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

Chapter 558 Fear

Sun Yuanhua was indeed ashamed to face people. When he learned that Kong Youde was captured and Li Xin and Zhang Ke had won a great victory over the rebels, Sun Yuanhua was extremely happy. But then he saw the letters sent back by Li Xin from Xu Xiancheng. After reading the contents of the letters, Sun Yuanhua was so ashamed that he wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

Sun Yuanhua has always been very confident. He feels that if he treats others with sincerity, others will surely treat him the same way.

When Liao generals such as Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming were desperate in Liaodong and no one dared to take them in, it was his Sun Yuanhua who stood up and promised the court with confidence, which allowed them to have a safe place to live in Leiden.

Not only that, after taking in these people, Sun Yuanhua also recommended them to the court, appointed Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming as lieutenant generals, and properly placed other Liao generals. Even though Zhang Keda and other Shandong military generals opposed it at the time, Sun Yuanhua withstood the pressure.

Then, he distributed part of the already insufficient military rations and salaries in Leiden to the Liao army, and then took in hundreds of thousands of Liao people who had fled to Leiden on his own initiative. From this point of view, Sun Yuanhua was somewhat sorry for the Shandong army, and even more sorry for the people of Shandong, because his actions caused extreme dissatisfaction among the Shandong army and local people, and also caused many conflicts between the two sides.

But even so, the only thing Sun Yuanhua had never let down was these Liao generals and Liao troops, including tens of thousands of Liao people. This was also the reason why he had always valued and trusted Geng Zhongming and other Liao generals. In Sun Yuanhua's view, these people were all capable and brave generals. As long as they could survive this period, he would find a way to gradually ease the conflict between the two sides, and they would definitely be able to serve him.

Unfortunately, Sun Yuanhua was too idealistic and too confident. Even after Kong Youde's rebellion, Sun Yuanhua still thought that it was just Kong Youde's problem and was unwilling to link it with other Liao generals and Liao troops.

Because of Sun Yuanhua's stubbornness, Xu Xiancheng finally had no choice but to ask for the royal decree to suspend Sun Yuanhua from his post, and then personally took over the military and political power of Leiden. He used thundering means to arrest all the Liao generals in Dengzhou, and then adjusted the strategy and began to prepare for war.

Sun Yuanhua was extremely dissatisfied with Xu Xiancheng's behavior, and even felt betrayed by his friend. So Sun Yuanhua treated Xu Xiancheng very badly these days, and never treated him well. When Xu Xiancheng came to him to discuss Leiden affairs, Sun Yuanhua even mocked him, saying that he was an official under criminal investigation and had no right to comment on government affairs. Xu Xiancheng was a senior official of the court and had the king's order, so naturally Xu Xiancheng should make the decision.

Xu Xiancheng was not angry about Sun Yuanhua's attitude, but just smiled and said nothing. But soon the battle report came from the front line. After learning that Li Xin and Zhang Keda had defeated Kong Youde's rebels in one fell swoop, Xu Xiancheng went to see Sun Yuanhua in great joy, and privately brought Kong Youde's letter sent with the battle report to Sun Yuanhua.

Seeing these things, Sun Yuanhua's worldview was completely shattered, and his stubbornness and beliefs were shattered at this moment.

He stared with disbelief, intending to get an unusual answer from Xu Xiancheng, but Xu Xiancheng's expression told him that it was all true.

Suffering such a blow, Sun Yuanhua was filled with remorse. He was able to become the governor of Leiden and was proficient in mathematics and firearms. Sun Yuanhua's IQ was definitely not a problem. At this time, he came to his senses and realized that Xu Xiancheng was right. If Xu Xiancheng had not stopped him at that time, or had not asked for the king's order to suspend his duties, and had controlled all the Liao generals without saying a word, and had Li Xin lead the troops to fight, the consequences would be simply unimaginable.

First of all, the safety of Zhang Keda's army was the most important. Zhang Keda's army was not as strong as Kong Youde's. According to Sun Yuanhua's original plan, he was going to send a Liao general to cooperate with Zhang Keda and then attack Kong Youde's army from both sides. If this were the case, the original attack on the rebels would become Kong Youde's attack on Zhang Keda. By then, the front line would be caught off guard by Kong Youde, and Zhang Keda's army would be surrounded by the two armies. If things went wrong, the whole army would be annihilated.

After Zhang Ke's great defeat, there was no longer any army south of Dengzhou that could stop Kong Youde. Kong Youde marched straight in and reached the city of Dengzhou in less than two days.

By that time, Geng Zhongming would be the lieutenant general of the central army. If Geng Zhongming and Kong Youde joined forces to open the city gate, would Dengzhou still be able to hold on? Wouldn't he become a sinner of the Ming Dynasty?
Thinking of this, Sun Yuanhua was sweating profusely, with a look of fear on his face, and at the same time, he was furious. How much he trusted these Liao generals in the past, how angry Sun Yuanhua was now, in addition to deep shame and regret.

In such a mood, how could Sun Yuanhua have the face to follow Xu Xiancheng out of the city to welcome Li Xin and Zhang Keda? If it weren't for his post as governor of Leiden, Sun Yuanhua would even want to lock himself in the house and not come out, let alone see anyone.

Everyone understood Sun Yuanhua's feelings. After meeting Sun Yuanhua, Xu Xiancheng did not mention Sun Yuanhua's previous mistakes. Instead, he comforted him and hoped that Sun Yuanhua could now fulfill his duties as governor and pay more attention to the Liao people settled in Leiden to avoid further deterioration of local conflicts, while also easing the confrontation between the two sides.

