scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 425 The Death of the Old Traitor

Fatty Lu borrowed a knife to kill people, and used Guo Zhuangtu and Xia Guoxiang to divide the Huguang Wu army, which was a monolithic Huguang Wu army. Xia Guoxiang's villains have clever means, but the key is that the generals of the Wu clan headed by Wu Yingjing brothers are not up to date, they only stand on their own standpoints and think about their own interests, so they naturally fall into the trap of Guo Zhuangtu and Xia Guoxiang. Trap, and then fell into the big trap of Fatty Lu.

Of course, the Wu clan cannot be completely blamed for their selfishness. The limitations of the times and cultural habits have determined that they can only consider their own interests from their own standpoint. There are really not many royal families who have killed them all. Even if the Wu clan in the Huguang Wu Army team does not think about their own prosperity, wealth and power, at least they have to think about their wealth and life. Seeing the viciousness of his relative Guo Zhuangtu towards the Wu clan, the Wu clan couldn't help but suspect Fatty Lu, who was also a relative of the Wu clan.

It is also because of this that after hearing the rumors that Fatty Lu attempted to usurp the throne and proclaim the emperor and exterminate the Wu clan, the Wu clan headed by the Wu Yingjing brothers naturally did not dare to take it lightly. In fact, Wu Guogui, the traitorous son of the old man Wu, who has no blood relationship, has not sent accurate information for a long time. The suspicion of the Wu clan has naturally increased, and he has naturally become suspicious of his righteous brother Wu Guogui-this guy's daughter is Fatty Lu's wife. , if Fatty Lu usurps the throne and proclaims himself emperor, this guy will immediately be the first-class Chengen public authority, and his descendants will benefit endlessly. For his own benefit, will he betray the Wu clan that is not actually related by blood?
Suspicious neighbor stealing an axe, with such an idea, the Wu family will look at Wu Guogui's actions, and naturally there will be doubts everywhere. Why is Wu Guogui's northward speed so slow? Is it because he is dispatching troops to the fat army? Wu Jun of Huguang sweeps everything to buy time?Why was Wu Guogui immediately named the most important Fengtai Admiral of Gyeonggi Defense when he first arrived in Beijing, and he was known as a treacherous and cunning Fatty Lu?Why hasn't Wu Guogui sent any accurate information after he entered Beijing? What did Wu Guogui do with Fatty Lu during his time in Beijing?Could it be that Han Daren and Chen Bing in Henan were preparing for the use of force to wipe out the Wu clan?In fact, Fatty Lu, who already holds more than half of the world, will really return the throne to the old Wu family?There seem to be few such good officials and warlords throughout the ages, right?

With these suspicions, coupled with Xia Guoxiang and Guo Zhuangtu's direct instigation of dissension, and Fatty Lu's secret fueling, the Wu clan headed by Wu Yingjing's brothers, in order to protect themselves, survive and power status, the Jingzhou mutiny was naturally inevitable.But in this way, on the surface, it seems that Honghua's small court has achieved its goal and successfully prevented the Huguang Wu Army, which is the most powerful in the Wu clan, from being merged into the Fatty Army as a whole. In fact, the biggest beneficiary is Lu Fatty himself. He eliminated the potential enemy Huguang Wu army, absorbed a part of the Huguang Wu army to strengthen his strength, and got rid of the huge burden of the Wu clan, avoiding the countless hidden dangers caused by luring wolves into the house.

After all, Fatty Lu wants to sit back and reap the rewards and snatch the country that the old traitor Wu has almost obtained. The biggest obstacle is not only the moral issue, but also the Wu clan. Clan group, the nominal Wu clan like Wu Guogui can have it, but Wu relatives like the Wu Yingjing brothers absolutely cannot!At least not yet!Otherwise, when Fatty Lu usurps the throne and proclaims himself emperor, it must also be the time when Fatty's army is divided by civil strife!

