Chapter 89 Zuo Liangyu died of illness

After receiving a message from Cao Jie and capturing Jinan Mansion very easily, Cao Yue immediately accelerated the pace of his attack.

The trenches, which were very conducive to the shooting of musketeers, but which constituted serious restrictions on the cavalry, had been slowly dug in the direction of the Liaocheng city wall. The artillery positions were also moved, using the passage left when digging trenches, and moving forward to a place where Liaocheng could already be completely bombarded.

The cavalry was on both sides to prevent Jiannu's roundabout attack or sneak attack, and the two guards divisions that acted as reserves, nearly half a centaur cooperated with the cavalry defense, and the rest of the horses, except for the five thousand reserves, also joined the defense of the main position.

It's just that Cao Yue didn't immediately launch a full-scale counteroffensive, nor did he try to capture Liaocheng, he still adopted the strategy of fighting a war of attrition with Dolgon, preparing to drag Jiannu down in this way.

The victory of the Ming army dealt a serious blow to the arrogance of the Jiannu, but it also made the Jiannu angry, and they brutally treated the people of Beishan Shandong, completely exposing their true nature, and the pro-Manchu and Han family policies mentioned by Fan Wencheng were abandoned by Dolgon. In the places occupied by Jiannu, there were scenes of burning, killing and looting again, and Jiannu, who was seriously short of military supplies, could only snatch food from the people.

These news also quickly reached Cao Yue's ears, but he could not do anything about it. In this way, let the Ming army and people fully realize the cruelty and inhumanity of Jiannu, and more people will hate Jiannu and rise up to resist.

Cao Bianjiao led his army to break out of the siege, defeated the Jiannu besieging Datong, and attacked in the direction of Beijing, and the news soon reached Cao Yue. Hearing this news, Cao Yue was of course overjoyed. He also immediately contacted Cao Bianjiao through his own way, hoping that Cao Bianjiao would lead his army south and join him in Shandong. Cao Yue didn't plan to let Cao Bianjiao lead his troops back to Datong again, after all, it was a city that was lonely under the rule of Jiannu, and it was very difficult to preserve its strength, let alone plot to develop.

Cao Yue lacked capable cadres around him, and Cao Bianjiao was very much in need of him. Conduct military affairs with him.

It's just that Cao Yue didn't know that Cao Bianjiao didn't need to take advantage of the opportunity of the raid on Beijing, and successfully made a detour south to meet him in Shandong.

After the news of the capture of Jinan Mansion came, Cao Yue also immediately ordered Cao Jie to defend Jinan with a group of men and horses, and the rest of the army prepared to attack Cangzhou and Dezhou in the north. There were not many Jiannu defenders in these two places, and Dolgon gathered most of his troops in Liaocheng. Cao Yue didn't necessarily want Cao Jie to capture Cangzhou or Texas, he just wanted to scare Dolgon.

Just when Cao Yue was busy arranging, another good news came.

The red lady led her department. Raided Zuo Liangyu's rebels and won a great victory, killing thousands and capturing nearly 50,000 people, shocking the world.

After receiving this news, Cao Yue was even more overjoyed, and after sending a letter of commendation and a private message expressing his feelings to the Red Lady, he ordered the Red Lady and other Qinwang divisions to continue to attack Zuo Liangyu's rebels, and ordered several guard divisions to move west. Speed up the march, strive to contact the rebels in the shortest possible time, and work with the Red Lady Department to flank the rebels from east to west. Put down the rebellion as soon as possible.

Cao Yue himself was busy preparing for a full-scale counterattack on Dolgon's troops, and then captured Liaocheng. Cao Jie had already divided his troops to the north, preparing to attack Cangzhou and Dezhou, and Cao Bianjiao also planned to attack Beijing. Dorgon must be flustered, and he wants to take advantage of the opportunity to make Dorgon anxious.

