In the season of fireworks in March, a scholar was full of desire for power, but his ambition of repeated failures was not rewarded, and he was extremely sad and indignant, wearing a hat on his head with bamboo canes and shoes, and resolutely stepped on the boat to go west to Wuchang.

In any case, this move carries a sense of tragedy and magnificence, and there is a determination to turn things around.

Yang Chao will not notice the fate of a failed move, he is worried about things inside and outside the court at this time.

Party struggle is also party struggle.

Yang Chao's careful maintenance, who knows that it will still let this small court in a corner of peace enter the bottomless abyss of party strife.

Shi Kefa, whom Yang Chao strongly supported, fell.

Yang Chao didn't know why the emperor seemed to be quite unkind to him recently, thinking that he had not offended the emperor, he had been careful to be a loyal minister, and he had never made any moves out of the cabinet, he could only think that the emperor was deliberately suppressing himself, such a military general with 100,000 heavy troops in his hands, it was indeed difficult to make the emperor feel at ease.

But Shi Kefa is also too uncompetitive, or too ineffective.

Chongzhen period, he was the governor of Caoyun in Jiangnan for many years, and then did the military department of Shangshu, when Chongzhen died, among the civil officials in Jiangnan, he belonged to the most senior, well-deserved cabinet chief, and with the support of Yang Chao, it should be as stable as Mount Tai.

But he still failed.

The current cabinet chief assistant has become Ma Shiying, the head of the military department.

When Zuo Maodi and others went north, in addition to bringing the national credentials, Shi Kefa also wrote letters to Wu Sangui and scholars Feng Quan, Xie Majesty and others in the name of the first assistant of the cabinet, but unfortunately these people had already followed the new master with all their hearts, and they couldn't see the envoys of the old country.

But if he is not dead, Shi Kefa also wrote a letter to Dolgon, the content of the letter was extremely humble, and the purpose was nothing more than a collegiate agreement between the two countries to join hands to destroy Li Zicheng.

As a result, Dorgon also wrote back to Scofa. This letter provoked the court, and Dolgon not only did not recognize the Southern Ming monarchs and ministers in his heart, but also reprimanded them for having no king and no father, and did not avenge Chongzhen first but set up the emperor without permission. It is a vain standing.

At the same time, he also persuaded Shi Kefa to recognize the general trend and defect to the Manchu Qing Dynasty as soon as possible, and said that Shi Kefa's younger brother Shi Kecheng's younger brother had returned to Zhengshuo, and hoped that Shi Kefa could persuade the puppet monarchs and ministers in the south to abandon the secret and surrender to the Manchu Qing as soon as possible, and it would not lose a great achievement.

It was this letter that dealt a heavy blow to Shi Kefa.

Chen Hongfan did not send the letter directly to Shi Kefa. Instead, it was quietly announced, which immediately provoked many people to impeach.

Ma Shiying even impeached Shi Kefa for betraying the country, the evidence is that Shi Kefa's younger brother has surrendered, Shi Kefa has been advocating the joint capture, Ma Shiying said, "Isn't there any doubt."

Naturally, Shi Kefa could not be a traitor, and he did write a letter to Dolgon in history, and Dolgon also replied, and the content was similar, but Shi Kefa was not questioned too much at that time, because the emperor was a blessed king at that time. Wenchen and King Fu were not in harmony, so Wenchen was united, but now that the emperor is Zhu Cihong, Wenchen did not have pressure one by one, so there was intrigue and intrigue between Ma Shiying, Ma Shiying impeached Shi Kefa, not only few people helped him speak, but there were even those who questioned it.

Shi Kefa was extremely discouraged, he didn't want to get involved in party disputes at all, in fact, he was not a person who liked to fight. He even thought many times that the government was a bad way and infighting, so he took the initiative to back down, asked to remove the position of the first assistant, and asked to go to Jiangbei to supervise the army. It's not that Shi Kefa wants to control the military power, he doesn't have this mind, his reason is that Ma Shiying has entered the cabinet and can't be supervised by no one, so he wants to go, speaking of which, he really wants to do something for the Ming Dynasty.

Yang Chao was very resolute in his opposition to this measure. guaranteed that Shi Kefa would never have two hearts, but the emperor made a decision, and Shi Kefa removed the position of first assistant and still went to Jiangbei Governor with the title of university scholar.