Not everyone has such long-term vision and sinister intentions as Fatty Lu, and the generals of the Wu clan in Huguang don't understand their real value of restraining Fatty Lu. The Wu Yingjing brothers led the Wu clan in Huguang to launch a mutiny, arrest and detain him. Wu Guogui's third brother, Wu Guozheng, even gave Fatty Lu the legal value of starting a war that Fatty Lu could only dream of.After Fatty Lu gave another order, Wu Yingjing, the nephews of old traitor Wu, became rebellious in Dazhou. The fat general Han Daren, who had long been coveting the land of fish and rice in Huguang, finally got the opportunity to show his strength. On the [-]th day of August in the third year of Honghua, he led his army southward from Luoyang, under the banner of crusade against the rebels of the Great Zhou Dynasty and rescued the loyal minister Liu Zhifu of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and brutally attacked the Wu army in Huguang.

Because Wu Guogui had already received a letter written by Wu Guogui, the main force of the fat army led by Han Daren had just arrived in Nanyang, the northernmost point of the Wu army's control in Huguang. After entering the city, they accepted the canonization and reorganization of the Fatty Army, and the Fatty Army Central Plains Army led by Han Daren, after absorbing the newly formed army of Wang Pingfan and Yang Laijia, had a strength of [-].

Immediately afterwards, Tao Jizhi, a general of the Wu army stationed in Xiangyang, also rejected the Wu clan's offer and chose to believe in the appeasement of his old comrade-in-arms Wu Guogui. Immediately went south to take over the defense of Xiangyang, lest the Wu clan lead the army to counterattack. Han Daren did not disappoint Tao Jizhi, and soon led the main force to the battlefield of Xiangyang, repelled Wu Yingjing's army, which had run out of firearms, with abundant new firearms, and successfully entered Xiangyang City .Because Tao Jizhi made a wise choice, he was canonized by Fatty Lu as the admiral of Henan, and he directly followed the first rank.

Then, of course, the civil war between the Fat Man Army and the Wu Clan broke out on a large scale.In order to weaken the Wu clan and eliminate hidden dangers, Fatty Lu was even more reluctant to appease Han Daren of the Wu clan, so he sent an envoy to Jingzhou to surrender. Liu Zhifu immediately sent troops to attack the areas controlled by the Wu clan. The Wu clan was not to be outdone, and while desperately resisting the aggression of the side allies, they asked for help from the Wu clan in Sichuan on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The cruel and bloody battle for Huguang also began. The curtain opened.

Fatty Army and the Wu clan completely turned their backs. Guo Zhuangtu and Xia Guoxiang, who had turned against the Fatty Army and Wu clan at the same time, of course wished for it, but Guo Zhuangtu and Xia Guoxiang were not satisfied with this, and soon sent envoys to contact the Wu clan to persuade Wu The clan recognized their ancestors and returned to their clan, accepted the command and dispatch of the Honghua court, and joined hands with the Honghua court to eradicate the real Da Zhou rebel Fatty Lu.But it is a pity that it is true that the Wu clan did not trust Fatty Lu, and even more distrusted Guo Zhuangtu who massacred the Wu clan and detained Hu Guozhu. The clan also warned the pair of brothers-in-law not to interfere, and not to fish in troubled waters, otherwise, the Wu clan would rather fight on two fronts than bow to any rebel!

Guo Zhuangtu and Xia Guoxiang refused to give up. Out of the consideration of the bitterness of the lips, Guo Zhuangtu tried to use the family members of the Wu family as a bargaining chip to try to appease the Wu family again.But at this moment, the most important ally of Guo Zhuangtu's brother-in-law, Shang Zhixin, Lord Shang, began to panic. The Fat Army Southern Army led by Li Tianzhi relied on its strong economic strength to fight desperately with Shang Zhixin's army to consume new firearms. The Shang army aided by Zhuangtu quickly ran out of ammunition, but couldn't withstand the thunderous all-out attack of the fat man's army on the southern front who were eager for revenge. They retreated steadily on the battlefield in eastern Guangdong. Chaozhou, Jiaying, Haifeng, Nanxiong and Lianzhou and other places fell one after another, the Shang army suffered heavy casualties, and the situation of surrender and escape was very serious. Wang Guodong was forced to retreat to Huizhou Fucheng, and the fat forward was less than three hundred miles away from Guangzhou.

