Chapter 3: The Bandits (I)

Jiangxi is said to originate from the Jiangnan West Road added in the first year of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. The original Jiangnan West Road not only included Jiangxi Province in the Ming Dynasty, but also included part of Huguang and Nanzhili. Today, it has been nearly a thousand years, the scope of Jiangnan West Road has changed several times, and it is still the political envoy of Jiangxi Chengxuan, including the entire territory of the Jiangxi governor's jurisdiction and most of the southern Jiangxi governor's jurisdiction.

The province is located east of Huguang, west of Zhejiang and Nanzhili, north of Guangdong and northwest of Fujian. Located in the heart of the five provinces, Poyang Lake is connected to the Yangtze River in the north, to the west, east, south and southeast, and there are rivers that flow into Poyang Lake and connect with the surrounding provinces. For example, the Battle of Hongdu and the Battle of Poyang Lake at the end of the Yuan Dynasty took place here, where Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang fought to the death, and the prize was the hegemony south of the Yangtze River and the qualification to challenge the tyrannical yuan and dominate the world!

But today, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, except for Jin Shenghuan, there was still a large upsurge in the Jiangxi Anti-Qing Movement, and the sense of existence in other time periods was pitifully low.

The reason for this is that during the first wave of offensives of the Hongguang Dynasty and the Longwu Dynasty, the Qing court had already driven the main forces of the Ming army into the sea or into the southwest. Jiangxi is located in the hinterland of the Qing army's occupied area, and it is impossible to connect reinforcements outside, and it will be surrounded and suppressed by the superior forces of the Qing army inside, but it has always been difficult to form a climate that is enough to overthrow the Qing court's rule in this land.

Since the ambush of Shi Lang at Anping Bridge was successful, Chen Kai's original intention was to let Cai Qiao take Shi Lang's corpse and captives back to explain the situation to Zheng Chenggong. However, Cai Qiao said that he would also be by Chen Kai's side, so as to protect him every step of the way, he did not continue to be serious on this issue, and simply went to Anping Town, blackmailed Zheng Zhibao from a sea boat, handed it over to a few personal soldiers and continued to set off.

Sailing all the way north, due to the strength of the Ming Army Naval Division in Fujian, the "small fishing boats" of the Qing Army's Naval Division did not dare to go to sea easily. Especially after the Battle of Xiamen, the situation worsened for the Qing army.

However, all the way to the north, it was indeed smooth sailing, but when he went ashore, Chen Kai asked himself that he had let the Qing army hit the iron plate not long ago, and once he entered the area controlled by the Qing army, he had to hide his tracks, and even shaved his hair, changed into a robe and horse coat, and walked as low-key as possible, lest he would attract the attention of the local Qing army and the government on the road.

It's a pity that Chen Kai didn't know that in the last Xiamen War, Zhang Xuesheng was still busy rebuilding the right town mark and restoring the combat effectiveness of Fubiao, and he was also busy explaining to the Qing court and spending money to dot around. And there are many rumors in Fujian officialdom that Zhang Xuesheng may be transferred out of Fujian by the Qing court, and from top to bottom, everyone is staring at whether Governor Zhang can hold on, or whether he is a new governor sent by the imperial court.

Landing in Min'an Town, the estuary of the Minjiang River in Fuzhou, Chen Kai and his entourage bypassed Fuzhou Mansion in a low-key manner, boarded the ship in Zhuqi and Minqing, traced the river, and went straight to Shaowu Mansion.

Shaowu Mansion is located in northern Fujian, northeast to south, connected with Jianning Mansion, Yanping Mansion and Tingzhou Mansion respectively, and the Shanguan in its territory is Zheng Cai retreated without a fight, and the result is where Emperor Longwu cut the lord. Out of Shanguan, it is the Jianchang Mansion in Jiangxi. The reason why Chen Kai chose to enter Jiangxi from here is that, according to his vague memories and Zheng Chenggong's intelligence, the four battalions of the Jiangxi Righteous Army seem to have been operating between Jianning County and Jiantai County in Shaowu Prefecture and Guangchang and Nanfeng Counties in Jianchang Prefecture.