If it weren't for the emperor's alienation of Yang Chao's attitude, Ma Shiying would never dare to stand on the opposite side of Yang Chao to impeach Shi Kefa, if it weren't for Shi Kefa's own intention to retreat, it would be impossible to lose the position of first assistant, if it wasn't for the emperor's self-destruction of the Great Wall, he would not have allowed Shi Kefa to leave.

It's a pity that in the end, this one of the few Qing officials in the DPRK still left.

Yang Chao was disappointed and began to leave the court again, concentrating on military affairs.

The military situation during this period of time did make Yang Chao feel a little grim.

The Qing army defeated Li Zicheng in the end.

Li Zicheng's Dashun army was indeed stronger than the Ming army, and fought a few tough battles, and occasionally won small victories.

But at the end of last year, the decisive battle of Tongguan began, Tongguan is the gateway to Shaanxi, often who occupies here, it means to occupy Guanzhong, Li Zicheng defeated Sun Chuanting here, and occupied Shaanxi, the Qing army fought hard with Li Zicheng here this time, immediately thirteen days, and finally Li Zicheng was defeated, Duoduo led troops into the pass, and soon occupied Xi'an.

Li Zicheng's strategic mistake was too big.

It shouldn't have failed so quickly and so easily, but it's a pity that its rise is also booming, and its death is also fast.

Defeat in politics.

In that year's Eastern Crusade, it was too easy to defeat Shanxi and Henan, so that Li Zicheng was too careless, let too many Ming Dynasty officers stay in office, did not send anyone to watch, and did not relieve those officers of military power, of course, it may not be possible, these people Li Zicheng came to surrender, and the Qing army came and surrendered, causing Li Zicheng to go all the way to the west, and the pursuers chased all the way, and those Ming troops who surrendered to him could not play any role in hindering him.

Not to mention that the Ming troops in Shanxi and Henan surrendered, even the surrender of Li Zicheng's hometown of Shaanxi was unreliable, and as soon as the Duoduo army entered Shaanxi, these people also surrendered.

Li Zicheng was too aggressive, after occupying Shaanxi, did not integrate the internal forces, and still appointed the Ming army, he was impatient to move eastward to occupy Beijing, but Beijing was occupied, but it could not be defended, and in the case of an unstable foundation, it was in vain to occupy more territory.

After Yang Chao saw a series of battle reports, he was embarrassed, and he was more determined to base himself on the south of the Yangtze River and operate steadily.

On the other hand, the Qing army, without occupying a single place, immediately appointed civilian officials to run it, and at the same time sent those officers who had surrendered to Beijing with flags, or sent their families to Beijing as hostages, and immediately rectified military discipline, etc., this administrative efficiency is not comparable to Li Zicheng, even the Ming court.

Speaking of Li Zicheng, after the defeat of the Tongguan battle with the Qing army, Li Zicheng gave up the plan to concentrate his forces to encircle Xi'an, and decided to use the previous way to deal with the Ming Dynasty, to have a guerrilla battle, gave up Guanzhong, and entered the western part of Henan from Shangluo with the main force of the Dashun army that was still alive. Then head south into Xiangyang.

Li Zicheng began to establish a stable political power in the area of Xiangyang, which at this time was still under the control of officials appointed by him, and there were tens of thousands of troops he stationed there.

But Li Zicheng did not stay in business for the longest time. The most stable Xiangyang territory, but to take away the soldiers left behind in Xiangyang, and march to the east, intending to seize Nanjing, another capital of the Ming court, which Beijing could not hold. Then occupy Nanjing.

The first obstacle in front of him is the biggest warlord of the Ming Dynasty stationed in Wuchang: Zuo Liangyu!

For more than a year, Li Zicheng went north, Zhang Xianzhong went west, and the entire Jiangnan actually recovered fiercely.

Zuo Liangyu guarded Wuchang, and the Ming court recovered Hubei south of the Yangtze River, and the entire Hunan still occupies most of China in strength, especially the population and economy account for more than half, which can be called the sum of Li Zicheng and the Manchu Qing Dynasty in terms of comprehensive national strength. But comprehensive national strength has always been used to bluff people, and there is no use for eggs.

After Li Zicheng went south, Zuo Liangyu's army, which was supported by the strongest comprehensive national strength, did not dare to fight him.

"General Zuo, let's go east! If the Li thief is stationed in Jiangbei, he has already played the banner of going east to Nanjing, if he lets the Li thief attack and take the lead in occupying Nanjing, the general is afraid that he will be ashamed of the emperor's kindness. ”

Zuo Liangyu didn't want to fight Li Zicheng in the first place, but some people persuaded him to give up Huguang and go down the Shuangjiang.

