After suppressing the rebellion in Ganzhou, the imperial court did not reward him for a long time, probably because they were busy dealing with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong who successively proclaimed themselves kings. Meng Ke's position as a thousand households was always temporary, and he was not officially appointed by the imperial court.
But this did not prevent him from establishing a high prestige among the 1,200 soldiers. The Xinfeng Qianhu Suo was now not only fully staffed, but the soldiers were all young and strong men selected from the 3,000 baojia.
The people in southern Jiangxi are naturally tough, and these young and strong men followed Qin Mu and Meng Ke to attack Ma Yongzhen. Now that they have been divided up into fields, under Meng Ke's strict training, their military appearance has been completely renewed, and their combat effectiveness is rapidly improving.
Ling Zhan and Cui Feng also stayed here as centurions and became Meng Ke's right-hand men.
Gu Xiancheng gathered two to three hundred men in Dongjiang Town, Longnan County. The magistrate of Longnan was afraid of death and abandoned the city and fled when the rebels reached the county seat. This made Longnan County easily fall into Gu Xiancheng's hands.
Ling Zhan and Cui Feng were furious when they heard the news. According to Qin Mu's arrangement, they should concentrate on training the army in the next few months to deal with the upcoming army of Zhang Xianzhong. Now that Gu Xiancheng has captured Longnan County, Yang Tinglin will certainly not sit idly by and will definitely send them to encircle and suppress the enemy, which will undoubtedly disrupt their original training plan.
Sure enough, Yang Tinglin's order arrived soon, asking them to set out as soon as possible and march towards Longnan to completely wipe out the scourge Gu Xiancheng.
After receiving the order, Meng Ke immediately beat the drum to gather his generals and discuss the matter of sending troops.
Xie Zhaobei, who was in charge of military supplies and fodder, spoke first: "General Meng, as the saying goes, before the army moves, fodder must be sent first. We have food reserves in the army, and the daily supply is still tight. During wartime, the consumption of fodder increases exponentially, and the state government has no fodder to send us. What should we do?"
"Then we can only take food from the enemy and fight to support the enemy." Meng Ke answered in a deep voice, and then asked, "Do you have any other questions?"
Ling Zhan thought for a moment and said, "Gu Xiancheng just suffered a great defeat in Niuxi Town, and now he has gathered some rioters. There is nothing to be afraid of in a head-on battle. What we should be afraid of is that he will hide from us. There are many mountains and dense forests in southern Jiangxi. If he hides in the mountains, we don't know how long it will take. In my opinion, it is best for us to show weakness first, try to lure Gu Xiancheng here, and then find an opportunity to encircle and annihilate him in one fell swoop."
Cui Feng shook his head and said, "It's difficult. After the battle in Niuxi Town, Gu Xiancheng is probably still in shock. It's unlikely that we can lure him here."
Meng Ke said, "Ling Zhan's idea is very good. We might as well give it a try. If it doesn't work, we can try to force Gu Xiancheng to Huichang. Then we can form a two-sided encirclement with Huichang Qianhu Suo."
Cui Feng laughed and said, "General Meng is right. If we go to Huichang, there will be another benefit for us, that is, we can get food in Huichang."
Meng Ke remained silent after hearing what Cui Feng said. Although he did have this intention, he thought that if the miser Qin Mu knew that he was plotting against him, he would increase the debt of 120,000 taels to 200,000 taels without hesitation.
It was not easy for Qin Mu. Although the soldiers were all given military farms, they could not concentrate on training if their food and wages were not guaranteed.
Yang Tinglin had to provide relief to refugees from several counties, and the food and wages he could allocate to the army were extremely limited. The Xinfeng Qianhu Office was able to maintain such high morale, all thanks to Qin Mu's secret support. This kind of thing couldn't be kept secret for long, but fortunately Qin Mu didn't think it needed to be kept secret for long.
After drawing up a rough battle plan, Meng Ke asked Ling Zhan to lead 400 troops to guard Xinfeng, while he and Cui Feng led 800 people to Longnan County.
Longnan County is located in the south of Xinfeng, about 200 miles away. At the normal marching speed, it would take four days to walk 200 miles. Meng Ke thought this was too slow, so he asked Cui Feng to lead 200 soldiers as the vanguard, and march as fast as they could to reach the city of Longnan County as soon as possible.
Meng Ke did not send these two hundred vanguards to win, on the contrary, Cui Feng's mission was to pretend to be defeated. Even if he could not lure Gu Xiancheng over, he would try his best to stabilize him first.
***
In Nanchang, Ma Shisan returned to his house excitedly and told Ma Mingyuan the news he had overheard: "Master, I have found out everything. The woman is not from Rentong Commercial House, but Li Xiangjun, a famous prostitute in Qinhuai..."
"What, the famous Qinhuai prostitute Li Xiangjun? No wonder, no wonder, tell me, how come she is here?" Hearing that the petite and exquisite beauty was the famous Qinhuai prostitute Li Xiangjun, Ma Mingyuan was both surprised and a little dazed. No wonder she was so graceful and charming that people could not forget her at first sight.
"Master, Li Xiangjun redeemed herself a few days ago, and then followed the caravan of Rentong Trading Company to Ganzhou to find Qin Mu, the newly appointed magistrate of Huichang..."
