A month later.

"The white bones are exposed in the wild, and there is no rooster crowing for thousands of miles!"

Zhu Yujian stood on the deck, looked at the land of Henan in the moonlight and said.

Mu Tianbo next to him was silent.

At this time, this core part of the Central Plains has completely turned into a wasteland, just like the Wuhu period, the Ming army only has garrisons in a few fortress-level cities along the Yellow River, starting from Xuzhou to Zhengzhou, and the middle has completely become a near-no man's land. Even in the former capital city of Guide, there is only one brigade garrison and less than 50,000 people, and the Kaifeng city has not been rebuilt so far, and it still maintains the appearance after being destroyed by the flood.

The entire section of the Yellow River from Xuzhou to Zhengzhou, in addition to the garrison, has a combined population of less than 200,000.

The main thing is to maintain the river.

After all, this section of the Yellow River is the main channel for transporting grain from the south of the Yangtze River to Guanzhong, and every year there is an endless stream of boats going upstream, sending grain to Luoyang and then sent to Shaanzhou by Li Zicheng's people, and then transported by water to Chang'an to replenish the shortage of Guanzhong.

It's not just food.

A large amount of goods from the south were also transported to Guanzhong through this route, and then transported by Li Zicheng's caravans to the Western Regions and even as far away as Russia.

Moscow has already started drinking black tea.

Black tea with sugar was already the most fashionable enjoyment among the Russian aristocracy.

However, from Yunnan, Mu Tianbo, who has never seen a real war damage area, now sees this land full of barrenness, some are just a kind of desolation, the once densely populated Central Plains, in less than ten years degenerated into a wilderness. The population density here is not even as good as that of Yunnan, even if the population of some remote areas of Yunnan is not necessarily less than here, in fact, the population of Yunnan after the Ming census is several times that of Henan. Looking at the wasteland, he couldn't see any lights, only a group of wild wolves on the shore running wildly in the moonlight, but what he didn't know was that if it wasn't for Yang Qing's appearance, the tigers would have been hunting in Chengdu City at this time.

He sighed and turned to walk towards the cabin behind him.

Zhu Yujian also turned around and followed.

On the bank of the Yellow River behind their boat, the boats connected end to end formed a long queue that stretched endlessly, and the illuminated lanterns also stretched on the background of night and starlight......

There were four hundred thousand gold coins on these ships.

These ships were loaded with almost half a year's worth of revenue from the Ming Dynasty.

Just as Zhu Yujian was about to step into the hatch, he suddenly stopped and looked into the distance suspiciously.

A few flickeres of fire flickered in the black of the wilderness.

"Shelling!"

He let out a sudden exclamation.

Immediately after that, he pushed down Mu Tianbo in front of him and threw himself into the cabin at the same time, almost at the same time, the sound of cannons and the roar of breaking through the air suddenly came, and the next moment the bulkhead above his head turned into countless fragments, and the splinters of wood swept overhead. He and Mu Tianbo held their heads and screamed, a cannonball was hitting the two of them, shattering the table, and then hitting the wooden plank of the cabin, but it had already penetrated a layer of wooden plank and shattered the table, and the cannonball with severely weakened power did not penetrate the plank but stuck on it.

Zhu Yujian wiped the cold sweat on his head.

He then got up, ignoring Mu Tianbo, who was still unconscious in fright, and rushed out of the cabin without hesitation......

"Enemy attack, quickly counterattack!"

He yelled.

The Ming troops accompanying the escort ran in confusion.

But it was clear that no one fought back, and although he had two battalions on the shore to escort them, no one from the two Ming mountain infantry battalions fought back, and they all fled in confusion, even their tents were burning.

Just like the Ming army many years ago.

At this moment, in the darkness of the distant wasteland, the sporadic firelight flickered again.

"Shoot back!"

Zhu Yujian roared angrily.

The soldiers were still in disarray, but some of the nearer, as the shells whistled over their heads, gave him some face, and fired sporadically into the distance with their arquebuses, but when they were done, they began to flee as well. Then the shell hit Zhu Yujian's ship again, and the Ming troops on the boat jumped into the water one after another in the splash of broken wood, which is a shallow area near the shore, and basically as long as you don't fall into the silt, you can't drown.

At this time, Mu Tianbo also ran out.

But at the moment when he ran out of the cabin, a cannonball hit the wood next to him, and a three-finger-long piece of wood was nailed to his shoulder like a bullet, Mu Tianbo screamed, and Zhu Yujian dragged him off the boat without hesitation. After soaking by the Dianchi Lake for several years, he dragged Mu Tianbo to the boat behind, and just as they climbed onto the boat, the third round of shells also shattered their boat.

