The Ming Dynasty: The most ruthless imperial grandson, Old Zhu begged me not to kill him.

Chapter 253 Establishing Xinghan Prefecture

Before long, one of them finally couldn't hold on any longer and shouted loudly.

"I surrender, I surrender!"

He then threw his weapon on the ground and fled towards the Ming army.

Nai'er Buhua's expression changed drastically, and she immediately picked up her bow and arrow and shot the man dead.

Once such a person exists, a second, a third, or even more will appear.

More and more steppe soldiers threw down their weapons and ran towards the direction where the Ming soldiers were.

Watching so many soldiers leave.

Nai'er Buhua suddenly felt abandoned by everyone.

To think that he, the Grand Commandant of the Great Yuan Dynasty, a figure second only to the emperor, had fallen to such a state.

His eyes were filled with sorrow at this moment.

"I have dedicated my whole life to serving my country, but I never imagined that this would be my end!"

At this moment, he gripped the long knife tightly, preparing to plunge it into his own chest.

The commander of ten thousand men standing nearby hurriedly spoke up.

"Grand Commandant, you are the last hope of our Great Yuan. You must not be harmed. These people are traitors of the grasslands. They will be punished in the future. But we still have many loyal men. I believe they will protect you and help you leave this place!"

Immediately afterwards, a group of soldiers stepped forward and stood guard beside Nai'er Buhua.

These are all elites selected from the tribe where Nai'erbuhua lives.

In particular, these guards were all trained by Nai'er Buhua from a young age, so they were extremely loyal to him.

Looking at these people, Erbuhua felt a strong desire to survive.

These people are right. We haven't lost yet, and we can keep fighting.

Thinking of this, he immediately led the remaining troops in his hands to attack in another direction.

At this moment, an extremely bizarre scene unfolded on the battlefield: a group of soldiers...

They put down their weapons and walked to one side, while on the other side of the grassland, soldiers continued to fight fiercely, their weapons still tightly gripped.

The battle raged from day to night, finally ending as dawn broke and the next day was about to begin.

Nai'er Buhua, with a portion of her men, escaped the encirclement of the Ming army and fled into the depths of the grasslands.

Although he escaped, his most loyal army suffered heavy losses, with very few remaining.

Zhu Xiong Ying and Xu Da looked at the battlefield, which was filled with smoke and fire, and was littered with corpses.

Xu Da sighed.

"After fighting for so many years, we've finally arrived at this final battle, but this battle is truly brutal!"

Although the Ming army ultimately won the war, it also suffered considerable losses, though far fewer than those suffered on the Mongolian steppe.

Zhu Xiong Ying looked at the vast and boundless grassland.

"After this battle, it will be difficult for large-scale battles to occur again on the entire grassland, which is a good thing for us!"

"For this result, it would be worth it even if we had to play another match!"

"What we need to do now is to appease the prisoners and bring all the northern herders together for management!"

“In the past, our Ming army would simply abandon the places we conquered in the north. This must be changed. Conquering a place is not the most important thing; what matters is conquering it!” With Zhu Xiong Ying’s support, sweeping reforms began throughout the north.

In addition to the nine key border towns, three prefectures were established, which Zhu Xiong Ying named Anxi Prefecture, Zhenbei Prefecture, and Xinghan Prefecture respectively. He then set up counties under them and began to govern the northern grasslands in the manner of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the northern grasslands are sparsely populated, the people are fierce and brave. If we want to completely Sinicize them, we must proceed step by step. In addition to important military suppression, we also need to change the local customs and traditions, and establish a series of reward and punishment policies based on this.

Previously, the tribal leaders and nobles had severely exploited the lower-level herders.

Zhu Xiong Ying introduced the ideological education methods of later generations and gradually transformed these herdsmen.

Soon, Lan Yu's army arrived at this place and joined them. Song Guogong Feng Sheng and Hua Yunlong are now stationed in the Liaodong region. There are still many tribes in the Liaodong region, and the territory they have conquered needs to be consolidated slowly.

As for the place where Lan Yu was, Fishing Lake, there was nothing special about it except for the cold, so he had no choice but to retreat.

Soon news came from the imperial court that, in addition to sending officials to govern the newly established three prefectures, a large number of troops remained stationed there.

However, this place is not yet self-sufficient and still needs to import grain from the interior.

The imperial court decided that Cao Guogong Li Wenzhong and Changxing Hou Geng Bingwen would defend this place.

The others led the prisoners back to the capital.

Zhu Xiong Ying originally did not plan to go back so soon.

With Zhu Yuanzhang and Crown Prince Zhu Biao in charge in Yingtian Prefecture, nothing bad is likely to happen, but the situation is different in the border areas.

He originally planned to govern Xinghan Prefecture well before returning home.

But now it seems we have no choice but to go back.

When the officials in the imperial court learned that Zhu Xiong Ying was coming back, they all felt a chill in their hearts.

During the period when Zhu Xiong Ying was not in court, they had the most comfortable days.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't interfere much in court affairs; most decisions were made by his crown prince, Zhu Biao.

Crown Prince Zhu Biao was relatively lenient towards them, far better than the grandson of the Crown Prince Zhu Xiong Ying.

At this moment, several civil officials gathered together, their faces showing worry.

"Have you heard? Zhu Xiong Ying is back. I'm afraid the entire Yingtian Prefecture won't be very peaceful from now on!"

"I heard he caused quite a stir in the north, creating all sorts of problems for the area. Now that he's back, I wonder what kind of trouble he'll cause us!"

Starting from Fengyang Prefecture, Zhu Xiong Ying began to implement the land tax reform. At the beginning, it did encounter great resistance, but with the Ming army there, even if they wanted to resist, they did not dare to cause too much trouble.

Many sons of noble families moved their homes out of Fengyang Prefecture.

Fengyang Prefecture and its surrounding areas are now off-limits.

Since Zhu Xiong Ying was not in the area, they joined forces to criticize the land tax reform.

Unfortunately, it didn't achieve much, as Crown Prince Zhu Biao ignored them.

Now that Zhu Xiong Ying is back, things will be even more complicated.

Not long after, Zhu Yuanzhang and a group of civil and military officials of the court gathered at Xuanwu Gate in the north of Yingtian Prefecture.

The army that marched north will soon return to the capital, and they are already prepared to welcome them here.

In the distance, a giant black dragon could be seen slowly moving towards them.

The leader was none other than Xu Da, the Duke of Wei, while those standing beside him were Lan Yu, the Duke of Liang, Zhu Xiong Ying, the Prince of Yan, the Prince of Jin, and the Prince of Qin.

(End of this chapter)