Chapter 260: Nanjing's Decision

As early as seven days ago, Xu Hongji reported Chen Cao's capture of Suzhou to the Beijing Division, and the newly arrived Nanjing town guard eunuch Cao Huachun rushed to come.

As Chongzhen's confidant, Cao Huachun is different from other Nanjing eunuchs, this eunuch is upright and not greedy for money, and he came to Nanjing this time more because Chongzhen attaches importance to Chen Cao, a thief.

Along with Cao Huachun's arrival in Nanjing, there was also the holy decree of Emperor Chongzhen, reinstating Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei, as the garrison of Nanzhili, and the governor Nanzhili should be an army to eliminate Chen Cao's rebels in Susong and Song.

However, today's meeting is particularly bad, above the lobby of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, there are civil and military officials at all levels in the Nanzhili Prefecture headed by Xu Hongji, and there is only one thing to discuss, the army of the traitor Chen Cao is forcing Wuxi, the city of Wuxi is broken, the county order surrenders, and Jingjiang Island, the important land at the mouth of Nanjing's sea, falls into the hands of Chen Cao.

Nanjing is in danger

"Go to Ride Zhongdu to guard the military report of the high eunuch, the army of King Fu has conquered Huaiyuan City, and the troops are under the city of Fengyang, before our family came, His Majesty has ordered the mobilization of guards from Luzhou, Xuzhou, Huai'an, Anqing and other places to rush to Fengyang, as long as the high eunuch can hold on, when the reinforcements from all over the country arrive, the rebellion of King Fu can collapse..."

After Cao Huachun finished speaking, Xu Hongji set the tone: "At present, the people left behind in Fengyang have come to ask for help, but at the moment, the army of the traitor Chen Cao is in Changzhou Mansion. ”

This sentence is not only Xu Hongji, but also the thoughts of the various nobles in the hall in front of him, not only the civil officials have the responsibility to defend the land, if the nobles who were left in Nanjing lose Nanjing City, their titles will come to an end, and most of them are renewed titles, which can be described as hard-won.

Although Xu Hongji does not have enough insight into military affairs, there are many generals in the palace, all of whom are leading the troops to retreat, and they are naturally much more powerful than him in looking at military operations.

The guards of each province requisitioned by the emperor belonged to the garrison of Nanzhili, while the troops of Nanjing City had five military battalions, Shenji battalion, three thousand battalions, and several important components of the Beijing battalion, with a total of 100,000 soldiers;

The Central Capital Garrison Division is also counted as the queue of the Nanzhili garrison, and after removing the guards of the Nanzhili provinces, there can be a total of 400,000 troops.

This is a huge number, even if Chen Cao's five armies together do not have 400,000 troops, but they all belong to the Weisuo army, and their combat effectiveness is to be discussed.

And now the troops remaining in Nanjing, only 100,000 people can be mobilized, and the other guards have now all received orders from the imperial court and rushed to Fengyang Mansion to support.

"Ning'an Counselor General Zuo Liangyu asked for the payment of arrears before the troops could be mobilized."

I don't know who said something at this time, which made Cao Huachun suddenly displeased: "Zuo Liangyu is not a small bold, and he dares to bargain on the ground." ”

Xu Hongji looked at Qi Boyu: "Lord Qi, what did you say about Zuo Liangyu?" ”

Qi Boyu said coldly: "The lower official also knew about this matter, according to the lower official, it is better to remove him from his post." ”

Zuo Liangyu is now a general in the four prefectures of Ningguofu, Chizhou Mansion, Anqing Mansion, and Huizhou Mansion, and his power is not small, but there are not many soldiers, and there are only 8,000 people together.

"It's not good to persecute him when he is about to fight, after all, Ningguofu and Suzhou are separated by a Taihu Lake, and Guangdezhou in the middle is still under the jurisdiction of Ningguofu.

As soon as he finished speaking, a lieutenant hurriedly ran over and whispered a few words in the ear of a general as he walked.

"Grandpa, news just came that Zuo Liangyu led an army of 30,000 into Changzhou Mansion."

Xu Hongji didn't pick it: "This guy still has some courage..."

"Where did he get so many troops?"

Cao Huachun immediately asked in a screaming voice, the soldiers under the jurisdiction of the four prefectures of Ning'an Counselor, that is, counting Zuo Liangyu's private soldiers, did not exceed 10,000 at most, and 30,000 people appeared in front of him, which is not a small number.

"Is this the thing?"

Qi Boyu didn't say it thoroughly, although he is now the secretary of the military department in Nanjing, and he was ordered to assist Xu Hongji, but he was not a leader, so he simply looked at Xu Hongji.

"Details?"

"The last general doesn't know the specific situation, I heard that Zuo Liangyu has requisitioned a lot of troops from the Weisuo Army along the way, and temporarily put together 30,000 people, and has arrived in Yixing."

"Grandpa, this is an opportunity..."

A general spoke: "Zuo Liangyu dared to enter Changzhou Mansion, because he planned to block the army of the traitor Chen Cao in Changzhou, and the grandfather only needed to order to send one or two hundred thousand people to Zhenjiang Mansion, and Chen Cao would not dare to act rashly..."

Xu Chengqingguan to the chief soldier of the Beijing camp is Xu Hongji's henchman: "Zuo Liangyu's abacus is playing well..."

Xu Hongji saw his henchman speak, so he asked, "What did Mr. Xu say?" ”

"That guy didn't want to offend King Fu, nor did he want to anger His Majesty, so he went to Changzhou Mansion with a large army," Xu Chengqing said and looked at Xu Hongji: "Grandpa, please also ask Grandpa to order the mobilization of 50,000 horses and horses to settle in Zhenjiang to prevent Zuo Liangyu from suddenly turning back..."

