Chapter 146: Civil and military fighting, two emperors stand side by side
When the deputy general was chasing the Liao family bandits, the sentinel speedboat at the Jiangbei stronghold discovered a fleet approaching from the upper reaches of the river.
The sentry hurriedly returned to the stronghold to report the news.
"Fleet? Are there warships?"
"Yes, General, three warships! They are all standard warships of the Navy Commander's Office!" the sentinel reported hurriedly.
"Let's go! Let's go and have a look. The person coming from upstream may be that old thief Liu Min! I don't know which side he chose!"
Qian Guangzhi hurriedly put on his armor and led the generals out.
They had just boarded the warship when they saw a fleet of ships sailing slowly up the river.
Opening the way were three warships, which were as big as theirs and were all in the style of the unified warships of the Jiangnan Navy Commandery.
Behind the battleship were some canoes, which must have contained a lot of supplies.
Looking at those boats, Qian Guangzhi was a little moved for a while.
"Woo~" the horn sounded.
The fleet upstream did not approach, but stopped in the river slightly closer to Jiangning.
The anchor line was lowered from the ship, and the entire fleet stopped there.
"Send a small boat to ask who that old thief Liu Min has taken refuge in!"
Qian Guangzhi looked at the stopped fleet and frowned.
The direction where the fleet docked was close to Jiangning, which made him a little uneasy.
Xuanzhou's strength is not small, and Liu Min's own reputation is very strong. Being able to win over Liu Min will be a big help.
"General, look!" Someone pointed in the direction of Jiangning.
Jiang Ning also released the boat.
"Hurry up! What are you doing standing still! Send a ship quickly!" Qian Guangzhi shouted angrily.
Soon, two small boats came from the north and south, gradually approaching the fleet.
On the fleet, Ma Cheng frowned.
The stronghold in Jiangbei looks like the marching layout of the Guards or the Daqian Navy.
There are a lot of ships parked at the pier, including six battleships.
No matter who they are, most of them are regular troops.
And the one hanging on top of Jiangning City in the south of the Yangtze River is clearly the royal flag of Daqian.
The garb of the defenders of the city looked like guards officers and soldiers.
"The guards and navy rebelled?" Ma Cheng became more and more confused as he looked.
"Those people in Jiangbei are indeed guards!" Cui Shan on the side said as he stared at the north bank for a while.
Cui Qiang, the Cui family brother, went to Duchang, while Cui Shan stayed in Jiangzhou.
Cui Shan is now the governor of Jiangzhou Yamen, probably the leader of the militia, responsible for the training of the people.
The three hundred people who came out this time were his men.
Cui Shan himself was born in the Guards Army, and Jiangzhou's Minzhuang training was based on the training of the Fuxing Army.
In fact, the combat effectiveness is not small.
"Wait a minute, both sides have sent boats over. Let's take a look first and talk later." Ma Cheng frowned and looked at Jiangbei and then at Jiangning.
After a while, the boat from the direction of Jiangning arrived first.
A rope ladder was set up, and a middle-aged man in civilian clothes and a young follower were pulled up.
The middle-aged man straightened his clothes, then looked at Ma Cheng and Cui Shan and said:
"My officer, Chen Xuan, the right minister of Jiangning's Ministry of Rites, and the two generals...are you Liu Min's subordinate?"
Chen Xuan thought that all the people who came were soldiers, but he saw that Ma Cheng was wearing the official uniform of a fifth-grade civil servant.
He is the right minister of the Ministry of Rites and a senior official of the third rank.
For a small fifth-grade civil servant and a military commander whose rank cannot be discerned, I still feel a little arrogant.
Of course, if there weren't really any good candidates, there would be no need to ask such a high official to come over.
"Chen Xuan? Are you...Chen Xuan, a foreign minister of the Ministry of Rites?" Ma Cheng looked at the man carefully and asked.
Chen Xuan, who was still a little arrogant at first, suddenly fell down when he heard Ma Cheng's words.
It is true that he was originally a member of the Ministry of Rites, a member of the fifth rank, but he was promoted a while ago and became the Minister of Rites.
"Who are you?"
Chen Xuan looked at Ma Cheng. This man could tell him off with just one word. He must be an acquaintance.
"My little brother Ma Cheng! My father was Sima Yuan, the former boss of Jiangning Shipyard." Ma Cheng introduced himself.
