Chapter 181: Falling out of control at the critical moment

Author: tx Cheng Zhi

Chapter 181: Falling out of control at the critical moment

Chapter 180

In this world, there is no emperor who is willing to take the common people into consideration and protect them forever. He is Zhu Chongba, who is called a tyrant and a butcher emperor.

This is the most legendary man in Chinese history. He was born in a peasant family. In that dark era of frequent wars, he lit up the night sky of China like a bolt of lightning.

He was once a little-known novice monk in Huangjue Temple. After decades of fighting against all obstacles, he finally reached the pinnacle of power in the world. The most commendable thing is that even if he is sitting on the throne, holding the Heavenly Constitution in his mouth and governing all directions, he

He is still the same cowherd boy who rode on the back of a cow and looked up at the sky.

Zhu Yuanzhang never betrayed his class, even if his comrades who had fought side by side for many years left him one by one, even if he was portrayed by the scholar-bureaucrats as a murderous devil and a single man.

Since ancient times, the scholar-bureaucrats share the world with the emperor, not with the people. This is an unspoken rule that rulers of all dynasties have adhered to. Until his death, Zhu Chongba, a commoner in Huaiyou, did not believe in this evil.

So, he created three major cases, that is, the Lan Yu case can actually be combined with the Hu Weiyong case, the Kongyin case, and the Guo Huan case. The occurrence of the three major cases had a strong purpose, the Hu Weiyong case and the Lan Yu case

The main targets were the founding heroes, the Kongyin case was because Zhu Yuanzhang believed that the officials below were contemptuous of authority, and the Guo Huan case was to punish corrupt officials.

These three major cases killed tens of thousands of people. Some people say that Zhu Yuanzhang did it to strengthen the imperial power, while others said that he wanted to strengthen the centralization of power and pave the way for his descendants. Some people say that Zhu Yuanzhang was suspicious by nature, cruel and easy to kill.

However, in fact, this is not the case. Some people really don't understand, while others pretend to be confused. Zhu Chongba's real starting point is to allow the suffering people all over the world to live.

In order to keep the people alive, he formulated the most severe torture for officials in Chinese history. In all dynasties, when officials committed crimes, they could discuss eight things: discuss relatives, discuss past, discuss virtue, discuss ability, discuss merit, discuss nobleness, discuss

Be diligent and discuss guests.

Among these eight items, Yiqin specifically refers to relatives of the emperor; Yigu refers to the emperor’s past; Yixian refers to people with high moral standards; Yineng refers to people with outstanding talents; Yigong refers to people with outstanding achievements; Yigui

, that is, officials of third rank or above and people with first rank title; Yiqin, that is, people who are diligent and hardworking; Yibin, that is, people who are descendants of the previous monarch and are respected as state guests.

This set of eight discussions system originated from the "Eight Discussions" in "Zhou Li·Qiu Guan·Xiao Sikou" and is a concrete embodiment of the etiquette principle of "punishment does not go to the doctor" in the application of punishment. Late Han Dynasty and Wei Dynasty

Since the Jin Dynasty, the political and economic strength of the powerful landlord class has been continuously expanding, and the monopoly position of the bureaucratic aristocratic group has been increasingly strengthened. When Emperor Wei Ming formulated the "New Law", in order to win over the bureaucratic aristocratic group and safeguard the interests of the ruling class, he formalized the "Eight Discussions" system for the first time.

It was incorporated into the national code to gradually legalize and institutionalize the judicial privileges of the feudal aristocracy and bureaucrats. This is also an open inequality.

People who commit crimes can openly commit crimes and enjoy the privileges of "discussing, requesting, reducing, justifying, and exempting" according to the law.

But in fact, only Zhu Chongba did not recognize this trick. He killed the Prime Minister Hu Weiyong. This was the first prime minister in history who was killed not because of rebellion or incompetence, but because of corruption. In the words of later generations.

, acting as a protective umbrella for evil forces.

As a result, Hu Weiyong was killed. Officials who embezzled sixty taels of silver would be skinned and stuffed with grass. The three tribes were punished. In history, being an official in any court was very satisfying. As long as there was no rebellion, the most corrupt officials would be dismissed. As long as

If you don't participate in the fight for the heir, your home will basically not be confiscated.

But not tomorrow.

Some people say that Zhu Chongba killed the heroes, but in fact? Zhu Chongba killed all the heroes who deserved to die. The leader of the heroes is naturally Xu Da.

