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

Chapter 560 Furious

After Li Xin left, Xu Xiancheng wrote a memorial and submitted it to the capital, directly informing the court of the matter.

Two days later, Li Xin and Zhang Keda fought a battle with the armies of Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun in the south of Laizhou. The scale of this battle was not large. Compared with the previous battle with Kong Youde, it took less than half an hour from the start to the end. Moreover, not long after the two armies came into contact, the Ming army of Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun was directly defeated. There were not even many casualties. The entire army threw away their armor and fled.

Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun were the two guys who ran the fastest. After the war started, they ran away when they saw the situation was not right before their side collapsed. The reason why their army was defeated so quickly was because the two of them abandoned their army and ran away first, otherwise it would have taken some effort to win.

Now, they defeated Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun's army without any effort. It was a pity that Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun ran too fast and could not be caught. Seeing this scene, Li Xin and Zhang Keda were also in tears and laughter. They originally thought that they were so stubborn and capable, but they didn't expect them to be so incompetent. How dare such a bunch of people come to steal the credit? It was simply a huge joke.

After escaping back, Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun had basically lost all their troops. In a panic, they hurriedly wrote memorials to the court, insisting that the Leiden Army had merged with Kong Youde's rebels, and that Sun Yuanhua, including Xu Xiancheng and others, had surrendered to Kong Youde and betrayed the court. They demanded that the court send reinforcements as soon as possible to encircle and suppress the rebels and wipe out the Leiden rebels in one fell swoop.

By the time Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun's memorials were sent to the capital, Xu Xiancheng's third memorial had almost arrived. After reading the memorials from both sides, Emperor Chongzhen found that the contents of the memorials were completely opposite, which made him unsure who to believe.

At this time, the court was also in turmoil over the Shandong incident. Prime Minister Zhou Yanru and others naturally believed what Xu Xiancheng said. After receiving Xu Xiancheng's letter, Xu Guangqi also gave advice to Emperor Chongzhen, explaining for Sun Yuanhua and informing Leiden of the truth.

In addition, Xu Xiancheng's identity was also extraordinary. Although his official position was not high, he was one of the founders of the Fushe Society, and the Fushe Society had always been on good terms with the Donglin Party and the Zhejiang Party, so naturally there were many people in the court who supported him. Moreover, Xu Xiancheng went to Shandong to inspect the local area on behalf of the emperor, and he held the royal flag, which was equivalent to half an imperial envoy, so his words were naturally credible.

But some people objected, saying that Xu Xiancheng and Sun Yuanhua were good friends, so it was not impossible that Xu Xiancheng covered up for Sun Yuanhua. Moreover, Kong Youde's rebellion happened suddenly, and Xu Xiancheng was just a civil servant who had never led troops. He only brought a dozen people to Leiden, so how could he solve the rebellion in one fell swoop and deal with all the Liao generals?

You have to know that these Liao generals were all experienced generals with military power in their hands. It is extremely unlikely that they were taken down in one fell swoop by a powerless civilian official and defeated Kong Youde's rebel army.

According to them, Xu Xiancheng might have fallen into Kong Youde's hands, and was even coerced into rebellion by Kong Youde, Sun Yuanhua and others. Everything was a falsehood, nothing more than using Xu Xiancheng to paralyze the court and the emperor, which was not credible at all.

As for Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun's initiative to attack the Leiden Army and not listening to Xu Xiancheng's explanation, which led to the defeat, this is clearly an excuse. Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun were both officials appointed by the court. One was the governor of Shandong just appointed by Emperor Chongzhen, and the other was the provincial governor of Shandong. It is absolutely impossible for them to collude with Kong Youde and other rebels, so their words are more credible.

The two sides held different opinions and argued endlessly. In particular, Kong Youde's rebellion was no longer a simple rebellion after a period of fermentation, because Sun Yuanhua, including his teacher Xu Guangqi, and the current Prime Minister Zhou Yanru, although they cooperated with the Donglin Party, did not belong to the Donglin Party. Now Zhou Yanru had just been appointed as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, and Sun Yuanhua was the Governor of Leiden. Their current strength has been visibly strengthened.

In order to fight for power or to unite as one, the political enemies of Zhou Yanru and Sun Yuanhua would certainly not miss this opportunity. They would use all kinds of tricks to throw dirty water and accuse black as white. Even though some people knew that the problem lay with Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun rather than Xu Xiancheng, they did not care. Even though Xu Xiancheng was half one of their own, they would not care as long as they could bring down Zhou Yanru, Sun Yuanhua and others.

Faced with such a situation, Emperor Chongzhen was also troubled.

Intellectually speaking, Emperor Chongzhen trusted Xu Xiancheng, and Xu Xiancheng's reports and memorials were delivered to the capital first. When he learned that Kong Youde's rebellion had been resolved by Xu Xiancheng and Kong Youde had been captured alive, Emperor Chongzhen was very happy and even planned to promote Xu Xiancheng.

But just a few days later, Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun's complaint memorials arrived. The content of their memorials was completely opposite to that of Xu Xiancheng. They also claimed that Xu Xiancheng had fallen into the hands of Kong Youde, and that Sun Yuanhua, Zhang Keda and others had surrendered to the enemy. The entire Leiden was occupied by the rebels, and the rebel suppression army was defeated.

Emperor Chongzhen was shocked by the news, but before he could ask someone about the truth, Xu Xiancheng's next memorial arrived, which explained the incident in detail to Emperor Chongzhen, accusing Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun of attacking the Leiden Army in order to gain credit. Xu Xiancheng sent someone to explain the situation, but the other party still pretended to be deaf and dumb. Xu Xiancheng had no choice but to defend himself and directly led his troops to defeat Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun's troops.

