The holy decree was sent out, and Zhu Lunkui's ministers were waiting for the good news from the front, but when the news of Suzhou was sent back on the fourth day of the eighth month, Zhang Guozhu, who had high hopes for the emperor, was defeated.

At the beginning, Zhang Guozhu led his 30,000 elite soldiers south along the canal, preparing to capture Jiaxing. But what he didn't expect was that in Wangjiangjing, on the periphery of Jiaxing Mansion, Zhang Guozhu was ambushed by Zhu Changjun, and suffered heavy losses in a battle.

Zhu Lunkui was so angry when he received this battle report, but he didn't worry much when he heard that Zhang Guozhu's loss was not big, after all, the war is impermanent, no one is a monster like Ma Cheng, he can fight 400,000 against 10,000, so the temporary defeat is acceptable.

In order to comfort Zhang Guozhu, Zhu Lunkui instead sent a letter of comfort to Zhang Guozhu, reassuring Zhang Guozhu that he must give full play to his expertise in defending the city, although the field battle was defeated, as long as he adhered to the good tradition of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism, victory would definitely come. According to Zhu Lunkui's analysis, Zhang Guozhu may not be good at field warfare, but defending the city is a forte, after all, Zhang Guozhu held on to Zhengyangmen for a year under the heavy pressure of the Qing army, but he did not let the Qing army take advantage of it.

But Zhang Guozhu once again disappointed the emperor, and on August 24, half a month after Zhang Guozhu retreated to Wujiang County, Zhu Chang's army of 50,000 people attacked the city, and Zhang Guozhu was defeated again. This time the defeat was even more complete, and even the city of Suzhou was lost.

Suzhou is also no better than Wujiang, Suzhou is the central city of the Taihu Lake Economic Circle, and now more than half of Zhu Lunkui's taxes come from Suzhou. At the same time, once Suzhou lost Songjiang in the east, it would not be safe, and Changzhou in the west could not be defended without danger, so it could only retreat to Zhenjiang to defend on the front line. Zhenjiang is less than a hundred miles away from Nanjing, and thinking that Zhu Chang's army is about to fight to the outskirts of Nanjing, Zhu Lunkui is already so angry that he is going crazy.

Zhu Lunkui didn't know Zhang Guozhu's intentions at this time? This is where Zhang Guozhu can't defeat King Lu's army, it's simply that Zhang Guozhu doesn't want to fight, so he directly surrenders Suzhou.

"It must be Ma Cheng! It must be Ma Cheng, the bastard! ”

Zhu Lunkui scolded Ma Cheng in the Qianqing Palace for not being a thing, and smashed the porcelain in the Qianqing Palace, but what could he do? Now that the generals in the army have expressed their dissatisfaction, Zhu Lunkui is even more afraid to move Ma Cheng, he is afraid that forcing Ma Cheng too tightly, this guy will do something.

Zhu Lunkui had no choice but to find Qian Qianyi again, and now Qian Qianyi's position in Zhu Lunkui's heart has risen sharply, if it weren't for Ma Shiying's great merit, it is likely that this first assistant would have to be replaced by Qian Qianyi.

Qian Qianyi has also been very angry these days, he didn't expect Ma Cheng's strength to spread so far, and Zhang Guozhu, who was far away in Suzhou, had to listen to Ma Cheng's command.

Zhu Lunkui saw Qian Qianyi coming in, and asked angrily: "Qian Qianyi, Zhang Guozhu was recommended by you, and now that he is playing like this, what do you say should I do?" ”

What else can I do? Forget the responsibility! Qian Qianyi bowed down and replied: "Your Majesty, this Zhang Guozhu is from Guiyang Wei and has served as Ma Shiying's Chinese army all the year round, so it is not surprising that he can listen to Ma Cheng!" After Qian Qianyi finished speaking, he saw that Zhu Lunkui's face was not good, and hurriedly said: "But please rest assured, Your Majesty, after all, Zhang Guozhu has few soldiers, and the 150,000 troops outside the city are still loyal to His Majesty the Emperor!" ”

Zhu Lunkui's face was much better when he mentioned this, and he asked with a slight sigh of relief: "Then what do you say should be done?" ”

