Chapter 148: Brother to Brother
After Zheng Sen's death, the generals of Changle obeyed Zheng Sen's last order, raised Zheng Xi to take care of state affairs, and succeeded to the throne of Prince Min. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info then Huang Zhao, Xiao Gongchen, Liu Guoxuan and others asked Zheng Jing to attack Jinxia on the grounds that "it violates human ethics and is unworthy of being superior". Zheng Xi first refused several times, saying that this matter was a fellow roommate, and the eldest brother had just died, and he couldn't bear to use troops against his nephew as an uncle, and then he was finally persuaded by the generals that it was against the will of the feudal lord not to ask Zheng Jingshi, so he sighed and agreed to send troops.
After Zheng Zheng decided to attack Jinxia, a large number of generals loyal to Zheng Jing fled with their troops. When Huang Zhao and others wanted to arrest Chen Yonghua, they had already gone south on a sea boat.
As soon as the news of his father's death and his uncle's succession to the throne came, Zheng Jing succeeded to the throne with the support of Jianping Marquis Zheng Tai, his mother Dong Xian and others, and commissioned Chen Yonghua, who fled from Changle, to join the army, Zhou Quanbin to be the governor of the five armies, and Hong Xu to be the long history, integrating land and water soldiers and horses to prepare for Zheng Zheng.
In Hangzhou, after Zhou Shixiang knew about the internal strife of Zheng Jun, the advance envoy asked Zheng Zheng and Zheng Jing to call out the truce in the name of the imperial court, and he was willing to go to Fujian to mediate between the two sides. In order to express his sincerity in wanting both sides to strike the army, Zhou Shixiang wrote a letter to Zheng Xi and Zheng Jing respectively, and the language in the letter could not be described as insincere.
Zheng Xi, who was already relatively weak, accepted Zhou Shixiang's suggestion under the persuasion of Gan Hui and others, and was willing to negotiate peace with his nephew, and then His Royal Highness the King of Qi presided over mediation, but his nephew Zheng Jing was unwilling to stop with him.
Zheng Jing was also moved at first, because Zhou Shixiang's letter to him vaguely implied that as long as he and Zheng attacked the army, the successor of the King of Min should still be in accordance with the ancestral system. The so-called ancestral system is "the death of the father and the succession of the son", not "the death of the brother and the brother". This hint obviously meant that as long as Zheng Jing accepted the mediation of Zhou Shixiang, Zhou Shixiang could ask Dingwu to succeed to the throne of Min for him.
However, Chen Yonghua, Hong Xu and others thought that Zhou Shixiang's words were not credible, which can be seen from the fact that he violated his promise in Suzhou and surrendered. Chen Yonghua concluded that Zhou Shixiang's move was only a delaying tactic, because the Taiping army that had entered Fujian was now besieging Fuzhou Dasu, and there was no way to deal with Jinxia. Therefore, Zhou Shixiang hoped that the two sides of Jinxia would strike their troops, so that he could solve Dasu and then threaten Jinxia by force. Otherwise, once Jinxia divides the winner and decides the final winner, Zhou Shixiang will have to face a reunited Jinxia Group.
Hong Xu's analysis is more pertinent, arguing that Zhou Shixiang and his Taiping army were now holding the Son of Heaven hostage to order the princes, while the Jinxia side had been obedient to the southern capital since the time of the feudal lords, and maintained de facto independence. In the past, there was a Qing army in Zhejiang and Fujian, and Zhou Shi was out of reach of Jinxia, but now Zhejiang has been occupied by the Taiping army, and Fujian is only a city of Fuzhou, so once Fuzhou is taken by the Taiping army, Zhou Shixiang will definitely use troops to Jinxia to achieve nominal and de facto unification. As the old saying goes, "The side of the collapse will not allow others to sleep soundly." ”
The Taiping army must be in a strong position against the Zheng army, and Zhou Shixiang, the king of Qi, controls the government and regards the Son of Heaven as a puppet, and Cao Cao and Sun Kewang have also withdrawn from the past, so the Jinxia side, which is de facto independent, is a thorn in Zhou Shixiang's side whether it is an enemy of the Taiping army or not.
Since sooner or later they will have to face the Taiping army, why not take advantage of the current time when the Taiping army is unable to look eastward, first solve the Zheng attack, and then integrate the soldiers and horses, take Jinxia as the base, take the sailor as the arm, negotiate with Zhou Shixiang, and obtain the treatment given by the court of the former vassal lord at that time. If Zhou Shixiang disagrees, then it is convenient for the two sides to decide the winner in a battle. Chen Yonghui and Hong Xu dared to fight the Taiping Army, because of the strong naval strength of Jinxia, and although the Taiping Army was far superior to Jinxia, the naval division was too weak. If you really want to decide to use force, Zhou Shixiang also has to consider the gains and losses.
"When he came to attack my Jinxia, I sent the sailor into the Yangtze River, but it depends on whether Jinxia is important to him King Qi, or Nandu is important to him King Qi."
Chen Yonghua's last sentence strengthened Zheng Jing's determination to use force.
