The battle in Jiangzhong was fought from morning to noon, and the Qing army on both sides of the river and the Ming army in Guangxi could see it clearly. Du Yinxi saw that it was not his own sailor who was attacked, and he was also happy to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight. And Zilharang was very happy to see the defeat of the Ming army.

After hearing the herald's report, after Ma Jiaolin returned victoriously, he immediately smiled at Luo Xiujin, Wu Sangui and others sitting in the big tent: "Everyone, General Ma is the lucky general of our army, everyone will go out of the big tent with me to greet you!" ”

Ma Jiaolin was born in the Ming Army in Shaanxi, and was later sent to Huguang as the chief soldier of the naval division after surrendering to the Qing Army. This kind of Erwuzai is naturally not treated by Luo Xiujin and Wu Sangui and other Liaodong people, who have never had a good face in Hanyang before, and the supplies have always been the second, and the military salary can be delayed. But now that the people have won, even the general Zilharang has to go out to greet him, and these generals have no choice but to follow Jilharang out of the big tent together.

Ma Jiaolin followed his own soldiers into the gate, and saw Zierharang with a bunch of people standing at the door of the big tent to greet him, Ma Jiaolin hurriedly ran a few steps, stepped forward and knelt down and shouted: "The last general Ma Jiaolin defeated the Ming army sailors, captured four Ming army gunboats, and the last general also beheaded Ding Hai, the commander of the Ming army's sailors!" General, this is the head of the enemy chieftain Ding Hai! ”

After Ma Jiaolin finished speaking, he presented Ding Hai's head with both hands, and Zilharang smiled and asked his own soldiers to take the head, and then stepped forward to help Ma Jiaolin with his own hands.

"Mr. Ma, you have made a great contribution, since you have beheaded the commander of the Ming army, then the king will ask you to be appointed as the commander of the navy, and at the same time, it will also be reported to the imperial court, and the specific reward will have to wait for the will!"

Ma Jiaolin listened to his promotion from the miscellaneous general soldier to the commander, this is a three-level promotion! Ma Jiaolin knelt down again and thanked Zilharang.

Zilharang was in a good mood, and when he saw Ma Xiong kneeling behind Ma Jiaolin, he asked, "Admiral Ma, who is this young man behind you?" ”

"General, the righteous son of the last general at this time, and the leader of the water ghost team last night, it was he who led the team to blow up the gunboat of the Ming Army with gunpowder!"

Zilharang nodded again and again, and said with a smile: "Okay! Admiral Ma is really a tiger father without a dog, and your position as chief soldier will be handed over to your son! ”

Ma Xiong was originally a thousand households, and he was overjoyed to hear Zierharang say this, so he quickly kowtowed and thanked him, but now he has been promoted to seven or eight levels in a row!

Zilharang said to Ma Jiaolin: "Admiral Ma, you immediately lead people to learn how to use the Ming army's artillery, and repair the two damaged ships as soon as possible, and send troops to salvage the artillery on the Ming army's sunken ships as much as possible, this kind of artillery is too important to our army!" The more artillery you fish, the more credit you have, you know! ”

Ma Jiaolin hurriedly nodded in agreement, saying that he would arrange for manpower to salvage in a while.

Jierharang turned his head and said to the generals beside him: "Now this king has made it clear to you that this time the emperor and the regent sent this king not to deal with the Ming army in Yueyang, but to attack Wuchang, and then go down the river to recapture Jiangning!" Now listen to the king's commands! King Pingxi, you lead your men and horses as the vanguard, and capture Jiayu first, and the others follow this king. Let's cross the river from Jiayu and attack Wuchang! ”

The senior generals under Zilharang's true intentions knew, but the other middle-level generals didn't know, and now after listening to the general's words, they knew that the main target of this expedition was the Shenwu Imperial Court in Nanjing. In the past, this group of Qing troops heard that the combat effectiveness of the Ming army was strong, and the 200,000 troops of Prince Yu were wiped out. But just now, they saw with their own eyes that the Ming army's invincible gunboats were actually wiped out by more than 100 small boats on their side, and four were captured.

