Saying this without any shame, Chen Kai looked harmless, as if any conspiracy or conspiracy would tarnish his pure and flawless soul.

Seeing that Chen Kai spoke so seriously, everyone obviously had not recovered from the shock immediately, and did not immediately raise any doubts. However, once they thought about Chen Kai, who always likes to cause trouble, it seemed that he did not want to cause trouble.

The guy who was feeling uncomfortable seemed to have not made much movement in the past year. Except for a relatively simple general like Jin Tongwu, everyone else was secretly suspicious. There was always an intuition telling them that during the chaos in Fujian

There must be a presence of Chen Kai!

Thinking about it this way, no one paid too much attention to it. Li Dingguo immediately asked about the details of the Fujian battlefield. Chen Kai just indignantly criticized the corrupt officials in Fujian for exorbitant taxation, which led to the people's deprivation of life. Local civil strife broke out in Fujian. The gentry saw the officialdom of Fujian.

Unable to suppress the attack, they simply led Zheng Chenggong to send troops. As soon as Zheng Chenggong took action, the Fujian Qing army either collapsed or fled, but it didn't take much effort.

"Hey, why haven't the Tatars in Guangdong made the people here miserable?"

Guo Zhiqi and Lianchengbi were very depressed. In fact, the two vassals in Pingnan and Jingnan in Guangdong had imposed excessive levies and extortion, which had forced many people to survive. This was why the two vassals had as many as 20,000 vassal soldiers.

There are also green battalions with strong combat power. As a result, the Ming army and the rebels in this province still have room for survival. As soon as Li Dingguo comes, it will immediately start a wildfire and it is a cause that cannot be ignored.

However, even the officials of the Qing court said that "one province in Guangdong cannot bear two kings", but Guangdong still did not cause as big a chaos as Fujian. From this, we can imagine how bad the officials in Fujian were.

of insatiable greed.

"What is good at the top must be bad at the bottom. It must be those two thieves Liu Qingtai and Tong Guoqi who take the lead, otherwise they would never reach this level."

Looking at each other, Guo Zhiqi and Lian Chengbi both saw their respective thoughts in each other's eyes. After confirming that this was the case, they could only sigh that such a huge advantage did not happen. It was really disappointing.

.

With the two of them like this, Jin Tongwu and the staff also had their own thoughts. Only Li Dingguo sat there calmly, and Chen Kai couldn't tell from his expression what Li Dingguo was thinking. Until Li Dingguo spoke again.

A moment.

"I remember that Guo Xing mentioned in his letter last time that he sent Lord Zhang to the north. How has this happened so far?"

Of course Chen Kai understood what Li Dingguo wanted to ask, and he was well prepared at this moment: "Zhang Houye broke through the Yangtze River defenses twice in the first month and March of this year, harassed the imperial troops stationed along the river, and gave the southern Zhili captives

The division faced a huge threat, and the four left-wing banners in Jiangnan and Jiangning as well as the Han army flags assisting in guarding Jiangnan were completely unable to move..."

Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan entered the Yangtze River three times, which actually indirectly helped Li Dingguo's Xinhui Battle. Speaking of which, if Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan had not entered the Yangtze River Basin on Zheng Chenggong's order, broke through the Qing army's river defense, and Li Dingguo's army invaded Guangdong, the Qing government would have

The rule of Guangdong is at stake. Kakamu will surely lead the four left-wing banners of Jiangnan and Jiangning as well as the Han army banners assisting Jiangnan to go south just like last year. Calculating the time, they will arrive in Guangzhou in May. And at that time, Li Dingguo was still there

Gaozhou was too ill to go on an expedition, so it would be a must-win situation for the Qing army.

However, when southern Zhili was harassed, the Qing army there was bound to be unable to move; the Qing army in the southwest was also assisted by the Eight Banners Army, but Huguang was already under great pressure from Sun Kewang's front army and dared not move; in the end, the Qing government could only

If we can mobilize troops from the capital to go south, this journey will take more than half a year.

Of course, Li Dingguo understood the implication. But for him, the purpose of going north must be to win the third game of Catalpa Ping and to cooperate with Sun Kewang, which was obviously contrary to his plan.

In this regard, everyone will feel a little disappointed. However, Li Dingguo has never given up easily. He is full of confidence and courage in everything. For example, Zheng Chenggong did not arrive here, but Chen Kai did.

, the possibility of cooperation is still there, and we should continue to work harder to bring Guangzhou to Zheng Chenggong and Chen Kai.

"To be honest with Chen Fujun, our army sent troops to Liuzhou in February this year. In March and April, it swept through Gaozhou Prefecture, Lianzhou Prefecture, Leizhou Prefecture and Luoding Prefecture. The army penetrated from the coast and reached Xinhui City in June...

…”

In June, Li Dingguo's general Wu Zisheng arrived near Xinhui City. He had more than a thousand soldiers, all wearing armor, and there were also 200 cavalry and two war elephants. These were the elite of Li Dingguo's headquarters, accompanied by General Huben and Wang.

