On April 15 of the second year of Daming Shenwu, the canal outside Yangzhou City was closed at the wharf.

Yangzhou, a famous city through the ages, was probably the most miserable city at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and four years ago was slaughtered by the Manchu Qing Dynasty who went south, slaughtering millions of people in the city. In the original history of Yangzhou after this disaster the next time the whole city was killed to wait until three hundred years later in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, who thought that this time and space suddenly appeared Zhu Hongsan, the big butterfly, under his instigation of the Southern Ming counterattack successful, once again occupied Yangzhou, naturally those in the city of Yangzhou who returned to the Manchu Qing Dynasty and were ready to be obedient to the people became the object of the second massacre.

Zhu Hongsan had already issued an edict when he raised troops in Guangdong, whether he shaved his head or not, he was a subject of the Ming Dynasty, and the army could not be slaughtered for no reason. However, the battlefield changed rapidly, and the emperor's decree became less effective. In addition, Zhao Guodong's army fought a bloody battle under Yangzhou City for half a month, with nearly 10,000 casualties, and naturally had no good impression of the Eight Banners defending the city in the city, and naturally had to retaliate after entering the city.

According to statistics afterwards, in addition to the more than 80,000 garrisons of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, tens of thousands of wealthy families and merchants were killed by the Ming army, and 70,000 or 80,000 ordinary Yangzhou citizens were killed. After this toss, Yangzhou will no longer have the grand occasion of "wrapping 100,000 yuan around the waist and riding a crane to Yangzhou" five years ago.

After Ma Jiyuan took power, he saw that Yangzhou was so dilapidated that there was no way to transfer 50,000 people from Taizhou and Yizhen counties, which made Yangzhou a little popular.

Now Tong Tuchang is standing on the Shuiguan wharf, frowning and looking at Ma Jiyuan and Fang Fengnian on the shore, very angry in his heart. Obviously, he is a righteous envoy, why Ma Jiyuan is only polite to the other party every year, and he is completely transparent to himself, and he has been in Yangzhou for half a month, and he has not said a word to himself.

Tong Tuchang knew that his uncle and Ma Jiyuan were dirty, but after all, he was the emperor's personal envoy, so he didn't expect that this Ma boss would not give him face.

Tong Tuchang waited on the bow of the boat for a long time, and Fang Fengnian finally said goodbye to Ma Jiyuan and other colleagues, and slowly walked onto the springboard.

Tong Tuchang looked at Fang Fengnian and said with a smile: "It seems that there is a deep relationship between Master Fang and Ma Zhitai!" ”

Fang Fengnian didn't have a good impression of this Tong Tuchang, and when he heard Tong Tuchang ask, he glared and said, "What?" Is Lord Tong dissatisfied? ”

Tong Tuchang hurriedly shook his hand and said, "Don't dare, don't dare!" This is Master Fang's private matter, how dare Tong interfere! However, Tong heard that Lord Fang's promotion was recommended by the first assistant, I don't know if Ma Zhitai knows? ”

Tong Tuchang wants to provoke the relationship between the Ma family and the brothers, but Fang Fengnian is also an old fritter in the rivers and lakes, and he can be fooled there.

"Humph! It has nothing to do with you who the old man recommends, and you don't care! The canal is windy, and the old man is no longer with him! After Fang Fengnian finished speaking, he bowed his hand, went back to the cabin, and hung Tong Tuchang's peace talks on the bow of the ship.

Tong Tuchang was robbed by Fang Fengnian and couldn't come to Taiwan, so he could only say to Zhao Mengguan, another deputy envoy beside him: "This old puppet really doesn't know how to lift, Lord Zhao, you are responsible for the right to supervise, and when you return to Beijing, you must report according to the truth!" ”

Zhao Mengguan rolled his eyes and didn't say anything. Zhao Mengguan was framed by Qian Yiai in Nanjing, and he was naturally disgusted with these stinky intellectuals, anyway, the emperor's order to himself was to monitor these two, and the prince gave him an order to stir up the Huang peace talks, and the remaining two adults could fight as much as they liked, and they had nothing to do with themselves.

Tong Tuchang saw that Zhao Mengguan did not echo him, laughed twice, and stood on the bow of the ship to watch the fleet set sail.

Tong Tuchang set sail with a battalion of 500 guards, but they did not follow them to Beijing, but only escorted them to Huai'an.

The weather is now in the spring season, the best season of the year. Tong Tuchang stood on the bow of the boat and looked at the weeping willows on both sides of the canal, and couldn't help but feel good. However, when he saw the homeless people walking on both sides of the canal, Tong Tuchang's good mood was gone.

The grain was cut off, and the canal boat people, laborers, and porters who originally relied on the grain for their livelihood immediately lost their income. These poor people had no choice but to sell their sons and daughters, raise some coils, and then go south along the canal, and if they were lucky, they could cross the Yangtze River to Nanjing, and if they were unlucky, they would either die on the road or become water ghosts in the Yangtze River.

Tong Tuchang saw this tragic scene and was ready to ask his subordinates to give these poor people some food and drink, but he didn't know that he was stopped by Zhao Mengguan.

"My lord, it's better not to feed these people!"

Tong Tuchang was stunned: "Why is this? ”

"My lord, don't you know, there are leaders among these homeless people, and the food you give them can't reach the hands of the homeless, they will all be taken away by the leader, and if you don't make it, these ordinary homeless people will lose their lives!"

Tong Tuchang nodded, and then let his subordinates stop!

