In the study room.

Shi Kefa's face was calm and his eyes were closely watching the memorial in his hand that had been copied by Zhang Zhengchen by the officials. He had read it over and over again several times, and the more he looked at it, the more he felt that Zheng Zhilong's words were reasonable. However, although Zheng Zhilong's words were reasonable, he was actually biased...

"Dongweng..." Yao Kang looked at Shi Kefa with a little nervous expression.

He did not think that Shi Kefa would be a little embarrassed in Shi Kefa's curtain after being moved by Zheng Zhilong's memorial, but he was worried that Shi Kefa would be impressed by him.

Now the court and the people in Jinling City are shouting and killing Zheng Zhilong. Even Duke of Wei, Chen Tingyang, Jiang Dejing and others dare not speak for Zheng Zhilong. As an advocate of the strategy of "union of enemy troops and suppressing enemies", Shi Kefa suddenly changed his course, but he would be attacked by the crowd.

"Don't worry. Although Annan Hou's words were also out of sincerity, Huang Zhongda Lu, which was deafening, they were somewhat distorted."

Shi Kefa has a very complicated sense of Zheng Zhilong. As the Minister of War in Jinling, Shi Kefa still has a good understanding of Zheng Zhilong's group. If he had not been signaled by the emperor and knew Zheng Zhilong's "will", the latter's threat to the court would now be ranked above Zuo Liangyu's group.

After removing this suspicion, look at Zheng Zhilong's series of measures. Of course, the slaughter of high-ranking officials and nobles has not been eliminated. However, thousands of miles of service to the king, and a series of measures later, such as sending the emperor to Jinling early, he stayed in Tianjin, and even chopped the Grand Secretary who killed the Tartars, turned against Wu Sangui, and made suggestions to Jinling, all of them could see his loyalty to the court.

However, the high-ranking officials and nobles who were slaughtered by him all hated him to the core, and in a short time they had ruined Zheng Zhilong's reputation, and now everyone is calling for it.

But I wonder what these dignitaries who beat Zheng Zhilong and others did for the court when the court was in danger?

He knew the difficulties and bitterness of the emperor when he raised funds.

Compared with the ugly faces of these high-ranking officials and nobles at that time, Zheng Zhilong used a knife to cut their flesh, which made the court loyal and kind-hearted applaud him. However, Shi Kefa still felt that such a robbery behavior was a bit.

After all, I will not talk about these things, but only look at the current memorials. Zheng Zhilong wrote a memorial: Today, the situation in Jiangzuo is more difficult, and the Song Dynasty is even more difficult, and it is surrounded by enemies on all sides. The Tartars entered the pass and went south, and the deeper sufferings were not inferior to that of Jin and Meng.... It is best to make progress as the first thing to do. If the progress is not sharp, the defense will not be firm.

Even if the Li bandits had a very cunning plan, they would surely die and walk into Qin. If they were full of strength after autumn, they would merge with the bandits in Xian and look down on the Yangtze River, then the lake and the court would be in danger.

He also heard that the enemy was entrenched in the palace, which shakes the Central Plains of Qi and Lu. However, the ministers of the country were in a panic, but they briefly said the humble statement (referring to the peace talks with the Tartars hosted by Chen Xinjia), which damaged their power and defied their spirits and exorcised the aura of loyal ministers and righteous men in the world. I was ashamed of them, but I was deeply distressed by them.

...If you lose your current situation and do not control it, you will stop the autumn high. The enemy will control the strings and point the horses to the south, drink the long horses, and the Huai River. The bandits will rush to Jingxiang and flow eastward. The collapse has been completed, how can they eat the navel?

Shi Kefa had to admit that Zheng Zhilong's concerns were very reasonable. If Li Zicheng retreated in the west of Jin and turned south to join forces with Zhang Xianzhong, attacked Jingxiang and went east, or he could rush troops alone toward Jingxiang and go east, and Jianlu seized Jin and resigned with Li bandits, and then gathered troops to drink horses and Jianghuai, the Southern Ming court would be afraid that it would collapse immediately.

But Zheng Zhilong guessed that there was a major premise that Jianlu and Li thieves resigned, but now it seems that the two families did not have this plan. Not only that, Shi Kefa also thought that Zhang Xianzhong was not a person who was willing to be inferior, and he and Li Zicheng could not pee in the same pot.

But what Zheng Zhilong said, "The thief rushed to Jingxiang again and went eastward" was indeed a problem, so he wanted to urge Zuo Liangyu to attack Jingxiang, regain Jiangbei prefectures and counties, and cover the river defense.

But how do we face the Jianlu? Northern Zhili, Qilu, and Central Plains are all very empty.

With Nan Ming’s current strength, is it appropriate to fight to the death?

As the Minister of War, Shi Kefa knew very well that the army under the Southern Ming Dynasty had been deducted. After deducting Zuo Liangyu's army, which was known as 800,000 troops, all the troops in Jiangbei and Jiangnan were added together, which was only 200,000 to 300,000, and there were many newly recruited soldiers in it that could not stand the battle.

