Zuo Maodi recruited troops in Zhejiang Province, with the help of Wu Yi, 8,000 soldiers, training in a few days, the imperial court recruited the book, and now the Jiangnan provinces raised troops to help, and the imperial court treated him with an official position.

Ruan Dacheng, the secretary of the Ministry of War, was entrusted with the prime minister's various soldiers and horses to support the official matter, and the land south of the Yangtze River was shaken, and countless families recruited people and horses to go to Zhenjiang to accept the canonization of the imperial court, and there were even rich businessmen with hundreds of big ships to match.

Zuo Maodi led 8,000 soldiers and horses, from Jiaxing to the north, along the way constantly encountered the north to aid the righteous army, at first there was a burst of excitement in his heart, but as he observed all the way, he couldn't help but feel a little cold in his heart.

There are neatly armored officers and soldiers in the reinforcements, but more are ordinary people in disheveled clothes, and even more seventy-year-old men and ten-year-old children are also pulled into the army to talk nonsense, making the level of reinforcements uneven.

Seeing that although the reinforcements were numerous, there were no elite soldiers, Zuo Maodi couldn't help but feel very depressed.

In mid-June, when the weather was getting hotter, Ruan Dacheng led the reinforcements from all roads in Zhenjiang, and in a few days he had tens of thousands of soldiers, and he was very happy.

Within a few days, Zuo Maodi and Chen Zilong successively led troops to Zhenjiang.

The two met, had a conversation, and said that what they saw along the way was that some of the gentry in Jiangnan coveted official positions, but they could not recruit young and strong, so they took the old and weak to fill the number, and some even directly bribed officials, falsely registered, and won the position of thousands of households.

Among the reinforcements, the young and strong have not experienced much training, and their combat power is not strong, Chen Zilong has 3,000 men under him, and he has been training for more than a month, but he is still far from the official army, and Zuo Maodi's 8,000 men and horses are even worse than Chen Zilong's soldiers and horses.

On the surface, the reinforcements are magnificent, giving people the feeling of being in the south of the Yangtze River and full of soldiers, but Zuo Maodi, Chen Zilong and others know that the reinforcements are not so beautiful on the surface, and most of them are ordinary people who have just put down their hoes, not real troops.

Zuo Maodi and Chen Zilong were deeply worried about the situation of the reinforcements, and went into the city to meet Ruan Dacheng, explaining the situation in the army, and that the people and horses in the army must be screened, and the real young and strong villagers must be selected for training, and then they will be promoted.

Ruan Dacheng was not in the camp, but lived in Zhenjiang City, and the local gentry, in order to curry favor with this high-ranking official of the imperial court, gave him a high-gate compound as a place to rest and work.

Zuo Maodi and Chen Zilong entered Zhenjiang, got a notification, and were introduced to Ruan Dacheng's study.

In the study, the three of them sat down, the maidservant served good tea, and Zuo Maodi and Chen Zilong saluted Ruan Dacheng and explained their intentions. "Lord Ruan, there is an endless stream of soldiers and horses from the various prefectures of Nanzhili and Zhejiang Province, and there are nearly 100,000 horses gathered in Zhenjiang, but the lower officials and Mr. Otaru view that less than half of them are young and strong, and there are many old and weak people, and there are officials who collude with the unscrupulous gentry to register falsely. In such a situation, I am afraid that it will affect the promotion of major events, and I also ask Lord Ruan to strictly punish those who cheat and violate the law, so as to correct the order! ”

Ruan Dacheng naturally knows what Zuo Maodi said, but he has his own ideas. "Zhong Ji's words, this official knows. However, the soldiers of the northern captives are very good, and our soldiers are not trained, if you want to fight against them, only the morale is high! Today, the gentry in Jiangnan are all enthusiastic about the things they promote, and they can be angry but not vented, how can they deal with it! ”

After Ruan Dacheng finished speaking, he picked up the teacup, took a sip, and then said: "As for the training, this official has made arrangements, and it is up to Mr. Otaru, so you can rest assured!" ”

When Zuo Maodi and Chen Zilong heard this, they wanted to persuade again, but when they saw Ruan Dacheng holding the teacup, he already had the intention of sending off the guest, so he had to get up and say goodbye and retreat stupidly.

On the other side, the Qing army sentry ship in Jiangbei had already discovered that there was a large army gathering in Zhenjiang, and Duoduo knew that the Southern Ming court had finally sent troops to help, and he couldn't help but be a little worried.

In fact, in June, Dordor's troubles were far more than that, and he repeatedly attacked Yangzhou without taking down, and was already reprimanded by Dolgon's edict.

