Dagukou, Zhongjian Fort.
Yang Qilong, Minister of Commerce of Beiyang and Minister of Military Training of Zhili Province, did not go to the Yamen located in Dagukou Commercial Port to do business today, nor did he go to the Beiyang New Army Camp next to Zhongjian Fort to supervise the training. Instead, he stayed in a secluded room in Zhongjian Fort. In his study, he sat opposite Cao Yin, who had come from afar.
After the two people exchanged pleasantries, they began to stare at each other for who knows how long. The two cups of fragrant tea placed in front of them were already completely cold.
"Brother Yang!" Cao Yin suddenly said, "The regent can't win! The emperor has assembled a hundred thousand troops, and Zhou Dynasty has also sent 20,000 reinforcements. The leading general is Wu Shijue, the eldest son of Wu Guogui.
In addition, Dazhou, Daqing, and Dajing have formed three anti-Ming alliances. Therefore, in order to avoid falling into the dilemma of being surrounded by enemies from all sides, Li Zhongshan will definitely go all out to attack Dajing's territory in the south of Anhui and Jiujiang. He will not be able to attack the regent at all. The king sent reinforcements. "
Yang Qilong just looked at Cao Yin coldly and remained silent.
Of course Yang Qilong knew about the three anti-Ming alliances and Li Zhongshan's inability to go north. If Li Zhongshan could send troops, he would not have provided so many uniforms and flags of the Huaixi Red Scarf Army, allowing Yang Qilong's people to pretend to be the Ming army.
But the fake ones are fake after all. They can only scare the officers and soldiers on Kangxi's side, but they cannot really increase Fuquan's strength.
If Kangxi's men weren't afraid, or if they had an equally strong backing - Wu Sangui! Then Fuquan is a bit dangerous!
Cao Yin picked up the tea bowl, took a sip of herbal tea, and then said: "Brother Yang, the Queen passed away last month. She died of dystocia and the child did not survive. The Emperor had four sons before him, but none of them survived. Two years old. The emperor knows that all your daughters are plump and fat, and they are particularly easy to give birth to, so he wants to make your little girl Xiaomi his queen!"
"Xiao Mi?" Yang Qilong was stunned, "But she is Prince Yu's side Fujin!"
Cao Yin smiled: "The emperor has long liked your Xiaomi. The emperor is the king of Yi and Di, and he doesn't care about the etiquette of the Central Plains! Moreover, Xiaomi is very fertile, and the children she gave birth to are all very good. She is exactly the kind the emperor needs. !”
"No!" Yang Qilong shook his head firmly, "The Regent treats me well!"
Cao Yin said: "The emperor will not treat you badly. As long as you are willing to defect, the emperor can not only make Yang Xiaomi his queen. It is Yang Xiaomi, not Nalalan'er! And the emperor can also make you the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang." , this Governor of Zhili is much stronger than the Minister of Tuanlian of Zhili!
In addition, after defeating the Queen Regent, the emperor will also implement the north-south official system, and will be stationed permanently in Shengjing. Beijing is just a formality, and the military and administrative affairs in the pass are entrusted to the four governors including the Governor of Zhili, the Governor of Shandong, the Governor of Henan, and the Governor of Shanxi! And these four governors are headed by the Governor of Zhili!
Brother Yang, can the regent give you this benefit? "
Although Fuquan was extremely fond of Yang Xiaomi, he also trusted Yang Qilong. However, Yang Xiaomi was not appointed as the royal wife, nor was Yang Qilong appointed as the governor of Zhili.
Yang Qilong still shook his head, "Brother Yin, although I come from a humble background, I have always known loyalty! And I don't know what kind of person the emperor is? Although the regent didn't let my sister be his eldest wife, he didn't let me be his wife either. Governor, but he is kind, so you can rest assured following him."
Kangxi killed Obai and plotted against Sangui, which caused a bit of a mess and no one believed in him.
Cao Yin said with a smile: "Then add a prince of Zhou Dynasty. Who doesn't know that the prince of Zhou Dynasty is a loyal gentleman and keeps his word? With him as a guarantee, you can rest assured, right? If the information I got is correct , during the days when the Crown Princess and her son were under house arrest in the palace, Yang Sange, you asked Xiaomi to give them clothes and food, right? With this relationship, as long as the three anti-Ming alliances are still there, the emperor will not May go back on its promise.
