Xie Ming

The shaft points south and the ruts point north.

On that day, on the night of the fifteenth, Guide Prefecture made intensive preparations.

But to the north, 250 miles away, in the city of Kaifeng, it was also cloudy and rainy, and the situation was different.

Inside the prefectural government office, Qiu Maohua and Xie Sufu were imprisoned in a corner of the back hall of the government office. They could not go out, and were not allowed to come in.

This situation was completely different from the previous one, and the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

If we want to explain this unexpected change, I'm afraid we have to start from the beginning.

To explore the reasons, it was said that since Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in Luanzhou, the situation of his own army had been deteriorating day by day.

Originally, at that time in Jidong, the Jiannu had just entered the pass, the situation was unclear, and there was also a powerful enemy, Li Zicheng of the Dashun army.

In order to consolidate the morale of the army and deal with Wu Sangui's Guanning Cavalry, he was highly appreciated and relied upon.

It can't be said that the respect was very high, but after all, everything can still be discussed.

The original intention was to use his surrender to set an example for the Han army and the folk nobles, and to lure the Han Ming army to surrender.

But this, as the situation changes, things become easier with the passage of time.

Barely half a year had passed, and after the Southern Court, thanks to Xiao Jingchuan, had pinned down the first wave of Qing troops' invasion of the south in Shandong, the current talks of peace between the North and the South, regardless of whether they were true or false, had a great negative effect on Wu Sangui's situation.

The situation became increasingly awkward as he moved further away.

In addition, his troops fought at a disadvantage in the battle of Baoding Prefecture.

As for Ajige, he had lost most of his favor.

This is because one has been under someone else's command for a long time and has become depressed and frustrated.

Therefore, this time, after Wu Sangui received the order from his peer Le Ge, he got angry and decided to secretly offer Kaifeng to Xiao Lang, throwing away all the favors he had received.

Besides, there are generally two advantages of this matter.

First, Wu Sangui has been stationed in Kaifeng for a long time in recent months and has full control over the actual troops here. If he wants to resolve the situation, he can do so without anyone noticing and has ample room for maneuver.

Second, it was clear that Qiu Maohua and Xie Sufu had secret connections with Qi Gang, and that they had been followed and monitored by spies from the very beginning. Over the past half month, starting from the time Qi Gang went on the diplomatic mission, it was clear how the entire connection was established.

The fact that he had not taken precautions and cut off the attack could be understood as he had already considered and planned this.

At the same time, if we observe this person's current inner thoughts, we may find that he has two reasons for doing things this way.

First, his Guanning troops were sent away and ordered to return to the south of the capital. He felt that they would not return to the south in a short time.

As for the important city of Kaifeng, the reason why he was in control of it for a month, to be honest, was simply because Ajige's main force had no time to look south, which was why Wu Sangui was able to hold on to his power for such a long time.

From now on, once he returns from the northwest with his troops, whether he wins or loses, Wu Sangui will never have the chance to return to Kaifeng to take charge.

Given Ajige's temperament and style, this fertile land was not his, Wu Laosan's, right.

Right now, it's just a stopgap measure.

So, no matter what, whether this city is given to him or not, it is unlikely that Wu Sangui will be able to gain any benefit from Kaifeng in the future.

Since he knew this, he had a plan. He might as well do Xiao Lang a favor and send him away.

Secondly, in the final analysis, they are, after all, surrendered soldiers and generals.

For people like him, there is no turning back in this situation.

If he were to rebel again and return to the Southern Ming, he would be in big trouble. Rather than being a stray dog, spit on by thousands of people and trampled upon by tens of thousands, it would be better for him to stay with the Qing soldiers.

But, if that was the case, why was he so attentive to Xiao Jun's troops in an attempt to win their favor?
In fact, it's all because of his personal interests.

In this situation, what is the best solution for him?
In fact, it would be best if the situation between the north and the south continued to be chaotic.

If he didn't use the army, he would be completely useless in the eyes of the Qing court. But if he used the army, he couldn't encourage Ajige's arrogance too much, so as not to be abandoned after the rabbit died and be plotted against by the outsiders.

As far as he was concerned, the current situation might be a good thing for Ajige if he was defeated in the northwest war.

As for my own place, I took advantage of the fact that the northwest had no time to look south and deliberately stirred the water to make it more muddy, so as to profit from the chaos and become the one who fishes the most.

Therefore, it was not in vain that we borrowed this flower from Kaifeng to present this Buddha to the Ming army.

This city conspired and left it like this after he left.

The situation in Henan has been reorganized. The situation is volatile, but most importantly, it can be used to settle accounts!
This is Wu Sangui’s most important conspiracy!
You know, in recent months, in Kaifeng Prefecture, Wu Sangui's troops have been plundering the place completely, searching its intestines and stomach, scraping its bones and marrow.

The total amount of loot they obtained was approximately five to six million taels. They wished they could open the embassy and turn it upside down.

If he wanted to enrich himself with these smuggled silver and gold, he had to worry that once Ajige returned to supervise, he would take out the detailed accounts and cause trouble, which would bring him into big trouble.

Therefore, diverting the trouble to the south became the best strategy for him to settle the account.

He really hoped to have a face-to-face meeting with Xiao Lang to discuss it secretly, whether it was a fake play or a real one, so that he could use Xiao Lang to take the blame here.

He was able to settle the account and get away with it, and Xiao Jingchuan also gained victory without bloodshed and occupied Kaifeng with his troops. It was a win-win situation.

but!

Looking back now, the development of this situation is not satisfactory.

It just so happened that he was too clever and planned everything, but ended up costing his beloved's life.

After all, there is no airtight wall in this world that is completely impervious to air.

and so!
No matter it was a coincidence or not, it was true that Manleg had a pair of ears that were very good at listening to the wind, and there must have been some hidden clues here.

Anyway, on the fifteenth day, the truth came to light and half of Wu Sangui's conspiracy was exposed.

So, why is there the saying of half?

It turned out that Jinan Lege had personally led a patrol cavalry team to Kaifeng in the evening of that day.

The focus was to supervise nearby and make preparations in advance for the Kaifeng army to return north soon.

Moreover, he openly informed Wu Sangui that his intention to invite the Ming army commander-in-chief, General Xiao, to meet at Zhuxian Town had already been made clear to his superiors.

The looting of private property went unnoticed, but the plan to surrender the city was exposed.

After hearing this, Wu Sangui's face turned pale and blue, and he was thinking about it.

He was helpless, so he had to bite his tongue and try to distance himself from the matter, insisting that this was all part of the Hongmen Scheme.

Because of the Henan incident, the northwest is about to send troops to fight, and it is difficult to keep troops there in the short term. In order to solve the problem once and for all, this plan was made. I want to take advantage of the meeting in Zhuxian Town to completely solve Xiao Jingchuan to avoid future troubles.

If I don't do this, I will lead the troops back north personally, which will only be a regret. I hope the military supervisor will help me.

He privately embezzled five or six million yuan without saying a word about it.

There are obstacles and plans fail. It is like this and like this.

Wu Sangui took advantage of the situation and set a trap like this. The military supervisor sent by Legge actually believed it to some extent.

As a result, the nature of the incident has completely changed!

Will Wu Laosan really turn the fake into reality, or will he just pretend to be obedient and wait for the right opportunity to achieve his goal?

I'm afraid no one can explain it clearly!

(End of this chapter)