Chapter 005 I Might as Well Send Biao'er
Zhu Yuanzhang and his friends quarreled for half the night. Chen Biao could not stand it any longer and went back to bed early.
Before going to bed, he ordered Zhu Wenying and several strong servants to drag Zhu Wenzhen and Zhu Wenzhong away, forced them to drink sobering soup, and let them rest early.
Chen Biao said in a stern tone, "Don't learn their bad habits of getting drunk at such a young age. It will harm your career."
Zhu Wenzhen and Zhu Wenzhong were scolded by a three-head-tall kid for being "so young". The kid put his hands on his knees and nodded repeatedly. Zhu Wenying couldn't help laughing.
The next day, Zhu Yuanzhang kicked Tang He, who was pressing on him, away and stepped over Xu Da, who had his legs on Tang He.
Li Zhen walked in with a bowl of hot soup. "Guo Rui, are you awake? Have some soup to sober you up."
Zhu Yuanzhang drank the soup in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and said, "It must be Biao'er's soup."
Li Zhen couldn't help but laugh, "You can even tell that? Biao'er got up early at dawn, prepared soup and rice for you in the kitchen, and then went to the pavilion to read in the daylight."
"My son is just that hardworking," Zhu Yuanzhang said proudly, then distressed. "He's so young, he needs enough sleep to grow. What's the difference between reading early and late? My son is a child prodigy, and he can read several times faster than others. Why would he need this little time? Besides, why is he studying outside by daylight? Even if I, Old Zhu... Old Chen, am poor, how could I possibly do without this little lamp oil?"
Zhu Yuanzhang said something proud and said a lot of words that expressed his heartache.
Li Zhen was at a loss for words and said, "Eat your meal first, then go see him and ask him in person. Biao'er has a lot of big ideas, and I can't argue with him."
Zhu Yuanzhang angrily said, "I'll go and scold him after I finish my meal!"
Li Zhen looked at Zhu Yuanzhang shaking his sleeves and seeing the hems of his clothes rolling up, and couldn't help laughing.
Xu Da and Tang He got up, yawning, with their arms around each other, and listened to the conversation between Zhu Yuanzhang and Li Zhen in the house.
Tang He winked and said, "Look at how fierce the boss is. Let's bet on whether he will go and teach Biaoer a lesson."
Xu Da took the bowl of soup from the servant and drank it all in one gulp, smacking his lips. "Who's betting with you? How could the boss possibly teach Biao'er a lesson? Biao'er's cooking skills are worthy of being a fairy boy sent down from heaven. He can make a simple bowl of soup to sober up and warm your stomach into a superb delicacy."
Tang He then drank the soup. After finishing it, he pushed Xu Da, who was arm in arm with him, and ran after Zhu Yuanzhang.
He was obviously afraid that Zhu Yuanzhang would have a big appetite and eat his breakfast, but seeing him waving his big hands and shouting "Big Brother, Big Brother", you would have thought he was ready to follow Zhu Yuanzhang through thick and thin.
Xu Da stumbled back to his feet and cursed, "Biao'er, can you still give us a bite of food? What are you so anxious about?"
Li Zhen laughed. "Go quickly. Biao'er steamed some big buns today. To surprise you, they have a variety of fillings. Aren't you afraid that they'll take a bite of each bun and choose the tastiest one?"
Xu Da's face changed and he rushed over.
Li Zhen laughed even louder.
After grabbing the buns, Xu Da and Tang He returned to being close friends again, and went back to their homes to rest for a while and prepare for the afternoon meeting.
Zhu Yuanzhang went to "train" his son.
He tiptoed to where Chen Biao was studying.
Although it is the hottest month of June and children are afraid of the cold, Chen Biao put on a cotton robe and a tiger hat when he went out in the morning.
As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang saw the tiger hat, he knew it must have been made by his wife.
Zhu Yuanzhang touched his chin. His wife was very good at embroidering tigers and had embroidered quite a few for him.
