When Ma Cheng heard this, Chen Zilong was overjoyed, and Chen Zilong had broken off his relationship with Ma Cheng since he resigned and returned home three years ago. In addition, Ma Cheng wants to fight the defense of Nanjing, so naturally he has no time to take care of this Chen Zilong. After the victory of the defense of Nanjing, Ma Cheng also sent people to Songjiang Mansion to look for Chen Zilong, but Songjiang Mansion had just been plagued by the Qing army, and Chen Zilong's family did not know where to go. Ma Cheng thought that the scholar he wanted was killed by the Qing army, and he was a little sad in his heart.

Chen Zilong is the only intellectual who can talk to Ma Cheng in this era, which is different from Wang Xian and Xu Zhenye, these two are just Ma Cheng's tools, but Chen Zilong gave Ma Cheng the feeling of a close friend.

Knowing that his friend Chen Zilong was still alive and in the Suzhou Mansion, Ma Cheng's anger was gone, and he stepped forward and kicked the official gently, scolding with a smile: "Bastard, you can also call the name of your Mansion Master?" Why don't you get up and take Lao Tzu in! ”

Seeing that Ma Cheng didn't look angry, the official breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly stood up and led Ma Cheng into the prefect's yamen.

The yamen of the Ming Dynasty are generally the same, there are two halls and three halls, after the second hall found that all the subordinate officials in the yamen are trembling and kneeling on the ground, everyone has no bottom of their fate, this Ma Cheng heard that it is a murderous demon king, I don't know if I can keep these subordinate officials.

Ma Cheng saw these people kneeling on the ground, and said with a smile: "What are you doing?" Why don't you get up and go to work? ”

After receiving Ma Cheng's reprimand, the gang was relieved, because Ma Cheng still let them work, which proved that they were ready to stay.

Ma Cheng followed the official to the third hall, which was where the prefect rested, Ma Cheng asked Gu Yong to stand at the door with his own soldiers, and led his henchman Wang Xian to push open the courtyard door and enter the third hall.

There was no one in the three halls, and the weather in May was very warm, and the wind blew the plane trees in the courtyard to flutter back and forth, which made Ma Cheng feel very good.

Facing the door of the third hall is the prefect's meeting room, the door is open, and an official wearing a four-grade crimson official robe sits in the center.

Ma Cheng saw that this person was Chen Zilong, and Ma Cheng smiled: "Brother Chen, I haven't seen you for many years, but I want to kill my little brother!" ”

When Chen Zilong saw Ma Cheng coming in, he stood up with a wry smile, bowed to the ground and said, "Sinner Chen Zilong, meet Master Overseer!" ”

Seeing Chen Zilong like this, Ma Cheng hurriedly stepped forward to help him up, and then said with a smile: "Brother Chen killed the younger brother, why are you and my brother like this?" ”

After Ma Cheng finished speaking, he pressed Chen Zilong back to the upper seat, and he sat down. After both of them sat down, Ma Cheng asked, "Brother Chen, it's been three years since Chongzhen left for seventeen years, I don't know how the eldest brother is doing?" ”

Chen Zilong sighed when he heard Ma Cheng ask this, first let the servant serve tea, and then began to tell the things of the past three years in detail.

It turned out that in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Chen Zilong was concerned about the imperial court, and after a few twists and turns, he was like a mud cow entering the sea, and there was no news, Chen Zilong was disheartened by this court, and he resigned and returned to his hometown to serve his old mother. At that time, Chen Zilong was only a seventh-grade military officer, and who could pay attention to him as a petty official, so he quickly approved it, and Chen Zilong became a flat-headed commoner.

Chen Zilong's hometown is in Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture, in addition to the old mother in the house, there are also a wife, two concubines and several children, and the life is very happy

Calm. But the tranquility of life could not hide Chen Zilong's worries about the government. At this time, the struggle between the DPRK and China became more and more intense, Ma Shiying united with Ruan Dacheng, the sworn enemy of the Donglin Party, in order to eradicate dissidents, and squeezed Jiang Yueguang, Huang Daozhou and others from the Donglin Party out of the imperial court.

As the saying goes, the house leak happened to rain overnight, and the internal party struggles in the small court of Hongguang in the Southern Ming Dynasty continued, and the remnants of the Donglin Party in the DPRK and the central government could only send people to hook up with Zuo Liangyu in Huguang and make a Qingjun side, hoping that Zuo Liangyu would come to Nanjing to kill the eunuch Ma Shiying.

Chen Zilong, who heard the news in Huating's hometown, scolded the Donglin Party in the DPRK and China for being stupid, how could foreign troops be invited into the DPRK at such a critical moment? Isn't this a chance for the Manchus in the north? The truth was similar to what Chen Zilong thought, the Manchu Qing in the north also sent a large army south, and in April, Duoduo's vanguard had already arrived in Xuzhou.

The four towns of Jiangbei, which were regarded as dry cities by Ma Shiying, did not fight a battle, and surrendered to the Manchus one after another. After the news of the Qing army's occupation of Zhenjiang reached Huating, Chen Zilong knew that the general trend had gone.

If you replace it with an ordinary reader, you may be disheartened by Daming, and your wife and children will be hot at home, and you can live the rest of your life. But Chen Zilong is a righteous gentleman who cares about the world, where can he bear to see thousands of miles of rivers and mountains become a fishy place? So Chen Zilong sold his property and began to recruit troops in his hometown, preparing to go to Nanjing Qinwang.

But I didn't expect Chen Zilong to be ready, the Manchu army surrounded Nanjing, and the news turned out to be that Nanjing had fallen and Hongguang Emperor Zhu Yousong surrendered. Chen Zilong didn't know that this fake news was released by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but it was indeed a fact that Zhu Yousong was caught by the Qing army, and the Qing army brought Zhu Yousong to the city of Suzhou. So one by one, they all opened the city and surrendered.

