Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 111 The biggest cheat! How to control it!
fake?

Are they all fake?

Zhu Yunhuan's expression suddenly became extremely ugly.

"That's impossible!" Yang Shiqi immediately retorted: "These memorials come from different generals and officials at the border, but the contents of their reports are mostly similar."

"If it is said that one or two generals or officials lied about military intelligence, it would still make sense."

"But it is impossible for so many officials to lie collectively."

Zhu Yunhuan did not say anything, but just stared at Monk Daoyan.

Yao Guangxiao smiled and said, "Although Brother Yang is smart, he has never experienced war, nor has he stayed in the frontier, so he naturally doesn't know the tricks involved."

"I used to live in Beiping Prefecture with the King of Yan for a long time. I am located on the northern defense line and I know a lot about military affairs."

Yang Shiqi was slightly stunned when he heard the name, this is indeed true.

He is a complete layman when it comes to military matters.

He stopped talking and listened to Yao Guangxiao continue.

"Brother Yang is right about one thing. There is no way these generals and officials would collectively falsify information and report lies to the court."

Yao Guangxiao smiled slightly and said, "But what if the news they received was all false?"

Zhu Yunhuan couldn't help but ask: "What do you mean?"

Yao Guangxiao picked up all the memorials reporting military intelligence and said, "I have just read all these reports."

"All the reports were from spies lurking in the Northern Yuan Dynasty, but there was no warning from any of the border crossings."

"It's not easy for a spy to stay hidden, and the information he gathers back is always hard to tell whether it's true or false."

Yang Shiqi said, "It's not possible that so many spies would send back false information, right?"

Yao Guangxiao smiled and said, "Normally speaking, of course it's impossible."

“But if you look more closely, you’ll see the problem.”

"The direction of the Northern Yuan's attack is concentrated in the Hetao area, which is exactly the defense area of the King of Jin."

Zhu Yunxun's heart tightened, and he quickly asked, "What's the secret?"

Yao Guangxiao stroked his beard and said, "It takes a lot of money to plant spies inside the enemy."

"If not, why would they betray Bei Yuan and tip you off?"

"But the salaries of local officials and border commanders are not high, and their autonomy is limited."

"There is no way to report or investigate the funds used to plant spies."

"Therefore, this matter has always been the responsibility of the vassal kings guarding the border."

When Zhu Yunhuan heard this, his eyes suddenly widened.

Yup!

If you use money to bribe the other party, who will pay for it?
How to report to the court?

How can the imperial court verify the authenticity?
It’s impossible for an official at the border to say, “I spent 10,000 taels of silver to bribe someone from the Northern Yuan Dynasty,” and then the court would allocate 10,000 taels of silver to him, right?
Who knows whether he really paid off the spies or embezzled the money and put it into his own pocket?

After all, it is impossible for the imperial court to go to someone in the Northern Yuan Dynasty to reconcile the accounts and verify the authenticity!
Even if it's a beauty trap, doesn't the beauty need to be paid?

Therefore, this work can only be done by the princes.

The princes had a lot of silver and were also responsible for guarding the borders.

If one really wants to find a pretext to get money from the court, this is not a big deal.

"You mean, all this intelligence is actually information sent back by Prince Jin's people?" Yang Shiqi asked immediately.

Yao Guangxiao nodded and said, "Not bad."

Yang Shiqi frowned slightly and said, "Prince Jin lied about military intelligence like this, aren't you afraid that His Majesty will be angry and issue an order to hold him accountable?"

"What are you afraid of?" Yao Guangxiao smiled and said, "Prince Jin did not report any false military information. The news we received was not that the Northern Yuan army had already moved south, but that the spies had found out that they were preparing to move south in large numbers..."

“It’s just preparation.”

"Things change, or spies fail to get their information right. These are common occurrences. If the court holds them accountable for this, no one will dare to be a spy for the Ming Dynasty."

"When the King of Jin heard the news, he immediately took action and made preparations to fight the enemy, which was only natural."

"From the beginning to the end, what was the fault of the King of Jin?"

Lurking in the enemy country to gather information is a very dangerous thing.

The same is true for informants passing on information.

As long as false information is not deliberately transmitted and there are occasional inaccuracies, there will generally be no severe accountability.

