Fifteen years ago, when the Qing army marched south, the Ming Dynasty's well-dressed people rebelled like clouds, and large areas of the country surrendered without a fight.

Zhang Huangyan, a young man who was under the age of 30 at the time and was studying at home, stood up without hesitation with his enthusiasm, and lobbied those civil and military officials who had surrendered to the Qing court without avoiding life and death; Two years later, Zheng Chenggong, a prisoner who had just passed his twenties, led 90 classmates and servants to raise the banner of rebellion, and wrote letters to those Fujian and Guangdong officials who had surrendered with his father, persuading them to braid.

At the beginning of Zhang Huangyan's army, he had nothing but sage knowledge and a heart to serve the country, and he didn't know anything about military affairs. More than ten years have passed, and Zhang Juren of the former rì is already able to ride well, is familiar with the banners of sailors and land battles, and is also comfortable in handling political affairs, military tun, and accounts.

In order to encourage his subordinate soldiers to dare to fight against the enemy's cavalry, Zheng Chenggong once whimsically announced that "cutting a horse's ears is like a first-class skill", and his subordinates will be killed when they encounter a horse. It wasn't until a few years later that not a single horse was captured, and Zheng Chenggong suddenly realized. After a series of bloody battles in Fujian and Guangdong, Feng Wei was not guilty of the past anyway, and stubbornly fought with his sword, and Zheng Chenggong also developed the army from the initial 90 people to 100,000 people.

In the strategy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Chenggong always worked together.

A few years ago, when the southeast Ming army launched negotiations with the Qing court to recruit an because of financial difficulties, Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Chenggong sang a duet together, Zheng Chenggong acted as a red face, and expressed to the Qing court that he was really willing to surrender, but Zhang Huangyan almost failed to convince; When Zhang Huangyan faced the persuasion of the Qing court to surrender, he said that he did not surrender and did not intend to negotiate, but he did not object to Zheng Chenggong to negotiate on his behalf. At the same time as the negotiations, Zheng Chenggong actively sent people into the territory of the Qing army to collect grain and conscription, while Zhang Huangyan tried to contact the gentry around Nanjing and sent soldiers to reconnoiter the coastal areas. After the Qing court finally launched an attempt to recruit an order, ordering Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Chenggong to be forbidden to collect taxes in Qing territory, the two men immediately launched a large-scale offensive that took place in the Battle of Nanjing last year.

Ten years ago, Zhang Ju and Zheng Jiansheng are now the southeast pillars of the Ming Court, and they are even more dependent on each other. Today, the relationship and friendship between the two over the past ten years have encountered an unprecedented crisis.

"Is His Majesty the Prison State okay?" After entering Zheng Chenggong's study, Zhang Huangyan asked straight to the point. Because he felt that Zhoushan was not safe, Zhang Huangyan sent King Lu to Xiamen before, and Zheng Chenggong promised to honor King Lu with the courtesy of a prince and not interfere with King Lu's person; In exchange, Zhang Huangyan and the Ming army sent by Zhejiang no longer tried to support the king of Lu as the prison state.

Until recently, this agreement was well executed by both sides.

After hearing Zhang Huangyan's words, Zheng Chenggong sighed in his heart: "Zhang Shangshu is giving me face, he didn't mention the word Jianguo in front of people, but just said to me in private, this is hoping that I can take a step back with him." ”

Although he understood Zhang Huangyan's intentions, Zheng Chenggong had no intention of backing down, and he asked loudly: "I don't know who Zhang Shangshu refers to when he says 'Prison State Majesty'?" ”

Zhang Huangyan glared at Zheng Chenggong for a while, and said coldly: "This is the will of the Holy Lord, the Holy Decree Huanghuang, and ordered King Lu Chitose to be the prisoner of the country." ”

Yongli passed the holy decree from Burma to Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan, conferring the position of King Lu as the superintendent of the country. After receiving this holy decree, Zheng Chenggong sent King Lu to Penghu's military camp without saying a word. He was afraid that the Zhejiang soldiers around King Lu would help King Lu abscond, and while sending King Lu to the heavily guarded Penghu, he also left all Zhang Huangyan's subordinates, telling them that they could stay in Xiamen or return to Zhoushan, but they just didn't want to go to Penghu together.

Zhang Huangyan received the decree later, and when he hurriedly sent someone to Xiamen to negotiate with Zheng Chenggong about supporting King Lu's second imprisonment, he received a report from Xiamen, saying that Zheng Chenggong had violated the previous agreement and put King Lu under house arrest in the military camp in Penghu.

