Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 405: Time Travel Is Not a Panacea
After Old Man Ye finished reading the newspaper, the entire restaurant fell into silence for a while.
After a long while, a guest stood up, identified the direction, and bowed earnestly towards the northeast: "Great!"
As he did so, the guests in the restaurant who were listening to the announcement stood up one after another and saluted towards the northeast: "Great, our Great Ming Royal Army is so mighty!"
“Hahahaha~” In the slightly serious but indeed somewhat dull atmosphere, Boss Zhang laughed heartily: “Hey, what’s wrong with you? The royal army won a great victory and invaded Korea for the third time. This is a great joyous event! Don’t be so happy. Of course we have to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers, but after paying tribute, we have to celebrate properly. Tonight, all the drinks in our store are 10% off! Drink as much as you want!”
"Hahaha, great, today is indeed worth celebrating! But we have to get drunk before we go home!"
"That's right, that's right. Mr. Lu, you are here at the right time. How about you compose a few poems to praise our Ming soldiers and our loyal and brave allies? Oh, not only Mr. Lu is here today, but also the great-grandson of Mr. Zheng Ming. Mr. Wen, please compose a poem as well!"
Mr. Lu, who was being teased by the crowd, was still a young man under 20 years old. He was currently sitting in a corner tasting wine with a middle-aged man in his 40s.
Unlike the flourishing literary style in Jiangnan, where the people are more gentle, most of the scholars here carry sachets and folding fans. This Lu Xiucai holds a long sword in his hand.
When Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, he felt the cowardice of the two Song dynasties, so he issued an edict to allow scholars across the country to wear swords on their waists. However, after the death of Zhu Yuanzhang, especially Zhu Laosi, no one implemented this edict. The sword has also become a folding fan, a sachet, and even a thick face powder. Fortunately, Zhu Youdong has vigorously promoted and praised the bravery of warriors through the six major newspapers in recent years, and advocated that men should be masculine. Therefore, although folding fans are still the mainstream in Jiangnan at this time, no one calls Lu Xiucai a gentleman for wearing a sword on his waist.
In response to the noise from the crowd in the hotel, Mr. Lu just smiled and bowed to everyone, and ignored them. He turned around and said to the middle-aged man at the table: "Brother Wenqi, after hearing this report today, I have made up my mind."
"Why? Brother Jiandou still doesn't want to take part in the next provincial examination and wants to join the army directly?"
"As for joining the army, although I have liked martial arts since I was a child and I am quite good at martial arts, I am afraid I am still not good enough to fight on the battlefield." He shook his head helplessly, but he quickly said firmly: "I, Lu Xiangsheng, have never been ambitious in my heart to pass the imperial examination and become an official. Instead, I want to command thousands of troops and gallop on the battlefield to spread the power of the Ming Dynasty for my emperor. Therefore, I have decided that after I have arranged my family affairs, I will go north to the capital to apply for the Royal Military Academy."
"Oh, my dear brother, I admire your determination. But I am too old to join the army. Even this imperial examination, haha." The middle-aged man laughed at himself, "I passed the imperial examination at the age of fifteen, and then took ten imperial examinations in a row, but failed all of them. Hearing this report today, I felt excited and wished I could go to Korea and kill the Japanese pirates with my own hands. But when I came to my senses, I had to lament that I am getting old and have no way to serve my country. If this continues, I may have to accept the invitation of the Tang vassal and go to the Tang Kingdom in the south to serve as the Minister of Rites."
"Hey, Brother Wenqi, I have read his essays many times. In my opinion, they are already excellent. Brother, please listen to my advice once and take the exam again in two years. I think you will definitely pass! After all, if you have a choice, it is better to serve our emperor!"
…
At this moment, Zhu Youdong, who was far away in Beijing, certainly didn't know the news of North Korea's victory, which directly changed the life trajectory of Lu Xiangsheng, the super-powerful man in the historical plane. He also didn't know that Wen Zhenmeng, the top scholar in 1622 in the historical plane, had failed ten times before becoming the top scholar. All his energy at this moment was preparing for how to land in Japan.
