Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 213 Chongzhen: Make trouble!
The elite troops of the old camp composed of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot were naturally the fastest and were the first to arrive outside the city of Wuchang.

The troops of the old camp had just settled down not long ago. The leader of the old camp was none other than Miao Haishi, a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

He was talking to his subordinates when he suddenly stood up and looked into the distance in disbelief, "Who is this?"

I saw thick smoke billowing in the distance and the earth was shaking.

The iron armor was intertwined, and in the dust and light, there were flashes of golden light. The deafening sound of horse hooves came from far away.

The battle flags were fluttering. If there wasn't a huge "信" on the flag, he would have organized his troops and prepared to fight the enemy.

The war horses neighed and stomped the ground like thunder, rushing forward like a mighty stream bursting a dam. The eyes of every soldier revealed ferocity and violence, the look that seemed to want to tear everything before them apart was terrifying.

"Shi Daoshen? Hey, is this your soldier?" Miao Haishi finally recognized the leader in front of him and couldn't help but exclaimed in surprise: "Oh my God, he's wearing armor?"

Shi Daoshen jumped off his horse, but the first thing he asked was, "Commander Miao, how is Prince Xin?"

"It's all clear now. Let's keep the troops outside the city and then go in together. We say we have a major battle plan."

"Huh~" Upon hearing that Prince Xin was no longer in danger, Shi Daoshen finally breathed a sigh of relief, and his frown relaxed.

Miao Haishi continued to look at the team, "There are too many cavalrymen here. You, Old Shi, really turned from an old hen into a duck in the blink of an eye!"

"No, no, there are only a few tens of thousands more troops than before."

"Tens of thousands?" Miao Haishi's face turned green. "No, how many troops do you have now?"

"There's still 90,000!"

"Jiu... My God, it's only been a few days since we captured Wuchang Prefecture, and you've already gained 30,000 troops?" The expression on Miao Haishi's face froze for a moment.

"Hey, what is that?"

"Oh, isn't this the case when we fought against the Governor of Huguang, Gou Youquan, and captured several artillery pieces. In addition, we also captured people from the Firearms Battalion who knew how to fire artillery pieces. Now we also have artillery pieces."

"..."Miao Haishi's face turned blue and purple.

Their old camp had only about 5,000 soldiers at most. It wasn't that he didn't want to recruit soldiers, but that he couldn't.

Because all the soldiers in the old camp are from the Jinyiwei and the Eastern Depot, what if outsiders are recruited and someone finds out something?
Therefore, they could only absorb troops from the Jinyiwei in the capital or other places. Even though they were speeding up the absorption, the number of soldiers in the old camp had increased from 3,000 to 5,000.

But now...

No, I have to let Captain Han report to the higher authorities and ask His Majesty to quickly dispatch another 10,000 Jinyiwei or troops from the five major camps.

People like Sun Kewang and Shi Daoshen are all traitors. The strength of the old camp soldiers is too weak. If they start to rebel, the consequences will be disastrous.

The two wanted to continue talking when smoke and dust rose in the distance, covering the sky and blocking out the sunlight.

Sun Kewang's troops arrived.

……

Sun Kewang jumped off his horse, holding the whip in his hand. He also asked about Prince Xin's condition first. When he learned that Prince Xin was fine, he was overjoyed. "I knew that Prince Xin was blessed with a good fortune. How could he be defeated by that villain?"

"Come, let's go into the city together!"

"Enter the city!"

Miao Haishi kept turning his head to look at Sun Kewang's troops, "General Sun, how many troops did you bring?"

Sun Kewang smiled and said, "Not many, not many, only about 130,000 people."

"Thirteen thousand...Oh my god!" Miao Haishi's face twitched and a thin layer of sweat suddenly appeared on his forehead.

He was sweating profusely in his heart, "What the hell, Sun Kewang and Shi Daoshen have 220,000 men in total, and the old camp has only 5,000 soldiers and horses..."

