As the typhoon season finally passed, the long-lost sun was revealed, and under the dual effects of the sun and the north wind, the originally muddy roads slowly hardened, and the whole of southern China entered autumn.

However, the autumn of the Ming Dynasty is not the same as that of the later generations, and there is no such autumn high and cool in the later generations, the Ming Dynasty because of the influence of the Xiaoice River weather, into August, the cold current from the north to the south began to control the lower reaches of the Huaihe Yangtze River early, so the temperature in the south has dropped to below ten degrees after entering August.

According to the ancient Chinese military books, it is best not to march and fight in winter to avoid frostbite. However, Ma Cheng's new army is different, these people eat three dry meals a day, conduct extremely intense training every day, coupled with perfect logistics and thick cotton clothes, so Ma Cheng's new army can still be kept in the best condition.

Ma Cheng originally wanted to march into Hangzhou after August 15 in Suzhou, according to his estimates, Hangzhou's King Lu is completely the end of the crossbow, there is no threat at all, and his 70,000 army can take Hangzhou without much effort, but Qi Biaojia in Suzhou does not see it that way.

Although Qi Biaojia won the victory in the political struggle, this victory did not affect Ma Cheng at all. Although Qi Biaojia has the name of the secretary of the military department, can the commanders and soldiers under Ma Cheng listen to him as an empty book? What's more, now that Ma Cheng's army has become a warlord, and the generals in the army are all Ma Cheng's descendants, Qi Biaojia has no control over the army at all.

At this time, in order to let these Qiu Ba leave Suzhou as soon as possible, Qi Biaojia responded to Ma Cheng's requests, as long as it was not an excessive request, he would meet them all.

Now that the officials in the entire city of Suzhou have been replaced by Qi Biaojia's cronies, Ma Cheng can't stay with a dead face, so he has no choice but to issue an order in mid-July, and officially start marching into Hangzhou on the first day of August.

Ma Cheng's 110,000 army is now divided into three parts, 10,000 new troops under the leadership of Xu Dahu have bypassed Taihu Lake and occupied Huzhou Mansion, and 30,000 soldiers have gone to Songjiang under the leadership of Gu Changwei, which is a heavy tax area, and Ma Cheng naturally has to control it in his hands. So now Ma Cheng only has 70,000 troops in his hands, including 30,000 new troops, 20,000 new annex troops, and 20,000 people.

This time to march Ma Cheng did not prepare any tactical orders at all, King Lu did not have much strength on his side, as long as the army pressed over, the remaining remnants of King Lu would be defeated and surrendered. Therefore, Ma Cheng ordered Xu Dahu of Huzhou to advance to Yuhang County, cross the Qiantang River from here, and attack Yanzhou and Quzhou in western Zhejiang. Gu Changwei of Songjiang Mansion led 10,000 main new troops to march on July 20, first occupied Jiaxing Mansion, waited here for Ma Cheng's main force to arrive, and then attacked Hangzhou together.

On the first day of August, Ma Cheng swore an oath outside Suzhou and went south again, and Qi Biaojia, as the governor, politely wanted to attend this oath meeting. Standing on the high platform and seeing the momentum of the 70,000 army like a rainbow, Qi Biaojia's face was like earth, he knew that he was unjustly defeated half a year ago, and he didn't dare to say that he was a half-baked scholar in this kind of tiger and wolf army, even if Yue Wumu was alive, he didn't dare to say that he could win completely.

Ma Cheng saw Qi Biaojia's face as earthy as the color of the earth, and said with a smile: "Lord Qi, how is the army of this governor?" Can this southward move be like a bamboo, and capture Lu Wei in one fell swoop? ”

Ma Cheng is definitely not opening which pot to mention, Qi Biaojia was still the governor under King Lu half a year ago, and now Ma Cheng is really a slap in the face when he says this.

