Liu Liangzuo's desperate attempt was abruptly cut off by Zhang Mingzhen, and finally the three towns of Liu Liangzuo, Xu Dingguo, and Liu Zeqing in the north of the Yangtze River were not immediately forced into full confrontation with the Nanjing imperial court.
But the distance between the two parties was completely broken, and only the last fig leaf was left, the last step to step down.
The chain of suspicion has reached this point, and the King Fu family must be extremely wary of the King Lu regime that is about to take over.
In this conflict, the army cannot be stopped with just a few words from the commander.
On the river defense line that stretched for several miles, when the two sides finally pulled apart, two small boats on Liu Liang's left side had also been sunk. In total, dozens of soldiers were killed, and hundreds of others were injured and fell into the river.
On Zhang Mingzhen's side, none of the warships sank. At most, a few planks were damaged by musketry and crossbow fire on some of the hulls. Several soldiers were killed, and the casualty exchange ratio was at least ten times greater.
The Northern Army is not used to water warfare and does not have professional warships, so it is normal to fight like this.
And this level of friction and conflict was not uncommon in the history of the early Southern Ming Dynasty——
In the original time and space, after Gao Jie moved to Lianghuai, he also fought with Huang Degong to compete for the wealthy defense area near Yangzhou. Gao Jie once even tried to hold a banquet to trap Huang Degong, and ambushed and killed more than a hundred of Huang Degong's elite guards.
, Huang Degong himself relied on his martial arts skills to break through despite injuries.
If this scene were made into a TV series and the subtitles were blocked and the lines turned off, the audience might think it was Zhu Wen and Li Keyong's Hongmen Banquet plot.
But in the end, Huang Degong had no choice but to accept Gao Jie's apology and pay a large sum of money as a pension under Shi Kefa's persuasion, and the grudge was settled. The domineering nature of the military commanders in the feudal town at that time was evident.
Now Liu Liangzuo has been killed and wounded a hundred people and retreated. The casualties themselves are nothing at all.
…
Zhang Mingzhen's interception was quickly returned to Nanjing within three hours.
Shi Kefa, Shen Tingyang, and even Wang Duo and other ministers also breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time they became more and more frightened.
If a bloody conflict breaks out, we must ensure that King Lu succeeds in taking the throne. Otherwise, once King Fu makes a comeback, everyone will be liquidated.
Shi Kefa could only continue to send six hundred miles to urge Zhu Shuren to hurry up.
Zhu Shuren had just arrived in Hefei at this time. One day later, on his way back with King Lu, Zhu Shuren heard near Chaohu that King Fu wanted to seize the capital.
Previously, Zhu Shuren considered that King Lu would not be able to bear the hardship, so he did not dare to push King Lu to work hard day and night. After receiving this information, he could not care less.
He immediately had a showdown with his old father-in-law. Zhu Changzhen also knew the importance and knew that there was no way out, so he gritted his teeth and endured the hardship. He asked someone to bring a fast horse, and a cavalry general with superb riding skills and a relatively light body rode with him.
To protect Zhu Changzhen, who was not good at riding, from falling off his horse while galloping.
Because he was carrying two people at the same time, he had to change horses every thirty miles. Fortunately, there were enough good horses, and he galloped from Chaohu to Wuhu in half a day. Zhu Changzhen also gritted his teeth. He had been pampered since he was a child and almost vomited.
I'm about to spit out bile.
When we arrived at Wuhu and boarded the battleship crossing the river, the situation was slightly better. The battleship also sailed down the river, with full sails and the sailors rowing with all their strength, without stopping all night, and arrived in Nanjing the next morning.
Shi Kefa, Shen Tingyang, and Wang Duo led the way and greeted them directly at the Yangtze River Wharf at the mouth of the Qinhuai River. As soon as Zhu Changxu, who was in vain, stepped onto the solid ground of the wharf trestle under the protection of Zhu Shuren, several pavilion elders and ministers could not wait to welcome him.
Come up and do a big salute.