The main army was mobilized, plus other Ming troops and rebel troops, and they directly surrounded Xinhui County.

Pulling out the nail in Xinhui was Li Dingguo's established strategy. However, from April to August, Li Dingguo fell ill and was unable to go on an expedition, and had been in Gaozhou Prefecture. Starting from June 29, the Ming army besieging the city launched an siege operation

, but was always helpless against the Qing army's defense. This lasted until September. After Li Dingguo recovered from his illness, he led his army north to seize Xinxing County, and defeated Li Yitai's troops stationed in Zhaoqing. He wrote that to Zheng Chenggong

After writing the letter, he rushed to the Xinhui battlefield on his own to preside over the battle.

"In May, Shang Ni Kexi sent the vassal general Yunlong and the right-wing commander Wu thief to enter the city to assist in the defense. The two vassal soldiers cooperated with the Xinhui army to defend the city. Our army has not yet broken through the city, but the enemy

However, the captives also caused a certain amount of damage."

This is the current situation. Li Dingguo motioned to his staff to explain the current situation to Chen Kai. Naturally, he had to explain the previous sentence in the end.

In response, Chen Kai just nodded, and did not expose the fact that Li Dingguo had nothing to do with Xinhui County for the time being. But as the aide mentioned another matter, his worries became even more serious.

"In August, Linghai General Chen Shuai commanded the navy to defeat the Guangdong Navy. He killed the navy's commander-in-chief Gai Yipeng and occupied Jiangmen. The prisoner army did not dare to go south..."

Chen Kai heard this matter mentioned by Chen Qice's subordinates on the way, and he was quite proud of it. Speaking of which, after all, he also killed a general officer and gained points in front of the legendary general Li Dingguo.

, is now appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, responsible for commanding the various naval divisions on the waterways around Xinhui.

However, Xinhui County, before this, the Qing army was able to rely on the navy to realize the connection between this place and Guangzhou. Military supplies and reinforcements can all enter from here. But once the waterway is completely cut off, Xinhui will really

It has become an isolated island in the vast ocean of the Ming army. Whether the Qing army dies or not has nothing to do with Chen Kai. However, Xinhui was the third largest city in Guangdong in the Ming Dynasty after all, and there were a large number of civilians in it, whether it was tens of thousands or tens of thousands.

Tens of thousands of people, he didn't know the exact number, but it was definitely not a small number.

After listening carefully to the aide's introduction to the battle situation, Chen Kai still had some issues to weigh. After a while, after having some things completely figured out, Chen Kai asked Li Dingguo about matters related to the destruction of the city.

"It is not a good thing to keep a large army in the city for a long time. I want to break the city as soon as possible. However, the city is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the enemy's defense is in place. It will take some means to recover this place."

Li Dingguo told the truth, and Chen Kai nodded. At this time, Guo Zhiqi said that if it was difficult to break the city for a while, it would be better to besiege the city and call for reinforcements. As long as the Qing reinforcements were defeated in one battle, the defenders would naturally become frightened.

This is not unreasonable, it can even be said to be a way to win. However, Chen Kai absolutely cannot agree to this suggestion. In his eyes, the faster the Xinhui County town is captured, the better. This is a matter of principle.

"What Governor Guo means is to besiege the city while waiting for reinforcements from the Imperial Army?"

"certainly."

"If the raiders never arrive, then we will wait until the raiders in the city eat up all the people in the city, and then we can take over the empty city?"

The corner of Chen Kai's mouth curled up slightly, with a hint of sarcasm in it. Guo Zhiqi frowned when he heard this, saying bluntly that the Qing army would have no will to fight if their supplies were exhausted, and the people in the city would not suffer too much loss.

"You know a hammer!"

"W-what did you say?!"

Guo Zhiqi stood up when he heard the sound, but Chen Kai, on the other hand, was still sitting there, looking at the Grand Master Superintendent with an idiotic look, and the sarcasm on his lips became even more intense.

"I'll call you ignorant and ill-informed. You can ask His Highness the King of Xining, is cannibalism rare in this world?"

Chen Kai asked sharply, and Guo Zhiqi and others subconsciously turned their heads to look at Li Dingguo. The latter, who seemed a little embarrassed at the moment, just smiled bitterly, nodded, and expressed his affirmation of Chen Kai's opinion.

"Not to mention the chaos in the north, the Liao Dynasty broke out, and the Han people from Liaodong entered the customs, or went south to Dongjiang Town. There were many cases of people changing their sons and eating them on the way; Dongjiang Town has been in Liaodong for several years, and the military needs are not enough all year round.

Many times, when faced with starvation and morality, people often only choose the former; when Yuan Chonghuan took office as the governor of Jiliao, he immediately cut off the food and salary of Dongjiang Town. Until Mao Wenlong was killed by false orders, the coldest months in Liaodong were

How often cannibalism happen here?"

"Governor Guo, you must know that the soldiers in the city, especially Yunlong, are trusted generals brought by Shang Kexi from Liaodong. This is not the first time that the soldiers under his command have eaten people.

