Despite this, Xu Hongru still did not sober up from the huge victory.

You must know that now the White Lotus Sect Leader Xu Hongru has more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, and he has conquered hundreds of states and counties in a row and plundered two big cities, which can be described as unique. There are also many outlaws on the rivers and lakes who already admire Xu Hongru's prestige, and when they heard that the legendary White Lotus Sect Master was about to seize the world, they also rushed to join the service.

For a while, Xu Hongru was surrounded by fierce generals like clouds, soldiers and horses, as if there was no one else in the world who could compare with him except for the difficult Ji Qingwen who could bring him some trouble to a greater or lesser extent.

And then the war seemed to prove it.

Since attacking all the way from Fujian into Zhejiang, the White Lotus Sect has consumed a lot of money, and it is urgent to loot a large city to replenish it. After a series of reconnaissance visits, Xu Hongru suddenly found that there was a big city standing in his north - Wenzhou!

So Wenzhou has become Xu Hongru's next goal as a matter of course!

But attacking Wenzhou is also quite dangerous - it turns out that the gap between Xu Hongru and Wenzhou City is not a plain with a flat river, nor a steep and continuous hills, but a Feiyun River that leads directly to the sea.

This Feiyun River is not wide, and it is by no means easy to jump over, so how to cross this Feiyun River has become a big problem in front of Xu Hongru.

However, Xu Hongru raised troops for several months, and he could be regarded as accumulating a lot of experience in marching and fighting, and after he was determined to cross the Feiyun River, he collected wooden boats, bamboo rows and other things everywhere, and organized craftsmen who would erect pontoon bridges in the team.

That night, Xu Hongru first sent the White Lotus Sect, who had excellent water qualities, to swim across the river in the night, and waited in the towering reed pyre for half the night. When the sky was light, he sent all the wooden boats and bamboo rafts he had collected, carrying 800 elite soldiers, led by Xu Daoqing, to the other side of the Feiyun River.

On the opposite side, the Zhejiang defenders who pretended to defend the river saw that the opponent was crossing the river violently, and hurriedly opened their bows and arrows to shoot at the river. However, they had been out of battle for a long time, and their bows and arrows were neither accurate nor violent. Without paying much loss or price, the vanguard troops of the White Lotus Sect crossed the Feiyun River and fought all the way to the front of the Zhejiang defenders on the other side of the river.

The defenders of Zhejiang just wanted to draw their knives and start hand-to-hand combat, wanting to drive the White Lotus bandits who had been killed down the river. Unexpectedly, the vanguard of the White Lotus Sect ambushed here suddenly attacked, suddenly slaughtered from the reeds and grass, attacked the flank of the official army, and immediately killed the front of the official army.

At the same time, the White Lotus Sect who crossed the river by boat, under the leadership of Xu Daoqing, rushed and attacked the official army head-on.

After Xu Daoqing, Xu Hongru and Zhou Xiuying also began to urge the skilled craftsmen among the White Lotus Sect to temporarily build a pontoon bridge over the river, preparing to transport the brigade across the river to participate in the battle.

Under such a triple blow, the imperial court officials and troops were naturally defeated, but they were prepared in advance, so the retreat was considered to be somewhat disciplined, and they did not completely retreat.

After successfully crossing the Feiyun River, Xu Hongru divided all his men into three teams: one team led by himself to suppress the position, one team led by Zhou Xiuying to sweep the imperial court troops outside Wenzhou City, and the other team led by Xu Daoqing to attack the city.

Unexpectedly, the Wenzhou city in front of him has become an empty city - not only the officials and troops defending the city outside the city will collapse at the touch of a button, and they don't know where to retreat, but even the people have also walked away - within a radius of more than 100 miles, there is no one in Liao.

And there is not a single officer and soldier in the city of Wenzhou, half of the people, except for a few wild dogs scurrying around, a few wild cats playing around, there is no life in the huge city of Wenzhou.

(The original version of this book is published on Zongheng Chinese Network, please also move to support, thank you!) ）

Seeing this scene, only two words popped up in Xu Hongru's mind: Zhongji!

It must be that the officials and soldiers deliberately attracted themselves to Wenzhou City, and then they were about to besiege themselves!

