The preliminary result of the discussion was that the Yangzhou prefect went back to collect money, and Lin Qilong said angrily that he would stay in the Ming army camp as a hostage. Lin Qilong loudly assured Mu Tan in front of the captured Praetorian Guard officers that the Ming army would definitely get the money for the ransom of the corpse, and asked them not to destroy Shunzhi's body no matter what.

After the Yangzhou prefect left, the Ming army locked Lin Qilong and the Praetorian Guard officers together. Although I hadn't seen Lin Qilong before, some people in the Praetorian Guard heard that the current governor of Caoyun was in the prime of life, but Lin Qilong in front of him had a snow-white beard, and when he took off his hat, he saw that the pigtails on the back of his head were also white.

"Alas, when I heard that the emperor was funeral, my hair and beard turned gray at once." Lin Qilong explained to his fellow inmates, and then promised: "Don't worry, I have ordered all the salt merchants to be slaughtered, and if I still don't have enough money, I will sell my property and make up enough money." ”

Although they were very dissatisfied with the fact that the officers and soldiers of the river did not work in time for King Qin, now the officers of the Praetorian Guard could not help but be moved by Lin Qilong's loyalty, and Suo Etu couldn't help but sigh: "It's a pity for Lord Lin's daughter." ”

"As long as you can keep the first emperor dragon in good health, what is a mere daughter?" Lin Qilong replied awe-inspiringly. He said that in the future, after Wang Shi crusaded against the thieves and avenged the emperor, he would naturally let his daughter commit suicide.

On the contrary, the Praetorian Guards said that it was inappropriate, this kind of heroine who sacrificed herself to feed the tiger was shaved and became a monk, didn't the prefect of Yangzhou still have two nieces, just like Lin Qilong's daughter to be a nun, and there can be a care. Of course, if Miss Lin must die to make her will, then the court will definitely not forget the watch given to her.

Compared with Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao, Lin Qilong's situation is undoubtedly more dangerous, because his strength is the most limited, if the Manchu Qing want to hold him accountable, taking Lin Qilong is undoubtedly much safer than taking Jiang Guozhu and Liang Huafeng, even if he is not responsible for Gaoyou's safety. Lin Qilong himself was unwilling to die, and the other governors could not be saved without saving themselves because they were in a loss, so the governors reached an agreement with Deng Ming, and after killing Shunzhi, Deng Ming sent Jiang Guozhu and Liang Huafeng an order to self-judge, but the great work of redeeming the corpse must be handed over to Lin Qilong. When these transactions are completed, the Jiangnan Governor will also mobilize all his forces to publicize, so that everyone in the world will know Lin Qilong's contribution to enduring humiliation. The Qing court, which would have fallen into a passive position because of the emperor's violent death, naturally made it even more impossible to punish a "loyal minister" like Lin Qilong at this time, not to mention that he was still a very light one.

The Praetorian Guards soon discovered that Mu Tan was indeed Deng Ming's confidant general, and after receiving Lin Qilong's "daughter" and Yangzhou prefect's "niece", Mu Tan quickly persuaded Deng Ming to "change his mind", and once again announced to Lin Qilong and the Praetorian Guards that he still had to keep his promise to return Shunzhi's body, but Deng Ming needed Yangzhou to hand over gold that "could fill all the cabins of a warship".

The Ming army, which continued to retreat towards the Yangtze River, took Lin Qilong and the Janissaries to act together, and Lin Qilong seized the opportunity to desperately encourage the Praetorian Guards to make a strong contribution to protect Shunzhi's body - Deng Ming did not want to kill these prisoners in the first place, but hoped to release them to further disintegrate the fighting spirit of the enemy army; The governor of Jiangnan was determined to keep these Praetorian Guard prisoners before Deng Ming launched an attack, because most of them were the sons of princes and ministers. When Lin Qilong saw Mu Tan, the latter handed over a list of captives to the other party, and after seeing the juniors of so many important people among the captives, the governor of Caoyun was also overjoyed.

