You can't only love the Qing Dynasty when you're eating the fruits of others' labor.

Chapter 158 There is a mole!
"My lord, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Lord Suksaha, has arrived and is urging you to sign the document as soon as possible."

Lying on his sickbed, Li Bayan showed no signs of life. This was the sixth time the Ministry of Revenue had urged him to sign the document.

The housekeeper wiped away her tears and went out to politely decline.
Unexpectedly, Suksaha, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, led a group of soldiers straight in, looked at the already lifeless Li Bayan, and raised the handover document in his hand.

"Your health is not important, work is important. Please put your handprint here first."

He gave a signal, and the soldiers he brought immediately dispersed, searching the room for the silver seal of the Minister of the Treasury.

Li Bayan was too weak to move. Suksaha grabbed his hand, pressed it into the inkpad, and then pressed the document onto it.

"found it."

"Quickly, use the seal."

Then, Suksaha carefully folded the handover documents and left.

Half an incense stick later, Li Shuotai rushed over.

She burst into tears as soon as she entered the door.

"My brother, it's not just this?"

Li Bayan looked at Li Shuotai, who was squatting beside his bed, and tried to squeeze out a sentence.

"Jiang Qingyun has a problem."

moment.

Lee Sol-tae, who had been crying, stopped crying, and his eyes kept changing.

"Brother, you knew all along, didn't you?"

Silence filled the room.

After a long while, Li Bayan finally mustered the strength to utter the last words of his life.

"Don't follow the example of your elder brother."

Li Lutai looked at his younger brother, who had already breathed his last, and his whole body trembled violently. The name that the family had deliberately forgotten resurfaced in his mind!
Li Yangeng!
On that day, Li Yongfang's son, Li Bayan, the Minister of Revenue in charge of the Treasury, died of illness.

The funeral was a grand affair.

The Forbidden City sent funeral funds, and people from all walks of life came to pay their respects. Suksaha, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, sent a funeral couplet and wept bitterly at the scene, almost to the point of pounding on the coffin.

Li Shuotai had no words to express his suffering.

That secret of his will probably be something Jiang Qingyun will keep for the rest of his life.

After the burial, he suffered from insomnia and, after much deliberation, secretly summoned a trusted confidant.

"Investigate a woman for me."

……

August twenty-fifth.

Guiyang City.

High-ranking officials from both the Qin and Jin princes' factions gathered together, and even Emperor Yongli, who was in Anlong Prefecture, sent an envoy.

Two pieces of bad news weighed heavily on everyone's heads.

Article 1~
The Qing government closed the door to surrender and even compiled a long list of war criminals.

The first person on the list is the Yongli Emperor, followed by Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, Bai Wenxuan, Feng Shuangli, Mu Tianbo, Ai Chengye, and others.
Those who are on the list will have their entire family executed.

Those not on the list will all be beheaded.

However, they made an exception for ordinary soldiers, promising that all surrendered soldiers would be incorporated into the Green Standard Army and receive their pay.

Article 2~
Tens of thousands of elite Eight Banner soldiers marched south!
"It's over, it's over! We can't win a fight, and they won't let us surrender. What are we going to do?"

At the scene, the envoy sent by Emperor Yongli burst into tears.

Sun Kewang sneered: "With a formidable enemy at hand, you're disrupting morale. Drag him out and behead him."

Li Dingguo hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped himself.
After a scream, the messenger was torn in two.

The morale of the army was stabilized, but the conflict between Sun Kewang and Emperor Yongli deepened.

……

evening.

"Prince Jin, His Highness the Prince of Shu requests an audience."

"Please come in quickly."

Just as Li Dingguo was about to rest, he quickly put his clothes back on and lit the oil lamp.

"Prince Jin, good news!"

"Is there any good news these days?"

"See for yourself!"

Half-believing, half-doubting, Li Dingguo opened the bamboo tube, and at just one glance, he almost cried out in surprise.

"An official document from the Qing Dynasty's Ministry of War?"

"Correct."

Where did you get this from?

“It was sent by Wu Sangui, the Prince of Pingxi. He also said that he would send over the latest troop deployment maps continuously.”

What is Wu Sangui planning to do?

“King Jin, don’t you understand? He’s nurturing bandits to enhance his own power. We are the bandits.”

Under the oil lamp~
Li Dingguo's expression was priceless, and so was Liu Wenxiu's. ...

That night.

The Qin Palace was brightly lit.

