In the end, Shang Kexi, who was captured by his son-in-law, was tied up and stuffed into a sedan chair, and carried back to Guilin Mansion in a sedan chair and carried into Guilin City. On the day of the triumphant return into the city, the whole city of Guilin was a sensation, and the whole territory of Guangxi was also a sensation, not only the brothers Sun Yanji and Sun Yanling who were stationed outside Guilin, but also Shang Zhixiao and Geng Juzhong, who were also stationed in Guilin Mansion, and even Ma Xiong, the governor of Guangdong who was far away in Liuzhou, also personally attended the scene to express the warmest congratulations to Lu Fatzi and Wu Jun's East Route Army. Especially Shang Zhixiao, at the entrance ceremony to Lu Fatzi, he looked affectionate and bowed, just like the one who was captured this time was not his biological father.

There was no way, the generals of the three provinces and Ma Xiong and others were completely stunned by the terrifying combat effectiveness of the Yunnan-Guizhou army, and they were stupid, more than 10,000 troops entered Guangxi, and in less than two months, they swept the entire territory of Guangxi, and they were invincible all the way. In the end, in the face of the all-out counterattack of 40,000 Qing troops in Guangdong, the East Route Army of the Wu Army only sent a civilian Lu Fatzi to lead an army of 10,000 to meet the battle, and the result was that in less than half a month, the Guangdong Qing army was broken several times and his own, and the battlefield captured the commander of the Guangdong Qing Army, Pingnan Wang Shang Kexi! In front of such a perverted army, Sun Shang Gengma's gang of two or five boys is a great courage, I'm afraid they don't dare to give birth to two hearts, right?

In short, after this battle, the situation in Guangxi, which was in danger before, was completely reversed, and before Shang Zhixin, who stayed in Guangdong, reacted, the Wu Army's East Route Army had plenty of time to consolidate its rule in Guangxi, digest the new territory and surrender the army, Sun Shang Gengma, a group of two or five boys, was also completely dead and then became the head of the wall The mind of honestly accepting the reorganization, accepting the official position of Wu Jun's title, boarding the Wu Army thief ship to Wu Laohan Annihilation, hoping that one day Wu Laohan Annihilation can reign in the world, so that they can follow the light and enjoy happiness, Enjoy the glory and wealth.

At the ceremony to welcome Lu Fatzi's triumphant entry into the city, unlike Sun Shang Gengma and others who were full of flattery, Wu Shizong, the commander of Lu Fatzi's other brother-in-law, Wu Jun's East Route Army, was a little absent-minded, and he still spoke a little preface and didn't answer the afterword, which made Lu Fatzi start to worry - could it be that he had made a great contribution and attracted the jealousy and jealousy of this cheap brother-in-law, right? Fortunately, taking advantage of everyone's distraction, Wu Shizong quickly glanced at Fat Lu and whispered: "Brother-in-law, don't waste time with those sycophants, there's something wrong." ”

Lu Fatzi suddenly realized, quickly got rid of the entanglement of Sun Shang Gengma, a gang of sycophants, hurriedly ended the triumphal ceremony, and ordered to reward the three armies and reward the meritorious soldiers, and then quickly entered the city with Wu Shizong and others, and went to the original Guangxi Governor Yamen to hold a celebration banquet. Before entering the table, Lu Fatzi and Wu Shizong came to the back hall alone, and as soon as he sat down, Wu Shizong immediately said with a gloomy face: "Brother-in-law, something happened again, I just received the news last night that our prince of Pingxi Mansion was killed!" ”

"The Son of the World was killed?" Fat Lu jumped up violently and asked in exclamation, "Who made the poison?" Could it be that the Emperor Mangou didn't make peace with us and killed the prince to show his determination to fight to the death? ”

