Eight hundred and ninetieth chapters Zhang Yue enters the river
Nowadays, the entire Forbidden City is full of panic. Some of the eunuchs and maids in the palace have even begun to sneak out of the palace. Even if they run away, they will also steal a few treasures and other valuable things.
This is true in the palace, let alone outside the palace. The entire Youzhou City (the capital of Tang Dynasty was renamed Youzhou in Ming Dynasty) is in chaos. There are still many soldiers in the city, about 20,000 people, but these who are left behind to guard Youzhou City
The Ming army is all the old Beijing camp that has a superficial appearance, and is not at all the new Beijing camp that Zhengde has organized and trained in recent years.
No matter in terms of personnel quality or equipment, they are still at the previous level. It is simply impossible to expect them to stop the puppet Tang army.
There are many people who can see this. The adults in the court can see it, and the ordinary gentry in the city can also see it. Even the common people think it is unreliable.
As a result, people in the city have been leaving the city on a large scale in recent days!
If you don't leave now, it will be troublesome when the puppet Tang bandits attack. By then, swords and guns will be blind, and it is normal for someone to lose his life due to carelessness. Moreover, his death was in vain, and there will be no explanation for it.
The people in the city fled out of the city on a large scale, trying to avoid the war, especially the gentry, who did not want to stay in the city. They preferred to hide in manors in the countryside because it was safer that way.
The emperors and ministers of the Ming Dynasty also discovered this situation, but they did not stop the people from fleeing, but did not allow them to flee with a large amount of food.
Why, because there are too many people in the city, but there is too little food in the city!
Since the water transportation was cut off, Youzhou lost the support of grain from the south, and almost immediately fell into a food crisis. The price of food was rising day by day. Before the Anping Battle, the price of food in Youzhou City was already what it was in previous years.
More than ten times.
And when the Ming army was defeated in the Battle of Anping and the Tang army quickly moved north, the price of food was getting higher and higher day by day because of fear of siege. Now, the price of food in Youzhou City is dozens of times higher than in previous years, and it is still expensive but not marketable.
, in other words, having money may not necessarily buy food.
There was some food in the official warehouse, but it was all military food. Naturally, the court could not sell it, so it could only let the people flee on their own.
However, before the people fled, the Ming Dynasty also took precautions, that is, it had already forcibly recruited tens of thousands of young people. These people could not escape. As for the rest, just escape. Staying in the city would only be a waste of money.
Lots of food.
Not just ordinary gentry, but in fact many serving Ming Dynasty officials quietly left the city. On the one hand, they wanted to avoid the war, and on the other hand, they naturally did not want to sink with the broken ship of the Ming Dynasty.
The disastrous defeat in the Battle of Anping made almost everyone in the world realize that the Ming Dynasty was going to be finished. This broken ship was going to sink. If we didn't jump off the ship and escape, it would be too late.
However, in such a dangerous predicament, the ministers in the court were still fighting for power, intrigues, and arguing endlessly.
Although Emperor Zhengde poisoned all the civil and military ministers who had been brought to Shandong, there were still many civil and military officials from the Ming Dynasty who stayed in Youzhou City, including many important ministers.
After Emperor Shaowu came to the throne, he immediately promoted a group of civil servants he trusted to take power. However, after these civil servants came to power, the first thing they did was not to actively guard against the puppet Tang rebels.
It’s still something that doesn’t help the overall situation at all.
Just for the posthumous title for Emperor Zhengde, the temple title was debated for three full days, and then it took a lot of time to argue about all kinds of messy things.
This made Emperor Shaowu go from disappointed to angry!
Damn it, the Ming Dynasty is about to die, and you are still playing house!
But there is no way to be angry. Although Emperor Shaowu was deeply educated by benevolent emperors, it does not mean that he is stupid. He knows that the current situation is very dangerous. Now he has to rely on these courtiers. After all, he is not the late emperor, so he cannot personally lead the troops to fight.
Even if he wanted to, he doesn't have the ability!
I don’t know who listens to the more than 20,000 Beijing troops!
When Emperor Shaowu was in crisis, King Jing, the third son of Emperor Zhengde in Chengdu, Sichuan, was different!
What is he doing?
At this moment, he was staying in the military camp to hold a military meeting.
Although Sichuan is a bit far away from Shandong, King Jing of Sichuan also learned the news today through the five-hundred-mile emergency report. After learning the news, he immediately went to the military camp with his confidants, and then stayed in the military camp.
Come out, he is waiting!
What are you waiting for, waiting for Zhang Yue to enter Sichuan!
Since King Jing was able to be placed in Sichuan by Emperor Zhengde, he was deeply loved by Emperor Zhengde, and even before his death, he directly gave him a book of succession. It can be seen that King Jing's ability is not bad, and he is on par with Emperor Zhengde.
Somewhat similar.
When he arrived in Sichuan, he used the power given to him by Emperor Zhengde to recruit and train troops in Sichuan. Now he has pulled out a palace guard army of 5,000 people, and is still recruiting and expanding it in large numbers. Of course, now there are only 5,000 people.
