After the imperial meeting, the ministers walked out of the hall in twos and threes, and they rushed to Sony's side with an arrow and asked in a low voice: "There have been some rumors about the name of Deng in Sichuan recently, I guess you have heard of them, right?" ”

"I haven't heard of it." Suni replied without hesitation, shaking his head violently.

Ao Bai stared at Sony dissatisfied, and he was very dissatisfied with the other party's lack of responsibility.

"Since I know it's a rumor," Sony also realized that he reacted too quickly just now, and when he encountered this kind of problem, he should first ask: "What rumor?" And then it's not too late to deny it. But Sonny is getting older, and the Imperial Front Meeting has been going on for too long today, so he is tired and has lost his proper jǐng and reaction: "Then what does it do?" ”

"How can you not care?" Ao Bai said anxiously, and his voice couldn't help but raise a little, but then he hurriedly lowered it: "Deng Ming is probably Chongzhen's son!" ”

"Who's to say it isn't?" Sonny nodded again and again, last time Shunzhi secretly told him and Ao Bai the news, and then ordered to exterminate Deng Ming with all his might, and sent an order to Li Guoying to die and not live. Shunzhi's reason is very sufficient, the Qing army entered the customs under the banner of avenging Chongzhen, and those literati who surrendered to the Qing court also used the Qing army to avenge their "father's revenge" This reason to comfort themselves, if Deng Ming is really Chongzhen's descendant, then his appeal is much higher than that of the prince of the Ming Dynasty, and can inspire many people who have died of the Ming Dynasty - although I don't know why Deng Ming wanted to hide this matter, but the Qing court must not publicize it for him, but to do its best to eliminate this great disaster.

"So the emperor wants to exterminate this person as much as possible, and it is strictly forbidden to ...... outside the news" Ao Bai said that the reasons that Shunzhi came up with last time, but now there are some absurd rumors circulating in the capital, that is, Deng Ming is actually a banner man, and the origin is not small, and today's son either has the hatred of taking his wife or killing his father, as time goes by, these rumors become more and more nose and eyes.

"Many of the two white flags are believed," Aobai's eyes were full of hatred, but there was also a hint of fear in them: "Such rumors should be quickly settled." ”

"How flat?" Seeing that Ao Bai had the intention of asking for his own method, Sonny hurriedly waved his hand and said: "Could it be that the emperor said that Deng Ming was actually the prince of Chongzhen, wouldn't this be a thief?" ”

Ao Bai also knew that this method would not work at all, if he had any good way, he took the initiative to propose it at the imperial meeting just now, and it was precisely because he was helpless that he came to discuss it with Sony.

But Sony didn't have the slightest idea of discussing the matter, and blocked all kinds of arguments about Ao Bai as quickly as possible: "I think the best way is not to believe rumors, let alone discuss rumors, if you go to calm down, it will fan the flames of rumors." ”

Sony was also followed by a young man, about twenty-five or six years old, this is Sony's third son, Suo Etu. Shunji gave him the status of the commander of the imperial guard, and Sonny brought him to thank him today, and he took his son home after the imperial meeting.

After Ao Bai left disappointed, Suo Etu's eyes flashed and he said to his father: "Amma, my son has a good way to share the emperor's worries. ”

"There's nothing you can do." Sonny shook his head, apparently not wanting to hear his approach at all.

"My son really has!" Suo Etu said anxiously, he was also surprised when he heard this rumor before, and gradually had a vague idea in his heart, when Ao Bai mentioned this matter just now, Suo Etu wanted to say the good plan he had figured out. Sony and Ao Bai are both Shunzhi's cronies of the Yellow Banner ministers, if you talk about the qualifications Sony is older, but in the past two years, Ao Bai has relied on his youth, and the limelight has begun to catch up with Sony. Suo Etu hoped that his father could monopolize the credit, so he endured until Ao Bai left, and then opened his mouth to say it, seeing that his father did not believe it, Suo Etu's face was anxious: "The son's way is to ......"