"King, there is a boat behind to untie!"

The officer on board shouted.

Zhu Yujian hurriedly looked back, the flotilla connected from end to end was disintegrating, and the boats full of gold coins were scattering one after another, and then drifting downstream under the impetus of the river.

At this time, the sound of killing was heard from the shore.

The escorts of the two battalions fled in a hurry, and soon a large number of cavalry appeared.

"Jiannu cavalry!"

Someone among the soldiers screamed.

Then the same shouts rang out more, and more and more boats separated behind, Zhu Yujian roared angrily, urging the guards to fight back, but the two battalions on the shore only cared about escaping, and the two battalions on the river couldn't wait to disintegrate the fleet, and then rushed into the deep water area, and drifted downstream under the impetus of the river. The Jiannu cavalry on the shore opened fire in confusion on their horses, and although they did not see any targets hit, the sound of gunfire intensified the confusion on the river, and almost all the boats scattered and fled.

"Come back, kill the escapees!"

Zhu Yujian brandished his knife and roared.

Suddenly, there was a strange sound, he subconsciously pounced, and then a bullet flew close to his head and knocked his hat away, Zhu Yujian pounced on the deck with a cold sweat, one of his cronies and slaves pushed away the soldiers in the chaos, and cut the cable of the anchor with a knife, and the boat with its sails lowered immediately began to turn under the impetus of the river.

Zhu Yujian lay on the deck, not daring to move, allowing it to be pushed downstream.

Bullets continued to fall beside him.

However, as he lay on his stomach, his aim narrowed, and the bullets smashed and flew on the deck, but they never really hit him, and the boat beneath him continued to be washed downstream.

Soon the cavalry on the shore was out of sight.

Only then did he turn over and get up, look at the scattered routs on the shore with hatred, and then walked into the cabin with a gloomy face, Mu Tianbo's wounds were being bandaged, the ship had also suffered a few shells, several large holes in the bulkhead and broken wood everywhere in the cabin were shocking......

"How did Jiannu get here!"

Mu Tianbo said with palpitations.

"Jiannu?"

Zhu Yujian sneered.

He waved his hand for everyone to go out.

Then he picked up a cannonball in the cabin of the landing ship under Mu Tianbo's puzzled gaze.

"Four-and-a-half-pound cavalry guns!"

He held the cannonball up in front of Mu Tianbo and said.

"What do you mean?"

Mu Tianbo said suspiciously.

"The standard equipment of the cavalry army!"

Zhu Yujian said.

"Gao Dejie?"

Mu Tianbo said in astonishment.

They are now south of Tongwaxiang, and in addition to the garrisons stationed in various places, the cavalry of Gao Dejie's department patrolling the buffer zone on the north bank of the Yellow River is the one under Gao Dejie.

This is also the only cavalry army of the Ming Dynasty.

The elite cavalry group of 20,000, which includes a cuirassier brigade and four hussar brigades, is the most important mobile force on the battlefield on the northern front, and it is also the most important to undertake real combat missions in a state of confrontation. They and the Manchu and Mongolian cavalry cruising on the opposite side often played hunting games with each other, and this cavalry was also the most loyal to Yang Qing, and its backbone was fought together with Yang Qing on the battlefield. These guys, who have been stationed in the war zone all the year round and are accustomed to killing, are also the most unruly, and it is indeed impossible to say that the interception and killing team is not impossible under the current situation.

After all, this is a war zone.

Here, even if all the escort team is killed, it can be pushed to the Qing army.

"Except for our ship, have the back ones been shelled? Was this ship shelled after we got on board? Is it normal for two battalions on the shore to collapse in the face of the wind? Many of the boats on the river were carrying cannons, so why didn't any of them return fire, but all of them fled directly? If the bullet just now hadn't flashed fast, my head would have been smashed, and with such an accuracy at such a distance, what else could it be other than a rifled gun? The cavalry had just used arquebuses instead of arquebuses, otherwise they would have been able to see the arquebuses at such a distance without firing. ”

Zhu Yujian said.

Although he has never been to the front, it is clear that the military level is still there.

Although one of the brigades guarding them was not really the main force, it was an exaggeration to disperse immediately in the event of such an attack, so that their escort had already colluded with the attackers. Moreover, the latter is so accurate in volleying that it is obvious that several Ming army strongholds stationed on the shore are providing them with intelligence, otherwise how can the cavalry accurately rush?

"Obviously someone doesn't want to let us move forward!"

He said, looking at the cannonball in his hand.

