Southern Ming Rebel Army

Meng Jun winked at Gao Yi, who looked at him in confusion, not knowing what the look meant. Seeing that this wooden lump didn't understand at all, Meng Jun had to speak up himself, "It's a hot summer day, let's have a bowl of mung bean soup, and then we can discuss it later. Gao Yi, go get the bowl, why are you standing there like an idiot?"

"Yes, I'll go to the kitchen to get it right away," Gao Yi nodded quickly.

"Gulp gurgle..." After everyone drank a bowl of soup, their restless hearts were relieved a little. Meng Jun put down the bowl and said slowly, "The Qing soldiers haven't arrived yet, and you two are arguing. We can't make a conclusion yet whether to fight or defend. We must be prepared for both fighting and defending. All preparations for defending the city cannot be stopped. The towns must also pay attention to training. We can organize some military competitions. In short, we can also fight in the field when the time comes. Can we really not defeat the group of bad soldiers left by Liu Zeqing?"

"Yes, Grand Commander."

"Bizhi, how is the reorganization and training of the Armored Army going?"

Hearing Meng Jun's question, Meng Bizhi put down the mung bean soup he hadn't finished yet and said, "Reporting to the Grand Commander, the soldiers of the armored army have been selected, 3,000 strong men and 4,000 auxiliary soldiers. The auxiliary soldiers usually carry the armor, and the armored soldiers start to put on the armor before the battle, striving to join the battlefield in the best condition. There are 2,700 sets of intact iron armor in the army, and the inferior leather armor and cotton armor have also been distributed to the grassroots military officers and front-line sergeants in the army. There are about 2,000 sets of this batch. Some unusable armor will be taken to the Military Equipment Supervision to see if it can be repaired, and those that are really unusable will be discarded."

Meng Jun nodded. Meng Jun and his generals had high hopes for this armored army. It was because of this armored army of 3,000 people that Lin Shiqi dared to think about fighting the Qing army in the field.

"Okay, it must be. The training of the Armored Army cannot stop every day. The food of the Armored Army must be sufficient, and meat must be eaten continuously every day."

"Yes, Governor."

After returning to the barracks, Lin Shiqi sat on a chair and fanned himself with a palm leaf fan. The clerk next to him saw that Lin Shiqi looked unhappy and could not help but ask in a low voice, "Sir, what's wrong?"

Lin Shiqi said with some impatience, "This Han Xiong only knows how to flatter those people every day."

The clerk asked in confusion, "Who are they?"

"Alright, alright, mind your own business," Lin Shiqi waved his hand impatiently. Seeing this, the clerk stopped asking questions, bowed and left.

When there was no one left in the tent, Lin Shiqi stopped fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan and sneered, "Fool, even if Zhejiang sent troops, what use would those beggar-like soldiers in the south of the Ming Dynasty have?"

In Shaoxing, Zhejiang, Zhu Yihai, the eleventh Prince of Lu in the Ming Dynasty, was helplessly listening to the quarrels of the civil and military officials in the hall. Zhu Yihai had officially taken office as regent and appointed Zhang Guowei, Zhu Dadian and Song Zhipu as ministers of the Eastern Pavilion. He also appointed Fang Fengnian, an assistant minister during the Chongzhen period, into the cabinet as chief minister.

However, Zhu Yihai did not have his own army and could only rely on the two generals Fang Guoan and Wang Zhiren. After they arrived in Shaoxing, they immediately took over the existing camps and guards in eastern Zhejiang, and at the same time squeezed out the volunteers led by Sun Jiaji, Xiong Rulin and Qian Sule. Fang Guoan and Wang Zhiren even ignored Zhu Yihai's opposition and arbitrarily distributed more than 600,000 yuan of money and grain to the prefectures and counties in eastern Zhejiang. As a result, the volunteers in eastern Zhejiang were cut off from their food and salary sources, and most of them dispersed. Even the personal guard camp directly managed by the supervising general Zhang Guowei had only a few hundred people left.

