Duoduo was killed, and the news of the Qing army's defeat spread all over the country, and now seeing that the loyal and righteous army has been killed, the puppet officials and green battalion soldiers and horses in various places who have lost the protection of their masters are even more frightened, either Kaesong surrendered or fled early.

Under the threat of the Qing army, the dissatisfaction of the people who were shaved into money rat tails broke out in one day, and when they saw the army coming, the people on the Jianghan Plain killed the pseudo-officials one after another, and welcomed the loyal army into the city.

Seeing the people who cut off their rat tails and kept the heads of refugees, and listened to everyone tell about the various crimes of burning, killing and looting by the Qing army, everyone was sad and indignant.

Everywhere they went, under the leadership of a few old men, everyone lined up, knelt in front of Yang Xuan's horse and said: "The prince raised the righteous army, saved the people of Li from fire and water, led the soldiers of the three armies to kill from Sichuan Province, and killed the regent of the barbarian Qing Dynasty.

In the past, Lu You once said that the king set the Central Plains Day in the north, and the family sacrifice did not forget to tell Naiweng, and today the prince has recovered the lost land, and I don't have to drag this rat's tail to see the ancestors under the nine springs."

Whenever he encountered this situation, Yang Xuan would inevitably turn over and dismount, help everyone up one by one, and said with shame on his face: "Old gentlemen, don't bother this king, please get up quickly." In the next is not talented, fetters are fetters by thieves, and today, they have to go east.

I apologize to everyone here, I am late for the soldiers of the loyal army, and everyone is tired of suffering.

An old man endured his grief, knelt down again and said, "Lord Wang, as the saying goes, in five hundred years, there will be saints who will come out to save the suffering people in the world.

The prince cleared up the maladministration in Sichuan, rectified the government affairs, cleaned up the taxes, organized and trained the new army, and although the little old man was from the mountains and wilderness, he had also read one or two copies of the "Popular Periodicals", and he admired the prince's heart very much.

The prince is the holy lord of the world, the little old man thinks so, who in the world doesn't think so? ”

The prince led the benevolent and righteous army out of the Three Gorges, just like the dragon out of the shallows, we just hope that the prince will set the great ding as soon as possible to calm the chaos in the world."

Hearing that everyone had a faint intention of persuasion, Yang Xuan secretly complained, although some people said that the merit was as great as the Savior, but compared with the Savior, the greater merit was to support the great merit.

Since the farce in Guiyang last year, everyone has seen that supporters such as Wu Zhaoyuan, Ren Su and others are in important positions, and many people have continued to persuade them, and now a trend has formed.

Helping him up again, Yang Xuan hurriedly looked left and right to talk about other things, and said with a smile: "Old gentleman, fellow villagers, everyone has suffered, I, Yang Xuan, am late, I hope the villagers will forgive me." ”

And this also provoked more tears.

At first, everyone was very polite, but in the end, everyone saw that Yang Xuan was very approachable, and everyone slowly revealed their feelings.

An old lady who was driven half-crazy by the Qing army knelt in front of her horse and claimed that her husband, along with her three newly grown children, were killed alive by the Qing army because they did not want to take care of the head shape of this money rat tail.

An old lady said with a sad face: "Lord, why can't your army come a month earlier, Lord, as long as you come a month earlier, the more than ten big girls in our town will be ruined by the Qing army."

There were even more people in tears, crying: "Lord Wang, the Qing army Tartars are hateful, but those Han officials who defected to the Qing army are also very hateful." Lord Wang, there were originally 150,000 people in this county, but now there are only more than 120,000, and more than 30,000 people were killed by the Manchu Qing Dynasty and those traitors.

You don't know that we are so miserable, basically every family is dead, and every family is mourning.

Lord, please make the decision for us, kill those Tartars, and try those traitors who defected to the enemy and betrayed the country. ”

Seeing Yang Xuan's hesitation, everyone knelt down one after another, asking Yang Xuan to give an obvious answer.

Yang Xuan looked at everyone: "Everyone, under the Manchu Iron Cavalry, don't say that the villagers are refugees, it's me Yang Xuan, who has fled many times on the battlefield."

We should take a long-term view of this traitor, we will not let go of a bad guy who colludes with other races and oppresses the villagers, but we also don't deliberately punish those who endure humiliation and bear the burden, try their best to deal with the villagers, and do not do anything to hurt the heavens and reason."

A young man said with anger on his face: "Lord Wang, those people deceive their teachers and destroy their ancestors, it's really hateful."

Hearing everyone crying like this, Yang Xuan couldn't control himself, so he convened everyone to discuss the matter that night, sorted out the "Law on Punishing Traitors", and demanded that it be implemented in the area under the jurisdiction of the Loyal and Righteous Army.

1. Serving as a puppet government official to harm the villagers, taking the initiative to crack down on the puppet officials and evil gentry who persecute the righteous army and the righteous people, committing the crime of traitor, and being sentenced to death or life imprisonment, and confiscating all assets, but those who have made meritorious contributions in the loyal army may be commuted as appropriate.

2. Those who serve the puppet government, or assist traitors in harming the people, shall be guilty of coercion and obedience, and shall be sentenced to 10 years in prison and sent to the border areas to be confiscated into the army.

