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Chapter 171: There is an emperor in Shanghai! (below)

In the face of Chen Zilong and Xia Yunyi's angry accusations, Zhang Pu behaved very calmly, almost putting on a posture of "spitting on his face", and waited until these two Songjiang celebrities were tired of scolding, Zhang Pu sighed deeply, and then bowed his head and said very sincerely:

“…… Ladies and gentlemen, since the Tartars slaughtered Jiangnan, Zhang also knew that he had led the wolf into the house and made a big mistake. However, there are more than 50 people in my Zhang family in Taicang, and now all the people are killed and under the Tartar knife, and even the ancestral house of the ancestral hall has been burned! Such a blood feud, if you can't revenge, Zhang is really a son of man in vain, even if his soul returns to the underworld, he has no shame to face the ancestors of the Zhang family! ”

He said this with a sad expression, and Chen Zilong and Xia Yunyi couldn't help but soften their expressions after learning that Zhang Pu's family was also slaughtered by the Qing army. Next, Zhang Pu suddenly changed his words, "...... Although the captives are rampant for a while, fortunately, I still have the Holy Son of Heaven in the Ming Dynasty, and I will be able to encircle the gentry, set up a court again, expel the Tartars, and return a bright and prosperous country to the south of the Yangtze River! Please also ask His Majesty the Emperor to come out and meet the ministers of Songjiang! ”

Immediately afterwards, a young man wearing a bright yellow dragon robe walked in with a blank expression, which stunned all the officials and gentry in the room for a while.

The young man brought by Zhang Pu and Shen Tingyang was naturally Zhu Yihai, the Yonghe Emperor who was supported by the Donglin Party in Nanjing before.

When Emperor Chongzhen's soldiers and horses invaded the Taiping Mansion and approached Nanjing, Zhu Yihai, who found out the news, immediately followed the old wisdom of Emperor Jianwen in the past, took a cronie of the old eunuch to shave his head and change into a monk's robe, quietly left the palace and absconded from the people, and ran all the way to the east. Unexpectedly, after just a few days of escape, the unlucky Emperor Yonghe was recognized by Zhang Pu who happened to pass by when he was passing by Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang and was about to place an order to spend the night!

So, Zhang Pu, who thought that he was a strange commodity to live in, immediately took a few strong and healthy servants to put Zhu Yihai under house arrest, and prepared to wait until after the recovery of Nanjing, and then put this puppet back on the table. Who would have thought that the situation would be unpredictable, although Emperor Chongzhen's crusade army was indeed defeated, the Qing reinforcements that could be invited from the north refused to go anymore, and Huang Taiji also set up King Shaofu as Emperor Hongguang as the puppet of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty to rule Jiangnan.

As a result, Zhu Yihai, the Yonghe Emperor controlled by Zhang Pu, suddenly became a hot potato. Seeing that the situation in Zhenjiang was getting worse and worse, thousands of Qing troops continued to cross the river to the south, burning, killing, and plundering everywhere, doing all kinds of evil, and hearing the unprecedented bad news of the Qing court's decision to degrade the people into slavery in the south of the Yangtze River, Zhang Pu, who finally understood what he had done this time, suddenly couldn't help but regret it.

It's just that the big mistake has already been made, and it's too late to regret it. Zhang Pu had no choice but to quickly flee from Zhenjiang with Zhu Yihai, trying to return to his hometown in Taicang, mobilize clan forces, and contact colleagues and friends to plan countermeasures. As a result, the group arrived in Jiangyin and was besieged in the county seat by the Qing soldiers. After that, it experienced an offensive and defensive battle in Jiangyin that lasted for more than ten days, until the Qing troops retreated, and the fleet of Shen Tingyang's sailors arrived, and Zhang Pu and others were able to get out of the cage.

On the way back east by Shen Tingyang's boat, Zhang Pu went to his own mansion in Taicang, but only saw a ruined wall burned by the flames, and a pile of corpses hanging on the trees outside the door...... So, Zhang Pu, who was extremely remorseful, collected the corpses of his family with his own hands, knelt in front of the ruins of the house and wept bitterly, so he took Emperor Yonghe to Shanghai to join Xu Guangqi, Sun Yuanhua and others, wanting to create a situation again.

On the other side, facing the uninvited Zhang Pu and Emperor Yonghe, Xu Guangqi and others were surprised at first, and then saw the great significance.

