Shandong, Dengzhou Prefecture.

"Wei Donggua, what's wrong with calling everyone today?"

The townsmen who surrounded each other shouted loudly.

Recently, people in Jiaodong have been restless and uneasy, and rumors are everywhere that the army is going to fight back to Shandong. Eighteen years later, this land in Shandong will finally be replaced with a red flag.

Of course, this kind of commotion was caused by the Ming army in Zhoushan. Before arriving in Jiangnan, Ren Tang and others were swaying between Zhejiang and Shandong, and did not determine the final target. Moreover, after launching an attack on Zhejiang, the Sichuan army was still thinking about winning the results in Zhejiang and then moving to Shandong. Therefore, Zhang Huangyan planned ahead and sent some Shandong people who fled to Zhoushan back to their hometowns to spread news and inform the gentry who secretly supported the Ming army.

As for the prefectures and counties in Shandong, there were also tides after April. At that time, the Sichuan Army had just arrived at the estuary of the Yangtze River. There were rumors everywhere that the number of soldiers exceeded 100,000, and the soldiers were directed to Shandong and planned to use Shandong as a springboard to attack Beijing. The Qing court did not believe this statement, because Beijing generally believed that the Sichuan Army could repeatedly flow along the Yangtze River because of their navy advantage, but did not have the ability to fight against the elite Qing court in the northern plains.

Of course, Shandong also knows the principle of "south boats and north horses", but it concerns the black hats and lives of officials at all levels in Shandong. They are still very nervous. Beijing also sent some reinforcements to Jinan for safety reasons. Until May, after the war broke out in Zhejiang, Shandong's alarm was still not lifted. Many people in Beijing were also worried that the Sichuan army would expand its troops in Zhejiang, and then siege Nanjing or attack Shandong in the north.

However, in the past month, the storm has gradually subsided. Because Zhoushan knew that the Sichuan army would not continue to attack Shandong, the teams sent to investigate returned to Zhoushan one after another. The Shandong gentry who had connections with Zhang Huangyan also received news that Zhang Shangshu asked them to stop all preparations immediately, not to reveal flaws, or to be noticed by the Shandong government.

The government in Shandong is well-informed. When Jiangning, Suzhou and other places were once again in emergency with Beijing, they also knew that the Sichuan army was probably going back. Qing officials in Jinan and other places breathed a sigh of relief, and wrote letters to impeach colleagues in Southeast Asia. In the past, the northern provinces criticized Liangjiang and Huguang, but now Zhejiang has been added. Beijing is also willing to use these memorials to threaten the Southeast, so that they know that they are in a state of being guilty and meritorious.

After the Battle of Gaoyou Lake, the impeachment attack on the governor of the Southeast reached its peak. At that time, the governors of the north criticized several governors and governors in the southeast were scolded to death. But after the news of the "Kangxi" case came out, the governors of the north felt that the water was deep. The Empress Dowager, the Minister of the Regent, and Prince Beile seemed to have been involved in a lot, so they collectively gathered the voices, and no one wanted to offend people in a confused manner when they were unable to figure out the situation. But over a year later, this major case was still foggy, and the ministers of the regent refused to admit it. Now the battle in Gaoyou Lake has become a taboo in the Qing Dynasty. Except for the princes, no one would raise the mystery of the death of the early emperor in public.

At this time, Beijing and Jinan also knew that the Sichuan Army was about to withdraw. Even if the gentry in Shandong had no relationship from Zhoushan, they knew more or less from relatives and friends: the Ming army's invasion was about to be repelled by Liangjiang, Zhejiang and Huguang. Although the Qing court was already considering the aftermath of the Sichuan Army's retreat, the people at the bottom still knew nothing about it. Without developed media, it took a long time for information to spread from the top of society to the bottom. It was precisely because of this lag period that while the Ming army withdrew, rumors about the Ming army's northern expedition in rural Shandong had just reached its peak.

Today, Wei Donggua, who was summoned by everyone, expressed her serious expression: "I called my brothers here today, because Mr. Yu has something to do."

The Lord Yu in Wei Donggua's mouth is Yu Qi, the president of Qixia County.

In the early years of Shunzhi, Yu Qi organized a rebel army to resist the Qing army in Shandong. In the sixth year of Shunzhi, he accepted the Qing court's pacification and became the chief general of Qixia County. Although Yu Qi was just a chief general, he became a rich man after receiving the recruitment. The manor built by the Yu family in Qixia County was the largest in Shandong. In the manor, Yu Qi also accepted hundreds of green forest heroes and supported the opening of martial arts halls from various underworlds, so that his power spread throughout Jiaodong.

Last year, in October of the 18th year of Shunzhi, Yu Qi's brother Yu Jiu and Yu Shi beat Song Yibing, the gentry of Laiyang for gambling trivial matters. This person was the son of the former minister of the Ministry of War of the Qing Dynasty, and an uncle was the censor of Shandong. However, the Yu brothers did not take Song Yibing seriously. The Yu brothers did not say anything about gambling, but beat him hard. Song Yibing was furious, but as the son of the minister, the nephew of the censor, he had no choice but to treat the Yu brothers. Even Song Yibing's uncle advised him to settle things and not to be with Yu Qi, a younger brother who dominated Shandong.