"I did not violate the agreement with Yanping, and this matter of supervising the country was not proposed by our Zhejiang army, but the holy decree of the current saint." The more Zhang Huangyan spoke, the more stern his tone became, and his face was full of anger: "Where is Chitose now?" Yanping must give me an explanation. ”

"Chitose is fine. Now the saint proposes to let Chitose supervise the country, which is clearly a chaotic life under the pursity of the villain. Of course, Zheng Chenggong would not murder King Lu, but now it is absolutely impossible for him to let King Lu out of his grasp, because he knows that as long as King Lu is taken away by Zhang Huangyan, he will definitely start the second prison with this holy decree.

"Saint Nanjia, what's wrong with letting the prince supervise the country?" Zhang Huangyan disagreed with Zheng Chenggong's words.

"It is precisely because of the Holy South Hunt that it is even more chaotic. If the Holy Ones are not in the country, how can the Holy Decree be convincing? Zheng Chenggong tried his best to argue: "How do you know that this is the original intention of the saint, and not made up by Xiaoxiao?" ”

"How does Yanping know if it's the meaning of the saint?" Zhang Huangyan saw Zheng Chenggong so strongly, and became even more angry: "Now there are only you and me, what does Yanping mean by saying these crooked reasons?" Could it be that I don't know what Yanping is planning in his heart? The heir of Emperor Longwu is extinct, and Yanping should not want to indiscriminately pull his relatives to renew the heir of the first emperor, the saint will definitely not agree. If Yanping did this on his own, then he would be a rebellious minister and thief. ”

Zhang Huangyan felt that this killer weapon was very powerful, enough to seal all of Zheng Chenggong's futile struggles. But soon he found that the effect was not as good as he imagined, Zheng Chenggong just sneered a few times, without revealing a trace of despair.

"Could it be that he heard the news of the descendants of the Tang Domain?" After seeing the expression on Zheng Chenggong's face, Zhang Huangyan couldn't help but have such doubts, but immediately denied himself: "If there is really news, how can he not publicize it?" ”

Zheng Chenggong opened his mouth several times, but in the end he still did not turn over the hole cards. After sneering again, Zheng Chenggong said bluntly: "Zhang Shangshu said well, there are no outsiders here, let's make it clear today." This is clearly a mess. Although Li Dingguo's rogue recovered Yunnan, he was already seriously injured, and after losing Guizhou, Li Dingguo was blocked in Yunnan and couldn't get out; The emperor didn't even have the courage to go back to Yunnan, and he also knew that Li Dingguo was unreliable, and it would be difficult to do anything in the short term. Seeing that we are powerful here, knowing that you and I will work together, it will be five years at the fast and ten years at the slow, and it will be a matter of time before we take Shenjing and the entire southeast, and no matter who you and I have the upper hand at that time, the emperor will have to hand over the position. So he wants to drive a wedge between you and me, if we fight over the prison of the country and turn our faces into enemies, then the time to recover Shenjing and the southeast will definitely lag behind. Your Majesty, he wants to buy Li Dingguo some time! I'm still thinking about getting out of that mountain nest. ”

Seeing that Zhang Huangyan was speechless for a while, Zheng Chenggong knew that the other party was not incomprehensible: "If the emperor really wants to abdicate and make way for Xian, then why doesn't he take the throne, but just promise a prison country?" Zhang Shangshu, please see, even if Zhang Shangshu uses this edict today to let King Lu ascend to the position of the prison country, it is justified that the emperor will take it back in the future. And if we don't care about the emperor's edict at all, and after the recovery of Shenjing, we declare to the gentlemen and the people that 'China cannot be left without a master', and support King Dai Lu Chitose to supervise the country, can the emperor still take it back? Anyway, the emperor doesn't need to have the final say on whether to supervise the country or not, so why should King Lu Chitose accept his favor? ”

Although he knew that Zheng Chenggong was right, Zhang Huangyan knew very well that the other party had a key reason and never said: "After recovering Shenjing, will Yanping agree to King Lu Chitose to supervise the country?" ”

"Let's not mention this matter for the time being, we still have to work together for now, first work together to recover Shenjing, and then we will show our respective powers." Zheng Chenggong had no intention of answering positively at all.

Shut down

"I don't believe it." Zhang Huangyan also had this hope, hoping that after recovering Nanjing, he and Zheng Chenggong would be able to jointly support King Lu for the second time. He sent King Lu to Xiamen to give Zheng Chenggong a chance to get closer to King Lu. Anyway, in Zhang Huangyan's opinion, Zheng Chenggong has no other choice, and in the case of not being able to give Emperor Longwu a successor, supporting King Lu is already his best choice, if Zheng Cheng's function and King Lu eliminate the estrangement, Zhang Huangyan is of course very happy.

