"It must be done by His Highness himself." Glancing at Liu Sheng playfully, Zhang Fucai slowly said his answer.

Liu Sheng's smile immediately froze on his face.

"Lonely, is it appropriate?" Although Zhu Gaochi has guarded the city twice, he has never been in charge of the expedition in person, and he feels both moved and a little uneasy when he hears the words. After all, if you fight a war, you will be uncertain, and if you lose to King Zhao, your prestige will be swept away.

"It must be Your Highness." Zhang Fu emphasized again, and said in a deep voice: "The foundation of King Zhao's rebellion this time is actually very shallow, and the reason why he can make trouble to this point is more because Emperor Daxing suddenly fell ill, the situation was out of control, and he picked up the leak. But even so, King Zhao was driven out of the capital and retreated to Tongzhou. Now gathering his subordinates, although it seems to be aggressive, but in fact, there is a great loss of confidence inside, and no one believes that King Zhao will achieve the final victory. ”

"There are two reasons why there are no trees falling and scattering, one is inertia, and the other is because they are worried that once the army is defeated, the family will be ruined." Zhang Fu wanted to make the future new monarch pay attention to himself, so he naturally couldn't hide it at this moment, and continued to analyze: "As long as His Highness's figure appears in front of Zhao Wangjun, their morale will plummet, and then His Highness will only ask about the first evil, and if he doesn't do it, their generals will lose control over their subordinates." At that time, our army was either a drum or a rumor, it was as easy as a matter of effort! ”

"On the contrary, if His Highness had not appeared, Zhao Wangjun's morale would have been barely maintained. At that time, once the siege does not go well, the morale of the enemy army will rise greatly, and the morale of our army will be low, anything may happen! Zhang Fu finally said in a deep voice: "Your Highness's personal expedition is the first step and the most critical step to sit firmly in the country!" ”

Zhang Fu's words, especially the last sentence, completely touched the heart of His Royal Highness the Prince, Zhu Gaochi pondered for a moment and nodded heavily: "Okay, it's up to the grandfather!" ”

Zhang Fu glanced at Liu Sheng unintentionally, the meaning is obvious, fight with me, you are still a little tender......

Liu Sheng could only hate and not turn his head away......

Everyone knows that time waits for no one, and it is planned very quickly with the prince's personal conquest. The next day, Zhu Gaochi went north under the escort of 30,000 troops, and five days later, he joined the 60,000 troops of the original White Lotus Sect who had arrived in advance, and held a grand swearing-in ceremony outside the city of Dezhou.

In order to express his gratitude to the grain merchants in Tongzhou, the prince invited the representatives of the grain merchants to participate in the pledge meeting, and the grain merchants who were moved were in tears, and finally they no longer felt sorry for the grain they had contributed.

As Zhao Wang and Zhang Fu expected, these grain merchants went south with grain, and naturally someone was agitating behind them. But it's too simple to be talked about. Because King Zhao acted too high-profile, so that who was the person on his table and who was his backhand, Jin Yiwei found out clearly without effort. After checking these clearly, as long as you analyze it briefly, you will naturally know that if King Zhao is frustrated in Beijing, he will definitely retreat to Tongzhou and make another plan.

At the same time, it can be clearly understood that the key to the success or failure of King Zhao's hand lies in the grain merchants in Tongzhou! Unfortunately, Wang Xian also hit these grain merchants with his idea a long time ago, because the Ming Dynasty was too short of grain, especially in Shandong, and Wang Xian could not afford to raise the grain and grass drawn by the army, so that the empty army could not be used.

Looking all over the north, only these powerful Tongzhou grain merchants can continuously transport the grain and grass from the land of fish and rice in the south to the north through convenient transportation, and then hoard them in the granaries of Tongzhou and sell them to the people of the capital at a high price. Yes, these grain merchants don't even have their own warehouses, and they directly use the granaries of the imperial court to store grain, and they don't worry about being embezzled by the imperial court at all, because they have bought all the people below the warehouse squire......

Therefore, King Zhao inspected the Tongzhou granary before, and the grain he saw was not temporarily seconded by the warehouse waiter, but originally stored there!

If it is a normal situation, it is a pipe dream to ask these big grain merchants with their hands and eyes to donate food. But this is not a normal situation right now! Wang Xian asked people to bring a message to those grain merchants, telling them that their grain had been targeted by King Zhao! If King Zhao succeeds in usurping the throne, it is possible to pay attention to eating and eating, but if King Zhao fails, he will definitely retreat to Tongzhou, and he will definitely attack their food as soon as possible!

Although the big grain merchants were not frightened, as businessmen, they were most concerned about the safety of their own property, and in the spirit of believing that they would rather believe what they had than what they didn't, they took out their own grain from the official warehouse and shipped it out of Tongzhou. But at this time, no one wanted to defect to the crown prince. After Wang Xian's prophecy came true, the grain merchants found out that King Zhao was really going to rebel in Tongzhou, and they were all frightened, they knew very well that once King Zhao could not find food, he would definitely kill them to vent his anger, and I was afraid that even if he handed over the grain, he would not be able to guarantee safety.

At this time, under the instruction of Jinyiwei, someone announced that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had arrived in Shandong, and he would go on a northern expedition on the same day, and it was proposed that it would be better to dedicate the grain to the prince, and when the prince sat down in the country, the income must be far better than the income from selling grain!

