In history, Zheng He's golden partner was Wang Jinghong. At first, Zhu Yunwen only wanted to leave Zheng He in the hands of Zhu Di and forgot about the other eunuch.
In the document sent by Zheng He, it was mentioned that Wang Jinghong "knows hydrology and has boating skills", implying that Zhu Yunwen dug Zhu Di's corner again. Zhu Yunwen felt that he had dug for Zhu Di several times anyway, and Zhu Di wouldn't mind if he dug one more time...
"no problem."
Zhu Di was very happy. He is just a eunuch. You are the emperor. If you want it, I will give it to you.
Zhu Yunwen nodded slightly, then became serious: "According to time and sea distance, the naval fleet led by Zheng He is heading north. Although it is the Mid-Autumn Festival now, the west wind and north wind are not strong. They hope to arrive in October. Arriving in Taicang Prefecture before."
Xu Huizu said with emotion: "It would be best to return before winter. They have been away from home for almost two years, and they must be anxious to come back and spend New Year's Day with their families."
Zhu Yunwen took a mouthful of food, swallowed it and said: "Zheng He mentioned in the document about Timur's Western Expedition. They heard the news of the war and brought some information. The most important point is that Tamerlane The legions make good use of cavalry in battle, and they are elite and unstoppable."
As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Huizu, Xie Jin, and Xia Yuanji all looked at Zhu Di, and Zhu Yunwen also turned his attention to Zhu Di who was drinking.
Zhu Di felt everyone's gaze, put down his wine glass, and said innocently: "Look what I do?"
Xu Huizu glanced sideways, "Zhu Di, you just pretend to be crazy and act stupid if you have acting skills. As for performing on such an occasion?" Timur was mainly cavalry, and he was good at using cavalry. How many of you here, no, looking at today's Ming Dynasty, how many are good at using cavalry?
Counting on your fingers, apart from you, Zhu Di, there is only one Ning Wang, Zhu Quan. Although Zhu Quan is powerful, he is now focused on cultivating Taoism and studying the knowledge of becoming an immortal. If not, who are you looking at?
Zhu Yunwen did not beat around the bush and said directly: "Timur's Western Expedition is bound to win. The next goal is the Ming Dynasty. How to deal with Timur's cavalry, especially the Western heavy cavalry, will be an important task for Uncle Yan, the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army and the Ministry of War. The most important thing.”
Zhu Di filled up the wine and drank it all. He stood up and looked at Zhu Yunqi. With a bit of courage and unwillingness, he asked: "I would like to ask, if Timur conquers the Ming Dynasty, will the emperor be able to use me, Zhu Di?"
Zhu Yunwen looked deeply at Zhu Di. He used the word "chen" to express that he had surrendered and had no second thoughts. He did not want to use him because of suspicion and concerns. He was eager to fight and become a general on the battlefield.
"Apart from Fourth Uncle, who else can be Tamerlane's opponent in the Ming Dynasty?"
Zhu Yunwen said seriously.
This is not the Hongwu Dynasty. There are fierce men such as Chang Yuchun, Xu Da, Li Wenzhong, Lan Yu, etc., and the cavalry are all better than Bei Yuan.
In the Jianwen Dynasty, Zhu Di was recognized as the number one cavalry general in the world.
Although King Ning Zhu Quan is also very powerful, he is still several levels weaker than Zhu Di's military exploits. In addition, his scope of activities and military strength are limited, so there are not many opportunities to perform, and his popularity is naturally not as good as that of Zhu Di, who won the second Northern Expedition.
Zhu Di was not completely relieved, but continued to test: "Then I ask for orders to go to the northwest. Will the emperor let me go?"
Zhu Yunwen picked up the wine glass and looked at it carefully.
For a moment, no one dared to make a sound.
Xie Jin was a little nervous, his eyes wandering. Xia Yuanji was a little uncomfortable. After all, it was a direct contest between a generation of King Yan and a generation of emperors. Xu Huizu was very uneasy. Once Zhu Yunwen denied Zhu Di, Zhu Di would probably give up, thinking that there was no hope in this life, and he might as well become a Taiping prince, and then lose his will to fight.
As a sergeant general, once you lose your will and determination to fight, you will be completely ruined.
Zhu Di stared at Zhu Yunwen with some struggle in his eyes.
Zhu Yunwen looked at the wine glass, then slowly raised it to his mouth, put down the wine glass without drinking, looked up at Zhu Di, and said calmly: "I will not agree to your request to go to the northwest."
Zhu Di felt cold and took a step back, stumbling a little.
"If 150,000 Beijing troops join you in asking for orders to go to the northwest, I agree that you will be the commander-in-chief and fight against Timur!"
Zhu Yunwen said solemnly.
Zhu Di looked at Zhu Yunwen in surprise. The transition from sadness and heartbreak to surprise was so fast that he was stunned for a moment.
"You are the coach, facing off against Timur!"
Zhu Di thought about it in his ears, feeling shocked. Zhu Yunwen actually asked him to be the head coach? To fight against the powerful Timur?
Isn't he afraid of rebellion?
That's 150,000 Beijing troops. No, there will definitely be sergeants from the Gansu and Shaanxi Guards. The number of troops is probably no less than 200,000. Once he has such a heavy army, can he sleep peacefully?
Zhu Yunwen was not worried about Zhu Di's rebellion at all. It was the fourth year of Jianwen, not the first year of Jianwen. The world had returned home for a long time. Whoever is in trouble now is the enemy of all the people of Ming Dynasty. Moreover, under the new army's strategy and ideological education, the sergeants are loyal It's the emperor, not the coach.
