Catching himself turned out to be the Jinyi guard of the Ming Dynasty, not the subordinate of Ningnan Hou Zuo Liangyu, which made Fan Zhongxing's heart extremely desperate.

Jin Yiwei, this can stop children from crying at night in Daming. Although for more than ten years, under the joint suppression of civil officials and Emperor Chongzhen, Jinyiwei is no longer as high-flying and domineering as when he was nine thousand years old in the Apocalypse. But in the eyes of a certain status, Jinyiwei is still a terrifying existence.

The internal town is in rebellion, and the external enemy is in turmoil, and the tentacles of Jinyiwei are extremely wide. Now that it was Jinyiwei who caught him, Fan Zhongxing was desperate for his future. Maybe Ling Chi's execution in the dream was his own end.

No, I will never endure such torture and humiliation! Fan Zhongxing shouted in his heart, wanting to find an opportunity to commit suicide by jumping into the river. But Liu Neng and others naturally wouldn't give him this opportunity, and he was very strict along the way.

After traveling dozens of miles along Nie Shui, I saw Hanyang Mansion City from a distance. Liu Neng and the others did not enter the city, but got off the boat far away.

Finding a secluded place and hiding, Jiang Fan went to the riverside of Hanyang Mansion alone to look for a boat.

The ferry boat is too small, and it is okay in the gentle Nie water, but it is not enough to drive in the Yangtze River. From here to Yangzhou is more than a thousand miles away, and it is not possible without good ships.

Fan Zhongxing, as an envoy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, persuaded Zuo Liangyu to betray the Ming Dynasty, although he had not yet seen Zuo Liangyu, and Zuo Liangyu had no idea about it at this time. But for the sake of prudence, Liu Neng didn't want Zuo Liangyu's army and the people in the Hanyang government to know about this matter.

If he knew that the Manchus sent people to persuade him to surrender, how would Zuo Liangyu choose?

Along the way, Liu Neng tortured Fan Zhongxing, and asked if the Manchu Qing had not sent a second envoy to persuade him to surrender, and he had not contacted Zuo Liangyu before. However, Liu Neng couldn't believe Fan Zhongxing's words, because many torture methods could not be used on the road, and if Fan Zhongxing was injured too badly, it would affect the escort to Yangzhou.

Jiang Fan went to the riverside and rented a canopy boat for ten taels of silver, the boat family was a couple and a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl, ten taels of silver to Yangzhou, and also included meals all the way, the price was not too expensive. The boat is also quite spacious, and there is no problem with accommodating a dozen people in the cabin.

When they saw a group of big men with weapons and a prisoner in custody, the faces of the boat family turned pale and they were very frightened, and the girl was even more frightened and hid behind her parents.

"Don't be afraid, we are all officials, and we are ordered to escort the prisoners to Yangzhou, and the silver that should be given to you will not be missing you." Liu Neng said in a gentle tone. People who were born in the Pingnan Army did not have the habit of oppressing good people.

Under the operation of the boatman, the canopy boat folded eastward and went with the flow.

Standing on the bow of the ship and looking at both sides, the green mountains are everywhere, and there are countless flags on the mountains on the south bank, which is where Zuo Liangyu garrisoned. There are also official and military sentinel boats passing by from time to time in the Yangtze River, checking the ships coming and going. However, Liu Neng has the waist card of Jinyiwei in his hand, and in the face of the long-infamous Jinyiwei, ordinary officials and soldiers do not want to provoke.

When a patrol boat of the Left Army was dispatched, Liu Neng was relieved. He knew that Zuo Liangyu didn't know about the Manchu envoys, and it seemed that Fan Zhongxing was not lying.

Along the way, Fan Zhongxing was tied to the cabin and not allowed to go out for a single step, and there was a Jinyi guard guarding him at all times, even if he urinated and urinated.