"It's not the hand of the Emperor Mandog." Wu Shizong shook his head, and said with a gloomy face: "The report of the Mansion full of dogs and the world shows that it was the killer sent by the old thief before his death in order to vent the hatred of Guizhou's fiasco, and quietly sneaked back to Yanjing to kill the prince of our Pingxi Wangfu in the prison, and also planned to kill our youngest brother Wu Shilin. Afterwards, Emperor Mangou gave back all the official positions of the prince during his lifetime, posthumously crowned the prince, put it into the coffin, and prepared to send the coffin of the prince back to Yunnan for burial. ”

"Aobai sent someone to move?" Lu Fatzi's face was full of suspicion, and he said suspiciously: "Is Ao Bai such a cautious person?" Losing on the battlefield and killing a prisoner who has no power to resist to vent his anger, is this like his character? ”

"It doesn't matter whether it's Ao Bai's hand or not." Wu Shizong said with a distressed expression: "The key is, what should we do now?" What to do in the future? What I'm most worried about now is that if the news of the murder of the prince spreads, will it create instability in sincerity and benevolence, and make those newly promoted generals and officials have different intentions? ”

Wu Shizong is also worthy of being an outstanding representative of the third generation of Pingxi Wangfu, very thoughtful and comprehensive, now Guangxi has just been occupied by the Wu army, the new army is several times that of the Yungui army, several important generals have not had time to completely control, Wu Yingxiong was killed by Aobai The news spreads, and the generals will inevitably be suspicious, worried that Wu Lao Han will be angry with them, and even more worried that Wu Lao Han will completely break with the Qing court and push them out as anti-Qing cannon fodder.

At the same time, from Wu Shizong's tone, Lu Fatzi can also see that Wu Shizong has also discovered an extremely important problem, that is, after Wu Yingxiong's death, in case the old Wu Lao Han died halfway through the anti-Qing war, who else can take over the burden of Wu Lao Han and become the undisputed heir of the Yungui army? Count on the famous two hundred and five Wu Yingqi, or on Wu Shifan, who has just turned eight? Although Wu Yingxiong and Wu Yingqi have a very good relationship, Wu Yingqi has never peeped into Wu Yingxiong's position as the son, in order not to make Wu Yingxiong suspicious, he also changed his name to Wu Qihua and became a monk, but if Wu Lao Han Jian skips his son and passes the throne directly to his grandson, will Wu Yingqi still be obedient?

"Uncle, you did the right thing to block the news." Fat Lu groaned and said: "Fortunately, the time is just right, we first repelled the old thief Shang Kexi before receiving this news, otherwise, once this news accidentally leaks, our trouble will be even greater." ”

"I'm afraid it won't be locked down for long." Wu Shizong frowned and said: "The murder of the son of the world, the dog is used to report the world, we just rely on the fast horse to pass the news for a few days, even if we block it no matter how we block, it is estimated that in less than ten days, those two or five boys will be able to know the news of the murder of the son from other channels, and then the people will be panicked, brother-in-law, the situation in Guangxi that you have just stabilized, I am afraid that it will be shaken again." ”

"Without further ado, we have to get ahead of the curve." Fat Lu hesitated for a moment, and immediately gritted his teeth and said: "Within three days, we must immediately solve the troubles of these wall grasses, so that they can no longer set off the wind and waves." ”

"What do you mean by ...... brother-in-law?" Wu Shizong asked while drawing a head-killing pose.

"No, you can't kill it." Fat Lu shook his head decisively and said in a low voice: "Although these wall grasses are unreliable, they have not done anything since they surrendered to our army, and killing them for no reason will only make people's hearts more frightened, and the surrenderers will be more uneasy, which is counterproductive." ”

"What then?" Wu Shizong asked.

