"The Shi Pavilion Department is the superintendent, when Fuwei is in charge, the power is arbitrary!"

Yang Chao said directly to Shi Kefa, who had no master of the six gods, that he was the governor of Yangzhou, but he was made unable to advance or retreat by the warlords of the four towns.

Although he said this, Yang Chao couldn't help but sigh in his heart, this is really not an arbitrary person.

Since Zhang Juzheng, it seems that there is no such person in the civil official group, in fact, no matter whether it is loyal or traitorous, the Ming Dynasty really lacks a powerful minister, even if Yan Song is there, it is much better than the current situation.

It's a pity that Yan Song, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng are more powerful than the other, but they appear in groups, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, they can only be Wen Tiren, Zhou Yanru and other goods, and the leader of the Donglin Party, who started with fighting, turned out to be a surrender faction like Qian Qianyi.

"But the three towns are aggressive, how should the governor appease?"

Shi Kefa sighed.

Yang Chao said: "Master Shi doesn't need to appease them, you just order them." ”

Shi Kefa couldn't help but shake his head: "Yang Chao, you are still too young, if you can order, it will be good." ”

The warlords of the four towns are unruly, of course, it has something to do with their strength, but it has nothing to do with the inaction of the imperial court.

And the reason why the imperial court does not act is because it will not act, civilian officials despise military generals, and it is okay to suppress military generals, but they can't because of this contempt, they don't understand military issues at all, and they get military information at all, and when military generals rise, they are immediately at a loss.

To be honest, the last thing to do is actually to give the warlords of the four towns the power to raise their own salaries, which is tantamount to letting the warlords out of the control of the civilian court.

But even so, the imperial court still has the ability to control them, after all, although the warlords of the four towns have looted excessively, they are not completely self-sufficient, and a Jianghuai region that has lost the grain industry to the north will definitely have a great reduction in economic gains. In addition, the four towns are not proficient in the way of management, so the imperial court can still card them from logistics.

It's just that the imperial court blindly connived, for fear that the four towns would rebel. Blindly enveloped, blindly appeased. Finally cast into the situation of the four towns.

Moreover, the civil officials were short-sighted, the Nanjing Imperial Court was formed, and Ma Shiying, who was originally quite effective in controlling the warlords of the four towns, immediately entered Beijing and gave up the power to supervise the town, but was bent on competing for the position of the first assistant of the cabinet.

In the eyes of civilian officials, even now, they know the importance of military power. But he still wants to compete for the title of prime minister.

"The official wants to protect the rest of Gaojie, but the three towns want to annex it, if the official insists, what should the three towns do?"

Shi Kefa asked.

Historically, Shi Kefa tried to protect the rest of Gao Jie, and the three towns wanted to annex it, but unfortunately Shi Kefa did not operate properly, neither did he entrap the rest of Gao Jie, and the other three towns were not so loyal, so the rest of Gao Jie surrendered, and the other three towns were in the middle. Except for Huang Degong, who died in battle, the other two towns also surrendered to the Manchus.

Yang Chao didn't know the detailed history, but he knew that this matter enveloped the rest of Gao Jie. Yes, Shi Kefa did the right thing.

"Master Shi Mingjian, since the adults have made up their minds, they should stick to the end, and there is no need to worry about the attitude of the three towns."

Shi Kefa nodded.

His purpose of keeping the rest of Gaojie was very simple, because the Qing army was moving south, and he tried his best to keep every military town in combat power.

"Yang Chao, come with me to Gao Jie's barracks."

Yang Chao nodded.

In the Gao Jie camp.

At this time, it was a dull place, and a feeling of desperation permeated the hearts of every officer and soldier.

They suddenly found out. They are enemies of the whole world, and everyone seems to be their enemies.

These people came from the peasant army. Others privately call them rogues, and they know it.

When Gao Jie was there before. No one dared to provoke them yet, but now that Gao Jie had just died, the warlords of the Three Towns were about to annex them, and although Shi Kefa came forward to speak, they couldn't feel at ease at all.

is this Shi Kefa, when he was the first assistant, he urged Gao Jie to go north to recover Henan many times, but at that time they coveted the comfort of Jiangnan and didn't want to enter the dilapidated Henan at all.

By the time the Qing army moved south, it was already too late.

Gao Jie and them really wanted to fight with the Qing army, but they didn't expect the Qing army's combat effectiveness to be so strong, as soon as they came up, they hit and rushed, and they were beaten all of a sudden, and as a result, they were chased and killed for dozens of miles, and suffered heavy losses.

The most important thing is that all the fighting spirit has been defeated, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as frightened.

"What are you doing with a sad face! Although your eldest brother is gone, his seed is still there. His army is still there, what are you afraid of! ”

A charming said majestically, she is Gao Jie's widow and the wife of Li Zicheng.