The process was formal, needless to mention some minor twists and turns, Shi Kefa and others quickly sent Zhu Changzhi off to the chariot, first went to Purple Mountain to pay a visit to the mausoleum, and then entered the city and the palace.
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Visiting the mausoleum, even going to the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty to pay homage to Zhu Yuanzhang, there is nothing you can do about it. The emperors who ascended the throne in Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty had to go through this process. This was the case when Zhu Di usurped the throne. Even though Zhu Changzhen was the supervisor of the country, he could not save it.
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Along the way, Shi Kefa also took advantage of the gap in red tape to discuss with Zhu Shuren, and also asked Zhu Changzhen for instructions, hoping to see how he would characterize King Fu's attempt to advance to Nanjing two days ago.
After all, the grievances involving the closest vassal kings in the clan, the cabinet has become a foreign minister, and it is not easy to act arbitrarily.
Zhu Changzhen was cowardly and had no opinion, and refused to answer Shi Kefa directly. He just found an opportunity to distract him and asked his son-in-law privately:
"What do you think, the wise son-in-law, how should we deal with Prince Fu? Is it possible not to break up with each other? They are all members of the Ming Dynasty clan. In this autumn of national crisis, I really don’t want to harm myself anymore. Liu Liangzuo has withdrawn his troops at least.
Is there any way to reassure them?"
Zhu Shuren sighed slightly, his father-in-law was really cowardly and fearful. The other party wanted to seize the throne, but he just wanted to pretend that there was no conflict.
However, it can be considered a mistake. From the perspective of the overall interests of the nation, there is really no need to be too involved in internal fighting. This is the potential for future cooperation to fight against the Qing Dynasty.
Even if it is the ideal state that Zhu Shuren originally pursued, that is, only a few chief culprits should be dealt with, and the people below should try to win over as many people as possible.
Zhu Shuren thought about it for a while and then said calmly: "If my father doesn't want to be implicated, we can consider calling King Fu to the capital at an opportunity after completing the ceremony to explain. If King Fu is willing to come, the others can naturally be pardoned.
Especially Ma Shiying, I feel that this person still has some national righteousness. Although he is being used by King Fu, he may not be sincere. It is also possible that he is being coerced by several of his generals.
Among the civil servants, only Ruan Dacheng is despicable and shameless, and specializes in instigating internal fighting. He will never be spared in the future. Among the military generals, except Liu Liangzuo, the others have not yet shown their appearance, and they can try to show their good will in the future."
It was rare for Zhu Shuren to directly report his conclusion. A considerable part of his basis was based on his foresight of history. He knew that Ruan Dacheng and Liu Liangzuo were all hard-core traitors in history, and Ma Shiying persisted in resisting the Qing Dynasty until the end.
If it was the era when Chongzhen was in power, Zhu Shuren would never have dared to be so outspoken, but now it was about to be his father-in-law's turn to take power. His father-in-law didn't have a son, so he was allowed to repay him so brazenly.
After all, if they are not close to each other, as long as his words are reasonable and can be justified, his father-in-law will definitely be inclined to believe him.
Zhu Changzhen knew very well that Zhu Shuren was the only one in the court who would never harm him, and everyone's interests were bound together.
Sure enough, when Zhu Changzhen heard what he said so confidently, he was determined, no longer afraid of wolves in front of him and tigers in back, and he quickly completed the process of visiting the mausoleum.
In the next three days, Shi Kefa took charge of the overall situation and completely completed the procedures for King Lu to supervise the country.
The six ministers were still retained, and the few ministers Shi Kefa and Wang Duo wanted to promote temporarily were also officially ratified. The formation of the cabinet was also re-confirmed by the imperial edict, which improved the legal legitimacy and made everyone inside and outside Nanjing breathe a sigh of relief.
Later, Zhu Changzhen officially issued an imperial edict to supervise the country, and sent people to build a royal garden at the old site of Fenghuang Mountain in Hangzhou. The Southern Song Dynasty Xingxing built a royal garden at the old site to house Queen Yi'an in her later years. Before the garden was completed, Shen Tingyang, the Minister of Household Affairs, donated a royal garden.
