"Your Majesty, Zhao Ligang sent news that there were refugee riots in Jinan and Liaocheng. Uncle Xinyi was assassinated, and Ma Chongxi was also poisoned in prison!"
Yang Qi bowed and said cautiously.
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he frowned and said: "Didn't we ask Shi Kefa and Shen Tingyang to pacify the people? Moreover, Li Chengdong has...how can there be refugee riots?"
Zhu Yuanzhang originally wanted to say "Li Chengdong has soldiers in his hands", but he hesitated when he thought that Lu Zhenfei was in front of him.
Yang Qi smiled bitterly and said: "Master Shi and Master Shen were originally in Anmin, but after the fall of Pizhou, they were worried that Jiangnan would be lost, so they hurried south, leaving only their staff Yan Ermei to deal with the matter."
"Unexpectedly, just after they left, Uncle Xinyi was assassinated, and then a riot broke out. Emperor Xie wanted to enter Liaocheng on the pretext of reassuring the people, but he was stopped by Uncle Xinyi's subordinates. Now the two sides are still in a stalemate."
"In addition, I heard that Gao Jie from Henan also sent troops there, but they were blocked when passing through General Dong's defense area, so he retreated..."
Zhu Yuanzhang originally sent Zhao Li to interrogate Ma Chongxi temporarily because of Guo Sheng's incident, but unexpectedly he brought back such news, and he couldn't help but feel a little angry.
In fact, he left Xie Sheng and others behind, firstly to stabilize the civil servants, and secondly to contain Li Chengdong.
Moreover, he knew that Li Chengdong was a big boss and might not be able to fight Xie Sheng. He also specifically told Shi Kefa to do a good job in reassuring the people.
Unexpectedly, just after he left, Shi Kefa also left, causing another incident to the west of Jinan.
Then he thought that Gao Jie had left Shandong for several days, and Li Chengdong was assassinated within two days. It was impossible for Gao Jie to get the news so quickly and send troops there. This shows that even if Gao Jie did not plan this matter, he should be an insider.
If this is the case, Gao Jie and Xing will not give up.
But now Li Ruolian has gone south, and although He Zhen has arrived in Henan, he has been staying in the Zhengyang area because he wants to protect the southern grain channel and beware of the soldiers in Wuchang.
Although Dong Qi is brave, his intelligence is slightly lacking, and he may not be able to stop Gao Jie from advancing eastward.
There is also Ma Chongxi. This person has no bearing on the overall situation. Why was he poisoned? Is there any secret hidden in it?
Suddenly, he thought of Cao Hu who had been staying in Liaocheng, so he looked at Yang Qi and said, "Cao Hu did what happened to Ma Chongxi?"
Yang Qi shook his head and said: "The contact point in Liaocheng was just established and this matter was not detected. However, not long after Ma Chongxi was killed, Cao Hu left in a hurry, and then Xie Yi led his army to Liaocheng."
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "How is Li Chengdong's injury?"
Yang Qidao: "Zhao Li did not see Uncle Xinyi, but I heard that the injury was quite serious. At that time, more than a dozen doctors were invited to treat him, but none of them came out after that."
"And if Du Yong and Zhang Yue under Uncle Xinyi hadn't rushed back from Jinan in time, I'm afraid Liaocheng would have fallen into the hands of Emperor Xie."
Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said: "What are you talking about? Du Yonghe and Zhang Yue rushed back from Jinan. We remember asking Li Chengdong to gather troops and horses in the Liaocheng area before leaving, and he did so at the time. Why did he rush back from Jinan again?"
Yang Qi said helplessly: "The general is not aware of this matter, but the information sent back by Zhao Li said so."
"Your Majesty, the general may know about this!"
At this time, Zhang Huangyan on the side suddenly spoke.
Zhu Yuanzhang saw Zhang Huangyan, who had always been cautious, take the initiative to speak. He knew that the simple and profound words he had just said had moved him, and he said happily: "You know?"
Zhang Huangyan nodded and said: "The general is also guessing, because when the rebels were encircled and suppressed before, many rebels fled westward. The general had informed Uncle Xinyi and asked him to beware of the rebels."
