Chapter 119: Born a Strange Man and Died a Strong Husband (Part 2)
The person in the tent was none other than Kong Youde. He had been a miner in his early years. He was very tall, half a head taller than Li Jiuzheng. However, his face had a sense of vicissitudes of life. At first glance, he looked like an old farmer.
No one would have thought that the person in front of him would be a knife-edge licker, let alone the person who single-handedly led the "Denglai Incident" that ravaged the three provinces.
.
In addition to Kong Youde, there were three other people in the tent, namely Mao Chenglu, the adopted son of Mao Wenlong, the former commander-in-chief of the Dongjiang Army, Geng Zhongming, who was also known as one of the "Three Mining Disciples of Shandong" with Kong Youde, and Li Yingyuan, the son of Li Jiucheng.
Mao Chenglu once commanded Mao Wenlong's army of servants, including his adopted sons and grandsons, and the Jurchens for a long time, ranking first among Wenlong's disciples. The Jurchens called him "Mao Da". After Mao Wenlong was killed by Yuan Chonghuan, Mao Chenglu was retained by Yuan Chonghuan and still held the title of leader.
Island Army First Association. After Yuan Chonghuan's death, Mao Chenglu wrote a letter to plead grievances for Mao Wenlong, but Chongzhen ignored it. After Kong Youde's Wuqiao uprising, Mao Chenglu took a wait-and-see attitude. After Kong Youde captured Dengzhou, Mao Chenglu immediately responded with 7,000 island troops.
On the seventh day of March, they landed at Congluan and stationed troops at Dengzhou Campus. This time Kong Youde personally led a large army to reinforce Li Jiucheng, and his 7,000 soldiers were the main force.
Geng Zhongming had an internal response in Dengzhou. It can be said that if he had not mobilized the Liao soldiers to respond internally in the city, it would have been impossible for Kong Youde to capture Dengzhou. In addition, his troops were elite Liao soldiers. Basically, all the Liao soldiers in Dengzhou were under his control.
Therefore, in terms of strength, he could compete with Kong Youde. However, Geng Zhongming had always been willing to submit to Kong Youde, but he did not like Li Jiucheng, a gambler. When reserving seats that day, Geng Zhongming advocated that Kong Youde should take the seat.
He was appointed marshal of the capital, and Li Jiucheng was his deputy. However, Kong Youde, out of future calculations, argued that Li Jiucheng should be the marshal of the capital, with himself as deputy marshal. At the same time, he appointed Geng Zhongming as the chief military officer of Denglai. Therefore, the army called Geng Zhongming the leader of the fifth army.
.
Geng Zhongming's family had many brothers in the army. His younger brothers Geng Zhongyi, Geng Zhongquan, Geng Zhongguo and others all had their own troops. The total number of troops at their disposal was 20,000, accounting for almost one-third of the rebel army.
Being so powerful naturally gave Geng Zhongming a full say in the rebels. Whether it was Kong Youde or Li Jiucheng, they would seek Geng Zhongming's opinion before making major decisions. If Geng Zhongming disagreed, the matter would most likely be dropped.
[
Li Yingyuan was the son of Li Jiucheng. Before the uprising, he served as a thousand-man general under Kong Youde. He instigated the soldiers to cause trouble in Wuqiao that day, and then forced Kong Youde to pull the flag. Li Yingyuan played an important role. After taking Dengzhou, Li Jiucheng tried his best to put together a thousand-man cavalry under his command.
Unfortunately, in the battle of Xiaoguanzhuang, they encountered the more elite Jinzhou Army. After the battle, Li Yingyuan's cavalry was completely lost. Although Li Jiuzheng added a thousand more cavalry for him, there were only really usable cavalry.
There are only over a hundred people, and the rest are mostly just filling up the numbers.
Four days ago, Kong Youde arrived secretly from Dengzhou with a large army. Li Jiucheng asked him for 1,400 horses and 3,000 soldiers. In this way, Li Yingyuan's cavalry command was established again, but the cavalry was really able to fight.
It was less than two hundred, and the Ming army in Xiaoguanzhuang had Liaodong cavalry. Therefore, for several months, Li Yingyuan's cavalry only dared to send out sentry cavalry, and no longer dared to fight against the Ming army, or even harass them.