His manor in Suzhou is for Queen Yi'an to stay temporarily (she has already lived in it now)
There is also a Buddhist hall in the garden for the widowed late emperors and empresses to pray for Emperor Tianqi and others. It is said that the spirits of the late emperors in heaven will bless the restoration of the Ming Dynasty. In this way, it avoids the situation of the prisoner king uncle and his niece-in-law and empress sharing the same palace.
Embarrassing, it solved the biggest legality risk of King Lu's regime.
In contrast, the identity of Princess Zhu Ao of Kunxing is not so sensitive, and there is no need to worry about seniority. Zhu Changzhi directly took Zhu Ao to the Nanjing Palace as a granddaughter, and still enjoyed all the treatment of a princess.
This also shows that he gives absolute preferential treatment to the children left behind by Chongzhen, which is consistent with what he said when he accepted the status of prisoner -
During the ceremony, Zhu Changzhen swore to the Heavenly Alliance when he was appointed. The reason why he accepted the late emperor's order was to help the late emperor take good care of the orphans. If either King Yong or King Ding escaped, he would definitely help them ascend the throne, and then
As the great-uncle's regent, he will preside over the overall situation until his great-nephew reaches adulthood, and then return the power of supervising the country to the young master himself.
…
On the other side of the Yangtze River, Zhu Yousong was also very nervous after he was escorted by Liu Liangzuo to retreat. Liu Liangzuo knew that he had lost the bet and was afraid of being liquidated, so he frantically organized his troops to prepare for war every day.
In order to prevent the morale of the army from being unstable, he only said to the outside world that he wanted to prevent Liu Fangliang from going south, so training and discipline needed to be strengthened. These excuses were obviously thought up for him by Ruan Dacheng, who was in cahoots with him.
However, Liu Liangzuo did not make any effort to stop Liu Fangliang when he penetrated his defense zone to attack Chongzhen. Now he pretended to pretend that he wanted to fight Liu Fangliang to the death. Of course, people with discerning eyes would sneer at him, and it was easy to see his face clearly.
At this juncture, after Zhu Changzhen secured power in Nanjing, he naturally had to make some countermeasures.
On the eighth day of March, the fifth day after he became the prisoner of the country, Zhu Changzhen consulted Shi Kefa and expressed his hope to properly handle the matter of Liu Liangzuo escorting Prince Fu's nephew south, and let Shi Kefa think of a way to avoid the feud from happening again in the future.
The friction over Wang's casual visit to Beijing.
After discussing with everyone in the cabinet, Shi Kefa also felt that he could supervise the imperial edict and summon King Fu to Beijing to see him for explanation. At the same time, he requested that he could not bring an army to escort him, but could only bring a hundred guards at most.
In addition, Shi Kefa will naturally work harder and publish a series of articles to tactfully express that he can forget about Ma Shiying and others, which is also to divide and disintegrate potential opponents.
After the edict was issued, it was delivered to Fengyang in just three days, but the reply was delayed. In the end, it was delayed for at least five or six days, but what was waiting was "Prince Fu was frightened and sick, bedridden, and unable to move."
Reply with a sincere confession.
Obviously, King Fu was worried that if he returned to Nanjing alone without troops to explain, he would be put under house arrest or even questioned. So he said he could not afford to be ill.
When the news came back to Nanjing, those Donglin officials who had the worst relationship with King Fu's family were naturally excited. Some even shouted to urge the Minister of War, Shi Kefa, to mobilize troops from other places to go north to Fengyang and Lianghuai to eradicate the enemy.
King Fu's forces are divided by mercenaries.
But Shi Kefa was still relatively stable, and was afraid of further irritating the other party, so he temporarily suppressed all these radical remarks. He knew very well that many of those Donglin Qingliu just wanted to take the opportunity to retaliate, and were not entirely motivated by public motives.
Shi Kefa calculated that the people in Donglin were more concerned about the overall situation, so naturally they would not let these people mess around.
