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

Chapter 559 Changes
Xu Xiancheng was ready to send someone to deliver the report and the memorial to the capital that day, but Sun Yuanhua refused to sign his name on the report. He wrote another memorial himself, explaining to the court in detail the process of Kong Youde's rebellion and the suppression of the rebellion.

Although Xu Xiancheng and others advised him not to do so, Sun Yuanhua insisted on doing so. Although he was grateful to Xu Xiancheng and others, he knew his mistakes and did not want to take the credit for himself, let alone share the credit with Xu Xiancheng and others.

Wrong is wrong, and Sun Yuanhua still has some responsibility. Moreover, the entire Leiden including Shandong almost suffered a disaster because of his reasons. Sun Yuanhua, who has come to his senses, does not want to hide this fact, and does not want Xu Xiancheng to get himself into trouble.

Sun Yuanhua was determined to take responsibility for his own problems and accept any punishment from the court, and Xu Xiancheng was helpless.

However, when Xu Xiancheng sent reports and memorials to the capital, he also wrote a letter to the capital, informing them of Leiden's situation and pleading with them to say something good about Sun Yuanhua in front of Emperor Chongzhen to avoid Emperor Chongzhen from punishing Sun Yuanhua too much.

The two most important people are Xu Guangqi, Sun Yuanhua's teacher, and Zhou Yanru, the current Prime Minister. You can see that the high-minded but incompetent Emperor Chongzhen has changed the Prime Minister again. The previous Prime Minister was kicked out of the cabinet by Emperor Chongzhen not long after he took office. Now Zhou Yanru has become the Prime Minister.

After sending out the report and memorial, Xu Xiancheng's next priority was how to deal with Liao generals such as Kong Youde.

Among them, the problems of Kong Youde, Li Jiuchen and his son, and several other Liao generals who rebelled with Kong Youde were easy to solve. Their crimes were clear. As generals of the Ming Dynasty, they rebelled and caused chaos in the local area. The facts were there and they could not make excuses.

But Geng Zhongming and others were in more trouble. Although Kong Youde wrote a letter to Zhang Tao before the war, trying to win over Zhang Tao to attack Zhang Keda together, he also mentioned the plan that after defeating Zhang Keda, the coalition forces would march north and then contact Geng Zhongming to capture Dengzhou City in one fell swoop.

Although Xu Xiancheng had Kong Youde's handwritten letter in his hand, it only proved that Geng Zhongming, Zhang Tao and others were suspects, but it could not prove that they were really in collusion with each other.

When Xu Xiancheng took Kong Youde's handwritten letter to meet Liao generals such as Geng Zhongming and Zhang Tao, Geng Zhongming and Zhang Tao immediately cried out that they were wronged, saying that this was just Kong Youde's wishful thinking and that he had only written the letter for the sake of his colleague.

As generals of the Ming Dynasty, they were deeply favored by the imperial court. How could they follow Kong Youde to rebel? Moreover, there was only Kong Youde's letter. They had not seen Kong Youde's letter, and they had no intention of following Kong Youde in rebellion. If they were accused of intending to rebel just because of this letter, wouldn't this be a trumped-up charge?

Geng Zhongming in particular cried out that he was wronged. He said that he had never had any contact with Kong Youde since Kong Youde's rebellion, let alone any private communication. He was even more shocked and surprised that he knew nothing about what Kong Youde said in the letter. If he knew that Kong Youde was trying to persuade him to rebel, he would have refused without hesitation.

Although he and Kong Youde were sworn brothers, how could personal friendship compare to national justice? Although Geng Zhongming had not been educated, he still understood the words loyalty and righteousness. If such a thing really happened, Geng Zhongming would definitely sacrifice his relatives for the sake of justice, and would not follow Kong Youde to the end!

Not only Geng Zhongming, but even Zhang Tao had the same attitude. He gritted his teeth and scolded Kong Youde in front of Xu Xiancheng, and swore to heaven that he would never reconcile with a traitor like Kong Youde.

Xu Xiancheng had anticipated their attitude. After all, his judgment was just a prediction, and what Geng Zhongming and Zhang Tao said was not wrong. At present, based on this letter and Kong Youde's explanation alone, Geng Zhongming and others could not be linked to Kong Youde, let alone be sure that they had colluded in private to rebel.

But it is hard to believe that there is no possibility of killing Xu Xiancheng, and Xu Xiancheng did not dare to try it, because the consequences would be extremely serious. However, as it is now, Xu Xiancheng cannot directly deal with these people, even if he has the royal flag in his hand and can kill them first and report later, but Xu Xiancheng is not Yuan Chonghuan. Xu Xiancheng also explained this in detail in his memorial to the court. As for how to deal with these people, Xu Xiancheng finally left it to the court or Emperor Chongzhen to decide.

At this point, the Wuqiao mutiny has been quelled, Leiden's safety has been completely resolved, and the next step is to deal with the follow-up issues.

But Xu Xiancheng never expected that when he was making a series of follow-up arrangements in Dengzhou and waiting for a reply from the court, an unimaginable thing happened, and the news shocked Xu Xiancheng greatly.

"What did you say?" Xu Xiancheng asked in surprise.

