The night was quiet, with only the sound of the endless waves crashing against the rocks, and the gentle sea breeze shaking the treetops.
A few fishing fires provided guidance in the dark night.
A fishing boat slowly approached the fishing fire, and Mr. Yan got off the boat.
Yang Boxing, the deputy general of the Yulin Camp, led Mr. Yan to Zhu Yihai through many open posts and hidden sentries, and said, "Your Highness has been waiting for a long time."
"On this midsummer night, the sea breeze is blowing. Let's grill some octopus and fry some octopus, and boil some shrimp. It's actually not bad. Let's try it together."
Mr. Yan thanked him and took the bunch of shrimps he was offered with both hands.
"Is it going well in Hangzhou this time?"
"Well, it went very well. Bolo believed in me deeply. Even the traitors Zhang Cunren and Tian Xiong also believed in me. They both entrusted me with important tasks. I hope that I can recruit more of our Ming Dynasty civil and military officials."
Zhu Yihai chewed the tough octopus tentacles and took out a list from his arms and handed it to Mr. Yan, "It has been prepared for you."
Mr. Yan looked through the bonfire.
I saw that it read Wu Kai, Marquis of Kaiyuan, Shi Zhongfang, Marquis of Dingyuan, Gu Qixun, Bo of Yi'an, Jiang Junxian, General Kaiping, Wang Yongsheng, General Anyuan, Tian Dekun, General Zhaowu, Chen Long, General Yiyi, Shen Chenglong, General Zhongyong, and Hu Maofang, General Huben. , General Lu Mingshi of the Pingyang Army, General Chen Dezhi and others.
Two marquises and one uncle, seven generals with official seals and one chief military officer, eleven people.
Each of the names above is more scary than the last. However, except for Wu Kai, Yan Woggong has some impressions and knows that this is Conglong Yuanxun, who is now the commander-in-chief of Shipu Town and guards Shipu Town on the Xiangshan Peninsula between Ningtai and Ningtai. Haven't heard of any of them.
"these are?"
Zhu Yihai grabbed a boiled prawn and peeled the shell slowly, while saying, "Wu Kai, you should have heard of him. He was the commander of the Zhejiang East Sea Gate Guards, and later served as the Provincial Zhenhai Gate Counselor. , you think it’s not too much to give him a title for such merit, right?”
Yan Wogong was a little confused when he heard this. As far as he knew, after Lu Jianguo came to the throne in Taizhou, although he also granted some titles, he was still more cautious and did not grant excessive titles.
Among the generals under his command, only Wang Zhiren was granted the title of Wu Ningbo, and Zhang Mingzhen was granted the title of Zhendong Bo. As for Zhennan Bo Fang Guoan, Nanan Marquis Zheng Zhilong, etc., they were obviously different and had a restraining and appeasing nature.
Although Wu Kai had contributed to the first conspiracy, he did not receive the title.
Why did he suddenly become the Marquis of Kaiyuan now? He remembered that Wu Kai had only been awarded the title of General Kaiyuan.
This number is obviously a general with a mixed number.
"I heard that the Tatars are very good at winning people's hearts, and they set very high conditions for the recruitment and surrender of our civil and military officials in the Ming Dynasty, especially those generals who led the troops. After surrender, they promised to retain their original positions, and those with titles would also retain their titles, and they could even be given additional bonuses. Rank appointment."
"Of course I can't be stingy with my loyal soldiers. In troubled times, loyalty and bravery should be rewarded. Therefore, I have recently appointed many generals, or given them titles for hereditary purposes, or given generals the title of seal to command the army. , to increase the power.”
"It's just that some people failed me, but with your strong support, Yan Qing, they actually surrendered."
When Lord Yan heard this, he understood everything instantly.
Wu Kai, the Marquis of Kaiyuan, and Shi Zhongfang, the Marquis of Dingyuan, this is what happened.
"His Highness asked me to report this list to the imperial court in Beijing, saying that I have successfully recruited these generals under the command of the Lu Supervisor State?"
"Yes, that's exactly what it means."
"Except General Wu, what positions did the other generals hold?" Yan Wogong asked.