3. Those who have made meritorious contributions in the Loyal and Righteous Army may be exempted from criminal responsibility

4. Confiscate all the property of the traitor, raid the house of the traitor if the circumstances are particularly serious, and classify his wife and daughter as camp prostitutes. 2 percent of the traitor's property is rewarded to meritorious personnel, and the county government and province each share 1 percent to subsidize the finance, and the remaining 5 percent is used for military purposes.

5. Those who harbor or conceal traitors shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than one year but not more than seven years;

6. Whoever conceals or conceals property for traitors shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 1~3 years, short-term detention, or a concurrent fine.

7. All traitors must be confirmed by the prefect or above the yamen, and all coerced accomplices shall be decided by the local county government, and all the children of the three clans of traitors shall not serve as officials, and all coerced accomplices shall not hold official positions.

This can be said to be the first regulation to specifically punish traitors, and everyone was overjoyed to see the government's decision to punish traitors.

In early 8 July, the Loyal Righteous Army occupied Hanyang Province, across the river from Wuchang Province on the opposite side, and drank the Yangtze River.

At the same time, several other loyalists also launched pursuits.

Wu Yanghu's 13th Town, Liu Weiming's 6th Town, Li Laiheng's 14th Town, and Chen Huaixi's naval army went down the Yangtze River, all the way to pursue the Tartars, after a month of fierce battles, now has occupied Jingzhou Mansion, Yueyang Mansion, has now crossed the Yangtze River, from the south bank of the Yangtze River down the river by land and water, straight to Wuchang.

Li Dingguo led the 12th and 11th towns to besiege Wugang in Baoqing Prefecture, and the two sides fought fiercely for more than a month, and just occupied Wugang in late July, threatening Jierharang, who entered Changsha, and Kong Youde, who entered Guangxi.

Wuchang is known as the thoroughfare of nine provinces, the strategic position is very important, the Tartars have been defeated in successive battles, and their rout troops have gathered in Wuchang, in a vain attempt to rely on the city wall to hold on, in order to delay the offensive of the loyal army, waiting for reinforcements.

News continued to come from the north, and in the face of the fierce offensive of the loyal army, the Manchu court was greatly annoyed, and Dolgon sent an envoy to borrow troops from the southern Mongols, borrowing a total of 100,000 Mongolian cavalry, and now they are going south by separate roads to block the eastern and northern expeditions of the loyal army.

Everyone was worried, everyone thought that after a month of autumn offensive, the loyal army had already been exhausted, and all parts of the country had already entered the autumn harvest season, not only the people were busy with the shortage of manpower for the autumn harvest, but there were more grain and grass on the road, which slowed down the march.

Now when they heard that the Mongolian cavalry was heading south, everyone was panicked in their hearts.

As Qian Bangqi and others conservatively analyzed, the Tartars are known as 100,000 Mongolian cavalry, and aside from the bluff part, there should be 30,000.

According to the number of Qing military cattle recorded in the customs, we know that this time the Manchu court completely poured out.

There are only more than 310 cattle records in the Eight Banners of Manchuria, 118 cattle records in the Eight Banners of Mongolia, and 164 cattle records in the Eight Banners of the Han Army.

Among them, the Eight Banners of Manchuria and the Eight Banners of Mongolia are the same, with 80 soldiers per Niulu (Kangxi will be compiled, with about 17 guards, 40 horsemen, and 17 infantry), and less than 34,000 Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners soldiers under the direct jurisdiction of the Manchu Qing court.

Although each of the Eight Banners of the Han Army has 30 horsemen and 12 infantry, each Niulu has less than 50 soldiers, and the Eight Banners of the Han Army have less than 10,000 people.

However, the Sanshun King and Wu Sangui were mostly formed into a separate army, and they were not incorporated into the Eight Banners of the Han Army, and their troops were between thirty and forty thousand at the beginning of the customs (the Sanshun King had few soldiers, and Wu Sangui's troops were equivalent to the Sanshun King. ）

From this point of view, when the Tartars entered the customs, the full number of troops was only seventy or eighty thousand, and more than 20,000 were newly attached Guanning soldiers and horses.

Now there is a sudden increase of 30,000 troops, and all of them are Mongolian cavalry, which is known for its cavalry, and its combat power can be imagined.

In ancient times, the combat power of one cavalry was equivalent to at least four infantry, and the combat power of 30,000 Mongolian cavalry was equivalent to that of 120,000 infantry.

When they heard that the Mongol cavalry was about to move south, everyone was worried, and everyone thought that they needed to prepare early in order to meet the challenge of the Mongol cavalry.

Since its establishment, although the army has been equipped with a large number of artillery pieces such as bird guns, bazookas, tiger squat guns, Franc machine guns, and 2-pound guns, its long-range firing capability has greatly increased.

Although musketeers are often equipped with spearheads, they can be used as spearmen on the battlefield.

Although the battalions mostly received infantry and cavalry confrontation drills.

However, in the hilly terrain to defend against cavalry attacks, at least an equal number of infantry was required.

If you want to attack the Tartar cavalry, you need at least twice as many troops, and this is still in the hilly area, if you are in the plain area, you need more troops.

Therefore, in any case, it is necessary to conquer Wuchang before the Qing army can react and complete the phased tasks of the Eastern Crusade.

Yang Xuan constantly sent messengers to the towns to urge them to march quickly, while on the other hand, he inspected the commerce of Hanzhong and chose a landing site to attack Wuchang.