Dashun Yongchang

Chapter 597 The Battle of Shandong III

Chen Liangcai, the promotion official of Dengzhou Prefecture, returned to his house in the south of the city after finishing his official duties for a day. As soon as he entered the door, he saw his wife winking at him. gone.

Before entering the Xiaokua courtyard, Chen Liangcai seemed to remember something again, stopped and said to the servant behind him: "Master, you are guarding outside, and no one else is allowed to enter or exit."

After the servant agreed, he pushed open the courtyard door and walked in. He walked through the small courtyard and lifted the cotton curtain. At a glance, he saw a young man wearing a squirrel fur coat sitting on his chair watching write a book.

Chen Liangcai was furious and lowered his voice and scolded: "Qin Shangxing, what kind of place do you think this is, and you run to me every three days, are you afraid that the court will not know that I am a thief?"

Qin Shangxing put down the book in his hand, looked at Chen Liangcai and said with a smile: "Brother Chen is joking, I am the magistrate of Dengzhou appointed by the imperial court, how could I be a thief?"

Chen Liangcai laughed anxiously: "If you are the magistrate of Dengzhou, why don't you sit in the lobby of the government office and come to my house for what? Do you know that Governor Zhu has been asking for the inspection of people entering and leaving the city for the past two days? Check, don't let spies sneak into the city, you'd better get out of the city quickly, don't want to harm others or yourself."

Qin Shangxing shook his head and said sternly: "Brother Chen is addicted to being a fake official? I can sit here, which means that no one in the city is catching spies. When is this? Don't find a way out for yourself. Do you really want to follow Zhu Guozhu, a traitor, and be buried with the Manchus? I came here to rescue Brother Chen, so don’t be ignorant of good people.”

Chen Liangcai panted and sat opposite Qin Shangxing, bowed his hands to him and said, "How many times have you recovered Dengzhou? Every time the Qing army came, you left Dengzhou and ran away. The only people who were harmed were those in the city. civilians. Let me beg you, can you make less fuss and let the people of Dengzhou have a happy new year?"

A trace of displeasure flashed across Qin Shangxing's face, and he immediately retorted: "How can the Qing army be blamed for harming the people? Could it be that if we don't come, the Qing army won't harm the people? As for that traitor Hai Shixing, When he robbed Dengzhou houses and women, did he also rob them under our banner?"

Chen Liangcai became embarrassed now, and came over to defend himself after a few breaths: "I didn't mean that, I just really don't want to see the common people suffer. How is the city of Dengzhou dilapidated? I think you are too As you can see, the population of the whole city is less than half of the people in the Tianqi era, and I feel really uncomfortable when I see it."

Qin Shangxing's tone eased a little and said: "Therefore, it is even more necessary to drive these beasts out of China. If they are not driven away, the Chinese people are nothing but lambs in their eyes. If you want to eat them, you can eat them." Well, you can eat whenever you want. You can’t think that the owner loves you just because the owner gave you a few bundles of grass. In fact, they want to wait to fatten you up and eat meat.”

Chen Liangcai remained silent. He also knew that what the other party said was good, but China is so big and has such a large population. live on.It's better than angering the Manchus and causing a fire, after all, the Manchus really dare to kill people.

Qin Shangxing saw that Chen Liangcai had changed his way of resistance, so he changed the subject and said, "You don't have to be too anxious, this time the imperial court really sent out a large army, and I ventured into the city this time to peacefully capture Dengzhou City Come, after this battle is over, Dengzhou will not be surrendered to the Qing army in the future."

Hearing this, Chen Liangcai finally changed his expression. He quickly stood up and asked according to the wooden case between the two: "What you said is true? Yangzhou really sent a large army? This time, Dengzhou will not leave gone?"

Seeing the eagerness of the other party, Qin Shangxing nodded and said: "Why, are you still afraid that I will deceive you? If you read the official documents, you should know. If the imperial court did not send a large army, how could the militia groups in Dengzhou Such a concerted effort?"

