The Emperor suddenly stopped, turning to look at Zhu Jianying and asked, "Do you truly wish to gain experience on the battlefield?"
Zhu Jianying nodded solemnly and replied, "Yes, I truly wish to gain experience on the battlefield."
The Emperor grunted, looking Zhu Jianying up and down. "Do you know what 'blades and spears have no eyes' means? Anything can happen on the battlefield. Cannonballs and bullets won't avoid you just because you're the First Prince of Da Ming—quite the opposite, any enemy of Da Ming, if they have even a shred of sense, will target you first."
As he spoke, the Emperor rolled up his sleeve and pointed to a crooked scar on his arm near his shoulder. "See this?"
"This was from when I was slashed in the forty-ninth year of Qianlong's reign. By then, I was already the head honcho of Menglianggu, and my name was known even to the Tatar court and that old dog Qianlong. Yet, the one who injured me was an Eight Banners soldier whose name I still don't know."
"That time, fighting against Fuk'anggan and Agui, was not only the most dangerous time for Menglianggu, but also the time I, your father, was closest to death."
"If it weren't for my own considerable skills, or if that Eight Banners soldier's blade had been raised just one chi higher, there might not have been a Great Ming Emperor in this world, and perhaps no First Prince of Da Ming like you."
The Emperor slowly lowered his sleeve and stared seriously at Zhu Jianying. "Do you still wish to go to the battlefield now?"
Zhu Jianying also nodded earnestly and replied, "I am certain. I am certain I want to gain experience on the battlefield—Da Ming can have incompetent princes, but it absolutely cannot have cowardly princes who fear death!"
The Emperor suddenly burst into laughter.
Zhu Jianying was right. Da Ming could have incompetent princes, and even eccentric emperors, but it absolutely could not have cowardly emperors and princes!
After a bout of laughter, the Emperor suddenly turned to Lin Yu, the commander of the Heavenly Emperor Fleet, and said, "Did you hear that? Arrange for this lad to join the Marines. Let him start as a regular Marine."
Lin Yu refused the Emperor's request without hesitation. "Your Majesty, I refuse to assign the First Prince to the Marines! If the First Prince must gain experience in the military, I request that he remain by my side!"
The Emperor was not surprised by Lin Yu's refusal.
In fact, let alone Lin Yu, the commander of the Heavenly Emperor Fleet, even Liu Erniu, who grew up naked with the Emperor in Liumiaocun and fought alongside him to conquer the empire, or even the Emperor's own two younger brothers, no one dared to send Zhu Jianying to the frontline Marine forces. No one could bear that responsibility.
The First Prince, especially the legitimate First Prince, often meant the Crown Prince. Although Zhu Jianying had not yet been enfeoffed as Crown Prince, his younger brothers were all many years younger than him. He had watched them grow up. Who would compete with him for the position of heir apparent?
If anything were to happen to Zhu Jianying, the First Prince, it would be a catastrophe!
However, the Emperor said sternly, "He is my son, but he is also the First Prince of Da Ming, and potentially the future Crown Prince and Emperor. Letting him gain experience on the battlefield now is not a bad thing for him. If he truly..."
The Emperor paused slightly, then stated resolutely, "Enough, I won't waste more words with you. Arrange for him to join the Marines. Place him there as a raw recruit. Carry out the order!"
...
Zhu Jianying finally got his wish and joined the Marine corps of the Heavenly Emperor Fleet as a raw recruit.
However, contrary to the welcome Zhu Jianying had imagined, the Marines of the Heavenly Emperor Fleet did not seem to welcome him, the First Prince. In fact, they seemed to be deliberately excluding him. During training, the officers would intentionally increase the workload. In daily life, all the heavy and dirty work, such as transporting supplies and digging trenches, was assigned to him. Even during meals, soldiers from his own squad would deliberately snatch food from him.
This was difficult for Zhu Jianying to accept.
From the information and even the intelligence reports from the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot, the armies of Da Ming had always been united and friendly. Old soldiers took care of new recruits, and new recruits respected old soldiers. But all of this was completely different from what Zhu Jianying saw and heard.
