Jiang Chao smiled when he heard this: "Old man, don't be afraid, we are just going to fight the Qing army, and we are afraid that they will not come." Jiang Chao suddenly remembered what the old woman said about boiling hot water just now.

Then he said: "Old man, how many people are there in this Qianjiang now?" Hearing Jiang Chao ask, the people around him instantly became alert. I thought that Jiang Chao was going to be like the Qing army, ready to arrest people. After all, in this era, it is very common to arrest people everywhere. Seeing this, Jiang Chao said: "You don't have to be afraid, I want you to do a favor." ”

The old man hesitated for a moment and said, "What does the military master want us to help with?" Now there are only us women in Qianjiang, and we have no strength and can't walk. ”

Jiang Chao said: "That's the case, our army is in a hurry, so we don't have time to cook, and we want to ask the people to help us cook." As soon as Jiang Chao finished speaking, he saw that many people left in a hurry. Jiang Chao knew that these people had misunderstood, and thought that Jiang Chao was trying to rob them of their food. Seeing this, Jiang Chao was about to explain to everyone.

Even the old man just now said: "The military master is disappointed, where did we help with this, our food has been robbed by the Qing soldiers, and there is no food." ”

Jiang Chao hurriedly said: "The old man misunderstood, we don't want everyone's food, we bring the food ourselves." We don't need everyone's food, we just ask you to help with the cooking, and when our soldiers arrive here, and when they are ready to leave, they will have hot food to eat. ”

Jiang Chao saw that everyone still didn't believe it, so he said: "As long as everyone helps cook, we will also provide everyone's meals during this period." Then the old lady shook her head and said, "That's not good, now we are just women, and the generals are all men, so I can go and cook for you." ”

Jiang Chao smiled: "It's nothing, you can do it at home." After cooking, when our army arrives, just leave the food at the door, and we will let people pick it up. Jiang Chao saw that everyone was still hesitating, so he said: "Don't worry, none of our soldiers will enter your house." ”

Seeing Jiang Chao's assurances several times, the old woman said: "Okay, I'll go find some people, and I don't need to cook at home, let's cook for you outside." ”

Jiang Chao was overjoyed and said, "Then thank you to the old man, I'll go and let the soldiers prepare food." Then I went to find some firewood. ”

After Jiang Chao left, the others immediately complained about the old lady and said, "Aunt Mei, why did you agree?" If they have any bad intentions, we are just women, how to deal with it. ”

Aunt Mei said: "It's okay, I didn't lie when I looked at this general, and now that the Ming army has been in the city for so long, I haven't seen anything robbed." Besides, if they really want to have any bad intentions, we can't stop it now. It's better to help them with the work, and maybe you can get through it. ”

Hearing Aunt Mei say this, the others also shut up. At this time, the bolt mother said: "But who will help them cook?" Aunt Mei said: "Find some older women, so it is not easy to have problems." By the way, hide all the men in your family, but don't let them find out, otherwise you will be captured, and you may not be able to come back. ”

The others also said, "Yes, you can't let them find out, and you have to hide the food." "Since ancient times, the grain of the Han people has been the most tightly hidden. Although the Qing army has already searched it. However, the Qing army would not search so carefully in a hurry, and the people still hid a lot of grain. But this is all life-saving food for the people's families, and no one will take it out easily.

The bolt mother also said to the bolt: "Yes, you also go to find a place to hide, don't let the army find you." Before the bolt could answer, Aunt Mei said: "The bolt can't hide, he must also cook together." ”

The bolt mother hugged the bolt and said: "Why can't the bolt be hidden, if those troops take him away, how can I live." Aunt Mei said: "He has already shown up, but suddenly he disappeared again, how do you say?" Besides, if they want to arrest someone, they won't be bad for this child. You let him hide now, so that the people in the army will be suspicious. ”

The others didn't want to get into trouble, so they didn't allow the bolt to hide it. Aunt Mei said: "Okay, let's find some people, we also have to go and see what is going on." ”

Jiang Chao didn't know what these women discussed after he left. After Jiang Chao came back, he saw that many soldiers had already soaked their feet and began to rest. After some inspection, just as he was about to rest, someone came to report that the army behind had arrived.

Jiang Chao hurriedly greeted him, and sure enough, Zhu Youdong came with a large army. Jiang Chao went up and said the things in the city, Zhu Youdong said: "You are right to do this, we can't patronize ourselves, if we can make the army behind move fast, it will also support us." ”

After Zhu Youdong entered the city, he saw that many soldiers had slept in the city, so he said: "Tell the soldiers behind that no one is allowed to break into the people's homes without authorization, and violators will be dealt with according to military law." ”

Jiang Chao said: "Your Highness, rest assured, I have already explained these things." At this time, there was a commotion, and a group of women came to the city, and Zhu Youdong heard what Jiang Chao said just now, so he asked them to take them to the open space to cook.

When it was dawn, Jiang Chao took the lead in leaving with the soldiers. Before leaving, as soon as the soldiers got up, they found a steaming meal, and sure enough, the soldiers were very happy. Seeing this, when Zhu Youdong left, he asked the soldiers to leave two meals of food, and asked these people to prepare meals in advance for the soldiers behind.

In order to facilitate the march of the army, Zhu Youdong also made the march of the army easy to manage. Zhu Youdong asked the army to be divided into thousands of households, which means that there were only about 1,000 people who arrived at one time. The one who came later was led by Zhou Dazhu, and after Zhu Youdong explained, he led the army to dive along and went to Weiyang Prefecture.

