In Tongling, Nanzhili, Shi Kefa, the governor's head of the cabinet, was stationed in Xun. This place is still two hundred miles away from Anqing, where the rebels of Zuo Menggeng were occupied.

After Zuo Liangyu's death, Zuo Meng Gengzi inherited his father's business and appointed himself as the descendant of Liu. He ordered people to detain Jiangxi Governor Yuan Jixian on a ship. He ignored the continued guidance of troops to lead the Qing army to follow him. He successively occupied Pengze, Dongliu, Jiande, and Anqing, and the troops once approached Taiping Prefecture.

Knowing that Zuo Menggeng could not have conquered the 200,000 tiger and wolf soldiers of the left army, Ma Shiying, was worried that it would be difficult to control the situation and cause chaos in the southeast. So he worked with General Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo and General Fang Guoan of Chikou and others to organize the blockade and suppress the left army. After a series of fierce battles, he blocked the left army in the Anqing area and protected the Taiping Prefecture, the gateway to the downstream southern capital.

After that, Huang Degong led his troops to Chizhou downstream of Anqing, while Liu Liangzuo's army set up defenses on the other side of the Yangtze River, while Fang Guoan's Ministry of Security stationed in Fushan area not far from Liu Liangzuo's army.

In terms of force alone, Fengyang's total soldiers and horses were less than 30,000, while Zuo Menggeng had nearly 200,000 soldiers, and even ten generals under his command, each of whom was brave and good at fighting. If he had fought with Fengyang's soldiers with all his strength, even if Huang Degong's troops was brave, he would probably not be able to be a strike with the left troops.

However, Zuo Menggeng was unable to obey all the ten generals under his command, such as Jin Shenghuan, Ma Jinzhong, Li Guoying, Xu Yong, Zhang Yong, and Lu Guangzu nominally expressed their obedience to Zuo Menggeng after Zuo Liangyu's death, but each had its own thoughts.

Ma Jinzhong and Li Guoying were heartbroken and led their troops back to Wuchang. The former was determined to recover lost territory, resist the city and resist the Qing Dynasty, and to serve as the ministers.

Li Guoying thought that if things were not good, Wuchang could surrender to the Qing court. After all, whether he had territory or surrender without territory was related to whether he could be valued by the Qing court.

Xu Yong, Zhang Yong and others wanted to continue to attack Nanjing City in the east, and then enjoy the wealth in the southeast and no longer have to run away.

However, Jin Shengheng, who was originally a guest general, wanted to lead his army away from Zuo Menggeng to attack Jiangxi, in an attempt to make Jiangxi his place to raise troops.

Lu Guangzu and others can do whatever they want, as long as they don’t let them be cannon fodder in front of them.

In short, the Ten Generals cannot lose a bowl of meat, but others will chew it first.

As a result, the left side, with only 200,000 troops, had many internal contradictions and it was difficult to work together, which made it possible to sweep Nanzhili quickly and the good situation where the troops were facing the city of Nanjing were cooked into a pot rice.

Zuo Menggeng also knew that the generals were uncoordinated and might have disaster consequences. However, his prestige was not as good as his father Zuo Liangyu. Even if he forced the order, the generals would not listen to him. He had to discuss what to do with his counselor Huang Peng every day. After discussing, he could not even discuss the three strategies of the upper, middle and lower, so he had to take one step at a time.

As early as when Zuo Liangyu invaded Shunjiang, Emperor Hongguang from the southern capital also summoned the ministers to discuss countermeasures.

Yao Sixiao, the Minister of Justice, and Qiao Kepin, the Censor of the Ministry of Justice, said: "Zuo Liangyu is slow, and the north is urgent. He is begging not to withdraw the troops in Jiangbei, defend Huaixi, control Zhaoying and longevity."

The general meaning is that Zuo Liangyu has nothing to worry about insulting inside. However, the Huaiyang bandits in Jiangbei are more dangerous than Zuo Liangyu, so the soldiers in Huaixi cannot be adjusted lightly to defend against the left, so it is better to monitor and guard against the Huaiyang bandits.

Shi Kefa, the chief minister who was not "driven" out of Nanjing at that time, also held this argument. In the eyes of the Donglin leader, Zuo Liangyu's internal offenses were internal conflicts, which could allow people to reconcile and meet some of Zuo Liangyu's requirements. The thieves in Jiangbei and Huai were peasants and bandits, and they were to subvert the country, so they must resolutely suppress them.