Sun Yuanhua certainly knew that Xu Xiancheng meant well, and his previous resentment had long since vanished, leaving him with only immense gratitude. At the same time, Sun Yuanhua held Zhang Keda's hand and talked to him for a long time, ashamedly telling Zhang Keda that he had not listened to his advice before, and that if Xu Xiancheng had not intervened this time, he would have almost made another big mistake.

Zhang Keda smiled and said, "Master Sun, you don't have to do this. People's hearts are hard to predict. No one knows that there are such ungrateful people in the world. What Sun Yuanhua did was not wrong from the overall situation. It was just that these people themselves were not good enough."

Fortunately, everything is over now. With the capture of Kong Youde and others, the rebellion has been basically resolved. Although hundreds of Kong Youde's subordinates ran away, these people could not amount to anything and they only needed to be captured slowly. The Shandong Rebellion was also completely put down.

"Everyone!" Seeing the harmonious atmosphere, Xu Xiancheng said with a smile.

Everyone looked at him. Xu Xiancheng took out two things from his arms and said, "The Leiden incident has been resolved and the culprit has been captured. This matter needs to be reported to the court as soon as possible. I have already written a report and a memorial. I would like to return them to you for your review. If you have no objection, I hope you will sign your names on the report to the court."

After saying that, Xu Xiancheng handed the two documents to them and asked them to pass them around.

Sun Yuanhua was the first to look at them. He finished reading them quickly at a glance and then silently handed them to Li Xin and Zhang Keda, who were under him.

After Li Xin and Zhang Ke finished reading, Sun Yuanhua could not help but say to Xu Xiancheng: "The responsibility for suppressing the rebellion this time is mine, but in these memorials and reports..."

Before he could finish, Xu Xiancheng waved his hand and said, "Brother Chuyang, you don't have to do this. In the beginning, Brother Chuyang gathered Liao generals and Liao troops and settled Liao people. From the original intention, there was nothing wrong. Moreover, I have also asked someone to investigate Kong Youde's rebellion in detail. His rebellion also had reasons. If Shandong could sell grain to Kong Youde, or if the local nobles were not so arrogant, this rebellion would not have happened."

"Although Brother Chuyang has made mistakes, the crime is not his. Moreover, Brother Chuyang immediately issued an order to suppress the rebellion after learning of Kong Youde's rebellion, and made appropriate arrangements, which led to the quick resolution of Kong Youde's rebels. From this point of view, Brother Chuyang's merits outweigh his faults, and the court will naturally deal with him fairly."

"I..." Sun Yuanhua was deeply moved. Xu Xiancheng's words were clearly an excuse for him. He even took all the credit for suppressing the rebellion on himself, allowing him to use the credit for suppressing the rebellion to cover up his mistakes in employing the right people. At the same time, he attributed nearly half of the responsibility to problems in Shandong.

Although most of it was true, and even the tactics for suppressing the rebellion were originally drafted by Sun Yuanhua, the most critical issue was the problem of people. If Xu Xiancheng had not prepared for a rainy day and decisively resolved the future troubles, even if the tactics were correct, the suppression of the rebellion would not have had the current results, and it would even have caused the entire Leiden to fall into the hands of the rebels.

"Lord Xu is right!" Zhang Keda spoke up to express his agreement. He had always had a good relationship with Sun Yuanhua. The previous conflicts between the two were simply due to his dissatisfaction with Sun Yuanhua's excessive use of Liao generals and the Liao army. In addition, the issue of resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Liao people made Zhang Keda very uncomfortable. In order to avoid conflict, he took the initiative to go to Laizhou.

Now that Kong Youde's rebellion has been quelled, Kong Youde and other Liao generals including Geng Zhongming have been arrested, and the previous problems no longer exist. In addition, in Zhang Keda's view, Sun Yuanhua is capable and a good boss. Although he trusted the wrong person and almost made a big mistake, why should he hold on to it now that the matter has been resolved?
If Sun Yuanhua resigned, and the court sent a new governor to Leiden, would he be more capable than Sun Yuanhua, or would he trust and be as devoted to their generals as Sun Yuanhua?
Zhang Keda knew very well what kind of people the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty were. Civil officials like Xu Xiancheng, Sun Yuanhua and Li Xin were extremely rare. Those civil officials all had their eyes on their foreheads and looked down on the military generals. The reason why Kong Youde rebelled was not only because the local government was unwilling to sell grain to the Liao army, but also because of the coercion of Wang Xiangchun's family.
This was just the housekeeper of Wang Xiangchun's family. If it was Wang Xiangchun himself, it might be even more humiliating. So in Zhang Keda's opinion, it would not be a bad thing for Sun Yuanhua to get through the difficulties and continue to serve as the governor of Leiden. It would be much better than changing someone else.

Moreover, after this incident, Sun Yuanhua also understood a truth, that is, treating others with sincerity does not mean that others will treat you the same way. Being less naive and more practical is actually a blessing for Leiden!
Zhang Keda’s attitude is extremely important because he is the general of Leiden, which means he is the highest military commander in Leiden.

The reason why Xu Xiancheng brought Zhang Keda into the discussion and specifically expressed his attitude in front of Sun Yuanhua was that he hoped Zhang Keda would support him and give some of the credit to Sun Yuanhua, so that he could keep Sun Yuanhua.

Xu Xiancheng was very happy with Zhang Keda's attitude. As a good friend, Li Xin also persuaded Sun Yuanhua in the same way. Seeing them like this, Sun Yuanhua felt even more ashamed and grateful.

(End of this chapter)