Wandering the Heavens

"Let's not talk about this. I won't be back to Beijing for a short time this time. It's still the same as before. No matter what the emperor does, don't get involved. Similarly, don't follow what those ministers do." Yu Xian warned again solemnly.

"You said the same thing before you went on the expedition last time. Later, Yang Shan brought back the retired emperor with just his mouth, but he was met with cold reception from the emperor. During that time, the Golden Knife Case happened, and the prince was deposed. Why did you say this this time?" Yu Qian asked.

"Am I a prophet or someone who can tell the future?" Yu Xian rolled his eyes at the man.

"Besides this, what about Mongolia?" Yu Qian continued to ask.

"Let Toghtobuha and Yesen continue to fight. It would be best if neither side can determine the winner for the time being. The winning side will help up its opponent. As long as they keep fighting, more and more herdsmen will flee, and it won't matter if you become a lonely man in the end. In addition, the imperial examinations should be opened to educated Mongolians as appropriate. Also, the matter of the Ministry of Works building a city on the grassland can be put on the agenda. As long as the mobile herdsmen are locked down in one place to settle down, there will be no worries." Yu Xian said a lot of nonsense.

"Okay! Just remember to bring Prince Yi back."

Yu Qian guessed that something big might happen soon, which would not be a good thing for Zhu Jianshen, so Yu Xian took the risk to take him away from Beijing. However, he was scratching his head and couldn't figure out what would affect Zhu Jianshen.

Yu Qian did not have to wait too long. Half a year later, in November of the fourth year of Jingtai, the Earl of Xuanwu went on an expedition to Japan and never returned. The only son of the Ming Emperor Zhu Qiyu, the crown prince Zhu Jianji, suddenly fell ill and died despite rescue efforts!

The whole court was in an uproar, and hidden forces began to stir. Not long after the crown prince's death, some ministers began to petition to reinstate Prince Yi Zhu Jianshen as the crown prince.

Zhu Qiyu had not yet recovered from the pain of losing his son when he had to face the counterattacks of many court officials. He originally planned to ignore them, but the memorials of the Imperial Censor Zhong Tong and the Imperial Doctor Zhang Lun angered him. The two were arrested overnight and thrown into prison and tortured, and they were determined to take this opportunity to drag Zhu Qizhen into the water and deal with him together.

However, the two refused to speak, and Zhu Qiyu did not get what he wanted. However, the escalation of the situation caused court officials and local officials to petition for the reinstatement of Zhu Jianshen, which was called "the proposal to restore the crown prince". Zhu Qiyu ordered all the ministers who submitted petitions to be beaten in the court. Looking at the screams of the ministers in front of the Forbidden City, Yu Qian wiped the non-existent sweat from his head.

How old is Prince Yi? Did he provoke you? Are you afraid that his current situation is not difficult enough and you have to step on him? Are you happy only when you kill him?

Amid the overwhelming voices calling for the restoration of Zhu Jianshen, there were suggestions regarding the succession of Prince Xiang's branch to the throne. One was to make the current Prince Xiang's heir as per the tradition of brother-to-brother succession; the other was to adopt an eldest grandson from Prince Xiang's mansion.

Yu Qian's body trembled slightly as he looked at the memorial. He didn't know what kind of existence was behind this. Even Yu Xian couldn't do anything about them, and now they started to stir up trouble again.

He couldn't help but envy Yu Xian who was on the expedition. As a member of the cabinet and the Minister of Personnel, he couldn't avoid such things. Zhu Qiyu was demoted for beating people, and Yu Qian had to fill the vacant position with a suitable person.

Soon after Yu Xian left for the expedition, the Japanese daimyo sent a bunch of envoys to beg for mercy. According to them, the major ports of Japan were bombarded by the Ming fleet, and countless samurai and civilians were killed and injured. After the bombardment, the Ming soldiers landed on the shore, killing anyone they saw and burning any house they saw. The major ports to the east and south of the islands were all reduced to ruins without exception. It is unknown how many samurai families died in this inexplicable bombing.

