"It actually makes sense. I feel the same way."

The hearty laughter resounded through the Chinese army's tent, and clearly reached the ears of Guo Zhiqi and Lian Chengbi through the curtains of the tent.

The two of them had already predicted that such a situation would happen. But when this scene actually appeared in front of their eyes, they still couldn't help but look pale and secretly thought that something was not good.

They looked at each other, gritted their teeth and continued to walk forward. When they arrived outside the tent, there were Li Dingguo's guards outside, and the laughter inside came to an end.

Stepping into it, there were only three people in the tent, Li Dingguo, Chen Kai and Jin Weixin. Jin Weixin complained and was about to get up when he saw that Chen Kai was sitting where Guo Zhiqi was sitting yesterday and was not moving.

There are rules for respecting superiors and inferiors, regardless of whether they are east or west. The Ming Dynasty favors the left. For example, if both ministers are of the same rank, the left minister will be higher than the right minister.

When it comes to seats, Guo Zhiqi is the governor, Lien Chengbi is the governor, Chen Kai is the governor, and Jin Weixin is just a staff member. Theoretically, Guo and Lian should sit in the first position on the left and right sides.

, and Chen Kai had to succumb. However, since Chen Kai was still the representative of the Zheng Group and the leader of the Guangdong Ming Army under the Zheng Group, he was also an enemy of them, so Guo Zhiqi and Liancheng Bi were divided into Li Dingguo like yesterday.

The first and second seats on the left hand side, while Chen Kai sat on the first seat on the right hand side.

At this point, since there were only three people in the tent just now, it was natural for Chen Kai to sit in the first seat on the left. When Guo Zhiqi arrived, Chen Kai would give up his seat as usual and return to yesterday's seat. However, Chen Kai

Not moving, Guo Zhiqi, as the superintendent of the Imperial Academy, naturally refused to be subordinate to his subordinates, so they looked at each other eye to eye.

"Jing, Chen Fujun."

With his eyes wide open like this, Li Dingguo had no choice but to call Chen Kai. After hearing this, Chen Kai stood up, bowed his hand to Li Dingguo, and sat down opposite him where he had been sitting yesterday.

In this way, Jin Weixin couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and quickly moved to the position where Chen Kai started, standing there, waiting for the supervisor and the governor to take their seats. But from the beginning to the end, Chen Kai didn't even say a word to Guo Zhiqi, completely ignoring him.

His existence. Even if he gave up his seat, it was because of Li Dingguo. At this moment, he was furious. Guo Zhiqi snorted coldly, flicked his sleeves, and strode out of the tent.

"Director Guo..."

Li Dingguo called out, but Guo Zhiqi still left the place without looking back. He turned his head, looked at Chen Kai again, and shook his head helplessly. He knew very well that Chen Kai sincerely did it to disgust Guo Zhiqi.

Here, Chen Kai had already sat down, but Lian Chengbi and Jin Weixin were still standing there, looking neither embarrassed nor embarrassed. Logically speaking, Guo Zhiqi left in anger, and Lian Chengbi could not stay any longer, but this time it was Li Dingguo who invited them

Come to continue yesterday's head-to-head meeting, and just leave like this, but it doesn't mean to give Li Dingguo face.

After thinking about it, Lian Chengbi still didn't leave. He snorted coldly and sat down. However, he did not sit on the first seat on his left hand, which was originally reserved for Guo Zhiqi, but still sat on the second seat.

.

Li Dingguo really couldn't understand the intrigues between civil servants, but seeing this, he knew something was wrong. At this moment, seeing Lian Chengbi sit down, Jin Weixin also sat down quickly, and then stood up immediately

Get up, speak to Li Dingguo, and continue yesterday's topic.

"Currently, Gaozhou Prefecture, Lianzhou Prefecture and Leizhou Prefecture in the southwest of Guangzhou have been recovered by the Wang Division, and the Wang Division is now led by Zhang Fujun; Luoding Prefecture and Xinxing, Enping, Yangchun and Yangjiang south of Cangbu River in Zhaoqing Prefecture

The four counties and Xinning County in Guangzhou Prefecture are also under our control; in addition, Chen Linghai's formation killed Gai Yipeng, and the navy took advantage of the situation to control Jiangmen. Although the Japanese army made moves to go south to retake Jiangmen, they did not really raise a large army.

The attack is just to go south to Shunde, Sanshui and two counties close to the area controlled by Wang Division to consolidate the defense."

Li Dingguo captured Xinning County in September, Chen Qice killed Gai Yipeng, and took control of Jiangmen in August. By September 12th, the Qing army once moved south, but Shang Kexi obviously still planned to regain the strength of Zhaoqing last year.

The old tactics of war were to use Xinhui County to wear down the Ming army's energy, and wait until the Qing reinforcements arrived before the decisive battle could begin.

The current situation is that Xinhui has been sealed airtight. Once the city is conquered and the Ming army has this support point, they can march northward.