The plan to throw away the corpse, although it worked, but he still underestimated the power of the plague, although the Qing army camp was prevented, but it was still affected, fortunately, he had already prepared medicinal materials and Langzhong, to control the epidemic, but still died of more than 5,000 people.

At this time, Duoduo no longer dared to throw away the corpse, and Wang Yan in Yangzhou City also made the plague completely extinct in the city after paying the price of 200,000 soldiers and civilians.

At the end of June, Duoduo saw that the Ming army on the south bank was gathering more and more, and there were 400,000 people, and he was afraid that the Ming army would cross the river and join the Yangzhou defenders, causing him to fail in his southward march, and he sent troops to attack Yangzhou fiercely.

After Wang Yan and the army and the people experienced a major epidemic, they were already greatly injured, but the army always controlled Yangzhou in their hands by will.

In Zhenjiang City on the south bank, Ruan Dacheng has mastered more than 400,000 soldiers and horses, and the army has set up camp on the Yangtze River, stretching endlessly, with nearly 3,000 warships of various kinds on the Yangtze River, and the morale is at its peak.

With the resumption of artillery fire inside and outside Yangzhou on the north bank, the sound of rumbling never stopped from morning to night, and Ruan Dacheng, who originally wanted to train his soldiers for more than a month and cross the river again to start a battle, had to order Zheng Hongkui to lead a warship to cross the river to aid Yang in advance.

Ruan Dacheng made this decision not entirely because of the fierce artillery sound from Jiangbei, which made him worry about the loss of Yangzhou, but because Hongguang issued an edict ordering him to start a war as soon as possible and relieve the siege of Yangzhou.

Although Ruan Dacheng left Nanjing and came to Zhenjiang to supervise the division, the struggle between the two parties in the court did not ease because of his departure, but on the contrary, it became more and more intense.

Because of a large number of cadres and Ruan Dacheng, Ma Ruan's party went to Zhenjiang to rectify the reinforcements of various prefectures, and their power in the court was greatly reduced, allowing Donglin and his party to gain the upper hand.

More than 400,000 horses and horses in Zhenjiang, the daily consumption is amazing, Donglin and the party saw Ruan Dacheng supervising the division for nearly a month, but did not fight with the Qing army, nor did they try to cross the river to support Yangzhou, and then made a speech to the emperor, scolding Ruan Dacheng mercenaries for being self-respecting, cowardly as a mouse, and wanting to sit and watch Yangzhou fall.

Hongguang is not a hero, and he does not know about military affairs, but he feels that Zhenjiang has 400,000 horses, far more than the Qing army in Jiangbei, and the people of Donglin have repeatedly made suggestions, and slowly believed Donglin's words, and then urged Ruan Dacheng to go to war.

On the first day of July in the year of Yichou, on the river near Zhenjiang, more than 3,000 warships were cruising on the south bank, boxes of gunpowder were carried onto the big ships by the soldiers on the wharf, and groups of Ming soldiers carried bows and arrows on their backs and boarded the warships with birds.

For the battle of crossing the river, Ruan Dacheng can be said to have done his best, he did not dare to despise the enemy army, and sent Zheng Hongkui, Fang Guoan, Wang Wei and other troops who were the most elite in Zhenjiang City.

Ruan Dacheng did not want to fight a decisive battle with the Qing army, with the combat strength of the newly recruited army, it was difficult to earn strength with the Qing army, his purpose was to send tens of thousands of reinforcements into Yangzhou, and then open up the waterway between the south bank and Yangzhou, so that the Ming warships could directly enter the Grand Canal from the Yangtze River, and finally drive to the east gate of Yangzhou.

In order to defeat the Qing army's naval division, Ruan Dacheng sent all the most elite Zheng, Fang, and Wang official armies, plus Chen Zilong, Zuo Maodi and other newly recruited troops who were more capable of fighting, totaling 100,000 people.

The movement of the Ming army on the south bank had already been known to the Qing army on the north bank, and Duoduo also ordered the Qing army to stop attacking Yangzhou, and ordered the naval division to prepare to fight against the Ming warships that were about to cross the river.

On the dilapidated city tower at the south gate of Yangzhou, Wang Yan held a pair of clairvoyant mirrors, looking into the distance, he looked south at Wang Shi, and the search warship was raising its sails and sailing towards the north bank.

Countless Yangzhou soldiers and civilians boarded the southern city, looking at the river in the distance, and in the confusion, thousands of boats came to cross the river, which suddenly brought tears to people's eyes.