Emperor: When will the Seventh Prince rebel? I will open the city gates to welcome him.

Jinyiwei Commander Zhou Changzhi looked up at Emperor Dingwen Hongjing and said:

"Your Majesty! Although I am not a civil servant, I believe that the northern border cannot do without the King of Zhenbei. If the northern border leaves the King of Zhenbei, the Beishang Kingdom will definitely counterattack. Only the King of Zhenbei can guard the northern border. No one else can do it!"

Emperor Dingwen Hongjing sighed and said:

"The court can't find a single person among the civil and military officials to send to Yunzhou to quell the rebellion. If this trend continues!"

"I am worried that there will be mutinies in Qingzhou, Xiangzhou, Anzhou, Ruizhou, Fengzhou, and even Zhongzhou now. By then, Dafeng will be in chaos and will probably be destroyed before Beishang!"

If the rebels in the past were just a bunch of rabble jumping back and forth,

But now the leader of the rebels has kidnapped the eldest prince of Dafeng State, Hongli, and has made Hongli the emperor of Yunzhou.

Hongli proclaimed himself emperor.

It is impossible for the Dafeng Kingdom to have two emperors.

The rebels only had Hong Li hostage, and they were trying to win over the people and incite them to revolt while attacking.

Maybe we can fight all the way to the capital.

Moreover, the natural disasters over the years have caused many people to go hungry.

What will happen if these refugees are incorporated into the government?

Emperor Dingwen Hongjing only realized it belatedly now.

"I was wrong! Not every prince can go to the border to guard a place. Letting an incompetent prince like Hongli go to guard the southern border is simply shooting myself in the foot!"

Qingzhou, Xiangzhou, Anzhou, Ruizhou, Fengzhou, these five states all have troops.

But each state has only 30,000 troops.

Heard the battle report from the front line.

Yunzhou alone has assembled 400,000 troops!

Emperor Dingwen looked at Zhou Changzhi and said:

"Go quickly, eight hundred miles away, and announce my will!"

"The situation in Dafeng is critical. Let Zhenbei King Hongxuan abandon Baidi City and retreat to Beijing City to hold on!"

"Let Hongxuan lead the army personally, quell the rebellion in Southern Xinjiang, and kill the rebel leader Li Haicheng!"

Emperor Dingwen was writing an imperial edict at his desk while speaking.

"Zhou Changzhi, do you think it is appropriate for me to directly appoint the Prince of Zhenbei as the Crown Prince?"

Jinyiwei Zhou Changzhi said in fear:

"Your Majesty, you must not do that! People are in a panic right now. We must not depose the Crown Prince at this time. After all, the Crown Prince's followers control Qingzhou and Xiangzhou. Empress Zhu is from a noble family in Xiangzhou. She has a large number of confidants in Qingzhou and Anzhou. If we depose the Crown Prince now, I'm afraid..."

Zhou Changzhi did not continue speaking.

"But apart from making King Zhenbei the crown prince, I have nothing else to reward him."

Jinyiwei Zhou Changzhi said respectfully:

"Your Majesty is so kind! He has already granted the land of Yuzhou to King Zhenbei. This is the best gift!"

"I thought the King of Zhenbei didn't want to be the crown prince either!"

Zhou Changzhi's implication was very clear. The King of Zhenbei actually looked down upon the position of Crown Prince. If he wanted to be one, he would definitely want to be the Emperor.

Emperor Dingwen nodded slightly after listening.

"Okay! Since the land of Yuzhou has already been awarded to Hongxuan, I will not give you any other rewards."

After he finished speaking, he took the Emperor's Sword from the couch at the back of the Qianqing Palace.

"Since I cannot reward him with a title, I will reward him with the sword of the emperor of Dafeng! With this sword, he can kill first and report later!"

Emperor Dingwen could only give this symbolic sword of the emperor as an award.

But now for Zhenbei Wang Hongxuan.

Instead of making him the crown prince, it would be better to reward him with an imperial sword.

After a year of official reform, Hongxuan now has very abundant grain reserves and is not short of silver.