You must know that the remnants of the Ming Dynasty in Jiangnan today, those who have never been above the top and think that they are the biggest landlords and gentry in the world, were finally completely awakened by the bloody butcher's knife of the Qing army at this time, and they were in full swing everywhere to recruit troops and prepare for war, planning to resist the Qing Dynasty. But the problem is that because there is not a single convincing signboard, all the anti-Qing forces are scattered and cannot form a cohesive core.

In response to such a situation, the bigwigs have begun to try to form alliances in series, but it has become a big problem who to recommend as the main one.

If there is a Ming Emperor as a signboard, then the imperial court can be rebuilt and the resistance of the Jiangnan gentry can be "regularized".

Although the signboard of Yonghe Emperor Zhu Yihai is not authentic enough and the gold content is relatively limited, it is better than nothing!

So, after discussing with each other, the people of the Shanghai County Maintenance Association collectively came up to greet Zhu Yihai and bowed three times and nine times.

However, in the face of the respectful worship of the courtiers, Zhu Yihai, the "Emperor of Yonghe", only had a faint sigh in his heart:

“…… Alas, how long will these days of marionette last?! ”

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On February 25 of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Yonghe Emperor Zhu Yihai appeared in Shanghai, announced the re-establishment of the Ming Dynasty, and appointed Xu Guangqi, a retired scholar who was highly regarded by the public, as the cabinet assistant, Sun Yuanhua, the former governor of Denglai, as the secretary of the military department, and Huang Daozhou, who fled to Hainan with Xu Guangqi from Beijing, as the deputy assistant of the cabinet and the secretary of the ministry. and "exceptionally promoted" (in fact, it is just an admission of reality) Shaoxing celebrity Zhang Dai served as the secretary of the household department, Tongcheng celebrity Fang Yizhi served as the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Songjiang celebrity Xia Yunyi Chen Zilong served as the left and right waiters of the military department, Xu Fuyuan served as the secretary of the criminal department, and Shen Tingyang served as the waiter of the Ministry of Rites and the admiral of the sailor.

As for Zhang Pu, the head of the Fushe who came to Shanghai with Emperor Yonghe, although because he led the Qing soldiers and horses to cross the river to "rescue" Nanjing, the gentlemen who were killed miserably in the south of the Yangtze River gritted their teeth with hatred, and even considered to be innocent. But after all, this person has a great reputation, a lot of contacts, and now he has the great merit of "welcoming back the emperor", plus Zhang Pu's whole family was also slaughtered by the Qing army, it can be said that he suffered retribution, so everyone finally saw that it was the time to employ people, and reluctantly forgave him for his guilt, pinched his nose and gave him an official hat of the Ministry of Rites.

Jiangnan Shilin at the end of the Ming Dynasty certainly had a high-profile and brazen side of empty talk all day long, but it also had another set of more pragmatic unspoken rules. That is, whether you are a good person or a bad person, as long as you are a "capable person", then you can enjoy the corresponding status in the local area.

Through the butcher's knife of the Qing army, the mouth cannon experts or paranoids in the Donglin Party have been almost killed, and the remaining guys, regardless of their character, are basically able to do things and are willing to do things. Therefore, this re-established Yonghe Imperial Court is much stronger than the original in terms of efficiency.

With the re-establishment of the Yonghe Imperial Court in Shanghai, the gentry and eunuchs in the counties south of the Yangtze River, who had not yet been occupied or slaughtered by the Qing army, suddenly had a backbone and responded one after another. In just half a month, the troops under the command of this grass-terraced court, which is like a grass platform, have already claimed to be 100,000.

However, Xu Guangqi, Sun Yuanhua and others are well aware that their current situation is not as optimistic as it seems. First of all, it is not difficult to see from the process of how this army came into existence from scratch that this is definitely a typical rabble of people with poor ordnance and poor quality, and both soldiers and officers have basically no combat experience; Secondly, the small imperial court in Shanghai had no real binding force on the vast majority of the armies under its name, because they were actually private soldiers recruited by the gentry from all over the country, and they were only loosely gathered together under the call of the banner of anti-Qing resistance.

In general, most of these people defected to the small court in Shanghai just to seek peace, and a few to seek glory and wealth. Therefore, although they gather quickly, if something goes wrong, it is easy to disperse or even rebel. It is not an easy task to control such a chaotic rabble, and it brings no less trouble than its opponents.

It takes a lot of time and effort to transform them into a truly qualified army, and it may not be successful.

Therefore, as soon as the small court of Emperor Yonghe in Shanghai was established, he had to indiscriminately reward the lords and seal a large number of empty official titles to appease people's hearts.

