The upper-level decision of the Northern Expedition was to capture Beijing and Tianjin, supplemented by the Northern Expedition to Jianghuai.

But the soldiers at the lower level did not know about it, and the two-way attack clearly told one of them that you were playing as a substitute, which was too demoralizing, so the soldiers only knew that they were one of the two attacks, and who could hit Beijing would depend on whose ability.

Even the army that attacked by land was psychologically more advantageous, because they took the route of Xu Da back then, which was the orthodox route, so they believed that they were the main force of the Northern Expedition, and the sea route was just a feint.

The troops marching into Jianghuai were led by Hong Jiuzhi, and when they conquered Nanjing, his troops were stationed in Zhenjiang, and also captured Guazhou in the north of the Jiangbei, and they had been in control of this northward base, and the Qing army tried to attack twice, but they were all fruitless.

Hong Jiuzhi was the chief military officer of Jianghuai Road at this time, this is not a permanent position, following the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, this is only a temporary position, leading the number of soldiers is uncertain, at this time Hong Jiuzhi commanded three armies, a total of 30,000 people to attack Yangzhou. In addition, there are five armies of Zhejiang auxiliaries, which will cooperate with him to capture Yangzhou.

Of course, this is not the total strength of the Northern Expedition, the total strength of the Northern Expedition is as high as 400,000, in addition to more than 150,000 soldiers, there are also 30 auxiliary armies in Fujian, Guangdong, and Zhejiang provinces. Most of these armies were assembled in Ningbo Province, waiting to rush north to help.

Hong Jiu pointed out that along the canal north, he found that the morale of the army was strong, especially those auxiliaries, which were even higher than the period of the soldiers. The soldiers were veterans who had fought all the way, and although the auxiliaries had received formal training, most of them were village warriors with little combat experience. But the auxiliary troops sang all kinds of hometown songs all the way, and walked with the momentum of walking, as if they were soldiers.

This phenomenon has not been for a day or two, but has lasted for a long time, since the marshal ascended the throne, the auxiliaries have not been the same, the desire to attack is stronger than that of the soldiers, and the Northern Expedition and the Northern Expedition are discussed every day.

Books such as Yangzhou Ten Diaries in the late Ming Dynasty are popular in the army, and the officers of the Xiangyong Regiment are all children of the squire, most of them are not very old, they are literate, and some people still read with tears in their eyes. There are also people who scold the Ming people for not planting, how can the Tartars be killed when they are violent.

Hong Jiuzhi felt that these young people were naïve, but the strange thing was that when the army distributed this kind of books at the beginning, everyone read and read it, and there was not much anger, but slowly there were one or two people, and then there began to be a small group of people, and now everyone seemed to be filled with indignation at the brutality of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

He didn't know that this was called the herd effect, in a social group like the military, people's feelings would infect each other, and then strengthen under a consensus. At the beginning of the 19th century, the famous French social psychologist Le Pen wrote a book called "The Rabble", using the French Revolution as the background of analysis, Le Pen found that even if a person has his own independent opinions, once he joins the group bewitched by the people's worship consciousness, he becomes a member of the rabble; More broadly, when an individual is integrated into a group, the individual's behavioral traits are submerged and replaced by new behavioral traits that make up the group.

Although the national consciousness of the Chinese people is very weak, there are always people who are a little stronger, and immediately feel humiliation and indignation, and are stimulated by the writings of the literati in the late Ming Dynasty to stimulate their national feelings and release them, this strong emotion is very contagious, and then one infects two, two infects four, and gradually spreads in the group.

Zhou Lang established the Great Zhou, they were forced or voluntarily joined the Great Zhou army as a regimental training, and had a new position, all of which affected the psychology of the soldiers, these young township brave officers, who had read the books, needed a strong identity to endorse their actions, and did not think that the Manchus were evil, then their betrayal would be shameful.

Of course, all this is done subconsciously, it is human instinct, and it cannot be said to be an act of ethics such as tending to inflammation and attaching potential.

As a result, these auxiliaries of Jiangsu and Zhejiang were extremely enthusiastic about the Northern Expedition, and they talked about Shi Kefa the most about Yangzhou, which they were about to fight.

The strength of the Qing army in Yangzhou is still very strong, as the main force of the Qing army sitting in Jianghuai, there are 150,000 Qing troops here, almost double the Zhou army, Yangzhou City is not a small city, with the city to hold on, there is a chance. More than half of the 150,000 Qing troops were brought here by Su Ling'a from Nanjing, and they have not moved their nests since.

In the face of the Qing army, Hong Jiuzhi did not have any sense of attention, because there was no resistance that he could afford in repeated battles. This time is no exception.

Very regular fighting, camped ten miles away from Yangzhou, advancing forward, tentative attack.

The Qing army was said to have defended it, and ten days later, the city of Yangzhou was broken.

The battle report, which was simply less than fifty words, was sent to Zhou Lang, allowing him to see a state of collapse.

It's like the situation recorded in the history books that the Ming army in Jiangnan faced the Manchu army after the Eight Banners entered the customs, sometimes it is no longer a matter of real combat effectiveness, it is completely a matter of mentality, many remnants of the Southern Ming Dynasty surrendered to the Manchu Dynasty, shaved their hair, changed their clothes, and turned their heads to fight their colleagues in the past, as a result, those Ming troops saw these "pseudo-Qing army" and fled when they heard the news.

