Simulates history, but Chongzhen is the Divine Emperor at the beginning

Chapter 48 God-Slaying Plan
【Liu Yizhao? 】

[This familiar yet unfamiliar name echoes in your stunned ears, making you vaguely recall your childhood...]

If there is no other famous Liu Yizhao in the world, then this person is obviously the former Shaanxi Provincial Governor you are familiar with!

[Back then, he and several successive Shaanxi provincial governors suppressed your provincial examinations for eight consecutive years. By selling your juren papers, they reaped millions of taels of silver from you, a child prodigy!]

[Based on this, if you had to name a few unforgivable enemies, Liu Yizhao would obviously be on the list.]

[Ever since you rose to become Prime Minister, you've never forgotten his great kindness and kindness towards you, and you've been thinking about skinning him alive and stuffing him with straw, only then could you vent your deep hatred!]

[It's just that you've been so busy lately that you haven't had the time to seek revenge on him, so the matter has been put off again and again.]

[But now, his name has appeared in a place you never expected...]

Suddenly, countless questions flooded your mind: Is this man really the former Shaanxi Provincial Governor you know? If so, why is he in Yangzhou? Why did he become the leader of the rebels? Is he the mastermind behind these private soldiers? Who else is around him? What is his relationship with the foreigners?

Countless questions gradually lead you to realize: This rebellion might not be as simple as you imagined. At least, it's not just because of opposition to your new policies. If they were just opposing the new policies, then the foreigners' firearms and the private soldiers clearly trained for rebellion would be impossible to explain.

[The foreigners aren't afraid of death, the officials are rebelling... What's wrong with everyone? Are they all missing each other?! Are they really not afraid that the angry God-Emperor will repeat his past deeds, creating a mushroom cloud with one punch and sending everyone to the sky one by one?!]

You really can’t understand…

"Who cares? Beat him first!"

Confused, you shook your head vigorously, your eyes gleaming with determination once again: "No matter what, we must put down the rebellion first! Once we capture Liu Yizhao alive, we'll naturally understand everything!"

[Jinyiwei! Move out!]

【…】

In February of the seventy-fourth year of the Chongzhen reign, Gao Yiming, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, led 6,000 troops from the imperial army to suppress the rebellion in Yangzhou, but failed. Not only did he fail, but he also suffered heavy casualties, leaving only a little over 1,000 of the 6,000 troops. This devastating loss further compounded the difficulties faced by the Ming court, which was already short of manpower...

[At this critical moment, you can only accept the responsibility of the defeated army and be ordered to act in the midst of danger. As the Prime Minister, you will personally lead 3,000 elite troops south to quell the rebellion!]

[People at the time praised him: Although Prime Minister Zifang did not yet have the achievements of the Three Heroes of the Early Han Dynasty, he already had the traces of Kong Ming of the Late Han Dynasty!]

[In early March, the Prime Minister's army crossed the Yellow River and the Huai River in succession, and reached Yangzhou on the north bank of the Yangtze River!]

[In mid-March, the Prime Minister's army swept through the rebel strongholds along the route, capturing and killing nearly 100,000 rebels, both large and small!]

Upon hearing this, the Yangzhou bandit leader sent several bandit troops to meet him, but the Prime Minister's army showed no fear: "You can come from any number of directions, and I will defeat you in my own direction!"

[The army won victory after victory, capturing and killing over 100,000 rebels. Their momentum was unstoppable... In less than half a month, they had already recaptured dozens of counties along the way!]

At the end of March, the Prime Minister led his troops directly to the city of Yangzhou, and the Yangzhou defenders were all terrified...

[That day, the Prime Minister ordered the army to attack the city! ]

[Seeing the Prime Minister's troops approaching the city, the city walls immediately fired cannons. The sound of Western cannons was deafening. Even the Prime Minister's army did not dare to take the brunt of the cannon fire. They withdrew from the Yangzhou battlefield and waited for follow-up...]

【…】

[Fuck you foreigners! Has the tech tree reached this level?!]

Having failed in your siege, you can only gaze in resentment at the towering city of Yangzhou from afar: this city, once razed to the ground by the Divine Emperor, has long since been rebuilt, its walls even taller and stronger than before.

