: Brain damage

The bombardment must have achieved great results!

During two consecutive days of continuous reconnaissance on May 11th and 12th, the reconnaissance clippers of the Li Ping Naval Battalion discovered that Zhang Xianzhong's troops did not resume shipbuilding operations on the northwest shore of Guanjia Lake, and all personnel originally stationed on the lake shore were evacuated.

Three miles away from the shore.

Even some of the fishing boats on the shore that were not destroyed were abandoned.

At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong's army stationed near the Qi River also made corresponding adjustments, and all camps within three miles of the river were demolished and bulldozed.

Although this slightly relaxed Li Ping's tense nerves, his pressure still did not change at all.

You can dismantle the tricks you see, but the more invisible tricks and Zhang Xianzhong's strategic determination are the most terrifying.

Li Ping was still having trouble sleeping and eating.

However, at this moment, the visit of a scholar and an old servant who came from Wuchang City in a huge circle on May 13th further intensified his pressure.

The scholar was sent by He Fengsheng, the former Minister of Rites in Wuchang City and a scholar of Dongge University, and he carried a letter written by He Fengsheng, while the old servant was a constant companion of He Fengsheng himself and carried a token of He Fengsheng.

The weight and attention is probably a little less than visiting in person.

The purpose of the visit was very simple, that is, they hoped that Li Ping could lead his army west to Wuchang to defend the city.

This makes Li Ping very difficult!

Li Ping knew very well that if he refused again, the image he had finally built up in the Ming Dynasty officialdom would probably be in vain.

He Fengsheng couldn't afford to offend him, and he couldn't help but give him face.

But he couldn't have any other choice. After all, his brain wasn't flooded yet!

Previously, Wang Yangji, the military supervisor and political officer in Wuchang City, had sent a small official to deliver the message on behalf of the official government.

Wang Yangji didn't dare to make a big show of it, and he couldn't bear to lose face, so he also set up many rules and regulations.

I guess it was because I was scared by Zuo Liangyu at first, and at the same time I was still a little concerned about my feathers.

However, this also gave the Xingguo Prefecture officials an opportunity to resist. They all went into battle together, both public and private, and privately encouraged Li Ping to resolutely refuse, and expressed their willingness to further increase their support and cooperation.

Although Xingguo Prefecture belongs to Wuchang Prefecture, the officials in Xingguo Prefecture are not confused at all when it comes to life and death.

Even Xu Wenqi remained silent and pretended to be completely unaware.

Since Wang Yangji did not follow an honest path, and there was no written evidence, and the people he sent were officials instead of officials, Li Ping naturally pretended to be confused.

But He Fengsheng is different after all!

This is a person that even Zuo Liangyu has to give face to, and his influence is the kind of person who can reach directly to the court and even to the saints.

Such a man now deigned to send someone to beg Li Ping. One of the people sent was a young celebrity in Wuchang City, and the other was his own old servant. They also had both letters and tokens, and the tone of the letter was very sincere.

This shows what kind of hellish situation is happening in Wuchang City right now.

The officials in Xingguo Prefecture were all dumbfounded this time, and everyone had to pretend to be deaf and dumb. In this case, the nature of the objection would be different, and they were also a little confused about the current situation in Wuchang City.

Make complaints.

Li Ping was also speechless about the current situation in Wuchang City.

When you really stand in history, you will find that history is full of weird things. Never use common sense to infer anything!

Li Zicheng's withdrawal of troops and the surrender of Hanyang allowed Wuchang City to escape the disaster, but after Zhang Xianzhong captured Huangzhou Fucheng at the end of March, Wuchang City became turbulent again.

On April 6, Zhang Xianzhong and Ke Macheng once again pushed Wuchang City to the brink of war.

At this time, even most people in the city concluded that Zhang Xianzhong might attack Wuchang next.

But the performance inside the city was shocking.

Our Chu King Zhu Huakui is still as divine as ever, which is almost completely inconsistent with his 73-year-old age, 63-year career as King of Chu, and his fatal experience of successfully settling the case of the real and fake King of Chu.

It is best to describe him as old and feeble.

The King of Chu was probably one of the two richest vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty (the other was Emperor Wanli's precious son and Emperor Chongzhen's uncle, Prince Fu Zhu Changxun). After a hundred years of land annexation, the Chu King's palace now only had an income from land rent of one yuan per year.

Xiang, there are more than 20,000 taels of silver.

This does not include the huge wealth brought by numerous store monopolies.

Since Wuchang City was basically robbed by Zuo Liangyu, the government basically had no money or food. At this time, the King of Chu, who had money and food, should normally provide support, whether for the public or for himself.

Just like when Li Zicheng besieged Kaifeng, it was Zhou King Zhu Gongzhen who came out to support the army. Kaifeng was successfully defended for the second time in a row. Even if it was not a flood the third time, there would be no gains or losses.

But our Chu King Zhu Huakui just pretended that nothing happened. He still felt that it had nothing to do with him, and he would not listen to anyone's advice.

Even the Chief Secretary of Huguang and the Secretary of Envoys commanded all the officials of the Envoys' Department to come to the Prince of Chu's Mansion and kneel in front of Chu King Zhu Huakui, but it didn't work.

The anxious Huguang officials had no choice but to push He Fengsheng out again, hoping that he could perform a miracle again.