Although the military strength of Nandu and the ability of his Shige troops could not eliminate the trouble that was close to Jiangbei, Shi Kefa still insisted that he should prevent it.

Therefore, the countermeasures given by the court headed by Shi Kefa at the beginning were to "defend the north and pacify the left."

Emperor Hongguang knew that the throne was not right and was entirely conspired by Jiangbei, so he definitely could not agree with Shi Kefa's opinion, and the monarch and his subjects were in a stalemate.

Later, Shi Kefa made a secret plot and was impeached. Sun Wujin seized the opportunity to incite a group of people to constantly attack Shi Kefa, which eventually led to Shi Kefa crossing the river to supervise his troops. He was also afraid that Shi Kefa would not die, so he pieced together five thousand city foxes and rats in Nanjing. He said that the elite soldiers were handed over to him across the river.

Although Ma Shiying always had doubts about the legitimacy of the Hongguang regime in the southern capital, and even had Prince Chongzhen who fled from the north. However, if Prince Lu did not abdicate one day, the Prince Chongzhen in his hand would not have the law for a day.

Therefore, on the surface, Ma Shiying was still obeying the Hongguang regime of Nandu. At the beginning, he was really happy that Nandu wanted to strode Zuo Liangyu, because once he was strode, the left side would be able to go deeper and gain more territory in Nanzhili, which would pose a greater threat to Nandu. At that time, Fengyang would cooperate again, and "Left Ma entered Beijing" would be a foregone conclusion.

But when the news of Zuo Liangyu's death came, Ma Shiying panicked, instantly changed her attitude, and turned to resist Zuo resolutely.

True, as Shi Kefa said, he should be polite to the left, and he should be indulged in. Not to mention whether the tigers and wolves under Zuo Menggeng will enter Nanjing City, he said that Fengyang Huaixi must have no advantage, and he will be the first to be affected, because he, the governor of Fengyang, cannot give all his territory to Zuo Menggeng.

Without territory and military power, Ma Shiying offended so many people in the Donglin Party, can his wealth and life be protected?

He was furious and wrote a letter to Shi Kefa, who was the governor of Jiangjiang. In the letter, he scolded Shi Kefa and said, "You Donglin is still using the excuse of guarding against Jiangbei and wanting to instigate the left rebels? When the Huaiyang army arrived, you can still negotiate the money to cut the river and govern. If the left rebels arrive, how can the imperial court govern it? How can the country be defeated? How do you know it is not the beginning of the overthrow of the country!"

After writing the letter scolding Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying quickly dispatched troops to Anqing to attack the left.

Lu Jiude, the eunuch of the Fengyang Army Supervisor, has done several big businesses with Huaiyang recently, and has received several letters from his former colleague Gao Qifeng. The so-called money can make the devil push the mill. After repeated weighing the pros and cons, Eunuch Lu strongly supports Ma Shiying to defend himself.

If the left tribe enters Huaixi, his Eunuch Lu may have completely lost power.

Eunuchs are no more useful than civil officials and military generals. If they say they are useless, they are useless.

When Shi Kefa received the letter from Ma Shiying, he had already led the so-called Jingying to Taiping Prefecture. However, when the Jingying left the city, there were 5,000 soldiers, and at this time there were only 3,500 people left. The rest ran back to Nanjing halfway. The remaining 3,500 soldiers were extremely unreasonable. Many people carried the burdens to sell the goods brought from Nanjing along the way, saying that they were both serving the country and making money.

The only generals under his command are the governor and the governor Liu Zhaoji, but his subordinates only have four hundred soldiers who are recruiting themselves.

In addition, Shi Kefa has another army available, which is He Gang, who was sent to Zhejiang to recruit soldiers from Yiwu and built into the "Zhongguan Camp". Unfortunately, He Gang recruited soldiers in Zhejiang for more than a year and only recruited more than a thousand soldiers.

The people in Yiwu and other places, the main source of the Qi family's military, were already very resistant to the military service. They even said that their ancestors served the Ming Dynasty, but were killed by the official army themselves. Why do you want them to serve the court again today?

The soldiers were a few, and most of them were not worth using. Fengyang Ma Shiying did not listen to the control, and Shi Kefa was really frowning.

When I opened Ma Shiying's letter, I was so angry that I couldn't speak for a long time. Two days later, good news came, saying that the Fengyang soldiers had defeated Zuo Bing in Anqing and successfully blocked them.

