"snort!"
Fan Wencheng responded with a cold snort to Zuk Kefa's concern.
Because Zu Kefa misunderstood him, he was not sick because of Kong Sizhen, but because of the rectification of Shandong's defense and the veteran soldiers left behind by Kong Youde, who became increasingly haggard.
These two things are really not easy!
Before the battle at Jieshi Mountain, the Qing troops in the east of Shandong included Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming. It was a good news that the troops stationed in Germany could also support Shandong.
However, after the Battle of Jieshi Mountain, Duduo removed a large number of old Eight Banners backbones from the pass, and also re-adjusted the defense, adjusting the original offensive deployment to a retreat and decisive battle deployment. The Qing Dynasty's territories in Shandong and Henan became the depth of defense.
Therefore, the Qing Dynasty adopted a tactical and campaign deployment of comprehensive contraction and focused defense in Shandong and Henan. In Shandong, the Qing army's defenses along the canal and Daqing River had become a virtual reality. Along the canal, only Dezhou and the Qing Dynasty were left. There are five strongholds including Linqing, Liaocheng, Anping (the intersection with Daqing River), and Jining. Along the Daqing River, there are only five strongholds left: Anping (also a stronghold along the canal), Huakou, Qihe, Jiyang, and Lijin.
There are nine strongholds in total! Among these nine strongholds, the three strongholds along the canal are Anping, Liaocheng, and Dezhou.
Fan Wencheng personally guarded Liaocheng, his second son Fan Chengmo guarded Dezhou, and Kong Youde's confidant Sun Long guarded Anping. These three strongholds not only have strong castles, but also have a large number of defenders, all with more than 5,000 people. Their equipment is also relatively powerful, and they have a large number of musketeers and cavalry.
In order to effectively control the troops, Fan Wencheng also concentrated the soldiers he brought from Xianglv Banner (Fan Wencheng had previously served as Gushan Ezhen of Xianglv Banner) and the soldiers of the Kong family who were loyal to Kong Sizhen in Liaocheng. The soldiers and their families stationed in seven strongholds including Anping, Linqing, Jining, Huakou, Qihe, Jiyang, and Lijin were all gathered in Liaocheng and Dezhou for protection. These things are easy to say, but very difficult to do. !
Fan Wencheng was a bad old man and married Kong Sizhen, who was 17 or 18 years old. He also replaced Kong Tingxun as King of Dingnan. How could the Kong family army be convinced? Now everyone is asked to leave their homes where they have lived for several years and go to nine strongholds to be trapped, and they have to hand over their family members... The traitors really have no place to cry when they are in this position.
Fortunately, Lao Fan was clever, and with the support of Shunzhi and Duoduo, he brought a group of traitors with two white flags, two yellow flags and green flags to take office, and finally managed to complete the adjustment.
Just as the military deployment was adjusted, economic difficulties ensued.
Previously, Zhenglvqi followed the path of integrating military and peasantry!
Now that we are surrounded by nine castles, how can we still farm? Kong Youde's subordinates, plus the miscellaneous traitors who were sent to Prince Dingnan's palace, totaled no less than 20,000 households, and they occupied no less than 6 million acres of land, at least half of which were cultivated by Zhengluqi soldiers and their families. Nowadays, these lands are either abandoned or out of control - it is not easy to collect some rent in troubled times. If you don't put a knife on the neck of the tenants, who is willing to hand over the food to survive?
Therefore, if the traitors in the green flag shrink down, the food will not grow legs and be sent into the city.
As a last resort, Fan Wencheng had to organize many "grain collection horse teams" to patrol the territory to "grab grain" and bring some food and drink back to the city to maintain the lives of hundreds of thousands of Green Flag soldiers and Green Flag family members.
But the life of the traitors is still Wang Xiaoer's New Year, and it is getting worse every year. When life gets tough, anger gets louder, and it’s not easy to send them to work...
Therefore, the people below had a hard time, and Fan Wencheng, who became the prince, had a hard time himself. And he is not good inside and out...
Who is Kong Sizhen? How could he possibly like a bad old man like Fan Wencheng? Still working day and night? No one is allowed to touch it at all!
There was nothing Lao Fan could do. He was now his son-in-law. Everyone in the Kong family army only recognized Kong Sizhen and not Fan Wencheng.
And there is someone above Kong Sizhen! The young emperor of Shunzhi had an affair with her, and the queen mother Bumubutai accepted her as her adopted daughter... Moreover, when Kong Sizhen was in his early years, he went to Beijing to visit his relatives, and they were happy when they came back. It was really gratifying and congratulatory!
What made Fan Wencheng even more speechless was that Kong Sizhen himself did not let Fan Wencheng touch her, and did not allow Fan Wencheng to have concubines, so he sent away all of Fan Wencheng's original concubines.