In order to keep Shang Zhixin, the most important steadfast ally, Guo Zhuangtu had to abandon his plan to use firearms to support the Wu clan, a secondary ally and potential enemy, and instead concentrated his energy on the battlefield in Guangdong. However, the relationship between Guo Zhuangtu and Shang Zhixin On the land road, Zu Zeqing and Li Fengchun, the former subordinate of Yuer, made trouble. Although Ma Xiong, a veteran general in Guangxi, died of illness, his eldest son, Ma Chengyin, did not like the letter of Guo Zhuangtu and monk, and resolutely rejected Honghua. The small imperial court recruited and led his father's old troops to continue to follow the Wu clan and continue to fight against the Honghua small imperial court. Therefore, even if Guo Zhuangtu wanted to rescue Shang Zhixin with all his strength, the army could not be quickly thrown into the Guangdong battlefield, and he could only risk being defeated. Zuze Qingshui division intercepted the danger, and did his best to provide firearm reinforcements for Shang Zhixin through the sea.

Zu Zeqing's Gaozhou navy is really weak. No matter how they intercept it, they can't block the sea connection between Guo Zhuangtu and Shang Zhixin. Therefore, most of the new firearms produced by Guo Zhuangtu have been successfully delivered to the port of Guangzhou. It was handed over to Shang Zhixin, and helped Shang Zhixin win a little time to survive.But correspondingly, Guo Zhuangtu can do his best to provide firearm assistance to Shang Zhixin, and it is impossible for Fatty Lu to let Li Tianzhi attack Shang Zhixin with primitive cold weapons. It is the priority to supply Li Tianzhi's army. Every ten days or so, a fat army train will go south from the south of the Yangtze River, sending new firearms to Li Tianzhi's army in an endless stream, and always maintain the advantage of the number of firearms of the southern fat army.

Doing our best to ensure the supply of firearms for the Fat Army on the southern front is easy to say but not so easy to do. First of all, it is not the astronomical amount of money and food that is spent on the long supply line to recruit civilians. The Fat Army has paid a heavy economic price just for the production of these new firearms. , coupled with the need for money, food and weapons everywhere in multi-line operations, military expenditures accounted for more than [-]% of the fat army's tax revenue, resulting in the fat army still being unable to control the river and seal the embankment, and still unable to spend money and food to repair the Yellow River embankment blasted by the Qing army. Without money and food to develop the economy and improve people's livelihood, like all emerging dynasties, they are struggling to support the throes of the founding of the country.

By the way, in order to ensure the most important supply of saltpeter for the production of new firearms, the Fatty Army controlled the land to refine saltpeter, and countless jokes and tragedies were caused. For example, in two adjacent counties, two county magistrates tried to complete The tasks assigned by the boss and the promotion and fortune are all about fighting for the raw material of nitrate refining and toilet excrement at any cost. It is not uncommon for the guards of the two counties to steal the toilet soil and fight over a roadside public toilet. There have been rumors that toilet soil can be refined into gold, causing countless people to join in the looting of toilet soil, and there are countless fights and jokes about falling into cesspit. Almost all public toilets in the land controlled by the fat army have been dug deep five feet.

Fortunately, it was also at this time of fighting firearms and consumption that the fat man's army's manpower and material advantages were fully reflected. Even if the thinly populated provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou seized the opportunity to build a firearms construction site for many years, they still couldn't compete with the fat man's army. Basically, for every Sanhao rocket produced by the Yunnan-Guizhou Army, the Fatty Army can produce five. With the construction of a large number of new construction sites for the Fatty Army's firearms, and the full strength of saltpeter collection, the difference is getting bigger and bigger. Big.