Both sides had their own opinions, and both seemed to have some truth. Emperor Chongzhen was in the capital, staying in the palace, so how could he know the truth about Leiden? When the officials he appointed said completely different things, Emperor Chongzhen's old suspicious habit came back, and for a moment he didn't know who was more credible.

"Wang Banban!"

"I'm here!" Wang Chengen, who was serving beside him, responded immediately. "In your opinion, is Xu Xiancheng right about the Leiden incident, or are Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun right?"

"This..." Wang Chengen secretly complained. He was just a eunuch. Although he was in charge of the Silijian, after Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, he did not trust eunuchs at all because of the Wei Zhongxian incident, and he held all the power firmly. The current Silijian no longer had the power it once had, and was purely a decoration. Although Wang Chengen was the boss of the Silijian and someone close to the emperor, he was actually no different from a rubber stamp.

Moreover, Emperor Chongzhen was a suspicious, stubborn and self-righteous person. He was often indecisive when faced with major events and even lacked any sense of responsibility.

Wang Chengen had followed Emperor Chongzhen for so many years and knew his master very well. It was not easy to answer the questions asked by Emperor Chongzhen. If he tried to fool him, he would suffer the consequences once Emperor Chongzhen realized his mistake later. But if he told the truth and it was different from what Emperor Chongzhen thought, it would be fatal if he angered Emperor Chongzhen.

In addition, Emperor Chongzhen would occasionally warn the eunuchs around him not to be like Wei Zhongxian, and even said that he was not Emperor Tianqi. The meaning was even clearer, and even a big eunuch like Wang Chengen had to think twice before answering Emperor Chongzhen.

"Wang Banban!" Seeing that Wang Chengen did not answer immediately, Emperor Chongzhen showed an unhappy look on his face and spoke again coldly.

"Your Majesty, I was just thinking about this." Wang Chengen quickly explained, then frowned and said, "This matter is very serious, and I am in the capital. It is difficult for me to judge based on the memorials from both parties. Xu Xiancheng is the inspector appointed by the emperor, and Liu Yulie is also the governor of Shandong appointed by the emperor. Both of them are officials appointed by the court. Logically, they would not deceive the court, let alone the emperor."

"But I think that anything is possible. Perhaps the current situation is caused by the miscommunication between the two sides. In fact, it is not difficult to find out the truth. Your Majesty can send someone to Shandong to investigate and verify. It will be clear who is right and who is wrong."

After hearing what Wang Chengen said, Emperor Chongzhen's expression softened. This suggestion really touched his heart.

But who should he send to investigate? The first thing Emperor Chongzhen thought of was the Imperial Guards. It was the most reliable to ask the Imperial Guards to investigate. However, Emperor Chongzhen could not fully trust the Imperial Guards. In his opinion, anyone in the world could deceive him, even the Imperial Guards.

Therefore, in addition to the Jinyiwei, eunuchs must also be sent. With the eunuchs accompanying them, the Jinyiwei would not dare to deceive him privately, and this is the only way to get to know the truth.

Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen immediately made a decision and ordered the eunuch Gao Qiqian to go to Shandong with the Jinyiwei. In addition to this arrangement, Emperor Chongzhen also issued an order to Shanhaiguan to lead the general Jin Guoqi to lead 4,800 troops under his command, including Jin Guochen, Zu Dabi, Zu Kuan, Zhang Tao, Wu Xiang, Wu Sangui, etc., to enter the pass to prevent the situation in Shandong from suddenly deteriorating and to protect the capital.

After the imperial edict was issued, Gao Qiquan and the Jinyiwei left Beijing directly and rushed to Shandong overnight.

After arriving in Shandong a few days later, Gao Qiquan refused to leave Jinan Prefecture for safety reasons and sent his eunuchs and Jinyiwei to split into two groups. One group went to Langfang to find Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun for confirmation, while the other group went around Anqiu and then headed north to Leiden to find out the situation in Leiden and make a decision after getting the news clear.

It didn't take Gao Qiquan much effort to figure out the real situation, especially the news from Leiden confirming that Kong Youde and other rebels had indeed been wiped out, and the leader of the rebels, Kong Youde, had been captured alive and was now imprisoned in Dengzhou Prison.

As for the Liao generals in Leiden, whether they followed Kong Youde in the rebellion or not, they were all controlled by Xu Xiancheng and were waiting for the court to decide their fate. Moreover, Xu Xiancheng also said that all the prisoners could be handed over to Gao Qiqian, who would take them back to the capital. Gao Qiqian immediately ordered people to escort the three culprits, Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng, to Jinan first.

Ten days later, when the people were escorted to the scene, Gao Qiquan had someone who knew Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng identify them. Only then did he completely believe Xu Xiancheng's explanation and reported the results of the investigation to Emperor Chongzhen overnight. After learning the truth, Emperor Chongzhen was relieved at first and was very happy that Kong Youde and other rebels had been wiped out. Then he became extremely angry and took his anger out on the lies of Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun. These two guys were so bold to do such a thing. If it weren't for his wisdom and bravery, he might have been deceived by them.

Emperor Chongzhen immediately issued an order, asking Gao Qiquan to lead people to arrest Liu Yulie and Wang Daochun, and escort them to the capital together with Kong Youde and others.

(End of this chapter)