Yang Sichang, the cabinet minister and secretary of the Ministry of War, and Gao Qiqian, the eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor Bingbi, arrived at Wuchang Mansion.

Sun Chuanting, the governor of the five provinces, Fang Kongzhi, the governor of Huguang, Wu Fu, the governor of Henan, and Zuo Liangyu, the general soldier of Huguang, all went to the city gate to greet them, and the momentum was not ordinary.

Yang Sichang didn't care about all this, but Gao Qiqian seemed to value this very much, with a smile on his face.

The civil and military ministers of the Ming Dynasty are generally more exclusive to eunuchs, and this time is no exception, Sun Chuanting, Fang Kongzhi and Wu Fu and others are almost all around Yang Sichang, but only Zuo Liangyu has been walking by Gao Qiqian's side from beginning to end, carefully talking with a smiling face.

Wenchen originally looked down on the military attaché, Zuo Liangyu's performance, what he got was the contempt of Sun Chuanting and others, you must know that Yang Sichang is the cabinet minister and the secretary of the military department, it can be said that he has direct control over the soldiers and horses under the great tomorrow, not to mention that Zuo Liangyu is a general soldier, even if he is the governor of the five provincial governors' mansions, he has to accompany Yang Sichang with a smiling face when he sees him.

Yang Sichang asked to go directly to the governor's yamen, it has been several days since the fall of Xiangyang Fucheng, and the real situation must be clarified, so that the next decision can be made, Sun Chuanting, Fang Kongzhi, Wu Fu and Zuo Liangyu and others are all here, if they want to figure out the situation, it should not be too difficult, and Sun Chuanting and others must have made all preparations when they learned that the imperial court sent people to investigate.

Huguang Governor Yamen, wings.

Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian sat at the top, and the rest of the people sat down on the left and right of the bottom according to their ranks.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Duke Gao and this official were entrusted by the emperor to make a special trip to understand the situation of the fall of Xiangyang Fucheng, so that the emperor and the court could make the next decision. It's up to you to exterminate the rogues. ”

Yang Sichang started simply, turned his head and looked at the high dive beside him.

Gao Qiqian smiled and nodded, agreeing.

The first to stand up and report was Sun Chuanting, as the governor of the five provinces, his duty was to exterminate the Liukou, and such a major situation occurred. Naturally, he should have explained the situation first.

Sun Chuanting spread out a map on the ground.

The map shows in detail the distribution of the Liukou under the command of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.

Seeing this map, Yang Sichang nodded slightly, expressing his approval, many situations are not easy to explain clearly with your mouth, and you can explain it clearly by looking at the map.

"Lord Yang, Gonggong Gao, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong led the Liukou, and they started to act last year. Li Zicheng is entrenched in the area of Yunyang and Xiangyang, Zhang Xianzhong is entrenched in the area of Kuizhou in Sichuan, in the middle of the month, they act at the same time, Li Zicheng went in the direction of Nanyang Mansion in Henan, Zhang Xianzhong left Sichuan, and came to the Yunyang and Xiangyang areas of Huguang until the end of the month. Li Zicheng has arrived in Nanyang, and Zhang Xianzhong has also entered the territory of Xiangyang. ”

"The army led by the lower officer. At this time, he was stationed in the area of Runing Mansion City, and after detecting the news, Xia Guan led a large army to resist the Liukou under Li Zicheng in the direction of Nanyang Mansion, and at the same time wrote a letter to Lord Fang, asking for a strict defense of Xiangyang Mansion City. ”

"Lord Fang also attaches great importance to the defense of Xiangyang Mansion City, after consulting with General Zuo. Send 20,000 men to Xiangyang for defense. ”

"It should be said that all the relevant defenses are in place, there are no problems, and the routes of several large armies are also clearly marked on the map."

"As for the fact that Xiangyang Mansion City fell in just three days, there are some special circumstances. The most critical thing is that the commander of the Xiangyang Navy Division betrayed the imperial court and took refuge in the rogue Zhang Xianzhong, which led to the fall of Xiangyang Mansion City under unguarded circumstances. ”

"The army under the command of Xia Guan is now in the Kaifeng area, Zhang Xianzhong occupies the city of Xiangyang Mansion, Li Zicheng is stationed in the Xinye area, if the two roads of the Liukou are united, their strength is afraid to be very strong, it is difficult to deal with it for the time being, Xia Guan wrote a note to the imperial court, and reported in detail the deployment of the army, and today he specially reported to Lord Yang and Gao Gonggong."

"In the next move, Xia Guan believes that with the strength of Huguang and Henan, it is no longer enough to deal with the Liukou, and it is necessary to dispatch troops from other places to help exterminate the Liukou. The number of Liukou has reached more than 200,000, with only tens of thousands of troops, there is no possibility of victory, the army of Huguang and Henan Weisu, need to guard the key cities, it is impossible to all of them to exterminate Liukou, so this official implores Lord Yang and Gao Gonggong to take into account the actual situation, and transfer reinforcements from other places. ”……

Sun Chuanting's speech was concise and clear, and basically explained the situation clearly.

Next, Fang Kongzhi briefly supplemented and took out the confession of the commander of the Xiangyang Water Division.