Sonny stood still, turned his head and glanced at Suo Etu coldly, and in an instant, the minister of the Zhenghuang Banner, who seemed to be old, suddenly had a momentum of not being angry and arrogant, and blocked the words on Suo Etu's lips again.

"Are you so sure it's a rumor?" After stopping his son's words, Sonny turned forward again, staggering towards the palace gate, his straight waist bent down again, the momentum he had just revealed had disappeared, and Sonny had become the old man in his old age again.

"Isn't it a rumor?" Suo Etu asked, his eyes wide.

"Hehe," Sonny walked slowly and chuckled a few times: "Deng Ming has painted a lot of forbidden things in the palace, and he is more familiar with the layout of Ouchi than me, and he doesn't call ** Chengtianmen, this will be the son of Chongzhen who escaped from běijīng seventeen years ago?" ”

"Isn't this all a rumor?" Suo Etu asked in surprise, as a noble son of a yellow flag, although he had also heard this, he didn't care about it at all.

Hearing this, Sonny let out a sneer.

"It turns out that it's all true." After seeing the expression on his father's face, Suo Etu suddenly realized.

"I didn't say that." Sony still looked unconcerned, and then slowly commented: "Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui can be called dead set on our dynasty, but they also struggled when they shaved their heads. Hong Chengchou is a masterpiece of his generation, I was by Taizong's side when he shaved his head, and when I looked at his appearance, I thought he was going to regret it; Wu Sangui is also a hero, and he has never regarded honesty and shame as a thing, but he was forced by Li Chuang to be so anxious back then, and he actually bargained a few words on the issue of shaving his head; Then there is Qian Qianyi's gang in Jiangnan, although they are all soft bones, they also have to cry when they shave their heads. Hmph, hum, and Zheng Chenggong, who once coaxed the imperial court around, and almost believed that he really wanted to surrender, and transferred the troops guarding him in the southeast, but he refused to shave his head at all, and we saw through the truth. And this Deng name, hehe......"

After paying more attention to Deng Ming, the Qing court tried its best to collect information about him, and the Qing soldiers who escaped from Jianchang reported that Deng Ming was able to shave his hair and disguise himself as a Qing army with his subordinates in order to sneak attack the small army sent to Jianchang and the post station in Dongchuan Mansion; As for the subsequent arson in Kunming and the battle in Huguang, it is obvious that Deng Ming has no psychological barrier to shaving his hair.

"If Deng Ming is a vulgar and uneducated farmer, it is not surprising that he can do this, but he is a clan, the son of Chongzhen." Sony let out another sneer, but didn't continue to evaluate.

"And who the hell is he?" Suo Etu asked nervously, and he also thought of some other rumors about Deng Ming, such as his kindness to Manchurian soldiers, and so on.

"He is a thief from Sichuan, and privately we know that he may be the son of Chongzhen." Sony said unhurriedly.

"But my father said it just now......" Suo Etu couldn't help but say, "Father, do you want to ask the emperor in private?" ”

"I won't go, the emperor said that whoever Deng Ming is, he is who he is, since the emperor sues me that he may be Chongzhen's son, then he must be Chongzhen's son, unless one day the emperor calls me and sues me that he is not." Sonny said word by word to his son behind him: "Ao Bai must have gone to ask, but I will never go, because I know that Ao Bai will not die well one day, but I will definitely die in bed safely." ”

"Ahh Suo Etu let out a low exclamation.

"Ao Bai thinks that he is more loyal to the emperor than me, no, in fact, I am more loyal than him, because the emperor wants me to be loyal, I will be loyal to whatever extent, no more, no less." Sonny stopped again and looked back at his son sternly: "Don't be self-righteous, don't be more loyal than the emperor needs, then the emperor won't like it, and it will cause a big disaster for yourself and the whole family!" ”

Suo Etu paused for a moment, and only after a moment did he react, and lowered his head and said, "What Ama said is that my son keeps it in mind. ”

"Ugh." From Suo Etu's moment of surprise just now, Sony could see that the third son was unconvinced, and in order to deepen his impression, Sony took an example of an incident a few years ago.