Chen Liangcai suddenly realized: "No wonder the two adults, Futai and Zhifu, hesitated to tell the truth, and didn't show the official documents. It turns out that the fall of Dengzhou City is true."

After hearing the news, Chen Liangcai's original resentment disappeared immediately, and he began to think about the impact of this battle instead.No matter how he calculated, he found that Manchu really had no strength to come back this time.

At this time, Qin Shangxing asked again: "How is it? Brother Chen, would you like to work together? If you join us, the experience of being a pseudo-job these years can be written off."

Chen Liangcai has been informing Qin Shangxing for the past few years, not for this reason.Since the Qingzhou Incident, Chen Jin and other officials outside the pass were killed, the officials in Shandong felt that the prospect of the Manchus seizing the world was cast a shadow. Having gained a firm foothold between the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, it further deepened their impression that the Manchus would eventually be defeated.

Precisely because they felt that the Manchus might not be able to win, the officials in Shandong gave a high hand to the anti-Qing armed forces in their hometown, so as to avoid being settled by Qiuhou in the future.For those local tyrants in the countryside, they should be suppressed whenever possible to maintain local law and order.

Now this day has finally come, Chen Liangcai was rejoicing, but also a little sad, the counterattack was too fast, he finally got used to the official rules of the Qing Dynasty, and now he has to adapt to the official rules of Dashun again. It's time to start all over again.

But on the surface, he still seemed very excited, and responded positively to Qin Shangxing: "Go, how can you not do the matter of recovering the rivers and mountains. It's just what do you want to do?"

Qin Shangxing did not reply immediately, but instead asked Chen Liangcai: "How is the defense arrangement in the city now? What is everyone's reaction to this war?"

Chen Liangcai said: "During the meeting today, the governor and the magistrate kept saying that the local bandits are coming aggressively this time, but there are no soldiers from the south. Those local bandits are just bluffing, so don't be too nervous.

The chief soldier Hai Shixing said: Laizhou reinforcements will definitely arrive within ten days, so we only need to stick to the four gates and wait for the reinforcements to arrive to be safe.After hearing this, everyone didn't have any other ideas. Now it seems that they are trying to deceive us all. "

Qin Shangxing then asked: "Then who will guard the four gates of the prefecture, is it decided?"

Chen Liangcai said: "The magistrate guards the north gate, Hai Zongbing guards the south gate, the magistrate guards the west gate, and I guard the east gate. The rest of the gentry are assigned to the four gates to assist in the defense, and Lord Futai is in the middle to command."

Qin Shangxing asked again: "Can you control the gatekeepers of the east gate? Can you arrange a few people to go in?"

Chen Liangcai pondered for a moment and then said: "I will try my best..."

On December 12, Yang Weijun rushed from Zhaoyuan Mountain to the foot of Dengzhou City. The general soldiers of Dengzhou did not dare to fight at sea, so Dengzhou City closed its four gates and guarded it.Yang Wei sent people under the city to shout to the city to surrender; at the same time, he made siege equipment with great fanfare at the south gate and west gate.

Just when the attention in the city was attracted by Yang Weijun, on the morning of December 12, a fleet appeared at the Dongmen Wharf of Dengzhou. Looking at the troops of the Shun Army who had landed ashore, Chen Liangcai, who was stationed at the East Gate, summoned the Dongmen The guard announced that he was going anyway, and asked if everyone followed.Some gentry objected, but they were immediately dragged out and hacked by the soldiers around Chen Liangcai, so everyone kept silent.

Chen Liangcai then ordered a piece of white cloth to be distributed to everyone and tied it on their left hands as a sign of participating in the uprising, and then opened the gate.With the leadership of Chen Liangcai and Qin Shangxing, after entering the city, the Shun army rushed directly to the governor's office in the west of the city, cutting off the command center of Dengzhou City.