Although there were sails on the awning boat, the wind was not in the right direction, and it was all up to the boatman to paddle and walk, although it was going downstream, and it was not too fast. All the way through Jiujiang, Anqing, Wuhu Taiping, to the outside of Nanjing, it took ten days, and at this time it has entered November.

It stands to reason that it is most appropriate to hand over Fan Zhongxing to Nanjing Jinyiwei Yamen, after all, Liu Neng and others have the identity of Jinyiwei. But in Liu Neng's opinion, this matter should still be told to Pingnan Hou Chen Yue first. In Nanjing, these days, Liu Neng has already understood the temperament of the Nanjing court. If Fan Zhongxing is brought to Nanjing, within three days, everyone will definitely make a fuss, and at that time, although Zuo Liangyu does not counter, he will be forced to rebel.

Moreover, since Fan Zhongxing was the envoy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he naturally knew a lot of Manchu secrets, and escorting him to Yangzhou to ask for information about the Manchu Qing court was extremely helpful to the Pingnan Army's great cause of resisting the Qing Dynasty, and Hou Ye would definitely be very happy!

So, the canopy boat passed through Nanjing without entering, went straight downstream, and two days later entered the canal through Guazhou and arrived in Yangzhou.

In a military camp next to the Ordnance Division outside the city, Chen Yue, who was inspecting the Ordnance Division, secretly summoned Liu Neng.

"Master Hou!" Seeing Chen Yue, Liu Neng couldn't help himself with excitement.

"Good work." Chen Yue smiled.

Liu Neng told the story of the incident, and also explained why he did not take Fan Zhongxing to Nanjing but chose to come to Yangzhou.

"You, you really can't go back to Nanjing and continue to stay in Jinyiwei now." Chen Yue shook his head helplessly.

Liu Nengzhi came back from Wuchang and passed through Nanjing without entering, there is no impermeable wall in the world, and it will definitely be known to Dongchang in the end, and the crime of leaving his post without permission can be regarded as not being able to escape.

Anyway, it can be seen that Liu Neng is not very willing to stay in a place like Nanjing, so let him stay in the Pingnan Army.

"Master Hou promised to let me stay in the Pingnan Army?" Hearing Chen Yue's words, Liu Neng said in surprise.

Chen Yue smiled and nodded, with his identity, it was not a problem to transfer a Jinyi Wei Qianhu to the army.

"After this incident, you will serve in the Enemy Intelligence Department, and you will be responsible for investigating the intelligence of the Manchu Qing Dynasty." Chen Yue said.

"Yes, Master Hou!" Liu Neng's joy was beyond words.

Through interrogation, Chen Yue knew that the Manchu envoy had not yet contacted Zuo Liangyu, so he didn't care about this matter, but just wrote a letter to his father Chen Jianghe, asking him to send Jinyiwei to see Zuo Liangyu's movements.

According to Liu Neng, Zuo Liangyu is very sick now, and he will not leave Wuchang easily, the official treatment given to him by the Ming Dynasty is already very high, and the hereditary title of Marquis of Ningnan is already the peak of the martial ministers, and he will not easily take refuge in Mantar. In another time and space, after Zuo Liangyu died, his son Zuo Mengeng surrendered to the Manchu Qing under the pressure of the Manchu soldiers.

Will history repeat itself in this time and space? Chongzhen is still alive, the deterrent power of the Nanjing court is still there, and the food and salary of the court are very sufficient, so there is no reason for Zuo Liangyujun to surrender without a fight.

Liu Neng led people to continue to interrogate Fan Zhongxing, and the secrets of the Manchu court came out of Fan Zhongxing's mouth, sorted them into words and handed them to Chen Yue.

So Chen Yue knew why the Manchu Qing Dynasty defeated Li Zicheng's Dashun army in March, and then there was no movement for a long time.

