Chapter 348
Zhou Yuji found that the pursuers behind him were not coming, so he ordered to stop advancing.
Zhou Yuji's son, Zhou Ruhu, handed a water bag to Zhou Yuji. Zhou Yuji reached out to take it and found that the water bag was actually warm. It was obvious that Zhou Ruhu held the water bag close to his body to keep it warm.
Zhou Yuji said with red eyes: "How is the situation now?"
Zhou smiled bitterly and said: "It's very bad!"
"How bad!"
"Ning Haijun suddenly joined the battle, and our outnumbered situation was instantly reversed. Ning Haijun is well-trained, fearless and well-equipped. We..."
Zhou Ruhu didn't say anything, Zhou Yuji also knew that the Beijing camp was actually a watchdog, bullying the common people, each one more fierce than the other, and if they beat the few with more, their morale would be like a rainbow. But the problem is, they can't fight a tough battle. When it comes to elites like Ning Haijun, he becomes impotent in an instant.
Zhou Jiyu asked: "How many supplies and troops are there now?"
"After a fierce battle, we lost thousands of people, and the only rations we brought with us were two steamed buns and seven or eight pieces of cake. This was enough to last for two days!"
Zhou Ruhu smiled bitterly and said: "Only one of the four artillery pieces is left, there are only eleven shells left, and there are still more than 130 kilograms of gunpowder."
Zhou Yuji frowned: "It's freezing now, so we have to eat more than usual. If we eat this food freely, we'll eat it all in one day!"
Zhou Ruhu said: "It should be enough for us to return to Beijing!"
"go back?"
Zhou Yuji shook his head and said: "We can't go back, if we go back like this, we are dead!"
When Zhou Yuji found out that the person he was going to deal with was Gao Qiqian, he knew that this was a game, a game specially set up for him and Gao Qiqian. If it failed, Zhou Yuji could only surrender to Zhang Fengyi, otherwise he would be the scapegoat, whether it was Cheng Shijie or Gao Qiqian. No matter how high or low you are, you won't let him go.
"There is no turning back when you open your bow. As long as Gao Qiqian is killed, our father, son, and these soldiers will have a way to survive!"
Zhou Yuji touched the secret message on his body. When he opened it, his face turned cold: "What a big gesture!"
"What?"
Zhou Ruhu looked at the words written on the secret letter: "General Soldier of Taiyuan Town?"
Zhou Yuji is now in the fourth rank. In fact, the guerrilla general is larger than Cheng Shijie's original Ning Haijun garrison. It is equivalent to the deputy division general. He is directly promoted to the chief soldier of Taiyuan Town. It is equivalent to crossing the rank of staff general and deputy chief soldier and directly becoming Commander at the military region level.
As a pure general, Zhou Yuji did not want to be anyone's dog, whether it was Zhang Fengyi or Wen Tiren. He was only loyal to the Ming court and the emperor. His source of information is mainly public opinion, and scholar-bureaucrats control public opinion. In Zhou Yuji's understanding, Cheng Shijie is not a good person, but a warlord who listens to orders but not propaganda, and is also an arrogant and domineering warlord.
Cheng Shijie colluded with Gao Qiqian, worked together, deceived the emperor, sold his official position, used nepotism, and killed the eunuch Gao Qiqian. For Zhou Yuji, there was no psychological burden at all.
"go back!"
"Why go back?"
"If we don't go back, we attack the Ning Haijun Supervisory Army. If the emperor comes to investigate, you and I, father and son, will die, and our family will be implicated!"
Zhou Yuji said: "They may not have thought that we would turn around and go back!"
In this way, Zhou Yuji took more than a thousand remnants, one by one, back along the original road. After spending most of the night, they finally arrived at the camp where Gao Qiqian was located.
Of course, this camp is mainly to protect Ning Haijun's transportation supplies, mainly food. Three to four hundred Ning Haijun soldiers guard the huge convoy, using the large cars as a wall to form a car wall.
The oval-shaped carriage city has watchtowers built at the four corners. Huge whale oil lamps are lit on the watchtowers, and the light is as bright as day.
Zhou Yuji looked at this scene and knew that there was no way he could get close to Ning Haijun's temporary camp. Fortunately, he still had an artillery gun. Zhou Yuji took the telescope and finally discovered the high-rise and dive tent.
As Ning Haijun, almost all equipment and utensils are unified. Whether it is the tents of young civilians or the tents of the guards, they are all in the same standard, which is very eye-catching.
However, Gao Qiqian actually had a huge tent. After all, Gao Qiqian was the supervisor of Ning Haijun. In theory, he was the second most powerful person after Cheng Shijie. But in fact, Gao Qiqian only enjoyed the supervision of Ning Haijun. As for the treatment of the army, he could not get involved in anything involving Ning Haijun.
This is also the tacit understanding between Gao Qiqian and Cheng Shijie.
"See that biggest tent?"