Before Emperor Shunzhi left Beijing, he appointed Sonny and Aobai as assistants, and also let Suke Saha and Kupilon command the follow-up forbidden brigades. In the event of the emperor's violent death, these four men would almost certainly become the empress dowager's assistants, and among the captured Praetorian Guards, in addition to Sonny's third son, one of Aobai's nephews, and the son-in-law of Shopilon, there were countless other sons and nephews of the three important ministers. Although there are many children of Shangsanqi who died in battle, the more this is the case, the more those important ministers will cherish the survivors - it stands to reason that the emperor's guards who died in battle must be held accountable, but at this juncture, it is estimated that the empress dowager does not have the courage to kill all the children of hundreds of important ministers in one go.

Lin Qilong tried to let Suo Etu and them assist in his work, but also to help the imperial court find some excuses to deal with them leniently, once the Praetorian Guard prisoners were pardoned, it would be even more difficult to blame the Jiangnan Governor.

Lin Qilong personally entered the Ming army as a hostage, and the Yangzhou prefect was busy copying the homes of salt merchants in Fuxian on both sides of the canal, and no one sent military rations and horse feed to Suke Saha and Kubilong. After the whole division of the Ming army returned to the Yangtze River and joined the water camp, the follow-up 15,000 Qing troops had not even arrived at Gaoyou. Moreover, at this time, Gaoyou and Huai'an were in chaos, and the prefect of Yangzhou asked the officials of these places to act in a unified manner in the name of raising ransom, and the officers and soldiers of the river also received a warrant from the governor of Caoyun before leaving, asking them to fully cooperate with the work. In order to raise funds quickly, a rule was even set that all the officers and soldiers who participated in the raid and the officials of the government could justifiably take 20% as a reward.

Suddenly, this area was full of chickens and dogs, like wolves and tigers, and wealthy businessmen who rushed to flee, and after a big fuss, the news of the emperor's death spread like wings. Not to mention the local officials and gentry, even Suke Saha and Kupilon were also shocked, and the soldiers and horses under their command were shocked three times a day. In this kind of chaos, not to mention chasing Deng Ming, how to control the troops and raise grain and grass has become a problem.

The Ming army retreated to this one by the Yangtze River with the emperor's corpse

On the way, it is said that Yangzhou kept sending ransoms, but the amount demanded by Deng Ming was still far from enough. Every time Deng Ming was furious and threatened to chop Shunzhi's body into meat sauce with Lin Qilong, Mu Tan would help the Praetorian Guard captives to speak, persuading Deng Ming to increase interest and relax the time limit.

Soon, Jiang Guozhu's envoy was added to the group that negotiated with Deng Ming. After hearing that the emperor was martyred, Nanjing also expressed its willingness to help pay part of the ransom. According to the prior agreement between Deng Ming and the governor of Jiangnan, Lin Qilong must monopolize the great merit of redeeming the emperor's corpse at the risk of death, but the credit for the write-off of Shunzhi's body must be shared by everyone, so not only Jiang Guozhu's Nanjing has to "share" part of the ransom, but even Nanchang, Jiangxi has to "bear" a little.

Now the news of the emperor's death in battle has spread all over Jiangnan, in addition, Jiangnan officialdom and the gentry have heard that Jiang Guozhu has received a false decree ordering him to commit suicide, and the governor of Jiangning was a little suspicious at that time, and after severe questioning, he found a flaw and captured Deng Mingxizuo, who falsely passed on the holy decree. Zhou Peigong, who had been swearing to the death with Deng Ming, also received the same false decree, and this one was also found to be flawed, Zhou Peigong immediately sent an envoy to Deng Ming's military camp in grief, and swore to the sky that as long as Deng Ming kept his promise to accept the ransom and return the body of the former emperor, the 30,000 Hunan troops would never stop them from leaving.

The closest thing to the success of the puppet operation was probably the one given to Liang Huafeng, because he intercepted Deng Ming with Zhou Peigong, so Deng Ming also sent him a copy in order to create chaos. After Liang Huafeng received the holy decree, he looked up to the sky and cried bitterly, shouting "The king wants the minister to die, the minister has to die", and he was about to draw his sword and kill himself on the spot, but fortunately he was desperately held by his own soldiers. At that time, some people in the Liang army also doubted the authenticity of the holy decree, and persuaded Liang Huafeng to say: The emperor handed over the power of Jiangnan soldiers and horses to the general, and he trusted him, how could he suddenly come to a headless holy decree to take the general's life? Be sure to reply to Liang Huafeng and ask again.