Zhu Wenying picked up Chen Biao, who was writing on the blackboard with chalk: "Today we will begin learning the first chapter of the Analects."
Chen Biao is young and his voice lacks strength.
Every time he said something, Zhu Wenying would repeat it loudly, acting as Chen Biao's loudspeaker.
Outside the pavilion, a row of trees had been planted. Several rows of people, young and old, men and women of all ages sat in the shade of the trees, each holding a small sandbox and writing on a small blackboard with twigs.
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but stop and hide behind the corner.
He turned around and asked Li Zhen who had followed him, and whispered, "What's this, Biao'er?"
Li Zhen lowered her voice and said, "Biao'er said that the process of teaching others what you have learned can help you better understand what you have learned."
Zhu Yuanzhang was disappointed: "Is that so? But what's the point of these people learning it?"
Li Zhen said, "Biao'er said that reading can help you understand things, and reading is useful."
Zhu Yuanzhang's facial expression gradually became restrained, and he became the calm and composed person he was in front of outsiders.
"How long has Biao'er been doing this?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "I don't even know."
A hint of mischief unexpectedly appeared on Li Zhen's face, a face full of vicissitudes of life. Zhu Yuanzhang's eyelids twitched. "Biao'er's surprise, Guorui, will be interesting if you see it with your own eyes. It's so boring to hear everything from others."
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Li Zhen, and then continued to look at Chen Biao, who was acting as a little teacher with a baby voice and a chubby face.
After a while, he smiled and turned away without disturbing the group of people reading.
When leaving the small courtyard, Zhu Yuanzhang saw his nephew and nephew hiding behind the archway of the courtyard.
Zhu Yuanzhang kicked the two sneaky men and asked, "What are you doing hiding here?"
Zhu Wenzheng and Zhu Wenzhong scratched their heads sheepishly, looking at each other. Zhu Wenzheng spoke first, "I saw Biaodi teaching someone, and I felt bad to disturb him."
Zhu Wenzhong nodded vigorously.
Zhu Yuanzhang said with a straight face, "It's not like I haven't hired a teacher for you before. You two have studied, so why should you be embarrassed?"
Zhu Wenzhong scratched his head and said, "It just feels different."
Zhu Wenzheng said, "When the teacher was teaching me, I could still roll my eyes at him. But with such a large group of people sitting down to listen to my brother Biao's lecture, how could I, uh, not even dare to breathe?"
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that Zhu Wenzhen dared to roll his eyes at his teacher, he was about to roll up his sleeves and beat him.
Li Zhen quickly stopped Zhu Yuanzhang and signaled him not to disturb Chen Biao's class.
Zhu Yuanzhang left with his nephew and nephew, who also wanted to go to the meeting with him.
Zhu Wenzhen and Zhu Wenzhong followed Zhu Yuanzhang and whispered to each other.
"When I'm accompanying Biao'er in place of Ying, can't I also be a teacher? Hey!"
"Yeah, a little nervous."
Zhu Yuanzhang stood with his hands behind his back and looked up at the cloudless June sky.
When he was herding cattle for the landlord, the world was not yet in complete chaos.
The landlord's family opened a private school for the clan. He often lay in the corner, listening to the sound of reading in the private school, and felt very envious.
If I, Zhu Yuanzhang, could become emperor, I would make sure that everyone in the world could read. Zhu Yuanzhang had this naive and childish ambition. Perhaps it was because he had eaten too much meat buns today that he felt like he had endless energy.
In the center of the military camp by Xuanwu Lake, Zhu Yuanzhang changed his clothes and sat at the top of the conference room.
He had a stern face, a fierce and cold expression, and already had the aura of a leader.
On his left and right, Xu Da and Li Shanchang were sitting in the front row, talking slowly about the battle achievements and difficulties during this period.
Xu Da had his usual expressionless face, and even his tone was so steady that no fluctuations could be heard, just like his fighting style.
Behind Xu Da, Tang He lowered his head and appeared to be the most submissive among the many generals.
