Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 550 Seizing Power
People have heard a lot about the Imperial Sword, but few people know about the Royal Flag. In fact, in terms of power, the Royal Flag is much more powerful than the Imperial Sword. The Imperial Sword is just a kind of honor and privilege given by the emperor to the grantor, but the Royal Flag can directly represent the imperial power, especially the power to act at one's own convenience and kill. If necessary, it can directly take over the local military and political affairs, arrest officials, and even kill people for the flag.

The reason why Mao Wenlong was killed by Yuan Chonghuan without authorization was not only because Yuan Chonghuan had the imperial sword, but also because he also took out the royal flag.

When he saw the royal decree, Mao Wenlong panicked instantly. His mind was a mess at the time and he only cared about begging for mercy without thinking that even if Yuan Chonghuan had the royal decree, he could not kill him, because he was the Left General, the General of the Garrison, and the Prince's Guardian, a first-rank official of the court. According to the law, he could only be arrested and imprisoned at most. If he wanted to be killed, he had to be tried by the three judicial departments and then sentenced, and then he had to seek permission from the emperor.

But how could Mao Wenlong have time to think about it at that time? Yuan Chonghuan did not give him any chance to think. He killed Mao Wenlong with the imperial sword in a few seconds, and then used these two things to suppress the entire Dongjiang Town.

From this point of view, it is enough to prove the power of the Royal Mandate Flag. Although Xu Xiancheng did not have the Imperial Sword when he was ordered to inspect the local areas, Emperor Chongzhen gave him the Royal Mandate Flag before leaving Beijing. However, this thing was only used as Xu Xiancheng's trump card. After all, he was not a formal imperial envoy. He went to the local areas to inspect, not to announce the imperial decree. Therefore, even Sun Yuanhua knew for the first time that Xu Xiancheng had this thing.

Xu Xiancheng was not polite to Sun Yuanhua. Although they were good friends, the situation had now reached a critical moment. In Xu Xiancheng's opinion, Sun Yuanhua was no longer suitable to continue serving as the governor of Leiden. If he was allowed to continue to act on his own, not only would Leiden and Laiden be lost, but the entire Shandong Province would be in ruins.

Xu Xiancheng was an extremely decisive person who acted in extraordinary times, and the same was true of Li Xin who came with him.

Immediately, Xu Xiancheng took out the token and directly issued a decision on Sun Yuanhua in the name of the imperial envoy. From that moment on, because of Kong Youde's rebellion, Sun Yuanhua, as the governor of Leiden, was primarily responsible. Sun Yuanhua's post as the governor of Leiden was temporarily suspended. All affairs of Leiden were temporarily taken over by Xu Xiancheng, and Li Xin was transferred to the post of Leiden Military Preparations Commissioner to assist Xu Xiancheng in dealing with the current chaos.

After announcing the order, Xu Xiancheng looked at the stunned Sun Yuanhua with a hint of reluctance in his heart, but he still asked him coldly if he understood. If he wanted to defend himself, he could write to the court himself, but this matter could not be changed. From now on, although Sun Yuanhua's post as the governor of Leiden was not revoked, he actually lost the function of the governor and could no longer make any decisions.

"I understand... I thank the emperor for his grace..."

In just a few minutes, Sun Yuanhua seemed to have aged a lot. His spirit was gone in an instant. What made him even more unacceptable was that the order was announced by his two good friends. Faced with such a result, Sun Yuanhua felt very uncomfortable.

"Brother Chuyang, you did something wrong regarding the Liao general and the Liao army, and you are now acting on your own. Brother Xu is doing this for your own good, you don't have to think too much about anything else..." Li Xin stepped forward to comfort him.

But Sun Yuanhua didn't take his words to heart at all. Instead, he looked up and gave Li Xin a cold look, then looked at Xu Xiancheng.

"The guilty official Sun Yuanhua has nothing to say. I wonder how the two gentlemen will deal with the guilty official. Will they throw him into jail? The guilty official will bear all the consequences."

Xu Xiancheng felt bitter. Sun Yuanhua's words were like telling them that they were no longer friends. Since they held the king's order, it was up to them to decide. They could do whatever they wanted with him, killing him or cutting him up.

“Brother Chuyang…” Li Xin felt unhappy and was about to persuade him again, but before he could finish his words he was interrupted by Xu Xiancheng standing beside him.

"You don't have to go to jail. You are just a criminal now, and you will need the court to formally deal with you before you can be convicted. And your post as the governor of Leiden has not been taken away. You are just suspended according to the law. You can continue to stay in the governor's office, but you cannot contact outsiders without our consent, and you cannot step out of the governor's office."

"I, the guilty official, thank you for your grace, Lord Xu..." Sun Yuanhua said sarcastically, and pretended to salute Xu Xiancheng, with an indignant expression on his face.

Xu Xiancheng did not blame him. As a good friend, he certainly knew Sun Yuanhua's temper. If Sun Yuanhua was not like this now, it would not be him, Sun Yuanhua.

Then, Xu Xiancheng asked Sun Yuanhua to cooperate with him while awaiting his punishment and issue orders according to his arrangements. This request made Sun Yuanhua slightly stunned, and he immediately understood what Xu Xiancheng wanted to do and was trying to say something.