Qi Biaojia kept a calm face and didn't speak, and Xie Qikun, the new political envoy on the side, smiled and said: "This is natural, the military achievements of the Inspector are outstanding, and this battle of Hangzhou will definitely be successful!" ”

Ma Cheng laughed and said, "Then borrow Lord Xie's auspicious words!" When the governor captures Lu Rebellion, I will ask Lord Qi to receive him more when I come to Hangzhou! After all, it's Lord Qi's old master! Ha ha! ”

Qi Biaojia saw Ma Cheng's villainous face, he couldn't control it anymore, snorted angrily, threw off the high platform and went back to the city. When Xie Qikun saw this, he had no choice but to bow his hand to Ma Cheng, and then followed Qi Biaojia back to the city.

Seeing that the two were gone, Ma Cheng sneered and shouted to his subordinates: "The army is on the move!" ”

Ma Cheng set out from Suzhou on the first day of August and arrived in Jiaxing on the fifth day of the first month, and Gu Changwei led 10,000 new troops to occupy this place for ten days. Although Jiaxing Mansion is the territory of King Lu, but the officials of King Lu here have already run away, leaving only an empty city, some gentry and wealthy families in the city saw the army of the imperial court coming outside the city, and quickly opened the city gate to surrender.

At this time, there was no shortage of civil officials under Ma Cheng, and his Lao Tzu had prepared hundreds of middle and low-level officials for him, and there were a lot of blank letters of appointment, so after entering Jiaxing City, Ma Cheng immediately appointed several magistrates to maintain law and order.

Ma Cheng repaired here in Jiaxing for a day, and then continued to go south along the canal, at this time Xu Dahu had already taken 10,000 new troops, crossed the Qiantang River in Yuhang County, twenty miles outside Hangzhou, and headed for Yanzhou Mansion.

Xu Dahu's actions frightened the Luwang group in Hangzhou, and Ma Cheng stopped attacking in Suzhou in May, which made Zhu Changshu, the king of Lu, feel lucky, thinking that he still had talks with Emperor Zhu Lunkui of Shaowu, so Zhu Changshu was ready to send envoys to Nanjing again for peace talks. This time, Zhu Changshu is ready, he doesn't do it as an emperor, he just wants to be a rich man.

But Zhu Changshu doesn't want to play, and those ministers under him don't think so. At that time, the ministers who supported Zhu Changshu included Huang Daozhou, Zhu Dadian, Yuan Hongxun, Zhang Bingzhen, He Lun and others, who were originally high-ranking officials who had lost in the struggle, but now they had returned to the center of power, and they were willing to hand over power again. So when these people heard that Zhu Changshu wanted to stop playing, they didn't allow King Lu to do it one by one.

At this time, Zhu Changshu deeply realized the helplessness of Zhu Youzhen, the emperor of Chongzhen, and obviously should have fled south, but no one in the Manchu Dynasty agreed, and Zhu Changshu couldn't run by himself if he wanted to.

At this time, Fang Guoan ran back from Suzhou with more than 30,000 people, which made the ministers of the DPRK and China more determined to fight against Ma Cheng. It's very simple, after Fang Guoan came back, he put all the blame for the Battle of Lucheng on Qi Biaojia's head, but this is exactly the case, if Qi Biaojia followed Fang Guoan's plan at that time and led the elite soldiers to rely on the strong city walls of Suzhou, it was possible to hold on for a period of time.

However, Qi Biaojia acted arbitrarily and insisted on a decisive battle with Ma Cheng in the wild, and as a result, he was defeated in Lucheng and lost all the 30,000 most elite people in his hands. The elite can't hold Suzhou City without it, and there is no way Fang Guoan has no choice but to give up Suzhou and return to Hangzhou in order to retain his strength, preparing to rely on Hangzhou to fight to the death with Ma Cheng here.

Of course, these are all the words of Fang Guoan's family, he did not say that he was defeated by Ma Cheng in Suzhou, but said that he gave up Suzhou in order to preserve his strength in order to shirk his responsibility. This erroneous statement makes the whole Hang

The state court formed an illusion, that is, Fang Guoan was capable, if it weren't for Qi Biaojia's loss of elite, he would probably be on an equal footing with Ma Cheng.

