After Zhu Yuanzhang signaled for Li Wu to come in, he said to Zhang Huang: "We think Guo Sheng's division of troops is a bit strange. You should send someone immediately to verify it to see if he really divided his troops or it was a trick to lure the enemy!"
After Zhang Huangyan bowed in agreement, he hurried out.
At this time, Li Wu walked in quickly and reported to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Your Majesty, the general received news from Zhao Li on the way, saying that Li Chengdong had killed Bixie Xie and sent troops to loot wealthy households in Dezhou and other places. "
Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked when he heard this, and returned to normal in an instant. He said in a deep voice: "Li Chengdong is so bold. Do you know the details?"
Li Wu took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Zhu Yuanzhang respectfully: "Your Majesty, this is the whole story reported by Yan Ermei, Shi Kefa's staff. It is said that Li Chengdong pretended to be injured because of his plan."
"But later, for some reason, Li Chengdong did not listen to his advice and instead massacred the rich. So he wrote the details of the matter in a letter and asked Zhao Li to forward it to His Majesty."
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a while, then took the letter and slowly unfolded it.
Yan Ermei said in the letter that not long after Zhu Yuanzhang left, some sporadic refugee riots occurred in Liaocheng and other places.
At that time, Yan Ermei felt that Xie Bu was secretly instigating this, but because there was no evidence, it was inconvenient to say so.
In addition, after Shi Kefa stepped up disaster relief efforts, the riots gradually decreased. He thought that the matter was over, so he did not report it to Shi Kefa.
Unexpectedly, after Shi Kefa and Shen Tingyang left in a hurry due to Guo Sheng's incident, refugee riots broke out on a large scale in an instant.
When Li Chengdong encountered this incident, he panicked for a moment.
Fortunately, Yan Ermei stayed calm in the face of danger and directed Li Chengdong to calm the people while suppressing the rebellion, and the situation was temporarily stabilized.
At this time, Ma Chongxi was suddenly poisoned to death in prison.
Then there were rumors in the army that Li Chengdong was suspicious of surrendering troops and wanted to kill all the surrendering troops, which immediately caused a commotion in the army.
In order to avoid changes in the army, Li Chengdong hurried outside the city to appease the soldiers and stayed in the rebel camp for one night, which temporarily stabilized the morale of the army.
Unexpectedly, he was assassinated on the way back. Fortunately, Li Chengdong knew how ruthless Xing was and had been secretly on guard, thus saving his life.
After this incident, Yan Ermei felt that Xie Bi might come to attack the city.
In order to disrupt Xie Bi's rhythm, he suggested that Li Chengdong pretend to be seriously injured and lure Xie Bi here, and then lead his troops to sneak into Dezhou to drain Xie Bi's salary.
Due to the haste, after Li Chengdong took away Liaocheng's soldiers and horses, Jinan's soldiers and horses did not rush back in time. Yan Ermei deliberately planted suspicious troops to prevent Xie Bi from forcibly attacking the city.
Unexpectedly, when Emperor Xie arrived in Liaocheng, he did not attack the city, but stayed stationed outside the city.
Just when Yan Ermei was confused, she received a letter from Li Chengdong from Texas and learned the whole story.
It turns out that the reason why Gao Jie and Xie Bi captured Jinan so quickly a few days ago was firstly because of Zhu Yuanzhang's pressure, and secondly because they wanted to use this opportunity to make a contribution and stay to guard Shandong.
Unexpectedly, Li Chengdong took advantage of him in the end, so both of them were dissatisfied.
Because they had a common enemy, they all had their own agendas, but they united and secretly discussed it, deciding that after Zhu Yuanzhang left, Xie Bi would incite the refugees to cause trouble, while Gao Jie would instruct people to assassinate Li Chengdong.
Then he took the opportunity to seize Jinan and other places on the pretext of quelling the chaos.
So after Zhu Yuanzhang left Liaocheng, Xie Bi started acting as planned.
However, because Xie Bi had scruples about Shi Kefa, he acted very cautiously at the beginning, and the scale of the refugee riots was not large.
When the Guo Sheng incident broke out and Shi Kefa and Shen Tingyang left Liaocheng, Xie Bi no longer had any scruples and immediately took action with all his strength.
Because the Xie family was quite prestigious in Shandong, and some rebels were building momentum from them, it took only one day for Emperor Xie to cause the refugee riots to sweep across the west of Jinan.
Xie Your Majesty was overjoyed. While arranging the army, he urged Gao Jie to lead his troops.
