After Liang Huafeng read out the secret decree, Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu returned to Nanjing with their troops and horses in despair, and the new governor of Jiangnan, Liang Huafeng, sent them to the border of Suzhou Prefecture, and then turned back to appease the army and make friends with those new subordinates. Seeing that the civil and military officials who had flattered him not long ago were now hiding from him like a plague, Jiang Guozhu was angry and hateful, and secretly said that he must give these villains some shame in the future; But Guan Xiaozhong seemed to have completely seen it, and after hearing Jiang Guozhu's private complaints, he said flatly: "If I were them, it would be the same, and this is no longer my business." ”

As Shunzhi expected, after Jiang Guozhu left the confines of Suzhou Prefecture, he began to raise hopes again, believing that the imperial court's treatment of them may not be very serious, and it is likely that it is only a fine and demotion, after all, they still repelled Zheng Chenggong in the end. Jiang Guozhu found Guan Xiaozhong again, and secretly guessed what kind of punishment the imperial court would give them, but Guan Xiaozhong still looked discouraged, shook his head, and still said the same sentence: "What the imperial court does with us, don't do my business, I just need to obey the order to bring the troops back to Jiangning." ”

As soon as the two of them and their headquarters army stepped into the territory of Changzhou Prefecture, they saw that all the beacon towers along the river had been set on fire. When Jiang Guozhu was in doubt, Nanjing's messenger for help came like crazy, saying that Deng Ming commanded tens of thousands of troops and suddenly killed the city of Nanjing, and Lang Tingzuo, the governor of Liangjiang, fell into the hands of the enemy.

"Isn't Deng Ming in Huguang? How did he fly here? Jiang Guozhu was shocked when he heard this, and asked in disbelief: "And tens of thousands of thieves, how did they sneak under Jiangning City?" ”

As the former governor of Jiangnan, Jiang Guozhu was very clear about the deployment of the Qing army, knowing that after Zheng Chenggong retreated to Chongming Island, the sailors of the two rivers had all rushed to Wuhu to encircle and intercept Zhang Huangyan's Zhejiang army. Not long ago, although I heard that the Qing army had suffered a setback in Anqing, this was not affected by the overall situation, and the Qing army still firmly controlled the Yangtze River in the upper reaches of Nanjing.

"There must not be tens of thousands," Guan Xiaozhong seemed to have recovered some jīng gods after hearing this, and he immediately made a judgment: "It must be an exaggeration." Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses do not mention the grain and grass consumed per rì, how can they transport baggage without the Yangtze River? Even if they had enough mules, horses and vehicles, how much of a movement would it be to go overland? It must have been discovered a long time ago. This must be a small number of routs of the enemy, and there are no weapons to carry and baggage. ”

"Then how did they defeat our army under Jiangning City and capture the Governor?" Although Guan Xiaozhong had far more combat experience than Jiang Guozhu, who had always trusted his judgment, it was still difficult for him to believe that this was something that a rout could do.

"It's probably because the Governor is defenseless, just like we beat Zheng Chenggong." Guan Xiaozhong said lightly. He has been working for the Manchus since the period of Huang Taiji, and has participated in the battles of Songshan and Jinzhou, experienced dozens of battles of all sizes, and fought with the Ming army more than a dozen times as a commander after entering the customs. It was precisely because of this great merit and rich military experience that the Qing court appointed him as the governor of Jiangnan to guard the key places for the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Jiang Guozhu's eyes lit up suddenly, and he shouted to Guan Xiaozhong: "What a chance, let's rush back to Jiangning in the starry night to relieve the siege and rescue the governor, this is an opportunity for God to give us meritorious service and atone for our sins." ”

"It's useless." Guan Xiaozhong shook his head, he felt that this was no longer a matter of meritorious service, but that the Eight Banners of Manchuria felt that they owed them a blood debt. In the past few days, Guan Allegiance has thought carefully, there are not many people in the Eight Banners of Manchuria, most of them are related to their relatives, 4,000 soldiers of the Eight Banners of Manchuria were killed in the first battle of Zhenjiang, from the princes and ministers to the ordinary bannermen, almost all relatives and acquaintances from far or near were killed, and no one would say good things about themselves. Guan Xiaozhong glanced at the excited Jiang Guozhu, and felt that this difficult brother and brother were better than his own situation, after all, Guan Xiaozhong was the commander of the first army and the first person responsible for the defeat.

After listening to the reason for the allegiance, Jiang Guozhu was also stunned. Before that, he also bribed the emperor's confidants and ministers such as Ao Bai and Sony, hoping that they could help him say a few good words, but these two people also had distant sons and nephews, or favored minions in the banner who died in battle.

