Zhu Shuren was naturally very excited when he heard that the fighting at the Pizhou battlefield was finally over. The Ming army that besieged the city suffered almost no casualties, but relied solely on a lack of food to force the Qing army to turn against the defenders and capture Kong Youde. He was also captured alive.

When this news was received, it was already the end of the twelfth lunar month of the third year of Longwu, and Zhu Shuren himself had returned to Nanjing.

After all, the large-scale offensive battles on the front line have basically been completed. The subsequent stalemate and small-scale encroachment and advancement do not require his personal supervision, and the generals should be fully trusted.

After all, Zhu Shuren is in power and cannot leave the center of the court for too long. He must take care of both parties.

As the New Year is approaching and the weather is freezing, it would be a good thing to return to Nanjing, which is relatively warm, to spend time with my wife and children, and to celebrate the ZTE during the New Year.

Therefore, the good news that Kong Youde was captured is still of great use to Zhu Shuren. In this year's series of decisive battles, a Manchu prince and a county king were killed, but no one was captured alive and later punished with canonical punishment. I always felt that something was missing.

Among the traitor generals, the most powerful one is King Sanshun. After all, Wu Sangui in this life has never officially surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. He only let the Qing soldiers enter the pass, but in the end he did it anyway, and the sin is not that big. Without Wu Sangui, who else would be there?

Is it worthy to compete with the Sanshun King?

At the last moment, Geng Zhongming took the initiative to lead his troops to jump over the wall, fight with Bo Luoyue, and even died. Although his sin was quite serious, Zhu Shuren had no choice but to reward his son Geng Jimao heavily and give Geng Jimao some power without real power.

of pure title.

Shang Kexi is still in the north and has not been entrusted with important tasks this time. To be honest, Shang Kexi's reasons for becoming a thief in the first place are slightly more excusable than those of Geng Zhongming and Kong Youde.

powerful.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty really lacked an enemy prince to cheer up the people of the capital.

Zhu Shuren ordered his subordinates to transport Kong Youde as soon as possible, and try to use medicinal materials to hang on his life on the way to prevent him from dying easily. Finally, he hurriedly and slowly arrived in Nanjing on the 27th of the twelfth lunar month.

It would be bad if we delay for a few more days and kill people during the Chinese New Year. It would be better to use the sacrificial knife to remove bad luck before New Year's Eve.

Naturally, the Ministry of Punishment also expedited the process. As long as there was no time for a slow trial, all the materials were prepared in advance. It only took half a day for the public trial to open everyone's eyes. It also allowed those with a rank of fifth rank or above in Nanjing City to go to the Ministry of Punishment.

Listen in the lobby.

Therefore, most of the officials of fifth rank and above in Nanjing City, as well as those with noble titles, who were not on duty, naturally came to participate in this "patriotic education".

After questioning him, they dragged Kong Youde away that afternoon, took him to the archway of the Confucius Temple by the Qinhuai River, and chopped him into pieces - this execution place was specially chosen, as Nanjing usually did not execute Lingchi criminals here.

Didn't Kong Youde often boast that he was a descendant of Confucius, and he could actually get a family tree from the Eight Classics? In that case, he was dragged to the door of the Confucius Temple and chopped into pieces. It was also a warning to other spineless traitors.

In the end, before New Year's Eve, Kong Youde was cut into a skeleton in a hurry, and then his bones were crushed and his ashes were scattered.

Everyone in Nanjing was excited, and the atmosphere of the New Year was heightened to a certain point. All civil and military officials in the court firmly believed that the Ming Dynasty would achieve greater victory in the coming year, and the complete recovery of the Central Plains would be just around the corner.

…

The wheel of history soon turned to the fourth year of Longwu.

In the city of Nanjing, everyone is rejoicing. Even Emperor Longwu Zhu Changqi, who was cowardly and lazy in politics and often let Zhu Shuren, Shi Kefa, and Shen Tingyang handle the government affairs, has recently participated in various government affairs activities more frequently.

Of course, Zhu Changzi didn't want to take care of those complicated things, just because all the generals have made too many achievements recently,

Not only Zhongdu was recovered, but also the entire Southern Zhili territory (Southern Zhili in the Ming Dynasty bordered Shandong, and in later generations, Northern Jiangsu to Xuzhou were considered Southern Zhili) and a few Henan prefectures.

For such great achievements, there were too many military generals who needed to be rewarded and promoted. Zhu Changzi often had to meet in person, have in-depth conversations and exhortations, and discuss with civilian officials whether the previous empty title of the Commander-in-Chief of the Five Armies should be re-acquired.

Come out to raise honors.

As we all know, the Ming Dynasty theoretically maintained the titles that carried the name of the Governor's Palace in the early Ming Dynasty, but the actual power became smaller in the later years, and they were all controlled by the descendants of the nobles.