"Find an excuse to transfer them out of Guangxi." Lu Fatzi lowered his voice and said: "Uncle, you give an order, let me take them, escort Shang Kexi old thief to my grandfather to sacrifice prisoners, and by the way, ask for official positions for them and ask for rewards, as long as a few of them are transferred out of Guangxi by us, uncle, you will be able to do everything in Guangxi." Even if the other little loaches want to make trouble, they can't make any big waves. ”

"That's a good idea." Wu Shizong asked: "But brother-in-law, you don't want to stay in Guangxi and continue to help me?" Without you helping me in Guangxi, there are so many things in Guangxi, can I come over alone? ”

"Uncle, you have to be a little confident in yourself." Lu Fatzi smiled and said: "Actually, uncle, you have done a good job by yourself, during the time I left Guilin, Guilin, Pingle and Liuzhou have been peaceful, the troops did not dare to make trouble, and the people honestly paid the taxes and food, and even the bandits in Wanyang Mountain honestly ran to you to ask for submission, which is enough to prove that Uncle Brother is not only good at martial arts, but also quite good at Wenzhi." Besides, uncle, you and I are the same as the third generation of Pingxi Wangfu, in the future, the old people under my grandfather will die of old age, and we will have to stand up sooner or later to take the lead, brother, if you don't take this opportunity to experience and experience, how can your grandfather entrust you with important responsibilities in the future? ”

"That's ...... too." Wu Shizong hesitated for a moment, gritted his teeth and said: "Then let's do it, take advantage of the fact that the two of us are now reunited, and those wall grasses don't dare to make trouble, so I ask my brother-in-law to lead them out of Guangxi, and here in Guangxi, I will do my best to maintain them and strive not to cause trouble to the main battlefield." ”

"Then Guangxi will ask my uncle." Lu Fatzi advised: "After I leave, please ask my uncle to use a lot of people to tie up the people, they are not only reliable, but also the line Guoan has guarded Guangxi for Kong Youde for many years, and his prestige still exists, and he can help you consolidate your control over the Guangxi army." As for the treatment of the surrender of troops from Fujian and Guangdong, brother, you must have a stick in one hand and sweet dates in the other, and you must make an example of those who are disobedient, and you must be more encompassing for those who are obedient. ”

"In terms of dealing with civilian officials, uncle, you must know people well, use more capable officials around you, and use more sycophants at the grassroots level, don't want these people to be very useful, as long as they work hard for promotion and wealth, strive to collect money and food for us, and strive to govern the local government for us, we can effectively control the local state capital. For those literati and celebrities who take the initiative to come to us, we must also be careful, don't treat them slowly because we don't like them to drop their schoolbags, we must reuse them, the more famous they are, the more important they are, because they have pens in their hands, they can do propaganda for us, they can encourage the people for us, as long as these people work hard for us, even if Guangxi is dark, they will be promoted as a better paradise than Jiangnan. ”

"Thank you brother-in-law for your advice, I'll do my best." Wu Shizong remembered with a wry smile, and said: "It's not too early, let's go to the banquet quickly, otherwise, those wall grasses will definitely be suspicious again." By the way, let's sing more double reeds at the banquet to lay some foundation for us to transfer those wall grasses out of Guangxi. ”

………………

After finalizing this resolution, at the venue of the celebration banquet, Wu Shizong and Lu Fatzi had to sing and play a double reed again, boasting that Wu Lao Han was very satisfied with the great victory in Guangxi during this time, and not only wanted to reward the Yungui soldiers, but also to reward and reuse Sun Shang Gengma's gang of reused Erwuzai, and even Wu Laohan's preparation for the upcoming armistice negotiations with the Qing Dynasty asked Xiao Mazi to reward Sun Shanggeng Ma and others and other nonsense, which made Sun Shang Gengma's gang of Erwuzai overjoyed and grateful.

