Although no one openly questioned Kong Youde, Kong Youde himself felt a sense of distrust surrounding him.
This is a very dangerous signal. The army is a place where people are killing people, and it is even more so among the rebels who are rebelling. In troubled times, life is small, and people will die for a trivial reason. Not to mention that "two people are in two boats" is the most hated person.
Something I hate.
Although Li Jiucheng did not show any doubts about him, the excessive trust expressed by Li Jiucheng and his son recently seems to confirm his view - Li Jiucheng and his son have begun to doubt him!
This can not but be said to be a very dangerous signal.
It was difficult, how could he prove that he was innocent? Kong Youde sighed deeply.
Of course he could trust his own trusted subordinates, but after all, they were only a few hundred people. If most generals thought that he had double ambitions, these few hundred people would just be buried in his honour.
If he hadn't had some reputation among the old Dongjiang tribe in Dengzhou, he might have been killed if he had been the second person!
How to win the trust of everyone has become the biggest problem Kong Youde faces now.
For this reason, he had to try his best to show that he had no second thoughts, including taking the initiative to move out of his original residence to avoid the suspicion of harboring Sun Yuanhua.
Fortunately, a few days ago, they received a detective report: Sun Yuanhua suddenly appeared in Laizhou and officially began to take charge of the situation and arrange the city defense. This greatly cleared Kong Youde's suspicion - but how Sun Yuanhua escaped is still unclear.
So Kong Youde's situation is still a bit delicate.
Now Laizhou has been reduced to the iron barrel of his rectification. And Xizuo also reported that Yu Dacheng, who was originally depressed and hiding in the yamen and just chanting sutras, suddenly cheered up after Sun Yuanhua appeared in Laizhou. He not only sent reinforcements
The army also transported a large amount of food and weapons to Laizhou.
Obviously, Sun Yuanhua's attitude towards "appeasement" is changing - the convenience they may have gained from using "appeasement" after raising the flag to rebel is losing, especially in the original plan, Sun Yuanhua was used to write letters to continuously send out "willing to be appeased" to the court.
The idea of spreading the news and delaying the imperialist campaign to expand its power has completely failed.
Next, the rebels are bound to face the imperial court's attack. As the saying goes, time waits for no one, and the time left for them is getting less and less. At the military council the day before yesterday, everyone agreed that Huang County must be captured immediately and Laizhou besieged as soon as possible.
Capturing Huang County is to ensure the safety of Dengzhou, and capturing Laizhou can give the team more room for maneuver as soon as possible, so that they can advance, attack, retreat and defend. Otherwise, sooner or later, the soldiers will be trapped between the mountains and the sea.
However, in order to further confuse the court and make the ministers who advocate for appeasement open their eyes, it is still necessary to continue to express the sincerity of "appeasement". Although Sun Yuanhua has escaped, they still have a group of officials in their hands. These people are useless.
Therefore, at yesterday's military council meeting, it was decided to release all of them, including Song Guanglan, Zhang Tao, Wang Zheng and others. At the same time, they were asked to bring a letter signed by the main generals of the Dengzhou rebel army to express their "acceptance".
"Caress" the heart.
Because Kong Youde had a good relationship with Dengzhou officials, he left this matter to him. Kong Youde thought to himself: On the surface, this is trust in him - "no doubt". In fact, he has not been cleared of colluding with Sun Yuanhua.
suspicion.
However, there is no foolproof strategy at the moment. We can only take one step at a time. Kong Youyou thought. The matter has not yet come to a conclusion, but we must capture Laizhou as soon as possible!
While he was lost in thought, a soldier came to report, and Marshal Li Jiucheng invited him to go to the military meeting.
"Go back and report to the commander, I will be there soon." Kong Youde ordered. He knew that today's military meeting must be about sending troops to Laizhou.
They had captured Huang County a few days ago - it took almost no effort to capture Huang County, but it was hard to say how to capture Laizhou. The Ming army in Laizhou was limited in number, so it was not difficult to capture it originally, but now that Sun Yuanhua has entered the city, it is difficult to capture it.
The defense will inevitably be greatly strengthened. He is stationed in Laizhou as the governor of Denglai, and the governor of Shandong Yu Dacheng is very cooperative with his actions. Needless to say, the Shandong army will mobilize reinforcements to Laizhou.
"Come here, get my robe!" he shouted.
A general came over and said: "Today is not the day of promotion, why should I wear a robe?"
"Of course we must use it!" Kong Youde said loudly, "Military discussions should not be taken lightly."
He said that the soldiers would dress him up all over his body. Except that he did not wear a bow and arrow, it was almost the same as the "catching ceremony". Although Kong Youde was the deputy marshal and his prestige in the army was second only to Li Jiucheng, he was very careful.
He never shows any signs of arrogance and completely maintains a low profile as a subordinate.
Immediately, he dressed neatly and went out of the Yamen. Someone had prepared a fine Mongolian horse for him. Kong Youde got on the horse and went to the Marshal's Mansion surrounded by his own soldiers.
The streets of Dengzhou have become silent. The people walking on the streets are all soldiers in uniforms. Occasionally, there are also people who are driven to work for the rebels, but few people make loud noises. Kong Youde and his party are walking in the middle of the road.