Zhu Guozhu, the right deputy Du Yushi of the Metropolitan Procuratorate appointed by the Qing Dynasty, and the imperial envoy and governor of Dengzhou and Laizhou in Shandong, were beaten back even though they organized several breakouts.Then he heard the cheers of the whole city. After hearing the voice of welcoming Shunjun, Zhu Guozhu knew that Dengzhou City would not be able to hold it. As a minister of the Qing Dynasty, he should die here."

The Han officers and soldiers of Fuyuan kowtowed to Zhu Guozhu and then dropped their weapons and ran away. Only a dozen Han army banner officials who followed Zhu Guozhu had nowhere to go, so they walked into the Fuyuan with him, and then set themselves on fire. .

Zhang Sixuan, the flag and drum officer guarding the south gate, refused to surrender when he heard the riots in the city. He wanted to force the soldiers to lay down their weapons to break through, but was eventually stabbed to death by his subordinates.Hai Shixing, the chief soldier who went to rescue the governor's office, fled back to his mansion when he saw the governor's office was on fire.Hai Shixing first wanted to run away with the treasures he had looted, but there were too many belongings that he couldn't take away, and a few concubines were crying, so he changed his mind and decided not to leave, and decided to stay and surrender to the Shun army.

It's just that Hai Shixing has plundered Dengzhou too hard in the past two years, offended all the gentry in the city, and attacked the anti-Qing forces very hard, massacring villages at every turn.Hearing the news that he was going to surrender, neither the gentry in the city nor Qin Shangxing, the local anti-Qing leaders, disagreed. In order to prevent the other party from going directly to the general of the Shangshun Army to surrender, Qin Shangxing tricked Hai Shixing out of the mansion, and then went on the road. Fu killed.

Afterwards, Qin Shangxing used Hai Shixing's property to dismiss Hai Shixing's concubines and subordinates, and covered up the matter. On December 12th, Zhao Yingyuan entered Dengzhou. At this time, the fifth battalion Geng Jun led by Lian Decheng arrived at the foot of Dengzhou city. They walked more than 15 miles for 200 days. Geng Jun's morale was too low.

After Lian Decheng knew that Dengzhou City was occupied by the Shun army, he was immediately caught in a dilemma, because his army had less than three days' food left.

Chapter 598 The Battle of Shandong IV

Zhao Yingyuan, who arrived in Dengzhou, learned that Geng Jun was staying in Huang County. He was planning to defend, but immediately changed his mind.He summoned the generals and said: "Although there are only about a thousand people from the 2nd Battalion of our army who rushed to Dengzhou, the strength of everyone has exceeded 4000. This Geng army general went to Huang County but did not attack or retreat. , obviously in trouble. No matter what trouble he's in, that's our opportunity."

After hearing this, Qin Shangxing and Yang Wei asked Zhao Yingyuan what he wanted to do, and Zhao Yingyuan said: "I mean, just go out of the city to pursue them with great fanfare. If Geng Jun escapes, then we just chased his tail for a while, and took Huang Huang by the way." county.

If Geng Jun doesn't run away, we will find someone to persuade him to surrender. If Geng Jun still has some strength, then let him leave Huang County and go back to Laizhou by himself. We don't have to chase him. What do you think? "

After hearing this, Yang Wei nodded in agreement and said, "Huang County is the gateway to Dengzhou. Its northwest is the coastal plain and its southeast is mountainous. The area from Huangxian to Dengzhou is hilly. If we get Huangxian, Dengzhou It's safe. I think General Zhao's proposition is correct, whether it is to directly send troops to fight or send people to coax, Huang County should get it first."

Qin Shangxing thought about it in his heart, and then said aloud: "Why don't you let me try it. Since Geng Jun won't advance or retreat, there must be something wrong inside the army. At this time, we will send someone over. There should be no random killings, and if the conditions are not good, we can still talk about it.”