Now Fan Wencheng is a senior prince, and he is being bullied by a bunch of useless traitors outside. Inside the house, he is being bullied by a hot-tempered seventeen-year-old girl, and there is not even a woman to warm his bed! Not only women don’t, but men don’t either! Miss Kong couldn't stand this... Fan Wencheng could only stay in the empty room alone. How could he be a prince? It’s like being a monk!
Moreover, these pains can only be kept in the heart, and on the surface, we have to pretend to be beautiful, but we can't let people know that Kong Sizhen is pregnant with a bastard... Otherwise, someone will kill his father and silence him!
What distressed Fan Wencheng the most was that his prince was at a loss!
He, King Dingnan, is also a "vassal" who is responsible for its own profits and losses, and unlike the "limited liability domain" of the Ming Dynasty, his domain is an "unlimited liability domain"! No matter how much the loss is, Fan Wencheng, the feudal lord, has to find a way to make up for it... So Fan Wencheng has been the prince for less than a year, and he has been a slave of the Qing Dynasty for most of his life. He has finally embezzled the family property. It's almost done.
And he didn't even have the money to borrow money from loan sharks... so he had to sit in his spare room every night and pull out the abacus beads. Seeing that the money and food on the ledger were getting less and less, his heart almost broke into pieces!
Can you live this life without losing weight day by day?
"You said that I will go to Nanjing in the future? What do you mean?" Fan Wencheng asked Zu Kefa with a cold face.
"Yes!" Zukefa said with a smile, "Look, this Dongchang Mansion is the dowry of Princess Jianning, and it is to be handed over to our Ming Dynasty... The emperor of our Ming Dynasty also knows about Dingnan Because of your ability, the king has built a county palace for you in Nanjing. As long as you hand over the city and army, you can go to Nanjing and enjoy the blessings."
It was as if Fan Wencheng had already made up his mind to become a second minister...
"I am a slave of the Qing Dynasty in life, and a ghost of my relatives in death," Fan Wencheng said sternly, "I will never surrender to the Ming Dynasty."
Zukfa sighed, nodded and said: "That's okay...everyone has his own ambitions! Then when will you hand over Liaocheng?"
"Hand over Liaocheng?" Fan Wencheng snorted again, then clasped his fists and bowed in mid-air, "This matter requires the decree of the Qing Emperor! Until the emperor's decree arrives, I will have to defend Liaocheng!"
It’s not okay if you don’t stick to it! His Fan family was a large family in Liaodong, and there were a lot of senior officials in the Qing Dynasty among his descendants (one generation younger than Fan Wencheng). His eldest son Fan Chengyin is now the Minister of Rites of the Qing Dynasty and is highly employed in Beijing. The children of Fan Chengyin and Fan Chengmo are all in Beijing, and Fan Wencheng's four underage sons are also in Beijing. There are also descendants of his brother Fan Wencai who are all in Beijing... They have to raid all the families, which is really a busy job.
Moreover, Kong Sizhen was monitoring Fan Wencheng in Liaocheng, and General Ye Bushu, the fourth brother of Emperor Shunzhi, was stationed in Texas with more than 200 Eight Banners soldiers, watching Fan Chengmo.
Therefore, if Fan Wencheng really dared to betray the Qing Dynasty, his family would be destroyed immediately!
In addition, the Zhenglu banner soldiers under King Dingnan occupied a total of six million acres of banner land! And it also occupied the territory of Dongchang Prefecture, Jibei Prefecture, and Yanzhou Prefecture (Yanzhou Prefecture was divided into two halves, one on each side in the Ming and Qing Dynasties).
In fact, the lineage of King Dingnan of Zhenglu Banner is already an independent kingdom in Shandong, and they are the masters of the three mansions in Western Lu.
If Zhu Cixiang only wanted the Three Prefectures to surrender in name only, then the heads of Fan Wencheng and his son would have been sent to Xuzhou in two pretty boxes.
However, Zhu Cihong's Northern military nobles are also interested in the tens of millions of acres of flag land in the north. The value of these lands exceeds 1 billion taels, so there is nothing to discuss...
Zukefa also knew why Emperor Zhu wanted to go to the Northern Expedition - expelling the Tartars or something like that was not the focus at all, the focus was just one, fighting for the land in the north!
So Fan Wencheng's answer was completely within his expectations.
However, he still had something to say for Emperor Zhu: "It seems that your emperor's decree will not come... But it doesn't matter. The Emperor of Heaven is kind-hearted. As long as the prince and his soldiers are willing to surrender, their lives will be saved." You can always stay!”
All that can be left... is life!
