At the end of the first month of the ninth year of Yongli, the Fujian Ming army set off from the Zhongzuo Institute, arrived at Chongming Island at the mouth of the Yangtze River after a two-month voyage, and officially entered the Yangtze River on the first day of April. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Half a month later, the army won a great victory in Guazhou, breaking through thousands of Manchurian and Han army's Eight Banners and Green Battalions, beheading the defenders, and breaking through the Manchu defense line on the Yangtze River. Within a few days, 15,000 Manchurian, Mongolian, and Han armies of the Eight Banners and the patchwork Green Battalion were defeated by the Fujian Ming army in Zhenjiang, losing most of them, and none of the ten who could escape back alive survived.

On May 12, the Fujian Ming army began to besiege the city and deployed to the north of the inner city of Nanjing, echoing the naval division. At dawn on May 23, it was raided by the Qing army, and suffered another crushing defeat in Guanyin Mountain in the outer city after a period of defeat, and was forced to abandon Zhenjiang and other places and withdraw from the Yangtze River.

The Fujian Ming army led by Zheng Chenggong achieved brilliant results during this period, but finally withdrew from the Yangtze River, which was the last large-scale counteroffensive operation of the Southern Ming Dynasty in the original history.

But now, four years and two months earlier, the siege of Nanjing is also underway at the same time as the siege of Hangzhou. Like Zheng Chenggong, Chen Wen had previously won a decisive victory in a field battle, and the defenders in the city also requested a 30-day delay.

On the eleventh day of May in the ninth year of Yongli, the three Confucian scholars visited the Ming army camp again, but this time, in addition to empty words, they brought out a woman again.

"Your Royal Highness, this is Mrs. Rong, the concubine of the West Palace, His Royal Highness King Lu."

Without answering, Chen Wen waved his hand, and a man and a woman were led into the big tent by the guards. A moment later, the woman bowed down in front of the woman, and the man confirmed to Chen Wen that this woman was the concubine Rong of the West Palace of Zhu Yihai of Lu Jianguo.

"Madame has suffered, wait a few days, and this king will send Madame to reunite with His Royal Highness King Lu."

As soon as he returned to the location of the Ming army, Rong's heart was extremely complicated. She didn't know anything about the dirt between Chen Wen and the Lu Jianguo group, but the elderly gentleman who had just left the city told her that the current king of Huiji County was no longer the rising general of the Lu Jianguo group in the fifth year of Yongli, but the son of Yongli of Fenggui Domain, and now he has recovered most of the king of Huiji County in the southeast!

Lu Jianguo has already gone to the prison country, and she, the concubine of the West Palace, is naturally trembling, but when she heard Chen Wen's words, her mother's love immediately overwhelmed everything, and the Rong family bowed down in front of Chen Wen immediately.

"The concubine has no shame to see the king, and I just ask His Royal Highness to rescue the concubine's child from prison, so that their father and son can be reunited. In the next life, the concubine is willing to marry a grass title ring to repay His Highness's great kindness. ”

"Madame, please get up quickly, this king should do his best."

Men and women are not kissed, Chen Wenzi is inconvenient to help the concubine of his former boss's boss, fortunately, the woman is the palace maid in Zhoushan, this is still a little eyebrows, and he hurriedly helped the Rong family up and retreated.

"This king remembers that the day before yesterday he told you that Concubine Xigong and the prince sent it together. What, don't you understand? ”

Chen Wen's tone was not good, and the three gentlemen also hurriedly fell to the ground, and pushed all the responsibilities on Xiao Qiyuan's body one by one. In their words, the man surnamed Xiao was afraid that Chen Wen would attack the city if he got the prince, so he wanted to leave some chips for himself, thinking that the effect of throwing a rat bogey, let them tell Chen Wen that the prince was also sick and should not go out for the time being.

"Xiao Thief said, in order to show sincerity, he is willing to use the treasury silver to honor the king."

"Oh?" Chen Wen liked this proposal very much. "How much?"

When it comes to silver, turning their faces is faster than turning a book, and these three gentlemen breathe a sigh of relief, but they can't help but slander one or two.

"One hundred thousand taels."

"Get out!"

Chen Wen slapped the table with such force that it was as if everything on the table had been shaken.

"Send the one who asks for food, go back and tell the surnamed Xiao, the prince of King Lu is not my Chen Wen's son, don't think that Lao Tzu is afraid of him if you hold it in your hand. I want to show my sincerity, and at this hour tomorrow, five million taels of silver will be delivered. Don't say that Lao Tzu doesn't give him a way to live, gold, calligraphy and painting, antiques, porcelain, as long as it is valuable, can be used to offset it, otherwise it will not be my surname Chen who is not sincere in doing this deal. ”

The gentry retreated in panic, and Yin Yue, who had been sitting in the big tent, laughed, and said to Chen Wen after laughing: "Congratulations to the king, congratulations to the king, five million taels of silver, how many soldiers can this raise." ”

Hearing this, Chen Wen shook his head with a smile. "Take out five million tomorrow? In thirty days, if he can come up with a million, I think he thinks highly of him. ”

"How dare he?!"