In the end, Wu Shizong decided in public to let Lu Fatzi personally lead the army to escort Shang Laohan to Piyuan to offer prisoners, and by the way, he asked for official positions and rewards for Sun Shang Gengma and others, Lu Fatzi naturally agreed, and took the opportunity to encourage Sun Shang Gengma and the four of them to go to Hunan with him to offer prisoners, and also said in public that he would give Sun Shang Gengma part of the credit for defeating Shang Laohan's main force, and asked Wang Shaobo and Zhu Fangdan to write a report in public. Let Sun Shang Gengma's gang of two or five boys be even more grateful, and even more grateful to Wu Shizong and Lu Fatzi.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Wu Shizong took the opportunity to agree to Lu Fatzi's request, and decided to let Sun Yanling's brothers, Shang Zhixiao, Geng Juzhong, and Ma Xiong's son Ma Ning and others also leave Guangxi temporarily, and accompany Lu Fatzi to Wu Laohan's front to offer a prisoner and ask for a reward, accept Wu Laohan's official title in person, and then return to Guangxi to guard the place. Hearing such an order, although Sun Shang Gengma and the others felt that the situation was not good, they said that they did not want to leave the army of their descendants who relied on to save their lives, but Wu Shizong and Lu Fatzi had sufficient reasons and resolute attitudes, and Lu Fatzi's army had returned to Guilin, Sun Shanggeng Ma did not dare to make trouble even if he had the courage to make trouble, so he had to agree to go to Hunan with Lu Fatzi to sacrifice prisoners.

So, after a series of intensive preparations, three days later, on August 28, Lu Fatzi led 5,000 elite soldiers directly from Guilin to the north, and personally escorted Shang Laohan to Hunan to offer prisoners, the Sun brothers, Shang Zhixiao, Geng Juzhong and Ma Xiong's son Ma Ning each brought 20 followers to accompany them, and Lu Fatzi's Longyang concubine Yu Xuan also accompanied Hu Tongchun and Quanjie, two Guangxi fierce generals. Wu Shizong stayed in Guangxi alone, and with the support of the old Ministry of National Security, he took the opportunity to absorb the troops of the three provinces and consolidate his rule.

When Lu Fatzi's team marched to Yongzhou Mansion in Hunan, the news of Wu Yingxiong's murder was finally announced, Sun Yanling monk Zhixiao and others were surprised, and they inevitably shouted in their hearts that they were deceived, but I had been deceived by Lu Fatzi out of Guangxi far from the foundation, and I didn't dare to flee back to Guangxi so that Lu Fatzi and Wu Shizong, the two white-eyed wolves, had enough reason to poison and victimize, so I had to scold Lu Fatzi and Wu Shizong in my heart for cheating, while continuing on the road with a hard head, accompanied Lu Fatzi to the north with a handful of snot and tears, hoping that Wu Laohan would be able to show mercy, Put them back in Guangxi to be the emperor again.

Although the main force of the Wu army has not yet had time to capture the Yongzhou Mansion in Hunan Province bordering Guangxi, Liu Daozhu and the general soldier Li Zhilan have already been frightened into frightened birds, even if it is because of the road, the five thousand Wu troops led by Lu Fatzi do not intend to pass under the Yongzhou Mansion, but when the Fat Army marched along the official road and arrived at the Lengshuitan that could go south to attack the Yongzhou Mansion, Liu Daozhu and Li Zhilan actually took the initiative to send envoys, Preemptively test the sincerity of Wu Jun's surrender.

In the face of such a meritorious service, of course Lu Fatzi would not be polite, first let the envoy visit the captured Shang Kexi Shang old man annihilation, first to seize people, and then issued an extremely generous surrender condition, promising that as long as Liu Daozhu and Li Zhilan surrendered in Kaicheng, Liu and Li not only remained in their original positions, but also received a large amount of heavy rewards - of course, the reward had to be paid from the official warehouse of Yongzhou Prefecture.

What makes people fall out of the eye is that in view of the fact that the armies of Wu Guogui and Zhang Guozhu, the two generals of the Wu army, have captured Hengzhou and surrounded the north and south of Yongzhou Mansion with Wu Shizong's army, Liu Daozhu and Li Zhilan actually agreed to Lu Fatzi's surrender conditions, and took out silver from the official warehouse of Yongzhou City to reward himself.

The Fat Army continued to go north, and arrived at the northern end of the Yongzhou Mansion on the 10th day of the first month of September, where it joined forces with Zhang Guozhu, the Wu Army, who was ordered to go south to capture Yongzhou. It was also at this moment that Lu Fatzi finally learned from Wu Guogui's deputy Zhang Guozhu that it turned out that Wu Laohan did not take advantage of the situation to go north to attack Wuchang, but stationed in Changsha City to rest, and only sent Wu Yingqi and Ma Bao to lead an army of 40,000 to the north to attack Wuchang, the throat of the nine provinces, which was heavily guarded by mite Qing troops.