But since the death of the late emperor Chongzhen, all the nobles in Beijing were naturally destroyed. Later, the city of Nanjing was defeated by Duduo, and the few nobles who stayed in Nanjing did not perform well. After Zhu Shuren later relieved the siege of Nanjing, of course

It is also necessary to sort out and rectify the situation and remove incompetent nobles.

If you are willing to contribute to the court, work hard, and be worthy of your salary, there is no harm in keeping it. But since they are almost useless like pigs and pigs, why waste this money?

A dynasty has been going through for a long time, and the reason why it is getting heavier and heavier is because the system cannot be reinstalled, and the debris and garbage are piling up more and more! The feudal king should clean up, and the deposed nobles must also clean up.

However, the close warriors that Zhu Shuren personally promoted before had not done enough, so Zhu Shuren just withdrew and did not intervene.

Now, Zhu Shuren is also planning to give the empty titles left by those "Jingnan" nobles to the generals he promoted.

Zhu Di was able to promote his cronies back then, but he only promoted them based on their merits in the civil war. Can't he, Zhu Shuren, promote him now? The world has been reshuffled. This time, it is for the merits of saving the nation and rebuilding the country. It should not be more worthy than the civil war generals of Zhu Di's dynasty.

respect?

Zhu Shuren would not let go of this opportunity if he had the opportunity to format it and re-indulge it.

Of course, it is still too high to directly give the position of commander-in-chief of the left and right armies, but it is still possible to get some lower-level positions of power commander, or just use certain admiral positions in Nanjing Jingying as a reward.

Leave some space to recover Hebei, Shandong, and Shanxi and gradually increase rewards later. Finally, you have to leave some space to recover Liaodong and go straight to Shenyang.

The first group of people who deserve the most generous rewards are naturally Cao Bianjiao, Huang Degong and others who have the most outstanding military achievements. They have obtained the corresponding false titles in the left and right army commander system. Others such as Liu Guoneng, Li Fuming, etc. also have important roles, so it is impossible to list them one by one.

Repeat.

The morale of the Ming army rose again, and the generals no longer worried about having been granted the title of marquis, and that they would not be able to be promoted after being given the title of general, nor did they worry about whether they would be rewarded or not. Naturally, they became more and more grateful to Prince E.

From New Year's Day to the Lantern Festival, the Nanjing Palace gave banquets continuously to praise the generals. After everyone was promoted, they could not help but express their determination to fight with Zhu Shuren again, hoping to speed up the Northern Expedition as soon as possible this year.

However, Zhu Shuren, in response to everyone's enthusiasm, calmed down a little bit, saying that there was no need to worry, and privately told Cao Bianjiao and others:

"Wars are not won only by fighting on the battlefield, but by taking advantage of each other. When Cao Cao beheaded Tadun, Yuan Shang and Yuan Xiyuan fled to Liaodong and defected to Gongsun Kang, Guo Jia all knew that if there is an urgent situation, the two thieves will unite, and if they are slow, they will be suspicious of each other.

In the end, Gongsun Kang sent the heads of two Yuan Dynasties to him. Isn't it beautiful?

For this purpose, Dorgon within the Tatars advocated the southern expedition twice, but both failed miserably and returned. It is said that everything can never be done again. The death of Duduo three years ago has already given Dorgon the credit for setting up the army to invade the Central Plains.

Most of them were eliminated. If this time there is another disastrous defeat and Azig will die, will Dorgon be able to remain in power for a long time?

At the moment we should not fight to the death with the Tatars, but should use both war and peace. On the one hand, we should continue to show our muscles and prove that our Ming Dynasty has the ability to completely occupy the Yellow River defense line. On the other hand, we should send out various channels of diplomatic deception to mislead the peace advocates among the Tatars.

wavers,

Let them believe that our Ming Dynasty is not ready for a full-scale counterattack. It was only forced by Dorgon's southern invasion before! We just want to have a solid line of defense to continue the stalemate and plan for the long term.

As long as the situation calms down, there will inevitably be changes within the Tatars. When the time comes, we will carry out the final blow against the Tatars, and we will definitely not stop you from marching forward again! Go straight to Huanglong!"

Zhu Shuren has established the absolute prestige of divine prophecy through many years of undefeated myth. Of course, no one in the whole court will question his grand strategic vision.

Of course, Cao Bianjiao and other generals immediately expressed their absolute sincerity and would definitely abide by the timetable set by Prince E and strictly enforce the orders and prohibitions.

After finishing the reward promotion work for many powerful generals, seeing that the Lantern Festival had passed, Zhu Shuren took stock and found that there were still two people who needed to be dealt with separately.

The first rather special object of discussion was Geng Jimao, who turned against Abate during the Battle of Feishui. In order to survive, he fought with Abate's personal guards with swords. In the end, he killed Abate by pretending to be a formation.

