Southern Ming Rebel Army

Mao Xiang flattered: "Even the best troops cannot resist Prince Yu. Prince Yu has experienced hundreds of battles and is the best general in the court. Once his troops arrive, the matter can be settled."

"Some time ago, Meng Jun reviewed the soldiers. His soldiers were in high spirits. With the financial resources of Jiangnan and the generous support of the soldiers, the army has been greatly strengthened in just three years. Even if Prince Yu himself came, it would not be so easy to pacify the country without several bloody battles," said Hong Chengchou, shaking his head.

Until the end of the shift, Mao Xiang was still extremely nervous, and wanted to rush home as soon as possible, but he didn't dare to show it. After finally getting home, as soon as he entered the door, he didn't even have time to respond to Dong Xiaowan. He quickly sat down at the desk and wrote: "Duoduo will soon go south, and Lekedehun will also return!"

After writing, he carefully hid the secret letter in the pen and then hurried out. Seeing this, Dong Xiaowan was worried and wanted to say some advice but swallowed it back.

In order to keep Mao Xiang confidential, Meng Bian no longer allowed Mao Xiang to go to the teahouse in person. Meng Bian spent a lot of money to buy a small shop near Mao Xiang's home, which sold tea. The owner of the shop was Lu Ping, who used to run a wonton stall in Huzhou City.

"Shopkeeper Lu, business is good. I see a lot of people buy tea from you." The neighbor next door runs a shoe shop. His business is not very good today, but he saw that Lu Ping's tea sales were booming, so he spoke with some jealousy.

Hearing this, Lu Ping smiled and said, "Hey, Shopkeeper Fang, business can be good or bad. For example, my sales yesterday were not very good. Shopkeeper Fang, since you have nothing to do, come over and have a cup of tea. I just got a batch of good tea. I'll make some for you to try."

"Haha, let's do it another day." Shopkeeper Fang smiled and rejected Lu Ping's invitation.

Lu Ping was not annoyed. He himself was a little puzzled. He seemed to be good at whatever business he did. His wonton soup business was busier than that of his peers. Now that he came to Jiangning, his tea business was also busy. Even the shopkeeper next door was jealous.

Lu Ping thought to himself: "Did I choose the wrong career? Why be a spy? This business makes money so quickly. In just half a month, I have already earned more than three hundred taels of silver. My monthly salary is only three taels of silver, and I am in this business that could get me killed." Thinking of this, Lu Ping sighed. There was nothing he could do now. Now he would be a spy for people in his life and a spy for ghosts in his death.

Just as Lu Ping was sighing in his heart, he saw Mao Xiang walked into the store. Lu Ping's heart tightened. This was the first time Mao Xiang had entered the store in such a long time, and there were no customers in the store at that time.

Lu Ping hurried forward and said loudly: "Sir, what kind of tea do you want? We have Biluochun, Longjing, Pu'er, Yinzhen, Maofeng, everything you need." After that, Lu Ping lowered his voice and said, "What is it?"

Mao Xiang lowered his voice and said, "Duoduo is about to go south, and Lekedehun will also return. The specific time and number of troops have not yet been found out, but this information must be sent back quickly." After that, he took out a pen from his arms and hid the secret letter in the pen.

Lu Ping also had a serious look on his face. He took the pen and hid it in his arms. Then he nodded solemnly and said, "Okay, I know."

Mao Xiang grabbed a bag of tea and left the tea shop. Lu Ping touched his chest and thought to himself, "Jiangning is indeed the southern capital. I have been in Huzhou for so long without any problems, but now I have an important mission in Jiangning." Lu Ping was about to leave when he suddenly remembered that the bag of tea Mao Xiang took was the best Junshan Yinzhen, and one bag was worth twenty taels of silver...

Suzhou City.

Gu Yanwu was trying to persuade Meng Jun at the moment, saying, "Governor, why don't you make the entire territory under the Governor's Office obey the banner of the Emperor Longwu and leave behind the two small courts in Guangdong and Guangxi."

Yang En beside him hesitated a little after hearing this, and then said: "Emperor Shaowu ascended the throne by succession of his elder brother. If we serve Longwu and refuse to serve Shaowu, will public opinion be overwhelming?"

"Wait a moment, the war is imminent and there may be constraints," Meng Jun said hesitantly.

Gu Yanwu said fiercely: "My ministers are only interested in maintaining peace and have no intention of the Northern Expedition, but they are also afraid that others will make achievements. If we do not stop thinking about Zeng Daowei, I am afraid that the obstacles will continue to exist."

Meng Jun sighed, and then said: "In my humble opinion, if we win this battle, the rest will be trivial. If we cannot win, even wearing a dragon robe will be useless."

Seeing that Gu Yanwu was still indignant, Meng Jun said somewhat listlessly: "Then let's follow Mr. Gu's wishes and use the Longwu reign title for all documents."

As for the civil and military officials of the Southern Ming Dynasty, although Meng Jun did not know all the details, he still knew those famous people. However, there were not many people that Meng Jun admired, such as Yan Yingyuan who defended Jiangyin to the death and Du Yinxi who put aside his prejudices and contacted the peasant uprising army.

There is also Zhang Huangyan, who was determined to resist the Qing Dynasty. Zhang Huangyan persisted in resisting the Qing Dynasty for more than 20 years and initiated the strategy of entering the Yangtze River three times. It was also under his promotion that Zheng Sen attacked Jiangning. In terms of strategies for saving the country, military talents and loyalty, Zhang Huangyan can be called the best among the countless loyal ministers and righteous men in the late Ming Dynasty. Zhang Huangyan's dying words are the voice of countless loyal and righteous people: "It's a pity that our great rivers and mountains have fallen into the bloody turmoil!"

However, Zhang Huangyan remained loyal to Prince of Lu Zhu Yihai. Meng Jun originally thought that Prince of Lu had been defeated in Ningbo, but he did not expect that Prince of Lu's regime would survive and revive in Fujian.

Now Meng Jun calls himself the governor internally, but in external official documents, he has decided to use the title of Duke of Yue pardoned by Emperor Longwu as his own. As for the Shaowu and Yongli courts, Meng Jun's attitude is to pretend he knows nothing and just fool people. Unexpectedly, after Emperor Shaowu won several battles in the war with Yongli, his confidence swelled. Now Emperor Shaowu controls Guangdong alone and makes Guangzhou his capital, issuing orders to governors and generals all over the world.

At this moment, Meng Jun didn't want to have anything to do with these bureaucrats who only knew how to play power games. He had to focus all his attention on the upcoming war.

For Meng Jun, dealing with those treacherous officials was simply a torture. Their minds were full of self-interest and power struggles, and they completely ignored the overall situation.