Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 9 The policy of the country and the court, borrowing captives to fight against the bandits
The voices of people in the city were full of people shouting and killing, which made Wang Aoyong, who hid in the backyard, tremble with fear.

There were more than 1000 Qing soldiers in the city. When they found that Zhao Jun had entered the city, they would definitely come to rescue him.

Zhao Jun will search the backyard soon, but Wang Aoyong dare not wait, so he has no choice but to climb over the wall and hide in the gentry's house.

As the saying goes, the army was defeated like a mountain, and the Zhao army who entered the city hardly encountered any decent resistance. Qingzhou was recruited by the Qing court for more than a month, and there was no loyalty. Therefore, after the Qing army in the city learned that Wang Aoyong was missing, many officials were captured. After that, the birds turned into beasts and scattered, and some even changed suddenly and became Zhao Jun's subordinates.

After hastily bandaging the bandages, Wang Yan commanded the soldiers to raise the bright flag and put up a notice of safety for the people.

Only then did the Qingzhou gentry know that Qingzhou City had undergone another major change in the king's banner, and everyone became citizens of Daming again.

Seeing that the Qing army had lost its momentum in Qingzhou, those officials and gentry who had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty immediately surrendered to Zhao Yingyuan, and Wang Aoyong hid in Han Zhaoxuan's mansion in Qingzhou Road appointed by the Qing court.

Facing Zhao Jun's search at this time, in order to save his life, Han Zhaoxuan had no choice but to sacrifice Wang Aoyong to Zhao Yingyuan.

The next day, Zhao Jun set up an altar outside the city, and killed Wang Aoyong and other people who shaved their hair and threw themselves into the Qing!

Shandong was shaken for a while, and the anti-Qing rebels swarmed again. The leaders of the anti-Qing armed forces in Lechang and Shouguang, which were closer to Qingzhou, Qin Shangxing, Guo Bapai and others sent envoys to Qingzhou, expressing their willingness to follow Zhao Yingyuan's order to fight against the Qing.

In order to expand his influence, Zhao Yingyuan followed Wang Yanzhi's words and wanted to support the palace of the Heng feudal clan, calling for far and near, but Heng Wang was a pustule. Qing, and caused the disaster of killing one's body, only to know "weeping, eyes swollen like peaches".

Seeing this, Wang Yan was very angry. Everyone went through fire and water for your old Zhu family. As a descendant of the Taizu, he behaved like this, which really chilled people, and it cast a layer of gloom on his heart.

Zhao Yingyuan doesn't care about this, he just wants a title, whether you want King Heng or not, it's better if you don't come to seize power with him.

What he saw for many days also made Wang Yan see clearly Zhao Yingyuan's nature as a warlord, but for the great cause of Shandong's resistance against the Qing Dynasty, and also for the sake of preventing the scenes in his dreams from appearing, he still had to make suggestions for him, and he must stop the Qing army.

More than ten days passed in a flash. Since Zhao Jun captured Qingzhou, he had no new actions except to bring back the old and weak who were stranded outside.

It's not that Zhao Yingyuan didn't want to do anything, but that his strength was limited. He had only four or five hundred soldiers ready to fight, and after surrendering the Qing soldiers in the city, there were only about 500. Moreover, there were more new soldiers than old soldiers, and the army was unstable. , he didn't dare to take any action at all.

This day, Wang Yan was taking people to check Qingzhou government treasury, but suddenly someone came to report, saying that Zhao Yingyuan called him back urgently.

Wang Yan then put down what he was doing, and followed the visitors back to the state office quickly, but seeing Zhao Yingyuan and Yang Wangxiu sitting in front of them with gloomy faces, he couldn't help feeling ominous in his heart.

On August 29, King Yang Xiu went south to find Li Huaxi to discuss the matter of surrendering to Daming and begging for reinforcements.On August [-]th, Zhao Yingyuan and Wang Yan fraudulently captured Qingzhou and executed Wang Aoyong.Today is August [-]th, and it took nineteen days for Yang Wangxiu to return to Qingzhou.