This is the case in Yangzhou, 150,000 Qing troops, under the attack of 80,000 Ming troops, the city wall was blown down a corner, and then a large number of Qing troops began to flee, in fact, the attack, there are only 30,000 forwards, there is no heavy artillery of the artillery unit, that is, the infantry artillery in the army bombarded for a long time, causing the city wall to collapse, and then 30,000 people attack the city, occupy the collapse gap, the city has been completely chaotic, not a few, should flee should not escape, have fled.

Seeing this, the auxiliary troops were left to defend the city, and the main force continued to pursue along the canal, and it was to pursue at full speed, not to give the enemy a chance to breathe, not that Hong Jiuzhi did not want to rest, but the strategic plan sent to him was so requested, and the above was worried that the Qing army would jump over the wall in a hurry, blow up the embankment of the Yellow River and flood the Jianghuai. In order to resist the Jin soldiers going south, the Southern Song Dynasty broke the embankment of the Yellow River, after which the Yellow River changed to flow southward and seized the Huai River into the sea. The Ming and Qing dynasties were mainly based on the protection of the Yellow River, and the Yellow River flooded the farmland at every turn, and was unwilling to let the river wash away the canal.

If the Qing army excavated the Yellow River, the Jianghuai area would be flooded, not to mention the suffering of the people, and the Northern Expedition would also be affected.

Therefore, Hong Jiuzhi must be fast, chase the tail of the Qing army deserters, and not let them have the opportunity to dig the river.

Chased from Yangzhou to Gaoyou, and from Gaoyou to Baoying, until Huai'an, only to catch up with the Qing army, Huai'an is not far from the Yellow River (old road), almost backed by the Yellow River, there is the Yellow River flood gate near Hongze Lake, Hong Jiuzhi did not dare to be careless, went around Huai'an, and went straight to Qingjiangpu, Banzha Town and other places behind him, and seized the gate.

At this time, the Qing army actually came to negotiate, it turned out that they really couldn't run, not to mention them, Hong Jiuzhi's formally trained soldiers were a little unbearable, and they almost didn't fight much in big and small battles along the way, and they ran away. There was a serious disconnect between the front and rear armies, and only 10,000 horses arrived in Huai'an, and they were all infantry, and the horsemen and artillery were lagging behind. The horses couldn't outrun the people.

But after contacting the Qing army, Hong Jiuzhi really didn't dare to agree to them, they said that they didn't want to start a war with Da Zhou, everyone just wanted to go back to Beijing, because these Qing troops asked Hong Jiuzhi to let them cross the river. If Zhou Lang was here, he would definitely agree, but Hong Jiuzhi was worried that if he let people go, he would fall behind an enemy, and then he was sued by the Northern Expedition of the Sea, and he let these people go, which is equivalent to letting these people go to support Beijing.

Several confidant officers discussed together, but Hong Jiuzhi changed his mind, anyway, there are only 10,000 of them here, and the large army has not yet followed, these are colleagues who have worked with him for many years, and they are everyone's unanimous idea, so he turned his head and notified the Qing army envoy that he was willing to let them cross the river.

Hong Jiuzhi suddenly found that he was no longer just an officer, he represented a force, and his subordinates were willing to go to Beijing to be the army of the Northern Expedition by sea, and then they would have a better chance of hitting Beijing along the way.

The Qing army was very particular, leaving two boxes of goods by the river, Qian Hong didn't dare to take it, if everyone divided it privately, they couldn't keep it secret at all, and finally simply recorded it as a seizure.

Zhou Lang didn't know about the secret wrestling of individual officers in the army, and even the officer group, and even if he knew, he couldn't do anything about this kind of thing, human nature is like this. But he will definitely take measures to kill people, and a personnel change is indispensable.

Zhou Lang had just received a detailed battle report from Yangzhou at this time, knowing that more than 100,000 Qing troops were easily defeated, Zhou Lang couldn't help but sigh, no wonder it was recorded in the book that Xu Da's Northern Expedition took the entire Shandong in March, and it is estimated that most of the time was used to hurry.

The military strength is so exaggerated, the final result is so exaggerated, the Qing army can run after the White Lotus Sect, and when it encounters itself, it can run so fast.

This made Zhou Lang more confident in the sea route, with his current shipping capacity, organized to support more than 100,000 long-distance battles, he could do a long time of attack and defense with the Qing army in Beijing, even if the city of Beijing was thick, it could not be opened in ten days, and it could be bombed in a month. As long as the gap is opened, judging from the situation since the start of the army, the Qing army lacks the courage to fight hand-to-hand street battles.

The soldiers opened the way in front, the auxiliaries received in the rear, and the civilian officials went to appease the people. This set of models is already very standardized, but this time it is not Wang Fuqian who is going. Wang Fuqian is already the prime minister of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and he has to deal with several times more things than in the past, and the matter of pacifying the people has been handed over to Chen Huai, a demoted official.

Zhou Lang learned that Yangzhou was so easy to conquer, and Chen Huai had just hit the road at this time, so he immediately sent someone to bring a message to Chen Huai, asking him to invite the Yangzhou gentry to worship Shi Kefa together.