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

After this idea took root in Liu Liangzuo's heart, he couldn't sleep in bed that night and thought about it carefully for half the night.

Early the next morning, he invited Zhang Shide to his house again.

Faced with Liu Liangzuo's attitude of being rude at first and respectful later, Zhang Shide was a little confused, but he looked like he didn't care much.

Since Liu Liangzuo took the initiative to invite him, it must be something I said yesterday that touched him.

He knew very well that one cannot be impatient in negotiations, so he pretended to be as if he thought that no one more or one less would make any difference in this movement.

"Gao Jie only has over 10,000 soldiers. Do you really think you can accomplish anything with just these few soldiers?

You must know that the Grand Marshal alone has 80,000 soldiers directly under the Beijing Camp, and can mobilize troops from all over the country.

Is it too reckless to act like this?" Liu Liangzuo asked calmly.

Zhang Shide was delighted when he heard this. The fact that Liu Liangzuo took the initiative to ask about this operation showed that he was really convinced by him, so he quickly said:

"General Liu is worrying too much. Although the Beijing garrison has 80,000 soldiers, most of them are new recruits who have never been in battle. Can they be called soldiers?

As for mobilizing troops from all over the world, it was really a joke. He was just a young boy who had just entered the court for less than a year. Not to mention mobilizing troops from all over the world, he couldn't even mobilize any troops in the Guanningjin line.

What's worse, there are so many brave generals in the nine border towns of the Ming Dynasty. How can they accept that the current emperor has handed over the military power to such a brutal playboy?

Maybe they have been waiting for me to raise my arms and call for the removal of the emperor's entourage!"

Zhang Shide became more and more excited as he spoke. Seeing that Liu Liangzuo was listening so seriously, he continued:

"I dare not deceive you, sir. Not only can the beast Zhang Shikang not mobilize the generals of the Nine Frontiers, but we also have more than just General Gao Jie to help us.

Lord Hong, the governor of the three borders of Shaanxi, and his 30,000 Qin soldiers are ready for battle at any time.

This morning I learned that Huai'an General Liu Zeqing has also decided to join this movement.

Not only that, now across our country, the Donglin people of the world are united in planning and strategizing, the troops of various towns in the middle are ready for battle, and the students and millions of people from all over the world are supporting us.

This is what the people want and what everyone expects!

Sir General, are you still hesitating?"

Liu Liangzuo frowned slightly, as if he was making a final decision.

He knew that the people were making trouble because they could not afford food due to rising prices. It seemed that students from the county and prefectural schools were also making trouble. However, he sneered at these students who had never done anything practical.

Seeing this, Zhang Shide was no longer so anxious, and said in a quiet tone:

"General, you should know that since ancient times, only those who first express their stance are worthy of the greatest rewards."

The implication is that adding icing on the cake is far less important than providing timely assistance, and no one will care about the sway of a fence-sitter.

"This is something that is highly anticipated by the people and has the support of the people. It will be easy to eliminate the traitors.

Your Excellency the General should know that once Zhang Shikang is executed, with the presence of our Donglin scholars, the court will surely be full of righteous people again.

When the time comes, Your Majesty will realize his mistake and return to the right path, and will surely reward those who have made contributions generously.

Cao Bianjiao and Zuo Liangyu were both conferred titles. The general made great efforts to suppress the bandits, but the court turned a deaf ear to it.

Don't you think it's unfair, General?"

Once these words were spoken, they finally hit Liu Liangzuo's soft spot.

He immediately slammed his fist on the table, which scared Zhang Shide.

"Sir, there is no need to say more. I have made up my mind. I am willing to serve the Donglin brothers, clear the emperor's side, and eliminate the traitors!"

……

On the second day of the second lunar month, the dragon looked up.

Early in the morning, Zhang Shenyan and Qian Qianyi summoned many nobles in Nanjing City and great scholars from all over Jiangnan.

Ever since they received the letters from Zheng Sanjun and others, the two have been using their reputation to call on the gentry and scholars of Donglin to share the difficulties. These people are the ones most affected by the tax reform.

At the beginning, the nobles in Nanjing City were not enthusiastic about this action. Of course, the descendants of the founding fathers, led by Duke Wei Xu Hongji, were also opposed to the tax reform.

They also used their power to refuse to pay the extra industrial and commercial taxes, but they only refused to pay and it did not rise to the level of clearing the court of corrupt officials.