Behind Tang He was Zhu Yuanzhang's other childhood friend, Zhou Dexing.
Zhou Dexing seemed to have made too little contribution and was always frowning with a sad face.
Apart from Zhu Yuanzhang's three closest childhood friends, the other generals were ranked in order of their official positions, and each of them looked particularly honest.
The civil officials on the opposite side glanced at this group of peasant "bandit generals". Every time they saw these peasants being so honest in front of Zhu Yuanzhang, they were amazed.
After everyone in the conference hall sorted out the current situation, they began to discuss the subsequent military operations.
Now the Red Turban Army nominally follows the Young Ming King Han Lin'er as its leader.
Han Lin'er was a puppet from the very beginning.
His father, Han Shantong, was a charlatan who believed in the White Lotus Sect. He told people everywhere that the world was going to be in chaos, that something was going to happen to Maitreya Buddha, and that he would rise up against the Yuan Dynasty. He also claimed to be the eighth-generation grandson of Song Huizong.
Although Han Shantong was defeated soon, the beginning he made led to rebellion all over the country.
Among Han Shantong's subordinates, Liu Futong was the most powerful. In the 15th year of Zhizheng, he found Han Shantong's son Han Lin'er and made Han Lin'er the emperor, named the country "Song", and changed the era name to "the first year of Longfeng".
At this time, Guo Zixing had just died. Zhu Yuanzhang gathered Guo Zixing's forces and became the leader of a small force.
In order to allow Liu Futong to safely withstand the main offensive of the Yuan Dynasty in the front, Zhu Yuanzhang's troops also adopted the reign title of "The First Year of Dragon and Phoenix" and claimed to be the leader of Han Lin'er.
This was also one of Zhu Yuanzhang's strategies to "slowly declare himself king."
After Liu Futong established Han Lin'er as emperor, he became the main target of the Yuan Dynasty and had to flee.
Not long ago, Han Liner appointed Zhu Yuanzhang as the Left Prime Minister of the Secretariat in the Jiangnan area - no matter what kind of strange official title this was, Han Liner and Liu Futong themselves might not know it.
When Zhu Yuanzhang responded to the emperor this time, he summoned his officials to discuss whether he should help Han Song for the title of "Left Prime Minister".
In the end, everyone voted unanimously in favor of the idea that my Zhu Yuanzhang army has few men, little territory, and little food, and is the weakest among the many Red Turban armies, and cannot help His Majesty the Emperor.
Your Majesty, you will surely be able to withstand the Yuan Dynasty's offensive and continue the glory of your dynasty, Emperor Huizong of Song.
Okay, next topic.
Zhu Yuanzhang said quietly, "Miao, sir, do you know that there are only a dozen or so households left in Yangzhou?"
Miao Daheng was horrified: "A dozen households? Zhang Mingjian stayed indoors, so the people inside shouldn't be able to escape. How could there be only a dozen households left?"
Zhu Yuanzhang raised his hand, and Zhu Wenzhen ran away to find Zhu Wenying outside the conference room.
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyelids twitched.
His nephew is good in every way except that he is too erratic and needs to be disciplined. I hope my own son can take good care of Wen Zheng.
Zhu Yuanzhang was completely unaware that his son Biao was only five years old, while Zhu Wenzheng was already 24. If Zhu Wenzheng had married earlier, he would have been old enough to be Chen Biao's father.
Zhu Wenying hurried over after accompanying Chen Biao to study and made his first appearance among Zhu Yuanzhang's capable subordinates.
Most of Zhu Yuanzhang's subordinates were quite puzzled when they saw this strange young man. How could any random person enter the meeting room?
When Zhu Wenying introduced himself as "Zhu WenX", Zhu Yuanzhang's subordinates withdrew their suspicious gazes.
Oh, the Marshal has adopted another son. That's all right.
Zhu Wenying recounted the news he had learned from Yangzhou in a clear and organized manner, which made everyone furious.
