scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 421
Although I temporarily rejected the suggestion of the dog legs to instigate myself to become emperor, the persuasion of the officials of the fat army also reminded Fatty Lu of two things. First, the dignitaries of the fat army are already very dissatisfied with the current political situation. He is anxious to consolidate his vested interests, and the second is that Fatty Lu must speed up his efforts to appease the middle forces he can win over. Otherwise, the political value of Old Man Wu's traitorous edict will really expire and become invalid.

With this in mind, on the second day of the first lunar month, Fatty Lu summoned Wang Pingfan's deputy Wu Zhen and Wang Pingfan's adopted son at the Desheng Gate in the northwest of Beijing's inner city, taking the opportunity of condolences to the Fatty Army and the family members of the old Pingxi Palace. Wang Jizhen made a promise to them in person, pointing to the Desheng Gate under her feet and swearing in public that unless the majestic Desheng Gate collapses on its own, she will never usurp the throne and become emperor!If you repent and break your promise, the sky will hate it, the earth will hate it, and you will die under swords and arrows!
In the end, Fatty Lu announced that he would give Wang Fuchen and Wang Pingfan the two houses in the Zan'er Hutong next to Deshengmen, so that after their families came to Beijing, they would personally monitor whether they reneged on their promises and cheated! ——To be precise, it is to monitor whether Fatty Lu has sent someone to dig up Tade Shengmen to create momentum for himself to seek rebellion and usurp the throne.

It is true that Wang Pingfan and Wang Fuchen are loyal to Old Man Wu, but they are not from the Wu clan, and their hostility, suspicion and suspicion towards Fatty Lu are naturally not as big and deep as that of the Wu clan. Wu Zhen and Wang Jizhen immediately felt relieved, and they agreed to urge Wang Pingfan and Wang Fuchen to accept the canonization of Fatty Lu and lead the army to surrender. For his loyalty, he urged the Wu clan to lead their troops to surrender as soon as possible, and join forces with Zhou Dongliang and the first loyal minister Lu Fatzi to exterminate Guo Zhuangtu's rebels.

Of course, it was easy for Fatty Lu to swear in front of old Wu’s traitorous hardcore lackeys, and he said it beautifully and happily, but the few fatty Lu’s lackeys who were present at the time were very anxious, and just sent Wu Zhen and Wang Jizhen away Then, the lackeys challenged Fatty Lu together, accusing Fatty Lu of saying such a thing and making such an oath—even if he should not swear in the future, when Fatty Lu usurps the throne and proclaims himself emperor in the future, he will make an extra infamy out of thin air.

"What's the rush? I just swore that I would not usurp the throne, and I didn't swear that my descendants would not usurp the throne." Fatty Lu's answer made the lackeys heave a sigh of relief. For a while, they suspected that Fatty Lu was planning to follow Wei Wu and Zhou Wen, and that he would not be the emperor. Son, but Fatty Lu's next words made the running dogs dumbfounded.

Fatty Lu said with a smile like this, "Besides, if the fate is in Gu, and God must let Gu be the emperor, then this Deshengmen will naturally be overthrown by God." ——You can’t doubt that the fate cannot belong to Fatty Lu, can you?
But not to mention, in this era of superstitious superstition and chaotic gods and respect for etiquette, Fatty Lu's casual oath really received some results. When Wu Zhen brought the news back to Xi'an, Wang Pingfan, who had long been willing to surrender, no longer Hesitating, he immediately sent envoys to contact the fat army generals Han Daren and Xie Chang stationed in Tongguan, and asked Han Daren and Xie Chang to send troops to take over Xi'an, and then followed Ma Bao to lead more than [-] people from his troops to join the fat army and accept the reorganization of the fat army. Ping Fan himself led his family members and important generals to Beijing to accept the canonization of Fatty Lu face to face. The overjoyed Fatty Lu went out of the city thirty miles to greet him without mentioning it.

There is also Wang Fuchen, since Wang Pingfan has surrendered to the Fatty Army, there is no danger for Wang Fuchen's rear, but fortunately, Wang Fuchen has broken through Lanzhou at this time, beheaded the hardcore traitor Zhang Yong, and captured Zhao Liangdong and his sons Zhao Hongcan and Zhao Hongxie alive , Completed Fatty Lu's entrustment to him.With peace in his heart, Wang Fuchen ordered Zhao Liangdong and his son to be escorted to the capital to dedicate to Fatty Lu, and at the same time carefully put forward the conditions of submission, using the pretext of the Ordos Mongolian tribe's rebellion and Geldan's eye-catching eyes, and hoped that the army would not be reorganized. Wang Fuchen himself stayed in Lanzhou , only sent his son and his family to Beijing as hostages.

