Song Yihe was surprised at first, and then he was overjoyed. He had already been salivating over Mei Zhihuan's Shen Zhuangjun. Now he was dozing off when he met the pillow sender. No matter what the relationship between these jute merchants headed by Ken Deji and Mei Zhihuan was. Old grudges, anyway, all Song Yihe needs is a suitable excuse.
He hurriedly asked: "Why did you come here to redress your grievances? I will make the decision for them."
Song Yihe's clan nephew obviously also received a lot of benefits from Kendeji. His words were biased in favor of Kendeji, saying: "It is said that some foolish people in Macheng are rebellious people. They listened to rumors that adults are afraid of enemies and war, and they also heard that Xiao After Li thieves defeated Niuxin Stronghold, the next step was to attack Juma, so he spread rumors everywhere, causing people to panic."
"What does this have to do with Mei Zhihuan?"
"Although the rebellious people are extremely stupid, they also know that without the protection and support of the court and the yamen, how can they be the opponent of Xiao Li's thieves? This group of people burned incense and gathered a crowd to write a letter to tens of thousands of people, asking the court to promote Mei Zhihuan. He was appointed as the governor of Chu to stabilize the current situation."
"Ha! Who gave them the courage to do this!" Song Yihe was furious when he heard this. What he cared about most was the black gauze hat on his head. It was enough for others to spread rumors. Now he actually dared to directly use Mei Zhihuan to suppress him?
How cowardly this is!
Yes, Mei Zhihuan had served in the military for a long time and had experience in providing military support at the border. But Song Yihe guarded the four borders, and didn't he also maintain peace in Huguang for a while? Otherwise, why did the jute merchants send the Wanmin Umbrella?
These are just a small group of thieves who have a grudge against themselves... Yes, thieves! They want to change horses with Chu Fu. They are clearly rogue bandits who want to undermine the overall military situation guarding the four borders.
He was in a bad mood and really wanted to go to the court immediately to impeach Mei Zhihuan, an old thief who was uneasy at home after retirement, so he asked his nephew to immediately invite the representatives of jute merchants and people to get a first-hand understanding of Macheng. Case.
The business representative who sent the Wanmin Umbrella was none other than Xiao Weisong, the chief storekeeper of Kendeji.
Following Li Laiheng's secret order, he used the business strongholds established by the Red Team and Ken Deji in Huang'an and Macheng to first set fire to the situation, and then encouraged some citizens behind the scenes to create public opinion and ask the court to promote Mei Zhihuan to replace the incompetent Song Yihe.
After public opinion was formed and the conflict between Song Yihe and Mei Zhihuan was ignited, he turned his offensive and jumped to Song Yihe's side. On the pretext of sending Wanmin umbrella, he entered the Fu Office and further instigated Song Yihe to attack Mei Zhihuan directly.
Xiao Weisong's strategy is to drive away tigers and devour wolves, but the core lies in the fact that there has been a conflict between Song Yihe and Mei Zhihuan for a long time. Even if no one is there to add fuel to the flames, they will eventually form an opposition. Without the endorsement and support of the imperial court, Shen Zhuang's army will In essence, it would also endanger Chongzhen's ruling order. How could Mei Zhihuan be content in his position for a long time? 1
Today he wears a scarf on his head and Confucian clothes. He is specially dressed like a scholar. He is polite and well-liked. In order to win Song Yihe's favor, in addition to the Xia Gui Mountains and Rivers map that the intruders seized from Prince Fu's treasury, , Xiao Weisong also prepared some exotic flowers and stones purchased from Jiujiang according to Song Yihe's preferences, and sent them to the governor's Yamen together.
In order to instigate Song Yihe to deal with Shenzhuang's army, Xiao Weisong spent more than ten thousand yuan. But as Li Laiheng said, "As long as we keep a clear account and capture Wuchang later, we will still get the money back." Chuang Jun did this It is really a business without capital.
When he met Song Yihe, he first made a look of fear, fell down on the ground and said: "Please know, Mr. Futai, that I am just doing business in department stores in Macheng. Who would have expected that a group of rioters and fools would gather to make trouble and burn incense?" Praying is tantamount to rebellion, and he writes a letter to tens of thousands of people, asking the court to replace Chu Fu. The villain was so angry that he made sarcastic remarks, and these rioters actually rushed into the shop, burned the shop, and robbed the goods worth thousands of gold. "
"The villain and Mei Zhihuan have never known each other, but this matter originated from Mei Zhihuan. After the rioters destroyed the shop, the villain was not allowed to run a shop in Macheng again. The villain had no choice but to write to Shenjiazhuang, asking Mei Zhihuan to mediate. , but was driven away by the Mei family. Now that the matter has come to this, we can only appeal to Futai and seek justice."
It is true that Ken Deji's shop in Macheng was destroyed by rioters, but these rioters were naturally directed and acted by Xiao Weisong and were professional rogues hired by himself.