The Northern Yuan Dynasty royal court was preparing to march south in a large force. This was the information obtained by spies.

But if the time comes and the Northern Yuan royal court suddenly cancels its plan to go south, it will not be the spies' responsibility.

Yao Guangxiao counted on his fingers slowly and said, "According to the time, it should be when His Highness first started to spread the word about setting up the Daming Military Academy, and when Prince Yan publicly published the news of his apprenticeship in the Daming Daily, Prince Jin quietly sent the order over."

"Let the people over there instruct the spies to pass on false information that the Northern Yuan Dynasty is planning a massive invasion."

"The purpose is to launch a sudden counterattack when the Daming Military Academy opens."

"Prince Jin has led the army for many years and does not want all the military power to be in the hands of Your Highness."

“So we made arrangements early.”

"In this way, not only will he not have to become a disciple, but he can also use this move to greatly damage your highness's prestige and disrupt your highness's plan to take over the world's military power."

As soon as he finished speaking, someone from outside brought in another memorial.

"Your Highness Prince Qin has reported that I have recently heard that the Northern Yuan Dynasty is about to invade the border of the Ming Dynasty. The military situation is urgent and I am extremely anxious. Therefore, I will lead a small group of cavalrymen to rush back to Xi'an overnight."

"Please rest assured, Your Highness King Wu, King Qin will swear to protect the peace of the northern border of the Ming Dynasty."

The Hetao area was basically the defense zone of the King of Jin, but it was also adjacent to the defense zone of the King of Qin.

If the Northern Yuan Dynasty attacked there, it is hard to say that it would not turn its troops around and head directly for the area where the King of Qin was.

Zhu Yunhuan took the memorial, glanced at Yao Guangxiao and Yang Shiqi, and said, "Well, my two uncles couldn't help but leave. What do you think?"

Yang Shiqi looked at Yao Guangxiao again and asked, "Master, how sure are you of what you just said?"

"At least eight points or more." Yao Guangxiao said with certainty.

No one dares to say whether the military intelligence is 100% accurate or not. Yao Guangxiao said it is at least 80%, which is already very high.

"That is to say, there is still a one or two percent chance that the information is true." Yang Shiqi looked serious.

This may be the problem.

From another perspective, even if only one or two points of the news about the Northern Yuan Dynasty's massive invasion of the south were true, the Ming Dynasty had to take it seriously.

This is no small matter, and the best way to deal with it is to be prepared.

As he was speaking, Prince of Yan Zhu Di walked in from outside.

"I heard that the Northern Yuan Dynasty was about to launch a massive invasion to the south," Zhu Di said, "but I haven't received any news from Beiping Prefecture where I am."

"Although the Northern Yuan Dynasty is rumored to be heading south to attack the Hetao region, there are also many spies lurking in the Northern Yuan Dynasty in our Beiping Prefecture."

"If it was top-secret military intelligence, it would be fine, but the fact that the spies planted by the Prince of Jin were able to get the news shows that this matter is already widely known in the Northern Yuan Dynasty."

"My spies in Prince Yan's Palace should not have been unaware of it."

"I think it is very likely that my second and third brothers are deliberately doing something wrong, using the excuse of the Northern Yuan invasion to disrupt the opening ceremony of the Ming Military Academy."

Zhu Yunhuan pondered for a moment and asked, "Then according to your opinion, what should I do?"

"Immediately send people to chase the two kings of Qin and Jin back, and do not let them leave Jinling. At the same time, reprimand them severely."

Zhu Di's eyes flickered as he said, "This is a great opportunity for Your Highness the Prince of Wu to teach them a lesson."

Yang Shiqi interjected, "Is it possible that the news of the Northern Yuan's massive invasion of the south is true, but only a few people know about it at this time?"

"Most of the spies who are hiding in the dark don't know about this either."

"But King Jin did have one or two important spies under his command who passed on the information."

"After receiving the news, the King of Jin deliberately asked other spies to pass back news that was "true but not true"?"

Zhu Di asked without thinking, "If that's the case, what's the point of them taking off their pants to fart like this?"

As soon as he said this, he was stunned and said, "You mean that Third Brother deliberately created this illusion to make us think he was lying to us."

"After we took action, the results proved that he was right."

