Xing Tianjun's siege of Nanzhili was like a bamboo, which made the entire Lianghuai area and the gentry and giants in the south of the Yangtze River fall into extreme panic, especially those businessmen who had participated in finding someone to assassinate Xiao Tianjian were even more panicked, they have also seen clearly the weakness of the court and the official army, so many officials and soldiers were stunned that there was no way to take Xing Tianjun, on the battlefield of Nanzhili, Xing Tianjun could be said to be invincible, and the official army was defeated and retreated, and now Xing Tianjun was only one step away from attacking the city of Nanjing. As a result, a large number of gentry and magnates in Nanjing began to pack their soft bags and fled from Nanjing, or fled to Songjiang Mansion, or fled to Hangzhou, or even ran directly to Ningbo Mansion and fled directly to Liangguang by sea.

However, there are still some people who are reluctant to take out a huge industry, and do not hesitate to spend huge salaries, hoping that Ding Qirui can hold Nanjing and block Xing Tianjun from Nanzhili, which also makes Ding Qirui rare to obtain a batch of silver salaries.

When Xiao Tianjian led the army to capture Chizhou, he transferred Sun Yingyuan, the strongest general in his hands, to Nanjing, and nearly 10,000 Xuzhou troops were also transferred to Nanjing City to strengthen the defense of Nanjing City.

Nanjing is the capital of the Ming Dynasty, whether it is a strategic position or a political position or even an economic status is undoubtedly extremely important, it can be said that it is second only to the north of the Beijing Division, and the richest area of the Ming Dynasty is also around Nanjing, so its gains and losses are undoubtedly extremely important for the Ming Dynasty or Xing Tianjun, Xiao Tianjian led his troops to attack Nanjing City, and it is precisely because of these reasons, not to mention that Nanzhili is the starting point of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, once it occupies here, in the future, Xing Tianjun will go north, and it can pass through the Grand Canal, All kinds of material resources were continuously transported to the north for the use of Xing Tianjun's soldiers and horses, so the gains and losses of Nanjing City can already be said to be a life-and-death duel between the Ming Dynasty and Xing Tianjun.

Ding Qirui knows the importance of Nanjing, of course, the imperial court has also given the greatest attention, although Chongzhen has no troops to adjust at the moment, to help Nanjing City, but Chongzhen still did his best, issued an order to Ding Qirui, let Ding Qirui take full charge of the military affairs of Nanzhili and Jiangxi and Fujian, hoping to reduce the constraints on his hands and feet as much as possible, so that Ding Qirui can hold Nanjing City.

In addition, Chongzhen did not put all his hopes on Ding Qirui, after thinking about it again and again, he still ordered Fu Zonglong to leave Beijing, and transferred 10,000 soldiers and horses from the Beijing camp, and cobbled together 20,000 horses from Jingfu and Xuanda, handed them over to Fu Zonglong, and ordered him to lead the army to attack Luoyang, Henan.

Now the core of Xing Tianjun is basically in Luoyang City, including the family of the thief chief Xiao Tianjian in Luoyang City, and the logistics department of Xing Tianjun is also located in Luoyang, the thief chief Xiao Tianjian is personally leading the troops south to attack Nanzhili, so Henan is relatively empty, if Fu Zonglong lives up to expectations this time and can lead the troops to Luoyang, then the thief army must not sit back and watch Luoyang be broken, and can only withdraw and return to Luoyang, which is also a way to attack it, so that the danger of Nanjing can be solved.

Chongzhen still had the last illusion in his heart until this time, thinking that he still had a chance to turn the tide, although he could also vaguely predict that the possibility of success was extremely small, but the situation forced him to make such an attempt, even if it was unsuccessful, at least he tried his best.

After Fu Zonglong received the order, he could only do it according to Chongzhen's requirements without hesitation, and gathered 10,000 soldiers and horses in the Beijing camp outside the capital, killing animals and sacrificing flags, and Chongzhen also personally went to the outside of the city to see off Fu Zonglong and a group of soldiers, the momentum was very grand, and the moved Fu Zonglong and those officers and soldiers all shed tears, vowing to desperately attack Henan.

But moved is moved, and after being moved, he still has to return to reality, this salary always has to be given, but there is a shortage of food and salary in the Beijing Division, Chongzhen also knows that it is impossible to let the officers and soldiers go out to fight for him without food and salary, and the emperor is not short of hungry soldiers! Therefore, Chongzhen was in Beijing for a long time, and then he made up 200,000 taels of silver to Fu Zonglong, and ordered the household department to find a way to give the conscription will make up some grain, although it is insufficient, but the rest of Fu Zonglong will find a way to solve it along the way, and the local government will cooperate to provide them with grain supply.

To put it bluntly, Lao Tzu has so much money and food, you Fu Zonglong can take it and do things! If it's not enough, you can figure it out yourself! Fu Zonglong knew that the food and salary were not enough, but in desperation, he could only grit his teeth and accept the holy decree, and led his troops to leave the capital division and drive towards Henan.

