Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 176 His heart can be punished
How big a deal was it that the Tartars invaded Hangzhou?
This means that everything Zhu Cilang has done since he came here will be in vain. It means that not only will the Ming Dynasty lose the wealthy areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but Jiangxi behind it will also be in danger under the attack of the two Qing armies.

If the situation really came to this, the Crown Prince who was the regent of the Ming Dynasty would probably shout something like "I will die in Hangzhou" and rush towards the enemy with his sword in hand.

just
"Uncle, people are saying that His Highness has lost his memory, but I think there seems to be nothing wrong with him."

A while ago, Fang Guoan's uncle and nephew were called over by Zhu Cilang. After they inquired about the city defense in detail, His Highness ordered them to lead three or two hundred soldiers to patrol the city.

The uncle and nephew had no objection to such an order.

After all, even though we won last night, people in the city are saying all kinds of things now, and you never know what someone might do at this critical juncture.

However, during this process, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince encountered no problems whether calling people or arranging matters. Fang Yuanke also asked about the doubts in his heart while leading the troops on patrol.

"Well, there are some problems, but they shouldn't be a big deal."

He was there when Zhu Cilang woke up last night, so he naturally noticed all the unusual things. Although His Highness said that he just couldn't remember some things and tried his best to act normal, he still keenly sensed that something was wrong.

For example, His Highness can recall the general idea of ​​recent events with just a brief mention, but he needs to ponder for a while before he can describe something that happened a little further away.

Although no one has talked to His Highness about things that happened too far ago, judging from the current situation, His Highness probably doesn't remember things that happened too far ago.

However, Fang Guoan did not think that this was a big deal. After all, he had only known His Highness for a short time. As long as His Highness had not forgotten everything, it would make no difference to him.

"The Tartars have entered the city! Run!"

Just as the uncle and nephew were talking about His Highness, bursts of shouting came from the neighboring street.

The Tatars entered the city?

Not to mention Fang Guoan, even Fang Yuanke wouldn't believe such words.

If the Tartars really had the ability to sneak into the city quietly in broad daylight, wouldn't they have done it long ago? Would they have had to go to so much trouble like they did last night?

Someone must have wanted to take advantage of His Highness's inappropriate behavior to cause trouble.

However, within a moment, Fang Guoan made up his mind, and then he gave an order and led his soldiers to rush towards the center of the chaos.

"General Fang! Each family is in rebellion, we must welcome the Tartars into the city!"

Ruan Dacheng, who was running for his life, saw a large group of soldiers and rushed over to greet them as if he had seen his family.

He looked frightened and panicked, but he was extremely happy in his heart.

Since the various families have brought things to this point, no matter what the cause is, they will inevitably be suppressed by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

The reason is very simple, it all comes down to the season.

He has now figured out the plans of each family. They probably want to take advantage of the Crown Prince's "amnesia" to get rid of him who has pushed them too far.

Afterwards, the whole incident was labeled as "officials forcing the people to rebel", and the people who actually did the action were pushed out to take the blame, and the matter was then closed.

But they missed one point. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had only "lost his memory" but was not dead. If anyone dared to cause trouble at this sensitive time, what would be the outcome that awaited them other than suppression?
At this point, there is basically no suspense.

Although Fang Guoan felt that welcoming the Tartars into the city was just a deliberate frame-up by Ruan Dacheng, His Highness arranged for him to come here to guard against troubles by people with ill intentions, so how could he hold back?

In just a few minutes, the servants of the big family who were used to bullying others were scattered by the soldiers who had experienced many battles.

There's not much to say about what happened afterwards. It was just some trivial matters such as arresting the culprit and appeasing the people in the city.

As expected, after such a big fuss, a heated argument broke out between Huang Daozhou and Ma Shiying.

"Your Highness, each family was forced to do this because of Ruan Dacheng's coercion. I hope you can be lenient with them."

When Huang Daozhou first heard about this, he had basically no other emotions except shock.

He is more straightforward and his fighting ability is slightly weaker, but that doesn't mean he is stupid.

It is easy to see what the local forces in Hangzhou relied on to launch this civil uprising without any hesitation.

Such behavior can be regarded as despicable, but Huang Daozhou cannot ignore these people.

Why?

It's just a matter of being loyal to the people who trust you.

