Xuanfu is the abbreviation of Xuanhuafu, the first prefecture in western Beijing.

Since the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Yanjing during the Yongle period, Xuanhua Prefecture has become one of the nine important towns. The town's general military headquarters was located in Xuanhua Prefecture. From then on, Xuanhua Prefecture was renamed Xuanfu Town or Xuanzhen.

Later, the organizational system of Xuanhua Prefecture and County was abolished, and Xuanhua City was transformed into the seat of Xuanfu Left Guard, Xuanfu Right Guard, and Xuanfu Forward Guard, and became a complete military town.

Therefore, Xuanfu City is Xuanfu Town City, and it is also Xuanhua Fucheng. In fact, it is Xuanhua City. These titles are just different in name, but they actually refer to the same city.

At noon on November 20, the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Yang Zhen and his party of more than 800 people, with their carriages and horses, arrived at the gate of Xuanfu City.

On the first day, Tao Zongyi, the garrison stationed in Huailai, had already sent someone to report the news of Yang Zhen's arrival to the main town hall in Xuanfu City.

All the good news and good news confirmed by him were also delivered to Yang Guozhu.

Therefore, by the time Yang Zhen led his troops to the Changping Gate of the south gate of Xuanfu City, the entire Nanmenguan City was already buzzing with gongs and drums, and flags were waving.

Yang Guozhu, the tall commander-in-chief of Xuanfu Town, wore a helmet and armor. He personally led a large number of generals and officials in the town to greet Yang Zhen and his party happily outside Nanmenguan City.

Seeing that his nephew, who was only a few years old at a young age, could achieve such an achievement, Yang Guozhu, who was over fifty years old, felt very gratified and happy.

At the same time, after Yang Zhen became the commander-in-chief of Songshan, he sent several letters to him, which also allowed him to have a better understanding of his eldest nephew.

Not only did it make him look at his eldest nephew with admiration, but it also gave him a sudden understanding of his status and situation and what he could do.

In the original history, Yang Guozhu was a very loyal minister, and he had no idea of ​​self-respect in supporting troops or threatening the invaders.

Judging from his life trajectory, especially his honest and conscientious way of doing whatever he was asked to do, and the fact that he would rather die than surrender when he was trapped in a tight siege, he was completely devoted to the Ming Dynasty and Emperor Chongzhen.

However, this kind of foolish loyalty could not save not only the Ming Dynasty, but also himself. In the end, it would only end in defeat and suicide.

If he is an ordinary citizen who is desperate and loyal and loyal, and dies, then that's it.

But after all, he is not an ordinary citizen. He is the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu Town, one of the nine important towns in the Ming Dynasty. In such a position, you should bear responsibilities that are different from ordinary people.

For such a person, if you are asked to guard a place but you cannot defend it, and if you are asked to attack the enemy but you cannot win, that is a dereliction of duty and an incompetence.

If you are unable to do anything when the situation comes, and you die, it can only show that you are polite and honest, and your moral character is relatively noble, but it does not mean that you have not neglected your duty, and it does not mean that you are qualified for your job.

In the last years of Chongzhen, there were many such figures among the civil servants and generals of the Ming Dynasty. They only waited for Emperor Chongzhen to give orders in everything and never took the initiative to take action.

Emperor Chongzhen was far away in the capital, deep in the palace. What could he know? Everything would be done only after he said it. If he didn't say it, it wouldn't be done. He would just treat it as if nothing happened. It would be no wonder that the overall situation in the world is not bad.

When Li Zicheng's army surrounded the capital, and when the Manchu Qing Dynasty marched southward to wreak havoc, these people were helpless and could only die to repay the king. Is this called loyalty? Is this called loyalty to duty? Is such foolish loyalty meaningful?

Although Yang Zhen did not explicitly say this in his letter to his uncle Yang Guozhu, he boldly conveyed this meaning to him.

And Yang Zhen's meaning was indeed understood by Yang Guozhu.

Especially when Yang Zhen led his troops to the west, robbed the Shanyou caravan from Zhangjiakou, kidnapped many proprietors of the Shanyou Chamber of Commerce, and then extorted ransom from the Zhangjiakou Chamber of Commerce, Yang Guozhu was dumbfounded.