It turned out that the Manchu Qing were busy moving their nest from outside the customs to Beijing, and the Manchu troops who entered the customs were busy expelling the people of Beijing and occupying territory. According to Fan Zhongxing, after the Manchu regent Dolgon led his army into Beijing, he drove all the people out of the inner city of Beijing, seized their real estate and homes, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, crying outside Beijing.

In addition to sending a partial division to attack the army in Shanxi, Dolgon has been busy running the city of Beijing for several months, and then preparing to move the nest from outside the pass.

Of course, perhaps because the summer weather in the Guannai was too hot, the Eight Banners soldiers who were accustomed to the cold climate outside the Guanxi were extremely uncomfortable, so they did not make a big move.

At the beginning of October, when Fan Zhongxing led people to set off, the little Manchu emperor Shunzhi finally came to Beijing and ascended the throne in the Huangji Palace.

When the matter of moving the capital came to an end, and it was a time when the sky was high, the Manchu regent Dolgon sent his two younger brothers, Azig and Duoduo, to lead the main force of the Eight Banners respectively and launched an attack on the Dashun army that retreated in Shaanxi.

Fan Zhongxing was only a low-ranking official in the Manchu court, and a capitulated Han official, so he didn't know much about the Manchu court's strategy. But after all, he was an official in the Manchu system, and he had the status of a Jin merchant, plus he had seen the situation of the two armies sending troops. Fan Zhongxing still knows a little about the situation of the Manchu and Qing armies.

According to Fan Zhongxing, all the way was the Manchu Ying Prince Azig, Pingxi King Wu Sangui, Zhishun King Shang Kexi and other Eight Banner soldiers plus about 80,000 troops from Datong Xuanfu to attack northern Shaanxi through northern Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, and after succeeding, they would advance south and attack the Dashun regime centered on Xi'an.

On the other hand, more than 40,000 soldiers of the Eight Banners led by Duoduo, Prince Yu of the Manchu Dynasty, Kong Youde, King of Gongshun, and Geng Zhongming, King of Huaishun, headed south from Beijing, first leveling Dashun's army in the area of Pingyang Henan Mansion in Huaiqing, and then attacking Xi'an Mansion through Tongguan. The two armies, one north and one south, had a flank attack on the Dashun army, and they must annihilate the Dashun army in one fell swoop.

At the same time, Dolgon sent Fan Zhongxing to Wuchang to persuade Zuo Liangyu to surrender, counting on Zuo Liangyu to lead troops to attack the Xiangyang area and contain Dashun's army in Jingxiang Sifu. It can be seen that Dolgon attached great importance to the Great Shun Army.

Looking at Fan Zhongxing's confession, Chen Yue couldn't help frowning, in fact, as early as mid-October, Jinyiwei, who was sent to the north, and Wang Yongji, the governor of Shandong, sent intelligence to report the news of the Manchu Qing army. For this reason, the Nanjing court argued endlessly.

Some people believe that the Manchu Qing Dynasty is attacking the thieves, and the troops in Shandong and Henan are empty, which is a good opportunity for the Ming Dynasty to move north to recover the country.

Rather than sending troops to the Yellow River to provoke the Manchus, it was better to hold on to the troops and then negotiate with the Manchus, even if it was to cede land and pay compensation, and strive to keep the land south of the Jianghuai.

Of course, against both the Manchu and Tartar invaders, almost all the ministers were optimistic that the Manchus would win.

Emperor Chongzhen was also hesitant about the dispute between the ministers of the imperial court, and he also consulted Chen Yue to see if the Pingnan Army had the ability to regain the old land in the northern expedition.

Chen Yue played to Chongzhen, saying that the Pingnan army was full of recruits, the armor and equipment were incomplete, and the armor and weapons were extremely lacking. The implication is that the Pingnan Army is now simply not capable of going north.