When Yang Sichang looked at the confession, his face was serious, Zuo Liangyu, who was sitting at the back, his face was also pale, he didn't think of using such a confession to fool Yang Sichang, Yang He, the father of Yang Sichang, was once the governor of the three sides, and he had been fighting with the Liukou for many years, and Yang Sichang was also familiar with the matter of exterminating the Liukou.

After reading it, Yang Sichang handed the confession to Gao Qiqian without making any comments.

The first understanding of the situation was quickly over.

It was late at night, and it was very quiet around the official post.

A man in black came to the official post quietly, the postman was already waiting at the door, after whispering a few words, the postman nodded, and then three black-clothed people appeared at the door of the official post, and the postman took the three people in.

Outside the official post, there were several black-clothed people scattered around, staring at the surrounding situation.

The sergeant guarding at the gate did not speak, nor did he ask, probably what they knew, but the sergeant guarding the official post asked in a low voice, but with the explanation of the postman, it was all right.

Gao Qiqian had not yet rested, and when a soft knock appeared on the door, an intriguing smile appeared on his face.

Entering the house was Zuo Liangyu, the chief soldier of Huguang.

Zuo Liangyu held a black package in his hand with a respectful smile on his face.

"Disturb Grandpa Gao late at night, and I will apologize to you at the end."

"General Soldier Zuo doesn't need to be polite, he came to visit late at night, if there is anything, just say it."

"Don't dare, Grandpa Gao worked hard all the way, arrived at Wuchang Mansion, non-stop investigation, the last general was deeply impressed, I saw Grandpa Gao during the day, and the last general felt very cordial, thinking that he must come to visit."

Zuo Liangyu said as he placed the black package on the table and opened it.

Three sandalwood boxes appeared, the carving of the wooden boxes was very fine, you don't need to look at what is inside, just three boxes, it is worth a lot.

Gao Qiqian had a smile on his face, but his tone was quite stern.

"What do you mean by Chief Soldier Zuo, take these things away quickly."

"The last general really admires Gao Gonggong, these are some of the last general's intentions, not a respect, please accept Gao Gonggong."

Without waiting for Gao Qiqian to speak again, Zuo Liangyu clasped his fists and saluted.

"The last general didn't dare to disturb Grandpa Gao's rest, so he took his leave."

Gao Qiqian waved his hand, but did not hold back.

Walking out of the official post, Zuo Liangyu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and breathed a long sigh of relief.

He spoke to the staff around him as he walked.

"You've done a great job this time, and if you can get through it, I'll thank you a lot."

Gao Qiqian opened the sandalwood box, three night pearls of different sizes appeared, and a soft white light instantly appeared in the room, Gao Qiqian, who was used to seeing valuables, could see at a glance that these were three superb night pearls, without a single flaw, the light was very soft, and it looked very comfortable.

Such three night pearls are worth at least about 500,000 taels of silver, and they are useless, Zuo Liangyu must have something to ask for if he is so generous.

Gao Qiqian was not in a hurry at all, after reading the three night pearls, covered with sunspots, and picked up the package again.

Sure enough, there was a letter inside the package.

Gao Qiqian slowly opened the letter.

A quarter of an hour later, Gao Qiqian stood up and paced back and forth around the room.

Seeing the confession of the commander of the Xiangyang Navy Division today, Gao Qiqian has already discovered the problem, the Navy Division is only responsible for defending the periphery, that is, guarding the Han River, how can it be easy to enter the city, even if the Navy Division cannot resist, then the sergeant who is responsible for guarding the city will also find that the situation is wrong, let the Sergeant of the Navy Division enter the city, it must be tightly defended, how can it be easy for the Navy Division to command the envoy.

Gao Qiqian has such a view, and he believes that Yang Sichang must also be able to see the problem.

There's something greasy in this matter.

But none of this is important, Gao Qiqian thinks that how to exterminate the Liukou and recover Xiangyang Mansion is the most important task, and Zuo Liangyu has always been in Wuchang Mansion, there is no such thing as colluding with Liukou, at most it is to cover up some things about the fall of Xiangyang Mansion City, this is not surprising, at this point, everyone wants to protect themselves, look at today's performance, Sun Chuanting and Fang Kongzhi are not much better.

After a simple judgment, Gao Qiqian thought that this favor could be helped, and it was within his purview, as for Yang Sichang and others to question, he also had a way to deal with it.

Soon, Gao Qiqian took out a pen and paper and began to write a secret letter to the emperor.

Sun Chuanting, Fang Kongzhi and others will not be idle, why Xiangyang Mansion City was lost, in their opinion, it is still foggy, although there are scholars and merchants from Xiangyang Mansion City, but these people don't know how the Mansion City was lost, and they don't know how the fight is, they are all hiding at home, and they will not go out to see the excitement.

In other words, only the sergeants who participated in the fight really understood the situation, but unfortunately these sergeants were all sergeants under Zuo Liangyu, and Sun Chuanting also wanted to find the sergeants of the Xiangyang Mansion guarding the yamen, but he has not been able to do so.

Sun Chuanting and Fang Kongzhi have analyzed that the confession of the commander of the Xiangyang Navy Division has been carefully scrutinized in some inappropriate places, and there are even more unreasonable places, but the two of them can't doubt it casually.

The news that someone had entered the official post was known to the two of them almost at the same time.

The two of them knew very well that the fall of Xiangyang Mansion City must be complicated, but it will definitely not be resolved. (To be continued......)