Chapter 151 Zhang Shicheng Requests to See Chen Biao
Chen Biao is still coveting Fang Mingqian, who has not yet completed his labor reform. He writes letters from time to time to encourage Fang Mingqian to work hard to earn points, graduate from the labor reform camp early, and go on a diplomatic mission to Japan with him.
This is because Fang Mingqian is determined to defeat the Japanese.
Naturally, Chen Biao liked Liao Yongzhong more, as he had fought countless battles with Japanese pirates and had repeatedly asked Zhu Yuanzhang for some money and food so that he could visit the Japanese island.
To increase goodwill, one must have common interests. Chen Biao naturally feels close to people with similar interests.
Liao Yongzhong was very happy to hear that Chen Biao also hated the Japanese pirates and Japan.
We are fellow enthusiasts!
Liao Yongzhong immediately said, "Biao'er, my lord... His Majesty is about to attack Zhang Shicheng. After the victory, why don't you talk to the emperor and ask Lao Tang to come to the north as well? He also wants to fight the Japanese pirates!"
As long as there is a naval commander fighting at sea, there is no one who does not hate the Japanese pirates. No one!
Chen Biao shook his head. "We have no money, no food, and no one to fight Japan right now. It's useless to ask Uncle Tang to come. After His Majesty the Emperor conquers Zhang Shicheng, he will definitely send troops to Yunnan. If Yunnan is well managed, it can harvest grain twice a year and become the new granary of the Ming Dynasty."
Japan is just chicken ribs, tasteless and useless to eat, just throw them away...the chicken ribs will jump up and bite you, and then say that you are afraid of them.
Chen Biao said, "We will approach Japan slowly and quietly. As long as we can obtain sufficient food and supplies along the Maritime Silk Road and don't ask the imperial court for money or food, then the imperial court will not care if we use slightly more drastic measures while escorting the merchants."
Chen Biao whispered, "Don't tell His Majesty the Emperor. I've told Dad, and he'll help us cover it up!"
"Ah? Okay." Liao Yongzhong tried hard to make his expression serious, as if he was plotting something behind the emperor's back.
Chen Xun said, "Brother, don't trust Dad too much. Look at Dad, he's such a fool. He's busy outside all day long. I don't know what he's doing. How could he help cover up for you?"
Liao Yongzhong: “…”
Your father, a fool who's busy and incompetent, is actually secretly acting as an emperor. Would I tell you about this? No, I wouldn't.
Liao Yongzhong suddenly felt happy.
Is this the happiness his brother has felt for several years?
Chen Biao immediately said, "Don't talk nonsense. Look, my brothers and I are all so powerful, so Dad must be powerful too. It's just that what he's going to do now is very important and must be kept secret, so no one knows about it. If Dad wasn't powerful, how could he have given birth to someone as powerful as us?"
Chen Chong said, "Because mom is awesome. We weren't born by dad, we were born by mom."
"Okay, Uncle Liao is Dad's colleague. How dare you speak ill of Dad in front of Uncle Liao?" Chen Biao taught his brother, "Your dissatisfaction with Dad is that he doesn't come home often and you don't know what he's doing. Just write to Dad to complain, don't say it in front of outsiders. Being unfilial is a serious sin."
"Oh." Chen Chong's face was full of indifference.
Liao Yongzhong coughed dryly and said, "It's just a complaint, not unfilial. It doesn't matter."
Liao Yongzhong liked to pry into Zhu Yuanzhang's personal affairs. In addition to trying to please Zhu Yuanzhang better, Liao Yongzhong admired Zhu Yuanzhang very much, to the extent that he was a "private fan" in later generations.
Of course, this had almost been changed after Liao Yongan came back after being beaten so badly.
But Liao Yongzhong was still very happy to know about his lord's private life.
I want to know more about the Lord.jpg.
Fortunately, Liao Yongan was not here, otherwise he would definitely be beaten again if he showed this "I really want to know" expression.
When Chen Chong saw that Liao Yongzhong was on his side, his favorability towards Liao Yongzhong increased a lot.
But he didn't continue complaining.
