The sun rose and set, the sky became bright and dark, and the day went by. Maybe it's not just this day, it's just a lifetime.

It was already dark, and Liu Laonong, who was working in the morning light, had already finished working on a piece of land, and was sitting on the high ridge of the field at this time, smacking the dry tobacco in his mouth and gasping for breath.

If you want to talk about this year's harvest, it's really good. It is estimated that after paying this year's rent, I can barely be able to provide a year's ration for the whole family. It's a rare sight. Liu Lao Nong is fifty-two years old this year, and he still remembers what kind of situation the village was like when there was a long hair. At that time, ten rooms and nine empty rooms, and almost all those who were not dragged to fight were starved to death. I can survive, I really don't know if God is blind or open.

Liu Laonong stared at the golden rice in front of him, silently smoking the dry tobacco in his hand, but thinking about next year's livelihood. Although the harvest was good this year, I heard that there was a flood in the north at the beginning of the year, and people started eating again. In the past few months, there have been several boundaries in the southeast, northwest, and northwest, and they have also panicked because of hunger, and they have made trouble, and they have been transferred by the government and killed hundreds of people. This Jiangzhou town has been nine disasters in ten years since ancient times, and now the world is not peaceful, although it can barely be regarded as a small harvest now, but I don't know how much of this season's grain can fall into my stomach.

Liu Laonong was thinking about whether he had a ride or not, when suddenly there was a sound of galloping horses on the road ahead. The old peasant quickly stood up, put up a canopy with his hand and looked over, only to see that on the official road in the distance, two horses flew over, and looked at the clothes, which were clearly the clothes of the new army of the imperial court.

Seeing this, the old farmer's heart tightened for no reason. To say that this farmer, facing the loess with his back to the sky, is not afraid of the sky and the earth, as long as he can have a good piece of land, relying on his hands, he can support his own large family, pass on the ancestry, and worry about nothing. But I am afraid of the soldiers, who are the soldiers? Eat and drink for nothing, don't work, and take it for nothing before leaving. When there was a lot of hair, it was like this. When the hairy thief came, the village was washed; The army of the imperial court came bravely, and the village was still washed. In those years, the dogs did not want to live.

The long hair is long gone, and the foreigners don't dare to fight. In these days, what kind of horse do you run? Isn't it, where is there a rebellion?

Liu Laonong muttered in his heart, staring directly at the two cavalrymen. The two horses were very fast, and they rushed over in the blink of an eye, and when they got closer, Liu Laonong found that there were two flags behind them. Back then, Liu Laonong followed the village's Xiucai to recognize a few words, and he saw it clearly, the red flag was golden, and the eight big characters written on it: "Drive the Manchu Xinghan" and "Wuchang Han Army"! The two horses galloped past Liu Lao Nong, and did not stop for a moment, and galloped away after beating the horses.

Liu Laonong watched in a daze as the two horses ran farther and farther, bringing up dust. The old peasant suddenly came to his senses, turned around and ran towards the village, shouting as he ran: "There is a war disaster! It's a military disaster! Trouble--soldier-disaster--la-" After running a few steps, Liu Lao Nong seemed to have returned to his soul again, and hurriedly ran back, hugging a handful of rice on the rice pile in the field, and running towards the village as if he was struggling for his life. After a bag of cigarettes, countless people, old and young, men and women, were rushed to the village, holding all kinds of farm tools; Everyone, men, women, and children, all held a desperate posture, their eyes were round, their feet were running fast, they rushed to the rice fields, and moved the rice to their homes as if they had sacrificed their lives......

The sun slowly climbed from the back of the mountain to the top of the mountain, and in the golden autumn season of the southern country, if it does not rain, it is warm and warm, which makes people feel very comfortable. Zhang Zhenwu and Jiang Fangzhen rode on horses, leading a group of people and horses along the Yangtze River and galloping towards the mouth of the Jiujiang River.

On the night of August 19, Wuchang was restored overnight, and then the Ezhou Prefecture Government was established, and Li Yuanhong was promoted as the governor of Hubei Province. Respect Zhu Chongzhen as the king of Han and coordinate the recovery of the whole country. Zhu Chongzhen reorganized the army in Wuchang for seven days, and then the army was divided into three roads, the first road, led by Cai Jimin, Xiong Bingkun, Fang Xiaoru, Xu Shaobin as the vanguard, went north to seize the three passes of Yiyang, this road because of the military emergency, the whole army set off two days later; The second road, led by Jiang Yiwu, Wu Zhaolin, and Fang Xinru, with Ma Rong as the vanguard, went south to Hunan, forced Changsha, and passed through Huguang; The third road, led by Ma Lei, Zhang Zhenwu, and Jiang Fangzhen, with Jin Zhaolong as the vanguard, set off three days ahead of schedule without waiting for the completion of the army. Along the Yangtze River to the east, first down the Jiujiang River, and then map Jiangsu and Zhejiang; Zhang Tingfu and Deng Yulin led the troops to sweep Hubei, and Zhu Chongzhen sat in the Wuchang base camp.

After the recovery of Wuchang, Jiang Fangzhen counted the materials, and found that there were 40 million silver deposits in the treasury of Wuchang City, and the Chuwangtai Ordnance Institute also had enough guns, but Zhu Chongzhen did not expand the army in a big way, before the recovery, the new army in the three towns of Wuhan was less than 20,000, and after the recovery, Zhu Chongzhen eliminated the weak and the strong, and only retained more than 10,000 regular Han troops.

