Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 362 Infernal Affairs

"Second brother, hurry back immediately and tell your lord not to be fooled by Chen Hongfan!"

In the city of Beijing, two men who looked like businessmen were talking in a hidden room.

"Er Dou, can you do it alone?"

"Second brother, don't worry."

One of these two is Diao Erdou and the other is Bian Er, both of whom are elite under Yang Chao's subordinates.

Diao Erdou looks a little thin. He is not a soldier who can fight, but he has a strong learning ability. During the few years in the army, he not only learned all kinds of martial arts, but also has good equestrian skills. Last time he went to Beijing to rescue the prince, he also participated Yes, he is familiar with the way, but the most important thing to send him to Beijing is his literacy, which is what he learned in the literacy class. He can already know [-] characters, and writing is not a problem.

Because of Bian Er's high martial arts skills and a lot of worldly knowledge, Yang Chao thought he was useful, so he asked him to go north with Diao Erdou to set up an intelligence station in Beijing.

The two pretended to be businessmen. After Diao Erdou heard the news of Chen Hongfan's surrender, he suddenly felt that the matter was of great importance, and asked Bian Er to bring the letter back in person, while he stayed in Beijing to continue to build an intelligence station.

"Then be careful."

Bian Er laughed and said, he is not a mother-in-law, and he patted Diao Erdou's shoulder vigorously.

"It's you who should be careful!"

Diao Erdou did not take much trouble to obtain this information, but he heard some surrendered Ming soldiers talking about it in a restaurant.

In fact, Dorgon has no sense of secrecy, and directly issued an edict in the name of the emperor, and went to Honglu Temple to pass the edict. Perhaps in Dorgon's view, the political significance of publicly recruiting an envoy is greater.

But when the special envoy of the Qing court read the edict in front of the Ming court mission, Chen Hongfan knelt down to receive it, so Zuo Maodi and others knew about it at that time, which is why Chen Hongfan asked the Qing court to detain Zuo Maodi and others.

These soldiers happened to learn about this, and they bragged in the restaurant. They were the Ming army who surrendered, and they took refuge in the new lord. Just comfort.

But after Diao Erdou got the news, he was very concerned. He felt that if Chen Hongfan might surrender, he would become a spy, and he would definitely not be able to do good things when he returned to Nanjing, so he carefully made friends with these soldiers and drank a few more glasses of wine. , these soldiers vowed to tell everything they knew.

It turned out that Chen Hongfan agreed to surrender and wanted to go south to persuade the military generals of the court to surrender. Diao Erdou couldn't help being startled, and there were such people who betrayed their ancestors and begged for glory.

Bian Er traveled day and night and arrived in Xuzhou on the [-]th. Then he rode a horse here and flew to the south of the Yangtze River. He rushed back to Nanjing in the first month.

So Yang Chao got the news of Chen Hongfan's surrender.

"Pay close attention to the situation in the four towns in Jiangbei!"

Yang Chao attached great importance to this news, and immediately passed an order to his subordinates to let the spies who stayed in Jiangbei pay attention to Chen Hongfan's movements.

Chen Hongfan had already gone to Jiangbei for activities at this time, but he used the banner of the envoy to return to his mission, and no one knew the truth.

If no one pays attention, Chen Hongfan's actions don't seem to be anything special, but if someone pays attention, it is not difficult to find clues.

When Chen Hongfan passed by Xuzhou, he met Gao Jie with an excuse. Gao Jie had to invite him to a banquet. During the banquet, Chen Hongfan kept admiring the power of Manqing, and quietly told Gao Jie that when he was in Beijing, he found out that Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo had decided to join him. What if the Manchu Qing wanted to take Henan?

Gao Jie was stationed in Xuzhou. If the Manchu Qing attacked Henan, they would conflict with Gao Jie. However, most of the territory of Henan still belonged to the Ming court in Nanjing. Gao Jie was stationed in Xuzhou, and his duty was to take the opportunity to go north to recover Henan. Therefore, if the Manchus wanted Henan, they had to exchange it with Beijing, "Does he want to get Henan? Please exchange Beijing with me."

Feeling that he could not convince Gao Jie, Chen Hongfan set off for Nanjing.

When Chen Hongfan returned to court, Yang Chao rarely went up to watch Chen Hongfan's performance.

This guy first praised the Manchus for their respect for the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, sent troops to protect the imperial mausoleum as soon as they entered the pass, buried the late emperors, and offered sacrifices endlessly.He told the imperial court that he felt that the Manchus were sincere in peace.

Chen Hongfan didn't know that someone had been following him for a long time, and even found out what he had said to Gao Jie.

Yang Chao looked at the traitor's face with a sneer in his heart.

After saying good things for Man Qing, Chen Hongfan began to fabricate rumors, saying that he heard that Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo seemed to be suspected of defecting to Man Qing, and asked the court to be on guard against these two people.

Yang Chao knew that this guy was trying to sow dissension again. Gao Jie said that Liu Liangzuo and Liu Zeqing had defected to the Qing Dynasty, but he said in the court that Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo were two people. This is to cause discord in the Ming court.