But despite He Fengsheng's words being worn out, the King of Chu remained unmoved and said that he had no money.

Finally being cornered, Chu King Zhu Huakui simply took out the gold-covered chair that Ming Taizu had given to the first Chu King Zhu Zhen and said that he was very poor and could only sell this chair to make money to labor the army ("This can help the army, he has nothing")

).

Not to mention how much this chair can be sold for, it was a gift from Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty and was used by the vassal king. Who dares to buy or sell it!

Seeing King Chu's indifferent attitude, He Fengsheng almost cried and left the Chu King's Mansion.

What's even more amazing is that Chu King Zhu Huakui didn't disdain the defense of Wuchang at all, but he was very concerned about his daughter's marriage.

At this time, Princess Zhu Fengde of the Chu Mansion was already fifteen years old. According to the regulations, she had reached the age of marriage. Although it was not a good time to get married at all, King Zhu Huakui of Chu did not care about this.

He ordered Gao Shitai, the son of Donglin Party leader Gao Panlong and a Taoist scholar from Huguang, to choose a son-in-law for him among the people. Because at this time, thousands of students were taking the provincial examination in Wuchang Prefecture.

Don't miss this opportunity!

Gao Xuedao also quickly selected 17-year-old Jiangxia student Wang Guozi.

This Wang Guozi is not only handsome and well-educated, but he also has only one old mother in his family. His family is also very poor and has no complicated social relations, so he meets the requirements of Yibin (the title of a royal prince and son-in-law of a county prince in the Ming Dynasty).

Chu King Zhu Huakui was very satisfied.

As a result, on April 10th, Wang Guozicai followed Gao Shitai in a sedan chair to the Prince of Chu's Mansion to meet the King of Chu. On April 11th, he and Zhu Fengde held a grand wedding.

On the day of the wedding, everyone in Wuchang City, from the governor of Huguang to the prefect, all followed the float that welcomed Wang Guozi into the Prince of Chu's Mansion to see her off, and nothing serious could be done.

And it’s not over yet!

The entire wedding will be celebrated for five days from April 12th to 16th.

It was not until the 18th after the wedding that King Zhu Huakui of Chu was finally willing to pay a small sum of money to recruit the defeated troops of Chengtian, De'an and the young people of the people to form the "Chu Mansion Army", with Huangzhou native Zhang Qizai as the commander.

It was handed over to the governor of Chu State, Shi Xuexueyan, for command.

But the combat effectiveness of such a hastily built army can be imagined.

And this is not just that Chu King Zhu Huakui is in a good mood, but that he is really desperate.

Because just the day before, a light force of Zhang Xianzhong arrived in Hanyang, causing a great shock to the officials and people of Wuchang.

In fact, the king of Chu, Zhu Huakui, was not the only one who was considered a god in Wuchang City. The officials, gentry, rich and nobles in Wuchang City were actually all gods.

Due to its unique geographical characteristics, Wuchang City is bounded by the Yangtze River to the north and east, but there are lakes and rivers to the south and west, especially large lakes, which are numerous and connected to the Yangtze River in various ways.

Even today, when its water area has been greatly reduced, the water area of ​​this piece of land, which is about a hundred miles long from east to west and north to south near the bend of the Yangtze River, is not much less than that of land.

Therefore, these waters are almost a natural place to hide things.

Therefore, many of the wealthy officials and gentry in Wuchang used boats to hide in the rivers, ponds and lakes from time to time, carrying large amounts of wealth and food. This was almost an open secret, and it was said that there were at least a thousand boats.

It is precisely because of this that many officials, gentry and wealthy people escaped Zuo Liangyu's raids when he occupied Wuchang, and still retained a large amount of money and food after Zuo Liangyu left.

But they also have nothing, and they are all pretending to be poor.

Therefore, don’t just talk about Chu King Zhu Huakui.

Chu King Zhu Huakui's stinginess and abnormality may have been made angry by these officials.

King Zhu Huakui of Chu knew very well that he was not the only one with money and food in the city, and it was impossible for many people to hide money and food in boats in the rivers and lakes without his detection.

But the officials did not go to the wealthy officials and gentry to raise food and pay, but they only looked for him as a vassal king and beat him up as a big family. Even until Zhang Xianzhong was beaten under his nose, they still only wanted to rely on him. What do you think he would do?

think?

Of course, this does not negate the stupidity of Chu King Zhu Huakui. After all, the city was broken, and it was King Chu who was the first to finish.

The collective brainwashing of the officials, gentry, and wealthy people in Wuchang City is very puzzling. It is in stark contrast to the support of Li Ping in Xingguo Prefecture.

Li Ping could only laugh or cry about this.

But there is something even better!

Zhang Xianzhong entered Hanyang with a small army, and the people in Wuchang were naturally panicked.

At this time, the officials and generals in Wuchang discussed the defense strategy. The mainstream view was to withdraw the garrison on the Yangtze River and concentrate on defending the city.

Only one general named Cui Wenrong put forward a different view: "It is better to defend the city than to defend the river, and to defend the river it is better to defend the Han Dynasty. The Mopan and Coal Continents are shallower than a horse's belly. It is not a good idea to fly across them while Yingcheng is trapped."

This was also the successful approach that made Li Zicheng give up crossing the river.

But Cui Wenrong's views were not adopted.
To be continued...