"Besides, when the garrison in Wuhu hears about it, they will definitely return to Jiangning immediately, and they will go down the river much faster than us." Guan Xiaozhong ruthlessly shattered Jiang Guozhu's last luck psychology: "I conclude that Deng Ming has no heavy food and grass, and his troops are also very weak, and it is estimated that it will take less than two days to be seen through the truth, and we will be driven away again if we don't return to the division." Alas, none of this has anything to do with us. ”

Jiang Guozhu and Guan Xiaozhong have worked together for a long time, and they know that the other party must be right in their words on military issues. The defeat of Zhenjiang is mainly because Zheng Chenggong is strong and strong, and his commanderial talent is also very good, so it cannot be said that Guan is loyal and incompetent. However, Jiang Guozhu was still a little unwilling, and still hoped that Guan Xiaozhong's judgment was wrong, and hoped that if the Qing army in Wuhu reacted slowly and failed to relieve the siege of Nanjing in time. Jiang Guozhu hoped that Guan Xiaozhong's guess about the imperial court was wrong, and the emperor would forgive the two for their repulsion of Deng Ming.

After walking in Changzhou Mansion for another three days, new news came, Guan Xiaozhong's judgment was correct, and all the sailors of the Qing court returned to Nanjing, but the result was that they were wiped out by Deng Ming. In addition to the sailors, the green battalions from Jiangxi to aid Nanjing were also annihilated. This result naturally made Jiang Guozhu dumbfounded, and Guan Zhizhong was also inexplicable, and after careful questioning, the two of them understood what was going on.

After rushing back to Nanjing from Wuhu, the Qing army was quite tired, and saw that Hu Laoxiao, the deputy general of Yuezhou who had arrived in advance, had already built a large camp, the camp wall was solid, and it was double-layered, the trench was also dug quite deep, and the inner and outer sides were arranged with antlers. The Qing army was quite happy, feeling that although this old man Hu was timid, he also had the benefit of being timid, and such a strong camp was worth 100,000 troops.

After entering the camp, the officers and soldiers fell asleep, wanting to have a good rest and fight with the Ming army again. But Hu Laoxiao, who didn't want to prepare a camp for everyone, turned out to be Li Laiheng, a giant in Xingshan. That night, he broke into the army and burned the company camp, and together with the Zhejiang army, he used the camp wall to surround the Qing army in chaos -- it turned out that Li Laiheng repaired such a strong fortification for the Qing army. There were many brave soldiers in the battalion, if it weren't for the Ming army building a double-layer camp wall and trench, although the incident happened suddenly, these Jiangxi and Nanjing jīng soldiers might not have been wiped out by the Ming army.

The most unfortunate was probably the standard battalion of the governor of Liangjiang, who originally went to Chaohu to pursue Zhang Huangyan and killed the guards who followed Zhang Huangyan, although they did not catch up with Zhang Huangyan himself, but they also successfully completed the task assigned by Nanjing. After returning to Wuhu after the victory of the standard battalion, he received the news that Nanjing was in distress before he could sit down, so he hurried back by boat, and was also killed together.

"It's despicable!" Jiang Guozhu was furious, scolding Deng Ming and Li Laiheng for being shameless to the extreme.

"What are we doing here?" It seemed that nothing could move Guan Xiaozhong anymore, he calmly listened to what happened, and then continued to lead the soldiers and horses towards Nanjing.

"What's the trick for Lord Guan" After Jiang Guozhu calmed down, he hurriedly asked.

"I don't have any clever plan, the emperor asked me to take the headquarters back to Nanjing, and I will go back to Nanjing." Guan Xiaozhong replied.

"What about the thieves outside Nanjing?"

"Don't do my business, anyway, I'll take my subordinates back to Nanjing, and then wait for the court to send it." Guan Xiaozhong paused for a moment, and then said: "The city wall built by Zhu Hongwu is by no means something that can be broken lightly, what can they do with such a small number of people?" In the end, it is necessary to withdraw from the army. ”

……

Deng Ming and Li Laiheng did not move for the next few days, and the Ming army did not have the strength to encircle Nanjing, not even to semi-encircle Nanjing like Zheng Chenggong. Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu led their troops to the north of Nanjing, and the two of them had no intention of engaging the Ming army outside the city, and the defenders also recognized the two and opened the city gate to let them enter the city.

The holy decree displayed by Liang Huafeng only dismissed Jiang Guozhu from his post and kept him in office, and when he came to Nanjing, he was left in office, and naturally the governor of Liangjiang cleaned him up. But now that Lang Tingzuo was captured by the Ming army, Jiang Guozhu, who remained in office, naturally took over the Yamen, the governor of Liangjiang, and took the power of Nanjing into his hands.

