Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 273 Four-Party Contact

Huguang, Changsha City.

Since Sun Kewang cut off Li Dingguo's food and salary supply, Li Dingguo had no choice but to collect large amounts of food and salaries near Changsha and torture wealthy households. However, even so, he was unable to maintain the expenses of the army, and instead caused the local gentry and people to change their attitudes.

When Li Dingguo entered Changsha and Kong Youde burned himself to death, the people of Changsha were delighted. But now, the gentry and the people have refused to cooperate with Li Dingguo's troops. Some gentry even secretly sent secret letters to the Qing army, revealing all the information about Changsha City.

Li Dingguo was restless in Changsha. There were undercurrents in the city. In this situation, the Qing army was eyeing him covetously. He even had the idea of retreating. It was not until he heard that the envoy of King Zhou Mengjun was about to arrive that Li Dingguo suppressed his intention to retreat and waited for the envoy to arrive.

Meng Hong was originally in Nanchang. After he stirred up the Nanchang Incident without bloodshed, Meng Jun had a new understanding of the saying "attack the enemy with military force first and attack their alliances second". He immediately decided to establish a new department, the Department of External Affairs, and promoted Meng Hong to the position of director. To reward Meng Hong for his contribution, he was promoted to earl, awarded 5,000 taels of silver, and granted a mansion. Considering that Meng Hong was old and had no wife, he also ordered the shogunate to select a virtuous woman for him so that he could have children.

Meng Jun decided to seize Huguang, so he invited forces from all sides and sent people to Zheng Chenggong, hoping that Zheng would dispatch his powerful navy to cut off the Yangtze River in the Wuchang and Yueyang areas of Huguang and cut off the Qing army's food supply.

He also sent someone to contact Li Chengdong. Meng Jun did not expect Li Chengdong to send troops to Huguang. The purpose of contacting him was just to prevent him from harassing Fujian and Jiangxi. After all, one person may not be able to accomplish anything, but he is more than enough to cause trouble.

The most important ally in Meng Jun's heart was Li Dingguo, who was still in Changsha. To show his sincerity, Meng Jun wrote to Meng Hong: "The Qing army marched south, and the Jiangbei camp moved west. The country is in trouble now, and the enemy army is powerful. We can discuss everything with the King of Jin, including food, military pay, and land. Even if he wants the land of Huguang, it is not a problem. This war is unprecedented in history. If we win, the world will change, and if we lose, the world will be overturned."

After receiving the order of reward from Meng Jun, Meng Hong was deeply moved. He prostrated himself to the east in the Nanchang government office. Along with it came a letter ordering Meng Hong to go on a diplomatic mission to Changsha. After reading the letter, Meng Hong immediately packed his bags and headed for Changsha under the protection of his guards.

Now Meng Hong always takes Jiang Taigong as his role model. In the past, Taigong met King Wen at the age of eighty and was still able to achieve great things. He is only fifty-eight now, so who knows if he will not be able to go down in history and be remembered forever.

Qing army camp.

After receiving the news that Dorgon had appointed Duoduo as the commander-in-chief, Haoge was furious and cursed in his tent: "How dare Dorgon do this? I am the eldest son of Emperor Taizong and should be the emperor. If it weren't for this villain's obstruction, I would have succeeded to the throne. Now Dorgon has appointed Duoduo as the commander-in-chief. Do they want me to obey Duoduo's orders?"

Upon hearing this, Leng Sengji quickly ordered his personal guards to wait outside and strictly forbid others to spy. At this time, besides Hauge, there were only three people in the tent, namely Aobai, Turg, and Leng Sengji. These three were all Hauge's confidants.

Aobai, who was standing by, echoed the words: "Your Majesty, Prince Rui is going too far!"

At this time, Leng Sengji returned to his tent and asked Haoge softly, "My Lord, has the court issued an order regarding who will lead the army?"

After a temper tantrum, Haoge calmed down a little. Hearing this, he sat back in his chair and said casually, "How dare Dorgon blatantly order me to obey Duoduo's orders? He just said that I should discuss it with Duoduo."

As soon as these words were spoken, the four people in the tent fell silent. They were all veterans of battle, so how could they not know that issuing orders to multiple people was a big taboo? However, such words were a bit taboo. Everyone knew that the reason why Dorgon did not dare to hand over the army to Hauge was nothing more than the continuation of the struggle for the throne.

"Your Highness, this battle concerns the rise and fall of our dynasty. I hope...I hope Your Highness will put the overall situation first." Leng Sengji saw that Haoge's expression had relaxed a little, and he gritted his teeth and advised.

Upon hearing this, Haoge looked at Leng Sengji coldly and asked in a bad tone: "Do you think that I am as stupid as the officials of the Ming court?"

Leng Sengji was so frightened that he immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed, saying, "I dare not, Your Majesty, I have absolutely no such intention."

Seeing that Leng Sengji's forehead was red from knocking his head, Haoge stood up, walked to his side, pulled him up, and patted the dust off Leng Sengji's body. Then he slowly said, "I know what is important and what is not. But Dorgon still doesn't believe me during this great battle. This is what makes me most angry!"

…………

Hebei, the Qing army marching south.

The closer he got to the south, the worse Bolo's mood became. When he was in the Liaodong Peninsula, Bolo often looked forward to leading his army south to fight Meng Jun again and avenge his previous defeat. But when that day really came, he felt inexplicably uneasy in his heart. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but Bolo always felt that there was something wrong with the way the soldiers looked at him.

Although Bolo consoled himself with the fact that victory and defeat were common in the military, when he thought of Lekedehun's defeat and death, although he felt that it was not his fault, he still helped Meng Jun escape when he was still young, just like a tiger entering the mountains and a dragon returning to the sea. If he had ignored Fang Guoan in the past, or if he had defeated Fang Guoan and returned to Suzhou, would the situation be different?

Meng Jun was able to create this situation in just over three years. Whenever Bolo thought of it, he was always a little dazed, but it was not enough to shock him. If we talk about the speed of success, when Li Zicheng made a comeback in Henan, it took only a few months for him to capture Beijing and overthrow the Ming Dynasty.

In Bolo's opinion, both Li Zicheng and Meng Jun were just going with the flow. Li Zicheng took advantage of the severe drought in the north when the people were struggling to make a living and still demanded payment of the three taxes and various levies from the court to support the Liaodong war situation. So if they wanted to survive, they could only become refugees, bandits, or kill officials and rebel.

With just one sentence from Li Zicheng, "Welcome the King of Rebellion, and don't pay taxes," Li Zicheng swept across the north and the situation changed drastically. Meng Jun took advantage of the resistance to the shaving order in the south of the Yangtze River and declared, "expel the Tartars and restore the country," which allowed him to occupy the entire south of the Yangtze River.

Thinking of this, Bolo sighed in his heart, and there was a trace of resentment towards Dorgon in his heart. Why did he have to force the Han people to shave their heads? If they didn't shave their heads, the world would be stable, and Meng Jun would have no chance to rise again.

Bolo saw clearly the difference between Li Zicheng and Meng Jun. Li Zicheng's rise was rapid, but his fall was also quick, while Meng Jun's actions were cautious, from Suzhou step by step to the current blockade of the Yangtze River, and he was about to have a decisive battle with the Qing Dynasty in Huguang.

As for Meng Jun, Bolo believed that Meng Jun was just an ambitious man and did not really start a rebellion just because of his hair. If he was really a loyal person, he would not have shaved his head and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. He started a rebellion only because he had a long-term vision and saw the emptiness of the Qing Dynasty's rule in Jiangnan.

Bolo looked at the army marching southwards and said unconsciously: "Speculators, ambitious people!"