Although he knew that Geng Jimao was definitely a despicable villain, he betrayed him before the battle, and later helped the Ming Dynasty disrupt the Fengyang Qing army and help the Ming Dynasty regain the Central Capital. His father Geng Zhongming, an old traitor, was also killed in the chaos.

Zhu Shuren could only pinch his nose and give the Geng family superficial preferential treatment.

In the end, he officially made Geng Jimao an earl, gave him a large reward, retained the title of general soldier, and even allowed him to continue to lead the surviving Han banner soldiers who he had led with him on the Feishui battlefield.

But in fact, Zhu Shuren will definitely not give him another opportunity to make obvious achievements. At most, he will be placed on a secondary battlefield, and his weapons and equipment will not be upgraded. This is also to appease people's hearts and set up a sign to recruit surrender and rebels.

In addition to his actual power, Zhu Shuren was not stingy in other aspects. No, during the Chinese New Year, he even allowed Geng Jimao to come to the palace as a guest several times. When the palace hosted banquets for the generals, he also allowed Geng Jimao to drink with the famous generals.

Anyway, this kind of benefit that has no real harm and only requires money to give to the face can be given.

In this way, with Geng Jimao wooing him, Kong Youde and Lingchi, and both positive and negative models established, he would naturally have a clear idea of ​​how to choose the northern traitor in the future.

After appeasing Geng Jimao, Zhu Shuren only had one last special example of reward based on merit - Li Yu, who led the rifle sniper team to kill Azig in the Battle of Xinyang.

In the Battle of Xinyang, Zhang Huangyan was the first contributor. It goes without saying that Zhu Wenzhen was also the second contributor. During the subsequent large-scale counterattack, Jiang Shoude, Li Dingguo, and Sun Kewang all made contributions, and naturally they all received promotions and official business.

That’s it.

Killing Azig was no small matter. Not only did Zhang Huangyan secure his position as governor, Zhu Shuren even promised that when he continued to attack north in the future, he could be the governor of more than one province! For example, he could take care of Henan, Shanxi, or Shaanxi and Gansu at the same time.

Ning, everything is negotiable. In addition, Zhang Huangyan was also granted the title of Marquis.

Zhu Wenzhen, who directly commanded the army, also received a knighthood and the title of general.

Li Yu's level is even lower than Zhu Wenzhen's. He only performs specific sniper missions. But the most troublesome thing is that he is a Korean.

And although he helped Zhu Shuren fight for five or six years, he had always wanted to keep a low profile and keep his name anonymous to prevent his life experience from being leaked and causing trouble to his family in North Korea.

When he first came here in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, he just "brought money into the group" and brought a battalion of Korean gunmen. Zhu Shuren appointed him as a garrison according to the size of the troops he brought. In these five years

He accumulated merits one after another. He started participating in the war when he fought against Zhang Xianzhong in Hunan, and gradually rose to the rank of capital, guerrilla, and general...

This time to snipe Azig again, it is absolutely necessary to give him a general soldier, and it is not enough.

After all, if the Ming Dynasty originally had connections and a strong backing general, he could be promoted to the rank of general by killing a Jia Laerzhen of the Qing army. Even if a Ming army general who had no backing and was bullied by others could kill a Mele Erzhen,

You can definitely be promoted to the rank of General Soldier.

Azig is the banner lord prince and Dorgon's only brother from the same mother. How can he be promoted to the rank of general?

Therefore, Zhu Shuren felt it necessary to bring him in for a talk this time.

…

Three days after the Shangyuan Festival, Li Yu, who rarely went to Nanjing to report on his work, was summoned and asked to attend a banquet at the Prince of E's Mansion.

To be honest, since Li Yu was rescued to the south, he only passed through Nanjing briefly, and spent most of his time traveling around the Huguang War Zone. Now that it is a rare opportunity to come to Nanjing to stay for a while, he is still very curious. It is a kind of pilgrimage.

feel.

After all, he is a Korean, and it is an honor to be able to go to the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Nanjing is much wider than their petty Seoul, and after Li Yu came, his daily travel schedule was very full.

Being summoned to Prince E's Mansion this time was naturally like a countryman entering the city. From what he could see and see, he felt that it was even more luxurious than what he had seen when he was a boy, when he had the rare opportunity to follow his father to the Gyeongbokgung Palace for a banquet.

"I heard that this is not the official palace of Prince E, but a separate courtyard he built next to the Princess Palace. I don't know how luxurious the official palace of Prince E is, and how luxurious the Forbidden City is."

Li Yu felt dizzy and was led to a place. It was a pavilion in a pond. Winter plum trees were planted all over the pond, and the atmosphere was quiet. Zhu Shuren was sitting on it. There were staff and guards on the left and right, but there were no other guests. It could be seen that it was a separate banquet.
To be continued...