Although Zheng Tai, the Marquis of Jianping, was afraid of the Taiping army, he supported the proposal of Chen Yonghua and others, because he was also afraid that Zhou Shi had a plot against Jinxia. If Zhou Shixiang listened to Zhou Shixiang's words and the two sides stopped talking about the army, the consequence was likely to be that the Taiping army that captured Fuzhou suddenly killed Jinxia after taking a breath. In that way, Jinxia had to deal with Zheng Xi and the Taiping army at the same time, and there was almost no chance of victory.
With Zheng Tai's support, Zheng Jing no longer hesitated to send troops north, and Zheng Xi learned that Zheng Jing had made a move and had to fight. The land divisions of the two sides lined up in the area around Xinghua Province, and at sea, there were also sailors loyal to Zheng Jing and sailors loyal to Zheng Zheng to engage in fierce naval battles.
After the news of the great war between Jinxia and Xiamen reached Hangzhou, Zhou Shixiang immediately set off for Fuzhou, and at the same time reported to the southern capital on the one hand, and sent envoys to the armies of Jinxia and Xiamen on the other hand to express the disappointment of His Royal Highness the King of Qi.
After many days of preparation, naval battles broke out first.
On both sides of the naval battle, the forces of the sailors who supported Zheng Jing were weaker than those who supported Zheng Jing. However, because the strength of Zheng Zheng on the land division was stronger than that of Zheng Jing, the naval division of Zheng Zheng's army, which was at a disadvantage, was very tenacious. The two sides are engaged in fierce competition in the areas of Pinghaiwei and Wan'an. On the sea, the "boom" cannon rumbled, the white smoke was filled, and the large warships of Zheng Jingbu and the ships of Zheng Zheng's department launched a fierce artillery battle, and the cannonballs continued to roar and fall in the sea, raising milky white columns of water. The small boats of both sides charged at each other, trying to kill the larger ships, either attacking with fire or boarding the enemy ships with broadside jumpers.
The commander of the Zheng Army's naval division was Zheng Tai, the Marquis of Jianping, who was worthy of being a veteran at sea, and made flexible use of wind direction and current conditions to keep his fleet in a favorable position. The general who presided over the Zheng Raid Naval Division was Liu Guoxuan, the Governor of the Later Army, who was also brave and good at fighting, but although the strength of the Zheng Raid Naval Division was weak, the two sides fought fiercely from noon to dark, and Zheng Tai never won the victory. In the end, because the strength of the warships under Liu Guoxuan's command was not as good as Zheng Tai after all, after three days of the fierce battle of Pinghaiwei, after losing more than 100 warships, Liu Guoxuan was forced to lead his troops to evacuate.
After Zheng Tai's victory, he returned triumphantly. As a result, as soon as he arrived in Xiamen, he received an order from Zheng Jingjun of Xinghua Mansion to hand over the sailor to Yang Ying immediately. Zheng Tai was puzzled, but he didn't have much doubt, and asked his younger brother Zheng Mingjun and others to hand over the sailor to Yang Ying, and then all the generals went to Xinghua with him.
No, Zheng Mingjun was suspicious of this military order, and he said to Zheng Tai: "Big brother, it's decided before the war, the sea will be handed over to you, and the land will be by him Zheng Jing himself, now that the eldest brother has won Liu Guoxuan, why does Zheng Jing want you to go to Xinghua immediately?" .... Wouldn't that be unkind? ”
The younger brother's worries didn't make Zheng Tai pay attention to it, and he said disapprerovingly: "I'm Zheng Jing's uncle, what can he do with me?" Without the support of my brother and others, would he have been able to live in peace until now? Although the naval battle was won, it was still on land that decided the ownership of Jinxia, Zheng Jing was young, and Chen Yonghua had little experience, so he might need my uncle to take charge for him. ”
Zheng Tai is right, the strength of Jinxia to support Zheng Jing is mainly on his side Zheng Tai, and although Zheng Jing has some generals, most of them are too young, and even Chen Yonghua, whom he relies on, is only a recent figure, not a powerful figure. The battle in Xinghua Mansion determines the final victory or defeat, and it is also related to Zheng Jing's own net worth, after learning that Zheng Tai won Liu Guoxuan, he naturally wants to ask his uncle to come to Xinghua to give him advice.
Zheng Mingjun has always been suspicious of Zheng Jing, an uncle and brother, but after all, it is just his feelings, and there is no real evidence, so he can only persuade Zheng Taidao: "Big brother, although you are his uncle, this struggle for power and profit is the most ruthless thing. When the feudal lord was there, he Zheng Jing dared to cut off even the feudal lord's military rations. ”
"Once upon a time, now is now. If Zheng Jing wants to secure the position of the lord of the domain, he must rely on me, otherwise, he will have no one to use. ”
Zheng Tai, who was overconfident in himself, couldn't listen to his brother's advice and insisted on going to Xinghua. Seeing this, Zheng Mingjun had no choice but to call the third brother Zheng Zhangxu and others over, and secretly explained that they should bring more people and act at the opportunity, in case Zheng Jing is not good for the eldest brother, then their brother will save the eldest brother no matter what.
Zheng Jinxu was taken aback, frowned, and said, "If it's really as you said, Zheng Jing doesn't have a good heart for us, then what should we do after we save the eldest brother?" Can't you help Zheng Xi that incompetent guy? ”