On June 23, Yang Chao recovered Huai'an, and on the 24th, Li 56 captured Suqian, which was guarded empty, and on the 25th, Pizhou was captured.

At this point, Yang Chao recovered the entire Huai'an Mansion, south of Xuzhou, where there was no Qing army to gain a foothold.

More than 100,000 troops, with a final loss of less than 2,000, can be described as a complete victory over the Qing army, but Duoduo ran away again, at least Yang Chao thought so.

But he didn't care, an opponent who was defeated twice in a row by himself was not worth noting.

Let Li Wuliu continue to march north, lead two phalanxes, with Hu Quan's artillery, Zhao Kang with cavalry, and the next target is Xin'an!

At the same time, he reported the victory to the imperial court.

In the middle left door, Liu Zeqing is asking the emperor!

The Ming Dynasty has the tradition of the emperor and the courtiers playing against each other, sometimes at a certain city gate, sometimes in a certain hall, the courtiers who are called are generally the imperial historians and auxiliary ministers, and will also call some related courtiers, this time the little emperor summoned Liu Zongzhou and the military department to give the middle people, as well as the military department of Shangshu and the first assistant of the Dongge University Cabinet Cabinet Ma Shiying, the Ministry of Rites Lang Dongge University Scholar Cabinet Auxiliary Minister Wang Duo, the Ministry of Rites Shangshu Qian Qianyi and others.

Liu Zeqing was forgiven by the emperor, although Yang Chao strongly objected, but at this time, there was a tendency for Yang Chao to say nothing, and Yang Chao really didn't know why it had developed into this situation, step by step he was extremely restrained, he had never been as domineering as the four towns of Jiangbei, but he had not completely been obedient to Wenchen, but he didn't want to be wary of people everywhere.

This can be regarded as a lesson to Yang Chao, sometimes your situation is not because of what you do, but because of what you can do.

It is a sin to have a heavy army in your hands, and to be self-sufficient without being held hostage.

Of course, the imperial court did not provoke Yang Chao, and every step they took had reasons, such as refusing Yang Chao's army expansion, they said that the world was under soldiers, and the people had been trapped for a long time, so they should recuperate. Therefore, it should not be over-redeployed.

Of course, this is nonsense, turning a blind eye to those displaced people, not seeing the idle young people who have no land and no work, and insisting on giving the people a rest and recuperation. But even so, it can be regarded as an explanation to Yang Chao.

As for Yang Chao's other performances, they were all denied on the grounds of the ancestral system, such as Yang Chao's request to abolish the artisan household system, abolish the music register, and abolish the lowly nationality. Abolish the military household system and so on.

Almost except for the opening of the sea, the imperial court rejected a series of reforms proposed by Yang Chao later, which is also a reason why Yang Chao suddenly left the court, because he found that he was useless in the court, and no one accepted everything he proposed.

That's when I found out. Party strife has happened to me unconsciously.

So Yang Chao opposed the forgiveness of Liu Zeqing, and Liu Zeqing was pardoned.

He has not even been deprived of his title, and he can still stand in the court.

"Your Majesty, Jiangbei's sincerity is arrogant, regardless of the court's compassion for the people, and the army has expanded by 50,000, which must not be opened. Please ask Your Majesty to issue an order to remove Chengyi Bo from the post of General Soldier and transfer him back to Nanjing! ”

Liu Zeqing not only returned to Nanjing smoothly, but also entered the court. Then he also openly impeached Yang Chao.

Perhaps it was precisely because he would impeach Yang Chao that he was able to return to Nanjing and enter the court.

Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, many people took the opportunity to impeach.

