After Yan Yingyuan led his troops out of the city, his first target was Jishui County, north of Ji'an Prefecture. Ji'an and Jishui are 100 miles apart, there is the Ganjiang River to communicate, and there are mountain roads on the bank of the Ganjiang River between the mountains.

Jiangxi is already mountainous and watery, and basically all the cities are built on the banks of the river, and they usually walk more by river. After all, compared with crossing mountains and mountains, river boating is much more labor-saving. Even when Zhang Xianzhong attacked Ji'an Mansion, the transportation of food and food for the army was also transported by ship on the river.

However, Yan Yingyuan did not lead his subordinates down the river by boat, but chose to take the mountain road on the left side of the Ganjiang River. After all, compared to the river, the mountain road is easier to conceal, and it is much more convenient to attack and retreat.

Yan Yingyuan assigned 20 mountain soldiers who were not good at walking the mountain road as sentinels, and ordered them to go 20 miles forward to investigate the enemy's situation, and communicate with each other with bird flutes.

The sentinel soon found out that there were six or seven hundred thieves stationed in Jishui City, and the brigade of thieves had already passed Ji'an and headed north.

One thousand against six or seven hundred, it seems that the Ming army has the advantage of troops, but Yan Yingyuan has no intention of attacking Jishui County, because he knows the difficulty of attacking the city. If the thief army is bent on defending, let alone a thousand soldiers, even 35000 will not easily take Jishui County. He has only a thousand people in his hands, but he can't afford to lose them.

Yan Yingyuan did not act rashly, but stationed in a mountain col and sent spies to probe the movements of the thief army and seek an opportunity. His subordinates are all locals of Jiangxi, and the investigation will not arouse the suspicion of the thieves.

Two days later, the opportunity finally came. According to the spies, the thieves will escort a batch of food supplies from the waterway to Nanchang. Yan Yingyuan immediately made up his mind to seize this batch of materials and annihilate the escorted thief army.

He led all his subordinates along the mountain road and quickly went around the lower reaches of the Gan River. The Ganjiang River originates in the mountainous area of Ganzhou, flows from south to north through Ji'an, Linjiang and Nanchang, and flows into Poyang Lake. The fleet of thieves set out from Jishui County, although it went down the river, but it was not fast, as long as the army accelerated its march, it was completely possible to go around the mountain road to the front and set up an ambush.

Out of Jishui to the north, the Ganjiang River flows very fast, and there are mountains on both sides. A fleet of five flat-bottomed river boats walked in the river, and the boatmen carefully supported the bottom of the river with long pennies and controlled the boats.

At the bow of the boat, Jia Hui, the captain of the Western Army, looked at the river nervously, and the turbulence of the river made him a little dizzy.

Zhang Xianzhong, the emperor of the Great Western Kingdom, dispatched troops to prepare for a decisive battle with the Ming army, which required a large amount of food and materials, Jishui County went through a round of looting by the Western Army, Jia Hui personally led the army to the countryside, forcibly requisitioned several villages, and finally collected a thousand loads of rice, as well as some cloth and sheep wine, and he personally led two hundred soldiers to transport them to Nanchang.

As for the security issue, Jia Hui is not worried, almost the entire Jiangxi is occupied by the Western army, and the officials appointed by Zhang Xianzhong have replaced the original government, and now only a few cities in Jiangxi, such as Ji'an Fucheng, are still waving the banner of the Ming Dynasty, and they are in a panic, and they have no ability to resist the Western Army at all.

The river went out of Jishui for more than ten miles, and it took three steep bends before it eased down, and the boatmen who went up to the captain Jia Hui and down to the recruited boatmen all breathed a sigh of relief.

"General, after passing the dangerous bay in Jishui County, the river water until Nanchang Mansion is very gentle." The leader of the boatmen said to Jia Hui.

Jia Hui nodded reservedly, and opened his mouth to reprimand: "The boat almost capsized by you at the slightest danger, and you still have the face to talk to Lao Tzu!" Going to Nanchang delayed Lao Tzu's time, you are good-looking! ”

The boatman's leader turned around in a daze, and secretly took a sip into the water.

In terms of governing ability, Zhang Xianzhong is actually not very good, and the Great Western Army he led does not have a clear program for governing the country.

When Li Zicheng established Dashun, he also put forward policies such as "not paying grain for three years" and "fighting the gentry and dividing the land", which attracted the support of countless poor peasants in the Central Plains, and regarded Li Zicheng as a savior. If there were no Qing soldiers peeking outside the pass, Li Zicheng might really be able to sit firmly.

In this regard, Zhang Xianzhong is far inferior to Li Zicheng, because Zhang Xianzhong did not put forward a clear program at all. From Huguang to Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong traveled all the way, robbed and coerced all the way, and his army grew to hundreds of thousands, but he never won the active support of the local gentry and people.

Even if Zhang Xianzhong founded the country in Chengdu, the people of Sichuan did not support him very much, on the one hand, because Zhang Xianzhong was brutal and treated the gentry and officials in the occupied areas too harshly, and secondly, the military discipline of the Western army was too poor and plundering, and no measures were taken to benefit the people.

Therefore, although the Western Army has now occupied most of Jiangxi, it is difficult for the people of Jiangxi to support the Western Army. Take Jishui County, where the leader of the boatmen is located, for example, when Zhang Xianzhong led the army to attack Ji'an, Jishui County was looted once, and most of the gentry and wealthy households were slaughtered and their property was looted. When Zhang Xianzhong returned to Nanchang and the holy decree of collecting materials was transmitted to Jishui, the county orders and garrisons sent by the Western Army to Jishui County once again searched the people, and this time the objects of the raid were ordinary people.

No one can escape one stone of grain per household, and now when the official green and yellow are not received, there is still a month or two before the summer harvest, and many people have no surplus grain in their homes, and they are forced to hand it in, and the following days will not be easy.

The boss of the ship originally wanted to get some rewards for transporting supplies for the Western Army, but now looking at the appearance of this captain, he knows that there is no hope, and it is unknown whether he can come back after sending the fleet to Nanchang.

The thief army of heaven killing, where to go is not good, but to plague Jiangxi, the official government of the dog day, usually flaunts his martial arts all day long, but when he encounters the thief army, he is blind!

The boss of the boat couldn't stop scolding in his heart, but under the threat of the thieves' swords and guns, he had to continue to hold the boat forward.

As if hearing the inner cry of the boat boss, the boat walked for more than two miles after crossing the dangerous beach, when suddenly countless arrows shot from the river bank, and then I saw more than a dozen small boats rushing towards the fleet like arrows.

"The mountain bandit robbery is coming!" The boss of the boat exclaimed in surprise and jumped into the river decisively, and the other crew members also jumped into the river under his leadership, leaving only the two hundred panicked Western troops escorting the ship.

"Protect the ship and prepare for battle!" After Jia Hui, the commander of the Western Army, panicked, he roared repeatedly, and two hundred men raised their swords and guns together, and began to prepare to meet the enemy.

"Bang bang bang" and "chirp" projectile arrows flew towards the fleet like flying locusts, and Jia Hui was shocked to see that the other party actually had a large number of firearms and strong bows.

"Du Wei, it's the Ming army, not a mountain bandit!" One of his subordinates shouted in panic, no need for him to say that Jia Hui naturally understood where the mountain bandits had such powerful long-range firepower!

"Hurry up and get on the boat and return to Jishui!" Jia Hui shouted an order at the boat boss in the river, but the usually docile boat boss and the boatmen ignored him, plunged into the water one by one, and soon disappeared.