, and it opened Yang Guozhu's eyes.

After the incident happened, news spread back to Xuanfu City. Yang Guozhu lamented Yang Zhen's audacity, and at the same time, under the persuasion of his heir Yang Jie and his generals, he began to take up the idea of ​​those wealthy businessmen.

Just as it happened, Yang Zhen sent someone to send another letter, urging him to make early plans to recruit people for settlement in the Xuanfu area, and not to worry about not having enough money and food to feed the soldiers. If you have the money and food for the soldiers, they will come naturally.

In this way, Yang Guozhu began to recruit soldiers among the refugees from the west in August and September, and then found ownerless wasteland for his family to colonize.

Moreover, while he was recruiting people for farming in Xuan Mansion and recruiting a large number of brave men as soldiers from the refugees who had divided wasteland, he also began to ask Yang Jie, who led the army to move to Zhangjiakou, to repeatedly raise money and food from the chamber of commerce in the mouth.

The so-called fundraising is to ask for money from the eight leaders of the Shanyou Chamber of Commerce in Zhangjiakou.

It didn't matter how much money was needed for this initiative to raise funds, and the harvest far exceeded Yang Guozhu's imagination.

As the commander-in-chief of Xuanzhen, Yang Guozhu certainly knew that the Shanyou merchants in Xuanfu and Zhangjiakou were rich, but he never thought that they were so rich.

Just a few months ago, in order to resettle the refugees coming from Shanxi and Datong on the spot, Yang Guozhu and Liu Yongzuo, the governor of Xuanfu, wrote to Emperor Chongzhen, requesting the imperial court to allocate a sum of money to purchase grain and provide relief.

In addition to the joint letter, the two of them also showed their magical powers, wrote many personal letters, and asked officials in the court for advice. However, the Ministry of Revenue only said that they had no money.

In order to prevent these refugees from continuing to flow into the capital and prevent the refugees from disturbing the Kinki area, Emperor Chongzhen finally agreed to allocate a sum of money from internal funds.

However, when this internal money arrived at Xuanfu and fell into the hands of General Yang Guozhu and Governor Liu Yongzuo, they only had a mere three thousand taels, which made them want to cry without tears.

However, when he was touched and inspired by his nephew Yang Zhen and made up his mind to ask those wealthy businessmen to donate money to help pay, he suddenly discovered that the little money allocated to him by Emperor Chongzhen was of no use to these wealthy businessmen.

It's not a thing.

This month, five thousand taels, next month, ten thousand taels, it's easy and no problem at all.

Moreover, the wealthy businessmen whose donations were collected were all honest and did not go around suing them for being cruel to the business people.

Of course, in order to prevent some people from going to the capital to complain, Yang Guozhu, on the advice of his generals, sent his confidant Tao Zongyi to lead his troops to Huailai, the last part of the Xuan Mansion, to specifically check the business travelers entering the customs from Zhangjiakou of the Xuan Dynasty.

Scholars and people.

In this way, after half a year, Yang Guozhu's generals recruited soldiers and donations at the same time. Through a two-pronged approach, they recruited 8,000 new brave men. Unexpectedly, they had continuous food and pay, and their military morale remained intact, so they managed to survive.

The Xuanzhen soldiers and horses under Yang Guozhu, also known as the Xuanfu Army, have also grown from more than 20,000 people on paper to more than 20,000 people in real life, and the ground in Xuanfu has gradually stabilized.

Faced with this situation, even Liu Yongzuo, the governor of the Xuanfu who always loved the people and was as honest as water, was very satisfied and happy.

Of course, among all the officials in the Xuanfu, the one who was most satisfied and happy was Yang Guozhu himself.

So this time, when Yang Guozhu heard that his eldest nephew Yang Zhengong was coming to Xuan Mansion to visit relatives after being granted the title of Jin Haibo, he personally organized the town officials and people to come out of the city to welcome him, and the scene was very grand.

"My uncle, please accept my nephew's courtesy! I have to go out to the city to meet you, but my nephew really can't afford it!"

