At noon the next day, all the generals returned to the Chinese army camp, the three drums sounded, and the generals lined up solemnly under the tent. They all held their breath and did not dare to breathe. Because His Majesty the Emperor, who returned to the capital a few days ago, left and returned again...
"Your Majesty has arrived." A long eunuch's voice sounded, and Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, appeared in the tent with a sinking look on his face.
All the generals knelt down with a rumble and shouted in unison: "Long live my emperor, long live my emperor!"
"Get up." Zhu Di sat upright on the dragon chair and snorted coldly.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." The generals quickly stood up and lowered their heads to listen to the Emperor's instructions.
"A few days ago, Zheng He was about to leave for Zhejiang and prepare to sail to the West again. I went back to Beijing to see him off." Zhu Di glanced at the generals. Anyone who dared to look at him wanted to lower his head to his belly.
"Before leaving, I gave the command to the prince and asked him to act as the commander-in-chief." He said with a sneer: "I thought that an army of hundreds of thousands, led by a pig, would not be defeated by a few people in a short period of time."
All the enemy soldiers were defeated. What was the result? It really opened my eyes."
"My son is stupid and failed to live up to my father's high expectations." Zhu Gaochi knelt down with a burning face. He was scolded like a pig by his father in public. His heart was inevitably filled with humiliation and confusion.
"Your Majesty, calm down." There were all military generals in the tent, and no one spoke for the prince. Xue Lu, Marquis of Yangwu, had no choice but to bite the bullet and said: "Your Highness, the prince, has not been in charge of an army for many years, so it is inevitable that he will be unfamiliar with the deployment. However, the main force of the army is still there, and there is no
What a loss."
"Don't you try to excuse him?" Zhu Di snorted coldly: "You are also a veteran who has followed me out of the border several times. Don't you know that in the vast desert, being cut off from food routes and shaking the morale of the army means that the entire army will be annihilated?
?”
"Yes..." Xue Lu did not dare to say another word.
"The prince is old and sparse in the battle formation, are you the same?" After training the prince, Zhu Di directed his anger at the generals again, angrily saying: "Each of them is either slow to move, hesitant, or underestimates the enemy and rushes in, and is treated like a monkey.
Damn, you’ve been too comfortable in the past two years, haven’t you? Have you forgotten how to fight?”
"I deserve to die." All the generals knelt down to apologize, but their hearts were filled with depression. If the prince hadn't changed his orders from morning to night, giving random orders and making us dizzy, we wouldn't have slacked off later. But as long as he wasn't stubborn.
People who are incompetent will be somewhat vigilant. The performance of the armies this time is really bad. If they go out like this, they will have to make the same mistake as Qiu Fu... The great tragedy of Qi Guogong Qiu Fu, well, let's not mention it.
Zhu Di spoke harshly and trained the generals to the point of trembling. They were disgraced and refused to give up. He was so angry that he dismissed everyone from their posts and asked them to go home to raise their grandchildren. Before they went home, the generals thought that they would be scolded by the emperor and even be demoted.
They were fined with their posts, but they didn't expect that they would be dismissed directly. They were all shocked and kowtowed to admit their mistakes with tears streaming down their faces.
Zhu Di said coldly: "I was too good to you before, but you all relied on my favor and became arrogant. Not only did you teach your children and grandchildren to become dandies, but now you even have diarrhea yourself. Do you deserve my trust?"
The generals shook their heads vigorously, and some of them, who were very expressive, gave themselves a few slaps and cursed themselves for being stupid. They were sorry for the emperor's trust, but in fact they only had one real purpose...asking the emperor to give them another chance.
"Shut up, everyone." Zhu Di got tired of hearing this and snorted, and the generals immediately fell silent, not daring to breathe. The emperor then controlled his anger and said to his second son in a friendly manner: "The King of Han's performance is very good this time, it was executed perfectly.
My intentions are worthy of praise. Tell me, what reward do you want?"
"Father, you are so complimentary," Zhu Gaoxu said hurriedly and humbly: "I just did some things within my duty. This time our army exposed various problems and all the generals were punished. How could I have the heart to ask for anything?"
Reward? Please ask my father to forgive the generals and give them a chance to prove themselves."
As soon as these words came out, the generals naturally cast grateful glances at the King of Han. Zhu Di also nodded approvingly and said: "It's rare that you have a kind heart. Since I have made my promise, I have to fulfill it." After saying this, he snorted coldly and said to those people.
The general who was looking forward to him said: "You will be fined for half a year, demoted and retained. Do you know what to do when you return?"
"I know, I know, I will definitely cherish the opportunity, and I will sacrifice my courage to save myself from today's shame." The generals nodded like chickens pecking at rice and said: "I will live up to the emperor's grace and the good intentions of His Highness the King of Han."
"It's good that you know, get out of here." Zhu Di snorted. The generals knew that the storm had passed, got up from the ground, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"The other person who wants to be rewarded is my grandson." Zhu Di's eyes fell on Zhu Zhanji and he said with approval: "The young army, which has only been in the army for less than half a year, can keep up with the team in this exercise.
, was not defeated, does this mean that my great-grandson is very clever?"
The generals nodded hurriedly, echoing the emperor's praise, but suddenly heard a discordant voice: "Grandpa Emperor, this is not fair, he is cheating."
When the generals took a look, they saw an angry Zhu Zhanhe looking at His Highness Taisun with an expression of disapproval.
Zhu Gaoxu's expression changed and he hurriedly scolded: "Shut up!"