On the other hand, it was also caused by Shi Kefa's indecisiveness - in history, he was indecisive for a long time on the issue of supporting King Lu and King Fu. In order not to bear the reputation of being unethical, he even came up with the idea of "supporting Gui" at the expense of the near and distant.
” compromise approach.
However, although Shi Kefa was indecisive, he was also worried that King Lu would not give up, so he was still a little uneasy when he entered the palace to discuss the countermeasures.
Fortunately, Zhu Changzhen was also a cowardly person who was afraid of getting into trouble. In fact, he did not want to kill his nephew. After Shi Kefa told him his intention, he unprincipledly made peace with him, which made Shi Kefa relieved.
In the end, Zhu Shuren, who was more concerned about the overall situation, jumped out and helped them check for and fill in the gaps:
"Father, the Ministry of History, you have taken the overall situation into consideration and do not want to irritate King Fu who is claiming to be ill. This is indeed a prudent policy for the country. However, once this matter occurs, if it is not warned, it will inevitably cause the local government to despise the imperial court and create more instability in the future.
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In my opinion, it is better to take the opportunity to summon the remaining kings from the southern provinces, in the name of visiting their mausoleums to express their loyalty, and ask them to move to Nanzhili as much as possible, and then gradually resettle them in Yangzhou, Chuzhou, Wuhu, Taipingfu, etc. around Nanjing.
land.
In this way, the kings were hundreds of miles away and could not easily enter the capital. This not only prevented changes in the palace, but also prevented them from being supported by the feudal officials, local military officials and causing chaos in the distant frontiers.
After all, the late emperor did not leave a clear edict to pass on the throne, so ambitious people still have to guard against it. Originally, if King Fu came to Beijing obediently, we would not have taken the opportunity to summon all the kings and imprison him.
Now that King Fu is claiming that he is ill, it can be regarded as giving the court an excuse! The court was aroused by King Fu's suspicious behavior and decided to do this on the spur of the moment. It is not that the court wants to break through the ancestral system!"
In the Ming Dynasty, the vassal kings would not be summoned and would always stay in their fiefdoms. This was also the ancestral precept left by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Therefore, if Zhu Changzhen directly summoned the kings to come to Southern Zhili without any good excuse, he might be considered as wanting to cut down the vassals like Zhu Yunzhen and Zhu Di did.
But now, King Fu claimed that he was ill and would not come, and made an excuse. Zhu Changzhen tried to prevent the slightest possibility, and drew inferences from one example before summoning all the kings. If the kings want to hate him, let them hate King Fu who caused trouble!
Of course, there must be some among the other kings who imitated King Fu and claimed to be ill, but in any case, at least half of the surviving feudal kings in the south would never dare to resist. If the mainstream ones can be taken away first, the remaining thorns will be solved much faster
Already.
Zhu Shuren knew very well that a very important reason why Nanming was unable to resist in history was that there were too many vassal kings to support!
If it were like the Southern Song Dynasty, during the Jingkang Disgrace, all the kings were kept in a pig pen and imprisoned in Kaifeng. When the Jin soldiers came, they all took the blame, only one Zhao Gou escaped, and no one competed for the throne, then the Southern Ming Dynasty could be united for a long time.
It is precisely because there are more princes that warlords can support the vassal kings in their own defense zones for their own interests, which has led to continuous civil wars among the Han people!
The current situation is that the key to saving the Ming Dynasty is to gather all the pig-raising princes together and not leave any "potential support resources" for local warlords!
Moreover, only when all the kings are under control can Zhu Shuren allow his son to adoptively take over the throne of his old father-in-law!
In this time of national calamity, only by pursuing military independence and following the path of one country, one nation, one army, and one leader can we save the nation and survive!
Of course, this kind of control is limited to the kings. As for the local civil and military forces, the army and the people of the Ming Dynasty, of course they must be completely united, and there must be no internal friction in the process of controlling the kings.
The only ones who were internally affected were the pig-raising princes of Lao Zhu’s family.