Nanming Engineer

Chapter 323 Meng Qiaofang's Reinforcements
Meng Qiaofang, governor of Shaanxi Province in the Qing court, has suffered from insomnia for many days. She has dark circles under her eyes all day long and wanders around the city of Xi'an like a ghost. He flew into a rage, and at the least, he was scolded and whipped, and at the worst, he was pulled down and beheaded.

The people who followed him were all trembling, for fear of offending this master and causing a catastrophe.

In fact, Meng Qiaofang was feeling miserable. The thought of her murder had been lingering in his mind for a long time.

From the beginning of the Shanxi incident, Meng Qiaofang was acutely aware that the world was in chaos, and it might be difficult for her own Shaanxi to survive alone.

Sure enough, within ten days of Jiang Yu's death, Wang Yongqiang, a native of Wubao County in northern Shaanxi, rebelled. This man was a general of the Yan'an Camp of the Qing Dynasty and had many fierce soldiers.After the coup, Wang Zhengzhi, the governor of Yansui, and Shen Wenhua, the commander-in-chief of Yansui, hurriedly sent him to the Shenmu area to set up defenses to prevent Shanxi soldiers and horses from entering.

Unexpectedly, Wang Yongqiang rebelled when he led his troops out. He killed a carbine that day, occupied Yulin and killed Wang and Shen. The magistrate Song Congxin was beheaded, his braids were cut off, and his clothes were changed into clothes, and he declared that he was in any way.

Almost at the same time, Gao Youcai, a powerful man in Shenmu County, gathered thousands of people to revolt in the local area. In response to Wang Yongqiang, he killed the local magistrate and rebelled.He got in touch with Wang Yongqiang and joined forces with great momentum. Within ten days, he took over the nineteen prefectures in northern Shaanxi, appointed officials, contacted Nanming, and fought against the Qing army in Xi'an.

In Meng Qiaofang's hands, there are only more than 2 men who followed her when she surrendered to the Qing court. In the past few years, they have been conquered and lost a lot. It is necessary to divide the troops to attack northern Shaanxi, but the troops are stretched and unable to deal with it.

The generals sent to conquer northern Shaanxi were either dragged under the fortified city and could not conquer it, or they were ambushed and beaten to disgrace. The chaos did not ease, but intensified. , Xianyang is approaching, and his city has been threatened. How can he not be upset and anxious?
On this day, Meng Qiaofang took Huang Erxing, the governor of Shaanxi, to wander around the city of Xi'an again, urging the conscripted people to strengthen the city, with eyes wider than a bull's, he kept yelling at the supervisors for using snacks and killing them Slap the folks to speed up.

Huang Erxing was originally the chief envoy of Shaanxi in the Ming Dynasty, a Jinshi of the Wanli Dynasty, and a civil servant. Seeing Meng Qiaofang almost lost his position, he hurriedly said: "My lord, don't panic, Xi'an City is as solid as gold. The province of Shaanxi can be kept. The imperial court has sent a large army to conquer the rebels in Shanxi. It is expected that they will be quelled soon. The local bandits in the north are just taking advantage of the chaos in Shanxi. As long as Shanxi is determined, the local bandits will go by themselves. "

Meng Qiaofang glared at him and shouted, "Don't panic? Master Huang, you can think about it, but how can the governor not panic? Now we are caught between the rebels, blocked at both ends, and reinforcements are nowhere in sight. We can rely on the troops at hand. How to retreat from the enemy? The Jiang bandits in Shanxi are vicious, and under careful planning, if the imperial army wants to calm down, it will take a year and a half to eradicate it. Can you and I persist until then?"

He shook his head, sighed and said, "Difficult! Difficult! Difficult!"

Infected by him, Huang Erxing became timid, but when he saw the carts coming in from outside the city gate one after another, he regained some courage, and said to Meng Qiaofang: "My lord, even though that's the case, but you An order has been issued to send all the food from the treasuries of nearby prefectures and counties to the city of Xi’an. The food and grass in the city are enough to last for several years. As long as there is enough food and the army and soldiers are united, there should be no problem in persevering.”

