Daming: Stealing Chen Yuanyuan at the beginning

Chapter 26 Defending the country is worse than fighting the country, why did your majesty rebel
As Dorgon led troops into the capital, the situation in the world changed.At present, it is mainly the struggle between the Qing Dynasty and Dashun, and the south has ushered in a short period of peace.

In order to make the situation more stable, Li Cunming deliberately wooed and paralyzed the warlord leaders entrenched in Jiangbei. Not long ago, he issued an imperial edict to promote Gao Jie and others.

This is not weakness, it is a political method and an imperial trick.

Gao Jie was named Xingping Bo, guarding Xuzhou and Sizhou; Liu Zeqing was named Dongping Bo, guarding Huai'an and Yangzhou; Liu Liangzuo was named Guangchang Bo, guarding Fengyang and Shouzhou; , and states.

These four people were stationed on the border north of the Yangtze River and were collectively called the Four Towns of Jiangbei.

At the same time, he granted Zuo Liangyu the Marquis of Ningnan, and ordered his father and son to guard Wuchang and control the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.Zuo Liangyu's army is called "Chu Town".

The warlords took advantage of the chaos in the world to recruit soldiers and horses, and their forces were strong.Among them, Zuo Liangyu is the most powerful, with 80 soldiers in his hands, known as a million.

Except for Huang Degong, who still had the imperial court at heart, all of these people were self-respecting and domineering, and even allowed his soldiers to rob the people. As the saying goes, "Thieves are like combs, soldiers are like grates."The common people hated them to the bone, and wished that the Dashun Army would come and wipe out this group of soldiers and bandits as soon as possible.

When the emperor went south, none of them came to greet him; when the emperor was stationed in Ningling, they did not come to worship;

This is the distribution of military forces in the south of the Yangtze River in the late Ming Dynasty, and it is also the most troublesome problem for Li Cunming.If it weren't for the existence of these warlords, would he be forced to be trapped in the small Ningling County?
If the warlords are not eliminated, half of the south of the Yangtze River will be unstable, let alone rectify and regain the rivers and mountains!
In the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty, many small courts were constrained by warlords at every turn, and the emperors were reduced to puppets.Wasn't Emperor Longwu, who was still ambitious, being manipulated by the heavily armed Zheng family?

Anyway, sooner or later these thorns in the flesh have to be removed, so why worry about what method to use, and why care about whether it is fair and aboveboard?

Yan Ermei's words reminded Li Cunming, and he immediately ordered: "Gong Yonggu, on behalf of me, go to reward Gao Jie's army, reward Gao Jie with 3000 taels of silver, and encourage him to fight the enemy bravely and conquer Kaifeng as soon as possible."

Gong Yonggu said with a smile: "Your Majesty will lead the decree! That's the best way. If Xu Dingguo wants to kill Gao Jie, let him kill him. These bastards have no good things. At that time, His Majesty added officials and titles to them, and the minister will not be the boss. I would rather, Your Majesty has wronged me too much, and instead fueled their arrogance..."

"Okay, I know you are loyal, and I understand that you can't see me making compromises. I promise you that one day, sooner or later, I will clean up the warlords one by one!" Li Cunming waved his hands, signaling Gong Yonggu to follow orders.

They also found Zhou Yuji, taught him the opportunity face to face, and ordered him to increase the city's defense force to prevent disturbances when Gao Jie's army crossed the border.At the same time, let the soldiers stand by and wait for something to happen in Suizhou, and immediately lead the soldiers to kill them.

After the arrangements were made, Li Cunming said with a smile: "Mr. Yan, let's just wait and see what happens. I'll prepare drinks, and have a good drink with you tonight!"

While drinking, the two talked about the situation in the world.

Seeing the emperor being so courteous and virtuous, Yan Ermei became more and more unrestrained, and gave Jiangshan advice: "The emperor was trapped in Ningling, because he was forced to do nothing. But in my opinion, it is a good thing."

"First of all, staying away from the Nanjing court, the emperor can avoid being caught in endless party struggles and concentrate on governing. Moreover, the emperor sits on the front line, so that the subjects of the world can see the emperor's fearlessness and stabilize people's hearts."

"Secondly, the Jianghuai area has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. If His Majesty wants to conquer the rivers and mountains and return to the capital one day, he must firmly control the Jianghuai area. Since ancient times, when the north and the south compete, the north often wins, and the south and the north rarely An example of success and unification of the world. The Eastern Jin Dynasty and Southern Song Dynasty shrank to the south of the Yangtze River because of the loss of the strategically important Jianghuai area."

"Finally, the area in the south of the Yangtze River is the richest. It is not comparable to the northern provinces occupied by Li Zicheng, let alone the slaves. Their hometown is a bitter cold frontier. Your Majesty can attack and retreat. It can also kill them!"

What Yan Ermei said, Li Cunming also thought of it, he explained it to the prince carefully the night before the prince went south to supervise the country.

