Chapter 396 Ask the Queen Mother
Hong Chengchou moved the Governor's headquarters from Cangzhou to Wuqiao a month ago. If Dezhou had not been demolished into ruins by the Huai Army, Hong Chengchou would have settled in Dezhou, a big city in Shandong, second only to Jinan.
Just after dinner that day, a man came from the capital, but it was Zerun, the master of Gushan, the Huang Banner of the Han army.
Hong Chengchou attached great importance to Zu Zerun's arrival, because Zu's father was Zu Dashou, the general of the Ming Dynasty, and Zu Zerun's arrival was Hong Chengchou personally wrote a letter to the Regent.
As the Grand Secretary of the Southern Punishment Governor-General, Hong Chengchou could only manage the areas of Cangzhou, Hejian and Bazhou in the north. The Linqing area in Shandong was led by Shandong Governor Fang Dayou, and the Henan Governor Luo Xiujin.
To a certain extent, since he went south to Cangzhou, Hong Chengchou was more in office as a baggage, money and grain official, because he had to ensure the supply of food and grass for the Qing army going south, and the corresponding requisition and reunification matters must be carried out until the army takes over Jinan.
At present, there are too many forces in Shandong waiting and watching.
However, after King Su Haoge led his troops south, he did not achieve great results. Not only did he fail to win the Shandong Provincial Capital Jinan, but he even began to suffer from acne in the army.
After Hong Chengchou learned about this, he immediately wrote a letter asking Prince Su to withdraw his troops and never delay. However, Prince Su was undecided due to his own reasons, which delayed the withdrawal time.
After Haoge finally made up his mind to retreat, the official roads in Dezhou were destroyed by the Huai bandits, and the food roads were sometimes interrupted.
After receiving the report from the front, Hong Chengchou was worried that the Haoge army that retreated north might be surrounded by Huai thieves in the area south of Dezhou, so he invited a good general from the capital.
This good general is Zu Zerun.
Hong Chengchou hoped that Zu Zerun could command thousands of green camp soldiers he had pieced together in the Beizhi area to pick up the Haoge army and retreat to Dezhou, at least to ensure that the counties under Dezhou were under the jurisdiction of the Haoge army so that the Haoge army would not have any food shortage.
The regent of the capital also required Haoge to retreat to Texas, which coincided with Hong Chengchou. However, the regent's consideration was to focus on the overall situation. The two armies of the western expedition had been sent out, and there were really no troops in Shandong that could be dispatched, so Dorgon sought stability.
The Regent was also very efficient. Hong Chengchou wrote a letter to ask for generals six days ago. Six days later, Zu Zerun led his men to Wuqiao. After arriving, he came to see Hong Chengchou without even resting.
"The last general has met the Governor!"
Although Zu Zerun was the Gushan Ezhen of the Han army's Zhenghuang Banner, which was equivalent to the banner owner, and he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty much earlier than Hong Chengchou, he held the etiquette of the officials in front of Hong Chengchou.
This is also the consensus view of most generals of the Eight Banners of the Han army on Hong Chengchou. Although Ning Wanwo, Fan Wencheng and others were highly valued by the Regent, in the eyes of most Han soldiers, Hong Chengchou, a former Ming general who commanded the Songshan Battle, was the first Han official.
"Good nephew, please get up!"
Hong Chengchou laughed and helped Zu Zerun up. He walked into the hall very kindly. He sat down at the main seat and signaled Zu Zerun to be next to him.
The servant stepped forward and served tea.
There is also Zhang Cunren, the Ministry of War, who is not unfamiliar with Zu Zerun because of his generals of Zu Dashou. At that time, Zhang Cunren, Liu Tianlu and others were the gold that was brought to Zu Dashou together.
"Is your father in good health?" Hong Chengchou asked.
Zu Zerun hurriedly said, "I am grateful to you, my father is in peace."
After a few more words, Zu Zerun said, "My father asked me to bring a letter to the Lord."