Zhao Mengguan continued: "One more point! My lord! It's nothing to give some food here, but don't show it easily when you get to Shandong! ”

"Why is that?"

"Shandong is now thousands of miles away, full of bandits and grass bandits, if they target us, we will not survive!"

Hearing Zhao Mengguan say this, Tong Tuchang was startled, there are more than 500 people under his command, and there are 100 Jinyi guards accompanying him, can he still be afraid of some bandits and grass robbers in Shandong?

"My lord, Shandong has now become a land of three things, and the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty can only be effective in a few prefectures and cities, and the outside of the city has completely become a lawless land!"

Hearing Zhao Mengguan say this, Tong Tuchang was a little scared in his heart, he was a civilian official, shouldering the mission of peace talks, don't die in the hands of bandits without doing anything serious.

"Lord Zhao, is there any other way to go to Beizhili?"

Zhao Mengguan smiled bitterly and said: "My lord, Shandong is already the safest, at least we can't start when we see a lot of people." If you go to Henan to finish, it is estimated that more than 500 of us will be eaten before we reach Luoyang! ”

"Then how to ensure the safety of our people when entering Shandong?"

"Please rest assured, there are a few bandits in Shandong who have contact with our Jinyiwei, and their subordinates have already sent people to contact them, and it is estimated that they can get their protection when they enter Shandong!"

In fact, Zhao Mengguan still has some news to say, those waves of bandit leaders are actually Jinyiwei's secret agents, in recent years, with Zhu Hongsan's silver and weapons support, in Shandong is even more dominant, so just now Zhao Mengguan said that Shandong is not safe and some scare Tong Tuchang. It's not safe, but it's not to the point of losing your life.

The Grand Canal is like the blood vessels of the north, transporting millions of stone grain from the provinces south of the Yangtze River to the north every year, although most of these grains are exploited by various officials on the canal, but it also indirectly promotes the economic development on both sides of the canal. Along the Grand Canal, a string of emerging cities are embedded in the canal like pearls, such as Huai'an, Suqian, Jining, Dongchangfu and Linqing. As the confluence of the canal and the Yellow River, and the two Huai'an salt fields are not far from Huai'an, it has become the capital of the canal, and Huai'an is the blood center of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The governor in charge of Cao Yun has been stationed in Huai'an Mansion, and the governor of the river also moved to Qingjiangpu in Huai'an during the Kangxi period, Huai'an is the Cao Yun command center of the central government of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the river management center, the Cao grain transshipment center, the Cao boat manufacturing center, the salt tax center, the transportation hub of the canal, and Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou and called the "four major cities" and "four capitals in the southeast" along the canal. Qingjiangpu in Huai'an also has the reputation of "South Ship and North Horse", "Thoroughfare of Nine Provinces", "Granary of the World" and so on.

However, Huai'an, the capital of canals, lost its meaning with the rise of Zhu Hongsan, and the two Huai salt farms were hit by the kind of refined salt transported from Guangdong, and the big salt merchants in Huai'an and Yangzhou went bankrupt one after another, which was also one of the main reasons why the big salt merchants in these two places supported the Manchu Qing when the Manchu Qing Dynasty arrived.

However, there was no salt field before, but Huai'an, as the center of the canal, was also responsible for transporting grain to the north, and life was quite passable, but with Zhu Hongsan's occupation of Nanzhili and Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces, the main artery canal for blood transfusion in the north was completely suspended. Zhu Hongsan's own food was not enough to eat, and he could still support the Manchus free of charge, so after the last grain passage through Huai'an in December last year, the Grand Canal, which had been busy for hundreds of years, came to a complete halt.

After Zhu Hongsan occupied Yangzhou, he did not want to irritate the Manchus too much, so he ordered the army not to advance north, so the Ming army only occupied Shaobo Town, twenty miles outside Yangzhou, and built a position here as the first line of defense against the Manchus. At the same time, Gaoyou Prefecture in the north of Yangzhou was still under the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

When Tong Tuchang and his entourage passed through Gaoyou, Gaoyou's guards did not dare to open the door at all, watching this large group of Ming troops go around the city, and found that the Ming army went far away before opening the city gate and sending messengers to Huai'an to report the emergency.

Huai'an has now become a temporary base camp for Hong Chengchou, who fled to Huai'an after being rescued by Ma Degong, and originally planned to take a break here and then flee to Jining. There was a thought that the Ming army occupied Yangzhou and did not go north, but was stationed in Yangzhou on the spot, which really made Hong Chengchou wonder what the Ming army was thinking.

Guarding the river must defend the Huai is talking about the land of the two Huai, and now the Ming army only occupies Yangzhou, why is this?

In the end, it was Jiangning Governor Zhou Boda's analysis in place, whether the Ming army's offensive was weak and the logistics supply could not keep up!

Zhou Boda's words woke up the dreamer, and Hong Chengchou found that the Ming army did not start from Zhejiang to occupy Nanjing, but started from Guangdong, swept half of China, and arrived in Yangzhou where it was already the end of the crossbow, and there was no strength to develop north.

After thinking about it, Hong Chengchou breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly prepared a defensive line here in Huai'an, and at the same time sent another letter to Dolgon in the Beijing Division, explaining that he had fought for a long time, and finally repelled the Ming army's attack under Huai'an City, stopped the Ming army on the south bank of the Yellow River, and asked the regent to quickly transfer reinforcements Yunyun.

At this critical moment, Hong Chengchou received the news that thousands of Ming troops passed through Gaoyou and ran to Huai'an through the canal.