After more than half a year of fighting, Li Dingguo's army joined forces with the Ming armies in western Guangdong, and the rebels have recovered a large area of ​​land in southwestern Guangdong. Chen Kai has been in charge of the Guangdong battlefield in recent years. As for the geography and region of Guangdong, it can be said that it has long been imprinted on it.

In my mind, this is basically the expansion limit of Li Dingguo's army. Going further north or east will inevitably lead to a decisive battle with the main force of the Qing army. It is very unwise when Xinhui has not yet been recovered.

The battlefield in eastern Guangdong he presided over was still roughly the same, but Hao Shangjiu had muddied the water anyway. He was not in a hurry to regain Huizhou, but was more inclined to cooperate with Li Dingguo to conquer Guangzhou. In this way, it was a complete victory.

posture.

The current focus is obviously how to break into Xinhui County. Chen Kai was thinking about it, but he didn't know that Liancheng Bi asked him directly.

"I wonder how many troops Chen Fujun brought with him this time?"

As soon as these words came out, everyone's eyes immediately focused on Chen Kai. After all, they were here for reinforcements, and the number of troops must be measured. Li Dingguo and Jin Weixin already had some idea of ​​this matter.

, Chen Kai can also ignore Lian Chengbi, but now that Guo Zhiqi has left, Chen Kai feels that he must continue to compete.

In this way, Chen Kai looked around the crowd, saw the different expressions on each one, and then humbly replied: "Not many, just six towns."

The six towns are placed before Jiashen. There is no mention of the deputy generals, generals, guerrillas, and garrison troops under the command of the general. They only say that one regular barracks is also 3,000 soldiers, and the six towns are 18,000 soldiers.

Soldiers. But nowadays, the abuse of officials and titles in the Ming Dynasty has reached an almost unprecedented level. It is not new for a general soldier to be in charge of two to three hundred soldiers.

As far as Lianchengbi knew, the troops in each town under the Zheng Group seemed to have the size of two battalions and one thousand soldiers. After calculation, it was equivalent to six thousand soldiers.

Six thousand soldiers and horses, compared with the army gathered under Xinhui City now, compared with the various Ming armies and rebel armies now rampaging in western Guangdong, they are still insignificant. So, when Chen Kai said that the six towns

When he came out, there was a sneer, as if coming from between his teeth. Although it was slight and almost inaudible, Chen Kai still understood it.

In this regard, Chen Kai himself was too lazy to explain too much. He only said that there were still follow-up troops on the way, and he did not explain much in detail. However, after the sneer, Lian Chengbi immediately realized that something was wrong, until Chen Kai's

I’ll finish talking later.

"And? How much would that be?"

Chen Kai said that due to Fujian's large-scale military deployment, there were not many navy and ships available, so they could only prioritize combat troops and armaments, and they were divided into batches. As for auxiliary troops, they needed to be dispatched by Li Dingguo. His current transportation capacity

It's really not enough.

The Fujian side wanted to seize a province in one go, and the resources required would be unimaginably huge. This was understandable to Li Dingguo, Lian Chengbi and Jin Weixin. Li Dingguo agreed and let Jin Weixin make arrangements.

Even Chengbi didn't say anything else.

"In terms of food and grass..." Soldiers are extremely important, but food and grass cannot be ignored. Just after Chen Kai said these four words, the eyes of the three people focused on him again. However, this time Chen Kai did not

Request.

"Our army can be self-sufficient, including the auxiliary troops, so there is no need for your Highness to worry. The advance troops have been shipped to Hong Kong, and I will also send people to Qiongzhou to recruit some of them, so there is no need to worry."

"That's good."

When the reinforcements first arrived, there were many things that the two sides needed to exchange in order to achieve effective cooperation. Chen Kai took care of the food, weapons, etc. for his troops, and mobilized a large army. Naturally, Li Dingguo was very happy. By the end of the meeting

At that time, Li Dingguo had already sent people to arrange the camp, while Chen Kai sent people back to Hong Kong Island to mobilize various towns to join the army.

After the meeting ended, Lian Chengbi said goodbye and left. When he returned to the camp, he naturally wanted to go directly to meet Guo Zhiqi, but he learned from Guo Zhiqi that he was planning to leave.

"Supervisor..."

"No need to persuade, I have thought about this matter very clearly." Guo Zhiqi gave up his seat, sighed, and explained to Lian Chengbi: "Chen Kai, we originally underestimated him - underestimated his ability.

, and also underestimated his thoughts."

When Lian Chengbi heard these words, he was stunned for a moment, and then he suddenly realized. In fact, speaking of the incident in Wencun, the conflict between Chen Kai and Lianchengbi was certainly caused by Lian Chengbi's exclusion. Afterwards, Chen Kai secretly thought to himself

Winning over Chen Qice and Li Changrong even attracted the interest of some other generals in western Guangdong. Then there was the dispute over the ownership of Qiongzhou. Chen Kai even played Zhou Tengfeng around, and had already given a good look to the civil servant group in western Guangdong.

This time, Chen Kai didn't come here to cause trouble at all. He just didn't want to be constrained by others, so when they met, Lian Chengbi, who was even more conflicted with him, just mentioned it in passing and used it as a lead to open fire, and then started looking for him in various ways.