As for the fact that Liu Liangzuo would surrender, Yang Chao was not surprised. It was a very typical military law, plundering people's property, murdering and setting fire, and doing everything.But Huang Degong made Yang Chao look a little different, because this guy didn't even rob, and his military discipline was as good as Yang Chao's, but he set up dozens of checkpoints on his own site to collect likin from passing business travelers, so Huang Degong's reputation in the court is still very good.

A general who is not very greedy for money has any reason to surrender.

All the civil servants in the imperial court are also good people. Some people even began to doubt Chen Hongfan, questioning Chen Hongfan why Zuo Maodi and the others were all detained by the Qing Dynasty, but Chen Hongfan was released alone. The detainment of envoys happened, but Chen Hongfan was alone. Effortlessly speak good things?
But at this time Yang Chao stepped forward, and said that Chen Hongfan risked his life to go north to go on an envoy, and he escaped and returned to his life by chance. Will work for the court.

What Yang Chao said was reasonable and well-founded, he suppressed a few doubting voices, and finally agreed that Chen Hongfan would stay and serve in the Ministry of War.

There is no doubt that Chen Hongfan surrendered. Bian Er brought back a lot of news from Beijing, even including the general content of the negotiations between the officials of the Ministry of Rites of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the Ming court mission. The court mission humiliated.

However, they stated in their proclamation that they did not recognize the Ming court, but when they sent Chen Hongfan back, they made a big splash about the possibility of peace negotiations between the Manchu and Qing Dynasties.

Yang Chao judged that the Qing government should not be ready to go south, indicating that they have not completely defeated Li Zicheng.

Yang Chao didn't know that the courtiers in history sent Chen Hongfan back to his hometown after they suspected him.

The reason why he suggested keeping Chen Hongfan in office was because it would be too wasteful to let Chen Hongfan, a spy, not have fun with Infernal Affairs. From him, some intentions of Man Qing can basically be judged.

As for whether Chen Hongfan will expose the secrets of the Ming court, he probably said everything he needed to say in Beijing. There is nothing worth keeping secret about the military deployment of the Ming court. Man Qing knows where to go, and if he doesn't know, he has to go there.

And Yang Chao felt that he could keep this person to release some fake news to Man Qing.

Chen Hongfan seemed to be in a hurry to make contributions to his new master, and immediately invited Yang Chao after he came down to court.

The excuse was to thank Yang Chao for saying please.

At the banquet, he said something about the strength of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Yang Chao fully affirmed his words, saying that he had won the decisive battle with the Eight Banners in Haizhou. Attack, if you fight head-on, you have no chance of winning.

Yang Chao also asked Chen Hongfan what he thought of borrowing captives to suppress the bandits. Chen Hongfan said that the most important thing at present is to stabilize the Central Plains.

Sure enough, the Manchu Qing did not want to see the Ming army go north, which proved that the territory under the control of the Manchu Qing was very empty at this time.

In fact, historians believe that if the Nanming regime could take advantage of the opportunity of the Manchu Qing to pursue Li Zicheng and go northward, it would be easy to recover Shandong and Henan.

But what if it is recovered?
At most, the Manchu Qing withdrew its pursuit troops and pointed the finger at the Nanming regime, and the Nanming regime would certainly not take such a risk.

Even if it can withstand the attack of the Manchu Qing, it will only result in a tripartite confrontation between the Manchu Qing, Ming Ting and Li Zicheng's Dashun regime.

At this time, the Ming court still regarded Li Zicheng as the greatest enemy. Chongzhen died because of Li Zicheng. Zhu Cihong did not avenge his father but joined forces with Li Zicheng to fight against the Qing Dynasty. From a legal point of view, his throne was not stable.

Even putting these aside, from a purely military point of view, who will restore Shandong and Henan?

The four towns in Jiangbei are definitely unwilling to move. Henan is so empty. Gao Jie only needs to send someone there, and he only needs to receive the edict. Strength is the most important thing. If he were to give up the rich land in Jiangnan to take over a shattered Henan, he would not even be willing to kill him.

This is also the reason why the four towns are currently living in Jiangbei. If the civil servants urge them, they will ask for money and food.

If the four towns don't go, Yang Chao will not give up the Jiangnan base and go north. With the back of the Jiangnan, Yang Chao is confident to stop the Eight Banners from going south, but let him go deep alone. but an army like Li Zicheng can do it, but Yang Chao can't, not because of morality, but because he can't do it militarily, because his military equipment relies too much on strong productivity. Henan would certainly not be able to obtain enough gunpowder and lead bullets, not even bows and arrows. Yang Chao felt that it was unreliable for his soldiers to be reduced to pure cold weapons and to fight hungry and full.

So Chen Hongfan was right. At this time, stabilizing Jiangnan is the most important thing. Although this is what the Manchus want to see, the Ming court can only choose this way.

Chen Hongfan took the opportunity to ask Yang Chao how to prepare if Manchu went south.

However, Yang Chao showed a pessimistic mood, saying that the four towns in Jiangbei would definitely not be able to stop the Qing Dynasty, and they might all have two minds.

And it is impossible for the Yangtze River to stop the Manchus.

Hearing Yang Chao's answer, Chen Hongfan almost took the opportunity to lobby, but he held back.

(End of this chapter)