"Mr. Zhen'an, Mr. Zhongzhou, Mr. Pei Gong. What do you think King Geng Dong wants to do?"
In a mansion in Luzhou Prefecture, Li Zhongshan, who had just settled his governor's office, immediately called in his military advisors Wan Sinian, Chen Zisheng and Zhou Chang to discuss the matter of making him king.
These three people are all strategists in name, but the one who is truly proficient in military affairs and resourceful is Zhou Chang and Zhou Peigong. Wan Sinian and Chen Zisheng are actually not very good at fighting. However, the role of these two people in Li Zhongshan's camp cannot be ignored.
Among them, Wan Sinian was Huang Zongxi's favorite disciple. He went to Guangdong with his teacher Huang Zongxi to set up a reform school. He was one of the leaders of the Jiangnan scholar-bureaucrats of the reform faction.
Chen Zisheng was the brother of Chen Zizhuang, one of the Three Loyalists in Lingnan. He once served as a military officer in the Yongli Dynasty. After the failure of the resistance against the Qing Dynasty, he hid in the mountains, traveled around the world, and did not serve in the Qing Dynasty. After Guangdong was occupied by Huo Lu Bu and his son, he was invited by Chen Gongyin, the son of Chen Bangyan, who was also one of the Three Loyalists of Lingnan, to serve as Xiao Huo Lu Bu. He served as Xiao Huo Lu Bu's staff and professor of the martial arts hall, and then joined the reformists. The Lingnan scholar-bureaucrat group.
The Jiangnan and Lingnan factions of the reformists were both shareholders in the careers of Li Fuchen and Li Zhongshan - without the Jiangnan faction, it would have been difficult for Li Zhongshan's theory developed based on "The Records of Visits to Ming Yi" to be complete, and No one can help spread the word. Without the Lingnan system, it would be impossible for the reformers to spread their branches in Guangdong. It would also be impossible for the Li family and his son to implement the New Deal in Guangdong and build Guangdong into an anti-Qing base.
Therefore, this time Li Zhongshan not only used the Fuming Conference to introduce scholar-bureaucrats from the Jiangnan and Lingnan factions into the center of the new Ming Dynasty, but he also always had leading figures from the Jiangnan and Lingnan factions with him to show his closeness and importance.
In addition, although Wan Sinian and Chen Zizhuang are not good at fighting or managing logistics, they are very knowledgeable about political disputes, and they have many classmates and disciples serving in various yamen of the Nanjing court. , the ears and eyes are very clear.
Regarding what Geng Jingzhong wants to do, they may know more than Zhou Peigong!
"King Geng Dong must want to murder the lord!" The speaker was Chen Zisheng, whose nickname was Qiaosheng and whose name was Zhongzhou. He was nearly sixty years old. He was very thin, but his eyes were bright and energetic. He could see through Geng Jingzhong's conspiracy at a glance. !
Although he didn't understand the inevitable connection between the murder of Li Zhongshan and making him the king of England? But Geng Jingzhong’s intention to harm Nanjing’s Sanzhongtang and then monopolize the government, and finally to usurp the throne and become the emperor, could not be hidden from the group of reform scholars in Nanjing - all of them are historians, specializing in the study of rebellious ministers. Thieves, and many of them have practical experience as traitors and traitors.
Comparing Geng Jingzhong's badness with other people's, it's just childish!
"So he wanted to paralyze me by conferring the title of king for me, and then took advantage of me to take advantage of me and murder me in one fell swoop?" Li Zhongshan thought for a while and almost guessed what Geng Jingzhong was thinking.
It doesn’t matter if you can’t guess the remaining three or two, it’s just more harmful than conspiracy!
Li Zhongshan knows how to harm people best!
"My lord, you have to be on guard against him pretending to be Geng Jingtang!" Wan Sinian, who is three years younger than Chen Zizhuang and has also studied rebellious officials and traitors all his life, also tugged on his goatee, squinted his eyes, and began to analyze Geng Jingzhong's "evil deeds." "His little strength is not enough to defeat you, my lord, unless he joins forces with people like Yue Le, Li Zhifang, Fan Chengmo, and Tuer Boshen! With their strength, he can defeat you, my lord, Lu Zhongtang, and Chen Zhongtang." life.
In fact, Geng Jingzhong’s grandfather, Geng Zhongming, once took refuge with the Tartars to seek wealth! Among the three kings, Kong Youde defected to the Manchus probably because the soldiers were afraid of fighting with the Manchus and were angry with the Shandong gentry and mutinied. Fortunately, because Dongjiang Town was defeated after Mao Wenlong was killed, only Geng Zhongming took the initiative to surrender to the Tatars. Seek wealth! We must prevent his grandson from doing the same thing again! "
In the Wuqiao Mutiny that year, Geng Zhongming's behavior was the worst! Without him as an internal response, Kong Youde would not have been able to capture Dengzhou. Without him, who deceived Sun Yinglong of the Tianjin navy, Kong Youde would not have been able to get the ships to cross the sea and surrender to the Tartars.
