The anti-Qing cause in the thirteenth year of Yongli was the bad news of Zheng Fan's defeat in Jiangnan. The in full swing anti-Qing cause seemed to be on the downward trend. However, similar suspicions were soon defeated by a series of victories of all sizes of the United States. Because Zheng Fan marched into Jiangnan, the Qing Dynasty's Fujian-Zhejiang defense line directly collapsed. The Yuele heavy army group stationed in the Jinqu Basin lost the best opportunity to go south, but lost its initiative because of the back and forth dispatch of troops.

Zheng Fan and the Qing army fought bloody battles in Zhenjiang. The Zhenjiang Prefecture, which had been unsuccessful for a long time, attracted the second wave of reinforcements sent by Yue Le, and directly shattered the strategic balance formed in the Fujian-Zhejiang area. Wu Mu personally led the main force of the Southeast War Zone to attack the Jinqu Basin. Although Yue Le summoned his troops in time and used the developed water system in the basin to block the first wave of fierce attacks of the United States, it was just to withdraw the elite troops that had left Xianxia Pass. The First Army Division attacking from Xianxia Pass followed closely. In the Jinhua area, the main forces of both sides confronted each other. This was a situation that both sides were reluctant to see, but it happened.

Compared with Wu Mu, who was bound by Li Mingxun, Yue Le was even more unwilling to fight in Jinhua at this time. Even though he knew that his supply line was shorter and easier than the opponent, Yue Le knew even more that Jiangnan, who was leaning behind, had experienced Zheng Fan's troubles (at this time, Zheng Fan had not yet retreated), many soldiers were still fighting bloody battles in Zhenjiang area, and he did not have the seemingly large military advantage.

Yue Le was afraid of his big defeat, but Wu Mu was afraid of his big victory.

Finally, after a few days of stalemate, the Qing army retreated to Lanxi, then entered Yanzhou, and deployed defenses along the Dongyang River. The towering Dapan Mountain blocked the sharp army of the United States, and Yue Le's retreat made Wu Mu breathe a sigh of relief. If Yue Le did not retreat, he would retreat. He would not be defeated, and he dared not win, and he was at a loss. Fortunately, Yue Le couldn't hold back first.

As soon as Yue Le retreated, the situation in Liangzhe completely reversed. The seven eastern prefectures of Zhejiang were completely protected by the heavy army group for a time and became the front line. Wu Mu also knew Li Mingxun's strategy. He could not win a big victory, but he could still take advantage of some advantages. The advantage was naturally on the seven eastern prefectures of Zhejiang. Since ancient times, Zhejiang has been divided into eastern and western Zhejiang, and it is called Liangzhe. The boundary between the two Zhejiangs is the Xin'an River, Fuchun River, and Qiantang River. Of course, during the Tang and Song dynasties.

Western Zhejiang also includes a series of Jiangnan areas such as Su, Song, and Chang. There were eleven prefectures in Zhejiang in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Yue Le withdrew his troops and relied on the water system of Dapanshan and Qiantang River to defend, which means that eastern Zhejiang had completely fallen into the sphere of influence of the United States. In name, it was only eastern Zhejiang, but there were seven prefectures in eastern Zhejiang, and only four prefectures in western Zhejiang. A province of Zhejiang had 70% of the area, more than 60% of the population, and more than 55% of the taxes were lost.

Wu Mu personally led his men to maintain a high-pressure situation against the Qing army in Yanzhou, and transferred troops from various places in Fujian to the north to enter Shaoxing Prefecture. The Navy Jiangnan Squadron also sent a fleet into Hangzhou Bay. For a moment, Hangzhou reported an emergency. Yue Le had no choice but to rush to Hangzhou and station troops here. Since then, the Southeast War Zone confronted the Qing army along the Qiantang River water system. After entering Shaoxing, the United States has taken over half of the Hangzhou Bay. Since then, the navy of the Qing army in the southeast is no longer able to survive on the coast of Zhejiang, so he has to retreat into the Yangtze River.

In the second battle in the Southeast, the United States had already won most of the two Zhejiangs, and its strength increased again.

Li Mingxun ignored the war on the front line. As long as Wu Mu did not cross the main stream of Qiantang River and entered western Zhejiang, it would not trigger a decisive battle. On this basis, Li Mingxun allowed Wu Mu to do anything. After confirming that Zheng Fan retreated from Zhenjiang, Li Mingxun had been thinking about how to deal with Zheng Chenggong who had retreated.

Zheng Chenggong, neither his personality nor his actions, was favored by Li Mingxun. After the Chaozhou Incident, Li Mingxun's favor for this national hero was exhausted. Zheng Chenggong was no longer tolerated by the United States during the Zhoushan Incident. After this chaos, the existence of the Zhoushan army was meaningless.

Li Mingxun accepted that, or was able to endure, Zheng Chenggong was in charge of Zhoushan because at that time, he really needed a force with considerable strength to restrain the Qing army on the southeast coast. At present, Zheng Chenggong did a good job, but the situation is completely different now. In the two Southeast wars, most of the coastal areas of Fujian and Zhejiang fell under the control of the United States, and the United States had already grasped the sea control of Hangzhou Bay. The Southeast War Zone would restrain all the Qing army in Jiangnan and Southeast. It was no longer important whether there was a Zhoushan Ming army.

