With a bang, Huang Degong smashed a tea bowl. As if he still wasn't relieved, he kicked down a chair. All of his staff stood aside with their hands down, not daring to express their anger, and they didn't know how to deal with the commander-in-chief who was loyal to Emperor Chongzhen.
Because Huang Degong was angry with Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Qian Qianyi, and Huang Shu.
In the past few days, they and other ministers and ministers from various departments in Nanjing who had gathered in Yanzhou to welcome him had been wasting time except for endless quarrels and debates.
Among them, Qian Qianyi advocated responding to Kong Yinzhi's call to protect Mingjiao and defend Konglin, and for the time being, he would not care about the traitor Zhu Cixang.
Huang Shu, on the other hand, opposed Qian Qianyi and advocated restoring the power of Emperor Chongzhen first, and then defending Confucius under the leadership of Mingjun...
So the officials gathered in Yanzhou were divided into two groups, one supported Qian Qianyi and the other supported Huang Shu, and they argued endlessly every day. He wrote countless controversial articles, all of which were based on quotations from scriptures. They seemed very reasonable, but no one could be convinced!
And Shi Kefa, the head of the Six Ministries in Nanjing, and Gao Hongtu, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing who was in charge of the money bag, were both big bosses who had no opinions. Seeing that the people below were divided into two groups, arguing endlessly, they all lost their minds. I just kept arguing with them day after day, as if waiting for a fight between two groups of invincible civil servants.
But as the days passed, the two groups became more and more quarrelsome. They seemed to have put aside the issue of protecting Mingjiao or protecting Chongzhen, and they were just arguing for the sake of arguing.
While the civil servants in Yanzhou were quarreling every day, the prince was not idle!
The measures to rectify the defense of various parts of Shandong were taken one after another, and they all seemed reasonable. They were clearly the work of the British Lord and the Mingjun!
First of all, the arrangement of Denglai Seven Guards has achieved great results! The Qiwei land, which was originally more messy than a mess, was cut off by the prince's sharp knife - all the land within the Weishou territory was nationalized (it was originally state-owned) and then redistributed to 10,000 new military households.
The number of people seemed to be reduced, with only 10,000 military households remaining in the seven guard posts. But the actual combat effectiveness has increased several times!
These 10,000 people are all elites who own more than a hundred acres of land, and have received at least 10 taels of "armor silver" from the industry. At least he doesn't have to worry about supporting his family, and he has enough money to improve his equipment.
The second step was to rectify the fifteen prefectures and counties in Denglai, and select two to three hundred local literati and officials' children through "Enke", and then let them "contract" the league training and taxation of the prefectures and counties. Although this move is the same as reorganizing the guardhouse, it goes against the Ming Dynasty's ancestral system. But the effect is also very significant. At least fifteen prefectures and counties in Denglai have "owners".
It is better to have someone to take care of it and organize it than to have no one in charge!
In addition, the commanders of the Denglai guards, the families of the associate commanders, and the families of powerful people in Denglai's fifteen prefectures and counties were all brought to Dengzhou City or Jiaozhou City for "protection". In fact, it became hostage......
The third measure is to move Tang and Fan to Runing and Lu to Qingzhou, and grant the two vassals the power to manage the army and the people! At the same time, Li Shiyuan, the former Qingzhou branch garrison member, was promoted to the chief soldier of Qingzhou garrison, and he and Lu Wang Zhu Yihai jointly governed Qingzhou.
Although Zhu Cixiang did not rectify Qingzhou like he rectified Denglai, he finally found a master for Qingzhou Mansion, and he did not know what tricks he used to make Qingzhou's Heng Fan give up his palace, land and most of his savings, and was willing to go to Nanjing as a A free king.
With Heng Fan's savings of more than two hundred years, Zhu Yihai and Li Shiyuan should be able to create a situation.
The fourth measure was to use some unknown trick to win over Kong Yinzhi, the Duke of Yansheng who had always advocated the restoration of the power of Emperor Chongzhen. He kept clamoring all day long to protect Mingjiao and defend Konglin, as if he was full of Tatars. It’s like Beijing’s purpose is to dig up his family’s ancestral graves!
Although Huang Degong didn't believe Kong Yinzhi's words at all, Qian Qianyi, a great scholar, did! News also came from Jiangnan that a few young gentlemen from Fushe also believed it and wrote articles every day calling for the protection of famous religions... They were really a bunch of nerds, and they were all deceived by Zhu Cihong!
In the past two days, bad news has come from Jinan Mansion! The Prince of Fujun led an army of 40,000 troops and suddenly approached Licheng, the capital county of Jinan, pretending to force Gao Jie to surrender by force.
In this case, Qian Qianyi and Huang Shu, two loudmouthed scholars, were still quarreling, and Shi Kefa and Gao Hongtu were still helpless.
