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Emperor Chongzhen had seven sons, but his second, sixth and seventh sons died young.
The eldest son Zhu Cilang, the third son Zhu Ciyong, and the fourth son Zhu Cizhao have been confirmed to have been killed after the Qing army entered the pass.
Only the fifth son, Zhu Cihuan, has been missing.
Zhu Cihuan was born in the sixth year of Chongzhen. His biological mother was Concubine Tian. If you count his age, he is already 17 years old this year.
In the original history, after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, many people used his name to support him and engaged in anti-Qing activities, and "Prince Zhu San" became a banner at that time.
Zhu Cihuan himself was arrested in Wenshang County in the 47th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, and was executed by slow slicing on the charge that "although Zhu had no record of treason, he had the intention to rebellion." He was 76 years old.
Prince Zhu San was even recorded in many novels. Therefore, when Huang Lianshan mentioned Zhu Cihuan, Qin Mu couldn't help but think of the name "Prince Zhu San".
Qin Mu has always been very tolerant towards the descendants of the Zhu family. Although Ye Bushu has been monitoring these people, as long as they do not rebel, Qin Mu will not kill them all.
But this Zhu Cihuan, even Ye Bushu had never been able to track him down, and unexpectedly he suddenly appeared in Yunnan.
"Lianshan, are you sure it's Zhu Cihuan himself?"
"Please forgive me, Your Majesty. This news has just been reported and has not yet been confirmed. However, as Cui Feng mobilized the local chieftains' troops to continue to advance, Mu Tianbo continued to retreat, from Chuxiong to Dali, and from Dali to Yongchang and Baoshan.
There were only about 2,000 people including Long Zaitian left by Mu Tianbo's side. At this time, he suddenly raised the banner of Zhu Cihuan, and it is not ruled out that he intended to use this to boost the morale of the army.
In Guangxi, Ma Liuliang recruited the troops of six chieftains including Nandan and defeated the chieftain Cen Yintu of Si'en Prefecture. His forces were compressed to the mountainous areas around Si'en Prefecture and Tianzhou.
After Mu Tianbo raised the banner of Zhu Cihuan, Cen Yin also immediately followed Zhu Cihuan's banner. I am worried that this will set off a new round of rebellion in the southwest. So I quickly reported it to Your Majesty. "
Qin Mu thought more. If it was really Zhu Cihuan, the son of Chongzhen, his appeal should not be underestimated. In addition, the current judicial reform has touched the core interests of many local officials. If the two interact, what consequences will appear is hard to predict.
"Investigate. Immediately dispatch capable personnel to me to find out whether Zhu Cihuan is really in Mu Tianbo's hands. If not, we must speed up the investigation of Zhu Cihuan's whereabouts to prevent any more trouble in the future."
"Yes. Your Majesty, I have ordered everyone to conduct a full investigation."
On that day, Qin Mu checked into the Zhuohu Villa in Huai'an. He had stayed here during the Northern Expedition.
Qin Mu then summoned Sima An, Li Yuan and Gu Junen to discuss the matter. When they heard the name "Zhu Cihuan", they immediately frowned.
Li Yuanxian said, "Your Majesty, the chieftains in Yunnan have already been troubled by Cui Feng. Now there is another Zhu Cihuan. If we continue to trouble them, it will probably be counterproductive."
Gu Jun'en also said: "I also agree with Lord Li's opinion. We must quickly pacify the entire Yunnan region."
Because Yunnan has many Tusi and dense forests, many Tusi are unruly. In the past two years, the strategy of the Qin Dynasty towards Yunnan has been to control Tusi with Tusi, that is, to mobilize some obedient Tusi troops and strike at the disobedient Tusi when the time is right. They would destroy as many Tusi as they could.
But in order not to affect the war situation in the northwest, Cui Feng did not make much moves in Yunnan over the past year. He mainly stirred up conflicts and made the chieftains in Yunnan fight against each other.
The Qin troops that entered Yunnan occupied the area east of Chuxiong and rarely participated in combat.
Sima An thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, I think Yunnan and Guangxi cannot be viewed separately, and we must look at the overall situation. Although Dongwu has now withdrawn from Yunnan, in fact, since Your Majesty issued the imperial edict to attack Dongwu last year, Helong has increased his support for Mu Tianbo. Otherwise, Mu Tianbo would not have been able to hold on until now.
Last year, the Talong and Jiaozhi Zheng attacked the Mo clan in Gaoping from both sides, forcing the Mo clan to flee to Daqin. The Zheng clan's power has been pushed to the border of Guangxi. Now the remnants of Cen Yin have retreated to the Tianzhou area. If they go south, they can unite with the Zheng clan. If Ma Liuliang continues to advance, it is inevitable that Cen Yin will retreat to Jiaozhi. "
The Zheng family of Jiaozhi sent envoys to ask for peace with the Qin Dynasty more than once, but the Qin Dynasty insisted that the Zheng family return power to its master, the Li family. The Qin Dynasty emphasized the hierarchy between the monarch and his subjects, and between father and son.
