Restricted by distance and transportation, it was only three days after the Jiangxi Wu army successfully captured Nanchang City that Wu Chaoyue knew that his lackey accomplice had done such a beautiful thing, and after vigorously praising Liu Kunyi's general demeanor, Wu Chaoyue was also very vigilant about the Manchu court's attempt to provoke the self-army and the Taiping army to start a war again, and immediately asked someone to write a letter to Yang Xiuqing to explain the situation, reminding Yang Xiuqing to restrain his subordinates and not to give the Manchu court a chance to sow discord. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Seeing that Wu Chaoyue only asked other staff members to write letters to Yang Xiuqing but did not make other arrangements, Zhao Liewen put down his business and said to Wu Chaoyue: "Comfort Ting, should you send a letter to Wang Guocai and Xiao Qijiang, and ask them to carefully search Ma Xiuru's mansion?" Let's see if we can find the secret edict of the rebel party in the capital ordering him to dedicate Nanchang to the Taiping army? And find out who can prove that Ma Xiuru took the initiative to donate the city to the Taiping Army, which was instructed by the rebellious party in the capital? ”

"Is this necessary?" Wu Chaoyue asked casually.

"I think it's very necessary, because it's about you fighting for the hearts of the world's scholars with the rebels in the capital."

Zhao Liewen said in a deep voice: "Since Changmao started the army, there have been gentry in various provincial capitals, prefectures and counties who have stood up to form regimental exercises to compete with Changmao, and strive to protect the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the reason is not because of the desire of the Manchu court, but because Changmao robbed the rich and helped the poor, destroyed Confucianism, offended the squires and scholars all over the world, and forced almost all the landlords in the world to the Manchu court, and the gentry in the world had to stand on the side of the Manchu court. ”

Speaking of this, Zhao Liewen paused, and said: "And now, in order to provoke a war between us and Changmao, the Beijing Rebellion Party did not hesitate to sacrifice the entire Nanchang gentry and literati, if we can get real evidence and make it public, then the gentry and literati in the world will inevitably have a rabbit and a fox, even if they are unwilling to join us to serve you, they will definitely not fight us like fighting Changmao, which can relieve us of countless pressures." ”

Wu Chaoyue was a little hesitant, the reason was not that Wu Chaoyue felt that Zhao Liewen's words were wrong, but that Wu Chaoyue was brainwashed by modern education, and resisted the traditional feudal literati from the bones, and resisted the increasingly conservative and backward feudal eight-share imperial examination, and was more willing to buy the hearts of the grassroots people like the Taiping Army, rather than buying the feudal landlord class like the Manchu court, so even if he knew that Zhao Liewen's words were reasonable, Wu Chaoyue was unwilling to do so in his heart.

Conflict is conflict, reality is reality, the reality of China in this era is that the gentry and landlord class have the most resources and knowledge, Wu Chaoyue unless he goes crazy to learn what land reform Wang Mang did in this era, otherwise he can only bow his head like reality. So after hesitating for a while, Wu Chaoyue still nodded, and asked Zhao Liewen to personally write a letter to Xiao Qijiang and Wang Guocai, asking them to make every effort to collect evidence and witnesses that the Manchu court instructed Ma Xiuru to betray Nanchang, and at the same time, by the way, Xiao Qijiang, who was born as a prisoner, acted as the governor of Jiangxi, and rewarded Wang Guocai with a lot of gold and jewelry.

After deciding to compete with the Manchu court for the support of the landlord class, a copy of the edict of Ci'an and Cixi openly appointing Xu Youren and Li Qinggu was also sent to Wu Chaoyue. Not to mention, although Wu Chaoyue analyzed and knew about these other divisive tactics of the Manchu court with his toes, he still felt as disgusting as eating flies, and had to immediately summon Li Qinggu and Lu Shenhui, who were in the capital of Hubei Province, to show their attitude that they were absolutely at ease with them, and at the same time to go to Wen Xu Youren and Hu Zhonghe and others to appease them, and also show that he believed that they were loyal.

Even so, Wu Chaoyue still knew very well in his heart that if the war was smooth, then Xu Youren and the others were unlikely to have any dissenting intentions. But if the Wu army makes any big mistakes on the battlefield, not to mention that Xu Youren, Hu Zhonghe, and Liu Xunjiao, who were forced to join the Wu army, will have ideas and plans, even Li Qinggu and Lu Shenhui, who have a good relationship with him, may not be reliable. At that time, this open and open edict of the Manchu court will definitely become the biggest reason and excuse for them to win over the strong Guanfeng faction to turn against each other.

