Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Zhang Shikang felt that Princess Kunyi looked at her in a strange way. What kind of great hero was he, standing on a cloud? Did she think he was the Supreme Treasure?

But his brief doubt was interrupted by a word from Brother Chongzhen.

Everyone else is numb.

"Your Majesty, is this... very important?" Zhang Shikang asked tentatively.

"Very important." Emperor Chongzhen remained calm.

Zhang Shikang felt that Brother Chongzhen seemed to be pretentious, but he had no evidence.

I thought to myself that the reason why he didn't guarantee everything was, don't you have any idea in your mind, brother?

With your impatient temper, if I say I have 30% chance of winning, you will think I have 80%. If I say 80%, you will think we will definitely win.

If I guarantee you everything, it would be strange if nothing goes wrong!

Governor Yuan likes to make promises, but the grass on his grave must be several feet high, right?

What’s the matter, brother? Are you even jealous of your own wife?

Although he thought so in his heart, he couldn't say it out loud. Seeing that Chongzhen was serious, Zhang Shikang could only talk nonsense:

"In fact, it was only two days ago that I arranged the tasks for the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard. It was also at that time that I re-evaluated the struggle with the Donglin Party."

Emperor Chongzhen stopped talking after hearing this, but still asked:

"Shikang, tell me the truth, judging from the current situation, how confident are you?

I really don’t want to see the scene of a few years ago again.”

What was the situation a few years ago? The north was hit by disasters everywhere, and nine out of ten houses were left empty-handed. The remaining ones rebelled and followed Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and others to run around the Ming Dynasty.

There were rats running into the national treasury, and money and food were being demanded everywhere. The bandits were stealing money and food, and the Jiannu were also stealing money. The civil officials were attacking each other, and the military generals were blaming each other.

Emperor Chongzhen felt his scalp tingling whenever he thought of the scenes of those years.

But after Zhang Shikang heard what his brother Chongzhen said, he also felt a chill down his spine.

"About 60 to 70 percent, Your Majesty. You are too impatient." Zhang Shikang still didn't dare to boast, but gave another piece of advice.

It was unknown whether Emperor Chongzhen had heard it or not. After a while, he said quietly:

"The advantage is mine."

Zhang Shikang rolled his eyes when he heard this.

Well, it’s all in vain.

……

The first day of the first lunar month in the twelfth year of Chongzhen.

On the first day of his twentieth birthday, the vigorous Zhang Shikang couldn't hold back and fired the first shot of the new year.

Chen Zhuer, who had just turned seventeen, transformed from a girl into a woman.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, according to etiquette, Zhang Shikang should have gone to pay New Year's greetings to several elders in his family.

Although the Yingguogong Zhang family is powerful, there are always a few elders in the family, but his status is too high.

Regardless of the hereditary title or important positions in the court such as Marshal of the Army, it was no longer appropriate for him to visit relatives.

So, after wishing his parents a happy New Year, he simply went back to sleep.

In fact, according to etiquette, since Zhang Shikang was already a hereditary marquis and had no right to inherit the Duke's Mansion, he should have set up his own residence and moved out of the Duke's Mansion.

But Zhang Shikang did not mention this matter, and neither did Zhang Zhiji and other close relatives.

After breakfast, Zhang Shikang wanted to pay a visit to Marquis Huaining, but the Marquis Huaining's mansion was empty, and the father and son did not go home for the New Year at all.

Zhang Shikang also peeked inside through the crack in the door. The Huaining Marquis' Mansion was covered with fallen leaves and looked desolate.

Zhang Shikang became even more determined and would never move out of the Duke's Mansion unless Jesus came.

In the afternoon, Fang Zhenghua, director of the Eastern Jishi Factory, and Liu Wenbing, commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, came to the Duke of Yingguo's mansion one after another to report the situation.

Fang Zhenghua said that the men of the East Factory have been dispatched to various parts of the Ming Dynasty. The nearby areas such as the capital, Henan, Shanxi, and Shandong have already arrived, and they will probably cover the provinces north of the Yangtze River around the fifth day of the New Year.

Zhang Shikang immediately wrote four military orders and asked Fang Zhenghua to send them to the generals of the four towns in Jiangbei on horseback, ordering the troops of the four towns to be on high alert.

Among the four military orders, the one Zhang Shikang wrote to the general of Luzhou was different from the other three. The general of Luzhou at that time was Huang Degong, who commanded the imperial guards.

Zhang Shikang knew Huang Degong, who was also a tough guy. During the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, he fought wars for the court in the south and the north to suppress bandits.