Unlike Li Jiucheng who sought self-protection and a desperate gamble, Geng Zhongming and Mao Chenglu both had their own political aspirations when they joined the rebels.
Mao Chenglu often said that the court was unfair and he wanted to seek justice for his adoptive father. But the reason for Geng Zhongming's rebellion was to take revenge. His enemy was Huang Long, the chief military officer of Pi Island.
Before Mao Wenlong's death, he had instigated the rebellion of the Liu Xingzuo brothers who surrendered to the Later Jin Dynasty. Liu Xingzuo joined the Jurchen camp very early and made great contributions in the war between the Later Jin Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty. He was appreciated by Nurhaci.
The four prefectures of Fu, Hai, and Gai were all put under the jurisdiction of Liu Xingzuo. However, in the context of the Jurchens oppressing the Han people, senior Han officials like Li Yongfang and Liu Xingzuo were inevitably bullied and excluded by their Jurchen colleagues. In this kind of situation
Under such circumstances, the Liu Xingzuo brothers had the idea of returning to the Ming Dynasty.
Under Mao Wenlong's instigation, and after a series of painstaking and serial designs, the Liu Xingzuo brothers finally evaded the surveillance of the Jurchens, successfully fled back to Pidao, and served under Mao Wenlong. In Pidao, Mao Wenlong dominated the sky with one hand and was very powerful.
The huge shadow affected the Liu brothers' brilliance. Therefore, when Yuan Chonghuan faked an imperial edict and killed Mao Wenlong, Liu Xingzuo welcomed him and wanted to replace him. He helped Yuan Chonghuan suppress the resistance of Mao Wenlong's old troops, which was appreciated by Yuan Chonghuan.
The army was divided into two associations, the east and the west. Chen Jisheng and Liu Xingzuo, both former subordinates of Mao Wenlong, each led one association. Later, Liu Xingzuo was transferred to the interior and was succeeded by his younger brother Liu Xingzhi.
Soon after the "Jisi Incident" occurred, Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned, and Liu Xingzuo was killed in an attack. Liu Xingzhi, who had lost his backing, was in a precarious position on the island. Mao Wenlong's old troops headed by Chen Jisheng were full of suspicion about him. In order to reverse the situation, Liu Xingzhi launched a mutiny and attacked.
He killed Chen Jisheng, the leader of the ASEAN Association, in an attempt to dominate Pi Dao. However, his plot failed to get rid of his opponent. The imperial court sent Huang Long, the commander-in-chief, and Mao Wenlong's old troops Zhang Tao and Shen Shikui launched a mutiny and killed Liu Xingzhi and the troops he led.
Jurchen soldiers.
In the struggle between Mao Wenlong's old tribe and Liu Xingzhi's brothers, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, who were also Mao Wenlong's old tribe, stood in Liu Xingzhi's camp. After Liu Xingzhi died, they were ostracized and had to go far away and stayed in the tent of Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai.
Next. Sun Yuanhua appointed Kong Youde as the general of the infantry left camp, and Geng Zhongming was sent to Dengzhou Fortress.
It was originally peaceful for people to go elsewhere. However, Geng Zhongming's brother Geng Zhongyu, who stayed in Pi Island, was arrested and imprisoned by Huang Long for conspiracy to rebel and secretly colluding with Hou Jin. In order to rescue Geng Zhongyu, Geng Zhongming ordered Geng Zhongyu's subordinates to ask for pay.
Besieged Huanglong Yamen and tied up Huanglong. Later, Huanglong was rescued by his subordinates. Huanglong executed Geng Zhongyu in anger and went to the court to plead guilty to Geng Zhongming's instigation. Although under the protection of Sun Yuanhua, Geng Zhongming was not punished, but
From then on, he formed a feud with Huang Long, and because of the hatred of killing his younger brother, he never dreamed of killing Huang Long. When he heard about the uprising between Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng, he was the first person in Dengzhou City who had evil intentions and was ready to respond to Kong Youde.
Then he led his army to Phi Island and killed Huang Long in one fell swoop!
After Li Jiucheng entered the tent, everyone in the tent stood up to greet him. Kong Youde smiled and pulled Li Jiucheng forward to ask him to sit at the front seat, while he sat down on the first chair on the left.
