With a bang, Huang Degong smashed a tea bowl. As if he still wasn't relieved, he kicked down a chair. All his staff stood aside with their hands down, not daring to express their anger, let alone

Know how to deal with this commander-in-chief who is loyal to Emperor Chongzhen.

Because Huang Degong was inspired by Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Qian Qianyi and Huang Shu.

In the past few days, they and other ministers from various departments in Nanjing gathered in Yanzhou to welcome him. The ministers were wasting their time except for endless quarrels and debates.

Among them, Qian Qianyi advocated responding to Kong Yinzhi's call, protecting the Mingjiao religion, and defending Konglin, and he would not care about Zhu Cixang, the rebellious son, for the time being.

Huang Shu, on the other hand, opposed Qian Qianyi and advocated restoring the power of Emperor Chongzhen first, and then defending Confucius under the leadership of Mingjun.

So the officials gathered in Yanzhou were divided into two groups, one supported Qian Qianyi and the other supported Huang Shu, and they argued endlessly every day. I don’t know how many articles were written about the debate, all of which were quotations from scriptures. It seemed very reasonable, but it was

No one can convince anyone!

As for Shi Kefa, the head of the Six Ministries in Nanjing, and Gao Hongtu, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing who was in charge of the money bag, they were both big bosses who had no opinions. Seeing the people below divided into two groups, and the endless bickering, they all

I had no idea. I just kept arguing with them day after day, as if I was waiting for a fight between two groups of invincible civil servants.

But as the days passed, the two groups became more and more quarrelsome. They seemed to have put aside the issue of protecting Mingjiao or protecting Chongzhen, and they were just arguing for the sake of arguing.

While the civil servants in Yanzhou were quarreling every day, the prince was not idle!

The measures to rectify the defense of various parts of Shandong were taken one after another, and they all seemed reasonable. They were clearly the work of the British Lord and the Mingjun!

First of all, the organization of the Seven Guards of Denglai has achieved great results! The land of the Seven Guards, which was originally more chaotic than a mess, was cut off by the prince's sharp knife. All the land within the guard's territory was nationalized (it was originally state-owned) and then redistributed to

10,000 new military households.

The number of people seems to be reduced, with only 10,000 military households remaining in the seven guard posts. But the actual combat effectiveness has increased several times!

These 10,000 people are all elites with more than a hundred acres of land, and they have also received at least 10 taels of "armor silver" from the industry. At least they don't have to worry about supporting their families, and they have enough money to improve their equipment.

The second step was to reorganize the fifteen prefectures and counties in Denglai. Two to three hundred local scholar-bureaucrats were selected through "Enke", and then they were asked to "contract" the league training and taxation of the prefectures and counties. Although this move was also related to the reorganization of health

All the same, it goes against the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty. But the effect is also very significant. At least the fifteen prefectures and counties in Denglai have "owners".

It is better to have someone to take care of it and someone to organize it than to have no one in charge!

In addition, the commanders of the Denglai guards, the families of the associate commanders, and the powerful families of the fifteen prefectures and counties in Denglai were all brought to Dengzhou City or Jiaozhou City for "protection". In fact, it became

hostage

The third measure is to move Tang Fan to Runing and Lu Fan to Qingzhou, and grant the two vassals the power to manage the army on horseback and the people on horseback! At the same time, Li Shiyuan, a former member of the Qingzhou branch garrison, was promoted to be the chief soldier of Qingzhou garrison.

Together with King Zhu Yihai of Lu, he ruled Qingzhou.

Although Zhu Cixiang did not rectify Qingzhou like he rectified Denglai, he finally found a master for Qingzhou Mansion, and he did not know what tricks he used to make Qingzhou's Heng Fan give up his palace, land and most of his banknotes, and was willing to go to Nanjing as a slave.

A free king.

With Heng Fan's savings of more than two hundred years, Zhu Yihai and Li Shiyuan should be able to create a situation.

The fourth measure was to use some unknown trick to win over Kong Yinzhi, the Duke of Yansheng who had always advocated the restoration of the power of Emperor Chongzhen. He clamored all day long to protect Mingjiao and defend Konglin, as if he was full of Tatars.

It’s like Beijing’s purpose is to dig up his family’s ancestral graves!

Although Huang Degong didn't believe Kong Yinzhi's words at all, Qian Qianyi, a great scholar, did! There was news from Jiangnan that several young gentlemen from Fushe also believed it. It was true that they wrote articles every day calling for the defense of famous religions.

A bunch of nerds were all deceived by Zhu Cixiang!

In the past two days, another bad news came from Jinan Prefecture! Prince Fujun led an army of 40,000 people and suddenly approached Licheng, the capital of Jinan Prefecture, pretending to force Gao Jie to surrender by force.

