When Ma Cheng heard that it was Chen Zilong, he was overjoyed. Since Chen Zilong resigned from office and returned home three years ago, he had cut off his relationship with Ma Cheng. In addition, Ma Cheng wanted to fight the Nanjing defense battle, so he naturally had no time to take care of Chen Zilong. After the Nanjing defense battle was won, Ma Cheng also sent someone to Songjiang Prefecture to find Chen Zilong, but Songjiang Prefecture had just been harmed by the Qing army, and Chen Zilong's family did not know where to go. Ma Cheng thought that the scholar he wanted was killed by the Qing army, and he felt a little sad.

Chen Zilong is the only intellectual who can talk to Ma Cheng in this era. This is different from Wang Xian and Xu Zhenye. These two are just Ma Cheng's tools, but Chen Zilong gives Ma Cheng the feeling of a close friend.

When he learned that his friend Chen Zilong was still alive and was in the Suzhou Prefecture yamen, Ma Cheng's anger disappeared. He stepped forward and kicked the yamen runner gently, and cursed with a smile: "Bastard, you can call the name of your mansion? Why don't you get up and take me in!"

The yamen runner felt relieved when he saw that Ma Cheng didn't look angry and quickly stood up to lead Ma Cheng into the prefect's yamen.

The yamen in the Ming Dynasty were generally similar, with two or three main halls. After passing the yamen, I found that all the officials in the yamen were kneeling on the ground tremblingly. Everyone was not sure about their fate. This Ma Cheng heard that he was a murderous devil, and I wonder if he could retain these officials.

Ma Cheng saw these people kneeling on the ground and said with a smile: "What are you doing? You can't get up and work?"

The people were relieved to get Ma Cheng's scolding, because Ma Cheng also asked them to work, which proved that they were ready to keep.

Ma Cheng followed the yamen runners to the third hall, which was the place where the prefect rested. Ma Cheng asked Gu Yong to stand at the door with his personal soldiers and led his confidant Wang Xian to open the gate and walk into the third hall.

There was no one in the three halls. The weather was very warm in May. The wind blew the sycamore trees in the yard, making Ma Cheng feel very good.

The three halls faced the gate was the prefect's living room. The door was open, and an official wearing a fourth-rank crimson official robe sat in the middle.

When Ma Cheng saw that this person was Chen Zilong, Ma Cheng smiled and said, "Brother Chen, I haven't seen him for many years, so I miss you to die!"

When Chen Zilong saw Ma Cheng coming in, he stood up with a bitter smile, bowed to the ground and said, "Sinner Chen Zilong, pay homage to the Lord Supervisor!"

Seeing Chen Zilong like this, Ma Cheng quickly stepped forward and helped him up, and then smiled and said, "Brother Chen killed me, why are you and my brothers like this?"

After Ma Cheng said that, he pressed Chen Zilong back to the seat and sat down. After both of them sat down, Ma Cheng asked, "Brother Chen, it has been three years since Chongzhen left for three years. I wonder how my brother has been?"

Chen Zilong sighed when he heard Ma Cheng's question, first asked the servant to serve tea, and then began to explain the matters of the past three years in detail.

It turned out that in the 17th year of Chongzhen, Chen Zilong was concerned about the court. After several memorials, he was like a mud cow entering the sea. After no news, Chen Zilong was disheartened by the court and submitted a memorial to resign and return to his hometown to serve as his mother. At that time, Chen Zilong was just a seventh-rank military officer. Who could pay attention to such a small official? So he quickly approved it and Chen Zilong became a commoner.

Chen Zilong's hometown is Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture. In addition to his mother in the hall, he also has a wife, two concubines and several children. His life is very happy.

Calmness. However, the calmness of life cannot cover up Chen Zilong's concerns about the government. At this time, the struggle between the court became more and more intense. In order to eliminate dissidents, Ma Shiying united the arch-enemy Ruan Dacheng of the Donglin Party, and squeezed out the court of Jiang Yueguang, Huang Daozhou and others from the court. Chen Zilong saw that the country was in danger, but the big boss in the court was still fighting for power and profit, and he felt very depressed.

As the saying goes, it rains all the time, and the party struggles within the Hongguang court of the Southern Ming Dynasty were constantly occurring. In order not to be killed by Ma Shiying, the remnants of the Donglin Party in the court could only send people to connect with Zuo Liangyu in Huguang and create a clear ruling ruling, hoping that Zuo Liangyu would come to Nanjing to kill the eunuch Ma Shiying.

Chen Zilong, who heard the news in his hometown of Huating, cursed the Donglin Party in the court to be foolish. How could he invite foreign troops to enter the court at this critical moment? Isn’t this giving the Qing Dynasty the northern part a chance? The fact is similar to what Chen Zilong thought. The Qing Dynasty in the north also sent a large army south. In April, Duoduo’s vanguard had already arrived in Xuzhou.

The four towns in Jiangbei, which were made by Ma Shiying, did not fight a battle and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. After the news of the Qing army occupying Zhenjiang reached Huating, Chen Zilong knew that the situation was over.

If you change to ordinary scholars, you may be discouraged by the Ming Dynasty. Your wife and children at home are warm and you can live the rest of your life. But Chen Zilong is a gentleman with the heart of the world. Can he bear to see thousands of miles of country become a fishy place? So Chen Zilong sold his property and began to recruit soldiers in his hometown, preparing to go to Nanjing to serve the king.

