West of Poyang Lake.

Under the sky, in the night, a group of ants densely stretched out in a long column, climbing forward, the starry firelight flickered up and down from time to time in the night, it was very good-looking, but the time and space abruptly changed, with the eagle from a bird's-eye view of the sky rushed down rapidly, the ant-like long column was majestic again, it was a fully armed army, equipped with armor, carrying a flintlock pistol facing the sky, burly and sturdy soldiers, shouting the trumpet, rushing forward in full swing.

In the neighing of war horses, the heavy artillery carts pressed down deep ruts on the soft Jiangnan land.

There is no hesitation in the dictionary of Dongjiang, just do it! On the fifth day of the first month of September, the Jiujiang estuary was ready, and immediately the Xuzhou Corps, under the leadership of Liu Chong, the commander of the corps, crossed the Yangtze River by the gunboats of the naval division, and on the eighth day of the first month of September, more than 48,000 infantry of the six corps set up the first fortress on the other side of the river in Yushi County, which was close to the river.

After a long run for a few days, there are only two corps left under Liu Chong's command, but he is still confident and continues to move forward, with these two corps, he is now confident that he will not fall behind in the field against the 100,000 Chuang army.

Moreover, Nanchang Mansion on the other side of Poyang Lake is also close at hand, if you take here, with a strong city defense, even if 500,000 troops move together, there will be no way to take him for a while.

As early as the third day of September, the surrender edict drafted in the name of Gao Guiying, the empress of Dashun, has been delivered to the Jiujiang Chuang army camp, and now the entire camp is a mess, and all the Xuzhou Corps needs to do is to block them!

The only tricky point now is only Nanchang City, after all, this place is still in the hands of Nanming, and maybe it will be more troublesome to negotiate.

But for Liu Chong, this is just a trouble, if the defenders of Nanchang City don't open their eyes, just take it together, maybe the first cannonball fired at Nanming, the first shot to unify the north and south, or fired by himself, according to the Dongjiang convention, maybe he can build a monument to himself here, thinking, riding on a horse, Liu Chong, who was already slightly frosted on his temples, was excited like a young man, and his body trembled slightly.

But just as he was thinking about the beautiful kung fu, a rapid shout rang in his ears.

"Commander, look!"

Stunned, he suddenly grabbed the reins of the horse, Liu Chong raised the telescope in surprise, in his eyes, a piece of fire flashed in the barrel of the telescope, his beard was cocked angrily, Liu Chong slapped his thigh sadly: "Hey! It's a step too late! ”

"Order the legion, give up the artillery, and give Ben Shuai full speed ahead!"

The heavy and precious artillery carriage was abandoned on the side of the road, holding rifles, and a large number of Xuzhou infantry strode forward, but even so, Liu Chong was still lagging behind in the end, and only had time to block some of the stragglers who set fire to Nanchang City, and it was also the first time, looking at the burning Ganjiang Bridge, Liu Chong, who was used to fighting in the waterway, could only pat his thighs and sigh at the water.

.......

Today's Northern Ming Dynasty, even if the Qin Dynasty built the Qin Straight Road is difficult to match, the four developed train tracks, taking the temporarily requisitioned Xu Lei railway train, just a few days, and there are fifteen corps of huge military power into the front line, September 18, the Xuzhou Army completed the interception task, but also led the military horses to cross the river Mao Jue drove straight in, straight to the camp of the army not far from the mouth of the Jiujiang River.

Looking at it from afar, on the edge of Poyang Lake, just like a chaotic village on the horizon, with the lake breeze blowing, a bad smell of sour smell came to the face, at this time the army obviously has no fighting spirit, watching the neat Northern Ming army formation, the first reaction of the sentinels on the periphery is not to fight, but to turn around and run, bursts of noise and riots continue to sound in the camp, but with the continuous advance of the Ming army, the situation is quickly controlled, no one dares to challenge the bayonet without opening their eyes, in the reprimand, A large number of invading troops directly dropped their weapons and retreated into the shacks or tents where their battalions were located.

Just like the scene in the movie, Mao Jue walked forward majestically in full armor, and the two rows of Praetorian Guards in front of him also stood on both sides of the trot like mahjong tiles, and as Mao Jue walked to the side, the Praetorian Guards suddenly held the gun in his chest, holding the knife to the sky, standing upright, the neat rhythm was as smooth and wonderful as a machine.

With the pace of Mao Jue's advance, the last two forbidden troops suddenly opened the tent of the Chinese army, and the leaders of the more than 30 battalions of the army, who had been in a hurry to become a pot of porridge, all turned their heads sluggishly and looked over, and then under the leadership of Hao Shaoqi, who had already "secretly agreed", these people fell to the ground one after another.

"Long live the Emperor, long live, long live, long live!"

Xiangyang has been stagnant in Poyang Lake for several years, and it has made the spirit of the unstoppable Dashun army that once flowed all over the world have been lost, even if Hao Shaoqi, who is in the lead, this is all prostrate under Mao Jue's feet, for fear that the glory and wealth promised by Lu Zhong before will be lost.

His eyes roamed over these guys with crooked armor, and after a few laps, Mao Jue raised his eyebrows deeply, and asked in amazement.

"Where is General Quan Liu Zongmin?"

This sentence made all the leaders of the army kneeling on the ground tremble violently, and the silence lasted for a few seconds, pretending to be bold, Hao Shaoqi was urged by everyone's eyes to kowtow tremblingly.

"Return, return to Your Majesty, Liu, Liu Zhi insisted on going his own way, led three battalions and five soldiers and horses, and snatched out of the military camp on the 11th, and had bypassed Poyang Lake and rushed to Yingtian to kill!"