The Hong Chengchou army stationed in Yangzhou is the best example. It has expanded from thousands of remaining soldiers to 20,000 to 30,000 people today. There are more people, but it does not mean that the combat power has become stronger.

Because of the training of military soldiers? Where are the swords, guns, armor and clothes of military soldiers?

Don’t it take time to practice, or to make it?

The emperor now has money and Jiangnan is not short of food. Even because the canal transportation is abandoned, a large number of ship workers who rely on it for their lives have been ruined, so that all towns easily recruited a large number of young and strong men.

Hong Chengchou expanded from thousands of remnants to the small 30,000 people at the moment, Gao Jie's army expanded to 50,000 people, and there were 20,000 people in Xu Dingguo, 20,000 people in Liu Zhaoji, 30,000 people in Liu Liangzuo, 20,000 people in Jiang Cao, more than 10,000 people in Huang Fei, more than 10,000 people in Ma Shiying's army in Fengyang, Zhu Dadian recruited 3,000 people in his hometown as the Biaoying, Lu Daqi, and Yuan Jixian also had thousands of Biaoying, and finally added the Imperial Camp, which was known as the 100,000 troops.

The airs have been raised, but now at this critical moment, can we really fight a war?

In the absence of money and food, Shi Kefa believes that as long as there is plenty of time, these soldiers can be trained.

But time cannot be exchanged for money. They can fight in the future, but now they cannot. They have all lacked training armor, so how can they fight?

Therefore, he took the lead in proposing the "union of enemy troops to pacify the enemy", which was to quit the army in the Ming and Qing dynasties and alleviate the danger of the imperial court being attacked from multiple sides; the second was to take a breath with the opportunity to fill the strength of the troops in the southern Ming towns to win time.

So much so that there was a saying in the court that the Donglu ruled the river, and Shi Kefa did not object. Although he had never heard of the saying "Agreement is for tearing it down", he knew very well that all agreements must be reached and adhered to.

It was the Ming and Qing dynasties that jointly wiped out Li Zicheng. If the Qing Dynasty had weak strength and the Ming Dynasty had a million soldiers, then there would definitely be shouting and killing at the Tartars in the Jinling Court, and there would be voices of regaining the Central Plains in the court.

On the contrary, the shouts of beating and killing should have sounded among the Qing ministers in the capital.

"Union of enemies and pacifying the enemy" is just a temporary solution. Winning strength and enriching oneself is what Shi Kefa thought. For this reason, he became a mediocre person in Yan Ermei's mouth.

Yan Ermei was a famous scholar in Jiangnan and a giant in the revival of the society. Now in the curtain of Shi Kefa, he first advised him to go north to restore Qi and Lu, but he refused to listen; then advised him to fight west to restore the Central Plains, but he refused to listen; third, he advised him to stay for a while, and Xuzhou was the hope of the Central Plains, but Shi Kefa listened. But his idea was to withdraw from Huai and Si as the best strategy.

The reason is very simple. This is because Shi Kefa believes that the military strength of the Southern Ming Dynasty is limited and that only the protection of Huai and Si is too short. How can he use it?

Going north to Qilu and west to Central Plains can indeed make the court excited for a moment, but it also drags down its already limited forces for a longer period of time, making its already not-so-solid defense even more empty.

It also stimulated the Qing Dynasty in Yanjing City. If they felt threatened and chose to stop the troops with Li thieves and turned around and headed south. Then the Central Plains of Qi and Lu were still thin paper, and they were broken by the Eight Banners soldiers of the Tartars?

Those soldiers and horses sent to the Central Plains and Qilu were defeated by the Tartars, so what is the benefit of the world?

Moreover, all the limited troops were sent to Qilu and Central Plains. What if Zuo Liangyu from Huguang took the opportunity to go east?

Shi Kefa had long been in confronting Emperor Chongzhen about this matter, and the emperor obviously agreed with his ideas.

And when such an idea goes further, isn’t it the ‘union of enemies and slaughtering the enemy’?

That's why he now feels so emotional: "Half Annan is sincere, but he is a bit biased."

"Father, there are a lot of shouts and kills against Annan Hou in Jinling City, and countless impeachments will fly to Da Nei. Since you are moved by Annan Hou's loyalty and unwilling to be in mingle with Jiading Hou, why not just call it sick and close the door now?" said Shi Dewei, adopted son.

"It's called illness and closed the door?" Shi Kefa twisted his beard and pondered. "This is a way."

He thought Zheng Zhilong was very loyal, and the current climate was so great. But at this time he really couldn't say a fair word to Zheng Zhilong.

Because that will offend too many people.

In the future, he will still have to do things. Not only will he feel uncomfortable being constrained by others, but he will delay major issues. "Oh, let's do it..."

"Longjiang (Sdewei), you and Xiu Na wrote a memorial and handed it on me tomorrow."
Chapter completed!