Ma Shisan vividly told Ma Mingyuan all the news he had heard, including the fact that the Rentong caravan encountered danger on the road and was later rescued by Hong Niangzi. He also told him every word.
Ma Shisan was beaming with joy when he spoke, and Ma Mingyuan was delighted when he heard it. As an imperial envoy, being good at finding problems is a necessary "traditional virtue". If there are no problems, you have to create them. Otherwise, how can you punish people? What kind of imperial envoy is he if he can't punish people? How can he reflect his life value if he can't punish people
Judging from Ma Mingyuan's many years of experience in playing pranks on people, Li Xiangjun is in big trouble this time.
He smiled calmly and said with a hint of lewdness: "This is God's help to me, Li Xiangjun, Li Xiangjun, hehe..."
Ma Shisan smiled and said softly, "Master, as long as we accuse them of colluding with the rebels, everything will be easy."
"Hmm?" Ma Mingyuan hummed lightly and glanced at Ma Shisan coldly. Ma Shisan was immediately frightened and shut up. "Did I arbitrarily accuse them of the crime of colluding with rebels? They were colluding with rebels in the first place. As an imperial inspector, I am responsible for supervising all officials, inspecting counties, correcting criminal cases, expounding on the way of governance, and punishing traitors and evildoers. Now that I have discovered that someone is colluding with bandits, how can I just ignore it?"
"Yes, yes, yes, I made a mistake, I made a mistake, please punish me, sir."
"Go to the Inspection Office and find Han Tiesan immediately. Ask him to arrest the person. If he lets the person who colluded with the rebels escape, I will hold him accountable. Well, don't just stand there. Follow along and take a look."
"Master, rest assured. I know what to do now and I will not let you down."
"Go ahead."
Shopkeeper Xu took good care of Li Xiangjun. In addition to being entrusted by Li Lizhen, more importantly, after arriving in Nanchang, he learned a lot of news from Ganzhou. Qin Mu put down the rebellion in Ganzhou in one fell swoop, and he saw a bright future.
Furthermore, Xu Yingjie, the owner of Rentong Trading Company, wants something from Qin Mu. He wants to get more salt sales share from Qin Mu. Qin Mu is not willing to give in, so if he puts some effort into Li Xiangjun, he might get unexpected gains.
Therefore, Manager Xu reserved the best courtyard in the branch as Li Xiangjun's temporary residence, and all her supplies were of the best quality and she was taken care of meticulously.
After visiting Tengwang Pavilion, Li Xiangjun never went out in public again. From the day she left Meixiang Tower, she had decided to put away all worldly affairs. However, she had not received any letters from Qin Mu since she left Nanjing, and she was always a little uneasy.
At this moment, she was wearing an eight-panel Xiang skirt with a light white background and red plum blossoms embroidered on it. She was leaning against the window with her cheek in her hand, imagining how Qin Mu would react when he saw her. Would he be surprised or shocked? Would he look down on her or be moved
She was thinking about something, which made her pair of distant mountain-like brows frown and relax from time to time. Her pretty face was sometimes bright as spring sunshine, and sometimes melancholy as rain in the west mountain, which made her particularly pitiful.
Her heart had already flown to Huichang, but as the destination got closer, she became more and more anxious. She couldn't even imagine how Qin Mu would react when he suddenly saw her.
She was filled with deep thoughts, and looking at the shadows of clouds in the pavilion outside the window, she could not help but chant softly: "Who cares about the cold west wind? The rustling yellow leaves close the sparse window, and I stand in the setting sun, thinking about the past. Don't be surprised by the heavy spring sleep caused by wine, and the fragrance of tea is lost in gambling on books. At that time, I thought it was normal."
This is one of the poems Qin Mu sent to her. It is unknown when he wrote it, but this poem "Huan Xi Sha" seemed to be written for her mood at the moment.
Although I had a good impression of Qin Mu when I first met him, I only thought of him as an ordinary guest. Who could have expected that today he would move my heart so deeply that I would be willing to follow him regardless of life or death
"Alas!" A soft sigh expressed many of the girl's worries.
"Miss, don't worry. Lord Qin has long admired you, so how could he look down on you? You have ignored the world's contempt and gone through untold hardships to come to him. Anyone with a conscience would be moved by this friendship." Xing'er felt a little reluctant and gently comforted her.
"The closer we get to Ganzhou, the more nervous I feel. I don't know what's going on. Xing'er, do you think he won't take it lightly on me?"
"Don't worry, young lady. It won't happen. Master Qin is not that kind of person."
"How do you know he's not that kind of person?"
"The girl is kind and virtuous, how could she be wrong in choosing someone?"
Li Xiangjun was about to say that she had misjudged Hou Fangyu before, but before she could open her mouth, there were bursts of shouting outside the courtyard, someone was shouting to catch the spy who was secretly colluding with the bandits;
Then I saw a group of soldiers from the patrol department rushing in, grabbing anyone they saw, beating and kicking them, extremely ferociously;
Outside the courtyard there was chaos and confusion. The guys at the Rentong branch were either dodging in panic or kneeling down and begging for mercy.
Hearing someone shouting to arrest the spy who was in collusion with the rebels, the quick-witted Li Xiangjun thought to herself that something was wrong and pulled Xing'er to run towards the back door.
******************************************
ps: The temperature rose suddenly, and it rained coldly. I got soaked when I came back from outside on a motorcycle. I was so cold that I could hardly pee. Alas!
...