Xu Chengqing's words were like a shock, which frightened the people present for a while, and many people felt that Xu Chengqing was a little worried, and he was a little mean in his treatment of Zuo Liangyu.

"Zuo Liangyu was originally an official under Bi Zisu's account, but at the beginning of the year, Bi Zisu committed suicide because of an incident in Shandong, and he was dismissed from his post for the crime, and after returning to Beijing, he took Hou Sui's doorway, not only was he not demoted, but he became a general in Ning'an."

Cao Huachun knew about this, so he read it out: "This guy has some ability, maybe he will have to fight with Chen's rebels, why did General Xu speak out like this?" ”

Xu Chengqing's brows wrinkled together: "It's not that the lower officials are alarmist, Zuo Liangyu and his reputation in Ning'an and other places are not very good, this time he suddenly violated His Majesty's edict and did not go to Fengyang to rescue, but turned around and went to Changzhou Mansion, which seems to be loyal, but in fact harbors evil intentions;

And that guy is arrogant, relying on the merits of the border army in eastern Liaodong to repeatedly suppress the local garrisons in Sifu, and win the hearts of the people, he can recruit 30,000 people, not to mention that he can also recruit 100,000 people, the rich land of Ningguofu, there must be his henchmen left, and now Chen rebels have a large army, and the fall of Suzhou may let him see the opportunity not necessarily. ”

Saying that, Xu Chengqing arched his hand towards Xu Hongji: "Grandpa Wanwang thinks twice, Zuo Liangyu has to guard against it." ”

Qi Boyu spoke: "Zuo Liangyu's style is hateful, but it is really not wise to suspect the general without sending troops. ”

Xu Hongji is in a dilemma at the moment, how to choose?

...

Chen Cao was also stunned for a long time when he got Zuo Liangyu's 30,000 horses to enter Changzhou, and after thinking about it, he couldn't understand it, so he found Huang Chunyao to ask.

"Why don't you send someone to contact him first to see where his wind is going?"

Zuo Liangyu's reputation in the late Ming Dynasty was not good, and the Southern Ming Dynasty was extremely disgusted with him, and even the Manchu Qing Dynasty was unwilling to cooperate with him in the end, so you can imagine how bad Zuo Liangyu's personal character was.

In view of the records of later history, Chen Cao was a little big when he heard this, and he really didn't want to contact him, according to Huang Chunyao, he let himself accept this person.

Obviously, Huang Chunyao also saw Chen Cao's obviously changed expression, so he changed his mind again: "If Grandpa doesn't like Zuo Liangyu, he can also come up with a trick to drive the tiger and devour the wolf." ”

Chen Cao raised his eyebrows, and immediately laughed: "You deadly scholar is really hateful..."

Huang Chunyao laughed, and Chen Cao said again: "It is feasible to drive the tiger and devour the wolf, but I heard the report from the secret agent in Nanjing, Xu Hongji sent the general soldier Xu Chengqing to lead 30,000 troops into Zhenjiang, it seems that not only me, but even Xu Hongji is not worried about Zuo Liangyu's sudden arrival." ”

"That's not a good guy..."

As soon as Zhao Xin entered the lobby, he heard Zuo Liangyu's name, so he interjected directly: "The land of the four mansions of Ning'an is quite scornful of Zuo Liangyu, that guy is insatiable, and secretly expanded a lot of soldiers, this time I heard that he should lead the troops north to Fengyang, but he actually came to Changzhou Mansion." ”

After listening to Zhao Xin's words, Chen Cao looked at Huang Chunyao with interest and said: "You send someone to take the initiative to contact Zuo Liangyu to see what he means. ”

"Students, let's go ahead."

After Huang Chunyao was gone, Chen Cao looked at the map and sighed: "In the end, I still have to be your enemy..."

..

Zuo Liangyu has the ability, but he is just a little narrow-minded, and this time he suddenly turned around and came to Changzhou Mansion as a last resort.

In the tent of the commander of the Chinese army, Zuo Liangyu's cronies guerrilla Ma Wenyu said in a low voice: "General, the people sent to meet the staff under the Liangguo public tent in the middle of the road, it just so happened that they came to look for us. ”

Zuo Liangyu turned his head: "Oh, isn't it Chen Cao who intends to win us over?" ”

Ma Wenyu shook his head: "It's hard to say, although they have taken Suzhou now, but the official army of the imperial court in Nanzhili is at least 400,000 people, not counting the soldiers and horses of Zhejiang and Jiangxi. ”

600,000 people is not small, even Chen Cao's all-firearms troops, and filling them all with human lives can crush him all.

Zuo Liangyu's face was serious: "So, we are now also waiting for the price to sell?" ”

"Why don't you wait until they come and talk?"

Zuo Liangyu nodded very approvingly: "It's okay, pass the order, put my personal soldiers in formation, and greet them." ”

..

"Xu Chengqing, the commander of the Beijing camp, led 30,000 troops to enter Wujin County, the capital of Changzhou, and more than 3,000 troops from the original Changzhou garrison entered Jiangyin, forming a horn trend;"

Huang Chunyao pointed to the map: "I heard that Jiangyin Zhixian recruited young people locally, and hyped up that our army was a traitor, and recruited nearly 10,000 soldiers on the basis of the original 3,000 soldiers. ”

"The naval artillery of the naval division can be hit into Jiangyin City, this force does not matter for the time being, what happened to Zuo Liangyu?"

Faced with Chen Cao's inquiry, Huang Chunyao's face changed rarely: "Grandpa, the student is incompetent, and he actually let Zuo Liangyu play a trick." ”