The most important thing is that he and Zhu Chongba will always be of the same mind.

Xu Da is Zhu Di's father-in-law, the father-in-law of Emperor Yongle, and the father of Queen Renxiao.

People all over the world admired him. After his death, there were rumors that he had a carbuncle on his back and could not eat hair. The superior (Zhu Yuanzhang) gave him a steamed goose. Xu Da ate it with tears and died.

However, the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty and the officers and soldiers of the three armies all knew that the marshal's only weakness was that it was so delicious! The commander-in-chief of the three armies was a foodie. This was an indisputable fact and one of the top military and state secrets of the Ming Dynasty.

It’s best to eat steamed goose! This is a disease acquired when you are poor. Wei Guogong can hardly walk when he smells the smell of steamed goose. His saliva can pour into the entire Xuanwu Lake. Even if Wang Baobao comes in at this time, don’t disturb him, otherwise you will

He died even worse than Wang Baobao.

Although Xu Da knew clearly that his illness required dietary restrictions, he insisted on eating steamed goose and ended up eating himself to death.

"Born to be delicious, we must eat even to death!"

This is the elegiac couplet written by Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of Ming Dynasty, to the marshal of Ming Dynasty after learning that his old friend was heading west. The eight words are full of sorrow and indignation!

In fact, when it comes to military merit, if it is said that the master's merit is superior to the master, Lan Yu is nothing. He is not even worthy of carrying Xu Da's shoes. In front of Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Fu Youde, Li Wenzhong, Tang He, Lan Yu is nothing?

As long as Lan Yu stayed on his own terms, he had nothing. As the founding emperor, Zhu Chongba's style and magnanimity ranked him among the top three emperors in history, not to mention the best.

It's just a pity that all Zhu Chongba's hard work was wasted.

When Cheng Shijie sighed with emotion, even Fu Zonglong, who had good moral character and integrity in the history of the Ming Dynasty, showed hesitation. It was obvious that he did not agree with Cheng Shijie's words.

He believed that it was the blessing of God, or it could be said that it was the contribution of Cheng Shijie, the pillar of the country. How could the ignorant and ignorant Shengdou people protect the Ming Dynasty?

Of course, Fu Zonglong did not argue with Cheng Shijie on this issue. He was attracted by the sound of artillery on the battlefield. In order to reduce the pressure on the Dongjiang Army, Cheng Shijie ordered Ning Haijun's artillery to target the range of 500 steps in front of the Dongjiang Army.

Provide fire coverage.

Thirty-six three-inch cannons, which are breech-loaded smoothbore cannons, are blasting at Jiannu. Now there is no need to deliberately aim. The 20,000-strong army spreads out. It's such a big group. You can hit it with your eyes closed.

, Besides, the battlefield is so smoky that even if you want to aim, you don’t believe it. It’s better to just close your eyes and blindly blur.

Starting from Bali Bay, the Jiannu army had formed an indissoluble bond with Ning Haijun's cannons. They were scared to death of these ghost cannons. When the cannons rang out, all the Jiannu warriors shivered instinctively and felt crazy.

Ask the shaman to bless them, and don't let the cannonballs fall next to them!

Unfortunately, there were too many of them, and the great shaman could not cover so many people. The cannonballs fell, and orange smoke billowed up. Many Jiannu warriors were thrown into the night sky like ants, causing bursts of blood to rain down.

Jiannu's originally high morale suddenly dropped after receiving a round of artillery fire. The most terrible thing was that the artillerymen of the Ning Navy were as if they had been beaten to death. They didn't care about what they could hit and just pretended to fight hard.

Almost every falling cannonball caused casualties to the Jiannu slaves. The tragic sight of blood and flesh flying everywhere made them extremely frightened. If it were a solid lead ball, it would kill and injure at most a few people in one blast, but the cannonballs were different.

Landing in the most densely populated area, it is not impossible to kill a dozen or dozens of people with one shot.

And no matter how strong your martial arts skills are, or how many layers of armor you wear, you will be left crippled even if you are hit to death. What are you doing? Hundreds of artillery shells fell, and the slave army was in chaos, and many people threw away their hands.

The guys inside were covering their ears, shouting and running wildly. As for the horses, they were neighing at the top of their lungs and rushing around, forcing the owner to use a knife to quiet them down.

"Dong dong dong..."

