The army headed south, traveling forty miles a day. After walking for two months, they arrived at Xiangyang.
The army had yet to reach Xiangyang City. When they were still ten miles away from the city, they saw thousands of villagers on both sides of the road, welcoming Li Zhi's reinforcements. A few gongs and drums were lined up along the official road. When they saw Li Zhi's army arrive, they beat their drums and gongs to welcome the Eternal Division. There were also brawny men waiting by the roadside with freshly killed pigs and sheep. Clearly, they were prepared to reward the reinforcements.
Ten miles away from the city, Yang Sichang led the civil and military officials of Xiangyang and stood on the road, waiting for the soldiers to arrive.
Yang Sichang waited for a while, then saw the sound of gongs and drums as a group of soldiers marched towards him.
The soldiers of this mighty army were all wearing simple red military uniforms. The military uniforms were different from the mandarin duck battle jackets of the Ming army. They were buttoned up. The cuffs of his military uniform were very small, and he looked very energetic. The military uniforms of the soldiers were red, while the military officers were dark red.
It was autumn, and the weather was slightly cool. The soldiers 'military uniforms were long sleeves made of two layers of cotton. Obviously, this well-equipped troop also had winter and summer clothes. The soldiers were all wearing a kind of long leather boots. The boots were very sturdy and durable, suitable for long-distance marching.
The soldiers were currently marching and were not wearing armor. But Yang Sichang's eyes were sharp enough to see that armor was tied to the wagons. Some of the armors were breastplates that Yang Sichang had never seen before. Those breastplates did not have scales and were completely forged. They looked like the heart protection mirror of the Mingguang Armor, but they were larger than the heart protection mirror. It was obvious that they could protect the entire upper body. Seeing the cold gleam of the breastplates, Yang Sichang suspected that they were steel armor and not iron armor.
Beside these breastplates, there were also arm guards, shoulder guards, and skirt armor that were also shining coldly. It was obvious that these armors were combined into sets of full-body armor that could protect the entire body.
Yang Sichang had been in the military for decades, but he had never seen a Great Ming army equipped with such fine steel armor. The border troops of the Ming Dynasty were generally equipped with iron plated cotton armor, while the official troops in the mainland did not even have continuous armor. He had never heard of any army using steel armor to arm their soldiers. How strong were the soldiers who wore such steel armor?
Other than this steel armor, Yang Sichang also saw a large number of chain mail on the supply wagons, more than the full-body steel armor. The appearance of the chainmail made Yang Sichang's heart tremble. Yang Sichang recognized the style of the chainmail. This wasn't the Ming army's chainmail, but the chainmail seized from the Tartars!
How many Tartars did he have to kill to obtain so many chainmail armors?
Yang Sichang's face paled as he looked at Lin Feng's army. My Great Ming actually has such a unique strong army.
11th month, 17th day, Ming Emperor Zhu Youjian received a memorial from General Li Zhi.
Zhu Youjian grabbed Li Zhi's memorial and paced back and forth in the empty hall of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, pondering silently. After a long time, he sighed deeply.
Zhu Youjian slowly sat back on the imperial table, unable to speak.
Wang Chengen went to the emperor's side to look at the memorial, cupped his hands and asked,""Emperor, is Li Zhi's memorial attacking Yang Sichang credible?”
Zhu Youjian flipped through the memorial and said weakly,""Li Zhi has always been honest and would not attack a cabinet minister for no reason. All the things in this memorial were 100% true.”
In the winter of the 13th year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian had lost his last bit of trust in Yang Sichang.
Not only did Yang Sichang fail to defeat the Tartars, but he also failed to defeat the bandits and was repeatedly defeated by Zhang Xianzhong. The good situation of setting up a net on all sides was lost in one day. Zhu Youjian sent Li Zhi to strengthen the encirclement and suppression of Zhang Xianzhong, but Yang Sichang made things difficult for Li Zhi everywhere, not even giving Li Zhi's army food.
Yang Sichang was personally promoted by Zhu Youjian. Zhu Youjian promoted Yang Sichang from a small soldier to the Grand Scholar of Wuying Hall and entered the cabinet to seal the prime minister. Many censors attacked Yang Sichang, but Zhu Youjian defended him and unconditionally supported Yang Sichang's praise. Whether it was to increase the number of troops to suppress the bandits or to increase taxes, Zhu Youjian agreed to Yang Sichang's policies.
Even Lu Xiangsheng and Zhu Youjian listened to Yang Sichang and forced him to death.
He didn't expect Yang Sichang to use this method and this situation to repay Zhu Youjian.
Zhu Youjian was very disappointed.
Zhu Youjian looked at the roof of the Palace of Heavenly Purity and sighed again.
Wang Chengen said,"If what Li Zhi said is true, this Yang Sichang is really too much." Emperor, do you want to punish him?"
Zhu Youjian thought for a moment and shook his head.
"Right now, Lin Feng hasn't eliminated Zhang Xianzhong and impeached the Overseer. You can't deal with a cabinet minister just because of Li Zhi's memorial. Otherwise, you'll be even more domineering…"
"If Lin Feng kills Zhang Xianzhong, I won't let Yang Sichang off.”
"If we can't eliminate Zhang Xianzhong, we won't be able to find a suitable candidate for the position of Overseer.”
"Wait for Lin Feng's news of the bandits before considering how to deal with Yang Sichang!”
Wang Chengen looked at Zhu Youjian and said,""The Emperor is wise!"
On the surface, Zhu Youjian was delaying the handling of Yang Sichang because of the situation, but in his heart, Wang Chengen knew that the emperor was still unwilling to deal with Yang Sichang, who he had personally promoted.
In order to promote Yang Sichang, Emperor Zhu Youjian had offended countless officials and officials. With Tian Zi's personality, once he put someone in an important position, he would trust them 100%. It was the same for Yuan Chonghuan and Yang Sichang. Tian Zi seemed to be competing with the people of the world, wanting to use an exception to prove his vision and ability.
However, the result of the matter was always unsatisfactory. Not to mention Yuan Chonghuan, Yang Sichang's appointment was also proven to be a mistake. At first, Yang Sichang's plan of gathering the entire world to encircle and suppress Dong Nu was somewhat effective, but later on, when he slightly moved his troops north to guard against Dong Nu, Yang Sichang's net was broken into pieces.
Zhu Youjian let Yang Sichang personally supervise the army to give Yang Sichang one last chance to prove himself. In the end, the government army was still defeated by Zhang Xianzhong. The memorials attacking Yang Sichang had already been stacked more than a foot high, and the emperor had left them all behind.
Although he already knew that Yang Sichang was no good, Tian Zi was still unwilling to admit that he had used the wrong person until the very last moment.
Wang Chengen looked at Li Zhi's memorial and asked,"Emperor, how should we deal with Li Zhi's memorial?”
"Do you want to stay?" asked Zhu Youjian.
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