Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 220 Endless Trouble
Report the matter of Prince Jingjiang to the court.

This was the solution Ding Kuichu finally came up with to deal with the rebellion in Guangxi.

On the surface, there seemed to be nothing wrong in reporting to the court and waiting for the central government's decision, but as a local governor, he should have dealt decisively with such acts of usurpation and rebellion in the territory.

This behavior now is more intended to delay time until the situation becomes clear.

In the original history, after Longwu ascended the throne, officials from Guangdong and Guangxi, represented by Ding Kuichu, did not express their opinions immediately. It was not until the other provinces had successively submitted congratulatory memorials to the court that he leisurely led his troops to Wuzhou.

At that time, a strange situation emerged.

It is not known whether the Prince of Jingjiang was self-hypnotizing or he really believed that he would get the support of the local governors, but when Ding Kuichu's troops were approaching, he was not prepared at all. It was not until the war broke out and the entire army was defeated that he reacted and fled in panic.

Is Prince Jingjiang stupid?
Judging from what he has done, it is probably not the case.

The fact that he was able to win over a number of Ming officials, including the Guangxi General, the Guangxi Governor, the Guangxi Education Commissioner, and the Guilin Prefecture Procurator, as a minor prince of a side branch, shows that he was no mediocre person in winning over forces.

The fact that he was able to think of controlling Qu Shisi, mobilizing the chieftains' wolf soldiers, and issuing imperial edicts to grant officials to Hunan, Guizhou and other places when he was "Regent" shows that he had a very clear understanding of the situation at that time.

If Ding Kuichu had sternly refused or pretended to comply when his "edict" arrived, a figure like the King of Jingjiang would not have been completely unprepared against Ding Kuichu who came with a large army.

From this, it is easy to imagine what the relationship between these two people is like.

At this point we have to mention Longwu.

After Ding Kuichu annihilated King Jingjiang, he lavishly rewarded him, but ignored Qu Shisi who also played a key role in the conspiracy.

The most important consequence of this was that Ding Kuichu was almost uncontrollable in Guangdong and Guangxi, causing the central government's ability to control the local areas to reach a new low, and the Zheng family no longer took Emperor Longwu seriously.

In fact, it doesn't matter whether it is taken seriously or not, but Guangdong and Guangxi are located behind Fujian. Without the support of this place, Longwu will feel a little weak in front of the Zheng family.

After seeing all this clearly, the Zheng family no longer had any hope for Longwu, and even believed that the status of a powerful official was not worth maintaining.

In the end, the Qing army easily succeeded in Fujian, which had a difficult terrain, and thus began the Yongli Dynasty, which was characterized by even more intense internal strife.

To get back to the point, after the fall of the Hongguang Dynasty, there were many princes who coveted the throne, but few of them made such a fuss. And looking at the local governors in detail, although they all longed for the credit of supporting the throne, most of them just waited and watched.

Of course, not all governors and governors-general are like Ding Kuichu and He Tengjiao, such as the governors and governors-general in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan.
"Report~~~~~~."

As a burst of rapid horse hoofbeats sounded, Mu Tianbo couldn't help but withdraw his gaze from the map, and many chieftains and generals in the military tent also cast their eyes outside the tent at this time.

The Mu family had been guarding the southwestern border since the time of Taizu, and by the time of Mu Tianbo, it had been nearly three hundred years.

Originally, he thought that he would live a peaceful life in this miasma like his ancestors. However, since last year, various disturbances have occurred one after another, and even Mu Tianbo, who was only 26 or 27 years old, could see that chaos was coming.

In fact, when Beijing was broken, Mu Tianbo probably didn't feel too much. After all, he was stationed in Kunming, nearly ten thousand miles away from Beijing. Not to mention whether the rebels and the Tartars had the ability to reach Yunnan, even if they really came, it was still unknown when. The sense of crisis he felt was not as great as that of Zhang Xianzhong who entered Sichuan again last year.

After turning Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiangxi upside down, Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan from Kuizhou last year. He then captured several cities and defeated many armies. Even Qin Liangyu, the general of Sichuan, was defeated by him.

What happened next can be easily imagined. Zhang Xianzhong, who won battle after battle, captured Chengdu in just three days. He even proclaimed himself emperor in Chengdu at the end of last year and established a new dynasty.

If that were the case, Mu Tianbo would be shocked, but he would definitely not gather the local chieftains and barbarian soldiers.

However, after capturing Chengdu, Zhang Xianzhong's army quickly occupied most of central Sichuan, forcing the Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Fan Yiheng, and the Governor-General of Sichuan, Hubei, Yunnan, and Guizhou military affairs, and Wang Yingxiong, who was in charge of dealing with Sichuan bandits, to retreat to Zunyi.