Fatty Lu's answer was beyond Wang Fuchen's expectations. He not only agreed to Wang Fuchen's request not to reorganize and stay in Lanzhou, but also offered to keep Wang Fuchen's family members in Gansu under the pretext of the war and the danger of the road, and named Wang Fuchen Gan Ning. The governor is also in charge of Ningxia. At the same time, Fatty Lu also added [-] troops to Wang Fuchen's team with a swipe of the pen, allowing Wang Fuchen to have [-] troops in Gansu.When the news was sent back to Lanzhou, Wang Fuchen was overjoyed, and immediately led the army to change flags, announcing that he would accept the command of Fatty Lu.

Of course, this decision of Fatty Lu caused a lot of controversy. Many civil and military officials of the Fatty Army believed that Wang Fuchen was capricious, and he did not withdraw military power and reorganize the army. According to Bao's strategy, he transferred Wang Fuchen back to Beijing to listen to him, reorganized Wang Fuchen's team, and put the reliable fat generals in charge of Gansu and Ningxia.

"Being a person and doing things, you must not copy them mechanically." Fatty Lu answered the lackeys' questions in this way, "Wang Fuchen is different from General Wang Pingfan and General Ma Bao. General Wang Pingfan is unwilling to fight the Great Zhou Civil War. General Ma is old I am tired of war, but Wang Fuchen still wants to fight and make contributions. At the same time, Wang Fuchen didn't have a good relationship with me before, and there are many arrogant soldiers in the team. Under these circumstances, forcibly reorganizing Wang Fuchen's army will inevitably make Wang Fuchen and him Doubts have arisen among the main generals, and this has led to new disasters, only if Wang Fuchen is allowed to leave his direct line of troops and his life-saving capital, he will believe that I have no intention of killing him, and he will rest assured to submit to me."

"Besides, Wang Fuchen's excuse is also tenable." Speaking of this, Fatty Lu paused, and said seriously: "The rebellion of thousands of traitors in Ordos may be easy to solve, but in the face of these traitors There is Ge Erdan behind him, that is the real wolf. Under such circumstances, our army forcibly recruited Wang Fuchen's army. Even if it succeeded, it would be difficult to quickly stabilize the situation in a short period of time due to the sparsely populated terrain in the northwest. If it fails, and Wang Fuchen is forced to go to Gerdan's side, the consequences will be even more dire! So for our army, the best way is to satisfy Wang Fuchen's support The wish of self-respect, let him block Gerdan for us! Also, stop those white hats in Gan Ning!"

After listening to Fatty Lu's incisive analysis, Fatty's army, civil and military, all admired him, but some people were still a little worried, and said cautiously: "The prince is right, but Wang Fuchen has a large army in Gansu. If he is big..."

"Wang Fuchen has no chance to grow up." Fatty Lu interrupted with a smile, "Gansu and Ningxia are no longer Xixia in the Song Dynasty. Gan Ning founded the country, but what about now? Among other things, as long as we cut off the grain supply to Gan Ning for a year, how many people will be left in Wang Fuchen's team? Besides, Ma Yaozi is now in his fifties and can still live several years?"

Fatty's army, civil and military, suddenly realized that they quickly flattered and praised Fatty Lu's clever calculations like a god in unison.But Fatty Lu was not completely relieved, and summoned Wang Pingfan and Ma Bao overnight, and told them straight to the point, "I asked Wang Fuchen to stay in Gansu and transferred you back to Beijing. You go to fight the civil war, and I don’t want you to shoot and shoot at your former comrades-in-arms, can you understand my painstaking efforts?” Wang Pingfan and Ma Bao nodded to express their understanding, and then Fatty Lu rewarded the two of them again, compensating them for the peaceful liberation The sacrifices made by Shaanxi and Jiangxi.

The time is approaching March in a blink of an eye, the spring snow in Beijing has melted away, and the temperature is gradually rising. The strategic plan of the Fat Man Army to conquer Liaodong and wipe out the remnants of the Qing Dynasty has also entered the countdown. After a series of intensive and careful preparations, on the first day of March, Fat Man's Conquest of Peking University General and Liaodong Governor Gao Dejie finally led an army of [-] to launch the Northern Expedition, attacking Shengjing Jiancheng, which was entrenched by the Qing court. Great important town, strive to wipe out the Qing court in the territory of Liaodong, or take the next best thing and drive the Qing court back to the hometown of Tunguska.

