." Zhu Yuanzhang said.

"Where, where, Mr. Zhu occupied Jiqing and changed his name to Yingtian Mansion. That is to follow the will of heaven." Shi Xin said.

Zhu Yuanzhang's words just now were obviously ridiculing the elder brother for surrendering to the Yuan Dynasty Tartars. Of course, Shi Xin would not let it go. You took the broken earth yourself and called Yingtian. What kind of heaven can you do?

Few people can beat Shixin when showing off their verbal strength.

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang changed the topic just now: "I wonder why Mr. Zhang asked the Shixin to come, but what happened?"

Is this more important? Of course I am getting rich. Shi Xin said: "My elder brother already has many salt farms now. He produces so much salt and has to be sold. Moreover, I heard that Yingtian Mansion lacks salt. I am not sending some salt for the sake of the people of Yingtian Mansion."

"Mr. Zhang asked you to come, just to send salt?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

Oops, Shi Xin was shocked and was just around the corner. He answered just now, saying that he had come after being arranged by his elder brother. He listened to his tone and arranged for him to come. It was a guise to transport some si salt, and there were other purposes.

What is the purpose? To spy on military information? Shi Xin knew that Zhu Yuanzhang's question would definitely be of no use

"Young Master Zhu, you don't know that giving salt is not a trivial matter. There is so much salt accumulated in the salt field. Our elder brother has a headache all day long, so he has to find ways around and use precious land to make a convenience." Shi Xin said.

"What a pity." Zhu Yuanzhang said: "If I greeted me in advance, I could have a good relationship with Mr. Zhang. However, your elder brother is also a person who is used to being in charge of soldiers. I know the importance of orders and prohibitions. I really have to kill him!"

Bah, if we really wanted to kill us, we would have taken action long ago, so why wait until now? Shi Xin knew that the other party said this, just because he had room for negotiation and wanted to ask for a price everywhere.

"Come, take them to prison and wait for the death to be delivered." Zhu Yuanzhang said.

Shi Xin turned his head and walked down, knowing what the hell was Zhu Yuanzhang's idea. In short, there was no danger for these people for the time being.
Chapter completed!