Moreover, Geng Zhongming was a close associate of Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, and was not sent to support Daling River City, nor was he wronged at Wuqiao. His rebellion and surrender to the Tatars was not forced or helpless at all. It was entirely voluntary. The worst.
"That must be the case!" Li Zhongshan nodded heavily, "Then how should I crack down on his conspiracy?"
Now Wan Sinian and Chen Zisheng were at their wits end. They were good at exposing bad guys, but they were not good at destroying them. So the two old men looked at Zhou Chang with smiles.
Zhou Chang is full of evil, Geng Jingzhong must not be as evil as him!
Zhou Chang had not participated in the discussion before, and his brows were furrowed, as if he was thinking hard. When he saw the eyes of the two old men, he considered and said: "My lord, you should decline the title of King of England. This is etiquette, and you can only say three words." It is necessary. In addition, we must send someone to express our gratitude to Geng Jingzhong and give him gifts. At the same time, we must step up our attacks on Anqing Prefecture and Jiujiang Prefecture!"
"Pei Gong, do you mean that I should pretend to be confused to induce Geng Jingzhong to expose his conspiracy?"
"No," Zhou Pei said, "attacking Anqing Mansion has two advantages. First, it allows Geng Jingzhong to advance his conspiracy with confidence! Geng Jingzhong himself is not strong enough, so he wants to unite with the Tartars to usurp the throne, and the Tartars he unites with In fact, their energy has been greatly damaged, and people are panicking. Such a combination will definitely reveal many flaws, and it should not be difficult to resolve them as long as we deal with the flaws.
Second, now that the land exchange between King Li Zhong and Wu Sangui has been completed, the old prince's 30,000 troops can take the land route from Huangzhou to Anqing to join us. The old prince's army is well-trained and elite, and is also equipped with a large number of firearms. As long as they arrive in Anqing, not only will Anqing be captured quickly, but they will also be a great shock to the Geng family's army on the south bank of the Yangtze River in Anhui Province!
At that time, as long as Geng Jingtang's conspiracy is exposed, we can eradicate it in one fell swoop!
Third, we can also see the reaction of His Highness Prince Ding. Geng Jingzhong wants to usurp the throne of the Zhu family! "
"Okay!" Li Zhongshan nodded, he already understood what Zhou Chang meant.
Zhou Chang's intention was to let Geng Jingzhong go out and expose himself first. The Li family and his son could only work diligently to attack Anqing and Jiujiang. At the same time, they would organize a three-king alliance of "Zhong, Ying, and Nan". By then, there would be more than ten or two hundred thousand people. As soon as the powerful force moved upstream of Nanjing, they asked Geng Jingzhong's men and the group of Tatars who were cooperating with Geng Jingzhong if they were afraid?
At the same time, you can also see what clever tricks Ding Wang Zhu Cijiong can come up with?
"Supervisor, Supervisor" Luo Dawei's loud voice suddenly came from outside the capital hall where Li Zhongshan and others were discussing, "The general has caught the traitor named Jin!"
Jin Fu caught it!
When the Huaixi Red Scarf Army broke into Luzhou Prefecture, the Anhui governor escaped under the life-saving protection of his own soldiers. Luo Dawei led his soldiers to chase him, and now he was finally captured.
Li Zhongshan laughed, stood up and walked out. As he walked, he said, "Brother Ziyuan, are you outside? You are scared!"
Ziyuan is Jin Fu's brand name, and the reason why Li Zhongshan is so close to him is because this man is a well-known little expert in river management!
Li Zhongshan, who is now leading the Southeast, can now be relied upon to help solve the floods in the Huaihe and Yellow Rivers - the Yellow-Huaihe floods and a canal that can never be repaired have historically consumed a lot of the national power of the Ming and Qing Dynasties!
The great plains on both sides of the Huaihe River should have been a prosperous land rich in food, but they were flooded year after year, and finally turned into an old Nian Army area!
The average amount of money spent on river construction in the Qing Dynasty was several million taels a year. Over two hundred years, a small billion was spent, but nothing was used!
This big hole must be filled once and for all!
Suzhou, Humble Administrator's Garden, the residence of the Governor-General of Liangjiang in the Qing Dynasty.
The governor of Liangjiang, the imperial envoy overseeing the military affairs of the five provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang, and the minister of management of the Jiangdong camp, Prince An Yue Le, were all crowded at this time, and the atmosphere was depressing.