After Shunzhi became pro-government, Sony made a great effort in purging the remnants of Dolgon, and in order to reward this achievement, Shunzhi signaled Sony to pick one or two beautiful nieces and send them to the palace. When Sony heard the news, he tried his best to refuse, and he didn't agree to anything, and when Shunzhi forgot about it, Sony also tried every means to make the girls in the family unable to draft.

Of course, Suo Etu is a little puzzled by this, he thinks that if his sister and cousin can enter the palace, the emperor will be favored by Sony's contributions, even if he can't grab the queen's position, he can also be a concubine, if a prince is born in the future, Sony will try to help him ascend to the throne of the prince, then the family's wealth and peace will not be the best guarantee?

"No matter how much the emperor favors us, we must always remember that we are the emperor's servants, we listen to what the master says to us, and we don't ask if the master doesn't say it, let alone want to be related to the master. This is the duty of a slave, and only by being a good slave can we have a safe family. In order to add to the impression, the same negative word Sonny said to his son four times in one breath: "Don't, don't, don't, don't forget that we are slaves, do nothing but do our part, don't think about anything." ”

"That's what my father said." Suo Etu replied respectfully, but he was a little disapproving, and secretly thought to himself: "Father is just looking ahead and backward in doing things, and he is timid, so now even Ao Bai is about to climb on our heads." ”

Sonny saw that his son was still not completely convinced, and for a moment, Sonny began to regret letting him serve as the imperial guard: "The third child never makes people worry, I don't know if it's too late, find him a position to garrison the Eight Banners, and send him far away?" ”

But even Sony, he can't easily turn the imperial guard into a garrison of the Eight Banners, he thought about it, and felt that his son was still young, and he should be better in another ten years, Sony said the last sentence coldly: "Ao Bai can't die well, I'll put this here, you take a good look at it, if you don't want to live, go and learn from him." ”

…… Jiangxi's political envoy Dong Weiguo looked nervous and waited restlessly for Tanma's report.

Ten days ago, Deng Ming led his troops to attack Jiujiang, and the Ming army was killed in this battle, more than 60 people were seriously wounded, and more than 200 people were slightly injured. There were 1,000 Qing troops in armor, 2,000 unarmored soldiers and 2,000 sailors defending the city, of which 200 were killed in battle, and the rest, including Dong Weiguo, the political envoy, became prisoners of the Ming army. Those Qing soldiers who fiercely resisted and killed the Ming army were often killed on the spot by the angry Ming army, and even if they surrendered, they were not pardoned; The most fierce resistance in Jiujiang City was the Xicheng Tower, where more than 10 Ming soldiers were killed and dozens were wounded, so the Ming army refused to accept the surrender of the armored soldiers on this city tower, and more than 100 Qing troops did not leave a single prisoner.

Shut down

But for the other prisoners, the Ming army was not too embarrassed, including Dong Weiguo, the Ming army not only did not kill him, but even entertained him with enough food and drink. At first, Dong Weiguo thought that Deng Ming was trying to persuade him to surrender, but he soon found that all the captured Qing troops had received enough food, and although the Ming army was trying to persuade the captives to surrender, they did not have the slightest intention of executing the diehards.

After the control of the lake, the screening work of the Ming army was basically completed, and Deng Ming immediately ordered the release of those who had families in the Qing army-controlled districts, bachelors who were unwilling to join the Ming army, and civil and military officials of the Qing court, such as Dong Weiguo, and a severance pay of one or two silver per person.

Deng Ming's handling of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Green Battalion was very different from that of the Huguang and Jiangxi Green Battalions, and this was not a secret within the Ming army. Now the Ming army all understand that this is Admiral Deng's plan for a long-distance and close attack, and for the Sichuan-Shaanxi Green Battalion, which is a big threat and close to Chengdu, it must try its best to destroy, not only can not release it in vain, but also collect ransom, so as to weaken the strength of the Qing army and reduce the threat to Chengdu; However, Huguang and Jiangxi are temporarily within the reach of Deng Ming's whip, and Deng Ming's first purpose for the Qing army here is to weaken their will to fight.