And Jiang Chao had already taken 3,000 people to the direction of Jianli to look for ships for the army to cross the river. Zhu Youdong has become the vanguard of the army with the army, and he wants to open the way for the army.

The people encountered along the way became more and more sparse, and this place was far away from the battlefield of the original Ming Army, so the Qing army here relocated the people more thoroughly. Seeing this situation, in order to catch up with the Qing army as soon as possible, Zhu Youdong directly let the army advance quickly, and let the army behind also speed up.

When the army passed through Weiyang Prefecture, it only rested for an hour, and then Zhu Youdong urged the army to start setting off and rushing to the area of Huangpeng Mountain. Due to this dense water network, the march speed of the army was very slow, and Zhu Youdong was very anxious, but there was nothing he could do.

I hurried all the way, and finally arrived at Huangpeng Mountain at noon on April 29. Listening to the surging sound of the Yangtze River, Zhu Youdong stood on the edge of the Yangtze River. Looking at the wide water surface of the Yangtze River, there is not a single ship in sight.

Zhu Youdong said: "I don't know what happened to the ships collected by Jiang Chao over there." But don't delay, or our army will be in danger. The army was running out of food and grass, and there was no way to raise food on the spot. ”

Peng Changbao on the side said: "Your Highness, don't worry, General Jiang Chao will definitely come over with the fleet." Zhu Youdong said: "I want to too, but it's actually very difficult for him." Even if it is a collection boat, it is estimated that there are some small boats, fishing boats, etc. How to avoid the Qing army's Dongting Lake water division is a difficult problem. ”

Of course, Peng Changbao couldn't solve this problem, so he had to follow Zhu Youdong to look at the Yangtze River, but it didn't work at all. Suddenly, Peng Changbao looked at the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and said, "Your Highness, there is a boat, you see there is a boat." ”

Zhu Youdong turned his head and saw that there were indeed boats, but they were only two fishing boats. Zhu Youdong said: "Don't make a fuss, it's normal to have fishing boats." No matter how hard the Qing army searched, it was impossible to collect all the ships. Peng Changbao said: "Your Highness, they have boats, and the others also have boats." We don't have to wait for General Jiang Chao, we can also block and collect ships. ”

Zhu Youdong's eyes lit up and said, "Yes, you immediately take people to find ships and collect these ships." If Jiang Chao can't bring a boat over, we can just use the boat here to cross the river first without waiting for Jiang Chao's army. ”

Peng Changbao took people to collect fishing boats, and Zhu Youdong arranged for everyone to rest first. It didn't take long for Peng Changbao to return with a fisherman. Peng Changbao said: "Your Highness, the fishing boats here have all gone to Honghu Lake, and there are only a few small boats outside that we just saw, which are not useful at all." ”

Zhu Youdong suddenly asked, "What's the matter?" Peng Changbao said to the fisherman: "You can say it now, we will not rob your fishing boat." Zhu Youdong said: "Did you take someone to rob their fishing boat?" ”

Peng Changbao suddenly said: "No, how can we rob it?" He was afraid that we would rob his fishing boat, so he wanted to run away first, but I chased him back. Zhu Youdong said: "You, you can't do anything well." ”

Zhu Youdong said to the fisherman: "Big brother, you don't have to be afraid, what is your name, do you know where there is a boat?" ”

The man said: "If you go back to the master, my name is Deng Mancang, I am a fisherman, and the boats here have been searched by the Qing army before, so the other boats have hid in Honghu." There is a river connected to the Yangtze River, and our fishing boats can get in, but the warships of the Qing army can't get in, so the Qing army did not go in to search. ”

Zhu Youdong said: "How many ships are there there?" Deng Mancang said: "There must be hundreds of boats, and some fishermen were captured by the Qing army." Saying that the Ming army was going to fight before, and he was afraid that these fishermen would help the Ming army, so he sent people to arrest these fishermen. The fishermen's boats were left idle, and no one wanted them. There were also some fishermen who, after getting the news, took refuge in Honghu Lake with their family boats. ”

Zhu Youdong was overjoyed and said: "Are there many of these boats that no one wants?" It just so happens that we're going to need these boats, can you take us to find them? As long as I can find it, I have a reward. ”

When Deng Mancang heard that there was a heavy reward, he immediately said happily: "Don't worry, general, I will definitely take you to find these boats, and some fishermen are also hiding in Honghu." ”

Zhu Youdong said: "Okay, just tell them that we are the army of the Ming Dynasty, and we are here to save the people who were captured." We are going to fight the Qing army, and if they can join us, we will go together to rescue the people who have been captured. ”

Deng Mancang only saw these people in front of him clearly at this time, it was really not the Qing army, Peng Changbao said to him that it was the Ming army, and he thought that it was the Qing army to tell him where the ship was. Now after looking at everyone's clothing, I realized that this is really the army of the Ming Dynasty. Although he already knew it in his heart, he still asked, "Are you really the army of the Ming Dynasty?" Zhu Youdong said: "Of course. ”

Deng Mancang said: "Okay, when He Shaobao was in Huguang, I saw the army of the Ming Dynasty, but now we are almost forgotten." Zhu Youdong was stunned and said: "He Shaobao? Deng Mancang saw that Zhu Youdong knew, so he said: "It's He Tengjiao, He Shaobao, a scholar of Wuyingdian University." When he was in Huguang, he led a large army but was defeated, and the Qing army attacked many times. ”

Zhu Youdong doesn't know much about the deeds of this He Shaobao, but I heard that he is a university scholar, and it is estimated that he is not a petty official. Suddenly said: "Now that our Ming army has also fought back, I believe He Shaobao will be relieved if he knows it." But it's a pity that I haven't seen such a hero. ”