After Jiang Guozhu took over, he first asked Ma Fengzhi where he was, but he found that the prisoner car had not arrived in Nanjing at all -- after Ma Fengzhi was arrested, some of his henchmen followed behind the escort procession. These officers, who were both prosperous and loss-making with Ma Fengzhi, originally wanted to bribe officials in Nanjing to see if they could help the commander escape. But after learning the news of Deng Ming's defeat of the Qing army in Nanjing, the soldiers escorting the prisoner car were also panicked, and secretly discussed with Ma Fengzhi's subordinates, so they hijacked the prisoner car with a heart. They disguised themselves as Ming soldiers, attacked the panicked escort troops, and released Ma Fengzhi and the arrested guards.

A few escort soldiers escaped, and Jiang Guozhu guessed the true identities of those who hijacked the prisoner car after a little inquiry, and the sweat on his head flowed down at once.

After Zheng Chenggong withdrew from Chongming Island, Guan Xiaozhong concluded that Ma Fengzhi had missed the best opportunity to defect, and the defeat of the Min army would make it difficult for Ma Fengzhi to persuade his subordinates to follow him anyway. It is precisely because of such confidence that Guan Xiaozhong dared to give Ma Fengzhi an ultimatum to let him leave the army and come to Suzhou to meet him.

But now the situation is very different from that time, Deng Ming wiped out the Qing army near Nanjing, and Ma Fengzhi's subordinates are afraid that they will have the courage to rebel again. And now Ma Fengzhi himself knows very well that the Qing court will not let him go, and he doesn't know where he went after absconding, he must have rushed back to Wusong Mansion to incite troops, and he wanted to fight with the Qing court to break the net.

Now that he has no other reliable partners around him, Jiang Guozhu can only continue to discuss countermeasures with Guan Xiaozhong. But Guan Xiaozhong still looked like he had nothing to do with himself, saying that this was the matter of Liang Huafeng, the new governor of Jiangnan, and it seemed that Guan Xiaozhong was not even interested in informing Liang Huafeng of the news.

Jiang Guozhu really couldn't stand it, and scolded Guan Allegiance a few words, saying that he didn't take national affairs to heart at all, and failed the former emperor and the emperor's Longen. Guan Xiaozhong didn't talk nonsense with him, and immediately asked the guards to send off the guests, announcing that he was going to think about it behind closed doors and wait for the punishment of the imperial court. After leaving the Guan Allegiance Mansion angrily, Jiang Guozhu's mind was also cleared up a little by the wind, he lowered his head and thought about it, and finally did not send a messenger to Suzhou to send a jǐng report to Liang Huafeng.

The next day, Jiang Guozhu visited Guan Xiaozhong again, this time bringing with him another decree from the imperial court, which he had found in Lang Tingzuo's yamen.

"The emperor wants to raid our home." After seeing Guan Xiaozhong, Jiang Guozhu just shuddered and took out the holy decree, he couldn't bear it anymore, and threw himself on the table in Guan Xiaozhong's study and cried.

Raiding the house means taking away a piece of property, and as for relatives, the wife may still be able to keep it, and most of the concubines will also go to someone else. Jiang Guozhu knows that it is better to steal the house than to kill the head, and there is a theoretical comeback, but that is only theoretical. Under normal circumstances, if the emperor is very old and survives until the emperor's funeral, the new emperor may revive some of the old courtiers who have fallen down, so that they can be grateful to Dade and work harder. But now that Emperor Shunzhi is only in his twenties, Jiang Guozhu feels that he will definitely not survive that day. And as long as Emperor Shunzhi is still sitting on the dragon chair, he will not use a criminal minister who has been punished so heavily - not to mention that there will be no resentment, from high-ranking officials to nothing, everyone will have resentment.

Guan Allegiance didn't say a word, and took the secret decree and looked at it. His punishment was even heavier than Jiang Guozhu's, and he was actually assigned to a clothed slave as a slave. After reading it, Guan Xiaozhong sighed. The life of the Bao Yi slave is very miserable, even his wife is often insulted by the master, and when this happens, the Bao Yi has to accompany the smiling face. If Guan Allegiance becomes a slave of the clothed slave, he can imagine what will happen to his family, Shunzhi puts him in a position where he can be bullied at will, and any banner person can insult Guan Allegiance without scruples, vent the hatred in his heart, and perhaps add the jealousy when he saw him as a banner man of the Han army flying up to prominence before. Guan Xiaozhong thought of his daughter, and they definitely didn't have a chance to get married. Not to mention the son, after humiliating himself fiercely, there will definitely be people in so many enemies who want to cut the grass and eradicate the roots.

Jiang Guozhu beside him has already cried into tears, but despite his loyalty, he has no tears.

