Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 165 Let’s Wait a Little Longer
July 7th (7:)

After Master Huang Daozhou and his apprentice were driven out of the military tent, Ma Shiying also quietly retreated.

He knew very well that Zhu Cilang was acting, and he also knew what his purpose was.

But if he still stayed in the tent under such circumstances, how should he deal with it?
An acting skill to flatter His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?

Pretending not to know that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is acting?

No matter what choice they make, it will put both of them in an awkward situation, so it would be safer to leave quietly.

However, he did not forget the important matter of settling His Highness. As soon as he left the tent, he ordered his personal attendants to call all his right-hand men to his residence.

As a result, when he returned home to change his clothes, he only had to wait for a cup of tea before he saw several people arriving one after another.

"You are really good at scheming! You used a little trick to seize Hangzhou from Donglin. I really admire you very much!"

After Ma Shiying gave a general account of what happened tonight, Ruan Dacheng immediately began to flatter him.

Ruan Dacheng and Ma Shiying were of the same age, so their relationship was naturally extraordinary.

However, his style of doing things was very different from Ma Shiying.

People of Donglin often attacked Ma Shiying in the name of "Eunuch Party", but back then, many of him, the Donglin people, had once curryed favor with Wei Zhongxian. It was really unreasonable to criticize Ma Shiying just because of a few things that everyone had done.

But Ruan Dacheng was different. After he became an official through the Jinshi degree, he was listed in the Donglin School. In the "Donglin Dianjianglu", his nickname was "Mei Zhelan". Even Zuo Guangdou, the leader of Donglin in the Xiansi, listed him as his right-hand man.

However, later on, because he was involved in the internal struggle of Donglin, Ruan Dacheng's routine promotion was obstructed, and his original official position was changed from the Ministry of Personnel, the first of the Six Ministries, to the Ministry of Works, the last of the Six Ministries.

From then on, he turned to Wei Zhongxian and, because of his Donglin origin, worked particularly hard to help Wei Zhongxian suppress Donglin. Thus, Ruan Dacheng broke with Donglin.

When Chongzhen ascended the throne, Wei Zhongxian's party was purged, and Ruan Dacheng was also listed as a traitor.

During the Chongzhen period, Donglin was always in power. He also tried to make peace with Donglin through Fushe, but according to Chinese custom, not killing the loyalists was already a great favor. How could the other factions of Donglin tolerate Fushe to accept him back into its membership?

Therefore, throughout the Chongzhen period, Ruan Dacheng was unable to serve as an official again.

However, things change over time. After Hongguang ascended the throne, Ma Shiying took control of the government. With no one to rely on, he thought of his friend Ruan Dacheng, who was the same age as him.

Afterwards, Ruan Dacheng once again went to the front line to suppress Donglin, and Ma Shiying, who had not much connection with Wei Zhongxian, was labeled as a eunuch party.

I have to mention something here.

Although there are many unqualified people in Donglin, there are also some gentlemen with excellent character and knowledge. However, these people only care about ZZ correctness and do not care about actual results.

What's worse, when some people meet people with different opinions, they will put the hat of "eunuch party" on their heads, but they are quite tolerant of the "small losses" of people who hold the same opinion. Such behavior is really double standards.

Closer to home.

After hearing Ruan Dacheng's praise, Ma Shiying did not show much joy, and Li Yongmao, who was standing aside, even revealed his disgust without any hesitation.

"Lord, we must complete the task assigned by His Highness, but we should not make things too awkward with the people of Donglin."

He knew very well that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince dared to hand over the task of controlling Hangzhou to Ma Shiying, but Ma Shiying would not hand this task over to him.

The reason was simple. Zhu Cilang had a strong army in his hands and did not take these tens of thousands of civilians seriously. Ma Shiying only had the troops under Li Yongmao, so naturally he did not dare to let him get involved in government affairs.

From this, it can be seen that the job of controlling the various government offices in Hangzhou would naturally fall into Ruan Dacheng's hands, but everyone knows the relationship between this man and the Donglin Party, and he will definitely beat him to death if there is any chance.

With a powerful enemy at the doorstep, if something troublesome happened in the city, it was possible that Ma Shiying would be pushed out as a scapegoat.

In this situation, Li Yongmao naturally had to remind his old boss.

No matter what you say, Ma Shiying has already fallen into this deep pit. How can he jump out of it?