Brother Yang, you are really making a three-way bet. No matter who ends up dominating the world, your family's wealth will be indispensable. So this is a sure-win game, so don't go all out! "
Yang Qilong smiled and said: "Brother Yin, I am already a very rich man. Who dares to fight for it? But this is the guarantee of the Prince of Zhou."
"Yes, yes, yes. This is a letter written by Prince Zhou. Do you recognize his handwriting?"
"I know you, I know you."
"That's good."
"Your Majesty, it really has nothing to do with me that I wrongly accused Jiangning of falling. I led my troops to fight Geng Jingzhong in Taiping Mansion and was shot by Shang Zhixin several times. He almost died. It was Echu who failed to defend Jiangning. The thief named Lu Sanhao took the city. But the regent said that the slave was equally guilty as Echu, and sentenced the slave to an autumn trial."
In the Taiyuan Palace, Duolong, who was dressed in a dusty body, was kneeling in front of Emperor Kangxi and crying about his miserable fate.
It sounds quite miserable!
Although he was the governor of Liangjiang, the responsibility for the fall of Jiangning did not lie with him, but with General Echu of Jiangning. But Fuquan, the regent, did not care about the indiscretion and gave him the same fate as Echu.
But now Kangxi is not so easily fooled!
"Autumn Jue?" Kangxi looked at Duolong, who had successfully lost weight, and asked coldly, "A beheading this autumn? Why did I hear that Echu was killed last year? Did he kill one last year and another this year?"
"Your Majesty, this slave should have been beheaded last autumn." Duolong answered truthfully.
"Nonsense, you were decapitated last year, what's going on with you now? Your head is still on your neck!" Kangxi's pockmarked face sank, "You are deceiving the emperor!"
"Your Majesty, calm down. The slave should be beheaded, but the regent felt that the slave was still valuable, so he temporarily spared the slave's death and asked the slave to go to Jiangnan to lobby Wang Ni Datou, and asked Wang Ni to send troops to help the regent against the emperor. But , But Your Majesty, this slave is suffering! If I go back to Beijing, my head will be gone! But if I miss the time and don’t go back to die, my two useless losers will be stabbed on my behalf!”
As he spoke, Duolong burst into tears, so sad!
Li Zhongshan was unable to send troops to help, so Duolong had to go back to Beijing to behead him! If he didn't go back, their two sons would die.
Kangxi looked at Duolong, his tone still cold, "In that case, then go back quickly, don't waste the lives of your two sons!"
"Your Majesty." Duolong's tears were streaming down his face, "But this slave is afraid of death, and he still wants to live! I can only be sorry to those two miserable prodigal sons. I'm sorry to them. If I had known this, I wouldn't have forced it. They are already studying and practicing martial arts, so we shouldn’t stop them from visiting the eight major alleys, let alone force them to compete with Nalan Xingde! They will be beheaded in the end anyway!"
Speaking of the sad part, Duolong has already burst into tears, which makes people sympathize.
Kangxi saw how sad Duolong was, and felt that this guy must not be lying. He was greedy for life and fearful of death, so his son could only die in his place, or one of the two sons should be replaced by him. Isn't this the case with this cheating Ama?
Thinking of this, Kangxi sighed and said: "Duolong, since your two sons have paid the death penalty for you, then I will not ask you for the crime of losing Jiang Ning. But I don't have a suitable job for you now, so you can follow me first." Bar!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty," Duolong said with tears.
Okay, the lurking mission is now complete!
The infiltration is successful, and things will be easy to do next!
Kangxi asked again: "Tell me now, what's going on with Wang Datou? Can he defeat Geng Jingzhong and Jieshu? Will he and Liu Jinzhong fall out?"
"Back to the emperor," Duolong replied, "Whether Wang Datou can defeat Geng Jingzhong and Jieshu depends on whether he can integrate the inside of the Puppet Ming. The Puppet Ming currently has enough power to defeat Geng Jingzhong and Jieshu, but The Pseudo-Ming Dynasty also had a huge weakness, which was that its ministers were strong but its leader was weak. This weak leader was not only the third prince Zhu, but the entire Pseudo-Ming Dynasty.
