At the city gate, Zuo Maodi had already sent someone to do so, Wang Yan and others were able to get out of the city smoothly, and after saying goodbye to Chen Zilong, they went straight to the river, and crossed the Yangtze River that night.

Sizhou and Nanjing are more than 200 miles apart, and Wang Yan and the three of them have rushed all the way to the outside of Sizhou in three days.

It had only been ten days since Wang Yan left Sizhou, but when he returned to the city, Sizhou had already changed.

Sizhou is located in the south of Xuzhou, east of Huai'an and Yangzhou, and did not directly face the Qing army, but as Henan fell into the hands of the Qing court, the western gateway of Sizhou suddenly opened wide, and it became the first line of resistance to the Qing army.

Originally, he was the only garrison in Sizhou City, but now he has transferred a Sizhou general soldier, and the number of troops in the city has increased from 2,000 men and horses in the Zhongyi Battalion to more than 8,000 people.

After Wang Yan returned to Sizhou, he hurriedly visited his new boss, and then while training the troops, he wanted to raise money while waiting for the news from Nanjing.

Time flickered, and it was the end of March, and he didn't wait for Zuo Maodi's news, but waited for a paper to appoint.

In March, Li Zicheng led his troops eastward, and Wuchang Ningnanhou Zuo Liangyu, who was pinned on by the Ming Dynasty, fled without a fight, and also took advantage of the fake prince case and the child concubine case in Nanjing to make a storm in the city, and lied that he was under the secret edict of the first emperor and went to Nanjing for rescue.

Zuo Liangyu slaughtered Wuchang, and then the whole army took a boat and went east along the river, which shocked the Hongguang Dynasty, and the emperor and Ma Fu were deeply frightened.

Zuo Liangyu's banner is "Qingjun side, save the prince", but the prince from the north is purely fake, why do he need to save him, and where is he to Emperor Hongguang.

The emperor ascended the throne for nearly a year, and his legitimacy was unquestionable, and Zuo Liang Yuming wanted to overthrow Emperor Hongguang and reorganize the imperial court in order to get rid of the first assistant Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng, the secretary of the military department.

The emperor and Ma Fu and his party in Nanjing naturally couldn't let Zuo Liangyu's soldiers come to Nanjing, and the four towns in Jiangbei were in high positions because of their decision-making efforts, so they naturally had to stand on the emperor's side.

In the face of the surging army of Zuo Liangyu, the emperor ordered Ruan Dacheng, the secretary of the military department, to join Huang Degong, Marquis of Jingnan, Liu Liangzuo, Guangchangbo, and Fang Guoan, the chief soldier of Chikou, and then transferred a small army from Sizhou and Huai'an to jointly exterminate the rebellious left army.

The military order of the imperial court came to Xuzhou, and the veterans of the Gao Jie Department had their own territory, and no one was willing to fight with Zuo Liangyu.

Wang Yan received the military order from the general army, and his heart was suddenly filled with haze, the Ming Dynasty was already in turmoil, and Wuchang Town, the strongest of the only five towns, launched a rebellion.

When he was in Nanjing, Wang Yan talked with Chen Zilong and others, and thought that with Zuo Liangyu's 800,000 people, he would resist Li Zicheng's eastward advance and defend the upper reaches of the Yangtze River for the Ming Dynasty.

Wang Yan is worried that it is not only that, the four towns in Jiangbei have insufficient defense against the Qing court, and in the face of the Qing army in the direction of Henan and Shandong, it has become a little overwhelmed, and now the soldiers and horses of the two towns are dispatched to fight Zuo Liangyu, in case the Qing soldiers go south at this time, then the Ming Dynasty will not face the danger of collapse.

Wang Yan returned to the barracks all the way, and now he can only pray that the Qing soldiers can give Daming more time, so that Daming can defeat Zuo Liangyu first, and then fight to the death.

When such a thing happened suddenly, Wang Yan was about to go to the front line to fight, and he could only put it aside for the time being to raise money to redeem Xu Yanyan.

At this time, he hurriedly wrote a letter to Xu Yanyan, asked someone to bring it to Nanjing, and hurriedly went to gather the generals in the camp and prepared to go south to fight Zuo Liangyu.

Fighting a war is a chore, and the generals of Xuzhou Town are reluctant to go, so in order to give an explanation to the imperial court, Mrs. Xing had to let Wang Yan, who had no foundation, go.

But after all, Wang Yan was a benefactor who avenged her husband, and handed over the work of playing with his life to him, which made Mrs. Xing feel a little unhappy, so she sowed 50,000 taels of silver for the opening fee, as well as a large amount of grain and grass equipment, to compensate Wang Yan.

After Wang Yan wrote a letter to Xu Yanyan, many people had gathered in his tent, all of whom were the main officers of the Zhongyi Battalion.

"Ziyun, you take a hundred brothers, go to the treasury first to bring these things back." Wang Yan put down the brush in his hand, took out a warrant from his arms and handed it to Qian Yifeng and said, "Bring more vehicles when you go, and you must transport them all back today." ”

"Whoa! The last general commanded. Qian Yifeng saluted and took the warrant, and then retreated first.

This southward battle, because the generals of Xuzhou were unwilling to go, fell on the head of the Zhongyi battalion, so there will definitely be quite a lot of complaints in the battalion, especially the 1,000 men and horses under Li Taizhen, most of whom are Sizhou locals, let them leave their hometown to fight, and they will definitely be full of complaints.