Chen Xuan was stunned for a moment, then said happily: "Uh! It turns out he is a good brother!"
Chen Xuan's father was a former member of the Jiangning Ministry of Industry. The Ministry of Industry was under the jurisdiction of the Jiangning Shipyard. Their fathers were acquaintances.
"My dear brother! I haven't recognized you since I haven't seen you for so many years! By the way, you weren't an official in Hongzhou? Why did you end up in Xuanzhou?"
Chen Xuan was happy. Ma Cheng was an acquaintance, and his task today would be much easier to handle.
He was busy pulling Ma Cheng to ask questions.
"Brother Chen, I am not in Xuanzhou. I am now the water transport manager of Jiangzhou." Ma Cheng said with a smile.
"Jiang...Jiangzhou? Not Xuanzhou? Water transportation manager..." Chen Xuan looked at Ma Cheng in surprise and asked.
He thought the fleet was from Xuanzhou, but it turned out that they were from Jiangzhou.
Moreover, he had never heard of Ma Cheng's official position as director of water transportation.
"My younger brother is currently serving His Highness the King of Jiangzhou. Jiangzhou is currently in a state of emergency. This water transport manager was also appointed by His Highness the King of Jiangzhou." Ma Cheng explained.
"Oh? His Royal Highness the King of Jiangzhou is still there?" Chen Xuan asked.
"Of course! Jiangzhou has now settled down under the leadership of the prince, and the reconstruction of the city is almost completed!" Ma Cheng said with reverence.
"This..." Chen Xuan didn't know what to say.
They are fighting life and death here, but Jiangzhou has been stabilized?
The most important thing is that Song Yang is a prince!
Prince!
Only the emperor's own son can be called a prince, and he is the direct heir of Daqian.
If the prince dies, the third prince Song Yang should succeed him!
Jiang Ning's expedition horse went north to explore, and the capital collapsed. The prince and the emperor must have collapsed.
The eldest prince died young, the prince was originally the second son, and now the prince also died.
The first heir should be Song Yang, King of Jiangzhou!
But……
Chen Xuan stamped his feet and shook his head and said, "What the hell is this!"
"Brother Chen, what's going on?" Ma Cheng looked at Chen Xuan who was beating his chest and feet in confusion.
Just as Chen Xuan was about to speak, people from the Jiangbei boat also came up.
"Traitor Chen Xuan! Surrender quickly!"
This guy from Jiangbei is also dressed as a civil servant and looks to be around fifty.
As soon as the man saw Chen Xuan, he immediately pointed at Chen Xuan and shouted.
"Fart! You, Wang Benhuai, are the traitor!"
Chen Xuan was about to talk to Ma Cheng, but someone called him a traitor.
When he looked back, he saw that the person coming was Wang Benhuai, and he immediately jumped to his feet and yelled.
"Thieves! You killed the late emperor, and yet you dare to support the rebels! Watch me beat you!" Wang Benhuai said and rushed over from Chen Xuan.
Not to be outdone, Chen Xuan exposed his arms and rolled up his sleeves and started fighting with Wang Benhuai.
While taking action, he also yelled and cursed: "It is an unforgivable crime for you to wait for the thieves to rebel against the king!"
"Dog thief!"
"Rebel!"
"Rebellion!"
The two screamed louder and louder, and the fighting became more and more fierce. Their hair was torn apart and their clothes were torn.
Ma Cheng couldn't stand it any longer and signaled to Cui Shan.
Cui Shan shouted loudly, "That's enough! Stop!"
The first two steps separated the two people.
"Hmph! Let me see when your thief will return to the west!"
"I will spare your life for rebelling today!"
The two of them were pulled apart, still cursing.
Ma Cheng looked at the two of them with a gloomy face.
"Whoever makes a quarrel will be thrown into the river to feed the fishes!"
"Got the order!"
The Renaissance Army sailors who were watching the commotion around them immediately raised their fists with serious expressions.
You can tell by the look in their eyes that as long as Ma Cheng gives the order, they will definitely throw these two groups into the river.
"Brother Xian! He is an anti-King lackey. Someone should arrest him!"
After hearing Ma Cheng's words, Chen Xuan hurriedly pointed at Wang Benhuai and shouted.
Ma Cheng glared at Chen Xuan with a gloomy expression.
Chen Xuan was startled and was too busy to shut up.
"Are you Wang Benhuai, a member of the household department? I've heard of you." Ma Cheng looked at Wang Benhuai and said.