"What!"

All of a sudden, even Mao Jue couldn't help but scream, he had played the chess game in Jiangnan for a long time, when the Northern and Southern Dynasties were in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Hou Jing and a Northern Dynasty surrendered to run the rebels and killed a thousand miles of Red Land in the Southern Dynasties, and directly lost the qualification of the Northern Dynasties to continue the confrontation, and was wiped out by the Sui army in a battle, don't look at Liu Zongmin, there are only 350,000, let him go on in chaos, there may not be as little damage caused by Hou Jing.

It's really called eighteen bows, and this last trembling is full of anger, Virgo's Mao Jue flicked his sleeves in annoyance, turned away, and looked at the emperor's angry back, and a large group of generals were even more worried.

Fortunately, Beiming has no habit of going back on his word, he has just left, Song Xiance, a scholar from Beiming University with a big head and a small body, has already followed, looking at the generals of the army who are prostrate on the ground, a satisfied look appeared in his pupils, coughed lightly, and pulled out the holy decree jointly drafted by the cabinet and the emperor from the scroll barrel on his back, but he did not read it out for the first time, but asked loudly to the generals who were kneeling on the ground and looking at themselves.

"Do you want power? Or do you want money to be a rich man? ”

.........

Now that Liu Zongmin has fled, it is useless to be anxious, and how to deal with the more than 400,000 troops in front of him when he is delayed, first of all, it is impossible for this group of people to be directly put back to Huguang, although the vast majority of the population here is a strong man who was forcibly conscripted by Huguang, but at this time, the vast part of the lake has been contracted by the Shanxi chaebol from the north, and there are also a large number of people from Shanxi and Sichuan who come here to cultivate and work, if hundreds of thousands of prime-aged laborers rush back at once, On the contrary, it is extremely easy for conflicts to erupt between the aborigines and the newcomers, and the originally stable situation in Huguang is thrown upside down.

Unlike ordinary people, many veterans who have experienced more than 10 or 20 years of war have long lost their normal means of making a living as ordinary people, and war has become their only survival skill.

There are also those surrendered Shun army generals, all dynasties, many times it is often easy to surrender these warlord leaders, but it is difficult to control them, often these people will rebel in series, and finally end up in bloodshed, it is not that people are born with backbones, but they have the final say and are used to being domineering, once they are prostrate at the feet of others, they also accept all kinds of rules and constraints, and it is really difficult to adapt, which is also the main reason for repeated surrenders, if it is all dynasties, The only way to deal with such people is to kill the word.

Fortunately, in today's Daming, even if he is not loyal, Mao Jue can find a place for them to come in handy, which is also the question that Song Xiance asked first at the beginning, whether to ask for money or power.

If you want money, it is easy to do, one person will be rewarded with tens of thousands of taels of silver, and the chambers of commerce and companies around the country will find a place for a leisure job to stay in peace, as for the power of the Ming Dynasty is actually more welcome, Tianzhu, Southeast Asia, and the two new continents need a large number of such outlaws to act as the emperor of the soil, and contribute to the cause of the Ming conquest.

Da Ming; There is a real shortage of labor! On September 21, Mao Jue stabilized the camp of the army, and from the beginning of 2324, there were major wealthy families in Jiangbei who heard the wind and moved, and all kinds of large companies gathered like flies smelling blood, and directly signed those ordinary soldiers who were full of anxiety.

Those who did not want to be dismissed were also screened into a column, and the instructors of the Liaodong Military Academy started to gradually new colonial regiments, ready to be sent overseas.

The 400,000,000 intruders are like ice cubes in summer, and the speed visible to the naked eye is shrinking day by day.

However, militarily, Mao Jue did not delay, a total of 18 cavalry regiments were transferred to form the rapid reaction force of the Huguang Front, commanded by Liu Xingzuo's grandson, Liu Guomeng, the commander of the general corps, around Ji'an Mansion to force the Ganjiang River to pursue Liu Zongmin, on the other hand, he sent people to Jiujiangkou to negotiate with Shi Kefa, wanting to let Shi Kefa let go of Jiujiangkou through negotiations, allowing the Yangtze River Naval Division to also enter Poyang Lake, and try to help Nanming to intercept Liu Zongmin's department.

As Luo Ning expected, in a short period of time, Mao Jue still didn't want to solve Jiangnan by force, after all, the form is different now, and the local bourgeoisie in Jiangnan is also gradually emerging in the competition, and with a little time, the emerging industrialists who are difficult to get along with the feudal landlords of Donglin will eventually fall into his arms.

However, there are often people in the world who are willing to die, and on September 25, in Mao Jue's anxious waiting, a Nanming official wearing a red official uniform was lost and returned to the Huxi camp with the negotiator Song Yu, and was brought to Mao Jue's army.

"Your Excellency?"

After all, he is not an immortal, and Song Yu, who has not yet had time to repay, brought it in and looked at this guy who had lost half of his three souls and six spirits, Mao Jue sat on the dragon chair in a bit of confusion and asked.

Who knew that his voice was like a return to the soul, and suddenly a clever, the crimson Mingguan's legs were soft and he fell to the ground, his voice was trilling, and his head fluttered and grabbed the ground.

"Foreign minister, Yuan Jixian, the governor of Jiujiang, knock to see Your Majesty, long live, long live! Please show mercy to Your Majesty and save Jiangnan! The Shi Pavilion Department has already taken the Jiujiang army and killed the side of Tianqing Jun! ”

"Scofa? Qingjun side? What the hell is going on??? ”

Mao Jue was confused, stood up suddenly, and said hurriedly in astonishment.