Zhu Di narrowed his eyes, looked at Zhu Zhanhe coldly and said, "Why did he cheat?"
"He dug a horse pit, used bamboo as a weapon, and used cart boards to block arrows." Zhu Zhanhe said angrily: "Is there anyone who can fight like him?"
"Have you ever heard of the principle that war is impermanent?" Zhu Di said calmly: "When fighting a war, one has more ways to fight than the other. This is something worthy of praise from your grandson brother. You should learn more and don't always be unconvinced.
"
"My grandson just refuses to accept it. It is clearly stipulated not to dig a horse pit," Zhu Zhanhe said firmly, holding his neck high.
"My tunnel was just trampled on." Zhu Zhanji defended in a low voice.
Zhu Zhanhe was not convinced and kept chattering. Zhu Di's eyes were already a little impatient, but for Zhu Gaoxu's sake, he endured it and did not have an attack. Seeing that this was not good, Zhu Gaoxu slapped Zhu Zhanhe hard in the face.
He scolded: "You little beast still dares to take the blame. Just listen to what the emperor says."
Zhu Zhanhe didn't dare to speak at this moment, and looked down at Zhu Zhanji bitterly.
"Okay." Zhu Di ignored Zhu Zhanhe and said to Zhu Zhanji: "My dear grandson, no matter what, you did a good job this time. How do you want Grandpa Huang to reward you?"
"My grandson doesn't want a reward from the emperor." Zhu Zhanji shook his head and said.
"Haha... Today is weird." Zhu Di said with a smile: "I don't want any reward." Then he asked the eldest grandson: "What is this for?"
"My grandson used a surprising method to win this time, but he cannot convince his opponents, because my young army and I do not have the strength to defeat them openly." Zhu Zhanji said loudly: "So please ask the emperor to wait for your grandson and lead the young army.
When we become a strong army that can conquer the world for the emperor, we will reward you."
"Hahaha" Zhu Di laughed loudly after hearing these words: "If you have ambition, you are my good saint grandson." Everyone can hear the joy in the emperor's smile. "Okay, it's up to you.
I will reward you twice as much when the time comes.”
"Thank you, Grandpa Emperor, for your kindness." Zhu Zhanji was overjoyed.
Seeing that Zhu Zhanji's limelight was overwhelming him, Zhu Gaoxu was so angry that he couldn't even smile at all on his face. Zhu Zhanhe's eyes were spitting fire, as if he wanted to eat him.
"Grandpa Huang, can my grandson help his father up?" After Zhu Di finished laughing, Zhu Zhanji asked in a low voice.
"Get up." Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaochi, the smile on his face faded, and he said to the generals in a deep voice: "Today we rest in place for a day, and tomorrow the army will return to Beijing. All armies must sum up their lessons and come up with training strategies and write them down.
I'll take a look at this statement. There are exactly one hundred days between now and the Chinese New Year. During these hundred days, I will practice to death. If anyone dares to slack off, the old and new accounts will be calculated together. I will make him suffer while walking around.
Do you understand?"
"Yes" all the generals responded in unison.
After retreating from the palace, the emperor asked Zhu Zhanji to eat with him. Two eunuchs helped Zhu Gaochi out and handed him over to the courtiers of the East Palace who were waiting outside.
The courtiers helped the prince back to his tent. Several palace officials were there, all with angry faces. They had obviously heard about the prince's experience. After the eunuch left, Jin Wen said angrily: "If the emperor is angry again, he will not be angry."
You shouldn’t say that to the prince, right?”
"Shut up," Zhu Gaochi said with a dark face: "Father is the guide for son, and I can do whatever my father says to me.
"Your Highness, I cannot agree with this." Huang Huai said seriously: "It is true that you are the emperor's son, but you are also the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty. Since you are the emperor, you must have your own respect, even if you are the emperor.
You cannot insult you at will, otherwise it will be suspected of shaking the foundation of the country."
"Haha..." Zhu Gaochi shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Master Huang is just a scholar. My father is a soldier. He can beat and scold his son whenever he wants. Whether I am the prince or not has no influence at all."
"Your Highness, please forgive me for speaking frankly." Yang Pu said with a solemn face: "Your Majesty did not say it randomly this time, but deliberately targeted His Highness. Not to mention today's incident, just the instructions you issued are obviously...
The emperor left a decree, but now you have to take the blame."
"..." Zhu Gaochi's expression darkened when he heard this. Although he has been in poor health over the years, he has also commanded the defense of Beijing. As the eldest son of King Yan, how can he not know about military affairs? If he was really allowed to command, he would never
He was in such a situation, but the decree left by his father before he left strictly restricted what kind of instructions should be issued every day, so he could only follow them. It made him feel like he was in such a mess now.
Being scolded by the emperor is almost painful to death.
"Perhaps, lifting up the King of Han and suppressing His Highness is one of the purposes of the Emperor's military exercise." Yang Pu whispered: "Some time ago, His Highness, through Zhou Xin's case, suddenly became taller and taller in the minds of the ministers.
Get up. We are borrowing Master Yao's name again, and we are really calling it flowers and brocade, and fire is cooking oil. We will definitely make the emperor unhappy again."
"Eighty percent of it is like this." The other two officials nodded and sighed: "It's not easy to be the prince for the emperor.
Zhu Gaochi felt sad for a while, and then he put on a smile and said, "Fortunately, I lost to the King of Han this time, but my son defeated his two sons."