As the eldest brother said, complaints should be kept to oneself. If these were to be spoken to outsiders and heard by those with ulterior motives, they might be criticized as unfilial, and this would in turn bring trouble upon his eldest brother who had raised him. Chen Chong didn't care about his own reputation, but he did care about Chen Biao's reputation.
Liao Yongzhong was not only a first-rate naval commander, but also a skilled societalist. After he conquered Fujian and Guangdong, the people who had endured the war built a shrine in his honor. This suggests Liao Yongzhong possessed the potential to become a Chang Yuchun.
Seeing that Liao Yongzhong was very good at pacifying the people and governing, Chen Biao handed to Liao Yongzhong and assigned several clerks as his deputies.
Zhu Wenzhen was very interested in going to sea but not in farming, so he led his troops to help Liao Yongzhong, saying that he wanted to train his soldiers into a navy.
Based on the fact that Zhu Wenzhen was Chen Biao's cousin, Liao Yongzhong speculated that this adopted son of the Ming Emperor, the only one with the surname Zhu, probably really had the surname Zhu and was very polite to Zhu Wenzhen.
Zhu Wenzhen asked Liao Yongzhong how to be a naval marshal, and he taught him everything he knew.
These days, generals cannot be landlubbers, because they may be defeated at any time and need to escape through the river.
Zhu Wenzhen is a good swimmer, but he has never been in the sea.
He wanted to go out to sea, and the first thing Liao Yongzhong taught him was to swim in the sea.
Chen Biao was worried that his cousin, who had no other reliable job except fighting, would disturb Liao Yongzhong from building the port, so he went to visit him.
Nine times out of ten, Zhu Wenzheng would play in the water at the beach, and Chen Biao was envious.
Zhu Wenzhen ran to the beach and left all his affairs to Li Wenzhong.
As firearms played an increasingly important role in warfare, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Chen Ying to set up a separate firearms battalion in Beiping . Chen Ying was so busy with this matter that he was spared from being blamed by Zhu Yuanzhang.
When Li Wenzhong learned that Zhu Wenzhen went to the beach just to play in the water, he was so angry that he rode his horse to Haijin Town and had a fierce fight with Zhu Wenzhen.
Both of them had injuries on their bodies and faces.
For a general, getting hurt while fighting is normal. But for Chen Biao, you two actually got hurt while fighting?! Unforgivable!
Li Wenzhong and Zhu Wenzhen were forced to listen to Chen Biao's muttering for a whole hour and were punished to write self-criticisms.
In Peking, cattle and sheep from the grasslands were plentiful. Chen Biao used the spices brought back from overseas by the Chen family caravan to prepare air-dried, five-spiced beef and mutton jerky. Due to limited supplies, he only supplied a limited quantity to his brothers.
The supply of dried beef and mutton from Li Wenzhong and Zhu Wenzhen was also suspended, and all of it was shared by Chen Ying and the four younger brothers of the Chen family.
Li Wenzhong and Zhu Wenzhen therefore joined forces to steal Chen Ying's dried meat.
They even brought their personal guards with them to steal, which led to a physical fight with Chen Ying's personal guards. When Liao Yongzhong returned to Peking, he also lived in the camp outside Beijing.
When he heard shouting and killing in the middle of the night, he thought the Mongols were attacking.
Liao Yongzhong rushed out with a knife in hand and without even wearing armor, asking where the Mongols were.
The soldier said, "Ah? Mongols? Where did the Mongols come from?"
Liao Yongzhong was puzzled: "Then what's all this noise about?"
It's impossible that the military camps of the lord's three adopted sons (two of whom are nephews and nieces) would also mutiny due to lack of food, right?
The soldier was very calm: "Oh, our general and General Li Wenzhong led the troops to steal General Chen Ying's dried meat, but accidentally triggered a trap, and now they are fighting."
Liao Yongzhong thought he was hallucinating: "What? What jerky?"
The soldier said, "Uh, it's the dried meat made by the military advisor. They say it's extremely delicious. Didn't the military advisor scold our general and General Li Wenzhong for fighting? So the military advisor gave the dried meat to General Chen Ying."
Liao Yongzhong once again thought he was hallucinating: "What? What jerky?"
The soldier was helpless: "It's just dried meat. I got caught stealing dried meat."
Liao Yongzhong: “…”
He turned back to sleep.