Under this situation, the two loudmouthed scholars Qian Qianyi and Huang Shu were still quarreling, and Shi Kefa and Gao Hongtu were still helpless.

Huang Degong already had a very bad premonition! Gao Jie, the commander-in-chief who came from a bandit background, had no sense of loyalty and would most likely defect under the Crown Prince's coercion and inducement!

Gao Jie has 30,000 troops, and the prince now has about 50,000 soldiers and horses. If the two of them join forces, they will have an army of 80,000. And King Qin's army on Shi Kefa's side, after losing Gao Jie, has only seven or eight at most.

Among them, the only ones who can fight are the six to seven thousand servants in the hands of Huang Degong, Liu Zeqing, and Liu Liangzuo.

Huang Degong was a little discouraged. Why were the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty so quarrelsome?

By the way, there are many civil servants on the Crown Prince's side, right? Why don't they make a fuss? The Crown Prince's decrees are all posted with cabinet votes. Why is it that the current cabinet is so easy to talk to? When the Crown Prince is in power

That's not what those people are like!

Just when Huang Degong was struggling to achieve his ambition, one of his soldiers walked in quickly and announced: "Report to the General Army that the Ma Zhijun is visiting."

"Ma Zhijun is here? Now?" Huang Degong looked out the window. It was pitch black. What was the reason for Ma Shiying's visit at this time? Is there something ulterior?

He guessed correctly, Ma Shiying really had something ulterior to discuss with Huang Degong. Because he came here incognito as a Jian, and after being welcomed into the inner hall by Huang Degong, he asked Huang Degong to retreat.

"There is a secret edict!" Ma Shiying said solemnly after seeing everyone else leaving, "Huang Degong has accepted the edict!"

Huang Degong was stunned for a moment, but did not accept the order immediately. Instead, he asked: "Is it an imperial edict or an imperial edict?"

"This is the emperor's decree!" As he spoke, Ma Shiying carefully took out a piece of square silk, which was densely packed with words.

"Chen Huang Degong accepted the order!" Huang Degong quickly knelt down.

Ma Shiying did not recite, but handed the square silk to Huang Degong for him to read. Because the secret edict was not for Huang Degong, but for Ma Shiying. The handwriting on the square silk was all the handwriting of Emperor Chongzhen, and the content was

Ma Shiying was ordered to contact loyal people and wait for opportunities to serve the king.

Huang Degong carefully read the secret edict word for word, then handed the edict back to Ma Shiying with both hands, and then stood up.

"Zhijun, tell me, what should Huang do?" Huang Degong asked Ma Shiying.

Ma Shiying sighed: "Yanzhou is no longer available! I just got the news that Gao Jie of Jinan Prefecture has defected to the prince!"

Huang Degong gritted his steel teeth and said, "What? How could someone named Gao be so disloyal and unjust?"

Ma Shiying frowned, "After Gao Jie and the prince joined forces, there were 80,000 troops in Jinan Prefecture. Liu Zeqing in Dongchang Prefecture would definitely not dare to resist and would soon surrender. Liu Liangzuo's troops were undisciplined, and Shi Butang brought

King Qin’s rebel army is not well-trained and does not have much decent equipment, so it is completely vulnerable. Now in Yanzhou, only Mr. Huang’s soldiers and horses can still fight and are loyal to the Holy One. They are the ones that the prince fears the most!”

Huang Degong nodded repeatedly, "The elites in this town are all from Yongwei camp, and they are the most loyal to the emperor!"

Ma Shiying sighed: "But the enemy is outnumbered and we are outnumbered, and the prince is indeed resourceful. He is good at running the army and using troops to overcome the difficulties of the new army. It is no small matter! If we really have to fight head-on in Yanzhou, I am afraid that the emperor's last bit of strength will not be preserved. If not

Without the Yongwei camp, what else can the prince have to fear? He will definitely usurp the throne brazenly, and maybe even harm the emperor!"

"How dare he!" Huang Degong shouted angrily.

"As long as loyal ministers like you and me are gone, how dare he dare!" Ma Shiying said with a heartbroken look, "You have seen what Shibutang, Gaobutang and the others are doing these days, and it is not enough to achieve anything. Lu Zhijun was discouraged the day before yesterday

Let's go and take people back to Huai'an. We can't stay in Yanzhou anymore, otherwise we will be tricked by Shibutang and Gaobutang!"

"Don't stay in Yanzhou? Where to go?"

Ma Shiying said: "Go to Fengyang Mansion! I am the governor of Fengyang. I can control Fengyang. And Fengyang has a strong city to rely on and the Huaihe River to rely on. The surrounding area is rich in food and is enough to be self-sufficient. When we get to Fengyang, I will

I promise you to be the commander-in-chief of the Fengyang garrison. Let’s base ourselves in Fengyang first, and then try to contact loyal people to make progress!"
Chapter completed!