East Factory Governor

Chapter 378 Three Generals
Two days later, the team arrived in Datong, Shanxi.

The journey was very peaceful, because Datong was very close to the capital, the imperial court stationed a lot of soldiers, and the general Mangui was in charge, so there were relatively few bandits nearby.

Man Gui personally brought people to the gate of the city to welcome the imperial envoy, Prince Shaobao, and Qin Shuhuai, a scholar of the Hall of Martial Arts.

"Qin Shaobao, I have admired him for a long time!" Man Gui greeted him all the way with his hands clasped.

Qin Shuhuai saw Man Gui's big waist and round waist, and he was full of pride, so he couldn't help but thought: He really is a mighty general.I have been in Daming for so long, and I have seen famous generals such as Zu Dashou, Yuan Chonghuan, Zhao Ratejiao, He Kegang, etc., but I still saw the fierce general brother who wrote the word "brave" on his face for the first time!
So he cupped his hands, stepped forward and said with a smile, "I am terrified, but it is really a crime to attract General Man out of the city to meet him in person."

Man Gui thought to himself, this Qin Shaobao is a man of publicity after all, he speaks so politely, which is very different from those civil servants who put on airs in the court, no wonder everyone calls him a young hero.

"Qin Shaobao don't want to make fun of the lower officials. As the imperial envoy, Shaobao acts as an envoy and takes care of the three sides on behalf of the emperor. How can the lower officials not go out to greet you? Shaobao, let's go to the city to have a rest. The lower officials prepare a little wine , to clean up the wind and dust for the adults."

"Hehe, that's great, then I'd rather be respectful than obedient."

"Safety, please!"

"All generals please!"

The two entered the city, and soon arrived at the General Military Mansion.

Mangui's General Military Mansion is neither shabby nor luxurious, it is quite satisfactory.Just like his character, neither ostentatious nor low-key, what should be is what it should be.

The food and wine are on the table, there are no delicacies from mountains and seas, but they are also considered rich.According to Man Gui, all the dishes on this table were cooked by his wife himself.

In the Ming Dynasty, the wives of officials and eunuchs generally only cook in person when the distinguished guests arrive, which is a very high courtesy to the distinguished guests.Of course, it doesn't matter if Madam made it by herself, what matters is that she went to the kitchen to sort it out.

Qin Shuhuai took the seat without hesitation, Man Gui and Meng Hu were on his left and right sides, and Li Jingting, Lai San'er, Chen Jing and several generals under Man Gui accompanied him.

After drinking a few glasses of wine, before Qin Shuhuai could speak, Man Gui took the initiative to talk about the situation on the three sides.

Since the change of Jisi, the rogues from all walks of life on the three sides have achieved great development, especially Gao Yingxiang from Shaanxi, who has been defeated by the army in Shaanxi, and has captured seven cities and eleven counties so far, laying a solid foundation .

Zhang Xianzhong in Shanxi is a little worse. Although he has a lot of soldiers and horses now, he is unable to maintain a stronghold.In other words, he only attacked areas where the officers and troops were weakly defended, and stationed there first after they were captured.When the official army came to attack, he immediately retreated and switched to the next place.

Simply put, Gao Yingxiang has a base, while Zhang Xianzhong is still fighting a guerrilla.

Qin Shuhuai thought to himself, could this be the reason why Zhang Xianzhong and other gangsters want to worship Gao Yingxiang as the leading brother?

Thinking of this, he asked Man Guidao, "My lord, if you were in charge of suppressing bandits, how would you suppress them?"

Man Gui smiled meaningfully, and said, "Qin Shaobao was joking. Man Gui is just a general of the Great Tong, how dare he talk about the matter of suppressing bandits?"

Qin Shuhuai said, "General Man is worrying too much. You and I are just chatting after drinking, just talking about war on paper, so how can we say it's nonsense. Could it be that we can't just chat?"

Man Gui hesitated for a while, and finally said, "Since Qin Shaobao said so, then we have the right to talk like a drunken lunatic and talk about it."

"Hehe, what General Man said is good, please tell me quickly."

"Nowadays, the rogues on the three sides, in the eyes of the officials, are nothing more than a mob. Among the rogues, there are many factions, not to mention Shaanxi, but Shanxi. There is the Dingbian faction headed by Zhang Xianzhong. The Chuang faction headed by He Yilong, the Gezuo Fifth Battalion faction headed by He Yilong, and so on. These factions are all in harmony with each other. At present, they are going smoothly, and they are very close. If the government and army can increase their efforts to suppress the bandits, they will be exhausted. , when the time comes, they will inevitably complain to each other, and even betray their allies in order to protect themselves. How can these people understand the principle of cold lips and teeth, so to deal with them, you only need to hit them randomly, and after hurting them, they will fall apart , when the time comes, we will attack each of them. Just wait and see, they will definitely protect their own by then, and they might even stab the friendly army in the back."

