In the battle of Dashengguan, the reconnaissance of the Ming army before the battle was obviously not thorough enough, and it was clear that there were almost 3,000 Qing soldiers in the enemy's camp, but Li Xinghan thought that there were only one or two thousand people. On the one hand, the reconnaissance time was too hasty, and on the other hand, the Qing army was paralyzed and careless, completely unguarded, and there were few sentinels around the camp, which made the Ming army scouts get the impression that the other side was weak and a rabble. Judging from the results of the battle, the strength of the resistance of this green battalion of nearly 3,000 men did not reach Deng Ming's prediction -- Deng Ming originally thought that the battalion would consist of a maximum of 2,000 miscellaneous soldiers.

In this battle, the Ming army took hundreds of prisoners. According to the previous prisoner policy, the guards estimated that Deng Ming would be more tolerant of these prisoners, but today Deng Ming's reaction was completely different. Deng Ming said to the guards and the officers of the Zhejiang army, let the women who were rescued by the Ming army to identify them, and all the Qing soldiers who plundered them from their homes, as well as those Qing soldiers who robbed and robbed the people's property in Zhenjiang, should be singled out to see how many can be recognized.

"These rebels, as well as their officers," Deng Ming waved his hand lightly and made a chopping motion, and said to the officers of the Zhejiang army, "You can watch it." ”

Although Deng Ming did not clearly explain how to dispose of it, it was obvious that he did not intend to let them live, that is, the difference between tying them up and throwing them into the river or beheading.

Not only Deng Ming's appearance today was beyond the expectations of the guards, but also the reactions of the guards and the officers of the Zhejiang Army were also unexpected by Deng Ming.

"Killing prisoners is ominous." Ren Tang was the first to raise objections.

On the battlefield, even if a soldier kills an enemy soldier who kneels on the ground and begs for mercy, Ren Tang will not think that this is a surrender, but just does not accept the surrender of the other party. On this issue, Deng Ming had a similar opinion, it was impossible to blame a soldier who was fighting on his side for the sake of the enemy.

However, the enemy soldiers who survived the war, or the enemy soldiers who laid down their arms and surrendered in formation, Deng Ming had always treated them very well, and Ren Tang objected to their execution for no reason.

"I didn't put them to death for no reason, they were taken captive, and they cannot be forgiven." Deng Ming retorted, he felt intolerable for this kind of behavior of washing the city, Deng Ming asked strangely: "Zhang Shangshu has an order, even if the soldiers take a penny from the people, they will be executed, do you think Zhang Shangshu did the right thing." But these thieves who plague the people, rob and sell the women of good families, how can you beg for mercy for them? ”

"Since the Admiral has spared them even treason, how can he still pursue their acts of abduction?" A Zhejiang general had obvious incomprehension on his face, they did not resist Deng Ming's order, but felt strange about his reason: "The Tartars are ferocious, Zhang Shangshu said, our dignified princes are different from the Tartars, the Tartars take the people captive, and we do not commit any crimes in autumn; The Tartars killed the soldiers, and we gave the misguided enemy soldiers a chance to repent. ”

"I'm not killing soldiers, I just think these people deserve it." Deng Ming defended himself again.

In this day and age, if a woman from a good family is taken away from her hometown, they may never have the opportunity to return home. While there are some wealthy families who can follow the army's trail and search for their daughters, most families do not have the ability to do so. Deng Ming knew that this behavior of the Qing army not only destroyed the lives of many women and destroyed the happiness of countless families, but also led many women who were taken away to die tragically in foreign lands. What angered Deng Ming the most was that many of the criminals were Han Chinese, and they committed such crimes as if nothing had happened. When interrogating a few prisoners just now, Deng Ming felt that they did not have the slightest guilt and self-blame, and regarded this kind of unconscionable behavior as a normal thing, and excused himself: This is the general and the commander in the labor army, everyone is going to rob me, so I will also grab one, even if I can sell it for one or two silver in the future.

After listening to Deng Ming's reasons and thoughts, the generals of the Zhejiang army looked even more confused, and several guards also frowned, revealing an incomprehensible look.

"Heinous rebellion can be forgiven, but captivity is a capital crime...... Ren Tang listened attentively and asked, "In the mind of the Admiral, which kind of soldier is more unforgivable for betraying the court and hurting the people?" ”

Ren Tang's question made Deng Ming stunned. There is no doubt that rebellion should be a stricter crime, and feudal society takes allegiance to the imperial court as the first principle; It is also necessary to treat the people well because it helps to stabilize the rule of the imperial court. But when the country needs the army's allegiance, the imperial court will not mind rewarding the soldiers with the lives and property of the people.

