The general route from Jiangling to Nanchang is by water, first along the Yangtze River, then into Poyang, and finally into the Ganjiang River. You can go straight to Nanchang's Zhangjiang Gate, where Zhu Heji boarded the ship when he left Nanchang. The journey was more than 1,300 miles, and although it was going downstream, it took Lu Yifeng and others a full ten days to arrive.
They left Jiangling Mansion on June 13th and arrived at Zhangjiangmen in Nanchang on June 23rd.
At this time, Zhu Heji and his party had already landed in Ganzhou Prefecture and began to march towards Guangdong.
Zhu Heji did not go south quietly alone, but led more than 12,000 people from the Second Army Town, drove out of Zhangjiangmen in a mighty manner, boarded hundreds of large ships, and went south together. The process was still carried out in full public view.
So when Lu Yifeng led Mu Shenyou and Mu Yuping to the crowded Zhangjiangmen Pier, he asked a few random people and the truth came out.
"The third grandson of the Jianguo Kingdom went to Guangdong. He left on the 12th. He was protected by more than 10,000 troops and hundreds of large wooden boats. He should have arrived in Ganzhou by now, right?"
"I saw it. The third grandson is wearing a yellow robe and a yellow turban. He is riding out of Zhang Jiangmen on a tall horse. He is very impressive!"
"The Third Prince and Prime Minister Zhuge went to Zhangjiang Gate to see him off together. We all saw it..."
Lu Yifeng was a smart fat man. When he arrived in Nanchang, he did not reveal his identity immediately. Instead, he first found a few bag carriers and driver drivers at Zhangjiangmen Pier and asked them about the third grandson.
As soon as I inquired about it, I immediately knew it was a scam.
This is obvious!
Now that the Anqing War is in full swing, how could Zhu Heji not sit on the front line and go south to Guangzhou?
Moreover, he also mobilized more than 10,000 troops from the front line to follow him south... This is obviously wrong!
It seems that Zhu Heji is really dead!
That's why they staged such a drama of leading the army south to calm people's hearts. As for the more than 10,000 people, of course they went south to guard it. They had to guard against someone taking advantage of Zhu Heji's death to cause trouble!
Although the Ming Dynasty still has the third prince Zhu, the third grandson has always been the core of the Ming Dynasty, and the third prince is just his son's puppet. Now that the person who really calls the shots is gone, it is absolutely normal for something to happen within the Ming Dynasty.
After having some ideas in his mind, Lu Yifeng took out President Wu's note and gave it to the official guarding Zhangjiang Gate, explaining his purpose.
When the official guarding the gate heard that he was a loyal member of the Mu family in Yunnan, of course he did not dare to neglect and quickly sent someone to inform the Prime Minister's Mansion. After a while, several officials from the Prime Minister's Office came out and took Lu Yifeng, Mu Shenyou, Mu Yuping and others to the Guanyi Station in the city.
At noon the next day, an audience was arranged - an audience with Zhu Cijiong, the third prince of Zhu Ding.
The meeting place was arranged in Prince Ding's Mansion, which was the Cunxin Hall of Prince Ning's Mansion.
After Zhu Heji sent troops, the main hall began to undergo major renovations, which were just completed recently - the pillars and beams were reinforced, new tiles were replaced on the roof, and new windows and doors were replaced. The indoor floor tiles have also been replaced with high-imitation gold bricks fired in Jingdezhen (the authentic ones are fired in Suzhou).
There are also brand-new dragon chairs and imperial cases placed in the main hall, and there are two rows of Taishi chairs on both sides, which looks a bit grand.
Lu Yifeng led the two silly boys Mu Shenyou and Mu Yuping into the Cunxin Hall along with an official from Prince Ding's Mansion.
There were not many people in the Cunxin Hall. There was only a king who looked like Lord Guan sitting on the throne. There was also a high official who looked a bit like Pang Tong, waving a goose feather fan and sitting on the first chair to the left of "King Guan". , and there was a white-faced scholar standing next to him. There are also several guards with big beards, who look a bit like "King Guan" - those who don't know may think that Guan Yunchang and his family colluded with Pang Tong to usurp the throne of Uncle Liu Huang!