"Xiaoyuan is overthinking. His Highness is extraordinary. We should do whatever he says," Ma Shiying paused, then turned to Ruan Dacheng and said, "There are only a few minor officials left in the city. We have His Highness' orders, so I don't think we will encounter any big troubles."

These words were probably meant to comfort him, but at this moment Ruan Dacheng was preoccupied with how to cause trouble for the Donglin Party, so how could he take these "small problems" seriously?
In the original history, after Prince Lu surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Ma Shiying went to Taihu Lake to continue fighting against the Qing Dynasty. However, Ruan Dacheng not only surrendered with Prince Lu, but also actively worked for the unification cause of the Qing Dynasty.

When Ruan Dacheng followed the Qing army into Fujian, his head and face suddenly swelled up. The Tartars advised him to stay and recuperate, but in order to wipe out the remnants of the Donglin in Fujian, he not only disagreed, but even said: "Why should I be sick? Although I am sixty years old, I can ride a young horse and draw a strong bow. I am still a man of steel!"

Then he said, "The governor of Fujian is already in my control. Do you have any objection to my words?"

So Da Cheng followed the army on the southern expedition despite his illness. When they crossed the Xianxialing Mountain, all the generals mounted their horses and climbed the mountain slowly, but "Da Cheng dismounted alone and walked forward on foot. He led the horse with his left hand, pointed at the rider with his right hand and said, 'I have a hundred times more energy than the younger generation!' He wanted to show his strength to show people that he was not ill. After he finished speaking, he encouraged the others to climb the mountain bravely." Soon "his horse fell off the road, and he sat on a rock." He collapsed on the rock and died.

In order to attack Donglin, Ruan Dacheng devoted all his energy to it. Not only did he not care about his own safety, but he also threw away the last bit of bottom line as a subject.

With such a thing happening, he wanted to find trouble with Donglin right away, so how could he care about anything else?

Seeing that Ruan Dacheng did not care about this at all, Li Yongmao felt helpless, but he still felt that Ma Shiying had misinterpreted the Crown Prince's meaning, so he said another sentence.

"Lord, your Highness's intention is probably to prevent Donglin from coercing you."

"Yes, that's what it means."

After receiving Ma Shiying's affirmation, Li Yongmao immediately gained confidence, and then continued: "But with a powerful enemy outside, how could Your Highness turn against Donglin? So I think this is just a way for Your Highness to force Donglin to return to the city, but it does not mean that you really want to take over Hangzhou."

There was certainly a reason for his idea. The people of Donglin were afraid that Zhu Cilang would settle accounts with them, so they dared not cross the river. However, Zhu Cilang was unwilling to be coerced, so he planned to counter by taking over Hangzhou.

But there is an important flaw in this logic. That is, can His Royal Highness the Crown Prince really not control Hangzhou without Donglin?

In other words, without Donglin's assistance, how long would it take for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to gain general control of Hangzhou?
It would probably take quite some time if someone was interfering, but who in Hangzhou could interfere now?
Moreover, what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince needs right now is not to control Hangzhou at will, but only to supply the army with what it needs. How could it take only two or three days to achieve this?
As for time.
His Highness has already won the wrath. Of course, this method has its own drawbacks, but by the time these drawbacks are resolved, the war near Hangzhou will have a result.

If we lose, it goes without saying, but if we win, who can be bothered by these minor drawbacks?

With this in mind, Ma Shiying said no more. He comforted Li Yongmao with a few words and ordered him to transfer some soldiers to Ruan Dacheng's command.

It was not that he was unwilling to explain the matter in detail to Li Yongmao, the main reason was that there were some things in his heart that he had not yet fully figured out.

To put it another way, Ma Shiying was indeed arranging things overnight, but Chen Junyin was not idle either.

After being driven out of the military tent by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, he first sent Huang Daozhou back to his residence, and only after obtaining his teacher's permission did he leave the city and go to the other side.

If an ordinary person wanted to cross the river at this point, it would be extremely difficult. But as a student of Huang Daozhou, this little thing was not difficult for him.

"Young sir, there is some clue."

When Zhang Yinli, the prefect of Hangzhou, saw the dusty Chen Junyin, he asked her questions without waiting for her to rest.

This person was not from Zhejiang, but how could he be an official here without being tainted by all kinds of connections? In addition, he really had a duty to defend the land, so he took the initiative to stop the matter.

The others regarded his movements as a weather vane. As long as Zhang Yinli dared to cross the river, others would naturally have nothing to fear.