"Mom, I have to find a way to solve these problems quickly, otherwise even if Xu Youren and his gang don't dare to have any dissent, it is likely to become a hidden danger within me."

When Wu Chaoyue pondered how to crack the Manchu court's divisive plan, some of the evil consequences caused by the Wu army's hasty army were gradually exposed, and when the time was far less ripe than when the Xinhai Revolution broke out, the local officials in Huguang, Chuan, and Jiangxi, who had been brainwashed by the Manchu enslavement policy for more than 200 years, continued to appear people who refused to follow Wu Chaoyue's army, and also took advantage of the opportunity that the main forces of several Wu armies were difficult to support each other, and constantly raised troops to resist under the banner of crusading against Wu thieves, and expelled or even killed the envoys of the Wu army who went to deliver official documents. Refusing to accept Wu Chaoyue's leadership, and even refusing to hand over money, grain, and taxes to the Wu army, forcing the Wu army in various places to divide troops and levy them, greatly slowed down Wu Chaoyue's initial plan to completely annex and digest the four provinces of Hu, Guangchuan, and Jiangxi, and even more seriously affected Wu Jun's plan to further reorganize and prepare for war.

Of course, this situation occurs most in Sichuan and Jiangxi, especially in the county capital of southwest Jiangxi, the Wu army has little foundation in this area, and the Qing army in this area is relatively strong in combat effectiveness because of the perennial war with the Taiping army, and it can also get some help from the Qing army in Guangxi, and it has a little confidence to fight with the Wu army. Therefore, several state capitals in southern Jiangxi categorically rejected Wu Chaoyue's solicitation, openly raised the banner to meet the Wu army by force, and also took the initiative to invite the Guangxi Qing army to go north to help in the war, containing all the mobile forces of the Jiangxi Wu army, and forcing Wu Chaoyue to invest a lot of material resources into the Jiangxi battlefield to help the Jiangxi Wu army quell the rebellion, which consumed a lot of manpower and material resources of the Wu army.

Hunan also has some similar situations, and what makes Wu Chaoyue feel even more unbelievable is that Luotian County, Huangzhou Prefecture, Hubei, which is not too far from his hometown Wuhan, also chose to refuse Yi Zhi, and while actively preparing for the war to deal with the Wu army's conquest, he also pulled the Anhui Qing Army Weng Tongshu into Hubei to participate in the war. Wu Chaoyue was furious and not polite, and immediately ordered some troops of Huang Dasha, the first corps of the Wu army, which had been idle for a long time, to go north to conquer, and explicitly ordered Huang Dasha to attack Weng Tongshu's army head-on, and teach the old enemy Weng Tongshu father and son a hard lesson, so that they know how high the sky is and how thick the earth is!

Just sent an order to Huang Dasha, Guo Songtao, who has not been heard from since the Qixiang coup, suddenly returned to Hubei under the protection of Hubei spies.

It turned out that after the sudden outbreak of the Qixiang coup, although Guo Songtao and others escaped in disguise in advance with the acquiescence of Su Shun, because Guo Songtao almost destroyed the Qixiang coup, and because he had led foreigners to search the palace of the king of Dan and the palace of the alcohol king, he was hated by the six and three brothers of the devil at the same time, and was arrested by a reward in the territory of Zhili, and he could not return to Hubei through the south of Zhili, which was controlled by the army of the monk, and was almost caught by the Qing army for a time.

As a last resort, Guo Songtao could only flee back to the north with the Hubei spies to kill a horse pistol, disguised himself as an ordinary person, entered Shanxi through Zhangjiakou, and went south to Qi County after a lot of hardships, and found Qiao Zhiyong, who was close to Wu Jun, for help. Fortunately, Qiao Zhiyong was not only righteous, but also because a large number of assets were trapped in Hubei, so he did not betray Guo Songtao and others, who were wanted, and tried to help Guo Songtao and others get fake identities and road rules, so that Guo Songtao and others disguised themselves as caravan men and went south, luckily passed through the Yellow River defense line tightly blocked by the Qing army, and went south to Nanyang to get in touch with Wu Jun, and finally returned to Hubei to meet Wu Chaoyue.

After listening to Guo Songtao's introduction, and seeing that Guo Songtao had lost more than one lap after only a few months of not seeing him, Wu Chaoyue was of course quite moved by the loyalty of this accomplice who had returned thousands of miles, in addition to kind words and comforting and giving heavy rewards, he appointed Guo Songtao as the waiter of the Ministry of Rites on the spot, so that Guo Songtao was temporarily responsible for diplomacy and presiding over the imperial examination, and promised to make Guo Songtao a scholar or governor in the future.