Song Yibing, who was full of resentment but had nowhere to vent, sued Beijing for this and asked his father's old friend to send him a letter to the court, saying that Yu Qi was indiscriminate, and his uncle, who was a censor, also had an affair with Qi, intending to cause trouble together. At that time, when the Qing army in Chongqing was defeated, 50,000 Sichuan troops went downstream, Beijing was in a state of great trouble and had no time to distract himself, so the case was suppressed.

Although the matter was not dealt with immediately, the officials in Beijing who were inquiring about the case still chose to believe Song Yibing's report - he destroyed his relatives for justice and dragged his uncle into the case, which made people unbelievable. Moreover, Yu Qi was strong in Shandong. After recruiting Yu Qi and his tens of thousands of rebels in the sixth year of Shunzhi, the Qing court's power had been fighting against the Ming army in the south, so he forgot to cut off his wings. After seeing Song Yibing's report this time, Beijing found that Yu Qi was indeed a hidden danger. Regardless of whether he was really planning to be ill-telled, he did have the strength to threaten Shandong's stability.

When Shandong was in a panic, Beijing's handling of Qi was the same as Guan Yizhong's old trick to deal with Ma Fengzhi back then, and did not stimulate Yu Qi too much, so as not to raise an army to respond to the Sichuan army. After confirming that the Sichuan army began to return to the upper reaches and the main force of the Ming army had entered the Yangtze River estuary, Beijing instructed Jinan to take down the isolated Yu Qi as soon as possible to eliminate this hidden danger.

The Shandong local officials' method of dealing with Yu Qi was the same as Guan Qizhong dealing with Ma Fengzhi. They planned to summon Yu Qi in the name of a banquet and then suddenly attacked him and arrested him. However, unlike Ma Fengzhi, Yu Qi was a local snake in Shandong. There were many relationships between black and white. Before the Hongmen Banquet of Qixia County Magistrate began, someone secretly sued Yu Qi. As a result, the Yu brothers refused to arrest him, and instead defeated the officers and soldiers.

After escaping back to his manor, Yu Qi confirmed that he had been convicted of treason, so he decided not to do it and raise another army again, sending an edict to the heroes in Jiaodong to ask them to work with him. Now that the Ming army has left, the people and heroes in Shandong are not so well-informed, and it is also helpful for the work.

Wei Donggua just learned about this. His martial arts school was funded by Yu Qi, and until now, they didn't know that the Sichuan army had retreated. Since the Sichuan army was about to land in Shandong, his benefactor Yu Qi called for an uprising again, Wei Donggua came to summon the heroes around him.

"You have heard of the third prince of Chengdu?" In fact, Wei Donggua didn't know how far Sichuan and Chengdu are from Dengzhou, but who wouldn't know Chengdu as long as he had heard of the popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms? Wei Donggua did not immediately take the banner of Yu Qi, but borrowed Deng Ming's momentum first. While he said, he knelt down to the west, kowtowed in public for a few more times, then stood up calmly and continued: "The third prince has five generals under his command, and they all have the courage of ten thousand men, and there is also the old governor of Wen, known as the reincarnation of Wolong!"

Due to a series of battles such as Gaoyou Lake, Deng Ming became a household name in Shandong, and the name of Wen Anzhi in Fengjie was repeatedly rumored by people.

Although everyone had discussed Deng Ming privately, they never thought that Wei Donggua would mention it so blatantly. For a moment, all the heroes were stunned and looked at Wei Donggua unable to speak.

"I'll invite the second prince!" Yu Qi's letter was just a few quick words, with no slogans for the uprising. In the hasty, Wei Donggua didn't know what name to use, but since it was anti-Qing, it was always wrong to raise the banner of the Ming royal family?

A big man walked out from behind in front of everyone. Without saying a word, Wei Donggua kowtowed to the man three times, and then introduced him to everyone: "This is the second prince of Emperor Lie."

Everyone here was in amazement, and several people were already shouting: "Wei Donggua, isn't this Li Tiezui who sets up a roadside divination stall?"

The man called Li Tiezui looked about forty years old. He strode to everyone and said loudly: "Do you know the third prince of Chengdu? He is my brother! My original real name was Zhu Zhenlong. After Emperor Lie died in the country, he changed his name to Li Tongyao. He had been invisible in the village for twenty years, and Wei Donggua had known it for a long time."

"That's right," Wei Donggua hurriedly came up to add, and took out a letter: "I told Mr. Yu about this, look! This is Mr. Yu's letter. Mr. Yu asked me to protect the second prince to go to his place. Mr. Yu wants to restore Shandong and drive the Jianzhou Tartars out of Shanhaiguan!"

Someone came forward to recognize Yu Qi's handwriting. Since Yu Qi was about to rebel, this matter should not be fake.

Moreover, the second prince was still pushing the fire: "My brother already knows that I am here, and he is coming with a million troops. He is wearing white clothes and armor and carrying my father's filial piety! He will all follow me and rebelliously. When my brother sits on the dragon throne, you can all be crowned kings!"

"Rebel, rebel! Enter Beijing!" Many people shouted excitedly, and soon the shouts rang out.
Chapter completed!