Just after the Lantern Festival, the new battle situation in Laizhou came, and the rebels were still sparing no effort to attack Laizhou City, and even after the imperial court recruited Qu Yiyang to go to Dengzhou to discuss with Kong Youde, Kong Youde still instructed Li Jiucheng, who attacked Laizhou, to continue to attack the city, and did not care about the appeasement.

Xie Lian, the governor of Denglai, and Zhu Wancheng, the prefect of Laizhou City, had already been moved by Qu Yiyang and were willing to come forward to preside over the pacification affairs, but the rebels' betrayal of the siege made them no longer dare to believe that this pacification could be done, so they strengthened the city defense, and military and political officials patrolled the city day and night in batches. Li Jiucheng supervised the fierce attack for several days, but still could not succeed, and although the city had run out of ammunition and food, the army and people still insisted on resisting and refused to surrender, and the two sides were deadlocked.

After Xu Congzhi was hit by rebel artillery fire and was seriously wounded and died, Xie Lian immediately sent someone to sneak out of the city at night and sent a letter to Beijing, which said that Laizhou had reached the last time, but the imperial court reinforcements were more than 20 miles away and did not save them, and sat back and watched the rebels attack the city. They begged the emperor to stop appeasement, to go all out to encircle and suppress the rebels, and severely punish the commander of the reinforcement army, Gao Qiqian, who was afraid of the enemy.

It reads: "The siege of Lae has been fifty days, and it is in danger. I looked at the reinforcements day and night, but I didn't come, and I knew that it would be a mistake to discuss. The ministers of the state sent a letter to the ministers, copied the edict and the edict of the military department, but knew that the ministers had reported according to the ministers of the country, and they had reached the holy hearing. The husband and the minister Sang Zi were affectionate, and they endured bullying the Holy Ming and fell into the feudal territory. … The death of the minister should be a powerful ghost to kill the thief, and he will never dare to appease the supreme, confuse the country, mistakenly seal the territory, and kill his life. The minister mentioned in the letter is Zhang Guochen, the head of the military department, who is strongly advocating the appeasement.

It can be said that this letter is the most important and urgent military information sent out by Laizhou City after the last letter against the appeasement, but Chongzhen didn't even see such an important letter, not even Wen Tiren, the first assistant of the cabinet.

Song Shu was suppressed by the General Administration Department controlled by the Donglin Party, and the messenger sent to the military department was sent by Liu Yulie, the right attendant, and others at will, and the hall official Xiong Mingyu didn't know that there was an envoy from Laizhou.

The current Jingshi is a voice of appeasement, and under the strong pressure of the Donglin Party, Shoufu Wen Tiren does not dare to mention a single word of war.

On the 22nd, under the impetus of the Donglin Party, Chongzhen had no choice but to send Zhang Guochen, the head of the military department with the highest rank among the Liao civil officials, to Xiaoguantun to discuss the matter of appeasement with Gao Qiqian, Jin Guoqi, Lin Jiantai and others.

Zhang Guochen was eager to take credit, and rushed to Xiaoguantun with only a dozen attachés on a fast horse, and immediately after arriving, he sent Qu Yiyang as a minister of the Qin Mission to negotiate with the rebel Li Jiucheng again. After receiving Kong Youde's secret order to surrender, Li Jiucheng stopped the attack on Laizhou City, saying that they had long been willing to accept the imperial court's appeasement, and they couldn't be appeased because the officials and troops of Laizhou City repeatedly attacked them. Since the emperor personally sent people to come this time, they naturally would not betray their trust again, but the premise must be that the Ming army in Laizhou City could no longer fire on the rebels outside the city.

If you want the Ming army not to fire at the rebels, first of all, the rebels really don't attack Laizhou anymore, and in order to show their sincerity, they must first retreat ten miles. However, the rebels had no intention of retreating, but transferred another 3,000 elite soldiers from Dengzhou. By all indications, the rebels had no intention of accepting appeasement at all.

