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When they learned that Wang Yuncheng's army had been completely wiped out, there was a great uproar in the Yuanzhou government office. But after the uproar died down, everyone's expressions became somewhat complicated.
The reason for this is that Wang Yuncheng’s identity in Zuo Liangyu’s army was somewhat complicated.
All along, Wang Yuncheng was the one who did all the bad things for Zuo Liangyu, so he was highly valued by Zuo Liangyu and was relied upon as his confidant. When Chongzhen issued an order to kill Wang Yuncheng, Zuo Liangyu even disobeyed the order and forced Wang Yuncheng to hide in the army.
At the same time, it was precisely because of Chongzhen's imperial edict that Zuo Liangyu did not dare to use Wang Yuncheng. After all, Zuo Liangyu was just a soldier with his own troops. At least for the time being, he had no intention of raising the flag against the Ming Dynasty. He was still somewhat cautious about Chongzhen.
It was already outrageous that he harbored Wang Yuncheng. If he were to promote him to a higher position, wouldn't that be tantamount to obviously trying to please Chongzhen
Although Wang Yuncheng was not given an important position, he was always arrogant in the army because of Zuo Liangyu's favor. He even did not take Wu Xueli seriously. On his way south, he led 5,000 troops as the vanguard. He ate the good things first, grabbed the silver first, and enjoyed the fun first.
Wu Xueli himself was still a person "learning etiquette", so he naturally didn't like Wang Yuncheng very much. When Wang Yuncheng went out of the city to settle accounts with Qin Mu, he did not inform Wu Xueli in advance. Now that Wang Yuncheng's entire army was wiped out, he escaped back alone like a bald pig. It is impossible to say that Wu Xueli and others did not feel a little gloating in their hearts.
Of course, it is one thing to feel gloating in one's heart, but Wang Yuncheng is after all a "fellow disciple", and Qin Mu is indeed hated by them. Not only did he move all the people from Yuanzhou City, but now he has shaved Wang Yuncheng like a bald pig. Isn't this tantamount to slapping them in the face as well
Before Wu Xueli and the others could adjust their expressions, Wang Yuncheng had already started to yell, "General Wu, please give me another 5,000 soldiers and horses immediately. I will fight back immediately. I will not be a human being if I don't cut that bastard Qin Mu into pieces."
"General Wu. No." Lu Daqi couldn't keep silent at this moment. Zhang Xianzhong's 200,000-man army was about to arrive. If he was still busy with internal fighting at this time, it would be tantamount to self-destruction. "General Wu, we are facing a powerful enemy at this moment. We must not act on impulse. I will go to Qin Mu to speak up. After we understand the whole matter, I will give an explanation to General Wang. Now we should focus on dealing with Zhang's army. Otherwise, it will make our relatives sad and our enemies happy."
When Wu Xueli heard this, he just pushed the matter aside. With a "bang", he pressed his sword on the table and said proudly, "It's not impossible to let Commander Lu handle this matter, but I would like to ask Commander Lu first, is there anything unclear about this matter? Commander Lu said this, but does he intend to favor Qin Mu?"
Even a clay figure has some temperament. Qin Mu had already retreated to Yuchun Mountain. It was obvious that Wang Yuncheng had taken the initiative to cause trouble. He was already in the wrong first, and now there was a powerful enemy. Wu Xueli and others were not willing to give in, and still wanted to make trouble. Lu Daqi could no longer tolerate it.
He said with a gloomy face: "General Wu, I have always acted uprightly and stood upright. How could I be partial to anyone for no reason? Now the enemy is at hand. General Wu does not want to meet the enemy, but is entangled in internal strife. Let me ask you, General Wu, when Zhang Ze's 200,000 rebels attack, how will you respond? If you suffer a great defeat, although I will inevitably be punished by the court, will General Wu be at ease? Apart from other things, I am afraid that General Wu will have a hard time explaining to General Zuo?"
Wu Xueli didn't expect Lu Daqi to suddenly become tough, and was stunned for a moment. Wang Yuncheng was not going to give in, and said arrogantly: "Zhang Xianzhong's 200,000 troops have nothing to do with us. If we can fight, we fight. If we can't, we run away. But Qin Mu dared to provoke me. This is clearly a slap in the face of my General Zuo..."
"Shut up!" Lu Daqi stood up suddenly, pointed at Wang Yuncheng and shouted, "I want to ask you, is Zhang Xianzhong's rebellion really none of your business? Are you still a soldier of the Ming Dynasty? When you say such things, where do you put your emperor and father? Are you going to rebel?"
Lu Daqi's hair and beard stood up like an angry lion. He had tolerated Wu Xueli's troops' plundering and looting along the way, all he wanted was to let them defeat Zhang Xianzhong. But he had endured it for so long, and in the end, people said that Zhang Xianzhong had nothing to do with them. How could Lu Daqi not be angry
After all, he had been an official for many years, and now he was the governor of four provinces. When he got angry, his momentum was still very scary. At least Wang Yuncheng was shocked and speechless. Zuo Liangyu hadn't dared to say he was going to rebel yet, so would he dare to say so? Although they had long since stopped taking the court seriously, there were some things they could do in private but couldn't say in public.
