Meng Qiaofang, the governor of Shaanxi Province in the Qing court, has been insomnia for many days, with a dark circle under his eyes all day long, wandering in Xi'an City like a wandering ghost.

The people who followed him were all trembling, for fear of annoying this master and causing great trouble.

In fact, Meng Qiaofang's heart is bitter, and the disaster of killing has been hovering in his heart for a long time.

Since the beginning of the chaos in Shanxi, Meng Qiaofang has been keenly aware that the world is in turmoil, and it may be difficult for his Shaanxi to be alone.

Sure enough, Jiang Huang was less than ten days after that, Wang Yongqiang, a native of Wubao County, northern Shaanxi, rebelled. After the change of his colleagues, Wang Zhengzhi, the governor of Yansui, and Shen Wenhua, the chief soldier of Yansui, hurriedly transferred him to the Shenmu area to set up defenses to strictly prevent Shanxi soldiers and horses from entering.

Unexpectedly, Wang Yongqiang took advantage of the time when he led the troops out to mutiny, and on the same day, he killed a horse gun, occupied Yulin and killed Wang and Shen, and then rushed back to Yan'an non-stop, and his younger brother Wang Yongzhen who stayed in the city should join forces with the outside, occupy Yan'an, cut the prefect Song Congxin, cut the braids and changed clothes, and announced that it was anyway.

Almost at the same time, Shenmu County's Haoqiang Gao Youcai gathered thousands of people, rose up in the local area, responded to Wang Yongqiang, and killed the local magistrate to rebel. Within ten days, he took over the nineteen prefectures of northern Shaanxi, appointed officials, contacted the Southern Ming, and fought against the Qing army in Xi'an.

In the hands of Meng Qiaofang, only more than 20,000 people who followed him when he surrendered to the Qing court, in the past few years, he has fought in the east and west, and there have been a lot of losses, and the new recruits are much worse in combat effectiveness than the veterans.

The generals who were sent to northern Shaanxi to conquer were either dragged under the fortified city and could not be overcome, or they were ambushed and beaten to the ground, and the chaos did not ease, but intensified, Wang Yongqiang's military might slowly approached Xi'an and Xianyang, and it had threatened his city, which made him not upset, how not to be in a hurry?

On this day, Meng Qiaofang took Huang Erxing, the governor of Shaanxi, to walk around the city of Xi'an, urging the people who were requisitioned to strengthen the city.

Huang Erxing was originally the political envoy of Shaanxi in the Ming Dynasty, the Jinshi of the Wanli Dynasty, and a Wenchen, at this moment, he looked at Meng Qiaofang and almost wanted to mess up, and hurriedly said: "My lord is panicking, Xi'an City is solid, as long as we hold here, we can keep Shaanxi Province, the imperial court has sent a large army to recruit Shanxi traitors, I think it will be pacified soon, the thieves in the north are just relying on the chaos in Shanxi to take the opportunity to start an incident, as long as Shanxi is certain, the thieves will go by themselves, and they will not be troubled." ”

Meng Qiaofang glared at him and shouted, "Don't panic? Lord Huang, you can think about it, but where can Ben Du not panic? Now that we are caught in the middle of the rebels, blocked at both ends, and the reinforcements are far away, how can we retreat from the enemy by relying on the little soldiers and horses at hand? Shanxi ginger thieves are fierce, and under the deliberate consideration, if the imperial army wants to be pacified, it will not take a year and a half to eradicate it, can you and I hold on to that time? ”

He shook his head and sighed, "Difficult! Difficult! Difficult! ”

Huang Erxing was infected by him and became timid, but when he saw the big carts brought in from outside the city one after another at the city gate, he regained some courage and said to Meng Qiaofang: "My lord, having said that, you have already ordered that all the grain from the nearby state and county treasury be sent to Xi'an City, and the grain and grass in the city are enough to support several years, as long as the food is enough to eat, the soldiers are united, and there should be no problem in persevering." ”

Meng Qiaofang sighed gloomily: "Now there is only such a plan. ”

The two were sighing, but they heard a soldier under the city shouting loudly and running up to the city, with anxiety in his tone, shouting one after another, "My lord, there is urgent news!" "Shut down.