"Of course he dares, and he must have a way to perfunctory me. We have to believe in the talents of a great official who is a good and second-grade feudal official, especially when it comes to silver and things related to silver. ”

………………

The envoy returned to the city, and Xiao Qiyuan was glad that this matter could be discussed with silver, but the amount that Chen Wen asked for was too huge. It's not that there is no Hangzhou in the city, even if it is not in the warehouse, this is Hangzhou, where businessmen gather, and there are rich families in the city. Especially those who are involved in the sea trade, just copy a few, let alone five million taels, they can still get rich and put a lot of them into the eunuchs' bags.

But the problem is that it's hard to be relieved.

This truth couldn't be simpler, today it is five million taels, give it, tomorrow it will be ten million taels, the day after tomorrow it will be fifteen million taels, and the day after tomorrow will be twenty million taels!

Xiao Qiyuan never thought of giving up Hangzhou, or lowering the light, it was just a delay. But if the amount is too large, not to mention whether the silver is enough or not, the hearts of the people and the army in the city will not be able to drag on at all. At that time, the gentry in the city rebelled, and he couldn't control the situation at all by relying on these Eight Banner Army alone, especially when many of those green camp generals were inextricably linked with the gentry and wealthy families in the city.

"Take out two hundred and twenty thousand taels of silver from the treasury."

………………

The next day, much earlier than the time stipulated by Chen Wen, Xiao Qiyuan's envoy drove a carriage loaded with silver ingots to the camp of the Ming army outside the city.

"Tell the king, the city has long been controlled by those Eight Banner soldiers, and the 200,000 taels of silver were easily transferred from the domain treasury by the villain's family master. The other 10,000 taels were taken out by the villain's head of the family to honor the king, and I hope that the king will be graced for some time. ”

With the silver, it is impossible for Xiao Qiyuan to let the three gentlemen be fully responsible. In fact, among the three entourages, there are also Xiao Qiyuan's spies. And this time, it is even more necessary to let his cronies and family members come out to check in order to rest assured.

Xiao Qiyuan's house slave fell to the ground and slammed it to the ground vigorously, and some red colors could soon be seen on the ground. But Chen Wen hadn't spoken yet, and he didn't dare to stop, maybe his brains would come out if he continued like this.

"What a faithful servant, get up."

Let Xiao Qiyuan's house slaves get up, Chen Wen waved his hand and motioned for the three gentlemen to go out and wait.

"The king has taken the two hundred thousand taels, and go back and tell your master that within three days, the remaining four million and eight hundred thousand taels must be delivered." As for the 10,000 taels of silver, since it is the private eunuch of your master, the king knows about it, and takes the silver back. As long as you work hard, you don't need these things here in this king, and you can still be promoted and rich. ”

declined Xiao Qiyuan's kindness, Chen Wen chatted with the slave for a while before letting him go back, but the slave came out of the big tent, but the sweat on his head came out in an instant.

The house slave returned to the governor's yamen, and after only talking in the secret room for a while, sweating and infecting Xiao Qiyuan's body like an infectious disease.

"The surname Chen is not doing anything, so he wants to unload the mill and kill the donkey."

Although it is awkward to describe it like this, the first word that Xiao Qiyuan thought of after hearing the retelling of the house slave was this, and he didn't think about it at all.

"Are you sure you heard me right?"

"No, the slave really heard it, and His Highness did say that he wanted to give the master that kickback."

In the secret room, Xiao Qiyuan walked back and forth a few times, and after thinking about it, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that Chen Wen was yin him.

"And what kind of Eight Banners Army is inconvenient on the side, so let the gentry and rich families in the city pay for the military supplies, and distribute some of this silver to the Eight Banner Army, and the rest pay the five million taels of silver, no, it is four million and eight hundred thousand taels. This guy plans to use this official as a scapegoat in the future, so that he can not only take the silver for nothing, but also earn a wave of popular support in Hangzhou, and even Jiaxing and Huzhou, which is really too yin. ”

This trick definitely can't be used, even if he never intended to descend to the light. Those gentry are all masters who can be both lifeless and shameless for money, let them bleed, it is good that the Qing army is strong on weekdays, at least the prestige of the Eight Banners Army can be suppressed, if they play now, these people can give the entire Hangzhou city to Chen Wen in minutes, maybe Chen Wen has already had such a plan.

