Xiao Tianjian laughed and punched Shi Ran in the shoulder, and said with a smile: "You guy is only less than forty, what kind of bullshit to return to his hometown!" I see that your words are a little sour, and now that I see that this kid Lin Luo is doing a good job, and he has the posture to replace you, you will definitely not accept it!

But it's true that you keep it, but there are two sides to it, and keeping it is not necessarily your weakness, it depends on where you use it! In fact, you should have led the army alone! It's just that I haven't given you a chance over the years! All right! Don't be sour! After this battle, I will allow you to form a new division and form an army on your own! That way you don't have to be sour anymore! Hehe! ”

Shi Ran was overjoyed after hearing this, and hurriedly bowed down to thank Xiao Tianjian, Xiao Tianjian said with a smile: "You don't have to thank me!" This is something you should have deserved! It's just a little late! Your personality is calm, you are more suitable for doing this kind of thing, Nan Zhili is not small, I am afraid that I will hand it over to you to stay here in the future! After fighting Nanzhili, you are estimated to lead your troops to fight Zhejiang, and you will not worry about having no battles to fight in the future! ”

Shi Ran immediately replied: "Thank you for the trust, but the last general doesn't want to stay in Nanzhili, after fighting Nanzhili, Dashuai will definitely go north!" The last general is still willing to stay by the side of the marshal and go north, and it will be glorious enough to defeat the Beijing Division! ”

Xiao Tianjian shook his head and said: "You don't have to fight for this, someone always has to do this, even after Nanzhili is defeated, it may not be stable for a long time, the Donglin Party is the most powerful in Nanzhili, and they will definitely not sit back and watch the Ming Dynasty end like this, and the forces here are complicated, there must be a suitable person to sit in this area, otherwise there will always be fire behind my buttocks, and I can't go north with peace of mind!" That's it! What are you going to fight for! ”

Shi Ran was quite grateful after hearing this, Xiao Tianjian's arrangement actually fully illustrated Xiao Tianjian's trust in him, he naturally knew the importance of Nanzhili, Xiao Tianjian chose him to stay in Nanzhili, which also showed the importance of him, going north to attack Jingshi, once it was successful, although it was glorious, but Nanzhili's side really needed someone to sit in charge, so he didn't fight for anything anymore, and hurriedly nodded and received the order.

By the time it was getting late, Xiao Tianjian had already supervised the army to arrive at the north bank of the Huai River in the north of Fengyang Mansion, and Liu Yaoben's forward battalion had basically cleared out a small number of officers and troops on the north bank at this time, and the cavalry was even more attacking, basically annihilating the officers and troops on the north bank and driving them back to the south bank.

From a distance, by the light of the setting sun, Xiao Tianjian used a telescope to look at the situation on the north bank of the Huai River, from the telescope to see that a large number of officers and soldiers are building fortifications on the north bank, the strength is about 10,000 people, and there are many captured people working for the officers and soldiers, the wide Huai River surface, sparkling, the entire Huai River surface can hardly see boats, a large number of ships have been forced by the officials and troops in advance to drag to the south bank of the Huai River, it is obvious to use this way to prevent the Xingtian army from crossing the Huai River and entering Fengyang Mansion.

Fengyang Mansion was also known as the capital in the Ming Dynasty, the main reason is that Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown is here, and Zhu Yuanzhang rebuilt the mausoleum for his parents after the founding of the People's Republic of China, called the Ming Emperor's Mausoleum, so the political status here is very important, once the Fengyang Mansion is taken, then it is undoubtedly equivalent to another blow to the dynasty, which is also the reason why Xiao Tianjian must take Fengyang Mansion.

Over the years, the area of Fengyang Mansion has been plagued by famine, although it is said that as the emperor's hometown, but the people here have not received a little preferential treatment, on the contrary, they have to bear the exploitation of the heavier government, so the local people of Fengyang Mansion are very hostile to the imperial court, every time there is a righteous army trying to attack Fengyang Mansion, the local people are servants like clouds, but it is a pity that Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who have been here before, can only call them thieves at best, and leave here after a trip like a star, It is impossible to hold Fengyang Mansion at all, so over the years, after several wars, it has already been even more dilapidated, and the number of people has also decreased dramatically.

The officers and soldiers who came to Fengyang Mansion to assemble were not good people, and they naturally had to loot everywhere they passed, and this kind of looting of scraping the ground made the local people in Fengyang hate it, and when the Xingtian Army arrived, many people took the initiative to start throwing themselves to the side of the Xingtian Army.

As soon as the Xingtian Army arrived at the edge of the Huai River, many people who lived on the Huai River immediately rowed their boats out of the reeds and sailed to the north bank of the Huai River to help the Xingtian Army.

When they saw this scene, the soldiers and generals of the Xingtian Army were all full of emotion, secretly sighing that this imperial court and government were really finished, and the people's hearts completely fell to their side of the Xingtian Army, so what will be difficult for them to attack Nanjing next? Invisibly, such a situation greatly boosted the morale of the Xingtian Army.