Zhao Yingyuan took a look at Qin Shangxing, and then said: "General Qin has the merit of returning to the city. Your Majesty said that we should love and protect ministers who have meritorious service. You don't need to go to a mere Huang County. It's just to spread a message. There is no need for you to take risks. You write a letter, and then find a captive to take it there, no matter what he chooses, he won’t stay in Huang County and fight us to death, right?”

Although he was blocked, Qin Shangxing felt more comfortable, because at least the other party did not regard himself as a material that could be sacrificed at will.So Zhao Yingyuan's proposition was finally passed, and then Qin Shangxing wrote a letter, and then found a Liaodong native and released him to Huang County.

Lian Decheng was just in a dilemma because of lack of food. When he saw the letter sent by Qin Shangxing, he called his subordinates to discuss.After hearing this, Chen Shaozong said: "Staying in Huang County is to wait for death, but if we just give up Huang County and go back to Laizhou, let's not talk about how to solve the food on the way, where should we retreat when we arrive in Laizhou? Maybe if you occupy Huang County, you won't go to Laizhou?"

Lian Decheng looked around, and found that after Chen Shaozong finished speaking, the others were silent and avoided his gaze, his heart skipped a beat.After thinking over and over again, he finally said: "We can't be sorry to Geng Shuai, can we?"

Chen Shaozong asked rhetorically: "Brothers have never been sorry to Geng Shuai, but they will not let the brothers accompany the Manchus to death, right? We used to forget our family feud and voted for the Manchus, just for the sake of survival. Now the Manchus Human beings are already in danger, so don’t we even find a way to survive? Geng Shuai was rewarded by the Manchus, but we didn’t.”

Someone at the side finally echoed: "Brother Chen is right. We can be loyal to Geng Shuai, but we can't do it if the Manchus die. Now Emperor Yongchang has unified the south, and now he is going on a large-scale northern expedition. I think this world is very difficult." It will soon be his, and the Manchus can flee back to the white mountains and black waters outside the pass, so should we also follow them to drill the forest? I’m tired, I want you to go, I plan to disarm and return to the fields, and live a stable life as a commoner.”

Lian Decheng finally couldn't help retorting: "Disarmed and returned to the fields? Have you forgotten what you did in Shandong? Will the Shandong people allow you to disarm and return to the fields? If we don't stick together to survive, the Shandong people will not let us go."

Someone replied disapprovingly: "We can hold together for survival, but after surrendering, we asked Emperor Yongchang to let us go to other places to seek a life. I don't think Emperor Yongchang will refuse our request. We are sorry for Shandong people, but the world is like this. Da, why should we stay in Shandong?"

Seeing other people agreeing with these generals, Lian Decheng finally waved his hands angrily and said, "You have big ideas, so you can decide. Anyway, I want to go back to Laizhou, and those who are willing to go back with me can prepare for it." luggage."

Lian Decheng waited for a long time at the west gate of Huang County, but only a battalion of people followed in the end. The general at the side suggested that it is better to send someone back to ask. He shook his head and said, "Since they don't want to follow, they just don't want to leave." Well, if I send someone to ask again, it will hurt my peace. Forget it, since it’s just us, there will be no shortage of food on the way, let’s go.”

Zhao Yingyuan didn't expect that the Geng Army in Huangxian County would have split up just by sending someone a letter. Chen Shaozong brought more than 4 people from the 2100th Battalion to request surrender, and he naturally accepted it unceremoniously.

Except for Chen Shaozong, Geng Jun of the other three battalions expressed their desire to find a place to retire, and Zhao Yingyuan readily agreed.After inquiring about the family members of these people who were in Laizhou, he said that except for Gunn's unforgivable crime, others who are willing to surrender can be given a lighter sentence.Under Zhao Yingyuan's persuasion, these Geng Jun finally reluctantly agreed to persuade their colleagues to surrender for Shun Jun.

