When officials in Jiujiang saw soldiers standing behind them with weapons, no one dared to oppose Dong Weiguo, but the voices supporting Dong Weiguo were not loud, just a few sparse sounds. In a hurry, everyone could not weigh the pros and cons, and no one dared to say that Zhang Chao could not lead his troops back.

However, Dong Weiguo did not rush to force everyone to express his opinion, but instead invited another person to come out.

"Consul Le!"

Many generals exclaimed in surprise, and the person who walked in with a smile was Le Shaohua, a consul of Jiangxi who was stationed in Jiujiang in Sichuan. Some people immediately guessed that Dong Weiguo had received support from Chengdu.

"According to the Beijing Treaty, the Qing court could not replace the governor or governor when Chengdu opposes it." Le Shaohua said slowly. In the sixth year of Kangxi, after learning that the Ming army landed in Tianjin approached Beijing, the Empress Dowager took the emperor to flee to Chengde and ordered Prince An Yuele to defend Beijing to death. Unexpectedly, Deng Ming did not kill all the troops, and also agreed to the army not to enter Beijing. Yue Le, who was unwilling to be a scapegoat, and other left-behind Manchu princes gritted their teeth and agreed to all the conditions proposed by Deng Ming, without even bargaining: "Now your court believes that Zhang Chao is no longer suitable to be the governor of Jiangxi, and the empire also recognizes it."

As he said that, Le Shaohua took out a document and said to the generals present: "This is a secret decree from your court to Dong Buzheng Envoy, depriving Zhang Chao of all his posts. I have read it. It is indeed a secret decree."

As the special envoy of the Academy, Zhao Tianba was fully responsible for dealing with the crisis in Liangjiang. Although it was not impossible to retain Zhang Chao, Zhao Tianba's instructions to Le Shaohua were that if Dong Weiguo wanted to overthrow Zhang Chao and become independent, the empire should cooperate fully, because this could further weaken the authority and cohesion of the Jiangxi Governor's Office. Even if Dong Weiguo successfully seized the throne, there would be many people below who were dissatisfied. In this way, like Liang Huafeng in the next few years, Dong Weiguo will have all his energy to consolidate his position, and will not have the spare energy to start a war or dare to disobey the imperial instructions.

After Zhang Chao arrived at the border, he would confront the Jiangnan Army. He was facing the army that had been unified under Liang Huafeng, and Dong Weiguo would definitely not send reinforcements and food and grass. Zhang Chao's 10,000 troops would definitely fall into a dilemma of being unable to advance or retreat, and the officers present could not see this. Le Shaohua also promised that the Zongli Yamen of the Suppression of Deng would also stand on Dong Weiguo's side. Although Zhang Chao was comfortable going downstream, it was not easy to overcome many obstacles and return to Jiujiang.

"Prevent Zhang Ni!" Suddenly someone shouted with great force.

"Zhang Ni! I am irreconcilable with you!"

"Mr. Dong, I will listen to you."

The atmosphere at the venue suddenly became warmer, and everyone performed much more enthusiastically this time than at the beginning.

"Actually, I don't want to be this governor." Dong Weiguo wanted to be modest as usual.

"Mr. Dong, you can't ignore it."

Suddenly, there was a pleading sound below, and many people immediately beat their chests and stamped their feet, expressing their swearing to support Dong Weiguo to benefit Jiangxi.

"Since brothers all respect me so much, I have to make it difficult." Dong Weiguo knew that it was not the time to be polite. He had already explained a few words of the scene just now, so he quickly got back to the topic: "These money is all the wishes of my official. Please take it back and buy a glass of wine for the brothers."

...

It was five days after Zhang Chao received the news. Like Jiang Guozhu, the army around him was suddenly in chaos. Soon, the expeditionary troops in Jiangxi not only knew what happened in Jiujiang, but also heard that Jiang Guozhu stepped down in Chizhou. Not only were they homeless, but they also had no gaps in front of them. In just two days, more than 5,000 elite soldiers of Zhang Chao dispersed, and a large number of officers and their subordinates left without saying goodbye, returning to Jiangxi, and went to Dong Weiguo's army to eat food.

"Let's scatter, let's scatter." Seeing that the army had left, Zhang Chao had no choice but to announce the disbandment of the army. The Jiangxi troops stood around dejectedly. After listening to Governor Zhang's last speech, they returned to Jiangxi in groups.

Zhang Chao looked at the departing army and smiled bitterly: "With these ten thousand officers and soldiers, they are just to see me off; I have worked hard to bring them out of Jiujiang just to disband them here."

