Zuo Liangyu has not yet used the banner of clearing the monarch, nor has he used the banner of suppressing rebellion. "Zuo Liangyu doesn't have the courage. His Jiangxi is sandwiched between our military office in Wuchang and the military town in Jiangbei. Life is not easy. It's good to be able to protect yourself. How dare you come to clear the monarch?" Li Guodong said disdainful to Zuo Liangyu.

Zuo Liangyu, known as the army of 800,000, has only 300,000, of which the maximum can fight is 60,000, and the rest are cannon fodder. If you are wrong, you are not even qualified to be cannon fodder. If such a mob is defending the city, it will be a bit difficult to fight them, but if they have to take the initiative to seek death, Li Guodong believes that he can defeat Zuo Liangyu's 300,000 army by just one 10,000 people.

However, Zuo Liangyu was stuck in Jiangxi, which gave Chongzhen a great headache. Because the Ming Dynasty's grain production areas were in Huguang and Jiangxi, Huguang had been harmed by Zhang Xianzhong before and was seriously damaged, and a large number of gentry were killed. Fortunately, Li Guodong filled this gap in time, and the fields of the killed gentry also fell into Li Guodong's hands. More than 100,000 refugees who were migrated from the north by the Huai Army settled down in Huguang, and military forts were built everywhere, which soon restored the grain production in Huguang.

Transporting grain from Huguang to Jiangnan requires passing through Jiangxi. At present, Jiangxi has cut off the grain transportation route from Huguang to Jiangnan in Zuo Liangyu's hands, and Jiangxi itself is also a grain-producing area with rich products.

Jiangxi was not destroyed by bandits, and the grain output was abundant. The Zuo family bandit army occupied Jiangxi and had too much food to eat.

Chongzhen issued several edicts, and the imperial edict was issued by the cabinet. He sent someone to send the imperial edict to Zuo Liangyu and asked him to come to the capital to meet the saint. However, the angel sent to Jiujiang to read the imperial edict. The gangster who was on land was inexplicably killed by the bandits on the road, and the ship on the water was sunk halfway, and even a royal edict could not be sent to Zuo Liangyu.

After finally someone finally delivered the imperial edict to Zuo Liangyu, but he heard that Zuo Liangyu was seriously ill and could not come to the capital to meet the saint.

"That thief Zuo Liangyu! He just dared not come to see me!" Chongzhen said gritting his teeth.

Nonsense, who dares to come? If Zuo Liangyu comes, if Chongzhen doesn’t kill him, it will be Chongzhen.

Originally, because of the planting of mulberry trees and tea, the grain output in Jiangnan was not so abundant. The farmland output between mulberry forests and tea forests was only enough for Jiangnan to be self-sufficient and could not meet more requirements. However, it is much better now. The high-yield crop of sweet potato developed by Li Guodong allows less land to feed more troops.

With high-yield crops and new farms, Jiangnan has produced a lot of grain, which is enough for the royal family, the imperial court and the army to eat. What's more, there is also the grain production area near Anqing, and the grain transported by Zheng Zhilong from Annan and other places. At present, Jiangnan does not have the problem of insufficient food.

Zuo Liangyu's life was also difficult, and he felt like he was sitting on pins and needles every day. The only angel who could bring the imperial edict to Jiujiang heard that Zuo Liangyu was sick. This was not a fake disease, but a real illness. He had been worried all day long that Li Guodong would rush his troops to eliminate him. He was worried about living in anxiety every day, and his old injuries on his body recurred for many years, so he became sick.

"Mr. Marquis, a visitor from Jiangnan is here." A servant in the Marquis' Mansion of Ningnan entered Zuo Liangyu's bedroom to report.

"See you! Didn't you see me sick in bed?" Zuo Liangyu shook his hand impatiently.

"Mr. Marquis, the ones who came were Hou Ruogu and his son Hou Chaozong." The servant said.

When he heard that it was Hou Xun and Hou Fangyu, Zuo Liangyu quickly sat up from the bed: "Come in quickly."

After all, Hou Xun is Zuo Liangyu's benefactor. If he doesn't even see Hou Xun, that would be too much.

"What wind blows you here?" Zuo Liangyu asked with a smile when he saw Hou Xun and Hou Fangyu and his son walking in.

Hou Xun sighed: "It's not that Your Majesty was bewitched by the treacherous party. Then Chen Mingxia took advantage of the situation and sent the Jinyiwei to treat us father and son. Fortunately, a righteous man risked his life to inform us, so Hou and his son were able to escape. Now Hou and his son are desperate, so he has to come to you, Marquis."