The fat army paid a high price for the mass production of firearms, and Guo Zhuangtu paid even more. The supply of saltpeter, the most critical raw material, restricted the production speed of firearms in the small court of Honghua. In addition to refining, there are three important saltpeter production bases, namely, the Danite Cave in Shuicheng, Guizhou, the Gufo Cave in Jinfo Mountain, Chongqing, and Dashiwei, Leye, Guangxi. Now the two sources of saltpeter in Chongqing and Guangxi have been cut off. The only large-scale source of saltpeter left is the Great Nitre Cave in Shuicheng.The house leak coincided with continuous night rain, and at this fatal moment, the mine roof collapsed due to too much mining and too deep in the Shuicheng Big Nitrate Mine, not to mention a large number of migrant workers were buried alive, and the nitrate mining tunnel was completely blocked.When the news reached Kunming, Guo Zhuangtu wanted to cry but had no choice but to reduce the firearm assistance to Shang Zhixin again.

Guo Xiangye reduced the amount of firearm assistance to Lord Shang at a critical moment, which was tantamount to a catastrophe for Lord Shang. After Li Tianzhi discovered this situation through careful reconnaissance and scratching his tongue, he immediately stepped up his attack. Concentrated an army of more than 10 to storm Huizhou City, the east gate of Guangzhou.And Wang Guodong, the guard of Shangjun Huizhou, did not live up to Lord Shang's expectation of using [-] taels of silver to buy him out as a fugitive. After shooting out the last rocket and the last grenade, he decisively led the army to break through and abandon Huizhou. Fleeing to Guangzhou, the Fatty Army's superior cavalry pursued them with all their strength, and almost wiped out Wang Guodong's team on the road. In the end, only more than [-] Wang Guodong's men fled back to Guangzhou.

Fatty's army hit the city of Guangzhou, and the Pingnan Prince's Mansion was naturally in chaos. Lord Shang urgently ordered Jin Guangzu and monk Zhiying to abandon Shaozhou and lead the army back to help, and then shamelessly sent his nineteenth brother Shang Zhilin to visit Li Tianzhi. Trying to impress Li Tianzhi with old love, let Li Tianzhi stop Guangzhou, persuade Fatty Lu to accept the surrender of Pingnan Palace, willing to pay compensation for the army and cede half of Guangdong.

After listening to a lot of nonsense that Shang Zhilin said, Li Tianzhi remained calm, pointed at the fat generals on both sides of the handsome tent, and said to Shang Zhilin coldly: "Of course I remember the kindness of the old prince and the eldest prince. The old matter of wronging me and expelling me, I don’t care about it in terms of past affection—but if you want me to stop attacking Guangzhou and intercede in front of the prince for you, you must first ask these generals of the Yue Palace. No promise."

"No!" Zeng Yangxing, Ma Jiuyu, Liu Jinzhong, Lu Zhangtai, Guo Yingfu, Zhu Sanshui, Yang Yingyuan's son Yang Zhenghong and other fat generals roared in unison. The Fujian general Zeng Yangxing, who had a deep friendship with Bai Xianzhong, shouted with red eyes: "Tell Shang Zhixin Son, tell him to wash his neck and wait to die!"

"If I agree to you, what face do I have to see General Du Hui?" Liu Jinzhong roared with tears in his eyes: "Brother Du Guochen, the prince had planned to transfer him back to Beijing to reunite with General Du Hui and his son, but He resolutely refused in order to block Zheng Jing’s son for you, how did you repay him?! Brother Du and his son were separated for 15 years, and they were about to reunite, but they died at the hands of you ungrateful bastards! If I didn’t help him If he takes revenge, what face does he have to meet the prince? To meet General Du Hui?!"

"And Brother Yang Xizhen!" Liu Jinzhong finally shed tears, clenched his fists tightly and tried to stop his urge to tear Shang Zhilin into pieces, "Before he was helping you deal with Zheng Jing'er, he almost shot three arrows and one shot on the battlefield. Kill him and stay in Chaozhou city to recuperate, you ungrateful bastards not only suffocated him with mulberry paper, but also ruined his wife, his daughter..., my little niece... in front of him, It's not yet eleven... Bastards! You're all bastards——!"

"Brother Liu, please calm down." Lu Zhangtai was afraid that Liu Jinzhong could not restrain his anger and kill Shang Zhilin, which would ruin the reputation of his righteous brother not killing the messenger, so he quickly pulled Liu Jinzhong back.

