Zhang Xianzhong is attacking Jiangxi, and the next step is to attack Nanjing down the river, and the Yangtze River is very important between the two armies of the Ming and Western regions, and whoever can control the Yangtze River will be able to take the initiative on the battlefield.

In order to win this battle, Chen Yue mobilized a full five Galen warships, in order to blockade the Yangtze River with powerful firepower.

Of course, the Yangtze River is far less wide than the sea, and now it is March, the wind direction is unstable in the south and the north, and the sailing ship can borrow the wind power is not much, and it is against the current, and the speed is not too fast.

On the river, hundreds of warships traveled more than ten miles, their sails raised high, and the ships slowly moved upstream under the wind.

"It takes only more than 20 miles a day, and it takes at least 20 days to reach Jiujiang, and I am afraid that by the time Jiujiang arrives, Zhang Thief Xianzhong has completely occupied the whole province of Jiangxi." Feeling the slow speed of the boat in the river, Chen Yue said helplessly.

"Otherwise, Jiangxi is thousands of miles long, the mountains are dense and confluent, there are many mountains and hills in the territory, and the march is very unsuitable, if Zhang Thief is loyal to only meet the occupation of Nanchang and other places on the shore of Panyang Lake, it is not so easy, if you want to occupy the entire territory of Jiangxi, it is not so easy, from Nanchang to the farthest Ganzhou Mansion, it is more than a thousand miles, and it is all mountainous, and it takes several months to march back and forth."

Lu Zhenfei shook his head. He was born as a scholar, and he also served as a cabinet deputy assistant superintendent, and he has seen countless maps, and the mountains and rivers of various provinces are in his heart.

"I'm afraid that Zhang Xianzhong will be satisfied when he occupies the provinces near Nanchang, he originally had an army of more than 200,000 people, and he was wrapped all the way in Jiangxi, I'm afraid that there are more troops now, we only have more than 50,000 people, even if you add Anqing's Yu Feng Department is only 60,000 or 70,000 people, the difference in numbers is too much, and it is very difficult to conquer Jiujiang." Chen Yue sighed.

Since the western thieves attacked Jiangxi, the news has been cut off, and occasionally the news comes from the provinces of Nanchang, but it is also the messenger who crosses the mountains and mountains to send to Nanjing, which has lagged behind a lot from the perspective of time. No one can say what the situation is in Jiangxi now.

Liu Neng had already ordered to lead people to Jiangxi to investigate the movements in Jiujiang and other places. However, to everyone's relief, the western thieves had no intention of sending troops down the river to attack.

......

Ji'an Prefecture governs Luling County, and the outside of the city is densely packed with an army of thieves.

The arrows at the head of the city were like flying locusts, and one after another the thieves besieging the city fell under the rain of arrows. The boiling oil pot was put into the buttress, and it was poured down, and the thieves who were climbing on the ladder below immediately let out a scream that was not like a human voice, and a torch was thrown down, and the whole ladder was quickly ignited, becoming a huge torch, and more than a dozen rogues whose clothes were stained with burning vegetable oil screamed and rolled all over the ground.

An official in a green official uniform stood at the head of the city, commanding calmly, several generals stood beside him, obeying orders at any time, and the eyes of officers and soldiers passing by him or the recruited people were full of admiration.

In the city tower not far away, several officials in red and cyan official uniforms sat tremblingly, surrounded by government soldiers and soldiers.

Half of the soldiers fighting in the city, and the other half are clearly temporarily recruited people, but they can cooperate with each other tacitly, and the battle in defense of the city is orderly, which shows that the green-robed official has a proper command.

Finally, after throwing the corpses on the ground, the thief army retreated like a tide, and the defenders of the city immediately cheered.

"Lord Yan, the thief army has retreated, the thief army has retreated!" A guerrilla general rushed over, shouting excitedly at the green-robed master Bo, he was a guerrilla general from the third grade, but he was not ashamed to obey the command of a nine-rank master Bo.

In the siege of more than 100,000 thieves for half a month, Bo Yan Yingyuan, the lord of Luling County, has already used his ability to establish a position in the hearts of the soldiers and people in the city.

Yes, his name is Yan Yingyuan, and he was originally a warden of Jiangyin County, a junior county official with no rank. In the appointment of the warden, because of the pacification of salt thieves, the pacification of the people's unrest, and the sudden political discipline, he was promoted to the lord of Luling County by the Ministry of Officials, and the warden who never entered the stream was promoted to the Jiupin official, which was a great progress in his career.

And Luling is the seat of Ji'an Prefecture, very rich, Jiangxi is not too far from Jiangyin, and it is very convenient to follow the Yangtze River waterway, so Yan Yingyuan gladly came to take office.

Who knew that less than half a year after taking office, he suffered from this chaos, the western thief Zhang Xianzhong led an army of 200,000 to invade Jiangxi, and Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi, soon fell, and dozens of prefectures and counties were broken by the thief army.

In the face of the overwhelming and menacing thief army, officials such as the Ji'an prefect and the Luling prefect were panicked and didn't know what to do.

At the critical moment, Yan Yingyuan stepped forward and commanded the entire city of soldiers and civilians to defend.

After asking the prefect, in the name of the government, he called on the gentry of the whole city to donate money and food, and used the donated money and food to recruit the people, and he distributed troops according to the number of battlements of the city wall, and each battlement assigned two soldiers to guard together.

Luling is the city of Ji'an, there are many gentry in the city, if the thief army enters the city, all the people will not be good, and the gentry are very supportive of Yan Yingyuan's appeal, after all, there are only a few people who sacrifice their lives and wealth.

With enough money and food, Yan Yingyuan offered a generous reward to boost morale, and under the encouragement of a large amount of silver, the originally panicked defenders also raised their morale, and with the full cooperation of the army and the people, they even repelled two attacks by the thief army, which made the morale of the soldiers and civilians in the city high.

After Zhang Xianzhong conquered Jiujiang, in order to raise enough grain and grass, and also to have a stable rear, he set the strategy of attacking Jiangxi first and then attacking Nanjing along the river. After entering Jiangxi, he immediately divided his troops to attack the provinces.

Nankang, Nanchang, Guangxin, Raozhou, and the northern provinces of Jiangxi were successively defeated, but the army sent to Ji'an attacked Luling, but lost thousands of people.

Zhang Xianzhong was furious and sent his son Ai Nengqi to personally lead 50,000 troops to attack Ji'an, but Ai Nengqi was defeated under the city of Luling, and he could not break the city for ten consecutive days, but lost more than 10,000 soldiers.

Since entering Jiangxi, the siege of the city and the plundering of the land are invincible, caused by the power of the Great Western Army, the cities everywhere have surrendered, but I didn't expect to encounter a hard nail now. Zhang Xianzhong was determined to pull out this hard nail and slaughter Ji'an to set an example!

Zhang Xianzhong personally led the main force of 100,000 to Ji'an, together with the army of Ainengqi, the strength reached as many as 150,000, surrounded the city of Ji'an, and began to attack on all sides, but more than ten days passed, but never set foot on the city, Ji'an Ming army guarded the city like an iron bucket.

"Your Majesty, the Ming army in Nanjing has gone up the river and has reached Anqing, and General Liu Wenxiu of Jiujiang asks Your Majesty to come back for help!" Just when Zhang Xianzhong was in a rage in Ji'an City, a sentry brought news of the Ming army.

Whether to continue to attack this small city of Ji'an, or to return to meet the Ming army attacking from Nanjing, Zhang Xianzhong hesitated.