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

Chapter 567 Suppressing Bandits
A month later, news finally came from Qinghai.

Su Tai and Namu Zhong, who had been fighting fiercely for the position of the Great Khan of Mongolia, finally reached an agreement in private. Both sides would no longer mention the right of succession to the position of the Khan, and the matter ended there.

In addition, the two decided to divide the remaining tribes of Ligdan Khan into two, with Sutai mother and son and Namu Zhong mother and son each leading a part, and then divide the spheres of influence, separating them with the north and the south as the boundary.

After discussing all this, Lindan Khan's people were divided into two tribes, which were respectively managed by Lindan Khan's eldest son Erkong Golo Ezhe and youngest son Abunai as taijis. However, they were still young, so the power of the tribe naturally fell into the hands of their mothers.

After the division of tribes and pastures, the two sides officially separated. Thus, the Ligdan Khan, who once dominated the grasslands and commanded the entire Mongolia, fell apart and came to an end. With the dismantling of Ligdan Khan's tribe, the title of Mongolian Khan, which had lasted for more than three centuries on the grasslands, also disappeared.

What happened on the grassland did not affect the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty was still in a state of panic. The rebellion of Kong Youde in Shandong and Leiden had just been quelled, and something happened again on Pi Island. Mao Wenlong's adopted son Mao Chenglu also mutinied on Guanglu Island. After Mao Wenlong's death, Mao Chenglu was extremely dissatisfied with the court. He tried to appeal for Mao Wenlong's innocence everywhere but was always met with a rebuff.

In order to control Pi Island, Yuan Chonghuan first split up Mao Wenlong's deployment, and then sent Mao Chenglu, who had the highest military achievements and prestige, to Guanglu Island, thus marginalizing him.

Mao Chenglu on Guanglu Island was greatly disappointed with the imperial court and cursed it every day. Not long ago, after learning that Kong Youde had rebelled in Shandong with great momentum, Mao Chenglu, who had long been dissatisfied with the imperial court, also hurriedly started a rebellion on Guanglu Island, intending to echo Kong Youde and teach the imperial court a lesson.

But Mao Chenglu never expected that Kong Youde's rebellion would be quelled so quickly. Because of Xu Xiancheng, Kong Youde's rebel army was wiped out by officers and soldiers in less than a month, and Kong Youde was captured alive by Li Xin on the battlefield.

Mao Chenglu was shocked when the news came. He couldn't understand why Kong Youde was defeated so quickly. If he had known that Kong Youde would be defeated so quickly, Mao Chenglu would not have rebelled so easily. But it was too late to say these things now. The rebellion flag had been raised. Mao Chenglu had led his troops to fight two battles with Huang Long of Pi Island. Although he won both battles, he failed to completely defeat Huang Long. Now Kong Youde was gone again. Mao Chenglu could not stand alone and was about to face the danger of being besieged from all sides.

Not long after, Emperor Chongzhen saw that the Leiden Rebellion was completely quelled, so he sent the troops transferred from Liaodong back to Liaodong, and asked Zu Kuan to lead the troops to join forces with Huang Long of Pi Island to wipe out Mao Chenglu's troops.

The two sides fought a fierce battle. Although Mao Chenglu was a good fighter, he had few troops and was no match for four hands. Moreover, he launched the war in a hurry and did not have enough food and grass. Soon the situation became unfavorable and he was gradually surrounded.

In the end, Mao Chenglu was trapped in an isolated city and could no longer resist. His subordinates opened the city and surrendered, and Mao Chenglu was captured. Later, Mao Chenglu and his subordinates Chen Guangfu, Su Yougong and others were escorted to the capital, and Emperor Chongzhen ordered them to be executed by slow slicing, and the rebellion was finally quelled.

Both rebellions were related to the former generals of Pi Island. After these two rebellions, Pi Island's strength was greatly damaged. Several famous generals under Mao Wenlong were either executed for being involved in the rebellion or marginalized because of the rebellion. For example, Geng Zhongming was one of them. Although he escaped the charge of colluding with Kong Youde, Xu Xiancheng did not dare to use him, let alone let him lead troops. After a period of operation, Xu Xiancheng sent Geng Zhongming to Henan and broke up his subordinates. Even if he had other intentions in Henan, he could not make any waves.