At this time, Zhang Guowei was even more angry and shouted at Fang Guoan, "You have seized all the money and food from the prefectures and counties, cut off the food and wages of the rebels in various places, caused the people in eastern Zhejiang to lose their hearts, controlled the military power, and imprisoned the military supervisors. How is this different from the actions of the feudal lords?"

Fang Guoan said nonchalantly, "I have never imprisoned the military supervisor. Sir Zhang, please don't talk nonsense. As for the money and food, what kind of fighting power do those rabble have? It's just a waste of money and food. It's the right way to use these money and food on regular soldiers. If the money is spent on those militias, can they beat the Eastern Tartars?"

After hearing this, Zhu Dadian said coldly, "Does the general have the confidence to defeat the Eastern Tartar?"

When Fang Guoan heard this, he wanted to refute but lacked the confidence. He just snorted coldly and didn't say anything.

After arguing for a while, Song Zhipu spoke out to stop the quarrel. When the scene calmed down, Song Zhipu did not continue to talk about the money and grain. Instead, he bowed to Zhu Yihai, the Prince of Lu, and said, "Your Highness, the King of Tang has ascended the throne in Fuzhou, Fujian, and the reign is Longwu. His envoy has arrived in Taizhou. In my opinion, this will definitely bring a summons to abdicate and return to his fiefdom. If Your Highness disagrees, there may be unspeakable things between Zhejiang and Fujian."

Everyone below held their breath, nervously looking at His Royal Highness the Regent on the stage. Zhu Yihai looked at everyone and sighed, "I am a distant branch of the family, and I dare not covet the throne. Now that the King of Tang has ascended the throne in Fuzhou, I will naturally abdicate and return to my own fiefdom. If I forcefully seize the throne, the two provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian will surely go to war, wasting the anti-Qing forces. I cannot and dare not ruin national affairs for my own selfish reasons. I, Zhu Yihai, am willing to abdicate and return to my own fiefdom."

After these words were spoken, the audience fell silent. Zhang Guowei frowned and glanced at the officials. Some of them nodded in agreement. Zhang Guowei stepped out and said, "Your Highness, the Regent, the Prince of Tang is also a distant branch of the family. In terms of rank, the Prince of Tang is not closer than Your Highness, the Regent. Now he is far away in Fujian, and is not as close as the Regent who is at the front line. If the Regent abdicates now, I am afraid that the entire province of Zhejiang will be in danger of collapse at any moment."

"If what Mr. Zhang said is true, then the Ming army in Zhejiang does not need to be deployed on the front line. They can directly station troops on the Zhejiang-Fujian border and hand over Zhejiang to the Qing army," an official directly refuted.

"Once the war breaks out, the strength of Zhejiang and Fujian will be wasted. You should know that the Eastern Tartars have a large army in Hangzhou, and they will arrive in Shaoxing in a day or two. If we cannot fight together at this time, the world will be ruined."

"No, you must not abdicate and return to your fiefdom. Since ancient times, there has never been a king who abdicated and was safe and sound. Your Highness must not abdicate."

…………The civil and military officials who had just stopped arguing started a new round of argument. This time they were obviously more excited. Wang Zhiren even punched a secretary in the eye. The secretary who was beaten screamed and cried loudly. The audience was in chaos. Zhu Yihai looked at everyone with a headache. He quickly asked the guards to pull everyone apart and take the secretary who was punched away to go home to see a doctor.

After finally quieting down, Zhu Yi Hai spoke first without waiting for everyone, "The matter of abdication and returning to the fiefdom can be discussed after the arrival of the Tang King's envoy. This time, I received news that a righteous man named Meng Jun captured Suzhou City and defeated Li Chengdong under the city, which greatly boosted the morale of the people south of the Yangtze River." After Zhu Yi Hai finished speaking, he clapped his hands excitedly.

Zhang Guowei felt a little embarrassed when he heard this. After all, the last time someone came to see him from Suzhou, he thought that the city of Suzhou guarded by a group of militiamen would not be able to be defended under the siege of Li Chengdong, so he simply did not meet him. Who knew that Li Chengdong was actually defeated by a group of militiamen.