The days when I ransacked the house in Jinyiwei

Early in the morning, on the battlefield of Dongting Lake, Wang Shouren began his ghost-possessed performance.

That’s right, it’s literally possession.

But Wang was a third-rank official who had passed the imperial examinations twice. For the sake of being polite, he did not go to the palace himself. He privately ordered a captain with a loud voice to go to the palace with the "ghost".

The soldiers were cleaning up the battlefield when suddenly the centurion fell to the ground, twitched, foamed at the mouth, and then squirmed on the ground like a maggot.

Wang Shouren shouted, "Oh! Captain Huang, what happened to you? Last night you chopped off the heads of twenty rebels, and I was just about to give you a reward. How could you die like this?"

The governor's shout attracted everyone's attention.

At this moment, Huang Baihu jumped up from the ground like an agile toad.

Huang Baihu shouted, "I am Xu Da, the King of Zhongshan! I have come down to earth on behalf of our great grandfather to pass on his imperial decree to you!"

Wang Shouren and Wu Wendi looked at each other. Then they knelt down and said, "Your humble servant Wang Shouren (Wu Wendi) greets the King of Zhongshan of the Ming Dynasty!"

The generals and soldiers stood there in a daze. Wang Shouren shouted, "Why are you still standing there? Kneel down and welcome the spirit of the King of Zhongshan!"

All the soldiers obeyed the order and knelt on the ground in unison.

Huang Baihu shouted, "The Emperor Taizu Gaozu decrees this! You are leading a great army to wipe out the rebels. You are truly loyal and brave. I send the heroic spirit of King Zhongshan to the mortal world to protect you. You can all march freely on the battlefield without any harm! I decree this!"

Wang Shouren shouted: "Your Highness, I am Wang Shouren, the governor of Nangan, and I accept your order!"

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there have been many people who have falsely transmitted imperial edicts. Wang Shouren may be the first one to falsely transmit the imperial edict of the great ancestor in the coffin.

There were many people in the court who disliked Wang Shouren, but Wang Shouren was not afraid of them impeaching him for falsifying the imperial edict.

Isn't it reasonable that Emperor Taizu Gao appeared in spirit and issued an edict to protect the soldiers who were maintaining the stability of the country?

Whoever impeaches Laozi is questioning the spirit of Taizu in heaven.

After such a series of operations, the morale of the rebel army composed of bandits and militiamen was greatly boosted.

Wang Shouren took the opportunity to start his second deception: "Brothers! In the battle last night, our army did not lose a single person, but killed 2,000 enemies. This is the result of the blessing of the Great Ancestor in heaven! The Ning Wang rebels lost 2,000 people and fled in defeat! It will be easy for us to completely defeat the rebels!"

Wu Wendi echoed, "Yes, yes, yes! The military merits of our Ming Dynasty are counted by the number of beheadings. Brothers who didn't get any heads don't worry. There are tens of thousands of heads waiting for us to grab. Each one is a big silver ingot! Is Poyang Lake next to us? No! It's clearly the treasury of the God of Wealth! The silver ingots and big gold bars in the treasury are up for grabs!"

As soon as Wu Wendi said this, the rebel army immediately cried out in dismay.

Wang Shouren and Wu Wendi looked at each other: This ghost possession trick was very successful.

Wang Shouren was trying to boost morale, and the Prince of Ning on the other side was also busy.

The two military strategists, Li Shishi and Liu Yangzheng, found Prince Ning.

Li Shishi said, "Your Majesty, from what I have seen, the enemy army is large in number, and their commander Wang Shouren is no ordinary man. Our army suffered heavy casualties in the battle last night. It can be seen that Wang Shouren must have many experienced generals leading elite troops. Therefore, I suggest that we withdraw to Hongdu first."

Li Shishi was indeed a military strategist. The "many brave generals who had fought in hundreds of battles" he mentioned were just six powerless civilian officials. The so-called elite troops were just 3,000 Hakka soldiers and a hundred thousand rabble.