The next day, he wrote this interesting story into the document reporting on port construction.
Such an interesting thing must be shared with the lord!
Liao Yongzhong felt elated when he wrote the letter.
I can finally discuss personal matters other than official business with my lord!
When Zhu Yuanzhang received the document, he had already arrived at the city of Pingjiang.
In May of the first year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang concentrated his forces, appointed Xu Da as general and Chang Yuchun as deputy general, and personally led the army to attack Zhang Shicheng.
Zhu Yuanzhang had already proclaimed himself emperor and had already conquered Yanyun, the Central Plains, Fujian, Guangdong, Bashu, and other territories, thus securing victory. Most of Zhang Shicheng's troops surrendered upon hearing the news.
Zhu Yuanzhang then sent Xu Da to attack Huzhou, Chang Yuchun to attack Hangzhou, and another general Hua Yunlong to attack Jiaxing.
Zhang Shicheng was unable to take care of both ends and was exhausted, and the three cities were lost one after another.
In just two months, Zhang Shicheng was left with only the isolated city of Pingjiang.
Zhu Yuanzhang sent people to persuade Zhang Shicheng to surrender, but Zhang Shicheng sent the envoy back and ignored him, and went into battle himself.
After Zhang Shicheng led his troops into battle, the Ming army encountered a tough opponent. The Pingjiang defenders seemed to have changed, fighting bravely and fearlessly. For the first time in the siege, the Ming army suffered heavy losses.
Zhang Shicheng tried to break out of the city several times and almost succeeded.
Unfortunately, he had a younger brother named Zhang Shixin. While Zhang Shixin was fighting, he would lie comfortably on the city gate and let his concubine feed him fruit.
When Zhang Shicheng was about to break through successfully and even the fierce general Chang Yuchun, who had finally fought a tough battle, was about to collapse, Zhang Shixin finished eating some fruit, said he was tired, and sounded the horn to retreat.
Beating the drum means to attack, beating the gong means to withdraw. Beating the gong is like sounding the gong. When Zhang Shicheng and his men, who were about to break out, heard the gong at the city gate signaling a retreat, they froze, not knowing what was happening.
Chang Yuchun immediately rushed back, catching Zhang Shicheng and others off guard, and returned to the city to defend it.
Zhu Yuanzhang was deeply moved to see that Zhang Shicheng was still as brave as he was in the past, and sent envoys again to persuade him to surrender.
Admiring Zhang Shicheng's bravery is one thing, but more importantly, Zhu Yuanzhang was somewhat overconfident about Zhang Shicheng's victory at Gaoyou. While he wouldn't have replaced his generals mid-battle like the incompetent Yuan emperors, he was certain he could have surrounded and killed Zhang Shicheng. However, the longer the siege lasted, the more money, food, weapons, and lives would have been lost.
After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he became more frugal.
Zhu Yuanzhang tried his best to persuade Zhang Shicheng to surrender. He appealed to his feelings and reason, citing historical examples of enemy leaders who had surrendered and then held high positions, asking Zhang Shicheng to consider his family. He also expressed sympathy for the innocent people of Pingjiang who had been coerced, and urged Zhang Shicheng not to repeat the same mistake that had brought suffering to the people.
He also sent generals under Zhang Shicheng to the city in turn to act as lobbyists, and promised Zhang Shicheng a lot of benefits without any evidence.
Zhang Shicheng still did not reply.
It was not until Zhu Yuanzhang sent a salt trader, whom Zhang Shicheng had once known and who had fled famine to join the Ming Dynasty as a soldier, to persuade him to surrender that Zhang Shicheng finally replied.
In his letter, he said that he wanted to meet Chen Biao.
Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned when he received the reply.
Send Biao'er to Pingjiang City as an envoy to persuade them to surrender?!
Could it be that Zhang Shicheng knew Biao'er's true identity and wanted to use Biao'er to control Zhu Yuanzhang?!
Zhu Yuanzhang was furious: "Come here! Put on my armor! I want to attack the city myself!"
Xu Da and Chang Yuchun hung on Zhu Yuanzhang's arms, one on each side, and said, "Your Majesty, calm down!"
Chen Biao, who was far away in Peking, exclaimed: "A-choo!"