After his brother hanged himself on the crooked tree, Huang Degong continued to be loyal to the small Southern Ming court and fight against the Qing army. He eventually died to protect Emperor Hongguang Zhu Yousong. He was truly loyal and courageous.

But apart from Huang Degong, it is hard to describe the other three towns in Jiangbei, namely Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo and Liu Zeqing.

These three armies had poor military discipline and were good at bullying the common people and killing innocent people to claim credit. Zuo Liangyu had to call them experts whenever he saw them.

After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, they either established their own regime and demanded benefits from the Southern Ming Dynasty but did nothing, or they directly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

In short, in Jiangbei, the only person Zhang Shikang could really rely on was Huang Degong.

On the other hand, the Jinyiwei was also busy deploying personnel, but unlike the Dongchang, the main forces of the Jinyiwei were all in the capital.

The Liu Wenbing brothers did not even go home for the New Year and were said to have lived in the Jinyiwei Yamen.

The two brothers were very motivated and spent almost the entire day in the archives of the Imperial Guard, reading through all the files from the past thirty years.

At the same time, the Jinyiwei's Tiqi traveled in plain clothes. They ambushed in the streets and alleys, taverns and teahouses of the capital, and some even sneaked into the residences of certain officials as slaves.

Every day, countless pieces of information are gathered at the Jinyiwei Yamen, and countless orders are also issued to various places.

Both the Jinyiwei and the Dongchang have strict and systematic regulations. Under the management of brothers Fang Zhenghua and Liu Wenbing, these two huge machines are already running at full capacity.

Liu Wenbing said that he had sorted out all the files in the case library, and with the information collected from the government and the public, everything was ready, except for the east wind.

Liu Wenyao was more straightforward and stated that the Northern Pacification Prison had been cleaned out long ago, and had even been secretly expanded in order to deal with possible situations.

Zhang Shikang encouraged the two brothers for a while, and even kindly told them to go home and rest for the New Year. However, the two were more excited than him, and on the grounds of being loyal to their country, they refused to go home until the great thing was accomplished.

The two brothers finally left the Duke of Yingzhou's mansion with high morale, which made Zhang Shikang sigh for a long time.

He even began to doubt himself, wondering if he was too lazy.

But this emotion only stayed in his mind for a third of a second before disappearing completely.

A hands-off boss is still a boss!

Starting from the evening of New Year's Day, the Duke of England's palace began to receive gifts from all over the country.

From governors-general such as Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng to generals of various towns, there were also several old acquaintances from the Beijing camp.

Sun Chuanting sent over a set of armor. It was said that he personally participated in designing and making it when he was idle at home in his early years. He had always kept it as a treasure and was reluctant to wear it.

Lu Xiangsheng sent over a war horse. Many people in the court knew that Lu Xiangsheng liked horses.

Lu Xiangsheng not only liked horses, but also understood them and was able to identify them. Every warhorse he raised had a name. The warhorse he sent to Zhang Shikang this time was named Wumingji, which he had recently purchased from the Mongols.

Lu Xiangsheng even composed a poem about this, which reads:

After going through thousands of obstacles,

The divine horses of Wuwa are happy to follow him.

The five common paths are extraordinary.

After a hundred battles, the first to ascend the mountain will find a strange trace.

This is a variegated warhorse, but the five colors appear in the right positions. It has a purple body and black mane, a force of a thousand miles, and a solitary moon hanging on its shoulder. It looks quite strange.

Fortunately, the white hair of this horse is not located between its eyes, otherwise Zhang Shikang would probably exclaim, "Oh my god, a pirate horse!"

War horses had a very high status at that time, comparable to the luxury cars of the rich second generation in later generations.

If the old horses in Jingying before were second-hand Altos and Mazdas, then the horse sent by Lu Xiangsheng, which he praised to the sky, was no different from a Ferrari or a Bugatti Veyron.

However, Zhang Shikang's overall evaluation is that he is not as good as Ergou.

But just as the rich second generation never complain about having too many sports cars, Zhang Shikang never complains about having too many good horses.

But he felt that Lu Xiangsheng's name for the war horse, Wumingji, was too cliché.

He walked around the warhorse several times and finally thought of a name that he thought was elegant - Lao Wu.

The gifts sent by subordinates at all levels varied, but they were basically within his acceptable range. At least no one was so blind as to send him prohibited items such as silver and silver bills, but no one sent him a beautiful woman either.

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, Zhang Shikang spent a huge sum of 28 taels of silver to entertain a group of brothers from the Second Sons Group and showed off his new mount to them.

In the next few days, Zhang Shikang had a rare amount of free time. The capital was still very bustling, but anyone with a discerning eye could see the difference.

All this is just the calm before the storm.

Everyone is waiting for the fifth day of the New Year.

……