After learning of this news, the prefectures and counties around Suzhou also surrendered to the Manchus. Yao Xuzhi, the prefect of Songjiang Prefecture, abandoned the official and left, and Zhang Danian, the magistrate of Huating County, prepared to surrender the city. After Chen Zilong found out, he united his friends Xia Yunyi and Xu Fuyuan to raise troops in Huating to resist the Qing Dynasty. At this time, it was just in time for the Manchu Qing Dynasty to implement the head-shaving order throughout the country, and the provinces of Nanzhili, which had surrendered for a while, rebelled one after another, and the entire Taihu Lake basin became a battlefield.

And Chen Zilong led the thousands of warriors recruited to contact Wu Zhikui, deputy chief soldier of Wusong, general Lu Zhi and others, to prepare to attack Suzhou. However, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had already learned the news that the anti-Qing rebel army led by Chen Zilong under the city of Suzhou was defeated, and Chen Zilong had no choice but to hide in Taihu Lake with his family, secretly accumulating strength, and preparing to fight again.

In order to concentrate on fighting against Ma Cheng, Duoduo stopped the offensive after occupying the main prefectures and counties of Nanzhili, so that Chen Zilong's guerrillas who did not enter the stream were also alive and dead.

In this way, the forces of the various forces of Nanzhili formed a balance, and during this period, King Lu of Hangzhou and King Lu of Shaoxing were in charge of the country. Because King Lu was close to the Taihu Lake Basin, and King Lu was still the successor of the Donglin Party, the rebels in all parts of Nanzhili tended to support King Lu to ascend the throne.

Chen Zilong was also one of them, he didn't know that Nanjing had not fallen at this time, Chen Zilong thought that the Manchu Qing had occupied Nanjing, so the natural bloodline was more

The nearest King Lu should take over the position of Emperor Ming, so Chen Zilong took over the appointment of King Lu without much thought and appointed Chen Zilong as Su Song's military preparation.

During this period, Nanzhili was relatively peaceful, and at this time, the old problem of Chinese infighting was committed again, and King Lu and King Lu fought for the position of prison state, and even fought. King Lu sent an army to cross the Qiantang River, fought a battle with King Lu's army in Xiaoshan, and even won, King Zhu Yihai had no choice but to run from Shaoxing to Ningbo, temporarily avoiding the edge of King Lu's army.

After Chen Zilong found out, he made an excerpt and persuaded King Lu to unite with King Lu, after all, now that the country is ruined, how can he still fight in the same room? However, Chen Zilong is only a five-grade soldier, and he has no say in the government at all, and his excerpts are not listened to in the court of King Lu.

Just when King Lu and King Lu were about to fight again, a big news came. The 400,000 Qing troops entrenched in Nanzhili were defeated and retreated back to Jiangbei, and Nanjing, which should have fallen a long time ago, was still in the hands of the Ming Dynasty. And there is still an emperor in Nanjing, this is Zhu Lunkui, the Shaowu Emperor established by Ma Cheng and his son.

The appearance of a strong enemy immediately made King Lu and King Lu shake hands and make peace, preparing to fight against Zhu Lunkui together. At this time, Chen Zilong didn't know that it was his friend who defeated the Qing army, Chen Zilong saw that the Qing army retreated, and the defense of Suzhou City was empty, so he took hundreds of Taihu guerrilla soldiers to occupy Suzhou bloodlessly, and with credit, he was naturally appointed as the prefect of Suzhou by King Lu.

After becoming the prefect of Suzhou, Chen Zilong learned the details of Nanjing, it turned out that the city of Nanjing was not occupied by the Qing army, and after the emperor Zhu Yousong fled, the civil and military officials in the city immediately supported the new emperor Zhu Lunkui and became the legal heir of Zhu Yousong.

Chen Zilong regretted it very much after receiving this news, if according to legal theory, only Zhu Lunkui is the legal heir of Zhu Yousong, but now it is like this, Chen Zilong has no choice but to accept his fate.

Next is the fight between King Lu and the Shaowu court, the more the two sides talk, the more stiff they become, and they have no choice but to fight. At first, Chen Zilong didn't think that King Lu's side could win, but he didn't expect Emperor Shaowu's army to retreat from the periphery of Suzhou to Zhenjiang, which surprised Chen Zilong.

However, the news from Nanjing afterwards let Chen Zilong know that the legendary military god Ma Cheng was deprived of military power after winning the Qing army and has been idle at home. Seeing this, Chen Zilong knew that the defeat of Shaowu's army some time ago was definitely not that it couldn't be defeated, but that Ma Cheng was playing a trick.

Chen Zilong also gave Qi Biaojia suggestions for rationalization, but Qi Biaojia didn't listen to Chen Zilong at all, and insisted on going his own way and preparing to seize Nanjing.

Then it was simple, Zhu Lunkui was forced to have no choice, so he had to release Ma Cheng again and entrust him with important tasks, Qi Biaojia also lost all the elite troops in Lucheng as Chen Zilong expected, and he was also caught by Ma Cheng and sent to Nanjing to ask for credit.

After the city of Suzhou was breached, Chen Zilong did not flee to Hangzhou with those officials, but stayed in Suzhou. He was going to meet Ma Cheng and see what had changed in the past few years for this little brother. Chen Zilong was an official close to Zhu Lunkui in the Luwang court, and at the same time, Chen Zilong saw that the Luwang court was gone, and the Luwang court in Ningbo was not Zhu Lunkui's opponent at all, so Chen Zilong was ready to stay and join Zhu Lunkui.