On the third day of January in the fifth year of Yongchang, Zhao Yingyuan and [-] soldiers arrived [-] miles east of Laizhou City. At this time, Li Guo also urged Gao Jie’s army to conquer Pingdu and cross the Daze Mountain area, defeating the Geng army who tried to intercept , stationed more than [-] miles south of Laizhou City.

The defenders in Laizhou City were less than [-], while the two Shunjun forces outside the city had a combined total of nearly [-]. Geng Zhongming and his subordinates were all in a state of panic.Now Geng Zhongming can only trick Kong Youde to come to rescue him as soon as possible, or else the imperial court sends troops to rescue him.

But soon there was news from Qingzhou that Jin Shengheng came out of Yanshen Town and took down Zichuan, and now he is marching towards Jinan, and he has the momentum to win Jinan in one fell swoop. What did you do.

Xu Degong and Lian Decheng persuaded Geng Zhongming to break through and run away, thinking that Kong Youde had not appeared for a long time, so he probably had already run away or was wiped out by the Shun army.But Geng Zhongming asked these two confidants with a bitter face: "It's not that you can't run now, but how many people can run out? Everyone's family members are in Laizhou. Can I ask everyone to leave their family members and run away with me? I really don't have the face to say such a request.

Besides, even if we can run out of Laizhou, where can we go?Without strength in hand, the Manchus will not take us seriously at all.If you want to be powerful, you must have a territory, but the territory in this world has been taken up by Dashun and Daqing, and we have no place to occupy.That being the case, it would be better to die and leave a reputation in Laizhou. "

Seeing Geng Zhongming's dejected expression, Xu Degong and Lian Dechengcai suddenly came to their senses. It was not more than ten years ago now. Geng Zhongming was only in his early thirties, and they were only in their thirties. But now even they They are already over 40 years old, is there still a chance for a comeback at this time?

Xu Degong and Lian Decheng walked out of Geng Zhongming's mansion together, and when they parted on the street, Xu Degong suddenly said to Lian Decheng: "I'm afraid Geng Shuai will not be able to leave, we need to think carefully about what is the way to survive for our subordinates and family members. "

Lian Degong was at a loss, not knowing what Xu Degong meant.But on the tenth day of the first lunar month, nearly 30 red-clothed cannons were transported by the Shun Army and set up in the southeast corner of Laizhou City. On January [-], the Shun Army cannons began to fire towards the city wall of Laizhou. Some shells crossed the city wall and broke the trees in the city. And destroyed the buildings, which caused the shock of the soldiers and civilians in the city.

Geng Jun is actually familiar with firearms. Of course, this refers to the old men in Geng's army. The newly joined Han army after entering the customs knows less. After all, those old men were taught by the Portuguese who were invited by the Ming court.It's just that although Huang Taiji respected these Sanshun kings in name, he was still very wary in private, and he was unwilling to supplement them with sophisticated firearms, especially cannons.

Until now, the firearms used in Geng's army were made by the Shandong government back then, and most of these firearms are dilapidated.In terms of artillery, Manren is even more unwilling to give away the good artillery he built.Therefore, although Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming were the most advanced firearms troops in the Ming Dynasty, they have now degenerated back to the mode of fighting with cold weapons.

On the other hand, on the side of the Shun Army, Dashun has been investing in the steel industry for the past few years, hoping to solve the problem of raw materials for making weapons.This strategy has worked a lot, at least with the emergence of a large amount of steel, the number of machines in the military industry has continued to increase.These steel machines are like tireless giants, providing Dashun's army with a large number of weapons.

So when Geng Zhongming's subordinates saw the bombardment on such a scale, they immediately ran away in fright, as if they had never seen the world.You must know that only a few years ago, the Qing army was the one that frequently used tens of hundreds of artillery to attack, and the weak Han people were hiding in the city and yelling.

