My God, I am the emperor, the lord of mankind.

Chapter 253
The colleagues beside them were also dumbfounded as they looked at the Ming army in front of them, whose numbers far exceeded their expectations.

He looked at the battle flags in front of him that represented honor and merit. The cloud-like flags in front of him meant that almost all the elites from the north of the empire were heading south, displaying them all in front of the powerful families in the south.

This was a silent demonstration. The northern generals did not hesitate to show their force to the southern nobles.

Remind them not to choose the wrong path and incur dire consequences for themselves.

"I'm afraid the number of Northern soldiers going south this time has exceeded 10——"

The official surnamed Wang finally came to his senses after repeated reminders from his colleagues.

He smiled bitterly, burying the horror in his eyes.

"It seems that except for the soldiers who stayed behind in Xuanda Second Town, the other troops are all heading south this time -"

According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, the number of combat-ready elite soldiers registered in Xuanfu Datong exceeded 10.

But this does not mean that 10 people is a small number.

Not to mention that the imperial court was unable to issue military pay before, and the situation of empty pay was also common in the important towns in the north.

It is still unclear how many combatable soldiers the two towns of Datong and Xuanfu have, and whether they can pull out 5 soldiers to resist the Mongols in the north.

Although in the past two years, the imperial court began to repay arrears, and then began to continuously send censors to inspect military households in various border towns and guard stations to verify the number of troops.

But this is destined to be a long work, and it is definitely not a day’s work.

Even though it was found that there were crimes such as concealing reports, taking empty pay, and annexing land from military households.

But considering that the Ming Dynasty had been owed the border soldiers without a bottom line for decades, and the dignitaries in the capital were busy fighting among themselves for the political power, no one cared about the life and death of these border soldiers.

If they want to survive, they must find their own way.

Both morally and practically.

It was impossible for Zhu Houcong to cut down all the officer corps of the Ming Dynasty and sacrifice them to heaven.

Those who commit heinous crimes must be punished with justice.

But other crimes are not that serious, and they have no choice but to commit crimes out of livelihood - such as ordinary military households doing odd jobs for the families of officials in the city to earn a small reward to support their families.

Zhu Houcong just turned a blind eye, transferred him out of the original guardhouse, and it would be over if he started over.

The more than [-] elite soldiers in front of me are probably the result of these northern generals pulling out all their servants and wives to form such a cold, orderly, and powerful army. .

But this does not mean that the northern generals are weak.

On the contrary—

Looking at the powerful troops in front of me, the two military towns of Xuanfu and Datong mobilized in less than half a month.

Xu Cheng felt his body trembling.

Both hands became weak with fear.

He looked at the terrifying army in front of him and murmured in disbelief.

"The majesty of the nine-sided army in front of me is probably not comparable to that of the imperial court's Eastern Expedition army!"

One could even say so.

The army in front of them gave them a sense of oppression. It was more powerful and more oppressive than the emperor's army, which mainly guarded the capital, and some troops drawn from the southern provinces to fight in the southwest.

When Xu Cheng was shocked by the military power in front of him, he was stunned.

A loud bird song came from the Ming army crossing the river in front of them.

White silhouettes streaked across the turbulent river, heading straight for Jinling City.

It was a Haidongqing with only steel claws and iron wings.

Since the Tang Dynasty, Haidongqing has been a precious tribute offered to the Emperor of the Central Plains by the Jurchens. The Jurchens call it the God of Ten Thousand Eagles.

"Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "Carved out of Liaodong, the most handsome is called Hai Dongqing."

The Jurchens had to submit a large amount of seaweed as tribute to the Ming court every year. Even when the Jurchens rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, the reason was that the Ming emperor sent special personnel to Liaodong to force the Jurchens to capture seaweed and give it to the Ming court. During this period, many Jurchens had their families destroyed and their families were forced to die.

However, the Ming Emperor's special envoy took the opportunity to show his power and forced the Jurchens to sacrifice their children with wealth and silk. The Jurchens could not bear it and rebelled.

However, only part of the Haidongqing from Liaodong flowed into the capital for the enjoyment of nobles.

Most of the rest fell into the hands of military generals in the north.

The northern generals use special means to train and feed them.

For the purpose of war.

Most of these specially bred condors are over one meter in size, have iron wings and steel claws, and are extremely ferocious.It can shatter iron armor with one blow, and is extremely humane. It can soar into the sky, observe the situation around the battlefield with eagle eyes, and give early warning when it detects enemies.