The soldiers in the old camp are the commander-in-chief and the face of the commander-in-chief. Now the two major camps have 210,000 soldiers each, but their old camp has only 5,000 people. How could he not be under great pressure?

"Why haven't I heard that you have so many people before?"

Sun Kewang smiled and said in a cold voice: "It's different. We hid it before so as not to let the government troops know. We still understand the principle that the first rafter to stick out will rot first. But it's different now. Prince Xin was assassinated, which means that someone doesn't take us seriously. So we naturally have to show a thundering blow to let them know that we are not so easy to mess with."

"That's right. If we don't show our strength, they will think we are paper tigers. Should we let them bully us?" Shi Daoshen said solemnly with a cold face.

As they were talking, they arrived at the Governor's Mansion.

The old blind man's apprentice welcomed them into the palace and said, "Prince Xin is not feeling well, so he is waiting for you in the reception room at the back of the palace."

When Prince Xiang, the old blind man, Old Han and a few others were greeting Sun Kewang and Shi Daoshen, Miao Haishi pulled Old Han aside.

"Sir, do you know how many people we have now?"

"What do you mean?" Old Han didn't quite understand what it meant.

"Including our old camp, the total is 240,000."

Old Han's tone suddenly rose, "How much?"

Miao Haishi quickly signaled him to speak more quietly, "How could I lie to you? Sun Kewang has 130,000 troops, Shi Daoshen has more than 90,000 troops, plus our old camp and other troops, that's 240,000 in total..."

Old Han's Adam's apple rolled a few times, "Wait a moment, let's go find Prince Xin."

Chongzhen had just come out of the back hall when he was stopped by Lao Han and Miao Haishi. They explained the situation to him and were stunned when they heard it. "Two hundred and forty thousand? Wasn't it still sixteen hundred thousand when you said it last time? How did another eighty thousand suddenly appear?"

"They... I seem to have heard them say that they reported fewer people to avoid attracting the attention of other peasant armies and government troops."

Chongzhen was stunned for a moment. Sun Kewang and Shi Daoshen had told him about this matter, but at that time they only concealed 20,000 or 30,000 yuan.

After entering Wuchang Prefecture, no statistics have been counted yet.

But it is really scary that so many things came out at once.

"Can the troops from our old camp come in quickly?"

Old Han scratched his hair and said, "The memorial has been submitted to the capital. Someone should be coming soon, but before that, we must slow down the speed of our military increase."

"No, this won't work. The rate of increase is too fast. We must find a way to suppress it and reduce the number of people." Chongzhen rubbed the sweat from his palms, and his forehead was also covered with sweat.

Old Han's scalp was also numb. "How about taking this opportunity to let Sun Kewang and Shi Daoshen fight against the government troops? Let them fight eastward, let them fight in the direction of Hangzhou, let them attack the city."

Attacking a city consumes the most manpower.

"..." Chongzhen was silent for a while, "This is the only way to do it. Otherwise, if the price rises too fast and we can't control it, it will be a disaster."

Besides this, there is actually another reason.

After he returned to the Qianqing Palace last night, he had heard about the Queen's fall into the water and the arrest of many officials from Jiangnan. He then found a letter and a secret letter from the Embroidered Uniform Guard on the imperial desk.

It is true that the Grand Council could receive reports from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but that is also relative.

The secret reports from the southern provinces and cities could only be delivered to the emperor by Ma Shiwei, and even Ma Shiwei himself was not allowed to read them.

Chongzhen first opened the secret letter from the Jinyiwei, "Gao Wenju, the Hangzhou weaving manufacturer, spent 150,000 taels of silver to buy a 16-year-old top performer in order to curry favor with the eunuch Hu Jixian. In addition, the Gao family harassed the post stations and transferred property amounting to a million taels."

"Shen Fuzheng, the textile manufacturer of Suzhou, lived a life of extreme luxury every day. He only ate the heart of cabbage, the back of an ox, and the tongue of a rooster. He had 76 wives and concubines, and he never had a new one for two months. He would extinguish red lanterns every time he slept with them."