"Who is this lord?" Wang Ben held his fists in his arms. He didn't know Ma Cheng.
"I am the general manager of water transportation in Jiangzhou, my father is Ma Yuan." Ma Cheng introduced himself here.
"Oh, it turns out he is the son of Matusi." Wang Benhuai said, clasping his fists again.
Although Ma Cheng's father is only a fifth-rank official, he has a wide network of contacts, and the shipyard is a fat and scumbag yamen.
So many officials in Jiangning knew him.
Wang Benhuai didn't know what kind of official the water transport director was, but he could manage such a fleet.
He doesn't care what kind of official you are, as long as you can win over you, that's the business.
Moreover, Ma Cheng said that he was an official son of Jiangzhou, not Xuanzhou.
This shows that this fleet is from afar, and it would be best to win over them. If not, it doesn't matter.
It’s not the nearby Xuanzhou.
You, Jiangzhou, would never bother to go on an expedition and come by ship to fight, right?
"You two. This time I came to Jiangning on the order of the prince, but the situation in Jiangning... I really don't understand."
"They are the ones who rebelled!"
When Ma Cheng asked about this, the two of them started to quarrel again.
But seeing Ma Cheng's stern expression, the two of them rolled their eyes again.
Taking these two guys to the cabin seat, Ma Cheng asked them to take turns talking.
Finally, Jiang Ning's matter was clarified.
It turns out that after the natural disaster, Jiangning was ruined and the people were displaced.
The remaining officials, led by King Runzhou, carried out disaster relief work.
At the same time, a fast horse and fast ship were also sent to the capital to report the news.
But soon the messenger came back, bringing news of the collapse of Kyoto.
It is said that the entire imperial city was turned into a sea of flames, and the emperor's prince must have died.
Therefore, the adults in Jiangning felt that the country could not be left without a master for a day.
They should establish a new king so that they can unify the world and revive their great cadres as soon as possible.
There was nothing wrong with this idea, so they chose the more orthodox King of Changzhou.
The King of Changzhou is Song Yang's half-brother and a prince.
However, his biological mother was from a humble background and was not a direct descendant. She was not as good as Song Yang in the ranking of heirs, so she was driven out of the capital and became a vassal when she was only ten years old.
Legally speaking, although he is not as good as Song Yang, he is still a prince.
Compared with several princes around Jiangning, the King of Changzhou has already been chosen.
So several ministers welcomed the King of Changzhou to Jiangning to succeed him as emperor.
The tragic result is that the king of Changzhou died suddenly after only half a month as emperor, and he didn't even get a good title.
Regarding the death of the new emperor, the ministers were divided into two groups, each thinking that the other party was responsible.
We argued for a long time and still couldn't come up with a solution.
Therefore, one of them proposed to make King Runzhou the emperor.
Another wave proposed to establish the King of Suzhou as emperor.
After another half month of quarreling, King Runzhou succeeded to the throne smoothly because of the favorable location.
However, the ministers who supported the King of Suzhou were obviously unwilling to give up, so they left Jiangning with their people and went directly to Suzhou to support the King of Suzhou as emperor.
Many of those who left Jiangning were officers from the Jiangnan Camp, and they took half of the Jiangnan Camp officers with them when they left.
As a result, both sides established their own emperors, and then each declared themselves to be orthodox.
Then the war against the rebels began.
It has been a month since the war started.
More than 20,000 people were killed on both sides.
Of the more than 40,000 elites left in the Jiangnan camp, only 20,000 were left.
In the past half month, King Runzhou has been at a disadvantage, and King Suzhou's troops have entered Changzhou.
After these two men became emperors, the various states in Jiangnan East Province had different attitudes.
Among them, Runzhou, Changzhou, and Hangzhou supported King Runzhou.
Suzhou, Huzhou, Yuezhou, and Mingzhou supported King Suzhou.
As for other nearby state capitals, the chaos caused by natural and man-made disasters may not even have decent government organizations.
Even further away, they were busy fighting wars every day, and the two emperors had no time to take care of them.
So even now Song Yang doesn't know that there are already two emperors in Daqian...
If he hadn't sent Ma Cheng out to take a look, he would have had to wait until the winner was decided between the two, and the winner would still be able to take care of the lands south of the Yangtze River...
After listening to what these two people said, Ma Cheng was speechless.