, but there was a shortage of guns and cannons. It was not that Zhang Yue said that he would not give him guns and cannons, but that Supervisor Biao himself did not have enough, so he could only reluctantly free up a thousand muskets and several artillery pieces for him.
Along with the tragic defeat in the Battle of Anping and the death of Zhengde, there was also the imperial edict of Emperor Zhengde and a handwritten letter from Zhang Yue. Zhang Yue said that he would immediately pay an audience in Sichuan to ask him to delay his departure!
It was precisely because Zhang Yue was coming and showed his support for him that King Jing did not rush to ascend the throne directly and become emperor by relying on the throne transfer book, but was waiting!
He is not only waiting for Zhang Yue to come, he is also waiting for the death of the prince of Youzhou City!
Even though the throne was officially announced, he did not want to be dishonest and leave any clues to outsiders. After the defeat of Anping, it goes without saying that the prince who stayed in Youzhou would definitely ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor as soon as possible.
Yes, this has nothing to do with whether Emperor Zhengde passed the throne to him, because the one in Youzhou City is the current prince and the legitimate heir to the throne.
But Beizhili will definitely be doomed, and the prince who stays in Youzhou will also be doomed soon. King Jing knows this very well, and so does Zhang Yue!
All they have to do now is wait for the death of one of the princes in Youzhou!
Then, as the third prince, he, King Jing, also has the succession edict of Emperor Zhengde, so he can legitimately inherit the throne without giving any clue to outsiders!
As far as he knew, his sixth brother, King Hui, was no worse than him in Liaodong. He actually convinced the Liaodong military commanders and got the support of the local Liaodong military commanders. In addition, he also started to contact the surrounding forces.
For example, the Mongols and Jurchens even sent people into North Korea and directly adopted the legitimate daughter of the North Korean royal family as their concubine. Of course, she was not the real princess, but the side princess. To be more precise, she should be called 'Mrs. Li', or
Li's.
That was not restless at all. To a certain extent, he actually controlled more military power than King Jing himself.
But King Jing also had his own advantages. He had the succession edict of Emperor Zhengde, and he was older than King Hui. More importantly, he had the support of Zhang Yue!
Before entering Sichuan, Zhang Yue had already hinted to Emperor Zhengde that he would support King Jing. After King Jing entered Sichuan, although Zhang Yue did not come to Sichuan to see him, Zhang Yue wrote to him many times, hinting to him that if there was a
Change, Zhang Yue and Du Biao will firmly stand on King Jing's side.
At the same time, Zhang Yue's confidant Song Zhiwen is also in Chengdu now and is a frequent visitor to the palace!
The internal situation of the Ming Dynasty became extremely complicated with the defeat of Anping and the death of Zhengde. The city of Youzhou was in chaos, Liaodong was not stable, and Sichuan was even more so.
After the death of Zhengde, although the three sons of Emperor Zhengde did not start a superficial competition to ascend the throne, in fact King Jing and King Hui were well prepared. Once the puppet Tang rebels invaded Youzhou, no matter whether it was King Jing
King Hui will be the first to ascend the throne.
Li Xuan didn't care much about the turmoil within the Ming Dynasty!
No matter who inherits the position of Zhengde, it will not make much difference to him, nor will it change the established strategy of the Tang Dynasty: North first, then South!
In short, it is to capture the north first, and then control Beizhili, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and other provinces in the north, and then free up your hands to deal with Zhang Yue!
As for whether Zhang Yue supported King Jing or Emperor Shaowu, it made no difference to the Tang Dynasty!
Nowadays, the real enemies of the Tang Dynasty are actually not the three sons of Emperor Zhengde, but Zhang Yue!
The hundreds of thousands of supervisors and military training under Zhang Yue's command were the Tang Army's thorn in the side!
This is why the First Army has been stationed in Hunan all year round. After the Second Army moved north to Henan and won the Battle of Anping, it quickly moved south to the southwest and returned to defend northern Anhui.
Now in the north, there are actually only the Third Army and the Fourth Army fighting. Li Xuan himself is leading the Guards to stay in Anping first, and will continue to go north to Youzhou with the Guards later.
If nothing else happens, he will go to the Forbidden City and browse around.
After finishing his trip to Youzhou, he will return south to Jinling.
As the emperor of a country, although Li Xuan was conducting the expedition in person, he could not stay away from Jinling all the time. In this case, various variables would easily occur.
As time passed, when the Tang Army approached Youzhou, the news of the Tang Army's great victory in Anping also spread widely. At first, only some upper-class people or people who were relatively close knew about it, but now, even in Guangzhou,
Everyone has already heard the news.
After the extra-issue sample was sent to Guangzhou, it was printed on a large scale. Within a few days, everyone in Guangzhou knew that the Tang Dynasty King's Division had defeated the last main force of the Ming Army.
In the trade zone outside Guangzhou, some merchants did not even have time to inquire for detailed information. They simply purchased various goods, then loaded them onto ships. Where would they be shipped? Of course, to the north!
The northern market is not small, and now it is about to fall completely under the control of Datang. Naturally, they want to seize the local market as soon as possible!