Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 374 Li Chengdong

Guangzhou City.

Li Chengdong narrowed his eyes, looked at Meng Jun's envoy, and said with a fake smile: "The King of Zhou is powerful in the country. I wonder why he sent an envoy here today?"

Meng Hong bowed slightly and said to Li Chengdong: "The King of Zhennan has been in charge of Guangdong for a long time, and now he has gained several prefectures in Guangxi. My king has sent an envoy to congratulate you."

Li Chengdong laughed. When Meng Jun defeated Duoduo, he was so scared that he couldn't sleep well. He sent people to submit at night. However, although Meng Jun defeated the Qing army, he seemed to care too much about his reputation.

If it were him, he would definitely lead his troops south directly, completely clear the south, and then ascend the throne to become emperor. It's not like now, where he has gone through so much effort to obtain the two prefectures of Jingzhou and Wuchang, and now he is sending troops to the north. After so many years in the north, Li Chengdong doesn't think there is any benefit at all.

However, Li Chengdong is already very satisfied with the results of his current separatist rule, and he does not want to offend Meng Jun too much.

After listening to Meng Hong's words, Li Chengdong smiled and said, "Your Excellency, you don't need to flatter me like this. My title as the King of Zhennan is not as famous as that of the King of Zhou. Please speak frankly, King of Zhou wants me to do something. Only I can do it, without hesitation."

Meng Hong pondered for a moment before slowly saying, "It has been said since ancient times that the world will eventually unite after a long period of division. My king has defeated the enemy army several times, and all the troops of the Shun army have surrendered. The leader of the Western Army, the King of Qin, went to Nanjing, and my king treated him like a distinguished guest. As the saying goes, Zhou Gong spits out food for his guests, and the world is at peace. My king wants to follow the example of the ancient sages and treat the four directions with kindness."

Li Chengdong was stunned by what he heard, but he roughly understood that the old man in front of him came here specifically to brag about how powerful Meng Jun was. Li Chengdong felt a little uncomfortable, but he still agreed: "Well, the power of King Zhou is known to the world, and I know it too."

After hearing this, Meng Hong felt that Li Chengdong might not have understood his underlying meaning, so he simply said directly: "The Prince of Zhennan has lived in Guangdong for a long time, what do you think of the current situation in the world?"

Ever since Li Chengdong's joint attack on Meng Jun with Jin Shenghuan failed, his ambitions have been shattered like a dream. Without thinking too much, Li Chengdong has been enjoying his life in Guangzhou. When he suddenly heard Meng Hong asking him what he thought about the general situation of the world, Li Chengdong was speechless.

After a long while, Li Chengdong finally said, "I am a warrior, I can't think about the world's affairs."

Meng Hong smiled when he heard this and said, "Since ancient times, heroes have emerged from the grass roots. My king rose from humble beginnings and was tenacious and unyielding. Heroes in the world are no more than this. The world today is still like the end of the Yuan Dynasty. The Qing court is just like the Yuan court, trapped in the north, and the north is in ruins. It will take more than a year or two to recover. It can be seen that the one who unifies the country must not be the Qing court."

Seeing that Li Chengdong was silent, Meng Hong continued, "The emperor and his ministers in the Ming court have long been like dry bones in a tomb, not worth mentioning. Li Dingguo is deeply trapped in the vortex of the court and has no power to extricate himself. The Zheng family only guards Fujian and fights with the barbarians every day. Although the Prince of Zhennan controls Guangdong, if he wants to fight for the world with this, I am afraid he is not strong enough."

Li Chengdong waved his hand and said, "I am content to be in charge of Guangdong, how dare I covet the throne!"

After Li Chengdong finished speaking, Meng Hong suddenly said loudly: "Since the King of Zhennan has no intention of taking the throne, why not serve the wise master earlier!"

Li Chengdong was startled, thinking that the old man had a really loud voice, but he was absolutely unwilling to surrender just like that.

