Chapter 62: Throwing a melon as a signal
Ming Dynasty, the 16th year of Yongle.

Looking at the sky curtain and feeling the role of the little people, Zhu Di also instructed his beloved grandson: "Zhanji, let me tell you that in the overall situation, we must not ignore any small place or small person. If Zhang Bing and his team had carefully processed the draft, I, your grandfather, would still be able to get the news, but it would be later and the situation would be different."

Zhu Zhanji nodded in understanding. He understood this truth. "But even if Li You doesn't succeed, Grandpa won't fail."

Zhu Di laughed, "Of course!"

Apart from the successful Zhu Di, the rest of the spectators also heard the importance that Tianmu attached to the little people. Some of them had already understood, and some were thinking about it. However, all of this was forgotten by what the miracle said next. The words "Eight hundred soldiers, start the army" echoed in their minds.

Han Dynasty, the first year of Yuanshuo.

"Eight hundred soldiers, and they are just starting an army?" Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, was quite surprised. When Emperor Taizu Gaohuangdi Liu Bang officially started his army, the number of people was not large, but there were at least 3,000 people. Later, Liu Bang defected to the King of Chu and obtained soldiers along the way. When the King of Chu named him Marquis of Wu'an, he was considered a force with 14,000 soldiers.

"This is similar to the uprising of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang in Daze Township." Ever since the miracle began to tell about Zhu Di's military actions, Wei Qing paid more attention. Back then, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang led 900 people and started the first peasant uprising in history from Daze Township, which marked the beginning of the demise of the Qin Dynasty.

"It's not difficult to get more manpower," Huo Qubing said seriously. "Emperor Jianwen has transferred the troops of the Prince of Yan away, but the Prince of Yan has been in Yan for a long time. As long as these officials die, the remaining troops will be his."

Qin Dynasty.

The First Emperor looked at the sky. A small figure, eight hundred soldiers... At present, the remnants of the six kingdoms are still causing chaos in the territory of our Great Qin. Is it because of this small figure? If the eight hundred soldiers were ordinary people, would there be the same hidden dangers?

Ying Zheng knew that after years of fighting, the Qin people were already under extreme pressure, but as long as the six kingdoms were not peaceful, the Qin could not relax. The Qin Dynasty's system had already squeezed the people's power to the extreme, and every Qin person was burdened with heavy shackles. In order to make the people of the six kingdoms unable to rebel, the Qin Dynasty took the method of exhausting the people to the extreme, constantly mobilizing the people to build projects and migrate them back and forth. In the past, he thought that there was no big problem with doing this, but now he might have to consider it.

Also, about the little people. The Qin Dynasty had too few officials, so many places could only rely on the officials left by the six kingdoms, whose loyalty was hard to tell, or even colluded with the nobles of the six kingdoms. These people were not big figures, but they were enough to plant countless hidden dangers for the Qin Dynasty.

We still need to train talents as soon as possible.

Time! What he lacked the most was time! Everything took time, and his body and energy had declined. His eldest son Fusu still seemed to be lacking in energy.

[In July of the first year of the Jianwen reign, Emperor Jianwen issued an edict to Beiping, demanding the arrest of officials from the Prince of Yan's Palace.

Zhang Bing, Xie Gui and others led their troops to surround the Prince of Yan's mansion, urgently demanding that the Prince of Yan hand over the people, and shot arrows into the mansion.

Zhu Di discussed with Daoyan and Zhu Neng how to capture Zhang Bing and Xie Gui.

On the fourth day, the Prince of Yan announced that he had recovered from his illness, held a banquet in the East Palace, and ambushed strong men at the left and right gates and inside the Duanli Gate. He then sent eunuchs to trick Zhang Bing and Xie Gui into coming to the palace.

At the banquet, serve a few melons.

Zhu Di cursed as he cut the melon with a knife: "Ordinary people, brothers and clansmen still take care of each other; I am a relative of the emperor, but I can't save my life. The emperor treats me like this, what else can't he do!"

So he threw the melon on the ground.

With the signal of smashing the melon, the ambushers immediately captured Zhang Bing and Xie Gui, and also captured Ge Cheng and Lu Zhen, and then they were beheaded.

At this time, Zhang Yu, Zhu Neng and others led their troops to seize the nine gates of Peking, and they captured them quickly. Zhu Di thus took control of Peking.

You know, Zhu Di had been the Prince of Yan for many years and had a certain influence on Beiping and its vicinity. Moreover, he guarded the north and led the army in battles for many years, and he had a high prestige in the army. Although Emperor Jianwen transferred his guards away, how many soldiers and horses in Beiping now had a good impression of him? The number was really not small.

After quickly taking control of the situation in the base camp, on the next day, which was the fifth day of July, Zhu Di officially launched his army in the name of "Jingnan" and announced it to the world.