The head of the fourth battalion of Yan Luo is the strongest combat force in the Jiangxi Anti-Qing Righteous Army in history, and this is also the first stop chosen by Chen Kai. Sailing upstream, although Cai Qiao's subordinates fell to less than twenty people due to escorting Shi Lang's body and those captives back to the Zhongzuo Station, these people were all killed by licking blood from the knife edge, and the boatmen could see that this group of guys was not easy to mess with, but they were also well-behaved, and the two were fine.

When entering Shaowufu, it was nearly July, Chen Kai and his entourage got off the boat at a ferry between Shaowufu City and Shunchang County, and turned south, accompanied by their own personal soldiers who could act as guides, and Taoist monks could rely on, and they were not afraid of getting lost in this Fujian territory, but when they entered Jiangxi, it depended on the ability of another person.

"Zhan Ruo, you have been to Jiangxi, and it is up to you to leave Shanguan."

Chen Kai once talked to Kuang Lu about the idea of going to Jiangxi, hoping that he could accompany him on a journey. Kuang Lu didn't agree at the time, but when Zheng Chenggong's side was confirmed, Kuang Lu had already prepared her bags.

Along the way, this free-spirited middle-aged Confucian and Taoist monk had a good conversation, but they left Chen Kai aside. Chen Kai didn't care about this, but as the trip deepened, Kuang Lu's ability to scare people was increasing day by day. At this moment, Chen Kai had just started a conversation, and he was directly blocked by Kuang Lu's sentence "I haven't walked this road". Fortunately, Kuang Lu did not deliberately embarrass Chen Kai, and then smiled, and pointed out that when he found the Jiangxi Righteous Army at the head of the fourth battalion of Yan Luo, he would naturally know what to do next.

"Isn't that nonsense?"

Rolling his eyes, Chen Kai didn't care, gave up the plan to interject and went in, and instead observed the scenery around him. Fujian Province, known as the saying of eight mountains, one water and one field, the terrain is dominated by low mountains and hills, and the plains are mostly distributed in coastal areas, such as the Zhangzhou Plain, the Quanzhou Plain, the Xinghua Plain, and the Fuzhou Plain, the four major plains of Fujian, are actually within the direct attack range of Zheng Chenggong's army.

Chen Kai looked around, and soon felt bored. Not long after getting off the boat, there were fewer and fewer people around, and it seemed that the further south you went, the fewer people came. The mountains are different every day, but when you look at the mountains every day, there are always times when you get tired of it.

I don't know how far I have to go on such a day, but recently, there is always a feeling of being watched, but most of them don't seem to be easy to mess with, so I didn't do anything. Chen Kai, on the contrary, was more inclined to catch a few captives and find out from their mouths before moving forward.

It seemed that God had received Chen Kai's brain waves, and after a while, the pro-soldier who led the way mysteriously rushed back, and after making sure that not too many people could hear it, he reported to Chen Kai in a low voice that a few of them were exploring the way ahead, and found a local tyrant who looked like they were settling for self-protection and leading the team to ambush on the road they had to pass.

"This year, Lao Tzu only ambushed Shi Lang in southern Fujian last month, and he will be ambushed in northern Fujian in the next month, and sure enough, he will have to pay it back sooner or later."

said that it looked like a local tyrant who had formed a village to protect himself, Chen Kaizi didn't care, and roughly said it to Kuang Lu and Daozong, the former did not express his opinion, and the latter wanted to go to the meeting for a while - after all, he was a monk, and in these years, the Qing army slaughtered the city and knew that the monk should be left to clean up the corpses in the city. It seems that robbing a monk is a very tasteless thing. But Chen Kai objected to this, in his words, it is better for him to do this kind of pretending to be a slap in the face.

"Actually, how do you say that you are also a civil official of the imperial court from the third grade, so let it go, well, let yourself go, and damage the prestige of the Han officials!"

Kuang Lu's opinion, Chen Kai humbly accepted, but this time, there were some things he still had to do, so he discussed it with Daozong, Cai Qiao and others.

After a while, Chen Kai walked alone on the mountain road. In front of the ambush point pointed out by the guide, Chen Kai no longer continued to advance, but stood there, looking at the hills on both sides, and put his hands in front of his mouth, like a trumpet. Immediately, there was a jaw-dropping shout from the local tyrants and mountain people who were ambushed on the hill.

"I opened this mountain, and I planted this tree. If you want to live from now on, leave to buy road money! ”

Who the hell is robbing whom?