Seeing that there was no place to respond in the whole country, the Qing court sent the Yu army to attack, and at this time there was money and guns, not to mention the expansion of the army, but the downsizing. Everyone has some objections to Zhu Chongzhen's approach. But Zhu Chongzhen just explained lightly: "The war can be dissolved in two months at most." The country is poor and weak, and it is okay not to do such a senseless thing as expanding the army. ”

The war is less than two months? Everyone will be skeptical of Zhu Chongzhen's judgment.

After the army was reorganized, Zhu Chongzhen divided his troops into strategies, which made Jiang Yiwu and others even more uneasy, and Jiang Fangzhen was unwilling to divide his troops so early. When he was reorganizing the army, he argued with Zhu Chongzhen very much, because the division of troops has been a taboo for soldiers since ancient times, and the lessons of Hong Yang's past are also in front of him, but Zhu Chongzhen's words made him speechless.

"At this time, the people's grievances are boiling, and the world can be decided; What worries me is that some people will take advantage of the opportunity to seize the region, and second, the foreign powers will take advantage of the fire to loot. At this time, it is only the best policy to quickly sweep away the southern kingdom, start peace negotiations between the north and the south, and end the dispute within half a year. ”

After saying that, in the hearts of Jiang Yiwu and others, they only had the idea of repaying the country with death!

Yes, if there is another Hongyang rebellion now, I am afraid that China will really die. This country can no longer afford to be overly tossed.

Now, I can only do my best to end the war as soon as possible, so as to live up to Zhu Chongzhen's kindness. Jiang Fangzhen looked up at the sky and said silently in his heart.

"Master Yuntang, I'm a little strange, why are most of the villages we passed through ten rooms and nine empty, even if there are people, when they see us, they all run so badly?"

The questioner was Zhu Lin, Zhu Chongzhen's younger brother, now only eleven years old, originally marching and fighting, extremely dangerous, Jiang Fangzhen really didn't want to bring such a nobleman, but Zhu Chongzhen insisted repeatedly, and the coach Ma Lei did not object. He had no choice but to take it.

Hearing Zhu Lin's question, Ma Lei smiled and said, "I haven't been in my homeland for a long time, and I still have to ask Zhang Jiang and the others for this matter." ”

Zhang Zhenwu and Jiang Fangzhen glanced at each other, and seeing that each other's eyes were helpless, Jiang Fangzhen smiled bitterly and explained to Zhu Lin: "China has been a family of soldiers and thieves since ancient times, and the people are like thieves. When they knew that we were coming, of course they would run, not only people, but also food and belongings. When we're over, they'll come back. ”

Zhu Lin rode on a small horse, tilted his head and thought for a while, and said: "No wonder the Yue family army back then, with a simple sentence of 'freezing to death without demolishing the house, starving to death without plundering', it can win the hearts of the people of the world, it seems that the army of the old country is really unbearable!" ”

Jiang Zhang and the others smiled bitterly again, but they didn't have an interface. This army looting is sometimes indeed a helpless and confused account.

Who knew that Zhu Lin suddenly said: "We, the Han army, have you affirmed discipline?" ”

Ma Lei smiled and said: "We have only 3,000 people along the way, and there are many brothers from Zhenwutang with us, so we Han Army will naturally not do such pickled and dirty things." ”

Hearing Ma Lei's words, Zhu Qiu nodded and said, "It should be like this, if someone takes advantage of the chaos to rob the people, they should be killed." The eldest brother said that in troubled times, the reason why we sent troops as soon as possible was because we were afraid that people would take advantage of the chaos to loot the people and disturb the place. ”

Jiang Fangzhen couldn't imagine that Zhu Lin would say these words at such a young age, and he couldn't help but be surprised. I thought to myself: "The young men of the Zhu Fang family are really good, Zhu Chongzhen doesn't need to say much, that Fang Xiaoru is well-read in history, Fang Xinru is skilled in firearms, this Zhu Lin is so young, he can actually say such old words." ”

Just as Jiang Fangzhen was sighing, he galloped back to ride, looking at the appearance, but it was a released exploration horse.

"Ma Xietong, we met a person in front, Jiang Qun, who claimed to be Xunyang Book and Newspaper Agency, came to meet us."

"Oh? Jiang Qun is here! Mare was pleased, "Where is he?" ”

This Jiang Qun was originally an old tour of Ma Lei, and he was also a native of Hongmen. He has always propagated the revolution in Jiangxi, and when he came to the army at this moment, there must be important news.

Three miles ahead, close to Jiujiang City, Jiang Qun and the scouts sent by Ma Lei were chatting together.

"Jun Yang, long time no see!" Ma Lei turned over and dismounted, laughing and walking towards Jiang Qun.

"Yuntang, you came at the right time, I am in Jiujiang, I have already contacted all my classmates, and they have all agreed to do something, but Ma Yubao, the commander of the fifty-three standards, is still a little hesitant, as soon as you come, the general trend of Jiujiang has been decided!" Jiang Qun smiled when he saw Ma Lei.

Who knew that Ma Lei asked anxiously: "Jun Yang, the Manchu navy, but did it not in the past?" ”

Jiang Qun was stunned by Ma Lei's question, and after a while, he said: "Chu Youjian is still at the mouth of the Jiujiang River, and he is assembling a fleet. ”

Hearing Jiang Qun's words, Ma Lei and the others breathed a sigh of relief. They set out three days in advance in order to intercept the Qing navy at the mouth of the Jiujiang River.

It seems that everything is as expected, just in time.