When Zhang Shicheng's generals Zhang Tianqi and Tao Zibao learned the news of Huang Bao's capture, they were cowardly and retreated into the city to wait for reinforcements without a fight.

Li Bosheng, Lu Zhen, Zhu Xian and others heard that Huzhou was besieged, and immediately led their troops to support.

Xu Da discussed with Chang Yuchun, one was responsible for besieging the city, and the other was specifically for intercepting reinforcements.

Chang Yuchun was anxious, and he didn't want to do this boring siege, so he led 100,000 Western Wu troops to defend the key pass near the sister-in-law bridge.

At this time, most of the Eastern Wu army was guarding Pingjiang, and Lü Zhen and others only brought 60,000 horses to support. Seeing the dense Western Wu army all over the mountains, Lu Zhen's heart was half cold, he didn't dare to come forward to fight, and he was embarrassed to retreat, so he had to set up five stockades in the east of the city to hold on to Chang Yuchun.

Chang Yuchun did not send troops to attack Lu Zhen and the others immediately, but looked elsewhere. It's not that he has a kind heart and doesn't want to bully more and less, but he thinks it's too cheap Zhang Shicheng's subordinates. This kind of war without suspense is really boring, and he decided to torture the Eastern Wu army in different ways.

Hearing that the grain transport army of the Eastern Wu Army was coming, he immediately sent troops to attack.

The officer in charge of escorting the grain was Zhang Shicheng's son-in-law, Pan Yuanshao. This Pan Yuanshao is a little white face, he likes to be vassal, he doesn't know anything about war, every time he marches and fights, he brings a large number of maids and concubines, and he comes to play and sing everything, but he doesn't take military affairs to heart. However, for the sake of Zhang Shicheng's son-in-law, every time he lost a battle, Zhang Shicheng didn't bother to ask, and soon after, he still let him lead the troops to fight.

When such a person is a general, it is self-evident what kind of state his subordinates are.

When Chang Yuchun's leader suddenly appeared in front of the grain army, the whole team was like a frightened bird, and the Western Wu army was immediately defeated, leaving the grain cart and fleeing in all directions.

Chang Yuchun almost effortlessly robbed the enemy's food, and captured Pan Yuanshao and his brother Pan Yuanmingsheng alive. He learned that Pan Yuanshao was Zhang Shicheng's important confidant, and immediately decided to use Pan Yuanshao as bait to lure Zhang Shicheng to send troops to rescue.

Sure enough, Zhang Shicheng's subordinate Xu Zhijian led sailors to attack the sister-in-law bridge, but unfortunately he was captured alive by Chang Yuchun, who was waiting for the rabbit.

The fifth prince is Zhang Shicheng's adopted son, he has a very close relationship with Pan Yuanshao, and is a wine and meat brother who eats, drinks, prostitutes, and gambles together.

Chang Yuchun looked at these enemy generals who threw themselves into the net, and casually played a tactic of attacking the west, sending troops here to fight with the soldiers of the fifth prince was inseparable, but over there let Xue Xian sneak attack the fleet of the fifth prince, set fire to the wind, and burned the fifth prince's warship to a mess.

How can you fight without a boat, the fifth prince fled back with a limp, and discussed countermeasures with Lu Zhen, Zhu Xian and others.

Several people looked at each other, seeing that the Eastern Wu army was defeated like a mountain, there was no one to ask for people, there was no food, and tens of thousands of soldiers were simply vulnerable in front of the army of Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, so they simply totaled and surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Lü Zhen, Zhu Xian, and the fifth prince and other brave generals who originally belonged to Zhang Shicheng immediately wrote a joint letter to Chang Yuchun, saying that they were willing to bring 60,000 elite soldiers under their command to surrender to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Chang Yuchun was very disappointed, these people couldn't stand the beating, he hadn't played enough, why did they drop? How he wished they could continue to resist, and he would be able to kill a few more people. But 60,000 troops is not a small number, plus Ma Xiuying's admonition and Zhu Yuanzhang's beating before the expedition, he didn't dare to have any other ideas, so he had to report to Xu Da honestly.