Guo Songtao, who had no way out, first thanked Wu Chaoyue for his reward, and then said cautiously: "Generalissimo, when the lower officials resigned to Su Zhongtang, Su Zhongtang once had a sentence for me to bring to you, saying that no matter what happens to him, he must focus on pacifying Changmao, and ask you to immediately send troops to Anhui to force Changmao to withdraw from the Northern Expedition army and rescue the danger of the capital." He also said that the Empress Dowager Xi can replace him and become your support in the capital. ”

Wu Chaoyue was silent, and only after a while did he sigh and say, "If only you could have brought this sentence earlier, at this time things have come to this point, how can you tell me to turn back?" ”

Guo Songtao didn't dare to say anything, but said in his heart: "I'm afraid that even if I can bring this in time, you won't listen to it, right?" Do you think I really can't see that you've been raising thieves for the past few years? ”

After lightly erasing Su Shun's last entrustment to himself, Wu Chaoyue immediately changed the topic and asked Guo Songtao about the specific process of the coup d'état in Qixiang, but it was also at this time that Wu Chaoyue finally knew that Devil Ziliu had disguised himself as a shaman and infiltrated the Rehe Palace to meet Ci'an, and couldn't help but ask, "The Empress Dowager Xi was really not present at that time?" ”

"At least when Xiaguan and Su Zhongtang went in, the Empress Dowager Xi was not there." Guo Songtao replied truthfully, and said: "However, Xia Guan thought about it later, and found that Su Zhongtang had an oversight at that time, and it may not be impossible for the Empress Dowager Xi to also meet with the six princes. ”

"What oversight?" Wu Chaoyue asked.

"At that time, Su Zhongtang interrogated the palace maids and eunuchs of the Empress Dowager's bedroom, and those eunuchs and palace maids all confessed that the six princes mysteriously appeared in the Empress Dowager's dormitory, and they were all driven to the front yard to concentrate on waiting for orders." Guo Songtao replied: "So the lower officials suspect that the sixth prince is likely to enter the dormitory ...... through the back door. ”

"The sixth prince can enter through the back door, and of course the Queen Mother Xi can also enter through the back door, and she can also slip away through the back door in advance when she finds that the situation is wrong." Wu Chaoyue immediately guessed the key to it, and sneered: "My eldest niece can really make a decision immediately, knowing that the sixth prince could not hide the matter of the sixth prince entering the sleeping palace of the Empress Dowager, so she simply did not hide it, and deliberately exposed the Empress Dowager and the sixth prince to protect her, and lost her pawn to protect the car, which is ruthless enough!" ”

"There's something even harder." Guo Songtao also said: "Later, the lower officials heard from Su Zhongtang that the Empress Dowager Xi also behaved towards the eight ministers of Gu Ming everywhere, and even personally came forward to force the Empress Dowager Dong to hand over the holy decree seal given by the emperor. ”

"Su Zhongtang also mentioned this in the last letter to me, and I want to remind Su Zhongtang that it is too late to believe it." Wu Chaoyue sighed again, and then snorted coldly: "But my eldest niece was also too happy, if she knew what secret edict the emperor had left about her to the Empress Dowager, she probably wouldn't be able to laugh." ”

"The first emperor left a secret edict about the Empress Dowager of the West to the Empress Dowager of the East?" Guo Songtao was stunned for a moment, and asked curiously: "Generalissimo, what secret edict did the emperor leave behind?" How do you know? ”

"Oops!"

Wu Chaoyue complained bitterly in his heart, only then did he realize that he had slipped out of his mouth and exposed the identity of the traverser. Forced to be helpless, Wu Chaoyue had no choice but to say casually: "I received inside information, the former emperor was very vigilant about the temper of the Empress Dowager Xi who likes to interfere in politics, and suspected that the Empress Dowager West had the ambition to be Wu Zetian, so he gave the Empress Dowager Dong a secret edict before she died, so that the Empress Dowager could take out this secret edict at any time and give the Empress Dowager Xi to die." ”

"Is there such a thing?" Guo Songtao's mouth was open enough to fit two eggs, and he stammered: "Really fake? The first emperor was so wary of the Queen Mother of the West? ”

"Sources aren't necessarily reliable, and I'm not sure." Wu Chaoyue, who only knew about this secret edict through TV and movies, shrugged his shoulders, and really didn't know if this secret edict really existed, and said quite regretfully, "If I can be sure, I would have stabbed this matter to my eldest niece a long time ago, and asked her to pinch the Empress Dowager first...... Come ......, huh?! ”