"Generals, the lord has explained that you don't need to give him face with the Shang family." Li Tianzhi stood up and said as he walked towards the back tent, "I will give you time for a stick of incense. After a stick of incense, go out to attack the city."

"Follow the general's order!" Receiving Li Tianzhi's suggestion, the fat generals burst into cheers. As soon as Li Tianzhi walked into the back tent, the fat generals rushed towards Shang Zhilin who had already peed in his crotch with red eyes, and beat the little traitor with his bare hands. Shang Zhilin was hammered into meat sauce and torn into pieces.

A moment later, the main force of the Fatty Army was mobilized to attack the city of Guangzhou with all its strength. Zeng Yangxing, Ma Jiuyu, Liu Jinzhong and other generals of the Fatty Army who had blood feuds with the Shang Army rushed directly to the city and led the soldiers of the Fatty Army to storm the city wall of Guangzhou. Lu Zhangtai also played drums to cheer for his companions.Everyone in the Guangzhou Shang Army was devastated. Before the fat army's monstrous anger, they suffered heavy casualties, and the dead and escaped were countless.

The fierce siege battle lasted from noon to evening. The demoralized Shang army relied on the favorable terrain of the city wall to hold on, and barely persisted until it was completely dark. Continue the night battle, vowing to kill Shang Kexi's old traitor and his whole family, Ling Chi, to avenge the death of his comrades.Seeing that the situation was not good, Lord Shang Zhixin had no choice but to lead thirty brothers to the city wall to supervise the battle, and personally led the army to resist the onslaught of the fat army.In the night, torches were lit up and down the city of Guangzhou. Tens of thousands of people fought hard, and the sound of shouting and killing spread for miles.

No matter how angry the Fat Man Army is, of course it will not just blindly attack and attack. When it was dark, the engineers of the Fat Man Army also started to do it. They used the cover of night to dig a big hole in the wall of the East Gate of Guangzhou, buried explosives and set fire to it. Detonated, after a loud bang that shook the sky, a hole about three feet wide was blown out of the city wall of Guangzhou. Seeing that the situation was not good, the twenty or so brothers in the city either fled back to the inner city, or opened the city gate and surrendered to the fat army, trying to impress the soldiers of the fat army with their family love and old love, in exchange for their lives.

More than 12 brothers from the Shang family fled and surrendered. Naturally, the soldiers of the Shang army on the wall of the outer city would not foolishly stay and wait to die. They wisely surrendered to the fat man's army, and refused to give up and fled back to the inner city to continue to hold on. At that time, the Fatty Army entered the outer city in large numbers and quickly encircled the inner city.It was also at this time that Li Tianzhi heard from the three generals Zeng Yangxing, Ma Jiuyu, and Liu Jinzhong, and showed them the imperial edict of Fatty Lu ordering the massacre of Mite City in Guangzhou. If you can’t do it, you can entrust this decree to your execution. Anyway, I’ve followed Shang Kexi since I was [-], so I’ll leave this matter to you.”

"General, please rest assured." The three generals Zeng Yangxing, Ma Jiuyu, and Liu Jinzhong accepted the order with fists in their hands, and replied in unison: "The general can't do anything. We will carry out the king's orders for the general. None of the Shang family's traitors will be able to escape." !"

"Thank you three generals." Li Tianzhi nodded, and then said in a deep voice: "Three generals, Li Tianzhi has a small merciless request, please agree."

"Please give orders, General." Zeng Yangxing and the others replied neatly.

"Don't kill Shang Kexi, give him to me." Li Tianzhi lowered his head and said quietly: "As for Shang Zhixin, please three generals, leave him a whole body."

The three of Zeng Yangxing clasped fists, nodded vigorously, and then took the order and turned around to carry out the order. Li Tianzhi sat back in the handsome chair, looked at the bright starry sky above his head, and murmured: "Princess, I will try my best in the end. The old prince... , I'm sorry." After saying that, Li Tianzhi couldn't help but two tears fell from the corners of his eyes.