But when the words came to his lips, Sun Yuanhua did not say them. Now even he was in prison, how could others? Since Xu Xiancheng wanted to do this, he could not stop him at all, and even if he did not cooperate, he would definitely be able to do it based on his understanding of Xu Xiancheng. Instead of doing this, it would be better to do it according to his wishes. At least if he participated in it, there would be less killing and avoid worse results. After explaining it, seeing that Sun Yuanhua did not object, Xu Xiancheng finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Before meeting Sun Yuanhua, Xu Xiancheng and Li Xin discussed and made several plans to deal with various possible situations.

But they didn't expect that the plan they finally adopted was the original backup plan, because before meeting Sun Yuanhua, they all thought that after the incident with Kong Youde, with Sun Yuanhua's intelligence, he would wake up, so the next step would be to make proper arrangements for the response and start preparing for war.

But the final result was unexpected. In this situation, Sun Yuanhua was still immersed in his own fantasy, naive to the point of not wanting to believe the facts, and even risked making such a decision. In this way, Xu Xiancheng and Li Xin absolutely could not let Sun Yuanhua continue like this. They were even less likely to take such a risk, especially for a decision with a very low success rate. Once they did so, Sun Yuanhua would die alone, but he would be buried with hundreds of thousands of people in Leiden and the entire Shandong Province, as well as the safety of the Ming Dynasty!

In desperation, Xu Xiancheng finally used his last trick. He took out the royal flag and seized Sun Yuanhua's power, and personally took over the military and political power of Leiden.

After dealing with Sun Yuanhua, Xu Xiancheng asked Sun Yuanhua to go in the name of the governor to notify all the future officials in Dengzhou to come to the governor's office for a meeting.

This arrangement was natural. After the news of Kong Youde's rebellion, Sun Yuanhua made preparations for war after the initial shock. The order to General Zhang Keda had just been issued, but the arrangements in Dengzhou had not been made yet. What he had just said to Xu Xiancheng was just Sun Yuanhua's plan. Fortunately, Xu Xiancheng and his men came quickly, otherwise it would be too late to reverse the situation.

Dengzhou City is not big. The whole Dengzhou is a seaport city. Penglai, which is close to the coastal defense, has a port and a fortress. The governor's office is here. As for the inland direction, Dengzhou City can be regarded as a strong city. There are more than 4,000 troops in Dengzhou City, including 1,500 Shandong troops and more than 2,000 Liao troops.

If Kong Youde's original troops also belonged to Dengzhou, the initial strength of the entire Dengzhou was more than 7,000 people. Because Sun Yuanhua valued Liao generals, most of the generals in the city were Liao people, including the Central Army Lieutenant General Geng Zhongming, the Guerrilla General Zhang Tao, and the Captain Chen Guangfu.

In addition, there were some Shandong military generals, and there was also a special army in Dengzhou City. This army was a Portuguese mercenary army hired by Sun Yuanhua from Macau through the church.

Sun Yuanhua's teacher was Xu Guangqi, who was not only a high-ranking official in the imperial court, but also a Catholic. Influenced by his teacher, Sun Yuanhua also converted to Catholicism and had close relations with the church. It was for this reason that Sun Yuanhua always had a strong interest in Western learning and was proficient in mathematics and firearms manufacturing.

After taking office as the governor of Leiden, considering the defense of Leiden and the use of firearms, Sun Yuanhua sought help from Xu Guangqi and the famous Johann Adam Schall von Bell, and hired a Portuguese mercenary army from Macau.

This mercenary group was not large in number, with only more than 30 people, but each of them was proficient in firearms, especially cannons. After arriving in Leiden, they assisted Sun Yuanhua in rearranging Leiden's defenses and provided a lot of help.

As the governor's office notified the generals of the meeting, half an hour later, these generals arrived at the governor's office one after another.

When they entered the second hall, they were not surprised to see Sun Yuanhua, who was sitting in the upper seat, with an extremely ugly expression on his face. After all, everyone had heard about Kong Youde's rebellion. When Kong Youde came to Sun Yuanhua for help, everyone knew how Sun Yuanhua treated Kong Youde. From this point of view, Sun Yuanhua was not only Kong Youde's benefactor, but also trusted him.

Not only did he take the risk to ask the court to appoint Kong Youde as the lieutenant general of the cavalry, but he also gave him the most capable and elite cavalry in the Liao army. In addition, Sun Yuanhua tried every means to settle the Liao people and squeezed money and food out of his teeth to give them all. It was extremely rare for a boss to do this in the entire Ming Dynasty. No one knew how Kong Youde rebelled, but the problem was that after the rebellion, this guy turned around and attacked Dengzhou. It would be strange if Sun Yuanhua had a good face.

On the left and right of Sun Yuanhua sat two officials in official robes. Everyone knew them. They were officials from Beijing who had come to Leiden to inspect the city some time ago on behalf of the imperial court. The younger one was Xu Xiancheng. Although he was young, he was a high-ranking official. He was not only a doctor in the Ministry of War, but also the Right Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, almost on the same level as Sun Yuanhua.

The older one was called Li Xin, Xu Xiancheng's deputy and the head of the Ministry of War. These two were considered half imperial envoys, so their status was naturally different. Moreover, Kong Youde's rebellion was a big deal. Now they happened to be in Dengzhou City, and Sun Yuanhua was going to hold a military meeting, so they were fully qualified to participate.

(End of this chapter)