In addition, although under the banner of anti-Qing volunteers, these rabble have never been a benevolent and righteous army. In the absence of a stable rear to feed them, they simply cannot survive without raiding their homes. Moreover, the local gentry who spent a lot of money to set up regiments to train the villagers must also hope to earn back the capital they invested in armaments by plundering the people, so the legendary brutal Qing army has not yet been killed, and the Ming army hastily pulled up from all walks of life has already caused a miasma in all parts of the country, bringing profound disasters to the people of Jiangnan.

What's worse is that in addition to the above troubles, Xu Guangqi also realized that he had to face an even more terrible problem: famine!

With the continuous development of the work of the Eight Banners of the Great Qing Dynasty in the provinces of Jiangnan, as well as the inhumane and bloody massacre of Suzhou and other places, the people of the prefectures and counties in the western part of the Yangtze River have become frightened birds, and they have dragged their children and daughters to help the old and the young to the only Songjiang Mansion that is still intact, which for a time actually caused the total population of Songjiang Mansion to swell sharply to more than three million!

This is really a rather terrible number, although Songjiang Mansion and the magic capital of Shanghai, with a population of 10 million in later generations, are located in the same location, but Songjiang Mansion in the late Ming Dynasty could not solve the problem of clothing, food, housing and transportation for so many people. Even though the Yangtze River Delta is a fertile land of fish and rice, the birthplace of capitalism in the late Ming Dynasty, Songjiang Prefecture, famous for its cotton textile industry, was already highly urbanized and needed to import large quantities of grain from other places to sustain itself. Now because of the interruption of food import channels due to the war, it is already empty, but now because of this wave of refugees, so many mouths for food have further poured in, and it is even worse!

According to the most pessimistic predictions, because the grain stocks in Songjiang Mansion will be completely exhausted within a month, it is likely that the Qing army has not yet fought from the west, and a full-scale popular uprising and military infighting caused by famine can destroy this weak and weak little court!

Although the civil and military officials and gentry in the entire Songjiang Prefecture are very aware of the critical situation, everyone must contribute forcefully and have the money to contribute, otherwise if the Qing soldiers enter Songjiang Mansion or the hungry people rebel, then each of them will have no good fruit to eat, so it is extremely rare to achieve unity. However, it is difficult for the good women to cook without rice, and even if they are willing to open the warehouse, the amount of grain is still far from enough.

After all, the current territory of the Yonghe Imperial Court is much smaller than last year. No matter how much money you have, you don't have anywhere to buy something to eat.

In this case, Zhang Pu, who had always been quite blinded, stood up again and threw out his "joint capture" strategy:

“…… At present, the Tartars and rogues are causing trouble in the Yangtze River, and Huguang grain and rice are no longer available. And the Australian thieves now occupy Guangdong, and they have newly acquired the land of several coastal provinces in Zhejiang, and they also trade with various countries in the South Seas, so they must have a lot of rice in their hands. If we can make peace with them, we will definitely be able to buy a lot of grain and rice, and if we can form an alliance with them, borrow their strong ships and cannons, and join forces to fight against the Qing army, we will be able to solve the urgent needs of our dynasty......"

As soon as this strategy came out, it immediately attracted ridicule, "...... Zhang Tianru! Have you forgotten the last time you borrowed the soldiers and horses of the Jiangbei Tartars, and as a result, you caused a sea of corpses and blood in the south of the Yangtze River? Why do you want to collude with Australian thieves now? Don't forget that these two outsiders are both raccoon dogs, and they also covet our land! ”

“…… Ahem, at least this Australian thief only needs land, not life, but the Manchu Tartar wants both land and life! ”

Xu Guangqi, the cabinet assistant who had just taken office for a few days, coughed and staggered to his feet, and said this to everyone.

“…… Ladies and gentlemen, now is not the time to pay attention to the dignity of the imperial court, this method should indeed be tried, and now in this situation, the Ming Dynasty has only a small land left, and the army of the Tatars is close at hand! Even if the Australian thief harbors evil intentions against us, how bad can I be? Of course, the so-called capable people work hard, and this time the envoy is a thief, let Zhang Tianru, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, personally lead the team to travel......"

So, in the spring of this year, or at the beginning of March, Zhang Pu, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, embarked on a journey to Hangzhou.

On the other side, our protagonist Wang Qiu, and the immigration commissioners of the various union republics of the China League, sat on the pavilion of Phoenix Mountain Villa in Hangzhou, looking down on the mighty refugee team in the distance with binoculars, and couldn't help but sigh repeatedly, "...... This is really a fish drive for the abyss! ”