Ming Dynasty entry: I am Chongzhen, the greatest emperor of all time!

Chapter 32: Ming Dynasty God of War Zhang Shize

Amidst the uproar among the officials, Ni Yuanlu came quickly from Xihua Gate.

The new Dongge University Scholar was wearing chain mail under his official robe.

Last night he was worried that a failed night attack would provoke a retaliatory attack by the rebel army, so he stayed at Deshengmen all night.

"Your Highness, Ni Yuanlu, respectfully wishes you the best of health."

"Mr. Ni, please stand up." Zhu Youjian looked at the haggard old man in front of him with emotion.

"Lord Fan said that you are blocking the channels of communication. I have decided to grant his request." He deliberately dragged out his tone, which made hope ignite in Fan Jingwen's eyes.

"Effective immediately, Ni Yuanlu is dismissed from his position as Minister of Rites and appointed as the Governor of Five Provinces, in charge of the military and political affairs of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, and Northern Zhili!"

"The position of Minister of Rites is temporarily vacant and will be decided at a later date."

Fan Jingwen almost vomited blood on the imperial road.

How is this a recall?
It is clear that half of the military power of the Ming Dynasty was given to political enemies!

"Is Lord Fan very dissatisfied? What merits does Ni Yuanlu have to be able to serve as the governor of five provinces?" Zhu Youjian asked with a smile.

Fan Jingwen said nothing, but lowered his head and looked at his toes.

Zhu Youjian's tone suddenly changed, "Just because he was able to hold Deshengmen for a whole night when the rebel army approached!"

"Where are you, Fan Jingwen? Are you sleeping comfortably under your down quilt at home?"

"If you, a senior official of the Ming Dynasty, were to use the tactics of factional strife on the battlefield, you would have been dead long ago!"

Fan Jingwen stiffened his neck and said, "The capital cannot be defended! I will not do such a useless thing!"

"If the capital cannot be defended, will we abandon it? What will happen to the hundreds of thousands of officials and civilians in the capital? Aren't they the people of the Ming Dynasty?" Zhu Youjian asked coldly.

If he wanted to secure his position as emperor, he had to subdue Confucian scholars like Fan Jingwen.

Otherwise, if he kills one today and two tomorrow, there will still be people who challenge his imperial power in the name of fighting for the world and justice.

Just like these students of the Imperial Academy, they have never been involved in politics and don’t know the darkness of the court.

But they are more knowledgeable than ordinary people and are more easily misled, and then they fight for what they believe is justice with passion.

They are valuable, loyal and capable, but they lack mature and independent thinking, just like the angry young people in their previous lives.

If he killed these people as well, Zhu Youjian was really afraid that he would cut off the backbone of this land.

What he needs to do is to guide these forces to where they should be used.

"Your Majesty, your health is the most important. There are already hundreds of thousands of people in the capital, but there are still 60 million people inside and outside the Ming Dynasty!" Fan Jingwen said gritting his teeth.

The fact that he could say something like abandoning hundreds of thousands of civilians showed that he was really anxious.

Zhu Youjian shook his head.

"Today we cede five cities, tomorrow we cede ten, and then we can sleep peacefully for one night. What's the point of doing this? The capital must be defended. Even if we can't hold it, it means that I and my ministers have done our best. If we just abandon the city and leave, where can we hide in this vast world?"

"At least we can wait for the royal armies in Nanjing and gather all our strength to fight a decisive battle with the rebel army." Fan Jingwen's tone had become much lower.

"If I leave the capital and go to Nanjing, how many troops do you think will come to support the king?"

"This... should be several hundred thousand..."

"We haven't even defended the capital yet, so how can those hundreds of thousands of soldiers willing to fight to the death to defend the city?"

Fan Jingwen was speechless.

Zhu Youjian looked down at the old minister and said, "Since you say that Ni Qing is a traitor, I will appoint you as the military supervisor and follow Ni Qing in supervising the defense of the capital."

At this point, he raised his voice and said, "All officials in Beijing today, above the fourth rank, will be sent to the Ministry of War as counselors, and all students will be sent to the Beijing camp to help defend the city!"