Meng Qiaofang's face suddenly became nervous, and she was shocked and panicked in her heart, staring at the direction where her soldiers were running and closing her lips, for fear that it would be bad news.

In the past two days, all such anxious reports have been reported, such as a certain county in northern Shaanxi has been lost again, and a local general has defected to the enemy, and there is no good news, which has made him have a psychological shadow, and when he hears the voice of the messenger, his heart will have a heart attack.

Huang Er was calm, and scolded the pro-soldier: "What are you flustered about? Don't you see me and the Governor patrolling the city? What kind of system is panicking?! ”

But the pro-soldier seemed to be deaf, rushed to the front of the two, knelt down on one knee and shouted: "Your Excellency, the official department Shangshu, Angbang Zhangjing Hahamu, and Pingxi King Wu Sangui, on the orders of the imperial court, led 25,000 Manchu and Han coalition troops to aid Shaanxi, and now the army has passed Hua County, and will arrive at the city of Xi'an in the near future. ”

When Meng Qiaofang and Huang Erxing heard this, they stood still at first, and after a while, they jumped up suddenly, and the two of them laughed in ecstasy like a dry well and a house with good trees.

"Hahahaha! Heaven is not ending me! The imperial court really hasn't forgotten me Shaanxi, the heavenly soldiers are here, what are I afraid of! Meng Qiaofang was almost crazy, the pressure of the past few days had squeezed him to the extreme, when he heard that the reinforcements had arrived, the pressure was gone, and the sudden good news made his nerves loosen and he was so happy that he lost his mind.

Huang Erxing was also excited, and congratulated Meng Qiaofang: "Congratulations, my lord, I was worried about the reinforcements just now, and the reinforcements are coming at this moment, it can be seen that the will of heaven is like this, and my lord's blessing is boundless!" ”

Meng Qiaofang smiled, and stopped supervising the work, trotted down to the city, greeted the subordinate officials, and hurriedly prepared for the **** matters.

Two days later, outside the east gate of Xi'an City, Meng Qiaofang led a group of Shaanxi bureaucrats, waiting in the Shili Pavilion in anticipation, many people outside the pavilion who were not qualified to enter the pavilion had to wait for the sun to be sunburned, a big fat pig, a load of wine draped in red and green, placed in a conspicuous place on both sides of the road, and even a team of bands with suona horns, also mixed in the crowd waiting.

Obviously, Meng Qiaofang made a lot of effort to meet Hahamu, Wu Sangui and others.

The sun is high in the sky, and it is extremely spicy. The people outside the pavilion sweated like rain, the official position was high, and there was an umbrella to support, the official position was low, or it was not an official, so they had to dry and dry, and everyone was sunburned into dried beans, staggering and showing their chests.

However, everyone's morale is very high, and they all have a happy smile on their faces, after all, the reinforcements who came are saviors, and the crisis in Shaanxi is counting on them.

"It's coming, it's coming!" Someone shouted in surprise, everyone looked intently, and sure enough, at the end of the official road in the distance, there was a large puff of smoke and dust flying, looking at the height of the smoke column, at least tens of thousands of people were walking.

Meng Qiaofang hurriedly turned his head and shouted, "Hurry up, hurry up!" All the great adults, go out with me, and meet them on the official road. ”

As soon as they stood still, they saw several healthy horses galloping forward, holding a huge recognition flag in their hands, and a small yellow flag on their backs, and the words "Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites", "Angbang Zhangjing", "Pingxi Wang Wu" and so on are particularly eye-catching.

Immediately after the cavalry of the brigade galloped, the iron armor was sonorous, the flags were flying, the horses' hooves rumbled, and the horses neighed, and the wide official road was suddenly crowded into water, raising sand grains like sandstorms.

The flying smoke and dust fascinated the eyes of Meng Qiaofang and others, and he had to squint his eyes, wipe the corners of his eyes with his sleeves, and cover the sand and dust.