Before, Zhang Huangyan still imagined that as long as he could stand firmly to stop Zheng Chenggong's farce of giving Emperor Longwu a random heir, then Zheng Chenggong could only compromise with King Lu in the end and retreat to become King Lu's supporter. But this time, Yongli's holy decree completely shattered Zhang Huangyan's illusions, and it was obvious that Zheng Chenggong would not hesitate to prevent King Lu from ascending to the throne. There was a gap in the relationship between Zheng Chenggong and King Lu before, but after all, it was many years ago, but this time the matter of sending King Lu to Penghu under house arrest was too bad. It is impossible for Zheng Chenggong not to know the consequences of doing this, and the contradiction between him and King Lu will never be eliminated. Since this kind of thing has been done, there is no way back, and there is no possibility of compromise.

"This is the emperor who wants to separate you and me." Zheng Chenggong said a little anxiously. Although Zhang Huangyan's strength is weaker than Zheng Chenggong's, if he wants to recover Jiangsu and Zhejiang, he still needs to use Zhang Huangyan's intelligence network and local guides, otherwise Zheng Chenggong has tens of thousands of soldiers and will not be able to exert his strength.

"I know." Zhang Huangyan nodded. After losing the support of the Zhejiang soldiers, the Fujian army could hardly do anything about Jiangsu; After the loss of the Fujian army, the Zhejiang army was no threat to the Qing court. For today's Southern Ming court, the division of Fujian and Zhejiang is a good thing, so that it can be divided and ruled, so that the southeast Ming army can not join forces to launch a competitor that can shake the status of today's sub-emperor, and it is impossible to recover the political center of Nanjing before the imperial court, giving the imperial court and the Dian army a chance to make a comeback.

Zheng Chenggong laughed: "Since Zhang Shangshu knows, then I am relieved......"

"But I still can't trust Yanping," Zhang Huangyan interrupted Zheng Chenggong's laughter. Yongli's holy decree broke Zhang Huangyan's illusion, and the irreparable gap between the two armies of Fujian and Zhejiang Zhang Huangyan didn't see it clearly, or didn't want to take it seriously, but now Zhang Huangyan is very clear about it: "I want to bring King Lu Chitose back to Zhoushan." ”

Zheng Chenggong's smile froze on his face and slowly disappeared without a trace.

"It can't be!" Zheng Chenggong said categorically, and then he still tried to convince the other party: "Ma Jixiang is a complete villain, doesn't Zhang Shangshu know?" ”

"I know, but I just care about the safety of King Lu's Chitose. Now seeing the emperor's useless holy decree, Yanping sent King Lu Chitose to Penghu, and when the time comes, will Yanping send King Lu to Nanjing? Yanping don't treat me as a three-year-old child, I am only afraid that the life of the thousand-year-old at that time will be in danger. Zhang Huangyan saw that Zheng Chenggong's face had become very ugly, so he promised: "This time, I will take King Lu back to Zhoushan to promise that I will not accept the holy decree and will not be the position of prisoner of the country." ”

There was silence in the room for a while, and Zheng Chenggong said slowly: "Since Zhang Shangshu can't trust me, how can I trust Zhang Shangshu." ”

Zhang Huangyan stared at Zheng Chenggong for a while, and spit out two words contemptuously: "Thief!" ”

"A thief?" Zheng Chenggong jumped up violently as if he had been pricked by a needle, and in the blink of an eye, the king of Yanping, who had always remained calm, was so excited that his face was flushed: "Okay, there are some things I don't want to say to outsiders, and I have never mentioned a word, but Zhang Shangshu and I have been friends for ten years, I will make it clear today!" ”

"My father was rebellious, not to mention the deep favor of the country, and he was favored by the Fujian father for decades, but he was a soft bone who coveted wealth and nobility, not only betrayed the Son of Heaven, but also gave millions of fathers and elders blind dates to the Tartars to kill." Zheng Chenggong said with a heavy heart: "When I learned about this, I had nightmares every night. When I was in Nanjing, I saw Qin Hui's descendants write poems saying that he was ashamed of his surname Qin, and I knew that one day, my children and grandchildren would say that they hated their surname Zheng, and they would be so ashamed that they would not dare to step into Fujian! ”

Zhang Huangyan looked at Zheng Chenggong and was very surprised, in his impression, the king of Yanping County had never been so excited.

