In Pingnan County, Zhang Qiang's army is resting.

He's been here for three days now.

More and more rebels joined Zhang Qiang's team, and in the past three days, another 3,000 young rebels have joined, and his team has grown to 13,000 people.

If you don't go to guard the county, then the people around you have to go with him, and those who don't go generally encounter accidents, the Qing army will come to sort out a wave, and the righteous army that stays behind will catch a wave of people, or bewitch a wave of people, and when the Qing army comes, they will only have the word escape.

At this time, wherever they could go, they must have come to chase their own team, so Zhang Qiang's troops reasonably took in these people in the name of the savior, and his team naturally grew.

In addition to the regular army, there are five or six thousand righteous troops that follow, as well as those captive soldiers who are getting stronger and stronger, with a strength of 40,000 troops.

When Su Guansheng arrived, he was very shocked by the scene he saw, because Zhang Qiang also trained those prisoners in formation, the purpose is, of course, to make them obey orders, obey commands, command well on the road, and speed up the march, otherwise they don't run alone, lie down for a minute, then there are 40,000 people who don't run, wouldn't he even want to run to Tingzhou Mansion this year?

Su Guansheng's original name was Shi Ze, the word Yulin, and he was from Dongguan. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, when Emperor Hongguang, the official was in charge of the household department, the Qing army went south, avoided the troops to Hangzhou, and Zheng Hongkui and others entered Fujian with Emperor Longwu (the first attack on the Tang Dynasty), and Emperor Longwu ascended the throne and worshiped scholars.

In the second year of Longwu (January 20, 1647), the Qing army broke through Guangzhou, and Su Guansheng was martyred by hanging.

In May of the first year of Longwu (1645), the Qing army captured Nanjing, and Su Guansheng fled to Hangzhou. It just so happened that Tang King Zhu Yujian arrived, and Su Guansheng went to meet him. Zhu Yujian was very happy after talking with him and took a boat with him to Fujian. Guansheng, Zheng Zhilong, and Zheng Hongkui brothers jointly supported Zhu Yujian as emperor, and Zhu Yujian promoted him to be a bachelor of Hanlin, and was soon promoted to the right attendant and bachelor of the Ministry of Rites. The Chuxian Pavilion was opened, divided into 12 sections, to recruit talents from all over the world, and Su Guansheng was in charge of it. Su Guansheng swore to be honest and self-reliant, and he also had a little literary talent and knowledge, but he didn't have much reputation at that time. Because Zhu Yujian was an old subordinate, his love and favor for him surpassed that of other courtiers, and he was exceptionally promoted to be a scholar of Dongge University in a short period of time to participate in the handling of major military and political affairs of the country.

In terms of fame, he is indeed inferior to Ma Shiying, Qian Qianyi and others.

is not even as good as Zhu Dadian, and his talent is not as good as them, but his merits have made him gain a firm foothold in the Longwu Imperial Court, and now he is a close minister who has fallen with Longwu.

This person has a characteristic that he always thinks about the emperor he supports, unlike Zhu Dadian and others who actually think about their own benefits, and when they are not satisfied with their own benefits, they would rather give themselves fame, temperament, and martyrdom, and will not do more useless things.

One of the things that Su Guansheng admires is that he doesn't give up.

So Zhang Qiang received him in the county seat.

At the same time that Zhang Qiang received Su Guansheng, Zhang Cunzhe's army of more than 30,000 people, plus more than 30,000 Qing troops around him, had already surrounded him from three sides.

Fan Shaozu received Zhang Cunzhe's envoy in the capital of Wenzhou.

When he heard that Zhang Cunzhe, the governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, led an army of 60,000 to surround the Jinhua Righteous Army on three sides, Fan Shaozu was moved, and immediately deployed 3,000 sailors and 10,000 Qing soldiers to the front line again with Portuguese envoys.

