Inside Kunning Palace.
"Queen Mother, Queen Mother!"
A girl in royal attire, elegantly dressed, in her twenties and eighties, with a peach blossom face and a cymbidium heart, gently called to Queen Ma.
It is Zhu Yuanzhang's eldest princess, Princess Qinghe.
But when faced with Princess Qinghe's call, Queen Ma showed no reaction, as if she was stunned.
"Mother!!"
Seeing this, Princess Qinghe suddenly raised her voice, startling the entranced Queen Ma.
"You damn girl, why are you making such a loud noise? It's not like I can't hear you, you're not deaf yet!"
Queen Ma came back to her senses, saw Princess Qinghe, and said angrily.
Princess Qinghe pouted and said:
"Mother, what's happened to you these days? I see that you are restless. Did something happen?"
When Queen Ma heard this, she sighed secretly in her heart. Although she usually pretended not to care, her occasional absence would still be discovered by those close to her.
However, Empress Ma felt that the fewer people knew about the fourth child, the better. After all, if something happened at sea and the people knew the truth, it would probably shock the world.
"Nothing, I just may have been a little tired recently and lacked concentration."
"You came to see my mother for something?"
Princess Qinghe is smart and knows that Queen Ma is lying at a glance.
But Queen Ma didn't want to say it, and she couldn't force it, so she could only say:
"Mother, have you forgotten? The day after tomorrow is my fourth brother's birthday."
"In the past, our family would prepare things in advance for our fourth brother. I think my mother didn't make any preparations this year, so I came here specifically to ask."
"But what happened to the fourth brother? It seems that I haven't seen the fourth brother for a long time."
Queen Ma felt a pain in her heart. Thinking of Zhu Di's birthday, Queen Ma's eyes instantly turned red, and tears could not help but roll in her eyes.
Empress Ma loves her children even more than Zhu Yuanzhang. Now Zhu Di is alone at sea, his life and death unknown.
Although she had been pretending not to care, when Zhu Di's name was mentioned again, Queen Ma still trembled in her heart and was extremely worried.
Princess Qinghe noticed Queen Ma's strange behavior and quickly asked:
"Mother, why are you crying? Could it be that Fourth Brother..."
Empress Ma couldn't bear it any longer, and her tears rolled down like a broken bead curtain.
This frightened Princess Qinghe, and she quickly wiped Queen Ma's tears with a handkerchief.
And Queen Ma finally told Princess Qinghe her worries over the past few days.
Go to Shanghai County, go to sea, join the army, life or death unknown.
Princess Qinghe was terrified when she heard this one after another, until she heard that Zhu Di was now fighting Japanese pirates overseas, and she didn't know whether she was alive or dead.
Princess Qinghe was also frightened and cried, and the two mothers just hugged each other and cried.
"The Emperor has arrived!"
Just as the two were crying, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly arrived at Kunning Palace.
When Zhu Yuanzhang stepped into the palace and saw the mother and daughter in pain, he was stunned. Then he quickly came to Queen Ma's side and asked with concern:
"Sister, what's wrong? Who bullied you? Tell us, we must cut him into pieces."
Zhu Yuanzhang's angry voice made the whole palace tremble.
When Queen Ma saw Zhu Yuanzhang coming, she slowly calmed down, wiped her tears and said:
"Chongpachi, I'm fine."
"How did you come?"
Seeing that Empress Ma was unwilling to say anything, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at his daughter and asked:
"Daughter, what happened just now, can you tell us?"
Princess Qinghe was still a little afraid of Zhu Yuanzhang, her father, so she sobbed and told Zhu Yuanzhang what had just happened.
"well!"
After hearing the cause and effect, Zhu Yuanzhang was helpless. After all, the army had already set off, and the fourth child insisted on going, even hiding it from his family. What could Zhu Yuanzhang do?
"Father, can't you ask the magistrate of Shanghu County to withdraw his troops?"
Princess Qinghe said timidly, in her opinion, this was all a good thing done by the magistrate of Shanghu County.
If this were not the case, his fourth brother would not risk his life by going to sea to fight against the Japanese pirates.
So who are the Japanese pirates? They were clearly a group of desperadoes, so how could his fourth brother fight these people?
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes widened and he was about to get angry, but seeing the worried look on Princess Qinghe's face, he didn't say anything after all.
Instead, he slowed down his tone and said softly:
"How can military and national affairs be trivial?"
"Although your fourth brother is a prince, he is a descendant of our old Zhu family. He should fight on the battlefield and serve the country. This is his unavoidable destiny."
Although he said this, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were looking towards the south, and his thoughts had already flown to the war-torn island.
....
Shengsi Island.
"Old Ma, you can't charge anymore, we are going to die again!"
At this moment, Zhu Di was leading his team of less than a hundred people and was about to rush to the beach.
The seaside port is now surrounded by Japanese pirates. Looking at the dark area, the number of people is definitely not less than 20,000.