This kind of discussion will help the officers and men understand the commander-in-chief's strategy, and even if the news leaks out, Deng Ming will not be afraid, because the more the Qing troops in Huguang and Jiangxi understand Deng Ming's strategy, the less likely they will be to have the idea of stubborn resistance.

Although he was released by the Ming army, Dong Weiguo still felt that his future was bleak when he walked out of the prisoner of war camp: he had lost all the Jiangxi sailors and even the ships and sailors, Jiujiang had also fallen into the hands of Deng Ming, and Jiangxi's transportation route had been cut off. Defeated and captured, most of the officials who lost their officials couldn't run away, and in addition, he couldn't complete this year's Cao Yun mission, Cao Weiguo felt that he was afraid that there was not much time, and the court might kill him when he was angry.

When leaving Jiujiang sadly, Cao Weiguo, who was alone, saw a fleet with a green flag sailing down the river and swaggering towards Jiujiang.

"What is this?" When Cao Weiguo determined that this was Huguang's grain ship, he rubbed his eyes vigorously, he really couldn't believe that there was such an idiot in the world, and he dared to force his way into Jiujiang, where the Ming army and sailors were gathered, in broad daylight, at that moment, Cao Weiguo even suspected that the Huguang officer who led the team was a blind man who couldn't distinguish the red flag and green banner.

However, when he saw Huguang's grain ship coming, Cao Weiguo suddenly found that his situation was not so bad, and if Huguang's transportation was also cut off because of this, the Qing court might not have lost his temper just at Jiangxi. Besides, Jiangxi's soldiers and horses had been continuously transferred before, and now it was the emptiest province in the south, and the sailors were even more deeply affected -- since Huguang, which had a strong sailor and a famous general, Zhou Peigong, could not complete the Cao Yun, the weak Jiangxi ...... When Cao Weiguo stared at the Huguang Cao boats that were sailing over, he had already thought of some reasons to defend himself.

As Cao Weiguo expected, in the blink of an eye, there was a loud shout of killing on the river and the riverbank, and in front of Cao Weiguo's eyes, a general of the Ming army rushed to the Jiujiang wharf to personally direct the battle. The Ming general drew out one big circle after another with the sword in his hand, pointed at the Qing army's boats on the river, and shouted to the soldiers behind him: "Release the arrow!" Shoot the arrows! ”

However, the Ming army was obviously caught off guard, and many archers carried a bow with a bow, but forgot to carry the quiver on their backs, and at the urging of the Ming general, they could only pick up some dead branches or bamboo sticks from the ground and go to the Yangtze River.

"Can this shè people?" Although Cao Weiguo was not in military affairs, when he was very suspicious of the power of the dead branches, even the feathered arrows of jīng liang, it was difficult for them to pose a big threat to the ships in the middle of the river.

Just as Cao Weiguo feared, the "weapons" of the Ming army did not pose the slightest threat to the Huguang Cao boats, and the Cao Yun officer who led the team was certainly a big idiot, but he was fortunate to meet an opponent who was more than a hundred times more idiotic than him - Cao Weiguo found that the Ming general had no other action except hoarse shouting "release arrows"; And this Ming general not only has no intelligence, but also has no prestige, Cao Weiguo saw with his own eyes that many Ming archers were not even bothering to look for branches and bamboo sticks, so they stood on the shore and released empty strings.

"After all, this is not a warship, what kind of arrow are you? They are all heavy boats, full of food and can't drive fast at all, if you send a team of clippers over, won't they all be taken? Seeing Huguang's Cao transport fleet slowly passing in front of him, the anxious Cao Weiguo couldn't wait to rush forward, grabbing the idiot Ming General's collar and teaching him how to cut off the Qing court's Cao Yun.

However, the general of the Ming army did not give this correct order for a long time, and the Qing army's boats sailed in front of the Ming army's Yangtze River Boat Regiment, which covered the river, and the passionate war drums were always sounding on it.

