South Zhili, Xuzhou, Peixian.
In the dilapidated Peixian county government office, at this time, the banner of Counselor of the Nanjing Ministry of War, counselor of confidential government affairs, had been raised.
The small county town has also turned into a military city where soldiers gather. There are also large groups of officers and soldiers wearing mandarin duck jackets and armed with various weapons. They got off the canal boats from the canal pier outside Pei County City, and then the whole group drove into Pei County. county.
Horse-drawn carriages and mule carts loaded with provisions and supplies rumbled past the official road and entered the county seat of Peixian County, located at the northernmost tip of Nanzhili.
The entire county seat of Peixian County has obviously become the stronghold of King Qin's army coming from Nanjing.
He has a dark face full of righteousness and is in his forties. The medium-sized Ming Dynasty Counselor Shi Kefa, the Minister of Confidential Affairs of the Nanjing Ministry of War, is wearing a python robe and is standing on a high ground near Jingoukou in the south of Pei County, with his hands behind his back. , looking to the east. Accompanying him is a military attaché in his twenties, his adopted son Shi Dewei. From time to time, messengers came from the direction of Peixian County, loudly reporting the arrival and encampment of the troops. Shi Dewei brought a writing brush and notebook with him, and he recorded it on the spot. After writing down a few items, he showed it to Shi Kefa.
Shi Kefa just glanced at it without showing much interest, and then turned his gaze to the north.
At this moment, a pond horse galloped up on the official road to the east. Shi Kefa's soldiers stood by the roadside and stopped Tang Ma. Upon seeing this, Shi Dewei immediately got off the high ground, ran to the stopped Tangma, showed his token, then took a stack of documents, turned around and went up to the high ground again.
"Dad, it's all Di Bao."
"Bring it to me quickly," Shi Kefa quickly took the copies of the newspaper and read them one by one on the high ground. After reading a few pages, he suddenly said: "Huh?"
"Dad," Stewie asked, "what's the matter?"
"Another good news!"
"Good news? What's so surprising about this? Good news comes frequently these days!"
"But this good news is wrong!" Shi Kefa shook his head, "How about defeating the Tatars and beheading 3,000 people! This is too much to brag about. Just take a look..."
Shi Dewei took a newspaper from Shi Kefa, read it, frowned, and whispered: "Why are you fighting with the Manchu Tatars... Didn't you say you were negotiating for peace yesterday?"
"I knew a peace would be hard to come by!" Shi Kefa shook his head, "How could the Manchu Tatars be willing to withdraw from the customs just for a few coins? If you want to succeed in the peace negotiation, the cession of Yanyun is the minimum, and you may even have to take the north of the Yellow River. !”
"How could it be possible to cut so much land..." Stewie shook his head, "Dad, what should we do now?"
"What else can we do?" Shi Kefa sighed, "I can't handle one bandit anymore, and now there's another Manchu Tatar... I really don't know how the Prince Fujun manages the army!"
"Dad..." Shi Dewei looked at his adoptive father's gloomy face and whispered, "Several cabinet ministers support the prince! Mr. Hou cabinet also supports the prince!"
Hou Ge is Hou Xun, he is the boss of Donglin, and Shi Kefa is also the boss of Donglin!
"Hou Ruogu is also in jail and is confused!" Shi Kefa said, "I don't even want to lose my righteousness..."
If the conversation between Shi Kefa and his son Shi Dewei were heard by Emperor Chongzhen who was far away in Dengzhou, he would burst into tears with excitement - the Ming Dynasty finally had a loyal minister!
Moreover, this loyal minister also has a not too small army of King Qin’s rebels!
Shi Kefa had already read the Di newspaper and was about to go down from the high ground for a walk. He also thought about the huge problem of how to protect Mingjun and maintain discipline. They saw dozens of horsemen and horses galloping from the direction of Peixian County. The first rider was a grown-up military attache wearing an arrow jacket. Without even looking, he knew that it must be Gao Jie, the commander-in-chief of the aid and suppression force, who had come to see them.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty still had four main forces on the battlefield in the Central Plains, which were the predecessors of the four towns in Jiangbei in history. They are the reinforcement and suppression commander Gao Jie stationed in Xuzhou, the Shandong commander Liu Zeqing stationed in Huai'an, the Luzhou commander Huang Degong stationed in Yongcheng, Henan, and the Jiangbei commander Liu Liangzuo stationed in Zhengyang, Henan.
