Zhu Changzi was also afraid of changes, so he first came up with a guarantee plan.
The minimum requirements of Prince Lu's palace for the princess' marriage were finalized first.
The operation method he mentioned also made Shen Shuren stunned for a moment, but he quickly understood it and expressed his support.
Zhu Changzi does not have a son now, but it does not mean that his concubines and concubines have only conceived one child, Zhu Yuchan. As mentioned before, the rate of fetal dystocia and stillbirth in the Ming Dynasty was very high. Even if they were born, the rate of death due to congenital defects was very high.
It's also very high.
Zhu Changzi only raised one child, Zhu Yuchan, and there were actually two or three other cases of nominally premature births or even stillbirths.
In fact, even if Zhu Changzi's concubines had no other birth records, they could fabricate this matter - in the future, they will insist that Princess Lu was pregnant once more than ten years ago, but she had a miscarriage, and she was born prematurely.
It was a stillbirth and there was no record. Can anyone refute it? Anyway, it was just to borrow a name.
In order to justify the patriarchal status, if Shen Shuren himself is not willing to be a son-in-law in name, if he and Zhu Yuchan have children in the future, the safest way to deal with it is to adopt one of the children to "Zhu Yuchan's deceased relative"
"In the name of his younger brother, he will inherit his ancestral line", that is, he will be treated as a grandson from Zhu Changzi's grandson.
Perhaps modern people find this kind of stubbornness unbelievable: How can a child who died prematurely before reaching the age of one or two still have patriarchal children?
But this kind of thing actually didn’t happen in ancient times.
To give an inappropriate analogy, in the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after Liu Xiu reestablished the Han Dynasty, he posthumously recognized Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty as the emperor and Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty as the emperor Kao. Although he was a full seventy years younger than Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, he was younger than the son of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty.
Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty was forty-six years younger.
So at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Bei also thought about copying Liu Xiu's homework. Although Liu Bei did not achieve great success in the end, people around him also gave him advice.
According to the fact that Liu Bei was Liu Xie's uncle, he was of the same generation as Emperor Ling. If he recognized his father, he should recognize Emperor Huan. However, Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling were not related by blood, and they were both heirs of the late emperor, and the vassal kings succeeded him to the throne.
The last Chongqi Huan Ling and Chongzhi Huan of the Han Dynasty were both of the same generation, and they were both children who succeeded to the throne. Therefore, some advisers at the time believed that Liu Bei would eventually learn from Liu Xiu and recognize his father, and he could directly recognize Han Chong Emperor. Then Han Chong Emperor
After all, he was the biological son of Emperor Shun of the Han Dynasty, but he died at the age of three.
Since the civil servants in the late Han Dynasty thought that Liu Bei could recognize a three-year-old child who had died seventy-five years ago as his father (if he was still alive, that would be three plus seventy-five, seventy-eight years old,
Liu Bei was sixty years old when he ascended the throne, so it makes sense for his father to be eighteen years older than his son).
In the future, if Shen Shuren and Zhu Yuchan had a son, it would not be unreasonable to consider Zhu Yuchan's biological brother, who died before he was three years old, as his father.
After thinking about all this, Shen Shuren will certainly not feel any more psychological burden.
"So, whether Chongzhen is willing to grant me a title and a surname, or whether he refuses to grant a title and a surname and has to adopt an adopted son in the future, we have backup plans to deal with it.
The surname given to me can be compared to Li Keyong and Li Cunxu. The adopted son can be compared to Liu Xiu and Liu Bei. No matter how you calculate it, it is reasonable and not a loss." Chen Shuren thought to himself and felt at ease.
Of course, he would never speak out about these psychological activities, after all, these examples are a bit treacherous.
These two sets of examples, one is about reviving the Yan-Han Dynasty, and the other is about recreating the Tang Dynasty. They should not be compared randomly.
…
After Chen Shuren agreed to King Lu's arrangement, early the next morning, the group set off from Xinyang again, heading south to Wuchang first.
At the same time, Shen Shuren had been writing a letter all night. When he set off, he also called a close messenger and asked him to take the letter and rush to Nanjing immediately to inform his father Shen Tingyang of the cause and effect, and to ask Shen Tingyang to take leave.
