This was not the first time that Shen Yichen had seen beheaded heads. At the surrender ceremony of Luchuan in Southwest China, what the border troops presented was the head of Si Renfa, the leader of Luchuan!

But in order to ensure that the head was sent to the capital, it was treated with lime and other antiseptic materials, making it almost completely different from the normal skin color.

The current head was obviously beheaded not long ago. Except for its slightly pale and gray complexion, it was basically the same as an ordinary person.

It's just that Shen Yichen doesn't understand why the military intelligence report is a human head on the neck?

However, the answer to this question was quickly given by the Chief Minister Zhang Chen.

After he stared at the head in the wooden box for a few times, a look of surprise appeared on his face, and then he subconsciously called out his name.

"Prefect Xiong!"

Taishou is another name for the magistrate in the Ming Dynasty. Generally, when a superior official calls a lower official, this title is used instead.

In the entire Fujian Province, there is only one prefect named Xiong, and that is the prefect of Quanzhou, Xiong Shangchu.

A few days ago, Xiong Shangchu broke through and was defeated, and was captured by the peasant uprising army led by Deng Maoqi. He has not been heard from since.

As a result, he never expected that today his head would be sent to Fujian civil and military officials, and even the "imperial envoy" in charge of military affairs in the capital.

What does it mean to slap the imperial court in the face? This behavior is just that!

"Extremely arrogant!"

Xi Ning shouted angrily. He had served as a guard eunuch for many years. He was as ferocious as a Mongolian cavalry. He captured the officials of the Ming Dynasty and did not dare to torture and kill them at will.

To put it bluntly, even if the Mongols really wanted to kill them, they would negotiate with the Ming Dynasty before taking action, and they would only take action after negotiations broke down.

As early as on the way into Fujian, Xi Ning learned of the military report that Xiong Shangchu, the prefect of Quanzhou, had been captured alive. He originally planned to send someone to negotiate with the rebels after arriving at the Yamen of Fuzhou to see if he could be redeemed.

Now, the other side is kicking his nose in the face, giving him, the newly arrived supervisor, a show of authority. How can Xi Ning, who is used to being tyrannical, endure this?

"Deng Dusi, how many soldiers and horses are there in the Fujian Guards Station? How can we just watch the bandit army so rampant!"

Xi Ning was really angry now. You must know that the Chief Secretary of Fujian Province who was captured and killed earlier had an official rank of Cong 4th rank. And Xiong Shangchu, the prefect of Quanzhou Prefecture, had an official rank of 4th rank Zheng.

In a short period of time after the Fujian riots, two high-ranking officials in Fei Pao were killed. If news spread to the court, it would definitely cause an uproar. Xi Ning was unwilling to leave any excuse for Wang Zhen to attack him, so he had to give an explanation to the emperor and the court. !

"This...this..."

Faced with Xi Ning's inquiry, the Fujian capital commander Deng An hesitated and did not dare to answer.

The military information in Fujian he submitted only informed the Quanzhou magistrate that Xiong Shangchu had rushed in and was captured, but did not mention at all that his rescue efforts failed and he was ambushed by the rebels.

It is estimated that Deng An currently has no more than 10,000 fighting troops.

With this amount, how dare he confess to Xi Ning?

"Deng Dusi, could it be that you have forgotten any responsibilities in our family?"

Seeing that Deng An didn't speak for a long time, Xi Ning gave him a cold warning.

Although the military supervisors in the middle period of the Ming Dynasty did not have the power to control the life, death and seizure of generals as they did in the late Ming Dynasty, as long as Xi Ning petitioned the emperor for impeachment, the chance of Deng An being punished by the officials could be said to be 100%.

Under this kind of threat, civil servants such as Song Zhang, the Right Chief Minister, even if they were flatterers themselves, had to pretend to grit their teeth and maintain their image of integrity in front of local civil and military officials.

As a military general, Deng An had no worries in this regard. He immediately knelt down towards Xi Ning and admitted his mistake: "Reporting to the supervisory army, the last general is incompetent. The number of available troops in the Fuzhou Prefecture military camp is less than 10,000!"