Liu Yangzheng echoed: "Your Majesty, the enemy's army is at full strength, and our army should avoid its front." Prince Ning glared at Li Shishi and Liu Yangzheng, and said in a decisive tone: "Those who talk about retreating will be killed! I will destroy Wang Shouren by the Poyang Lake!"

Then the King of Ning summoned the leaders of the rebels and began to boost their morale. He did not follow Wang Shouren's tricks. His method of boosting morale was simple and crude, that is, promising a large sum of money.

Prince Ning said to all the rebel generals, "Listen! I will fight Wang Shouren tomorrow! If you kill an enemy, you will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver! If you are wounded, you will be rewarded with 80 taels of silver! If you die in battle, you will be compensated with 300 taels of silver! If you kill a seventh-rank general, you will be rewarded with 700 taels of silver. For each higher rank, you will be rewarded with 500 taels! If you kill Wang Shouren, you will be rewarded with 10,000 taels of gold!"

The composition of the troops of Ning Wang's rebel army and Wang Shouren's rebellion-suppressing army was basically the same, most of them were bandits from Jiangxi.

Why did these people risk their lives to rob and plunder in the past? Wasn’t it just for real money?
When this huge reward was announced, all the rebel generals cheered with joy.

When King Ning mentioned the reward, it was as if he had cut off a piece of his own flesh. He murmured in a low voice: "This time, I will not be able to survive!"

The decisive battle between the two armies is about to begin.

At the same time, on the ground in Northern Zhili.

Emperor Zhengde's army heading south was still searching for the jade hairpin.

Inside the tent of Emperor Zhengde.

Jiang Bin ran over breathlessly: "Father, something bad has happened!"

The three generations of the Chang family standing beside Emperor Zhengde frowned at the same time. It is true that you, Jiang Bin, have recognized the emperor as your adoptive father. It is fine to call him "Father Emperor" in private. But you call him "Father Emperor" in front of foreign officials? Don't you care about the moral principles between the emperor and his subjects?

Fortunately, the cabinet chief Yang Tinghe did not go with the army. Otherwise, he would have slapped you in the face.

Jiang Bin shouted "something bad is going on", and Emperor Zhengde was overjoyed: "What happened? Could it be that Yingtian was conquered by Zhu Chenhao? Great!"

When Emperor Zhengde said this, Chang Feng almost vomited blood: What? So, Your Majesty, you are now hoping that the Ming capital will be captured by the rebels, right?

Chang Po Nu also frowned.

Chang Qingyun was a favorite of the young emperor. He coughed quickly, suggesting that Emperor Zhengde should be more restrained.

Emperor Zhengde smiled awkwardly: "Ah, that's not what I meant. Jiang Bin, tell me what's going on?"

Jiang Bin had a look of grief on his face: "I just received a report from the army in Jiangnan that Wang Shouren has captured the rebel stronghold of Nanchang."

Chang Feng couldn't help it any longer, he said sternly: "Jiang Bin, Wang Shouren's capture of Nanchang was a great victory. Why do you say that things are not going well? Could it be that you are against Wang?"

Emperor Zhengde tried to smooth things over: "That's not what he meant. What he meant by something bad was that Wang Shouren, as a frontier governor, did not obey my orders and sent troops to capture Nanchang without authorization."

Chang Feng asked Emperor Zhengde, "Your Majesty, isn't it the duty of a provincial governor to put down a rebellion? After Prince Ning rebelled, when did you give Wang Shouren a military order not to put down the rebellion?"

There are not many people in the world who dare to speak to Emperor Zhengde like this.

Emperor Zhengde also knew that he was in the wrong: "That's not what I meant. Prince Ning is powerful. If Wang Shouren attacks rashly, he may be wiped out. I want him to take it slow and wait for me and the heavenly soldiers to arrive in Jiangnan."

Emperor Zhengde turned around and ordered Jiang Bin: "Zhang Zhong, the junior supervisor of the Imperial Horse Administration, is in Yingtian. You must immediately inform Zhang Zhong in an urgent manner, eight hundred miles away, and convey my order to Wang Shouren, ordering him to hold his troops in place and wait for me to lead the army to arrive in person!" (End of this chapter)