"Sir, over the past few days, officials from various ministries in Nanjing have written letters one after another, proposing the strategy of 'Uniting the Qing Dynasty to suppress the bandits'. What do you think?"

Yan Ermei stood up abruptly, and said harshly: "Whoever came up with such a strategy that harms the country and the people, please the emperor kill this thief! These incompetent officials, if they really follow their plan, they will disappoint the emperor. What a painstaking effort!"

Li Cunming's heart skipped a beat: "Sir, please explain in detail."

"I analyzed a lot just now, and what I said was His Majesty's advantages. His Majesty's disadvantages are also obvious. To put it bluntly, among the three forces of Da Ming, robbers, and slaves, Da Ming's army is the weakest. The Ming army can't beat the rebels. The rebels can't defeat the Jiannu, and the Jiannu army is the strongest."

"This is like the period of the Three Kingdoms, when the Shu Kingdom was the weakest, the weaker Wu Kingdom should be united against the strongest Wei Kingdom. The Northern Song Dynasty united with the Jin to destroy the Liao Dynasty, and was finally destroyed by the Jin Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty united with the Mongols to destroy the Jin Dynasty. In the end, it was destroyed by Mongolia, isn't the lesson not profound enough?"

Li Cunming smiled, very happily.

A bosom friend, a bosom friend is hard to find!When you meet Yan Ermei, you have found a treasure!

From time to time, Li Cunming, who came across time, felt a deep sense of loneliness and isolation, because people around him often couldn't understand what he was thinking.

Especially when it comes to how to deal with the matter of building slaves into the Central Plains, he can see that the courtiers have great differences with him.

When he proposed that Jiannu was the biggest enemy of the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Yuji and others showed suspicion, not to mention those officials in Nanjing who could only sit and talk.

Unexpectedly, Yan Ermei saw such far-reaching insights, and Li Cunming couldn't help feeling that the wisdom of the ancients should not be underestimated.

I am a person of later generations who traveled to the end of Ming Dynasty and had an advantage in knowledge, but Yan Ermei is a person of this era. It is really commendable that he can make such an analysis and judgment!

"Your Majesty, I have one more thing to say, it is better to conquer the country than to defend the country. I hope that your Majesty will not regard himself as a monarch who maintains success, but as an entrepreneurial leader. Only in this way can he throw away his baggage and move forward bravely!" Yan Ermei said earnestly.

Li Cunming poured wine for him himself, and said: "The long talk tonight is the Longzhong confrontation between me and my husband, and it is destined to be recorded in history. Liu Bei worshiped Zhuge Liang as his military advisor back then, and I don't have the position of military advisor in Ming Dynasty, but Mr. is my Zhuge Liang. From now on, you will be my military advisor!"

"Come, military commander, I will drink this cup with you!"

……

Five days later, news of the Suizhou Incident came back.

Gao Jie was still trapped and killed by Xu Dingguo. At that time, Gao Jie led the army outside the city of Suizhou, and Xu Dingguo invited him into the city for a drink.Regardless of the dissuasion of his subordinates, Gao Jie swaggered into the city with only a few followers.

In Yuan Shangshu's house, we had a drink of flower wine.Just as Gao Jie was riding on the bed with a woman with fireworks in his arms, Xu Dingguo broke in with someone and stabbed him to death. The woman with fireworks was also stabbed with a hole.

Gao Jie's army stationed outside the city became chaotic.The soldiers lost their backbone, retreated without a fight, and were rushing back to Xuzhou one after another.

As soon as he got the news, Zhou Yuji mobilized all the soldiers and horses in Ningling City and marched towards Suizhou in a mighty manner.Li Cunming also marched in person, and joined forces with Yan Ermei.

Jiang Dejing didn't know about this in advance, and ran over in a panic after learning about it, stopped Li Cunming at the city gate and asked, "Your Majesty, what are you going to do?"

Gong Yonggu smiled and rushed to answer for Li Cunming: "Go and attack Suizhou City! There will be a lot of excitement, Jiang Shangshu, do you want to go together?"

"No, Your Majesty, this matter must never be done!" Jiang Dejing held the reins tightly, persuading him, "If you don't keep secrets, you will lose your ministers, and if your ministers don't keep secrets, you will lose your body. Your Majesty's words and deeds are related to the country and the country. The hearts of the people in the world must be cautious in words and deeds. Suizhou is the city of Ming Dynasty, how can a king attack his own city?"

Li Cunming thought of a joke on the Internet and chuckled: "Jiang Shangshu, just tell me why your Majesty rebelled."

Then he said solemnly: "Xu Dingguo killed Gao Jie, and I went to avenge Gao Jie. It makes sense both emotionally and rationally. And let me tell you clearly, even if my teacher is unknown, this battle is settled!"

"I want to rebel, against corrupt officials, against local tyrants and evil gentry, against big officials and merchants, against warlords!"

(End of this chapter)