Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 249: Have you developed the desire to be independent?

Wan Yuanji was the governor of southern Jiangxi, Hu Maozhen and Hu Yiqing held hereditary positions, and the other generals also made their own contributions.

Carrot in one hand and stick in the other.

It's cheesy, but effective.

After Zhu Cilang announced the rewards for everyone, Wan Yuanji was still as calm as when he was dismissed, but people like Hu Yiqing, who were a little more reckless, had completely forgotten about what happened before. They just felt that everything His Royal Highness the Crown Prince did was for the overall situation, and it was wrong for everyone to harbor resentment.

There is nothing wrong with thinking this way.

After all, the starting point of doing so was to use the power of a great victory to suppress the internal contradictions of the Ming army. Otherwise, Zhu Cilang only needed to put all the cavalry in the open, and how could Wang Tizhong have the courage to attack their troops?
Of course, this plan turned out to be successful. Not only did the Ming army in Ganzhou obey the orders due to various factors, but more importantly, Zhu Cilang got a chance to test He Tengjiao.

It is true that in the original history, He Tengjiao, who led the army in Hunan, did die for his country, but he also pretended to obey the central government and secretly provoked various conflicts within the court, which ultimately ruined the overall strategic situation of recovering Hunan and aiding Jiangxi.

At this point, he turned a blind eye to Zhu Cilang's supervision of state affairs. Even though his situation was difficult objectively speaking, people's hearts are hidden. If the small court did not find out what he was thinking, its attitude towards Hunan would be aimless.

Therefore, Zhu Cilang thought of sending Wang Tizhong's head to his army.

"It is truly a cause for celebration that His Royal Highness has won another victory, but I wonder if I have any other instructions to give besides punishing Cao Zhijian?"

He Tengjiao looked at the pickled human head in the wooden box on the table, his heart full of confusion.

Although the envoy said that the purpose of his visit was to report the battle situation in Ganzhou and to punish Cao Zhijian for deserting the battlefield, how could he not distinguish the primary from the secondary when he had climbed to such an official position?

The enemy general was killed in the battle six days ago and was sent to Changsha today.

Apart from dealing with the heads, there would barely be enough time even if we worked day and night.

Such a tense situation obviously shows that this head was not brought here casually. Otherwise, according to common sense, such a victory of killing a general in battle should not be handled carefully, and the news should be spread along the way so that everyone in Hunan knows about it before being transported to Changsha leisurely?

But what does this human head mean?
With this in mind, He Tengjiao looked at the messenger in the hall with a look of suspicion of hearing news.

"When I left, His Highness only told me to severely punish Cao Zhijian, but he didn't tell me anything else."

"Oh, your Excellency has had a hard journey. Please go down and rest first."

After he finished speaking, the envoy did not stay any longer, and several civil servants standing on both sides of the hall simultaneously cast their eyes on He Tengjiao.

These people were all his subordinates. After Zuo Liangyu led his army north, He Tengjiao gathered them in Changsha, allocated war horses, ships, food, and equipment to them, and established several armed forces with each of them as leader.

However, these armed forces were hastily established, and they were not serviceable troops in terms of either quantity or quality.

As a result, He Tengjiao became less confident when dealing with various armies.

"Minister, I'm afraid that His Highness's intention will still fall on this person."

After seeing the messenger leave, Du Yinxi immediately stood up and said something.

In fact, everyone present was a mediocre person and could see this point, but this head came without cause and effect, and they still had no idea about the real intention of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, so when they saw someone take the initiative to stand up, they all turned their attention to the other side.

"Oh? Did Zhong Yan see anything?"

"Minister, I haven't seen much, but Wang Tizhong surrendered to the Tartars after killing his superior Baiwang. At this time, I am in Hunan..."

Is he trying to show goodwill to Chuang Jun?

As soon as Du Yinxi finished speaking, everyone had this thought in their hearts.

This is not difficult to understand. At that time, there were more than 200,000 rebel troops stationed in Hunan. If the relationship between them and the court could not be straightened out, then Hunan would continue to be ambiguous.

Even if Zhu Cilang could persuade Guangdong, Guangxi and the southwest, there was still such a huge force with an unclear attitude in the heartland, so the court had to allocate some troops to prepare for any eventuality.

Under such circumstances, how confident would the Ming Dynasty, which had already lost half of its territory, be in winning a full-scale confrontation with the Qing army?

No matter what you say, Chongzhen died because of the Chuang Army.

