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

Chapter 967 Lost in the east, gained in the mulberry tree

"Win over Tuotuo?" Upon hearing Zhu Xiongying's suggestion, Fang Jie and the other man's eyes lit up.

Zhu Xiongying led a total of 3,000 troops on this tour. Even though the response was somewhat hasty due to the sudden attack, it was not a matter of life and death.

After all, the Daning Dusi led by Chang Mao, and even the entire Ming Dynasty, are all backing Zhu Xiongying. If they learned that Zhu Xiongying was in danger, the Ming army would definitely come to rescue him. In fact, according to their predictions, Chang Mao's army should have already set out.

There is not much time left for Azharshili.

However, the Ming army was suddenly attacked by a large number of grassland rebels, which caused the morale of the Ming army to be low. If Zhu Xiongying had not killed one man with his pistol and boosted the morale, the Ming army would probably have lost in the first encounter.

Now they were surrounded, and Azashili, like a mad dog, surrounded the small earthen hill tightly. The attack on the Ming army continued day and night, with the whole army pressing forward during the day and harassing them at night.

The entire Ming army was on high alert, with no chance to breathe.

In addition, Azashiri deliberately spread the news that the Tatars had colluded with him, which made the morale of the Ming army even lower: some soldiers were already secretly worried that Chang Mao would be unable to take care of himself and unable to send reinforcements to support their isolated army.

The Ming army urgently needed to restore its low morale.

Winning over Tuotuo would undoubtedly boost the morale of the Ming army. Their demands were not high, as long as they could use Tuotuo to achieve a small victory, that would be enough.

After all, Azashiri gave up his son Tuotuo for the sake of justice. So according to the law of fatherly love and filial piety, it is not impossible to persuade Tuotuo, the good eldest son, to surrender to the Ming Dynasty.

So, Zhu Xiongying, Fang Xiaoru and Jie Jin went to find Tuotuo who was being held in the stable and explained to him their purpose.

"Your Highness... want me to deal with my father?" Tuotuo was covered in filth and had a depressed look on his face. After listening to what Zhu Xiongying and others said, his expression became even uglier.

"My father betrayed the Ming Dynasty and watched me live and die, so I am naturally willing to help the Ming Dynasty." Tuotuo said. Azashili was not a good father. He usually treated him like a beast of burden. Now that their lives were tied together, Tuotuo showed the profound meaning of fatherly love and filial piety to the fullest.

"It's just... I won't hide it from Your Highness. You want me to secretly persuade the leader of my father's men, but I'm afraid it will be difficult for me to do it."

"My father...is very strict with me and never allows me to have any contact with the leaders under him. I don't have any friendship with those leaders."

"Even if I were to persuade them to surrender, I'm afraid they wouldn't listen."

Tuotuo said this in a rather frustrated tone, as if he was regretting that he could not make any contribution to the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Xiongying was quite surprised. Tuotuo was Azhashili's biological son and the future successor of Taining Guard. In Zhu Xiongying's opinion, Tuotuo should have been trained by Azhashili in many ways and had a lot of power in Taining Guard.

After all, as the heir to the Ming Empire, his father Zhu Biao was specially trained by his grandfather, and the power he held was almost equivalent to that of half an emperor.

But the fact is, looking back over the five thousand years of Chinese history, it is rare to find a father and son who get along as well as his father and grandfather did. Not to mention that Azashili and Tuotuo were Mongolians.

In the Mongolian grassland cultural circle of this era, loving fathers and filial sons have almost become a tradition. It is common for sons to want to take power as soon as possible, unable to stand their father's long wait, or simply to fall in love with a stepmother and find ways to become the father and take the father's wives and concubines.

Even though this barbaric tradition of loving fathers and filial sons improved somewhat after coming into contact with the Central Plains culture, it was still difficult to eradicate. For the rulers of the grasslands, the heirs were challengers that needed to be guarded against, especially for grassland lords like Azashili who were arrogant, incompetent, and timid.

He kept Tuotuo by his side like a thief, only letting him do various trivial tasks, and resolutely preventing him from having any contact with his subordinates.

In order to consolidate their status and power.

This is something that Zhu Xiongying, who grew up in a family where the father is truly loving and the children are truly filial, could never imagine.

Zhu Xiongying, who was unwilling to give up, questioned him more carefully and finally came to the conclusion that Tuotuo was not lying and he really had no influence within the tribe... This made him feel frustrated and lost. This tour in the north made him realize that many things were not as easy as he imagined.

From time to time, the sound of the camp being attacked could still be heard from the front... The morale of the soldiers, who were unable to rest and surrounded, had reached its lowest point. When the sun rose tomorrow, the Tainingwei rebels would surely charge again... At that time, it was unknown whether they could resist.

Could it be that tomorrow, I will suffer a crushing defeat and be captured by Azhashili and taken to the grassland?

Zhu Xiongying bit his lip and even began to think about preferring death to humiliation.

"That... Your Highness the Crown Prince..." He was making up his mind, deciding that if the situation got bad, he would commit suicide rather than be captured and used as a bargaining chip for Azashili to challenge the Emperor. Unexpectedly, at this moment, a worried voice reached his ears.

"Huh?" Zhu Xiongying looked up and found that the person calling him was Guilichi.

Guilichi and a group of captive opera singers also followed the army this time. After all, their original purpose was to try to win over the Taining Guards in the name of paying them.

As a great "weapon" to win people's hearts, this Huaxiaist drama troupe that sang praises to "the good of Chinese society" and "the great Ming court" was naturally the top priority, so Gui Lichi and his entourage also went with Zhu Xiongying. However, after Azashili rebelled, the importance of this "drama troupe" was greatly reduced.

Facing Azashili's attack, the soldiers were trapped in the earthen hills and were short of manpower. Guilichi and his group were assigned to do some odd jobs of taking care of the war horses, which happened to be in this temporary stable. Just now, he overheard the conversation between Zhu Xiongying and Tuotuo.

He felt that Tuotuo could not instigate internal strife among the Tainingwei rebels... but perhaps he could.

"You?" Zhu Xiongying looked Guilichi up and down. Because he was here for the performance, Guilichi was only wearing a set of coarse cloth clothes, which looked dirty and nothing special.

When forcing them to act as actors, Zhu Xiongying investigated their origins. He knew that Gui Lichi was quite hardworking on the stage, and he was also quite knowledgeable in writing and eloquent, but he was a tribal leader in the central grassland, and had no connection with the Taining tribe or the original Shanyang Wanhu.

Perhaps guessing Zhu Xiongying's doubts, Gui Lichi raised his head and said sincerely: "Your Highness may have forgotten that I have no intersection with the Tainingwei rebels."

"But... my ancestor is Genghis Khan's third son, Ogedei Khan."

"The blood of the Golden Family flows in my body!"

(End of this chapter)