Seeing that the morale was available, Zilharang ordered his men to start preparing and set off for Jiayu tomorrow.

Three days after the Ming army's river fleet was wiped out, Liu Siyi, who was in Wuchang, received news of the defeat at the front.

At first, Liu Siyun didn't believe it, this was the first time that the Ming army in Guangdong was wiped out by the Cheng system, but after a few days, the sailors who fled back from the fleet brought first-hand news, confirming that the river fleet had been destroyed, and all hundreds of officers under Admiral Ding Hai had been killed.

Liu Siyun was taken aback when he heard the news, and now the navy has transferred all naval ships to the Japanese in order to ensure the expedition of the Japanese state, and there are only these twelve gunboats on the Yangtze River. Now that they are all lost in Yueyang, how can they defend their Wuchang?

After thinking about it, Liu Siyun decided to gather all the high-ranking officials in the city and listen to what they would do.

After receiving the news from the governor, Xia Yunyi, the political envoy of Hubei, Zhang Jian, the envoy of Hubei, Xu Fuyuan, the prefect of Wuchang, Xu Yong, the Jinyi Wei Qianhu of Hubei, and Ma Kun, the governor of the Wuchang Theater, rushed to the governor's yamen.

Xia Yunyi is Xia Wanchun's father and Chen Zilong's good buddy. Originally, Xia Yunyi failed to organize the righteous army to resist the Qing Dynasty in eastern Zhejiang, and committed suicide in defeat. But when the big butterfly Zhu Hongsan appeared in this time and space, Xia Yunyi did not die. However, Xia Yunyi is a hardcore anti-Qing faction, Zhu Hongsan naturally wants to reuse such a leading bird, and then send Xia Yunyi to his hometown as a political envoy after recapturing Nanjing. According to the envoy Zhang Jian, who was originally the commander of Luoyuan County, Songjiang Prefecture, Xu Fuyuan was originally a person from Songjiang, and in history, they also committed suicide with Songjiang City, but this time and space did not die, and they were also sent by Zhu Hongsan to block the knife.

Now the entire Hubei Province is only a few counties in the hands of Zhu Hongsan, so there are not many high-ranking officials, and there are only a few above the fourth grade.

Liu Siyi, as the governor of Huguang and the governor of Hubei, these people are his officials, so after these people entered the house, they saluted Liu Sicheng one after another, and then sat down.

"Ladies and gentlemen, summoning you here today is a major event on the front line! Just three days ago, Admiral Ding's fleet was ambushed by the Qing army in Yueyang, and the whole army was annihilated! ”

This is a big deal, Zhu Hongsan has not been so defeated since the army in Guangdong, and everyone was dumbfounded when they heard it.

Jinyi Wei Qianhu Xu looked at everyone in the room to look at him, and hurriedly clenched his fists and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, Lord Zhengtai is right, Admiral Ding's fleet is all gone!" ”

Ma Kun asked on the side, "What about Ding Hai?" Ding Hai didn't come back? ”

"Admiral Ma, Admiral Ding died in battle, and only less than thirty sailors escaped back!"

Ma Kun was also very sad after hearing the news, although his army and navy did not deal with each other, the two often fought, and the soldiers on both sides often fought in groups, but after all, they belonged to the army system. Now that he heard that Ding Hai was dead, Ma Kun was also a little sad about the death of a rabbit and a fox.

Liu Siyun heard the officials in the house talking a lot, like a vegetable market, frowned and shouted, "What are you doing?" You're all high-ranking officials, what kind of system is it that you're making so much noise now? ”

The officials in the house heard Shangguan's words, and then stopped talking.

"A few adults, now that the Qing army has marched to Jiayu, let's discuss it and see what to do!"

