"Yes!" As soon as Qian Zhidong finished speaking, Qin Fengliang had no choice but to give the same order. Immediately, more than 20 generals came out in response, folding their hands and obeying the order. These people may be tall or short, but they are all fierce, with flesh on their faces.
"Listen, from now on, you will be under the command of Admiral Jiao!"
"yes!"
In fact, in terms of official positions, the admiral is of the third rank and can only be called a military sect. The general of Southwest Conquest is of the second rank and can be called a commander.
Therefore, these people all bowed down together: "General, I will pay my respects to Jiao Junmen."
This bow is the handover of military power in public. The Southwest Army was originally brought together by several armies. It was not Qian Zhidong's direct descendant at the beginning. Now as soon as the military power is handed over, these soldiers who looked a little confused have turned into The newly appointed general of Jiao Junmen.
After bowing, Qian Zhidong suddenly felt empty, and a sense of inexplicable terror suddenly struck his heart.
Not only Jiao Shen, but Governor Chu Sui also received the courtesy from the southwest officials. After accepting the ceremony, he changed his smile and said: "It is not easy for you to pacify the southwest. In the future, you will need your full support to turn troops into plowshares."
When Superintendent Zhao saw that the officials had knelt down and decided on their rankings, he said, "Master Chu, it's been a hard journey all the way. Please—we have prepared water and wine at home. Please enjoy it together."
"Don't dare, don't dare!" Chu Sui was now the governor, but Inspector Zhao and Cui Zhaoquan were still imperial envoys, so they immediately agreed, and the group turned into a restaurant along the road.
Naturally, this restaurant had been cleaned up in advance. Not only was there no dust at all, but even the floors, partitions, carved pillars, etc. were all smooth as if they had been coated with oil.
Chu then invited the imperial envoy to take a seat, and then sat on the left side. The person on the right was not Jiao Shen, but Qian Zhidong. However, even though it was like this, after three rounds of wine, it was different.
"People's hearts are fickle, and the ancients never deceived me." Seeing that all the generals were bowing to the new generals and asking for a drink, Qian Zhidong felt deserted, drinking sullenly.
When he returned to the big tent, it was quiet at the moment. Qian Zhidong sat in silence for a long time before he came back to his senses and looked around. He only felt that he was sitting alone, and he felt very deserted.
Qian Zhidong's heart suddenly tightened as he saw the soldiers carrying the bundles and packing them away. He looked at the increasingly dark sky and asked, "Tan Xin and Luan Tieshu, are you here?"
"Commander, no!" the soldier replied timidly. Both of them were old men who had followed Qian Zhidong for a long time, and neither of them came.
After hearing this, Qian Zhidong glanced into the distance and could still faintly hear the sound of celebrating music. Although he knew that the new general had arrived and that Tan Xin and Luan Tieshu had to serve him carefully just to avoid wearing small shoes, he still sighed. Anger, anxiety, and melancholy hit my heart.
"At this time in the past, there would have been military generals here, but now, I am no longer in their eyes. So what if they dared to kill for me? If the generals were replaced, they would kill me for the new commander."
"After two years of operation, except for hundreds of soldiers and a few staff, there is no one you can trust!"
However, thinking of his staff, Qian Zhidong narrowed his eyes and immediately thought of Jian Qu, who had been avoiding him recently.
"I'm afraid I won't be able to keep this Jian Qu."
"Report!" A soldier shouted outside.
"Come in." Qian Zhidong regained his majesty as a general.
"General, please ask me to keep an eye on Su Ziji. I will find out that he has boarded the official ship and has already settled in the cabin." The soldier replied.
Qian Zhidong was suffocated, and after a long time he sneered: "Su Ziji never leaves the eunuch these days, so he is being cautious."
"It's not surprising to get on the ship now."
Qian Zhidong walked around a few times, and his inner fire became more intense. He couldn't help but gritted his teeth and said, "Since you are about to leave, please drop by to see Mr. Jian off. Before he came to Southwest, he suffered a lot. Presumably, he wants to stay here forever.”
"Afterwards, choose a quiet place and bury him."
"Yes!" the soldier responded and left.
Qian Zhidong stood up slowly at this time, opened the curtain and looked outside.
The sun was already in the middle and moving slowly towards the west. The camp seemed to be full of sounds of joy due to the arrival of the new commander. Hearing this in Qian Zhidong's ears made him particularly uncomfortable.
"General Qian, Mr. Cui and Supervisor Zhao are asking you to get ready to get up and rush to the port. We have half a stick of incense at most before we set off." Someone came over to remind us.
Qian Zhidong nodded and summoned one of his own soldiers: "Did you hear everything? Everything that needs to be dealt with has been dealt with."
"That's right!" The soldier was about to leave, but Qian Zhidong couldn't help but stop him and asked: "Master Cui searched my account before, did he really just take away the documents on the table?"
The soldier replied: "Yes, when I looked at it later, there were no traces of movement under the bed."
As a trusted soldier of Qian Zhidong, he knew that he dug a section under the bed in Qian Zhidong's tent and buried a small cabinet containing most important things.
It can be seen that even if it is his own big account, Qian Zhidong is not completely relieved.
The excerpt that Sun Baihu dug up was found there, but out of habit, he just had it copied once and put back as it was.
Now as soon as the envoy returned to the tent, he checked under the bed and Qian Zhidong felt relieved and nodded: "I understand, go and prepare the horses. Everyone gathers and prepares to follow me back to the capital."
He couldn't even think of taking away any of the soldiers of the Southwest Army, but these hundreds of soldiers did not belong to the Southwest Army, but belonged to Qian Zhidong personally, so he would naturally take them with him when he returned to Beijing.
After half a stick of incense, the team returning to Beijing officially rushed to Anzhou port.
Because the two former imperial envoys, Qian Zhidong and Qin Fengliang, were going back together, the situation was quite large. People from the province, as long as they were of high rank, all came to say goodbye.
The port, which used to be relatively deserted, is really busy and lively.
Qian Zhidong rode a horse and led people here. He also had to drive away passers-by before he passed smoothly and arrived in front of the ship.
"General!" The soldier who was responsible for taking care of Jian Qu had to reply with embarrassment: "Mr. Jian is nowhere to be found in the entire camp. Someone seems to have seen him boarding the official ship."
"Having boarded an official ship, did you defect to your master?" Qian Zhidong let out a heavy sigh of anger, but of course he couldn't let it out at this time: "Forget it, let him go, we can always settle the score."
At this time, on a large ship not far from the imperial envoy's ship, Su Ziji, Ye Daoren, and Jian Qu were all on the deck.
"Hold on carefully!" Two soldiers helped Shao Sisen over, and the three of them rushed to help, and successfully brought Shao Sisen up.
Seeing that his steps were sloppy, his face was frighteningly pale, and he even needed help from someone to stand still, Su Ziji's heart sank and he felt a little uncomfortable.
"Ahem, it's hard to even get on the board of the ship." Shao Sisen looked gloomy: "You can see that my body is really unable to hold on."
"I didn't expect it would be such a result."
Su Ziji hurriedly comforted: "Brother Shao, don't think so much. Now that you've boarded the ship, it won't take long for you to return to Beijing. I'll definitely be able to ask famous doctors to treat you then."
"Besides, the weather in the southwest will hinder your injury. It might be better on the ship."
"Let me lend you some good words." Shao Sisen's eyes brightened slightly.
"Boom!" At this moment, three cannon shots suddenly sounded from the shore. This was a salute, which meant that the imperial envoy was about to board the ship and leave.
