Zuo Liangyu is probably crazy. Even if he is not completely crazy, his spirit is definitely not normal!
Not only did Hou Fangyu, who was sitting opposite him, feel this way, but the three people hiding behind the screen behind Zuo Liangyu - Zuo Menggeng, Huang Shu and Zuo Liangyu, the current commander-in-chief of the Jingzhou Prefecture Guard. Qiu Lei, who is also Zuo Mengmei's biological father, also thinks that Marshal Zuo is a little crazy!
Because of Huang Shu's instigation and Zhu Cihong "forcing" Liu Liangzuo and Xu Dingguo away, and seizing Liu Zeqing's power, Zuo Menggeng, Qiu Lei, and most of Zuo Liangyu's generals were resistant to the Nanjing court.
After learning that Li Zicheng would send King Yong Zhu Cizhao to Wuchang, Huang Shu, who was avoiding trouble in Wuchang, proposed the strategy of "supporting King Yong, resisting the prince, and protecting the saint" - in history, Huang Shu once incited the left to side with the Qing emperor. But now he does not have such courage.
Because Zhu Cixiang was much stronger than Emperor Hongguang, no one on the left wanted to challenge him.
Don't look at the Zuo Army's claims of 800,000 or 1 million, which are all bluffs. The actual number is only around 100,000, which is similar to Zhu Cixiang's army.
In fact, the number of troops is linked to the money, population, and land owned. Although Zuo Liangyu has been in Wuchang for more than a year, he has not made any effort to seize land and population, so the left troops have not taken root in Huguang.
Zuo Liangyu did not control enough land and population, so that was the way to gather troops with pay.
In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, Hou Xun gave 500,000 taels of internal money to Zuo Liangyu, who was leading his troops to fight against Li Zicheng. Later, Zuo Liangyu went to Wuchang and conducted a large-scale plunder (at that time, Hankou Town was known as the world's largest town). Siju, also known as Jingshi, Suzhou and Foshan), had a lot of money on hand. Moreover, he didn't have any family members to spend money on, and he became neurotic. He didn't even have a woman in the back house, so naturally he couldn't spend much money. So it was all used to recruit and raise soldiers. Therefore, in terms of numbers, Zuo Bu can crush Gao Jie and Huang Degong.
However, all the elite troops on the left were lost in the Battle of Zhuxian Town. The newly created troops after moving to the south did not have sufficient equipment, good training, or high morale. They were basically three-no troops.
Unlike Zhu Cixiang's new army that overcame difficulties, most of them have been assigned land and married women. Naturally, they have people holding on to their lives and have to work hard to train overtime. They don't dare to complain about "996" and "997". I don't dare to run away on the battlefield. Training and morale are still guaranteed, and the weapons and equipment are much better than those of Zuo Liangyu's department - Zhu Cixiang has more money than Zuo Liangyu, and Zheng Zhilong, an international arms dealer, can provide cannons, muskets, and go to Macau invites foreign military advisers!
Therefore, although the number of people on the left is about the same as that of the New Army to overcome difficulties, there is no certainty that a fight will begin. Besides, Zhu Cihong also had Gao Jie and Huang Degong, and their strength was not inferior to Zuo Liangyu's either!
Under such circumstances, it was the wishful thinking of the left-wing officials to separat one side and sit back and watch the struggle between the Southern Ming Dynasty and the Northern Qing Dynasty.
No one dares to think about Dongxia Qingjun's side or anything like that!
The Yongwang Zhu Cizhao, who is about to be returned by Li Zicheng, is the banner and title of the left-wing separatist regime, or it can also be called a bargaining chip.
But there is a difference between King Yongyong's separatist rule and King Yongyong's proclaiming himself emperor...
Moreover, whether it is a separatist regime or a Qing Dynasty, there is no need to show off with Zhu Cihong so early!
"Sir, why did you tell Hou Fangyu everything we secretly planned?"
"Master Marquis, the prince is cunning and insidious. If he is wary, how can we succeed?"
"Yeah, it's better to send Mengmei to Nanjing to confuse the prince..."
As soon as Hou Fangyu left, Zuo Mengeng, Huang Shu and Qiu Lei came out from behind the screen and started shouting around Zuo Liangyu. Seeing that several people were upset, Zuo Liangyu slapped the table and his face darkened.
The old man frowned: "What are you talking about? What are you talking about?"
Ah, it's over... The old man is confused, what should I do?