It's so comfortable to be in charge of a region in Guangzhou. Why should I be governed by someone else, especially when that person is someone I once looked down upon? Thinking of this, Li Chengdong laughed and said, "As a wise minister, I should serve the emperor. We can talk about other things later."

After saying this, Li Chengdong deliberately yawned again, explained to Meng Hong that he felt tired and needed to rest, and then let Meng Hong leave.

In the following days, Meng Hong asked for a meeting many times, but Li Chengdong was either out of the city on inspection or was ill. Later, he simply sent his subordinates to accompany Meng Hong whenever he arrived. For five or six consecutive days, Meng Hong still could not see Li Chengdong.

Old man Meng was furious and wanted to return to Jinling immediately, but was stopped by people sent by Li Chengdong. It turned out that Li Chengdong got the news that Meng Jun had sent more troops in Ganzhou. The number of troops was unknown, but perhaps there were more than 10,000 people.

It is said that after Li Chengdong took control of Guangdong, he had an army of 110,000. Regardless of the military equipment and treatment, at least with so many soldiers, he would not be afraid of Han Xiong. But what Li Chengdong was worried about was whether Meng Jun's reinforcement of troops in Ganzhou was just the beginning. According to him, with Meng Jun's current strength, if a war broke out on two fronts, would he have to take advantage of it?

Afterwards, Li Chengdong met with Meng Hong. He said that he had been suffering from a serious illness recently and was afraid of conflicting with the envoy. He just chuckled twice at Meng Hong.

This time Li Chengdong agreed with Meng Hong's words, and immediately wrote a letter in person, saying that he was willing to obey King Zhou's orders. However, he told Meng Hong that the war in Guangdong had just ended and he needed to guard Guangzhou. He also said that he could not provide food and money to King Zhou due to lack of food and money, and it would be best for Jiangnan to provide some supplies.

Meng Hong understood what Li Chengdong said clearly. What he meant was that he could surrender and become a vassal, but he had to stay in Guangdong, his army could not be stationed, and he would not be given any money or food. He would just give him a name of surrender.

Although Meng Hong was quite dissatisfied with this, he still managed to complete the task. He then sent someone ahead to report back to Jinling on a fast horse, while he slowly returned to Jinling.

…………

Meng Jun first received the news that Xuzhou City was captured without a fight, and he was overjoyed. He sent people to commend Zhao Yongping. As for Zhao Yongping's suggestions, he generously rewarded Yu Mu and other surrendered generals, and Meng Jun approved all of them.

Zhao Yongping in Xuzhou City reorganized the surrendered troops and pacified the situation in the city, while sending scouts under Zhang Chengsheng's troops to Fuyang to detect the movements of Haoge's troops of the Qing army.

Zhao Yongping also had some doubts. Logically speaking, Hauge's troops had a large number of cavalry, and if the reinforcements were going to Xuzhou, they should have arrived long ago. But now there was no news from Hauge, which made Zhao Yongping feel a little worried.

After easily capturing Xuzhou, the generals in the army said that they should go north as soon as possible to capture Jining Prefecture. Although Zhao Yongping had followed Meng Jun for a long time and had a record of breaking through the Jiangbei camp, capturing Huai'an, and conquering Xuzhou, his prestige in the army was still not as good as Lin Shiqi's.

Therefore, the generals took turns asking Zhao Yongping, their intention was to go north as soon as possible. Even Bai Yongfu secretly advised Zhao Yongping that the army's morale could be mobilized.

The generals made repeated suggestions, but Zhao Yongping still wanted to wait to find out Hauge's movements. However, after waiting for another five days, Zhang Chengsheng still hadn't found Hauge's whereabouts.

By now even Zhao Yongping could not stand the pressure and decided to continue heading north. However, all the generals refused to stay in Xuzhou. Zhao Yongping decided to send his deputy general Wu Zhifan and all the troops in Wuning Town to stay behind to defend Xuzhou.

But at this time, Hauge was not in Fuyang at all. His troops had reached Xuyi, south of Sizhou (now Si County). Hauge intended to take advantage of the opportunity to seize Huai'an.