Even if His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, who was able to turn the tide, knew how great a positive impact recruiting the rebel army would have on the anti-Qing cause, how could he express his attitude openly in light of this incident?
From this perspective, isn't sending the murderer who killed Li Zicheng's general Bai Wang a route to reconciliation that was found out of the impossible?

"Perhaps Nitai is thinking in the wrong direction."

Just when everyone thought that what Du Yinxi said made sense, Fu Shangrui, the councilor of Lower Hunan Province, stood up again.

"Not to mention that Your Highness is very close to the late emperor, will he really spare these rioters? The mere fact that it is against filial piety is enough to frame Your Highness. Even if Your Highness knows the importance of the remaining troops of the rebel army, I am afraid he would not dare to risk the wrath of the world."

After he said this, everyone felt that it made sense. However, his statement did not provide a reasonable explanation for the head, so He Tengjiao asked another question.

"Then according to Xi Zheng's opinion, this head."

"Minister, I think this is a request for you to draw a clear line between yourself and the Chuang Army."

He Tengjiao couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard these words.

At this time, Li Guo and Gao Yigong led 50,000 troops to station west of Dongting Lake, and Liu Tichun, Hao Yaoqi and others led more than 200,000 troops to station in Pingjiang. The left and right forces directly trapped Changsha and made it unable to move. What basis did He Tengjiao have to draw a clear line between himself and the Chuang army?

It is worth mentioning that the Chuang army actually fell into division after the death of Li Zicheng and several generals.

For example, in the rebel army stationed in Pingjiang, the former lowly general Hao Yaoqi led 40,000 troops, Wang Jincai led 80,000 troops, and the former right battalion general Liu Tichun and his brothers led 50,000 troops.

On the contrary, Liu Fangliang, Tian Jianxiu, Yuan Zongdi and others who were in charge of their own affairs, with 5,000 troops and 7,000 troops respectively, were no longer able to exert any influence on their former subordinates. (The numbers of troops are all from history, don't argue)
For example, Li Guo was Li Zicheng's nephew. From a legal point of view, since Li Zicheng had no descendants, it was reasonable for the rest of his troops to regard him as their leader.

But in reality, the two armies were stationed in the east and west of Dongting Lake and never had any contact with each other.

If He Tengjiao and others had not used a trick to completely split the rebel army east of Dongting Lake, causing Tian Jianxiu and others to join forces with Li Guo because they really had nowhere else to go, it is possible that they would never see each other again in this life.

From this, it is easy to see that the relationship between these various units of the rebel army also became complicated due to Li Zicheng's unexpected death.

Let’s put aside the idle talk for now.

To ordinary people, everyone present disagreed with Fu Shangrui's words, but in fact, as soon as he said this, someone immediately stood up to express his agreement.

"Minister, I also think that what Xizheng said is what Your Highness really meant, and..." At this point, Zhang Kuang looked up at He Tengjiao, and when he saw that his face was bitter, he finally hardened his heart and continued: "Moreover, Chuang's army is large, and staying near Changsha is not a long-term solution."

"Minister! Although the generals have various disputes among themselves, they all deeply remember the kindness of you taking them in. They always think about fighting against the Tartars to repay the country's kindness. We must not do things that will hurt our loved ones and please our enemies."

"Nonsense! The generals of the rebel army don't even recognize their former superiors, so how can they talk about repaying their country's kindness? If they want to repay their country's kindness, they should go to find Li Guo. What kindness has my Great Ming Dynasty given to them?" "You are just a little..."

"enough!"

After hearing Zhang Kuang and Du Yinxi arguing about this matter again, He Tengjiao, who was having a headache, immediately snorted.

He knew very well that these two men were loyal to the emperor and patriotic, but he also knew that there were fundamental differences between the two men, or rather the two groups, on the issue of how to treat the remnants of the rebel army.

To ordinary people, since the two sides have opposite views, there must be right and wrong.

But who is He Tengjiao?

He was able to hold the position of governor of military forces of several provinces, so how could he not know that things in the world are not so black and white?
"Tell me about the head! Tell me why His Royal Highness sent Wang Tizhong's head here!"

After the words were spoken, the place fell silent.

I have said all that needs to be said. If I continue talking about the same complicated logic, I will inevitably argue with the other party in the end. It would be better to just shut up and avoid upsetting the minister.

But there are always thousands of different ideas among thousands of people. When both parties with different positions remained silent, the voice of Yan Qiheng, the councilor of Upper Hunan Province, suddenly rang out.

"Why not send someone to Ganzhou to test His Highness's attitude?"