At this time, the greatest threat to him was the 30,000 troops that Emperor Jianwen had previously deployed in Kaiping.

Ming Dynasty, Hongwu.

"Wow," Zhou Wang Zhu Su watched with great interest, immersed in eating melons, "Fourth brother, you actually use smashing melons as a signal, um, really, a different way!" Since ancient times, people often use smashing cups as a signal, but his fourth brother is really unique, actually using melons instead of cups. I want to laugh.

"Puchi," someone really laughed out loud. Zhu Di looked and saw that it was Prince of Xiang Zhu Bo. Oh, he is still young. Just laugh if you want to. How could he care about arguing with a child?

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the sky, but his mind flew to another direction: Have Zhang Bing and Xie Gui entered the court now? Such idiots cannot be allowed to wreak havoc in our court!

Song.

When Prince of Yan raised an army, Zhao Kuangyin could not just treat it as a story. Instead, he began to think carefully about the military generals of the Song Dynasty.

The fact that the Prince of Yan was able to quickly control Peking was due to the fact that someone had reported it to him and Zhang Bing and his two men had acted carelessly, but the Prince of Yan's own role should not be underestimated. Without mentioning his military capabilities and many plans, there is only one point: he had a considerable influence on the soldiers in Peking and nearby areas, and even on some generals!

Sometimes morale is just like this, and soldiers just surrender to the enemy, just because their commander dies and the enemy commander knows something about their soldiers.

Then, does his policy of releasing military power over a cup of wine also have loopholes in the system of the Song Dynasty?
[However, the commander of these 30,000 troops, Song Zhong, did not choose to attack Beiping when Zhu Di had just taken control of Beiping and there might still be loopholes, but retreated to Huailai, completely missing the best opportunity.

At this time, Zhu Di was in Beiping, Song Zhong was in Huailai, Ma Xuan was in Jizhou, and Yu Zhen was in Juyongguan.

Next, we will be unstoppable.

Here, the third traitor appeared.

On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Zhu Di ordered Yao Guangxiao and Guo Zi to assist the crown prince Zhu Gaochi in garrisoning Beiping, and personally led his army to Tongzhou, commanding Fang Sheng to surrender the city. Fang Sheng was originally Zhu Di's subordinate, and the two had fought against Mongolia together many times, and they had always had a good relationship, so he chose to side with Zhu Di at this time.

In this way, the eastern gate of Peking collapsed without being attacked.

On the eighth day of the first lunar month, Zhang Yu led his troops to attack Jizhou. Ma Xuan, the garrison commander of Jizhou, led his troops to fight back, but was defeated and captured. He ordered Mao Sui to surrender Jizhou. After Zhang Yu captured Jizhou, he headed straight for Zunhua at night. He selected elite troops, climbed the city wall at four o'clock in the morning, opened the gate and entered. The soldiers in the city then realized that Jiang Yu, the commander of Zunhua Guard, and Zheng Heng, the commander of Miyun Guard, surrendered.

Next, Zhu Di pointed his sword at Huailai, and before Huailai, there was a Juyongguan Pass.

On the eleventh day of the first lunar month, Zhu Di sent commanders Xu An, Zhong Xiang and others to lead troops to raid Juyong Pass. Yu Zhen defended and fought at the same time, and without waiting for reinforcements, he retreated to Huailai and joined forces with Song Zhong.

To the north, only Song Zhong's Huai Lai is left. 】

Ming Dynasty, during the Hongwu period.

Zhu Di looked at the sky and heard Zhang Yu's name many times. He couldn't help but sigh. Zhang Yu is really a famous general! Where is such a talent now? Can he be accepted by his own men as soon as possible?
At this moment, he felt several burning gazes staring at him. Hmm? He looked up in confusion and saw that his old man, his brothers present, and the civil and military officials who were watching the miracle in the hall were all looking at him.

He looked at his fifth brother Zhu Su, but Zhu Su turned his head away, thinking: Fourth brother, how did you get so many traitors? My good nephew thought he had arranged everything perfectly, but it turned out that almost half of them were your traitors!
[Faced with Huailai's 30,000 troops, Zhu Di brought only 8,000 elite cavalrymen, marched day and night, and caught Huailai off guard.

At this time, Huailai's morale was still very high. Because the commander Song Zhong made up a false news: Your family members, old and young, were killed by the King of Yan! So we have to take revenge together!
However, Zhu Di had learned of Song Zhong's lie from somewhere, perhaps from the mouth of some traitor we have never heard of.

What is the best way to deal with fake news? Of course, tell the truth!
Therefore, Zhu Di specially brought the families of the Huaihua defenders and asked them to wave flags and walk in front - Look! Your family members are here! They are alive and well!
The Huailai defenders thought, great, Governor Song has deceived us! In addition, most of these 30,000 people were originally Zhu Di's subordinates, so the Huailai defenders quickly surrendered, and Zhu Di won a great victory.