"Oh? Where is the letter?"
When he heard that Zu Dashou had a letter, Hong Chengchou couldn't help but lean forward.
Zu Zerun took out the letter from his arms and handed it to Hong Chengchou. Hong Chengchou took it and couldn't wait to tear open the fire seal and read it word by word.
After a while, Hong Chengchou closed the letter and placed it on the desk, picked up the tea and took a sip, then smiled bitterly, and said to Zu Zerun to Zhang Cunren and others: "Some people in the capital said that I went south to recruit me and wanted to move me away, but they were afraid they would not be able to clean up the mess at the moment."
"Is it the Regent's meaning?"
Zhang Cunren was shocked. He didn't hear any news about such a big thing.
"It's not the regent, it's just that some former Ming officials were jealous of me."
Hong Chengchou snorted slightly, and he really didn't take those former Ming surrendered officials seriously. However, his current situation was indeed not optimistic. He wanted to go south to recruit pilgrims to seek something, but not only did he not succeed in recruiting the Huai thieves, but even the army of King Su was in danger of losing to Lu.
At present, there are only a dozen prefectures and counties in Shandong that are still controlled by the Qing Dynasty. Shandong Governor Fang Dayou has been in a hurry several times, saying that Gao Jie, the general of the Huai thief, led his troops to move in Linqing. Not only did Linqing's food not be sent to the Su Wang army, but also allowed thousands of Linqing's green camp soldiers to be trapped in various cities.
What Fang Dayou is most worried about now is that Gao Jie leads his troops to attack Linqingzhou City. In that case, he, the governor of Shandong, will probably repeat the retreat of Shandong Governor Wang Aoyong.
Hong Chengchou had no troops sent to Fang Dayou, so he could only shrink his green camp and ensure Linqingzhou City.
Henan was also in a hurry. General Huaiqing, General Jin Yuhe, died in battle, General Wei Hui, Zu Kefa, was surrounded, and Governor Luo Xiujin was so anxious that he was in a row. Fortunately, Prince Yu Duoduo had led a large army to set off to Henan to fight against the bandits.
This made Hong Chengchou feel a little calmer. As long as Henan can suppress the counterattack, King Yu can draw some troops to reinforce Shandong. I dare not say that he can suppress the Huai bandits, but there should be no problem to ensure that Dezhou is on the front line.
"The nephew came just right. Lu area has been raining heavily recently, and the roads have been damaged. It is difficult for King Su to retreat north. I want you to lead the troops of the Green Camp to go to the reception."
Hong Chengchou was talking, but there was an urgent news coming from outside.
The person who reported the news was a Qianmao of the Green Camp. He rushed in with a panic expression and said it was hard to say that all the Manchu soldiers were called to kill them, and all the bodies were sent!
"What!"
Hong Chengchou was shocked, and Zhang Cunren and Zu Zerun stood up together.
Everyone rushed to the entrance of the town. When they arrived at the ground, they saw hundreds of carriages parked there, and hundreds of civilians squatted on the side of the road and did not dare to speak.
The green camp soldiers were all looking down and whispered in panic.
Seeing the Governor arrive, the Green Camp soldiers suddenly became silent.
The atmosphere on the scene was extremely depressed.
Looking at the carriage that was beyond your reach, Hong Chengchou took a breath of air conditioning, forced himself to calm down, slowly walked to the carriage in the front, and whispered to Zu Zerun on the side: "Release it."
Zu Zerun hurriedly stepped forward and pulled the hay on the car aside, and a body in Qing military uniform below was immediately exposed.
All headless.
The top corpse made Hong Chengchou extremely familiar with it.
"King Su!"
Hong Chengchou shook his body and took three steps back.
Zu Zerun saw a letter on King Su's body and hurriedly picked it up. There was only one line of words on it: "Huaiyang Lu Wenzong went north soon, how dare you ask if the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty can still be pregnant?"
Chapter completed!