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Yangzhou, as the most important city in Southern China, suffered from war in the late Ming Dynasty. The Qing army massacred the city for ten days, and later the Ming army came to massacre again. Although it was governed by several governors of Liangjiang, Yangzhou now has no grand occasions that were ten years ago.

There are less than 100,000 people in Yangzhou City now, and a large area of ​​land is empty, but this has poured out a garrison for Zhu Hongsan's Northern Expedition Army.

Zhu Hongsan set out from Nanjing on March 15th and arrived in Yangzhou on the 18th. Governor Yu Yinggui of Liangjiang led Anhui, Jiangsu Governor and officials from both provinces and governments to welcome the emperor outside the city.

When Yu Yinggui saw the emperor's dragon boat docked, he stepped forward and bowed and said loudly: "I am the right censor of the Censorate, the governor of Jiangsu, Anhui and other places, governors military affairs, and also manages food and pay, caring for rivers, supervising Henan affairs, and leading his colleagues to pay long live our emperor!" Yu Yinggui was talking about his full title of official position, and the Governor of Liangjiang is just a common name among the people. Chinese people have always been very proud of their face and like to put all glorious things on the surface, and the same is true for Yu Yinggui. In this kind of formal occasion, he naturally has to say the full title of official position.

Yu Yinggui's hometown in Jiangxi, served as the governor of Huguang and suppressed the peasant army. He served as the governor of Shaanxi in the 16th year of Chongzhen. However, Yu Yinggui was not a member of the Donglin Party, but belonged to the eunuch Party, so his career was not smooth in his life. He originally thought that he was waiting to die in his hometown in Jiangxi, but he did not expect to meet Jin Shenghuan anyway. As a relatively famous scholar-official in Jiangxi, Yu Yinggui was invited by Jiang Yueguang to be the governor of Jiangxi.

It was also the participation of Zhu Hongsan Group that allowed Yu Yinggui to usher in the second spring of his career. Lao Yu was 67 years old this year, and he was three years away from his legal retirement age. However, Lao Yu has been full of energy in recent years and devoted himself to the anti-Qing cause with great enthusiasm. Zhu Hongsan, a minister who is willing to work hard, of course, should be used more, so three years ago Yu Yinggui replaced Ma Jiyuan as the governor of Liangjiang and became the fatest chief official in the border area.

Zhu Hongsan walked down from the springboard, stepped forward and helped Yu Yinggui up, and said with a smile: "Aiqing Yu and all your friends, please get up!"

After Yu Yinggui stood up, he recommended the governors of the three provinces and senior officials at the deputy provincial level to Zhu Hongsan. As for other officials at the prefecture level, they were all soy sauce products and did not even have the qualifications to meet the emperor. They could only stand from a distance and watch from the end.

Zhu Hongsan only recognized Yu Yinggui. It was not that the governors of the three provinces had never seen each other, but that Dianci had only met once at that time, and had long forgotten it in the past few years.

The Governor of Liangjiang originally had the jurisdiction of Jiangxi, but Yu Yinggui was from Jiangxi, so the court assigned Jiangxi to the Governor of Huguang, and Henan was assigned to Liangjiang. Henan was still in the hands of the Qing Dynasty, and only the governor and the governor were appointed. They wanted to follow the Central Army into Henan to accept the lost territory.

Zhu Hongsan couldn't help but feel a little funny when he saw Zhang Jiayu standing behind the Henan Governor. This guy messed with Ma Mingyuan and was demoted to Henan by Mingsheng and secretly as the governor. I wonder if he regretted it?

"Zhang Yuanzi, how about you? You can do a new job happily?"

When Zhang Jiayu heard the emperor teasing him, he said with a bitter look on his face: "I will definitely be able to recover the lost land under the leadership of Lord Wu! Please rest assured by Your Majesty!"

Mr. Wu is the governor of Henan and Ma Mingyuan's classmate. He is regarded as the core figure in the alumni association in the tenth year of Chongzhen. This time, Ma Mingyuan came out and arranged several of his classmates to serve as recruiting officials in northern provinces.

Wu Peichang used to be a doctor in the Ministry of Finance. Knowing that Zhang Jiayu was close to the emperor in the past, he quickly bowed and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Zhang has worked very late every day for more than half a year, and it is very hard!"

Zhu Hongsan heard Wu Peichang say good things to Zhang Jiayu and knew that Zhang Jiayu had learned his lesson. No matter how high your level is, you will be ruined if you don’t get along well with your superiors. After Zhang Jiayu suffered a loss in Huguang, he probably figured it out.

After meeting with the local officials, Yu Yinggui bowed and said, "Your Majesty, please go to the city! I have already emptyed a salt merchant's house in the city and used it as His Majesty's temporary palace!"

"No rush, did I ask the person you were looking for last month?"

Zhu Hongsan is full of administrative talents, but there is a lack of senior bureaucrats. Now that the Northern Expedition has started, the north will lack a large number of senior officials with administrative capabilities. At least the governor is missing three, namely the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the governor of Northern Zhili, and the governor of Liaodong. These are all senior officials, and they must be officials with qualifications and abilities.

The candidate for the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu has been selected, which is Qu Shisi, who just surrendered. He has already gone to Wuchang with the Central Army. Liaodong is still far away and can be put aside now. The most difficult one is the candidate for the governor of Northern Zhili.

Zhu Hongsan picked up and there was no good candidate. In the end, Jiang Yueguang recommended someone, who was the former Minister of Revenue of the Chongzhen Dynasty, who was idle at home, Hou Xun, who was in charge of the seven towns of Baoding, and Zhu Hongsan looked at his brother-in-law Hou Fangyu's father.