Guo Zhiqi's unhappiness. In the final analysis, it is because Liancheng Bi is just a governor and has no control over Chen Kai, the governor of Zhangquan Chaohui Fourth Prefecture, whose theoretical governance is located in Zhangzhou Prefecture, Fujian. And Guo Zhiqi is a governor and a bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion.

Adding the crown prince and Taibao, who is too high in status, will give him more room to make trouble.

"Belly sinister heart of a gentleman!"

"Rubai, that's true." Guo Zhiqi nodded: "I remember telling you that when I was an official in Fujian, I met that dandy from the Zheng family..."

Guo Zhiqi is from Jieyang County, Chaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong, but his ancestors were from Putian, Fujian. In the first year of Chongzhen, Guo Zhiqi had passed the Jinshi examination and was selected as a Shujishi. His future was bright. Since he became an official, except for those few years in the central government Outside the years, when they got to the local level, they basically served as officials in Fujian. They served as academic advisors, deputy inspectors, and military personnel to exterminate the local bandits in northern Fujian.

When the Chongzhen Dynasty was an official in Fujian, the most likely person not to have contact with was the Zheng family. Zheng Zhilong became the governor, and then worked for the Ming Dynasty to eliminate pirates of all kinds, defeated the Dutch invasion, and became the overlord of the Fujian Sea. At that time, "Zhilong was the leader of the Ming Dynasty. Haili was used to transport people to the imperial court, so it was a great place to show off." "In Fujian, the Zheng family was the Great Wall."

As Zheng Zhilong's status and abilities increased, Zheng Chenggong returned to Fujian from Japan at the age of seven. At the age of fifteen, he had already passed the examination as a scholar, and was even a junior student. The so-called junior student refers to the outstanding scholar, but Receiving a rice subsidy from the government is like a scholarship for future generations.

That was already the eleventh year of Chongzhen. Guo Zhiqi didn't know much about it, but later he heard some things. For example, Zheng Chenggong had an exam. The invigilator flattered him, handed the exam questions to his classmates, and served him precious fruits and delicacies. , this person actually just drank it every day.

"The reputation of the dandy in the Zheng family must have its merits, and Chen Kai's guy is even more exaggerated. A guy who has never even passed the county examination calls himself a Tongsheng, and now he is a governor. It is a national selection ceremony, and it is not an official position. Abuse of teaching, how could such lucky disciples do this? These two people are indeed talented. My family also mentioned that they suppressed the local bandits in Chaozhou and restored local people's livelihood. But it was precisely because If they are capable, we should be more careful about them using their talents to bring harm to the world!"

Zheng Chenggong's dandyism in his early years and Chen Kai's status as a staff member, even if they have become "prodigal sons," cannot be tolerated by orthodox scholars who have passed the examination step by step according to the system. In addition, Zheng Zhilong's surrender to the Qing Dynasty, and the intrigue between the imperial court and the feudal town, This led to the existence of factional differences between them. This was never a matter of a sentence or two. It was driven by interests behind it, and it was also caused by the power struggle caused by Chen Kai regaining Zhang Xiaoqi's nominal jurisdiction of Qiongzhou Prefecture.

The conflicts between the two sides are getting thicker and thicker, and it is not about Chen Kai's tit-for-tat confrontation with Guo Zhiqi. On the contrary, during this fight, Guo Zhiqi chose to retreat. Of course, there is a way to avoid being humiliated by Chen Kai and lost in front of all the Ming armies. Worried about his face, even Chengbi quickly figured out his intentions.

"Please don't worry, Supervisor, I won't get to know Chen Kai like that guy."

"Rubai knows my heart and soul."

According to Guo Zhiqi, he planned to return to Gaozhou Prefecture to review the troops first, and then go to Xinxing County to take command of the Qing governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, Li Shutai. As for the task of coordinating the various ministries in front of the army, he gave full power to Liancheng Bi.

"Although we will have a fight with those who are lucky enough to enter sooner or later, this battle is related to the life and death of the imperial court and the safety of the emperor. We must assist the King of Xining in annihilating the rebels."

After exchanging their thoughts with Lien Chengbi, Guo Zhiqi said goodbye to Li Dingguo the next day, and was unable to stay despite his repeated efforts to persuade him to stay.

Such an move gave Chen Kai a reputation as someone who was forced to get into office. However, he didn't care about it. He just said "You are a smart man" in front of Li Dingguo, Lian Chengbi, Jin Weixin and others. No longer entangled in this matter, he even politely gave Yicheng and Guo Zhiqi a copy, as if the previous incident had never happened.

However, standing in the distance, looking at the departing figures of Guo Zhiqi and his group, Chen Kai could not help but show a little loneliness, which was fleeting.

"I'm sorry. If possible, I don't intend to embarrass you, the loyal people who resisted the Qing Dynasty. However, the party struggle has been provoked by you, and that's it on weekdays. This battle is related to the fate of the entire Guangdong.
Chapter completed!