Your Majesty, you can send Luo Bingran to lead 100,000 elite soldiers to meet the rebels! ”

Zhu Lunkui was already suspicious of Ma Cheng at this time, and he was unsure whether Luo Bingran could command the 150,000 troops outside the city, and after listening to Qian Qianyi's proposal, Zhu Lunkui asked in a deep voice: "Luo Bingran can really command the army outside the city?" ”

Qian Qianyi heard the emperor say this, patted his chest and promised: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, Luo Bingran has already replaced ten deputy commanders among the generals, and more than 30 generals have been replaced by confidants, and he is absolutely loyal to His Majesty!" ”

Zhu Lunkui will be skeptical when he hears Qian Qianyi, but what else can he do now? There was no way for Zhu Lunkui to issue a holy decree and let Luo Bingran, the governor of Jiangnan, lead a 100,000-strong army of horses and infantry to go out to fight against the rebellious Zhu Chang.

Zhu Lunkui didn't know that there was a Murphy theorem in later generations, which probably means that if there is a possibility that things will go bad, no matter how small that probability is, it will always happen. If it is translated into popular language, it is unlucky, and drinking cold water can stuff your teeth. Zhu Lunkui's decree was transmitted to the military camp outside the city, and Murphy's theorem was attacked, and all the middle and low-ranking officers collectively resisted the decree and refused to go out of the battle.

After Luo Bingran took over the New Army, he changed some high-ranking generals according to the traditional way of thinking, and all officials above the rank of general were replaced by his own people. After the incident, Luo Bingran thought that it was done, but what he didn't expect was that Ma Cheng's army management was not based on these senior generals, but on those grassroots officers such as hundreds of households and thousands of households, small banners, and general banners.

Baihu is equivalent to the company commander of later generations, Qianhu is equivalent to the battalion commander of later generations, and guerrilla is equivalent to the regiment commander of later generations, these people are the cornerstone of Ma Cheng's command of the army. And most of these middle-level officers are from Guizhou, and some of them are Ma Cheng's personal soldiers, where can these people listen to Luo Bingran's call?

After Luo Bingran received the holy decree, he ordered the drums to gather the generals and prepare to set off, but the news from each battalion was that all the middle and low-level officers took sick leave together. According to the military law of the Ming Dynasty, this was already a sign of mutiny, Luo Bingran did not dare to be careless, went to a battalion to see the situation, and prepared to catch a few unlucky ghosts and behead them to deter other officers.

But when he arrived at the barracks, he found that all the ordinary soldiers were hostile to Luo Bingran, if it weren't for Luo Bingran with hundreds of personal soldiers, it was likely that a mutiny would have occurred and killed Luo Bingran. The appearance of ordinary soldiers can make Luo Bingran break out in a cold sweat, this is a 150,000 army, in case of a mutiny, he Luo Bingran has a hundred heads that are not enough to cut off, so Luo Bingran has no choice, and he did not deal with those low-level officers, and withdrew from the camp with hundreds of personal soldiers.

Most of the ordinary soldiers in the new army were former prisoners of war of the Qing army, and it was useless to talk to them about the righteousness of the family and the country, but Ma Cheng naturally had the means to subdue them. When the New Army was first organized, the treatment of these Qing prisoners of war was the same as that of the New Army, with three full meals a day and one meat to eat, plus a monthly salary of nine dollars of silver, which was even more generous than that of the border army.

However, after Luo Bingran became the new commander, the food standard was immediately lowered, and the three meals became two meals, and the meat at night was gone, and the monthly military salary was in arrears for several months. Of course, this is not Luo Bingran's heart and drinking the blood of soldiers, the logistics of the entire new army are under the control of Wang Xian, and Wang Xian, who got Ma Cheng's order, will not give you Luo Bingran to wear small shoes.

Luo Bingran also went to Wang Xian because of this matter, but Wang Xian was already the marquis of Zhenguo, Luo Bingran couldn't manage people at all, and at the same time, there was no silver in the army at all, and he couldn't go to the Ministry of War to transfer it. Tian Yang, the secretary of the military department, Li Zhan, the secretary of the household department, and one is Ruan

One of Dacheng's cronies is Ma Shiying's cronies, can you give you Luo Bingran's silver?