"Lu Yifeng, the envoy of the State of Zhou, respectfully invites His Royal Highness King Ding of the Ming Dynasty, Jin An!" After entering, Lu Yifeng first bowed to King Zhu Tian, and then pointed at the boy beside him who was looking around with his eyes wide open and his face full of confusion. The girl said: "Your Highness Prince Ding, these two are the grandsons and granddaughters of Mu Tianbo, the late Duke of Guizhou. Their names are Shenyou and Yuping. Their parents and elder brother were all taken prisoner to Beijing. The two of them rely on the old troops of Mu Mansion. Baozao, they have been hiding in the mountains of Yunnan for these years, and recently came down to join the Ming Dynasty. The president saw that they were pitiful, so he asked his ministers to send them to Jiangxi, hoping that the third prince and the third grandson could take them in. "
As he spoke, he coughed.
Mu Shenyou and Mu Yuping both knelt down to King Zhu Tian and started crying together.
The two of them are not very old, Mu Shenyou is only thirteen or fourteen years old, and Mu Yuping is even younger, only eleven or twelve years old, and neither of them has ever gone to school. They are just two wild children in the mountains. Lu Yifeng had been teaching them how to salute and speak along the way, but he forgot about it at this time. He only thought about his parents and started crying as he thought about it.
Mu Shenyou was a little older. After crying a few times, he remembered what Lu Yifeng taught him, so while crying, he said in blunt Mandarin: "Third grandson, my father, mother, and eldest brother were all captured by Qing Yao. Beijing is here, please take me with you to fight against Beijing. I want to save my father, my mother, my eldest brother..."
When King Zhu Tian heard the child calling him "Third Grandson", he sighed and said, "My son has gone south to Guangdong and is not in Nanchang. If you want to go to Beijing to fight, just follow the Gu family. Shiyuan, take these two with you." The child goes to the princess’s place to settle down.”
With that said, he ordered a guard beside him to lead the two children of the Mu family to settle in Princess Kunxing's mansion. Princess Kunxing's apprentice and daughter are now married, and she is quite lonely by herself. Now it is time for the two children of the Mu family to keep her company. So King Zhu Tian sent his master, Wang Shiyuan, to take the two children to the princess's house - Princess Kunxing and Wang Shiyuan seemed to get along well, and they had a "husband and wife look", and King Zhu Tian also had the meaning of adult beauty... ....
Lu Yifeng was waiting for King Zhu Tian to talk about Zhu's third great-grandson, and immediately took over the conversation and asked: "The third great-grandson went to Guangdong? Isn't the fighting fierce in Anqing?"
King Zhu Tian glanced at Prime Minister Zhuge. Prime Minister Zhuge shook his goose feather fan and said truthfully: "Although Qingyao was defeated miserably in the battle of Xiangkou, his strength still exists. Now Qingyao is guarding the north and south cities of Anqing while stationing heavy troops in Lu. Zhouzhou and Chuzhou made a gesture of planning a decisive battle in Jiangbei... The terrain in Jiangbei is relatively flat, with relatively few paddy fields and streams, which is conducive to the maneuverability of the cavalry. Therefore, there is no certainty of a decisive battle in Jiangbei, and the supervisory state is preparing to find another way to attack northward by sea. Nanjing, so he went south to Guangdong.”
Just lie!
How could Lu Yifeng believe what Prime Minister Zhuge said?
The Battle of Anqing has already gone so far. Is it necessary to go around the sea to attack Jiangnan? If you grit your teeth and defeat Anqing, don’t you have everything?
Thinking of this, he took out Wu Sangui's autographed letter and handed it to a bearded guard with a smile, "Your Majesty, this is the autographed letter from the President to you. The President learned that Qing Yao gathered an army around Anqing, so he also They mobilized a hundred thousand troops and wanted to join forces with the Ming Dynasty to destroy Kangxi’s Eight Banners New Army... This is revenge for the Ming Dynasty! My King, what do you think?"
"Prime Minister, what do you think?" King Zhu Tian then transferred the question to Prime Minister Zhuge unchanged.
"Your Majesty," Prime Minister Zhuge said, "it will take some time for the Supervisory State to send troops from Guangdong... It is expected that we will have to wait until August or September to march to Jiangnan. If we can join forces to attack Huainan at this time, then Kang Mazi's At least half of the new Eight Banners Army must not be able to return to the north!"
Still lying!
After hearing what Prime Minister Zhuge said, Lu Yifeng just sneered in his heart: "Why march to the south of the Yangtze River in August and September? The wind direction on the sea is wrong in August and September! You clearly want to use these few months to stabilize the internal affairs, and then start the Northern Expedition. .....If Zhu Heji really wants to go on the Northern Expedition by sea, then he should keep it a secret now, how can he tell everything when others ask?"
"It's okay in August or September!" Lu Yifeng said with a smile, "Then I'll ask the third grandson to write a personal letter, and then send an envoy to Jiangling with the minister to agree with the president to send troops together. Bar."