Yang Zhen got off his horse and saw a burly general wearing a helmet and armor from a distance. He was surrounded by officials who came to greet him from Xuanfu City. He looked at him with a smile on his face and immediately knelt down on one knee.

A salute was made.

It turns out that Yang Zhen spent most of his time with Yang Guozhu before going to Liaodong, so he was naturally no stranger to Yang Guozhu and the people around him.

But the current Yang Zhen is no longer the same one, and he is not sure which one of the people in front is Yang Guozhu himself.

However, when he was still on the horse, he heard Zhang Chen whispering behind him, "The commander-in-chief has come to greet him personally." At that time, he knew in his heart that Yang Guozhu must be among the officials in front of him, so he was separated by more than ten steps.

At such a distance, he took the initiative to salute the visitor.

After Yang Zhen saluted like this, he saw the tall general in a helmet and armor among a group of officers and generals walking towards him, laughing and saying:

"Zhen'er, you don't need to be polite, you don't need to be polite! As for you, Zhen'er, you are now Jin Haibo, the emperor's conferred uncle, a hereditary uncle. How can you salute us? Get up quickly!"

When Yang Zhen heard what the general said, he immediately knew that this person was Yang Guozhu. Just as he was about to say something else, he was grabbed by Yang Guozhu who strode forward and pulled him up from the ground:

"Young uncles and nephews, please don't be polite. We'll go to the city to talk later. You first need to meet the elders who came to greet you!"

Yang Guozhu was indeed the most powerful general in the world, with amazing arm strength. He grabbed Yang Zhen's forearm with one hand and moved forward, like an iron pliers, unable to allow Yang Zhen to break free.

Yang Zhen had no choice but to smile and follow him quickly, and in a blink of an eye he was in front of a civil servant of medium build, about forty or fifty years old.

This civil servant wore an old black gauze official hat and a somewhat wrinkled red official uniform. He had a mustache and a goatee on his thin face and a grimace.

"Come, come, come, Zhen'er, this is our Lord Liu Yongzuo, the governor of Xuanfu. Although Zhen'er today is different from the past, he must not forget his roots. In front of his uncle, he must still perform the courtesy of a junior!"

When Yang Guozhu said this, Yang Zhen quickly stepped forward, bowed and clasped his fists towards the civil governor Liu Yongzuo, and called him "Uncle Shi".

"Oh, I can't do it, I can't do it. My nephew is no longer what he used to be. He is the Emperor's imperial conferment, Jin Haibo. He has a high official rank. How can he salute me? I want to be greeted by him!"

When Liu Yongzuo, the governor of Xuanfu, saw Yang Zhen bowing to him, he took two steps back and bowed to Yang Zhen in the same way.

When Yang Zhen saw it, he thought to himself that this Liu Yongzuo was an easy person to get along with, so things would be easier to handle.

Seeing the two of them like this, Yang Guozhu laughed loudly, took Yang Zhen's arm, and met the generals who came to greet them one by one.

Most of those people were very familiar with Yang Zhen. When they met Yang Zhen, they all grinned and wanted to come up and pat their shoulders and beat their chests, which made Yang Zhen feel very friendly but also a little embarrassed.

What's cordial is that these people were all his comrades-in-arms, and they were all survivors who followed Lu Xiangsheng to fight against the Manchu Tatar army in Julu and fell into a tight siege, but finally broke out.

The embarrassing thing is that these people are very familiar with him, but after all, he is not the original Yang Zhen. Faced with the warm greetings of these people, he is a little unprepared and at a loss.

Fortunately, Yang Zhen is indeed different today. When he left, he was only a deputy general, but now he is the imperial conferment of Jin Haibo, the imperial conferment of General Zhengdong, and the Zuo Commander-in-Chief of the Zuo Army.

Even for other people, with such status, it is not so unusual to meet their old colleagues and have some familiarity.

All in all, the grand welcome ceremony outside Changping Gate, the south gate of Xuanfu City, soon ended with Yang Zhen leading his troops into the city.

The group of people arrived outside the General Military Mansion in Xuan Town. Yang Guozhu saw off Governor Liu Yongzuo and other civil and military officials, and asked people to arrange for Zu Keyong and other people entering the city to rest in the camp that had been prepared.
Chapter completed!