It was also Cao Yue who was busy stockpiling ammunition. Ordered the special guard battalion to launch a large-scale special operation, continued to move the position in the direction of Liaocheng, and planned to launch a full-scale counterattack, and when Liaocheng was captured, there was another piece of good news that Zuo Liangyu was sick and died. After Zuo Liangyu died of illness, his subordinates actually stopped their eastward advance, canceled the emperor title of Zhu Changshu, the king of Lu, and recognized Zhu Cijiong of Nanjing as the orthodox of the Ming Dynasty.

It turned out that Zuo Liangyu, who had been ill for a long time, died of illness on the way when he led the rebels to leave Wuchang and before they arrived in Jiujiang. Zuo Liangyu was originally in poor health, and in the past few months, he has been like a frightened bird, he hasn't even slept well, and his health is getting worse and worse.

Zuo Liangyu died of illness, and his subordinates elected his son Zuo Mengeng to continue to lead the army. But Zuo Mengeng did not have Zuo Liangyu's courage, coupled with Yuan Jixian, the right attendant of the military department stationed in Jiujiang, and Hao Xiaozhong, Zuo Liangyu's right-hand man, persuaded Zuo Mengeng not to oppose the imperial court, and the Hubei army could not defeat the new guard army newly formed by the imperial court. Today's emperor is not a hypocrite, but Zhu Cijiong, the third son of the former emperor, saying that Zhu Cijiong's fake is just a deception. The persuasion of the generals, coupled with the fact that the Red Lady's Northern Army raided the Hubei Army and was annihilated by tens of thousands of horses, Zuo Mengeng already knew that it was impossible to have a good end this time, and the final result could only be eliminated by the Red Lady and the Ming Guards New Army. In the end, Zuo Mengeng ordered to stop the rebellion, recognized Zhu Cijiong in Nanjing as the orthodox Ming Dynasty, detained Zhu Changshu, the king of Lu, and prepared to escort him to Nanjing.

His troops stopped advancing on the Yangtze River between Wuchang and Jiujiang, waiting for the imperial court to send someone to receive them.

Receiving this news, Cao Yue was of course overjoyed, but he also regretted that Zuo Liangyu couldn't afford to make a big storm, and he died so quickly, the Red Lady's men and horses didn't play well, and several guard divisions ended the battle without even fighting.

Also, Cao Yue wanted to take the opportunity of Zuo Liangyu's rebellion to clear out some people in the court.

Before the Northern Expedition, Cao Yue had already received a secret report from Jinyiwei, saying that many important ministers in the court had colluded with Zuo Liangyu. He was also ready to take advantage of Zuo Liangyu's rebellion to pull these people out and remove them from the court. Zuo Liangyu's rebellion lost its momentum so quickly, and his goal was destined to fail.

However, it is always a good thing for the rebellion to be quelled, Zuo Liangyu's hundreds of thousands of horses can be absorbed, and the number and combat power of the Ming Guards can also be increased. Although it is said that most of Zuo Liangyu's troops are rabble, and military discipline is corrupt, among the hundreds of thousands of horses, tens of thousands of soldiers can be reformed. These sergeants who have experienced the war, if they are reformed well, trained strictly, and mixed into other horses, they may be good fighters.

After Zuo Mengeng announced his allegiance to the imperial court, Cao Yue also immediately told Sun Chuanting about his decisions and thoughts through secret letters. In the end, the court passed Sun Chuanting's proposal, and sent Shi Kefa, the secretary of the military department, to Wuchang to comfort, and Yuan Jixian, the right attendant of the military department and the right servant of the capital, was stationed in Wuchang, and continued the military affairs of the governors Jiangxi, Xiangguang, Yingtian, and Anqing, and together with Shi Kefa, on behalf of the imperial court, incorporated Zuo Mengeng's Hubei army, and continued to be responsible for the civil affairs of Hubei with He Tengjiao, the governor of Hubei.

Zuo Mengeng and his generals will all follow Shi Kefa into the court and wait for the court's treatment of them.

After the court agreement was passed, Shi Kefa also immediately left Nanjing with a group of people and went to Hubei.

After Cao Yue received Sun Chuanting's report, he immediately ordered the Red Lady Department to go north to join him and fight against Dolgon. (To be continued.) )