Under such circumstances, although Mu Tianbo was in central Yunnan, he had to deploy his troops as much as possible in Wumeng, where the three provinces meet, and wait as the enemy was approaching.

"Is this news from Yingtian?"

Normally, the soldier should have been quite anxious when he arrived, and should have immediately told his master the news when he heard his master's slightly anxious voice. However, he knew very well in his heart that the news he brought was not the order to send troops that his master was expecting.

This caused me to hesitate for a moment.

However, Mu Tianbo had been stationed in Wumeng with his troops for more than a month, and his dream was to join forces to attack Zhang Xianzhong before the Ming army in Sichuan and Guizhou was completely defeated. Now that the news had arrived, how could he allow the soldiers to delay any longer?

"Say it!"

"My Lord, May."

"What happened to May? Tell me now!"

"In May, the Tartars crossed the Yangtze River from Zhenjiang. Your Majesty was captured, and the court officials retreated to Hangzhou."

"Snapped!"

As soon as he finished speaking, someone failed to hold the tea bowl steadily, and then a sharp breaking sound was heard in the tent.

The Yangtze River is a natural barrier in everyone's mind. Although Mu Tianbo and a group of chieftains and generals far away in Yunnan knew that the northern part of the empire was suffering from foreign enemies and internal strife, no one had ever imagined that in just over a year, the Qing army not only broke through the Yangtze River defense line, but also captured the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

"Nonsense! My men! Take him away with me and I will interrogate him later!"

It can be said that Mu Tianbo was a clear-headed person. Just by glancing at the chieftains' faces, he knew how much of a shock this news had brought to these people.

To be honest, although Mu Tianbo died in the battle with Toungoo, he was definitely not a loyal minister in the traditional sense of China. Even when the Hongguang Dynasty was first established and the small court came to ask for financial aid, he only cried poor but did not give a penny.

However, this did not prevent him from understanding where his family's reputation in central Yunnan came from.

In this situation, although he knew that his own soldiers would never deceive with lies on such matters, in order to stabilize these chieftains who only obeyed orders and not decrees, he had no choice but to resort to this last resort.

"Your Excellency is right! The Ming Dynasty is so powerful. The banditry in the north is just a temporary problem. How can they easily break through the natural barrier of the Yangtze River?"

The Mu family had been in Yunnan for hundreds of years, and although there were still a large number of vassal states, it was not uncommon for some of these chieftains to have their own people. So as soon as he finished speaking, a chieftain of the same age as Mu Tianbo stood up.

The chieftain's name is Sha Dingzhou, and he is the current chieftain of Wangnong.

It can be said that the Wangnong chieftain was only slightly stronger than the other chieftains, but because the Sha family had always been quite obedient and Sha Dingzhou and Mu Tianbo had a good relationship, when another chieftain in central Yunnan died, with the help of the two of them, the chieftain's widow remarried Sha Dingzhou, and the two chieftains were naturally merged into one.

This cannot be considered as Mu Tianbo's favoritism. After all, he is still young, and it is reasonable for him to cultivate forces loyal to him in his fiefdom.

However, Sha Dingzhou doesn't seem to be a good person. He relies on his relationship with the Mu family to constantly abuse his power in the local area, but there is no telling when he will cause trouble.

"Your Excellency is right. With the strength of the Ming Dynasty, a few petty thieves are no problem. However, this soldier took advantage of your youth, so he must be punished seriously."

Where there is a positive, there is a negative. Although Mu Tianbo cultivated his cronies into the most powerful force among the chieftains, his prestige was still insufficient. Then someone took advantage of their words to stab Mu Tianbo.

Mu Tianbo probably had no way to deal with this. If he had the ability to punish these chieftains for a word, why would he go to the trouble of finding an old widow to be a wife for his good brother?

After all, in Yunnan, each chieftain had considerable autonomy. If we use a more appropriate example to illustrate this,
Perhaps if Zuo Liangyu's troops in the Hongguang Dynasty were given a stable base, they would be able to be comparable to these chieftains to some extent.

"The situation in Sichuan and Guizhou has changed again. If the Central Government orders us to lead troops to provide assistance, what do you think our army should do?"

Mu Tianbo suppressed his anger and waited for the other chieftains and generals to speak before turning the topic to the war in Sichuan.

He naturally wanted to know how the Tartars could come so quickly, but he also knew that the most urgent task before him now had changed from guarding against Zhang Xianzhong to guarding against the chieftains in central Yunnan.

The Ming Dynasty had occupied Yunnan for nearly three hundred years, but during these three hundred years, the various chieftains had been causing trouble one after another. There were even several times when even the Mu family was unable to suppress them and had to ask the court for help.

Coupled with the continuous bad news, it is possible that one of the chieftains in central Yunnan will jump out again.