These noble lords in Nanjing had long lost their courage in the decadence of Jiangnan. As for the tax reform, they wanted to let Zhang Shenyan and others make the fuss, and they would at most offer some support.

It was not until two days ago that the tragedy that occurred in Beijing on the Lantern Festival in the first month of the lunar year was made public, as an urgent message was sent from Beijing over 800 miles away. Only then did Xu Hongji and other nobles become really anxious.

Before this, the nobles in Nanjing City probably knew about Zhang Shikang's series of offensive actions.

This included the incident in which Zhang Shikang defrauded the nobles in Beijing from raising funds. At that time, Xu Hongji and other founding nobles in Nanjing had a very bad impression of Zhang Shikang, and believed that those nobles in Beijing, including his own family, Duke Dingguo, were all fools.

Hundreds of thousands of taels, all of which were ancestral inheritance, were swindled away by that bastard from the British public family. At that time, the nobles in Nanjing City often made fun of the nobles in Beijing City.

But they couldn't laugh now.

First, the Shanxi merchants were exterminated, then the lineage of Duke Yansheng was exterminated, and now the officials in Beijing are also exterminated.

And according to the news, the Champion Marquis Zhang Shikang was carrying out a large-scale massacre. After all the officials in the capital were killed, the imperial guards came out and started targeting the officialdom in Shandong and Henan.

This is really worrying.

No matter whether it was the Shanxi merchants, the Duke of Yansheng, or the officials in Beijing, Zhang Shikang wiped out the clan first and then confiscated their property with thunderous force, killing the goose that lays the eggs. He did not even bother to pretend.

This is also the main reason why Xu Hongji and others decided to join this campaign to purge the court.

After the news of the collective fundraising by the nobles in Beijing City spread to Nanjing City, under the leadership of Duke Wei Xu Hongji, the nobles in Nanjing City did not donate a penny.

Now they were refusing to pay taxes again. With the precedents of the Shanxi merchants, the Duke of Yansheng and the officials in Beijing as examples, Xu Hongji and other nobles were certain that the Marquis of Guanjun would never let them off.

Jiangnan is such a wealthy place, and these nobles have been doing business here for more than two hundred years. All of them must be extremely wealthy.

Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs? Humph, they are not those fools in Beijing.

With the support of the founding nobles, officials throughout Nanjing also formed a rare united front.

The top officials from the Six Ministries, the Censorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Five Military Commissions and other departments gathered together and worked together to quickly raise millions of taels of silver and hundreds of thousands of shi of grain.

It is not enough to just have money and food to purge the court. Under their call and enticement, Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo and Liu Zeqing, three of the four towns in northern Jiangbei, have agreed to join them, and they will soon gather their troops, just waiting for their order.

In addition, there are the garrison troops commanded by the Nanjing Five Military Governor's Office. Although the garrison troops have been neglected for a long time, their combat effectiveness is worrying and their troop shortage is extremely serious.

However, if all the soldiers from the garrisons in the south and north of the Yangtze River and even in Guangdong and Guangxi were assembled, there would be more than 100,000 people.

In addition to the 80,000 strong troops in the three towns in the north of the Yangtze River, the south and north of the Yangtze River are wealthy and have no shortage of money and food, so they are confident of winning.

At that time, we only need to use the strong army of the three towns in northern Jiangnan as the main force and the garrison troops as the reserve, and we can claim to have 500,000 troops.

Everyone was talking at once, denouncing the traitor Zhang Shikang with righteous indignation, and talking about the positive situation.

Just as he was feeling happy, a soldier suddenly ran in from outside. He looked like a messenger who had come from afar.

"Sir! Report to you, sir, urgent military information."

The messenger knelt on one knee in front of Xu Hongji, Duke of Wei, and handed him a letter.

Duke of Wei Xu Hongji was the most prominent nobleman in Nanjing. He was not only the leader of the Nanjing Five Military Commandery, but also the garrison commander of Nanjing. Even Zhang Shenyan, the Nanjing Minister of Personnel, respected him in military affairs.

Xu Hongji opened the letter and immediately frowned.

"Sir, why are you frowning?" Qian Qianyi asked quickly.

"Luzhou General Huang Degong launched a surprise attack on Sizhou, and Sizhou General Gao Jie was defeated..."

……