Since he couldn't hide it anymore, Deng An decided to tell the truth.

The deaths of counselor Zhu Yuan and prefect Xiong Shangchu have already revealed that these rebels are extremely cruel. After the fall of Quanzhou Prefecture, the next state capital to be besieged will undoubtedly be Fuzhou Prefecture.

Deng An felt that he was unable to control the situation. It would be up to Xi Ning and Shen Yichen to deal with this mess. No matter how hard he tried, it would be better to be punished than to be decapitated. He didn't want to go to Zhu Yuan and others. Follow in the footsteps.

"Less than ten thousand people?"

When Xi Ning heard this, she felt a little dizzy.

After receiving a military report in Hangzhou before, he predicted the worst outcome. Fuzhou Prefecture could still call on several garrison troops, with ten or twenty thousand troops. After he and Shen Yichen took office, they would supervise the military affairs as admiral. In the name of integrating the entire province's troops.

According to the Ming Dynasty's usual practice of counterinsurgency, a force of about 30,000 was enough to sweep away the rabble of rebels.

As a result, looking at this situation now, the military report of 10,000 or 20,000 people was false!

The number of military households at the Nine Border Guard Stations in the North was only a 30% discount in the most exaggerated case. Xi Ning also thought that no matter how bold the Fujian Dusi was, a 50% discount was already the limit.

I really underestimated the courage of this group of people. Even the 30% discount was watery. No wonder the entire battlefield was defeated like a mountain!

"Bastard thing!"

Xi Ning cursed angrily. He didn't know what to say at this time. Besides anger, there was also a trace of regret.

If he had known that the situation was like this, he should not have promised Shen Yichen that things would continue as usual. Now that people have arrived in Fujian, it means that they have officially started to perform their duties.

Then dispatch troops and generals to the imperial court, let alone what kind of responsibilities they have to bear. Just wait for the imperial army to arrive in Fujian, and you don't know it will be the year of the monkey. During this period, if the bandit army comes to siege Fuzhou Prefecture, you will have to wait for it. Could it be possible that the supervisor army could abandon the city and run away?

If you really dare to do this, you will be blamed for Fujian corruption. You will have no hope of gaining a foothold in the Forbidden City in this life!

Feeling Xi Ning's vague gaze on him, Shen Yichen roughly guessed that the other party had regrets.

No matter how tough and upright he pretends to be, Xi Ning is ultimately a villain who is greedy for life and afraid of death, otherwise he would not have become a complete "traitor" after being captured during the Tumubao Incident.

But to be precise, Xi Ning is a Jurchen, so he can only be regarded as an "open traitor".

"Deng Dusi, where is the headquarters of the Three Guards in Fuzhou?"

Shen Yichen did not expect this group of Fujian local officials to be reliable. If he wanted to stabilize the situation, he would have to rely on the guards' troops.

Fuzhou Prefecture is the provincial capital of the Chief Secretary of Fujian. It has three guards, Fuzhou Central Guard, Fuzhou Left Guard, and Fuzhou Right Guard, stationed all year round. Shen Yichen plans to inspect the military camp to see the situation. As long as the morale of the soldiers is available, ten thousand people are enough to guarantee Fuzhou. The house is worry-free.

After all, the combat effectiveness of the fully armed regular army in ancient times is vastly different from that of the peasant army who rebelled temporarily. Especially when wearing heavy armor, the rough weapons in the hands of ordinary rebels may not be able to break through even if they stand and fight for a long time.

"Reply to Admiral Shen, he's five miles away."

Deng An, who was kneeling on the ground, quickly turned around and looked at Shen Yichen to tell him the location of the Fuzhou Three Guards station.

"Deng Dusi, get up first."

Shen Yichen first asked Deng An to stand up from the ground. No matter how bad he was in military affairs, as long as he sat in the position of commander of the Fujian capital, his dignity must be guaranteed.

There is no other reason. As the leading general of a province, if even Deng An has no backbone, how can his soldiers be so strong?