It's not that Chen Yue is afraid of the Manchu Tartars, but that the current situation of the Pingnan Army is indeed the case. In the past few months, although more than 50,000 troops have been recruited, plus the standard battalion of the governor's palace, there are more than 70,000 people combined. However, in addition to the complete armor of the standard battalion, the equipment of the new military camp is incomplete, and the Thai soldiers are mainly swords, guns and cold weapons, and there is an extreme lack of bows, crossbows, firearms, guns and cannons.

Although the Ordnance Department is making every effort to produce weapons, the production capacity will not be increased in a short period of time, and it is really not enough to make equipment to equip tens of thousands of troops in a short time.

According to Chen Yue's estimates, it will take at least three or four months to produce weapons and armor that can equip 50,000 people, and it will not be until March next year. At this moment, Chen Yue was full of complaints about Chongzhen, the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses of the Pingnan Army could not be fully equipped, and Chongzhen was doing what kind of Laoshizi camp in Nanjing.

If the power of the Ming Dynasty is concentrated to build the Pingnan Army, there will be no problem in training 100,000 troops within a year, so that it can completely hold the two Huai and block the Manchu army in the north.

And now limited to money, food, and weapons, I can only recruit equipment and train more than 50,000 new troops with all my might, not to mention the Northern Expedition, whether or not they can hold Yangzhou or not.

Checks and balances, hateful checks and balances, Chen Yue knew that this was Chongzhen's fear that he would become bigger, so he built a Beijing camp to balance himself. But he didn't think about it, what time is it? The thieves and thieves occupied half of the Ming Dynasty, and the Mantars were eyeing the north in the north, and the situation was already so crisis, what checks and balances were there to make. What can a Beijing camp recruited by Cangcheng do?

However, Chen Yue was helpless about Chongzhen's decision, all he could do was to do his best to defend Yangzhou and Nanjing when the Qing troops attacked.

As for defeating the Manchu Tartars to recover the north, Chen Yue didn't dare to think about it. Isn't it a joke that an army hastily recruited for less than a year can match the battle-hardened elite soldiers of the Manchurians!

"Copy a copy of the information that Fan Zhongxing said and send it to Nanjing, and then you will go to Guide Mansion, and in the future, all the personnel of the Enemy Intelligence Department in the north will be under your control, and you must find out the movements of the Manchu army in time."

Chen Yue instructed Liu Neng.

"Yes, Master Hou!" Liu Neng was overjoyed in the past, compared to Nanjing, he preferred to be a night and not collect.

Chen Yue decided to divide the enemy intelligence department into two, and Liu Neng was responsible for sending secret spies to the enemy to investigate the enemy's situation. Internally monitor the jurisdiction to prevent the infiltration of enemy personnel, and monitor subordinate officials He Lu is responsible, for this reason, Chen Yuexin set up an internal guard to specialize in this matter.

The sound of the full hooves of iron is getting closer and closer, and there is not much time left for himself.

In the following time, Chen Yue put all his experience into his work. Under the supervision of Chen Yue, the Marquis of Pingnan, the various divisions of the shogunate were running rapidly.

The General Staff Department was busy using the Manchu Eight Banners as an imaginary enemy, formulating the countermeasures that the Pingnan Army should take when the enemy attacked.

The War Training Division was busy training newly recruited soldiers, and the new barracks in the north of the city were killing all day long.

The Ordnance Division was working overtime to make armor and weapons, and the noise of the workshops outside the city was constant day and night.

The Logistics Division is stepping up the procurement of various materials, most importantly food. A large number of grain ships are coming and going on the canal, and the grain from Huguang, Jiangxi and Zhejiang is gathering in Yangzhou. Fine iron, red copper, coal, lime, oil saltpeter, sulfur, all kinds of military supplies were gathered in Yangzhou, and merchants from all over the country smiled and bent over. The Jiangbei Governor's Mansion took out all the silver and purchased it on a large scale to prepare for the upcoming war.

Everyone knows that the war is getting closer!

ps: In the future, it will be more than 4,000 words, lest some people say that it is short and weak.