On the day of the expedition, Fatty Lu personally rushed to Shanhaiguan to see off Gao Dejie's army, boosted the morale of the three armies, and reiterated the four-kill order of the Fatty Army, announcing that he would buy four surnames from the Mite, Korean, Oroqen, and Mongolian ethnic groups in Liaodong with money and grain. The head of the evil slave announced that the mite people who are not evil slaves of the four surnames can avoid death as long as they cut their braids and grow their hair.In the end, Fatty Lu quietly told Gao Dejie to do more crimes, to find all kinds of excuses to massacre the Liaodong Banner people, to kill the grass and roots as much as possible, once and for all, Gao Dejie understood and agreed.

Sending off Gao Dejie's army, on the way back to Beijing, an unexpected news came to Fatty Lu. The Fatty Army on the southern front led by Li Tianzhi had suffered a big defeat in Fujian for the first time—in order to get Zheng Jing's troops as soon as possible. Hurrying back to Taiwan, Yang Yingyuan, the pioneer of the fat army, underestimated the enemy because of his consecutive victories, and was greedy for meritorious deeds. He mistakenly caught Zheng Jun in an ambush in the area of ​​Magang Hall in the north of Xiamen Island. The Fatty Army was caught off guard and suffered a disastrous defeat, with more than 2000 troops lost, including more than 4000 cavalry. Lan disappeared, Yang Yingyuan was seriously wounded, and led the defeated army to flee back to Quanzhou City.

The Battle of Magang Hall was the biggest defeat of the Fatty Army since its formation, and it was also the first time that the Fatty Army lost more than [-] troops in a defeat. Therefore, after reading this battle report, Fatty Lu inevitably frowns deeply and looks worried. color.Seeing Fatty Lu's displeasure, Yao Qisheng on the side comforted him, "Your Majesty, don't worry. Victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs. It's normal for our army to suffer occasional setbacks. Besides, most of the troops under General Yang Yingyuan are soldiers from Zhejiang and Fujian. , The main force of our army has not lost much, and when General Li Tianzhi leads the main force of our army to Quanzhou, he will surely be able to avenge the fallen soldiers of our army."

"Zheng Jing's son was forced back to the east of Zhangzhou by our army. He has plenty of troops. It's nothing surprising and I won't care about it." Fatty Lu shook his head and said seriously: "What I'm worried about now is what will happen after the Magang Hall battle. With a chain reaction, there may be problems in Guangdong, and the war in the Fujian-Guangdong battlefield may also be delayed for a long time."

"There's going to be a problem in Guangdong?" Yao Qisheng was taken aback, and asked in doubt, "Why does the lord think so?"

"Last time when Shang Zhixin sent his son back to Wanyi, I took the opportunity to ask our army to compensate him in Datin Prefecture and Ganzhou, but I rejected it." Fatty Lu said quietly: "I know the virtues of my brother-in-law very well. Rejecting his request for land cession, although he did not express dissatisfaction, and voluntarily withdrew the Guangdong army in Fujian, but he must have hated me to the bone in his heart, but he was afraid of the might of our army and did not dare to attack. The Harbor Office suffered a big defeat, and the loss is not small, so he will inevitably have evil intentions and take the opportunity to attack our army."

"No way." Yao Qisheng couldn't believe it, and said suspiciously: "Shang Zhixin has the guts to go to war against our army? Can't he see that the loss of our main force in Fujian is not big at all. There are still 10,000+ troops, and Shang Zhixin has Have the guts to be buried with Zheng Jing?"

"It's hard to say." Fatty Lu shook his head again, pointed to a line of words on the battle report and said, "Did you see that? In the Battle of Magang Hall, Zheng Jing was able to win a big victory. Apart from occupying a favorable terrain to wait for work, another important reason was to take A large number of new firearms have been produced, where did Zheng Jing's new firearms come from?"

"Guo Zhuangtu!" Yao Qisheng blurted out.

"That's right, it's only him. Let's not say that the possibility of Zheng Jing obtaining new gunpowder production technology is very small. Even if he has the technology, he can't make it without enough time and raw materials." Fatty Lu nodded, and said darkly: "Guo Zhuangtu was able to hook up with Zheng Jing's son, so naturally he would not miss the opportunity to hook up with Shang Zhixin's son. Now that Zheng Jing used the firearms supported by Guo Zhuangtu to win the battle in Magang Hall, it is tantamount to letting Shang Zhixin see When he is a role model and sees the hope of defeating our army, if Guo Zhuangtu tries to seduce him again, the possibility of seducing him will be great."