"Therefore, I parted ways with my father and brothers, and together with a few like-minded classmates and scholars, I took dozens of our servants and grooms with us to raise the banner of rebellion and fight against the Tartars. At that time, I thought very simply, if I died in battle, I would use my blood to wash away the shame left by my father for my children and grandchildren, and they would be able to return to their hometown with their heads held high, worthy of the surname passed down to them by their ancestors; Fortunately, the sky is endless, and the soldiers use their lives, and I have fought more than 70 battles in the past ten years, and I have repeatedly defeated and captured them. I know that in the history books of later generations, it will be said that Zheng Zhilong betrayed a son of heaven and betrayed a provincial father, but he had a son who recaptured two capitals and the world for the son of tomorrow, and saved the people of the four seas from the iron hooves of the Tartars; Not only can I clear my father's wrongs for my children and grandchildren, but I can also clear the shame of my younger brother and my entire family. ”

Hearing this, Zhang Huangyan couldn't help but sigh: "Yanping has noble ambitions. ”

"Brother Zhang is my comrade's person." Zheng Chenggong agreed briefly and continued: "It is customary in my dynasty that if there is a mistake in supporting the establishment, the death will be miserable, and you will definitely be labeled as a rebel; Even if there is a merit in saving the society, it will take decades before it can be rehabilitated. I Zheng Chenggong must prosper the Ming Dynasty, and my vow will not change, but the fate of Yu Shaobao should never fall on me, nor on my children and grandchildren, I want to keep the people safe, and I must also keep my children and grandchildren safe. ”

Speaking of this, Zheng Chenggong paused, sighed, and then said to Zhang Huangyan again: "I am not a thief, so I can't let myself be wronged, and I don't want to be charged with being a traitor, this is not the fate that a hero should have!" ”

"This is indeed not the fate that heroes should have," Zhang Huangyan said sympathetically: "But King Lu is benevolent, Yanping can rest assured." ”

"I can't believe it!" Zheng Chenggong shook his head firmly: "Could it be that Zhang Shangshu can trust the emperor?" If you can believe it, then why do you support King Lu in every way? ”

Zhang Huang was speechless, stood up, and said to Zheng Chenggong: "The lower official wants to see Chitose." ”

"How dare this clan stop it?" Zheng Chenggong was stunned for a moment, and then called the guards and asked them to take Zhang Huangyan to rest, and then arranged for a boat to send Zhang Huangyan to Penghu to meet King Lu.

Looking at Zhang Huangyan's distant back, Zheng Chenggong said in his heart: "I'm sorry, Brother Zhang." ”

In Deng Ming's previous life, Yongli ordered King Lu to supervise the country for the second time, which led to the same internal strife, and Zhang Ju and Zheng Jiansheng, who had fought side by side for many years, parted ways from then on; And the Fujian, Zhejiang, and Ming armies led by the two of them also started from this day and walked towards their respective end of destruction.

…… Penghu.

Zhang Huangyan met King Lu.

King Lu's temperament looks good, although he is under house arrest in the barracks, he still has a royal bearing, and when the two are alone, King Lu does not express his resentment towards Zheng Chenggong.

Zhang Huangyan met King Lu when he was still in his twenties. At that time, King Lu was still a royal child who was completely ignorant of the world, and he had long nails like King Lu, and in order to protect his nails, ten fingers had to be covered with long bamboo tubes, and he drank water and ate to be served by others.

"How about looking at the widow's nails?" King Lu showed off the newly grown nails on his fingers to Zhang Huangyan, and after living a carefree life here with Zheng Chenggong, he picked up all the old habits of his youth: "Even here in Penghu, there are plays to watch every day." ”

Zhang Huangyan smiled and nodded, but his heart was even more bitter, knowing that this was a gesture deliberately made by King Lu in order to reassure Zheng Chenggong.

"Don't be estranged from Yan Pingsheng," when Zheng Chenggong's guards were on the side just now, King Lu didn't mention the matter, but now there are only two people in the house, he and Zhang Huangyan, King Lu let Zhang Huangyan understand that this is what he said in his heart: "The southeast has lost a large area of land, and countless people struggling under the iron hooves of the Tartars are still waiting for the two of you to work together to recover and save." At this time, there must be no infighting, and do things that are painful to relatives and quick to enemies. How old are you to Yanping, and you have to let him do everything. ”

"Your Highness's golden and jade good words, Huang Yan must be kept in mind." Zhang Huangyan said this, but his heart became more and more sad. He suspected that the southeast was going to recover, that is, when Zheng Chenggong was going to get rid of King Lu, so the more generous King Lu was, the more Zhang Huangyan felt weeping.

"Is Zhang Shangshu very sad to see the widow, why does he seem to cry?" King Lu quipped, and asked: "Sichuan Governor Deng Ming, I heard that Zhang Shangshu has seen it with his own eyes, what is his person?" Tell me about it for the widow. ”