When the two were relatively speechless, an official from the governor's yamen suddenly came to him, saying that the Ming army outside the city had sent an envoy to negotiate with Nanjing.

Jiang Guozhu wiped away his tears, no matter what, he is still the highest governor in Nanjing, if the officials see him like this, it is estimated that the hearts of the people in the city will be scattered.

"Don't you want to go?" Guan Xiaozhong, who was dismissed from his post and stayed in office, was still the supreme military commander in the city for the time being, Jiang Guozhu asked casually, but immediately regretted it, and laughed self-deprecatingly: "This is not about the adult's business, alas, in fact, what is this for me?" ”

After saying that, Jiang Guozhu sorted out his official uniform, and was about to leave, but he didn't care about his allegiance and said: "I'll accompany Master Jiang on a trip." After seeing Jiang Guozhu's strange eyes, Guan Xiaozhong smiled bitterly: "Go out for a walk and breathe, otherwise Lord Jiang will come to collect my body tomorrow." ”

The two men came to the governor's yamen and saw that Deng Ming had released two low-ranking captured officers, and at the same time sent a messenger to indicate that the Ming army intended to exchange prisoners.

Originally, Deng Ming had always wanted to do this before, but the prefect of Jiangning thought that his status was too low and he didn't dare to call the shots. Yesterday, when Deng Ming sent someone to shout under the city, the prefect responded that the governor had returned, so today Deng Ming sent a messenger.

Most of the prisoners of war of the Min army were killed by Lang Tingzuo, but Yu Xin, Gan Hui and other high-ranking generals who were captured were still in prison, waiting for Běijīng to decide to escort Jingshi or behead them on the spot. Deng Ming expressed his willingness to exchange the captured Qing generals for Yu Xin, Gan Hui and others. In these few battles, Deng Ming captured several general generals and adjutant generals, and there were even more generals and guerrillas.

After understanding what Deng Ming meant, Jiang Guozhu's face sank, and he wanted to refuse the other party's request. Most of the generals of the Qing army don't treat soldiers as people, and high-ranking officials rarely treat generals as people, and they are usually polite because they are still useful, and now these generals have been captured by the Ming army, and the troops have been wiped out, and there is no use value at all, so what does Jiang Guozhu still care about their lives? Moreover, Yu Xin and Gan Hui are all credits, if they are handed over, then there will be no credit, and Jiang Guozhu will certainly not exchange valuable credits for worthless prisoners.

Jiang Guozhu was about to make an impassioned rebuke of Deng Ming's delusional thinking, declaring that these generals were unwilling to kill and become benevolent, and they were all traitors who failed Jun's grace and were greedy for life and afraid of death.

At this time, he suddenly heard Guan Xiaozhong sigh: "Poor." ”

This exclamation also touched a string deep in Jiang Guozhu's heart, making him suddenly feel a burst of sourness. In the list just reported by the envoy of the Ming army, several of them had also drunk and chatted with Jiang Guozhu, and had served him before and after the saddle. Now that Jiang Guozhu's family is about to die, and these former old subordinates are also in the enemy camp in a precarious situation -- Jiang Guozhu suddenly felt a sense of sadness about the death of a rabbit and a fox.

"And what's the use of giving credit now?" Jiang Guozhu thought sadly: "The emperor sent a secret decree to Lang Tingzuo, to raid my home and escort me to Jingshi, no matter how great the credit of Yu Xin and Gan Hui is, it has nothing to do with me." That's it, that's it. After Jiang Guozhu figured out this section, he planned to seriously discuss it with the envoys of the Ming army, and exchange Gan Hui, Yu Xin and others for a group of Qing army generals to return. He said to himself in his heart: "Even if you use this to buy some favors for myself, I hope that they will remember my life-saving grace in the future, and when I come to the door, they will give me some money, so that my family will not be on the streets, hungry and cold." ”

Seeing that the two civil and military officials of the Qing court present showed signs of agreement, Deng Ming's envoy was very happy and hit the railway while it was hot: "If there are other Fujian soldiers in the prison, my admiral also wants to redeem them together, two for one, three for one." After the release is returned, my Admiral will also return the Governor of Liangjiang to you. ”

"What?" Jiang Guozhu shouted.

Without waiting for Jiang Guozhu to speak out against it, Guan Youzhong, who had been unsuccessful for so many days, suddenly jumped up from his seat and shouted angrily to the envoy: "Wishful thinking! The Governor has been greatly gracious to the country and loyal to the Emperor, and even if he does not have the opportunity to kill himself, he will never agree to us releasing the rebels for his safety! ”

"That's what Lord Guan said." Jiang Guozhu shook his head and exclaimed, and then pointed to the messenger and shouted to the guards: "Boom out!" ”