Nanming Engineer

Chapter 314

Seeing Emperor Yongli opened his mouth, Li Chengdong and Qu Shixu groaned at each other, stepped back a few steps, and stood in the class of civil servants and generals respectively.

Everyone in the civil and military circles of the dynasty saw clearly that the two of them were arguing today, obviously about which direction to go for the Northern Expedition, but secretly, it was a dispute over the route. Li Chengdong was born as a bandit, but Jin Shengheng was promoted from Zuo Liangyu's tribe. The two met many times when Zuo Liangyu was suppressing bandits. At that time, they wanted to kill each other's opponents and had great resentment. Although they had surrendered to the Qing court one after another, they were enemies who had never been in contact with each other. Now Jin Shengheng was besieging him anyway. Ganzhou, Ganzhou's city was fortified, and he couldn't leave in a hurry. Li Chengdong was eager to kill Jin Shengheng as soon as the Qing reinforcements arrived. How could he rush to rescue him?

And Zheng Chenggong clashed with Li Chengdong's generals on the Guangdong-Fujian border. Li Chengdong, of course, couldn't swallow this breath. It was natural to use the excuse of the Northern Expedition to give Zheng Chenggong an excuse. Of course, he wanted to advocate marching into Fujian.

However, Qu Shixu’s proposition put aside personal grievances and the prejudice of being a bandit from the official army, and was dedicated to serving the public. He hoped that he could break the siege of Jin Shengheng by marching into Jiangxi. Jin Shengheng joined forces with a stronger army. When the time comes to attack Nanjing from Jiangxi and cut off the connection between Fujian, Zhejiang and the north, the Qing army in Fujian will be in a panic. Zheng Chenggong can recover the whole province by his own strength. They all fell into the hands of the Ming court, separated from the Qing soldiers across the river, so they have the capital to fight back to the north in the future.

Qu Shixu's claim is correct, and anyone with a discerning eye knows this.

However, Qu Shixu was too naive.

Of the more than 100 people standing in this hall, I am afraid that there will be no more than five of them who can be united with him. In the troubled times of the late Ming Dynasty, everyone cared about their own one-third of an acre of land. After the emperor died, it was easy to find him. Yes, but if one's own interests are damaged, that's not acceptable.

From the time the Tartars entered the pass, there were thousands of Ming generals who surrendered to the Qing court and acted as pawns in the south. These people were weak when they resisted the Qing army, and they had nothing to do except escape. Jin Shengheng and Li Chengdong were the leaders among them. When they attacked Jiangxi and Guangdong respectively, they almost It didn't take much effort from the Eight Banners soldiers, and he took down two provinces by himself. Among them, Li Chengdong killed Emperor Longwu and Emperor Shaowu in succession, and drove Emperor Yongli to flee like a rabbit.

In troubled times, fists are bigger. Although Qu Shisi has the support of Guangxi General Soldier Jiao Lian, compared with Li Chengdong, Guangxi soldiers are like the difference between mice and elephants, which is not worth mentioning.

Therefore, in the minds of all the ministers in the palace, although they had different thoughts and different ways of playing their small calculations, they all tended to Li Chengdong's side.

Although no one said this clearly, it can be clearly judged from the eyes and expressions of the people whispering that there is a large space around Qu Shixu, and everyone is afraid that if they stand beside him, they will offend Li Chengdong. .

Only two or three people including Zhu Tianlin and Huang Qiyu approached Qu Shixu instead of retreating, and stood together with him with straight backs and angry eyes.

Qu Shixu stood proudly with his head held high. Although there were very few people who responded, the arrogance of the literati in the late Ming Dynasty made him fearless. My heart is for the country, and I am open and selfless, so what should I be afraid of?

Emperor Yongli sat on a high golden dragon chair, with a panoramic view of everything below. Of course, he could also clearly see the performance of the ministers. He was a smart man, and he naturally understood Qu Shichu's painstaking efforts and Li Chengdong's selfish intentions. .

But so what?
Emperor Yongli closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out again, then slowly opened his eyes, and said kindly: "What the two lovers said is all for the sake of the court and society. Different paths lead to the same goal, fundamentally they are all for the great plan of restoring our rivers and mountains, so they are all good plans, and they are all the best strategies."