However, Zhu Jianying did not immediately step forward to expose everything. Instead, he decided to observe slowly.
Zhu Jianying wanted to find the root of the problem through his own efforts.
Unfortunately, no matter how Zhu Jianying performed or how he tried to integrate into the military collective, the only feedback he received was failure.
Those who ignored him continued to ignore him, and those who excluded him continued to exclude him. Everything was the same as when Zhu Jianying first joined the army. At most, the officers no longer deliberately targeted him, the diligent and obedient recruit.
It wasn't until one day, a Sima Langzhong from the army approached him and said, "Who arranged for you to join the Marines, especially to be deployed to the Heavenly Emperor Fleet's Marines just before a major battle? Was it Grand Commander Liu Erniu? Or Grand Commander Geng Rui? Or perhaps Grand Commander Liu Hemming?"
As if to reassure Zhu Jianying, after a series of questions, the Sima Langzhong added, "Don't worry, these matters have nothing to do with you. Although your identity as the nephew of Duke Solun is false, we have reviewed your records and performance in the Marines. We still acknowledge you as a soldier of the Marines."
Zhu Jianying immediately understood what was going on—they thought he was a spoiled brat who had used connections to gain military achievements! The soldiers who had been constantly excluding him were likely doing so for the same reason!
Having figured this out, Zhu Jianying could only honestly reply, "It was Commander Lin Yu of the Heavenly Emperor Fleet who arranged for me to join, and it was with the permission of His Majesty the Emperor of Da Ming. If you two don't believe me, you can go and ask Commander Lin Yu of the Heavenly Emperor Fleet."
The two Sima Langzhong sitting opposite Zhu Jianying exchanged glances. One of them lowered his head and kept writing on paper, while the other snorted coldly, "But we've already checked. You have no kinship with Commander Lin. Why would he arrange for you to join the Heavenly Emperor Fleet's Marines? Who is behind you?"
Just as Zhu Jianying was pondering how to answer, the Sima Langzhong who had been recording played the bad cop. "I advise you to tell us honestly. This is the only case of a privileged individual being inserted into the frontline to gain military achievements since the founding of Da Ming. It might even reach the Emperor's ears. You definitely won't be able to hide it. If you confess now, you can protect yourself. But if you stubbornly refuse to speak, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot get involved, it won't be so easy."
Zhu Jianying looked at the two Sima Langzhong opposite him with a dumbfounded expression.
*They're trying to scare me, aren't they? Using the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot to scare me?*
Speaking of which, the military system of Da Ming still retained various feudal remnants. The Embroidered Uniform Guard, although nominally a "Guard," had a structure comparable to an army, and was directly managed by the Emperor. In normal times, they were only responsible for transmitting intelligence to the Grand Secretariat and the Five Chief Military Commissions. However, their affiliation did not fall under the jurisdiction of the Grand Secretariat or the Five Chief Military Commissions.
As for the Eastern Depot, it was even more obvious. The Grand Supervisor of the Eastern Depot was Zhang Dequan, who had been lurking around that old dog Qianlong for many years. The education he received from childhood was that the Eastern Depot was the Emperor of Da Ming's household slaves. If the Eastern Depot were to investigate Zhu Jianying, those eunuchs from the Eastern Depot might very well arrest these two Sima Langzhong.
With this in mind, Zhu Jianying could only suppress his laughter and say with a helpless expression, "What I've just said is the truth, gentlemen. I was indeed arranged to join by Commander Lin Yu, and I did receive permission from His Majesty the Emperor. As for my apparent identity as the nephew of Duke Solun, while it is false, I am not at liberty to disclose my true identity."
After receiving Zhu Jianying's answer, the two Sima Langzhong were amused to the point of laughter.
Sima Langzhong did not hold high ranks or positions in the army, but they had a special privilege: the authority to investigate any matter within the military. All Sima Langzhong on investigative duty were considered one rank higher than officials they interacted with. Let alone investigating a case of Zhu Jianying impersonating the nephew of Duke Solun to gain military achievements, even if they were to investigate Grand Commander Liu Hemming of the Five Chief Military Commissions, Liu Hemming would have to cooperate honestly.