Therefore, Huang Daozhou, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Zhu Dadian, the secretary of the military department, decided to take Fang Guoan as the commander, gather all the forces around Hangzhou, and rely on the strong walls of Hangzhou City to fight to the death with Ma Cheng. It is already August, as long as you hold on until October, and wait until the snow falls in Nanzhili, the Ma Cheng army, which has no houses to protect from the cold, will definitely return to Suzhou for the winter.

The Chinese military ministers of the dynasty were united in preparing to fight Ma Cheng to the end, but they did not expect that the emperor they supported, Zhu Changshu, wanted to open the floodgates and release water.

Zhu Changshu is similar to several prison emperors in the Southern Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yousong likes to listen to plays, and this Zhu Changshu likes to play chess. Later generations recorded that this Zhu Changshu's chess strength was really good, and he also compiled several famous chess games. However, in the troubled times of the late Ming Dynasty, artists were not needed, what was needed was a hero, but none of the emperors of the Southern Ming Dynasty had the true character of a hero.

When Zhu Changshu learned that the city began to prepare to defend the city, he was so frightened that he had no idea, so he had no choice but to discuss a way with the little eunuchs around him. These little eunuchs are not as good as him, so after discussing it, it was decided to send someone out to make peace with Ma Cheng, and it was best to ensure Zhu Changshu's personal safety.

But this candidate to go out of the city to make peace is really difficult to handle, he has to have an old relationship with Ma Cheng, and he has a bit of courage, but none of the eunuchs under Zhu Changshu know Ma Cheng. This is no way, Ma Cheng was only Ma Shiying's second son back then, although Zhu Changshu was a fleeing prince, but after all, he was a prince, where could Ma Cheng, who had not made a fortune, make friends?

In the end, a little eunuch thought of a way, since Zhu Changshu's subordinates couldn't do it, then find someone from the prison in the city.

Zhu Changshu heard this bad idea and scolded: "You don't dare to see Ma Cheng, do you dare to be a death row prisoner?" ”

The little eunuch saw that Zhu Changshu was angry, and quickly knelt down and said, "Emperor, have you forgotten that there was a person in the prison two years ago?" It is Yue Qijie, the governor of Henan! ”

Zhu Changshu suddenly realized when he heard this name, patted his head and said: "Yes, why did I forget this person, you should quickly invite Lord Yue, remember not to alarm those ministers in the court!" ”

Yue Qijie was elected as the governor of Henan in December of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, but in April of the second year, Wuchang Zuo Liangyu went south to the side of the Qing monarch, and Yue Qijie and Jingnan Bohuang Degong, who were the governors of Henan, were ordered to lead the army along the river to intercept Zuo Liangyu.

Huang Degong is indeed very capable of fighting, and in a big battle with Zuo Liangyu's department in Tongling, he actually defeated Zuo Liangyu, but it was too late at this time. After Zuo Liangyu's death, his son Zuo Mengeng took refuge in Azig, the prince of Manchu Ying, and this time against the Qing army, Huang Degong was not good.

Huang Degong and the Qing army had a big battle in Wuhu, Huang Degong committed suicide in defeat, and Yue Qijie, who became the commander of the light pole, could only change into the clothes of ordinary soldiers and quietly abscond.

Yue Qijie originally wanted to escape back to Nanjing, but at this time the whole of Nanjing was surrounded by the Qing army, and Yue Qijie did not dare to approach the city wall, so he had no choice but to bypass Nanjing and flee to Hangzhou.

When he arrived in Hangzhou, Yue Qijie thought he was safe, but he didn't expect that King Lu was in charge of the country here in Hangzhou, and the ministers who supported King Lu were all Donglin Party, and he naturally had no good impression of Yue Qijie, the remnant of the eunuch party, and immediately arrested the governor of Henan, who had lost the entire Henan, and put him in prison.