On the naval warship, Fan Shaozu gritted his teeth and said to the new envoy of Portugal: "Commander Frey, this time we are looking for the murderer of your envoy, and this time I will definitely capture the murderer and hand it over to you for disposal." ”

The commander of the Portuguese Army, dressed as a gray Portuguese musketeer, looked at him and said: "I have ordered more than 900 of my troops to come by boat from Xiangshan to meet us, and when the time comes, I will personally shoot the murderer of the Ming who dares to provoke our Portuguese." ”

In Pingnan County, Zhang Qiang said to Su Guansheng with a smile: "Cabinet, I have long heard that the cabinet serves the emperor until death, and it is fate to be able to really see the cabinet this time." ”

Su Guansheng was very disliked by Zhang Qiang's trousers, top, and short coat that resembled the Portuguese, but he knew that he had to rely on this person this time, and Longwu had reached the point of exhaustion.

It is likely that the next moment, he was pulled out of the village of the gentry by the Qing soldiers and beheaded to invite merit, so no matter how much he didn't like Zhang Qiang, he also took the teacup calmly and asked: "I don't know if the leader has any thoughts about the current situation of the imperial court?" ”

Zhang Qiang said with a smile: "The emperor is in trouble, the lower officials must do their best to help, since receiving the message of the distress messenger sent by Lord Zhu, the lower officials immediately led the elite soldiers and horses, and rushed to the rescue in the starry night," he pretended to be helpless, "But as soon as I walked here, I heard that the Tingzhou Mansion was broken by the Qing army, and the emperor was nowhere to be found, and the lower officials hesitated, not knowing what to do next," he raised his head with a smile in his eyes, "Now that I have seen the cabinet, I think that the emperor has escaped safely, it is better for the cabinet to lead the lower officials to go and welcome the emperor into the army." , so as not to be in danger when the cabinet is not there, the emperor will be in danger. ”

Su Guansheng didn't expect that Zhang Qiang would hope to welcome Longwu into the army as soon as he came up, he looked at Zhang Qiang, this person seems to have the intention to make a meritorious contribution.

He put down the teacup, although Su Guansheng's ability is not big, how can it be said that people have also worked as a magistrate in Daming, a university scholar, Nanming is still a household scholar, a university scholar, and a person who has entered the cabinet, and his cultivation is still very high.

"The emperor is in trouble, and we are naturally very worried as courtiers, but this official still wants the leader to have an attitude, how will you treat the emperor?"

"You must treat them with courtesy, and do your duty as a courtier." Zhang Qiang said.

Su Guansheng was very disappointed, this reckless man in the countryside did not have the kind of sincere fear of worshipping when he saw the emperor, it seems that this person is still unreliable, recall, although it is unreliable, but after all, it is the army of the imperial court, loyal to the imperial court, and now it is the only force that can be found recently.

Su Guansheng stood up, "Then ask the leader to go with the official to see the driver!" ”

Zhang Qiang stood up and tidied up his clothes, "Please lead the way," turn around, "Yang Qianhu, lead five hundred soldiers and five hundred cavalry, and follow the governor of Bendu to take over." ”

Yang Yangyang flashed in from the gate, "My lord, the soldiers and horses are ready." ”

Zhang Qiang said to Gu Yuesheng and Tang Dianfeng who rushed over: "Tang Dianfeng, you are in charge of the military here, Gu Yuesheng, you support the guards and prisoners and logistics materials, and wait for the governor of Pontus to come back." ”

"Yes, sir."

Su Guansheng said to Zhang Qiang: "Chief, if you don't bring a large army to go, if you encounter Qing soldiers, how should you deal with it?" ”

Zhang Qiang said with a smile, "Go and come back quickly, after that, we will retreat to the state capital and enter the territory of Xiaguan, even if the Qing army comes, we can deal with it calmly, where the soldiers are strong and strong, we have defeated the encirclement and suppression of the Qing army several times, and the Qing army does not dare to enter and suppress easily." ”

Although Su Guansheng was not very relieved in his heart, he thought that he was alone, and he could not restrain Zhang Qiang, this time he was in a hurry, and it was only a tentative contact with Zhang Qiang's righteous army, so he didn't bring any holy decree, this is his cleverness, if he brought the holy decree, in case he was arrested along the way, wouldn't he expose his whereabouts and that of the emperor?

Without the Holy Decree, even if he is caught, he can be said to have escaped, as long as he doesn't say it, others won't know that Emperor Longwu is nearby, and he may be able to save his life.