However, when these words fell into the ears of Song Yihe, it turned into Mei Zhihuan directing and acting on his own, bribing the people of the city to create public opinion, and trying to snatch his position as the governor of Chu.
"There is no precedent in this dynasty for local gentry to serve as officials of the province. How can there be any stupid people in the world really stupid enough to let Mei Zhihuan be the governor of Chu? There must be someone behind this."
Song Yihe narrowed his eyes and acted as if he had the situation under control. The nephew's staff around him also nodded, saying that Mei Zhihuan must be the mastermind behind this, trying to blackmail the imperial court and demand titles.
Song Yihe sighed again: "The imperial court has been recruiting volunteers recently to prepare for King Qin's proposal. I have long heard that Mei Zhihuan once went to the imperial court and said that the people of Huangma Village have many strong soldiers and should apply for detailed restraints, enlighten loyalty, and recruit people. Heroes are trained to become a powerful force for the purpose of suppressing bandits. Now it seems that Mei Zhihuan's training of righteousness and bravery is not very good. This heroic desperado has really recruited a large number of people."
"You are really a rebellious person who invites people to flee!" Song Yihe's nephew, who had received a large sum of bribes from Xiao Weisong, said bitterly, "If it is not a deliberate rebellion, what is Mei Zhihuan's intention? Sir, there is still money in Macheng this morning. A letter was sent, saying that the bandit Xiao Li had broken through the Dabie Mountain stronghold and that the troops had reached Huangzhou Prefecture. Shen Zhuang's army intended to send troops to restore Dabie Mountain and asked Wuchang for assistance. We had repeatedly urged Mei Zhihuan to send troops earlier, but he did not hesitate to send troops. He is not moving yet, but he is so active at this moment. Isn't there a conspiracy behind him?"
Xiao Weisong also kowtowed to the ground and said: "The month before last, Mei Zhihuan's youngest son got married. Thousands of guests attended the wedding. This power is no less powerful than any official in the imperial court. Shenzhuang's army has ten thousand people, and Suizhou Xiao Li's bandit army numbered only a few thousand, and it was very easy for Mei Zhihuan to defeat him. It is indeed difficult to understand why he sent a letter at this time requesting the army and the army to cooperate."
After Guo Junzhen defeated the Shanzhai armed forces in the Dabie Mountains, they indeed posed a huge threat to the adjacent Huangma area. Some Shanzhai vassals attached to the Chuang Army often used the cover of the southern foot of the Dabie Mountains to enter the relatively affluent Huangzhou Prefecture to plunder grain.
As the regiment training force protecting Huangma Township, the Shenzhuang Army was of course responsible for fighting against the intruders. However, Mei Zhihuan also knew that Song Yihe, the governor of Huguang, had become more and more wary of him recently, so he did not act without authorization, but first wrote to Wuchang made a notice, but he did not expect that this approach would only make Song Yihe determined to eradicate Mei Zhihuan and Shen Zhuangjun together.
"Mei Zhihuan's momentum has reached this level!"
When Song Yihe heard that Xiao Weisong had attended Chen Meizhihuan's youngest son's wedding with thousands of guests, he immediately felt that he had underestimated Mei Zhihuan too much. I am afraid that this man wanted not only his position as the governor of Chu, but also had a grand plan.
Since ancient times, there must be traitors in troubled times. This Mei Zhi squandered wealth and made friends, recruited refugees, and gathered tens of thousands of people. Song Yihe used himself to save others, and never believed that there would be people in the world who would spend all their property to engage in such a business without capital. , since Mei Zhihuan has invested so much, his plan must be bigger.
Huguang's military strength is already very tight in various places, and now there is this very troublesome bandit Xiao Li roaming Suizhou. It is indeed a good situation for careerists to take advantage of the situation.
If he had not seen through Mei Zhihuan's plot and had stupidly transferred the few mobile troops from Fubiao to Juma to assist Shen Zhuang's army in recovering the Dabie Mountains, and was attacked by Mei Zhihuan in a surprise attack, San Chu might have turned into a corrupt situation in an instant.
"It's terrible, it's terrible, it's terrible. Who would have expected that Mei Zhihuan, who has a good reputation, would actually be an ambitious living Cao Cao!"
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In real history, the Shenzhuang Army was suppressed by the local governor and ministers, disintegrated on its own after Mei Zhihuan's death, and the remaining troops merged into Qihuang Forty-Eight Village, and were eventually destroyed by Xu Yong, the general of Zuozhen who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
The Shenzhuang Army was a self-rescue effort by the local gentry in the late Ming Dynasty. However, unlike the situation in the late Qing Dynasty, the imperial court never gave strong support to the gentry regiment training. When Chongzhen came to his senses in the 16th year of Chongzhen and finally wanted to organize a large-scale regiment training, he never There is no time.
However, even if Chongzhen had been able to give local gentry the power to set up regiment training very early, it might have intensified the conflicts between local gentry and governors earlier, leading to the tragic end of those who brought their own rations, such as Mei Zhihuan of Macheng and Xu Du of Dongyang.