There were shouts of killing everywhere in the darkness around him. An imperial guard rushed to Shunzhi and reported to the emperor what he learned.

Most of the sentries who stood guard outside the camp and then went to ask about the intentions of the Ming army were killed by the Ming army, but some of them fled back. According to reports, the riots they saw were all the Qing army.

"All of them are green camps?" Shunzhi asked in shock. At first, there were some guards in the imperial court guessing that a camp roar occurred, and some people were worried that something had happened to the Mongolian Eight Banners outside. But the surrounding Mongolian Eight Banners camps have now caught fire, and none of them are spared. This seems unlikely to be a mutiny launched by the Mongolian Eight Banners. Besides, these Mongolian Eight Banners are treated preferentially on weekdays, and reasonably, there should not be a reason for rebellion.

There were fire everywhere. In such a short time, all the peripheral camps were attacked. All officers with combat experience pointed out that the enemy's strength was extraordinary. After hearing the report of the imperial guards, Shunzhi looked around and shouted anxiously: "Who can incite the rebellion of the army here?"

The closest one is Lin Qilong from Yangzhou, but the number of river officers and soldiers is limited and distributed throughout the canal. Besides, the emperor knew the strength of the river officers and soldiers. Their combat effectiveness is not much higher than that of the yamen runners. If they want to gather the river officers and soldiers on the long canal to launch a rebellion, it would be too high to be Lin Qilong's ability. In addition to Lin Qilong, the most suspected is the Jiangning Governor who acts as the Governor of the Liangjiang Governor's yamen. However, the Jiangning Governor's base camp is in Nanjing, and the range of officers and soldiers in Liangjiang is even larger. If Jiang Guozhu gathers the troops and sends them across the Yangtze River, Lin Qilong and the local officials in Liangjiang will not be completely unaware of it.

"Maybe Lin Qilong and Jiang Guozhu colluded." A former officer shouted. Only when Lin Qilong and Jiang Guozhu colluded can he know that the army is weak now, and he can send Liangjiang troops across the Yangtze River without knowing it. However, there is still a big loophole in this statement. Even if you know that the Imperial Camp is only 5,000 troops now, Gaoyou is still too far from Nanjing. The incident of Jiang Guozhu gathering Liangjiang troops is too big to completely hide it from local prefectures. If Liangjiang troops are really besieging the Imperial Camp, then it is not only the explanation

In addition to Lin Qilong's participation, it also shows that the prefectures and counties in the two rivers are almost all insiders and participants. Such a large-scale rebellion is too horrifying, and if such extensive connections can be carried out, Jiang Guozhu would not have the need to take action on Gao You. The long distance greatly offset Jiang Guozhu's home field advantage. Even considering the subsequent 15,000 soldiers and horses, Jiang Guozhu should have chosen to wait until the Imperial Camp crosses the Yangtze River and approaches Nanjing before taking action. In this way, the Imperial Camp will be deeply trapped in the hinterland of the south of the Yangtze River and the emperor will find it more difficult for the emperor to escape the trap.

The officers in front of the imperial court were talking in a mess. Those with military experience quickly overwhelmed the young officers' random speculations. They pointed out that Jiang Guozhu's choice to launch a rebellion in Gaoyou only showed that he lacked control over the army and officials in Jiangnan and could not call on them to blatantly rebel, which was inconsistent with Jiang Guozhu's premise of presiding over today's chaos.

Some people also suggested that it might be Zhou Peigong or Liang Huafeng's rebellion, which makes sense. Now they are leading troops to intercept Deng Ming, and there are gathered troops around them, but why didn't Jiang Guozhu and Lin Qilong notice their actions? If Jiang Guozhu and Lin Qilong were also involved, the problem would go around and then go back to the old road - since the Jiangnan officialdom has controlled the army so strongly, why didn't they choose to take action in Nanjing, but to run thousands of miles to Gaoyou to take action.

No one can perfectly explain the above contradiction, at least in such a short time. At this time, the battle around the imperial camp became more intense, and two military camps of the Eight Banners had fallen into the sea of ​​fire, and it seemed that the troops on the periphery could no longer hold on.

"Emperor." An experienced Eight Banners officer saw that the outer camp was quickly collapsed, and he suggested to Shunzhi anxiously: "Do you want the imperial camp to come out to support?"

"How can this work?" Soetu's lips shivered. Although he had heard his father telling about the past many wars, it was the first time he had seen the war with his own eyes. When Soetu heard his father recalling the past, Soetu always heard it very vigorously, but when he saw the fires around him, Soetu felt his heart almost jumping out of his throat and said in panic: "The imperial guards are all slaves of the emperor, how can they let them go out and fight to the death?"

Soetu's words represent the voices of many imperial officers and soldiers. Logically speaking, the Manchu soldiers are all the emperor's personal slaves, and the imperial front comes from Shangsanqi. They can work with the emperor and are even better slaves selected among the emperor's personal slaves. Why do you sacrifice these emperor's most confidant slaves to save the Mongols?

Not only did Soetu and other officials and soldiers in front of the imperial court were unwilling, but Shunzhi himself was unwilling. The two thousand Manchu Eight Banners in front of the imperial court were all the emperor's hearts. Besides, when the war was in chaos, let them go out to reinforce the outer camps, wouldn't the emperor's safety be weakened?

Therefore, Shunzhi rejected the suggestion of letting the imperial camp come out to reinforce and ordered them to strictly guard the imperial camp.

