The content of the imperial edict was to avenge Ma Qian's injustice, punish the eunuch who framed him and put him to death by whipping his corpse, and confiscate his family and exterminate his clan.
He was also posthumously named the Zuo Governor of the Zuo Army Governor's Mansion and General Zhaoyi. He was reburied with the courtesy of an earl and announced to the world.
Ma Xianglin's trembling hands did not hide his inner excitement and gratitude. After so many years, his father was finally no longer a fugitive general, but an upright General Zhaoyi of the Ming Dynasty.
Ma Xianglin knows very well that over the years, although his mother has never mentioned this matter or complained about it, her mother has been tortured in her heart every day.
When she encounters injustice, she will try her best to mediate and negotiate. She will never bully others or make matters worse.
Zhu Youzheng knew Qin Liangyu's character, so he had already prepared the imperial edict and arranged everything. He just wanted to find an opportunity to deliver a surprise to her like now.
"I will be flattered to know that your late husband is so cared for by your majesty. I swear to death that I dare not forget your majesty's kindness. I am afraid that I will never be able to repay you in this life."
Qin Liangyu thanked him again.
Zhu Youxiao did not want to continue to waste time on this matter.
If he hadn't admired Qin Liangyu and wanted to win their loyalty, he wouldn't have bothered to care about Ma Qiancheng. Everyone was dead and it was useless to say anything.
"I've made my thoughts clear to you. Now let's talk about how we can catch this big fish An's as quickly as possible. What do you think? If you have any opinions, feel free to tell me directly in front of me."
"Your Majesty, according to what I have seen, it is not appropriate for us to engage in a head-on decisive battle with them now. We should try our best to avoid fighting with them. If necessary, we can give up some places to increase the momentum of extravagance and rebellion."
Ma Xianglin has always been with the emperor and knows the most about the emperor's strategic plan, so he is qualified to be the first to speak.
His intention was the same as that of the emperor. They and the Yulin Army completely sat idly by and allowed Sichuan troops to deal with She Ni. They waited in Chongqing for news of the An family's rebellion.
Qin Liangyu and others also believed that this should be the case, and they wanted to abandon the defense of the river crossing and let the rebellious rebels cross the river. They deployed troops outside Chongqing and then deployed troops according to the terrain to block the rebel front and delay time.
But Zhu Youxiao's idea was different from theirs. He put forward a bold plan, which was to abandon Chongqing and let Lu Sheng counterattack and capture Chongqing.
This shocked the generals. Is the cost too high?
It's just to lure the An family. There's no need to give up such an important city, right?
With so many ordinary residents in Chongqing Prefecture, are they just left alone and allowed to suffer the slaughter of the rebels?
Regarding this bold proposal, the generals present repeatedly objected and asked the emperor to think twice.
But why would Zhu Youxiao want to do this? He was also forced by the difficult situation and came up with such a move as a last resort.
Although An Bangyan is not very good, it does not mean that the entire An family is a stupid pig. They are very cautious in this kind of thing.
She Chongming has only captured several cities and areas in Zunyi, Luzhou, and Hejiang, but has not even secured a foothold. For the An family, such achievements are far from satisfactory.
In history, the first place She Chongming conquered was Chongqing, and he also killed the governor of Sichuan and other high-ranking officials. Moreover, he attacked the city much faster than now, and the area he conquered was also huge.
But even so, Anshi remained unmoved, still looking forward and backward in fear of wolves and tigers behind. She Chongming's messenger did not know how many times he ran, and his horse's legs were broken, but Anshi still stood still.
This shows how cautious they are. They will not act rashly unless they are sure that something will happen.
Moreover, the current rebels have only captured a few cities. Only by allowing them to capture important cities like Chongqing can they have a little bit of capital, and An will increase their "investment."
…
…
On the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, opposite Chongqing, She Chongming's rebels are resting here.
Because he was ambushed by the Ming army when he was disembarked, he suffered heavy losses of his 20,000 soldiers, leaving only a little more than 10,000 capable men.
Seeing that the Ming army on the opposite side was so fierce, he issued several military orders as soon as he had just gained a foothold, with the warships in front and the troops behind, in a defensive posture.
But after waiting for most of the day, the Ming army still did not come to attack. After sending out sentries to investigate, they learned that the Ming army had already cleared the battlefield and retreated.
After She Chongming counted the battle losses and arranged the defenses, he returned to the temporary tent with exhaustion and fell down on the wooden bed with a bang.
For a whole day, he couldn't figure out why there were so many Ming soldiers ambushing him here.
From the information he collected, it was revealed that the Chongqing government did not have an army of this size at all, and that all of them were extremely brave and capable of fighting compared to his fellow Yi soldiers who had been practicing for a long time. This was simply unbelievable.
What's even more strange is that the Ming army that ambushed them was actually equipped with cloth armor, and the weapons they held were no better than before. They were much stronger than the crude and simple weapons in their hands.
He thought of the army that the sentry detectives detected when they captured Luzhou, which was also equipped with the standard equipment of the border army.
He suddenly had an extremely bold idea in his mind. Could this really be the border army? But he couldn't figure out how the frontier army could appear in the southwest. This was totally unreasonable.
Before he started the army, he had done quite a lot of intelligence work. He didn't know everything about Sichuan and Sichuan, but he at least had a good idea.
But at this time, after two completely unexpected encounters and wars, he was really confused.
Even though She Chongming was extremely puzzled, she had no choice but to go ahead and do it.
Just when he was thinking about how to restore the morale of the army and plan to capture Chongqing, the military report of the partial division led by Fan Long and Zhang Tong was delivered to him.
He immediately announced the good news of these victories to the entire army and publicized it. The morale of the rebels who had just experienced a huge defeat immediately improved a lot, and the dejected air suddenly disappeared.
She Chongming's confidence also greatly increased, and he was full of ideas and hopes for capturing Chongqing.
Although he suffered heavy losses along the way, Fan Long and Zhang Tong's partial troops were already much stronger than the main force he led.
There were originally 7,000 troops, but now nearly 50,000 troops have been reorganized. This is really beyond the expectations in advance, and the progress is too smooth.
And this 50,000-strong army has already captured Shengdeng Pass, captured this fortress pass guarding the southern gate of Chongqing, and is approaching Chongqing.
His strategic intention of attacking on two fronts and joining forces to besiege Chongqing was about to be realized.
Early the next morning, he sent a team of people to drive a boat up the river and return to Yongning via Luzhou. He asked his brother She Chonghui to gather 10,000 elite troops and send them to the front line to help him capture Chongqing.