"The Jiangning Weaving Factory is even worse. He is arrogant and domineering. The prefect of Yingtian Prefecture has to treat him with courtesy when he sees him. He has arranged for all his sons and nephews to work in the various government offices of Yingtian Prefecture and hold important positions..."

Chongzhen suppressed his anger and picked up the letter again. After checking it, he confirmed that it was written by Zhu Changgan to him.

The general content is that in the next few days, let this "rebel king" use the troops in his hands to cause turmoil in the four provinces south of the Yangtze River, the more turbulent the better.

In this way...the court's policy of measuring land and investigating corruption can be better implemented.

"Make a fuss, I'll try to make a big fuss!"

… “Prince Xin!”

"How are you, sir?"

When they saw Chongzhen walking into the reception room from the back court, everyone stopped talking and saluted Prince Xin.

"Everyone, please sit down!" Chongzhen pretended to be busy and coughed a few times, "You have all heard about the incident. The king was assassinated. The assassin was from the Gao family in Hangzhou."

"Fortunately, the assassin was considerate of the people and did not use too much force. He is no longer seriously injured!"

Seeing that everyone was seated, Chongzhen took a deep breath and said, "I brought you back here just to hear your opinions."

Sun Kewang was the first to speak up: "Who cares about the Gao family? If they dare to mess with the Tai Sui, can we still tolerate them?"

"Yes, get him!" Shi Daoshen followed closely.

Chongzhen said with great satisfaction: "I just heard that you all have strong troops and horses now. It seems that you are really confident. You are not forgetting the impoliteness when you come and go. You assassinated me during the Wuchang Conference. You are not reluctant to slap me in the face."

"Since I want to fight, I must fight a good battle. Who among you is willing to go and take Hangzhou Prefecture for me? Connect Wuchang Prefecture with several prefectures and counties in Hangzhou."

Chongzhen asked Lao Han to bring the map over. "If we can get through Wuchang Prefecture and Hangzhou Prefecture, the land in these prefectures is fertile, enough to support our grain for the next few years, and we can also get involved in the grain transport, salt and iron business."

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but be overjoyed. If they could take down these prefectures, they would no longer have to worry about money and food.

Is Prince Xin doing this in order to become emperor?

Sun Kewang's eyes widened and his face was overjoyed, and Shi Daoshen's Adam's apple also rolled. As a peasant army, how could it be possible to say that they had no ambitions? It could be said that they had been looking forward to this day.

Almost all peasant armies in history have been longing for this moment, be it Li Zicheng's army or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom... This is determined by their vision and environment since childhood. As farmers, they plant seeds in spring and harvest in autumn. If there is no harvest throughout the year, they will starve and people will die.

"I'll do it!" Sun Kewang took the lead without hesitation.

"I'll do it!" Shi Daoshen stepped forward and asked, "Prince Xin, I'm from Suzhou and Hangzhou, so I can do it more easily."

"One month is enough for me to pacify Hangzhou!"

Shi Daoshen: "I'll be here for twenty days..."

Shi Daoshen and Sun Kewang argued until their faces turned red. Chongzhen looked at them and waved his hand to stop them, saying, "Stop arguing. In addition to the Hangzhou weaving factory, there is also the Suzhou weaving factory.

You two will each lead your troops to conquer Suzhou and Hangzhou. Whoever takes them first will be rewarded handsomely by me."

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

……

In Wuchang Prefecture,

As Sun Kewang, Shi Daoshen and Miao Haishi arrived with their troops, many people standing on the city walls looked down and felt their scalps tingling.

There was also a huge wave in the city.

"So many people? When did Prince Xin's team have so many people?"

"There must be two hundred thousand people, right?"

"I don't know how it feels. Look at where the team is, ten miles away... Prince Xin is so tough!"

"What on earth is Prince Xin going to do?"

"I heard that someone was trying to assassinate Prince Xin, and I was immediately enraged..."

Many of them are veterans of the Thirteen Families of Xingyang, and some are rising stars.