Not only Geng Zhongming, but also guerrilla general Zhang Tao and several other Liao generals were either settled in Huguang or sent to Fujian. In this way, the hidden dangers in Shandong were resolved.

However, there is still one person who has not been dealt with, and that is Guanglu Island's deputy general Shang Kexi.

Shang Kexi was Mao Chenglu's deputy when Mao Chenglu started the rebellion and served as the naval commander. After the rebellion, Shang Kexi led the Pidao navy to fight against the Ming army many times and gained a lot. When the Ming army reinforcements arrived and surrounded Guanglu Island, Shang Kexi, who was at sea, saw that the situation was hopeless and led the navy to surrender to Huang Taiji without looking back.

Upon learning that Shang Kexi had surrendered, Huang Taiji was overjoyed and treated Shang Kexi with great courtesy. He appointed him commander-in-chief, incorporated his troops into the Han Army's Bordered Blue Banner, and gave him a resounding title, "Tianzhu Army."

When the news of Shang Kexi's surrender to the enemy reached the capital, Emperor Chongzhen was so angry that his nose was crooked, but he could do nothing about Shang Kexi who had already run to Huang Taiji's side. He could only hold his anger in his heart and not vent it.

At this time, good news finally came, which made Emperor Chongzhen slightly happy. The good news was that Cao Wenzhao, who was sent to Shanxi to encircle and suppress Wang Jiayin and Gao Yingxiang's troops, won a great victory.

After Cao Wenzhao arrived in Shanxi, he set about encircling and suppressing the various rebel forces. At that time, the rebel forces in western Shanxi had become powerful, and Wang Jiayin, Gao Yingxiang and other forces were in high spirits and were intending to march towards central Shanxi.

After Cao Wenzhao arrived, he first defeated a rebel army that had entered central Shanxi, annihilated a thousand enemies, and captured the enemy leader. Then, Cao Wenzhao continued to lead his troops westward and confronted Wang Jiayin's troops head-on. Although Wang Jiayin's troops were several times more than Cao Wenzhao's, Cao Wenzhao's army was very fierce, and Cao Wenzhao himself was experienced in many battles. In several battles, he forced Wang Jiayin to retreat step by step, and pushed the front line forward by a hundred miles in one fell swoop.

Wang Jiayin steadied his pace and negotiated with Cao Wenzhao, using the complex terrain of Shanxi to create a stalemate. Cao Wenzhao was very anxious after several fruitless attacks. At this time, he happened to hear that one of his subordinates was related to Wang Jiayin. Cao Wenzhao hurriedly found the person to inquire about the situation. Only then did he learn that the subordinate's sister was captured by Wang Jiayin when Wang Jiayin conquered western Shanxi, and then became Wang Jiayin's woman, which means that this subordinate was Wang Jiayin's cheap brother-in-law.

After hearing the news, Wang Jiayin had an idea. He asked the man to pretend to surrender to Wang Jiayin, then sneak into Wang Jiayin's army and find a way to get rid of Wang Jiayin. The subordinate readily agreed to surrender to Wang Jiayin under the temptation of Cao Wenzhao's official position and huge benefits, and used the relationship between the two parties and his eloquence to gain Wang Jiayin's trust.

Soon after, this man took advantage of Wang Jiayin's drunkenness and sneaked into Wang Jiayin's tent to kill him. After Wang Jiayin's death, he led his men to set fire to the camp, causing chaos. Cao Wenzhao, who had received the news a long time ago, was waiting for this moment. When he saw the fire, he immediately led his troops to charge the camp and completely defeated Wang Jiayin's troops in one fell swoop, winning a great victory.

The famous Wang Jiayin and his followers were easily wiped out by Cao Wenzhao. Wang Jiayin died miserably at the hands of spies sent by Cao Wenzhao without even seeing him.