But Liang Huafeng refused to listen, but was bent on seeking death, and was dragged into the tent by his loyal subordinates to monitor him, and played for him to confirm the holy will. During this period, Liang Huafeng was still looking for death and life in the camp tent, and shouted that his subordinates were going to destroy his "loyal ministers". If it weren't for the rapid spread of Shunzhi's death, maybe Liang Huafeng would have committed suicide without explanation.

When many people lamented that Liang Huafeng's loyalty seemed to be above Jiang Guozhu and Zhou Peigong, the governor of Jiangning was furious about this matter, and after the governor of Jiangnan, who could not find death, rushed back to Nanjing, the governor of Jiangning immediately summoned him to the governor's yamen and scolded him sharply: "Didn't you say that the three of us must see through the false decree?" How dare you play such a scene? Is it to sell the official and Zhou Daren's name? ”

"The Governor is angry, angry." Liang Huafeng hurriedly defended: "The last general did not have this intention in advance, it was indeed an afterthought, and I felt that it was still a little inappropriate, if the three of them all recognized that this was a false purpose, then it would be too stupid for Admiral Deng to use this trick; Would the imperial court think that Admiral Deng was stupid? Apparently not. Why did Admiral Deng suddenly become stupid? That must have been to cover us. Therefore, the last general thought that it was still necessary to make Admiral Deng's plan have the possibility of success, and it was very close to success, so that it was reasonable. ”

"Hmph." Jiang Guozhu pondered for a while, what Liang Huafeng said was indeed reasonable, when discussing the aftermath with Deng Ming, everyone was not too sure whether he could kill Shunzhi, and it took a lot of thought to transport grain and grass to the Ming army without attracting attention, so some things were indeed not considered too carefully. But despite this, the governor of Jiangning was still angry: "In that case, why don't you quickly report that it is inappropriate, or do you have the intention of selling your official to get a name?" What's your festival?! ”

Liang Huafeng knelt on the ground and called out to hit the sky: "The governor clearly sees that the last general is a vulgar and unliterate martial artist, where can he have such exquisite thoughts?" It was indeed that decree that when he entered the barracks, the last general suddenly felt that something was wrong, and he hurriedly arranged it, and almost smashed the performance. ”

"Well, get up." Jiang Guozhu walked around the hall twice and said to the chief general: "Lord Zhou wrote yesterday that I heard that Lin Qilong sent a daughter to Admiral Deng, and this matter is very inappropriate. ”

"What's wrong?" Liang Huafeng said with a big grin: "This must be fake, he just wants to act for those imperial guards." ”

"This official also saw it this way at first, but Lord Zhou asked this official in the letter, what if it is really true?"

"Really ......" Liang Huafeng thought for a while, and immediately became angry: "Could it be that Lin Qilong sent his real daughter to Admiral Deng?" This guy is so treacherous! He wants to take the opportunity to make friends with Admiral Deng, and he is not afraid of the imperial court pursuing ......"

"I don't know if it's true or not, go check it out immediately! In the end, it was his real daughter, or a skinny horse bought from Yangzhou. ”

Liang Huafeng still had some subordinates in Yangzhou, and he took the order and hurried away.

Jiang Guozhu pondered by himself: "There is no suitable daughter in an emergency, but there are two nieces in the boudoir, Lin Qilong can send his daughter into the tiger's mouth for the emperor's body, and I am also a loyal minister, can't I send my niece?" ”

"The Governor's family is all in his hometown, and if Governor Lin sends a real daughter, it must have been premeditated, and the Governor may not be in time. But I'm different, my wife and daughter are all around. When Liang Huafeng left the governor's yamen, he was also thinking in his heart: "The excuse was given to General Mu, and then it was taken by Governor Deng, which is completely reasonable...... In order for the emperor's body to return safely, what is it for my family to be wronged? (To be continued)