However, Zhang Guocheng, who was hot-headed and scholarly, actually believed Li Jiucheng, and in the name of Qincha, he ordered the soldiers and civilians in Laizhou City not to attack the rebels outside the city again, let alone open artillery without authorization. At the same time, at the request of Gao Qiqian, he issued an order to justify Gao Qiqian's behavior of supporting troops and not advancing - "Without the consent of the Fuchen, all reinforcements are not allowed to go to war without authorization, so as not to destroy the Fuji." ”

After hearing the news, Shi Dayong was dumbfounded, and immediately burst out laughing, no wonder Chongzhen said when he was dying that all Wenchen could be killed, and this Ming Dynasty's state affairs were buried by these self-righteous fools, and it would be unreasonable not to kill them!

The imperial court controlled by Donglin has to be cared for, the cabinet scholars have to be cared for, the officials of the six ministries have to be cared for, the ministers of the Qin Mission have to be cared for, and the eunuchs of the army have to be cared for, what can Shi Dayong, a small Jinzhou general, do, all he can do is to train his soldiers well.

Guo Yi has returned from the capital, he has gone to see the old governor, but the old man is terminally ill, most of the day is in a coma, even when he wakes up, he can't recognize people, he can't even speak. Guo Yi asked the Qiu family and said that he was afraid that he would not be able to make it until the end of the month. Helpless, Guo Yi could only leave 500 gold to say goodbye.

After coming out of Qiu's house, Guo Yi went to the Dongchang located outside Dong'anmen to ask to see Cao Huachun, the factory father, but the fan of the East Factory told him that the factory father was not in Beijing. Guo Yi asked Father-in-law Cao when he would return to Beijing, and the other party replied that he didn't know.

Guo Yi had no choice but to ask to see Wang Chengen again, but he was not familiar with life in Beijing, where did he know where to find Wang Chengen, and how could he say that he could enter the palace. The old man didn't know anything and couldn't give him some pointers, Guo Yi still couldn't start after being idling in Beijing for three days, so he had no choice but to go to Changping to find the general's sister first.

Guo Yi was a personal soldier of Shi Dayong's brother Shi Dazhi earlier, and he went to Shi Xiaomei's husband's Jiang family with Shi Dazhi, so he knew the way, but when he arrived at Jiang's house, he didn't see the general's sister. He was received by the general's brother-in-law, his aunt Jiang Qing.

Knowing that Guo Yi came to visit his wife on behalf of his uncle Shi Dayong, Jiang Qing's reaction was lukewarm, and asked a few words about where his uncle is now serving the country. Jiang Qing's face was a little strange, saying that his wife was infected with the wind and cold, and she was sick, so it was difficult to go out of the room to meet guests.

Guo Yi was puzzled, since he entered the mansion, he found that the Jiang family looked at him a little strangely, but he didn't think much about it. Since the young lady is infected with the wind and cold, it is difficult to see him, so let's not see him. handed the letter that Shi Dayong handed over to him to his aunt, and handed over the 1,000 taels of silver tickets he cashed out in Beijing to his aunt.

Jiang Qing did not refuse, politely asked Guo Yi to stay in Jiang's mansion for dinner, Guo Yi said that there was still something to do in Beijing, so he didn't stay more, and asked his aunt to ask Miss An on his behalf. Jiang Qing didn't stay long, and personally sent his wife's family out of the house.

After coming out of Jiang's mansion, Guo Yi was anxious about the things assigned by the general, so he did not stay in Changping for long, and the fast horse entered Beijing again. Because he thought that Wang Chengen was the great eunuch of the inner court, as long as he could find the eunuch in the palace, he would definitely be able to find Wang Chengen through him. Guo Yi waited for the eunuchs to go out of the palace every day at the gate outside the palace.

The emperor lived up to his wishes, and really asked him to wait for a eunuch who was set up by the inner court to come out to procure, and after giving the other party fifty taels of silver, the other party readily agreed to go back to the palace for him to pass the word to the prince.

This was half a day, Guo Yi thought that he had been deceived and was so annoyed that he couldn't do it, but in the evening, two little eunuchs came to ask him if he was the person who was a general of Jinzhou Shi. Guo Yi hurriedly said that it was exact, and the two little eunuchs didn't ask much, and took him straight to a mansion at the palace gate.

In that mansion, Guo Yi met Wang Chengen.