This dull sound suddenly sounded. Upon hearing this sound, the expressions of the Jiannu warriors changed drastically. They turned to look at the Ming army artillery position that had been shrouded in fireworks. No matter whether they were soldiers or generals, there was a trace of despair on their faces!

There is no doubt about the power of the thunder cannon. Regardless of its short range, one explosive cannon is more powerful than three or five three-inch artillery shells. Once it hits, one explosive pack can blow up half a cow.

As the sixty-eight flying thunder cannons deployed in place began to fire explosive packets, large packets of explosive packets flew out, spinning all the way, making all kinds of strange trajectories and falling into the Jiannu formation.

"Boom boom boom boom..."

Frightening clouds of gunpowder smoke wrapped in flames soared 20 to 30 meters high. Thunderous and violent explosions shook the pores of everyone present, and the shock wave of the explosion swept through everything.

The shock wave of the explosion struck in all directions. Countless Jiannu warriors felt as if they were standing on an erupting crater. The dazzling fire flashed, the ground shook violently, and their bodies, spears, armor... everything was shattered.

Come.

Many people's bodies were torn apart by the blast wave and were thrown around. Many were so shaken that their feet flew several meters high from the ground and then fell heavily to the ground. Their orifices were bleeding and they could never stand up again.

His internal organs were shattered.

God knows how many slave soldiers were reduced to ashes in this round of shelling. God knows how many people were covered in fire and had multiple pieces of shrapnel shot into their bodies. They fell in pain in the sea of ​​fire.

The ground wailed.

The Mongolian cavalry who surrendered to the Ming army looked frightened, and they were shouting and neighing. They were thankful that they surrendered early, otherwise, this round of shells would fall on their heads, and they would all be finished.

Guan Ningjun's face turned pale and he looked at each other in shock.

Wu Sangui finally understood how Cheng Shijie chopped down Jiannu like melons and vegetables. If he had such a cannon, he could also press Jiannu to the ground and rub him.

The soldiers of the Ming Army were all greatly boosted in morale, holding their weapons high and cheering wildly. Especially the Dongjiang Army. After seeing large swaths of Jiannu soldiers being swallowed up by the overwhelming flames, their originally low morale stopped instantly.

It's picking up, and it's jumping straight up like a rocket!

When they saw artillery pouring into the midst of the Jiannu army, they knew that they would win this battle.

When Huang Taiji saw this scene, he clenched his fists loudly and his eyes were so red that he almost bleeded: "Damn it, it's this ghost cannon again! This ghost cannon is so powerful! Every time it concentrates its fire, it will blow up."

Or burn hundreds of them to death, how can we fight this battle?"

The generals of Jiannu were all stunned. They looked at each other and saw the same pale faces.

The firearms of the Ming army were so powerful. If they were applied to the battlefield on a large scale, would Hou Jin still have any hope of winning?

Cheng Shijie was very satisfied. He spent a lot of money on this round of bombardment. One shell cost fifteen taels of silver. Even the shells of the flying thunder cannon cost nearly four taels of silver. Of course, the flying thunder cannon cost more than 40 taels of silver.

Langjigun needs to save some money.

When this round of shells went down, seven to eight hundred taels of silver were thrown out, which is equivalent to more than a hundred cows flying straight away.

Cheng Shijie didn't show any signs of physical pain. He smiled lightly and said, "This is just the beginning!"

Cheng Shijie still has cannons, howitzers, rocket launchers, mortars, and breech-loading rifles that he hasn't finished yet, so you can play with them slowly while you're at it!

Fu Zonglong's performance was such that he could stuff a goose egg into his mouth. The officials behind him were also frightened. A few timid ones ran away with their pants in hand. It was obvious that they were frightened to the point of peeing.

No one like these officials could be scared to death by the Ming army's own artillery.

As Ning Haijun's artillerymen quickly stuffed the shells into the gun barrel, and then pulled the gun rope.

"Boom boom boom boom..."

A new round of shelling started again, which meant that another seven to eight hundred taels of silver were gone. Not long after the establishment of the slave formation, balls of orange-red fireballs rose up, and there was another round of screams.

Fu Zonglong, the governor of Jizhou, Baoding, Tianjin, is different from Gao Di. He rose from the grassroots level. During his tenure as the patrol commander of Guizhou, he put down the Anbangyan Rebellion. He is no stranger to various firearms and artillery in the army.

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To be continued...