Go to Hefei to meet with King Lu and finalize some details.
After all, Shen Tingyang, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, is not as busy as his counterpart in Beijing. He only has to take care of water transportation and taxes in Jiangnan, so it is easy to find time to take a long leave.
After setting off here, Prince Lu and his party did not cause any trouble to Chen Shuren along the way, and Prince Lu and the princess did not worry about their safety.
I explained the details to my daughter. I felt that my daughter was still young and shouldn’t know too many complicated things. It was better to wait until the dust settled before telling her.
Anyway, along the way, the little princess also lived in seclusion, Shen Shuren never came to see the palace girl Juan again, and the little girl didn't take it seriously. She had long been accustomed to the lifestyle of not seeing men outside.
Two days later, the group crossed Xinyang Road and arrived at the junction of Suizhou and Huangzhou. Another day later, they followed the Han River down the Yangtze River and arrived in Wuchang.
Chen Shuren said goodbye to everyone in Prince Lu's Mansion. It was only at this time that he saw Zhu Yuchan again and chatted a little with the little girl.
Zhu Yuchan didn't know what happened, but she got along well with Shen Shuren. She asked a lot of questions, and Shen Shuren answered them one by one. His conversation and behavior were interesting and insightful, which made the little girl admire him very much.
"My lord, I wish you a safe journey and wait for the good news. When you get to Hefei, be sure to send someone to reply and report that you are safe. I still have important matters to attend to. I must stay in Wuchang to rectify the military affairs and prepare for aid to Sichuan, so I won't send it.
." On the Wuchang pier, after Shen Shuren got off the boat, he raised his hands to King Lu and his entourage.
Zhu Changzi: "There is no need to be polite, Shen Futai. I hope that the military fortune will be prosperous and that peace will be restored for the Ming Dynasty."
(Note: What is said here is "the military fortunes are ever-prosperous" and not "the military fortunes are long-lasting", so there is no problem. Don't say this is a Japanese style. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Xie Tiao said "the military fortunes are prosperous" to describe the initial military achievements.
But if you keep winning battles and move from one victory to another, it will be transformed into "Wuyun Hengchang", which is how it is used. Nowadays, many people will complain when they hear the wording that looks a bit like traditional Japanese characters, regardless of whether it is true or not.
Japanese or ancient Chinese.)
Zhu Changzi and his party continued eastward along the river, and after another three or four days, they naturally arrived at Hefei.
…
The words were divided into two parts. While Shen Shuren and King Lu and King Fu were heading south and returning eastward, on the battlefield in Henan, the battle to pursue Li Zicheng and relieve the siege of Kaifeng was also advancing steadily.
The good news from the first stage of the Henan Campaign also reached Chongzhen's ears one after another, but the first one he received was not the good news written by Chen Shuren——
After all, the decisive battle in Chenxian County only repulsed Li Zicheng's main force and defeated many enemies, but it was not a decisive recovery of lost ground. If it was just a battle to defeat the enemy, it would be a big fanfare and Chen Shuren would be immodest.
Therefore, it is normal that Chongzhen has not yet heard from Shen Shuren personally reporting victory. He has to wait until Kaifeng has rescued the siege before he can give a staged conclusion.
Because Shen Shuren required a steady attack to open up the Yingchuan waterway before they could continue to advance, Huang Degong and Zhang Mingzhen actually delayed three or four days to remove the traces of water conservancy damage left by the intruders, and then advanced carefully.
When Huang Degong's troops advanced to Yancheng, the Shenshu people had already set off from Xinyang again, preparing to go south to Wuchang.
During the four days when Chen Shuren traveled from Xinyang to Wuchang, Huang Degong advanced in the north at the same time, basically advancing at least fifty or sixty miles a day, and at most seventy or eighty miles.
In four days, the four counties of Linying, Yanling, Xuchang, and Xinzheng under Kaifeng Prefecture were recovered.
In addition to a brief battle in Yancheng, they also defeated the remnants of a breakout army that was reluctant to leave. There were about thousands of people, and they wiped out one or two thousand enemies. The rest dispersed or surrendered.
