Chapter 144, The Black Hand (1)
The reason why Sun Baigu was released was also because there was really no one available in the hands of Emperor Chongde now. In fact, Emperor Chongde, who has always loved face, would never have done this kind of thing in his own opinion, if he really had no choice.
Sun Baigu had been in the prison for so long, and he had enough time to think about what kind of king the Chongde Emperor he assisted was. After being released from the prison, Sun Baigu took a closer look at the current situation and found that if the situation is today, compared to when he went in, it can really be said that it is completely collapsed, and it has reached the point where it is almost out of control. He looked ahead, thought about it carefully, carefully analyzed the situation, as well as the emperor's mentality, and prepared several coping routines. As soon as he came up today, Sun Baigu secretly looked at the emperor, and saw that he had a calm face, but when he looked at himself, his eyes flickered a little, and he knew that it was not good.
Sun Bai has seen a lot of people, and he knows what this flickering gaze means. There was a bit of shame in this twinkling gaze. If there is such a spirit in the eyes of the people in the lower position, it can be used by Sun Baigu. But if the person in the top position, or even the emperor, has such a look in his eyes, it is by no means a good thing. Sun Baigu knew that Emperor Chongde was a person who loved face. The reason why he feels ashamed now is not necessarily because he feels wronged himself. Since ancient times, "the king wants his ministers to die, and the ministers have to die", let alone just throw him in prison. As the saying goes, "thunder, rain and dew are all monarchs", as a king, let the minister be wronged, what is there to be embarrassed about? Not to mention that just letting him go to prison to be wronged, it really cut off the heads of his whole family, which is also grace. Emperor Chongde was ashamed only because he felt that he had failed to quell the rebellion, so much so that he had to go against his will, damage his own face, and reactivate the officials he hated. Sun Baigu immediately understood that although he was now released from the prison, the emperor's hatred for himself was far greater than when he was sent to prison.
This is really the worst thing, Sun Baigu even hopes that he is still in prison and has not been reactivated. Because in such a situation, no matter what kind of achievements he makes, I am afraid that he will not make the emperor happy. If he can't turn the situation around, then in the emperor's opinion, it is natural that he is resentful and deliberately does not work. In this way, he naturally has no place to die. However, even if he immediately defeated the thieves and settled the world, it would not necessarily be a good thing for him, and it might even be worse. Because this situation shows that the reason why the rogue caused trouble in the world before was all because the emperor did not appoint meritocracy, and it was all because the emperor was confused. This kind of result is naturally not acceptable to the face-loving emperor. Therefore, the more successful he was, the more he highlighted the emperor's mistakes. Emperor Chongde was not a big-hearted king. Even if it was inconvenient for him to deal with Sun Baigu immediately because of these merits, the more this was the case, the more depressed his heart became, the more he hated Sun Baigu, and the deeper the disaster became for Sun Baigu. If you don't get it right, it's not impossible to have "no descendants left behind".
Thinking of this, Sun Baigu couldn't help but tremble all over his body.
Emperor Chongde looked down at Sun Baigu who was kneeling on the ground, and when he saw him kneeling below, he trembled, and for a while, he was a little happy, but he suddenly thought that Sun Baigu had always been famous for his courage in the past, but now he behaved like this, did he pretend to deceive himself? Thinking about it like this, the disgust for Sun Baigu in my heart deepened a lot.
"Sun Baigu, what do you think of the current situation?" Emperor Chongde held back the disgust in his heart and asked coldly.
"Your Majesty." Sun Bai knelt on the ground, put his head on the ground, and returned to the Tao tremblingly, "The criminal feels that the trouble of his henchmen today is Huang Zide. Huang Zide is now on the trend of changing from a rogue to a sitting. Now that Huang Zide has captured Jingxiang, he has food. The criminal heard that he sent thieves and generals into Sichuan, which was to stabilize Jingxiang. If he is allowed to take root in Jingxiang, the lake will be in danger. Huguang is the granary of the world, once it is lost, the world is in danger. Sinner...... The criminal felt that the most important thing now was not to let Huang Zide really gain a foothold in Jingxiang. A way must be found to get him out of Jingxiang immediately. ”
Hearing this, Emperor Chongde also nodded slightly. Although this Sun Baigu is hateful, when it comes to ability, it is really not bad, but it's a pity......
"Sun Baigu, how do you think the imperial court can drive Huang Zide away from Jingxiang now?"
Sun Baigu had just come out of prison, and his knowledge of the situation today was still limited, but he knew that he could not stop speaking at this time, and he could not say vague and irresponsible words. Because as long as he dares to do this, it is "resentment", it is a capital crime!