Meng Qiaofang sighed sadly: "This is the only way out now."

The two of them were sighing, but they heard a soldier running up to the city, shouting loudly, with an anxious tone, yelling "My lord, there is an urgent report!"

Meng Qiaofang's face suddenly became tense, her heart was startled and flustered, she stared at the direction where the soldiers were running towards and closed her lips tightly, fearing that it might be bad news.

In the past two days, all the urgent reports came, such as a county in northern Shaanxi fell again, and a general in a certain place defected to the enemy again. There was no good news, which caused him a psychological shadow. Hearing the messenger's voice, my heart beat like a heart attack.

Huang Erxing was calm, and yelled at the soldier: "Why are you panicking? Didn't you see that the governor and I are patrolling the city? What's the point of panicking?!"

But the soldier seemed to have turned a deaf ear, and hurried to the two of them, knelt down on one knee and shouted loudly: "My lord, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, Angbang Zhang Jinghamu, and Pingxi King Wu Sangui, are ordered by the court to lead the Manchu and Han 5000 coalition troops rushed to aid Shaanxi, and now the army has passed through Hua County, and will arrive at the city of Xi'an in a few days."

When Meng Qiaofang and Huang Erxing heard this, they stood still for the first time, and then jumped up suddenly after a while. The two of them laughed ecstatically like dew in a dry well, and good trees in a house.

"Hahahaha! The sky never stops me! The imperial court has not forgotten me, Shaanxi. The heavenly soldiers are here, so I have nothing to fear!" Meng Qiaofang was almost going crazy. The pressure of the past few days had squeezed him to the limit. Hearing that the reinforcements had arrived, The pressure was gone, and the sudden good news relaxed his nerves, and he lost his composure with joy.

Huang Erxing was also very excited, and congratulated Meng Qiaofang: "Congratulations, my lord, I was worried about the reinforcements just now, and the reinforcements are here now, so it can be seen that God's will is so, the blessings of your lord are boundless!"

Meng Qiaofang smiled and stopped supervising the work. She trotted down the city to greet her subordinate officials and hurriedly prepare for military service.

Two days later, outside the east gate of Xi'an City, Meng Qiaofang led a group of Shaanxi bureaucrats, waiting in the Ten Mile Pavilion to look forward to it. Loads of fine wine are hung in red and green, and placed in conspicuous places on both sides of the road. There is even a band holding suona horns, waiting among the crowd.

Apparently, Meng Qiaofang worked hard to welcome Hahamu, Wu Sangui and others.

The sun was shining high in the sky, and it was extremely poisonous.The people outside the booth were sweating profusely. Those with high official positions held umbrellas, while those with low official positions, or those who were not officials, had to dry out in the sun.

However, everyone was very excited, with cheerful smiles on their faces. After all, the reinforcements who came were the saviors, and the crisis situation in Shaanxi was counted on them.

"Here we come!" Someone shouted in surprise, and everyone looked intently, and sure enough, they saw a large puff of smoke flying up at the end of the official road in the distance. Judging by the height of the smoke column, at least tens of thousands of people were walking.

Meng Qiaofang hurriedly turned around and shouted: "Hurry, hurry, hurry! All my lords, follow me out and greet them on the official road."

The crowd went out with him and merged with the people outside. As soon as they stood still, they saw several galloping horses coming, holding a huge recognition flag in their hands, and a small yellow flag on their backs. The words "Angbang Zhangjing" and "Pingxi Wangwu" are particularly eye-catching.

Immediately after, a large group of cavalry galloped forward, with clanging iron armor, flying flags, rumbling hooves, and neighing bursts of horses, which immediately crowded the wide official road and raised sand particles like a sandstorm.

The flying smoke and dust captivated the eyes of Meng Qiaofang and the others. He had to squint his eyes and wipe the corners of his eyes with his sleeve to cover the sand and dust. When he peeped out through the corner of his clothes, he found the army in the crowd. , two generals with helmets and armors came hand in hand.