He and Liu Zongzhou were known as the "Two Zhous" of the time. Not only were they close friends in terms of scholarship, they also admired each other's character.

So when Liu Zongzhou, who was unable to serve as an official in the court, entrusted the local power to him, Huang Daozhou readily accepted his old friend's request.

This matter was beneficial to both parties at the beginning. Huang Daozhou was famous but had no power in Zhejiang, and although the local forces were deeply rooted, they had no leader in the court. The two sides complemented each other's strengths and weaknesses and were able to compete with Ma Shiying.

But who would have thought that the Zhejiang gang would do such a big thing quietly and silently, making Huang Daozhou extremely passive.

"Mr. Huang, everything I did was to supply the army. How can I say I was forced? Besides, didn't they take out some weapons?"

Passive~~~!

Upon hearing this, Huang Daozhou couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

He could understand the desire of the local people to accomplish things, but he was curious whether these people had ever thought about whether it would make any difference to the defenders whether a group of servants were armed or not?
Or do they really have other intentions?
"Those things were prepared according to your orders."

Huang Daozhou did not argue too much with Ruan Dacheng about the weapons. He gave a reasonable excuse and then said to Zhu Cilang, "Your Highness, these people came back and forth just to ask you to do justice. They brought some weapons just to resist the attack of the soldiers. So I think there is official coercion, but it is far from being a rebellion."

Before the conversation was over, Ma Shiying, who seemed to have nothing to do with the matter, said slowly: "Mr. Huang is a great scholar after all. His ability to confuse right and wrong is indeed rare in the world."

"you!"

It seemed that he was angered by Ma Shiying's attitude, or that he was annoyed by the actions of that group of people. In short, Ma Shiying's use of this sentence aroused the anger of the great Confucian scholar Huang Daozhou.

"Don't worry, let me finish what I'm saying."

Ma Shiying didn't care about Huang Daozhou's appearance. He raised his hands to appease him, with that annoying smile still on his face.

Is this Ma Shiying’s confidence?

Probably.

If we dig deeper, we will find that the source of this confidence is not the incident itself. In the past, there have been incidents of officials forcing the people to rebel, and as long as all parties handled it properly, in the end they would just send troops to suppress the bunch of peasants and end the matter.

As for the official who forced the people to rebel, although he will not be dealt with openly, he will still suffer the consequences after the matter has calmed down.

Of course, the treatment of the aristocratic families cannot be compared with that of the peasants. They have spokespersons in the court and can easily report the whole story to them.

At that time, there will be a struggle in the court. Whichever side wins, things will tilt in favor of the winner.

But this time is different!
At this time of year, any slight disturbance would arouse the vigilance of all parties, let alone a scene of a mob killing an official?

Who can guarantee that they are not trying to take this opportunity to drive His Royal Highness the Crown Prince out of office? Who can guarantee that they are not connected with the Tartars outside the city?

Therefore, from beginning to end, Huang Daozhou only dared to ask His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to be lenient with him, but he did not dare to really put all the responsibility on Ruan Dacheng.

"I think this matter is very strange and should be investigated thoroughly."

As soon as he finished speaking, Huang Daozhou's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

The so-called strict investigation naturally means investigating with the most stringent standards, without missing any person related to the matter and without missing any clues.

If this happens, not to mention the few families that take the lead, all the aristocratic families in Hangzhou will be uprooted.

By then, their Donglin’s advantage in Hangzhou would certainly disappear, and the government would fall back into Ma Shiying’s hands.

"I think that since there are powerful enemies outside, it is not appropriate to start a big case. Just dealing with the first few will serve as a warning to others."

After saying this, both Ma Shiying and Huang Daozhou turned to the Crown Prince who was sitting in the tent, and Zhu Cilang said after hesitating for a moment: "What you two gentlemen said makes sense, but it is indeed not appropriate to open a major case at this time."

Hearing this, Huang Daozhou couldn't help but show joy on his face, but when Zhu Cilang said the next sentence, the joy that only showed for a moment was replaced by sadness.

"Mr. Ma is in charge of this matter, and Mr. Huang is assisting."

This arrangement is very obvious. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince does not want to escalate the matter, nor does he want to let go of those families who dare to take the lead in causing trouble during special periods.