People are like this, no one said anything about eating pig food every day, so I was afraid that I would give you a few months of delicious food, and then replace it with pig food, which is to have an idea. The complaints of ordinary soldiers, coupled with the fanning of middle and low-ranking officers, these soldiers certainly did not have a good opinion of Luo Bingran.

When there was such a major event in the army, Luo Bingran didn't dare to stay in the army, so he could only withdraw from the barracks with a few hundred personal soldiers, and then go to the palace to ask the emperor what to do.

After Zhu Lunkui received the news, he smashed the porcelain of the Qianqing Palace again, but what can be done? The army no longer obeyed the command, and Zhu Lunkui did not dare to dismiss those disobedient officers at will now, and if he didn't make it possible for Zhu Chang to fight in Nanjing, he himself would be killed by the mutinous soldiers.

Zhu Lunkui knew that this was all Ma Cheng's ghost, originally Zhu Lunkui thought that Ma Cheng handed over the military power so easily for the country and the people, but now it seems that Ma Cheng is simply advancing and retreating. But Zhu Lunkui knew that there was no way, the matter was here, and if he wanted to solve it, he had to come forward.

Zhu Lunkui sat on the dragon chair in the Qianqing Palace and sighed, he had no choice but to let Lu Jiude send a decree to Ma Cheng, so that Ma Cheng could reinstate and lead the army to quell Zhu Chang's rebellion.

Lu Jiude came to Ma Cheng's mansion with the emperor's holy decree, and the doorman at the door saw that the Qin messenger was coming, so he hurriedly ran in to report the news, and soon the house prepared incense to meet the holy decree.

But to Lu Jiude's surprise, Ma Cheng was carried out, Ma Cheng went out of the gate and saw Lu Jiude, and said with a wry smile: "Uncle Lu, the little nephew has hemorrhoids, and he really can't get up, please forgive Uncle Lu, I can't kneel to welcome the holy decree!" ”

Lu Jiude frowned when he heard Ma Cheng say this, and now the emperor asked Ma Cheng to lead the troops to the battle, but this guy has hemorrhoids, what can I do?

Lu Jiude had no choice but to say: "Don't get in the way!" After speaking, he stood in front of the incense table, opened the holy decree, and read it.

The holy decree was very short, just saying that Ma Cheng was re-appointed as the governor of Jiangnan and asked him to lead troops to quell the rebellion.

After Ma Cheng listened to the holy decree, he said with a bitter face: "Uncle Lu, please give your majesty the emperor, although the minister wants to go on the horse to sweep away the rebellion for His Majesty, but his body does not allow it!" The doctor let Ma Cheng recuperate, and if he rode out on horseback, he would probably die before the battle! After Ma Cheng finished speaking, he lay on the stretcher and cried.

Lu Jiude pretended to look at Ma Cheng's appearance, although the hemorrhoids may be dead if they are serious, but Ma Cheng is young, even if he has hemorrhoids, it will not be very serious, it must be that this guy knows what happened in the military camp outside the city, and wants to sit on the ground and raise the price, and threaten the emperor to add an official to himself.

Lu Jiude had no choice but to say: "In this case, please ask the Marquis of Zhenguo to recuperate, and the old slave will return to Your Majesty!" ”

After Lu Jiude finished speaking, he returned to the palace with the guards and told Zhu Lunkui about Ma Cheng's illness.

Zhu Lunkui is not a fool, Ma Cheng does not get sick early or late, but when he is sick at this time, he must want to use this matter to blackmail himself. Zhu Lunkui angrily scolded Ma Cheng again in the Qianqing Palace. But scolding can't solve the problem, Zhu Lunkui thought about it and had to re-give Ma Cheng the official position of the guard of the southern capital and the governor of the Chinese army, hoping that Ma Cheng would not shirk this time.

But what disappointed Zhu Lunkui was that Ma Cheng once pushed off his official position, saying that he was sick and could not go on the expedition, and that there were so many generals in the court, please re-elect the meritocracy and go on the expedition instead of him.