Later, when he heard that Li Chengdong was seriously injured, he immediately led his army to Liaocheng.
However, after Xie arrived in Liaocheng, he found that Gao Jie had not come as promised. He was worried that he had fallen into the opponent's plan, so he did not act immediately.
Later, because Gao Jie was late, Xie Bi and Xie Sheng discussed it and planned to attack the city by force. However, they heard that Du Yonghe and Zhang Yue, who had suppressed the rebellion in Jinan, had already rushed back, so they did not take any further action, but stepped up their efforts. Gao Jie.
But Gao Jie, for some unknown reason, never came.
After Yan Ermei learned the truth, she was worried that Gao Jie would arrive and ruin the plan, so she immediately released the news that Dezhou had been breached.
When Xie Bi heard about this, he hurried back with his troops, but was attacked by Li Chengdong halfway.
Originally, according to Yan Ermei's plan, Li Chengdong only needed to capture Xie Bi.
But for some unknown reason, Li Chengdong suddenly changed his mind and killed Xie Bi on the spot.
Afterwards, Li Chengdong returned to Dezhou and not only killed Xie Sheng's family, but also took the opportunity to rob all the wealthy households in Dezhou.
Then he followed the same pattern and robbed wealthy households in Jinan, Liaocheng and other places.
After Li Chengdong received the money, he recruited troops aggressively. In just two days, he recruited more than 30,000 people.
Yan Ermei saw that the big mistake had been made and that there was no use in regretting it, so he started to arrange the aftermath.
In order to avoid Li Chengdong's suspicion, he used the policy of calming the people to confuse Li Chengdong, while secretly reporting the matter to the court.
Unexpectedly, Li Chengdong actually listened to his advice this time. Not only did he send people to provide relief and comfort to the people, he also sent one million taels of silver to the capital.
After Zhu Yuanzhang read the letter, he was also very puzzled by some of Li Chengdong's actions.
Because he knew that although Li Chengdong was a martial artist, he was also somewhat intelligent. It was impossible not to know that Xie Sheng was his pawn to balance the situation.
But now Li Chengdong not only killed Xie Sheng and others, but also recruited troops aggressively, which was clearly a challenge to his authority. This was very different from Li Chengdong's previous attitude.
"Is it because he learned about Xi'an and was eager to expand?"
Zhu Yuanzhang just had this idea and immediately denied it.
Because Liaocheng is more than a thousand miles away from Xi'an, with Dong Qi and Gao Jie's troops in between, it is impossible for Li Chengdong to rush to get a share of the pie even if he gets the news.
Moreover, what happened in Xi'an was beneficial to the court. When Li Chengdong learned about it, he should be more respectful.
Now that Li Chengdong is behaving abnormally like this, it can only be because someone told him some news that is not conducive to Daming.
Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately thought of Zuo Xianmei, and looked at Li Wudao: "Where is Zuo Xianmei now?"
Li Wudao: "She seems to have entered Shanxi yesterday, and her destination may be Taiyuan."
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a while and then asked: "Are you sure that Zuo Xianmei did not leave midway?"
Li Wu was stunned when he heard this, and said hesitantly: "After Zuo Xianmei left Shandong, our people withdrew, and the news was transmitted through the liaison station..."
Zhu Yuanzhang thought that Jin Yiwei had been infiltrated by Zuo Liangyu, and this news was probably unreliable.
Then he thought that Cao Hu's stay in Liaocheng must be Zuo Xianmei's arrangement, so he asked again: "Where is Cao Hu? Do you know where he is now?"
Li Wu said with some embarrassment: "Our people last saw Cao Hu in the Yanggu County area, and he was never seen again after that."
Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a while and then ordered Li Wudao: "Send a message to Zhao Li and ask him to immediately reorganize the Jinyiwei contact points in Liaocheng. All suspicious people will be imprisoned, and those who resist will be killed on the spot."
"In addition, let credible people fully trace the whereabouts of Zuo Xianmei and Cao Hu, and ask Zhao Li to contact Yan Ermei and ask him to pay close attention to Li Chengdong's movements..."
He stopped again as he spoke, and was silent for a while before continuing: "You also rush to Liaocheng immediately and bring all the dead tiger soldiers with you."
"If Li Chengdong leads his army to leave Liaocheng, you and Zhao Li will kill him at all costs!"
Li Wu was stunned for a moment, then bowed and responded.
At this time, Zhang Huangyan came in again and reported that Ma Jinzhong's attack on Weifang had been frustrated and asked Zhu Yuanzhang to send troops to support him.
Some people died, but not completely...