"Uncle Xinyi may have sent his soldiers to Jinan because of this incident, but he didn't expect to cause such a disaster. After all, he was reckless." 33
After Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he was silent for a while, looked at Zhang Huangyan and said, "Zhang Qing, how do you think this matter should be handled?"
When Zhang Huangyan asked, he bowed and said: "Your Majesty, the incident in Jiangnan has caused people to panic. In addition, the movements of the rebels in Shaanxi are unknown, so I feel that the incident in Liaocheng cannot spread."
As he spoke, he glanced at Lu Zhenfei again, and continued: "So the general feels that we should act decisively to punish the lawbreakers and put down the rebellion!"
Lu Zhenfei was slightly shocked when he heard Zhang Huang's words about "punishing the lawless and quelling the rebellion", and said: "Master Zhang, although Your Majesty Xie has selfish motives, he is nominally trying to maintain the stability of Liaocheng. If he sends troops to attack, I'm afraid that It will disappoint people.”
"As for the refugees, we should not encircle and suppress them, because doing so will only make the rebels stronger, which is not good for us."
Zhang Huangyan nodded and said: "Mr. Lu, what you said makes sense, but time has not waited for us. Moreover, Master Shi has not been successful in adjusting the situation in Liaocheng for many days. If we try to adjust it again now, I am afraid it will not be effective."
"Coupled with the current refugee riots, if the riots cannot be quelled quickly, the west of Jinan will surely fall into chaos."
"So the general feels that this matter must be resolved quickly, and Xie B should take advantage of his unpreparedness to seize his troops. If he loses support, he will not make trouble again, and Gao Jie will not come east."
"The riots must be resolutely suppressed, and the general will not harm innocent people, because ordinary people will retreat when they see the imperial army, so what we are destroying are the rebels who take the opportunity to stir up trouble."
"After the riots are calmed down, we will provide disaster relief and bring peace to the people, and people's hearts will slowly recover..."
Lu Zhenfei also felt that Xie Bi was doing something inappropriate. He only objected because he was worried that this matter would implicate Shi Kefa and innocent people.
At this moment, seeing that Zhang Huangyan did not mention Shi Kefa and others, and that kind people could be preserved, he stopped talking and looked at Zhu Yuanzhang again.
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a while, then looked at Yang Qi and said: "Send someone to convey the order and tell Li Chengdong to restore stability to the west of Jinan as soon as possible."
"Send a letter to Dong Qi again and tell him that if he can hold the line of defense, we will give him an official rank. If an illegal person is allowed to enter Shandong, we will kill him on his head!"
When Lu Zhenfei heard this, he said worriedly: "Your Majesty, Li Chengdong has been injured, I'm afraid..."
"Lu Qing, you don't need to say anything. Since Li Chengdong is sitting in that position, he should take responsibility. Otherwise, what use do we have for him!"
Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted Lu Zhenfei loudly before he could finish what he said.
Zhang and Lu trembled slightly when they heard this.
After Zhu Yuanzhang asked Yang Qi to deliver the order, he discussed the Jiangnan matter with him.
After everything was agreed upon, the two of them left in a hurry, much faster than before.
Shortly afterwards, Li Wu sent another secret letter and a stack of memorials.
Zhu Yuanzhang opened the secret message and saw that it was from Huai'an from Zhang Dabiao.
Zhang Dabiao reported three things in total in his letter.
He first described the battle situation in Huai'an, saying that when Guo Sheng attacked Huai'an, one of Ma Shiying's generals wanted to open the door and dedicate the city. Fortunately, he was discovered in time and Huai'an was not lost. The two sides are still in a stalemate.
Next, he talked about Zhu Yousong's army. It turned out that 3,000 of the 5,000 people Zhu Yousong had recruited were wolf soldiers. Lu Jiude got the news from nowhere, and hurried to Huai'an and dismissed Zhu Yousong. It was because of Song's troops that no trouble was caused.
Finally, he reported to Zhu Yuanzhang about the feudal kings, saying that because Guo Sheng went south, people in the south of the Yangtze River were panicked, and many feudal kings were recruiting troops to prepare for returning to their fiefdoms.
Since the north is relatively stable now, and those feudal kings have also awarded heavy rewards, they are recruiting troops very quickly this time. I believe that within a few days, one of the feudal kings will set off.
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but frowned after reading the letter.
Some people died, but not completely...
