Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 1061 The Heavenly Soldiers Are Coming
The purpose of dispersing the Deng family's wealth was not to win over the people. As long as these slaves took the gold and silver and rebelled against their master, they would naturally follow Le Loi in rebellion.

Those slaves who did not get the gold and silver would also want to join Le Loi's team because they were jealous of others who got the gold and silver.

Le Loi's most urgent task now was to occupy Thanh Hoa as the foundation for his rebellion. Thanh Hoa was ruled by the Deng family, and as long as the Deng family was exterminated, others would not dare to act rashly.

Li Li nodded solemnly, called for his men to follow him to kill people. Cao Yuan's actions really overturned his long-held cognition.

Although he was very indignant about the actions of the nobles, influenced by deep-rooted ideas, Le Loi actually still believed in his heart that the nobles were powerful, they should be looked up to, and they were absolutely difficult for ordinary people like him to defeat.

That's why he showed hesitation when facing Zhu Su's questioning earlier.

But now, right in front of him, Cao Yuan entered through the gate of the Deng family, and with his fists and swords, he turned the Deng family, a noble family that he used to look up to, upside down. Now, he was going to kill the entire Deng family... In his eyes, a powerful and wealthy family that had been oppressing them for generations, a noble family that was so powerful and domineering, was actually so fragile.

Le Loi was shocked, but also excited as if he had opened the door to a new world.

"Brothers, keep an eye on these people."

Cao Yuan, with dozens of Zhou Wang's personal guards drawn from Zhu Su, acted as a "check valve" in Deng's mansion. Deng's servants and the hundreds of Annan people recruited by Le Loi could take money and kill Deng's family members. But they could not rape or plunder, and they could not expand the scope of the plunder to other people.

What the Ming Dynasty needed was an Annan without the aristocracy but relatively intact, rather than a piece of white land ravaged by locusts.

It can provoke civil unrest, but it cannot lead to civil chaos.

This was also the order given to him by His Highness.

After killing several Deng family servants who were so eager to commit crimes that they even took off their pants to rape the women of the Deng family, Cao Yuan successfully limited the disorder of these people to a level that Cao Yuan could tolerate. At this time, Cao Yuan saw Li Li came out with a bloody body, carrying the head of a gray-haired old man, and his eyes were completely different from when he entered the Deng Mansion.

"Well, it finally looks somewhat like what it is." Cao Yuan nodded, looked at Li Li with approval, then glanced at the old man's head and asked, "Who is this?"

"A steward of the Deng family. He once humiliated my father and showed off his power in my house." Li Li said. He threw the head away with a hint of self-mockery in his tone: "It's ridiculous. My Li family is not even worthy of being humiliated by the Deng family."

"Only worthy of one of their stewards..."

"Although these people are full of bad intentions, they have always sent their minions to do things." Cao Yuan patted Li Li's shoulder. "Deng is already ruined. Now, you go to reorganize the team and occupy the government office of Thanh Hoa Prefecture."

"Only if you occupy the government office, you will be the real leader of Thanh Hoa Prefecture... After that, you can recruit commoners, poor families and slaves who are persecuted by the nobles to serve you, and you will be able to raise an army that hates the nobles."

"Then, as you expand, your army will grow larger and larger. Don't worry, His Highness will support you from behind, and you will definitely accomplish great things."

Li Li nodded, and a hint of excitement appeared on his blood-stained face.

……

"Your Highness, General Cao and Le Loi have successfully started an uprising in Thanh Hoa. General Cao pretended to enter the city and defeated the Tang clan of Thanh Hoa in one fell swoop. Then Le Loi recruited more than 3,000 people in Thanh Hoa and raised the flag to fight against the Hu."

In Wuqu City, Zhu Su was painting in the backyard of the government office when he heard Gou'er coming up to report.

"Thanh Hoa is far from the battlefield between the Hu and Nguyen. Cao Yuan and Le Loi are acting with intent, so it will not be difficult to capture Thanh Hoa." Zhu Su put down the brush in his hand, and found something to cover the messy painting, with an unfathomable smile on his face. "This was something I had expected."

"Your Highness has a plan that takes everything into consideration. I admire you." said Gou'er.

"By the way, what is the current situation of the war between Hu and Ruan?" Zhu Su asked.

"I was just about to report to His Highness. Hu Jinyi and Nguyen Duofang had a fierce battle in Taiyuan Town on the tenth of this month. Hu Jinyi used a yellow silk umbrella to lure Nguyen Duofang's troops to launch a surprise attack, but in fact Hu Jinyi had already hidden in another army."

"By the time the main force of Nguyen Duo realized that this was Hu Jin's trick to lure the enemy, they were already surrounded and lost more than half of their troops before they managed to escape. Hu Jin's men then sent people to cut off Nguyen Duo's food supply."

"Ruan Duofang had no choice but to withdraw from Taiyuan Town. Hu Jinyi took advantage of the victory to pursue and killed countless soldiers and generals under Ruan Duofang. Even the descendant of the Chen family that Ruan Duofang supported died in this battle."

"Ruan Duofang managed to escape with the remnants of his defeated army."

"...This Ruan Duofang is really useless." Zhu Su frowned and said dissatisfiedly.

"The Ming Dynasty fed him for so long, and he had the support of so many nobles, but he still ended up like this."

"He is in such a state, yet he still wants to compete with Hu Jinyi... He is really a hopeless case." Zhu Su rubbed his brows.

"Yes. That Ruan guy got the support of a few nobles and thought he had the confidence, so he started to ignore the Ming Dynasty. He is not a good person either."

"I don't know what to do next? Young Master Li is waiting for your instructions, Your Highness." said the dog.

Zhu Su stood up and paced back and forth. To be fair, supporting Ruan Duofang against Hu Jinyi was his own consideration. In the original history, Ruan Duofang was played around by Hu Jinyi.

This is indeed the case. After gaining the support of some Annan nobles, Nguyen Duo Fang cut off the Ming Dynasty's secret funding in order not to be controlled by the Ming Dynasty.

Without the secret help of the Ming Dynasty, this guy really showed his true colors easily. After just one fight, he was pinned to the ground and beaten to a pulp by Hu Jinyi, which perfectly illustrates what it means that mud cannot be plastered on the wall.

Although Hu Jilin was a traitor, Ruan Duofang was indeed much inferior to Hu Jilin in terms of character and ability.

He was defeated cleanly, but Zhu Su was the one who had a headache. The two sworn brothers could no longer maintain their friendship. If they just sat back and watched, there was no guarantee that Hu Jinyi would go back to suppress Le Loi's uprising army after destroying Nguyen Duo Fang.

The Ming Dynasty also hoped that Le Loi's rebel army would become a prairie fire and burn all the reactionaries in Annan to ashes.

"…Write a letter to Duke Cao and Duke Liang." Zhu Su said. "Tell them to send troops from Lianzhou in the name of eliminating the Chen family's rebellion and contain the Hu family from the northeast."

"Our Ming Dynasty has stayed out of this war for a long time. It's time to take action." Zhu Su said after thinking for a long time.

(End of this chapter)