However, it is not possible to give this money without it. Chen Wen's sentence that King Lu's son is not his son is really ruthless enough, which shows that there is no possibility of reuniting with King Lu and King Lu, but what does Chen Wen want King Lu's concubine and prince to do?

Thinking about it, Xiao Qiyuan suddenly remembered one thing he had heard before, it is said that King Lu went south to live in Fujian, Zheng Chenggong once planned to give King Lu to Yongli, nine times out of ten Chen Wen also had such a plan, in the matter of King Lu having the opportunity to get involved in the supreme throne, Chen Wen and Zheng Chenggong are no different, they will never agree, because once King Lu ascends the throne, they will face a dead end.

It's just that when I thought of Chen Wen giving King Lu's son to Yongli......

"This guy is playing with a knife to kill people, and he doesn't even let go of the old master's only son, it's really vicious."

Thinking that he had figured out Chen Wen's vein, Xiao Qiyuan's brain was running rapidly. The death of King Lu's son in his hands and his death in the hands of Yongli is not much different for Chen Wen, so what is the reason why Chen Wen has not attacked the city for a long time? The people in the city, Xiao Qiyuan will never believe it, it's just a group of ant people, and they can't do it. Then there is only one answer to the rest.

"Has the flying pigeon biography on the front line of Fuyang and Xincheng been delivered today?"

Running out of the secret room, Xiao Qiyuan grabbed the staff in the office room and asked in a low voice, and the answer he got was that the Ming army did not use the giant cannon against Xincheng for some reason, and Fuyang and Xincheng were safe and sound.

"That's right, Xincheng is Chen Wen's hometown, Li Ruixin is afraid of damaging the Chen family's feng shui, so he doesn't dare to use heavy artillery. Chen Wen's troops were not enough to completely surround Hangzhou, so he could only wait for Li Ruixin. ”

Hangzhou Fucheng is located in the east of the West Lake, is a city with short city walls in the north and south and long city walls in the east and west, and the whole is in the shape of an awl. The Ming army was cruising with sailors in the south and West Lake in the west, and Chen Wen's army was scattered and camped in the east and north to form an encirclement trend. However, the Ming army under Chen Wensuo had only one division, besieging a million-strong city with 10,000 people, and the number of defenders was not less than that of the Ming army.

Chen Wen's goal is obviously to take Hangzhou completely, and take the city and the Eight Banners Army in the city together. When Xiao Qiyuan thought of this, he was in a cold sweat. Chen Wen has the qualifications to do such a plan, and even Yue Le is not an opponent, so what can little Hangzhou do.

Now there are only two ways in front of him, one is to encourage the Eight Banners Army to retreat, they all have war horses, as long as they give up their women and children and goods, there is still hope to escape alive; And the other way is to defend to the death, to the death until you are really dead!

If he had a choice, no one would want to die, but Xiao Qiyuan, as the governor of Zhejiang, would be a dead end if the Hangzhou Governor's Office was lost. The Manchu court has always been extremely strict with such feudal officials who refuse to die with the city, even if he is a banner man, especially the Zhejiang bandit Chen Wen has not been able to exterminate him for so many years, and there are too many powerful people in the court who want to kill him, but now no one is willing to take over and have to use him.

Escaping is not impossible, there is no Ming army camped in the west of Hangzhou, due west is the West Lake, and the northwest is just some rangers. But the speed of this Ming army's maneuver is really fast enough, if you can't run away with your wife, children and goods, you can't let these Eight Banner Army give up these. Not to mention anything else, these banner people will not hesitate to throw the black pot on him when they flee back, and when the time comes, they will work hard for the emperor, but they will not end up with any good.

"Loyalty to the master is not like this, is it?"

After thinking about it, Xiao Qiyuan decided to continue to stick to it. can be kept, and merit is resisted; can't keep it, everyone will die for the emperor together, and they won't treat their families too harshly. It's better than giving your life hard, and in the end being framed by those who have received favors to get rid of their lives.

Loyal ministers are qualified and should be praised by others, and the families of loyal ministers should also be given preferential treatment, which is justified. Like King Yue and Yu Shaobao, who were buried on the edge of the West Lake, they worked hard for the court all their lives, but in the end they didn't end well, Xiao Qiyuan asked himself if he was so selfless.

"Chen Wen wants to drag it, then let's drag it together, and treat each other as if the other party is blind."

There is no hope of defending the city, such as the siege of Nanjing was lifted, and the army went south to repel Chen Wen, who had been under the city for a long time. But Chen Wen is not a fool, the day of the arrival of Li Ruixin's partial division will definitely not exceed three days, and Chen Wen will inevitably attack Hangzhou!