"Probing for information?"

As soon as these words were spoken, not to mention how the people in the hall reacted, He Tengjiao, who was sitting slumped in his chair, immediately straightened up.

"Yes, Minister. First of all, the relationship between Hunan and the imperial court is already delicate. Secondly, we have never dealt with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Instead of guessing here, it is better to send someone to Ganzhou in a private name to test the waters. In this way, we don't have to worry about provoking the rebels, and we won't be blindly groping."

In fact, what Yan Qiheng said was completely illogical. At such a sensitive time, if they really guessed the Crown Prince's true intentions wrongly and there was no room for easing tensions between Hunan and the court, then the situation, which had almost improved, would immediately be disrupted again.

It was the same old saying, everyone has their own ideas. Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by two voices that sounded at the same time.

"Hu!"

"Hu!"

Zhang Kuang and Du Yinxi looked at each other, and finally Du Yinxi, who had a higher official position, continued speaking.

"You went to Ganzhou as a private person. Have you ever thought about what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would think?!"

"Just send someone of humble status. Your Highness may not know about it."

"If you don't let His Highness know, how can you find out?!"

"Isn't Xi Zheng also the Junior Minister of the Imperial Household? Why not write a letter to Wan Yuanji to preserve our friendship as colleagues?"

Having said that, no matter what position one held before, one cannot deny that this seems to be a stopgap measure.

If we carry out this strategy, we won't have to worry about irritating the various units of the rebel army, and we will probably be able to find out the Crown Prince's true intentions from Wan Yuanji.

Seeing that everyone had no objection, He Tengjiao thought about it for a moment and agreed to this plan.

Afterwards, everyone reported the important military affairs, and the meeting finally ended successfully.

Watching everyone leave one after another, until he was the only one left in the hall, He Tengjiao couldn't help but rub his temples, taking advantage of this opportunity to relax a little.

The situation in Hunan is really chaotic.

First, they were ravaged by various militias, and then the Zuo Army was stationed nearby. After these two incidents, it was difficult to raise money and food, but what was even worse was that now the host was weak and the guest was strong.

To maintain this situation, He Tengjiao not only had to work hard, but he also had to worry all day long, fearing that any inappropriate measures would provoke Chuang's army.

At this moment, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince made another unreasonable move, making He Tengjiao, who was already walking on thin ice, not know how to respond for a moment.

Fortunately, Yan Qiheng finally thought of a solution.

As for whether His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would know about it.
According to He Tengjiao, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was not a rash person. Even if he was dissatisfied with Hunan sending people privately, he would not cause any trouble in public.

If we assume the best case scenario, they might even condone the existence of this channel to ensure that there will be no irreparable rift between Hunan and the central government due to misjudgment.

Hiss~~~~~~!

Thinking of this, He Tengjiao couldn't help but take a breath of cold air. Then he not only took his hands off his forehead, but also stood up from the chair and paced around the hall.

Previously, everyone felt that the head came out of nowhere, but they never thought of anything else.

If the Crown Prince's real purpose was to use this head to establish a communication channel with Hunan, does that mean that everything his group did was within his expectations?

As soon as the thought came to his mind, He Tengjiao's pace immediately quickened. However, after only a moment, he stopped again, with a thoughtful look on his face.

will not.

Absolutely not.

People like Zhuge Liang who can predict people's minds are only found in novels. How can anyone in this world guess the thoughts of someone they have never met and live thousands of miles away?

Maybe
Is this just a coincidence?
Thinking of this, He Tengjiao felt a little relieved. He obviously didn't think that he and his group had fallen into the Crown Prince's trap. But this sense of relief only lasted for three or two breaths. He finally returned to the desk and started writing.

If we ignore the method Yan Qiheng mentioned, what decision will I make in the end?
He Tengjiao was constantly deducing his possible reactions in his mind while writing them down one by one on paper. He was obviously afraid that the deduction process would be too complicated and he would forget the previous results in the end.

After a while, lines of scribbled words appeared on the paper, and He Tengjiao immediately stared at the various possibilities and began to think about them.

It is said that Li Guo and Gao Yigong, who were from the same army as Bai Wang, would be very grateful, and the others would also be able to feel the goodwill shown by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

If they were hiding in the army, they would probably not do this if nothing happened.

wrong!

If I had other thoughts.
Thinking of this, He Tengjiao's face turned wooden, and he didn't even notice that the pen in his hand had fallen to the ground.

"This depends on whether I, He Tengjiao, have the will to be independent."

(End of this chapter)