Yao Qisheng nodded again and again, thinking that Fatty Lu's words were justified - with Lord Shang Zhixin's superb personality, it is indeed very possible to do such a thing.But after thinking about it, Yao Qisheng said with a smile again: "Misfortunes come with blessings. If this is the case, it may not be all bad things for our army—at least, we don't even need to find excuses, and we can justifiably take the The capricious Pingnan Palace was wiped out."

"This king also thinks so." Fatty Lu nodded with a smile, and then ordered: "Just in case, Master Yao, draft an order for this king, and first send it to Wang Shaobo and Xie Dong, and ask them to increase the size of the Xuanwu Lake and West Lake arsenals. We must do our best to meet the supply of firearms for Li Tianzhi's army on the southern front. Speed ​​up the construction of the Tongling arsenal, and then find suitable locations in the south of the Yangtze River to build two or three new arsenals, and find more greenite and alum mines that can be mined. In future wars between us and Guo Zhuangtu, we may fight over the production and supply of firearms."

Yao Qisheng agreed, and immediately drew up a pen to draw up an order. Fatty Lu added: "You are in charge of Bingcao. You can raise the purchase price of the soil nitrate in Zhili and Shandong areas. You should encourage the enthusiasm of the people in these places to refine nitrate. The official Cao said hello, said what the king wanted, and asked the prefectures and county magistrates of each province to start a competition. Once a year, whoever collected the most nitrate for the king would be promoted to a higher level and awarded once. Don't be afraid of the local officials. In order to get promoted and force people to refine nitrate, only by ensuring the supply of nitrate can we hope to eliminate Guo Zhuangtu who also has new firearms."

Yao Qisheng agreed again, and quickly drew up the first Jun decree. Fatty Lu ordered: "The second one is for Li Tianzhi, let him inform the troops bordering Fujian and Guangdong as soon as possible, especially Liu Jinzhong and Du Jun in Chaozhou. Ministers of the state, you must inform them, and let them be prepared to prevent Shang Zhixin from betraying the water, and don't suffer the big loss of Magang Hall just because they are caught off guard."

"Let me know Li Tianzhi again. If Shang Zhixin suddenly turns his back on us and joins forces with Zheng Jing and Guo Zhuangtu to attack our army." Fatty Lu thought for a while, and added: "If this happens, Li Tianzhi must remember to attack once and for all. The tactics of defense, let the partial division do its best to defend against Shang Zhixin's attack, and the main force to attack Zheng Jing with all its strength. If this is done, my best brother-in-law will definitely not rescue Zheng Jing with all his strength in order to preserve his strength and sit on the mountain to watch the tiger fight. He will just sit back and watch Zheng Jing I was driven back to Taiwan by our army. But don’t take the offensive on both fronts at the same time. If you do this, Shang Zhixin and Zheng Jing will definitely unite tightly in order to protect themselves, and work together to resist our army’s attack. Instead, our army will increase The difficulty of conquering Fujian and Guangdong. There must be priorities, Zheng Jing first and then Xin Xin."

"Understood." Yao Qisheng nodded in agreement, and asked again: "My lord, for Shang Zhixin, should we give him an edict in advance like Geng Jingzhong, as long as he is willing to surrender, surrender his army and land, he will be given He was raised by a leisurely noble? And your father-in-law Shang Kexi, what should we do?"

"No!" Fatty Lu refused with a wave of his hand, and snorted coldly, "I used Xianjuehoulu to raise Geng Jingzhong because Geng Jingzhong had truly fought the Qing Dynasty and killed Mangou, and he owed his compatriots and Huaxia! What did Shang Zhixin, the little monk Kexi, have done? Donated 100 million taels of silver to Kang Mazi as military pay, feigned surrender to the Great Zhou court to protect the traitors and Man Gou in Guangdong, deliberately let the Man Gou in Guangzhou Mite City go, and deliberately did not clean Guangdong Hard-core traitors in the local government and the army, among these crimes, which one deserves death?!"

"Tell Li Tianzhi, after the capture of Guangzhou, the Pingnan Palace will not be left behind! All property and land will be confiscated! Don't give me face!" Fatty Lu said darkly: "If Li Tianzhi can't get rid of the old feelings, you can take my Give the massacre order to Zeng Yangxing or Ma Jiuyu, let Zeng Yangxing and Ma Jiuyu avenge their comrade Bai Xianzhong!"

(End of this chapter)