"What are we going to do?"

Mu Tianbo said in shock.

It was clear that they were risking their lives on this errand.

"What to do? Let's find all the boats that are rushing downstream! As for the future, send a report to Yang Qing saying that we have been attacked by Jiannu, and we can't move forward for the time being, so we can only retreat back to Germany and wait! Before the completion of the eradication of Jiannu, it is not advisable to continue to move forward in order to ensure safety, as for how to deal with him, anyway, I will not take my life for this errand! ”

Zhu Yujian said.

He really didn't dare to move on.

Even if you can pass this level, there are countless such uninhabited sections of the river along the way, it is too easy to kill people, and even the dead body will not be left, just tie a stone and throw it at the Yellow River, it is not uncommon to overturn the boat on the Yellow River in an accident! Obviously, this is how these people originally designed the script tonight, a cannonball bombed them into the Yellow River, but I didn't expect him to camp and play with iron lock boats, the speed of changing boats is extremely fast, and the hunter did not succeed in sniping because of his agility.

If he moved slowly, his head would have exploded by this time.

"In this way, even if the Holy Driver returns to the capital, he will not be able to take this road!"

Mu Tianbo said faintly.

Indeed, these proud soldiers and fierce generals on the front line dared to intercept and kill them, of course, they would not dare to use artillery to bombard Longxing Tianzi on the Yellow River, even if Yang Qing did not allow them to do so, they could also ignore Yang Qing's orders. Anyway, just kill the son of Longxing and plant it to Dolgon, this kind of military buffer zone is originally hunted by each other, although the Qing army never dared to attack the Yellow River line, but it is also a fact that they are the closest. Then as soon as the Son of Heaven Longxing died, even if Yang Qing refused to usurp the throne, this Daming still had the final say, and these generals were all the same, and even one day they would simply add Yang Qing's yellow robe.

After all, these Yang Qing's cronies and generals have long been eager to become the fathers of the new dynasty.

This kind of thing Yang Qing may not be able to control.

After all, this is also considered to be the emperor far away.

"That's not something we can decide!"

Zhu Yujian said.

Early the next morning, they returned to Germany after venturing at night.

"Jiannu? This is not surprising, you must know that this is a war zone, Jiannu often run here to harass, they have a large army stationed in Puzhou, south to the Yellow River, are the guerrilla area of the Mongolian Horqin cavalry, our cavalry often fight with them in this area, this kind of thing is impossible to prevent! ”

Liu Shixun, the guard of Guide Town, said.

The Ming army in the front line of the fortress are the town guard envoy and in charge of the military and the people, he himself is actually the deputy commander, with the deputy commander to lead an infantry brigade stationed in Guide, the command of the Guide as the core, a nearby circle of docked forts Huangzhuang and three militia brigades based on it. The latter was responsible for the maintenance of the Yellow River on a rotating basis, and in the event of an enemy attack, the town guard would order the conscription as soldiers if necessary, and basically all the people were soldiers, even women would shoot. However, it would be nonsense to say that the Qing army really dared to attack, and if the Qing army went south from Puzhou, it would need to drive 300 miles without any supplies.

Then facing Guide City and a bunch of small dock forts around it, and there was also Wei Hui's Gao Dejie's cavalry behind him to attack at any time, and the Xuzhou Ming army could be reinforced at any time.

And only in winter.

As for the season......

It is impossible for them to fly across the Yellow River.

Zhu Yujian snorted coldly, ignoring this guy, he could already be sure that the bastard in front of him was one of the culprits who almost let himself die in the Yellow River.

"If we don't clean up Jiannu, we won't continue to move forward, Liu Zhen will send a report to Nanjing!"

Mu Tianbo said.

"Then the king and the prince of Qian will rest first!"

Liu Shixun said with a smile.

After saying that, he went out with the guards and walked out of the courtyard where Zhu Yujian and the two lived, and this guy said with an unhappy face: "Mah, Boss Gao is too unclean!" ”

"General, do you want to ......?"

The cronies next to him made a drinking gesture.

That means to get a cup of poisoned wine for the vassal king and a prince inside.

Anyway, the emperor is far away, and this is the town guard in the city of De, and the two of them died when they were filled with poisoned wine, and they were said to be seriously injured and died. Xuzhou Metropolitan Department must be the same as them, and then it can only be people from Nanjing, this season when people from Nanjing come to them, they have already rotted into a pile of carrion, who can find out what injuries they have suffered at that time?

Liu Shixun hesitated.

"Forget it, let's send a report to Xuzhou!"

In the end, he gave up the idea of wiping Gao Dejie's ass.