Huang Degong already had a very bad premonition! Gao Jie, the commander-in-chief who came from a bandit background, has no sense of loyalty and will most likely defect under the Crown Prince's coercion and inducement!
Gao Jie had 30,000 troops, and now the Crown Prince has about 50,000 troops. If the two of them join forces, they will have an army of 80,000. After losing Gao Jie, King Qin's army on Shi Kefa's side had a maximum number of 70,000 or 80,000...and among them, the ones who could fight were the 6,700 or 7,000 servants in the hands of Huang Degong, Liu Zeqing, and Liu Liangzuo.
Huang Degong was a little discouraged. Why were the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty so quarrelsome?
By the way, the Crown Prince also has many civil servants, right? Why don't they make a noise? The prince's decrees are all affixed with cabinet votes. How come the current cabinet is so easy to talk to? Those people were not like this when the emperor was in power!
Just when Huang Degong was struggling to achieve his ambition, one of his soldiers walked in quickly and announced: "Report to the General Army that the Ma Zhijun is visiting."
"Ma Zhijun is here? Now?" Huang Degong looked out the window. It was pitch dark. What was the reason for Ma Shiying's visit at this time? Is there something ulterior to be told?
He guessed correctly, Ma Shiying really had something ulterior to discuss with Huang Degong. Because he came in plain clothes, Huang Degong welcomed him into the inner hall, and asked Huang Degong to retreat.
"There is a secret edict!" Ma Shiying said solemnly after seeing everyone leaving, "Huang Degong has accepted the edict!"
Huang Degong was stunned for a moment, but did not accept the order immediately. Instead, he asked: "Is it an imperial edict or an imperial edict?"
"This is the emperor's decree!" As he spoke, Ma Shiying carefully took out a piece of square silk, which was densely packed with words.
"Chen Huang Degong accepted the order!" Huang Degong quickly knelt down.
Ma Shiying did not recite, but handed the square silk to Huang Degong for him to read. Because the secret edict was not given to Huang Degong, but to Ma Shiying. The handwriting on the square silk is all the handwriting of Emperor Chongzhen, and the content is to order Ma Shiying to contact loyal people and wait for opportunities to serve the king.
Huang Degong carefully read the secret edict word for word, then returned the edict to Ma Shiying with both hands, and then stood up.
"Zhijun, tell me, what should Huang do?" Huang Degong asked Ma Shiying.
Ma Shiying sighed: "Yanzhou is no longer available! I just got the news that Gao Jie of Jinan Prefecture has defected to the prince!"
Huang Degong gritted his steel teeth and said, "What? Why is Gao so disloyal and unjust?"
Ma Shiying frowned, "After Gao Jie and the prince joined forces, there were 80,000 troops in Jinan Prefecture. Liu Zeqing in Dongchang Prefecture would definitely not dare to resist and would soon surrender. Liu Liangzuo's troops had never been disciplined, and Shi Butang brought King Qin’s rebel army is not well-trained and does not have many decent equipment, so it is completely vulnerable. Now in Yanzhou, only Mr. Huang’s soldiers and horses can still fight, and they are loyal to the Holy One. They are the most feared by the prince!"
Huang Degong nodded repeatedly, "The elites in this town are all from Yongwei camp, and they are the most loyal to the emperor!"
Ma Shiying sighed: "But the enemy is outnumbered and we are outnumbered, and the prince is indeed resourceful and good at running the army and using troops... It is no small matter to defeat the new army! If we really want to fight head-on in Yanzhou, I am afraid that the emperor's last point Even the strength cannot be maintained. If there is no Yongwei camp, what else can the prince have to fear? He will definitely usurp the throne brazenly, and maybe even harm the emperor!"
"How dare he!" Huang Degong shouted angrily.
"As long as loyal ministers like you and me are gone, how dare he dare!" Ma Shiying said with a heartbroken look, "You have seen what Shi Bu Tang and Gao Bu Tang are doing these days, and it is not enough to achieve anything. Lu Zhijun was discouraged the day before yesterday Let's go and take people back to Huai'an. We can't stay in Yanzhou anymore, otherwise we will be tricked by Shibutang and Gaobutang!"
"Don't stay in Yanzhou? Where to go?"
Ma Shiying said: "Go to Fengyang Mansion! I am the governor of Fengyang. I can control Fengyang. And Fengyang has a strong city to rely on and the Huaihe River to rely on. The surrounding area is rich in food and is enough to be self-sufficient. When we get to Fengyang, I will I guarantee that you will be the commander-in-chief of the Fengyang garrison. Let us first base ourselves in Fengyang, and then try to contact loyal people, so as to make progress!"
Huang Degong nodded heavily, "Okay, the general manager has the emperor's secret edict, so Degong will naturally obey his orders!"