"Saw it!"
"Aim at it and blow this tent to pieces!"
"Dad, what if there's no Gao Qi Di here!"
"That's fate. We, father and son, must accept it!"
…
Gao Qiqian is a smart man, but the problem is that smart people tend to go to extremes. He thought for a long time and thought about the people who could hurt him, including Cao Huachun, Wang Chengen, Wang Zhixin, Lu Jiucheng, Han Zanzhou, Li Guofu, Xu Jinzhong and other eunuchs. Again, he still couldn't figure out who was attacking him.
Either there is no motive, or there is motive but no strength. In fact, there are only two people in the entire inner court who can threaten Gao Qiqian's status, one is Cao Huazhuan and the other is Wang Chengen.
But the problem is that he did not receive the news. Cao Huachun reached out to the Beijing Camp and the Royal Horse Supervisor. Although Gao Qiqian was not in the capital during this period, he had money and many people were willing to sacrifice their lives for him, so he was quite well informed. , I thought about it for most of the night and didn't figure out what was going on.
Gao Qiqian decided to wait until dawn, follow Ning Haijun's transport team, and then arrive at Cheng Shijie under the escort of Ning Haijun. Only with Cheng Shijie here could he sleep peacefully.
"Daddy, it's getting late, let's rest!"
Zhang Muzhi adjusted the charcoal stove to be more powerful and carefully checked whether there was any leakage of charcoal gas.
Gao Qiqian lay down on the soft couch: "You should go down and rest too!"
As soon as Gao Qiqian finished speaking, he heard a loud noise coming from outside.
When I heard the sound of gunfire, I subconsciously put on my shoes.
However, at this moment, as he just sat up, an iron nail was hit by a cannonball and hit Gao Qiqian in the chest. Gao Qiqian opened his mouth but did not say anything. A large mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth.
If he stood up and stayed still on the soft couch, the iron nail would fly past him from a distance of more than a foot in front of him at most.
However, there are not so many ifs in this world.
Gao Qiqian died, a nail penetrated his body and died.
This nail was a nail on a carriage more than ten meters away. A cannonball hit the carriage and blew the nail away, accurately hitting Gao Qiqiu in this big tent.
Zhou Yuji's artillerymen only had time to fire one shell, and before they even had time to fire a second shell, dozens of Ning Navy cavalry rushed toward the artillery position. Zhou Yuji looked at the fire dragon rising in the sky, and his first reaction was to run. .
During this night attack, two soldiers of Ning Haijun were bruised by sawdust blown up by artillery shells, and a young man had a hole opened in his buttocks by sawdust.
The killing effect of this artillery shell was only this, that is to say, this artillery shell caused four casualties in Ning Haijun. Ning Haijun, including young civilians, injured three people. The only death was the death of Ning Haijun's supervisor.
Zhou Yuji was not sure. Until the guards beside Gao Qiqian burst into tears, he still didn't believe that he would have such good luck.
Zhou Yuji saw with his own eyes the corpses of Gao Qiqi, and then returned to Zhang Fengyi.
As Gao Qiqian was successfully killed, the cabinet rejoiced.
But, in fact, when the news reached Cheng Shijie's ears, Cheng Shijie was just a little regretful. After all, he had worked with Gao Qiqian for so many years, and Gao Qiqian was quite sensible.
Gao Qiqian is dead. The more than one million taels of silver he deposited in Liaodong Bank have all been transferred to Liaodong Bank. Although it is possible that Gao Qiqian's godson can get Gao Qiqian's passbook, he does not have the password. With the password, Zhang Muzhi still needs to prove that Gao Qiqian gave him authorization.
Of course, it is impossible for a dead person to authorize.
As for the relationship between Emperor Chongzhen and Cheng Shijie.
In fact, Emperor Chongzhen was more anxious than Cheng Shijie. An investigation into Gao Qiqian's death had not yet been launched. The supervisor who replaced Gao Qiqian was also selected by Emperor Chongzhen. Li Guofu served as the new supervisor of Ning Haijun.
This Li Guofu was the adopted son of Han Zanzhou, the eunuch of Nanjing's ceremonial department. He was deeply trusted by Emperor Chongzhen. He originally served as the eunuch of the Royal Horse Eunuch and was Gao Qiqian's deputy. Now he is regarded as a deputy and became a full-time official.
When Cheng Shijie saw Li Guofu, he was slightly startled.
To be fair, Cheng Shijie has met many eunuchs. These eunuchs all have a distinctive feature, they are thin and short. Cao Huachun, Gao Qiqian, including Wang Chengen, are less than 1.7 meters tall.
But Li Guofu was different. He was at least 1.78 meters tall, only slightly shorter than Cheng Shijie. The key was that he was strong, very strong, at least 160 pounds. In addition, he was different from ordinary eunuchs. He actually wore Armor, fully armed and came to see Cheng Shijie.