Hou Xun was a local official and a minister in the court. The most important thing was that he led the army to fight wars with the rebel army, and he also served as the governor of Baoding for a long time, and was very familiar with the affairs of Northern Zhili. At the same time, Hou Xun was close to Ma Mingyuan's dead ghost master Ma Guoan. If Zhu Hongsan hadn't caused trouble, the two families would have become relatives of children. So after Ma Mingyuan heard Jiang Yueguang recommending Hou Xu, he also agreed to this candidate.

After Hou Xun was occupied by Li Zicheng in Beijing, he did not surrender to the bandits, but resigned from office and returned home. He did not respond to the Qing Dynasty's Xuanzhe. He built the "Houfu Nanyuan" ten miles south of Shangqiu, and hid here to farm and read books. This was not how clean Hou Xun was, but the old man couldn't understand the current affairs. When he was in Beijing, he felt that Li Zicheng could not accomplish anything, so he resigned from office and returned home. His actions made him avoid the case in Nanjing.

Next, the Qing Dynasty came, and Hou Xun was not optimistic about the Qing Dynasty, because after all, the Qing Dynasty had too few populations, and only more than 200,000 people could rule hundreds of millions of Han people? In fact, what Hou Xun thought was also what most intellectuals at that time thought. They thought that the Qing Dynasty was just like the Jin Dynasty, occupying the north for less than a hundred years at most, but they did not expect that the Southern Ming Dynasty would make a fool of itself, and with a bunch of pig teammates, they actually lost the great country.

After Hou Xun returned home, history developed according to the original trajectory. The Hongguang court was destroyed after just one year. Later, Emperor Longwu and Lu Jianguo formed a group. Hou Xun saw this and there was no hope for the Ming Dynasty. Just when Hou Xun wanted his son Hou Fangyu to participate in the Henan provincial examination organized by the Qing Dynasty, Zhu Hongsan, the King of Chu in Guangdong, emerged from a new force. Taking advantage of Jin Shenghuan and Li Chengdong's chances of recovering the lost territory quickly and then returned to Nanjing.

It was only then that Hou Xun began to seriously understand Zhu Hongsan, an inconspicuous royal family. After Hou Xun collected Zhu Hongsan's black materials, he found that the King of Chu was very extraordinary and had the characteristics of reviving the emperor, which was that he was rude and shameless. Hou Xun may have an average administrative ability, but he had a good idea of ​​looking at people. Back then, he discovered Zuo Liangyu in the army and promoted Zuo Liangyu to a general.

When he was in Beijing, it was Hou Xun who discovered that Li Zicheng was not a big deal, so he went back to his hometown to farm. Hou Xun felt that he would not read it wrong, so he invested all his capital in Zhu Hongsan, which was to ask his son Hou Fangyu to go to Nanjing to take the imperial examination, and at the same time wrote a letter to his old friend Jiang Yueguang in Zhu Hongsan's camp to create friendship.

Hou Fangyu went to Nanjing and soon won the provincial examination and the imperial examination, and was transferred to Zhu Hongsan to take up an important position. Although Hou Fangyu was very dissatisfied with Zhu Hongsan in his letter to Hou Xun, Hou Xun saw a decisive emperor in the letter. Hou Fangyu's letter also strengthened Hou Xun's judgment, that is, Zhu Hongsan was the lord of Zhongxing that Hou Xun was looking for.

Facts also proved that Hou Xun was right. On the first day of the second month of the sixth year of Shenwu, just after the Spring Festival, Hou Fu Nanyuan welcomed fifty tall and large Jinyiwei.

Of course, the Jinyiwei in the Qing Dynasty ruled area cannot act openly, but Henan is now similar to the screening. Except for Luoyang, Kaifeng and other major cities, there are all kinds of forces in the hands of the Qing Dynasty. As for Guide Mansion, which is close to Nanzhili, there are even spies and bandits everywhere, so it is not difficult for these Jinyiwei to come to Shangqiu.

The news brought by the Jinyiwei made Hou Xun feel energetic. Emperor Shenwu was about to swear an oath to the northern expedition on March 15th, and asked Hou Xun to arrive in Yangzhou three months ago.

Hou Xun was overjoyed when he heard this news. His years of layout finally bear fruit. If Hou Xun probably was good, he would definitely be reinstated this time. Is the position he is probably the governor and minister at the most.

Hou Xun rested at home for a few days, prepared and followed the Jinyiwei to Yangzhou.

When Yu Yinggui heard the emperor ask about Hou Xun, he quickly replied: "Your Majesty, Hou Xun is now a commoner and has not followed the officials. He is waiting in the city!"

Zhu Hongsan nodded, stopped talking, and walked into Yangzhou City under the escort of the Jinyiwei.

When I came to a big mansion in Nancheng, this place was originally owned by a large salt merchant in Yangzhou. However, the salt merchant had already fled to other places, and now he did not know his life or death, so this place became Zhu Hongsan's temporary palace.

Zhu Hongsan was exhausted and immediately received Hou Xun after a short rest.

After Hou Xun entered the house, he saw a tall middle-aged man sitting in the middle, wearing a chest-length beard, a black sambha, and a big red five-catcher golden dragon robe. Hou Xun knew that this was the Emperor Shenwu, so he quickly stepped forward and knelt down to salute, and shouted long live!

"Mr. Hou asked, let's get up. The new dynasty stipulates that those who have fame and fortune do not need to kneel down!"

Hou Xun got up and bowed and replied, "I remember it!"

Zhu Hongsan looked at the handsome old man in front of him, which was somewhat similar to his son Hou Fangyu. He wore an indigo blue linen gown and a Confucian scholar's headscarf on his head.
Chapter completed!