Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 161, Fang Yong goes north

Facing the grassland army, Gao Zhi was responsible for leading troops to rescue Huailai Wei.

Meng Liang, the Minister of Rites, went as an envoy to seek peace, carrying gold, silver and jewelry.

In the inner palace, Dai Quan had already ordered people to start packing up the palace's belongings and prepare in advance for moving south to Luoyang.

The guards and maids in the palace were thrown into great confusion because of the migration to the south.

You know, there are more than ten thousand people in the imperial palace, including concubines, eunuchs, palace maids, and a large number of treasures. There must be a sequence in the migration to Luoyang. The difference between who goes first and who goes later is huge.

Therefore, Dai Quan has been very busy these days.

Busy receiving gifts.

Even the Daming Palace, which had always been surrounded by crowds, was overlooked because of this incident.

Xia Shouzhong, the chief eunuch of the Daming Palace, was a close confidant of the Emperor Longqing. He was ordered to personally guard the retired emperor and never leave his side, not allowing him to have any contact with the outside world. Therefore, from beginning to end, the retired emperor had no idea what was happening outside.

In the past few days, because of the mood changes of the guards and palace maids, the emperor seemed to have noticed something.

On this day, Xia Shougong also had to go bribe Dai Quan, so he had a break and was not guarding the emperor.

The emperor pretended to be unconscious, and immediately woke up after Xia Shouzhong left. He took the opportunity to summon a palace maid.

He placed his withered arms on the maid, staring at her with his deep eyes, and asked:

"Did something happen outside?"

The maid dared not speak.

Upon seeing this, the retired emperor suddenly burst out with an extremely majestic aura, which was the powerful aura that came from his sixty years on the throne and the sixteen years he had forcibly sidelined Emperor Longqing.

"I'm asking you!"

The palace maid was so frightened that she knelt on the ground. The huge fear made her tears fall uncontrollably. She was about to tell the truth.

Fortunately, Xia Shouzhong arrived in time.

The maid was executed.

The retired emperor asked Xia Shouzhong the same question, but Xia Shouzhong was not as easy to deal with as the palace maid. Facing the retired emperor's questioning, he remained silent.

Just repeating:
"Your Majesty, you are tired!"

"Your Majesty, you are ill!"

"Your Majesty, it's time for you to take your medicine!"

Not long after, the emperor fell into a coma again.

The retired emperor was seriously ill and was often in a semi-conscious state. Emperor Longqing took advantage of this opportunity to successfully regain power.

In fact, this cannot be said to be a serious illness. The imperial physician had diagnosed it before and explained that it was a normal phenomenon caused by the emperor being too old and his body functions declining. There was no way to cure it, and he could only use tonic medicine to delay aging.

In fact, at the age of the emperor, as long as he is not dead, he can be considered to be in good health.

He ascended the throne at the age of sixteen and is now 95 years old.

The former crown prince was forced to rebel by him, and now the grass on his grave is two meters high.

If the retired emperor had not lived too long, there would have been no possibility for Emperor Longqing, the youngest and least valued prince, to ascend the throne.

A long-lived king is sometimes a good thing, but living too long is not a good thing.

Jia Mansion.

Like the imperial palace, noble families like the Jia family were also preparing to move south in advance.

However, there was a disagreement within the Jia family on where to go.

Jia Mu and Jia Zheng naturally advocated moving south to Luoyang with the royal family. However, Jia She and Jia Zhen had their own views on this.

The servants in the Jia family didn't know much. They only knew that Master She and Master Zheng talked alone, and then had a big quarrel in the room. Even Jia's grandmother couldn't stop it. No one knew what they quarreled about. They only knew that when Master She came out, he shouted that he wanted to divide the family or something.

Master Zhen from the East Mansion also got involved somehow and stood with Master She, not giving the old lady any face at all.

The old lady asked Jia She to send someone to find a way to ask Master Lian from Shanxi to return to Beijing and go south together. However, Master She was firmly opposed to this. Not only did he not help, he also wrote a letter to stop it.

The Second Mistress cried bitterly for this, but still couldn't stop Master She's idea.

The servants were talking about it behind Master She's back, saying that Master She had gone crazy. Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. Shanxi would be occupied by the Tartars from the grasslands at any time. How could they just watch their son stay in Shanxi and wait to die?

Miss Yingchun and Miss Xichun have been looking worried these days.

Naturally, they wanted to flee to Luoyang with the old lady.

But Jia She and Jia Zhen had other plans, so they had to separate from the old lady.

Huaizhou.

Let’s go back to a few days ago.

At that time, Fang Yongzheng and Wu Yuan were planning for Zhejiang.

From Fang Yong's perspective, the imperial court would soon be in conflict with the grasslands in Liaodong, and he would take advantage of this opportunity to develop himself and take over Shandong and Zhejiang.

At this time, disaster relief work was underway in Shandong. Zhai Xun had relocated and educated a large number of Shandong people, and selected the best from the large number of disaster victims to form a Shandong army of 50,000 people.

In Shandong Province, the Huaiyin Army was also deployed throughout the territory. All strategic locations were secretly guarded by the Huaiyin Army. When the time was right, Fang Yong could quickly capture the entire Shandong Province at any time.

However, Fang Yong estimated that the current imperial court would soon go to war with the foreign races in Liaodong. It would be inappropriate for him to attack Shandong directly at this time, for fear of being accused of colluding with the foreign races and taking advantage of others' misfortune. That's why he did not launch an attack.

However, although he would not attack Shandong for the time being, Fang Yong did not stop during this period. He was preparing to attack Zhejiang.

Zhejiang and Shandong are different.

Shandong is adjacent to Zhili and is the lifeline of the imperial court. Once Fang Yong attacks Shandong, the imperial court will definitely send troops to rescue, and then the barbarians will succeed.

But Zhejiang is different. Zhejiang had long been cut off by Fang Yong and its ties with the imperial court were not close. If Fang Yong attacked Zhejiang, the imperial court would be unable to provide rescue from any direction.

Therefore, during this period of time Fang Yong was preparing to attack Zhejiang.

The army had already been assembled, with Ma Laohei leading the land forces and Zhang Yuan leading the sea forces, and they were attacking Zhejiang in two routes.

Fang Yong had already made arrangements in Hangzhou, the center of Zhejiang.

After repeated tug-of-war with Fang Yong, Xu Shaobao finally showed his sincerity.

With the support from Fang Yong, he recruited 500 followers, and then defeated the forces left by the former White Tiger Hall master not long ago. He successfully united the rebel forces in Hangzhou and now has more than a thousand subordinates.

Afterwards, Xu Shaobao handed the list of his subordinates to Fang Yong to show his sincerity.

At the same time, Xu Shaobao also bribed the captain of the city gate of Hangzhou City. Once Fang Yong sent out troops, Xu Shaobao and Fang Yong would work together from inside and outside and capture Hangzhou in no time.

The two sides had already agreed on the time to start the uprising. When the day came, they would take over the city of Hangzhou and then attack the entire Zhejiang province.

However, at this moment, an express letter from eight hundred miles away was delivered to Fang Yong.

Li Ni's letter.

"Brother Yong, I am writing to you."

"The grassland tribes used my brother's hand to transfer troops from the border. Now the grassland army has moved south from Datong to Huailai, and will arrive at Juyongguan in a few days and head straight for the capital."

"Officials in the court held different opinions on whether to fight, surrender, or migrate south. The emperor was incompetent and could not make a decision."

"Guo Zisheng implores my brother to go north to defend the king and preside over the great reunification. The decision is of great importance, and I hope my brother will think carefully!"

(End of this chapter)