Honestly speaking, he was extremely averse to being put on the spot, but he had no choice given the situation and could only beg His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to show leniency and give him a chance to redeem himself with meritorious service.

"Your Excellency, these few days will probably be difficult."

Chen Junyin was a little evasive when speaking because the matter was messed up by his own teacher, but Zhang Yinli interpreted his behavior differently.

"Your Highness."

After uttering only two words, the dignified prefect of Hangzhou slumped back into his chair in despair.

In fact, he thought clearly that no matter whether others would be in trouble or not, he, the prefect of Hangzhou, was probably doomed. If Chen Junyin had not arrived in time during the day, he might have made other plans by now.

Of course, at most he just wanted to escape as far away as possible, and surrendering to the Qing Dynasty was not something he considered.

This is not to say that he is a man of great integrity or loyal to the Ming Dynasty. If that were true, he would be following Zhu Cilang's side, preparing for another peak in his career. How could he be like a frightened bird, frightened and powerless by Chen Junyin's vague words?
"Oh, Mr. Fu, things are not as you think."

Seeing Zhang Yinli like this, Chen Junyin could no longer hide it. After helping him up, she told him how her teacher had angered His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

"Mr. Huang, how could he offend His Highness at this time?"

After hearing this, Zhang Yinli regained some strength, but his voice was somewhat tearful when he spoke, and he obviously felt that his future was uncertain because of Huang Daozhou.

Seeing this kind of person, Chen Junyin wanted to defend her teacher, but...
"Since the Master does not understand the teacher's painstaking efforts, I will take my leave."

"Young Master, you misunderstood. I meant that it was not right for Mr. Huang to be scolded by His Highness for this matter. It was not what you thought."

Hearing this, Chen Junyin stopped walking, and when he came to her, she sighed again: "Alas~~ You are so concerned that you are confused. Why don't you think about how you can be safe if His Highness doesn't vent his anger?"

Taking it out?

Although no one expressed their thoughts openly, who didn't know that evacuating Hangzhou was to use the Tartars' knife to weaken the powerful monarch?

Otherwise, the local people in Hangzhou could just surrender to the Tartars or retreat together with Fang Guoan and wait for help. Why would they abandon their homes and businesses and retreat here?
In this situation, can I vent my anger by just cursing a few words?

Zhang Yinli was secretly complaining, but the situation was stronger than him. Even though he disagreed with it several times, he had to pretend to be humble and seek advice.

"Your Excellency, do you know His Highness's temperament?"

"This... I have no chance to meet His Highness."

Zhang Yinli's expression seemed a little unnatural when he spoke. I think it was because he had never seen His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and felt embarrassed. But after a moment, he added: "But I heard that His Royal Highness is a person who would rather break than bend. I don't know if it's right or not."

"Of course it is correct. Otherwise, if my teacher's words were a little offensive, why would Your Highness scold him in person?"

After the words fell, Zhang Yinli couldn't help but nodded slightly, but he couldn't understand what this had to do with "venting anger".

"Your Excellency, your retreat is entirely up to Your Highness. If Your Highness thinks that the ministers have ill intentions, then even the Queen Mother's words will be useless. But if Your Highness thinks that the ministers are just following orders, then the matter is another matter."

Chen Junyin talked for a long time, and only now did he get to the point that Zhang Yinli was most concerned about.

But he also understood this logic. If there was a way to make Zhu Cilang believe that they had no ill intentions, then why should he, as the ruler of a prefecture, humble himself in front of Chen Junyin?

"I am a stupid person, please explain it in detail, sir."

"This matter is neither difficult nor easy. The key lies in what happened to my master tonight."

After going around in circles for a long time, the topic came back to the starting point. If Chen Junyin was not the only one willing to help, Zhang Yinli even wanted to kick her out of the house.

"My master's meeting with Your Highness tonight is your attitude of admitting your mistakes, and Your Highness' scolding my master is Your Highness' attitude." At this point, Chen Junyin glanced at Zhang Yinli beside him. Seeing that he still seemed confused, he simply said directly: "Given Your Highness's personality, if he really thought you had ill intentions, the guards would have come to kill you by now."

"Hiss~~~~~," Zhang Yinli took a deep breath and suddenly had a sudden enlightenment: "Then I will cross the river tonight to apologize to His Highness?"

"No! Your Highness is very angry. You have to wait until he calms down before you do this."

"That's right! That's right! The young master is really amazing, really amazing!"

(End of this chapter)