What's more, eastern Zhejiang has become the land of the United States. The landing grain harvest and smuggling trade that the Ming army in Zhoushan originally relied on for their livelihood no longer exists. How to raise Zheng's soldiers is also a big problem.

It can be said that how to ruling Zheng Fan has nothing to do with Zheng Fan or Zheng Chenggong himself. The only thing Li Mingxun needs to be afraid of is the attitude of the Three Feudals of the Southwest.

From the moment the Zhongming alliance formed, the various vassal states of the Ming Dynasty realized that the merger of China and Ming Dynasty was inevitable, and all the anti-Qing forces would inevitably gather under a large banner, while the United States was the only choice. The so-called merger of China and Ming Dynasty was actually how the United States annexed the Zhuming Dynasty, and it was annexed without bloodshed. The key to this was to reduce the vassal states!

As soon as this topic is involved, all the real power figures in the southwest and southeastern south will choose to cooperate, even the Qiongfan, which has a close friendship with the United States. The Qiongfan did not have much resistance to joining the United States, but it is not ruled out that they used this matter to seek more practical benefits for the Qiongfan. Therefore, it is particularly complicated to rule that Zheng Chenggong's failure in the Battle of Jiangnan. Whether the punishment for Zheng Chenggong himself and Zheng Fan was to punish him for his failure in the Jiangnan battle or to reduce the vassal state is a question and an insurmountable question.

You should know that it was not only Zheng Fan who lost the battlefield. In the southwest, Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu lost the Guizhou province. If you count it carefully, this is more serious than Zheng Fan's crime. Once the southwest vassal states believe that the punishment for Zheng Fan was to reduce the vassal states, it would inevitably lead to disintegration. No one knows how the southwest vassal states would go. But Li Mingxun is very clear that at present, in terms of economic, political and military levels, subtle assimilation policies will completely fail, and the worst result is the end of the alliance and the civil war.

Throughout March, Zheng Fan, who was defeated in Jiangnan, did not return to Zhoushan. Even though the wind direction was right, even if the southwest monsoon was getting closer, Zheng Chenggong fought in Chongming under the pressure of both sea and land. When he arrived in Chongming, he arrived in Chongming. With the widening of the waterway and the support of the port, Zheng Fan's strength recovered, and it was difficult to solve the problem with the Qing navy led by Shi Lang. The Beiyang Fleet also sent two sail fleets into the Yangtze River to support and save allies from danger. Not only should it be done, but it should be impeccable.

Zheng Fan did not dare to return to Zhoushan, nor did he want to return to Zhoushan. It was because of Zheng Chenggong's distrust of the United States. He did not know how Li Mingxun, the commander-in-chief of the Allied Army, determined his defeat this time. Zheng Fan, who was dissatisfied with the United States and was disliked by Li Mingxun, would be directly defeated? Zheng Chenggong did not know that his Zheng Fan was not the southwest vassals and could not stand together to keep warm. The unwillingness to return to Zhoushan was because of the war in Zhenjiang. The Ming army was still fighting to the death in Zhenjiang. Zheng Chenggong made an excuse when he abandoned his friendly troops. If he ran away at this time, the charge of betraying friendly troops would be confirmed.

At the end of March, Zheng Jing arrived in Fuzhou City in a fastboat and directly requested to meet Li Mingxun. He quickly obtained permission. Zheng Jing also took out a letter, which became an important bargaining weight to overwhelm the scale in Li Mingxun's heart. Li Mingxun, who was willing to fight Zheng Fan's survival and failure, finally chose to let Zheng Chenggong go.

"Shiwang, Shiwang, please help my father for the sake of the friendship between the two families!" Zheng Jing knelt in front of the hall, knocking the floor tiles with his head.

Li Mingxun really didn't know what kind of friendship he had with the Zheng family. At the time in Denglai, Zheng Chenggong had an observing job. During the Yangtze River War, the navy from all towns participated in the war, and it was impossible to say that he was fighting side by side. The only thing that surprised Li Mingxun was his uncle. At this time, he regretted that he was "his mouth" in Anping City at that time, so why did he call Zheng Jing so affectionately.

"Where is the letter you said?" Li Mingxun asked.

Zheng Jing then stood up and placed a wrinkled letter in front of Li Mingxun. The letter was stained with blood from the inside out. Li Mingxun hesitated for a moment and opened it. It turned out to be a blood letter. This blood letter was written to Li Mingxun before Shen Tingyang defended Zhenjiang. The general idea was that defending Zhenjiang was his own persistence, not Zheng Chenggong's order. He hoped that Zheng Chenggong and Li Mingxun could lead a large army to advance together in sea and land, resolve the difficulties of Zhenjiang and restore Jiangnan.

Obviously, there is inside information here. Where did Zheng Fan and the United Nations coalition come from? After all, when Zheng Fan marched into Jiangnan, Li Mingxun had made it clear that he would not send troops to support him.