Miao Daheng, who advocated the surrender of Zhang Mingjian, was the most furious and begged Zhu Yuanzhang to send him to Yangzhou to kill Zhang Mingjian.
According to history, Zhu Yuanzhang should have attacked Yangzhou first, then entered Sichuan, and then took the Guanzhong area, and only this year he would pacify Fujian.
But Chen Biao wanted to do maritime business, so Zhu Yuanzhang first concentrated his forces to attack Fujian. Now the order is reversed.
However, Zhang Mingjian did not occupy Yangzhou for more than a few years. Because Zhu Yuanzhang went to attack Fujian, under the butterfly effect, Zhennan Wang Boluopu received more support from the Yuan Dynasty and stayed in Yangzhou for another year or two.
Only after the Yuan army withdrew from Yangzhou did Miao Daheng propose to attack Yangzhou.
Zhu Yuanzhang's subordinates knew they were weak, so they acted cautiously. They would never directly confront the main Yuan army. They could only play along, playing second fiddle to Han and Song, and grabbing territory in the south to eke out a living.
Now that the confrontation between the Han Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty has advanced to Goryeo, Shenyang, and Kaifeng, they have finally relaxed a little.
Yangzhou is an important place for water transport, so they must capture it.
After discussion, everyone decided to surround him first, then persuade him to surrender, and then kill Zhang Mingjian for the incident in Yangzhou City.
Although there is a rule not to kill surrendered generals, once what happened to Zhang Mingjian in Yangzhou was made public, Zhu Yuanzhang cut Zhang Mingjian into pieces, and no one else would say that Zhu Yuanzhang was wrong.
As for tricking people into surrendering, as long as you are thick-skinned enough, the rest can be left to the penmen under Zhu Yuanzhang.
They didn't have to think much about how to deal with Zhang Mingjian. What they were worried about now was that Yangzhou had become a dead city, and how to restore Yangzhou's function as a water transport hub.
Zhu Yuanzhang had many generals under his command, but few civil officials who could govern a region.
Most of the people who first defected to Zhu Yuanzhang, such as Li Shanchang, were minor officials and most of them were from Huaixi.
If they were asked to directly revitalize an entire once prosperous southern city, Li Shanchang could not do it at least for now.
Then should we give it to the literati from Jiangsu and Zhejiang who had just defected to Zhu Yuanzhang?
Zhu Yuanzhang was very unhappy.
The literati in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have always looked down on Zhu Yuanzhang and the Red Turban Army.
During the anti-Yuan rebellion in the Central Plains, the gentry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were all loyal subjects of the Yuan Dynasty. They mobilized local militia to massacre the Red Turban Army.
Now that Han Song had reached the north, many Mongols had raised the banner of anti-Yuan. The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River were still loyal subjects of the Yuan Dynasty and sneered at the rebels.
It was not until the forces of Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhang Shicheng, Xu Shouhui and others smashed the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River that they finally began to "choose a tree to roost in, a master to serve" and choose a new master to join.
But the scholars in Jiangsu and Zhejiang did not choose Zhu Yuanzhang, looking down on this beggar Zhu, Zhu Monk. Zhu Yuanzhang could not be invited, and would resign .
For example, the "Four Masters of East Zhejiang" who were praised as gods in later generations - Liu Ji, Song Lian, Ye Chen, and Zhang Yi.
It was not until Zhu Yuanzhang occupied most of Zhejiang that this group of people finally began to get anxious.
According to history, it was not until the next year that Li Shanchang repeatedly and strongly recommended the "Four Masters of Eastern Zhejiang" to Zhu Yuanzhang, and only then did Zhu Yuanzhang summon these four people.
Afterwards, these people also hid the matter, which seemed to be a case of them forcing Zhu Yuanzhang to do as he pleased.
That is why after the founding of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang conferred the sarcastic title of "Marquis of Chengyi" on Liu Ji, the scholar with the greatest contribution from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
In later TV dramas, scholars from Jiangsu and Zhejiang were often portrayed as loyal officials, while scholars from Huaixi were portrayed as treacherous officials. Some unofficial histories also vividly portrayed the struggle between the two factions of scholars from Huaixi and Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the early Ming Dynasty.
