"Second brother, you rush back immediately and tell your adults not to be deceived by Chen Hongfan's house!"

In the city of Beijing, two businessman-looking men talk in a hidden room.

"Erdou, then you can do it alone?"

"Second brother, don't worry."

One of these two is Diao Erdou and the other is Bian Er, both of whom are elite under Yang Chao.

Diao Erdou looks a little thin, he is not a soldier who can fight, but he has a strong learning ability, in the army for a few years, not only all kinds of martial arts have been learned, but also equestrian skills are good, the last time he went to Beijing to rescue the prince, he also participated, he is familiar with the way, but the most important thing to send him to Beijing is that he is literate, all of them are learned in the literacy class, and he has been able to know 500 words, and writing is not a problem.

Bian Er was strong in martial arts and had some ways in the rivers and lakes, Yang Chao felt that he was useful, so he asked him to go north with Diao Erdou and establish an intelligence station in Beijing.

The two pretended to be businessmen, and after Diao Erdou heard the news of Chen Hongfan's surrender, he immediately felt that the matter was very important, and asked Bian Er to bring the letter back in person, while he stayed in Beijing to continue to set up an intelligence station.

"Then be careful."

Bian Erha laughed, he is not a mother-in-law, and patted Diao Erdou's shoulder hard.

"It's you who should be careful!"

Diao Erdou didn't bother to get this information, but it was in the restaurant that he heard a few surrendered Ming soldiers discussing.

In fact, Dolgon did not have a sense of secrecy, and directly issued an edict in the name of the emperor to go to Honglu Temple to pass the edict, perhaps in Dolgon's view, the political significance of publicly recruiting an envoy is greater.

However, when the Qing court envoy read the edict in front of the Ming court mission, Chen Hongfan knelt to receive it, so Zuo Maodi and others knew about it at that time, which is why Chen Hongfan asked the Qing court to detain Zuo Maodi and others.

These soldiers happened to learn about this, and they bragged in the restaurant that they were the surrendered Ming army and took refuge in the new master, so they naturally hoped that the new master's career would be prosperous. So he took out this incident to prove that the general trend of the Ming Dynasty was gone, and asked for a psychological comfort.

But after Diao Erdou got the news, he was very concerned, and he felt that if Chen Hongfan might surrender. He became a spy, and he would definitely not be able to do good things when he returned to Nanjing, so he carefully befriended these soldiers, and after drinking a few more glasses of wine, these soldiers swore that they would tell everything they knew.

It turned out that Chen Hongfan agreed to surrender. And he wanted to go south to persuade the generals of the Ming Dynasty to surrender, Diao Erdou couldn't help but be frightened, and there were such people who betrayed their ancestors to seek glory, for fear that Yang Chao would suffer a big loss if he was unprepared, so he asked Bian Er to hurry south.

Bian traveled day and night, arrived in Xuzhou on the 10th, and then rode a horse here, galloped to the south of the Yangtze River, and rushed back to Nanjing in the first month.

So Yang Chao got the news of Chen Hongfan's surrender.

"Pay close attention to the situation in the four towns of Jiangbei!"

This news made Yang Chao attach great importance to it, and immediately passed orders to his subordinates. Let the spies who stayed in Jiangbei pay attention to Chen Hongfan's movements.

Chen Hongfan had already gone to Jiangbei to carry out activities at this time, but he was under the banner of the envoy group coming back to restore his life, and no one knew the truth.

If no one pays attention, Chen Hongfan's actions don't seem to be special, but if someone pays attention, it is not difficult to find clues.

At the banquet, Chen Hongfan sighed at the strength of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and quietly told Gao Jie that when he was in Beijing, he heard that Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo had decided to take refuge. Tempting Gao Jie said, what if the Manchus wanted to take Henan?

Gao Jie was stationed in Xuzhou, and if the Manchus attacked Henan, they would clash with Gao Jie, and most of Henan was still nominally owned by the Ming court in Nanjing. Gao Jie was stationed in Xuzhou, and his duty was to take the opportunity to go north to recover Henan, Gao Jie did not doubt Chen Hongfan, and directly told Chen Hongfan that if the Manchus wanted Henan, they would not exchange it for Beijing. "He wants to get Henan? Please exchange money with me in Beijing. ”

Feeling that he couldn't convince Gao Jie, Chen Hongfan set off to return to Nanjing.

When Chen Hongfan went to the court to restore his life, Yang Chao rarely also went to the court, watching Chen Hongfan's performance.

This guy first sang the praises of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and respected the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, and sent troops to protect the imperial tomb as soon as they entered the customs, and also buried the first emperor, and sacrificed endlessly. Tell the court that he felt that the Manchus were sincere in peace.

Chen Hongfan didn't know that someone had been eyeing him for a long time, and even inquired about what he said to Gao Jie.

Yang Chao sneered in his heart and looked at the traitor's face.

After saying good things for the Manchus, Chen Hongfan began to fabricate rumors, saying that he had heard that Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo seemed to be suspected of defecting to the Manchus, and asked the court to guard against them.

Yang Chao knew that this guy was sowing discord again, where did Gao Jie say that Liu Liangzuo and Liu Zeqing had taken refuge in the Manchu Dynasty, but in the court, he said that Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo were going to cause discord in the Ming court.