Among them, Gao Jie, the commander-in-chief of the reinforcement and suppression force, was the strongest, with nearly 30,000 troops. The backbone of them are all the elites of the former bandits. After joining the Ming Dynasty, they followed Hong Chengchou, He Renlong, and Sun Chuanting to fight with the bandits for nearly ten years. Gao Jie himself was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the Relief and Suppression Army after Sun Chuanting died in battle and Bai Guangen surrendered to the enemy, commanding Sun Chuanting's remaining troops to rescue Shanxi.
However, Gao Jie did not dare to fight Li Zicheng, who was at the height of his power. Instead, he led his troops to escape all the way from Shanxi to Xuzhou in southern Zhili. As a result, he met Shi Kefa, who was leading his troops north to King Qin.
In the original history, Shi Kefa, who was the Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, also tried to organize the army to go north to Qinwang. However, before King Qin's army set out, the bad news of the fall of Beijing and the death of Chongzhen came, so there was no King Qin left.
But now although Beijing is gone, the king is still there, so we must be "diligently"!
So on the first day of May, Shi Kefa led the army of King Qin, which was finally put together, and swore to go north. Just after crossing the Yangtze River, good news came frequently. It was not Shi Kefa who won the battle, but Zhu Cixiang, the wise and martial prince of the Fu army, who used his troops like a god and was invincible! First, the rogue bandits were defeated in Tianjin Wei, and then came the good news of the great victory at Shanhaiguan, and the Ming and Qing allied forces defeated Li Zicheng's 200,000-strong army.
And then it gets even worse! The officers and soldiers who had been beaten by Li Zicheng before were all trembling. They launched a full-scale counterattack north of the Huaihe River. The news of success flew to Shi Kefa like snowflakes, which made Shi Butang extremely happy.
As the commander-in-chief of the reinforcement and suppression campaign, Gao Jie certainly could not lag behind others. While waiting for the main force of Shi Kefa's King Qin's army, he ordered Li Chengdong, Hu Maozhen, Li Benzhen and other generals to attack in the direction of Shandong, and had already captured many Territory, at this moment, he flew out of Peixian County to see Shi Kefa, and he must have received good news that his subordinates had regained the big city.
"Da Sima," Gao Jie cheerfully handed over to Shi Kefa before he got off the horse, "Good news, Yanzhou Fucheng and Qufu County have been recovered!"
"Oh, really?" Shi Kefa also smiled, and then he frowned slightly, "Qufu is the hometown of Confucius, so we can't disturb him!"
"Don't worry, Grand Sima, I know what's appropriate." Gao Jie got off his horse, walked up to Shi Kefa, and bowed respectfully.
In the original history, Gao Jie in May of the 17th year of Chongzhen had already raised his tail to the sky. How could he respect Shi Kefa so much?
But now the situation is different. Not only is Chongzhen still there, but there is also a new prince of Fujun who is good at fighting. The prince also has a new army to overcome difficulties, which seems to be quite capable of fighting, so Gao Jie does not dare to be domineering in front of Shi Kefa.
"As long as there are no criminals in Qufu." Shi Kefa nodded, stepped forward to help Gao Jie, and then took his hand and walked towards the county seat of Peixian County.
"Da Sima," Gao Jie is also a master who is good at observing people's words. He has seen worry written on Shi Kefa's dark face, so he also frowned, "Are you still worried about the prince's affairs with the army?"
Officials here in Nanjing now also know that Prince Zhu Cixi left the palace to pacify the army when Beijing was surrounded by rogue bandits, and then took over the power and ousted Emperor Chongzhen.
This matter seemed like nothing to the officials and nobles who ran out of Beijing - the prince was ordered by Emperor Gao to take over power in times of crisis and turn the tide. It was really a blessing for the Ming Dynasty!
Now we are waiting for the imperial court to implement internal Zen after arriving in the capital, so that the wise and powerful Crown Prince can take over as emperor in advance.
But in the eyes of the ministers and nobles in Nanjing, what the prince did was tantamount to causing rebellion! This is a prelude to usurping the throne!
Although Zhu Cixi was the legitimate founder of the Ming Dynasty, as long as Emperor Chongzhen was still there, he was his son-in-law, and Chongzhen was the father. Now the sons and ministers are arrogating the king and father, then they will be traitors and traitors...
Therefore, there are many people in Nanjing, the capital, who are clamoring for the prince to return power to Chongzhen!
Gao Jie has very good ears and eyes, and of course he also knows the public opinion in Nanjing, and he also wants to benefit from it - whether it is supporting the prince or supporting Chongzhen, there are always benefits!
So after meeting Shi Kefa, he acted like he was touching Shi Kefa's trump card whenever he had the chance.
"Read it for yourself!" Shi Kefa took out the newspaper announcing the victory at Dagukou, "We are at war with the Manchu Tatars!"