The drums of war faded away, and when Cao Weiguo recovered from the shock, he found himself sitting on the ground, and the Ming soldiers in front of him were still busy with their own affairs as if nothing had happened. After observing for a long time, Cao Weiguo finally unwillingly confirmed that none of the Ming warships left the dock to pursue the slow Huguang Cao boats.

"Huguang downstream can complete the transportation, even if it is a part, but Jiangxi can't reach Yangzhou by a boat." Cao Weiguo looked at the green flag that was going farther and farther away, and felt that he was going crazy with jealousy: "Why haven't I met such an idiot? In order to compromise his responsibilities, the governor will definitely say that it was because I lost all the ships in Jiujiang, and when the time comes, the court will still think that I am the culprit and will behead my family. ”

If Cao Weiguo knew what happened on Hu Guangcao's boat at this time, I am afraid that he would blow up his lungs even more. According to the description of the governor of Huguang in the chapter, he followed Zhou Peigong to recover the Huangzhou Mansion last year, and not long ago Zhou Peigong also fought together in front of the Hanyang city wall.

“…… The thieves fell like rain, there was almost no hiding place on the ship, during the period the thieves jumped the gang endlessly, the sound of fighting before and after was endless, the staff fought bloodily, the drums did not stop, and finally they broke out of the encirclement, and the thieves were angry and did not dare to pursue. After dictating the thrilling passage, the Qing army general wiped the sweat from his forehead, and added to the master: "By the way, we must say a few words about the dereliction of duty of the Jiangxi Green Battalion, they lost Jiujiang and did not notify us, so they led the boat into danger." ”

"Mu!" Huguang's boat was almost out of sight, and Cao Weiguo looked at the general flag of the Ming army viciously, and gently read the big characters on it. Then Cao Weiguo saw the young Ming army general, surrounded by guards, leaving the dock with a smile and a smile, and went in the direction of his camp.

"You're laughing fart? You're so embarrassed to laugh! Seeing the appearance of the generals of the Ming army, Cao Weiguo was really angry, he really wanted to drag Mu Tan off his horse, and opened the bow left and right to draw a few big ear scrapers for Deng Ming: "You have a big soldier, Deng Ming handed over his sailors in your hands, and you actually watched Huguang's boat run away from under your nose, you are embarrassed to laugh!" ”

That day, Cao Weiguo stood by the Jiujiang Wharf until the sun set, but after the anger dissipated, a crazy thought gradually took shape in his mind.

And today, Jiangxi's political envoy Cao Weiguo has come to put this crazy plan into practice, and now he is hiding in Poyang Lake with his subordinates.

"My lord," the herald returned to the camp in a hurry, and reported to Cao Weiguo, "The thief general stationed next to the dock is still the one surnamed Mu. ”

"Good!" Cao Weiguo patted his thigh lightly, excited and nervous in his heart.

After returning to Nanchang, Cao Weiguo reported what he had seen and heard to Zhang Chao, the governor of Jiangxi, and the Ming army's cut off of Cao Yun made Governor Zhang also worried and unable to sleep at night.

The Ming army that broke through Jiujiang had no intention of leaving, and the Jiangxi governor Yamen heard that Deng Ming had a subordinate named Ren Tang who was from Jiangxi, and recruited tens of thousands of young men in Jiujiang, and now Deng Ming must be busy training this batch of recruits. In addition, the governor of Jiangxi, Yamen, also heard that the Ming army had summoned all the matchmakers near Jiujiang, and he didn't know what tricks were being planned.

The Ming army was slow to leave, and the Caoyun never began, and since the fall of Jiujiang, the officialdom of Huguang and Jiangsu began to impeach the Zhang Dynasty. Zhang Changgeng mainly prevented xìng, the purpose was to make excuses for his various delays and drifting increases in advance; And Jiang Guozhu was obviously attacking Xìng, and he fell into the trap of Zhang Chao, the rival of the governor of Liangjiang.

"If Caoyun can't be sent to Nanjing, I don't know what the thief Jiang Jiān is going to say." Cao Weiguo cursed in his heart hatefully, his military adventure was the last hope of the governor of Jiangxi, who had nothing to do.