Geng Zhongming, Mao Chenglu, Geng Zhongyi, Li Zhongfu, and Li Yingyuan sat down one after another. Basically all the rebel generals were in this tent.
"Ritu, I'm not telling you what to do with those two eunuchs? Wouldn't it be nice to kill them with one knife?" Li Jiuzheng felt angry for no reason at the thought of how he had kowtowed to those two useless people just now.
Kong Youde laughed and said: "These two bastards are still useful. I wonder if they can still make a profit."
"It's up to you." Li Jiucheng shrugged, thought of something, and asked Kong Youde: "Jiang Maoran lost Pingdu, and now we are attacked from both sides. If Zhu Dadian deliberately stabs us, something will go wrong.
ah."
"Well, Zhu Dadian doesn't have the courage. If he can occupy Pingdu, he can just laugh. With his few troops, if he really brings it to our lips, he won't let us chop him into pieces." The fall of Pingdu was not a big deal for Kong Youde.
It wasn't a big deal. As for Jiang Maoran and the thousands of soldiers and horses, he never paid attention to them. They were just a bunch of rabble. If they were kept, they would be a waste of food. If they died, they would die, and there would be no need to transport food to Pingdu.
Geng Zhongyi suggested: "Commander, deputy commander, or else I will lead the troops to defeat Pingdu again, so that Zhu Dadian will not know what is good or bad."
Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng shook their heads at the same time. Kong Youde said: "Compared with Laizhou, Ten Pingdu is not as good as Laizhou. What matters now is Laizhou."
"Zhang Guochen and Qu Yiyang have already entered the city. It stands to reason that Xie Lian should have come out by now, but there has been no movement in the city. Could it be that Xie Lian saw that we were pretending to surrender?" Li Jiucheng was a little worried.
Kong Youde said: "So what if Xie Lian sees that there is a deceit? How dare he disobey orders? Based on my understanding of this group of civil servants, they would rather take a chance than disobey orders, let alone be wearing a hat that will destroy them."
Fu Bureau’s hat. Well, it’s almost time, it’s probably just a matter of a while, let’s just wait.”[
"What the deputy commander said is that with Liu Yulie's pressure, Xie Lian didn't dare to disobey. Besides, this time they thought the commander wanted to surrender but the deputy commander refused. They were happy to think that we were having internal strife. It would be strange not to take advantage of the situation and accept the surrender.
Geng Zhongming chuckled and said, "The great success of recruiting people will make anyone jealous. I don't believe that Xie Lian is willing to give up this great success to others."
Mao Chenglu also nodded and said: "Commander, you can rest assured. If Xie Lian doesn't leave the city, we will send those two eunuchs to the city. They are serious people from the palace, and they may speak better than Liu Yulie."
It still works.”
Li Zhongfu also said: "I will arrange for people to put on a good show for these two eunuchs later. I will chop off some heads and show them that they are generals loyal to the deputy commander. In this way, these two eunuchs will
The goods then decided that the commander-in-chief was about to surrender, and asked them to go into the city to intimidate him, and Xie Lian would have to leave without leaving."
"We have been surrounding Laizhou for many days. We have not been able to break through the city. The morale of the army is somewhat weakened, and the supply of food and grass is almost running out. So we just want to break Laizhou to let the brothers have enough food."
Li Yingyuan suddenly said bitterly: "If Chen Youyou hadn't been exposed, how could the Ming army dare to cross the Shahe River? Now it's right under our noses, so we don't dare to attack the city with all our strength. Otherwise, this city would have been fucking destroyed."
!”
"That's fine. It's better to capture Laizhou without spending a single soldier than to kill tens of thousands more people." Kong Youde smiled. Li Yingyuan said that Chen Shi's defeat at Shahe had damaged his morale. He wanted to say Xiaoguanzhuang.
It took the first battle to really destroy morale, but it was hard to say this.
"After taking Laizhou, we must immediately defeat the Ming army in Xiaoguanzhuang. Otherwise, the situation will still not be opened. This Denglai land is like a fucking bird cage. If we don't open an opening and rush out, we will always have to
"Controlled"
As Kong Youde was talking, there was a commotion outside. Soon, a soldier rushed into the tent with an excited look on his face, "Report to the commander, the city gate is open, the city gate is open!"