This matter is a great thing in principle. Even if Shi Kefa doesn't look down on Ma Shiying, he should send someone to congratulate him in the name of the commander and ask the court for his soldiers. However, Shi Ge's troops made an old problem at this time, or were very stubborn.

He actually wrote a letter to Hongguang and said that the threat of the country was not the left division. Since the left division had been blocked and could not go east, he still had to pull the troops in Huaixi back to prevent the Huaiyang bandits from breaking in while the emptiness of Huaixi was in the west. In that case, the land in Jiangbei would be owned by the Huai thieves.

When Ma Shiying heard this, he was anxious and quickly wrote a letter to ask Nandu that if the Fengyang soldiers and horses were transferred back, who would block the left army. It also said that although the generals of Huaixi bravely defeated Zuo Ni, Zuo Ni was still strong and strong, so they must not be careless.

Hongguang believed most in his great-grandson Wu Jin. This general who called the second master in and outside the palace was forcing Hongguang to be the uncle of himself, and he also said that he wanted to be the uncle of Wu'an.

Hongguang was forced to have no choice, so he prepared to give Sun Wujin a merit of protecting his lord in two days.

Before Feng Bo, he had to ask Mr. Sun Er to deal with Huaixi according to the usual rules.

After hearing the emperor read Ma Shiying and Shi Kefa's letters, Sun Wujin said with a roar, "Your Majesty is confused, right? My Jiangbei soldiers come, Your Majesty will not lose the wealth and honor of the princes and the family will be happy. Even if the ancestral temple and the filial tomb can be preserved, then the Zuo Gui comes, will Your Majesty die for his country?"

When Hongguang heard that it was reasonable, he issued an edict to the Shikao law: "The left rebellion has not been settled for one day, and the cabinet department must prepare for one day, so it should not be distracted from the sidelines."

After receiving the edict, Shi Kefa was disappointed and bowed eight times south of the Yangtze River outside Tongling City and returned with tears in his heart, but he was deeply saddened by the emperor's lack of knowing who the country's enemy was.

There is a scholar Yan Ermei from Pei County, Xuzhou. This person advised Shi Kefa to either make peace with Ma Shiying to deal with Zuo's rebellion. After pacifying Huguang, he would return to Beijing to suppress dissidents in the court. Or he would not care about the order and go directly to Nandu, saying that Shi Gong's prestige was his followers. Moreover, most of the court officials were Donglin Party members, and even if the emperor was unhappy, he could not ask Shi Kefa to go out again.

In other words, he advised Shi Kefa to return to Beijing and hold the "central" firmly in his hands, so that no matter what he does, he would not be pointed at by others.

Shi Kefa refused to make a good relationship with Ma Shiying, and refused to return to Nandu without any intention, so he told his staff that he wanted to find a best solution.

What's the best strategy?

Anyway, after a few days, there is no good decision.

At most, every day, I sigh in front of my staff.

Many aides who had followed Shi Kefa for a long time were discouraged when they saw Shi Gong like this. They all said that they were afraid of being brave and could not accomplish great things, so they dispersed.

In August, it was reported that Li Zicheng was killed and the Qing army occupied Jingxiang.

The military and civilians in Tongling celebrated each other, and Shi Kefa was even more ecstatic. He immediately called his younger brother Shi Kecheng and asked him to immediately write and reply to the regent of the Qing Dynasty Dorgon.

Xin said: "The army of Kanto can restore my China and bury my late emperor. I will deeply resent my grievances and save my people. There was a regent in front of him, and Cheng Jin brought gold coins to express his feelings. I only thought of a mere interview, but I am not enough to answer the greatness of the people.

But the original idea is to do it, and you always want to meet up with a military command to suppress the enemy in order to become the name of a country that will make you compassionate with your neighbors. And it will become a bad thing, which will be a country that will hate."

He actually decided to negotiate peace with the Qing army behind the court, and then asked the Qing army to help him first to quell the left rebels, and then to sweep away the Huai bandits. In order to repay the military forces of Guandong, the two countries could rule the river.

This creed letter was sent for only a few days, but Shi Kefa suddenly sent someone to recover it quickly because the Governor of Huguang He Tengjiao sent the news that the Guandong soldiers were about to die!

Author's note: Seventy percent of the inferences and descriptions of Shi Gongge's department are based on official history and 30 percent based on their nature.
Chapter completed!