Zheng is holding Lord Li hostage, which is tantamount to a traitor. If the Qin Dynasty agrees to his request, wouldn't it be tantamount to encouraging such traitorous behavior of holding the monarch hostage
And how could Zheng give up the power in his hands and really return the government to Lord Li
Therefore, Zheng had no choice but to stand in the camp against the Qin Dynasty. Last year, he joined the joint fleet led by the Dutch to harass the Qin Dynasty's coast.
According to Ye Bushou's intelligence, the rebellion of Cen Yin, the chieftain of Si'en Prefecture, was closely related to Zheng's instigation. Since the two sides had this relationship, it was not surprising that Cen Yin finally retreated to a fight.
These were not what Qin Mu was worried about, they were just a few jumping clowns. What he was worried about was that the emergence of Zhu Cihuan would link up with the domestic judicial reforms to affect the interests of local officials, thus triggering a greater rebellion on a larger scale.
Qin Mu pondered and said, "Mr. Sima's words make sense. The affairs of the southwest should indeed be viewed from the overall perspective. However, the most urgent task is to eliminate Zhu Cihuan's influence first."
"Your Majesty, I think Mu Tianbo is bluffing nine times out of ten. Zhu Cihuan may not really be in Yunnan."
"What does Mr. Sima mean?"
"Your Majesty, as long as we find the real Zhu Cihuan, Mu Tianbo will be self-defeating."
Qin Mu understood that Sima An meant to "find" the real Zhu Cihuan immediately. As for how to prove that the Zhu Cihuan in his hand was the "real" one, the former Prince of Lu Zhu Yihai and Hongguang's biological mother, the "Empress Dowager", were all good witnesses.
By the time Zhu Yihai and the "Empress Dowager" recognize each other, Zhu Cihuan will basically be the real thing.
Sima An said it very implicitly. Overall, this is indeed a good idea. At least it can eliminate Zhu Cihuan's influence to a large extent.
Qin Mu groaned and said, "It's just that this is not the right time."
You didn't find him long ago, and you never found him, but you found Zhu Cihuan immediately after Mu Tianbo raised the name of Zhu Cihuan. This is too much of a coincidence.
Gu Jun'en also said, "I think we should first concentrate on pacifying Yunnan. Mu Tianbo now only has two to three thousand remnants. Let General Cui attack with all his strength. Even if we cannot destroy him, at least we must force him to the Dongwu Kingdom as soon as possible."
No matter who they are, whether they are still in the country or have gone into exile abroad, their influence is completely different.
Ministers like Gu Junen certainly knew what kind of impact Zhu Cihuan would have, which is why he said this.
Currently, the asphalt road is only built to Guiyang. Qin Mu originally wanted to wait until the asphalt road was built to Kunming before taking major action, but now it seems that he can't wait any longer.
Since we are going to fight, let’s fight hard.
"It's been more than a year. How many warships have the navy built?"
"Your Majesty, forty clipper warships have been delivered to the navy, four large treasure ships have also been delivered, and there are more than ninety other small and medium-sized escort warships."
"Well, that's enough. The Royal Navy has been idle for more than a year. I can't keep them for nothing. It's time to let them go out and earn some money for the court."
"Your Majesty, do you mean to have the navy attack Thang Long?"
"It won't take that many troops just for Thang Long Prefecture. For the entire Indochina Peninsula, let the navy fight as many as they can."
"Your Majesty, isn't this a big move? Without the support of the army, it will be difficult to completely conquer the Indochina Peninsula."
"Did I say that we should let the navy conquer the entire Indochina Peninsula?"
Gu Junen and the other two looked at each other and stopped talking.
You can tell from what I heard that this was not actually occupation, but plunder. The navy was used to plunder the Indochina Peninsula on a large scale, taking away its wealth, population, and all valuable things.
There is no need to defend the places that the navy can reach by turning them into uninhabited areas, and then we can move the Han people there later.
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid there will be criticism from both the government and the public."
"I know this in my heart."
No matter what you do, there will always be people talking behind your back. If you do it more, they will gradually adapt to this change.
But what could the censors say? Qin Mu had already issued an imperial edict to attack the Dongwu Kingdom. According to later generations, this meant that he had already declared war on the Dongwu Kingdom.
Just like what we did to the Qing Dynasty, aren’t all the measures we take against the enemy reasonable and logical
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.(To be continued..)
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