In the second half of the night, even some fishermen on the south bank of the Huai River simply stole the boats docked on the south bank, desperately sailed to the north bank, and defected to the Xingtian Army, providing boats for the Xingtian Army to build pontoon bridges. So he simply set fire to many ships seized on the south bank, and the fire was so thick that many shipowners cried on the shore, and hated the officers and soldiers to the fullest.

Xiao Tianjian was not in a hurry to attack the Huai River, after all, under the guard of the officials and troops, the possibility of success in erecting a pontoon bridge on the river was very small, and it might cause great casualties, so he ordered to simply pull the heavy artillery to the edge of the Huai River, set up cannons, and bombard the officers and troops on the south bank directly and from a distance, creating a false impression that they would cross the river at any time, forcing the officers and troops on the south bank to always maintain a state of tension and not dare to be distracted and disperse to other places.

Luo Li sent back the news that night, successfully captured Wuhe County, and early the next morning, he led his troops to leave Wuhe County, forcibly crossed the lower reaches of the Huai River, and began to make a detour in the direction of Fengyang Mansion.

And Li Xuanzhu's side did not disappoint Xiao Tianjian, after leading his troops to Huaiyuan County, Huaiyuan Zhixian knew that he was invincible, even if Kaicheng surrendered to the Xingtian Army, Xiao Tianjian ordered all the officials who surrendered to the Xingtian Army to stay in office directly and temporarily, and then make other arrangements later, and ensure the safety of the surrendered officers and soldiers and the families and family property of the officials.

After Li Xuanzhu took Huaiyuan County, he also crossed the river non-stop, and cooperated with Luo Li's department towards Fengyang Mansion, like a big pincer, and attacked the officials and troops in the area of Fengyang Mansion like a big pincer, and rushed straight to the Ming Emperor's Mausoleum.

The Ming Emperor's Mausoleum has been set on fire by Zhang Xianzhong, Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng in the eighth year of Chongzhen, so this time the government has also paid great attention to the protection of the Ming Emperor's Mausoleum.

When the chief eunuch who guarded the Ming Emperor's Mausoleum heard that the soldiers and horses of the Xingtian Army were rushing towards them, even if they discarded the officers and soldiers, they changed the clothes of civilians and fled from the Imperial Tomb overnight, which made the officers and soldiers guarding the Ming Dynasty suddenly make a big uproar, and they fled in the direction of Luzhou.

At this time, the officers and soldiers guarding the banks of the Huai River found that the Xingtian Army had appeared behind them, and the army was immediately in turmoil, and the guard general Liu Chengfeng even led the army to flee from the south bank of the Huai River, and even did not enter Fengyang Mansion, so he made a detour to Luzhou, and the remaining thousands of officers and soldiers rushed to flee, making Fengyang Mansion's defense line in the Huai River area collapse overnight.

Xiao Tianjian on the morning of the 23rd, began to order the construction of pontoon bridges to cross the river, a large number of people abandoned by the official army to help the war, did not flee immediately, but on the south bank to help build pontoon bridges, just one day, on the Huai River with the remaining boats, built three pontoon bridges, a large number of the main force of the Xingtian army under the supervision of Xiao Tianjian, almost did not encounter any resistance, then successfully crossed the Huai River, the soldiers arrived at the city of Fengyang Mansion.

At this time, sitting in Fengyang Mansion is the governor Zhu Dadian, Zhu Dadian once led the army in Shandong to suppress Kong Youde's rebellion, because of his merit, he was later promoted to the military department to continue to patrol Shandong, eight years after Fengyang was broken by Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and others, Zhu Dadian was transferred to Nanzhili, governor Fengyang, Luzhou and other four prefectures, presiding over the suppression of the righteous army in this area.

Speaking of this Zhu Dadian, is a more contradictory figure, first of all, this person is rumored to be extremely wealthy, is a typical corrupt official, has been repeatedly impeached by other officials, but in the past few years, for many reasons, Chongzhen has not freed up his hands to clean him up, so that Zhu Dadian is safe in Fengyang Mansion until now, and in history Zhu Dadian is also a loyal minister, and is full of loyalty, when the Qing army went south, Zhu Dadian recruited troops in Jinhua to resist the Qing Dynasty, after the city was defeated, he took the whole family into the gunpowder bureau in Jinhua City, ignited the gunpowder and martyred the whole family.

But at this time, Zhu Dadian, when the Xingtian army came to the city, did not show his loyalty, seeing that a large number of officers and soldiers who were finally gathered were scattered under the three-way attack of the Xingtian army, and wanted to arrive at the city of Fengyang Mansion, Fengyang Mansion had no city wall, only the palace in the city was built with a high wall, although the palace wall was tall and strong, but Zhu Dadian did not have many troops at hand to defend it, and the people in the city were even more moved, and they joined the Xingtian army, he knew that he could not hold Fengyang Mansion, Knowing that staying was waiting for death, Zhu Dadian abandoned Fengyang Mansion with his family and fled to Luzhou on the eve of the siege of Fengyang Mansion by the Xingtian Army.

As a result, Xiao Tianjian can be said to have taken Fengyang Mansion lightly without spending much effort, invaded the imperial city of Fengyang Mansion, and completely controlled Fengyang Mansion.

(Today's thanks to my old friend Spicy Death!) ）