Phoenix Castle is more than 400 miles away from Shengjing, but it is only more than 100 miles away from Zhenjiang Fort on the Yalu River. Huang Taiji's plan was to have Geng Zhongming pretend to be an internal collaborator and lure Lu Xiangsheng and his Dongjiang Army here. When the time comes, if Huang Taiji makes other arrangements, Lu Xiangsheng will not be able to get back.
Another advantage of choosing this location is that even if Lu Xiangsheng wanted to escape, he would not escape so quickly; and this place is far from the coast, even further from the Guanning area; once a war breaks out here, even if Lu Xiangsheng resists to the death, It is impossible to wait for the arrival of reinforcements.
After discussing for a while, Huang Taiji started acting again. The other bosses of Phoenix Castle were also passed on, and they were scolded in full. It was just a nitpick anyway. This shouldn't be too easy. After scolding him, he also took away the title of King Huaishun from Geng Zhongming, and then left angrily.
Regarding this situation, everyone was a little aggrieved for Geng Zhongming, especially his close men, who even shouted to Geng Zhongming, saying that Huang Taiji was suspicious because they were all surrendered by the Han people. . I took away the prince's title today, and I might send someone to get him tomorrow.
On the contrary, Geng Zhongming's son Geng Jimao said to Geng Zhongming in a complaining tone: "Father, the children have said it, why did you take in those escapees? And you also gave them food. Look around, we are here in Phoenix Castle. Those dog slaves are the best. Father..."
Geng Zhongming frowned when he heard this, and immediately reprimanded: "I don't need you to teach me how to do things!"
He was a Han from Liaodong, but he refused to be oppressed by officials in Liaodong during the Ming Dynasty. Very early on, he defected to Nurhachi to rebel against the Ming Dynasty and became the Qianzong. But then he discovered that Nurhachi did not regard the Han people as human beings and killed them at every turn. This allowed him to see through what kind of goods Jianlu was, and finally led the people of Liaodong to defect to Mao Wenlong. He was also brave and good at fighting under Mao Wenlong. He was promoted to a general with meritorious deeds, and even took charge of the property of the Dongjiang Army. This shows that his ability earned Mao Wenlong's great trust.
For him, he sympathized with the Han people in Liaodong, so even after he surrendered to the Jiannu, he would provide some care to the Han slaves within his ability.
In the original history, Geng Zhongming was a fugitive who was hiding in hiding. If someone reported him, he would be beheaded according to the law. Therefore, he finally chose to commit suicide.
But obviously, his son did not have his experience, so his attitude towards Han slaves was naturally different.
What's more, now it seems to Geng Jimao that his father's title has been taken away, so that the possibility of him taking over the throne is gone. Of course, he is angry.
At this time, Geng Jimao was reprimanded. Instead of admitting his mistake and shutting up, he straightened his neck and said: "The emperor was very kind to us. When we were desperate, he didn't care about the fact that we had fought against the Qing Dynasty, and still treated him as king. Such kindness, Father, you have to do a good job in treating those servants. I'm sorry, Your Majesty. If you want to tell me, just use it to death. If you die, you will die. Just catch it later. Father King, why don’t you write a memorial to the emperor quickly, saying that your father is wrong..."
His words made Geng Zhongming so angry that he raised his hand and wanted to slap him.
But at this moment, he stared at his son and saw that his son was still holding his neck straight, with a look on his face that said, "I'm right, I'm right." Suddenly, he suddenly realized.
Why did Huang Taiji choose himself to do this? Why did Huang Taiji feel that he would not betray the Qing Dynasty?
It was because his son was truly loyal to the Qing Dynasty, which reassured Huang Taiji.
In the original history, it is indeed proved that this Geng Jimao, unlike his father, was truly loyal to the Manchus just like the monk Kexi.
He and Shang Kexi captured Guangzhou, and then launched a massacre in Guangzhou that lasted for twelve days. All men, women, and children were killed. The death toll was counted to 700,000 according to the monk who collected the corpses.
Later, he made great contributions to the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the southern and northern wars, and helped the Manchu Qing Dynasty eliminate the Southern Ming Dynasty.
At this time, Geng Zhongming figured this out and couldn't stand the slap anymore. He immediately darkened his face and asked the others to leave. Then he took out the secret order given by Huang Taiji and said, "See for yourself!"
Geng Jimao didn't know what he meant. He immediately took the secret decree and saw it. He couldn't help but be overjoyed. Not only was the king not taken away, he even promised that after the matter was completed, the throne would be hereditary and irreplaceable. Doesn't that mean that he, Geng Jimao, will definitely be able to become the prince after his father dies!