"Only then will His Royal Highness the King of Wu's prestige be completely destroyed, and he will be in an extremely passive situation."

Yang Shiqi nodded and said, "That's exactly what I mean."

Zhu Di also fell into deep thought for a moment, and after a while he said, "This is indeed something that Third Brother can do. We cannot rule out this possibility."

So the problem is back to the situation at the beginning.

It’s hard to distinguish between true and false!

Thoughts raced through Zhu Yunxun’s mind.

Normally, this kind of thing is actually easy to handle.

Regardless of whether the news is true or false, it will never be wrong to strengthen border vigilance and prepare for war.

The worst result is that the enemy did not lead the army to attack, and it was a false alarm. This is completely irrelevant.

But the current situation is that the Ming Military Academy is about to open.

And this matter is related to his reputation.

Sudden.

Zhu Yunxi's eyes lit up.

Yes, I seem to have forgotten my identity and origin!

The Northern Yuan Dynasty's large-scale invasion of the south was no small matter and would definitely be recorded in history books.

This year is the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, the year Zhu Biao died.

As far as he could remember, there was no record in history books about the Northern Yuan Dynasty's large-scale invasion to the south that year.

Although his travel through time will cause a certain butterfly effect and change history to a certain extent.

But it shouldn't affect the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

At least not now.

Therefore, the news of the Northern Yuan Dynasty's massive invasion to the south must be false!
As a time traveler, he knows important people and their abilities, the direction of history, the direction and path of future development, and major events that have not been changed by him.

It was based on this evidence that Zhu Yunhuan jumped out to block Zhu Yunwen from taking the throne.

It was precisely because of this that he was able to bring both of them under his command when Yang Shiqi had not yet emerged and the evil monk Yao Guangxiao was not well-known.

Time travel itself is his biggest cheat!

When he thought of this, a smile appeared on the corner of Zhu Yunhuan's mouth.

"Don't think about it, this news is fake." He said firmly.

"Why do you think so?" Yang Shiqi and Zhu Di asked at the same time.

Zhu Yunhuan stood up and said with a smile: "You don't need to ask more about this."

"Anyway, I am absolutely sure that this matter is definitely false."

He turned to Zhu Di and said, "Fourth Uncle, you are not on good terms with the King of Jin, and your relationship with the King of Qin is not very good either. These things are known to the world."

"This time, I would like to trouble you to submit a memorial to report the King of Jin and the King of Qin for leaving the capital without permission."

Zhu Di was slightly startled and said, "Judging from their walking speed, the second and third brothers should not have walked very far."

"Now let's hurry up and intercept them. Maybe we can stop them."

Zhu Yunhuan shook his head and said, "Since the two of them have decided to leave, they must have made preparations long ago."

"Our horses are fast, and their horses can't be slow."

"Even if we chase him now, we may not be able to catch up."

"Even if we catch up with him, we can only reprimand him."

"After all, I am their nephew. What can I do to my two uncles because of this?"

"Besides, they can still use the Northern Yuan invasion as an excuse."

There's no point sending others after him.

You have to chase it yourself.

But even if Zhu Yunhuan went, he might not be able to stop it.

The King of Qin and the King of Jin insisted on going back by force. Could he really kill them both?
"In that case, we might as well let them go."

"Use this as an excuse to investigate the two of them."

"I will report this to the emperor, asking him to consider our blood relatives and their desire to protect the country, so they were deceived."

"Please, Grandpa Emperor, be lenient with them."

The words that Old Zhu taught him that day appeared in Zhu Yunhuan's mind.

As for his uncles, he would let them commit some crimes, then give them a good beating, and then show them mercy and save them, so that they would obey his orders obediently.

This was also the method used by Zhu Biao, the stepfather, to control his younger brothers.

When the younger brothers make mistakes, the older brother protects them and the brothers are friendly and respectful to each other.

From then on, his younger brothers had to obey him.

Prince of Jin Zhu Gang would never have imagined that the method he had painstakingly come up with to crack down on Zhu Yunhuan's military academy would actually trap himself!

This is what it means to be too clever, but in the end you only shoot yourself in the foot!
When Zhu Di heard his words, his eyes widened.