The attack on the inner city of Guangzhou went a hundred times smoother than Fatty's army had expected. The reason was that Prince Shang Zhixin's number one confidant, Wang Guodong, and his number one "favorite concubine", Shen Shangda, Shen Meiren, greedy for life and afraid of death, opened the gates of the inner city of Guangzhou to Fatty. The army offered the city in an attempt to survive by betraying Lord Shang in exchange for his life.What's even more outrageous is that the two most trusted guards of Lord Shang Zhixin, brothers Zhang Shixuan and Zhang Yongxiang, brought a group of Lord Shang's personal guards to knock Lord Shang unconscious, bound his hands and sent them to the fat army.

Of course, the villainous General Wang Guodong, Shen Meiren, Zhang Shixuan and Zhang Yongxiang brothers also failed to rely on the betrayer to save their lives. They massacred Wang Guodong, the number one executioner of the Geng Army Bai Xianzhong Department and the Fat Army Du Guochen Department. Zeng Yangxing, Ma Jiuyu and Liu Jin Zhong and the three were killed by their own hands, while Shen Meiren, Zhang Shixuan and Zhang Yongxiang were beheaded by Li Tianzhi's order, which also gave Li Tianzhi a chance to repay the Shang family's kindness.As for the poor Lord Shang Zhixin, he didn't even have the chance to kowtow in front of Li Tianzhi to beg for mercy, so he was directly hanged to death in Wuyang Tower by Zeng Yangxing and other fat generals.

At dusk, when the Fat Army was still massacring and looting in the mite city of Guangzhou, Shang Kexi, an old traitor who had become thin like a skeleton, was also carried to Li Tianzhi. At the same time, the fat army reported to Li Tianzhi that it was Shang Wan His biological mother, Princess Pingnan, Wanfujin, committed suicide by taking poison when the inner city fell. Li Tianzhi remained silent for a long time before ordering in a low voice that Wanfujin should be collected in a coffin and buried in Lianhua Mountain in Guangzhou. missing.

After dismissing the messengers, Li Tianzhi walked slowly to the old traitor Shang's stretcher, and lowered his head to stare at this hardcore old traitor who sold his country so much that he didn't even want his pants. I don't speak for a long time.After a long time, old traitor Shang moved his lips slightly, as if he was about to say something, Li Tianzhi knelt down to him, put his ear to his mouth, and listened carefully to his last words.

"Tell Lu Yifeng." The old traitor Shang said with difficulty in a low and inaudible voice: "Don't allow him to kill Kangxi's master and let him live. Otherwise, even if I become a ghost, I will not let him go."

"The prince is not allowed to kill Emperor Mangou?" Li Tianzhi was stunned, and asked in surprise: "Emperor Kangxi, Emperor Mangou, was hacked to pieces by Lord Lu more than three years ago. Don't you know, old prince?"

The old traitor Shang trembled violently, and his cloudy old eyes were full of shock. Li Tianzhi asked again in doubt: "My lord, didn't I tell you these things? The Emperor Mangou has already been cut by Lord Lu, and Beijing and Shengjing have also been killed by Lord Lu." It was won, and the dog-filled prince Baylor almost didn't run away, and was killed by Prince Lu, you don't know about these old princes?"

"Master...!" Old Man Shang's inaudible voice suddenly increased a lot, but before he could finish shouting two words, old man Shang already spat out a mouthful of dirty black blood, tilted his head, and died on the spot.But a pair of old eyes are still wide open and refuse to close.

"No wonder the lord hates you, father-in-law so much." After reaching out and trying the old traitor Shang, Li Tianzhi sighed and shook his head, then closed his eyes for the old traitor Shang with his own hands, and said in a low voice: "Old lord, you have done it yourself. Otherwise, the prince will not take your life, and neither will I. "

After standing up, Li Tianzhi beckoned for a few confidant soldiers, and whispered in their ears: "Take his body and burn it, and scatter his ashes into the Pearl River, don't leave any, otherwise, all the dogs will die." The emperor is his lesson from the past."

(End of this chapter)