The Pseudo-Ming Dynasty now has five kings: Nan, Bei, Ying, Zhong, and Yi. Except for the British King Li Zhongshan, the other four kings are all vassal kings. Although King Nan among them was the father of the King of England, Li Fuchen had many heirs, and he still favored Kong Sizhen and Li Jiqing's mother and son, so he had the intention of abolishing the direct line and establishing a concubine. Therefore, there are also a lot of troubles within the Li family.
In addition, the slaves also heard a rumor about Li Zhongshan and Shang Shuying in Nanjing. It was said that Li Zhongshan had slept with Shang Shuying who was a hostage in his place when he visited Huainan. So Northern King Liu Jinzhong was a cuckold!
Later, monks Shang Shuying, Shang Zhijie, and Shang Zhiying led a thousand elite soldiers of the Shang family to raid the Mochou Lake palace, but Liu Jinzhong made a conspiracy to kill with a borrowed knife."
"This is really messy!" Kangxi snorted, "After I defeat the Queen Regent, I want to give you an errand. If you can do it well, I will make you an imperial envoy to the Southern Dynasties."
Duolong was stunned, "Your Majesty, what do you want?"
Kangxi nodded and said: "I want to make a non-aggression agreement with the Southern Dynasty. I have no intention of going south, and he doesn't want to go north. One south and one north, non-aggression. This is the best!"
Nanjing, Prince Mochou Huying's Mansion.
The atmosphere in the lobby of the palace was extremely awkward. Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen, father and son, sat side by side. Kong Sizhen had an embroidered pillar next to Li Fuchen, and Li Jiqing stood beside Kong Sizhen. Fu Honglie was standing in the hall, sweating profusely, and hesitatingly saying something that he didn't know how big the trouble would be.
"General, King Nan, Fourth Prince, Third Young Master. This, this, the Emperor of Zhou did take Shang Shuying in and gave her the treatment of a princess."
Li Zhongshan frowned a little, not because of Wu Sangui taking in Shang Shuying, but because of Fu Honglie's sudden stuttering. This Fu Honglie is usually very clever, why can't he speak well? Could it be a minor stroke?
"Just take her in." Kong Sizhen also felt strange. She thought it was Fu Honglie who failed to take Shang Shuying back and was afraid of being blamed by Li Fuchen and Li Zhongshan, so she excused him and said, "Shang Shuying's sin is too great, let's give it to Shang Shuying." Can’t you bring it back to Lingchi? How painful it would be! Shikai, you don’t want Shuying to end up like that, right?”
"Of course." As soon as Li Zhongshan said this, he felt it was inappropriate. What did Kong Sizhen mean? Why ask yourself such a question? Did she also believe some rumors?
This is really hard to argue with!
Thinking of this, his face darkened: "Shang Shuying is a traitor, and Ling Chi must be the one who catches her!"
Li Fuchen saw that his son and his young wife seemed to be quarreling, and he quickly said to Xini: "Yes, if you catch them, you will be punished, but there is nothing you can do if you don't catch them. If Wu Sangui doesn't give it, can we still go to Chang'an to rob it? Our top priority now is to win The Jiangnan part of Anhui!”
The Guangdong New Army led by Li Fuchen had put a lot of effort into attacking Anqing, so they had to be given some days to rest. The new army of Li Zhongshan's shogunate has just completed its reorganization, and it will take a while before it can send out troops.
However, fighting in southern Anhui will definitely be the focus of the next stage of work.
Just when Li Zhongshan was about to nod in agreement, Fu Honglie suddenly said again: "King Nan, the Emperor of Zhou promised to send Shang Shuying to Ming Dynasty."
"What?" Li Zhongshan was shocked. He actually never thought about catching Shang Shuying back to Lingchi. Firstly, he had a good impression of Shang Shuying; secondly, the Mochou Lake incident was full of doubts, so it was better not to solve it!
"Who did she offend?" Li Fuchen also felt incredible.
"Then don't Ling Chi? Is it too pitiful?" Kong Sizhen took a breath.
"But Emperor Zhou still has a condition."
"What conditions?" Li Zhongshan asked.
"That's right, that's right." Fu Honglie glanced at Li Jiqing, who was tilting his head and didn't know what he was thinking. "That's it. General, you are sending Princess Jiading back."