After the person who reported it repeated it, Xu Xiancheng finally believed that there was nothing wrong with his ears, but he was also extremely surprised.

"Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun are marching towards Leiden? They also sent troops to attack the Leiden army?" Xu Xiancheng and Li Xin on the side looked at each other, both of them were confused, and they didn't understand what these two guys were trying to do.

They knew Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun. Liu Yulie was the Minister of War and Wang Daochun was the Governor of Shandong. How could these two people get together and march towards Leiden and even take the initiative to attack Leiden's army?
Xu Xiancheng was confused for a moment. Kong Youde's rebellion had been quelled, and he had just submitted a memorial to the court. Why did these two guys suddenly appear? And what was their intention?
Immediately, Xu Xiancheng hurriedly called Sun Yuanhua and Zhang Keda to tell them about this matter and asked them if they had any other news. However, Sun Yuanhua and Zhang Keda were also very surprised when they heard about it, and they didn't understand what was going on.

Xu Xiancheng, who didn't understand the situation, could only order the Leiden Army to guard the defense line and send Zhang Keda to lead people to the front line. At the same time, he released Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun in his own name and explained to the other party that Kong Youde's rebellion had been quelled to avoid misunderstandings by friendly forces.

But the next day, news came that Xu Xiancheng frowned after reading the urgent letter sent by Zhang Keda. Only then did he know that after Kong Youde's rebellion, Shandong asked the capital for help. In order to resolve the rebellion in Shandong, Emperor Chongzhen urgently appointed Liu Yulie as governor-general to lead and reinforce Shandong to quell the rebellion.

Shandong Governor Yu Dacheng and Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun had different attitudes towards Kong Youde's rebellion. Yu Dacheng suggested to recruit Kong Youde, but Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun were determined to suppress the rebellion by force. The three of them argued endlessly, and finally Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun left Yu Dacheng alone and led their troops eastward directly, intending to suppress the rebellion by force.

But they never expected that they would learn of Kong Youde's defeat and Leiden's solution to the rebels as soon as they arrived at the Leiden defense zone. But for some reason, Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun did not believe this fact at all. Instead, they argued that Kong Youde's rebels were still there and had even defeated the Leiden army and occupied Dengzhou and other places. As the imperial court's army to suppress the rebellion, they should continue to march forward and capture Dengzhou City occupied by the rebels to completely solve the problem of Kong Youde.

It was precisely because of this that Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun ignored the Leiden Army’s explanation and directly sent troops to attack the Leiden Army.

"Are these two people crazy?" Li Xin couldn't help but say.

He simply couldn't imagine why Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun did this. Are their brains filled with confusion?

"Crazy? Haha, how is that possible?" Sun Yuanhua suddenly said this. When Xu Xiancheng and the others looked at him, Sun Yuanhua sighed and shook his head, saying, "They are trying to steal the credit. They know the facts but ignore them and insist on sending troops to provoke a war. I can't think of any other possibility."

After hearing this, Xu Xiancheng nodded silently. What Sun Yuanhua said was exactly what he guessed, because there might be no other reason except this, unless Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun planned to rebel. But you have to know that these two people are civil servants and have no foundation in the army. They are not Kong Youde, so how could they do such an uncertain thing.

And now he is rushing to Leiden, acting as if he is determined to quell the rebellion, and is even willing to provoke disputes and start a war. Isn't this stealing credit?
Xu Xiancheng had seen clearly what kind of people the officials of the Ming Dynasty were like during his years in the capital. They were afraid to take on responsibilities, but would rush to take advantage of achievements like flies seeing shit. Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun were such people.

Kong Youde's rebellion in Shandong was so big that the court had already received the news. In order to quell the rebellion, Liu Yulie was sent as the governor to lead the troops. The inspector Wang Daochun was a thorough advocate of war, so the two of them would naturally not miss this opportunity. This was also the main reason why they rushed to bring troops regardless of the facts.

But they never expected Kong Youde to be defeated so quickly. When Li Xin and Zhang Keda defeated Kong Youde's army in Zhaoyuan and captured Kong Youde and his generals alive, the rebellion had been quelled. Now the reports and memorials were on the way to the capital. Before the court could react, Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun rushed over.

Perhaps they knew it in their hearts, or perhaps they were pretending to be confused. Seeing that the credit had already fallen into Xu Xiancheng's hands, they were impatient and acted like a fool, just wanting to fight and make some noise, and then use Kong Youde's rebellion to get some credit for themselves.

After understanding this, Xu Xiancheng felt angry and amused. He never thought that there would be such stupid people in the world. Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun could become officials of such a high level with such IQ. Are they all idiots?

What was even more ridiculous was that they were trying to steal the credit and they were not afraid to start a war. Fortunately, he had dealt with Kong Youde's troops one step ahead. If Kong Youde was still fighting Leiden now, these two guys would not only not be able to help at all, but would even make the whole situation worse.

Xu Xiancheng made a decision immediately. He asked Li Xin to go to Zhang Keda's army immediately, bring his own royal banner, and tell Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun to be honest and not be shameless. If they are still ready to make a move, they should not be polite and should fight back directly.

(End of this chapter)