[What's even more terrible is that the tall city walls are proudly lined with Western-style cannons. As long as the cannonballs keep coming, your Jinyiwei won't be able to break in!]

This isn't because the Jinyiwei lack combat effectiveness. In fact, these three thousand Jinyiwei are absolutely capable of annihilating any cold weapon army. They can even withstand low-powered firearms without injury. Because they are protected by divine power, they are not afraid of firearms at all.

[But not being afraid of firearms doesn't mean you're not afraid of cannons, especially those Western cannons on the city walls that use shrapnel. If they were directly bombed, you'd be seriously injured or disabled at best, or killed on the spot at worst!] [The thing you feared most has finally happened: the Ming Dynasty, which is neither a high-level transcendental nation nor a technological powerhouse, is stuck at this juncture, feeling like it's about to die...]

"Speaking of extraordinary power, even the most powerful Jinyiwei in the world couldn't withstand direct fire from Western artillery. Speaking of technology, the Ming army, which had been stagnant for sixty years, had not only failed to advance but actually regressed. They couldn't even operate a flintlock rifle, so how could they expect to face Western guns and artillery?"

[This world is ultimately a normal historical plane. The only truly extraordinary being is the Divine Emperor. If the Divine Emperor is detained, the true nature of the Ming Dynasty will be revealed.]

This is a backward, feudal, agricultural country, with corrupt and dark politics, a largely peasant economy, an army inferior to that of serfs, long-standing technological stagnation, and absolute repression of thought... There are also frequent natural disasters, prying foreigners, and more...

[The Ming Dynasty today is nothing more than a zombie propped up by the Divine Emperor. It's nothing in other respects!]

[So it urgently needs a real transformation, but reality will not give it that much time, because...]

“The seventeenth year of Chongzhen was 1644 AD… Now it is the seventy-fourth year of Chongzhen, which is 1701 AD…”

After calculating the time, you can't help but look bitter: No wonder... According to the original historical line, Kangxi, who led the Qing Dynasty, would be almost dead by now, let alone the West... If the Ming Dynasty went to war with them, it might be a bit exaggerated to say that it was Earthlings fighting Trisolarans, but it would definitely not be much better than leading the Qing Dynasty into the Opium War!

[…According to conventional tactics, it’s practically impossible for me to capture Yangzhou with my current strength…]

"This isn't self-deprecation, because the truth is this: if Yangzhou were just a bunch of ordinary soldiers trained by foreigners and armed with foreign firearms, then even if you couldn't defeat them during the day, you could still capture the city at night, relying on your elite Jinyi troops, whose physical fitness is ten times better than that of ordinary people!"

[But now, the rebels in the city are most likely high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty. Although they cannot defeat the Jinyiwei on a large scale, with them operating firearms and assisting in the city defense, their combat effectiveness will be sky-high!]

[At least you really don't have the ability to seize Yangzhou City from them.]

[Then, doesn't that mean we can only drag it out? Until they run out of ammunition and food?]

You begin to struggle internally, because you're at a crucial moment in the new political reforms. You simply don't have the time to waste time with these traitors. They can afford to waste time, but you can't...

[“How about… returning to the capital to ask the Divine Emperor for help?”]

[With nothing else to go on, you can only place your hopes on the Divine Emperor... Although reason tells you that if the Divine Emperor takes action, innocent people will inevitably suffer, you really have no other choice now...]

[However, just as you were struggling with this, an unexpected visitor interrupted your thoughts.]

【…】

[The man appeared to be in his seventies or eighties, already quite old, but even so, you recognized him immediately!]

"Liu Yizhao?!"

[You opened your eyes wide, and then without a word, you let the Jinyiwei tie him up! ]

"You're not some idiot. If you don't seek revenge against your enemy, you're out of your mind! He's the rebel leader, and if we capture him alive, there's a chance Yangzhou will surrender!"

Liu Yizhao didn't resist at all. He just smiled and said, "It's an honor for me that the Prime Minister remembers me... But will you listen to me?"

"What are you going to say? No matter what you say, I won't let you go!"

You said this firmly, a dangerous glint in your eyes...

"Oh? What if I were to tell you about a plan to kill Zhu Youjian?"

【He smiled mysteriously.】

……

(End of this chapter)