Got it!"

This is not alarmist. If you are really hungry to a certain extent, all morals and ethics will be forgotten. Cannibalism was an unseen scene in the chaos in the North in the late Ming Dynasty, and the same was true in Liaodong.

.

The Han people will eat people when they are extremely hungry, and the Manchus will also eat people when they are extremely hungry. Not to mention the former, it is not that the latter has never experienced similar situations. For example, in the later period of Nurhachi's reign, the Han people in Liaodong killed too many people, and during the Little Ice Age

The climate is abnormal, and too many people working in the fields have been killed, causing severe damage to food production. Hou Jin wants to kill poor people and rich people in order to save money and control more food. However,

Even so, it cannot suppress the skyrocketing price of food. Cannibalism is the most common practice.

"Chen Fujun, what you said is indeed reasonable, but you should not be so impulsive."

Guo Zhiqi and Lian Chengbi didn't quite understand what these words meant, but they were definitely insulting. Li Dingguo had heard these words before and knew what they meant, but he would not add fuel to the fire.

He quickly tried to persuade him. In the end, Guo Zhiqi gave him face, but he still threatened to impeach Chen Kai for being rude. Chen Kai, on the other hand, sneered and said, "If you don't understand military affairs, don't interrupt." He simply ignored Guo Zhiqi and the others.

.

"His Royal Highness the King of Xining." Chen Kai stood up, bowed his hands to Li Dingguo, and then said frankly: "To be honest with you, Your Highness presided over the attack on Zhaoqing last year. In the end, the country did not send troops because of the persuasion of the subordinate officials."

As soon as these words came out, Guo Zhiqi and Lian Chengbi, who were still threatening to impeach Chen Kai for being disrespectful, were immediately stunned on the spot. Not only them, but also Jin Tongwu and his staff, and even Li Dingguo. The difference is,

It's just that the former never imagined that Chen Kai would be so stupid, while the latter was even more shocked by Chen Kai's frankness, which was so frank that it was incredible.

Ignoring others, Chen Kai continued what he just said: "At that time, the country was facing a huge threat from the heavy military force pressing down on the border. The Eight Banners garrisoned in Hangzhou had a strong fighting force. In addition, there were many green camps in the north. The King of Southern Fujian was already doing his best.

, naturally unable to divide the troops; and Xiaguan is in charge of the Guangdong battlefield. Although Xiaguan defeated Geng Jimao twice the year before last, which weakened the Lu division to a certain extent, Hao Shangjiu is still entrenched in Chengxiang and other places in northern Chaozhou..."

"Then you still have enough energy to send troops to Qiongzhou Prefecture?"

Having found a flaw in Chen Kai's game, Lian Chengbi immediately shouted. Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Chen Kai immediately sneered and said: "Let's do the math. At that time, I had more than 10,000 soldiers under my command, including many from the government.

The county garrison. Hao Shangjiu has 5,000 soldiers and horses, but I want to defend Chaozhou. So when I sent troops to Qiongzhou, I only brought a thousand soldiers, 3,000 auxiliary soldiers and Fu Minghou's fleet.

.Can these few soldiers and horses be enough to get involved in Zhaoqing?"

When asked in reply, the two were immediately speechless. They quickly realized that the issue with attitude was not the number of troops. However, Chen Kai did not respond, and just asked with a sneer: "I only have so few troops in my hands."

, but they can regain the Qiongzhou Mansion. The two Shangguan are in charge of so many royal divisions, so I don’t know how many people can be organized to capture that mansion with the superiority of the navy. Is there any need to say more about it? "

From the very beginning of the dispute, what Chen Kai wanted to prove was the issue of ability. It was obvious at this moment, but Chen Kai had not finished speaking yet. He continued to speak to Li Dingguo: "The internal and external causes of our troops are like this. According to the intelligence and information of the subordinates,

It is predicted that His Highness led the army alone at that time, and His Highness King Qin's temperament seemed to be a flaw that must be repaid. Even if he did not follow and attack at that time, I was afraid that His Highness's food and grass would be cut off. Because of this, His Highness had to hurry up at that time.

Win or lose quickly, no matter whether it is a lower official or a national surname, even if you go, I am afraid that you may not be able to truly join forces with His Highness, right?"

During the Battle of Zhaoqing, Zheng Chenggong did not send troops. Even if Li Dingguo didn't care on the surface, he might not be without worries in his heart. At this moment, Chen Kai made it clear through the argument, confessing his own intentions and powerlessness at the time, and then mentioned today's incident again.

"Now, there is great chaos in Fujian. Guo Xing led the army to sweep across Fujian, and it is almost complete. Hao Shangjiu in northern Chaozhou, Xiaguan, after more than a year of planning, has already coerced and induced him to raise troops. Anyway, Hao Shangjiu was captured by the time Xiaguan sent troops.

We have arrived at Longchuan County and are on the way to attack Heyuan County."
Chapter completed!