Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 122, Land Cessation and Marriage

After opening the urgent letter, Fang Yong looked at it. As he read the words on it, a hint of joy appeared between Fang Yong's brows.

It turned out that Emperor Longqing was reluctant to let the princess marry far away, so he discussed with Yin Li whether this condition could be changed and the princess could be changed into a noble lady.

The difference between a princess and a noble lady is that a princess is born into the royal family and represents the current royal bloodline.

The status of a noble lady is much lower. She is usually the daughter of a royal family, a prince, or a noble, etc. She may even be a goddaughter adopted from another family to make up the number.

But to Fang Yong, there is not much difference between a princess and a noble lady.

His original intention in proposing this condition was just to prove his sincerity through the name of marriage and to indirectly reduce the court's vigilance against him.

As long as the peace talks are successfully concluded, Fang Yong will not be angry even if the imperial court rejects the marriage.

Yin Li also knew this. Fang Yong had already told him his bottom line, including what conditions he could compromise on and what conditions he could not compromise on.

Yin Li knew this very well, but the art of negotiation requires flexibility. Although the condition of marriage was nothing to Fang Yong, Yin Li still couldn't give in easily. Otherwise, if he left a weak impression on the other party, the other conditions that followed would easily change.

Therefore, Yin Li did not agree to it immediately, but argued with the officials of Daxi for several days about this condition.
During these few days, Yin Li acted very difficult.

He came from the market, and due to the special nature of his job, he not only understood a lot of classics, but also understood the human nature of the market. Even if all the officials of Da Xi took turns to fight, they could not persuade Yin Li alone.

By the fourth day, Yin Li felt that it was about time and was ready to relax a little and slowly agree to the conditions.

However, what he didn't expect was that Emperor Longqing actually gave in first.

"I will cede Huzhou to you, okay?"

When this condition was stated, even Yin Li, who was usually calm, couldn't help but be shocked.

These conditions are great!

Huzhou is an area located between Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Taihu Lake, known as the inland sea, is located among them.

The importance of this place is naturally self-evident. However, for Daxi, Jiangsu was occupied by the Huaiyin bandits, and Jiaxing was ceded away. Huzhou has basically been surrounded by the Huaiyin bandits. It will be captured by the Huaiyin bandits sooner or later, so there is not much point in keeping it.

Perhaps it was because of this idea that Emperor Longqing agreed to cede Huzhou.

However, even so, it is rare in history to cede territory directly just because he does not want his daughter to marry.

Emperor Longqing is a man of passion!
Yin Li naturally had to inform Fang Yong of such a serious situation, so he sent someone to deliver the letter urgently, which was why Fang Yong showed joy after receiving the letter.

On February , the dragon looked up.

Ma Laohei successfully conquered Huangshan, and the officials of Huangshan led the people to surrender.

At this time, Zhang Yuan and Zhai Xun had basically conquered their respective areas.

Huizhou was unified.

On the same day, Fang Yong ordered Gao Li to garrison Huangshan, and Ma Laohei to return to Hefei to garrison.

He led his troops back to Huaizhou and issued military orders to capture Suzhou.

Zhang Yuan ordered his troops to go up the river, pass Jinling and attack Zhenjiang.

Gan Ba was ordered to lead 30,000 newly recruited sailors from Yangzhou to assist Zhang Yuan in attacking Zhenjiang from both sides.

Zhai Xun drove straight into Suzhou from Chaohu Lake, cut off the reinforcements from Gusu to Zhenjiang, and completely surrounded Zhenjiang. Although it was almost impossible for reinforcements to arrive.

After Yangzhou and Nanjing were successively captured, there was no strong city left in the remaining areas of Suzhou that could resist the Huaiyin bandits. It was only a matter of time before the Huaiyin army went south and captured the city. The officials in Suzhou were well aware of this and had long lost the will to resist.

Moreover, the Huaiyin bandits were powerful, and the court did not send a new governor of Suzhou. Naturally, it was impossible for the remaining officials in Suzhou to be loyal to the court.

Those officials whose families had power had already fled to Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, and the remaining group of people with little power had prepared a surrender letter in advance, waiting for the Huaiyin bandits to attack so that they could turn against their enemies, lay down their armor, and surrender with their people.

Nantong and Songjiang, which is today's Shanghai area, had the same idea.

Although this era was still relatively backward, the economic conditions in Nantong and Songjiang had already begun to take shape, especially in Songjiang. Although the imperial court tried its best to prohibit sea transportation, the development of private maritime trade was still rampant and various smuggling activities were very prosperous.

Songjiang is well-known for its prosperity. In this place, as long as you have enough silver, you can even buy a castrated Kunlun slave. It is rumored that it is a foreign farm tool that is very useful.

However, although the two places are prosperous, their defenses are not strong.

Although Nantong has a strong city, it does not have sufficient garrison troops. It is difficult to support the city with only the strength of this place.

Songjiang does have a lot of naval defenses, including three naval divisions, each with 1600 people, responsible for different defense duties.

The three of them together number 5400 people, which is also a considerable defensive force.

The commanders of the three naval forces were named Han Wenlong, Luo Yi and Ding Wanke.

The three generals have different backgrounds and personalities.

Han Wenlong was born into a noble family, Luo Yi was from a wealthy family, and Ding Wanke was from a poor family.

However, there was one thing that all three of them agreed on, and that was drinking the blood of the soldiers.

In Daxi, a general who does not suck the blood of his soldiers is not a good general. Sometimes the soldiers' salaries are not paid, but in fact they are taken away by their superiors for embezzlement, gambling, usury, etc.

In short, soldiers cannot get paid, so in order to support their families, they need to give up their main jobs and do some side jobs.

The better ones became doormen for wealthy families, the worse ones worked as thugs in gambling houses and brothels, or used their positions to exploit the poorer people.

More than 60% of the money earned in this way must be handed over.

This is the origin of "soldiers' blood".

Under normal circumstances, these three navies would still be able to fight. However, due to the rebellion of the Jin bandits and Fang Yong's separatist rule over the Huai River and Yangtze River regions, the logistics and food supplies of these three navies have been cut off for nearly a year.

The Ministry of Revenue refused to give any money, and the prefect of Songjiang was even more stingy.

Han Wenlong, Luo Yi, and Ding Wanke usually cut open the stomachs of their soldiers and took out their blood to drink. Now that the court has suddenly cut off their pay, they are forced to pay for it themselves in order to prevent their men from mutiny.

As an official, not only can he not make any money, but he also has to pay for it himself. How can he seek justice?

More than 5,000 people is not a small number, and the daily food and drink alone is a huge number.

Although the wealth accumulated by the three men through years of exploitation is enough to cope with the situation temporarily, who can bear it for a long time?

Just at this time, Zhai Xun's troops arrived.

Originally, Zhai Xun's mission was to cut off the reinforcements from Suzhou's Gusu area to Zhenjiang. However, what Zhai Xun did not expect was that when he led his troops to the outside of Gusu City, before he had time to get close to Gusu City, the officials in Gusu City surrendered 40 miles out of the city.

On the other hand, after hearing that Gusu had surrendered, Nantong, Songjiang and other places no longer hesitated and prepared to surrender as well.

After all, even Gusu in the rear had surrendered, so what else could these "frontline" cities resist?
(End of this chapter)