"I will never believe that Lin Qilong and Jiang Guozhu have been involved in the chaos." The analysis of those experienced officers just now was undoubtedly a life-saving straw for Shunzhi. He immediately grabbed him tightly: "It is difficult to distinguish between the enemy and the enemy in the dark. Some camps may be frightened by the frightened officers and soldiers who are killing each other, so persistence should be the best."

Even some senior imperial officers also agreed with the steadfast plan, believing that in this chaos, going out to reinforce the Eight Banners of Mongolia may not be a good way. It is better to wait and wait until dawn to see the situation of the enemy and us before making plans. However, some people believe that the chaos may be an opportunity at the moment. Anyway, the emperor is the only important one. The two thousand imperial camps should attack and cover Shunzhi to fight out while the chaos is in trouble. Soetu is one of them.

It’s just that the people who advocated breaking through were still quarreling about where to break through. Some people thought they should go to Gaoyou City, but the rebels might have guessed this, and no one dared to guarantee that Gaoyou did not participate in the rebellion; escaping north was also an option, but the rebels might even place heavy ambush on this line; some people advocated risky moves to break through Yangzhou, where the city was high and deep, and there were also a large number of officers and soldiers from the Liangjiang and rivers. However, even if someone dared to guarantee that Lin Qilong and Jiang Guozhu were not involved, Shunzhi would not dare to joke about his life. Maybe there were still a large number of rebel soldiers coming from the south. Wouldn’t they fall into the trap of the trap?

While there was endless disputes in front of the imperial court, Deng Mingzheng commanded the troops to clear the Qing army's peripheral camp. After attacking the camp of the Mongolian Eight Banners, the Ming army did not immediately launch a deep attack, but fought along the trenches and the camp walls, constantly expanding its own control area.

"Watch the Tartar Emperor breaks through!"

Deng Ming repeatedly emphasized before the war that the key to this battle was whether Shunzhi could be killed. If Shunzhi escaped, it would be more than worth the loss even if the five thousand imperial camps were annihilated.

Only by killing Shunzhi can the emperor's personal expedition plan be interrupted and the pressure for Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi was eliminated. If the Qing court could be put into a temporary unruly situation, it would also be indirectly helpful to Zheng Chenggong's plan to expedition to Taiwan and Li Dingguo in Yunnan. Apart from these benefits to allies, it is also a common requirement of the Qing governors of the Southeastern Manchus. Only when Shunzhi dies will they get a chance to breathe.

More than a month ago, when Zhang Chao and Dong Weiguo asked Deng Ming to entrust their orphans, Deng Ming persuaded them anyway - since they were all dead and the destruction of the clan, what else can they be afraid of? But the governor and governor of Jiangxi still dared not. They told Deng Ming that although they were the first and second leaders of Jiangxi, they did not have the opportunity and time to cultivate a confidant who was absolutely loyal to them, and their control over the Jiangxi officialdom and army came from the court to a large extent. Zhang Chao privately told the

Deng Ming said: If he openly showed off his anti-bank, he would probably be less capable of gathering people than Jin Shengheng. Especially in the context of Shunzhi's personal expedition, once he heard that the emperor crossed the Yangtze River and came to attack Jiangxi in person, many people would probably want to make meritorious contributions and tied up Zhang Chao and handed it over to Shunzhi. Even Dong Weiguo might be lucky and hoped to betray Zhang Chao to find a way out for his family by betraying Zhang Chao. If Zhang Chao did not rebel openly, informing him might not be able to save Dong Weiguo.

So Deng Ming came up with another plan after thinking hard, which was to disguise the Ming army to attack the imperial camp in Shunzhi, and Liangjiang and Huguang provided convenience for this.

Zhang Chao and Dong Weiguo were able to accept this plan. Although they were frightened by the reputation of the Eight Banners of Manchuria and were very afraid, since they were desperate and had nothing to lose, why not struggle to fight to the death?

The desperate Jiang Guozhu and Lin Qilong also supported Deng Ming's second plan. Like Zhang Chao and Dong Weiguo, they all believed that they could not incite enough green camps to attack the imperial camp, and they could not guarantee that such rebellion involving tens of thousands could be kept confidential. However, they could still use their power to cover up Deng Ming's army's whereabouts, provide food and grass to the Ming army that was dressed up in the green camp, or help Deng Ming find out the news.

Zhang Changgen, who was far away in Wuchang, finally learned about this plan and after receiving a secret letter from Zhou Peigong, Zhang Changgen also expressed his full support. Among the governors and governors involved in the plot, Zhang Changgen had the strongest mobilization ability. After learning that Shunzhi must be in person, Zhang Changgen even seriously considered the feasibility of defecting to the Ming court - Zhang Changgen had been operating his own power for the longest time, the cleaning work was the most thorough, and he had a savings to be used as military expenses. However, casting the Ming Dynasty was the last resort for Zhang Changgen, because in this way he would inevitably be taken to the Sichuan Army and the Kuidong Army to take a large area of ​​territory, and Zhang Changgen did not dare to say how many people in Huguang would follow him - this was just better than being killed and destroyed.

Shunzhi must die, and the governors who participated in the conspiracy reached an unprecedented agreement on this issue, which was the best result for Deng Ming. If Shunzhi escaped and there was no major turmoil in the Qing court, the pressure from Zhang Huangyan, Zheng Chenggong and Li Dingguo would not be significantly reduced, and it is difficult to say what the governors who participated in the conspiracy would do in despair.
Chapter completed!