Ma Kun was the first to stand up and shouted: "Lord Taiwan, the last general asks to fight to the death with the Qing army, and the last general wants to avenge the brothers of the navy!" ”

Xia Yunyi, Zhang Jian, and Xu Fuyuan were originally hardcore anti-Qing factions, and when they heard Ma Kun say this, they all said that they wanted to fight the Qing army to the end.

But Liu Siyun had a different idea, he was ready to want the whole army to retreat to Jiujiang. The reason is very simple, Wuchang did not have an advantage here, and the Qing army was pressed to fight because of naval support. Now the navy is gone, and there are only 20,000 defenders in the city, and there are 200,000 opponents of the Qing army. At the same time, because of the scourge of Zhang Xianzhong and Zuo Liangyu in Wuchang, there were less than 200,000 people in the city, and the most important materials to defend the city were also insufficient. The grain in Wuchang City still needs to be transported by ship from Nanchang, where is there any excess capacity to transport materials for defending the city.

Therefore, Liu Siyun summoned senior officials this time to announce that he would abandon Wuchang and retreat to Jiujiang. But seeing these officials shouting and shouting and killing one by one, Liu Siyun couldn't directly say that he would give up Wuchang.

"A few adults, now there are not enough people in the city, there is a shortage of materials to defend the city, and the most important thing is that there is no navy, our flanks are not protected, and it is easy to be surrounded by the Qing army!"

Xia Yunyi, as a hardcore diehard, didn't die in eastern Zhejiang last time, so this time he will strive to die in Wuchang. After hearing Liu Siyun's reactionary remarks, he stood up and said, "Lord Liu, you are deeply favored by the emperor, how can you be so afraid of death!" I'm going to live and die with Wuchang, but if I can't do it, I won't take a step back even if I commit suicide! ”

Liu Siyi heard Xia Yunyi say this, so he was so angry that he died, just you Xia Yunyi is loyal to the emperor? The old man was also the governor of Huguang under the emperor's Tejian. But now there is no need to go to the past, the fifteen thousand new troops in Wuchang City are too important, if they retreat to Jiujiang and Ma Rufeng to join forces, they can still fight, and now they are not the opponent of the Qing army at all.

As soon as Xia Yunyi finished speaking, another die-hard Zhang Jian also stood up and said: "Lord Zhengtai is afraid of death, you can escape by yourself, Xiaguan was already dead in Luoyuan County, it was the emperor who saved Xiaguan, and this life is naturally dedicated to the emperor!" "Zhang Jian is also a ruthless person, he is even more ruthless to the enemy, and he is even more ruthless to himself, after the destruction of Luoyuan City, he originally wanted to take the whole family of twenty people to throw himself into the river and die, but he thought that the new army of Guangdong would come at the last moment. At this point, Zhang Jian regards Zhu Hongsan as his savior.

Xia Zhang and the others are both provincial-level high-ranking officials from the third grade, and Xu Fuyuan, the prefect of Wuchang, is only a fourth-grade official, he didn't dare to say cruel words to Liu Sicheng, so he could only look at Liu Siyun angrily, so as to express his resentment.

Seeing these three people like this, Liu Siyun was angry and didn't care about the prestige of Shangguan, stood up and said: "This governor is the governor of Huguang, and His Majesty ordered the governor of Huguang to fight, so this governor decided to start preparations today and strive to withdraw within three days!" ”

Although Xia Yunyi is a ten-year jinshi of Chongzhen, he is not as good as Liu Siyi's forty-seven years of Wanli, but Xia Yunyi is a person in the forty-sixth year of Wanli and is in the same department as Liu Siyi, so Xia Yunyi does not respect Liu Siyi very much at all. In the past, because Liu Siyi was a Shangguan, Xia Yunyi obeyed him according to the rules of officialdom. Now listening to Liu Siyun taking the official hat to oppress people, Xia Yunyi stood up and scolded: "Liu Siyi, you are a vertical son, you will withdraw from the army without asking the emperor, and the old man will go to the book to join you!" ”