What made the Japanese lords uneasy was that the Kamikaze that had sunk the Yuan Dynasty fleet would not help them this time. They did not think about resisting, but before the ships carrying soldiers approached the Ming warships, they were blown to pieces by the powerful artillery, and no samurai or soldiers on the ships survived.

They also set up ambushes when the Ming army landed, but the Ming army didn't fight with them at all. They had no Bushido spirit at all. They killed the samurai and soldiers one by one from a long distance with the powerful muskets in their hands.

The fact that they were able to come to the Ming Dynasty was purely due to the Emperor's blessing, because several previous waves of envoys and the ships they were on were sunk by Ming Dynasty warships.

Faced with the Japanese envoys' pleas for mercy, the cabinet led by Yu Qian and Yu Xian's disciples turned a blind eye and even wanted to kill these people. However, doing so would damage the reputation of the Celestial Empire, so they threw them aside and ignored them.

However, they should be thankful that when they came to the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court was too busy to deal with them because of Zhu Jianji's sudden death.

While the city of Beijing or the Ming Dynasty was in the midst of a carnival struggle for the empire's successor, Yu Xian was living a peaceful life. At this moment, he was taking Zhu Jianshen to take a hot spring bath on an island. After he landed on the island with the Ming soldiers, he erected a monument here to indicate that this was the land of the Ming Dynasty.

After investigation, the soldiers found that in addition to volcanic earthquakes, there were also many hot springs of various sizes on the island. Since the sea was now covered with ice, Yu Xian simply ordered the fleet to set up camp here for a few months to rest.

A group of people built houses here, went to the sea in the morning, trained at noon, and soaked in hot springs at night, living a leisurely life. During this time, they drove back the Japanese who had landed on the island, recruited and managed the indigenous people on the island, established villages, etc., and before they knew it, they had spent the New Year on this island.

When the weather warmed up and the sea thawed, the fleet left the island and headed south from the west side of the Japanese islands. They continued to bombard ports as usual, and then Yu Xian personally led the team to land at a place, looking for something, but only the several senior officers accompanying them knew. After the inspection, the fleet left the Japanese waters and continued south. After docking at Ningbo Port to replenish shells and repairs, they went out to sea to clear pirates and Japanese pirates.

In fact, going out to sea again to clear out pirates and Japanese pirates is just a side job. The main thing is naval training. The warships equipped with artillery have bid farewell to the old naval jumping battle mode, and instead destroyed the enemy ships within the range of the artillery.

To this end, how a fleet can effectively and quickly achieve high-speed maneuvers, lock onto enemy ships in the first moment, and achieve effective firepower output are all things that the navy needs to explore on their own. Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty is now in the lead, and with the support of Yu Xian, they have enough time and space to grow.

From the summer of the fifth year of Jingtai to the end of the sixth year of Jingtai, the fleet went from being in chaos at the beginning to being calm and orderly at the end. They completed the construction from zero to one, starting from designing a scientific maritime communication system to rowing the warships to the designated positions in the shortest time possible and then firing the shells in the ship's guns at the designated targets.

The navy reaped huge rewards, but the pirates and Japanese pirates entrenched on the islands suffered. Some were sunk by warships when they tried to escape at sea, and some were bombed as targets when they stayed on the islands.

The person who raises the white flag to surrender also has to look at his identity. If he is a fisherman out to sea to fish, he can be let go after a few scoldings; if it is a smuggling merchant ship, the goods will be confiscated and the people will be handed over to the government; if he is a pirate or a pirate, he has no right to surrender at all, the only difference is how he dies.

Naturally, some people couldn't stand this. When they couldn't win, they could only use their connections to ask the emperor to recall his people so that they could continue to do business and rob people.

When Zhu Qiyu received the impeachment memorial from the ministers, he learned that Yu Xian had ended the campaign against Japan and returned to the Ming Dynasty, and was now leading the fleet to enforce Taizu's maritime ban.

From the 19th year of Yongle to now, he has fought all kinds of battles on land and in water, and he has never lost. How can this old man be so good at fighting! He is over 70 years old, can't he give the young people some opportunities?