Zhou Peigong also sold Zhang Chao's boat tickets long ago. Dong Weiguo didn't know if he had to go to Sichuan one day, so he would not force him to take the initiative to ask Zhang Chao's family to take all his property away. In addition, Dong Weiguo also gave him a sum of ceremonies, which was regarded as thanking Zhang Chao for his many years of support.

Zhang Chao, who was full of melancholy, boarded the boat in Anqing.

This boat will not dock in Jiangxi, and will be on guard all the way. Zhang Chao will be allowed to move ashore after entering Kuimen - this is also part of the agreement between Zhou Peigong and Dong Weiguo.

The cabin prepared for Zhang Chao was quite comfortable, cleaned, the bedding was brand new, and fresh tea and fruits were prepared. While sitting by the window waiting to drive the boat, Zhang Chao recalled the scenery over the past ten years, just like Nan Ke’s dream. Just as Zhang Chao was in memory, he suddenly heard a soft knock on the door, and then someone asked outside: "Is Mr. Zhang here?"

"Come in." Zhang Chaoying said.

The door was pushed open with a roar, and a man walked in with a smile and bowed to Zhang Chaogong: "Wheng Zhang, I haven't seen you for many years, and your style is still the same."

Zhang Chao looked at him for a while, suddenly shouted "ah" and hurriedly got up and returned the greeting: "Governor Jiang, don't be fine!"

"Yanyun Yehe, where is the governor?" Jiang Guozhu also wanted to take this boat to Sichuan. Although he hated Liang Huafeng to his core, when he learned about Zhang Chao's experience, his hostility towards Zhang Chao suddenly disappeared without a trace.

"Please sit, please sit, Mr. Jiang." Zhang Chao greeted politely. Like Jiang Guozhu, facing the enemy who had been intriguing for more than ten years, Zhang Chao suddenly let go of all his previous grudges.

After talking for a while, Zhang Chao took out a pair of Go: "There is nothing on the road, I wonder if Mr. Jiang is willing to talk to me?"

"Dare you not obeying?"

...

Seeing the ship carrying this pair of enemies rising sails, setting off to drive upstream, Zhao Tianba exhaled gently and said to Zhou Peigong: "The order from the Academy Council has finally been successfully completed."

In the sixth year of Kangxi, when Deng Ming led his army to land in Tianjin, Zhao Tianba was also in the army. After learning that the Empress Dowager of the Qing court and the emperor fled together, the Ming army was full of morale and felt that the destruction of the Qing court was right in front of him. However, Gong Yan, who was traveling with him, firmly opposed Deng Ming's attack on Beijing immediately. Gong Yan pointed out that if Beijing was taken down, Deng Ming must be defended, and Beijing and western Sichuan were too far apart, so Deng Ming could not be separated; Gong Yan further pointed out that once the Qing court was

If Beijing is lost, it will be no different from destruction in the eyes of the people of the world. Ambitions from all over the world will take advantage of the situation. Deng Ming not only wants to defend Beijing and Chengdu, but also suppress those who compete with him for the world. Finally, the Southeast Governors who were originally full of vigilance against the Qing court would immediately regard Deng Ming as the number one enemy, worried that Deng Ming would take away their territory. Without the deterrence of the Qing court, these Governors could use all their strength to fight Deng Ming.

Therefore, Gong Yong believed that it was necessary to temporarily preserve a Qing court with a disgrace. As long as the Qing court could counterattack, the governors in the southeast could not concentrate on fighting Deng Ming; the existence of the Qing court was also a kind of suppression of ambitious people, and the Qing court would even suppress the various vassal kings with the idea of ​​"I would rather give foreign enemies than thieves". If the Qing court felt that Deng Ming might leave them a way out, he would do so even more.

At that time, many people couldn't help but question Gong Yan, when was the right time to overthrow the Qing court?

Gong Yong replied that Deng Ming needed to wait for Deng Ming to further eliminate the ambitions of the vassal kings and governors. When Deng Ming actually controlled half of the world, or the vassal kings and governors recognized Deng Ming's authority from the bottom of their hearts and lost their confidence in competing with Deng Ming, the time was ripe.

When Yue Le signed the contract and the Ming army was about to perform the contract and retreat, Zhao Tianba saw Gong Yan looking at the city walls of Beijing for a long time and sighed: "I probably can't come to Beijing for the third time. After the General (Deng Ming's position at that time) recovered Beijing... let my son take a look for me."

...

"It should be soon." Zhao Tianba recalled Gong Yong's words in front of Beijing. Gong Yong's children and grandchildren were taken from Shaanxi to Sichuan. Now some teach in academies, while others work in the government. The governors in the southeast seem to have lost confidence in separatism and are getting closer and closer to the conditions proposed by Gong Yong. After the Liangjiang crisis subsided, the Qing court and governor's crumbling prestige would be further hit: "The admiral said that after returning from this expedition, he would be able to redeem all the power of the people of Hubei, and in the future, the annual trade income would be redeemed at least one province."