Taking a step back, even if Zhu Di led more than 200,000 people to rebel, he would not be able to reach Nanjing. He now has Tie Xuan, Sheng Yong, Zhang Fu, Xue Lu, Yuan Yue, Xu Huizu, and Geng Bingwen in his hands. Waiting for a group of fierce men, an elite naval fleet, the most advanced Second Artillery Bureau, and the support and support of countless people...
The most important thing is that Zhu Yunwen believes that Zhu Di will not betray. After all, he also has a wife, son and grandson. These people cannot follow him to the northwest and can only stay in Nanjing to accompany Zhu Yunwen to enjoy the sunrise in the east...
A smart person can see the situation clearly.
Zhu Yunwen saw clearly that if Ming Dynasty really needed to fight Timur, Zhu Di was the best candidate.
Zhu Di saw clearly that Zhu Yunwen was not joking. He really agreed that he would lead the troops to the northwest as the head coach.
"What, you don't want to?"
Seeing that Zhu Di was silent, Zhu Yunwen asked.
Zhu Di's eyes heated up, he took a step forward and said loudly: "I am willing!"
Military generals should live on the battlefield, gallop around, and fight to the death! Zhu Di likes war, yearns for war, and enjoys war at the same time. It's just that since the Jianwen Dynasty, Zhu Di's only expedition was to serve as King Ning's auxiliary army and carry out a surprise attack according to King Ning's plan. It was nothing more than that, neither satisfying nor satisfying enough.
The Annan War was a good opportunity, but it was a pity that Yao Guangxiao did not support him, and Zhu Yunwen did not support him, so Zhang Fu became the coach.
Now that Timur might be heading east, Zhu Di wondered more than once whether Zhu Yunwen would use him.
Now, the answer is yes.
Zhu Di was happy at this moment. He seemed to have seen the flames of war, heard the loud trumpets and the neighing of thousands of horses, felt the desolation and tragedy, and the blood in his body became warm.
Zhu Yunwen looked at Zhu Di with relief. He was willing to be a minister and had a very accurate positioning of himself.
"Fourth uncle, Timur is not an ordinary person. Neither he nor his army should be underestimated. Especially the heavy cavalry is extremely difficult to deal with. If there is no good countermeasures, you may suffer big losses."
Zhu Yunwen reminded.
Zhu Di naturally knew the power of heavy cavalry. Not to mention the five thousand iron pagodas of the Jin Dynasty that spread all over the world and were famous far and wide, there was also a heavy armored cavalry in the Ming Dynasty's capital army, but the number was somewhat pitiful, only a thousand.
Although they are small in number, their combat power is extremely strong. Ordinary bows and arrows cannot harm them at all, and the light cavalry can only lose in battle.
But there are ways to deal with heavy cavalry.
For example, the Yue Family Army had three methods to deal with heavy cavalry:
The first heavy crossbow, heavy hammer, heavy club.
No matter how thickly armored the heavy cavalry are, it will still be uncomfortable for thick crossbow arrows to hit the iron armor. If the crossbow arrows are powerful enough, they can take people flying off their horses. Similarly, a heavy hammer blow or a heavy stick hits the heavy armor, but the force must be transmitted to the body...
Second shield and heavy axe.
The shield blocked the charge of the heavy cavalry, and the heavy ax was swung to chop the horse's legs directly.
This move is similar to the track exploding on tanks in later generations. How can you run without your legs? There is no way to take care of you when you fall to the ground? Of course, this move is easier said than done. After all, the risk of getting directly close to the heavy cavalry is very high.
The third one carried the Wei army.
Whether elite cavalry versus elite cavalry will work or not will be determined by a fight.
These experiences are worthy of reference by the Ming Dynasty, but in Zhu Yunwen's military vision, the main method of dealing with heavy cavalry should be firearms.
Zhu Di talked eloquently about his methods of dealing with heavy cavalry and cavalry. These methods had been practiced countless times in the Beijing army. They were large-scale combat methods based on the cooperation of three battalions. Generally speaking, the Shenji battalion took the lead and the cavalry attacked fiercely. Rushing, infantry clearing, step by step.
But Zhu Yunwen thought that these methods were not enough, so he said: "To deal with Timur's heavy cavalry and cavalry, I think firearms should be the main method. The weapons developed by the Second Artillery Bureau have changed the way of combat, and the Shenji Battalion needs new weapons to fight. Tactics and how to use firearms also need to be carefully considered.”
Zhu Di had read the battle report of Zhang Fu's expedition to Annan and knew the power and advantages of the new divine machine cannon, tiger crouching cannon and fire gun swarm combat. However, the tactics used by Zhang Fu were mainly based on siege, and what he needed to study was restraint. Mainly cavalry.
When using firearms to fight cavalry, Zhu Di must consider how to avoid the problem of being useless after one shot.
On the Mid-Autumn Festival night, Zhu Yunwen discussed matters in the northwest with Zhu Di, Xu Huizu and others. Whether it was Xia Yuanji or Xie Jin, they could clearly feel that Zhu Yunwen had made up his mind to fight Timur and then take the lost Western Regions. Take back the territory of Ming Dynasty!
War is inevitable, so go all out.
Xia Yuanji didn't mind. Thanks to the four years of accumulation by Hongwu and Jianwen, especially Jianwen's New Deal, the expedition to Annan, etc., the problem of the Ministry of Revenue now was not lack of money, but more money.
With a lot of money, there is no pressure at all to use money to fight a war with the Ministry of Revenue. The only thing that is a little stressful is the cost of subsequent management of the Western Regions.
But Zhu Yunwen was not worried about how much money the Western Regions would cost. Once he controlled the Western Regions, there would be countless lands to grow cotton and countless people to exploit oil.
Cotton and oil are enough to support and control the Western Regions. This is Zhu Yunwen's confidence.