Shi Zhongfang was originally from Xiaoshan, and he came across the sea with Chen Qianfu, the imperial servant. Zhu Yihai also didn't hide it from my father Yan. Shi Zhongfang, the Marquis of Dingyuan, was originally from a Qianhu in a guard station in Xiaoshan. When Yuying surrendered to Xiaoshan, he brought his family to respond. , captured the puppet magistrate and welcomed Yu Ying.
Later, Yu Ying commanded his own battalion of rebels along the Qiantang River defense line. Last time, he accompanied Chen Qianfu to transport money and grain across the sea and stayed in the Northern Expedition. Now he has the rank of general commanding the fourth battalion.
On the list Zhu Yihai gave Yan Wogong, the name given to him was Marquis Dingyuan, general of the Xiaoshan rebel army.
Gu Qixun, the Bo of Yi'an, was actually just a deputy of the Guards under Zhendong Bo Zhang Mingzhen. He was once a bandit leader with more than a dozen horse thieves under his command, and was known as the Thirteen Horsemen of the Blood Eagle. Kaiping General Jiang Junxian, Anyuan General Wang Yongsheng, General Yiyi Chen Long was actually one of the Thirteen Horse Thieves back then.
The loyal and brave general Shen Chenglong, the Huben general Hu Maofang, and the Dingyi general Lu Mingshi were all brave veterans of Wang Chuangzi's army.
Commander-in-Chief Chen Dezhi turned out to be just a water thief.
Most of them were in Zhu Yihai's Northern Expeditionary Army. Except for Wu Kai, the highest one was just a staff general and the lowest one was just a team leader.
These people have a characteristic, they are either former military officers or former bandits, bandits, pirates, and water pirates. All of them are very brave, and despite their poor background, those who have been carefully evaluated by Chen Qianfu are the ones who are more loyal and brave.
Pirates, water pirates, mountain bandits, and horse thieves say they are loyal and brave, but in fact there is no contradiction, just like many bad people are sometimes filial sons.
Zhu Yihai took out another list, which included the list of 21 middle and senior generals including deputy generals Lei Hubiao, Yang Zilong, staff generals Lu Yicheng, and Gao Shuxun.
When Yan Wogong asked, it turned out that these deputy generals, staff generals, and guerrilla generals were no more than team deputies at the highest, and several were just ordinary soldiers or servants.
"Your Highness, if they are all like General Wu Kai, it will be easier for the Tatars to believe them. At least they should be like General Shi, who are officers with more than 1,000 households in the former guard station."
Zhu Yihai said helplessly, "Originally, I wanted one of the Four Young Masters, Mao Pijiang, Yang Wencong, who is the Nine Friends in the painting, and Liu Kongzhao, the honorary minister who supervised the movement of the river in Nanjing, to pretend to surrender to the prisoners, but they were not willing. "
When Mao Bijiang heard that he was asked to pretend to surrender to the Tartars, he shook his head like a rattle. Unless he said that he was pretending to surrender for the sake of the country, he actually reluctantly accepted it, but it was not possible if he had to shave his head. Moreover, he said that he was famous, so if he surrendered He was afraid that the Tatars would summon him to Beijing, so he still didn't want to take the risk.
Yang Wencong and Liu Kongzhao were also determined not to surrender.
In the end, Zhu Yihai had no choice but to find a group of willing warriors. They were all from bad backgrounds and currently held low positions, but they were relatively loyal and brave. In the end, in order to fool the Tatars, he had to include Wu Kai who supported Li Yuan. List.
There were thirty-two people in total, pretending to be the leaders of the thirty-two Lu Jianguo armies or the Jiangnan folk anti-Qing rebels.
Mr. Yan felt a little embarrassed. This fraud was too fake.
Wu Kai can still deceive people like this, but if you recruit a group of servants, and the leader pretends to be Uncle Hou, or a general, it is too much.
"Anyway, I'm trying to trick the Tatars. I don't intend to let these people lead troops to surrender. What do I mean? Aren't you the ambassador of Zhejiang now? The Tatars give you cheap power to recruit people, so you just use this list to report Just go up there and it’ll be fine.”