"Sister-in-law, it's not that I'm discouraged, the brothers have suffered heavy losses, and the grain, grass and ordnance have all been robbed by Liu Zeqing's gang. Now that the three towns are aggressively attacking each other and want to annex our people, it is impossible for our troops to compete with the three towns! ”

Li Benshen, the first general under Gao Jie, frowned and sighed.

Although Gao Jie is dead, everyone still has respect for Gao Jie's wife Xing at this time, this is not out of Gao Jie's Yu Wei, or his old love for Gao Jie, but Xing's own majesty.

When this woman was still Mrs. Li Zicheng, she helped Li Zicheng take charge of grain and grass logistics, held great power, and was a strong woman.

Later, she eloped with the tall and handsome Gao Jie, she was still very prestigious in the army, so after Gao Jie's death, these officers could still unite around her.

"There is no grain and grass, you can still find the imperial court, now that the Tartars are going south, the imperial court is the time to use troops, and it will never watch our tens of thousands of troops collapse due to lack of food.

Xing said to his frightened subordinates, these people have followed Gao Jie to fight in the south and the north for so many years, they had no food before, and they all followed Li Zicheng to fight big households, and no one took their own bad lives in their eyes at that time.

Later, he followed Gao Jie to the imperial court, but became timid, especially when he arrived in Jiangnan, he was promoted and made rich one by one, and he lost his bloodiness.

"They dare to come, come and kill one by one, come and kill two and kill a pair. There is also Xu Dingguo's house, Lao Tzu must eat him alive! Avenge Big Brother! ”

Another general, Li Chengdong, gritted his teeth, the warlords of the three towns took advantage of the danger to make him angry, but Xu Dingguo, the traitor, made him hate even more. If it weren't for Xu Dingguo's pretending to join forces to launch a sudden attack, Gao Jie would not have died, and if Gao Jie didn't die, they would have the backbone. If Gao Jie is here, no matter how bad the situation is. None of them panicked.

"That's right, tell the brethren that we must avenge our eldest brother. But it's not looking for Xu Dingguo, but looking for Tartar for revenge, Xu Dingguo is just a Tartar's dog. ”

Xing said, a pair of beautiful eyes revealing a cold light.

Rough men like Li Benshen and Li Chengdong would not understand that as long as they were under the banner of seeking revenge from the Tartars, the imperial court would use them against the Manchus. It will never be swallowed up by the other three towns.

"Madam, do you say that Shi Kefa is reliable, when the eldest brother is here, he doesn't give him a lot of face, he won't be angry with us and others, and he will be governed by grain and grass, right?"

Although Shi Kefa temporarily gave a batch of grain and grass, Li Benshen was still worried, when Gao Jie was guarding Xuzhou, he was extremely domineering and disobeyed the orders of the imperial court, and at that time Shi Kefa was the first assistant. Many orders are Shi Kefa's orders, Gao Jie can be said to have been extremely unsympathetic to Shi Kefa, and later Shi Kefa came to supervise the teacher. Gao Jie is even more precautionary, Shi Kefa entered his military camp, only to 100 personal soldiers Gao Jie still did not let in, had to Shi Kefa go in alone, in Li Benshen's opinion, this is too insulting for Shi Kefa to always look down on military generals, and even more down on their thieves from the army.

Mrs. Xing nodded.

She knew the situation best now, originally their military rations were not lacking. The Qing army sneak attacked, and they couldn't escape. There are still tens of thousands of truckloads of grain and grass, but when they pass through Huai'an. was attacked by Liu Zeqing, the grain, grass and ordnance were all robbed, and they looted all the way to Yangzhou, and they all relied on Shi Kefa to help.

"I heard that Inspector Shi has no children, so your eldest brother will leave this one, I want Yuan Jue to worship Inspector Shi as his father-in-law. If this can be done, Inspector Shi will not rule over us! ”

Mrs. Xing said and hugged the ignorant young son in her arms.

The other officers nodded when they heard this: "It's still my sister-in-law who is thoughtful." ”

Mrs. Xing's eyes flickered, sure enough, it was a group of rough men, Mrs. Xing's concerns were so simple, Gao Jie died suddenly, and their sons were only nine years old, although this group of people licked the blood with Gao Jie, and now they will still miss the old love, but as time goes by, people's hearts are the most unreliable, if there is a change, maybe one will tie up their mother and son for wealth.

Therefore, Mrs. Xing must find a way out for her son, so that her son can recognize Shi Kefa as a stepfather.