Hou Fangyu, who was standing behind, had a gloomy face. This time, Chen Mingxia's case actually involved him, but the Jinyiwei sent someone to arrest his father and son. Fortunately, there was a conscientious righteous man in the Jinyiwei who took the risk of telling his father about this, and the father and son escaped. It's a pity that he never saw Li Xiangjun again. Thinking of Li Xiangjun, Hou Fangyu felt like a knife.

Hou Fangyu had no money, and every time he went to Meixianglou, Li Xiangjun would pay the money to invite Hou Fangyu.

This time, not only Hou Xun and his son were forced to leave Nanjing, but Li Xiangjun was bought by a Jinyiwei Qianhu. It is said that the Jinyiwei Qianhu made great contributions in the crackdown on Chen Mingxia's rebellion and personally captured the Taihu bandits who had colluded with the Chen family. The Jinyiwei Qianhu was named Tieniu, and he heard that his name was a vulgar martial artist.

Hou Fangyu shed tears when he thought of the cute and talented Li Xiangjun falling into the hands of such a thick man.

Hou Xun cried and said: "Mr. Marquis, the foolish monarch was bewitched by treacherous slander, and repeatedly took advantage of the situation. He came from Shandong and went all the way to Jiangnan. He then plotted against rebellion and harmed many gentlemen. He only hoped that the Marquis could raise an army as soon as possible and rescue the scholars in Jiangnan."

Zuo Liangyu sighed repeatedly: "The tyrant lord has Li Ergou as his backing. Li Ergou's soldiers are too powerful. His fierceness is not inferior to Jiannu at all. There are also Huang Chuangzi (Huang Degong) and Zheng Zhilong to help him. Although Zuo has an army of 300,000, only 50,000 can really fight. How can he beat Li Ergou?"

"Is it possible that the Marquis is watching the foolish monarchs and treacherous ministers harm the scholars in Jiangnan?" Hou Xun asked.

Zuo Liangyu sighed and said, "Ruogu, your father and son should live here with Zuo. It is absolutely safe in Jiujiang. The court hawks and dogs dare not come here to catch people."

Seeing that Zuo Liangyu refused to send troops to clear the king, Hou Xun and his son were helpless. Since Zuo Liangyu was willing to take them in, let's stay in Jiujiang for the time being.

"Hou Fangyu, Huang Shu and other guys are all in Zuo Liangyu's place? Haha! I want to see how long they can jump around!" Li Guodong was overjoyed when he heard that Hou Xun and his son had fled to Jiujiang.

In fact, the so-called leaking news was also Li Guodong who deliberately asked Zhang Shuheng to leak news, with the purpose of scaring Hou Xun and his son away. To be honest, the Chen Mingxia case did not involve Hou Xun and his son, these were just fake news released by Zhang Shuheng.

Why did Li Guodong force Hou Fangyu to death? It was because of the evil things that Hou Fangyu had done in real history that this person followed his traitor Zhang Cunren to suppress the rebels in various places against the Qing Dynasty. He spread the Yellow River embankment, flooded Shandong and Henan, and suppressed the Yuyuan Army uprising. This was Hou Fangyu's vicious plan.

Since Hou Xun and his son ran away, it would be easy to deal with. The Jinyiwei was worried about arresting him without any charges. He ran to Zuo Liangyu himself. Wouldn't he be charged with being sent to the door? If Hou Fangyu falls into Li Guodong's hands, he can cut him mercilessly.

However, it is not the time to send troops to wipe out Zuo Liangyu. Li Guodong first wants to annihilate the Qing army that was about to go south. As for Zuo Menggeng surrendering to the Qing army and causing 300,000 more people to the Qing army, Li Guodong was not worried at all. He used water and fire as his soldiers, and he wanted the Qing army to come as much as possible. He burned one-third of the fire, and then flooded the rest, destroying the Tartars and the traitors together.

"Mr. Zheng Damu sent a batch of war horses and just arrived in Yangzhou." Someone came to report again.

Li Guodong said: "Come in to the mansion quickly!"

Zheng Sen walked into the Duke of Chu's Mansion, Li Guodong walked out of the hall and stood at the door to greet him.

"Damu, we're meeting again!" Li Guodong walked forward with a smile and patted Zheng Sen on the shoulder.

"The lower official Zheng Sen has met the Duke of Chu." Zheng Sen saluted.
Chapter completed!