Xu Da was very happy, Lu Zhen was the first fierce general under Zhang Shicheng, and now that Zhu Yuanzhang has been demoted, how can Zhang Shicheng persevere. He took Lu Zhen and the others to the city of Huzhou, and shouted loudly: "Zhang Shicheng is gone, why don't you go out of the city and surrender quickly?" You are limited to open the city gate within three days, otherwise our army will attack it, and Huzhou will be bloodied! ”

Lu Zhen and others also beckoned Li Bosheng, Zhang Tianqi and other Huzhou guards to surrender, "Brother Bosheng, the grain has been intercepted by General Chang, if you don't surrender, you will just sit and wait for death." ”

Huzhou was besieged, there was no food and grass, and the people and guards were so hungry that their faces were yellow and thin. Li Bosheng and Zhang Tianqi waited for Zhang Shicheng's reinforcements to send food with a fluke mentality, but the reinforcements they had finally hoped for actually joined the enemy's camp, and this blow made the two bloodless and crumbling. As Lu Zhen said, even if Xu Da doesn't take the initiative to attack, he will only starve to death in the city if he sticks to it. The two of them were speechless and helpless, so they had to hand over the surrender letter and welcome Xu Da into the city.

Seeing the dense banners and the mighty Western Wu army, some soldiers who pretended to surrender suddenly gave up their thoughts of Qin and Duchu, and honestly bowed their heads to the vassals.

Zhu Yuanzhang was overjoyed, and repeatedly issued articles commending Xu Da and Chang Yuchun for their contributions.

The battle ahead was a great victory, and good news came from the house one after another, Zhu Biao did not get sick again, Ma Xiuying's health improved, and at the same time, six or seven concubines were pregnant, most of which were several new concubines who had just entered the mansion.

What's even more amazing is that Sun, who was asserted by Mrs. Wu that she couldn't have children, was actually pregnant. She was originally injured by a special potion, and she has insisted on drinking medicine for all these years, and she really slowly cleaned up the toxins in her body, which has to be said to be a miracle. She is very smart and attributes all this to Zhu Yuanzhang, saying that it was Zhu Yuanzhang who brought her a good life and made her a complete woman.

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed, he is now proud of the spring breeze, and everything is going well.

Within two days, there was also good news from Hangzhou, not long after Huzhou was conquered, Li Wenzhong and the general Zhu Liangzu and others won more with less, and killed the Eastern Wu army to lose their armor and flee when they heard the wind, and Hangzhou and Jiaxing fell.

At this point, Zhang Shicheng's left and right arms were lost, Pingjiang was reduced to a lonely city, and the Soochow Building was about to fall.

Faced with the situation of being surrounded on three sides in the south, northwest and northwest, Zhang Shicheng still fought the trapped beasts, transferred troops to the city, and strictly guarded it. He said to his subjects: "Lonely in the throne, never sorry for the people of the world, the people of Li, but the sun does not shine, now the Zhu thief is attacking, Lone is unwilling to surrender to him, and would rather swear to defend the city." Are you willing to fight alone? ”

The soldiers and the people below shouted, "Defend the city to the death!" Fight to the death! ”

Although Zhang Shicheng is not ambitious and short-sighted, he is very aware of the hardships of the lives of the lower classes, so he treats people amiably and has always advocated that the army should not disturb the people. Especially in the early period of his reign, he made great efforts to eliminate the maladministration of the Yuan Dynasty and abolish the harsh taxes imposed on the peasants and salt people by the Yuan Dynasty.

Generally speaking, the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions ruled by Zhang Shicheng can be described as politically harmonious and prosperous, and the common people can recuperate and live and work in peace and contentment.

Therefore, although he became corrupt and degenerate in the later period of his reign, although the generals of Eastern Wu only cared about living a corrupt life and had no intention of fighting, and although Pingjiang had been reduced to an isolated city, the people of Pingjiang were still willing to follow Zhang Shicheng to defend the city against the enemy. After all, they are accustomed to Zhang Shicheng's rule, what if there is another dark ruling class similar to the Yuan Court.

Under such conditions of military and civilian unity, Pingjiang, known as "the strongest city in the world", held out for several more months.