Allowing leading generals to respond faster.

At this time, these sacred birds, known as eagle gods, were flying in the air and passing over the river at extremely fast speeds.

Looking at the fierce birds above the head with their eyes flashing with cold light.

With a sharp sound of breaking through the air, they passed teasingly through the Jinling officials on Wangjiang Platform who were sent by Jinling to welcome the reinforcements from the north to support the front line.

No one doubts that if these iron falcons really collided directly with human flesh and blood, they would not use their claws and sharp beaks as hard as stone.

When I heard the exclamations coming from behind me, the Jinling officials were frightened by these vicious birds that suddenly changed direction and charged towards them.

Seeing that the plan was completed, these highly humane Hai Dongqing hovered in the air for a while. Looking at these imperial officials who were so ugly in the face of death, they were all frightened and collapsed to the ground with pale faces. They held on to the fence to avoid falling. Falling down on the spot.

A very human and playful look flashed in their eyes.

Sure enough, the Jiubian soldiers on the other side of the river saw that only a few of the Jinling officials were able to face the danger without fear. Most of the Han officials lost their dignity under the impact of the falcons.

There was a roar of laughter.

When the Jinling officials heard these jeers, their faces turned red, but they looked at the shining sun in front of them.

But he could only lower his head and listen to the neighing of the northern war horses drinking from the Yangtze River.

Let the northern warrior's mocking gaze sweep across his body.

This place, this situation, this scene is astonishingly like the ancient city of Jinling a hundred years ago.

When King Wu's cavalry crossed the Yangtze River, Chen Zhaoxian's [-] soldiers and the civil and military personnel in the city knelt on both sides of the Jinling city gate like they are now.

Welcoming the cavalry under the command of King Wu into Nanjing.

The horses' hooves trample the pontoon bridge and hit the river water flowing eastward.

Although the sound was noisy, it had a certain pattern that could only be possessed by the elites of the empire who had been tempered for thousands of years.

"These northern barbarians—"

Xu Cheng heard someone next to him curse in a low voice.

It was Wang Fu, editor of Nanjing Hanlin Academy.

This gray-haired old scholar was obviously still brooding over the fact that those Jiubian generals had allowed Hai Dongqing to attack him just now.

At this time, people gradually got used to the neighing of soldiers, horses and cavalry coming from the north, the cry of hawks overhead, and the sound of armor clashing.

When people think of the previous humiliation, they seem to be back in the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, when military generals were domineering and oppressed civilian officials.

"Let them be arrogant for a while! If they dare to be so arrogant in front of the emperor after entering the capital, I will definitely submit a letter to them together with the censors."

"Sir, you have said it before. The Northern soldiers have been fighting in all directions with the emperor all year round. They are exhausted from military service, illiterate, and behave rudely. If you have offended me, I am here to apologize to you... Why should I bother the emperor to see this matter in person?"

While several people in Nanjing were whispering to each other, a faint voice came.

Several people's faces turned pale.

I saw an old man wearing Mingguang armor, without a helmet, with gray hair and a majestic face, who had arrived behind several people at some point.

There is a sword on his waist, and the scabbard is gorgeous and noble. It looks like a royal thing at first glance, and there are two lines of text written on it.

Xu Cheng looked out of the corner of his eye and could vaguely see the words "In the 15th year of Hongzhi's reign, the patrol battalion commander Gui Yong was given to defeat the Zijingguan bandits."

This line of text was obviously carefully carved by the craftsmen when the sword was forged, but the line of text on the side was crooked, and it was obviously carved by the owner himself with a dagger or other sharp instrument.

Many words have become blurred over time, but Xu Cheng can vaguely see that the two characters "die" are written in the most conspicuous position on it.

The words on the scabbard are very impressive. It is obvious that the person who originally carved these two words on the scabbard made great determination and poured out his full anger and anger.

"..."

The eyes of the old man in front of him, who was entrusted by the imperial court and served as the governor of Xuanda and Da Town, were not sharp.

But when he glanced at the people in front of him, no one dared to raise his head and look at him.

Even among the few Jinling officials just now, the Jinling officials who relied on the magic inherited from their families were able to maintain their dignity and were not afraid of Hai Dongqing's sudden attack.

At this time, I saw Gui Yong coming.

Feeling the aura coming from the sword in his hand, his face changed drastically.

　I'll go on, gentlemen, go to bed early.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)