In fact, the literati from Jiangsu and Zhejiang never entered the emperor's field of vision in the early Ming Dynasty, and were not qualified to be compared with the literati from Huaixi.
Even though Emperor Hongwu killed most of the court, he never thought of filling the court with gentry from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Therefore, the gentry of Jiangsu and Zhejiang gathered around Zhu Biao and tried to start with the crown prince. After the death of the crown prince Zhu Biao, most of them continued to follow the grandson of the crown prince Zhu Yunwen. Later, they were killed by Zhu Di and fell into silence again.
After the mid-Ming Dynasty, they gradually occupied the court. The Donglin Party members were representatives of the gentry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
After that, they controlled the right to speak, and with the help of various unofficial histories and novels, Liu Bowen became the first meritorious official in the founding of the Ming Dynasty. There was even a legend about cutting the dragon vein, as if Liu Bowen had become an immortal on earth.
Even Liu Bowen was given the title of "Marquis of Sincerity" because of the manipulation of treacherous officials such as Li Shanchang. It was clear that Li Shanchang was Liu Bowen's mentor.
Zhu Yuanzhang knew that the gentry in Jiangnan were very knowledgeable and that each of them was a top scholar. He knew that if he wanted to become emperor and govern the country, he would definitely need the support of the gentry in Jiangnan.
But at least now, Zhu Yuanzhang was in a bad mood and didn't want to pay any attention to this group of people.
He even felt a little sick when he saw those famous scholars in Jiangsu and Zhejiang who were so arrogant and waiting for him to visit them three times.
So the meeting temporarily put this issue on hold and decided to take Yangzhou first.
Li Shanchang sighed and stayed, and privately reiterated to Zhu Yuanzhang his opinion of making use of literati from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked frustrated.
Li Shanchang said, "General, you should at least summon the four gentlemen from eastern Zhejiang. All four of them have the talent of Zhuge Liang."
Zhu Yuanzhang said in a deep voice: "Sir, you are the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang."
Li Shanchang was at a loss for words. "I have some abilities, don't I know that? Marshal, if you say I'm the reincarnation of Xiao He, I can still agree with a thick face, but I can't say he's the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang. Mr. Zhu is indeed the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang, but unfortunately he is already old. Apart from advising you on the big strategies, he also needs other advisers to accompany him in the details of attacking cities and conquering territories."
Zhu Yuanzhang looked up at the sky and whistled, trying to cheat.
Li Shanchang followed Zhu Yuanzhang when he was in obscurity and was also a good friend of Zhu Yuanzhang in private. Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's rogue appearance, he did not back down.
He continued earnestly, "Your Excellency is destined to become the Emperor in the future, and the gentry of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are destined to become your subjects. Sooner or later, you will use them. Now is the time for you to use them. How can you throw the baby out with the bathwater?"
Zhu Yuanzhang was still unhappy: "Without them, we are doing well now, aren't we? Before, sir, you said that in order to revitalize Yingtian, we still had to let the local gentry come in. But now we are doing well, aren't we?"
Li Shanchang was amused. "That's true. But it was Chen Guorui who helped Marshal Zhu revitalize the economy of Yingtian and other places. So, Marshal Zhu isn't planning on going on expeditions anymore, and wants to be Chen Guorui for a while?"
Li Shanchang was the only civil official who knew that Chen Guorui was Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang's face flushed red, and he felt a little angry and embarrassed: "Isn't my Chen Guorui completely relying on Biao'er's backstage gestures? I might as well send Biao'er directly to Yangzhou!"
Anyway, I just don't want to pay attention to those Jiangsu and Zhejiang gentry! No!
Li Shanchang: "..."
Although Master Biao is a divine boy, he is only five years old. Marshal, you are going too far by exploiting the child like this!