This person is Huang Shu, the governor of Huguang. has been a patrol in Huguang for a long time, and the patrol press is also a big member, but he is not reconciled, and the new emperor ascends the throne He is far away in Huguang. But I really want to enter Beijing as an official, and I want to go further into the Sixth Department, but I can't be depressed.

When it was reported in Nanjing that Ma Shiying defeated Shi Kefa and became the new first assistant, he felt even more hopeless, because he had old grudges with Ma Shiying, who was once an official in Shanxi. Because of corruption, someone was impeached, and he was one of them, so he knew that after Ma Shiying became the first assistant, he felt that he had no chance to enter the sixth ministry, let alone the cabinet.

So he made up his mind and began to push Zuo Liangyu eastward, hoping to use Zuo Liangyu's troops as the backing to realize the ideal of coming to power, he saw it very thoroughly, now that the troubled times have risen, strength is very important, Ma Shiying can enter the cabinet, isn't it relying on the soldiers in his hands to help King Fu supervise the country, Shi Kefa can be the first assistant because of Yang Chao's support.

Therefore, Huang Shu decided that as long as he entered Jiangnan with Zuo Liangyu's army, it would be easy for him to enter the cabinet.

Although he was suspected of coercing the imperial court, he couldn't take care of it in order to enter the cabinet.

It just so happened that Zuo Liangyu didn't want to fight Li Zicheng at this time, so he just gave him a reason.

And Huang Shu still has allies.

"That's right, if General Zuo doesn't go east at this time, I'm afraid he will lose the opportunity! The Yang thief held heavy troops and coerced the emperor, making the south of the Yangtze River a mournful state, and the traitor was in charge, loyal and willing to give up. The Cabinet Department is loyal, but it is ostracized! I also hope that General Zuo will enter the Qingjun side as soon as possible! ”

On the side of the Qing monarch, it is a heavy flag, but it has always been a lace decoration engraved by the rebels.

The rebellion of the seven kings of the Han Dynasty was under the banner of the Qing monarch, and Zhu Di seized the throne of his nephew with the banner of the Qing monarch.

The Seven Kings succeeded, and Chao Cuo, who planned to cut the domain, was killed, and Zhu Di succeeded, and he became the emperor.

This banner is so wonderful that it has become an excuse for generations of heroes to plan to rebel.

Huang Shu and others made this golden banner for Zuo Liangyu at this time, and valued Zuo Liangyu and did not want to resist Li Zicheng's loss of troops, so they simply induced him to go east to Nanjing and become a pawn in their struggle for power.

"Hou Gongzi is from Nanjing, he knows the situation in Nanjing best, General Zuo should not hesitate and miss the opportunity!"

Huang Shu continued to persuade bitterly.

That's right, his ally is Hou Fangyu, one of the four princes.

The fourth prince has been in a state of grandeur for a few years, Hou Fangyu changed the embarrassment of not even being able to pass the exam, and like the other three sons, he got the identity of the person through other means, but unfortunately this year's examination still failed, and he failed to pass the Jinshi, so he came to Wuchang in a lonely anger, wanting to use Zuo Liangyu's forces to obtain the position of power through other means.

And soon he found Huang Shu, who had the same smell, and the two were embarrassed and joined forces to persuade Zuo Liangyu.

Zuo Liangyu thought about it repeatedly, and finally ruthlessly, instead of fighting a decisive battle with Li Zicheng and losing troops in this troubled era, it is better to go to Nanjing to earn a high position for himself, the four towns in Jiangbei have no merit and no virtue, and they actually won the status that he Zuo Liangyu fought for a lifetime by virtue of force, he is really unwilling, isn't it because those people have tens of thousands of soldiers in Jiangnan.

In all fairness, Zuo Liangyu looked down on these people whose status was far inferior to him, and those people didn't deserve to give him Zuo Liangyu's shoes, and now they are being crowned marquis and uncles one by one, why?

"Okay, General Ben will immediately raise troops and send troops to Nanjing, Qingjun's side!"

At the end of March, before Li Zicheng marched into Wuchang, Zuo Liangyu raised his army and floated down the river, in order to prevent Li Zicheng from seizing Wuchang and using Wuchang's manpower and material resources to pursue him after resting, he slaughtered the people of Wuchang, looted all the grain and grass materials and set fire to the city. (To be continued.) )