"Your servant Li Guofu, please pay your respects to your consort!"
Li Guofu is also a good person. Unlike Gao Qiqian, at least Gao Qiqian never calls himself a slave in front of Cheng Shijie, but calls him my family or me. But Li Guofu is a slave when he comes up.
No matter how high their rank, eunuchs are the emperor's domestic slaves. No matter how high his official position is, Cheng Shijie cannot become the eunuch's master without the status of Prince Consort, and he has no power to order the eunuchs.
But the problem is that in addition to being the Taibao of the Crown Prince, Duke of Haiguo, Governor of Jiubian, Governor of the Left, General Zhenglu, Commander-in-Chief of Ning Navy, and Governor of Liaodong, he is also the husband-in-law of Princess Chongming.
Although Princess Chongming has no real power, she is the sister of Emperor Chongzhen. She is the master of the eunuchs, so it is reasonable for Li Guofu to call himself a slave to Cheng Shijie.
"Eunuch Li, you can't do this!"
Cheng Shijie did not let down his guard because of Li Guofu's modesty and low profile. The more arrogant and domineering a person is, the easier it is to deal with him. After all, a dog that bites does not bark, and a dog that does not bark bites people only when it bites people.
Cheng Shijie sighed and said: "I have cooperated with Eunuch Gao for many years. I never thought that Eunuch Gao would be separated by heaven and earth. I will write to Your Majesty and ask the Third Division to investigate strictly. If the real culprit is not caught, I will never give up!" I wonder if Eunuch Li has heard anything?"
"It is said that Lord Wu, the former deputy minister of the cabinet, had to hang himself because of the coercion of Eunuch Gao. Therefore, Lord Wu's descendant Wu Liang, now the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, was dissatisfied and recruited dead men to assassinate Eunuch Gao. Now Wu Liang Already surrendered..."
Before Li Guofu finished speaking, Cheng Shijie realized that this was really a chain of events. Wu Zongda was already dead, so he should maximize the benefits of his death and bear the charge of assassinating Gao Qiqian.
Cheng Shijie said: "Eunuch Gao is no longer here, so things still need to happen!"
"The prince consort means..."
"The Inspection Department of Wusongkou brings in millions of taels of tax money every year. His Majesty's inner treasury relies on those tax dollars. This is the top priority!"
Cheng Shijie looked at Li Guofu and said, "If this matter is done incorrectly, a thousand efforts will not be worth a single mistake!"
Li Guofu also knew that it was impossible to reach into Ning Haijun, and Cheng Shijie threw him a large piece of fat when he came up. If he didn't eat it, he might be the next person to die.
In fact, Li Guofu did not believe that it was Wu Liang who sent people to kill Gao Qiqian. Gao Qiqian had three to four hundred personal guards around him, who were well-equipped and well-trained. There were also hundreds of Ning navy officers guarding the camp, and there were also People were killed with one shot. It's so strange. In Li Guofu's view, Gao Qiqian must have done something he shouldn't have done, angered Cheng Shijie, and was executed by someone arranged by Cheng Shijie.
Li Guofu naturally did not want to suffer hardships on his own account.
After Li Guofu met Cheng Shijie in Yanqing County, he immediately returned to Beijing and told Emperor Chongzhen that Jiangnan was a top priority. In order to prevent chaos in Jiangnan, he immediately left the capital.
Wen Tiren miscalculated.
Of course, he didn't know that Emperor Chongzhen actually had no choice now. He still needed Cheng Shijie. Not to mention the rift, as long as Cheng Shijie didn't directly rebel, Emperor Chongzhen would recognize him.
…
When the main force of Ning Haijun arrived at Shenyang City, they encountered huge trouble. Jian Nu knew that they had no retreat at all, and if they fought in the wild, they would only die more miserably. Fortunately, Shenyang City has been renovated, especially the city walls that were heightened and reinforced during this period. Just like Cheng Shijie did in Baihe River Valley, he reinforced the city walls with ice walls.
Ning Haijun's artillery shells fell on the city wall, and at most the ice wall was broken into pieces. But the problem was that as soon as the ice wall on the city wall was blown up, Jiannu would immediately pour hot water on it to form an ice wall again.
When the artillery was unable to destroy the city wall and Ning Haijun was about to resort to close-in blasting, the rolling stones and wood kept falling down on the city. They would die if they touched it and become crippled if they touched it. The Ning Haijun soldiers who were struggling to climb up did not even have a chance to dodge!
Round after round of huge rocks and trees continued to roll down, rumbling, and suppressed screams came one after another. Many of the soldiers who were hit rolled down the mountain with the huge rocks and trees, and some even turned into a ball of flesh. It was just a test. Sexual assault, three to four hundred people fell there.
Zhang Yu looked at this scene and hurriedly shouted: "Stop the attack!"
"General, what's wrong?"
"You can't fight this way!"
(End of chapter)