He was born with a head as big as a bucket, a face like a silver basin, a flat nose and a big mouth, but his eyes were small, his beard reached his chest, his body was thick and powerful, he wore a silk brocade robe wrapped in chain mail, and the cherry spear on the top of the helmet was like a lightning rod.

The other person has a white beard, a handsome appearance, a high nose and big ears, a pair of eyes shining like stars, not tall but extremely thick, wearing a purple brocade robe, and a hat and helmet commonly used by the Ming army.

Meng Qiaofang saw the appearance of the two and immediately distinguished, the first person was Hahamu, and the second person was Wu Sangui.

Hahamu and Wu Sangui also saw Meng Qiaofang, and immediately jumped off the horse, and when the three of them met, they naturally wanted to greet each other and say a few words of "long admiration and long admiration", and then introduced some leading figures in Shaanxi, and finally got on the horse and entered the city together.

Through the streets and alleys, the Manchu and Han armies were led to camp in the shade to rest, and Meng Qiaofang led Hahamu and Wu Sangui into the governor's yamen in the city.

In the lobby of the Yamen, there has been prepared sour plum soup to relieve the heat, more than ten pieces of ice dug out of the cellar are packed in wooden boxes wrapped in quilts, placed in the corners of the lobby, the cold air that rises makes the whole lobby extremely cool, and the heat that can roast people outside is like two worlds.

Several people entered the hall and sat down in the official seats. Hahamu is a rough man, as soon as he entered the door, he couldn't wait to remove the stuffy helmet, take off the brocade robe, raise his head and pour a breath of sour plum soup, just smashed his mouth, lay down on the chair, cracked his mouth and smiled: "Lord Meng will enjoy it, this hot day, there is such a cool method." ”

Meng Qiaofang smiled bitterly and said: "Master Ha doesn't know, the lower officials are doing fun in the midst of suffering, so as to relieve their sorrows." ”

He bowed his hand to Hahamu and said: "Now Shaanxi is in danger, there are enemies on all sides, the army and the people are worried, and the lower officials are unpleasant to eat every day and can't sleep at night, lest they lose the grace of the emperor and the regent, and Shaanxi will be lost. ”

Haha Mu said: "Why did Lord Meng say this? Shaanxi is just a few thieves jumping off the beam, as long as our army sweeps over, it is about to be cleared. ”

Meng Qiaofang was stunned for a moment, and then smiled and said: "Lord Ha is brave and invincible, and the officials will obey!" ”

Hahamu grinned again, and said: "Lord Meng misunderstood, this time, the general of Pingxi appointed by the imperial court is Lord Wu, the king of Pingxi, I am just a minister of the army, everything should be done, how to march is up to Lord Wu." ”

"Oh?" Meng Qiaofang and Huang Erxing, who was accompanying him, were both stunned, and unconsciously looked at Wu Sangui who was sitting under the haha wood.

Wu Sangui bowed slightly and responded.

Hahamu said again: "This time to quell the rebellion, the imperial court sent me to lead the elite of the Eight Banners Army stationed in Hebei with 2,000, and the Liaodong soldiers under the command of the King of Pingxi with 23,000 strongmen from Liaodong to jointly sweep the thieves in Henan and Shaanxi. ”

Meng Qiaofang and Huang Erxing were relieved, it turned out that the reinforcements came from Henan all the way to quell the rebellion, and the chaos in Henan was particularly unbearable compared to Shaanxi, several big cities were taken down by the rebels, Hahamu and Wu Sangui must have spent a lot of effort, and it was not surprising that they were late.

Wu Sangui bowed his hand to Ha Ha Mu, and said with a smile: "Lord Ha is too modest, the regent is about to explain, Lord Ha is the minister of the army, and he has the duty of reporting merits and demerits to the imperial court. ”

Ha Ha Mu smiled, obviously enjoying Wu Sangui's respect, so he patted his thigh and said to Meng Qiaofang: "Let's not delay, Master Meng, let's talk about the current situation in Shaanxi?" ”

(End of chapter)