But now this scene is reversed, because the Manchus moved all the cannons to Beijing, Tianjin and other places.Although the Manchus had already mastered the technology of casting cannons, the climate outside the pass was also very suitable for pouring cannons.However, the Manchus gradually stopped the cannon casting business outside the pass, because the Manchus were too financially able to continue making cannons.

But the rich families in Laizhou City, seeing the thunderbolt-like artillery of the Shun Army, felt that they could not just watch Laizhou City and Geng Zhongming perish together.Kuang Ruju, Kuang Lanzhao and his sons in the city, as well as the official Fahuan and his sons, these big families in the city began to come forward, on the one hand, they hoped that the Shun army outside the city would stop destructive attacks on the city; on the other hand, they began to contact Geng Zhongming's men to prepare Counterattack at critical moments.

At two o'clock in the afternoon on January [-]th of the fifth year of Yongchang, the southeast corner of Laizhou City collapsed with a gap of more than [-] meters.Soon some of Geng Zhongming's subordinates announced their surrender, and Geng Zhongming was blocked in his palace.At nine o'clock that night, the riots in the city subsided, and Geng Zhongming knew that the situation was over, so he returned to his bedroom, closed the door, and hanged himself to death.

As soon as Zhao Yingyuan captured Laizhou, officials from Weifang, Qingzhou and other places sent him forms of surrender.Zhao Yingyuan accepted them one by one, and then sent his troops to Anqiu City in the southwest.

The fall of Laizhou was a powerful deterrent to Kong Youde's troops. Before that, they could continue to fight with the Shun army in front of them, but after this day, the officers and soldiers of Kong Youde's troops outside the city wanted to return to the city.Kong Youde didn't want to continue the fight at this time, because his back path seemed to be cut off.On January [-], Kong Youde began to break out of the encirclement, heading towards Weifang.

Chapter 599 The Subordinates of King Pingxi

When the war in Shandong was in full swing, Wu Sangui's department stationed in the three counties of Hebei was still exchanging letters with Chen Yongfu.The territory occupied by Wu Sangui should actually be the three prefectures of Hebei Province in Henan Province, namely Huaiqing Mansion, Weihui Mansion, and Zhangde Mansion, but only half of Huaiqing Mansion is in the hands of Shunjun. It's just a prefecture.

With Wu Sangui's troops, the territory occupied by the three mansions is indeed relatively small.In contrast, Duke Xu Shun Shen Zhixiang, who was next to him, had less than a quarter of his troops, but he also occupied Dongchang Mansion and Daming Mansion, which made Wu Sangui and his subordinates quite indignant.Although they didn't have the guts to provoke Shun Jun, they didn't have any psychological burden to bully Shen Zhixiang.

Therefore, in the past few years, Wu Sangui's men and the Sanshun Wang family from Dongjiang Town have been in constant friction. Although Man Qing saw it in his eyes, he did not try to mediate it. After all, the greater the conflict between the Han people, the more they will not unite to resist. Manchu rule?

This balance of power in the officialdom has been applied to ethnic conflicts and factional conflicts by the Manchus. Although the Manchus kept asking the remaining Han officials not to engage in the party struggles of the Ming Dynasty, what they actually wanted was the intensity of the party struggles. It cannot endanger the rule of the imperial court, that is, the rule of the Manchus over this country.

This can be seen from the discussion on the issue of hair shaving and easy clothing. Except for a few Han officials who are bent on pleasing their new masters, all other Han officials are unanimously opposed to shaving their hair and making clothes easier. Distort the objections of these Han officials into party disputes.In short, speeches that do not meet the wishes of the Manchu masters are all partisan struggles.

On the one hand, the Manchus smeared the politics of the pre-Ming period, believing that the demise of the former Ming Dynasty was caused by party struggle; on the other hand, they frequently labeled officials who dared to speak as partisan experts, thus punishing these officials regardless of right or wrong.

