Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 263 Preparations for War (1)

As soon as the Propaganda Department announced that the shogunate was about to begin selecting talents and conducting examinations, it caused an uproar. Some people said that the King of Zhou was not the imperial court, so why was he conducting imperial examinations in the name of recruiting talents? This was an act of usurpation and was not the behavior of a minister.

However, more scholars were excited about this. It has been said since ancient times that if one learns literary and martial arts, one can sell them to the emperor. What's wrong with King Zhou holding the imperial examination? The court is holding the examination in Kunming, and the candidates will still become officials for King Qin. Moreover, the journey is long, and there will be war and chaos along the way, as well as bandits and robbers everywhere. Since King Zhou wants to hold the imperial examination, scholars like us are willing to take the exam.

After years of newspaper publicity, Meng Jun now has a great reputation in the land under his rule. The people all think that he is wise and brave. He eats simple meals and sleeps in a room no larger than six feet wide. He works day and night, and is so exhausted that he wishes he could stay up late to handle government affairs. He works hard to govern the country. On the battlefield, he defeats the enemy every time he fights, and he loves his soldiers like his own sons.

As a man of both civil and military talents and a perfect moral model, the people praised Meng Jun as a wise leader. As the saying goes, he who wins the hearts of the people wins the world. Gu Yanwu's newspaper has gradually become a must-read for the people in Jiangnan. Not only in Jiangnan, the newspaper has gradually flowed to Kunming, Huguang, and even to the north. Even Dorgon saw the newspaper founded by Meng Jun and knew the name of Gu Yanwu.

After reading it several times, Dorgon sneered at the words in the newspaper and once said to Suksaha: "This newspaper praises Meng Jun all day long. It is simply disgusting." However, Dorgon soon realized the power of this newspaper and immediately ordered the preparation of the Qing newspaper.

The scorching hot August gradually passed, and September brought a slightly cool breeze to Beijing. At this time, Lu Ping finally settled down in Beijing. Lu Ping had gone through untold hardships. Along the way, he encountered bandits twice, mountain bandits once, swindlers three times, and honey traps twice. If this story was compiled into a vernacular novel, it would surely be very popular.

Six carefully selected Qingluan Guards accompanied Lu Ping to the north. During this dangerous journey, five of them died. Only one person safely escorted Lu Ping to Beijing. Lu Ping and Cheng Sanjin opened a pen shop.

Cheng Sanjin was born into a hunter family in Xinghua Prefecture in Fujian. Because he weighed only three pounds when he was born, his father named him Sanjin. Cheng Sanjin showed extraordinary wit and keen observation when he was young. At the age of twelve, he could recognize footprints and chase prey. Although the Cheng family was in poverty, they still managed to maintain it until Bolo entered Fujian, Jin Shenghuan and Li Chengdong swept through the Lu Wang Yijun army. In the chaos of war, Cheng's father and mother were both killed by the Qing army.

While escaping, he accidentally saved a spy from the Qingluan Guard, who took his fancy and brought him into the Qingluan Guard. In the Qingluan Guard, he received systematic training and achieved excellent results. Finally, he was selected by Meng Bian and, together with the other five people, escorted Lu Ping to sneak into Beijing and build an intelligence network.

Shops were called "pu hang" in Ming Dynasty. It is recorded that "the origin of shops is unknown, because the people living in shops were from different trades, so they were named after that." Lu Ping opened a pen shop and bought a large number of papers, inkstones, ink and other things used by scholars. This all took away all the money they had with them.

Cheng Sanjin was in a state of confusion. He tried to dissuade the other party, saying, "Sir, let's buy a small batch first and sell them before buying more. What if we buy so much at once and can't sell them?"

Lu Ping waved his hand and said, "It's okay. If I lose money, I will rent a stall and sell wontons. I will definitely be able to make a living. You won't starve to death."

After opening for ten days, they did make some money. Cheng Sanjin was very happy, but Lu Ping was a little melancholy. Selling tea leaves still made more profit. These brushes, paper and so on really had little profit. Seeing Cheng Sanjin's happy look, Lu Ping thought to himself, "You have never seen the world. Selling tea leaves, I made more than a hundred taels a month at most. It's not like selling pens. I only make three taels in ten days. I have to pay rent and wages for two people. What a mistake. Why did you think of selling pens! Alas!"

After settling down completely, Lu Ping did not forget his job. He arranged for Cheng Sanjin to stroll around the streets to see which houses had red flowers hanging on their doors. If there were any, he told him not to act on his own and to come back to report. Lu Ping's task was to enter Beijing, settle down, and then try to contact Wu Weiye and Mao Xiang.

At this time, Lu Ping had no idea that Mao Xiang was no longer in Beijing. He asked Cheng Sanjin to look for him every day until he became familiar with the shopkeeper next door and chatted with him all day. With Lu Ping's deliberate guidance of the topic, he learned that Mao Xiang and Mao Pijiang, the talented men from the south, had already been on a diplomatic mission to Nanjing.

Feng Quan's delegation stayed in Jinling City for a month. Every member of the delegation would be ridiculed and cursed when they left the post station. Feng Quan was as thick-skinned as a wall because he had guards behind him. As for the curses, hadn't he been cursed enough during those years as a eunuch? Meng Bian looked for an opportunity to meet Mao Xiang after he left the post station.

Mao Xiang said to Meng Bian: "The Qing court has no intention of negotiating peace. Feng Quan came to Nanjing to delay the start of the war. He is afraid that Prince Zhou will march into Huguang. If he can delay the war in Huguang until it ends, Feng Quan will have done a great deed."

Meng Bian nodded as he recorded what he had written. Mao Xiang continued, "Secondly, Feng Quan entered Nanjing to try to find out the strength of Nanjing's city defenses and bribe spies to investigate the river defenses. Feng Quan ordered me to leave the posthouse and bribe the laborers who were building the river defenses to find out if there were any loopholes in the river defenses. Lord Meng, we must be on guard against this."

Then Mao Xiang talked about some intelligence about Beijing City. However, Mao Xiang was in the Inner Three Courts and had no access to confidential information at all, which was even more difficult than when he was with Hong Chengchou. He compiled documents all day in the Inner Three Courts. If he could be promoted a few levels, he would be able to copy memorials, which would give him a wider source of intelligence.

After Mao Xiang finished speaking, Meng Bian told him that there were spies from the Qingluan Guard in Beijing. Mao Xiang smiled and was about to leave. Just as he was about to open the door, Meng Bian's voice came over: "Pijiang, thank you for your hard work!"

Mao Xiang's eyes were instantly wet. Without looking back, he said, "It's not hard. I'm doing this for the sake of recovering the territory of the Han Dynasty. A little shame is nothing to worry about!" Then he opened the door, wiped his tears, and left without looking back.

Meng Bian sighed, feeling somewhat guilty. In the past, he threatened Mao Xiang with the righteousness and let him suffer this stigma. He heard that the old house of Mao's family was destroyed by the villagers, and the Mao family even threatened to expel Mao Xiang from the Mao family tree. The high-spirited Mao Xiang has become the depressed look now. Meng Bian secretly made up his mind that when Mao Xiang returns in the future, he must ask the young master to clear Mao Xiang's name, reward him generously, and give him a higher title, without missing anything.