He comforted him a bit, then raised his chin, and shouted to the class of civil servants: "Where is Wang Aiqing of the Ministry of War?"

As he shouted, a second-rank official stepped out, stood respectfully in the middle of the hall, and replied loudly: "The humble minister is here!"

The person who agreed was none other than Wang Huacheng, Minister of War of the Yongli Dynasty.

Emperor Yongli said: "Did you hear clearly what Duke Hui Guo and Xuexian Qu just said?"

Wang Huacheng rolled his eyes, glanced at Qu Shixu and Li Guodong who were standing on both sides in front of him, then bowed and replied, "I heard you clearly."

Emperor Yongli looked at Qu Shixu and Li Chengdong again. Qu Shixu stood with his head held high, his face full of righteousness, and the stubbornness unique to the Donglin Party members could be seen through his expression. He looked at Yongli with hope.

Looking at Li Chengdong again, Duke Hui Guo had a dark face and was angry. He obviously did not expect that Qu Shichun would dare to confront him so bluntly. He was extremely disgusted with civil servants, whether he followed Li Zicheng as a bandit or joined the Qing court as a military official. As a pioneer in the southward march, his troops killed countless Ming Dynasty civil servants. Basically, when caught, they first extorted money, and then killed and silenced them, leaving no survivors alive.So at this moment, his eyes glanced at Qu Shiqi from time to time, filled with murderous intent.

It seemed that if Emperor Yongli hadn't been there, Li Chengdong would have attacked Qu Shixu on the spot.

With a smile on Yongli's face, he withdrew his gaze and said to Wang Huacheng: "Since they are all good strategies, then use them all. I have decided to make an immediate decree to divide the troops into two groups, one to the east and the other to the west, to build a big east-west The battalion, on the east side, with Qu Shoupu as the main general and Jiao Lian and other generals, marched to Jiangxi and joined forces with Jin Shengheng to attack Ganzhou; on the west side, with Hui Guogong as the main general, marched towards Fujian, first Attack the Zheng family and then attack Fuzhou. The two roads will advance side by side in no particular order. The chief general will judge the situation and plan before moving, with the goal of capturing Nanjing. The specific strategy will be drawn up by the Ministry of War. The two chief generals will report to me after they agree!"

Wang Huacheng's eyelids twitched, he bowed and said yes, the ministers below looked at each other, and their hearts suddenly became clear, the emperor is having a fight.

Qu Shisi is a civil servant who doesn't know anything about military affairs, so how can he be a general?Moreover, the Jiao Lian assigned to him only had 3 to [-] people, and it would be nice to have [-] fighters regardless of the empty pay. Isn't it a joke to ask him to take this few people to Ganzhou to fight to the death?
From this point of view, the East Road was just an expedient measure to save Qu Shixu's face, and it was just a matter of pretending. The real killing was still placed on Li Chengdong's side on the West Road.

After hearing Yongli's decree, Li Chengdong showed a bright expression. This decree was tantamount to indirectly agreeing with his idea. The army entered Fujian and fully accepted Li Chengdong's idea of ​​​​teaching Zheng Chenggong a lesson.

Qu Shixu's complexion turned pale, his lips trembled, his eyebrows frowned, his regret was beyond words, and even his body trembled. Zhu Tianlin and Huang Qiyu stretched out their hands to help him, but he pushed them away with his palm, gnashing their teeth. Sad and inexplicable.

"In addition, Wang Aiqing, immediately dispatched to lead the army to Kanhe, to envoy Qin Liangyu from Sichuan, Pingliang, and Wang Huan, the commander of Shanxi from Pingliangbochuan, to serve as the chief and deputy generals of Dingbei. He led the troops from the three provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Guizhou, left the Qinling Mountains in the east, and went to Henan, Shaanxi. Return to my country!" Wang Huacheng was about to return to the class of civil servants, but he heard Emperor Yongli speak again, and he said it firmly and resoundingly, it sounds like it should be decided after careful consideration.

Qu Shixu's eyes lit up, his body stopped shaking, he suddenly raised his head, and looked at Yongli who was seated, his face was full of surprise.

However, Li Chengdong narrowed his eyes and his eyes flickered. He obviously did not expect that Emperor Yongli would bring out such a foreshadowing after declaring his trust in him.

(End of this chapter)