Not only that, he also had a huge amount of iron ore as raw material to produce a large number of weapons.

In times of turmoil, food and weapons are the foundation, everything else is just a passing cloud.

The southern border city of Yunzhou.

Nanjiang City has been transformed into a temporary palace by the rebel leader Li Haicheng.

Their current location is the former Yunzhou Provincial Administration History Office.

In the Governor's Hall, Hongli was dressed in a roughly made imperial robe, a crown and a corset.

There were hundreds of officials at the foot of the stairs, but they were all dressed very poorly, and only got themselves a set of official uniforms for symbolic purposes.

It is impossible to judge their official positions and ranks by looking at these shabby official uniforms.

These armies, composed of rebels and bandits, are holding a celebration banquet.

The rebel leader Li Haicheng did not expect that after controlling Hong Li, he could capture Yunzhou City so easily.

Li Haicheng still remembers the first time he saw Nanjiang Wang Hongli.

I was going to kill him with a single blow.

But the other party introduced himself as the eldest prince of Dafeng State, and saving his life would be of great significance.

If he wants money, he should speak directly to his father.

Li Haicheng's eyes lit up, and his military advisor Zhang Fangliang immediately implemented the strategy of letting the eldest prince Hongli become emperor.

Before that, military commander Zhang Fangliang gave Li Haicheng a good idea.

In order to completely occupy Yunzhou, one person must be eliminated, and that is General Zhaowu De Nianzhi.

The opportunity has come.

He has a very talented sorcerer under his command. Although she is young, she is very skilled in voodoo.

She disguised herself and entered the Zhaowu military headquarters in Yunzhou City, and when people were not prepared, she put poison in their food.

There is basically no antidote for this poison, and General Zhaowu De Nianzhi died soon after.

After the death of General Zhaowu Denian, the entire Yunzhou in southern Xinjiang fell into chaos.

Nanjiang Wang Hongli simply couldn't control the situation.

Taking advantage of the internal chaos.

The rebel leader Li Haicheng finally gained power.

Yunzhou has long been known as the granary of the south of the Yangtze River. It is rich in resources and has sufficient food. Li Haicheng, who owns Yunzhou, only feels that the fate of the Dafeng Kingdom has come to an end.

He raised his glass and toasted Hong Li, saying:

"Your Majesty, since you have already been crowned emperor, you should now appoint officials to various posts, and I, Li Haicheng, will be the prime minister! From now on, you will listen to me in all matters of Yunzhou, big or small!"

Hongli has no right to resist at all.

"I will now appoint you as Prime Minister, Prime Minister Li! My dear Lord Li! I have no talent or achievements, so naturally, all matters of Yunzhou, big or small, will be decided by Prime Minister Li!"

Li Haicheng nodded with satisfaction.

"Brother, you are the prime minister now, I want to be an official too," said a bandit with unshaven beard and a face full of flesh.

Li Haicheng nodded happily and said

"Hahaha! Of course, you can be a general."

The bandits and rebels in the hall, who were wearing weird official uniforms, all shouted.

"Brother, I want to be an official too. I want to be an official too!"

"Hahaha, you have it all! As long as you follow me to conquer the world, you will all be founding generals."

All the bandits in the hall were happily drinking and eating meat. After getting drunk, they got in the mood and played with the women they had picked up in the hall at will.

The rebel leader Li Haicheng watched all this with a smile.

Hongli, who had lived in the palace since childhood, had never seen this group of bandits with low moral qualities and rude behavior.

His face was pale and he looked terrified.

Of course Li Haicheng saw Hongli's fear.

The more such princes are held as hostages, the easier they are to control. If Hongli had the ability to command troops and the courage to convince people, the military and political situation in southern Xinjiang would not have fallen apart after the death of General Zhaowu Denianzhi.

It was captured by the rebel leader Li Haicheng in one fell swoop.

"Since Yunzhou has been taken, we will be able to take Qingzhou and Xiangzhou soon. After all, there are only a few tens of thousands of soldiers there, while we in Yunzhou now have 400,000 soldiers and horses."