Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 407 Rescue of the Lu Family

After thinking carefully about what Sun Kewang said, Meng Jun felt that it was quite possible. This was an open conspiracy. It was a gamble that the Qing court would not dare to put the areas outside the Great Wall under the threat of Zhou's army. Especially after Meng Jun captured Shandong, it also represented the feasibility of attacking Liaodong directly from the sea.

Meng Jun immediately sent an envoy, escorted by a team of cavalry, towards Beijing.

After all, the Qing government controlled the north. Although the Henan and Hebei plains were still in its hands, its governance capabilities were limited, many officials fled, and chaos arose everywhere.

Moreover, after the land enclosure, each banner adopted the backward banner slave system, and the banner slaves were not very motivated to produce. The Eight Banner nobles certainly had no worries about food and drink, but the Qing Dynasty's national fiscal revenue was extremely poor, and the Qing Dynasty's treasury had long been in deficit.

There had always been different opinions within the Qing court on whether to continue to make a desperate attempt to send troops to the Central Plains. It was only with Dorgon's insistence that the different voices were suppressed.

Once something happened in Liaodong, the Eight Banners nobles in the interior would become homeless orphans without power. Could they still act arrogantly in Mongolia? This depended on whether Dorgon could make up his mind to ignore the threat to his rear and attack the south, or to defend Liaodong and divide his troops to return for defense.

………………

Lu Fengchun faked his death and surrendered. Meng Jun did not appreciate his courage or wisdom. Rather, Lu Fengchun was the governor of Shandong and a high-ranking official of the Qing court. The surrender of such a high-ranking official was a slap in the face to Dorgon and set a good example for many Han officials in the Qing court.

Fortunately, Dorgon did not know that Lu Fengchun had faked his death for the time being. His eldest son Lu Congnian was arranged by Dorgon to be a blue-feathered guard in the palace with the title of sixth rank, and his second son Lu Congyi entered the Hongwen Academy. Dorgon specifically instructed people to take good care of the two members of the Lu family.

However, Lu Fengchun's surrender did save Meng Jun a lot of trouble. Therefore, Meng Jun gave a special order, and Meng Bian of the Qingluan Guard was personally responsible for secretly going to Beijing to rescue Lu Fengchun's family.

After receiving the order, Meng Bian immediately began to plan the rescue operation. Meng Bian knew that Beijing was now the heartland of the Qing court and was heavily guarded. In particular, the Qingluan Guard had once rescued a family member. Any disturbance might attract attention, so he had to be extremely cautious.

To this end, Meng Bian selected more than ten spies with superb martial arts and intelligence, formed an elite team, and sneaked into the capital in batches. At the same time, he arranged carriages and other means of transportation outside the capital. For this operation, Meng Bian only asked Lu Ping to gather intelligence, and Lu Ping and other people in the capital were not involved in the specific implementation of the operation.

Thanks to Dorgon's cancellation of the shaving order, there are now people in Beijing who have shaved their heads and people who have not shaved their heads and still have Ming-style hairstyles. However, in Beijing, people who have shaved their heads are still the majority.

But in order to be on the safe side and reduce attention, Meng Bian still ordered all spies who were going to sneak into the capital to shave their heads and dress in disguise.

A few days later, in a writing shop in the capital.

In the current emergency situation, Lu Ping has been restless these days and has been a little slack in his business. After all, it is possible that the army will soon invade the capital, so it would be better not to do this pen shop business.

Just as Lu Ping was sitting behind the counter, carelessly wiping rows of unused brushes to kill time, there was suddenly a sound of hurried footsteps outside the door. Then, a man with a shaved head, a little blue on his forehead, and dressed in ordinary clothes, pushed the door open.

This person was none other than Meng Bian in disguise. He looked around the store, made sure no one was noticing him, and walked straight towards Lu Ping.

Lu Ping looked up and was stunned. He almost couldn't hold back his smile. The person in front of him was his immediate superior. Lu Ping tried hard to hold back his smile and said, "Sir, do you want to buy a pen? Or..."

Before Lu Ping finished speaking, Meng Bian had already walked up to him quickly and said in a low voice, "It's me. I have something important to tell you!"

Lu Ping immediately called out: "Sanjin, come out!"

As Cheng Sanjin came out, Lu Ping gave him a few instructions, then gestured to Meng Bian to go to the backyard room for a detailed discussion.

In the back room.

Lu Ping bowed respectfully to Meng Bian, and then asked with some confusion: "Sir, what about your hair?"

Meng Bian shook his head and replied, "There are many eyes and ears in the capital. Although the order to shave hair has been cancelled, keeping hair will still attract attention. Only by shaving hair can we minimize the risk of being discovered."

Then Meng Bian got to the point and said, "Let's not talk about this anymore. Have you found out the itinerary of the two sons of the Lu family?"

Lu Ping nodded and said, "The second son of the Lu family, Lu Congyi, leaves home early and comes back late, and his schedule is very regular, but the eldest son, Lu Congnian, is different. He often comes home only once every four or five days. But I estimate that Lu Congnian will come home today or tomorrow."

"Where are the rest of the Lu family?" Meng Bian asked.

Lu Ping: "The rest of the family members occasionally go out during the day, but they all return home after nightfall."

Afterwards, Meng Bian asked in detail about the population of the Lu family, the garrison strength of the Qing court in the surrounding areas, the patrol time of the government office, etc. It was not until an hour and a half later that Meng Bian left the office. Before leaving, Meng Bian warned Lu Ping that he was in a dangerous place and must not take it lightly.

When Meng Bian's figure disappeared at the end of the street, Lu Ping returned to the store, his heart was already in turmoil. It seemed that this rescue operation must be very important, otherwise the commander of the Qingluan Guard would not do it personally.

At the same time, Meng Bian wrote a small note with only a few words on it, "Your father is not dead yet. To know the details, go to the Liu River in the south city."

Then Meng Bian sent someone to deliberately knock Lu Congyi down and took the opportunity to slip the note into Lu Congyi's hand.

Lu Congyi was distracted and the person who knocked him down disappeared in the crowd in the blink of an eye. Lu Congyi cursed under his breath, thinking that he was unlucky.

Then Lu Congyi stood up, dusted himself off, and suddenly found a piece of paper in his hand. Lu Congyi took a closer look and was shocked. He looked around quickly and saw that no one was paying attention, so he quickly stuffed the note into his arms.

The Qingluan Guard spy not far away was paying attention to Lu Congyi's every move without leaving a trace. He passed by Lu Congyi like an ordinary person, only to see that Lu Congyi had an uneasy look on his face. Then, as if he had made up his mind, he headed towards the direction of South City.

Lu Congyi originally thought that his father died for the Qing Dynasty. This sudden note made him think of the incident two years ago when the Chen and Ke families disappeared in the capital. There were rumors that Chen Shaozong and Ke Yongsheng surrendered to Zhou, and the Qingluan Guard of the Zhou army planned to rescue their families.

Therefore, no matter what, Lu Congyi had to go and meet the person who gave him the note. If he was not careful, more than ten members of his family would die without a burial place. The fate of the Gao family was a lesson for him.