The ore of Chengxiang has always been through the Hanjiang River waterway to the capital city of Chaozhou, with sufficient ore and metal sources, it has the reputation of "Gusu style, Chaoyang craftsman, Jieyang's tin on it".

Chengxiang was invaded by Hao Shangjiu, and the trade route for ore to reach Chaozhou was cut off. This is the lack of a large source of military raw materials and trade sources for the Ming army, and the military and economic damage will inevitably be damaged, but with the support of maritime trade, especially the gradual recovery of the status of the maritime trade center of the Central Left Institute, it is nothing more than that the west is not bright and the east is bright, but it is a fatal blow to the mine owners in Chengxiang.

Without an acquirer, the mined ore would have to be dumped on the ground. To open up trade routes in other directions, it is surrounded by surrounding groups, and to the west into the boundary of Huizhou Prefecture is to go upstream, and the speed and scale of freight are limited, and secondly, Xingning and Changle on the Huizhou side also have minerals, and there is no need for ores and smelted metals here to supplement the shortage.

This has persisted for a long time, leading mine owners to close their mines, lay off miners, or even change careers to make ends meet. Among them, there are also gentry and wealthy businessmen who have suffered losses in such a situation, which makes the ground in Chengxiang complain.

Hao Shangjiu was not supported locally, and his taxes were affected by the sharp drop in trade, which further reduced the potential military energy.

The severance of commerce and trade is a flattering thing inside and outside, but ores and metals are basically related to military supplies, whether it is the senses of the Qing court or Hao Shangjiu's own worries, they will never dare to let go of this opening. But now is different from the past, the Ming army defeated the Jingnan feudal army on the southern front, and basically wiped out the green battalions of Huizhou and Dongguan towns, both of which were the old troops of Li Chengdong, who was the same as him, and was so defeated, so that he had to reassess his own positioning.

………………

It is not only Hao Shangjiu who needs to assess the positioning problem, the army was defeated, and he crossed Haifeng County without entering, and directly escaped over the mountains and mountains and mountains in the Lotus Mountains. Geng Jimao knew that he had run away, but there was finally a group of loyal old generals who had followed his father for many years, and under the protection of the guards, they fled to a wharf on the bank of the Xijiang River, a wharf where their army passed by when they came.

At this point, the horse could no longer run, and was listlessly eating some forage, and even a glance at it would have that feeling of weakness.

It's not okay to take a break, just take this time to wait for Xu Degong and Lian Decheng, the two big men. The battle of Jingnan Domain was poured out, and the result ended in a crushing defeat, and at this moment, there were only more than 2,000 soldiers and horses following Geng Jimao, and the rest of the troops could only count on these two marshals to slowly converge in the back.

Relying on his own strength alone, the front line cannot be maintained, Geng Jimao has too little experience, and he ran down along the way, his mental state is not very good, and he is so tired that he falls asleep at the moment, but several generals still sent people back to Guangzhou to ask Shang Kexi to go to Huizhou to meet them, so as not to let the Ming army gain momentum.

The people of the wharf and the small village here have basically been killed by the angry feudal soldiers, and the occasional screams of women in the night are all those feudal soldiers who are trying to vent their deep fears by treating the weak with traitors. This is normal, after all, the feudal soldiers will also be afraid, and they also need to decompress, as long as the open and dark posts are arranged to ensure the safety of the army, the officers will ignore it, and even participate in it.

In one of the best houses on the dock, the captain of the guard came out of the room where Geng Jimao was resting, and all the generals raised their heads to look, and got the answer that they still shook their heads.

Geng Jimao is still sleeping, or he is not willing to wake up to face such a cruel truth. With such a psychological quality, he is really not a character suitable for leading troops in battle. But the problem is that there is a long-standing tradition for soldiers to be generals, not only because they are subordinate to the Geng family, but also because their generals and soldiers will have the possibility of being subordinate to their private ownership under the support of such traditions and theories.

This chain of allegiance is bottom-up, from the non-commissioned officers, to the junior officers, to the middle-level officers, to the senior officers, and even Geng Jimao and the Qing Emperor to whom Geng Jimao is loyal. This feudal morality did not exist only in China, but also in continental Europe, where there was a divine right of kingship and a corresponding system of allegiance.

At this moment, Geng Jimao's state is not good, and the generals can only hope that the heir of this veteran master can break and stand up, at least not to break the jar and fall. However, for that battle, the generals were secretive, and one by one they obviously did not intend to say anything, even if it was just something to shirk responsibility.

I don't know how long it took, the generals were speechless, and they were a little tired, seeing that Geng Jimao hadn't gotten up yet, he was ready to retreat to rest temporarily, so that he could have a better spirit in the future.

After a while, the first example appeared, and soon all the generals also retreated according to the gourd drawing. When they returned to their respective camps or rooms, they didn't bother to wash up or anything, and lay on the bed with their eyes closed, but they inevitably had to toss and turn for the next upcoming situation, whether it was the inevitable anger of the Qing court or the deterioration of the strategic situation in Guangdong on the side of the Qing army, and they couldn't sleep.

This situation lasted for a long time, and I don't know what time it was, there was a noisy movement of people neighing and horses barking outside, and these long-experienced generals got up one after another, and immediately took the weapons in their hands, and waited until they went out cautiously, but what they got was the news that Lian Decheng followed with some of the remnants.

"Thank God, with Lian Shuai here, even if he has the backbone."

Compared with the pampered little prince, Lian Decheng is obviously more trustworthy than such a handsome. But when they hurried to Geng Jimao's house one after another, what they saw was this Jingnan Domain's right-wing general squatting on the ground and crying, and even this movement woke up the prince of Jingnan, who had been unable to wake up since he arrived here.

"Lian, Lian Shuai, why is this so?"

Geng Jimao's voice trembled almost intermittently, and the hearts of the generals were beating one after another.

"Lian Shuai, this is, what's going on?"

Lian Decheng didn't answer the previous question, and he was still squatting there crying. Seeing this, Geng Jimao hurriedly stepped forward and asked Lian Decheng in a louder voice, but the answer he got really shocked his heart.

"Lord Wang, Lord Wang, Brother Xu, General Soldier Xu, was captured by Haikou Sheng, he is dead, he is dead!"

is dead, is they dead, or is Xu Degong dead, and even the success is not in detail. It's just that after saying this, Lian Decheng still hugged his head and cried, as if this was the last thing he could do for his old master Geng Zhongming, his master Geng Jimao, and Xu Degong, who had been fighting side by side for many years.

In this way, it is inevitable. Like Lian Decheng, Xu Degong is also a general under the Jingnan Domain, and his status is even faintly above Lian Decheng. It's one thing for such a general to die, but he was captured by the Ming army, and it has been so many years since the Qing Dynasty was surrendered, how could there be such a thing. Not even saying that, but saying that it means next is enough to make everyone's hearts scared.

However, the generals were immediately shocked when they heard this, but before they could recover from this shock, with Lian Decheng's howling and crying as accompaniment, Geng Jimao was blood faded, his face was like gold paper, but he fell to the ground suddenly, unconscious.

"Lord Wang!"