Yue Le is still an official of the Qing Dynasty, but he has withdrawn his troops from Nanjing in accordance with the secret agreement with Geng Jingzhong, abandoned Zhenjiang and Changzhou, and also withdrew the troops from the Jiangbei camp and Shi Lang's Yangtze River Navy. Suzhou and Taicang.
In addition, his supervisory office also moved from Zhenjiang to Suzhou.
After settling in the Humble Administrator's Garden, Yue Le asked people to recruit important officials from the Qing Dynasty in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. They all had to discuss together how to continue to be loyal to the Qing Dynasty!
Now the Jiangbei region of Jiangsu cannot be defended, so the communication between the Qing army in the south of the Yangtze River and the Beijing court can only rely on sea routes. However, considering the strength of the Zheng family navy, this sea route can be used for communication, but forget about transporting troops.
Therefore, the Jiangnan Qing army will be alone from now on!
How can a lone army persevere?
Also, if you want to fake a surrender, how can you ensure that it will not be annexed by Geng Jingzhong after the fake surrender?
If Geng Jingzhong really succeeds in his attempt to usurp the throne, will everyone be the founding fathers of the "Geng Dynasty", or will they jump back to the Qing Dynasty and become three ministers?
These matters must be carefully discussed!
However, when Yue Le told everyone about the fact that he had pretended to surrender as the Qing Dynasty's version of Jiang Wei, all the loyal officials of the Qing Dynasty were dumbfounded.
None of the real Jiang Wei in history ended well, and now they are still imitating Jiang Wei? Isn't this seeking death?
In addition, the Manchus, Mongols and a few die-hard traitors can of course pretend to surrender, but what about the people below? Will they really surrender?
If the people below really surrender, what will the people above do? What should we do with our family members who are detained in Beijing?
There was deathly silence in the capital hall.
I don’t know how long it took before I heard Fan Chengmo, who was born in the first slave family in the Qing Dynasty, sigh and say: "Your Majesty, we can surrender in support of Geng Jingzhong. But we must obey the order!"
What? Surrender on command? Who could make such a decree?
Yue Le shook his head: "Mr. Jin, how could the emperor and the regent issue such a decree?"
Although Shang Zhixin urged him to write a letter to Fuquan that day explaining that he wanted to be Jiang Wei, he agreed. But in the end, I really don’t know what to say? So this beginning has only begun. Now that he heard that someone wanted to surrender according to the order, he could only laugh or cry.
"The emperor and regent of the Jin Dynasty once issued such a decree!" Fan Chengmo said, twirling his beard, "Did King An forget Qin Hui?"
"Qin Hui?"
"Qin Hui was originally a minister of the Song Dynasty, but after the Jingkang disaster, he became a minister of the Jin Dynasty. He fled back to the Southern Song Dynasty and became a minister of the Song Dynasty. He must have followed the order. So Qin Zhongxiangong was actually the most loyal minister of the Jin Dynasty! Prince An, do you want to be the most loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty now?"
Ah, living Jiang Wei has become living Qin Hui!
Prince An Yue Le almost hit Fan Chengmo, this little slave, in the face with his tea bowl.
At this moment, Li Zhifang, the minister in charge of the Jiangnan camp, sighed: "Mr. Jin, now it's not just King An who wants to be Qin Zhongxian, but all of us!"
Well, Qin Hui in a room!
But who is Yue Fei?
There seems to be no one in Nanjing who is more like Yue Fei!
Wang Datou may be able to compete with Yue Fei in fighting, but his loyalty is a bit lacking!
No matter how many Qin Hui there are, without Yue Fei, wouldn't it be in vain? This Qin Hui is going to encounter "Pingzhang political affairs in Jiangnan and other places of the Great Song Dynasty". No amount of money is enough to chop him off!
"Qin Hui will probably be shattered to pieces if he meets Liu Yu, and Qin Hui will be infamy for thousands of years if he meets Yue Fei. But what if Qin Hui meets Shi Jingtang?"
They are all people who are familiar with history and have done a lot of research on various bad guys throughout the ages, so Fan Chengmo also thought of Shi Jingtang at this time.
He said with a smile: "Geng Jingzhong cannot be Zhao Gou, and Prince Zhu doesn't even bother to be Zhao Gou, so we live Qin Hui can't meet Zhao Gou and Yue Fei. Now there are only Liu Yu, Huan Wen, and Shi Jingtang in the Puppet Ming Dynasty." We are going to help the pseudo-Ming Shi Jingtang destroy the pseudo-Ming Liu Yu, usurp the pseudo-Ming's kingdom, and then turn Geng Jingzhong, who is equivalent to Shi Jingtang, into the son-emperor of the Qing Emperor."
This is a bit difficult!
Can Shi Jingtang defeat Liu Yu with the help of Khitan?