As for saying that Liu Liangzuo will surrender, Yang Chao is not surprised, it is a very typical military law, robbing people's property, killing people and setting fires, and doing everything. But Huang Degong made Yang Chao a little impressed, because this guy didn't rob, his military discipline was as good as Yang Chao, but he set up dozens of cards on his own territory, large and small, to collect the money of past business trips, so Huang Degong's reputation in the court is still very good.

A military general who is not very greedy for money, what reason does he have to surrender.

Every civil official in the court is also a human being, and some people began to suspect Chen Hongfan, questioning why Chen Hongfan was detained by the Manchus, but he was the only one who let Chen Hongfan come back alone, and the behavior of detaining the envoys happened, but Chen Hongfan said good things about the Manchus?

But at this time, Yang Chao stood up, he said that Chen Hongfan risked his life to go north as an envoy and escaped by luck to recover his life, and he should be remembered for a great achievement, and should not be subjected to groundless speculation and slander, please play the emperor to add an official to Chen Hongfan, otherwise who will do things for the court in the future.

What Yang Chao said was reasonable and well-founded, suppressed a few doubtful voices, and finally agreed that Chen Hongfan would stay in office and serve in the military department.

There was no doubt that Chen Hongfan had surrendered, and there was a lot of news that Bian Er had brought back from Beijing, even including the general content of the negotiations between the officials of the Manchu Ministry of Rites and the Ming court, which were not kept secret, and the Manchu Qing almost publicly posted notices, with the intention of humiliating the Ming court.

However, they said in the text that they did not recognize the Ming court, but when they sent Chen Hongfan back, they were trumpeting the possibility of peace between the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Yang Chao judged that the Qing court should not be ready to go south, indicating that they had not completely defeated Li Zicheng.

Yang Chao didn't know that after the courtiers suspected Chen Hongfan in history, he sent him back to his hometown.

The reason why he suggested staying with Chen Hongfan was because it would be too wasteful to let Chen Hongfan as a spy not have a good time playing Infernal Affairs, and some of the intentions of the Manchu Qing Dynasty could basically be judged from him.

As for whether Chen Hongfan will expose the secrets of the Ming court, probably he said everything that should be said in Beijing, the military deployment of the Ming court or something, there is nothing worth keeping secret, and the places that are defended are places that cannot be bypassed, and the Manchu Qing have to pass from there if they know it, and they have to pass from there if they don't know.

And Yang Chao felt that he could still keep this person and release some fake news to the Manchus.

Chen Hongfan seemed to be in a hurry to make meritorious service to the new master, and immediately invited Yang Chao after the next court.

The excuse was to thank Yang Chao for helping him say please.

At the banquet, he said something like the strong power of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Yang Chao fully affirmed his words, saying that he fought a decisive battle with the Eight Banners in Haizhou, although he was lucky to win in the end, but he relied on the city wall and water attack, if he fought head-on, he had no chance of winning.

Yang Chao also asked Chen Hongfan about his views on borrowing Pingkou, and Chen Hongfan said that the most important thing at present is to stabilize the Central Plains.

Sure enough, the Manchus did not want to see the Ming army go north, which proved that the territory under the control of the Manchus was very empty at this time.

In fact, historians all believe that if the Southern Ming regime could take advantage of the Manchu Qing Dynasty's pursuit of Li Zicheng to go north, it would be easy to recover Shandong and Henan.

But what if it is recovered?

At most, the Manchus withdrew their pursuing forces and pointed the finger at the Nanming regime, which would certainly not take this risk.

Even if it can withstand the attack of the Manchus, it will only cause the Manchus, the Ming court and Li Zicheng's Dashun regime to stand on three legs.

At this time, the Ming court still regarded Li Zicheng as the biggest enemy, Chongzhen died because of Li Zicheng, Zhu Cihong did not avenge his father and joined forces with Li Zicheng against the Manchu Qing, and his throne was not stable in legal terms.

Even if these are put aside, purely from a military point of view, who will restore Shandong and Henan?

The four towns of Jiangbei must be reluctant to move, Henan is so empty, Gao Jie only needs to send someone over, and he only needs to receive the edict, but he will not go, because in his position, meritorious service is useless, and the strength in his hand is the most important thing, let him give up the rich territory in Jiangnan to receive a broken Henan, and he is not willing to kill him.

This is also the current life and death of the four towns in Jiangbei, if Wenchen urges, they will ask for money and food.

If the four towns don't go, Yang Chao will not give up the Jiangnan base and go north, and Yang Chao has the confidence to block the Eight Banners from going south, but let him go deep alone, not to mention that the food and salary alone will kill him, unless he can also make a living by looting, but an army like Li Zicheng can do it, Yang Chao can't do it, not at the moral level, but militarily, because his military equipment relies too much on strong productivity, and he will definitely not be able to get enough gunpowder and lead bullet supply when he arrives in Henan, and even bows and arrows cannot be guaranteed, Let his soldiers be reduced to pure cold weapons, and they have to fight hungry and full, Yang Chao feels unreliable.

So Chen Hongfan is right, at this time it is the most important thing to stabilize Jiangnan, although this is what the Manchus want to see, but the Ming court can only choose so.

Chen Hongfan took the opportunity to ask Yang Chao how to guard against it if the Manchus went south.

Yang Chao showed a pessimistic mood, saying that the four towns in Jiangbei would definitely not be able to stop the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and I am afraid that they all have two hearts.

And the Yangtze River could not stop the Manchu Qing.

When Chen Hongfan heard Yang Chao's answer, he almost took the opportunity to lobby, but he held back. (To be continued.) )