Zhou Peigong was also happy. The scale of this conflict was quite small and had almost no impact on the transportation of the Yangtze River. Moreover, the armies of both sides only followed Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao for a round, and did not invade the land in neighboring provinces, so they did not cause looting of the local area, and no large number of people were displaced - there was no adverse impact on the economy of Jiangnan and Jiangxi.

Just as Zhao Tianba and Zhou Pei celebrated each other's bombshell, another emergency report came from Hangzhou. This was Zhao Guozuo's request for help.

"Geng Jingzhong announced his anti-Qing Dynasty and restored his wisdom?" After reading the letter, Zhao Tianba suddenly turned angry: "Has he also attacked Zhejiang?"

Although Zhao Tianba already knew that Geng Jingzhong had a bad plan, he thought that the crisis in Liangjiang would be resolved so quickly, and Geng Jingzhong would not dare to take the blame for the world and invade Zhejiang. However, Zhao Tianba underestimated Geng Jingzhong's ambition. Just after learning that Jiang Guozhu was preparing to send troops to Jiangxi, Geng Jingzhong concluded that the battle would be protracted and that this battle between the two rivers would inevitably attract Chengdu and Beijing's attention for a long time. Since Zhejiang would definitely be isolated and helpless in the short term, Geng Jingzhong felt that there was no need to waste time. He immediately announced that he would return to the Ming Dynasty and immediately send troops to attack Zhao Guozuo, the governor of Zhejiang who was the pseudo-Qing.

Since the internal strife of the Three Kings, Geng Jingzhong has been the first heavyweight to openly do so. Geng Jingzhong felt that with the weight of this "first righteousness" and the agreement to cooperate with Zheng Jing to attack Nanjing, the Zhejiang East Army would definitely remain neutral. After taking half of Zhejiang, Geng Jingzhong opened up the road to Liangjiang. At that time, Shang Zhixin also sent troops to Jiangxi, and the entire south would be a mess. Even if Nanjing gave Zheng Jing, it would be good that he could get several prefectures in southern Jiangnan. Besides, as long as Geng Jingzhong acted quickly, he would still have a chance to get a share of Jiangxi.

While making any public, Geng Jingzhong also asked the eunuch who was wearing makeup to deliver the letter to him to Beijing. Geng Jingzhong said in a secret letter to Kangxi that he was loyal to the emperor and this time he was said to be a forced plan anyway. Because many traitors, such as Zhao Guozuo, were entrusted under Deng Ming's wings, and Geng Jingzhong could not defeat four hands with both fists; in order to achieve the effect of each defeat, Geng Jingzhong had to disguise himself as the Ming army and attack Zhao Guozuo who was wearing makeup as the Qing army. Geng Jingzhong begged the emperor to understand his painstaking efforts-although he was not optimistic about the Qing Dynasty, if he only needed to say some beautiful words to bet on both sides, Geng Jingzhong would not be stingy with these few words.

"I can't go back to Sichuan for the time being, and the crisis in the southeast has not completely subsided." Zhao Tianba said with a tense face.

Zhao Guozuo is definitely not Geng Jingzhong's opponent. Zhejiang is now divided into three parts, one of which is the territory of the eastern Zhejiang army, so of course they will not obey Hangzhou's orders; Zhuang Tingyue, Zhu Nianshao and Zhao Guozuo in northern Zhejiang were also guarding against each other. They had negotiated several times before, but the former Jingnan Army in northern Zhejiang firmly refused to go to the south to obey Hangzhou's command. Relying on one-third of Zhejiang, Zhao Guozuo could not withstand Geng Jingzhong's attack. But Zhao Tianba could never watch Zhao Guozuo fail, because Hangzhou was the eyes of the Academy.

The model province in the middle, before leaving Sichuan, the Institute of the Court also specifically reminded Zhao Tianba to ensure the safety of Hangzhou. Not to mention that if Geng Jingzhong succeeds, it will further encourage the ambitions of the vassal kings and governors, and maybe the idea of ​​competing with Sichuan again. Therefore, the vassal kings or governors who want to expand their territory can get what they want, otherwise others will not help but want to try it - whoever dares to make trouble will destroy whoever dares to make trouble. This is the strategy proposed to the Institute of the Court before Zhao Tianba set out, and it was also approved by the Institute of the Court.

However, Geng Jingzhong was the first to stand up, and the imperial army could not attack him anyway. This way, Jiangnan and Jiangxi were both loyal ministers and filial sons of the Qing Dynasty. They had just expelled Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao from "Tong Deng". If they sent troops to attack Geng Jingzhong anyway, it would always be reasonable!
Chapter completed!