"Sir, in my opinion, although Wang Yingxiong is the governor-general of Sichuan, Hubei, Yunnan, and Guizhou, he only has a few thousand men under his command, so it is difficult for him to achieve anything. If our army wants to enter Sichuan, we still need to communicate more with the governor-general of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Fan Yiheng."

Although Sha Dingzhou was helping Mu Tianbo to divert the attention of the chieftains, what he said was all true and there was not a single lie.

Fan Yiheng was appointed as the Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi at the end of the Chongzhen period, but due to the long journey and constant wars, the title was never passed to him.

After Hongguang succeeded to the throne and repeated the previous order, he finally had the power to control Sichuan and Shaanxi. But at that time, Shaanxi was all in the hands of the Chuang army, and all he could control was Sichuan, which had experienced war. In addition, Zhang Xianzhong had already entered Sichuan at that time, so he, as the Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi, was much more miserable than He Tengjiao and others.

But Wang Yingxiong was ten times worse off than him.

When the news came that Zhang Xianzhong had almost occupied the entire Sichuan province, the Hongguang emperor and his ministers gave Wang Yingxiong a large number of governor titles. However, since the Hongguang emperor and his ministers were extremely poor, this frontier official who was in charge of half of the Ming Dynasty took office with only 30,000 taels of silver and a broken sword called "Shangfang Sword".

joke.

Although the imperial court at that time still maintained a considerable degree of majesty in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places, what role could it play in Sichuan, which had experienced war?
What's more, the troops that insisted on fighting Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan at that time were all gathered by Fan Yiheng with great effort, and Hongguang did not remove him from the post of Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi, so Wang Yingxiong, a senior official of the court who was in charge of military affairs of Sichuan, Hubei, Yunnan and Guizhou, became a commander without troops.

However, as Wang Yingxiong was a second-rank official in the imperial court, how could he be frightened by such a difficult task?

After understanding the situation, he spent all his family wealth and formed a team of three to two thousand people from the scattered soldiers. This way he had some strength.

After hearing what Sha Dingzhou said, Mu Tianbo calculated the power comparison in Sichuan in his mind and felt that what he said made a lot of sense.

However, his mind was already focused on how to guard against possible rebellion after stabilizing the chieftain in the tent. After the others had expressed their opinions, he hastily ended the military meeting and only left Sha Dingzhou and General Deyong in the tent.

Mu Tianbo knew very well that his behavior was actually an attempt to cover up one's own mistakes, but he also knew that the chieftains had few channels to obtain information from the outside world. As long as he did not confirm it in person, each chieftain would have to try to determine whether the news was true or false.

This would give him time to make arrangements.

"My Ming Dynasty has lost two emperors in a row. I think someone with evil intentions will take advantage of the opportunity to cause chaos. I don't know how our army should respond?"

As soon as the words fell, everyone in the tent looked worried.

For those of them living in the southwestern border, it would not matter much even if everything north of the Yangtze River was lost. However, only a year had passed and the enemy had already broken through the river defenses.

In such a situation, no matter whether the Ming Dynasty court can withstand it or not, they, who are far away from the emperor, will inevitably be dragged into it. How can these warlike people not worry?

However, there are always people who are concerned about the country and the people. As soon as Mu Tianbo finished speaking, Sha Dingzhou stood up as if he had already thought of a solution.

"Duke, now almost all the troops loyal to the court are here. In my opinion, we should try to quietly withdraw the main force back to Kunming, leaving only one army here to guard the pass."

Hearing this, Mu Tianbo nodded repeatedly. It was obvious that Sha Dingzhou's few words touched his heart.

Kunming was not only the base camp of the Mu family, but also a symbol of the Ming Dynasty's rule in Yunnan. As long as Kunming was in his hands, no matter where the chieftains caused rebellion, he only needed to calmly dispatch troops to suppress it.

But if Kunming was lost, it would be tantamount to announcing to all the chieftains in Yunnan that the rule of the Ming Dynasty's Mu family here has loosened. By then, the strength of the Mu family would not be enough to stabilize Yunnan again, so how could they have the spare energy to care about Zhang Xianzhong?

With this in mind, Mu Tianbo decided to return to Kunming as soon as possible. However, when he was about to inform his confidants in the account of this decision, he saw Sha Dingzhou's face full of hesitation, as if he had something to say.

"Based on our relationship, we should just speak our mind. Why do you do this?"

"Duke, it's not that I want to stir up trouble, it's just that the Wuding chieftain has always been disobedient to the court, and he is located near Kunming."

“Hiss~~~~~!”

Mu Tianbo panicked.

These chapters may be rather dull, but only by understanding the situation of the provinces at that time can one appreciate what the situation of the Southern Ming Dynasty was like, so not a single word of ink can be saved.

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(End of this chapter)