"Anyway, whether it is Wu Kai or Lu Mingshi, it is only because of your recruitment. They have three to five thousand troops, or one thousand or eight hundred, distributed in various places. They surrender to you and accept your recruitment and reorganization. You give them to the Tatars." Ask for officials and titles, and see if you can get some food, pay, weapons, etc. from time to time. From time to time, you report to the Tatars, saying that under your leadership, they fought under my command under Lu Jianguo somewhere. No matter what the gains are, how many are killed, how many attacks are contained, etc., we can cooperate even if it requires acting."
"Even in the future, I can send troops to Jiangnan Prefecture and fight under their banner."
Yan Wegong had to admire Lu Jianguo's idea, which was very wild. He was trying to treat the Tatars like monkeys.
"I think it's actually feasible. After all, in Jiaxing now, you have Yan Gong in civil affairs and Li Yuchun in military affairs. You are all your own people. There is no problem in covering up together."
"Now Zheng Jiwu and Zhu Jigang in Haiyan County have successfully sneaked into the prison camp, raised the green flag and mounted the Tatars."
"I heard that Bolo also agreed to reserve the marquis for Zheng Jiwu and the earldom for Zhu Gang. Look, isn't this going smoothly?"
The fake surrender of Zheng Jiwu and Zhu Gang was a big show jointly staged by Zhu Yihai and Yan Wogong. Yan Wogong recruited them for Li Yuchun and then asked Bo Luo for credit. He also said that the two of them had been awarded the title of Puppet Ming Supervisor.
The title of Earl Marquis has been granted.
Then, as usual, Bo Luo and Zhang Cunren, with a stroke of a pen, retained their titles at the same time, and also promoted them to the rank of officer, conferred the title of general soldier, deputy general, and even formally provided food and salary for the two battalions of Haiyan.
, the first batch of food, salary and silver reward are already on the way. Although according to the convention, the food and salary may only be this batch, and it will be difficult to give more in the future, but at least I have been cheated.
Because of this successful precedent, Zhu Yihai now made a bigger list, and made a bunch of princes, generals with seals, and generals to surrender.
"This is also to cooperate with you, the newly appointed Zhejiang pacification ambassador. Since you are valued by Boluo and the others, you must show some decent recruitment achievements. Furthermore, we can also use this method to get a bunch of banner camp leaders.
, it will be convenient for us to work here then."
"Maybe we can get some money, food and weapons from you."
Yan Wogong couldn't help but admire him, "Your Highness is really smart!"
"Hahaha, this is just fishing in troubled waters. The muddier the water, the better. You can fish for a while. Then you can slowly arrange for all the counties in Jiaxing to be taken over by these surrendered soldiers and horses, leaving a capital for Li Yuchun.
That's good. Then all the counties in Jiaxing will be flying the green flag of the Tatars on the surface, but in fact they will be occupied by our Ming army. Wouldn't it be great?"
Mr. Yan thought to himself, only you, Your Highness, can think of this and even dare to do it.
But when you think about it, you, a country squire who pretended to surrender, is now a Tatar right deputy of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, with the title of Du Censor, deputy envoy of the Zhejiang Procuratorate, and concurrently patrols the Hangjiahu and sea routes. He is the imperial envoy to Zhejiang to recruit security.
Zheng Jiwu of Haiyan and others directly became the marquis, uncle, and deputy general of the Qing Dynasty. Li Yuchun had already given Zhu Yihai money to redeem the city from seven counties, and also paid the interest and handling fees. They worked hard to extort and rob Zhu Yihai.
Most of the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver have been sent to the prison country. Thinking about it this way, it seems that nothing is impossible.
"Bolo is about to lead his main force back to the capital. I estimate that he will take you to the capital by then. You, the surrender envoy, must go to the capital to meet the regent Dorgon. Only with his approval can you truly get
The Tartars trust and reuse you. So I will prepare your merits for you in advance. Only when you go to Beijing to meet Dorgon can you be reused." Zhu Yihai said with a smile.
"It turns out His Highness has already made such long-term arrangements."