Now, the Sima Langzhong, who were usually a rank higher, had encountered someone difficult, who even claimed that his true identity was inconvenient to disclose!
The Sima Langzhong, who had been speaking with a smile, stopped smiling. His gaze towards Zhu Jianying became solemn. "Alright, you're a tight-lipped kid. But have you considered that what you've said today directly implicates the Commander of the Heavenly Emperor Fleet? If something is truly discovered later, you'll be in trouble!"
Another Sima Langzhong also threatened Zhu Jianying. "It's still not too late to confess honestly. If you remain stubborn, we will go to Commander Lin of the Heavenly Emperor Fleet to confirm, and we'll investigate him as well."
Zhu Jianying finally ran out of options.
If he allowed the two Sima Langzhong to continue their investigation, wouldn't his identity be exposed in the end?
The key was that Zhu Jianying currently had nothing to prove his identity. The First Prince's identification could not be carried with him. Commander Lin Yu of the Heavenly Emperor Fleet, who could testify for him, was still a hundred miles away at Mukala Port. How to prove his identity to the two Sima Langzhong had become the biggest challenge!
With no other recourse, Zhu Jianying could only shake his head and say, "What I've said is indeed the truth. You gentlemen can go and confirm it with Commander Lin."
Seeing that Zhu Jianying still refused to say anything, the two Sima Langzhong lost their patience to continue pestering him.
Zhu Jianying's identity was indeed fake, and he was indeed placed in the Marines through connections. However, before the truth of the matter was fully ascertained, these two Sima Langzhong could not do anything to him.
The two Sima Langzhong snorted in unison, stood up to leave, and said to Zhu Jianying, "The battlefield is fraught with danger. You'd best be careful. You must strive to survive until we uncover the truth of this matter."
To everyone's surprise, even though a major battle was imminent, the two Sima Langzhong still traveled a hundred miles to Mukala Port to confirm with Lin Yu. They returned with the final investigation results: Wan Yan Hong was indeed the nephew of Duke Solun. Because he had performed exceptionally in military school, he had been serving as the Emperor's personal guard and was recently specially assigned by the Emperor to the Marines of the Heavenly Emperor Fleet.
After the two Sima Langzhong presented their findings, Zhu Jianying was astonished to discover that his squad mates, who had previously made it a point to exclude him, no longer did. When sleeping at night, he even received the treatment of having his squad leader tuck him in. During meals, squad mates would push dishes towards each other.
"This is more like it," Zhu Jianying mumbled to himself. "I knew our Da Ming army wouldn't inexplicably ostracize new recruits. They must have mistaken me for a spoiled brat here to gain military achievements."
However, thinking this way, Zhu Jianying couldn't help but feel a little happy. After concluding that he was mistaken for a spoiled brat seeking military achievements, the fact that someone in the army would proactively report him to the Sima Langzhong, and that the Sima Langzhong could investigate him immediately and even directly contact Commander Lin Yu, proved that the army was quite reliable!
Of course, the Da Ming army was not entirely to Zhu Jianying's liking. Some aspects still made him feel quite unhappy.
For example, the study time after dinner. In Da Ming, he had to study constantly. After running away, he was educated by his imperial father. Now, as a private in the Marines, he still had to study every day?
But it was no use. The rules and systems established by the army were the rules and systems. No matter how unhappy Zhu Jianying was, he could only endure it obediently and recite lessons or military books with his squad mates.
It wasn't until the Marine unit Zhu Jianying belonged to replenished its ammunition and supplies and officially set sail towards Istanbul that these endless classes finally came to an end.
Zhu Jianying also gradually became excited.
This was his first time going to the battlefield since breaking free from his imperial father, and he was about to engage in combat!
Although his identity as the First Prince of Da Ming did not allow him to have a separate page in the family genealogy, Zhu Jianying also wanted to bring back a plaque that would bring honor to his ancestors!
Then, Zhu Jianying roared and charged onto the battlefield!