They came to attend the anti-king conference this time, and were originally angry because Prince Xin made excuses and refused to meet them, but when they saw the scene before them, they couldn't help swallowing their saliva.

"Didn't you say before that Prince Xin had 150,000 troops?"

"What you said is outdated. When we first entered Wuchang Prefecture, there were already 170,000. Now the people have returned. The 200,000 are still because Prince Xin strictly disciplined his subordinates and asked them to remove the crooked ones. Otherwise, there would be more."

"hiss!"

On the city wall, people were discussing this matter everywhere, and everyone was shocked by the scene and speechless.

……

And in a corner of the city wall.

"King Chuang, I'm afraid we'll have to wait for a while!" Niu Jinxing looked grim, "Our people haven't arrived yet, and the Governor's Mansion has been sealed."

"From the current perspective, I'm afraid there is no chance."

Under Niu Jinxing's insistence, Li Zicheng finally acquiesced to his action. However, although the people had been found and the action had not been implemented, news came out that the three camps were gathering outside the city.

Li Zicheng looked at the flags with the word "Xin" fluttering in the wind, and his face looked extremely bad.

At this moment, someone outside came to report, "Prince Chuang, Prince Xin's people just sent a letter over."

"Oh, come on, bring it here."

Li Zicheng took the letter from the other party and was stunned.

There was not much content in the letter, and the summary was just a few words: I want to attack Hangzhou City. Since everyone has elected me as the flag bearer, and I have never had any military achievements except the battle with Zuo Liangyu, I am now willing to capture Hangzhou City as a return gift to you to show my sincerity.

Niu Jinxing was surprised to see King Chuang standing there without moving for several breaths, so he walked forward and looked at the letter in King Chuang's hand.

"Hiss~" Niu Jinxing's mouth twitched, "Conquer Hangzhou City? A return gift to the rebel kings?"

Song Xiance also saw the letter at this moment, "Such a big move? This..."

Since the letter has reached their hands, it must have also reached the hands of other rebel kings, which means that Prince Xin is fine.

Previously, Niu Jinxing instigated King Chuang to assassinate King Xin simply because he wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to seize the flag and integrate the other rebel kings. Now that this letter has been released, even if King Xin encounters an accident, King Chuang has no hope.

It’s simple, comparing yourself with others will make you feel nauseous.

How many troops does Prince Xin have? How many troops does Prince Chuang have?

Secondly, if you want to capture Hangzhou City as a return gift to the rebel kings, if you, the King of Chuang, want to take the throne, you must also show "sincerity" to match it, right?

But as for the current subordinate of King Chuang, it is unknown whether Hao Yaoqi is alive or dead, and the other troops have also suffered heavy losses at the hands of the government troops. How could they have so many manpower to attack a big city like Hangzhou?

Li Zicheng gritted his teeth and finally sighed, "It's fate, forget it!"

"Is this what the old people call destiny?" Niu Jinxing had a look of unwillingness. He had calculated his own fate and knew that he was destined to be the prime minister of the city. If Prince Xin became the leader of the rebel kings, wouldn't his position as prime minister be a distant dream?
Li Zicheng is not a naive person. Why would he continue to do such stupid things even now?

"Prince Xin... a young man can actually have such courage and spirit."

People's joys and sorrows are not the same. Li Zicheng could never have imagined that the rebel Prince Xin was now overwhelmed and upset because the number of people in his team was growing too fast.

Li Zicheng wrote a handwritten letter to Li Shuangxi, "Go back and let Guiying lead the team to take advantage of the situation and make some trouble!"

"Godfather, what is the general trend?"

Li Zicheng pointed at the soldiers under the city and said, "Good question, what is the general trend? This is the general trend... The soldiers in your hands are powerful and powerful. No matter what decision you make, the ups and downs you stir up are the general trend of the world."

Everyone was silent.

Only the youngest, Li Shuangxi, seemed to be thinking about something.

……

ps: After a few chapters of preparation, the next step is the real bloodbath in Jiangnan!
(End of this chapter)