In the remaining places such as Xuchang, Xinzheng, etc., no fighting broke out, or even if there were rogue bandits who did not leave, they would just open the door and surrender as soon as the officers and soldiers arrived.
After Xinzheng, there is only Zhongmu County, plus Zhuxian Town, and then we reach Kaifeng Fucheng.
When Huang Degong advanced to this point, he didn't see the main force of the breakout army staying behind to resist. He also had a suspicion, because Zhongmou County and Zhuxian Town were originally the headquarters of Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin's troops respectively. It was impossible for those small counties ahead
There are still troops left, but they have been completely evacuated here.
With Huang Degong's original temper, he would not think too much, but before sending troops this time, Shen Shuren repeatedly warned him and did some deductions. After Huang Degong thought about it, he was inevitably frightened, so he became more cautious when advancing, and he had to follow
Zhang Mingzhen cooperated closely.
On November 18, when the army crossed between Zhongmou County and Zhuxian Town, what Shen Shuren was worried about finally happened.
Huang Degong's troops were marching on alert. When searching forward, the front
The scouts suddenly saw a flood of water, spreading quickly.
Zhuxian Town is still more than thirty miles away from the Kaifeng City Wall, so when the water rushes in front of it, it will not be too deep at once. Huang Degong immediately asked people to shout gold, blow the horns of the troops, gather the search troops back, and at the same time let them get the alarm
The rear troops immediately moved closer and prepared to board the ship.
Zhang Mingzhen brought more than 200 large boats, with dozens of extra men crammed into each boat, and finally managed to collect all the main cavalry of Huang Degong's former army. Except that some soldiers became drowned and soaked, there were no casualties.
"Li Zicheng, this thief, really left someone to dig up the dam of the Yellow River! What a pity, if we had arrived half a month later, maybe the Yellow River would have dried up and frozen! How many people in Kaifeng Prefecture would suffer if the water was released! The city
I guess there aren't too many rogue troops out there! They must all have run away!" Huang Degong looked at the spreading water with hatred and cursed Li Zicheng for being vicious.
Zhang Mingzhen was also livid, but he could only persuade Huang Degong not to be unnecessarily angry: "We can't stop this if we come early or late. It only takes a few hours to dig up the embankment, even if we find that our army is twenty or thirty miles away."
It's too late to take action inside.
Now let's think about the aftermath and how to report it. This place has become a country, and there is no need for cavalry to search and attack the besieging bandits. Why don't I divide half of the ships and transport the cavalry back later?
Then gather all the food on board to the remaining ships that are not returning, and sail lightly to Kaifeng City. Under the flood, Kaifeng City will definitely be more starved, and if you can transport military food in, it will be able to solve the urgent need.
Anyway, Mr. Futai has already prepared a lot of food for Shouxian and Chenxian. Since it has been transported to Henan, transporting it back to Huguang will be a waste of manpower. It is better to save more people in Henan.
In addition, we must hurry up and rescue the King of Zhou. The King of Zhou can spend all the royal family's money to reward the army to help defend the city. He is considered a virtuous king among the kings. Saving him is good for us, and it is also good for Shen Futai's reputation.
.
In addition, let’s see if any of Kaifeng’s commander-in-chief Chen Yongfu’s men are willing to escort the King of Zhou to retreat. Just say that there is a flood here. Anyway, it is impossible for the intruders to attack such a deadly place again, and the imperial court will not transport military supplies to Kaifeng again.
They go elsewhere to get food, which also reduces the pressure on the court and at least saves on shipping costs."
Huang Degong thought for a while and sighed: "That's all it can do. Mr. Zhang is still thoughtful. Those of you who lead the navy must have had a lot of dealings with maritime merchants. You are more clever than a rough guy like me in settling accounts."
After the negotiation was concluded, Huang Degong led his team back and prepared a good news, stating that Kaifeng City had been relieved. However, before Li Zicheng left, he jumped over the wall and dug the Yellow River to flood the city. He was afraid that at least hundreds of thousands of people would die.
Zhang Mingzhen carried out humanitarian rescue according to the plan and withdrew the Zhou Palace and part of Chen Yongfu's city defense troops.