With Mrs. Xing's mind, she could see that the imperial court still wanted to entrap them, so she took the opportunity to let Shi Kefa recognize his son as a righteous son, and when the army was defeated at the first time, it was when morale was low, and the officers wanted to find a backer, and their son became Shi Kefa's righteous son, in their opinion, it was to find a backer for them, and they would inevitably be around their mother and son, and they would be grateful to their mother and son.

In this way, their mother and son have become characters that the court and their subordinates have to rely on, and they have become the maintenance of the court and the army.

Xing planned with the officers, until the guards reported that Master Shi had come to raise the army, and Xing couldn't help but be overjoyed and immediately invited people in.

According to Xing's plan, she came forward to complain to Shi Kefa, saying that Gao Jie died in battle, and her mother and son were lonely, hoping that Master Shi would recognize her son as a righteous son.

In Xing's opinion, this kind of thing Shi Kefa should push the boat down the river, and even wish to strengthen the envelopment of the rest of Gao Jie through this relationship, but Shi Kefa hesitated and refused, and instead suggested to Xing that Gao Yuanjue should worship Gao Qiqian, the eunuch of Jiangbei soldiers and horses, as his father-in-law.

Yang Chao was on the side, and after seeing Xing's family, he immediately understood why Li Zicheng robbed her back then, and why Gao Jie did not hesitate to betray his brother Li Zicheng, who was born and died, for her.

There is only one reason, Xing's beauty is incomparable!

But as soon as he heard that Xing's wanted his son to worship Shi Kefa as his father-in-law, Yang Chao immediately praised this woman's scheming, this is a very smart woman who knows how to use her advantages.

But Shi Kefa's shirk made Yang Chao feel even more strange, why did Shi Kefa refuse such a multi-pronged thing, and his refusal obviously changed the color of the military generals who sat with him, and he didn't accept other people's sons, and let him worship a eunuch as his father-in-law and recognize the eunuch as his father, isn't this scolding!

Yang Chao couldn't help but wonder, did Shi Kefa deliberately insult the rest of Gao Jie? Because these people are from rogue backgrounds in the eyes of civil officials, do they think they are only worthy of recognizing eunuchs as fathers? Not worthy of being a godfather like Shi Kefa, a university scholar?

With Yang Chao's understanding of Shi Kefa, this person's ability is not good, but his ethics are very good. He has the demeanor of a doctor of ancient scholars, and he has always paid attention to sharing weal and sorrow with soldiers in the army, and will not look down on people. He often covered the soldiers with quilts at night and often stood guard with the soldiers. Obviously, what is paid attention to is to move people with emotion, and I believe that if you are good to the soldiers, the soldiers will sell their lives.

But why humiliate the rest of Gao Jie at this time?

High dive?

Yang Chao's mind turned quickly, and he immediately sensed the source of the problem, Gao Qiqian is the eunuch who supervises the grain and grass in Jiangbei, why is it Gao Qiqian This may be the reason, otherwise there are so many eunuchs, why not Han Zanzhou. I don't recognize Lu Jiude, but I recognize this Gao Qiqian, precisely because Gao Qiqian has food in his hands.

Seeing that Gao Jie's subordinate officers had unkind faces and drank stuffy wine one after another, Yang Chao immediately stood up with a smile.

"The generals have misunderstood!"

Li Benshen and Li Chengdong glanced up and found that it was Yang Chao who spoke, so they immediately suppressed their dissatisfaction and laughed dryly.

In the past, they were unruly and didn't think much of Yang Chao, but this time they personally fought with the Tartars. immediately put away the inherent disdain for the soldiers and horses in Jiangnan, and Yang Chao, who broke 10,000 with 600 or 10,000, seemed to have a certain mysterious aura in the eyes of them who had just been defeated in the hands of the Tartars. I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe in my heart, so I didn't dare to make a mistake.

Yang Chao saw that everyone was dissatisfied, and continued: "Inspector Shi is a civil official, and it is inconvenient to make friends with military generals, otherwise he will be impeached by the officials of the DPRK and the Central People's Republic of China. Although Gao Qiqian is a eunuch, but the commander of Jiangbei grain and grass, he has the power of grain and grass in his hands, if Gao Shizi recognizes Gao Qiqian as his father-in-law, the grain and grass will naturally not worry. And isn't Gao Qiqian also surnamed Gao? It's all family. Mr. Shi is also thinking about you. ”

Shi Kefa couldn't help but nodded.

Sure enough, Yang Chao's guess was right. Historians often criticize Shi Kefa for being high-minded, but they fail to see the complex background behind it. Yang Chao is immersive, so he can naturally guess the reason better.