"The old minister Liu Zongzhou impeached the three crimes of sincerity: one was disobeying the orders of the court; second, there is no subject; Third, they have bad intentions! ”

"Disobey the orders of the court and recruit troops without authorization. In Taizhou and Tongzhou, many places recruited bandits and bandits as soldiers; Regard the imperial court superintendent as nothing, arbitrarily judge the military aircraft, and have no subjects; More than 200,000 left-hand rebels and pseudo-Qing surrendered soldiers were placed on the side of the couch of the Beijing division in Xinjiangkou, and the evil intentions were clearly revealed. ”

Liu Zongzhou is talking about Yang Chao's unauthorized expansion of the army, and he is talking about Liu Kongzhao's arrival in Yangzhou. Yang Chao didn't pay attention to him at all, and what he said was that Yang Chao put Zuo Liangyu and the more than 200,000 rebels captured in Yangzhou to work in Xinjiangkou.

"Your Majesty is invited to punish his crimes and correct the court!"

After Liu Zongzhou finished speaking, several more soldiers came forward to impeach in the matter, one was more severe than the other, and one was more ruthless than the other, it seemed that if Yang Chao was in front of him, he would not be able to eat Yang Chao's flesh and drink Yang Chao's blood, as if Yang Chao was a heinous and traitorous minister and thief.

He even proposed to punish the three clans, and asked the imperial court to immediately send someone to jail the Yang family, and ask the three divisions of Dali Temple to interrogate.

The little emperor tried his best to play a Ming monarch, and he summoned courtiers to ask the emperor twice in three days, which can be regarded as diligent government, and after listening to the impeachment of the official, he was noncommittal, but asked Ma Shiying.

"Ma Fu, what do you think?"

Ma Shiying observed the words for a long time, and couldn't help but complain in his heart, today's performance is right, I am afraid that the little emperor makes it cautious, and it is impossible to cure Yang Chao's crimes, forcing Yang Chao to rebel, everyone has to play, but knocking Yang Chao still has to be obtained, I am afraid this is also the idea of the little emperor.

Thinking of this, Ma Shiying said: "Your Majesty, Weichen thinks that there is no shortage of loyalty and righteousness in the big gifts, and there is a loss in the small sections. Please give an order to reprimand, but the soldiers are fierce and dangerous, the pseudo-Qing is vain and the artifact is in charge, and the loyal and righteous uncles are in front of the army, and they cannot change generals in battle. The minister asked the emperor to reprimand, but the theory of punishment seems to be biased. ”

Hearing this, the little emperor couldn't help but show a trace of satisfaction, obviously Ma Shiying's statement was very much in line with his heart, I have to say that Ma Shiying, a traitorous minister, in terms of human accessibility, is Liu Zongzhou, a self-proclaimed minister, can never be compared, Ma Shiying can still climb to the position of the first assistant step by step after the fall of King Fu Jianguo, and he is by no means a person who does nothing.

"Wang Fu, what do you think?"

The little emperor asked his teacher Wang Duo again.

Wang Duo hurriedly said: "Your Majesty can't, Zhongyi Bo wants to be cautious in doing things, and he has no two hearts." The expansion of the army, the disregard of the superintendents, and the acceptance of the rebels all have reasons, and we must not blindly criticize them. I ask Your Majesty to issue an order to inquire, and not to blindly reprimand. ”

Wang Duo felt that this was simply nonsense, Liu Zongzhou praised himself for being loyal and upright, and he was praised by a large number of people, the first emperor repeatedly annoyed the first emperor when he was there, and won the name of a direct minister, but now he is still as good as his life, regardless of the general situation, the four towns are strong, the four towns are impeached, and Yang Chaoqiang is impeached Yang Chao, and when he encounters such a little emperor with shallow governance experience, he will really make trouble.

So he persuaded the emperor bitterly.

But the emperor showed a slight displeasure.

"Your Majesty, the guilty minister has three strategies, which can control Yang Chao's dominance!"

The little emperor nodded.