How come I get to be the bad guy and you get to be the good guy?
He immediately understood and said with a smile: "You are so young, yet you have such scheming and methods. No wonder father wants you to take charge of the Ming Dynasty."

"Uncle, I will go back and write a memorial and request to enter the palace to meet my father today."

Having said that, he left in a hurry.

After Zhu Di left, Zhu Yunhuan instructed Yang Shiqi: "Immediately, in my name, issue an order to all the court departments, telling them that the news that the Northern Yuan Dynasty was about to invade the south was false, and that they did not need to panic."

"At the same time, all meritorious officials, nobles, and military commanders in the capital are prohibited from leaving the capital without permission."

Yang Shiqi was still a little hesitant and said, "Your Highness, do you really want to do this? What if your Highness makes a mistake in judgment and the Northern Yuan Dynasty really invades the south..."

Even though the Northern Yuan's invasion of the south did not cause significant losses to the Ming Dynasty, the border guards blocked the Northern Yuan's attack.

However, Zhu Chonghu's behavior of keeping all the generals in Jinling City still caused a lot of criticism.

On the contrary, the King of Qin and the King of Jin, who left the capital immediately upon hearing the news, would receive a lot of praise.

Zhu Yunhuan interrupted him and said, "There is absolutely no way this could be wrong!"

Seeing that he was so sure, Yang Shiqi said no more, bowed, and left immediately.

Yao Guangxiao was the only one left on the field.

The old monk was closing his eyes, looking as if in deep thought.

Zhu Yunxun asked with a smile: "Master Daoyan, is there anything else?"

Yao Guangxiao raised his eyes and said, "The day after tomorrow is the official opening day of the Daming Military Academy, but as far as I know, Duke of Liang Lan Yu has not come to see Your Highness to ask to be his disciple."

When he mentioned this, Zhu Yunhuan's face suddenly darkened.

I don’t know what Lan Yu has been unable to figure out recently, and he hasn’t come to see him yet.

Wang Bi and others are still in prison, which is probably what is bothering Lan Yu.

"Tomorrow is the last day before the opening of the Daming Military Academy, and it is also the last time to publicly advertise in the newspaper."

Yao Guangxiao said, "If you want to become my disciple, today is the deadline. This way you can get it published in the newspaper tomorrow."

"If my prediction is correct, Lan Yu will definitely come to see Your Highness today."

Zhu Yunhuan looked at him and said, "Master, there is no need to beat around the bush. Just speak directly."

"Amitabha!" Yao Guangxiao chanted the Buddha's name and said, "Since His Majesty the King of Wu has hired me, I will take on the heavy responsibility."

"Lan Yu has led troops for many years and made great contributions to the Ming Dynasty."

"He has a high prestige in the army, and he thinks he has made great contributions, so he is unruly and unruly."

"For Your Highness, the blue jade has a different meaning."

Yao Guangxiao said slowly: "If Your Highness is not made the crown prince, then Your Majesty will kill Lan Yu."

"On the other hand, if Lan Yu is killed, Your Highness will definitely not become the crown prince."

"That day in the court, Lan Yu made a passionate speech and took the opportunity to say what your father, the late crown prince, had said when he was still alive."

"In addition, your highness's crying made His Majesty change his mind and no longer want to make Prince Xian the crown prince. Instead, he wants to entrust the Ming Dynasty to your highness."

"In Lan Yu's eyes, I have the merit of supporting him."

"If it weren't for him, Your Highness wouldn't be here today."

"Your Highness should return the favor."

As Zhu Yunhuan listened to him, his expression became uglier.

With Lan Yu's personality and bad temper, it's no wonder that he ended up like that in history.

It's really a way to die.

But I just can't punish him severely.

On the one hand, it is the relationship between the two sides.

On the other hand, just as the old monk said, Lan Yu and he now share the same fate.

Lan Yu felt that he had made a great contribution, but his subordinates such as Wang Bi were thrown into prison.

Zhu Yunhuan was clearly the regent and held great power, but he turned a blind eye to this matter.

He was holding a grudge in his heart, so he never took the initiative to seek Zhu Yunhuan to become his disciple.

"Master, is it possible that there is a way to help me control Lan Yu?" Zhu Yunxun asked with a smile.

"That's right!" The old monk smiled and took out a scroll from his arms.

……

(End of this chapter)