Because no matter how you look at it, it is impossible for Shi Kefa, who is bent on encircling the rest of Gao Jie, to humiliate Gao Jie's subordinates at this time, but Shi Kefa is also too pedantic and cares too much about the impeachment of the official, if he is a careerist, he can accept Gao Jie's son as his son, so as to win over, and then slowly turn the rest of Gao Jie's army into his cronies, not only do not have to worry about the impeachment of the official, but on the contrary, he can also coerce the civilian clique in turn.

It's a pity that Shi Kefa is not a careerist, just an ordinary civil official with mediocre wisdom, and in terms of foresight, I am afraid that he is not as good as Mrs. Xing.

After Yang Chao's explanation, although Gao Jie's face softened a little, he was still not very happy, after all, let their eldest brother's son recognize a eunuch as his father, Gao Jie had just died, and these people's feelings for Gao Jie were actually in the most profound stage, so they felt empathy and felt ashamed.

On the contrary, Mrs. Xing's beautiful eyes moved, and her reaction was not so excited, or it may not be written on her face, after all, the person who just died was her husband.

"In this way, it seems that it is the cheap concubine Meng Lang. I didn't think of Master Shi's concerns. ”

Mrs. Xing not only did not blame, but stood up and apologized to Shi Kefa.

Shi Kefa stood up and saluted back: "Mrs. Xing doesn't need to be polite, the so-called ignorant is not to blame, you have been in the army for a long time, and you don't know that the situation between the DPRK and China is excusable." ”

Mrs. Xing nodded: "It's good that adults don't blame." Since the adult is a civil official, it is inconvenient to make friends with martial artists such as us, then Uncle Yang is also a martial artist! ”

Mrs. Xing said, suddenly glancing at Yang Chao.

Yang Chao didn't expect it to be pulled on himself, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart: No!

But that's what happened.

I saw that Mrs. Xing quickly looked at Shi Kefa again: "The concubine has a reluctant request, how about daring to ask Master Shi to be a guarantor, and let the dog worship Lord Yang as his father-in-law?" ”

Shi Kefa was stunned for a moment, worship Yang Chao as his father-in-law, Yang Chao should have no worries, although it is not very good-looking for military generals to make friends with each other, but in-laws between military attaches are common, and accepting each other's son as a father-in-law should have no effect.

Moreover, Shi Kefa felt that Yang Chao was a general knowledge, so he didn't even ask, and agreed to take care of himself.

"Okay, good, this official will complete this good thing, and let the son worship Zhongyibo as his father-in-law, but he will not lose his identity!"

Yang Chao and Gao Jie are both counts, Yang Chao is the loyal and righteous uncle of Emperor Chongzhen, and Gao Jie is the Xingping Bo of King Fu and the state of Jianguo.

If it is really calculated, it is obvious that Yang Chao, the earl, is more golden, it is Emperor Chongzhen's posthumous reward, used to reward him for his merits in protecting the crown prince, no matter how you look at it, it is more correct and bright than the title that Gao Jie and they got by supporting King Fu, not to mention that King Fu later failed, and Gao Jie's title is even more embarrassing.

It's just that Yang Chao didn't care about this, although he was a little uncomfortable, he still immediately expressed his position.

"Although Xingping Bo and Ben Jue have never met, but they have been friends for a long time, since Xing Ping Bo unfortunately sacrificed his life for the country, Xingping Bo's son, just like Ben Jue's son, Ben Jue is responsible for raising orphans and widows!"

After speaking, he bowed to Mrs. Xing and agreed.

Even Yu Jiye's adult Yang Chao accepted it, not to mention the child Gao Yuanjue, seeing him hiding in Xing's arms timidly, Yang Chao felt that it was not so embarrassing, after all, this child was only nine years old, and if he got married early, the child would be so old.

Mrs. Xing did not hesitate and immediately pushed her son out.

"Yuanjue, kowtow to your stepfather."

Gao Yuanjue was ignorant, and under the guidance of his mother, he knelt in front of Yang Chao with a confused face.

Mrs. Xing picked up another glass of wine and handed it to him: "Yuanjue, toast your father-in-law!" ”

After drinking three glasses of wine in a row, Yang Chao helped his godson up.

Although the ceremony is simple, it is just a political transaction, and no one will care.

At this time, Mrs. Xing urged her son again: "Yuanjue, call Dad!" ”

Under repeated urging, Gao Yuanjue timidly called out to his father, and then hid behind Xing's back.

At this time, Li Benshen was very Li Chengdong suddenly shouted, saying that the father should give his son a big red envelope.

Even Shi Kefa smiled and said that Yang Chao should express it.

It's a pity that Yang Chao didn't have any preparations, thought about it, and suddenly untied his waist knife.

"This knife has been stained with the blood of the Tartar warriors, and it is left for my son, just to ward off evil spirits!"

Xing took it with a smile, let his son hold it, and taught his son to thank Yang Chao.

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That's it for today. (To be continued)