, people on the road avoided him one after another.
The Festival Hall in the Governor's Yamen is now the Festival Hall of the Du Marshal's Mansion. Starting from the gate, there are neatly dressed warriors all the way.
Kong Youde was fully clothed and full of energy. He strode into the second gate, passed between two rows of solemn and silent warriors with shining swords, guns, swords and halberds. He bowed into the festival hall, knelt down about five feet away from the public case, and raised his head.
Self-reported job title:
"Deputy Marshal Kong Youde, who is acting on behalf of the sky, is here to see you, sir!"
Li Jiucheng nodded, smiled, and said, "Please get up."
In the festival hall, the main generals of the rebels have gathered. Most of them are generals from Dongjiang town officials to generals, and guerrilla level. They have a group of basic troops in their hands.
After the rebels captured Dengzhou, they recruited the local Dengzhou soldiers and the remnants of the Southern Army, recruited a large number of men from the local Liao people, and took in many local bandits and desperadoes. The size of the army suddenly increased.
It expanded to tens of thousands, but the ones who were truly reliable and capable of fighting in the army were the original Dongjiang troops.
The mob can only be used as cannon fodder to build up momentum, and it is okay to fight smoothly, but they will be soft when encountering a tough battle. Therefore, Li Jiucheng and others early dispatched a number of people to carry the salary seized from Dengzhou to various islands in the Liaohai Sea to attract bait.
The Dongjiang generals led their troops to "raise the banner together."
This group of people is not very good at fighting the Tatars, but there is absolutely no problem in crossing the sea to Shandong to fight against the officers and soldiers.
This activity is currently going very smoothly, and some Dongjiang generals have already expressed their willingness to join in the rebellion.
However, in today's military discussion, in addition to the originally planned attack on Laizhou, there was a new situation.
Mao Chenglu, who was sent to Huang County, sent someone back to report: There is currently a large group of rural warriors active in Huang County, and they are searching for refugees around the county seat. The troops sent by the rebels to rob the refugees have already had conflicts with them.
Conflict, and most importantly, suffered a lot.
Yesterday, the rebels pursued thousands of refugees who were taken away by Xiangyong, and fought a battle with Xiangyong in Baimatang. As a result, they not only failed to take advantage, but also killed and injured four to five hundred people. The rest of the army fled back to Huangxian County.
"Whose Xiangyong is so bold?" Kong Youde was quite surprised. Xiangyong usually aims to "protect the environment and the people" and will not take the initiative to provoke. They only want to keep the safety of their own village. And with the current strength of the rebel army,
Due to the overwhelming power and the large number of firearms they have at their disposal, the average village has no other way to deal with it other than to wait for the wind and let it be dealt with.
"It's a village near Longkou." Li Jiucheng said, "Chenglu said they have firearms and they are very powerful."
Kong Youde lost his voice and said: "It's Mr. Lu from Qimu Island!"
Li Jiucheng asked: "What? You know."
"That's right." Kong Youde nodded, "This Mr. Lu comes from the south, and he believes in God just like Governor Sun. So Governor Sun looked at him very differently at first, and even gave him a lot of weapons and gunpowder."
It’s not surprising that Mr. Lu set up a camp on Qimu Island—everyone does it these days. But why does he want to search for refugees on a large scale?
The land over Longkou is by no means a fertile land, so it is impossible for him to open up wasteland to find refugees. Secondly, at this time of war and chaos, it is also winter, so there is no possibility of clearing up wasteland.
The only possibility is that they, like the various folk Taoist sects in Shandong, are preparing to take advantage of the Dengzhou chaos to raise flags and rebel!
In ancient times, anyone who wanted to rebel would first start by coercing the people and sheltering refugees. The rebels destroyed villages and burned houses in Huang County. On the one hand, they wanted to collect as much food and property as possible, to strengthen the walls and clear the country. On the other hand, they also coerced a large number of refugees to expand the army.
within consideration.
Master Lu also has such a plan?! The generals in the festival hall immediately exchanged glances.
As a result, things will become difficult to handle. These generals have been in Shandong for many years, and they know a little bit about the folk Taoism in Shandong. They know that the incited believers are extremely fanatical. Once this Mr. Lu really wants to "come to disaster"
The banner of the rebels rose up on the border of Huang County, and it would take a lot of effort for the rebels to suppress it.
"This stronghold must be destroyed as soon as possible." Geng Zhongming said, "Once they start an uprising, it will be difficult for us to attack Laizhou!"
"The matter in Laizhou cannot be delayed." Li Jiucheng said, "If we don't win Laizhou, our brothers will not be able to sleep well in Dengzhou. A two-pronged approach! Attack Laizhou all the way, and kill this Mr. Lu as soon as possible!"
Li Jiucheng immediately decided to give Mao Chenglu 3,000 elite troops and ask him to immediately attack Qimu Island and destroy the stronghold on the island. Mr. Lu and his team would kill all the people with foreign accents. If the refugees with local accents in the stronghold refused to obey,
He also killed all those who ordered him to do so - to avoid leaving any further trouble.
Because the opponent had a lot of firearms, Li Jiucheng decided to allocate some more cannons to Mao Chenglu.!~!
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