Although it was not possible to find out where the besieging officers and soldiers were for a while, Wenzhou was already an empty city, so there was no need to continue to stay in the city, not to mention that the danger was slowly approaching.

So Xu Hongru only stayed in Wenzhou for a short time, and then decided to immediately lead the army to set off and leave Wenzhou to find a way out.

There are only three ways out: one is to move westward and develop deep into the eastern hills of Zhejiang; One is to turn back to the south and return to Fujian; The other is to continue north, looking for opportunities to attack Hangzhou and Suzhou.

However, it is said that there are three roads, but Xu Hongru dares to go, but there are only two roads: it turned out that Ji Qingwen had followed him to the territory of Zhejiang, and led the elite soldiers to move on the west side of Xu Hongru, forming an invisible but extremely strong line of defense.

Therefore, Xu Hongru first gave up his plan to advance westward, and waved his army to prepare to advance north in the direction of Hangzhou.

In the north of Wenzhou, there is an Oujiang River. The Ou River is twice as wide as the Feiyun River to the south, and the current is much more rapid.

Nevertheless, this Oujiang River is not insurmountable.

So Xu Hongru repeated his old tricks, still using water ghosts, ferries, and pontoon bridges as means to organize three waves of attacks.

However, the officers and troops guarding the Oujiang River were very different from the officers and troops guarding the Feiyun River - not only had the number of people more than tripled, but also the combat effectiveness and fighting will were also quite strong, making it difficult for the White Lotus Sect to break through for a while.

It turned out that according to Ji Qingwen's order, in addition to the Zhejiang Guard Station of Zhejiang Governor Zhang Yandeng, the defenders of Nanjing led by Liu Kongzhao and Han Zanzhou were also guarding the Oujiang defense line.

The combat effectiveness of the Nanjing garrison can be described as vulnerable compared to the "Ming Wu Army", but it is much stronger than that of the Zhejiang Guards. And Liu Kongzhao and Han Zanzhou, who led the army, did not want the White Lotus Sect to break through the Oujiang defense line and further advance to the central and northern parts of Zhejiang, so they commanded the operation with great care.

In this way, with the addition of 20,000 Nanjing defenders, the Oujiang defense line became even stronger and tenacious, blocking two attacks from the White Lotus Sect one after another.

And on the side of the White Lotus Sect Xu Hongru, since the incident in Fujian, the journey has been smooth, and he has never experienced any vicious battles, let alone encountered any major setbacks. Therefore, in the face of such a temporarily unfavorable battle situation, Xu Hongru suddenly became furious, and immediately turned his anger on several leaders under him, saying that they were afraid of the enemy and had no enterprising spirit, and strictly ordered them to continue to increase their offensive.

In this regard, Zhou Xiuying has some objections.

She felt that attacking Hangzhou and Suzhou all the way north until taking Nanjing, although the established strategy was not unchangeable. Just because it is not advantageous to attack the Oujiang defense line at present, and the imperial court on the opposite side seems to have gathered a large number of men and horses to intercept it, the posture is that the White Lotus Sect cannot take half a step forward to the north of the Oujiang River. Under such circumstances, it is necessary to adopt a flexible strategy, temporarily abandon the plan to attack northward, and instead find another way out.

However, Xu Hongru is 70 years old this year, and he suffered a gunshot wound in Nanjing last year. In his heart, if he gave up attacking Oujiang now, he would certainly be able to save a lot of strength, but he Xu Hongru himself might not be able to use the preserved strength.

In Xu Hongru's eyes, only success as soon as possible is the only goal.

So what does it mean to be successful?

Undoubtedly, it was to conquer Hangzhou and Suzhou, two cities known as "heaven", and then continue to the north after obtaining supplies and soldiers, and conquer Nanjing in one fell swoop. Then follow the example of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, and ascend to the pole in Nanjing to become the emperor, and then talk about the addiction of being the emperor in a few days.

Under the guidance of such thinking, Xu Hongru certainly could not give up his plan to attack the Oujiang River to the north.

So the White Lotus Sect Master ordered his skilled craftsmen to build an altar outside Wenzhou overnight, and personally ascended the altar to spread the so-called "holy water" to the believers gathered under the altar.

And these believers, thinking that after drinking this holy water, they will be protected by boundless mana, and from then on they will be invulnerable to the officials and soldiers.