So he organized the language and said: "Your Majesty, the only thing that the imperial court can count on now is the Qin army." It's just that the Qin army has been lacking military pay over the years, and its training has been lax a lot, so they directly let them expel Huang Zide, and once they are defeated, the consequences will be unimaginable. The sinner felt that it should be done in several steps. The first is the reorganization of armaments. Capable ministers were sent to Ganshan to train the army. The second is to do a good job of defense in other areas of Huguang, especially in Jiangnan, and organize a people's army. The third is to contact the gentry of Jingxiang and use them as internal support. In the future, after the Qin army is trained, it will join forces with Huguang and the gentry who are still loyal to the imperial court, and they may be able to recover Jingxiang. ”
Emperor Chongde nodded, and then asked, "Who do you think can take on the three sides of the governor?" ”
When Sun Baigu heard this, he immediately kowtowed and said: "Long live, the criminal minister once served as the governor of Shaanxi's official army, and he is relatively more familiar with the official army in Gansu and Shaanxi, and the criminal minister also has a little experience in military training. His Majesty did not give up, and the guilty minister was willing to serve as the governor of the three sides and atone for his sins. ”
This answer was in line with Emperor Chongde's wishes, and Emperor Chongde nodded and said, "It's good that you can be so brave in doing things." Since you came up with the idea, and you are indeed more familiar with Gan Shaanxi. I'll make you the governor of the trilateral. Sun Baigu! ”
At the end, Emperor Chongde suddenly raised his voice.
"The sinner is here!" Sun Baigu hurriedly kowtowed.
"I appointed you as the governor of the three sides, the governor of all roads, and exterminate the thieves!" Emperor Chongde said.
"Commandment." Sun Baigu replied.
"In addition, I got a secret report that the chief soldier He Dalong secretly communicated with the bandit leader Huang Zide. What do you think should be done about this matter? Emperor Chongde suddenly asked again.
……
Emperor Chongde has always been an anxious son, and on the day of Sun Baigu's platform answer, the official decree was issued, and then the next morning, Sun Baigu left Beijing and rushed to Taiyuan.
Sun Baigu didn't dare to stay on the road, and rushed to Xi'an day and night. From Beijing to Xi'an, another two or three thousand miles, according to the normal speed, it is not surprising that it takes three or four months. But Sun Baigu knew that the military situation was urgent, so he didn't take a sedan chair, and used a carriage to rush desperately along the way. However, it took more than 20 days to rush to Xi'an. During this time, the situation has changed a lot.
After a month of repairs, He Zhangqi and Xuan Yi began to continue their offensive towards Chengdu, and a major battle broke out between Anyue and Zhang Bingzhong. Relying on the elite Mandarin Duck Array, the revolutionary army easily defeated Zhang Bingzhong on the battlefield, and then marched into Chengdu, and after the defeat, Zhang Bingzhong turned to Guangyuan with his soldiers and horses, trying to go to Hanzhong.
In Anhui, inspired by Luo Mengde's army, the 5th Battalion of Zuo Ge once again came out of the mountains of Yingshan, Huoshan, Taihu Lake, and Yuexi. However, Liu Liangzuo and Huang Degong were already on guard, and they quickly retreated to Anqing and firmly controlled the passage to the east. The 5th Battalion of Zuo Ge and Luo Mengde's coalition army did not have much real siege experience, and they lacked relevant weapons, so they were simply unable to capture Anqing, and if they could not control Anqing, they could not move down the east of the river. So Luo Mengde led the team to the south and entered Jiangxi.
……
After Sun Baigu arrived in Xi'an, only two or three days later, a holy decree caught up with him and asked Sun Baigu to take immediate action. Sun Baigu knew that today's Qin army was no longer as good as before, and under the influence of long-term arrears and recent defeats, the morale of today's Qin army was low, and its combat effectiveness was far from being comparable to before. But he also knew that in his current situation, he could not resist the holy decree of the imperial court. Coupled with the secret decree given to him by the emperor, Sun Baigu ordered that the generals of the three sides should come to Xi'an to discuss the war.
At this meeting, Sun Baigu suddenly took out the emperor's secret decree and ordered He Dalong to be beheaded, and then sent people to collect He Dalong's army. The other generals on the table were all terrified.
After killing He Dalong and taking control of He Dalong's army. Sun Baigu came up with his combat strategy, that is, on the premise of not fighting a decisive battle with Huang Zide, he constantly harassed Jing Xiang, so as to undermine Huang Zide's control over Jing Xiang.
Half a month later, Sun Baigu personally took the newly recruited soldiers and began to go south, but he did not walk fast, and it seemed that he continued to train while walking. He walked with the army for nearly two months on a road of about 2,000 miles before he arrived in Nanyang. Since then, Sun Baigu has continued to send troops to attack and harass the military camps set up by Huang Zide. Because of the cooperation of the gentry, the losses caused by these attacks to the military camp were not small. To the north of Xiangyang, two military camps were broken by officers and soldiers, and more than 1,000 people in the military tun village were slaughtered.
In order to eliminate the threat of the official army to Jingxiang, Huang Zide decided to take the initiative to send troops to attack Nanyang, which was occupied by Sun Baigu, after consulting with Liu Jiexuan and Niu Juming.