Zuo Mengeng, Huang Shu and Qiu Lei looked at Zuo Liangyu and their hearts dropped. Now is a critical period. If the old man is confused, what will they do as a group? To put it bluntly, there is nowhere to go even if you surrender to the enemy!
The Tatars are still in Beizhili and Shanxi! If they want to surrender to the enemy now, they can only surrender to Li Zicheng or Zhang Xianzhong... The three of them are willing, but none of their subordinates are willing! After surrendering to those two demon kings, why should I be caught and tortured with a stick?
"Sir, do you really not remember what you said to Hou Fangyu?" Zuo Mengeng asked in a trembling voice.
Zuo Liangyu glared at him, "How could I not remember? We just met, how could I not remember?"
Fortunately, I'm not completely confused.
Huang Shu shook his head: "Master Hou, you shouldn't tell us all our plans!"
Zuo Liangyu smiled coldly: "What should we do? Let Mengmei go to Nanjing to serve the prince?"
"It doesn't matter if you go..." Zuo Mengeng said.
"It's okay?" Zuo Liangyu glared at his adopted son, "That's not a draft girl! That's a girl sent to the palace as a concubine by the Marquis of Wuchang... Do you, the heir apparent, want to send her off?"
ah......
Zuo Mengeng was stunned.
Zuo Liangyu looked at his son, "If you go, you won't be able to come back! If you don't go, he will have ways to deal with us! He has a lot of money. When Mengmei returns to Wuchang for a visit, the generals below will give this to the three Ten thousand, that reward is fifty thousand...do you still want to be the leader of the armies here in Wuchang a hundred years from now?"
The old man is not confused...
"But the Marquis shouldn't tell Hou Fangyu about the establishment of King Yong..." Li Guoying was still confused.
Zuo Liangyu snorted coldly: "If I don't make it clear, he will usurp the throne after next year's Spring Festival... Do we admit it then? If so, he is the father of the Ming Dynasty. Let's go again." To oppose him is to rebel!
If you don’t admit it, then there will be a war! Whether he can win or not, Xiangyang Mansion is still in Li Zicheng's hands! "
Huang Shu had already provoked Brother Thumb, "Master Hou is so clever! We protect King Fuyong and oppose the prince usurping the throne, and we have gained the right to do so! And as long as the prince does not usurp the throne, we will not have troops to separate Huguang and waste it with him!" "
"But what if he sends troops to attack Wuchang?" Qiu Lei asked.
"Impossible," Zuo Liangyu smiled, "The Tatars have reached the north bank of the Yellow River and will soon go south!"
...
Hou Fangyu didn't know the conversation between Zuo Liangyu, Zuo Mengeng, Huang Shu and Qiu Lei. He didn't bother to think about it. After leaving Zuo Liangyu's house, he didn't even dare to go back to the inn. He went directly to the dock, hired a boat and went to Nanjing - he was afraid that Zuo Liangyu's subordinates would know what Zuo old man said. If you spill the beans, send someone to silence you!
Fortunately, he ran very fast and was not caught up by the killer. He also arrived in Nanjing safely before New Year's Eve, which was also becoming a little crazy...
"This Duke of Xiaolian, who has money and strength, must protect his reputation and religion! Fight against the Tatars!"
When Hou Fangyu landed at Shangxinhe Wharf in Nanjing, a young scholar with a Jiangxi accent came up to him, handed him a poster, and shouted a slogan.
what 's wrong? Hou Fangyu looked up and found that there were several young scholar-looking people shouting slogans and posting messages on the busy dock.
Whenever someone gets off the boat and goes ashore, as long as they look like scholars, someone will go up and post... What's going on with these scholars? No more reading? Enke is about to be fired, why do they still have so much time?
He lowered his head and looked at the post. The content on it was still to smear the Tatars. He said that the Tatars were acting perversely in Beizhili, enclosing land, occupying houses, forcing people to surrender, massacring cities, burning books and humiliating Confucian scholars, and even threatened to criticize Confucius and Mencius. The tomb of the emperor, the Confucian orthodoxy, etc... And at the end of the post, there was a signature that read, "The Donglin Conference weeps and screams with blood."
what 's wrong?
What does Donglin Conference mean? Could it be that those who posted the post are all Donglin gentlemen?
Hou Fangyu quickly grabbed a young scholar and asked, "This young man is also the successor of Donglin who came to the capital to take the exam? What's going on with this post?"
The young man smiled bitterly: "Mr. Xiaolian misunderstood. I am not the successor of Donglin. I am just the eldest son living in Jinling. I am just posting for the Donglin Plenary Session to earn some hard money."