Deng Ming thought in his heart, the Qing army generals before anyway are ready-made examples, Li Chengdong is a typical example, although he brutally slaughtered the people again and again, but as long as he can go anyway and return to the Ming Dynasty, then his previous killing of the people is nothing in the eyes of the imperial court.

While in Huguang, Deng Ming captured a large number of prisoners and released them without abuse, and now the Qing army in Huguang was convinced that Deng Ming would not pursue their rebellion; The situation is similar now, and the Qing troops around Nanjing will surely open their eyes to see how Deng Ming disposes of the prisoners of war and whether they will forgive them for their sins of serving the Qing court. But even though he knew what the correct answer was, Deng Ming still couldn't let go.

Unlike those Zhejiang troops who lacked contact with Deng Ming, for Deng Ming's guards, this question was a little wake-up from a dream, Zhao Tianba and Zhou Kaihuang glanced at each other quickly, and they both showed expressions of sudden realization, and the other Deng Ming's guards also eliminated their doubts. However, the guards did not carry out Deng Ming's orders, and the disposal of the prisoners of war was temporarily put on hold, and the most urgent problem at the moment was to interrogate the prisoners and find out the strength of the enemy forces in Nanjing.

After most of the people retreated, Li Xinghan suddenly said to Deng Ming: "Sir has a heart for the people, but if this group of captives is disposed of, others will not believe that Sir is trying to return justice to the people, but will think that Sir is because the green camps around Nanjing help the Tartars and contribute to the Tartars, so they refuse to pardon them." ”

"Hmm." Deng Ming nodded and didn't explain much.

In addition to Li Xinghan, Zhou Kaihuang and others also held a similar view, that is, the handling of prisoners must be cautious, if the Ming army has always not pardoned prisoners of war, it would be fine, and now it is not easy to accumulate some good reputation in Huguang, and they have also begun to benefit from it, if this time it is not handled properly, it may be wasted.

Deng Ming still didn't explain anything.

Because the Green Battalion has always harmed the people, most of the soldiers in the Green Battalion have done bad things to a greater or lesser extent, even if Deng Ming's attitude is clearly known to the world, it will lead those Green Battalions with bad deeds to resist desperately. The wisdom of the king was evident in the leniency of the past, and even Yongli knew that the righteous act of allegiance to the imperial court was enough to undo the previous crimes. If Yongli regarded Li Chengdong's indiscriminate killing of innocents as more important than loyalty to the imperial court, then the people of the world would think that the Son of Heaven was stupid, the second of Song Xianggong, and the benevolence of women.

Because of the opposition of his subordinates, Deng Ming did not let the victim woman identify the criminal for the time being, but only told his subordinates that he needed to think about it.

As Deng Ming's anger gradually subsided, he also began to wonder if he was a bit of a murderous person, these little soldiers were not the culprits after all. Of course, Deng Ming still could not accept other reasons, he believed that fairness and justice, although difficult to obtain, were worth fighting for, and had an unquestionable importance. Deng Ming felt that he could not put everything on the same scale, and use "whether it is beneficial to the rule" as the only weighing criterion, and decide the trade-off according to this criterion.

After the guards retreated, Zhou Kaihuang said to Zhao Tianba: "It's okay to do this......

"Of course it's good for you," before Zhou Kaihuang's words were finished, Li Xinghan interjected: "If it weren't for Mr. being so kind, how would you two thieves and thieves sleep at night?" ”

If others accused themselves like this, Zhao Tianba and Zhou Kaihuang would immediately turn their faces, but they were called thieves by Li Xinghan, and the two just smiled slightly.

"In the end, it's just a few hundred small soldiers, even if you kill it, it's not a big deal, what you just said is inevitably too strict." Zhao Tianba had been silent, noncommittal to Deng Ming's attitude, and now he said to his partners: "Of course, we know Mr. well's thoughts, but how do others know? It is likely that the Green Battalion thought that someone in the army had made insulting remarks and offended Mr. Chen, so that he led to this end; Or if a gentleman has a henchman who dies in battle, he kills a prisoner to vent his hatred. This is all a very normal thing, and no one really cares about the life or death of these creeps. You are concerned and chaotic. ”

Hearing Zhao Tianba say this, Zhou Kaihuang and they also felt reasonable. But Li Xinghan was still a little worried: "Mr. has already released so many prisoners, I'm afraid that Mr. will make a big plan if he can't bear it." ”

"It's not too small, isn't it?" Zhao Tianba laughed and said: "I released three prisoners in a row, and each time I gave severance silver, a total of tens of thousands of people before and after, how can such a big reputation be lightly damaged?" Even if Mr. kills all of these hundreds of captives, no one in the world will believe it, at least the people over there in Huguang will definitely not believe it, and even if they believe it, they will find a reason for Mr. If you want to shake the reputation of Mr., you can't ...... Well, unless......"