After Lü Daqi scolded Wang Yuncheng, he turned to Wu Xueli and asked, "Does General Wu also think as Wang Yuncheng does, that Zhang the bandit's army has nothing to do with you?"
"Commander-in-Chief, please calm down. How could I think like that..."
"It's good that you don't think so." Lu Daqi interrupted him and said, "We might as well speak out what we have to say. If you really want to fight the bandits, please put the overall situation first and don't start a fight at this critical moment. If you don't want to fight the bandits, I can't force you to do so. Please return to Jiujiang and report to General Zuo."
Lu Daqi has already made up his mind. Anyway, if Wu Xueli and others really have no intention of fighting the bandits, keeping them will not only be useless, but will only make things worse. It is better to let them return to Jiujiang and gather Xu Kaijin and Qin Mu's troops. Perhaps there is still a glimmer of hope to stop Zhang Xianzhong's army.
Lü Daqi was so desperate that Wu Xueli began to worry. He thought seriously that if his 80,000 troops retreated without a fight, when they were brought to the court to be questioned, Zuo Liangyu might use him as a scapegoat in order to give the court an explanation.
If the 80,000 troops were defeated and their soldiers and generals were weakened, Zuo Liangyu would never let him go. At this moment, it would be more beneficial for him to preserve the overall situation first. As for Qin Mu, it would not be too late to pick him up later.
After thinking this through, he glanced at Wang Yuncheng calmly, and then said to Lu Daqi: "Then let Commander Lu handle this matter first. I hope Commander Lu can give my 80,000 brothers an explanation, and please don't forget the food and wages for this month. I will fulfill Commander Lu's wish and lead 50,000 troops to station in Laohukou."
"Then I'll have to trouble General Wu." Lu Daqi put away his cold look and his tone became much gentler.
Xu Kaijin said, "Commander-in-chief, I would like to take my troops and station them at Sanxiangling to prevent the thief Zhang from attacking Ji'an Prefecture. At the same time, we can form a corner with Yuanzhou and provide support for each other."
"Okay!" Lu Daqi agreed neatly, with a commanding tone.
Everyone was busy discussing the war, leaving Wang Yuncheng, a bald pig, unattended. His troops were dealt with neatly by Qin Mu, and judging from Wu Xueli's attitude, he had no intention of allocating more troops to him. All of a sudden, he became a redundant person, and even the generals under Wu Xueli were too lazy to pay attention to him.
Wang Yuncheng had never been treated with such cold stares before, and his lungs were about to explode. However, he also knew that making a fuss at this time would only make him lose face, so he changed his strategy and volunteered: "General Wu, please give me 5,000 troops. I will go and dampen the thief Zhang's enthusiasm first, and at the same time delay Zhang, so that General Wu can buy more time to build fortifications at Tiger's Mouth."
Wang Yuncheng begged in a humble manner, simply because he wanted to get the troops first, and then everything would be easy to discuss.
Wu Xueli was naturally aware of this, and he laughed and said, "Since General Wang said so, I will do as you say. However, our troops are limited, so I can only give you a thousand men. I hope you can hold off the thief Zhang's army until tomorrow evening."
Wang Yuncheng raised his eyebrows and almost couldn't help jumping up and cursing, "One thousand troops, one thousand troops, and you want me to delay Zhang Xianzhong's 200,000 troops for half a day, aren't you making a fool of me?"
At least he still held back. One thousand is one thousand. It's better than having no one. I'll take them out for a walk first, and when I come back, these one thousand troops will be mine. As for delaying Zhang Xianzhong, screw him!
At this time, another person hurried into the hall. Lu Daqi took a look and found that it was his aide Zhang Zai. Without waiting for Zhang Zai to say anything, Lu Daqi greeted the generals and then retreated into the second hall first.
After Zhang Zai followed into the second hall, he panted and whispered, "General, you must have known about the incident at Yuchun Mountain. Qin Mu defeated Wang Yuncheng without losing a single soldier. I won't say more about this. The current situation is that Qin Mu has captured 3,000 people of Wang Yuncheng. I begged him to release the captured soldiers to ease the conflict between the two sides, but Qin Mu must give him an explanation first. Qin Mu is really cruel. Now he is ordering the 3,000 prisoners to report their past evil deeds to each other. If one person is reported, he will be killed, in the name of revenge for the people of Jiangxi. General, this matter must be handled as soon as possible, otherwise the 3,000 prisoners will be forced to kill each other, and they will all die if it's too late. I think once Qin Mu's actions are spread to Wu Xueli's army, it will definitely cause an uproar."
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ps: The new year has arrived, and I would like to wish all my brothers and sisters a happy new year.
Hao Yuan updates at midnight. I just want to ask for a guaranteed monthly ticket from you all. I hope you will give me generous rewards. Hao Yuan would like to thank you. (To be continued.)
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