If Li Jin were here, he would definitely be surprised. He didn't expect that there were so many Japanese pirates hiding on this small island.
But if you think about it carefully, this is normal.
Zhu Yuanzhang hanged Zhang Shicheng in Pingliang City, which is now Suzhou.
It took Zhu Yuanzhang three years to quell Zhang Shicheng's forces.
This is not to say that Zhang Shicheng is very popular among the people, but that Zhang Shicheng is a private salt dealer and naturally knows the importance of business.
During Zhang Shicheng's rule, business was encouraged, and commercial taxes accounted for most of Zhang Shicheng's tax revenue. Coupled with the benefits of sea trade, Zhang Shicheng could be said to be rich.
Naturally, he doesn't pay much attention to the farmers below. Most of his money comes from business, and all agricultural taxes are relatively small.
It is precisely because of this that Zhang Shicheng's reputation among people in eastern Jiangsu and Zhejiang is still good.
After Zhu Yuanzhang hanged Zhang Shicheng, he believed that eastern Zhejiang and Jiangsu were all traitors and imposed heavy taxes on these places.
The people in eastern Zhejiang could not bear the taxes and fled to the seaside one after another. It was not until Zhu Yuanzhang issued a sea ban that the situation was relieved.
As a relatively small island nearby, Shengsi Island naturally became a gathering place for these refugees. With the prevalence of Japanese pirates, these refugees gradually became confused with the Japanese pirates and gradually developed the habit of looting.
Through the continuous development and growth of these people, the number of Japanese pirates on Shengsi Island has reached tens of thousands.
If it had not been for Li Jin's mistake, the Japanese pirates here would have become the largest group of Japanese pirates in the coastal area in a few decades, disrupting the peace in the coastal areas of Zhejiang.
The future Pirate King, Wang Zhi, made his fortune from this place.
However, even though the power has not yet reached its peak, Zhu Di cannot be shaken by just a hundred people.
The Japanese pirates, numbering more than 20,000, formed a fan-shaped formation and marched toward the port calmly.
In the center of the team, the leader of the Japanese pirates, Ida Ichiro, was personally leading the team.
The moment Ichiro heard the bell, he began to mobilize all his men on the island.
Ever since he returned yesterday, Inoue Ichiro has been restless. He didn't expect that the other party would actually dare to knock on the door.
If it were at sea, Inoue Ichiro would not dare to touch Li Jin's super battleship with his small fishing boat.
So on the island, Inoue Ichiro felt that the other party was looking for death.
Although he was just a ronin, he still had very tight control over the Japanese pirates on the island.
After all, those who dared to disobey him have all been thrown into the sea to feed the fishes.
There are tens of thousands of elites on the island, which is the capital that Inoue Ichiro dares to conquer the sea.
He even planned that in a few years, when he had accumulated an army of 100,000, he would send his troops eastward to attack the Japanese pirates and capture his hometown.
There is an old Chinese saying that if you don’t return to your hometown in brocade clothes, it is like walking in brocade clothes at night.
Now that these people dare to board his territory, he will cut them all into pieces to vent his hatred.
But just when he rushed to the port with tens of thousands of people, he encountered a broken army halfway. When he learned that the opponent's firearms were powerful but they were short of manpower.
Inoue Ichiro immediately thought of moving the tiger away from the mountain, taking advantage of the terrain to eat the opponent's reinforcements, and then went straight to Huanglong and captured the port.
By then, he will not only get a batch of powerful firearms, but also the kind of giant battleship that he covets and drools over.
Now that the first step has been carried out smoothly, those enemies who he lured away from the mountains must have been killed by his own men in the mountainous area.
Next, he only needs to destroy the enemies in the port to get the battleship he longs for.
By then, with these warships, who else will be our opponent on the sea?
Not even the Southern Pirate Alliance dared to disrespect themselves.
Just as the Japanese pirates were approaching the beach, the navy on the beach had already formed a combat formation. However, compared with the 20,000 Japanese pirates, the 500-strong naval formation seemed so thin.
All the navy soldiers in formation also knew that they were in danger this time, but at this moment they had no retreat and could only fight to the death.
After Zhu Di chased the enemy for more than half an hour, he also realized something was wrong and quickly led his army to turn back.
But when he saw his five hundred colleagues on the beach about to face the siege of 20,000 people, his eyes instantly turned red.
Even though he only had more than a hundred men under his command at this time, he still desperately wanted to rush forward and rescue his brothers and comrades.
But just when Zhu Di was about to run away, he was stopped by Sun Dapao next to him.
Zhu Di waited for Sun Dapao with red eyes and shouted:
"Sun Dapao, if you are afraid of death, just wait where you are. I can't just watch my brother die in battle and remain indifferent."
"I'm going to fight alongside him!!"
Sun Dapao was so irritated by Zhu Di that his face turned red and he also roared angrily:
"Sons of bitches are afraid of death."
"I want you to calm down. We have to find a way to save them instead of going up and dying!"