But since Ma Shiying is in charge, it means that the identification of the "leading" family will definitely be much broader, and it is easy to foresee that the local forces will suffer a severe blow.

Faced with this situation, although Huang Daozhou wanted to fight for more, he also knew that this was probably the best result.

There are powerful enemies outside, and the master is ill inside.

At this time, if someone was more suspicious, he might uproot all the powerful families in Hangzhou city. But now His Royal Highness the Crown Prince only wants to punish the family that "caused trouble". How can this result not be called the best?
"Your Highness, how should we deal with Ruan Dacheng?"

"Leave the job and stay employed."

"Your Highness, be tolerant!"

After this, everyone took the order and left, and Zhu Cilang finally had the chance to be alone for a while.

Since he returned to the tent last night, the two old ministers Huang and Ma have been guarding his side closely.

This was certainly a way for them to express their loyalty, but it was not a good experience for Zhu Cilang.

This is not to say how annoying the two old ministers are, the main thing is that with them here, I have to act deliberately.

The feeling of knowing something but pretending not to know in your heart so that others will think that you don't know but are pretending to know is really very divisive.

In just this one night and half a day, he even felt like he was going schizophrenic.

To be honest, controlling Hangzhou is indeed very important to Zhu Cilang, but when it comes to dealing with the big families in the city, it can only be regarded as a pleasant surprise.

According to his original plan, this was more to confirm his forgetfulness of the past, but who would have thought that without his suppression, all parties wanted to take advantage of this golden opportunity to kill their opponents.

He had already extended his claws since arriving in Hangzhou, otherwise there is no telling what kind of trouble these two waves of guys who only cared about personal vengeance and ignored the overall situation would cause.

So he could only take this opportunity to accept this extra gift.

Ordinary people would think that now that the Tartars had been repelled and matters in the city had been arranged, he should take a rest. However, after thinking for a long time, he finally got up from the couch and went straight out of the tent.

It's not that he didn't want to rest, but the gap in the city wall was like a scar to Hangzhou. He couldn't sleep because he hadn't found a way to deal with it.

After leaving the military tent, Zhu Cilang immediately saw the military camp, which was slightly quieter than usual.

As far as he could see, every soldier was covered with scars from the war, and their clothes were soaked with mud and blood.

Although they were tired and covered in wounds, they walked firmly. However, due to the combined effects of fatigue and the loss of their comrades, their spirits were not as high as when they were about to win.

Fortunately, the rare bright sunshine in the past few days illuminated the heavy atmosphere, breaking this lonely and deserted place and allowing them to feel the warmth of life again. Otherwise, it would be difficult for people to make a judgment in such a short period of time.

In the battle last night, except for Jia Youqing's troops who stayed behind to defend the city, other armies did not suffer too many casualties.

It was easy to understand why Fang Yuanke's troops were here. Their arrival was unexpected by the Qing army's ambush troops, so they fled as soon as they encountered the battlefield.

The largest group of his troops was more than a dozen who were accidentally injured by the ammunition splashed when the artillery was blown up.

Naturally, there was no surprise to Fang Guoan. When they arrived at the battlefield, both armies had already fought to the death.

Even though the Qing soldiers took a long time to notice their arrival due to the low visibility, as a fresh force, Fang Guoan would naturally not suffer too much damage along the way.

But what is surprising is that although the guards suffered a lot of casualties in the battle, the vast majority of them were merely injured, and very few were actually killed by the enemy.

This situation reminded Zhu Cilang of the scene in Yingtian City that night. If it weren't for the desperate consumption of each unit, the elite Tartars would have been exhausted and still not succeeded. Yingtian might have been lost in that battle alone. There was no need for the battle last night.

As he walked along, Zhu Cilang kept greeting the soldiers he met.

If everyone didn't know that the man under the armor was the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty who was only sixteen or seventeen years old, his blood-soaked appearance, coupled with the soldiers' warm greetings, would make him look like a veteran who had been in the army for many years.

However, as a prince caught in the midst of a national crisis, how could he have so much free time? Just as he was about to go to another camp, he heard someone shouting behind him.

"Your Highness!! Urgent!!"

My stomach hurts so badly today, but I was determined to finish typing first. The end result is that I didn’t even see a doctor and I’ve typed till now. I’ll see how it goes tomorrow. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to go to the hospital.

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(End of this chapter)