These days, Zhao Yingyuan has been proud of himself. If things went well, the two of them would not have such expressions. Could it be that the officials in the south really want to sit back and watch Shandong fall.

"Since Shi Heng has arrived, Master Yang will tell him about the situation!" After Wang Yan came in and made him take a seat, Zhao Yingyuan said sullenly.

"I didn't expect that things really happened as General Zhao said." Yang Wangxiu also had a serious face, and slowly told what happened this time going south. "I met Li Huaxi on August 22. I made it clear that I would surrender, but I couldn't beg for reinforcements. Then on August [-], I searched for the Shidu Division in Jiangbei, and begged hard, but I couldn't help. If you offend the Qing court, you will not support Shandong at all!" Speaking of this, Yang Wangxiu beat his chest and feet, heartbroken, "We have become abandoned people."

"What? Allied with the captives to defeat the bandits?" Wang Yan turned pale with shock, and a burst of evil fire suddenly burst into his heart. "Corrupt Confucianism harms the country! The remonstrance of the Song Dynasty is still in front of our eyes. If the ministers are like this, don't they just sit and watch the country fall! Aren't they afraid of being criticized by thousands of people?"

Since Hongguang ascended to the pole and Shi Gong supervised the teacher, the people of Shandong have all been thinking about the suburbs, looking south to Wang Shi, as if looking forward to the rain.However, the southern monarchs regard Dashun as a thief, regard Qing as a friend, disregard the righteousness of the nation, hold back their troops, surrender thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, and trap the remnant people in the dust, but they think they have a plan, can sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, and can avoid burning themselves. , Blindly backing down is really stupid.

"Ah! I never thought that the officials in the south would be so short-sighted and pedantic." Yang Wangxiu let out a long sigh, and the three fell into silence.

After a while, Zhao Yingyuan said: "This is the end of the matter. I have nothing to rely on before and nothing to rely on in the future. I only rely on the lone army in the camp. I am afraid that it will be difficult to face the counterattack of the Qing court. Can you teach me?"

After the Zhao army occupied Qingzhou, although it had expanded a lot of strength, once the Qing soldiers went south, with more than 1000 horses in their hands, there was no possibility of keeping Qingzhou anyway.

After the anger just now, Wang Yan has gradually calmed down. It was his plan to seize Qingzhou and ask for help from the south. Now that it failed, he has an unshirkable responsibility.If he didn't come up with a remedy, with Zhao Yingyuan's character, he would definitely not believe him. The Shandong Anti-Qing incident might be completely ruined, and Wang Yan would never allow this to happen.

But how to solve the current predicament, Zhao Yingyuan is a very assertive person, but Wang Yan needs skills. "General! Late students have three strategies, which can be used as a reference!"

"Since there are countermeasures, Shi Heng can come quickly." Zhao Yingyuan couldn't help but look forward to it, and straightened his body and said. "You can speak first!"

"The best strategy is to take risks, but if it succeeds, you will get the most rewards!" Wang Yan saluted slightly and said slowly. "The general should quickly send out the army, go straight to Jinan, take control of the entire Shandong before the Qing army goes south, and then integrate the rebel armies from all directions. You should have the strength to fight. If you can resist the Qing army, you will be rewarded by the Marquis. "

"Send a large army straight to Jinan?" Zhao Yingyuan thought for a while, hesitated for a moment and then said. "There are a lot of soldiers in our army, and they haven't returned yet. The army is unstable. Besides, Jinan is a fortified city. If we can't go down, the army's morale will be shaken. If Qingzhou is lost again, I will become a bereaved dog again. This is not a good plan, soldier. Heng can say the worst thing to do!"

Wang Yan couldn't help but sigh in his heart, now the Qing court is empty of troops in Shandong, and after the killing of Wang Aoyong, the rebel army surged again, Shandong was in turmoil, Jinan Nan Dayou didn't have many soldiers at all, it was the best time to sweep Shandong, but Zhao Yingyuan was obsessed with Qingzhou, unwilling to give up the comfortable life just acquired.