Thinking like this, he became excited and immediately knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly in the direction of Shengjing.
Geng Zhongming had mixed feelings when he saw his son's behavior. In the end, he just looked at his son blankly and said nothing.
After Geng Jimao kowtowed devoutly, he stood up and said to Geng Zhongming with a smile on his face: "The child has wrongly blamed the father. The father wants to beat or scold him, but the child admits it!"
After hearing this, Geng Zhongming sighed in his heart, but instead of scolding him, he sat down to drink tea and rest. He was a little tired.
When Geng Jimao saw him, he immediately stepped forward, rubbed his father's back and poured him tea. He was extremely attentive. At the same time, he also said to Geng Zhongming: "Father, you must think carefully about how to complete the matter assigned by the emperor..."
I don’t know why, Geng Zhongming couldn’t stand listening anymore. He stood up a little irritably and said impatiently to his son: “This matter must be kept secret. As for the matters explained in the decree, the emperor has already taken care of it. Just pretend that you don’t know.” .”
"Ah, it turns out that the emperor has already made an explanation. It must be the best." Geng Jimao was overjoyed when he heard this. He immediately praised it and stopped talking.
Geng Zhongming put away the secret order, walked out of the room, looked up at the sky, and thought to himself: It's a pity that Kong Youde is not around at this time, otherwise, he is the only brother he can say anything to!
Soon, the atmosphere at Phoenix Castle became subtle because of Huang Taiji's visit.
Those Jurchen tribesmen in Jianzhou openly expressed their dissatisfaction with the Han people's surrender of generals, dared to accuse, and were no longer afraid of Geng Zhongming. After all, even the king's title was taken away. They must have lost their Sacred Heart, so what are they afraid of!
Geng Zhongming also felt unfair about the injustice he suffered. Finally, one of Geng Zhongming's personal guards followed Geng Zhongming's military order and secretly went to find the Ming army.
…………
Although Emperor Chongzhen, who was far away in the capital, had an eavesdropping system in hand, the eavesdropping seeds were not given to Huang Taiji after all. Therefore, he naturally knew nothing about what Huang Taiji was doing secretly.
He just gathered information from the eavesdropping seeds on several people and inferred that Huang Taiji was inspecting places in Liaodong, supervising armaments, and replacing troops stationed in various places.
Emperor Chongzhen did not pay special attention to this. Anyway, Huang Taiji could do whatever he liked, as long as he was not plotting against the Ming Dynasty.
As for the fact that Huang Taiji killed all North Korean monarchs and ministers, Emperor Chongzhen naturally knew about it immediately. He was not sad about the death of North Korea's monarchs and ministers. Today, North Korea has no master.
But Dongjiang Town is there after all. Judging from the feedback from Lu Xiangsheng's eavesdropping seeds, most Koreans have defected to the Dongjiang Army. Today, Pidao has completely become a training base for Korean Dongjiang Army officers.
Of course, not all Koreans wanted to defect to the Ming Dynasty. There were also some people who established their own political power in Korea and attacked each other. Because of the lessons learned from the Korean monarchs and ministers, most of these people did not defect to the Ming Dynasty, nor did they defect to the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Their inner plan is to expand their own power first, and they will stay on the sidelines of the war between Ming and Qing Dynasties. They must pay attention to whoever overwhelms whomever, and whoever they overwhelm will be embraced!
In this regard, Lu Xiangsheng ignored them. His energy was mainly focused on dealing with the Liaodong Jianlu. It’s not too late to deal with these small fish and shrimps in North Korea. Of course, another reason is that Lu Xiangsheng didn't know how to best deal with the current situation in North Korea, so he wrote a memorial, which is now on its way to the capital.
The kings and ministers of Korea, including the Li family, were all taken away by Jianlu. If this were not the case, there is a high probability that the Ming Dynasty would support someone from the Li family to serve as the new leader of North Korea. However, that is no longer the case now. Regarding the ownerless land of Korea, Lu Xiangsheng suggested in his memorial that it could be called the Ming Dynasty Korea Province, and that people from Shandong should be relocated to enrich Korea.
However, for Lu Xiangsheng, this approach is still a bit scrupulous. After all, this is the land of the Ming Dynasty, and it seems a bit unreasonable to be occupied by the Ming Dynasty. But in terms of practical benefits, this is the best thing to do.