So much so that Li Zicheng blatantly appealed in the newspapers that he must not learn from the Manchu Qing style of speech control that attacked freedom of speech, and not to turn Dashun into a post-Qing dynasty.However, soon Shi Kefa, Lu Daqi and others attacked Ma Shiying through public opinion, believing that Ma Shiying had attacked freedom of speech, frequently labeled him as the Donglin Party, and was the prime minister of the late Qing Dynasty.

Ma Shiying then used his own power to prohibit newspapers from comparing Dashun to the late Qing Dynasty.The chicken feathers in the south once caused the Manchus to laugh at them, thinking that Dashun should not be called Houqing, but Houming.

In short, under the indulgence and guidance of the Manchus, Wu Sangui and King Sanshun naturally could not gain mutual trust.After all, although they each have a piece of territory now, because the size of the territory does not match their own strength, they naturally become full of contradictions.

Therefore, when the Shun Army sent troops to Shandong, Wu Sangui didn't think about rescuing Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming in the past. He was only worried about whether the Shun Army would come to attack his territory.

On the other hand, Chen Yongfu also courted Wu Sangui while Chen Bing was at the border, acting as if he wanted to fight, but he didn't do it for a long time. This made Wu Sangui focus all his attention on the direction of Zhengzhou, and he was even less interested in dealing with Shandong's problems. up.

However, what Wu Sangui did not expect was that Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, who had been entrenched in Shandong for several years, would be defeated so quickly.

Duoduo had just arrived in Dezhou with reinforcements, Kong Youde had already abandoned his troops and ran to Jinan City, and Geng Zhongming didn't know whether he was alive or dead.

At this time, Wu Sangui was in trouble. Either he would follow Duduo's order, destroy the tacit relationship with the Shun Army, and launch an attack south of the Yellow River to attract the attention of some Shun Army from Shandong.Either he will start to reconsider the problem of standing in line.

Although the Wu Group had lost most of the influence of the ancestors at this time, Zu Dashou refused to come back, which directly led to the reshuffle of the factions in Liaodong Town.As an armed group that has become a warlord in Ming Dynasty, Liaodong Town itself has its own interests and needs, and it is impossible to give up its own interests overnight and become a green battalion force that can be controlled by the Manchus at will.

Zu Dashou, as the representative of the hilltops of various departments in Liaodong Town, if he comes back, then everyone will naturally attach to him again, but Zu Dashou is still very aware of the taboos of the Manchus, and he simply doesn't care about world affairs after surrendering. The influence of Laizu's family in Liaodong Town declined rapidly.

Zu Dashou's adopted sons and clan members had already been incorporated into the Eight Banners during the Dalinghe Battle, so it was obviously impossible to send out the banner to lead Liaodong Town at this time.Therefore, the factions in Liaodong Town who were originally forced to surround Wu Sangui can only revolve around Wu Sangui now, because they don't want to be broken down by the Manchus into a fragmented military force like the Green Camp, and be scolded by the Manchus at will.

At least with Wu Sangui, they can not only ignore the command of the Manchus to a certain extent, but also express their dissatisfaction with the logistics of the Manchus. If you don’t give it, you will either find a way to get it yourself, or you will simply be hungry.

However, Wu Sangui also knew that the current subordinates obeyed him, not because they had much loyalty to him, but under the oppression of Manren and Dashun, everyone could only report to the regiment to keep warm.Therefore, within the group, Wu Sangui was still able to listen to the opinions of the majority instead of creating a dictatorship.

In February of the fifth year of Yongchang, Wu Sangui convened the generals in Weihui Mansion to discuss how to deal with Duduo's third order.Wu Sangui rebuilt the original Prince Lu's Mansion into his own Prince Pingxi Mansion. This time, he convened the general meeting in the Wangjing Tower built on a high platform, which was originally the place where King Lu studied.

It's just that when Wu Sangui walked up the corridor under the high platform, he happened to hear the discussions of the generals on the high platform, so he stopped and listened for a while.A group of generals upstairs were not discussing the current battle at this time, but started a dispute around a general surnamed Yang.

