Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 70 Anqing
The so-called aged mustard greens marinade is made by placing the mustard greens in a large jar and exposing them to the sun and dew at night. After they grow green hairs about three or four inches long, the jar mouth is sealed and the jar is buried in the soil.

After several years, when the jar is dug out, the mustard greens have completely turned into juice, and even the original green hairs have disappeared. This is when it is called aged mustard greens marinade.

This juice is mainly used to treat high fever diseases, such as lung wind cough and asthma, vomiting blood and pus, and it is effective in curing all diseases.

After hearing about the effects and side effects of this medicine, Zhu Cilang’s first reaction was “penicillin”.

He always believed that the only way in ancient Chinese medicine to fight infection was to strengthen one's own immunity - commonly known as hard resistance.

But after listening to Zheng Shanqing's description, he suddenly realized that how could traditional Chinese medicine, which has enabled the Chinese nation to stand on this land for thousands of years, be the "witch doctor" that those people talk about?
Now that we have penicillin, will things be difficult afterwards?

It's nothing more than making a small cut on the wounded soldier's hand, then dripping some marinade on it to see the reaction. If it's normal, use the amount according to the dosage. If it's abnormal, make another cut after a few days.

Anyway, the adverse reactions of penicillin are not lifelong.

=. =
All in all, Zhu Cilang gained a lot from this trip.

In the short term, the use of aged mustard greens marinade did not have much impact on the war situation in Yingtian, but if the timeline was extended, it would be found that due to the sharp drop in the death rate of the wounded, the number of veterans in his Ming army would inevitably reach an astonishing proportion.

Until then.
It was already afternoon when Zhu Cilang left the wounded soldiers' camp.

The reason why it took so long was, on the one hand, that he insisted on asking about everyone's injuries, and on the other hand, Xiang Rensheng insisted that he finish drinking the medicine before leaving.

Previously, he had tried his best to hide his injuries, but now that he had revealed himself in front of the noble officials, there was no point in hiding it anymore.

Anyway, the injury is not serious, so it is better to expose it in front of everyone to avoid arousing any suspicion from those people.

Of course, given the current situation, everyone is just trying to cause him some trouble within the rules, but no one has the courage to openly surrender.

Just like Qian Qianyi and Zhu Guobi, one took advantage of the unclear situation at the front to gather people in his own residence, and the other wanted to take advantage of the disintegration of the defending army to gather some troops.

Regardless of their real intentions, after learning that Zhu Cilang had won the battle, they all rushed to the city wall and characterized their actions as being ready for a fight to the death.

This incident not only demonstrates the weakness and incompetence of these two groups, but also indirectly proves that Zhu Cilang was right to abandon them.

But even if you abandon it, you still have to do what you should do before you gain absolute advantage.

This is not much different whether in ancient or modern times, or in China or abroad.

If we want to emphasize the difference
Generally speaking, the works done by scholars are more beautiful, while the works done by warriors don’t care too much about it.

At this time, the city of Anqing was in chaos. There was a fighting going on in the army that was loyal to Zuo Menggeng, the army that wanted to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, the army that had no stance but was dragged into the chaos, and the army brought by Yuan Jixian. The various forces were not under the command of each other but fought each other, turning the dilapidated city of Anqing into ruins.

According to Zuo Menggeng's original plan, as long as Yuan Jixian and his troops arrived near Anqing, he would summon the generals of various troops to discuss matters.

He thought that with the nearly 100,000 troops under his and Yuan Jixian's command, it would not be difficult to subdue the generals who had their own ideas.

Even if there are some who are stubborn and unrepentant, they are only individuals, and whether they are killed or released will not affect the overall situation.

By then, he would have hundreds of thousands of troops under his command, and he would be able to carefully consider whether to surrender to the Qing or to join the Ming.

However, plans are not as good as changes. The generals came to discuss the matter as he had expected, but those generals who should have had their own thoughts insisted on surrendering to the Qing Dynasty as if they had discussed it beforehand, and even ordered their personal guards to block the gate and directly attack Zuo Menggeng.

It is easy to imagine what happened next. Zuo Menggeng escaped from the government office under the protection of his personal soldiers, and the battle that originally involved only one or two hundred people spread to the entire city.

Later, Yuan Jixian, who was hiding outside the city, sent a group of people to join the battle to rescue Zuo Menggeng, and the scene became more and more chaotic.

Fortunately, all the soldiers were dressed in the same way, otherwise Yuan Jixian, the outsider, would have been attacked by everyone. When Yuan and Zuo met, the battle in the city had evolved from pursuit and interception to a melee.

The generals on all sides completely lost control of their soldiers and could only allow the city to become a scene of bloodshed.

"Mr. Yuan, Uncle, why, why?"

At this time, Zuo Menggeng was on the verge of collapse. Apart from crying and shouting, he couldn't even utter a complete sentence.

He really couldn't understand why the generals, who each had their own ideas, suddenly came together today.

If he had thought of this situation earlier, he would have made other plans and would not have let things develop to this point.

"Jiujiang is lost."

Jiujiang?

After hearing Yuan Jixian's explanation, Zuo Menggeng was stunned at first, as if he didn't quite understand the connection between Jiujiang, hundreds of miles away, and what was happening here.

But in the next moment, he seemed to have thought of something and started yelling at Yuan Jixian.

"Why didn't you say so earlier?! Why?!"

At present, Li Zicheng had been chased by Ajige's troops of the Qing army to the point where he had no way out, and Zhang Xianzhong was blocked in central Sichuan by Haoge. If Jiujiang was lost, it would only be conquered by the Qing army.

As a result, the generals of the left army who had already intended to surrender to the Qing Dynasty naturally became more determined, and even dared to unite and fight against him, the major general.

If it were only this, Zuo Menggeng would not have come to this point, but Jiujiang was Yuan Jixian's stationed place, and he, his ally, was the last to know the news. How could he not be angry?

"Don't be upset, young general. My commander-in-chief just found out about it. I definitely didn't intend to hide it."

"Yeah, my messenger just arrived too. I can't understand how they knew so quickly."

The generals under Yuan Jixian started to persuade him one after another, and Zuo Menggeng gradually calmed down.

It was meaningless to dwell on these things at this point. His top priority should be to seize the time and fight with the generals for the troops scattered outside the city.

Although the generals who wanted to surrender to the Qing Dynasty had united together at this time, their bases were scattered around Anqing City. As long as they acted quickly enough, they might be able to bite off a few pieces of meat from them.

"Uncle, wait a moment. I'll be right back."

Zuo Menggeng left with his men after saying a few words, but Yuan Jixian just kept a sullen face and said nothing, as if he had not noticed the restlessness of his generals.

How could he not know what the general wanted?
As far as Yu Gong was concerned, the Zuo Army had been equivalent to rebels since it raised the banner of defending the king. Even if he got a "letter from the prince" from somewhere, it could not change the fact that the Zuo Army had already escaped the control of the court.

If he sent people to gather the rebel troops at this time, no one would find it unreasonable.

But from a personal point of view, he and Zuo Liangyu had been friends for many years. It seemed a little unkind of him to take advantage of the opportunity to deprive his son of his livelihood before his body was cold.

After a long silence, Yuan Jixian finally made up his mind.

"You wait. Go too."

(End of this chapter)