One of the fundamental reasons why the army collapsed in such a disastrous state in the late Ming Dynasty was that there was too much "civilian control of military force", which made the military attachés and generals worse than dogs, and the lower-level sergeants were like ants.

Morale largely comes from self-confidence and dignity. Unlike Xi Ning, Shen Yichen will not use his power-building methods to humiliate and oppress the leading generals.

"Yes, Admiral Shen."

After receiving Shen Yichen's permission, Deng An stood up from the ground and wiped the sweat from his forehead fearfully.

"My dear father-in-law, since the situation in Fujian is urgent, I have the responsibility of admiral to supervise military affairs. I will not go to the city for repairs. I will first go to Fuzhou Sanwei's station to inspect."

"Admiral Shen has done his duty faithfully, so you have to work hard."

Shen Yichen is willing to clean up the mess now, and Xi Ning naturally wants it.

But having said that, it is Shen Yichen's responsibility to rectify military affairs. Supervising the Army is not responsible for specific military affairs, but only supervises and checks and balances local military affairs.

"Deng Dusi, please send someone to lead the way."

"yes."

Deng An nodded, turned around and said to a military general from the Capital Command Envoy: "Feng Qianshi, come out!"

I saw a fully armored general standing out from the team, cupping his hands and saying: "The general is here!"

"You immediately lead Admiral Shen to inspect the military camp and make sure there are no mistakes!"

"I will obey your orders!"

After the general received the order loudly, he came to Shen Yichen and cupped his hands and said: "The last general, Fuzhou Central Guards Commander Feng Zheng, has met Admiral Shen!"

The local army in the Ming Dynasty generally had two sets of command systems, namely the General Command and Envoy Division and the Guard Command and Envoy Division.

The names of the official positions of the two are basically the same. The difference is that the commander of the Wei Command is one level lower. For example, the commander of the Du Command and Shi is the third rank, and the Commander of the Wei is the fourth rank.

However, under normal circumstances, the commander-in-chief is more like the superior department, and the commander-in-chief directly leads the soldiers. Deng An sent Feng Zhenglai to lead Shen Yichen to inspect the military camp. It was obvious that he intended to be completely honest and let the admiral have a truer understanding of the current situation.

After all, if Shen Yichen can save the situation and put down the rebellion, Deng An's guilt will be reduced a lot. If he finds a way to find connections in the capital, he might be able to keep his hat on.

"Thank you Feng Qianshi, please lead the way."

"yes."

Compared with Deng An's slippery and weak attitude, Feng Zheng showed the aura of a professional soldier in the Ming Dynasty. He turned around and mounted a war horse, and was about to lead Shen Yichen to inspect the military camp.

Since civilians were in charge of military affairs, Shen Yichen naturally had to show his "tough and iron-blooded" side. He did not ride in a carriage, but asked Wu Rui to bring a tall horse and led his bodyguards to follow Feng Zheng. .

Watching the group of people speeding away, Zhang Chen, the chief envoy of Fujian Province, said to Xi Ning in a tentative tone: "Eunuch Xi, why don't you go to the city first?"

"Um."

This time Xi Ning didn't say much, nodded and strode towards Fuzhou Mansion.

His anger had been vented and his power had been established. He had been traveling day and night for half a month, which had already made him feel pain in his back, so he planned to take some relief.

The situation is the situation, and when it comes to personal enjoyment, Xi Ning will never treat himself poorly.

The five-mile journey took only about ten minutes on horseback. Shen Yichen followed Feng Zheng to a valley flat. As far as the eye could see, there was an endless company of tents. The soldiers guarding the door were holding weapons loosely. He was leaning against the fence, with no trace of bravery in sight.

Shen Yichen has been through the imperial examinations all the way. Although he is a standard noble civil servant, he has come into contact with many Ming Dynasty soldiers.

In the front are the Southern Expeditionary Army returning in triumph, in the middle are the Beijing Camp commanded by Li Da and others, and in the back are the Dongchang Guards and Tai'an Guards controlled by the Chief Secretary of Shandong.
To be continued...