As soon as he finished speaking, there was dead silence in the room, and suddenly one of the students burst into tears.

The pockmarked young man angrily threw his handkerchief to the ground. "Students are willing to go! It's better than being used as a tool by these hypocrites!"

When he shouted, most of the more than 900 students started to tear off their scholar robes, and the sound of rough cloth being torn could be heard one after another.

……

The Embroidered Uniform Guards escorted eighty-three officials into Zhaoyu Prison.

Li Ruo Lian led the main force of the Jinyiwei and also arrested the colluding officials everywhere. It must be said that Li Ruo Lian's actions were indeed fast.

Just half an hour had passed and the first batch of silver had already been deposited into the warehouse.

Zhu Youjian rubbed his hands and waited in front of the private storehouse.

Once this batch of dirty silver is fully deposited into the warehouse, he will hold another big lottery.

Although Fan Jingwen still wanted to persuade Zhu Youjian to move south, seeing the latter's resolute intention, he finally accepted the position of military supervisor.

He really wanted to know whether the capital could be defended.

Following Ni Yuanlu on the official road.

Fan Jingwen, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly asked.

"Does Ni Jinglie think the capital can be defended?"

Ni Yuanlu didn't answer directly, "What do you think, Lord Fan?"

"Hmph, the capital has no good generals and no heavy troops, how can we defend it!" Fan Jingwen was indignant.

"Yes, firstly, we have no good generals, and secondly, we have no heavy troops. We all know that the capital is undefensible. Doesn't Your Majesty know this?"

"Then why does Your Majesty still abide by it? Is it just for the sake of ancestral etiquette and laws?"

Ni Yuanlu looked at Deshengmen in the distance and spoke softly.

"General Wu once told me that three days ago, there were only 5,000 elderly, weak, sick and disabled people left in the capital. The nobles and ministers were only concerned with protecting themselves, and the various defense lines were useless."

"In just two days, His Majesty dismissed the old and weak, conscripted civilians, repaired the weapons, and gradually transferred two thousand fully armored elite soldiers and one thousand remnants of the Brave Guards. He also raided corrupt officials and sent light cavalry to attack the camps. Yesterday, he completely wiped out the Chuang Army's Children's Camp in a single battle."

"Can we defend the capital with this?" Fan Jingwen asked.

Ni Yuanlu shook his head, "No."

"But everything speaks of His Majesty's determination to defend the capital!"

As they walked towards the Deshengmen Tower, the two introduced the city's defenses.

The weapons and armor that were urgently repaired, the artillery pieces that were confiscated during house searches, and the Yongwei Battalion that was reorganized in half a day.

Every time he saw an item, Fan Jingwen's shock increased.

No matter what the matter is, it will take at least half a year of wrangling in the court before it can be implemented, and another year before the results can be seen.

But now His Majesty has accomplished so many things in just three days!
And there is a good balance between tension and relaxation.

It’s just like what Ni Yuanlu said, everything is for defending the city.

If it weren't for the testimony of Wu Xiang and Ni Yuanlu, Fan Jingwen would never have believed that these were all done by the previous indecisive and self-willed emperor.

Just as they were thinking this, a sudden noise came from outside the city, drawing their attention back.

He looked outside hastily and saw a dusty cavalry rushing towards Deshengmen.

The high-flying flag of the Three Thousand Battalion indicates the identity of this unit.

Wu Wei, whose armor was full of broken arrows, started shouting from a distance.

"Open the city gates quickly and call in a doctor!"

……

Fan Jingwen looked carefully for a long time before he saw clearly that the man covered in bruises and blood was actually Duke Yingguo Zhang Shize!
Wu Wei was still anxiously waiting for the imperial physician to arrive.

Fan Jingwen couldn't help but ask curiously, "Why is the Duke of Ying so badly injured?"

"The Lord led 500 light cavalrymen to attack the camp of 700,000 rebels at night." Wu Wei gave a brief description and said no more.

He naturally had no good feelings towards these civil officials.

When Fan Jingwen heard this, he was struck by lightning.

"Five hundred against seven hundred thousand!?!?!?"

(End of this chapter)