A voice with a somewhat irritable tone was questioning the general surnamed Yang: "Old Yang, I heard that the house that Lao Zhang bought for his concubine's room in Yangzhou was the one that I sold. What do you think? How much did you sell for?"

A general surnamed Yang replied angrily: "Lao Zhang's half-acre single-family house? The real price is 2400 taels plus miscellaneous expenses. It should be just over 3000 taels, and I even wiped off the change for him. Lao Zhang, are you right? What is not satisfactory about the house? If you are not satisfied, 2400 taels can be refunded, and other miscellaneous fees will not be refunded."

Another voice quickly said, "I'm not dissatisfied at all, it's Old Dong who is dissatisfied."

"Of course I'm not satisfied. If you pay 2400 taels, you'll give 1600 taels and deduct 320 taels of handling fee. Yang Shen, you're too black-hearted, aren't you cheating yourself?"

Yang Shen suddenly said dissatisfied: "Old Dong, I don't like to hear your words. When Shandong broke out, you came to me and told me that there was a war between the north and the south, and the house bought in Yangzhou might be in vain. Let me deal with it as soon as possible. It doesn't matter if you lose some money. Did you say that at the time?"

The tone of the questioner who was aggressive just now dropped a lot, "Yes, that's what I said. But..."

Yang Shen didn't give him a chance to speak, and immediately interrupted him and said, "Three years ago, you came to me and said that the North might be unreliable, so let me help to say hello to the South, and don't let the South treat you as a war criminal. I said at the time that Your Majesty is a very reasonable person, and if we pooled together a sum of money to buy land and build houses in the south, His Majesty would know everyone's wishes.

So, to be honest, this house is just a pledge we gave to the south to let His Majesty know that we have no intention of making him an enemy.Logically speaking, it is normal for His Majesty not to give this house.However, His Majesty is still benevolent. We invested money, and he actually gave the house and the receipt.So how much did you pay for the house?A total of only 800 taels.

These three years have passed, and your capital has doubled. Are you still not satisfied?Why were you dissatisfied when you collected the money that day, what does it mean to throw face at me now? "

Old Dong's voice stammered even more, "I didn't mean that, but how could there be such a big difference in the price of this house? Besides, as soon as I sold it, Lao Zhang took over, and you have too much to eat... "

Yang Shen said even more aggressively: "Did Zhang just buy a house? Didn't he tell you that his concubine brought his son there, and the 3000 taels included the school selection fee.

The primary school attached to Yangzhou University that his son attends, what school is that?That is the school attended by the children of high-ranking officials in Dashun, you go to Yangzhou to find out how many wealthy businessmen from other places want to send their children to this school, but they have no chance..."

Old Dong's voice was suppressed, but the voices of several other people came out. They asked Yang Shen why they didn't spend less money than Lao Zhang, but why didn't they have the treatment to go to school? .

Yang Shen lost his tongue for a while and said that the school recruits students according to the area where the house is located. Now Lao Dong suddenly quit, saying that he would rather get the money back and get the house, but Lao Zhang said that this matter has nothing to do with him. It was impossible to return the house, and several other people pulled Yang Shen to ask him to explain the school affairs clearly first.

Hearing this, Wu Sangui finally couldn't listen anymore. He couldn't help but said to Hu Xinshui and Xia Longshan behind him: "These people only care about their own small family. How can there be a country in their eyes? I expect them to fight against the south. , I’m worried that it’s good if they don’t switch sides.”

Hu Xinshui and Xia Longshan could only respond submissively to Wu Sangui. Now the country can only be supported by King Pingxi, and the others are indeed unreliable.Wu Sangui coughed violently a few times, and stepped up the steps up the stairs, which was a reminder to the generals on the high platform that he had arrived, and everyone should stop fooling around.

Wu Sangui's hint was still effective. When he walked up to the high platform, he saw that everyone was waiting in their seats, quite orderly.