Since it was decided to ignore the imperial courts on both sides, Zhang Qiang's forces fell into isolation.

On the one hand, the Tartar forces surrounded the Jinhua rebels, on the other hand, the attitude of the maritime forces of the Zheng pirates was not very friendly, and on the other hand, the isolation policy that the Southern Ming courts on both sides might adopt towards Zhang Qiang's forces made Zhang Qiang's Jinhua rebels appear a little different and in a more difficult situation.

This is Zhang Qiang's own choice.

Zhang Qiang made up his mind to no longer ignore the disputes in the outside world and bury his head in a down-to-earth way to strengthen his power.

Emperor Longwu, who was far away in Tingzhou Mansion, also had no intention of ignoring Zhang Qiang's Jinhua Righteous Army, because Li Chengdong's Han Army Banner and Green Camp Qing Army were stepping up their offensive against Tingzhou Mansion, and the entire Tingzhou Mansion was besieged by the Qing army on all sides, and the situation was the same as Jinhua Mansion being besieged by the Qing army.

Emperor Longwu was already unable to protect himself, how could he be in the mood to care about a rebel army.

The fighting on the wall of Tingzhou Mansion entered a white-hot situation, and every moment the Southern Ming army fell, as well as the Han army banner and the green battalion soldiers fell.

The strange thing is that even with such an attack, the Qing army could not take the Tingzhou capital city for a while, and looked down along the line of sight of the Qing army from the height of the watchtower, only to see that the city wall was dominated by the people and the Southern Ming army, and in the key position, many of the elite of the Southern Ming army wearing the red robe of the Ming army and the silver-gray chain mail attacked the army on the city wall from time to time, suppressing the arrogance of the Qing army besieging the city.

Raising the field of vision, behind the city wall, on the wooden ladders, many Ming soldiers are climbing, jumping on the city wall from time to time to reinforce the Nanming soldiers on the city wall, and not far away, about fifty meters away, it seems that you can see the familiar second city wall.

The soldier holding the firearm above was carefully aiming at the Qing army on the first city wall, and the opportunity was a shot, and the Qing army who was fighting with a knife was shocked, and then discarded the knife in his hand, and fell helplessly, and immediately four or five Nanming soldiers rushed up, swords and guns were fired, and the Qing soldier was killed.

In the distance in the city, the courtyard walls of the large square courtyard are being reinforced, a large number of people in Tingzhou Mansion are busy, and there are such construction sites in the entire Tingzhou Mansion City, with towers rising from the ground and towering in the middle of the courtyard, full of crossbows, archers, and lookouts.

In the center of several of these courtyards, there was often a larger courtyard, or a larger courtyard converted from the courtyard of a wealthy household, with cannons or bed crossbows piled on the walls, and soldiers standing on the walls.

Extending from all sides, all the way to the Tingzhou Mansion, the Tingzhou Mansion is a huge fortress, the line of sight passes through the courtyard of the Mansion, through the canopy of several hundred-year-old locust trees, and extends in, the hall of the Mansion is full of officials and generals, and on a gorgeous chair in the center, there is a middle-aged man wearing a golden dragon robe.

At this moment, he sat there and said to an old man who bowed down in the lobby below: "Aiqing, Zhu Aiqing, you tell me, how long can this method last?" ”

The old man in the hall said: "Your Majesty, if the soldiers in the city are alive and the food and grass are sufficient, it will not be a problem for two months, and there are only 60,000 Qing troops outside the city, and there are no brave soldiers like the Tartars, if there is no more artillery, Weichen believes that they will not be able to take the capital city of Tingzhou in three months." ”

The middle-aged man sitting in the hall breathed a sigh of relief, leaned back in the chair covered in sweat, and said weakly: "At least, in the short term, we don't need to worry, Zhu Aiqing, you did a very good job, I didn't misread you, come, I will make the decree, add Zhu Aiqing as the secretary of the military department, and command all the soldiers and horses in Tingzhou Mansion." ”

"Your Majesty, although Zhu Dadian's strategy has been meritorious, but it is only an expedient measure, now the enemy is besieging the city, the emperor has to think of a way out, after all, although Zhu Dadian has the ability to resist the Tartars for several months, but finally abandoned the city and fled, although the current situation is the same as the situation in Jinhua at that time, but we don't have so many people and people can resist the Tartars for Your Majesty for several months, if you can't wait for reinforcements, the emperor is in danger, it is better to send an envoy out of the city, and then go to find reinforcements."