Whether he believed it or not, Li Mingxun could only listen to Zheng Fan's explanation, which was Zheng Jing's words in front of him. It turned out that Zheng Chenggong did not directly abandon the friendly troops in Zhenjiang, but only asked him to guard for half a month first. He led the Yangtze River to divide the power of the Qing Dynasty and seek support from the United States to gain his support.

This was obviously a reason to sell his teammates. Zhang Huangyan and others believed it. Of course, they were not interested in Zheng Chenggong's promise. They believed more about Shen Tingyang and Li Mingxun's fifteen-year friendship. Zhang Huangyan certainly would not believe that the United States sent troops to restore Jiangnan with Zheng Fan, but they were willing to believe that the United States Navy fleet would take them out of Zhenjiang, and they believed that Zheng Chenggong would not abandon the Zhenjiang defenders. In Zhang Huangyan's heart, Zheng Chenggong would definitely not dare to abandon Shen Tingyang, otherwise Li Mingxun would not let him go. But they never expected that Shen Tingyang had already been determined to die. Unlike Zheng Chenggong, he had already decided to enter Jiangnan this time. If he did not succeed, he would be a tyrant. Zhenjiang was just the place he chose to bury his bones.

This letter is enough to prove that Shen Tingyang is seeking benevolence, no wonder Zheng Chenggong. As for Zhang Huangyan's group of people, although the heroic sacrifice is indeed touching, the demise of any literati class is in line with the interests of the United States. When the Hongguang regime collapsed, Zhu Yihai supervised the country Zhoushan and Longwu proclaimed himself emperor Fujian. The Longwu court accepted the backbone of the Hongguang court, while the Lu supervisor was mostly middle and low-level gentry in Liangzhe. Now eastern Zhejiang is owned by the United States. If these people return to Zhoushan, near the waters and have rural friendship, they will definitely cause all kinds of trouble for the United States.

But Zheng Chenggong didn't expect that Zheng Fan's survival or death was only the attitude of the southwest vassals. Chen Tingyang's life and death only concerns Li Mingxun's personal feelings. He never put his personal interests into political actions. However, this letter gave Li Mingxun a step. After collecting it, Li Mingxun wrote a warrant and called the servants in the attendant's room to stamp it. After he asked Zheng Jing to go north to Chongming and ordered Zheng Fan to return to Zhoushan.

Shortly after Zheng Jing left, He Wenrui walked in and put a few newspapers on the table. Li Mingxun took a casual look and found that these were today's new newspapers, and they all featured the farewell letter from Chen Tingyang. After reading it, Li Mingxun shook his head helplessly. Zheng Jing must have not been here today. When he arrived in Fuzhou, he first published the letter in the newspaper and came to the door. He was worried that he would hide the letter and punish Zheng Fan.

"A little trick that cannot be used on the table." Li Mingxun said disdainfully.

He Wenrui said: "Although it is not up to the table, it is indeed effective. At least public opinion is no longer so unfavorable to Zheng Chenggong. People also speculate one-sidedly that you will punish Zheng Chenggong for his crime."

When Li Mingxun started out as gossip news, he suddenly heard the last sentence. He asked in surprise: "People's opinion thinks I will punish Zheng Chenggong for his crime?"

"Yes, most people think that you will kill him." He Wenrui said.

Li Mingxun couldn't believe it: "Just because Mr. Chen died in Zhenjiang in battle?"

"Isn't this reason enough? You have had a friendship with Mr. Chen for fifteen years." He Wenrui said.

Li Mingxun shook his head: "Wenrui, don't you find it ridiculous? We have tried our best to promote the legal system and equality and use the rule of law to replace the rule of man. Whether a person deserves to die can only depend on the severity of his crime. Even if Zheng Chenggong is not a citizen of our country, how can he be easily punished?"

He Wenrui didn't understand where Li Mingxun came from. What he thought of was his disgust towards Zheng Chenggong, a Southeast warlord in China, so he said: "It's not because of the disgust of Zheng Chenggong in China, but because you are in it."

Li Mingxun shook his head slightly, and He Wenrui said: "Your Excellency, the upper class who masters knowledge has indeed begun to use legal provisions to determine a person's crimes and punishments. The same is true for Zheng Chenggong, but this time it is different. Among the people he hurt is you, the head of the United States. This does not require consideration of legal provisions, but only your will."

"My will?" Li Mingxun sucked the word, and felt more and more supreme. He said, "You are the head of state, aren't you?"

"But I am not the emperor." Li Mingxun said.

He Wenrui said seriously: "Is there any difference?"

Li Mingxun raised his head and saw He Wenrui's serious face, as if what he said just now was the truth. Looking at He Wenrui's mottledness, you will know that the whole world of the United States. Li Mingxun, who had not dealt with internal affairs for a long time, suddenly realized that domestic public opinion and concepts were beyond his expectations.

"Forget it, I won't mention this matter." Li Mingxun shook his head and chose to put it aside for the time being. He knocked on the table and said, "Check the background of these newspapers and catch them as soon as possible. I have never opposed freedom of speech, but I will never let them turn it into this way. Investigate it."
Chapter completed!