Zhang Chao scavenged all the boats in Poyang Lake, loaded them with grain and handed them to Cao Weiguo, and before leaving, the governor of Jiangxi said to his deputy emotionally: "If there is a case, then we will really have no boats in Jiangxi." ”

At that time, Cao Weiguo swore that he would not disappoint the governor. If it was someone else commanding Deng Ming's Yangtze River Naval Division, Cao Weiguo would be desperate and would not move to force the idea of Jiujiang, on the way to this time, Cao Weiguo made up his mind, if Deng Ming's Naval Division was replaced, then he would rather go back and wait for death, rather than risk breaking through and throwing Jiangxi's last Cao boat and hundreds of thousands of stone cao grain here.

But now Cao Weiguo has finally put his mind at ease, and he has inquired clearly, this guy named Mu Tan is famous for being greedy for money and incompetent, and it is rumored that he has accepted bribes from Li Guoying in Sichuan -- rumors can spread from so far away, which shows that this guy's greed is Cheng Dù. It is said that Mu Tan's sister is extremely beautiful and is Deng Ming's most favored concubine, so Deng Ming also connived at Mu Tan in every way, and laughed at the bribery of Mo and still let him lead the water master.

"After all, I'm still young, and I don't know how to quit sè." Cao Weiguo was still not at ease, and sent two more groups of spies to confirm the enemy's banner again and again.

"We smuggled overnight, and we were not allowed to beat the drum or make a sound." After the spies set off, Cao Weiguo once again told his subordinates that ten days ago, he saw with his own eyes that the Huguang Cao boat passed in front of the Ming army fleet with gongs and drums, and his preparations today were much more appropriate than those of the Huguang Water Division, not only smuggling in at night, but also trying not to make any movement as much as possible.

After rushing into the Yangtze River from the front of the Ming army, the Qing army would light a fire and go straight downstream-the Ming army would not chase Huguang's boats during the day, and Cao Weiguo felt that they would not go out of the camp to chase him at night, so as long as they sailed through the Ming army's water camp, it should be safe.

As for the section of the road where the fire cannot be raised, Cao Weiguo is also fully prepared, he has arranged a guide who is familiar with hydrology on each boat, and the passage of Poyang Lake into the Yangtze River is not very narrow, as long as you are careful, it should not be a big problem.

As for the equipment for escorting the army, Cao Weiguo didn't think it mattered, if Deng Ming changed the order of someone else to be in charge of the water division, then Cao Weiguo would not have the slightest possibility of rushing out, and the equipment would be useless no matter how good it was; As for Mu Tan's straw bag, Cao Weiguo estimated that he didn't do reconnaissance at all -- if he had a little sense of reconnaissance, he wouldn't have let the Huguang Cao boat not know when it came to him -- since the Ming army couldn't come to the Huguang Cao boat in advance, it was even more impossible to notice that the Jiangxi Cao boat had sneaked up to the front. At this time, it is good to rush over as fast as possible, even if you are armed to the teeth, what is the use? Do you really want to fight with the Ming army?

Two groups of spies returned one after another, and Jiujiang Wharf determined that Mu Tan was undoubtedly in charge, and one of the spies even inquired about the location of Deng Ming's other two subordinates: "Zhou Kaihuang is training troops in the east of the city, Ren Tang is screening recruits at the recruitment office in the south of the city, and Deng Ming himself is in the yamen in the city." ”

"God help me." Cao Weiguo looked up to the sky and laughed heartily - the gloomy future of the ruined family was finally about to be reversed. After laughing, Cao Bu's political envoy did not hesitate at all, and immediately ordered the whole army to camp and rest, prepare to set off according to the original plan, arrive at Jiujiang at midnight, and then rush in front of the Ming army boat regiment.

"This piece needs to be written well." After giving the order, Cao Weiguo couldn't help but ponder the performance of the victory, which was not only related to the future of the governor of Jiangxi, but also related to the court's perception of him.