Li Qin looked at the intelligence sent by the Shaanxi Imperial Guard in his hand.
He truly hadn't expected that the Northwest would undergo such a dramatic change in such a short time.
The Yang family, deeply entrenched in the Northwest, was actually wiped out by Hong Chengchou, the Governor-General of Shaanxi.
Moreover, he killed Xia Feihu, the governor of Guyuan Town, and incorporated the army of Guyuan Town into his own forces.
Hong Chengchou has now become a powerful figure in Northwest China.
Li Qin was extremely excited and happy when he received the message.
For him, this was undoubtedly good news.
He had long planned to attack Yang Zhiyong in Shanxi, but he was always worried that the Yang family would use their influence to incite troops in the Northwest to support him.
However, as Hong Chengchou wiped out the Yang family and took control of Shaanxi, he became mortal enemies with Yang Zhiyong of Taiyuan.
In other words, Yang Zhiyong in Taiyuan will completely lose support from the Northwest.
They even had to guard against attacks from Hong Chengchou in Shaanxi.
It's like he's now surrounded by enemies in all four directions: east, west, north, and south.
Moreover, the Nanjing court, which he acknowledged, was also unable to come to his rescue.
He's completely finished.
Moreover, he believed that as news of the Yang family's destruction by Hong Chengchou spread, the already wavering officials in various parts of Shanxi would completely side with him.
Moreover, as word spread about his generous terms for surrendering, he could already see scenes of people surrendering without a fight all over Shanxi.
Li Qin put away the intelligence report, but couldn't help but admire Hong Chengchou, who was indeed hailed as the most capable governor.
Looking at the location of Shaanxi on the map, Li Qin predicted that Hong Chengchou's letter of submission would arrive soon.
After all, with his elimination of the Yang family, he had become mortal enemies with Yang Zhiyong of Shanxi, and the Nanjing court could no longer recognize him.
He was then left with only two choices: submit to the court he controlled, or support a prince in Shaanxi to establish a separate court.
Establishing a separate court is impossible; that would be tantamount to openly declaring war on both the court itself and the court in Jinling.
Moreover, it's still uncertain whether the governors and generals who are observing the situation will approve.
This is extremely irrational.
Hong Chengchou wouldn't do something so foolish.
So, the best thing left for him is to submit to himself.
He would submit to him and join him in eliminating Yang Zhiyong, who had become his mortal enemy.
Moreover, by submitting to me, he can consolidate his position in the Northwest with the help of his military might, which would be of the greatest benefit to him.
Li Qin then took out a blank imperial edict and began to consider what official position to appoint him to.
Finally, Li Qin wrote on the blank imperial edict: "Conferring upon Hong Chengchou the title of Marquis of Shanshun, a hereditary title, appointing him to a temporary position in the cabinet, and granting him the position of Governor-General of Shaanxi and Guyuan Garrison..."
After writing the imperial edict, Li Qin casually picked up the emperor's seal from his desk and stamped it on.
If Hong Chengchou were to submit a memorial of submission to him, he would then take this written edict out and go through the process again at the imperial court.
That was a legitimate imperial edict from the court.
At the same time, he remembered that the other three towns in Shaanxi had also written an imperial edict for each of the three of them.
He told them to submit petitions to him, promising to act as their backer and protect them from being swallowed up by Hong Chengchou.
After putting down the imperial edict, Li Qin began to examine other intelligence on the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
The Jinyiwei intelligence network in Jiangnan has also resumed operation.
Although many of the Imperial Guards defected to the Nanjing court, the remaining ones still managed to gather a considerable amount of intelligence for him.
Li Qin reviewed intelligence from Jiangnan. According to the intelligence, Hu Zongxian of Zhejiang had pledged allegiance to the Nanjing court.
He personally went to the Huai River region to provide disaster relief and selected the strongest and most capable people among the disaster victims to serve in the army.
A Huai Army was formed in Huaihe River Basin.
Meanwhile, in Jiangnan, Zhu Jianshen also selected generals and recruited soldiers to rebuild a 100,000-strong Jingying garrison.
It can be said that both the south and north of the Yangtze River are preparing for war.
Most importantly, according to their intelligence reports, a powerful navy has arrived on the Yangtze River.
I've heard that this powerful navy came from Fujian.
Together with the navy in Jiangnan, they have completely controlled the entire Yangtze River.
Li Qin frowned after seeing this intelligence.
Just as I suspected, the imperial court in Jinling is constantly training soldiers and strengthening its forces.
I had anticipated this.
However, the intelligence report about the navy coming from Fujian was quite unexpected for Li Qin.
According to intelligence, this navy is far more powerful than the navy in Jiangnan.
The river surface in Jiangnan was completely blocked.
This is what Li Qin noticed most.
Because his iron cavalry, though powerful, was unstoppable on the plains.
However, his main force of soldiers were mostly from Liaodong. They were not adapted to the climate of Jiangnan, and they were not as good at swimming or boating as the people of Jiangnan.
Most importantly, the dense network of rivers and lakes in the Jiangnan region greatly limited the effectiveness of his cavalry.
He needed to rely on the navy to cross the Huai River, and especially the Yangtze River.
However, he currently only has a weak Shandong navy, which could easily defeat the equally weak Jiangnan navy.
However, with the addition of the powerful navy of Fujian, victory would be extremely difficult.
Without the support of a navy, how am I supposed to cross the Yangtze River, facing the powerful navy of Jiangnan?
I must train a powerful navy.
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