"I think that others might not be able to do this, but the Wu family is capable of it. Betraying their own is a tradition of the Wu family."

Hahaha, everyone burst into laughter.

Sun Kewang paced back and forth in the room excitedly, muttering to himself.

Suddenly, he knelt down with a thud.

"If our godfather is watching from heaven, may he bless his sons to wipe out the Eight Banners."

dong dong dong~
Three kowtows.

Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu exchanged a glance, then knelt down and kowtowed devoutly before the memorial tablet of their adoptive father, Zhang Xianzhong.

"We three brothers will join hands to wipe out the Eight Banners and restore the Ming Dynasty."

Amidst the sparse incense smoke, the memorial tablet of Zhang Xianzhong, the Great Western King, seemed to shift slightly.

……

Five days later.

The Great Western Army held a military parade.

The elite vanguard led the charge, the soldiers marching in perfect unison, well-equipped, their morale soaring, their roars thunderous. This was an elite force built with the resources of the entire Guizhou province, the pride and joy of Sun Kewang.

During the military parade, Li Dingguo asked in a low voice.

Why hasn't the Emperor come?

"Hmph, I sent someone to Anlong Prefecture to invite him, but he said he was unwell and recuperating, so he couldn't come to the military review."

Sun Kewang wore a mocking expression. Ever since his request to be granted the title of Prince of Qin was rejected, he had been filled with resentment and contempt for Emperor Yongli. He then placed Emperor Yongli in Anlong Prefecture.

It was called respect, but in reality it was a semi-house arrest, similar to the relationship between Cao Cao and Emperor Xian of Han, but not quite to that extent.

"Prince Jin, let's ignore him and focus on the military review."

"it is good."

Li Dingguo was displeased, but he respected Emperor Yongli.

……

Amidst the deafening drumbeats.

As Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo each rode a white horse past the formation, they deliberately chatted and laughed, demonstrating their close relationship and confidence in the war.

Subsequently, Feng Shuangli, a fierce general who inherited Ai Nengqi's army, read out the "Ten Hatreds" on the spot.

The greatest hatred was that the Qing court spared the land but not the people, intending to turn Yunnan and Guizhou into a wasteland, killing all the soldiers and civilians, regardless of whether they resisted or not.

The soldiers, 99% of whom were rough and uneducated, were filled with rage, stunned, and indignant. Everyone was filled with resentment, and everyone was ready to fight to the death.

This is also inseparable from the Qing army's bloodthirstiness.

Although it was a rumor, everyone firmly believed that the cruel Qing army was capable of doing such a thing.

After the mobilization, the next step was to carry out intensive military preparations.

The three kings divided their responsibilities and cooperated: Sun Kewang was in charge of logistics preparation, Li Dingguo was in charge of frontline military affairs, and Liu Wenxiu was in charge of transportation.

……

Qin Wangfu.

A high-level military conference is underway.

Li Dingguo's eyes shone brightly:
"Gentlemen, I believe we should concentrate our superior forces to fight outnumbered and outmaneuver our opponents. Before the Eight Banners reinforcements arrive, we should first eliminate Kong Youde's troops, open up the passage between Guangxi and Hunan, remove the danger on our flanks, and then focus on dealing with the Eight Banners troops moving south."

"This is a map showing the deployment of Qing troops in Guangxi."

All the generals gasped in unison.

"Prince Jin, where did you get this?"

"Please don't ask any more questions. In short, there are many righteous people in the world who are devoted to the Ming Dynasty."

Everyone was overjoyed. Before the battle, they had opened their eyes to the heavens, so the enemy was in the open while their own army was in the dark. It was as if they had won half the battle before it even started.

Feng Shuangli cupped his hands in greeting: "Does the Prince of Jin mean to draw troops from various regions as much as possible?"

Li Dingguo nodded: "Yes, except for Guiyang, Kunming, and a very few important passes, leave no soldiers in the rest of the region. With the Eight Banners army pressing in, setting up defenses everywhere is the same as having no defenses anywhere. Let's take a gamble!"

Everyone nodded silently; the logic was correct.

The meeting lasted for half an hour.

Finally~
"I cannot give you my royal guard."

"Is half okay?"

Sun Kewang shook his head.

"None of them."

Li Dingguo felt slightly displeased, but he held back and tried his best to force a smile.

"It's alright, we have enough troops now."

Everyone fell silent. Given their discord, it was quite remarkable that Qin and Jin had managed to cooperate to this extent.

(End of this chapter)