"Princess Jiading?" Li Zhongshan thought for a moment, then his expression suddenly changed, "Wu Xiaoxian? What is Wu Sangui thinking?"
"The Emperor of Zhou thought that he would like to betroth Princess Jiading to the Third Young Master."
"Ah! Me? Xiaoxian girl, will you be my wife?" Li Jiqing suddenly shouted as if he had been awakened from a sweet dream, "Is it true? Is this true?"
"Really, really." Fu Honglie was sweating profusely.
"Second brother." Li Jiqing turned around and wanted to ask his second brother Li Zhongshan to send him back to Wu Xiaoji immediately, but when he saw a pair of murderous tiger eyes, he suddenly didn't dare to speak.
"Wu Sangui are you kidding me?" Kong Sizhen was also frightened by this suggestion.
Li Zhongshan and Li Jiqing both "belonged to Lu Bu". For a woman like Wu Xiaoji, they might have to kill each other!
Although she wanted her son to marry a woman from the Wu family, she did not include Wu Xiaoji. Wu Xiaoji was already Li Zhongshan's concubine. This was recognized by Wu Xiaoji himself!
How could she possibly have Wu Xiaoxian's idea for her son? This can cost lives!
No, I have to explain it to Li Zhongshan quickly.
Just as Kong Sizhen was about to speak, Li Zhongshan had already stood up from his chair, and without saying hello to Li Fuchen, he just strode out of the lobby, then mounted a war horse led by his own soldiers, and headed to Shengqi Tower, the office of his shogunate. And go.
Inside the Shengqi Building, Zhou Chang, Yao Qisheng, He Tianran and a group of young soldiers were discussing how to break the alliance between Zhou, Qing and Jing - in case Fuquan did not defeat Kangxi, or Fuquan defeated Kangxi. He also formed an alliance with Wu Sangui. What should Ming do? You also need to have several plans, so you can’t be in a hurry when the time comes!
As a result, while they were discussing, they saw Li Zhongshan coming in angrily.
"See the General!"
Several people quickly saluted Li Zhongshan.
"Pingshen!" Li Zhongshan said, "Pei Gong, Xizhi, Tian Tianran, come upstairs with me!"
The study room where Li Zhongshan worked was on the second floor of Shengqi Building. Zhou Chang, Yao Qisheng, and He Tianran, who were named by him, didn't know what happened and hurriedly followed him upstairs.
When Li Zhongshan saw the three people coming in, he didn't tell them about Wu Xiaoji's matter - it was not a state matter, it was a private matter, and it was not convenient to tell them directly. Instead, he asked the three people: "How can we force Wu Sangui?"
"Forcing Wu Sangui?"
"General, what did Wu Sangui do?"
"Isn't it our priority to deal with Geng Jingzhong now?"
Facing the questions raised by the three people, Li Zhongshan said sternly: "Wu Sangui, an old thief, wants to help Kangxi defeat Fuquan. If he succeeds, the two of them will be true allies in the future!"
The so-called three alliances are actually very watery. The only real alliances are Geng Jingzhong and Jieshu - they have a common enemy and are both in danger. They sincerely stick together to keep warm.
Wu Sangui just wanted Geng Jingzhong and Jieshu to cause trouble for Li Zhongshan and Li Fuchen. At the same time, he could free his hands to deal with Li Zicheng, and then decide whether to go north then south or first south then north depending on the situation.
But at the moment, he was even willing to hand over Wu Xiaoxian to Li Zhongshan and let Wu Shifan sell the favor.
"Then we have to send troops!" Zhou Chang said, "If Old Thief Wu really helps, we can't do it without sending troops!"
Yao Qisheng said: "If we want to send troops, what should we do in Jiangnan?"
Zhou Chang suggested: "Then get closer!"
"Closer?" Li Zhongshan asked, "How close?"
"Don't go to North Zhili, it's too far and too time-consuming." Zhou Chang suggested, "Let's send troops from Huaibei, go west to capture Kaifeng of the Qing Dynasty, and then threaten Luoyang! Just attract Wu Sangui's army here If they compete with us for territory, then the drama of Wu Sangui aiding Kangxi will no longer go on!"
(End of chapter)
