Chapter 74 - Hongwu
Chapter 74: Hongwu
The name Hongwu reminded Cui Heng of the founding ancestor of the Ming Dynasty on Earth.
At the same time, he was also looking forward to hearing more. Could it be that Hong Fugui had changed his name?
But if it was Hong Fugui, how could the world’s leader become the Great Jin?
Had he failed?
Liu Litao and Xu Feng’an thought that as an otherworldly Immortal, Cui Heng had never heard of Heavenly King Hongwu.
Hence the question.
After all, that was nearly 300 years ago.
Too much time had passed.
Moreover, after the Great Jin was established, they strictly controlled the information about the previous dynasties. Naturally, very few people knew about it.
At this point, not to mention ordinary people, even a county magistrate might not know.
It was only because one of them was a county governor and the other was an expert from a top sect with over a thousand years of history that they had some understanding.
Hence, the two of them looked at each other. They wanted to answer Cui Heng’s question, but they could not speak first.
Cui Heng saw through their thoughts and nodded with a smile. “Mr. Xu, please continue.”
“Thank you, my Lord.” Xu Feng’an first bowed before continuing the story about Heavenly King Hongwu. “According to the records of the Yuhua Sword Pavilion, Heavenly King Hongwu first appeared in the 12th year of the previous dynasty, which was 288 years ago…
At that time, it was a period at the end of a dynasty, and there were countless revolutionary armies. At that time, Heavenly King Hongwu was the head of a revolutionary army. He was a military officer who could manage a hundred people…”
In his description, Heavenly King Hongwu started from an ordinary military officer.
Through accumulating battle merits, he became a commander, a company officer, and then a general, step by step. After he married the daughter of the leader of the revolutionary army, he completely controlled 100,000 troops.
After taking control of the army, Heavenly King Hongwu widely roped in the people’s hearts. In an extremely short period of time, he gathered a large number of citizens and tied them to his cause. In a few years, he had already developed the army to a million soldiers and began to sweep through the world. Gradually, he was titled a Heavenly King.
The war at the end of a dynasty inevitably affected the various large sects and aristocratic families.
As Heavenly King Hongwu expanded, the interests of some sects and families suffered.
Hence, the sect and aristocratic families sent someone to negotiate with him. After the negotiation failed, they wanted to use force and even killed Heavenly King Hongwu’s son.
This created a life and death feud. Heavenly King Hongwu began to wantonly kill martial artists.
None of the renowned factions in the world escaped his wrath.
This was especially true for the Langya Wang Clan. They were the culprits who had caused the death of Heavenly King Hong Wu’s eldest son. Facing an army of a million, no matter how strong their martial cultivators were, no matter how shocking their martial techniques were, it was useless. Their entire clan was almost wiped out.
In the end, a Deity Realm expert took action and brought away a few direct descendants of the Langya Wang Clan. Only then did they manage to preserve a bloodline.
After that battle, many sects and families completely understood that Heavenly King Hongwu wouldn’t care about them at all.
Hence, countless sects and families joined forces.
First, they defamed Heavenly King Hongwu publicly. At the same time, they used their own strength to gather an army.
They even sent experts to assassinate him repeatedly.
The many sects and aristocratic families often used this method, wanting to directly resolve the root of the problem.
However, no one expected Heavenly King Hongwu to have a peerless divine weapon with him.
He could kill a Deity Realm expert with a sweep of his sword!
It was impossible to assassinate and behead him.
However, it was precisely because of these actions of the sects and aristocratic families that Heavenly King Hongwu became completely enraged.
He personally ordered the death of all the Deity Realm experts in the world, regardless of which sect or family they were from!
An unprecedented martial world calamity was triggered.
“That’s it?”
Cui Heng frowned slightly after hearing this.
From Xu Feng’an’s description, this Heavenly King Hongwu seemed to be just a slightly stronger leader of the Revolutionary Army.
He did not sound like Hong Fugui at all.
Back then, Hong Fugui had learned much more from him.
After Xu Feng’an finished explaining what he knew about Heavenly King Hongwu, he saw Cui Heng fall into deep thought.
This made him a little puzzled and nervous. He instinctively felt that he might have said something wrong, but he could not figure out what he had said wrong.
“The Heavenly King Hongwu that Sir Wu mentioned is actually not a comprehensive description.” At this moment, Liu Litao suddenly spoke. His tone was even filled with reverence. “To be precise, that’s just the Heavenly King Hongwu in the eyes of the martial sects.
Actually, Heavenly King Hongwu’s true strength isn’t in his military strength, nor is it in the divine weapon in his hand. It’s in his thoughts, his military governance, and his administrative ideals.
During the first hundred years of the Great Jin Dynasty, the Imperial Court forbade anyone from reading through any information related to Heavenly King Hongwu. They were afraid of his ideals. It was only because of the recent chaos that there were no more restrictions.”
As he spoke, a smile appeared on his face. It was a smile filled with admiration. “I usually like to read some idle books, so I understand more about this.
Actually, as long as you study the history of Heavenly King Hongwu carefully, you will discover that he is different from all the leaders of the Revolutionary Army and even all the Emperors and generals from ancient times.
There has never been an Emperor or a general who would truly stand with the people like him, let alone an army that would never snatch money and food from the people, never humiliate women, and would even pay for food.
There has never been a person who didn’t rope in the sects and aristocratic families or seek their support. Instead, he targeted them, suppressed them, and even killed them. Then, he distributed the land and property to the troops that were made up of ordinary people.
There has never been an army that took the unification of the world as their responsibility. Even the most ordinary soldiers know what they are fighting to protect, and because of their shared ideals, they would never desert the army even if the entire army was wiped out.
Heavenly King Hongwu attacked the martial arts sects and aristocratic families not because of a personal grudge, but because he wanted to snatch back the livelihoods and businesses that affected the people of the world from these large factions.
Only when the people’s livelihoods are no longer controlled by these sects and families can the people live a stable life. And the killing of all the Deity Realm experts in the world was also for this goal…”
At the mention of Heavenly King Hongwu, Liu Litao seemed to have become a chatterbox as he kept talking.
His words were filled with admiration and even contained traces of subtle worship.
His eyes were shining.
This might have something to do with his own experience.
Liu Litao knew very well that he was a timid person who lacked courage. When he encountered trouble, he always wanted to protect himself and did not dare to charge forward.
Therefore, while he was the governor of Lu County, he did not dare to fall out with the various sects and families.
He could only barely protect the people here so that they could live a stable life and not starve.
But the more this was the case, the more he admired Heavenly King Hongwu.
What kind of courage, what kind of heart was required to pursue such a lofty goal?
Only such a person could let the world bloom with such bright brilliance at the end of a dynasty!
After hearing Liu Litao’s story, Xu Feng’an fell silent.
Perhaps it was because of their different positions, or perhaps it was because of the restrictions of the Great Jin Imperial Court.
The records of Heavenly King Hongwu from the Yuhua Sword Pavilion were indeed too one-sided.
“So that’s what happened.”
Cui Heng whispered softly, as if he was a little emotional.
Then he fell silent and said nothing for a long time.
After a long while.
Just as Liu Litao and Xu Feng’an were feeling a little nervous,
Cui Heng suddenly asked.
“How did this Heavenly King Hongwu fail in the end?”