The Peasant Army gave up their mobile combat and clinging to the city. Wang Yan couldn't help but think of another armed force that appeared in his dream. They once swept through most of China, but after they captured Nanjing, they were confused by their luxurious life. , ended in a tragic ending of trapping Tianjing to death.

"The worst strategy for late birth is the safest." Wang Yan continued after adjusting his mentality. "The general can threaten the vassal to cross the south and take refuge in Gao Jie, one of the four towns. He is also from the Chuang army, so he will definitely be reused by him. He will not lose his official position and glory."

"It's not right, it's not right, it's still not right." Zhao Yingyuan waved his hands again and again, "We finally won Qingzhou, how can we destroy the great foundation lightly, and if I don't fight the Qing soldiers, I will flee south in a hurry as a defeated army. It must also be shameless and not be reused, so Shi Heng should talk about the middle strategy."

In fact, there is no difference between Wang Yan's middle strategy and the worst strategy. On the contrary, it is the most helpless strategy. What he wants Zhao Yingyuan to adopt is the last time, followed by the next time, and finally the middle strategy.

The best strategy can give him a chance to directly confront the Qing court, and the outcome is still unknown, the fate is in his own hands, and he can fight bravely.

The worst strategy is to allow him to return to Jianghuai safely, and look for officials who can carry the banner of resisting the Qing Dynasty again.

On the contrary, the middle strategy is the most helpless. If you want to hand over everything to others, whether you can succeed is not up to you, but depends on the fate of the current situation.

"Although the middle strategy seems to be moderate, it is the easiest to turn into a dead end." Wang Yan said helplessly in his heart. "Lansheng recently checked the treasury of the Qingzhou government and obtained 45 taels of silver and 30 dans of food and grass. It is expected that Wang Aoyong was originally using it to recruit the rebels, but now they are all in the hands of the general. With this money and food, the general can recruit troops on the spot and train the army. When the Qing army goes south, it can also defend the city and not fight against the Qing army. Once the Shanxi Shun army wins or the world changes, the general can rely on the prestige of defending Qingzhou alone to sweep the Qing army and make an indelible achievement! "

"This strategy really suits me!" Zhao Yingyuan was unwilling to take risks, and he was also reluctant to get his hands on the foundation. Zhao Jun was his old subordinate, so the fate of the entire Qingzhou was naturally up to him. "Then trouble Master Wang and Shi Heng to deal with recruiting new soldiers and perfecting the city defense."

"Willing to serve the general!" Wang Yan could only say in unison with Yang Wangxiu.

"I will make Qingzhou like an iron barrel." Zhao Yingyuan was very satisfied, and then waved his hand. "Okay, you two get back and get ready!"

"Yes!" Wang Yan and the melancholy Yang Wangxiu exited the lobby together.

After parting, Wang Yan acted immediately.

He asked the soldiers to set up flags at the four gates to recruit soldiers. Horses were given four taels of silver, mule soldiers were given three taels of silver, and infantry soldiers were given one tael plus one more.Many anti-Qing righteous men around Qingzhou came to vote one after another. In four or five days, Wang Yan recruited five hundred people, which made his gloomy mood a lot better.

In a blink of an eye, the fifth day of September came, but Qingzhou welcomed a wave of guests from the south. Zhao Yingyuan was very concerned at first, but he realized that his responsibility was not to appease Shandong, but to envoy the Qing court to the north, and then he ignored him.

Wang Yan took over the responsibility of entertaining Zuo Maodi's Northern Mission, and talked with him a lot. When they parted, he said in tears: "I advise you not to listen to the suggestion of donating swallows, every inch of mountains and rivers is worth every inch of gold!"

When the northern mission was heading north, another bad news came from the north, and the city of Qingzhou suddenly felt like a formidable enemy.

(End of this chapter)