Seeing that the emperor did not stop him, Liu Zeqing immediately continued: "Strategy, say small to make big; Second, it is said that the nuclear soldiers are paid; The third strategy is to exercise military power by oneself. ”

"The minister heard that Wang Pu, the general under the account of Zhongyibo, was hated by Zhongyibo because of his small reasons, and he was beaten in public and sent back to Xinjiangkou. Your Majesty, the minister has long heard that this person knows the soldiers, is the first brave general under the account of the loyal and righteous uncle, only because the brave general is only abandoned because of personal grudges, the minister is especially for the court to cherish talents, please promote Wang Pu as the general soldier, so that his soldiers into the Jiangbei town guard, this is a strategy. ”

"The salary of the loyal and righteous uncles is self-raised, which is a big violation of the ancestral system, the right of the loyal and righteous uncle, the right of the city is the first, and the military power is secondary, and the minister asks His Majesty to collect the right to collect the market for the use of the imperial court, then the benefits of the city are enjoyed by the imperial court, and the number of soldiers who are loyal to the righteous uncle, and the soldiers are paid, then the loyal and righteous Bowan dare not take the court lightly, this is the second policy."

"Loyal and righteous Bo to the left, the puppet Qing rebels in the Xinjiang estuary labor, is really out of personal grudges, the ministers do not care, the left rebellion advocates the chaos of its troops and horses, the puppet Qing surrender troops are only Liu Liangzuo, Gao Jie's remains, or forced by the situation, had to pretend to surrender, its soldiers and horses have a heart of loyalty to the court, and this army and horses many elite soldiers, please Your Majesty choose its loyalty to reorganize an army, choose loyal people to dominate, then the military power is not fake to others, nor do you need to recruit from the people, it can be said that it can be counted in one fell swoop, this is the third policy."

After Liu Zeqing finished speaking, many courtiers immediately looked at him in their hearts, they thought that Liu Zeqing was a rough person, and they didn't take it seriously, but they didn't expect him to come up with these three strategies, and they all stabbed Yang Chao in the key point, and he was ruthless.

Promoting the officers under Yang Chao who have grievances will definitely cause discord within Yang Chao's department. Receiving Yang Chao's power to control the city is equivalent to cutting off Yang Chao's military salary, and then verifying his troops, and then paying according to the number of soldiers, which is equivalent to returning to the previous era when Wenchen controlled military generals. Find someone to lead the troops who Yang Chao collected in Xinjiangkou, these soldiers are indeed Zuo Liangyu, Liu Liangzuo, Gao Jie and other soldiers, forced by Yang Chao to do coolies, naturally hate Yang Chao to the bone, if you get such an army, I am afraid that Yang Chao will be regarded as a thorn in the side in the future.

"Your Majesty, no!"

When Wang Duo heard this, he immediately panicked in his heart, thinking that these three strategies would go up, and it would be strange if he didn't force Yang Chao to rebel, if Yang Chao rebelled on the front line and directly brought the Manchu Qing to fight, I was afraid that the imperial court would be subverted.

The little emperor was extremely excited to hear it, he heard more people tell him behind his back, Yang Chao and the like, and also felt a deep crisis, at this time, when he heard that he could control Yang Chao and let the court master take charge of military power, he immediately felt that it was a rare good strategy, and he thought in his heart that if it was implemented in turn, it was really possible to reverse the current situation of military generals.

But at this time, Wang Duo's opposition was tantamount to pouring ice on the emperor's head, which made the emperor extremely displeased.

Therefore, Li ignored Wang Duo, and asked Ma Shiying instead: "What does Ma Fu think?" ”

Ma Shiying figured out the little emperor's mind in a blink of an eye.

But he also knew that all the executions were tantamount to forcing Yang Chao to rebel, but he could not disobey the emperor's will.

So he respectfully said: "Your Majesty Mingjian." The minister is the own soldier, and he knows that Wang Pu under Yang Chao's tent has repeatedly made military exploits, and he has already been promoted to the general army when he is placed in another town. Yang Chao's tent under the fierce generals like clouds, not more than Wang Pu, is really a virtual pillar, Weichen thinks, promote Wang Pu as the Jiangpu general soldiers, transfer his headquarters soldiers and horses to defend Gyeonggi, but also to the important ministers to reward the court, showing the court's favor to the heroes. ”

The little emperor was very satisfied with what he heard, and promoted Wang Pu to let them fight with each other, to control Yang Chao, and transferred Wang Pu to Jiangpu in Jiangbei, away from Nanjing, which also made people feel at ease. (To be continued.) )