Zhao Tianba thought about several numbers, but felt that it was not enough to shake the lenient reputation that Deng Ming already had, and finally said: "Unless it is a big leader like Guan Xiaozhong, Jiang Guozhu or Liang Huafeng who decides to surrender to Mr., but Sir refuses to accept surrender because they are the culprits of the captivity in Zhenjiang and other places, and resolutely refuses to pardon them." ”

"It can't be." Li Xinghan laughed: "It's ridiculous. ”

"I'm just making an analogy." Zhao Tianba also did not believe that this kind of thing would happen, and he further explained: "For example, one of these three people wants to lead the army anyway, but Mr. wants to stand up for the people of Zhenjiang and kill the culprit to pay tribute to the people who died, or execute him in public to vent his anger to the people whose wives and daughters are being taken captive." In this way, the world will be shaken, and the green camp will know that Mr. will not forgive them for the sins they committed in the past, not to mention the green camp in the north, even the green camp in Huguang will not know what they will think when they hear about this. ”

"That's too woman's kindness, although Mr. is kind, he is definitely not Song Xianggong." The more Zhou Kaihuang listened, the more he felt that this analogy was too bizarre, if this kind of heavyweight figure was measured on the balance of the king, even if there were tens of thousands of people on the other side, Guan Xiaozhong, Liang Huafeng and others would have more weight: "If it is really Guan Zhongzhong, Jiang Guozhu, Liang Huafeng and other Tartar leaders who lead troops anyway, even if the sin is ten times greater, Mr. will definitely forgive." ”

"As I said, I'm just making an analogy." Seeing that everyone's spearhead began to point at him, Zhao Tianba reiterated that he looked up at the sun, and it was just past midday, and it was still early at noon.

……

At this time in Songjiang Mansion, Guan Xiaozhong, Jiang Guozhu and Liang Huafeng were standing proudly in front of Ma Fengzhi, and Guan Xiaozhong, who was the leader, shouted and asked, "Are you guilty!" ”

At the end of the sentence, Guan Allegiance's tail note suddenly rose to the top of the note, which seemed very funny, and then he sneezed.

Liang Huafeng, who was behind him, asked with concern: "Admiral, how are you doing?" ”

"It's fine." The Jiangnan Admiral replied with a sense that this sudden sneeze had made him lose his sneeze and damage his majestic image.

After receiving the news of Zheng Chenggong's retreat from Nanjing, Běijīng quickly sent a secret decree ordering the preparation of Ma Fengzhi's arrest. When Zheng Chenggong led the army into the mouth of the Yangtze River, Ma Fengzhi did not move, and his sin was unforgivable. However, the secret decree stated not to startle the snake for the time being, and wait for Zheng Chenggong to completely withdraw from the Yangtze River estuary before taking action, so as not to avoid Ma Fengzhigou jumping off the wall in a hurry. This secret decree specified that it was to the governor of Jiangnan, and only he and Lang Tingzuo, the governor of Liangjiang, had the right to look at it.

Guan Xiaozhong felt that this was the court's trust in him, which was not only honorable, but also made him feel at ease. After discovering that Zheng Chenggong had withdrawn from Chongming Island, Guan Xiaozhong asked Ma Fengzhi to meet him, the governor of Jiangnan, to discuss post-war matters. Ma Fengzhi saw that the Ming army had retreated, and Guan Xiaozhong led the army to Suzhou Mansion, so he came to see it with a fluke mentality, and was immediately taken down by Guan Xiaozhong. After showing the secret decree to everyone, Guan Xiaozhong ordered Ma Fengzhi to be loaded into a prisoner car and escorted to Nanjing.

After dealing with Ma Fengzhi's incident, there is no longer any Ming army in Jiangnan that can still threaten the rule of the Qing court, and the Jiangnan Governor is relieved to be loyal to him. Although he was defeated by Zheng Chenggong in Zhenjiang and suffered huge losses, he made a contribution to the city of Nanjing and finally turned the corner. Standing next to him was Jiang Guozhu, the governor of Jiangnan, when he saw Ma Fengzhi being put in a prison car, he felt similar to Guan Zhizhong, and after the defeat of Zhenjiang, he made meritorious service and had a happy ending.

Liang Huafeng, who became famous because of the First Battle of Nanjing, is now qualified to stand side by side with Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu, and he looked at Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu coldly, observing the expressions on their faces - they were all full of emotion and overjoyed.

In this regard, Liang Huafeng secretly sneered in his heart: "Let's let the two of you be proud for another day." ”

Liang Huafeng carried the secret decree of the imperial court handed over by Lang Tingzuo in his arms, the first article was to promote Liang Huafeng from the commander of Su Songshui to the new governor of Jiangnan, and the first order handed over to the new governor of Jiangnan was to remove the old governor of Jiangnan from the official position of managing allegiance and governor Jiang Guozhu, monitor them to lead the troops back to Nanjing, and then go to prison on their own to wait for the court to deal with them.