Speaking of this by the way, Wu Chaoyue's heart suddenly moved, and he said secretly: "Why haven't I thought about this problem?" The mother-in-law of the wild boar skin family can separate my inside, why can't I separate them? ”

Born of this idea, when Wu Chaoyue carefully deduced it further, he immediately found that it didn't matter whether the secret edict existed at all - with the character of his eldest niece, once he heard that Ci'an could kill her at any time, he would definitely try his best to find out whether the secret edict existed, and it would be good if there was really a secret edict at that time, even if there was no Cixi who couldn't find it, Cixi would definitely suspect that the secret edict was hidden too tightly by Ci'an, and she would not be at ease with Ci'an anyway. When Cixi and Ci'an are estranged, if they want to sow discord, won't there be opportunities and solutions?

After carefully thinking about it for a while, Wu Chaoyue quickly made up his mind, and regardless of the fact that Guo Songtao, who was still eating, he immediately instructed Guo Songtao: "Yunxian, work hard, write a letter to the Empress Dowager Xi for me." ”

has been an accomplice and lackey for Wu Chaoyue for several years, Guo Songtao of course understood that Wu Chaoyue had no good intentions, and he didn't make any excuses, so he immediately got up and sat down next to the bookcase to pick up the brush and asked, "What content?" ”

"First of all, of course, it's about the past, you know the relationship between me and her, just mention a few words about my friendship with her father." Wu Chaoyue instructed: "Then tell her that I have inside information, and the first emperor left the Empress Dowager Dong with a secret edict that could kill her at any time, telling her to be careful of the embankment." ”

"Then tell her that if she wants, I can help her kill the Empress Dowager Dong, let her listen to the government alone, I will be named the king of Zhennan, sit in the locality, and join forces with her to assist Emperor Qixiang to sit firmly in the country."

Guo Songtao didn't say anything, just polished the content according to Wu Chaoyue's instructions to make a book, and wrote the letter in a moment and handed it to Wu Chaoyue, Wu Chaoyue took it and saw that the content was correct, he wanted to sign his ugly name on the letter, but as soon as his eyes rolled Wu Chaoyue changed his mind again, and said: "Yunxian, write another letter to the Empress Dowager Xi, the beginning is also to talk about the friendship between me and the Empress Dowager Xi's family in the past, and then I said that I raised troops on the Qingjun side to protect myself as a last resort, as long as the Empress Dowager Xi agreed to my conditions, I will immediately quit the army and surrender, Serve the queen mother of the two palaces as the main and support them to listen to the government. ”

"My conditions are three, first, the queen mother of the two palaces issued an edict to admit that they misheard the slander of the six princes, the monk and Cao Yuying, and the traitors in the court, and mistakenly killed Su Zhongtang, Zai Wang Ye and Duan Wang Ye, apologized to the people of the world, and issued the guilty edict to the world."

"Second, give death to the six princes, execute Prince Hui and the monk prince who tortured and killed Suzhongtang in public, and send all their families to the outside of the customs, and they will never be allowed to return to the customs. Gui Liang and Cao Yuying, who first supported the coup, were dismissed from their posts and assigned to Xinjiang without pardon for life. The five princes were dismissed from the prince and demoted to the common people, and the seventh prince could retain the prince, but remove all positions and not return to office for life. ”

"Third, for the rehabilitation of Su Zhongtang, they returned the prince who carried the prince and Duan Wangye, posthumously awarded the title of Su Zhongtang and gave Wenzheng. The five ministers who are still alive have all returned to serve in the Military Aircraft Department. ”

Guo Songtao memorized them one by one, and then said with a smile: "Generalissimo, I'm afraid you didn't want to write this second letter to the Empress Dowager Xi, right?" ”

"Those who know me, Yun Xianye." Wu Chaoyue smiled, and then said: "The first letter is easy to do, I can send it to the palace through Guixiang, the younger brother of the Empress Dowager Xi, who was saved by me, how can the second letter fall into the hands of the six princes and them reasonably, Yunxian, do you have any good way?" ”

"Just find someone who can't be trusted and send it to the capital." Guo Songtao replied without thinking about it: "Anyway, Generalissimo, you just hope that the six princes and they will not use too complicated means when they see this letter, and the simpler the method, the more effective it is." ”

Wu Chaoyue smiled and nodded, and immediately pondered in his heart who to send this death, and immediately picked the first target - the smartest and calmest and wisest monk in the enemy.