And after Yang Guozhu was ordered, he was still in compliance with the order, and once again transferred 7,000 men and horses from Xuanda and sent them to Jingfu to follow Fu Zonglong to fight, and this time the people he sent were also Xing Tianjun's old opponents, not others, it was the Shanxi general Xu Dingguo, who was defeated in successive battles under Xing Tianjun, after Xu Dingguo lost Lu'an Mansion, he was later demoted several levels and became a general, but after most of Shanxi was lost, Xu Dingguo still took thousands of men and horses to Xuanda, and returned to Yang Guozhu to obey orders, Some time ago, he was promoted to deputy general, but this time Yang Guozhu was selected and chosen, but there was no suitable candidate, so he finally had to send Xu Dingguo to Fu Zonglong.

Xu Dingguo was reluctant but had no choice, so he could only lead the troops to leave Xuanda and enter the land of Jingfu, and rushed to Baoding Mansion and Fu Zonglong to meet in one place, and in addition, all parts of Jingfu were also ordered to transfer 10,000 soldiers and generals, and sent them to Baoding Mansion to meet Fu Zonglong, and finally put together 30,000 horses, and drove towards Henan under the leadership of Fu Zonglong.

This operation Chongzhen began to arrange in June, but by the time Fu Zonglong left Beijing and went to Shunde Mansion, it was already July.

After Ma Ke, who sat in Shunde Mansion, learned the news that Fu Zonglong led his troops south, he had to go out of the city to meet Fu Zonglong, and entered Fu Zonglong's camp to meet him, Fu Zonglong had long known that this Ma Ke was not a thing, they did not dare to move Ma Ke at the beginning, because Ma Ke supported the army and respected himself, for fear of forcing Ma Ke, and now he has a handsome army to go south, before leaving Beijing, Chongzhen and him have secretly discussed how to deal with Ma Ke.

So after Fu Zonglong saw Ma Ke, he was very affectionate, and repeatedly said that Ma Ke was in Shunde, so that the thief army could not invade the north, and the saint was quite satisfied with him, Ma Ke was originally a little worried, for fear that Fu Zonglong would investigate him for refusing to follow the order to attack Xing Tianjun, and forcing Bai Guangen to surrender, when he saw Fu Zonglong say this, he was relieved, and couldn't help but become arrogant again.

Fu Zonglong turned a blind eye to Ma Ke's arrogance, and was very polite to him, saying that he wanted to meet Ma Ke's subordinate generals, Ma Ke did not doubt him, so he sent someone to recruit more than 1,000 generals under his command to Fu Zonglong's account to meet Fu Zonglong, Fu Zonglong did not show any abnormality, and praised these Ma Ke's subordinates, and gave a banquet in the camp, and sent someone to accompany them to drink.

Ma Ke and his subordinate generals happily accepted the order, and they drank bitterly with Fu Zonglong's generals in Fu Zonglong's camp, but they didn't expect that Fu Zonglong suddenly turned his face during the banquet and ordered Ma Ke to be arrested.

Ma Ke's subordinates were also disarmed, and they were detained one by one, and Ma Ke shouted injustice again and again, but at this time, the situation was already controlled by Fu Zonglong, and he was pushed out and beheaded after a while.

The generals under Ma Ke's command looked at Ma Ke's bloody heads one by one and were silent, and then Fu Zonglong appeased the generals under Ma Ke's command, ordering them to listen to orders under his account in the future, and ordered Zhou Yuji to take over Ma Ke's soldiers and horses, so he incorporated more than 10,000 people under Ma Ke's command into his command.

Although the generals under Ma Ke's command were not satisfied, they did not dare to make a mistake under high pressure, so they could only obey Fu Zonglong's dispatch, but even at night, there were still many generals who directly became deserters, either changed civilian clothes and avoided the countryside, or simply fled in groups of three or five towards the Xingtian army and surrendered to the Xingtian army.

Responsible for the defense north of the Yellow River is the general Diao Zheng of the Xing Tianjun, Fu Zonglong learned the news as soon as he moved in Beijing, and immediately began to deploy in the area of Zhangde Mansion, and from Huaiqing Mansion, Weihui Mansion to transfer men and horses into Zhangde Mansion to deploy, but the strength of the army is very different from Fu Zonglong's strength, the ratio of the two sides is roughly about four to one, and Diao Zheng also has to stay in the area of the Daimyo Mansion and Weihui Mansion and other places to guard some people, so the difference in strength is even more huge.

On July 23, Fu Zonglong led his troops from Shunde Mansion and ordered Xu Dingguo to lead his headquarters to attack Zhangde Mansion, but he himself led Zhou Yuji, Jingying and the old Ma Ke Department to bypass Zhangde Mansion and suddenly attack Shexian to the west of Zhangde Mansion.

Diao Zheng originally put the main forces in Wu'an County and Zhangde Mansion to deploy defense, but he did not expect Fu Zonglong to make a detour from the western mountains, Diao Zheng did not place many troops in the area of Shexian County, but there were less than 500 people to guard Shexian County, so although he fought with Xu Dingguo in Zhangde Mansion and defeated Xu Dingguo in a battle, but after he defeated Xu Dingguo's department, Fu Zonglong had already taken Shexian County.

The defenders of Shexian County only have more than 400 people, that is, there are not two companies that are fully formed, and they are also subordinate to the reserve battalion, and the combat effectiveness is relatively poor, as a result, more than 400 manpower fought for half a day, Shexian was conquered by Zhou Yuji's troops, and almost all of the more than 400 defenders were killed by Zhou Yuji.