But unexpectedly, Chen Zilong was not ready yet, and the Qing army surrounded Nanjing. The news that came out was that Nanjing fell and Emperor Hongguang Zhu Yousong surrendered. Chen Zilong didn't know that this fake news was released by the Qing Dynasty, but it was true that Zhu Yousong was captured by the Qing army. The Qing army led Zhu Yousong to the city of Suzhou. When the civil and military officials and generals guarding the city saw that the emperor surrendered, what else could he do? So they all opened the city to surrender.

After learning the news, the prefectures and counties around Suzhou also surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Yao Xuzhi, the governor of Songjiang Prefecture, abandoned his post and left, and Zhang Danian, the governor of Huating County, was preparing to surrender. After Chen Zilong learned about it, he joined hands with his friends Xia Yunyi and Xu Fuyuan to raise an army to fight against the Qing Dynasty in Huating. At this time, the Qing Dynasty was stunned and implemented the headshaving order across the country. The various prefectures in Nanzhili who had surrendered for a while rebelled one after another, and the entire Taihu River basin became a battlefield.

Chen Zilong led the thousands of warriors recruited, contacted Wu Song deputy general Wu Zhikui, Lu Zhi and others, and prepared to attack Suzhou. However, the early morning of the Qing Dynasty had already learned the news that the anti-Qing army led by Chen Zilong was defeated under Suzhou City. There was no way Chen Zilong had to take his family and hide in Taihu Lake, secretly accumulating strength, and preparing to fight again.

The Qing army could do well to deal with these guerrillas, but they could not deal with Ma Cheng in Nanjing. In order to concentrate their efforts to fight Ma Cheng, Duoduo stopped his offensive after occupying the main prefectures and counties in Nanzhili. In this way, Chen Zilong's incompetent guerrillas were considered dead.

In this way, the forces of various parties in Nanzhili formed a balance. During this period, the Lu King of Hangzhou and the Lu King of Shaoxing were all over the country. Because Lu King was close to the Taihu Basin, and Lu King was also the successor of the Donglin Party back then, the rebels in various parts of Nanzhili tended to support Lu King ascend the throne.

Chen Zilong is also one of them. He didn't know that Nanjing had not yet fallen. Chen Zilong thought that the Qing Dynasty had occupied Nanjing, so that his natural bloodline was even more

The recent Lu King should take over the position of Emperor Ming, so Chen Zilong took over the appointment of Lu King without much consideration and appointed Chen Zilong as Su Song's military preparatory road.

During this period, Nanzhili was relatively calm. At this time, the old habit of Chinese internal struggles broke out again. King Lu and King Lu fought for the position of governor, and they actually fought a battle. King Lu sent troops to cross the Qiantang River, fought a battle with King Lu's army in Xiaoshan, and even won. King Lu Zhu Yihai had no choice but to run from Shaoxing to Ningbo to temporarily avoid the Lu Wang's army's edge.

When Chen Zilong found out, he submitted a memorial to persuade King Lu to join forces with King Lu. After all, now that the country is destroyed and the family is destroyed, how can he still fight with the same family? However, Chen Zilong is only a fifth-rank soldier and has no say in the government affairs. No one listened to his memorial in the Lu court.

Just when King Lu and King Lu were about to fight again, a huge news came. The 400,000 Qing troops entrenched in Nanzhili actually retreated back to Jiangbei, and the Nanjing, which should have been occupied, was still in the hands of the Ming Dynasty. There was actually an emperor in Nanjing, which was Emperor Shaowu Zhu Lunkui, established by Ma Cheng and his son.

As the strong enemy appeared, Lu Wang and Lu Wang immediately shook hands and made peace, preparing to fight against Zhu Lunkui. At this time, Chen Zilong didn't know that it was his friend who defeated the Qing army. When Chen Zilong saw the Qing army retreating and the defense of Suzhou was empty, he took hundreds of Taihu guerrillas to occupy Suzhou without any blood. With the contribution, he was naturally appointed as the prefect of Suzhou by Lu Wang.

After becoming the prefect of Suzhou, Chen Zilong learned the detailed information about Nanjing. It turned out that Nanjing was not occupied by the Qing army. After Emperor Zhu Yousong escaped, the civil and military officials in the city immediately supported the new emperor Zhu Lunkui and became Zhu Yousong's legal heir.

Chen Zilong regretted it very much after receiving this news. According to legal principles, only Zhu Lunkui was Zhu Yousong's legal heir, but now he is like this, and there is no way Chen Zilong can only accept his fate.

Next was the dispute between King Lu and Shaowu's court. The two sides became more and more irresistible and had no choice but to fight a war. At first, Chen Zilong did not think that King Lu could win, but he did not expect Emperor Shaowu's army to retreat step by step, retreating from the periphery of Suzhou to Zhenjiang, which surprised Chen Zilong.

However, the news from Nanjing later made Chen Zilong know that the legendary military god Ma Cheng was seized from military power after winning the Qing army and was idle at home. Seeing this, Chen Zilong knew that the defeat of Shaowu's army was definitely not impossible to defeat, but Ma Cheng's method of playing.

Chen Zilong also gave Qi Biaojia a rational suggestion, but Qi Biaojia didn't listen to Chen Zilong at all and insisted on taking Nanjing.

The next thing was simple. Zhu Lunkui was forced to release Ma Cheng again and entrusted him with important tasks. Qi Biaojia also lost all his elite troops in Lucheng as Chen Zilong expected, and he was caught by Ma Cheng and sent to Nanjing to seek credit.
Chapter completed!