In the hearts of the people, Zhu Gaochi is the best candidate to inherit the throne, and he is known as benevolence and righteousness. How shrewd are the grain merchants, how can they not understand such a simple account? immediately responded positively, and almost overnight, the portable family disappeared from Tongzhou City without a trace, and went south to join the prince......

After the oath, the prince personally took command, with Anyuan Marquis Liu Sheng as the vanguard, the British Gong Zhang Fu led the Chinese army, Shandong commanded Liu Xin, the governor of Tongzhi Mo Wen led the left road, Qingzhou Wei commanded Liu Jun, Xu Huaiqing commanded the right road, Jiaozhou Wei commanded Liu Achou, and Du commanded the Erhei Palace, a total of 100,000 soldiers and horses from all roads, and the accompanying people were known as 200,000 people, and they marched towards Tongzhou!

Everywhere the army passed along the way, the people all ate pot pulp, greeted them on the road, and the officials from all walks of life were also extremely obedient, and the governor of the state government personally led the officers and soldiers in the territory to be brave, and brought their own dry food to join the army of King Qin!

By the time he reached Cangzhou, the prince's army had swelled to more than 200,000, to Tianjin, to 300,000, and to Langfang, where it surged to 400,000! This is still the result of considering the logistical difficulties, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince persuaded many Qin Wang troops back.

What is the will of the people, this is called the desire of the people! At this moment, the British Duke finally convinced Wang Xian's judgment - the prince must indeed immediately go north to quell the rebellion, if he huddles in Jinan, or retreats to Nanjing, he will definitely lose the hearts of the people, where is there still the popular scenery that the people want now, and the world is invincible!

Zhu Gaochi is also secretly rejoicing, fortunately he listened to Wang Xian's words, if Zhu Zhanji is allowed to take the lead, the hearts of the people in the world will all be biased towards the grandson! Although it is his own son, there is no father and son in the heavenly family, although His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will never admit it, but he is indeed his biggest threat .......

In Tongzhou City, every move of the prince's army has its own scouts to report to King Zhao and others at any time. But every time it was reported, it was a heavy blow to the confidence of Zhao Wang and others......

Listening to the rapid expansion of the prince's army along the way, the government everywhere it went surrendered as soon as possible, and fully cooperated to support the prince's Northern Expedition! Even the common people contributed the summer grain that had just been harvested, enthusiastically joined the volunteers, and did their best to support the prince!

Under King Zhao, everyone's hearts were cold, in the face of this cruel reality, they could no longer deceive themselves, they could only admit that the prince was the co-master of the world, and their group was just a group of rebels who spurned the world......

Gradually, fugitives began to appear, and then there were officers who led the formed army to flee, Gao Zheng and others wanted King Zhao to promulgate the law of joint sitting, and curb this phenomenon through severe punishment, but His Royal Highness King Zhao's reaction was confusing, he just said, 'If you don't firmly follow this king, let him go', he ignored it, let alone promulgated the law.

King Zhao ignored the absconders, but urged his subordinates to step up preparations for the enthronement ceremony, and he wanted to be the emperor in Tongzhou City! This made the generals very worried in private, feeling that the prince seemed to have lost hope and had a tendency to break the jar.

When Liu Sheng's vanguard army arrived outside Tongzhou, Zhao Wangjun's absconding reached its climax, and hundreds of soldiers fled at every turn, and some surrendered to Liu Sheng directly. Tian Zihe and others were deeply concerned about the strength of the prince's army, and proposed to abandon Tongzhou and turn to the west of the mountain.

This proposal was echoed by many generals, and these people who led the troops knew best that now there was a huge difference between them and the prince's army in terms of morality, troops, momentum, and food, and they were simply waiting for death to defend Tongzhou. However, this proposal was severely reprimanded by King Zhao!

"We leave Tongzhou, and Zhu Gaochi will go to Beijing to ascend the throne!" King Zhao glared at Tian Zihe and the others like a cannibal, "He won!" We're losing! ”

"Your Highness, now is not the time to fight for this breath," Tian Zihe and others persuaded bitterly: "Let the prince go to Beijing, there is a mess waiting for him to clean up, we still have a chance to breathe, and when he falls out with the grandson in the capital, we will have a chance!" ”

"Shut up!" King Zhao pulled out his sword and said hysterically: "Whoever dares to say that he escapes, Lone will kill him!" ”

"Your Royal Highness......" Tian Zihe and others still wanted to persuade, King Zhao really slashed out with a sword, Tian Zihe was shocked, only dodged the vital point, hurriedly used his arm to block, and was cut off by the sharp sword The right arm was cut off, and the blood gushed out, and half of his body became a bloody person.

The general next to him was stunned, and hurriedly stepped forward to help Tian Zihe stop the bleeding, Tian Zihe closed his eyes with a pale face, and his face was full of sorrow more than death.

"Whoever dares to shake the morale of the army again, it's not just as simple as losing an arm!" King Zhao glanced at the broken arm on the ground, carrying the bloody sword, and said in a fierce voice.

"Your Highness, hey, ......" Liu Qiang and the others had no choice but to support the crumbling Tian Zihe and retreat.