"Lord Wang, he didn't go to fight Wuchang in person?" Hearing this news, Lu Fatzi was inevitably shocked and exclaimed: "Only sent the second prince and General Ma to lead an army of 40,000 to fight Wuchang?" The army in the hands of the second prince is mainly the elite of our Yungui main force, or is it mainly the new army? ”

"Of course, it's mainly the new army." Zhang Guozhu spread his hands and said helplessly: "The main force of our Yungui army is only seventy or eighty thousand people in total, and it occupies such a large territory at once. ”

"It's broken, it's broken." Lu Fatzi cried out bitterly, ignoring the angry eyes of Yu Xuan next to him, and screamed: "What about my father-in-law, General Wu Guogui? What about Wang Shirong? What about Fang Guangchen and Hu Guozhu? Why don't they persuade the prince? Wuchang is such an important place, why don't you go all out to the north to seize it? What's the use of dispersing the main forces and robbing Yongzhou and Guiyang, where birds don't? These places simply can't afford to raise a large number of troops, and it's easy to send new troops to get it, why did they send so many elites, isn't it a waste? It's like throwing away the watermelon to pick sesame seeds! ”

"Lord Lu, in this situation, who dares to persuade you?" Zhang Guozhu sighed and said, "Do you think General Wu didn't see our strategic decision-making mistakes?" But now that the prince heard the news of the murder of the prince, he cried like a tearful man every day, and he fell ill in Changsha City, and he had no intention of knowing military and political affairs, who would dare to persuade him? ”

"Old thing, the bones are still so soft!" Although he was very sympathetic to Wu Laohan's white-haired man to send the black-haired man, Lu Fatzi secretly cursed and muttered in his heart - to change a commander with a hard temperament, when he heard that his son was killed by the enemy, he should have led the army to fight the enemy and avenge his son. As a result, after Wu Lao Hanzhan heard the news of his son's murder, he cried and cried like a girl and ignored political affairs, no wonder he wanted to betray the country to seek glory and let the dog go to Shanhaiguan.

"That's right." Zhang Guozhu suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly said: "I once heard General Wu and Mr. Fang say that it would be good if Master Lu were in Changsha, and with your eloquence and strategy, you will definitely be able to persuade the prince to cheer up again, take us to fight with Mangou, and avenge the prince!" Lord Lu, if you don't hurry up and go to Changsha to give it a try, maybe there will be a chance. ”

"I'll go to Changsha right away!" Lu Fatzi also knew that the opportunity could not be lost, once the Mangou relieved himself to gather an army to guard Wuchang, it would be even more difficult to take the throat of the nine provinces, so Lu Fatzi immediately stood up and said decisively to Yu Xuan: "General Liusan, further north is all the territory controlled by our Pingxi Palace, the team will be led by you and Li Tianzhi, I will first take Erlang and them to ride north, and go to Changsha to meet the prince, are you okay?" ”

"Absolutely." Yu Xuan is very reliable in this regard, and immediately nodded in agreement, and said with concern: "You have to be careful, if the prince sends you to Wuchang for reinforcements, don't go alone, wait for me to help you, I will rush to Changsha as soon as possible." ”

"Understood." Fat Lu nodded vigorously, and said in a low voice: "You also have to be careful of those wall grasses, if they dare to play tricks, they will be slaughtered immediately, and if something happens, I will bear it for you." ”

Yu Xuan nodded gently, and quietly pinched Fat Lu's fat hand again, reminding Fat Lu to cherish himself carefully. And Zhang Guozhu next to him saw the affectionate appearance of Lu Fatzi and the famous third son, and he inevitably had goosebumps on his body, and gloated in his heart, "Ha, if Wu Guogui sees his son-in-law and men like this, I don't know how he will react?" ”

(To be continued)