After the Korean War, all the war reports had to be reviewed by him personally before they could be published in the six major newspapers. So, he was really troubled about how to report.
The Toyotomi family was relatively easy to deal with: Yes, this isolated army of the Toyotomi family made a huge contribution to the Korean War this time, and suffered great casualties for it. However, on the one hand, after the Tokugawa shogunate was destroyed in the future, the Toyotomi family would be the biggest beneficiary, and today's efforts would be rewarded thousands of times in the future. On the other hand, Date, Uesugi, Mori, Maeda, and even Shimazu have all expressed their submission and repentance to Toyotomi Takehide. In this way, even though Toyotomi Takehide has not returned to Japan yet, the army he can command has already reached a huge number of 80,000 people.
Secondly, of course, there is the issue of compensation for casualties of the country's soldiers. This can be handled according to the rules. In addition, the Sixth Regiment was the first to land in Siam, and one of its battalions blocked the Rāja Pagoda at a vital point for three days. And this time, the Sixth Regiment was the first to land in Incheon, and fought very tenaciously and bravely when the heavy equipment was not on shore. Therefore, in addition to the pensions that should be paid, Zhu Youdong also gave the Sixth Regiment the exclusive title of "Iron Wall" according to the application of the soldiers of this town - this is the first military town among the seven towns built by the new army to get its own exclusive title.
What gave Zhu Youdong the most headache was how to deal with the Jurchens.
Originally, according to his idea, the Jurchens were in a sit-down war mode in the early stage of this war because the Ming Dynasty focused its main energy on dealing with Siam in the south. During this process, the Jurchens were not determined, especially Chu Ying, who secretly let in a group of ninjas.
Therefore, Zhu Youdong estimated that most of the Jurchens were just doing nothing on the Korean battlefield . When the time came, he could settle old and new accounts together and force them to hand over the already developed Songnen Plain and drive them further north: the Sanjiang Plain is also a wasteland waiting for you to develop it.
As a result, Chu Ying suddenly got the idea and led 10,000 Jurchens to defeat the three formations of Shimazu, Honda, and Ii on the Han River. The Tokugawa hereditary leaders were so frightened that they retreated into Seoul and refused to come out. As a result, Yukimura Sanada did not encounter any old-style Japanese troops in Incheon and successfully completed the sneak attack.
What made Zhu Youdong even more depressed was that Chu Ying, who had made such great contributions, actually died in battle!
You did it on purpose, didn't you? You must have done it on purpose! You must have seen how quickly Siam was destroyed by me, and how it was divided up in a very tragic way after it was destroyed. So you had a premonition, didn't you?
However, after basically guessing Chu Ying's inner thoughts, Zhu Youdong was even less able to take ruthless action against the Jurchens.
Again, as a time traveler, he knew how much damage the Jurchen tribe had caused to the Han people in the original plane of history, and he was also full of vigilance against this tribe. But people of this era didn't know! In their opinion, yes, Nurhaci was indeed a bastard in the past, and he dared to rebel, damn it! But now, hasn't he been honestly reclaiming wasteland in the Songnen Plain for seven years? In the past seven years, he has also handed over hundreds of good men every year to join the Ming army. And in recent years, he has also honestly accepted the teachers sent by the Liaodong governor to learn Chinese.
Oh, the Jurchens who have changed their ways fought for you on the front lines, even losing one of their leaders. But instead of rewarding them, you drove them deeper into the snowfield?
If you do this, how will the chieftains in the Ming Dynasty view you? How will the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty view you?
Therefore, even if he was a time traveler, Zhu Youdong had no choice but to let Fang Congzhe write a memorial to Chu Ying and issue a lot of money and food as rewards. He did not dare to reduce the compensation for the dead Jurchen soldiers.
"Ah, as expected, all those who can leave their names in history are not easy to deal with. In comparison, we time travelers are just able to grasp the direction of history. If we look down on the ancients just because of this, we will be taught a lesson by them..."