Lang Tingzuo confessed, and the emperor personally instructed that this holy decree should not only be announced after Zheng Chenggong completely withdrew from the Yangtze River, but also after Guan Xiaozhong arrested Ma Fengzhi.

Needless to say, the reason for Zheng Chenggong's withdrawal from the Yangtze River is that he must be afraid that they will jump off the wall with Ma Fengzhi; And asking them to lead the team back to Nanjing was a kind of torture deliberately given by Shunzhi, so that these two people were repeatedly tortured by great fear and luck; By the time they return to Nanjing, the fear will probably fade with time, and both Guan and Jiang Guozhu will be full of hope of being pardoned, and then Shunzhi will be able to give them the last blow to get even greater pleasure.

And today's noon and evening celebration banquet is the last enjoyment given by Emperor Shunzhi to Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu, so that they will have the last chance to get the sycophancy and flattery of their subordinates, so that they can have the illusion of receiving awards, and Liang Huafeng will take out the secret decree early tomorrow morning and sober up the two of them.

……

In běijīng, the courtiers are congratulating Shunzhi. A few days ago, the news of Zheng Chenggong's withdrawal from the Yangtze River had been sent to Běijīng quickly, and yesterday Lang Tingzuo also sent the latest news in an urgent manner, reporting that Ma Fengzhi had honestly left the army, and it was estimated that he would arrive in the Guan Loyal Army today, and then he would take down this guy at both ends of the first rat.

"Well, when the news is confirmed, let's put all the family members in charge of allegiance in prison." Shunzhi said in a flat tone.

After learning of this, for Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu, the two directly responsible persons, the children of the Eight Banners were eager to eat their flesh and sleep on their skin, and Shunzhi was also angry with these two guys: How many minions do I have in total? You've lost more than 4,000 at once!

Manchurian lives are very valuable, and it is impossible for Shunzhi not to give an explanation to the children of the Eight Banners, and even if Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu are cleaned up to death, Shunzhi's 4,000 Eight Banners minions will not survive. What makes Shunzhi feel funny is that these two guys still worked hard in the subsequent Battle of Nanjing, bent on making meritorious contributions. Although it was ridiculous, for the sake of their hard work, Shunzhi decided to spare their lives and give them a chance to see the fate of their relatives with their own eyes.

The punishment for Guan Zhongzhong and Jiang Guozhu has been determined, that is, a hundred lashes, confiscation of family property, and the fact that he was sent to the Northern Regions as slaves, and his wife and daughter were put into the camp. A few days ago, this decision was circulated, and the children of the Eight Banners of Běijīng even shouted happily when they heard about it, saying that it would matter if these two guys were not dead, the only pity was that they could not see their expressions when they returned to Nanjing and heard the holy decree with their own ears.

……

At noon, Guan Xiaozhong didn't drink too much wine, and unlike Jiang Guozhu, he found an excuse to get out of the celebration banquet early, returned to the camp to summon his henchmen, and asked if there was any news coming from Běijīng.

As a Han army banner man, Guan allegiance still has a certain relationship in běijīng. After the defeat of Zhenjiang, there was news that the children of the Eight Banners shouted that they were not sharing the sky with him, and after hearing about this incident, Guan was loyal to his heart and gall, and he wanted to die several times. Fortunately, Lord Aobai's attitude gave Guan Xiaozhong new hope, and Aobai repeatedly summoned him to his family in Běijīng, encouraged Guan Xiaozhong to atone for his crimes, and repeatedly assured the emperor that victory and defeat were a common thing in soldiers, and that he would not seek full blame.

The meaning of Lord Ao Bai is basically the meaning of the emperor himself, and then Guan allegiance exerts his strength to eat nǎi, and every rì殚jīng is exhausted, bent on defending Nanjing for the imperial court, and at least exchanging death for the safety of his family.

But after Zheng Chenggong retreated to Chongming Island, the voices of běijīng attacking Guan Zhongzhong did not stop, although Lord Aobai's smile remained the same, but the family felt that the attitude of the servants in his mansion had changed somewhat, and there seemed to be mockery in their eyes.

The guards took out a wax pill, which had just been sent by Guan Zhong's mother, using the door in the post station, and sent it all the way as an urgent military situation.

After learning that it was sent as a fake urgent mail, Guan Xiaozhong's body shook involuntarily, and after taking the wax pill, he ordered the soldiers to disperse, and his fingers trembled and he took out the note from it.

There was only one word on the note:

"Run!"

Suddenly, Guan Xiaozhong felt that the world was spinning, lying on the ground and unable to move, and sighed: "The whole world is not the king's land, where can my son escape?" And if the son escapes, what will happen to the whole family? How dare my son escape? ”