He Kai on the side came out and played.

He Kai, Longwu Zhu Yujian was in Fuzhou when the household was still the book, because Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Hongkui supported the merits, proud of the ministers, flying and domineering, He Kai was impeached and played their "no one courtesy"; Emperor Longwu rewarded He Kai for daring to speak out, and immediately added him the official title of Zuo Du Yushi. The Zheng brothers held a grudge and made things difficult everywhere, He Kai was forced to ask Zhishi to return to his hometown, and Emperor Longwu agreed to him to temporarily return to his hometown to recuperate. Zheng Zhilong still refused to give up, and sent his troops to cut off one of He Kai's ears on the way to demonstrate to the imperial court.

When Longwu finally fled to Tingzhou Mansion, experienced the crisis of being attacked by Li Chengdong's Qing army, saved his life, and re-established his court in Tingzhou Mansion, he was recalled by Longwu again and re-made the Hubu Shangshu.

Long Wu was also worried, and he was obviously more concerned about He Kai's proposal, he glanced at the ministers in the court, "You Aiqing, do you have a good plan to discuss with your ministers?" ”

Zhang Jiayu said: "The emperor, Zheng Zhilong's son, Zheng Chenggong retreated to Quanzhou Mansion, Xiamen, Kinmen and other places after his father surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and continued to raise the banner of anti-Qing Dynasty. ”

Longwu Zhu Yujian's face was a little gloomy, he really didn't want to see anyone from the Zheng family again, in Fuzhou he was fed up with the Zheng family's unreasonable troubles, fed up with their flying domineering, he looked at Zhang Jiayu, Zhang Jiayu felt that the atmosphere was not very good, raised his head slightly and touched Zhu Yujian's gaze, immediately bowed his head, stopped talking, took a step back, and retreated to the civil service.

He Kai looked around, turned to a military general on the side and said, "Can the personnel sent to He Tengjiao's Department and Wan Yuan Ji have a reply?" ”

The military general said: "The day before yesterday, there was an envoy out of the city, struggling to go back and forth, to pick up the envoy, however, both of them said that they had changed King Gui to the orthodox court and would no longer be dispatched by His Majesty. ”

Zhu Yu stood up violently, "Rebellious, rebellious, rebellious, I will kill him in the future." ”

The ministers in the court trembled with fright, and the imperial aura on the body of Emperor Longwu, who had escaped the control of the Zheng family, became stronger and stronger, even if he still had to rely on them, but the emperor was the emperor, and they admired and feared it from the bottom of their hearts.

At this time, a guard quietly entered from the side of the lobby, and whispered a few words in Zhu Dadian's ear sideways, as the only one that Tingzhou Mansion currently needs to rely on, he has used his own merits to make the Qing army face the heroes of Tingzhou Mansion who has been unable to attack for a long time, and Zhu Dadian, who has proved himself, has now fully controlled most of the army in Tingzhou Mansion, even the guards outside the court have his subordinates, so the arrival of this guard did not make everyone feel at all about it, thinking that they came in without permission, and did not need to report to the emperor first, And reporting to Zhu Dadian first is a disobedient act.

After listening to the guard's report, Zhu Dadian coughed, and everyone focused their eyes on him, Zhu Yujian looked at him, "What's the matter with Aiqing?" ”

Zhu Dadian said: "The envoys sent by the ministers to Jinhua Mansion have returned, and Zhang Qiang, the commander of the Jinhua Righteous Army, has not received the reward from our dynasty. ”