Qin Shuhuai nodded frequently, what Man Gui said was similar to what Hong Chengchou did in history.The reason why Hong Chengchou was able to eliminate the rogues on the three sides within a few years after taking office was that on the one hand, he used a high-pressure policy that focused on suppression, and on the other hand, he used a strategy of defeating each.

In Qin Shuhuai's plan, he originally had the idea of ​​fighting a few battles with the bandits to cool down the bandits on the three sides.Man Gui said that there are at least three factions among the bandits in Shanxi, which Hua Chen, who has only been in office for only half a month, has not detected.

This is excellent information and can be used at that time.

He said, "What General Man said is true, and Qin also thinks so. By the way, to tell you the truth, General Qin went to Taiyuan to assist in suppressing the bandits, but he knew nothing about the situation there. Can the general give some pointers? "

Man Gui smiled boldly, "Why is Qin Shaobao so polite? You are a superior, so you can just ask questions, and the general will answer every question. There are currently [-] officers and troops in the vicinity of Taiyuan Mansion, and the commander-in-chief of Taiyuan is Cao Wenzhao. This guy originally belonged to the Guan Ning Army, and he was only transferred in the past two months. He is a strong general, and I have heard his name before when I was in the Guan Ning Army."

Qin Shuhuai said pleasantly, "General Cao has been transferred to the general army of Taiyuan?"

Although Cao Wenzhao was not as famous as Man Gui, Zu Dashou and others in history, in terms of military talent, he was by no means inferior to these famous generals.Especially in the matter of suppressing bandits, he made outstanding contributions. For a long time after Yuan Chonghuan, Man Gui and others died in battle, he was known as the number one good general in the pass.

It's a pity that he died early.But with Qin Shuhuai around, he wouldn't die so easily.

Man Gui said in surprise, "Qin Shaobao also knows him?"

Qin Shuhuai smiled, "That's not true, it's just that I've heard of his name. By the way, there's more, you continue to talk."

Man Gui continued, "Governor Yang He's subordinates, there are several people who are also great talents who are good at fighting. One is Hong Chengchou and the other is He Huchen. In addition to Cao Wenzhao, logically speaking, there are these three people on the three sides , the eradication of bandits should be just around the corner.”

Qin Shuhuai smiled playfully, "In terms of reason?"

Man Gui also smiled back, "Hehe, yes, from a logical point of view."

Then, the two burst out laughing.

There is a strong helplessness in the smile.

Logically speaking, the rogues on the three sides should have been eliminated long ago!
But neither Qin Shuhuai nor Man Gui mentioned the second half of the sentence. It was because of Yang He's existence that the bandits on the three sides were not cleared up and became more and more violent.

Qin Shuhuai had heard of Hong Chengchou, Cao Wenzhao, and He Huchen, but he had never heard of this He Huchen.

I thought to myself, since he is a person highly respected by Man Guidu, he must not be far behind.

In this way, Taiyuan has [-] soldiers and three generals!

This is enough.After killing Yang He and suppressing the bandits on three sides, I will have something to sing.

After Man Gui and Qin Shuhuai smiled tacitly, their affection for Qin Shuhuai grew deeper.

At first, he just admired Qin Shuhuai's reputation. After all, as a military commander, it was impossible not to respect Qin Shuhuai who almost turned the tide of the war by himself.

After seeing Qin Shuhuai, he developed a good impression of Qin Shuhuai's unassuming and approachable style.

And after looking at Qin Shuhuai with a smile, he thought of a word, that is, heroes see alike.

It turns out that this Qin Shaobao, like himself, has long seen that the ineffectiveness of the three-sided suppression of bandits is due to Governor Yang He.

Everyone doesn't say it, but it is tacit understanding. This is the highest tacit understanding.

Man Gui felt that Qin Shaobao had a tacit understanding with him.

Tacit understanding is speculation.

As soon as they speculated, the two simply lived in the same room at night and chatted until dawn!

The next day, Qin Shuhuai bid farewell to Mangui and set off for Taiyuan.Man Gui personally sent them off, and did not return until they were sent five miles outside the city.

(End of this chapter)