Wang Yan can't ask every soldier to be as loyal and patriotic as him, so he can go up the sword mountain and go down to the sea of fire for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, so he can only use some means.

Wang Yan thought very clearly, an army must be united in order to have strong combat power, and if there is a dirty inside, it will be more dangerous than facing an enemy who is a hundred times stronger.

"You must have heard that the Loyal Battalion is going south to fight." Wang Yan looked around at the people in the tent: "I know that many people must have objections to this, after all, the homeland is difficult to leave, and I also understand it in my heart. Therefore, if anyone does not want to go with me, I will not be reluctant, and I can tell me, but if there is anyone who shakes the heart of our army after tomorrow's departure, then do you blame the ruthlessness of military law, do you understand? ”

"We are willing to fight with the general!" After Wang Yan finished speaking, everyone hurriedly saluted, but it was different, the officers who followed Wang Yan all the way from Shandong were naturally sincere, but the faces of the local people in Sizhou were not so natural.

Seeing this, Wang Yan didn't say much, waved his hand and asked them all to retreat.

In the afternoon, Qian Yifeng led people to transport all the silver taels and grain and grass back, and Wang Yan ordered the whole army to assemble on the school field.

The soldiers of the Loyal Battalion followed their respective Qian Zong to stand in two pieces on the playground, and they were distinct.

It has been less than a month since Wang Yan became the garrison of Sizhou, and the time for Li Taizhen's men to be under his command is even shorter, and Wang Yan has no time to master the 1,000 men and horses under his command.

In this short period of time, Wang Yan also went to Nanjing, and the affairs of the army were handed over to Wang Wei to handle, but Wang Wei and Li Taizhen were both thousands of generals, and Li Taizhen's seniority in Gao Jie's army was older than everyone else, so Wang Wei couldn't control his men.

For such a person, if it was before, Wang Yan would definitely choose to win over and pacify, but since the trip to Nanjing, Wang Yan's desire to control his own armament has become stronger and stronger, so although Li Taizhen has not performed too much out of the ordinary since he was under his command, Wang Yan still made a desperate move to control his men.

They are the essence of hundreds of thousands of Shandong righteous troops left after the waves of the sand, and then with Wang Yan in the Qing army to fight for thousands of miles, the first battle of Suizhou is to break several times the Xu army, which can be described as the elite of a hundred battles. Therefore, they stand heroically, exuding the solemnity and vigor that the elite should have.

The soldiers behind Li Taizhen were different, except for a very small number of Gao Jie's old soldiers, most of them were local people who had lost their land in Sizhou, or they were adapted from the township bravery, and they had not received much formal training, so they could only barely stand in formation.

Wang Yan stood in front of the army, looking at the loyal battalion of the two armies, and his heart was unhappy, and he was even more determined to grasp the military power.

"Soldiers, you must also know that the Loyal Battalion will be ordered to go south to suppress the rebellion of the left thieves." Wang Yan looked around at the army and said loudly: "The general knows that fighting a war is a matter of life, and he must first let the brothers have no worries. ”

"Lift it up!" Wang Yan turned around and asked Qian Yifeng to carry the silver he had just received back to the army, and opened it on the spot, and the silver ingots of ten taels were neatly stacked with five large boxes.

So much silver, giving a strong visual impact.

Seeing this, the soldiers exclaimed in surprise and looked directly at the silver in front of them.

"This time, the brothers who are willing to go out with the general, the soldiers will first send ten taels of silver, twenty taels of small flags, thirty taels of general flags, fifty taels of 100 households, and 1000 taels of 1,000 households." Wang Yan pointed to the large box full of silver and said loudly: "After the expedition, those who kill the enemy will have a reward." ”

The soldiers' salaries were usually paid for three months, and their monthly salaries were no more than nine yuan, and Wang Yan paid an extra year's salaries almost at a time, and the soldiers' faces were suddenly full of excitement.

"On this expedition, you will not only get silver, but also be loyal to the court, and the most important thing is that you can earn fame and honor your ancestors!" Wang Yan continued to incite.

Wang Yan's words made the sergeant excited, not to mention any loyalty to the country, not to mention any fame and fortune, just the white silver, it was worth their death, and the school immediately burst into cheers: "We are willing to go to war with the general to quell the rebellion of the left thieves!" ”

Wang Yan listened to the voice of the soldiers, looked at the performance of the army, was very satisfied, waved his hand to quiet the army, and then said loudly: "But the general must make it clear in advance, take the general's money, you have to listen to the general's orders, if there is any violation, it will definitely be dealt with by military law!" ”

Wang Yan's reminder did not extinguish the enthusiasm of the soldiers, he continued: "This expedition, fighting in a foreign land, far away from the homeland, if there are people who are unwilling to follow the general, you can also stand up, the general will not force you, just ask for the promotion fee, but you can't give it." ”

"Now, soldiers, make a decision! Those who are willing to follow the general will come directly to receive the silver. Wang Yan waved his hand and pointed to the open space: "If you don't want to follow the general, you can stand on the side first, and the general will not feel embarrassed." ”

Since ancient times, it is a matter of course to be a soldier and eat food, and the soldiers joined the army, not for any lofty ideals, nor for any emperor, their purpose is very simple, that is, to eat food, is to get money.

Although Wang Yan didn't want to admit it, it was the case, most people didn't know what family and country feelings were, and before there was no better way, he could only use this method to tie these sergeants to his side.