After Wang Jiayin's death, his troops were wiped out and massacred by Cao Wenzhao, and the remaining remnants fled in all directions, some fled to Shaanxi, and some joined other rebel forces.

This battle completely changed the situation in western Shanxi. With the demise of Wang Jiayin's troops, Gao Yingxiang was unable to hold on alone. Seeing that the situation was not right, he turned around and fled, not giving Cao Wenzhao any chance to pursue him, and led his troops from Shanxi to Shaanxi.

Then, Cao Wenzhao reported the victory to the court, informing the court of the good news that the leader of the rebels, Wang Jiayin, had been killed. Emperor Chongzhen was very happy to receive the report, and even his bad mood because of Shang Kexi's surrender to the enemy improved a lot. Emperor Chongzhen issued an edict to commend Cao Wenzhao and asked Cao Wenzhao to continue to work hard to eliminate the bandits. At the same time, he also issued an edict to Hong Chengchou, the governor of Yansui, to cooperate with Cao Wenzhao to attack the bandits who fled to Shaanxi from the east and west.

In order to prevent the bandits from going south or east from Shaanxi, Emperor Chongzhen was still worried and ordered Qin Liangyu to lead the white-pole soldiers from Sichuan to the north to assist Hong Chengchou and Cao Wenzhao in suppressing the bandits. At one time, the Ming army was mighty and set up a net to suppress the various rebel armies. The rebel army was in a precarious situation under the suppression of the Ming army, and it seemed that it was about to be overthrown.

The continuous good news made Emperor Chongzhen feel better. He was not as haggard as before and could even eat an extra bowl of lunch.

In the evening, after reading the memorials in his hand, Emperor Chongzhen, who rarely stayed up late, returned to the harem and had a meal with Empress Zhou and the princes. The meals for this emperor were very ordinary, with some very simple home-cooked dishes. There was not even a glass of wine on the table. Sitting around the table was no different from eating like ordinary people.

After dinner, Emperor Chongzhen chatted with the empress and princes for a while. After testing a few princes on their lessons, he went to Concubine Tian's harem to see the fifth prince Zhu Cihuan, who was born not long ago.

The fifth prince was less than two years old and very cute. He was deeply loved by Emperor Chongzhen since he was born. When he saw the chubby little boy, wobbling and unable to stand steadily but calling his daddy's sweet voice, Emperor Chongzhen immediately smiled and was very happy.

"Huan'er, come here, daddy!" Emperor Chongzhen opened his arms, and Zhu Cihuan stepped into his arms with a giggle. Holding his son, Emperor Chongzhen was very happy. At this moment, he was no longer the emperor who was high above everyone else, but just an ordinary father with a beloved son.

"Your Majesty, you are too tired from worrying about state affairs every day. Let me hold Huan'er." On the side, Concubine Tian was very happy to see Emperor Chongzhen teasing his son, but she was worried that Emperor Chongzhen would be a little tired after holding his son for too long. After a moment, she could not help but speak.

"It's okay, let me hold my son. Look, he likes me so much." Emperor Chongzhen said with a smile. Zhu Cihuan snuggled in his arms, and his little head kept nodding against his chest. Emperor Chongzhen was not angry at all, but laughed happily instead.

Seeing this scene, Concubine Tian finally felt relieved. But at the same time, she also had a glimmer of hope in her heart, because although her son was the fifth son of Emperor Chongzhen, he had several older brothers, and the eldest son was born to Empress Zhou.

According to the royal rules, Zhu Cihuan would not be the emperor, and Concubine Tian knew this very well. However, seeing how much Emperor Chongzhen loved Zhu Cihuan, she was slightly tempted, because among all his sons, Emperor Chongzhen loved Zhu Cihuan the most, and often said that Zhu Cihuan was most like him. What if... what if that possibility happened? It is not certain that a mother will be honored by her son.

Thinking of this, her heart warmed up a little, and the smile on her face became even wider. Just as she was about to say something, there was a sudden sound of footsteps outside, and Wang Chengen, who was waiting outside, came in.

(End of this chapter)