"It is true that this matter is not easy to succeed," Fan Chengmo said, "but it is justified when it is written in the Kaiben and the memorial. We and other loyal ministers of the Qing Dynasty cannot go against heaven. If God favors the Qing Dynasty, then this matter If you don’t succeed, then we will do our best.”
Ah, so that’s it!
Prince An Yue Le finally understood that this Fan Chengmo was really a talented person. When he said that he had surrendered and became a second minister, he actually became a loyal minister who endured humiliation and heavy burdens.
Yue Le nodded and said with a smile: "That's okay. Why don't we jointly write an introductory book and send it to the Regent by sea?"
"Your Majesty, I will not be involved in this project. I will be responsible for delivering the letter to you!"
Yue Le was stunned when he heard this, turned around and found that the person who was unwilling to take Qin Hui's life was actually Shi Lang!
Shi Lang's "Ming and Qing Dynasties" are all four ministers. If he votes for Ming now or Geng in the future, he will be six ministers! You’ve already become the four ministers, why do you still care about the six ministers?
"Your Majesty, the humble Zheng Yanping has a blood feud!" Shi Lang said sincerely, "Now Zheng Yanping's son is the king of Yi of the pseudo Ming Dynasty, and Zheng Yanping's military advisor Chen Yonghua is one of the three main halls of the pseudo Ming Dynasty. I want to vote for him. King Yi and Chen Yonghua will definitely not let me go. They will make things difficult for you, King Gengdong and King An.
In addition, the imperial court also has thousands of miles of coastal defense and needs a naval force! "
I see!
Shi Langneng could run away, and he had a grudge against Zheng Jing, and the Qing court also needed him, so he planned to run away.
Yue Le thought for a moment, nodded and said, "That's fine. Who else among you wants to go to Beijing?"
Hangzhou General Turboshen sighed: "Your Majesty, I am too old to be Qin Hui. I will be satisfied if I can go back to my hometown to bury my bones."
The old man now looks downcast, his complexion is sallow, and he is too thin to look like a human being. However, he became like this not because of illness, but because his son and grandson died in battle one after another. He has died. He has been working hard these days, but to no avail. He is tired and thin, and his heart is discouraged.
Yue Le nodded: "Old man, when you arrive in Beijing, when you see the Prince Regent and the Queen Mother, you must tell them about our difficulties."
At this point, Yue Le was so sad that he burst into tears, "We really have no other choice! Wuwu"
It didn't matter that he took the lead, the whole hall immediately burst into tears!
Beijing, Imperial City, outside Donghua Gate, Regent's Mansion.
Some people are crying here too!
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, it turns out you are not dead yet!"
"Your Majesty. I miss you so much! Your Majesty."
"Woo."
"Emperor Ama"
The emperor who is "not yet dead" is not Kangxi, but Shunzhi!
And those who were lying in front of Shunzhi, who was dressed in a monk's robe and dressed as the "Father King" and crying bitterly, were Mingzhu, Mu Zhan, Bahai and Chang Ning who had just arrived in Beijing!
Mingzhu, together with Yang Qilong, Cao Xi and others, arrived in Tianjin by water with a huge amount of property and food, and then came to Beijing alone to meet the regent. Who knew that he met Shunzhi, the "maker of the Qing imperial edict", at the regent's palace.
Mu Zhanze fled back to Beijing with the remaining defeated generals after the defeat of the Suishui Army. Immediately after returning, he went to Shangfangyuan (later the Shenxing Department) to be imprisoned. Today, he was mentioned to the Regent's Palace. Unexpectedly, he had seen him for many years. Unseen Shunzhi!
As for Bahai, his name is Guarjia. Bahai is now an official of General Ning Guta. He is an important minister of the Qing Dynasty guarding the pass. He followed the order of the regent Fuquan and Prince Gong Chang Ning, and brought two thousand people who had just practiced. The good Sauron cavalry came to Beijing.
I didn’t expect to see Shunzhi at the Regent’s Palace!
And Prince Gong Chang Ning has long forgotten what Shunzhi looked like? Shunzhi was still a child when he became a monk, but Bahai, Mingzhu, and Mu Zhan all recognized Shunzhi at a glance. Naturally, he did not feel that he was being deceived, so they recognized him together.
The first reason why Shunzhi wants to do something like this today is of course to stabilize people's hearts!
Now half of the Qing Dynasty is almost gone! Can people in Beijing not panic? So he could only let more people know about his existence to stabilize everyone's emotions.
The second is to pave the way for the transfer of power in the Qing Dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty was defeated like this, someone must take the blame!
As the emperor, Kangxi could not shoulder such a big responsibility, so who else could? After Kangxi took the blame, he would naturally step down, but who would take over must be arranged so that the Qing Dynasty could continue to survive. Otherwise, it would be completely over if it caused chaos again.
(End of chapter)