Those who refused to surrender, such as Song Zhong and Yu Zhen, were all beheaded. Zhu Di seized more than 8,000 horses to replenish his cavalry strength.

On the 18th, Yongping Prefecture opened its gates and surrendered, submitting to the Prince of Yan. 】

A certain time and space of Emperor Jianwen.

Zhu Yunwen looked at the miracle, and by now he was beginning to waver: Was his approach really correct? His layout was clearly very thorough? Also, was there something wrong with his way of managing people? Otherwise, why would there be so many traitors on his side? All of them traitors???

Tianmu didn't know what he was thinking, otherwise he would definitely say: This is just the beginning, traitors are like cockroaches, you only find one, but there are actually many! The fun is yet to come!

[Soon, the fourth traitor appeared.

Faced with the growth of Zhu Di's power, Daning's army could no longer sit still.

On the 22nd, Bu Wan, the commander of Daning, led an army of 100,000 (so-called) troops from Songting Pass to attack Zunhua with his subordinates Chen Heng and Liu Zhen. Bu Wan was brave and resourceful, but he didn't know that his good subordinate Chen Heng had already secretly become a member of the King of Yan and wanted to lead the Daning army into a ditch.

In order to deal with Bu Wan, Zhu Di used a strategy of sowing discord. Chen Heng took the opportunity to put Bu Wan in prison and reported the matter to Zhu Yunwen. Zhu Yunwen was unaware of the truth and issued an edict to raid Bu Wan's house.

Later, Chen Heng and some other traitors suddenly launched an attack on Liu Zhen's camp. Liu Zhen was caught off guard, his entire army was annihilated, and he fled back to Daning alone. The entire Songting Pass fell into Zhu Di's hands easily.

At this point, Zhu Di launched his army on the sixth day of July. Within twenty days, he not only occupied the entire city of Beiping, but also successively captured military towns such as Tongzhou, Jizhou, Miyun, Zunhua and Huailai, and built barriers on the east, north and west sides.

Tang Dynasty, the third year of Zhenguan.

"We seized the opportunity very well. We can say that we have a foothold now." Changsun Wuji commented, "But next, the court should react. From what Tianmu said at first, the power gap between the King of Yan and the court is quite large."

Everyone agreed with him. Cheng Yaojin smiled, "Didn't they say that the King of Yan finally succeeded? I want to see how he fights next. It can't be that the opponents are all traitors!"

Li Shimin was helpless. "Although there are probably many traitors, there should be some truly capable people in the court."

[Did Emperor Jianwen respond? Yes.

He sent Geng Bingwen, a veteran general of the founding of the country, to lead an army to the Northern Expedition.

However, at this time, he was fully focused on civil administration, leaving all military matters to Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng for decision.

Ming Dynasty, the 13th year of Hongwu.

"Bang——" Zhu Yuanzhang stood up, jumped, and kicked the chair to the ground. He pointed at the miracle and started to curse, "What's wrong with you? Do you think these two idiots are so good? Leave everything to them? At this time, you are still focusing on civil governance? Can't you take care of both?" How could the old Zhu of that time and space choose such an heir! He didn't say the last sentence, but the anger in his heart had already surged.

The early years of the Han Dynasty.

Liu Bang was also surprised at this time. Zhu Yunwen was indeed a little confused! It's not that he can't manage civil affairs, but how can you completely ignore the military? Although it seems that the Prince of Yan is indeed weak at this time, you can't just let it go.

"I can only say that the defeat was not unfair!" He shook his head and his expression returned to his usual nonchalant state.

On August 12, Geng Bingwen led his troops to Zhending. He sent Xu Kai to Hejian, Pan Zhong to Luzhou, and Yang Song to Xiongxian with 9,000 elite soldiers.

After Zhu Di learned the news, he personally led his troops to Lousang. It was the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th. Zhu Di rested during the day and led his troops to attack Xiong County at night, occupying the place before Pan Zhong's reinforcements arrived.

At this time, Zhu Di made a judgment: that is, Pan Zhong did not know that Xiong County had been lost, and he would definitely send people to rescue!

So if we don't ambush now, when will we?
So Zhu Di asked his bodyguard Tan Yuan to lead more than a thousand people to ambush in the water under Yueyang Bridge. Each person held a bunch of茭草, which could be used for both concealment and breathing.

When Pan Zhong's reinforcements crossed the bridge, the ambushers suddenly jumped out of the water and occupied the bridge, while Zhu Di's troops were on the other side. Pan Zhong and Yang Song were captured alive by the two-sided attack.

The commander has been captured, so of course we must take advantage of this opportunity to occupy the city!

On the 17th, Zhu Di occupied Luzhou.

(End of this chapter)