Emperor Chongzhen did not have the scruples that Lu Xiangsheng did about this. The monarchs and ministers of North Korea were all killed. Even if someone in North Korea continued to pretend to be Li's people and cause trouble, how many people would recognize Li? If you want to save face, just create a Wanmin book for Korean people. I don’t believe it. Between the Ming Dynasty and the original Li family of Korea, who will the Korean people choose? The noisy Korean courtiers are all gone anyway.
Thinking about these things, time flies by quickly, and in the blink of an eye it is the eighth day of August in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen. Whether it’s here in Daming or in Liaodong, the weather is a bit hot.
On Guanglu Island, in Lu Xiangsheng's newly established governor's office, he was looking at the map of Liaodong, frowning slightly, obviously something was not going well.
On the table next to it, there are several stacks of papers stacked up.
Lu Xiangsheng looked at the map, then flipped through the stacks of paper, and then used a brush to mark the map.
After a while, he sat back in his seat, rubbed his head, and said to himself: "It has been more than a year since the Battle of Pyongyang. Although the Emperor did not urge him, the Dongjiang Army cannot remain idle forever. When will Don’t even do it!”
The reason for this is the lack of news about Liaodong. Han people everywhere were fleeing, and he got some news. However, these news are not reliable. Today, one said that the Jianlu army in Gaizhou only had 5,000 people. Tomorrow, the other said that the Jianlu army in Gaizhou had withdrawn to Haizhou. As a result, someone else immediately said that the Jianlu army had entered Gaizhou. . For news like this, Lu Xiangsheng could not confirm how many troops there were in Gaizhou and how many troops there were in the surrounding area.
A few months ago, he tried to contact Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming to see if these two former generals who surrendered to the Ming Dynasty could change their minds, the military information obtained from them would definitely be much more reliable.
I just didn't expect that the people here had just been sent out. Whether it was Kong Youde or Geng Zhongming, they had all been transferred away and they had not been contacted at all.
"The Imperial Guard's spies on the Emperor's side, do you know if there is any latest military information?" Lu Xiangsheng thought to himself, then stood up, strode out of the lobby, and headed to a wing in the front yard.
It's very quiet here, but once you get closer, you can hear the "coo" of pigeons. Yes, this is the place sent by the imperial court to train homing pigeons.
Seeing Lu Xiangsheng coming over, the man who was training carrier pigeons, named Chen Er, immediately stood up to greet him.
Lu Xiangsheng has been here more than once. Chen Er naturally knew why he came here this time. Therefore, without waiting for Lu Xiangsheng to speak, he immediately reported: "My Lord Governor, it's almost time. These two homing pigeons may be able to Put it to use. As long as you send someone to take it to Tianjin and let it fly, there is a high possibility that it can fly back here."
Upon hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng couldn't help but be overjoyed. He went over to take a look at the two homing pigeons that Chen Er mentioned. Although he opened his eyes wide, he still couldn't see anything special in the end, but he was happy. After admiring it for a while, he said: "Well done, then send these two homing pigeons to Tianjin as soon as possible."
After finishing speaking, he immediately returned. Taking advantage of this opportunity, he wrote another memorial, just to ask Emperor Chongzhen if he had the latest military information about the Liaodong Jianlu.
This time, he even personally watched the two homing pigeons being brought to the dock and sent to the country by speedboat.
Chen Er, who was accompanying him, saw that Lu Xiangsheng attached so much importance to him, so he smiled and said, "Don't worry, Lord Governor, as long as you give me some more time, there will only be more and more homing pigeons that can be used later."
When Lu Xiangsheng heard this, he turned around and praised him. If carrier pigeon communication is really available, communication will be very convenient, and the unfavorable situation of the Dongjiang Army facing each other across the sea will be greatly improved.
Of course, Lu Xiangsheng has not been idle all the time. He has been sent to the Liaodong Peninsula every night. At this time, he is looking at the direction of Liaodong and is already thinking about whether to send the cavalry out to see what he wants. If we don't attack the city, I believe that Jianlu will not be able to retain the cavalry, and it will also increase Jianlu's tension. It is better to take a look at Jianlu's reaction than to do nothing all the time!
With this in mind, he immediately summoned Li Dingguo to discuss the military situation.
However, he did not expect that before he could talk to Li Dingguo, the sent Ye Bushou suddenly reported: "Your Majesty Governor, Geng Zhongming of Liaodong has sent a messenger and wants to see you."
When Lu Xiangsheng heard this, he couldn't help but be overjoyed and asked quickly: "Where is he? Come and see me quickly!"
Geng Zhongming took the initiative to send someone here. It goes without saying what the purpose was!