He was born with a head as big as a bucket, a face as big as a silver basin, a flat nose, a big mouth, but very small eyes. He had a beard that reached to his chest. He was stout and powerful. He wore a chainmail coat wrapped in a silk brocade robe and a helmet on top. The cherry gun is flying high like a lightning rod.

The other man has a fair face and beardless, handsome appearance, high nose bridge and big ears, a pair of eyes shining like stars, not tall but extremely thick, wearing a purple brocade robe and a hat commonly used by the Ming army. Much more pleasing to the eye than the person next to him.

When Meng Qiaofang saw the faces of the two, she immediately recognized that No.1 was Hahamu, and the second was Wu Sangui.

Hahamu and Wu Sangui also saw Meng Qiaofang, and immediately jumped off their horses. When the three of them met, they naturally greeted each other with a few words of "Long time admiration", then introduced some leading figures in Shaanxi, and finally got on horseback and entered the city together.

Crossing the streets and alleys, the Manchu and Han troops were led to camp in the shade to rest, while Meng Qiaofang led Hahamu and Wu Sangui straight into the governor's office in the city.

In the lobby of the yamen, sour plum soup has been prepared to relieve summer heat. More than a dozen ice cubes dug from the cellar are packed in wooden boxes wrapped in quilts and placed in four corners of the lobby. The lobby became extremely cool, as if it were two worlds away from the bubbling heat outside.

Several people entered the hall and took their seats as guests and hosts.Hahamu is a rough man, as soon as he entered the door, he hurriedly took off his stuffy helmet, took off his brocade robe, raised his head and poured a mouthful of sour plum soup, just now he smacked his mouth, lay down on a chair, opened his mouth and said with a big smile : "Master Meng really knows how to enjoy it. In this hot day, there is such a way to cool down."

Meng Qiaofang smiled wryly and said, "Your Majesty Ha doesn't know something, I'm just taking pleasure in suffering to relieve my worries."

He clasped his hands to Hahamu and said: "Now Shaanxi is in dire straits, with enemies on all sides. The soldiers and civilians are worried. The officials are unwilling to eat every day and cannot sleep at night. They are afraid that they will lose the grace of the emperor and the regent and lose Shaanxi. In this way, Meng will die. Can't hold the blame!"

Haha Mu said: "Master Meng, why did you say that? There are only a few thieves jumping on the bridge in Shaanxi, as long as our army sweeps over, it will be wiped out."

Meng Qiaofang was taken aback for a moment, then forced a smile and said, "Your Majesty Ha is brave and invincible, I bow down to you!"

Haha Mu grinned again, and said: "Master Meng misunderstood, the general Pingxi appointed by the court to suppress the rebellion this time is Lord Wu, King of Pingxi, and I am just a minister to supervise the army. How to march is up to Lord Wu to deal with things. It's up to you."

"Oh?" Meng Qiaofang and Huang Erxing, who was accompanying her, were startled, and unconsciously looked at Wu Sangui who was sitting under the haha ​​tree.

Wu Sangui bowed slightly, expressing his response.

Hahamu said again: "This time to suppress the rebellion, the imperial court sent me to lead [-] elite soldiers of the Eight Banners Army stationed in Hebei, and [-] soldiers from Liaodong under King Pingxi's command to wipe out Henan and Shaanxi thieves. for some time."

Only then did Meng Qiaofang and Huang Erxing feel relieved. It turned out that the reinforcements came all the way from Henan to suppress the rebellion. Compared with Shaanxi, the chaos in Henan was even worse. Several big cities were taken down by the rebels. Hahamu and Wu Sangui must have spent a lot Strength, it is not surprising that it is late.

Wu Sangui bowed his hands to Hahamu, and said with a smile: "Master Ha is too modest, and the regent will explain it before he leaves. Lord Ha is the Minister of Supervising the Army, and he has the duty to report the merits and demerits to the court. Wu is just a pawn who leads the army to fight. , Master Ha is still in charge of everything.”

Hahamu smiled all over his face, obviously enjoying Wu Sangui's respect, so he slapped his thigh and said to Meng Qiaofang: "Let's not delay, Mr. Meng, tell me, what's the situation in Shaanxi right now?"

(End of this chapter)