Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 364 Sun Kewang Surrenders

Li Chengdong personally led his troops and rushed towards Nanning with great momentum. Sun Kewang's army was already in disarray and morale was low. Li Chengdong took advantage of the opportunity and marched straight to Nanning.

Throughout the ages, many heroes have been able to continue to work hard and unyieldingly no matter how many setbacks they suffered in the early stages. However, once they were about to reach the peak, just one failure might cause them to never recover or even die of grief.

Just like Yuan Shao and Liu Bei in the late Han Dynasty, one in Guandu and the other in Yiling, both were close to the peak of their power, but suffered setbacks, never recovered and even died of illness.

In Nanning city.

Sun Kewang was suddenly defeated, and his confidants Zheng Guo and Wang Aixiu were still in Kunming City. Now, only Yang Wu, Wang Shangli, and Wang Yulong, the defender of Nanning, were by Sun Kewang's side.

Regarding Li Chengdong's march into Nanning, the three had different opinions. Yang Wu and Wang Shangli both said that Nanning could no longer be defended. Only Wang Yulong advised Sun Kewang to hold on to Nanning, and apologized to the court, asking the court to order Li Chengdong to withdraw from Guangxi.

Wang Yulong said earnestly: "Your Highness has made great contributions in protecting the court. Moreover, Your Highness and the King of Jin are brothers. If you ask the King of Jin, the King of Shu, and the King of Dingbei to jointly apologize to the emperor, I believe the court will not kill them all."

But Sun Kewang hated Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi deeply, and was unwilling to humble himself and apologize to Yongli.

However, a royal edict sent from Kunming later directly ruined Wang Yulong's plan. Several paragraphs in the imperial edict even severely criticized Sun Kewang.

"…The ministers who are disobedient and treacherous are in power, and the evil atmosphere is everywhere. At first, they pretended to be loyal and good, deceiving the emperor, but later, they gradually revealed their wolfish hearts and rebellious ways. They are wanton and tyrannical, arbitrarily changing the ancestral system, setting up government offices privately, arrogant and self-important, looking down on the ancestral temple, and coveting the imperial delicacy. They are indeed unforgivable evildoers.

I am determined to restore order and purge the rebels. From today on, I will announce to the world that Sun Kewang's title of King of Qin will be stripped. Those who have strayed and returned to the right path will be pardoned, and those who are stubborn and continue to join the rebellion will be punished together."

The emperor issued an edict accusing Sun Kewang of being a traitor, and now even Wang Yulong did not dare to imagine that the court would pardon Sun Kewang, let alone defend Nanning, and he dared not even think about it.

Sun Kewang had completely lost everything. He was alone in the house and had not eaten or drunk anything for three days. His personal guards were extremely anxious. When they were about to break into the house by force, Sun Kewang's eyes turned red. Every time he thought of his former dignity and looked at himself now, he could not help but feel heartbroken.

Sun Kewang looked up to the sky and sighed for a long time without saying anything. After a long while, he finally sighed and said, "It's God's will!"

As the leader of the four kings in the past, Sun Kewang inevitably wanted to restore Zhang Xianzhong's great cause, but now Sun Kewang has no way out.

There were only two options before Sun Kewang: die in battle or surrender.

Sun Kewang felt aggrieved after dying at the hands of Li Chengdong, let alone surrendering to Li Chengdong. Given the current situation in the world, the only ones who could make him surrender were the Qing court and Meng Zhou, who controlled Jiangnan.

After lingering in Nanning for more than ten days, Sun Kewang led the remaining troops to retreat to Liuzhou before Li Chengdong marched into Nanning, but the Liuzhou garrison refused to open the city. Sun Kewang then turned eastward along Pingle, Jiangyong, Jiahe, Chenzhou, Rucheng and other places and entered Ganzhou, where he formally surrendered to Meng Zhou.

Li Chengdong easily captured Nanning Prefecture, and then led his troops north to besiege Liuzhou. The Liuzhou garrison commander repeatedly stated that he was an officer of the imperial court and not the remnants of Sun Kewang, but Li Chengdong turned a deaf ear to him. Seeing that the Liuzhou garrison commander refused to surrender, Li Chengdong immediately led his army to attack from all sides, trying to seize Liuzhou before the order of the Yongli court arrived.

Sun Kewang's surrender made the situation in the south even more complicated. What choice would the Yongli court, which had broken away from Sun Kewang's control, make in the face of a situation that was completely different from history?

…………

In Jinling City.

Meng Jun was meeting with Lu Zhenfei when he heard Lu Zhenfei say to Meng Jun, "Your Majesty, when we recaptured Nanjing, the Tartars tried to burn down the imperial palace, and several palaces were destroyed. At the time, the treasury was not rich and we were unable to repair them. Now that there is no foreign war, we should allocate manpower to repair the palaces!"

Meng Jun had no intention of repairing the imperial palace. He had no money to spare for this. He immediately said to Lu Zhenfei, "Money and food should be used where it matters most. Although a few palaces were burned down, it's generally not a big deal. It won't be too late to repair them when peace is restored in the future."

Lu Zhenfei advised: "Your Majesty, I have made a brief calculation. Only one palace needs large materials, and the rest can be repaired with small materials. Besides, the money cannot be taken out all at once, so we can recruit a small number of civilians to repair it slowly."

Meng Jun thought about it and felt that what Lu Zhenfei said made some sense. After all, most of the buildings were still good. Only a few palaces were burned. They couldn't just stay there forever. Then he said to Lu Zhenfei, "Then let's repair it."

Anyway, Meng Jun can see things clearly now and no longer cares about the Yongli court. Now that the imperial palace has been repaired, even if Zhu Youlang has ten times the courage, he would not dare to live there.

Half a month had passed when Jinling City received the report from Han Xiong of Ganzhou. At this time, most of the civil and military officers in Jinling City were smiling. It was because the king had been busy with wars in the past two years, and except for an eldest daughter, he had no other children. Now, he had only been in Jinling City for less than half a year, and the queen Zhang Shu, concubine Shen Mingyue, concubine Li Yu'e, and He Xiangping were all pregnant.

The four daughters became pregnant, and all the generals believed that there must be a son among them, so there would be someone to carry on the dynasty’s power, and a major shortcoming in Meng Zhou’s power was completely filled.

Qian Biao was extremely proud and told everyone that the king became so powerful because he had taken the Qian family's secret recipe. People loved to hear this kind of gossip. Many people looked for ways to get the Qian family's secret recipe. The news spread like wildfire, which made Meng Jun very angry.

Qian Biao was summoned immediately and given a severe scolding. Qian Biao came to the palace in high spirits but left the palace dejectedly. As a result, he ran into Bai Yongfu who was about to enter the palace.

Bai Yongfu sneered and said, "You must have been scolded by the king. I knew you deserved it for your broken mouth!"

Qian Biao refused to admit it and said stubbornly: "The king summoned me here to reward me, you know nothing!"

Upon hearing this, Bai Yongfu snorted and said, "A dead duck is still stubborn." Then he ignored Qian Biao and went into the mansion on his own.

Qian Biao sighed, shook his head, turned and left the house.